Breaking The Dress Code

His Lovely Wife

Once or twice a year I am called upon to assume the role of His Lovely Wife. I do not resent this, after all he has on more than one occasion donned the mantel of Her Charming Husband.  But these days as the doctor’s wife I’m the one that more often is just along as the arm candy.

One of the benefits of these nights is that they generally come with free booze and a breath taking view. There is no view in Jacksonville that compares to that which you get from The River Club downtown. My sad iphone photos do not do it justice.

 

Happy Anniversary Baby

Today’s Story People story is just perfect for today. While it wasn’t technically the day we met (we known each other for 10 years) this captures perfectly how I felt the night I suddenly figured it all out…

 

When I first met him, I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there'd be room for him to stay.

 

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-119

"Hey, hey, easy kids. Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes... or perhaps you don't want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?" – Clark Griswold

I’m sure every state has that really cool thing that you can do but it just never seems convenient to get around to. I’m sure there are people all over Arizona that haven’t made it to the Grand Canyon yet, and there have to be people in Minnesota who haven’t seen the Giant Ball of Twine yet.  Well in Florida that thing is watching the Space Shuttle launch. For 17 years I’ve lived within 2 or 3 hours of Cape Canaveral but never gone there for a launch. That’s not to say we haven’t seen it go up. Anyone who’s lived any amount of time on Florida’s east coast usually has a “Best Launch I ever saw” story” .. Heck I’ve got three or four because on a clear day/night the rocket is visible up and down the coast – but we’d never actually gone and watched it close up. And unlike the Grand Canyon or ball of twine there are only a finite number of launches left – after yesterday 7 in fact.

So when I got up yesterday and was sitting in my jammies savoring my “I have nothing to do today” Sunday and the internet told me NASA have given the all clear for a 7:43 PM launch you could here the record needle screetch – this was it, our perfect chance to go, we had no excuse not to. I woke up the Dr., dressed the kids, packed the car and off we went – 2 hours down the road to Titusville.

Space View Park in Titusville is the closest you can get without paying NASA a fortune ($50 each including kids) to bus you out on the causeway. This park is 12 miles directly across the Intercoastal from the launch pad. It’s actually closer and a better view than if you at NASA’s visitor’s center. It’s free, crowded, and a whole lot of fun! The local space enthusiasts have built a Space Walk of Fame and they create a festival atmosphere there with their vendor tents and information.

 

We got there about 2:15 – right as mercifully the afternoon sea breeze start to kick up. I don’t know what the temp was but without that wind it would have been damn hot. The girls did a great job of hanging out and playing. The Dr. bought them a set of Apollo 11 toys and it may be safe to say that yesterday a future astronaut was born.

Even the little one put down her Barbies for a little while and got into the fun.

Once she figured out that she was supposed to keep her eyes open those binoculars made a lot more sense to her. After hours and hours of just sitting around finally it was time for the big show!

Little One said “Look Mama they are making a Rainbow!” And at this point I realized I had been so excited that I had forgotten to zoom in with my big honking zoom lens!

 

I didn’t beat myself up for too long though because at least I remembered so I could get a shot of the solid fuel tank separation!

Because I got an uber education from all the enthusists there yesterday I can now explain to you that those are the smaller white tanks on the sides of the big orange one. They fall off first and are retrieved by ships. The big orange one comes off  next and it just gets burned up. Yeap I’m an expert.

 

 

 

 

 

Still one of the most spectacular parts was the sun set reflecting off the smoke/vapor trail. It turned it it a full spectrum of colors and made it glow in the twilight sky. Even after it got dark it was still a visible blue-ish cloud glowing in the night sky.

So here are the lessons we learned:

• Go as early as you possibly can – people start saving spots hours ahead of time we got that 6 hours prior to launch and it was probably 1/3 full.
• Bring Food and drinks! There are vendors but they only show up a couple of hours before the launch.
• Bring Chairs – you’re not going to want to sit on the ground the whole time and chairs seem to reserve more space for you than a blanket.
• Remember to zoom
• Don’t count on using your phone to access information. The cellular infrastructure of little Titusville is blown out of the water with all those people. Think DC on inauguration day.
• Bring lots and lots of sunscreen, there’s shade but not where you want to sit.
• Get ready to be blown away with the beauty of it.

Hot Now

Evidently the Dr. forgot we are a family of four ‘cause 2 dozen?? Seriously? Maybe he got to Krispy Kreme and “glazed over” get it … glazed over.. I’m on fire this morning. Must be all the sugar.

Anyway, he got up before anyone else and made a trip to the holy land and brought home “Hot Now” so for today he is forgiven just about anything. Anything at all.

Enjoy your day of grace honey – use it well.

What to do if your stuck with a spousal Lost Addict

Seeing as how the The Interwebs are all caught up in OMG LOST STARTS TONIGHT frenzies I thought I might repost a little ditty from last year for all those of you who are new here and who are stuck with spouses that drive you crazy with this show.

The Dr. is a huge fan of Lost. I am not. I took one look at the pre-release commercials and declared that I had enough questions left unanswered with the original Gilligan's Island and did not need more heaped on by a J J Abrams remake.

So he records it and watches it later. Later meaning when I'm busy doing something else. But over the years I've wandered through the room enough to have some grasp, albeit probably somewhat incorrect, of the story line.

Here is what I do to amuse myself while he is minding his own business desperately trying to enjoy his show. I wander in and out and ask annoying questions.

Me: "Isn't she/he supposed to be dead?"

Him: "It's a flashback" (blood pressure rises)

Later:

Me: "Why are some people off the island and other's aren't?"

Him: "It's the future." (hair stands on end - huffs in my general direction)

Later:

Me: "How far in the future because that baby doesn't look any bigger than it was on the island. Babies grow fast."

Him: "Shut up"

Later still:

Me: "I thought she/he was killed on the Island, now she's in the future? "

Him: "It's the past again!!" Poof his head explodes

THIS is far more entertaining to me than the show ever could be.

Proof that with a little creativity you can make any post about the Twilight Series… Or… how to ignore Gator Football

So last night as the game progressed and the husbands became more and more engrossed in the football game.. not like it was the National Championship or anything  …the wives grew more and more ambivalent and looked for other amusements.

After the feature pieces aired on the quarterbacks it occurred to us (the wives) that Oklahoma’s Heisman winning quarterback Sam Bradford was way more what we had in mind when reading the Twilight Series than how Hollywood actually cast the character of Jacob and so we decided that since he had clearly reached the pinnacle of his college football career he should take over the role of Jacob. He’s got that perfect mix of little boy face but great big body which is going to be very essential to the plot of next next couple of movies because of the way Jacob ages/grows. Imagine that curly hair all grown out ladies!!

And after quite a bit of this the husbands got all disgruntled because

A. OMG are you people still talking about those damn Twilight books!
B. Will you all stop talking favorably about the other quarterback, clearly Tebow is the bomb and
C. Bradford’s a child and way to old for you ladies to be looking at that way …

At which we ladies laughed.

Then we informed them that no, that for once there was a new double standard that was working in our favor… we could lust after young quarterbacks and we were simply Cougars… sexy sleek cats full of danger and intrigue. However if they ooggled the little cheerleader girls they were still either perverts or having a mid-life crisis. Sad either way. So sorry.

Then there was this whole discussion about the difference in a Cougar and a MILF. In the end we decided it had something to do with who was the aggressor.

By this time the husband’s heads kind of exploded. Poof!

But in the end the Gators won. And I’m happy … for my husband because he loves them and I love him.

So congrats baby… you said I wasn’t being supportive last night but secretly I was. I just couldn’t bear to show it.

And Bradford would make a really good Jacob.

A Perfect Moment of Joy

FuzzyHead’s first pumpkin. It’s the first year we dared let her near Daddy and his extreme carving extravaganza.

Some Guy Keeps Following Me Around

So the kids have been at the grandparents now for a couple of days. (You can tell because I've been spending my time writing tons of awesome posts right - Not!)  .. anyway, in their absence .. a very strange thing has happened.

I've discovered there is this guy living in my house. And he's kind of cute and sweet, and he keeps following me everywhere. Internet, I think he likes me.

Yesterday I went shopping. Not the mad dash, only look for what you need shopping that you do with kids.  But that lazy I got nothing else to do wandering/shopping that you did before kids. To shops you don't normally go in. For things you didn't know you needed.

And here is the shocking part.

He went went with me. And willingly and cheerfully spent time in frou frou girly stores, and camera stores, and stationery stores... just following me around. Like he used to. Happy to tag along as long as there was a promise of cocktails periodically throughout the day. At several points we held hands.

Then later when we got home. I helped him with some yard work.

A strange thing happens without kids.

You start to revert to the behaviors that made you want to marry each other to start with. Things we forgot we did.

I know that when the kids return, this will all disappear again. But it's nice to know that it's not really gone. It's just tucked away like our good wedding linen, in the closet. And we can easily get it out again on special occasions. 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I think I'm going to start a new category to document all the little things that I do around the Palace thinking it's going to brighten the Dr.'s day in some way and he just ends up fussing about it because in some way in some fashion I managed not to do it properly.

Exhibit #1: I am always being accused of only bringing home Chick Flicks in the NetFlix queue. (Which wouldn't be a problem if Mr-Anti-Internet would learn to log in and add a few things himself but noooo)  so I see that Cloverfield  is released. He's a big JJ Abrams fan, loved Alias, loves Lost... so I shoot it to top of the queue.

He is admittedly surprised when it comes. Gives me 2 brownie points.

Friday night I send him down the street to watch it while BeerGirl and I introduce the kids to E.T.

He comes home and declares it the worst movie he's ever seen, possibly the worst movie ever made. Thanks dear. Revokes my brownie points.

Grrrrrrr

If You Buy A Man A New TV...

... he will build you a new screen porch.

 

But then he wants a new blue-ray.