4.05.2004
From the road
Hi-dee-ho! Jack and I are on our spring break jaunt through Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia, and it's been fun fun fun so far. I'll tell it backward, since that's easiest.
First of all, I have a cat on my lap, so the laptop is off to the side of me. Jack's parents have four cats with varying degrees of amicability toward people, but Amber is my new best friend and is being quite sweet despite her tendency to dig her claws into me when she's happy. Go figure. I just played ball with Hero, Jack's parents' dog, for about 20 minutes outside in the cold Virginia mountain air. Before that, we ate dinner, and before that, we spent a lazy afternoon watching baseball, napping, and doing computer things (interestingly, those are probably Jack's three favorite activities, and he was able to squeeze in all three). Before a wonderful lunch at Macado's (featuring my favorite broccoli soup with a cheese bread dunked in it), we visited Jack's dad at Virginia Tech so I could FINALLY see where he works! I've heard horror stories about its being a dark, leaky cave, and it wasn't much better than the descriptions. They house the campus servers in there, and he actually had to have a makeshift roof built over it with a gutter so that the leaky ceiling wouldn't cause campus-wide pandemonium every time it let loose a bit of moisture! Jack and I slept until 11 this morning, which really surprised me, but we got to bed after midnight last night, so it was obviously something we needed to do. I was up late because I was participating in Sunday Chat with my buds from home (our weekly appointment is for 9:30 p.m. Eastern), and Jack was up late because he didn't know what else to do. His parents have a wireless connection, so he was on his dad's laptop wreaking havoc on the internet, no doubt.
We got here around 6 last night after our drive up I-77 from Charlotte. In Charlotte, we ate lunch at Mert's (a really yummy soul food restaurant in uptown) with Heather and Casey (a good friend of ours from college and her new husband) after we went to church with them. We were hardly hungry for lunch, because Casey made us wonderful strawberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast yesterday morning before church, so our day got off to a good start. We watched Saving Private Ryan on Saturday night, which Casey and I had seen but which Jack and Heather had not. It's one of those movies I've found myself making frequent references to, so I had wanted Jack to see it for some time. I think he enjoyed it, though it's not really a happy, feel-good movie to most people.
Casey demonstrated his ridiculousness and, therefore, his compatibility with Heather by giving us a taste of his Muppet impressions, which were awesome (especially Kermit). Heather made us some great stir-fry for dinner, and before that, we played Conga, an offshoot of Cranium. It was so cool to get to know Casey, since we had missed their wedding and never met him, so I'm so glad we were able to stay with them, even though it was only for one day. We got to their house around 4 Saturday afternoon because we took our time leaving Atlanta in the morning, but we had a lovely, low-key drive and stopped at a peach stand, attempting to get peaches but actually only being able to procure some jams for Heather and Casey and Jack's parents (peaches are apparently not yet in season).
I made Jack and me a great breakfast of eggs with green peppers and cheese, half a bagel, and half a banana each. I am very covetous of Lisa and Joel's cookware (Jack's aunt and uncle, who we were staying with), because the eggs came out REALLY well and the pan was great to use. They have a set of that stuff that's titanium and ceramic, so it's very durable and heats evenly. Anyway, Lisa and Joel had a rehearsal to go to in the morning, so we were on our own for breakfast since they had left around 9.
Oh, by the way, Amber says hi to everyone. I've now perched the laptop precariously on the ends of my knees because my back was starting to complain about being contorted, and since she's taking up the better part of my lap, she's reading everything. Well, now she's rested her little head on one of my wrists, so it's making me type a little more slowly and more controlled. Hehe.
I wish we had gotten to visit with Lisa and Joel a little longer, because we got into Atlanta late Friday night (roughly 11 p.m., I think) and we were basically ready to go to bed the minute we walked through the door. We downed a bunch of coffee at Cracker Barrel, where we stopped for dinner around 8, because we knew one or both of us would have to drive the rest of the way to Atlanta, and we were already ready to be asleep! We had a fun but rather long drive from Baton Rouge; we got to leave town around 1, but we spent a lot of extra time trying to take a "short" cut, which will NEVER happen again. Don't ask what we did. I don't want to talk about it. We were stupid, and now we understand the depths of our stupidity. Anyway, Jack picked me up from school and we left from there, because I had him drop me off in the morning so we could save time later on (it would have been an extra half-hour or so for me to drive home and then for us to leave from there). He dropped Patti off at the vet while I was at school, and though I'm sure she was sad, Jack says she's getting better about being in her box. Perhaps she's simply resigned to her fate. We won't be going on any more trips for a while, and she'll have to deal with a new kitten next month before she has to get back in her box. We'll see how she deals with that new circumstance, but I have faith in her ability to adapt, since she grew up for the first bit of her life with three other cats and various other pets in one house.
I'm now completely smothered in cat hair, and Amber just reached out and dug her claws into my arm. I started saying, "Ow, stop it, let go, ow, cut it out, ow, ow, no claws, ow," and Ron immediately said, "I'm SO glad you're here!" LOL. They love their cats, but they like to make fun of them and pretend that they're a pain in the butt. Okay, time for strawberries and yogurt for dessert... yum! We won't be home until Saturday, but I'll try to make another update before then about the rest of our trip!
First of all, I have a cat on my lap, so the laptop is off to the side of me. Jack's parents have four cats with varying degrees of amicability toward people, but Amber is my new best friend and is being quite sweet despite her tendency to dig her claws into me when she's happy. Go figure. I just played ball with Hero, Jack's parents' dog, for about 20 minutes outside in the cold Virginia mountain air. Before that, we ate dinner, and before that, we spent a lazy afternoon watching baseball, napping, and doing computer things (interestingly, those are probably Jack's three favorite activities, and he was able to squeeze in all three). Before a wonderful lunch at Macado's (featuring my favorite broccoli soup with a cheese bread dunked in it), we visited Jack's dad at Virginia Tech so I could FINALLY see where he works! I've heard horror stories about its being a dark, leaky cave, and it wasn't much better than the descriptions. They house the campus servers in there, and he actually had to have a makeshift roof built over it with a gutter so that the leaky ceiling wouldn't cause campus-wide pandemonium every time it let loose a bit of moisture! Jack and I slept until 11 this morning, which really surprised me, but we got to bed after midnight last night, so it was obviously something we needed to do. I was up late because I was participating in Sunday Chat with my buds from home (our weekly appointment is for 9:30 p.m. Eastern), and Jack was up late because he didn't know what else to do. His parents have a wireless connection, so he was on his dad's laptop wreaking havoc on the internet, no doubt.
We got here around 6 last night after our drive up I-77 from Charlotte. In Charlotte, we ate lunch at Mert's (a really yummy soul food restaurant in uptown) with Heather and Casey (a good friend of ours from college and her new husband) after we went to church with them. We were hardly hungry for lunch, because Casey made us wonderful strawberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast yesterday morning before church, so our day got off to a good start. We watched Saving Private Ryan on Saturday night, which Casey and I had seen but which Jack and Heather had not. It's one of those movies I've found myself making frequent references to, so I had wanted Jack to see it for some time. I think he enjoyed it, though it's not really a happy, feel-good movie to most people.
Casey demonstrated his ridiculousness and, therefore, his compatibility with Heather by giving us a taste of his Muppet impressions, which were awesome (especially Kermit). Heather made us some great stir-fry for dinner, and before that, we played Conga, an offshoot of Cranium. It was so cool to get to know Casey, since we had missed their wedding and never met him, so I'm so glad we were able to stay with them, even though it was only for one day. We got to their house around 4 Saturday afternoon because we took our time leaving Atlanta in the morning, but we had a lovely, low-key drive and stopped at a peach stand, attempting to get peaches but actually only being able to procure some jams for Heather and Casey and Jack's parents (peaches are apparently not yet in season).
I made Jack and me a great breakfast of eggs with green peppers and cheese, half a bagel, and half a banana each. I am very covetous of Lisa and Joel's cookware (Jack's aunt and uncle, who we were staying with), because the eggs came out REALLY well and the pan was great to use. They have a set of that stuff that's titanium and ceramic, so it's very durable and heats evenly. Anyway, Lisa and Joel had a rehearsal to go to in the morning, so we were on our own for breakfast since they had left around 9.
Oh, by the way, Amber says hi to everyone. I've now perched the laptop precariously on the ends of my knees because my back was starting to complain about being contorted, and since she's taking up the better part of my lap, she's reading everything. Well, now she's rested her little head on one of my wrists, so it's making me type a little more slowly and more controlled. Hehe.
I wish we had gotten to visit with Lisa and Joel a little longer, because we got into Atlanta late Friday night (roughly 11 p.m., I think) and we were basically ready to go to bed the minute we walked through the door. We downed a bunch of coffee at Cracker Barrel, where we stopped for dinner around 8, because we knew one or both of us would have to drive the rest of the way to Atlanta, and we were already ready to be asleep! We had a fun but rather long drive from Baton Rouge; we got to leave town around 1, but we spent a lot of extra time trying to take a "short" cut, which will NEVER happen again. Don't ask what we did. I don't want to talk about it. We were stupid, and now we understand the depths of our stupidity. Anyway, Jack picked me up from school and we left from there, because I had him drop me off in the morning so we could save time later on (it would have been an extra half-hour or so for me to drive home and then for us to leave from there). He dropped Patti off at the vet while I was at school, and though I'm sure she was sad, Jack says she's getting better about being in her box. Perhaps she's simply resigned to her fate. We won't be going on any more trips for a while, and she'll have to deal with a new kitten next month before she has to get back in her box. We'll see how she deals with that new circumstance, but I have faith in her ability to adapt, since she grew up for the first bit of her life with three other cats and various other pets in one house.
I'm now completely smothered in cat hair, and Amber just reached out and dug her claws into my arm. I started saying, "Ow, stop it, let go, ow, cut it out, ow, ow, no claws, ow," and Ron immediately said, "I'm SO glad you're here!" LOL. They love their cats, but they like to make fun of them and pretend that they're a pain in the butt. Okay, time for strawberries and yogurt for dessert... yum! We won't be home until Saturday, but I'll try to make another update before then about the rest of our trip!
Labels: eating out, family, felines, friends, travel, Virginia
- posted by erica 4/05/2004 09:10:00 PM
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