Rabble scrabble Diaryland. I love ya, but I hate ya sometimes. I was all set yesterday afternoon around 4:00 to come back and tell y'all about the great weekend the wife and I had, but couldn't get into diaryland. So, I decided to wait. Then, last night, after a nightmare trip to the health dept. (which is the subject for tomorrow's entry) I tried again to no avail. Diaryland was still down, or something. Anyway, I couldn't get in so you all had to wait with baited breath for this. Hope it's worth it.

Everything started out on Friday and I was afraid the weekend was over before it had even started. I got my paycheck and zipped over to the bank which is about 4 blocks from here. Usually takes me around 10 minutes. Like Uncle Bob, I have the deposit envelope and the check all filled out and ready to go before I leave for the bank. As I'm driving through the parking lot, headed for the ATM, I notice a Brinks truck parked in the ATM lane, but about 6 feet from the machine. I figured the guy was adding/taking money. Well, I sit and wait about 5 minutes and then notice that he's pushing it out of it's spot. Great, it must be down. So I go to the front of the bank to the walk-up ATM.

I want to deposit my check through the ATM because about ½ of it actually gets added to my account right then and there. If I take it inside, I have to wait till Monday at midnight for it to clear. No dice. Well, I walk up the other ATM and before I can put my card in, I notice that the screen says "This machine is being serviced" and that I can't use it. FUCK! I have to deposit my check today. I can't wait. Well, unfortunately, the only other Bank of America is on SW 10th St., about 20 minutes away. So, I head down, get in line and deposit my check. Thank god, that's taken care of.

I get back to work, hang out for about an hour and then leave 30 minutes early because I skipped lunch. Upon arriving home, the wife has the kids ready to go and we head out. First we have to get something to eat so we go get sushi. We'd been planning this all week. After reading Waterbelle's diary and how she liked sashimi, I decided to try some. Unfortunately, I didn't know how expensive it was. A meal that usually costs us around $30 ended up costing us $50. Damn. Then after that, we hit the grocery store to get the ingredients for the dessert my mother-in-law was going to make for us to take to Ratfest. That ran us about another $42. Then we hit the local PetSmart to get some rattie gifts for the gift exchange. All in all, we spent over $100 that night. Not a good start considering that the wife had dropped off the rent check earlier in the day and we had to make sure it was covered. And on we went.

We hung out at the in-law's for about an hour while my mother-in-law made the dessert (Cherry Yum-Yum...I hate the name, but it's a killer dessert). After it was done, we went back to the store to get a container that we could transport it in and keep it cold and then headed home. Now, my mother-in-law was going to watch the kids for us all day Saturday and most of Sunday and she was thinking about watching them at our apartment. Well, this had the wife worried. She didn't want her mom coming to our apartment, seeing the dishes piled up and spouting off about how the wife is a bad housekeeper. I didn't want it either because then I'd take the brunt of it from the wife, so after getting the kids in bed, we set to washing the dishes. We finished around 1:30 and then went to bed. Great start, eh?

6:30 came way too fast for my liking. At 6:45, I finally rolled out of bed to take a quick shower while the wife got the kids up and ready. We had wanted to drop them off at mother-in-laws by 7:00 and head out to pick up Holly, the girl who was going up with us, but that plan was shot to shit when, I get out of the shower at 6:55 and the wife's not even dressed yet. Luckily, we got everything packed the night before so we were headed out around 7:30. Not too far behind. After dropping the kids off at the in-law's we were running about 35-40 minutes behind. We get to Holly's house a bit after 8:00 and then stop by a bank to get some cash. Unfortunately, the two quickest ways to Orlando both require travel on toll roads. I was a little worried about the account when I checked the balance and took out $40, but we were too excited to think about it.

On the way up, we stopped at my office and used my computer to print some stuff out that we needed to take with us and at about 8:35 we headed out on the Interstate again. The trip north was pretty uneventful except for our first stop. The wife and I were starving since we hadn't eaten yet, so we swing into a BK to get some croisanwiches, and I need to pee. Well, don't ya know it...the men's room is out of order. Great. Luckily, the guy working on it came into the restaurant and I asked if it was ok to use it yet and he nodded. Disaster averted. Back on the road we headed north again. The trip ended up taking us a little over 4 hours with a couple of stops, one for gas, and one at a rest area for me to get some coffee because I was nodding off while driving...not a good combination.

We arrived at Bellaratta's (Joanne's) house around 1:30 and were greeted with rat decorations, balloons and open arms. It was funny. We had never seen any of these people before, only 'spoken' online a few times, but we felt like we'd known them for years. It was like a high school reunion instead of a first time get-together. Our first order of business was to go see Newbie, the holy rat, and to see the new Rex babies. Rex is a type of coat. Most rats that people think of have straight fur, smooth and what have you. Rex rats have wavy fur. They were adorable babies. Now, Newbie, we call the holy rat for a reason. His mother had been mated, but it didn't look like she was going to get pregnant, so she was put on medication to get rid of anything inside that might be rotting or could cause damage later on. It's a miracle he was born due to the medication she was on. And not only was he an only baby, but he's just a month or so old and he's the size of an almost full grown rat. He's huge! And he's cute. So, after satisfying our rat jones, we went into the living room to get acquainted with everyone else. The real fun had yet to begin.

After all of the arrivals and the subsequent meet and greet, we all settled down to play some games. There was a table covered with food as well. Wings, sandwiches, nuts, cookies (in the shape of rats), other cookies and more. The first game (and only game at the time) that we played was 'Rationary'. Basically Pictionary, but with a rat theme. We split into teams and all came up with rat themed things like "Chew Toy", "Antibiotics", etc. Bella took each teams list and then had the other teams try to draw them. My team consisted of me, the wife, and this nice (yet, kind of an asshole) guy named Tom. He wasn't really a rat person, but was a good friend and neighbor to Bella. We tied for first with one of the other teams so we all got to go and get prizes. The prizes, of course, were rat related. Either rat toys, treats, or plushies. After we were done, it was time to eat. Chili. Woohoo! And to relax a little and just talk rats. We also had the first official meeting of FRF (Florida Rat Fanciers). Holly, the girl who came up with us is the President. I was picked as a member of the Board of Directors and the wife is the Treasurer. Unfortunately, the meeting took forever because we had to go through the by-laws and articles and vote on each one and we had a hard time sticking to Robert's Rules of Order. That was the only tedious part.

After the meeting, we ate some more, sat around and played with rats and just hung out. By this time, it was getting on into the late afternoon/evening and people started heading out. Those who did stay enjoyed another game of Rationary, this time in a different room because the A/C vent in the living room wasn't working too well. This time we didn't split up into teams, but there was one stipulation. The person drawing had to wear a big pear of rat ears and got to have Noell sit on their shoulder. Noell is a sweet little hairless rat and she was our Muse for the game. Here's a shot of yours truly in full-on draw mode.

We had a lot of fun and each time someone guessed something, they got a prize. I, sadly, never won again. I just wasn't knowledgable enough of rats. Oh well. Oh, I forgot the memory game. After the meeting and everyone left, those that stayed played a memory game. Kat, one of Bella's friends, brought out a tray with 20-25 different items on it, again, rat related. We had 30 seconds to look at it and study it and then they took it away. We had to write down everything we could remember. Unfortunately, I was writing slow, trying to remembe everything when I hear Bella say, "We'll give them a minute." Shit! If I had known it was going to be timed, I would have written faster. I only came up with 10 items. The three winners had 14. Oh well. It was after the second game of Rationary that things started getting surreal.

Bella, looking around the corner suspiciously called to the wife and asks her to come with her. After asking why, Bella just smilled at her and said, "It's a male initiation." My ears perked up at that. See, I've yet to mention that there weren't a lot of guys there. At the most, I think there were 6 of us. 4 had left and gone home by this time so it was just me and Jae. I started getting nervous, and then I hear Bella ask the wife, "If Icebear does it, will you do it?" Uh-oh. While I waited to see what fate had in store for me, one of Bella's roommates, the very lovely Eva was gathering her things and her daughter and heading out the door. She said that they were sleeping elsewhere and figured the 'married couple' would want the bedroom. Privacy and all. So, we got to crash on a real bed instead of a couch or the floor. Bonus! Well, my joy was short lived because in walked the wife holding a small armload of clothes, smiling and saying, "Come with me." She takes this big blue night shirt/gown with plaid sleeves and two furry kitty angels on the front, holds it up and says, "They want you to wear this." That's all? Shit, no problem. So, I strip down to my boxers (be still your heart ladies) and slipped it on. It was a bit warm, but very, very, very comfortable. Plus, it showed off my cows (my best friend says I don't have calves, I have cows...muscles you see), which are one of my best assets. And the fun began.

Everyone came out in either pajamas or in a nightgown and it was a big slumber party. Bella went around taking pictures of everyone acting goofy and doing something 'ratlike'. I was doing 'a rat in heat' but it came out looking more like 'constipation'. Oh well. It was fun and I was making people laugh. I loved it. I was pretty much on the whole time. I was getting some really good one-liners in and getting some good laughs. Bella had gone to rent some movies so we played more with the rats (it was a pretty ongoing thing). Around 12:00 or so they decided to watch a movie, but the wife and I were pretty beat and had seen it, so we went to bed. About 12:15 we were out. And I mean out. One of the best night's sleep I've had in a long time.

The next morning, I was awakened by an elbow to the ribs and "Honey, it's 9:00, we should get up." I mumbled something like "Ok" and then rolled back over and went to sleep. After what felt like only minutes later, I get another elbow to the ribs, "Honey, it's almost 10:00, we should get up." This time, I moved. We crawl out of bed and head out into the rest of the house to find bodies sprawled out in various states of repose. Some curled up in chairs, some stretched out on couches...all asleep. I was tempted to turn around and go back to bed, but the creatures started stirring. Now, I have to make a confession here. Holly, the girl who rode up with us, is a very, very cute seventeen-year old young lady. She was dressed in a t-shirt and some comfy looking pajama pants and wasn't wearing a bra (the wife also noticed this and pointed it out to me, so I wasn't alone). I have to admit, that for a few seconds, some rather lascivious thoughts ran through my head. I caught myself however and reigned in my libido. She's a nice girl, bad dog! Anyway, everyone started stirring and we all meandered through the kitchen in to the living room for breakfast.

After scarfing some bagles and chugging some damn good coffee, we all sat around, visited with the new arrivals (who got there after the wife and I went to bed) and talked about rats...again. It was great to be in a room with so many people who all were as passionate about a topic as you were. Coolness abounded. Around 1:00 or so, the wife and I got a few things and headed to Sea World. We were both kind of not wanting to leave the rats so she said what I'd been thinking, "Let's just go see the Polar Bears and then come back." Deal. We headed out, got lost and then finally made our way to the world of sea. Hey, I-4 isn't marked Westbound with anything denoting Sea World so it wasn't my fault! After using our annual pass to get in, we made a bee-line for the "Wild Arctic".

I had my mother-in-law's video camera and I really wanted to go through the motion part of the tour (it's like you're riding in this helicopter and it jolts and bounces you around), but the wait was over ½ an hour and the wife didn't want to go on it. It beat her little ass to hell last time and she wasn't really in the mood for more bruises...I can sympathise. So, we go the lame boring route and finally come upon the Polar Bear exhibit. And there was a bear there!! Just one, but that's better than nothing goddammit. Only thing was, he/she just kept pacing back and forth back and forth across the back of the pen. Wasn't really doing much. So we headed down to the underwater observation area, but you couldn't see shit. The underside of the water was like a damn mirror so you couldn't see it walking around and there wasn't another one in the water. There were some fish swimming around though. Getting depressed, I headed back up top to watch it pace more. I was getting a little aggrivated, but at least I was seeing a Polar Bear. Finally, the wife and I decided to head back down and out. As we walked by the underwater area again, I glanced over and saw this big white shape go gliding by. "He's swimming!" I go running over to the glass and almost rupture my eye when I slam the video camera up. He was swimming on his back and doing laps in his big pool. It was the coolest thing. He was so graceful for such a large animal. We hung around for about another 30 minutes and then left. I was happy. Woohoo! Now, back to Bella's.

We got back to Bella's around 4:00 or so and started getting our stuff together. We had originally planned on leaving around 5:00, but they had started watching a movie and there was no way it'd be over by 5:00, so we told Holly, if it was ok, we'd leave at 6:00. Well, 6:00 came and went as did 7:00. We finally had the car loaded and were headed out by 7:30. We went to nearby gas station to get gas and I almost put us in a ditch by slamming on the brakes on wet pavement. We made the turn though and things were cool. We ended up taking the turnpike back south instead of the regular way because we could go about 80-90 mph. Problem is, it would have cost us about $16 to get off where we wanted to (which wasn't even near our area yet) so we had to get off earlier and take 95 the rest of the way. We got back to Pompano around 10:30 and stopped at our apartment so we could put our three new ratties inside. We had Holly's cage and she had two new rats herself and we didn't have any other way to carry our rats, so we took ours out first. We got her home about 11:00 or so and got to the in-law's around 11:30 to get the kids. We got home and crashed after midnight. All in all, though, it was a great trip. Worth every minute. Ratfest 2000 rules!!

Well, I told you all it would be a long one, and I didn't lie. Hope you were able to make it through, it was kind of boring. Guess you had to be there to experience the real energy of it all. Oh well, I'll have a more interesting story (Me vs. the Health Dept.) tomorrow. Till then. Take care.

"Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?"

Icebear

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