Yesterday Livia and I hopped aboard a plane and landed in Wisconsin amidst 50 mile/hour winds, within mere hours of tornados touching down. It was an exciting landing. Livia shrieked with joy as I clutched the armrest and watched the plane tilt in ways that felt entirely uncomfortable to my being. Praise Jesus, we landed just fine and the pilot earned applause from several relieved passengers.

Here’s Liv in the Milwaukee airport, looking remarkably like Fuzzy, who hitched a ride in her backpack.

Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

My brother Andrew picked us up in Nashville, again, in the middle of crazy thunderstorms. We drove down to Chattanooga wondering what kind of weather we would encounter on the way. Meanwhile, Jenny, Andrew’s girlfriend, encountered tornadic clouds in a grocery store parking lot and texted us a photo of the skies. She quickly went back home, grabbed a friend and her cell phone and sat in the stairwell of her apartment building. Forget Nebraska being the land of tornados… There was far more unseemingly weather waiting for us here!

Despite the storms that swept the country yesterday, Livia and I had a great day of traveling and we’re enjoying the beauty of the south. Check out those fall colors. More adventures to come.

Here’s the face paint shot you’ve been clamoring for. (What? No? Ohhh, so sorry.)

The holiday party for Jeremy’s company was held at Teatro ZinZanni on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous about potential audience participation for this event, but the evening ended up being so. much. fun. It was the dinner theater to end all dinner theaters—and I believe it was the perfect counterpoint to all the cold, snowy Saturday nights Jeremy and I have spent at home this winter. We were out! in San Francisco! eating five courses! and drinking! and being entertained! [sigh] It was lovely.

And the facepaint was an added bonus. Just try doing this at home!

The other face shot was taken on our doomed flight home. It was the precise instance of photographic inspiration and traveling companion exhaustion. Let’s just say the subject at hand was getting beamed ferociously by the sunrise and didn’t want his picture taken. I believe we stayed in the air—after departing San Francisco 45 minutes late—for only 20 minutes before making an unscheduled landing in Reno, Nevada.

We were informed that we needed to make a landing, and that there might be emergency vehicles awaiting the plane, but not to worry. The mood was remarkably calm; we passengers sat and patiently waited to figure out what was going on. We landed easily and sat still while mechanics entered and went into the cockpit. I overheard a flight attendant saying a cockpit computer had electrical problems and the cockpit had filled with smoke, the pilots had to don oxygen masks(!). Eventually we de-planed and spent way too much time in the Reno airport where Diet Mountain Dew is NOT sold and you can play slot machines in the hallways. Charming. And eventually we made it home to Lincoln, about eight hours after we had planned. By that point, we were simply relieved to get back to our daughter.

Our luggage found us the next day.

It’s late. You’ve been traveling all day and you stumble into your hotel room, looking for the lights. What’s this you see? Refreshments. Ah, perfect! you think. I could sure use some refreshing!

Wait a minute. Back away from the tantalizingly-positioned peanut butter cups. And don’t even think about grabbing those Pringles because once you pop, you can’t stop. These snacks probably cost more than the purse you bought on sale at Target. And that purse? It contains at least one small package of fruit snacks and perhaps two mostly-smooshed NutriGrain bars. Even though the Snickers are calling your name—afterall, Snickers in a canister must be good!—and for some odd reason white cheddar popcorn sounds like exactly what you want at the moment, you can persevere. You will be strong. You will back away, slowly, from the refreshments, and then you will desperately try to avoid looking at them over the course of the next three days.

And you will think, more than once, it’s a good thing your five year old stayed home.

We flew out to San Francisco last week for Jeremy to meet his coworkers at ThoughtMatrix—and for us to attend the company’s annual holiday party.

We arrived at our hotel late at night (at least according to my body’s Central Standard Time) and didn’t get a glimpse out our window until the next morning. Then, looking down 14 floors, I located a Walgreens and a Starbucks and decided I’d be just fine on my own for one work day. Jeremy and I wandered the streets that morning, looking for a simple egg breakfast, and eventually killed two birds with one stone: we found Jeremy’s office building and a lovely organic restaurant that served breakfast sandwiches.

The following photos show the Flood Building, from which much of genius of ThoughtMatrix flows. (Many employees, such as Jeremy, work from home offices—so I’ll reserve some of the genius quality for them.)

Friday morning, when we first explored the city a bit, I threw my red winter coat over an apple green sweater I got for Christmas. And then I slung my bright red purse over my shoulder. Woman from a small midwestern city meet… the dress code of the working men and women of San Francisco. Black, black, black, black, grey, and black. I’ve never felt so very bright in my entire life and, darn it, there was just no way to blend in.

Now Saturday was a different matter. The tourists came out while the natives stayed home and slept in—and I fit in just fine, red coat and all.

Turns out we left our heart (Liv) in Lincoln and headed to the West Coast last Thursday. Jeremy traveled for work and the annual holiday party—and I tagged along. It was absolutely lovely to get away for awhile. We walked all over San Francisco, enjoyed a farmer’s market on the Bay, and then had an awesome evening of dinner theater on Fisherman’s Wharf. Jeremy’s coworkers are a great group of people and it was easy to enjoy our time with them.

When I can grab a few moments—that is, between removing contraband from the dog’s mouth and playing referee between him and Livia (ah, home!)—I’ll post more shots from our trip.