So I lied.  I thought yesterday we had traded the rain for wind, but....the wind was just extra.  When I left to go to the grocery store, it was pouring AND windy.  Alli and I were soaked by the time we got in the car (of course, because "hurry" is not in Alli's vocabulary, and she saw no reason to rush into getting in the car!)  Throughout the day, we had wind, rain, hail and sunshine.  March definitely went out like a lion!  Today it looks clear and sunny.  It probably isn't going to be really warm, but it is sunny (so far!)

I'm still a bit slow today.  Meredith and I went out to a play last night, and I didn't get to bed until after 11:00.  It was a wonderful comedy, and it was a lot of fun just to go out.  I had invited Meredith and family over for dinner before the play as well, but our wires got crossed, and just Meredith came over.  I made my second attempt at cooking salmon, and....it was good!  I may just have a new recipe to add to my repertoire!  Meredith had never cooked salmon at all, so we had the blind leading the blind, so to speak.  She watched me prepare it and decided that it wasn't so scary after all, and she just may try cooking it.

Since I had the same worries she did about cooking fish the last time I cooked it, I understood completely.  What if I ruined it?  What if it didn't taste good?  What if I under-cooked it?  Yesterday, the first time I pulled the fish out, it was under-cooked, and I showed Meredith how to tell, and then stuck it back in the oven.  It turned out marvelously!  Since I just season it with a little salt and pepper, I'm not 'ruining' the fish - all you have is the fish flavor - no fancy sauces or anything,  I did make a tartar sauce from scratch that went very well with it, or just plain old lemon available too.  I also made french bread from scratch, and a rice pilaf.  I was pretty proud of myself!  Meredith brought pie and ice cream, so after we got in from the play, we had tea and dessert.  Yum!  We need to do that more often.  It was a fun evening.

Since I actually got the house semi-clean yesterday (as I was having company come over) I think I will just try to get the laundry done, and nurse my cold today, trying to get over the remnants of it.  I'm feeling pretty good, but...still tired.  Of course, that may be because of my late night and early morning, though Alli did let me sleep in a bit.  This next week is Alli's Spring Break, so I don't have to get her up so early to catch the bus.  Not that I think we are going to sleep in, I just don't have to rush around like a mad woman to get her lunch packed and her showered , dressed and fed by 6:30.  I'm looking forward to that, and I'm also taking off from work on Wednesday, and heading up to Susanville on Thursday, weather permitting.  So far, Thursday is the only day we are expecting any rain - or snow in the case of Susanville.  Since the weather reports are usually wrong, I'm not too worried about it.

I do remember one Spring Break from college trying to get home from Yuba City in a major storm - I called every 15 minutes to see if the road was clear.  I drove through what looked like 3 feet of snow on the sides of the road up the Feather River Canyon in my little '59 VW bug, following the big rigs (and they were BIG compared to that little car!) since Highway 70 was the only highway open.  I ended up in a snow drift just outside of Westwood (the snow was much higher than 3 feet by then!) and some passerby's stopped and pulled me out.  I gave my last $8 (the normal fee was $10) to have chains put on my car in Westwood and then managed to make it home. That was the weekend I had tickets to fly out of Reno for Grand Assembly, and I HAD to get there.