In the Sinkhole

Per my usual routine I left the apartment at 6:15 but was shocked to be greeted with a traffic jam on Hancock Road. Usually there's hardly a car in sight when I leave for work. When I got to the first stoplight I was detoured right by a traffic control officer. So much for going west toward work. I busted an illegal U-turn and made it to work just slightly later than my usual 6:30 start time.

When I crossed the 215 I noticed there wasn't any traffic. Something was amiss. Turns out there was a huge sinkhole that closed all the north and south bound lanes and they decided it was a good idea to detour all the traffic past our apartment. I feel so lucky. Nothing like even longer traffic jams in SoCal. If only I had a street bike today, splitting lanes up to stoplights would have saved me 15 minutes in a commute that should only take 8 minutes! On the way home I went 4 miles in 23 minutes. That's not ideal gas mileage in the old Ford.

Incredible Dinner

I had my favorite meal tonight for dinner. I've always loved hamburger and gravy over mashed potatoes. More specifically, I've always loved my mom's hamburger and gravy over mashed potatoes. It's always a meal that reminds me of home and family. My mom sent over her recipe almost a year ago and life got too busy to make the meal. Finally, now that our lives have slowed down a tad, Tracy got the recipe again and we made my favorite meal. Tracy's favorite meal is mashed potatoes and gravy with meatballs ... only real difference is the meat isn't in balls. My mom made this meal for us awhile back and Tracy was hooked just like I am.

Believe it or not, the hamburger and gravy tasted nearly identical to my mom's sauce. It's one thing to get the ingredients, it's another to actually cook it right. The sauce was my responsibility tonight and I guess I actually succeeded. And, for the first time ever, Tracy made mashed potatoes. We've only made the instant potatoes, which really are worthless compared to the real thing. Tracy did a bang up job and the mashed potatoes were really, really good. She added half and half, butter, milk and sour cream and they were delicious! So, I'll perfect the hamburger and gravy and Tracy will perfect the potatoes. Perfect match. Neat. I guess it takes two of us to equal my mom's good cookin', but she does have a few dinners on us!

It's not right to get this excited about dinner, but we were really pumped. Man we love that dinner. Miss you mom it's not the same without sharing it with you and more importantly, Happy Birthday!!