Ghosts, Homeless people, Booze, and Barf with Addendum

So the Quinlans got to have somewhat of a break from the norm last week. As you know, Ryan now works for a company based in Southern California (Long Beach) named BGI Worldwide. He was invited down for their strategy meeting and the kids and I went along because we were invited to a cruise the last day.

The first two nights we stayed downtown Ventura in a small bed and breakfast named the Bella Maggiore. Apparently it's haunted by a prostitute named Sylvia. Sylvia hung herself in room seventeen and now is said to wander the hotel wearing strong rose scented perfume and is prone to play around with your personal items. Unfortunately Sylvia was not impressed by the Quinlan family enough to come bug us. Fortunately, the hotel was nice and quaint and the kids and I had fun anyway.

We spent our time wandering around downtown Ventura. We did a little shopping, a lot of yummy eating, and a little sight seeing. The kids and I toured the San Buenaventura mission. It's been around since the seventeen hundreds, if you can believe it. All went well until a homeless man started yelling at me to let him through a locked door onto the grounds. Hell no was I going to let this freak near us, so I said no and walked away. He immediately became irate and notched up the yelling. I called the police, but they were non plussed. I soon found out why. The rest of the day I had several more encounters with homeless people. It's so common that it's probably more of a rarity to NOT have an encounter with one. Cross Ventura off my list of places that would be cool to live.

At the end of the week we got on a big boat for a booze cruise (hat's off to The Office, for that one). And there was plenty of booze, btw. Bruce made me a bloody mary at 8:30 a.m. I didn't know that was even legal! I sucked it down as much as possible, but by the time we left for the cruise I had only drunk down about an eighth of it. By the time we were on the ship I'd had enough. I drank about three cups of pineapple juice and watched everyone else get tipsy. I got to meet everyone that worked with Ryan, and they are a fun group. I am happy he works for them now instead of Ivy. (Ivy, by the way, is a nightmare I'm glad to have behind us.) Everyone was super nice to the kids and we felt right at home.

Oh, I can't forget to mention the craziest incident of all. The night before the cruise we all ate seafood at the Crab Pot. Later that night, Ryan upchucked his entire dinner and then some. From 1-3 a.m. he was simultaneously barfing and having the runs. He had not barfed in 22 years! Can I just tell you how rotten our hotel room smelled? Half-digested seafood does not a pleasant smell make.

Addendum:
I was reproved for not telling about our fab stop at the LeVangie family home, so let me talk about that now.

On Saturday after the cruise we drove to A-A-A-l-t-a L-L-L-o-m-a A-l-t-a L-o-m-a Go Warriors! Alta Loma to visit the Levangies. They were indeed quite festive, with much Christmas decor around the house. Their house was really nice. It is two story with four bedrooms. It is supposedly 1700 square feet but I contend that it's really larger. They have a living room, dining room, and extra bedroom that we don't have, and we have 1925 sf. It's quite a nice little neighborhood. I got to hang out with the babies and then fell asleep while the guys watched Tropic Thunder. The next day we scoured Natalie and Ray's old yearbooks, playing our own version of Hot or Not, and finally we ended the day with a visit to the place where a hamburger is all about. Ah, the memories.