Life in Minnesota

Blue skies, freaky monsoon rains that start and end in a flash, green grass, smiling people -- I'm HOME!

I was greeted the evening of my arrival (driving jet-lagged in a rental car) by a darkening sky. My brother and I were grabbing some tacos to go, leave the Chipotle Grill and big raindrops are falling. By the time we get to his car, the rain is falling so heavy and fast (with pings of hail, too!) that if I had not been on a bridge with no shoulder I would have pulled over due to lack of visibility. Of course, 10 minutes later it was over, but it was pretty wild there!

The 11-hour plane ride was uneventful -- the best kind of trip. The kids were well-behaved, lined up patiently in each line they had to line up in, even when they had had only 90 minutes of sleep and it was 2am Tokyo time. The flight was a bit early, the bags came off right away, and we made it out to the arrivals area very quickly. (The speed of getting from baggage out to the arrivals area was due to a very kind flight attendant who took pity on me, with two dragging young children, each holding something (doll and stuffed dog) and pulling their suitcases, and I had 4 huge duffels on two carts, and I was walking back and forth between the carts pushing them and trying to get the kids to keep moving forward.... You can imagine.)

None of us slept much on the plane -- we've been here 2 days now, and we still haven't slept much.

Knitting on the plane? Surprisingly, even though I had two projects with me, I was busy attempting to feed the kids, get their crayons, books, snacks, etc, that I never was able to bring out my knitting, and then they turned the cabin lights off. I didn't get a single stitch in.

I *did* knit from 2am to 4am Monday morning, and for an hour this wee-am morning, so I think I've made up the time! And I've been knitting each morning during the kids' swimming lessons -- just need to be careful of where I sit, so that I don't end up getting chlorine on my socks!

More later -- we are swimming, biking, and falling asleep on the floor after eating just a few bites of dinner. (Actually, that was just one of us. I fell asleep on the sofa after finishing my dinner.)

Going to sleep now -- 9:32pm. I sure as &"'# hope I can sleep more than 2 hours tonight. I want to find knitting stores tomorrow!