Sorry, the puter's been a real witch tonight.
I lost an hour of typing this chapter, then when I was done the second time through, I got "Fatal Error" when I posted it. So now I'm afraid to delete this second post when it appears to have double posted me.
Well, hey, all the cable channels are running the same movies back to back now, why can't I?
I have to tell you something.
Somtimes Smidgy scares me.
No, I'm not talking about her getting revenge or anything
like that, I'm talking about her state of mind.
And what goes on in that mind at times can be pretty scary.
It's like she's shaking the Jiffy Pop over the stove without
turning on the burners.
It started a while ago, when things started going sour on
the upcoming December trip.
First, we couldn't get a Le Cellier ressie.
This was the beginning of her angst.
Then she found out they changed the menu at Mama Melrose,
they no longer had the shrimp pipette she wanted to order.
I even called them on this to find out, at first the girl told me,
"That's right, they now have chicken pipette, instead."
Whatever the heck a pipette is.
But then she told me, "Oh wait, it says here you can substiture
shrimp for the chicken."
Then it was all about her longtime heroine, Susan Lucci
of TB, All my Children.
She was now doing a Candlelight Processional for two nights
when we won't be at Epcot.
That's TV, pretty sure Ol Susie doesn't have tuberculosis.
By now our schedule was set, and when I came down the
mountain with our 6 ressies set in stone there wasn't much
tinkering available anymore.
It would mean drastic changes, and also put us in the MK
on a Christmas Day Parade filming day, not a good idea.
Throw in the fact she was never there for SuperSoaps week to see her Ms. Lucci that has since been discontinued and
she's really disappointed.
But now she just found out that Coral Reef has changed
their menu too, they no longer have Tilapia or the Blackened
Catfish for lunch.
Even I liked the catfish, much to my surprise.
She has always ordered the catfish there.
This time she got on the phone, and this is the part that
scared me.
I was upstairs on the computer in the nook in the hallway,
I could overhear a little, just not enough.
When she was done, she climbed about halfway up and
told me what she found out. Then she tod me they shouldn't be
able to change the menu less than 180 days out.
I just stared at the monitor.
Please tell me I didn't hear that right. Please?
I guess my silence was telling because she then said,
"Well, do you think they should be able to change it when
you're inside of 180 days and all your reservations are now set?"
I had no choice now, I had to answer.
"Diane, it's always 180 days or less for somebody."
A song title comes to mind, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere".
At first she couldn't believe I didn't agree.
"What are you talking about, no it's no,,,,, um, hmm,,,,
OH!"
Now you know what I"m talking about.
This is what scares me.
Sometimes her butter not only slips off her pancakes, it
slides right off the plate, too!
I chalk it up to stress.
_______________________________________________
Back at the Calypso pool, a lot of people were laughing over the way the Hindenburg exploded over Smidgy's head.
This was the kind of "getting wet" that feels good on a
94 degree day, she wasn't mad at all.
Of course she also didn't know I did it on purpose.
We stayed for a while longer, than went back to the room to
change, make some drinks and go wandering the resort.
We didn't want to make this a late night, MK and EMH tomorrow
including rope drop in the morning first to get fastpasses
for nighttime.
And we don't want to eat late.
At this point of the trip I'm scared to eat anything after
last night.
"I think I'll order the Rye Crisp and Zwiebach, with a bit of jelly on them" I told her.
"Ok, but I'd skip the jelly," she responded.
With fuzzy cup drinks in hand, we went wandering.
We haven't been here in almost 3 years, not since "Honey
I Shrunk the Checkbook", and you forget stuff in that time.
Our room is pretty much in the center of the resort so this
time we went the other way.
It was about 5 now, and still blazing hot, we headed into Broadway section.
I have always like the look of this area, it's probably the most
themed. As you walk past the marquee down the "street",
there is a small garden before you reach the parking lot.
In this garden is a hidden DSA, not on any map.
Benches and all, it would be a great smoking or sitting
area if it wasn't for you being able to see the cars in the
lot.
Then after a smoke, we cut across to the Rock Inn section.
But we stopped. There is really nothing to see here, move
along, move along. This area is boring.
Here's something a lot of folks don't realize:
Not all the All Stars are the same in layouts.
Sports and Movies are laid out in an L shape, with the center
food court and main pool right where the legs of the L join.
Football and baseball one way, basketball and tennis the
other, that's Sports. It's pretty much the same at Movies.
But Music? Oh no no.
Music is pretty much laid out like a giant I, it is one Loooong, corridor with the food court and main pool at the
bottom.
I pity those put in the Country Fair section, that is one long hike past a picnic area, two pools and countless strollers all aimed at your shins to get your mug refilled.
I do like the picnic area, but the location isn't worth it.
We'll stickk to asking for Jazz Inn, maybe Broadway.
After walking back to Jazz, we cut across the parking lot into Movies.
We looked again where they put us one time in Dalmations and still can't figure out how they called that
a preferrred room. I think they lied.
And I still am not crazy about the main pool, the Fantasia pool, seems pretty bland to me, not that the Mighty Duck's
pond pool is any better.
But I would stay here in an instant if I came with our grandchildren,
and I would demand they put us in the Toy Story section.
The grandkids would probably like it there, too.
Tha section is cool, Andy's Room.
There's a big door, as if leading into Andy's room, and all
the Toy Story characters inside with a huge Buzz and Woody.
And outside is a smoking area which we now stopped at.
One guy was sitting there by himself, and when we walked
up Smidgy said hello first.
"Parley vous France?"
(I'm our of my league on the spelling here so give me a break)
I know he asked if we spoke French, so I answered in what I thought was a telling manner.
"Oh oui, oui." Hors' d' Euvries, aus jus, ala carte and Viva le France!"
I expected him to laugh, but he nodded his head and then
went off for 5 minutes in Martian speak.
Diane glanced at me, I gave a small shrug and we spent the
next 5 minutes smiling, nodding, and looking astonished
at the proper times.
I think we pulled it off.
He then left, it was all I could do to keep from yelling after
him, "Deutchland uber allus," but I was good.
go ahead Marita, tell me I spelled that wrong too)
We then went back to the room, made one more drink,
then brought our mugs with us down to the food court for
supper.
I can't remember what we had, but I'm pretty sure we ordered the food, and that was it for this night.
The next morning after a hearty breakfast of two aspirin and a couple of Ibuprofen, I found myself standing in front of the train station at Magic Kingdom waiting for the welcom show to start with Smidgy.
Oh, ok, there I go again, dangling the ol participle thingy.
No, she wasn't in the welcome show,, she was,,,, oh, you
know what I mean.
I guess I was darker then I thought I was from the sun because a woman next to me said, "Excuse me, can you show up every morning so I can check my progress on my tan
compared to yours?"
"Sure", I said, "What's your room number?"
Since this woman is standing there with two little kids in tow
with her husband, I thought it was a clever thing to say.
Um, not so much I guess. It kind of just hung there for a second, then divebombed to the ground.
I had to act fast.
"If it's ok with my wife." And I yanked her over a bit.
At least now I got a couple of smiles, uneasy smiles, but
smiles nonetheless.
"Boy, how bout them Cubbies?"
I slowly slinked away.
When the gates opened, we went right back up the stairs inside to the train station again, and once more, at 9:08 we climbed aboard and headed over to Frontierland.
This was a repeat of last week when we were staying at Sports, that wonderful day when I bashed my leg having tacos and then had the run ins with the Brazillians.
Ah, the good old days!
Actually, today is Sunday, the one week anniversary of the day we found out that Smidgy had sabotaged the poor,
unsuspecting battery that had always been so loyal to us,
just wanting a spot on the foot of the bed to sleep.
(she's right, nebo forgives but he never forgets)
ok, time for a smiley here:
We got off the train, she went for Splash fastpasses, I
sauntered over to BTMR. Then we went in.
Or up, I should say. I'm getting tired of climbing this hill
to get on this ride.
We were pretty much by ourselves at this point, but as Diane
headed to the very last car, I stopped her.
"Let's take the one right in front of it," I told her.
Long ago she learned that the best rides are in the back of the'
train, but the one a seat in front of the last row is just as
good.
Sure enough, when the ride was over, there was only a few people in line for the next ride, but a couple was standing
in the very back row line. Nobody was in the line for our row.
We got to ride again without getting up!
Yes, it's the little joys in life that add up to make your day.
Next time around it was now packed when we got back, we headed over to our smoking area and waited till it was time for another fastpass. She went and got them then so we
could ride it again at night.
Without a doubt, there is no ride or attraction in all of Disney
that we have ridden as much as Big Thunder.
For a guy that has never turned away from any roller
coaster, even I have to admit it's still fun.
And she just loves it, it's in her fun range without being
too scary.
She has never tried Expedition Everest, no yeti yet. yet, and I'm not gonna try and talk her into it.
I learned a long time ago not to, when I talked her into a hanging Ferris Wheel type ride at Great America, and , well,
let's just say it didn't go as planned after that.
But I did learn something that day;
That when your partner is barfing and it's all your fault,
there's a good chance that the lines are going to seem a
tad longer for the rest of the day.
A LOT longer.
goodnight for now
I will PM Smidgy ideas and then PM them to Nebo and vice versa. Oops, I guess I shouldn't actually admit to this, right?
. But that may stop Nebo's heart moreso than the lovely lady at the pool wearing her glorious bikini. There's just a certain size and age that no matter what, a bikini is just a no no...and then hula hooping. YEK
I guess Mighty Nebo didn't strike out after all... Took the 0-2 pitch out of the park!!! 
and I like the flexibility.
