Speaking of Disaster...

Hurricane Irene was not nice to us.  Actually, I can't even blame the hurricane.  I never saw the winds get over 24mph, which DS and I experienced while walking around today.  24mph is not that big a deal as far as winds are concerned.  It rained fairly consistently, but it didn't flood; at least it didn't in my neighborhood.  I blame our little disaster on the guy upstairs and the maintenance people who told my landlord everything was fine.  The hurricane was just an inconvenience.

So here's what happened.  DS and I started getting rain from Irene early, around 1 in the afternoon.  We thought it would be a good idea to take photos of the view periodically.  That would give our families some  idea of how things progressed based visible distance and tree movement.  We took some videos.  We laughed at the balcony door (which is 10ft tall mind you) being hard to shut.  We remarked on the whistling noise around the door.  But most of the excitement felt had more to do with the idea that this was the start of a hurricane, and not because the storm was particularly exciting.  We've seen a lot worse from the thunderstorms that roll through here.

When we moved into this apartment, we had noticed evidence of water damage over the balcony door.  We alerted the landlord (who conveniently lives below us), he called the building manager, and masons were sent out to check on things.  I remember laughing because I had used my master degree training to hypothesize on the cause, and DS "pff"-ing me, and then the mason explaining the problem to me using my exact wording.  That was the last we heard about it.  Apparently these same people told our landlord the problem was fixed.

I tell you this so you understand why we did not immediately freak out when our ceiling started leaking. We texted our landlord, but didn't really expect a response since we could hear him having his own hurricane party downstairs.  We had been partaking of DS's latest batch of sangria ourselves.  I took some photos since we were documenting stuff anyway, threw a bucket and towel down, and went back to my video game.

Not long after that, DS went to bed.  As he does.  I continued to loosely monitor the leak and play said video game.  To avoid Leak 2 from exploding all over the floor as the paint broke, as Leak 1 had done, at some point I pricked it with a pin and drained it.  Leaks kept appearing, all over the balcony door, and I kept rearranging the buckets so our wood floor wouldn't be totally ruined.

This is what I was doing around 11:45pm when the ceiling collapsed on my head.  I remember kneeling on the floor, moving buckets, and then hearing loud noise.  There was a sensation of being covered, like a bucket of water had been dropped on me, and also kind of like a sheet the way it clouded my vision.  Except it hurt.  And I screamed.  Not an "oh shit, you started me" kind of scream.  An "i'mdyingohgoddon'tkillmeMURDERER" scream.  I felt my glasses get knocked off my face.  I felt like someone dropped a book on my head.

My eyes were full of grit, and burned, and I was afraid to open them.  I'm not sure I could open them.  I held my arms out away from me, like you do on instinct when someone drops a can of soda at your feet for example, and I stood there and screamed.  At this point, I wasn't entirely sure what all had happened. It was really fast and I couldn't see almost immediately.  I was barefoot, in pajamas, and I could feel that I was covered in something and standing in rubble.  I was terrified.  My adrenaline hit so hard I honestly didn't feel any pain from that first book feeling until at least a 1/2 hour later.

I heard DS stumble out of the bedroom, yelling for me.  I couldn't stop screaming.  He's not very coherent when he gets woken up that soon after falling asleep, no matter what the circumstances, and the screaming doesn't help.  I know this from past spider experiences.  So looking back, I'm sure a lot of the noise I heard after that was him running into walls trying to run to me.  He kept telling me to shut up, to tell him what happened.  I remember thinking he should tell me and that it was probably obvious based on what my feet were feeling.  He can see without glasses after all.

I must have gotten out that I couldn't see, and I guess he realized I needed to rinse my eyes out, because somehow we made it to the bathroom.  He turned the water on for me, and I spent some time rinsing out my eyes while I sobbed uncontrollably.  Not even tears, just loud noises that sounded like sobs.  It was like my body could not help crying out in some way; pure panic noises.  I calmed down a lot when I could finally open my eyes.  I tried to get some of the grit out of my hair, but it was hopeless.

We went back out to survey the damage and were floored.  White fluff was everywhere.  There was a 2.5'x4' piece of sheetrock broken in half on the floor.  What looked like mud was covering everything within six feet of the door.  I immediately grabbed the camera and started taking pictures, because I didn't want to take any chances of later being told we had exaggerated something.  The apartment has a way of not getting fixed...  DS was on the phone, trying to get the landlord, even though I was sure he had heard the noise.  I found out that pieces of the outer brick wall had come with the ceiling, which explained why I felt like I'd been hit with them.

The landlord came upstairs right away, and his face held the same shocked expression I'm sure ours had moments earlier.  He asked if we were alright.  We said we were.  This is when I found out I was bleeding.  There was an inch long gash on my forehead and I didn't even feel it.  My landlord said, "You should probably put some ice on that.  You're bleeding."

Over the next hour, I attempted to clean myself up some more, administered some first aid, took a bunch of ibuprofen to fend off the pain I figured would come when the adrenaline wore off.  DS and the landlord worked on cleaning up the living room and attempting to tarp off the upstairs balcony to help minimize further damage.  We asked why the masonry problem hadn't been fixed, and the whole "it is/it isn't" thing mentioned at the beginning came out.  While tarping off the upper balcony, the landlord found out there's actually a hole in the outer wall of the upstairs unit and the dude never did anything about it.  So a lot of rain, 150 year old bricks, and a hole in the wall meant a leaky ceiling for me.  My landlord is super mad at that dude (this is a condo building, and the landlord only owns our unit and his own) and the maintenance people for basically lying to him.  I think he's afraid we'll sue too, but we won't.

Today we tried to clean up as much as possible and covered the hole since insulation (the white fluffy stuff) kept falling out.  I feel like you'd probably expect after having a ceiling and bricks fall on my head.  Thankfully, the cut is pretty minor all things considered.  Right now is the first time I've let the ibuprofen wear off, and I can tell it was a mistake.  There are a lot of sore spots on my head and shoulders.  I wish I had a photo of how I looked when DS found me.  Apparently he had a moment where he honestly thought I'd been tarred and feathered.  That image would probably provide some comedic relief about now.

The rain stopped earlier, but not the wind.  We chanced it anyway and walked around a bit outside with camera.  My neighborhood seems to have been really lucky.  We didn't find any real flooding, or downed trees or anything.  The last of the clouds should be gone by 7pm, and the winds will drop under 20mph then as well.  We're supposed to hear on Monday when the masons and contractors will come fix the ceiling.  Thankfully, the 10 day forecast is rain free, so more leaking shouldn't be a problem.

I'm going to take some more painkillers and chill the rest of the day.  I hope your hurricane experience was better, and that my story will be the only scary thing you hear about.

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It's a "2 for 1" Kind of Week

Have I ever told you that before I decided to major in Art History in college, my ideal career was Storm Chaser?  I was hampered by not having the proper curriculum offered in my home state combined with a fear of leaving said state for school.  Which is kind of funny looking back on how far away I've traveled since then.  At any rate, I am not a storm chaser, but am still enamored of crazy weather.  I look forward to all major weather events and natural disasters with a childish glee that scares my husband.  He worries for my sanity.  It's not that I want to be in the middle of something that will kill me.  I have no death wish.  But the raw power of Earth is a beautiful thing, and as long as I can experience it in a way that keeps me alive, I will.

The whole time I lived in California, I kept expecting to experience an earthquake.  It's not like I wanted to the ground to rip open beneath my feet or anything; having some glasses rattle and my bed shake is plenty fine.  It never happened, though there were a few that were near enough to me that my family freaked out for me.  I didn't even know about them until I found I had a bunch of frantic messages on my phone.  So the fact that my first earthquake experience was in Philadelphia on Tuesday was disorienting.  I think if it had happened in CA, I would have been like, "whoa! this is an earthquake" and went with it. Instead, I woke up to my bed shaking, the whole building swaying, and thought maybe it was being torn down and no one had checked to make sure everyone was out.  Look, your brain does not function quite right when you first wake up.  Shut it.  The only casualty was my cuckoo clock, which fell and busted.  I think I can fix it, but all things considered, this was probably the best I could hope for in terms of experiencing an earthquake.  I'll go ahead and cross that off my list.

An electronic billboard on my way home from taking Bri to the train station today.

Just when I thought that was my excitement for the month, I find out there's a hurricane coming.  DS keeps telling me it's no big deal, and in hurricane terms, he's totally right.  As of this moment, Philly is still in Irene's path.  It's projected to be somewhere between a CAT1 and a Tropical Storm by the time it gets here.  Either one would be a first for me, and neither are likely to cause my building to fall down, so I'm excited.  To be on the safe side, we brought all my plants in tonight while it's still dry out.

This room will probably be infested with spiders now...

My tomato is still growing.  It's insane.  The netting is to keep the birds from eating the ripening tomatoes.  Bastards.

We live downtown on the 4th floor of a building, so flooding isn't an immediate worry as far as our stuff is concerned.  I suppose there's an off chance our building could float away, by which I mean like 0.05%.  However, both rivers surrounding us are expected to flood, and they're only 2.3 mi apart where we are.  The Delaware River is 2 blocks from me; I can see it out my window.  It's kind of weird, because we're not on the coast, but we're very close to the mouth of the Delaware, and it has tides up here.  So flooding in my area is entirely possible.  My weather app on my phone is also telling me loss of power is a possibility, so we've gathered the candles and charged all our spare batteries again.  The main thing I worry about with loss of power is losing the internet.  That should tell you something about our worry levels.  And probably something about how much I use the internet.

My plan is to read Game of Thrones, quilt, and take photos.  Maybe I'll even get inspired to write another song.

Song Writing

Bri helps us with a beat while we work on some polymeter.

I think I mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  DS and I have officially joined the band Designer, which is based in Philly.  I'd describe the music for you, but honestly, I don't know how.  I recommend you check out the website to learn more.  DS plays bass, and I mostly play flute, though there are plans to add my mandolin and hammered dulcimer to the mix.  The other instruments are piano, drums, cello, trumpet, and guitar.

It is so much fun writing music with these guys.  So far we have one full song nearly done, and we're working on a second.  I'm excited to say that the second is based of something I wrote, which is probably the best complement anyone has given me.  That's sort of how the band does things.  Someone will bring in a little something they were playing around with, and then everyone sort of jams until magic happens.  I say magic, because that's what it feels like to me, but honestly, it's more like a lot of talent and a really well rounded group.

The band had written one album already when DS and I came along.  We didn't really want to change the overall sound of those songs, since they're already released and awesome, so we've been writing some parts that fit in.  Otherwise we'd just be sitting on stage waiting for the new songs to be played, which is no fun.  We played a show on August 10 at a place called The Fire.  We hadn't really been expecting to be doing anything other than the helping out we'd been doing on the song Thundersnow, but when we got there they already had a mic set up for my flute.  So DS ran home quickly to get it, and I played my first real show as a band member.

This is a band that, the first time my friends told me about it, I heard "we're in a band" and just nodded and smiled, assuming they were crap like most basement bands; but when we heard them the first time at their Christmas show last year we were blown away.  I remember DS and I looking at each other with our mouths open and being like, "shit, these guys are seriously awesome."  So the fact that they've asked us to join them is nothing less than an honor.  What I'm trying to say is, I'm so excited.

The really wonderful thing about this is that I've been spending a lot more time on my music.  I've had a hammered dulcimer for ages, but I only really started learning to play it this year.  I actually took my flute in to the music shop to have it serviced, which is something that had never been done in its 15 year existence.  DS and I look forward to our weekly practice like a breath of fresh air.  Not only that, but it's a lot of fun hanging with these people, and we finally feel like we have a group of "Philly friends," which helps it feel like home here.

Anyway, if you're in the area when we're playing, you should come check us out.  The show schedule is up on the website.  Until then, feel free to listen to the tracks we have posted online.

Lightning Storm

There have been a lot of thunderstorms rolling through lately.  Tonight DS and I had the presence of mind to go out on the balcony and enjoy the show.  I attempted to take photos of the lightning, but most of the time I missed.  However, sometimes those misses resulted in some really interesting color studies.  Enjoy.

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A Conversation with DS

me: what's with all these cops out tonight?

  ds: not sure.. maybe it's a response to all these flash mobs that have been roaming the streets?

  me: what?!? we had flash mobs and i missed it???

  ds: yeah, it's kind of nuts

  me: man, that's awesome. i'd love to see that!  why would the cops care about that? were they disrupting traffic or something?

 ds: what? no man, it's scary. they're like twenty 16 year old running around and knifing people

  me: oh. yeah, i don't think you know what a flash mob is

  me: a flash mob is where people show up like it's random and then do a dance routine

 ds: oh.  what kind of mob is this?

  me: that'd just be a regular mob.

I'm not posting this to make fun of DS, though I did laugh a lot at the time.  Mostly, I think it really illustrates how different our brains are.  And it's funny.

Minneapolis Re-cap

Minneapolis was wonderful. DS and I had been once before for a short one night trip to see the Yankees play the Twins. Though perhaps I didn't blog about it, because I can't seem to find the post now.  This particular trip was due to a conference DS needed to attend.  I tagged along to see Beth and Brian.

Sunday:
Arrive in the morning, temperatures 66, FANTASTIC.  Picked up at the airport by Beth and Brian, whom I am technically meeting for the first time even though I've known them for 5+ years.  Go to the "going away" party brunch at The Strip Club (no joke! but it's steak, so sort of a joke!) for one of Brian's sisters, where we met his whole family.  Have fenian french toast with an irish whiskey caramelized sauce.

Drop DS off at the hotel for conference stuff, then go to the zoo.  Get dropped off at hotel, eat, collapse in exhaustion.

Monday:
Sleep in!  Wait around for people to stop having job stuff to do.  Dinner with Beth and Brian at La Casitas.  (Take phone call from Mom to tell her how to set up her wireless router.)  Stop by Minnehaha Falls.

Oooh and Aaah!

Photo by Beth

Tuesday:
Sushi Lunch, eaten in the IDS Center downtown, which is a totally enclosed space full of sunlight and benches and trees and "rain."

Swim laps in the pool, work out in the gym, go to Brian's place and play Minecraft and League of Legends all night.

Wednesday:
I don't remember what I did during the day!  But that night we were fed homemade pizza by Beth, and then Brian, DS and I played Settlers of Catan, and all four of us played We Didn't Play Test This At All.  And of course, you have to end a gathering with a YouTube party, so we did!

Photo by Beth

Thursday:
Fly home!

Minneapolis Zoo

Yesterday, I made to yet another zoo I've never before visited!  This time it was the Minnesota Zoo, which is located in greater Minneapolis.  Specifically, Apply Valley.  We are in the great city of Minneapolis visiting friends. Well, I'm visiting friends.  DS is visiting a conference, and so he is staying busy doing other things.  It's always a lot of fun for me when I get to experience friends' local zoos, and lucky for me, Beth and Brian were happy to tag along even though it was hot.

This particular zoo does not have an amazing selection of animals.  However, the exhibits for the animals they do have are just fantastic.  The grizzly bears has geysers.  Every animal there had just a massive amount of space that they were often hard to find.  It must be a really nice place for them, which makes me happy.  Fun zoo facts: the decor is themed around Dr. Suess; first zoo I've been to with a dolphin!  Unfortunately, the zoo closed and we were scooted out before we got to see the Medtronic Minnesota Trail, which had a wolverine and a cougar.  This probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't spent forever entranced by the coral reefs.

So a quick note about these photos.  Apparently the animals thought it would be fun to keep their butts towards the onlookers, so the three of us made it into a game.  Goal: Take as many butt photos as possible.  We were quite successful, though for your viewing pleasure, I tried to throw some good photos in here as well.

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Bri's Kittens

My friend Bri just got new baby kittens.  They're just 11 weeks old, and SO ADORABLE!  I spent the afternoon following them around with my camera after giving them some of the toys my cats ignore.  They make me realize just how humongous my cats are.  I mean, Felix was the runt, and she's still 13 lbs.  No wonder people look at them like they're freaks of nature...

Anywho, I hope you're prepared for a cuteness onslaught.

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Show at World Cafe Live

Here's video from the song DS and I helped out with at the show on June 17th at World Cafe Live.  Sometimes the sound doesn't match up just right, but you'll get the idea.  It was so much fun, and I hope that we get more chances to do fun things like this in the future.

If you like the music, be sure to check out the band's website for more info.

I'm With The Band

Today was a busy day.  I'm having a lot of those lately.  A good portion of this is because I've been playing with the band Designer, based in Philly.  I came along as they were finishing up recording their first CD, so I don't have a huge part yet.  They needed a second pianist for one of their songs when it's performed live, and luckily for me, piano is one of the instruments I play.

Being one of the only band members without a full time job (something I'm working on, more details on that if it pans out), I've started doing a lot of background stuff to help out.  The major thing was designing the website.  Website design is not something I have any training in, and I rely heavily on templates followed by back-end editing of html, css, and xml for those things templates won't let me do.  Thank goodness for Google.

Other things include imparting my (limited) knowledge about things like Square Up and business finances, and helping out with creating band merchandise like this poster.

Copyright 2011 Dan Bellotti, for Designer

No, I didn't design it, Dan, the drummer, did.  All I did was use my ink-free hands to move finished posters around during the screen printing process and then make sure they were dry with a blow dryer so they wouldn't smear.  The posters are going to be on sale at the CD release show on June 17th at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.  I'll be on the piano, and perhaps the flute.  We'll see about that last one.  I've been noodling around on the songs during practice, but I'm not sure anything I've done yet is worth playing at a show.

Check out some of the band's songs here (some will hopefully be on the website soon), and if you like them, pre-order the CD so we can afford to make another I'll actually be on!

What else have I been up to?  Practicing my mandolin, flute, and piano playing nearly every day.  Working out, which has actually been showing progress!  Sewing up a mobile for my friend Lisa's baby.  Lots of for real cooking;  I'm as shocked as you are.  Tonight I made DS a lentil soup from scratch for him to take in his lunches.  Of course, I've been doing the usual things, like cleaning the house, gardening, reading, etc.

What's keeping you busy?

Mandolin

Check out my new mandolin!

Not long after DS and I moved in together, or perhaps even before that, DS was given an old mandolin that had been found in his aunt's attic.  For a long time I dreamed about learning to play it, but it was not in great shape.  We held onto it anyway, and after I started playing with the band Designer, it was decided that my learning to play would be beneficial.

So I tuned it up with the old strings, which were rusted, to see if it was worth a shot.  It seemed to hold a tune, and I got really excited and bought new strings and a book for learning to play.  Unfortunately, when I went to restring the thing I discovered two of the tuning pegs were bent.  They would only turn so far in one direction before they would just stop moving and would only go back the other way.  This made restringing it impossible.

We took it to the repair guy at the music store who tried his best, but apparently that old thing has a weird tuning head and he couldn't find a replacement for it.  Poor me, I was forced to buy the one I had been playing with all the times DS had been shopping for a bass!

I've had it for just over a week, though it already feels like twice that.  I try to play for an 45 min to an hour everyday to help build up my calluses, because I've never played anything like this before.  I'm taking my time learning the basics, trying not to rush it.  DS keeps asking if I can play like Chris Thile yet, and I can assure you the answer is no.

Garden Update 01

It's been about a month since I last showed you my garden.  An update was requested, so here you go!  One of the garlic plants didn't make it, but the other seems to be doing well so far.  I've moved some things around as the plants have been getting bigger.  All four of the rail planters are full now.

I had my doubts the eggplant would do anything, especially since Felix kept eating it, but when I took photos of it today I found a bunch of flower buds.  I can't believe it.  The tomatoes are another thing beating my expectations.  There's a bigger balcony over ours, so I think at most we get 6 hours of direct sunlight.  Tomatoes like a lot of sun, so I was worried they wouldn't do well.  Those things are exploding right now.  I can't wait to taste the first batch!

The strawberries have had some hiccups, probably in large part because I didn't realize I shouldn't let them produce at first.  The one plant of the three that came from the nursery with blossoms already managed to make a little batch of strawberries, but they were smaller than marbles.  Not even the shooter size, just regular small ones would be bigger.  Those went straight into the trash.  The second crop is attempting to come in now, and maybe that one will work.  I still only have one plant even trying, but I'm not too worried about it after reading that strawberries do best in their second and third years.

After the success I had with hot peppers in Santa Barbara with only evening sun through my bedroom window, I figured I'd do well with those.  The plants are getting massive, and they each have at least 15 flower buds so far.  Within the next week or two they should start making their first actual peppers since a couple of the flowers are open.  The Hot Thai Pepper, which is more bushy than the others, is already making fruit.  You should be able to make it out in the photo.

Except for the garlic, everything seems to be surviving.  Even thriving.  We've been putting the oregano and basil into our food, especially homemade pizzas.  With our CSA shares coming in we're getting a lot of salad makings right now, so the tomatoes will be very welcome.  We have no idea what we're going to do with all those peppers...  I don't even care really.  Gardening is like sustenance for my soul.

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Finished Garden 2011

Have I told you how excited I am to finally have a balcony for an entire growing season again? SO EXCITED. Feast your eyes on this gorgeousness.



Plants from left to right:
Catnip
Ornamental Thai Pepper
3 Strawberries
Lavender
Eggplant
Basil
Oregano
Cilantro
Garlic

Hanging:
Yellow Pear (Heirloom Tomato)
Marion (Heirloom Tomato)
Anaheim Pepper
Hot Banana Pepper
Jalapeno Pepper
Habanero Pepper

Things you can't see yet:
Spinach
Lots of part-sun flowers
The cats camped out in that camping chair
The water puddles on the balcony below because I can't figure out how not to make a mess when I'm watering.  :(  I'm seriously considering hanging a shower curtain that will funnel the water into a bucket.



This is the window box on the other side of the apartment, outside our bedroom.  It doesn't get much light, so I picked out plants that are supposed to like part-sun.  Gerbera daisies for the win!

Now I just need the sun to come out more than once every 10 days.

PIFA Street Fair 2011

This month has been the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, or PIFA for short.  It started April 7, but somehow I missed everything but the Street Fair.  I honestly thought the Street Fair would be awesome, and indeed, the individual aspects were pretty cool.  However, there are a good 100,000 or so more people crammed into that area than was good for me, and so I mostly felt a full-blown panic attack coming on the whole time.  We didn't stay long, and I'm glad for it, but I am happy we managed to see what we did.

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Attending a Royal Wedding

I am not one to care about things like royal weddings.  However, I am one for silly parties that allow me to dress up either in costume or fancy dresses.  Thankfully, I have a friend here in Philly that is down with that, and she agreed to participate in my "Royal Wedding Tea Party" party.  And no, we did not get up before dawn to watch this thing.  I have DVR silly.

We made Earl Grey tea with milk and sugar, as it seemed the most English thing to drink.  We don't really know.  We had lemon bars, for "tea and cake."  We had cakes from a small local bakery.  We had champagne.  We had dresses.  We had the ability to fast forward through the lamest parts.  We had everything except fascinators.  The commentators even seemed to answer every question we blurted out to the TV.

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles. And Tornadoes.

Yes, it's a movie.  It's also what it took to get me home from a visit to KY.  That and 24 hours.  Let me tell you about my adventures traveling through that massive storm.  (TL:DR version: it was a mess, but I made it after a crap ton of delays, 6 trains, and 24 hours.)

I got into KY on Tuesday, April 19th.  That night my mom got me up because the tornado sirens were going off and we were on the second floor of her house.  Tornado sirens pretty much sums up my visit.  Seriously.  It stormed every day that I was there, which I honestly enjoyed.  The problem came when I had to get home Wednesday.

Before I had even gotten to the airport, my first flight had been delayed long enough to make me miss the second one.  A quick call to customer service had me rebooked from the 7:35pm out of Atlanta to the 9:52pm.  It was going to get me home late enough that DS wasn't sure he could stay up to retrieve me, but that was a minor concern.  During the online check-in process, it asked for volunteers to be bumped, and I gladly signed up thinking, "hey, free voucher and getting to travel during not storms. score."

Having never signed up for this volunteer process before, I kept thinking I would be getting a call letting me know I wasn't flying, and there was no need to come to the airport today, kthx.  That didn't happen of course.  Since I knew the flight was delayed, Mom was actually able to take me to the airport, which was nice.  Not long after I was in the terminal, the flight was delayed again.  And then again.

A flight that was originally supposed to have me in Atlanta by 7pm ended up being a little after 8.  All in all not too bad.  My original second flight had been delayed as well by this point, and I ran to the gate in the hopes I would get lucky.  Ha!  That flight was overbooked because of all the previous cancellations and delays.  I didn't even try talking to the people at the counter.  They were completely surrounded by people losing their minds.  At this point I have a confirmed ticket for the next Philly flight, but no seat.  The counter people at that gate are also tired from dealing with crazies all day.  I got "the look" and was asked to come back after all the other flights leaving from my gate that weren't mine were gone.  Also, that flight was now delayed until 11:08.  Checking the airport-wide departure screens, I see that there are only 10 flights in the entire airport that are on time.

Now my phone battery is on its last leg and I'm starving, so I went in search of food and power.  Guess how much a phone charger in the airport costs.  Go on, guess!  Okay I'll tell you.  $24.99 plus tax.  That was a no sale, and a strong lesson in not putting my charger in my checked luggage.  After eating, the gate is in chaos.  Flights are being moved around from gate to gate with no really communication or warning.  The gate attendants have no idea they're even supposed to be boarding a flight to New Orleans, but all the New Orleans people are there expecting seats on standby.   Meanwhile they ask for volunteers to sit out the flight to Philly again, and again I think, "whoo! full night's sleep!" and quickly get in line.  They get through the first person in line, who gets a voucher and a free hotel, and just as they're finishing her our flight is moved to another gate.  That attendant kindly put me on the volunteer list but didn't do any of the actual work and sent me to the next gate.

There, I go to check in with the attendant and either get an actual seat or a hotel.  He says they're not even bumping people from the flight but thanks anyway kthx bai...  So I sit and wait while the flight is delayed, and delayed, and delayed.  There are torrential rains falling outside and lightning every couple of seconds.  It's announced our plane couldn't land and was diverted.  The flight might not leave until 2am.  Oh no wait, it's canceled.

So now there's a massive herd of people literally running to the concourse help center for rebookings.  By the time I get there, there must have been 1000 people at least.  We are being urged to go to the main ticketing counter outside of security, but a fair number of us decide to take our chances waiting in the terminal since we're imaging the throngs of people out there.  Then the person working the counter announces he's leaving in 5 minutes and we stood in line for nothing.  By this point I've attached myself to group of people that were all going to Philly, and we make our way down to the ticketing counter.  Where we get behind a line with thousands of people.  And then thousands more get in line behind us.  And then we stood there for 3 hours.

All the "free hotel" vouchers were gone by then.  If I wanted to take several flights, I was told I could be in Philly by 10pm Thursday, but at this point I know that it's going to be storming all day in Philly.  The idea of leaving late and getting delayed and delayed again and spending another night in the airport was appalling, so I asked them for the earliest flight that got me anywhere near Philly.  I figured I'd rather be 60 miles from home and at the least retrievable by DS after he got off work than stranded in another airport somewhere.  They give me the 7:37am to Newark, NJ, and I'm sent off with a thin blanket and a toiletry kit which thankfully contained a toothbrush and some deodorant.

After going through security again, I zombie walked through the airport to my new gate, taking the long way since the trains between concourses don't run at night, only to see once I was there it had already been moved.  I zombie walked to the new gate, tried to sleep but couldn't because the seats in this terminal have arm rests and you can't lay down.  Not to mention my phone is in the red and can't be relied on to be an alarm.  The chances of me waking up in 4 hours don't seem good, so I sort of close my eyes and zone out for an hour.  And then the gate changed again, so I walked down another 5 concourses.

By this point, it's 4:30am.  I find a Starbucks that's open and get a coffee and a muffin.  Find I can't really eat, I'm just exhausted and need sleep.  The people I'd been with in line downstairs all show up for the same flight, and we talked until boarding.   I find out the first flight into Philly that morning is already canceled, and I feel so happy to being leaving for Newark on time.  I was asleep before the plane even left the ground, so I did managed to get an hour or so of sleep in there.

Once in NJ, I re-attach myself to 4 of the people from earlier, and we debate the different ways to get home.  There was Amtrak, NJ Transit, rental cars, or going across the water into NYC to catch a bus.  After talking to all of the car rental places, we decide the train is the easiest, and NJ Transit is cheapest.  There's an airport train to the real train.  That ends at Trenton and we switch to SEPTA which serves PA.  We roll into the 30th St Station around 2pm having not really eaten since 8pm the night before.  We all inhale some quickly bought food before catching another train to the airport to pick our up luggage which was never rerouted.  Not that I minded traveling those trains without a massive suitcase, but it was that much longer before getting home.

Somehow we managed to find our luggage within a minute of walking into the airport, and so I was able to catch the outbound train that left 9 min after dropping us off.  I said goodbye to my traveling companions and headed back to 30th St Station to meet DS because I didn't have my house key with me.  Then I take the subway to the stop near my house and push my suitcase the 2+ big city blocks home where I immediately showered.  It was a little after 4pm, which was almost exactly 24 hours after leaving my mom's house.  I attempted to stay awake until bedtime so as not to through off my sleeping schedule (which has been relatively normal recently, somehow), but I was actually doing the bobbing head thing sitting on the couch and gave up.  DS said I didn't even budge when he came home and brought Winston in to see me.

As awful as it was to stay in Atlanta overnight, standing or walking for most of it, I have to admit that wasn't entirely unpleasant overall.  I want to thank the flight attendant waiting for her next flight that let me use her phone charger until my canceled flight caused me to leave her.  Little Brad and his mother for entertaining me during both the 3 hour line wait and final boarding wait at the last gate.  And especially Angie, Denise and their husbands to let me tag along during the baggage hunt and travel from NJ to PA. They made what would probably have been a stressful and intimidating part of the journey no big deal, and at times even hilarious.  Also, there were massive tornadoes being made in this storm, so all things considered, a night in the Atlanta airport was way better than being yanked out of the sky or something.  I am home, alive, and none of my luggage is missing.  In fact, I have a new travel kit.

Important lessons:  keep your phone charger on you, and perhaps some emergency amenities (there were people who had no access to medications they needed); stay calm and chill.  That last one is key.  There were so many people telling horror stories, but they were freaking out and making demands.  Every single person I encountered at the airport and over the phone was completely helpful and nice to me.  They want you out of their airport as much as you want to be out of their airport, and blowing your top isn't going to endear them to you.  I saw desk attendants all night long that I had talked to not long after landing and they had mentioned they'd been working all day.  Their day wasn't much better than mine.  Probably worse really, because they had angry people yelling at them throughout.

Exciting things for Spring

Here are some things I'm currently very excited about:

• I bought my first strawberry plant
• I found an array of flowers that tolerate partial sun, so they might actually thrive on my balcony
• I have basil, lavender, and oregano growing right now
• I'm in the process of sprouting spinach and cilantro
• I have screens for all my windows and the balcony door, so no flies this summer!
• Joined my first CSA!  (Just awaiting some sort of confirmation that they haven't already sold out; nervous)
• Seeing Halladay pitch in person tonight with Bri
• Trees are blooming all over the city
• Found a Wegman's within easy driving distance of my house and it's great
• I was able to wear my Vibram's without my toes freezing yesterday on the concrete
• Nell and Brian are visiting this weekend
• Lots of fun trips planned in the very near future
• The weather is finally shifting to full on Spring, and not "sometimes I really want to be Winter still!!!"

There are a few things that aren't exciting, like how Spring makes my allergies turn from a slight annoyance to nearly incapacitating.  But just look at this list of awesomeness!  I'm so excited to have growing space again, even if none of it is south facing.

If you're a frequent reader of this blog, look for back posts in the near future.  At some point I plan to catch up with all these photos I have sitting on my computer...

Thanksgiving

We had the pleasure of being invited to the Boy family Thanksgiving.  In order to attend, we had to break our 5 year or so commitment of not travelling on this particular holiday.  One too many times spent stranded in uncomfortable places on DS's part has left a sour taste in his mouth.  Luckily, David's parents are only a few hours away, and in the direction of least traffic.  The drive was pleasant, and even included several tunnels through mountains, which never fail to enthuse my 5-year-old self.

The menu was planned out weeks, maybe months, in advance.  We all shared a Google spreadsheet, adding and editing and leaving comments until we were all excited and drooling.  In the end, this is what we ate:
2 turkeys (1 made by DS using Alton Brown's recipe)
1 smoked ham
baked mac 'n' cheese (again, Alton Brown)
green beans (grown in Tennessee by a family member as far as I could tell)
homemade rolls
stuffing
2 kinds of sweet potatoes
4 kinds of cranberry relish
homemade creamed corn
roasted brussel sprouts
cranberry citrus salad
mashed potatoes
pumpkin pie
cherry/rhubarb pie
a Colombian ice cream thing that was awesome
pumpkin pie/apple pie/pecan pie/dulce de leche with fig truffles
hot apple cider the whole trip
homemade cappuccinos

Are you drooling yet?  It was divine.  I thought it was entirely too much food, but there were so many of us that we managed to put a good dent in it.  We even had some to take home, which helped ease our sadness at not having an entire turkey in our own fridge like usual.

Here is a small selection of photos.  I'm sad to say that I didn't get one of the whole food spread, but that's okay.

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*Written 2/14/11 and backposted

A Wedding in Baltimore

We had the very great pleasure of attending a wedding in Baltimore.  Micah was a high school friend of DS, and though I haven't seen much of him, I've always had the impression that he and his family were, well, family.  So you can imagine how happy we are to only be 1.5 hours from him now.  This means a lot more now that the wedding has occurred, and he's no longer frantically preparing for it.

The cathedral where the wedding was held, and I do mean cathedral in the strictest sense of the word, was absolutely gorgeous.  Having catholic family, but not being raised catholic myself, I did my best to keep DS and myself in check throughout the ceremony and not embarrass ourselves.  At the reception I discovered I probably should have given all his friends a quick primer as they were confused, but no one did anything strange.  All standing and sitting went as expected.

The reception was held on the top floor of the Admiral Fell Inn.  There was an open bar.  I can tell you I danced.  A lot.  Not necessarily on the dance floor.  Apparently I felt the need to encourage everyone else to dance by whipping my head around a lot.  My neck has never been so sore.  It took 3 days to recover.

In all honesty, my night should have ended with the reception, but instead we all headed over to the Greene Turtle to watch the South Carolina football game.  Where there were more drinks.  And my husband decided to enjoy the company of his long lost friends and let me be as I went back to the bar.  *sigh*  At some point I was handed a Jägerbomb...  The next 36 hours were trying, let's put it that way.

For your enjoyment, here are a collection of photos of the beautiful church, and the parts of the ceremony DS and I managed to capture before things got too crazy.  We can't wait until Micah and Anne start visiting.

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Downtown SLC

With the actual reason for visit being a conference DS had to attend, I didn't have a whole lot to do starting Monday.  Except look at the snow, and walk through rain and sleet without a jacket looking for a lost phone.  Joy.  Tuesday turned out to be much more hospitable as far as the weather was concerned.  So I ventured out to see the town.  The only other time I'd been here, it had been dark and we were only interested in seeing the Christmas lights in Temple Square.

I decided to walk up to the Salt Palace convention center, where I'd experienced a really beautiful art installation while DS was getting his conference badge.  Outside the building there is a set of 12 windmills, and each one is connected to a wooden tubular bell inside the entrance.  As the windmill turns, it causes bell to strike.  Each windmill sort of does its own thing, so the music made is random.  I walked into this space, not even really in the building yet, just part of the entrance, and stood there with my mouth open.  I spun around a few times, looking at all the bells, the way the light played in the space.  DS was waiting for me, wondering what the heck was wrong with me.  I'm telling you, conference halls and locations are wasted on the people that use them.  For real.

I also wandered over to Temple Square to see the area in the light and the splendor of fall.  I had nearly made it out of there when I was caught by two Sisters who wanted to talk to me.  I think I could have gotten away, but they lured me in with the promise of seeing the inside of the Tabernacle.  With my love of historical architecture, I agreed to follow against my better judgement.  I will say without any reservation that they were more than nice, and didn't bring up religion in the sense of getting me more of it until I'd hung around and seemed interested for too long.  My mistake.  At the same time, they were nice in a way that made it really hard for me to just walk away or be rude, and so I felt trapped.  I ended up using a text from DS as an excuse to go because we had a "lunch date."  Which was mostly true.  He had texted me, and I still hadn't had lunch at 3pm.  And I honestly don't regret seeing that building, but remind me to never be Mormon.

In conclusion, if you ever get a chance to visit Salt Lake City, I highly recommend it.  It's beautiful, the people are nice, the food is delicious.  If you go at Christmas, check out the lights in Temple Square.  Just be wary of lingering too long in one spot in the square unless you're looking for advice on converting, or you're actually Mormon.

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Hiking Shoreline Trail

It was an absolutely beautiful day.  The kind of day that insists you go out and enjoy it.  There was some talk of climbing Mount Olympus, but as I had not packed any active gear and have not exactly been keeping up with my exercise, I pushed for something a little easier.  Thus, we hiked Shoreline Trail instead.    This is actually part of what will be a 280 mile trail system that follows the historical shoreline of Lake Bonneville, a massive lake that once covered most of the state of Utah.

The fall colors were gorgeous, and the hills were covered in long grasses and plants that made it all look like a blanket of suede.  Lovely.

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Triassic

The last time DS went climbing in Salt Lake City, he and Mike went to this place known as Triassic.  There was a particular climb that he was unable to finish, and it gnawed at him.  So during this trip we made an effort to tackle that particular beast.  I honestly can't say whether he was successful, because I was playing with Swiss and Kuro or reading most of the time.  I can say that he did finish some of the things that he climbed.  I can also say that I really should have taken more pictures of the scenery, but it was strangely beautiful for the middle of nowhere.

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Kuro and Swiss

Our friends in Salt Lake City just got a new puppy named Swiss, and I spent some time photographing him with his big brother Kuro.  Are these some handsome dogs, or are these some handsome dogs?

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Favorite Toys

Felix's favorite toys are always either what we call "fluff balls" or "sparkle balls."  Basically, small balls of either rabbit fur died bright colors or fake "fur" that sparkles.  She will bat those things around the house for hours.  I especially love when she "hunts."  She will chase down one of these fur balls, carry it around in her mouth, and cry very loudly like she's hurt or something.  It use to scare me a bit, but now look over to DS when I hear it and say something like, "someone just caught something good."

Winston's favorite toy has always been his mouse.  And he has always wanted DS to play fetch with him.  That's it.  No other toys, no other games.

When we moved to Philadelphia, the cats came without their stuff, as all of that was trundling along in the moving truck.  We got them a few new things to hold them over in this strange new place.  Felix got fluff ball on an elastic string attached to a stick.  At this point, we only had an air mattress, a few clothes, and our laptops, so I figured this was a great time to play with her.  (She is normally very content playing by herself.)  Winston got a rather large mouse covered in rabbit fur and some feathers sticking out with its tail. Little did I know that these two toys, meant to be mere placeholders until their real stuff showed up, would end up being the things they couldn't live without.

Now Felix trots through the house carrying that red fluff ball like usual, except now there's a long plastic stick trailing along behind her.  It took us a while to realize that this was why some of the side tables in the living room would be in the middle of the floor when we woke up.  Turns out she's getting the stick stuck in there and just pulling it all along behind her.  Sometimes she wakes us up because we have wooden floors, and there's a step in the hallway, and she just clatters through there in the middle of the on her way to bring me her kill.  Where I use to wake up to a small collection of toys on the floor beside the bed, now I wake up to this stick and its fluff ball.

Winston, on the other hand, gave up playing fetch for a long time.  He flips this new mouse up in the air, and then bats it back down and kicks it around like a soccer ball.  He will do this by himself for at least 20 min at at time, several times a day.  It usually ends with him getting it stuck under the couch.  Apparently the best part of this game is almost losing it, and then wrangling it back from the depths.  Recently we discovered he'll still play fetch if he has to weave through all the living room furniture to chase the thing down.  He still hasn't looked at his old favorites though.

Perhaps that plane ride was more traumatic than we thought...  Their personalities do seem to be slightly altered.  Winston even snuggles all the time now.  In my lap.  It's crazy.

Attempts

I have been struggling my way through cooking dinner every night.  I started easy.  You can't really mess up frozen chicken tenders and frozen fries that you just throw in the oven.  Or spaghetti...

Now I'm attempting things like lamb kebobs..  I'm scared guys.  This morning I had a broiled brown sugar grapefruit that was so nasty I couldn't finish it.  I should have known going into it, because I hate grapefruit.  But this magazine I have has all these recipes for meals that will keep you feeling full all day and eating a reasonable number of calories, so I thought 'what the hell.'  Luckily, the almond butter and honey toast I had with it was delicious.  Not sure what I'm going to do with that other grapefruit I bought.  See a bad play maybe....

So like I said, tonight I'm trying 'Greek Lamb Kebob', which involves lamb, on a kebob.  And also some sort of salad base thing with cooked barley, tomatoes, red onion (nope, not doing that part, blech), mint, parsley, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.  Except I forgot to buy barley.  Hell, I'm not completely sure what barley is.  I'm assuming some sort of leaf or grain?  It's in beer after all.  But I don't have it, and I've already started the kebobs, so we'll have steamed kale.  Hopefully that's not nasty, otherwise this will be a whole day of nasty.

UPDATE:  Turns out steamed kale tastes nearly the same, but not quite as good, as steamed broccoli.  A little bitter maybe.  I can live with that, though it's not high on my 'oh man, that sounds delicious!' list.

Random Bit of Info

These popsicles I referred to 2 years ago?  Yeah, there are still some in my freezer from that very same box.  Turns out 200 of them take longer to go through than you would think.

Retirement

Admittedly, some days I have more trouble adjusting to my retirement than others.  It's strange not working while your husband does.  It leaves you feeling sort of worthless, like you don't contribute anything to this life you share.  I mean, I don't even have kids to care for, and my craft business isn't going anywhere because I can't figure out the PA laws.  These problems aren't constant though.  I've been making an effort to cook dinner everyday.  This is a major step for me, and it sort of rubs in that housewifey feeling I don't particularly like.  But at the same time, it's something DS hates doing, and it's one less thing he has to worry about after a long day at work.  I have to admit that it feels good to make something tasty.  Most nights though, I'm just putting Tyson chicken strips in the oven or something.  Baby steps people.

What I have been doing more of is baking.  It's awesome.  I'll sometimes get on a kick, and DS will have to ask me to stop because he can't stop eating cookies and he feels sick.  Ha!  We didn't do gifts for our anniversary, but I did make him some peanut butter cookies.  (He ended up getting a little something from Naked Chocolate for me, which was DELICIOUS.)  I had some decorative sugars in the cupboard in fall colors, and thought they'd be fun to use since peanut butter cookies have to be rolled in sugar anyway.  Check it.

4 Years of Awesome

Happy Anniversary dearest.  Thank you for making life wonderful, and the opposite of being in jail, or caged, or tied down, or any of the other things people seem to associate with marriage.  I cannot imagine a better second half.  <3

Twilight

Weekend in Aiken

DS and I managed to find some last minute plane tickets to South Carolina to celebrate his mom's birthday over the weekend.  It had been a long time since I was able to go with him, and we spent a lot of time at his sister's house playing with the kids.  They were so much fun, and the little one cried when we left.  <3

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Party in NY

Friday, October 8th, was Sam of NY's (not Sam of Santa Barbara) birthday.  DS and I fought 3+ hours of rush hour traffic to get to Brooklyn in time for dinner.  It was totally worth it!  DS, Sam, Matt and I took the subway to Manhattan so we could go to the Barrel.  It was a beautiful little tapas place.  The food was delicious, if a bit overpriced.  There were many many people there, all of whom I had never before met.  There were also many many drinks.  I tried to remember the names of everyone I managed to photograph (it was very dim, and people were moving a LOT), but there is a bit of fuzziness.  This was seriously a wonderful time.  We all just kept randomly ordering items off the tapas menu, so that food just kept appearing.  And then quickly disappearing.  They also had quite the list of original mixed drinks, including something with basil infused vodka that had me swooning.

After we finally scarfed down cheesecake and tiramisu, and paid our (OMGSERIOUSLY) bill, we all careened off to the nearest bar with room for us all.  It ended up being a new place called Queen Vic, which was meant to look like a little English Pub.  This led to Sam and I drunkenly explaining to each other what English pubs really look like (Sam) and random tidbits about Queen Victoria (me).  Did you know that English pubs have carpet?  I can't imagine how horrible that would be to clean.  She tells me it's because it's so cold all the time.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, our friends have cool friends, and Manhattan is apparently an excellent, though expensive, place to celebrate.

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Wookie

I wish I could say that I took this, but alas, I did not.  This is Wookie, Matt and Sam's lovable cat, and Sam took this with DS's new lens.  Wookie showed up one day, looking disheveled, and decided to stay.  All he wants is love.  All love all the time.  It's so different than my cats.  We curled up together on the futon bed while I recovered from a bit of drinking the night before for Sam's birthday.  Isn't he so handsome?  He is one of the many treats that await us when we visit our friends in New York.

Pretty Kitties

My mom got DS a new lens for his camera for his birthday.  I am predictably taking photos of the cats with it.

Winston makes doing laundry difficult.  2 years away from a dryer and he still has forgotten how much he loves being in one.

Felix continues to be sweet and loving.  Plus the new food change has her coat even more silky and shiny.

Not too Shabby

Life around here has been pretty mellow.  A lack of immediate friends will do that.  Also, DS has been scarce because teaching has swallowed him whole.  I'm just happy if he's home by 7 and not completely catatonic.  It's a good thing those notes he's making can be used in future classes...

So I've been celebrating little things.  Why not?  Tuesday was DS's birthday.  I didn't give myself time to make him a treat, (and honestly, after the birthday cupcakes I made myself which were so nasty that we threw them all away, that's probably a good thing) so I picked him up a little cake and two of his favorite ice cream flavors.  Well.. I'm guessing he'll love that Baked Apple Dumpling.  He does love apple pie like crazy.

He got all kinds of sweet presents, including a new lens and flash for his fancy pants camera.  I'm told he took cool pictures at Maker Faire, but I have yet to see them (see above).

My most recent sewing triumph is this new cushion for the window seat.  It's corduroy, so it's super soft.  I even put a zipper on one end in case it needs washing.  Felix has claimed it, which is to be expected.

She's a little confused at my coming near and not loving her...

I love this set up, because it's the perfect length for me to stretch out and lean back against the pillow and read books.  And thanks to a helpful tip on Facebook from a family friend, I picked up some shelf liner to keep the cushion from sliding.  And also the couch (thank god, for real; hardwood floors are slippery), and the craft station table top.  Finding that in the grocery was way easier than dragging myself to someplace like walmart...

Six Flags Great Adventure

DS and I spent the weekend with our friends Matt and Sam.  The Matt who married us.  They live in NY, which had its first Maker Faire.  It seemed smaller than the SF one we went to last year, and DS and I got there late in the afternoon so we didn't have a lot of time.  Still though, it was cool to go, and ARC Attack was AWESOME!  I recommend finding some video of the dudes themselves, because it was so cool.  Though maybe you've heard of them?  Apparently they were on America's Got Talent?  I have no idea, I don't watch TV...

Anyway, we had a lovely dinner, delicious chocolates, and good conversation.  Then on Sunday we drove Sam out to Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ.  It's been at least six years since I've ridden a roller coaster.  I have a serious fear of heights.  Well, not so much of heights, but of falling.  If I think I'm safe, I have no problem whatsoever being high in the air.  Roller coasters were something that took me some years of concerted effort to be comfortable with, to trust that they wouldn't kill me and accept the fear so I could enjoy the adrenaline rush.  It's a skill that requires practice to maintain, and so I was excited about Six Flags, but also horrified...

There were six of us altogether, and we split a Flash Pass so we wouldn't have to wait in line.  (so worth it!)  We started off with the Batman coaster, which looked about on par with the types of coasters I really enjoyed back in the day.  I've looked up some point of view videos on YouTube for you to ride along.



Not too high, not too fast.  Easy peasy.  Also, shoulder harnesses, which are an important part of me feeling safe.  So then they all insisted we do Nitro, which is the second highest coaster in the park, with the first downhill going past vertical.  Yowza.  According to Wikipedia, you can see Philadelphia on a clear night from up there.  There aren't even shoulder harnesses.  I was freaking out.  I closed my eyes for the lift hill, because contemplating falling to my death is less forceful when I can't see it laid out before me.  Surprising myself, I opened my eyes as we crested the hill and let go.  It was exhilarating.  Watch.



That horizontal helix is just the right length so that you just start to feel your vision fading, then those little snake hills would have me giggling from the blood still stuck in my head.  Probably not good for you to do all the time, but several times a day once a year seems like a good plan.

Other notable experiences:

 El Toro, which I think is supposed to make you feel like you're riding a bull. And as such, there's little to hold on to, and I was lifting out of my seat quite a bit.  Also, those rails always freak me out, which is oddly one of the reasons I love wooden coasters so much.  And hooray for banked turns!  That's something wooden coasters have seriously needed.

Kingda Ka gave me a panic attack just looking at it.  DS loved it, and I sat and tried not to think about him failing to come back to me...

Superman would probably be a lot of fun for me, except that the cars invert you so you face the ground like you're flying.  Staring straight down at the ground as I plummet towards it was a little too much for me visually.  Though with my eyes closed, it didn't feel all that crazy movement-wise.

Bizarro is actually a fun coaster, but it has this music that plays right in your ears the whole time that's loud and static-y and completely annoying.

Skull Mountain reminded me of Kentucky Kingdom's old Starchaser, and as such had me laughing through the whole thing.  Also, they put a giant foam jack-o-lantern at the bottom with a spotlight on it.  SCARY!

After at least six hours of this, we were exhausted.  DS and I made the short trip home (about an hour, and some of that was because we took a wrong turn; though we ended up getting home toll free because of that wrong turn, so I was happy) on our own.  We made a frozen pizza, checked the interwebs, and then crashed as the pitiful hour of 8:30.  Even me people.  Me who is currently up at 3am.  I slept 14 hours last night!

This was my third separate theme park, the first two being Kentucky Kingdom and King's Island.  I have to say it was a lot of fun.  Sometimes terrifying, but overall, fun.