Texas Tea Time

So we've been hanging about in Texas while the in-laws (my in-laws that is) have been up in Seattle with Kirsten. Bart and Lauren are there too, but let's not get any funny ideas about why they went up there. If Kirsten weren't up there they'd still be around here this Memorial Day.

So what is "Memorial Day"? It seems that it is roughly equivalent to Remembrance Day (Nov. 11th) in the UK. Strangely it seems to be an official 'movable feast' (similar to Thanksgiving) celebrated on the last monday in May. The main point of which seems to be the granting of a long weekend in a similar fashion to 'bank holiday mondays'. Unfortunately this means its significance is lost to all except military families - even in this military age.

Anyway, federal holiday or not, we've been getting ready for the return of the Thompsons. I'm in the process of trying a second batch of bread (the first batch was an unspectacular failure) and Tracy is looking at travel options. We're still unsure of what we are doing, but we're certainly sure of what we don't want to do - so that narrows things down a bit. More details as events warrant...

So I think that my visa issues will soon be behind us. Basically when we left the USA for Mexico, the border guard (who was a bit of a 'jerk' to be honest) didn't take my little white form. When I came back in, the guard didn't really check anything - just ran my passport though the machine and waved us though. Spot of advise for anyone wanting to smuggle stuff into the USA - go through Laredo at night... Unfortunately this left me with a stamp in the passport that expired in April and no new one. When we asked the immigration people at Houston airport they seemed confused because they couldn't find me in the system. Eventually we got squared away, but I still need to write a letter to the immigration people with proof I was out of the country. Also they said that next time I leave the country, I need to impress upon the US border people the need to take my white form off me. I just figured they would know how to do their jobs... You will be pleased to know that in my letter I refrained from expressing my varied opinions on the organisational abilities of the US border patrol and also refrained from directing them to the nearest brewery with instructions on how to arrange some festivities.

So - news will be posted here once we figure out what we're up to!