One Thing to do Whilst in Columbus, Ohio

Yesterday, Izzy and I went to the Santa Maria! It is "the world's most authentic, museum-quality replica of Christopher Columbus' flagship."

It was pretty cool. The above pics are of the ship, of course. It was hard to get the whole thing in the frame due to the trees and such on the near hillside, but you can get the picture. For a trip overseas, there wasn't much room! We got to go on most of the ship, even in the cargo area.

This is a sampling of the food the crew would eat - beans and hard-tack biscuits. (Yum!)


A view of the cargo area. Crew had to go down this in the dark, since candles would have been dangerous on a wooden ship.



The crow's nest as seen through the cargo hold. Yeah, that's the job I'd want!


Here is Izzy demonstrating on the cookstove.


And here she is steering the boat. Belive it or not, the "wheel" for steering ships was not used until 200+ years after Columbus sailed! The man on the tiller was not able to see the front of the ship, so he had to rely on the compass and the navigator for directions.




And here's Izzy on the cannon. Because they used a hot piece of metal stuck through a small hole to ignite the gunpowder, the expression "FIRE IN THE HOLE" was born. Izzy loved that part! The grate behind Izzy is how the crew would access the cargo.



And here is a view of the Columbus skyline 'tween the masts of the ship.









For about 5.50 for Izzy and me to tour the ship, it was a nice afternoon venture. I did find out that you can have overnighters on the ship and even "pirate" birthday parties -- how cool!

And to end the afternoon we hung out for a bit in the nearby park... Izzy in the fountain, by a unicorn and a griffin.

Don't ask.....

Gunther
I'm still trying to figure out who this guy is, and why he is not more known across the pond. (How do I type the darn umlats!)
But, you have to check out his myspace page and listen to the "Ding Ding Dong Song"

(added later, after searching more on Gunther)

I don't know if it's the mullet or lyrics such as:

Honey, you're so cute
This is the land of forbidden fruit
Bananas, melonas, yeah
It's a hot, hot summer love (Yeah)

But this guy is interesting to say the least. Here is a video of his song "Tutti Fruitti Summer Love"


(Caution to those with young viewers, or those who are sensitive to flying fruit -- cover your eyes at 3:14 so you miss the flying "bananas")

(And yet another one added later still) - Suntrip (click for video)
Again - not for the squeamish, and if anyone can tell me the lyrics, I'd really like to know. I think they are:

It is a hot day
I put on my flip flop
Go to Playa a sol???
I'm feeling tip top

and

I do a strip tease
and a fiesta
a banana split
no siesta
we go to shower
it's happy hour
Mama mia
Gimme a sangria

He even quotes 2 Live Crew "love you long time"

What I don't get is WHY he has so many chicks??? It must be his distinct moue.

What's harder to find than...

"the second shooter on the grassy knoll?"

A Nintendo Wii... well guess what folks, looks like we found the shooter, because we bought a Wii yesterday!

The above quote was from a very helpful Gamestop employee, who was giving me the low down on the game. The other employee was a bit confused, but I knew what he meant. Apparently, these games are a bit hard to find. I was going to get one for Chad's B-day a few months from now. I guess he's been trolling around Wal-Mart and Best Buy looking for one, and we just happened to see one at Wallyworld yesterday.


This is a really cool game system, especially for somone who grew up on the old 2600 -- a lot of the Wii games are more my speed. Can't wait for Izzy to get home so she could play!

House Updates

Drove by today, they weren't working on our house, but a crew was prepping the foundation for our neighbors house... it looks like we'll have a new neighbor! I hope we can get in soon... keep your fingers crossed that we are in by the end of August/early September.

How did I spend my evening?

With


and

YUM.

I want I want....

http://www.tatermitts.com/


This looks sooo cool -- however, I don't really want to pay 27 dollars for them... (including S&H) .


In other news.. Izzy is at her Nona's, and it's so quiet here... nice for a little bit, but too quiet after a while!

Chad and I took an "unofficial" walk-through of our house today. We sneaked through the front door, and started planning out our living room. It's so odd, but very exciting to see what our views will look like, and where everything will go! I'll post more pics as I get them -- forgot the camera today.

The tatermitts would make a good housewarming present!

Summer Reading

Since I have way more free time this summer than it seems in summer past... I'm keeping track of all of my reads. Enjoy!

If You Could See Me Now - Cecilia Ahern
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling
Every Boy's Got One - Meg Cabot
Tounge in Chic - Christina Dodd
I'm In No Mood for Love - Rachel Gibson
Pleasure for Pleasure - Eloisa James
The Boy Next Door - Meg Cabot
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - JK Rowling

More house photos...

Exciting day! After about 8 days with just the slab (below), the walls are coming up! Yipee!


This was about a week ago....

And this is today.... Yeah! Walls!


The secod floor is going up.. My big bathtub will be under the window on the second floor...

Our roof!

Our Garage -- and no, Gareth - we won't be living in the green box :)

Photos from the old homestead...

We went down to visit the folks and to have a belated birthday party for Izzy. (Cake was rather dry!)


She got lots of cool toys....

Including the Barbie -

Who liked to spy on us and...

Go around without her panties... (well, they are painted on, but if I had my undies tattoo'd on, I don't think I could get away with it!) Chad got a big kick out of this one!


And here's Pandora - My baby, otherwise known as the Cat From Hell. Trust me.

I promise, this was in the middle of a "meow" but she normally has this expression when anybody but me comes near her.

My sweeties!

Chad doing his best Kate Winslet / Rose pose. (He's gonna kill me for putting this one up!)

2 NEW BORING DIET POSTS

OK GO READ MY BORING DIET / WEIGHT LOSS BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 NEW POSTS!!!

House

Summer Summer

Yeah! My last day of school is finally here! It's been a crazy few months, I've been extremely busy with getting senior grades lined up. UGH - It isn't like I haven't been warning them since, oh, October of the deadline for grades. But that's behind me now - whew.

So what do I hear when I wake up this morning? A stupid alarm clock. Mind you, it's not one of mine. I've looked at all 4 of them. My best guess is that it's my neighbors. There are a few teenagers across the street, and I think it may be one of those.

Izzy got her hair cut the other day, so did I a while ago... Izzy's looks really cute - mine can't really tell a difference.

Arrg! That alarm clock is driving me nuts!

A NEW BLOG

Hey folks in blogger land!!!!!!!!!!!! Writing this post to pimp my new blog. I've started a little thing to track weight loss, food intake, and exercise. I want to lose 80 pounds and I want to be 250 by Christmas... Drop by and take the journey with me....

Chad

I THINK I'VE GONE MAD!

Party time!

Izzy's about to turn 6, and we are having a party! I must be crazy to host one for a bunch of 6 year olds, but it should be fun.. we are headed to the local pizza/game/golf/bumpercar spot, so it should be exciting -- we already have a few rsvp, boys only so far.

busy busy busy week! It's been crazy here, but that's what keeps things exciting, I guess.

Movies, not for the faint of heart

Chad and I just got back from our date... Tonight was the first time we saw a movie on opening night in a loooonnnnnggggg time! We chose Grindhouse, and let me tell you -- this was interesting. I don't think everyone will "get" it, but it's up there as far as movies go... What made it interesting (among the extremely gratuitous blood, gore, and perverts) were the unexpected trailers and ads in the movie. Unexpected, because they just don't happen like that anymore!

The cast of characters/ actors is entertaining. Hey, who knew Josh Brolin (Brand from the Goonies) could play such a weirdo! It is long, but it really didn't seem like you were sitting in there for a long time... My recommendation, see the movie at the big screen. You'll want to stay to the end - you'll never look at Kurt Russell the same way again!

It's Spring, I think....

Well, I know this is Ohio weather -- it was nearly 80 yesterday and SNOW tonight! It's piling up outside on the patio furniture.

The Izzster is up at her Nona's for a few days of her spring break... It's so quite without her here!

Today, on the way to work, I saw a tree on a wire - sparks and smoke were just starting to form. By the time I got my phone dug out of my purse, I saw the FD racing towards it... that's about it for my excitement for the day!Â

We are mostly moved in... yes, we've moved again (UGH - for me, this is my 14th move since starting college, boy do Ihave this down!)   Actually, we are only staying here for a little while... we found a place and are building in a cute town nearby. If all goes well - we'll move by September! The house is pretty cool, and we are selling out a bit, by going to "suburb-land" not quite Stepford, and I hope not over a burial ground, a la Polterguist! (Step into the light, Carol Anne!)Â

After just a few short weeks here, we've had a touch of mold in basement, the windows upstairs don't open (latches are installed wrong); the patio screen door has a "doggie door" CUT out of the screen; there is a big round patch of dirt (pool) that has 1 weed in it, int he backyard; our mailbox was demolished by some idiot driver; the fan is the fridge didn't work (55degrees in there!); Oh, and there is about 6 inches of space between our bed and the wall on one side, and the dresser on the other. Fun Fun Fun!Â

Off to enjoy American Idol -- My money's on Melinda or Lakisha or even Blake.Â

toodles!

3 words...

DANCE PARTY USA!!!!!

We come from the land of Ice and Snow

No, not what you think... this is how much ice we had last week -- it's frozen on a little twig. There was more, but it melted as we brought it inside.

Don't eat yellow Snow!

Chad doing the dirty work

This is covered with ice -- you can see the walk in the back, it's about 12 in of solid ice. FUN!!!
Even the walls were frozen... you can see where the "shadow" of the lamp was protected from the driving ice.
The garbage can was frozen shut!

Good Doggy

Izzy and Duncan... As you can tell by his expression, he just loves all of the stuffed animals.

Duncan is here!

Well, I told you he was coming! This is Duncan. We are watching him while the folks are on a well deserved vacation!

Izzy was just tickled pink that is here! I'm sure she will keep him busy.


Duncan likes our couch -- it took him forever to fall asleep last night!



And no wonder, with our Baby Cat giving him the spooky eye, Duncan has been on alert.




Actually, I'm surprised they are coming around each other this soon! Of course, the cat is giving the obligatory hiss and puffs up, but he's intrigued. Duncan, I don't think, realizes that he's bigger than the cat.

But he did give the cat "paws" when the Duncster was playing with his squeaky toys, which were about the same size as Baby Cat.


This is the Katt that Duncan left behind. For more about this Katt's adventures, read here.

Countdown to Duncan 2 Days!

My cell phone won't talk to me, but my shoes will

I swear someone is out to get me. Tuesday, at exactly 11:59 am Cingular time, my cell phone died. (Conspiracy - I tell you!) We had such good times. Ahhh... But - Now for an upgrade :) But for Chad. I get his old phone, so he can get one of the newer ones to access the internet by using tin foil, gum, and cheese wiz to hook up his phone and the lap top. Or some thing like that.

In other news, if they are not watching me from the sky, now my feet are being monitered.

Thanks to our new health and wellness program at my place of employment, I now have my very first pair of Nike shoes! (I grew up in the 80s without a pair of Nikes - hard to believe!) I also have a new Nano and the sport pack so now my shoes can talk to me (as if I don't have enough voices in my head.)

To calibrate the Nike+ I had to (Gasp!) run. This was probably the first time I ran in several (try 14) years. I did .25 mile in about 3 minutes. My body is not meant for running, which is why I threw track instead of running -(Shot and disc). Well, there was the few instances the shot putters ran the 1600 relay, but only when we were very far ahead in points, or very far behind.

So for iPod number 4 (perks for working for a computer based employer!) I've got it all set set now. Let's just see how it works for me getting in shape.


Countdown to Duncan: 4 days!

Thank you: corporate conglomerate convenience

Yikes.... I guess taking a few months off is not always a good thing. When I decided to come back to reality and check some email, I find that I can't log in to one particular account. It's my junk mail account, but it's tied to a bunch of other accounts in this woven world of the web. So it's saying that the user name and password don't exist. Tried all of my usual passwords - no such luck. As this is one of my first email accounts - I've had it for about 9-10 years- I think I'd know the password!

Well, I try my alternate email and get a note, actually 2, that my password has been changed, yet, no mention of the new password. Mind you this was in December, on my self imposed internet sabbatical. How could it have been changed?

Due to corporate conglomerate "convenience", when I use our internet email, which is linked also to the account as a back up email, I can't log in as "me." I have a few differnet email address, but when the services I've had separately for several years, decide to combine, It's not recognizing ME! So when I follow the link provided in the "password changed" email, it automatically logs me in from the account I'm checking it from, NOT the accout that's supposedly been changed. (Thanks, Att/Sbc/cingular/Dsl/Yahoo)

Confused? Join the club. Oh, and that secondary email, well, that's not working now either, since I'm guessing that whenever my password was supposedly changed, my back up email was altered as well. See, I've figured out that after about a hundred attempts to log in, the account is locked. I have yet to recieve the "unlock" email that was sent to my back up account.

This is just crazy. I've said for years that the internet and computers will be the downfall of civilization. But this is just getting downright spooky how all of the infomation is linked together - easily searchable, and not that easy to fix when you are dealing with semi-"intelligent" computers!

Don't even get me started on the conspiracy angle to the story (I could go on for days on that, but I might be giving "them" ideas.)

Still here...

Just letting folks know that I'm still here... been on a sort of mental vacation for the past few... weeks (OK, since the beginning of November.)

My brain is rested, and I can now ponder the wonders of Cheese. And Brendan Fraser.

There's A New Love In My Life

I simply LOVE White Castle... Yes it makes me sick everytime I eat it and I feel like I have a terrible hangover afterward, but there's just something about these greasy slimy sliders that I LOVE!!! If you haven't tried them you should run right out and grab a couple of DOUBLE CHEESE WITH BACON and NO ONION... Yes I eat White Castle with no onion as they are even more disgusting with it.

Now, Go grab some sliders...