Chattanooga, Tennessee

Our northern route to Ohio took us right through the middle of Alabama, up to Nashville, through Louisville, and into Ohio through Cincinnati. We drove straight through since we were in somewhat of a hurry to get there. The drive took about 14 hours and the loss of an hour by transitioning from the Central time zone to the Eastern time zone. Yes. The western part of Florida's panhandle is in the Central time zone. Most people don't realize this.

Anyway, on the way home, we decided to break the trip up into two days. The halfway point was in Nowhere, Alabama. Or maybe it was Nowhere, Tennessee. Either way, it was in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty much a genius when it comes to maps. I'm directionally challenged, but I can read a map. Figure it out. So, I mapped us out an alternate route that took us through the eastern part of Tennessee, with a quick jog through the very northeast corner of Georgia, and back into Alabama. It only added 30 minutes to the drive and allowed us to stop in Chattanooga which is just about, smack dab halfway between Huber Heights, Ohio and Navarre, Florida.

We stayed at a pretty decent hotel in Chattanooga that was downtown. Ok. I have to tell you. I was pretty much unimpressed with the city itself. It was very blue collar and seemed run down. The surrounding area is beautiful with mountains and fall color and the Tennessee River. We checked out a local restaurant for dinner, the Terminal Brew House. We wanted something non-chain and having a selection of craft brews, as well as being close to our hotel, it seemed to be a winner. The Mister said that the beer was excellent. I had the house pinot noir and it was pretty good. We had to specifically ask the waiter if the girls could have soft drinks since he didn't bother to take their drink orders or even give them a glass of water. The food was so-so. Not horrible, but for the prices, nothing special. We opted to have the "seasonal steamed veggies" as our side dish and was served BEETS. Who in the holy heck serves beets? Who likes beets?!?! What kind of side is that? It was an unsatisfying meal, excellent selection of beers aside.

Overall, I didn't have the best impression of Chattanooga. I know. We were there for less than 24 hours, but from what we saw, it wasn't compelling enough for us to plan our next family vacation there. It's nice to know that it's a good halfway stop for the next time we drive to Ohio and we'd stay at the same hotel again too. They had a really good breakfast.

Moving Update: Edition One Trillion and One

 I started cleaning and organizing. Finally. Last week. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute, right? We still want to try and have a garage/yard/moving sale before the packers get here. This means that it has to happen this coming weekend because our crap is getting boxed up a week from today, Monday. We have tons of girls clothes to get rid of. Mostly sizes 5-8. I don't know how I'm going to organize and price all that. We also have three TVs, one camera, a home surround sound system, car stereo and speakers, a lawnmower (maybe two), computer monitor, blender, coffee pot, two sets of dishes, etc etc etc. We don't get rid of anything. It's pathetic. You never realize how much of a pack rat/hoarder you are until it's time to move.

And to add to all the fun, I fell. On my butt. Again. This time, it totally wasn't my fault. I didn't trip over my feet or wear dumb shoes. I don't really want to say what happened because out of all the times I've fallen on my ass, this is probably the most embarrassing situation. I really did a number on my tail bone this time though. It has made organizing and cleaning SOOO much more fun than it would've been otherwise. The timing just couldn't have been more perfect. And if you know me at all, you know the stress is manifesting as insomnia. I was up at four this morning. I rolled over, hurt my butt moving, then my mind switched on and I kept thinking of all the things I need to get done. Sleep was over.

Speaking of inconvenient timing, the Mister, Oldest child, and I went to the Imagine Dragons concert Saturday night. The venue was SDSU's OAT (open air theater). It was a great venue. We've never been to an outdoor concert before. It was a lot of fun for me to climb up and down the stairs to and from our seats...which were concrete, by the way. Aside from the pain, and you don't sit for a concert anyways, it was a fab show. Out of all the concerts I've been to, this one was the most entertaining in that it was more than just listening to music live. They had a really neat light show that went along with the music. And they had this gigantic drum that when they pounded it, I swear, my eyeballs vibrated. This was the Oldest child's first concert and she had a really great time. I'm glad that the Mister and I were able to take her to her first concert. Good thing we like a lot of the same music, lol.

In other moving news...

We finally found a house. It's a four bedroom with a his and hers closets and dual vanities in the master bath. It has a nice kitchen with a breakfast bar, and an absolutely fantastic back yard. Our pets have been approved which has been a major issue. AND, it's located between the Santa Rosa Sound and the East Bay. At least I think it's the East Bay. It's some body of water. And it's minutes from the ocean beaches. It's also in one of the highest rated school districts. There's only two things against it:  1 - It's a bit of a commute to the Mister's base and 2 - The property manager seems to be a bit of a dillwad. Despite those things, we're probably going to take this house because it's the only one of out many, many, many houses that I've inquired about that has approved our pets. Do we take our chances turning this house down and hope that we'll find another in a good school district that will approve our pets when we move in a little over a week? Those are long odds in my opinion. And the lease is only for a year. No. I don't relish the thought of moving again in a year, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And who knows. Maybe this guy will turn out to be an ok guy. Miracles happen, right?

I've slowly been checking things off of my to do list. I called the vet to see about getting the cat sedatives. I also called to have our water filtration system picked up. It's gotta be out of here before our move out inspection because I didn't get permission to have it installed. Sorry. I'm not drinking dirty California tap water. I'm working to get my car shipped. Just waiting to get some estimates. I can't decide if I want to cancel my cable or just turn in our equipment and cancel it from Florida. Why, you ask? Because I have the TWC app and will be able to watch the season premier of True Blood. I'll also be able to watch Nurse Jacki. I'm sad and obsessed, I know.

So far, we've cleaned and organized the master bedroom, the garage, and the craft/game closet. Still to go:

• Master Bath
• Upstairs Bath
• Oldest Child's room
• Youngest Child's room
• Office
• 1/2 bath
• Storage closet
• Outdoor storage room
• Laundry room (a bigger job than it may sound like because it has a lot of cabinets and storage space)
• Kitchen
• Living room

Looking at that list, I need to get off of here and get something done for the day besides making phone calls.

16 Days and Counting

 We hit the road in 16 days. Time is flying. I think out of all of our moves, I am the least prepared going into this one. Just a little over two weeks before we go and we don't have a house in Florida yet. We are almost 1000 pounds over our max weight and haven't solved that problem yet either. We were (maybe still are) going to have a garage sale but nothing has been organized for it yet. I need to make arrangements to have my car shipped. I have done absolutely no cleaning or organizing within our current home. It's pretty ridiculous.

Even so, the closer we get to our move date, the more anxious and excited I am for it to finally get here. Once you know you're moving, especially a big coast to coast move like we're doing, your life is pretty much put on hold. It's hard to make plans. Every time I see something that I might like to buy for the house like new curtains or bathroom stuff or whatever, first I think, we're over our max weight and we don't need anything new and then I think, what if it doesn't fit/match/go with the new house?

After that, then I start fixating on all the stuff that I don't like about where we're currently living.

• My refrigerator barely functions and I hate it but if I let housing give us a new one (this one can't be fixed) then I have to take a smaller one. Stuff already falls out on our feet, this one is so full. My freezer melts stuff.
• The cable/internet here is horrible. 
• I hate the traffic. 
• All four of us have allergies so bad that it's like we constantly have the flu or a cold and none of us were like that before we moved here. 
• Both of my adjacent neighbors smoke and they do so outdoors (and really. If you do something or have a habit that you won't even do inside your own home, is it really something that you need to be doing at all?????) so that when I have my windows open, I can smell it and I truly hate that. Badly, severely hate that.
• I'm tired of all the barking dogs. 
• I'm tired of not being able to find a place to park at my own freaking house. 
• I'm tired of the beach being inconveniently far enough away that we've only been a handful of times in the three years we've lived here. Then, when you get there, there's no where to park and it's so crowded that you share towels with complete strangers. 
• I'm really tired of the traffic (did I already mention that?) and California drivers. Not every trip on the roads should be a competition of who can drive the fastest and the most reckless but it is.
• My carpet is an ugly poop brown color that housing probably picked out so that it would hide pet stains. 
• And we're crammed into 1500 sqft of poorly laid out space where about 200-300 sqft of that space is unusable. One room is an oversized closet laughably called a fourth bedroom. 
• A yard that takes ten seconds to mow because it's so small. If we had a riding lawn mower, five seconds. 
• Out of seven ceiling fans, only three of them work right. 
• Out of 3 toilets, only two of them are usable right now. 
• I'm tired of living in a neighborhood where we're packed in like sardines: no yards, no parking, and streets aren't wide enough. And for the privilege, we get to be treated like idiot, charity cases by Lincoln Management (base housing people).
• San Diego Unified School District. The schools here are atrocious. Terrible. Just horrible. I have a lot to compare them to and wow.

Then I think of the things I'm going to miss.

• The scenery. 
• The city. 
• Shopping. 
• Nearly perfect weather. 
• The canyon outside of my back fence (which is probably the source of our allergies but it gives us a modicum of privacy that we wouldn't otherwise have at all).
• Free utilities. We pay way too much rent for a place this size, but it comes with free electricity, water, sewer and trash. I like having my windows open with the AC running, bwahahahaha!
• Base housing doesn't care what size dog you have (one of my neighbors has a Great Dane. It's the size of a pony.) as long as it's not on the aggressive dog list i.e., pit bulls, dobermans, chow chows. They don't consider Boxers to be an aggressive breed which is about the only logical thing housing has ever done. 
• The things you only get in large cities:  Professional baseball, concerts, downtown, awesome restaurants, shopping (did I already mention that?), cultural stuff like museums and zoos, amusement parks.
• Bevmo and Paso Robles wine. We have a hard enough time finding wines from Paso Robles here. I seriously doubt we'll be able to find any at all in Florida. And Bevmo is just awesomesauce.
• The Pacific Time Zone. Weird, I know, but I like living in the Pacific Time Zone. The Central Time Zone sucks. 
• Miramar's Exchange. It's so nice. I'll miss MCAS Mirarmar in general. I love that base and it feels like home. The Mister has served eight of his 16 years at this base.
• Jennifer S. and her family even though I got to talk to and see more of them and her when we lived on opposite coasts. 

In my heart, the list of things that I'm not going to miss outweighs the things that I am going to miss and it makes it a bit easier to be going. Don't get me wrong, I'll miss California. I love it here and San Diego is the most fabulous city, but we've had a rough three years here and I think it'll do all of us good to be somewhere else for a while. We had really high expectations when we moved back here three years ago and I think we set ourselves up for disappointment before we even got here. Will we ever move back? Only time will tell. Who knows how we'll feel about things four years from now. Maybe we'll discover that Florida perfectly suits us and we'll buy a house and settle there for good. Maybe we'll find out that moving around for 20 years is in our blood and we'll be bitten by the moving bug and move somewhere totally new.

Been Around The Block

States I've Visited. 32 down, 18 to go.

You know that you move a lot when you can drive from one coast to the other and not hit any new states. This is a first for us.

This move has been the most surreal of any of our previous moves. We've had the movers here already taking inventory of our stuff. We put in our notice at the military housing office and have scheduled our pre-moveout inspection. We've been looking at houses in Florida since January. And still, this move doesn't seem real yet. We're almost 1000 pounds over our max weight, by the way. That's another first.

Looking over our route, we won't be driving through any new states on our way to Florida. Big bummer for me. That's my favorite part of any road trip, driving through a new state. I guess, considering that this is our third coast to coast move, it shouldn't be any big surprise. We'll actually be driving the exact route, only in reverse, on our way to Florida. On our move from North Carolina to California in 2010, we went out of our way to drive through Pensacola so that the girls could see where we had once lived (back in 1999), never considering we would be moving there in three years. Ironies.

From today, May 7th, we hit the road in 37 days. It still doesn't seem real.

Doing Los Angeles

 Even though I've only been to Los Angeles three times (I'm not including the times we drove through to and from other places), I will definitely miss that city. It is such a fun town and once you get off of the freeways, the traffic isn't even that bad. I really love seeing all the places that, until I moved to California, I had only seen on TV, in movies, or read about in books.

My first trip to LA was with my very good friend, Jennifer S. She's pretty familiar with LA and took me to all the great tourist sites. The second time was back in 2010 when the Mister and I went to the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA. That was pretty fun and we're going to try and go back again this year at USC. The third time was just this past Wednesday. I wanted the Mister and the girls to be able to see all the places that I saw with Jennifer.

First, we went to the Santa Monica Pier. We all got lemonades at the original Hotdog on a Stick and had a potty break in some very nasty restrooms. Why are restrooms at the beach so freaking nasty?? Then we went to the famous Farmer's Market for lunch and a bit of shopping. That is a really unique experience and there is so much food that it was hard to choose a lunch spot and we ended up going to different places. Next, we went to the La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum. We got to touch the femur bone of an extinct giant land sloth. I can't go to the La Brea Tar Pits and not think of the movie, My Girl 2, lol. Because we walked from the Farmer's Market to La Brea, we walked back to the Farmer's Market and had dessert, hehehe. After some massive sugar shock, we drove to the TCL (aka, Grauman's, aka, Mann's) Chinese Theater/Dolby Theater.

Both of these theaters have changed names since the last time I was there. I was confused. Anyway, here, we checked out the foot prints, hand prints, and signatures of celebrities, saw the Hollywood sign (a first for all of us), and bought some kitschy souvenirs. After we were done walking around the there, we drove down Rodeo Dr. to gawk at the shops and the houses in Beverly Hills.

SO. MUCH. FUN.

I could barely walk the next day, but we have some great memories to take away with us to Florida. I didn't take very many pictures this time around because I had so many from my first trip. However, I did get one of the Hollywood sign since I didn't get to see it my first trip because it was dark. I also got one of the original Star Trek crew's cement slab at the TCL Theater. I know many people who will find this particular slab very cool. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

The Wrath of Mom

You know how I hate Mondays, right? Well, tomorrow is going to be a particularly rough one.

We have to get up at around 3-3:30 am so that we can have the oldest child at the airport by 4:30. Why? She is taking a class trip to Washington, D.C., Gettysburg, PA, and NYC this week. I am very much the nervous mom. I can't believe that I'm sending my child clear across the country without me or her dad. And just so ya know. The first person that tells me she'll be fine and laughs at my mom-ness is going to get my foot up their butt. Seriously. I'm sure she's going to have the most absolute wonderful time with her friends and see some fabulous historical sites, but I will worry nonetheless. I just hope she gets lots of great pictures.

After we get back from the airport, the Mister has a 6:30 meeting at work and I have one from 10-11 and another from 11-noon. I can't imagine, after having to get up at the time of the morning, that I will remember what happens at either of these meetings let alone be of any use at them. Good thing I have a nice supply of coffee in the house.

I can't believe that if I were to go to bed right now, I'd have to get up again in 8 hours. The sun hasn't even gone down all the way.

Being Touchy Feely

This has been one of the top news stories the past few weeks: Pat downs and full body scans at the airport. I usually stay away from overly hot topics, but since I will be flying next May, I have an opinion on this one.

First of all, I would much rather be scanned than touched by strangers. I don't care that TSA are professionals and they're trained. So are prostitutes. I don't want them touching me either. I am not and never have been a touchy feely type of person. I hug friends and family but not people that I don't know very well or don't like. I don't like shaking hands either when it comes right down to it. I certainly don't want strangers rubbing all over me, and yes, the TSA people do that from what I've seen on the news, especially in full view of lines of other strangers. I can count on one hand how many people have touched my boobs: my husband and my doctors. That's it. The thought of TSA people doing so in public sets my nerves on end. I will definitely opt for the full body scanners when the time comes. I will wear the most simplest clothing that I can find to do my very best that nothing looks suspicious on the scans so that I won't have to have a pat down in addition to the scan.

I've seen lots of people that say that if you don't like the scans and pat downs, then take a bus or drive yourself. That's a very narrow opinion if you ask me. You can't take a bus overseas and I can't imagine taking myself and my kids on a bus from California to Ohio in the case of an emergency or something. The Mister and I are taking a 15th anniversary vacation to Fiji in May. You can't drive to Fiji from the United States. Should I opt to just stay home?

When it comes to my kids, I will definitely avoid flying whenever possible. I really don't like the thought of strangers rubbing their hands over my children. My youngest, who doesn't have "normal" reactions to strangers, this will be a real problem for her and it makes me wonder if parents of other special needs kids have or will have the same sorts of problems when it comes to this issue too.

Something else that bugs me about this is where does it stop? It used to be that we just had to pass through metal detectors and send our carry on luggage through an x-ray machine. 9/11 happened and airport screenings really stepped up. It made it so that getting from your car to boarding your plane takes 2 hours now. We have to take our shoes off (which I find weird but not overly so, btw) and all other manner of things at the gate. Then came along full body scanners and now we have to be subjected to being touched by strangers. What happens when some reporter or someone else trying to make a point, gets past the new security and onto a plane carrying things they shouldn't have been allowed to take on the plane? I see a future of naked people walking around the airport and anal probes. I have to wonder how much I am exaggerating here, if at all...

Real Quick

I’m in Ohio. I had to fly here Wednesday I think it was. My dad had to have open heart surgery. For the fourth time. He was told after his second surgery that they wouldn’t be able to do any more for him so for doctors to be willing to do a fourth was really scary. I booked my flight and was in the air less than 24 hours later. He made it through the surgery with flying colors though. They didn’t have to put him on the heart/lung machine which made such a difference. His surgery consisted of a bypass using a cadaver blood vessel (he has none left that can be used) and they also shot holes through his heart with a laser. About 11 of them. It’s amazing what they can do these days. But he should be coming home on Monday and I fly back to North Carolina tomorrow morning, which would be Sunday morning.

I’m tired and exhausted and wore out. I can’t keep track of the time of day or the days of the week. It’s pretty crazy. Anyway, I have to get up pretty early to go to the airport and it’s pretty late so I’m going to bed. See you all on the other side.

Georgia Pictures

Here are some pictures that I took while in Georgia. All in all, I didn’t really take all that many but the ones that I have are pretty neat.

Statue in Chippewa Square which is where the bench scene in Forrest Gump was filmed.

Church spire from which the feather in Forrest Gump was dropped.

The two pictures above are of Savannah gray brick. There is quite a story behind the bricks which today, are worth $40 to $50 a piece. These bricks were made by slaves and when the slaves left Savannah, they took the recipe for the bricks with them. That’s why they are worth so much money and they are very historical to the city of Savannah. These bricks above are found in the courtyard of the Sorrel-Weed house. You will probably need to click on the pictures to make them bigger, but you can actually see finger indentations in the bricks that were made by slaves when they were forming the bricks. I really thought that was so very neat. Actual, touchable, history. Anyway…

This is the Mercer house which is where the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was filmed.

  These picture are of a 300 year old Live Oak tree which is also the oldest tree in Savannah.

The following pictures are of The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist Church. It was absolutely stunning. We had never been in such a magnificent church before and were all suitably impressed.

This last picture is of recruits marching at Parris Island. The youngest child had never been to Parris Island before and the oldest was only a year and a half when she was there.

All pictures can be clicked upon and made bigger for better viewing. I really recommend that for the brick and church pictures.

Fun Times in Georgia

We had a really good, albeit short, time in Georgia.

The trip down was uneventful. North Carolina to Georgia is VERY boring. The highlight of the drive was driving through Spivey’s Corner, NC. Yes. Spivey’s Corner. We laughed and laughed at the name. There’s nothing there either. It’s hard to tell it was an actual town. Anywho, we left our house around 5:15’ish and arrived at the hotel at midnight. I will never forget Jennifer bounding out of the hotel, very reminiscent of Tigger, in her too cute pajamas and slippers to greet us.

Saturday we got up as early as we could, grabbed breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, Jennifer’s first time, and then drove to a nearby outlet mall that we had seen on our drive down. That was way too much fun. We bought some clothes at the Gap and the Tommy Hilfiger store. Then we bought some new running shoes at the Nike store. I finally have good running shoes!!

After the outlet mall, we drove the rest of the way to Savannah. Savannah is a great city. So much history! The azaleas are in full bloom so there was amazing color everywhere you looked. We decided to take a trolley tour so that we wouldn’t constantly have to find parking and so that we would know what we were looking at. We got off at several of the stops for tours and pictures. We have never taken a formal tour of a city before but it was neat, informative, and something that I would do again.

After the tour was over, we grabbed our car and drove down to River Street for more shopping and dinner. At Pam’s recommendation, we stopped in one of the candy shops and tried the pralines. Oh. My. Gosh!! They were so good. Jennifer and I both bought some to take home. I also bought some caramel chocolate gophers which were also very yummy.We grabbed dinner at a seafood place that had the most excellent crab legs I’ve ever had. They were so juicy that Jennifer and the Mister ended up with butter down the front of them and I sprayed some poor guy as he walked by our table when I cracked a leg open, lol. Dinner was to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday. Her birthday was yesterday but we couldn’t stay through the week so we took her out while we were there. I did the same thing last year in San Diego, heheh.

Sunday, we were up and off to the Shoney’s for breakfast and then we had to head home. :( The visit was too short but worth every minute. On the drive home we took a detour to Parris Island. I hadn’t been there since 1997 when the Mister graduated from boot camp. Parris Island has changed a lot but some things never change like recruits marching everywhere and drill instructors yelling at them along the way, lol. We didn’t stay long because the oldest child decided to pick herself up a bug while we were in Georgia. She was running a fever and right after we drove through the gate to the base, we had to pull over so she could be sick alongside the road. It was so not a fun ride home for her. She’s still home sick with a fever today.

So, that was our trip. I have pictures but I’ll have to post them later. My camera is still in the glove compartment of my car and I don’t feel like running out to get it at the moment. Stay tuned…

Georgia, Here We Come!

I’ve been going nonstop since 6 am but I think I finally have us ready to leave. The car is loaded and I dropped the dogs off at the pet spa about an hour ago. :( It was really hard to leave them, lol. I feel silly about it, but I miss them already. I know they’ll be fine. The people at the spa and the vet’s love them. When the woman took the dogs to the back, they went with her without even looking back and they didn’t even give me a chance to say goodbye. They probably won’t even notice we’re not there. Oh well.

As for the trip, we’re leaving tonight when the Mister and the girls get home which should put us at the hotel around midnight. It sucks, but I wanted to have the entire day there Saturday and the Mister couldn’t finagle any time off of work. It’s going to be a whirlwind trip since we’re leaving to come home Sunday but I don’t care. It’ll be fun and totally worth it.

I have no idea what we’re going to do while we’re there. I hope Jennifer has some ideas, lol. I’ve been so busy all week that I haven’t had a chance to do any research. If anyone has any suggestions of “must see” sights in Savannah, leave a comment!!

We’re not taking a computer with us so I won’t be able to post anything over the weekend but I’ll have pictures and stuff Monday. Tuesday at the latest.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!! I’ll see ya’ll when I get back.

The Results are In

Hannah had her vet visit this morning and she is fine. She just has some sort of stomach bug. I had no idea that dogs could get what is basically the stomach flu, did you?  Anyway, they ran tests and took x-rays but didn’t find anything. No worms or obstructions. She does have a fever so she’s being treated for that and the nausea. I have to give her two different pills twice a day for five days and she should be all cleared up. AND, the doctor said that we can kennel both dogs at their sister facility next door so that if anything happens with Hannah, they’ll be right there to take care of her. Neato, huh? It’s actually a pet spa, heheh, so they should have a pretty good time while we’re gone. I even paid a little extra so that they could have  special play time each day they’re there.

I’m pretty relieved. Hannah laying around the house for four days had me more worried than her nausea did. She’s such a hyperactive, go, go, go, kinda dog that it’s really scary to see her sleeping all the time. But I guess like people, dogs sleep when they have the flu too, lol.

So, since everything is cool with the dogs, I’m making plans for a weekend trip to Georgia. There’s packing and cleaning to do but with only going for the weekend, it shouldn’t be that bad. I’m really excited and looking forward to going and to seeing Jennifer again. The really coincidental thing is that I was in California this time last year visiting her, lol. It would be really great if we could actually turn this into an annual visitation. Only time will tell.

That’s One Sick Puppy

It’s never a good thing to start your day out with having to clean. It’s a really bad day when that cleaning involves dog puke, pee, and poo. That’s how my morning started Friday and the cleaning continued up until yesterday. I have a carpet steam cleaner that has totally saved us. Not to be too disgusting here, but the messes were dark in color and I have very light carpeting. My steam cleaner got every last trace out of the carpet leaving nothing behind. Each spot took about half the reservoir of cleaner, but whatever works. So far today, Hannah hasn’t vomited anywhere but she’s had these really loud, deep burps that have panicked me twice this morning, lol. I called the vet and made her an appointment for first thing tomorrow just in case.

We’re trying to plan a weekend trip to Georgia to visit with Jennifer this coming weekend but it’s sort of in limbo with Hannah being the way that she is. We can’t kennel a sick dog and we don’t want to take the dogs with us either. Should we be able to follow through with our plans, we are going to tour Savannah which should be a lot of fun. I’ve been to and through Georgia several times but I’ve never seen Savannah before. I really hope that we get to go. It would be a shame for Jennifer to be this close and for us not to get a chance to see her.

The Eleventh Hour

I'm sitting here with my frou frou coffee (the genius that put coffee and chocolate together deserves a sainthood) trying to be awake enough to get some work done. I don't think I slept last night. Maybe for an hour or so. I dozed off for about five minutes this morning around 6 and I had the strangest dream that I was trapped in my grandparent's house with a murderer. I climbed out through a window in their bathroom to escape but he saw me as I was running past the kitchen and then I woke up. I wonder what it means. They're not even at their house right now since they winter in Texas, lol.

In both of my posts yesterday I forgot to mention how much I hate the time change. I wish they'd just let us stay at daylight savings for the entire year. How much difference does three months make anyway? I'm not hungry when it's time for dinner and I'm not tired when it's time for bed. Just leave the hour alone is what I'm saying.

I have to call my landlord today. I think our septic tank is backing up because we have this constant wet spot that is sometimes a puddle in our backyard. I'm dreading making this call because I hate bothering him with stuff. I know that I hate getting calls from my renters. This is the first house that I've ever lived in that has had a septic tank. It might be something to keep in mind when looking for our next house.

Okay. So, I've stalled long enough. Gotta get to work.

Something I Didn't Think Of

When I was booking my flight, the only thing I had in mind was to spend as much time as I possibly could in San Diego within reason. As a result, I have the worst departure time for the flight out and the worst arrival time for the flight back. My flight takes off at 5:50 am and the airport is 45 minutes away. I'm going to have to get up SO early Wednesday morning (or Tuesday night depending on how you look at it) and I can't sleep while travelling so the extra time I'm going to get in California the first day is probably going to be spent sleeping, lmao. My arrival time back in North Carolina is 11 something at night. It'll feel like 8 something to me so that's no big deal but the Mister has to pick me up and then go to work the next morning. I kinda sorta feel a little bad about that.

In other news, homework went really well today. I got all of my Spanish homework done and all of my business homework done. All I have left is to finish a paper for my Lit class and do an editing project. I should be able to get all that plus my packing done tomorrow. I was going to clean the house for the kids and the Mister but I don't think I left enough time for that. Besides, they know how to use the dishwasher and vacuum cleaner.

Also, I made a Rachel Ray recipe for dinner tonight that was a huge hit with the family. It was a cream of mushroom casserole thing and I added chicken breast to it. YUMMO as Rachel would say. It's not exactly good for you because you use real cream, lottsa cheese, and carbolicious noodles but I think it's okay to indulge every once in a while. It had three kinds of mushrooms in it. That's good, right?

Oh! And my iLuv iPod case arrived today...twice. Yup. They sent me two and I only paid for one. If they're willing to send me shipping materials, I'll send it back. If not, their loss. I'm not paying for their mistake. What sucks is that we only have one full size iPod so we can't even make good use out of the second case. If I end up keeping it, maybe I'll sell it on eBay or something, heheh.

Okay. So we're pushing on towards midnight and I should probably try to go to bed. Insomnia has been my companion for the past couple weeks so I'm endeavoring to be really tired before I try sleeping. Now, I'm not going to have anything to post tomorrow, heheh.

Title This

Every Monday when I'm trying to think of a title for my post the song Monday, Monday by The Mamas & The Papas pops in my head which, in turn, makes me think of Kathy Reichs' book Monday Mourning. Today is no exception.

Aside from the Mister's adventures on Saturday, we had a pretty dull weekend. We had some friends over Saturday night to help us eat $43 worth of free pizza courtesy of Dominos. On Sunday we went to Target, Walmart, and the pet store looking for one of those dog collar, cone things for Hannah. She has a sore on her face that she keeps scratching and now it's an open, oozing wound. We couldn't find one in her size though so the search continues.

Today and tomorrow my plans are the same: homework, laundry, and packing. I have to get a week's worth of homework done today and tomorrow because I don't want to have to take it with me. I'm on spring break next week so I won't have to worry about homework the last part of my trip.

Now I'm off for lunch and, you guessed it, homework.

Leaving on a Jet Plane *Edited to Add...

Hold on to your pants, I'm going to San Diego. Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!! That's right, Jennifer S. I booked my flight and purposely chose a ticket that was non-refundable so get the pull-out ready. I'm so excited I'm doing a happy dance in my chair. I can't believe it! After four years, I finally get to go back to California. I'll seriously probably kiss the ground once I get there.

Ok. I've got to get ready for my meeting this morning. My thoroughly unpleasant meeting. I'll post the deets plus the results of an un-scientific interview later.

**I probably should have mentioned that not only has it been four years since I've been to Cali, but it's been six years since Jennifer and I have seen each other face to face. I think. When did you move to Wisconsin, lol? So, not only is this going to be a much needed getaway for me, but I'm going to get to hang out with my much missed friend which is way more significant.