5 posts tagged “vacation”

Ok, it might have been a little cold...

That's ice on Squawpan Lake...and that is snow Mr. Trent is standing in. Well, after a winter of 197 inches of the stuff, it's bound to take a while to melt. We had two kinds of home made donuts (yum!) and I had a lobster roll and fried clams (yum!) We played lots of Upwords & did crossword puzzles while talkign and watching TV (some Canadian).

Trent got to spend his birthday with our northern nieces Taylor & Sophia. I got many videos with the new camera. I'm hoping the one of Trent and Sophia playing horsey came out because it was hysterical. Trent and Taylor invented a new game...one of Trent's quotes from Bugs Bunny is "I'm a fiddler crab! Why don't you shoot me? It's fiddler crab season!" from the cartoon "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" wellll, Taylor was walking like a puppy so Trent showed her how to walk like a fiddler crab--that somehow devolved into "Fiddler Crab Wrestling"

Which Taylor wanted to play at every chance. That and she wanted to make episodes of "Taylor TV" with the new video camera.

Got to go out to camp, but not stay :-( maybe next time. Got to visit the Grandmas and spend lots of time with Grenda and Roger. I even saw six moose--mooses--meese Well, to be truthful I think two of them were repeats (the same moose over successive days) but they were my first!

Flying was a pain...driving is a pain...maybe we should just STAY next time! :-)

Sold ten more copies of my book over the weekend! Do you have yours yet? ;-)

Back in the salt mines.

Funny, I never think to blog when I am home with 700 things to do...but give me an overlong lunch hour and it's all I want to do.

Had a nice week off. Cleaned a little. Finished "Kingdom Hearts 2" Possibly the lamest videogame ever (but I hadda finish it!) It was just one movie after another. You never got to use any of the neat stuff you learned. And started a fabulous new one:

Final Fantasy XII Signature Series Guide

(This is the game guide...not the video game itsself). So far so good ten hours in...I usually spend about 100 with a Final Fantasy game. I'm so excited.

Spent some quality time with my Loverman. He helped it be a great birthday! We saw one good movie "Dan in Real Life" and one really good movie "Gone Baby Gone" (go see it!)

Gotta get back to werk! More later...

BONNIE TYLER!

For those of you wondering "Who?" You know these songs: "It's a Heartache," "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" "Straight From the Heart," "Total Eclipse of the Heart," and "Holding out for a Hero."

For those of you thinking, "Yeah, but that was the 80's" check out her discography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Tyler_discography Yeah, she's released THAT much & Trent has most of it.

But she usually only tours in Europe. This is as close as she has been in our adult lifetime! We had to go.

"Faster than the Speed of Night" was the second LP (gosh, I'm old) I ever bought...but Trent is a huge fan...here's how huge:

Flowers and cats 018

So we drove 425 miles up to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to see Miss Tyler in concert. It took seven hours & this was (if you have been reading) the reason for the whole passport thing. The Canadian boarder guard was very nice...no wait there. We checked into our hotel (Hilton Falls View) and had a view of both Niagara and Horse Shoe. Breath-taking!!!

We went out walking around looking for a place to have an early dinner. And we played the games we usually do--every limo that went by, we said "Hi Bonnie!" We took a ton of pictures (some coming soon probably)...but couldn't find a place we liked.

Now, the concert was in the Casino across the street from our hotel. We had been there to check the lay of the land...and decided to go to a restaurant called "The Famous" which looked like an upscale diner. They had pictures of famous people in the entry way signed...the sublime (Loretta Lynne) and the ridiculous (Carrot Top). We sat down in a nice comfy booth. Just after our wine arrived, about an hour after these pictures were taken...Trent's eyes got reeal big. He was facing the door. He said, "Oh, my God! There she IS!" I had to crane my neck to see Bonnie Tyler standing in the doorway waiting on a table.

Trent smiled at her and waved. She waved back...the waitress started to seat them across the aisle from us--but Bonnie saw a table a little farther across the room she liked better--but she turned to Trent and waved again and said "Helloo!"

Well, dinner was never the same. That's all we talked about. Trent was weak in the knees...he's so dang cute!...we debated seeking autographs, but decided to let her have a quiet dinner with her companion--who we thought might be her hubbie, but turned out to be her tour manager--hubbie was in Spain.

WOW! We had dinner with Bonnie Tyler! (Yeah, she was a couple tables away...but still!)

The fireworks that night were amazing. We rode the Maid of the Mist and went to a wild bird park and rode the huge ferris wheel before having a waaay too expensive dinner (we've had better here in Dayton for half that)...and on to the concert. Front row in a packed house! For her first concert ever in Canada!

We were quite depressed that she didn't have T-shirts or CDs to sell...we really wanted that autograph. Sigh. But she talked to us as she left...

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That's just before she came over to say howdie :-) or rather bye since it was over. Then we had a couple night caps and zonked. The drive home wasn't too bad (but work the next day sucked). The actual border guy on the American side was nice...but the guy in charge of getting cars into lines was an ass--and there was a half hour wait. Note to America: want to save gas? be more efficient at your boarder.

She's playing in Vegas pretty soon...hmmmm ;-)

PKI Pride!

It started Friday the 21st when we took the day off and went to Paramount's Kings Island! Being a lamo, I haven't taken Trent eventhough we've been here six years. For those of you outside the area, it is an excellent theme park. We went to "Pride Night" Which was a fund raiser for Cincinnati's Gay Center. Now, I was expecting something like "Red Shirt Day" at PKI (used to go to those in college) where the general population is allowed in, buy GLBT people get a discount.

NOPE! This was a private party! Nothin but Homos and Dykes and no lines. Fabulous! Trent and I rode more rollercoasters than you can shake a stick. Best ride--was "The Slingshot" Yes, for those of your who know him, Trent strapped himself into a metal cage in the shape of a ball & the two of us alone were flung into the night sky. AMAZING!

The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard

My parents & Godmother came over to dinner. Then we had a few days off to veg. We went to the used book store (I dropped off shipment number 3 of my Newbery books...I now have only the ones that were nominated, that I loved, or that I still want to read--some YA titles I didn't read because I didn't have time. We watched a lot of movies including:

I am now writing reviews for Amazon Vines, which means they send me free stuff in return for writing a review. (yes, on top of VOYA, Kirkus, and Kirkus Discoveries--I like reviewing!) Well, I'm not the best person to write a review of this because I LOVE Jane Horrocks. And after this...I love her even more. We only have two episodes left (boohoo!) but it is fantastic! It's a BBC television series about a political novice who is elected Prime Minister. It's funny & touching & very dramatic...LOVE IT! (MARK YOUR CALENDARS!! It's on Masterpiece Theater starting 10/21!!)

Speaks the Nightbird

We got lots of reading done. I had a couple reviews for the journals to write...and I read a recreational title. I read the first half of Robert McCammon's "Speaks the Nightbird." This is the book that almost ended his writing career. He submitted it to his publisher in the early 90's and was basically told, "No, it's not a Robert McCammon book." After fighting with them he gave up & it wasn't until years later that a small house talked him into publishing it with them. Well, the sequel is coming out this month. I certainly hope the editor who told him NO back then has lost his or her job. The book is great! And what kind of brainless editor says NO to a proven author who has just had his genre-breaking #1 bestseller ("Boy's Life")? A pretty piss-poor editor, for sure!

The one bad thing? My eye started swelling up Monday...I called it a stye...and it might have been...Doctor thought it was a skin infection (still on Keflex). I put 900 warm wet compresses on it and by Thursday it had a little white bump...by Saturday (the big day up north--more on that later) it was almost gone. Bleck! I hate things like that!

So all in all it was a really nice time off with my favorite person in the world! :-) 

Kinda showin' my age, yes, but...a mere hour and a half from vacation I cannot contain myself!

This is a hang out at home vacation...or that was the plan until Gay Day at Kings Island cropped up (tomorrow). Trent has never been. This outta be good! And then Bonnie Tyler scheduled a concert at Niagara Falls...so we HAD to buy tickets. As you might remember from the whole passport fiasco.

Well, I have my passport and I am a rarin' to go. Trentie, of course, has his too--he was never in danger of being on the Republican's black list though--he just ain't as mouthy as me ;-)

And since I can't leave without putting a book here. Here's one for teachers. This is an excellent writing guide. Yes, it is aimed at making your teaching of writing more boy friendly...but not to the exclusion of girls. If you teach writing or even if you are just having trouble with your boy students, give this one a look:

Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices