Home again, home again, jiggety jig

I'm home as of Monday. I do hope to get around to posting -- mostly because I want to record thoughts/observations for myself before they fade -- but it will probably take some time. Check over the next few weeks.

I'll give you a spoiler, though. As my brother and I waited to get our checked bags at IAH, someone's bag got stuck in the conveyor belt and shut it down. It was a laminated plastic bag that didn't look like checked luggage material, i.e. pretty flimsy. Sure enough, when they tried to pull it the bag proceeded to rip. Suddenly there was a sound like rain and out poured.... pinto beans. They eventually cut the bag out, but not before a good quantity of pinto beans spilled onto the conveyor belt. These weren't even in a pinto bean bag inside the other laminated bag, i.e. they looked like they had been bought in bulk and put directly in the shipping bag. Who checks a bag of pinto beans from Paris to Houston? I'll never know the answer to my question because no one claimed them -- probably because a) it was then embarrassing and b) it would have been a nightmare to try to carry loose pinto beans in a now-ruined bag.

We cut corners and saved money on our trip by eating PB&J a lot, but bringing pinto beans on your vacation takes cheap to a whole new level...