So Michael and I went to Grad Bash at Universal Studios as "chaperones" with my mother-in-law's school.  Grad Bash is a celebratory event at the park for high school seniors.  The park is opened at night just for them until 2 am.  I never went when I was a senior, because I was panic-attacky and always barfed on buses.  Wasn't a good thing for me to go on that trip.  So when Michael's mom called us and asked if we wanted to go for free, we were all over it.

Chaperones don't really have to do anything.  The park is crawling with security guards and park cops.  We got special wristbands that allowed us access to chaperone lounges (all the free drinks and chocolate chip cookies and chips and fruit you want) and free breakfast at midnight (Sonia, is that like second breakfast or what?) and even better, the ability to skip the lines for rides.  We're talking the new Simpsons ride, the Hulk rollercoaster, the Spider Man 3-D ride, the Dueling Dragons coaster (two unique rides Fire and Ice) and The Cat in the Hat ride, too! 

Unfortunately, Michael and I both felt our age after the rollercoasters.  Though amazingly fun, the rides left us totally nauseous.  LAME!

When we were making our way through the connecting route between the parks, we were stuck in a big crowd of kids who started chanting "Seniors! Seniors! Seniors!"

So I chanted "Grad Student! Grad Student!"

We had a lot of fun.

This past weekend, Michael's sister and family drove up to visit.  The family includes our nephews, Benjamin, who is five, and Sammy, who is eight months.

We met them for dinner at Cody's where they have the best ever house salad in existence.  I'll bet anyone to find a better one elsewhere.

When we got home, we set Benjamin off on his treasure hunt.  Earlier in the day, I went to the bank and got some presidential gold coins and we buried them in a tin can in the yard.  We gave him a map and a flash light and helped him follow the clues.  After taking ten big jumps from Michael's car trailer, we gave him a shovel and told him to dig.  He loved it! 

On Saturday, we went to the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire in Gainesville.  It was a gorgeous day and I nicely put on festival.  We watched the joust tournament and I really liked the tent full of birds of prey.  They had some gorgeous owls.  I was also amused to see some of the same performers I used to see in South Florida almost fifteen years ago.  It's a different company, so I was surprised.

**This next part might offend some of you.  Don't worry, I defended your honor and told Michael a large dude in armor might have to beat his ass.***

Michael told Benjamin that we were going to the "Dork Fair" and Benjamin kept yelling that in excitement.  It was funny, but not nice at all.

That night, Benjamin helped me make pizza for everybody and he absolutely loved it.  I let him get good and messy and covered in flour. 

Sammy is just learning to crawl, so he had a blast scooting himself around the living room.  Lola had a blast covering him in puppy kisses.

On Sunday morning, Benjamin came to play in our bed.  We told him we were going to feed him to Lola.  Michael said he was going to turn him into a "Shiskabenjamin."  He fired back, "I'm going to make a Michael kabob!"  Come on, that is totally brilliant coming from a kindergartener.  We also told him that Lola loves Benjamin flavor and he said that his flavor was "blue."  Love it. 

We love when family visits.

Did I mention we bought kayaks two weeks ago? Well, we did, and we broke them in yesterday.  It was awesome.

We went somewhere around 4-5 miles up the Silver River and tried to make it to the head springs, but didn't make it that far.  The weather was great, but a bit breezy, and combing that with the 1-3 mph flow, going anywhere was hard work!  

The water is perfectly clear, so you can see the bottom most of the time.  There isn't fishing allowed, so the catfish and gar are huge!  You can also see very big fallen cedars beneath the water. 

We saw a lot of gorgeous birds...heron, ibis, huge cranes.  We saw a lot of turtles.  I've decided Michael and I need to start the Monster Liberation Front.  Monster is my brother's turtle who lives in a tank at the house.  He needs to be liberated.

We first saw a little 2 foot gator.  I wasn't nervous until we saw the big 6 foot gator sunning on a log.  Eeep!   On the float back down river, we saw a nest of five or six baby gators.  That made me even more nervous because a mommy gator had to be nearby.  

I was bummed that we didn't see any monkeys.  Seeing a monkey would have perfected the day.

Today I'm sore, but it's like a badge of honor.

Comment to this post, and I will give you three of your icons and three of your interests that I would like explained to me and the rest of our friends.

sunrising requested the following:

Icons:
 
Banned:  This is a screengrab from the infamous "Lost Email" from Homestar Runner's Strong Bad.  You can watch the clip here.  Strong Bad offends the British and gets banned from the UK.  I use it when I'm writing about England.  I hope to never be banned from that wonderful place. 



Tango:  One of the most awkward scenes from Rent is the icon I use for friends and fun times.  Mark gets a frantic phone call from his ex, Maureen, whose girlfriend Joanne is having trouble setting up the sound system for Maureen's protest show in the homeless shanty town.  At first, Joanne refuses Mark's help, but then relents.  Mark is still not quite over Maureen and now Joanne is suffering from Maureen's behavior, too.  They start talking about Maureen's behavior and bond in a dance of the Tango: Maureen.  Mark then feels much better and Joanne feels lousy, but they are now friends. 

Here's a clip from the movie.  Idina Menzel is so hot!





Lions:  This is a wee lion from way down in Kenya, where holy crap, they've got lions.  I love to use him when I'm excited or talking about really cute stuff. 

Interests:

Sufjan Stevens:  I first heard of this musician when they started playing songs from his 2005 album Illinois on WOXY.  His songs are instrumentally rich and beautiful.  For most of 2005 and 2006 I just listened to that album.  It was kind of nuts.  In February, I waited in line for three hours in the freezing cold in front of the Kennedy Center to get a free ticket to a show, but came up empty.  I should have camped out.  And he plays the banjo.  And he's adorable. 

Toothpaste for Dinner:  One of the quirkier webcomics I read.  It's pretty nonsensical.  Drew also writes Married to the Sea with his wife, Natalie Dee.  Read them all! They're great!

Feist:  Another one of my favorite musicians.  I heard her song Mushaboom and fell instantly in love.  Then I saw her open for British Sea Power a couple years ago.  She was able to hypnotize an audience of DC hipsters, which is quite an amazing feat.  I saw her once more after that and she was even better.  She's a part of the Canadian band, Broken Social Scene, who are also wonderful.  I saw them on tour last summer with Belle and Sebastian, but without Ms. Leslie Feist in the lineup.  Her new album comes out on Tuesday.  I shall buy. 

I'm going to Disney World!  Tomorrow!!!!  Yayyyyyyy

Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom...where there's gonna be lions!  Holy crap lions!