Mini-Vacation!!!

The boy and I are going on a mini-vacation this weekend! We weren't sure if we'd go or not, but the room is now booked and I've got Friday off of work. So? Where are we going?

Cedar Point, baby!

It's gonna be in the 50s there this weekend, so hopefully the park won't be super crowded. I'll get to wear a cute sweater (several of which I just got dry cleaned for the season) and ride some of my favorite coasters. It's win-win! Robb got us a room at The Breakers, which is right out on the beach. Lake view room. Early entry into the park. And the best part of it all?

It's the first weekend of HalloWeekends! The first time we ever went to Cedar Point was during HalloWeekends, and it was awesome! Parts of the park were covered in fog, there were great Halloween decorations, and one of the water rides had drowned clowns in the tank. Nothing's better than a dead clown!

So...hooray! That only leaves one question. What do we do during our extra hour?

No contest. I want to ride Millenium Force as many times as humanly possible. If we rode nothing else all weekend, I'd be a happy little otter.

Out

My Packrat Ways...

Saturday I spent the day in and out of the closets at my mom's house. I completely cleaned out the closet in my old room. It was mostly stuff I had outgrown, clothes and toys and stuff. I threw out a lot of stuff I had no idea why I'd kept...stuff I'd had at the OLD house that hadn't found a home outside of a box since we moved. I bagged up four garbage bags of clothes to donate to Goodwill. I even donated some books to the YoungLife garage sale that's going on next Saturday. Then?

Ugh. Then. I had to tackle the hall closet, which was where they jammed everything from my old room when they cleaned it out to make it Mom's office. Blargh. I haven't even come close to finishing that...it go so overwhelming that I just quit and we went to the new house to paint. But I did sort through my two bookshelves that were in there, chose some books to part with for the garage sale, and re-shelved the rest. I have to go back on Tuesday (my mom's birthday!) to finish.

Here's the thing, though...My parents have tons of storage space in the top floor of their garage. Way more than at the old house. So...my mom is letting me keep my stuff up there until we have enough room to get it out of there...or until we get a storage unit. A storage unit probably won't happen. But she asked me to put it all in totes. Do you know how infuriating it is to pack books into plastic totes? Have you ever SEEN a square tote? Me either. They're all rounded corners and tapered walls...it's gonna get messy.

And on top of that? I have every issue of Nintendo Power since #20. Since I was, like, six. They're now on issue #271. So...Where does one put 250 back issues of a magazine he doesn't intend to get rid of? Totes? Ugh...that's gonna be SO HEAVY! But...that's what this has been reduced to. Now...I just need some totes. Maybe I'll go shopping.

Oh, and after that? I have no idea what's in the OTHER HALF of the closet...I think it's mostly games and puzzles and stuff that's not mine...but I see another stack of books on the far side that has me WAY nervous...

You don't have any idea how relieved I'm going to be when this is over...

Out

The Worst Kind...

I woke up this morning to screaming--the kind of screaming that you know is words, but you can't make them out--the kind of screaming that makes you picture little chunks of the person's throat flying out of their mouth.

Accompanying that? Little girl's voice, little boy's voice, both as loud as possible.

Meet our new neighbors.

The have one volume: screaming. And they do it at night, in the morning, in the afternoon...whenever and wherever they are. It's a single mom and her 4 to 6-year-old son, plus some girl that doesn't belong to them but I can't figure out who she is.

When they moved in, they parked in our parking spots. That was our first impression. Strike one. Then, their ghetto friends came in their backfiring cars all day and all night for days. Strike two. Then, I watched her watch her son throw a cigarette package (what the fuck was he doing with a cigarette package?) into the grass and do nothing about it. Strike three.

Not to mention that the hallway reeks of cigarettes and occasionally weed. Not to mention the toys and sidewalk chalk left right at the bottom of the stairs. Not to mention the fact that the loudest noise we've had around here in the 3+ years we've lived here was traffic.

And last night Robb heard her out in the parking lot screaming at no one at the top of her lungs. "I HATE THIS FUCKING TOWN! ARRRGGGGH!!! I HATE IT!" and then her little kid goes, "I hate this town, too, Mommy. Let's go home."

Please? Please? Because if this keeps up, it's only gonna get worse for you.

Seriously...as far as neighbors go, they're the worst kind!

Out

Long Weekend...

This is my fourth day off of work. Tomorrow I must return. Sad sack.

Saturday I helped a friend move. I aggravated my bad foot going up and down stairs with heavy stuff. But we got her moved, and her new place is gorgeous.

Sunday I got to see some writing group peeps that I haven't seen for months. I am starting to get excited for NaNoWriMo! Oh man...Then Robb and I took off to go see my mom's new house.

Oh. My. Gorgeous!

Seriously. I'll get photos to upload some day. It's very 1920s or 30s...all original woodwork. Some original windows. It's got arches and columns and a beautiful staircase...a sun room...a two-story garage with a workroom in the top. It's just...amazing. Especially for $150 less a month than she WAS paying. It's a huge step up. Turns out they decided to move in part because our old landlord came by and went to smoke a joint with the neighbors across the alley. While he was there, he told them that we owed him money. Lies. So...they gone!

And Sunday night on the ride home, I felt like someone had kicked me square in the middle of my back, like, steel toe to spine.

Monday morning it was no better, but Robb and I went to Galena and kicked around the town. I brought money to shop, and all we bought was candy and cheese. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't see anything I really wanted to get for our apartment. But I saved my cash, mostly. By the time I went to bed, every movement was feeling like I was being stabbed in the back.

This morning? Ugh. It hurts so damn bad. Sitting up, standing up, rolling over in bed, bending down, walking...it all hurts. I think maybe I overexerted myself helping move. I'm taking today to do as little as possible...and hoping it helps.

I'm such an old lady.

Out

I'm on a ski lift.

Grocery store with "ground beef" on the sign...in quotes. What is it...really?

If you knew an EMP blast was going to knock out all electricity in an hour, and it would never come back, what would you spend your last hour playing?

If you knew an EMP blast was going to knock out all electricity in an hour, and it would never come back, what would you spend your last hour playing?

Answer here