My daughter flew back in to town Saturday.
I was a little anxious about her flying.
She called us after she boarded her plane, so we could time it when we would need to leave to pick her up.
But, my husband being the clever fellow he is, decided that we would go to the Denny's restaurant down the road from the airport and wait for her to call us when her plane ended.
Even though her plane was scheduled to land at 4pmish, we would still eat dinner at Denny's.
My daughter thought that this was a silly idea and that we should just drive around the airport till she called after the plane landed.....and probably get stopped by airport security for driving around the air port 20 times and looking suspicious.....because that is what she wanted us to do.
So being adults, we decided to go to Denny's.
It was a clear somewhat sunny day.
No snow.
So I felt better about her flying.
We got to Denny's and the place was mostly empty as we beat the lunch rush and were early for the dinner crowd.
I did notice that there the majority of the few people in there were senior citizens....and Hubby did qualify as one as he is over 55!
We were seated quickly...
I looked around the restaurant as I like to look to see who else is around...in case I know someone...even though it would be highly likely that I would know anyone there...but one never knows.
Off in the corner of the restaurant in a booth, sat a man with his back towards us. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, with the hood up and when he turned around...I noticed that he was wearing large dark glasses and looked like the unibomber.
And he was talking shit about the government.
Creepy
I pointed him out to Hubby, who had to turn around to look at him.
Just as he turned back from looking at him, the smoke alarm went off in the restaurant and I nearly jumped out of the booth.
The waitress came around and assured everyone that Denny's wasn't on fire.....I told Hubby that it must mean that our food was ready.
Which it wasn't
And we had to wait longer
And here's how thrilled my hubby always looks when we are out to eat.

And I was only half way finished eating my western burger when the daughter called to say she landed...early.
So I told her we would be there in 10 minutes or so to wait outside for us....
She wanted to know where we were and I told her Denny's.
"WHY are you at Denny's!!"
"Because everyone has to be somewhere"
"AUGHH!!!"
"See you in a few minutes"
So I got a to go box and we paid the bill.
We made it to the airport and I doubt if she had to wait more than 5 minutes.
On the way home, we weren't on the road for more than 10 minutes when it started snowing very heavily, near white out conditions as the wind picked up. I was thankful that she chose the flight that she did as if she waited till the next one she would have had to fly through that shit.

Fire & Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost

To those souls unlucky enough to board flight 3407, their worlds were ended by both fire and ice.
My deepest condolences go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.

My daughter flew out of Buffalo Thursday on her way to Atlanta. I texted her during the day and didn't get a response.
I went to bed early Thursday night.
Friday morning I awoke to the clock radio telling me to stay tuned for an update on the horrific plane crash.
What plane?, where? Why hadn't I heard from my daughter?
I was relieved to hear that it wasn't my daughter's plane and deeply saddened at the same time to hear that the plane crashed 6 miles from Buffalo in Clarence center.
Everyone was killed that was aboard the plane and one of the people in the house also died.
I know people who live in that area...some of my husband's cousins and their families live in Clarence.
I've been to Clarence.
My cousin used to take his children to a day care center .25 miles from the site where the plane went down.

A family was home just doing their own thing when a plane fell out of the sky and on to their house and exploded.
Amazingly 2 people escaped from the house.
Can you imagine being living in one of the houses next to the house that got hit?
Just last month we had a plane land on the Hudson river and everyone walked away, the pilot proclaimed a hero.
Friday the 13th eve, different story.

Would you rebuild your house in the same spot if you were those people?
Would they even be allowed to build in the same spot?
Why would anyone even want to rebuild in the same spot where 50 people died?
Hopefully they will decide to put a monument on the spot.

We used to live in the flight path of Griffith Air Force Base, and some of the planes would fly over the house rather low. One day I was outside with my kids, who were 2 & 4 at the time, and a plane flew so low I could read the numbers on the plane. It was kind of creepy when the shadow of the plane would appear on the lawn as it flew by.
I had many nightmares about planes flying into my house.
So glad that we moved out of that area.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mamma Mia was fantastic!!
We laughed, we cried, we fought the urge to sing along.
Our seats were awesome, we could see the costumes and the actors faces perfectly.
We went out to a BBQ place afterwards.
I would go see Mamma Mia again...much better than the movie by far.
They could have made the movie so much better by getting actors that could actually sing.

I didn't buy any Valentines this year.
normally it would bother me if my hubby didn't get me flowers or a card, but this year, it was just another day.
He did buy us a special heart shaped cake which we took over my parents and shared.
I didn't even send my son a card at college.....but he didn't send us one either so it doesn't matter.
Hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day.

(see comments for update)

Out and About

Did a lot of stuff yesterday.
Got up early and Elly picked me up and we went to breakfast at Tim Horton's on our way into Nickel City.
We were the first ones in the theater on Saturday to get our tickets to see Mama Mia.
They were just about sold out for next weekend and the only seats together were either in the front row of the orchestra , or in the 3rd row of the balcony.
So we have 3rd row balcony seats and will be able to see everything.
We were joking around that people will think we are a lesbian couple as we are going on Valentines day and also going out to dinner together too.
Her husband will be out of town and mine seems relieved not to have to think about venturing out on Valentine's day as he hates crowded places.

We walked around the city for a while and went into some small shops.
I got a pair of wild reading glasses.
Top part is tortoise brown and bottom half is turquoise.
Elly says that they are totally me.
My daughter actually thought they were cool looking too.

One of the churches on the Ave we happened to be on had a wine tasting /Farmer's market.
I purchased a bottle of Cranberry Wine from Niagara Landing Wine Cellars. I'm usually not into wine, but this tasted so good I had to buy a bottle. It will be opened up next time we have a turkey diner...or sooner.
Hopefully I will be able to find it sold in a liquor store near my house.
I also bought a loaf of Apple brown Betty bread and sampled Rabbit sausage, which was really good.

I got home after noon and had a piece of the bread for lunch.
It was so good.
My daughter said that she was bored and wanted to go somewhere.
She suggested the mall and my husband said we needed milk.
I called my parents to see if they needed anything from the store and they wanted oranges and hamburger buns.
So off we went in daughter's little car.
WE went to the mall first.
Having lost weight, she wanted to get a coat just like the one she has only in a smaller size.
It is a light weight fleece North Face jacket.
We ended up looking in a sporting goods store.
They had one exactly like her old one, but she wanted it in a different color, but at least she knew what size to get if she ordered it on line.
We walked from one end of the mall to the other and all I bought was a crossword puzzle book from Barnes and Noble.
I really had little interest in looking at clothes.

Both of us were hungry as it was 4:30 and she hadn't eaten lunch and all I had was the apple bread. We pulled into the parking lot at Olive Garden, but after not finding a parking spot, we declared it too crowded and went to a non-chain restaurant.
Which turned out to be a very good choice.
We were seated right away.
I ordered a chicken dish called Santa Fae Dirty Rice. When it arrived it looked like a sun as the chicken, rice mixture was in the center with the homemade tortillas sticking out from the center like the rays of the sun. Very nice presentation and it tasted as good as it looked.
I took half of it home and hubby enjoyed it. (Maybe I can get him to take me to this restaurant now that he's tasted the food)

On the way home we we driving behind this wildly painted van. It was a small older mini van which was painted black, the windows were black and it had white zebra like stripes all over it.
Over the back bumper it said "BLAZIN N AMAZIN" .
I was thinking that I would rather take a bus then ever be caught riding in that thing.
Well daughter says that she has to pass Blazing and Amazing because they are driving too slow.
As we pass the van, I see that it says "PUNK d" in white mixed in with the white stripes on the side and on the hood of the van is a silver skull, not painted on the hood, but an actual 3D skull sticking out of the hood.
I commented that maybe it was a band or something and that they will be lucky if they are not pulled over for having the windows blackened out.
Also the 3 first letters of the license plate were DYE followed by 4 numbers. Pretty bizarre!!

We turn off the main road and make our way to the super market to get the groceries. Daughter found a parking spot where she could do a pull through. We get the stuff and head out to the parking lot.
Parked right behind us is the Blazing N Amazing van. Music is blaring out of it.
We both look at each other as we are putting the stuff in the trunk and start to laugh then she says OMG he followed me here. It was a strange coincidence that that van would end up at the same store as us parked right behind us considering all the different streets we turned down to get there.
I looked into the front window of the van and all I could see was a pale hand on the steering wheel.
The van backed up and went in the lane to get out of the parking lot.
Daughter asked me which way they went and we went the other way.
Kind of creeped me out when I couldn't see the guy's face.
We tried to speculate who of the people we say in the store it could have been.
I wondered if it was the guy with the nail like piercing though the top of his ear, but other than that he looked normal.
She though it might be the guy with the 12 bottles of lemonade store brand soda, but we left before him.
We may never know...actually I hope we never meet up with that van again as it was CREEPY!!

It was great to be out yesterday.
It got up to 50 degrees.
Even though it was windy, it was nice.
A break from the snow is always appreciated.
I went to bed at 9:30 because I was so tired from all the walking & fresh air.
Peace People

I got the blues.
The no bonus blues.
We got the news
No bonuses for yous.
No new dishwasher can I buy,
no new clothes will I try,
We all want to cry.
As we watch the economy die.
I'm lucky to have a job.
Even though it makes me regularly sob.
Now we are just hoping for a raise in our pay.
That would make up for the bad news we got today.
but what can we say.
Hopefully the things will improve along the way.