Pictures, and the rest of the story.

Like I said, we flew up to Nashville last weekend to spend some time with Denise's kids and attend a huge St. Patrick's Day piss-up at a friends house.



This is us in the airport in Killeen, Thursday morning at about 7:45, before we were swept up into the vortex of evil our flight to Houston would soon turn out to be. I look like I'm in good spirits, even though it was the ass crack of dawn. Denise looks like she's feeling a little foreboding though. Women's intuition?



Here's Denise, callin' her kids from the Chilli's at the Houston airport, FOUR HOURS LATER! It was supposed to be a 45 minute flight.

She's tellin' her kids we wouldn't be coming in on the 10:10, or the 12:20 flight. We were there from about 12:30 till 5:30.



We killed a LOT of time playin' Gin on a bench near our gate.



That's me, shufflin'. I always loved to shuffle. Somethin' about the feel of it.



We got to Lynn's place by about 9:15. Then it was Show and Tell... Denise showing Lynn all the goodies she brought back from England for the baby (due in September)...



And the special British sweets she brought back for the girls. They grew up on the stuff, so it's always a special treat. The cat, Spice, got interested at this point, sensing there was something good to eat in the vicinity.



Friday evening, we all met at the Shnitzel Haus in Elizabethtown. They've been going to this place for a long time, and it's really good. The best German food in town. The shot above shows Denise's grandson Bryce, about to cut into his Zigeunerschnitzel.



Saturday evening we drove up to E-Town and went to the party at Joan's. That's me, smokin' a Macanudo 1968. I handed out Kuba Kubas to a few guys and shared my Yuengling.



One fellow, another Brit names Colin, enjoyed the Kuba Kuba, but really loved the Yuengling. I told him to get himself down to Tennessee and pick himself up some.



The party was a big hit, as I'm told it always is. I spent most of my time on the screened in porch, but came in now and then to mingle and surf the wild assortment of food.



After the crowd died down, a few people helped Joan clean up. I helped empty the bowl of Southern Comfort Punch, which you see there on the left.



That's Joan there in the green. She's a huge friend to Denise, the two having worked together on Ft. Knox for years. That's Colin's wife there in the Orange.



On the way home, Denise went nuts over these baby things at a store at D-FW airport. We flew home on American (the trip up had been on Continental) via Dallas. The flights home were easy peasy. No problems at all. We even made it onto an earlier flight than the one we'd paid for from Dallas and got home ahead of our bag. I had to go back to the airport in Killeen (10 minutes from the house) at 10:30 to pick it up. No worries!

We still don't know if Lynn's kid is male or female, so she had to pass them up. Everyone is hoping for a girl, since Denise's other daughter has already had two boys. I joke that I want a boy, and the others accuse me of tryin' to jinx it. I tell 'em there's already too damn many women in this family as it is. Denise's brother agreed with that.

Anyway, there you have it. It was a fun time, aside from the puddle jumper flight to hell to start it all off. Lets say, the trip stared in the gutter and could only get better from there. Later, Cheers!