Marvelous Houseguests!

They made it! Lynette and Nancy made it here safe and sound. They have a wild tale about airport adventures! Let me see if I can get most of it here.

It started in Lubbock. They arrived at the airport early - very early. They got the wheelchair for Nancy (not a usual necessity, but they decided that it would be a good thing) and the little lady that was pushing her through the airport was literally shoving people out of their way. Apparently she was a little juggernaut!

They were asked if they wanted to get on an earlier plane, but declined. They didn't want to mess up the plans they already made. Good thing they didn't switch, too - the passengers ended up being deplaned out on the tarmac after sitting for over an hour and had to go back through ticketing and security. Turns out there was a MASSIVE storm in Houston that closed the airport for a while. If they had gotten on that earlier flight, they would have missed their connection in Houston because of the delay in Lubbock

So they got on the correct flight from Lubbock to Houston and made it to Houston fine - after sitting in their plane for 1 1/2 hours. But the instructions for a wheelchair didn't make it to Houston. They had to wait for a chair. Because the airport had been closed and flights had been cancelled and/or delayed, it was bedlam. Finally someone came with a chair and then they spent the next little while being shunted from employee to employee. It sounds a bit like a relay race with Nancy and the chair being the baton that was handed off. They did make it to their gate and on their plane but they were the LAST ONES on the flight. Not because of tardiness due to the relay, but because the employees wouldn't load them because of the wheelchair.

The flight over was fine. No delays or anything like that. Steve and Audrey left around their normal morning departure time and made it to the airport before Lynette and Nancy did. It was a very rainy morning and I was worried about traffic on the M4 and the M25, but apparently the worst part of traffic was here in Tilehurst leading up to the M4. Oh well.

They went to Windsor Castle for their post-trans-Atlantic-get-rid-of-jet-lag adventure. Actually they ate lunch first at that great British establishment, McDonalds. It seems somehow wrong that you can eat at a fast food joint that is literally across a narrow street from Windsor Castle. The Queen of England has an American clown for a neighbor.

Anyway - Windsor was a huge hit with everyone. Audrey had a fabulous time and was very well-behaved apparently. She met a little girl from Austin who took a shine to both Audrey and Audrey's new pink Cinderella wellies (rain boots). They crossed paths a few times before they decided to hold hands and walk together and chat about how they were the princesses of the castle. It sounds adorable!

Caleb, Julie and I arrived home from our regular daily activities (school for Caleb, being babysat for Julie and a MASSAGE for me) about 15 minutes before they all arrived. I stayed in the kitchen feeding Julie while everyone trickled in. Nancy came back to us first and Julie smiled. Lynette came a few minutes later, walked over to us, leaned over the high chair and we hugged. Julie freaked out. Very loudly. She cried and cried. It was the strangest thing. For the rest of the evening she would cry anytime Grammy looked at her. Bizarre. It is now 48 hours later and Julie loves Grammy. It took lots of cuddles (hugs), kisses, funny voices, smiles, and laughs for Grammy to win her over, but it worked. Thank goodness!

We had Beef Wellington for dinner. Beef with mushrooms in a pastry. Don't be too impressed that I cooked it. That's all I did - cooked it. I didn't assemble it or anything else. The grocery store puts things together like this (fresh, not frozen) and you just pop it in the oven. I didn't know what to expect and fortunately it was tasty. Last night, Thursday, I made Indian food. I think it was a hit. I didn't hear any complaining at dinner or vomiting in the night.

So on Day 2 - Thursday - Lynette and Nancy were going to just hang out with me and see what my usual day was like. We got Steve & Audrey off to school and work, then walked Caleb to school. I think Nancy was most impressed with the fact that all of the moms (or dads as the case may be) walked their kids inside the school gates and stayed in the schoolyard until the kids lined up with their classes to go in. Some even stay until all of the kids are inside the school.

We popped in the wool shop (they call all yarn "wool" here) because Nancy enjoys crocheting. We had a nice chat with with the proprietor about yarns. She was using a really cool yarn to make a scarf. It alternated regular yarn with eyelash (very fuzzy) yarn. It was all on the same skein (ball) of yarn - not two different balls, but the same ball. It was plain for a yard or so, then fuzzy. Very cool! I think I hear the yarn calling to me "Buy me! Make scarves and hats for little girls out of me!" We'll see.

Came home. Lynette plugged in her curling iron to do her hair. Her American curling iron. The voltage over here is 240. The voltage at home is 110. When she picked it up and began to curl her hair, she saw smoke. She tried to get the "tongs," as they're called over here, out of her hair by lifting up the part that hold the hair on the tongs, but it turns out that was unnecessary - the hair burned right off in a clump. No joke. Here's a picture.

Yikes. It was smelly. Fortunately you can't see where it burned her hair, even though it's on the crown of her head. And just so you know, I had her permission to write about this.

Other than all this, our Thursday was uneventful. Today we went to the Oracle and Broad Street for some shopping. We tromped all around and saw lots of things - modern buildings, old buildings, trendy shops, souvenir shops, drugstores...and we rode the bus to and from downtown. I think we're all all pooped. Tomorrow we might go see the cottage we stayed in back in June.

And just so you know, I have hot purple hair. It's permanent, but when I wash it, I get a pink tie-dyed effect on my towel. Makes my towel lovely. I paid for this, by the way.