I'm embarrased to admit (more stuff). . .

I think it will make an amusing post about all the embarrasing/stupid stuff I do. Come on everybody, admit stuff with me!

1. Did I even spell "embarrased" correctly?
2. I can't get enough of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance. Did you see the way Benji looked at Donyelle on Wednesday night? I wish a guy would look at me like that!
3. Black jelly beans ... enough said.
4. Boxer briefs are darn comfortable.
5. So are granny panties!
6. How much I make per hour ... it's too embarrasing to admit!
7. I love hand me down clothes, from friends or ebay.
8. I've lived in Florida for 4 years, and have never been to the beach.
9. I'm on the White Sox bandwagon.
10. I had cereal for dinner every night this week.
11. I have more internet friends than real friends - not that that's a bad thing!
12. I love MTV's Real World vs. Road Rules challenges

I think I'll publish this post now ... but I'm sure I can think of more stupid stuff later!

Yo ho, yo ho ...

... I rode the "new" Pirates of the Caribbean ride at WDW on Saturday!

Let me preface this with my intense worry when I heard that they were making changes. I didn't like the fact that Disney was getting "hip" and adding elements from the Pirates movies into their ride. The charm of Disney is that it's timeless.

Thankfully they didn't change much!

The coolest change is a 'waterfall' with a reflection of Davy Jones at the beginning. Your boat goes straight thru his face on your way into Pirate land.

One bummer is that they took out that talking skull head that says, "dead men tell no tales". Or, maybe because I went during 'soft opening' they were putting him back in.

Thruout the ride, the only changes were Capt. Barbosa on that giant pirate ship (very realistic looking), and 2 or 3 Capt. Jack Sparrow's. The Jack Sparrows were really realistic looking! You know how his body language is really fluid yet jerky? They captured that in the animatonics.

My only complaint (besides skull head being missing) is the ending scene. It's Jack in the 'booty' (ha ha - treasure) room. But they took out lots of the treasure; the room doesn't look as elaborate as before.

Best part of the ride - only 10 minute wait time!!!

Bob Iger

Jonathan (being Mr. Big Shot I won Partners in Excellence) was invited to a big meeting last Thursday at Disney.

He wanted me to post this picture of him and Bob Iger (the new head of Disney - he just took over to Michael Eisner).

What a surprise - Jonathan has red eye!

Food, Rain and Superman

Jonathan's parents are in town for a week, so that means party time for me! His parents are so sweet, and always insist on taking Jonathan and I out for dinner.

Unfortunatly, the minute they drove into Orlando, the rain started, and it hasn't stopped yet. It makes it hard to do any outside activities. Hopefully it will cooperate on Saturday afternoon, when we dine at Liberty Tree Tavern in honor of Jonathan's mom's b-day.

Last night we all saw Superman Begins together. I was pleasently surprized. The movie had action and some tender moments between Clark and Lois' son. There were also some pretty awesome previews before the movie for Spiderman 3 and Pirates 2.

I'm embarrased to admit . . .

. . . that I'm still eating bags of black jelly beans I bought at Target's "after Easter sale". Yes, I realize Easter was over 2 months ago, but I love them so much. Sadly my bag is almost gone. Another 10 months I'll have to wait!

Ways to Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

I'm sure we've all seen this e-mail floating around, but I find it hilarious every time somebody forwards it to me.

Ways to Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity.
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds"
7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don't use any punctuation
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme?
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

I'm getting a pool installed!!!

Wait ... no I'm not. That would be my next door neighbors. They got a pool installed this morning at 7:30am!!!

What is the deal with that? Don't cement mixers and some other big truck know that I don't have to wake up until 8:13am for work.

Grrrrrrr!

Photos from Missouri - part 2

After I finally got over my car sickness, Jonathan, his dad and I went to Onondoga Cave. The walking tour was 1 mile thru the cave.
Obviously, these stalagmites (sp?) are called "The Twins". (everybody giggle at their name ...). Stalagmites 'grow' 1 inch (or was it 1 cm?) every 10 years (I think?). These suckers were about 8' high! The white one is still 'live'.

The next picture shows some "bacon grease" dripping off this mini cliff. The tour guide said that rain water mixes with 'acid' in the ground as it seeps in to the cave, which forms all these amazing things. Water from the ceiling kept hitting us. I couldn't help thinking of the Animal Kingdom 3D movie "It's Tough to be a Bug", "Oooooh, I hope none of you are allergic to acid."

As we exited the cave, there were some bats hanging out (no pun intended) by the door. One started swooping around. The guide said they won't touch you, but they will get pretty darn close to you (before their sensors kick in, I guess). Being the pansy that I am, I ducked. Being the pansy Jonathan is, he ducked too. He knocked heads and I let out a little scream. How embarrassing.

It was hard to take pictures inside a pitch black cave. I didn't have a 'cave setting' on my digital camera. And it was freezing in there!! I think the tour guide said it was 57 degrees. One lady on our tour had shorts, a tank top and flip flops on. I don't know how she survived.

Photos from Missouri - part 1

Jonathan's family lives on a farm. They have over 1500 acres. Here are 2 photos of the back yard. Who knew Missouri was such a hilly state? (Maybe lots of people, but not me!). It was a pretty sweet view.

And here is a shot from the front yard. (Blogger isn't letting me format the phots. The picture with the white flowers is the front yard). We drove thru the farmy part. From my limited knowledge of farms, I think they just grow hay and they have lots of cows. Jonathan's parents don't do much (or any?) farming. His grandpa still does some farm work, and has a group of people who work for him. The coolest part was a 1/2 acre cemetary smack dab in the middle of the farm; old and new graves were in there. I wanted to get out and explore, but I didn't want to seem like a freak in front of Jonathan's dad (did I mention he's a judge?).

Here is one of the farm dogs, Squeaky (or is it Sparky).

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!