I'm going through Great Wolf Lodge withdrawal.

Sorry for being MIA the last couple of weeks, but I've been crushed by the weight of my social calendar.  Not something to complain about, really.  I've been having a blast.

This past Sunday through Tuesday, for instance, I spent with my family on our first ever vacation to Great Wolf Lodge.  This place is amazing.  We walked into the lobby (which is about 80 feet high) and it was beautifully decorated with Christmas trees, a huge hearth, and a life-sized gingerbread house.  It even smelled incredible, with some sort of piney fragrance they were pumping in through the ducts.

The whole place is huge, but manages to have everything you could want while still keeping with the "lodge" theme.  (They even had a Dunkin' Donuts on-site, but with regular DD prices.  Sweet.)  In addition to the water park, there's a cafeteria, gift shop, huge arcade, etc.

And the water park itself is awesome.  They have some of the best waterslides I've ever been on (that scary pic up top is from the Howlin' Tornado), but without the huge lines and endless walking that comes with a typical water park.  Also, there was a bunch of stuff for the little kids, so even my son could play relatively-independently.  (Extra nice touch:  They provide life vests for the kids, gratis.)

You can't beat the place for convenience, either.  You get a wristband your first day there, which serves not only as your entrance to the water park, but also is your room key.  Yeah.  High-tech.  If you want, you can even attach a credit card to it, and spend the rest of your stay just waving your wrist at a scanner when you want to buy something.  (Even works on vending machines!)

Everything was wonderful.  Our room was lovely, the food was great, and there was so much to do, but without feeling like you had to rush.  Even the nearby malls and restaurants were nice.

I only had one real complaint, and it was with the door latch.  You see, my two-year-old son quickly figured out three things:  he could open the door to our room, the band on his wrist was money, and the vending machine was right down the hall.

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It's not the bars that are the watering holes anymore.

I originally had a different post prepared for today, detailing the danger and drama of this past weekend.  (Long story short:  we were besieged by tornadoes.)

But today has taken an unexpected turn, one that finds me sitting at home, rather than at my office.

When I woke up this morning, it was supposed to be a relatively normal Monday, particularly in comparison to the events of the weekend.  I got up, got dressed, kissed my boys goodbye, and got in the car to get to work.

It is my custom to arrive a few minutes early and do my Bible reading sitting in the parking lot.  It seemed there were fewer cars than usual, but arriving around quarter after 7:00 always puts me as one of the first people in the building, and I thought perhaps a few people stayed home to work on their damaged property and deal with insurance agents and whatnot.

However, one of my coworkers was wandering around the parking lot on a cell phone.  I caught bits of his conversation as he approached me.  "No, you turn around and go on back home...No point coming here...Sure, I'll stay to tell everyone...Can't believe they didn't have something on the news to tell us."

I'd pieced together what he had to tell me before he hung up and said it.  Power out all over campus.  No way to even get in the building (electronic keycards), much less do any work.  See you tomorrow, maybe.

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Great news for the frugal and caffeine-addicted!

For those who know me personally, it's no secret that I have a great love affair with Dunkin Donuts coffee. Though I drink black coffee by the pot at home, there is something that's such a special little treat about grabbing a paperback and dropping in the Dunkin' Donuts near my house to sip on an extra-large Toasted Almond coffee w/ cream and sugar. For me, it beats Starbucks taste-wise any day of the week, and nothing can compare to that $2.39 price tag for the largest size (which is much, much larger than a, ahem, venti).

So, my caffeine-fueled heart was crushed when I discovered my local DD closed down for renovations. But I did a bit of digging, and a wonderful new dawn is on the horizon! Dunkin' Donuts is going WiFi!

So when my beloved DD finally reopens, I'mma ask hubby to watch dear son for about an hour, and I'm going to jet off to the coffee shop to enjoy tasty fresh-brewed while I work on this blog...and all for under $3.