Snicker-Snack

Success! Roland and I finally successfully completed our get-Florida-licenses campaign and were awarded 100,000 experience points each (a little skimpy if you ask me). One thing I do have to compliment them for is that we walked out with our licenses. They print them on the spot, which is very nice. No walking around with franken-license for two weeks while they send it to you. So we trotted our shiny new licenses (seriously there is a whole lot of hologram going on) over to the AAA office and purchased our annual passes for Disney World. Woot! And I am obliged to say woot again all over the place.

And woot woot here and a woot woot there, here a woot, there a woot, everywhere a woot woot.

Sorry, short decent into nanny nanny boo boo to no one in particular. I am pretty excited about visiting there in December. We have a bunch of cool things planned. One pout-worthy item, Cirque du Soleil will be dark the whole time we are going to be there. Bummer, but now that we live in Florida we can go some other time to see that if we wish. Roland's parents found us Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party instead which looks pretty cool. Although I'm having some time displacement or something due to the heat here. It is still mid-August according to my heat index not just about October. I'm not sure what that is going to do to my holiday-sense but right now things decked out for Christmas seem very far away. But I still have two months to get a little closer. The next big hurdle is not being home for Anne's birthday and birthoween party. I don't think I'm even going to sew costumes this year.

Roland and I ordered in tonight, it was nice to eat all cozy at home and not have to cook or clean up. Now he is playing some on-line poker and looking at Fark and I'm avoiding finishing my puzzle because I'm pretty sure I'm missing at least 5 pieces. Grr and arg.

Poison

People of the interwebs we need your help! Tomorrow Roland and I are embarking on our third attempt to get Florida drivers licenses. I'm sure if you all think happy thoughts, or perhaps clap and think of fairies, we will persevere. As I mentioned we have tried twice before and had little to no luck and a whole lot of DMV attitude. You know the kind that you really can't blame on the person because they have a horrible job dealing with horrible people, but you don't happen to be one of those people and maybe they could spare a teeny tiny bit of civility.

First we went in to the place where you get licenses (which incidentally is not the same place you get your license plate) and noticed
1. that there must have been a capacity limit for the building, like they have in restaurants,
2. that limit was surpassed a long time ago, and
3. As newcomers to The Line we were to be viewed as suspect until we had waited some undetermined length of time, when we would cross over to be accepted as fellow sufferers.

The line to talk to the reception ladies (and the source of the attitude) looked to be about 3 hours long and after that there appeared to be a waiting area with enough people for another 3 hours. Then we saw a sign that said we could call a number to get an appointment. That clearly looked like the way to go so I stayed in line while Roland stepped outside to call the number. After about 5 minutes he came back in and reported that he didn't get anywhere in the automated system which took him in circles and I think eventually went dead. Roland asked the not-so-friendly ladies and they curtly told him that the best way to get an appointment was to go online. Having received our daily allotment of hostile stares we decided to beat a hasty retreat. Back at the apartment we faithfully went online and found the appropriate website. We booked our appointment for 2 weeks later (What? Yeah, 2, count them, 2 weeks later).

Alas this was not to be. After getting up early to get over to our appointments we arrived to discover...they were closed. Huh? Oh, I see, the sloppily handwritten sign explains it all. Hurricane Rita (barely category 1 at the time) was due to make landfall in about 12 hours way south of us. FINE, better safe than sorry. Back home we go. But there is no information about what to do if your appointment is cancelled. We are forced to assume that they are just that, cancelled. Reluctantly we make new appointments, for 9 days later. Whew, only 9 days. And that will bring us to tomorrow and our (hopefully) final attempt.

Zero

Nope, nothing to say

Just say no

Roland and I just finished dinner and now I'm curled up in our ba-giant chair with the puppy. This being the first time today that I've really sat down for any length of time I just realized that I'm tired!

In some probably misguided attempt to lose a little weight (no, I'm not all diet crazy, I've just noticed a little more of me than there used to be and the new stuff is kind of jiggly) I've been doing a lot of walking lately. So far it doesn't seem to be doing a bit of good but I'm stubbornly keeping at it. I have taken to walking the dog for about 2 miles in the morning. Our walk is about obedience as well to get him back into shape to maybe do some therapy dog stuff sometime in the near future. But if we don't go in the morning there is absolutely no way I'm going, because later in the day it's just way too hot (as in I'm pretty sure we are only a few meters above Hades - yes, I'm from Michigan and feel like I'm melting most of the time). Then in the midafternoon I head over to the "gym" at the apartment complex and walk on the MacGyvered treadmill for another 2+ miles (this time at an 8% incline). I just hope that in time it will begin to make a difference. Even just an eensy-beensy difference would be very encouraging, but so far...nada. I've also been watching what I eat a little more. Nothing drastic, just smaller portion sizes, more fruits and veggies, wheat instead of white (bread, noodles, etc.). I've also stopped drinking beverages other than water for the most part. That one is really hard sometimes.

Today I also did some major cleaning about the apartment. It was still in that semi messed up stage that you get after you come home from a week away and unpack. I did some laundry and totally cleaned the crap out of the kitchen. I'm also still trying to devise a system to deal with bills and whatnot (Peter Walsh where are you?). And there is some organizational stuff I can't do because I'm afraid that if I open our outdoor storage space I won't be able to lock it again (lock issues). I thinking that we will need to call the apartment peeps and have them come take a look at the lock.

I'm going to go make some dip for Roland to take to his meeting tomorrow. Mmmmmm.....Mom C's dill dip......

Near..........Far

I received an email from Shannon (who is doing a great job) today. They are pregnant! She and Rhonda have been trying* for a few months and it looks like they were successful, although they did have to resort to getting Rhonda all drugged up. They are going to be some of the best parents, when Shannon would hold Ava it was just so natural for her to be holding a baby. It just looked...right. Sometime I wonder what is wrong with me that I don't seem to want that part of what would normally be a woman's life. I could handle and even direct (somewhat) the sarcasm and hormone induced stupidity of high school students, but I have nothing when it comes to the young ones. They say its different when they are yours, but I don't know. Plus how does one ever afford the little buggers? Here in south Florida we can't even afford a simple starter house. I feel like we have gone backwards in our life path by living in a apartment. Don't get me wrong its a really nice apartment (it should be for the price) with a nice staff and many amenities, but its just not the same. It just...doesn't have stairs.


*The source of possibly some of the most hilarious stories ever told, I would try to tell them but I couldn't do it justice they only work when told by Shannon (while furiously blushing).

Drop

Roland pointed me to a new cartoon today. Its on par with the Knights of the Dinner Table and Dork Tower, both of which I find very humorous. Since I'm also reading D&D 3.5, the Order of the Stick is very funny. It sort of pokes fun of some of the new things in 3.5. Reading the players handbook is slow going but steady. I've been reading a bit before going to bed every night and that seems to work well. I think Roland wishes I would read faster though. He keeps having ideas for adventure bits and pieces and is excited to get going on the whole thing. I'm debating about what sort of character to create. I kind of want to go off the usual thing I do, but I'm not sure which direction to go. Maybe just a straight up fighter. Being just the two of us, I think Roland is going to have me roll up some other PC friends that he can semi-play with me, so I have a party to crawl with. So, yeah, that last sentence...I think that elevates me to queen of the nerds or something.

Apparently Jason is throwing a Labor-ween part for his birthday this year. That sort of made me sad because this will be the first party that Roland and I won't be able to go to. Kind of a bummer. I'm going to miss the getting together with peeps for made up holidays. It started with Thankmas, invented because in college we wanted to celebrate thanksgiving and/or Christmas with our friends but we all went to our respective homes for the real holidays. So we created one in between the two and it was dubbed Thankmas. The motto of Thanksmas is: You get what you want, because you bring it. So if a holiday isn't complete for you without green bean casserole, you bring it (I won't because I seriously dislike beans). If a holiday isn't complete for you without sugarbomb yams (with sugar, and marshmallows, and more sugar), you bring it. Whatever you need for the holiday to be right, you bring. In the beginning there was a secret santa option, but that sort of died out.

After Thanksmas, came the New Years Party (yeah, no special name there just a whole lot of drinkin'), then MemEaster - which then became Cinco de MemEaster for a three holiday punch, and Labor-Pendence Day. It was pretty sweet to get together with all the peeps so often. I will miss it.

Please, just buy a blender

Ok, there is this ad on TV for Citi Bank in which a woman puts chopped fruit in a garbage disposal to make a smoothie, which she then ladles out for her husband because they are waiting for their visa rewards to get a blender. I seriously dislike this commercial. I know that for the commercial the dude didn't really drink a smoothie that was made in a otherwise used garbage disposal, but even the thought of it gives me the heebie-jeebies of the digusted sort.

Who are you, who-oo, who-oo

Well, the dog boots came, and went. They sent me the wrong boots, arg! I theoretically ordered the summer boots and they sent me the high performance shoes. That would be okay except I email the company before I ordered and they suggested the summer shoes because the high performance shoe would be too warm. Bummer. I called them and they are theoretically sending me the correct boots and I sent back the high performance today. I hope the summer shoes come soon and work out.

I've been obsessed with the Broward Educator we recently recieved in the mail, which is the area community education brochure. I would really like to take a bunch of the classes, but highest on my list right now would be dancing. I really got the itch at Anne's wedding. They didn't really have much music there that was appropriate for the cha-cha or foxtrot to be sure, and to be honest I don't really remember those lessons as much as not. But they had a dance floor and Mike and Stephanie did a little swing to one of the songs (apparently they took some lessons a while ago). And it made me miss the whole thing. That is the one really big Regret (and yes that is Regret with a capitol R) I have from our wedding. We didn't video tape our wedding waltz. Stupid, stupid, stupid! We practiced a bunch-a-bunch-a for that and I think we were actually pretty decent. Why oh why did I not think to have it taped? Bigest. Fatest. Bummer.

Weird occurance of the day: I was in Target and saw some bathing suits and for a long moment I was confused. I thought "it's September, why are there bathing suits out?" I was totally back in Michigan. I had completely forgot that I had moved to Florida.

Pocky Part Deux

Being the purposefully non-traditional couple that they are, my sister and Karl didn't give traditional gifts to their supporting cast. They didn't have a best man or maid of honor (thank goodness as I would have been the matron of honor...eeesh). They just had Derek (friend of Karl), Mike (friend of Anne), Dan (friend of Anne), and myself. I figured that I wouldn't be recieving the typical wedding jewelry, but I could never have guessed what we did get. Anne and Karl got me a Nintendo DS. Woot and 1/2!

They also got each of us a game that we would like. Mike got a Star Wars game, Dan a Mario game, Derek I can't remeber at the moment, and they got me Nintendogs. They found one with a Cavalier in it so of course that is the first dog I bought. I picked a female tri-color and have been trying out the whole thing. It is interesting, but Bleys is still way cuter. You do have to talk to the dog/game to train it though (voice commands...cool), so it wasn't really the thing for the plane ride home. So we also picked up Rayman DS and Dave got a poker game to try out. We ended up spending too much, but it did make the trip home seem like it was no time at all. I'm kind of stuck on Rayman right now as I am only so coordinated and can't seem to get past this one sequence. Oh well, I'll get it eventually...I hope.

I also finished The Dolphins of Pern and Dragonseye on the trip. I enjoyed both although I like The Dolphins of Pern better, but then again when I was eight I was going to be a cetacean trainer so that might color my perceptions a bit. I think next I'm either going to read A Plague of Angels, or the D&D Player Handbook v. 3.5.

Pocky

I'm baaaaack. Roland and I got home yesterday from Michigan. My sister is officially married (dude, I never thought I would be saying that...it still sounds odd) and off on her honeymoon. The wedding was awesome. They decided on a movie theme for the reception and it worked out darn near perfect. They had pint sized movie posters on each table, so there was a Star Wars table, and a Night of the Living Dead table, and so on. And instead of flowers they put props from each movie. The Harry Potter Table had a wand, a pair of glasses, and a golden snitch and the Indiana Jones table had a fedora and some cool little rubber snakes. Their cake was in the shape of a movie theater with a marquee on top that said 'Anne and Karl' and their favors were in little popcorn containers. Anne wore a gorgeous ruby dress that was forties Hollywood and I wore a black dress with pearls and some super cute shoes. I was the only lady standing up and the gents wore black dress pants, black shirts, and black ties. Karl wore a tie to match Anne's dress. There was a little joking before the wedding about becoming a band of ninjas, but I thought it looked good. I forgot my camera so I took some pictures with my Mom's camera and my Dad took a bunch (go figure) so when I get my hands on some of the those I hope to post some.

Both the wedding and reception were held at the Soaring Eagle and I have to say I was impressed. The rooms were very nice, even posh (albeit on the expensive side) and they gave Anne and Karl a surprise upgrade to a nicer room! Anne and I tried out their spa (a massage and pedicure each) for her bachelorette party and it was very nice, although not the best of either I've encountered. At least neither of us got a Helga, intent on kneading us into bruised submission (sorry Roland). The building was a little smoky, I think Vegas does a better job pumping out all of that crap. By the end of the two nights we spent there I was getting to have a perpetual headache, and I didn't really get that way in Vegas until much longer into the trip (5 days-ish). But overall everything was handled very well. The coordinator people were very attentive, everything was ready ahead of schedule, and the food was delectable. They even accommodated one of Anne's friends who is a vegan. The chef just said, bring in a recipe and I will make it. Wow, and I say wow again. The chef (replete with toque) even came out and checked with Bill (the vegan) to make sure it was adequate. Bill said it was fantastic.

It was nice to get to see my family again so soon after moving to Florida. Now, unfortunately I'm not sure when we will see them again. Roland's parents are coming to Disney in December and we are going to meet them for a few days, so we will get to see them soon. I also got a chance to stop by the Humane Society and All About Animals to see the gang and Mary Beth respectively. It made me realize that I miss having people I know to talk to. I need to get a move on and find a way to meet some people! I also stopped by to visit Veronica and Joe in their house (our old one). It was nice to see it with furniture in it again. It was very weird after the movers came and it was all empty. They also just adopted another dog. An adorable little black pug. He had just been neutered that day, so he was still all dopey when we were there, but he was very cute. I hope Venus won't be too jealous. I really wanted to get a second dog when we moved down here, but the apartment we found only allows one per apartment. So I guess I will have to hold on to that dream a while longer. But someday I want to have a black and tan Cavalier to play with Bleys. Maybe even a rescue for me to work with. We will just have to see how things work out down here.

Well, I've gone on long enough for the time being, but as I haven't posted in a week, I'll probably be back later to blather on some more.

The Phantom Duke

Roland and I just got back from going to the "gym" here at the apartment complex. Its kind of crappy, but it is only a minute walk from out apartment. Roland thinks that someone was getting rid of some of their really old Nautilus equipment and The Mirage bought it on the cheap. The stuff is really old and such an odd assortment of machines that it hardly seems possible that someone bought that arrangement on purpose. There are about a gagillion machines for arms, but only a couple for legs.

The treadmill is pretty good, but you have to have a safety key to start it and you can only get that during office hours. However, I hacked that problem in a jiffy. I checked out the safety key once and figured out that it is just a magnet with a plastic insert that holds it against the treadmill. So, I take my scissor keeper (a magnet with a suction cup to hold it on the sewing machine) and tie it to the treadmill with rope to get it tight enough to register. Hah, suck on that evil-doers. Only one of the bikes seems to work, but that one seems ok. They do have two stairmasters, but I hate those things and won't use them (oh my aching knees).

They do have a TV in the cardio corner, but its on a ceiling mount and I can't reach the buttons so I can only watch it when Roland comes with me. There is also a radio playing in the weight area, but I can't find were it is and its so quiet you can barely hear it. Kind of just drives you nuts.

Anyway, before that Roland took me out to dinner and on our way back into the apartment there were these people out with their older Golden Retriever. The dog took a giant dookie right as we were pulling up and the people didn't pick it up. I was really ticked off. They don't even live in the buildings right near us and seemed to walk over here just to crap up our area and leave. I thinking about being the poop-nazi and talking to the front office about giving them the whatfor. Well, I'm hankering after something sweet, so I'm going to go raid the kitchen and see if there is something sweet that is not Terrible for me.

Doodley-doo, doodley-doo, doodley-doo

Flashback: Susan sitting at the Commodore 64. She inserts this month's LoadStar Magazine disk and types the letters that will allow her to descend into gaming nirvana.

load "star" ,8,1

Yeah, sure there was all sorts of other stuff on the disks but, come on, I was just there for the games. On this month's disk is a game that will keep her in hours of near drooling arcade-like fascination. Qix. The original Qix, with the crazy laser line pattern representing Qix.

Today: I was reading WWdN and he linked over to an review he did on some lame-o knock off of Donkey Kong. And there, at the bottom in a seemingly innocent section about all the other games that the makers have ripped off was the line "Out Line (Qix + Amidar)."

The memories flooded back. The triumph of that one time where you trapped Qix in about three seconds and claimed 95% of the board with a near miraculous corner trap. The frustration of being trapped between two sparx and Qix. Oh, the agony of getting to 74% claimed...and the fuse catching up to you.

So naturally I googled it and found a version and played it for like 2 hours! Heaven.

THX

Today-Bor-Day is Labor-Day!

Ever since Bleys's bad reaction to Florida fauna we have restricted him to limited grass touching and wipe him off every time he comes back inside. Instead of going to the dog park we have been in-line skating around the area. Just a small piece of advice, skating on wet sidewalks...quite slick. No, I didn't actually fall, but it was a close thing a time or two. I'm sure anyone driving by was amused by my windmilling action to prevent eating pavement. Bleys is adapting well to running beside me. His chasing instincts however are in full swing. You see, down here there are about a bagillion teeny tiny little lizards running aboot (mad props to my yooper homies - even though I'm a troll) and Cavaliers were originally bred from hunting spaniels...sooooo every time he sees one of these potentially tasty morsels he loses all focus on any training we may have done and tries to bolt after it - usually right across the sidewalk in front of me. A typical Cavalier response resulting in every Cavalier website worth its salt imploring people to NEVER let their Cavalier off lead unless they are positive they are in a fully fenced area (a dog park for instance). Anyway, because of this, erm, charming habit we are working on breaking, I do have to keep on my toes about the whole thing.

My sister's wedding is a mere 12 days away! The wedding should be a great time, although I still would like to find some new shoes to go with my dress. I'm not sure what my sister's shoes look like, but her dress is gorgeous. It is a deep red color I would describe as Burgundy (although I think they called it ruby). It is sort of a 40's Hollywood-esque dress and very pretty. I'm wearing a little black dress. Maybe I should also go looking for a necklace to wear with it. My butterfly necklace would look very nice though. Well, Roland is making cookies and I'm very interested in the results so I'm going to go see if I can snitch a little!

Hippity hop

Woot! My parents-in-law are planning a trip to Disney World in early December, and Roland and I are thinking about going to meet them! It would be after Roland is done for the semester (grades and all) so the timing is good. We were actually tentatively planning a trip there next year for our 5 year anniversary, and December is close to next year. Money, of course, is an issue, but I would really like to go. What I would really like to do is the Platinum Package. That package includes all the tours; including DiveQuest and a new tour in which you tool around Epcot on Segways. You also get to go on a cruise to watch IllumiNations and reserved seating at Fantasmic.

Unfortunately I can't find online if you can still book such a package and use the Annual Pass (which Roland and I were thinking of getting). We will have to call Disney or AAA or something to find out. I guess I really just want to do something that would make me feel better about moving to Florida. Right now all of the "but you can go scuba diving" and "we'll only be 3 hours from Disney" feel like placatitudes*. Well, I'm getting quite hungry and the smells emanating from the kitchen are mouthwatering, so I'm going to go see what's cookin'!

*No, this isn't a word. I made it up - a combination of placation and platitude.

Thanks to Karl with a K

Myrna Loy
You scored 23% grit, 9% wit, 33% flair, and 52% class!

You are class itself, the calm, confident "perfect woman." Men turn and look at you admiringly as you walk down the street, and even your rivals have a grudging respect for you. You always know the right thing to say, do and, of course, wear. You can take charge of a situation when things get out of hand, and you're a great help to your partner even if they don't immediately see or know it. You are one classy dame. Your screen partners include William Powell and Cary Grant, you little simmerpot, you.

Find out what kind of Classic Dame or Classic Leading Man you'd make.