Back from vacation

I feel like I've been gone forever. I so do not want to go back to work tomorrow - so I'm up at 12:40am. Sigh.

We did have a pretty good time. We saw all 6 parents (includes step parents) plus one set of the the grandparents (Mr. Gaia's). We went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas and to SeaWorld San Antonio. We saw Harry Potter 5 in IMAX 3D. We hiked up to Robbers' Cave.

We drove approximately 2000 miles. And managed to only have a minor instance of a traffic jam in Austin (where I also observed a man pleasuring himself up under an overpass).

In the 8 days we were in Oklahoma, it rained 6 times (at least). All of the rivers were swollen and the news was full of concerns about whether the dams would hold this unheard of amount of water. People who were boating for the 4th of July report tying their boats to light posts in parking lots.

My mother in law reports seeing egrets fishing in her lower pasture. I observed a ton of either snowy egrets or great white egrets (nothing to compare for size to be sure and I didn't observe bill color as closely as I should, concentrating instead on leg color to distinguish between snowy egrets and cattle egrets).

I only observed one red tailed hawk. I usually see them at least every mile in my home county, so I'm disturbed by this observation.

I saw my parents' alligator snapping turtle and their huge carp along with the catfish they are feeding in their pond.

I saw a few of the people I went to high school with. Those who are still living in my hometown have gained a lot of weight and look supremely unhappy. Those of us who have moved out have gained some weight and look more happy. Of course, this was one day so who knows what it is really like most of the time.

I took the ox beetles with me (I have two males now, still no female) and managed to keep them alive as we traveled from place to place.

I slept in 5 different beds while I was away and am so happy to be home in my own bed.

I finished my knit tank top. I actually finished it twice, the first time I tried it on before I added the straps and figured out that it might fit a 12yo. So I frogged it and redid it on larger needles (I did swatch it out, but I'm having some difficulty learning to purl in the continental method, so my swatch was really uneven). Now it fits nicely. I found ribbon in my mom's sewing cabinet (it's actually hem tape but it's shiny like ribbon and is the exact color I wanted).

I gained at least 5 pounds. So I have to really work hard the next few weeks to get my appetite back under control.