Sparkle! :{

I'm not sure why, but I have this great desire, nay, a great need to stand on my desk and really belt out "We Are the Champions" by Queen. I want to gesticulate grandly and sing into my water bottle.

I feel kind of like I did that day when I wanted to sing "It's All Coming Back To Me" by Celine Dion, but without the need to turn the fan onto me so that my hair would blow around my face.

I probably won't do it, though. Gracious, what would the roofers think?

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I had a dream last night that I was back in college. Apparently I had missed the last class and was asking what we did in class and my Art History professor told me I had a 20 page paper due today. I woke up in a panic, trying to figure out when I would have time to work on it. Then I remembered I graduated 2 years ago. I'd never been so glad to be out of college before.

2) Steve and I stopped by Starbucks this morning on our way to work! I ordered a latte with no whipped cream, thinking it might not be as fattening. I took a sip and almost barfed! I forgot that no whipped cream also means that the latte won't be sweet. HORF! I love coffee, but only if it has sugar in it. That'll learn me!

3) OOOOH, speaking of Starbucks, they have this thing that I've never seen anywhere else before that probably shouldn't impress me as much as it does. It's like a coffee stirrer, but it has a bit of molded plastic at the top that you can use to plug up the opening on your travel coffee cup lid! It's brilliant! It is one of those things that you would never imaging needing, but realize how useful it is once you have them. That link doesn't go to the exact same product I'm describing, but it's the same concept. I am amazed when people think up these things that seem like such basic common sense, but didn't exist before. I wish I had a smart. :(

4) Our church potluck went well yesterday, thank goodness. We had a TON of food! Of course, we usually do, but I always git a tiny niggle of fear that we aren't going to have enough to feed everyone. As far as I can tell everyone ate as much as they wanted and we didn't run out, so that is always good. We had a lot of people just forget to pick up what they brought, so we ended up throwing food away, which I hate to do. However, most of the places we could otherwise donate food to won't take it if it's leftover from a big meal like we had. I guess I understand that, but I hate to see it go to waste.

5) Halloween is this Saturday! I wish I had a reason to dress up, but alas, I do not. I need to check and see if we even have any candy to give the few kids who come to our house and trick or treat. I'll probably just give them a handful of the weird foreign candy we bought from World Market if we have any left. If not, we will probably have to turn the lights off and hide. We have no shame. :)

6) I watched a couple of episodes of House last night, and I've decided that I like that show. I've figured out the formula for it though. Ahem...

Someone comes in with a weird illness that looks to be one thing. The doctors treat it and make it worse or the patient gets worse on their own. The doctors sit around and talk about what it might be, only to have Dr. House make fun of their stupidity. He tells them to run some kind of dangerous test, they argue about it, but almost always do it anyway. The patient doesn't get better. House snarks to the dark haired lady or the other man doctor. While he's talking to them, they say something that helps him figure out what is wrong with the patient. This in turn causes him to rush back to his team and tell them what to do just in time to save the patient. Ta dah!

House. Good show. About as predictable as a Scooby-Doo episode.

Sigh.

I can't decide if I am bored, or boring.

Steve had to go on a business trip last Wednesday, and I absolutely did nothing of note or merit the entire time he was gone. It wasn't because I didn't want to do anything, I promise. It was because I couldn't think of anything to do!

Usually when he has to go out of town, I do things he doesn't like to do. This time, though, I was completely useless. Well, not completely useless. I did laundry. I tried to make cheese straws. Well, let's just say that if Fail was cheese flavored, it would taste like my cheese straws! Heeheehee. I also made cupcakes for the pot luck we had at church on Saturday. They weren't pretty, but they at least didn't catch on fire or anything.

I think I've lost my will to be interesting. I don't know. It's disheartening. I'm 31 and I've run out of things to do!

Oy.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Yikes. Yesterday I realized that I have finally caught up with everything on my "To Do" list at work. I'd even finished the stuff I'd been putting off because it sounded boring and/or complicated. So today I come into work with a kit for a papercraft model of the Haunted Mansion from Disney World to keep me busy until someone requests something. I know how that sounds, but since my job in an "On Demand" kind of thing, I will sometimes spend my free time making stuff so that my idle hands can't be used as the devil's tools. :) You guys already know this, though, right? OK, so I sat down at my drafting table and started putting the model together. I had bits of paper and glue scattered all along my work space and I was in the ZONE! Out of nowhere I heard the voice of our COO coming down the hall and there is absolutely nothing I could do about my paper model stuff all over my table. I thought briefly about diving under the desk and pretending I wasn't here, but there was no time. Plus, I'd be pretty easy to spot crouching under a table. Apparently once you hit a certain age, covering your eyes doesn't make you invisible anymore. Bummer. He walked in and talked to me for a minute before going outside to see how the roofers were doing and he didn't say anything about what I was doing. Of course, he would probably go to my boss if he had a problem with what I was doing instead of saying anything to me. It would do no good for me to try and explain the nature of my job to him, nor would it do any good to tell him that I'd regularly been checking to make sure I hadn't gotten a work order. I've got to hope that he thought I was doing something for work. Please? Curse my need to keep my hands busy!

2) Speaking of the things I do in between graphics jobs: I have been working on a remembrance altar for Dia de los Muertos. It sounds kind of grim, but I like the idea behind them and I thought it would be a nice thing to have. Since I don't have a lot of space, I decided to make a mini version of one: I know it looks crazy, but there is a formula for how to make them and they have to include certain things. Therein is my problem so far. Since it is a small version of one, made in an Altoids box, no less, I can't exactly light candles on the tiers in it and any real flowers or food would completely dwarf the thing. I'm going to take it home and make all of the other stuff out of clay, I think. It's the thought that counts, right? I've been having fun snapping apart my dollar store skeletons and hot gluing them back together in new positions. Of course, now I have a pile of plastic bones sitting on my other work table, so there is no telling what people think if they come in here when I am not in my office and see them. Oh well. What are you going to do?

3) Today my co-worker Andrew showed me two hilarious commercials. They are 100% real and made by an outfit that specializes in local commercials. Please, please, PLEASE watch these. If they don't make you laugh, then you have no soul. NO SOUL, I SAY!



I think the whip cracks are what sell it for me.



There are no words...should have sent...a poet...

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Steve was a hero this morning! Yay! I was sitting at the computer this morning when the phone rang. Phones that ring so early in the morning are usually bad news, so I snatched it up and answered it. It was our neighbor across the street, who is an elderly man. I like him. He talks like Foghorn Leghorn.

Anyways, he asked for Steve, who was in the shower, and I asked him if there was anything I could help him with. He didn't sound upset, but he said his wife had fallen down (and couldn't get up) and he needed Steve to come and help him get her up. I was all "?!" so I told Steve and he got out and went over to help. I was afraid that maybe the lady had been hurt, but once Steve got back he told me that everything was fine. The lady had just had a hip replacement and she tripped over her walker. Her husband is over 80 and couldn't help her back up because he is old and has back problems. So Steve picked her up and put her in her chair! Yay! Steve was a hero!

2) There are men outside fixing the roof on the SpRocket, and they are using my office as a hallway so that they don't have to climb up the side of the building on a ladder. They are nice guys, but they have been knocking things over all over my office. Also, they come in and explain to me what they are doing, and I have no idea what they are talking about, so I just smile and nod. I'm just grateful that they are fixing the leaks! So far so good. There is only one leak left and they are concerned enough about it to make an effort to fix it. It's nice to meet a contractor that is actually trying to finish on time AND do a good job. Of course, we have our COO coming up here every other day to oversee them and I think he makes them nervous. They're probably just trying to get away. :)

3) The cat has been back, and I guess that I might as well admit I've halfway adopted her. I still hope she has a real home, but she now has food and a toy at my house when she wants them. She still can't live inside, but only time will tell on that. I'm such a sucker.

4) I was hungry this morning and I ate my lunch for breakfast. Now what am I going to do?!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2009

Going Home

I am beginning to lose faith in the the human race.

Yes, I can make such sweeping statements because I have just had to deal with airports today. Oy vey. Anyone who flies kind of loses hope after a day of traveling, though, right?

OK, so nothing specific or terrible happened, I guess. I'm just kind of shocked at how selfish strangers can be to one another when their own comfort and convenience is at stake! It's just little things, but those things matter when they are so obvious. Remember that, frequent travelers!!! Be Warned! People blog about your rudeness later!

So, we left Port Orleans this morning after breakfast. I love the way they handle your luggage from the Disney resorts, because you can actually check your baggage before you ever get on the bus to go to the airport! No long lines at the airport to hand over your stuff! Yay! Well, not entirely. We still had to stand in line a bit because the flight number on our connection flight from Atlanta to Huntsville was changed and we had to get new boarding passes for that leg of the trip. It wasn't bad, though. We got our tickets and went to one of the stores at the airport I wanted to visit.

It was actually a store called LUSH that I visited once, years ago, in Toronto. The stores have finally filtered down to the US over the past few years. Of course, there are none in Huntsville or even close so I wanted to go when I had the chance. Anyway, the sales people were super nice and helpful, but they followed me around almost the whole time I was there and I do not like that. They were so busy being helpful that they wouldn't let me browse at my leisure. I didn't mind them wanting to help me, but I quickly wanted them to leave me alone so I could shop. I was trying to catch a flight, after-all, and I didn't have the time to chat. I made my purchases and finally got out of the door and we breezed through security (thank goodness). I've finally figured out not to wear a belt, take off my glasses, wear shoes that are easy to slip on and off and carry easily recognizable items in my carry-on. As long as my under-wire doesn't start setting off the metal detector, I should be OK.

The gate was really crowded and there weren't many seats available, but Steve and I finally found two of them together. I sat down while Steve went to get a soda and I placed his back pack on his seat so no one would sit there. While he was gone, a little girl came and sat down in his seat, practically on his back pack. I know it wasn't her fault for sitting there, she was only a little girl, but her mother didn't say a word. I kept thinking that her mom would tell her to move, but she didn't. Oh well, I just picked up Steve's backpack and when he got back, we had to sit on the floor. Nice. I also noticed that the reason there weren't that many seats available was because a lot of people had their bags on seats. It wasn't that they were saving the seats, they just didn't want to put their stuff on the floor. Rude!

Our flight was completely full and I was stuck in a center seat again, but at least this time I was next to Steve. There was a nice Latino gentleman on my other side and he didn't spill over onto my seat. He also fell asleep practically immediately, so it was much more comfortable on the flight back. The flight itself was fairly uneventful except for the lady in front of me who decided that she should lean her chair back on me. Maybe she was air-sick, I didn't know, so I didn't say anything. Also, when they gave me my little bag of peanuts, the bag was kind of hard to open, and when I finally managed to open it, peanuts flew out and landed all over Steve. I was so glad he wasn't a stranger! :) When we landed and were waiting to get off of the plane, a woman behind me started complaining. A lot. She couldn't wait to get off of this plane. The flight had been horrible. She wanted to go home and etc. It went on and on and got old really fast. Then she got on her cell phone and started bitching (pardon that word, but it is apt) at someone on the other end kind of loudly. It became clear that she was talking to her mother about being sure she (the mom) had the unity candles. Not just the candles, but the candle holders and she'd better made sure she had all of them! Other things were said, but by that point I realized that this woman was on her way home from her honeymoon and from the way she was behaving, she hadn't had a very nice time. The complaining got so bad that I came within an ace of turning to her new husband and wishing him luck, but I refrained. My mother raised me better! :)

Our flight to Huntsville wasn't bad, although it was cramped. We got stalled out on the runway for some reason. There was a guy on our flight who got on his cell phone and started talking while we were stalled, and he was so loud. There are a lot of people who seem to feel the need to yell into their cell phones, and this guy was one of them. He wasn't really supposed to be on his phone at this point anyways, but he didn't seem to mind. Once we were cleared for take-off, he finally put his phone away, much to everyone's delight. Seriously, he was loud.

It's kind of dark, but that's my foot looking plaintively out of the window. It was an advanced yoga move to get my foot to that point.

Once we touched down, and before it was allowed, Mr. Loud Talker got his cell phone back out and called someone. I thought that he must have some pretty important business to take care of if he couldn't wait the 5 minutes for us to get out of the plane, but that wasn't the case. He just called someone to chat. Loudly. It was like he really needed to show off that he had a phone or something. It was weird.

We finally got inside, and I realized how glad I was that our airport is so small. A lot of people complain, but I didn't mind. It's nice to get home and not have to elbow your way to baggage claim or take a tram from one gate to another. We got our bags and went home.

Thus endeth our vacation. Whew.

THURSAY, OCTOBER 1, 2009

Downtown Disney and Less Stressful Things

Whew.

Today was a day set aside to rest after the non-stop exposure of the "Happiest Place on Earth." We still had things to do, of course, but none of those things included getting up early to catch a bus to a theme park! Yay!

Of course, in true Kelly fashion, I awoke early, even though I didn't want to. Apparently my internal clock thought it was funny to wake me up way before it was necessary. Stupid internal clock. After a time, I just couldn't stay in bed anymore no matter how much I might have wanted to. I got up and got ready for our day, and eventually Steve woke up as well. We spent some time getting our suitcases in order, packing away souvenirs (of which we had a lot), and trying to decide what we would do.

Our first order of business was to get breakfast. I was determined that I would finally be able to finish a muffin before we had to go someplace. See, the Port Orleans resort has this big dining hall that has all manner of delicious food. Each morning, I had gotten what I am convinced is the best banana muffin on the planet. They were tasty, but huge. Since I have to take my time eating, I was usually not quite done with my muffin each morning before we had to leave. Granted, I wasn't being rushed or anything, but I just eat so dang SLOW! I can't help it. Anyways, I finally got to eat the whole muffin! Yay, me!

After breakfast, we caught the ferry boat and rode down to Downtown Disney, which is basically a small village of shops and restaurants. The shopping is almost exclusively Disney centered, even though there are a few other things sprinkled in. I thought my feet and legs had finally gotten a respite from hurting, but after half an hour or so of walking, they hurt just as badly as before. I was pretty much used to it by then, though. We walked through a whole lot of shops, but surprisingly didn't buy very much of anything until we got to a place called "The Art of Disney" which was a place where you can buy both one-of-a-kind pieces of Disney art as well as posters and other things. We finally found a poster we had spent all week looking for, which was a really awesome, retro-style, travel poster for Tomorrowland. I also got a small print of the Haunted Mansion (I said don't judge me!) that I liked. We took our leave from there and went back to the resort. I was just too damn tired to want to do anything at this point, so once we got back to our room, I fell asleep while Steve went to the pool. I don't know how he had the energy, but I guess he found it somewhere. I woke up when he got back and it was late afternoon, almost evening, by that point.

We had reservations at "Kouzzina by Cat Cora" at another resort area for dinner, so we got dressed up nicer than normal (I still had to wear my flip-flops, though, because my feet were in no shape to wear heels. Classy, I know.) and went to ask someone at the resort how to get there. The guy at the info desk told us to take the bus to Epcot Center and then take a boat from there. We had no idea what he was talking about, because we hadn't seen any boats while at the park, but he works for the place and had to know what he was talking about. Right?

Wrong. We got there and found out that we needed to actually go to Disney's Hollywood Studios and catch a boat from there. So we waited in another long line, in the hot sun, for another bus to come and take us to the right park. I felt bad that we had dressed up, because we were hot and sweaty by the time we made it to the boat that would take us to the Boardwalk Resort where the restaurant was.

We finally made it there, and it was awesome!! If you don't know Cat Cora, I guess you could consider her a celebrity chef. She's one of the ones on Iron Chef America (which I love) and it was a lovely place. It wasn't fancy, but it was nice. We ended up having to sit on the same side of our table, which was weird for me, because the family next to us had pretty much taken up all of the room around them, but it wasn't that bad. The food was good, even thought Steve didn't like what he ended up ordering, but I enjoyed mine immensely. Since this place was included on our dining plan, dessert was included on our tab and I think somehow my dessert became some kind of Mickey Miracle. A true mousekateer stigmata, if you will. I ordered yogurt sorbet, with berries and mint syrup. It sounded fussy, but was actually very good. The berries and syrup were served separately from the sorbet in a small wine glass off to the side and you were supposed to pour them onto the sorbet. I did, and I swear that I didn't arrange any of the berries to do this but:

Three Words: Mickey. Mouse. Head.

I wouldn't have put it past the "Imagineers" at Disney to somehow distort gravity to cause this to happen, but I hope to God that there are some things they can't manipulate. Impressive. :)

After dinner, we made our way back to the resort and finished packing for our trip home tomorrow. We also watched TV while we did this, and did you know that at a Disney Resort, there are approximately 300 channels of nothing but Disney shows?

My feet are still killing me, and I am ready to go home, but it hasn't been a bad trip at all. I promise!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

The Magic Kingdom

Oh. God. I think I have permanent damage to my feet. I had another blister and the one on the bottom of my foot was swollen up again. It hurt to walk at all, but I didn't have a choice because today was the big day! Magic Kingdom Day! This one is Steve's all time favorite, and after yesterday's tiny come-apart, I decided that I was going to make sure I didn't do anything that would keep him from having the best day ever! It actually went well, believe it or not. I wasn't feeling great when I woke up, but I medicated all of my ills and we went on our way. Oh, it was a 5 band aid day today!

By this point, Steve was having to help me out.

Our bus was super crowded, so I just knew that the park would be jammed with people. I wasn't looking forward to the lines and the heat, but I had decided that it was going to be an awesome day and nothing was going to change that! We got there just as the park was opening, and we got to see the ending of some kind of Disney Welcome Musical Number! It was too cheerful for that early in the morning and I realized there and then that if I ever worked as a "cast member" in the park, I'd commit hari-kari with the blunt end of a Mickey Mouse lollipop. I'm usually cheerful, but I don't think I could reach the Disney level of cheerful without dangerous amounts of methamphetamine.

Anyways, I was right that the place was crammed with people, but the weather was actually nice. It was beautiful, in fact. That made things a lot better. My feet weren't hurting as badly at that point, but mainly because I'd wrapped bandages around my toes to keep them from swelling so badly, and also I managed to croggle my left ankle and knee on Tom Sawyer's Island, so my leg now hurt worse than either of my feet. Hey, silver lining!

It actually turned out to be a really great day. We rode everything we wanted to and there were no lines to speak of, even though the park was full, and I mean FULL of people. We finally figured out why that was, though. Part of the reason was the time of year, because even though the park was full, it wasn't as full as it could have been. The other reason was that everyone who comes into the park has the ability to do a Fastpass, which, as most of you know, is where you can reserve a time to come back and ride a specific ride. We heard people talking about how they were going to run in and get the Fastpasses for the rides they wanted to go on so that they wouldn't have to wait in line. That was a great idea...for them. So many people were getting fast passes to come back to do certain things, that they weren't getting in lines at all. Everyone who didn't get a fast pass, got on the rides right away! We got everything we wanted to do and then some. We got to ride a few things more than once without standing in any long lines (except for one because of what we believe was a delay caused by someone getting in and out of a wheelchair) but it was the fastest I'd ever gotten to do anything at Disney. There were a couple of drawbacks, but not many. "It's A Small World" still gives me nightmares. Mainly it was my leg hurting. I kept having to sit down because it hurt so badly. We also left before eating dinner at one of the park restaurants, even though we had a reservation. It was taking them so long to get us seated that we were afraid we'd get trapped at the park until it closed and have to wait forever to be able to catch a tram back to the resort. Also, and I shouldn't say this because it sounds kind of hateful, I was really very tired of children by this point in my day. Especially a particular child who's family was waiting to eat at the same place we had been waiting in. For a very long time I heard "Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Stop, Jeffrey! Put that down, Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Jeffrey!" Also, Jeffrey thought that waving around a plastic, blinking light-sabre was great fun, even though he wasn't being careful of anyone else around him. As God as my witness, I have never in my life been so close to drop kicking a child. We cancelled our reservations as nicely as we could, and went back to ride the Haunted Mansion ride a 3rd time before we left. Shut up, I actually do like that ride.

Don't judge me.

After fighting a huge crowd, which had gathered to watch the electric light parade or whatever they are calling it these days, and only stomping on one or two of the inconsiderate buttheads that didn't respond to "pardon me," we finally managed to get out and get back to our resort. We had dinner and now I'm writing this. Today was our final day at the parks (thank goodness.) Tomorrow we have a day of rest and shopping. I'm really looking forward to that!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009
Park Hopping Adventure

This morning it took us a while to wake up. We were so tired last night that I seriously don't remember falling asleep. I don't even think I dreamed. That must mean I was really tired because I ALWAYS dream. Anyways, when I got out of bed, I remembered that my feet hurt. I was also forcibly reminded about the blisters on my feet because they were swollen up horribly. I had to plaster my feet with band aids. It was a three band aid day.

That hat might just fit Steve!

Today we went to Disney Hollywood Studios, formerly Disney MGM Studios. We got there right as it opened, and we decided to get on the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster first thing to avoid the lines. It had a line, but surprisingly, it moved really quickly. We got on the coaster and Oh. My. Gosh. It moved fast. It was completely dark except for black light sensitive signs all over the place and it looped and turned like crazy, all with the soundtrack of Aerosmith music playing loudly. By the time I got off, I knew what it must be like in Keith Richard's bloodstream. Bizarre. I wanted to do the American Idol (basically Karaoke) Experience, but we didn't really have the time. Steve had a PLAN. We stopped for lunch at a place called Hollywood and Vine, which was good, but (horrors) there were characters in there! Characters from some cartoon called "Little Einstein" and they all had giant heads. I was horrified. I think someone told them that they were creeping me out, because they all came to our table and "interacted" with me. It was all I could do to keep from screaming and running out there door. They were unnatural. *shudder*

Absolutely terrifying.

I'll be honest here, after lunch, I don't remember much of what we did at this park. I mean, we did a lot, but it wasn't anything really spectacular. We rode stuff and it was hot. That is what stood out in my head the most, the heat. Oh, well, that and something was wrong with the cuff of my shorts that made them keep curling up, so I got a nice blister on my inner thigh to match the ones on my feet. Yesterday was the sore feet, today it was the sore thigh. Fun stuff.

We didn't stay at Hollywood Studios all day because Steve wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom and do a few things so that we could make sure we had enough time to do everything when we go back tomorrow. He specifically wanted to do the Adventure Land rides. He also wanted me to be able to ride the Monorail, so we got on a bus that took us back to Epcot Center, which is the only other park that the monorail goes to besides the Magic Kingdom. We were both hot and thirsty by the time we got there, so once we got into Epcot, we took a detour to the Cool Spot, where a Coke exhibit is housed and you can sample different kinds of sodas from different countries for free. FREE DRINKS! WOO! (Does this make us cheap or smart?) Anyways, so we drank all we wanted and jumped on the monorail that took us to the Magic Kingdom.

I was so hot, tired, and sore from all the blisters that I wasn't happy to be there, so I was probably a bit whiny at this point, but trust me, I didn't say half of what was going on in my head! It didn't seem like there were many people in the lines, and in fact we didn't have to wait in line at all. It must've been the time we were there, I guess. We pretty much got on all of the rides that Steve wanted to do and after that I was so very ready to leave. Very, very ready. My feet were killing me, my thigh was killing me, and I was tired. I told Steve I didn't care how we got back to our resort, but I wanted to leave right then! That probably makes me sound bad, and if you feel like being smug and thinking you would never act that way if you were in my shoes, fine. Go ahead. You'd be a liar, though, because by this point, Gandhi himself would be having a tantrum. Not that I had a tantrum, exactly, I am a grown woman after all. However, if we hadn't left when we did, I might have thrown something. I'm just saying...

We ended the day by going back and getting some rest (which did a world of wonder for my attitude) and we went to Down Town Disney for dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe. I'm not sure what it was, but something I ate made me very, very sick. I thought I was going to pass out at one point, but I managed to get back on the ferry to make it back to our resort. Trust me, the rocking of a boat didn't do me any favors. I was a little better when we got back, but I still feel queasy. Don't let me deter you from ever eating at Wolfgang Puck's place, because the food was delicious, but it just wasn't good for my stomach. Blarg.

Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom!

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

Epcot Center

I slept hard. I slept so very, very hard. By the time I got up this morning, I was very rested, but kind of muzzy. The first thing that happened as we were getting ready to go, was that I realized that the new clothes I had bought for the trip were too big. I thought I was following the size chart on the website I got them from correctly, but I bought everything a size too big! BOO! I had tried them on when they were mailed to me, and I realized that they were a bit big, but it didn't dawn on my how big they were till I tried to put on one of my whole outfits and I looked bizarre. I kind of figure you can wear a pair of shorts that are too big OR a shirt that is too big, however, it just looks silly if you wear both at the same time. Luckily, I had gotten some new shorts at the resort gift shop and had a chance to change into them before we left! We had a quick breakfast and jumped onto the bus going to Epcot Center. Epcot happens to be my favorite (as it goes) of all of the parks, so I was glad to get there and get started on our day. It was a bit confusing at first, because they had changed around a few things since the last time we were there, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We rode a couple of rides and looked around a bit and then got to the part I like, the little countries. I think it's because I like to travel and I'm fairly certain that I'm never going to get to go to the actual places, but I like to walk through the place and shop and see the buildings and decor. Disney, of course, makes them perfectly.

We had lunch reservations at the Mexican restaurant (EDIT:I checked. It was the San Angel Inn Restaurant.) that is inside a big Aztec temple.

Disney sacrificial altar?

I find it hilarious that the setting is an Aztec temple since they weren't known to be the friendliest of peoples. All that is missing at the top is Mickey Mouse with his heart ripped out. Oh well, I guess they donít want to get THAT authentic! :) The food there was wonderful, and let me just go ahead and say that if you can do the meal plan on your trip to Disney, please do. So far it has worked beautifully! After lunch, we walked on and shopped, shopped, shopped. We both enjoyed the different countries, and the crowds weren't terrible yet, so things went well until we got to France. Something was wrong with my left foot. I had apparently made an unfortunate footwear choice when getting ready this morning, because my feet were hurting really badly. It wasn't just the walking, something had to be wrong with my shoes. I couldn't figure out what was wrong because I was wearing my Chucks, which are sneakers, but they were doing something bad to my feet. We stopped at a cafe and got something to drink and I rested my feet, but as soon as I started walking again, they got worse. They kept on getting worse during the last few countries we walked through and by the time we had walked back to the main gift shop underneath Space Ship Earth, I thought my feet had to be bleeding because that was all I could think of to explain the level of pain I was feeling.

There was an international food and beer/wine festival going on at Epcot, so that drew in a huge amount of people that weren't there earlier. It got so bad that we couldn't even walk side by side anymore. I almost lost Steve once or twice in the crowd. We didn't eat at any of the special stands that were set up, but I did get some mint iced tea at the Morocco stand. It was yummy, even without sugar! I added sugar of course, but it was good without it too! :) I've never seen so many people walking around with beer before. I suppose it shouldn't have shocked me, but since I think of Disney World as mainly a place for kids, I think I was thrown off a bit. Oh, well.

On a funny note, as we were walking out, we overheard a lady on her cell phone telling someone "Well, right now I'm underneath the Apricot" or she might have said "the Ep-icot." Whichever one, it got us tickled. She was walking underneath the giant silver golf ball looking thing, which is technically a ride called Space Ship Earth, but is commonly thought to be THE Epcot Center since it's the most recognizable part of the park. I really, really hope she thought the park was the Apricot Center. :)

We finally got back on our bus and got to the resort again and I took off my shoes as soon as we got to our room. They weren't bleeding, thank goodness, but apparently my feet had gotten so swollen that I was literally stepping on my own toes. No, seriously, they were so swollen that they were curling under the soles of my feet. I was wearing tennis shoes, but they weren't good enough I guess, because not only had I been stepping on my own toes, I had two blisters on the bottoms of my feet. I have had blisters on my toes and on my heels before, but never on the bottom of my feet! It was truly bizarre. I should have been gellin' I guess. I have only been able to wear my flip-flops sense I took off my shoes. I can only hope my feet are better by tomorrow!

So, other than the foot thing, we had a pretty good day! :)

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009

That’s right. You heard me. I’m at Disney World.

You’ll notice that I don’t end that sentence with an exclamation point, right? Well, that is because when it comes to Disney World, I’m not a big fan. For some reason, that makes a lot of people think I’m a Nazi or something, but I promise I’m not a gigantic humbug. (Why do I feel as if I need to cross myself whenever I admit this?) This will make my 4th trip to the house of the mouse, so I don’t feel that I’m not giving the place a chance or anything like that. I’m just not a big fan. I have several reasons for this, and we can talk about it later if you are interested, but I'll keep it simple for now. It follows along with my general feelings about any amusement park: I don’t like getting hot, I don’t like crowds, and I don’t like getting wet and walking around like that for hours. Well, it is going to be hot, and there are going to be crowds, but I have been assured that I won’t get wet. We shall see!

Anyways, so why am I here then? Well, Steve is a HUGE fan of Disney World. He came here quite a few times with his parents and family growing up, and it reminds him of good times. He has wanted to come back for quite a while now, so he talked me into it. Seriously, how could I refuse someone the right to relive good childhood memories? Also, he went to Savannah with me over the summer, so I kind of owed him! :)

We started off our day getting the dogs to the pet resort, and surprisingly that went really smoothly. I guess the dogs have finally realized that they can’t prevent us from dropping them off, so they might as well be resigned to things. After that we ran some errands and got ourselves to the airport.

At Huntsville International Airport.

***I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have singlehandedly raised the Department of Homeland Security Threat Level a notch by accident. I promise I wasn’t carrying anything even remotely lethal, but my boss, in an attempt to spread the word about the upcoming Star Wars exhibit next year, gave me a gigantic pouch full of buttons that advertise the exhibit. She wanted me to hand them out at the Disney World parks we went to, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do that. Number one, where would I stash them while I was there? Number two, that would just be bad form. I knew I wouldn’t actually pass them out at the parks, but I thought that maybe I could just seed some around in public areas and hope they were picked up! I started doing that at the Huntsville airport. I only had four buttons outside of my suitcase, so it wasn’t like I was peppering the place or anything. I left one on a table at a gate and another in the ladies room. Our airport is so small that I knew I couldn’t put a lot of them out, so I hung on to the others for our connecting flight in Atlanta. We hadn’t heard anything about the threat level while in Huntsville, but the minute we touched down in Atlanta, it was repeatedly being announced that the threat level had changed to Orange. I really, really hope it didn't have anything to do with me leaving small, black disks around an airport. My apologies to the Department of Homeland Security if any of that was my fault! ***

I’m glad that we decided to fly, simply because of the time it saved us. Of course, as usual, our first flight out to Atlanta was late.

Connecting flight airplanes are very tiny.

It wasn’t terribly late, but we ended up having to change our connection flight because we were cutting it close in the first place. No big deal, we had counted on the plane probably being late. When we finally got to Atlanta, I was starving. I hadn’t been hungry all morning, so when Steve got breakfast, I didn’t have anything. As soon as we got to Atlanta and found our gate, we set off in search for some food. I was jonesing some Cinnabon and Steve was going to pick us up a couple of burgers from BK. I hadn’t even got to take a bite before our plane started loading. Crap. Steve had already snarfed his food, but I was loaded down with bags of food and a soda as I got on the plane. We were not seated together on this flight, since it was a last minute change, but that wasn’t a problem. However, what was a problem was that I had a middle seat between two women I didn’t know and not enough room to do anything unless I wanted to jam my elbows into them the whole ride. Sadly, that meant that I wouldn’t be able to eat. I probably could have done it anyways, but I was afraid that the smell of my food might be bad for them and I didn’t want to be inconsiderate. I managed to get the food inside my backpack and just hold my soda on my knee. I was so hungry. The flight into Orlando was uneventful, except that we had an incredibly rude set of male flight attendants. I sat as still as possible, trying not to bother the two women sitting next to me. I had kind of dozed off right before we had taken off, but I was woken up by the lady on my left pulling a hamburger out of her bag and eating it. I was so hungry by this point that I wanted to snatch it out of her hand and cram it into my face. I didn’t dare try. She looked like she could take me. I suppose that meant that I could have gotten out my own food, but being the one in the middle, I just kept as still as possible and got out my iPod to watch a movie. At some point, I realized that the woman on my left was playing Sodoku and the woman on my right was reading a book for smart people about politics. Me? I was sitting there watching “Shaun of the Dead” for the elevendy billionth time and trying not to laugh aloud. I felt so gauche.

We finally landed and made our way to the Disney busses that would take us to our resort. I was still so hungry and so very, very tired. I had been up late the night before trying to do all of the last minute things a person has to do before a trip, so I had only slept for about 3.5 hours and that, plus the low blood sugar, was really catching up with me. We are staying at the Port Orleans resort, which is really beautiful, and as soon as we got to our room and got settled, we went to the gift shop to look around and then had dinner. I was literally almost about to faint by that point, so I had to grab my food and sit down way before Steve was through his line. I just barely made it.

This is the sandwich that saved my life.

By the time we ate and came back to our room, I was almost asleep on my feet. With few preambles, we sacked out. Thus endeth my first day of vacation.

More soon, I promise. For now, though, watch RIVERDANCE DOG!

I just wanted to applaud this article.

Word.

On another note, I guess I should apologize for not posting much lately. Granted, there are just a few of you who come to check frequently whether or not I've written anything, but I wish I had been more entertaining for you! Honestly, though, I haven't done much of anything of interest, and unless I want my blog to become a glorified Twitter feed, I figured that I should do more stuff before I talk about it.

I actually want to tell you about my adventures in learning how to make jelly, but I keep forgetting to upload my photos! Also, I keep forgetting to take pictures during the end part of the process. It's not easy to take pictures while super-sticky. Maybe I can get Steve to take some. Eh...don't hold my breath, right? :) I don't know how those foodie blogs take such nice pictures when they are elbow deep in butter and stuff, but I can already tell you that my pictures aren't nearly as nice. I just thought it was a fun thing to document and I'm passing that fun on to you! Well, as soon as the pictures are up. Please, live vicariously through my jelly making!

Oh, and my 15 year old nephew found out that I had a blog and he said "Aunt Kelly, you have no life." Oy, out of the mouth of babes! It made me wonder, are the number of blog entries one has directly proportional to the lack of life a person has? If so, I'd probably blog more I guess. I really don't have much to talk about! Heeheehee.

Anyways, so I've just posted a whole post about not posting. Wow. I'm going to seek out something interesting to do this weekend just so I can talk about it later. I just made myself kind of sad.

This site is too funny!

If this doesn't make you smile, you are probably dead inside. DEAD!

RANDOM ACTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

1) This is Spot, the cat I told you about. She is a sweetie, but she is starting to get a bit too comfortable around here. She somehow keeps getting into the house, even when we are careful. If she wasn't so cute, I'd...well... OK, who am I kidding, I wouldn't do anything. I just wish the stinking cat would stay outside. Oh, and I'm fairly certain she has been barfing on our walkway just to spite us! If you look closely where she is laying, you can see the outline of what was once our welcome mat. We had to throw it away when she "gifted" us with the remains of a partially eaten bird. Wow, thanks, Spot!

2) This is Gary. You can tell by his face that he doesn't feel all of the cuteness and rubbing all over us is necessary. He just wants the food. I've tried petting him, and sometimes he'll let me, but mostly he's just all about the noms. Secretly, I think he's the one who told Spot to puke on our walkway.

3) These are the grapes I pickled the other day. As I've said, they are very yummy! The yellow things are mustard seeds. Mainly, I just really liked how the concord grapes looked in this photo and wanted to share!

4) Mr. Lee grows things. Lots of things. Mainly, he grows things that he can eat, and apparently this year his muscadines* and scuppernongs* were very fruitful (heh, pun). He asked me if I thought I could do something with some of his extra grapes, and since I've been interested in learning how to make and can jelly, I agreed. I was thinking he'd send me a couple of baggies of them, but he sent about 10 pounds or more of these suckers my way. I had no idea he was sending so many! I've been up to my armpits in these things this weekend, and I've been making jelly all darn day. That is another story though. They were beautiful. I know you can't tell from that photo, but the colors on these things were amazing. I think I spent an unusual amount of time just looking at them!

*I found out on Saturday night that these were not just regular grapes like I originally thought. Although they are a type of grape, apparently these are specific to the American Southeast and much better for you nutritionally. Go figure.

PS: Steve has been on a binge of watching Andromeda. I've come to hate this show with the heat of a thousand brilliantly shining suns. Just FYI.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Spot the cat is back and she brought a friend. I've named him Gary, after Spongebob's pet snail. Honestly, I think they must belong to someone in our neighborhood, but I wish I knew who so that I could take them back. We heard a little girl calling for her cat yesterday, so I think Spot's name is really "Callie" and she lives with one of the speed-bump kids down the street. No wonder she likes hanging out at our house. Anyways, I ended up buying a few cans of cat food, just in case, because feeding Spot my tuna fish was getting expensive (and leaving me sans tuna). She seems to like the cat food better than the fish, believe it or not, because NOW she's always around. She is getting on Steve's nerves. She managed to get into the house yesterday and he had to chase her down and get her out. If she wasn't so sweet, I'd probably ignore her, but she just meows and rubs all over us. I'm going to have to stop feeding her every time she comes over, because I don't want her thinking that I am her owner. I just have the niggling fear that she's hungry because she really doesn't have a home! Dangit, I'm just too soft hearted and the cat knows it! She knows!

2) The Sprocket currently has a company digitally mapping the place. I've heard different things about them, but I'm under the impression that they are mapping our building for Homeland Security in case of terrorist attack or something similar. The people have to map every room, where the furniture is in that room, and all of the exits. Maybe we are some kind of guinea-pig in this process, I don't know. At any rate, the mappers wonder about all day with lap-tops strapped to them while they build the digital blue prints. I've tried to be friendly, but to date, only one guy I've spoken to has really been that pleasant back to me. There was even one guy who walked into my office and sat down for 10 minutes without saying a word to me. The only reason I even knew he was there was that I saw someone out of the corner of my eye and turned around to see him sitting at my drafting table! Creepy, much? Jeez. I've heard from security that they aren't just building digital blue-prints, but more of a walk-through of the building itself (which makes me think of first person shooter games like "Doom") so that evacuation routs can be planned and no nook or cranny will be overlooked. One part of this process is a guy who takes photos of pretty much every square inch of the place so that they will be able to have those 360 views of each room and whatnot. For some reason I always end up walking through where that guy is taking pictures, so unless they photo-shop me out, I'm going to be in quite a few of them. I don't go out of my way to photo-jack the building or anything, but I'll turn a corner and walk right through a shot. I'm sure that guy is quite tired of me by now. Homeland security will probably make a game out of it. It'll be like "Where's Waldo" but with me!

3) I was very domestic this past weekend! I made pickled grapes and strawberries (which sound gross but are actually very delicious) and baked blueberry muffins from scratch! I also did dishes, laundry, and bought groceries! It was a very Martha weekend. :)

4) I have a nectarine the size of Steve's head as a snack today. Seriously, it's almost vulgar in size. I'm fairly certain if I had some insect friends, we could crawl inside it "James and the Giant Peach" style.

THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM!

This is part of my balanced breakfast this morning. I know, I know...but lookit: it's not just Jell-O, or even a store brand gelatin snack I made myself! This, my friends and neighbors, is something packaged under the name Finger Gelatin! That's right, Finger Gelatin. My best guess is that it's Target's version of Jell-O Jigglers (which just sounds kind of porny, but still makes me giggle.) You can eat it with your hands and I. Am. Loving. It.

You are probably thinking that I have lived a sad life if I get this excited over being able to eat Jell-O with my fingers, but I seriously think I have found my new favorite thing (for the moment.) It's already cut up and that doesn't even bother me! Why is that important? I have always liked jello, but I have a weird issue with it that is borderline OCD, I guess, but I have been this way all of my life. I'll eat jello if it's in a container that it was made in, i.e. a single serving container where the gelatin has set up. That's fine. If I have to dip it out of a bigger container, however, it just becomes gross to me. I realize intellectually that it is the same stuff, but it just...I don't know...becomes different. It doesn't make rational sense, I know, but let's face it, eating the extracted by-product of boiled hooves and bones isn't necessarily rational to begin with. Am I right?

Don't judge me.

Anyways, I also love the texture. I have an issue with food textures that I'm sure many other people deal with. If I don't like the texture of a food, I simply can't eat it. Seriously, I can't eat applesauce, even though I like it. Raw vegetables also make me gag. Well, I don't like the taste of a lot of them, but the ones I do like have to be cooked or I can't eat them. The opposite is also true, because sometimes even if I don't like the taste of something, but I like the texture, I'll eat it anyways. This stuff pictured above? It tastes a bit like Sucrets, but I'm loving it anyway. Also, they jiggle, and that makes me smile.

I wonder if I can make this stuff myself and not screw it up? It's got to be better for me than pita chips, and Lord knows I'll hoover those up when I want something to munch on. I'm going to try it!

EDIT: Wow, I went back and read this just now and I'm not sure what it says about me that jello gives me this much joy.

For those of you who, like me, enjoy making stuff, I give you "Just Something I Made."

I kind of stumbled onto it by accident and I've been perusing the archives today. This kind of site is very dangerous to me, because now I have the urge to create things. Lots of things.

I'm going to have to make more friends to give things to. :)