Priceline.com for Hotels

On our recent trip to Mall of America we decided to see what kind of a deal we could get on rooms around the mall. I have gotten rooms on priceline before. You need to plug in your credit card information, pick an area of the city you are going to, pick a star level for the hotel, and how much you are willing to pay for the room. It's a blind transaction. You don't know what hotel you are going to get, the computer picks one for you. We lucked out and got Sofitel. It's a hotel that is pretty swank, no pool, no shuttle to the mall, caters more to the business person, but it was great! The staff are very customer focused and could not have been nicer. They enjoyed having kids in the hotel and went out of their way to make us comfortable.

The one thing we loved the most was the early morning wake up calls. They bring a complimentary cup of coffee for every adult in the room 15 minutes after the wake up call. This was heaven! we did it every morning while we were there.

Steve got us all a margarita at the bar and brought it to our room one night. That was fun, we sat around and had a drink and visited while Noah and Olivia played with the buckets of legos that Uncle Isaac bought them.

The bathrooms had live bamboo in them, the rooms had art hanging on the wall, and Steve's favorite part was the settee in the corner, he spent the whole weekend sitting in it while we were there.

There is an area below the walkway that had a large bar, tables, 2 grand pianos, big enough to accommodate a huge party. I told Steve it would be great to have a wedding reception there. When leaving on Saturday morning to go to the Mall, there was a fair amount of activity down there with a huge amount of alcohol being brought in, etc. I told them we were going to come back to a huge party that night. Sure enough, it was hopping when we got back. There were people everywhere, both pianos were playing, people all over the place. When we shut the door to our room you could have heard a pin drop. We didn't hear a sound! At any time we were there we never heard another person in the hall, next door, etc. It was perfectly quiet.

Gorilla Stool at Rain Forest Cafe Mall of America

Olivia really got into the gorilla stool. When we took her over to sit on it, she pulled it sideways, underneath was a little stream of water that made it look as if the gorilla had urinated on the floor. She wrinkled up her nose and pointed, whispering to me that she couldn't believe the gorilla had done that, they needed to teach him to NOT DO THAT!!!!!!!!












The gorilla stool was REALLY heavy for a 5 year old, she struggled to push him back around facing the counter, as she did,I leaned over to help her when I heard her say to the gorilla, "you better not P**p here!!!!!!!!!!!!" It was so funny, the look on her face and the way that she said it. I thought at that moment how she looked like her mom when Karen tells them not to do something. It was priceless!!!!

Passwords and their Rules

During a company’s recent password audit, it was found that a blonde employee was using the following password:

“MickeyMinniePlutHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento”

When asked why she had such a long password, she said she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters long and at least one capital.

Home!!!!!!!

It was so much fun to go visit the grand babies, but it is good to be home!

Here are some random shots of the trip. Isaac had to lift both kids to be under the snake, they are huge snake fans, it cracks me up! The tree Karen and Olivia are standing in front of started talking to Olivia.

It was a little work getting them to sit on the stools with the animal tails. There's a whole story about the gorilla stool, but that will be a separate story.

We did Priceline.com for hotels. I'll do a separate story about the hotel, it was beautiful!!!

Ahhh.......relaxation

I am relaxing before I make up my mind what to do with myself today.

Bubble tea? Massage? Bake? Root around on the internet?? Go for a nice long walk?

Clean? Laundry? Melt some glass? String some bracelets? Make some earrings?

Hope you all have a weekend that is fun and relaxing.

I know, I'll peruse the catalogues deciding which flowers to plant this year, but I always come back to the same ones, the ones that attract the hummingbirds and spill out of the planters. I love wave petunias for those reasons.

I can't wait to see what the wisteria does this year, it went crazy last year, looked gorgeous amongst the clematis. The 'red' clematis that turned into a purple one like they all do. They are clearly marked red in the nursery, but when I get them home and they bloom it is clearly a purple one every time, I now have 3...haha

These photos were taken before the area was finished. The mulch isn't down, the rest of the plantings had not been done, it ended up being a very nice area to sit and sip iced tea.

Marathon Bead Making

I'm making beads like a crazy woman for a show, for a shop and for jewelry. I'm excited to be trying out new things.

Still planning that trip to Mall of America, but more importantly IKEA. I've never been to one, pretty lame, I know, but I'm still excited to go, I love gadgets, organizers, etc. I'll spend some time there, I am sure. The men will most likely be bored to tears. Unless we can convince them to go to Nickleodeon University at MOA while we go to IKEA. Wish us luck on that!

It's been 3 weeks since I sent off for the Sourdough starter. It should be coming in a few weeks. I can't wait to see how it works and make me some ciabatta bread. That is also lame, but what can I say? I am a domestic in every sense of the word. I wish I had more time to do more, I love to bake, cook, clean and organize. Time really falls short with all the other things I try to cram into a day.

Found out my little brother and his wife bought a house, I am so happy for them. They needed the room, they have 4 kids, all active and busy. It's a blessing to hear they are doing good.

Here's to winning the powerball, it's my turn, I wish they would figure that out!!!! Happy weekend to all!

Trip to Minneapolis

Planning a trip to Minneapolis. The grandkids don't know Isaac is home after completing his Computer Networking training. I told them we are bringing a big surprise for them, they have NO IDEA. It will be priceless to see the look on their faces after we get there.

Right now Isaac is getting his resume in order to look for a job, he's taken a couple weeks off to enjoy before he hits the 9-5 grind of being an adult.

I look forward to seeing what he will become, he's a really good boy with a soft heart, sweet spirit and a deep love for his family. I couldn't be prouder of him.