And we thought yesterday would be the last snow day...! Today started out as a delayed arrival for both me and my daughter, but Howard County schools reconsidered and closed, so we had another day at home. I'm sure my employees missed me today, though, at least as much as I missed them.
I wanted to do something other than just sitting around at home all day. At first, I thought we might go see a movie. We obviously didn't need to be housebound with the improvement in the weather and conditions from yesterday. We haven't seen FROZEN yet, and Melody really wanted to see it. One thing led to another, though, and we ended up just staying home. Later, with it being Shrove Tuesday, I thought we might go out to IHOP for Free Pancake Day. Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. It marks the end of Epiphany, and is a day of celebration and feasting before the beginning of Lent and fasting. It's also known as "Fat Tuesday". We got ready to go, but changed our minds again and we just stayed home.
I ended up deciding to grill some burgers on the stove instead. However, we had some excitement. I had recently made homemade pizza and had inadvertently dropped a little bit of cheese under the burner on the stove. It started to burn and smoke as the stove got hot, and pretty soon, the entire kitchen was in a fog. Next was the smoke alarms, which are working well, apparently. That scared my daughter and she came running downstairs wondering if the house was, indeed, on fire. Faithful Pup Scout got scared, too, and pretty soon she was shaking and trying to jump up into my arms. I fanned the alarms and they stopped, but the silence didn't last long. The smoke just wouldn't dissipate, even with the vent fan running full blast, and the alarms kept going off. I put Melody in charge of fanning until the burgers were done.
After eating, I started to get a little stir crazy. All of this sitting around yesterday and today has taken a toll. If nothing else, I finally got Melody to clean her room. Other than that, I got to watch a few movies and free up some of the memory on my Tivo. Also, I finally started planning and reserving our Spring Break vacation.
A few months ago, I asked Melody where in the entire USA she would like to go, if she could. She replied, "Hollywood!" I'm not sure she really understands what Hollywood is. I've been there several times, and the city of Hollywood really isn't much to build a vacation out of. But I knew we could have a good time in Southern California.
Initially, I thought I might surprise her by taking her to Disneyland, but I decided that we could do more for less money instead. I also lallygagged too much before nailing down our flights. I found that it was much cheaper to fly into Las Vegas and drive to Los Angeles, and I could show her a few highlights of Vegas, too. Obviously, I'm not going to be taking her to the casinos, but I've been there enough times to know what she would like to see and do. I reserved a room at the Excalibur on the Strip, which is a good place to use as a home base. We'll be able to ride the roller coaster at New York New York, see the volcano at the Mirage, go up into the Stratosphere Tower, see the Fremont Street Experience, and lots of other things. Then we'll head south and jump on Route 66 in Kingman, AZ, and continue west across the Mojave Desert into Southern California and on to the coast. We're going to do a few studio tours, hit an amusement park (Six Flags Magic Mountain appears to be the front runner), and then return to Vegas before flying home. It's going to be a great trip, I think.
In the meantime, we're find something to do for the next hour or so before bedtime. As much as we love a snow day, we need to get back to our normal routine. Only Faithful Pup Scout will be disappointed.
Have a great evening, everyone!
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