Back on the East coast

and feeling truly exhausted.

Our little fusspot was exceedingly well-behaved on both flights. My assumption is that it helped a lot that it was late and dark and mostly quiet on the planes. I even managed to take public transport most of the way back from the airport to our apartment on Sunday morning (no small feat since I had a wheelie-suitcase, backpack (for baby supplies on the plane), laptop bag and stroller). And to the whiny middle-aged man who spent the entire train ride complaining to me about how his children were not coming to pick him up from the airport (at 6-something in the morning), did you notice that my husband wasn't there either? He was snugly in bed waiting for us to get home.

Add to the list of places I have now breastfed: the Pacific Coast, the San Andreas fault line, and in line waiting to check in for a flight. Need I mention that the flight had an entire college boys rugby team on it? We definitely got ourselves a got deal of unwanted attention as I fed the baby in line, but it just was not worth listening to her scream for a good 10 minute wait and she'd been decently patient during the drive to the airport.

And little secrets from this trip that I will never, ever tell my mother: the plane we took to CA had just landed from Cancun. And no, they did not disinfect it. Yes, I did use up an entire pack of travel wipes scrubbing anything the fusspot or I could touch enroute. Still didn't make me feel great about the situation, but thus far no issues.

And now a request for help from my most dedicated readers. I need an easy birthday idea for my husband. Could be a present, could be dinner, etc. But I somehow forgot his birthday was this week and not only made plans the night of his actual birthday, but have exceedingly little time the rest of the week to bake something or cook a nice dinner or try to plan a surprise. I realize that you know very little about my husband except for his unusual penchant for stating the truth about things better left unsaid and asking highly entertaining questions about the fusspot. But I've known him going on 10 years now, and I still have not managed to buy him a present he loved so I'm open to any suggestion.