Day One-hundred-and-thirty-one: B-lated B-day

My youngest daughter's birthday was 15 days ago but with her travel to Florida (and her not telling me what she wanted for her birthday until the day before her actual day) we didn't get around to celebrating it until today.  Knowing that I wouldn't be able to celebrate it until late, I went ahead and  bought a belated birthday card, before her actual birthday.  This made it an appropriate card to give her with her present today.  After she opened her gift, we went out an bought her her Christmas gift as well, a rice cooker.  This was so she could use it to make dinner, and use it whenever she wants to in December while I'm on my road trip.  Besides, she didn't want to haul it back from Ohio.

This gift was very good for me since I got the benefit of a hot meal and a Christmas gift already taken care of.  Now I just have umpteen more to go.   I'm not that good at shopping so getting one gift out of the way is a great day in my Life after Layoff.  To have that gift then gift me right back is icing on the cake, which we didn't have, icing that is.  I made a batch of Basic Chocolate Cupcakes from my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook.  We ate them with Soy Delicious mint chocolate chip ice "cream."

We also pitched the tent I bought in my living room.  They are encouraging me to use it on my road trip and have offered me the use of one of their mummy bags with its -20 degree rating.  I'm debating with myself on two fronts.  Do I really want to "winter" camp, and do I want to do it with borrowed equipment?  It is true that I will not likely need a sleeping bag with that low of temperature rating if all I'm planning on doing is using it on my motorcycle trip across America (U.S.) and around North America, at least Canada and the U. S.  I can only do these things, if I manage to stay out of work.  I can't ride my motorcycle in snow and on ice anyway.

We went to four stores today:  Fry's Electronics, Gryphon Stringed Instruments, Whole Foods, and Costco.  The Prius couldn't find Gryphon Stringed Instruments because we were spelling it Griffin.  After we drove away from Fry's toward downtown Palo Alto, my son-in-law called 411 and got the address.  We punched it into the Prius navigation system and was directed back to a half block away from Fry's.  We first thought that we had done something wrong because just as the guidance said, "Your destination is on the right," we were passing Fry's.  The Gryphon Stringed Instruments sign was obscured by some trees.  As I was pulling over to reenter the navigation information, since you can't enter it while moving, I noticed the street sign of the road ahead.  It was the street that Gryphon was on, right on the corner.  We had almost parked closer to it than Fry's when we parked in the Fry's parking lot.

At Gryphon, I got to listen to some rather good banjo music as both my son-in-law and a very knowledgeable and skilled sales person tried out and demonstrated several banjos.

First last weekend and now this one.  Having great fun being with great people.  I must admit to feeling a little sorry for myself when I'm alone.

Comcast didn't come again today.  Even though I can still watch TV, I am not going to allow them to charge me for it.  My daughter is encouraging me to cancel my AT&T land line as well.  I must admit, the only real use I make of it is to call 800 numbers and to fax stuff.  My family plan roll over minutes are still accumulating so I should be able to call all the 800 numbers I call from my cell phone.  None of the other people on my family plan have land lines, now that my oldest daughter is off on a new family plan with her husband.

Incoming faxes might be a problem in my Life after Layoff with no employer's fax to use in an emergency, but for outgoing faxes I can always use whatever Kinko's or Mailboxes Etc. morphed into.

Since it appears that my daughter and son-in-law are still on Florida time, I can go to bed early as they have done so already.