Grab a chair and a couple of root beers...

This photo, which I took during our trip to Washington, is my desktop right now, and the Impertinent Daughter was gazing at it and said, "Wow, Mom, you took a picture of Hogwarts."

"I did?" I said, looking up from my reading.

"See?" and she pointed to the buildings on the right. "That's Hogwarts Castle."

"Okay," I said, squinting.

"And that tree there... is the Whomping Willow."

"I see."

"And those purple plants are... poisonous or something..."

"If you get too close to them," I said, getting into the game with her, "they belch out clouds of purple pollen which make you gag and throw up."

"Right," she said eagerly. "And they're there to protect those... big green bushy things..."

"Professor Sprout's valuable Flutterby Bushes, which have to be grown outside," I said, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah!" she said enthusiastically. "And those little bird houses are for the Golden Snidgets, which eat the pests who like to eat the Flutterby's flowers, and the purple plants protect them both! Because the Snidget is endangered!"

And I had no idea!! Imagine that!

Yes, Auntie is HOME, and oh, how wonderful to have hills around me again!!!

Yes, yes, I know, D.C. has hills, but I'm sorry, ain't nothin' like the Texas Hill Country, even at night, and to look up and the sky is packed with stars... yep, I'm glad I'm home! Visitin' the nation's capitol was great, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm glad to be back at the Burrow, knowing my bed and my cuddlesome husband is waiting for me!

We had an early start, and somehow managed to get the kids dressed, do a last sweep of the room to make sure we had everything, and leave. And we had everything. I spent most of last night crawling to look under beds, under dressers, behind chairs, etc, to find all the little oojahs and jim-jams that seem to always get left behind, and by golly, I think I found them all! Gods, I hope so! I repacked everything, and managed to find space for not only those stuffed buddies the kids insisted we bring along (two per kid), but the ones they managed to acquire while we were there. Well... except for the cheetah. I had to carry him around, and that's a story all by itself!!

Still, we got to the airport in good time and went through baggage check well enough, and security (I'm still kind of freaked out about having to remove my shoes, though I understand why. It's just kind of weird to be standing there in my little pumpkin socks in the airport, you know?) went smoothly. We got to our gate, made sure we didn't have to change, and sat down to relax. Yes, a very successful run, indeed.

Sounds too perfect, doesn't it?

We had an hour layover in Atlanta. Now, let me say first of all that my sense of time right now is rather skewed. I have a clock in my head, and it runs strictly on standard time. When we hit the ridiculousness of Daylight Savings Time, it seriously screws up my inner clock. Plus, we shifted time zones, so that messed me up, too. AND I didn't have my watch because... the cats hid it from me. But that's another story.

Okay, so we arrive in Atlanta. However, we were on the back of the plane, and you know it takes forever to unload the plane, right? That ate up 20 minutes or so. Then the Husbandly One herded us at high speed through the airport to our next gate. All he needed was a whip, I swear!! The man was merciless! So we got to our gate, set down our things, and did the first thing all good parents do in that situation. Send the kids to the restroom, whether they feel they need to go or not. Those of you who are new to the parenting game, take my advice; take advantage of every restroom break that presents itself, or you will regret it. Skip one, and you will find yourself in the middle of a traffic jam with no restrooms in sight, and your child will be squirming and doing the "I gotta go NOW" dance in the back seat while wailing plaintively, "But I CAN'T hold it anymore!!!" You will actually contemplate dumping out that gallon of milk you just bought to keep the impending disaster from happening.

Anyhow, after the bathroom break, we looked around and thought, "You know... this gate is awfully dead for a flight that's about to leave for Dallas..." The Husbandly One hit himself in the forehead and went to check the flights, then came racing back. "They switched gates on us, and it's boarding now!!"

And the gate was all the way on the OTHER side of the airport!!! Put it this way, we were at Concourse D. The new gate was at Concourse T!!! THO said later he was so focused on keeping us all together and getting us there so we could have a bit of time to rest that he never thought to check the flights. Well, once again, that imaginary whip came out and we were racing for the train that runs between the concourses (thank you, thank you, Eilan of the Ways!!), then racing for the escalators that went up to the level we needed... and then I thought, "Okay, that's it, I can't run anymore, they can just leave without me!!!" Because I tell you right now, Auntie was about give out!!

I kept urging the Impossible Son to catch up with his papa and his sister, who had raced off ahead of us, but he refused. "I won't leave you, Mama," he said, tugging determinedly at my hand. "I don't want you to get lost. I know you can't run, but you got long legs, you can walk way faster than me!"

The little stinker.

So, I walked, and he ran along with me, and then I saw the gate was still open, there were still people boarding, and we just made it! What an adventure!!

And when we were seated on the plane, that smug little stinker turned to me and said, "See, Mama? You made it!!"

The flight went well, and we got into Dallas, made it to our car, and took off. And hit the next bump just after getting out of Waxahachie. Traffic on I-35 was at a complete standstill. It took us an hour to go EIGHT MILES!!! And we're still not entirely sure why, except that it had to do with construction, except... there was no construction actively going on.

When we were finally out of it, and had stopped to eat in Waco, I looked at THO and said, "Well, you know, things went so smoothly when we left last Saturday, you just know we had to have some snafus today!"

"Yeah, but I could have lived without them!"

True dat!

Well, anyhow, we are safely home, and tomorrow, I will rescue our kitties from durance vile, otherwise known as pet boarding, and then we will be fully home!

And now, to bed!!

Hoo, I am tired, y'all! We went to the Smithsonian complex today, and thankfully, it wasn't as hard to convince the Husbandly One to take the Metro. And I have to tell you, the Impossible Son loves the Metro. He would almost willingly give up all his friends and his school to move here and just ride the Metro all day long. Notice I said, "Almost..."

We went to the National Air and Space museum first, which was a great deal of fun, and I think I stunned the Impertinent One with my amazing knowledge of planes, and the space program... what can I say, I was a geek that wanted to grow up to be an astronaut! I grew up in Houston, fer gossakes! My dad and one of my brother-in-laws had friends who worked at NASA, and I am the Repository of Useless Information so... there you go!

I don't know who had more fun there, the Husbandly One, or the kids!

When we left, we started to head toward the Natural History museum, but Mr. Manzie looked at the big building directly across the way and said, "What's that?"

"The National Gallery," I said, trying to keep a quiver of longing out of my voice.

"Oooooo, let's go there!!!"

At first, I was in heaven, because I most DESPERATELY wanted to wander through the National Gallery, and seeing the Renaissance art was just... oooo, Fra Filipo Lippi!!!! And then... I saw the Rembrandts and forgot my family entirely, only to be yanked back to reality when the Impossible Son said the blasphemous words...

"This... is... boring."

*gasp*

Oh, well, at least I saw the Rembrandts. To be fair to THO, he tried to insist that we stay so I could stare to my heart's content, but I've been to museums and had to listen to unhappy, bored little people too many times to wish to inflict that on other patrons. Not with my offspring! So, we left, and Auntie's lip quivered only a little.

Next was the Museum of Natural History and DINOSAURS!! Though he wasn't as thrilled with the dinosaurs as he was with the bones of tiny animals and rocks, lots and lots of rocks. I at least saw enough of the fossils to be able to identify several fossils we have that we found in our creekbed wanderings. Which is just incredibly cool!

There are large numbers of Japanese tourists in D.C. right now. I mean, you literally can't turn around without falling over at least ten of them at any given moment. I find this incredibly cool, by the way. The Impertinent Daughter keeps trying to nudge me into using my very, very fledgling Japanese to talk to them, and I'm like, "Oh, no, not me!" Learned my lesson as a teenager, practicing my Spanish with the grandmothers of my friends. Talk about opening the floodgates!!! Okay, so my Spanish got better as a result, mainly in self-defense, but still, it was quite overwhelming, and I tremble to think of what would happen if I tried that in Japanese! Besides... I don't read lips in Japanese yet! *yes, is totally chickening out!*

Tomorrow, to make up for not being able to go through the National Gallery, THO says we can go to the Freer Gallery tomorrow, so I can look at Japanese art! YAY!!!

We shall see what we shall see!!

*rubbing her hands together with glee*

Of course, if Mr. Impossible says he is bored, I think I might cry!!