My 40th birthday wish

As it so happens, I am now 39 and three quarters.  (That is, if adults still said their age the way kids do, but that stopped being the in thing somewhere around age 13, didn't it.....)  Suffice it to say, then, that I'm in the sunset of my 30s.  Well, more like the mid-late evening of my 30s.  If my 30s were a day, I'd be in bed already by now.

Now, in a perfect world, I'd be celebrating my 40th birthday by sitting in the front row, center seat of the theater for this.  But, it isn't a perfect world, and that isn't going to happen.  I mean, not only is my birthday during one of the craziest times of the year (11 days before Christmas), but this year, my birthday is on a Wednesday.  Also? Broadway is about six hours away from my house by car, and nowadays, the cost of one ticket is more than it used to cost my entire family to see a Broadway show back when I was a kid.  (Which, granted, was way back in the Olden Days, especially to hear Kiddo talk about it.)  I don't even want to know how much a front row ticket would be.  Probably way more than I spend on groceries for our family for an entire month.

So, clearly this is not a perfect world.  (A fact which has been made abundantly clear over and over again in the past year, le sigh.)  That's why I've come up with an alternate plan to celebrate my birthdayweekmonth.  Best of all, it's something that YOU, dear reader, can help me with!  So, win-win, right?  I mean, I just know you were wondering what on earth you could get me for my big 4-0.  Right?  (Humor me and nod enthusiastically, if you don't mind.  Thanks!)

Here's what I'm hoping we can do for my birthday: I want to have a worldwide celebration* of helping others.  Paying it forward.  Doing good deeds.  If I can get 40 people to do 1 Good Thing between now and my actual 40th birthday, that would be just about the best present ever.  (Or 20 people to do 2 Good Things.  Or 10 to do 4.  I'm not picky.)

It doesn't have to be a BIG Good Thing, either.  I'm not asking y'all to turn into Mother Teresa/Ghandi/Ryan Gosling here.  Just, you know, do something good.  Spend an hour or two helping at a soup kitchen or food pantry.  Pay the toll for the guy behind you on your way to work.  Offer to watch the kids for that mom who never gets a night off.  Stop by a nursing home and visit with someone who is lonely.  Overtip the waitress at the diner.  Mow your neighbor's lawn or rake their leaves or shovel their snow (hey, I live in upstate NY - we'll have snow before I'm 39 and 5/6ths).  Send your mom some flowers.  Make a point of looking everyone in the eye and smiling at them for one day.  (Everyone - this is harder than you'd think.  Believe me, I've tried.)  You get my drift.

Now, I've been fighting a losing battle against the interwebz all day.  So, I'm not going to attempt to do a Mr. Linky thingamabob because then I might just break the internet once and for all, and I don't want that on my record.  Instead, if you do do a Good Thing in honor of me getting old (heh heh heh, I just said "do do") (what? I am getting old, not mature), please comment here, if you would, and let me know.  I haven't broken my blog comment email notifications yet, so that'll work.  If I get to 40 things by my big 4-0 on December 14th, I'll be beyond thrilled.  And since it is my birthmonth, instead of my usual birthweek, I'd be beyond thrilled if we got to 40 good things by December 31.  Like I said, I'm really not picky.

So, there you have it.  What I'd really love to get for my 40th birthday.  Please consider playing along - it would mean more than you know.

*(Worldwide could happen - my stat meter tells me of blog hits from all over the world!  They aren't all from weirdos searching for the word "boobs" either.  I know real, lovely people who live as far away as Australia who read my blog....)

Well, that was a harrowing start to the new year

Only two days into 2011 and I almost didn't make it. I almost went down in flames - and I'm not talking figuratively, here, either - earlier this afternoon.

It all started when I decided to make a quick run to the grocery store.  While I was really quite content to stay all cozy on the couch in my comfy clothes, tucked under a blanket with the copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that I'd been waiting months and months for on the hold list at the library, but it seemed that no matter how powerful my lounging magic was, it wasn't powerful enough to conjure up a bag of tortilla chips, and tortilla chips, in case you didn't know, are a key ingredient to Sunday Night Nachos.  I'm fairly certain that had I attempted to make our Sunday Night Nachos out of the other snack food we had on hand - to wit, organic Cheez Doodles or sourdough pretzel nuggets - things wouldn't have gone well.  So, despite the almost irresistible draw of stay here and read a while longer that was being exerted upon me by the general conditions of the couch in the family room, I dragged myself away from the world of sloth and out into the snow to get some more Tostitos.

Just because I was going out in public didn't mean I'd have to, you know, get dressed for it or anything though, I reasoned to myself.  I mean, I did have a bra on (first time in '11 - woot) and was fully clothed, but I saw no reason to put on a pair of jeans when I was so cozily clad in a pair of these:

(Those, by the way, are not my legs, feet or abdomen.  Have I mentioned Sunday Night Nachos?  I don't think the model above has ever eaten Any Night Nachos.  Nor would I pair microfleece pants with bare feet in kicky ballet flats.  I don't own kicky ballet flats.  Kicky ballet flats make Heather's Hobbity Hooves look particularly ginormous.)

Anyhow, I threw on a fleece jacket, some wool socks and clogs and off I went.  I pulled on a pair of fleece gloves in the car because DANG it is cold again here in western NY.  What I'm trying to say here is, I was Primed for Major Static Happenings, had I paused to think about it for just a second.

This wasn't my first time wearing these delightfully comfy, microfleece yoga pants out in public, by the way.  Nope, I wore them all the way back from NJ to NY last weekend.  They've traveled, is what I'm saying.  Traveled with nary a hint of the horror that was to come my way as I trudged through the parking lot and into the store.

I noticed it first as I was briskly striding towards the entrance.  My pant legs felt a bit... snug.  I reached down and shook them out and kept going.  After all, one of the best features to a pair of yoga pants is their roominess.  Their embodiment of the exact antonymy of skintight.

By the time I'd gotten a cart and gone into the store proper, I realized that this was not just a momentary trouble.  My legs were wrapped in what appeared to be microfleece leggings, not yoga pants.  By the time I'd worked my way through the produce aisle and over to chips, my lower half was snap, crackle and popping as though my skin were made of Rice Krispies. Egads.  I caught another shopper's gaze traveling up and down me as she approached me near the crackers.  I was almost afraid to look down at myself, so I met her gaze with a jaunty "and???" look in response and kept on going.  Once safely past her Judgy McJudgerson glare, I risked a glance downward.  What had been comfy, microfleece yoga pants when I put them on at home were now Stage Five Clingers of highwater proportions.  I'm talking microfleece capris here, y'all.  It was not flattering.  (I'm not sure if I was drawing more ireful looks for the noise of the static electricity or the sight of my shrinkwrapped-in-microfleece legs and rear.  I'm pretty sure I was generating enough sparks to have a halo-effect of glow around me, though.)

There wasn't much I could do, besides shoplift a can of Static Guard from the shelves and make a break for the bathroom, but I was a bit worried that if I moved any more quickly, I'd actually burst into flames.  By this point, my hands were getting shocked every time I moved them the slightest bit on the cart handle.  I sounded as though I was hiding a popcorn popper in my undies.  I quite probably could've powered my neighborhood, if not the whole town, with the amount of electricity I was generating with each and every step.

Finally, I made it to the checkout, through the checkout and back outside.  Hoping that the falling snow would dampen the static, I walked as slowly as I dared back to the car.  I stopped a few times to tug the bottoms of my pantlegs down somewhere closer to my ankles (in retrospect, not having shaved probably didn't help matters - the stubble on my legs was standing straight up and likely contributing to the statickyness of it all).  I was so relieved to finally reach the safety of my vehicle where I could zap myself home in peace.

Can you imagine the headlines?  Stay at home mom dies in New Year's yoga pants conflagration....  Needless to say, I'm not wearing those pants, comfy as they may be, out in public again unless I douse them liberally with Static Guard first.

And how was your opening weekend of 2011?  Equally exciting but less combustible, I hope! 

 

The Awesome List

December is the time of year when folks compile Top Ten lists and Years in Review and Most Fascinating People and the like.  Well, I have decided to do my very own such compilation, entitled The Awesome List.  I am breaking it down into subcategories, because it's my blog and that's how I want to do it.  Here goes......



People who are Awesome:


~ My friend J.  A few weeks ago, I mentioned to J that I love December for its mail.  Not just because December brings my birthday around which means the occasional birthday card, but mostly for the holiday card mail.  I love holiday cards.  Photos, letters, the whole nine yards.  LOVE them.  I do a happy dance at the mailbox when I open it to find those sorts of envelopes therein.  (Seriously, pop by my street around 5pm any given day of the week that there's postal service and you will see me out there at the curb, shaking my groove thang.  Assuming, that is, that said groove thang isn't frozen due to our lovely weather - record snowfall, anyone? - in which case the groove thang doesn't get shaken until it is ensconced, once again, indoors, in which case you'll have to peek through the front windows.)  Well, J came up with a Most Awesome Plan, unbeknownst to me at the time.  She filed away this little tidbit of info and when December 1st rolled around, a Christmas card showed up in the mail from J and her family.  It was one of the first cards we received this year, in fact.  Then, December 2nd brought another card from her.  And the 3rd, and the 4th.  A cryptic note on my Facebook wall on Sunday the 5th led me to trek out through the snow to the mailbox where indeed, another card from her was waiting.  She's that good - able to get mail delivered even on the day that the Post Office doesn't do it!  And so it has continued each day of December.  Each card comes with a note in rhyme inside, no less - variations on the Twelve Days of Christmas.  It. Is. AWESOME and so is she!


 ~ I am fortunate enough to regularly rub internet elbows with some very classy blogging type dames.  Two in particular that I'd like to bring to your attention at the moment are Margaret from Nanny Goats in Panties and Anna from Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder.  The reason I'd like to bring these fantabulous broads to your attention isn't because they're sidesplittingly hilarious (which they are) or because they're foxy as all get out (which, obviously - have you seen Anna's moustache?) but because these two are giving away animals on their blogs right now.  For real - they've each partnered with Oxfam America to give away livestock (in Margaret's case, a goat, naturally, and in Anna's case, a sheep) to people who need it most.  Since I'm not nearly as cool, hilarious or foxy as Margaret or Anna, I'm not doing any such giveaway myself here on my little corner o' the blogosphere, but please, please, please stop by their blogs and participate in their giveaways (linked above) and support an organization as awesome as Oxfam America.  Charitable giving, especially of the sheep or goat sort, is AWESOME.


~ Another blogopshere goddess I adore is Aunt Becky of Mommy Wants Vodka fame.  The reason I am listing Aunt Becky now isn't for her full-of-the-awesome MWV blog, but for another blog she founded and runs that is super-duper-full-of-the-awesome.  This blog is called Band Back Together, and in Aunt Becky's words,

"Sometimes, you’re alone in the dark. You stumble around, breaking things, smashing your legs and arms into furniture and walls and crying because just minutes before you could see perfectly dammit! But there you are, alone in the dark.

Soon, though, your eyes adjust, and you begin to see vague outlines. Shapes emerge in the darkness, looming up around you. Everything is closing in around you. The walls have teeth. The darkness is omnipresent and it is terrifying.

Just then, as you feel the darkness overtaking you, a light is flipped on and you are bathed in it. You can feel the light all around you and it is warm and it is good. Your skin warms as you feel the darkness slipping away, inch by inch. Yes, there will always be a piece of that darkness inside you. You cannot go through hell without absorbing some darkness.

But the light will sustain you and carry you through."

Band Back Together is a place to be that light, give that light, soak up that light.  It is open for anyone to share their story or to lend an ear, shoulder or words of support to someone else.  I strongly urge you to check it out, because it is AWESOME.


Food that is Awesome:


~ December is the time of year when Perry's Ice Cream puts out their limited edition flavor, Peppermint Stick.  Peppermint Stick ice cream, drizzled with a generous amount of chocolate syrup, is heaven in a bowl.  I've tried other peppermint ice creams and none can compare to Perry's.  I even have been known to pay full price for a carton of Perry's Peppermint Stick, and full price Perry's is ridonkulously expensive. That is how awesome it is.  (And the fact that, per their website, Perry's Ice Cream is supporting The Make-A-Wish® Season of Wishes™ campaign by donating a portion of the proceeds from each package sold of popular Limited Edition Peppermint Stick ice cream to fund a child’s wish just makes it that much more awesome and makes paying the ridonkulously pricey price a little easier to swallow.  Especially when drizzled with a generous amount of chocolate sauce....)

~ A month or two ago, a Boy Scout rang my doorbell with his popcorn sales materials in hand.  Now, I am a fool for popcorn and a sucker for kids, so I said I'd buy something and scanned the offerings.  Well, my eyebrows kept creeping higher and higher up my forehead as I perused the items for sale - I am used to the Girl Scout cookies at a (relatively) measly $3.50 a box, and MAN everything on the Boy Scouts' sheet was a LOT pricier!  I finally found the cheapest thing on there, ordered it and forked over the $10.  (Hey, don't judge - that'd be almost THREE boxes of Thin Mints, y'all.)  I then found myself the proud owner of one three pound bag of popcorn kernels.  I usually spend a dollar and change for a bag o' kernels.  This was more than three times that.

Now, I love popcorn.  I mean, love popcorn.  Popcorn is to snacks what December is to months for getting mail.  I bust out my air popper and make up a nice salty, buttery batch of freshly popped corn deliciousness several times a week.  So, I knew I'd use this popcorn eventually.  I will admit, though, that I was bitter.  Resentful of this popcorn.  "Gourmet popcorn?" I sneered to myself, the bag and to Hubby.  "How flipping gourmet can a bunch of corn kernels be, for Pete's sake?"  I refused to open up the new bag until I'd used up the bag I'd already had, and then the day came. Grudgingly, I got the bag out of the cabinet and opened it up, pouring the kernels into my popper.

I didn't want it to be good.  I wanted to be able to scoff at and mock the overpriced popcorn, even if it meant calling myself out for the sucker that I was for buying it in the first place.  I eyeballed my popper skeptically as it began to heat the kernels up.  They began to rise up through the chamber of the popper and tumble fragrantly out into the bowl.  They looked..... fluffy.  Large.  Fancy.  Still dubious, I buttered and salted the bowl as usual and took a bite.

It. Was.  AWESOME. Dagnabit.

Hubby asked me, a few days and bowls later, whether the fancy popcorn was in fact all that and a bag of chips (or whatever the hip-n-groovy youngsters are saying instead these days. The whippersnappers!  Also: Hubby did not actually use the phrase all that and a bag of chips.  That is merely my paraphrasing of his question.  Hubby would not want me putting such, ahem, hip-n-groovy words in his mouth).  I had to confess that YES, in fact this was the BEST popcorn I'd ever popped.

You can, therefore, imagine my great chagrin a few weeks later, when I wandered upstairs on a Saturday afternoon to take a little snooze while Hubby and Kiddo curled up on the couch to watch one of the Star Wars movies.  (Yes, Hubby has created a pint sized Star Wars buff in his own image - Kiddo loves Star Wars.  LOVES loves Star Wars.  Kiddo wants to be addressed only as Teebo the Ewok now.  The other day, she unironically quoted Yoda to me at the breakfast table.  But I digress...)  Well, I woke up a few hours later and came back downstairs to see the remnants of a popcorn snack in the sink.  Hubby passed through the kitchen moments later and broke the news: he and Kiddo had finished off the Boy Scout Popcorn.  That?  SO NOT AWESOME.  I was sad and resentful of my lot, stuck as I was now with the pitiful, lame, unfluffy, small, unfancy popcorn.  I figured I'd reacclimate eventually to my usual popcorn, but I didn't, not for weeks now.  

Fortunately, Kiddo's grandmother had the same exact situation at her house, as it turns out.  A neighborhood Boy Scout rang her bell and she, being an equal sucker for kids, bought the cheapest thing she could find on his sheet..... the popcorn kernels!  Better yet, Kiddo's grandparents don't eat popcorn!  They don't even own a popper!  So it was with great glee that I received their 3lb bag of awesome popcorn from them the other day and carried it home singing hosannas in four part harmony (no mean feat when there's just one of me, but I was that happy).  I was briefly tempted to parcel out the popcorn, to make it last, but I just can't do it.  No, I will enjoy bowlful after bowlful and then one day, a howl of misery shall ring out across the frozen, snowy tundra that is western, upstate New York for I will have finished off this second 3lb bag, too.

 

~ Cheesy Eddie's Carrot Cake.  Amazing morsels of delicious awesomeness that I hope to be cramming down my rapidly aging gullet come Tuesday, after blowing out enough candles to be visible from outer space.

 

Media Things That Are Awesome:

(I will confess in this section that I am in fact a day or three late and at least a dollar fifty short when it comes to the Latest and Greatest happenings on Ye Olde Interwebz.  Bear with me on that point, mmmkay?)

~ This one is in honor of my friend Andy, aka The Creative Junkie.  Andy shares a dream with me, you see.  No, not the Anderson Cooper covered in Nutella dream, that's hers alone as (a) I don't think Anderson plays for the correct team for this scenario and (b) I'm not really a Nutella fan.  No, she shares the dream with me of some day being involved in a flash mob.  She's blogged about it more than once, most recently right here.

Well, my dear Andy, this is for you: Improv Everywhere.  Check out their missions - the musical in the grocery store or at the mall food court.  The high fiving on the subway.  The dude who got "lost" at the Knicks game.  The Ghostbusters reenactment at the NY Public Library.  I have never wanted to live in NYC more than I do now, so that I could be an Agent in one of their missions.  A flash mob of one singing in the bulk foods aisle of Wegmans just doesn't have the same......... cachet.  Panache.  Verve.  Sense.

~ Speaking of flash mobs, didja see the one Mitchell participated in on Modern Family?  Because Modern Family is absolutely chock-full of AWESOME.  It is as hilarious as it is full of heart.  If you haven't watched Modern Family, or even if you have, take yourself over here to Hulu and watch the awesomeness.  Just make sure you have a comfy chair because you won't want to get up until you've watched every last minute of every episode! 

~ Since we can't spend our entire lives with our eyes glued to a screen, I'm also calling "AWESOME" on Pandora radio, specifically the holiday stations.  I made my own holiday station by plugging in my favorite artists and have thus been spared having to hear the utter dreck known as The Christmas Shoes or the insidious earworm of Feliz Navidad ever again.  Well, at least when my iPod is in range of the wifi.  It has made for a very happy aural holiday season this year.

Well, that concludes The Awesome List right now.  If I think of any more Things that are Awesome, I may do a Part Deux.  In the meantime, anyone care to chime in with something Awesome from your world?  How about holiday cards - love 'em, hate 'em, never send 'em, always send 'em?  Ever seen a flash mob live?  Ever been in one?

Haiku: Almost perfect Saturday morning

All slept in til eight.

First fire of the fall roaring.

Just need some bacon.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

So, a week ago yesterday we got home from our best family vacation yet.  It was our annual End of Summer trip to Walt Disney World.  (In case you weren't already aware, the entire Smith family *big, red, puffy hearts* Walt Disney World.)  We really had a ridiculously spectacular time.  

We had a totally awesome room with a view in Kidani Village at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge Resort....

We were chosen, out of the blue, to be the First Family of the Day one morning at Epcot:

 

 

Then, two days later, we got up slightly before the crack of dawn, put on our homemade, matching, bright yellow Disney shirts and headed out to the Magic Kingdom in the hopes of being chosen as First Family of the Day, but knowing that lightning doesn't often strike twice.  We were the first people onto the first monorail of the day and then the first people in line at the turnstiles.  We chatted with a lovely Cast Member (as all Disney employees are called) who worked at the turnstiles.  We were chosen.  It.  Was.  Amazing!!! 

First, Kiddo was given her very own envelope of pixie dust.  Then, we were taken on a tour through the Magic Kingdom in the antique fire truck, before the park opened.  The Cast Member giving us the tour even let Kiddo get behind the wheel...

It was a good thing the park was empty at that point!

 

We were hanging out in front of Mickey's house in Toontown when all of a sudden, a whole gang of characters (and I mean characters) showed up:

 

After shmoozing with the gang for a bit, we all boarded the train together...

 

The train pulled out of Toontown and made its way to the front of the park.  Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit were seated in the row directly behind us, and Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen (who, btw, *hubba hubba hubba* - total hottie!) and Chip & Dale were also in our car.  Kiddo chatted with all of them, cracking up Alice, Tiana and Naveen several times, but she was mostly enthralled by her new BFF:

Before we knew it, we were approaching the train station at Main St. USA and rolling right into the middle of the morning opening show - a show we've seen countless times before (we're diehard Rope Droppers) and a show to which we know every note and word of the medley.  It was surreal pulling in to the station and being part of the show instead of just a spectator singing along from down in the crowd.  (Not that I did, you know, sing along or anything.  Okay, fine, I did.  I sang a few bars as we stepped onto the platform.  But I didn't project or anything, nor did I engage in any dance moves.)

We were introduced to the crowd and got ready to officially open the park for the day by counting down with Mickey:

 

After we opened the park, we had a little more quality time with the big Cheese and one last photo op -

and then we had to say goodbye to Mickey because he had places to be and people to see.  It was a somewhat bittersweet parting.

Being First Family of the Day at the Magic Kingdom was really a dream come true.  It was so incredibly cool and fun and we wish we had a video recording of every single second of it.  We did luck out in that a woman who belongs to a Disney-related message board that Hubby frequents happened to be in the crowd at Rope Drop that day and she sent us the video of the show portion, which was so awesome of her - a total stranger! - to do for us and we were so psyched to get.

Besides the Nothing Will Ever Top This Unless We Get to Have a Dinner with George Clooney and Hugh Jackman Instead of all the Princesses aspects of the trip, there was all the usual fun.

The traditional spin on the Flying Dumbos...

Kiddo and I also did our traditional self portrait while riding the boat across the lagoon to the World Showcase at Epcot -

We met lots of various characters, royal or otherwise:

  

 

 

 

 

We ate lots of fantabulous food -

 

Teppan Edo, one of our all-time favorite WDW restaurants

Hubby pretending he's eating all the table's bread pudding at 'Ohana

 

dessert at the 50s Prime Time Cafe

Hmmm, I seem to have mostly photographed desserts.  We ate lots of great other food, too, including steak and shrimp and lots of fruits and veggies.

Of course, there were also the rides.............

 

 

 

 

This ride is the Astro Orbiter.  Yes, it really is that high up. I refuse to ride this one anymore, and so was photographing with both feet safely on the (two stories up) platform.

Kiddo decided she was "big enough" and "brave enough" to ride some rides that in previous trips, she hasn't liked at all, namely Expedition Everest, the Tower of Terror and Dinosaur.  Now, I was quite skeptical about this, since she had most recently tried EE and ToT just last summer, but Hubby thought it was great that she wanted to try them again and so, she did.  And she hated each one.  Again.  (And yes, I might have unleashed an "I told you so!" or three, too.  Le sigh.)  One of her favorite rides at WDW, however, is Splash Mountain.  (It's actually a family favorite!)  Kiddo was clamoring to go on it the very afternoon we first arrived in Orlando, so we did.  Hubby brought along our new waterproof video camera and aimed it back over his shoulder at Kiddo and me when we reached the summit and took the first plunge on Splash Mountain for this trip.  Following, you will find a chronological series of stills taken from a maybe 5-6 second long segment of that video footage, starring Kiddo (and portions of my left boob):

 

 

Isn't that something, how Kiddo goes from giddy with joy to sheer terror back to giddy with joy again in a few second span?  In the last two frames, she is actually complaining that she didn't get wet enough and was still so dry that she wanted to go again.  So we did.  Several more times over our trip, as it turns out, and we recorded a few other splashdowns in this same manner.  Kiddo has the same gamut of emotions each time.  (Taken out of context, of course, there are a few stills there that might be alarming, but when you look at them in context or see the video footage - which Hubby has yet to edit and convert or whatever it is he needs to do to render it playable on the interwebz - it isn't so much alarming as it is just hilarious.  Even Kiddo cracks up watching it.)

As you can see from all the pictures above, for this pixie-dust sprinkled trip, there was sunshine the entire time.  The pool was delightful, all the folks we were seated with at the different restaurants were good company, the crowds were light to nonexistent.  There was nary a bad thing to be said for this particular vacation (besides the occasional blister from all that walking in sneakers while sweating profusely in the late summer, Central Florida heat).  Well, okay, there was one bad thing, and I promised my friend Andy I'd blog about it, so here goes, for those of you who are still reading all the way to this point.

Kiddo was eaten by a shark.

No, really, she was - look:

Okay, okay, fine, she wasn't.  I mean, she was, but it was just Bruce and he knows better, so he spit her back out pronto.  She's a bony little toothpick, anyhow, hardly an appetizer for a big shark like him.

There was something else that happened, but it deserves its own post - or rather, my fantabulous and lengthy vacation recap post deserves to stand on its own and not have the Vacation Tale of Feminine Woe spadged on to the end of it.  (In other words, yes, Andy, I'm chickening out.  For now - I cut and pasted the VToFW into a draft and will do a separate post soon.  I promise.)  

So, for now, I will leave you with fireworks over the castle and an end to the recap of our best vacation, ever!