Tag: rachel

We’re on vacation!

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Up and into work this morning.  It was one of those days that seemed to grow steadily more hectic as the day progressed.  I kept an eye on Doug’s flights, and I headed home around lunchtime to wait for him to arrive.  They got here shortly after noon, and it was really good to see them.  The kids had gotten sleep on the plane but Doug and Rachel hadn’t gotten much sleep.  I gave them a quick tour of the house and then showed them their room.   Doug was very happy to see that the kids had their own place to sleep and that he wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor.

I headed back to work for a couple more hours and then around 3 PM, after my last meetings were over, I headed home.  I stopped at the library to return my "overdue" book, but as it turns out, I had my dates mixed up and the book was not overdue after all.  I also found out that I could return the book to my local branch, which is very convenient.

Kelly’s parents were out most of the day but were back before 4 PM.  Doug, Rachel and the kids were up shortly after 4 PM.  And were the kids ever hyper!  It was a lot of fun.  We gave them the gifts we got them.  Doug and I picked up Kelly from the metro station, stopped at Starbucks, and then headed back home.  We all walked up to Shirlington for dinner, where Kelly’s parents treated us to a nice meal at Capital City Brewery.  Both Carson and Ruby fell asleep at dinner.  I carried Carson back home the entire mile-plus walk.

I got an invitation to join Will’s writer’s group today, which I accepted happily.  I can’t do much there until I get back from vacation, but I’m looking forward to working with the group.

I got a card from a bunch of people at work today.  It was very nice and included an extremely generous gift.

We’re on vacation!  I still feel so busy with wedding stuff that it hasn’t sunk in yet.

stubiebrother  arrived tonight, as scheduled.  We picked him up around 10:15 PM.  Stopped at the grocery store on the way home.

Mom and Dad get into town tomorrow.

Rainbow Room Birthday Bash 2008

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Saturday began early for I was anxious to see everyone and wanted to get an early start. Kelly and I had gone to bed around midnight and I was up at 6:40 AM. I showered and then headed downstairs to sit on the couch and read until everyone else woke up. Kelly was up early too, and so we waited for vickyandnorm (Norm and Vicky) and kruppenheimer (Lisa) to awaken and get ready. It didn’t take too long but it seemed as though it took forever. However, we were ready to go by 9 AM, which is what I was hoping for, and at that point, we hit the road.

How’s this for a great day…

Thanksgiving dinner

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We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last night. First, we had everyone over at Mom and Dad’s: me, he110_sunshine, stubiebrother, Doug, Rachel, Ruby and Carson. This year was a non-traditional year for dinner. We had excellent crab legs, delicious prime rib, rice, and broccoli. There was plenty of food and it was all delicious. Doug and Rachel made dessert. We sipped drinks after dinner, it was a lot of fun.

I was exhausted soon after dinner, but we stayed up so that Mom, Jen and Jason could watch Gray’s Anatomy. Jen, Jason and I slept on air mattresses down in the living room. Lights were out by 10:30 PM and I slept really well.

We were up at around 7:30 this morning. I was hungry as soon as I woke up. Mom made me chocolate chip pancakes. I ate 6 of them and they hit the spot. Doug, Jason and I head off to our Scuba lesson in about half an hour. Meanwhile, Jen and Rachel are going to their spa treatments soon. I think they are going shopping later. Today is black Friday. But if you ask me, you’ve got to be crazy to go shopping today.

To L.A.

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I was up at 3 AM because I couldn’t sleep. My alarm was set for 4 AM, but there I was, awake at 3 AM and so I watched and episode of The West Wing before heading into the shower.

The car was there at 4:30 AM to pick me up and we headed off for Dulles airport. The roads were empty and I was at the airport at 5:15 AM. The airport was empty as well. It took only 10 minutes to go from the curb to the gate, and for those of you who know Dulles, that includes the short ride in the mobile lounge to the C-gates.

Turns out the Red Carpet Club at Dulles doesn’t open until 6 AM, so I sat around until it opened and then spent about 25 minutes there. I had a light breakfast and then left to board the plane. I boarded at 6:30 and not 5 minutes later, we had to debark the plane because of an issue with the navigational equipment. We were told there would be a 40 minute delay, but 10 minutes later, we were boarded again, and this time, without incident. The flight left 10 minutes late, at 7:10 AM.

The flight itself wasn’t too bad. I upgraded to first class. I spent some time talking to the person sitting next to me (who was quite talkative). She was from Hawaii and she was returning home. I managed to get a little sleep, too, but not much. I also added about 800 words to Graveyard Shift, not as much as I had hope to get done on the plane, but better than nothing. My word count now stands at 18,155 words.

I arrived in L.A. at 9:50 AM. Doug and Rachel were waiting for me when I got there. I hopped in the minivan and we headed to Oxnard. It took us a little over an hour.

Since then, we’ve been sitting around, waiting for he11o_sunshine and stubiebrother to get here. Mom was here when we got here, and so was Ruby and Carson. Carson is so cute–he is to Doug what “Mini-me” is to Doctor Evil. Even their facial expressions are an identical match!

Mom and Dad have had a lot of work done on their house. It’s been painted, there’s new carpeting, and new base-boards. It looks great.

My text-messaging seems to be delayed. Kelly wasn’t getting my text messages and sometime around 1 PM, she called me. This is significant because up to this point, we’d never talked to each other on the phone. It became a kind of game between us–a streak if you will. And so when I saw her calling, my first words when I answered the phone were, “You broke the streak!”

Ever other year, we have a “non-traditional” Thanksgiving dining, and this is one of those years. We’re having crab legs and prime rib for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

More travel tasks

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More vacation prep today. I filled out the online form to put a hold on my mail while I am gone. I also paid the rent in order to make sure I didn’t forget that one. I took my black suit in to be cleaned and pressed. I can pick it up tomorrow. I also started collecting all of my travel-related itinerary information in a binder so that I have it all easily accessible in one place.

The humidity jumped up today. The temps were in the mid-80s but with the humidity it was 90 and even now, at 10:40 PM, the air conditioning is blasting just to keep the house cool.

I”m about 380 pages through American Prometheus and I am really enjoying it. I’d like to finish it before I get on the plane on Monday but I think I’ve got a good chance of doing that.

The softball game we had schedule for Wednesday has been postponed because the Senate office we are playing is busy with some issues on the HIll. It will be rescheduled for later in the season. As much as I love playing softball, it was kind of a relief to hear that it was postponed this week. I’ve got so much to do already that organizing a team for a game was something that I could do without this week. And besides, it was supposed to be well into the 90s on Wednesday.

Another happy hour is scheduled for Friday and I’m looking forward to that. And I’ve got the O’s/Angels game on Sunday to look forward to as well.

Rachel hasn’t been feeling well but I hear she’s feeling a little better tonight, which is good. I hope she feels a lot better soon.

Okay, off to bed.

No more burned fingertips!

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Thanks go out to Rachel who, over the Thanksgiving holiday, gave me an insight into toasters which will prevent me from further burning my fingertips when I reach in to pull out the toast each morning. It turns out that my toaster does, in fact, work similarly to hers.

My fingers, upon which my job and my hobby depends, are most grateful.

Dinner at Daniel’s

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Doug had to work most of the day yesterday and he finally got home around 5 PM. Shortly after he got home, he, Mom, Dad and I headed out to the Keg to have some drinks and sit around chatting, while Rachel, Ruby and Carson got a break from our hijinks. We then headed over to the restaurant around 7:30 PM. We had to take two cars and we dropped Carson off at Theresa’s house on the way. Doug was playing Richard Cheese in the car and Dad was in the back seat and Doug managed to leave the car at the worst parts of “Baby Got Back” and “Badd”, leaving me to fend for myself.

Daniel’s in Bellevue is on the 21st floor of a hotel and when we were seated, we had a pretty nice view of downtown Seattle in the distance. The food was really good. I had a 13 ounce fillet mignon with a peppercorn brandy sauce, and a baked potato. I had some clam chowder, too. Ruby was with us and was very well-behaved. She had a hamburger and fries, and some root beer, all of which are among her favorites.

It was a very nice dinner and a very nice evening, and we were all wiped out by the time we got home last night. Now it’s 8:30 AM (PST) and I’ already hungry again! My flight leaves Seattle at 5 PM this afternoon.