My hands smell of horses…

I’ve been running mad all weekend, shopping, packing for the trip, getting the house clean and visiting Kip. Phil is downstairs BBQ-ing right now (mmmnnnn…good smells) and I am checking mail.

I have, aside from my carry-on with all of my New York stuff (suits and heels), two suitcases absolutely stuffed full of food and gifts. I’ll be carrying about five hundred pounds of chocolate and also assorted stuff like HP Fruity Sauce and Marmite (just so they can see for themselves how inconceivably horrendous it really is). Jaffa cakes and Dairy Milk and duty-free scotch, o my. :) I’ll bring back some of the books and clothing that I had no room for when I came over here, along with things like beef jerky, roasted sunflower seeds and Bisquick that I can’t get here.

I hate travelling when everything is so spur of the moment. I haven’t bought my tickets to go from New York to Oregon yet, because I don’t know when my return flight from NY is, or if I’ll have to be there for more meetings after the visit with my family. I did check pricing, though, and it will cost about $850 to fly into the small, but closest airport. Much less to fly into San Francisco, but then my sister will have to come down to get me. Maybe I can fly standby? Or I could just be stranded. :(

Last week I received an email from one of my sisters that my cousin had forwarded. She’d taken some time off to go visit her father, my uncle Keith, who was in a home (he’s had problems for a long time). They informed her that he had died several weeks earlier, and as he was there of his own choice, was listed as “personally responsible” for his own affairs/account, they were not required to inform her of his passing. What complete and utter assholes. Presumably they DO have a legal responsibility to inform next of kin. I can’t imagine travelling for a visit to my father and being informed that he’d died several weeks ago. Everyone in the family is very upset; needless to say, there will be no funeral, although I would assume that they’ll do a memorial service later on.

Anyway, must do some web work and then finish packing.