Out of the mouths of my babe

Darcy: "Are you sure you want to go on this water ride? Your clothes will be soaked."

Me: "That's why I wore this skirt. Feel it. It is very fast drying."

Darcy: "Yes, but what about your shirt?"

Me: "Well, I wore this thin shirt. I think it will dry pretty fast."

Darcy: "But what about your underwear?"

Me: "Oh. I didn't think about that. Oh, well, I'll live with that."

We walk a few feet in silence.

Darcy: "Well, I did think about that. I brought you an extra pair of underwear."

Me: "You're kidding. You did?"

Darcy: "Yep. I brought you a pair, Maddy a pair, and myself a pair. Just in case."

Me: (hugging her) "Oh, Darcy, you are such a sweetie. I can't believe you thought of that. That is so thoughtful. You are such a little sweetheart."

We walk a few feet in silence with me almost skipping from the happiness of it all.

Darcy: "I brought it because I didn't want to listen to you gripe all the time about being wet like you always do after we get soaked on water rides."

Me: "Okay, that just killed the moment."

Darcy: "Sorry, but it's the truth."

Comparing & Contrasting to Disney - attractions

Disney has the lead in the service end of theme parks, but how did Busch Gardens and Adventure Island stack up in the attraction end of things? Behold the results:

• Both Disney's Animal Kingdom and Busch Gardens have the whole safari thing going on with rides and attractions through out an African theme. Disney's Kilmanjaro safari is done in an open sided jeep across a desert preserve that is at times bumpy and dangerous (Disney style). The driver is in constant contact with a helicopter out scouting for poachers and when some are sighted you become involved in chasing them down. Along the way you see many animals including elephants, lions, and giraffe. The animals are sometimes so close to the truck that you can almost touch them. Busch Gardens Serengeti Plain safari is done in a train that rolls s l o w l y over the track through the preserve with the tour guide telling you what you are seeing in a monotone-this-is-my-billionth-time-saying-this tone of voice. There was no adventure and the animals were all far away. Apparently if you pony up an extra $33 you can travel the plain in an open-sided vehicle for a more close up view.
• Busch Gardens wins hands down on the roller coaster angle. They are everywhere in the park from a small coaster for the kiddies to Sheikra for the insane. But for those visitors afraid of heights or thrill seeking rides there are very few options. We split up in our group and Darcy and I had a hard time finding things to do besides shows. She spent some time playing in Sesame Street Safari and she rode a ride that lifted her in the air and spun around, but other than that we came up empty. Granted we did not get around the entire park, but the map didn't offer much more. At Animal Kingdom there is a wide variety of entertainment for people like Darcy and me and plenty of things to keep us busy.
• Which leads into the fact that Busch Gardens does not offer much in the way of indoor activities where Disney has plenty of choices in this area. The Florida heat is a big problem when hiking around these parks and the coolness is a welcome relief to get you back on your feet. Other than the Imagination Theater we couldn't find any indoor places except big dollar restaurants. Disney has the dinosaur ride, the bug adventure and the amazing conservation station where you can spend hours exploring all the activities there.
• Both parks offer a rafting ride down the rapids. While I have traveled Disney's Kali River more times then I can count and enjoy it immensely especially for cooling off, I was not able to travel Busch Garden's Congo River Rapids as the water had disappeared.
• Which leads into the difference between the handling of technical difficulties. We stood in the Congo River Rapids line for quite a while before a voice over a bad intercom informed us they were experiencing technical difficulties and the ride would be temporarily closed. No one came out and physically closed the ride so we stayed in line and listened to the same announcement repeated every 10 minutes or so. We gave up after 30 minutes and walked away over the bridge where we discovered the water in the rapids had totally drained. Had this happened at Disney an announcement would have been made, several cast members would have come out and ushered us to the exit, a rope would have sealed off the ride, a temporarily closed sign would have appeared, and a cast member would have guarded the entrance and been available to answer questions and explain the problem. No one would have wasted time standing in line waiting for it to re-open. Also, Disney would have sent out technicians to handle the problem. Busch Gardens River Rapids employees each kept taking turns trying to solve the problem, coming back each time shrugging their shoulders.
• At Disney they offer a fastpass for several rides. Go to the ride you don't want to stand in line long for, pop your ticket into a fastpass kiosk and get your pass, and return to the ride at the time stamped on your pass. Walk through the lines to the head. Easy as 1-2-3. At Busch Gardens they have what they call Quick Queue which puts you to the head of every line. Problem? It cost an extra $40 for this baby.
• In the water park area nothing beats Disney's Typhoon pool with its typhoon and tidal waves. I could stand and watch this over and over again. The cleanliness of the park was again far better at Disney then Adventure Island.
  

Hands down Disney wins again. It is by far the more superior park. Walt Disney was more than a creative genius. He was the master, and Disney has done a fine job of keeping his image and his dream a reality.

Comparing & Contrasting to Disney - Services

Living in Florida has many advantages, one being passes to all of the attractions the state has to offer. We have been Disney Passholders for three years and this summer Tom got passes to Busch Gardens and Adventure Island. Then he proceeded to load us up in the car to take advantage of those passes the last two Saturdays.

Last weekend we went to Adventure Island. This weekend we visited Busch Gardens. Throughout the entire visits I kept comparing these attractions to Disney World, a habit that I have when visiting any attraction anymore. Behold the results of the service end of things:

• The biggest and most glaring difference that I find in comparing Disney with any attraction is cleanliness. Nobody beats Disney in that. Drop a piece of popcorn anywhere in a Disney attraction and before you can bend over to pick it up a cast member (Disney's word for employees) is there with a broom and dustpan. Whoosh! Gone. The walkways are pristine, the seats polished, and the air just smells sparkling and clean. Perhaps that is Tinkerbell's job.
  
• I have been to Disney's two waterparks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, but it was ages ago so my memory isn't quite as keen on these attractions. The biggest thing I loved at these attractions was purchasing a souvenir cup that could be refilled for free all day in the park. We bought one cup and shared. Downside to this was the high soda consumption. At Busch Gardens you could purchase a souvenir cup, but refills cost as much as $2.00 and as less as .99 cents.
• Getting into Busch Gardens parking lot and out of Adventure Islands lot was terrible. We spent almost 30 minutes sitting in traffic in Adventure Island's lot. Disney's parking is definitely high class. There are numerous spaces to enter and numerous parking stations where you must pay to park. All of these spaces eventually led into four spaces, but traffic flows due to the attendants spread out all over Disney's lots. The attendants direct you where to flow and where to park. It is neat and orderly and well run. Exiting is well marked and I've never sat in traffic to exit.
• Because the lots are far from the attraction entrances you must board a tram to take you there. Busch Gardens had little covered stations set up in areas covering approximately 10 to 20 rows. While the covering (and bench seating) was something Disney doesn't have in the lots the areas were smaller and most people ended up outside the shaded areas. At Disney you walk toward yellow posts all over the parking lots and the trams run almost one right after the other so that the waiting time is never more than 2 to 3 minutes at a time during crowded times. Disney's trams are also larger and carry double the amount of Busch Gardens.
• The ticket windows at Busch Gardens were so packed that waiting times were up to an hour. They had one entrance that wound around and around and around eventually funneling into the windows. At Disney there are multiple windows and multiple entrances so traffic again flows at a more rapid pace. A plus at Busch Gardens were ticket kiosks where one could go to scan his online codes or for credit card use. I have never seen this at Disney.
• I found the map of Busch Gardens to be inferior to Disney World's map. It took awhile to understand what I was viewing and the explanations of attractions were on the back instead of on the front under the attraction. I was forever flipping the map back and forth and loosing my place as they weren't listed under their section but alphabetized.
  
• At Disney World you walk up to a ride and a digital reading tells you the wait time. At Busch Gardens they use a clock with hands. I was never sure if it meant it was a 5 minute wait when the hand was on the five or a 55 minute wait. Some rides had nothing so it was study the line and guess for yourself unless you wanted to text a number they posted on a sign. Doing this gave you a wait time, but the one time we attempted this we didn't get a return text until 30 minutes later with our wait time. By then we had already left the ride.
• At Disney World cast members are everywhere. Have a question? There is a cast member always nearby who will answer your question or direct you to a cast member that will. If you are standing in the middle of the walkway looking perplexed or checking your map, a cast member will approach you and ask you if he can be of assistance. You never feel lost there because help is an arms length away. Cast Members wear the same colors and the same outfits so finding them is a breeze. At Busch Gardens they half the crew. I still couldn't tell you what colors they wore. I was constantly looking for help from someone, but finding help was not easy and when you found it it wasn't always the most friendly employee.

Disney takes the lead on the service end of theme parks.

Thursdays a few things...

Thursday

This is the beast.
He enjoys taunting me by gnawing on things he shouldn't.

These are some items I found on the carpet after finding the beast in the playroom
where he shouldn't be.

These things turned out to be Barbie's right hand, minus her thumb,
and her left thumb, pointer, and index finger.

I'm just amazed at how she can still be smiling after this attack.

Wednesday....just a few things

Wednesday

My friend Kelly had to bring her cat over this past week so that she could flea bomb the inside of her apartment in preparation for her weekend guests. Apparently she discovered the little critters just a few days before their arrival, and in typical Kelly fashion she scurried around in a sweaty mess of hysteria and urgency in finding the flea spray and arranging a good time to do the deed.

We settled on an evening and she arrived with her cat, Cowboy, in his carrier. Kelly felt Cowboy would be more settled and feel more secure in my bathroom. We introduced him to Elliot whose only experience with cats is with the neighbor a few streets over. He owns three collies and several cats who play with the collies as if they were dogs. These cats just play right along with Elliot, and except for the different butt scent they must put out, Elliot is convinced they are dogs. Cowboy, however, being more like his owner in the intelligence area wanted nothing to do with a mangy, barking hound. He looked down at Elliot who was sitting nicely behind the gate and hissed a "don't mess with me buddy or I'll scratch out your eyes" kind of hiss.

Into the bathroom went Cowboy. Eventually the time on the bomb expired and Kelly and I headed over to her place to open windows to air out the apartment. Before we left I suggested we put up a notice on the bathroom door.

Me: "If we don't do that then Tom will come home, walk past the door and immediately open it while wondering aloud why the door is closed."

So I made this sign and tacked it on to the bathroom door.

And then I said: "This, of course, isn't going to do any good. Tom will come home, see the note, wonder aloud what cat, and open the door.

When we returned from airing out the apartment we found this:

Actually we found the door opened and Tom standing in front of it peering inside, but I didn't grab the camera quickly enough to document that so the above picture had to be recreated.

Moral of the story: Do I know my husband or what?

Tuesday....just some things

Tuesday

Eating healthier & Wii Fit - Every season I tell myself that I will now lose the weight that has accumulated after the births of my five children, but every season comes and goes without that weight dropping off. Summer has arrived and I'm trying to seriously make an effort so that when school starts in August all the teachers and parents will say, "Who is that slender woman?"

I started off by buying fruits and veggies and inventing new things to eat. Below is my newly famous spinach salad with loads of carrots and cucumbers. The secret to its deliciousness is a handful of sliced almonds and crunchy bacon. Which makes me wonder exactly how healthy is this salad?

And I don't even want to explore the nutrition value and calorie intake on the mango poppyseed dressing that adorns this wonderful concoction. The fact that it has spinach in it is enough for me to believe it is better than a sandwich with mayo, chips and salsa.

Having got myself eating better I turned to the Wii Fit Plus my husband got me for Christmas. I have never opened it because I asked for the Wii Personal Trainer as a gift. I had been going regularly to the gym and really wanted something to offset those days when the gym was too much trouble. I researched Wii's fitness games and found that the Personal Trainer was exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, when I speak my husband hears the ocean. This time he must have also heard Wii Fit Plus amongst the waves because this is what I received:


I planned to return it, but alas, without a receipt I gave in and the kids and I opened it this past weekend. It is chock full of activities designed to kill me. I lasted 27 minutes the first day and participated in a basic run which left me huffing and puffing and downing water. The next day my left knee and thigh were throbbing in misery. I usually do not run unless someone is chasing me as I have knee problems, but jeez, this is a game so I figured how bad could it be?

Bad enough that I had to opt out of training the next day so that I could recover. By the second time on the Wii Fit Plus I had gained weight. It asked me to give a reason for my weight gain and it listed several choices. None were bloating due to menstruation.

The third day I was alone with only the dog for my training. I tried the run again and this time I ran at a much slower pace. Obviously, because at the end it said I had exerted myself 58% compared to the 106% on the previous visit. No wonder my knee was hurting. I tried several new aerobic activities and managed 47 minutes.

I'm not sure that I'm getting much out of it, but it will be something to get me out of the chair and off the computer. I'm hoping to use it as a supplement to my gym visits. With the girls out of school for the summer it will be harder to make the gym, but I am determined. Stay tuned!

Just a few things...Monday

Not having anything better to blog about this week and after going through my pictures, I decided to give a daily happening here in our household.

Monday

Haircuts- I go without fail every 6 weeks for a trim, that is if I remember to call for an appointment. Used to be the girls would whine if I drug them to get their hair trimmed. "I like my hair!" "My hair is fine. It doesn't need to be cut."

Lately though they have been the ones telling me they need their hair cut. I think it has to do with the dead/split ends discovered after a really long time between cuts. And the fact that due to time factors it isn't so easy to get them to the salon.

Madison doesn't want any changes to her locks. She likes her hair the way it is and other than getting it trimmed it hasn't changed in years. Darcy, on the other hand, loves to experiment with her hair. I think this has to do with the fact that she never even had hair until she was well past the age of two.

A few years ago she told me she wanted to cut her hair short. She wanted a little bob like her friend had just gotten, but because her hair is curly the beautician explained that she couldn't carry that look off. So Darcy opted to cut her hair a tad past her ears. She wore it with a headband and it was quite adorable.

Then she began playing competitive soccer and the hair was constantly tied in a ponytail. So a few months ago she decided she needed layers.

Everyone liked this look because it brought back so much of the curl that she had sort of lost in the first cutting. But once again she took to wearing it with a headband and a ponytail.

This last trip she told Isabel, our beautician, that she wanted to grow out her layers and then grow out her hair again. Isabel suggested cutting her hair to one of the shorter layers in the back so that she wouldn't be waiting so long for the layers to grow out.

Behold her new cut, which is the old cut before layers. Wonder how long she will grow it out this time?

Take your child to a park....and leave them

Yesterday was "take your kid to a park...and leave them there day". It was started by a woman, Lenore Skenazy, who thought up the idea while doing some research for her book, Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry. She found that crime against children was actually down from when we were kids, but that the knowledge about these crimes was way up with the inclusion of cable television and the internet. A point my mother and friend, Kelly, have been trying to make for years.

As a parent it is very hard to just let my children go. I worry. And worry. And worry. But I also hate the fact that they will do not have the freedom and pure fun of that that I had as a child. In our paper yesterday Skenazy wrote that her two boys don't go outside because there aren't any other kids to play with and that that is because other kids are looking out the window and not seeing any kids to play with too. Thus begins the cycle.

Yesterday we took our girls and two others to a water park for the day. We all found a place to park our belongings and made sure that everyone knew where we were and what landmark we were beside. We had the girls pair up and we let them loose. My husband was the one that suggested this first. I was reluctant. I went along with it for two reasons.

1. My older daughter had already been to this water park the following week with her middle school class. Everyone paired up and went off without a teacher. She has done this for two years. She assured me she would stay glued to her partner.
2. The article I had read that morning in the paper.
   

All four girls and the two adults started out together in the wave pool. We enjoyed the waves, but soon my older daughter and her partner wanted to go down slides. The other two girls were wimpier. They weren't interested in the bigger slides. So off they split. I followed the younger girls to the lazy river. While I waited for a float they took off swimming. I never found them again in the river. I gave myself a talking to and relaxed as I floated around the river.

Eventually the younger girls came back to our belongings. I knew my youngest would do that as soon as she got hungry. She would follow the money and the money was the daddy. The four of us went to lunch and then off we split again. We wouldn't see each other for about 45 minutes and then eventually we would run into each other and head off together on a ride or ride the waves again. By the end we were all together enjoying activities until the park closed.

Could something have happened? Absolutely. Things happen in life. When I was a kid I was hanging out with my neighbors. Their mother drove to a store and left us in the car while she went in to shop. We were horsing around hiding in the back seat when suddenly the door opened and a man started to get into the front seat. He heard us and turned to the back. When he saw us his reaction was one of fear. He suddenly looked around the car and just as suddenly jumped back out. Turns out he drove the same make and color of the car we were in. His car was two cars away from where we were parked. Back then no one locked cars. He apologized and frantically ran toward his own car. We kids sighed in relief and sat back nicely in our seats as we waiting for our adult to return.

Skenazy point is that we have to let our children go to organize and plan their own activities, but that we also have to teach them basic skills for surviving. Kids need to have the ability to stop themselves from doing dumb things, to force themselves to do the right things. She says experts suggest that the one of the ways to do this is to let them have free play. Free play with other children allows them to develop internal maturity.

We gave each kid strict instructions. We talked about where our base of operation was located. We told them they had to check in periodically at the base. We reminded them of stranger danger. We let them go.

At the end of our water park day as we all got back into the car my youngest daughter said it was strange to be free. She repeated what her companion had told her as they wandered from water activity to water activity. "I have money. I'm barefoot. I don't have an adult following me while I walk. I feel so FREE."

Summed up everything quite nicely.

May month of learning

One of my resolutions for 2010 was to learn something a subject, something new, each month. I've been wondering what to study this month and decided to learn about different cuts of beef. I had wanted to do this in the beginning of the year as I searched for a cut of meat to roast in my crock pot, but alas, I didn't get to it.

First I started with the internet. When using the word "first" in a paragraph this usually signals to the reader that there will definitely be a "second" and, in all likelihood, a "third". I'm letting you know ahead of time that I stopped after "first". This tends to happen when using the internet for guidance.

The first website I checked into was thenibble.com and it gave me this picture of a cow. A picture of a cow with sections portioned off that would help me better understand what part of the cow I was chowing down on. As I looked over the animal and read that my roasts were coming most likely from the end of the cow I started thinking maybe knowing all of this wasn't so necessary. The poor cow just stands there in black silhouette letting me scroll over it's parts, and instead of thinking, "yummy" I was thinking, "uh, yuck".

The second website, seekingsources.com, promised to help me better understand different cuts of meat and it started my education with, "beef is muscle tissue" and continued with, "frequently used muscles are tougher and generally require long, slow, moist heat cooking methods to loosen their connective tissue". As I scrolled down reading all about the different cuts, there was the picture of the portioned cow again, only this time he had a FACE.

All I could picture from then on was my favorite, filet mignon, in the short loin portion of the cow. Right where you would pat it if you were standing next to it. Nice cow. Aren't you a pretty thing? Pat, pat, pat. Ah, feel that filet.

Eating a chicken leg is bad enough what with all the veins and blood red stringy parts pulling loose from the meat. Add this picture of the cow...now in my head...

Tomorrow I'm moving on to another subject. One without pictures.

Before the oil arrives

TV this week

Lately my television viewing has caused me to want to blog things that have popped into my head. And since I have a blog....

1. The finale of Survivor was annoying. Why or why couldn't Russell just continue playing the game? Why didn't he learn anything from his first Survivor experience? My theory is that had he had an opportunity to have some time away from the game someone would have said, "Listen buddy, we know you are the greatest, but you can't portray yourself that way to the jury. You have to go in there all humble and apologetic and lie your way to the million dollars. Then, after you win the title of Sole Survivor you tell them how you are the greatest, how you played the game better than anyone else, how you pulled everyone else along to get them where they are today, how you manipulated and lied and cheated, and how you kicked their asses!" Sadly, Russell played back to back games. I think it was too hard for him to leave the second game to fly in for the finale for the first game then fly back to the second game and think about what happened in the first game. He was too busy continuing his play of the second game for any down time to sift through it all. Thus the loss. I did think the three that made it to the end deserved being there. Kudos to Sandra.
2. Dancing with the Stars last episode brought me to tears. I wasn't so keen on this season's cast, but because I was sickly intrigued by Kate Gosselin I watched. I'm glad I did. My two favorite pro men are in the final three. I've enjoyed getting to know the three final contestants, and, this I really hate to admit, I really like what I saw with the Bengals Chad Ochocinco. Not only is he flat out gorgeous, but the man is hilarious, kind, determined, and a contender. That being said, I agreed he was the one to leave as the other three deserved that third spot. Nicole and Derek and Evan and Anna all danced so beautifully that I had tears. Amazing that these stars who have never had dance experience end up able to do what they do.
3. American Idol's final three lacked any star power. I was selfishly hoping that Big Mike would have made it to the final three so that the girls and I could have followed him around St. Petersburg on his journey, but after watching Casey just stand and sleep his way through his songs I was really annoyed I hadn't voted for Big Mike. While I'm a Bowersox fan I have a feeling that Lee will win, but if neither one of them do any better than this week's bore fest I won't care one way or the other.
4. Lost is SUCH an entertaining story. I've only watched last week's episode, but it was a doozey. I really hope that the creators and writers come up with a great ending. I didn't watch this show until two years ago when I caught up with it online. Holy cow! What fun!
5. Modern Family and The Middle bring our family together on the couch. More happiness in an hour that leaves us all feeling great before we retire for the night. I want to live in Modern Family's family. It's a tough call between them and the Brothers & Sisters family...which I'm two episodes behind in so I can't blog about that...more after I caught up.
   

我必须学会中文

One of the things I liked about the Montessori school I chose for my girls to attend was that from the beginning they would learn Spanish. Living in Florida I thought Spanish as a second language was very important. So from the age of three both girls have taken a Spanish class.

Two years ago the school introduced Chinese. The first year it was just an extra class without a grade. This year they made it a real class with tests, homework, and quizzes. The teacher is from China and the stories that Madison brings back home are quite entertaining when you have that Chinese to English translation.

Several months ago I began getting Chinese comments from someone on my blog. I hadn't a clue what the symbols meant and figured it was a fluke that the person had found my blog in the first place. I ignored it. A few entries later he was back again. I then checked his blog out. It was in Chinese. I ignored him again.

Now I am regularly getting comments in Chinese from several different bloggers, but this time I have my daughter translate. Now I know what is being said, and frankly it doesn't usually have anything to do with what I'm writing about. So I looked through the help section of Blogger for a way to block these comments. That is when I found that other people are experiencing the same thing from "Chinese Spammers". Really? What are they getting out of that?

So thanks to the Chinese teaching at our school I thought I could get this message out: 如果您是实际上读和享受我的blog，只请评论。大多数我们为原因书写，并且愚笨的评论不帮助我们在任何情况下。 如果您严重感兴趣，我没有问题与读我的blog的您。 谢谢。

Happy Connie Birthday

We celebrated my mother's birthday last night instead of today because of two circumstances:

1. Both Tom's mother and Connie needed computer help and Tom, the expert, was determined to get it all done in one shot so that he could have one day of the weekend to himself doing nothing computer related.
2. The finale of Survivor was Sunday night and Kelly and I always have a big dinner with a Village Inn peanut butter pie for dessert. Normally this would have been a nice birthday celebration, but Connie didn't watch this season of Survivor.
   

So Connie was quite nice to agree to celebrate her birthday on the 15th. We had dinner out and came back to the condo to eat cake and open presents.

while Tom worked on her computer.....until midnight.

Happy Birthday Momma Connie!

Swimming Instruction 101

Dog owners had told us that we should make sure our dog could swim. It was important, they said, that he know what to do should he fall into the pool. Having taught this same thing for over 30 years to humans, I agreed and we had our little Elliot in the pool as soon as the water was warm. He had no trouble and swam right off the bat to the stairs where he climbed out and ran around the deck as if we had dropped him into a vat of hot oil.

This weekend we spent poolside. Elliot spent it right with us. In the beginning he spent his time chasing water droplets,

licking our wet heads,

guarding us when we went underwater,

and when we floated,

but the majority of the time was spent running around the pool barking and whining and wondering if he should just jump in and join the fun.

Eventually he got hot enough that taking him into the water was an option we decided for him. After that first dip he decided that inside the pool with us was better than running around the outside of the deck getting hot. He enjoyed being held in the pool

and floating freely on his own

and having a little exercise every once in awhile.

and when he was all tuckered out....

it was nice to have someone to cuddle with!

Hope he takes them up on this

This arrived in yesterday's mail for my husband in regards to his traffic ticket. Isn't it nice that the local college offers help?

Steeler fans know Steeler fans.

Tuesday while leaving my hairdresser's shop I saw this parked next to me on my left.

As I backed out of the parking space and took a photo, I saw this decal stuck on the car parked next to me on the right.

If only I had taken a photo of all three cars together. Who doesn't love Steeler fans? They are everywhere!

Good Morning Cara!

This morning after dropping off the girls at school, I headed to the gym. Luck was with me in the parking garage as one of the prime spots was open for parking. I pulled in and put the car in park, leaving the engine running so I could finish listening to MJ's morning show segment. While sitting there laughing my car suddenly lurched forward, throwing me up against the steering wheel. I sat dazed wondering if my foot had slipped on the gas pedal. Then I heard a crunching noise and the car rocked back and forth a few times.

The light bulb went off in my head, and I turned around to see a sporty red car stuck to my passenger side bumper. Instinct had me turning off the car, sighing, and opening the door to exchange insurance information. As I climbed from the car, the red sporty vehicle suddenly lurched forward and took off with a squealing of tires that resonated quite loudly in the covered parking garage.

I ran around my van and attempted to get the license number, but despite my $5,000 eyes, my poor little brain could not wrap itself around the fact that this was a hit and run and thus I didn't get even a number or letter off the license. Nor did I know the type of vehicle. Or what sex was behind the wheel.

The car had to stop at the exit to the garage as two people were crossing the street, but instead of leaving my purse and chasing it down I yelled at the two people to get the license number. They, of course, did not understand my screaming or did not hear me and once they hit the sidewalk the red sporty car burned rubber and turned the corner toward freedom, leaving me standing there in shock.I slowly looked left and right searching for someone to sympathize with me, and when that failed to turn up anyone who had seen what had happened, I turned back to survey the damage to my car. This is what I found:

Once again my van's bumper has saved my life. There was really no damage other than this spot, which I can't really say was caused by this crash. Could have happened any of the gillion times I was hit or any of the gillion times I hit something. Can't say for sure. All I do know is that my car was not damage by the sporty red car.

Use to be that when in these types of troubles I called my father. He was very controlled and calm in situations like this and usually he would jump into his car and arrive at the scene no matter if it happened in another state. Alas, not having my dad has caused me to turn to the next male figure in my life. I called my husband. At work, god forbid. He listened, got annoyed that the driver had sped off, and instructed me to call the city police who handled that area.

By this time I had also remembered that parts of the garage has cameras. I went inside the gym center and the desk clerk called security. I got on the phone with security and he said he would look through the pictures. If he found something, he would send it to me via email. The entire time he was agreeing to help me I knew he was really just humoring me. He had no intention of doing anything. So I called the non-emergency police number my husband had offered up. Officer Harry interrupted me as soon as I said, "Someone just hit me in the parking garage." He then proceeded to bark questions at me. "Was anyone hurt? What is the name of the street? Did I get a make and model? Color? Size of vehicle. And on and on. By the time I got to utter, "there was no damage to my car" I was worn out and slightly annoyed. When he heard no damage he was annoyed. "What do you want us to do?" Oh, I don't know, YOUR JOB? I explained about the cameras in the parking garage. He explained that the only thing they could get the sporty red vehicle owner for was reckless driving. Yeah? Well, good, because he was driving reckless. AND HE LEFT. The whole time Officer Harry was giving me this information I knew he had no intention of helping me. He was going to get off this phone call, ball up my paperwork, and toss it in the trash.

I eventually gave up and drove home. In the beginning I had been too shaky from fright to work out. By the end I was too shaky from anger to work out. The thing that kept me going was my wonderful bumper. I hope to hell that the sporty red car has tons of damage. I hope that crunching noise I heard was the ripping of the sporty red bumper and siding. I hope the light got busted. I hope the driver is fraught with guilt and can't sleep. I hope that driver is a regular at the gym and is now worried I will see the sporty red car and ram it!

After I got home I received a text from Madison whose class is spending the day at Adventure Island. It read: "Mom I accidentally left Violet in the back seat. Could you get her and keep an eye on her today?"

And Violet had no cracks. The bumper saved my grandchild.

I tell my husband all the time that if we ever buy another van that bumper is coming with me. I hope he knows I mean it.

Being a grandmother is SO much easier

Madison's middle school started its sex education unit in Science this past week. So far she says it is going well and the boys are behaving and not yucking it up at the embarrassing moment, although I don't think those such moments have occurred yet. Monday's lesson was on aging and the process that your body goes through such as loss of vision and teeth, gaining of wrinkles, and aches and pains. Most of the girls decided they weren't interested in any of that.

Yesterday they started a lesson on single parenting. Each child received an egg that they had to turn into a child. I'm not exactly sure what the point of this is as the egg is hard boiled, there isn't any getting up at dawn to feed it, and the kids aren't even keeping a journal. Only instructions received were to bath the egg daily and put it into day care during school hours.

Baby Violet entered the world on Tuesday, March 11th. She has a nice head of black hair and she is always smiling. The hospital sent her home swaddled in bubble wrap inside a small plastic cup. That has now become her baby carrier/car seat.

Her mother, Madison, finds the whole situation bizarre and says she doesn't want to be a mother. She reluctantly fashioned a diaper for the baby and allowed me to take this photo.

Aunt Darcy, on the other hand, has embraced her role. She built this little crib for Violet and made sure that the needed supplies were purchased. Violet has a bottle, pillows, blankets, pacifiers, and toys.

As for me? Who knew being a grandmother was SO easy!

The first (and favorite) grandchild

My nephew is 17 years old today, and while I have TONS of photos of him through the years because he was the first grandchild and around when my photographer happy father was alive, I didn't do a birthday video of him because I wasn't sure I was allowed. Once kids hit that 15 and older stage they start dictating to you what you can and can not do with their image. So I was afraid of annoying him.

Sort of.....

Happy Birthday Austin!