Disney Re-Cap

25 Things I Learned During our Disney World Vacation*

1. June is the “rainy” season. Never go to Disney World in June.
2. Disney charges way too much for every single thing they sell. Be prepared to spend a LOT of money.
3. Rain ponchos at Disney World are the best $8.50 you will ever spend if you go to Disney World in June.
4. Only about 3% of the people at Disney World actually look like they’re having fun. The rest look miserable, hot and annoyed.
5. I saw a friend I used to work with that I hadn’t seen in over 10 years. It really is a small world.
6. Taxi drivers in Disney World take you for a ride. A very long, slow ride, way out of the way and charge you 10 times what the actual price should be.
7. I can’t believe people take newborns to Disney. Especially during the summer. It’s HOT.
8. Japanese beer is gross. Beer from England is good.
9. Blueberry muffins shaped like Mickey Mouse from the Boardwalk Bakery are really very tasty.
10. JetBlue is the best airline ever and they give you complimentary Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Oh and you get to watch TV. Your own private TV, any channel you want. So cool.
11. The best time to go on rides at the Magic Kingdom when it's peak season is during the parades.
12. The Swan/Dolphin is the best hotel at Disney, due to the location. It’s a 10 minute walk/boat ride to Epcot.
13. Boats are a much better mode of transportation than buses.
14. Eric looks silly in a Fez.
15. The absolute best way ever to get from the Orlando Airport to the hotel is a limo.
16. Epcot is the best of the 4 theme parks.
17. Animal Kingdom is hot. And kind of boring.
18. "It’s a Small World" is still my favorite ride.
19. Best pizza ever? At Wolfgang Puck in Downtown Disney. Pepperoni and Mushroom.
20. My hair hates humidity. Really, really hates it.
21. Disney employs 50,000 people.
22. Roller Coasters aren’t as scary when it’s dark. And the Fast Pass rocks.
23. Occasionally you can be in the right place at the right time and get to have your picture taken with all the Disney Characters all at once, and with nobody else around.
24. Nobody does fireworks like Disney.
25. Teenage boys can survive 7 days without playing video games.

I'll post more pictures the next few days. We took over 1,500 photos between us, so I've got some sorting to do! And laundry... and grocery shopping... and sleeping...

* I'm totally copying Rebecca with my "list"....

500th Post

Hey, this is my 500th post! Wow... I guess I've had a lot to say, without really saying anything!

Our 2nd & 3rd day at Disney was as fun (minus the rain!) as the first day. We've been doing the parks in the order that they were built. Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and today we're going to Animal Kingdom.

This was from lunch at Hollywood Studios. (Which we still call MGM...) It's the Sci Fi Dine In Theater. You eat in little cars while watching really bad sci fi movies. Kind of like at a Drive In. It's a favorite.

We saw fireworks at Epcot, although this was mostly just a fire... Illuminations is what it's called. And nobody does fireworks like Disney.

Epcot with the Monorail in the foreground...

Disney Day #1

Hello from Disney World! We made it... here are a few photos from our first day. Just a few, I'm using Eric's netbook, which I don't really like... it doesn't have photoshop with my nice quick short-cuts.


This nice man was waiting for us at the Orlando Airport. He was our driver that took us to our hotel. In record time I might add. We left NY at 7:30 and were at our hotel by 10:30. Not bad.

Here we are at the Magic Kingdom. We rode some rides, ate some food, watched a parade.

And then it rained. And rained and rained and rained. And rained. Torrential rains. All night long. We got soaked. Beyond swimming soaked. We had split up by this time and each of us took very creative (although sometimes frustrating) ways to get back to our hotel. Monorail to Epcot... then a boat back to the hotel... but some of us couldn't find the boat... and got soaked in the torrential rain even more... Then paid $8 each for a trash bag poncho... then we gave up and took a taxi. Which took the long, slow way around town to get to the hotel that was right next to Epcot... I realized after last night that I would suck at the Amazing Race... Oh well. It was an adventure!

Today we hit Epcot. Hoping for a drier day today.

Tall Boy

I was emptying all my old SD cards from my camera for the trip and I found some oldies but goodies. This was August of 2009. He was soo close to being taller.

Less than 2 years later... I'm a pip-squeak.

Summer Vacation

We're in countdown mode. Vacation begins tomorrow at 5pm. We take-off Friday at 7:00am for Orlando. We're hoping to be at our hotel, having lunch by noon. We've got lots of fun plans already and lots of free time too. So far we've made reservations at several favorite restaurants and we'll plan our days around that.

One big thing we're doing that I'm very excited about is visiting with an old friend on Saturday. Debbie and I were next-door neighbors when we lived on the Navy Base in Puerto Rico, our fathers were in the military. I was in 1st grade and she was in Kindergarten when we met. We have remained friends all these years. We've visited each other many times, the last time was over 10 years ago, but I'm sure it'll feel like no time has passed once we get together.

Here's a photo of us that she posted on her facebook page. I think it's circa 1977. My mom would know better... she was our Brownie leader. Anyway, we've both changed a bit, but we've managed to remain friends through so many moves and so many years. We always joke that we are each others "oldest friends".

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Father's who read my blog. I hope you all got to enjoy a quiet and relaxing day doing what you ever like to do.

Eric made some fabulous ribs on the grill (Grill week continues?!)...

We had a nice dinner outside... complete with corn on the cob, baked beans and pasta salad. There might have been a margarita involved too... Aren't the outdoor plates fun and colorful?! (They were $1 each from the Christmas Tree Shop, of course!)

For dessert we had fresh strawberry shortcake. Which was so good!

And I have to share the gift I got for my dad... It's a "Dugout Pack" of beer from Cooperstown Brewing Company. You can read a little about the beer here. It looks like a neat little microbrewery... someday maybe we'll get down to visit!

A Blue Moon Birthday

Tonight we went up to Fulton to have dinner with Sheila for her birthday. Which was actually last weekend. We weren't able to spend time with her last weekend due to Tel Auc. We went to this great restaurant called the Blue Moon Grill, in Fulton. It was fabulous! Eric and Sheila both had Honey Bourbon Glazed Pork Chops, which they both enjoyed. I had a Basil Chicken and Tomato over pasta. Which was wonderful.

I also had some Blue Moon. I thought it was fitting to have a Blue Moon at the Blue Moon!

After we took Sheila home, we saw Rich out on the river kayaking with a friend...

Grill Week, Day 5

Our last night of Grill Week was actually last night. (Thursday) I just didn't get a chance to post last night.

We had cheeseburgers. Well, 2 of us had cheeseburgers (Eric and Alex) and one of us (me) just had a hamburger. Grill Week was fun... we've got lots of ideas for more grilling. We haven't grilled any fish yet. We would also like to grill a ham steak. And some pork chops. Maybe we'll do some more grillin' next week!

This single yellow rose was in bloom in front of the house this week. I thought it was pretty... there should have been two roses, but unfortunately one was eaten before it got a chance to bloom. Most likely by a pesky squirrel.

Grill Week, Day 4 - Plus Tel Auc Extras

Continuing with our Grill theme for the week... Night #4 consisted of Hoffman's Hot Dogs. Eric had Coney's, and Alex and I had regular hot dogs.

It's always interesting to see how differently everyone takes their dogs. This plate is mine. I'm a mustard only girl. Plus I like potato salad... and baked beans.

Alex had a late lunch, so he wasn't very hungry. He'll save his other hot dog for lunch tomorrow. Otherwise, he would have had two. And he takes his dogs with mustard and ketchup.

This is Eric's plate. With a Coney covered with Ketchup and Mustard along with a side of beans. Hold the potato salad...

Here are a few more TelAuc photos. This is where I sat for 6 nights, the woman next to me is Carin, she's our HR person. The other 2 are volunteers.

Here's Eric and Dave partaking in the free food. I think this was Twin Trees pizza/ziti night.

Hi there! Notice the 1980's dos based computer screen I'm working on...... sigh...

In other news..... One week and one day away from our Disney vacation!! Woohoo! I won't be blogging from vacation, at least not in the traditional sense. I can blog from my phone, I've tested it out. But the entries won't be very long, I can assure you of that! I will mostly be updating my Twitter and Facebook accounts... so feel free to follow us to see what we're up to!

Grill Week, Day 3

Tonight we had "BBQ Chicken on a Stick"... Kind of like Ka-bobs, but with a State Fair name. I couldn't find my wooden sticks, which made me very sad... I had to use my metal skewers. Which get VERY hot on the grill! They would have been prettier on the sticks, since I only had 6 skewers, I had to cut some of them up. They tasted fabulous though.

And also... the first corn on the cob of the summer! So good...

Grill Week

I've dubbed this week "Grill Week". Each night we will cook our main course on the grill. Last night we had steak. It was SO good. Mostly because it has been a very long time since I had steak.

Tonight we had turkey burgers. This is the finished product... with homemade potato salad, fresh strawberries and good ol' Grandma Browns beans. I love summer dinners!

Fun with TelAuc

In case you've been wondering what we've been up to. This is it. TelAuc is 8 days... we each worked 6 of them. That's in addition to our regular job... it was a long two weeks!! Eric was operating camera in the warehouse with Dave.

Out friends the Falanga's volunteered one night! Rick is sorting bid sheets and Kathy (her back is to the camera) was helping with entering credit card information. It was very sweet of them to help out! Their son Rob was in the studio helping with bid running... he was accumulating volunteer hours for National Honor Society. Alex actually helped out one night too, but of course I forgot to take photos of that! (I'm a bad mom!!)

Rick got to have a moment in the spotlight being a "model"... he loved it! I didn't take any other photos, but there are tons of them on the station camera. I'll look through them and post some interesting ones if I can find them.

The Grill Master

Spatula in one hand, strawberry margarita in the other. And sporting a lovely, colorful Martha Stewart apron...

Mulching and TelAuc-ing

We have had a very busy weekend. And exhausting. TelAuc is wiping us (well, me at least!) out this year. I had to work until 1:30 am, for 3 days in a row. For someone who is usually asleep by 10pm, this is not an easy feat. Especially 3 days in a row. The first day, I got up at 6:30. The second day, it was 8:30. And today, finally I almost got 7 hours of sleep and woke up around 10. We're back to "normal" for 3 days, then it's back at it next weekend. I have been able to get a few fun items. Mostly coffee and gift cards. And I was able to give one of the coffee gift packs to my neighbor today, because they gave us free mulch. They got a truckload of mulch and they gave us about 15 wheelbarrow full loads for free!

And speaking of mulch... here's a before and after of a tree in the front of the house. Before I mulched, I had to do some serious trimming. I even broke out the electric chainsaw. And then filled 7 lawn bags with all of the dead/discarded twigs and branches. It was SO nice to get this project done. That tree has been an eyesore since we moved in. (That "before" photo was actually taken 2 years ago... I forgot to take one this morning - it was much worse than that!)

A nice clean entrance... I like the dark mulch. I used reddish mulch before, this is a nice change. And it matches the neighbor!

Another view of the entrance.