Mmmmmm… Mountains… April 27, 2009

Spring Break in Blue Ridge, GA with Mum, KK and Kaiser was absolutely amazing. The drive up was extremely long, but Kaiser did well. And the whole trip made it completely worth it. We were welcomed by the mountains by awaking our first morning to snow. I am so glad I got to see Kaiser experience this. He was so excited. We bundled up, went out and began to play. 

   

There wasn’t a lot of snow, but it did continue to actually snow throughout the day, and there was enough for Kaiser to attempt to make snow angels, although he ended up just kind of swishing his arms and legs in wet leaves and getting all dirty. We got to make snowmen, although they ended up being so small we had to make them on my car… the photo size is basically actual size…

 

Since it was such a snowy day we decided to go ahead and take our scenic train ride- Kaiser’s first REAL train ride!

    

Kaiser had so much fun, he said at the end of the day, “This is my best day, EVER!”

The cabin was gorgeous- I highly recommend. Kaiser and I were banished to the kids room in the basement that was like 20 degrees at all times. But the rest of the cabin was nice and snuggly warm due to the wonderfully convenient gas fireplace. We did all of the typical mountain stuff- drank warm apple cider in front of the fireplace, roasted marshmallows in the firepit and made S’mores, hiked up mountains to see waterfalls, soaked in the hot tub, played ping pong and other games, had easter egg hunts… (well, okay, maybe that’s not typical mountain stuff). I was happy to see that we all had a wonderful, much needed, family vacation.

Strawberry Festival! March 3, 2009

We started off our weekend with Bingo on Friday night at Kaiser’s school. As I left work I told a co-worker, “I’m off to play Bingo.” She responded, “Happy 83rd Birthday!” I said, “No, I’m playing 5-year-old Bingo.” “Oh! That’s much better than 83-year-old Bingo.” “Yeah, I EVEN get a Spaghetti Dinner out of it! So… I guess it’s not much different than 83-year-old Bingo actually….” “So glad to see what exciting Friday nights you have.” Hmmm….

And Saturday was Strawberry Festival! Yum! I had never been to the Strawberry Festival and had told myself every single year “this is the year I’m going to go…” So, I finally took Kaiser. We had soooooo much fun! Kaiser actually rode rides! We rode this Dizzy Dragon thing where we sat in a dragon pod thingie and spun around until we got dizzy. He kept saying, “Don’t go TOO fast Mom… not too fast Mom… (giggle giggle)… Mooom! Don’t go TOO fast (laughing hysterically by now)!” He even begged ME to ride this roller coaster type thingie that went around super fast and he loved it! We got to make our own Strawberry Shortcake and Kaiser got to be Strawberry Royalty.

    

    

    

One of our favorite parts was when we watched the Pig Races. We got to cheer for who we wanted to win. Some of the pigs that raced were named: Rush Lim-hog, Britney Spareribs, Hammy Faye Bacon, Lindsey Loham, Spamela Lean Hammerson, etc.

    

Musical Beauty March 3, 2009

So, before I sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago, I was taking Mia for a lovely run on a lovely day. While running and listening to tunes, I realized how good of a mood I was in by my response to the music. Normally some of the songs I heard would have made me automatically say “too sad bastard to listen to today….” But, everything just sounded so sweet and peaceful it felt good. This was my favorite song that popped up while I was shuffling, so it became my Song of the Day- “Golden Brown” by The Stranglers:

Game Time March 3, 2009

One of my Kaiser weekends I decided we’d have a Game Night on Saturday. So we made popcorn, played Charades, played Operation Hulk, played Spongebob Connect Four, and Disney Monopoly. We had a blast. At one point Kaiser decided it would be more fun to put on a costume while we played Monopoly.

Kaiser’s also been into building forts lately, so we’ve been doing that a lot too. Connect 4 is our favorite game to play in the fort.

Year of the Earth Ox January 26, 2009

As I’m sitting here dancing to my Pandora Michael Franti station I found my new theme song: True to Myself by Ziggy Marley. Dig it.

Chinese New Year means Chinese Astrology!!!

Snake Ratings

79% (10 favorable and 2 neutral months)
The Snake has an incredibly favorable year ahead. The year of the Ox provides many opportunities for the Snake to fulfill long awaited career goals and achieve more than he/she ever imagined. Your wisdom and patience are tools that prove successful in all aspects of your life. Relationships could be taken to new heights and deep and meaningful friendships are acquired. This year proves to be one of action, the year that all of your planning and waiting pay off for you. The later months prove to be especially successful, tying a year of arduous work into an extremely blissful culmination.

Snake Career

Your wisdom proves to be most resourceful this year, particularly in your career endeavors. Colleagues will admire your input and your opinion will be well respected among business circles. Your work will take you to new levels in your career, as you may see a promotion or a position change that offers you a direction that is more suitable to your skills. March, April and May are strong months for a career change or an upswing in your current position. Be prepared for an outstanding year in your work and don’t be surprised if everything you do results in success.

Snake Relationships

The Snake’s social life will bring a high amount of satisfaction to you this year, as will your family life. Though you tend to be more of a loner, this year will provide occasions that may bring you out of your shell. You have always been a good listener and you will benefit from being more assertive in social situations. More to the point, you may be thrown into a position to be more assertive, rather than volunteering. Your quick thinking will prove to be most useful. Single Snakes may find the romantic relationship they seek, as romance is favored.

Snake Health

The Snake will not suffer any more than minor health issues, but you may want to watch what you eat and make it a point to exercise more often, as these may be areas that you tend to neglect. Your busy work schedule and social endeavors may make it difficult to maintain a regular schedule of exercise, but you can find time here and there to do something active. This will help your heart and may relive stress from a long work week.

Snake Wealth

The Snake will do well with your conservative approach to spending. You have always been disciplined in your finances and this year proves to be no different. If you maintain your frugal manner, you will find that you have accumulated enough by the end of the year to make a large purchase that you have been planning for a long time. If you are in doubt about a particular endeavor, don’t hesitate to receive a second opinion before committing.

Lettuce Lake Park January 19, 2009

Kaiser and I have been spending a lot of time here lately. They have the best climbing trees (it’s kind of funny because I took almost the exact same pictures- Kaiser wearing the same hoodie and everything- almost a year ago). We also went on the boardwalk, but Kaiser was too scared to climb the tower, so we stayed on the first level. We go and do the loop around the trail, have a picnic, and then Kaiser gets to play on the playground. These pics were taken a couple of months ago, but we went back again today and Kaiser rode his bike while I jogged along- well, kind of…. As with everything Kaiser does, it takes us quite awhile to make it around the whole circle because we have to stop at all of the exercise stations so Kaiser can show me how to use all of those wooden things that look like some sort of medieval torture devices. And, of course, we always have to stop and climb the trees. As we watched a guy jog past us for the 5th time (we literally counted every time he went by us) I finally told Kaiser, “Wow. We must really be going slow- this guy has gone around the circle 5 times and we haven’t even made it around once yet….” Kaiser simply responded, “Yeah….” Was a fun day.

    

    

Oops! Halloween… yeah… 3 months ago… January 19, 2009

Luca and Janine came up for Halloween. This was technically Gian’s holiday since I had him Halloween last year, but it was my weekend, so Gian took the boys Trick-or-Treating. It was actually quite nice because Janine and I got to relax and catch up, sipping beer while handing out candy to the handful of children who knocked on my door. Gian got to take Batman and Obi Wan Kenobi (sp?) around the neighborhood. And… he got to get beat up by light sabers. Was quite amusing. Upon their return Gian was laughing because someone thought Luca was the Burger King guy….

    

The next night we went to Tampa Theatre’s Sunset Cinema at Al Lopez Park. They showed E.T. on this big huge blow up screen in the park and everyone brought blankets and picnics. It was so nice laying under the stars with Kaiser and the weather was gorgeous. We arrived before sunset to get a decent spot, brought our picnic dinner and sat and read books and played at the park before the movie began. It was a very relaxing night, and it was all free. Yet another reason I love Tampa Theatre.

BoYsterous Weekend December 10, 2008

Everyone who knows Kaiser knows that he is one of the most cautious children in the world. He will not ride escalators. He will not ride carousels. He will not ride the flying bananas at Lowry Park. He will not ride the little jeep thing at Lowry Park. He will not ride the camels or ponies at Lowry Park. Everyone also knows that he is normally very quiet and well-behaved – in other words, not like a normal 5-year-old. So when we went to Ft. Myers for Thanksgiving he was soooooo excited to see Grammie and KK and MoMo that he acted like a complete lunatic all weekend. He woke up the Wednesday before and asked if this was the day we were going to see Grammie. I said yes. He jumped out of bed and pumped his fists while he said, “Yes! YEs! YESSS! I’m just so excited because I miss Grammie so much.” So the whole weekend we were there he didn’t stop talking, he ran around as if he were on speed, and he exhausted us all. The Saturday after Thanksgiving KK, MoMo and I decided to take him to Centennial Park for the Holiday festivities. They had Snow Mountain, which the kids got to sled down, ponie rides, a bouncy house, a large inflated slide, a train that took kids only all the way around the park, and a flying turtle thingie that went up and down and around and blew bubbles. I got there and thought to myself, “There’s no way my wimpie child is going to do any of this stuff.” I was completely wrong. He did everything. And since he usually never does any of this stuff, he had an extremely high level of giddiness the whole time- much higher than the other 5-year-olds who probably do this stuff on a semi-regular basis (proof of this statement is in the pic of him on the flying tortoise thing- notice how all of the other kids are somewhat bored looking while Kaiser is grinning maniacally?), except for the slide. He greatly amused KK, MoMo and I as we watched him climb the slide holding his mat, while he ever-so-cautiously-held-on-for-dear-life. He created a 10-kid pile up behind him. As KK and I laughed hysterically, the man who was waiting to push the next kid down the slide had to come to his rescue and help him up before the other 3-5 year-old kids trampled him from behind. I can only assume his giddiness and fearlessness was because he was on such a high from seeing family.

   

       

Diggin’ Kings of Convenience December 5, 2008

Found a song by them on an old compilation that I’ve had for… um… like 7 years… and haven’t listened to since about then. The song I found is totally different than this one, but it made me a fan. This video made me smile:

Prague (Day 4)- Hradcany- Prague Castle December 1, 2008

Hradcany is the neighborhood around Prague Castle. I finally felt comfortable enough on the streets to put my iPod on to drown out all of the German, Swedish and Japanese murmurs around me. It felt so good to listen to music as I wandered the streets. I started off my day walking up through Mala Strana, when I found this… I call it my little piece of heaven…

 In case I haven’t mentioned it enough, the coffee in Prague is reaaaalllly bad. Unless you find lovely little shops that sell real coffee. Like Starbucks. My eyes widened with pleasure as I walked into an establishment that I knew EXACTLY what to do! This was totally my turf. I walked up to the “Order Here” side with no hesitation and confidently stepped aside and waited patiently for my order to be called. And I had no problem paying the 110 kC (which was more than any of the meals I paid for) for my Venti Cafe Mocha. I was ready to head up the steep hills that would lead me to the castle. As I began to hike up the steep cobblestone street I adored the little village feel that enveloped me in the street amongst the quaint little shops. I walked up the street for awhile when all of a sudden the buildings abruptly stopped and I was taken aback with a gorgeous view of Petrin Hill and the valley below. I couldn’t help but stop and rest for awhile while breathing in the gorgeous view.

    

    

The monastery at the top of the hill was beautiful, with a lovely courtyard inside. I walked through the streets for a bit until I hit The Castle. It is extremely massive, one of the largest in the world, built in 870.

    

The castle itself is actually the walls that surround St. Vitus Cathedral (the gothic towers in the middle- NOT the castle). This is the only cathedral I actually went in. The line was pretty long, and once inside it reminded me a bit of The Vatican, but with more gold which I was actually not as impressed with. The Vatican was almost gorgeous enough to convert me, but St. Vitus didn’t quite cut it. Although the gargoyles and other Gothic architecture were definitely impressive.

    

I walked around the grounds of the castle for awhile, as well as around Hradcany a bit more.

    

Then I decided to begin my journey downhill, when I realized I was a bit hungry. I was debating whether I was going to eat yet another Ham & Cheese Panini, when I came across a crepe shop… Ooooh!… I had a lovely crepe with vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce for lunch. Yum! I love Prague… sigh…