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breoaigitHere we are, in sunny Texas! Am I on vacation yet? Actually, I am, but I think I only figured it out yesterday.
Friday we all but ran out of the house trying to get to Baltimore to check in at our hotel. I forgot to pay rent. Rent is due by the 5th. We'll be back on the 7th. Whoops. I also forgot Dean's glasses and my wedding ring, so far, and we'll see if there's more as the trip goes on. The hotel in Baltimore was lovely though, in a sea of hotels all near the airport. We assumed, given the plethora of hotels, that there would also be a plethora of eating establishments. Hah! Ha-hah! Ho-ho, hee-hee, it is to laugh! There's a McDonald's and a Wendy's. That's it. We ended up driving towards the next little town and found a hole in the wall Mexican place called Los Portales, and all was forgiven. It was like stepping into a little place in New Mexico, very pretty and very clean, and the food was heavenly! They managed to get a thin-cut t-bone cooked rare, and I respect that. So with full tummies and no sleep in like 48 hours, we headed back to the hotel to snag a few hours.
I do mean a few hours, too, as our plane left at 7:10AM Saturday. The security line was obscene, one of those lines that make you ask, "My God, where's the end?! The flight was largely uneventful, and we got to watch Daredevil between Cleveland and Houston. We get to watch Chicago on the way back (which will be to Detroit instead of Cleveland! We're quite the travelers!) Then we get to Lubbock and it's 85 degrees, almost no humidity, and breezy. Heaven! Of course, we also learned that my youngest nephew (2 years old) was staying with my in-laws. Whee! It was like I never left work! I got to go -right- on saying, "Use your words!" and "No, no! Don't touch that!" and "No thank you, please come out of there!" and "Elijah! Do not -make- me come in there after you, young man!"
Still, we've had several chances to spend time with our goddaughter and her parents, and Dean got to hit the shooting range with the baby's daddy while she and her mom and I went to the mall. Lots of pleasantness on that front, as they're wonderful people. So are my in-laws, more than anything, although I was about to go insane trying to convince my MIL that no, I do not need another crochet needele/drink/pillow/shoes/shirt/etc/etc/etc. She's generous beyond belief, and I appreciate it, but I was all but batty(er) by the time we left.
The big thing we were hoping they would offer never seemed to happen at first. I was even using their phone to make phone calls to car rental agencies to make the trip to Austin, for all that we'd hoped they would offer one of their cars. We headed off to get lunch Monday, then went to Advantage auto and were in the middle of filling out paperwork when the cell phone rings with the MIL offering the car. Timing! Thankfully, the people at Advantage (good prices, nice people, I recommend!) were happy for us and let us cancel the reservation. We took the inlaws and nephew out to dinner that night, of course.
Yesterday was the drive to Austin, which entailed two highways and an interstate. It was an absoluely lovely drive, lots of pretty scenery. We have, however, discovered the new state flags of Texas are orange and black and warn "Road Construction Ahead" and "Right Lane Closed". We drove through construction easily 3/4ths of the trip. Still, it only took about 7 hours, which is a lot better than we thought it would.
Now we're at my family's house just north of Austin, out in the middle of nowhere. It's absolutely beautiful out here, very scenic if a little toasty. Still, not as bad as I feared at all. Mom's cooking breakfast right now, and after that Dean and I are going tooling about Austin to check out the city. I look at it this way though, there's no kids, and work has only called one time. Hopefully that snafu got fixed. Silly computer services, forgetting to hook my account at work back up to the server all my files are stored on because they told me to store them there!!! Nope, no venom there. Still, Mr. Nick handled it brilliantly. :)
Anyway, all of you have a wonderful holiday! If anything fascinating happens today, I'll post more tonight. Happy Wednesday!
Friday we all but ran out of the house trying to get to Baltimore to check in at our hotel. I forgot to pay rent. Rent is due by the 5th. We'll be back on the 7th. Whoops. I also forgot Dean's glasses and my wedding ring, so far, and we'll see if there's more as the trip goes on. The hotel in Baltimore was lovely though, in a sea of hotels all near the airport. We assumed, given the plethora of hotels, that there would also be a plethora of eating establishments. Hah! Ha-hah! Ho-ho, hee-hee, it is to laugh! There's a McDonald's and a Wendy's. That's it. We ended up driving towards the next little town and found a hole in the wall Mexican place called Los Portales, and all was forgiven. It was like stepping into a little place in New Mexico, very pretty and very clean, and the food was heavenly! They managed to get a thin-cut t-bone cooked rare, and I respect that. So with full tummies and no sleep in like 48 hours, we headed back to the hotel to snag a few hours.
I do mean a few hours, too, as our plane left at 7:10AM Saturday. The security line was obscene, one of those lines that make you ask, "My God, where's the end?! The flight was largely uneventful, and we got to watch Daredevil between Cleveland and Houston. We get to watch Chicago on the way back (which will be to Detroit instead of Cleveland! We're quite the travelers!) Then we get to Lubbock and it's 85 degrees, almost no humidity, and breezy. Heaven! Of course, we also learned that my youngest nephew (2 years old) was staying with my in-laws. Whee! It was like I never left work! I got to go -right- on saying, "Use your words!" and "No, no! Don't touch that!" and "No thank you, please come out of there!" and "Elijah! Do not -make- me come in there after you, young man!"
Still, we've had several chances to spend time with our goddaughter and her parents, and Dean got to hit the shooting range with the baby's daddy while she and her mom and I went to the mall. Lots of pleasantness on that front, as they're wonderful people. So are my in-laws, more than anything, although I was about to go insane trying to convince my MIL that no, I do not need another crochet needele/drink/pillow/shoes/shirt/etc/etc/etc. She's generous beyond belief, and I appreciate it, but I was all but batty(er) by the time we left.
The big thing we were hoping they would offer never seemed to happen at first. I was even using their phone to make phone calls to car rental agencies to make the trip to Austin, for all that we'd hoped they would offer one of their cars. We headed off to get lunch Monday, then went to Advantage auto and were in the middle of filling out paperwork when the cell phone rings with the MIL offering the car. Timing! Thankfully, the people at Advantage (good prices, nice people, I recommend!) were happy for us and let us cancel the reservation. We took the inlaws and nephew out to dinner that night, of course.
Yesterday was the drive to Austin, which entailed two highways and an interstate. It was an absoluely lovely drive, lots of pretty scenery. We have, however, discovered the new state flags of Texas are orange and black and warn "Road Construction Ahead" and "Right Lane Closed". We drove through construction easily 3/4ths of the trip. Still, it only took about 7 hours, which is a lot better than we thought it would.
Now we're at my family's house just north of Austin, out in the middle of nowhere. It's absolutely beautiful out here, very scenic if a little toasty. Still, not as bad as I feared at all. Mom's cooking breakfast right now, and after that Dean and I are going tooling about Austin to check out the city. I look at it this way though, there's no kids, and work has only called one time. Hopefully that snafu got fixed. Silly computer services, forgetting to hook my account at work back up to the server all my files are stored on because they told me to store them there!!! Nope, no venom there. Still, Mr. Nick handled it brilliantly. :)
Anyway, all of you have a wonderful holiday! If anything fascinating happens today, I'll post more tonight. Happy Wednesday!
