The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[Sjm9911]

Oops, my bad. I didn't see your post before I posted mine

All good , its true. No one wants to here it. Lol.

 

[Sjm9911]

God Bless You, Spencer. You fought the good fight.

For the Fall 2023, I only have one camping trip planned at Gulf State Park for early November. GSP has 500 camsites and once we get to Nov 1, they only leave 50 or so for short term (less than 14 nights) to book as they use the other 450 for snowbirds to book at a monthly rate. Lots of our posters have been to GSP. Fall and spring are my preferred times (April and October) but I am extending to November this year. I'll cook the shrimp and snapper for you.

Between Now and Fall I have several plans. If you are want an Early Fall break, come down my way and join us for an Alabama football game.

But I've been in your shoes and left when it wasn't all my time of choosing.

You and your family are in my prayers.

ED

PS - as far as I know, we will be in the Pittsburgh, PA area for a week in June 2023 as FYI. Thats as close as I will be up your way in the foreseeable future. Maybe we can chat ...

Maybe a road trip will be in order for this year. Who knows. Pittsburgh is a ways a way also. But you never know. Good thing is I have been planning for this since working, bad thing is I have no idea what I am planning for!

 

[4077]

Maybe a crossing of Disney and fire at Dolly’s place….I dunno… perhaps a stretch..

 

[Sj disney]

Good luck sjm9911 hope you enjoy retirement. I’m hoping to retire in a 11 years but no matter how much we plan sometimes life throws you a curveball

 

[Sjm9911]

Good luck sjm9911 hope you enjoy retirement. I’m hoping to retire in a 11 years but no matter how much we plan sometimes life throws you a curveball

I was also. Lol. Oh well. It is what it is.

 

[jbrostek]

I was also. Lol. Oh well. It is what it is.

Well retiring from a career with the city just means you can find something else to occupy your time with for the next decade.

Lots of good work here over the last few weeks. Of course we first got all the lovely decorations up outside over thanksgiving weekend. I did have to fix Minnie this year and replace her fan and lights after she stopped inflating. A very simple process actually so I was glad for that. DW convinced me we needed some lights on teh characters, I bought the 4 light kit on amazon, much brigher then I expected actually. But it works so we are happy.



Last year I found this little item and added it to our driveway decore.



And the house looks awesome!!!



We redid the runway down the driveway which oddly enough has helped amazon and ups back up after dark


And I found these cute light covers since we stopped doing the red and green lights as it made the garage area too dark. I think I forgot to loosen a few lights in the front door lamps, it has 3x 40w equivilent LED and its a bit bright when that many run and kind of washes out the colors around it. But the snow man covers look great.



So now we have this holiday cheer to come and see every time we pull up to the house.

 

[jbrostek]

On the project front, the refinishing work has been delayed too long and I started working on it, however, the DW asked me to go through all our boxes in the dinning room first which was nice. We are down to only a few boxes of her grandmothers China left and pictures to put up on what will be our Disney memories wall. On the heels of that work we decided after 3 years of being on the Honey-Do list I would finally fix the frames and install working blinds on the front windows.

It was a one day project, but I patched up all the holes, replainted the trim and by end fo the day hung the new blinds in the library and dinning room.



They look great and its nice to be able to adjust how much sunlight and privacy we have from the road. With that work complete I spent about 8 hours over several days sanding the china cabinet top and the dinning room table and legs.





I have one last final sanding done, then clean it up and stain. The table originally had a black painted rim which I am gong to redo before it gets its coats of poly. Now that the garage can hold some heat it should be done in the next week or so even if the temps drop. Then I move onto the 3 table leafs which should be a quick turn around as they are less intracate. We have the chair set too but that may project for the new year since we have yet to decice on what the seat cushions will be recovered with.

Its funny how a little project like this can get a little delayed yet still as we hit the final streach it feels great. It has been on the list to be done for far too long.

 

[bama_ed]

I like the multi-color lights down both sides of the driveway, @jbrostek . Bama Ed

 

[jbrostek]

I like the multi-color lights down both sides of the driveway, @jbrostek . Bama Ed

My oldest DD came up witha that idea last year, now that shes driving she loves it for guidlines for backing down that long driveway at night. LOL

 

[bama_ed]

This morning I was planning my fall camping trip(s) for next year and just booked a couple days at a Florida state park (St. George Island SP) in the Florida panhandle for early November. Was able to get weekday nights here at the 11-month booking window time (weekends are popular of course and thus harder to get). Also one has to consult the Alabama football schedule for home games before locking in a reservation.

Never been to this coastal campground before but it has the benefit of being within short drives of 3 more Florida lighthouses that we can tour and climb (and get fridge magnets!). The campground is within a quarter mile walk of the beach/gulf. Currently there are 9 magnets on the fridge so this will boost it up to a dozen and also provide us with a little downtime.

After that trip, there will only be a few lighthouses scattered around that I haven't been to yet. The goal is to climb and get a magnet. But some lighthouses can't be climbed, some have a small or no gift shop, some are only open "on-the-second-Saturday-of-the-month-following-a-full-moon-if-a-volunteer-shows-up-to-unlock-the-gate", and some aren't open or accessible at all. There are a few in the Gulf Coast between Tallahassee and Tampa to check out, one accessible one north of Jacksonville, and that will cover most of them. I'll check out the ones I'll miss in the future if the stars align but my bingo board is nearly full.

After leaving the panhandle FL park, I'll head over to my Gulf State Park in LA (Lower Alabama) which has already been booked (Bama parks can book a year out).

So next year's camping plans are filling out nicely.

Bama Ed

 

[garneska]

Been quiet around here. Hopefully people are enjoying some down time and family. I finished my peak week for mara training. 15 miles today and 41 for the week. Things are sore and yes my knee hurts but I feel much better than last year.

the RV is in the shop. We ended up with a list of 15 things to do. It should be ready for our fort trip at the end of January but probably not ready to pick it up anytime soon. I was hoping to get in back to storage before Xmas but I don’t think so. We will be hanging at my mom’s house for Christmas Eve, which is our normal and then driving up to Ohio with whisky on Christmas Day. Traffic should be good, whisky probably not.

 

[Teamubr]

Thanks for the update, Kris. I was wondering how marathon prep was going. A year ago, we were getting ready for 2 weeks at the Fort to see you and Bert after the race.

Glad the knee is better than last year. We are going to miss seeing you again.

We did do a little Disney thing this week. Booked 3 days at Disneyland Paris in June. Staying at Sequoia Lodge, which is very similar to WL. This will be at the end of our Europe trip. Now we just have to get plane tickets. We've never been to DLP so I'm all over the DIS DLP forum getting suggestions/ideas.

j

 

[garneska]

it was 10 years ago we were in DLP. Our favorite rides were Big Thunder Mountain, still a roller coaster but better than WDW. you should do Phantom Manor, it is great. finally at the studios we like the finding Nemo ride.

I was waiting to post after I got through the week, as I did not want to jinx it. I definitely feel a lot better this year than last. Still a bit under trained, would have liked to have peak mileage about 48 miles but it is better to go in undertrained and feeling healthy.

 

[jbrostek]

Last 10 days have been busy. I got the stain down on the furniture on Sunday the 11th, due to the temps and some humidity it took till nearly Wednesday to dry. But that was ok because the week was packed with both DD combined Orchestra on the 13th, Melissa's birthday on the 15th (which she got an unexpected birthday wish of a snow day due to freezing rain.) Friday our youngest had a holiday party at gymnastics and then we left for PA satruday morning for a compressed visit. We would have stayed longer, just had issues with pet sitter availibility.

My family comes to our place to visit tomorrow and after that it slows down with Christmas eve being our big day with the kids as they leave for their Father's in the afternoon. We did get tickets to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra on the 26th since my BIL and SIL are both playing the shows. Think things will be a low hum from there, I am fortunate I have two 4 day weekends in a row from work and also taking tomorrow and our anniversary off so I can focus on whats important.

 

[jbrostek]

Merry Christmas Eve to all! I wish you all the best and hope your day is filled with love and joy.



We been enjoying the slower end of the week. Yesterday was just movie watching, wrapping gifts to give, and working on a puzzle Jessica got. It is the hardest one yet, 500 piece 2 million dollar puzzle, no picutre to go by and it's a QR code. Pretty sure this is even harder then one of the 4k piece bags that make up the big puzzle.

Tonight is our big dinner with the girls and more holiday classic movies. On queue so far is Polar Express, the original animated Grinch, and after dinner A Christmas Story (which is a Christmas Eve traddition for both Melissa and I since kids.) Christmas morning will be gifts and breakfast before the girls head off to see their father for the week.

 

[garneska]

It was a long, cold drive. The roads in Ohio were not great but traffic was light. Whisky hated the car but loved the snow.





It should melt on Wednesday. She likes the cold though.

 

[jbrostek]

Survived the super cold weather, had a great holiday and on the heels of our anniversary. Last night we got to see family play with TSO and had spectacular seats to see them and the entire show.



It was so much fun being so close to the stage and we contstantly had musicians right at that platform tossing pics and even one counting out the pyrotechnics so we could get better pictures. My BIL and SIL where both in the local orchestra accompaniment. Back furthest right on Viola second chair was Chris, front furthest left was Kate on 2nd violin, first chair.



It was great they could catch up with us after the show before they had dinner and prepared for the last show fo the tour at 7:30pm.




Tomorrow is our anniversary, and for the first time since our wedding we are going out for a nice meal. Looking forward to that.

 

[Teamubr]

Looks like a great time, James. TSO is always a good show. And Happy Anniversary!

j

 

[friendofeeyore]

jbrostek, Wishing you & DW a very happy anniversary. Ours was also on the 28th, would had been 59 yrs. Polar Express is my all time favorite movie. Happy New Year!!

 

[jbrostek]

Our anniversary outing was awesome. First time we been out since our wedding. We spent the afternoon at Blue Valley Vinyards, the first place we ever spoke of marriage. This place has majestic views of the area and good wine, and I hear they are a harvest host. For anyone driving through this area, worth looking up.



After a wonderful afternoon of snacks and wine, we went on to dinner at Claire's at the Depot in Warrenton. We got there a little early and took a walk around downtown Warrenton and checked out some shops. Ended up buying two books at a local book store, then went back for our dinner reservations.

Claire's lived up to the reviews and the food was amazing. It was on the otp 100 romatic dinner locations in VA, and we agreed. The food was superb and they even sent us some champagn on the house to wish us a happy anniversary.



I can share the food pictures if people really want it.

The rest of our weekend was quiet, while we had an invite for new years. We decided to pass since we did not have someone to care for the pups and the thought of a 30+mile drive home on new years early morning neither of us wanted to make. So we celebrated at home with Hallmark Movies until the 10 mintues before the countdown on TV, then back to our movie.

The remainder of our weekend was taking advantage of the 60F weather with dog walks and taking down decorations. We are no longer in magical christmas mode, we will just have to wait for next year to deck the halls and light up the block.

Hope everyone else had a safe and happy new year!