New Years Eve was both busy and quiet. The Two Towers plans fell by the wayside, in favor of taking Kitten (and us) down to Legoland.
Let me say this about Legoland.
1. It’s the best amusement park I’ve ever encountered for little — I mean Katherine’s age — to visit. Such kids are usually relegated to the fringes of amusement parks. At Legoland, they are the focus (though there’s plenty for older kids, too).
2. It’s amazing how utterly clunky design can be made cool-looking by adding clunky Lego-knobs on the top of it.
3. The place grew on me while we were there. At first, I was — well, not impressed (perhaps affected by #1). But over time — especially once we passed through “Miniland” (miniature recreations of cities and towns and harbors, all in Lego) — I became hooked.
3. It’s wildly expensive, and not as exciting or well-run as, say, Disneyland, but I think it was still worth it. Heck, I wish we could have stayed longer, but Kitten started nodding off.
We all nodded off on the ride back, in fact, except Jim — which is good, since he was driving. We plopped Kitten into bed when we got home, then sort of sat around, idle, for the rest of the afternoon. Reheated pizza for dinner, then the New Years Party.
Unlike the faboo social event which is the Ks’ Christmas Party, the New Years Party is much more laid back, and has gotten moreso over the years. Everyone is encouraged to bring a game and an appetizer — and this year not even the latter was needed, since it was only a few days after the Christmas party. Jim & Di came over, as did Michelle, and the Kerfoots, and even the traditional jigsaw puzzle never really happened. Instead, we played Fluxx and Namesake.
Kitten arose from her slumber about a half an hour before the end of the year, so she got to join in the festivities once again. She was happy, and loved blowing on the party favors.
Things wore on after the turn of the year, including the traditional Exchanging of Christmas Gifts With Folks Who Only Come On New Years Eve event. More good swag was had by all.
Finally crashed about 2ish, which made waking up for the Rose Parade at 8 a bit of a grind, but it happened semi-spontaneously anyway. (I’ve not been sleeping in well, even when I’ve had the opportunity, between listening for Kitten, being awakened by Kitten, and worrying about whether the alarm clock is going to get unplugged again.) We sat through the parade (which went off like clockwork, though I don’t think the floats were as interesting as in past years; half the fun is getting snarky about sloppy bands and atrocious uniforms). Then showers, day clothing and …
… off to work converting files from the Ks’ iMac to their new PC. Which is how I spent most of the rest of the day, in-between having lunch and dinner with the visiting bro-in-law Eric with cousins Alex and Nicholas for Kitten to run around with.
And today? Up at 1 a.m., when Kitten decided it was (a) time to go downstairs, and (b) she really wanted some juice. This was followed by two repeat performances, two false alarms, and a Spooky Tree Trying To Get In (to our room), so Margie and I were largely sleepless for two hours there.
That still didn’t keep me from waking up before my 6:15 alarm, fed by various squirrels running through my head about all the things I need to do over the next month or so. Happy New Year indeed.
To work today, then, followed by a dinner out for my birthday tonight (Carmen is watching the Kitten again).
Our time in Faerie is drawing to a close — we fly back home Saturday (facing the Challenge of Luggage Inspection). It will be good to be back. Even with a business trip in two weeks, and our England vacation in a month-plus, it will be good to get back to some modicum of normalcy in our schedule.
Faerie’s a faboo place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here.
Legoland and I do NOT mix well. Last time I was there I tore a ligament in my ankle. I was in a cast for 6 weeks.
Just walking down a Lego aisle in Toys R Us makes me limp.
Gee…I remember the good old days of a air Travel. When you were told to lock up everything (a: So nothing inside would disapear, b: safety inspections so nobody could put anything in your suitcase)
Now we are told not to do this (or “lock” them using a piece of string). I wonder how long it will be before people start to notice things going missing in their luggage, and we are told to lock everything again.
Remember to put your dirty clothes in a clear, flat plastic bag… and good luck and a safe flight home to the Hill-Kleerup Caln.
Actually, the recommended locking mechanism is zip-ties, which is probably what we’re going to use. We never lock our luggage, but Margie suspects that thiefs in the baggage-handling world will be stepping up their activity, figuring that the TSA will catch the heat for it.
The part I laugh about is “don’t stack books.” Sh’yeah, right.
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. I suspect that FedEx would be well-served opening offices at major airports.
Hmmm… Except sombody (the TSA) would probably rule that things being sent via an Airport FedEx would be subject to the same rules as out going luggage.
Having the past few days off gave me a good chance to catch up on Morning TV Shows. I found the “How-to-pack-your-luggage-so-it-doesn’t-get-blown-up-by-the-TSA” most entertaining.
Yes, They had the Kennedy airport TSA rep on one of them showing how to spread out your books (on the top) so that they do not look like a bomb. I also loved the “how to” on what things go where, in what order, and everything must go into clear plastic bags. Nothing was said about nail clippers or other items that now cannot go through carry on.
I was also curious about what they were doing about Golf clubs and hunting rifles now. I can just see sombody heading to Arizona with a $5000.00 Ping set being told that they have to let them go into the bowels of the luggage system without being locked. In the good old days you to have a lockable gun case that was inspected, taged and security taped shut.
Unless they subject local down-the-street FedEx to the same regs, don’t know how it would help any.
Of course, parcel shipment security is the dirty little secret of the airport security biz.
I will be curious to see how this has evolved in, say, six months. I suspect that if the search requirements are as draconian as described, either the requirements will be way scaled back, or else folks will stop flying — or they’ll carry a hell of a lot less with them.