Adventures in Doggiesitting

This is Niko. He is a baby boxer, about 4 months old. He and Buster have been buddies for a couple of months and we had the privilege of keeping him overnight while his "parents" went to Miami.

Niko has learned to sit and shake, and is working on mastering stay and lie down. He is also learning to master his bladder, which we discovered when he anointed Buster's bed as we were getting ready to go to sleep.

Our three cats didn't mind him much until he decided to chase them up the stairs, but we had foreseen this problem and put up a baby-gate so the cats could get a reprieve from his desperate requests to play with him.

Buster was very patient, even let Niko bite his ears and steal his chew toys, but was more than a little bit relieved when it was time for Niko to go home.

Website for Details

http://www.ewedding.com/v20/main.php?a=scottylovesreese

Important Stuff

A year from now we will either be married or living in the Northwest.

Let the saving begin!

Since You Asked...

What we DO know:
We are planning to get married in the Portland metro area, either this fall or the following spring. It will likely be an indoor wedding as Portland weather is not reliable enough to schedule outdoors.

Kevin Brusett will do the officiating, Monica Elie is the Matron of Honor. Scott is working on getting his attendant list finalized.

I'm compiling a guest list and it's looking bigger every moment! We're hoping to get a rough number of guests so we know how big of a venue we will need, so we can figure out a rough budget and then how long it will take to save up for it.

I've picked out a frontronner in the dress department and we've narrowed down styles for Scott. I'd like the colors to be white, deep dark red, and a deep dark orange.

What we DON'T know:
Date & Venue

I'll update as we know more...

Return to Paradise

I have come back to Key West an engaged woman.

Our trip to the west coast was very eventful, exciting, and busy! We packed a lot of visits with friends and family into 9 days.

We began our adventure on Friday, December 22 after work. We managed to finish packing and prepare the animals for our absence and get to the airport on time thanks to a ride from Brandon. We checked in and found our flight was overbooked and they were in need of people to fly the next day. Fortunately enough people jumped at the chance to stay in paradise for another day that we were able to leave on our scheduled Delta flight to Atlanta.

The planes that come in and out of Key West are of the smaller variety, and altitude and turbulence are felt stronger than on a bigger jet. By the time our two-hour flight landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International airport I was feeling a little more than quesy. We had about a two hour layover before our flight out, so we rested and I took a dramamine to face the next leg.
We arrived into San Fransisco around 12:30am and Gary and Carla picked us up at baggage claim. Once at the Cumpston house, I stayed up for about 20 minutes, long enough to discover that the box of presents I had shipped by UPS 3 day a week previous had not arrived yet. I went to bed and we agreed to try and track down the package in Menlo Park the next morning.

I woke up on Saturday when Kevin and Katie arrived from their flight in. Carla and Scott were out "shopping for dad" and trying to track down the UPS package. I heard a doorbell and found the missing package on the doorstep. Scott and Carla arrived back at the house about an hour later and we all drove together to Fogarty Winery up in the hills.

We did some wine tasting and took a couple of fun pictures on the hillside overlooking the valley.

We made our way back down to Woodside and stopped at the Woodside Bakery for lunch, enjoying fresh baked bread and wood-fired pizza with leftovers to take home.

After a nap, Gary, Carla, Katie, Kevin, Scott and myself got in the car and drove to Gary's cousin Doug's house. Doug's wife Liz and kids Ray, Cate and Jane also joined us and after homemade hors d'oeuvres we all went into downtown Palo Alto and sat down to dinner at Spago.

After ordering, Scott wanted to take a walk outside for some fresh air, so we crossed the street to a small park. It was quite cold out and Scott had not brought his jacket out of the restaurant, so we walked at a decent pace to stay warm. After making a few laps around the park we stopped next to a park bench, and after he got out of my grip, went down on one knee on the sidewalk and proposed. I must not have answered and he said "Please say yes!"

I said yes (of course!) and we went back to dinner and celebrated with the family.

We were treated to a chocolate lava cake with ice cream and whipped cream and champagne.

Sunday morning we went back to the jeweler to pick the final setting for the diamond Scott had picked out (astounding in it's own right) and did a little last minute shopping while waiting for it to be ready to pick up.

Pizza for lunch again but this time at "Pizza My Heart" in downtown Palo Alto, where we bought t-shirts for $5 each and got a free piece of pizza.

Christmas Eve dinner was Potato Cheese soup, salad and paninis. We watched The Devil Wears Prada and then went to bed around 1am.

Christmas morning Scott's sister Katie and her husband Kevin ran yelling "Santa was here! Santa was here!" through the house at about 7am. There was a beautiful sunrise through the trees as we opened our stockings and gifts.

There was a little time for naps before Doug and his family came over for hors d'oeuvres, and then a quick dinner before Gary delivered Katie and Kevin to the airport for a flight back to Portland.

Scott and I stayed up for a little while and then went to bed, only to be woken up at about 12:30 to pile into the car and leave for our drive north. We hit rain going through San Fransisco and it didn't let up until it turned to snow just south of Weed. The snowflakes were about 3 inches in diameter and blowing sideways. We braved the blizzard and it got better by the time we reached Yreka, coinciding with daylight.

We finally pulled up to my mom's house in Clackamas right after noon on the 26th. The first visit was to Monica and John Paul's house, where we watched the kids open their presents. Mom had asked that we be back to her house by 5pm to begin preparations for our pseudo Christmas Eve traditional evening. Our evening began with dinner and the traditional lighting of the advent wreath candles, and ended with opening yet more presents and crashing into bed around 10:30pm.

Morning of the 27th we drove across town to the home of Keith and Julie Thomson, parents of Scott's brother-in-law. After opening gifts and enjoying homemade shortbread, we proceeded to Scott's Grandma Virginia's house minutes away and opened MORE gifts.

Once we said goodbye to Virginia, we drove back across town and stopped at the Ouchida house for about a half hour, where we discovered that Britt and Dan got engaged about two hours after we did.

We dashed out to the Oregon City McMenamins to have lunch with Tiffany at about 3pm, and then made our way back to Mom's house to nap.

Applebees off 112th in Vancouver was our destination for dinner with Andy, Adam, Kelli and Sarah Rodriguez. They enjoyed their "Chou-lendars" and we shared engagement stories.

Thursday morning we met Britt and Dan for breakfast at Jam On Hawthorne and then enjoyed a couple of hours with TJ, Michelle and Taylor at their home in Milwaukie. We had just enough time to drive to Mom's to change and then head to The Ram in Lake Oswego for lunch with Carla, Grandma Eloise and Scott's other cousin Jane.

In the short amount of time between lunch and dinner, I had the opportunity to spend my Target gift card and a little time at Bridal Exclusives in Clackamas Promenade and may have found THE dress.

7pm found Lou, Mom, Scott and myself parking in the lot at Riverplace, and braving the very cold wind to walk down the plank to the Marina Fish House (previously Newport Bay). Gary and Carla joined us shortly after and we enjoyed a fantastic meal capped off with Gary and Lou sharing a berry cobbler.

Friday morning we woke early and drove to Monica and John Paul's house, visited for a few minutes and then delivered Sammey to Brusett's house for a birthday party. Kevin agreed to perform our ceremony, whenever it ends up being.

It was great to see the girls at my old office for a few minutes before heading south into Portland.

Scott dropped me off at my hair appointment and then we grabbed lunch on the way to visit Julie and Ella. Ella is 4 1/2 and very smart. It was great to catch up with them and we were sorry Keith wasn't able to be there.

I dropped Scott off with Andy and spent the afternoon at the downtown Clark County Title branch saying "hi."

I met Roxy and her family and Tony at the Spaghetti Factory in Vancouver for dinner, and then sped to Tualatin to meet the gang at Hayden's Lakefront Grill.

JVA rocked the place out and I even got to play a little cowbell before TJ took over. It turned out to be a bit of an un-official engagement party, attended by Monica & John Paul, TJ, Andy, Travis, Pete, Jen, Chad, Bill, Bob & Chelsea, and Matt and Tiffany. We stayed until the very end and finally got to sleep around 1am.

Saturday morning I got up at 7am and went to Bridge City for rehearsal before singing and playing keyboard for worship during church. Mom and Lou brought Scott for the service and I got to hold Connor for about 1/2 of the message.

Scott and Sindos' wedding started just after 2pm a few miles away and then we had a small window of time to pre-pack for our flight out. The wedding reception was at the Oswego Lake Country Club and we bailed after dinner was served.

Packing up and loading out managed to only take us about a half hour, helped by the fact that we decided to ship a lot of stuff from Portland to Key West so we didn't have to cram it into our luggage.

We arrived at Bob's house around 9pm and had an hour to hang out with Rachel & Gary, Mike & Erin, Monica & John Paul, Brooke & Nate, Andy, Bob & Chelsea, Chris and show pics of Chou to Jeff.

After a round of goodbyes, Bob dropped us at the airport and we checked in for our flight back to Atlanta.

Scott gave up some toothpaste and lotion at security, and we were able to board our plane without having to wait too long.

The three hour layover in Atlanta was taken up by napping, especially after I took a dramamine, which knocked me out hard.

The flight to Key West went quickly and smooth, considering I was sleeping.

Shaunta picked us up and we were happy to get home and greet the kitties right around 1pm.

Countdown to Christmas - 6 days

We are leaving Key West for California in just 3 days. All that remains to be done at home is pack and clean, as we are having guests over New Year's Weekend.

We'll put our Christmas tree out on the back porch before we leave so it can have some sun.

I found this festive fellow enjoying his holidays on our front porch last night. I googled him and he's quite common to the area - a Spiny Orb Weaver. Not harmful, good with bug catching.

Anyone want one for Christmas? He's about the size of a dime.

Countdown to Christmas - 10 days

One week until we depart for California. We've been notified of a little added time to our layover in Atlanta, but the rest of the plans are still looking good.

We finally got a new key to our mailbox and were able to receive the mass buildup of Christmas cards (and bills) that were waiting.

The last two UPS shipments of presents are going out today, and my company Christmas Party is tonight.

We are enjoying near 80 degree weather every day, and only a little rain. I recieved a text message from one of the tenants in my Vancouver house "you have a tree in your driveway" but I verified with my co-owner that everything is ok, and they only lost power for about 5 minutes.

The picture is from Scott's Christmas Party last weekend.

Countdown to Christmas - 12 Days

I have 2 Christmas presents left to buy or make, 3 boxes of presents to ship out to their destinations.

We attended Scott's company Christmas party on Saturday night, and my company Christmas party will be this Friday evening.

I've been decorating at work since the first week of December, and it's looking very festive, if just a little hodge-podge.

The stockings are laying under the counter with care... or in the case of the dog - hung on the cupboard handle, and in the case of the cats, hung on the wine rack above their dishes.

Chou still sits under the table, even though the fort of presents has been dismantled.

Scott and I are each working just 7 more days and then we depart for San Fransisco.

Countdown to Christmas - 21 Days

The tree is up and decorated, 90% of the presents are made or purchased.

I watched one of my two yearly Christmas required movies on Saturday night: Mixed Nuts. It's a Nora Ephron film with a ridiculous plot and great cast. Steve Martin, Rita Wilson, Madeline Kahn, Adam Sandler, Juliette Lewis, Anthony LaPaglia and Liev Schreiber. I believe the movie was in theatres the Christmas season of 1994.

My other favorite is White Christmas (not Holiday Inn) with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney.

Countdown to Christmas - 25 Days

3 weeks from tomorrow we will fly to San Fransisco to spend Christmas with Scott's parents.

We're looking forward to spending the holiday in parts of the country where you can tell a little easier that it's winter.

We purchased our Christmas tree Tuesday night and will hopefully get it inside and decorated this weekend. From the picture, it looks like we are giving lots of flip flops as presents this year.

In actuality, all the presents that are already wrapped are sitting under the kitchen table, and Chou likes to hide behind them.

I'll Be Home For Christmas

You can count on me...

Scott and I will be heading out of the Key West airport after work on Friday, December 22nd and flying to San Fransisco by way of Atlanta, arriving around 11:15pm. We'll enjoy the weekend and Christmas Day with Scott's family, and then pile in their vehicle and drive to Portland.

We should arrive in Portland sometime on the 26th (ETA TBD). The only plans set in stone so far for the Portland part of the trip are that we are pretty booked up for Saturday the 30th. We'll be attending church at Bridge City that morning, and then attending a wedding and reception in the afternoon and early evening. Our plane leaves at about 11:15pm Saturday night, so we're hoping to hang out a little with the gang before catching our ride back to Key West.

Friday night we'll crash with Monica and John Paul, and I'm hoping to get in a trip to Colour Authority so I look a little blonder when we get back.

I'd love to have dinner with the Bob's World crew also on Friday if possible.

The interim will be spent largely with my Mom and Lou, with a possible trip up the gorge to Walla Walla/College Place. My cousin's twin boys are keeping their mother on bed rest as they'd like to make their debut a little earlier than due (January 12). If they've arrived by then, we'll probably make the trek to meet them.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we are enjoying our new couch, delivered Friday afternoon. I've already napped on it twice.

Our house is shaping up and looking more home-like every day, come visit!

Time Flies and Cockroaches Don't

It's almost been two months since I arrived in Key West.

I've enjoyed a major festival (Fantasy Fest), visited the local Starbucks (which is privately owned and does not take Starbucks cards), gone to the beach once, to Miami twice, almost quit my job, been locked out of the house three times, gone to the pool three times, been late to work a few times and early a few times too.

Life is pretty normal, except for discovering a cockroach on it's back in the bathtub as I was turning on the shower. He's now working with the cast of the new movie "Flushed Away."

The drive from Key West to the mainland is beautiful. The speed limit is 45 for about half the trip, so while it's only about 130 miles, it takes a good 3 hours. There's never a time where you can only see ocean, the longest stretch over the water is the Seven Mile Bridge.

The most authentic Mexican restaurant in the area is Salsa Loca. Considering how far we are geographically from Mexico, it's nice to find good Mexican food! The servers are all older white ladies, but whoever is doing the cooking definately knows what they are doing.

On Halloween evening Scott and I enjoyed dinner at Monty's, which is an outdoor bar and restaurant right on the boardwalk. We enjoyed a taco salad and watched the sunset, then walked on the dock out to a boat that was moored but had it's underwater lights on. There were 6-8 Tarpin fish swimming and dining on minnows in the light. It was an incredible view. We sat on the dock and watched them for a good half hour and then got 50 cents worth of fish food out of a dispenser and tried to feed them. They weren't interested.

Media Review

TV
Heroes - NBC: Great show. Hard to pick up in the middle but I'm all caught up in it even though I never saw the first episode.

Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip - NBC: I really enjoy this show. I like the dynamic of Amanda Peet, Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry together. Wacko with a little drama thrown in. And it's great to see that Wings guy as a bit of an butthead.

Books
Running With Scissors - I know the movie just came out also, but two Saturdays ago I spent the afternoon reading the entire thing. A true account of the teenage years of the author, raising himself with the help (or hindrance) of a psycho psychologist and even more psycho mother. I'm looking forward to the movie even though I know it can't possibly be as good as the book. WARNING: It is a graphic book. And I don't mean pictures.

Get Fuzzy - It's true, I like a comic strip. This one features Rob, a poor schlub working in advertising, his dog (mother was a sharpei and father was a lab) Satchel and siamese cat Bucky. I bought two compilations on my own and was given two more as a birthday present. There are four more I'm going to have to acquire.

Movies
Jackass 2 - Had to close my eyes to keep from throwing up a few times.......

One Month

As of tomorrow morning, I will have been a resident of Florida for one month.

I've been working at a new job for about 3 weeks, and recently had some issues there that have inspired me to continue to keep my eyes open for another position elsewhere.

The dog and cats are getting comfortable with each other, even being willing to share space on the bed together. Chou has come down off the refrigerator, but it looks like he has taken to eating Buster's canned dog food and regurgitating it back up.

Our condo is shaping up nicely, we're adding furniture as we can and enjoying the four decks attached to our unit. I've also been enjoying the small pool located in the middle of our complex.

I do miss having certain things nearby; Old Spaghetti Factory's closest location is in Georgia, and Costco, Old Navy, WalMart and Target are all in Miami, but there are new fun local places too.

A Dream Come True...

You may think yesterday was Saturday, but it was Murphy-Day.

We attempted a purchase at K-Mart with a check from a brand-new local account. Apparently brand-new accounts limit the initial number of checks you can write, so the check was declined and we left the store without our silverware, curtain rods, spatulas and strainer.

Later I discovered the long-awaited debit card in the mail and went back to K-Mart with cash (just to be safe). I carefully re-selected all of our purchases and checked out.

As I was loading the new silverware into the dishwasher, I discovered that one box had 12 soup spoons and 8 knives instead of 4 sets of knife, big fork, little fork, big spoon, little spoon, and the OTHER box was short a big spoon.

We went back to K-Mart for the third time (a charm) and from the SINGLE last box of that style of silverware on the shelf, created two full boxes.

Meanwhile, back at Good-News Ranch, we bought a mattress and box springs which were delivered FREE the same afternoon.

I have now slept on a REAL bed and eaten my cereal with a REAL spoon. I can die a happy woman.

The New Frontier

Frida, the office Pomeranian is asleep on the floor. She belongs to Donna, who hired and is training me. Donna is negotiating an add in the Yellow Pages with the Bell South guy.

Today is my second day at SeaTech Electric, Inc. located on Rockland Key. They are an electrical company that does government contracts. They have business all over the Keys, the U.S, and even embassies outside the country.

I am the Assistant to the Director of Finance (Donna). She has been overwhelmed with work over the last few months and got authorization to hire an Assistant.

It's good to have an intellectual outlet finally, I've been basically on vacation for almost a month. While it's nice to have a break, I've been a little stir-crazy the last week or so.

We'll make our first venture back to the mainland this weekend to pick up the BMW and make a Costco run.

At Home in Key West

I've been home for one week as of yesterday.

We commemorated the event by spending the afternoon on Picnic Island - which is really a sand bar. The water is shallow enough to just anchor and wade around. We enjoyed a few games of frisbee (I was knocked in the head only once, remarkably) and I don't know if anyone was counting, but I should have gotten double points for landing the frisbee on the bow of a strangers boat.

Apparently we left our brains in the northwest, because even though we are now living in Florida, neither of us has purchased any sunscreen. Fortunate for us there was a mother with two children on our adventure, and she provided a menu of spf 30 and spf 50 for our enjoyment. I chose some 30, but not soon enough and am a bit pink.

Scott's furniture arrived today, moved off the truck in about 2.5 hours. I have unpacked two boxes of dishes and glassware and started the dishwasher running. I am greatly looking forward to putting clothes away in a dresser in the closet, and not just in organized piles on the master bedroom floor.

We are now one step closer to the dream - sleeping on a real bed. The bed frame arrived with everything else today, but the movers would not bring the mattress or box springs as they had mildewed in storage while in North Carolina. We will have to purchase a new mattress and box springs, along with a couch, since it's predecessor (I've always wondered if this word literally means "previously deceased"...) was also denied transit due to mold.

We have a full set of dishes, glasses, chargers, a toaster, what I think is a juicer, and some other various kitchen items. There is also a lovely set of tables that include a small dining table, a coffee table and side table.

The cats are getting used to the dog, on Thursday night Maui (the siamese) "kissed" Buster (the boxer) briefly. Progress from hissing. Chou can usually be found on top of the refrigerator, although we are doing our best to discourage this. Minx ate some of Buster's dog food yesterday, I don't know if it was because she felt she hadn't had enough cat food or if she was just trying to get Buster to notice that SHE is the alpha dog.

Road Trip: Day Seven and Eight

Sulpher LA to Key West FL

This long-push-drive-through-the-night thing is crazy. The much needed hotel room was enjoyed until right about noon on Saturday. We had slept long and hard, and once we had packed everything out, discovered that we had lost the room key while looking for my phone. About a half hour down the road I noticed the room key on the dashboard. ooops. That thing is going in the scrapbook!

We made it across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and rolled into Florida around 7pm central time. I sent a bunch of bulk text messages to let everyone know we had made it to the home state safely and had about another 12-15 hours to go.

Having a cat that has her own internal clock is interesting. I don't mind being reminded to feed them on time, but when she decides that everyone should be in bed, she means business! We had a full encore of the night two nights before, where she ran around the car yelling and running on the windows. Not conducive to my attempt at sleeping, which was already much hindered by the fact that my legs are a lot longer than the space I had to put them in.

Scott was getting tired, and as he was driving, I finally convinced him to pull over so we could both nap for an hour and maybe the cats would calm down as well. We were on the Florida Turnpike at this point, at about 5:45am on Sunday, so we pulled into one of the many Service Plazas, filled up with gas and tried to sleep.

Minx was not to be fooled. She knows the difference between people napping in a car in a parking lot and being AT HOME in a real bed. What had worked two nights before was not to be. I finally tuned out the meowing, but about 35 minutes into the experiment, Scott got out and walked off his frustration. I gave him a few minutes, got out and ushered him back into the car, and took over the drivers seat.

I drove for about an hour and a half and then handed the wheel back over to Scott, who was fully awake by this time.

We enjoyed the sunrise somewhere between Orlando and Miami, and I fell asleep shortly after.

I tried really hard to stay awake to enjoy the drive out over the Keys, but was feeling pretty crummy and a little nauseous, so I crashed out and Scott woke me up as we pulled onto Roosevelt Boulevard.

Our condos are just a mile or so down Roosevelt and we pulled in safely to the carport. I snoozed in the car while Scott took just the necessary items and the cats upstairs and then he came to fetch me.

I stumbled up the stairs and then he carried me over the threshold. Very sweet.

We napped for about 3 hours and then met one of Scott's coworkers for dinner at Kelly's.

Thus endeth the Vancouver, Washington to Key West, Florida saga.

Road Trip: Day Five and Six

Scottsdale AZ to Sulpher LA

My alarm went off at 6:45am so we could make it to breakfast at Dad & Heather's by 7:30am. We turned into the Thunderbird Adventist Academy campus at about 7:40am and parked in the shade (the cats we left at the motel). Heather had prepared eggs, and pancakes with strawberries or an assortment of jams. Just before we sat down to eat Dad opened the last two years worth of Christmas presents: a foot massager for Heather, Pooh and Tigger jumpers for Makayla, and a new watch for Dad, along with an M&M scrapbook.

Dad handled the requisite interrogation of Scott's worthiness while I watched and took pictures of Makayla enjoying her breakfast. Her clothes enjoyed it, too.

After breakfast we took pictures of me and my little sis and Makayla and I opened the goodie bags Dad had brought home from his trip up north on Southwest Airlines: plane shaped cookies and a set of honorary pilot's wings for each of us.

We headed back to the Motel with the intention of taking a nap before getting back on the road. When we opened the door to our room, Chou was there waiting happily to greet us, so I put food in the dishes for the cats' "second breakfast". Chou remained alone at the buffet and our concern grew as we searched the suite for Minx and Maui. Not in the closet, not in the bathroom, not in the sitting area, not in either of the windows, not behind any of the furniture, and not even meowing. When we left for breakfast we had left the "do not disturb" tag on the door to avoid an escape courtesy of Housekeeping. Scott and I went downstairs into the courtyard and I searched in the plants while Scott notified the manager of our situation. The manager informed us that there IS a way to get under the bed (the bed frame from all appearances is solid), and he would come help us look in a couple of minutes.

Back upstairs, the mattress and the box springs were dismantled to reveal two very guilty looking beasts. They were pulled out, the bed was put back together and we napped until about 1:15pm.

Loaded in and ready to go, I had found Chou and Maui and deposited them in the crate, but couldn't find Minx. We ensured that the bed hidey-hole was not accessible and finally discovered her behind the dresser.

The 101 loop south took us to 202 south and then back to 10 east. We got off on the Baseline exit and found our way to Duff's office, where Duff and Denise were waiting to visit for a little while before Denise had to go let the kids in the house after school and Duff had appointments.

We were out of Tempe by 4pm and headed east. I was driving for this leg and made it for about an hour and a half and didn't feel so hot, so Scott took over.

Just above Las Cruces, New Mexico, we pulled into a rest area to shuffle some things around, feed and water the cats, relieve ourselves, take pictures of the city lights and switch drivers. While Scott was searching for the flashlight, Minx managed a daring escape (maybe she sensed that we were near the state prison) and took off toward a small building. Scott hollered at me and took off after her. I shouted "don't chase her!" so he stopped, went back to the car to shut the door so the other two hooligans wouldn't get out, and I followed Minx around the building for two laps before Scott came back and went the other way and caught her.

I drove as far as Van Horn, Texas and we switched again so I could take out my contacts and try to sleep. I had pulled the down comforter out of the trailer and tried to fashion a bed in the back half of the car, taking care not to put my feet in the litter box. By this time Minx had decided that it was well past everyone's bedtimes (something she's always kept track of at home) and became very agitated. It was pretty hard for me to sleep on an incline that was much less than comfortable, and it didn't help that Maui wanted to snuggle, Chou kept standing on my chest to look out the window, and Minx was still yowling.

Around 6:45am (now Friday morning) we stopped to rest at a lonely gas station in the middle of nowhere. We slept for two hours after I sprayed more Feliway (a cat pheromone that has a calming effect) in the back of the car and Minx calmed down and went to sleep,

At 8:45am we got back on the road, Scott still driving, and I managed to sleep for another two and a half hours. We stopped for brunch at a McDonalds, had salad and continued on our way. Side note: my two cheeseburgers-without-the-burger had meat in them the first time around, and my Bacon-Ranch-Chicken-Salad-without-the-chicken-but-with-the-imitation-bacon-bits-that-were-NOT-imitation-bacon-bits had to be dismantled to get all the icky bacon off it.

We had discussed taking Highway 290 to bypass San Antonio, since Highway 10 takes a pretty deep turn to the south before heading back up to Houston. At the appropriate junction we headed off onto a beautiful country highway 290. I don't know if it was any faster overall, we ran into traffic in several small towns and some construction. We made it into Austin and through and then into Houston and got back on the 10.

After hour upon hour of driving and short naps, we decided to spend the night somewhere where we could all stretch out. My legs were feeling crampish and Maui was acting lethargic, not wanting to eat or drink in the car.

5 attempts at motels that apparently don't take pets, and we finally found a La Quinta in Sulpher, Louisiana. Everyone is resting and comfy and we're going to spend a relaxing evening. We only have 18 hours left to Key West of driving time

Road Trip: Day Four

Corona CA to Scottsdale AZ

Scott and I both woke up at about 9am and went outside to grab some stuff from the trailer. Inside Audrey was making breakfast – eggs, bacon, and cinnamon bread from a farmers market near her work. We enjoyed breakfast and fresh coffee around the table with Audrey and Crit, sharing stories about funny things we had said lately and were proud of. Crit left for work, we got ready for the day and then talked with Audrey for a bit while I trimmed Maui and Chou's claws.

I had decided it would be a fabulous idea to get a baby-gate to put behind the front seats in hopes that the cats would stay in the back half of the car unless we allowed them to join us up front. From Audrey's house we stopped at WalMart to get said gate, and were on our way at about 2pm.

I was the pilot for the day, so my wonderful co-pilot attempted baby-gate installation. Success! For all of about 10 minutes and then Chou just wriggled underneath it and was in Scott's lap again.

Mapquest said that Corona to Scottsdale should take about 6 and a half hours again, but by now we had learned that we were running about an additional hour for every Mapquest 3 to 4 hours, so did not expect to arrive in Scottsdale until 10pm or even a little later.

We filled up on gas in Indio, and again in Blythe at the recommendation of my dad. Gas was $2.88 in Indio, and $3.27 in Blythe. Just past Blythe is the Arizona border and the next gas station advertised $2.43.

We saw many beautiful and interesting sites, ranging from the sunset and a first lone cactus, to an exit sign that said "State Prison next exit. Do not pick up hitchhikers."

Once in the Phoenix metro area, we took the 101 loop north and found our motel, rolling in at about 9:30pm. We had chosen this motel from the AAA "Traveling with Your Pet" handbook and had made reservations about 12 hours previous. We checked in, hauled animals, gear, and animal's gear up to the second floor, and enjoyed a two-hour Mythbusters Movie Myths episode before heading for bed.