Quit worrying about me!

I'm FINE, Mommy!

Just some pics

141 days...

Guess where we're going!





Wrong.

Not Disney this time around. We're going to give Universal a try and we're staying at The Hard Rock Hotel.

Katie is pumped for this trip. This one is partly for her because she's getting older and who knows if she'll go with us next year. She wants to bring a friend. I've reserved 2 connecting rooms so space isn't an issue. The second room is actually so I can put Kevin to bed at night without having huge issues in the room with the rest of us. When I'm ready for bed, I'll slip into the room with him. The issue I have with her bringing a friend is that the cost of food is out of this world and the kid would have to bring enough money to pay for her own eats and souvenirs. I've got her ticket covered already. Katie says, "She likes sandwiches." Yeah, the kid can eat a sandwich while we eat at a restaurant. *rolls eyes* If we were doing Disney I'd have my Rewards Card that I use to offset the cost of our food, but not at Universal. I've never had to budget for food before, but I know how much it costs at these places. We're way over our Disney budget already and I just can't afford another person...

I also don't know if I can handle another teen with Katie. I know Katie pushes the envelope when other people are around and I don't want to get pissed on this vacation. This one will be much more relaxing than doing Disney and we just want to chill out. Besides, I'd be the odd person out when going on rides with them because Roni doesn't do thrill rides. The last reason is that Katie and I tend to bond on vacation and having another kid there would ruin that.

Sigh.

I used the wrong pic apparently

I should've used a better picture of Kevin when I entered him in the cutest baby contest. We all know he's adorable, but he's getting low scores and now I'm aggravated with myself...I should have used one of these, maybe.



If you'd like to vote for him, please go to photo contest and enter #50793 to vote on his picture. I'm aghast that there's actually people giving him a one...although I'm betting it was to bring his score down to make theirs higher. He had been in the top ten. Bitches.

It was a good run

You can take a breath of relief. The Pens lost last night and the Calder Cup run is over...you no longer have to see postings about hockey for quite a while now. Sigh.

Have you ever done something so stupid...

...that you wonder how the Powers That Be allow you to continue to exist?

I hate when I do something incredibly stupid. I pride myself on my intelligence, foresight, and planning.

Today I did something that has left me playing the scenario over and over again in my head. I'll start you off with a picture of the outcome of my ineptitude:

That, my friends, is a picture of the driver's side door of my van after I fixed it enough to shut the door. It was worse.

I guess I should count myself lucky that that is all that was damaged and not, you know, me getting crushed under the car, or, even worse, Kevin getting hurt, or even my freakin' house blowing up and leaving all of us singing with the angels.

Let me set the stage...

As usual on Tuesdays, Kevin and I went to get groceries. I decided to pick up take-out on the way home for dinner. As I pulled in my driveway, instead of parking at the end of it to unload my groceries, I had forgotten I had them and pulled all the way in the back. I remembered before we got out of the van so I pulled back out, turned the van around in the street and pulled in at the end of my driveway. I had already turned the AC off when I was parking in the back and, since it was hot as all get-out today and Kevin was still strapped in his car seat, I reached over and turned it back on. I then climbed out of the van and started walking behind it to unload the food when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the van was moving. I had not put it in park! Now, there isn't even comfortable walking space between a car and the house when a car is parked in the driveway in a normal situation and this was not a normal situation.

In my usual eloquent manner, I thought to myself, #1 "My baby!" and then "Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck" as I was running along side the van while trying to open the door. The car was veering toward my house as I grabbed the handle and ripped the door open. Just as I opened the door and squeezed my body on the inside of the door, the door hit the gas meter and squished me between the door and the van. On it kept veering as I hear a loud scraping/crunching sound. On went my mantra of "fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck" while I'm thinking, "I gotta stop this before it hits the house". I got one leg in the van and half an ass on the seat and slammed on the brakes and threw it in park. The van was literally inches from my house. The Hostas have an interesting new shape to them. If the storm we are having at the moment doesn't wipe away the evidence, I'll try to get a pic of the trail of destruction so you can see how close to the house I was...

I do have to be grateful that something made me decide to turn the van around facing away from the road or the van would have rolled right into traffic with Kevin inside and me running beside it. God only knows how that would have turned out.

I would never have been able to live with myself if I was the cause of something happening to him. No way.

ETA: Here are some pics of the poor Hostas. Keep in mind for the last picture that that was where my tire stopped. The front of my van was damn near touching my house.

I'm so sorry to keep you waiting..

Yes, the Pens did win Saturday night 5-1. It is now 3 games to 2. They head back to Chicago to play the final 2 games away. Next game is Tuesday night. If we win that, the final game is Thursday night. They're still shooting for that miracle. I'll let you know how it turns out...like it, or not. ;)

They sure know how to keep my hopes up this year...

They can put the brooms away!

The Pens will not be swept. They won tonight. Game 5 is tomorrow night...

I know you care. Just admit it.

It's a sad day for PENS fans...

Both the big Penguins and the little Penguins. The big Pens lost the Stanley Cup last night. The little Pens are one game from being swept out of the Calder Cup.

I know that none of you are hockey fans...except, maybe, Michelle (if you're reading this). Please bear with me through this tribute to my team.

As bummed as I am about the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins getting their butts whipped playing for the Calder Cup, I have to be proud of them also. This team wasn't "supposed" to go anywhere this year. They had a dismal start to the season. They fought tooth and nail through the season just to make the playoffs and, in the end, won the division. It really was amazing.

Then the playoffs started.

They weren't supposed to win the 1st round. They did.

They weren't supposed to win the 2nd round. They did.

They weren't supposed to win the 3rd round. They did.

They are the Conference Champions. That is amazing considering the what they went through to get there. I'm proud of them for that.

They are now playing for the Calder Cup (the Stanley Cup equivalent in the AHL).

They lost the first two away games and came home to play last night. The coach put in Bonvie to play for the first time in for-freakin'-ever. Bonvie is retiring after this year. He is a beloved player. His role is as an enforcer...AKA: the tough guy on the team who'll whip yo' ass if you take a cheap shot at one of his teammates. He's fought many fights and has won most of them. The other team tends to think twice about taking cheap shots when he's on the ice. Off the ice, he's sweet and kind.

When they announced the scratches last night (the players that would be sitting out), they didn't announce Bonvie's name. You could hear the ripple through the crowd. "Dennis is playing!" It was awesome. It would be the last time I'd get to see him play in person because I can't be at Friday's game. When his line skated out, the crowd went nuts for him.

Unfortunately, although the team came out strong and took the early lead, they wound up getting their butts kicked and they looked shell-shocked.

Friday is the next game. They are down 3 games to none in a 7 game series. One more loss and the season is over. Coming back from being down by 3 games and winning the Calder Cup has never been done. Ever. It's not impossible, per se, but highly improbable. I'd imagine the wind is out of their sails.

I'll root for them until the end. I'll be back rooting for them next year.

They should hold their heads up high. They have nothing to be ashamed of.

The Penguins still ROCK in my book.

Farewell Dennis. You'll be missed....