Nice visit and then wretchedly sick
News ·Monday February 20, 2006 @ 14:53 EST (link)
We left Friday night (the 17th) to pick up my mother and grandmother in Abbotsford; it's about a 2.5 hour trip. We crossed at Sumas, as usual; no trouble finding them; they fed us dinner and then we headed back, getting in after midnight. Since we're not in the house yet we put them up on our couch and air mattress.
We had a delay at US customs on the way in since they thought I had failed to turn in my conditional green card after getting the permanent one. Actually, I'd turned it in in Seattle when I filed the paperwork to remove the conditional residence, and had gotten a stamp in my passport to use as a temporary card until the permanent one arrived in the mail. They may have missed that stamp due to a paperclip that was stuck earlier in my passport, and the stamp was after a couple of blank pages.
On Saturday we took them to Fred Meyer to pick up film, then over the WA-520 bridge over Lake Washington to see Bill's place, then to Microsoft, into my building; we went by the store and visitor center but it's only open weekdays. Our last stop was our house, we gave them the tour and unloaded the box we'd brought with us. We ate lunch at Subway and took them to Applebee's for dinner. Mom gave me a DVD of our wedding they'd had transferred for a late birthday present, and a few other odds and ends and notes from my sisters (hi sisters).
On Sunday we went to Northgate as usual (second meeting, because, one bathroom, four people, good luck). They were having their yearly soup and salad luncheon, fortunately for us, so we stayed. Then, we headed back, this time via Aldergrove; it seems to be a slightly more direct route. I drove there, Honey back. Naturally we stopped at Timmy's for a coffee on the way out. No trouble with customs this time; I think the guy cleared up any "missing card" status; he just asked if I'd turned in the conditional card and I told him I had and he waved us through.
We stopped at a Wendy's on the US side of the border, and then I slept some of the way back. When we got home and I woke up I was feeling dizzy and queasy; I staggered into the house and lay down but even with my eyes closed everything was spinning. I threw up a couple of times and then felt a little better and managed to get to sleep. I was feeling somewhat better in the morning but still felt it would be better if I worked from home.
