Scratching Post

We spent the last week in Cancun on vacation, the 70-80 degree temps a sharp contrast from the single digits and negative temps of MN. Friday was wolfie74's birthday and she really wanted to spend it somewhere with sun, water, and sand that was not behind clouds, frozen, or used for traction on the ice.

( Thursday )

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

( Monday )

( Tuesday )

( Wednesday )

All in all, a pretty good trip. Beautiful sites, excellent food, awesome weather. We didn't hit the hugely touristy spots (everyone assumes you want to go to Coco Bongo and Señor Frogs, which are huge Spring Break places, but not for us) but still had a good time.

[GIMP and iCloud are not playing well with each other (actually, iCloud is not playing well with itself either after the latest iOS update), so the pictures turned out a bit large. Because of this, I am tacking them on at the end behind their own cut instead of within the main text.]

( Pictures )

At least I am pretty sure it is a jet?

In just a tiny bit over a day, wolfie74 and I leave for New Orleans. No idea about wi-fi and posting access while we are there but, then again, it's not like I have been doing much of that as of late anyway, so...

It's been 15 years since I was last in NO (threnodyjones correct my math if I am wrong?). I've only been twice, and the time before that was 2 years prior.

To give you some idea of just how long that is:
-Hurricane Katrina had not yet happened.

- They were hosting the Super Bowl either that year or the next, and were frantic to fix Riverwalk in time after a drunken barge crashed into it.

- We only had to walk through metal detectors to get to the plane.

- We could take our own food and drink on the plane in bottles greater than 3.4 ounces.

- threnodyjones was able to talk the airport security (not TSA) into walking her bag of video tapes of shared tv shows around the magnetic metal detectors so they wouldn't get wonky.

- I was not out to myself yet, let alone my family (though was oddly intrigued by Xena...).

- We had to stop to get traveler's checks as cash cards were damned near unheard of.

- We used paper maps and scratch off transit cards because smart phones and electronic cards were not invented yet (I honestly cannot remember if either one of us even had a cell phone yet).

- We had to carry around spare rolls of film for our clunky cameras and no, they were not those fancy professional kind.

- I was not old enough to legally drink.

Needless to say, going with my lesbian partner of 12 years, a curiosity about the rebuilding, and a tolerance to booze that would do my Irish grandmother proud, this time may be different. Let's see if we survive?

So this weekend we went up north to the middle of nowhere to celebrate wolfie74’s birthday. In the past, she has done such things as gone winter camping in blizzards and record lows so, as a possible saner compromise, I rented us a small cabin at a little lodge half way between Lutsen and Grand Marais.

( Text Portion )

( Picture Portion (5 pics) )

So, that was my extended weekend. Fun and relaxing, and wolfie74 seemed to enjoy her present as well, so there's not much more you can ask for (except the house to be cleaned when we returned, but we have two tween boys, so that was not to be).

Once upon a time, there were two lesbians and their children who went on a trip to Disney World. It rained. A lot. *g*

( Report and a handful of pics under the cut )

So Thursday morning we leave for our vacation. I will be bringing the mini and hope to both get some writing done (it’s been over a week since I’ve written anything productive), and have online access. No promises on either though, so I apologize if I don’t respond to things right away. I know there’s a few comments I have not gotten to yet either, and possibly more that got lost in the laptop/virus shuffle. Sorry!

wolfie74’s mother got us a vacation to Disney World for Christmas. She was originally going to go with, but got extremely ill a few months back and did not think she’d be able to handle the walking and such, and bowed out, wishing us a good time. I’ve never been there before, though the boys have, and have to admit I’m not sure what to expect.

I’m going to be brutally honest here and likely sound like an ungrateful twat, but Disney is so not my thing. I’m not a fan of large crowds of people, lots of sun, lots of heat and humidity, and enforced “fun”. I get hypersensitive to crowds and feel like they’re pressing in on me, burn walking to the car, and prefer both the cold where you can add layers and making my own fun. That said, this was a gift and it’s friken Disney World, and you accept it politely and move on and see what’s what while you’re there.

wolfie74’s mother also just realized that she’s sending two ADD and two ADHD people down during the Fourth of July celebrations. She winced and said sorry and we replied that it could be worse and then pointed out that it’s hurricane season, supposed to be the worst in ten years, there’s the oil spill in the Gulf, and, really, at least there should not be flaming hurricanes a la xkcd. *g*

So that’s what’s going on if I go oddly silent for a while. For now, I have tons of month-end stuff to finish up at work, the boys have a soccer game on Wednesday (against each other – oh the car ride should be fun!), and Leverage episodes to move over to a portable device so I have something to entertain me on the plane.

Back from Bogota and far too many hours of flying. Not fully conscious yet though (got up at 4 am in Bogota and got home at midnight in Mpls). Still need to upload photos and such (I remembered, threnodyjones) but kept a running account of some of the stuff so I wouldn't forget and will be posting that after reading it through again.

Short version: I didn't kill anyone! And was only tempted to knock off one person the entire time! And, Colombia is beautiful!

Off to find foodage and possibly veg some more.

Sunday night already. We leave for Colombia first thing Tuesday morning. There is no guarantee of any sort of internet access, so I'm assuming none and turning pretty much everything off until we return on the 10th.

Catching up is going to be difficult and/or impossible to do. If there is anything OMG huge, life-threateningly important, please leave a note here so I can find it. Same goes if you have any truly awesome fic recs. *g*

Other than that, I work tomorrow, will close things down tomorrow night, and see y'all on the 10th, barring any horrific disasters. Should there be any said horrific disasters, er, it might be a bit longer... *g*

PS - Still looking for someone to post a prompt over at sg_prompts on Friday while I'm away. Please let me know if you are willing to do so.

Okay, so I admit I didn't write much for the first few days in Paris. The plane ride was highlighted by fighting to be able to sit next to our children due to an airline screw up, entertainment systems that worked about 30% of the time, and the SARS victims behind us coughing through the flight. Well, that was the first flight to Amsterdam. The second one just had the French man next to me obsessively biting his nails and picking his nose. Yes, it was as pleasant as it sounds.

( It Gets Better... Really It Does! [with pictures] )

Back from France and rather exhausted. We got in last night and pretty much passed out once released from my partner's mother's house. Kept a journal there that should be up later this weekend, possibly with pictures and everything.

Right now I am downloading about 3000 messages, so I might be a bit behind in responding to things - sorry! I'll try to get to those once I get some food in me or, you know, another nap...

As promised, the first part of what will most likely be several posts about our trip to Greece.  I still need to download the pictures, so none of those yet, but here's a brief run down based on a mini-journal I kept while we were there.


Also to mention, as Elena repeatedly said, we have found our people.  I swear over half of Athens is ADD, fueled by caffeine and constantly playing with their worry beads (beads strung on a string and flipped in your hand - available everywhere for a euro or two) because sitting still is just too much.  When we get going, there are times either or both of us have the attention span of a gnat, easily distracted by pretty things.  They understood us and welcomed us with open arms.