Let the festivities begin

Greetings from TX! And so the festivities have begun. But first, excellent news from school. One of the MPA directors called me on Thursday to tell me that I passed all of the comp exams! I went online to check grades...still waiting on the final grade for my last class, so it's still too early to start bugging the school secretary to send me my degree. But soon, since I have no concerns about that last grade. So happy!

I went to work on Thursday but was rather distracted and left at 2:00 since my customers are on the east coast anyway. I went to run a few errands before our friends' Xmas party scheduled for 7:00. Was surprised at how many people were out and about at 2pm. Don't you people have to be at work?!? I was wondering, looking for a parking space. Gift exchange that night was a lot of fun. Everyone brought gifts for Jack, which was cute, and omg but she was having a blast with all of her gifts and the scattered wrapping paper and ribbons. My friends all brought really thoughtful gifts for Mike and me as well. It was very sweet.

We flew into DFW yesterday. I knew we'd be late as soon as I remembered we were flying American. In my experience, American is nearly always late. Luckily we were flying nonstop and my sister always checks the flight schedules before she comes to pick us up. No worries. Our plane arrived late into Burbank, as expected. Then we were told that our nonstop flight would include one stop in Ontario to get fuel. Due to the wind. I didn't really understand the connection but our pilot was kind enough to explain it to us. Burbank has really short runways. If you've ever landed there then you might recall that upon touchdown the pilot slams on the brakes so that you are reminded of why you are wearing a seatbelt. Mike always complains about the "rough" landing so I have lately taken to reminding him upon descent that we'll be braking hard. He forgets every time. Well, apparently these short runways also affect takeoff, as does the weight of the plane when it's full of fuel. When you add wind to the equation, I guess it makes takeoff impossible. So they elected to take off empty and get fuel in nearby Ontario, where I took this photo out the window. We arrived an hour or so late to DFW.

Then at baggage claim, after we had collected Mike's bag, the carousel suddenly stopped. There was a bag stuck at the top of the conveyor belt. It was mine. We had to wait and wait for it to start up again. I almost asked Mike to climb up there and get it for me.