I didn't have anything for the chocolate party for my daughter-in-law, Lauri, so I was glad to see that there was a Cocos across the street where I could pick up a luscious pie. Yummy. I had a good sleep and took my time getting up and had a nice, cholesterol full breakfast and still had time to just sit and catch up on the news before my son, Mike, arrived on his way from San Diego to Redlands.

It was so good to see him. It was nearly noon so we had lunch together and caught up on what was going on. He's been loaned to Boeing in Seattle for several months so all their stuff is in storage and Lauri is staying with a friend in Redlands while she finished classes and in San Diego helping her sister get ready for her wedding. At least Mike gets flown down every few weeks to see Lauri. He seemed to be enjoying Seattle and already has people to climb with.

Lauri's parents. one with second spouse, and sister were there and my ex and his spouse and various friends and relations. Families are so hard to characterize now as there are so many people who aren't strictly family or at least nuclear family that are a part of it. It does make things more interesting. It gives us more people to talk about and diverts us from our own parochial gripes. It was a nice party with lots of chocolate and a fun game with a web of yarn.

The graduation was very interesting. Lauri received a Masters in Public Health with an emphsis on health education from Loma Linda University. This is a highly rated school for health degrees and there were people from thirty some countries who got their masters in public health. One lady carried her baby, with a little black robe, down the aisle with her. So cute! One of the award winners was a lady who taught sunday school, helped run a health clinic, etc., etc., and . . . had four kids from seven years on down. I had trouble just raising two kids and working. I can never decide whether to admire people like that or pity them. Well, hate comes in too but I try to keep that to a minimun.

I do admire Lauri as it's been hard since she's had to stay up here three nights a week as the drive would have been too much otherwise and yet she still manages to do an amazing number of things. She just has to do an internship now and she's done. We all went out to eat afterwards and then it was goodbye again.