Cleveland

Thursday, March 13:

Besides for the boy locking himself into a bathroom stall in a gas station in Wisconsin (my deepest apologies for anyone who desperately needed to use that stall, but I wasn't crawling under to unlock it) and his obsession with eating at "Talking Bell" the trip to Cleveland was uneventful. When we got to Zeagan's house, the boy announced he was hungry and she should cook him supper. Zeagan doesn't cook - she makes reservations, so he got an apple instead.

Friday, March 14:

We went to Mongolian BBQ for lunch - my child ate crab, baby corn, and 5 tortillas. He also taste tested everything that Zippy and I got, but that's not unusual. He is really into sharing - which means he eats everything you have.

After lunch, we went to the Children's Museum which had a Galapagos Island exhibit. It was basically a room filled with sand that the boy could dig in to his heart's content.

Saturday, March 15:

We went to Mama Santa's for lunch (yum) and then road the Rapid downtown to visit Zeagan at work. My child ate a butter sandwich and made Zeagan "Hot Cocoa" which was chunks of bread, spinach, and whatever else he could throw in his cup when we weren't watching.

Sunday, March 16:

We had lunch at Panini's (a panini, that is, a real panini, is a beautiful thing), wandered around Coventry, and then headed back to Zeagan's to play with Zabby. The boy impressed us with his mad verbal skillz:

Boy: (gives Zabby brown marker) You can color with this one.

Zabby: Thank you.

Boy: Do you like brown?

Zabby: Yes. Do you like brown?

Boy: I like making in the potty. Do you like making brown in the potty?

Zabby: Yes.

Zippy and I were rolling on the floor. Zabby is 5. I wish I would have had a video camera on those two.

Monday, March 17:

We drove to Wisc. Dells to spend the night at the Atlantis Water park. It is the perfect place for Baba to play - the deepest part of the kiddy pool is 1 foot. The boy runs around the pool (seriously) for a couple hours, goes to bed, wakes up and repeats.

Tuesday, March 18:

We get up and go to IHOP or the pancake store, depending on who you ask for breakfast. The boy "shares" breakfast with Zippy and I. We swim some more and return home.

I've Never Licked a Spark Plug (even though Zippy offered)

We're back from Boston. Sadly, I can no longer be a Pirate Who Don't Do Anything (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxLza2Lq1-g), but the trip was fun and worth giving up the title.




Paul Revere's House


We left Thursday afternoon, sort of. We finally got to Boston around 1 AM Friday morning after spending an hour bonding with the MSP tarmac and the O'Hare tarmac. Harvard Zosh escorted us to his bed where we promptly feel asleep.

We woke up bright and early Friday morning and started our day with breakfast (I had a Portabella and pesto omelet - yum!) followed by a stroll around Harvard, Mount Auburn Cemetery where my great, great, great Uncle Newell is buried, and several stops along the Charles river to watch the crew teams practicing. We had dinner with Harvard Zosh and his girlfriend Zory and a neat restaurant (I had fish. I like fish - they are tasty).


Saturday morning we got up to celebrate Harvard Zosh's birthday and then went into the city to walk the freedom trail and go to the aquarium.

Ben Franklin's parents, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and others are buried in the is cemetery. A lot of the graves have skulls and cross bones on them. Kinda morbid, isn't?





Irish Potato Famine Memorial






USS Constitution aka Old Ironsides


My new penguiny friend from the aquarium. He is standing with his arms out to cool himself off. He doesn't like swimming because he has cataracts and the other penguins pick on him. Penguins are mean!

I had two goals while in Boston: eat clam chowder and eat lobster. I succeeded Saturday night when Harvard Zosh took us to the Blue Dolphin for dinner (although misleading, they don't actually serve dolphin or porpoise). I became rather attached to my lobster friend and pulled his head off so he could watch me eat.


And finally, for you Miss Zou. I didn't go in, but I did take a picture, just for you:

Highlights (and Lowlights) of my First Business Trip

Highlight: Asking if we were renting a sports car and then my boss saying we were renting four sports cars and we were racing.
Lowlight: Seeing our actual rental (a car that was a heck of a lot nicer than mine) and being told that even if we did rent sport cars I couldn't drive because I am not 25 (yet).
Highlight: Ordering appetizers, entree, dessert, and drinks because the company was picking up the tab.
Lowlight: Eating a ton of food and feeling sick every night.
Highlight: Realizing that my boss and her boss are really great people.
Lowlight: Realizing that my current position is going to be kind of boring and I am totally overqualified.
Highlight: Working out on my business trip (double, no triple extra credit for this. Every mile I ran in Jersey is like 3 Minnesota miles).
Lowlight: Sitting in the Philly airport for five hours because of fog delays.
Highlight: Taking off and getting above the fog. Philly looked magical - the skyscrapers rose above the fog. You could only see the tops of the buildings. The fog was glowing from the lights underneath.
Lowlight: Turbulance. Lots and lots of turbulance.
Highlight: Stopping at Wawa's and getting a Wawa water.
Double highlight: My boss telling me that I could write down that I worked 32 hours while we were in Jersey (in reality I probably actually worked 4 or 5 hours. Maybe).
Lowlight: The toilet in my hotel room ran constantly.
Highlight: Picking out what treasures to bring to ZennieZou, my treat.
Highlight: Waving to the Vorhees, New Jersey 6 times.
Highlight: Coming home to a clean house (not a test, but Zippy is definetly a keeper).
Highlight: Zippy keeping Baba up last night so I could see him before he went to bed.
Highlight: Getting a $10 food voucher for sitting in the last row of the airplane.
Highlight: Getting paid for working 41 hours this week when I didn't even work close to that.
Lowlight: There is a chance I may have to go to Jersey again in January.
Highlight: Working on my Jersey accent (ohmygawd!).
Highlight: Getting home!!!!!