One Is Silver And The Other Gold

Last night when Bet looked at the caller ID and answered the phone, "What up G Dog Homeslice Pickles?" I was pretty sure it was our buddy Rob calling. (Rob, the one we called to ask what a spleen looked like - that Rob.) The call turned out to be from his wife - but Bet would have answered the phone that way for any of the three of them (Rob, his wife, or their daughter) because as she put it, "They are all G Dog Homeslice Pickles to me."
These are the folks that let us steal share their Christmas Cookie Day tradition. These are the folks who came and ran the Country Music Half Marathon (in tutus) with us. These are the ones who offered more than a couch by letting Bet be the crazy aunt in the attic (or really in the spare room with the piano) for a school year when she was planning to move to TN to be with us and didn't want to get stuck in a lease. The G Dog Homeslice Pickles are friends, indeed.

Tonight Bet and I are driving to DC for a girls' weekend away with my Navy buddies. LT (the one who retired, broke her collarbone, and is still training for the triathlon with us) has come east and DC is the central gathering point. LT, Bren, Jen and I have been friends for 20+ years and have many inside jokes (<-- some of them in Russian, which marks us not only as spooks, but old spooks.) There will be some newer shipmates of LT's joining us. (One new friend works in the Capitol, hence the private tour tomorrow - sweet!) I can't wait to meet LT's new friends and have Bet meet my old ones. The bonus is that we also get to see a college pal of mine, meet his new wife, and give them congratulatory hugs for their baby-in-process.

Linus has to work the weekend but Unky Dunky (who is an uncle by choice, not by blood or marriage) is going to come hang out with the kids and play Warhammer. I'm missing our other two uncles of choice (Karl and Richard) - but we can hardly complain as they helped us move and warm our house. It's pretty cool to have this many uncles for my kids without having had to put up with (smelly) brothers all those years ago!

Not sure why I'm rambling about friends this morning. Friendship is just on my mind. Maybe it's because my best friend from high school turned 40 last week, but I don't have a way to get in touch with her. (The silly rabbit moved to Florida and left her comcast email behind. Hello! Yahoo, gmail? Work with me here people! Noelly - I can't find you!)

Maybe friendship is looming large in my mind because I'm totally proud of us for spending $97 and saving $90 at the grocery store last night. I'm bragging on us even though we're not yet in the same league as C is for Coffee and Salsa Man (who once spent $133 and saved $211) much less with Sandra and Grant - who once worked it so that they "bought" forty (40!) boxes of cereal and the store had to pay them a quarter a box. Minor leaguers that we are, we wouldn't have known how to shop like this without the coaching from our thrifty pals.

Maybe I'm thinking about friends because I've just finished making my morning blog rounds. I've been blogging long enough now to have old webfriends and new! While I've only recently met friends like Titan and Not, I've "known" DebR of Red Shoe Ramblings for two years now. (In computer years, that's somewhat akin to having known each other since kindergarten, right?) Also, I've been skulking around the ether long enough to have imaginary friends. Er, that doesn't sound right. They're real, it's the friendship that's all in my head. Erm, that doesn't sound much better does it? What I'm admitting here is that, while I can't think of anything intelligent to say in their comments, I obsessively harmlessly lurk around mimismartypants', Maxine Dangerous', and Miss Zoot's sites. (Well except for that one time I accosted Zoot in the airport!)

So here's to friends - far and wide, old and new, known and yet to be known. Hip hip hooray (x3)!! Peace.