The Highlight of My Commute

You will have to wait till Justin gets home from San Francisco for wedding pictures, because he took our camera with him. In the meantime...

I saw the funniest thing in traffic today, and I thought it would be perfect to share with you since we waste so much time here complaining about traffic. I'm driving along on my way home and I come up beside a reallllllly old car. I don't know anything about cars, but its old, its a little boat-like and I think it used to be green. Or some version of it perhaps. The windows were down, and I was surprised to see a well-dressed man in a long sleeve button up shirt with a tie, clean shaven and quite respectable looking. Hmm.... you never know. Then I look beyond him to the sign he has posted on the rear driver's side window.

It states:

* No air conditioning
* No cruise control
* No car payment since the Nixon administration

Now, that is funny! I chuckled about it all the way home, and actually laughed out loud when I was a couple of streets from my exit and saw him again. It really was priceless. Good for him for not getting drawn into the materialism of our world. I hope he's doing something great with his paycheck!

By the numbers

Well he did it. I didn’t think I would see the day, but my brother actually got married. We spent a few extra days and flew down to Sint Maarten to attend the ceremony. We just missed the hurricane and thankfully it swung south altogether. So here are a few numbers to get us started.

7: The number of airports we were at over our trip to Sint Maarten.
Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW)
Charlotte Douglas International (CLT)
Princess Juliana International (Sint Maarten) (SXM)
Miami International (MIA)
Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International (FLL)
William P. Hobby Airport (Houston) (HOU)
Dallas Love Field (DAL)

5: The total number of days for our trip
4: The total number of hotels we stayed at during the trip
3: The total number of different airlines it took to get there and back.
2: The number of bags American Airlines lost.

Or in short: Five days, Four hotels and three airlines.

What happen you ask? Well hold on…

Thursday night Mom, Dad, Holly and I are staying in a hotel by DFW. Our flight is at 7:15 Friday morning and we are flying standby, so you have to be early. Thursday night also happens to be the night the Tropical Storm Erin dumps a lot of rain on the metroplex. This causes Thursday night flight to be very delayed. Friday morning we check in and learn that due to late arrivals, the crews are on mandatory rest and cannot fly before 9:30. The airline is rebooking paying customers to the next flight, so there is no way we are getting out earlier than that.

So we finally get off the ground and head to CLT on US Airways. As expected we misconnect for our flight to SXM. We quickly make plans, rent a car and get a hotel for the evening. We do get a great break and our great friends (the ones who never comment on this blog) had an open evening and invited us over for some good home cooking. It was yummy, but the company and welcome nature of our friends is what made the evening. The next morning we get up and head to the airport for our flight to SXM.

We load on the plane and sit there. An hour later we finally move. It seems the jet bridge was stuck up against the plane without power. We arrive late to SXM and just a hour and a half before the wedding. So very tired and travel worn we check into our third hotel.

The wedding is nice. It is actually the uneventful part of the story. A separate post with pictures will follow.

We are planning to take US Airways home on Monday. I wake up and check the flight to find that it is sold out, time for our backup plan. We immediately pack and head to the airport to get on American Airlines. After a lot of confusion of whether or not there were seats on the plane we are on our way to MIA. We land in MIA with a four hour layover. We go to the gate to see our place on the standby list is 27 thru 30^th. NOT GOOD if you are dead last on the plane. We get a very helpful AA flight attendant, but some very rude AA employees otherwise. She informs us that she will barely get on the plane, we have no chance. Sure enough we were four of the six people not making it on. So we decide that we are not going to chance it with American Airlines anymore. We hop in a cab, after finding a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. We check into our fourth hotel.

The next morning we head to FLL and get on good ole Southwest Airlines. There noting quite as comforting as home. SWA treats us good, understands our predicament and is nice to us. What a concept. We change planes in HOU marking our sixth airport, landing safe and sound at DAL.

We rent a car and head to DFW to retrieve our luggage that went on American Airlines the previous night. After a lot or running around we learn that one of my parents bags is lost at DFW and the other bad went to Buenos Aires. Now that is a trip!

Needless to say we are tired. But our standby travel saved us over $800. Well sort of, now we have to deduct hotels and rent cars! However, even if we had a ticket we would have misconnected on our outbound. We had a good time and look forward to a longer trip sometime in the future, albeit not on American Airlines.

P.S. I wrote this fast and furious late in the evening. Sorry for bad grammar and no reading checks! Justin

May we introduce...

Well after much anticipation and even a few tears, we are proud to announce our baby is a BOY! To avoid child porn issues, I will spare you the pictures that prove this point. Take our word for it, there was no IF or even well lets see. The sonographer went to "take a peek" and there was no "peek" to it. Clear as day! We are excited.

We are headed to St. Maarten on Friday. Pray for Hurricane Dean to stay south and west!

Justin, Holly and our Son!

Our Crazy Life

by Holly

We are finally finished with the actual wood floor itself, but still lack transitions, so you have to be careful around the edges and in doorways. We actually went back to the flooring store with our measurements to order them, and found out that the manufacturer doesn't stain the type of transition we need with the color of stain we need. Why not? I do not know. We were advised to go to Home Depot or Lowe's, buy our own trim and stain it ourselves, and save some money as well. We'll see when we find the time to do all of that...

Which brings me to the fact that we are leaving on Friday morning at 7am for St. Maarten and will return late Monday evening. I'm going to make the most of it, although I'm not too excited about the trip and all of its family spider web-o'-drama. I'll leave it at that. On a positive note, it should be a nice, romantic getaway with my hubbie before our little one arrives on the scene in a few months. And it is supposed to be in the 80's with thunderstorms, so that beats this 105 degree heat all to pieces!

And if you ask Justin, he will roll his eyes and exaggerate at the list of other things we need to accomplish at home. I don't know if its true nesting or not, but I am motivated to clean, clean out, and organize! We have a few things for the nursery already, but can't put it together till we get the scrapbook and sewing stuff out of there, and we can't put that in the non-dining room until we get the dining furniture back to his aunt and uncle. What a maddening circle of projects!

We'll get there. I'm just ready for a break, to put my feet up and not think about the chores still waiting for me. Maybe I need a visit from my mom to help me cross off some things. Mom, where are you??

Mid-Week Questions

by Justin

Why do people finish getting ready for work in the car? It seems this week, while traveling to work, I have run across several people who are putting on makeup, shaving, plucking eyebrows, ect. Thankfully no one was putting in contacts, but I think that is next. Is it really too much to ask for someone to be five minutes late to work of get up ten minutes earlier to finish your face to get ready for the day? Is there really so much downtime on the commute that you need to fill it with “productive activities”, as my coworker explained? This is the same coworker who’s commute to work is all of twelve minutes, if she hits the lights. I think this bothers me more than I realize.

It is August 9^th in Dallas and we haven’t had a 100 degree day. This week has been very hot and humid, as the rest of the country has been for weeks. We are actually predicted to hit 100 this weekend. All I heard yesterday from people was how freakin’ hot it was. Are you kidding me? We went the entire month of July without a 100 degree day. I barbequed every week in July and didn’t burn my pasty white forehead even once. It is like complaining that it rained for two months after two YEARS of drought. Perspective people, it is all I ask.

Thanks for allowing me my mid-week vent.

We concluded our Summer Barbeque Series last night. I think they were a rousing hit. Last night was a potluck meal. We provided a salad and some drinks. It was so nice not to have to grill outside and worry about all the details. We played a couple rounds of Pond Scum (a wonderful group game I might add, with such a pleasant name). We communed with one another, which was the ultimate point. In the end, over the course of the summer we merged different generations (from retired to newborns), different groups (church to friends) and different personalities to create quite an great mix. I really enjoyed them and look forward to doing it again in the future. Albeit maybe not four in a row ;)

Make it a great week!

Summer Fun

We have been hosting a summer BBQ series at our house each Wednesday night. Our first shindig, “Flip-Flop Pary”, was marked by good burgers and great company. Last week we our “Dog Days of Summer” hotdog party was busting the roof off the house. This week we welcome our in-town friends to a “Tiki Party”, complete with grilled chicken breasts and fixins. We are excited to merge our diverse set of friends into one place and let the good times roll. They are very informal, which is our style, and full of food and conversation. We will round out the summer series next week with a pot-luck style spread. Wish you were here!

Over the weekend Holly and I scooted off to San Angelo to attend one of Holly’s BFFs from High School wedding. As we sat through some Friday afternoon traffic, Holly and I realized that the six hour drive was the longest we had been in a car since we drove to the Texas panhandle for Christmas. Does anyone else think we are spoiled to free open airline seats?

We are also barreling towards some major milestones. On August 15 we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We are pretty excited about that, but still nervous. We’ll keep you up to date. On August 18^th my brother gets married in St. Maarten. I have never been to the Caribbean, Bahamas or anything like it, so I am excited.

Finally we need to welcome Jackson David Kolb to this side of the world. The bouncing baby boy of Seth and Kristen Kolb was born on Monday. We are super excited for the first time parents and anxious await meeting him someday soon, even if by webcam! For super cute new baby pictures follow the ‘Seth’s Blog’ link on the sidebar.

Make it a great week!

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