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

[Brady's Mom]

OK for anyone who has seen the Alex drawer thingie at Ikea and now thinks "ooh, now I want one!"...the box, the relatively SMALL box, weighs SEVENTY THREE POUNDS. Wowza! I had to ask for help to get it in (on) my cart, had to keep E away from the cart lest it slip off and smush him, and then had to open the box and take most everything out one at a time, to get it in the car to take it home. E and I put the main unit together when we got home, but we'll have to do the drawers tomorrow, b/c he was just too sleepy to continue!

73 lbs...

Just goes to show how strong you've gotten - 73 pounds is heavy!!! How fun to get something useful (I know, I'm weird) - it's kind of the gift that keeps on giving!

And what fun mail to get, YAY!!

 

[bumbershoot]

E and I lost one stupid little tiny piece of Alex (see previous post), and I can't finish it. Top drawer cannot be completed.

Oh well. Tomorrow on our way up to get Roberto at the airport, we'll drop in there. Return a shoe thing I bought (won't fit where I want it to fit) and grab the missing piece. And then I can finish it.


Aughhhhhhhh, why can't our neighbors fix their door? It's so so so so loud. My desk is very close to the "front" door and they just got home, and slammorama!


Did my Magical Express arrangements today. Chatted with Prescott the chatty CM. The email address associated with my CBR reservation has margarita in it, and he had to tell me ALL about the places to get margaritas in Epcot.

 

[kaoden39]

That is the best kind of CM. I think that when they are chatty and want to share it shows how much they love their job and where they work.

 

[bumbershoot]

He said they go to the parks every week!


Eamon is watching Cinderella. Which is fitting, because I'm doing housework which includes scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees. I cannot wait for the floor to be truly scrubbed and non-scrungy, so that we can just do maintenance cleaning of it with a normal mop.

 

[kaoden39]

Every week? Wow. I think it would be nice to be close enough to go in and just hang out whenever I wanted.

Are you being Cinderella today? I am getting ready to go cook dinner and I am not really in the mood.

 

[bumbershoot]

BOOM

BOOM



That's about what it sounded like, around 40 minutes ago. I guess it was two sonic booms caused by jets being deployed to intercept a plane that had entered the restricted airspace (obama's in town). They came up from Portland, if I understand correctly. So...jets can go fast enough that they get get from Portland to Seattle in such a short amount of time??? Wowza.

People in about a 40 mile radius all thought something nearby had exploded. Including me. I've *never* heard that sound before. I did not like it!

 

[bumbershoot]

I was Cinderella that day, yes! Towards the end, Eamon joined me (I wanted him to read his early-readers to me, and he read one) and we got much more done than I was planning on! Yay! It's still a very long and daunting project, but every time we do it, the project shrinks.

Then we got ready and picked up Roberto. And on Sunday we went to the company picnic *on the surface of the sun*. Great fun, but sick and wrong hot (if any of my faithful readers ever visit North Bend, WA, know that Mt Si seems to have its very own weather system that makes the picnic devastatingly hot, both dry AND humid). I did myself NO favors by having 3 (small) glasses of beer. But I did drink a lot of water (I think I did..Robert says I didn't), I had a hat, I reapplied sunscreen liberally...

The picnic ended at 4 (we only got there at noon) and we made our way home.

But by around 7pm, I was feeling the effects. Horrible headache, nauseated, dizzy, a bit hallucinatey...awful awful. I was scared to go to sleep! I almost went to the hospital, and I'm sure you have all figured out what an unlikely scenario THAT would be. Ultimately I decided that I'd have Robert check on me through the night, and that if I got *worse* I would go...I've gotten better, but heat exhaustion/dehydration really is awful (and I kind of wish I'd gone to get IV fluids b/c it's so much faster when you're nauseated and forcing down water)! I have much more empathy for my MIL now, that's for sure.


I found a travel agent through a post and a special on sunshine rewards, and I'm now transferring the CBR reservation over to him. He's hilarious...I wrote to him from one email address and forwarded him the reservation confirmation email from another...both emails have my name along with names of boozey drinks in them. He wrote back "I'm seeing a pattern here. If you get one more email address like that, you might consider going to meetings." I'm transferring it b/c....well, 1% back is a little bit of something. And it helps sunshine (and him), and costs me nothing. He has this whole list of things he does for clients, even trip planning and putting your ADR numbers etc all onto 3x5 cards! How fun is that?

So just after I started that process, while trying to figure out how I could scan using my 3 in 1 printer and then get it to my computer (all figured out now, quite easy!), the new discounts came out for WDW, and I qualified! Once he gets the reservation, he'll call them to change it over, and I will end up spending HALF of what I was going to spend. HALF! Well, just over half. But I'll just keep saying HALF! Because it's exciting. The trip keeps on whittling down more and more.



Today is our 7th anniversary, and Robert's in...Germany. Oh well. He went to dinner at a Spanish restaurant (I know, odd) and I guess they are fairly new, and he was their first American. So they gave him a shot of cinnamon schnapps. After dinner he walked home then called, and as we talked for 10 minutes he was getting slurrier and slurrier. Such a big guy, but SUCH a lightweight when it comes to booze... Oh wait, he said he'd had a small bit of beer as well (something like a "half pint" in England or Ireland, he said that only women were drinking from the small glass like he was), so yeah, I'd say a hangover is in his future, LOL.

 

[Brady's Mom]

I was Cinderella that day, yes! Towards the end, Eamon joined me (I wanted him to read his early-readers to me, and he read one) and we got much more done than I was planning on! Yay! It's still a very long and daunting project, but every time we do it, the project shrinks.

Then we got ready and picked up Roberto. And on Sunday we went to the company picnic *on the surface of the sun*. Great fun, but sick and wrong hot (if any of my faithful readers ever visit North Bend, WA, know that Mt Si seems to have its very own weather system that makes the picnic devastatingly hot, both dry AND humid). I did myself NO favors by having 3 (small) glasses of beer. But I did drink a lot of water (I think I did..Robert says I didn't), I had a hat, I reapplied sunscreen liberally...

The picnic ended at 4 (we only got there at noon) and we made our way home.

But by around 7pm, I was feeling the effects. Horrible headache, nauseated, dizzy, a bit hallucinatey...awful awful. I was scared to go to sleep! I almost went to the hospital, and I'm sure you have all figured out what an unlikely scenario THAT would be. Ultimately I decided that I'd have Robert check on me through the night, and that if I got *worse* I would go...I've gotten better, but heat exhaustion/dehydration really is awful (and I kind of wish I'd gone to get IV fluids b/c it's so much faster when you're nauseated and forcing down water)! I have much more empathy for my MIL now, that's for sure.


I found a travel agent through a post and a special on sunshine rewards, and I'm now transferring the CBR reservation over to him. He's hilarious...I wrote to him from one email address and forwarded him the reservation confirmation email from another...both emails have my name along with names of boozey drinks in them. He wrote back "I'm seeing a pattern here. If you get one more email address like that, you might consider going to meetings." I'm transferring it b/c....well, 1% back is a little bit of something. And it helps sunshine (and him), and costs me nothing. He has this whole list of things he does for clients, even trip planning and putting your ADR numbers etc all onto 3x5 cards! How fun is that?

So just after I started that process, while trying to figure out how I could scan using my 3 in 1 printer and then get it to my computer (all figured out now, quite easy!), the new discounts came out for WDW, and I qualified! Once he gets the reservation, he'll call them to change it over, and I will end up spending HALF of what I was going to spend. HALF! Well, just over half. But I'll just keep saying HALF! Because it's exciting. The trip keeps on whittling down more and more.



Today is our 7th anniversary, and Robert's in...Germany. Oh well. He went to dinner at a Spanish restaurant (I know, odd) and I guess they are fairly new, and he was their first American. So they gave him a shot of cinnamon schnapps. After dinner he walked home then called, and as we talked for 10 minutes he was getting slurrier and slurrier. Such a big guy, but SUCH a lightweight when it comes to booze... Oh wait, he said he'd had a small bit of beer as well (something like a "half pint" in England or Ireland, he said that only women were drinking from the small glass like he was), so yeah, I'd say a hangover is in his future, LOL.

Hooray for your trip cost being cut in HALF!! That is just soooo cool. It would just be so great to know you were going to spend X amount of money for a trip and half way through planning the trip you get to spend 1/2 of X!!! YaYaY!

Sorry about the anniversary apart - but congrats on 7 years!

And LOL about R being such a light weight - it just goes to show how bodies process substances differently. Just think - if you ever wanted to you could totally drink him under the table.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just think - if you ever wanted to you could totally drink him under the table.

I can't be the only one picturing the Indiana Jones scene where you first meet Marian while she's drinking with the Mongolian men...can I?


E is currently eating one of these.

Meanwhile, my brothers probably still refuse to eat an apple!

I'm so glad he bypassed the genetics that all three of my brothers (and my half-sis) got...the genetics that say "we hate all "weird" food".

Anyway, how it came about was...we were looking for produce at Safeway and saw one of those melon thingies. He wondered what it was. A produce guy was nearby. He said "would you like a sample?" E said yes please. So the produce guy cut the thing in half. E took a half and I...said no. Luckily a woman came up behind us and happily accepted the other half. E *loved* it. The woman and Eamon both had to have one. So I bought one for E. (the woman had to fend for herself)

While the adventurous souls snarfed on the horned melon (I did try some, and I can see the appeal, but it just seemed really messy to eat it while standing in the produce section), the produce guy snagged tamarinds and offered them all around. Eamon loved THOSE, too! I was not so in love with it, so I pocketed mine, and E asked for it in the car and ate the whole thing.


I think I'm getting a cold. I also wonder if my tonsils have grown back, since it just feels like the old days when I had tonsils. It can happen...if some are left. Not really likely to happen 20 years after you had them taken out...but that's what it *feels* like today. Odd.


Gotta make dinner! My appetite still hasn't really come back after the picnic on the surface of the sun, but today was E's double-day of ballet and gymnastics, so he's a starvin' marvin.

 

[bumbershoot]

Does anyone have a pin-maker? I want to make pins (b/c the boys like to be matchymatchy but I do not, and having a pin instead of a t-shirt would be so much better for me) but those things are SO expensive.

 

[bumbershoot]

Got E's Old Navy shipment the other day, and I'm SO in love with the clothes I bought him, I want to buy him more. Things in every color, and then get bigger sizes in those items. Love love love the clothes I got him.

However...what will the weather be like in December in Orlando? That is the big question! Darn last year and their unseasonably and drastically COLD fall/winter! I just don't know what to buy...

And I know I need to buy myself some stuff...but I don't know my size, don't WANT to know my size, and wouldn't want to buy THIS size anyway. Troubles! I gotta start doing pilates again; that'll be the way to really amp up the weight/size loss. Speaking of exercise, gotta get ready for my workout before E's aikido!


Tracey did I miss the Seattle gettogether?

 

[bookgirl]

Got E's Old Navy shipment the other day, and I'm SO in love with the clothes I bought him, I want to buy him more. Things in every color, and then get bigger sizes in those items. Love love love the clothes I got him.

However...what will the weather be like in December in Orlando? That is the big question! Darn last year and their unseasonably and drastically COLD fall/winter! I just don't know what to buy...

And I know I need to buy myself some stuff...but I don't know my size, don't WANT to know my size, and wouldn't want to buy THIS size anyway. Troubles! I gotta start doing pilates again; that'll be the way to really amp up the weight/size loss. Speaking of exercise, gotta get ready for my workout before E's aikido!

Tracey did I miss the Seattle gettogether?

Buy him summer shirts a bit roomy, then when fall comes out buy him three long sleeve tshirts, 1 each white, gray, black. He can wear the 'summer' stuff if it's nice then the same shirts with the long sleeve tshirts underneath when it's cold, then as it warms next spring he'll have grown into the short sleeves.

As for pants, go for convertables, that way if it's warm he can take off the bottom of the legs and have long shorts, they'll be good for December mild days, and if it's cold then just leave the bottom parts on with the layed shirts and a jacket.

If Old Navy doesn't have anymore check Target and Lands End

 

[bumbershoot]

Convertible pants is a good idea, thanks!

Coincidentally, I did get him some long sleeved crewneck shirts (oh how I love them!)!



Went to the zoo today for a big free library doohickey day. It was somewhat sunny. I was afraid (it hasn't even been a week since the heat exhaustion, and mere days since the headache from it went away) but this is a once-a-year thing, and I think I'm OK. Was nowhere near surface-of-the-sun hot, so that's good.



WOOOOO. My room-only reservation was changed over to the TA, and then he put the discount on it. So what was going to cost 402 is now going to cost 280. Since I've already paid 201 as deposit, all that's left is 80ish. Saying it another way...I paid the deposit with one $250 giftcard I got through sunshine rewards, and was going to pay the balance with the one I'm waiting on now, leaving just under $50 on each. Now I'll deplete the already-used one, and end up with around $220 left on the other. AWESOME! I love this discount that WDW just came out with! (little note...all of that could have been accomplished by me myself and I...not the TA's doing...)

Laughing at this thought...now I need to get a car rental going, so that I can watch THAT come down as well!

 

[QueenDoOver]

Got E's Old Navy shipment the other day, and I'm SO in love with the clothes I bought him, I want to buy him more. Things in every color, and then get bigger sizes in those items. Love love love the clothes I got him.

However...what will the weather be like in December in Orlando? That is the big question! Darn last year and their unseasonably and drastically COLD fall/winter! I just don't know what to buy...

And I know I need to buy myself some stuff...but I don't know my size, don't WANT to know my size, and wouldn't want to buy THIS size anyway. Troubles! I gotta start doing pilates again; that'll be the way to really amp up the weight/size loss. Speaking of exercise, gotta get ready for my workout before E's aikido!


Tracey did I miss the Seattle gettogether?

The Seattle meet was cancelled. I think everyone was too busy! I was relieved because I had a lot of stuff going on.

I like Old Navy stuff too!

73 lbs...

Nathan weighs exactly 73 pounds, so I know it is heavey


Sounds like the trip plans are coming right along! Great about the savings. I love it when that happens.

Are you going to post about where you got your universal tickets? I have been thinking about starting to buy tickets for our trip, even though I don't know when we will be going, but I do know we will be going one day, and with 4 of us, it is a big purchase all at once. Planning ahead and bying a little at a time would make it easier to swallow.

I did the plastic covered pins in 09 . A Disigner made them for me with the design I wanted. The only problem was that the pins kept coming undone and falling off, but I suppose that could happen with any of them.

Nate needs my help, so gotta run.

 

[bumbershoot]

My goodness he's a solid boy! I sense football in your future. Or maybe rugby. And, by the way, I don't mean that in some mean way. He seems strong and solid, and that's just the way Robert looked when he was a kid...sadly, Robert had a mother who hated how he looked and had him on a diet from the age of 3, thereby starting a lifetime of borderline eating disorders. But Robert was indeed on the football team in HS and thought about it in college, but they had some "star" in that position at the time, and he didn't want to sit on the bench all 4 years.

Bummer about the meet.

Alas, sadly...the most excellent tickets are all gone for Universal.

If you want to hurt your brain, read this paragraph (if not, then don't): Maple Leaf tickets had some crazy deal on 7 day tickets that were cheaper than the 4 days I wanted. You had to click through one site (that gave a 2% discount), then click on another link to get to the correct orderform, and then it showed up. Capri, I believe, got the same deal, lucky girl. And then the absolutely CRAZY part was that they were sending out 14 day tickets (one of my faithful readers offered me the last bit of her 14 day tickets, but they would have ended just before we got there so it didn't work) in the place of the 7 days. But they ran out, it seems.



Going through maple leaf, even undercovertourist, seem to be the way to go, even without insane specials. Going through Universal directly costs a bit more.

If I were you, I would stalk the Universal boards, waiting for some other crazy deal to come out.

Universal tickets are good forever, it seems, so collecting them along the way is a good idea! As long as you have somewhere safe and memorable to keep them, of course.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just when I thought the ADR excitement was over, I read this:

I spoke with Chef TJ yesterday and he confirmed that he's now at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Resort.

Who is Chef TJ? Well, he's a chef who makes *amazing* vegan and vegetarian meals, that's who! He was working at Boma (I believe), then moved to Ohana. Well as it says above, he's now at 1900 Park Fare (a character meal place in the Grand Floridian). I'd wanted to book there, but it was pretty meat-heavy, and I didn't want to "risk" a bad meal. But I REALLY wanted to book there back when I was thinking about ordering a specialty cake, because they use the Grand Floridian bakery, and they seem to make the most awesome specialty cakes.

Anyway, we didn't go with Ohana either b/c of the meat-heavy menu, and the possibility that Chef TJ might not be there, and he tends to make feasts that we probably couldn't eat, and all I really want to do at Poly is have a drink in a pineapple.

However, with this new news I decided to book 1900 PF. So I just had to stalk through the ADR system trying to find something on the days he's reported to work...and there was success! One hour and 5 minutes after Magic Kingdom closes, on a day scheduled for MK, when we'll have had lunch at 1pm at Plaza Inn.



OK now I really have to go clean up with E. He has wanted to clean his room ALL day long and I have wanted to clean the rest of the place, so we've been at an impasse (we both want each other's help and I'm just not in a "I'm the parent" mood today plus I'm lazy today). Finally I said I'd help him in his room (and then he'll help in the living room) after I made the reservation. 10, 15 minutes later, he came over..."why do you have to do THAT", pointing to the reply screen as I typed to Tracey, "to make a reserbation?" Oh dude, I was caught! He knows very well what I'm doing, and it has nothing to do with a reservation (or reserbation!), LOL.

So after this, off I go.

 

[bumbershoot]

Call the child labor people! Poor DS is scrubbing the floor. Again.

OK OK he asked to do it. He could either help clean up other parts of the condo, but he vehemently did not want to take part in that...rather, he'd rather "take care of the floor". Well, OK, if you insist!

He's really very good at it! I'm sensing a money-for-chore possibility here in the next year or so... Or maybe reverse it. He can do the thing he loves to do for free, and help with clean-up in the rest of the place for money!

 

[bumbershoot]

We also made our countdown chain at last. E cut the strips when we had 117 days left, and today is day 98. But I made it starting at 100 so we coudl have some instant gratification.

We used glue sticks, but having to hold them until they really stuck was slowing us down, so I used paperclips as a temporary measure. Then I had a lineup of clips and got goofy (I either have a cold or allergies, can't tell yet, but the sneezing is making me insane in all sorts of ways, bad and good), and started this whole line-cutting scenario. Made E laugh quite a bit, and we finished up with the last two clips in line falling in love. 4th from last was really nice; went out of line to go to the bathroom, and when it came back it had brought drinks and churros (they were at PaperclipLand) for everyone in the line! So nice!

Told you I was goofy today.

 

[kaoden39]

Hi sorry I have been AWOL for a while. We have had drama here at home.

My son Loren is like that about chores. He would rather do the jobs like the floor than his regular chores and I have never understood it. The other day he cleaned cupboards. Silly guy.

You trip is getting so much closer.

 

[bumbershoot]

No drama allowed!

Tomorrow I'll see if you posted about it in your TR. I'm nosy like that.


An antihistamine, an antihistamine, my kingdom for an antihistamine....

I'm having problems today. One, I haven't gotten good sleep in a few days. Two, E likes playing (and he's safe about it or I wouldn't let him) on his own in the mornings (often in the big bedroom though he doesn't shove playmobil "guys" around and under me anymore, thank goodness), BUT the last two days he has come in every 15 minutes and woken me up. This morn I was just trying to get an extra hour, maybe, of sleep, but with it being so fractured, by the time I got up I was worse off than I was before!

Then, today is clean-up day. Robert has a higher level of neatness and order than I do, so we always have to straighten up. But since the windows have been open with the fans on, and there has been construction, and no rain so the earth is dry, the level of dust is even higher than normal, and things needed to be cleaned, not just cleaned up. UGH.

And of course I'm sneezy. When i say sneezy, I don't mean a few sneezes. I mean ALL day, tissue stuffed up IN my nose to try to stop the tickle (E doesn't even giggle about this anymore, thankfully), overwhelming and loud sneezes (E sometimes covers his ears, and sometimes goes into another room to avoid the sound when I get going).

NOw usually I can wait it out, then my body creates its own miraculous antihistamines. It's actually amazing when it happens, because not only do I stop sneezing (and there was much rejoicing), but I get all drowsy and loopy, just like if I took a drug. It's wild. And it just takes TIME.

But today, not so much. I think it's b/c I was just overwhelmed by all we had to do, working and being annoyed (I have always been more allergic when annoyed, it's odd, I'll go into sneezing fits while in an argument), it was just nonstop *causes*, so there was no relief.

And now it's night, I have to sleep (Robert comes home tomorrow), and the only drugs here are not-for-allergies-or-sneezing homeopathics, and some Korean packets that Robert brought home. That's all well and good for his trips, since he always has a cousin around to translate what's in them...but it's not helpful for him to bring home! Neither one of us reads Korean and they don't translate it for ya...

I don't drug up with the anti-allergies often, but here I am, wanting just ONE pill, and I'm denied. Ugh. If only transporter beams existed. I could ask my brother to put one of the Equiline (Albertson's generic brand) tablets I keep there for my first day bombarded with the cats into the transporter, and out it would pop. Dagnabit.

Ice pack on the forehead, tissues in my nose, and cold water-bottle on my cheeks it is! Pretty image, eh?