Travel Woes and Babysitting

Right about now Daughter#2 and her husband should be winging their way east over the North Atlantic, probably very close to where the Titanic sank, on their way to Manchester, England. They are scheduled to trek across the lake area of northern England with a group from Virginia Tech's School of Architecture. Thanks to US Airways they are here at our house spending the night and waiting for another flight tomorrow evening. They drove up from Harrisonburg early this afternoon and we drove up to Pentagon Row for an early dinner. Her favorite Lebanese restaurant wasn't open yet so we dropped into Sine's Irish Pub instead. It was very crowded with the post work crowd from the Pentagon and Crystal City and we ended up sitting in the bar area. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner before dropping them off at Washington National just after 5:00 for their 7:00PM flight to Philadelphia where they would connect with a 9:05 flight to England. Plenty early enough or so they thought. Although why it takes an hour to fly to Philly from Washington is beyond me. When they checked in they were told that their 7:00 flight was always late and they would not make the connection so come back tomorrow and fly to Philly at 3:00. How nice of them. Needless to say our brave travelers were heartbroken and had to scramble to make changes to their itinerary and make attempts to notify their group of their delay and make alternate travel arrangements in Manchester to catch up to their group. It would have been nice if US Airways had been a bit more forthcoming with their connection problems when Daughter#2 was making her reservations. Jerks.

On the up side, we get to babysit the Black Demon for the two weeks that they are treking across merry England. She seems none the worse for wear from her hiking accident. Her fur is pretty much grown back and she seems her normal rascally squirrel chasing self. It will give Ann someone to walk with and keep her company.

Holy Rollers

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood as temperatures got into the 70s. The trees are beginning to show signs of greening up and there are flowers everywhere. The cherry blossoms are at their peak downtown around the Tidal Basin. The kids are happy as it's their spring break this week.

Spring also brings us Easter. Its Easter which I assume brought about the knock on our door shortly after dinner tonight. It was a couple from one of the local Baptist churches. I know with some religions its important to spread their interpretation of the Word and recruit new members to the true way. So it was that they invited me to Easter services at their church. All well and good and how very kind and neighborly of them. Then they asked if I had a local church. I told them that I did. I'm a cafeteria Catholic. That I did not tell them. I thanked them and accepted their literature and thought that was the end of our brief visit. The he asked if I knew Jesus. Hmmm...ok. Yes, I told him hoping that would make him happy and he'd be on his way. No such luck. Then he asked if I died today did I think I would go to heaven? Now what kind of question is that to ask a perfect stranger? Frankly I thought it none of his business and the question was at best rude and inappropriate. Who knows if I'll go to heaven? I'll leave that to the Big Guy to decide. I always felt someone's religious beliefs were private and between that person and whatever Deity he chose to believe or not believe. These people need to find something more productive to do with their time. Frankly the whole episode pissed me off.