Kelly telling the others about our trip.
At one point, Paul told me 'Sounds like you had your hands full most of the time.' I could only reply 'That we did.'
When all of us got to my house, all the girls wanted to come in with us; Paul was thoughtful enough to tell them 'C'mon, ladies. They just got back from a dozen time zones away after spending almost an entire day on airplanes. They're probably tired, and need to rest and get over their jet lag.'
All them quieted down at that, and Kelly told them 'We really do want to tell you all about it, but Paul's right – we are pretty tired. Can we do this tomorrow night, instead? You're all invited over for a pizza party, okay?'
They all cheerfully agreed, and apologized to us for not thinking of it themselves. I spoke up to tell them 'It's okay, we understand.
We're still getting over the excitement of it, ourselves.'
Jan quickly gave us a rundown on what all we'd gotten in the mail, and what the situation was in the house and with Cat, then didn't hesitate to take shotgun in her dad's car. The others followed suit, and after they'd welcomed us home again, they left.
Kelly held the door as I got our luggage inside, where Cat was enthusiastically welcoming us home.
We got the luggage into our bedroom, and decided that some rest was called for. Cat jumped up on the bed with us, and after tolerating a hug from Kelly, curled up on her belly to begin purring in contentment as Kelly rubbed her ears.
I woke up a couple of hours later to find Cat on my stomach – though quieter – and Kelly curled up next to me, her arm on my chest. I hadn't any more than looked at Kelly when I saw her eyes open – and her smile as she realized we were finally in our bed in our own home.
She reached down to start petting Cat – who promptly started purring loud enough to wake the dead – before telling me 'I'm starved . What's for supper?'
I thought about it for all of two seconds and told her 'Barbeque. I don't think you want to cook; and
Kelly happily nodded her agreement before shooing Cat off of me so she could lie on top of me to give me a kiss. We lay like that for a few more minutes before my stomach growled; Kelly laughed and said 'It sounds like you're pretty hungry, too. You order the food, and I'll get started unpacking. If we stick to it, we can be done by the time it gets here.'
'Deal. I'll feed the appetite with fur while I'm at it, too.'
Kelly grinned in response, and we managed to get ourselves out of bed and moving.
As I passed the den on my way to the kitchen, I saw that Cat had curled up on the end of the couch. I stopped to look at her, and asked 'Would Your Highness like me to bring you your supper, so that you don't have to actually move?'
Cat just looked up at me as though to say 'Well, yeah, if you would…'
I got our order in to the barbeque place, then went on to open up some food for Cat. As usual, the sound of the can being opened up had her in front of her dish in a matter of seconds.
As Cat chowed down, I took the opportunity to make sure she had fresh water, then checked her litter box – and finding that one of the girls had been thoughtful enough to clean it out very shortly before Kelly and I had gotten home.
Everything taken care of, I grabbed a couple cans of soda from the fridge and went back to help Kelly get us unpacked.
We were almost done when Mabel, my home automation system, announced that someone was at the door. Kelly told me 'You go ahead and take care of that, and I'll finish here; there's only a little left, so I won't be a minute.'
Doing what I was told, I paid off the barbeque delivery guy and got things ready for supper. A couple minutes later, Kelly came into the den – stopping to eyeball the pile of packages off to one side and ask 'Did we really send THAT much stuff back?'
I laughed, and asked 'WE?'
Kelly laughed, too, and said 'Yes, WE. Ninety percent is mine, ten percent is yours. So all of it together is WE!' as she sat next to me. I turned on the TV so we could get caught up on what all had been happening in the world while we were gone; Cat wandered in to sit in front of us as though to tell us 'I'm not begging, you understand, but if you wanted to share some of that delicious food with me, I wouldn't object.' Cat thought that any kind of tomato-based sauce was delicious barbeque, pizza or spaghetti sauce, even just plain old ketchup were all welcome additions to her diet. We were careful not to let her have them very often though, and she'd learned – after being sprayed with water a few times – not to try to steal them.
When supper was done – Cat had been allowed to lick the barbeque sauce off Kelly's finger a couple times – I put the dishes and leftover food away as Kelly started going through the packages we'd sent back.
Cat thought the wrapping paper and empty boxes were a new toy, and delighted in playing in them – until she jumped on the couch and realized that there was even better stuff. She tried to lay down on some of the clothes that Kelly and bought, only to be shooed back onto the floor. Ever the trooper, Cat promptly jumped back on the couch, and laid on the clothes at the first opportunity (when she though Kelly wouldn't notice). Back on the floor, back on the couch, back on the clothes.
Repeat. Again. And again. Kelly finally had to laugh, and say 'Okay, fine. Here's something you can lay on!', and moved Cat to a different item. Content that she was laying on something new, Cat stayed there to watch us while Kelly and I got the rest of the stuff unpacked and arranged. We hauled everything into the bedroom, and put it away – making two trips each, and a third for Kelly when she displaced Cat for the last time. I got all the packing cleaned up – with Cat's expert 'assistance'. Both of us knew that there would be a few more packages, delivered over the next couple of weeks, but we'd have plenty of time and energy to deal with them then.
I went into my home office to see how many messages I'd received while I was gone; only to be pleasantly surprised at how few there were. Always efficient, my secretary had done an even better job while I was gone; there were only a couple dozen things needing my attention. It didn't take me long to tell her how to deal with most of them, and the few that were left were things that I'd have to take care of myself at my offices. While I was at it, I send an email to Marlyn, telling her that we'd gotten home just fine, and that we wanted to thank her for all the help she'd given us. Kelly came in as I was doing it, and gave me a hug and kiss when she saw who I was sending it to.
With most of our just-got-home stuff done, Kelly and I both realized that we were still tired – and most definitely jet-lagged. At her suggestion, we went in to share a shower, then went to bed – with Cat curled up next to Kelly's belly while I spooned with her back.
We slept in the next morning, and even took a nap the next afternoon – waking when Paul called to see what time they should all come over. A quick consultation with me, and Kelly told him that 6:30 would be fine.
Awake again, we got up and moving. We went grocery shopping to make sure we had enough drinks and munchies for everyone, with a side trip to get some supplies so we could wrap the gifts we'd brought back. We were just finishing when Mabel let us know that everyone ('Seven', as Mabel reported) had arrived. Kelly opened the door and invited all of them in – Paul, his boys John and Leo, Sandra, Jan, Robyn, and Susan. The girls came into the kitchen where I was getting the drinks ready; each of them gave me a more-than-friendly kiss before going back into the den where Kelly and the guys were.
Back in the den, Kelly was chatting with Paul and the boys; when all of them had our drinks and a seat, she started telling them about our trip – starting with the flight over – while I got some pizzas ordered.
By the time the pizza arrived, Kelly had gotten them as far as the start of our trip south from Manila – and laughing so hard they were almost crying as she described her reactions to watching Bhoy drive.
As we munched our way through the pizzas, Kelly and I took turns describing the different things we'd experienced. When the pizza was gone, I cleaned up as Kelly continued telling them about her adventures.
With the trash put away, I stood in the background to listen as Kelly went on with her story. She had all of them completely wrapped up with what she was saying that they really didn't notice my absence. I gestured to Kelly, drawing a bow in the air, and raised my eyebrows. She understood that I was asking if she wanted to hand out the gifts, and let me know she did with a quick nod of her head.
I made my way back to the bedroom and collected some of the things that we'd brought back, then moved
