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So because we are an adventurous family and I am a lunatic, the kids and I got together and considered all the options for excursions on our cruise. I am going to have the scares and adventures of my life, but this is going to be a vacation we will never forget our entire lives. It's going to be our own little Amazing Race:

Puerto Vallarta:
9am - 2pm Canopy Adventure (ZIP LINES! 14 of them! 90 feet in the air!!!)
4pm - 8:30pm Sunset Horseback ride through rainforest with BBQ dinner

Mazatlan:
Shopping, buffet lunch and the beach - AHHH, Rest and safety!!!!

Cabo San Lucas:
Morning: Possible Swimming with dolphins or Kayaking
Afternoon: Snuba Diving

I am so scared of the zip lines I can't even think about them, but there's no way I'm not going to do them.
I know I never explained this, but I'm taking only the kids because Scott would not have fun on the Full Throttle Vacations that I take with the kids. Even when we're not doing Amazing Feats of Daring we still are Go-Go-Go non-stop on vacation. When I'm on vacation with Scott, we like to rest.

Which is why I'm going back to a different part of Mexico with Scott next January on another cruise, no kids allowed.
:-D

Last night I booked a cruise to Mexico for me and the kids. It doesn't really even seem real. I'm kind of excited, kind of not believing we're really going to go.

So August 5 we'll be leaving from Long Beach on the Carnival Pride. We cruise south for two more days, then dock at Puerto Vallarta where we're going to go horseback riding, even swimming across a river on horseback. And feed ostriches. The next day we dock at Mazatlan, we're going to shop and spend time at the beach. The next day we dock at Cabo San Lucas where we're going to Snuba Dive.

I've never rode a horse that I can remember, and I've never Snuba'd or Scuba'd or Snorkeled. I think we're going to have a lot of fun, even though I can't QUITE imagine that we're really going to do this.

Maybe I can talk Charleen into going with us...

Spike had his first driving lesson this morning and the instructor said he was "the best first time driver she ever had", so this afternoon I let him drive my car...

He was a very happy boy as you can see from the picture... but it wasn't the best ride *I* ever had... there were some close calls and once during a turn me yelling "SlowDownSlowDownSLOWDOWNSLOWDOWNSLOWDOWNSLOWDOWN!!!!

I think I'll let him take another lesson before he drives MY car again.

So the new glass company came by this afternoon, replaced both panes of glass, and only charged me $175, much less than the first company was going to.

I have to say, he was quite impressed with her broken window and how she has recently written all over her walls with a sharpie pen, and a few other recent stories I told him.

He left and told me "Thanks for the birth control. I'm going to go ride my bike and slip off the seat now." I'm not even kidding.

Ya know, I would have been irritated if Sunjaya had won, but he was hardly the worst singer ever on American Idol. He was not so bad that he deserved all that media attention. But when I went to the grocery store the other day and Sunjaya was on the cover of a magazine (TV Guide?) there were little kids in line who were going crazy over his image. They LOVED him. The fact is, he needn't have cried last night. He'll be showing up on Nickelodean or Disney as soon as his AI contract is up. He'll probably end up one of AI's biggest (non-singing) stars.

Ready for the next chapter in the Fixing-One-Stupid-Window story?

So I came home after school to wait for the window guys to come, and luckily at least the internet works now so I could work from home while waiting. So I waited and waited, and finally I noticed a voicemail message. I listened to it, and the glass company wanted me to call them.

And they told me that their boss just told them my house is "just out of area" and they can't come fix the window.

Even though they've already been out here once, ordered a new window, accepted my cancelation and rescheduled for today.... and then they don't tell me until today that they can't come???

I was too boggled to even yell. They gave me the number of two other companies closer to me. I called one company and told him the story. "They told you WHAT????" He couldn't believe it either.

So I made an appointment with him. For Friday afternoon. Luckily, I have no school then, so I am home anyway... but what if I wasn't?? What if I didn't have working internet so I could work from home, or what if I wasn't able to work from home anyway?? I've never heard something so ridiculous.

But the element of surprise worked in their favor, because I was too damned surprised to yell.

Day of Silence at SJSU

My picture contribution from school.

A short film starring a guy I'm not that fond of (Will Farrel) and... a very mean LANDLADY.

So this morning, no internet connection.

The repairman actually came really quickly, and figured out that the modem had gone bad so he replaced it. But he said the lines were still wonky so he was calling someone else out - but my internet should work in the meantime.

Within minutes the repairman arrived. He said he would have to shut the phones down while he worked on the line. And it would take awhile.

I notified my supervisor that the work I had just started was now going to stop, again. And I sat and waited. And waited and waited and waited.

Then I woke up. Two hours had passed. The phones were still dead. I called my supervisor to let her know.

An hour later, the internet suddenly came on, and the phones were working too. The phone rang, it was the repairman to say things should be working now.

I'm not holding my breath.

Scott and I watched The Descent on my dvd player in Volcano this weekend. It scared the S*** out of me. I almost had to sleep with the lights on when it ended.

Fall Semester

So the new schedule for next Fall is finally out and basically I'm screwed even worse than this semester which is worse than last semester... but anyway, this is what it looks like I'll probably take:

Spanish 25A
Modern English
Shakespeare
and either:
Myth in Literature
or
Independant Study of Ovid

I think I'll probably take the Ovid class, but it depends on what it will entail.
It's a tough schedule because it's five days a week and all those classes are a lot of work. I'm going to see if I can test out of Spanish after this semester because that will be a major gift if I can avoid those last ten required units.

I'm so happy my internet is working right now...

GUESS WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW!

HOME!

That's right, I'm typing this up on the internet from HOME.
That doesn't mean it will work tomorrow, or even an hour from now, but at the moment... we have contact!!!

More Buffy...

I forgot to update this part, but you know that week long madness below?

After the glass guys left, after asking Buffy over and over and over again "WHY did you throw away the window?????!!!!!!" and her telling me over and over and over again "I didn't think you needed it", and then it was 6pm and Spike comes home and hears us still mad at each other and he tells me...

"She didn't throw it away. It's on the side of the house."

***FUME***

So I had to call the glass people back... leave a message... to please cancel the window order... and please come back with the glass... and now it won't be $445 for a whole window, but it's not going to be $225 anymore because they have no intention of coming out AGAIN and being sent away, so now it's $275.

So Spike put the slider part in Buffy's room... and she goes in there later... and...

"Hey Mom! I found my window!"

I kid you not.

Back from Vacation

Pictures from our Volcano trip up at Flickr. We had a very nice time.

So.
Internet guy came yesterday, said it's "some other" problem that he "could" fix right then, but his office told him he had to log another ticket about the "other" "new" problem. So I had to wait until today for another guy to come out. In the meantime he knocked out our phones AND our Direct TV, and then told me the phone line doesn't have anything to do with our Direct TV. Except there's a G*d D*MN PHONE LINE coming from my phone jack directly into my DVR. So that required another phone call to Direct TV who at least was very helpful in actually FIXING a problem.

I came home from school at 12:30 and the internet wasn't working, so I called them to see if they could give me an estimated time since I NEED IT TO DO MY WORK. They said Oh, the Tech Guy was there at 10am and he fixed it. Well, my internet still doesn't work, so... So it must be "some other problem" that will require another guy to come out, which requires an appointment, which isn't available until Monday.

So then the window guys come, and wouldn't you know it, Buffy THREW AWAY the sliding side of her window that is broken because she didn't think we needed it. So now.... the $225 window glass.... is now a $445 entire window. This is me... trying to remain... CALM.

So here I am at Fricken STARBUCKS again, doing my actual JOB, until 6pm.

And this is why I am going away for ANOTHER weekend, with Scott, to Volcano, an official GHOST TOWN which has actual INTERNET available. Me and Scott can rest, I can get my stupid homework done, I can calm down, and hopefully get myself ready and rested for Monday when I will again be sitting at home wasting time WAITING.

Of COURSE the internet did not work this morning. Was on phone with Tech Support by 6:30am, and off after 7am. Drove in to work at 7:30am and have to leave at 11am for school.
The Repair Man is supposed to be at my house by 8pm. Yeah, that helps.

I finally managed to look up the repair number for my internet when I was at work today, but could not call until I got home, and I actually had 45 minutes to sit on hold to speak to them when I got home today.

Of course in the middle of that phone call it started working.

So I'm not sure they did anything, but it has been working for five hours now, so I'm going to turn this off and go to bed and hope it will turn on in the morning. Things will go much better if it does.

You see, working from Starbucks forces me to lose over two hours a day because I have to shift my work schedule. And it prevents me from being able to do anything from home, like wait for the glass company to come repair the window. But if it works now, then I get home tomorrow at 3pm and can finish studying. And I can work from home while the glass man comes and not have to miss a day of work.

So that alleviates stress. And so now I REALLY feel better.

Except I do miss my mom. But that's never going to change.

*****

Go see Grindhouse ya'll. You'll have a blast.

On the other hand, I rented The Black Dahlia today and that has to be on my top three very worst movies of all time right now.

"Grindhouse"

I just read news that Grindhouse came in fourth and only made $11 million this week.

Let me be clear, this movie is not for everyone. On the other hand, it had Scott and me in stitches, and there was a 60 year old couple in front of us who were having WAY too much fun. The entire theater was applauding and laughing hysterically and having a great time.

Violence, Yes. But a little more cartoony than usual, I thought. In Robert Rodriguez's movie when you shoot someone apparentely a GALLON of blood shoots out of you. It's hard to take that seriously. There was lots of heads blowing up, and the cannibal zombie disease did some horrilby disgusting things to you. But this is horror from the 70's, it's not realistic "Saw" stuff. It was fun.

Buffy would disagree, she didn't like Rodriguez's movie as much as Tarantino's. Actually, in our group of six, three of us preferred Rodriguez, three of us preferred Tarantino.

Kurt Russell was awesome in Tarantino's movie. I just disliked the entire first half of it because it went so sloooow. Once the action started happening though, Tarantino's movie was awesome.

I thought it was really creatively done, Rodriguez especially took every opportunity to replicate the 70's horror films. I totally appreciated it. It was a much needed 3 hour break from the seriousness of life.

Rose McGowan was awesome. I always liked her anyway, but she earned major points for this movie.

I don't know, what can I say? It's violent, there's half nekkid chicks with machine guns, it's violent, ... and it's awesome. It's not for everyone, but if you even half like horror films, if you love oldies, if you love films, you should go see this movie. It didn't even feel like three hours, and for me, that says a lot. I HATE when movies approach 2 hours. But this one was great.

Out of the six of us, it got a huge thumbs up. So I recommend it, and you should go see it.

But don't bring little kids, it's not for them. Teenagers, yes, but not little kids.

Happy Easter

We saw Grindhouse on Saturday, and it was Awesome. If you like that kind of stuff. Which I do.

I brought my kids and two of their friends and Scott two. I went to the ticket booth (first in line when it opened!) and asked for six for Grindhouse. The ticket guy looked at the four kids surrounding me and started laughing and shaking his head. I asked him why he was laughing, and he said "Well. Grindhouse is quite a family movie!" And I laughed too. I also told him that it was me who was dieing to get to the theater.

Anyway - Chick with a machine gun for a leg. Tell me that's not awesome.

After school I went to Starbucks.

"Quiero un Dulce con Leche grande."

"What was that? A Dolce Frappuchino? a what?"

"Si. Pero una latte."

He looks at me.

"OH! OH! I'm sorry, I just got out of Spanish class! I guess I have to adjust..."

He laughed. It was funny. It was only a small bit of spanish that came out, but I didn't even realize it and it was just enough to confuse him.

Plus, then they have me a Cinnamon Dolce Latte instead, heh. It was still good.

Archaeology: 100% on my Research Paper Proposal (20% of my grade)

WOOOOO

:-D

Clase de Espanol midterm: 87%

Which is okay porque tengo muchos creditos extras. Or whatever. Basically, I still have an A.

:-D

European Literature: A

:-D

Bad Shampoo! Do not buy!

So yesterday I needed to buy some shampoo and the drugstore had ABBA Shampoo on sale, so that's what I bought.

This morning I used it and wondered "Why am I having visions of the dentist in the shower?"

And then realized it was the shampoo... it smelled like mint toothpaste...

Only really REALLY minty, like mediciny minty...

Like mouthwash.

So whatever, I held my breath and rinsed.

But now all day every time I shake my head I smell that horrible minty smell from the dentist. It's like that minty smell they use to cover up the really bad smell of the stuff they clean your teeth with.

It's NASTY. And my hair SMELLS like it!!!!! And even on sale, that stuff wasn't cheap!

Also, I went to the gym and swam 80 laps today! WOOOOO!!!

"The Host"

Yes, you should definitely go see it.
Great family, some humor, scary monster. Can't ask for more than that.

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