Saturday began early for I was anxious to see everyone and wanted to get an early start. Kelly and I had gone to bed around midnight and I was up at 6:40 AM. I showered and then headed downstairs to sit on the couch and read until everyone else woke up. Kelly was up early too, and so we waited for vickyandnorm (Norm and Vicky) and kruppenheimer (Lisa) to awaken and get ready. It didn't take too long but it seemed as though it took forever. However, we were ready to go by 9 AM, which is what I was hoping for, and at that point, we hit the road.

( How's this for a great day... )

To be continued...

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last night. First, we had everyone over at Mom and Dad's: me, he110_sunshine, stubiebrother, Doug, Rachel, Ruby and Carson. This year was a non-traditional year for dinner. We had excellent crab legs, delicious prime rib, rice, and broccoli. There was plenty of food and it was all delicious. Doug and Rachel made dessert. We sipped drinks after dinner, it was a lot of fun.

I was exhausted soon after dinner, but we stayed up so that Mom, Jen and Jason could watch Gray's Anatomy. Jen, Jason and I slept on air mattresses down in the living room. Lights were out by 10:30 PM and I slept really well.

We were up at around 7:30 this morning. I was hungry as soon as I woke up. Mom made me chocolate chip pancakes. I ate 6 of them and they hit the spot. Doug, Jason and I head off to our Scuba lesson in about half an hour. Meanwhile, Jen and Rachel are going to their spa treatments soon. I think they are going shopping later. Today is black Friday. But if you ask me, you've got to be crazy to go shopping today.

I was up at 3 AM because I couldn't sleep. My alarm was set for 4 AM, but there I was, awake at 3 AM and so I watched and episode of The West Wing before heading into the shower.

The car was there at 4:30 AM to pick me up and we headed off for Dulles airport. The roads were empty and I was at the airport at 5:15 AM. The airport was empty as well. It took only 10 minutes to go from the curb to the gate, and for those of you who know Dulles, that includes the short ride in the mobile lounge to the C-gates.

Turns out the Red Carpet Club at Dulles doesn't open until 6 AM, so I sat around until it opened and then spent about 25 minutes there. I had a light breakfast and then left to board the plane. I boarded at 6:30 and not 5 minutes later, we had to debark the plane because of an issue with the navigational equipment. We were told there would be a 40 minute delay, but 10 minutes later, we were boarded again, and this time, without incident. The flight left 10 minutes late, at 7:10 AM.

The flight itself wasn't too bad. I upgraded to first class. I spent some time talking to the person sitting next to me (who was quite talkative). She was from Hawaii and she was returning home. I managed to get a little sleep, too, but not much. I also added about 800 words to Graveyard Shift, not as much as I had hope to get done on the plane, but better than nothing. My word count now stands at 18,155 words.

I arrived in L.A. at 9:50 AM. Doug and Rachel were waiting for me when I got there. I hopped in the minivan and we headed to Oxnard. It took us a little over an hour.

Since then, we've been sitting around, waiting for he11o_sunshine and stubiebrother to get here. Mom was here when we got here, and so was Ruby and Carson. Carson is so cute--he is to Doug what "Mini-me" is to Doctor Evil. Even their facial expressions are an identical match!

Mom and Dad have had a lot of work done on their house. It's been painted, there's new carpeting, and new base-boards. It looks great.

My text-messaging seems to be delayed. Kelly wasn't getting my text messages and sometime around 1 PM, she called me. This is significant because up to this point, we'd never talked to each other on the phone. It became a kind of game between us--a streak if you will. And so when I saw her calling, my first words when I answered the phone were, "You broke the streak!"

Ever other year, we have a "non-traditional" Thanksgiving dining, and this is one of those years. We're having crab legs and prime rib for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Doug and Rachel's 6th wedding anniversary.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, GUYS!

Hopefully you get a chance to do something fun to celebrate your big day today.

I just wanted to wish Rachel a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

today. It marks the first time that I've ever wished anyone a Happy Birthday while outside the United States. I hope you have a great day!

More vacation prep today. I filled out the online form to put a hold on my mail while I am gone. I also paid the rent in order to make sure I didn't forget that one. I took my black suit in to be cleaned and pressed. I can pick it up tomorrow. I also started collecting all of my travel-related itinerary information in a binder so that I have it all easily accessible in one place.

The humidity jumped up today. The temps were in the mid-80s but with the humidity it was 90 and even now, at 10:40 PM, the air conditioning is blasting just to keep the house cool.

I"m about 380 pages through American Prometheus and I am really enjoying it. I'd like to finish it before I get on the plane on Monday but I think I've got a good chance of doing that.

The softball game we had schedule for Wednesday has been postponed because the Senate office we are playing is busy with some issues on the HIll. It will be rescheduled for later in the season. As much as I love playing softball, it was kind of a relief to hear that it was postponed this week. I've got so much to do already that organizing a team for a game was something that I could do without this week. And besides, it was supposed to be well into the 90s on Wednesday.

Another happy hour is scheduled for Friday and I'm looking forward to that. And I've got the O's/Angels game on Sunday to look forward to as well.

Rachel hasn't been feeling well but I hear she's feeling a little better tonight, which is good. I hope she feels a lot better soon.

Okay, off to bed.

I have decided to build a house, and I have Doug and Rachel (and Ruby and Carson) to thank for it. Doug, who works in the home loan industry has made this incredibly easy for me, supplying me with everything I need to get the job done, with absolutely no paperwork.

( Read all about it )

I am hoping that construction will be completed before the big trip this summer. Of course, I will post pictures of the on-going progress of the house through it's various stages. Stay-tuned.

Thanks go out to Rachel who, over the Thanksgiving holiday, gave me an insight into toasters which will prevent me from further burning my fingertips when I reach in to pull out the toast each morning. It turns out that my toaster does, in fact, work similarly to hers.

My fingers, upon which my job and my hobby depends, are most grateful.

Doug had to work most of the day yesterday and he finally got home around 5 PM. Shortly after he got home, he, Mom, Dad and I headed out to the Keg to have some drinks and sit around chatting, while Rachel, Ruby and Carson got a break from our hijinks. We then headed over to the restaurant around 7:30 PM. We had to take two cars and we dropped Carson off at Theresa's house on the way. Doug was playing Richard Cheese in the car and Dad was in the back seat and Doug managed to leave the car at the worst parts of "Baby Got Back" and "Badd", leaving me to fend for myself.

Daniel's in Bellevue is on the 21st floor of a hotel and when we were seated, we had a pretty nice view of downtown Seattle in the distance. The food was really good. I had a 13 ounce fillet mignon with a peppercorn brandy sauce, and a baked potato. I had some clam chowder, too. Ruby was with us and was very well-behaved. She had a hamburger and fries, and some root beer, all of which are among her favorites.

It was a very nice dinner and a very nice evening, and we were all wiped out by the time we got home last night. Now it's 8:30 AM (PST) and I' already hungry again! My flight leaves Seattle at 5 PM this afternoon.

I was up at 6 AM this morning after falling asleep almost instantly last night, and sleeping soundly through the night. Doug had to go into work this morning and he left around 6:30 AM. People finally started getting up around 7:30 AM. We had some bagels for breakfast and spent most of the morning just lazing around.

I upgraded my return flights home tomorrow night. I am wait-listed on the flight from Seattle to San Francisco, even though it looks as though there are plenty of first class seats. I am confirmed in first class on the flight from San Francisco to Baltimore. I have a 4 hour layover in San Francisco, and I plan on having a good dinner somewhere in the airport there to kill some of the time. (You know what would be a good idea: movie theaters in airports. I could go and see the new James Bond movie or something to kill the time while I am waiting for my flight.)

Doug is going to try and get off work at 2 PM. Mom and Rachel just went out to get some lunch for us. We are having dinner tonight at about 8 PM at Daniel's Broiler in Seattle. I am very much looking forward to that meal. For some reason, I've felt hungry day.

Mom wants to go shopping and Rachel may want to go too, but I've been trying to convince them not to. It would be insane to be at a mall today. You're liable to end up crying.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, courtesy of Doug and Rachel. Rachel's sister Theresa and her son Alex were over to have dinner with us as well. We had a turkey, some delicious mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, new potatoes and onions. It was all delicious. After dinner, we had a birthday celebration for Ruby, who will turn 3 years old on December 1. We had pumpkin pie and birthday cake, and Ruby got to open some presents.

We also had an iChat video chat with jen_ashlock and jkashlock since they were in New York and couldn't be here for Thanksgiving.

I am both stuffed and exhausted. I was ready to go to bed at 7 PM (after having gotten up at 1 AM PST this morning)! But it looks like I'll be off to bed in the next hour or so.

My flight got into Seattle on time, and since I arrived at Doug and Rachel's, about 4 hours ago, we've been hanging out, and talking while preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I finally got to meet Carson in person and he looks just like Doug did when he was 8 months old. It's uncanny! Looks like we'll be having our dinner around 4:30 or 5 PM. Then there is a video conference with jen_ashlock and jkashlock later on this evening.

Technology!

Today is Doug and Rachel's 5 year anniversary. Five years ago today we were all hanging out on Catalina Island, having a blast. I just wanted to wish you guys a very happy anniversary.

Today is my sister-in-law, Rachel's, birthday. I want to say it's one of those big birthday's (I won't say which), but I may be mistaken. At least the last time I saw her, she didn't look a day over 25.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Rachel! I hope you have a great day.