4 Workdays to go until Seachange.

What's "Seachange?"

Ah - it's an Australian Term only...
 

Earlier this week, my Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary DVD arrived :)

I'm going to another Kings playoff game! :D

It is also used here and in Britian but not often anymore without a tv show to prop it up. Sea change. I've often heard it in poetic turns of phrasing. Meaning isn't really the same though...

Maddie got her license first try and only missed 3 - you're allowed 15. So proud of her. First thing she wants to do is drive to Disneyland by herself.

And the poor gal in front of her failed backing out of the parking space. I felt bad for her.

Ouch

Yea - the tester said she was way to close to the other car going out and he didn't want to fill out an accident report :)

Way to go Maddie!

Engage happy dance

I've been on a knife's edge this last week, going through 5000+ lines of code, completely restructuring some fundamental things about how it works. This whole time, because I had to rebuild everything, I could know neither if my new solution would function at all, nor if once functional it would solve the problem I'm trying to solve.

Today I finally got it to a state where the new structure is stitched together enough to do a successful proof of concept. Still a lot more work to do but at least I now know the last week hasn't been wasted effort!

I forgot my CPAP machine when I came up yesterday, so today I drove the 350 Mile round-trip to go get it.

I am happy I will be getting a decent sleep tonight.

My daughter will be playing guitar and singing at the Perris Farmer's Market tonight at 5pm! I'm so excited for her. :)

I think we could use a little more kerning between those two Rs. My first reaction was, "a WHAT market!?!"

But gratz to her! :)

Yeah... You have "The Gay" alright.

What? You don't like the produce at the Penis Farmer's Market? :p

So what your saying is that it really stuck out a you?

Query in a conservative Republican administration how many millions of our tax dollars would be wasted paying these farmers not to grow.

Snort! So will Stoat! ;)

Sorry you had to do all the extra mileage, though.

I fully understand - I don't sleep well, if at all, without mine!

For me a 350 mile R/T is a double-edged sword: it wears me out, but can also be very calming (assuming not a lot of ugly traffic).

I slept well, but had to get up too early to enjoy a sleep in. I'm now off for a granny nap. :D

Where do people who say "May the fourth be with you" fit into that?

I had typed up that correction, then thought better of posting it.

Go fourth and conquer, gentlemen.

I had to fourth a smile at that one.

As promised from the Vent Thread.....homework is done for the semester! Huzzah!

The kiddo drove to the park today by herself. I found myself in need of a trip to character warehouse ( total bust). Then and errand in the park . Then met a friend who is in town for a half marathon in Costa Mesa. :blush:

Kiddo did great! So proud of her. She even had lunch with dear ole mom. And she got home hours before me.

Wtg, Maddie! I'm nervous about Tori driving around Spokane- the thought of her driving the LA freeways is terrifying!

Good for Maddie! And next time you need something at Character Warehouse tell me and I can pick it up for you. It's walking distance from my office, I can go at lunch.

There's no "LA freeways" between San Diego and Disneyland. ;)

Kings advance to the Western Conference Finals!!!

We shall look forward to playing you for the cup. It's just the right size to fit in Lincoln's hand.

The Capitals will never have a picture as awesome as this one


Attachment 1670

Yeah, that's definitely cool. But you have to admit, this would he historic.

Nah, it'll fall if they put it there so they'll have to put it in his lap and then he'll just look like he has a disappointingly small hockey boner.

VAM!

Not happening this year :D

Sad but true. However we can take solace in the fact that our new coach, Dale Hunter, really pulled this team together and made all the difference. I know it's somewhat cliché to say after a loss, but I think the future really is looking good for the Caps and this coach.

Um... Dale Hunter stepped down.

WTH?? Awww just shoot me now.

I very pleased and proud of my 1st article for a comic news site called The Beat.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/05/14...tely-intimate/
:cool:

:snap:

Cool job - congrats!

Finished this evil semester.
Sold my old bike.
Reclaimed the garage from the junk pile.

Feeling happy.

Madz is the mayor of the high school parking lot. I'm so proud :snap:

Cool! I'm sure their parking lot is nothing like the parking lot at my high school....

We bought our bbq almost 11 years ago, a low end Charbroil two burner for $60. Turned out to be an excellent $60 investment. Hardly the best grill in the world, but for $60 it did an excellent job, was supernaturally efficient (I believe I only had to refill the tank TWICE. Maybe 3 times), and lasted 11 years (okay, 9.5 years, probably should have replaced it a little while ago).

With a cracked heat diffuser, rust on the grates, dead ignition, and ever-increasing cold spots it was time. Wasn't interested in bottom-of-the-line this time (especially since the quality of the the low end grills has gone WAY down in 11 years). So we went with this bad boy:



Tomorrow will be its first test run.

It looks like the love-child of R2D2 & Darth Vader.

Stoat thinks it looks like something from Saw.

I'm grinning ear to ear, with my new American DJ Majestic LED lights flashing along to some fun music.

Video please ! In 1080p please so I can show it on my telly properly. :)

Fixed it for you.

Nice. And your taste in music is impeccable.

Taking "my team" out to dinner tonight.

That feels weird to say. Going to take time to feel comfortable with this whole leadership thing.

If I bow to you next time I see you, try to take it in stride. ;)

I just spent the day with Rose, Brad and a couple of rollercoaster enthusiast friends at Universal. I missed out on the Kings parade and rally, but I had already promised I'd be available for today, before I knew that the Kings would win it all. I didn't miss a thing- I had a great time :)

Bought that disc I heard at Starbucks earlier this week - Vintage French Pop Music. It rules.

I almost can't believe it, but...

I'm almost done clearing off the big shelving unit! I have a small shelf of tapes (!) to stash away, and then just have to disassemble the damn thing and haul out the pieces. Which, trust me, is the easy part. I'm actually going to be ready when Amy's new armoire arrives tomorrow!

(Sure, the baby's room is an even bigger disaster than usual, but it's a good kind of disaster... the kind that forces you to make progress!)

I am a grandma ... to two kittens
 

:p Here's one of my kids today with her tortoiseshell girl and orange boy, both 10 weeks old.

Adorable, all three!



I don't post in the Happy thread much. I'm generally pretty happy as a baseline mood.


But today is pretty squee. It's the start of my last work week before heading to Hawaii for my Birthday and Fourth of July. It's going to be such a romantic weekend with the guy I'm so freaking in love with - and full of Adventure TM, too. While I'm gone, demolition starts on a major remodel of my condo - and it's going to be so beautiful when it's done (hahah, maybe by October or so).

To top it all off, and pushing my mood to Cloud Nine levels, Isaac finally found (with the help of Parmesan Jim, as I understand it) what to us has been the holy grail of geekdom Disneyland music - because it's been so hard to find ... the queue loop for it's a small world. :snap:


Prior to that, I'd say the coolest thing Isaac's found was the old King Arthur Carousel loop. Some of this stuff is pretty carefully guarded by Disney. The Carousel loop plays no more, so it's especially awesome.

But the small world queue loop has eluded us forever. And it's so rad. :cheers:


As it happens, there were a couple of really cool tracks on the World's Fair CD set issued a year or so. And with this new find, it's definitely time for an updated re-issue of the Disneyland 50 CD series ... which I hope to have ready by Disneyland 57 this coming July 17. If any proud owners of either previous edition of Disneyland 50 would like a set of updated discs, just let me know!

Meanwhile, I'm floating on Happy. :D

I'm glad I was, in some small way, able to contribute to your happy!

There's a new video on youtube with DCA's brand new opening announcement. For some reason, the plug-in that allows me to download the audio from youtube won't work on it. So, my Unofficial Official DCA 2.0 Playlist is lacking an intro. What I'd really like, DCA 1.5ish, is the Hollywood Backlot loop with all the clever operator's pages.

Have a happy Hawaii!

I've always been partial to the old Taste Pilot's Grill loop. No cool announcements, but such a fun collection of movie scores and pop tunes related to aviation and space travel. I wonder if it still plays there, despite the DCA 2.0 vibe. I don't think I've had anything at Taste Pilot's for many years.

Brad, Matt and myself all ate at Taste Pilots on June 15th for an early lunch. We walked right up to place our orders and it was nearly empty. The food is good and I truly miss eating there when wanting a burger etc.

I know your Mojo already told you this, but for the information of the rest of the LoT, An updated set of Disneyland 50 (Disneyland Heinz 57?) would alleviate my own curmudgeonly ravings about not having my own Disney park downunder.. :cool:

I like that one a lot too. It's fun to try to remember which films are which.

TeeHee, I'm definitely going to call the update "The Heinz 57 Edition." Thanks for the suggestion, Lash. ;)

Biopsy results = I've got nothing. Yay!

Well that's good to hea......BACK THE FVCK UP?! Biopsy?

Did I miss something, or have you been keeping quiet?

Yeah, kept it quiet. I'll have quite a sexy scar nobody will see, though. ;)

Good news Snowflake!

Yay!


Oh, and they told me my biopsy scar would fade in about a year, but they were so wrong. It's pretty visible, but I actually think it's kinda sexy - and I tell people a jealous ex stabbed me with a dagger!

That's brilliant! Snort!

Yeah for the negative!

Good Biopsy News. :snap:

Say it with me, Awwwwww....

Awwwwwww, how special he is making those little girls feel!

For someone with two career educators (and by most accounts, a couple of the best in their field), I have always had a shocking inability to impart knowledge to others.

But today I ran a damned fine training session, if I do say so myself. Clear, concise, material presented in multiple formats to reinforce, successful live demo, successful hands on exercise (with worksheet handout!). I knew I'd got it right when people were actually answering the review questions in the middle!

5th time's the charm I guess.

Good job! Training is hard to get right.

Err, that first sentence was supposed to have an "as parents" in there somewhere.

Time Warner ftw! (I know. I'm scared too)

Been having serious network speed issues for a couple weeks. Completely unable to stream video, larger files taking forever to download, web pages needing to be refreshed to finish loading.

It appeared to me to be a problem on TW's side of things, but I hadn't gotten around to doing the trouble shooting steps I needed to do before calling (namely taking the wireless router out of the equation and confirming that the problem was still there connected directly to TW's modem). It finally got bad enough last night. I tried everything and definitely narrowed it down to a problem with the TW hardware. So I called.

Awesome things TW did:

1) Answered their phones at midnight with live tech support and technicians that spoke perfect English

2) Took my word for it when I explained that I'd already done the basic troubleshooting steps (yes, I pulled the router out. Yes, I rebooted the computer. Yes, I rebooted the modem. Yes, I tried with different computers)

3) Spent a few minutes to do some diagnostics and positively identified an issue with their hardware (modem was dropping packets)

4) Authorized an immediate hardware replacement (well, the next day. It was 1AM). They offered a window this afternoon to deliver a new modem, but it was actually easier for CP to just go to the local office and swap it in person.

And voila, problem solved! Wish I'd taken the time to do it 2 weeks ago, but at least it was painless when I finally got around to it.

Somebody really cool bought a couple of prints of my photos, and they're totally happy with the results.

:D

Speaking of prints, I have a couple of new ones I picked up from a local artist. Here they are up on the theater room wall....



This photo really does not do them justice. They look great! :snap:

Lasers and fog, I haz them!! :D

I've still got a few weeks before I start the new job, but I already managed to pick up a sales lead today. I might have a better knack for this than I thought.

Well, if you're on my Facebook, you know where :D this comes from!!

Happiest wishes to you both, fabulous, congrats, supercalifragicexpialidocious

I'm totally seriously happy for Mark and Mindy :cheers:

I don't have Facebook but I gather Congratulations are in order for you both!

It's the old "one more picture" routine! ;)

Congrats!

My daughter got her very first job - and at a music store (one that rents out instruments, gives lessons, sells stuff, etc.) Sounds right up her alley. She started today at noon.

Congrats, Betty! Sounds like a great first job. Sure beats my first few.

That sounds like a great first job!

Great news !

First episode of the new season... totally epic, hilarious, awesome.

(Doctor Who, if you really don't know what I'm talking about. And if you do, you just laughed. Doctor WHO, hahahahah)

As has been reported elsewhere, I confirmed my psychosis today by biking 100 (actually, 102) miles, from Irvine to San Diego.

It took 8 hours total including rest stops, 6:45 rolling time. That's a pace at the high end of my optimistic goal pace. I'm really shocked at my performance. I mean, I knew on paper I'd done the (literal) legwork to train, but still, this was almost 50% farther than my previous longest ride, and included one intense climb 80 miles in (Torrey Pines). I had no idea how I'd fare. It's been an intense and empowering day.

All followed by one hell of a party on the train ride home. Crowd surfing, for crying out loud. You'd never guess it was a train car full of people who'd just tortured themselves for 8ish hours.

Lots of people have been super encouraging over the 5 months since I set myself on this stupid course. Many many thanks for that. It's surreal that the day has come and gone. Hard to know right now whether I'll do this to myself again, but I couldn't be happier that I pulled this off.

That's fantastic, amazing. What was the event?

Awesome. Quite the achievement.

So, since this is sponsored by Amtrak I assume the goal is to show that if you can pedal at a steady 15mph pace then you can, in fact, get to San Diego faster than by taking the train?

Not actually sponsored by Amtrak, they just book a whole train for the ride back up, and the route down (mostly) follows the tracks.

The nice thing is, because they book the whole train, there are no stops on the way back up, so it actually goes pretty quick for once.

Wow that is an amazing ride! Congrats!


So how do you feel today?

I feel perfectly fine today. I laughed at the pre-ride advice the club sent out saying, "Be sure you hydrate and eat post-race, especially if you plan to ride the next day" (emphasis mine). But seriously, I could get on my bike today no problem. I've been training for about 5 months for this, purposely riding routes that, while not as long, had far more strenuous climbing than anything I did yesterday. I've been far more exhausted by some of those than I was yesterday. I credit that to both my pre-ride prep (carb loading and some tune-up rides during the week) and in LARGE part to the club that put on the event. The refreshments and hydration they provided at all the rest stops (OMG was it glorious to see huge chunks of fresh pineapple at the 50 mile mark) meant there was no problem keeping my body fueled properly which is the key to NOT being in pain at the end.

80 pounds down, 20 more to go to reach my goal this year! Next year, 25, maybe 30 more.

I feel fantastic; better than I have in years.

I think there'll be a lot less sitting down to rest (and smoke) this trip (November 2). Coolies! I can ride Haunted Mansion just that many more times this year... AND see Haunted Mansion Holiday for the very first time.

Pre-trip excitement has definitely set in. ;)

Congrats on the weight loss Scrooge!

WOW !! I am impressed !! Well done. To knock off the extra 20, just do the early morning fastpass run at DL when you're there :D

WTG Scrooge!

Pump Peelz - someone is brilliant! When you're stuck wearing something hanging off your arm 24/7 it's nice to decorate them up a bit. She does occasionally write on them in sharpie "This is a Pump" or "Stop Staring".

or "The Bionic Woman" :D

Another pattern she got shows the inside workings of the pod.

Love the tyedye one :)

Ermahgerd!! Berter Burds !!!
 

They're here - and with a few surprises too. :D

Just got a package in the mail today, and it contained a whole buncha butter buds mix. :D
Attachment 1728

It also contained what appears to be every park info sheet ever published in every language known on earth (and then some - I think one of them is in Klingon...)

And, as a surprise, it contained a couple of very snazzy sets of ears:


The Crumpled Gemstone look. (Stoat will fix this for me - he's good at crafty stuff...)

Attachment 1723

And the Bride Of FrankenBear Look. Does it make me look smarter? Nope - you can still see my face.

Attachment 1725

BTW, we get the hint, guys. ;)

Also included was American Cheddar Cheese Powder. Be still my beating heart. This is headed STRAIGHT onto our popcorn. Nom Nom Nom.

Attachment 1726

But, alas, I couldn't resist, and the Butter Buds Mix and Cheese Powder combined to make a symphony of Cheese Sauce Loveliness.

Attachment 1727

I'd share some with you, but there's none left. :blush:

THANK YOU to all who helped to make this possible. It makes me feel all the more closer (despite being around the other side....)

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
The Happy Bear.

Ehrmahgerd! Churder churs purder! Ehr! Mah! Gerd!

That was fast! I glad it all arrived more or less in tact. Credit for the ears goes to Kevy and Susan who picked them out. My apologies for the packing fail and resultant ear damage.

Things get here faster because we're in the future. :p

ETA: No need to apologise - you did a great job of packing it all. I had fun popping the air-bag thingies. :D

Kinda going for the "Just Engaged/Mawaige" look, but not sure if we pulled it off.

Oh, you pulled it off all right. Guess what we're gong to wear when we do the deed ?? ;)

Well, I doubt condoms are necessary at this point...

*doh*

Actually, I have to. It gets arthritis when it gets wet.

:p

IT'S ARRIVED !!!
 

I'm so happy !!!!!!!!!!! :D :snap:

Attachment 1729

Wow, that is a nice looking backpack! Congrats!

That's very nice but can you play? ;)

The teen is taking keyboarding this year, maybe someone will finally use our piano again!

Yay ! I hope so.

My new car arrived, earlier than expected! She is not complete yet but we brought her home until the rest of the kit arrives. She is a kick in the pants to drive but I didn't not enjoy the late night drive home through all the mountain passes by myself.

I had help to make her my new avatar.

Congratulations!

*sweet*!!! :snap:

How could you not enjoy a mountain pass road in that rocket? :)

I'm quite jealous, My new guy is currently in the "birth canal" in Cowley, UK. I won't get him until mid November at the earliest. Thankfully I ordered the butt warmers. I'll need them by then.


Oh and just curious, "The rest of the kit" what are you still waiting on?

We got the Five Axis body kit and antenna
cover, plus we are getting windows and rear light casings tinted. I think Gary is having her lowered this weekend and he wants wheels, tires, security system and some radar. Whew, he needs a few more bonus checks for all that though! Oh and something abut headlights like the concept/English one, there might be more but I keep putting the brakes on him.

I apparently lost on lowering her though. If I tear off the front end I will blame him!

You're getting a Morris Minor?

I wish, that is one seriously cool car. Too bad they don't make the minor anymore.
I had to settle for a turbo charged mini cooper hardtop.

Your dealer must love your husband almost as much as you do.

More, I think.

This one is just for you.... FR-S vs the "Moose test"

Note: The "Moose Test" is a standard used to test a vehicles rollover tendency during emergency avoidance maneuvers.

That sounds like an awesome tour!

Ordered my new phone today. Went with the Galaxy S3. Thought about waiting the 10 days to check out the LG Optimus G, but the clerk at the Sprint store convinced me there was no good reason to.

Still have to wait until Monday or Tuesday. They don't carry the 32Gb version in-store, and considering one of my big complaints about my current phone is the internal storage constantly filling up, I definitely want the largest internal storage I can get. So a few more days of "suffering".

Got an upgrade to our internet service today.



Happy to see we're getting the advertised 20Mbps downstream, and [close to] 2Mbps upstream. Still kinda wish there were an affordable option with better upstream, but it's a rare occasion that I would have need of it anyway, so no big deal.

Upstream is not just for sending large files. For every SYN there is an equal and opposite SYN/ACK. All Internet traffic is somewhat bi-directional.

No FiOS for you I guess?

Yes, but ACKs are hardly bandwidth intensive. Unless you're trying to stream media or download a large file FROM your home network out, 2Mb/s is more than enough. I've even been able to semi-reliably stream audio from my home server with 1Mb/s.

We have FIOS internet available in our area (ATT Uverse). But not television yet. So we'd have to unbundle TV and internet, making it a totally unaffordable option (and apparently even if we could get the Uverse TV service, their pricing is pretty high)

Ack! Cookies got reset at work and I am once again reminded of what this place looks like for most of you all of the time.

So happy again that the Alex style exists.

Finally had a good sunset at the new office today-

Well Nyah Nyah to you both.
 

Blister fast internet here in Green Point !!!

Attachment 1754

:p

I was able to get some awesome seats to Bon Jovi for their new tour in 2013. So far St. Paul Minessota, Los Angeles and Las Vegas are on the travel list. Now I'm just waiting for any Anaheim dates. The Los Angeles show is the day after my birthday (yay finally just wish it was on my actual birthday but Hoya day after is fine by me).

Got our picture taken with Santa yesterday...

You guys look great!

Cute pic. I miss the days when they'd put the year on the Throne so you knew when it was taken. Might even post my own... :D

It is on the throne, they just put it on the back side. You need to turn the picture over to see it.

After some d-bag tailgated me twice on the freeway (not only tailgating but seeming to have difficulty staying centered in the lane), got to see him get lit up by CHP. That was gratifying.

I'm REALLY happy, because our 3D Video Camera works beautifully. :)

I'm exceedingly happy, because Dustin Penner of the Los Angeles Kings, is using a photo that I took of him for his Twitter profile pic.

:D :D :D

Sue that mofo.

Monte cristos are still as tasty as I remembered them.

Conga rats CM!

Finished the marathon (which I'm mostly indifferent to) with essentially zero soreness in the following days (which I'm much less indifferent to).

Which marathon?

Who else besides Alex, Erica, and Steph were down there? Did you all get together?

I'm not very sore either, just seriously tired feet which are getting better. My blisters are very much improved.

Erica, sorry I missed you!

We were crazy busy during this trip, and it was Jason's first time in ANY of the parks, so I really wanted to make sure he got to soak it all in.

I'll be at more of these events, so I figure I'll be able to meet up with any other RunDisney fans in the future. Will probably work better, time-wise.

You can all find me at the half-marathon over Labor Day Weekend at DLR.

And yes, the big thing in that post is that Jason hadn't been to ANY of the Disney parks. Ever. Seriously.

And I married him? ;)

It's nice of you to help the underprivileged.

What did he think?

Oh yeah - he LOVED it! Was disappointed in his choices as a youth to go to other parks.

I was surprised (and yet not at all) at his hunger for details on the history of things, and his enthusiasm for the symbolism, design, and of course, finding hidden mickeys.

I believe he found Disney at the right time for him. Maybe he wouldn't have appreciated all that is in the parks when he was younger... it's hard to say.

Next stop, Disneyland. I need to show him the beauty of soaking it all in.

Yay! Welcome to the fold, Jay. When you make it out here we must have an epic meet.

I'm seriously happy, because I got to see this yesterday -

:)

I'm seriously happy because I received a tweet from Nina Donrev from The Vampire Diaries. On Thursday most of the main cast participated in a love Tweet during the East Coast feed of the new episode airing at the same time. What was funny was that they were all on the set filming during the tweet ap I was one of the very few to get a response back. Each one tweeted maybe a toal of six from the millions of fans bombarding them. I asked the same question to all 3 of the main actors and she was the only one to answer me back.

Another small milestone and another size smaller in pants.

The funny thing is, compared to everything else, my boobs are not getting smaller. This might be a problem.

Huzzah!!

VSM! Make the most of your assets ;)

Congratulations!

I can attest from personal experience (not my weight loss but another's) that significant weight loss can result in equally significant boob loss.

I don't think the fat cells in breasts are held as special by the body when losing fat but I also don't know how much breasts vary in what proportion of the breast is fat (that is, if for example, it is possible two have two women with equal sized breasts where one is 30% fat and the other is 60%, meaning fat loss would have a much more significant impact on the second).

KINGS WIN AGAIN!

The past two weekends involved things that are most important to me.

The 20th was my grandson's 3rd birthday. We spent the day at DCA and Disneyland with family coming and going throughout the day. Orion was allowed to pick what he wanted to do and we took turns riding with him. Later in the afternoon his cousin Dominic joined us. Dominic is just a month younger and the two boys are best buds. They rode in the front row on the Small World boat and clapped and laughed through the whole thing, no one has enjoyed that ride more. Orion was good all day (no meltdowns) and managed to stay awake long enough to see the fireworks (surprisingly his first time). His jaw literally dropped. It was a great day!

This past weekend I attended a dance camp, California Balboa Classic, in Pasadena. It was the first year for what will be an annual event organized by Laura Keat who's one of the best dancers and instructors in the world. The classes were so well thought out and inspiring. And I got to dance Balboa all evening Saturday night!

Both weekends sound awesome - good for you!

I was wondering: are there ever dances over at the Casino on Catalina? They held huge dances there in the 40's and it is a georgeous location.

There used to be a swing dance camp on Catalina every year which included dancing in the Casino. Now there are a couple of small events every year but I've never been. I've heard it's a wonderful place to dance.

Yay, I'm down 9lbs since January, that includes the 4lbs my doctor was so intent on bitching about. He was right, of course, it was the spur that got me off my considerable butt and back into the gym on a regular basis. So, yay! :D

Way to go!

4 Days till takeoff for Thailand. Yay.

As of today, for the first time in forever (at least it feels that way) my credit cards have 0 balance. I've paid the bastards off. Wow, it feels fabulous to realize I won't have a couple of bills to pay next month, with interest!

I got a raise at work and upped the 401(k) contribution with that percentage.

I've been a fiscal screw up so much of my adult life, finally learning and turning things around. Yay Me! :D

That is awesome! We are trying to get ours paid off too.

I feel you, a big fat '0' balance feels always makes be feel much better than anything I ever purchased.

Congratulations! So you're buying the next round right? :)

I just might, but the question is when you will next see me? I dunno!

Congratulations. Now, for the cards you just paid off, when you next receive a bill make sure to actually open it. A lot of people say "oh, I paid it off, I don't need to actually open the statement since it will be $0."

But depending on how you paid off you may still owe interest on a few days between cycle close and your payoff date, or a charge/fee that wasn't on there yet.

Thanks Alex! I'll keep an eye peeled on the accounts!

Well Done !!! It's a great feeling. And I like Alex's advice. Stoaty got caught by that with AMEX.

Airline strike in Israel may mean I get to avoid having to be at LAX at an ungodly hour tomorrow morning. Hooray!

Damn right, yay you!!! Good job!

I love seeing people order yardage of my spoonflower designs, but today takes the cake - someone ordered *7 yards* of one of my prints. Largest order yet! And surprisingly, NOT the popular damask, but one of the aloha prints!

Congrats!!!!!

15 day's until Disney World! AHHHHHH!!!! :D

AHHHHHH!!!! (the jealous kind of ahhhhhh!!!!)

For one brief moment today, I won the internet.

Yay me.

3 days here :D

longest. week. ever.

Gonna leave us in suspense on how?

My comment on a very active comment thread on a very popular blog got the most likes.

GD must have called the president a monkey.

Worse - I called BoingBoing commenters pedantic.

lol, congrats

Been such a beautiful day, can't help being happy.

One of these inside one of these equals happiness.

In a few weeks the Moonie clan is off to pay our respects to Prince George.

Other than tea with the Royals, Any tips on swank things to do in London? I suppose Eurodisney is a bit too far for a day trip....

Maddie went last summer and they went to the Harry Potter sets. Highlight of her trip. It's somewhere outside London. Was definitely a day trip.

In Paris they did a night segway tour. There must be something similar in London. They both loved that.

Perhaps not with the Royals, but the tea room at Fortnum and Mason is wonderful. And if you're lucky you'll get to see the wait staff turn their noses up at someone chewing gum!

Harry Potter Tour booked. Thanks.

No Segway tours in London.

Hummm. EuroDisney is only a 5-hour train ride....

Museum priority for me is V&A, Tate Modern, British.

Plan time to just wander Hyde Park.

Go see if the blue c0ck is still erect in Trafalgar Square by the time you get there.

Have a curry.

Definitely run around doing an Austin Powers impersonation at any opportunity. The locals LOVE that.

Don't get eggplant parmesan (or aubergine parmesan as it was on the menu). Not remotely what you'd expect.

And also be aware that jaywalking is not at all a crime and sometimes it is the only way to get to a place. This is solely to increase the chance of Americans getting run over for looking the wrong way when dashing across.

Greenwich, visit the Harrison clocks. Stand on the Prime Meridian.

Even laundry is more fun when you know you will be wearing said clothes in freaking London!

We have added a Sunrise visit to Stonehenge along with Oxford and Windsor Castle. Greenwich is on the list along with the London Eye, A show to be named later, at least a full day at the British museum, the Harry Potter tour, Tower Bridge, fish and chips, and other misc sites.

A few nights ago I spotted Venus in the night sky outside of T's bedroom window. We spent some time talking about it, and the moon, and other planets. Tonight, Saturn made an appearance, with T excitedly waiting until it was dark enough to see it. We then retreated into his blanket-tent with the lights out, armed with a flashlight, a bouncy ball as the sun, and a handful of coins to represent planets.

Damn! European's are genius. My shower here in London has a single bottle that works as both soap and shampoo! Brilliant!

The crown jewel things are kinda alright as well. I'm off to the British museum and the Rosetta stone. Ta ta blokes.

Today Moonie, I hate you a little bit.

Have a great time!

Have a wonderful trip!

I've found I really like the taste of the London tap water. It has just the right amount of moss flavor.

Almost hit by a bus at a zebra crossing because, American.

For me, it was a cab.

You think, how hard could it really be? And then you step off a curb looking the wrong way.

For me, in the Underground. I didn't mind the gap.....

London eye: Glad I did it. No reason to ever do it again.

Changing of the guards: That's an hour of my life I'll never get back.

Churchill war rooms: Very much enjoyed my visit. Would come again.

Harry Potter tour: Way cool. If you go plan to spend many hours.

After a confusing "who's on first" type of exchange down at the local pub finally figured out that "pudding" means "dessert" over here.

When I go, how well will they appreciate me going on about how awful most of the movies are and why I'll probably never read the books? How many hours should I plan to spend doing that?

I'd plan on about 3 hours for that.

Honestly, after endless hoards of the Potter faithful I think they would find you fascinating and probably make you their king.

Today
Westminster Abby: A wonder of scientific achievement. The skill and knowledge needed to build such a place at that time is truly staggering. Too bad they muck it up with all that religion nonsense.

Tower Bridge: Loved it. Great views, giant steam engines what's not to love?

Sticky toffee pudding is the greatest dessert ever created. So good.

And ironically, if you read yesterday's post, actually a bread pudding.

It so funny, the London bridge is so boring, and the Tower Bridge is the best one there! The Millenium Bridge was ok, but seemed too modern and out of place.

Another busy day.

St. Paul's: Another church, but one with a view. Well worth the climb to the Golden gallery.

Milenium bridge: I quite enjoyed the walk and the view.

Greenwich Market: A small outdoor market, lots of eclectic stuff.

Royal Navy college: used in filming everything from Potc to the upcoming Thor sequel.

Greenwich Observatory: probably would have been more interesting had it been open

Hour long bus ride in the front seat of the top of a double decker bus? Priceless family time.

Food, with a few notable exceptions, sucks. Never eat at a cafe in a park while in London. I don't know what day of the month their fresh pastries arrive but it was not this day.

Have you been out to the Magpie Cafe in Whitby for the country's best Fish & Chips yet?

Also don't forget to have a curry. Seriously. And Fortnum & Mason's High Tea. And Hamley's toy store which is just near F&M.

No, forgot to have that, missed that, and that as well. :(

It took four trains and two planes but I made it back home last night.



Travel tip: The Stonehenge docents can get a bit cranky if you point out "Your prehistoric stone circle is cool but did you know that about the same time Stonehenge was being built the Egyptians where building the great pyramid at Giza?"

Ha! Brilliant!

"Yes, but we had to do it without being mean to Jews."

Reminds me of the time I was accosted by an elderly lady at the MET Museum who decided I was the person to rant to about the jewish slave problem in ancient Egypt. I was trapped in the tiny vestibule just as you enter the Egyptian wing, I almost grabed her cane and whacked her on the bean. She was, after all, a few thousand years too late. The hieroglyphs were really nicely done, too.

yeah, but probably only because there weren't any around to be mean to.

I should have known that one of your people would step on the joke.

The Hebrew exodus actually occurred when the Egyptians started enslaving blacks from the continent. Unfortunately, the suburbs hadn't been invented yet, so there was a lot of wandering. The four questions of the Passover seder used to include a fifth question, read first: "Nu, what's with all the schwarzes?"

Soooo...

We found out today that Moonie Jr. is down with a raging case of Mono/Strep.
He's getting antibiotics for the strep and the doc checked his spleen but there is not much that can be done for Mono. Sleeping away the three day weekend will be a good start.

And, as a bonus the timing means he was infectious the entire time we were in London. So we'll have to see how that works out. Rather wish I had opted for individual water bottles while touring London.

Oh no Moonie. I hope he feels better soon. Strep and Mono both suck.

Moonie, that sucks, takes forever to get through mono.

BTW, this is sooooooo in the wrong thread. :)

Some people are happy to have strep, aren't they?

Oooops. I hope that the fun isn't sharred all around! Yikes!

Happy today because I was able to get Garageband and my Motif-6 to talk to each other, and record two songs !!!

Pending weekend long babysitting it looks like we will be attending Coachella.

Hell freaking yeah

How did you pull that off? And Congratulations! And take pictures!

Wow! How did you pull that off? A weekend of baby sitting? That's like finding the holy grail in your breakfast cereal.

We're riding the marshmallow train.

Awesome!

I prefer to think of it as "Elder Abuse".