what the ... ?

I go away for 4 days and was looking forward to reading everyone's news when I got back, and no one posted! Did you think that YOU got a vacation from posting too? Because you DIDN'T!

That's fabulous that Brooke is doing so well in school - we're proud of her too! And we're happy that Christmas in Texas is a jolly good time. Are you able to put the decorations on the tree this year without the kids destroying it? And hooray hooray that Jared works close and Michelle can have the car during the day! I've had a car WAY too long to go without one now if I were able to stay home. I think I'd go nuts.

Tawnia, if your car didn't even make it out of the parking lot of the mechanic before it was doing the same thing, go back to that place and get your money back. Really. They didn't fix a darn thing, so NO SOUP FOR YOU! Certainly no 500 bucks. Geez. I wouldn't have even left. I would have gone straight back in there and started screeching at them. (Of course, nowadays, I start screeching about pretty much anything, but I would have thrown a fit even not pregnant.)

The work conference was fine. Very busy, but I was able to sit in on some good sessions with the Law committee. The tort reform session gave me a couple of ideas on the next line of attack for medical malpractice research, which I need to discuss with Susan on Monday. The session about courts was very entertaining - we had the former Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court (he's no longer a judge - he's a college professor now), and he's hilarious. I had dinner with the Law committee officers and some of the speakers - the judge was at my table, as well as a Congresswoman (also from New York). So when I say I "had dinner" with them, I really did. Those were the highlights for me - beyond that, of course I was running around getting copies ready, taking care of processing policy statements and amendments, and I even sat in on one of Cheye's financial services sessions (while he was taking care of some transportation stuff) to literally hold a microphone over a conference call unit. One of the speakers didn't get travel clearance, so he gave his speech over the phone. It was insurance. I didn't understand a word, while sitting there very still and looking very attentive. They could have been speaking Swahili.

Savannah felt like April/May in DC, it was so warm and humid. Definitely not winter. I made the decision that if we can at all avoid it, we'll ONLY go to the South in the winter. I did not like down home Southern cookin' at all. Johnny cakes - gross - just give me the spoon from the Crisco jar to lick. They were the free appetizer at one of the restaurants, and I about puked. Even the pancakes at breakfast were greasy all the way through, instead of just buttered on the outside. I did not try fried green tomatoes. The fried chicken was the only thing that tasted okay to me, and quite frankly, it tasted exactly the same as KFC. So if you want to try "real Savannah fried chicken," go to KFC ... and you won't have to pay 17 bucks for 2 pieces. We were in the historic section of the city, and I liked that. River Street has all these little shops stuck in the 1st floor levels of the old cotton warehouses (I don't know what's above) that were cool. Lots of local artists and candy shops where you can stand there and watch them make the candy. The view wasn't much - the big shipyards ... but whatever. Up off the river front were the little squares and lawns and old houses. I didn't get to see much of that, but what little I saw was really pretty. Ghost tours are the thing down there. I did flip through a couple of books of people who take that stuff WAY too seriously ("We're the mediums for young Civil War soldiers who died in battle!") but I think a tour could be fun as basically the history stories.

Adam is very glad I'm home now, and we have more company all next week. Jill, one of Adam's friends from Florida, has a couple of job interviews up here, so she's staying with us Mon. afternoon - Fri. morning. And then we'll be done with THAT for a while too, and I can relax. Until January when Congress starts again. But I'll have a couple weeks to take a break.