Finally, An Evening In

This is the one weekend that all of us on the Monterey Peninsula dread, traffic wise. As always, we through our doors open in welcome to those who choose to visit the Peninsula. However, it is what we call "Car Week." This is the week of the Concours d'Elegance, Concourso Italiano, the historic car races and lots of car auctions in the area (one sold for 1.375 million dollars today.) We do not have major highways here and it leads to the nastiest traffic jams. Usually a standard commute is about 30 to 40 minutes here, during Car Week it can be as much as 2- 2 1/2 hours. Somehow the past couple of years I have been off on the Friday of Car Week so that I miss the worst of it. Luckily, yesterday I negotiated with my boss to flex my hours today so that I would miss it. So I woke up at 4 am and was at work by 6 am. I was a little squinky eyed, but grateful to have the extra two hours of quiet in the office. We have been prepping for our annual audit which is next week, so I needed all the time I could get.

As a result, I got off at 3 and while there was still traffic, it was not horrible so I was happy. I had to do one of those ugly Costco trips because I was out of everything-toothpaste, orange juice, etc. It was not too bad and I was home by five. Yay!

Liesl and I were tired from being up so early today. I came home, put on my jammies, got a cold drink and lit a fire in the fireplace (it is so cold right now) before settling into the sofa. Liesl went to sleep and I just got comfy. When she finally got up I got to play with her. I looked at her and thought about how much I love her little furry self. I was so glad to spend some time with her.

I did not get to stitch tonight. Somehow on my way to the car at lunchtime, I got stung by a bee on my thumb. I have lived on this planet for 48 years and this was the first bee sting ever. I did not even know I had been stung. I always thought it would hurt way worse. I thought I had somehow scratched myself, but then saw the welt. It has been swollen all day and is throbbing a little now. So I relaxed on the sofa with the new IKEA catalog, painted my toenails and drank a micro brewed Virgil's Cream Soda that my daughter got me at Whole Foods. Yum. It was so nice to be home and relax. Next week is going to be rough with trying to make sure we are giving the auditors what they need. It is nice to be cozy at home now.