In Which Mags Returns

...from a 10-day vacation! To Kansas City, Missouri! Wheee!!! (I'm sure Karla is supadupa impressed. Jeez...she was in Italy when they won the frickin' World Cup. That is so damn amazing.)

Oh, lordy, it's been 10 hours in the car, and I'm brain dead. It's a 12-hour drive if you get from Point A to Point B in the most straightforward manner, which is I-35 through Oklahoma and Kansas, and then to the Kansas Turnpike to KC. On the way up, we did six hours in one evening, stopped in fabulous Norman, Oklahoma for the night (at what is inarguably a nice and comfortable Super 8), and then did the next six the following morning. (Had to get there before 1:00 so The Man could watch the World Cup finals, dontcha know.)

On the way back, though, we stopped and visited some dear friends in Arkansas, who put us up for the night. Love them, love the visit, always do it. It usually means eight hours in the car on the way back, which is totally doable, but I think we stayed too long savoring that scrumptious Braum's lunch or something, because we ended up spending 10 hours in the car.

I'm not quite to adding "10 hours in a station wagon with my children fighting in the back seat" to my "What's In My Hell" list, but only - ONLY - because of the iPod. See? Totally justified spending.

I'm probably gonna post some kind of highlights reel tomorrow. But, quite frankly, it was a family vacation, and my biggest highlight was getting to see my family and friends. My parents and my sister live there, so I see them twice a year or more. In a very cool development, my brother and nephews also flew in from Boston, and I hardly EVER get to see them, so that was thrilling for me and the girls. Also, two of my dearest friends also came in, in a completely choreographed fashion, to also see their parents. (We know what we need in a home visit, eh, girls?) I'd post their picture, 'cos they're lovely, but I didn't ask their permission, and they're much more important than I.

But, I will post one picture, the one taken at the moment that I realized that Summer 2006 is the Season of Mags Unexpectedly Having Birds on Her Body And/Or Head During Her Vacations:


(From the Kansas City Zoo's new lorikeet exhibit. They let you in to feed them every hour. How cool is that?)

Well, I'm off to go do something that is not sitting in a car, or eating fast food, or in fact venturing outside at all - it's one hundred and one fucking degrees outside. It was a hundred and FOUR in Dallas this afternoon. Did I mention that there were two children? Small and lovely, but bored and thus either a) hyperactive or b) extremely pesky, in respective order?

Have a lovely evening!

Mags

P.S. Will one of you more bloggy-experienced folks (are you blogsperienced?) write me and tell me how you link to one of your own posts? I seem to remember reading it somewhere, but my computer's too old and tired to do extensive research on it. Thanks!!