Author Archives: Dianne

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About Dianne

Domestic goddess, wife, mom, gardener, paper and collage artist, geocacher, local traveler, cross stitcher, baker, crafter, Facebooker, blogger, decorator and photographer.
May13

Hey, let’s fly over the White House!

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There’s nothing that’s been this dumb happen for a while. And the poor idiots were from near here-Smoketown. What were they thinking? Didn’t they heed the warning or didn’t they even know where they were? (What’s that big white pointy thingie down yonder?) They are lucky they didn’t get their butts blown to smithereens! Guess they didn’t make the airshow in North Carolina.

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I’m back to my night owl ways. I actually didn’t mind getting up early the time we were down in Florida. You sure utilize more of the day, but I was flat on my back by 8pm. That’s not me at all. Still got to see ‘my tv shows’ in the hotel at night. I really didn’t miss the computer that much either. I was so glad to be doing something different. I think we need to travel this country more. I know, it cost money. We’re not that old that I can at least see a few more states.

May12

Orlando trip continued

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So on to Monday. We were ready to leave by 10 am and found a McDonald’s for breakfast. I mailed off my postcards at the hotel and put my questionnaire in with the speedy check-out card.
We headed down to see the Titanic exhibit. I have seen one down in Atlantic City about 6 yrs ago. The Philadelphia Art Museum had a exhibit going on for a few months and we missed it.
A nice young lady dressed in a 1912 outfit greeted us and lead part of the tour. She had handed out cards with 3 passengers names on them and we were asked to check out the names later in the exhibit. The cards pretty much matched us-my lady was 38, Sean’s young man was 21 and Brian’s was around 50. All 3 of our passengers perished. Not thrilled with that since we were about to get on the plane. I would say that all the cards they give out didn’t have the people survive to make the exhibit more meaningful.
The replica of the Grand staircase was beautiful. There was a ‘hunk’ of iceberg in one room which was really cold. We also went through a door and it was like standing on the deck with all the stars in the sky and very cold similar to the night it happened. It wasn’t in the 30s (I can tell from where we live), but it was chilly.
I loved seeing the items from the ’97 movie. The costumes that both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio worn and the diamond ring that Kate worn.
Even though those poor people died like that, they are still being remembered by so many people.
We drove around this area a little and Sean went into his favorite store ‘Old Navy’. We didn’t buy anything as our suitcases were jammed packed. We headed to Hertz about 1:30 or so. We just drove into a lane and got out and that was it! The bus took us to the airport quickly too. Everything was running smoothly until a teen in the line in front of us suddenly fell forward-I think he fainted. The metal pole holding the rope made a terrible noise, but his mom screaming scared the crap out of me! He was alert, but they did call an ambulance. Last we heard was that he did something to his hip-maybe it was out of the socket. Poor kid.
We had lunch and then picked out some magazines before heading through security. It wasn’t as involved as it was in Philly. Sean had a mini Cranium game, so he and I played that until we were called to get on the plane. The flight was fine except for one boy who was about 2 fussed the entire 2 hours.
We were the first people to get our baggage and we called the parking lot bus to come get us. It took us about 2 hours to get home (we stopped for a quick roast beef sandwich at Arbys also).
Cosmo was glad to see us. He still had a lot of food left. I figured he slept a lot. He’s been watching me like a hawk for two days. He must have been off and on my lap about 15 times yesterday.
We did have a great get-away. We really needed to see something different. I am planning another trip up to Martha’s Vineyard someday so I can stay in Hugh Taylor’s place (James Taylor’s brother). I’d like to see Maine and New Hampshire too. Then the west coast and some states in between. Nothing is as good as home though.

May10

Happy, tired and crazy

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We got home last night from Orlando. The trip went way too quickly. Here’s a recap of the last few days:
Friday morning:
Sad-leaving my kitty down the basement-he had three beds, two litterboxes, two big bowls of water and we left the radio on.
Queasy-I was dressed for Florida weather, but it was like 40 or lower here. We found the off airport parking well, but being so cold gave me a coughing attack. The bus driver went about 80 to the airport and I had to sit down when we went through the doors there as I felt close to hurling.
Funny-Seeing Brian and Sean being frisked at security. They had to take off their shoes, etc. I wish I had a video camera that day! Also saw local interest reporter Don Polec from ABC-6 at the Orlando airport and said hello. He was wearing a safari hat with a tag hanging off the back. BTW, Brian did great on the plane after not flying for 16 yrs. Sean felt a bit funny going down.
Awesome-the Orlando airport is beautiful-like a mall with air service. We got right on the bus to Hertz (after we found it) and got a ’05 white Monte Carlo with a sun roof. We had to have help with directions but found the Hard Rock Hotel in no time. Check in took a while, but it was a cool place with one of the biggest pools I have ever seen. We saw outfits belonging to several musicians including Elvis and Jimmi Hendrix.
Stinky-obviously a dog had been in our room-we had a definite pee odor near the bed and one of the chairs. This is a 4 star hotel! We never changed rooms, but we complained about it on the questionnaire form. We were so tired and had already unpacked, so I used some strong perfume to try and mask the smell.
Fun-we walked to the City Walk free part of Universal after dinner at the hotel. Sean wasn’t feeling too great. We took the ferry back and continued to use it the rest of our stay.
Saturday-
Coolness-We went to a breakfast buffet at the same in house restaurant where we ate dinner the night before and it was yummy! It was also cool to see Hulk Hogan and his family eating there too. He was doing something in the park.
Cattle herding-so it began-we already had paid for the tickets, but had to wait in line to get the tickets for about 45 minutes. I think they do this so they can get more money out of you to go to the other park ‘Island Adventure’.
The best for first-we read that Men in Black was a must (and I was told this too). We put our stuff in a locker that was activated by a finger scan. We had an express pass because we were staying within Universal, so we could go in a shorter line. What a blast this ride was. I ‘zapped’ up to 74,000! Bri and Sean only had half that. At the locker, Brian couldn’t get his finger to scan and someone at the park had to open it for us. Other rides we did: Back to the Future (not good for my tummy), Jaws, Twister and Shrek 4D. Missed a few here, but we got really tired before we headed to ‘Island of Adventure’. This was not the best move to make. It was crowded with teens and most of the rides were closed down for the day or something. So we missed Jurassic Park, Spiderman and a few others.
Cute-Sean bought me a ‘Puss n’ Boots’ from Shrek for a Mom’s day gift. : )
We went to a restaurant called NBA Restaurant and had an appetizer and huge salads.
Sunday-Mother’s Day.
The guys got me a muffin for breakfast and we decided to head to Epcot as we all had slept well. We had gorgeous weather the entire trip. We got to Epcot in no time, but had to wait again in line. Sean wanted to see the different countries rather than the other part. We happen to catch a flower show there and saw some gorgeous landscaping and florals.
We stopped in the Canada exhibit first and saw a presentation on a surround screen. Also saw a couple who couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Geez.
We ate Japanese food for lunch which was fine inside a beautiful pagoda. We headed to ‘The America Adventure’ which is a neat show with audio animatronics (thx W) of Ben Franklin and Mark Twain among others. That was a must see on Sean’s map. Also a must see was Norway and we went on a Viking ship ride there. The last thing we did was go up into the Epcot sphere ride. We were hustling to get to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and Sean was paying for mine. I had NY strip steak which was great. The waitress liked us and took us up to see memorabilia from the late John Lennon’s apartment in NY including his white piano. Each piano key was signed by different musicians. We saw a white suit of John’s plus some drawing he had done. They use this room for special parties. We also went up stairs to see the stage. Dummy here went up to a higher seat section and tripped coming down and I hurt my ankle a little.
That night was a nightmare. I was so tired and achy and stuffed up I couldn’t go to sleep all night. I ended up crying around 5 am and Brian finally rubbed my sore legs. I sure felt like I had the flu.
Monday tomorrow.