The Trip Home

Hi All!

Well, I am adequately recovered from the LONG day of travel that Hubby and I undertook to attend the Southwest Central Regional Symposium in San Antonio on Saturday. I think I could have slept for another eight hours but . . . a pesky little kitty and a pesky not-so-little kitty thought it would be nice for us to give them some food! Imagine that!

Actually, it was time. Time to get up and start the new week. I was out in the wet weather this morning walking (by myself - C did the three day walk this weekend and didn't walk today) and enjoying my podcast of the NPR show "Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me!" If you haven't heard this show, it is funny.

Now I am trying to get back into my daily routine of blogging, IMing with Mom, playing with the kitties, and going to the ASL lab. The Lab is only on Monday and Friday mornings but today is Monday so . . . Oh - I also need to grocery shop today. Some food other than cereal and toast would be good to have around!

Okay, the trip home from San Antonio. We hit the road right after the meeting (and a little chatting by me while Hubby was chomping on the bit) at about 4:30 P.M. It was still light out so I spent a little while reading the forward to Johnny Bush's book (written by Willie Nelson) and the first chapter. Very interesting. Then, Hubby turned off the highway into . . . an outlet mall! Can you believe it? I didn't ask to go or beg to go - he just turned into the outlet mall all by himself! True, it was because he wanted to look for new tennis shoes for himself but, actually being there meant I might get to look at a shop or two myself!

Well, we were looking for the Nike store and drove around one side of the outlet mall about three times looking for it. We found it . . . on the other side of the mall! We headed into the store and found the exact same shoes that Hubby already has. He wants a new pair EXACTLY THE SAME. Once he finds something he likes . . . he keeps getting it until they no longer make them! Unfortunately for Hubby, he couldn't remember if he needed the regular or the wide shoes and was wearing his "thin" socks. AND they didn't have any of the wides in his size. *sigh* No new shoes for hubby.

After Nike we hit Calphalon. We need some new cook wear. Our nonstick pans are beginning to show some significant wear (and we ONLY use the appropriate tools for non-stick surfaces!). As always, we have been shopping around and we hoped to get a good deal at the outlet store. Nope! All the sets were factory seconds and were REALLY expensive! We decided to wait and buy a set at Kohl's which would be cheaper and would be factory firsts.

After coming up empty again, we fought the crowds (slow economy, my eye!) and headed to the Coach store. Now, I don't like to shop and really don't do high end things - with the exception of Coach purses. I blame my mother for getting me "hooked." They are nice and wear for a long time! I will say that I normally only buy leather Coach purses because paying that much for fabric . . . . just isn't right!

Anyway, there was a huge swarm of women in the shop (again with the slow economy!) and after fighting my way through them I saw a purse I had sort of been coveting at the Coach store at the mall. It was marked down and then had another 50% off! I had to get it! It is a really nice, burnished leather purse. It is a reddish color (not fire engine red but a nice shade) with an outside pocket on each side and handles long enough to put over the shoulder but short enough to allow the purse to be carried on my arm as well. I was looking for a picture of it and couldn't find it. Since my batteries for my camera are charging - You are out of luck for today. I might take a pic and get it up tomorrow.

So - I bought the purse and we hopped back into the car and headed north. By now it was too dark to read so I listened to my ipod as Hubby tuned into the Oklahoma State and Texas Tech football game. He isn't really a fan of either team but if Tech won then maybe Ohio State would move up in the polls or something . . . how do men understand all of that stuff?

Soon we were once again pulling off the highway without a word from Hubby. I knew we needed gas so . . . that was my assumption. I was wrong! Hubby pulled up to a Dairy Queen and told me that he hoped they had pumpkin pie blizzards (my favorite). They didn't *sigh* but, I still enjoy a good blizzard and so we both got one for dinner. We were being very conscious of our diets on this day!

We zipped back onto the highway and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove . . .

I had a lot of fun near the end of the trip as I engaged Hubby in all kinds of weird conversations to keep him awake. We talked about how you know if a band has "jumped the shark," which bands he listened to as a teenager, how 8 tracks worked (I never actually listened to one), the poor decision the music people made when they decided to put only one or two songs on a cassette and sell them, what the hand gestures were for each of the Texas schools (we are pretty much clueless except for Texas and Tech), Thanksgiving, just why the radio people thought it was a good idea to put the sound effect of a ringing bell into the broadcast whenever someone got tackled to stop the play, and other exciting topics. It was fun.

At around 11:00 P.M. we pulled into our driveway, gathered our assorted stuff from the car, and entered the house to find two woeful kitties waiting for us. They wanted food and acted starved even though our neighbor had come in around noon to give them food. Poor little things!

What a day!

Trisha

Voice Update: Well, I haven't really talked too much today but . . . I think I am still good!