CSI LIttle Havana

So, I'm awakened from a deep sleep by a noise that sounded like a bang similar to the noise my kitchen cabinets make when closing.   I thought that was wierd but figured it might be my old house settling or perhaps my a/c.

A short time passed and I heard it again.   Time passed then again.   That voice in my head was saying something was wrong, but I convinced myself (correctly) that no one could be inside  as my alarm didn't go off.

Then my alarm blew. 

I turned on lights,  didn't see anything in my L/R, got T and brought her into my room, locked the door and called 911.   Within minutes, a platoon of City of Miami Police officers were at my house and a perimeter was set up.

Not quite sure of the circumstances, but one suspect was found within the perimeter.   Gloves were recovered along with his cell phone.

After my house was secured, crime scene went to work because of this:

Yes, that is in fact a crowbar wedged into my window at the back of my house.  No prints recovered, but DNA was obtained.   If they can match it to the guy in custody, he will be arrested for my case.   Right now he's under arrest for loitering and prowling/trespass due to where he was arrested.

He never made it into my house, except perhaps a hand as he raised the window.

Right now I'm thanking god that I set my alarm.  I'm also thinking about shopping for some really strong solid wood doors for the bedrooms.   The thought of only my cheap, hollow, basically cardboard doors between T and I and a threat was not comforting at all.

Needless to say,  I've been up since it happened.

Itch-a-mania

Well, what's new around here?   I've been itching so bad you'd a thunk I'd been bit by a swarm of skeeters.  No just the onset of my first real allergy.   At the ripe old age of 47, after over 30 years of eating shrimp (my mom in no  way liked seafood but discovered popcorn shrimp in my late teens), I believe I'm allergic. 

It all started Tuesday night when I heated up some leftover shrimp pasta that Dot had made.   about 30 minutes or so later I realized I was itchy.   I thought I must be peeling from the sunburn I got last week at the venetian pool, but realized I'm not peeling.   The itching just kept getting worse and worse, and I had a strange tingling around my lips. 

Took a benadryll to no avail.  Visited the doc in the afternoon and scored some perscription drugs,  the itching eased but no right away.  Its now mostly gone, but not 100%.  I'm now in search of an allergist to determine what the allergy is to.  I remain convinced it was the shrimp.

Boo hoo.   No more costco shrimp salad.  No more shrimp cocktail.  No more spicy shrimp from the Sakaya Kitchen. 

 I'm distraught.

Venetian Pool

After our dr appointment on wednesday, we headed out to the IHOP for an 11 a.m. breakfast.  Here's T goofing around eating her pancakes.  Given my shot nerves, we went back home where T decided to camp out in the living room.  

As you can see from the mess, she spent the whole afternoon, evening, and night on the couch's pull out bed.  About the only thing she didn't do in bed was eat dinner.  

We woke up bright and early on Thursday and headed out to the venetian pool in coral gables.   It was built in 1924 out of a rock quarry and is fed by an underground spring.  Its absolutely gorgeous.   This area you see here by the tower is perfect for little kids.  Its only about 2 feet deep, and T had a ball playing with the beachballs that they had out for everyone.

This shallow area is separated from the rest of the pool by a rock island, where I set up my lounge chair.  You got to the island from a bridge from the tower.  

 The rest of the pool is huge.  I didn't even get pics of the whole thing it was so big.  Its surrounded by waterfalls and coral caves.  Out by the falls here the pool gets to be 8 feet deep.

The dark spot you see between the two men is an entrance to one of the caves.  With public school in session, there were not alot of people there, and we thoroughly enjoyed the day.   T made fast friends with a boy her age, and they had lots of fun hitting the ball back and forth between the two and having "hold your breath" contests.  We left in the late afternoon and I'm sporting the first sunburn I've had in years.

I can't believe that our week of fun is almost over.   I'm not sure where the time went and wish we had another week as well.   Not sure what we will do tomorrow.  I'll have to search the internet to figure out what to do. 

30 minutes in Hell

Since I was unable to get my hands on Xanax, this is my form of self medication the day after my 30 minutes in hell.   As many of you surmized, T and I got separated at the mall.   It happened in a frickin' instant. And it was all my fault.  I was certain that she came in GapKi ds with me.  Apparently she didn't she continued walking.   By the time I turned around and couldn't find her, then started yelling in the store...which is annoyingly connected to 2 other stores...GapBabie and the adult Gap, she was nowhere to be found.   I go run out into the mall and nada.  

Every frickin capital sex batt case I ever handled or know of, every kidnapping and agg child abuse I ever had, followed up by poor Adam Walsh and all the other milk cartan kids went flashing across my mind.  I wanted to throw up.  I was so certain that T had come into the store w me and I know that she would never, ever leave the store without me.    I started demanding that the employees call store security...who failed to respond or answer to which they said call the police.

Suffice it to say that a 911 call later, me walking through the mall screaming her name, and a platoon of concerned young women and moms later,  T was recovered at guest services.  As I was walking like a maniac through the mall screaming her name (and anyone who knows me know just how loud I can be), a young woman in her early 20's came up to me and said she saw T at the other end of the mall and took her to guest services.   As I sat there with T waiting for the deputy to respond, a few good samaritan women came up and said that they were scouring the mall and had asked others to as well.  A side effect of my job is that I forget how many really nice people there are in the world.  Meanwhile, why was it only the women who came up to me?  Where the hell were any of the men? ...but I digress

Anyway, We go to guest services, I see T from afar, and start bawling my eyes out. 

T reports that when she couldn't find me, she said she started walking around trying to find me.   Suffice it to say, we're having all sorts of conversations around here about mall safety and what to do if we get separated.  

My nerves were literally shocked for the rest of the night, and even the whole rest of the day.  I had to laugh b/c as we were driving home, a song was playing on the radio..."What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" so similar lyrics.   I disagree.   What doesn't kill you, shatters your nerves and drives you to the brink of insanity.  

We basically stayed home wednesday as well, since we had T's 7 yr old wellness visit with the doc.   T is officially 47.5 inches and 45 pounds.  and healthy as a horse, so I'm busy counting my blessings.

The Safari Continued....

 Here's a last picture of the part of the waterpark, so you can get an idea of what it was like.   T thoroughly enjoyed it.  We then paused for lunch...hotdogs, chips, and slurpees.   As I always say, the fun doesn't begin til somebody's got a blue tongue!

 We then went off to feed the giraffes, which T balked at doing at the last minute.  I couldn't blame her, though, as it was a bit intimidating being so close to them.  Their heads look little from the ground, but up close they are huge.   Even though I know they are not carnivores and only eat leaves and twigs, I couldn't get the picture of them chomping off T's hand, so I was secretly quite relieved!

 We then found a little area, and paused to take funny picutres.

 It's great....to be...a Florida Gator! 

 So, we quit monkeying around the phony picture shots, and went on to enjoy the rest of the park.  There was a small gooney golf area, a merry go round, a ferris wheel that we did not do, paddle boats that we did not do, all kinds of animal displays that we observed, and some shows that we never seemed to be in time for.

 As the afternoon wound down, I realized that we were very close to the Wellington Green mall.  Gorgeous newer mall with the only Naartjie store in Florida.   We headed off there intending to do a bit a shopping and get some dinner while we let rush hour traffic die down.

More on the mall trip later.  It turned out to include the most stressful 20 minutes of my life...to date.  All is well though, and we are having a slow day today to calm my nerves.

Lion Country Safari...

 We woke up bright and early and headed out to Lion Country Safari.  Its about an hour's drive north of us.  Basically, its a zoo that you drive through.   Animals can come right up to the car.   I had not been there since about 1970 or so.   Boy have things changed since then.   The biggest change is that the lions are now behind a fence and can not go up to a car.   Back in my day, they could.   I'll have to search westlaw using the name of the park to find the court case that brought about the fence.  I feel certain that there will be one. 

 Since the speed limit in the park is no faster than 8 mph, I let T out of her booster seat and come up to the front seat for the first time ever.   She was thrilled.   She has a whole lot more pictures of all the other animals.  I may post them separately, for posterity.   All the pics in this post were taken my me.

 My favorite animals were the zebras...

 Followed by the Girafes...

 Even better from in my day, is that there is a second whole half of the part.   In my day there was just the drive through zoo.  Now there is a whole little theme park that goes with the deal.

 There were lots of pretty flowers everywhere.   Here's my little flower posing in her cute outfit...

 Note to self....don't purchase T a chocolate ice cream with chocolate hard-shell sauce when she's wearing white capri leggings.   Duh!

Luckily, I can crop the pants right out of the picture!

 The highlight of the park was the fact that it contained a waterpark.  We came prepared with our suits and T had lots of fun running around and cooling off from the heat.

 Wait for it...wait for it.....BAM!

TO BE CONTINUED....

Happy Easter Everyone!    Today it was just Tand I.  Dot is out of town.  Our friends with whom we usually egg hunt with were out of town, so there was no real celebration of any kind.   I had the bright idea to put on our easter dresses, and go wander around the Falls mall.  Luckily I had the foresight to check in my iphone before getting too far from home, and discovered that everything was closed today. 

 So, I did a quick uturn and headed to Chez Dot.   T had a fun time swimming in her pool, then it was home to play with her easter basket stuff.   Since poor T never eats any candy, the easter bunny filled the thing with fun stuff instead.  A skylander, the new Muppet movie, a nintendo game, etc.  She was thrilled.

 On friday night, we had our official 2012 Egg Dying Egg-stravaganza!   Jodie and Taylor did a fine job coloring up the eggs this year.   They went hi tech this year, and added a machine to the works....The Egg Spinner.  Piece of junk.  Might as well have been made by Ronco.  T, of course, loved it.

 Also new this year, was shrink wrapping.  The girls were wielding a blog dryer and shrink wrapping decorative plastic wrap to the eggs.   They were actually cute.  Glitter and sequins also were added to the mix.

T has officially started her spring break.   We're having a stay-cation instead of a vacation.  Dot is out of town and Icolene is in Jamaica.   There is a fill-in aide at my parents house for the next 2 weeks, so I have to stick close to home.   On tomorrow's agenda...LION COUNTRY SAFARI!

Haven't been there since about 1972 when I my mom drove us there when my Aunt Poe was down from Chicago visiting.   It will be real interesting to see if its as how I remember.

That's it for now.

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYBODY!!!