Monday, December 31, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Resolutions.
My top ten internet resolutions.
1. I will blog at least once a week.
2. I will stop using the halloween websites unless its halloween.
3. I will remember my third neopets account username/password
4. I will use millsberry more often.
5. I will get a high score on webkinz.
6. I will poke the penguin more often.
7. I will get five new people on my Email list.
8. I will get seven new people to play on VMK.
9. I will take a look at shining stars.
10. I will not use Guild wars on sundays.
If you have any questions, post a comment.
Please post a comment if you do a top ten internet new years resolution.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
So. Much. Food.
After spending the morning home as a family, we hit my moms house for a Christmas visit. We missed out on the "family event" last night because I had to work. My sister had cooked up a ham, a gazillion sides, and some kind of no-bake chocolate and cheesecake pie that she also had at Thanksgiving. My dad brought me a plate at work last night with two huge slabs of ham plus assorted extras and a huge slice of the pie. I ate a slab of the ham and most of the pie and saved the other hamslab for Rubi. Once we got over there today, there were leftovers that mom insisted we eat and take home. We had a very small amount of ham and Rubi and the kids all shared a single piece of that yummy pie (we were saving our appetites for lunch). After gifts and visiting and such, we headed to Rubi's parent's house.
Rubi's mom always has a great spread of delicious food for any kind of family get-together. Today was no different. Even before gifts and dinner, we visited over a smorgasbord of appetizers: rumake, baked ham, cheese cubes, crackers with cream cheese and some kind of pepper jelly, and shrimp with cocktail sauce. After visiting for awhile, we opened gifts, then had Christmas Dinner (lunch).
Rubi's mom made a delicious ham, a gazillion sides, plus home-made cheddar biscuits (that's new!), and her famous cookies for desert: oatmeal, snickerdoodles, and walnut chocolate chip. She also set out a desert platter with clementine segments, pineapple chunks, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and strawberries sprinkled with powdered sugar, plus mini-carrot cakes and mini pecan-tarts that Rubi's sister brought from work. Rubi's sister also supplied the ham that her mom prepared.
At my work, since about a week before Thanksgiving, we've been receiving gifts of food and snacks from various sources; it's nice that at least around this time of year some people recognize that we're at work 24/7/365 and can't always leave to get food. One former police officer delivered enough barbecue and sides to feed all of our employees and then some, and a former co-worker brought in a meat and cheese tray, two loafs of bread, and two bags of chips. We've received several large tins of popcorn, various chocolate things, tins of cookies (both homemade and store-bought), meat and cheese trays, fruit baskets, and assorted other sweet and salty snacks.
It's no wonder people gain weight over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas
and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
My parents rock! They're elderly, and need not be doing the cooking and stuff for the holidays like they used to do. Most of my siblings have scattered away from Evanspatch, so it's just my oldest sister and her throngs of offspring and me and my family to spend time with my parents. Scheduling the visits to coincide is difficult though - both my sister and I work jobs where someone has to be there 24/7/365, even holidays (she's a nurse). Her schedule is a little more forgiving than mine, but not much. It worked out this year that I have to work 2nd shift today when my sister and her clan is visiting with my parents and cooking "Christmas Dinner". I have to work tomorrow too, but not until 7:00 at night.
My parents, once they've got had their fill of my sister and her cooking, are going to bring me a plate of food. That's why my parents rock! Knowing my sister, she'll probably volunteer to do it instead, or make one of her kids do it, so my parents don't have to get out and drive.
Tomorrow, my family will go visit for a bit with my parents, then head over to Rubi's parents for the rest of the day until I have to leave for work. I love the holidays. Rubi's mom always cooks a fantastic spread of delicious food - in fact, she's already set the table with her fancy holiday place settings in anticipation of having family over. After dinner, we'll watch the kids open a boatload of presents then sit around and "visit" while the kids play with some of their new stuff.
Christmas Miracles
Today when I woke up, I looked out my window and saw the brightest shining moon I've ever seen! I pulled a chair over ( No, I'm not that tall, Mind you ) And looked out. The sight nearly blinded me!! I looked closly and saw a cross. I got my brother and sister and they looked out and saw it too. They were rather woozy after looking. They are both looking over my shoulder right now. And thats why we called it, Miracle moon. If you want a miracle, sometimes you have to look very close to find it. The wise men found the star that way. I hope you find your Christmas Miracle soon.
Merry
Christmas!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Ahahaha!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Which is your path?
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays and stuff!
Personal to Val and Aaron.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Lots and lots and lots of pics.
Yay, finally got the Disney pics edited and uploaded. We took over 200 pics, and I managed to choose around 20 to share. It was HARD to choose only 20 - hee hee. So, here we go!
There was a ton of walking. When we finally got to a point where we had to wait for my parents to join us, we all just collapsed on a couple of benches. (Pics courtesy of my sister's cellphone)
As mentioned, we did a couple of character breakfasts, our favorite being Chef Mickey's.
Pics from the parade at Animal Kingdom. I love the dancers on stilts, and those gorgeous, enormous animal puppets.
Of course, we couldn't visit MGM Studios without attending the HSM pep rally. (I sang along and danced a little bit. Shut up.)
The kids nearly got smooshed by an At-at at (!) MGM also...
S'Mores on the beach at our hotel, with the lake and the lights of the boardwalk behind us. It was so beautiful!
The gingerbread carousel in the lobby of our hotel. Yum!
Kev and Catherine watching the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom:
Catherine meeting Jasmine and Aladdin. She was excited to meet all the princesses. 
After hours Christmas party:
Cinderella's Castle covered with lights for the holidays was really, really gorgeous. I have another photo that is clearer, but this one appealed to me more, and actually looked a bit more like the castle did in real life.
My dad telling the kids they were going to get to ride in the front of the monorail with the driver.
Honorary monorail driver cards!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Please play VMK!
O.K. I've already posted about VMK a million times, So if you haven't already checked it out, you should. Ignore all the stuff about activeX, make sure you're not running FireFox blah blah blah.
VMK, If I remember right, has all the parks in Magic kingdom ( virtually ) These are: Main street, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, fronteirland, and fantasyland. It also has new orleans square but I believe that is from somewhere else. Or I'm just a complete Idiot on the parks. Vmk also has a few rides including: Peter Pans Flight, and Alices Adventure. It also has some games based on rides. ( sometimes more ride than game! * winkwink * ) these include: Pirates of the Caribbean, ship battle and capture the flag, adventureland, photography cruise, adventureland, Haunted mansion, new Orleans square, music mix-up, Main Street, Castle fireworks, fantasy land.
On VMK, you also can create your own room, which you could make a statue, a game room, a quest ( quest option is quite expensive, read on to find out what I mean! ) a hangout, Or even an army! And much more! You can have as many rooms as you like. Me, I have Five rooms. One is a meeting room for my VMK club, another is a Zoo. sadly you cannot give away rooms, or trade them, but you can sell them for one hundred credits each. you can decorate your rooms with varied types of furniture you buy.
Credits: credits are the VMK version of money. some things are expensive, some things are cheap. To get credits, you can play games, sell things, or use codes. Codes are gained in the real life parks. Life's hard isn't it? the most expensive things I can think of are the quest kiosk, which is required to make a quest, and magic that has unlimited use. Both are ten thousand credits. But the magic is on sale rarely. As for me, I don't care. I get rich by playing pirate ship battle!
Rare items and clothes: Rare items and clothes are hard to find, therefore, they are valuable, I have lots! ( no begging me for them. ) Clothes are better. just so you know, Bird hats are awesome because you can name your bird, I have one, its name is.. secret weapon! Yes, it is very random.
That's all for now! Hope this will convince you to play VMK!!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Hey! We Went To DisneyWorld!
Rubi said I should post about our trip.
We had a great time.
Drove down Sunday, spent the night about an hour outside of WDW. Monday morning we drove into WDW and checked into the hotel. As Rubi mentioned, we were granted an upgrade to the "Concierge Level" (which translates from the French to mean "here's free food and people to do your bidding"). After our early check-in, we went to a character breakfast - I don't remember where. Much food was had by all.
After breakfast, we went to the Magic Kingdom. The first thing we did was go to see Mickey's Philharmagic - which is a must see. In fact, we saw it twice that day. We also rode many of the kids rides: Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, It's a Small World (those dolls are freaky!). The families split up for a bit after a the kiddie rides. My family had lunch at the restaurant just across from the Peter Pan ride - I don't recall the name of the place, but we also ate there last time we went to WDW in 2004. Rubi and I both ordered a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich meal. We should have split one; neither of us finished it. After lunch was when we did Philharmagic again. We came out of the restaurant and saw there was no line, so we walked right in.
It had rained a bit while we were inside, and started to sprinkle again as we were deciding what to do next, so we ducked into Tinkerbell's Treasures just as the rain started to pour. Luckily, the shower didn't last too long, and afterwards we decided to head back to the hotel and get in some swimming at the fantastic pool.
After swimming, we went to the beach and roasted marshmellows and made s'mores - a nightly activity the hotel puts on at the beach, in addition to movies on the beach. After the kids gorged on s'mores, we went back to our room and got cleaned up and went back to the Magic Kingdom for a few more hours. I don't recall what we did for dinner Monday.
Tuesday, we had breakfast in the Concierge Lounge (continental-style: donuts, juice, cereal, fruit, etc.) Then we went to Epcot, which was a 5-minute walk from the back door of our hotel. Epcot seemed much more crowded than the Magic Kingdom had been. Rubi and I took the kids to the Finding Nemo ride, then met up with the rest of our crew for Test Track (which I could never remember the correct name: always calling it Fast Track for some reason) and Soarin' (which was great!). We had lunch at some place right in the middle of the park, the Electric Umbrella or something like that. Tuesday is blur after that - I don't recall what we did after lunch, or where we had dinner. I think that might have been the night we had dinner at Cape May, the restaurant at our hotel. Prime Rib and Seafood buffet. Much food was had by all.
Tuesday night was Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom. This was an additional ticket purchase, allowing us into the park after-hours for this special event that included a special parade and shows, "snow" on Main Street, and cookies and cocoa - plus access to all the rides. I was surprised that the park was jam-packed for this event: literally shoulder-to-shoulder at times. I thought it would be much less crowded than usual.
Wednesday we had a Character Breakfast at Chef Mickey. Chef Mickey is the "good" character breakfast with singing and interaction and a huge buffet. After breakfast, we went to Animal Kingdom or whatever it's called. Everyone but me and my daughters rode the Everest rollercoaster. My family rode the Kali River Rapids ride, and only Rubi got really soaked! Elizabeth and I stayed mostly dry. The look on Rubi's face when she got drenched was hilarious - but the poor thing was freezing for most of the day after that.
We watched the holiday version of the Animal Kingdom parade. For lunch that day, Rubi and the kids and I had lunch at one of the chinese restaurants there. Again, I don't recall what we did for dinner this day.
Thursday was our trip to MGM after a Conceirge-Breakfast. Alexander and I were really looking forward to this park, as it has a Star Wars-themed area, ride, and show. None of the kids got picked to particpate in the Jedi Training Academy show, but they enjoyed watching it. We rode the Star Tours ride twice.
We also went to see the Muppets 3D show, and have the little kids pictures taken with Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (or... the sad WDW approximation of those characters). The rollercoaster riders in the family also did the Rockin' RollerCoaster and the Tower of Terror. My family had lunch at one of the many restaurants there, and caught the last half of a parade than right outside that restaurant.
Dinner was at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney, followed by much shopping. Much food was had by all; including a crazy desert where the waitress yelled "VOLCANO!!" as she brought out the desert - chocolate cake, ice cream, whipped cream, caramel sauce (supposedly), etc.
Friday we had a character breakfast at Cape May, then went back to Epcot to do Test Track and Soarin' again. Well, everyone else did Test Track - I sat that one out this time. We also got in some more swimming at the hotel, and another campfire with s'mores, and this time with campfire songs too! Dinner Friday was begrudgingly partaken of at Big River Steakhouse on the Boardwalk, a short walk from the back door of our hotel. I saw begrudgingly, because by that time much food had been by all - and frequently - and none of us were really very hungry. But we were using the Dining Plan, and had a table service meal left on our cards to use up - and we were leaving the next day; so we had to use it up.
Saturday, we drove back home. But before leaving, we had several snacks left on our Dining Plan - so I stopped by the store at the hotel and got some snacks for the drive home.
As for, souvenirs: Rubi got a nice white zip-up hooded sweatshirt with a subtle Mickey logo on the chest, I got a "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" baseball cap from MGM and a Beach Club Resort baseball hat, and the kids each got a Pin Lanyard and a bunch of pins and spent the trip trading pins with Disney Cast Members, as well as light-up Mickey ears (Catherine got a princess hat with Mickey ears instead of the light-up hat), and assorted other trinkets.
Hmm... on reading this over, I might have Tuesday and Wednesday confused, and some of the dining details out of order... all I remember for sure is: Much food was had by all.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Stress!!eleventy!!111
Buh. Too much on my mind this time of year. Personal stuff aside, trying to deal with Christmas on top of work and the kids school and Kev's work and the household stuff is all a bit much. I've usually got 3 or 4 things I'm trying to do/think about all at once and it bit me in the butt last night. I was leaving work, trying to listen to all three kids at once, who were telling me about their day, and debating to myself whether or not to have them pack their lunches and ready their backpacks that evening, or just put them straight to bed and deal with it in the morning and how much laundry I needed to do and blah blah blah. I threw the van in reverse and backed out, focusing on pretty much everything but my surroundings. And backed right into a coworkers car. [headdesk]
Today was a bit better, we got some errands run after we got the kids off to school. I had the day off work so we did a little Christmas shopping, had a nice lunch with Kev, came home to get some housework done, etc. Pretty relaxing overall and I wound down a bit. Until it was time to get the kids from school.
Yeah. Kev has my car keys. AND HIS. A frantic call to his cellphone yielded no results, because he was almost to work and didn't want to make a coworker stay a bit late while he came home to return my keys. Instead, he had me call my dad to get the keys and bring them to me, while he called the school and had them send the kids to after school care.
The whole "winding down" thing has completely gone away and I'm all stressed out again. [headdesk again]
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Not A Florida Post
Now that I'm a week behind on my email and such, I'm spending today catching up on some of it.
Recently MCF posted the first part of a story, and asked his readers to finish it. Here's my version.
The light bounced around and flickered. Feeling silly now, I noticed the source of the light: a small brown squirrel had grabbed my keychain and had somehow activated the LED light attached to the chain. The squirrel bounded over the log, scampered across my leg and ran off into the trees behind me.
Another snap from the direction the squirrel ran and this time I instinctively turned, expecting the happy bounding squirrel. Instead, I was faced with a multitude of squirrels! Rows of them, possibly hundreds! Some hanging from tree trunks, others standing tall. All of them holding keychain lights. As one, they all pointed the lights at me and turned them on. In the dimness of the dwindling daylight filtered through the trees, the light was blinding.
Then it was gone. Through the afterimages on my eyes, I could see squirrels still holding the keychains aimed at me. Somewhere in the trees, I heard one of them chitter. Then the lights starting strobing on and off, blinding me repeatedly. I crossed my arms over my eyes, turned and fled back the way I came, leaving my other belongings scattered where they had fallen.
Oddly, I came to the edge of a cliff that hadn't been along my path before. I turned back to retrace my steps but was blocked by the squirrels all holding flashing lights and advancing slowly towards me, strangely silent.
I turned and lept from the cliff.
Longest post ever written by me.
OK, Florida is officially "The most magical place on earth"
As Mom said, Florida will most likely be re-appearing in my life.
Giant pool was Exactly my thing. They had One entire section of the pool as a whirlpool. I stayed there the entire pool time, except for going to the WATERSLIDE and the beach.
Why?
1. I was stuck swirling around in the whirlpool.
2. It was fun.
As for rides, my favorite had to be test track. Your car goes through hot and cold chambers, then an acid chamber. ;) You have super speed excels, you almost crash into a wall, all on top of almost running into a semi!!!
whew. good times..
We're home!!!
We pulled into town late last night and all tumbled into bed in our clothes. We were SO TIRED. But we made it home safely.
Hmmm...impressions. At the fore front of my mind right now is just "Brrr!" Twenty hours ago I was in a bathing suit, sunning myself on a beach chair under some palm trees, thinking maybe I'd hop into the pool for a moment to cool off. Now? I just ran out to the van to drag the suitcases in, and nearly froze. Take me back, take me back!
Well, MCF, it wasn't bad. The week we went is supposed to be one of the least crowded weeks of the year. Sure, there were crowds, and a few times long wait times on rides made us decide to do something else or just get a Fastpass, but for the most part it was perfect.
We stayed on property for the first time ever, at the Beach Club resort, which was an incredible place - just made for families. Honestly, you could stay there for a week, not ever go to DisneyWorld, and keep busy every single day with just what the Beach Club has to offer. They did a campfire, S'mores, campfire songs, and a movie on the beach every night. We did that twice and loved it, but we never had time to take in the movie they were showing. Lounged by the pool - which seemed neverending - it was HUGE. It even had a waterfall! Strolled over to the boardwalk one evening, checking out the shops, clubs, and restaurants. And there was still so much we didn't do. Kev and I are already talking about saving for a couple of years and going back there.
Our Beach Club stay started on a high note at check-in, when they told us we'd qualified for an upgrade to concierge level. It's still a mystery to all of us why, But each of the five adults in our group is convinced that it was OUR stunning good looks. [grin] So we bickered about that for a while - whoooo was it? Who was the hottie that the staff was helpless to resist? I'm fairly certain it was my charming husband. Anyway, up we went to concierge level, because we're all fancy and stuff. Concierge level is on the top floor, and the elevator won't take you there unless you scan your room key in the little slot above the elevator buttons. So Kev and I, and my sister, were all traveling up one day, and my sister put her key card in the slot and hit the button. There was one other passenger on the elevator,and he asked us, "What was that for?". Kev just casually said "Oh, to get to the fifth floor.", and we all caught one another's eyes, feeling a bit smug. After the other guy got off on his floor, my sister cracked me up by doing a little dance and singing "Don't you wish you were VIP like me..." Don't worry, we weren't THAT full of ourselves, but it was fun because we're normally so not "concierge level" people. But we sure revelled in the pampering.
Much, much more to come. About the wonders of pin trading, which we discovered. About the food, which seemed endless. (I can't decide if the Disney Dining plan is the best thing ever, or evil incarnate) About the rides. About the danger of just being able to whip out your room key and say "Just charge it to my room, and deliver it there too, please". And pictures. So. Many. Pictures.
See you soon!
Saturday, December 01, 2007
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