It's been a roasting hot couple of weeks and almost all my extracurricular summer plans had to fit into them.  Oh, but firstly:

Shortly after graduation, Tom and I left for Williamsburg to celebrate our anniversary/yearly vacation.  It was just before school let out for the youngsters and before Memorial Day, so we got a very good deal on the hotel, and it came with week long passes to Busch Gardens!  The hotel was conveniently located near a whole lot of local eateries... and across a driveway from Dairy Queen.  We ate lot of ice cream on vacation.  Highly recommended: the "Cherry Love" Blizzard. 

We did not do any of the normal Williamsburg activities... we totally avoided the reenactors and the museums and "old town" in general.  Instead we played miniature golf games, went shopping and to the pool and (I suppose more in line with the normal touristy business) went to Busch Gardens... and the Virginia Zoo.  It was beautiful weather for the entire trip and did not rain on any of our activities.   The Zoo trip was especially great since it was a bit cooler and all the animals were out!  Animals that I've never before seen at that zoo were having a great old time, and there are a lot of baby animals right now as well, which is always fun.  The baby giraffe and baby prairie dogs were super cute.  And the rhino was out and about!  He was so awesome, and very itchy.  He spent a lot of time rubbing along a big old tree that clearly had been used as a back scratcher by him in the past.  Reminded me of the Rudyard Kipling rhino story, although he seemed to be in a very good temper.  Just itchy. 







Oh, we also went to the thrift stores in Hampton!  It's a depressed area but for some reason, the thrift stores are just awesome.  I got Banana Republic pants (silk, new) and a J. Crew jacket and a really awesome old knock off Fendi purse with stripes on it.  And a belt with an owl buckle!  Tom did well at the thrift stores and also at the outlet center, where he came across some awesome corduroys by Haggar for dirt cheap, something I didn't expect to find in May.  Oh, and when I found that purse, the lady next to me actually tried to convince me to put it down and get a different one.  Heh.  No way.  And for the record, I'm not really too opinionated on fake bags either way, but vintage fake bags are very interesting to me, if they're well done.  What they thought was priority and what they skimped on... anyway.  Half the fun of owning something is the history behind it, and handbags definitely get that used-furniture type historical feeling to them.

We got home and took care of some little things around the house, I did some cleaning and updating and whatnot.  Last post I mentioned the Sweet Pea shirts, which I have now obtained several more of since they go up on Ebay very often and sell very cheaply.  It's really amazing for me to find things that fit me SO well for so cheap.  I'm amazed and thrilled.  

Then last Saturday we went to Kings Dominion with Tom's parents.  They got us super cheap tickets from one of their workplaces, which was awesome.  It was super hot, though.  Brutally hot.  I actually got dehydrated and had to buy one of their damn $4 water bottles to carry around and drink out of and refill from the fountain.  One thing we didn't realize about hot days at KD-- the bad fashion comes out hardcore.  People were wearing things that should never have seen the light of day.  The fat guy in a thong is pretty much a stereotype by now but that was the level of skin that was being shown... and not tastefully.  Monokinis are a really, really bad idea actually for MOST people, I realize now.  And stretch shorts?  Augh!  I think I'd have to use both hands and a foot to count the camel toes we encountered.  And the big giant boobies with no bras on them.  Come on folks.  The girls need a boost. 

Although, I could really see why people were wearing this stuff.  By the time we were there for an hour I was wishing that I had on only a bikini and was submerged in the Lazy River.  I think I saturated my dress with sweat. 





We did get a chance to see the new Nascar themed roller coaster (that's it behind us in this picture)-- it's the biggest coaster I've ever seen and ridiculously fast.  The line for it was so long that we decided to give it a miss, but we did take pictures of it.  As one of my friends said, it makes their other coasters look like kiddie rides. 

Tomorrow Latin starts for me, which means I'll be very, very busy for the rest of the summer.  I read a whole bunch of fun books to compensate for that, some Terry Pratchett, some Zelazny (rereads of the entire Amber series, which I have a lot of affection for) and topped it off with Heinlein's The Cat who walks through Walls.  I hadn't read Heinlein before-- what a crazy guy!  Very interested in sexual experimentation.  Unfortunately as I neared the end of the book I could tell that he wasn't going to be able to tie off all the loose ends satisfactorily, and I was right... instead he attempted an "open ended" ending where the protagonists could have lived or perhaps died. Yes, I know he was trying for the Schrodinger's Cat theme, but it's just not very good writing.  Makes better Philosophy 101 than novel.  But it was a fun ride.  Oh, and he definitely wrote himself into the book along with his ideal woman.  I laughed aloud when I realized the ridiculous stack of assets (heh heh) that he'd given her: she's a math whiz, pilot, great driver, light packer, can pass for Japanese, a freak in the bed, witty, literate, older than him but looks younger, sexually open to multiple partners but still a little possessive, etc etc.  Oh lordy.  Oh, and he did the ultimate writer's frot of including famous science fiction characters in the cast.  I am guessing his earlier work must have been a little, just a little, more restrained, because this was ridiculous.