A Hot Tub in Crisis

Don't mind Goober he likes the hot tub too!

 So for those of you new to this blog we have had hot tub issues before. Though that one was many years ago this one almost rivals it, not because dh wasn't home, he was, but because of his reaction to his beloved hot tub. So I had finally acquiesced and agreed to sit in the hot tub, I'm not a fan and I refuse to sit in it when it's below 10 because if my hair gets wet it freezes, not my idea of a good time. So dh was ecstatic I agreed to go out it was finally warm enough, only to see dh vacantly stare/sob at the hot tub. At this point I grab my coat and go outside to see whats going on. As I peer into the hot tub with dh and see it's almost completely empty, I start laughing....maybe it's because I'm mean, maybe it's because I didn't want to go in it, most likely it's because I was happy dh was here when it broke this time. Seeing as it's 9 at night and dark dh killed the power to the hot tub just to save the motor if it hadn't burnt out already, and figured he would look at it the next day.

As we are going into the house my husband makes the *best* comment I have heard in a while "What have I done to deserve this?"

 Now this comment seemed like overkill to me....sure he could have been complaining about a number of more legitimate "issues"(not sure he's going to be able to go on vacation with the whole family that was planned last year, the 800 snow storms we have had) anyone of these might have been a better use of the phrase, but right now he's far more bothered by the hot tub not working than anything. Though he did have the good gracious to say that his statement *might* have been overkill and a little extreme....ya think?

 At any rate alls well that ends well. I had to work the next couple of days so dh had time to fix his baby...now he's back to bugging me to go in!

First Year Pay Survival

Congrats! You just got hired at an airline....unless you got hired at someplace uber cool like DAL, FEDEX, UPS or SWA you're on first year and it sucks......First things first you are automatically  broke...no if's, ands, or buts, you better stop at McDonalds on the way home and pick up and app....not a latte you can't afford that now.

If there is anything worse than first year pay it's first year training pay.  It blows, along with the funness of training...being away from your family, the stress of training and it costs you money you still have to eat don't you?

If you survive training you have to (most likely) look forward to living in a crashpad!  Welcome to the wonderful life of crashpadding, it stinks and it's expensive.  You have a house/apt/condo (you're already paying for) but all of the sudden you're living and paying $250 a month for hot bunking in beautiful Elizabeth NJ.

Even if you happen to be forutnate enough to live in base and be on reserve you still (in some airlines) have to look forward to sitting reserve in the airport! You may get lucky enough to NOT have to have a crashpad BUT you still don't get to sit at home, this also makes the job at McDonalds harder to get to!

Guess what?? Now it's Christmas/Birthday time!  But there is a rule on first year pay....No holidays.  Holidays cost money and unless that McDonalds you're working at gives you free gift cards for Christmas presents.  Santa doesn't come on first year pay.

By this time in the game you should be nice and thin though, they don't pay you enough to eat...except Ramen...did you know they actually make a Rapid Ramen Cooker you probably didn't but you know now!

So all in all first year pay blows, but you can always look forward to second year pay!

Valentines Day!

Disney Marathon Review

Overall I was VERY pleased with how Marathon Weekend went, yes it was crowded but not insane crazy like Princess last year!

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and due to a "technical difficulty" (you really can't teleport cars yet) we had a car since dh hadn't driven his car back to ORD from being based in FLL.  Let me say this now, I LOVED having a car for race weekend, it really was a sanity saver. We drove every morning and rather than have to get up even earlier and wait for the bus (which for 1/2 and full day the last bus was at 4am!).  We slept in a little and still left in enough time to get there.  The other plus side of this was that after the race you could just get in the car and leave, you didn't have to wait with a bunch of other tired smelly people for the bus.

So the 5K and 10K traffic wasn't bad, and the course wasn't crowded at all.  Both were nice courses the 10K was basically just an expanded 5K with the addition of runing aroud Boardwalk.

The half course, let me say this now, it's the same 1/2 course as Princess, and I don't like it.  I think it's boring and long.  Basically you run out and back from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom. I dislike that you don't run through the parks much (esp compared to Wine and Dine where you run through 3!) and I despise the "hell stretch" after the Magic Kingdom where you all are (trying) to run on one lane of a two lane road.  In short the 1/2 course blows, with that said it seemed a little less crowded than Princess last year, thank god for small things I guess.

The full marathon course for the first 7-8 miles is the same as the 1/2...whooo hooo....After that we got to run around the speedway and then onto the full marathons version of "hell stretch" from the half.  Of course we had already run my "hell stretch" from the half since it was the same course for the first 7-8miles.  And it made me think that "hell stretch" behind Polynesian wasn't so bad compared to what was coming.  After you left the speedway they ran you down a little service road that connects to Animal Kingdom....which had basically nothing on it.....by that I mean no bathrooms!

Once we ran through Animal Kingdom then it was down the road to ESPN.  Now I'm not sure that I hated this as much as the little connector road from MK to AK because at least at ESPN there were bathrooms.  But running around  ESPN is like a rat in a maze.  We ran 3-4 miles there zig-zagging everywhere, around the track, around the baseball field, back and forth!  Once we were free of ESPN it was the home stretch, just about 5 mile left!  It was a quick run over to MGM (Hollywood Studios) then around Boardwalk and back to Epcot!

I have to admit I loved the way they did crowd control at the end of the races so much better than Princess, no hour wait to try and get out of the runner holding corral and I found dh within about 5 mins of leaving the runner area!

All in all I would do this again....maybe....someday....if I was drunk when I signed up!  A marathon was on my bucket list, but I'm not sure it would make my bucket list twice :)

Disney Marathon

                                               Mickey and I rocking it after the Marathon.

                                 Four races, six medals, the marathon one is my favorite!



As I sit here driving back from running my first marathon ( I actually did the Dopey Challenge which was a 5k, 10k, 1/2 and full 4 days in a row) I realize I should write a book, "How Not To Run A Marathon."  I'm sure everyone in my Dopey facebook page and my buddy Jeff (Galloway) would be horrified if they heard I'd only done one long run before the marathon.Ever.  Probably just as horrified to know I really only ran once a week after Wine and Dine in November.  After that 1/2 in November I had NO motivation to run...so I forced myself to go once a week....some times it was 3 miles, sometimes it was 6, and once it was 22. 

Also my pre-run, pre-race, breakfast is Diet Coke and a few cookies or chocolate Hostess donuts, the breakfast of champions no doubt.  I'm quite certain most "real" runners would be horrified to learn I ate at Buffalo Wild Wings the night before the marathon too.

So why would I mention all this?  Mostly to say running is an individual sport, what works for some may not work for others.  You have to find what works for you, and no one else can tell you what works for you, you have to find out for yourself.  Sure it's probably NOT a good idea to eat a breakfast like mine but it works for me, and hey I wasn't the last one across the finish, and judging from people walking around Disney the last few days I certainly fared better than they did!

So the big question....Will I ever run another marathon?  Not sure, I go back and forth but probably not.  It is a lot of time to commit (especially if you are actually going to train) and judging from my lack of motivation going into this one I can't see me prepping differently than I did if I were to sign up for another one.  Am I glad I did it? You bet.  Hands down its one of the things I'm most proud of.  I think part me wanting to do a marathon was to prove that I could.  I had a hysterectomy at 27 due to severe endometriosis, kidney surgery, gallbladder surgery, and I have had 2 types of cancer (appendix and melanoma) I think I took more vicodin in October than most people take in 5 years.  If I had to crawl over that finish line I would have, just to prove to myself that I could. 

You can definitely count on me to run more 1/2 marathons (running a marathon makes them look short!) and you never know.....I may end up crazy enough to do another Marathon!

Buy Buy Baby

So for those of you that don't know us that well we are not kid people.  Don't get me wrong we LOVE our nephew we're just glad he isn't ours. So this humorous tale beings in fact because of our nephew.  We (I dragging dh with me)were on the hunt for a Christmas present for him.

So we go into Buy Buy Baby (apparently not where you can actually BUY a baby) but none the less this turned out to be VERY entertaining.  Our Buy Buy Baby is located in an old mall (we call it the dead mall bc when we were kids it was) so it's set up a bit weird, it's an outside mall, but with two levels.  Regardless we walk in the door and take the escalor up. 

Perhaps now is the time to mention my husband looks like a bum. And by bum I mean I have seen better dressed people asking for money in Chicago.  He is wearing the fleece pants pictured above, a pair of old hiking boots, and a multicolored fleece type of jacket from the 90's.  He is also wearing a ball cap probably his John Deere one I can't remember (but that is his new favorite so it's a safe bet).  Also he is carrying his travel coffee mug that is extremely brightly decorated, if I thought people wouldn't go running in horror I would have taken pics of the jacket and coffee mug as well.  I am fairing a little better in jeans and sweatshirt, but I have my monkey hat on.

So we get about half way up the escalor and it starts to smell, just a little at first but by the time we get to the top it's pretty strong.  At this point we're converisng about how bad it smells in the store and trying to figure out what it is.  I finally find the toy section I am looking for, but by this time dh is beyond reason. He's standing there (drinking his coffee) going "Just get something it smells so bad in here I'm going to throw up."  Along with some other humerous comments that are making me laugh hysterically.  I'm trying to tell him to breath through his mouth, but he just tells me he can taste it then.  So I spend (what seems like forever) looking for what I want settle for my second choice, because by now I can't take the smell anymore and people are staring at us (well mainly dh). 

I grab my treasure and dh happily follows to check out.  The lady who was checking out in front of us was very quick about it, she was probably terrified of dh who was still going "what is that god awful smell."  While she is checking out we grab a gift card for my dad for Panera, which somewhat surprised me being in a store like that, though as dh remarked (loudly) that the parents needed some time away from the kids so they didn't kill each other or the kids.  We finally check out which was no doubt the fastest I have ever gone through checkout anywhere!  Finally we were back on the escalator at which point dh remarked "we don't ever need to go in that store again....that's what amazon is for!"

Spirits in the Air

So there has been a reason I haven't been on here much.........and that reason is dh switched jobs!  He is now officially typed in the A319/320 at Spirit!

As usual we've been real quiet about him going, we didn't want to jinx his training, but he did his type ride yesterday!  It's been an exciting (who am I kidding super stressful) month and a half, but he is now officially based in FLL and only 2 numbers away from being based in ORD!  Imagine that (fingers crossed) being based where we live!  We know how lucky we were to be able to make the jump to Spirit as they have about 6,000 resumes!  So now that training (still has a little to finish up IOE) is out of the way I will be back on here a whole lot more!