journal for 2003-12-29
still in florida
We’re still here in Pensacola. Today has been weird.
Gloria and her mother went out to buy groceries this morning, because they wanted to make some date candy and chess pie. Gloria wanted to get some tips on perfecting her own chess pie and wanted to learn how to make the date candy. I relaxed, poked at some old IF ideas, and watched part of Kramer vs. Kramer. Around noon, Gloria’s father came home. We ate some lunch and headed out to the Naval Aviation Museum. We’d been there in October, but Gloria was eager to go back and see some things she hadn’t seen before. We started and didn’t finish two tours of the place. The first was a guided tour of the museum. It was slow-paced but very information rich. I liked it. We left that to see the second tour, which was a summary of the educational information given to visiting school children. I thought it was pretty abominable. We left that one to catch a bus tour, which we rode to completion. It went around the back of the museum and passed a number of defunct aircraft. The guides told us about the history of the aircraft. It was too short.
We ate some astronaut ice cream, and we got a few pictures, but not as many as we got on the first trip to the museum. One thing that I do believe was new was Navy 1, the plane in which President Bush landed on the Abraham Lincoln in May. Huzzah. I got pictures.
After the museum, we headed to a strange little seafood market with a wine shop and gourmet store. Gloria’s mom said it was a big attraction in Pensacola, but it didn’t strike me as too terribly amazing. The gourmet section had a few interesting things, though. We picked up some ice wine for later consumption.
We decided to get dinner before heading home, and went to Vallarta, a nice and simple Mexican restaurant. I ordered something like “Rancher’s Plate” and ate a lot. It was beans, a taco, a flauta, an enchilada, a burrito, and a chile rellena. Oof!
As we were leaving the museum, Gloria’s dad got a phone call informing him that his uncle had died. Leaving Vallarta, he got a call telling him that the funeral was on Wednesday. Gloria said that we could try to make it, and I did some research on that when we got back. The idea is that we’d drive up to Nashville tomorrow and then fly from there after the funeral on Wednesday. It looks like changing our tickets to fly from Nashville instead of Pensacola will cost about $250. We’re not sure if this is a practical idea yet, since the interrment sounds like it might be quite a ways away. Since Gloria’s dad is a pall-bearer, there might be problems.
I don’t think there’s been a firm decision on our plans, yet. I’m trying not to be too involved in the decision-making process, as I don’t really have any strong feelings on the matter.
In somewhat-related news, Frank (Gloria’s sister’s children’s father) is going to Pennsylvania to do some work at his old job. I’m pretty sure he’s taking (has taken?) the children with him. This is a bummer, since I was hoping that Jenn, Frank, Gloria, and I could go out one night and get drinks or something. Jenn had also said this would be cool, but I suppose that it won’t happen, now. Gloria’s mother seems fairly upset by the whole thing, but that’s pretty in-character.
My explanation of Frank, above, has just made me think that I should really produce a brief dramatis personae for my journal. Of course, it would help if I got off my ass and wrote Life::Story’s anecdote engine. Maybe while I’m in Cardiff. (Ha!)