DELAYED!

These babies are going NO Where tonight!

Our flight from Richmond to Dulles airport was very delayed and we wouldn't be able to make our international connection. Needless to say, this was disconcerting! One of the agents suggested we rent a car and DRIVE to Dulles! Yeah, like not happening. We could get caught in Interstate traffic for DAYS.  I called N & J and asked them to return to the airport to get us. Meanwhile, a helpful United Airlines agent managed to rebook us on Delta for Tuesday.  Their fault so no extra charge to us. Whew!
We stopped to pick up some dinner, returned home; then I sent e-mails to the Cite (nous sommes arrivés un jour de retard) and the Paris Shuttle (hopefully our new voucher  will arrive in time for our leaving home tomorrow at early afternoon.) Aaaagh!

Oh, and here's the other thing, I suspended my cell phone service starting 3 January. Tonight at midnight, I'm cut off. Oh, No, I'm going old school. No phone contact once we leave our house tomorrow.   Au revoir, again!

Packed & ready - ish

 I'm packed! Unless I decided to take some things out of the suitcase, I'm ready.
This is what I packed for art supplies, except I eliminated the roller tape (don't ask why.)
HiMonkey aka "traveling monkey" will be with me again.

Here's what I'm taking. The Blue suitcase is a 22" one. I'm not taking my water bottle, it's just for scale. The bright pink duffle isn't stuffed but is carrying the bag of chargers, and a change of clothing in case the suitcase is misplaced, and a little plastic bag with liquids/gels (my tiny toothpaste, my Rescue Remedy, and some lotion.)
The colorful bag on top is my "purse/tote" which holds my REAL purse, Kindle, laptop, and the folder with eTickets, etc.

Whew. I did it.

With Mom

Before I left home, I captured another shadow of my hat (I'm obsessed with these shadows!) Here is my luggage, packed and ready to go. I packed very lightly, knowing that it'd be warm at my destination, and it is...so no hat shadows from L.A. Here's mom in her usual place doing her usual thing. She is happy, cheerful, and says "thank you, dolly" whenever you do anything for her. How sweet is that?! She'll be 96 on the 19th! I'm a heck of a lucky gal to have mom with me so long, and hopefully giving me longevity and cheerfulness genes.