merry and happy and all that, belatedly.

We spent the last week back in Virginia, where we told the same stories to various groups of friends. At one point Joe said "Are you really going to tell that story again?" I had to explain just how this works-- that I was, in fact, going to tell the same story again. It was new to THAT group of friends, tho he had heard it twice the day before.

We stayed a week which, as it turns out, is a little long to stay with one's parents. Or, more accurately, one's in-laws. I just want to go home, Joe kept saying. As I just moved out of their house in September, I was ok. It was so nice to see some of the old kids again, including Mike, Stephanie, and Frances (picture from 06); The Widow and The Choice; The Aw-zee and his GW; My Lovely Nora and Eddie; HotCop and Mr. HotCop (P-har); and my good friend Michelle.

But we missed so many people, too. I blame the fact that I went to the office on Friday. Never doing that again, unless the company pays to fly me across the country. It turned out to be impossible to cram in time with all our friends, even as Joe was ready to escape my parents.

If we missed you, I'm sorry. We'll see you next time. And, for those of you we did see, I'm sorry we didn't have enough time together. Come visit!!