Good news/Bad news

Bad news: We came home from our trip to discover that Hubby got the wrong week off work to go on William's biology field trip to the northern California coast and redwoods.

Good news: He was able to get another week off, which was the right week.

Bad news: They wouldn't let him cancel the first week.

Good news: He had two weeks off.

Bad news: It was too late to sign up for the field trip as a parent volunteer even though we've been doing it for a decade now, because everything has changed and you now have to get TB tested and fingerprinted and background check.

Good news: We decided to go to Ashland instead, where we had a lovely time, stayed in a beautiful hotel, ate a lot of good food, and saw two great plays.

Bad news: We got back to Redding (where Sam was pupsitting Rosie) too late to have much time for a visit and we were too exhausted to drive the extra two hours home.

Good news: Sam wanted us to stay to visit in the morning.

Bad news: It was almost 100 degrees and Sam has no air conditioning.

Good news: We had a coupon for a free night at a Motel 6, and they DO have air conditioning.

Bad news: Rosie was having a freak out about the motel (usually she's fine but she does every once in awhile in motels) and we didn't get much sleep.

Good news: We got to have breakfast with Sam before we got on the road home.

Bad news: Our car broke down

Good news: There's a Subaru dealer in town and Sam let us borrow his truck while we took the Subie into the shop.

Bad news: They couldn't get to it until this afternoon.

Good news: I got to go shopping at Ross all afternoon because I had nothing else in the suitcase left to wear.

Bad news: They wanted to charge us $1600 for repairs.

Good news: Sam and hubby were able to sort out what really needed to be fixed to get us back home and got the repairs down to $400.

Bad news: It's over 100 degrees outside.

Good news: Sam has a pool.

Bad news: Well, not really bad news. We're going to spend another night and go home in the morning now. But we have to sleep on Sam's couch, which is kinda not good. And oh, more bad, hubby had to cancel other plans for the weekend.

Good news: We get to go to the new Mary's Pizza for dinner. Mary's Pizza started decades ago in Sonoma and I used to take my kids to the original restaurant waaaay back when it started, when Mary still ran the place. The little kids would all line up on barstools in front of the pizza makers and the pizza guys would twirl the pizzas high in the sky and hand slices of pepperoni to the kids, so parents could sit out on the patio under a beautiful old fig tree strung with tiny white lights, and RELAX. Best pizza EVER. Made on a sourdough crust. Oh, and these hotdogs (not that I generally eat hotdogs, but I make exceptions for things like County Fair corn dogs and these pigs-in-a-blanket) wrapped with jack cheese, rolled in sourdough pizza crust and run through the pizza ovens. And absolutely wonderful salads. Yum.

It's all the way you look at things. We could say we're spending money on car repairs. Or we can pretend we're staying at a resort with pool, spa, and pizza, and friends. I say, let's go with the latter.