This has not been an easy Christmas for me, at least shopping-wise.
For example, on Thursday, the day before Christmas Eve I still haven't performed the task I accepted to do for Smidgy. Go to JC Penny and get a 30 dollar gift card for a grab bag. Thursday morning I went over to Walgreens right by the house and tried there; nope, only have 50 dollar ones, no good so I sucked it up and went to the mall.
At the mall I always go in the same entrance, then walk to wherever I need to go but as I drove in I saw the Carson Pierre Scott sign right in front of me on the building and parked and went in the entrance. I walked up to a counter and purchased a gift card.
Bingo, all done, didn't have to walk through all the shenanigans inside the mall.
At 3 that afternoon, Smidgy came home, I was upstairs at the time. Next thing I hear is, "Why is there a Carson's gift card here instead of Penny's?"
And I thought; hmmm, good question, even I knew it had to be Penny's for this person. I have no idea what I was thinking, I knew better but my brain transposed Penny's into Carson's. Oh joy, now I get to go back again to the mall and now I have to cancel the first card, along with find the Penny's in there and still get the right gift card.
Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy.
This was after the Wednsday screw up.
For my birthday Classic Cinemas sent me a free admission coupon that was going to expire in a couple days. Since Smidgy was off that day we went to see Unstoppable, one of the few movies that I want to see on a big, theatre screen.
But because Little Fockers had to open for some reason ona a Wednsday, Tuesday was the last day for Unstoppable, which we didn't find out until we got there.
Smidgy had the best line when the clerk told us it was gone.
"You mean you stopped Unstoppable?"
Guess I'll just have to wait till it's on Netflix, and sit REALLY close to the tv.
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So, before we left for Downtown Disney we were enjoying a couple of drinks until Smidgy put on the weather channel.
Tomorrow it's supposed to be very nice, and that's IT!
Wednsday thru Friday it's going to be cold, highs barely hitting 60, if that, lows in the thirties. Tomorrow? 83.
We considered using one of our water park tickets we have remaining, but I pointed out that only one water park is open now, and if the weather is turning, it could be real crowded tomorrow. Besides, a "high" of 83 means it's mostly in the 70's most of the day, and that lazy river water and the slides waters aren't nearly as warm as they are in warmer seasons. I don't do cold.
So we nixed the idea. Now, along with the camera, I'm bummed by the weather report, ok, let's see what happens in DD.
On the bus we talked about who we may run into this trip, I just didn't remember when they all checked into Pop.
Randy and Connie don't check in until Wednsday, the Oregonmommy clan could be here now, along with the Mrsksomeday clan, and Tinker Tam. FSmith is over at SSR and 1971bday is at the Poly. These are all folks that posted on this thread so you always wonder if you might run into them, but nothing was set up ahead of time. I'm not an organizer for those type of things, I'm more the "Ok, whatever you say" sort.
Got off the bus at the Marketplace, I believe and one of the first stores we passed was a place that sold batteries.
This was my first goal, see if I can buy just 2 batteries and try the camera out, I still felt that the batteries could possibly be the problem as ridiculous as that sounds.
Nope, all they have are 4 packs for 7.50 plus tax. I walked out.
We went a little ways and didn't see another store that sold them, then Diane did the lawyer thingy on me;
"Steve, you want to know if it's the batteries, right?"
"Correct."
"And you don't want to spend 8 dollars for a 4 pack since it might be a waste?"
"Correct."
"Would you be willing to spend just 5 dollars on a 2 pack?"
"Yes I would."
"So, you value the knowledge at 5 dollars, but not at 8?"
"Um...."
"But, for 3 extra bucks, you could have this knowledge, along with two extra batteries, that would be usefull if the cause, is in fact the batteries, as you are hoping it will be."
"Umm,,,,"
"GO BACK AND BUY THE DAMN BATTERIES!"
"Ok, whatever you say."
In the store I looked at them first, Ray O Vac.
I popped the "new" batteries out of the camera, Heavy Duty. Hmm, wonder where I got these.
Then I looked at the bottom, or negative side of the HD bats, there was a circular groove running through the bottom, the ROV didn't have this, the entire bottom was solid.
I bought them. But part of me realized that I could have done some damage to the camera working on it last night and today, bending contacts, trying to get the sliding cover back in place, oh well, too late to worry about that now.
Outside we found a bench, I popped out the old/new batteries and handed them to Diane. With trembling hands I placed the new/new batteries inside the camera.
I shut the door.
Then I lit up a smoke, just one more for a probably condemmed man.
Smidgy glared at me.
I finished off the rest of my fuzzy cup drink I'd brought with.
Slowly I lifted the camera to my face.
My finger hovered over the power button.
My hands shook.
Smidgy was ready to hurt me by now.
I briefly closed my eyes and pressed the button.
I opened them.
Nothing!
I looked where I had just pressed,
Wrong button!
Whew, one more try.
I pressed the correct button;
The camera sprang to life and I was now seeing the image of a glaring Smidgy staring at me.
She never looked so beautiful!
I turned it off, turned it right back on again, it now worked perfectly!
"It WAS the damn batteries!"
I was then jumping up for joy in delerium, I did the happy dance, I embaressed the heck out of Smidgy, and I didn't care!
Hey, that's what good husbands are for.
She also breathed a huge sigh of relief, "Thank God, I was afraid I was going to have to say, "If the batteries don't fit, then you must quit."
In my mind, I had just bought a new digital camera for 8 bucks! I realize I now have an 8 pack of useless Heavy Duty batteries with six back in the room but I didn't care. And I thought to myself, "Boy, that package of batteries should have said "Batteries not included."
I took her picture.
Then I was running up and down the walkway, taking pictures....
"Mery Christmas
Legoland!"
"Merry Christmas Emporium."
I let her play;
"Merry Christmas Mr. Potatoe Head"
I grbbed it back, "Merry Christmas you old Buzz Lightyear!"
To say I was happy would be a huge understatement, she even talked me into celebrating with a beer from a walk-side trailer. I'm surprised I didn't take a picture of the beer.
And on we went.
Doesn't Smidgy look almost lifelike?
Yeah, I wanted more from Legoland, this stupid shot of me petting the legodog took us ten minutes to get, it shows why cameras in the simpleminded are not a good thing.
Take a good look at the clothes we're wearing, there's not going to be too many more shots of sundresses and shorts and short sleeve shirts from this point on.
On the way to Planet Hollywood for dinner we passed by T-Rex and I wanted to peak inside again. Well, we walked all around inside, even caught a meteor shower.
When we got to Planet Hollywood we were both really hungry. Then we got the disappointing news that we had to eat downstairs, upstairs isn't open.
I like upstairs much better because it's quieter and they actually have lamps and lighting fixtures with more than a 3 and a half watt bulb in them.
Oh well, looks like I'm eating by Braille again.
Smidgy got the BBQ chicken sammich I believe while I stuck with a cheddar burger. She liked hers a lot, mine was good too, just not as good as I remembered it being, maybe the lack of a sight/sense had something to do with that?
We paid up using the 15 dollar voucher, then Diane used the other voucher for the genuine Planet Hollywood "free gift."
Never could figure that one out, I guess sometimes you have to pay for a gift, but this time the gift was "free".
Finally it was time to do what we've been dreading, get over to the Hess station and bring back some beer.
I have been warned not to try this, the road's just too busy and I'll never make it across alive.
I was pictureing another crossing like when we've had to cross 192 in the past, believe me you are surely taking your life in your hands then. However, this was a piece of cake. Boy, I remember limping for my life trying to get across 192 without becoming a hood ornament! I think they should rename that town, Killammee.
There's a stoplight right in front of the Disney bus stops there, and even crossed half way before the light changed, then a short walk to the Hess station.
Inside I bought an 18 pack of Miller Light for 13.99, not cheap but certainly not Disney prices so I was happy and Diane picked up some bottles of pop for either mixes or just for drinking when we don't want to always run to the food court to refill the mug.
Once again crossing was no problem and we got back to the bus stop just as a Pop bus was pulling up.
Back at Pop it was about 8 o'clock now and normally after eating I don't usually want anything else to drink, but today so far I've only had a couple of drinks and really, I was still ecstatic about not having to buy a new camera in DisneyWorld. We both ended up making drinks in the plastic cups they give and went to the smoking section for a while.
Now this was a beautiful night, oh please, why can't it stay like this? Soon, Diane was getting tired so we went back to the room but I wasn't ready yet to let the night go and made one more short drink, grabbed the camera and went up the stairs to see what views I could get for night shots.
(Oh my goodness, I just discovered I don't have to click the "direct link" box on Photobucket, then go up and click the picture icon here and have to delete the first htttp thing that's always there, I just have to click on the image code, the last box and then paste it in here. I never knew I could do that before.)
These pics are down just a bit from our room looking at the Computer Pool.
Finally I went back to the room and called it quits.
Tomorrow is going to be kinda similiar to today, hang by the pool for a while, then get over to the Poly to watch the
MVMCP fireworks.
You're welcome to come with, jsut don't expect me to buy you all Lapu Lapus.
Ok, this is an edit, if you look back at the picture of Smidgy flirting with Buzz you will see a genuine Fuzzy Cup I speaketh of so much.
Hmm, and then the next picture she's holding a beer. Boy, she won't put those drinks down for anything will she? hmmmm
By the way, ignore the dates on the photos, I had no idea all the memory was erased and it took me a few days before I got around to fixing that.
Write on!!
Pictures!! 
. I just caught up on two weeks of posts. We squeezed in a last minute trip to San Diego before Chirstmas. I can relate to your unexpected crummy weather. It poured and poured while we we there and I was totally unprepared with my packing. The temps were much cooler than usual and weather.com didn't prepare me. (NOTHING like you experienced though). 
Nice to see you again Cheryl. We're just the opposite now, I don't think I will risk going back in winter months, I'd rather look forward to getting in the pool then getting back to my room to get under the covers. I do hope you're enjoying your Jersey Blizzard though. 
So glad it was just the batteries
BTW - They now have them in the $1.00 store here for a pack of 12
