Welcome to Earth

So I was playing with my daughter yesterday, and we were dancing in my office (sounds better in here than on the living room stereo) to songs she knew from hearing Mommy listen to and/or sing them (like MoZella, Stacie Orrico, Sonicflood, Jojo, Cascada and Madonna - but I don’t let her hear risqué ones). The first ones she requested were “Shark Tales,” which means “Gold Digger” (Ludacris) and “Car Wash” (Aguilera/Elliott). lol

She’s actually a really good dancer - I suppose from watching her shows that have “real” people in them - like “The Wiggles” (incidentally, while you could have gone the rest of your life without knowing this, I want to proclaim to the world that I have a crush on Greg, lol), “Lazy Town” (Mommy watches that, too - have you even seen Sportacus?! lol), and “Doodlebops” (ugh - to me they‘re like Teletubbies, only taller). (BTW what happened to “Out of the Box” on Disney? Eh bien.) So she starts out turning around, bending and hopping, waving her arms, etc. Then she puts two fingers in a “V” horizontally over her eyes and pulls them outward - where did she see that? lol Of course then she did the usual jumping around and butt wiggling, but then - then! - she swayed her hips like Britney!! OMG I could not believe it. lol I wouldn’t have known how to do that with my pelvis at 4 ½, lemme tell ya - can you just see Lady Aberlin from “Mister Rogers,” Maria from “Sesame Street,” or LeVar Burton from “Reading Rainbow” dancing like that? lmao But anyway it‘s times like these that neutralize the feelings I have when the tub drain curiously slows all of a sudden and it takes a $115 plumber bill to extract a bath crayon (they’re the same size as regular crayons) and a plastic Precious Moment figure. lmao

So I wonder if anyone’s planning any travel the rest of the year. Have you seen the deals/travel packages they have now? They’re totally falling over themselves competing for our business, folks. American Airlines will fly me round trip to Denver (my sister is in Westminster) for - get this - $135!!! Yes that’s in USD!! lol Unbelievable. I’d spend at least twice that driving there. And that’s a major airline, can you imagine how cheap it would be on one of the lesser-known ones? Anyway according to AOL, Denver happens to be the tenth most popular trip booked with AOL travel - and for good reason. :) So I might take my daughter to see her aunt in the fall. Then next year when I get my taxes back, I’m going (alone - trust me, I‘m due) to either Hawaii or somewhere I have to get a passport to enter, lol. I’ve been “feenin’” to go to a duty-free shop for, like, ever - the cosmetics they have are da bomb. lol Anyway to get those prices, all you have to do is be cool with the rules, like seasons (ranges of date of origin & date of departure - IOW when you can go) and penalties (most tix are non-refundable at this price, but if you’re like me and keep the plans you make then it’s no prob). Also, depending on how far you’re going, you might have one or two stopovers with the lower fares - but to me those are just extra fun anyway because you get to put another city on your “been there” resumé (yes it counts, especially if you get a postcard and a newspaper from there! lmao). Plus it gives you a couple hours (more or less) to get some walking in before having to be stationary for a while again. I think if I lived in the Windy, I’d go to O’Hare just to walk around and watch people taking off and arriving. I know, I’m a nut. But O’Hare rocks. It’s amazing. It’s GIGANTIC. They have TONS of restaurants and stores (53 and 14, respectively), a health club, and two mini museum exhibits (I went to the site for those numbers - http://www.flychicago.com/ohare/home.asp - click on concessions), among other things. They used to have their own Ty (Beanie Babies) store, too! lol Oh, and parking is really cheap there, too, interestingly enough. And it's easy to get around, the signs are easier to follow than I've seen at other airports. Oh, I could go on and on. lol Anyhoo. What an interesting rock we live on.

Before I forget - if you're interested in flying in to/out of Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, Orlando, NYC (and a few other US cities) and/or places like Aruba, Bermuda, Cancun, Cozumel, Montego Bay, Nassau, St. Martin, et al., check out www.USA3000.com.

Random musing: I wish I could disable the Insert key. I hate it.

Listening to "Ridin'" - Chamillionaire