Sunday, November 30, 2008

Random Bullets of Holy Guacamole It's Been Five Days

  • Finished one sock for MM, have the sneaking suspicion that there will not be enough yarn to finish the second sock. MM's feet have gotten fireplacing huge. 7 & 1/2 inches from heel to toe.
  • Also finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to MM (he read the first chapter and a half on his own, but "you read faster than I do, Mommy"). Finished it at MIL's house on Friday, watched the movie coming back in the train.
  • Started reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to MM, and read 10 chapters on the train yesterday. We've just finished chapter 15, Aragog. MM guessed out who the dead victim from the attacks 50 years ago was!
  • MIL cooks a damned good Thanksgiving feast. And SIL makes a fantastic corn casserole (I got the recipe!). And did I mention my MIL's homemade pumpkin cheesecake? Oh. My. God.
  • If you're heading to anywhere Amtrak goes, just take it. The sleeper down was fantastic. What a great way to spend 11 hours traveling. Word to the wise, if you get a sleeper compartment, you also get your dinner included. And the dining car has great food.
  • Coming back, the sleeper was sold out so we took a day train and it took...all day. But no problem, as it gave us more time to read and watch movies (see points above).
  • The snack car is not equal to the dining car.
  • Don't let the snack car attendant put the heated hot dog on top of a Snickers bar.
  • Fantasia goes a lot faster when you fast-forward over the narrator.
  • Dancing hippos never stop being funny.
  • They're even funnier if you've just watched Madagascar.
  • Most useful purchase this trip: a head-phone-jack splitter so that I could hear the movies too!
How was your Thanksgiving?

7 comments:

KLee said...

You were just over the river from me, right? I wish we could have arranged a meet-up, but I knew things would be hectic for you, so I didn't even ask.

Let me know next time you're down this way, and we'll MAKE it work, somehow.

Liz Miller said...

Will do, my dear!!! I thought about how close by we were the whole time and never got a chance to fly the coop.

kathy a. said...

sounds like a wonderful thanksgiving!

Magpie said...

You know, that sounds like a lot of fun. I've always wanted to go somewhere by train.

kathy a. said...

i love the trains. it is my goal to get a sleeper car one day. :) but we had a wonderful extended-family amtrak jaunt in october, for my aunt's 70th, picking up family along the route!

anyone dismayed by the amazing shrinking seats on airplanes will adore the roomy regular seats on the train. even commuter lines have great seats, places with tables, and a snack car! the long-distance route we traveled had an observation car -- big windows and viewing seats, plus a bunch of tables for 4 -- and the lovely dining car, by reservation.

susan said...

I totally want to take a train somewhere, anywhere now!

Our holiday was fun: nothing too exciting, but good conversations and good food.

Madeleine said...

I'm glad you had such a wonderful time on the train!

We flew for the holiday, which went smoothly against all expectation. And it was so lovely to sit and look over at my two favorite people reading and chatting and having snacks. It reminded me that we need to take a cross-country train trip. Soon. Before Snuggly Girl is too big to want to spend that much time with us.