Yay for date nights out or in!

Shoot, I went grocery shopping and forgot to check the candy aisle for discounted hearts and whatnot. Oh, well, I’ll be at Costco before too long, hopefully they’ll have something for me.

Happy President's Day! Who was a happy President? Teddy Roosevelt, I guess.

It's rainy and cold and it's going to be like that all week. I'll be trotting off to my Monday morning Pilates shortly.

But I had fantastic weekend starting on Thursday. My niece Crystal came out to visit and we have gotten to a very comfortable, familial vibe. Just really enjoy her company and happy to share San Francisco with her.

Also my close college friend, Alison, was out visiting with her husband and adult daughter this weekend. I met up with them and Emmett joined us at Alembic and we had a fantastic time.

It was only the second time Alison had met Emmett and it was lovely for him to spend more time with them. I've gotten to know her daughter Claudia pretty well now - she's been doing post-graduate work in California and came up up with her friend to see me a few years ago.

You never know it's all going to mesh, but we had a really fun, free flowing, laugh-y conversation that went from cocktails through dinner. Really a warm, connecting time with one of my oldest friends (she was one of the women in my wedding party when Jacqueline and I got married), and strengthening ties with her husband and daughter, and Emmett also bonding with them. A wonderful evening all around.

Then I got to see my friend Jes, again at Alembic, last night and we had a long talk that was emotional and connected.

Bonus: At one point during my evening with Alison's family, her husband, Paul, leaned over and whispered to me, "Emmett is such a great guy!" And last night Jes said, "Matilda is so special. I love her so much! She's so cool. I think she's going to change the world."

It's nice when people appreciate your kids.

Robert Duvall has died.

He spent a good chunk of the last part of his life tango dancing.

I loved his performance in Lonesome Dove, and still drawl "Lorrie, darling..." under my breath from time to time.

Robert Duvall has died.

I was just thinking about his movie The Apostle yesterday. I didn't realize he was 95. That's a good run for anybody.

He was wonderful in "Tender Mercies".

Fare thee well, Robert Duvall.

I woke up this morning with all the clocks in my kitchen flashing the time, and my heat not working. So, power outage during the night, and I assumed that had done something to the furnace. I called the HVAC people, and they sent someone out. Turned out the power outage and the heat were unrelated -- the problem with the heat was just that the batteries in the wall controller unit thingy had died. So, $60 to have someone sent out to change the batteries. He did some kind of safety check of the system while he was here, and said that everything looked good, so I guess I got something out of it.