Fun at Rummage Sales

Yesterday Nathan and I went to a rummage sale at the nearby Jewish temple.  We visited toward the end of the multi-day sale, and the organizers were starting to get desperate to get rid of stuff.  So they started handing out paper bags to customers and telling them that they could take whatever fit in the bag for $5.  This same thing happened last year at the Lutheran church rummage sale, except they were giving you the whole bag for $2, so they must have been more desperate to get rid of stuff.

Now, the thing is, at the end of a rummage sale, you probably aren't going to find a diamond ring to stuff in that paper sack.  And, truthfully, there was nothing there that I wanted to take home, even with the astounding "all-you-can-cram-in for $5" deal.

But I felt kind of bad for leaving empty-handed, and I reasoned there must be something I wanted in this giant room full of people's discards.  Plus Nathan started throwing some of the most random miscellaneous crap into the bag, like seriously broken toy parts and stuff, and ... well, this would be where I was supposed to use that parental technique known as "saying no," but I didn't think of that because my mind was too caught up in calculating all the amazing deals that could be had.

Eventually I stumbled upon this vintage cookbook:

 Helen Gurley Brown's Single Girl's Cookbook, copyright 1969

Like at the eye-catching orange and yellow swirls!  It's everything a turn-of-the-decade book cover should be: the psychedelic swirls of the sixties meets the hideous color palate of the seventies!  

I find the introduction on the front flap really funny:

Another cookbook?!

Yes, another cookbook.

And this particular one was four years in the preparation.  It's for single girls who haven't done much cooking before and for married girls who want to be as attractive as single girls in their husband's eyes.  Actually, it's so basic anybody can use it. 

First of all, I like how even in the late sixties, the market was already so over-saturated with cookbooks that she has to ask, "Another cookbook?!"  (And yes, it was in red font like that, and yes, she used the question mark/exclamation point combo, or interrobang or "quesclamation mark," which I foolishly thought was invented along with the Internet.)

Also, Helen Gurley Brown was like a major feminist, and in my college days I was informed that the term girls was demeaning to women and not at all politically correct.  Plus, the implication that you could cook your way into being attractive to your husband, to the point that you would be as attractive as a single woman ... hahahaha.  And how does being single equal being an inexperienced cook? 

Oh but wait, Helen's feminist slant comes out later in the introduction:

I believe passionately that any girl who wants to, can have a lovelier, happier life.  Not because it will be plopped into her lap but because she can do things herself to make it happen.  Cooking is one of them.  It's creative and you can please a lot of people with it.  You don't do all this cooking specifically for a man.  You do it for you, but if you follow the directions for each little dinner carefully, you can't help but wind up one of the most beloved hostesses in town. 

See, being a modern woman is about making success happen for you!  And there's no better way for a girl to get ahead in life than by cooking "little dinners"!  And oh, you're not cooking just for a man, you're sequestering yourself in the kitchen for you.  All this toiling in the kitchen is worth it, because you'll wind up one of the most beloved hostesses in town, and there is truly no greater honor that can be bestowed upon a woman. 

Note to self: Do not put the late sixties on your list of places to visit once you perfect that time-travel machine. 

But, as you can see, Helen Gurley Brown's Single Girl's Cookbook is a fun historical document.  And even though I have said before that my own person cabinet is as crowded with cookbooks as a 1969 bookstore shelf apparently was, it's still fun to have a vintage cookbook. 

Helen Gurley Brown begins by telling you the essential items you must have for the kitchen, and aside from "molds for aspic," the rest of the items seem like classic items that are still important today.  But I like what she says about the "Electric blender" :

This is a big investment, but I do think you should save up and buy one as fast as you can.  ... An electric beater, can opener, juicer--even a waffle iron and toaster--you can probably live without; a single girl doesn't--shouldn't anyway--eat a whole lot of toast or waffles, but don't wait too long to acquire the blender.

Did you get that?  If you're single, you aren't allowed to eat toast or waffles.  In fact, I shouldn't be telling you this, but the night before your wedding, your mom or another trusted female relative sits you down and gives you the true secret to making quality toast and waffles. 

Or maybe toast and waffles are really only for men, so that's why a single girl shouldn't have appliances that can make these food items? 

But for when you do catch a man, you might want to make "Rhett Butler Casserole You Can Feed Any Man" (p. 24), though I take exception with the "any man" part because it has sweet potatoes in it and my husband doesn't like those.  Perhaps he'd prefer "Deviled Kidneys with Mustard Butter and Bacon" (p. 66), except he doesn't like mustard.  (Plus, you know, it contains kidneys.) 

What is also nice is that Helen gives you menu options for very specific situations, such as "Summer Dinner for the Gang" or "When Your Boss Comes Over for Dinner in the Winter."  (Though I'm pretty sure when your boss comes over for dinner in the winter, the only difference between that and when your boss comes over for dinner in the summer is that you have to let him feel you up under a wool sweater as opposed to your sundress.  Presumably these recipes for when your boss comes over are kind of "hands-off" cooking, since you're too busy with your boss being "hands-on" with you in the living room.  A good single girl allows for the obligatory sexual harassment time.) 

Also: The "Winter Dinner for Relatives You Don't Like" menu, which has ... what? ... poison in it?  (Actually that menu just has more kidneys in it.)  Oh, and the "Summer Dinner for Relatives You Don't Like" features "Jellied Beef Tongue in Red Wine."  Relatives you don't like, indeed.  I think I'd prefer poison. 

Then on page 257, Helen gives us the recipe for "Wonderful Coffee."  Now, I realize in the sixties women weren't enrolling in college at the same rate as they are now, but how dumb were these single girls presumed to be?  The ingredients for "Wonderful Coffee" are: water and (see if you can keep up here) coffee grounds.  Thanks so much, Helen!  All these years I thought you were supposed to put kidneys in coffee!  

So, as you can see, this cookbook will prove to be infinitely useful.  Worth the $5 in and of itself!

Virtual Coffee

Welcome to coffee at my house!  Look at the pretty hydrangea centerpiece I've placed on the table.  (And don't you like how that random newspaper there gives this scene the real look of a casual morning cup of coffee?  That was intentional, of course.) 

I'd like to say I grew the hydrangeas in my yard, but they're from the grocery store.  I'm not even sure if those are naturally-occurring hydrangea colors or if they were dyed.  But they are so, so pretty and they make me happy.  They were only $6 for three stems, which makes me think I probably got ripped off at my wedding 7 years ago when the florist told me hydrangeas were $10/stem. 

I'll say one more thing about the flowers and then I'll stop.  The problem with hydrangeas is that they seem to die quickly after they're cut.  If you have a bouquet with a stem of hydrangea in it, inevitably the hydrangea will be the first flower to wither up, which is a problem because it often makes up the bulk of the bouquet.  A trick I learned is to cut little slits in the bottom of the hydrangea stem and fan it out for maximum water absorption.  In my limited flower-arrangement training, the main thing I've learned is that your main goal is maximum water absorption.  That's why you put warm water in a vase, because the warm water molecules travel faster up the stem.  (An exception is with tulips and daffodils, because those are early spring blooms and are therefore used to very cold water.)  That's also why you should cut your stems on an angle, because then you maximize the surface area of the stem that can suck up water.

I don't know why I just said all that.

Anyway.

Oh right, coffee.

Today I'm drinking the Dunkin' Doughnuts limited-time-only Strawberry Shortcake coffee, the kind you buy at the store.  It comes ground-up in bags, rather than in K-cups, so I have to use the special My K-Cup Attachment for the Keurig.  The attachment allows you to fill up the cup with any kind of grounds you want and put them in the Keurig.

Excuse the coffee pun, but I'm a little lukewarm on strawberry coffee.  Strawberries are my all-time favorite fruit (although nectarines are a very close second).  I bought 5 containers of strawberries on Sunday at the store.  My gym water bottle has strawberries on it.  And whenever I have a choice of flavor on anything, I pick strawberry.  But I think maybe that rule might not extend to coffee.  Strawberry coffee is a little bit weird.  I like how it makes the house smell, though.

And I'll probably be having a second cup because I am so, so tired.  Lately bedtimes have been very, very badtimes with Nathan.  (What am I saying, "lately"?  Always.)  Our current challenge comes courtesy of that wonderful extended daylight we get this time of year.  Here's how it goes: around 4:00 in the afternoon I start thinking about how I'd better get the wheels in motion for dinner, so that we can eat at 5:00 and do bathtime and stories and all that and Nathan can be in bed by 7:30.  Then he's in bed at 7:30, but he gets up.  Like a million times.  And eventually it's like 9:00 and he's still not sleeping.  He's not going down until the sun does.  So from the time I start thinking about winding down to the time Nathan finally falls asleep is like five effing hours. 

(Though I should note that I do not, in fact, slave over a hot stove making dinner for a full hour.  When I say I start thinking about dinner at 4:00, I'm really just thinking about turning on the oven, or boiling water or whatever.  I'd prefer a meal that sits in the oven for an hour to a meal where I have to stand there over a stove for 15 minutes or more.   Also I learned from Leigh Ann that the act of frittering around in the kitchen is known as potchkening in Yiddish.)

Back to my point about my kid's sleep, or lack thereof.  Okay, so I realized recently that maybe Nathan has inherited his father's night owl tendencies, which would be okay except (a) The child has many years of school ahead of him, and school starts in the morning, and (b) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  I don't want to be over-dramatic, but being married to a person who keeps unconventional hours is A Challenge.

Further compounding today's exhaustion is the fact that the kid woke up at 4 a.m. and didn't go back to sleep.  Oh, and further compounding that, is the fact that I pretty much blame myself for my kid's poor sleep habits.  I say if I were just a better mother, or less selfish, or something, the kid would sleep better.  Nobody else has these problems, right?

Rationally, I know that that most other parents have these problems.  How do I know?  Because Go the F**k to Sleep is currently the #2 bestselling book on Amazon.   I don't own the book, but I read it the other day at Barnes & Noble and it was so, so hilarious and so, so relatable.  And if it's selling so well, that must mean a lot of parents can relate to sleep struggles, which must mean I am not alone.  (My favorite part of the book was where the guy asks, "How is it that you can do so many amazing things, but you can't just roll over and sleep?"  My second favorite part was, "You're thirsty?  You're lying.  That's bullshit.") 

So I know I'm not the only parent who struggles with sleep.  Kids are just reluctant to sleep.  And yet every time my kid stays up too late or wakes up too early, I blame myself.  I think, This is all my fault.  If I just did x or y or had him on a better schedule, he wouldn't do that. 

Then I get into the whole You aren't allowed to feel tired, it's not like you have a job to go to or another kid to watch.  And pretty soon my mind has run through the whole litany of feel-bad thoughts and I've gotten to "And I'm also fat."

Speaking of my weight, I went on a bit of a carbohydrate bender last week, and I was up two pounds at Weight Watchers yesterday.  Time to get serious again.  This week, I will kick some Weight Watchers ass.  For breakfast this morning I had mini-quiches, which I whipped up yesterday and put in the fridge.  I'm going to give you the recipe so this post has some redeeming value beyond my general whining and self-pity.  The recipe comes from the May 15-21 weekly handout at Weight Watchers, which the leader always calls the Weekly Reader, making me think of those little magazines kids get in school. 

Muffin Tin Mini-Quiches (Makes 12; 4 Weight Watchers Points Plus each)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups nonfat or lowfat milk
• 1 cup Bisquick or Fiber One pancake mix
• Whatever vegetables you have (I have used spinach, mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers, all of which I sauteed before adding)
• 2 cups shredded lowfat cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a 12-hole muffin tin with nonstick spray.  Mix together ingredients and spoon into muffin tin.  (NOTE: If you use a lot of vegetables you might get more than 12 muffins, thus necessitating another muffin tin.)  Bake for 35-40 minutes.

They are really good!  Obviously they're not the kind of thing you can just whip up on a weekday morning, but they work really well if you make them ahead and reheat them.  I was able to make 22 quiches with this recipe yesterday, which lowered the Weight Watchers points value to 2 points per quiche. 

Also yesterday I made this recipe from SkinnyTaste.com.  It is like a Weight Watchers-friendly version of the biscuits they serve at Red Lobster.

In other news, I've been meaning to talk about how happy I am that Nathan and I have resumed our summer Saturday traditions.  This year I've signed him up for swimming lessons on Saturday mornings, which is actually not part of the tradition because last year he took the weekday lessons.  I just felt like only going to lessons once a week this year.  I took this slightly crummy picture of swim lessons:

I had to buy Nathan that bright green swim shirt/rash guard because it makes it easier to spot him in the crowd at the public pool. 

Don't worry, I'll get a better picture next week.  The first week all the kids in the preschool class have to start out in the baby pool, where parents have to sit too far away to get good pictures.  But Nathan got moved up to the big pool for next week, so I'll get better pictures.  (Unfortunately the parental sitting area for the bigger pool is in the direct sunlight.)  Swim lessons kind of play to my mostly unpleasant competitive nature, because there is always an opportunity to move up, or change pools, or use fewer floats on your belt than the next kid.  I kind of hate it, because I try to avoid situations where I am forced to compare my kid to other kids, and I especially try to avoid pushing him too hard in an activity where I excelled as a kid.  (Though my mom will tell you that I did not so much excel in early-childhood swim lessons.)  (Oh and also I should say that I understand that I can't totally avoid situations where I'm forced to compare my kid to other kids.  Obviously the entire grading system in school is based on comparing a kid to other kids.  But I wouldn't want to, say, have a discussion with another parent about her kid's performance in school, because my worry and insecurity come out really quickly in those situations.)

Anyway, the traditional part of our Saturdays happens after swim lessons.  First we go to the farmer's market.  Contrary to the name, a farmer's market may not be the best place to be when you're on Weight Watchers.  There are, like, two booths at the place that sell items grown on an actual farm.  Then there is the Cheese Booth.  Oh, so many wonderful, beautiful cheeses.  And the person who, umm, cuts the cheese is always so passionate and excited about the cheese.  You feel somehow like you are some kind of important chef buying farm-fresh artisinal cheeses.  There are the aged sharp cheddars and the smoked string cheeses and the goat cheese that I once heard a snobby lady call chevre.  Oh, and right next door is the bakery booth, where they sell these big baguettes of pretzel bread that somehow meander into your mouth as you browse the other booths.  Then you buy an overpriced $4 container of raspberries to assuage your guilt about the bread and cheese.

We go to the library after the farmer's market.  Then we make our way home, stopping at garage sales.  I will admit that before last year, I hated garage sales.  But then I discovered that they're a really cheap way to make my kid happy with new toys.  Unfortunately, we now have so many toys that we should be the ones selling the toys, not buying more.  But it's fun.  I don't usually find anything for myself at the sales, because most of the time I'm of the opinion that if I owned those items, I'd sell them too.  Occasionally I find vases or kitchen supplies.  Last year I got some cool Fiestaware coasters and cheese spreaders.  (You wouldn't think I would have a use for cheese spreaders.  You wouldn't think anybody would have a use for cheese spreaders.  But since the Laughing Cow spreadable cheese is like your BFF on Weight Watchers, I use those cheese spreaders a lot.)

So then by lunchtime on Saturday we make our way home with our new wares.  And we're so full from the farmer's market snacking that I don't have to make lunch.  I'm glad summer Saturdays are back.  

Well, let's see ... what else?  Today is Day #2 of camp, during which I will be going to the gym and running errands.  Then Nathan has a dentist appointment in the afternoon, followed by what I hope will be a barbecued chicken dinner.  And then ... crashing.

Whew, that was long!  Thanks for coffee today!

Happy Camper?

I begin this post with a camp retrospective.

In 2009, when Nathan was two, he went to Junior Explorers camp.  It was only two days a week, 90 minutes each day.  I can't imagine it's easy to be a counselor at a camp for two-year-olds, since two-year-olds are not so much campers as they are irrational incoherent blobs.  So, I can't really evaluate how well camp went that year.  Nathan cried the first day, but after that he was fine.  I would drop him off, frantically run errands or clean, and pick him up with a bunch of new Oriental Trading Company crafts that the counselors mostly did for him.

Here's a picture of Nathan on the first day of camp in 2009:

By 2010 he had graduated to Camp Fantastic.  The look on his face in this photo from the first day of camp 2010 pretty much sums up our Camp Fantastic experience that year.

Camp in 2010 was not, in fact, fantastic.  For several days Nathan refused to do the craft at camp.  I wasn't sure if this constituted A Problem or not.  But I didn't have time to solve that one because then the next Problem came: he was peeing on the floor every day at camp.  He was far enough in his potty training that he could tell the teachers he had to go to the bathroom, but he never got there quite in time and would pee on the floor.  On the third day of finding him in his spare outfit, the counselor told me that the peeing was becoming a problem. I asked her if she wanted us to drop out of camp, and she said no, we would just keep an eye on it.  I felt pretty confused as to how *we* were supposed to keep an eye on the problem when *I* was not, in fact, there the whole morning.  With the bribe of the big camp field trip to Dairy Queen on the horizon, Nathan got through two whole days without peeing, at which point the camp session was over and we didn't sign up for any more sessions. 

Given our lackluster camp experience last year, I hesitated to sign Nathan up for camp this year.  But with school out, he needed some structure.  And I know some parents believe that kids need a lack of structure in the summer.  I want to agree with those people.  I think it is good for kids to have some downtime, but with me not having any type of job and Nathan not really doing a lot of other activities this summer, I knew he needed to do something. 

Camp was not that ideal something--I would prefer an activity that just met two or three days a week--but it's reasonably-priced and really close by.  So, here we are, going to camp again.  Right now he's signed up for the noon dismissal, rather than the 2:00 dismissal where he would eat lunch there and do some afternoon activities.  I think the noon dismissal is going to allow us a good balance between structured and unstructured time, but if Nathan suddenly expresses some great interest in staying until 2:00, I won't have a problem signing him up. 

And I don't know how many weeks we'll be going to camp.  We're playing it by ear. 

Here's Nathan this morning on his first day of Camp Fantastic 2011:

And so far, knock on wood, camp has been drama-free.  Drop-off was fine.  When I showed up at pick-up he had a completed craft and a good behavior report. 

Having brought some structure back into our lives, I felt great this afternoon.  I liked how camp gave us a deadline to get out of the house, which forced me to do my morning chores in the morning instead of leaving them until the afternoon.  I had time to go to my Weight Watchers meeting by myself, and then to visit Trainer Jill.  Then in the afternoon it felt nice to have some free time where Nathan played and I did some stuff around the house. 

I think the transition was a little harder for Nathan, who was crabby and overwhelmed by 4:00.  Once again I'm struggling a bit with how to keep the afternoons from dragging, and to come up with an activity that is constructive without being additionally taxing on already-overstimulated Nathan. 

I guess my realization right now is that we need to acknowledge that each new activity comes with a bit of a challenging transition period, and I shouldn't allow myself to get frustrated until I've let that transition period pass.  Which also means that if we're going to go through all the work of transitioning, we have to stick with camp for at least a few weeks.  Even if Nathan did say, "There's camp again tomorrow?!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

SuperIma Sunday Check-In

It was an up-and-down kind of week.  First we experienced the unseasonable heat and the complete failure of our home air conditioning, which put me in a crabby mood.  Then we went on the little vacation, which obviously put me in a good mood.  Then we got back and I just felt confused and flustered and generally adrift.  I thought it was a bout with The Big D again, but I think it's more just your typical womanly hormones.

Last week my goal was to be out of the house as much as possible, and with the combination of the heat and the two-day trip, I pretty much achieved that goal.  The only thing is, I kind of spent a lot of time moping around the house after we got back, because I felt like Nathan really needed some quiet downtime at home between the excitement of the trip and his first day of camp tomorrow.  And I generally think he had some really positive downtime doing the sort of simple activities that are cleansing for a young child, playing quiet imaginative games around the house.

Here's the thing, though.  Quiet imaginative games can make a big fat mess.  All weekend long Nathan played with toys and built blanket caves and mixed up various potions, and all weekend long I was one step behind him trying to clean all this stuff up.  His newest thing is to try to block doors "so burglars can't get in," by filling up some large container with several smaller items and putting it in front of the door.  So now when I want to get something out of a closet, I have to contend with a laundry basket full of blankets and various assorted toys.

Now I want out of the house again.

Anyway tomorrow begins a whole new era, The Camp Era, which may last anywhere from one to eight weeks.  Last year camp was a big disaster for Nathan, namely because he kept peeing on the floor.  I think he's potty-trained well enough now that we have that issue under control, but I just don't know whether or not camp will be an overall positive experience for us.  Currently I have him signed up for all eight sessions so we can guarantee our spot, but I can pull him out and get a refund for any weeks we decide not to go. 

So, my point is, we'll be transitioning again, but also introducing structure back into our lives, which is something that has been sorely lacking in the two weeks since school ended. 

I eagerly welcome the structure back.  I need to have a daily reason to get out of the house.  And I need to get back on track with healthy behavior like eating right and exercising, which always seem  easier to do when I have some other structure in my life. 

So, my goals for the week are to get reorganized with my life and to stop engaging in behaviors I feel bad about.  (Those behaviors being: eating crappy food, wasting time, and doing half-assed exercise.)  I usually attempt to avoid personal improvement goals for the SuperIma check-in, because such goals have a great potential to just make me feel worse about myself, which isn't in the spirit of the check-in.  But I think this week if I don't do something to clear out the muddy directionless pile of thoughts swirling around in my head, I might go insane. 

I have a kid who won't go to bed, so I have to end this to go deal with him. 

Journey to Gurnee: Friday

By great coincidence, my friend/workout partner Dana and her family were in Gurnee at the same time we were.  They have season passes to Six Flags Great America, and the passes came with coupons that allowed them to bring in friends for free.  And we got to be those friends!

It was unseasonably cold with a chance of rain that day, which was mostly a good thing because the weather kept the crowds away.  The one drawback was that there were puddles on the ground from the previous night's rain, and Nathan stepped in one.  Now, you would think that because he was wearing sandals, he would just shake the whole thing off, literally and figuratively.  But that's not how Nathan rolls.  He found the whole "wet foot" thing terribly disturbing.

Early photos of the day reveal his feelings after the whole puddle incident:

Thousands, if not millions, of photos have been taken by eager park-goers in front of this sign throughout the years.  I'm willing to bet that we're the only ones who have a photo of a kid with this expression on his face, though:

"Oh come on, for the LOVE OF GOD, what are you DOING TO ME?!"

As predicted, his mood improved the second he walked in the gate.  See, this is why it's awesome to be four years old: You can make everybody's life miserable with your unpleasant behavior, then suddenly do a complete 180 without so much as an explanation or apology.  There's no, "Gee, guys, I'm really sorry I took my anger about the puddles out on everyone.  I hope I didn't ruin everyone's day at the amusement park.  I'm excited now and I hope we can put that whole puddle thing past us."

So, moods improved, and we rode a few smaller roller coasters, which Nathan loved.  Then we went to one of the kiddie areas, where we rode this airplane ride.  This is me doing my impression of the celebrity moms you see in the People magazine section about stars in everyday life.

Teacups with some random kid who was useful in helping Nathan turn the wheel:

The car ride:

Nathan and Dana's son Oliver on the Sprocket Rocket:

Bill and Nathan on the Scooby-Doo ride:

This next photo was taken right after Bill and Nathan rode the Batman Dark Knight roller coaster, which is where Nathan determined he didn't like roller coasters with "hills."

Family photo by Dana:

Bill and Nathan went on this ropes course thing.  They only got as far as the first staircase, because Nathan was afraid.

I'll tell you something about my family.  My husband is terrified of sunburn.  I also dislike sunburns, but not to the point of paranoia. So I usually take the standard precautions against sunburn, which do not include forcing my son to wear a hat anytime he is outside.  Inevitably we will get to a destination and Bill will question whether I brought a hat for Nathan, and when I say no, we have to make an immediate trip to the nearest gift shop to purchase a hat.  Consequently, Nathan has souvenir hats from several attractions, including those we didn't like and I'd just as soon not be reminded of.  But this Daffy Duck one is adorable:

Here's Nathan doing the little kids' hammer game, where you were guaranteed to win a prize, which means you basically just pay $5 for a prize.  He selected a cape with Bugs Bunny on it.

Speaking of Bugs Bunny:

And here's Nathan with some other Warner Brothers licensed characters:

We left in the early afternoon as the children were starting to show signs of meltdown.  It was a great day.  Thanks to Dana and her family for the free tickets!

Journey to Gurnee: Thursday

I didn't do a great job of taking photos on this trip.  Sometimes you just forget. 

On Thursday Nathan and I hit the waterpark first thing in the morning, and then we played at the arcade.  Bill came down and played in the waterpark with us.  Then we had lunch and went to the outlet mall to shop. 

I didn't take the first picture until dinnertime, which was at Rainforest Cafe in the mall.  I let Nathan get the souvenir frog drink container because I thought it was cute:

I had Bill take a picture of me to prove I was on the trip, since I'm usually the one who takes the vacation photos and, therefore, am not in them.

At the mall we visited a game store, where we got the live-action version of Angry Birds:

It was cute:

We went back to the waterpark that evening, which is when I took the only waterpark photos.  It's kind of hard to take pictures of a waterpark, what with the whole "water potentially ruining your camera" thing. 

That's the small collection of photos from Thursday. 

Relax, You're on Key Lime Time

That's the catchphrase of the full-throttle-fun-all-the-time indoor waterpark "resort" known as Key Lime Cove.

Which is where we are right now.

Before we made the epic hour-and-fifteen-minute journey up here for our annual pilgrimage, we had to have the air conditioner repairman come.  And he told us that the AC was pretty much totaled, and we'd have to get a new unit.  Which costs, like, a lot.  And furthermore, it wasn't just some simple fix, it would take at least a week.  You know, because air conditioner repair services are busy right now. 

Given the general sauna-like atmosphere of our home, I was glad we had a vacation booked.  However, from a financial standpoint, you may not want to incur a costly home repair when you have a non-refundable vacation booked. 

Not that this is some kind of fancy, finances-be-damned kind of trip.  We're here for two days, and since we're here mid-week I was able to take advantage of a discount that I kinda-sorta got through my blogging connections, or maybe not so much but let me just pretend that I'm actually earning something from writing this blog. 

And through my special connections with the grocery store, meaning that they gave me a special customer preferred card, I purchased breakfast and lunch food to bring with us on the trip.  So we're vacationing like poor people now.  I mean, we're vacationing on a budget. 

We did agree to eat dinner at restaurants.  Last night we went to ... The Cracker Barrel!  It's always nice to get away and eat somewhere that you could have gone to fifteen minutes from your own home. 

We finally made it to the hotel about 10 p.m. last night.  We got Nathan settled down from his high by 11, and then we went to bed. 

This morning we had our BYO breakfast, and then Nathan and I hit the indoor waterpark.  We spent considerable time at the lazy river and the little kid slides, and then we took a break to go to the arcade.  Most of the games are games of luck designed to win tickets, or as I call them "slot machines for children."  I did make Nathan play skee ball, because, you might not know this about me, but I rock at skee ball.  As a kid skee ball was the only game I ever played at Chuck E. Cheese, and I spent hours practicing that game. 

Also, my dream home will have an indoor lazy river in it.  The funny thing is that my brother also came up with the concept of an indoor lazy river for his dream home, before I even discussed my plan with him.  NOTE: Neither of us will ever live in a home with a lazy river.  Unless one of us wins some kind of lottery, and while I was pretty lucky to hit the 329-ticket jackpot on one of the redemption games in the arcade, that's probably the extent of my luck. 

So, after the arcade Bill came down and we all went to the waterpark again.  Bill and Nathan ran around the water playground, and I got massively dizzy on the giant slide that looks like a huge toilet bowl. 

Now we're off to the outlet mall and probably Rainforest Cafe for dinner.  I'll try to take some pictures for my next post.