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Obviously, when I said that I would blog twice on the 11th if I couldn't blog on the 10th, I was delirious from lack of sleep. I meant the 12th. How would blogging 2 times on the 11th, and then again on the 12th be in step with the blog-every-other-day gimmick? It would not.

Anyway. So, I'll probably blog twice today. Maybe.

My mind is currently scattershot - it seems like every passing thought could be blogged. Or blogged about. I don't know if I'll go that route - I get easily distracted, and will probably lose most of my thoughts (a good percentage have already left during the bus ride/walk home, and even more have fled while typing this) but we'll play it by ear, huh?

Steph already did the reader's digest version of our trip to Cali. (Go read it!)
But, here's another (heh.):

On Saturday, we drove, and the driving was not bad at all. Well, I mean, except for the length, and how monotonous driving is. I mean, really. You sit there, and the machine does all the work. And stuff passes you. Bor-ing!!
But, I was pretty impressed with how little traffic there was, relatively speaking. We made pretty good time, I thought.
Anyway, at the Pepsi Playpark in Barstow, CA, we didn't get to eat as is our tradition. (Steph has covered this...) But! What she left out was that the park was angry about it!
Since we didn't get a chance to dine there, the park demanded a sacrifice of some sort. Namely, blood.

Okay, here's the deal-i-o: I got on one of the swings, and decided I would jump off. Fun, right? Well, it was. Until I landed.
On my hands and knees.
And, really, it didn't even hurt at the time, but I looked at my palm and saw that I had now had wood chips where skin used to be.
Overall, I had a three minor cuts on my left hand and one microscopic cut on my right hand.
However - this was back on the 8th, and my left hand is still in a pretty significant amount of pain. One of the cuts, it turned out, was right on one of the creases in my hand. (Um. Hold on, I'm gonna use the internet to figure out exactly what line I'm talking about. Ah-ha! My "Heart Line" is the one that is injured. It had a small piece of skin chunked out of it, and since it's in a crease, it hasn't been able to heal properly. And, as a result, nearly every time that I move my hand to straighten (or curl) my fingers, the nerve endings go berserk. Fun.
Anyway. After staying at the park and bleeding a little more, we ate, then continued the drive into LA, where we had dinner with SAW (or AWS? maybe WAS?) At any rate, food was shared with Annika, Will, and Sam, whom we have not seen in about a year and a half, which is way too long.

Annika & Will are great hosts and great people, and Will builds one hell of a good Duplo-tank. Also, carmalized onions are pretty tasty on pizza. Who knew!?

I wish (as I always do) that I had interacted more, and that I wasn't so damn boring, but I think overall everyone enjoyed themselves.

Sunday morning we were awoken to a phone call from my work. At 7am. Which, according to our bodies, was really 6am.
Unfortunately, my cell phone is crap, and so the reception I was getting was pretty much one bar. So, the "conversation" consisted of me saying, "Hello?" three or four times, and the person on the other end saying... something, and then me hanging up.
An hour later (on the dot!), my phone rang again.
Again, I attempted to speak, but was answered with silence.

At 9am they called a third time, and I guess it was the charm, because I was able to carry out a conversation with the guys in master control that time. I informed them during this talk that I was in San Diego and also, that I was not the person to be calling about this matter. (At least not first. I am still just the Program Director's Assistant, after all.)

The rest of the day was pretty good, though. Breakfast at Denny's was ...satisfying, which is about all you can ask for from Denny's, really. And later Saren, Harper, and I took turns being Terminators and chasing after each other at the park. Harper's Terminator Walk is hilarious, though, so if she really were a killer cyborg, I think she'd probably catch me because I'd be too busy laughing to run.
We also all argued with the ocean, which is always a fun thing to do. It's so relentless!

Monday was Legoland day, and it was great. There's not a lot to say about it, because Steph covered it already (and has pictures) and well, it was just fun. Plus, I'm getting hungry and my mind is wandering again. It would've been nice to have two days to go through the park - or go to the beach or drive around Cali* or just not have to work - but I did appreciate the time we had. Lots of fun overall, I think.

Once the park was closing, we got into the van, and I realized that I was sunburnt and would be dealing with a lot of "You got a lot of sun!" comments on Tuesday when I went back to work. (5, in case you care) But getting some red skin and being physically drained is a sure sign that a good time was had by all. Irina was conked out before we even got to the van, and the girls did fall asleep on the drive home - momentarily, anyway - they were awake again by the time we pulled into the driveway at exactly 12:00am.

We agreed that going to Legoland in early March for Homeschool Days is a good time, and we're going to attempt to make it an annual thing.

*Remind me to talk about my Cali-driving fears in my next blog entry.