Clowns themselves don't bother me much, (Hi Pennywise), but one thing I still can't stand are dolls. Especially ones that talk to you. I still have nightmares about "My name is Tina, and I don't like you"
ok I just had to reply to this. Nebo if that scene from the Twilight Zone gets ya stay away from the Twilight Zone pinball machine!! Its a easy hit & her voice just repeats that saying over & over. I swear my kids do that shot repeatedly just to see me cringe.
Kayte, I never saw that game, and now I"m going to have to look for it. Yeah, Telly Savalas never had a chance against that evil Tina.
Before we get started here, first a message from your sponsers.
We recently went to the movies a few times in the last couple weeks. Saw Star Trek, ( thumbs up), Drag me to Hell, (thumbs sideways), and Up, (thumbs sideways). Yeah, Diane liked Up more than I did. We also saw a lot of previews, and one seemed really strange.
It's a violent movie apparently about an internal medicine specialist turned crime fighter.
I think the name of it is G.I. Joe.
Wonder what they'll call the sequel; Lower G.I. Joe?
By the way, one of Smidgy's new housecleaning customers recently went away on vacation, Florida, of course.
She wanted to know if Smidgy wanted to earn a few extra bucks and take care of watering all the flowers and some new sod that was just laid down. Their house is on about an acre lot, with flowers EVERYWHERE. Of course Diane said yes.
Then she volunteered me.
So that's what I've been doing for the last week. Just what I always wanted to grow up to be in life, an illegal immigrant. Now I'm forgetting how to speak English.
And, by the way part two; remember the "Dead Soldiers" line when she was filling in as a bartender? Well, she was just recently asked to work again there, they were having a special buffet spread set up and they needed a bartender while the regular employees worked on the cooking and stuff.
Well I still havent asked her how it went, after the Memorial Day faux pas, I'm afraid to.
I'm sorry, the possibilities for a "foot in mouth" screw up when there is food involved at the VFW are endless!
"Hi, can I get you a Bismarck? How about some Pie Alamo? Or some Luftwaffles with some slice Napomegranates on top? The Submarines and Torpedo sandwiches will be ready shortly."
"Ok, who ordered the flaming Nagasaki"? "I mean the Saganaki?"
See what I mean?
Endless.
Meanwhile;
The story you are about to read is true, only the names have been changed to protect the idiots.
I just may have gotten a bit smarter here; I first went into Photobucket and pulled out the pics I needed and posted them first, now all I have to do is fit the story around them, that way I won't be surprised after 3 hours of working on the chapter only to find it lock up on me. So far, so good.
Monday, Feb. 10th I believe:
Dope drop at Epcot, lunch with the Winkers, pool time, then back to Epcot for Illuminations.
Now, I have a problem. I was planning on giviing the Winkers a nice sized ration of do do, but unfortunately I'm coming up blanks. I can't even think of good sarcasm to hit them with, they were just friendly and nice. Oh well, we'll see what comes out.
We made rope drop, but in my case, that doesn't mean much on this trip anymore. Even if I'm at the front of the line, it doesn't mean I'm going to still be there by the time the charge is over on the way to 'Soarin. (apostrophe trademarked).
It's now been a full day since a whacked my foot, and when I got dressed this morning, well, are you familiar with the name Roy G. Biv? That's a mneumonic for the colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
Those are also the colors that my big toe has adopted, and it is truly killing me. The rest of the foot is also plenty sore, also from the whackage and probably from walking funny to keep the weight off my toe.
Smidgy thinks I talk about the vikes too much in the reports, and she's probably right, but I can't help it, they are a big part of the situation. They also help clarify things sometimes.
Hold it. "Dope drop?" Nice.
Uh uh, that's not happenin.
I'll drop a line, drop a name, drop off a kid or drop you a note,
I'll drop off the mail, drop in anytime and I'll even drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life but I won't drop my precious dope.
And on arriving at the Land pavilion, the first thing I did was find a drinking fountain and drop 3 in my mouth.
Yeah, we started out at the front of the line, but by the time we made it down to the bottom of the Land, about 200 inconsiderate healthy people had passed us. And if these pills are going to make the day tolerable for me, they have to be taken before lunch, they don't do squat on a full stomach.
So, even though there are about 200 folks in front of us now for 'Soarin, (apostrophe trademarked), we got smart!
Diane grabbed two fastpasses, and we went and got on the first boat for Livin with the Land. Hey, you can never look at Mickey shaped pumpkins too many times.
After that we then went and saw the movie in the "Staircase of Death" theatre.
It used to be called the Circle of Life theatre, that is until the last time I was there.
I don't know who designed it, but they were truly sadists. The entire theatre is in between two staircases, VERY difficult staircases to maneuver upon. 3 steps down, two and a half steps forward, then 3 down, then two forward. It truly is an accident for Nebo waiting to happen.
And the edge is always right where the bifocal lines are.
The last time we were here, I had such a hard time feeling my way down, almost fell 3 times, that the woman behind me finally yelled out, "Oh please, sir, just sit anywhere, I can't take it anymore watching you!" Plus, you never know where you are going to come out when you leave. Even though you enter near the top of the pavilion, you can exit near the bottom right by 'Soarin, (apostrophe trademarked), or next to a Mickey pumpkin.
Guess what? After the movie and a restroom stop it was now time to use our fastpasses for you know what. (nope, wasn't gonna search for those damn parenthesis again).
Worked out quite well actually, thank you very much.
We then rode the stupid Imagination ride again to kill some time, then headed over to the Showcase, just taking our time. To be honest, taking our time was about the only speed I had in me today, yeah, T o T was pretty much "Pedal to the Medal" for me.
In China we stopped for a smoke, one of the few dsa's that are still left in Epcot, and Diane shot me.
Then, somewhere else there, I won't be able to tell exactly where untill I see the full size picture after it posts, I shot her right back.
We have a 12:30 appointment at the Biergarten for lunch, we are both looking forward to it cuz we get to meet some people that have been regulars on the trip report circuit since we joined. Funny how you can feel like you are old friends with someone you've know for a few years and never actually met them in person.
Around 12 we just stayed in the area, and started watching some idiot in Italy do his mime/comedian thing. We should have left a little sooner, but he kept asking Diane to throw a ball in a net and she couldn't say no.
At 12:30 we were at the Biergarten podium, probably should have gotten there a little earlier, but we saw no sign of the Winkers clan.
Now, this is easy to do when you have no idea what a Winkers clan looks like.
But we thought we'd be able to figure it out, so we just hung around a bit, then checked in and hung around a bit more.
After about 15 minutes, Diane thought maybe they can tell us at the podium if they are already here.
DOH!
Never ocurred to me.
So I went up and asked it the Winkers Clan had already checked in.
"Is Clan with a "C" or a "K"?"
"A "C", I believe."
"Oh yes, here it is, "Winkers Clan", they were probably seated about 20 minutes ago."
Crap. We asked if we could be put at their table but nooooo, you snooze, you lose. But she did seat us nearby.
Now, the rest of this story, even though the whole thing is written in first person perspective, is now going to be REALLY first person perspective.
Meaning, some of it may not be entirely accurate, but it's from what I could see, which was mostly non-existant.
As we were led to the table, I knew I was dead meat. After being in the sun, I couldn't see a durn thing in there. I was lucky to grab a hold of one of Smidgy's belt loops with my finger and just lugged along behind her. Once seated I let out a big "whew", safe!
There was an older couple sitting acroos from us, and as we were taking off our jackets the woman said how nice it was to share a table with with strangers, what a great way to meet new friends, hear new thoughts, yada, yada, yada.
Great.
We introduced ourselves, and that was about the last time we spoke to this wonderful, friendly, affectionate couple for the rest of the meal.
I think Cherie recognized us and started waving. Diane saw her and told me "There they are" and got up to say hi.
"Aren't you coming?"
"You didn't leave me a belt loop."
I followed her to their table, and we kinda met then.
Kinda for me, all I saw was ghostly apparitions, shadows. Coulda been Moanin Myrtle, the Baron and Nearly Headless Nick for all I could tell.
Without faces, names go in one ear and out the other for me. I think the names I got out of the Winkers Clan at that time were, Cherie, D-Jay, her husband, Evan, Ethan, Bailey, MIL, Doc, Sneezy and James the Younger.
Since Cherie does all the talking and trip report writing, MIL is D-Jay's mom.
And even from reading her report, I think MIL is her real name. Must be short for Millie.
Then it was time for me to have to actually obtain some food, and I was starving! At least the serving table were well lit, I grabbed an a few things to begin with, a bowl of potatoe leek soup was one of them. As I was trying to figure out what exactly is what, a young guy was behind me, talking to me and really being helpful about naming the mystery items and telling me what's good or not.
What I didn't know at the time was that this was someone I had just met but couldn't see, Evan I believe.
Or Nearly Headless Nick. Then I was done and had to find the table again.
And I lost Diane.
"Has anybody seen a belt loop around here?"
Now, how to get this back to the table without spilling with all the stupid stairs and steps they had to incorporate in the interior design.
I made it, again with a sigh of relief and after trying to butter my bread with a dumpling, I gave up and went to work on my soup.
And it didn't work.
Even though I couldn't see it, I could tell by the weight that I wasn't getting anything in my spoon. I'd scoop it up, but it was like it was just falling right off.
No wonder they call it leak soup!
Finally, I felt with my other hand to see if I've got it right side up.
Oh, I did, that wasn't the problem.
Problem was I was using a fork!
After initially ignoring our new table friends to go and say hi to the "Strange people" at the other table, I think it was right about this time that our new "table friends" gave up on us.
Or at least, me, after watching me try to eat soup and butter my bread with a dumpling.
I'm sorry, they made the butter pats in the same shape as little balls, just like the dumplings!
In the meantime, Diane is still waiting to hear from our friends that we rented the points from, to see if there are any other openings, anywhere that we can rent points for, and she actually has her cell phone with her.
One more trip up to the food and back, and our new bestest of table friends tried one more time to get to know us.
Then the Winkers Clan stopped by on there way out.
As we were all talking, I finally could see some of them, that was nice being able to put heads on headless people.
Then Diane's cell phone rang.
Our new bestest of table friends from wherever got up and left.
Smidgy went and took the call, then came back. Now, everyone is kind of talking at once, mostly from behind me, and I just kept on eating.
I heard Diane say how she fell and hurt her hand, and then I heard this:
"OH, and Nebo stubbed his toe."
Huh?
What did I hear?
Stubbed his toe?
STUBBED HIS TOE!!!!?
I was aghast, agape and agog.
Also, astonished, amazed and appalled!
Saying I "just stubbed my toe" was like saying Marie Antoinette had a sore neck!
I felt like taking off my shoe and sock and throwing my foot on the table but thought better of it since it would have probably fallen in the fake butter.
As I was inwardly seething and trying to figure out how to set the record straight, I heard, "Steve?" "Nebo?" "Yoo hoo".
Apparently they were trying to get my attention for some pictures, but I was in my own little world of planning a verbal revenge against my wife.
I only got one picture of them before they left. Meet Cherie and D-Jay:
Either Winkers had told her MIL about my foot trouble before, or she saw the look on my face when Diane said the "stub my toe" line, but Millie asked me how my foot is holding up. I told her not too bad with the help of painkillers.
"Yeah? My whole body hurts after all they have put me through. What'ya got?"
"Vikes".
"Need some?"
"Not yet, I'll let you know."
I told her fine, if it get's too bad give us a call and we can meet by the corn dog stand at the Boardwalk.
See what a great guy I am?
Cherie and D-Jay have a great family, wish we didn't have 2500 miles separating us. Once again, I, we, have met people on the Dis that we are proud to be able to call friends.
By the way, the Biergarten is one of the cheaper sit down meals you can get at DisneyWorld. It is also worth every penny of it. There is entertainment in the form of weird horns and jug blowing and xylophones and children participating down in the middle of the floor, I just didn't have much time to see much of it this time.
Coming up:
Spending quality time with a clown.
). the new slide at CBR is pretty cool, but it's enclosed.. a tube, like the one at the Poly (oops, we never stayed at the Poly.. did I say that?
)
Your grandchildren are adorable, and just imagine what it will be like to see them at Disney with the magic in their eyes
I don't care for snot in a shell either.
... and paid the price 
