Canada's Wonderland // New LiveJournal layout!
RL has been busy! I haven't really posted since last Saturday and I'm waaaay behind on comments. My friend from Halifax (H) came home for a visit last week--the only visit she'll make this year, unfortunately--so I was out of the house for a bit. H and her boyfriend are going to Europe this summer for almost two months. She is, anyway; he doesn't have as much time off. I was tempted to go with her, especially since I won't have time for a longer vacation once school starts. until I considered the cost. OTOH, what's another couple of thousand on top of $60k? (Spread over three years.)
Anyway, it was great to see her again, and see her interact with S and J's kids. Gabby loves playing with H because H will get really hyper and really into whatever thing Gabby's doing, whereas I'm not nearly as "energetic". Heh. I sound like an old woman. S and I took Gabby to visit H's house as well, though unfortunately that day it poured buckets so we couldn't go swimming in her pool like we'd originally planned.
Saturday was my sister's engagement party aka Fun Day at Canada's Wonderland! I was hesitant to go at first because Wonderland is not really my thing, but I sucked it up and went... and I had a fantastic time! I went on roller coasters! I've never gone on roller coasters before, but I guess it's never too late to give them a whirl. (Well, unless you're really old and have health problems, or you're pregnant.) I went on:
My sister and I got off our last ride in time to see my sister's fiancé and his friends get on Behemoth, "Canada's biggest, fastest, tallest roller coaster". You couldn't pay me to get on that thing. There are no loops, but you're completely exposed in a chair, barely strapped down.
After they all came down off their high, we headed to an Irish pub to meet everyone who didn't come to Wonderland. Our brother arrived with two friends, which was a (pleasant!) surprise. He rarely socialises with us without parental pressure. (He'll show up for family events, birthdays, holidays, etc., but ignores us otherwise.) OTOH, this was our sister's engagement party, so I feel bad for being surprised he would respect that obligation. I wasn't the only one surprised, though--quite a few friends remarked on it.
I wish I'd spent more time catching up with people I hadn't seen in a long while, but I also felt obligated to hang around my sister's two school friends since they didn't know anyone. It was the same at Wonderland: I hung out with ST and JA, my sister's former co-workers, who didn't know anyone else. My sister tried to make time, but had too many people to talk to, unfortunately. Not that it was all obligation: I had a good time with them, and even chatted with my brother's girl friend. (Friend who is a girl, that is.) She told me that she hadn't even known my brother had sisters until recently, because he never talks about us. Heck, my sister's fiancé makes more of an effort to get to know me than my sister does. The three of us aren't very close. We're all very different, in looks and personality. It doesn't bother us too much, I guess, though I hope once my sister has kids that things will change. My cousins have grown closer now that they're older, so I'm hopeful.
Pics of Fun Day might get posted, but under flock.
Hmm, what else. Our parents were gone for the weekend for their annual church fellowship retreat. After church on Sunday, my sister and her fiancé visited a banquet hall in the Lakeshore area to price it for their wedding. I walked along the lake, then went back to the parked car and tried to nap. That evening, after my parents returned, we all went downtown again for my aunt's birthday dinner. Good food, though I'm amazed my sister's fiancé still had room in his stomach, because he'd been up since the crack of dawn, roasting pigs and lambs. (They're Croatian: he says this is what they do once a week during the summer.)
ION, I've updated my LiveJournal layout! Wow, after how many years? I can't even remember. No more Daniel Jackson trying to commit suicide! Instead I've got a banner of some of my favourite DCU characters, and more pics down in my sidebar. Original stylesheet by refuted, modified by yours truly with a lot of trial and error. What do you guys think? It's very pink. Too pink, maybe. I could try a subtler colour.
Since I prefer my browser not to fill up my entire wide screen, occasionally a horizontal scroll bar shows up at the bottom of my browser if there's a large pic/video posted outside an LJ-cut. Screencap below is what I see. Not sure what you guys see.
ETA: And now the sidebar is on the right! Took a bit of fiddling, but I'm becoming a bit more conversant in the code.
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)
Anyway, it was great to see her again, and see her interact with S and J's kids. Gabby loves playing with H because H will get really hyper and really into whatever thing Gabby's doing, whereas I'm not nearly as "energetic". Heh. I sound like an old woman. S and I took Gabby to visit H's house as well, though unfortunately that day it poured buckets so we couldn't go swimming in her pool like we'd originally planned.
Saturday was my sister's engagement party aka Fun Day at Canada's Wonderland! I was hesitant to go at first because Wonderland is not really my thing, but I sucked it up and went... and I had a fantastic time! I went on roller coasters! I've never gone on roller coasters before, but I guess it's never too late to give them a whirl. (Well, unless you're really old and have health problems, or you're pregnant.) I went on:
- Time Warp - We didn't realise until we were halfway through the line-up that this roller coaster was rated 5 (the highest rating for rides at Wonderland), which was daunting for me and "ST", another roller coaster wuss. *g* Thankfully it wasn't that bad--still pretty scary, but a good choice for my first roller coaster. You're in a Superman pose, on your belly through the whole ride, but strapped in so tight that you feel secure. A few corkscrews and quick ups and downs, but nothing too stomach-dropping.
- Mighty Canadian Minebuster - We then met up with "JA", who was a roller coaster enthusiast. JA convinced me to go on Minebuster (rated 5) after assuring me it didn't go upside down, and that wooden roller coasters were perfectly safe. ST wisely stayed on solid ground. Wow, that was scary! I spent the whole ride going, "Oh my God oh my God oh my God!" and swearing and screaming. According to the Wonderland website, we reached speeds of more than 90kph. (For USians, that's 56mph.) I nearly lost my phone on that ride, having assumed it would be safe in my pocket. Thankfully it was still in the carriage when I ran back to get it! After going on Minebuster, I feel confident that I can try others, or at least ones that don't go upside down. We'd intended to go on Wild Beast, another wooden coaster, but the line-up was too long.
- Swings of the Century - Not a roller coaster, just a spinning thing with swings. Nice and gentle, safe for kids. The three of us all went on.
- Ghoster Coaster - For some reason, this ride isn't listed on the website. Another wooden coaster--because none of them go upside down, which is my requirement. This one was kid friendly, but still kind of scary. For ST and me, anyway; JA probably thought we were ridiculous. *g*
- Back Lot Stunt Coaster - This used to be called The Italian Job before Paramount sold Wonderland. ST and JA had left by this point, so I went on with my sister and another girl. Mostly we were killing time while the brave people went on freakin' BEHEMOTH, and this ride seemed small and tame. Well, it's small but still scary! It's short and fast and jerky, with sudden twists and drops, and did I mention fast? There's no build-up, you just go. While we were in line, a dad with kids exiting the ride warned us that someone had puked in the blue car.
My sister and I got off our last ride in time to see my sister's fiancé and his friends get on Behemoth, "Canada's biggest, fastest, tallest roller coaster". You couldn't pay me to get on that thing. There are no loops, but you're completely exposed in a chair, barely strapped down.
After they all came down off their high, we headed to an Irish pub to meet everyone who didn't come to Wonderland. Our brother arrived with two friends, which was a (pleasant!) surprise. He rarely socialises with us without parental pressure. (He'll show up for family events, birthdays, holidays, etc., but ignores us otherwise.) OTOH, this was our sister's engagement party, so I feel bad for being surprised he would respect that obligation. I wasn't the only one surprised, though--quite a few friends remarked on it.
I wish I'd spent more time catching up with people I hadn't seen in a long while, but I also felt obligated to hang around my sister's two school friends since they didn't know anyone. It was the same at Wonderland: I hung out with ST and JA, my sister's former co-workers, who didn't know anyone else. My sister tried to make time, but had too many people to talk to, unfortunately. Not that it was all obligation: I had a good time with them, and even chatted with my brother's girl friend. (Friend who is a girl, that is.) She told me that she hadn't even known my brother had sisters until recently, because he never talks about us. Heck, my sister's fiancé makes more of an effort to get to know me than my sister does. The three of us aren't very close. We're all very different, in looks and personality. It doesn't bother us too much, I guess, though I hope once my sister has kids that things will change. My cousins have grown closer now that they're older, so I'm hopeful.
Pics of Fun Day might get posted, but under flock.
Hmm, what else. Our parents were gone for the weekend for their annual church fellowship retreat. After church on Sunday, my sister and her fiancé visited a banquet hall in the Lakeshore area to price it for their wedding. I walked along the lake, then went back to the parked car and tried to nap. That evening, after my parents returned, we all went downtown again for my aunt's birthday dinner. Good food, though I'm amazed my sister's fiancé still had room in his stomach, because he'd been up since the crack of dawn, roasting pigs and lambs. (They're Croatian: he says this is what they do once a week during the summer.)
ION, I've updated my LiveJournal layout! Wow, after how many years? I can't even remember. No more Daniel Jackson trying to commit suicide! Instead I've got a banner of some of my favourite DCU characters, and more pics down in my sidebar. Original stylesheet by refuted, modified by yours truly with a lot of trial and error. What do you guys think? It's very pink. Too pink, maybe. I could try a subtler colour.
Since I prefer my browser not to fill up my entire wide screen, occasionally a horizontal scroll bar shows up at the bottom of my browser if there's a large pic/video posted outside an LJ-cut. Screencap below is what I see. Not sure what you guys see.
ETA: And now the sidebar is on the right! Took a bit of fiddling, but I'm becoming a bit more conversant in the code.
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)