Mr. T's Understudy

The Longest Awards Ceremony Ever

Much love has been tossed my way, and it's about time I wind up and pitch some of it back. (I apologize if I have missed anything--I think we have already ascertained that I suck at this stuff.)

Hope at Hope for the Hopeless, Kathryn at Seeking Sanity, Flea at Flea's World, AND the Sports Mama at You Don't Have to Like Me all say it's excellent around here!

I'm passing it on to these excellent blogs: Jen at And Then Sum, Becky at Adventures in Mommyhood, Catwoman at Canadian Thoughts in Texas, Driving with the Breaks On, Niki at ImposterMom, Madame Queen, Leah at O Momma Writes, Jenn at Life on the Roof, and Leanne at Tired Mama.

MamaGeek at What Work's for Us gave me this:

Thanks, MamaGeek! I'm passing this one on to Tootsie at Vintage Thirty, Vanilla Icing, Deb at Three Weddings, Blender Kimmy, and FireMom.

Pam at Random Thoughts says I'm fabulous!

I happen to think a WHOLE lot of people are fabulous, but I'll just pass this on to Veronica at Sleepless Nights, Mishelle the Secret Agent Mama, Misty at Rainy Day in May, Kidzmama at Not a Spare Minute, and Cecily at My Chaos My Bliss.

Tammy, who proves that Mom Knows Everything loves this here blog:

I'm sending some Valentine's Love to Sophie at A Hole in the Fence, my daily entertainer at Anglophile Football Fanatic, HRH at June Cleaver Nirvana, Sandy at Momisodes, Jayna at My Longest Year, Colleen at Wine Please, Jen at Rants and Raves, Red Pen Mama, and Karen at The Rocking Pony.

Sandy, the star at Momisodes, sent this my way:

This one goes out to All Adither, Cara Mama, My Little Corner of Life, Nap Warden, Playgroups are No Place for Children, Such Simple Pleasures, That Voice in My Head, Hallie at Wonderful World of Wieners, The Sports Mama at You Don't Have to Like Me, and all of you that have recently stumbled upon my world.

Thanks so much to all of you for reading my boring drivel from time to time!

A Drenched Rat Has Been Spotted in Newark

Today was my day to travel to New York City and trapse around in the mud at the World Trade Center. It was all SO perfectly planned out. My departing flight was set late enough to allow me to drop Alexis off at daycare. Mr. Husband made arrangements to leave work early enough to pick her up. According to the plan, I would be home with plenty of time to hang out with the Toddler then put her to bed. A dream trip with very little interruption to our normal routing, if you will.

Y'all know what happens to the best laid plans. We had freezing rain in the Burgh this morning, causing daycare to open two hours late. Enter Mr. Daddy needing to drop off the Toddler and go to work late. I made it to New York City fine and dandy, but then the cab driver didn't know the street I needed to go to. I happened to know that it was three blocks from the World Trade Center, so I finally just asked Mr. Lost and Clueless to let me out so I could walk. In the rain. Without an umbrella. Me and my sopping wet self finally found the rendez vous point and all went well as I picked the brains of the British guys running the work at the World Trade Center. I left a puddle in their office then stomped in puddles at the job site. All very productive.

(Break from the story--the WTC site is INCREDIBLE. It doesn't look like much more than a giant hole in the ground, but the work that is being done right now to stabalize the ground and create a foundation for all the structures that are to be built is unbelievable. I could have spent hours staring at the drills that are being used to dig holes through the center of a subway that is IN USE. I haven't downloaded any of my photos yet, but there are some very cool, very recent photos here. Mamas, let your kids grow up to be geotechnical engineers. They do cool stuff. Now, back to the story . . . )

The guys with the groovy accents wanted to make sure I didn't miss my flight, so they kicked me out of their hole with plenty of time to get to the airport. I did a little shopping, eating, and generally had a lot of time to kill because I got to the Newark airport a wee bit TOO early. That was three hours ago. I'M STILL HERE! And Woohoo! bad weather has set in. My flight is currently delayed by two hours, meaning I won't be leaving any sooner than five hours after I got here. I'm in a fantastic mood, really.

At least I'm in a fun airport.

Oh wait, it's Newark. Crap.

OK, then at least it's a good hair day. Was a good hair day. Rain is not really that good for hair. Crap.

OK, at least I will get time to read a good book. Yeah, let's go with that.

Updated at 8:11 pm to add:
Hmm . . . the internet says I'm departing, um, 30 minutes ago. The wall says I'm departing in 25 minutes. The dude says the plane is still in Detroit. Who do I believe?

Updated at 8:32 to add:
Dude. Believe the dude.

Updated at 8:40 to add:
That's so cute that you just ran to your gate! Now sit down and wait a few hours.

Updated at 9:06 to add:
Whew! I thought I missed something there. My flight disappeared from the board while I was in the restroom. But all is OK, there was no plane yet for me to miss.

Updated at 9:24 to add:
Dude says the crew will be here at 10:00. I hope they bring a plane with them.

Updated at 10:02 to add:
I'm still not on a plane. Mapquest says if I had driven, I would pulling into the driveway right about now.

Updated at 10:12 to add:
Well looky there, the camera cable is right where I left it--in my bag. However, pouring rain means crappy photos. But hey! I have other people's photos on my computer. Ta dah!

This is a drill sitting on top of the subway. They are drilling through the active subway tunnel to place supports under the tunnel. When that's done, they are going to excavate the soil, leaving the subway tunnel balancing in the air.

All those walls are preventing the buildings and roads around the site from collapsing into the 200 foot deep hole. They are digging below the water table, so all of the walls have to be water tight. See, I told you engineers do crazy amazing stuff!

The site, in total, is about 16 acres. There are several buildings, a horrifically ugly subway station, and a memorial being errected (not just the Freedom Tower that you always hear about). Right now you can't really get a feel for the enormity of what happened in that place because of all the equipment, noise, chaos, and mud, but there are reminders here and there. For one thing, security to get onto the site is pretty intense, even when you have ID to be there. For another, there are signs on many of the trailers and equipment that say things like, "9-11 We will never forget."

Updated at 10:25 to add:
10:00 came and went with nary a plane in sight. I think perhaps Dude lied. Bad, Dude.

Updated at 10:43 to add:
Boarding!! Woohoo!