boannan

It's 3 am but she's not lonely

2008-12-08T09:15:53Z

So you ever have that moment when you're flossing your teeth and there's a really tight spot and (because your dentist says you should floss everywhere all the time because your teeth are like something out of the Middle Ages) you pull really hard and then the tooth goes flying across the bathroom and there's a big old hole there that's gonna make you miss part of work tomorrow?

You should try it. It's awesome and reintroduces you to the wonders of extra-strength Tylenol.

boannan @ 2008-11-04T22:39:00

2008-11-05T04:42:41Z

After tonight's victory, I just have to post these lyrics from the will.i.am "Yes We Can" song:

"We have been told
We cannot do this
By a chorus of cynics
And they will only grow louder and more dissonant
We have been asked to pause for a reality check
We have been warned against offering
the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story
that is America
there has never been anything false
about hope."

Thank you, America!!!

Top Ten Rules for Mystery Novels

2008-08-30T01:08:51Z

I've been reading a lot of mysteries lately :)

10. The weird brother with the "taxidermy" hobby is definitely going to have a special "surprise" in his workshop.

9. Never trust anyone named Damien.

8. The phone line isn't out because of the storm!

7. All local police forces are filled with idiots except for the rugged, world weary yet strangely attractive detective who will "break the rules" to solve the case.

6. The "empty barn" isn't.

5. Is that a snapping twig, or the bad guy? It's the bad guy.

4. Shooting victims have approximately 50 gallons of blood and will make a miraculous recovery if taken to the hospital.

3. Kids don't die. (Unless the author's a total asshole).

2. No matter how independent, scrappy or resourceful the heroine is, she's gonna need Strangely Attractive Detective to rescue her.

1. Don't go in the basement!

I can't really talk about it ...

2008-08-25T00:54:16Z

but I just need to post this today (for good reasons).

1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

2: When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

3: Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

4: One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.

5: For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

6: And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.

7: Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

8: When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.

9: Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

10: When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

11: Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

12: Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

13: I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

14: Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Only because jasunshine will think it's funny :)

2006-02-14T04:49:37Z

Your Candy Heart Says "Cutie Pie"

You always seem to have a hot date, even though you never try to meet anyone.
A total charmer, you have a natural appeal that keeps you in high demand.

Your ideal Valentine's Day date: multiple dates with multiple people

Your flirting style: 100% natural

What turns you off: serious relationship talks

Why you're hot: you're totally addicting

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

Say!

2005-11-09T05:19:38Z

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR2005110501366.html

One Word meme-thing

2005-07-09T16:36:03Z

So the English Major in mr thinks this one's kind of neat!

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me.
It can only be one word.
No more.
Then copy & paste this in your journal so that I may leave a word about you.

the suck:

2005-07-08T07:56:54Z

working till 1:45 am and then getting stuck in an hour's worth of traffic on the way home.

Actually, law geek that I am, the work was pretty interesting - but I have to do more of it tomorrow on the opposite of sleep! ack!

good thing I'm young and hearty and all. and that it's Friday tomorrow (or, well, now!)

boannan @ 2005-04-26T23:00:00

2005-04-27T04:06:45Z

WE ARE MOVED IN.

well kind of. but we are operating out of the house in Beverly. Yay!

Jason and I are working _crazy_ hours this week, though, so it'll be a while before we get settled.

Just wanted to make the announcement!

a strange question

2005-04-15T03:45:35Z

so I have a) being working long hours and b) gaining weight lately. Not a shock that those two things are correlated. I think this is caused by a number of things:

1) I'm too tired to pack my lunch most of the time, so I have to buy it (expensive as well!)

2) when a group of us work late, like now when we're on trial, we always order out and I seem to make really bad food choices (for some reason after 12 hours of work I'm just like "I'm STARVING! Hand over the huge burger and greasy fries and screw the salad!"

3) when I order out alone when I'm working late I make what I'd call bad "good" food choices (while Edwardo's spinach pizza is awesome, it is not so awesome when I eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner for the next 2 days).

4) I eat candy. a LOT of candy. Seriously, I kind of use candy as a caffeine substitute (and hey, chocolate has caffeine!) and I also shamelessly exploit it for the sugar rush. (I notice I don't eat as much of it on days when I drink green tea). And when I'm really stressed at work I eat even more. A 2 candy bar day is not a good day. An "I ate half the bag of Hershey's kisses day" is an especially bad day. ;) Part of this is due to the fact that my husband, because he loves me and wants me to be happy, buys me big bags of choclate that are supposed to last weeks and I take them to work and they're gone in like 3 days. Gross.

Now I read this and think "crap it's amazing I haven't gained like 20 pounds!" But I do still work out, and I think stressing just burns calories too. :)

So, does anyone have suggestions for quicky, easy, _healthy_ lunches I might be able to make and take to work? Cause all my addled brain can come up with these days is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I don't even like them that much. I would really love creative suggestions if you have any. :)

boannan @ 2005-02-25T18:48:00

2005-02-26T00:55:10Z

wooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
details soon. :)

boannan @ 2005-02-24T22:43:00

2005-02-25T04:48:32Z

Life is SO CRAZY right now.

It will be less or more crazy tomorrow.

(I guess that's a true statement, right? Unless we have total stasis). ;)

stolen from cassiopia

2005-02-08T01:56:38Z

Wow!

boannan Highway

Bog of Eternal Marriage	3
Mt. Happiness	24
Wealthville	55
Tower of Commitment	113
Childbirth Hospital	271
Please Drive Carefully

Where are you on the highway of life?

From Go-Quiz.com

boannan @ 2005-01-28T22:52:00

2005-01-29T05:00:08Z

Tomorrow night, jasunshine and I plan to go dancing at the Bamboo Room in Lombard --
http://www.digitalfuelstudios.com/bamboochicago/lombard/tbrl_index.html

all and sundry are welcome to join us! :)

swoosh!

2005-01-23T06:26:21Z

Jason and I went skiing today, which was much fun (though I crapped out way earlier than he did-- man, that boy can ski forever! :) It was my second time, and I think I'm finally starting to understand it (like three or four times, it wasn't just "slide downhill to one side....faster.....BRAKE! Stop and/or fall down....slide downhill the other way...faster...BRAKE! swear in front of small children)", it was "slide....slide....slide" and it actually _felt_ right. A lot like dancing when I finally understood the cross-body lead). We went down both green and blue runs. I want to try snowboarding next time! (All the girls (and boys) who do it look so bad-ass. ;)

On our way back (we went to Cascade Mountain) we stopped at Best Buy and I bought an mp3 player (crazy! _not_ an iPod or a Rio though...less expensive than that...) which I am most excited to play with. and now I will collapse in bed after figuring out how to get to the La Rueda class tomorrow via public transit.

dancin APB

2005-01-16T16:00:06Z

I am planning on going to a La Rueda class next Sunday at this studio:
http://www.danceconnectionchicago.com/

(thanks to xymboulos, I think, for pointing me this way)

After being at my job for four months now, I've realized 2 things. 1) I definitely want to be dancing again, and 2) the best time for me to go to a class consistently is on the weekends (and not Saturday morning, since I'm often wiped enough from the week that I have to sleep in!)

anyone who'd like to join me is welcome! :) I think the cost is about $12. As far as I can tell from the website, it's OK to just show up.

achoo!

2005-01-14T03:24:40Z

all you people diggin this warm weather can bite me.

For it has brought the _mold_. And hence, the sneezing. On the train, at work, at home, etc. I love it when my ears ring and my head throbs and I can't breathe through my nose

Bring on this weekend's freeze, man! :)

(in spite of all that, work is stll being fun!)

OW!

2004-12-02T02:27:41Z

So I just took out my earring, and the post stayed in my ear! ack! I'm sitting there, all impaled with this tiny piece of metal for like five minutes before I got it out. weird.

In other perhaps more exciting news, I have (so far) a pretty OK week at work, will have a crazy week at work next week, and will most likely have Saturday night off this weekend. Does anyone want to party? hang out? possibly in Oak Park? (most likely without jasunshine, who will be at another engagement?) we will be out during the day, but I'll be back probably by 6 or so. let me know.

Chicago pizza landmark?

2004-09-10T17:50:57Z

So last night some friends of ours from California came into town, and Jason and I took them out for real, authentic, Chicago-style pizza. So Gino's East was the obvious choice, right?

Well first off I didn't know that Gino's had changed locations from that upstairs kind of cave-like place they used to have. (You all probably know this, it probably happened years and years ago, I'm demonstrating my Chicago dorkiness, etc etc). The new place is a lot bigger, and feels a lot more like an Outback Steakhouse kind of layout. They've still got the old tablecloths, and they brought the graffiti walls with them, so that stayed the same. No wait though! (probably cause, like I said, the new place is huge).

Anyway, we ordered our Gino's Supreme, and man, it was just not as good as I remembered. Not as cheesy or tasty. Seemed almost like you got less pizza too (the deep dish wasn't as deep). The California folks loved it, but I was disappointed. Maybe I'll just have to stick to Edwardo's stuffed spinach! :)

we're back!

2004-09-08T06:28:41Z

I can't write a lot cause I don't have my handy-dandy dictation software, but we're back from the Alaska cruise! It was awesome. Details will follow. I will have nifty pictures for ya of me and jasunshine on a glacier. whee! xymboulos, sorry I didn't call you back about the movie last week! I was in Ketchikan Alaska then, I think. :) zarfmouse and all other RNC protesters, you kick ass and I'm really glad jailed people are out of jail and safe. Other LJ catch-up will be done soon.

The cruise!

2004-08-25T21:32:10Z

so we have all made it back safely from the cruise -- woohoo! It was an interesting and fun experience. I'd only been on one cruise before, a rock-bottom priced 4 day Mexico cruise on Carnival Cruise Line's oldest, smallest boat with Jason in January. It was totally last minute (he pretty much surprised me with it) and definitely a blast. We were mentally prepared for a goofy good time (Carnival's the "fun ship" after all!) and a definite lack of super luxury (the boat smelled a little weird, and felt like it bobbed around like a rubber ducky according to my motion-sickness-sensitive stomach, but hey -- $200 for a 4 day cruise!)

This second cruise had a couple of key differences -- seven days, Caribbean itinerary, and six other good friends onboard. We'd done a lot of thinking beforehand about what kind of cruise line we were after, and finally settled on Celebrity -- not a "party boat" Carnival type cruise line, but not the super-luxe Royal Caribbean stuff with the 300 foot rockclimbing wall and ice-rink on the boat. (super-cool, yet super-pricey!) Different people had different goals for the trip -- Patty and xymboulos were going to be dive-buddies, uss_hairball and my friend Meredith from law school seemed more interested in cultural (museums, folk dance performances)stuff at our ports of call, Heidi and Tony had a honeymoon to deal with ;), and Jason and I pretty much focused on kayaking/biking/snorkeling type stuff (come to think of it, so did Heidi and Tony). So here's a hopefully amusing Port of Call Breakdown:

Jason and xymboulos went on the Great Mountain to Sea bike adventure. A bunch of the rest of us went "zip-lining" (remember those little triangle shaped things at the playground you used to swing across on? Kind of like that, except 50 feet in the air through the treetops.) As we were driving up the bumpy, unpaved, uphill road to our site, the guide started joking that this was the road that the bikers were going to use. Ack! This one! Where you had to honk around corners to let the other drivers know that you were coming>? Surely he must be kidding. Just having some fun at my expense, right? Nope. Turned out that actually was the road that Jason and xymboulos went down. And aside from being offered the occaisionall recreational drug on their journey (remember, the legal answer to "do you like to party?" in Jamaica is "no!") and hitting the breaks a lot on the downhill parts, they had a really good time. Yay!

After our zip-lining adventure (when was fun, with super-professional guides, but over way too quickly), Patty and I decided to ty and find a way to get to Dunns River Falls, which is this 600 waterfall that you can climb. Luckily, our bus driver was willing to take us and another couple there for super-cheap, so we were able to make it (even though it wasn't an official "ship sponsored trip"). We ended up climbing the waterfall with the couple from our bus, who were the cutest honeymooners ever. (It's very strange how, after you get married, you can just look at people and _tell_ that they're honeymooning. They've got that weird "I just got married! To this wonderful person!" happy glow. :) They took some really awesome pictures of Patty and me under the waterfall with their own camera (since neither of us brought one) and were kind enough to drop em off at dinner (basically, shots of Patty and me shrieking and smiling while standing under a lot of rushing water). Sweet!

So for this trip, Jason and Heidi and Tony and I decided to sign up for the late late tour to Stingray City, the "only place on earth" where you can "feed and pet these magnificent animals!" Which meant we left at 11:45am, along with a ton of other families on the boat with little kids in tow. The tour left late, and the earlier tour got back late, which in combination meant that we got to sit on a hot bus for over an hour with an increasingly grumpy bunch of adults/kids. Once we actually got on the boat, I rapidly lost confidence in our captain because a) he kept yelling -- really yelling -- at all of us to sit down and get ready to sail, acting all impatient, even though it was so not our fault that he was late, and b) we tied up with another boat so he could hop on and grab a gas can. Verrry reassuring. Tony and I had seats up at the top of the boat, which was fun, but meant that we pretty much totally missed the "safety briefing" being conducted below us (we'd catch words like "important!......stinger!........water!........be sure to!........." etc)

Once we actually got to the site, all hell broke loose. The guides had some fresh stingray food bait in a bucket, and jumped in the water to draw the stingrays to us. The captain (again with being my favorite guy) started yelling at people to get off the boat and get in the water before they were ready. Crazy Cranky Family from New York decides to jump in first. The stingrays start swarming up (they can really smell that squid), and the family just _loses_ it. Starts screaming and thrashing around in the water (which was pretty deep -- probably four and a half feet, with foot tall waves -- especially considering that a key part of Stingray etiquette is to shuffle your feet so you don't step on 'em. Believe me I was very, very into the "no step" rule, but it was pretty hard to follow when you kept getting swept off your feet by waves and had to fend off crazy screaming people).

A couple of the kids got really, really scared (totally understandable! no way I would have gotten in that water at age six! and the Father of the Year award has got to go to the Dad yelling at his petrified little boy, "what are you a faggot or something? get in the water!") and actually climbed up on top of our guide, which is a pretty logical kid response if you think about it (person in charge, taller than they are, etc). Well the guide, who was not exactly a model of decorum herself, starts yelling at the kids to get off her! Way to act under pressure, lady.

Anyway, the upshot was sheer chaos, panicked people, and a bunch of gray-brown stingrays (who were actually the chillest life-forms in the water at that point) cruisin over to you to see if you qualified as a Tourist With Food.

I, needless to say, was very much not interested in being a Tourist with Food at that point. I just kind of stood there, frozen in the water, actively apologizing to each stingray that came by ("I'm really sorry, I don't have any food for you!") and fervently hoping not to get stung. Luckily Jason was able to coax me out a little further in the water, where it was shallower, the stingray density was lower, and the screaming people kind of faded off into the distance. Then we just hung out and petted the stingrays, and it was awesome! We got to see Crazy Husband man not only feed the stingrays but actually rub squid all over his body in order to get a stingray hickey -- where they latch onto a part of you that is not squid, but smells like squid, and suck. Ouch. He actually had one that was almost bleeding when he got back on the boat. Yuck.

So after petting stingrays and artfully dodging our tour guides' attempts to generate staged photo ops ("kiss the baby stingray! nevermind that it's mostly lifted out of the water and can't breathe well!") we clambered back onto the boat. The ride back was pretty uneventful. Later on that evening though, I got the real dope from Heidi -- a vet -- about what can happen if a stingray actually does sting you. Not good! Possible hospital time! Did they share that with us on the tour? Of course not! Seemed especially irresponsible to me given all the chaos in the water and the very real (and totally reasonable) possibility of a stingray freaking at all the freaking out and stinging someone. Ah well.

The funny thing about our Cozumel stop was that the minute we got there, we got on a ferry to take us somewhere else -- Playa del Carmen, to be exact, where we were going to visit Mayan ruins and hang out at an ecological water park (yeah, we didn't know what it meant either). It was set up to be a big long day -- 8 hours from start to finish. We were going to head to the Mayan ruins at Tulum first. The boat ride over there was super-choppy, so everyone kind of vegged out on the way (Dramamine will knock you flat on your butt too). Our guide gave us an interesting Maya culture lesson on the bus to the ruins, which was blessedly air-conditioned. Because it was hot. Pounding-sun-glaring-in-your-eyes hot. Feeling-like-you're going-to-pass-out hot. I had heat exhaustion once in Trinidad, and I felt myself getting very close to that point again. So I was one grumpy little boannan. After we got off the bus and took another tram, we made it to the ruins site.

The ruins themselves kicked ass. I totally wish we'd had more time to learn about them and look around, as well as learn more about Mayan mythology (my favorite Mayan fact -- their "millennium" was 52 years, about the same amount of time as a human lifespan. At the end of every 52 year period, they left it up to the Gods to decide whether or not their civilization would continue. If it did, they repainted and decorated their temples and buildings and had a big celebration. Cool, eh?) The fertility temple was my favorite -- it had a carving of a man upside down between a woman's legs -- the "same way every man enters the world no matter what his social status or race." Those Mayans also knew all about location, location, location, because the ruins were situated on a cliff overlooking a beautiful beach. I would have taken a quick swim but we were out of time, so back on the bus and onward to Xel-Ha, the mysterious ecological waterpark.

Honestly, this was one of my favorite places on the whole trip. The whole place is a big, calm inlet full of clear water and beautiful tropical fish. It's really unstructured, so you can basically just rent some snorkeling gear and jump in anywhere (which is exactly what Jason and I did!) They had hammocks and a dolphin area and a cool cave and tropical birds and opportunities to scuba and just a nice laid-back atmosphere. I did some of the best snorkeling I've ever done there, even though we didn't have a whole lot of time -- got to swim with parrotfish, saw a huge angelfish and even a couple of rainbow fish. All the folks who came with us agreed that a good vacation plan next time would be to come and just hang out at the waterpark.

Once we all got over the mild suckage of having to talk to the Immigration folks at 7:00am (which would have sucked less if any of us had known about it before 9:00pm the previous night -- see uss_hairball's post about communication), we grabbed some food and headed out to Key West. Six of us decided to go on the Boat and Kayak Eco-Adventure, which seemed like the obvious shore excursion choice to us. Nope! On a boat of 1700 people, only 2 other people signed up for the trip. If the IMSA folks hadn't represented, the trip would have been cancelled.

Our boat captain was awesome -- he had this grizzled navy veteran look about him, played Jimmy Buffet the whole time and supplied us with free Rum drinks (and Patty made em pretty strong, let me tell you. hic.) We got into our kayaks and paddled around the mangrove trees in the unbelievably clear water. At one point our guides swore that a nurse shark (!) passed right underneath the kayak Jason and I were riding, but we weren't able to see it. We did get to see nesting and flying pelicans, which was pretty awe-inspiring -- those suckers are big! After much splashing and fooling around in the kayaks (the other 2 people stayed far, far away from our group) we all got back in the boat and dried off.

Guess what the Captain said then? "We're heading back to dock?" Nope. He's all casually like "So when do you guys have to be back on the cruise ship?" We tell him we've got the whole afternoon. "Well," he says, "If you're interested in looking around for dolphins, I've got a pretty good track record of finding them. Can't promise anything though." Dude! We were up for it.

He managed to find 2 pods of dolphins that swam and leapt around and generally hung out like 5 feet from our boat! There were a couple of baby dolphins too.

There's a bunch more stuff to write about (rum runners, crepes, Patty getting sick and then better, how I think a luxury cruise might be "too much" for me in the future) but that's about all I can do for now. :)

salsa stuff

2004-08-13T16:16:30Z

Continuing my Chicagoland area salsa research, I went and checked out the Voodoo Nightclub's Thursday salsa night in Schaumburg. Since coming back to the Midwest, many of my friends (including xymboulos and uss_hairball) have intrepidly agreed to come out salsa dancing with me. Although a good time was had at Rancho Luna in the city, I'm on the lookout for a place that's got a good beginner lesson so that my dance companions can partake of it before the dancing starts if they'd like to come back in the future :).

You'd think that would be easy, right? Nope. It was back in the Bay Area, where the "lesson" they'd have before a salsa night started included telling you (shockingly!) how to do the basic steps of the dance before getting more complicated. For some reason, here in Chicago, that does't seem like a popular way to do things. The lesson at Rancho Luna was OK, but got real fancy real fast and didn't clearly explain how to start off salsa dancing.

The lesson last night at Voodoo Nightclub was totally different and a _lot_ of fun, but still not a good beginner lesson. First off there were a lot of people at the club, which is always a good sign. The lesson got started late, but what salsa lesson doesn't? It was taught by this really dynamic lady who has her own salsa/Latin Dance studio in Chicago and seems to really know her stuff.

Right away, after we all got on the dance floor in lines, she started shouting out a type of dance ("Cumbia! Salsa! Cha-cha! Merengue!" etc) and she'd bust out doing a bunch of different moves (basic step, side step, turns) and we just did them along with her in our lines. Like a really high enery salsa/aerobics class. She was very fun and into getting the crowd worked up, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. But everyone also seemed to be an intermediate level dancer. At least in the position where when someone yells "basic step!" at them they know what to do already. She pulled one or two people up on stage with her during the class, and I got pulled up for the salsa part, so I got to dance with the instructor, which was neat! (Thank god I didn't fall on my butt).

I've got high hopes for the Willowbrook Ballroom, which I plan to try after the cruise. They've got what they call a Beginner's lesson followed by an Intermediate lesson, so I figure they've got to teach you the basics in the Beginner's part. Or else -- false advertising! :)

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

2004-08-12T04:04:27Z

So jasunshine and I took advantage today of our $15 "come-back-anytime" tickets that we bought at Great America a few weeks ago, and much Coaster Madness ensued. jasunshine is a coaster (freak) enthusiast, and he's kind of getting me addicted too. When we first started dating, I went on Raging Bull at Great America _purely_ out of love and a need-to-impress, which got me enough past the white-knuckled terror to enable me to get on the ride. It's got a HUGE (well huge to me)70 degree drop at the beginning. jasunshine was kind enough to talk me through it all the way to the top, and by the time it was over I was totally hooked. We rode it 2 or 3 more times that day.

We had so much fun with Heidi and Tony a while ago at Great America that we decided to get come back anytime tickets and ride some more coasters before the summer was over. So today, Jason had off, so did I, and we drove over there.

It was _cold_. OK not like winter cold, but like mid to high 50s cold. And drizzling. Perfect! Why, you ask? Because there were really, really short lines for just about everything. (And no line for such rides as Splashwater Falls and Roaring Rapids, if you know what I mean!) So we figured this was the day to hit the roller coasters.

Now I started riding roller coasters _really_ late in life (like, 18. stop snickering.) I've always considered myself a roller coaster wimp, except for a few rides like the Whizzer (stop snickering! It's a roller coaster! I swear!) and when I felt really wild and/or crazy, the Demon. (it has actual loops!) But ever since riding Raging Bull with Jason, I've been tempted (although definitely still scared) to try more coasters.

Well. Today we rode (aside from random small rides) the Whizzer (whee! heh.), the Demon, Raging Bull, Iron Wolf, The Viper, Batman, The American Eagle, and Superman, all (with the exception of the Whizzer) in the front car. wooooooooooooooooooooooooo! yup. I had way more fun on the American Eagle than I remember having before. That might have been because I rode it after riding Raging Bull in the front car, where you actually get to see the 70 degree drop as it happens. Now on the ground, that drop doesn't look vertical. You're absolutely able to tell the difference between that drop and, say, a 90 degree angle. But when you're plunging head-first in the front car, with the wind whipping by at 70 miles an hour, that feels like one totally vertical drop, and a small part of your Neanderthal-influenced brain thinks "Oh fuck. not good. not good!" and then it's over and the rest of the ride is exhilarating. So after that, the American Eagle drop was pure fun. :)

Batman was as awesome as ever. Man, I love that ride. I'd wait in line all day to ride it. Iron Wolf, though is way too bumpy for me. Swooping along at high speed? Fun. Getting my head repeatedly whacked while doing it? Not so much. And the Viper, mini-American Eagle wooden roller coaster that it is, was speedy and excellent.

Now, since Jason and I both love Batman and Raging Bull, we figured that Great America's new ride, Superman, would rock. That's the one where you are sort of suspended in the air and supposed to "soar" like Superman through the ride. Fun, right? Right. Not.

They strap you into a harness when you're in a normal seated position, and then pull the seat up so you're horizontal. Once the ride starts, all you can see below you is the park stretching out to the horizon -- which is cool as far as it goes. But the not-so-fun part, at least for us, was that _all your body weight_ rests in the harness you've been strapped into. So you have the totally freaky (and not totally inaccurate) feeling that all that stands between you and an up-close-and-personal acquaintance with the asphalt is two rubber bars. The ride itself is pretty slow and smooth, but boy, does it not matter. So we're glad we did it, and will not do it again.

And now, in honor of my new icon and our intrepid adventuring, we are off to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. :)

did I miss something?

2004-08-11T03:49:23Z

Salon.com in one of its articles just referred to Indymedia.org as an "anarchist website." Umm, is that accurate? (it could be, I don't know a lot about it). I kind of thought their main objective was free independent press.

and also rounding out the geekiness....

2004-08-10T06:13:28Z

Peasant's Quest has been conquered!
(now I just have to figure out all the funny stuff to do with the baby..........;)