And...We're Back.

Well, the blog seems to be working today, so I thought maybe I'd try to start posting on here again. Maybe not as regular as I was, but hey...probably no-one even remembers this is here. LOL!

I won't bore you with tales of our Christmas holiday. It was good.

The newest news for the Brunos is that Joe and I got matching tattoos yesterday. I'd seen the idea on Pinterest, and loved it. Let me tell you, though, inside finger is a very painful, painful spot for a tattoo. LOL! Luckily Rob got it done in record time. And I love it! Here's some pics. Enjoy!

Tattoos and Cars

This weekend was all about tattoos and the family car. On Saturday, Joe took me out for my pre-birthday surprise - a new tattoo! It's one I've been wanting to get since January, just haven't had the money. Being a little more experienced this time, I brought my new library book and read while Rob did his thing on my ankle. Here's what it looks like:

If you can't make out the words, it says "We're all mad here." It's an Alice in Wonderland thing, which goes with my Hatter tattoo. I've designated my right leg as the Wonderland leg, so anything Alice-related will end up there. Not that I have any immediate plans. Joe got a tattoo also (naturally!). It's an ambigram, which means that when you look at it from one direction is says Saint and when you look at it the other way it says Sinner.

Also got the brakes fixed on the car today. Our friend Josh did it for free, we just had to pay for the parts. So now all my brakes work, yay! In the next week or so he'll also be repairing our tie rod and wheel bearing. Very handy, having mechanical friends. We hung out at Josh and Nancy's house all day. This meant Xander had to play with Tehya, who is only four. There were some rough spots, but for the most part they got along.

When we got home, Joe and Xander finished up a school project - diorama of Jack and the Beanstalk for the Fairy Tale Museum they're making. Didn't they do a good job?

Week In Review

It's been an entertaining week for the Brunos, which started on Sunday with dinner at our friend Nancy and Josh's house. It's the first time we've dined together that hasn't been in a restaurant, and they went all out. Josh BBQ'd these huge steaks (which were insanely delicious), and Nancy made twice-baked potatoes from scratch. Even Xander ate one! We'll be seeing them again on Saturday at the motorcycle club's annual dinner at the Heartbreak.

Tuesday we picked up our rental car (our regular car is having some issues at the moment). They gave us a Kia Optima and I'm now doing almost all of the driving because Joe just can't fit behind the wheel. Watching him try to get in the other day was hilarious! Hopefully our car will be back on the road next week sometime.

Wednesday we had dinner at Eli and Krissy's - corned beef and cabbage dinner number one. The kids played, the grown-ups hung out, and Joe immediately became addicted to something called Angry Birds on Krissy's Droid. Dinner was good, and followed up by a giant cupcake made with rainbow colors. It was delicious!

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, so there was lots of wearing of the green and more corned beef, just for us Brunos. Joe had it cooking in the crock pot all day and it was delicious! Next year we need to get a bigger corned beef or something, though, because there's not even a crumb left. Xander at corned beef both days, and some potato. I'm so proud of him for trying new food!

Today it's already warm, though we do have a wind advisory. It's a big conference day at work, and Xander normally wouldn't have had school but they used up all their snow days. Sorry, buddy! I've been up since 6am because Joe was snoring so bad I couldn't get back to sleep. It's going to be a long day!

The Camera Man

Xander loves taking pictures. I don't always love seeing them, though, since he finds everything worthy of a photo - dirty laundry, clutter, his feet. He got out my camera yesterday after Joe took some pictures of him. Among the many things he took pictures of (including numerous pics of the show he was watching on TV) these are my faves:

Stuart, snoozing on Xander's bed.

Xander's room, with all his posters and drawings on the walls.

Joe, taking a pic of Xander. (Don't tell him I posted him topless, LOL!)

One of these days I'll get my boy his very own camera. And it will definitely be digital - can you imagine paying for developing for fifteen blurry pictures of a movie on the TV? I don't think so!

Salad and PARP

The big news of the week is this: Xander ate salad! Yes, he willingly and without complaint ate something that was green. It was a big moment for the Brunos. As you can see, he didn't really have that much he had to eat. We did find out that he doesn't like bacon bits though. Now I wonder what my chances are for broccoli. LOL!

In other news, PARP (Parents As Reading Partners) started this week. Xander's school does it every year. At the end, he gets to join in an ice cream party and gets a coupon for a free book. So what we've been doing is having him read a book to us, and then one of us reads one after. On the first day it was Joe reading The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. The other night he followed that up with How the Grinch Stole Christmas. (Can you tell we're big Dr. Suess fans?)

I'm happy to report that Joe qualifies for unemployment, so that's a relief. (If you didn't know, he was fired last Friday from Hospice.) We've been talking about making some big life changes, but it's all still in flux right now. As always, we Brunos like to keep things interesting! LOL!

More Snow

This winter seems endless. We got over a foot of snow on Friday, which was both unexpected and unwanted. Poor Joe got stuck in the driveway on his way home from work Friday morning and had to be dug out. Luckily we have a very nice neighbor!

Xander loved it, of course. He couldn't spend too much time outside because it was really cold, but he managed to get in some sledding, some fort building and some general snowy mayhem. As for myself, I'll be happy to never see another snowflake for as long as I live!

Just Another Day

It was just an average day for the Brunos. I took the day off work and so did Joe. We took Xander to pick out new eyeglass frames for school - SpongeBob, of course! - and then to see the doctor for his annual physical. I can report that he weighs 72 pounds and is 51 inches tall. Yikes!

We stopped for lunch at McDonald's, because Xander likes their nuggets the best. We both got Happy Meals so he could get two Batman toys, and Joe had something large and beefy. LOL!

Back in the car, this time to Walmart for groceries. Xander was excited because he got to get a new backpack for school, one that's loaded with pockets. Hopefully this one will be a lot sturdier than the two he had last year. It sure cost a whole lot more!

Back in the car to head home and have a little down time. Xander tried out his new chocolate milk cup, and I took a little nap. Then we went to Sundaes for some ice cream - before we had dinner! We haven't hit the ice cream places much this summer, so we were overdue.

Joe and I finished up the day with a movie, some Au Jus sauce and a loaf of peasant bread. I scrapped the day for a Xander scrapbook page, and then we all went to bed. Just another day with the Brunos.

We'll Miss You, Aunt Christine

Joe's Aunt Christine passed away last week, after a long battle with cancer. Joe went to the funeral on Saturday, and then we all went to his cousin Destiny's house afterwards. That part was nice, because Xander got to play with the other kids and Joe got a chance to reconnect with his extended family.

I'd only met Aunt Christine twice, but I know Joe has a lot of fond childhood memories of her. Here's a picture of them from Joe's cousin Jay's wedding in 2008:

Going Home

Like all good things, it was finally time for our Florida vacation to come to an end. Mom drove us to the Orlando Amtrak station, where we were able to check three of our bags (good for us, since we came home with three extra than we left with!). Xander cried when it was time to get on the train - he didn't want to leave. Awww!

Going back to NY, we had two of the smaller rooms instead of the one big room. This worked better, actually. Joe was able to have some quiet space for himself, and Xander and I fit quite well in the little room.

He watched movies, I read. And then I watched a movie while he played with his new toys. It was all good. The sleeping probably would have been better but I was worried I'd sleep too late in the morning and we were due to Penn Station by 10:30am.

I needn't have concerned myself. We were two hours late getting into Penn, and then had to wait an additional half hour to get our checked-in bags. Luckily, we still made our connecting train on time and had a peaceful ride back to Rhinecliff.

Would we travel by train again? Most certainly. But definitely with the two rooms next time!

Orlando Day 2: Universal Islands of Adventure

Our second and last day in Orlando was overcast and a little drizzly, which suited me just fine. Man, did we walk our feet off! Universal Islands of Adventure is big, and started off not so great. First of all, some very annoying lady cut us in line at the ticket booth, then cut some other line because ours wasn't going fast enough. And then they told Mom they weren't honoring Florida discounts for the month of July, so it cost us a lot extra than we'd planned. Grr.

But things went okay in side the park, if you don't count the crazy Harry Potter crowds and the interminable waiting in line. Our first stop was Seuss Landing, where Xander and Joe rode the carousel and Xander went on the One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish ride (say that ten times fast!).

And of course, Joe found someone he could relate to. :)

We made our way around to the Lost Continent, which was a combo of Atlantis/Sinbad. Lots of very dramatic landscaping. And while Joe waiting in the Olivander's line, Mom and Xander and I doubled back to watch the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad stunt show. Xander loved it!

Of course, the big stop was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where we were literally shoulder to shoulder with other Potter fans. More fun photo ops, and I have to say that Hogsmeade was nicely put together. Most of the store fronts were fakes, but there was things moving around in almost every window. Very cool.

And naturally we had to try Butterbeer. I wasn't a big fan at first, but it grew on me. Kind of butterscotchy, but good. And we had a late lunch/early dinner at the Three Broomsticks - fish and chips for me! Joe also tried the Pumpkin Juice, but I didn't like it so much.

The one big snafu came at Hogwarts castle. They had a tester seat to see if you could go on the big ride at the top of the castle. They couldn't close the bars over Joe's shoulders. So no fun ride for him. And since the rest of us didn't care to go on it either, we waited in the 90+ minute line for a tour of the castle.

Lots of coolness here, especially for the fans. There were talking portraits and everything! And mostly the line moved pretty quickly. Until we got to Dumbledore's office, and then everything just kind of stopped. We must've been in there about an hour, listening to Dumbledore give his spiel about a million times. Turns out there was a problem with the ride. Since we weren't going on it, we hopped out of line and finished up the tour.

Joe and Xander both got wands at Olivander's. I was looking around the gift shop, but the souvenirs there cost a fortune, and I was fresh out of galleons. :)

So we moved on to Jurassic Park, where there were plenty of dinos and a really cool discovery center where you could look inside dino eggs and stuff. Xander had fun with that. But the most fun he had there was hanging out in the splash zone at the end of the Jurassic Park water ride. Huge amounts of water to be had there!

We finished up in the Comics/Super Hero area, where Joe drooled over lots of comic book stuff and Xander got his dad to take him on the X-Men ride. (Too much spinning for Mommy.).

We didn't get back to our hotel until probably 7pm or so, at which time Xander dragged Mom and I to the pool for some in the dark swimming. I might also mention that it was raining and it wasn't all that warm anymore. Mom stayed in for about five mintues, but I hung out in there with Xander for about a half hour. Then we crashed in the hotel room, packing what we could and watching Family Guy (yes, I know this is completely inappropriate for Xander to watch - we were on vacation, darn it!) and King of the Hill. A full day of fun!