JTOK Chatter > 2013 > Page 47

Year: 2013

We have a shadow!

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After being gone on vacation for five days/four nights and then being gone again most of Tuesday…Owen is our shadow.

  • I go upstairs to take a shower…and he has to come upstairs with me and watch TV in our room: “Mama, I come upstairs with you? Very please?”
  • He wants to go upstairs to play his new Elmo Xbox game and says “You come up with me?”
  • Tom goes to the bathroom/garage/bedroom/anywhere out of sight: “Where’s daddy? Where’s my dad?”
  • I walk out of his sight: “Mama, where are you going? You stay here with me?”

It’s soooo cute…yet so sad and pathetic.

At one point, Papa and Grannie left to go out to dinner, and Papa came upstairs when they got home. As soon as Owen saw him, he started freaking out and crying, saying “Don’t leave! You stay here!” Poor kid thought that we were going to leave again because they were back.

I hope we’re out of this phase soon because it just breaks your heart (especially because we have to be strong and not cave in).

Finally, after 26 years…

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…I got to see Top Gun on the big screen!!!

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Why didn’t I see it in 1986? Because I was 12 (or 13) and my mom saw it first and said “It’s just a bunch of planes flying around and it made me sick.”

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

So I’ve watched it about 25 times on VHS…then DVD…just waiting for the day it MIGHT come back to the theater.

And that time was now…for a special limited release in IMAX 3D!

To help promote the films upcoming 3D Blu-ray release on February 19, Paramount decided to re-release the classic in a six day run that started on Friday, where the film averaged about $6,600 per screen.

And it was only an hour away in Wilmington so HELLS YEAH I was going! WOOHOO!!!

We considered it an anniversary [of when we met in February 1997] / Valentine’s Day outing so ate a sushi lunch first then walked down the street to the theater where I saw this:

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And had to have some!

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Yum!

Then it was off to the movie. Aren’t the 3D glasses stunning?

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And the movie was AWESOME! Wow. The 3D aspects didn’t blow me away…but there were some cool aspects and the actors felt very close and sometimes it felt like you were IN the cockpit with them!

Also, interestingly, with the awesome THX surround sound, I heard A LOT more of the background noises that just melted away in TV showings even with a decent home surround sound system (like a running shower and background music that were never as pronounced).

It was my first actual 3D movie (other than Honey, I Shrunk the Kids at Disney about 20 years ago or 3D/IMAX attractions at Cedar Point) and I’d have to say 3D has come a long way. And it took a good 20 or so minutes until I finally stopped noticing that I was watching the movie through glasses and just enjoyed it without distraction. Well, except I had to pee about 30 minutes in but hell if I was going to miss one second of the movie after waiting 26 years!

We ended our day’s outing with a trip to Costco…so it was a great day! And I can cross See Top Gun on the big screen off my bucket list!

It’s good to be home!

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I honestly didn’t really miss the kids until we were on our way home…

And then it was pure awesome seeing Owen come running out of the house to give us both hugs! He was SO excited that we were home! And it feels like he changed a ton—his vocabulary and enunciation seems better and he even seemed lighter!

I hate leaving him, but I like the welcome home greeting we got!!

Car rental places are sleazy thieves.

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Or at least the second-rate place we used (Advantage) was.

First they tried to force us to buy their outrageously-priced insurance, blatantly claiming our insurance would DEFINITELY NOT cover anything. (And the cheapest plan was almost the price of the car per day; their “best” plan was almost TWICE the daily cost of the car.) Needless to say we called USAA from the counter and were told we’re completely covered.

Second, they sold us on their pre-paid gas plan—which was cheaper per gallon than regular gas stations OR their own outrageous post-rental prices…but they never told us the details. (Granted, we didn’t specifically ask how it worked, but they should really explain it.) So what we didn’t realize until the night before returning the car was that they charged us for a full tank UP FRONT but neglected to tell us. So we thought only using 1/4 tank was a good thing…because we’d only be charged the lower price-per-gallon for what we used. Then I noticed there was a line item for gas…so figured we’d get a refund. But NO, we apparently had to return the car with a full tank (as we received it) to be credited, otherwise we bought the whole tank. Or we could have brought it back on Empty (to use the $50 pre-paid credit). Which no one ever told us. So when we were returning the car and asked about it, the rep almost seemed overjoyed to let us know we got screwed. I’ve never seen such a shit-eating grin.

Are all car places this shady? It was my first car rental—though Tom has rented for work a few times. And we were both shocked.

OMG STFU!

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The most annoying guy in the world was sitting directly behind us on the ATL > FLL leg of our flight today. He did not shut up from the moment he sat down to the moment we deplaned. I felt so bad for the poor lady sitting next to him…

He seriously had diarrhea of the mouth and jumped from one topic to the next—sometimes with segues, sometimes without. And it was all bizarro. Had I had an Internet connection, I would seriously have live tweeted the range of topics because it was unbelievable. I did briefly think about typing them anyway…but he was so annoying to listen to that I couldn’t wait to put my headphones on to try and drown him out.

Some of the topics included:

  1. His Italian family and how they liked to cook.
  2. How his dad once worked for the NSA and made $700,000 a year.
  3. How a friend invited him over to hang out once and wanted him to do marijuana so he’s not friends with him anymore.
  4. How he was a wrestler in high school.
  5. How his friend who was accepted into Harvard Medical showed him a study about runners and how /something or other/ was wrong with their feet.
  6. The difference between anaerobic and aerobic exercise and which is better to build muscle mass.
  7. How he went fishing in this lake one time and there were red-spotted tilapia and black-spotted tilapia and yellow-spotted tilapia and green- spotted tilapia and he and his buddies caught a bunch but no one wanted to cook any so they threw them all away. And there was an alligator in that lake, too.
  8. AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON. For two hours straight.

It. Was. Mind-numbing.

Owen’s first swear word!

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We were sitting around this morning before we headed to the airport, and Owen was playing on the iPad. I wasn’t really paying close attention to him but my ears suddenly perked up when I swear I heard him say dammit. I brushed it off as just not hearing him correctly (it was almost a whisper) but a minute or so later he said it again!

“Dammit. I can’t get /whatever/.”

I turned to look at Linda and said “Ah, his first swear word.” And she agreed that’s what she thought he had said before.

I am not 100% sure where he picked it up, though I’m pretty sure it was me—as I’ve been known to let it slip now and again. And at least he used it correctly!