Making Jam

There is nothing worse than a traffic jam. What about a red alert on I-75 South, 90 miles from home? Luckily, I and my trusty Android came to the rescue. I got us off the highway onto a beautiful scenic route minutes before the outbreak of stopped cars reached us. A tractor trailer had overturned, caught on fire, started a brush fire, and closed all lanes on 75S. There were twenty miles of stopped cars. I'm not sure we'd even be home now. But luckily, our bellies are full of ropa vieja leftovers (old clothes only get better with time), and the kittens have been cuddled, among other small welcome-home chores.

Our reason for our travels? A Marine Corps reunion in Cincinnati, Ohio. Three of Dave's groomsmen were his Marine Corps buddies that have kept in touch and actually continue to like each other. Cool thing is, they all are either married or in long-term relationships, so the girls enjoy getting together too (though I did like hanging out with them even when I was the only girl... they're an extremely fun group). They'll be the ones who'll have our three-year-old reciting gun laws and out on the range learning all the rules. It was a weekend of games and laughter, and I miss them already. I love the fact that our country is so big and has such wonderful and different geography, but it also means that best friends can live very far away!

Tomorrow we find out if our baby is a boy or girl. We were thinking of baby names on the drive up; what about Marathon Johnston? For either gender, of course...

It's better than Christmas. I have that same feeling of wanting to go to sleep just so I can open my present in the morning!