SUCK ASS morning!

Spotty Chop and I leave the house at 6:30am so I can get him to daycare, 45 minutes away, and then I drive to the train station 3 min away to catch the 8:00am train so I can get into work by 9:00am. When I get to the train station and go to grab my stuff and hop on the train I notice that my BRIGHT PINK backpack is not with me. I left the frelling thing at home. I have been taking the train for 15 years, this is the first time I have forgotten my bag. So I drive 45 minutes back to my house and there is the bag. I hop on Boy toy’s computer to see when the Franklin trains are running and luckily there is one at 9:08 or something like that. I fly out of the house and go to the train station, about 10-15 min away. I grab my backpack and go looking for my pocketbook so I can get my money for parking and the trip in. The Needham train is several dollars cheaper. No Fin bag. Now I have to go digging through the car and thank god my car isn’t clean, I find some crumpled $1’s and a few quarters. I crackberry a few people in the office until I finally get my boss, everyone else is in NY. I’m cracking him my saga and I say,” I need money to get home”. He says fine. During the hour long trip into Boston I figure I can do some work. The battery on my laptop is drained. The crackberry has stopped synching my calendar, so I have no meetings or notifications of meetings and I miss 2 big ones. I frelling finally get to work and see that my pocketbook is sitting on my desk. At least it was here. The rest of the day has been…A goat rodeo, what I started saying when my dad said “cluster fuck is not professional, come up with something else”. I just want this day to end so I can go home and snuggle with Spotty. Or have ice cream…either would be good right now.

And then I sent facilities this little gem…

26T3 ladies room. The left sink is running again, I don't know who the moron is that can't figure out that the sink doesn't work and keeps washing her hands, especially since the left hand soap dispenser can't be bothered to give you enough soap to wash a gnat. Could someone take the sink away, maybe then the idiots will stop using it. Thanks so much!

I wonder if anyone can tell I am a bit cranky?

Our son is a dork

Spotty Chop has really been into playing video games, actually watching us play video games. We are currently playing Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, and there is NOTHING cuter that a 2 year old saying Thievius Raccoonus. Unless it’s a 2 year old cheering his daddy on as he plays; “Come on dada you can do it! Go dada go, Go dada go, you can DO IT dada!!!” Or a 2 year old “reading” the title screen of a new level. “Sly Cooper in THE TIDE OF TERROR…MWAAAHAHAHAHahaaaaaaaaaa. I think he picked up the fiendish laugh from me.

The boy is totally hooked. We played almost the entire weekend. It was a struggle to get him to do anything else. As soon as he would wake up from either his nap or in the morning the first thing he would say is “mama, would you like to play Thievius Raccoonus?” When we just couldn’t take it anymore and we told him we just had to take a break he would very reluctantly do something else. Preferably the Hot Wheel Movie extras, but he would be read to as long as it was from the “big book” A Disney/Pixar thing with stories from all of his favorites. Or he would spin around, and around, insisting that we spin too.

I think it might be in his genes. Boy toy and I were gamers. In fact back in the day, we actually had to buy 2 computers because we were fighting over “game time”. Then we had to position them so we could easily see what each other was doing, in case the other one was doing something cool. After Xmas or birthdays we would literally spend 2 or 3 weeks straight doing nothing but playing, Thief I am looking at you. Ok we would go to work, but that would be the only time we would leave the house. We haven’t done that since Spotty was born. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a thing. When he was an infant, we didn’t have the TV on much, which turned into Spotty being annoyed when the TV was on, which lead into THE HELL THAT IS DORA. He went through a period where all he wanted to do is watch dora, little einstens, bob the builder, wiggles, mm club. He moved up to movies then he learned about “extras”. I blame Monsters Inc. Damn Pixar knows how to do extras.

So now it’s video games. If this phase lasts long it won’t be so bad, there are a few games I got stuck on and he should be ready to kick ass in no time.

Our final day at Disney

It was pouring out when we woke up. We were happy that the weather held off so we could see the shuttle launch, but we were a little bummed because we had another day at the Kingdom paid for. Then we thought, hopefully folks will stay home because of the weather. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA foolish newbies that we were, I think the entire population of FL thought the same thing. It had stopped raining by the time we got to the park, but DAMN was it crowded, that may be typical for a Friday though. I made it my first mission to have the professional photographers take our picture at every opportunity. Disney has come up with a great idea in a photo pass. It’s a card that you carry with you and just give to the photographers. This then allows you to view all of your photos at once and on line. Now if only they could photo shop me less 30 lbs or so…

We started in Adventure Land. Boy toy took Spotty to Buzz while I ran over to Space Mountain. They also did some rocket ship ride that was really high up in the air and the transit authority again. Then we went to the Monster Inc laugh floor. This was funny and Spotty seemed to get a kick out of it, after a few more photos of us in front of the castle we headed to Frontier Land.

My second mission was for Spotty to see Woody. We never saw him the first time around and he was really excited to see him. Apparently Woody did a show in Frontier Land. “Woody’s Roundup”, with Jessie and Bullseye. We grabbed a bite to eat and saw that it was almost time for the show, so we grabbed our tray and took off. We got a great spot and Spotty was shaking he was so excited when he saw them all walking down the street. One of the human dancers asked Spotty if he wanted to come join the show, he could ride a wood horse. Spotty said “YES”, he grabbed his horse and didn’t look back. He was the youngest child they picked and he was having a blast! They also did a few dances including the hokey pokey. I was having the friggen time of my life video taping him, he was so happy and sooooo freakin cute!!!!! I think this was the highlight of the trip for us.
We hit Peter Pan again and then it’s a small world. Boy toy joined us this time and got a kick out of how much fun Spotty seemed to have. We went back to Goofy’s barnstorm and while I stood in line for 30 min Spotty fell asleep. We did a bit of shopping, they have this really cool build Mr. Potato head area, fill a box with a potato and accessories. I just filled it with eyes, hats, feet etc. I can’t wait for Spotty’s birthday. Since Spotty was still asleep, I decided that I would ride the train with him while Boy toy went off to do whatever. Spotty got a good hour plus nap. I got to rest. The breeze was great. Spotty woke up, we went around the park again and then we saw dada looking for us. We got more pictures with Goofy, Donald and Pluto, did Peter Pan again and then the Winnie the Pooh ride, which started off as a 20 min wait and turned into over an hour. That was hell. Spotty and I drove race cars at some point I hate them, but he likes them. We stayed to see the electric light parade. I told boy toy he and Spotty would really like it. They did. I kept thinking that Spotty’s grin couldn’t get any bigger, but it did for this.
Our trip to the airport was uneventful the next day, except we forgot to fill the gas tank. The flight was good, and it was good to get home.

Thanks #3 for picking us up, and actually dropping us off, and fixing my car. You rock.

Huston we have liftoff!!!!

So early on in our trip while we were hanging out and watching TV, boy toy picked up on the fact that there was going to be a shuttle launch during our stay. OH MY GOD. I was trying not to make a big deal out of it, but boy toy seemed to get it into his head that our vacation would not be complete if we missed this. One of our books had a number that you can call to get up to date info on the launch and we called to find out what time the launch was. Lucky for us it was an afternoon launch so we planed a day of it.

On Thursday one of the news stations had a running ticker on what was going on. We were concerned with the weather and before we left the news was reporting a 70% chance that the launch would be postponed. We decided what the hell, there was a wildlife park over by the space center we could always do that if the mission was scrubbed. Did I mention that we brought my TomTom? God I love that thing!!! We ended up at the Astronaut Memorial Plaza in Titusville. There were hundreds of people there. It was right on the water across from Cape Canaveral. Boy toy held down the fort while Spotty and I went to play. I had stuffed a bunch of cars into our backpack and we were looking for a place to drive them. One little girl came over and wanted to play so we gave her a car. You would have thought I was giving away Crack. We suddenly were surrounded by kids all wanting cars and to play. I was a hero to several moms.

And then…it started, they pipe in what’s going on at the control tower and they said “we are a GO” the crowd cheered. You could literally feel the excitement, and when the count down began it was so quiet and then, you heard it. DAMN it is loud and beautiful and awe inspiring. Seeing it on TV just isn’t the same. It is magical. I hope to god I get to see it again. When it was over we spent some time roaming around the park. I spent money to have an envelope postmarked with Cape Canaveral and the date and a Yoda stamp. I am a dork what can I say.

It was mid-afternoon, so we decided to go to the wildlife preserve. They have a driving tour that lets you see what Florida used to look like. Every couple of hundred feet you would see a car or cars pulled over with people taking photographs. We saw tons of birds. They also had areas where you could get out and walk to observatory stations that were equipped with binoculars. Spotty just loved the chance to run around. We spent a good 2 hours meandering about. It was getting dark when we left and Boy toy spotted an enormous alligator, it had to have been about 8 feet not including the tail, and it was about 10 feet from the car, just sat there looking at us. Pretty damn cool if I do say so.

Movie Reviews by Spotty Chop

I was reading Pajiba when Spotty came over to me and asked "what you doing". When I explained that I was reading about movies he indicated that he wanted to talk about movies. This is what followed

Hot Wheel Movie
Like race cars
Don’t like monsters

Toy Story
Like Woody
Dislike Rex

Elmo in Grouchland
Like Elmo
Dislike Oscar

Bugs Life
Likes Princess Atta
Dislikes Hopper

Peter Pan
Likes Peter
Dislikes Capt Hook

Cars
Likes Lightning McQueen
Dislikes Red

Monsters Inc.
Likes Sully
Dislike Mike Wazowski

We were laying on the floor and talking almost in whispers, and when i started to type this stuff down so I wouldn't forget, he would say "mama, come back down here, I am talking to you". I did try to ask about Finding Nemo, but he said "not yet mama, Monsters". Then I looked at the clock and realised I had to get his ass to bed.