12/09/06 Cruise Continued ~ Pirating Bananas DIS Geekorama Part 2 Part 2

[brack]

We're just outside of Charleston, WV and I'm posting at 75mph!

 

[MrsMork]

Good morning. We slept in this morning. I will make breakfast then we will need to get the MH ready for the drive home. My mom and I have enjoyed the past few days, poor Dennis had to work but had nice evenings. We had a campfire last night. But I did not bring any marshmallows, so no S'mores.

 

[Bella2000]

We're just outside of Charleston, WV and I'm posting at 75mph!

Were you the one driving AND posting?

 

[Bella2000]

Wow, our kids don't have school dances until they are in 7th grade. Even when Alex went to the magnet school for the gifted program and it was 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders, the 5th and 6th graders were not permitted to come to the dances.

I'm trying to remember if when I was William's age we did the boy/girl thing and I honestly think we were still in that stage where we thought the opposite sex all had cooties. I just think kids are growing up way too fast. Whatever happened to Cooties???

Whatever happened to Cooties??? LOL!!! John1's response also made me howl.

 

[Bella2000]

Lisa hugs to Mike and family. that is such a difficult situation.

 

[Bella2000]

Pj are you feeling better? The woman who watches Bella has had thyroid fluctuation this past week and a half as well. She has been exhausted.

 

[Bella2000]

Angie I finally saw the movie RV and I had rented it previously but had not seen it so every story you mention makes me think of it. It just cracked me up. I didn't expect to like it but I've been so stressed that it was the perfect watch. I was crying at one point when Robin Williams walked towards the "hoses" with sandwich bags on his hands. DH does that when he is cooking chicken. I had to keep rewinding and watching him walk into the frame. DH came over and saw the screen and said "Very funny" which of course made me howl and replay it again.

those oatmeal cookies would have been perfect if you substituted chocolate for the fruit. Love chocolate oatmeal cookies.

 

[pjpoohbear]

Pj are you feeling better? The woman who watches Bella has had thyroid fluctuation this past week and a half as well. She has been exhausted.

Feeling better, thanks!

 

[Bella2000]

I'm thinking about getting a new bed. One of the low ones. I don't know what they are called - low post. When we moved here 10 years ago that was on the list. Five years later I got a dresser I loved and decided to wait a year for the matching bed - of course by then the furniture maker outsourced their local business and the bed bacame waitlisted. when the new pieces came in the wood and craftmanship was so poor the store stopped carrying it. So here we are in 2007...

DH still uses the dresser he "spent alot of moneyon" in the 80s. Its ugly ugly. We have no headboard/baseboard - I'm tired of this space and junk everywhere... It took 7 years to get rid of the marroon courderoy couch with white dots (another 80s I spent a lot of money...) I finally went out and chose a new couch and loveseat. So at least our living room reflects partly us. The bedroom - gag that is another story.

 

[elaineteresa]

Elaine, all I know is that last September it was working at 60% capacity...which is why they didn't remove the one at 40% at the time.

My father had a kidney removed when he was 50. When he was in his 80's his remainiing kidney was operating at about 25% but it stayed that way for several years.

Down with salt!!!

 

[elaineteresa]

I need some Disneyland advice. We are leaving on saturday - thinking of strolling around Downtown Disney on sat nite when we arrive - I want to take Jaea to Sephora - she will flip. I'm sure it will be very crowded.

Is it worth it to make a dinner reservation when we have limited time or just eat on the fly?

Is Goofy's Kitchen like Chef Mickey's? Why is there only one dinner character meal? Any kid friendly restaurants at the Grand Calif. or DTD? I would like a restaurant with some special theming if we don't do the character meal.

We have Sun and Monday morning to spend at Disneyland before heading back to San Diego. I was thinking we would skip Calif. Adventure and just do Disneyland. I am really interested in seeing the difference between the rides at WDW and DL. I think because of the Sunday crowds it is not worth it to buy park hoppers. On Monday morning we will run through and do our faves or things we missed.

We are staying off property so we won't have early admission.

thanks in advance.

 

[MrsMork]

I need some Disneyland advice. We are leaving on saturday - thinking of strolling around Downtown Disney on sat nite when we arrive - I want to take Jaea to Sephora - she will flip. I'm sure it will be very crowded.

Is it worth it to make a dinner reservation when we have limited time or just eat on the fly?

Is Goofy's Kitchen like Chef Mickey's? Why is there only one dinner character meal? Any kid friendly restaurants at the Grand Calif. or DTD? I would like a restaurant with some special theming if we don't do the character meal.

We have Sun and Monday morning to spend at Disneyland before heading back to San Diego. I was thinking we would skip Calif. Adventure and just do Disneyland. I am really interested in seeing the difference between the rides at WDW and DL. I think because of the Sunday crowds it is not worth it to buy park hoppers. On Monday morning we will run through and do our faves or things we missed.

We are staying off property so we won't have early admission.

thanks in advance.

We love Storytellers in Grand Californian. We have not done the character breakfast there - yet - but have had lunch and dinner there and it is very good. We will be having character breakfast there with Kim, Steve and Savannah May 20! We have not done Chef Mickey so can't give you a comparison, but Goofy's Kitchen is just ok. With so little time, I would not spend it there though. There is a Princess character meal at Ariel's Grotto in CA Adventure. We have eaten there prior to it being princess - had Minnie and lots of characters back then and was REALLY fun. The food is good and you order off a menu, not buffet.

DL is very much like Magic Kingdom but more compact. We like it better, but WDW we like better as a whole. It is hard to compare the whole of WDW with DL. They are very different. Also, if your kids like thrill rides I would do the hopper and go to CA Aventure for California Screamin', Tower of Terror, Mulholland Madness, Grizzly River Rapids and Soarin'. The two parks are literally steps apart so it is very easy to hop over to CA Adventure in the afternoon when DL gets crowded, then back to DL for closing. No half hour ride on a bus to get from park to park in CA.

I would eat on the fly since you only have a day and a half. The Mexican restaurant near Big Thunder Mountain has huge meals - great value. I often order the childs meal for myself and it is plenty, or share an adult meal with Dennis.

 

[brack]

Were you the one driving AND posting?

I can multitask with the best of them but even that is beyound me!

Annette is the designated driver.

 

[lbgraves]

One . . .

The suspense is killing me!!! Did John1 get the pirate or not?!?!?

 

[lbgraves]

Well, I have been recooperating from DS being home Tuesday & Wednesday. Thursday I ran errands & visited with a friend who needed a shoulder to cry on. Friday was the school dance...so decorating etc all day. Friday night was chat and Saturday & this afternoon I was training for the online transcription job that I am hoping to get. Now I need to wait for the review of the jobs I submitted so that I can correct them. The templates were the tough call since none of them were exactly what was specified in the dictation. OY!

This week I will be contacting the top two schools on my list to find out what they can offer DS. DH said no to HSing...which I really didn't want to do but felt that it was the best option to get DS ahead a year to where he can do the work. Now I will see what the schools can do for him. I am SO against buying uniforms for public schools that I am going to drive 15 minutes from here to look at one school that doesn't have them.

 

[lbgraves]

John & Amy...this is the big news story here today. It is across the street from where Jungle Golf use to be. That is just a dirt lot now.

http://www.witntv.com/

 

[elaineteresa]

thanks for the advice Angie.

I thought Storytellers looked fun too - Passporter recommends it.

I remember you were planning a trip to DL but I was pretty sure it was later in the month. Hope you all have a great time.

We are mostly going to take Giona to Legoland. Ken has a meeting in San Diego and we are working around that.

 

[elaineteresa]

This week I will be contacting the top two schools on my list to find out what they can offer DS. DH said no to HSing...which I really didn't want to do but felt that it was the best option to get DS ahead a year to where he can do the work. Now I will see what the schools can do for him. I am SO against buying uniforms for public schools that I am going to drive 15 minutes from here to look at one school that doesn't have them.

Good Luck with your search Lisa. It is so sad that the school cannot meet his needs. I am beginning to see that schooling will be sort of like having a job. There will be some moving around when the expectations are no longer being fulfilled. By 4th grade, our schools are allowed to put 30 kids in the classroom. We have 13 now in K. I hear 4th becomes a very tough year because of this.

I just had to ask Jaea's teacher if she could kick it up a notch with the homework or I wasn't going to ask her to do it. She has a full time assistant in the classroom; someone can come up with a homework sheet that is a little more challenging than "Circle the W's in the wagons". It's May and they are still making their way through the alphabet letters.

Jaea told her father this weekend that she hates school. I know she is bored at this point. Alas!!

 

[87Heel]

It's amazing how things differ from district to district. Here the K kids are reading by the end of the year (at different levels, but all of them are getting somewhere on that). Some start the year already reading, but even those who barely know their letters at the start of the year are reading and writing small bits by the end of the year.

 

[87Heel]

Elizabeth got to experience the fun of allergy testing today... Turns out she's allergic to most grasses and tree pollens, two kinds of dust mites, cats, dogs, and guinea pigs. The reactions on her back were huge (the scratch test). But at least she has no food issues. It does explain the wheezing during field hockey and lacrosse games (hmmm... let's run around in all of these grasses that are driving you crazy!)
Now she gets to deal with medication every day... until we find out more about immunotherapy.