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Great White released

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has released the great white they had captivity for 6 months- today out into the pacific ocean. I hope she does well in the wild, and that the experience has taught our marine science community a wealth of information.

Age disparities

I saw the new Miss Congeniality and while its not even worth a review I was struck at how William Shatner who was born 1932, had a Mother in the movie played by Eileen Brennan who was born in 1938. Then this morning I was watching "Lost" which dad recorded for me and the Character Locke played by Terry O'Quinn born in 1952 has a mother on the show (in flashbacks) played by Swoosie Kurtz who was born in 1944. Now at least she's actually older but not by much. Not that I expect better from Hollywood when they continually give us movies like Autumn in New York where Richard Gere (1949) and Winona Rider(1971) are love interests. Its all a tad annoying!

Disney!

We Dared the Magic Kingdom Yesterday. Me, Grandpa and Gee all experienced More people than I've ever seen at any Disney Park - it as off the hook crowded. My first clue should have been when I tried to get reservation for a Character Breakfast and was told all 3 meals of the day at the Crystal Palace were full. Are Next clue should have been when it took us over an hour to go from 27 to Disney on 192 (usually a 15 minute drive). Then it took us 30 minutes to park once we got to the Magic Kingdom parking area beyond where you pay - All of this screamed _GO HOME!

But I bought my Ticket (Grandpa is an Annual passholder and Megan is still free) And We boarded the big boat and took off across the seven seas Lagoon. Megan danced - so excited to be going to see Pooh. Because of all the delays we got there in time for a parade, so main street was impassable, we hopped aboard the train and went all the way around to Toon Town - our goal finding pooh and giving him a kiss. After an actually shortish line, we were there - but Poor Megan expected him to be a foot high and not the size of a real human adult - and so she freaked out a bit. He kissed her, and then we saw Eeyore, and he kissed her, but Tigger was too much - She screamed - "no Tigger all done, no no tigger!" We left quickly, found Grandpa and then headed over to ride the pooh ride - the wait as over an hour which was fortunate - we fast tracked it as Megan informed us - "All Done Pooh - no Pooh no!" It wasn't even 1 o'clock and our fast track was for 5:30! We headed to the Carousel, Had a quick lunch at the Columbia Harbor house, before going to see Country Bear Jamboree, Megan Loved this show - we managed a seat all the way up front and She clapped and watched wide eyed and just loved the whole show!. We headed toward the Jungle Cruise but the 75 minute wait deterred us so we went instead to the Enchanted Tiki Room. Megan loved it as well, Doing her funny seated break dance moves to the tunes, and loving every second of it.

We left, found a bathroom with no line across, then we headed over to Splash mountain and enjoyed watching people scream down the drop and getting cooled off by the water. We wondered back past Pooh and back over to Toon town to play in Donalds boat (a water play area) and then into a playground with slides etc. It was actually just shy of 5:30 at this point so we headed back over to pooh, walked right on and had a wonderful time. Megan LOVED it. We shopped in the pooh shop at the exit, got some popcorn for a snack and meandered down main-street and out to the monorail. We stopped for dinner at Perkins out on 192 and were back at grandpa's before we realized it.

A note to explain my pain - I made a decision early on to rent a stroller since I only have the wimpy little umbrella stroller here. So I left our stroller in the car - when I got to the entrance of the park (a boat ride away from the car) the line for stroller rental was 50-100 long. I decided she could walk and I'd carry her a bit. Now she's up to 30 lbs, and I have a back pack that had at least 15 lbs in it. So at times I was carrying around an additional 45 lbs. On our way out - I'd shopped alittle and had even more to carry. File this one under stupid Lori tricks! So now my arms are sore, my back is sore, and I'm alittle achy all over.

Overall it was a wonderful day, we survived the crowds and the troubles and had a really wonderful time.

Happy Spring!

Megan kicked off spring yesterday with her first egg hunt and just had a wonderful day. Here are the pictures:

For more pics goto this link and enjoy!

Hope everyone has a lovely spring!

weather and my wishes

A typical florida storm is going on right now - the lighting and loud thunder - rain by the buckets - the type of storm we don't get often in California - maybe once in the last 8 years. Storms like this I miss. I love our life in California but 9 months of sunshine and perfect weather can really get to you.

So now I just want to put it out there - though I do have a living will that I made out when my mom died. Jack is my husband, and he shall make any and all decisions for me if I become unable to do so myself. I do not want to live with tubes and machines , If something happens I want to go and be let go. No fights no anger. - The government needs to respect our wishes and stop getting into our lives.
end of 2 cents.

Off the hook

Ok go here and read the story (scroll down a couple of days to March 23.)- of the artist who hung his own art into the Moma and 3 other museums and it hung there for 3 days before someone noticed. He had pictures taken of him doing it! What a riot - I wonder how many people saw his art and talked about it seriously.

Well now i'm offended

"IMAX theaters in several Southern cities have decided not to show a film on volcanoes out of concern that its references to evolution might offend those with fundamental religious beliefs."

This story from CNN offends me. To not show this movie because of evolution is ridiculous. the offending goes both ways - This non-religious, evolution knowing, thinking for myself, person is equally offended that you won't show something and let me make up my own damn mind!

back from South Florida

Megan and I drove back up today from down south. We had a lovely time playing with Jordan, Hailey, Kelly and Samantha, some of Meemee's cousins. I took so few pictures, but then I'm not Jack. I can't seemed to remember the camera is in my pocket, or in the diaper bag. So I take alot of shots of her in her car seat as we go places.

We enjoyed Jordan's 4th birthday party on Saturday and Hailey's 1st birthday yesterday. On Sunday we went to sawgrass Mills, did some shopping and had lunch with Some good friends of Jack and mine from our Miami days. We then had a quiet afternoon with Robin and her girls. As it turned out it was one of their dog Jaxon's last days (he past away today).

Monday Megan and I woke up late and went to Butterfly World. It was wonderful - Megan delighted in all the butterflies around her, enjoyed the Lorikeets who seemed equally enamored with her, and loved feeding the fish. She completely missed the hummingbirds but notices a few lizards in their enclosure.

We then headed over to Hailey's birthday party with all the family. It was a fun afternoon. And Megan asked to goto bed and slept like a log till 9:30 this morning.

A lovely bonus was I got to see Carnivale's last 2 episodes because the Hotel had HBO and HBO repeated the previous episode saturday and the new episode Sunday. I'm sorely tempted to get another hotel room this sunday for the Season Finale. Maybe I can find a local restaurant that has HBO on - cause this show is getting so good.

What ... still no TIVO?

So you still don't have TIVO? What's keeping you from TIVO Bliss? Here's a FAQ to convince you...

I'm missing my tivo... Grandpa doesn't have TIVO (or cable, or Satellite) for that matter. Megan's happy though- he does have a DVD player.

sleepless night

Megan woke up crying at 2am. I thinking it was later got her and brought her to bed with me where she immediately stopped crying. Too tired to argue I did the best I could to pile pillows around her and figured we could just sleep together until I realized some 10 mins later that I couldn't sleep worried that if I did she'd roll out of the bed - the guest bed is an old rope bed, that I have to climb up onto myself. The Fall for Megan would be terrible. So I pick her up which wakes her and I hold her telling her she has to go back to her bed. She started crying so I told her I'd hold her till she falls asleep, but that Mommy can't sleep until she's back in her bed and mommy needs to sleep. She snuggled in close and every so often looking longingly at the space on the bed she just vacated.

I realized I needed something to wake me up a bit so I grabbed my laptop and to do a search for a map for our drive on friday - maneuvering everything with one hand, as I'm holding Megan with the other across my lap and under her blanket. Then I start looking at blogs i haven't checked in a while cause their owners don't always blog, and found that BecBlog is getting updated from New Zealand where they are currently traveling. Its a great read and gets me through the next 20 mins. When I then finally put Megan in her own bed she wakes up screaming so I snuck out of the room and am now hiding in the living room waiting for her to fall back asleep. She's quiet now but I don't dare rush back in there. i'm guessing i'll be needing a nap again today.

Pizza and poop

Megan at 2 meals today - both Pizza. First we met Grandpa at the hospital for lunch (he volunteers there) and Megan after much delay decided she wanted Pizza.

Tonight for dinner we meet some of Grandpas friends at what turned out to be a mostly italian new york style restaurant and the smell of pizza was so strong ( and mouthwatering) there was no convincing Megan to have anything else...

which leads me to poop. When she finally pooped today it was hard and easy to clean... until midnight when I went to goto bed and realized she had pooped again. I realize now the first poop was a cork. i tried to change her without fully waking her but no luck. I did finally get her back in her own bed after I held her and she fell back asleep. So green veggies tomorrow at the very least I need to get that girl pooping earlier in the day!

Hard Lessons To learn

Megan just got a puzzle piece (the xterestrial from the animal puzzle) stuck in her mouth. She some how worked it in and then couldn't get it out. I reached in a popped it out but not before Grandpa uttered "Oh shit" and Megan started to Cry.

CHANGE OF PLANS:

after blogging yesterday, I found Pooh in Gainesville, so Megan and I drove up there and watched Pooh, then had lunch on the way back. I think today after we goto the local YMCA for a mommy and me class(thanks Missy) [unless grandpa doesn't get back with his car that has the car seat in it], we'll go to the petstore and the mother earth grocery store.

Megan is getting another tooth - which explains her mild crankiness of late- so now we have 8 on the top and 9 on the bottom with another one pushing through on the bottom.

And we're off,

After a morning of Shrek, Megan and I are heading out for a morning of running around. I figured we'd goto the pet store and see all the animals, Stop by the natural Foods store (same mall) and look for gee's favorite sausages, and maybe we'll grill tonight for dinner.

I thought I might also take her to see Robots this week. Pooh's movie is already gone from Ocala, and kid friendly choices are so few and far between.

Caught up...

I went to bed at 9pm last night after snoozing through an hour of tv on the sofa. I slept straight through till 7 this morning when Megan woke me up chatting happily in her crib. That's the longest I've slept in a long long time.

Stop that Lori

I finally watched Victoria & Albert(2001) which I netflixed almost 2 months ago. I started it last night with the idea that i'd watch alittle each night, and before I knew it, it was 1:30 am. I turned it off and fell asleep until 7am when Megan woke me up. Once I got her happy with Juice and Jungle book, I pulled out the portable DVD player and finished it. I'm glad to send it back, but man I'm tired.

How do you say toyota?

A local car dealer here in northern Florida can't even pronounce the name of the cars he sells. I couldn't even replicate how he mutilates toyota, but its a hoot.

On a side note - why oh why do they have to raise the level of the sound when you goto commercial. I know it was so we could hear the commercials even when we left the room, but in todays day of Tivo and Mute buttons - what's the point except to annoy us.

Early Morning

Megan woke up at at 6:30 local time and talked to herself for 30 minutes before I got up. We watched Pooh and I played gammon while we waited for Grandpa and the puppies. We'll going to goto the discovery Museum today, probably go run the mall, and go slide and swing at the park.

MeeMee will be getting a nap today. We both need one and now that she's gotten up so early she's starting to get super cranky (for her)

We're in Florida

Megan and I arrived in Tampa yesterday evening. "Ganba" picked us up at the airport and after a quick dinner at TGIF's we drove to Ocala. The flights were much more uneventful than our time out last august. Though the airline did convert our one stop same plane to a plane change with little time to spare and a good distance to run in Houston. Megan's diapers leaked through all the clothes I "carried On" for her so she got a new outfit in Houston complete with Cow Print Diaper cover.

She fell asleep last night easily and is still sleeping soundly this morning. I got up to have some coffee. The extra bedroom is so bright, I need to hang some blankets (or towels) over the curtain rods so I can sleep in tomorrow. Especially since Megan has pretty much given up her nap!

I can't email out - but when dad gets up I'll get him to help me rig the means to which I emailed out last summer.

Off to a good start

I woke up this morning to 2863 return mail messages coming into my inbox. All are evidence someone used our mail server to send out spam - one of those goto this website and verify your email account or we'll close your accounts supposedly for Citibank. I reported it to them and now I'm deleting it all - but what a pain in the *&^%$#!

Oh how we need a new mattress

Our Mattress is old and my back can't take it anymore. Any suggestions on a good mattress that would work with our slat bed (no box springs) would be greatly appreciated. I've been dragging my feet about shopping for one (til after my trip next week to Florida) and my back is paying for it.

Celebrity Poker Curse

It gets me every week, but who ever the hosts' pick to win are always out first. Now I realize the trick is to pick someone to win after the hosts do.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about - get cable or satellite already!

How to freak someone (or yourself) Out

Jack is away at the moment and I have a hard enough time sleeping with out him here. Last night Oso went crazy because a cat dared to cross the street at around 11:30 at night. Once I was able to figure out what had happened and get him back to bed with me, I was eventually able to fall back asleep... then early this morning with my arm over Oso, someone tapped me on shoulder. I was wide awake - who else could it be, Megan asleep in her crib, Jack is in SC, I jumped up out of bed, heart pounding... only to find... a balloon loosing its helium had made it all the way into my bedroom and was resting just above me - the fan was forcing it down and it would bounce off me (thus the tapping sensation). Once I caught my heart and shoved it back in my chest, I popped that balloon and collapsed into bed... giggling!

Raining bears

So its raining again... and while this is not unusual for California in March, I'm not amused since I just had my car washed today! Megan and I had about 30 minutes before her gym class and I had an empty gas tank so I went in for a fill up and answered yes to the car wash question. It looked good till the sun went down!

Megan's replacement purple Disney Bears arrived today! so now I have one I can give her while I try and repair the Oso damaged one (and maybe wash it) and I have one good back up. Thank you Missy for the heads up on how to get ahold of them!

Now onto my funny Megan story for the day - she stripped during her nap - not unusal - but she then proceeded to Poop! She tried to get the diaper back on but then just laid there until I went in and told her to take her nap already (she was singing happily) There was poop on everything (and is why I'm going to try washing the bear!)

YUCK!

Aquarium

Jack left at 4:30 yesterday morning, and I figured with the limited sleep, it was a good day to chase a toddler around the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Megan and I managed to get down there by 11. We ran around the Sharks exhibit and the Jelly's as Art exhibit, before we were joined by a friend and his mom. We then headed up to the outer bay and saw the great white shark... who has really grown, since the last time I saw her. We left for lunch up the row at Blue Moon. Then we headed back and explored the Splash Zone! Megan had a wonderful time and even choose "Finding Nemo" for the ride home (having not had her fill of Fish yet).

No pictures though - completely forgot the camera!

Spa Day

Sunday was my spa day. Jack watched Gee and I headed with a friend to the Claremont Spa. We had a wonderful day of pampering. I enjoyed a private herbal infused bath, a pineapple and grape seed scrub, followed by a Porpalis Wrap, then I was covered in Coconut Milk. We then had lunch in one of the hotel's restaurants, and then headed back to the Spa were I had a Massage. The highlight would be the scrub and wrap. I really felt like royalty. The Massage was a little too hard and my muscles are still a little sore. Next time I'm going to try a mud wrap and a stone massage. The next time being for our anniversary in June (I've already got overnight siting for Megan) Jack and I are going to go for a weekend.