When it comes to watching SATC, is it ever too much?

I've just spent the last couple of weeks watching the entire DVD series of Sex and the City. Yes, I know, you're probably wondering what cave I came out of since I am just now getting around to watching this....well, aparently, my cave did not have HBO.

I liked seeing all the crazy outfits Carrie wore and all the crazy man-troubles these women had. At times, it reminded me of my short, but turbulent, dating life...sometimes a little too much. I really enjoyed the show and basically had to force myself to stop watching it and go to bed everynight. I laughed, I cried, I loved it.

It's funny because the whole reason why I started watching this is because I went to see the second movie for a friend's birthday party (and then again with another dear friend). Nevermind that I had never watched a single episode before, but there I went (twice!) with popcorn in hand. Poor Amanda had to sit next to me and field all my questions...who's that guy? why did she marry him? why is that woman such a hornball? (Yes, I am that annoying person that asks questions mid movie) I liked the movie without having had seen the show, so I figured the show had to be good.

So Amanda lent me her DVD's and I was off on my Big marathon. Of course now, I'm worried that after spending so many evenings with Carrie and the girls, I'm going to feel lost without them. I had a little routine going there: put the kids to bed, grab a snack and watch one or two (or 3 or 4) episodes all cozy in bed. OMG what will I do now that I don't have my nightly date with Carrie and Big (or Aiden/Berger/Petrovsky)?

I know, I'll go watch the first movie...

Toy Story 3 aka Sob Story

I need to stay away from the movies until I toughen up my outer shell. For reals. Last night I went to see Toy Story 3 with my friend Ayleen. I figured it was a nice, light, cute, cartoon for the evening. Oh boy, was I wrong. In the film they show pictures of Andy as a young boy (say, a little bit older than Christian’s age) and they show him playing with buzz and woody (Christian loves his woody doll) and the boy has light skin and dark hair just like Chris and so that's all it took for me to make the jump and go OMG my baby is going to grow up and leave me! It’s funny cause Ayleen goes, oh no, you’re going to lose it now. She was right...and that was just the opening scene.

The main plot point is about what's going to happen to Andy's toys now that he’s leaving to college. Now, if the whole comparison to my son weren't enough, I am SUPER sentimental when it comes to objects (especially toys cause they remind me of my youth). As a child it always traumatized me whenever my mom got rid of toys without me knowing. It was like a piece of me had been taken away. My little white teddy bear with the rattle tail, my Barbie pony, my little people school house. These were all toys that went to the big Goodwill in the sky one day when I wasn't even there to defend them. Trauma!

I still have a box of my toys (that I managed to wrangle from my mother's hands) in the attic (hello Cabbage Patch kids, Barbie, Ken, Jem, Strawberry Shortcake, I hope you guys are comfy up there) and a lot of the toys that Chris and JJ currently have and play with (Little People Garage, Snoopy Snow Cone Machine, Lite Brite) are ones that I used to have (or wanted to have) as a child. I've found them on eBay (several of them actually come out in the movie…talk about a walk down memory lane) and just had to have them (again, in some cases). What can I say, I'm a sucker for sentimentality.

It's pretty strange because my kids are not like that at all. When I ask Chris if he wants to get rid of any toys so we can clean up the playroom, he very easily starts dumping things in the trash. A little too easily. Perhaps it's that he's spoiled, so he figures, ah, I'll just get more toys, so who cares. Or perhaps he's not old enough to have any major attachments to the toys yet (or perhaps, he's...you know...normal) but I'm the one that suffers on clean up days...and these aren't even my toys! Chris, are you sure you don't want to keep this little car with the pig in it? It's so cute! Noooo don't throw away the Darth Vader action figure, look how cool he is....yes, I know his leg is broken....it's OK, we've got superglue.

Yes, I realize, I'm a lost cause. Somebody please call Hoarders.

If you're not a total sap, go see the movie. It is awesome. R is going to see it with Christian.

I'd see it again, but I don't think I can handle it.

New Moon: aka They're too young for you Claudia!

I went to see New Moon last night as part of a special preview event. There was major security which involved purse checking and body wanding so that no phones would be snuck in to spoil the surprise for others. I was half expecting for them to tell me to remove my shoes for a second there.

Once I gathered my drool napkins, nachos and soda (and signed the loan documents in order to be able to purchase said food items) I settled in my seat and was ready for the eye-candy-marathon.

After some immature squeeals and whistling in the audience (mostly from me), the movie began and I was super excited to be able to get a first glimpse of it before anyone else (a thousand thanks to Melanie and her friend Melissa for the hook up). Fortunately it's been a long time since I read the book, so my enjoyment of the movie was not hampered by comparisons between it and the book. I was able to completely concentrate on the bicep...erm story line on the screen.

I still don't like how Bella is played (too much sucking in of breath and funny faces and cross eyed looks) but the special effects with the wolves and their 8 packs...erm...pack more than made up for that. Actually, several of the men look pretty cute. I found myself calling out many team (both existing and made up) names throughout the movie. Team Edward! Team Jacob! Team Carlisle! Team Charlie!

The movie starts out a little slower and then it picks up the pace really fast, so much so that you want it to slow down so it doesn't end.

The Volturi scenes are pretty awesome. I love the costumes and their makeup. They look downright scary.

One of my favorite scenes is when Jacob, Bella and Mike go to the movies, it was so funny and tender and heartbreaking all at once. Sigh. I heart Jacob. He's so cute, I don't see how it's even a difficult choice for her. Dumb girl. Don't get me wrong, Edward is hot and all, but the acting just doesn't convince me that he's oh so in love with her. Jacob totally looks sincere.

Anyway, that's my take on the movie. No spoilers, then again if you already read the book, there's nothing to spoil, but I'll say this, the last scene in the movie definitely leaves you wanting more!

Or not.

The movies on Tuesday were a total bust. We got there too late. All 500 seats had been filled and we, along with about 20 people in front of us (as well as those behind us), didn't get in. Manders and I were completely bummed because the kids had been so excited about going and we hated to let them down. Disappointing children is the worst thing ever.

Fortunately, since Cman had never been to the movies, he didn't know what he was missing. Unfortunately, Brandon did.

Instead, Manders and I headed to Barnes & Noble where the boys promptly forgot about the missed movie (which we will be taking them to see another day).

Let's go to the movies

I was the lucky winner of four passes to a special advanced screening of Monsters vs Aliens tonight, so Manders and I will be headed over there after work with our oldest boys. I won the passes on Momsmiami.com (these are the same peeps that featured my boys in the newspaper a couple of times too, so I'm totally loving them at this point).

I'm super excited because this will be Christian's first time going to a movie theater. I've never taken him because I imagined that he would not sit through a whole movie. I had visions of him jumping all over the seats and dumping popcorn on the floor and racing up and down the theater seats (actually, I'm the one that did that once) while I cower in shame and embarrassment. OK, fine that probably won't happen, but I do hope he doesn't start talking loudly and proclaiming that he wants to go home. The good thing is, if he does want to leave, at least it didn't cost me anything.

I did not fall off the face of the earth

I'm finally back! I guess I got a little lazy with my blog updates while I was away, but then again, it was hard to peel my cousin off the computer and away from his World of Warcraft game.

So, um...here's what we did (I hope I didn't forget anything):

We went to this street festival in a little town where the local people make mini parade floats and decorate them with babies and children. My mom said that they were supposed to represent the innocent children that were killed in biblical times when they were trying to kill baby Jesus. They had tons of street vendors selling yummy stuff. A giant tree decorated with lights and a huge nativity at the foot of said tree. There was a parade of the floats and some dudes dressed with masks and fireworks overhead. It was quite an experience for Christian and I as we had never seen anything like that.

He still hated the nanny, but this time, there was no biting involved. It was a different girl, but he still didn't like her.

We went to the mall...ALOT...and did a little redecorating.

We only got to go to the beach one time (plus he got sick that one time). We went to our family's beach house which I found out is about 40 years old. I took a picture of Chris standing on the porch of that house because there is also a picture of me standing there and I wanted to compare them. Now if only I could find my picture...

We went to the park. It was on a mountaintop and very beautiful. They had food vendors and swings and a basketball court and a clown. The clown was a bit scary, but he was selling balloon animals for 25 cents. Cman loves balloons, so he was willing to put up with the clown.

We visited my grandfather at the nursing home. My grandmother feels bad about his condition (Alzheimer's) and him being there, but the other guests told us that he smacks the nurses on the butt and shows off his muscles. It sounds like he's having a grand ole time.

We went to the country club for lunch and Cman played on the swings and on the little slide. They have two pools there, but unfortunately the weather was a bit chilly (72 degrees...hey, that's cold by El Salvador's standards).

We played cards....alot.

We took Chris to El Mundo Feliz (Happy World) which has tons of little kiddie rides. My parents used to take me there when I was a little kid, so that should tell you how long it's been there. They had these puppets that would dance when you put a coin in. I saw them and they looked very familiar to me. My mom said they were the same ones from when I was young. Damn, those are some old puppets.

My cousin Camila gave us a ballet performance in the living room.

I went to the movies several times (The Game Plan, Enchanted, I am Legend).

I didn't gain any weight while I was over there. I guess it had to do with the fact that I was sick for about 5 days and after that I didn't really feel like eating much. That made up for the eat-fest that went on towards the end of my trip.

Fortunately there were no tremors while I was over there, although the lights did go out once. Chris had a ball walking around with the flashlight.

Amazingly enough, I didn't get eaten by mosquitoes, but poor Cman did on the last night we were there. He only has about 8 bites though. I usually end up with about 100 and I don't even have one.

We were supposed to come back on Sunday, but just as we sat at the gate waiting to board the plane, they informed us that the flight had been cancelled. They gave us our luggage back and sent us to hotels/our homes. I can't quite express how annoying that was. The next day we were placed on a 6:30am flight which meant we had to be there 3 hours earlier. My grandmother lives 45 minutes away from the airport. Go ahead, do the math and figure out what time we had to wake up. He didn't sleep on the ride to the airport, but he did sleep at the gate for 30 minutes, which meant he didn't sleep a wink in the airplane. What fun. I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.

In prego news, I still don't have any morning sickness. I'm supposedly 8 weeks today. I only feel slightly queasy once in a while if I haven't had something to eat, but it's hardly noticeable. I have my first doc's appt tomorrow, so we'll see what's up. I called the office and they said that they don't do ultrasounds on the first visit. That sucks. I had already had two by this time when I was prego with Cman. What can I say, I'm a worry wart...I need the reassurance.

Check out my flickr badge on the right to see more pictures.

Carnival of Carnage Review

Oct 24th, I hopped in a car with Jenny, Amber (her niece) and Ricky (Amber's bf) and drove four hours North to Orlando. Our friends Claude, Meg, and Laurie met up with us over there. Once again it was time for Halloween Horror Nights (HHN). Unfortunately the little camera that could...couldn't anymore, so I had to take my old camera hence the sucky pictures.

Crappy camera + they don't really let you photograph inside the houses + there were no scare zones = I didn't take more than 5 pictures that night. Jenny and I were discussing what haunted houses we liked better than others (Dead Silence, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psychoscareapy) a couple of days later and we decided that we needed to make a little video on youtube of us sitting at a table drinking coffee and discussing the pros (lots of houses) and cons (no scare zones!!!) of the event and then we decided that we needed to be in a focus group for Universal so we could tell them what we thought about their event (because we really did sit and discuss details and such) and then we decided we needed to get a life.

The haunted houses were great (except there weren't enough people to scare you inside of them) and the Bill and Ted's show was fun (especially the SAW and Michael Myers bits), but the fact that there was only one quasi-scare zone really sucked. I look forward to getting the crap scared out of me on the streets of Universal because unfortunately, I've become somewhat immune to the haunted house scares, so not having that made the event feel somewhat incomplete. Oh well, at least I still had the backstage tour to look forward to.

The following day, we headed to Universal again for our behind the screams tour of HHN. We were in the far left lane of the parking entrance, and unfortunately the preferred parking entrance was on the far right (can we say BIGGER SIGN people? especially since the day before the prefered parking entrance was on the LEFT), so of course I missed it. We had to go up and down the parking garage and out all over again and wasted 10 minutes. Because of this we got to the tour late and some guy named Philip was quite mean to us. He treated us like children that had misbehaved "you're two minutes away from not going on the tour"...yeah OK dad. Last year we arrived to the tour on time and they had us waiting for a couple of minutes, so we assumed that the same relaxed attitude was in play here. Wrong. Philip the drill sergeant was going to make sure we were put in our place.

Thankfully we had David as our tour guide again (we requested him from last year since he was so nice...unlike Philip). When we finally broke free of Philip, Dave was just outside the door and was calmly telling the rest of the tour group about the history of HHN and was not on his way to the haunted house and was not angry because he was waiting for us to get there and we were not holding the group up (like Philip had led us to believe). David greeted us nicely "hey, it's nice to see you guys" and it almost seemed like he remembered us. I figured that was impossible since he must see thousands of people a year while leading tours. He must say that to all his guests. So the tour began on a crappy note, but nothing was going to kill my buzz because I love HHN.

Our first stop was the Dead Silence Haunted House (eeeeek! jumps up and down with excitement). The attention to detail was awesome and they had some pretty cool effects with mirrors and such. This is the only house that really startled me the previous night. I was taking furious mental notes to see what I could incorporate into my own haunted house. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of the scenes that I had planned for my house were also in this one. Their wall of dolls left alot to be desired though.

After that we saw the wardrobe and makeup areas and then headed towards the next haunted house, Psychoscareapy: Home for the holidays. This is an old favorite of mine, so we really enjoyed getting a closer look at this one. The premise was that the asylum patients were on a field trip when their van crashed into a community of homes, letting loose all the wackos within it (including the one standing by the door in this picture). This was a pretty cool house because the whole time you really felt like you were in someone's house. The path would lead you in and out of different homes. It was very effective and I was able to get the perfect picture for my Christmas cards this year. The only bad thing about this house was the lack of asylum actors (I think it has to do with what night of the week we went though).

Side note: On our way to the haunted houses David our awesome tour guide asked me if I was having a haunted house again this year. Can you believe that people? He remembered my crazy ass a year later? That's pretty impressive.

Our next stop was a lovely home on Elm Street (oh look it's for sale!). Our favorite scene from that house was Johnny Depp's bedroom (not for the reasons you're thinking) because they had completely turned it on it's side and had you walk right through his bloody bed. Pretty neat effect. I never got a sense that I was in the boiler room though, and the Freddy masks were kind of cheesy. I mean, if you're going to use $5 Walgreens masks, then at least don't shine any lights onto your actors...keep them in the dark please so I can at least imagine that it's real for a split second. At the end of this haunted house Philip was bugging David on the phone that we had to hurry up, so we went over to a little museum they had set up for HHN freaks fans such as ourselves.

The museum had little stations set up for each house where you could see the wardrobe and floor plans of each house. My first love was architecture, so I wanted to pocket the floor plans, but unfortunately I wasn't wearing a trench coat, so...so much for that. Oh and Philip was there once again ranting to poor David about how he thought we would be done by now (you know, since it was 1:01 and the tour was slated to end at 1:00pm and all). Put a sock in it Philip...you really put a damper on our tour experience (can you tell I didn't like Philip too much at this point?).

After the tour we headed over to the Twister Ride, the Mummy ride (awesome) and to the Jaws ride. We all had a good laugh later when we were comparing pictures because Meg and I had more pictures of the tour guide than of the shark. After this we went on a couple more rides and then it was time to leave. I wanted to hide in the bushes and stay for another night of HHN, but I don't think everyone was on board with that plan (there's roaches in the bushes). We hung around for as long as possible, but the security guards had their little kick-everyone-out-parade and that was the end of that (Noooo, but it's only 6pm!).

After Universal Studios, we headed over to City Walk to grab some dinner. While we waited for our table at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., we heard that Thriller was playing on the loud speakers outside so of course Jenny, Meg and I did what anybody in that position would do and broke into a choreographed Thriller dance in the middle of City Walk (oh, you mean you wouldn't do that?). The song played three times in a row until they finally noticed that there were lunatics dancing in the street decided to change the CD for some reason.

Once inside Bubba Gump, we got a lovely table with a view of the whole restaurant. I quickly picked out my favorite waiter to stalk admire and shared him with the rest of the ladies at my table (aka Mr. hot-shrimp-waiter-man from hereon in), but unfortunately he was not our waiter. Jenny and I never have the same taste in men, but she grew fonder of him as the evening passed and repeatedly got busted staring at him. This situation led me to share a humorous story with my tablemates (which I will also now share with you) about the time that I was 15 and my friends and I went to Bennigans to celebrate my friend Ayleen's birthday. We had a cute waiter named Dan and the whole evening I kept talking about Dan and how cute he was and how I wanted him for dessert (you know stupid 15 year old stuff). When Dan actually came to ask us what we wanted for dessert Cristy's mom pointed at me and blurted out "well she wants YOU for dessert". I have never wanted to be swallowed by the earth as much as I did that day. Fast forward 17 years and there we were sitting at Bubba Gump and I knew I shouldn't have shared that story because I had paid too much attention to our waiter that evening. I had a feeling that would bite me in the ass later.

At this particular restaurant, they have signs on each table that you're supposed to flip when you need the waiter to come. This is pretty cool because ANY waiter that passes by has to come and help you regardless of whether he is your waiter or not. You can see where this is going right? Well, someone had immense luck and good timing and flipped the sign at a moment when NO other waiter was in sight and Mr. hot-shrimp-waiter-man was walking by. He stopped at our table and everyone pointed to me saying that it was my birthday and that they should sing happy birthday to me. I denied the birthday accusations and refused the proposed serenade. But alas, my tablemates were not satisfied because they noticed that they had not embarrassed me, so of course they threw this little gem in at the end of the conversation "...oh and she wants YOU for dessert". It's amazing what 17 years will do to you. I wasn't embarrassed at all this time and found the whole thing to be hilarious as did Mr. hot-shrimp-waiter-man.

After our lovely dinner. Claude Meg and Laurie headed back to the hotel because they were driving home that night. Jenny, Amber, Ricky and myself went to the movies at CityWalk and we watched the Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. I think that was the perfect end to a wonderful Halloweenyfied weekend! Sigh. Goodbye Universal...see you next year (maybe)!



ps. I didn't forget to get gas before leaving this time.

You may want to read this in installments

I'm feeling alot better now...and that was the shortest lived weight-loss ever. I guess Lilli's birthday cake from Saturday night didn't help, neither did the chocolate chip cookies I had last night, neither did the cake I just ate here in the office for someone else's birthday. You can see where this is going, but I bet you didn't come here to read about cake. Ah yes, California. Have a seat, we'll be here a while.

Day 1
Well, I got there on Friday around 11am and Jen picked me up at the airport and we headed over to Downtown Disney. Our first stop was the Rainforest Cafe where we met up with a hairy friend. Afterwards we walked around and looked at the pretty stores and restaurants. We went over to Disneyland and California Adventure so we could get a preview (we were going to go on Monday) of the Halloweentime decorations they put up during this time of year. After that we headed back towards the car because I was kind of pooped, but not before walking into a store that had a couple of Halloween decorations in the window. "Should we browse in here? sure, why not". Well, I'm glad we decided to go in because that store contained the mother load of all Halloween villages. If you think the Michael's spooky village display is large, you ain't seen nothing yet. Jen and I almost collapsed at the sight of it. The people around us were staring at us because we were freaking out so much and going "wow, look at this...and look at this one...oh my god, look at the little arm....and this one has dangling legs...oh there's more back here....there's a train...and a carousel....a swing!...and look at this little bench and check out the lights...." You get the point.

Day 2
The next day we headed out for some shopping at the dollar store. They have so many Halloween things at the dollar stores over there that we don't have here. I bought so much stuff it almost didn't fit in my suitcase. After that we spotted an Ecuadorian restaurant and a Salvadorean restaurant next to each other, that was funny (R is from Ecuador)... of course we picked the Salvadorean one where I promptly ordered one of everything in sight....to go. We went back to Jen's apartment and I was amazed at the size of the pupusas from the restaurant. They were almost as big as my hand! After my eat-fest we stayed in and rested. We would need all the energy we could get for Knott's Scary farm that evening.

After our nap (you know you're getting old when you start scheduling naps into your vacations) we were on our way to Knott's Bery Farm Haunt, but first we made a quick stop for some aspirin for me because I had a major headache (another sign of old age) and a funny stomach (hmm...I wonder why). We went into the park and stopped at the buffet for a quick bite and something to drink and then we were on our way. Knott's had 13 haunted houses and 6 shows (plus the rides), so we had our work cut out for us because we only had about 6 hours to do everything. Fortunately Jenny had the hookup, so we got a VIP wristband that admitted us to the front of the line for (mostly) everything. We saw all but one of the haunted houses, but we only saw one show called the Hanging. It had alot of funny pop culture stuff in it (kind of like the bill & ted show at Halloween Horror Nights) and alot of men jumping around and fighting in their underwear. Who's complaining? Not me. We got on a couple of cool roller coasters and this thing that drops you from a height of 254 feet (excellent for those of us that don't like heights). After all the rides, houses, underwear, decorations and scares, we were pooped and called it a night around 2:30 am.

Day 3
On Sunday we took it easy and stayed home most of the day. We needed to recuperate from the last couple of days and we needed to save up our energies for Disneyland the next day. At night we went to the movies to see Good Luck Chuck. I live in a cave and hadn't ever seen Dane Cook before, so I kept saying "hello...who is that?"....of course all the gratuitous naked Chuck shots in the movie had nothing to do with it. The man has dimples on his ass...that's impressive.

Day 4
The following day we crawled out of bed, grabbed a muffin and headed to Disneyland to enjoy the day. I snickered silently at the throngs of parents struggling with small children, trying to navigate the park, and I thanked my stars I wasn't one of them that day. Ha ha. Sorry Christian, you're going to have to wait till you're older, theme parks and toddlers (that don't like strollers and don't like to walk) do not mix well. Thankfully the weather was gorgeous and the park wasn't very full, so the lines were manageable.

First we went to Adventureland and we rode the Indiana Jones ride, then we headed over to New Orleans Square to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean and the haunted mansion (which deserves a whole post to itself) which had been completely converted (inside and out) into a Nightmare before Christmas haunted house. After taking 999 pictures (there's always room for one more) of the haunted mansion, we headed over to the Winnie the Pooh ride in Critter Country. Afterwards we took a stroll through Frontierland to go ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Splash Mountain was next in line (with a fastpass), then we got on the Disneyland Railroad and headed to Fantasyland. We didn't ride It's a Small World because the line was outside in the hot sun (wimps) and there was no fastpass for it, but we did go on the Matterhorn (very short line). The Alice in Wonderland line was long and the teacups make me nauseous (getting old), so I just said hi to Alice and went on my way to Tomorrowland. The line for Space Mountain was only 15 minutes long, so our fastpass was useless since the lines were combined into one.

Although I had been to Disneyland twice before, Space Mountain had been closed for renovations both times. This was my first time riding it in this park. I was expecting it to be the same as the one here, but boy was I wrong. Florida needs to get with the program, the Disneyland ride is so much better! It's darker, longer, faster and plays spacey techno music (sounded like something else for a second there). After our ride through space, we went over to Sleeping Beauty's Castle to take a jillion pictures in every pose known to man (of which I will spare you). We walked through the castle and were once again in Fantasyland where we went on the Snow White and Pinocchio rides (and faked it on the teacups). We hopped back on to the Disneyland Railroad and this time we passed through these weird caves that have animals and dinosaurs in them. I don't remember seeing this in Florida, but I haven't gone on the little train here in a while, so perhaps we have it here too.

Our next stop was the Blue Bayou which is a nifty little restaurant in New Orleans Square. You have to make reservations (Jen made them a week in advance) and it's an indoor sit down dining experience where you really feel like you are outdoors (except for the bugs and heat). Jen and I ate there the last time we came and we liked the ambiance so much that we wanted to come again. The last time we got a table that was in the middle, so we were disappointed, but this time we were happy because we got "waterside" seating which meant that the people in the Pirate's ride would pass by your table in their little boats and wave to you.

It was super cute:

"Hello people eating" ...frantic waving from the boats

"hello Pirate peeps"...frantic waving back (oops I dropped my butter knife)

After you've done this throughout dinner though...it's not so cute anymore, you just start ignoring the people in the boats and wishing the pirates would let you eat in peace.

After a very heavy and delicious dinner I ordered dessert to go because I didn't want to miss the parade. If you're paying attention you will notice that this is really my first meal of the day because I had been feeling queasy all day long; that right there, is a sign that there is something very very wrong going on in stomachland (I didn't see this area on the Disneyland map Claudia).
We didn't make it on time for the parade, so we decided to go to the Finding Nemo submarine ride during the parade in hopes that the line would not be an hour long as it had been earlier in the day. Unfortunately our passage from New Orleans Square to Fantasyland was blocked by said parade, so we had to find our way around it. I stopped for a couple of quick pictures before I expertly navigated around it (by this point, I didn't need a map anymore...what a pro). We made it to the Nemo ride, but the line was still long. We had no choice...we had to wait because neither of us had been on it. Fortunately the line went pretty fast and before we knew it it was our turn to get in the sub. The ride was just as I remembered it (the old 20,000 leagues under the sea ride closed in 1994) with pretty fishes except it was souped up and it had screens with Nemo scenes playing on them, so it seemed like he was right outside your sub. It was lovely and all, but all these days of walking were beginning to take their toll (oldness strikes again) and we were tired. That is...until we discovered that the dude that drives the sub was standing on a platform right there behind us...ha ha...Hey Jen...I dare you to grab his crotch. Nothing like a little mischief to perk you right up.

The line and the ride took 45 minutes, so by the time we got out, the park was closing. I ventured over to Fantasyland to see if perhaps we could sneak in one or two more quick rides, but nope...everything was deserted (that sure made for nice uncrowded pictures though). Reluctantly (it was only 8pm!), we headed down Main Street towards the exit and hit the gift shops where it took me ages to decide what to buy for Cman. I ended up getting him two tshirts and a small mickey mouse. I didn't get anything for R there because he hates all things Disney and wouldn't wear whatever I got him anyway. I just realized that I didn't buy anything for myself (another sign that something must be wrong)

Day 5
My last day there I found out exactly what was wrong. I woke up with the worst nausea and I couldn't handle the smell of the bacon that Jenny was cooking. I know what ya'll are thinking and if I didn't know better I'd swear I was pregnant, but fortunately, I did know better, so no, that wasn't the case. I spent the whole morning making trips from the toilet to the couch and then I had to go and sit on an airplane for 5 hours. Good times, good times I tell you.

So that was my trip, very exhausting and very fun (I've put most of the pictures here) and we're not even done. Jenny is coming to Miami in 12 days (on my birthday!) for part II of our Halloween Extravaganza (Halloween Horror Nights). Hopefully no one will get sick this time.

Until next time my friends...

If you're still reading this, you deserve a cookie because this was a freaking long post.

Tea, a drink with jam and bread

OK now I want to go to London.

M, one of the employees in our office just got back from a study abroad program in England. She was telling us all about the wonderful things she saw and the wonderful places she went to. The more she told me, the more the envy spilled from every pore in my body. Why is it that when you want to go somewhere really badly everyone around you just went there and is dying to tell you about it? Or did this happen the other way around? Is my new-found "I want to go to Europe" obsession rearing its ugly head because so many people around me seem to have just gone to Europe, or are in Europe right now, or are planning on going to Europe in the near future? A further question to ask is...have there always been many people around me that are going to or coming from Europe, and am I just noticing them now because I'm thinking about wanting to go myself?

Anyway, I veered a bit off subject there. M told me that she went to a sing-along show in London. How fun is that? And it's not just any sing-along, it was a Sound of Music sing-along. They show the film in a large movie theatre and it has subtitles with the words so that you can follow along with all the songs even if you don't know the words. The people that go to this really get into it too because they show up in elaborate costumes as well. Wow, singing AND costumes...where do I sign up?

I immediately turned to Professor Google to see what I could find out about it and to see if the show was playing in the U.S. Fortunately, the sing along was such a great success in London that they brought it to New York as well. I was just about to go online and book a trip to NY so I could go to this singing phenomenon until I looked at the date on the review and realized that the show had been in NY .....a full 7 years ago. Hmm...last to find out (L2FO) strikes again (do I live in a cave or something? WTF?)

Awww, the sadness. Then I found this. Unfortunately I really can't justify going to Missouri or Indiana just to dress up as a hill and sing in a theatre with a bunch of strangers (NY is more doable). But wait, just when I had given up on the whole prospect, I subsequently found this. A show in Los Angeles! YAY!..... 3 months before I actually go there. Nay.

Oh the IRRRRONY.

Dad's Birthday Weekend (new and improved with pictures!)

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday so we had a BBQ at my parents house. Yes, I have the parental birthdays really stacked together here. As if that weren't enough, my mother-in-law's birthday is tomorrow!

Chris was a little shy with all the extra attention at first, but eventually got used to all the ladies pinching his cheeks.

In other news...

Boohoo the fair ended yesterday and I didn't get to go another time like I wanted to. Then again, I was kind of tired.

On Saturday, I took Chris to play with Sophia. She's so cute and she's gotten so big! I especially loved the little pink Crocs she was wearing (Chris has a pair of those too, but he can't seem to get the hang of walking in them. When I put them on him, he stands still like he doesn't know what to do and then he sits down and takes them off). They had a good time taking toys away from each other and drinking from each other's sippy cups.

That same day in the evening, I went to the late late late movie with Cristy and Ayleen and we also drank from each other's sippy cups. Ok, no we didn't, but we did share sodas and popcorn. We went to the midnight showing of "I think I love my wife" because that was the only time I could go that day (R was working late). You know you're getting old when you call your friend to see if she's ready for you to pick her up and she's taking a nap so that she won't fall asleep at the late movie. You call your other friend and she's got her alarm clock set to wake her up so that she won't fall asleep before the late movie. Yes folks, I have geriatric friends.