July 2005 Entries
March of every year brings my father's birthday. While I won't go into all the details of why he's so special to me, suffice it to say that I love, respect, and admire him for every reason most everyone else loves their fathers - plus quite a few more reasons that hardly matter in the grand scheme of life.
Anyway, I have a strong desire to "collect" the wisdom of people, especially family, like my Dad. It really came to light to me as I've gotten older and realized I never took the time to do such things with folks that...
It's pretty good right up until the end - then, it's GREAT!
My understanding is that Celebration City (CC) is a new park. It just opened last year (2004) and I could probably have guessed as much based on the attendance, or lack thereof. It's a much smaller sister park of Silver Dollar City (SDC), owned by the same company, and in general, a nice place.
While SDC is a full-fledged, all day, top-of-the-line amusement park, CC is really more of a park-you-go-to-when-you-can't-get-to-SDC park. It's just a tier lower on the "fun scale" compared to SDC...that is, with one exception.
That exception is...
I've come to prize things these days that I probably didn't even a few years ago. Some of them are predictable. Others, perhaps not. Some have cliche's built around them, others are more proverb-worthy. In any case, I find myself attached to things and situations that I value and look forward to more and more. I'm going to write about some of the things that have caught my attention lately that fall into this broad category.
Most recently, my eldest son had been in a bookstore with me one day. He pointed at a basket of beaded string bracelets and asked...
So, tonight we're driving home during a typical muggy St. Louis evening. Frankly, all I'm thinking about is that it's 8:30 pm and STILL 94 degrees outside!
Yet my eldest son asks, “Do you know why God made the sunset?” We said, “No. Why?” “To be a sign to us when it's time to get ready for bed.”
Fair enough.
Later.
Never again will I poke fun of Silver Dollar City (SDC). Truly, I poked fun where it wasn't warranted and I had no clue what I was talking about.
SDC is both a fantastic park and an upstanding corporate organization that stands for morals and values when most companies only care about appealing to the masses. Could they make more money by compromising the standards they've set (as stated in their mission statement)? Sure. Do other amusement parks generate revenue by selling alcohol? You bet. I'm not arguing the merits or perils of alcohol. I'm just amazed that SDC has set...
No doubt, this is the way to stay in Branson...and maybe just about anywhere else.
I've never enjoyed staying in hotels. Even nice onces. Granted, I've never stayed at a true "resort" level establishment, but for me, even the best hotels are simply rooms. There's not much to do in them other than sleep.
On the other hand, I've loved the few times that we've stated in a home-like setting. First, was our cabin in the Smoky Mountains. In Branson, we stayed in our friend's condo with them. It was so nice to be able to leisurely get up, fix my own...
Hey, these guys are GOOD! <Yuk, yuk!>
Seriously, the Haygood family is a very entertaining group of 7 bothers and one sister that performs a family-friendly, entirely entertaining, sterotypically "Branson" style of show in a comfortably sized theater with enough lights, effects, gimmicks, and a great sound system to seriously give you your money's worth for an evening.
None of these siblings are world-class singers, dancers, instrumentalists, etc. What they are is a family of extremely talented, multi-diciplined performers that know how to put many facets together to make their audience come back over and over, talking about them in between viewings -...
One thing is for sure, whether I'm on vacation or not, I LOVE good food. Well, that may be a bit over-complicating it a bit. The truth is, it doesn't even have to be good. Average food has satisfied me plenty of times; given there is atmosphere, ambiance, entertainment, etc to compensate. Well, truth be told, an adequate volume of average food may suffice. Branson had plenty of all of it. To start, we went to a place called Shorty Smalls. Now, this place does not have the best food I've ever had. Not even close. It's average for...
I figure it's best for me to start at the beginning, even if it's not the most interesting.
We started out our vacation a day earlier than we'd planned, which was a very good thing, basically. It meant that we began our trek southward at 9pm on Sunday night rather than Monday morning. The idea was that it would save us half a day on Monday and make our actual time "on vacation" that half-day longer. Sounded good to me.
The problem with that reasoning was that it was only partially true. I'd never driven down to Branson before and take my...
By the way… I SO don’t want to go back to work on Monday. I’ve not had the ability (as I thought I did) to check email while I was gone. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s fine until I hit my desk tomorrow. Then it’ll be bad. Uugh. Oh well, I guess that’s what vacations are all about. Later.
Well, we made it back Friday from Branson, MO after our first vacation as a family. We all survived. Branson is largely in tact as well. The largest impact was to our finances. Less damage, yet still noteworthy, was done to my middle son’s chin and the side of a near-by swimming pool. All in all, we had a nice time, stayed basically in our planned budget and would go back. I plan to write a few articles based on our experience. The highlights will likely include, in no particular order, (but may not be limited to): · Drive...
I received a shiny new Dell Inspiron 1200 laptop recently. It's been well over a year since I had regular use of a laptop, and I must say, I've missed it. Well, I don't know if I missed it as much as I just really appreciate having it now.
The specs of this one won't wow anyone. It's not the fastest, smallest, lightest, biggest, coolest, etc. It could be faster, have more memory or more harddrive space. It doesn't even have all of the features and accessories that I'd want if I was buying it myself. Yes, that's right, I didn't...
During my vacation my 1 month anniversary at the new job will have passed. Interestingly, that's noteworthy for more that it's longer than my predecessor lasted (3 days). It's also noteworthy for more than it's already a quarter of the tenure that my predecessor's predecessor lasted (4 months). It's noteworthy because not only does it NOT bother me that 2 other people lasted only a short time, but that I'm actually liking it. Sure, "4-Month-Man" may have run into something I haven't. They speak highly of him (as opposed to how they speak of "3-Day-Man"), so maybe there's something around...
<sigh>5 years. That's how long it's been since we've taken ANYthing that even vaguely resembles a vacation. It's about time.
5 years ago, we took what I consider to be an incredible vacation to Pigeon Forge, TN at the foot of the Smoky Mountains. We actually stayed outside Pigeon Forge, out by Dollywood, in a cabin that looked up the mountains during a very beautiful autumn. We were pregnant with our first child, so it was kind of a "last hurrah" before parenthood began.
For 4 days, we woke up in a great cabin to fix our breakfast and enjoy it on...
It only seems appropriate, on this most patriotic of holiday seasons, to use my hard earned (by someone else, not me) freedom of speech to complain. Not just about meaningful things, mind you, but about completely valueless things as the grand cosmic order of things go.
Frankly, I'm tired of Major League Baseball messing around with baseball. Who do they thing baseball belongs to anyway? This year, they want to change the home run derby to not just be about American League vs. National League (which it never really was anyway), but they want to turn it into a political event...