Jalapeños are a Lifestyle

So Stan walks into the kitchen this evening while I am making dinner and says “I just want you to know….” at this point I interrupted and said “You read my blog? Already?” Stan continued “I EMBRACE my OCDPD.” If you are wondering, he was really tickled at the buying the alcoholic a bar comment. But that’s not the point of this update. He’s passing it down to our children…or at least the oldest one.

Tim walked into the kitchen and asked if Stan had a copy available of the Disney plan because he really needed to get it entered into his PDA. And then the two of them went and printed out a copy so he could do just that.

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

I swore I was going to wait with this news until we wrote our Christmas letter this year, but I am simply not strong enough to wait with this announcement. So brace yourselves, this is a big one….

Stan has a hobby.

Or at least, we are calling it a hobby. The truth is, it is worse, much worse. He has OCDPD (Obsessive Compulsive Disney Planning Disorder). I knew that it was bad before our trip last fall. (No Stan, I do NOT know what I want to eat 4 weeks from now at noon on Monday. I really don’t even want to go on this stupid trip. Leave me ALONE!) I should have been a wise woman and recognized the warning signs, but he has been so SENSIBLE to this point in his life. Who KNEW!? And so when we bought into the Disney Vacation Club last fall who knew we were buying the alcoholic a bar!?

He has been lurking on Disney-related internet forums. Lots of them. regularly. And when he read about the tea purchase in my last blog entry (who knew he read my blog?) he decided he would come clean with his own confession. Are you ready? He was thinking about POSTING. After years of teasing me about MY internet homescholing forum addiction, Stan was getting ready to put his toe in the water. And wanted my assistance with setting up his account. BWAHAHAHAHA!! You know when you first get married you have an entirely different idea of the moments that define a marriage. You can read Stan’s posts about our Disney trips here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1081268

But forum lurking and posting isn’t ALL…oh no. We hit the 180 day window for our trip this week. I know this because the “Magical Countdown Clocks” on our computers say so. Stan knows it because he has subscribed (as in PURCHASED) to a Disney planning service. (Tour Guide Mike or something like that….this is HIS hobby not mine.) Tour Guide Mike reminded us that it was time to get our reservations in for the Princess Breakfast and the Hoop Dee Doo review and since we were at it Stan pestered me all week to make the retaurant reservations. He sucked Tim into the Disney Planning Vortex and the two of them sat down with a calendar and the Disney park schedule and mapped out our days for the trip next month….oh wait, it isn’t next month. That would be the trip SIX MONTHS from now. Whew. Wouldn’t want to leave anything to chance now would we? If this level of planning is necessary at the six-month point, I don’t even want to contemplate the level of detail I will be subjected to at the 6 week point. Pray for me.

It’s been a busy several weeks.  

Two weeks ago. Spring hit our area with a vengeance. And as I gazed upon the sun-rotted ruins of the pots on my patio, I knew it was time for a major overhaul. Many, many LARGE bags of potting soil later, and more $ than I want to contemplate sunk into new pots….the patio is looking stunning. Amazingly enough there were PLANTS lurking under those dead stems and weeds. The only thing new plant-wise in the garden this year other than replacements of the dead plants are a couple of pomegranate bushes. The children jumped up and down and begged for them…what could I do? Say no? You can’t have those plants so we can grow anti-oxidant-filled fruit that you love?

Last weekend I used some points from our Disney Vacation Club membership to treat myself and a couple of girlfriends to a weekend in Chicago. Not only is it a joy to have the privilege of seeing my oldest of growing up into a fine young man, but it is certainly a pleasure that he is now old enough to watch his siblings for a time. Before I left, it became apparent that our furnace wasn’t working and so I made arrangements to have it looked at while I was away. When I hit the ground in Chicago, I called home and was told that the repairman was there. Ahh yes…it was Spring Break. The furnace needs a part, an expensive one I was told. Better still, it was unlikely that the part was even available. Replacing the old furnace was going to cost nearly three thousand dollars. Fortuntately, Stan was patient and willing to wait for the expensive part.  The weekend was fabulous. Each of us had a half day package at the Elizabeth Arden Spa…that kind of treatment I could grow rapidly accustomed to.  I also was introduced to a tea shop called Teavana and learned a useful life lesson. Never say “I’ll take a bag full of that” without asking if the price is per ounce or per pound.

This weekend. The rest of my family is off enjoying the bluebonnets and I am home alone enjoying the silence. And a few hours of gardening, and watching any movie I want to (Memoirs of a Geisha), and catching up on all the things I never seem to be able to catch up on.

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll

On Being Catholic by Thomas Howard

Darcy and Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley by Linda Berdoll

The Fat Resistance Diet by Leo Galland