Halloween Goes Up!

Well, it's the first day of Autumn.  So we took down the Summer decorations and thought about putting up Autumn.  Then we realized that it would be just a couple of weeks until we had to put up Halloween....so we just put up Halloween and got it over with.  (Yes, I realize that this means that before long we'll be putting up Christmas shortly after July 4th!)

Anyway...we really only decorate the porch (some) and the dining room.  So...here we go:

The China Hutch...

...Complete with Alien Baby in a Jar!

The Fireplace Mantle

Garry's 30th Birthday / Deathday Tombstone

Post Hawaii

So today (Sunday--the day after we returned from Hawaii) was the Remembrance Ceremony for Garry's friend Cory.  They postponed the event in order to let The Three of We return to Baltimore and take part since Garry and Cory were Best Friends Forever.

Well, Russ got up at 7am and said, "We've been gone for three weeks.  I'm gonna go visit my mom at the nursing home before we go to the funeral."

I thought that was OK and sent him on his way.

He came home, we got dressed up, we went to the funeral.  It was very sad and poor Garry had to deal with a lot of sadness.  Then, I noticed that Russ was cradling his arm to his chest, was wobbly, and a bit flushed.

I said, "Russ...what's going on?"

"Oh, the nursing home's cat bit me on the wrist."

"WHAT!?!?!  Let me see."

He showed me.  Puncture wounds.  Swollen wrist, spreading toward the armpit.  <sigh>  One more lovely thing.

So off to the Emergency Care we went!  A couple hours later he's on anti-biotics, pain medication, anti-inflammatories.

....But at least we're home in Baltimore!

I took him home, put him to bed, and began working on recovering from the trip, the robbery, the bills, etc.

Hawaiian Adventure - August 25

The trip is done.

We packed up this morning and got on the plane back to Maryland.

To...shorten a long explanation...

• Mom Edna is a Senior Citizen RollerCoaster JUNKIE from the Ozark Hillbillly boonies.
• Every year, Russ and Damian's company rents out our local Six Flags for a company party and Mom Edna wanted to go ride this park's rides.
• Mom Edna wanted to go to this year's Ren. Fest.
• Mom Edna wanted to go see Wicked when it toured through Baltimore this year.

Well...all these things are about 2 weeks apart from each other, so it didn't make a lot of sense to fly her to the hills, then turn around and fly her back here, then back to the hills, then back here...and so on.  So instead, we just decided to keep her until mid-October!

So, we all got on the plane in San Jose and flew to Vegas.  There everyone got off the plane except for Mom Edna.  She flew on to St. Louis.  The rest of us moved to another plane and flew to Baltimore.  Then, Mom Edna arrived in St. Louis, changed planes, and flew to Baltimore!

She was due to arrive 45 minutes after we landed.  But our flight was 30 minutes late taking off...and once we landed spent an extra 20 minutes waiting for an open gate!  As a result, Mom Edna arrived, got her luggage, and was looking for us long before we got off our plane!

But we all reconvened, got on the shuttle to Garry's work, then unloaded.  Garry took his folks home, then came back for The Three of We plus Mom Edna.  We drove home, dropped off the luggage in various rooms, showed Mom Edna her room....and then went to bed.

Tomorrow---though not part of the trip---is still a busy day.

PS:  Oh....did I forget to mention that our plane to Baltimore was filled with several dozen barely pubescent teenage boys who were part of a "supposedly" Baltimore-based "Christian" football team?     ....yeah...it was a relaxing a flight as you're now imagining it to be.

Hawaiian Adventure - August 24

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MOM EDNA!!

Today we woke up feeling a bit better.  We piled into the van and headed across the Golden Gate Bridge!  This morning, you could actually see parts of it!

We stopped at a little park on the other other side and let the crew wander around and take pictures.  They were back pretty soon.  It was cold out there!

Then we drove on to Sausalito to show them the funny houseboats.  We stopped at a very nice breakfast diner and had pancakes.  They were yummy.  Back in the van we then went to Muir Woods to stomp around in the Redwood park.

Then we returned to SF and decided to try to get the folks on the "Escape from The Rock" cruise which, although not a trip *to* the island, is a cruise *around* the island.  We were successful in that regard!  While they were cruising, we went to the Alcatraz tour and got three "stand by" tickets for later that afternoon.  Then, Russ and Damian headed to a lovely bar for several rounds of drinks.

The folks returned.  We hung around for the "stand-by" opportunity, but we only had tickets 18, 19, and 20...out of 20.  And they only took #1 and #2.

So we went back to the Italian restaurant where Dad Garry ate even more food!  Hooray!

Then it was back to the room where we packed up and prepared for our return trip to Baltimore.

Hawaiian Adventure - August 23

The curse of yesterday continues, although eases up a bit.

I may have mentioned that some mother had her demon child over her shoulder while in line at the Honolulu airport and that said-mutant sneezed a green, snot-filled cloud directly onto Russell's face.  He caught a cold and then passed it to Damian.  Damian started feeling the effects about mid-way through the Big Island part of the trip.

Today Damian (me) is in full grip of the thing.  My voice is gone, my throat like shredded glass, my body is producing more phlegm than I actually weigh, my nose is raw from the blowing.  I'm coughing like a fiend, and eating cough drops like they're candy.

So today we spent most of the day in damage-control mode from the robbery.  Garry had called his bank right after the discovery to block his ATM card and we found that not-suprisingly they'd tried to used it three times within the first hour after the theft.

Russ and I used Mom Edna's computer and went to all the web sites that our stolen computers connect to automatically and changed passwords.

Russ began filling out the insurance claim.  It's quite annoying the number of things they got both big and small.  My class ring, for instance, is useless to anyone but me...so you know they've chucked it in a dumpster somewhere.  <sigh>

But afterward we decided I still needed to get work done and that since the insurance would re-imburse us, we went out and replaced some items.  I spent the morning in the San Francisco Apple store--trying not to infect the sales twink there--and got a new MacBook, new iPad, new Smart Cover, new Magic Mouse.  Russ bought replacement warm clothes.

Then back at the room I set things up and did more damage control, and ate more medication.

Finally everyone was getting restless, so it was time to take the Arbogasts to Alcatraz.  Russ had bought them tickets for the 3:30pm tour.  We maneuvered our way through the maze of SF streets and finally dropped them off at the dock.  Russ went with them to pick up the tickets.  Mom Edna and Damian drove the van around the block in order to swing back by and pick up Russ when we was done.

Boy are those SF streets a nightmare!  There is no such thing as a left-hand turn!  None of the streets, apparently, run parallel to each other!  So if you think, "Oh, no left hand turn...I'll do a right-right-right...and it'll be the same thing."  Boy are you in for a surprise!  Apparently any "parallel" road actually runs at a swift and obtuse angle to the one you think you're following!  That little strategy caused us to bump into a parcel of no-right-turns, a string of one-ways all going the wrong way.  Instead of a one-block swing-around we toured San Francisco!

We saw the Coit Tower!  We saw Lombard Street!  We peeked at the Castro!  We did a leg through ChinaTown where "we" stalled traffic snarled up behind us by being forced into an un-wanted right-hand turn, that we couldn't take because---and I am not making this up---an 80-year-old Chinese Granny using a walker took 3 turns of the light cycle to hobble across the street!

Then we got the call from BoyToy Garry.  "Um, we got to the ticket counter and Russ gave her the confirmation numbers.  The lady said, 'Hon. You're a bit early for this trip.'  'Oh?' asked Russ, 'How early?"  'About a week!' she answered."

It seems that Russ had clicked the wrong date when he bought the tickets and they weren't good until a week from today!  Hoo-boy!

So Mom and I eventually worked our way back to the dock and they all piled in.  We then did Lombard Street again for the folks and ultimately headed back home.  Damian went back to bed to rest.  The crew walked to China Town to see the sights there and have dinner.

Somtime later, I got a call to meet them at a nice corner Italian restaurant near the resort.  We laughed at all our misfortunes, Dad Garry had a couple of beers while the rest of us demolished a bottle of Merlot.  Then we ordered dinner where Dad surprised us by eating almost all his order of spaghetti-and-meatballs, then helping BoyToy Garry with some spicy Buffalo Wings!  It's good to see him get his appetite back!  We wrapped up the night with coffees, tiramisu, chocolate mousse pie.

Then we went back to the room, did more "lost item" discoveries...and went to bed.

Hawaiian Adventure - August 22

THE TRIP TO HELL ADDITION

We left the Big Island on time.  Checked out of the room, returned the car, got on the plane, got all comfy.  Had an eventless flight to California, Oakland.

We got the van, picked up the luggage, drove a few miles away to Denny's for a 9pm dinner as we were all hungry and tired.

Then the shitstorm hit.

We walked from the door of the restaurant to the door of the van.  BoyToy Garry stopped and said, "Oh shit."

The driver's window had been smashed in.  Glass was everywhere.  We opened the door and looked inside.  After a quick inventory, we discovered that 4 bags were missing: 1 of Damian's, 1 of Russell's, 1 of BoyToy Garry, 1 of Mom Lisa.  The mostly-but-still-only-partial list of stolen goods includes:

• various and sundry clothing items
• Russell's $1000 digital camera including 2 zoom lenses, camera case, and several memory card.
• Russell's  Compaq computer, with all the pictures from the trip on the hard drive.
• Russell's iPhone 4
• The AlienWare backpack that all that was stored in.
• Garry's Gameboy 3d and 4 games.
• Garry's Digital "Pocket" camera.
• Garry's wallet ($80), his bank card, his driver's license.
• Damian's Razr-Blade sunglasses ($140 a pair)
• Damian's iPad 3 !
• Damian's 15" MacBook Pro!!!  with all the pictures from the pictures on it.
• Damian's portable hard-drive (with all his iTunes files on it!)
• Damian's "Underwater" digital camera, with 3 spare batteries and 3 spare memory cards
• Damian's AlienWare messenger bag
• Various other "supporting" cables, cradles, etc.

All added up, Russell has calculated about $10,000 of stuff.

We immediately called 911 and got the Oakland Police who said, "Yah...well...you're #68 on the list so we're not likely to get anyone out to you for...oh...4 or 5 hours."    So we opted for Plan B which was to file a report online.

 We returned the van to the rental center, did all that paperwork, got a new van, went on to the resort in San Francisco.  We did another damage survey.

Great.  Just great.  I'll post more about the rest of the trip later.

ALO---f*ing---HA

Hawaiian Adventure - August 21

I'll edit this post later on to add full text and pictures.

But today was our last day on the island.  We have to pack up tonight and be out of the room early, early on Wednesday.  So I won't be able to update the blog for a day or two or three.

Damian caught Russ's cold and so spent most of the day in bed with a sore, raw throat.  Dad Garry and Mom Lisa took the bike out for one last ride.  Damian finally got out of bed and The Three of We plus Mom Edna walked up the street to the ABC store for last minute souvenirs and to "cash in" our receipts for some free gifts.  We stopped at Lulu's for a last round of drinks.

Back at the room, Damian slept some more while everyone else headed to the pool for some sunbathing.  They returned.  The motorcycle returned and went back to the rental place.

Russ cooked all the leftovers as our dinner.  We began packing.  Blah.

With the sun down, The Three of We walked out to a nearby beach and Garry tossed a couple of leis into the surf in honor of Cory.

Then it was back to the room, eat the final bites of ice cream, and then to bed.  We have an early start tomorrow.