altarflame (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
altarflame) wrote2011-09-28 03:09 am
altarflame) wrote2011-09-28 03:09 am
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Slightly staggered "Blitz" Post #3
Our domain where we host pictures expired and we had to renew it; sorry to the people who told me pics weren't working. Hopefully there won't be any more problems :)
Grant's company was part of a conference at the Eden Roc, and he got a couple of nights there for free. My brother and sister worked together so that I could go with him and it could be just the two of us. It was SO AWESOME. It made things kind of nuts, time-wise, to say "Oh we're jetting off alone together Sunday night" with me having class Saturday morning, a (spring roll, previously posted) date with Kristin Saturday evening, tons of homework due and tests on Monday evening...but it was completely worth it. Oh my gosh it was SO AWESOME!
First of all, this was our balcony view - looking straight down...
And looking straight out.
19th floor.
Everything there is modern-retro; they like for people to know Elizabeth Taylor got married there (not that Elizabeth Taylor didn't get married lots of places...) but also that you are in a completely redone place that's all new.
We had a really great time just chilling on the balcony, and loving each other, by the end of which we were both RAVENOUS...and after a week of strict dieting it was HEAVEN to go to Burger and Beer Joint and sit under umbrellas in the breeze (we took a cab...because Miami Beach parking is a nightmare and because it was just a cool novelty). I'm talking about goat cheese and thick cut bacon on the same burger, sitting next to battered and fried strips of portabello mushroom with four cheese sauce for dipping. Bourbon barbecue sauce on skinny fries. Root beer. One of their "adult shakes" called Rug Burn that included butter pecan ice cream, rum, caramel and vodka, with whipped cream on top. Just as my all natural jelly legs feeling was starting to wear off, I was all slightly alcohol-loose.
It's weird, I've still never really been drunk but there is this feeling that starts in my left arm and moves through my limbs one by one that I really, really like.
Anyway we walked around for awhile, explored some stores, made some plans, went back to the hotel. Swam in the pool with pina coladas, walked on the beach in the moonlight. Took a bubble bath that went hilariously wrong when we realized there were bubbles, like, ON THE TOWEL RACKS and water was overflowing everywhere. We used all the towels and the bathrobes to clean it up, laughing hysterically. LOTS more loving, that I was then mortified about when he assured me that, yes, I was actually SCREAMING and he was completely sure the entire floor knew about it (I really thought I was doing a great job keeping it down).
We watched silly tv (To Catch a Predator) and ordered room service (grilled cheese with tomato, creme brulee, fruit, wut) and fell asleep with the balcony doors wide open and the sound and wind of the ocean on us.
Which is a really, really great thing to do.
Sunrise:
Random pictures I took for the kids, who wanted to see "how fancy" it was:
I left, feeling like a night of little sleep LIKE THAT was rejuvenating rather than leaving me tired. I also had a pumpkin spice latte and a croissant in hand from the on-site Starbucks as my last back-to-dieting meal, which can't have hurt.
I was texting these to Grant, but just wanted to say, it always makes me laugh - those memes where people are challenged to take a picture "RIGHT NOW, no makeup, no doing your hair!" That is how I live my whole life! It would be way harder for me to do my makeup and then take a picture :p
Sooooo then I was driving home all early to take all the kids to the PATH kickoff party AND I got in a DAMNED ACCIDENT in the stop and go traffic by the DAMNED AIRPORT where there's always a bottleneck...I think I might have hydroplaned? I had lots of room and was going very slowly, anyway, but it was not stopping and I could barely steer. I had almost made it to the emergency lane when my front passenger bumper hit her rear driver side bumper cuz the van just would not GET OVER THERE as fast as it was supposed to.
It's the first moving accident (I hit a parked car while trying to park or back out twice as a teenager just learning) that I've ever been in, in 14 years of COPIOUS driving.
She was very nice about it, saying "The roads are wet, I couldn't stop either" and having me talk to her insurance company on the phone. But we sat there, in our respective vehicles, with our respective smart phones, for OVER FOUR HOURS waiting for the highway patrol to get there :/ I'd called Bob and asked him to please call JobCorps and take a personal day and not leave the kids, and called Annie and asked her to please make everyone some waffles, and called the lady organizing the field trip for PATH to say we weren't gonna make it, and about once an hour, I called *FHP to be like "Where are you guys??" Each time they assured me that, 1. They would be there any SECOND, and 2. It was indeed a serious crime for me to leave before they arrived.
When I got back in town, to make it up to them, I went through Dollar Tree and Michael's and we spent the afternoon decorating the house for Halloween.
Bob in on the action.
After nursing Elise, cuddling everyone individually, reading to them in a big group, and getting dinner and more new movies in place for my brother, I went back up to the resort. The following day, we brought the kids to take them swimming in the poolS. Because they have four (infinity, no edge) pools and two hot tubs (with waterfalls that feel really good on your shoulders).
Everyone has their own take on what it means to be eccentric and fabulous, right?
The big one is wearing an adult swim coverup and the little one is using her big sister's shirt as a dress.
That's Elise's jacket. He actually USED THE WORD "fabulous".
In the elevator because they wanted to see out from the top floor.
And that's Shaun in the straw hat. What a crew we are.
Grant's company was part of a conference at the Eden Roc, and he got a couple of nights there for free. My brother and sister worked together so that I could go with him and it could be just the two of us. It was SO AWESOME. It made things kind of nuts, time-wise, to say "Oh we're jetting off alone together Sunday night" with me having class Saturday morning, a (spring roll, previously posted) date with Kristin Saturday evening, tons of homework due and tests on Monday evening...but it was completely worth it. Oh my gosh it was SO AWESOME!
First of all, this was our balcony view - looking straight down...
And looking straight out.
19th floor.
Everything there is modern-retro; they like for people to know Elizabeth Taylor got married there (not that Elizabeth Taylor didn't get married lots of places...) but also that you are in a completely redone place that's all new.
We had a really great time just chilling on the balcony, and loving each other, by the end of which we were both RAVENOUS...and after a week of strict dieting it was HEAVEN to go to Burger and Beer Joint and sit under umbrellas in the breeze (we took a cab...because Miami Beach parking is a nightmare and because it was just a cool novelty). I'm talking about goat cheese and thick cut bacon on the same burger, sitting next to battered and fried strips of portabello mushroom with four cheese sauce for dipping. Bourbon barbecue sauce on skinny fries. Root beer. One of their "adult shakes" called Rug Burn that included butter pecan ice cream, rum, caramel and vodka, with whipped cream on top. Just as my all natural jelly legs feeling was starting to wear off, I was all slightly alcohol-loose.
It's weird, I've still never really been drunk but there is this feeling that starts in my left arm and moves through my limbs one by one that I really, really like.
Anyway we walked around for awhile, explored some stores, made some plans, went back to the hotel. Swam in the pool with pina coladas, walked on the beach in the moonlight. Took a bubble bath that went hilariously wrong when we realized there were bubbles, like, ON THE TOWEL RACKS and water was overflowing everywhere. We used all the towels and the bathrobes to clean it up, laughing hysterically. LOTS more loving, that I was then mortified about when he assured me that, yes, I was actually SCREAMING and he was completely sure the entire floor knew about it (I really thought I was doing a great job keeping it down).
We watched silly tv (To Catch a Predator) and ordered room service (grilled cheese with tomato, creme brulee, fruit, wut) and fell asleep with the balcony doors wide open and the sound and wind of the ocean on us.
Which is a really, really great thing to do.
Sunrise:
Random pictures I took for the kids, who wanted to see "how fancy" it was:
I left, feeling like a night of little sleep LIKE THAT was rejuvenating rather than leaving me tired. I also had a pumpkin spice latte and a croissant in hand from the on-site Starbucks as my last back-to-dieting meal, which can't have hurt.
I was texting these to Grant, but just wanted to say, it always makes me laugh - those memes where people are challenged to take a picture "RIGHT NOW, no makeup, no doing your hair!" That is how I live my whole life! It would be way harder for me to do my makeup and then take a picture :p
Sooooo then I was driving home all early to take all the kids to the PATH kickoff party AND I got in a DAMNED ACCIDENT in the stop and go traffic by the DAMNED AIRPORT where there's always a bottleneck...I think I might have hydroplaned? I had lots of room and was going very slowly, anyway, but it was not stopping and I could barely steer. I had almost made it to the emergency lane when my front passenger bumper hit her rear driver side bumper cuz the van just would not GET OVER THERE as fast as it was supposed to.
It's the first moving accident (I hit a parked car while trying to park or back out twice as a teenager just learning) that I've ever been in, in 14 years of COPIOUS driving.
She was very nice about it, saying "The roads are wet, I couldn't stop either" and having me talk to her insurance company on the phone. But we sat there, in our respective vehicles, with our respective smart phones, for OVER FOUR HOURS waiting for the highway patrol to get there :/ I'd called Bob and asked him to please call JobCorps and take a personal day and not leave the kids, and called Annie and asked her to please make everyone some waffles, and called the lady organizing the field trip for PATH to say we weren't gonna make it, and about once an hour, I called *FHP to be like "Where are you guys??" Each time they assured me that, 1. They would be there any SECOND, and 2. It was indeed a serious crime for me to leave before they arrived.
When I got back in town, to make it up to them, I went through Dollar Tree and Michael's and we spent the afternoon decorating the house for Halloween.
Bob in on the action.
After nursing Elise, cuddling everyone individually, reading to them in a big group, and getting dinner and more new movies in place for my brother, I went back up to the resort. The following day, we brought the kids to take them swimming in the poolS. Because they have four (infinity, no edge) pools and two hot tubs (with waterfalls that feel really good on your shoulders).
Everyone has their own take on what it means to be eccentric and fabulous, right?
The big one is wearing an adult swim coverup and the little one is using her big sister's shirt as a dress.
That's Elise's jacket. He actually USED THE WORD "fabulous".
In the elevator because they wanted to see out from the top floor.
And that's Shaun in the straw hat. What a crew we are.