Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Vacation Weekend Recap - Finally

So, we ended up not going to Door County the other weekend. We ended up staying home but at least we did something every day. I was frustrated at first that we weren't going anywhere because I just knew we would end up doing nothing but sitting on our butts for the whole weekend. But although we pretty much took it easy, like I said, we did do stuff every day.

Friday I had my doctor's appointment at 8:30 as mentioned before. I'm now on Propranolol, which is a blood pressure medicine originally. I only take one of them a day as opposed to the two of the Topamax I was taking. Also I'm supposed to take it at night because drowsiness can ensue. Dr. Head (not his real name of course) was telling me about the different side effects that could occur and then he started to hem and haw before telling me the last one. Got me a little nervous until he says that there are some people who claim to have nightmares from using this medicine. He then says that in his 20 years of being a neurologist and all the years prescribing this medicine he's never had a patient whose ever claimed it. Then he says all excitedly, "But if you have any let me know because I'm really interested in it. It'd be kind of cool to have a patient that finally had one." Luckily I'm pretty damn easy going and laughed about it rather than freak out or get upset with him practically wishing them on me.

After this appointment we took my truck in for it's appointment for the A/C. Luckily what was wrong with it was covered under the extended warranty. About a month before the A/C went out lights on the left side of the control panel had gone out and then it was a couple weeks later that the on/off knob for the A/C got stuck. Apparently that's when it really went to shit. Whatever blew to cause the lights to go out slowly burnt up the wires or the switch (can't remember which but I think it was the switch) inside the console that turns on the A/C. They fused together which is what caused the knob to get stuck and then eventually soften up again enough that when I was finally able to turn it I had broken that connection. So I guess the switch and the new knobs and whatever other parts they ordered were all covered by the warranty including their labor. I only had to pay the hundred bucks deductible. Unfortunately they didn't get the part on Saturday as the guy hoped they would so they had to keep it over the weekend. But it was all better by Monday afternoon.

After dropping of the truck on the way home HDiTty was practically falling asleep so he went to bed as soon as we got there. I grabbed my book and decided to read until I heard back from the service dept on whether all that work would be covered under warranty or not. They called right at noon so right after that I grabbed my purse and headed out to go do some errands that needed doing. One of those was sending some books back through the mail. While there I decided this was as good a time as any to finally get my passport. Grabbed an application, did some shopping and went home to fill it in and grab my birth certificate.

Made it back there with about 45 minutes before they were to end for the day with accepting applications/taking photos. At least that's what I was told earlier when I picked up the application. The first guy I talked to tried to say they were done for the day but luckily the chick that told me what time they would be ending was still there and finishing up with her customer and saw me and heard him. She called me over to her and said she'd help me. When we went into the back to take my picture she told me that her husband and son just did theirs and received them in two weeks. She said the earliest I could expect it would be in two weeks the latest would probably be three weeks. It was Friday the 1st that I did it and I received my passport last Friday the 8th. One week, how awesome is that?! The only thing is how bad my photo is. 1) I don't photograph well to begin with and 2) she asked me a question right before she snapped the picture so I was answering her when she did it. But it was right when I opened my mouth to talk so it's slightly open. But rather than take another one I opted to keep it because, well, see number one.

HD had me wake him up around 5ish so we could go see a couple movies. First was the new Mummy movie. SUCKED big time, DO NOT go see it. The only reason we didn't leave the theater is because both of us are people that would prefer to see things through when we pay for 'em like that. Yes, we could've asked for our money back but rather than the hassle of that we opted to stay. Sort of regret it though. Horrible, just horrible!! After that we saw the new X-Files movie. Much, much better. We both enjoyed that one.

Saturday we did sit on our asses all day after we got up late in the morning. By the time I was able to get him up and ready to go anywhere it was going on 4pm and all the zoos would be closed by the time we got there. The boat tours/rides we would've been interested in were either sold out or running too late to be able to make it to Zanies Comedy Club which is where we decided we'd go that night. So we decided to go to our favorite Chinese place for dinner which is way out by where I work but luckily there's a road not too far away that would take us directly to the comedy club. Rather than have two shows like normal they only had the one starting at 7:45 and it didn't end until around 10:30. If you like going to comedy clubs keep your eyes out for Three Poles Walk Into a Bar coming your way.

It's a whole evening's worth of entertainment. To start with as you're waiting for it all to begin they provide a plate of polish food, which we opted not to have since we just finished dinner. Besides, not big on most polish food anyway. But the plates had quite a bit on them and everyone pretty much finished their whole plates so it all must have been good. Then after the host comedian did his shtick he introduced Freeze Dried, a polka band out of Chicago. They played about 5 songs or so. A couple were traditional polka songs but the rest were pop songs set to polka music. They were really good and fun to watch. A few couples even got up and danced. After that the comedians did their sets, all very funny. And then the band played again while everyone was settling up their bills for the night and even beyond that. Not too many people stayed behind after paying, maybe about 6 or so groups of us did. But since they told us we could stay and enjoy the music if we wanted to that's what we did. The headliner comedian even joined for one song.

The whole thing was being recorded for a special that apparently is going to be aired on Showtime at some point. The headliner requested people say what they thought of the show on their way out, good or bad, and it'd be quite possible they'd see themselves on Showtime. We didn't do it because we were enjoying the music too much to leave. By the time all of left who had stayed behind they weren't filming anymore. At least not for opinions. There was a guy walking around with a camera filming the band and people who had stayed behind so there's a good chance we're on their film. But I doubt they'd put us on tv as we're not really tv material.

Sunday we got up early enough to head up to the Milwaukee Zoo. His dad and stepmom joined us after they found out we'd be going to a casino afterward. HD hasn't downloaded any of the photos he took so I can put any on here but I'm hoping some of the orangutan pictures came out. There was the cutest little toddler at the top of the cage. It kept hanging there and spinning around looking at everyone, it was very cute. We made a point to see the primates and the big cats, everything else we saw was just extra. We did pay an extra two dollars to see the sharks and stingrays though. We had to wash our hands on the way in because it was a touching experience. The sharks were smart and stayed in the middle of their little pond thing so there was no touching them at all. But the stingrays were swimming and shell crabs were crawling all around their pond thing. They'd every now and then come close enough to the edges for people to reach in and touch 'em. I was able to touch the stingrays a few times. They were very soft, similar to velvet. At the end as we were getting ready to leave his stepmom said she wanted to go back to see the penguins to see if they were swimming around yet. While she did that HD and I went into the souvenir shop where I bought a cat statue thingy. It's two cats cuddled up with each other and their tails make a heart, very cute.

After the zoo we headed over to the casino in Milwaukee. After getting a bite to eat there HD and I looked around for a blackjack table and his dad and stepmom went from slot machine to slot machine. She plays, he doesn't, so I guess he was acting as her good luck charm. We were trying to find a five dollar table and although they had them they were too crowded for our taste. We finally settled for a ten dollar one that was completely empty. That is until we sat down. Almost from that moment other people showed up. Oh well.

We each put down 100 bucks. I'm not sure how long we played at that table until space opened up on the five dollar one but when it did I still had $90 but HD was out completely. So when we went over there I split it up so we each had $45. By 7:30 when they called us to say it was time to go (we had agreed ahead of time that at 7:30 we'd get ready to leave) we had profited $40.00 but we gave ten of it to the dealer as a tip.

So even though we didn't go out of town as a mini vacation we still did things we normally don't do on a weekend (except the movies of course) and had a lot of fun. I can't wait for our actual vacation the first week of October. We know we'll be going to Niagara Falls for the first half but we haven't decided what we'll be doing for the second half. Not sure if we'll go up to Canada to visit our friends that live in Ottawa or head over to New York City. We just don't know, maybe even won't until we're on our way. Who knows, but either way I can't wait!

Media quote of the day: How easy do you think it is to sneak into the zoo? I need to see some penguins like, right now... - Ted - How I Met Your Mother

Sooner or later, everyone goes to the zoo. - Sloane - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

No comments: