Yesterday we got back from a nice trip to see Paula in Baltimore. I am taking today off to recuperate from the long road trip (about 14 hours one way). Here is my account of our trip.
(note: I started this entry on June 30th but it is now July 12 when I finally finished it.)
Saturday:
We headed out at 9:30 to drive as far as we can before taking in a hotel. We decided to do the toll/turnpike route through Indiana and Ohio. We finally stopped for lunch at the first Ohio oasis. Yuck, what a pit. There isn’t a whole lot of options for stopping on the Ohio turnpike. Right after we got back in the car I noticed a missed call from Paula. She gave us a weather forcast that some heavy thunderstorms were going through Ohio. A minute later we were in one of them.
When we hit Pittsburg we went searching for a hotel. The first place we tried they didn’t have any rooms, the second place, they only had a smoking room. I took a look and it was depressing. I seen a billboard next to them for a Red Roof inn about 4 miles back so I called and got a room there.
We went to Olive Garden to eat since our hotel was next to the mall area. It has been a long time since I was there so we thought what the heck. There was a drive-inn theater near by and thought it would be fun to go see Get Smart there but then the thunder and lightning started up. Instead we drove around by a strip mall. It was funny because for some reason RAW decided to go around it and it seemed like we drove forever behind the strip mall. It was actually funny. That was one long strip mall.
Sunday:
After hitting the Denny’s which shared the parking lot of our motel we headed out.
We got out to Paula’s at about 3:30. I would never guess Paula is a Nascar fan. We get the tour and walk around her neighborhood.
Monday:
We head out to see Baltimore. We go to the aquarium and check out the fishies and we take in the dolphin show.
When get done there we hit Cheesecake Factory for some lunch then walked around the mall. I find a music magazine that features The Flight of the Concords on the cover so I buy it.
Tuesday:
We go to DC. Paula drives us there as oppose to taking the train. She parks in her work garage and we go up to see her office and meet the people she works with. She is a CPA
From there we head out to the zoo via the subway and lots of walking.
Nice zoo but really our main objective is to go see the kiwi. We get to the bird house and am bummed that at 11:00 M-W-F, for the first 20 people, you can meet a kiwi. Dang. I found some video of what we missed here
We go in the dark room to try and spy the kiwi there and after a good long time in the stuffy hot dark room we finally see him. Mission accomplished. Hollace is happy. We move on.
Aunt Paula buys Hollace a big kiwi stuffed animal in the gift shop. Hollace names the kiwi, Pomegranate. I buy this funky penguin with baby at the aquarium (Luann and Tibby) and Hollace gets an otter that she names Hibiscus. For the rest of the week, Hollace plays day care center with all the new stuffie
Wednesday:
It is time to hit the Hershey chocolate factory. It is about a 90 minute drive from Paula’s. The only free candy you get is 2 little dark chocolate Blisses.
Thursday:
The weather is starting to get hotter and more humid. We are tired of all the walking so we lay low and go shopping. We hit Ikea and I buy $75 worth of stuff. Earlier that day I realized I got a $150 Spot award in my paycheck when I checked it online. For some reason I keep picking up all the expensive dinner tabs. Paula is trying to get some fish for RAW but I think he is coping an attitude about the fancy expensive restaurants.
Friday:
It is now officially hot and Paula only has a one room AC in her bed room but she doesn’t have a fan downstairs. Since we are sleeping in her room, she is realizing just how much she needs a fan. We go to Target to put a fan. I buy Hollace a cute headband to help her hide her growing out bangs. For the first time I can really see her face. She looks adorable.
Paula then takes us to Anapolis. It is cooler by the water as there is a nice breeze but also a storm is rolling in. We cut our trip short.
We go to our last expensive restaurant. This time I am not picking it up. Paula hands RAW some money to cover her meal, drink, and appetiser and I let RAW pick up the rest even though he just ordered soup!
Saturday/Sunday:
Saturday morning I went online and booked us a room at the Springfield OH Holiday Inn. Better be prepared this time.
We headed out around 9:30am and drove and drove. We showed at the hotel at around 6pm like we planned.
We get to the room and quickly realized the carpet was damp. Well that isn’t cool. I realized I put my purse on the floor near the most wetness and it was totally wet. We went to the front desk and told them of our problem. I showed her my purse for affect. She was really nice and put us in the room directly across the hall. It opened out to the poll. I guess that is an upgrade. After we had dinner in the restaurant we went to the pool. I took the first shift with our little fish. I think I did an hour and a half before RAW took his turn.
I go to take a shower. I strip out of my wet bathing suit when I realized the patio door curtain was wide open and there is was no way I would be able to get any clothes since my suitcase was in front of that door. I then try and get into my wet bathing suit which was virtually impossible but I managed to do it. I am sure I was a site. I close the curtains and continue on with my shower.
The next day we hit the road and get ourselves home by 2:00. Getting that hour back traveling back to Central time helped.
I took Monday off to recoup the long ride. Since we got back so early on Sunday, I got unpacked and got the laundry done. Monday was then all about relaxing.
I went to work on Tuesday and Wednesday before I was off again Thursday and Friday for the holiday weekend.
for the vacation we embark on tomorrow morning. How do I get ready for a trip like this? Well I blog of course!
Hollace is beside herself with excitement to go on vacation. She can’t wait to see Aunt Paula in “her natural habitat”. She is also excited over the prospect of seeing a real kiwi bird at the Washington DC zoo. They have a kiwi-cam showing their new baby kiwi we have been watching lately.
Work has been hectic this week especially because I was trying to wrap up loose ends but I survived. The next day I go into work is July 1st. I work 2 days and then I am off for a 4 day holiday weekend.
I finally got Cindy’s lost blog post that disappeared when iPower.com moved servers on me. I have been dealing with this for a month when all they had to do was tell me where my old site was sitting so I could copy the post. Yesterday they tell me they will copy over my old site so back up my stuff and gave me a link to the old site. I told them HALT on the old site moving, thanks them for the link and told them they can close this ticket. I am much happier with my newly created blogs. Especially the photo one. I was able to find a nice photoblog template. Wordpress is so much more easier to use than MovableType.
Well I guess I don’t have anything more to say so I guess I will do something productive for the trip. My ipod has been updated with traveling music, what else is there left to do?
Today at work H. “came out” to me. I was totally shocked, I mean, it blew me away. Now that I know I can’t figure how I wouldn’t of known, it shouldn’t be surprising. I can’t for the life of me now remember how she referred to her significant other. She obviously didn’t refer to her SO by name nor did she ever imply she had a husband, I just assumed. I knew they were raising their son together and took turns staying home with him when he was sick. She had to refer to her as something otherwise how did she tell me that he/she was having issues at their job and may get a new one. I can not recall now.
We were driving back from the annual work picnic today when I asked her how long she has been married. She said it is a long story. I am thinking huh, how can the answer to how long be a long story. Then she started saying that I seem to be open minded. Now I am thinking what the heck is she about to tell me. Then she said, I am a lesbian. Knowing this about her seems so obvious now and a lot of things about her make sense now. It of course doesn’t change anything, it just makes me wonder why it took me by surprise like it did.
Oh and back to the original question. They have been together 15 years.
Hollace has always been the one with a New Zealand obsession but now I have a little one going but with musicians.
First I have been watching the Flight of the Conchords (originally on HBO) from the iTunes store. They are so dorky it is cute. This show kind of reminds me of the Monkees in format, having a story line of bumbling musicians trying to make it big. And they usually feature at least 2 songs, one of which is in a music video format (I got my love for music videos based on the Monkees from long ago). Anyway these these 2 guys from New Zealand crack me up and they are so cute.
and because I can’t resist sharing this one too
Then last week I ran across a write up about a musician from New Zealand on CNN of all places. Liam Finn is his name. He is the son of Neil Finn from Crowded House. Liam is a one man band where he takes analog music loops of him playing instruments and operates them by pedal during concerts. Intriguing in itself. Then I listened and watched one of his music videos and I was wowed. First of all the song was great and the video is artsy in the way it reminds me of what I love about the Holga cameras, all low tech and dreamy.
One of the write ups about him even likened him to a more upbeat Elliot Smith. Just saying that clinched the deal for me, I had to buy the album
Today I got my new glasses (Sherry mailed them) and the new couch I have been waiting for 6 weeks. I didn’t know which I was more excited to get home for.
The glasses are bolder then I am use to. I went ahead and sprung for the Transition lens. I stood in the sun for 15 minutes and they didn’t turn too dark or very fast so I am not impressed yet.
Here I am last week trying on the pair I eventually got
The couch is nice and comfy. A big improvement over what I had. RAW is taking the old one to Goodwill tomorrow. I put an ad on the work BB. I had 8 emails asking for a picture but after I sent the picture, I never heard from anyone.
Me and Hollace painted the dinning room green yesterday. The color is perfect, it is going to look great with the new kitchen cabinets. Haley and Autumn (little girls from down the street) were hanging around watching us and jealous they couldn’t paint either. At least they didn’t beg for a Tootsie Pop.
RAW took Hollace and Angel to a neighborhood garage sale where Hollace bought a fuzzy pink beret type winter hat, a purse and high heel shoes. She has been prancing around all weekend (except when we painted) with her outfit all fancy and all. Too cute. I have a photo I haven’t downloaded from my camera yet of her. Look for it soon.
Thursday at work I was the guest speaker for the photography club. I was to tell everyone how to use Flickr. I am not a public speaker AT.ALL. I wasn’t too nervous, I knew what I needed to tell them. I get in there and set up all is good. Then at the time they all start coming in the room I can’t get the big screen to show. Then I turn off mirroring on my laptop so now I can’t see what is going on.
Obviously I get flustered. Once everything gets all figured out I fumble around in my talk. What a bonehead I am. What did I expect, I am not a public speaker, even if I know the subject inside and out. The talk ends up ok once people start asking questions with the exception of the soft spoken woman in the back. I could not hear her.
After the talk this Polish woman comes up asking me about my laptop. She wants to buy a new one and apparently sold her on my machine and even the case I used. LOL.
She leaves me her email address so I could send her info on the back of a deposit slip from her checkbook then proceeds to leave her checkbook on the podium.
I was so frazzled from all the talking by the time the day was done. I was also talking till I was blue in my face over a complicated job that I think I am the only one who understands. That job is going to kill me just talking about it, sheesh LOL.
But now I got my blogs back so I can express myself here.
Everytime I get together with my sisters I am alarmed at what I don’t remember from our childhood. Obviously some of they remember I didn’t experience but don’t you think I would remember that grandpa grew popcorn. Did he? Did I ever know that? Did I care at the time and that is why I didn’t remember it? It seems like a cool fact that I should of remembered. Maybe they have it wrong. I don’t know. There are other memories like this that I wonder about but I can’t remember. Fitting isn’t it.
But then lately I am remembering fleeting personal memories. The other day a woman leaving a stall in the work bathroom had some fragrance on that triggered one of those memories way back in childhood. I know that smell and it was one that I hadn’t smelled since I was a way little kid, like 4 years old or something.
Then I keep running into things from my childhood like the old Panosonic tape recorder that I cherrished when I was in 5th grade. I seen the exact same one at the church rummage sale. Today at Walmart I seen a label maker with tapes just like I use to have and love (don’t know what that is about
There were other things I ran into lately that has triggered childhood memories but I can’t remember what they are right now.
So instead of waiting any longer for ipower to fix my old blogs, I decided to just start over, kind of.
With my photoblog, it was intact but I am unable to get in and add any more posts so I am stuck at May 26th. It was an old Movable Type blog which I could barely manage or fix things like the comments that quit working awhile ago. What I did was to start a new WordPress one after I found a lovely all ready done template for photoblogs. (I made my own MT templates which I have no idea how I did that). I put in a link back to the old blog for archives and voila, I am back in business.
I then put a redirect on my original URL to my new photoblog so users going to my old blog should get to the new one automatically. I haven’t come up with the nerve to switch the 2 databases around so swardraws.com/fotog is the new one yet.
Now it is time to fix my blahblah only blahblah is still being tried to fixed my ipower so I no way want to mess with that so now I have Chatter. When I changed over from MT to WP with Blahblah, I had years of archives exported so I got those back in. I still have to put all of May’s entries back in but I should be good to go soon. I can’t seem to get the Flickr photos that go across the top of this template to work in this latest version of WP.
The only thing left that ipower HAS to fix is the new News blog I started in May for my family site. Cindy wrote a long funny post there that still is lost. They better find it.
A whole month of insightful engaging blog entries are gone. Email was totally screwed. I can’t log on to my photo blog. My internet service went down. Yahoo hates Google. My web host support is now ignoring me.
But I will persevere cause I will start a new blog while harassing support to get my old blog back but I really doubt that is going to happen. At least I need to get answers and they are now ignoring me.
What I really need to do and what I think the tech gods are trying to say is that I need to unplug.
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