A Whirlwind Week

DH took a lot of great pictures on the trip so I thought I'd post some of them here. I'll post the pictures of the animals at the wildlife park in a separate post as I think there must be a limit to how many pictures will fit in one post and I have reached it!

Adelaide Train Station

The town of Burra

Stately home that we toured

Pit bulls being walked on the beach

Glenelg Beach

Another beach

So, here I am again, back home. The flights from Adelaide to Melbourne and Melbourne to LA were fine but then I had a glitch in LA.

Due to a big ice/snow storm on Sunday night in the Newark area, my plane from LA was delayed taking off as they had to wait for a different type of plane to fly in that could withstand the possibility of icing conditions on the descent into Newark.

After a long wait - thankfully in the American Airlines Admiral's Club Lounge (one-day pass for $50) - I was finally able to head off on the plane from LA to Newark at 6:30 p.m. instead of 3:05 as scheduled. As a result, I got in at about 2:30 in the morning. Luckily I had ordered a limo to pick me up so my driver was ready and waiting. After collecting my bag, which I'd decided to check, we drove off for Bloomfield and I got home around 3:30 a.m. Baxter was very glad to see me and I finally went to bed around 4:30 - and slept until 2 the next afternoon!

My plans to work at home on Tuesday didn't pan out as a result but I did go get Diva from the vet's. She was glad to be home and her scar has healed up nicely from her little operation, and the fur is growing back. That night I had trouble sleeping (jet lag can really do a job on you!) and the next day at work I was useless! Luckily Thursday I got my energy back and was able to work until 10:30 p.m. to nearly finish the presentation I had to make on Friday afternoon. It was a real team effort.

The presentation wasn't really done Friday until about 12:45 p.m. - and the presentation was at 1 p.m.! I credit my experiences in the at-work Toastmasters Club that I belong to for pulling off a presentation without any practice!

If you're not familiar with Toastmasters, it is an international organization to help people in public speaking. A friend at work got me involved in it several years ago and I've found it very helpful in putting me at ease in speaking in public. One of the things they have as part of every meeting is "Table Topics," where a person is asked to speak on a random subject for two minutes. This exercise has really helped me in being able to speak off the cuff in business and other situations, without a lot of "ums" and "ers." Here's a link to their website if you are interested in more information. It's a lot of fun, as well as being useful. http://www.toastmasters.org/

Of course, no stressful week would be complete without a dog-health-related crisis. Thursday night I arrived home at 10:45 p.m. from my late night at work (my friend was kind enough to go over at around 7 and feed and let out Diva). Naturally when I arrived Diva was put out that I'd neglected her all evening and was rambunctious. All I wanted to do was eat my frozen dinner, watch The Daily Show, and get a good night's sleep before my presentation. So I gave her a rawhide strip to occupy her for a few minutes.

As soon as she finished it she came out looking for me and acting sick - licking her lips, etc. It apparently didn't agree with her. She wanted to go out and eat grass. Then she wasn't right all night long, which kept me up till about 1:30. I knew she didn't have anything life-threatening (she has had these incidents before and been rushed to the Emergency Clinic and she just had an upset stomach). But it certainly disturbed our sleep! She did get sick the next evening after eating more grass and now is recuperating nicely today on a diet of white rice, chicken and broth. No more rawhide strips for Diva - the pit bull with the sensitive stomach!

DH came home last night on the same flight I came in on, but his was on time; in fact, it was early. Diva and I went to pick him up. As we were waiting for him to come out of the airport, surrounded by limos and other cars full of people waiting to pick up their friends and family, I noticed the car immediately behind us also had a woman with a dog waiting in it!

So, things are back to normal now and spring is around the corner. All the snow and ice from Sunday melted in the past few days and today is a mild springlike day. Finally!

If only it would last...Tuesday it's supposed to go back to being "unseasonably cold."