Lemoore & Family time

I got an e-mail from a dear colleague and friend the other day, subject: "Protest!" I smiled immediately when I saw who it was from but was wondering what he could be protesting.  The body of the e-mail was a sweet way of saying why haven't you been writing? If you read this blog you may notice that blog activity picks up when I travel because I have so much time (read, I make time) to write about the things I am experiencing.  BUT my daily life is just as adventurous and my thoughts and opinions certainly don't wane when I'm at home.  So the lesson to learn here, is I need to block out 30-minutes a couple times a week to dedicate to my blog.So, I spent the weekend in Lemoore, CA.  Friday, I left work at lunch time and picked up my sister-in-law who was with her parents at my parents' house.  As I walked up the stairs to the front door, I could hear my dad's voice and I could tell that he was telling a joke.  His voice changes when he's telling a joke and he gets louder.  I walked in and greeted everybody, I hadn't seen my sister-in-law or her parents in months.  I had seen my dad that morning so I guess I forgot to give him a hug and got a Sally! which meant, "hello, I exist."  So I ran back and hugged my dad before putting my things down.My sister-in-law and I bid our farewells and drove to Lemoore from Monterey.  On the three hour drive, with the exception of the very short stretch we drove on Hwy 101, we maybe saw 8 cars.  We both got car sick on the hot, bumpy, winding roads but at least we had each others' company!  Friday night was super low key, we had take out sushi at their house and were in bed by 9.The heat makes you lazy and I love it.  Being that their house is new, it is minimally furnished and it's great.  In situations like these I think, in the future we'll look back and say "remember when I came to visit you guys in your new house in Lemoore and it was so hot and we drank so much beer? Even though your house was minimally furnished. And we slept on air mattresses." Or whatever.  I think people often get stuck thinking if things aren't perfect we can't live our life.  If the house isn't spotless, I can't have guests.  If I don't have the perfectly sculpted body, I can't go to the pool party.  Etcetera.  I don't live like that and hope for people to shed those thoughts as they are nothing but set backs.Saturday we slept in.  The heat will do that to you.  We had some coffee and a bite to eat and headed to the gym.  I swam laps in the outdoor pool and, in the 95˚F heat, I reveled in the sun warming my back.   With lunch we had a bottle of champagne, after all we were celebrating my sister-in-law's move and being reunited with her husband.We spent the day preparing for the BBQ we would be having that evening.  Which was so fun!  We had vegetable and shrimp skewers, marinated chicken breasts and drumsticks, and burgers.  Followed by a carrot cake which I had made.  Sorry I didn't take photos, I was having too much fun just talking to people and eating.