Sunday,
December 23, 2007

Life in a Northern City

So the Bodacious Brit and I arrived safely last night, as I explained in the last post, and proceeded to sleep in because we were bloody well tired. After leisurely prep, Lyndon discovering that he'd left his slicker in Dallas (at least we hope so, otherwise AA will be getting a call from us) and a stop at the Sundries nook for some pop, decongestant and other useful items, we got the car out of valet parking and headed north to meet Kristine Smith for lunch in Deerfield.

And oh, dear God but it was COLD. 18F, with wind chill somewhere around or below zero. You can bet that we hopped in that car and cranked up the heat toot sweet. Luckily I-94 was pretty clear, although the winds were wicked hard and there was a certain amount of light snow swirling across the road. But the restaurant was easy to find, and Kristine was already ensconsed in a booth by the time we shivered our way inside.

Lunch was comprised of marvelous Greek food and even more marvelous discussion that rambled all over the place. The highlight of the meal came when we were talking about the problems of living alone and a labrador that gave its choking master the Heimlich maneuver. Kristine said that she should teach King to give her the Heimlich just in case; I said I was grateful I didn't have to try and teach the Boys how to do that because I had Lyndon, whereupon the Bodacious Brit mused about the service dogs, horses, and monkeys who can help people, and concluded with "So I'm her monkey."

I think Kristine and I laughed for two solid minutes. "I think I made her cry," Lyndon commented in the parking lot later on. "I know you made ME cry!" I replied.

The trip back to the city was broken up with a very necessary stop at Macy's to pick up a hat and gloves for me and gloves for the boy -- I also snuck into Sephora and picked up a little Xmas present for him, heh. We turned the car over to a valet at the hotel and proceeded to do something that can be used in a trial to prove we're completely around the bend -- we voluntarily walked four city blocks into the teeth of a freezing wind to the local Walgreen's for wrapping paper and other sundries. Lyndon complained that his ears were the coldest part of him, so I threw a Bears scarf into my basket and wrapped it around his collar for the walk back. Yeesh.

The rest of the evening was spent wrapping presents, having a marvelous dinner in the hotel restaurant (with the crème brulée trio for dessert -- vanilla, chocolate and Grand Marnier, yum! Or as I commented to Lyndon. "It's pudding when it's at home") and finishing up a chainmail motif necklace for the nephew's girlfriend. Tomorrow, we head south to the sister's place for Christmas Eve celebrations.

And now, to bed!

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