A Little Ray of Sunshine

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

On the road again . . . er, OFF!

We just got back from one of our typical megatrips. I guess easy, slow-paced travel is just not in us. We took a train to Michigan, went to a cousin's wedding, an aunt and uncle's 40th wedding aniversery (not the cousin's parents) and survived traveling with children with stumach flu/motion sickness. My folks and Mom's siblings stayed longer to inter my grandparents' remains: we opted to catch the train back before that event.
My cousin got married on a two masted schooner (are all schooners two masted?) called the Manitou. Dad was thrilled, he's an O'Brian fan, he sat there naming all the parts of the ship for us. The boys loved it, except it was very cold and windy, so we ended up spending much of the sail below deck. Oddly, the boys, who were motion sick on the train, did not get sea sick. (Or would that be lake sick?) A very nice wedding, my cousin was a beautiful bride. She's Mom's younger sister's daughter.
The next day was the wedding aniversary of Mom's older brother and his wife. 40 years. Mom and her sister couldn't say enough good things about my aunt and her patience. My uncle is retired Air Force and now has a piano studio.
We got to see almost all the cousins, including one of those who couldn't make it in Denver before we got on the train (his wife is very pregnant). The only cousins we missed are those in Germany, who couldn't come.
Now we are debating the merits of train travel versus car travel. I liked the train better: no constant stops for "Daddy, I have to go potty!", you don't have to stop at night to sleep, and even though Amtrak can't run on time to save their lives, they do take care of you when you miss a connection. Our train into Chicago was three hours late, they put us on a bus to our destination from there. By contrast, my folks flew into Cincinatti, were told the runway lights at their destination were out, and they had to pay for their own hotel room and all. My husband prefers the car, you can stop when you want to and find a restaurant with good food and no motion to cause the boys to throw up.
One lovely thing about being home is how hard it is to get a decent meal on the road. The horrible part is that there is no fresh food in the house, so we ended up eating out last night anyway! There is a pile of laundry the size of, well, our traveling bags, to do, most of it nasty, because the washer in the hotel was very poor. We are all still tired, and my poor husband has to work today.
It was wonderful to see my family and it's even better to be back home.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

The Meme from Pretty Lady

I'm supposed to post eight random facts about myself. Well, let's see if I can come up with that many.

1. I haven't had more than three consecutive hours of sleep in the last nine months minus one week. (Hummer, of course, will be nine months next week.)
2. I can cook collard greens, but not only am I not from the south, I can't see how anyone could live in such humidity. And I've been to Georgia in August; I know what I'm talking about.
3. I love rain. Probably because I live in a desert. I especially love the way it smells when it's about to rain or has just started.
4. I expect everything I buy to last as long as my cast iron pans (that is, generations), and feel like I've been ripped off when almost nothing else does.
5. Since nothing (besides the cast iron, bone china, and silverware) lasts the way it ought to, I like to do my shopping at the thrift store. At least then I didn't pay much money for something that's just going to fall apart in six months! The only problem with this is I never can find clothes for my husband there, and it's getting harder to find clothes for the boys.
6. I don't trust antibiotics in animals, particularly in milk. After all, if I can't nurse if I'm taking these, how is it different for my kids to drink milk from a cow that's had them? (Or a goat?) That said, I don't have a problem if they're only used when needed on meat producing animals, it's the constant usage that bothers me.
7. I can't stand animal fat. Lard is okay for pie crusts once it's been properly rendered, but fat left on the meat: ick! Why would anyone want cornfed beef? (Butter is fine, good for everything. Brisket is almost inedible, even with tons of work.)
8. We are now living in the sixth house/apartment since we married five-and-a-half years ago. I am getting really sick of moving. So is my husband, especially since I love antiques, and they're HEAVY.

Wow! That was eight.
I'm not going to pass this on. If you haven't done it yet, feel free to feel tagged.