Candyland Part One

    The class list for performance at Candyland was all themed classes. Which is an interesting group of classes to judge, for sure. None of the classes were huge but most of them were challenging to judge. I got photos of almost every entry in the show, though I did miss a few photos, but again, the classes were not large, I only had to judge 10 of them, so I had time. The first class of the day was License to Drive. I did not catch who the entries belonged to, so just enjoy the photos. 

    The second class of the day was Once Upon a Time in the West. And somehow I forgot to take pics of every entry except this one. 

    The third class of the day was The English Patient. I had a good variety of entries.

    The 4th class of the day was 21 Jump Street. And I had an even wilder variety of entries!

     There's a lot more show to come. And I have a variety of other posts as well. Many of them will be mostly wordless, but at least you have lots of fun photos to look forward to!
 

Colorado Adventure

    Friday is coffee date day so Travis and I went to Barnes and Noble on the way to the airport. We went much earlier than normal, but that was fine. I saw this wonderful sign, which is totally true, but I resisted buying any books for myself. That was a poor life choice as it turns out. 

    Travis had a great time on the plane again. Though I think even he was a little bit bored by the end of the 4 and a half hour flight. He didn't seem to want to just look out the window the whole time. But he did seem to enjoy himself. 

     I don't know if Colorado is always this brown, but it was pretty brown when I took this photo. Though I am also not 100% sure we were flying over Colorado at this point. Still, I managed to keep my eyes open for a lot of the flight. I finished my book much more quickly than I thought I would. I worked on my Spanish, even taking a bunch of notes, took a nap for about an hour and I ran out of things to do and started thinking longingly of layovers, just to break up the flight and have something to do. We do have a layover on the way home. Though it was because the direct flight for the way home didn't have a window seat for Travis. 

     Once we landed in Colorado the reasonable part of the trip ended. The Denver airport is ginormous and I immediately had no idea where to go. But I was told to go take the train to baggage, then go outside and find where to take the shuttle to pick up the rental car. Here is where things go from vaguely confusing, to kind of annoying, to incredibly angry and a one star review. 

     So I requested a shuttle through the link the rental company sent me 3 times. It still took 25 minutes for them to pick us up. We got to the rental place and there were a couple of people in front of us so we waited about a half an hour for it to be our turn. We got the car and I was told there was about a half a tank of gas, which is super abnormal for a rental car, but whatever. We got the car and headed out. It was making some very strange noises, somehow I ended up turning on the hazards (no idea how) and couldn't figure out how to turn them off, things were bad. So when we stopped at a light I turned it off. Because sometimes if you turn a thing off and back on again things get better. And I figured maybe I hit some weird controls on the steering wheel because there were buttons and knobs all over the steering wheel! Front and back, it was kind of ridiculous. So then I went to turn the car back on... and it wouldn't start. I tried a couple more times, all of a sudden kind of thankful that the hazards were on, and when it still wouldn't start I called the rental company. I had to call twice to figure out how to actually get a line to ring. And then I had to let it ring for 5 or more minutes before someone answered the phone. Eventually it was answered, I told them my problem, and was put on hold multiple times. I was told that maybe I was out of gas, since the tank was empty when I took it. I said that I was told there was a half a tank of gas (yes, I should have checked it myself) and there was no reason I should be out of gas less than 10 minutes down the road. She said the other option was maybe the battery was dead. So what were her suggestions? I could Uber to a gas station or get someone to jump the car. Wow. So the rental company (Routes by the way. They are the absolute worst and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone) said, basically, figure it out yourself. I asked the woman if that was what she meant and her response was those were her suggestions of what to try and no, no one would come out to help me. Heather sent Josh out to rescue us and a random motorist stopped to ask if we were out of gas and said she'd see if her husband would stop to get some for us (they did not come back). I did eventually figure out the car wouldn't start from user error (I am not at all familiar with push to start and skipped a step) but it still stands, the rental company gave me a car with an empty gas tank (it was in fact basically empty) and then when I called and said the car was dead on the side of the road they basically told me to figure it out myself. So yeah, I was pissed and I left a detailed one star review. Josh found us and followed us to the gas station. We did make it at least. 

    Things got a lot better when we got to Heather's house. Travis was very cuddly with Heather and was grinning the whole time. I think he has a new best friend. We had some nice conversation, Heather ordered us food, and after a bit we all went to bed. 

     Sometime in the night one of the cats, I don't know which one, tried to steal one of my rings off the table next to where I was sleeping. I am not sure which cat, but I caught them and then put my rings away. I am not even sure which cat this is, I can only identify one of them by sight. 

     Heather's house is incredibly quiet compared to mine. Sometimes I could hear the heat coming on quietly but other than that it was so quiet. I live near the Mass Pike so I hear traffic constantly. It is never quiet at my house. So it was interesting. I am still adjusting to Colorado so I am super dehydrated (working on it), my ears have been blocked since we got here, and I am very congested. But that could be because I am allergic to cats. Or because I have been congested since I turned my heat on a couple of weeks ago. I do have to say though, my Flonase is doing amazing things! I am a bit snuffly but my eyes are not itchy at all. And I was petting cats. 

     I got more sleep than I usually do on a Friday night, though I have no idea how much because my Fitbit decided not to track. Again. But I am usually out really late on Friday nights and still get up relatively early, so I got pretty reasonable sleep as far as I can tell. I am not my usual level of Saturday tired. Travis and I are here hanging out at Candyland Live and I am doing random things, including blogging, in between judging performance classes. So far the worst part of the trip has been the rental car company. I seem to learn new things every time I travel. This time around it's check the reviews. It would have been worth it to pay more to not deal with a company as terrible as Routes. 

      Travis and I went out to Barnes and Noble during the lunch break so I could buy a book. Since I apparently can stay awake on the plane now, at least some of the time, I definitely need something to do on the way home. And really, I can always use a new book. 

Still Here

     I meant to write this post days ago, but I didn't end up having time. That is the story of my life these days; I just don't have any time. Trying to just get through the regular stuff I need to do takes up more time than I have. I have been feeling like I am always behind, always missing something I need to get done. Sometimes I feel like I am catching up, and sometimes I feel like a hot mess. But I am making progress in a lot of areas. 

     The above photo is a picture of my dog-friend, Jester. I got a fancier than usual iPhone and figured I might as well figure out how to use the fancy (pro) camera. So I was playing around with it. And I was trying to catch a photo of him falling asleep on his perch. He likes to climb up on the back of my couch, like a cat, to hang out and sleep. It took a bit to get this photo because every time I picked up the phone to take a picture he would open his eyes. Let's stop for a second and think about what an odd phrase that would have been 20ish years ago "picked up the phone to take a picture". 

     I am really pleased with how the Ellie heads look as men with a bit of facial hair added. I showed this pic to a friend of mine who isn't at all familiar with the dolls, and she was very surprised to find out this is a woman doll. I finished him, dirtied him up a bit, and he's currently for sale. The only place he has been listed is on the model doll maker's page on Facebook. That may change. 

     My kids and I went to the Salem Night Faire again this year. My fancy new phone camera really does take some excellent pictures. I have gotten a picture of "tall spooky" (Travis named him. He's really The Fortune Teller) every year and this batch is definitely the best set of pics I have ever gotten. I also found out this guy's hat gets taller every year. Because he is full of more and more wisdom. Obviously. 

     Travis's beard was almost enough to fully block me from this picture. And he looks so happy!

    In case anyone has forgotten, Elecktra also looks pretty much exactly like me. Just a little bit younger. I do get a big kick out of it. 

     This is my friend Alice and I at a vampire party we went to a little over a week ago. She and I take a lot of selfies together and have never taken a bad photo together. We took a variety of photos at the party, but this was one of my favorites. 

      I am currently hanging out with Travis at Bradley Airport, waiting for a flight to Colorado. I am going to be judging performance at Candyland Live and I am so excited! We have never been to Colorado before. I wish we could stay a little bit longer, we're there for a long weekend and that's it this time. Maybe we can do a longer trip sometime when I don't have to take days off of work to do it. But today is the 46th day of school and I was there for the first 45 of them. So I am taking a couple of days now to go hang out with horses, both model and real. And I am very much looking forward to it!

     I took my Dramamine before we went through security so I am hoping that I will be OK on the flight. I absolutely hate that I get airsick now. I am really hoping I can managed to keep my eyes open for at least part of the flight. It's a direct one, so it is a 4 hour and 36 minute flight and I would love to be able to get at least some work done in that time. That would be excellent. 

     One final note before I post this. It was 80 degrees by the time we got to the airport. 80 degrees. On November 1st. In New England. The board at our gate says it's currently 53 in Denver. Which is a temp we can absolutely deal with, it was 53 last week here (for real, Mother Nature is having some WILD mood swings!) but that is quite the switch all in one day. But no matter what the temperature is, I am totally ready to go to Colorado!