Wednesday, September 08, 2004

What I did for my vacation

Saturday, August 21st: Very wet rainy day. Had planned to visit George at the lake for the weekend, but Dova had a fever on Thursday and Friday. We were all (especially Adam) going crazy being stuck inside with all the rain. We put Adam in Power Rangers Dino Thunder underwear for the first time.

Sunday: Made it up the George's and had a nice time with George, Terry and the Audrey's. Adam floated in the lake for the first time using a life vest, and we took a spin in the boat with Audrey Senior. Had salmon, hot dogs, grilled vegetables and pasta salad on the deck with the tremendous view. And an upside down peach "Happy Birthday to me" cake for Terry.

Monday: Adam was happy to go to school. We went to BJ's, then the BMW store where Doug test drove a Z4 (3.0 with 6 speed), while I went to Walmart with Dova. The salesman gave Doug an incredible deal on the car he drove (black with red leather, but not sport seats - he is so spoiled from my car), but later he found out that they are selling below list, so it wasn't such a deal after all. Had a huge Uno's pizza from BJ's for dinner.

Tuesday: With Adam in school again, Doug felt so relaxed being at home without the crazy noisy boy!! He mowed the lawn while I took a trip up to Sears to use my $10 apparel coupon. Got 2 pants for Dova, 2 pants for Adam (including a $30 Land's End cargo pants on clearance for $5.49) and a Land's End tank top for myself, all for $26. What a bargain!! Doug took a motorcycle ride before getting Adam.

Wednesday: We packed and left at 1:30 for the trip down to NY. On our first stop, Dova couldn't concentrate on nursing because of the traffic sounds and the buttons on the dash. We hit rush hour traffic in NY. And to top it off, there was a big accident in the HOV lane on the LIE that took a 1/2 hour to get by. So in the end it took 6 hours to get to my Mom's house. She arrived 1/2 hour later and we had dumplings for dinner. Even Adam had a whole bunch even though there was "green stuff" in them.

Thursday: None of us sleep because Dova was fussy and had to sleep in our bed (and feed every 3 hours). We stopped by the neighbors Kristin and Peter (who I used to babysit) where Adam immediately felt at home with their kids. Then we went to Super Stop and Shop where Adam got to ride in the shopping cart car up front. He was loud and out of control, while Dova was a cutie pie and got lots of compliments. Grandpa and Sue stopped by around 3pm and brought Chinese food from Flushing. Adam showed off in the fancy kiddy pool. By the time they left, he was overtired and cranky, but finally gave everyone hugs goodbye.

Friday: Adam went with Grandma to pick up her new kittens from Save a Pet. Went to Stony Brook beach in the afternoon. Adam finally got the hang of floating using an inflatable ring that I kept having to blow up. Grandma brought Adam to the duck pond afterwards, and then he took a long nap in the car seat in the driveway. Everyone took a bath or shower that afternoon, including the kittens. That night, Doug tried sleeping with Adam so I could fit in the bed with Dova.

Saturday: Adam was sick, coughing up a storm. Eddie, another neighbor, stopped by to play with Adam. He is 5 and about the same size as Adam, but a little mean. Adam got to splash in the kiddy pool again.

Sunday: Miraculously, Adam was no longer coughing, so we arranged to visit Peter and Kristin's pool. He borrowed arm floaties from their son Dylan and did a great job swimming around with their daughter Taylor. Grandma took lots of pictures, including me falling off the dolphin toy.

Monday: We stopped by Grandma's work to show off the grandkids. Dova is a big crybaby and Adam is super shy. The big trip home was 5 hours long. We had to stop on the Mass Pike to feed Dova and Adam made his first highway run to the woods. The last hour was torrential downpour. Everyone, especially Dova, was glad to be home.

Tuesday: Adam was excited to go back to school, where he made a tie-dyed shirt. We took a walk in the morning, but Doug made the mistake of wearing a black shirt. I convinced him to continue walking till we hit some shade instead of turning back and we survived. We went to Toys R Us and bought a bike for Adam and a floppy seat shopping cart protector for Dova. We got to use the floppy seat right away at Trader Joe's. Claire calls in the evening warning me about a lay off the next day.

Wednesday: Harold called at 12:15pm with the news. I have only 6 months to live!! Doug went for a doctor's appt in the afternoon. Later I finally called Alan and found out that my termination date is actually May 1st, a long way off. In the mean time, Noorul, Tom and Jeff Lesica sent me job openings from their companies. I had waited to take a walk with Dova and Doug, but he took a motorcycle ride instead.

Thursday: Doug took his motorcycle up to Nault's to put on the dynomometer for tuning. Tom stopped by at lunchtime to discuss the job at his company. I was so angry about the whole work situation (especially that they kept Dory) that I was on the computer all day and didn't even download my pictures from the trip. We went for a walk in the afternoon, and then Doug was stunned by a letter from Stu. So now both our vacations are ruined.

Friday: Dropped Doug's blue car off at the body shop and went to the Aquarium. This time Adam loved the sharks in the big tank, last time it was the turtles. Lots of traffic on the way home, and went straight to pick up his car. Afterwards, I took Dova to Victory and the farm stand. In the evening, I got food poisoning from a Stonyfield's O'Soy Yogurt, vomiting and diarrhea. Quite a vacation indeed!! Plus I kept getting blocked ducts. Finished watching Clerks and then watched Trainspotting (see other post).

Saturday: George, Terry, Copper and Maggie stopped by (in lieu of the supposed UI party that I had planned - too bad 2/3 of the people were laid off!!). Adam showed off his T-Ball and bike skills.

Sunday: Went to the Home Depot Expo Design Center to buy a new rug for Adam's room using a 20% off coupon. The rug that we all liked couldn't be ordered in the smaller size and next best one Adam simply refused. We came back with 2 light fixtures for the family room and above the stairs. Can't bear to waste a coupon!!

Monday: Doug teetered on the precipitous half wall over the stairs while putting up the new chandelier (couldn't fit a ladder). Went to the playground with Adam and Dova while Doug mowed the lawn. Adam had fun playing with other kids that had a hoverdisc and a kite. Of course Doug was on a motorcycle ride when we got back.

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

When I read this post a while ago,I sort of skimmed it and didn't think much about it. I came across it again today and realized that you must either make a journal entry every day...or you have one fantastic brain for details! (I guess it could be both....but if so, WHY?)

The details listed for each day are pretty detailed. I'm hoping you don't keep data like this for every day of your life.....I'm not saying it would not be interesting to look back on....but it would certainly use a lot of trees. (or disk space)

I'm not sure why I didn't just pass this entry again.....but I guess it was just one of those days where I just felt like reading.

Angela said...

I think I jotted down notes in my Palm every few days, but it comes from years of writing travel journals. I like remembering details like what food I ate and one unique thing for the day.

Reading back on this today, I realized that I had forgotten that my original termination date was 5/1 and not 5/31 (at least I got the month right). So my memory, although very much a steel trap, is not as good as it used to be.

Anonymous said...

Well....I thought I would go back and check out some of your comments on comments and came across this one.

I knew you had a good memory....and I still believe that....but I'm happy to see that at least you DID in fact "take notes" and transcribed this from combined notes and memory.

I remember that when I read this Blog entry and made the note above, I was ashamed to admit to myself that I just didn't have that kind of memory! (not the first time I came to that conclusion...but I guess I just don`t enjoy rediscovering that all too often)

So now I have to add the words "super organized" along with intelligent when describing you. (yes, I know...you have mentioned your organization obsession before....but this is undeniable proof that it produces good results! :-)