My first Award!!

Veronica, at Another Suburban Housewife, gave me an award while I was out on vacation.

I'm actually quite stunned, because I feel that there are so many blogs out there that are so much more worthy than mine, all I do is write down the silly and interesting things I have happen to me, and for some reason, folks seem to like it.

There are apparently rules with this award, and they are as follows:

1. Have to post the fabulous Logo (as seen above)

2. Nominate some folks for their blogs.

3. Have to hyper link your nominees.

4. You must tell your nominee that they WON! Hello? How would they know if you didn't comment on their blog.

5. Finally Hyperlink the blogger who gave you such a wonderful gift.

Pretty easy, except that I'm going to have to figure out how to add the stinking logo.. Arrgh!

Ok, nominees...

I nominate Real Live Lesbian, mainly for the fact that she's always an interesting read.

I also am going to nominate my wife, Gottaluvme3, as she's my inspiration for nearly everything that I write.

ASM stole Dana from Amid Life's Crisis, so I'm going to go with Bee, from Bee's Musings

And lastly, I'm going to nominate Brad, from Diaries of the Professor.

Hope that satisfies everyone...

Now.. on to the fun..

Day three of vacation..

TO be honest, we were BEAT. Two days of non-stop walking, fighting with crowds, and just being in a hurry to get things done. It was time for a break.

The nice thing about having a long time to enjoy a vacation is the fact that you can pick and choose your timetable. For our day of rest, it decided to rain in the normally sunny Southern California, so we took the day off to recoup, and just take some time for family.

We played games, slept in, went down and played pool and ping-pong in the recreation room at our hotel, and basically took it easy.

The adults sat around for a while and discussed options for the rest of the week, and we planned out what days we'd be having lunches or dinners at the hotel, and what days were going to be spent dishing out cash for lavish treatment.

The decision was made to travel to Universal Studios the following day, and spend the entire day there. Then the following two days could be utilized to play around again at Disneyland and California Adventure. Everyone agreed with this decision, and ideas were tossed around. One was to spend the first day back to Disneyland early, and have a "Character Breakfast" with some of the Disney Characters making visits to your table while you ate. This was a great idea, and the younger two of my kids adored this idea.

So we went grocery shopping to get food for the times we'd spend in the room, some extra snacks and such for the parks, and then we watched a bit of TV, had some dinner, and played a few more games before calling it a night, and crashing in order to get ready for the next day of fun.. Except for the nasty LA traffic, that is!

Universal Studios Tour is tomorrow.. Don't miss it!!

Vacation day #2

Well, we decided to start early again on day two. It was a Sunday, and to start things off, it really wasn't that bad. A bit overcast, but a nice day overall.

We returned to Disneyland, and ran to a few of the attractions that we hadn't gotten to in our last visit. This also allowed us to kill some time as California Adventure (the Disney park right across from Disneyland) didn't open until 10:00..

So we ran around a bit more, dealing with minor crowds, but nothing even approaching the massive spawn of humanity that we had to deal with the previous day.

We went in and did the Jungle cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and then we took on Splash Mountain. I have to admit, I got SOAKED. There were six of us in the boat, as my youngest son didn't want to go on the ride. So my dad stayed down with him, and they did some more tame rides while the rest of us went on the water ride. My son and niece sat up in front, then my daughter and mom in the middle, and my wife and I took the back seats.

Big. Mistake.

Putting the adults in the back three seats only begged for the boat to swap with water each and every time we turned a corner. Not to mention how much water slopped over the sides when we went down any kind of incline.

At the end of the ride, I waddled out to try to find some dry spot on my clothing, and decided it was best to find a place to camp out for a while, and drip-dry.

So, we had lunch, and then proceeded to cross over to California Adventure!

This park reminds me more of a carnival-type of place, and not really much of a theme park.

Sure, there are themed areas, but for the most part, it's an attempt to combine the fun of Disneyland and the thrill of a carnival ride. I liked the "Soaring over California" ride, the "Tower of Terror" Twilight Zone elevator drop, California Screamin' rollercoaster, and the Mali-Boomer jet ride. These rides more than made up for the line waits, and the pablem of kiddie rides dispersed all through the park.

However, my downfall again on this visit was to be water.

The favorite ride of our family group turned out to be one of my serious nemesis-type rides of the vacation. Namely, the Grizzly River Rapids Run.

Yes, another water ride.

The first time, we found that each "inner tube" raft was capable of fitting all 8 of us in one cart. So we piled in, and I noticed that my wife and my dad were sitting close to me. This became noteworthy in that I got drenched during the ride. This is when I also made the discovery about the drains in the rafts, and that these said drains not only drain water from the ride, but they allow water to shoot into the ride as well!

Yeah. I was soaked.

But it was so much fun that we went again.

Two more times, in fact.

I think I got more water from those three rides than all of the rainstorms I've ever been in combined. And that's saying something coming from a lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest!

Anyway, at the end of the day I was able to drop dry sufficiently for us to leave, grab a shuttle bus to our hotel, and call it a grand adventure. We topped it off with a view of the Disney Park, and watched the fireworks presentation from our balcony.

We slept good that night, if only because of the sheer exhaustion from being in the parks from open until nearly close two nights in a row.

More about day 3 tomorrow!




Now, a different note:

Veronica (am I the only one who pictures the Archies comic of the spoiled little rich girl??) better known as ASM (Another Suburban Mom) awarded me my very first prize for my blog!

I don't know all of the details, but I'm going to read up on it more, and see about posting it later today or tomorrow!

I'm baaaaaack!

Yes, I survived.

The crowds were insane.

The lines were long.

The heat wasn't TOO bad, and it even rained one day while we were out gallavanting...

But all in all, it was a great time.

We flew out on Friday, the 13th, and arrived into John Wayne airport (or Orange County Air, or Santa Anna International.. Take your pick of what name to use!). Getting the rental was interesting..

There were 8 of us, so a conventional minivan or SUV wouldn't cut it. No, we opted for the 15 passenger econo-van. Yes, this monster wouldn't even fit in the airport parking garage, so me and my family got to stand out in the rain at the loading area while my dad hiked with a rental agent to get the van. I even was able to get in trouble there, since my dad didn't park close enough to the loading zone, and a police officer mistook him for a shuttle driver, and proceeded to chew us out for not obeying his traffic laws. I could have easily gotten ticketed that day, if my wife hadn't calmed me down enough to let me know that spending your first day on vacation isn't so fun when you're in jail. Thanks hon!

We got to the hotel, unpacked, and collapsed into separate piles of mush. I never really noticed before, but packing, travelling and unpacking really takes a toll on the mental and physical fortitude of a person. We anxiously watched the news for weather reports, and plotted our plan of attack for the upcoming days.

For the sake of keeping this blog manageable, I'm going to talk about our first day there.

Yup. Valentine's Day.

We went in when the park opened, and proceeded to swim with the other Homo Sapiens in a massive jumble of humanity. Lines were insanely long, crowds were rude, and as long as you weren't in anybody's way, you didn't run the risk of getting run over while walking through the park. Fast passes are a great idea, but the waiting in line to get one is just incredible. I mean, who ever thought up "fast passes" is a god, but how about a fast pass in order to get a fast pass? Waiting in line an hour to get a slip of paper that's good for a quick line for a great ride, but you have to wait an hour to use is kind of an oxymoron, in my humble opinion.

I mean, with the two hours I've wasted waiting in line to get the slip, and then to wait in order to get on the ride, I'm sure I'd have been able to get in line twice for the same stinking ride.........

Anyway, the day was interesting, my dad and I were able to sneak an order of flowers up to the rooms without my mom or my wife noticing, and the day went fairly smoothly.

Dinner was interesting, but at least food was procured for everyone, and we were then able to head home with little energy left for much else.

However, the hotel we stayed at had an excellent view of the Disney parks, and we were able to watch the firework shows from our balconies instead of rubbing elbows with everyone in the park.

Day two's events will be tomorrow, stay tuned!

Another 4F Friday!

Well, it's Friday again, so here are some more factoids..

1. I finally got a chance to play Volleyball again. First time playing in about a year, and I'm SORE.

2. I am totally crazy-type in love with my wife.

3. There are times when I wish I could have stayed in the service instead of getting out when they made the stinking cutbacks.

4. Certain songs bring back memories, and I love it when I hear Jim Brickman's "Love of My Life" done.

5. I'm great at finding reasons to procrastinate when I don't want to do something.


Well, those are my facts about me for today.

Hope you have a great weekend, and I'll talk with you all again on Tuesday when I get back!

Five Fun Facts for Friday (Now to be known as 4F Friday)

1. I can't stand Spinach. I've tried and tried to eat my leafy green goodness, but I just can't appreciate the stuff like Popeye. Maybe I'm trying too hard?

2. I love animals. When I was younger, I used to somehow attract animals to me like a fur magnet. I could walk three blocks from school, and in that time have two cats, a dog, and some kind of hamster follow me home. (true story!)

3. I would really like to lose about 80 pounds. When I got out of the service, I was 275 pounds of muscle. Now? Not so much. My ideal weight would be around 220, so you do the math!

4. I'd love to be able to balance my play time and family time perfectly. Me? I'm an all-or-nothing type of fella, so I tend to obsess when I'm doing something. If I'm with the family, then I will either dive right in, and focus everything on them, or I'll try to find any excuse to do whatever it is that has been on my mind. If I'm playing a game, I'll focus totally on that.

5. I'm not superstitious, but I don't like tempting fate, either. Yeah, I could really care less about things, but if I had the option, I wouldn't press my luck. There are times where I don't care, and I'll do something stupid just to see what will happen. Then there are the times where I tend to walk VERY carefully, and make sure that I don't bring down some nasty Karma or Juju on myself. I don't know why I do this, I just do..


Now, your turn! Give me some fun facts about yourself, and see how we relate!

Time for some reminiscing!

Well, I've been too serious these last couple of posts, so it's time for a bit of levity..

I don't think I've recalled the tale of how I nearly killed my brother, so I think I'm going to relive that small bit of my "glory days", and see how you all like it.

Back when I was nearly in Junior High, my brother was getting ready to enter the big wide world of School.

Now, this was a monumental step for him, because not only was he going to school, but my mom had a really hard time cutting the apron strings, and he actually entered school a year later than most kids. This meant that while I was about the same age as everyone else in my class, my bro was going to be OLDER. This would eventually lead to massive amounts of merciless teasing from other kids, but my mom didn't care.. He was her BABY.

Anyway, suffice to say that my brother and I were close, but it was more of an antagonistic relationship type of close than anything else.

If he succeeded, then I would try to find something that I could out-do his accomplishment with, and vice-versa.

One day, my mom came home early, and came to get us kids from our grandma's house. We would go there after school because both of my parents worked from 6am until about 5pm, this left little time for any socializing with the parental units at all, and seeing them before it was time for dinner was a special treat.

On this day, my brother found out, but he was about 15 steps behind me in getting into the house to see her. Making sure I knew that he was about to "out-do" me in greeting her, he proceeded to shove past me, and take a running leap for her lap.

Now, my mom's not that big, and my brother wasn't the smallest kid in school. She did what any normal person would - She flinched.

This usually wouldn't be so bad, but the fact of the matter was that she was sitting in a bent-wood rocking chair that my grandpa had made. Not only that, but it was still fairly new, and the corners of the edges were still quite stout.

My mom's flinch happened to take her legs out of direct contact with my brother, which ended up with him slamming his forehead against the leading edge of the rocker, splitting it open.

Well, about 30 minutes and 25 stitches later, everything was back under control. My brother still laughs about that incident to this day, and you can't usually see the scar, because it's hidden in the laugh lines on his forehead.

Well, about a week or so later, we were in seventh heaven because of a nice rainstorm that had hit around our house, making the backyard a bit of a mud pit. As the oldest, I usually came up with various ideas of how to amuse myself during the weekends. This particular weekend, I'd found a couple old pieces of pipe that used to be in a wind chime. Finding them hollow, I'd jam one end down into the mud, pull it out, and then fling the pipe at the wall with some amount of force to make an awesome mud splatter on the garage.

I did this for about an hour or so, when my brother came along, and wanted to join in.

*Enter in the William Tell theme*

I got the great idea to try and outline his body with mud. So I convinced him to stand against the wall, and I'd outline his body with the mud that I was flinging from the pipes.

The biggest problem that I hadn't factored into this scenario was that I had NO control over where the mud flew.. In fact, I was only hitting the garage about once every three tries or so, but I didn't tell him that!

My brother agreed, and stood against the wall. I took careful aim with my first tube, and made a lucky strike, hitting next to his left arm.. Thunk.

He was cheered by this, and shouted a couple words of encouragement to me.

Feeling cocky over this success is what led to the next one.

Thwap! Mud from a poorly aimed tube struck my brother just over his left eye! Not only that, but it also had the added gift of a small rock, and had given him a bit of a cut, in addition to the nice shiner he was going to have!

Now my brother, being like most kids, did what they all do. He cried for mom, and went running towards the house.

Me, sensing the inevitable punishment, tried to ward off the impending doom. So I did what I thought was reasonable and rational.

I pushed him down.

Now, this was also poorly thought out, as by this time, he was crying, and unable to see well because of this. Add to that the decreased vision because of the mud and blood in his left eye, and you've got a BAD combination.

He fell.

Face-first onto the cement steps leading to our back door.

Now, as I'd pointed out earlier in the Blog here, he had stiches..

They broke like a cheap pane of glass.

The thing that went into the house bawling and covered in mud and blood resembled more of something from one of my Scooby Doo cartoons than my brother.

My mom (who is a nurse) acted quickly, and get the bleeding stopped, and my brother taken back to get his head re-stitched, along with a couple more added to just above his left eye. (you can't see these, either.. darn it!)

When they got home, I got the best part of it all.

He'd gotten ice cream, and I got NOTHING.

*sigh*

Oh well, he always was mom's favorite!