We have to drive back north to Dallas today. It is Friday and we have a house party at our house tomorrow evening so we need to get back tonight so that we are ready for it.
We did not move too quickly this morning and just hung out for most of the day. Around three we were packed and I ran out to get an oil change on the Nissan Quest, our first one since we bought it. We needed that before making the long journey north.
After the oil change I picked up Dominica and the girls and we went to Specs and stocked up on drinks for the party tomorrow. As soon as we were done, Dominica learned that the advent calendar had been sent to her sister’s house and we need that for next week. So we had to go back there, again. That was two trips out and back after we had intended to have left.
Turns out that the calendar was not there, so one is being sent up to Dallas directly and we were able to get on the road around five. Good thing that rush hour is minimal today as it is Black Friday.
The drive was long but we did just fine. We got into Dallas around eleven. We were tired but we got to see Rachel a little before calling it a night.
Thursday, of course, as it is Thanksgiving. I spent the morning sleeping in then doing some writing as there really is not much else to do. Dominica and Francesca were busy cooking all morning, of course. They had to be up at six to do it! No fun there.
It was one when we went over to the Toccos’ house for Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was just going into the fryer, so it was a while before we got to eat. Dinner was good, as always.
We over ate until we were in pain. Why do we always do that? And what about Thanksgiving Dinner makes what seems like a normal portion of food so painfully too much? I didn’t feel like I had eaten that much but boy was it was too much. And there is no meat, so it is mostly pretty light.
After dinner we took Madeline to work as she was stuck working the pre-Black Friday madness until one or two in the morning. So we were driving her.
While Madeline was at work, Dominica and I went back to Preamble and hung out there until it was time to go to pick her up. We had a great time hanging out with Sage behind the bar and Robin, his brother from Portland, who was there this evening. There were a few girls that were there when we arrived that hung out until we nearly left as well. It was quiet but not as quiet as you would have guessed for Thanksgiving evening.
Madeline ended up being done at one so we were able to leave on the early side and go pick her and a friend up and drive them home. Madeline has to work early tomorrow morning so needs her sleep quickly.
Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We had another day today of Spiceworks being down for nearly the entire day. It was weird, for most people the community was totally offline but I was able to be on it for most of the day, but not all of it. But far more than other people. So that drove a lot of traffic to MangoLassi over the past two days as this has been going on since yesterday in the early afternoon. It’s been a bit of a wild week. And all of this following the Monday announcement that SpiceWorld London was canceled only six months before the event. I had been thinking of flying in from Cluj to see the event, as well.
Today was a quiet day for me in the back bedroom trying to get things done. I got a ton of posting done, some small projects and got to do some early Black Friday shopping online. I got a Humble Bundle of O’Reilly UNIX books, like a ton of them, for super cheap. That was a great deal, could not pass it up. GOG’s sale started yesterday and I got Technobabylon. Steam’s Autumn Sale started today and I got lot of games, mostly for Dominica, in it. Francesca says that she is going to buy a bunch of games in the sale as well, but she said that last Christmas, and over the summer as well, so we will see if the third time is a charm.
We did nothing this evening, just hung around the house. Dominica and Francesca have to be up very early tomorrow morning so no going out tonight.
Maggie was surprised this morning in Panama, waking up to find that they had been hit by Hurricane Otto. They were hit pretty hard down there, four deaths by noon, mostly from trees falling. They had to open the canal to relieve the back pressure on the water from the storm. Otto also hit Costa Rica and Nicaragua, but they are much larger countries across and were not totally swallowed up by the storm.
I set up my laptop in the back bedroom and spent much of the day getting stuff done there. I am still working on my Italian language training via DuoLingo and am making good progress. Finally hit 19% fluency this morning.
This morning Dominica worked on getting our flights booked for the early part of the year. Hard to believe that we are scheduling the flights for our third year totally abroad already! She found some amazing deals on Norwegian Air flights from JFK in New York City to Rome. We are all booked for the four of us to fly out on January 15th.
Our current plan, and of course this will change, is that we are going to drive from Dallas to NYC just after the first of the year and spend almost two weeks with my dad. Then we will go down to NYC and fly from NYC to Oslo to Rome. Then spend a week in Rome doing sightseeing and whatnot. This will be the first time for any of us to go to Rome or this far south in Italy. We have not been south of Florence in the past.
After a week in Rome we can get local flights down to Catania in Sicily for about $23. Our plan is to be living on the water south of Syracuse. So flights to Catania and the local milk train down to the village, we hope.
Dominica also has her flights booked for returning to the United States in February for Kathy and Tricia’s wedding which is on February 23rd (Rachel’s birthday) at Cocoa Beach, Florida. So she is going to fly from Catania to Rome, then take British Airways from Rome to Orland, rent a car and drive to the coast. She has her Rome to Orlando flight and back all booked and paid for now, as well. So I will be alone in Sicily with the girls for a week during my birthday.
I spent much of the day in the back room on my own and actually managed to get through thirty seven DuoLingo Italian lessons today. I’m rather impressed with myself. I am up to 24% fluency according to the site, now.
Scott and Dominica at the Preamble in Webster
This evening Dominica and I went out on a date and found the Preample not far away in Webster, Texas which was awesome. Trey was our bartender and there were a few other people in the bar for a while but then eventually it was only us left towards the end of the night. We ended up hanging out with Trey for a while. The drinks are fantastic and the selection is really impressive. We found out that they only opened up around April 1st of this year, so we discovered them on the early side. This is going to be our new hangout when we are in the area.
We did a good job of getting up this morning, packing and getting out the door. We were not exactly in a hurry, but did not want to wait around for traffic to get back, either. So we were on the road around noon.
We hit McDonald’s before leaving Carrollton so we could eat while we drove. We went east and tried to take the Dallas North Tollway but it was all backed up from construction so we diverted and worked our way along surface roads to get to TX75 and go down through downtown which worked pretty well.
Our drive was a decently easy one. We sang along with the radio for a ways. We stopped once for gas and once again for an emergency bathroom stop for Luciana. Not a bad trip at all.
We got to League City and met up with Francesca, Madeline and Emily at La Brisa for dinner. I got the firecracker shrimp tacos, which were pretty good. The girls both went for mac and cheese.
After dinner we went to the Grices’ house. But I felt like doing some walking, so Emily and I went out to Target and shopped for a few hours. We walked all over the store and were pretty goofy.
After our shopping trip we went to Starbucks and got coffee for ourselves and Madeline.
Back to the house, up for a little bit talking to Francesca and then off to bed.
I kept up with my DuoLingo Italian practice today, but am not doing as much yesterday or today as I would like to have done. Hard while driving all day to get enough time to do as much as I would like.
