Dinner with Old Friends and Other Adventures

   We went out to dinner last night with an old friend of Jeff's and his wife who are visiting from Arizona.  Actually, Jeff and Doug were custodial shift supervisors at a couple of Utica public schools together back in the 'old days'.   Christine (Doug's wife) and I got to hear about what the boys went through with their supervisors and principals, their 'nights out' together and the time Jeff got his crew to move Doug's entire office overnight into a storage closet as a prank.  (Doug's daughter is the dog breeder we're getting the beagle puppy from next week.)  We had dinner at the Knight Spot in Frankfort because it's about halfway between our house and where Doug and Christine are staying with their kids in Utica.  Jeff and Christine enjoyed the fish fry while Doug tried to work his way thru a plate of spaghetti and meatballs.  I settled for a hamburg and French fries and a small plate of greens (even tho my INR yesterday was just below the bottom of my range at 2.4.  My MD said to keep on keeping on and to retest next Friday so I ate my greens and enjoyed them!) Doug's eyes were also bigger than his stomach when he ordered a banana split for dessert and couldn't eat more than half of it!  Christine had a sundae and I had a slice of carrot cake.  Jeff kept to his diet and had another cup of coffee.
   On the way home we stopped for gas since the little gas pump icon had lite up on the dashboard of the Forester.  I knew Ilion was having a parade last night and when we went around the block in Frankfort to turn around we came out on Main St next to Stewart's so we filled up there in Frankfort.  I've been having trouble with the release lever for the gas cap door that's on the floor of the Forester.  It doesn't want to move for me and I'm afraid if I force it, I'll break it.  Jeff got it to release and filled the tank for me.  I went in and paid for the gas and we headed home.  I got on Rte. 5Seast between Frankfort and Ilion after I pointed out there wasn't any westward traffic coming out of Ilion because of the parade.  We had to stop and pick up a Rx for Jeff but they weren't ready yet so we headed home.  When we got out of the car we noticed that the gas cap door was open and the gas cap was missing.  Jeff said he'd to go back to Frankfort and see if he left the gas cap on top of the pump.  About a minute after he left I remembered I hadn't reminded him to stop for the Rx so I started to call him on his cell phone.  I kept getting his message board.  Finally about 10 minutes later he called me to tell me he was stuck in traffic in Ilion!  He had forgotten about the parade!  Anyway, I reminded him to stop for the Rx  and he muttered something about the parade and the general population of Ilion.  When he got home about 20 minutes later he had his Rx's and my gas cap.  It was sitting on top of the gas pump!  Talk about luck!!  If he had been paying attention to me on the way home he would have heard me talk about the parade, wouldn't he? I think I'll get some WD40 and spray that release lever.  Can't hurt!  That's the only thing about Subaru's I don't like...the gas door release lever got moved to the floor in the newer models.  Isn't the best place for it when you have a snowy winter even with those rubber/plastic trays that cover the floor.

   I received a package of goodies from my Yarn Pal, Heather Burton, this week.  It came from Westbury in Wiltshire, England.  The

yarn is so soft and the candy looks 
so good!  You can see the notions box with all the bits and pieces!  The one I'm currently using
started out as a tin mints box.  It's small and tends to open at the wrong time!  There's also a pompon maker in this but it slipped down in front of the yarn in the project bag.  We all know how much I need a pompom maker!  Every time I make a pompom using a cardboard circle it usually explodes before I get it sewed to the hat I needed it for.  And there's candles, tea bags and playing cards and lip balm and, oh, yes, the project bag!  What a great package!! I've seen the Caron Cakes yarn in stores and catalogues but never used any but the Robin Paintbox yarns are new to me. I also got a nice long letter from Heather introducing herself.  I like this kind of swap.  You send to Person A and Person B sends to you.  My package is almost ready to go.  Should get it in the mail this week.