Luck and tarot

Our luck has been off-and-on lately. While we didn't get hit by the flood, my husband did get into a car accident due to the roads being wet and slippery. He didn't get hurt but his car is totaled. Even though that means he has to buy a new car, the rental he has right now is nice. Bad things have been happening but they aren't terrible. (And I'd rather be car shopping than shopping for WholesaleInsurance.net Dental Insurance.) I have about 6 more episodes of the current jdorama I am watching. Ideally, I'd like to have that finished by Monday but I'm not sure our schedule will allow it.

Also, I am selling tarot card readings: http://yumenotarot.livejournal.com/4113.html Please take advantage of the sale!

The flood is over?

The rains have finally ended. My daughter's school was closed on Friday because the buses couldn't get to many of the bus stops in the area. I'm very glad that there was very little rain this weekend and that the water is receding. We can now drive around town with almost no problems. (The only problem left is mud on the road.) It's nice when life is back to normal.

No more water!

There is some massive flooding going on in my area of the state. Luckily, my house is on a bit of a hill so we are unlikely to have any flood problems ourselves. However, many of the bridges in/out of town are getting close to being underwater. Of course, there is supposed to be more rain tonight. The rain isn't supposed to stop until Monday. (I hope it doesn't rain on Sunday so my daughter can play tennis.) It will be terrible if the rain keeps going. A friend of mine showed me a site called My Drama List. You can keep track of what Asian dramas you have watched. As I was filling out My List, I realized that I am missing a few reviews on here. I could have sworn I wrote reviews for the three seasons of Trick but they aren't here. I'm not sure I remember the shows well enough to review them properly and I'm not even sure I could re-download them to re-watch them. I will have to figure out a good solution.

JDorama review: Boss 2

Title: Boss season 2 Broadcast dates: 4/14/11 - 6/30/11 Number of episodes: 11 Genre: Detective Cast: Amami Yuki, Takenouchi Yutaka, Tamayama Tetsuji, Toda Erika, Mizobata Junpei, Kendo Kobayashi, Nukumizu Youichi, Hasegawa Kyoko, Narumi Riko Plot: Two years have passed. Nodate (Takenouchi) has received a promotion, thanks to the work of Osawa (Amami) and her team. Now it is time to bring the team back together. What is good: Amami Yuki is an amazing actress. What is bad: Kimoto (Toda) is missing from most of the series. Letter rating: A

I absolutely loved the first season of Boss so I was looking forward to the second season. For the most part, it didn't let me down. The only part I didn't like was Kimoto's "banishment." While they tried to replace her with two characters, it just wasn't the same. Granted, I would love to see Kurohara Rika become Kimoto's protege of sorts. That would be a pretty awesome spin-off.

My favorite part of the series is that it is a detective series but it keeps humor in their lives as well. It's not all stuffy or anything. I am really looking forward to news of a third season.

More storm damage

The hurricane has done more damage in the area than I thought. While we still haven't had any problems, there are still about 300 people in my little town without power. When I went to lunch yesterday, the grocery store had all of the frozen food freezers blocked off and all of the perishable items were gone. McDonald's seemed to be the only eatery unaffected. I'm hoping to finish Boss 2 today. If getting distracted by baby clothes on sale doesn't get in my way first. I don't even have anyone to buy baby clothes for! Man, I am pathetic.

Hurricane Irene

We have survived the hurricane that hit the East Coast this last weekend. Luckily, we did not lose power nor did we sustain any damage. However, I was not able to finish the last episode of Boss 2. I should have it finished in the next few days. (It's a whopping 90 minutes long!) Thank you for your patience.

Earthquake!

You might have heard that there was an earthquake on the east coast yesterday. I, unfortunately, did not feel it. I happened to be working in our filing room and I guess the filing cabinets were too heavy to shake. Only my co-workers freaking out gave me any indication that something was happening. I've decided to just be happy that the filing cabinets did not fall on me. That would have been awful.

Back to School Time

It is that time of year again! Time to get the kids ready to go back to school. My daughter is going into the fourth grade this year. For the first time, we grabbed one of those "what you need" sheets to try to get as prepared as possible. The list was a bit crazy though. She needed eight lined notebooks. EIGHT. And ten pocket folders. I'm not sure why she would need to many notebooks and folders. Math. Science. Social Studies. English/Spelling. She might need a notebook for her reading assignments...book reports or whatever.

We cheated a little and got her a binder for the folders. She could probably put the notebooks in there too. I guess we'll see how it goes next week.

Busch Gardens

Who could go to Williamsburg without visiting Busch Gardens? While this is the finale of the vacation posts, we didn't just go to the park for one day. My family had 7-day bounce passes that allowed us to visit Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, and Colonial Williamsburg as many times as we wanted. So we ended up spending one full day at the park, as well at eating dinner there a few nights.

Busch Gardens in Virginia is a European themed amusement park. The park is divided into countries: Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and New France. (New France is actually western-themed. It's based on the French colonies in North America's Old West.) The rides mostly match up with their country's theme. For example, Escape from Pompeii, a thrilling boat ride, is in Italy while Alpengeist, a ski lift themed roller coaster, is in Germany. The food vendors also line up with the appropriate country. Ireland has stew and pork loin, but New France has wood-smoked chicken and ribs. The park, as a whole, is a delight to wander through.

During this trip, we decided that my daughter would try her first roller coaster. Since she loved Water Country, she agreed to try it out. (Our family rule is "You have to try it before you say you don't like it.") We picked Apollo's Chariot, the only coaster in the park that does not have loops. (The idea of loops freaked her out.) While my husband and I loved it, my daughter, unfortunately, did not. Ah well. Instead, she liked the more "classic" rides - bumper cars, Roman Rapids (a white water rapid ride), and Turkish Delight (that ride in almost every park that spins in a circle, forcing you to squash your ride partner). There were a few others that she enjoyed but these were the main ones.

I think my daughter's favorite part of the park was the nightly fireworks display. Called IllumiNights, the main fireworks are launched from the train bridge between Italy and Germany. (The best spot to watch them is on the pedestrian bridge between those countries. Just make sure you are on the train bridge side and not the Loch Ness Monster side.) Smaller side fireworks are occasionally launched from both Italy and Germany as well. Of course, there is a soundtrack to go along with them. My daughter loved the display. It was a nice way to end the day.

Amazingly, Busch Gardens is one of those amusement parks that you can enjoy even if you don't like rides. The various European stores and restaurants are enough to keep someone interested for most of the day. However, I'd really recommend giving the Loch Ness Monster a try. It's one of my favorite roller coasters and I only hope that I can convince my daughter to ride it one day.