Almost time

I realize my excitement may be corny, but I've been having a good time getting my FIRST room ready for the new school year. Despite the miserable heat (no a/c in the summer at most schools - poor custodians!), it's been fun to make the room my own, as simple a room as it is. I still need to do my door and a little more organizing, but I'm getting there.

DeeBee found some quotes about reading for me (I'm primarily a Reading teacher this year), so I put several throughout the room. Aaaww...look at my cute little Reading Center!



I need some more pillows (and need to toss that dirty one - gross!), but it's coming along. And I know my excitement will dwindle, but I hope it's a while before that happens...

Disabled

Saturday, while Alan recovered from a hangover, I spent the whole morning getting our hotel and rental car lined up for this weekend. Being the big Braves fans that we are, we've been anticipating this trip for quite a while. So who gets hurt a few days ago? Oh just our favorite player, Chipper Jones. He's unlikely to be ready by this weekend, and we purposely chose third base tickets just to be near him! There are other favorite players of course, like Brian McCann, the catcher. But nooooo! Brian McCann suffered a concussion in last night's game. I can tell you five players I'd really like to see, and everyone of them are hurt.

Did you notice how Alan's hangover had absolutely nothing to do with anything? Yeah, I just wanted to mention it. :-)

Unsettling

Something disturbing happened this week, and I'll just tell you this is not leading up to something funny. On my lunch break Wednesday I was driving behind a black SUV, and I saw something hanging from the vehicle, underneath the chassis in the center. It was almost dragging the ground, so I was curious and wanted to take a better look. As I got closer, I could see the legs of a cat - a gray tabby cat with white paws, much like Junior, only this cat was so small. I was horrified! It was clearly dead. Or was it even real? I thought maybe it was some kind of sick joke, some stuffed toy tied to the car for the shock value of passing drivers. But it was very, very realistic.

In retrospect, I'm embarrassed to say I didn't follow the car. I was in a hurry, running Bailey on an errand on my lunch break, and I'll admit I often have an unrealistic obsession with being on time to EVERYTHING. So rather than follow the car to find out if it was real or staged, I stayed on schedule to make it back to class on time. If I hadn't been in a hurry, I would've followed that car to its destination and either been the bearer of bad news or one pissed off maniac. (This is the part where Alan will cringe because he knows of my propensity or at least my desire to chase people down and have a come-to-Jesus-meeting.)

I can't shake the idea that it might have been a joke. For now, I won't be able to drive around without looking for that SUV.

Happy Day!

What kind of a mom am I? I not only forgot to sing Happy Birthday to Bailey and have her blow out the candles, I also forgot to post anything about it being her birthday on Tuesday. PLUS I have no pictures of her 15th birthday, because my camera is broken. A new camera just replaced everything else at the top of the must-haves list.

And just as I was about to post this, I picked up my camera again, turned it on, angrily messed with all the buttons, took a picture, and it works just fine. I'm relieved and mad at the same time. But mostly relieved.

Old School

I was out of coffee this morning, so I rode the bike to 7-11 and bought some. After going for a ride yesterday morning and then getting back on today, I quickly discovered a new butt-friendly seat is in order. Ouch.

Work already?

I'm in a workshop the next four days, and I'll be depressed about it until I get there. It better be worth my time, because I hate sitting in a class all day getting nothing from it, when I could be AT HOME loving life. This is where I'm happy.

Yes, I'm talking about the hash again.

I've started a new blogsite for our hash group, so I just thought I'd link to it this first time. I don't plan to reference this site in the future, but I thought I would for the initial post. Plus, it gives a little more indication of WHAT WENT DOWN LAST NIGHT! It's sort of thrown together and not aesthetically pleasing, but perhaps that's fitting.

The horrendous hash

I'm not sure what all I want to say about last night's hash. But I will say this. It was simultaneously the worst and funniest party we've ever had. We had some visitors from a nearby hash show up that none of us knew, and the entertainment value from the trash talking to their faces and behind their backs was almost worth putting up with them eating all our food and drinking all our beer. It would have made for some good reality TV.

What she said

I could post about our trip to Oklahoma, but DeeBee did a much better job, plus she had pictures. So click here.

Back from Oklahoma

What is wrong with me not taking pictures all week?! I think my problem when I'm at DeeBee's, is that I'm just so darn relaxed that I don't want to do much of anything that requires effort. The plan was to chill, and chill we did. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day since we're hosting another hash, but I'll try to post more later from the trip. In the meantime, here's a pic from the poolside...

My idea of the good life

I've been slow to post because I'm in the midst of my chillin'. We're hanging out by the pool, watching scary movies, shopping, and tonight we roasted marshmallows and hotdogs. I've found I'm pretty good at the whole vacation thing. Wish you were here, Alan!

Celebrating free enterprise

Whew! Finally a night's sleep with no headache and no headache so far today. I was able to get a couple errands run that I couldn't do the past few days. Plus I finally got my haircut, because I FOUND MY HAIRCUTTING LADY! I'm not sure what you're supposed to call them, but I don't think "haircutting lady" is it. Perhaps hair stylist? That sounds a little less white trash. Anyway, she left a major salon chain, which I won't give the name but it sort of rhymes with Duperduts.

They wouldn't tell anyone where she went, but I used my detective skills that I learned from The First 48 and Crime 360 and The FBI Files and found her! You don't know her and therefore it's probably not interesting, but I'm just proud of her for taking the plunge and opening her own business. She's a single mom with two kids, and she opened a classy salon without the classy fees. Awesome.

And now I'm going to go plop on the couch for a little while, read my book, and wait for Alan to get home and cook dinner! He wants to grill, and grilling means I'm not cooking. Although I did clean and prepare the corn cobs for the grill. Yep, I'm done for the day.

On the Road Again

Next week Bailey and I will be in Oklahoma at DeeBee's. The plan is to just completely c-h-i-l-l while DeeBee cooks and keeps the pool clean (ha!). I'm about to start a long series of workshops when I get back, so I consider next week to be the end of my summer vacation. <sigh> So in order to really relax, I'm getting my lesson plans completed this week. I have nearly the entire first semester planned and on paper!

Unfortunately there are a lot of things I haven't done to get ready for the school year, not that I'll bore you with the details. But the point of summer break is to BREAK, which I've done pretty well. Speaking of breaking, the last real summer hurrah is coming up in three weeks when Alan and I will use these:


I just like looking at them. And I will hug them and squeeze them and call them George.

Late night rant

WHAT-THE-HELL??

Let's review: I have made a concerted effort over the last few months to eat more of the good things and cut out more of the bad. I've also managed portions, I've gotten some (okay, a little) exercise, and more importantly I've passed up some pretty yummy snacks at about 2:30 in the afternoon and 10:00 at night. Those are difficult times of the day! And so because of these things that they say you're supposed to do, I was expecting some good news on my blood work. In fact, I'm the one who requested that additional blood work be done at my yearly visit (before I knew that my old age would require it anyway) because 1) I find it interesting, and 2) I figured at the very least my cholesterol numbers would be awesome. And okay, maybe 3) I was hoping my thyroid would have been a little out of whack, and therefore they'd give me a magic pill to get it back in shape and wipe away a handful of pounds in the process.

But, noooo! I get a call from the nurse wanting to "discuss" my cholesterol level of 221, which is about 21 points higher than they would like to see! So I've a got a message for they: Screw it! I'd say something else but Daddy reads my blog, and I don't think he wants to hear his daughter use such words.

Alas, I have nothing to show for my efforts. Zippo. Even on vacation, do you know what I bought myself to snack on in the condo for the week? A tray of veggies and some watermelon. And yeah, maybe a little cheese, but I WAS ON VACATION! I didn't touch the ice cream or the soda, plus I made an effort to find the new Egg Beaters at the grocery store (to no avail). I had a mere handful of Cheetos at the beach. I'm telling you, that's will power, baby. And okay, there was that one day that I had four Krispy Kreme donuts, but I WAS ON VACATION! And did I mention the fact that we walked who knows how many miles over the course of the week? I'm surprised my $3.00 Old Navy flip-flops don't have holes in them.

Yet it gets me nowhere, so here I am up very late with a headache, and I absolutely WILL go in that kitchen and get something satisfying to eat. I seem to recall some double stuffed oreos that Leigh bought while he was housesitting for us. Heck, I might as well drink the whole milk he bought to wash them down!

Oh well

It's always nice to be back in your own home, but I still wasn't ready to leave Florida. I've decided I need to live near the water, because I will really miss the sight and sound and smell of this:

Back to Daytona

Possibly the most boring sport to watch on TV is auto racing. It ranks higher than women's golf only because you get to see an occasional crash. So I could understand (but was still annoyed by) Bailey's frustration in being dragged to the race last night. And then we got there. And it was just COOL. And even teenage girls had fun.

But the texting stops for nothing and noone:



Oops, I stand corrected. I guess this lady was bored:

Alligators, Shopping, & Racing

I didn't want to carry my camera yesterday at Universal, so no pictures today!

When you go to Universal, you have a choice of two parks - Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure. We chose Islands of Adventure because it seemed to have more thrill rides. After going to Disney World, I was wondering how anyone could top Disney World, as far as the aesthetics of the park. Oh yeah, they CAN. Islands of Adventure was very cool, and I think that was their goal - to be cool. You don't walk around feeling like a kid saying things like, "aaaw, how cute!" - instead you say, "coooool!" Even the music blasting out from who knows where was very cool, very hip. It was more our speed and more entertaining for Bailey and Taylor. They definitely got their roller coaster fix, and even Alan and I manned up and rode one.

We got so wet, as in soaking, just-out-of-the-shower wet on the first three rides, that parts of our clothes were still damp hours later when we left the park. So when the clouds came in and it started lightly raining in the afternoon, we were actually cold. In Florida. In the summer.

Today we had planned to go to Gatorland for a couple hours and then go shopping, but we've had a slight change of plans. Yesterday while in line for a ride, Alan and I started talking to a couple next to us. Of course, if you know Alan, you know that it was mostly Alan doing the talking. I don't need to talk to strangers, don't need to know where they're from, and don't need to know what they do for a living. I don't need to talk to people on elevators, in the grocery store checkout line, or even when I'm stuck with them in line for a malfunctioning ride for a solid hour. But Alan does and so he does.

So anyway, long story short....this couple is here in Orlando to get married, and part of the travel package they purchased included a whole weekend of race tickets at Daytona. They're not going to use the tickets today because they have this little wedding to attend, so we got their tickets for tonight's race AT DAYTONA. When we drove by the speedway the other day on the way to beach, I said and I quote, "I'm not a racing fan, but I would want to go just to see this speedway." (I guess sometimes it pays to speak to your fellow man - thanks, Alan!) The race is called the Brumos Porsche 250 and is on the Speed channel tonight. I'm sure you'll see us in the nosebleed sections.

I'm not sure how the girls will feel about going, but I think they'll enjoy it once they're there, much like the other things we've "made" them do. Maybe we'll still fit everything in today (for sure, the shopping), but how could this not be fun:

I'm so ready to "people watch" all the rednecks and white trash!

Bailey and Taylor

Just throwing in a quick picture from dinner last night at the House of Blues. They're too cute not to share.

Winter Garden

I'm posting early today because tomorrow will be an early start. This morning we drove to Winter Garden to ride bikes on the West Orange Trail. We started out around noon and rode 5 miles into the actual town of Winter Garden for lunch (in other words, a much needed break for our burning muscles). For you experienced riders out there, this would have been a walk in the park. And then there's the rest of us. 10 miles was a nice little workout, but still fun. The trail was green and lush and shady...again, we lucked out.






Above: As soon as we started out, Bailey and Taylor started texting.



And then we skipped the planned afternoon of shopping and came back to hang out at the pool. It was nice to have a relaxing day, but then....there's tomorrow! We'll be at Universal Studios (or as Bailey has been calling it - Orlando Studios), and I'll probably be scared out of my mind most of the day. Can't wait!