Some nights, (ok…a lotof nights) dinner just seems like such a hassle to make.  Especially if we are just coming in from a long, activity filled day.  Sometimes you just have to take little shortcuts.  Like the pre-cooked vegetarian quiche they had at Costco the other day.  It wasn’t your typical yummy, but really horrible for you, stuff.  It was made with whole wheat flour in the crust and egg whites for the filling.  It sounded like a winner to me, so I grabbed a package of them for when we had another of those long days. 

That day didn’t take too long to arrive (besides, I was curious as to how it would be)  When it was time for dinner, I served a wedge of the quiche to my little darlings as the main course.  Mimi gave it a sideways look and suspiciously asked what it was. I was then that I suddenly remembered that Mimi thinks she hates quiche.  I answered her with the most logical thing I could come up with.  “It’s Mushroom Pie”.   Her entire face perked up at the pie part.  Then she wanted to know what pie tasted like with mushrooms in it.  I informed her that it wasn’t sweet like she was probably expecting.  This was the type of pie that the French eat for dinner. 

Not being of huge fan of trying new things, Mimi poked and prodded at the pie for a moment before she dubiously took a small bite.  She must have liked it as she took another, much larger bite.  Just about that time, Shaun surprised us by coming home earlier than usual.  He took one glance at our pie and asked if there was enough quiche left for him.  Mimi proudly corrected him by informing him that we were having mushroom pie, not that yucky quiche.  Shaun, who doesn’t know French, argued back that it was quiche.  A little funny looking…but still quiche.  

Somehow, Mimi figured out that pie means quiche in French. (Hey, I took Spanish!) Then our little Prima Dona refused to eat another bite.  This was despite that fact that she had liked it when it was still Mushroom Pie. 

Sigh…sometimes taking the easy way out for dinner isn’t always so easy.  Anyone up for some leftover mushroom pie?

Today as we were running around getting the last of our back to school supplies (I hope) I noticed that my tire light was on.  I didn’t actually look at the tire until after I had dropped Mimi off for martial arts.  All of my tires were really low, but especially the rear passenger tire.  So, KT and I headed off to the gas station across the street.  

I decided this would be a perfect learning opportunity to teach my child some basic car care.  (OK, so I should have taught her to be checking tires regularly, but we won’t get into that right now).  We took all the little caps off of each tire in preparation to fill them with air.  I then showed my daughter how to use the little gas pressure gauge that comes attached to the air hose (yes, I realize you aren’t supposed to use those ones, but that’s all I had!)  and how we would be putting the air in.  KT started “filling” the tire but was actually letting air out unknowingly.  But it was fine if the tire was a little lower, as we were about to fill that puppy up. 

So I walked over to drop the coins in the slot and there was no response from the machine. I wiggled it a bit before it occurred to me that maybe they had to do something from inside.   I asked the man inside at the cash register about the air machine and was told abruptly that it was not working.  When I didn’t immediately leave, he started explaining that he had called the company last week and he still hadn’t heard from them.  Then he repeated that it wasn’t working just as the sign said.  I responded that there was no sign out there.  Then he just shrugged and said that some bad person must have taken it away.   When I asked him if I could get a refund, he just shook his head rapidly and told me it wasn’t his problem.  Then he told me that there as a phone number on the machine I could go call. 

I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with such blatant rudeness. (And this was a grown man, not some defiant teenager)  So I asked him for contact information of the store manager.  That’s when he got really nasty.  He started raising his voice and angrily told me that I was being unreasonable.  After a moment of this, I leaned slightly over the chest high counter in an effort to get his attention. In the same calm voice that I use with my youngest child when she is out of control, I basically asked him what he was talking about, as all I had asked for was a card or a name and number. He just sputtered and angrily went off again. In disgust, I shoved myself away from the counter, accidentally knocking a box of mints to the floor.  Before I could even apologize, the clerk went nuts.  He started calling me a “stupid, stupid woman” and ran outside ahead of me to get my license plate number so that he could call the police! 

Flabbergasted, I simply climbed back into my lame car and hobbled half a block to the next gas station.  I started to pull in until I saw the bright yellow sign that told me their air was out of service (Maybe that was the stolen sign?).  We limped down the road just a bit more to the next station and found that they provided air free to their customers.  So, I chatted pleasantly with the young man in the store, put forty dollars in the tank and filled up my tires for free. 
 
Guess which gas station is my new favorite?

I think that I must be one of the only women left in America that can’t stand shopping.  Even as a young teen, I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.  Needless to say, I’m not a Fashion Diva.  Clothes are just something you wear to keep most of the rain off of you. 

I’ve tried to teach my children in the ways of my non-fashion, yet somehow, I have failed.  They fight over the latest issues of Teen Vogue and Cosmo Girl when the mailman delivers them.  Together they dream, giggle and compare the latest styles.  And always, they want to go shopping.  I honestly don’t know what I’ve done wrong.

I put it off as long as I possibly could.  Yet, it seemed as though it could wait no longer as buttons were starting to pop and it appeared as though they were waiting for floods.  It was time for Back to School Shopping.  The girls were so excited to go shopping, they could barely fall asleep.  The silly things had looked up the opening time of the mall and were determined to be the first ones in. 

When morning arrived, I woke up early as I usually do.  This morning though, I was as silent as a mouse.  If I heard one of them stirring, I immediately started humming their favorite childhood lullaby.  I did anything I could think of to keep them asleep.  Yet their determination to shop was stronger than I had imagined. Sigh…we arrived at the mall shortly after it opened.  The girls were prepared to “shop ‘til they dropped”…or at least until I dropped.  Fortunately, a month ago I had the foresight to cleverly make dental appointments in the middle of our shopping day. It was just heart rending when we had to abruptly end our day.  (Everyone is cavity free!)

The sad thing about this shopping day is that we still need to get a few things.  So guess what we’ll be doing tomorrow?  Sigh…

At least they are still young…maybe I can still teach them my very own non-fashion….

Shaun and I were still lying in bed chatting about this and that.  He was ready to leave about the time I started telling him something about my earring.  He just looked at me for a short moment and then interrupted me asking me why I possibly thought he would care about my earring. 

I just stared back at him in complete and utter amazement.  After so many years together, he should just know that saying such a thing would be completely and totally unacceptable.  The Foolish Man, however, apparently took my silence as encouragement to continue on.  As he continued to pontificate about how my earring was at the very bottom of his list of priorities, beneath even the amoebas that swim in slime, I silently fumed.  

I’m sure that he meant to be funny, but knowing him as well as I do, I also know that he was serious about the message.  Now, it’s perfectly ok to not give a rat about what I have to say…but as stated in the bylaws our marriage, he must not ever, ever let me know that he isn’t hanging on every word that I utter.  I’ve excused numerous eye rolls, yawns and sighs over the years, but this was just too blatant to ignore.

Shaun must have realized his folly by this point.  He had abruptly stopped speaking in mid-word.  He knows that look I get on my face when I am not pleased and usually runs in terror.  The words that were coming out of his mouth by this point were “Oh No! I’ve really screwed up this time!!” I, of course, had nothing to say to him.  In fact, I had nothing to say to him for over an hour (which is pretty much the longest I can stay mad at anyone) I went from plotting my revenge to becoming mildly amused at his groveling. I finally forgave him…kinda….

Now added to the bylaws of our marriage contract are my rights to tell him that I don’t care about his frequent babblings instead of just yawning through them as before. And he gets to listen attentively to my every word…and buy me new earrings whenever I want. 

This could be fun.

We are home. We actually arrived yesterday morning around eight o’clock. I didn’t mean to drive straight though, it just kinda happened that way. I had intended to head home in a leisurely fashion, driving up Highway 101 as we so often have. It’s such a beautiful, peaceful and calming drive (if you don’t mind narrow roads curving along the top of cliffs with a sharp drop down to the Pacific Ocean). The girls and I just wanted to be home.

We headed out from LA around ten in the morning and only stopped to use the restroom and fill up our gas tank and our tummies. We had acquired a book-on-tape (that we had actually brought for my mom as part of her Mother’s Day gift that hadn’t quite gotten mailed) and were all immediately drawn in by the story. The girls and I could hardly bear to pause the tape for even a moment. If one of the girls happened to have been lulled to sleep, she would insist on being caught up in what she had missed.

If was after midnight when the tale was ended. I was still wide awake and it just seemed silly to find a room at that point. It would take me a while to wind down and besides it was too late to swim. So, I just kept on driving.

After a few more hours, even the cheesy talk radio couldn’t keep me alert. I had to stop. Only at this point, we weren’t near civilization. So, I did the next best thing and pulled into a rest area and slept in the car for an hour or two, before hitting the road again.

We were about an hour away from home when I got a phone call from Shaun. He was in a bit of a panic as he had woke up alone. He called to make sure that we “weren’t splattered across the road”. He later told me that he half expected a police officer or a paramedic to answer the phone…some imagination that man has!

Anyways, it great to be home.

After spending two complete days at the “Happiest Place on Earth” we are exhausted!

Tomorrow we are going to head home, our plans of driving up the scenic Highway 101 have gone out the window.  It’s time for us to be home.  I’ll try to blog about the last few days later.  (I’m only writing this now because a certain grumpy man was complaining!) Right now, I’m headed to bed!

Once again, it’s time for the Weekend Word Challenge, hosted by Odd Mix.  This week’s words are Fantasy and Reality.  We are away from home so it’s hard to get too creative, so I’m working with what I have,

My Fantasy is that my girls would always be sweet and loving towards each other.

The Reality is that they are often annoyed with each other and ready to wring the other’s neck!

We’ll be visiting Mickey and Friends today.  My guess is that the girls will be getting along rather nicely!

Jay asked me if we were going to pay a visit to the World Famous San Diego Zoo (I’m not sure if it really is world famous or not, but I’ve always willingly bought into the propaganda) We’re not, but I thought I would tell you a little story about it.

I don’t really remember going to the zoo very often growing up here. Oh, we would take out of town guests that were dying to go (maybe it really is world famous?) and it was a standard school field trip. Other than that, it never really was that big of a thing for me.

When I was working as a waitress in Seaport Village, I became friends with the handsome bartender that worked in the lounge upstairs. One day we got to chatting and decided that we would get together and explore the zoo on the next Tuesday, which was our one shared day off.

We met up at the agreed upon time outside the main gate. My friend had already purchased our tickets so we were ready to head on in. (I later found out that he considered us on a date. I thought we were just having a fun adventure). Now my idea of exploring the zoo was to mosey around and just go where the wind takes me, reading each sign and observing the animals. His idea was to make it to every single exhibit in a certain order. I would start to read the signs and he would just tell m what they said, including the proper Latin names. Plus he added in all sorts of extra information that he had gleaned from outside sources. This is when first realized just how scary smart my goofy bartender friend really was. I couldn’t quite decide if I was annoyed or fascinated or something else all together. I think I finally settled on being amused.

Over eighteen years later, when I head out on a new adventure with that same handsome friend, we still have the same attitude about how to explore something. We’ve had to make a lot of compromises along the way, but I am almost always amused.

Going to the World Famous San Diego Zoo without him just wouldn’t be the same. I’d hate to have to start reading the signs now…

Even though I grew up here in San Diego, we didn’t go to Sea World very often.  There were too many other, less expensive things that we could do.  Still, the few times that we did go made a huge impression on me.  I loved the place. 

When I met Shaun, I found that he loved it as well.  We bought season passes and went quite frequently, often with friends.  When our girls were born, we naturally brought them to our favorite playground as well.  They loved it just as much as we did.  It is one thing that I have really missed since we moved to Seattle.  The last few times we have come back to San Diego to visit, we haven’t done too many tourist things.  Not even Sea World.  This visit, we are playing tourist. 

Today it was Sea World.  Although a lot has changed, it is still just as magical as it ever was to me. 

The very first thing we did was stake out seats in the Shamu Stadium.  We were so excited to find ourselves seated in the third row, right in the center.  It was thrilling to have the beautiful creature so close to us.   I think this show has changed for the better.  Instead of the cheesy storyline, the show was used to highlight the stunning natural beauty of the orcas.  Technology has brought us big screen shots of what was going on, as well as underwater cameras, and aerial shots. It really enhanced the entire experience.  It was just amazing. All of the shows were awesome. 

The smartest thing we did today was to rent a wheelchair because Mom has been having a lot of problems with her back and hips. Not only did it help her out, it made a great junk holder.  We always seem to bring so much stuff to cart around.  Our only problem was that it never occurred to me that my children would fight over who got to push their grandmother around.  (Although when I put it that way, it makes perfect sense)  

We considered staying until the very end.  They have some special shows, music and fireworks just for summertime.  We were just too tuckered out to stay for them though.  It was a good day, one of the best I’ve had in a while!

I’m just posting a couple random pictures down below. I’m putting a couple more of Shamu on my City Blog.

Mimi feeding the dolphins.  Nobody wanted to touch the slimey little feeder fish that they had available to feed them. 

Rays are slimey too!

Uncle Smedly is now an Admiral!

Today was a major work day.  My folks dragged us out of bed when the sun has just barely finished rising.  We had agreed to have a work party, but we thought it should begin around noon.  I should have known better.

When my parents decided to live the nomad life of RVers they rented out their house.  The family they rented it to seemed nice enough and more importantly, responsible.  Every time my parents stopped by the house was in great shape, clean and well-cared for. 

My parents recently decided to sell the house.  That worked out fine because the renters were ready to move on.  When we went to go see the house, we found that somewhere along the way, things with them had changed.  The house, the home that I had grown up in, look like a disaster zone.  It was horrible.  It was filthy, there were holes in the walls, cigarette burn in the carpet…well, I could go on, but you get the picture.  It made me physically ill to see the house like this. 

My parents had already put it on the market just to see what they could get for it.   Knowing that I would never buy a house like this, I volunteered the services of myself and the girls to help fix the house up.  I guess I should have made the time conditional…

We worked so hard that Mimi’s finger ended up all swollen and I got a blister. Well, except for Mom.  You can see from the picture how hard she labored.  Poor thing, it’s exhausting to scrub while you are lying on the ground!

We still have a lot of work to do, but the house looks about a thousand times better than it did this morning.   I am so proud of all of us for all of the hard work we did today.  Mostly, I am proud of my little girls who didn’t complain one little bit.  Oh and Mom too…she didn’t complain too much!