The Lost Diamond

Carrie had a tough trip to Wisconsin flying solo with Quentin, having her flight delayed, a destroyed car seat, a long line to follow up with the baggage folks to attempt to make a claim and then an hour ride back to Lake Geneva. There is only so much Quentin can take. Crabby!! I actually beat her there driving and was locked out of the house with Lucky. Fortunately there were still a few brewskies left over in the cooler so much to my parent's (and neighbor's) dismay they found Lucky and I on the porch throwing a few cold ones back when they finally arrived. All parties were exhausted from the long day of travel and we went to bed early after spending an evening ordering pizza and catching up. The next morning we decided to go downtown and have breakfast. Shortly after arriving and getting seated Carrie noticed her ring didn't look right and upon further inspection a diamond had fallen out of its setting. The tears began welling up. My pocked book got angry. After such a long day yesterday surely it was lost. Carrie was upset, Q was fidgeting and it was the exclamation point on a rough couple of days of travel. I was pretty determined to find it as it has obvious sentimental value. I didn't think the diamond would just fall out so I figured it must be in something she had put her hand into like the diaper bag.

I dug out my Sherlock Holmes pipe and began my investigation beginning with the diaper bag. I rifled through that thing and found lots of undesirable items and toys that had been swallowed up by the black hole of "stuff" but no diamond. I moved on to the shower and inspected it with a bright light hoping to catch the glimmer of the diamond but no luck. Sink was next, followed by the make up bag and toiletry bag. I'm starting to lose hope but still think I have a good chance of finding it. I begin to dive into her suitcase next when I decide to turn up the light so I can see better. Upon walking back from the light switch I see something shining on the carpet. No way right? That has to be a tiny piece of plastic. I get closer and pick it up - sure enough it was the diamond. As I'm looking at it I drop it and hear it hit my duffel bag. You've got to be kidding me. I can't find it now and start yet another inspection with a slight moment of frustration setting in. After a few minutes I locate it again and emerge to the living room to accept the high fives for being such a good detective. If the plumber thing doesn't work out I can always be the next aging Dirty Harry.

The ring returned with Carrie's parents with the diamond in a plastic baggie to be sent back to the original Iowa jeweler to have it repaired. Hopefully it will last slightly longer than the two years, 49 days the original workmanship lasted. This weekend I am purchasing my metal detector and going treasure hunting in the shipwrecked filled seas off the coast of Florida. Hopefully more diamonds will be discovered. I leave you with a picture of Q with his great grandparents on Carrie's side and one of the sunsets we almost got to enjoy after Quentin got to bed only to have him start screaming about 10 minutes before the sun went down. I shot some pictures so Carrie and I could enjoy it later.

Back to the grindstone

We all made it back home safe and sound after nearly 3,000 miles of driving. Lucky has slept since we walked in the door exhausted from all that driving. Quentin and Carrie returned unharmed and a new car seat greeted us at the door compliments of us. Our resident wordsmith, Carrie sent off our letter scolding Delta for their disappointing behavior. Hopefully, they will respond in a gracious check writing manner but I don't think either of us are holding our breath. Quentin never really liked that car seat anyway so maybe he'll take to this new one. They attempted to charge us for a bag on the way home to cover the car seat. Um, lady use your peepers. It wouldn't be possible to beat this thing up more than it currently is. We'll pass on the $5 charge but appreciate your concern.

While in Wisconsin Quentin paid homage to the great bambino of brie, the sultan of swiss and the colonel of curd by devouring his first cheese curd in the Milwaukee airport. You have to start these kids early on cutting their teeth on cheese before they get too old. He liked it ergo he's an official cheese chomping Spiegelhoff. Unfortunately the Qster was not able to go swimming as the weather was on the rainy and cold side. I'm not sure who controls the thermostat in the midwest but they are asleep at the wheel. One day it's a 102 and the next day it's 61. Who can pack for weather like that!? The dog is still chicken of the water. (He's afraid of the waves crashing {river style} onto shore). He is a bit wussy, but at the same time we have two ponds in our backyard and we aren't so sure being afraid of the water is such a bad thing. He sniffed it, drank some of it, stared at it and even barked at it, but swim in it he did not. We pushed him in off the dock and that didn't do it either. It looks like this retriever is a land retriever. He did have fun making friends with a black lab ominously named Odie and the two of them wore themselves out daily.

The boating was fun and we found a new way to put Quentin to sleep instantly. The second that boat was in motion he was sleeping. As soon as it stopped the water works came on and the screaming began. We were in the boat while the uncles were tubing and every time one of them would fall off the cries began. It was clear who the real captain of the boat was. I said, keep going! It was hilarious. Like clockwork the boat would stop and he would wake up from a deep sleep and the second it started up again he was back sleeping soundly.

We had a good time but vacation has a whole new definition when you throw a baby in the mix. From the 5 am wake up calls to the constant freaking out of meeting new people it's rather exhausting. We're looking forward to taking a vacation from our vacation but we don't have any days left to take. Did I mention Carrie lost a diamond from her wedding ring? Oh, ya we'll leave that for tomorrow. I leave you with several pictures from the weekend. Shades - modeling, his brewcrew uniform (they won that day) and him in the boat with his life vest.

We Survived!

...but the car seat didn't. Carrie and Quentin flew Delta (as in D- don't, E- expect, L-luggage, T-to, A-arrive) and our car seat literally came out bouncing down the baggage belt. Carrie watched it roll towards her and was thinking that can't be ours because ours was in a bag and had a tag on it (and isn't the shape of a bowling ball and therefore shouldn't be ROLLING at me!). This one appeared as if it had been run over. It came out with no tags, no bag and the sides, handle and cloth had been dragged for what appears to be miles or at least long enough that the plastic was so worn down that it is no longer usable. The part of the car seat that interlocks with the seat belt has been worn down so far that the seat belt won't go through it any more. Carrie goes to complain, the agent makes a quick phone call and comes out with a brand new car seat, but it's not the same brand and our car seat was part of a set that goes with our stroller and base for the car. They offered compensation that won't cover half the cost of a new one, which we have to buy because we can't drive the Qster around without a car seat. AHHH! Where is the compassion one is used to receiving from the airlines? Oh, right, the airline industry; the only customer service business in the world that doesn't provide any customer service, not even a smidget of empathy. Umm, lady we can't leave the airport unless we have a working car seat. So my sister has two kids and car seats galore to get us by. We will go and purchase a new one right after writing several angry letters to Delta today.

Lucky and I made it and had a pretty uneventful drive in comparison. Would you believe he was a better driving companion than camper? He was so exhausted by the time we arrived at our campsite in Kentucky that he crashed right next to the fire but every noise he would hear elicited a bark. Ya, this is camping - as in the woods where there are lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) making noises. I don't think any other campers were sad to see us packing up the next morning as they spent the night listening to our fearless guard dog barking every two seconds all night long, which also meant we didn't get much sleep. Lucky was a good companion in the car, though. He settled down after the first 40 miles and by the time we clocked 250 miles it was pretty clear to him that he wasn't getting out of the car. He would sit down on the back seat and rest his head on the top of the headrest looking out the back window staring at the cars behind us entertaining the drivers coming up from behind. For me it was nice to have the company as we spent endless hours discussing world events. (Lucky thinks people should stop supporting the China economy by boycotting Wal-Mart and someone should drop a bomb or two on N. Korea sending them back to the stone age). For the most part it turns out, I agree with his politics. At the campsite Lucky saw several deer (he barked at them), a big old tom turkey (he barked at him) and a boy scout troop (and of course he barked at them too).

We drove 800 miles the first day taking 12 hours and went through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Georgia again, back into Tennessee and stopped south of Louisville in Kentucky. Yesterday we got up early and finished it off going through the remainder of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois (worst traffic jam ever in Chicago) and finally the great cheese haven, Wisconsin. We drove just shy of 500 miles the second day and in all clocked 1,293 miles. Black Beauty handled the open road like a champ.

Quentin once again charmed everyone on the plane and is becoming a seasoned traveler. He was awake a lot longer of the time yesterday and participated by helping his neighbor read the paper (his favorite toy) and playing peek-a-boo with the woman sitting behind him laughing endlessly. Hopefully, he will be that good on the way home. He was still charming passengers down at the baggage belt as they couldn't get enough of him. What a great baby. With the time change though, he's getting up between 5-5:30 am, which makes for a tired mom and dad. Tomorrow Q will get his longest car ride ever so we're hoping he survives that. It will also be our first trip as an entire family (Luckster included). My folks were gracious enough to take us all in (their poor cat with Lucky on the prowl) and they allowed us to do some horse trading. We gave up Black Beauty for their Tahoe for the Wisco road trip. They gain some gas mileage and we gain some square footage. Today we are taking Lucky out to the farm to run him around a bit and do some fishing. Quentin will get his first picnic as well. It was a freezing 61 degrees when we arrived so we hope the Florida sunshine is only lagging behind us by a day.