Tangled Threads and Seaweed

On Being in Limbo

I've been neglecting the blog again. 

I have been working a lot, and I knit when I'm not working. I've made several (5? 6?) pairs of socks this summer and have 3 new ones on the needles. I spend lots of time on Ravelry. I'm crazy about knitting socks - and it keeps me from GOING crazy. (some would say "crazier")

     

I can't blog about work, or about what Joe does to fill his days. His long-term disability appeal was denied last week, so we're getting by on my income. The next step is filing a civil suit against his employer under the ERISA act. We are also still waiting for the outcome of the Social Security Disability hearing. I actually know someone at work who was out on sick leave, and his return was delayed while the corporate medical staff evaluated his "writings" on his facebook site. (Admittedly, he is an unusual person....) I have plenty to say about Joe's employer, but I'm holding my tongue for the moment.

We took a quick road trip to Arizona/the Grand Canyon a couple weeks ago. It was lots of fun! We listen to books on CD when we drive, which is a great way to get across great expanses of interstate highway. We stayed in a couple of cute little route 66 motels along the way, and found a couple of great little microbreweries.

     

  

On the road out of the GC, we saw an elk cow and calf grazing. It was amazing. They hung around for awhile so we got several good pictures of them. It was a great trip.

More later... I compose blog posts in my head constantly, yet they never make it into type. Here's to tomorrow, and fresh starts.

What Happened to February?

Oh my gosh! What happened to February? I can't believe its already the 2nd week of March. Good grief.

I worked a lot of overtime in February, for one thing.  And we had some crappy winter  weather. I had a checkup with my surgeon on the 20th. And we went on vacation from the 22nd thru March 2nd.

We went to Belize for 9 days... it was awesome. (this was our 4th trip to Belize)  We stayed at a resort on Ambergris Caye called Exotic Caye Beach Resort. We had a blast! Besides several days of scuba diving, we also participated in Camp Belize, which is a concert event with Jerry Jeff Walker.  He played two concerts at Wet Willy's Bar, and then he showed up on Saturday night at Crazy Canuck's (the bar at our resort) to sit in and jam with Dennis Wolfe, a local musician on Ambergris Caye. The weather was fine, except the last two days which were cool and rainy. But it was still in the 70s and we were in Belize, so "bad weather" is a relative term!

We missed our connection from Houston to Belize due to weather in Amarillo that delayed our departure; this is us enjoying our upgrade to 1st Class on a flight later that day! I didn't wear makeup the whole week - gahhh. And look how thin my hair is! (a side effect from the thyroid stuff) But my scar is looking good.

     We spent a day at Caye Caulker, which is another little island off the coast of Belize. Its so laid back and casual, and so much fun to stroll along the beach, stopping for a cold Belikin beer every so often.

Native to Belize - Marie Sharp's habanero sauce and Belikin Beer.

Jerry Jeff Walker in concert.

At Exotic Caye resort - our condo unit is the bottom left. It was really nice - bedroom, bath, kitchen, living and dining area - and the porch had a table and chairs on it. The porch caught a great cooling breeze, and you can see we had lush tropical landscaping in front of our building. I had groceries, beer, and sodas delivered to the condo before we arrived, which was wonderful! Cold beer awaited us.

This is the beach in front of our condo, and the dive shop out on the dock. There were plenty of loungers and several hammocks - ultimate relaxation! We made 11 dives while we were on the island. The dive shop, Ocean Adventure Tours, was excellent. Most of the time Joe and I were the only divers on the boat, so we basically had a private guide.

Bondy, our divemaster, was a sweetie! He had a great sense of humor and was very friendly. He was also excellent to dive with, and I would go with him again in a heartbeat!

Here's Jerry Jeff Walker playing with Dennis Wolfe on Saturday night at Crazy Canuck's, the bar at our resort. He's a great performer, and so down-to-earth and likeable. He's been in the business for over 40 years - some of his famous songs are "Mr. Bojangles",  "LA Freeway", and "Sangria Wine". He's classified as "country" but his songs are ballads and story-telling. (like our other favorite performer - Jimmy Buffett, who we'll see in concert in Dallas next month)

So, I guess that's what happened to February! 

Fighting Back

I'll have to admit, that statement is somewhat misleading.  I'm not having to "fight" this thing too hard.  My first surgery was on the 4th of October, and lasted about 4-1/2 hours.  The doctors decided to remove the tumor first, and stopped when they got finished with that.   The ENT surgeon told me the next day that it was the largest thyroid tumor he had ever removed, in 40 years of performing neck surgeries.  It was about the size of my fist, approximately 12 cm.  I cannot imagine how long it must have been growing there.  Anyway, I didn't really have pain following the surgery, though I was on a morphine pump for a day and a half that was automatically giving me a little bit of morphine every so often.  I asked them to please take it off or de-program it or whatever, because it kept making me fall asleep.  Once I got the morphine stopped, I was totally alert and had no trouble getting out of bed, walking the halls, showering, and using the restroom by myself. I went home from the hospital two days later, with just a single drain to take care of. I spent the weekend resting since my dogs were boarded.

The following Thursday, the 11th, the oncology surgeon removed my thyroid in a 2.5 hour surgery.  He extended the original incision about 5" further across my neck. I didn't have post-op morphine this time, still didn't need it, but I did have an anxiety attack and a headache that evening.  We both think it was from going more than 24 hrs without food and without my daily meds.  I got two Lortabs (hydrocodone) and was calm and pain-free within about 45 minutes.  It was basically the same routine for the second hospitalization - I was up walking the halls, eating, showering, etc. right away and  was discharged two days later (Thursday to Saturday).  Again, I had a restful weekend since the dogs were boarded.  Our boarding facility closes at noon on Saturdays so we didn't get home in time to pick the dogs up after I got out of the hospital either time. I didn't know until this Monday that the dogs stayed for free because I was in the hospital. Isn't that incredibly cool...

Joe has been awesome during this whole thing.  He was with me the whole time I was in the hospital, except to sleep at night. Anything I needed or wanted, he knew before I could ask for it.  He's making sure I take my meds, take walks, and get plenty of rest.  I could not ask for a better caregiver, or a better husband. He's given me funny cards, brought me sno-cones and snacks, and dressed my wounds. He's held my hand, massaged my legs, and kept me comfy.  Gotta love him!!!

So, here's the picture you've been waiting for:

It looks a lot worse than it is, there is a lot of bruising but it doesn't hurt.  I'm already using Mederma on it to lessen the scarring, but the doctors said it will fade almost entirely anyway.  The whole thing is about 12" long and goes 3/4 of the way around my neck.

And for anyone interested in statistics, my cancer was staged as a 4A.  Five of the 20 lymph nodes removed did have thyroid cancer cells in them. With most cancers, a 4A is pretty serious, but thyroid cancer is different.  Regardless of the extent of metastasis, the treatment is the same. After a couple of weeks without thyroid hormone, you're ready to receive the radioactive iodine treatment.  Its a mega dose of radioactive iodine, which seeks out the thyroid cancer cells throughout the body and kills them.  For a couple of days after the treatment, you have to be isolated until the radioactivity is gone from your system.  Then I'll start thyroid hormone medication and will be back to normal. 

I really have it pretty easy....  and I feel extremely lucky.  :)

Here's a picture of me in Alaska with my spiffy new haircut:

pic of Mr. Scooba standing in the ocean off the Kenai peninsula:

the kids at Exit Glacier near Seward:

We had a fantastic time in Alaska - it was one of the best trips we have ever taken.  I'll post more pictures in a few days - it seems like we've been consumed with this cancer crap ever since we got home from Alaska.  Now that we have the surgeries behind us, I'm starting to go through my pictures and enjoying them...

Here's a picture of me and Mr. Scooba at Kevin & Tara's wedding:

I love this picture, don't we look snazzy!  And we both really were that happy!

Kids and the wedding cake:

Tara baked a cake for their 1 month anniversary, and used their cake topper on it:

One more Alaska picture - moose in Kincaid park:
 

More later...

Houston Bound!

This afternoon, I depart for my annual trip to the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  I'm so excited!  This year I'm staying at the Crowne Plaza, where the beds are absolutely divine.  And I'm looking forward to being in Houston, because it got COLD here last night.  This is the first time we've been down in the 30s this fall.  Brrrr. 

I'm taking classes which focus on the quilting itself - most are longarm classes with the exception of my Wednesday class.

Wednesday - Quilt Line as the 3rd Design Aspect with Hollis Chatelain - all day
Thursday - Background Frenzy Sampler with Pam Clarke - afternoon
Friday - Gadgets & Gizmos (longarm tools) with Donita Reeve - morning
            Borderlines with Pam Clarke - evening
Saturday - Longarm Fancy Feather Frenzy with Linda V. Taylor - afternoon
Sunday - Free-Motion That Fits with Sue Patten - morning

The preview night is Wednesday also.  From 5:00-7:00 is the private preview of the show for IQA members, then from 7:00-10:00 is the general public preview.  A lot of people do their shopping on preview night, but I like to take pictures of the quilts because its less crowded. I've left plenty of time in my schedule to shop and look at the special quilt exhibits during mornings or afternoons when I don't have a class.  I usually go to the convention center intending to spend the whole day anyway, and it works pretty well for me. 

I got my packing done last night, and was kind of surprised that it worked out so easily this time.  Packing is an evolving art for me - I'm constantly trying to find the best way to pack the "stuff" - clothes are easy, but the little cosmetic bag and the toiletry items are a work in progress.  I used to put my makeup, meds, and things in my carry-on bag, but the recent restrictions have nixed that.  I've picked up some nice clear vinyl bags (in the right sizes!) for the things that are solids, and have resorted to good old ziploc freezer bags for the things that could leak.  Call me crazy, but I was pretty happy that everything fit in my small rolling bag.  On the other hand, I was ticked off to find the handle on my favorite carry-on bag had broken (darn cheap webbing) but the shoulder strap is in good shape, so I can still use it.  I've got my little camera bag, my tiny purse, and my laptop in it, with room left for a paperback book.  I put my eyedrops, inhaler, and lipstick in another little ziploc bag so that I can (hopefully!) sail through security with no problems.  I've got a direct flight, and I've already done the online check-in so I think I'm good to go.  Now, if I can get through the next 6 hours of work....

Hot and Sweaty

Oh, man, is it ever hot here.  Its been in the high 90s-low 100s for the past two or three weeks.  Its misery.  The forecast calls for rain and 80s this weekend - if it comes through, it will be a relief.

We spent the last two weeks vacationing in Indonesia.  We were in Singapore for a day, then in Bali for 4 days at a hotel near Ubud, and then on an island in South Sulawesi for a week of scuba-diving. It was so glorious - so relaxing.

The hotel Alam Jiwa backs up to the Monkey Forest preserve, and there are rice terraces (farms) surrounding it also.  We stayed in the bungalow Cendrawasih which was very luxurious.  We walked in the early mornings, watching the rice farmers herd their ducks into the fields to eat bugs.  The hotel brought our breakfast to our bungalow every day.  When we wanted a ride into Ubud to shop or eat, they provided a driver at a moment's notice.  The restaurants and the spas are so affordable.  We had spa treatments on two different days - hair treatments, massages, baths, reflexology, pedicures, and facials - such a relaxing experience.  After the 4th day, we moved on to Sanur and spent the night at Hotel Mercure before flying to the island where the Wakatobi resort is located. 

The Wakatobi resort is wonderful and picturesque.  We were in bungalow #20, which was on the south beach side of the resort and caught lovely fresh breezes off the ocean. The bungalow had a king size bed with canopy and drapes and a huge bathroom shower.  The porch had rattan furniture on it, to better enjoy the view and the weather.  The diving was spectacular.  We sat out on the pier every evening to enjoy the sunset and a drink at the Jetty Bar.  We were even treated to a private candlelight dinner one evening! We got in 15 dives while at Wakatobi. Joe now has over 550 dives and I'm at 330 dives since we began 8 years ago. We saw an abundance of pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs, and gorgeous fish and coral. It was an incredible diving experience. 

The trip home was hellish - 18 hours on a full 747 (from Singapore to LA).  Not comfortable by any stretch of the imagination.  We spent last Saturday in Los Angeles, then flew home to Texas on Sunday.  On Saturday we hung out in Manhattan Beach for the afternoon and had a big steak at the Manhattan Beach Brewing Co.  We were so ready for some BEEF.  We slept 13 hours that night, and flew back to Texas the evening of Sunday the 11th.  It was great to get home, even though I worked the next day.  Our dogs were so happy to see us!

Now that we're done traveling for awhile, my focus has returned to the sewing barn.  I'm still working on the layout of my sewing room.  I can't wait to get my mom's things out of the storage unit! Unfortunately its just too hot to be moving furniture so I'm waiting (im)patiently for some cooler weather.  In the meantime, I continue to practice machine quilting. 

Pooped

The Quilt Festival in Houston was wonderful.... I'm still tired!  We came home on Sunday evening, and I had to work yesterday.  Maybe tonight I'll get started on the laundry.  We sure wore a lot of clothes this last week. 

The Hilton Americas (which is attached to the George Brown Convention Center) has a sure thing going on.  I can't imagine staying anywhere else again.  The hotel itself is nice, but the location is perfect.  The rooms were nice in an understated way, and had the best bed I've ever slept on in a hotel.  The pillow-top on that mattress must have been 3" thick.  I did get food-poisoning eating in the hotel Cafe one night, and missed a class the next day; other than that we enjoyed everything about the hotel.  I loved being able to run back and forth from my room to the convention center between classes, and go take a nap or change clothes. 

Joe got to go to Game 3 of the World Series.  That's the one that went into extra innings.  He had a blast.  His seat was on row 11 behind 3rd base; it was the best seat he's ever had at a baseball game, ever. 

We ate at some nice restaurants last week, too.  Josephine's is an Italian restaurant that's a short 3 block walk from the Hilton, and its wonderful.  It happens to be one that is favored by the locals, and it shows.  The food is good, the service is excellent, and there is always a crowd.  We ate at Josephine's twice.  We also ate at Ninfa's, a local Mexican food restaurant.  It was very, very good. We were told it was the original location for this local chain (the Navigation Street restaurant). We ate there for Sunday lunch, and it was obviously another place where the locals gather.  I saw 2 tables that had the old grandpa and grandma sitting at the table with family members, and when the younger kids arrived to join the family for lunch, they always hugged and kissed the elders.  I could just tell that this was something they did regularly.  The food and service at Ninfa's was impeccable; our waiter was charming, and it was even better that the Hilton courtesy car took us and picked us up!  We also went to eat at a Brazilian churrascaria called Fogo de Chao. (Its a franchise) They have servers walking around and carving/serving different grilled meats.  They also have a nice salad bar with cool stuff like artichoke hearts, several different kinds of olives, cheeses, fresh peppers marinated in oil, and sun dried tomatoes.  We ate filet mignon, lamb chops, chicken, pork tenderloin, pork ribs, beef sirloin - they serve 15 different meats.  I couldn't eat but just a taste of everything, but it was very good.  I was glad we got to eat there; it was a nice restaurant.

I'm going to stop at this point.  I'll post about my classes and the quilts next time.

Sunday Nite Ramblings

Here's the stuff I left out of my little travelogue post about Anse Chastanet...

It was a beautiful resort. The people working there were so kind, polite, and warm.  They made us feel like they were truly happy that we were there.  The food was faboo. I only mentioned the breakfast, but all 3 daily meals were outstanding.  The lunch was a hot grill buffet at the beach restaurant, with no fewer than 6 meat selections daily cooked just for you.  Included were lamb, pork skewers, chicken breast, chicken skewers, at least 2 kinds of fish, beef skewers, pork chop.... my son loves grilled lamb.  This is the kid that would only eat Kraft Mac 'n Cheese and chicken strips as a child.  There was a variety of hot and cold salads and vegetables, as well as a fresh soup daily at the lunch buffet.  Supper was always served as a 4 course meal at both the beach restaurant and the one up the hill.  Lovely tablecloths, all the extra pieces of silverware, wine.... the food was very haute' cuisine.  Fancy, pretty stacks of food with stuff dribbled around for decoration.  It was divine. 

I also forgot to mention the guys getting drunk every night... especially Joe.  Gin and Tonics till the gin ran out, next night it was Rum Punch, then Piton beer (made locally).  Jeez. Not that I abstain, but one or two drinks is plenty for me if I'm diving the next day.  I tried the drink special every evening, and who can say anything bad about tropical drinks? They were all yummy! But I didn't drink 27 of them.  Feh.  Maybe I'm getting old.  Drinking and serious scuba diving don't go together.

The diving was really nice - not like the Pacific, but I'd been warned already about Caribbean diving losing its luster after diving in Asia, so I didn't expect it to blow me away.  Actually it was fun - you see a lot of the same kinds of fish, but its always interesting.  In the waters around St. Lucia, it was extremely common to see big Arrow Crabs with the Golden Crinoids (a living plant-like animal with golden curly fronds).  I've never seen Arrow Crabs have a consistent habitat like that - they are usually something you have to search for.  We saw lots of Banded Coral Shrimp, which were also bigger than I've seen in other places. I also saw many more Peacock Flounders here than anywhere else I've been.  The Juvenile Spotted Drum fish were a great bonus - many places you really have to look for them back in crevices and under the coral.  We could count on seeing eels on every dive - no green Morays, but there were plenty of golden speckled eels and brown and white spotted eels.  We saw parrotfish, sergeant majors, yellow snappers, needlefish, doctorfish, barracudas, trumpet fish, damsels, banded butterfly fish, squirrel fish, trunk fish, chromis, and creole wrasse on every dive; also the blue vase sponges, arrow crabs and crinoids, feather duster worms (look like flowers on the corals), spiny black urchins, and black fan corals were prolific. There weren't any big critters like sharks, rays, or huge groupers - the one turtle we saw was kind of small and was a surprise. I didn't do any shore diving, because I hate getting sand in my gear (it was a beach entry).  I was a little bit disappointed that Joe didn't take many underwater pics, but we were seeing a lot of the same things every dive so I understand why he didn't take the camera every time.  The diving was very easy and relaxing - no strong currents.

Tonight we went for a burger at Braums' - its a regional burger & ice cream place, kinda like Dairy Queen.  Evening church had just ended and there were lots of elderly couples getting an ice cream or a coffee.  I was watching them eating and noticed a man with large, wrinkled, liver-spotted hands with papery-thin skin, and I missed my Dad.  He had hands like that. 

In July I worked on Emily's round robin block.  Here are the before-and-after pictures.  I added a red and black checkerboard border to her quilt top-in-progress. 

It was challenging to work with Red & Black two months in a row. (Romelle's was my June block)  I don't think our group has enjoyed working on these round robins as much as in the past - everyone has "stuff" going on in their lives and its distracting us from being creative with these quilt tops.  I sure hope we all get back to normal soon; I miss these girls so much when we can't all get together.  We have one, possibly two, who will be moving at the end of the year, and they will leave a huge hole in our group.

I love using checkerboard borders.  This was constructed as 9-patch-blocks, rather than random red and black placement.  It was just easier for me to do it this way. Even though I measured carefully to figure the size of blocks I needed, I still had to fudge a teensy bit, but I was very pleased with the results.  I hope someone put a checkerboard on my beige quilt top (maybe I'll have to add one later). 

I'm still sick; coughing and wheezing and drainage.  Took a nice long nap this afternoon.  My sister didn't come over to work on mom's house (thank god) so I got some rest.  I've also done one load of laundry today - woohoo.  I'm just a whirlwind of sloth... (that doesn't even make sense) I'm still taking Alka Seltzer Plus; if I don't get any worse, I'll go to work tomorrow like usual. 

This has been new-magazine week.  Its a good/bad thing.  I love getting new magazines, but I want to start a bunch of new projects and then I feel somewhat frustrated.  I bet I'm not the only one who feels like that!

Anse Chastanet, St. Lucia

New photo album added!  Here's the scoop on the vacation....

Departed Dallas on Friday 7-22-05 on American Airlines.  Had a connection in Puerto Rico - American Eagle flies to the little caribbean islands.  Here's a weblink that has a couple maps on it.  We were to fly into Castries and take a 1.5 hour long van-taxi ride to Anse Chastanet.  But I'm getting ahead of myself - flying through San Juan Puerto Rico must be the new portal to HELL.  All the American Eagle flights were being cancelled, left and right. I sat and knitted, and didn't pay much mind to the chaos surrounding me. We were fortunate to be notified within 2 hours past our scheduled departure, and our "problem" was mechanical, so they put us up for the night at the Best Western in the San Juan airport.  We had to wait 2 hrs. for our luggage to come back up the carousel in baggage claim, then drag it for what seemed like .25 mile up and down a series of ramps until we got to the curbside entrance of the airport.  The hotel entrance is right inside, but the sunken lobby is down 10 steps from the airport walkway.  You got it, we had to drag our bags down stairs to the hotel.  The hotel elevator is smack dab 6 feet away from the last step, so its crowded and confusing if there are several people arriving and waiting to check in.  The lobby is very small.  And so was our room.  It was dark and cramped, but the internet worked, there was a cool LCD tv mounted on the wall, and the a/c was perfectly cold, so it was alright. There isn't a restaurant in this hotel, but we had food vouchers from AA.  Joe and Kevin went to the Subway back in the airport and brought the food back to the "bar" which was really a "hospitality room" in my opinion.  There was a guy selling beer, wine, and sodas out of a fridge, and he could make you a cold sandwich if you wanted.  He had no cash register and didn't handle money - you could only charge to your room.  We were traveling in a group of 17 people, so you can imagine what a cluster f$%k it was.  By the time we ate it was almost 9:00 pm so we went to bed and thankfully slept well.  Check out the next morning was another barrel of monkeys, but once we'd dragged our bags back up those steps, the airline checkin counter was right inside the airport doors.  We did get on a flight to St. Lucia and got there without a hitch. 

After clearing customs (fast! good! air-conditioned!) (not the norm for caribbean islands...) we got put on minivan-taxis and rode 1.5 hrs. to the resort.  If you look at the map, we flew into Castries and drove through volcanic mountains and rain forests to Soufriere.  The resort was beautiful, set in a lush mountainside that was a sugar plantation in another lifetime.  The cottages were tucked into the hillside going up from the restaurant-lounge-reception level.  Ours, named Floraison, was at the TOP.  Almost 200 steps UP the hill.  Fortunately, porters carried our luggage.  Y'all, don't forget, we carried 3 sets of dive gear in addition to a week's worth of clothes.  We had 10 bags in all.  We've never taken that much clothing anywhere before, but we expected to sweat!  And we did! OK, the cottage, cabana, whatever you call it was fabulous.  All the construction was from local wood, and did I mention there were only 3 walls?  It was totally open air, with a grand view of the Pitons (the 2 mountains) from our spacious deck.  Gorgeous view.  No air conditioning.  Like the old days, before the world got "modern".  Also no phone, no TV, no radio, no news... this is a place to R-E-L-A-X.  You'll just have to look at my photo album to see the rooms.  It was charming to listen to the tree frogs and various bugs and animals chirping and peeping as we fell asleep under mosquito netting and a fan every night.  Naked.  Enjoying the breeze. 

The day's schedule went like this:  get up and shower (nice big shower!), dress in swimsuit and cover up clothes, and walk down the hill to breakfast.  The restaurant was open-air, and served hot buffet every morning.  The fresh fruit was yummy! Every table had a water pistol on it to deter the birds from helping you eat your breakfast.  Cute!  Then you go down another series of 100+ steps to the beach! I've got pictures, go look at them.  The beach level is magnificent.  Gorgeous.  Little thatched roof huts to relax under, an open air restaurant, a bar, the dive shop area, the spa - we packed our backpacks every morning with the intention of staying at the beach level every day.  If you leave it in the room, you can do without it because we aren't mountain goats.  So we dove every morning, grabbed lunch in the restaurant, and then I chose to lay in the shade of a hut in the afternoon - reading and napping and getting drinks from the beach waiters and fresh towels from the cabana boys.  Most afternoons Joe bummed around the beach took tours of the resort and snorkeled, Kevin went snorkeling, kayaking, and swimming.  Two days we got massages at the spa.  OMG, what a treat.  I loved the hot stone massage.  I really loved the facial and the foot reflexology. The spa was air-conditioned.  I spent some time there....  There was afternoon tea at 3:30 (delightful!) and then drinks at 5:30, then dinner at 7:00, live local entertainment in the bar, and by 9:00 I was back up the mountain preparing for bed.  A cold shower and slip under the netting, nighty-night! And get up at 6 am to do it all over again.  I was so TIRED by the end of the week.  Those steps and stairs, OMG what a workout for a 45 year old woman! With bad knees!

Time to leave on Sunday the 31st.  We knew the flights to San Juan Hell Puerto Rico were delayed, and it was raining, oh joy, hope we get off the island ha-ha-ha.  The 1.5 hr. ride back to Castries doing hairpin turns and steep grades did resemble a roller coaster ride that WOULD NOT END.  So we get to the airport, and our flight is cancelled!  We are lucky, because it is very early, just 8:30 am, and the AA person books us on US Airways flying out of the big airport on the other side of the island.  Go back to the map and look where Vieux Fort is, right at the bottom of the island! Its another 1.5 hour van ride through the rain to this airport.  I loved this van driver because he turned on the air conditioning!!  We got to the big airport at 10:30 am and there was NO ONE THERE.  The checkin gates are all open air, and it was us and the cleaning guy for about 2.5 hours.  Around 1:00-1:30 people started arriving to depart, and the airline counters opened.  Oh! Our tickets are stand-by, so please stand over here until all the booked passengers have checked in! And this flight is going to Philadelphia.... it turned out that we did get seats on the plane.  There were 4 flights off the island that day - 1 going to London, 1 going to Toronto, 1 going to Atlanta(all ready full, sorry) and 1 going to Philly!  We got to Philly at a little after 10:00 pm and were so happy to be back in the states waiting to claim our luggage, and the carousel broke while spitting up bags.  There was almost an hour delay getting our bags... I've done this before... lots of angry people who aren't making their connections tonight.  We weren't flying to Dallas till Monday, so it didn't make waves for us except for the part about being tired and hungry. We finally got bags, cleared customs with a slight snag. It appears at some point my passport got changed in the system to "non-resident" so that was a fun 5 minutes trying to convince the guy I was, in fact, an American.  Ultimately he typed some stuff in the computer and away we went to call a hotel.  Got to the Philly airport Hilton at 11:00 pm and the lovely lady at check-in persuaded us to enjoy a meal in their bar, which would be open till midnight!  Thank you lady!!!  We sent the bags up with a security guy and proceeded to drink some Sam Adams and eat a hotel version of the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich, which was enormous.  Our flight on Monday was departing at 7:40 am so we set the alarm for 5:15 so we could all get a shower before another full day of travel.  PS- the Hilton was wonderful, clean, roomy, had internet and great cold air conditioning!!!

OK, we get to the airport bright and early at 6:20 am to check in for our flight to Dallas.  Oh, how nice, we have one way tickets booked from out of the country at last minute.... so we had to stand on the footprints and get felt up and watch the nice guys in Philly root through our carry on luggage, because you know, we look like terrorists.  I have a problem being rational about this; although they are doing their job, I feel like I've been violated after the pat-down.  I made the mistake of wearing jean shorts that had rivets on the pockets - Oh my god - "please pull up your shirt and let me see your waistline" - I travel a lot, and know how to dress - t-shirt, slip-on shoes, shorts, no underwires, nothing in pockets, no jewelry - but I set off the scan bar anyway.  Because, you know, we fit the profile.  Uneventful flight to Dallas, got the car, and drove 6 hours home.  We got home at 6:00 pm, 30 minutes after the vet clinic closed, so I couldn't pick up my dogs (and cat) for another day.  We started unloading the bags, cleaning all the dive gear, started a load of laundry, and crashed into my recliner.

This was the first time I've ever been glad to get home.