Jabober

Today, we went to Disneyland and California Adventure. We go often. In fact, whenever we don't know what to do, Disneyland's one of the first things on our list of options.

Most days we do the same ole, same ole. But today, we weren't there for very long, so we decided only to do things that didn't involved waiting in line, unless we could all do it together.

We went on the Jungle Cruise first. As we were going around, listening to silly puns, I stared at the large group of foreign tourists sitting in the boat in front of me and wondered - why do people who obviously don't speak English want to go on this ride?

We tried to go to Tom Sawyer's island next. But right when we were about to sail across the little river, we were kicked out of line. They told us that there would be divers in the water and they didn't want to run anymore boats. We never got an answer as to why there would be divers in the water. A little while later, we saw a boat full of suits sail across to the island. Who the heck knows what the real story was. Perhaps they were attending a secret meeting of the Disney brotherhood over in the caves.

Our next stop was It's a Small World. Always a crowd pleaser. (Well, I guess it depends on who is in your crowd.)

We headed over to California Adventure (CDA) next. Last time we went to CDA, we met Crush, the turtle, in the Animation building. We enjoyed that so much, we went back today to see the Sorcerer's Workshop. It was quite delightful. The kids had fun making movies, doing voice overs and playing with the spinny things.

We tried to go on Monsters Inc. next. But, uhm, 1.5 hours was just too much of a wait. We were commenting on this fact, when a woman who had just left the ride overheard us. "It's not worth it." She grumbled to us, under her breath, pushing her children along.

Then we had a hot dog (took over 20 minutes to get our hot dogs. Don't go to the hotdog place unless there's no line). It got very cold during dinner, so we headed home.

We've been to DL and CDA so many times, yet, we still find new stuff to do there. And it seems to me, the less we focus on going on rides, the more fun stuff we do. Waiting in line - not fun. Doing stuff - fun.

My dad's coming out in June, with his kids, and we'll be spending 3 days at the parks. By then, we'll have many secret delights to show his family. Nothing like seeing the D with a native.

Posted by Tammy at 09:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yoshi came home with a new car on Saturday. We ordered it through Carsdirect. I watched him steer it up the driveway. It is blue, shiny, new. It has a leather interior. "Neat," I thought.

We've had it for three days now. I'm thinking of getting a personlized lisence plate. ENTRPRZ it will say. I can talk to our new car and tell it to change stations, adjust the temperature, play a DVD or manipulate the navigation system. Our new car will tell me if the tire pressure is too low or if the oil pressure is low. It will tell me if there is something in the front passenger seat that is blocking the side air bags. It will tell me when I need to take it in for service, or if I forgot to click in the gas cap after filling up the tank. It will tell me if the parking brake is still on and I try to drive the car.

It plays separate music in the front and back of the car. It has three temperature zones. It has a butt warmer, that remembers my settings when I turn off the car.

There are buttons, doo-dads and compartments scattered all over the interior. I have no idea what most of it does.

But no matter, I can talk to my car, and tell it what to do. The only thing it doesn't do is drive itself. That, is why, I want to name it Enterprise.

Here is our new car. The 2006 Odyssey

Posted by Tammy at 06:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was at the computer, and the kids were playing Crash Bandicoot. Suddenly, it was really quiet, and I wondered, "Where is Megan?"

I stood up towards the kitchen, started looking around and couldn't find her. So I headed back to my computer to search again. This is what I saw upon my return through the living room:

Posted by Tammy at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday was Allison's 5th birthday. We had a special day planned for her. She has been talking about going back to the snow ever since last Christmas, when we went to my dad's house in Colorado. So, as our birthday present to her, we took her up to the snow.

After stopping by Sport Chalet to pick up gloves and hats for the kids, we drove for an hour up the 2 into the Angeles Crest Mountains. We had to go past 6000 feet before we found snow. When we did, Allison nearly jumped out of her seat.

We got out of the car, donned our hats and gloves, and explored.


We soon found out that the snow was not exactly soft. In fact, it was solid ice (that looked a lot like snow.)


We had to tread carefully, and all three kids fell hard on the ice a few times, but that didn't keep them from having fun. They were amazed and awed by the ice snow.


Yoshi and the kids tried to get up the hill, but it was too slippery. Yoshi tried to make steps in the ice with a rock, but it was still too slippery.


Megan couldn't keep her gloves on, so eventually took them off and played in the ice with bare hands. It didn't bother her at first, but after a while her hands started to get really cold. It was getting dark at this point, so we packed up and headed home.


This is a picture of the incredible sunset that we saw on our way down the mountain. The sky was just about every color you could imagine. It was the prettiest sunset I've seen in a long time.


We had dinner at CPK, where Allison got a free meal and a big ice cream sundae since it was her birthday. We ended our adventure with a quick trip to the bookstore, then headed home, tired and happy from a day of fun.

Posted by Tammy at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For dinner, we ate a tri-tip from the Handy Market that we love so much. I love their tri-tips.

I started my meal with gusto, cutting up my slices of meat, scooping them up with rice. But as the meal progressed, I noticed that I was putting aside more and more pieces that were too full of fat for my tastes. It got to the point that I had to do major surgery to find a piece that I would enjoy.

Even though I would have been happy to eat many more pieces of scrumptious tri-tip, I gave up searching for edible portions. Instead, I decided to consciously savour my last few bites, dump the rest in the trash, and have some chocolate and wine.

Posted by Tammy at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I hate door-to-door soliciting.

Every couple of months, we get a kid who is in his late teens coming door to door trying to sell magazines in order to pay his way through college.

I will not buy magazines from people at my door. I don’t care how legit the program is, I have no guarantee that the money will get to the magazine. I don’t care how trustworthy the person at the door says he is, he will not get my money.

I also don’t care how much they try to say they aren’t here to sell magazines. Nor do I care if they are upset that I’m so crass to assume that they are here to get my money.

If I say, “I’m sorry, I don’t give money to solicitors at my door,” I’m not implying anything about the person. I am saying that I don’t give money to solicitors at my door. No amount of, “Ma’am, I can’t believe you’d assume that about me,” crap is going to guilt me into changing my mind.

Oh, and a note to solicitors, if I open the door, and the first thing you say to me is, “Don’t worry, I’m not a crazy person,” you aren’t gaining my confidence. Nor will I listen to you say more than two sentences before I tell you to bug off.

And on another note, let’s say the program that these kids are pushing is legit. What a HORRIBLE way to make money for college. How about a job? How about scholarships? How about work/study? How about alternative means of education like a trade school or a community college? Sending kids around door to door asking for money to fund their college education is just wrong. Well, unless, they are getting funding to go to a pyramid scheme college or a cell phone kiosk university. Then it’s a perfect first step in training.

Posted by Tammy at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went back to the gym today after a two week unplanned sick leave. The second thing that people said to me, after, “How are you feeling?”, was, “Oh, you look like you lost weight.”

The fact is, I feel like I’ve lost weight. I feel like I’ve lost a few pounds of muscle, and generally shrunk a bit. I also feel like I’m carrying around a pound or two of phlem in my head.

So, not eating for two weeks (well, even longer than that if you take in consideration the fact that I never recovered from my stomach flu four weeks ago) is a very effective way to lose weight. It comes with a price, but heck, what doesn’t?

No, there’s nothing good about this diet plan. I’ve lost my love of food, I am weak and I have a headache. Not worth it if you ask me. I’ll stick with traditional “exercise and appreciate food for the wonder that it is” health plan. Worked for me very well before December. I can’t wait to get back on that plan.

So, like I said, I went back to the gym today. I spent 20 minutes on the elliptical machine, in an attempt to build my cardio back up from being a couch-lump for two weeks (and after recovering from the aforementioned stomach flu). During that time, I utilized my new iPod shuffle.

I discovered that my iPod is one of the most awesome things in the universe. 20 minutes went by in a flash and I thoroughly enjoyed the superior music selection. Whoever put the music together on my iPod was a music master.

I love my iPod. Now, I want to start loving my food again. Music and food are two of the most enjoyable and sacred things of our physical world. Ok, so that’s a bit extreme, but a day without enjoying both is a sad day indeed.

Posted by Tammy at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During our week of being sick, we've been watching movies. Normally, I write or play WoW at night, but I haven't had the stamina or focus to do either by night time. But I can't sleep either due to my coughing. So, movies it is.

Last night, we watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. I had no idea what the movie was about. I didn't even know Jim Carrey was in it. It took me a few minutes to recognize him. I'm so glad that I didn't know anything. It made the movie much more enjoyable. I held no preconceptions and let the characters and story unfold the way they were meant to.

I won't go into the movie's plot, because if you haven't heard of this movie, I don't want to spoil it for you. But I will say that this is the first Jim Carrey movie I've liked. I mean I really liked it. It's not a comedy. I now believe that Jim is a much better non-funny actor, than a funny one. Kate Winslet did an amazing job with her character. And the cinematography was beyond amazing on the amazing scale.

See it. Don't ask questions. Just watch. It's beautiful.

Posted by Tammy at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)