Well, it's nice to be home - Katie is napping and I just cleaned out a bunch of old papers (breast pump rental receipt? Uh, definitely not needed any more!)

Last year for Christmas, I got Skip two tickets to go to the Ryder Cup (Sunday only - it was all I could afford!). I took off the Wednesday we were leaving and did a few last minute clean up the house sorts of things, then went to get Katie from day care. I get there and she's very happy to see me ... but her teachers tell me she did not take a nap ALL DAY. I look at her "what did I do today" sheet, and no circle around the magic letters "BM".

This does not bode well for our trip. No nap, no poop.

So we get in the car and go pick up Daddy; we park our car and get our two suitcases, two backpacks, Katie's car seat and a set of golf clubs (oh yeah, and Katie in her stroller) all to the airport without losing anything and no chriropratic events. Katie did pretty well on the airplane, at least at first - we purchased a "Kids Fly Safe" harness for her to use in her seat - much more portable and easy to carry than the big honkin car seat! (which we did check ... for free, thankfully; AA isn't yet charging a baggage fee for those, I guess). ANYWAY ... the harness slips around the back of an airline seat and sort of loops into the seat belt and then it's like her car seat harness, except that she's still just a smidge too small for it; the part that hooks over her chest kept riding up and settling under her chin, which wasn't very comfortable for her (as she was quick to point out to us). We taxi downt he runway ... sniff, sniff ... nice time for the poo to arrive. So we have to wait until the plane levels off, then Daddy takes Katie to the closet they call a bathroom and gets her changed without any problems.

Try to get Katie back into her harness, and she wants NOTHING to do with it. Quite honestly, she wants nothing to do with this whole thing, she just wants to be up and around and running around (well, not really - she's tired). So we rock, and we rock, and we rock ... and eventually she does fall asleep in my arms.

We land in Indianapolis, reload all of our junk onto the rental car shuttle and get to the Hertz lot where the guy stops next to our car and says "Is a Mustang OK?" OK, this is the SAME GUY who helped us lug the two suitcases (one quite large), two backpacks, golf clubs, car seat and stroller onto the bus, you'd think he'd realize that no, maybe a Mustang's not the best fit for us (of course, he is a rental car bus driver, not a PhD ...). So we wait, and wait, and wait, and finally get a Kia minivan, which worked out quite nicely, actually. We stop at a 7/11 for some food (no, we have no standards) and get to our hotel and after some cajoling of Katie to get her to sleep, she finally drops off.

The next morning, we stop and get some breakfast and head for Nashville, where we will be meeting up with my parents, who are getting Katie duty on Sunday. Nice drive through Kentucky and we stop in Louisville for some lunch at Cracker Barrel. We get loaded back up in the car, start headin' down the highway, and BBLLELELEAHHHHH ... Katie pukes. All over herself, all over her car seat, everywhere. We stop in a grocery store parking lot, manage to get Katie's clothes changed, use about a zillion wipes to try to get the puke out of the car seat (and her hair), and I go into the store to rinse out her clothes and buy some Febreeze. Wonderful product, although I did have to use several applications over a few days to get the car to NOT smell like puke. At one point I'd sprayed down the seats and Skip got some Febreeze on his hands, and he complained about smelling like Febreeze. "You can smell like Febreeze or you can smell like puke - your call."

ANYWAY - we keep heading down to Nashville, where we check into Aloft hotel which is BRAND spanking new - like, had opened that very day! Call Mom & Dad, they come down to our hotel, and we go to dinner. Come back to the hotel to check on hours of the Corvette plant and museum in Bowling Green, and Grandma and Grandpa are playing with Katie on the bed and BBBBLBLLEEEAAAAHAHH ... MAJOR pukeage. Everywhere. On the bed, on the floor, in the bathroom (by the time we finally got her in there). I had no idea such a little thing could puke so much! Finally a guy from housekeeping shows up - he's super nice - he takes away all of the pukey bedding, brings clean stuff, and tells us he'll tell the housekeeping staff that we've had "issues" and they'll be sure to do an extra clean of the room. Good heavens.

After Katie barfs, she's fine - no fever, she's her happy, chipper little self.

Oh, and our hotel - no bathtub. Just a shower. So Katie got to take her first ever shower, with me. She wasn't real keen on it at first, but eventually figured "Oh, OK - this is sorta fun!"

The next day - Friday - we head to Bowling Green so the guys can tour the Corvette plant (which they said was very cool, and now both my dad and Skip have a renewed interest in owning 'vettes). Mom, Katie and I went through a flea market - didn't find anything worth spending the money on, but I did manage to trip over a wheelchair that was sitting in one of the aisles, doing some major damage to my fresh pedicure (damn damn damn!). We hooked up with the boys again, had dinner, and headed back to Nashville.

We decided to drive around the Grand Ol' Opry - and as we're trying to get in, we pass a gas station and there are about 60 cars in line, waiting to get gas! Seems that the refineries that feed the TN area are off line because of Ike, and there is a shortage - YIKES. We do eventually get to the Opry, where Katie runs amok and Dad & I tour the museum (wow, Marty Robbins wore some loud outfits is all I can say). Skip & I were about 40 years too young to be there, but Katie had a great time running all over the place.

Saturday we are meeting up in Bowling Green again, so the guys can tour the Corvette Museum (we'd run out of time on Friday). Our mini van has about 1/4 of a tank of gas ... and there is none to be found anywhere in Nashville. So we drive at 60 MPH up the interstate with the A/C off for a bit until we hit KY, where gas is plentiful. We do the museum tour (Katie was NOT impressed - she just wanted to eat her goldfish and run amok). We all drive up the road a piece and stop at another Cracker Barrel (or, as my mom calls it, "Country Barrel"). We're getting ready to eat and BLLLLEEEEAAAAHH ... Katie pukes. Again. And again, afterwards, she is fine - she's hungry, not feverish, and she's playful. So the nice staff at CB help us get everything cleaned up, we eat our dinner, we leave a HEFTY tip, and we then head to Georgetown, just about an hour east of Louisville.

Sunday we leave Katie with Grandma and Grandpa, and she gets to spend a good part of the day at the Kentucky Horse Farm - she has a ball. They have wide paths so Katie just runs and runs (with Gma & Gpa in hot pursuit), gets to look at and pet horsies, and just has a great old time.

Skip & I drove into Louisville and parked at their Expo Center to get a shuttle to Valhalla, where the Ryder Cup is being played. TONS of people - we stop off briefly at the practice green and get to see Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson come out to huge cheers. Oh, and a bunch of European guys I don't remember The crowd was fun - lots of foreign languages, guys in kilts, foreign flags ... except we did have to endure the dumb "Ole, ole ole ole" song a lot. (The Americans flipped it to "Go away, go away, go away, go away!).

We watched the first four pairs tee off from the second hole, which was kinda cool, then we decided to go camp out on eight (it was close by). Eight is a short par-three with a deadly green - DEEP sand bunker in front of the hole, and very little level ground around the cup - so if you miss, your ball rolls quite a ways (assuming you didn't pull up short and end up in the sand). We sat about mid-way down the hole for most of the pairs - Skip went & got us some lunch at one point - it was a good vantage point; we could watch the tee shots and the putting from where we were, and we did see all 24 golfers play through, which was cool.

From eight, then it's tough to know where to go - unlike a traditional golf tournament, the winner isn't decided on the 18th, but whenever one team gets enough points to capture the cup - so it's reasonable to think that some pairs may end their rounds on the 15th, 16th, or 17th hole. So we wander for a bit - watched Mahan on the 18th - and finally ended up along the 17th along with the rest of humanity. We were there along the fairway when Angel Jimenez missed his putt, allowing Jim Furyk to win their match and the Ryder Cup for the Americans - very cool.

We walked around a bit more (wow, it was SUPER hilly) and then headed back to Georgetown to hook up with my folks and Katie.

The next morning, we drove into Ohio and stopped in Columbus - we drove to the Longaberger headquarters to see their basket-shaped building. I'm not buying many of their baskets any more (too darned expensive) but the building was cool. Tuesday we went back to Indy to return home.

Then on Wednesday, I immediately got on a plane for San Antonio - work, ugh. Got back Thursday, and Skip left for KC yesterday as he's going to the Husker-VA Tech game tonite with Mack. Next weekend is my turn, though - I'm going to the MIzzou game with Sharyl and I can't wait!!!

Well, I probably need to do a little more around the house ... or gee, maybe catch up on some needed sleep. TTFN!

Woo hoo ... it's football season! We loaded up the car and headed back to Nebraska for a visit with Grammy DiAnn and Cooky and a trip to Lincoln (for Mommy and Daddy) to herald in the start of the Bo Pellini Husker Era. The game wasn't GREAT - there is still much work to be done on both sides of the ball - but it was a beautiful evening and the Huskers did win against Western Michigan. We had a good time while Katie got some Grammy time in back in Holdrege.

We were scheduled to start our trip back on Sunday night, but the father of one of Skip's oldest friends passed away that weekend so Skip wanted to stay behind for the service. I couldn't really miss work, so we decided that I'd drive back, with Katie, and Skip would fly back after the services on Wednesday. When Skip was a teenager, he got to ride in a station wagon [I believe] with his step mother and siblings from OKC to ... Wyoming? I'm sure if we asked Betty Jo, she'd say it was a long d@@@ trip, whatever it was ... and Bob took a plane to their destination. So we call this a "Bob Harris" now - letting the wife make a long car trip with kids while Dad takes it easy on a plane.

Actually, for all of my worry about the solo trip with Katie - she was a little angel. She was SO good, she hardly fussed at all - and when she did start to fuss, I had the bag of books and toys within my reach so I could hand her things to keep her occupied for a while (and fortunately, several of the books I have memorized ... so even though I wasn't sitting next to her reading, I was reciting all of the words to "The Easter Story" [her fave]). We made the trip in just about 12 hours, which is really good when you consider that Skip & I solo usually make it in 11! Skip returned safely on Wednesday night - I'd like to say that Katie and I listened to Sarah Palin's speech together, waiting for Skip's return, but Katie was sacked out before the Pitbull in Lipstick showed up.

This last weekend we had cousins Paul, Andy, Tiffany and Christian over for a swim and some burgers - and Katie did MUCH better in the pool this time around. She even wore her sunglasses for a little while, and she did cruise around in her little floatie thing (sadly we didn't get any pictures - it was pretty hilarious, though - the way it sits she sort of ends up leaning back with her feet out in front of her, so she looks totally chillin' in the pool!).

But ... I am writing this at 3:00 pm on a Monday ... am home with Katie since she is sick today. Tummy virus with a wicked case of diaper rash to boot, poor baby. We went to the doctor's office this morning and he recommended pepto (which I was able to get in her, and she didn't gag on it or puke, so that is a good thing!) and lots of cream on her tushie. She's napping now, so I am getting caught up on emails, web page, etc. ... although I do hear the Blackberry calling ...

Katie's graduated to the Toddler Room at day care, which means a few things - one, uniforms (t-shirts and pants, mostly); two, napping on mats (which she has taken to without ANY problems, surprisingly); and three, being on a "group" schedule with designated times for Spanish, reading, gym time, all sorts of stuff. So far so good - and she eats like a champ at day care (lasagna, veggies, fruits, you name it). Unfortunately she still isn't a great eater with us; Skip suspects it's because we give in too easily and I suspect he's right. **sigh** ... need to figure out how to undo that bad habit ...

And Katie's starting to say a few more things - still "hi", and "bye bye" but now "more" and "more milk" (sounds like "mo mo"), "shoes", "baby". And she's figured that the sign language for more is really for "more" and not "Cheerios" - she'll do the more sign for her books (over ... and over ... and over ...) and for being tickled, it's pretty cute!

Well, I need to go check in on her and the chirping work email ... more to follow!