Wednesday, October 25th - You Stopped Putting the "Fun" in Dysfunctional Two Days Ago.
A funny thing happened on the way to this update... there was a trip to WDW, several medical tests and tasty (and not-so-tasty) drugs, Harry Potter 7 was released, there was weight loss and weight gain, and the drinking of much beer
which probably contributed to the weight gain now that I think about it.
Actually... those are many things that happened not a
single thing and none of them are really very funny. Ummmm...I know! Here's funny: I should have thought of the song
Chicken Train when I wrote those updates about the Magic Behind the Steam Trains Tour. Now that's funny!
***
crickets fall silent***
Tough crowd.
Ahem.
First off, I apologize for the delay in returning to the Argie Bargie because it certainly was not my intention to let this already far too long trippie languish for another four months. Secondly, thank you all very much for reading and for posting your wonderful comments - you don't know how many times I came back here to re-read your posts when I really needed a smile over the last few months. Thirdly, I'd like to welcome any new readers who've been brave enough to join the madhouse - I'm thrilled to have you here and I think you'll find there are some truly amusing and amazing people who stop in to read and comment. I love to hear from people, so please feel free to jump right in and post. The more the merrier!
And now ... let us return to Day 8 of our trip. We've just finished up with a character breakfast and have plans to visit MGM for the morning. We've canceled our dinner reservation at Blue Zoo in favor of grubbing around the World Showcase. And Jon has left both his park hopper and his balding man solar deflector, AKA
hat, in the villa.
Nothing makes Grimace's lips tighten and disappear like a forgetful Jon. So while he "hurried" back to the room, the three of us relaxed in the Beach Club lobby.
You didn't really expect to see Grimmie in this picture, did you?
She was having too much fun pacing the length of the wood floors while staring at her watch and heaving dramatic sighs when she wasn't frowning darkly at our attemps to "pose" Plankton.
"Stop making a spectacle of yourselves!" she hissed at one point.
Hello pot, just call me kettle.
This picture reveals the mystery of how Plankton travels with us. Menacing yet amusing, that's our vacation MO. Most guests seem to think nothing of it, if they even notice Plankton at all, but Grimace ... she just thinks it's
weird.
Look at all the stuff Plankton can get into when we're not paying attention:
I said we were going to ride the Tower of Terror, not terrorize towels!
Iceberg, dead ahead!
I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation...
**We interrupt this TR for a moment of coffee snorting hilarity on the part of the author**
... wipes tears from eyes... I have given myself a terrible fit of giggles. I just had the inspiration to use the lyrics from
Top of the World as I was typing this and now I can't get the stupid song out of my head. The only problem is that instead of Karen Carpenter, it's Plankton I "hear" singing.
I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world
Oh dear...
*** picks self up off of floor and brushes away cat-hair tumbleweeds ***
Where were we? Ah yes, the Beach Club. That's right we still haven't made it out of the hotel yet. Why? Because in the rather loud words of Grimace, "Jon had to move his bowels."
As someone who's suffered with Inflammatory Bowel Disease for years I totally understand having to, ummmm, "drop the kids off at the pool" but that doesn't mean I want to know about it. And I'm pretty sure no one else in the lobby that morning wanted to know either.
Jay and I spotted a diversion:
Art!!!
Not Garfunkel or Buchwald or even fancy stuff hanging on the walls...
Art, the doorman at the Beach Club! He was just as pleasant as could be and shook hands and posed for pictures and even offered to pin-trade before he realized we didn't have any pins.
Grimace took this picture, which probably explains why it's a bit out of focus. She needs to work on her composition skills - Jay is sprouting a potted plant out of the back of his head.
And he still looks cute; I swear he never takes a bad picture.
You must be wondering... did these freaks ever make it to MGM? Of course we did. And the first thing we did once we were inside the park was stop for another family picture, because it's one of Grimace's favorite things to do!
Well, half of us are having fun...
By this point in the trip Jay and I were stopping to have these group photos taken on purpose just because we knew how much it annoyed Grimace. We'd figured out pretty quickly that we weren't going to have any "happy family photos" from this trip so we opted for as many "I don't want to be here" moments as we could get.
And then... would you believe that the CM taking our pictures was named...
BRENDA!!!!
That's right... the insidious Disney-Brenda convergence reappeared and of course had to be documented for posterity.
We see her here; We see her there; We see silly Brenda everywhere!
I think I'm beginning to understand why I never come across anyone named Brenda in the "real" world - they're all living in Florida and working at Disney World. This leads me to believe that at some point in the future I, too, will join the ever-growing crowd of Brendas employed by the Walt Disney Company. But they'll have to put
this Brenda in the back office - she's a little too much like her mother to be around park guests.
Now that the photo-shoot is complete, Jay and I insist on heading over to Tower of Terror. Jon hasn't been on this ride since 2002 and it's changed a lot since then - seatbelts instead of safety bars and multiple drops - and in our opinion it's much more fun.
Grimace doesn't ride anything remotely scary so she went shopping while we were getting our adrenaline rush. One of the reasons Jay and I love visiting WDW in October is that even at 11AM in the morning we can enter the stand-by line for ToT and only have a 10-minute wait. Life is good!
Jon models his balding man solar deflector
Quite possibly our favorite ride...
Definitely Plankton's favorite ride
We lucked out again and ended up in the front row! Yes indeedie, life is good. And of course we had to buy the picture...again. Jon looks like he wishes he'd gone shopping with Grimace...one of those small boys in the front row opposite us looks like he's catatonic and the other one looks terrified (poor little guy) ... and all I can say is I hope that naughty old guy in the back row is having fun.
I leave you here for now, and as a reward for making it through this rather rough installment I offer you this:
Absolutely Impeared Martini
3 ounces Absolut Pear Vodka
3/4 ounce DeKuyper Melon Liqueur
3 ounces pineapple juice
1 thin slice green Anjou pear (are Anjou pears any color other than green?)
Fill cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Add vodka & melon liqueur. Next add pineapple juice. Shake vigorously until mixture becomes cloudy (or until you just feel like stopping - we don't have x-ray vision and can't see through our stainless steel shaker). Strain into a sugar-rimmed martini glass and garnish with a slice of pear.
Makes one pear-ey good drink.
Oh Brenda, where are you?? 
I guess I'll read it next.
