Exceedingly Mundane

We had a great time hanging out tonight with Kirk and Nichole. More to follow… I can already tell that I am going to have a hard time keeping up with the blogging and writing things down, everything I want to journal and remember. We’re getting up so early in the AM, having really full busy days, and then busy nights. Yeah, I know, wah wah!

More later, it’s 11:30 PM here and we’re still refining our plan of attack for tomorrow. Kirk got us a private tour of the Capitol at 10 AM, so we are going to rework things around that.

Check back later!

We’re here!

I’ll try to post a longer update later, but here’s the quick and dirty so far today.

We slept in a little bit this morning, then got up and went down for the free continental breakfast at the hotel in Harrisonburg. We got loaded up (after Tim again bailed water out of the front and back passenger seats, oh my; it was a LOT of water!) and got on the road about 9 AM local time. We drove to Mount Vernon (south of Alexandria) and toured there. We both thoroughly enjoyed Mt Vernon (more on that later) and spent several hours there. We had a late lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn on site, very colonial and picturesque. We both had the turkey “pot pye” (yes, that’s the way it was spelled on the menu) and Tim had bread pudding for dessert and I had cherry pie (in honor of ole George and the cherry trees). Kirk called while we were eating, to see where we were, and let us know he had gotten us a private tour on Friday at the Capitol. Woo-hoo Kirk! We left Mt Vernon, with me navigating, and although we thought we were taking Hwy 1 and going to Arlington National Cemetery, somewhere we took a wrong turn, went across one of the bridges, and ended up smack dab in the middle of Washington DC. We drove by the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Memorial (SLOWLY, in late afternoon traffic) and eventually, through trial and error, found a way back over the Potomac River into Arlington, then drove around for a while till we stumbled upon our hotel. Well – Please Note: Tim says he knew where he was going and got us here and I totally agree. I was totally lost, couldn’t find things on the map and was an overall horrible navigator. Good thing he was here and driving, or I would have been somewhere completely lost by now. 🙂

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Currently blogging from a Comfort Inn in Harrisonburg Virginia! We arrived safe and sound tonight around 8:15 local time (7:15 central) and checked in (they had no queens or kings and we’re stuck in a double, icko). We were glad to get a room though – the guy at the front desk said they only had 3 rooms left for tonight.

We had a long day of driving, leaving home at 6:25 AM and driving pretty much straight-through. We stopped once for food, at a Checkers in Cleveland Tennessee, and twice for gas. We also stopped at the Virginia Visitors Center upon entering Virginia on I-81. Picked up some maps, info booklets and coupon booklets.

We had another small problem with the car. Background: When we went to Gatlinburg last October, we noticed on the way back that the right rear floorboard was wet. At first, we thought this was because a thing of bottled water had leaked, but then we realized the bottles were not down any water! Then, we thought it must have come from the road because we drove home in a lot of rain. Tim actually took the car apart for nearly 10 days before Christmas (finally putting it back together the day before Christmas Eve –his idea of how to keep me from shopping and spending money, hahaha), but he never could find a leak. So, we decided it was a fluke and we haven’t noticed a drop of water since. WRONG! Our right rear floorboard is completely flooded and Tim has bailed water twice today. The front floorboard is damp too. We’ve decided it must be a problem with the AC, it’s either a clogged line or a leak, because we did run the AC in the car all day. More fuel for the “get rid of this car and get a new one soon” fire.

Ok, some other small tidbit:s

We really lucked out in the traffic department and didn’t hit any major traffic.

We added a new “sign” to our collection – we take pictures of state signs as we enter new states, something we started doing when we were first married and going places together. Neither Tim nor I have ever been to the state of Virginia before today, so this is new for us, and we have a picture of the sign to prove it!

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OK, the unthinkable happened! We actually set the alarm early and got up! heheeh, rarely happens around here. Especially considering that we were up after 11 PM, packing, going over the atlas, looking for a place to stop tonight, etc.

We got up at 5 AM and are about ready to leave, in maybe 20 minutes or so. So, pretty close to our goal of leaving at 6 AM. We’re going to drive as far as Tim feels like today. We looked at the atlas last night and are considering stopping someplace like Christiansburg, Roanoke or Lexington Virginia. If the hotel has internet access, I’ll get on and post another update. Although, don’t get all excited, today is all about driving, so we won’t have much of anything to report.

Have a great day everyone, and say a prayer for us to have a safe trip!

OK, since Tim is not home, I’m killing (aka wasting) time by doing one of my favorite pasttimes – blog surfing. 😀

I found this at several scrapbooker’s blogs, including Denise Pauley’s blog.

Hit the -More- link if you’re interested, the rest are in there! 😀

A is for Always wearing: my wedding band

B is for Book I have read the most times: I don’t tend to re-read books, but I have read “September” by Rosamund Pilcher more than once

C is for Camera: Kodak digital (older one, 3.1 megapixel)

D is for Dog or cat person: DOG. No cats.

E is for Essential items in my purse: Wallet, chapstick

F is for Favorite season: Fall, followed closely by winter

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Poor Tim, he’s stuck at the office, working on a problem. Today is supposed to be his last day for a week, while we’re gone on vacation. He’s not on-call, which is good, but they are having a conversion this weekend and I think it’s getting to him that he is going to be gone while a big project is going on. He just called and said he would be a while, they were working on a problem that needed fixing.

We will have to pack and do some other misc things tonight after he gets in. I had originally planned to cook supper, but was thoroughly unmotivated earlier today, so I IM’d with Tim and asked what he might want to pick up for supper on the way home. (think he got the hint?) He took my car today, so he could go and put it through the car wash before we leave. He has a place he likes to use, but oops – now that’s he stuck working late, they will probably be closed by the time he is finished. Oh well, the car will pick up lots of dead bugs between here and Virginia and back, I’m sure. I wonder what we’ll have to eat for supper! 🙂

In case I don’t get a chance to get back on the computer, everyone have a great week and weekend. We hope to be back online at our hotel Thursday night, and can start blogging about our vacation then. Keep your fingers crossed! 😀

OK – UPDATED: Tim just called and is on his way home. The car wash place he likes so much was still open, so he got the car washed. He’s sitting in Sonic, ordering us artery-clogging junk food. Let the vacation feasting, over-eating and indulging begin! 😀

I hate that I don’t have time today to drive up and see Shanna, Grayson and Ava Clair. Shanna called yesterday to say that she had decided, at sort of the last minute, to stay at Gail’s house this week. Trent drove back to Houston after the wedding, as he had to get back to work. I would love to go up and see Shanna and play with the kids, but it’s just about the worst time for me to try to be gone the whole day. I just haven’t gotten enough done for our trip before today, I guess I procrastinate too much, plus there’s always some last minute things I seem to think of to do before we leave.

I wish I had been able to go! I know Shanna and the kids will have fun at Gail’s, and I know how much Don and Gail will enjoy having them at the house all week. I just hate missing out on all the fun! 😀 Have fun, you guys, I wish I was there!

I had hoped that by the time today got here (the day before we leave on vacation), that I would have gotten a lot more done and ready for our trip. WRONG. I am still way behind in everything I need to have done before we leave, and I’m starting to really doubt how much of it I can get completed before we pull out of the driveway tomorrow morning.

Oh well.

Part of the problem is that I’m more interested in playing on Hambones, reading blogs, surfing my favorite sites – and mainly – playing with my new iPod than concentrating on laundry, cleaning, packing, list-making and scratching off, trip planning, etc. Oh well. I’m sure we’ll get there, hopefully have clean clothes, find our way around, see the sights, and get home in one piece.

Anyone have any last minute advice before we leave on our weeklong summer vacation to Washington DC? Any travel pointers? Any tips on what “not to miss” in DC? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

I just posted a news story on the home page of Hambones – that we hope the site stays up and running while we are gone (it should, unless we have a power outage), and that our internet access is working in the hotel we are staying at. If all goes as planned, then check back here in a couple of days as I plan to blog from the hotel about our vacation. Hopefully on a daily basis. So check back later on this week and over the 4th of July weekend. Hopefully we will have lots to report! I plan to use this blog like an electronic travel journal. Keep your fingers crossed!

Well, this comes as no surprise. For any of you that know me, you already know that I am not quite right!! 😀

From this site:

You Are 50% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal… Other things you do are downright strange You’ve got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

We’re both working on computers today – Tim is working on Hambones, and I’ve been on the laptop, working on movie reviews (4 new ones up in the Reviews section of Hambones) and some memes here on my blog. I’m listening to music on my iPod too! 😀

We still have a lot to get organized before we leave town in a few days. Lots of stuff to get ready and lots of things to remember to pack. Boy, will we be the Geek Squad on wheels or what? The list to take includes:

1. Laptop with various cords, cables and attachments
2. Digital Camera with USB cable for transferring pics
3. Power inverter to use laptop/iPod in car
4. GPS
5. iPod and FM transmitter
6. Misc – handheld electronic game, pedometer, pager, cell phones, etc
7. We considered taking the Vonage VOIP adaptor, but I think we’re going to leave it at home 😀

Yup, it’s official – the GEEKS leave on vacation in 3 days!

I just went and looked at a couple of meme sites that I usually check during the week – and I found several that I like and want to do.

I know most of you don’t enjoy the memes (but I do like them, and it’s my blog, yada yada yada!!), so I won’t list them here. You can check the -More- link if you do, however, and you’re more than welcome to play along and put your answers in a reply. 🙂 Have fun!

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Today was a really good day! We got a lot done, played with our new toys, saw a great movie and spent a lot of wonderful time together. Here’s the high points:

1. Went walking and jogging this morning, ate a small breakfast
2. Tim worked on Hambones while I worked on my iPod playlists
3. Went to see Batman Begins at the theatre. A really great movie. I used my free Blingo ticket I had won!
4. Went out to supper – went to Applebee’s and had salads (Tim had fried chicken one and I had mandarin oriental one). Good, but notable because we did well eating out (plus we had sandwiches and baked chips for lunch, so we did good on the food thing today)
5. Went walking for a second time tonight before dark
6. We got the iTrip FM transmitter working, both in the house (using the stereo in the living room which is hooked to our Bose surround sound speakers, sounds really good!!) We also got it working in the car, so we will be jamming all the way to Washington and back.

Good day, don’t you think?! 😀

I’m telling you people, you need to be signed up for Blingo and using it to search instead of Google. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Google, but Blingo uses the same Google search engine, but with Blingo, you can win prizes.

TIM WON TODAY!!!!

He is working on the laptop on Hambones, while I’m making playlists to transfer to my new iPod. He was searching for something, and boom – he won a movie ticket too! Look:

And an up-close version:

HOWEVER – we just realized that Tim was not logged in under his id, and so he just won, like any user could. If he had been signed in, then he and I both would have won a movie ticket. So the moral of the story is – sign up under someone, use Blingo to search — but be sure you are logged in, so you and your friend can both win!! 🙂

Look what my wonderful sweet husband surprised me with last night!

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Today is the day my mom died, three years ago. I’ve been in a funk for the last couple of weeks – I get this way every year at this time. I have about 4 times of year that are the hardest. Don’t misunderstand – I miss her every day, but around Mother’s Day, the anniversary of her death in late June, her birthday in mid-November, and the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) are always the worst. I think about her every day, and miss her. I miss being able to call her on the phone and ask her something or see how she’s doing. I miss her emailing me. I miss her laughing at Tim and looking at him like the son she never had. I hate that we didn’t get the Hambones website up before she died – she would have loved it. She would love my blog and reading about my day. I emailed her almost every single day the last few years of her life, once I taught her how to use a computer and a mouse! I know she would have loved it.

Tim let me cry this morning and rubbed my head and let me drip salty tears on his shoulder. He’s a good guy, and I’m just really glad that he got to know Dodie and that she got to know him before she died. I know she felt a lot better in the latter years of her life, knowing that I had finally found him and that she didn’t have to worry about me as much any more.

I asked Tim if he would take me out to the cemetery this weekend, and of course he said he would. He’d do anything I asked of him. I want to check on the flowers and make sure they look ok.

I need to call my dad and talk to him, but so far, I’ve been putting that off all morning. I will call him soon and see how he is doing. I’m going to be busy the rest of the day. I planned today like that, have been planning it for a while, to get out of the house, go shopping, keep busy. Not that this day is really all that different from any other, it was hard yesterday and the day before, but I get through it, I just get sad. Ok, I guess I’ll private blog about the rest of this. No sense in being maudlin. 🙂