September 18, 2008 Dad's cell phone and baked apples

We spent Wednesday catching up. Dan stayed in his PJ's most of the morning, while I caught up on housework, bill paying, and laundry. It was a nice quiet day right up until 4:00 when my Dad called. He and Kathy have spent the last couple of week in the Azores with his brother and his family.
They returned home on Tuesday and was calling to check in. Very nice I thought, Dad wants me to know he's ok. Then came the question. I was left one task as he left here, one lowly mission for a daughter to do for her father. He asked me to take an envelope (containing his cell phone) to the post office and mail it to his house. "Simple... no problem" I thought. I put it in my van so I wouldn't forget. Turns out the place I picked to put it "so I wouldn't forget" was exactly the place I forgot. So when he called to ask, I insisted it must be there, I must have mailed it. But I couldn't remember actually doing it. With my cell phone in hand I went out to the car, opened the first stow and go compartment....and there it was. I'm sorry Dad!!! Our post office was already closed for the day but I promised to get there first thing tomorrow, I apologized and said goodbye. Today, I took Emily to work for 9am, then went immediately to the post office, walked up to the counter and told the clerk I wanted to overnight this envelope. He looked at the address, then looked at his screen, then looked at the address again and said, it's rural...best I can do is 2 days. Hmmm...I thought, 2 days...ok, I can deal with that. Then he realizes it's going to a PO Box and says that he can't guarantee it would be there before they closed on Saturday which would mean it probably wouldn't get there until Monday. Now we're up to 5 days and I'm wondering if regular mail would suffice. Had I been thinking, since FEDEX was an option, I would have just had it shipped to his house. Unfortunately I didn't think of that until after the postage was affixed, and Dan and I were headed down the road to the playground. I'm guessing, next time, one of my overly competent sister-in-law's will be given the task of mailing back the phone!

Dan and I went to the playground and were thrilled when Jen and the girls met us there. It's amazing how much children can grow when you haven't seen them in a couple of months. Seneca's little girl look is all but gone, Ruby's gotten very tall, and Joey's lost her babyish features, although she did give me a nice snuggle at the end. Dan was happy to play with the girls again and Jen and I had a chance to catch up. Hopefully we can make a regular plan to get together! Dan and I came home for lunch and nap. When he woke I showed him a recipe in our Family Fun magazine for baked apples. He thought they looked good so we decided to take a quick detour to the grocery store on our way to pick up Emily.
Emily had a good day, and was excited that she was assigned a radio (walkie talkie) at work. She was asked if she'd like to cashier as well as work greenhouse, and seemed excited to be learning something new. Progeny isn't hiring a receptionist right now, but when the do Emily is the first in line.
We arrived home and finished watching Goonies which we rented on Sunday but didn't finish watching a few nights ago because we didn't want Dan to have nightmares.
When it was over we got started with dessert. Generally I cook Monday-Wednesday nights and then we eat leftovers on Thursday, so it was a perfect night to make dessert. Dan had a great time trying to peel the apples and filling them with raisins and walnuts. Our baked apples cook while we ate dinner. Dan and Mike helped me clear the table while Em did dishes. Then we reset the table. I'm glad we made all 4 because they were really good! A little vanilla ice cream on top made them perfect. We all agreed we'd have to save this recipe for a special occasion. Dan was wearing most of it, so off to the bath he went. We washed him up, dressed him in footy pajamas and since he wanted to watch Indian in a cupboard I went up to the loft with him and set the up movie. He decided he wanted to have a black and white party, so he grabbed all his black and white stuffed animals and lined them up on his bed. I left a happy boy watching his movie with his best friends!