My parents visited us this weekend bearing gifts. My mom brought me her flu bug (gee, thanks mom!). I only managed to haul my sorry butt into the office till noon today then spent the rest of the afternoon in bed, which can be good fun though not when you’re feeling gugh.

My papa brought me memories in the form of my old trains. My folks are not only busy spending my inheritance but, being at that point in their lives where less is more, are also busy pitching stuff left, right and centre. Hence the arrival of my old trains.

Waaaaaaaay back when I was tweenie, my dad and I built a large train set in the basement of our house. Large meaning, this train ‘set’ was roughly 20ft wide by 8ft deep and filled one corner of the workroom in the basement. We built mountains, laid three separate tracks, a village, trees, bridges and trestles. It was like the coolest thing. Sadly, not once did we ever take a picture of this construction which is so very sad now looking back.

I had a ball opening the boxes containing these engines and many of the box cars, and relived my eleven-year-old-hood-ness all over again. I’m going to take them down to George’s Trains on Mt Pleasant and see if any of them are worth anything. I too am not a hoarder so would like to see these sold off. The only hitch is my 8 year old nephew, E. I suppose I should pass these along to him. Must mull that.

The other memory papa brought was a picture of the London Bridge he and E built last weekend out of Meccano. Anyone else remember Meccano? Existed long before Lego. I remember being like 8 and building this as well with my papa. Ah, family traditions eh.

Finally, I’ve been getting some good natured grief from G about the fact I’ve not put up this year’s anniversary card from him … so, without further ado …

PS. Ikea Valentine’s Day Dinner Debacle –
I literally just got a call from G. He drove up to Ikea to buy us tickets for what Will so rightly termed the ‘ghettofab’ Ikea Valentine’s Day dinner. You won’t believe me, but they are sold out! I’m mortified. We should have bought the bloody tickets when we were there on Saturday. If you’re still interested, they have opened another night, Monday, Feb 13th for Valentine’s Day dinner as well but sadly, we have another movie premier to attend that night. Gawd dang it anyway.