The Whole Fam Damily

Whew...

Well the last five days has been a blur of cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, in-laws and other hodge-podged people.

Vanilla and I went down to Miami to visit his family while Serg, Sissy and PW are in town. PW is 10 1/2 months now and we got a fine lesson in child rearing. We found out that kids get up too early, eat when you want to do something else, put their greasy hands on your camera lens, cry when you are having a conversation and lick everything, even if it doesn't belong to you. Shudder.

I was able to slip away for a while and put an extra 700 miles on my little Nissan to travel to Gainesville and see some family of my own. It was really great to see everyone and made me miss them even more. The time with the relatives made the drive so worth wile as our event was watching the Gators stomp, crush, embarrass, overdo it to the Kentucky team. 63-5 is a bit one-sided.

Vanilla is still in Miami. Yesterday morning I got up and with a frowny face told Vanilla that I had to leave that afternoon. Within hours of chaos I went back to him with a big smiley face and said "I get to leave today!"

Everybody's workin' for the weekend...

So today, I found out the best incentive to work is not working. I met a goal today that I normally wouldn't even have attempted in a successful effort for a free day off!!!

Wooo!!!

Wait.. To get a day off not working, I spent the day working four times as hard.

Something's not right here.

Flip Flop

What was I thinking???

Since moving to Southwest Florida, Vanilla and I have avoided going to every one's favorite discount store, What-am-I-doing-here-mart. With a new, giant warehouse built just down the street, and by just down the street, I mean half an hour away, I decided to spend two hours of my Sunday afternoon sifting through bargains galore.
At first I was pleasantly surprised by the wider aisles and the relatively quiet store. It was a more than happy occasion to obtain a buggy with four functioning wheels and I quickly and easily was able to find a well-needed toilet seat for only $5 and change. After my find, I decided to visit the ladies room in the lay-away department. Having only a bottle of lotion and a toilet seat in my cart, I felt okay leaving my cart outside.
After returning to my shopping, I noticed that one my wheels was no longer functioning. Someone had SWITCHED my cart. I tried to deal for a time, but was forced to go ALL the way to the front of the store and switch the cart.
After this inconvenience, I started noticing that the aisles were no longer as accessible and sounds were louder. I could now hear no less than six kids crying/screaming/yelling. One little girl I noticed was not yelling at me, but when I passed by this cute little, pigtailed junior person, she looked up at me, waved and said "hola." That was a first.
I eventually made my way to the grocery side of the store where every turn was hindered by someone who's momma obviously didn't tell them that standing in the middle road with no purpose was rude. Down each aisle I went, I was met with the same family, going opposite the direction I was and with a cart that was being maneuvered by an eleven-year-old. No offense parents, but this is just not a good idea. I last sighted this particular adolescent stealing all the free cookies from the samples in the deli.
I am happy that I was smart enough to get a magazine prior to getting in line. I didn't have to pay for it, because I read the entire magazine before having to put even one item on the conveyor belt.
When all was said and done, I was $90 poorer and I had lost two hours of my life, not including drive time, to this place.
Ahhh. Another lesson learned. Well actually, I learned this lesson before, but today served as a reminder.
Next week, back to Target.
Flip Flop