Surprise!

How did we ever survive without on-demand internet access?

I had big plans to post a daily blog entry about our trip to Florida to surprise my mom-in-law for her birthday, and the hotel room HAD NO INTERNET SERVICE.

It was working in the lobby, but I tried that, and found that it came with a concierge standing four feet away and shouting at the olympic greco-roman wrestlers on the TV.

So here I am four days later, trying to figure out how to catch up on documenting our adventure, which started with the cat pewking (and pewping) in her carrier on the way to her babysitter's (no, not into a sombrero; that was an ill-placed hint that we were passing South of the Border - the plan was to add more hints about the upcoming story until we arrived with balloons and cake at mom-in-law's!).

So I'm skipping the hints and going right to the surprise:

Hubbie called his mom just before we rang the doorbell. He said, "Did you get my gift?"

"No," she replied.

"Well, it was supposed to be delivered by 10am."
We rang the bell.

"Oh, the doorbell just rang; maybe that's it," she said. Yup, that's it!

We brought ingredients for a cookout - Hubbie shaped the burgers and started up the grill. Buddy gobbled a chunk of raw meat that fell to the floor, and naturally threw it up a little while later (why does puke play such a large part in our lives???).

Then Hubbie manned the grill and Little Bubba swam.

Buddy was scared to death, trembling and crying when we left the edges of the pool - so he contented himself with resting his front paws on whatever human he could reach, with his hind paws on the edge of the pool.

It's now a twelve-hour drive, a horrible night's sleep (thank you, Buddy) and several Dunkin Donuts later, and we're on to a new leg of our traveling adventure - Greenville, South Carolina.

And thankfully, we have internet in this hotel! So, more tomorrow, including a radio star, cupcakes and kiddos.