The manimal's vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds.
And obscenities.
He has become quite adept at communicating volumes with just one or two words (or sounds). Witness the following:
"Momeeee, POO!" is translated as "I've filled my diaper, Mother, and I'm ready to play Hide and Seek while you try and hunt me down to change the thing."
"o-cle, o-cle" is translated as "Everyone else is having a popsicle, and I want my own. As in, holding it. By myself. In the living room. Sitting on the suede sofa."
"GOGGGEEEEE" is translated as "Run like heck, Dog, 'cause I'm gonna sit on you!"
The other day, he was pointing at my face. "MOMMEEEE, 'asses!"
To which I replied, calmly, considering the word. "What, sweetie?"
"'asses!"
Yes, my dear sweet boy was saying, "glasses".
We're gonna have trouble with "fire truck", I can just tell...
Cheers!
8.30.2007
8.28.2007
I do this for a living, for Pete's sake! (apologies to my friend Pete for taking his name in vain!)
So here's the situation. In February, my family is doing an "en masse" vacation to the Land Where the Mouse is King. Traveling to the Sunshine State will be Husband, Me, Sweet Son #1 and the Manimal, my Parents, my Brother, Sis-In-Law and their three children. Disney-speak calls this a "Grand Gathering".
I call it a pain in my tookus.
This "Grand Gathering" was my brilliant idea, since Sweet Son #1 and his cousins are at a great age for Disney. I did the online research and talked to a few friends, who recommended a local travel agent to help us book the shindig. We're staying for 6 days and 5 nights, in a Disney property, using the Deluxe Dining and doing the park-hopper passes, which basically means that between the three families, we're spending roughly the equivalent of the entire annual budget for a small third-world country.
It is specifically the Disney Dining that is causing the aforementioned pain in my rear.
For those of you not familiar with it, Disney Dining is a plan that, for $60/day, you get three meal coupons and two snack coupons that can be used at any food establishment in any Disney park. Really, a good deal, since it's easy enough to drop $20 for a quick burger and such. The upswing is that since there are 11 of us, in order to be able to eat together for the sit-down meals, we have to make advance reservations. In order to eat dinner at a normal dinner hour (when you are traveling with five children), "advance reservations" means 5-6 months out. Like NOW.
So my conversations with said travel agent have gone like this:
Me: "We'd like to do dinner on Tuesday at 6 pm at the Celebration of Aloha."
STA: "OK, what else?"
Me: "We'd like to do breakfast at Donald's Safari Breakfast on Thursday at 7:30 am."
STA: "OK, what about dinner on Wednesday?"
Me: "How about the Sci-Fi Theatre at 6:30 pm?"
STA: "Good, anything else?"
Me: "Yes, let's do the Mickey's Buffet for dinner on Monday at 6 pm"
STA: "OK, I'll check on these and get back with you."
The "get back with you" usually takes a couple of hours, during which time STA calls Disney and tries to book my requests.
Conversation 2:
STA: "OK, well I was able to book the Mickey's Buffet for 6:05 on Monday."
Me: "Great!"
STA: "Unfortunately, there were a couple of other little problems. The Celebration of Aloha only runs on Sundays and Wednesdays and starts at 4:30.
Me: "Okaayy. Well, I guess we could do 4:30 on Wednesday."
STA: "I'll have to call them back and make sure they have openings. Also, the Sci-Fi Dinner Theatre only runs on Mondays and Thursdays and you leave on Thursday."
Me: "Right. OK, well then let's move Mickey's Buffet to Sunday and we'll do the Sci-Fi Dinner Theatre on Monday at 6:30."
STA: "OK, I'll check when I call them back. Now, they're not booking for the Donald's Safari Breakfast yet."
Me: "When will they be booking?"
STA: "They don't know, we'll just have to keep calling them."
Me: (sighing loudly) "OK then, give me a call back after you book the rest of these."
Now, understand that on Friday, we had no less than three conversations of this nature. All I kept thinking was "this should NOT be so difficult." I am a competent event coordinator and have planned banquets for a THOUSAND PEOPLE. If any travel agents are reading this, please don't think that I'm blaming her. I'm sure she's quite a fine travel agent, but HELLO! This is DISNEY--the gold standard for customer service and special event planning. One would think that I could work with them to plan meals for eleven people and not come away with a migraine.
Stay tuned...
Cheers!
I call it a pain in my tookus.
This "Grand Gathering" was my brilliant idea, since Sweet Son #1 and his cousins are at a great age for Disney. I did the online research and talked to a few friends, who recommended a local travel agent to help us book the shindig. We're staying for 6 days and 5 nights, in a Disney property, using the Deluxe Dining and doing the park-hopper passes, which basically means that between the three families, we're spending roughly the equivalent of the entire annual budget for a small third-world country.
It is specifically the Disney Dining that is causing the aforementioned pain in my rear.
For those of you not familiar with it, Disney Dining is a plan that, for $60/day, you get three meal coupons and two snack coupons that can be used at any food establishment in any Disney park. Really, a good deal, since it's easy enough to drop $20 for a quick burger and such. The upswing is that since there are 11 of us, in order to be able to eat together for the sit-down meals, we have to make advance reservations. In order to eat dinner at a normal dinner hour (when you are traveling with five children), "advance reservations" means 5-6 months out. Like NOW.
So my conversations with said travel agent have gone like this:
Me: "We'd like to do dinner on Tuesday at 6 pm at the Celebration of Aloha."
STA: "OK, what else?"
Me: "We'd like to do breakfast at Donald's Safari Breakfast on Thursday at 7:30 am."
STA: "OK, what about dinner on Wednesday?"
Me: "How about the Sci-Fi Theatre at 6:30 pm?"
STA: "Good, anything else?"
Me: "Yes, let's do the Mickey's Buffet for dinner on Monday at 6 pm"
STA: "OK, I'll check on these and get back with you."
The "get back with you" usually takes a couple of hours, during which time STA calls Disney and tries to book my requests.
Conversation 2:
STA: "OK, well I was able to book the Mickey's Buffet for 6:05 on Monday."
Me: "Great!"
STA: "Unfortunately, there were a couple of other little problems. The Celebration of Aloha only runs on Sundays and Wednesdays and starts at 4:30.
Me: "Okaayy. Well, I guess we could do 4:30 on Wednesday."
STA: "I'll have to call them back and make sure they have openings. Also, the Sci-Fi Dinner Theatre only runs on Mondays and Thursdays and you leave on Thursday."
Me: "Right. OK, well then let's move Mickey's Buffet to Sunday and we'll do the Sci-Fi Dinner Theatre on Monday at 6:30."
STA: "OK, I'll check when I call them back. Now, they're not booking for the Donald's Safari Breakfast yet."
Me: "When will they be booking?"
STA: "They don't know, we'll just have to keep calling them."
Me: (sighing loudly) "OK then, give me a call back after you book the rest of these."
Now, understand that on Friday, we had no less than three conversations of this nature. All I kept thinking was "this should NOT be so difficult." I am a competent event coordinator and have planned banquets for a THOUSAND PEOPLE. If any travel agents are reading this, please don't think that I'm blaming her. I'm sure she's quite a fine travel agent, but HELLO! This is DISNEY--the gold standard for customer service and special event planning. One would think that I could work with them to plan meals for eleven people and not come away with a migraine.
Stay tuned...
Cheers!
8.20.2007
A bear of little brain...
I'd apologize for my absence lately, but I don't have any good excuses or witty stories to justify it. Let's just say, I've been busy, and lately there seems to be an inversely proportional relationship between my age (increasing) and the capacity of my grey matter (decreasing). Maybe I need a new, larger memory card? Along those lines, here are some of the random musings that have been taking up my ever-decreasing memory space.
I can remember as a kid thinking that time passed WAAAYYYY too slowly, and my Mom telling me that I shouldn't worry, because as I got older, time would pass quickly.
Boy, oh boy, was she right!
How is it possible that it is AUGUST 20th?! In two weeks, it will be September, and in the event planning world, it may as well be Christmas. Needless to say, I feel a bit overwhelmed with everything I have to do, which, this year, includes teaching a class. Yes, I've returned to the classroom and will be teaching an upperclass communications elective on event planning. While I am looking forward to this, it means creating a syllabus, lesson plans, assignments, tests, scheduling guest speakers, etc. Hello, these are COLLEGE students, and even though I may FEEL like I just graduated from college myself, it's been over fifteen years since I was there.
Okay, enough ranting. Aside from work, one of the projects I've been working on is coordinating the Silent Auction for the New Life for Haiti Gala that my church is sponsoring. I finally got to meet our missionary couple, Steve and Joline Moore, this weekend, as they are traveling across the country in their new truck. Final US destination is Miami, FL, where they will board a plane for Port au Prince, and the truck will board an ocean liner. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, with an average annual family income of $300 USD. After meeting Steve and Joline and hearing them speak about the incredible good they can do with very little money, I am even more excited and driven to make the silent auction a success. In that vein, my blogger friend (and mom-to-be!) Chloe is being so very kind and generous and donating some of her beautiful English Tea Paperie stationery for a "Make Time for Mom" package and a "Lost Art" (letter writing themed) package. She makes beautiful stationery and is a good person to boot! :)
Anyway, that's my current insanity in a nutshell. What's up with you?
Cheers!
I can remember as a kid thinking that time passed WAAAYYYY too slowly, and my Mom telling me that I shouldn't worry, because as I got older, time would pass quickly.
Boy, oh boy, was she right!
How is it possible that it is AUGUST 20th?! In two weeks, it will be September, and in the event planning world, it may as well be Christmas. Needless to say, I feel a bit overwhelmed with everything I have to do, which, this year, includes teaching a class. Yes, I've returned to the classroom and will be teaching an upperclass communications elective on event planning. While I am looking forward to this, it means creating a syllabus, lesson plans, assignments, tests, scheduling guest speakers, etc. Hello, these are COLLEGE students, and even though I may FEEL like I just graduated from college myself, it's been over fifteen years since I was there.
Okay, enough ranting. Aside from work, one of the projects I've been working on is coordinating the Silent Auction for the New Life for Haiti Gala that my church is sponsoring. I finally got to meet our missionary couple, Steve and Joline Moore, this weekend, as they are traveling across the country in their new truck. Final US destination is Miami, FL, where they will board a plane for Port au Prince, and the truck will board an ocean liner. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, with an average annual family income of $300 USD. After meeting Steve and Joline and hearing them speak about the incredible good they can do with very little money, I am even more excited and driven to make the silent auction a success. In that vein, my blogger friend (and mom-to-be!) Chloe is being so very kind and generous and donating some of her beautiful English Tea Paperie stationery for a "Make Time for Mom" package and a "Lost Art" (letter writing themed) package. She makes beautiful stationery and is a good person to boot! :)
Anyway, that's my current insanity in a nutshell. What's up with you?
Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)