Oh winter wonderland
I nearly killed myself jumping from my lawn to the driveway tonight. Stupid freezing rain! I was in Florida for two weeks, I don't know how to walk on ice yet!
Had a fabulous 1 year anniversary-honeymoon-delicious-vacation-thingy though. Luna was really quite good in the car, and we had great weather there and back. Kyle and I continued the tradition of four-hour driving then switch, and we had booked our hotels ahead because of the puppy. We stopped in Orangeburg, SC on the way there and Summersville, WV on the way back like usual.
Florida itself was awesome. My parents and Kuma Liz/Kum Brian have done an awesome job with the house, and it looks wonderful. Feels much more like a modern home. I know Grandma and Grandpa are disappointed they have renovated it, but they built it in the 70's. It needed some renovation, and the result is spectacular.
The beach was beautiful as always. Luna in the water was hilarious - she was okay running into the waves, but less impressed when they crashed over her. She started pulling on her leash to drag us out of the water, and the look of intense panic on her face as a wave was coming was evilly hilarious.
Kyle had way to much fun dragging her out to where she had to swim and then wrestle herself back to shore. Yes, I did marry a monster. But it was very funny. And we were always right there to war off the undertow.
We left her at home and did a full day at the beach a couple of times. And our fabulous back door neighbours let us use their pool as much as we wanted, which was super fun.
It was an awesome vacation, but though I've been going to the States with my parents since I was a little girl, its only now that I'm seeing the ways in which America is really very different from Canada.
Mostly its the little things - buying beer in a grocery store? Very weird. I mean cool! But weird.
And we got carded at Applebee's on the way home. Because the drinking age is 21, not 18, and I guess we can pass for early twenties still, which is nice really.
But there are billboards everywhere. Advertising is more than rampant, its an accepted and validated source of information. And there are advertisements for doctors. On every second street corner. And every other street corner is some political poster saying "GOD BLESS AMERICA" then the name of the guy who wants you to vote for him tacked underneath.
I mean, wtf?
And people don't recycle. I mean, they pick up recycling every week on our street, but not everyone has a box out. And you can't bring beer bottles back to the store, so we had a LOT of recycling. And it goes out on Friday mornings, so when we left we had a whole week we couldn't leave in the garage for fear of ants. So we had to throw it away.
And that hurt inside. I mean, I'm massively indoctrinated to recycle everything I can. Putting empty beer bottles and pop cans in the garbage was physically painful.
But there isn't anywhere else to bring them! They don't have blue boxes at the mall, or the beach, or anywhere.
Its weird.
Awesome vacation though, overall. We saw Megamind (awesome) and (finally!) ate at the West End Grill (so.good.) and had Checkers twice. We hit the beach almost every second day, shopped a (very) little but enough, and bought Christmas shopping, and missed American thanksgiving.
(they haven't had thanksgiving yet. because they are actually still growing food in the fields. so.weird.)
Tomorrow we have to go back to work, so its an early night tonight. Kyle and I are just finishing up book 11 of the Dresden Files and are going to start Changes tomorrow. I'm so excited for him to read it! And I'm psyched to read it again myself. Plus we bought Side Jobs in the States and I loved loved loved the last short stories that is set post Changes. Can't wait to read all the other stories as well. Super excited about the one from Thomas's POV. That should be good.
Had a fabulous 1 year anniversary-honeymoon-delicious-vacation-thingy though. Luna was really quite good in the car, and we had great weather there and back. Kyle and I continued the tradition of four-hour driving then switch, and we had booked our hotels ahead because of the puppy. We stopped in Orangeburg, SC on the way there and Summersville, WV on the way back like usual.
Florida itself was awesome. My parents and Kuma Liz/Kum Brian have done an awesome job with the house, and it looks wonderful. Feels much more like a modern home. I know Grandma and Grandpa are disappointed they have renovated it, but they built it in the 70's. It needed some renovation, and the result is spectacular.
The beach was beautiful as always. Luna in the water was hilarious - she was okay running into the waves, but less impressed when they crashed over her. She started pulling on her leash to drag us out of the water, and the look of intense panic on her face as a wave was coming was evilly hilarious.
Kyle had way to much fun dragging her out to where she had to swim and then wrestle herself back to shore. Yes, I did marry a monster. But it was very funny. And we were always right there to war off the undertow.
We left her at home and did a full day at the beach a couple of times. And our fabulous back door neighbours let us use their pool as much as we wanted, which was super fun.
It was an awesome vacation, but though I've been going to the States with my parents since I was a little girl, its only now that I'm seeing the ways in which America is really very different from Canada.
Mostly its the little things - buying beer in a grocery store? Very weird. I mean cool! But weird.
And we got carded at Applebee's on the way home. Because the drinking age is 21, not 18, and I guess we can pass for early twenties still, which is nice really.
But there are billboards everywhere. Advertising is more than rampant, its an accepted and validated source of information. And there are advertisements for doctors. On every second street corner. And every other street corner is some political poster saying "GOD BLESS AMERICA" then the name of the guy who wants you to vote for him tacked underneath.
I mean, wtf?
And people don't recycle. I mean, they pick up recycling every week on our street, but not everyone has a box out. And you can't bring beer bottles back to the store, so we had a LOT of recycling. And it goes out on Friday mornings, so when we left we had a whole week we couldn't leave in the garage for fear of ants. So we had to throw it away.
And that hurt inside. I mean, I'm massively indoctrinated to recycle everything I can. Putting empty beer bottles and pop cans in the garbage was physically painful.
But there isn't anywhere else to bring them! They don't have blue boxes at the mall, or the beach, or anywhere.
Its weird.
Awesome vacation though, overall. We saw Megamind (awesome) and (finally!) ate at the West End Grill (so.good.) and had Checkers twice. We hit the beach almost every second day, shopped a (very) little but enough, and bought Christmas shopping, and missed American thanksgiving.
(they haven't had thanksgiving yet. because they are actually still growing food in the fields. so.weird.)
Tomorrow we have to go back to work, so its an early night tonight. Kyle and I are just finishing up book 11 of the Dresden Files and are going to start Changes tomorrow. I'm so excited for him to read it! And I'm psyched to read it again myself. Plus we bought Side Jobs in the States and I loved loved loved the last short stories that is set post Changes. Can't wait to read all the other stories as well. Super excited about the one from Thomas's POV. That should be good.