Thanks for all your kind words. It was fun to share my wonderful surprise with you. Typical of young men, my son failed to let me know that, while his plane was leaving early Monday morning, his girlfriend's flight home was not until 5:00 that evening! So, I had to make runs down to the airport in Albuquerque twice in one day . . . and entertain the girlfriend until she left. Yes, he'd invited his new gf to come stay as well. She was very nice, thankfully; an archaeologist that he'd met while still in grad school. Sooooo, I took her out to lunch and then to the beautiful Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, a museum in Albuquerque showcasing the art, artifacts, etc. from all the many pueblos in New Mexico. She loved it. But, I've been catching up on work around here ever since! As for cookbook computer programs, thanks for your thoughts and ideas on that, too. Yes, on one hand, I do think that I could make up a very basic one myself but, as OA mentioned, a search engine to find specific recipes based on ingredients at hand, sounds so practical. Like you, OA, I'm really not that interested in a lot of new recipes; I have probably over a thousand of my own favs that I'd like to put in and then access. Good point about the ability to add pics, too! My last cookbook program was MasterCook, which was great until it developed it's problems and caused so many computer problems. It had a feature to not only search but, as you start to add an ingredient or cooking term, a short selection pops up to choose from. I quickly got used to this feature and it made adding my recipes so much easier. It also had a spell check with all the gazillion cooking terms and ingredients in it. That was very handy, as well. I think I'm going to read more on the Living Cookbook program and make a decision today. Gotta run and take out the trash and the dogs now, though. Lynn

Susan, they make cameras for the computer and we use Skype? to talk to/see my dh's family in St. Louis. It is really fun and cameras are really cheap. We went to Reno yesterday for the whitewater kayak festival. We watched some great kayakers compete. My dh could have paddled with Eric Jackson (maker of Jackson kayaks) last weekend but passed to spend day with dd at her softball games. I could not believe he passed that chance. Oh well. Anyhoo, it was sunny with a bit of a breeze but not enough to ruin the day at all. There is this fun race and the runners dress up in funny costumes. There were Avatars, Kiss band, pregnant whitetrash, and one group was Tiger and Jesse James (they were funny). The winner was Sigfriend and Roy. They had hoolahoops and tossed these really big stuffed white tires through the loops. At end of race they have to run through this huge muddy area and get hosed off as they cross the finish line. We ate at Circus Circus buffet and played in the arcade. My dh and dd could not win a thing, little ds 9yr won everything he tried. Lots of fun. It was a great pre-mothers day for me. Today is kind overcast and I rather just do nothing, dh keeps wanting to buy me something but I don't want anything, really. So happy mothers day to each and every one of us. And also to anyone who is not a mom but mothers someone, even if a pup or kitten. And to those who have lost their mothers, they are only gone in body but never in spirit.

Thank you for all your kind words. This was my first year without him and every holiday has been bittersweet. I am one of five and the only girl. At 47 yrs. old I was still Daddy's girl. I miss him so much he was such a wonderful man. You are all right this was truly a gift from the heart that I will treasure forever. Every time I hear it gently chime it makes me smile. Thanks for letting me share it with you. OOfasis here is a link that may help you with your clock. Here is a link that might be useful: The Clock Guy

Lovely. I was hoping for ideas for my own DMIL gift this year but this isn't going to happen. I guess flowers it will be.