And wouldn't you know it, but as I finished my massive cleaning fest yesterday, it seems one of Ju's kittens knocked over the same potted plant on the veranda that has been knocked over twice before. The pot is (was) made of a dried coconut shell held together by some steel wire in the middle. It is now splintered beyond repair. The plants are no loss really, since they had been torn from the pot and ripped to shreds several times before, probably by the same mystery kitten. They were just barely hanging on. I guess it's a sign that I have one too many pots up there in the middle of the kitten highway.

In other news, apparently the huge massive snow that I am so sad to miss this year trapped my mom in GRR and then again in Chicago and then she got stuck in Miami because she missed her connection. Anyway, now she's there and we are here, up early but not in a rush anymore to get to the airport. I didn't sleep very well between the kittens bounding in at 2 a.m. and some kind of security alarm going off around 3:30 and continuing to sound for another half an hour, so it will be good to get a nap in too. And I'll have time to clean up the mess on the veranda.

Ju is watching Planet Earth, again. At least if he's glued to the T.V. it's educational, as shown by this conversation we had yesterday:

me - "Ju, it's time for a shower and bed.

Ju - "Why?

me - "Because it's dark out and time for sleeping."

Ju - "Why's it dark out?

me - "Because the sun set and that means it's time for sleeping."

Ju - "It's dark out because the terra esta rodando." (the Earth is turning)

me - "Yes, that is exactly what's going on. The Earth is turning and that's why it's dark out."

Last night we went to a Bobby Mcfarrin concert. I have to admit, when my husband said "we're going" to this concert, the night before I leave to visit the USA for a month, I wasn't all that thrilled. Yes, it was a late night and I am going to be extremely tired on the plane, but WHAT a concert! It was awesome! If you've never been and have the opportunity, do so - well worth the money. Our seats were in the 3rd row and people were invited to the stage to participate and he had local musicians up to sort of jam with him... I would go again in a second.

Now, I am off to the airport, flying to the USA. Not sure how often I'll post in the month I am there, just because I will be busy visiting people, but really what would I post about visiting the States when this blog is about me being in Brasil? Not that you could tell much about Brasil from this blog anyway, since it lately has become more about Ju. In anycase, it won't be much worse than my average one post a month I'm doing at this point. Not really.

I haven't used Travelocity.com for flights in a long time since they didn't used to allow you to have your embarking airport outside of the US. Today, just for shits and giggles, I decided to compare the quotes between them and Expedia, who I usually use. To my utter disbelief, I was quoted $7189 to fly from Salvador to Michigan and was given only ONE option in flights, whilst Expedia quoted the exact same flight (with less stops) for $1500. I was so totally appalled at the price, I sent them a customer service inquiry, just to tell them they were ridiculous.

On the way to the States, we go to the airport at 2:30 for our 4:45 flight. There was a lovely line about .8 km long stretching from the ONE open TAM desk all the way to the food court. We waited in it for a while, and then decided to jump the line because Ju was crabby. During this time, we over heard various people talking about how they were missing connections etc and didn't know what to do.

We got to our gate just in time to see that our flight was moved from confirmed to late, and then was announced over the loudspeaker that they had no "previsto" as to when it would arrive at the airport. We ate some pao de quiejo, we sat, and sat some more. We watched teenagers going on large Disney group tours sit on the floor and do bonding activities. Ju made a few friends. Eventually they came over the PA and told us something that no one could hear because the teenagers were too busy bonding to notice that everyone was trying to be quiet to listen to it. At 7:30 we were told our flight would begin boarding. At 8:30 we actually got on the plane. By the time we got to Rio, we had missed the last TAM flight to Miami by about 40 minutes.

So, after a 2 hour fiasco of getting vouchers and finding our luggage that had connection tags on it, we got to spend the night in Rio, in a 4 star hotel, bill footed by TAM. It was a lovely hotel and they checked us into their most expensive room at 1 AM in the morning. We slept most of the day, and then ate some random food from a kilo place and walked on the beach. Then it was time to pack it all in and go back to the airport to catch the 8:50 flight. We finally got checked in, got the the gate, and got the heck out of there.

We arrived so early in Miami that there was no one in the gate to operate or open it, so we sat on the plane for a while. After that, despite airport security, everything was pretty smooth, except for Ju not wanting to get on another airplane ("Ju airpane, no!") and trying to get us to leave him in Miami.


On the way back everything was okay until we got to Rio. After getting in and waiting for 25 minutes behind ONE family to recheck our luggage, we rushed to our gate to find that the flight was not there. Over the course of the next 4 hours, we got the whole complicated story in pieces: it went something like this - The plane that we were to take to Salvador left from Campinas to go to Rio, but it wasn't allowed to land because of the crash, so it was sent back to Campinas (where I suspect it had to unload and do something with a lot of angry passangers), and then wait for clearance to fly back again to Rio. Towards the end of this wait for it to arrive, we recieved news that Salvador's airport was closed because of a bird problem. We finally got on the plane at 4:30, but then had to until 5:30 for the flight plan to be ferried over because it had to be manually entered in Sampa (whatever that means).



Between all the problems with accidents, delays, and the publicity given during the PAN games, I see this whole flight thing really killing the tourist trade here if something isn't done soon. I can't help it, I live here, but if I had a choice about flying through a place that will surely make me miss a connection or three, I might go another way...