Yay - a nomination

What do you know? I got nominated in the Fall 2003 Willowy Goodness Awards for excellence in Willow-centric fanfiction! Now the really odd thing is the category I was nominated in. Get this, guys: Best New Willow Author. Whoever nominated me - thank you very much. But isn't that a bit.... odd? I only ever wrote one Willow-centric fic, namely Free Will, but apparently that wasn't nominated. Oh well. I think it's nice. Yay. Nominations always cheer me up.

Perfect day

Today was almost perfect, even though it didn't start out that way.
This morning Mr. Estepheia woke up with a nasty migraine, but he pulled himself together and by 10.30 we and the kids and Tina's best friend were sitting in the car and on our way to the Heide-Park Soltau. During the 75 minute drive I managed to read a bit in Ansen Dibbel's Plot. When we arrived, the weather was lovely: sunny, while the air was crisp and slightly chilly. The Heide-Park is one of Germany's amusement parks, probably the nicest of all, with beautiful gardening everywhere. Since the forecast had been for bad weather and since it's late in the year (but before the big autumn holiday), the park was almost empty. We have annual passes, have been going there for the past 15 years or so, and this was my second trip this year and the third for the kids. We arrived just in time for the crocodile show. That was a plus.
We enjoyed many rides, water sliides, mountain rafting, roller coasters, carousels, some of them several times (a few times we could even remain seated). We had a little picnic, then I had a ride in the world's biggest wooden roller coaster (with a 61 degree incline) and I only had to wait something like 5 minutes. We ate fabulous ice cream. Then we hurried to the dolphin show and when the trainers asked for volunteers from the audience, Tina got picked out. She was put in a dinghi and one of the dolphins pulled the dinghi. She was so cute. When asked where she comes from, she told the trainer: "Deutschland (i.e. Germany)." She never hesitated, wasn't shy in the least and not afraid to feed the dolphin with fish. Naturally, her proud parents grinned inanely throughout.
All in all the kids were well behaved and enthusiastic, and the weather stayed nice all day. After the park closed, we went to an American diner where the kids received animal trading cards with their kid's meal, so they were in heaven. Back in the car, they fell asleep almost at once, and snored peacefully during the drive home. I had a little nap as well. I love sleeping in the car

Once the kids were in bed, Mr. Estepheia and I rewarded ourselves for a day well spent by watching another episode of QAF (Brian so misses Justin. - *sigh* Theirloveissopure...)
So, this was a really great day. But I'm awfully stuffed now. Guess I shouldn't have had that wicked chocolate shake.... :-)