Summer Movies: 3 down, 2 to go

I saw Cars on Saturday in a theater here in MO. I loved it!!! I highly recommend it to anybody and everybody.

Ever since I saw a movie poster, I knew Guido (or "little toot" as I call him) was going to be my favorite character. He's just so adorable. I wish he would've spoken English, but beggers can't be choosers.

I also wanted Fillmore to be one of my favorites, just b/c I think hippies are cool, but he wasn't very cool. He didn't really say much.

The best part of the movie was the end credits, where they did a shout out to Joe Ranft (sp?). Jonathan and I knew he died a couple months ago, since he was the voice of Heimlich, one of Jonanthan's favorite Pixar characters. It was a really sweet tribute.

Long story short (too late!), GO SEE CARS!!!

Hello from MO!

MO = Missouri

We (Jonathan and I) arrived in St. Louis around 9:15pm, and got to Jonthan's family's house around 11pm. I did a little experiment with myself on the plane, I didn't take dramamine and only used the Sea Bands (that my mom swears by). Normally I use both on planes. My experiment didn't work out so well ... I got totally sick.

But that's over now, let the vacation begin!!!

Since we flew Southwest we didn't have assigned seats. As we boarded (is that a word??) the plane, there were no 2 seats together. I sat next to some teenagers. A girl let me borrow her book called "Size 12 is Not Fat". I read 1/2 of it, and it was a really good book. I want to look up the author on line and find a library and find out what happens in the end. It was kind-of a teenage-y book, but those are the best kind - fast reading.

I'm not sure what Jonathan's parents have planned for us this weekend, but I hope seeing the movie Cars in in the works. That's #3 on my "summer movie watch" list.

PIE photos

I'm having problems posting pictures. I tried yesterday, but then blogger kicked me off. Let's try again!

This is Al Weiss. He was the head of WDW, but now he's the head of all Disney parks world wide!

Here is a bad picture of Art Linkletter. He looks really old in this picture, but he really didn't look that bad. And this Mickey topiary was in the lobby of the Contemporary.

Mickey and Minnie were all dressed up too! Jonathan is always leaning down in character photos.

Partners in Excellence Banquet

Last night Jonathan and I attened his PIE banquet at the Contemporary. It was very fancy, and very fun. All the pictures are on Jonathan's camera, so I'll post those later.

The evening started at 6pm with a wine and cheese and photos. They took a professional photo of us. Mickey and Minnie were out in their gold tuxes and fancy dress. Even Al Weiss was there for a photo op.

At 7pm we all made our way into the convention hall. It was decorated with black chair backs and yellow/gold ribbons. Tables were assigned. We sat next to the other 2 men who won from Jonathan's department, and 2 heads of their department. Jonathan had fun schmoozing with some higher ups.

The dinner was beef and fish. The best part was the mashed potatoes with weird looking carrots on top. The carrots were very skinny strips, maybe fried in butter? They looked like hair on top of the potatoes, but they tasted great!

The guest speaker was Art Linkletter. He was one of the original TV presenters of Disneyland 50 years ago. He told stories of his friendship with Walt Disney. For being 94 years old he was pretty funny and with it.

As we walked out around 10:30pm (totally stuffed with food), there was chocolate fondu out in the lobby! I couldn't stuff myself with any more sweets, but you can't pass up fresh pineapple.

Here is a picture (I found on the internet) of the statue Jonathan 'won'.

Happy Memorial Day!

Today (Monday, 5/29) is my first full day off work (for vacation, not weekends) all year! How pathetic is that? Maybe my dedication will look good as I interview for a managerial job at Disney. But I digress ...

Over the weekend Jonathan and I went to MGM for Star Wars weekends (again!) and saw a movie (also again!) Here are some photos from Star Wars weekends:

Storm Troopers guard the front gates of the park. At 9am they release the "force field" and allow us all in the park (to frantically run like crazy to the place where you get a ticket for the autograph sessions later in the day).

Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok) is the host of the afternoon talk show. Look at the proportions of his cute little chair! The kid on the left is Jake Lloyd. He was young Anikan (sp?) Skywalker in Episode I.

Matthew Wood was the voice of General Grevious in Episode III and also some of the clone droids.

Pictures from last weekend.

Saturday: Spent most of the day at Disney MGM studios for Star Wars weekends. We met Rick McCullum. He was the producer (or director?) of Star Wars episodes I, II and III. He was a really cool guy. He mentioned that they were almost done making Indiana Jones 4

Sunday: Went to Downtown Disney to see MI3 and got a nice surprise! The Cars nationwide tour had stopped in Orlando. Lightning McQueen and Sally were there. We also got free movie posters!

Summer Movies: 2 down, 3 to go

Jonathan and I saw Mission Impossible 3 this afternoon. It was just like everybody is describing it: non stop action. I rememeber the 1st 2 films totally confused me, but I held on through out this movie until the very end. Then I got a tad confused. :0) Over all it was worth my money!

We also had fun saying, "It's that the guy from ...? It's that they chick from ...?"

$4.07

That's how much I paid for 5 Chick-fil-a sandwiches today. They were having some kind-of sale. I think each sandwich was $.79 or something. The limit was 5 per person. When I made my order the cashier mentioned that they were almost out of food! Now I have to figure out a way to freeze/store the 4 left over sandwiches.

Flower Power!

As part of the Epcot Flower and Garden festival, they have nightly concert appropriatly named "Flower Power".

Last Tuesday I dragged Jonathan to see The Association. All I knew about them was that they sang my 2nd favorite oldie of all time "Windy" (my all time favorite old is "Tears of a Clown"). Who's creeping down the streets of the city // Smiling at everybody she sees // Who's reaching down to capture a rainbow // Everyone knows it's Windy .... bum, bum, bum, bum, bum ... And Windy has stormy eyes // That capture the sound of (something) // etc ...

They also sang 3 other songs I recognized, which surprized me. If I remember correctly, they sang "Cherish", and ... I already forgot.

Saturday night we saw Davy Jones. This was the 3rd Davy Jones concert we've been to at Epcot. We waited in line and got front row seats! He's always entertaining; he sang all the classic Monkees songs.

Last night we saw The Tokens. Their only real hit was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". They sang their other hit song from the 60's (which I didn't recognize), and they sang a bunch of covers. It was cool how the lead singer could still hit those really, really high notes!

Summer Movies: 1 down, 4 to go.

Jonathan and I saw POSEIDEN on Saturday afternoon. I loved it! He commented, "you never took your eyes off the screen." It was kind-of supenseful on a 'who will live, who will die?' sort of way. There are a couple suprizes thrown in.

The only way it's like the original (which rocks by the way - check it out!) is the whole boat turning over thing. The characters and the ending are totally different.

I think I liked the original a tad more for it's character development, and it was much more emotional because so many more people died. This new one had me a little confused on who the characters where, why were they on that boat in the first place, why should I care about them and where did that giant wave come from? This new version had way more action sequences, and these new people seems to have many, many more challenges to overcome.

I think it's worth the $6 (or what ever it costs to see a movie in your town).

PIE ...

... not for me. :0(

I didn't win the Partners in Excellence award. I'm kind-of bummed, but I didn't really expect to win. I never did find out who nominated me. Hopefully I'll be nominated again, so I can try again! One person from DVC member services won - my manager. He told me he had been nominated 7 times!

At least Jonathan won, so I can enjoy the banquet. I've heard it's super fancy. Time to plan an outfit!

Cars

Jonathan and I stalked the Cars at MGM all weekend (we went on Saturday, but they were already gone, so we had to go back on Sunday). They were adorable!

The red one is Lightning McQueen. He's a race car.


The rusty, funky toothed one is Mater. He's a beat up Tow Truck.

Good times at MGM . . .

. . . NOT!

Thursday night I had an overtime shift at MGM from 7:45-9:45pm. My regular job ends at 7pm, so I had just a little time to run home, wolf down some food, change and drive to MGM.

Somewhere along the way I dropped my lanyard with my Disney ID.

When I got to MGM (time check: 7:45pm) I noticed it was gone. I was hoping I could still work with out it. I was wrong!

I had my drivers licence, my maingate (Disney employee ticket pass) and a credit card (all with my name on it). The male security guard was a total jerk and wouldn't even look at those things. He just made me call my manager (who is already at home) or anybody else who I thought could help me (time check: 8pm).

I paged her and she called me back (from the super market - I felt like such an ass!) (time check: 8:15pm). The security guard (by now there are 3 security guards all hanging out. I asked if one of them could walk me back to where I was supposed to work, so I could appologize to the guy in charge. "No", they crankily yelled.

My manager tried to call "access control" (to tell them I was a legal employee), but of course that didn't work, b/c she doesn't work for MGM Studios. She called me back with the bad news (time check: 8:30pm).

I was just standing there staring at the security guards with a "what now?" look on my face. The guy had left, so the ladies all of a sudden got a change of heart, and drove me back to where I was supposed to work (time check: 8:5opm). When we pulled up to the area, everybody was already leaving. The shift was just ending!!!

Luckily the guy in charge (who I had been trying to page, with no luck), was standing there. I appologized and asked if I would not have a point on my record card. He's a cool guy, so I don't think I'll be penalized.

As I was walking back to my car, I found my lanyard and ID about 10 yards from my front door.

Hey, at least I got home in time to watch the 2nd half of CSI!

Happy Anniversary . . .

. . . to my mom and dad . . . yesterday! Since I'm 30, I think that makes this their 32nd wedding anniversary. I would bet some money that they both forgot ... Mom?

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

This weekend Jonathan and I hung out at Epcot. For the next month they are hosting the Flower and Garden Festival.

This topiary "Donald and Daisy's tunnel of love" is at the front of the park.
As we walked around the park we stumbled upon a Gary Pucket concert. He sang "young girl, get out of my mind (?) ... my love for you is way out of (line?) (I don't know all the words!) ... better run girl ... you're much too young girl." I didn't really recognize any of his other songs, but he had a great voice!

Later in the month we plan to see The Association, The Tokens, Davy Jones and others.

In one of the countries they had a kids play area. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be Chicken Little and his dad (from the recent Disney movie), but it sure is cute!

PIE

Remember that PIE (Partners in Excellence) thing I was talking about a while back. I haven't found out if I've won yet (I'm not holding my breath, only 10% actually win), but JONATHAN WON! He found out this morning.

Did I also mention that he also got a promotion and raise 2 weeks ago? He's on fire!

Now, if he could just find a wife and buy a house, he'd be living the good life. ;0)

Happy Anniversary ...

... to me?!? Jonathan thinks today is our 3 year dating anniversary. I thought it was early April, but now that I think about it ... he's probably right.

We are celebrating by going to Chick-fil-a! I have some coupons.

"Party on dude!"

Top 5 movies I want to see ...

The top 5 movies I'm looking forward to this summer: (pretty much in order)
1. Pirates of the Carribean 2
2. Posiden -- the original rocks! I hope this remake has some cool efffects
3. Cars
4. Snakes on a Plane -- I think the title says it all
5. Mission Impossible 3 -- Even though Tom Cruise is a wack job, I've heard that this movie has nonstop action

Honorable Mention:
6. Slither -- Just because "Pam" from The Office is in it.
7. Scary Movie 4 -- They haven't failed me yet!

Orlando Predators

Last Friday night Jonathan and I went to the Orlando Predators game (as usual), and I saw this guy!

What?!? You don't know who that is?!?

It's Jay Gruden. He's the brother of John Gruden (Tampa Bay Bucs coach), and the head coach of the Orlando Predators.

He's a star in the world of Arena Football! He's in the hall of fame; one of the most famous QB's of the game.

I just looked for "Jay Gruden" on google.com, and all I could find is how he got a DUI last year. Doh! Well, trust me when I say that he's semi-cool!

More pictures from the Predators:

After every game anybody is allowed on the field. Players and cheerleaders sign autographs, and little kids jump all over the walls playing catch. Here is Jonathan with his new baby (his autographed football). He has all but 4 players!

This is Klaw, the mascot. He's an actual Predator, as in the Arnold Schwarteneger (sp?) movie.

Favorites

All my other internet friends are doing it, so here goes!
Favorite color? Navy blue
Band? Foo Fighters
Taco Bell menu item? Soft taco
Candy bar? I don't eat candy bars. Does Reeces PB cups count?
Concert? I've only been to one - Foo Fighters and Barenaked Ladies were there. A friend reminded me that I've been to 2 concerts - I saw Madonna last year. Duh!
Movie quote? "Let's cut the chit chat a-hole" -Nicholas Cage (from The Rock)
Monopoly game piece? Thimble
Nickname? (thanks a lot Survivor) Amb-ah
Pizza toppings? Sausage and Pepperoni
Cell phone service provider? Sprint
Restaurant? Earl of Sandwich (or a 'real' restaurant would be Olive Garden).
Breakfast cereal? Frosted Mini Wheats
Website? All my friend's blogs
Roadtrip? I don't like driving in cars