Welcome to the U.S.A. Ismael! (Hey...don't tell your mom about this)

It's a sad day. A sad, sad, sad day. A day of tears and mourning...of deep sorrow and a pain and emptiness that reaches all the way to my soul. My dear friend, my faithful companion through good times and bad, the one who was always there for me no matter what...has gone to be in a better place.


Well...

Not better. Just the storage facility where insurance companies toss totaled cars before they get scrapped.

My poor Delilah...it breaks my heart.

Last Thursday around 9:40 in the p.m. I was at home, sitting at the dining room table showing my mom some nice-looking sand ceremony vases.

Me: Look, mom...these are nice-looking sand ceremony vases.
Mom: Oh...yes, they are n...

CRASH!!!!!! SIMULTANEOUS START-UP OF AIR CONDITIONER!!!!!!!

Mom: That didn't sound good....was that the air conditioner?
Me: Weird.

high pitched voice outside

Me: Hey...is that somebody laughing or screaming?

Mom and I walk to the front door...she opens the door...sounds like a woman laughing

Mom: Sounds like a woman laughing.

Mom closes the door

15 minutes later...

knock on door:

Neighbor: Hey, do you guys know there's a truck on your front lawn?
Us: No, we do not.

we walk outside

Mom: Oh no, Ames, look...that's your car.

Indeed, my mother was correct. That was my car. Only she wasn't where I had parked her originally. She was about 20 feet further down the street, perpendicular to the curb, back end smashed in, and windows shattered.



And you should see the other guy! (There was, in fact, an other guy.) The neighbor was also correct...the truck that smashed into her was, verily, on our front lawn, tires popped, front end crumpled, and mom's poor marigolds in the grill.


Really, though...take a look at the other guy. My little Jeep is Tuff!



Anyway...we heard nothing after what sounded like our A/C unit starting up with an awkward bang. But apparently we have extremely vigilant neighbors who explained that after Blue Flame here lost control of his dumb truck (probably drug-related. both the accident and the vehicle paint choice) and ended up on our lawn, he, his lady and their child climbed out of the truck, got in a shouting match and then walked down the street a couple houses, stashed two backpacks full of stolen goods and then the woman and kid took off walking down the street in the other direction. Genius sticks around and tries to start up the truck again...no dice. Then bashes in my windows, jams his truck key in my Jeep's ignition and hopes for a miracle. When that didn't work out as planned, he took off running (stumbling? idioting?) down the street.

The vigilant neighbors did call the police, who, of course, showed up after all this happened.

My Delilah was totaled.

Farewell, my beloved friend. You were good to me.

So proud of my dog!

Well, after a long, tearful goodbye in the Guayaquil airport, a long, long series of uncomfortable flights, and a long, terrible stop in Atlanta (terrible! awful! worse than Lima!!!!), we made it to L.A! YAY! First meal: In-N-Out...Ismael's first experience with pouring his own drink at the soda fountain ("I can put as much ice in the cup as I want?".....yeah, but first taste the different sodas to see which one you like better....."you can DO that??".....yes, and you can come back and refill the cup when it's empty if you want...."oh my"). He went with the Dr. Pepper. (First time drinking Dr. Pepper!) The double-double was incredible. He's still impressed, and that was a week ago. Zachary James (Ryan Morrison's baby) had one too.

We spent the day Thursday getting some shopping done. Ismael needed a swimsuit for the pool my parents have up in the backyard for the summer. We finished registering at Bed Bath and Beyond. He had never ever seen a pillow backrest before. He got very excited about it. Very excited. This explains the pillow backrest on our registry.

Went to meet with the videographer and then to my friend, Sally's wedding on Friday, went swimming, had a barbecue, learned how to play baseball with the nieces and nephews on Saturday, church on Sunday, and then had a fun time with Niall, Tyler and Liam who came up to visit Sunday and Monday. I beat everyone at scrabble and my dog pooped on Niall...so overall it was a really great weekend.

Niall took a ton of really awesome pictures of us which I am sooo excited about. His photography skills are very impressive! Niallmccarthy.net, people. Check him out! Check out more pictures of us on the niallmccarthy.net blog.