Skating dresses (and associated nightmares)

DD's season is well underway. She has never made it through an entire season without outgrowing her original dress. Fingers crossed for this season - it ends in October.

Finally coming up for air. Spent 9 hours at the machine Saturday (and that was just to put the bodice together). The first attempt at the dress, in my mind, wasn't successful. For some reason my idea didn't translate as well as I had hoped. I'm not really sure why, but I HATED the skirt, and the whole thing was just so heavy.

This is the "HATED" dress. More stones were added after this picture.


All I need to do is permanently attach the skirt, and stone the whole thing. All by tomorrow at 4:30am. Sure, not a problem. Did I mention that the dog at DD's retainer last night? So we're off to 2 orthodontist appts today. Add to that that she skated this morning, and skates again this afternoon... somewhere in here I'm supposed to work, I think.

This dress got me to thinking about all my stressful home-stretches leading into competitions. Lots of rhinestoning at the hotel the night before the event.

This dress was a late night in a hotel in Charleston, SC...


This was a hotel in Aston, PA...


This was a hotel in Hagerstown, MD...


Hotel in Ardmore, PA...


Okay, there are no stones on this dress... I just love the dress! Probably my favorite dress to date. She was so little then! And skating to 101 Dalmations. Oh how I miss those days.

Phew, now that I've had a few days to recover... Buffett was AWESOME! Granted I was a bit less sober than in past years, but I do believe it's one of the better shows I've seen. It was a bit strange to not have an intermission. Not sure if he had a hot date or was just trying to get people out of the rain.

Getting there was interesting. This year we decided to be there when the parking lot opened, and to try for a spot on the grass, under the trees. As we were driving in, we threw my brother in law out of the car - if you've seen Far and Away (the Cruise/Kidman film) think of the "land grab" with the flags - and told him to get us a spot. We had to park kind of far from the grass, but we knew it would translate into an easier departure. We did it, got the ideal spot. 3 tents, a kiddie pool, and the most important structure...

I was surprised at the trouble we had from the cops. In general, I'm not a trouble maker, but get nasty with me (for no reason) and I'll get nasty right back. Granted, I know, alcohol isn't allowed, but in past years the cops have been pretty cool - just telling you to pour it into a "Solo" cup. Our items from the "no-no" list were... alcohol (just a little bit), a grill, and a port-a-potty. We got busted for the potty. When I asked why it's such a big deal, the cop responded that in past years people have thrown feces around (GROSS!). So he told us to take the potty tent down... and then said "and get rid of the alcohol". Yeah, like we were going to do THAT! So, smart A$$ that I am... I took the bucket out of the tent... it became a changing room for the kids. Dared him to come back, of course he didn't.

DD has now gone to 7 Buffett shows at Nissan. I've gotten grief over this, but usually it's a company event for us, with a lot of kids. We shelter them pretty well - no walking around for this group. I also get seats in the pavilion so she doesn't experience the lawn this young. She has an absolute blast during the show hitting the beach balls around, and then usually falls asleep 1/2 way through.






So, our Caribbean Margaritaville tour was just a warm up for the concert. DD was the driving force behind 3 Margaritavilles in 3 days (Ocho Rios, Cozumel, Georgetown).

Can't wait until next year