This looks to me like some weird hybrid of golfing and cooking – what happens when you try to seperate an egg on the golfing green?

Awesome.

Via BuzzFeed

Hailing from a small town, where there is not much to do on lazy summer days except walk in circles around Walmart, sit on the shore of a lake prone to dangerously high levels of E. coli,  play mini golf, or (god forbid) go to the library, one would think that I would have grown to love some of these simple summer “pleasures”.No.

Out of all the boring things to do, mini golf is the worst.  People always think they are coming up with an incredibly creative and ingenious idea when they suggest going to their local Golf Quest to their  ennui stricken cohorts.  ”OH MY GOD GUYSSSSSSS!!! We should TOTALLY go mini golfing!  It’ll be sooooo much fun!!!!”  No.

I don’t play real golf for many reasons, and not just because I am lacking the upper body strength to hit the ball very far.  I don’t play because it is lame.  Why on earth would I want to play mini golf, especially since it is lacking the only fun thing about real golf: the golf carts?  Do you think I wanted to stand around sweating on astro turf in the hot summer sun for hours listening to children whine while I repeatedly try to get a tiny ball in a hole?   No.

In fact, instead of playing mini golf, I think I would rather risk E. coli and go swimming in the dirty lake.  Hell, I would rather watch golf on TV.  At least the commercials would be interesting.

So, the next time I am asked to go mini golfing, I shall haughtily respond, “Mini golf?  Mini gets.  I hate it.”

Today I went for a wander around the beautiful Lac Noir. It’s about a 20 minute drive from where I’m staying in Fribourg.

Something I realised today, which hadn’t caught my attention before, was that Jesus Christ is everywhere!!
And I don’t mean that in a “I’ve become religious, join me!” kind of way… there are literally statues of Jesus nailed to the cross EVERYWHERE! And they’re not small, nor out of the way. They are all along the highways and bridges, large and in full view! I would expect nativity scenes here and there, but these statues are permanent fixtures.
I’ll try and get a photo one day when I’m walking past one!

During the drive to Lac Noir, I saw BAMBI!! Well, not THE bambi, but that animal! They’re real! So very exciting!!
And so were the road signs with reindeer on them! I should snatch one and put a Kangaroo one up instead!

Lac Noir is located in the Sense district. The Sense district lies between the River Saane and Sense in the north-east of the canton of Fribourg. It is set towards the Prealps and is the only exclusively German-speaking district of the canton. Conditioned by its geographic location, the Sense district constitutes the hinterland of the town of Fribourg, but in parts is already in the catchment area of Bern.

To the present day there are untouched areas that have been conserved in all their authenticity and beauty.
The Schwarzsee region is a popular holiday and day trip destination. Everything is a possibility there, from hiking, to boating, skiing, mini-golf and swimming!

It truly is beautiful, and these photos that I’m sharing with you in this blog post, do not do it justice.

Even though I ended up dropping my Exploring Marketing class, I guess someone somewhere still hasn’t gotten the memo, because I ended up getting today off after being back at work for only one day.  Not that I’m complaining, though.  I spent my day doing mostly nothing, but that was just what I needed.  I’m still exhausted from all the vacation time I’ve taken lately!  I did go mini-golfing with a couple of friends today at Fantasia Gardens and then we went for ice cream at Beaches and Cream.  Other than that, though, I haven’t done much at all!

Tomorrow will be a much busier day, though.  I’ll start the morning with an interview for the Campus Rep position.  I got an email from them yesterday, saying that they wanted me to call and schedule a time to talk with a recruiter.  I really have a good feeling about this.  I can’t imagine that it’s very competitive.  As far as I know, only about 10 people were even accepted from the schools in my area, based on how many people showed up for the meet-and-greet events they held back before we came down.  I have no idea how many of those people ended up coming down.  Even if there were 5 of us down here, I can’t imagine that more than a couple of us applied to be Campus Reps.  I think that, at this point, it kind of all comes down to how well I do in the interview.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out I’m the only candidate, so it just depends on whether they think I would be a useful addition to the recruiting team.  We’ll find out tomorrow, I guess!  My interview is at 10:30 with Anne, who I’m pretty sure is the same recruiter who hosted the information meeting I attended way back in March.  Fingers crossed!

Then I will go to my first regular day of work at Tomorrowland, which, in reality, isn’t all that regular.  I’ll be working a “Call In Factor” shift.  I had never heard of this before, but was told that I’ll just be put wherever they might need me that morning.  If someone should call in sick, I will take their spot.  Part of me kind of hopes that maybe, just maybe, no one will call in.  Then maybe they won’t need my anywhere, and I can just hang out in the break room all day!  But the other part of me knows that will never happen. *sigh* I can dream, though, right?

I really do like Tomorrowland so far.  My last day of training on Tuesday went great.  We worked on Photo Imaging, which I had never done before, but it was super easy.  By the end of the day, my trainer was kind of just letting me goof off.  It was a Christmas party night, so we stood outside and watched the Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show (which was terrible!) and the Christmas Fireworks (which were good, but not as good as the Halloween fireworks.)

Just a few minutes after the fireworks started, a much more interesting, much more sad show played out right in front of us.  A mom came out of Space Mountainwith her son following her, screaming at the top of his lungs.  The kid was about 10 years old,and I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but his tone made me think, if that was my kid… Well, apparently his mother had had enough, too, because just then she smacked him upside the back of the head, Three Stooges-style.  It’s never right to really hit a child, but I have to admit that it made me laugh a bit.  But then all of a sudden she kicked at him!  I mean really reared back and tried to kick the crap out of her son!  The kid jumped out of the way just in time, and the mom jumped towards him, grabbed him, and held him down in the flower beds.  It was dark, and they were pretty far away so I couldn’t swear to this, but it looked like she had him around the throat!  I turned to my trainer and pointed the situation out to her and asked what we should do.  Just then an Attractions leader came out of Space Mountain and started walking towards the two.  We decided to watch and see what he would do.  He stood and watched them for a while, and just a little later security showed up.  I have no idea what ended up happening: when we left, security was still talking to the mom.  But my question is, if she would treat him like that in public, how does she treat him at home?  Somehow, sad things seem even more sad when they happen at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Aside from that little…adventure…it was a fun, successful training day.  My hours are definitely going to be crazy–I work until 1:15 am the next two days and work until 3:45 am on Sunday.  Yikes!  It’s going to be tiring, but I’m hoping that maybe I won’t have so many closing shifts when I’ve been there longer.  Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but my shifts always got better after the first couple of weeks at DAK and Epcot.  Time will tell.  For now, though, I’m going to take advantage of the early night and try to get some sleep: it may become a scarce commodity in the coming weeks.

Matt and I took Nikki to the Sherman Oaks Castle Park which is a place run by the city that has an arcade, batting cages, and mini-golf. WE went for the mini-golf part of it, of course. I had coupons from the Entertainment book I bought from Nikki.

Nikki had a lot of fun, even if she didn’t quite get how to play mini-golf. I’ll take her again when the other girls are here and I’m sure they will have even more fun playing all together.

Call for proposals for our upcoming exhibition of artist-designed mini golf courses, Conceptual Distraction, April 26-30, 2010.

Email the information below to puttplug[at]gmail.com by midnight January 18.

Requirements:

- A brief written description of your proposed hole including theme, materials, obstacles, traps, etc.

- Images of proposed work, including preliminary drawings or renderings with construction notes. As a guideline, your hole should occupy about 40 square feet in any shape or configuration.

- Please make it clear If you require a particular location or special equipment (for instance, near an electrical socket, or near a wall that you intend to incorporate into your design).

Things to remember:
- Golf holes must be constructed in a modular fashion to allow for easy assembly and transportation. We have no structural requirements, but remember: people will be walking on your construction, and the ball has to fall into a hole.

- There are no restrictions on materials or difficulty.

- If accepted, you will be asked to provide a putter to accompany your hole. This can be handmade from any material, themed to match your hole, or acquired second hand. Keeping the putter with the hole will reduce the overall number needed, so please budget accordingly.

- We will provide golf balls, scorecards, tee-off pads, and pencils. We’ll probably buy extra golf balls if anyone wants to customize one for display (especially if we don’t have any other ideas for the walls) or sale. If you want your hole to have a custom golf ball as well, feel free.

- If accepted, you must be available for a group planning meeting (date and time TBD) and to install the show in Tampa on the weekend of April 24 and 25 and to strike on May 1.

See our event on Facebook for links to other artist-designed courses for inspiration.

http://tinyurl.com/PuttPlugCallforProposals

I love fall!  The changing leaves, the coolness, the tinge of wood smoke in the air. 

Isn't this beautiful?

We went for a drive toward the mountains today.  Headed for Townsend and over the winding mountain road to Pigeon Forge through Wears Valley.  Wears Valley is so quaint and idyllic.  If its God’s will, we may live there one day yet…

Wears Valley, TN

Then, after our drive, we stopped in Sevierville and played mini golf @ Ripley’s Old McDonald’s Farm Mini Golf and Super Fun Zone.  Jordan had been once before, so she was super excited to go!

The entrance. Sweet.

 Note:  None of these are my photos. 

Muy buenas a todos. Como ya le prometi a JSprX el miércoles hoy sabado os traigo un juego que hace un par de post os avise que publicaria. Se trata del COD 4 en su versión para Mac.

Si cuando hice el Switch a Mac habia algo que echaba de menos ese algo era la cantidad de juegos que habia disponibles para PC y los pocos que habia para Mac.

Hace algun tiempo os hable de Cross Over Games, pero parece ser que en Snow Leopard esta maravillosa aplicación no funciona (en la versión 7.2 ya hay una actualización que esta semana publicare), y para matar el tiempo me he decidido a bajar el COD 4 del que todabia me falta alguna parte por bajar porque no tengo cuenta premium de Megaupload… XD

Haz click para ampliar

Supongo que la gran mayoria de vosotros conoceis el juego y cual es su historia etc… y por eso no me voy a extender demasiado explicandolo, pero si alguien tiene alguna duda ya sabeis donde me poedeis localizar

Decir que los otros 3 juegos de COD los he jugado y realmente me han parecido buenos, este no me habia dado por probarlo hasta ahora

Os he puesto por post unas capturas del juego para que veais la calidad de sus graficos.

Haz click para ampliar

Como podeis apreciar esto ya no es un mini juego como podia ser el que os presente del MiniGolf

Los requisitos del sistema son:

• Sistema operativo: Mac OS X 10.5.4 (Leopard) o superior
• Procesador CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo
• Velocidad de CPU: 2,0 GHz
• Memoria: 1 GB RAM
• Espacio libre en el disco duro: más de 8 GB Archivo de intercambio de 1 GB
• Tarjeta de vídeo: Radeon X1600 ó GeForce FX 7300
• Memoria de vídeo (VRAM): 128 MB
• Soporte necesario: unidad de DVD
• Periféricos: ratón y teclado para Macintosh

Espero que os animeis a descargarlo, que aunque sean partes grandes (7 de 1000 Mb) el juego seguro que merece la pena

Enlaces de descarga:

• Parte 1
• Parte 2
• Parte 3
• Parte 4
• Parte 5
• Parte 6
• Parte 7
• Serial + Crack

• ACTUALIZADO Nuevos serials.

Salu2 y gracias!

Hola a todos. Hoy voy a mostraros un juego que realmente me entretiene. No es un Call of Duty del cual os hablare y os dejare para su descarga dentro de poco, pero para pasar un rato esta muuuuy bien

Puedes jugar en diferentes campos, dificultades, modalidades (Norma, Normal Race, Safari, Safari Race).

Para jugar basta con hacer click encima de la bola, mover el ratón para apuntar, hacer click cuando tengamos nuestro punto de mira ajustado y hacer click de nuevo segun la fuerza que queramos darle a la pelota XD.

En definitiva un juego para pasar un ratillo entretenido.

Es importante leer el documento que viene con el juego

Espero que os guste y que lo disfruteis!

Enlace de descarga: MiniGolf Mania

Salu2 y gracias!

Mini Golf

You were trying to play

mini golf.

And couldn’t get the ball in the hole.

You began to guide the ball

cheating your way through

just to win a game.

“Cheater!” I yelled

knowing you would hear.

“Cheater!” I joked.

“What are you going to do next? Cheat-”

but wait, you did.

You kissed her.

Now my words are tinged

with jealousy, rage, desire.

It finally hits me,

that those lips you touched

weren’t mine.

“Cheater.”

I say, now hiding the anger

in my voice.

“Cheater.” I say again,

choking down my real word choice.

“Cheater, my love.”

Is what you have become.

I love this photo. S is drawing a maze on a breakfast in bed type tray free-hand. He is so amazing at that. I wish I had had a chance to take a photo of the finished product, but I never even saw it before it went off as a belated birthday gift. A and E saw S “coloring” and wanted to join in.

Yard sale treasures

How great is this! I had been wanting a small “plastic” or whatever it is Xmas tree for a decade. My timing was perfect as I grabbed it before she finished putting the “free” sign on it (nicely though, of course. I didn’t yank it out of her hands or anything). With a toddler, two boys and two cats, this is going to be perfect for an out of the way tree. And it was free!

$1.50 for 4 yards of this beautiful creamy flowery fabric. I think I found my purse fabric! While I was distracted with piles and piles of amazing fabric, Z was up to his usual yard sale magic. I turned around and he has this 5 inches from my face…

“It’s a lemon shark mouth”, he tells me matter of factly. He’s a smart guy and usually right, plus he had this mouth of shark teeth pointed at me, so who was I to argue?

“He caught it himself!” Z continued, “he wanted $5 for it but I talked him down to $3.”

Sewing

I did it, I made them all matching pj pants. At one point I didn’t think I was going to be able to figure out Z’s but hurrah! I got a twin sheet set at Target for $10 (not a thrifty find to be sure, but I liked the car pattern) and used one sheet, so 3 pants came out to $5.

Mini Golf

This is how we spent part of Saturday. I think A won.

I have no idea what was so funny, but I love candid shots such as these.

Sneak Peek
I hesitate to post without knowing how it’s going to turn out but here’s your sneak peek.

This is a video I did last year when I first got my HV30 and DIY 35mm adapter. I took the kids to Putt-Putt after their school on a Friday. Amateur work I know! LOL. Anyways, enjoy!

Mini Golf in Melbourne and at the Docklands Harbour town, who would have thought that this would become a modern day success. Not only that but why wasnt this thought of sooner, This isnt just your ordinary Minigolf but more like extraordinary. This Minigolf is indoors so that people can play all the year round and is also climate controlled so when its a 42 degree day outside you wont need to swelter and have fun at the same time. This is the definitive mini golf and which all mini golf courses are going to be benchmarked against.

This isnt your ordinary Mini golf, more like extraordinary. This Mini golf is indoors so that people can play all the year round and is climate controlled so when its a 42 degree day outside you wont need to swelter and have fun at the same time. This is the definitive mini golf and which all mini golf courses in Australia is going to be benchmarked against.

The Mini Golf at Melbourne, is in Black light, others call it “Glow in the Dark” or “UV Lighting” the two very clever combinations of Minigolf and UV Blacklights literally painted together using fluorescent colours illuminates depth, realism and unsurpassed detail never seen before. When you look behind the giant murals and the larger than life props you find that Glow Golf Black Light Mini Golf is based on old fashioned family fun at an affordable price. Julie says “what we have here is a really awesome presentation of an old fashioned theme. Michael was surfing the Internet one night looking for a business idea that was not common nor readily available in Australia and then try to build upon it, then he found Mini Golf but with a twist, Mini Golf but in the dark under UV lights where the fluorescent paints react and come alive .
“We tried to fit a many iconic themes into the mini golf as we could, the Kingswood Ute is there, this is one of the most amazing holes, you have to hit the ball into the back of the Ute tray and the ball is returned via the exhaust. You can get into the car and listen to your favorite Australian tunes. The Daintree forest is a work of art itself and really should be in a gallery and just be careful of the outback dunny, the guy in there bites, well actually he will give you a bloody good scare. The cave is excellent and gives a very realistic feel of what it must have been like in years gone by. (and the list just goes on) Crocodile Dundee, Kylie, Warnie, Vegimite, the hills hoist, in fact I dont think anything has been left out. .” But it now gets better again added to all this there is also interactive mood lights and sounds as well as a wall projection, you first tee of looking over the majestic surrounds of Melbourne under a twinkling sky working your way around Australia through the outback and finally finishing at the Sydney Opera House (We wont tell you about the Opera house as we do not want to spoil everything). The 19th hole (yes you read correctly 19 holes) is the hardest hole but is the hole that gives the biggest reward, putt the ball in the correct hole here, and lets just say your effort wont go unrewarded.

We have also implemented a new Party/function concept, you can now have a party along with the Party Loot bags, Trophy and Glow sticks but without the Party/Function room or food, this enables us to keep the cost down and make it affordable for everyone, Families can eat elsewhere around the Docklands precinct if required.”
for more details visit

http://www.glowgolf.com.au

or call us 03-96425442

Sometimes seeing a patch of blue after days of cloudy skies is the most beautiful thing in the world.

I have a ginormous crush on Jay-Z.

Candy pumpkins kick candy corn’s ass.

I find it strange that I can miss Brian so much and, at the same time, feel like he’s part of a life I used to live, but no longer do.

It’s amazing how generously someone can thank you when what you did for them feels like no big deal.

Oprah’s interview with Mackenzie Phillips was so disturbing that I had to turn it off and delete it after 10 minutes.

The construction workers on my way to work are getting worse and worse. Please, for everyone’s safety, learn how to properly use the stop/slow signs.

As it turns out, having a combination of laziness and social anxiety isn’t great when trying to make new friends.

Poking a stranger in the stomach isn’t the best way to get his or her attention.

There is an inordinate number of women named Lois who place items on hold at the library.

I don’t care how much people hate Dan Brown’s new book, or how much people say Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “The Angel’s Game” isn’t as good as “The Shadow of the Wind.” I’m still going to read and savor both.

Sometimes you just need to eat a salad.

I’d be really pissed if I died before finding out how LOST ends.

I’m ridiculously jazzed to see “The Invention of Lying.” I love the self-professed dumb and happy Jennifer Garner.

Trying to brush your teeth when both corners of your mouth are cracked is a total bitch.

I want to be besties with Jennifer Carroll, and not just because she works in an Eric Ripert restaurant.

I don’t want to be besties with Russell Hantz from Survivor, but the man sure is fascinating to watch.

I’m way excited to play mini golf on Tuesday.

In my next life, I’m going to live in a world without sinuses.

This is a great post from The New York Times.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Lunar Mini Golf
Lakeland Square Mall,
3800 US Highway 98 N
Lakeland, FL 33809-3833
(863) 859-1830 $8.00 per person ($6.00 children five years and younger). Admission buys 3 rounds.

Space: the final frontier.

These are the voyages of Putt Plug – A Miniature Golf Review Blog. Its mission: to explore strange new mini golf courses, to seek out new themes and innovative gameplay; to boldly putt where no one has ever putt before.

Sadly, our expectations were in the exosphere, while the reality of Lunar Golf was firmly planted on earth. Quel dommage.

Lunar Mini Golf is located in a storefront of the very strange Lakeland Square Mall. It is a relatively new course, open only since May of this year when Steve and Barry’s, the previous tenant, declared bankruptcy. It is comprised of only one large blacklit course, complete with glowing balls, putters, obstacles and a bonus Plinko-style prize hole for the grand finale. With two automatic replays if you so desire, It goes without saying that Lunar Mini Golf is a really good deal, especially if you have the stamina to play even one more round of the same grueling eighteen holes.

It’s obvious that Lunar moved in and set up shop as quickly as possible with only minor concern for covering traces of the previous occupant’s layout. One half of the store looks pretty good, but the other half clearly bears the marks of missing store displays, paint splatters on the carpet (yes, visible even with the lights out), and a messy paint job where the walls meets the ceiling. Surely, the owners of the franchise expected to distract visitors with the outer-space paintings and with the simple inability to see very much under ultraviolet fluorescent bulbs. In the end, however, the state of the room housing the last seven holes makes it seem like the designers had simply checked out.

Even the theming seems a bit rushed and oversimplified – the only references to the cosmos are mediocre neon spacescapes drawn on black corrugated plastic sheets. Seriously, space is one of the very few themes that just makes sense in a blacklit environment and would be easy to execute on a spectacular level (Moon-surface floor? Glow stars on the ceiling? A cohesive programme of interrelated paintings? Appropriate music? OR, the paintings as windows from the space station that you’re in, complete with imitation metallic walls and floors! Come on people!). Imagine how great an intergalactic-themed course could be if treated with the minute attention to detail of, say, Monster Mini Golf. Needless to say we were a bit disappointed by all of the missed opportunities at Lunar. Even the “Deep Space 9” painting and the funny alien at the front who “came to putt” could not redeem our opinion of the theming.

The size of the facility might have also impacted the gameplay as well by affecting the individual green size.  In order to fill the store, the greens needed to be longer and more elaborate – entirely too long and overly elaborate if you ask us. We weren’t told the par for the course, but when you see a maximum stroke limit of 8, you know you’re in trouble. The distance between the tee area and hole is quite drawn-out and you must work your ball around several corners and through some obnoxious obstacles – small tunnels, bridges, barriers, ramps and dips. This overly complicated design seems to be common for indoor courses, though. You can forget about getting a hole-in-one at this course, which, for us, takes some of the fun out of the experience. There is no point in trying to figure out how to beat the obstacles here because the holes are not designed for that. In fact, some of the holes are so nonsensical that we wonder if Lunar’s planners have ever played at a more traditional course.

It’s possible that many of our observations are inherent to the opening of a new business. If Lunar Golf is around long enough, maybe they can spruce it up a bit more. But, we don’t really know how solid the future of Lunar Mini Golf is – when we asked a mall employee where it was hidden, she asked if we were sure it was still open. The best thing that Lunar has going for it is the affordable price and lack of nearby competitors. Is that enough to keep it in orbit?

(By the way, if you’re looking for it, it’s near the Dillard’s that sells men’s clothes. Yes, there are two.)

Visit Putt Plug’s Facebook fan page to see more photographs from this course.

As summers go, ours ended up being pretty mellow, no camp no big vacation, lots of hanging about the house getting under foot making trouble, bugging the dog…  The lil peeps ened up getting into games, board games, cards, crosswords, anything with rules and a purpose.  We found a horde of used putters at the thrift store and suddenly the summer was golf on demand. Rather than shilling out $20 for every trip to the mini strip, we decided to build our own courses and designed a set of flags that traveled in the car along with us for impromptu games.  This has become a great activity for them- setting up a course usually takes twice as long as a game, as they look for natural hazards and geographical anomalies.  My son especially enjoys hitting into the rough and water and mud hazards are a magnetic destination rather than something to be avoided.

Since making flags was their own swell idea, the kids were enlisted in some serious production work- way to keep the manipulative motor skills honed over break!  We hand stitched the numbers to the front of the flags then I attached a second layer to the back using a machine.  We used a synthetic felt from the craft store since it’s cheap and stands up well making the numbers easy to see from a distance.

Lucy especially liked the project.  She and I tend to have relaxed, random conversations while we’re stitching.  Both kids like to sew but burn out quickly- by having lots of colors to choose from and different thread handy, they stuck with the tasks a bit longer.  Each of them designed the flag for their age and suddenly the numbers became personified with a hidden kid symbol language ascribed to each.

We’ve taken the flags to one of the larger flat parks near our house and had a great time, really spreading the course out over large distances.  We avoid using drivers or going for big hits, don’t want to scare/wound the locals.  Ideally with a mini course design, you’d want to be able to make a hole in one on every hole, with challenges for not getting it right the 1st time. With a guerrila course it’s a bit hard to structure, plus we aren’t too hung up on the rules.  We’ve been using cardboard strawberry boxes for the holes, they are light, stackable and easy to carry. Paper cups would work just as well,we just happened to have the boxes lying around.

The back of the flags are cut so they hang either atop the wooden dowels or can be hung as a garland.  As hoped the look great strung up inside and for his 9th birthday my son wants a golf party, no prob bro. we got the decor done already!

I’ve just uploaded the “how to” info for making your own flags on

instructables if you want to make your own set.

Ok, I already came back…twice.  When the blogging fever hits, there is no stopping it.  I just had to post the one about Jimmy Fallon cooking chili with Martha Stewart.  Then, my Homeschooling Q&A post was a bit unusual for me.  I don’t normally vent on my blog, but I thought it could serve to help some other frustrated homeschooling mom in bloggersville.  

A brief update…our house is under contract and we have a contract on the house we want.  For some reason, we could only find one house we liked out of hundreds to choose from in four different counties.  The sellers of our “new” house are being rather unethical, but that is another story.  In return, we are being extra nice to our buyer.  We are thinking of leaving our gigantic TV  if he wants it.  Two reasons, one – it is too heavy to move.  It was taken apart into three pieces just to move it here. Reason two – it uses a lot of energy.  Husband wants an LCD TV in it’s place at the new home, but they use even more energy!  Regardless, it is too big for our den in the other house.  We are also leaving our buyer our refrigerator. 

If all goes as planned, we will move the end of the month.  Meanwhile, I am packing, homeschooling, getting rid of unwanted items, and using my fax machine a little more than usual.  Funny how so much in the loan process can get accomplished through emails, telephone and faxes.  I haven’t even set foot in our loan officer’s office.  This is not the home buying experience from 10 years ago.

Here are some things I did during my so called break from blogging.

Went hiking.

Watched son climb a tree.

Had another encounter with a squirrel.

Played mini-golf.

Made a U.S. history display for son’s first day of school.

Well, that’s one of my more interesting titles, let’s see if I can make it make sense…

My boyfriend and I went to Starland the other day. It’s a place with go-karts, mini-golf, laser tag, batting cages, a climbing wall (for kids), an arcade, and a driving range. It’s a really fun place. I haven’t been there in like forever. I continue to be amazed by how sick I used to be. It’s not that I had no one to go with before, quite the opposite, my ex used to try to get me to go to fun places like this all the time – I just couldn’t (for those not sure what I mean, I was borderlin agoraphobic for most of 20’s and early 30’s). I guess sometimes you don’t realize how sick you were until you’re better. I got so used to staying in the house all the time and being scared of everything that it just seemed normal. Now looking back it just seems so sad. I was so scared … Well, yay that I’m better now! Anyway…

My boyfriend picked me up and as we were walking out to the car I could tell he was edging ahead of me. He opened my door for me and sitting on my seat was a Hello Kitty bubble wand (I couldn’t find a picture online, but trust me, it’s adorable). And so my boyfriend has now seen me squee. Like, really, right? It’s a couple dollar little thing, but it’s so cute, and it was so thoughtful. It’s amazingly cool to have someone think of you. He knows I like Hello Kitty, and he just got me this cute little gift. Like, ~*swoon*~. What.a.sweetie!

So, anyway, off we go to Starland. Come to find out that my boyfriend has never ridden a go-kart by himself before (his older brother took him in the past). He had way too much fun. We started with mini-golf, where my beauty continued to distract him from his game and I prevailed again. Then we rode the go-karts, which were fun, but are never my favorite thing. Then we did the batting cages. OMG! I wanna play softball next summer. I had so much fun. Like, just crazy fun. Then we played laser tag, which was much more fun and silly than I was expecting (I had never played laser tag before). We played a basketball shooting game in the arcade, and I did ~awesome~. We played air hockey (which is rapidly becoming one of “our” things). We got some tickets from the basketball game, and so we won a couple toy swords (my boyfriend has been dying for us to have swords – he’s so cute). Then before we left I dragged us back over to the batting cages. I must have hit 120 pitches between our two sessions at the batting cages (my boyfriend pretty much just watched me having fun). I have blisters on both hands and it was totally worth it. OhMyGod! It was just crazy fun.

After Starland we headed off to Peaceful Meadows because I’ve been dying for some of their banana ice cream. Yummy. We sat by the pasture and talked for a while. It was a gorgeous day and it was simply lovely.

We got my favorite pizza (Pizza Bianca from Napoli Cafe) and came back to my place and watched “Lars and the Real Girl” (such a good movie).

We got up the next morning and he made us an awesome omelet filled with omelet-y goodness.

It was a pretty damned awesome day.