11 posts tagged “red sox”
We had a lovely time this past week and I am so sad to see it end. Unfortunately, back to work tomorrow. I am consoling myself with the thought that I took the Monday after Thanksgiving and the Monday after Christmas off, so I have two five-day weekends to look forward to. Also, Tadd and I are taking a long weekend in December to do all the Christmasy stuff at Disney, so we have another mini-vacation in the works.
We all really loved the cabins at Fort Wilderness. I was worried that it would be too small or that the sleeping arrangements would be awkward, but it actually worked out really well. Tadd and I got the big bed in the bedroom, Tadd's mom and brother got the bunk bed, and Tadd's uncles shared the murphy bed in the living room. And it really was adorable. Like our own cute little cottage in the woods! We rented a golf cart for our four days, which was great. I only wish we could have had two golf carts, since we had 6 people. Instead, Tadd would take two trips from our cabin to either the Outpost bus stop or the Settlement boat launch, shuttling us wherever we needed to go. Even with the 2 trips, it was much more efficient (and more pleasant) than the Ft. Wilderness internal bus loop. I'm not huge a fan of Disney busses, although I understand how they have their place in the transportation system. We also found that we preferred to take the boats whenever we could. The only time we used our own cars was on the last day after checking out of the cabin. Tadd and I agreed that it would be so much fun to get a group of our friends together and rent a cabin or two with them. Even if we didn't make it to the parks, there is so much to do in the campground, it could be REALLY fun! We would both love to stay in the cabins again, although the price is definitely too high for just the two of us, but would be great to split with a group of friends.
I really think Tadd's family enjoyed themselves. We tried to inject some special things into each day of the trip. Sunday morning we checked in and spent the afternoon at the Studios. We rode all the rides and Tadd's mom got to see Fantasmic for the first time. Monday morning we went back to the Studios at opening to be able to get on Toy Story Mania before the crowds hit. Then we went back to the cabin to relax before our late lunch reservations at Whispering Canyon Cafe in the Wilderness Lodge. We got caught in a rainstorm on the way back from lunch, so we took a little bit to dry off and get ready for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. Tadd and I had printed custom shirts for everyone for the party, which was fun. When we got to MK, Tadd took his brother into the Main Street Barber Shop and they got colored gel combed into their hair. Between our shirts, the boys' colored hair, and our various other Halloween accessories, we all looked very festive! Tuesday we went to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival, but surprised Tadd's mom with tickets for a special behind the scenes tour of The Land Pavilion. She is an avid gardener back in Tennessee, so she LOVED it. Bet met up with us for part of the day too. Tuesday night, back at the cabin, we used the grill in front of our porch to toast some marshmallows, which was a fun treat. Then Wednesday, after checking out and returning our golf cart, we had a lovely breakfast at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian resort, before heading off to our last day at Animal Kingdom. The four days were VERY tiring, but so much fun!
Then on Thursday, we introduced Tadd's mom to the wonder that is Ikea. They don't even have Target in their tiny town in Tennessee, so Ikea was extremely exotic to her. She LOVED it. We went shopping a few other places that she doesn't have in her area between Thursday and Friday. Then they headed home in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
As I am finishing up my vacation, my parents are just starting theirs. They will be gone for the next three weeks on a European cruise. They flew to Dublin today and tomorrow they will be in Venice for the start of their cruise. Sooooo lucky! I can only hope that someday Tadd and I are able to do something like that.
In the meantime...GO SOX!!! We are watching game 7 vs. the Tampa Bay Rays right now!
Pictures from our vacation:
Album 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33547&l=f8edc&id=504344522
Album 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33556&l=4e260&id=504344522
Definitely time for some updating around here...
I am still alive and well. Very happy that summer is over and embracing the start of my favorite time of year...FALL! I actually pulled out all my Autumn/Halloween decorations over this past weekend and our place is looking quite festive. And smelling festive too! Lots of pumpkin/apple/cinnamon/spice-scented candles and wax tarts scattered around. Not that we really have many people over to show it off, but I decorate mostly for myself anyways. It makes me happy. This past weekend I also baked some pumpkin sugar cookies and we had friends over for a somewhat impromptu autumn seasonal beer tasting. We tried some Pumpkin Jack Ale, Oktoberfest, and Harvest Moon. Ryan had to be the weird one who brought blueberry beer, but it was yummy, so I forgave him.
Last week, we got to see the Red Sox beat the tar out of the Rays. We went with Betsy, Richard, and Ryan. Richard's coworker worked out a deal with a rock star tour bus, so for a grand total of $60/person, we got to ride over to Tampa in total luxury and see the game at Tropicana Field. It was SO much fun! The bus was huge...two living rooms each with stereos and flat-panel TVs, a bar, kitchen, sleeping quarters for (I think) 12 (and each bed has its own flat screen TV!), etc, etc, etc. It was SO nice! We also got unlimited food & drinks on the bus. The game was great too...6 homeruns, one of which landed about 6 seats away from us. The final score was 13-5! Of course, they lost the next two games in the series, which led to the operations director at work teasing me that we were lucky we picked Monday night's game instead of the others.
The next few weeks are going to be kind of crazy, especially for Tadd. He leaves for a week in Memphis for work next Sunday, then the weekend after he returns, his mom, brother, & uncles come to stay with us for a week, then the week after that, they may be sending him to Virginia for another week. I'm not looking forward to spending so much time away from him, but it's for the best. Things at his job are going very well, so I won't complain...too much.
My job is going pretty well too. I'm SO much more at ease than I was when I first got promoted back in June. They just did a little reorganizing, which means a few things are being taken off of my plate as of October 1, but for the most part my responsibilities will be staying the same. I'm happy about that because when they announced all the changes, I was worried that now that I am finally into a good groove in this position, they were going to change everything around on me and I would be stressed out all over again. Luckily that will not be happening. For now at least...
Tadd is having a blast with his new baseball video game. He started a season with a modified version of the Red Sox. He made players of all his guy friends and added them to the team. Apparently in Videogame Land, Tadd, Bet, Rick, Manny, Richard, and Ryan have joined the Red Sox. The look of the game is very much like what you would see on ESPN, including commentators with surprisingly intuitive and complex dialogue. They talk back and forth really smoothly about whatever happens to be going on. When you consider the variables that could happen with all the players and plays and other possibilities, it's pretty neat! They'll even refer to your customized players by name if they are names that happen to already be in their database. I keep hearing them compliment Tadd's batting. It's funny!
Last night, Tadd, Ryan, and I went to the Brantley Fair. It's a really tiny carnival, but still pretty fun in a kitschy sort of way. We rode the ferris wheel, bumper cars, and a couple other spinny rides. We probably would have stayed a little longer, but it started to rain. While we were wandering around, we walked by the ping-pong toss, where you toss the balls into the little fishbowls to try to win a goldfish. That is the exact way that we got our current goldfish four years ago! Manny, Stephanie, Bet, Jessica, Tadd, and I all went to the Brantley Fair back in 2004. We saw the ping-pong toss and all gave the game a try mostly without luck, but apparently we had discovered an unknown talent in Stephanie because she won about 8 or 9 goldfish! She gave us 2 of them. One died a couple of years ago, but the other one is HUGE and still going strong. It goes to show that you can't judge a carnie fish based on their carnie roots!
I had every intention of booking our cruise this weekend, but I'm still a little gunshy. I guess I just want to be extra sure we are getting the best deal. Hopefully I will be able to make a decision on where to book soon.
Less than 2 days until MLB Opening Day! Go Sox!
Things are much better at work. For most of the week, my boss actually took over a good portion of the work I just don't have time for anymore. He, the case managers, and I are picking up each other's slack to keep things going as smoothly as possible and having daily status meetings to keep everyone on the same page. We're still behind, but at least I don't feel like it's totally my fault or that there will never be an end to the frantic pace. And, most importantly, my boss's boss and pretty much everyone else involved is in total agreement that the current distribution of work just isn't working. In a month or two they are going to hire a part-timer, most likely a college student, to help out. I still am insanely busy, but there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, so I'm happy again.
Not much on the agenda so far this weekend. I want to go shopping for some spring/summer tops and I want to go to the movies at some point. There was some talk of dyeing eggs, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I can't decide if it's pointless and silly or just something festive and fun to do. I know Tadd wants to. We had so much fun carving pumpkins for Halloween, so this is kind of in that vein.
Last Saturday, Tadd, Bet, and I went over to my parents house and we had our live draft for Fantasy Baseball. We also bid on behalf of my cousin Kerry. It was actually a lot of fun! I can't wait for the season to start. I'm sad that I didn't get my #1 pick, Josh Beckett (my dad ended up getting to go first and snatched him up in the very first round...I guess great minds think alike!). And then Tadd picked my #2 pick, Jonathan Papelbon, in the 2nd pick of the 1st round. And THEN Kerry got Jacoby Ellsbury (my 3rd pick)! I knew we'd all be fighting over the Red Sox players. But the H-Bombs did get Dice-K and a bunch of Red Sox relief pitchers, as well as Kevin Youkilis, so I'm happy.
Ok, back to watching Alice In Wonderland!
Sorry it took me awhile to write about my trip. I haven't been feeling 100% lately, so I have been putting it off. We had a great time and the game could not have been more exciting!
I came home from work around 11:30am Friday morning, and Tadd was already home getting everything ready and doing some last-minute packing. We made sure the kitties had everything they needed, loaded the car, and then we were off! Just for fun, and because we got such an early start, we decided to make a little stop at Downtown Disney on our way out of Orlando. We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich (which is SO good...I love their bread!), and then browsed around a little bit in some of the shops before getting back on the road to the Tampa area. Stopping there really helped break up the trip and it seemed like no time at all before we saw the Tampa skyline looming overhead. We got totally lost on the way to the hotel, but after Tadd caving in and calling the front desk for directions, we made it!
The hotel was indeed very old-looking, but also quite charming and beautiful. We were given a room on the 2nd floor, and were somewhat surprised to find that the front desk clerk handed us real brass keys instead of keycards. Our room was on the smaller side, but just fine for us. It also had a walk-in closet, which I'm sure was leftover from the days when people would literally spend the entire winter at this resort. We had a lovely view of a really pretty victorian garden; and the first time I went to the window to admire the view, an adorable brown bunny hopped across the lawn.
We got settled in the room, and then got ready to go to dinner. My idea was for us to go to John's Pass (a small fishing village in Madeira Beach with shops and restaurants) and hopefully find a good place to eat there. We spent a little while walking along the docks and admiring the view of the water, before settling on dinner at the Friendly Fisherman Restaurant. The wait for a table was about 20 minutes at that point, so Tadd got me a delicious sangria at the bar and we sat outside and waited for our name to be called.
This is a great little restaurant! We really enjoyed our food, which surprised me, since I'm not a seafood person. Tadd got the clam chowder, house salad, and a plate of fried shrimp, fried scallops, and fried oysters. I got a cajun chicken sandwich with fries and a house salad. I also tried my very first ever hush puppy. Yum! After dinner, we wandered around some of the shops, and watched a school of VERY large fish hang out around the docks, then headed back to our hotel. We knew there was a British pub in the basement of the hotel, so we headed down there to find some very entertaining kareoke going on, plus the TVs were tuned to two different baseball games! They had a pool table too, so Tadd was a very happy camper. We got some drinks and really enjoyed ourselves, just hanging out in the corner, talking, laughing at the awful singing, and watching ESPN. I even played a little pool with Tadd (something I NEVER do). By a little after midnight, we were feeling pretty good, but tired, so we headed back to our room and called it a night.
Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early, but took our time getting ready for the day. We wandered around the resort for awhile, just to explore. Then we headed out in search of breakfast. We ended up stopping at Steak N Shake, and were shocked to find only one other table taken (on a Saturday morning at 10am!). After we ate a quick breakfast, I got a call from my dad saying he and my mom, brother, and grandparents had arrived at their hotel. The Steak N Shake was actually just down the road from their hotel, so we drove down and met them in the lobby. We hung out there for awhile, and waited for my sister to arrive with her boyfriend. Once everyone was together, we took a nice scenic drive out to St. Petersburg Beach to a place called The Hurricane.
After lunch, we went up to the roof to admire the view of the coast. Then we got back into the car and drove to downtown St. Pete, to the gelato shop where my sister works. We had some delicious gelato (Tadd and I shared a cup of chocolate peanut butter, tiramisu, pistachio, and banana caramel), and wandered around the shops for awhile, then we walked down to the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, where the Red Sox were staying during the three-game series. What a beautiful hotel! And absolutely chock-full of Red Sox fans. We probably saw a lot of the players' families too. They were having a leather/jewelry show, so we poked around for awhile, but soon we ran out of things to do, so we decided to head over to Tropicana Field a little early.
When we got there, people had started lining up at the doors, but we still had about 45 minutes before they would let us in. It was SOOOOO hot and humid! But it was also really neat to look around and see all the red and blue that people were wearing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that for every one Tampa Bay fan, there were probably about 20 Red Sox fans! Soon enough, they opened the doors and we flooded inside. This is a NICE stadium! So many shops and food stands and neat things to look at. I think they served every single beer under the sun between all the different stands. We found our seats, which is when I realized just how good the seats my dad scored really were. We were in a special section where only people with tickets for that section were allowed. We had our own bathrooms and concessions catering to a much smaller crowd of people, and our seats had a perfect view of the entire field. I loved it!
The game itself was amazing. By the end of the 9th inning, it was tied 6-to-6. The Rays were in good form that night...even Papelbon (our favorite pitcher) couldn't keep them from scoring the last few runs they needed to tie it up. He actually allowed 2 homeruns, which I could tell really pissed him off. So then, of course, we went into extra innings. No scores during the 10th, no scores during the 11th, and finally in the 12th we had some great luck! We got six runs to make the final score 12-6 in favor of the Red Sox. We were all dancing and cheering and celebrating. By that time all of the Rays fans had gone home! I was glad, because whenever they did something good, they would all ring cowbells and it was starting to get on my nerves. We had a cowbell-ringer right behind us and I was so glad when she left!
After we got back to my family's hotel, we said our goodbyes to everyone and, after a quick stop at Sonic, headed back to our hotel. When we got back to the hotel, we realized how exhausted we were. Pretty soon after eating our midnight snacks, we drifted off to sleep.
Sunday, we really weren't sure what we were going to do with the day. I hadn't planned anything specific. Tadd's only request was that he was craving some eggs benedict from IHOP, so we checked out of the hotel and headed to the nearest IHOP. While eating breakfast, some seriously dark clouds started rolling in. We were both still exhausted from the last couple of days, so we decided to just start driving back to Orlando. We thought about stopping at the Premier Outlets, near Disney, since neither of us had ever been there and we had heard some good things about them, but when we got off the interstate, the traffic was NUTS! I don't know what was going on, but we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Tadd was quickly losing his patience, so we made a u-turn and got back on I-4. He decided he just wanted to go home. So we stopped at the grocery store, picked up a rotisserie chicken, carrots, pasta salad, and garlic bread, then went home and had a nice easy dinner while vegging on the couch. Thus ended our Red Sox weekend.
I'm on my way to beautiful Clearwater, Florida in a few hours. I can't wait to see the Red Sox beat the Devil Rays!
I think tonight we're going to go to John's Pass and watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico while enjoying dinner and maybe a little shopping. Tomorrow, we'll probably sleep in a little bit, explore the resort, take some pics, maybe walk for a few minutes out on the beach if the weather is nice enough. Then we have to meet up with my family at their hotel in the early afternoon. My sister wants us to see her school (she goes to Eckerd College and lives over on that side of the state), then where she works (a gellato shop). At some point, we'll have a late lunch, then start heading out towards Tropicana Field. The game starts at 7:10pm.
Not sure what's in store for Sunday, aside from checking out of our resort in the morning. I figured I would leave that open and we can decide how long we want to stay in town before heading back to Orlando. It's only a 2 hour drive, so we can pretty much stay in the Tampa area as long as we want. John's Pass has some neat charter boat tours, so while we're there on Friday, I thought maybe we could see if there are any that fit our time schedule and budget, and we could do that on Sunday. There's also the Tampa Bay Aquarium, the Salvador Dali Museum, and several other fun places in and around Tampa.
I did in fact pass on those concert tickets. I hope I did the right thing! I think I did. It just doesn't make sense for the Pumpkins to completely miss performing in their beloved hometown, and I read somewhere that they plan on visiting every single state at least once during this tour, and that it is expected to stretch on into the winter months. The current confirmed tour dates stop at November 5th. So that gives me another glimmer of hope that they will still add more dates, and that one of those will include a city in Florida.
This weekend will probably be pretty boring. We don't really have anything planned. We might go see Knocked Up, Transformers, or Harry Potter. Maybe we'll see more than one. Not really sure yet. The less money we spend this weekend, the better.
So...what is going on with me, you ask? Nothing too exciting. I'm pretty much just working and letting the way-too-hot summer months pass me by as quickly as possible, with a few things to look forward to here and there. Been good about going to the gym three times a week, which I'm really happy about. Also, our third wedding anniversary is a week and half away. I can't believe it has already been three years! And two weeks from today, we leave to spend the weekend in Clearwater Beach to see the Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I'm looking forward to spending a fun weekend away. My parents, grandparents, siblings, and my sister's boyfriend are joining us for the game, but most of the rest of the weekend we will be on our own. So it will be a nice mix of "romantic getaway" and "family fun time". And I'm also looking forward to staying at the historic Belleview Biltmore Resort. I stumbled across a book on historic Florida hotels while shopping at Borders Bookstore a couple weeks ago and the entire last chapter of the book was devoted to the Belleview! It was neat to see 100 year old pics of the hotel we will be staying at in a few weeks. There was one particularly endearing picture of men golfing in knickers, while a row of women in white frilly Mary Poppins dresses and huge floppy hats watched from the sidelines. Supposedly the hotel is haunted as well. Not sure how I feel about that yet... I know that by most of the country's standards, 110 years old isn't all that old for a building, but in Florida, where everything is new, a 110 year old hotel is ancient! I found a wikipedia article on the hotel, if anyone is interested in reading about it.
As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, we also booked a weekend at Walt Disney World. I know we only live about an hour away, but after having such a great time at Epcot's Food & Wine Festival last year and enjoying the Pirate & Princess Party at the Magic Kingdom last Februrary sooooo much, we decided we wanted to do Food & Wine again this year, as well as the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom (which is a lot like the Pirate & Princess Party, just Hallween themed). Both events occur around the same time of year, so we thought about making a weekend of it and doing the Halloween Party Friday night and Epcot Saturday. And then while we're at it, why not make it a full weekend and go to Animal Kingdom (which neither of us have been to since it first opened) on Sunday? Tthen I happened to run across a great Florida Resident hotel deal...$64/night to stay at Disney's value resorts through the end of September. Food & Wine starts September 28th and there was a Halloween party that Friday as well, so if we were going to take advantage of the tail-end of the Florida Resident hotel deal, and go to both the Halloween party and the Food & Wine Festival, the last weekend in September would have to be it! So I just went ahead and booked it. I wanted us to stay at the Pop Century resort (the newest of the value resorts), but apparently lots of other Florida residents had the same idea I did and the only value resorts left with the special pricing were All Star Sport and All Star Music. We ended up with 2 nights at Sports, which is fine with both of us. We aren't picky and due to our tight schedule, we'll only really be there to sleep. It's kind of silly how excited we both are about this! We both plan on chucking our adult attitudes out the window and totally embracing our inner child that weekend!
Drinking coffee this morning, so I should be completely wired in a few minutes.
I went back to the gym by myself yesterday and lo and behold, it was full of twentysomething gym rat types who had the lefthand tv on FULL VOLUME. Definitely not as nice as having the place to myself like I had hoped, but I just went to the opposite side (where the other tv was playing ESPN on mute), and put on my headphones, turned up my iPod, and ignored them. I was able to get another 6 miles done on the bike. Not a whole lot, but at least it's something. I think Tadd and I might go back Saturday morning. As long as I can convince him to get out of bed. Although if it's too crowded on a weekend morning, we might pass.
I got home, showered, and started watching the Red Sox play the Braves, but got bored because by the second inning they were up 5 to 0 and the Braves didn't look like they were getting it together anytime soon. So I watched a couple more episodes of Weeds in between checking in on the game. I am now 2 episodes from finishing the second season, so now I'm going to have to ration myself on those for awhile. Probably not though...because the last episode I watched last night really left me hanging (of course, they all do).
I flipped back to the game at the end of my mini Weeds marathon and they were up 9 to 0. While Tadd was in the shower, Eric Hinske hit another homerun and brought Dustin Pedroia in for two more runs (so, 11 to 0). Really, it was overkill! I felt kind of bad for the Braves. I felt even worse when the camera went into the crowd and I realized that it looked like there were more Red Sox fans than Braves Fans (did I mention this was at Atlanta's Turner Field?). Ouch. Why couldn't we have that kind of a night against the Yankees? THAT I would watch beginning to end! But since I wish no ill against the Braves unless we're talking World Series (they and the Sox are in different leagues, afterall), I didn't feel the need to watch it up until the bitter end to see them get trounced further.
SPOILER ALERT: If you're watching The Tudors and haven't seen Ep 10 yet, skip the second paragraph of this entry!
We've had a good weekend, despite not doing much at all. The goal for this weekend was to spend as little money as possible and I think we did a pretty good job. The only time I left the apartment was to go to Publix. I spent $35. Friday night I chit-chatted with Stephanie during her radio show and had a blast. Saturday night Ryan and Justin came over and we played Rumikub and Life. Today we've pretty much been doing nothing but bumming around and watching a Bridezilla marathon. I guess this weekend proves that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have a nice weekend. It hasn't been very exciting, but it has been pleasant. I just wish Tadd was feeling better.
Oh yeah, and I watched the 10th episode of The Tudors earlier. Loved it, but I'm quite sad that Cardinal Wolsey is dead. Sam Neill was the best actor in that whole ensemble. I will miss him and his character quite a bit, even if he was an incredibly corrupt guy. Tadd and I were discussing how we find it tough to fully sympathize with any of the characters on that show...Wolsey, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, her father, the Duke of Norfolk, Charles Brandon, even Thomas More. They are all so incredibly self-serving, but they also all have their redeeming moments. I guess that's part of being human. We were talking about how the only character who really comes off as completely innocent is Queen Catherine. I'm looking forward to next season. An awful lot of the main characters are set to get their heads chopped off. It will be interesting how they depict the downfall of the Boleyns, since right now they can do no wrong in Henry's eyes.
Tadd's community website finally has a name! It has been dubbed the Pieces of Eight Council. And we are having a lot of fun with it! We have had some interesting discussions going on in the forums, and earlier today Bet, Ryan, and I had a nice chat in the chatbox. Hopefully more people will sign up and participate soon. The more people we have contributing, the more fun it will be.
Now...I'm off to prepare myself for the Red Sox/Yankees game. Go Sox!
I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. One of the benefits of having a three-day weekend is the four-day week that follows it.
Let's see...what went on this week...Tadd has been under the weather with some tooth issues. He took yesterday and today off of work to deal with the pain and visited the dentist this morning. The verdict is that he needs a cap put on the affected tooth and since he is still 8 weeks from being eligible for insurance at his new job (they have a 90 day probation period before you are eligible for benefits), at least part of it will have to be paid out of pocket. Not really what I wanted to hear, but whatever it takes to make him feel better. I hate seeing him in pain. To make up for some of it, I'm going to try to work some overtime this weekend or next. Of course, things at work have been slow lately, so I'm not even sure if there will be much work to do, but hopefully I'll think of something. Either way we're going to have to dip into savings for this, which sucks since we've been doing so well putting money into our house fund. It always seems like just when things are looking up, and we feel like we can start making some serious plans for the future, something like this happens. But what can you do? I guess that's life. I suppose it could be worse...
I made the unfortunate decision to watch the Red Sox play the Indians last night. What a depressing game! I hate it when they have innings like they did in this game, where they have bases loaded, NO outs, Manny and Big Papi up to bat, set to tie up the game if one of them gets a home run, and then they choke! Of course, they are still #1 in MLB, and the Yankees are still 13 games back, so losing one little game isn't much to fret about. But still...I like to watch the ones where they win!
