Living the High Life in Exotic Buffalo

It's been a long crazy week for Mommy.

It started out with a lovely Sunday afternoon in the pool w/ Katrina, Benny and Jacob. Before they came over we hit the grocery store for supplies. It was a banner day as we got to use the purple race car cart. Dalton surprised us all when he pointed out that the ground beef in the butcher's case looked like small intestines. I have to admit, he was kinda right.

In swimming class the week before, they did a really smart thing and taught Dalton how to come up for air when he's swimming underwater. My little fish took to it like a champ and really wow'd me. He can now swim basically the length of the pool by himself. The funny part is that he's still in Preschool swimming since he's only 3 - he's not allowed to start regular swimming lessons until he's 5. I figure by then he'll have joined the swim team and won't need the lessons anymore...

Darby did great that week in swimming as well.  That was her first swimming session this year.  The ear issues have really hampered her being able to learn, but now that she can get started again, she's coming out of the gate strong. She never liked putting her face in the water, but now she's doing it like a...king.

After swimming we had a nice dinner and let the kids trash the house. The goodbyes were a little rambunctious.


After they left, Darby went on an inexplicable patriotic rant. Don't worry about Dalton's screams in the background. His bike was stuck on a crack in the sidewalk and I told him he needed to work it out. Drama ensued.

Then it was time for bed and time for Mommy to pack everyone up for her trip to Buffalo.  Oh for the days when I just had to pack my own stuff.  This time I had to pack for 4, including the dog. And the house stayed trashed the whole time we were gone.  It sucked coming home to an upside down house, but it is what it is.

My trip to Buffalo was crazy busy. The accommodations at the Holiday Inn Buffalo Airport were very plush though. The decor had a lovely vintage 1980's feel - as did the smell in the hallway. I did get my exercise though as there was no elevator. Unfortunately I was so busy that I did not get time to check out the retro arcade - an amenity I was surprised not to see featured prominently on their website.

We did get to make a fun little trip one evening up to Niagara Falls. It was a shame we didn't have our passports - as everyone knows, the Canadian side is better :-) - but it was a nice change for me as I'd never actually seen the American side.


It was funny, we went to dinner near the falls that night and my mom sent me a picture of the kids. Apparently they decided to drive up to Canada (often the destination of their road trips) and the bathroom was the car. I'm not sure who was driving, but it seemed a peaceful trip, so I guess they had it worked out.

My trip home from Buffalo was kind of remarkable. The trips up there have been notoriously awful - not helped by the fact that there is no direct flight from DFW. The Project Manager for this project was supposed to fly in late Monday night (the rest of us got there Monday evening) but his flight got delayed 11 times and then at 1:30 in the morning got cancelled - he was stuck in DC. That actually kind of worked out for me as I got to run the Design Charrette myself and the client was really impressed. Brownie points for me.

So on Thursday, we finished our follow up meeting very early at 12:30. I had a 6:30 flight through Philadelphia, so I figured I would try to go standby on the 1:30 flight. I went to the counter and at first the lady said she couldn't get me on the earlier flight standby. She couldn't do it unless there was "weather". But she told me and the 2 guys that showed up behind me to "hang-tight". Anyway, I don't know what happened, but eventually she came over and handed me a ticket. I didn't question it. As I boarded I heard her tell the first of the 2 guys that showed up behind me that he got the last seat. The other guy didn't get on. When I got to Philadelphia, I got off the flight in Terminal F. I looked at the board to see if there was an earlier flight to DFW but it showed no flights to DFW at all. So I sat down in the hold lounge to log on to AA.com. Their system was down and they couldn't load any flights. Then I headed down the concourse and happened on a rebooking kiosk. It showed they didn't have a reservation for me. So finally I decided to go find the AA terminal.  I walked there and found out there was a flight going out of C. When I got to the gate there was about 800 people there and the standby list was totally full. Apparently the flight was oversold on top of the fact that weather had screwed a bunch of flights. So I resigned myself to getting back on my original flight, but was concerned that something had happened to my reservation. The girl checked for me and sure enough, the girl in Buffalo had cancelled my second leg when she'd put me on standby. That turned out to be the best news of the day though, as, since it was their screw-up, she put me on the standby list for the early flight, and bumped me to #2. So I got on the flight after all. The cherry on top: I was assigned to the middle seat, but when Mr. Window Seat arrived he asked me if I'd like the window seat. I have no idea why, since he didn't know Mr. Aisle Seat, but again, I didn't ask questions. So I arrived at 7:30. At least 3 hours earlier than scheduled.

While I was gone, the kids totally rocked their swim lessons. This is them waiting anxiously for the lessons to begin.