Single Woman

Well I am a single woman until Tuesday, or at least I feel like one. Alex left yesterday to Nashville for a dental conference-it is so quiet with him gone! Since I am usually the one leaving, I guess I finally get to see how it feels. Now I know more why he gets sad when I go.
Anyway, the other day I finished reading this book, The Tipping Point....

I liked it a lot; it is interesting to me how certain things in society and our lives become huge deals due to unsuspecting effects from other things. This author has a new book out, Blink, that I want to read sometime, too.
I am very tired right now so sorry this post is somewhat scattered. I babysat until 3:30 this morning, and still managed to make it to church today. Wow, I was quite proud of myself. But now I am beat and should go to bed, but I don't want to yet. Oh and congrats to the Red Sox.

Costume Party

To conicide with the UOP Halloween party that is held at a bar every year, we had a "family-friendly" party here at Housing last night. Amazingly enough, this was the first year that Alex and I had dressed up together for Halloween-we've been missing out. It was a lot of fun. We were pirates, with the focus being on Jack Sparrow, of course. It was great to see the kids in their cute outfits and everyone's creativity!

Alex carried that rum bottle around all night. It was the one his patient gave him from Brazil; I guess it came in handy after all. He was funny in character as Jack, waltzing around and being super sly. And guess what, we won one of the costume awards!

Michelle & Aaron came as Luchadores, it was hilarious. Michelle had kept it a surprise, so I was quite interested to see what she was up to-and it didn't disappoint!

These guys were in the lobby on their way to the bar party. I thought it was a great costume-a bouquet of flowers....but I wonder how long they survived like that.

Here is me in our kitchen. The pics of Alex and me together didn't turn out as well:( And we still have Wed. night to look forward to, yay! The San Francisco Halloween fever is catching on with us. Aaaaarrrrrgh!!!

Indian Summer

I am realizing now why everyone loves San Francisco in Sept/Oct. We have had some of the most amazing weather! Last year at this time I was in Europe so I didn't get to experience a true Indian Summer here. I am thinking it is nicer now than in the middle of the summer.
Last week, we did have a day of constant rain, which I loved, too. It's been so long since I've lived in WA, I really enjoy a rainy day; it is a nice change and I like sitting inside and watching it pour and eating soup.
SO, if anyone wants to come visit next, year, I highly recommend this time!

Cute Coasters

Last Saturday, while nannying, we took the X3 to the hand car wash on Divisadero. It is a very good place to take a car, in that there is a cute little shop to hang out in while one is waiting. They have some nifty things in there, like cards, toys, random car accessories and these awesome coasters. You can look them up if you're interested at www.mouserug.com. Or just go get a car wash! I promise, you will come out of there with more than a clean car. Now we can drink beverages on our coffee table in style.....

No Fun

As I am sitting here browsing on the computer since I was super sick all last night and am still recovering, I found this article about The Price is Right(http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/10/15/the-price-is-right-drew-careys-first-episode-season-premiere/). Apparently, today was Drew Carey's first day as the host. I slept right through it so I haven't had a chance to see how he did. That show will always remind me of summer breaks growing up; one day I would love to be on it!

Alex and I nannied all weekend for Daniel. About an hour before we picked up Susan & Mike, I started having a headache. Then after we came home, I just felt sick and weak, had a fever/chills, etc. So it was a pretty crappy night. This happened about 2 months ago and that was the Norwalk Virus, who knows what this is. Blah.

Fleet Week!

It is Fleet Week here, so on Saturday we went with the Rogers up to Broderick Street to watch the Blue Angels and the last bit of the previous air show. It was awesome! Here, the Angels are doing a stunt where they all flew up together and branched out as they descended.

The Angels all together; I really do now know how they can fly so close without crashing.

It is crazy how close they got to the water in the Bay. They also flew under the Golden Gate Bridge! Also, it was very neat to see all the boats out for the show; oh so pretty!

While we were waiting for the Angels to begin, we saw 2 raccoons out in the neighborhood. I had never seen one out in the middle of the day like this; just a little dangerous, but we had no food so I guess it was ok.

Our First Cruise

As I mentioned, as part of the trip, we went on the Disney cruise, and we truly loved every minute of it. I don't think I have seen Alex ever more relaxed and carefree. We both agreed it was amazing-the crew was so nice, the island was lovely and the ship was gorgeous!

Us by the Disney Wonder on Castaway Cay, the private island. We had 2 days here instead of just the one, which was the original plan (also had a day in Nassau). It was very nice and quiet. They have a separate beach, Serenity Bay, just for adults so we went there the first day. It was a lot more secluded that I expected; I was surprised they only had one small souvenir shop instead of Disney merch everywhere; it kept the whole Bahamas feel.
As we were getting ready to sail off Port Canaveral, the crew/characters had a big celebration. There is actually a pool where everyone is standing, and throughout the cruise, movies and sports (Disney/ESPN, of course) were shown on the big screen. There were 4 pools on the ship; a kids one (shaped like Mickey), adults one, family one and one for the crew.

This is the main atrium, when we first entered the ship. The art on the ceiling is by the glass blower Chihuly, who did the Bellagio one. Most of the characters came here for pics/autographs.

Here is us with Minnie. It was so nice not having to wait in long lines outside for pics of all the characters. And their outfits were so cute! Jack Sparrow even made some appearances....

This is our spacious stateroom. We loved looking out at night and seeing the water flow by. It was nice being spoiled with twice a day cleaning, cute towel art and free room service! Every time we were in the room for more then 5 minutes, Alex had some kind of movie on. I looked forward to getting the next day's agenda and hearing the When You Wish Upon a Star chime that indicated an announcement:)

Anyone recognize this ship? Yep, the Flying Dutchman from Pirates. It was at Castaway Cay next to where the ship docked. Crazy to think it was used in the movies since they make it seem so much bigger in them.

This is all of us in Animator's Palate on dressy night. During our meal, the restaurant goes from this to being in color and they do a little show. Our servers were very nice. Almost all the crew was foreign, we had fun learning bits and pieces of new languages. All the food was delicious, we ended up buying the palate plates so we can make fancy desserts like these at home!

Brian took this pic of us in the Walt Disney Theater waiting for Disney Dreams, one of the night shows. The Hercules one the night before was hilarious and the other two were classics. It was also Pirate Night, so after the show, they had a big party on the deck, ending with fireworks and more food, including 2 huge ships carved out of chocolate and an ice bust of Jack Sparrow. Also, for entertainment, there were a couple adult lounges where they had funny shows and dancing. Even though we had no kids, we felt right at home.

This was our last night on the ship at Parrot Cay. We rotated restaurants, but kept the same servers. It was fun being with the Devers and going over our day's activities together; great travel buddies!

After the last night's show, they had a special goodbye gathering. A lot of the characters did a little number and hung out for last-chance pics. The guy in the white was the cruise director, Darren; he kept everyone informed of the day's events and was always around doing something.

Right as we were eating breakfast, before we got off the ship, we had a very special surprise. We saw a rocket take off from NASA in Port Canaveral! It was super cool, a nice grand finale of a wonderful 4 nights. Then it was off to the rest of Disney World. We definitely enjoyed being spoiled. It was weird afterwards not having people giving us wipes to stay clean around every corner, having to make big decisions, not having tax free purchases and having to pay for food again. Hopefully, we can do it again someday!!

Back to Life....

I don't want to be back to reality, but I guess that is what makes a vacation a vacation. This is the first of 2 posts about our big Disney trip. We spent the first 2 nights in Disney World at the Coronado Springs hotel, were on the cruise the next 4 nights, then back to Disney at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the last 3 nights. I'll post the cruise photos soon; here are some at the parks. It was the best trip we've had, our long-awaited honeymoon, thank you mom and dad! The Magic Kingdom was decked out for Halloween, super cute. I can't even imagine what it looks like at Christmas!

This is at the Sci-Fi Restaurant in MGM Studios. They show old B-movies on the big screen and pretend like you're at a drive-in.

Lightning and Mader made a few visits at the Studios, they were so cool!

We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari a few times, Alex's favorite ride. He took over 300 photos of animals over our trip; we don't need to visit the zoo for the next 10 years.

Epcot has a new Nemo ride and exhibit with aquariums and such. They also had the gulls out front chanting "mine, mine, mine." We got a kick out of that.

Grant and Giuliana were quite the troopers. We had a blast with them and Brian and Becca. They are wonderful travel buddies and fellow Disney enthusiasts!

Our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge; the animals were literally in our backyard! The hotel was gorgeous and conveyed a real African feel.

Our room was in the Zebra Trail section, which unlike the other animals, is the only spot where the zebras can be because they get feisty sometimes. I don't know why other animals can come in, and the zebras can't go out, but we were happy to see them.

Every day, these ankole cattle would come and eat right outside our balcony. They would slowly move about in their little herd just chomping away on the grass.

The last 2 days we were in Disney was the start of the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot. We had the best empanada from Argentina. Yum!

Alex experimenting with the camera in Epcot. Thankfully, they are renovating the Spaceship Earth ride, so it was closed-it's about time.

This is at the 50's Prime-Time restaurant at MGM. The servers treat you like kids/family from the 1950's; I got caught too many times with my elbows on the table....the PB&J malt shake was one of the best shakes we've ever had. I need to figure out how to make that one!