Family Funk

Daily Dose of Buttons

Kid Talk /

Michelle has wanted her own personal Button Maker for a million years.  Her brother and sister had one when she was 3 or 4 and she loved it more than they did.  During some move or another, I trashed it because I couldn’t seem to find the button replacement thingies for it.  I don’t think her Christmas or birthday wishlist have ever NOT contained the buttonmaker.

Last Christmas she almost conned me into buying one because she wanted to use it to make buttons for the youth con at church.  In fact I had fully intended to buy her one and somehow forgot about it til it was too late for Christmas.  Then, it was too late to get it for the youth con so we still don’t own one.

Today, I wish I had bought it just so I could use it.  I could make Blogher buttons!  I could make mommybloggers rock buttons.  I could make a button that said "Don’t ask, just read my blog!" buttons. Darn, I should have bought that thing.

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Daily Dose of Kids, Noise and Cats

3 Comments / Animal Issues, Day to Day, Friends & Family, Kid Talk /

Did I tell you the big boy moved back home?  He did.  He’s been here two nights.  The first night he slept on the couch because it was short notice and we didn’t have time to clean his new room, the Florida Room, and get a bed in there.  And his sister, who has missed him a lot, told him the little kids wet their beds so he was afraid to sleep in one of those.  Ah siblings, such kindness.  Sort of amusing after the fact, though.

The next night, he dragged half of the mattress into the Florida Room, turned on the ceiling fan and then dug around in the closet for the box fan.  He said it was comfortable enough at night, during the day it’s a wee bit warm but not too bad.  With his big fan, that’s still at his old place, it should be fine.  He dug some sheets out to hang over the sliding glass door not because he is modest or to block out some daylight but because he brought his darn cat with him on day two and the other animals in the house stood at the door and whined to get in there to "visit".  Instead of being down to 3 cats we are back up to 5! 

Chris is a vegetarian.  Not in the flexitarian way that TW and I are vegetarians.  He really is a vegetarian.  He has this whole animal compassion thing.  He apparently has developed a fondness for organic junk food and those healthy chips that TW and I buy when we visit real grocery stores, like Wild Oats and Whole Foods and stuff.  Ha.  We’ve determined that he NEEDS his green vegetables and he does eat tofu and he does eat all Boca products.  (I hope he eats Publix fake meat products since I buy those more often now.)  He also eats fruit and he still drinks an awful lot of soda.  At least I’ve only had to lecture him once about TW’s cokes – he’s been gone a whole year and he’s forgotten the TW coke rules. 

The most interesting thing I’ve noticed since the boy has been back has been the noise.  You can almost always hear a guitar playing in the house if Michelle and/or the half child are here.  But now, with Chris home, you hear ELECTRIC guitar with AMPS instead of soft acoustic sounds.  I’m having just a little bit of trouble adjusting.  Thank goodness he is in the Florida room and not over my head anymore. 

So, the boy is back and we are glad.  We’ve missed him.  Even if he is loud and did bring a cat and has special food needs.

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Daily Dose of Travel – The Beach

1 Comment / Travel Log /

TW and I have a lot of work to do around the house this summer.  We have a very long list of of things to accomplish before the small kids come home and before school starts for the year.  We’ve made some decent progress, not great but decent.  If we keep going in this manner, we can get most of it done – I think.   This makes me really happy.  I really want these things done.  And yet…

Here I am thinking about dragging TW (and maybe even Michelle) off to the beach for the weekend or maybe even just the day.  It would be good.  Nice. Relaxing. Interesting. Warm.  Gorgeous.  Fun. 

We could go just for the day to Anastasia State Park.  The beach there is very, very nice.  Clean and not crowded.  Lifeguards and plenty of good facilities available.  Parking is not a problem.  We could just go in the opposite direction, to the Gulf.  Cedar Key is less than an hour away.  Tiny little beach or I could drag them onto a boat to an island.  We’ve always wanted to do it, but never have.  Michelle would prefer Daytona or Crescent and both would be good.  People watching in both places is something TW and I enjoy very much.

Or maybe a totally new for us beach, I’m surfing the options, it makes for a nice lunchbreak diversion.

The beach is calling… but so is the list of things to do around the house.  Which will win? 

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Daily Dose of Travel – St Augustine

3 Comments / Travel Log /

The little kids enjoyed our trip to St Augustine last year and asked many times to go back.   Even after their  fascination with the Ripley’s Believe it Or Not Museum was somehow squashed (wonder how that happened) they still asked to go back.  So, I put it on my list of 101 things and when we were looking for small trips to take them on in June, I booked  a room.

So about that room.  I strayed from the old reliables and booked us at a Sleep Inn on A1A.  I did this because the room I wanted wasn’t available and I really did want to stay on the beach side of St Augustine because the majority of things we wanted to do are on that side of the Lion’s Bridge.  The room was surprisingly nice.  Not huge but not the smallest room we’ve stayed in.  Free wireless internet.  A decent continental breakfast.  TLC!  A tiny little heated pool that was way too heated and a tiny little hot tub that was broken the first day but repaired on day 2.  Surprisingly quiet and clean.  The only problem – no bathtub, just an interesting shower.   For the money, I can’t complain. 

Day 1…

First stop, the lighthouse.  We walked all of the way to the top.  The kids enjoyed it, even Prince J.  RJ wanted to talk a lot about dropping things from the top and wondering if you’d get arrested for "accidentally" dropping something from the top.  E just wanted to turn around and go right back down as soon as we got to the top.  She didn’t understand "enjoying the view" and "giving legs a few minutes to recover". 

Gator
Second stop, the Alligator Farm!  TW could not believe it when I pulled in there.  She thought I had been joking when I mentioned it.  heh.  No joke, I thought the kids would like it and it was close to the lighthouse and a good place to SIT DOWN and get some drinks into our overheated bodies.  Yea, it’s a little expensive but it was also interesting and the kids liked it.  Hearing E say "look at the cutie!!!" while pointing at gators is a little weird though.  Lots of birds, both she and RJ like birds.  Prince J, not so interested in anything at all – except the caiman.  Touching one in South America made him an expert and that’s all he was interested in – being the expert.  He was less "expert like" in that annoying way he sometimes has after I reminded him that he wasn’t the only one who had experienced such things and I did know a wee bit about the species.   Having a discussion with him is good, being lectured by him is not. 

Next stop, a drive past the PRIDE festival with the picketing people.  (Public Service Message – I don’t mind protesters at all.  More power to you folks.  Hold those signs, stand up for what you believe in, that’s what is right with this country.  The only problem I have is when you stand your 10 year old son out there with a sign that says "AIDS – doing the job the government should do".  You can’t tell me that your 10 year old son understands what he’s saying.  You can’t tell me he isn’t simply spouting your rhetoric.   Leave your kid at home, until he’s old enough to decide for himself what he believes in.)  We found a parking place downtown and walked to St George Street in search of the Greek Landing Festival at the Greek Shrine, where we planned to have lunch.  It was surprisingly difficult to find.  If TW hadn’t noticed the big blue banners, I’d have walked right past it.   We picked out a ton of Greek food but somehow ended up with very little vegetarian so I wandered around St George Street while the rest of them ate.  People watching is better than eating anyway.

Next up, Potter’s Wax Museum.  We’re full of corny old fashioned fun, aren’t we?!  Air conditioning is good.  Wax figures, weird and a lot less scarey when you’re 40 than when you are 10. Or maybe it’s that they aren’t at all scarey in this century but last century, they were?  The little kids were not scared and only slightly interested in the wax figures.  Prince J says Washington looked too tall.  None of them could pick out our President.  Cleopatra wasn’t very pretty.  Pretty boring commentary. 

We stopped for ice cream and coffee on the way back and had dinner at Cafe Eleven, which I’ve blogged about before  (FYI, Prince J ordered spinach ravioli and barely touched it – he ate too much of my appetizer.  If you ever find yourself at Cafe Eleven, order the spinach ravioli.  It was really very good.)  After dinner, a round of miniature golf at Fiesta Falls .  Fun stuff, if you avoid getting hit by a golf club when RJ swings.  Scary. 

Day 2…

Breakfast at the Gypsy Cab Company.  Very good, huge servings, interesting building and waitresses.  Eggs Benedict was a hit.  Baked Ziti, also a hit.  Omelettes and home fries, a hit. 

Beach
Next stop, Anastasia State Park.  Great park.  Very nice and uncrowded beach (with lifeguards!).  Clean beach shop and picnic area.  Clean bathrooms.  Good parking.  The kids had a lot of fun.   I think we may give camping there a try one of these days.

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Daily Dose of Miami – Fun with Food

1 Comment / Foodie, Travel Log /

So, Miami.  I mentioned that I don’t really like Miami, right?  I do like the fact that you can get Cuban coffee in Miami and it’s really good Cuban coffee.  I didn’t actually have Cuban coffee on this last trip, but that’s ok and in just a second I’ll tell you why.

When I travel with the little kids, I try to remember that they expect a "food experience" and not simply to be fed.  Regularly.  The older three children found being fed at all was enough of an experience for them, so traveling with them was pretty easy.  Not so with the little kids.  I’ve had to adjust and adapt and plan, and that’s ok.  Sometimes it’s even fun. 

On our first real evening in Miami, I realized we had somehow NOT planned any "food experiences" at all.  I realized this after the kids had gone to dinner with their father (to celebrate Father’s Day) and TW and I had no plans for dinner.  Not having dinner plans isn’t uncommon for us, but it caused me to realize we had no dinner plans or lunch plans or breakfast plans for the entire trip.  Ack!  Bad!  Little kids will expect food experiences.  Regularly.  And the bagel place and Starbucks down the street really won’t cut it for the whole trip.

Be proud of me, I didn’t panic.  I surfed our options while sitting in my chat at 6pm on Friday night.  I found some ideas.  I found someplace for TW and I have to have dinner.  Potential disaster and mutiny averted!  We headed out.

Cafe Demetrio, in Coral Gables, was a good find for us.  Great coffee, (I had the signature coffee drink and TW had a caramel latte), and I mean really great coffee.  Decent food, not great, but definitely decent – with enough vegetarian options that we didn’t feel stuck with the grilled cheese (though that’s actually what I ordered, heh).  We sat in the garden and eavesdropped on the locals – fun and challenging since my Spanish is not so great when folks are speaking a mile a minute, which is what people who speak Spanish do.

Saturday arrives and a better plan than my original breafkast plan comes to me.  The Original Pancake House, duh!  The little kids weren’t with us when we went last month and surely there was one nearby… yep, just a wee drive from the hotel and almost on the way to our first touristy stop of the day.  We arrived in time for brunch and it was a good choice.  Pigs in a Blanket were a hit with J and E while RJ enjoyed her Dutch Baby (though she thinks she would like the Apple Baby better) and enjoyed my Crepes even more. 

I had planned a trip to an Italian Market for lunch but as we were heading toward our next stop, TW spotted The Cereal Bowl!  Change of plans, people!  The Gainesville "cereal restaurant" isn’t so hot but we had high hopes for this one and we were NOT disappointed, at all.

TW made a wee error in judgement and TOLD the children we were going to have cereal for dinner before we actually arrived at the restaurant.  Oops.  This led to much grumbling and many disaparaging comments about our food experience choices from the Prince.  Until he walked in, looked over the counter, and realized this was HIS KIND OF PLACE!  You see, Prince J loves to roll his own.  Whether it’s sushi or burritos or wraps – if he can choose the filling, then he is a happy young man.  He likes to create, to be IN CHARGE.  The Cereal Bowl made him very, very happy.

It actually made us all happy.  E was a little confused about the concept.  She wasn’t really sure about mixing so many things together, so she just went with a few cereals and a couple of "safe" toppings.  RJ, on the other hand, went all out.   Prince J, in his typical manner, calculated slowly and carefully and was pleased with the results.  I even ate oatmeal – for the first time in 23 years – and I liked it.

The Cereal Bowl was such a hit, they begged to go back and they plotted their next creations for hours, and we did go back for breakfast the next day.  E was more adventurous and ate more cereal than I thought a child of her size could hold.   

Oh, we also visited Swenson’s for ice cream one evening and Johnny Rockets for lunch on our way out of town. 

Good food experiences were had by all. 

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Daily Dose of Miami – Touristy Goodness

3 Comments / Travel Log /

Miami! In June! Is there anything better?  Don’t answer that, the alternatives are too numerous to count.  Also too depressing.  I really am not a fan of Miami.  But, we had a fun time last weekend, even if it was really hot and even if the hotel has a parking problem on weekdays and even if, well… I’ll leave some of you to snicker and others of you to scratch your head… just leave it at, we had a good time,  except for some stuff, ok?

First good time?  Coral Castle.  Gosh I love cheesey attractions.  Visiting the Coral Castle made me sad (briefly) that we never did manage to get that assignment to Homestead (pre-hurricane) that we were dying for.  Who wouldn’t want to live in a town reknown for an attraction like that?  Prince J loved the Throne Room, though oddly enough he first thought the MIL chair was the more comfortable.  Once it was explained to him, he changed his mind and took his rightful place on the throne.  E would have liked to climb down into the well, unfortunately that seems to be frowned upon so we just pondered the fish situation.  RJ and TW loved the recliner and when they gave me a 10 second sit down in it, I can see why.  It’s the perfect size for us.  Surprisingly comfortable.

Second good time?  Venetian Pool.  I am always a little wary of these types of attractions but this one was surprisingly clean, surprisingly uncrowded and surprisingly nice.  The people were just there having a nice time, no seriously rowdy behavior except inside of the caves but the teens and young adults were all very good about easing up while small kids were exploring.  The big waterfall was tougher – the big folks didn’t want to give up their hard won space so the smaller folks had difficulty making their way to a sit spot.  It was still fun to swim over to.  E felt quite a sense of accomplishment at having done it.   Even Prince J, who was extra wary of the pool, enjoyed himself after he watched and pondered the options for a bit. 

The only thing that would have made the touristy fun better would have been a much longed for trip to Monkey Jungle. 

Stay tuned – Miami food fun will be discussed and dissected soon… or when I find a little more energy, whichever comes first.

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Daily Dose of Music – Country

8 Comments / Sights & Sounds, Travel Log /

Last week, TW was making those scarey noises.  Not the house noises, the noises about theme parks and kids and trips and stuff.  Those are seriously scarey noises.  So scarey that they pushed me to search for some OTHER alternative.  Something safer. ANYTHING would be safer than theme parks over Memorial Day weekend.  Actually ANYTHING would be safer than theme parks at anytime.  So I surfed.  And just as I was about to give up and face my fears and give in to the theme park I found salvation in the form of sweet corn and country music.  The Zellwood Corn Festival! 

I like to say that I don’t like country music and it’s mostly a true statement.  But when I see Terri Clark something clicks in my head and I’m a country music fan.  (Can the woman wear a hat or can she wear a hat? umm err ummm sorry I got distracted for a minute.) 

I sent the link to TW and crossed my fingers.  TW is less of a country music fan than I am.  She didn’t spend four years in love with a huge country music fan.  When you do that, the music sort of rubs off on you and it has a tendency to stick.  (It isn’t JUST Terri Clark – it’s also Reba and Kathy Mattea and Faith Hill and The Dixie Chicks and Trisha Yearwood if she would see the light and ditch that jerk Garth Brooks but since she won’t, she’s scratched off of the list)  TW said "Sure, it sounds fun."  Yes!

I think Saturday must have been the hottest day of the century or they piped in some extra heat just to sell more beer to the rednecks and more lemonade to the kids.  (By the way, it was a surprisingly mellow and happy crowd. No loud or obnoxious drunk behavior anywhere in sight. Way to go beer drinking Zellwood people!) It was HOT.  So hot that we took a break after a couple of hours of FUN to drive around the county in AC comfort.  (Who knew Mt Dora was such a tourist mecca, by the way.)

After the cool down and some ice cream we went back, found a shady spot to sit in our chairs and on our blanket and ate a lot of free sweet corn and listen to Cowgirl Crush (they weren’t bad).  It was sweet and it was good and it was a rare treat for TW and her special colon.   The kids rode more rides with TW and ate more food (turkey legs and Italian sausage) and I listened to Neal McCoy, who was surprisingly funny.    We moved our chairs mid-way through his set, for a better view and because we apparently needed more sun beating down on us.  We ate more food, (swirl fries, rootbeer floats and snowcones this time) and waited for Terri Clark.

We played gameboy.  We played rummicube.  The Gameboy battery died and suggesting a book was met with the cold stare, a child was not so good at rummicube while her sister was very good at it  and a wee bit of frustration set in.  More rides for the two frustrated children and another Canadian country girl whose name I can’t remember sang remakes of great songs.  Finally, Terri Clark.  (Can that woman wear a hat or can she wear a hat????)

She sang some olds ones, she danced around with her guitar.  She sang some sort of new ones.  She sange a verse and a chorus of Emotional Girl, which made the frustrated Emotional Girl very happy.  She sang Pitiful Me which made the emotional and no longer frustrated Warren Zevon fan very VERY happy.  Life was good for some of us who don’t love our Gameboys more than really excellent country music.  For those with Gameboy loss, it was just ok.

Nice bit of family fun, nice to be reminded that country music isn’t so bad and nice to see a woman who can really wear a hat.  Nice, nice, nice!

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Daily Dose of Cows

3 Comments / Animal Issues, Money Talks /

TW really likes cows.  A lot.  She wants a family cow.  Or one of those miniature cows.  Or both.  I guess I should feel almost lucky that we only came home with Elvis Rat last weekend.  I should but I don’t.  It’s a rat!  Anyway, about the cows.  She likes them.  She moos at them when we’re driving past their fields on the freeway.  It’s weird but it’s that quirky kind of weird that makes her "TW" so we sort of like it that she likes cows.

I felt very lucky to have been falling asleep in a phone meeting last week because it caused me to do something productive like surf blogs with Blogmad or Blogclicker or Blogexplosion.  Don’t ask me which because they’re all the same to me (sort of, but that’s a different blog).  While I was surfing to stay awake I discovered The Cartoonist They Call Stik and I smiled.

I sent the link to TW on AIM and she smiled.  I clicked through a bunch of the pages and giggled a lot.  I subscribed.  You never know when a cow cartoon might cheer up a disgruntled webmaster girlfriend.  The very next day I saw a contest being offered.  Easy too.  You just had to answer a simple question about one of the cartoons.  I knew the answer, even if it hadn’t been multiple choice.  I entered.  Never thought I would win but guess what – I won!  I am lucky that way.  I win cow tshirts and lube, lots and lots of lube.  Some people win millions in a lottery.  Not me, I’m not that kind of lucky.  But I’m not complaining, not really.  I felt lucky to win because I knew TW would smile at the shirt I won.  And she did.  It arrived today:

Pimpmycow  Go buy your own or buy one for me.  Do you know which one I want?  I bet you do…

Flamincow

You should also subscribe to the blog – there seem to be an awful lot of freebies given away there and if you don’t enter to win, then I’m going to have to enter and with my luck I’ll have an entire house full of cow shirts. 

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