When you’re driving through Texas, if you see that everyone around you is strictly obeying the speed limit, make damn sure you’re doing the same yourself! I couldn’t resist speeding, because we had a 16-hour drive ahead of us, but now I’m out over 100 bucks for the ticket I got. :P

Add to it the fact that Diana and I both caught Lenny’s cold during the drive down and still had it on the way back, and you have the makings of one miserable trek. I don’t care how much it costs; we are so flying next time.

At least we had fun while we were in Dallas. Diana and Lenny got to meet the rest of my family, and vice versa. (They all adore Lenny, and he got lots of presents.) We all visited the aquarium. (Interestingly, its setup was a lot like the Kaiyukan in Osaka.) Out of the blue, I was given an Omnifi MP3 streaming unit as a belated birthday present. (Sometimes it’s nice to have a rich uncle. He also gave my brother a (real) gun from his collection. :P ) We swam in my Gram’s pool, which had a miniature waterfall and gorgeous Japanese maples next to it. And throughout, we ate. A lot.

Come to think of it, the ticket and the long drive and the illness don’t seem so bad in the end…