Rainy Day yesterday.  Although it was predicted to stop mid-morning, it actually continued throughout the day until about 3:00.  Marilyn (who, once down at the Fairgrounds, couldn't find her raincoat in the truck) reported she was "damp but fine". 

Although Stubby was staying the night down there again last night (in truth we were not looking forward to having a rambunctious muddy pooch in the house, and his absence did make packing up last night easier) Marilyn hung out there all day so he wouldn't have to be cooped up any longer than necessary.  Beyond being busy grooming and showing all day every day on a "regular" day, Matt and Melissa had considerably more to do yesterday since the fields were muddy and all dogs needed additional bathing before show time.  

So by the time Marilyn arrived back here it was already dusk.  She and I ended up out back until dark:30 picking grapefruit, managing to load up four large canvas bags before it just got too dark to see.  Maybe she didn't collect quite as many as she could have fit into all the nooks and crannies of the packed Suburban.... but she got enough to keep her happy for a good while.

The breadmaker did its thing yesterday, starting right on time, going through the cycles (actually lighting up the appropriate button during each of the various phases) and finishing exactly at 4:00 as programmed.  So I won't have to appropriate Mom & Dad's one from the back house after all!  So it was simply Operator Error <G> that caused all the issues the other day.

  

Last evening I helped Marilyn pack up (the heavy dog crate and over-size dog bed, her show clothes, the dog bowls and toys, and a number of other miscellaneous things.) That made it easy for her to finish packing up this morning and go play in rush hour traffic right on schedule at 6:30.  Stubby shows at 8:00, and then she'll get on the road heading back to Texas.  Should be an easy drive to El Paso (no good place to stop after that, right Mom, because no one wants to stop in Van Horn! <g>) and then she'll have an easy 500-mile drive home tomorrow.

Tom and Wayne actually got on the road to Tucson this morning before their hoped-for 7:00 blast off.  Alex was cryptic last evening about his plans to head to CA today, but in theory I should be on my own for the next 3 days after all the company.  I have a number of extra things happening in the next few days (like Book Club and my tax appointment), and I definitely need to get organized to head to the VOS retreat Friday morning.  

Maybe have missed the January 'deadline', but at least it's only early February,