When are you coming to Florida? If you get a chance to pick up a thin inexpensive rain jacket (the kind that folds up into a little square), get one for each person. We will start getting those daily thunderstorms soon and they are so short its not worth leaving the park to wait it out. Fanny packs are great to use to keep your money, meds, or ID's in. If someone doesn't mind wearing a backpack, its great to have water and snacks in to save on buying them. Disney is one place that allows you to enter with stuff. Make sure to use the system where you schedule ahead of time the rides you want to go on. I can't recall whats its called but its like call ahead seating. Doesn't get you out of waiting in line totally but puts you ahead of those that don't do it. Get a map ahead of time and plot out the order you want to do the rides. Some people, if they are staying close, will be in the park at the opening time, then take the hottest part of the day off to rest and head back out in late afternoon. Thunderstorms can come up anytime but as I said, they are scattered for the most part and you can get indoors easily. It will be hot and humid here for you all - we are already into the mid 80's and even though its still nice in the morning, its hot by 10 or so. Sunscreen is a must, baby powder is also good for skin chaffing and its best to wear a shirt with a little sleeve in it part of the time - the tops of the shoulders will get burnt even if you use sunscreen and its most uncomfortable so pack a t shirt in the backpack to slip on in mid-day. Sorry, I know you didn't ask for advice but having lived in Florida and being at Disney where you see everyone burnt to a crisp, I thought I might offer some ideas. Hope you don't mind. Enjoy your vacation.

The stress builds and you never know what will trigger the tears and/or breakdown. I am at the stage where we have a lot of progress made but are stuck for approx a week now and there are issues. I can't imagine how so many professionals can make so many mistakes. I think that on the whole, the people we have are good at what they do, but that they plunge ahead at times and catch mistakes after the fact. In the past 3 weeks: First: Out of 18 cabs to be delivered, they delivered 5 and told me that it always looks like less when I questioned how little I was getting. It took 4 days to get the rest of my order delivered(and still had some pieces missing, yet they sent me extra cabs). Needless to say, the plumber, electrician, installers, etc... got their schedules messed up by this and I have not been able to get it all back on track. My gc is away on vacation this week, yet he forgot to tell me he was going. Since he went, I don't know who will show up on any day, if anyone. The few subs who have come have not stayed for more than an hour or 2. The electricians installed 2 fans in our screened in porch, the switch for the one on the right was on the left and vice versa. There is a leak in our old laundry room where the plumber charged us $1k to rework all the pipes to bring it up to code. Our island has a back with cubbies in it, so the cab installers put wood under it so that the counter would transition smoothly into the cubbies. Turns out, they put a 1.5" thick piece of wood instead of a 3/4" piece, so it has to be removed, changed out and the fills need to be reworked.. all before the counter guy can install the counters. Since the counter guy can't come, the plumber can't install my kitchen sink.... so the plumber has not come back to install our dw, toilet, icemaker for freezer, install our washer/dryer in our new laundry room on main level and install the propane for our stove. I can understand that he won't come for an item or 2, but there is plenty for him to do without doing my sinks (see below about bathroom sink issue). Our venthood was installed at 27" over our island, but worse than that, they installed it before the island was put where it will end up. Now, they have to uninstall the hood and move it 3" to the side and 3" back. Obviously, they can take that opportunity to make it the correct height. Of course, I had hustled to get the ceilings primed and painted over there and now they will be ripped apart. Our bathroom faucet was bought for a steal as it retails for over $600 and I got it for $65, delivered, on ebay. I took the top part to the fabricator so he could drill the hole for it and left the "guts" at home in its special box. A few days ago, the plumber was here to install it and the box is nowhere to be found. It had been lost among the materials a few years ago, so dh and I are very aware of what the box looks like and I imagine it was not light since it had parts in it, but it appears that someone other than us threw it out. I contacted the mfr (Jado)and it has been discontinued and they can't seem to locate any parts for it. I may have to buy a new one with our budget already at the breaking point. Prior to that: They installed our eyebrow window wrong. I made it clear it does not look like the plan and I do not like how it came out from the exterior. They keep telling me they will fix it when the weather is better, but it is better and now I keep hearing how they are working on other people's exteriors because the weather had pushed their schedule back. We have our old gutters literally hanging off our house and on the ground, yet the gutter guy is nowhere to be found. Just about every light or electric fixture had a wire pulled through the ceiling or wall for it, all had to be moved when we set up the rooms for real. The electrician swears he did not pull the wires through the ceilings (accessible through the attic, so not needed ahead of time). I painted kitchen walls as told and then they moved the outlet for the mw and made a big mess on the wall that I had to repair and repaint. The biggest stressers are money is tight and we have been in the bsmt for 13 weeks and have no definite end in sight. We were supposed to be out by March and yet our main level is a construction zone and my only working real appliance is a wall oven. I have a countertop convection oven and a toaster oven in our temp kitchen in the bsmt, so that is not the appliance I'd want working first! The only bright side is we don't have to pay the balance until the work is done, so the delays are giving us more time for dh to get paychecks before then, but this mess is keeping me from working much and I am on commission, so earning much less than normal. Sigh....

I hope that it's been a memorable birthday - for all of the best reasons. I hope also that you made some memories that you can bring out to enjoy later. ole joyful

Here you go with my ***showing my rendition Alaska cole slaw 5 cups shredded cabbage **I buy the preshredded plain, no carrots, etc at WalMart 1/2 cups almond slivers, toasted 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries 1/2 cup celery, diced**don't use 1/4 cup chopped green onions, white and green parts 1/2 cups chopped green bell pepper **don't use This is the creamy dressing I used and it works great: mix 1/2 c mayo with 2 Tbl cider vinegar **I used white wine vinegar, 2 tsp sugar, salt and pepper to taste Pour over coleslaw right before serving and toss JUST TO COAT Combine cabbage, almonds, cranberries, celery, green onions, and green pepper in a large plastic bowl with a snap-on lid. Combine all dressing ingredients, adding salt and pepper to taste, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Pour dressing over slaw just before serving. Stir well