Her plane came in about 5 hours later than we thought it would, but her boss's wife called to let me know about the change, so I wasn't stuck at the airport for hours. Jake and Sara got to come with me, so Deb was greeted by the whole entourage. Her boss, Jim, rolled his eyes at all of us being so happy to see her. So I was chanting "you're more loooooved than heeee is" while we were walking to the baggage pickup.

Deb brought home lots of presents for everyone. I, being impossible to shop for (they must not have passed any porn stores), got a wooden box painted with a scene of Heidelberg near where Debbie stayed, three packs of Drum tobacco and lots of bittersweet chocolate. Yes, my honey is an enabler.

Sara got one of those rolly wooden foot massagers, peppermint foot lotion, and a jade-type bead bracelet. I can't remember what Jake got other than grape seed oil, which was a present for both girls.

Dinner was great. I know which of our plants in the yard are the herbs, but I can't always name them all, so I went out and looked at my two prime suspects for "chicken herbs". I crushed the leaves of one plant in my right hand and a different plant in my left hand, took a good whiff of each, and decided the left one was the chicken herb (rosemary). I cut some sprigs, crushed them and rubbed them on the rosemary-infused olive oil-slathered chicken, then tucked them under the breast skin. That bird was falling off the bone so well that I couldn't carve it. It just fell to pieces. Mmmmm. Nice crispy skin, too.

I also stir-fried zucchini and yellow squash with onions and steamed some brocolli. Good stuff.

And it sure was good to have my honey to sleep with again. Teddy was banished from the bed last night and the cats pushed to the far corners.

No date for me tonight, and Deb will be at work, so I'm on my own again. Sara wanted to spend the evening with Jake. We'll probably get a date Thursday night. I think Deb would prefer to have our regular Wednesday night family dinner and have me and Sara tape the finale of "Boot Camp" and watch it later. Maybe, just maybe, we can convince Deb to watch it with us on Wednesday. Tuesday, of course, is reserved for the Buffy season finale.

So tonight I'll be finishing the last few pages of "In Cold Blood". I left it at home this morning and brought "Capote: A Biography" to start. I didn't want to lug "ICB" just to finish it on the train. "Capote" is huge. No reason to drag both along. And Stella finally retrieved from friends a book that she promised to loan me about a multiple murder that happened in our neighborhood in the '70s. So I may walk down to her house tonight to get that.

As you can see, I'm off the romance kick for a bit.

And I put E-Nymph's copy of "Leatherwomen III" in the mail this morning. You should get it in a week to 10 days, Nymph.

That's it for me. Thanks to everyone who has been showering me and the family with compliments and coming out of the woodwork at dedicated readers in my guestbook lately. When you can't really talk about your whole family with your coworkers, neighbors, and family, it sure is nice to know that there are people out there who take the time to get to know us and realize that we're not perverted freaks. I mean, sure, we're perverted all right, but not exactly in the way you might expect.