Jerzei Collie's journal

 After work on Sunday, I went to a barbecue in Colorado Springs at one of the cruiser's homes. The home has an outdoor pool, but I hadn't brought my bathing suit. Instead, I just had a couple of hot dogs, along with beers and chicken salad. I drove one of the cruisers to a local hotel so she could take a shuttle to the airport. After driving back to the Magnolia Hotel in Denver, I slept for about five hours. I tried to listen to The Rabbit Hole and Doggy Radio last night, but the streams kept buffering on the hotel's wifi. I gave up after about 30 minutes then went back to sleep.

I booked my hotel room yesterday for Furry Fiesta 2018, and booked a room today for the Denver cruise reunion. I will ask a co-worker at KRCC if he can come in at noon on the Saturday and Sunday of the reunion. This way, I'll only need to make up five hours of lost time during the next KRCC membership drive in October. Working an additional 17 hours during the drive will make up for missing work during Furry Fiesta. The Denver hotel only had rooms available for July 7-9. If I'm unable to get a room for an additional day, I will need to find someone else with bed space for Sunday night or check out around 4 AM Sunday since I will be working until the noon check-out time.

 My Washington, DC vacation started out a bit shaky but quickly got much better. Since my tax refund -- around which I budgeted my trip -- won't arrive until next month, I applied for a $1,500 loan through the Lending Tree website in the week before the trip. A local branch of One Main Financial completed the loan and said the money would be in my account on Thursday, the day I flew out to Washington. My mood was dampened a little Thursday morning when I got an e-mail from Lending Tree saying the loan wasn't approved. I greatly reduced my spending that day, then got an e-mail that night from One Main saying the loan actually was approved and the money was in my account!

THURSDAY
My first flight from Colorado Springs to Chicago was very peaceful because no kids were on it. I had a cup of orange juice and a stroopwafel on the flight, then got a tomato and mozzarella sandwich and a bottle of water during the layover in Chicago. There was a kid on the flight from Chicago to DC, but it didn't make a lot of noise.

The singles group went to Whitlow's restaurant in Arlington for dinner Thursday night. I had a barbecue bacon cheeseburger, chocolate cake for dessert and a rum-and-coke. Instead of separate checks for each person, the restaurant gave checks to each table of 5-6 people. I didn't have any cash on me at that point. The bill for the table was $120; the others at the table offered to reimburse me if I paid for the table with my credit card. I figured this would still leave me with enough money left on the card for the hotel and one or two nights of dining, along with cash in my wallet (This was a few hours before I learned my loan was approved.)

Taking the subway back to the hotel, I thought the train's announcer was beatboxing and calling himself "Willie Rest-In-Peace." Looking at the signs, I realized he was saying the train was headed toward the "Wiehle-Reston East" station and the "beatboxing" was just the announcer clumsily putting the microphone in its holder.

FRIDAY
The day started with a group tour of the Capitol building. There was nothing really going on since Congress wasn't meeting at the time. The group had lunch in one of the Dirksen Senate Building's cafes (I had chicken and fries.) A member of our group took us on a tour of the Senate's TV and radio studios.

The group went to Chadwick's bar before the dinner cruise. The cruise went up and down the Potomac river. I had the parmesan chicken for dinner. After the cruise, the group took an Uber ride to the Crystal City Sports Pub near the hotel. The pub was too crowded, so the group went down the street to Bar Louie instead. I had a couple of s'mores martinis.

SATURDAY
I wasn't able to sign up in time for the White House tour (The deadline had passed before I committed to go on this vacation.) I was told the group would meet at Arlington Cemetery for a bus tour at 1 PM. I took the subway and got there by about 12:50. I waited inside the visitors center and asked the group on Facebook when/where the group was supposed to meet. When I didn't get a response by 2:00, I headed back to the hotel.

That night, the group had a few drinks in the hotel bar, then headed down the street to Ted's Montana Grill for dinner. I had a "Red Rock" bison burger and some "Mountain Breeze" martinis (no relation to the Mountain Dew knockoff from Safeway.)

I got back to the hotel around 10 PM, then played some of the games on Steelwoulfe's Jackbox stream for a couple of hours.

SUNDAY
The group had a brunch buffet at the Crystal City Sports Pub. I got some andouille sausage with peppers and onions, some biscuits with chipped beef, and a mimosa. My ankles had blisters from all of the walking I'd done so far. I decided to just have two of the instant pasta cups I packed for lunch, then had dinner later in the hotel's restaurant. I couldn't stay up to listen to all of Doggy Radio because I needed to get some sleep before my flights.

MONDAY
United Airlines had given me two one-time passes to their "United Club" lounges for this trip. I had a two-hour wait at both DC and Chicago's airports, so I visited the lounges at both locations. I had a light snack at each location, along with coffee in Chicago. My flight from Chicago to Colorado Springs left about 40 minutes late. There was a loud kid a couple rows in front of me on this flight. I had eaten an edible before the flight, so I was thankfully relaxed and unaffected by the kid. The flight wasn't too far behind schedule, arriving 10-15 minutes late.

I thought I had lost weight during the vacation due to all the walking I did because the planes' seat belts fit comfortably on all of the flights. When I got home, I saw I had gained 11 pounds. I don't know if I have less body fat than before or United recently installed longer seat belts. I've had to request seat belt extensions on many of my past United flights, but none this time.

Another cruise reunion is scheduled for July in Denver. That will be much easier and cheaper for me.

I'm getting a larger-than-usual tax refund in a few weeks. This year, I'm able to write off more of my medical expenses.

Saturday marks 40 days until my singles cruise reunion in Washington, DC. I got a hotel room by myself, but I'll offer to share the room/cost with someone (either specific dates or the whole weekend) since the rooms have two double beds. For the KRCC membership drive in two weeks, I need to sign up for 5-6 phone shifts to make up for the work days I'll miss next month.

I'm looking at the conventions/vacations I want to do in 2017 and seeing which ones I should attend or skip. I likely could only afford Rocky Mountain Fur Con and one other choice. A third option may open up if any Colorado furs could give me a ride to and/or share a room at Furry Fiesta or BLFC. I have plenty of frequent flyer miles saved up to pay for the airfare to one of the destinations.

March: Furry Fiesta
-- I've attended this con four times since 2010. The past two years allowed me to see several furry musicians live. TFF allowed me to meet many of my online friends in person when I first attended. The availability of food trucks and some restaurants within walking distance is excellent.

April: Singles Cruise reunion in Washington, DC
--I haven't been to DC since 1984. The singles group is debating whether to stay in a hotel in DC or the Virginia suburbs near a subway line. One of my brothers lives in Alexandria.

June: Biggest Little Fur Con
--This would be my first time at BLFC. All the positive feedback I've heard about the con and the resort hotel have made it tempting for me. The resort has lots of activities available like bowling and go-carts.

August: Rocky Mountain Fur Con
--RMFC is the only definite con on my list for 2017. It's only an hour's drive away for me. If worst comes to worst financially, I could share a hotel room to save money. Sharing a room with a handler would be good since my fursuit should be finished by then.

My physician called me this morning with the results of my blood test.  My Vitamin D level is in the low part of the "normal" level.  I was told to double the amount of over-the-counter Vitamin D that I take.  After slacking off on this for a while, I've resumed keeping track of the foods/calories I eat.  I really want to get back below 300 lbs. before the end of the year.

I bought a few more items for my upcoming trip to Deadwood.  The hotel's Web site states the rooms have coffee makers.  I got a few instant meals, along with mini cereal boxes and protein shakes.

Today marks:
120 days until my Singles Cruise reunion in South Dakota
135 days until Rocky Mountain Fur Con

The trip to Deadwood, SD (about 450 miles) will be the second-longest car trip I've taken by myself.  The longest was my trip to Oklacon 2011 (525 miles.)  This trip should take around 9-10 hours, including 2-3 rest/meal stops.

I got a political robo-call yesterday.  Calls like this are annoying enough, but this one had a guy yelling about taxes, jobs, etc. before shouting his endorsement for one of the mayoral candidates.  I've already sent in my mail-in ballot, and I definitely didn't plan to vote for this candidate even before the call. EDIT: According to the Gazette, the phone message was actually against the candidate.  I had hung up halfway through the call so I didn't hear the rest of it.

Starting Friday with a stuffy nose made me realize I forgot to pack a bottle of Zyrtec allergy pills. I got some Benadryl from the resort's convenience store.

After flying in to Orlando on a red-eye flight Thursday, I napped for a few hours. The cruise reunion group had dinner that night.

To be continued as I'm starting to doze off.

(The above was written on Friday night.)

On Friday, some of the reunion group went to Universal Islands of Adventure. I was hoping to ride The Hulk roller coaster. The rides with shoulder restraints have a couple of test seats at the ride entrance to see if people will fit into them; I didn't fit into the seats for three of the rides since the safety belts were 2-3 inches too short for me. That's quite ironic that a ride would be named after a character that wouldn't be able to fit in the ride (at least when he gets mad!)

I finally found two rides that could accommodate me, the Spider-Man ride and the Cat In The Hat ride. At the end of the park visit, the group (including me) went on three of the water rides.

I am disappointed that I missed out on riding some of the rides, but that will definitely motivate me to stick to my diet and exercise plan so I can fit into the rides the next time I go.

Thursday night's dinner was at Tu Tu Tango. The group hoped to get into Howl At The Moon before 10 PM, but there was a private event going on until then. We killed some time at the Hooters next door until Howl let us in.

After the Universal trip on Friday, I went back to the resort where the group was staying to shower and change clothes. I returned to Universal later to meet the others for dinner at Margaritaville at Universal City Walk.

Bah! Dozing off again. I'll wrap up my weekend in a day or two.

Last week's calorie average: 1,822.1
Days above 2,000 calories: 1 (2,110)

For once, I'm actually voluntarily playing the song "Insomnia 2k13" instead of having it randomly playing online when I decide to stay up.

Just nine days until I go to Orlando for vacation!