Update

I talked Rachel to coming to my office late this morning to help me put away the Christmas. That made it go faster. Then I put her to work on the recycle paper. That was necessary because of the miraculous turn of events last week--Gary cleaned off his desk at the office!

Speaking of Gary, hemade it to Chicago today, and used his new cell phone to call me from his hotel room on the 22nd floor. But I wasn't home. I tried to call him back, but he must have turned it off.

Since Gary is gone, I let Rachel talk me into taking her shopping at the Parks Mall this afternoon, but not until I managed to get the car inspected. (It rolled up 160,000 miles this week, but it passed.)

We looked hard for a winter coat, but none were the right color/size/style/price combination. :-( Did I ever mention I hate shopping??

But I did buy Rachel some new black earrings (since I lost one of her old pair). And I'm happy to say that I found just the right thing that Gary needs for his upcoming birthday. So the trip wasn't a total waste of time.