2005-09-12 10:15 a.m.
Weekend Recap
Wow it was a beautiful weekend here in PA. I remember waking up yesterday thinking it was a beautiful morning similar to the one on September 11, 2001. I honestly remember driving to work that day thinking it was an awful day to be going to work. I should stay home. But I went to work and it seemed like a normal day till the guy who sat over the wall from me said: "A plane hit one of the Twin Towers". I thought he was joking and even laughed. He didn't reply and then I turned on my radio. It wasn't on long when the 2nd plane hit the other twin tower and then we knew. We knew this was no accident. I didn't get anything done that day. We all milled around at work looking at the internet coverage and listening to the radio. We heard about the Pentagon and other various unconfirmed bombings and plane crashes. I should have gone home, but they didn't let the kids out of school and I didn't want to be alone. I remember thinking my children's lives have been changed forever, what would the world be like now? Frankly our lives didn't change as much as those who had relatives in New York, Washington DC or in those planes. I thought things might be like the time where there was a sniper in the Washington DC area (was that before or after 911?), but so far it hasn't happened, however it's always in the back of my mind. We didn't take any shirts or items that screamed American when we traveled to Germany in 2003. Of course we still have our accents and our passports, so I'm sure we don't need much. I admit I'm still waiting for something.
Did you see that video this morning? That one where an American al Qaeda spokesman is threating Los Angeles and Melbourne? What is wrong with these people? And why would an American do this? A link to the story is here.
Time for a topic change ... my weekend recap.
It was a great weekend. No house work got done, no yard work got done, and the laundry is piling up, but we had a wonderful weekend.
Saturday we used our free tickets from friends of friends of employees from AstraZeneca and went to Dorney Park. It was a gorgeous day. We couldn't have ordered better weather. We chowed down the free lunch and went off to the water park. The water was a tad cold, but you got used to it and we enjoyed a number of the rides since the lines were small. Then we joined our friends who were anti water park for a ride on Thunder Canyon. It was an accident really. There are a couple of rides that are in the main park that one should really wear a bathing suit on and since we had season tickets one year I knew the drill. There's a path from the water park to the water rides in the main area and we took it and when we showed up in line, there were our friends. It was nice. We all got soaked together. Some more than others. The guy sitting next to me got hit by every piece of water action there was. We were going to go on again, but something broke. So we split up and got changed. Then, somehow, we met up with them again. This time we rode some roller coasters (well some of us did). First we (the women and children ... isn't that weird?) road ThunderHawk. It's a fairly tame wooden roller coaster. It was dd2's first rollercoaster ride and she loved it. Our 2nd rollercoaster was Steel Force. Here's this is the blip from the Dorney website: "Rising 200 feet in the air as the longest, tallest and fastest coaster in the Northeast, Steel Force altered the landscape of Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom and set it apart from all other parks." So all the adults bail on this one. The 2 boys and dd2 want to go. dd2 doesn't want to ride by herself. Begging ensues. The damn thing looks big, but I cave. The kids (minus dd1) and I ride Steel Force. Someone should have bought the picture. I looked scared out of my mind. And I don't think anyone would have recognized me if I had posted it here because all you can really see in the picture is my tonsils. (The boys looked good, but dd2 looked a little concerned.) But dd2 loved it, so I guess it was worth it.
On the way to Dorney I saw a bunch of those blow up things that people decorate their lawns with on holidays (I'm one of those people) and I saw one I'd like to add to my collection. It was a Snow Globe. I'll have to look and see if I can find a picture. It was so cute! Ok, I found it. Why do I always like the most expensive ones? If you'd like to peek, you can find it here.
Sunday, another gorgeous day. We went to the Irish/Scottish Festival. I thought we'd do a lot more walking, but early in the outing my sister found a large rock in front of her (It was 2 1/2 feet high) and she fell over it. There was lots of blood and swelling. We introduced her to the first aid stand. Then we sat and watched the irish dancing and singing. It was nice. We just chased the shade around the tree and the kids helped me spend my money. We probably came home with a few things we didn't need.
A little sad note to the weekend was that my sister's 14 year old dog died on Saturday morning. He's had cancer for awhile. I've always been surprised that he did as well as he did for as long as he did. He was a certified care dog (or something like that) so my sister was able to take him to work and he frequently came to our house. He will be missed. He was a good dog. We bought a celtic cross for his grave at the Irish Festival. I know my sister will miss him a great deal, especially in this morning's drive to work. It's the dog that she and her soon to be X bought together before they got married. It seems a shame that it's all ending together.
I hope you were able to get to the end of this entry. It was a long one today. Thanks for reading this far. Happy Monday to all of you!