New Zealand, get ready!

Woo Hoo! My mother and I will be heading "down under" to visit my brother in New Zealand on Christmas Day. We won't arrive until late morning, December 27th (I'm being very optimistic that the planes depart and arrive on schedule). I just booked our tickets this past Monday and mom and I are both getting very excited about our journey. I'm not at all concerned about the length of the journey...I'm really good at entertaining myself for long periods of time and Air New Zealand should be quite comfortable in Business Class with lay-flat beds. Mom's going to get me to play cribbage with her...it's been decades since I've played and she says she's a champ. I've already contacted my friendly limo driver and reserved a ride down to JFK on Christmas so all I need to do is pack. And, sick as it sounds, I'm already starting that. As I change over my closet from summer to winter I'm putting the lighter weight items that I want to take with me into my suitcase. James has a shopping list of things he can't get in NZ so I will be tucking boxes of Diamond Kosher Salt and Gillette razor blades (not the Chinese knockoffs that I brought him the last time) among other things in my bags.

My brother is just as excited as we are. I'm sure he never expected us (or at least our mother) to visit him. We can't wait to see his new home and meet all his new friends.

So, that's the exciting news. The mundane things that are keeping me busy are the town Halloween Storefront Painting Contest that I'm working on (my club will be handling the prizes and refreshments); a visit by the mobile mammography van that my club district is sponsoring; fall conference and my wedding anniversary are this Friday; Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and then it will be a whirlwind of Christmas parties and Christmas in Clinton in December. There won't be any time to just sit and relax until I get in that limo. I just made 16 Hanukah cards for a card swap (also this Friday) and I'm working on my Wisconsin album pages, knitting a scarf and have a project that I want to make for a Christmas gift.

I missed work today because John asked me to drive to New Jersey with him to pick up a "bucket" for work. He promised it would be a quick trip, only 2 1/2 hours each way and I could be at work by lunchtime. We left home at 5:30 in the morning and hit every conceivable sort of traffic problem along the way. The highway was stopped dead before we hit Bridgeport. Nothing was moving southbound. Finally cars started driving backwards on the grass at an exit to get off the highway. Just try to change your route with a gps. We wound up making a big circle and getting back on the highway in exactly the same place (drove across the grass again). Suffice it to say the 2 1/2 hour trip took us 5 1/2 hours. We finally reached our destination at 11:00 about as frazzled as we could be and not looking forward to the prospect of repeating the aggravation on the way home. When John told the guy who loaded the bucket into his (brand new) truck about our harrowing trip he told us a "short cut" that completely avoided I-95. I was skeptical, but we actually had a very pleasant ride home through beautiful farmland and our toll was only $1.00. The trip home took 3 hours and we traveled the speed limit the entire time. I still think it would have been worth it to pay the seller to deliver the bucket to us but it weighs 1000 pounds...