4/29/06 Eastern Magic...We're Going!!!!!

[BLBCB]

My sister (the one that won the trip) has been delayed by a day in London. I don't know all the details since she had to go through a different Travel Agency, but she couldn't take her flight back to Canada yesterday. This is another reason that you should never travel without insurance. Somebody has to be paying for the extra night and extra food. London is not cheap.

 

[castlegazer]

Did she make it home?


What's her report? Was it awesome!

Hey guys!

 

[BLBCB]

Her trip was great. The kids surprised me with a set of Disneyland Paris mousears!! We are such a big family so many kids, we long ago made the deal that nobody would bring back souveniers for anybody, it is just too expensive. They made the exception for me so I could put them in my office along with the rest. Make for good advertising!!

As for their trip home, it was horrible. I won't get into too many details, but keep in mind that they have a 7 & 8 year old. They left Paris at 9:00 am local time. They stood in various lines all day, and each time asked about their boarding pass. Turns out that since there were so many flights backed up, they gave their seats to someone else. This is supper time already and they have had enough. My sister is usually very calm, but I think she lost it then. Her kids were crying and she said she was just about ready to cry herself. British Airways finally put them up in a hotel and paid for a breakfast the next morning, but they lost their baggage so they gave them an overnight bag for the night. This thing is such a joke, it looks like a pocket protector, only you couldn't fit a regular 8 X 10 paper inside it. They did finally get onto their flight the next morning, and were delayed again in Toronto. When they finally reached Winnipeg, they actually had 1 of 6 suitcases with them. Explain that? They had no luggage in London, but one caught up to them in Winnipeg. They still haven't found the other 5 suitcases, and all of the kids summer clothes are in there. She had to go through another Travel Agent because the trip was a prize, and that travel agent told her she had insurance. She doesn't!! So she can't even go out and buy stuff to tide them over until the baggage is found. NEVER TRAVEL WITHOUT INSURANCE PEOPLE!!! I could have even got her insurance at my company discount, but she thought she had it already. If the airline actually says it is lost, she will get something from them. But they will continue to look for it for a while. I feel a bit guilty that I got my mouseears and the kids don't have clothes. It just happened to be in the suitcase that caught up with them. I made the kids some journals for their trip, but since they couldn't take any carry-on at all on the way home, they are still in the lost suitcases. I sure hope they find them.

The first day of their trip they went to Buckingham castle I think, and someone offered to take their picture. They posed and the guy dropped their camera. He calmly picked it up and handed it back to them and walked away. They had no camera for the rest of their trip. At least they had borrowed a digital video camera and it took stills, so they do have some pictures. They're just glad it wasn't the borrowed camera that got broke. I had borrowed their camera for one trip to WDW and it was stolen. I had to buy them a new one when I got home. That's the one that got dropped.

They did enjoy their trip but think it is too far to travel with young kids. Maybe if things would have worked out better and they wouldn't have had to spend so much time in airports. The youngest was also horribly air sick and threw up for most of the over-seas flight. When they landed in London, they took them to the wrong hotel so what should have been a 20 minute ride was over 1 1/2 hours. Again, my nephew was sick for most of it. I asked them what their favourite things and least favourite things were about their trip, and he said his least favourite was throwing up. My niece said that she was only a few feet away from the Mona Lisa she thought that was really cool. My nephew was tired of looking at "old churches" though. They all really enjoyed Disneyland Paris, and I'll have to see if she can give me a run-down of the parks. She did bring me back some maps that I'm going to frame for my office.

Sorry this ended up being so long.

 

[castlegazer]

OMG!!!!!

I am so sorry for her! Holy dog pile! OMG! I shudder at the thought of that trip. Oh, please tell her our hearts are with her. Man. Well, things are replaceable, and their memories of Paris are there to stay.

 

[suziemva]

There has been a Rose sighting! Or at least phone call!

I finally found the Roses number and called. They are fine, just busy little beavers! Sue had set up lots of things for Jon's birthday month that is still ongoing! Little suprises everywhere! So, with that and all of summer, they just have been really busy but promise to get on and update soon!

I know this is a load off our minds! WOOOHOO and bring it on, Jon and Sue!

 

[The Roses]

aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg!!!!

Well, we are just a couple of slugs! We got home and immediately zipped off to a weekend in a haunted house (no ghosts, just some heavy breathing at night. Oh, wait. That was us) Then we zipped off to the coast for a family vacation, then my mom came to stay with us for the summer, but she was sick for most of the time she was here, the next thing we know it's the end of the summer and we haven't even been to the board and we're getting a call from our favorite Suzie wondering where the heck we are.

We is fine, thanks. But we miss you all! The pirate hasn't been in a kilt since, and I haven't even written our trip report!

We celebrated the Month of Jon. We renamed July 2006 to Jon 2006. Every day our favorite Hemi-Centurian got a present (my mom and I went to the GoodWill, the Dollar Store and other fine shopping establishments and bought 31 goofy presents), he got his breakfast every morning on Happy Birthday plates, and we did something every evening. I flew his best friend in as a surprise, we did 9-course dining, we stayed in a huge suite for the big night, we did a dinner cruise one night, we went to concerts, we went to the zoo....Man, by the time MoJ was over we were exhausted and broke and that guy better never have another 50th birthday. Ever. But the best is yet to come; I snagged an invite to Club 33 at Disneyland!!! WhooHooo!

We're going to Club 33! We're going to Club 33! Neener neener neeener!

Hey Suzie, guess when we're going? Yup, Oct 9.
But in the grand scheme of things, it's nothin' compared to the joy you will be having. Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Ok, enough waxing poetic. Back to rubbing it in. We're going to Club 33! We're going to Club 33! Neener neener neeener!

So, that's our life. I'm gathering things up for a scrapbooking party this weekend, so I am looking at pictures and remembering what a wonderful time we had with all of you. We came across our SteveMed Fan Club buttons and pinned them to our chests. The other day, I saw a patient from Bellingham, WA and almost asked her if she knew Trish.

I am going to be in NYC in Feb (yes, Feb. What was I thinking?) Any chance for an east coast reunion? At the least, we West Coasters oughta plan another road trip to the Olympia pizza place.

We miss you all.

The PAHW

 

[Lisa D]

Nice to here from you guys! Sounds like you had quite a summer! We celebrate birthday weeks here, but the birthday month sounds good too! Happy 50th Jon!

We are about 1 1/2 hours from NYC. It really isn't too bad in February (much better than the summer) and we've been having mild winters out this way lately.

One of my friends is boarding the Magic this Saturday on the Western itinerary - I am SO jealous! Another family we know is headed down for WDW tomorrow. I've actually started planning our next trip a year in advance - we're going to swelter at WDW next August (just can't do the missing school thing any more with a kid in high school).

Hope everyone out there is doing well!

Lisa

 

[BLBCB]

Sue & Jon,
So great to hear from you guys! We were all starting to worry. But you posted without your trademark I can't look at that smiley without picturing the two of you!

I was going to say "I hope you had a great birthday", but by the sounds of it that question is redundant. Sue you are going to make the rest of us look bad. Leonard turned 40 a few weeks ago and my sisters all threw him a party. The band Streetheart (which probably wasn't such a big thing in the US) played at our town's 100 birthday, which happened to be that weekend, so I just pretended that I planned it all and invited the 4000 people to the week-long festivities. I think he caught on though!

Lisa, I know what you mean about missing school in high school. I will have two in high school in 2008, and I'm already having to really think about it. The one good thing about living in a small town though is the class size. If we do decide to go, the class sizes are so small that it probably wouldn't be a big deal to catch up. Brittany only has 8 other students in her class, and Caity has about 12 others. I told them already that everything depends on their marks. We'll see how that goes.

My sister has had a chance to relax from her trip home, and can't say enough great things about the trip itself. She is a teacher and starts work in two weeks, but she said she will try to give me a report on her 3 days at Disneyland Paris before things get too crazy. I love the mouse ear hat she got me, but I'm surprised by how plain it is. I would post a picture but I don't know how. It just has embroidered in white thread "Disneyland Paris". No graphic or anything.

Have a great day everyone!

Barb

 

[suziemva]

Only 6 weeks tomorrow. Hard to believe I'm already 32 weeks along! Seems like just last week I was posting that I was pg! WOW! Time sure flies!

Jon and Sue, think of me while you're having your wonderful time at DL and Club 33! I expect pictures! I am sooooo jealous! But what a wonderful time you guys will have! Miss you both alot!

We're trying to see if we'll be able to get to WDW in January. Tori's first trip was at 2 1/2 months old, so things will be on track for this one, too! Just not sure if we can swing it with Ed's work. Such a shock from being able to hop on down for the weekend, etc. Haven't been since we got back from the cruise. Definitely miss it, too!

Heading to PA for the Labor Day weekend. Gonna go to Ed's HS for football on Friday, go to the amusement park on Sunday - free concert there by one of our favorite bands, too!, The Creamery is a possibility on Saturday but Penn State has their first game (at home, no less!) that day, so we may have to steer clear of State College. Phil, we'll be thinking of you! You know that they're having alumni stuff that weekend? Hmmmm.....

So, what's going on in y'all's lives now? C'mon! Speak up, would ya'!?

 

[BLBCB]

Wondering of someone here might know the answer to this one. There is a discussion going on at the Canadian DIS boards about It's a Small World ride. Are there any dolls representing Canada there? Someone seems to remember there being Mounties, but they said they have been removed. I also remember some Eskimos which I assumed were representing Canada because of the joke of Canada always being cold. Does anyone know the real answer to this question?

By the way, someone asked about whether we always had temps in the 100s F during summer and yes, it is normal to be in the 100s F during summer here in Manitoba. We are starting to get cold at night already though, but our days are still nice. This morning when I got up it was 4 C (39 F) but it is supposed to be 27 C (81 F) by this afternoon. During the middle of summer it doesn't cool off at night hardly at all, so you know fall is coming when the nights get cold. Snow is only about 7 weeks away! Normal daytime temperature ranges for southern Manitoba where I live now are -40 F in winter to 105 F in summer. When I lived in northern Manitoba, it would get to -69 during January and February for daytime highs with the wind chill. Don't miss that weather. We also have a major change in daylight hours from summer to winter as well.

 

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

Well hey everyone, just wanted to keep everyone updated and say hi to all.

A few facts it has been 116 days since we sailed, and to go back to 116 days before we sailed it was January 3rd, also something interesting was that this thread was started back on October 4th 2004.

So what does all that mean, absolutely nothing except that I have way to much time on my hands, oh yeah and also it means that if anyone is interested we should get ready to book May of 2008, because rates should be out before the end of September.

Other than that, good to see Jon and Sue, and what was Trish suppose to tell us?????

82 days until we are at Disney!!!!

Tom

 

[rubysmom]

Hey, everyone! I just spent the last 2 hrs trying to figure out how to put a picture in my post. The best I could come up with is a link. I hope it works!

http://render2.snapfish.com/render2...?*KUp7BHSHqqy7XH6gXPoG|Rup6JlJ|/of=50,590,342

This is just a little reminder of a must-have for all Stevemed fans this fall season. And the little tidbit that Suzie was referring to was the fact that I was recently stuck on the freeway in stopngo traffic behind someone who was toting an obvious imposter of the Stevemed Truck Accessory(TM). He had a bumper sticker with the website and phone number to order your own "Bubba Balls". I dare not try the phone number and could not get the website to come up, so sharing this with you is not nearly as much fun as it could have been, but there it is anyway. Accept NO SUBSTITUTES! Only genuine certified authentic Stevemed Truck Accessories for the DIS!

So anyway, lemme recap some August postings:

Suzie, Ed is a crazyman (which we all knew already) for even trying that wild bull! Glad there were no serious injuries!! I seriously hope you can get together with Lisa & Phil this weekend. Let us know how it goes!

Steve! How was your trip???

Barb--That is an amazing story about your sister's trip! I'm going to a scrapbook crop in a cpl weeks where the theme is travel and there's a competition for worst travel story...hers would win hands down! I've never bought trip insurance even for the cruise but I know I'm taking a chance. I can't imagine not getting it for overseas travel though and your poor sister was misled to believe she HAD the insurance...grrrrrr....! I'm just so thankful to hear that everyone made it back safely.

AAAAARRRRGGHH! Jon & Sue!!! What a summer for you two! I remember when you mentioned the haunted hotel and then never wrote back...I thought for sure you were goners AND CLUB 33??? How in the world did you do that? (Nevermind, I don't want to know, lol) I'm so excited for you guys. When is the big day? Be sure to tell us all about it. The month of Jon 2006--I absolutely love it--especially since that means my birthday was Jon 8th. We've never done birthday weeks or months but now I've got to try it.

Has anyone else on our thread ever dined at Club 33? Somehow I think I remember this coming up before, but memory does not serve me apparently.

Tom & Julie--Are you guys fully immersed in soccer yet? Thanks for the stats updates. Keeps it real for me--116 days wasnt all that long BEFORE the cruse, and therefore that means it hasnt really been all that long SINCE, right?

Up here in my corner of the world, we are just gearing up for soccer, school and fall in general. My 15k is coming up in 2 wks. No new weight loss to report (perhaps there would be if I were actually COUNTING points!). Mike is the proud new wearer of some incredibly obnoxious orthodontic contraption called a Herbst appliance. This doc prefers this over head gear (does anyone use headgear anymore?) since it's in 24-7 and works more efficiently. Braces are to be installed somewhere along the line and then of course retainers, etc. I had no idea that the process was almost as much art as it is science, as the doc watches things progress and uses the various tools to move teeth in to place over time. Anyway, this Herbst thing is a serious bummer, seems to be larger and further forward in the mouth than what his friends have experienced. It's not forever though and the end result will be worth it, right?

So that's all I have to report. Miss you all! Biding my time until those 2008 dates are released!

 

[suziemva]

Trish, no, we were too far away from Phil and Lisa....boo....but we had a great time, despite the rain! Went caving and got soaked on Saturday. Didn't make it to the football game on Friday night but it was also pouring buckets! I don't do football games in that kind of rain! The amusement park on Sunday was great! We were there for 8 hours and all were pleasantly exhausted when we left! Made the 3 1/2 hour ride home so much faster!

Found out that she is a little daredevil (like her daddy) and not afraid of anything (unlike her mommy)! She rode the tilt-a-whirl three times and the free fall three times! I love the tilt-a-whirl but would never get on the free fall! Too much like ToT at MGM! NO WAY!!!

Tori started back to school today. She goes for 4 hours and has lunch there. She did very well and the teacher complimented her on her friendliness to the other children in her class. She says she had a great time and can't wait to go back tomorrow!

Only 34 more days! My patience is starting to wear thin with time but it will pass and be here before I know it!

Nice chatting with y'all!

 

[Lisa D]

Phil and I would have loved hooking up with Suzie, Ed & Tori - if we had not adopted that naughty little puppy in July! It's funny how you just can't jump in the car and go somewhere for the day when they're that small. It's about a 4 hour trip for us out to State College. I'm glad the weather was not quite as bad as they were predicting, and that Sunday and not Saturday was your amusement park day.

We were keeping a pretty close eye on Ernesto too since we had friends on the Magic, in WDW, and on the Outer Banks last week. Turned out no one made out too badly.

 

[suziemva]

The gas prices have been dropping like crazy around here! I took this on the way home from Target this morning.

This is a forty cent drop over two weeks! Man, oh, man! Keep it coming! The news said that it will be around $2/gal by Thanksgiving!!! WOW!

 

[BLBCB]

Suzie, you say gas has come down a lot. How much was it at it's highest?

Gas prices in Manitoba got to about $1.19/L this summer (which is about $4.50 / US gallon), but it has come down to around $0.987/L (which is about $3.74/ US gallon). Where I lived up north, it was closer to $5.67 /US gallon. We had to drive our big 4x4 3/4 ton Surburban up there too. It holds 160 L of gas. Talk about taking out a loan just to fill up. It was also around $4.00 for a 2L of Coke or Pepsi and 4L of milk was over $6.00. But beer was the same price as down south. Go figure?

What about the rest of you? How much is gas right now where you live? Maybe driving down to Florida wouldn't cost us as much as I thought. Since moving down here we are now around 12-14 hours closer to Florida than before. (they need a car smiley!)

School started here on Wednesday. Grade 6, 8 & 10 this year. Just last year they were starting Kindergarten. Time flies when your growing old! Len was 40 this year and I'm only a few years behind. Britt lost a few kids from her class this year and she is down to 6 people in her entire grade. I bet none of you have class sizes that small! Nice to get back into a routine again.

We are starting on the outside of our house now. Borrowed some scaffolding and starting ripping the stucco off the old part of the house. I hate this job more than plastering gyproc. I know, I'm a whiner. I like to build furniture so I'm anxious to get all of this work out of the way so that I can start building my kitchen cabinets. I've found a great product that you paint on in various layers and it makes your counter look like granite. This way I can patch and match the old and new countertops and it will look like one solid piece of granite when I'm done. I'm still trying to design what Len & I will be doing with the build-outs I want for the new windows and such. Somewhere in there I have to find time to run my company too. A woman's work is never done.

By the way, we woke up to 2C this morning, (around 35.6F) but it's supposed to be around 27-29C today (80F). There were some places around here that actually froze last night, but it didn't look like anything froze here. The cold nights make for beautiful colours on the trees though. All the leaves are turning amazing colours of yellow, orange and red. I'll have to take some pictures to show you. Still haven't figured how to post them though.

Have a great weekend everyone!
Barb

 

[suziemva]

Highest I saw gas here (didn't pay it, just saw it!) was at $3.49/gal for 83 octaine. Out Suburban sat in the driveway those days unless I absolutely had to go somewhere! Yikes! A 44 gallon tank takes a second job just to fill it up! I did get gas yesterday for $2.63 for 93 octaine. Decided to give the Subby a treat! The 83 is now down to $2.42 and dropping! WOOHOO!!

 

[Lisa D]

Hi everyone!

Kids started school here on Tuesday. Jonathan started middle school (6th grade) and fortunately knows pretty many kids in class either from elementary school or baseball. Jimmy started high school (9th grade) and is completely exhausted by the end of the day - he leaves the house at 7:10 and doesn't get home until 3:20. The high school is huge - over 2,000 students! He has to carry all his books for morning classes until lunch, which is the only time has can go to his locker. Barb, your kids are very lucky to have the small class sizes. How different things are in Canada! The prices are amazing. Milk in PA runs about $2.30 a gallon and I can usually get a 2 liter bottle of soda for about $1.00 if I shop at the right store. Beer is about $19.00 a case for Miller Lite. Gasoline here is about $2.59 in our neighborhood, but Phil did find it for $2.49 on the other side of town yesterday.

I can't post pictures either. I think Suzie needs to hold an online class for us!The house soiunds great!

Suzie, Penn State plays Notre Dame at 3:30 today! This one will definately have Phil glued to the TV. Of course we root for Penn State, but there are alot of Notre Dame fans from where Phil comes from (small Italian Catholic town). Go Nittany Lions!

Hang in there Suzie - one month to go!

Have a great weekend!

Lisa

 

[suziemva]

We have already cleared our schedule for this afternoon! 3:25 we will be getting all snack, drinks, etc in our possession so we don't have to get up during the game! Potty breaks will be taken as necessary!

GO BLUE!!!!

Milk is anywhere from $2.19 (BJ's) to $3.99 at the more expensive grocery stores. We get a 2 liter at Safeway for about $1 - sometimes cheaper when they are on sale.

Okay, picture class.....you have to have a place to get your pics from that is not on the hard drive of your computer - something like photobucket.com. Once you have your pics on there (and the right size - can't remember what it is but around 60K is good), click on the picture icon (yellow picture with a mountain that is right under the size and color drop downs). Insert the URL for your picture in the pop up window. Click Okay and your URL should show now in your post!

Another way to do it is to just copy the IMG tag into your post. All you have to do is copy and paste into your post where you want the pic to show. This saves steps but if you are still just learning to post pics, well, it can get confusing, I think.

Anyway, I now expect to see more pics in the future. Upon viewing these pics, you will be granted your diploma for passing Picture Posting 101!

Good luck and good night....okay, it's not night time but I just like the sign off tag......

 

[suziemva]

May I just say

THAT GAME SUCKED!

Pardon my French but I have never been so disappointed in Penn State. They beat themselves! The way they played, they had no right to win - which they didn't! 41 to 10 is an embarrassment! I can only hope that JoePa runs them ragged this coming week in practice. No excuse for that game!

Okay, my vent is over.