“There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.” ~Orson Welles

 

The best benefit of my dad’s job is that I can easily make last-minute travel plans. Since Laura and I have not exchanged Christmas presents in person for five years, and I was already giving someone a ride to the airport on Friday, I decided to hop on a plane and head to Carlsbad, NM.

Laura picked me up from Hobbs, and we had an excellent mini-Christmas. Unfortunately, Carlsbad is pretty tiny and we couldn’t get all the usual Christmas festive foods (which are only usual for us), but we did manage to get our hands on some Soy Nog!

Our goal for the weekend was to finally get a good picture of the two of us (11 years and not a single good picture), but as you will soon see, that goal was not accomplished. In part, that was because our only activity for the weekend was to hike into the Carlsbad Caverns. Caves don’t lend themselves well to nice photographs. Photographic failure notwithstanding, we did have a fun time! I actually quite enjoyed the caves, and usually I am not a fan.

Now I’m back in a travelling mood . . . anyone want a visitor?

Maple Salmon

This recipe from allrecipes.com might possibly be the best salmon of my life. I accidentally made a little too much of the marinade, but it sure made for delicious dressing for my maple salmon salad!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound salmon

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix the maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, garlic salt, and pepper.
2. Place salmon in a shallow glass baking dish, and coat with the maple syrup mixture. Cover the dish, and marinate salmon in the refrigerator 30 minutes, turning once.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Place the baking dish in the preheated oven, and bake salmon uncovered 20 minutes, or until easily flaked with a fork.

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.” ~ Charles Schulz

 

Twelve days until Christmas! Or is it thirteen? I never know how you are supposed to count down. Do you count the actual day? Does anyone know?

This year I am so behind on my Christmas preparations. Generally, by December 12 I have already purchased gifts for everyone who is getting one and I would be spending this weekend writing Christmas cards and standing in line at the post office to mail off my gifts.

Instead, I’m not even half-way through my Christmas list and I will be spending the weekend in New Mexico . . . and I don’t foresee a lot of progress this week.

So this post is serving as an announcement: if you’re expecting a present and/or card from me, it’s going to be late!

“If you're going through hell, keep going.” ~Winston Churchill

 

I bet you’re all expecting a lovely little blog post about Ray’s homecoming, right? Instead, I’m going to complain.

In general, this was a bad week. So, Ray came to visit for the weekend (well, I guess that’s not why he came, but he is here). Since Ray was coming I decided I should probably pull myself out of my misery (since I was sick while I was miserable I’ve just kind of been living under the blankets in my bed, not even emerging to eat). Our plans for today fell through so Ray started looking up random things he wanted to do in Houston. He found a flea market that he thought would be fun so we drove there to wander the stalls. It was actually pretty fun. We were the only people there who weren’t speaking Spanish, but it did kind of remind us of Taiwan markets (except the stuff wasn’t as quality). Also everyone just assumed we spoke Spanish which was kind of fun. Ray talked to some missionaries we ran into there and I had to stop him from reprimanding them for the sloppy way they were dressed (they really were sloppy, one of them didn’t even have his nametag on!).

After Ray finished eating his churro, we went back to my car, and my car was gone! Naturally, I started to cry (just kidding, I held it together). Some guy gave us the number of the towing company (the sleazy guy whose job it is to watch for people parking there and call the towing company). Then another guy came to tell us about how this guy just watches for people to park there (if only he had told us that beforehand). I called the towing company and they said it would cost $203 dollars to get my car. I decided not to freak out and called a friend to come give us a ride to go get my car. I figured it wouldn’t take that long and we’d be on our way.

Once we arrived to get my car, we discovered I had no way to get the car. My name is not on the insurance or the registration, and even though my dad signed my car over to me for my birthday I didn’t actually go to the DMV or wherever I’m supposed to go to make that official. So the lady told me to call State Farm and get proof that I’m insured and I could get my car. I called State Farm and I was told that I’m not insured, I’m just listed as a driver (seriously, what is the difference?) and that is not what tow-lady was looking for. After talking to her some more, she said that it was okay if I was just listed as a driver, so I called State Farm back. At this point State Farm told me that they couldn’t even fax the paper saying that I was a driver because I was talking to the 24-hour hotline guys and the information they can access only has my mom and dad’s names on it so I would have to wait until Monday for our actual agent to fax something.

Tow-lady said that it was okay, I just had to go get some form notarized before she left for the day (which was soon, and why didn’t she give me that to begin with when she knew I wasn’t named on any of the paperwork?!). We found a UPS store with a notary and raced over there to get it signed. We got back just before she was leaving (she said she was just about to call me and tell me it was too late). After handing her my form, she said it didn’t work because the notary had only signed it and not stamped it!!

At this point, tow-lady was feeling sorry for me (or sorry that she was an evil tow-lady) and so she called the UPS store (luckily it hadn’t quite closed) and verified that the guy was a notary and that she could accept my form. So, after 3 hours and $203 we finally got my beautiful Matrix back! I’ve never been so happy to see her before!

After writing this out, it doesn’t seem like it was such a bad day. Maybe tomorrow will be better.