and we're back. [Walt, Wizards, and....Woolungasaurus?]

[Brady's Mom]

Nice, very nice view!

Great job on the workouts, too!

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks guys!

Today my view is different. The mountain has disappeared. It does that, you know. Disappears, moves around...at one point my mom was convinced that it was made of styrofoam and was being moved around by people living under the mountain.

Trying to convince ourselves to go to the Freedom Fair today...but E and I woke up snorfly (which destroyed our 10:30am plans to see TS3! destroyed all TS3 plans for today actually) and the idea of all the crowds makes us a bit twitchy.

 

[kaoden39]

Thanks guys!

Today my view is different. The mountain has disappeared. It does that, you know. Disappears, moves around...at one point my mom was convinced that it was made of styrofoam and was being moved around by people living under the mountain.

Trying to convince ourselves to go to the Freedom Fair today...but E and I woke up snorfly (which destroyed our 10:30am plans to see TS3! destroyed all TS3 plans for today actually) and the idea of all the crowds makes us a bit twitchy.

I get all twitchy about the holiday crowds. Especially at like the fireworks. There is always an idiot who starts a fight or such. I will take the controlled chaos of Disney but that is different.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yes, the particular crowd that this festival draws make even Robert nervous, and he rarely gets nervous based on people around us.

 

[heatherleigh]

Beautiful view. We stopped in SEA and changed planes last week on our way home from AK. My 8-year old was thrilled to spot the space Needle from the plane. I'd love to visit SEA one of these days and make a vacation out of it.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Hi Molly. Thanks for the dental empathy and the referral. I am lucky we have a really great dentist just blocks from our house which is nice. I can tell the big one, hey, when you get out of school, walk to the dentist! And the orthodontist that we have been seeing for years, just opened on office next door. Double Yeah!


I am so proud of you for your work out commitment. That is incredibly commendable. Wish you could send a bit of that resolve to me


Hey, wondering if you can tell me regarding the PPH concierge. The lounge is on the 3rd floor, right? Is that also where the registration desk is for concierge guests? If we are traveling light, I am thinking of going straight to the 3rd floor parking garage, and cutting through the pool deck, if it is open that is.

 

[bumbershoot]

Ooh that's a good question. There's a mini trip report about PPH concierge, and I bet they would have that answer much more firmly than what I *think* is right.


Workout resolve, GRR! OK it's not resolve, as I want to work out, but E got sick on the 4th and is still coughing too much for me to feel comfy taking him into enclosed spaces. And he tires out. So apart from a misguided swim class yesterday (thought he was better, he wasn't as "better" as I thought he was), he's been home from the Y. And therefore, so have I. So we can pretend, again, that taking a week off is just an extended "interval" workout plan.

OMG I'm melting, help, it's toooooo hot!

Got that out of my system. Whew.

Let's just hope the weather gets it out of its system as well. Robert's company picnic is in about 6 weeks, and I have NO interest in spending a significant part of the day in the first aid tent again! Been there done that, no interest in it again!

Sent in my passport renewal today. Woo! And did the application process for E's passport yesterday, after going to Seattle and pulling Robert out of class, er, work, so no one had to do notarized forms and whatnot. It was kinda cool.

My renewal period is up on the 25th of this month, so I was really cutting it close! And the prices go up on the 13th, so we got it in under the wire. If anyone else needs to do their pports, they seem to be taking them at the old prices until the 13th, so you should probably get it done! The price increase is rather unpleasant.

We've wanted one for E since he arrived, but of course we've only taken him to Canada where, I think even now, *minors* can still get to and from with just a b.c. But this way, the timing is perfect. 6, then it'll expire whenhe's 11. Then the next will expire when he's 16, and then it's time for the adult pport! Couldn't have timed it better if we tried.

OK that's a lie. All we would have had to do was think, do some subtraction, and we could have timed it just the same. But we didn't think, we just went along until we felt we couldn't just go along anymore.



I feel like there's nothing to plan now. I feel like I'm all done. Whaaaa? Am I crazy? I'm sure there's stuff to plan, I just can't seem to figure out WHAT, exactly, that would be.

Well I'm still reading through the passporter, page by page, and I continue to explore TourGuideMike.



Why do I have this funny feeling that I'd enjoy the movie The Bounty Hunter?

 

[QueenDoOver]

I saw that PPH report and have searched, but no mention...seems strange to me, as that is a good feature, if you have ever had to wait in the regular registration line.

Hmm... None of us currently have a passport, and I would like one for all of us. Hubby will likely get one with through work, at their expense, as they want to send him for work. But that leaves 3 of us. How much are they going up in price? Details please

Planning....have you decided on your must do attractions at each park? I like to have that in mind, in case we have to prioritize.

I am really missing my World trip planning, but am excited about my DL trip with my Mom. (I am still secretly planning our DW trip in my head though, and will be excited to read your report.)

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, you gotta know that I'm jealous that you can do a trip with your mom! Keep on thinking about inviting myself along. I figure since YOU are nice and sweet and don't think I'm obnoxious, then your mom must be awesome too, and maybe she would like to adopt me.



The trouble is that nearly everything in on my must do list.




If you've never had a passport, then you all are first time applicants, and must apply in person. We went to the post office for E, since kids always have to be done in person (after making sure which POs do the passport stuff).

Unless you're renewing you are charged the passport fee AND an administrative fee.

For people 16 and over, right now, before the 13th, for the passport book, it is $75 and $25.

For kids under 16, it's $60 and $25.



On the 13th, it changes.

Adults (aka 16 and over) = $110 and $25

Under 16: $80 and $25



I was approaching two deadlines. You have 15 years from the issuance of your passport to renew. That 15 years is up on the 25th of July. The discount on renewing is that you do it by mail, and aren't charged that administrative fee. And then if we'd done it after the 13th, it would have gone up more b/c of the fee change.


If you can get everyone's birth certificates, your IDs, get the forms filled out AND manage for you and hubby to take an hour or two off work either today or Monday so you can get in and get the kid's applications in, it might be worth it (if you can swing it, of course). I know that I REALLY miss Canada! It's *right there*, and of course it's closer for you! But I also want the option of the world, which is why I didn't just do the more limited passport card. Since we haven't been able to use Robert's ff miles on this Disney trip (yet), they might just sit there, waiting to be used by me and E to follow him some place fun!



There is also the passport CARD, depending on your travel plans:

The U.S. Passport Card can be used to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-entry and is more convenient and less expensive than a passport book. The passport card cannot be used for international travel by air.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh, if just one of you can take the kids to get the pport, and the other adult can get in to have forms notarized, then just the one adult can take the kids in.

BAsically if you have both parents, that's the best. You both swear that this kid is who you say it is and you've shown the b.c. with your names on it.

If only one parent can go in, the other parent can have a form notarized for each kid. I know that Chase and Wells Fargo, oh and BoA, have notaries on staff to be used for free. So if just your husband can take them on Monday, but you could run over to the bank, print out those forms (which legally give hubby permission to get them passports), and he could take those in on MOnday with the kids. Just using that example as an, um, example.

 

[kaoden39]

Oh geez. I do not want to have to get passports. That is ridiculous.

 

[bumbershoot]

But for adults, they are good for 10 years, so that's nice. Especially compared to the cost of Canadian passports, which are not good for as long as 10.

Though with kids, they expire every 5 years. That's why getting E's at 6 is good, because it'll expire at 11, we'll get another, then that expires at 16, and then it's time for an adult passport for him. No weird situations with only 2 years of use before he turns 16, etc etc.

Since the renewal period actually goes to 15 years post-issuance (for adults, at least), I've been almost FIVE years without a passport. Painful! I loved loved loved having it. I might not have run off any given weekend, catching a flight to wherever, but I *could have*, and that felt like freedom. Being tethered here, especially after adults using b.c. to get to and from Canada was taken away, felt like a sort of prison to me, even though the reason I didn't get it renewed was because of money, which of course made int'l travel impossible as well. Goofy little brain!

 

[bumbershoot]

End of an era. Friend of mine contacted me on FB today. When I was 21, she and I got tattooes together. Stupid dorky ones, ones that we gave only minimal thought to. And they have aged poorly (probably more so on her b/c she sunbathes often (she has a backyard, it's easier)), and are difficult to explain (b/c our reasons and choice were so stupid). We've never talked about it until today, but she's decided to get a coverup. So she wrote to let me know she was doing that today, and that she had ot tell me to clear her conscience.

It made me cry just a bit; not that she's getting rid of it, but that she thought enough of our past friendship to want to talk to me first (even if it's just a cursory mention that I might not have seen before it was too late).

The picture we have is a stupid little stylized flower, purple on the outside, then yellow, then orange. It was the design on her (very very early 90s) pants that she was wearing as she picked me up on the way to the tattoo parlor.

She's getting cherry blossoms, which will probably look gorgeous.

And what's the best is that now, once I get the money and the guts (it HURT like CRAZY!), I have permission to cover mine up, as I've wanted to for YEARS, but have felt too guilty to do it. Mine will be something celtic. And painful no doubt.

But it's the end of an era, even though the original will still be there, just covered over.

 

[kaoden39]

You know it's funny when I was 25 for my birthday my best friend Dina and I got tattoos. She got a unicorn in a cloud a real fluff thing and I being the older and "wiser" one got a Butterfly on a flower, I figured if I was getting tattooed it would be there for life and I better like what I got.

She got hers covered over a few years ago to something more grown up. I went a year and a half ago had the same tattoo artist rework my original on the day he did my second one which was a tribute to my healing. It is of a flower caught in a maelstrom. I was just going to get the second one but when he saw my first one he had to refurb it. I am now debating getting another one but I only have two shoulders and I am not quite ready to have a tattoo anywhere else.

 

[bumbershoot]

A flower in a maelstrom, that's really neat. I can see how it would signify healing, or beauty in healing.

I'm so lucky in that there are several very good tattoo places here. One is owned by a woman I went to college with; she was an art major, so that's a nice place to start from, right? She was in super-duper advanaged pottery while I took a beginning class in my very last semester, and I would just be in awe of the work she had done...




Forgot to mention. The last two evenings Robert and I watched the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. Loved it! R, I've been finding out more and more, skated through his English classes in HS by watching movies, reading textbook versions of books, etc. So he never read the original, and, like me, never saw that version. A few months back we saw the Keira Knightley/Matthew Macfayden version, which was good, but MM didn't seem so much proud or angry as...odd. And Keira's mouth took away from her character for me (plus we'd been watching too much Pirates). My aunt found out that I hadn't seen the Firth version, and bought it for me. Last October! So we finally decided to watch it. FABULOUS!

Firth does look angry and proud, though the social awkwardness is present, but then you can see his feelings change. Of course the screenplay was pretty good, and since I'd semi-recently read it (and we'd seen the other version), I could tell the differences. I liked how they did some things to help the story, help our understanding.

The shirt scene, when he comes out of the water, was NOTHING like I expected! I'll just have to take the wet shirt scene in Mamma Mia, LOL. But Firth really is impressive, and Jennifer Ehrle (?) was great, too, though it took some time to warm up to her.


Good movie!

 

[kaoden39]

Here it is.

Here is my original.

I like Colin Firth, so I need to look for it. I loved him Bridget Jones Diary.

 

[bumbershoot]

Very nice!



The version was a miniseries on BBC, so it's long. But it's also nicely broken up into bits, and if you're quick with the stop button, you can take breaks at the chapters.

In BJ Diary, he was Mark Darcy, remember? Which is an homage to Mr Darcy, his character in P&P. And in fact that whole story (the first one) can be seen as a modern day P&P, with her their first impressions (I was just reading that Jane Austen first named the book First Impressions), what Hugh says about Mark's character vs the reality, etc etc.

 

[kaoden39]

Thank you.

I never thought about it and I cannot believe that I missed that reference. I love that movie. I need to find that P&P.

 

[bumbershoot]

I knew it was funny that he was Mark Darcy, and that she ADORED that movie, but I just had not seen that even the storylines were similar.

 

[bumbershoot]

Forgot about the other wet white shirt that Colin has done, the one in Love Actually. He's really quite sweet, to do all of those wet white shirts scenes.

When you get your hands on the BBC version, in the second half of the miniseries, watch for the coolest bit of face acting ever. The moment when you really see Mr Darcy's feelings change towards Elizabeth, as she is playing piano. I nearly left Robert for Colin Firth right then and there! Robert was quite shocked at my reaction, since he was sitting *right there* and I'm not usually that obvious except for when I see The Rock's triceps.



Tattoo friend just caught up with me. Her tattoo is done, and goes 2/3 up to her knee! I should mention that our tiny flowers are/were under the size of a quarter, on the side of the ankle. Wow! But she LOVES it, and that's what counts.