Working at It

I've been doing a lot of thinking about blogging, ever since one of my fellow doll bloggers made a post about the benefits of it. I enjoy the doll blogging, but most of the regular bloggers from when I first got started on this blog aren't around any more, and the Lutheran blogging world is pretty much non-existent. However, not only do I still enjoy blogging, it still seems to be the best platform for me. Besides which, as my doll friend's post pointed out, blogging can make you a better communicator and writer. That's always a good thing, so even if I never had a huge following here, it will help me provide a better doll blog too! Don't worry, I won't be blogging about dolls here, but doll collecting truly is where a lot of my time, blogging and money goes, now that my daughters are starting to make their own way into the world.

Both of my daughters and I each have several YouTube vloggers that we like to watch, although I'm waiting for some of my favorites to be shut down any day now. However, what the most successful vloggers seem to do is provide regular content. Even if it's crap content, they get something new up one or two days a week. So for now, I'm going to try Mondays and Thursdays as my days to blog here. Even if I have nothing that seems exciting to say, I'm going to try to put up a new post every week on those days.

For this post, let me tell you about what Mr. BTEG and I were able to do with some of the "crumbs" we received in our tax refund this year. For starters, this past Saturday we drove down to the IKEA in Columbus, Ohio, and picked up a cart full of items that we've been needing for quite some time, like a mattress, a set of dishes (most of our old plates got broken or chipped during the child-rearing years,) and a bookcase with glass doors for my doll collection! The IKEA warehouse makes a Costco or Sam's Club look like a little mom-and-pop operation.

The BTEG family has not taken a vacation in many years, partially due to commitments like school, but largely due to finances. Mr. BTEG and I both suffer from seasonal depression, which seemed especially bad this year. So this past Sunday, Mr. BTEG and I were able to spend the night at one of my favorite places, Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark in Sandusky, Ohio. I'm not a strong swimmer and not really up for large water slides, but there are enough water attractions at GWL to keep me happy, and it's got a very nice restaurant and a few other in-hotel food options handy, so Mr. BTEG and I were able to wind down and relax. Plus, I got some swimming in Sunday afternoon and evening, and Monday morning.

The first time we took a vacation at Great Wolf Lodge was all the way back in 2004. Mr. BTEG was working a contracting job in Chicago during that time, which meant that the girls and I didn't see him as much as of course we were used to. Fortunately, we were already homeschooling, so there were a couple of weeks the girls and I drove out to Chicago and stayed at his apartment there with him. It was even educational, since we visited a lot of the family attractions Chicago has to offer. But we wanted to spend some serious family time at Christmas, and on a contractor's salary, Mr. BTEG was able to afford a couple of nights stay at what I believe at the time was Great Bear Lodge.

Honestly, it was probably one of the best times we had as a family. The girls were young enough that somehow "Santa" managed to sneak all the Christmas presents past them, so that they were truly surprised when they woke up on Christmas morning.

Our eldest had brought some "reindeer food" that she'd made with her Brownie troop. We put that on the balcony the night before, and I scuffed the snow around after they went to bed, to look like the reindeer had come by and snacked on it.

We had a Kids' Cabin room, where the girls had their own little cabin with a bunk bed, a twin-sized bed, and their own game console and TV (the two pictures below are from another Christmas that we spent there.)

Most importantly, we got to spend that Christmas holiday together without worrying about dealing with annoying family, making food, washing dishes, or even going out in the very inclement weather that we were having at the time.

It's one of those times that as a mom of two adults, I still look back on with fondness, and they do too. (They *still* don't know how we managed to sneak all their presents past them.)

So yes, Great Wolf Lodge has wonderful memories for me, but Mr. BTEG and I still found it a very relaxing place to recharge this past weekend, so we can hold on until spring weather gets here to Northeast Ohio (Spring Training notwithstanding, Scottius!)

And I'm going to do my absolute best to put content up here every Monday and Thursday! It might be crap content ;), but it won't be doll-related. And no, my doll stuff is not crap, thankyouverymuch! :)

CodeMash 2016

The Evil Genius family got a terrific chance at a basically free vacation, when Mr. BTEG's company arranged to send him to CodeMash, a convention for computer developers, that is held yearly at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, OH. Mr. BTEG got a four-person room, and since that entitled him to up to four waterpark passes, the Musician, the Dancer, and I came along. It was not only a great opportunity for a vacation, but family participation is encouraged with KidzMash, "a free family track for the spouses and families of attendees."

The Good:
Free-to-us getaway, as noted above

The Musician and the Dancer got time to interact with all kinds of adults in technology fields, and take part in activities such as helping Daddy build a NodeBot. Most of the KidzMash activities were designed for much smaller children, but the girls were very welcome in anything that was not an official lecture or class. The Musician's outgoing and vivacious personality really shone through here. Since the Dancer is still thinking of studying STEM in college, it was a fantastic chance for her to get a closer look at technology opportunities, and meet lots of adults in the field. They also got to do some fun things like play Settlers of Catan.

Parts of the waterpark were really fun. The girls enjoyed the wave pool. I got to ride the Zip Coaster, a kind of roller coaster in a water slide tube, which was fun for this roller coaster enthusiast.

The Bad:

I got bored with the water park very quickly. I enjoy the lazy river ride at Great Wolf Lodge, and expected to find a really great lazy river at Kalahari, since it is a much bigger water park. But it wasn't really any longer than the one at GWL, and it was chilly! GWL likes to stress how warm their waterpark is, and I can see why now that I've been in the Kalahari one. Not only was I shivering in the lazy river, but there are several places where water splashes down on you, which does not help with the chill. Another reason I didn't enjoy the water park as much as I would have liked was because:

The air was very dry. After only several hours in the park, my legs were dry and itchy. I would have liked to have gone on the Zip Coaster again, or tried out a few other things, but I didn't want to make my skin irritation worse. I do have sensitive skin, but even though Mr. BTEG hadn't gone in the water park yet, his hands were drying out after a couple of days. I can see that they would not want to have the area outside the water park feel overly humid, but they went too far and dried the air out too much, especially for the winter months.

The food was so-so. One of the fun things about going to an indoor water park like GWL or Kalahari during the winter months, is that everything is self-contained: your lodging, your meals and entertaining activities. It's great fun not to have to venture out into cold or snow for a few days. I'm a picky eater, but even so, with all the different places to eat in Kalahari, there was nothing special for any of us. We quickly discovered that the food options were essentially the same. The food at the cafe by the arcade was the cheapest and lowest quality; the upscale restaurant was the most expensive and best quality, but that was about it. Mr. BTEG found the catered lunches for attendees much more interesting than the restaurant food. Also frustrating was that one of the restaurants, the buffet, was closed for the week, although the park was at or close to maximum capacity for the entire week. This leads us into:

The Ugly

On Wednesday night, Mr. BTEG, the Dancer, and I went to the mid-priced restaurant to grab something to eat. There was a line to be seated, despite the restaurant being half-empty. The hostess mumbled something about everybody from the convention coming in to eat. Well, what did they expect? They had a very good handle of how many people were at the hotel, given that most people got a water park bracelet. This is the 10th year that the convention has been held at Kalahari. The schedule includes lectures during the day, and social activities at night. Many people are going to come for dinner in between those times. There are a few other outside restaurants in that area, but really, shouldn't Kalahari want you to stay and eat at their places? Plus, as I mentioned above, although the weather has been blessedly snow-free, it was rather cold. It was a very appealing option to just stay inside.

After a wait to be seated, we then had to wait for our waitress, who had probably just come on shift. We sat and watched the line to be seated wax and wane, until we noticed the table behind us was getting food. Unfortunately, the people at that table had decided to leave a while ago. At this point we realized that not only had we ordered our food before that table, but it had been forty minutes since we had ordered, and we hadn't even received our appetizer in that time. The manager did give us our entire meal for free, but the whole thing was just a big mess that should have been avoided by having enough staff on hand.

The first night, the Dancer and I grabbed something small in the cafe that was next to the arcade. It was dimly lit, and there was some kind of pipe making noise the entire time we were there, that made it difficult for the Dancer and I to hold a conversation. The cafe didn't look any brighter any of the other times we walked past it, which we did a lot, because:

You have to walk through the arcade to get to the water park. Not only is this over-the-top marketing to try to get you to play games in the arcade, it was unpleasant to have to wend your way through arcade games to get where you were going, every single time. The Dancer and I especially found all the lights, noises and garish colors to be over-stimulating.

The lazy river decor was literally ugly. There were about ten hyena statues placed at intervals around the lazy river. Hyenas are ugly animals, and that was pretty much all there was to look at going around the lazy river. At one point, there were a couple of hyenas that looked ready to take on an alligator, which wasn't really much fun to look at either. I don't know; it was like they got some hyena statues cheap and just decided to throw them there.


So to sum it up, the girls and Mr. BTEG did have a good time at the CodeMash part of the week. I got bored and came home Wednesday night; they will be there until late tonight. I was expecting Kalahari to be so much more, since it is so much bigger than its neighbor down the street, Great Wolf Lodge, but it really wasn't. It probably is at least more fun in the summer, when all the outdoor activities are open too. It was refreshing to get away for a couple of days at least (we got there Monday night) so there's that.

The Whirlwind of Life

Life has not slowed down; it has instead gotten more hectic. I think I have been more tired in the last couple of days than I have been my entire life. Sure, in high school and college, I burned the candle at both ends often, but I was also a lot younger and so I think I bounced back more quickly. The past couple of days I was operating on auto-pilot, and not doing well when I had to go off-course. This caused a lot of laughter for those around me, especially when I ended up asking for scrambled pancakes at the IHOP yesterday.

Friday night was the first high school football game, and the Musician's first night in the marching band. The place was absolutely packed, on both sides, since the rival high school directly adjoins our town. I find it interesting the way they have the home team stands set up. One section was for season ticket holders (yes, seriously,) three sections were general admission, one section was for the high schoolers, and one section was for students at the middle school and intermediate school.

We saw quite a few people we knew. Our GP was there, our favorite phlebotomist (who is now a stay-at-home mom and who we called our vampire,) a young man who works at the local grocery store, and of course lots of teachers and students the girls know. Thursday night a young woman who taught the Musician's riding classes came to the marching band preview. She could very well have been in the crowd on Friday night, since the place was so full you couldn't see everyone.

Mr. BTEG worked one of the concession stands Friday night; the profits go to the band, and all band parents have to help with some of the fundraisers. Yes, fundraisers can be a pain. On the other hand, our band room is beautifully appointed, the uniforms are nice, and we don't have a pay-to-play system like some local schools do. Concessions did a booming business; they were pretty much out of everything by the time the game ended. Some other group was doing a Krispy Kreme fundraiser which also seemed very popular. I will have to find out where the donuts are next time!

This was my first Friday night football game! My high school had so little money at the time I attended that our football field did not have lights, so all games were on Saturday afternoon.

It seems to me that people give more readily when there is some sort of incentive. There was a Souper Bowl fundraiser for local food pantries that pitted the two schools competing against each other to see who could raise the most in money and nonperishable food donated. It did spectacularly well. Human nature, I suppose. Our side won the fundraiser, which is just as well, as the football team played poorly and lost the actual game. :)

Positive Notes

The first positive note is that Mr. BTEG has gotten a new job. I know it will take a while for things to settle out for us, but we are at least on the right path now.

The second positive thing was that we went geocaching on Sunday afternoon. It was a fun and free way to get out of the house, and we got some exercise to boot. The first cache we found is entitled "Gotta Go." It's in an interesting location; it looks like it was originally planned to be a street at one time. There is a level and graded area that is about street width, and the wooded lots on either side are about the size for a house. Each wooded side backs onto the houses on another residential street, so those houses have pretty nice back yards, at least unless they build there someday. One homeowner appears to have bought the back lot; it has no trees and is grassed over. Another homeowner may have purchased their back lot; there is a lot of brush cut down and they seem to burn it at times, judging by the rusty barrel in the middle of the back lot. But the most outstanding feature is the blue toilet sitting off to the side near the back. Thus the name of the cache.

We also saw six deer at the end of this "street," which ends in a large field. I guess the deer around here made it through the winter okay, judging by the amount I've seen.

The last puzzle we did was a puzzle cache, which started in a park right on Lake Erie, and ended across the street in another playground/park. We first took the chance to find a cache we had wanted to look for the previous time we were there, but there were too many people around. This time, we were able to not be so conspicuous. Part of the puzzle cache took us to the small old cemetery which is also right on the lake. The pictures I have are from the last time we were there.

Many of the stones are worn quite a bit by the weather, some to nothing but stubs. I hope the local historical society or someone else chronicled these grave stones before they became unreadable.



I thought this one was interesting, because the man died in 1816 at 82. That means he was born in 1734! Yes, I'm sure lots of people were. :) But it's still interesting to see an actual headstone from that time, and think of everything this person lived through.

The headstone included in the puzzle cache had a wife who died two days after her husband. That's how I want to go.

Baseball Report

The family attended a Cleveland Indians game last night. It was sponsored by the department where my husband works, so the tickets were less expensive, and it was Dollar Dog Night, so the overall food cost was not so pricey.

It rained quite a bit last night; the tarp was actually pulled over the field for a rain delay at one point. We had planned ahead and brought hats, jackets and a blanket, but they were not waterproof, so eventually our stuff got soaked through. We weren't planning for such a deluge as we got, and anyway, we don't own serious rain gear. Eventually we ended up a little further back of our original seats, under the roof. From there we were dry, but couldn't see the big screen, so I missed when my youngest daughter was once again briefly on it. The stadium was relatively empty last night; whether that was related to the economy, the weather, the Indians' lackluster season or all of the above, I don't know.

"The Prog" is not nearly as cool of a name as "the Jake", but the Progressive Insurance SUV they have near center field by the home bullpen adds some fun to the game. For every home run and at the end of the game (I presume this is only when we win), the car spins, the doors open and shut, the hood goes up and down, and items such as T-shirts are shot out of the top of the vehicle. There was also a big spray of confetti at the end of the game.

Speaking of home runs, as you can see from my husband's picture, we were near center field so we had a good view of every home run that got hit, and in a 5-1 finish every run was scored by the long ball, mostly solo shots. I was rather surprised and pleased when the Indians pulled it out last night. It's always more fun when they win!

Knowing Myself

So, I'm not going to be a high-traffic, well-known blogger any time soon. That's okay. I'm not sure I really want to be one, but I suffer from the occasional "blog envy." On the other hand, I like to keep my traffic up, and posting fairly often is the best way to achieve that. But when I have days like I did yesterday, when I'm doing all I can just to cope with life, a blog post may not happen. It might be good for me to at least try to write something everyday, though. I don't always have to write creative, insightful, perfectly crafted posts. :) Just put myself in front of the screen and see what I produce. It might give me something to do this summer since I've pretty much given up hope on the Indians season. Call me a fair-weather fan, but it's heartbreaking when your team's season is over in May. No excitement for the rest of the summer, at least not from baseball. I'm hoping we'll get to a lot of the fun festivals in the area, though. That will even give me something to blog about!

That Was Incredible

Due to scheduling, we didn't have the Dancer's birthday party until today. We had it at a place called Pump It Up, and we had an amazing time. Pump It Up is a place full of fun giant inflatables. Parties get a private room, and the Dancer and some of her friends got to run around and play for an hour.

The biggest bouncing area became a jousting ring after the kids bounced in it for a while. The kids took turns wearing a padded helmet and taking on another kid with a large padded weapon.

After all the exercise, we had pizza, cake, ice cream and beverages in the party room. The girl on staff assisting at the party had pizza out for everyone when we came in, put the candles in the cake, lit the candles, cut the cake, served cake and ice cream, cleaned the cake knife we had brought along, and even wrote down who gave the Dancer what. We didn't have to do a thing but have fun. I think it will be a birthday party the Dancer will always remember.

Christmas Time Is Here

Once again, our family is at Great Wolf Lodge. It ended up being the four of us this year for Christmas, and I thought we might get blue hanging out at home just us, which is what we do normally, and with the weather so gray. I wanted to do something special, and there are not many special things to do in Ohio in the winter, especially on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Plus, as repeat customers, we got a very nice room at a special price. It's not much more than a regular hotel, and we get the water park thrown in. And I don't have to cook! Not that I am not outsourcing a lot of the cooking and baking as the girls get older.

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas. I hope to post some pictures tomorrow.

Halloween Eve

It was a lovely evening in Northeast Ohio for trick-or-treating, or just sitting outside and enjoying the evening while handing out a bit of candy. After the girls made the rounds of the neighborhood, we took the girls and a friend to Dave and Buster's. Mr. BTEG and I were there last weekend to sit at the bar and watch football; we picked up some Halloween game pieces and won $200 in free game tokens, which were redeemable on Halloween. Mr. BTEG and the girls played lots of games; I rested quite a bit in the car, since I am still sick. My fellow Lutherans in church this morning noticed that my voice is just about gone. Today is a good day to kick back and watch football.

Splashing Surprise

As I type this, I am sitting in the Great Wolf Lodge Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. It's becoming quite a tradition to come to Great Wolf Lodge; we've been here twice before. Both of the previous times were for holidays. The first time we came was Christmas of '04. It doesn't seem that long ago, but the Dancer had "reindeer food" she'd made in her Girl Scout troop that we had to sprinkle on the balcony for Santa's reindeer. It was a *very* cold and snowy Christmas, and it was glorious to spend two days completely indoors, swimming in enveloping warmth, and eating in the restaurants here in the Lodge.

The next time we came here was for Thanksgiving of last year. We had wonderful fun once more, and were thankful for our blessings over a luxurious buffet.

This time, our trip was last minute. We are going up to Adrian, Michigan tomorrow to see our nephew for his 19th birthday, and watch him play in a soccer game. We decided to get a head start on the trip and go part way today. At first, we considered camping, but it has been raining steadily since yesterday. Not good camping weather. If the rain stopped at a reasonable time, we were thinking about spending some time at Cedar Point, and staying on-site there tonight. There are not a lot of hotels between here and Toledo. However, the rain was very persistent, so we decided to come back to the Lodge, where the weather doesn't matter.

We did consider staying at a new indoor water park called Maui Sands. However, we had some questions about their rooms (their website is awful), and we called three times without them answering their phone. Mr. BTEG and I really don't want to work that hard for the privilege of giving someone else our money, so we went back to the tried-and-true. The water park at Maui Sands does sound tempting, so we drove by on the way here. It looks like perhaps it opened too early. Basically what they did was take over a Holiday Inn Express and add some rooms and the water park. They haven't scraped all the Holiday Inn Express signs off the building which doesn't look so good. Also, even though the rooms looked good online, when we got there, the hotel just looked plain boring on the outside. It just didn't look very nice. Plus, they allow day passes at Maui Sands, whereas we're snobby and prefer the exclusivity of a resort. :) So back to Great Wolf Lodge we came.

Tomorrow we head off for Michigan. Hope it doesn't rain.

I Love My Husband

Check out the license plate he got for his new vehicle.

Now we match.

We Found Our Thrill

On Tuesday we went blueberry picking with the Presbytera and some of her family, and another homeschooling mom in the area. It was a great opportunity for the girls to get some of the fruit they love, at a good price, and a fun experience picking. Fortunately, the day was not overly hot or humid, and we picked quite a few pounds of berries. Wildchild has already made one batch of blueberry muffins, and the girls want to make blueberry smoothees. Many of the blueberries need to put in the freezer still. It was a very pleasant way to spend the day

Irish Experience

We needed to get out of the house today, so we went to the local, and annual, Irish Cultural Festival. Mr. Evil Genius bought all three of his girls some jewelry, I got to see some handsome Irish men ;), and we got to hear some Irish music and see some Irish dancing. The Scientist knew one of the Irish dancers from a sleepover party given by one of her good friends, also an Irish dancer. The two girls hung out for a while, in between performances by the girl's dance school. I bet none of you, even those who live in Ohio, have ever seen an Irish dance performed to "Hang On Sloopy." It electrified the crowd. O-H-I-O!

CU at CP

Yesterday the family met up at Cedar Point with my sister-in-law and her husband, to celebrate my birthday, which is today. I'm starting a new decade, and it is not my thirties! We (most of us) rode lots of rides and all ate good food, which we brought from home. Mr. Evil Genius did most of the cooking! Fortunately, although we had scattered showers, the rain came around mealtime both times, so we ate lunch and dinner at our covered table and waited out the rain. We ended up having a very good time.

Here's a picture of the cake. My husband told the girl what to write on it.

Here's the Scientist and Wildchild with local celebrities. :)

Addendum

Here's a view of the Indians game from our seats. I didn't have it uploaded in time for my previous post. This game was a company (divisional) outing. I think the seats were nicer than last year's. Although we didn't bother staying for autographs this time. Doubt many people did; it was pretty late. However, Wildchild *finally* (at her fourth game) achieved her goal of getting her picture up on the giant screen. This one.

Is This Thing On?

Hey! I haven't been posting very much lately. Part of it is because I was busy. I took everyone's advice and put my dollhouse and all its contents up on eBay. I'll have a total of 54 individual auctions as soon as I put the last item up today. That was a lot of work! I'm glad I'm doing it, though. Going through all the items, I realized that I'm a different person from the one I was when I was seriously into the dollhouse and collecting for it. It's good to move on and free up the space in my life, physically and mentally.

Monday night we went to an Indians game with my sister-in-law and her husband. We all went out for dinner beforehand downtown, and it was very enjoyable. Good thing, because the Tribe lost after dragging the game out for 12 innings. Ugh. The girls and I also got to enjoy the fireworks afterward; my in-laws left early for their long drive home, and my husband was unselfishly taking the long hike to get our mini-van when the most direct route was blocked off due to the fireworks, and the elevators in the garage were turned off for the same reason.

We spent some of our "tax refund" on some furnishings for our porch, which now looks great and will be nice to hang out in all summer. The girls also like doing their schoolwork out there. Now to get the rest of our place cleaned up so it looks great as well!

Tired Out

We attended Opening Day at Cedar Point today. If the line for season passes today is any indication, they should have a good season. High gas prices might be good for Cedar Point, keeping people closer to home. I'm glad we have season passes, as today was very disappointing as far as rides. Blue Streak broke down, MaxAir was down, SkyHawk went down, Maverick was down, and the Wave Swinger was closed as well. This also had an effect on park dispersion. With so many rides down, it made other lines more crowded.

On the other hand, we got to see THE Ohio State University's spring marching band, and the beagle that took best of show at the Westminster. So, you know, totally worth it.


I was a little confused by the new Planet Snoopy area. So many rides are identical to rides in Camp Snoopy, further back. But the Scientist overheard someone say that those rides were transferred from Geauga Lake, which is now strictly a waterpark, and that makes sense. I don't understand the new Joe Cool Cafe being basically for kids, though. The only thing for adults on the menu is pizza.

I'm hoping to lose some weight by walking around Cedar Point this summer!

Poor Me

I have a cold, and I'm feeling sorry for myself. For a family that homeschools and doesn't seem to go a lot of places, we seem to get sick an awful lot. I also have some sewing I *need* to get done before next Wednesday. You'll never guess what - a bathing suit for Wildchild. Yes, we are totally cheating on Thanksgiving Day and we're staying at Great Wolf Lodge, enjoying their indoor waterpark, and their fantabulous Thanksgiving buffet. So I guess I can't feel too sorry for myself. :)

Festive Fall Weekend

On Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch. We went on a hayride, Mr. Evil Genius and the girls made it through a corn maze, and we bought over 70 pounds worth of pumpkins, some for carving, some for painting, and some for making pumpkin pies later.

We also brought home other some local produce: corn, apples, tomatoes, and yummy apple cider.

We had a big pumpkin painting party when we got home. Mr. Evil Genius cleverly created a "reverse" pumpkin.



Then yesterday we went down to the Akron area to celebrate my sister-in-law and her husband's 25th wedding anniversary. They were included in a special Mass for people who had been married 25 years or more. There were over a hundred couples there; one couple has been married 71 years!

After the Mass, we went to a lovely restaurant. It was nice to enjoy the weekend and forget about baseball. :(

Full Weekend

A fun Friday night started off with picking up my husband from work. As we were pulling out of the parking lot of his building, which is definitely in an urban area, although close to a park, we saw two does.

Wildchild, my husband and I went to Jacobs Field last night, along with several thousand others, and watched the Indians play on the big screen. It was a little chilly, but a fun night, except for the fact that CC was off, and we lost rather decisively. Oh well. We had a good time, and we were bundled up well so we didn't get too cold. Even Wildchild's doll, who came along to keep Wildchild company, wore a lovely hat and sweater.

Then today Wildchild and I met some friends at a farm park in Lake County, where there were activities such as pumpkin painting and cornhusk doll making. We had a fun time, and dinner afterwards with them was nice as well.


I think Sunday after church will definitely be a day of rest!