willowisp | Long Weekend in NC

Let's see. I arrived on Wednesday, was met in the airport by

callicrates, and we ate at one of our favorite old haunts, Firebird's at Southpoint. Some of the seaters there still remember us, though the one we joked around with most is no longer there. The hotel room (suite, actually) had, at some point, been smoking, though they seemed to have aired it out pretty well. I think that was the cause of my headaches on Thursday and Friday, though.

UPS arrived well after Andy arrived home and just before

clubjuggler arrived. Andy started setting up the new Neverest almost immediately, and by the time Clubjuggler got back from his meeting we were ready to go eat. We went to a place which has potato skins, which I've been craving something fierce in Albuquerque. I've only found one place there which has them, and it's a rather long haul to get there. Hopefully these will tide me over for a while. That, or I'll just up and start trying to make them myself. Neverest is a very happy computer now. Some would say that it's overkill for a server, but I prefer overkill to underkill. It's much faster, and gallery doesn't run it into the ground so much. This will make finishing the album project much faster once we get home.

On Friday we took off to visit

celebril, her husband, and their two daughters. Regina has gotten taller according to Heather, though she didn't look much different. Danielle, on the other hand, is taller, has lost all of her baby fat, has 14 teeth (I believe she had two or three when we moved) and is walking. She also talks, and though I could understand only a few of the words, Denny, Heather, and Regina very obviously understood most of it. She is still an incredible child; she smiles almost all the time and loved posing for the camera. It seems this has been a bad year for cats as well as for grandfathers; Heather and Denny's wonderful Tigger had to be put down when they discovered she had lung cancer and was suffering intensely. She was also very young, only two years older than Thena. Still, it was nice seeing them again and the only complaint (from all concerned parties) was that it was too short.

Andy and I got back to Clubjuggler's house today. Since work only paid for the hotel until Thursday night, he had offered to let us stay at his place. It's interesting seeing the similarities and differences between Centex houses in the southeast and the southwest. Some parts of the floor plans are obviously stock, while others vary drastically. Unfortunately (well, at least for us), Clubjuggler had a mountain biking trip this weekend, so we only got to see him until we took off on Friday. Also unfortunately,

jklgoduke and their son are visiting family now, so I had to concentrate my baby fix on Danielle. We also missed

ovrclokd and

thebroomecloset due to scheduling and weather issues.

Tomorrow Andy and I are having brunch at the Carolina, then heading for the airport. His flight takes off at 15:-something, and mine at 17:15. We're sort of hoping that if we get there by 13:00 that Southwest will offer me a seat on their earlier flight, but I'm not holding my breath since their standby policy appears to be you have to upgrade to full fare if you get the earlier flight. Maybe they will offer, though, if the later flight is really full or something. I won't complain if they do. If they don't, my flights gets into ABQ at 22:45, which is way past Andy's bedtime.

We're using our APS camera after getting it a new battery; I just have to take a few more pictures and I'll develop all of the photos I've taken since we bought the film (four rolls). I took a bunch of pictures of Heidi with it when I realized that all of her pictures are online, plus I got a bunch of Denny, Heather, Regina, and Danielle. Maybe they'll have broken ground by the time we get home, and I'll easily be able to burn five pictures on that. Or maybe Gail and Heidi will do something really cute.

So, to summarize: great trip, though we didn't get to see Clubjuggler anywhere near enough. The area is still familiar, though there have been some significant changes; construction projects barely begun when we left are now fully open stores, for instance. It was nice seeing Heather and co, but again it was too short. Visiting here feels very much like visiting home still, and is a little bittersweet overall. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, and I would absolutely love it if Andy can convince his work to send his to liase with UNC every three months or so, if not more often. I do miss the kitties, though, so I'm glad to be going back home. Andy doesn't quite feel like NM is home yet, but I've relocated so often that I generally consider a place home fairly quickly; I think it's a survival tactic or coping strategy or something.