This is living...
After we checked out of Great Wolf Lodge week before last, we headed home to check on things. Now that some places around us had power, maybe we could tough it out. We could eat out, give up showering for a few days, have a fire in the fireplace and all sleep in one room to share warmth. Cozy, right?
No. It was so cold that Max was crying. After one night we packed our massive pile of dirty clothes and went to my Mother in law's house. She had recently gotten her power back. We stayed for 2 days, ran her washer and dryer almost non-stop, and were generally very underfoot. We forgot the bed in the guest room has a board under the mattress (used to be Great Grandma's room). I woke up bruised. Now THAT is firm! Ouch.
John was scheduled to go to a training class in Baltimore this past week and we had to decide fast what to do. Go with him or stick it out at home. Home was NOT an option. Nor was extending our stay with grandma. We wore out our welcome there. Luckily John's company said they would make an exception and allow families of employees affected by Sandy to stay in the hotel and eat at their buffet meals. Baltimore, here we come?
John spoke with the event planner to see if they could get a room with enough beds for the family to sleep comfortably. He was ready to cancel his training and go to the last session they offer in December if they couldn't find space for us. The only problem with that other session is it's in Canada and he would miss Tyler's birthday. Not ideal. Less ideal than hauling the family to Baltimore and cramming into yet another hotel room for a week. But poor John was going to need sleep to survive those long days in training. It could get ugly!
Or not. Between the event coordinator and the hotel, they let us know the room had been upgraded to a "suite" and the coordinator was leaving some gifts for the kids to help keep them occupied. So nice! We started looking forward to our next little family adventure. What KIND of suite, we wondered. It's a super nice hotel with Jr. Suites on up to $4000 a night rock star type suites. We expected the junior variety. We got something pretty darn close to rock star level!
I mean, wow. You should see this place. I'll post photos. The view of the inner harbor alone is worth a pretty penny. The gift bags were super nice too. Games, Matchbox cars, playing cards, snacks...the boys were over the moon. Add a super nice indoor pool on the 7th floor, a nice rooftop garden space to play in, and super nice staff in the pub willing to make special order treats for the boys at lunch and they are ready to live here forever.
It's a 5-star hotel with 5-star gourmet food at every meal they serve to the HP folks. I am in heaven! The boys...not so much. They have more of a 1-star level palate. Hence the special hoops the pub staff keep leaping through to keep my boys happy. 5-star service. Gotta love it! Max actually ate chicken Florentine at lunch today. I was tickled! But he had to have fries with it. *sigh* Heh heh.
We've been so blessed through this trying time. I am so grateful to the hotel and HP for giving us a warm place to live this week. I feel so bad for families without options back home. We STILL don't have power at home. John turned off the water to the house before we left. He was afraid of the pipes freezing while we were away because life isn't interesting enough without adding a Nor'easter to the mix. They think it will prevent crews from working on the lines for a couple extra days. Ugh. I really hope the power is on by the time we get home. 2 weeks without is CRAZY! Yes I feel totally spoiled.
UPDATE: We got home Friday night to find the power ON! Thank you to whom ever worked to get Stanhope back on the grid. We appreciate your efforts! And special thanks to hubby's company who decided to send us a generator. It arrived this morning. Yep. We got our power back last night. Didn't I tell you my life was a sit-com? Get this... When the power came back on, our home alarm system also turned on. It immediately registered a "low temp" alert. Duh. 2 weeks without heat in the winter will do that to a house. The alarm company worker who logged the alert in their system put it in as a "medical emergency alert." The local police called the alarm company to verify the alert and ask for the home owner's cell phone number. Did the alarm company tell them it was a low temp alert? No. Furthermore they claimed they didn't have our cell number. Say what? You folks have had that number for 10+ years. The police, acting in good faith, broke into our house to look for someone in trouble. Other than a cold cat (Sparty is perfectly fine) they found the house empty. They secured the side door as best they could and left.
Yeah. Our side door is totally busted in! Scary that someone could just kick in the door like that with very little effort! John was so upset his voice was shaky when he called the alarm company. They had better be ready to pay for damages! What if the alert went out earlier in the week?! Our house would have been open to anyone for days. Imagine. We get home to a cold EMPTY house. That would have been super swell.
Lastly, the cable and internet are still out. So we are using John's MiFi device. My super awesome quad-core, dual raid dream PC is dead. I was in the middle of backing up my data when Sandy took out our power two weeks ago. I have a nice UPS, so I was able to shut down normally. Now the silly box won't boot up. At all. Did I finish my data backup? No. I am using my laptop currently. I was able to get photos off my camera from the last 2 weeks - found a nifty tool on this thing for managing pictures too. I am praying the silly PC is just cold. Maybe after it warms up for 24 hours or so it will start up for me. Hey, I can hope.
No. It was so cold that Max was crying. After one night we packed our massive pile of dirty clothes and went to my Mother in law's house. She had recently gotten her power back. We stayed for 2 days, ran her washer and dryer almost non-stop, and were generally very underfoot. We forgot the bed in the guest room has a board under the mattress (used to be Great Grandma's room). I woke up bruised. Now THAT is firm! Ouch.
John was scheduled to go to a training class in Baltimore this past week and we had to decide fast what to do. Go with him or stick it out at home. Home was NOT an option. Nor was extending our stay with grandma. We wore out our welcome there. Luckily John's company said they would make an exception and allow families of employees affected by Sandy to stay in the hotel and eat at their buffet meals. Baltimore, here we come?
John spoke with the event planner to see if they could get a room with enough beds for the family to sleep comfortably. He was ready to cancel his training and go to the last session they offer in December if they couldn't find space for us. The only problem with that other session is it's in Canada and he would miss Tyler's birthday. Not ideal. Less ideal than hauling the family to Baltimore and cramming into yet another hotel room for a week. But poor John was going to need sleep to survive those long days in training. It could get ugly!
Or not. Between the event coordinator and the hotel, they let us know the room had been upgraded to a "suite" and the coordinator was leaving some gifts for the kids to help keep them occupied. So nice! We started looking forward to our next little family adventure. What KIND of suite, we wondered. It's a super nice hotel with Jr. Suites on up to $4000 a night rock star type suites. We expected the junior variety. We got something pretty darn close to rock star level!
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| Living/Dining room with murphy bed down - master is thru the french doors |
It's a 5-star hotel with 5-star gourmet food at every meal they serve to the HP folks. I am in heaven! The boys...not so much. They have more of a 1-star level palate. Hence the special hoops the pub staff keep leaping through to keep my boys happy. 5-star service. Gotta love it! Max actually ate chicken Florentine at lunch today. I was tickled! But he had to have fries with it. *sigh* Heh heh.
We've been so blessed through this trying time. I am so grateful to the hotel and HP for giving us a warm place to live this week. I feel so bad for families without options back home. We STILL don't have power at home. John turned off the water to the house before we left. He was afraid of the pipes freezing while we were away because life isn't interesting enough without adding a Nor'easter to the mix. They think it will prevent crews from working on the lines for a couple extra days. Ugh. I really hope the power is on by the time we get home. 2 weeks without is CRAZY! Yes I feel totally spoiled.
UPDATE: We got home Friday night to find the power ON! Thank you to whom ever worked to get Stanhope back on the grid. We appreciate your efforts! And special thanks to hubby's company who decided to send us a generator. It arrived this morning. Yep. We got our power back last night. Didn't I tell you my life was a sit-com? Get this... When the power came back on, our home alarm system also turned on. It immediately registered a "low temp" alert. Duh. 2 weeks without heat in the winter will do that to a house. The alarm company worker who logged the alert in their system put it in as a "medical emergency alert." The local police called the alarm company to verify the alert and ask for the home owner's cell phone number. Did the alarm company tell them it was a low temp alert? No. Furthermore they claimed they didn't have our cell number. Say what? You folks have had that number for 10+ years. The police, acting in good faith, broke into our house to look for someone in trouble. Other than a cold cat (Sparty is perfectly fine) they found the house empty. They secured the side door as best they could and left.
Yeah. Our side door is totally busted in! Scary that someone could just kick in the door like that with very little effort! John was so upset his voice was shaky when he called the alarm company. They had better be ready to pay for damages! What if the alert went out earlier in the week?! Our house would have been open to anyone for days. Imagine. We get home to a cold EMPTY house. That would have been super swell.
Lastly, the cable and internet are still out. So we are using John's MiFi device. My super awesome quad-core, dual raid dream PC is dead. I was in the middle of backing up my data when Sandy took out our power two weeks ago. I have a nice UPS, so I was able to shut down normally. Now the silly box won't boot up. At all. Did I finish my data backup? No. I am using my laptop currently. I was able to get photos off my camera from the last 2 weeks - found a nifty tool on this thing for managing pictures too. I am praying the silly PC is just cold. Maybe after it warms up for 24 hours or so it will start up for me. Hey, I can hope.
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