I Wanna Be A Cowboy...

Today's Weather: PERFECT

Greetings from Stephenville, Texas... Cowboy Country USA!

Today was a perfect day in central Texas... hot, sunny with a light breeze and clear blue sky! What a delightful change from the dreary, cloudy, cool weather of home. More about today in a bit...

Yesterday... sigh... where to begin! By the end of yesterday's "adventure" all I could think of was the book I read as a kid, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day".

Saturday started out fine. We got up at the crack of dawn and Doug's Mom came to pick us up for the airport. We arrived at the airport 3 hours early for our flight. The line in the US Customs area took about an hour but because Doug had to go to the secondary inspection area to renew his visa we were delayed much longer than expected. Numerous times an airport agent came into the secondary inspection area checking luggage tags to see the flights people were expected on. He told us we needed to be out of this area no later than 25 minutes from departure time. We had booked a non-stop flight from Toronto to Dallas-Fort Worth.

Finally about 40 minutes before our flight was to depart Doug was called up. The customs agent processed Doug and then sent him over to the cashier to pay for the Visa. This is where we ran into real trouble. Doug ventured over to that area only to find no cashier in sight. Soon, another airport agent comes in and tells me we are too late for our flight and we'll have to rebook. Our plane left without us! She took the tags from our bags and told us that when we were done in the secondary inspection area they would find us another flight. Unfortunately, there were no other non-stop Air Canada flights Saturday so we'd have to find connecting flights.

What made this even more stressful for us is that Doug & I had made plans with my friend, Christy who I had met in Hannah's Prayer Infertility chat years ago. She and her new hubby were planning to drive 2+ hours from east of Tyler, Texas to meet up with us. When we FINALLY got out of the secondary inspection area around 5-10 minutes after our flight left, I called Christy (waking her up) to tell her that we were not going to make it to Dallas any time soon, while Doug rearranged our flight info. Waiting at the counter with the agent (who happens to do this all day for people) Doug & I felt the stress and strain of those contestants on the Amazing Race. Can I just say... this stress is not worth 1 Million Dollars!

We were given new flights, now flying from Toronto to Denver, Denver to Dallas. We had to leave the US Customs area and head over to the United counter, get new boarding passes and then re-enter the Customs area. We begged an agent to take us to the front of the line because we would miss this new flight if we had to get in the customs line again and we had already been approved once. Fortunately, a kind agent was willing to do just that. Instead of another hour late (and missed flight) we were rushed to the front for a short wait to go through customs again.

Finally through customs we dropped off our luggage, and headed to security, getting through without incidence. We headed to our gate and waited a short while before boarding for our flight west to Denver. In Denver we rushed from one gate to the next, praying that our luggage would make the voyage with us.

We arrived in Dallas FINALLY ... HOURS later than we expected. We headed to the baggage area and were happy to see one of our two bags pop off the roundabout fairly quickly. We then waited for the medium sized bag... and we waited, and waited. Popping off the belt came the little placard from the luggage area which states that the flight's luggage has all been sent in. Hmmm...

The baggage clerk said to those still waiting for luggage that they should come speak to him with their baggage claims to see where the bags were. Our bag was still sitting in Denver. Double Hmmm.

Now let me just say... I was feeling a little bad at this point. As I was packing our bags at home I had thought about packing half my clothes and half Doug's in each of our suitcases but then decided not to since we were booked on a direct flight. Seriously... what could they do on a non-stop flight with our bags?? HA HA HA.

The missing bag just "happened" to be Doug's suitcase... full of his clothes for business (which of course is why we're here!). We tried not to get freaked out by this latest turn of events in our VERY long day. They told us that the bag would be sent from Denver on a flight that night and that they would send it to our hotel, two hours from the airport.

When we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Stephenvile, the front desk clerk was amazingly helpful. She let Doug call the airport right away from the front desk to check on the bag. They said it had arrived from Denver and would be sent out, arriving somewhere between 2-4am. In the meantime, we had gone to Wal-mart to pick Doug up a shirt and some boxers "just in case".

I woke up this morning around 6am and Doug asked if I wouldn't mind calling down to see if his bag had arrived. I told him I'd go down to the front desk and see if it was there. Sure enough (PHEW) there was our pretty blue Eddie Bauer bag. I thanked the front desk clerk and headed back to our room.

When the bag was safely in our room we opened the lock and to our surprise was not one, but TWO TSA inspection tags from Denver, taken 7 minutes apart. Apparently, I think they were concerned about something in Doug's bag. The last inspection had been done 10 minutes before our Dallas flight so no wonder the bag wasn't on our plane. We had a little chuckle about the whole thing when we realized what it was in the bag that caused this whole confusing situation. I'll tell you more about that later in the week - hee hee.

So... that was our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, yesterday!

Today on the other hand was a great day. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine by our hotel and headed out from some good ole Texas BBQ. Doug was able to relax from his crazy, long day yesterday and got his prep work done for tomorrow.

Texas is beautiful - so much open space and it was kind of fun walking through Wal-mart yesterday seeing my first "real" cowboy! (New much to Texas?? ha ha)

I'll try & keep you posted from deep in the heart of Texas this week. Until next time...

Lunch with Lynda!

Today's Weather: Sunny ... ...

then Rain

Lunch with my "new" sister, Lynda didn't work out Monday. She spent most of her day waiting around for the plumber and gas man to come fix her new dryer (or at least get it installed and working properly). So, instead of hanging out with Lynda yesterday I got in some shopping in the 'burbs of Chicago.

I first went to Build-A-Bear to get "the boys" their latest souvenier... t-shirts from Chicago, then headed to Wal-mart to get some water and Diet Coke... yes Tammy... I am drinking that poison again, but not as much as before

After Wal-mart I headed over to the Chicago Premium Outlets and found a few things there - nothing hugely exciting ... except maybe a waffle maker that Doug wanted. I stopped in to Target a little later in the afternoon to kill some time while housekeeping came to clean the hotel room.

Doug worked until almost 7pm so I amused myself in the hotel room in the late afternoon until I got the call to go pick him up. We stopped and got dinner TOGO and came back to eat while Doug worked on his report and I watched DWTS and The Bachelor finale. Who will be voted off tonight I wonder?? I only hope it's not Kristi or the DWTS finale will be mediocre at best (in my humble opinion).

This morning I hung out in the room until I got a call from Lynda. She came to pick me up at the hotel and we went to Sweet Tomato for lunch. She is looking after her nephew ... make that "our" nephew, David for awhile and it was really neat that I got to meet him. He's 22 months old and a doll! He was such a good boy and was very smiley and friendly despite never having seen me before.

We had such a great time together. It makes me sad that my new siblings all live so far away. Lynda is only 2 weeks older than me which is totally cool since my biological sisters are 10, 8 and 7 years older than me. Sue, my other "new" sister is the same age as my brother, Ken... 2 years older. I'm so loving having more siblings! Doug & I will have to come back to Chicago on vacation some time to visit our siblings!! What a blessing Gelene and her family have been so far... whoever would have expected this?? Not me!

I worked a little on my assignment but my brain isn't really focused on my article right now. I only have the last question in my assignment left to do, but it is writing a conclusion to the article I'm working on. I really need my brain in the right place before I can finish. I'll work on it Thursday (due date) while I do laundry!

Tonight, once we get Doug home from work, we'll just be holed up here in the hotel room watching reality tv (what else?). We'll have to flip channels between CW's Beauty & the Geek finale and American Idol. AI is one you can sort of hop back & forth with anyways I find.

What will you be watching tonight? Until next time...

Windy City... No Joke!

Today's Weather: Sunny!

Today I'm writing to you from Naperville, Illinois. Yep... we are on the road again and late last week Doug had to book a trip out to the Chicago area for a client, ASAP and voila... here we are!

Thursday afternoon Doug confirmed that we were indeed hitting the road on a quick road trip to the greater Chicago area and I flew into high gear. We were expecting my Dad and new Mom to come stay with us to celebrate Mother's Day (my first in 5 years!!) We all had tickets to my niece's play "The Farmer's Revolt" which told of some early Canadian History (which we knew nothing about!). Doug had to work late Friday to prepare for our trip so I took his Mom in his place. This was great because I really wanted her to meet Gelene and vice versa. They got along wonderfully!

Saturday morning we made a nice breakfast for Dad and Gelene and then we went to the mall to find her some warm slippers (it is very cool still up at the cottage where they live and she is acclimatizing from her move from year-round Florida living). Gelene had a little nap in the afternoon and then the four of us played a game of dominos (the only game my Dad will play!).

For dinner we served bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon, oven-roasted potatoes, mixed veggies (green/yellow beans w/ baby carrots) and peas. For dessert we picked up a Caramel Crunch Cake. We really wanted to make Gelene's first "Mother's Day" in our family something special, especially since all her kids are out here in the Chicago area. They left just before 8pm and Doug & I moved into super-speed to do the last minute packing and preparations in order to get on the road early Sunday morning.

We left home just before 7am EDT and made our way across Southern Ontario into Michigan, straight across that State to the tip of Lake Michigan where we curved around the bottom heading north into the Windy City... and they aren't joking about THAT! We arrived at the Navy Pier parking garage just shortly after 2pm CDT.

We actually found out that the term "windy city" was not weather related, but had to do with a rift they had with the East during some exposition. It apparently referred to them as "windy" similar as to how we would call someone full of hot air. We incorrectly referred to the fact that it was unbelievably windy in the city when we arrived. It was so windy when we arrived, people were almost blowing over at the Navy Pier when we were driving by them to find parking. We made a joke about it seriously being the "windy city" and we were corrected by our tour guide with the above explanation. Who knew??

Lynda, my "new" sister (as opposed to my biological sister, Lynda)had suggested we go down to the Navy Pier since we only had a couple hours in the city before heading the "burbs". Can I just say... I LOVED Chicago! It has a spectacular skyline, downtown is clean, gorgeous architecture, beautiful flower gardens along the main roads, interesting views with both old and new buildings lining the Chicago River (with those cool lift bridges). Since we only had a very short time available we decided to take one of the hop on-hop off tours (but not hop off). We literally got to see almost all the sites of Chicago on this trip. Gave me just enough of a taste that Chicago has become another city I want to dig into more!

After a quick 20-30 minute drive from Downtown we arrived at the Hampton Inn here in Naperville. We checked in quickly, dumped our stuff in the room and headed out to find food. We had only snacked on granola bites and Diet Coke all day and we were SO ready for real food! We found a TGIF just down the street and we got take out so we could make it back to the hotel in time for Survivor. We Easterns had to get our bearings in Central Time. We're not used to prime time starting at 7pm - hee hee.

While Doug did his prep work, I watched the Survivor finale (Doug watched too while he worked). What a great Season that was! I was rooting for Amanda to win but was okay that Parvarti won ~ she truly did outwit everyone in the game! Amanda was a winner in a sense as she found love in Micronesia with Ozzy! Gotta love a good love story! I was hoping someone other than James would win the Viewer's Choice $100,000 since a) he won last season and b) he really didn't do anything this season. Oh well... as we all know, these votes (similar to DWTS, American Idol) are always popularity more than based on skill, talent or deserving. Anyhoo...

This is much longer than I intended - lol. I was hoping to put pictures with this post but I realized I didn't bring my camera connector so pictures will have to wait. I'll post some as soon as I can!

Today I am planning to do a little shopping at the Chicago Premium Outlets (not so much to purchase but to see what deals are out there). I'm also hoping to meet up with Gelene's daughter, Lynda. She is going to call me this morning when she knows what her day holds. Doug will most likely be working late so I'm pretty much fending for myself which is okay. I have my car so I'm happy!

That's the latest with us. I just want to wish all my Mom friends a belated Happy Mother's Day. I hope you were honored well yesterday by your kids. You deserve it!!

Until next time...