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

[SplashMo]

For a beach I like Clearwater. It is an easy drive from orlando and on the Gulf.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks! I do remember that I was trying to get a beach day going. I'm so glad you reminded me! And I definitely hadn't thought about going to the Gulf side (my family lives on the Atlantic so my thoughts go to the "right" LOL), so I really appreciate the suggestion of Clearwater!

 

[SplashMo]

We often go to Clearwater after WDW. However before would be good to if you can avoid the sunburn.

 

[kaoden39]

I think we need to research the local Chiro's to decide who to go to.

I keep teary over them too. They seem to aid each other through the interviews. And I feel love between them, which I never felt with his mom and dad.

I hope you feel better Molly.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm sitting here, trying to gird myself to take the WDW tickets OUT of the plastic packaging that Undercover Tourist puts them in. I can't imagine canceling at this point, and I can see that they are correct, and even if we did cancel we would just stash them away for the future...so there's no reason for me to keep them in the plastic. Keeping them in the plastic is also preventing me from putting them in my wallet thing that everything else card-shaped is going into. Open the plastic, Molly!


Because the universe is insane, Robert just got scheduled to go on a trip to Oregon. So of course we're going with him. Alas, it's not simple like Portland; rather, it's Pendleton, which is allllll the way over to the east of the state. Can you say snow and ice? I knew you could.

He found a spectacular deal on a full size SUV (our car is good and all, but it's rear-wheel drive, so not great in the snow, and the SUV should at least be front-wheel drive if not 4x4, which he does know how to drive properly), and we're going to buy chains at Discount Tire (who will take them back for a refund if they aren't used, because they won't fit on our car's tires) for just in case. And we're staying at a hotel that doesn't even have an indoor pool, but...we haven't been on a simple road trip in SO long, this should be fun!

Even though it's coming just days before our trip. Maybe it'll take my mind off the other stuff in the condo that keeps my mind from focusing. And then I can focus on learning work (to get us caught up and maybe ahead) and finishing up the notes on the trip so I have it solidly in my head a bit more (like memorizing a poem, the more times you go over it, the better?).

So instead of setting flipflops out in a staging area, I'm wondering where my warm boots are! I have a feeling Robert's wearing his warm shoes, and E's are right there in the shoe area already.

Craziness!

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh, and poor E had a nasty difficult night with many awakenings. The inside of his nose is so so sensitive to goop trying to make its way out, and of course when the body is doing battle with germs, that happens a lot. Luckily I have the same sensitivity (Robert's nose seems to be numb inside his nose b/c he never gets the wild eyed look that E and I do during colds) so I can really empathize with E, and that is ONE thing I don't have to have him spell out to know what's going on and what to do.

But he's doing a LOT better today. As am I.

 

[kaoden39]

I say yay for a road trip. I wonder if Pendleton is where the Pendleton wool shirts my dad used to wear when I was a kid were from. There used to be a Pendleton shop in Frontierland. I used to love those. Hmm. They lasted forever.

Poor E. I am glad he is feeling better. Maybe a road trip will make you feel better. A change of scenery always helps me.

And last but not least I say open, open, open them!!

 

[bumbershoot]

It probably is, as they have the Woolen Mills there. Maybe E and I will visit! This is the very first trip where we get to go with Robert. He will be just sitting there at the hotel, working, and we will wander in the freezing cold (I hope it's temperate as we drive there, then I hope it snows a bit, and then I hope it all melts thoroughly and becomes temperate again just before we drive home).

They call their area the "true West", with a few Native American tribes being "based" out of there. Can you tell I've been on their chamber of commerce website?



OK, I took E's ticket out of the plastic and off of the sheet (I'd been wondering how it was stuck on the paper, don't know why I didn't think "double-sided tape"). Pluto on a purple ticket. Cute! (they stick it so that you see the back, with the info on it)


Yay, all are off now! The adult tickets are orange with Goofy and red with Donald. Adorable.

Amazing to think how much money these pieces of paper are worth....should go make a copy of the backs of the tickets now... (flashing back to just before our Sept '07 big DLR trip, when I said "I should copy the backs", then didn't, then LEFT THE TICKETS along with the package packet in a stupid Radio Shack that we stopped at when DS broke his DVD player not 10 minutes from home...I feel faint.)

 

[kaoden39]

Yes, Molly go copy those. It is so important.

Oh go to the mills. There shirts are so warm and so comfy. Hmm. I love to visit the chamber of commerce websites. They are so proud of their towns.

I hope you get a light dusting while you are there and it goes away before you hit the road again.

 

[bumbershoot]

Tickets copied!
Tickets all put into my wallet thingie (they were actually all in there earlier, AFTER talking about copying, but I forgot, even after I talked about forgetting, and I had to force myself to get them back out after Michele reminded me)!
Car rental reservation...modified! Same coupon code, but a different contract ID brought it down by $41.19!

 

[kaoden39]

$41.19 makes a difference too. Think of the things that you can get with it. And no I am not being sarcastic. I need to get that Mickey Christmas tree antennae topper that I saw in Sherry's trip report.

 

[bumbershoot]

I liked it too, but I just don't trust my fellow man enough to put it on my antenna.



Now if only those airfares of mine would plummet so I could get some credits! I am finding it fascinating to watch them bounce up and down, I check every day. But no matter how interesting it is I would really like to have them go waaaaaaay down. Because then I could have the funds for DLR.

 

[kaoden39]

I have a Mickey Mouse superhero antennae topper. I used to have a Pirate of the Caribbean one and it got stolen in a hospital parking lot while we were in the ER. Nothing like kicking a person while they are already down right? I have a friend that used super glue to glue hers to her antennae and I just won't do that.

 

[bumbershoot]

And now I want a million dollars!



See...the SW fare for our flight plummeted this morning. So we're now sittin' pretty with a credit of 1 milll, no, $24 EACH in our accounts. Oh yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about. And since it's what I said I was hoping for last night, I figure...dream big!

Come on, Alaska! Right now their "full flex" fares (one above the "best deal") are MORE than we paid for ALL of us (though b/c I'm honest I should mention that hubby's was booked on points) for that flight.

Extrapolating the time here...11 days pre-flight for the SW plummet, I will still have to check the fares all through our stay! Zoinks!

************

How rude of someone to steal your pirate topper while at the ER. Poop on them.

************

I'm tired. Therefore my brain is acting funny, and "topper" is just a funny word. I thought so when I was planning the wedding (cake topper, topper topper topper) and I think so now.

 

[Brady's Mom]

I'm sort of freaking out about the whole flying thing now - we are supposed to be flying to San Fran for Chinese New Year in mid Feb. but DH and I are sort of wigging out about the searches and stuff. Not really that into someone touching me! Most especially my kids - I mean really, do you suspect a 6 year old?? We refuse to drive the Sierra Nevadas in winter, so if we want to go we have to fly.

How are the plans for the road trip? It sounds like a fun time checking out all the cool local stuff.

Molly, you should try Yelp.com for any local restaurants. We've found lots of places that we like to try that have local flavor through Yelp.

and @Michelle, we have a chiro in our area that we love (I know that doesn't help you where you are) he does massage and adjustments. He also works on more than the spine. I've had my hand adjusted when I did something weird to it and it helped it pretty quickly (much better than medication). He's adjusted DH's feet when his plantar fasciitis was really acting up. DH also has some sciatic pain in his right hip. It used to be a lot worse than it is now. The chiro would massage (seriously deep tissue) the opposing muscles - so in this case the muscles in the front of DH's leg and into his hip and then around to his back. Man, he would yell, it hurt so bad. But then the chiro would do an adjustment and the pain would go away for several days. If you can find someone that does more than spine work and maybe with some deep tissue massage it would help. Our chiro says that moving the bones is good, but the muscles exert pressure on the bones and if he can ease the muscles then the bones stay in place better.


I collect antenna toppers - which reminds me - I need to change out my Halloween topper to my Thanksgiving topper! My favorite Thanksgiving topper is the turkey with the teeny weeny Mickey ears.

 

[bumbershoot]

I wouldn't freak out about the searches. If you're OK with the backscatter thingies, just do it. They *say* that the person viewing the monitor doesn't see you in line, so it's just a body they are seeing (and they are probably not taking the time to look at the BODY, just other things that might be visible that someone has put on their eprson).

If you're not OK with it (I'm not OK with the radiation, it's all cumulative, that's the first thing they teach you in Radiology, and you want to keep that level as LOW as possible), and they have sent you to one of those machines, opt out.

We flew on 9/18/01, into Baltimore, and I'm sure the level of patdown was the same as the level of patdown is now. Honestly I feel worse for the person patting me down than I do for me. I am a sweaty person by nature, and even when wearing antiperspirant I sweat right through it, so they are probably going to have a more unpleasant time than I will. With E, he'll likely giggle and squirm (I *will* tell him not to do so, of course!).


It's not that they suspect the 6 year old, of course. It's the parents they suspect. And the truth of the world as it is now and has ALWAYS been, people with a mission of some sort will do ANYTHING, and use ANYONE. So they gotta check. Someone who feels they are doing the will of an omniscient being, people who are hearing voices in their heads, people who have lost one too many of their marbles, those people are about to lose everything anyway, so why *not* stick something down a diaper.... (not that I'm saying most 6 year olds use a diaper, but I'm saying that even a baby needs to be checked out in SOME way)

And, frankly, in some societies, depending on the 6 year old, it's possible a 6 year old could feel strongly about something and knowingly be carrying something. More likely as the kid gets older, but it's possible.


I'm not concerned about the patdown, as I said. What will be interesting is if I wear my hair pins again (as I did 9/18/01) and if they let me on with them. Do I even have them anymore? They are those long skinny-U shaped ones that help hold a bun up. I had about 10 in my hair then, and they couldn't have cared less about them.

(which just goes to show you quite a lot of it is theater...IMO the tried and true methods have served them quite well since '01, and I think the scrambling to stop things that someone has already thought of is just silly. I think the metal detector, watching people in line, and checking luggage has done pretty well, and once agencies talk more and more with each other, it'll yield even better intelligence about who might be up to no good)

 

[bumbershoot]

Whispering....

My fam is driving me bananas tonight. R had a lab appt today, and went into work mega-early so he could just come home after it. He did so, tried to nap (hello, not allowed! don't ask, it's just our family), he and E got into some stupid thing b/c E wanted to watch Harry Potter again and R for some bizarro-land reason wouldn't let him (we skipped ballet and aikido and will surely skip gymnastics tomorrow, the kid's sick, WHY can't he watch more TV?), blah blah blah.

And it's just really hit me that he's going to go to his mom's annual thing to "honor" his dad. His dad died on a Nov 26, which means this year it lands on..... Now, we don't DO much for Thanksgiving, especially this year (the year of All Money Going To WDW and debt), but it's a lovely day to just relax and have the house pretty and all of that. And now he's going to be leaving at 3:30 to go do this thing. This thing that nearly made him split his skin with RAGE last year, because he's so tired of his mom's crud and her constant rewriting of history.

He thinks that their relationship has changed enough this year that she'll be OK. I say...we always think that, and then it's just a new level of heck. And if she IS awful, it'll be another year of rage. Another year of "if she does that again I'm not going back". And THIS year I'll know he doesn't mean it.

He's not protecting his heart.

However, HER heart is the reason he's going. I should make a mention that she only invited him to this thing last week, and when talking to her, he didn't realize it was Thanksgiving (nor that he would have the day off?). (I also don't think SHE realized it was Thanksgiving)

OK so anyway, in this last year she has had her heart condition re-diagnosed, but everyone feels like she's way more fragile now (even though she's not, so it's odd). So he's going b/c he doesn't want her to have a heart attack. Which is noble and all, but...it's possibly going to hurt HIS.

 

[kaoden39]

Yay for the money on the SW!!

Thank you Shannon I will look for that.

Molly, every time I hear a story on the news about the TSA I just think that if we weren't doing things for safety like this and then attacks would be happening then we would be hearing about that then.

Oy when Scotty steps in on how I do things with the kids I just want to slap him. I am the one that has always handled this stuff. Now that they are teenagers he suddenly wants to step in and change how I handle everything. I know deep down that it is because he is afraid to let them grow up but come on. Ease up buddy.

I hope that every thing goes okay with his mom. I know she has caused problems in the past. I feel sorry for him because it sounds as though he is looking for her approval.

 

[Brady's Mom]

I hate it when I'm handling something just fine with the kids and DH decides he needs to step in, I feel your pain, Michelle. And agree with the lighten up part of it!

Francis finally reconciled with his mom, but I think the 14 years of no contact did them both a world of good. It gave him a chance for his heart to heal and for him to get past some of her bad behaviors. He also realized that even though he thinks his dad is great, his mom had a really hard marriage to him and he wasn't very good to her.

Now he has some validating phrases that he uses with her and his favorite one is "well, we can't change what happened in the past, but we can move on from here." Pretty good, I think, since he never would have been able to say that before.

Maybe you can talk to R about a "personal force field". It's sort of our code phrase to not take things personally. I know it's hard with a parent, but it could work. That way anything she says doesn't really affect him - he just understands that she is wacked and can move on without the rage and the heartbreak. That way it doesn't ruin his day off (and yours) and it doesn't carry over into your road trip or your vacation. I know with Francis that that kind of thing would really bug him for quite some time and it would drive me crazy.

Is E finally feeling better? I hope so....since you have some other things coming up very soon!

 

[bumbershoot]

Well here we are in eastern Oregon, tagging along on hubby's work trip. Very cold!

This weird head cold, or whatever it is, will not let up. And it's not changing. I would think it's allergies, for how relatively constant it is, if it weren't for the fact that E got it, and a million others got it at the Y and at stores etc etc. I had a really hard night with it last night, had to wake Robert up twice b/c I was super-tired and a little nightmare-y and just felt rotten. He was very sweet and helped a lot. E slept like a rock, yay him!

Got to explore the town a bit b/c the work laptop charger cord was left at home, and we had to find a Radio Shack.

So it turns out that Robert's work-time on these trips is really really REALLY boring! I mean, I knew that b/c he said it, but it's one thing to know it and another to see it in action, or rather INaction.

E and I got out in the snow today, got to relate it to homeschool b/c the social studies/science part has been talking about animals in the wild, tracks, etc, and there were at least 3, possibly 4, different types of animal tracks near the hotel. So that was nice, and it's fun to see another town, but it snowed WAY more in Tacoma, and it would have been most excellent fun to be back at home during this.