Vegas Vacation

Greetings!

I'm home.  Actually, the girls and I got home Wednesday night just before bedtime.  (Theirs, not mine.)  We had a great trip.  I'm sure you're wanting me to say that we're tanned and gleaming from a week in the sun, but as a paranoid parent for whom sun exposure is a bad thing, we enjoyed our limited time in the sun slathered up with sunscreen.  We got back to cloudy Washington looking like we had never left.  Awesome.

We did have some great food.  I got my lentils and pasta (thanks SO much!), and I have to express my deep and abiding love for Carmine's.  Whoever Carmine is, he makes THE BEST stromboli on the planet.  For those of you who are wondering just what in the heck a "stromboli" is and how it is different from a "calzone", here's your culinary lesson of the day:

CALZONE: sometimes referred to as a stuffed or folded pizza.  It is half-circle in shape, and contains all the ingredients of a great pizza--including the sauce.

STROMBOLI: dough is rolled to resemble a loaf.  Contains all the ingredients of a great pizza--except the marinara, which is served on the side for dipping.

No matter which one you prefer, it adds up to the same thing: one great meal.

The rest of the trip was filled with fun and excitement, but I'm still thinking about stromboli, so I'll have to get back to the other some time later.  I do want to share a funny story from the plane trip home.

As we were taking off to come home, and began our ascent into the wild blue yonder, the plane was caught in some rather disturbing turbulence.  The kids on the flight thought this was better than Disneyland, and while the rest of us were serenaded with plenty of "Whee!"s and some applause, all I could think was that I had wolfed down a quick lunch and I wanted it to be over soon.  In my mind's eye, I could see our plane falling out of the sky and hitting the ground, hard.  There were flames, debris, and screaming.  In the middle of my day-terror, my 4-year old turns to me and cheerfully announces, "I see Jesus outside the plane and He's waving to me!"  Oh, crap.

We did get back down safely, but I think it'll be awhile before I fly again.  Changing gears again...

Because it's about 90 minutes (nonstop) between Mama's house and mine, my dear husband had an hour and a half to clean up the joint before we arrived.  It looked great.  In fact, I hardly recognized the place because it was cleaner than I left it.  Kudos to the hubby.  He even had the dishwasher running.  Wow.

So the next day, I opened said dishwasher to get things put away and I noticed that my three serving platters were in there.  I asked hubby, "Did you do some entertaining while I was away?"  No.  He ate off the platters because--and this is an actual quote--"they hold more food than a regular plate, and that way I wouldn't have to get up as often to refill."  That's my guy.  I suppose I should probably not divulge that his entire diet for a week consisted of eggs, potatoes, Spam, and the occasional floret of broccoli.  I think he also consumed an insane amount of cheese...it's a good thing I came back when I did.

We're all eating better, sleeping better, and acting better, and better is always good.  This reminds me of a few words of wisdom from Dorothy in her red shoes: "There's no place like home."

Gina

Comments

[patri-ette]

Wonderful post! Welcome home!
Love,
Mama