I came home this evening to no less than four messages from my parents. They are on vacation and the messages went like this:

Call 1: This is your mom. We made it to sedona. Boy it's cold here. No need to call back. Mom.

Call 2: This is your dad. We made it to sedona. There's lots of mountains. Here's your mom. (jostling of the phone) "Hello. Hello? Did she hang up? (Dad in background) "She's not there it's just the machine." "oh, well no need to call back". click

Call 3: This is your mom. We are having a good time. Someone called here. We were trying to figure out if it was you. No need to call back. (jostling of phone) That was tina. No she's not home. It was her machine. ( dialing my brother's number...while still on my answering machine ...) Hello? Hello? dial tone.

And so on. Ever see the movie from the 1990's called Mother? I often tease my mom that's she's sort of like that character, in particular when it comes to electronics. I talked to Jer tonight to see how he's enjoying HOME ALONE and whether the neighbors have been over to yell at him for throwing a party. He said mom and dad have called every day at least two or three times...mostly to check on the dog and see if there was any important mail. My guess is that they aren't used to only having each other to talk to so the cell phones come in handy.

This is the first real vacation they've gone on with their cell phones so it's sort of a novel thing I guess. I just realized that I don't even know either of their cell phone numbers so I can actually follow directions and not call back...I'm sure she'll call again because now it will be a worry that I'm not answering my phone all day on a Saturday and might be trapped under something heavy. Ah well...gotta love them.

I stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home. Tried something new which totally blasted me back to childhood. Oma (my grandma in Arlington Heights) used to make cherry jello. (she was famous for always having jello and some sort of oddly concocted koolaid made with gooseberrys from her yard.) Anyhow my favorite childhood treat would be to take the cherry jello and smush vanilla ice cream into it. Not the breyer's ice cream either but the ice milk vanilla flavored TUB O ICE CREAM that Opa got from the A&P. Yep, I started my bad eating habits at an early age!

I know it sounds kind of gross but it kind of tasted like a cherry dreamsicle. Anyhow, the dairy queen cherry freeze tastes EXACTLY like smushed cherry jello in vanilla ice cream.