I've been assimilated

Remember the Borg from Star Trek, who went around turning other races of beings into cyborgs like them? My dad gave me a Bluetooth headset for Christmas. Now I walk around with this piece of hardware in my ear and a flashing blue light that blinds anyone who looks in my direction. The silly part is, only my parents and Hubby ever call me. Yet I know the minute I take it off I'll miss a call.

Hey, if anybody has Cingular/AT&T, email me and we'll exchange numbers. We can talk for free, you know.

We are the Bluetooth. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Your dog is dying.... or not

We took our dog to the vet Thursday night. She had been very lethargic, not eating or drinking, and was having trouble walking. He examined her and told us she probably had a bleeding tumor that was slowly sapping her energy. Based on her rate of respiration and her heartbeat, he estimated she had less than 24 hours.

So we took her home to say goodbye to the boys. The vet assured us that she wasn't in any pain, she would just get weaker and weaker until she died. We had a very tearful night of farewells, and the boys slept down in the basement with her since she couldn't climb the steps.

That was Thursday. She's still alive. In fact, she's acting almost completely normal - going up and down steps, eating and drinking, even stealing food off the table. Now I'm wondering if I should take her back for a new diagnosis, or just leave well enough alone. I mean, the girl is 14 next week. It's not like I haven't been expecting her to die for the last two years. But if it's something simple we can treat, I want to know about it.

At least the boys don't have to remember their dog dying at Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Girls' morning out

Mom and I went for a girls' morning of shopping today. There's a consignment shop I've been wanting to check out. I've got to do something with all these clothes that don't fit me anymore, and I figured they'd have some nice stuff in my new and improved size, too. Well, I was in the dressing room trying on a few things, and she comes knocking at the door.

"Jana, you have to try this on!" I opened the door and she's holding a leather skirt, size 10. "Okay, sure, why not?" So I tried it on. Wow, it fit like it was made for me. And it's a nice modest length, below the knees. For $7? Yeah, I bought it.

Poetic License - The cinquain

Want this button?
I always liked writing poetry that followed a formula. Of course, the cinquain has several formulas, but that's okay. Sort of like tollhouse cookies, they're all good. Here's my tribute to celebrations:

Parties
Family, friends
Gathering, sharing, laughing
Fellowship of the season
Unity

I. Am. Cold.

Talk about a shock to the system - we had to wear short sleeves the day we left Florida because the temps were in the 80s. Now it's 31 and so windy not even the cat will go outside.

Here's something I've discovered about being thin: I am cold all the time. Hubby bought me a long underwear top because I kept talking about being cold. Don't get me wrong - I still like winter better than summer. But I think I'll be needing my heavy coat this year.

In the week after Thanksgiving...

Before going to Disney, we spent the week after Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house near Tampa. She has an awesome heated pool, so even at night when the temps dipped into the 50s, we were able to go swimming. The boys loved it. One day we spent pretty much the entire day in the pool. That was nice.

We also saw some of the sights around the area that we hadn't seen before. We visited a park that was built around a natural spring.

We went to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and saw all kinds of neat exhibits, including one about shipwrecks and pirates.

We visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which is a small rescue and rehabilitation facility near Clearwater Beach. I learned more there than at any other aquarium I've been to.That's Winter, a dolphin who lost her tail to a crab net. They have a prosthetic tail they put on her periodically so she can learn to swim correctly again. Pretty cool.

So overall we had a fantastic week and got to see lots of amazing things. And that was all before going to Disney World!

We've got character

One thing almost everyone with little kids has to do at Disney World is get pictures taken with the characters. It makes a great souvenir, and the kids love it. Now, the autograph thing I just don't get. Why get somebody dressed in a costume to sign a name that isn't theirs and will never be worth anything? I don't know. But hey, at least they hold up the line nicely for everyone else. So here are some of the characters my kids got to see.

That's Rafiki from The Lion King.

Pocahontas - whose song got stuck in my head and wouldn't get out. Lilo and Stitch - a dream come true for my guys, let me tell you! Woody from Toy Story. Buzz Lightyear was there, too, but his line was crazy long. And I got to meet my girl, Kim Possible and her guy Ron Stoppable. Yeah, we hung out for a bit. Hey, Kim, you can call me or beep me, you know - if you want to reach me.

Pirates are thieves

Time for some pictures from our trip! Naturally, the first ride we went on at the Magic Kingdom was...
There was a cute pirate show outside the ride, starring Captain Jack himself. He ran off at the end of the show, but I managed to grab his sidekick for a picture with the boys. Notice the 8-year-old's shirt:We had an unfortunate incident in the ride, though. You know how pirates are always taking things that aren't theirs? Well, one of those scallywags made off with the 2-year-old's right shoe. Totally gone. Now this was the first ride of our first day at Disney, and he didn't have other shoes with him. But in a clear act of mutiny against the pirate kings, the people operating the ride gave us a voucher for a free pair of shoes from any store in the park. So he got a pair of Buzz Lightyear sneakers, and had fun telling everyone in the park that Captain Jack stole his shoe.

Too much for one post -look for installments

Wow, what a fantabulous vacation! Usually by the end of a trip I'm ready to be back home, but I had such a great time, I could have stayed another week or two easily. However, I will say that I figured out why Disney doesn't charge for under-3s to visit the parks: they know that anybody stupid enough to bring a toddler to Disney World deserves a little break. The 2-year-old (who turned 3 today, by the way!) had major meltdowns at least twice a day. I know it was mostly from too much activity and too little sleep, but no fun for the rest of us!

Some highlights include:
- oldest son riding roller coasters with us and loving it!
- the new Expedition Everest coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom (it goes backwards through a dark tunnel - awesome!)
- the boys getting to wish Lilo & Stitch a Merry Christmas in Hawaiian (Lilo was mighty impressed)
- seeing Captain Jack in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - too cool!
- getting picked on in the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
- talking to Crush the sea turtle

More later! And pics to come!

The age-old question

Jana, you've just written a 50,000 word novel to win your third NaNoWriMo in a row! What are you going to do now?

I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

See you next week - though I might post pics and stuff this week, you never know.