It seems like ages since I posted anything here, so here’s a brief recap of the trip to Albuquerque that Coco and I just got back from. Her brother, his wife, and their six children live out there, so we were out to visit them (I had never met any of them before). I don’t plan on recapping Corinna’s post, so if you are really interested check that out.

We had a pretty decent travel experience on the way out there, no delays flying, and other than a wet passenger seat in the first car they tried to stick us with, the rental went OK. We ended up with a Explorer, which was way more than we needed and was really expensive on fuel, but whatever. Her family is cool, but I’m not really used to being around so many kids. The older three kids were pretty easy to deal with, but the younger three (aged 2 and 6 month old twins) were a handful. The two year old, Max, was cute as hell but demanded much of my attention and started moping and crying if I didn’t provide it. The babies I simply don’t know what to do with, so I tried to avoid handling them. =) There’s also the reality of trying to sleep in a household with 3 young children that I haven’t had to deal with since was growing up, which was a long time ago.

We did less of the things one would normally do while on a traditional vacation, but we still had a good time. It was mostly doing things like taking the kids to the park, to the mall, and to Peter Piper Pizza (which is a scaled-down version of Chuck E. Cheese’s). As you’d probably expect, there was a tremendously creepy guy at Peter Piper’s, and I kept an eye on him the whole time I was there until he left alone… I hear that Chuck E. Cheese’s these days give kids and parents matching bracelets and no kid can leave with an adult without the same bracelet.. I think this is a good idea that Peter Piper should steal…

Corinna mentioned that Sonic has good onion rings… This is true, but the rest of their food is tremendously mediocre. The car-hop service is cutesy but stupid, and while the food is cheap, you get what you pay for. I had no idea what to tip the car hop, so I gave her a buck, which was only like 10%.

The trip back was miserable… First things first, my leg didn’t set off the metal detector on the way back either. The first leg of our trip landed a little early, but was delayed at the gate to the point where we were within 10 minutes of missing our connection.. Of course, we get off the plane to find out our connection was delayed an hour. We grab some food, board the plane an hour late, and the plane proceeds to taxi out to some remote part of O’Hare where it sits for another 45 minutes… Once in the air, we were put into a hold over Boston, further delaying our flight… After landing, getting our luggage, and taking the T back to the apartment, Corinna and I didn’t get in until after 11pm, which sucks.