Celebrating an Early Birthday

Jacob turns 16 on Monday. Sixteen!! Seeing as how David and I both work on Monday, we decided to take him to his birthday dinner today, Saturday. After posting a "Where should we go" status update on Facebook, my friend Julie suggested we try Buca Di Beppo, so we did. What a FUN, quirky place. They walked us through the kitchen, introducing us to random kitchen staff, on our way to our table. The place was decked out in crazy Italian decor; as if your wacky Italian grandma went nuts with the decorating.














Their menu items are offered in one of two sizes; Small (feeds 3-4 people) and Large (feeds 5-6 people). We chose an appetizer and two small entrees and shared between the three of us, and we still could not finish everything. Miss Is got her own pizza.











The waiter was really attentive. Not a thing slipped by his notice. After the meal, he brought out this candelabra, a rather large cupcake and had the table next to us wish Jacob a happy birthday in Italian.












He even brought Isabel a mini-cone.





He opened several gifts: a Guitar Center gift card and CD from Kelli Kelli, two video games, a laptop cooler pad and two more Guitar Gift Center cards from us.



Oh, and a T-Shirt. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal." Oh yeah!

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

I love Panamanian Public transportation. These buses are not air conditioned, so the smell might be a tad ripe, and are covered in crazy pictures and painting. I also have not discerned the bus routes or how people know what bus goes where. It's funny.

According to one customer, the government down there will be getting rid of these buses soon and repalcing them with better ones, with AC. What I did not realize is, that at night, the buses are covered in fluorescent lighting and LOUD music. I wish I had gotten a picture or a video on one from the front.

Overbooked and Saddened

My son is singing at Epcot this weekend with his choir. We were not going to go see him, because 3 tickets at $70-whatever each is not something we can do on our budget, especially around Christmas. Since he was going to be there at Epcot all night, I scheduled our company's Christmas dinner for Friday evening. David took off work and we're going to have to bring Isabel with us.

My son calls me from school yesterday to say they now need more chaperones and the chaperones get in for free. ARGH!!!!!!!!! I asked David to take the night off. If I go to Epcot, I miss the company dinner, that *I* plan out every year, and David gets to stay home losing out on work for no apparent reason.

So I sit here, all sad and mad and grumpy. The holidays are supposed to be fun! They're supposed to be a time of joy, reflection, and time for God and/or Jesus, yet I sit here hating them this year. I lost a week with being out of the country and now can't fit all the shopping in that I need to do while working a full-time job and then coming home to clean, cook, etc. I have doctor's appointments, dinners and parties, and also the shopping I don't want to do.

The not-seeing-my-son-sing-now-that-I-can-get-in-free is the sludge topping to my BAH HUMBUG sundae.

Yummy Sushi Pajamas

Reading in Panama
Originally uploaded by KaarenM

I'm trying to post a blog entry straight from flickr. First time, let's see how this works.

This picture was taken one night when I was too pooped to party, so to speak. After dinner, a few people headed out, but I decided to head back to the room and, you guessed it, read. These are my Buffy Yummy Sushi Pajamas. Probably my best Mother's Day Gift ever. :)

I brought three books with me on the plane; Steinbeck's "The Moon is Down," Charlaine Harris' "From Dead to Worse" and Shaffer/Barrows' "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." Steinbeck I read on the plane to Panama. The "Guernsey...etc." I started on the plane and finished the next day. That left me with my Sookie Stackhouse, which I finished a day and a half later.

Panic! No Books! After mentioning it to one of our drivers, he quickly whisked me away to Exedra Books. I was SO excited. Several people told me books stores were very rare in Panama. This store carried books in English and in Spanish. There was a coffee shop and a lecture going on in a room; I kept hearing applause.

I purchased Mitch Albom's "For One More Day," which I finished in less than a day, Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible," which seems so far to be one of those books that gets in your soul, like "The Grapes of Wrath," "The Color of Water" or "Cry the Beloved Country," and "Crepusculo." You might know that one as "Twilight." I figured after my success with reading "The Shadow of the Wind" in its original Spanish, I'd try the reverse and see if the Spanish translation of "Twilight" is any good.

In my Yummy Sushi Pajamas, I relaxed for the evening, to read about Africa and the Price family.

Plane Plane, Go Away

I do not enjoy traveling by plane. Never have. What I can say is that I am a good traveler. I get to the airport on time. I am patient in line. I smile at the often-stressed workers and say "please" and "thank you" because, face it, theirs is often a thankless job.

I also make sure my carry-on is, you know, carry-on. Every single flight I have been on, I see people bringing these humongous pieces of luggage, insisting they are carry-on sized, and then getting irate because they cannot shove their steam-trunk sized piece into the overhead bin. It boggles the mind.

Then there are the people who think they're at home. The man who shuffled his cards loudly for an hour. Not playing, just shuffling. Last night, random-dude was clipping his fingernails. Snip. Snip. Snip. Each snip bore a hole in my brain. Also, EW. You can't wait until you get home or your hotel before clipping your nails and discarding the clippings on the floor. Nasty.

There was also the couple with two young daughters, about Isabel's age, who let their girls run up and down the aisles. Up and down, up and down. I felt so sorry for the flight attendants.

OH! Last night we were coming from Miami to Orlando, after arriving from Panama. It was about a 45 minute hop. A family from Venezuela (I found out because I was sitting next to a young married couple in the group) was heading to Orlando with a change of planes in Miami. Mother, Father, married daughter and son-in-law, teen son and 9-10 year-old daughter. Mother is sitting with her 10-year old daughter, waiting for the plane to leave the terminal. The young girls presses the Call button and the flight attendant comes over. The girl asks for something, not sure what, and the f.a. tells her that as soon as we take off, she will come back. Ten minutes later, we still have not left the gate, and "ding!" the 10-year old pushed the button again. We're all seated waiting. After a few minutes, one of the attendants is counting, hits the button to turn it off, and keeps on counting.

The little girl snaps. her. fingers. Several times. *snap*snap*snap* "Oye!" she says mid-snap. My mouth dropped. She was calling the flight attendant as if she were a dog. *snap* Thankfully, the mom swatted her hand down. I could not even mutter a comment, as the little girl's sister and brother-in-law were seated next to me. After 5 more minutes, the girl gets up, and tells her mom she's going to the back. Off she goes. We're all supposed to be seated, buckled in, ready to depart and little Miss Obnoxious is off. Why? She wanted glass of water. If my eyes could have rolled out of my head, they would have rolled on to the floor.

Have you thanked your flight crew today? I have.