What's goin' on?
Long time, no substantive post.
Cancer: Radiation ended. Nothing terrible or even beyond mildly annoying ensued. Life goes on.
Travel: We bought a timeshare at Disney Vacation Club. Every time I go to Orlando I have such a fabulous time, and then when I come home I try to play it off like I'm too cool to have fun down there. I'm done doing that. I would love to return over and over, especially as Colin gets older and we can experience the parks and resorts through his eyes. It takes 7 weeks of stays to pay for itself, and I'm sure we'll get our money's worth from it. The facilities are really beautiful and well-designed, and Colin adores the themed pools at each of the resorts we saw. We are not "timeshare types," but the Disney setup eliminates many of the problems we have with timeshares (there's flexibility around dates rather than an enforced Sunday-to-Sunday weeklong visit, they don't usually book up 11 months ahead unless it's the week between Christmas and New Years, there's reciprocity with other timeshare companies and some other hotels and resorts around the world, etc).
If you think there is any possibility you might buy a timeshare with Disney, do use our names plz.
We had SO MUCH FUN on our vacation. Colin is totally in love with swimming, choo choo trains, carousels, lemonade, giraffes, ice cream, Mickey Mouse, his Bubbe and Zayde, toy cars, popcorn, froggies, apes, fountains, Donald Duck, and on and on. He got his fill of all on this trip and should enjoy experiencing them again next summer when we return.
Dining: I posted reviews of most of the sit-down meals we ate at Disney over at http://lotsofeverything.com ...so go there if you want to know about some of the better food bets on Disney property. There are also links to stories I wrote on two restaurants worth checking out in the greater Frederick area: Volt (which just opened last week) and Patowmack Farm (which has been around for a few years).
Career: It's time to go back to work. I started working some at Dream Dinners Hagerstown for ilostonjeopardy and bonkoif this week. I'm also bidding on some catering work and looking to ramp up my food writing in various ways. I've been working part-part-time for a few years while we got settled in WV, I had a baby, and then I fought cancer. Now's the time to resume some sort of regular paycheck. I'm glad to be using my mad skillz again and putting in my share financially.
It has been six years since both E. and I were regularly working at the same time. That means we've spent more of our relationship with somebody not working than we have with both of us working. (We've been together 11.5 years.) I was in school, then he was in school, then we moved and I had a baby, then I got sick, and now here we are. I'm sure that returning to regular work will only improve our relationship (and not just financially), but it was amusing to realize how long it has been.
Colin: Is happy to be back at daycare after being away so long. He's totally into his toy guitar, which he plays with whenever E. or yours truly rocks out with Guitar Hero. He's slept late the last few days (thank GAWD) and seems to have slid back into ordinary routines easily. I loved spending so much time with him this month, but I was definitely ready for his return to daycare when we got home. I'm not used to being there for him 24/7 any longer and it's hard to remember how it felt back when I was. He loves being around other kids so much, I don't think it's possible to go backwards and keep him home again even if I wanted to.
Colin has also made some developmental leaps. He's regularly stringing together several words to express more complicated ideas or tell stories. He also uses sentences like "I'll be right back" and "turn on the light."
A few weeks ago he fell and bonked his head on the bottom step and when we ran to comfort him, he said, "Fall. Stairs. Bonk. Head. Hurt." My friend A. pointed out that he was narrating what happened the same way we do after he hurts himself--we normally ask, "did you fall down the stairs and go bonk? Did you hurt your head?" He's now doing that himself because he identifies it as a way to comfort himself. I think A. has a point, and that he is starting to assume more responsibility for his emotional needs. Don't get me wrong, the kid is still clearly a 2-year-old, but you know...baby steps.
Cancer: Radiation ended. Nothing terrible or even beyond mildly annoying ensued. Life goes on.
Travel: We bought a timeshare at Disney Vacation Club. Every time I go to Orlando I have such a fabulous time, and then when I come home I try to play it off like I'm too cool to have fun down there. I'm done doing that. I would love to return over and over, especially as Colin gets older and we can experience the parks and resorts through his eyes. It takes 7 weeks of stays to pay for itself, and I'm sure we'll get our money's worth from it. The facilities are really beautiful and well-designed, and Colin adores the themed pools at each of the resorts we saw. We are not "timeshare types," but the Disney setup eliminates many of the problems we have with timeshares (there's flexibility around dates rather than an enforced Sunday-to-Sunday weeklong visit, they don't usually book up 11 months ahead unless it's the week between Christmas and New Years, there's reciprocity with other timeshare companies and some other hotels and resorts around the world, etc).
If you think there is any possibility you might buy a timeshare with Disney, do use our names plz.
We had SO MUCH FUN on our vacation. Colin is totally in love with swimming, choo choo trains, carousels, lemonade, giraffes, ice cream, Mickey Mouse, his Bubbe and Zayde, toy cars, popcorn, froggies, apes, fountains, Donald Duck, and on and on. He got his fill of all on this trip and should enjoy experiencing them again next summer when we return.
Dining: I posted reviews of most of the sit-down meals we ate at Disney over at http://lotsofeverything.com ...so go there if you want to know about some of the better food bets on Disney property. There are also links to stories I wrote on two restaurants worth checking out in the greater Frederick area: Volt (which just opened last week) and Patowmack Farm (which has been around for a few years).
Career: It's time to go back to work. I started working some at Dream Dinners Hagerstown for ilostonjeopardy and bonkoif this week. I'm also bidding on some catering work and looking to ramp up my food writing in various ways. I've been working part-part-time for a few years while we got settled in WV, I had a baby, and then I fought cancer. Now's the time to resume some sort of regular paycheck. I'm glad to be using my mad skillz again and putting in my share financially.
It has been six years since both E. and I were regularly working at the same time. That means we've spent more of our relationship with somebody not working than we have with both of us working. (We've been together 11.5 years.) I was in school, then he was in school, then we moved and I had a baby, then I got sick, and now here we are. I'm sure that returning to regular work will only improve our relationship (and not just financially), but it was amusing to realize how long it has been.
Colin: Is happy to be back at daycare after being away so long. He's totally into his toy guitar, which he plays with whenever E. or yours truly rocks out with Guitar Hero. He's slept late the last few days (thank GAWD) and seems to have slid back into ordinary routines easily. I loved spending so much time with him this month, but I was definitely ready for his return to daycare when we got home. I'm not used to being there for him 24/7 any longer and it's hard to remember how it felt back when I was. He loves being around other kids so much, I don't think it's possible to go backwards and keep him home again even if I wanted to.
Colin has also made some developmental leaps. He's regularly stringing together several words to express more complicated ideas or tell stories. He also uses sentences like "I'll be right back" and "turn on the light."
A few weeks ago he fell and bonked his head on the bottom step and when we ran to comfort him, he said, "Fall. Stairs. Bonk. Head. Hurt." My friend A. pointed out that he was narrating what happened the same way we do after he hurts himself--we normally ask, "did you fall down the stairs and go bonk? Did you hurt your head?" He's now doing that himself because he identifies it as a way to comfort himself. I think A. has a point, and that he is starting to assume more responsibility for his emotional needs. Don't get me wrong, the kid is still clearly a 2-year-old, but you know...baby steps.