The Mexico Saga...

Our friends Katie and John had their wedding planned in Playa Del Carmen for next weekend. Unfortunately, Hurricane Wilma decided to hang out on top of Playa for a few days, so the wedding has been moved.

Beware to all of you who book your travel on obscure airlines through Travelocity: they are liars and will try to tell you that you can't get a full refund, despite the bold print on their confirmation to you that states otherwise. At the moment, we are in the throes of trying to get our full refund and re-book our travels to Cabo San Lucas (or somewhere around there). Jim is going to put a full court press on Travelocity tomorrow...stay tuned for the gorey details.

Next blog: To Mexico or Not to Mexico?

Yesterday was my birthday!!!! I entered the last year of my 20's with a romantic get away, planned by Jim.

I have to say that turning 29 hasn't been traumatic for me at all. Yes, I have had the usual fleeting thoughts about sagging body parts and aching limbs, but, in reality, I feel better now than I did when I was in my early 20's. It has a lot to do with not living in New Orleans anymore...

Anyway, we had a great birthday celebration in Dallas, which is cosmopolitan and more happening than Fort Worth (it has good restaurants and funky bars, for example). Jim took me to a nice dinner and then to the symphony and we stayed the night at the Magnolia Hotel. Besides the luxury of not having two cats walking on us and having a bathtub that didn't require that we sit in it with our knees around our ears, the best part about the hotel room was the window shades. They had DOUBLE shades and the second layer blocked out the light entirely. I was in an insomniac's heaven.

Happy birthday to me!! One more year until I get to plan my 30th!

We apologize for the lack of blog lately. Life has been busy, sleep has been in demand, and time has been non-existant...

Here is a re-cap of the recent adventures of Jim and Claire. Last weekend, we headed up to chilly, rainy New England to celebrate the marriage of Paul and Natalie. Our flight, due to the horrible weather, was delayed, and, fortunately, Andrea and Danny let us stay at their place for the night. We surprised Jessie and Steve (who were coming over for dinner) and had a fun time re-living the old days in Arlington. It was just like 2003--delicious food, flowing wine, lots of laughter--a great start to a great weekend!

On Saturday we mapped out an alternate route through New Hampshire, which, I'm sure many of you saw on the news, was being flooded out by persistant, torrential rain storms (also the cause of our delayed flight). Ever the mapster, Jim had several routes figured out on the map of New Hampshire that we bought at a corner store, but was thwarted by various washed out roads. We took backroads through the woods and saw rushing streams and beautifully colored leaves on the way. Although it was supposedly a "muted" fall, after looking at Fort Worth all summer (it's brown), we were really impressed by the beauty of backwoods New Hampshire. It was almost better, we think, that we had to go around our usual route, because we saw so much that we probably would have missed otherwise.

Finally, after about four and a half hours, we made it to Walpole...and, being the ill prepared people that we are, didn't have a map or directions to the apple orchard. We got country directions from a local (go left a the big yellow house, make a right at the second dirt road and cut across that property, then go up two hills and around the corner) and we arrived in the pouring down rain!

When we got there, it was naptime at the lodge. All of the babies were getting ready for the big night, so we had to quietly celebrate being there and, by the time we got there it was practically time for the wedding anyway, so we just went upstairs and rested, before whipping into our wedding best and heading over to the apple orchard.

It was a beautiful wedding. The sun came out while Paul and Natalie were saying their vows and Jim got a little teary eyed when he saw Paul start up. After the wedding, we took a hayride through the apple orchards (minus the hay) and enjoyed the great music and food. Jim and Kristian shared a dance (they've got moves!) and the champagne was flowing.

The good times, unfortunately, had to end and we capped the weekend off with a nauseating drive back through the hills of New Hampshire (not such a good mix with the champagne and lack of sleep...it was fetal position all the way home for me). After fifteen hours of traveling, we made it back to Fort Worth, worn out, but happy to have gotten to spend time with so many good friends. And to those of you we missed, we'll be back soon! We have the Boston itch and we're already making plans for a longer visit ASAP!