My father decided that yesterday afternoon would be a good time to come up from Jersey and visit me and my sister, and get a load of firewood from me.

He was traveling halfway up Jersey from the shore where he lives to go to a dentist appointment. (The dentist is the brother of my dad's late wife.) So he figured he'd be halfway here already.

I met the two of them for dinner at a new local restaurant. We'd tried to go there before, but it was too crowded, and for good reason. The food was very good. I had two large chicken cutlets topped with melted Gruyere cheese, a fig puree and rosemary. Very different and yummy. (I took half of it home with me and just enjoyed the leftovers for lunch.)

For the first time in his life, my dad grew a beard. He looks so cute and fluffy! Just like Ernest Hemingway.

What made the dinner especially nice is that my sister was especially talkative. I can only chalk it up to her having had her hip replacement and not being in so much pain, which she put up with for several years, becus she's very anti medical establishment. More than a little ridiculous, but anyway, that's how she is.

She mentioned that at the book bin at the landfill in her town, she came across an old copy of The tightwad Gazette III and saved it for me, along with a slow cooker recipe for pear bread pudding and another bag of her own dried pears to use in the recipe. Wow. She hasn't done anything like that in a while. You know, show thoughtfulness.

For my part, i brought along a jar of sorrel, made in Poland. Just 2 ingredients, sorrel and salt. Sorrel is a weed that commonly grows around here, but I never saw it commercially sold before until I noticed a new line of Polish bottled foods at my local Xpect Discounts. Xpect Discounts is a regional chain that attracts a somewhat low income customer base, and they have a wide assortment of ethnic foods, which I'm always interested to browse. You never know what you'll find there. anyway, I gave the sorrel to my sister, who was curious about it.

My dad spent the night at my sister's and was supposed to come over this morning to help me bring a load of brush to the dump and then load up his truck with the firewood. He said "bright and early," so I was expecting them around 9 am and becoming concerned when they didn't show. My dad has macular degeneration, and can't see well enough to drive at night, so I calculated we'd have to be done with the wood and have him on his way by 1 pm so he'd get back home before dark.

He and my sister went to breakfast at some out of the way place, so he didn't get here til 10:30 a.m. My sister's still not fully recovered from her surgery, so she stayed home. We loaded about a third of the wood and could see it all wouldn't fit, so he said he'll come back up again with his sig.other She is facing a breast biopsy in March and just had thyroid cancer surgery and now has to do radiation for it becus she carries a certain gene and this is an aggressive form of cancer. Sigh. She's had a lot of health problems.

So I sent Dad on his way around noon.

I think I will spend part of the afternoon reading the Tightwad Gazette again, which I'd been wanting to do anyway after seeing it mentioned a number of times here and elsewhere online. It's such a classic book; I am sure I've forgotten many of her tips.

It's been very quiet work-wise since the start of the new year, although I edited a few emails for the IT director.