Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Trip to the Outback SNAKEhouse.....

March 29, 2011


This was colonoscopy day for Charlie......it was his Birthday present.


After an explosive 24 hours which included a nuclear laxative that tasted like goat spit and urinal cleanser, we were on the road for our 2 hour trip to Dallas.  I was busily taking pictures of my unhappy :< Charlie with my cell phone when I got this fantastic picture of him......unfortunately, the face was due to a deer running out in front of me as I was driving and taking the picture.......

But this was the look he had most of the trip to Dallas.....For some reason, it was MY fault he had to have a colonoscopy...

And this was his face when I asked the nurse for a mark-so-lot to draw a smiley face on his butt before surgery......

And this, my friends, is Charlie AFTER the procedure.....We were the last ones to leave since Murphy and I insisted he "dispel" all extra "wind" prior to riding in the car with us for two hours.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

"Want To See The Statue of Liberty? Google-Image It Instead...."

March 22, 2011, New York, NY


DAY 7

I must admit, this hasn't been one of our "better" days..........at one point this morning, we started "turning" on each other.....and I must also admit, it was mostly my doing.

The day started off just dandy....we actually saw sunshine coming through the window and were charged and ready to get the most out of our day.  While we were waiting on the tour bus to leave, Jacque and Debbie decided to scoot into a pharmacy across the street to buy Jacque some gloves while Ellen and I stayed on the bus drinking our coffee and eating our bagels.

Within just a few minutes, we hear the engine of the bus start up....then the bus started moving....then I see Ellen running down the aisle of the bus yelling, "Stop the Bus....Stop the Bus...." since Deb and Jacque weren't on yet and we had their tickets.   As the bus came to a quick halt, I spilt my coffee on myself, my bagel bite fell out of my mouth, my gloves hit the floor and slid under the seat.......then I hit my head on the low ceiling as I tried to get up....things were going downhill quickly.  About the time I got halfway down the aisle with all my crap, we see Debbie and Jacque running across the street towards the bus.....
See any Happy people in line for the ferry??  Nope!

We arrived at our first destination.....Statue of Liberty Ferry.  I wish I could find the words to describe the lines to this attraction.....but let me just say that there were two lines:  the "HAVE'S" and the "HAVE NOT'S"......We were in the "Have Not's" line.  Even though we had tickets purchased days ago, we were considered in the "non-reservation" (aka..Have Not's) line which meant it took us 5x longer to get to the boat.  We stood in a frigid, biting, bone-chilling and shivering line for 2 1/2 hours before getting to the boat.  This is where things started going downhill quickly between us girls.   After being passed by for the fifth time by the "Have's", I thought we should move the barricade that was preventing us (the Have Not's) from moving forward.  I was, unfortunately, alone in this assessment with my sisters.  However, all 1,000 people BEHIND us thought it was a great idea......we would have been heros if we had moved forward with this idea!

I was getting more deranged by the minute.....I was COLD, FRUSTRATED, IRRITATED....and really couldn't have cared less to see the Statue of Liberty by this point.  It was incredibly unfair what they were doing to the "have not's" and I just wanted to leave....but we already had too much time invested in this fiasco.   We finally did arrive at the Statue of Liberty, but only after going through security, taking off our coats, scarves, watches, bags, cameras, belts, jewelry.....then getting redressed.  We spent all of 15 minutes at the Statue of Liberty.

I would just like to take this opportunity to "thank" our radical muslim friends for all the "fun" you caused us to experience today.........

Once we were back on the tour bus, we had Ms. Dragonbus as our Tour Guide.  Here is what she said, "Ky është vendi i ndërtimit të parë kryeqytetin e Amerikës, kuXhorxh Uashington u inaugurua si president."  Yep, we had no idea what she said either......but we did hear the words "George Washington" somewhere in there....Forgive me for thinking I lived in America and expected American tours to be in English......errrrrrrrrrrrrrr


Anyway, we did finish up the day with a fun ride in a rickshaw with Ellen sitting in my lap to the theatre to see "Chicago".....It was outstanding and we laughed the whole way as we dodged past the taxi's, red lights and 10,000 pedestrians.........or, as Ms. Dragonbus would say it, " là tuyệt vời, anh yêu ..... chỉ tuyệt vời!"

Monday, March 21, 2011

DAY 6: The Tour Bus Nazi......

March 21, 2011 - New York, NY


HAPPY BIRTHDAY,  MY SWEET HUSBAND


IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!

Seriously, this morning we woke up to see it snowing....Didn't slow us down one i-ota!!
We decided since it was c-o-l-d.......s-n-o-w-i-n-g.......r-a-i-n-i-n-g, we would jump on a "Hop On/Hop Off" tour bus and see the town from the comfort of a nice heated bus where we could get on and get off wherever and whenever we wanted.......
Nazi Tour Guide

Scary Helen Thomas....
What we "actually" got was a double-decker bus with us on the top and the back totally open to the elements and a NAZI tour director that kept yelling at us....SIT DOWN......SHUT UP......DON'T TALK....and kissed the microphone every time she talked......she reminded quite a bit (looks-wise) like Helen Thomas, a White House Correspondent.....S-C-A-R-Y.....

The highlights of the day were the toy store, F-A-O Schwarz where we enjoyed hanging out at the piano you play with your feet (pictures to come later);

A ride past Central Park;

And the VERY best part???  Tickets to the Phantom of the Opera theatre tonight!!  Too awesome for words....we enjoyed it SO much that we want to do another show tomorrow night too!


We also toured the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art.......

In case you're wondering what these three chicks are doing with their hands, we have decided to use a replacement to the "saluting".......we have no idea what it means but it looks cool......

Sunday, March 20, 2011

SALUTE......"SNAP"

March 19 and 20 - Washington DC & NYC

Lincoln Memorial

Have you ever tried to tour the entire Washington DC area in 14 hours?  Well, we did........and I must tell ya, don't ever do that!  We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked...........my feet hurt so bad that I just wanted a shot of novocaine to put them out of their misery....these web-toed puppies of mine were screamin' for mercy...........which explains the reason for No Blog yesterday.......
1st Try at Saluting....

Our brand smackin' new Lieutenant Lance started our day off teaching us how to properly "salute".  He taught us that you place your "booger" finger on the tip of your eyebrow, elbows parallel with your body, heels together and then salute, all the while saying, "SNAP"........go ahead....try it......I'll wait.

We practiced our saluting everywhere we went.......on the escalators, in front of monuments, fountains and important landmarks...... everywhere.....including the White House!!

He taught us rules like never going anywhere without a "buddy"......unfortunately, my sister Debbie learned this lesson the hard way by falling out of line and wandering off......so for her punishment, Lieutenant Lance had her do 5 pushups on the sidewalk in front of the Capital building......

He taught us things like "things aren't always as big as they look"......

And that we should always respect our "colors" (flag)....

And once we had learned all he thought we needed to know, it was time to go our separate ways......He back to Quantico for another 6 months and us girls on to NYC for a few days......so we said a difficult and sad goodbye at the train station as we boarded trains going in opposite directions.......

We will never forget our time with our new Lieutenant and all that he taught us......like how incredibly priceless our family is............



So this evening we arrived in NYC via train.....check out our view from the 33rd floor hotel room........Tomorrow??  Tomorrow we tackle RAIN and VERY VERY COLD temperatures......BURRRRRRRRR......Look for us on Good Morning America as we are right across the street!!!!


Goodnight, folks

Friday, March 18, 2011

Our New Lieutenant!!!

March 28, 2011 - Quanico, VA and Washington DC
Lance

DAY 3

Okay, looooooong day folks, so I'm just going to give you some of my favorite pic's from today and a one-liner for each....So hang on......here we go......

Our Soldier's Boots (middle boot)
Our Soldier's Arms (middle arm)
Our Soldier (middle)
The Calloway Kid's
Jacque and Liz at Marines Museum
Lance and his Dad
Sisters Who Potty Together.....Stay Together
Out Lieutenant Taught Us How to Salute
Our Lieutenant Teacher
We practiced everywhere we went...
Practice Makes Perfect....
OCS Commission



This was such a special day!  In a nutshell, we watched him graduate; took a bus to watch him get commissioned; took a bus back to where he graduated; took Lance and all his stuff across the campus (8-10 miles) to his new home; waited for him to get signed in; dropped Lance and us ladies off at our hotel in Washington DC; hopped on the train to Chinatown for dinner; back on the train to the hotel.....then called it a very long, successful day!!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

DAY 2: GI Joe and the FBI.......

March 17, 2011 - Quantico, VA

DAY 2
Well, well, well.........it would APPEAR as though your's truly (yes, thats me!) has a few "connections" in the right places......yep, I actually know "higher up's" at the F.B.I (DA DUM....DADUM).......I would tell you exactly how high up the higher up is, but then I'd have to kill ya, so trust me when I tell you; it's WAYYYYYY up!!!   Armed with this kind of "connections", we were given a personal tour of the F.B.I. (DA-DUM....DADUM) facilities this afternoon.  I, unfortunately, didn't learn any "secret" "covert" or "hush-hush" secrets, but for awhile, I did pretend to be Jennifer Garner from Alias!!!  WAY too cool........

(We did a chance to do an FBI Line-up in front of the Headquarters, though......)

Before we headed to the F.B.I. (DA DUM....DADUM), we were fortunate enough to watch our main man, Lance, along with his platoon practicing on the field for tomorrow's graduation.  He was so handsome in his little outfit!!  But before we could grab him and hug him vigorously, we were scooted off to listen to his leader tell us how the last 10 weeks have gone for our guy and his troop.  

As we left the building, there stood our GI Joe standing at attention with his platoon patiently waiting for those orders that allowed him to relax and hug his family at last.......the family that had been so intently waiting on the sidelines for 10 long weeks.  I've got to tell ya, it was a wonderful feeling to see and hug our boy again.  

Tomorrow is the BIG day.......he graduates and will officially be a 2nd Lieutenant this time tomorrow.  Us girls who are heading on to Washington DC tomorrow night for a couple days, are doing our best to convince him to go with us and spend the weekend in DC......I think we are "thiiiiiisssssss" close to convincing him to spend the weekend with a bunch of old ladies.........Fingers Crossed......

See ya tomorrow......

P.S.  BTW, in case you're wondering what the "DA DUM...DADUM" is; if you're over the age of 45 and remember the old TV show called "The F.B.I." with Efren Zimbalist, Jr., you'll know that was the theme song for it......most of you are having an "Ahhh  Haaaa" moment right now, aren't you??!!!

At FBI Headquarters