October 7th

I forget where I left off on my blogging or what my thoughts were as I was blogging- I think it was Thursday and I was headed out to the house -  but now I cannot remember everything in detail like I could when I was freshly home- On Friday night I had dinner with Nancy at Tokyo restaurant in Wasilla- we had a nice visit- We had book club on Sunday at Aunt Darlene's house- the book was a dud - it was  my choice but I could never get into it and only Darlene actually read the book so the book discussion was a bit of a dud. It was Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff and I had been pushing it for a book club suggestion for a few years but ...... the new book for November book club is Sounds of Gravel and I have already read it and so has Diana and it is seriously good- we will get lots of discussion from that book. I had appetizers for book club and so I went to Carrs and got some veggies from the salad bar and some Irish cheese, crackers and meat slices- our main meal was ribs which I am thinking Nancy bought at Fred Meyers - they were pretty tasty.
I spent most of my weekend preparing Pepper to come to California with me. I had to buy stuff at Petco for traveling like a cage etc. I had to take him to the vet to get proper paperwork for travit el- Tom and Rainey were doing there part down here getting  more stuff at the Petco down here and getting it all put together for Pepper's return. If you remember we bought Pepper for Christmas in 2014 and then all this stuff happened with Rainey and so we had Adrienne watching Pepper from August to October of last year and then Nancy and Jake (her son) took over and so Pepper has been with them for almost a year- but we figured it was time to bring Pepper down here and so that is what we did. It was quite the job for me to park in long term parking - take Pepper to the bathroom in the freezing cold rain- find a cart- get the giant crate on it and then get Pepper in the crate and then get out my two suitcases - one was 44 pounds filled only with files from the office - and lock the truck and get that whole mess into the airport- I was so happy to get it all done and get through security- I was flying  on a mileage ticket home and normally on mileage you do not get upgraded but they upgraded me - I was actually fine in coach because the nonstop to LAX in the winter is usually pretty empty and most of the time you can get a whole row to yourself which makes for a good nap for the 5  hour journey- at any rate Rainey was waiting for Pepper  with such excitement :) she had welcome home Pepper signs and a party planned with cupcakes - it is actually nice having Pepper here.

Other big news - we sold the house !! should be done by the beginning of December - we still  have one lot but have that on the market- we are ready to leave the valley - I have found our new home in Anchorage - Adrienne and I found them off of a road on one of our drives and they are precious. I call them the Gingerbread houses because that is what they look like- they are not houses but townhomes I think - 3 levels of preciousness! I am not buying right away- maybe in a year but the gingerbread house would be my first choice. At any rate - that means me being up there each weekend clearing out the house- I have been doing that for the past 6 months but now it is serious and I have to start making decisions and getting rid of stuff in huge quantities - but at least the end is in site. I was hoping not to be up there for Thanksgiving but that will be a good time to work on the house and have everyone up there making decisions - and finalize our moving out- so that is the news at this point - have to give Rainey a shower she has an audition for a Honda commercial this afternoon - never any rest for the weary !!!!