Requiescat in Pace, Larry Archer

I was sitting in a meeting yesterday at work and briefly stepped out to use the Ladies Room.  As I was walking out of our work area, our Office Administrator (OA) was walking back in and looked to be crying. I stopped in my tracks and somebody asked me if I knew why she was crying.  Since I didn't know, I turned around and went back into our work area to find out what was wrong.  At that time I saw our Program Manager and another Manager standing there with her and I looked askance at the PM as to what was going on. He asked me if I had heard the terrible news that one of our Operations Managers named Larry Archer had died. 

I was shocked to hear of his death as he had just been at work all of the previous day, as usual.  He was supposed to be on vacation on this day.  From what I understand, he and his wife were at Dinner in a restaurant when Larry had a fatal heart attack at 67 years old. He had worked on our project for 18 years and now he was gone, with no warning whatsoever!  Everybody at work is so shocked and saddened by his death!

It's so strange that one could learn so much about somebody after they pass away.  I read his obituary today and learned that he was an Irish Catholic and went to Catholic School, just like me.  He also worked overseas and traveled the world extensively like I have. He has the most magnificent and upbeat obituary that I've ever read and I love how it tells of his travels, how he met his wife, and how he proposed to her in April in Paris!  How could one ever know that Larry was such a romantic man from just seeing him at work from time to time?

Allen Family Funeral Options did a beautiful job on his online memorial!  They have a wonderful picture there of him and a 45 minute tribute video with beautiful music and pictures of him and his family throughout the years.   Here is the picture that they have of him on his tribute page:

Lawrence Joseph Archer

It's such a sad and lonely experience when somebody you've known for a long time at work or elsewhere passes away.  It leaves a big, empty spot there at work. It also forces everybody to think about their own mortality.

Larry got really close to retirement, but never quite made it.  It's very sad that he had to die right before an upcoming trip to see all of his family in New York!

I was reading some of the condolences left for him on his tribute page by people from work. One guy said that he had worked with Larry for the past 18 years and would really miss him and the emails that Larry sent to him in Latin.  This really made me smile as my bet is that both this guy and Larry learned Latin serving as altar boys, just like my brothers did when we were growing up!

This said, I just want to say some last words to Larry in Latin . . . Requiescat in pace, Larry Archer.  You will never be forgotten by the people you worked with here in Dallas!

Sweet Baby in Baltimore

We took off last Saturday morning, March 29, 2014 to see my grandson and kids in Baltimore, Maryland.  It was an early morning flight and we only encountered one traffic light on our way to Dallas Love Field Airport. We got there and stowed our bags at the curb with the Skycap. I was lucky enough to get selected for TSA Pre, which meant that I didn't have to take off my belt or shoes.  This was great since I have a broken ankle and was wearing a boot!

We boarded Southwest Airlines Flight 672 and it took off  towards Baltimore.  The flight attendants were very nice but the bathroom in the front of the plane smelled like an outhouse that had been sitting in direct hot sun for about a week! One of the flight attendants said that it always smelled like that on morning flights, but I've flown many times and have never encountered such stench on a plane! I'm sure that it was left uncleaned for at least overnight.

We were greeted in Baltimore by dark grey skies and cold rain. What nasty weather!  We claimed our luggage and went to get our rental car, which was a GM Captiva with wonderful heated seats! We drove to the Hilton Garden Inn in Owings Mills, MD and checked in. We went to our room and relaxed for a while, then went to the Red Robin at the Restaurant Park a block down from the hotel to get some late lunch/early dinner.  We got an appetizer of onion rings on a tower with some dipping sauces, which was delicious!  Tegan Marie got a big burger and fries and I got a BLT with avocado and a bowl of chicken tortilla soup.  Tegan enjoyed her meal and I liked the soup, but wouldn't order the BLTA again.

After we finished eating, we went to visit with Nicole, Brandon and Branson at their townhouse in Eldersburg.. Branson is so chubby and adorable with his square face, big blue eyes and pouty little lips!  He has thick, light reddish-brown hair and big pink cheeks!  He looks like one of the Campbell's Soup kids!

We held him and he "talked" to us.  He smiled and cooed a lot.  I just loved rubbing his chubby little feet and kissing his chubby little cheeks!  Here's a cool set of animated pictures of me giving him an never-ending kiss on his chubby little cheek:

Love Those Chubby Cheeks!

Here's a picture of Branson sitting on Tegan's lap blowing bubbles:

Branson blowing bubbles with Auntie Tegan

We visited for a few hours and then headed back to the hotel. Since our last meal was much earlier, we went back to the Red Robin and got a large order of Towering Onion Rings and some dessert. Tegan got a Gooey Chocolate Brownie Cake and I got Double Berry Cheesecake.  The food was good but the service not the greatest due to the fact that it was late and the people working there wanted to go home.

We finished our dessert and headed back to the hotel to get ready for bed.  I have to say that the cold and rain truly had a bad effect on our trip this time. Unfortunately, Tegan Marie only brought some canvas flat shoes with knee high hose and her feet got soaked and were freezing. Understandably, this made her feel miserable!  I also wasn't feeling well and kept hacking due to my LPR. I hate getting my clothes and hair wet and had to keep putting my coat over my head to get back and forth from the car, which was not a pleasant experience!

We turned in and slept to around Noon, which was great!  We got up, showered and then went to the IHOP on Liberty Road right next to the Rite Aid where I used to buy Justin's diapers. The service and food were excellent!  Sarah, our waitress took really good care of us!  Part way through our meal we noticed that the rain was starting to look thick.  Next thing we knew, it was snowing outside!  Yes, snowing on March 30th!

We finished our meal and then went to the Payless Shoes Store next door to get Tegan some warm shoes.  Next was the Rite Aid for some drinks and warm socks. Then we headed over to Nicole and Brandon's place to visit.  Here's a really cool animated picture of Tegan in .the snow outside of Brandon and Nicole's townhouse:

The Snow-globe Princess!

She looks like she's standing in a snow globe in this picture!

We visited with Brandon, Nicole and Branson until my son Justin arrived at 6:30 PM.  He gave me a beautiful bouquet of red roses and a card as a belated birthday present, which was very sweet!  Here's a picture of the roses:

Birthday Roses from Justin

We chatted for a while and then Nicole, Justin, Tegan and I headed to the Osaka Japanese Restaurant for some dinner.  We invited Brandon but he didn't want to go, so he stayed home with Branson.

We enjoyed visiting over our meal!  Here's a picture of Justin, Nicole and Tegan and I siting at the Hibachi table getting ready to eat dinner:

Family Hibachi Dinner

We finished our meal and then headed back to Nicole and Brandon's house and dropped off Nicole and Justin and then headed back to the hotel.  We stayed up for a while and talked and ate some ice cream bars, then we fell asleep.

We slept late the next morning again and then headed back over to the IHOP.  The bad weather and exhaustion of being away from home so much really started taking its toll right around this time!  We were just worn out and frazzled and everything was getting on our nerves!  We finished eating and then headed over to Nicole and Brandon's place. When we got there, Dave and Colleen Holsey, Nicole's in-laws were there.  They had stopped by to visit on their way home from Ocean City, MD.  We visited with them for a while and then they went home.  

We stayed a little while longer and then headed back to the hotel for a while and then went to have some Dinner at the Ruby Tuesday's down the road, then we turned into bed at the Hotel.

The next day Nicole called to say that the Holseys had invited us all to Dinner at their house. We met Nicole and Brandon at their place and followed them to the Holseys. Here's a cute picture of Branson all packed up and in his car seat and ready to go:

Branson is Packed Up and Ready to Go!

We had a nice visit at the Holsey's, especially with Dave's mother, Miss Bobby.  She is one of the sweetest ladies that I've ever met and reminds me somewhat of my own mother.  She's just recently recovered from a bad bout of C-Diff, which put her in the hospital several times.  I'm so glad that she's feeling better and is able to hold Branson now!

Dinner was a yummy lasagne with garlic bread and a glass of wine, finished with a delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert! We finished dinner and visited for a while, then headed back to the hotel to go to sleep.

The next day we packed up and moved to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Baltimore Washington International Airport.  We did this to be closer to the airport when we flew out the next day.  We drove back out to Eldersburg and visited with Brandon and Nicole and to play with Branson for the last time before we left. Then we returned to the Hotel and then went to Dinner at the Ruby Tuesday's about a mile down the road.  There was nothing special about the food there, to be honest.

The next day we got up and showered, then had a nice leisurely Breakfast at the Bob Evans right in front of the Hotel.  Then we dropped off the rental car and enjoyed our flight back to Dallas.  Over the course of the flight home, two different women gave us two drink coupons, so we each got two free drinks!  I guess we must have looked like we needed a drink, LOL!

We were very glad to get home.  I guess our visit must have tired out Branson.  Here's a picture that Nicole sent of him after we left.

Branson is Pooped from our visit!

Boy does he look pooped!  Just like Mimi and Auntie Tegs!  All in all, it was a very nice visit, despite the horrible weather and not feeling well!



The Mystery Bouquet

I had a long day at work today!  I was exhausted and wasn't feeling very well to boot.  I suffered from a sore throat and coughing for most of the day, which I'm sure can be attributed to the Laryngophyaryngeal Reflux (LPR) Disease that has crept up on me this past year or so.  Not a fun day at all!  I was supposed to work out with my trainer at the Gym, but called to cancel since I felt so terrible. You can rest assured that when I cancel a training session that I'm feeling really lousy!

When we got home and walked up to the door, there was a package from Pro Flowers waiting on the porch for me. I have a birthday coming up at the end of the week and figured that a family member was sending me some flowers for that.  I opened the package to find a lovely bouquet of Japanese orchids! There was a card accompanying the flowers, but there was no note or name on it!  I called Pro Flowers and told them that the card was empty and asked if they could tell me who sent the flowers, but they couldn't tell me a thing.

So now I have a lovely mystery bouquet sitting on the buffet.  Here's what it looks like:

The Mystery Bouquet

The package was addressed to "Mae", which means that whoever sent the flowers isn't an immediate family member as most of them use my formal name "Mary" when they send me something.

I don't know if I'll ever find out who sent me these lovely flowers, but thank you very much to whoever did send them!  It was a very lovely surprise that helped leave my day on a much better note!

March 22, 2014 Update

Well, the bouquet mystery has been solved!  My daughter-in-law, Anne Amaya and her sweet daughter Cassandra sent me the flowers for my birthday!  Thank you for the beautiful flowers, Anne and Cassie!
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We Got Our Kicks (and some soda) on Route 66

We hit the road back to Dallas at 12 Noon today from a trip to Atchinson, Kansas and Rushville, Missouri to attend a funeral for Tegan Marie's mother, Dorothy Lee.. Here's what I saw when I peeked out of the hotel window this morning:

Yep, that's snow all right!  We were not looking forward to driving 500+ miles back to Dallas on snow covered roads!  Fortunately, the storm was heading East instead of West. We ran into a lady at Breakfast who was heading to Baltimore. I felt pretty sorry for her having to drive in bad weather!

We drove steadily and without incident through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and then home to Texas.  We stopped a couple of times to use the bathroom and get some drinks and snacks. Tegan Marie drove most of the way and would not accept any offers of relief from me.  Here she is in the driver's seat:

Tegan Marie at the Helm

Once we got to Oklahoma, we stopped at a really cool shop called "Pops Route 66", which has sodas every shade of the rainbow stacked on shelves in color order!  This store is located along the famous "Route 66" as mentioned in the song written by Bobby Troup and sang by Nat King Cole in 1946.  The song goes like this:
 
If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66!

The National Parks Service website says that U.S. Highway 66 -- popularly known as Route 66 or the Mother Road -- holds a special place in American consciousness and evokes images of simpler times, mom and pop businesses, and the icons of a mobile nation on the road. Their travel itinerary aids the public to visit the historic places that recall those images and experiences that are reminders of our past and evidence of the influence of the automobile.

Here's the Route 66 Symbol from the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma:

The Route 66 Symbol

The shop has a huge soda bottle monument outside with a straw sticking out of it:  Here's a picture of Tegan Marie standing by it:

Soda Bottle and Tegs

Here's what we saw when we walked in the door:

Old Route 66 Sign and Soda Bottles

 There were shelves and shelves of different colors and flavors of soda:

Red, Blue and Orange Sodas on Shelves

Blue Sodas

Red Sodas

When visiting the Ladies Room there, we noted that there was a trap door on the floor in one of the stalls:

Trap Door in the Ladies Room

This must be a portal for non-paying customers, LOL!

We selected two six-packs of various flavored sodas and headed out to the car.  Here's a picture of Tegan Marie holding the six-packs of sodas:

Tegan Marie with the psychedelic sodas

There was a cool crossroads sign at the corner:

Route 66 Crossroads Sign

We packed ourselves and the soda into the car and headed towards Will and Stefanie's house near Oklahoma City.  Once we got there we went inside for a few minutes.  Their cute little dachshund Bruce was so excited to see us!  He gave Stefanie (mommy) big hugs on the couch.  It was so cute!

Stefanie and Bruce

Here's a nice shot of Will, Stefanie and her brother Jake:

Will, Stefanie and Jake

We said our goodbyes and got back on the road to Dallas.  We were very tired and it seemed to take a long time!  We stopped at one of the casinos along the way to get gas and use the bathroom. They had some really pretty purses and wallets there.  Tegan Marie fell in love with one of the purses, especially since it had a side pocket for a firearm.  She just had to have it!  Here's a picture of her new purse:

Tegan Marie's new purse

We got in after midnight and stopped at McDonald's to get something light to eat.  Then we went straight to bed as I had to be at work at 6:00 AM that morning. 

It was a good trip home, but an exhausting one!.  One this is for sure though . . .

We got our kicks on Route 66!!!

In Memory of Denise Bonaventura

Over the past year, I've been able to get reacquainted via Facebook with many of the people who I served with in the U.S.Air Force at my first assignment at RAF Chicksands in Shefford, England.  We were all so young while serving over there, many of us still in our teen years. I was still sowing my wild oats at that time, especially since my parents were so strict and I never got to do any partying while I lived at home.  I can honestly say that I drank enough alcohol over there to put most grown men into a coma!

One of the first people that I met there and one that I worked side-by-side with the entire time I was there was a lady named Denise Bonaventura. Denise was a very nice person!  Although we had the wonderful opportunity to serve in England, the fact that we were young, single women on a small base overseas made us the constant conquest of a lot of horny men.  Most of these guys were solely after a roll in the hay and nothing further. I was quite disinterested in these pursuits, but poor Denise ended up getting hurt and went through two marriages

We each served our time at Chicksands and then moved on to other assignments.  I lost touch with Denise and many others after leaving there in 1981 and going to my new assignment at Fort Meade, MD. The years went by and I left active duty and entered the Air Force Reserve in 1989.  I ended up getting recalled to active duty during the Kosovo Crises in 1999.  During that time, I ran into several of the people who I served with over in England.  It was at that time that I found out that Denise had died in a car accident in 1991 while driving across country to a bowling match.  Apparently she had a little girl in tow to deliver to her grandparents along the way.  Unfortunately, both of them died in the accident.  I've prayed for Denise every day since I heard of her death.

Fast forward to the present, a guy named Bob Cavinder, who I also served with over in England recently posted a bunch of pictures of all of us partying on our off time over there. We were all on Able Flight. When I looked today I saw that he had a picture of Denise posted. It's the first that I've seen her face in over 33 years!  Here's the picture:

Denise Bonaventura circa 1980

I ended up finding out more about her death today. She was born on January 11, 1957 and was from Norwalk, Connecticut. On August 09, 1991, she died in a car accident in Van Horn, Culbertson, TX 79855 at the age of 35.  She was an active duty Technical Sergeant in the Air Force at that time.  I want to try to find out where she's buried so that I can create a virtual memorial for her at findagrave.com.

Rest in Peace, Denise!  Your memory lives on in the hearts of everybody who served on Able Flight at RAF Chicksands!

9 August 2015 Update

Today is the 24th anniversary of Denise's death.  I was not able to find her obituary anywhere up until today, but I figured that I'd take another try this afternoon and I ended up finding it on Page 6 of the 13 August 1991 edition of the Daily Advocate newspaper out of Stamford, Connecticut:

I was glad to find out her final resting place and have created a virtual memorial for her at findagrave.com:

Link to Denise's virtual memorial at findagrave.com

The Broken Ankle Adventure

Our trip to Atlanta finally happened on Wednesday, February 19, 2014.  We had planned the trip for the week before, but had to postpone it due to bad weather.

One of the reasons for the trip was to get Tegan Marie's wordly goods into a truck to be driven to the house in Texas.  Her wonderful neighbor Kathy Hall is a professional truck driver and was going to transport the 26' U-Haul, along with Tegan's '71  F-100 from Atlanta to our home in Wylie.  Sadly, another reason for the trip was that Tegan Marie's dear mother Dorothy is failing quickly and no longer wanting to eat or drink.

The trip started out great!  We had Execucar come pick us up at the house in a Ford Expedition and deliver us directly to the American Airlines curbside service at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.  Upon arrival, we stowed our luggage, got our boarding passes, then proceeded directly to our gate.

Right before they started boarding the plane, I decided to make a pit stop in the ladies room.  As I sauntered towards the rest room, I suddenly found myself down on the hard floor with a gentleman extending his hand down to help me up.  

I was shocked about the fall!  I work out regularly, rarely fall, and have never had a broken bone in my life! After the man helped me up, I noted that my ankle was hurting pretty badly as I hobbled into the ladies room.  As I used the restroom, I kept thinking that the pain would go away once I got on a roll walking back to the gate.

Unfortunately, my ankle had other plans!  There was no relief from the pain as I very slowly hobbled back towards the gate.  A very nice lady serving samples outside of one of the restaurants ran and got a man with a wheelchair to take me up to the gate.  He was very kind and got me there quickly.  

I got out of the wheelchair and hobbled over to where Tegan Marie was sitting.  She looked shocked to see me limping!  I told her about my fall as we started over to board the plane.

Once we got seated on the plane, our flight attendant got me some ice to put on my ankle.  We sat next to a gentleman who played a lot of sports and had experienced injuries.  He gave me a few pointers on how to keep the pain and swelling to a minimum.  My ankle ballooned out quite a bit, but I  was able to put my boot on for some compression and to be able to get off of the plane.

Our flight attendant made arrangements for a wheel chair to meet us at the plane and transport me over to the train that would take us to the rental car office.  The lady that did this was very sweet and got us on our way on the train.  

Once we got there, Tegan Marie held my arm and we shuffled a few feet towards Avis.  We didn't get too far before some of the Avis folks ran to get me a chair and a gentleman went and got our car and loaded the bags into it, which we appreciated greatly!

We drove directly to Piedmont Hospital in Henry County, where Miss Dorothy was staying.  Before we went to see her, we paid a visit to the Emergency Room to have them look at my ankle.  Here I am sitting in a wheel chair in the waiting room:

Mae in Wheelchair in ER Waiting Room

We waited for about a 1/2 an hour before they called me back to examine my ankle and take x-rays, then they put me in a bed in a room to await the results:

Mae waiting for X-Ray Results. in the ER

By that time, my ankle had become extremely swollen!

My Broken Ankle

About 45 minutes later, the doctor came into the room and told us that my ankle was broken.  He said that they would put a splint on my foot to wait for the swelling to go down until we got back to Dallas, upon which I would need to see an Orthopedic doctor to set it and put on a cast or boot.

I'm very happy to say that the staff at the Piedmont ER was very efficient, kind and professional and I was very satisfied with how they treated me there!

They released me from the ER with a pair of crutches and prescriptions for pain and inflammation.

Once we got out of the ER, we headed up to the 4th Floor to see Miss Dorothy.

We found her in her bed crying.  She seemed confused and we couldn't understand what she was saying. She had fallen out of her wheel chair at the nursing home a few weeks previously and had broken the orbital bone of her eye.  Since then she has refused to eat or drink anything. 

The only way to keep her hydrated is by intravenous fluids, which she's been receiving.  Unfortunately, the only way for her to eat now would be by feeding tube, which is not in keeping with her advanced directives. So now poor Tegan Marie is faced with ensuring that her mother's advanced directives are executed, which makes Miss Dorothy's death imminent if she doesn't start eating again. We're praying that she'll do this soon!

It's all terribly sad!  Here's a picture of Tegan Marie sitting with her mother at the hospital:

Tegan and Mrs. Dorothy

We visited a little longer and then headed to Kroger's to fill my prescriptions. 

As soon as I entered into Kroger's on my crutches a nice lady at Customer Service sent one of her people to get me a motorized cart.  What a relief it was to get off of those crutches and drive that cart around!

Mae driving motorized cart in Kroger's

Once we got my prescriptions, we quickly checked in at the hotel and then headed for some supper at the Longhorn Restaurant.  The food was great as always, but the service wasn't the best probably because the people working there wanted to go home.  After dinner we went back to the hotel, drank a glass of wine and then went to sleep.

The next morning we got up and had some breakfast at the hotel and then went to register Tegan Marie's Ford F-100 at the County Registration office.  After that we went to Manuel's Salon and got our hair done. Everybody is so nice there and they did a great job!

After that we went on a wild goose chase to find a medical equipment store.  My brief stint on crutches was enough to tell me that I didn't want them!  After driving around to 3 different stores only to find that they'd gone out of business, we finally found a store named the Mobility Warehouse only to find out that it had closed 20 minutes previous to our arrival.  I was so disappointed!  

As we stood looking in the windows, we noticed a young man looking out of an office in the back.  When he saw us, he came and opened the door to talk with us.  We ended up getting the last knee scooter that he had in stock, which he discounted $50 since it was a floor model.  What a nice guy!  I'm so happy to be off of those crutches !  Here's a picture of me on my scooter:

Mae on Knee Scooter

After we left the store, we went to see Miss Dorothy and visited for about an hour.  Then we went to supper at a Thai Restaurant and headed back to the hotel. 

Tegan Marie was upset about her mother and wanted to have a few drinks and relax, so we bought her a few olive martinis and me some wine, put on our pajamas and relaxed.  Here I am kicked back in a nice chair and ottoman in our room drinking my wine:

Mae relaxing with glass of Beringer's White Zinfandel

The next morning we got up early and headed straight over to Tegan's house to wait for the carpet people from Lowes and the HVAC contractor to arrive.  Tegan had a house fire back in 2010 which burned the carpet in her living room and hall badly.  Unfortunately, the insurance didn't pay out enough to replace the carpet, so she had to endure living with plywood sub-flooring up until she left last year.  Not only did this look unsightly, but the odor from the crawlspace underneath gave the house a terrible musty smell.  Here's Tegan sitting by the fireplace before the carpet people came to do their magic:

Tegan by Fireplace with Sub-flooring

Here's Tegan standing by the fireplace after the new carpet was installed.  That new carpet made all of the difference in the house!

Tegan Standing by the Fireplace after carpet installation

The HVAC man came and changed the filter, which also made the house smell fresher. After finishing at the house, we headed to see Miss Dorothy, who had been released from the hospital and returned to Westbury Nursing Home.  We met up there with our friend Patti Sullivan, who was kind enough to make the drive up from Ocala, Florida to help Tegan load up the moving truck since I was now out of the equation due to my broken ankle. We spent some time with Miss Dorothy and then headed to La Parilla Mexican Restaurant to have some Supper.  The restaurant was packed to the gills and we had to wait, but finally got a table.  Here's a picture of us at the table waiting for our food:

Patti, Tegan and Mae at La Parilla

After Supper, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.  The next morning we got up and ate a really nice breakfast at the hotel, then headed over to pick up the U-Haul Truck and Auto Transport that we were renting to get Tegan's wordly goods from Georgia to Texas.  Here's a picture of Tegan posing with the truck right before she drove off::

Tegan getting ready to take off!

Here's a picture of Tegan driving off with the rig to Jodeco Storage:

Tegan Driving off with the rig

We spent 6 hours at Jodeco Storage while Tegan and Patti loaded all of Tegan's thing in storage onto the truck. I wish that I could have helped, but my broken ankle made that impossible.  After they finished loading, Tegan drove the rig over to Kathy and Mike's house and Mike loaded her Ford F-100 onto the auto transport.  After that, Tegan, Patti and I headed to Ruby Tuesday's for Supper.  Here's a picture of us making a toast with our wine there before our food arrived:

Patti, Mae and Tegan Marie at Ruby Tuesday

After we finished eating, we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.   The next morning we got up and ate a nice breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to Tegan's house for Tegan to get some things out of the attic and put into the U-Haul truck. We also had to get some cash for Kathy for gas and expenses on her drive to Texas.  We rushed around to two different BB&T ATMs and the were out of order, so we ended up having to get the cash in six $100 dollar increments from an ATM at a Shell gas station.  We were so rushed for time to get to the airport that we couldn't visit Miss Dorothy before we left, which was very upsetting!

We said goodbye to Patti, Mike and Kathy and rushed to the airport to drop off our rental car and then get through security.  Fortunately, we made it with plenty of time to spare so we stopped in to the Jazz Bar and had a beer and some brisket sandwiches, which were delicious and really hit the spot!  Here we are sitting at the bar there:

Tegan at the Jazz Bar

Mae at the Jazz Bar

We finished our beer and sandwiches and then got on the plane back to Dallas.  The flight was smooth and we arrived back in Dallas on time with our Execucar driver waiting for us.  We had a very comfortable ride back home. Once we got home, we unpacked and then went right to bed since I had to be up early to go to work the next morning.  

What a strange, but successful trip that was!  Never would I have imagined that I would break my ankle in the airport!  However, everything went smooth with getting Tegan's wordly goods on the road to Texas.  They should be arriving there on Tuesday.

Laid Back Saturday

Today has been a very laid back Saturday, which is just what the doctor ordered!  I've felt just so exhausted the last couple of weeks!  It was so nice to sleep in until afternoon today!  After a late rising time, Tegan Marie and I had some tea, coffee and an energy bar and just lounged around on the couch for a few hours watching NASCAR and surfing around online.

Finally, after a few hours of couch time we started to get somewhat hungry, so I chopped up some tri-colored peppers and onions to put into some omelets: 

Tri-color Peppers and Onion for Omelets

Next, I sauteed the peppers and onion until tender and then added a little bit of diced ham the last few minutes:

Pepper, Onion and Ham Saute

Then I put 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters into each side of an omelet pan and added and equal amount of the sauteed peppers, onion and ham to each side:

Low Fat Western Omelet

Then I added 1/4 cup of 2% shredded sharp cheddar cheese, dividing it up on each side of the pan and Voila, a low fat western omelet!  I then made another one for Tegan.

We then popped some Low Fat Eggo Nutri-Grain Waffles into the toaster and then sat down for a wonderful post V-Day Lunch/Dinner (Linner or Dunch?).

Here's everything laid out on the table right before we ate:

Post V-Day Lunch/Dinner

We sprayed the waffles with some "I Can't Believe it's not Butter" spray and put on a dab of Hungry Jack Lite Syrup.  Then sat down and said some grace to thank God for our blessings and pray for the health of our family members.  Then we dug in!  The meal was delicious and totaled 392 calories.  Not bad for a filling and satisfying meal!

We need to have more laid back Saturdays like this one!