RTT: Spring Break, Shoes, & Hotel Swimming Pools

• Hello!  We’re back from Spring Break in beautiful Vancouver, BC, Canada.  We spent all last week there, mostly just vegging in the hotel room because of the rain.  We had a couple of clear days, so I do have some photos to share when I get around to uploading them.
• I had fully intended to write several posts ahead of time and schedule them to post while we were out of town.  Two reasons: to give you all something to read, and to hide the fact that we were out of town from any evil people who might be reading.  Big old fail there.  At least I managed a couple of posts from the hotel room.  There’s truly something to be said for a vacation with absolutely no planned activities.  Even besides time for blogging.
• We love Tom Bergeron.  Seriously.  At least once per DWTS season, Jason and I look at each other and comment about what a fantastic host he is.  Probably our favorite non-talk show host ever.  He delivers his corny jokes so fluidly that you laugh before you realize they’re corny.  Plus, he’s always so at ease.
• In photography news, this week I’ve set my camera on manual mode.  It’s not nearly so frightening as I thought it might be.  I’m having fun.  Now, if only the rain would let up, so I could go outside and play.
• I’m on the hunt for some shoes.  This is always a process for me, because I’m (a) cheap and (b) extraordinarily picky about shoes.  (I refuse to wear uncomfortable shoes, my feet widened during my second pregnancy, and I need arch support.  These all seem like perfectly normal parameters, but it’s not as easy as you’d think to find shoes that take all three into account.)  The process is even more intense, because this time I need athletic shoes…something I can wear on the elliptical or for a walk around the neighborhood.  And here’s the kicker: I would like my little toes to NOT fall asleep while I’m on the elliptical, as they always do.  I’ve been told to go up a half size to combat this, but it feels so wrong to have shoes that big.  I told you I’m picky.
• While we were out of town, Jason took the boys to the hotel swimming pool most afternoons.  Granted, I was usually cooking dinner (and one day, doing laundry, after which we discovered that I’m apparently allergic to Cheer laundry detergent.  I still itch all over, dangit.), but still.  It was nice to send them all off together, and have a bit of time to myself.  The nice thing about cooking in a hotel suite is that it’s the only chore you have to do all week.  Cook, clean up the dishes, and that’s it.  Someone else comes in mid-week to clean the bathroom.  The kids can put their own clothes in the dresser.  There’s not a whole messy house staring at you, making you feeling guilty for sitting in your PJ’s at 2pm, reading, playing Carcassone or cribbage, knitting, and/or watching an Ace of Cakes marathon.