Well, I am writing this from Vienna, Virginia. You know what that means? I didn't get sucked into some thunder and lightning vortex over Denver, that's what that means.

The day went so smoothly, I could hardly believe it. I got up at 4:20 having already showered a scant 4.5 hours ago and got dressed. My hair didn't even need to be fixed because I'd only slept on it for 4.5 hours. Joey got up and got dressed pretty much on her own. At 4:40 I looked outside and our airport shuttle was driving in the driveway right on time. We drove to the airport with virtually no traffic (go figure, it was only 5am) and got there in plenty of time. Walked up to the counter and checked in then went to a cafe and had a leisurely breakfast. We walked to the gate just as it was time for our row to board and walked on the plane. It took off promptly at 6:25. The flight to Denver was uneventful and since it was morning and the air was still cool, there were no thunderstorms yet, for which I was *very* grateful. (Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers--I said a few myownself! I was particularly worried after reading HerWorship's entry yesterday so I was much relieved to see only light clouds as we approached the Mile High City.)

When we were taking off from Denver, I watched out the window and was amazed to see just how flat the geography is east of Denver. The earth fell away from under me an a patchwork of perfect squares and rectangle in varying shade of green and brown and tan. The roads all intersected at perfect right angles except when an occasional crazy-ass highway meandered at any old angle through the geometric pattern. I watched out the window a long time, fascinated with the squares of farmland below me.

The approach to Baltimore required planes to make a big circle before landing which made me kind of nauseated and there was some turbulence which Joey giggled at like a thrill ride, but we made it safely to the runway and our gate.

The only hitch in the whole day was the terrible traffic that my friend DeeAnn had to travel in to get to Baltimore. The normally 1 hour drive took her 2 hours. Thankfully, I had my cell phone so I called her house, got her cell phone number and called her to find out where she was. Finally she arrived and we bid adieu to Ed who was travelling to Scranton, PA to do some genealogical research on his family there for a day before joining us in Virginia.

DeeAnn had planned a picnic dinner of barbecue beef sandwiches in a park where there was a free concert playing so we had a lovely evening on our blankets with the kids. The food was good, too. I was very hungry because I'd hardly eaten all day.

When we were leaving the concert, Joey and I were so excitd to be able to see fireflies flashing at each other. I've never seen a firefly in my life and it was so kewl to be able to see them flashing all over the place. I was completely entranced with them. I caught a few, too.

And now, here we are--Joey is safely esconced in bed with two other little munchkins and I am sitting here in a quiet office catching up on all your days today. We have a fun outing planned tomorrow at a historic farm and then in the evening, we're going to play miniature golf. Ed will be rejoining us in the evening. Things are looking good.

Thanks to all of you who signed my guestbook--I really appreciate it. Looks like I'll be able to update pretty regularly this week which makes me very happy. :-)

See you later...

--L