I REALLY LIKE RAIN BUT.....

We got back from San Francisco on Sunday afternoon.  It was a rainy drive pretty much all the way south. We left San Francisco in a downpour.  The central valley wasn't too bad, but the drive over the Grapevine into LA was teeming again.  Raining hard enough that cars and trucks were making their own misty clouds.  Really not pleasant driving.  We picked Wally up.  After three days playing with horses, a sheep, and other dogs in the rain, he smelled horribly.  He wasn't exactly an example of pristine dog-dom when I dropped him off on Thursday.  The days on the farm in the rain turned him into something worse than a park vagabond.  Miracle of miracles - Pat's Pet Grooming was open on Monday (because of the Christmas Holiday) - so Wally got his bath and a trim.  He looks a lot better - and smells like a dog rather than horse pee and whatever....

The rain was light during the day today, but tonight it's started up again.  Our pool is up to the brim, the trashcans are full of water.  At least, so far, our house hasn't leaked.  This is the first rainstorm in as many years that I can think of where some room or another hasn't had a leak.

We've had fires in the fire places today - lovely and cozy.

Cosmetic bags coming out of my ears!

Last October, when we came back from our trip to Paris, I noticed that my favorite travel-cosmetic bag was falling apart.  I had bought it years ago at a Crabtree and Evelyn store (it was a Vera Bradley round bag).  I looked around for a replacement, and finally settled on the Vera Bradley web site.  I basically bought it's clone.  That was at the end of October.  This evening when I was fiddling around on my computer, I checked my email.  Good grief!  Vera Bradley had notified me that they had shipped a cosmetic bag.  Whoa!  They had sent the "bill" and the shipment notification.  I called customer service and told them my cosmetic bag tale.  After my explanation, the lady on the phone said, "hold on a second".  She then left me listening to music for a bit.  "I just spoke to my supervisor," she told me, "when the bag comes, accept it as our gift - Merry Christmas!"  Now I have 2 clones!  This is getting to be like the Sorcerer's Apprentice - Dum, Dum, Deedle-dee dum, dee dum dee dum ......