Rick's Journal

Look at that, a post, and only a week and a half since the last one. 

( Long ramblings beneath the cut to save friends' pages )

It's been over a week since I posted.  You'd think I'd post more during a vacation or at least on coming back, but life had other plans for me.  Between sickness, family Thanksgiving and no internet connectivity in the condo units, It just wasn't to be.  Once Monique's family started coming in Tuesday night, that ended forays up to the main building to connect.  Monique frowns on such anti-social behavior so I decided to skip adding to the drama of a family gathering by even making the attempt.

We spent Thanksgiving in Williamsburg, VA.  We have a timeshare down there and we used some of our banked swap time to pick up more units so that each family could have their own place to stay for the 3 1/2 days were together.  Unfortunately, ours was the master hang-out unit, so there really was no escape from the mob.  In the long run, it wasn't too bad because letting everyone else escape kept the stress relatively low.  There were a few moments, but not nearly as many as I anticipated and I actually had some very cool conversations with my niece Melanie.  She's always been very quiet and non-communicative.  I think college has done her a lot of good.

I found this brochure for a Crystal Concert in historic Williamsburg and talked people into going to see it.  It was only $10 a person and most everyone wanted to see the historic part of Williamsburg anyway, so it worked out.  This was really cool.  It was a program by a guy who plays the crystal armonica, crystal handbells, a glass violin and this french instrument that's made of glass that looks like a xylophone called a baschet.  Everyone in the family loved it, so I was pleased that I managed to pull off a successful family activity.  If you want to see some of these amazing instruments, check out http://www.crystalconcert.com/photo_gallery.htm

The drive home Saturday was pretty brutal.  It took us 11 hours.  I did all the driving so Monique could keep an eye on Elijah.  We took him on the ride home so Amy and Chris could get ahead.  They were going all the way up to NH for the Sunday football game.  Unfortunately, even though they had an hour head start on us, because of traffic and alternate routes and us meeting up with them in NJ (we caught up), we ended up getting home before them.

And to make matters worse, both Monique and I caught colds while on vacation, so that added to the general stress and fatigue.  I actually ended up being quite sick Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to the point that I've missed two days work this week.  So I guess I'd better get to it because being out for a week and a half isn't going to make the rest of this week any easier.