Greetings from Long Beach

We have just returned to Alex's from a wonderful dinner at Caffe La Strada, a local Italian joint that serves THE best scampi in the western hemisphere. The Patient did his Fettucini Alfredo justice, but both of us have left-overs for the trip home tomorrow. I am looking forward to getting back, sleeping in my own bed, examining my garden for the extent of the frost damage we had back in January to see what needs to be replanted, pulled out, started anew.

We will leave early tomorrow morning so we can get through the wretched LA traffic by 6:30 AM and be home by about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We have been gone for 70 days. It will be good to be home.