Airline prices are all over the place! Depends on the hubs, popularity of the location, and time of year. Not to mention cost of fuel etc etc. We just booked tickets to Florida. We live in Virginia and have to fly to NJ first, then to Florida. Makes no sense except that Newark is a hub for Continental. In Oct we bought tickets from VA to CA for $189 each. We had to cancel the week before due to a death in the family. We tried to change the reservation and they wanted us to buy seats that were roughly $800 a piece, for the same seats 2 days later. NO THANKS!

"I loved Friday Night Lights. They always cancel the good family type shows." Don't despair - Friday Night Lights will be back, but not until January. Prior to that, it will be on one of the cable channels (wish I could remember which one). That's one of our absolute most favorite shows! Hubs and I have gotten so disgusted with the way the networks cancel shows so quickly that we aren't going to watch any of the new shows at all. The only new one that we watched last season was the Miss Guided show on ABC that didn't come on until the writer's strike, and it was really cute. But, it's been canceled... So, we'll watch our favorites that will be back, and as they slowly (hopefully not quickly!) get canceled or reach their end, it will be an extra 30-60 minutes for doing something else... This is the last season for E.R. and we didn't watch it at all last season. Don't know if we'll start in on that one again just to catch the final season. ... Probably not!

Years ago when we were still just dating, my now wife and I were traveling to a family reunion for her family in Rhode Island, we flew into Boston, where she had gone to college, and met up with a college friend of hers, and went to some of their old hangout spots in Boston. We got back to the car to go to her sister's place for the night and found that the car trunk had been jimmied open and all of our luggage was gone. Since it wasn't just matter of waiting for the airline to deliver the bags, we had to get everything we'd need for the entire week on Block Island. The next morning her sister took us to a local store named "Spags" that made Walmart, K-mart, or even Odd Lots seem upscale by comparison. The only good thing that came from it is since it was the first time I was meeting any of her family which would normally make me very nervous, I instantly had something to talk about with them. I often find that when things go slightly wrong with travel, it can make for the best stories, I'm glad they found a way to make it end up working.

I just realized reading this that it described a former close friend of mine. She walked under a black cloud, always doom and gloom conversations, but she had very few friends so I hung in there. Plus, she had her moments (few) of being joyful. I had a weekly standing dinner date with her at my house (never saw the inside of hers, despite a decade-long friendship.) She was in a dark place and she seemed to like coming to my home (and unloading). It would always be just the two of us. But she cancelled on every other thing--including my wedding! I kept trying to keep the door open, but she kept slipping further away until I couldn't remember our last dinner. It wasn't anything I had done, she had a track record of doing this to others as well. I definitely think depression played a role, and she has a medical background. Every so often I'll reach out to her to see how she and her kids are doing. The answers are perfunctory. I will always keep the door open to her, (and she knows it,) but I don't expect a knock anytime soon. I think I'll write to her today. eta:I emailed her 10 hours ago. Just a friendly “miss you, hope to hear from you…” And got crickets. Neither surprised nor upset. It was worth a try.