Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Ah, The Sweet, Sweet Taste of Root Beer

Yes folks, I am back in the good old U.S. of A. The journey back was uneventful (except for the fact that I was able to twice walk through the metal detector without setting it off--hmmm) and Scout arrived a little dehydrated but otherwise okay. She did spend about 10 minutes barking at lodging a complaint with Grandpa about her mistreatment, but has settled right in on Grandma and Grandpa's her waterbed which has been made even more appealing by the addition of a memory foam pad.

As for me, I'm enjoying the sunny California weather. Europe saw me off with rain and I can't say I was shedding any tears about the weather at my departure. While driving to Amsterdam we went in and out of rainstorms the whole way. At one point it became very, very dark, which Kevin commented on. Based on my Midwest Tornado experience I said "This is Tornado-dark. When it turns this dark at noon, you can look for a funnel cloud." A few seconds later we were hit by such a deluge we had to nearly come to a stop on the highway. No funnel clouds in sight, but anyone who has ever lived in a tornado area would recognize the weather pattern.

And because so many of you have been asking, we spent the night in Amsterdam in a hotel quite near the airport and not at all in the downtown area, so no, we did not get high and go whoring like we wanted to.

For now I'm just relaxing. My car insurance has been reinstated so I tooled around in the Miata for a little bit. I had root beer with my lunch--something I've sorely missed. I've been reading How to Buy a House in California which has been extremely helpful (very good book. I recommend it to anyone who is, well, buying a house in California). The book includes handy forms for determining your housing priorities (must have: backyard, nice-to-have: backyard already fenced in) and lots of financial worksheets. I'll be all ready once Kevin arrives on Friday to jump into househunting fully.