that's one big boat!

Boat.
Hahahaha--just kidding mom! I know it's a SHIP (she hates it when people call a ship a boat...oh, and mom, on the tv news some reporters were calling her a boat, and I found myself gritting my teeth, so you have officially rubbed off on me).

Actually, the Captain said the Queen Mary 2 isn't even a ship.
She's an OCEAN LINER.
And she's huge. In that pic above, see that little white square in the distance just to the left of the ship?? That's a cargo van.

The bridge.

The cabins, and the embarking zone for loaded-with-dough passengers (cheapest ticket was $21k...most expensive $186k).

What a fun outing we had yesterday!
After a hearty after school snack for MyFavoriteKid, we headed on over to SF. It seemed that everyone in town was heading down to the wharf to catch a glimpse of the QM2. This is the largest ship ever to enter the San Francsico Bay, and when she came in under the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday, she only cleared it by 12 FEET!

Getting to the piers to see her was a little crazy making. There was a second cruise ship docked in SF yesterday. Traffic along the Embarcadero was horrendous, so we pulled off on a side street and walked (well, MyFK walked...I rolled). We scoped it out on a map this morning, and we think we covered about 4 miles round trip.

It was a pretty interesting thing. Not only were tourists everywhere, but all the locals were out in full force playing tourist, too.

(Just to give perspective, this shot was taken on full zoom from across a 4 lane street that has a trollycar station and two platforms in the median)

Come dinner time though, one thing us "local tourists" know that the real visitors don't, is how to avoid the tourist traps and head for the secret hiding spots.

See, us locals know where to find The Mecca O' Crab Season down at Fisherman's Wharf.



We walked right past the schmancy restaurants serving up crab dinners for $28 a head, and made way instead for the waterfront crabshacks.



For 19 bucks we scored enough crab to feed both of us, plus clam chowder, a pile of fries, some sodas, and salt water taffy. Score.


After dinner we took the long trek back to the car, stopping by to catch one last look at Her Majesty.



Just. Gorgeous.

More official word and video about her arrival can be found here.

(ps..MyFK took that night shot, and wants/deserves credit for it. Oops, my bad...he also took that earlier side shot of the ship, too).
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I did have a RudeGimpMoment yesterday. I bit off the head of a well-to-do-er. I thought I'd outgrown that, but I can be such a bitch it's probably silly for me to buy into that belief.

Look at this pic again.



Wayyyyy down in the bottom left-ish corner of the photo, you can see a black gate, and then the heads of many people pressed up against the black gate, trying to take photos between the bars.

People were stacked up behind the fence about 5 people deep. But it wasn't like being at a heavy metal concert where you plant yourself firmly in the front row with a throng of people behind you pushing forward (been there, done that...so I know). Everybody yesterday was playing nice. People would get their turn up at the fence, they'd take a picture, they'd ooh and ahh for a moment, they'd leave, and then the next person behind them would move forward and take their turn.

Well, we did that drill during the daylight hours, and when went back to the ship at night, MyFK and I decided to do it again. We waited in the fence queue to get another photo. There was this lady standing next to me who was determined to help get me in closer. I kindly told her, "I don't mind waiting my turn, but thank you." Then she snapped at two people who didn't see me down low, and unintentionally tried to cut in front of me. She intervened before I even had a chance to handle it on my own. I (still kindly, but more firmly) informed her, "I can take care of it. I'm in no rush. I'm fine waiting. But thank you."

Then she blew it.

When there was finally only one person ahead of me and I was about to be next, she tapped the shoulder of the person in front of me who was just getting their photo op, and says to them, "This lady in the wheelchair wants to ask if she can get in to take a picture." Then she grabs the handles of my wheelchair to push me in closer.

Wait.
*I* want to ask if I can get in closer??????
I still have steam coming out of my ears.
Can't. Keep. Typing.
*long pause*


Ok. So.
I took her wrist, removed her hand from my chair (you might not think you are touching me, but you are in fact, touching a part of me, for the record), and told her, "I am capable of handling myself in a crowd, thank you very much. And I do not need an advocate. If I need help, I will ask for it."

Which in print doesn't sound all that bad.
But of course I can't convey the tone in which it was said. And I wasn't being courteous. courtesy.

But whatever.

I want to ask, "Why don't people get it??" But we've been over this before here already. I just have to remind myself that some people don't. I doubt my pissy-ness is going to be all that educational, though.
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Not wanting to end this post on a bummer note...let me say that the annoying moment mentioned above was the only poopy thing that happened all weekend (and I'm including Monday as part of the weekend...it was such a fun adventure).

This past weekend was just awesome.

Originally, I was supposed to go out of town for my birthday weekend with TheMostImportantGuy. But the more I sat with that I realized that I really didn't want to go anywhere. What I really wanted was a party. So very late in the game, like midweek....I sent out an evite to a bunch of folks inviting them to meet me at a local brew pub that served food and was kid friendly. I figured it was such a late invitation that most everyone already had plans and that maybe 8 people would show. There ended up being close to 30 people. Several of whom brought gifts, many of which were chocolate (I was even gifted a chocolate/sugar body scrub...do people know me or what?!). And my folks are so cool...they showed up wtih a birthday cake and candles (yay!). It was just a really great night, and it was fantastic to have so many great people around me.

On Sunday I had a quiet, loungy, lazy morning with TheMIG watching some of the last season of Six Feet Under. Later I went over to a friend's for a SuperBowl party where I ate ribs and tri-tip, ignored the game but watched the commercials, and knit.

Could not have possibly asked for a more well rounded and fantastic weekend :-)

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! Some of you I have replied to, some of you I am catching up on, and some of you I can't reply to at all because I dont get your email addys with the comments...but thank you very much for all the well wishes!!!

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Speaking of knit.
I had pics of the shawl taken over the weekend...but this post is already too long and has too many photos, so I'll do that tomorrow!