Overnight with the cousins

Santa Clara School District like all the others is having a difficult time with the budget cuts. In an effort to balance the budget Lauren's school is shut down for five "furlough" days. Two of those were this past Monday and Tuesday. This past Sunday, we met up with my sister's family for dinner at one our favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse for dinner. The girls enjoy the time together, and free entertainment (waiters and waitresses doing a line dance). After dinner, Lauren's cousins asked if Lauren could spend the night at their house, and Lauren agreed, as did we since Monday was a furlough day. We let Lauren climb into my sister's minivan and go off with her cousins. As usual the girls stayed up much too late, but had lots of fun. I picked up Lauren during my lunch break after my dentist appointment and dropped her off at day care for the rest of the day. In other news, I switched out cars, not surprising if you know me. The Ford Focus was a little cramped, and we really needed something just slightly bigger, but smaller than the huge car that the Honda Accord we had previously. In addition we've done okay with the house sale last year and the recent privatization of my company, so I thought an upgrade would be nice. So I traded in the Ford Focus, and got a 2008 Mercury Milan Premier over the weekend. It's much more comfortable than the previous car, and not quite as large as the Accord.