1. I was just beginning to wake up shortly before seven this morning.
The phone rang.
It was Debbie.
She knows I developed a sentimental attachment to the New Jersey Turnpike between 2014-17 and that together we had some great rides on the turnpike that culminated in visits to Sally and Ted (RIP) and to Adrienne and Jack.
So she called to tell me she was on the New Jersey Turnpike and would be in Valley Cottage within ninety minutes to be with Adrienne, Jack, and Ellie again.
She'd left the Diaz house early and her reward was relatively light traffic, making the drive on the New Jersey Turnpike all the more enjoyable.
If Debbie hoped to her call would make me nostalgic, would unleash treasured memories, and make me wish I could be with Debbie in her new Corolla making her way to Valley Cottage, NY, she succeeded.
2. I did decide one thing today.
When Carol assigned me to bring any kind of salad to Family Dinner tonight, I decided almost immediately to make a macaroni salad, a kind of salad I'd never made before.
One burning question remained: a mayonnaise-based salad or an oil and vinegar one?
For several hours on Friday and Saturday, I had my mind set on making a mayo-based salad and liked the looks of a recipe for a macaroni and tuna salad.
Suddenly, at some point, I changed my mind.
An oil and vinegar dressed macaroni salad felt lighter to me and I decided with the weather being on the hot side, that I'd go with this option.
So I did: macaroni, cherry tomatoes, black olives, white beans, red onion, and cut up parsley leaves. Thanks to a suggestion from Debbie, I added fresh dill and some conversation with Stu inspired me to work some Swiss cheese pieces into the salad. For Christy, I filled a container of the salad without the onion.
The dressing consisted of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, rice vinegar, salt, and pepper.
By the time I went to bed just before midnight and after our dinner, I sampled the salad one last time, not sure if it worked. My late night tasting assured me.
It worked.
3. For Family Dinner, Paul fired up his grill and made us each a cheeseburger patty and he grilled some mixed garden vegetables.
With our cheeseburgers and vegetables, we also enjoyed Christy's fruit salad, a special Ina Garten Limoncello one, with a lemon yogurt dressing, my macaroni salad, and Carol's chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. (I had mine with a small scoop of Moose Track (or something like that) ice cream and more of Christy's fruit salad and dressing.
We had a lot to talk about, especially as Carol and Paul get ready to travel to Boise, Baltimore, and back to Boise again.
I could hardly suppress my excitement that they will spend a week in the Old Line State, go to Camden Yards, and explore the city of Baltimore.
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