Nighttime Fun

This is a rare glimpse into the bedtime activities of Steve. This might not be for the squeamish. Read at your own risk.

Last night, our miniature daschund Toby was in bed with us. This is not unusual, as he spends most nights in our bed squeezing between Vicki and I. Last night he had crawled under the covers and nestled down between my legs. I guess you could say I had a wiener on my wiener.

It started getting late and I was ready to turn off the TV and cuddle up to the wife, but I had the dog stuck between my legs. I also really had to pass gas, and thought it might be fun to fart on the dog. So I leaned over to Vicki and said, "watch this" and let it rip.

Toby stirred a little bit, and slowly made his way out from under the covers. He climbed up on the pillows with a dazed look on his face than ran to the end of the bed, did a whole body shake, staggered a little bit, jumped off the bed and ran out of the room.

Both Vicki and I laughed hysterically. Oddly enough Toby isn't in bed with us tonight.

Random Thoughts 6/22

I googled "losing my mind pics" and this came up. Not sure how it relates to this post, but I liked the picture.

I've been back from vacation in Florida for just about a week now...it seems so long ago. I rather enjoyed posting during the vacation, so I'm going to try to continue posting regularly. It's very therapeutic.

• It's very smoky here today...lots of fires in California this weekend. It's so bad you don't even want to be outside. My mother-in-law called at least 4 times yesterday because she was worried our ranch was going to burn down. No, there were no fires anywhere near us; but if you know my mother-in-law....you understand.

• I was looking for a "losing my mind" picture because I lost my keys today. My dear friend Susie quipped "how old are you? First your wallet and now your keys?" Implying that I am going senile. I feared that I had lost them at the dump today, but found them tonight in my nightstand.

• This was kind of cool. I was walking down the hall tonight and my dog was laying across my path. It was dark and I didn't see her, but as I approached, she kind of groaned at me. She let me know that she was there, so that I wouldn't step on her. Very clever dog. She learns better than I, because I have stepped on her many times in the dark.

• We added a new Journey song to our band repertoire this weekend. Journey rocks. We saw them in concert last year, and they sounded pretty good, but it's not quite the same without Steve Perry.

• We leave for our college dorm reunion on the 30th. It should be fun. We have two friends that live out of state that won't be able to make it, and one other friend flake out, but all together we will have 15 dorm-mates and their families that will re-convene in Arcata CA. Should be fun!

Last Day

Our last official day in Florida.

• Got to have breakfast with Pete and Erin, then packed up and headed out for Pensacola. We spent the day with a friend that Vicki had gone to school with from 2nd grade through high school. They had a beautiful home with a really cool screen enclosed pool. Ironically, they had just returned from California where they were visiting colleges in preparation for their daughters impending graduation in a couple of years. Vicki had a nice visit reminiscing about how much they hated growing up in the Imperial Valley.

• We are now in Mobile, Alabama, where we will fly out from tomorrow morning. After spending a few hours in Alabama, I have decided that Florida is not really part of the south. Florida is a wannabe southern state. If you cross California with the South, you get Florida.

• We are definitely feeling culture shock. It started at dinner where we were offered smoking or non-smoking. After we were seated (three tables away from the smoking section) we ordered our meal. Once we started talking, our waitress did not smile at us the rest of the evening. I think it was because she recognized us as foreigners by our accents. Vicki said it was because she overheard me talking in my southern drawl.

• We stopped for gas at the scarienst gas station I have ever been in. The cashier in the mini-mart was in some kind of bullet proof cage. I had to pay for my diet coke through a little slot. There were a couple of good-ol-boys trying to win a gold watch at one of those claw-grabber vending games. There was a scary lady wearing a bra on the outside of her shirt while pumping gas, and another lady sitting in her camping chair talking to a wall. We did make it back to our hotel without incident.

• We are currently holed up in our hotel room, which is a faux non-smoking room.

• Susie sent the following text this morning: "Only in the south will you see a bait shop and scrapbooking store in the same establishment..."

• I forgot to mention that we had a classic moment last night at the pool. One of the attendants came by and asked us to exit the pool because someone had an "accident". Yes, someone left a floater in the pool. No Carl Spackler to clean it up though.

We'll be home tomorrow night. See everyone later.

Florida Day 7

This is our last night in Florida. We will head to Pensacola tomorrow and visit with Vicki's childhood friend, and then head to Mobile, Alabama for the night. We will fly out of Mobile Monday morning. I have to say I am looking forward to going home. Florida has been great, but I miss my dogs, and my bed, and my hot-tub, and of course, Costco.

We got to hook up with one of our college friends, Pete and his family today. They have two boys, 4 yrs and 1.5 yrs. Cute kids, but having two young ones like that is a lot of work. It was hard enough for us in our thirties, I can't imagine taking that on in my forties. It was great hanging out and chatting. It had been 8 years since we had seen Pete, and yet we picked up the conversation like it was only yesterday. We are so very fortunate to have built so many friendships in our college years that have remained strong for 20+ years. We will have our dorm-room reunion up at Humboldt in a couple of weeks with most of the rest of the gang.

We started our visit on the beach. I had the 4 year old in the surf while Vicki got more beach chairs. (I have her well trained). I had a lot of fun trying to drown the little tyke, but he managed to survive. A thunder storm moved our visit indoors for awhile, then we hit the pool and finished up by keeping Pete up way past his bedtime (so much for the days of staying up all night playing cards). Really glad we were able to see him while we were here.

It's amazing how quickly people move indoors when the lightening storm rolls in. You will have literally hundreds of people on the beach in one moment and have the beach completely deserted within a blink of an eye. I've decided that Californians can't survive here. Californians think thunder and lightening storms are cool and stop and gaze at the sky in awe when they roll in. Floridians immediately run for cover. Californians get struck by lighenting and die. Floridians watch the storm from the shelter of their rooms.

Vicki really wants to visit a Piggly Wiggly now, so I have to Google it and find one before we leave. She is an odd one sometimes.

Florida Day 5 and 6

Hello...I had to type up an email for work last night and went to sleep intstead of filing my day 5 entry.





Day 5:

• Slept in again. I could really get used to sleeping in late. Not sure if it's still living on California time, or relaxing on vacation, or recovering from too much work, but I have been sleeping, and sleeping a lot!


• After getting up, Vicki and I ditched the kids and went shopping for a couple of hours. Bought some clothes and enjoyed each others company. Stopped at Sonic for a snack...had Tater Tots! Tater Tots are one thing that are good eatin on either coast. I love Tater Tots! At work for breakfast, I will swing by the cafeteria and have some Tots with eggs over easy. It is definitely in my top three favorite breakfasts behind Eggs Benedict and Buiscuits and Gravy.


• I then layed on the beach until the afternoon rains came.


• We spent the evening over at the Heltons friends, Ben and Rosia. It was Rosia's birthday, and we had a barbecue and visited until late in the evening. I played several games of pool with Jessie, Hannah, and Kimberly. I kicked some serious butt.


• All the girls stayed with us last night and with the Heltons the night before. They were very quiet and went to bed on time...very unusual for teenage girls.

Day 6

• Happy Anniversary Mark and Susie. 21 years of marriage...the Blackjack anniversary (I just made that up)


• Mark, Zack, and I were supposed to go out on the boat with Ben this morning, but the threat of lightening deterred our plans. I have to admit that when the alarm went off at 6am, a part of me was hoping that Mark would forget to call and I could go back to sleep. I got up, made my lunch and climbed back into bed with my phone on my chest. Mark called me just before 7am and let me know that the boat trip was off.


• Mark and I walked the docks for a while and them hooked up with his brother-in-law. We spent the morning fishing off the pier in Destin. We caught a lot of bait fish, mostly hardtail (Blue Runners). A lot of people were catching King Mackerel, but we had no luck there.

• Vicki and I took the our girls into the local boardwalk where we shopped, ate gelato, and played on the beach. Samantha had fun, Jessica complained. Together we all enjoyed the afternoon.
• Had a nice dinner out with a bunch of Mark and Susie's friends. Great seafood! My particular favorite was not the seafood, but the Red Beans and Rice. It is more of a cajun style dish and was absolutely amazing!!
• Vicki had a Krystal burger yesterday. These are apparently a staple in the south. They are small burgers and you buy them in packs of 6 or 12. The same person, while raving about how good they are, will also refer to them as "gut-bombs". It is probably not fair to call them a burger, becuase I am not sure they actually qualify as meat. It is more of a greenish-gray meat-like substance that is about as thin as a Ritz cracker. The bun, mustard and dehyrdated onions round out these little delicacies. I rather enjoyed them. I think I ate three in the time it took Vicki to figure out how many weight watchers points one burger would be.
• I find myself slipping into a southern drawl on occassion. I think all we have to do is visit a Piggly Wiggly and skin a possum before we are officially considered southern.

Talk to ya'll later.

Florida Day 4

Not a lot from me today. Woke up, layed on the beach. Explored the town looking for a bookstore. Took a nap. Went fishing with the boys. I think we probably caught 40 fish between the 7 of us. All smaller fish (croakers, pinfish, mangrove snapper, ladyfish). We'll fish for some bigger ones on Friday.

From Vicki: I had a great day today. Swam on a beautiful beach, swam in the pool and enjoyed watching my girls play together. I was able to meet a few of Susie's oldest and dearest friends and reconnect with her amazing sister, Becky. Susie and I cracked up laughing when Samantha immediately made friends with the daughter of her close friend, Rosia. Her daughter, Angela, and Samantha became fast friends and Sam is spending the night at her house tonight....pretty cool!

When I tasted the boiled peanuts yesterday I began to feel very "southern", but today I topped that southern experience when I got to go shopping at the Winn Dixie! We will be flying out of Mobile, Alabama on Monday and I swear if I see a Piggly Wiggly I am totally stopping and buying something and will likely take a picture! That will be SO COOL!

Favorite saying from Samantha so far: When we got off the plane Sam came up and whispered in my ear..." I wonder if we will see Horatio?!".

Florida, Day 3

We started today with eggs and biscuits with gravy…a true southern breakfast. We then drove over to a wildlife park and saw wild manatees, alligators and other assorted wildlife. The rest of the day was spent in the car driving to Fort Walton Beach. Some observations:

• The wildlife park was in a town called Homosassa. Yes there is a town with the mane Homosassa. The girls had a lot of fun taking pictures of the Homosassa sign while they covered up the last letter. It was almost like they were channeling Aaron and Jason.

• There are no mountains in Florida. It is for the most part flat, but covered with jungle-like vegetation. The roads are very well maintained.

• There are lots of roadside stands that sell boiled peanuts. I had never heard of boiled peanuts before, but they boil them plain or with any variety of spices. The peanuts themselves are warm and mushy to eat, and fairly tasty. Susie is now required to make some for all of us.

• While driving to Fort Walton Beach, “Love Song” by Sara Barielles came on the radio. The girls asked me to turn it up, and proceeded to sing along. All five girls were in tune and there timing was perfect. It was an incredibly beautiful moment.

• Fort Walton Beach is beautiful. Our hotel overlooks the beach, where I expect we will spend a lot of the remaining week. I hope to upload some pictures onto Vicki’s Flickr tomorrow.

• We drove along the Suwanee River for awhile today. I guess you could say we were Way Down Upon the Swanee River.

Until tomorrow...

Florida Vacation Diary Day 1&2

I have decided to keep a running diary of our Florida trip with the Heltons. Since this is my diary, it won’t be an all encompassing list of everything we do and see…I will only write about the happenings that I find funny or interesting.

Day 1

• We arrived in Tampa in the late afternoon and had to wait 2 hours at the baggage carousel because they couldn’t unload the plane because there was a lightening storm. It seems to me they should have a couple of lightening rods put up so that the whole airport doesn’t have to shut down when they get a little bit of lightening.


• After running back to the airport to pick up Hannah’s phone, we had dinner at the Olive Garden near Busch Gardens. I have to admit it was a little bit scary. I am sure that there a couple of drug deals that happened in the parking lot. I think we found a primary Cuban Mafia hangout on our first day.


• There seems to be a lot of McDonalds in Florida.

Day 2

• We stayed at Susie’s moms house in Inverness FL last night. Inverness is an interesting town. The town mascot is a cooter. The annual Cooter Festival is the major event of the year. They have a Miss Cooter contest; they have a Cooter Idol competition. Really. If you want to learn more about the Cooter Festival, and find out what a Cooter is, check this website our: http://www.cooterfestival.com/


• The humidity in Florida is as bad as they say, but it doesn’t bother me too much.
  Have not seen an alligator yet.


• At Susie’s sisters house I saw a bee-like bug about the size of a small hummingbird. It was taking it’s prey, very large beetles, and storing them under the deck. Freaked me out a little bit.


• Had a very nice birthday party/family barbeque for Bobby. After dinner, some of the menfolk sat out on the porch and watched the lightening. The day felt a lot like how you might picture the typical south. The men barbequed and talked hunting and fishing. The women stayed in the house preparing food and swatting flies. After dinner the men sat out on the porch, talking and watching the lightening. Amazingly friendly and social time. I could get accustomed to this type of community.


• The Dunkin Donuts here in town had never heard of an Apple Fritter or an Old Fashioned donut.