1 a.m. Parenting at It's Best

I would just like to say this one more time. I hate the airline we flew with. They were nice, efficient, and didn't suck in most ways. However, sitting there waiting for our flight to a city that is NOWHERE near Florida to catch another plane, and hearing that their competitor (who incidentally is generally our first choice in airlines) is now boarding their DIRECT flight to Orlando....well, let's just say that creates a bit of a jaded rum-drinker.

Our flights were uneventful. It was snowing again as we left.....making me giggle at all the poor suckers arriving. Their faces as they stepped off the planes and looked out the big windows at what kind of world they were entering...priceless. I felt pretty relaxed....till the captain announced that the little machine at the back of the plane responsible for pressurizing the cabin was not working (he put it in technical terms - but that's what it came down to) but not to worry, they were going to cross-hatch the gizmo-nator and get it going on our way out of there. So, to me....fixing airplanes while taking off or in mid-air doesn't seem to be the best idea. You know....I guess I'm being picky, but I kind of like my plane to be fully functional before I ascend to 36,000 feet. Oh, and they were de-icing planes (because I live in HELL where you have to do that in April) and for some reason they skipped our plane. Reassuring no?

For all the annoyances and gut-wrenching terror, they had a really cool entertainment system on board. Everyone had their own TV and there were tons of movies, TV shows, etc to choose from. I got to see a chick-flick uninterrupted by a whining hubby or annoying kids. Well, I still had one annoying kid beside me, but she had cartoons so the interruptions were kept to a minimum. Our connection went pretty well. Our bags were there. US customs didn't require a colonoscopy to let us board....pretty easy breezy. The only little note of interest was that apparently if you are carrying an XBox 360' in your carry-on you are either a) about to blow the plane sky-high or b) smuggling drugs. They tested that bag and it's contents at every security point. Our second flight was much like the first...except this plane was seemingly in good working order. I watched some TV this time around. A little HBO comedy, a little of this, a little of that. Then I turned on Sex and the City. The uncensored version apparently. Let me warn all you unknowing travellers....this one has the swearing and nudity. All of it...none of this edited for TV crap. I'm talking 2 degrees shy of pornography here. It wasn't at all embarrassing for me to have to cover daughter's head repeatedly while Samantha "rode her cowboy". Good grief.

We landed at 11:30pm in the land where snow is not. And where green is. I sent hubby to the rental car counter by himself. Mistake. Poor guy gets screwed every time. We ended up with the insurance....he thought we had to have it. Nope. So there's an additional couple hundred dollars. Sigh. And they "upgraded" us to a minivan. Upgrade? I kind of wanted the car. You know, the vehicle that doesn't cost a kidney to fill? Whatever....at least all our bags fit. We navigated the roads like champs - easy as hell to get around here. On the last leg of our journey to the rental house we came across an unusual site. An open McDonald's. Did you people know they keep them open 24 hours down here? We can barely get a burger on a Sunday in our city! So, we did a couple of mostly legal u-turns and took our kids through the McDonald's drive-through at 1am local time. We is GOOOOD parents. The rental house was easy to find as well. Crazy. I expected more hiccups.

I am currently writing this waiting for hubby to get his ass in gear. We need to go get food for the house, and explore a little. Take in some vitamin D. I can't figure out the wireless (go figure....) so this is currently in draft form, along with all it's charming spelling mistakes and grammatical heresy. Blogger, bless your little heart for having that spell-check device.