Odd things, and then water and speed!
Sep. 18th, 2011 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seldneiOdd Things
It looks like they replaced the top of my laptop, as it's not nearly as scratched as the old one was (as Scott says, this only makes sense). In addition, when I booted the laptop up last night, it came up as plain mint wallpaper. So of course I went through all the wallpapers to fix that.
I don't remember all these wallpapers! There are paintings (including the Seurat painting Sunday Afternoon--if that's the real title, I don't know my pointillists as well as I ought to), and photos of, like, Buddhist temples (and I am now beginning to think this computer might be trying to tell me it belongs to David and not me ...), and how did I miss this when I was setting the computer up the first time?!
Not to mention the cool screensaver that makes it look like my photos are dropping, one by one, on top of each other.
I always expect, when I have a new computer or something like this makes it seem new, that the internet will also be new and shiny. And it really never is.
Water and Speed!
We live about five minutes away from a small water park. Not the usual water park we go to, with the cute water features and the mini-train; no, this has water slides and a pool and a "lazy river." This place is ridiculously expensive (I think), but Z loves water, so I've been considering whether to take him there. Well, a couple of days ago I saw that they're doing a $7 admission for the next two weekends, as these are the last two weekends they'll be open until around March, so today we got sunblocked and bathing suited, and headed over.
It's a lot nicer than I was expecting (though not nice enough to justify their usual admission fee), with complimentary life jackets, and there was actually quite a lot that Z could do. First he hit the kiddie slides that were kids-only, then we hit the pool/lagoon and took the inner tubes around the lazy river. The lazy river is basically a canal thing filled with about 3 feet of water, with jets that create a current. The second time Z. and I were in there, he didn't want an inner tube (who could blame him--his arms are too short to really grab the handles and it was like he was in an inflatable submarine), so we went without. He was bobbing along with his life jacket, practicing swimming, while I waded behind him looking around for Scott who was wiping chlorine out of his eyes. I glanced back and, thanks to the current and Mr. Z's vigorous kicking, found my kid scooting along three feet ahead of me!
Once we reunited, Z. decided he wanted out, so we exited the river. Then we hit one of the big slides, which he could only do with a grown-up in a dual tube.
So up we go, Scott with a single tube and me with the double, hauling these things up the stairs, placing them in the water, and then getting Z. situated in the front and me in the back. Then off we go ...
... and the tube around the slide is pitch black.
Well, that's a trifle disconcerting.
But I am a mother who does not want her son to freak out, so I start yelling "Woo hoo! Awesome!" Scott said he could hear us whooping all the way down the tube.
At the end of this, I discovered that there is no graceful way to exit an inner tube.
We did that slide two more times. We also hit the really, really tall, but not quite the tallest, slide three times. That one, at least, we could see in. The second time, Z had suggested we do our Disney race car schtick, so I kept saying how relaxing it was right before we hit a turn and got water up our noses.
Scott went down the practically-a-freefall slides. ALONE.
Then we got ice cream, re-sunblocked, drank water, and went back in the pool/lagoon. Scott and I talked Z into hitting the lazy river again, and this time we sat him on one side of an inner tube and I told him to put his feet up like he had on the slides, and so he rode around the river as though he were on an inflatable car.
We hit a few more slides--he went on the kiddie slides again and figured out how to make himself go fast; the last time down he was flat on his back with one arm up in the air giving the world a thumbs-up.
And then we were all tired and ready to come home, and so we did. None of us are sunburned. The kid is playing video games with Scott. I'm sore from hauling dual inner tubes up stairs. But it was a good day. Tuesday I get buried in grading, so I'm glad we got to have a nice day out today.
It looks like they replaced the top of my laptop, as it's not nearly as scratched as the old one was (as Scott says, this only makes sense). In addition, when I booted the laptop up last night, it came up as plain mint wallpaper. So of course I went through all the wallpapers to fix that.
I don't remember all these wallpapers! There are paintings (including the Seurat painting Sunday Afternoon--if that's the real title, I don't know my pointillists as well as I ought to), and photos of, like, Buddhist temples (and I am now beginning to think this computer might be trying to tell me it belongs to David and not me ...), and how did I miss this when I was setting the computer up the first time?!
Not to mention the cool screensaver that makes it look like my photos are dropping, one by one, on top of each other.
I always expect, when I have a new computer or something like this makes it seem new, that the internet will also be new and shiny. And it really never is.
Water and Speed!
We live about five minutes away from a small water park. Not the usual water park we go to, with the cute water features and the mini-train; no, this has water slides and a pool and a "lazy river." This place is ridiculously expensive (I think), but Z loves water, so I've been considering whether to take him there. Well, a couple of days ago I saw that they're doing a $7 admission for the next two weekends, as these are the last two weekends they'll be open until around March, so today we got sunblocked and bathing suited, and headed over.
It's a lot nicer than I was expecting (though not nice enough to justify their usual admission fee), with complimentary life jackets, and there was actually quite a lot that Z could do. First he hit the kiddie slides that were kids-only, then we hit the pool/lagoon and took the inner tubes around the lazy river. The lazy river is basically a canal thing filled with about 3 feet of water, with jets that create a current. The second time Z. and I were in there, he didn't want an inner tube (who could blame him--his arms are too short to really grab the handles and it was like he was in an inflatable submarine), so we went without. He was bobbing along with his life jacket, practicing swimming, while I waded behind him looking around for Scott who was wiping chlorine out of his eyes. I glanced back and, thanks to the current and Mr. Z's vigorous kicking, found my kid scooting along three feet ahead of me!
Once we reunited, Z. decided he wanted out, so we exited the river. Then we hit one of the big slides, which he could only do with a grown-up in a dual tube.
So up we go, Scott with a single tube and me with the double, hauling these things up the stairs, placing them in the water, and then getting Z. situated in the front and me in the back. Then off we go ...
... and the tube around the slide is pitch black.
Well, that's a trifle disconcerting.
But I am a mother who does not want her son to freak out, so I start yelling "Woo hoo! Awesome!" Scott said he could hear us whooping all the way down the tube.
At the end of this, I discovered that there is no graceful way to exit an inner tube.
We did that slide two more times. We also hit the really, really tall, but not quite the tallest, slide three times. That one, at least, we could see in. The second time, Z had suggested we do our Disney race car schtick, so I kept saying how relaxing it was right before we hit a turn and got water up our noses.
Scott went down the practically-a-freefall slides. ALONE.
Then we got ice cream, re-sunblocked, drank water, and went back in the pool/lagoon. Scott and I talked Z into hitting the lazy river again, and this time we sat him on one side of an inner tube and I told him to put his feet up like he had on the slides, and so he rode around the river as though he were on an inflatable car.
We hit a few more slides--he went on the kiddie slides again and figured out how to make himself go fast; the last time down he was flat on his back with one arm up in the air giving the world a thumbs-up.
And then we were all tired and ready to come home, and so we did. None of us are sunburned. The kid is playing video games with Scott. I'm sore from hauling dual inner tubes up stairs. But it was a good day. Tuesday I get buried in grading, so I'm glad we got to have a nice day out today.
