Back in action, baby!!!!!

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the globe after another GREAT DAY in the Lion City. Okay, so first off, my sincere apologies for not warning you before Team Taylor vanished from cyberspace. I sat down to blog on Friday night, determined to spin you all a quick yarn about the day's activities and give you the news that there would be NO BLOG until tonight, as Team Taylor was Philippines bound, baby!!! However, I logged on to find that, for the FIRST TIME in all of my 440+ posting sessions, Blogger was finally down. To their credit - they are back up and running now, and the service is still quality (as were the communications and service recovery - it's like they had C-Web rockin' the comms and audience engagement or something).

So yes, Team Taylor has been in the Philippines for the past 4 days, and let me tell you - IT. WAS. AWESOME. Seriously - this place is THE undiscovered jewel of Southeast Asia. However, that tale will have to keep until this weekend, as the Bull and the Striker are EXHAUSTED after long days at work and very little sleep. You see, we boarded the 9:10 PM flight last night fully aware of the fact that we wouldn't land until 12:40 in the morning in Sing Sing. However, things quickly went from expected to rubbish when the pilot (whose command of English rivaled my command of the language of the Kalahari bushmen) came over the PA:

"Ah, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain.....uhhhhhh, we, uhhhh, had to offboard a passenger....but uhhhhhh, we can't find his bag. You see, this is a bad, uh, security concern, so, uh, we need to make sure the passenger has his uhhhhh bag. It will be 5 minutes."

INSERT 5 PASSING MINUTES

"Ah, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain (NO KIDDING)....uhhhh, we, uhhhhh, can't find the bag. We can't fly with the bag we can't find, so, uhhhhh, we're going to look for the bag (WTF WERE YOU DOING FOR THE PREVIOUS 5 MINUNTES?). It will be 10 minutes."

INSERT 10 PASSING MINUTES

"Ah, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain (I CAN'T WAIT TO BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN)....uhhh, so we cannot find the bag, and we cannot fly without finding the bag. I have made the decision to unload every single bag and count them (IS THIS GUY SERIOUS?). It will be 15 minutes."

INSERT 15 PASSING MINUTES

"Ah, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain (DON'T SAY THAT AGAIN OR I WILL STAB YOU WITH A SOLDERING IRON)....uh, good news...uhhh, the passenger had the bag the entire time, uhhhh, he's already gone home, but we called him and found that he had the bag (AND WE BELIEVE THAT? THAT'S ALL IT TOOK?), so, uhhhh, I think we are ready. Just doing some final paperwork. It will be 5 minutes. However, we will still land on time."

To close the story - the on time landing did NOT happen. Instead, we landed at 1:40, were home by 2:30, and in bed at 3. I woke up at 8:00 just before the alarm, but Perfect Pumpkin was OUT until the alarm clock went off. Seriously - you could have hosted the Kudzu Hollerin' Contest in our bedroom and she wouldn't have stirred.

So that was our last story of the trip. To get the rest, however, to quote Paul Harvey, you'll have to stay tuned until the weekend to hear "The Rest of the Story" (thinking of you, Dad), as tomorrow and Friday will have other topics.

It should be noted that the Bull was inactive for a SIXTH STRAIGHT DAY, but Muffin Puffin did rock some Body Attack. Also, I finished "Born to Run" tonight - in a word: AMAZING. Seriously - if you are a runner, you HAVE to read this. Miller - you MUST put this on your reading list, as it will blow your mind. All the same, I still hate you.

Okay, that's all the news that's fit to print. Chat tomorrow - glad to be back online!

Love,

Sam and Jenny