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August 26, 2004
The pictures, as promised
All EIGHT pages of them, hahahahahahha. I was relieved to find that almost half my pictures were either duplicates or bad shots because I started out with nearly 80! There are gaps in my pictures - I have no pictures of any of the actual traveling part, no pictures of the 2.5 days we spent in Danville with Steve's brother and very few pictures of Kim's family.
When you open these links, you will see a page that has nine photos on it. There are several pages of these (three in Kim's album and five in mine). If you click on the very first picture, you will be able to see them in sequence from start to finish without worrying if you missed a page. Also, at the bottom of each picture (when you click on it) is a place to make a comment if you want to.
Feel free to save the pictures to your computer or to print them. There is also an option at the top of the album to order a professional print through an internet service called "Shutterfly".
For those of you that were wondering how it was traveling back, we had very little problem. We got to Norfolk without any difficulty at all. Until we tried to get our luggage. We supposedly had about nine hours in Norfolk before we caught the military flight back to Sicily. We got Jake and Eli's suitcase but mine was nowhere to be found. When I asked the baggage clerk where it was, he said, oh so casually, "oh, it didn't make this flight, it will be on a flight later today". Ex-squeeze me?!!
I have to confess that I yelled at the guy "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, I AM LEAVING THE COUNTRY TODAY!!!!". At which point he informs me that the military flight has been rescheduled for tomorrow. AGGGGHHHHHHH! Isn't it lovely that this civilian guy knows this much about military goings on? He knew it because they LOST SOMEONE ELSE'S BAGGAGE TOO!!! Oh, sorry, yelling again. We checked with the Military Air Terminal and verify that, yep, we are sleeping in Norfolk again courtesy of Hurricane Charley. This time however, I took a taxi straight to the hotel. No more floor sleeping for us. The airline delivered the bag to the hotel at 11:30pm that night. Even despite this problem, American Airlines gets a gold star from me for excellence in customer service. They bent over backwards to get my flights changed four times altogether and only charged me once. Of course it helped that I had seen that stupid reality show called "Airline" and knew the level of rudeness they deal with on a daily basis. Rude people suck.
We checked into the terminal five minutes prior to showtime, all confident like. "Oh we have filled that flight already". I really feel for these people, they must have valium sprayed into their cubicle to deal with the sleep deprived, anxious and loudly ranting people on the other side of the desk. She told me "there was only eight seats anyway". Well there are only FOUR of us, gee whiz. They do things completely opposite from the MAC terminal in Sicily. In Sicily, it matters not whether you arrived one minute prior to show time or one day. However, in Norfolk, flights are filled up throughout the day. You snooze, you lose.
We found out that there were 100 seats available on the next flight, 10 hours later. The ultimate bonus was that it was the military's version of a commercial airline. Complete with meals, hot towels (oh, those are divine) and REAL flight attendants. It is amazing how fast you bond with people in a crisis setting. There were many people there waiting that had come over with us, including a bunch of kids. They played hard all day and thus were very tired for the flight. Seth slept the ENTIRE way on both flights. Which is good because I told our seatmates prior to take off that he would go to sleep. It is a beautiful thing when you are proven right. I got a ton of knitting done. When we got back I found that my van had not been towed and was not dead and neither were our dog and plants that I left in the care of my ten year old neighbor (his mom supervised of course). And I must say, as great as it was to see everyone, it is always grand to get back to your own bed and your own shower.
Posted by DebC at August 26, 2004 02:27 PM
Comments
Sounds like the trip home was heaven compared to trip over. Glad everything worked out in the end and you are so right..your own home and shower look so good. Everyone should leave home at least once a year so they can really appreciate what they have! I assume Seth's leg doing O.K!
ove, Gramma
Posted by: belva at August 26, 2004 04:40 PM
Hey the pictures catch the flavor of the trip..good, fun, family,food! The one of Spike sure gets your attention though!
Posted by: belva at August 26, 2004 05:01 PM
First off, I'm really sorry I missed sooooooo much fun and seeing ya'll!
The pictures are all very good and Deb, the boys are really growing!
I am in Fl right now, taking care of ponies!!! It is so hot down here!
I'm so glad ya'll enjoyed Southern IL. Dick said Spike and Bailey slept for three days!:):) I can't imagine why!!!
Deb,have you ever used Marino wool? Or Angora?
Posted by: Doris at August 27, 2004 03:24 AM
Oh Doris, we DID miss you. I am so sorry, it just occured to me that I didn't even mention you at all! I hope you had a great time in touring the wild west with your sister. It sounded like a trip that my boys would LOVE to do. Also, I wanted to say that the gazebo is fantastic - you did a great job on the stone floor.
As for Merino - LOVE IT, super soft (and oh so expensive hahahahahaha). I have not yet used Angora although quite a few of my friends have angora bunnies and spin the fur that they comb off of them. I think that would be a win win situation. The boys get a bunny, I get fabulous fiber and the bunny gets untold grooming and love. It is starting to look like my property will be a zoo when we get back!
Posted by: DebC at August 27, 2004 07:28 AM