danaandjohn.com

Air Canada Tirade

I need to apologized for this long winded post.

Well where do I begin! We booked a flight to Saint John for Cathy and Bob's wedding using aeroplan points that when I first signed up for it was free to cash them in. Now the points expire within a year and you have to pay tax on the flight, which I don't understand since it is free, I guess everyone wants their money. The flight down was quite good I was impressed, however at the Ottawa airport I lost my coffee since I could not bring it through security since it was liquid, oh well. David really enjoyed the flight and looking at all the airplanes and telling us what color they were. He was also asking which color plane we would get on. When we landed in Saint John we waited until everyone had gotten off the plane so we would not bother anyone. So that flight was good, now upon returning from SJ we have not had much luck! We are put on a plane that only had 1 side of the airplane that could have an infant. This was the side of the plane that they put Dana and Daniel and David in one row and me in another one on the side of the plane that did not allow infants. The reason for this was the oxygen masks. I was OK with this but what comes next I was not OK with. The stewardess was mean when addressing both Dana and I. Daniel started to get fussy since it was time for supper, this was OK so Dana sent me up top to get the baby food, it had exploded since the lids of baby food don't really close properly. Well there was strawberry banana everywhere, I asked the stewardess for something to clean it up with, well apparently that really put her out since she gave me dirty look as if to say, "don't bother me". I was only trying to clean up so she would not have to. Anyway while cleaning up the strawberry banana that was all over the plane I needed to throw out the napkins I was using, apparently this pissed her off to since I got in her way again, next time I will leave it and if there are napkins covered with crap I will leave them for her to clean up.

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Tony Graham Toyota is A1!

Well, where do I start? I was headed to ball hockey tonight, I haven't really driven my truck for about 3 months. As I am driving down Cambrian road, which appears to be live a washboard or corduroy. It felt like I was in the tragically hip song. Anyway as I stopped at the stop sign everything seemed normal. Well, when I started to move again, everything was not normal. Apparently my oxygen sensor blew out of the exhaust pipe. Now the truck is loud. Not just 2 weeks ago, I said that I have not put any money into this truck, and now here it is. I am gonna have to sink $500 or more into this thing. At 11:30pm I called Tony Graham Toyota, and they were able to fit me in at midnight to get the truck looked at. I thought hummm... this is pretty good. I am glad they work until 2:00am. So after discussing with Dana what would be the most convenient, we decided I would head over there now. So here I am sitting at Tony Graham blogging about this experience since I have nothing better to do. When I arrived they were expecting me which I was surprised, so I thought humm... I should get good service. They had my truck in the shop ready to work on it before the guy at the counter could print out the work order. This mechanic was a Keener, this is good. The guy I was talking to on the phone came over and asked me if I wanted anything from Tims. I thought to myself, its midnight and I am going to be here until 2am, I should get a coffee. So I took out my money to pay and he said not to worry about it. I was quite impressed with his generosity! Within 5 minutes of me typing this blog the service man came over and confirmed that the oxygen sensor had blown off and they think they should be able to put it back on with $30 worth of parts. Again I was surprised, however I would have to pay for about an hour of labour, this sucks since I will likely be here for the next hour, but it is better than waiting until 2am. This is what they are going to try, as it appears that the pipe where the sensor attaches is still good and the sensor is also good. Tell me this service center being opened until 2am is not a brilliant idea. Well, my coffee just arrived! As promised, it was free, Fantastic! Now I am in a holding pattern, to see if that worked and if I will get my truck back. Now it is ready, and it had its oil changed.

It is now 12:52, and its all done, I arrived at 12:00. Pretty good I must say and a lot cheaper than I thought I would spend.

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Back to work for both of us

This time I have the hard work of looking after the children. Well it is now 32 minutes into my tenure and so far so good. Daniel has been eating now for 32 minutes and David is trying to eat my toast with 100% pure peanut butter. As Sarah always says it needs salt, this time she would be correct, it needs salt. :) On our last day off together we went over to Carolyn's house for a visit on this new holiday called family day. I am not a big fan of this family day as everything is closed! It is like Christmas, but you are not prepared for it. Oh well. When we got home we wanted to make lasagna however we did not have meat, cheese or bread. I had to borrow some meat from the Haggerty's and get some sketchy cheese at the quickie mart. All in all it was a nice last day together before Dana had to go back to work at NT. Hopefully she has a nice relaxing day as she will have lots to do when she gets home :)

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Another round, this time with Dana

Well Gram and Grampy offered to babysit the boys this morning so we could spend some time alone. We decided to hit the Disc Golf course in Port Charlotte. Dana really impressed me with her game. She had a couple of pars as well. We might even go again before we leave. While walking to the tee for the 1st hole there was a sign for golf discs for sale at Walgreens, so we headed over there to check them out, Dana now has 3 discs and I have a new bag. I bought the bag for $15 and Dana got a stratus and Magnet for 8 bucks each. I have been trying to figure out what discs I need :) I will be heading back to get some more discs later this week too. When we got home Gram and Grampy were just coming back from the beach with the boys. They really enjoyed them selves. Today I finally planted the 2 coconut trees, we will see how much they grow in a year. Hopefully they don't die.

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Yet another round of DG, for real?

This time we headed about 1 hour south of where we are staying to hit another DG course. I dropped Dana and the boys off at an outlet mall. The boys were not in a good mood so I got off pretty lucky. Anyway I went to the Bay Oak DG course in Fort Myers. I thought this course would be a good course because it would not be in a sketchy neighbourhood since it was on a key in Fort Myers. To make it 9km it took almost 30 minutes to get there. This is because apparently there is a very popular beach in the area. There was aparently a DG store in the "Topps Supermarket", well apparently they stopped selling discs. I thought that was odd with a course right around the corner. I headed off to the course to play the round. The course was not very good at all.,my guess as to why the super market stopped selling the discs. The signage was awful and there were a couple of holes I had to throw it through a parking lot or through a childrens play ground. I thought this was not a very good idea. I could hardly find the pole holes, due to the signage and the fact that some of the pole holes were used for 2 different holes, again something I am not a big fan of. Never the less I was able to get a round in and this time my score was a +10. I assumed all holes were par 3 however I don't really think that is the case. I am hoping to get one more round in at the course in Port Charlotte to see if I can improve on my original score, now that I have an idea of where I should be throwing.

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Another round of Disc Golf

Well, I was able to get out for another round today when Dana, David and Daniel went to an Aquarium in Sarasota. This allowed me to hit a different course. I dropped the kids off at about 10:50 and headed off to the course. As I was getting closer I thought to myself, this neighbourhodd is getting a little sketchy. Anyway I find the park it is well marked which was good. As I drive into the parking lot there is this dilapidated Nissan Sentra in the parking lot with 2 people sitting in the car looking at me. I thought to myself that I was going to be robbed or worse killed. By the time I got my cleats on and started to make my way to the 1st hole they decided they were done watching and drove off. I started to play and I must say this was a very nice course some interesting things to be noted to change the course up with minimal cost. They had 2 concrete tee pads and 2 basket locations. This allows for 4 different holes with a semi permanent course. This time I brought some beer with me. On the 5th hole I cracked it open, and had it finished by the 6th hole, but there was no place to put it down while I was playing. There was no-one there playing when I arrived however by the time I started on the back nine there was another car that pulled into the parking lot. I heard this sound, I thought I have heard this before. I looked into the distance into the parking lot and this new car was getting packing saran wrapped around one of the doors. I thought to myself WTF. I am going to be killed here and never see my wife and kids again. On my way to the 15th hole I see this guy sitting at a picnic table reading a newspaper with a keyboard, bike and a can of beer in a paper bag. I was thinking oh dear what is going to happen, he was very polite and told me this was the worst hole on the course because the trees bark. I tee off and think I hit a tree about 20 feet infront of me. I felt like Rage as I think I might have hit every tree on the course! Final round was +16 with one disc OB, landing in a shit creek. Good thing I made it back to pick up Dana and the kids by 12:30 and we then went and spent a pile of money at SuperTarget.

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Canadian buying american gas?

Well, this sounds like a stupid question, well it actually is quite interesting what I have found out after being here for a month. As a canadian it is quite painful to buy gas!
So everywhere you go now a days is a pay at the pump, which is great if that was what it meant for everyone. It says "Insert card" so I put in my credit card, then oddly enough it asks me if it is a credit card or dedit card, what the hell do you think? You read everything else off the card, enough to charge my account and it still asks me if this is a credit card, come on! Then it asks for a zipcode, as a canadian I don't have one, so what do I do? I have to go inside. That is fine. This is apparently to protect you credit card. I go inside and
I said, "I am Canadian, how do I get gas", with my arms up in the air, picture it :).
Anyway she laughs and says "Oh this is a safety feature for your credit card",
I thought, "well that is nice of them."
She says "How much gas do you want?"
I say "I want it full."
She says "How much is that?"
I say "I don't know, I just want it to be full."
She says "Is it a little empty or a lot."
I say "An eighth of a tank."
She says "Oh that should be about $30."
I have never put less than $40 in this car. She make me leave my credit card with her, anyway and I have to go out and pump? How is this protecting my card. A stranger is sitting there at a gas station studying my card and who knows what else. I finish pumping and then have to go back in again to get my card, how is this even remotely convienient, its not. I think I am going to contact Visa and ask for a 5 digit number as my ZIP and see if they will go for it.

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Visit to Busch Gardens

Our visit to busch gardens started early in the morning at about 8:00 we needed to leave Port Charlotte to make sure we got to Busch Gardens when it opened at 10:00. Contrary to what you might think we were able to get out of the house by 8 and on the road, however Julie needed gas in her car and some coffees so we stopped at a gas station called PURE, there was no line up but we did not get out of there until 8:30, I don't really know what took so long but apparently the coffee was horrible and tasted like it was sitting all day, so it was not the coffee being freshly brewed. Finally we were off again, now the GPS was telling us we would not be there until 10:30, this did not sit well with the Boss, so I had to do some super navigating with short cuts, however I had one in my back pocket to get on the interstate. So to Dana all of a sudden I turned right and the GPS told me to go straight, "where are you going?", "this way dear". That was the end of it and it shaved 15 minutes off. the last 15 minutes were also shaved off by going about 5 miles over the posted speed limit. When approaching Busch gardens the signs are saying one way and the GPS is telling us a different way, apparently we were navigating to the Busch Gardens marketing office not the park.
Once we parked, we were one of the first 1000 people at the park we got on this tram to take us into the park, and since Shawn is the best line picker ever, he chose the worst line ever. The line on both sides of us were moving but we were not. Eventually we got into the park and away we went!
Timeline:
10:05 - Beer fiasco
10:30 - Train fiasco, it was broken after we waited in line.
11:30 - Lunch fiasco
1:30 - Skyway fiasco
3 to 4 - The rest of the beer fiasco and Pizza Fiasco
Ride home - soother fiacso

Don't get me wrong it was a fun day and we will definately go back, we just had a few problems which I intend to email them about.

Train fiasco - The major thing David wanted to do was go on the train and go see all the African animals, so we trecked over to the Stanleyville train station, which looked to be the closest spot to the free beer. It was also right at the base of this Dive coaster, SheiKra. So we waited until the train arrived, we wait about 30 minutes or so, finally the train arrives and the guy tells us there are technical problem with the train but we can take it to the next stop where they would fix it. At the next stop we are instructed to get off so we decide to eat. On this short trip we saw may be 4 or 5 animals.

Lunch fiasco - So here we are at this hut, it is the only place near, all they have is funnel cake, hot dog platter and a turkey leg platter. The turkey leg looked revolting, the funnel cake is like a beaver tail so I choose the $7 hotdog, big mistake. I have never seen a hotdog this color in my life! I was hungry so I had to eat it. The good thing was no-one got sick from it. Then after we finished the lunch we tried to get on the train again but since it was not working earlier now it is full and we can't get on it!

Skyway fiasco - So we thought there is another way to go and see the african animals, we could take the skytram, like a see lift, so we walked all the way over there to get on it, guess what. It was down due to technical problems. Well of course we can't do this now either. So we look over to the right and there is the train, again, it is broken down again, this time it is blocking the entrance into the animal section, so we had to wait for the train to get working again, finally the train was working again and it moved out of the way so we entered the animal section, this was pretty neat that is for sure, and was worth the admission alone!

Pizza fiacso - So we decided to head over the the beer section to get our next beer and while we were there David wanted to have a piece of pizza, so mommy went and bought him a 7 dollar pizza, it also came with fries! We needed a place to sit down so Dana walked over to where there was an open table. As she walked over there and paid attention to not falling down the stairs, many people started to yell at her, then a pack of mean birds (sea gulls) attacked her pizza and took it right off the tray and they did not touch a single french fry. David and daddy were very upset. David must have told this story back to us about his "pizza, pepperoni pizza being eaten by the bad bad bird, a bad bad bird swooped down and took my pizza" I guess this happens quite often because Julie went in to get another piece of pizza, and it was free :). I did not go in because I would have said something I might regret!

After this Julie and Shawn went on a couple of rides and mommy and daddy went to the play area with David and Daniel, this play area was huge and an adult could also play on it too. That was the best part. David was all over the place running around over these mesh/rope sketchy bridges, he had a lot of fun! This in itself was also worth the money.

Dana and I also decided to go on a rollercoster, SheiKra, The highlight of the coaster was 200ft straight up climb and the 200ft 90 degress vertical drop, but if that was not enough, it leaves you hanging out over the edge for about 5 seconds, then away you go. it was crazy!

On the drive home, Daniel had lost his soother so he was not happy for about 30 to 40 minutes, I now know how the Haggerty's feel when they are travelling, however eventually he fell asleep and we headed home.

As part of the admission fee you can go to guest services and ask for a second day for free, so we did, hopefully we will be going back within the next week and that the train will be working again.

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Beer Scam

Well this free Busch beer deal is not really exactly true. You are limited by an old man with an elephant memory. Here is the story! We arrived to get our free beer, entered the park and asked the first person we saw where the free beer was. She pointed it out on the map, it was in the far corner of the park, and there was only one place. So Shawn and I headed over for our free beer, there was an old man there and 8 taps, the time was 10:05, this is important. I thought excellent. I asked for Busch, he said they did not have any so I had to settle for another premium beer made by Anheuser-Busch, I had the snowman type it was a winter beer, it was delicious! However there was a sign that said 1 beer limit per time in the line and please observe our limit of 2 beer per visitor. We thought that was odd but how would they remember us, there are so many people. Later in the day at about 3 or 4 o'clock we headed back to this beer area, the same old man was there and the line up was huge! When we got up to the front of the line he asked what we wanted and we said the snowman one and he said please respect the 2 beer limit, we thought what the heck! This guy must remember every thing. Not that I could drink like a fish but I would have liked to have more than 2 samples of beer. The samples were not little, however they were also not big either. They were about 8 to 10 OZ. We will blog later about the rest of our visit to the park, stay tuned.

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Horseshoes, coconut trees and unfortunately more shopping

This is my second attempt at posting this blog. The last time the PC died while I was previewing it.

Well Wednesday was quite uneventful as David was still feeling quite sick, so we spent the day at home. This was not good for Dana since David did not want to have anything to do with anyone else but her. Dana and David went to the doctor and I parented Daniel. During nap time I went and got a hair cut and went swimming in the pool. The pool tyrant yelled at us for not showering, then jumping in the water and then Shawn was touching the rope that divides the deep end from the shallow end and she said if he breaks the inch thick rope she would have to shut the pool down, she is a bit of a Psycho!
We were invited over to Ron and Cathrina's house for supper, I was hoping for Enchiladas (they were delicious!), but we were surprised with an awesome turkey dinner. Unfortunately, the boys needed to go home to bed and Dana let me stay out late so we spent the rest of the night playing horseshoes. I will be installing a pit in the backyard in Richmond to practice up for next year.

Thursday we decided to head to the Ellenton factory outlets to do some shopping, the unfortunate part was that our credit card's magnetic strip is almost wornout from all the shopping we have been doing. Perhaps that is a good thing. Nothing was bought at less than 70% off. I bought a few shirts for $4.90. From there Julie and shawn headed off to Tampa to wacth the Sens and Lightning play.

When we arrived home Ron and Cathrina informed us there was a coconut tree on the table in the back. Sure enough when we looked out the window, there was the elusive coconut tree I have been looking for. They told us there were 2 more at Home depot across the street if we wanted more. I wanted to plant 2 coconut trees to represent David and Daniel, so I headed over to Home Depot and picked one up. I will be planting them on Saturday, I just need to confirm the location with the owner of the house :)

Today we will be heading to Busch Gardens to check it out. I have been preparing my liver for the past month, in case you did not know included in the admission to the park is free Busch (my favorite) beer.

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