The Return of the Wizard and the Cheerful Dwarf (Jan 2010--NEW photos!)

[mickeystoontown]

Hey girl! I've finally caught up. You know the whole family medical drama that's been going on the last few weeks so I know you forgive me.

Congrats on losing inches! You will be in your "Disney" clothes before you know it.

I like those sandals. Really cute! I usually bring sandals on our trip and then never wear them. I know I probably look a fool wearing my Nike tennis shoes everyday but my feet don't hurt at the end of the day.

 

[Elevationist]

Welcome to the new folks and thanks for reading! I wanted to respond to each post individually but it seems I fail at using the multi-quote function. I'll have to play with it later on when I'm not about to have to dash out the door to work!

I know nothing of this multi-quoting that you speak of. I am just a master of cut-n-paste.

 

[Wrexie]

I'm in!

I'll be at the DIS the same time you will! We go the 2nd to the 10th, and I agree - HS is not at the top of our priority, but my parents are going with us this time and they need to go just to do it once.

Thanks for dropping by! I'm going to go check out your pre-trip report. Let's hope for fabulous weather in January!

 

[Wrexie]

Hey girl! I've finally caught up. You know the whole family medical drama that's been going on the last few weeks so I know you forgive me.

Congrats on losing inches! You will be in your "Disney" clothes before you know it.

I like those sandals. Really cute! I usually bring sandals on our trip and then never wear them. I know I probably look a fool wearing my Nike tennis shoes everyday but my feet don't hurt at the end of the day.

I hope the drama has settled down -- going to read all my subscribed threads after I post here.

I think tennis shoes look fine! My main objection is I am just not a sock wearer and usually have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the cool fall days when it's too cold for sandals. Having comfortable feet is the most important thing! Feet hurt=no fun, happy feet=fun!

 

[Wrexie]

My Baggallini around-town bag came today, and it's a little smaller than I had guessed even though I measured a similar-sized bag of mine and mentally calculated the difference. But I think actually it will work great. It's got two pockets on the ends, and these will hold my iPhone in one and camera in the other. The main compartment isn't huge, but it's wide enough I think I can stuff my floppy hat or a light sweater or shawl in there. My roll-up rain jacket will definitely not fit but I'll only break that out on a day that seriously looks like rain. It comes in its own little bag with a clip, though, so if need be, I can clip it to the outside of the bag and just look dorky. Later on I'm going to pack it up with all my stuff for the park and just get a sense of how it feels to carry around.

I've been drowning in a sea of papers to grade for a college class I'm teaching this year, but Fall Break is this Thursday and Friday, so DH and I actually have two whole days off together! This is not usual for us, since I work weekends. We're spending one night in a B&B by the Ohio River and hopefully enjoying some fall leaves, though the forecast says rain. At any rate, a change of scenery will do us good.

 

[Elevationist]

I think tennis shoes look fine! My main objection is I am just not a sock wearer and usually have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the cool fall days when it's too cold for sandals. Having comfortable feet is the most important thing! Feet hurt=no fun, happy feet=fun!

Agreed and agreed! My objections to sneakers are the same, but ultimately comfort is priority.

This will be my first year to finally abandon the tennis shoes in favor of much preferred sandals. For me, there's few things worse than getting off of Splash Mountain or Kali River Rapids with soaked-through socks and sneakers, and then squish-squish-squishing around the park for the rest of the day.

 

[Wrexie]

2 months and a couple of weeks to go! It seems like forever.

I carried my new Baggallini cross-body bag on an overnight trip to southern Indiana last week, and it worked very well. With my iPhone in the pocket on one side and my camera in the other, I can access either of them easily without having to dig for them. We toured a cave and I took my camera out frequently for photos, so I know it's convenient for that. There's also a zipper compartment on the back that is perfect for sunglasses. I wish the main compartment was a little roomier, but I think I'll just have to deal because if I got a much bigger bag, it wouldn't be as practical to carry cross-body and would stick out too far or drag on my shoulder too much. If I get tired of wearing a sweater, I can tie it around my waist instead of stuffing it into the bag like I used to with my Ameribag Healthy Back bag, and I can use the attached small bag and card slots as a wallet so I won't have to carry my regular wallet, freeing up some space for a sun hat and/or rain poncho.

Of course, being the obsessive planner that I am, I'm already thinking about what clothes to bring on the trip. Since I'm hoping to be 5-10 pounds lighter by then, I have to be somewhat flexible, but I'm thinking a pair of jeans, long black pants, black cropped pants, black knee length skirt, black short skort, and maybe a pair of quick-dry cargo capris can get me through whatever the weather may be. I'll bring my new black sandals and hope for sandal weather, and also my Crocs mary janes and Keen sneaker-type shoes for if my knees act up and I really need some support. Then a few tops, a couple of lightweight sweaters or jackets, and I should be good to go.

I'm meeting with a tattoo artist next month to plan a tattoo--a first for me though I've been considering it for a couple of years! I decided that would be my reward for losing 10% of my starting weight when I joined Weight Watchers. Well, I'm two pounds from that goal! I've got two possible designs in mind and need to decide. It will be on my upper back, so I'm definitely going to be in the market for some halter or tank tops to show it off while at WDW!

Seems like I was thinking of a couple of questions for folks about Disney-related stuff for when I next got around to posting (it's been a busy week), but now that I'm actually posting I can't think of a single one! Oh well, I'm sure they will come back to me later on.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

What kind of tat are you getting?

 

[Wrexie]

What kind of tat are you getting?

Either a crescent moon filled with little geometric triangles or a blue heron. The blue heron would be much more complicated and I don't want to get anything too large, but it's my absolute favorite bird and I want to check into options.

My stepdaughter has several tattoos so I'll probably be asking her for advice too!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Oh, I can't wait to see what you get!

 

[Wrexie]

Oh, I can't wait to see what you get!

Same here! I'll have to post some pics once I get it and it is all healed up.

Here is a picture of me and DH on our short fall break trip, outside Squire Boone Caverns in southern Indiana:

I'm carrying my new Baggallini giraffe print bag I got especially for WDW!

 

[Elevationist]

Here is a picture of me and DH on our short fall break trip, outside Squire Boone Caverns in southern Indiana:

I'm carrying my new Baggallini giraffe print bag I got especially for WDW!

Oh! You two are just the loveliest couple! Thank you for sharing the photo!

And girl, that bag is SHARP! I love it, very very nice!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Great picture, love the bag and I think you look terrific!

 

[Wrexie]

Oh! You two are just the loveliest couple! Thank you for sharing the photo!

And girl, that bag is SHARP! I love it, very very nice!

Thanks! Yeah, I really like the bag so far. Husband's not too bad either. I think I'll keep him.

 

[Wrexie]

Great picture, love the bag and I think you look terrific!

Thanks! It was rainy most of the day but managed to stop right as we were about to go into the cave for the tour, oddly enough!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I've already told you on my thread that I love the picture of you and your hubby but I'll say it again. Again, I'd love to see the pictures you took of the cavern. I really like your bag. From what you said, it sounds like it will work out just find for your Disney trip.

 

[Wrexie]

I've already told you on my thread that I love the picture of you and your hubby but I'll say it again. Again, I'd love to see the pictures you took of the cavern. I really like your bag. From what you said, it sounds like it will work out just find for your Disney trip.

Thanks! Actually I haven't even looked at the cave pictures to see how they turned out--I hope I got some good ones but I never seem to get my camera set right for caves. There was a waterfall going right through the cave which was really cool!

I'm drowning under a sea of papers to grade but hoping to get caught up before the weekend so I can get out and enjoy some fall leaves.

Here's a link to a photo I'm planning to take to the tattoo artist to see if something based on this might work for a tattoo, but only if it could be done without being too huge. I need something I can cover up if need be if I'm performing!

http://www.maxwaugh.com/arb05/heron4.html

 

[Wrexie]

I just ordered something online that I think will be perfect for the trip:

I'd seen these in a catalog but they only had them in black or white, so I googled "Chilly Jilly" (the name of the company) and found their web site. They offer several more colors: http://www.chillyjilly.com/

When traveling in warm weather, I tend to get cold in air conditioning, or in those "in between" temperatures. I have a grey sweater-knit shawl about the same size as those pashmina wraps that I sometimes tie around the strap of my purse so I've got something to wrap up in if I need it. I don't think this wrap will be very warm and is certainly not big enough to cover my arms, but if I need that extra little something, it certainly appears to pack small and will go easily into my purse. If I'm wearing halter or tank tops for outdoor temperatures, I often get cold once I go inside. I ordered charcoal grey, which should go with everything. I've got enough stuff in black already. Though I like the idea of off-white, between having two cats and having seriously hard water, I can't keep anything white looking good. Besides, I'm likely to spill something on myself or lean against a dirty railing or something!

The wrap in grey is backordered until December, so I don't get to try it out anytime soon, but it should hopefully arrive before the January trip. Now I gotta stop spending money on stuff for me and think about Christmas presents!

 

[Wrexie]

I thought I'd add a note about what we're celebrating during this trip. On January 3, 1995, I did something a little crazy. Keep in mind that this was back in the "dark ages" of the internet before chat rooms and online dating services. I'd been online buddies through a couple of text-based virtual environments with a man called "Siegfried" since late July of 1994. We had a bit of a soap opera virtual romance and ended up "building" a virtual house together (all text based, of course). I thought, for various reasons, some I won't go into here, that we'd just be virtual friends and that would be the end of it.

You didn't just go and meet in-person with someone you met on the internet! However hard we tried to "be ourselves," everyone in the virtual world was, to some extent, playing a character. We only showed our good sides. A virtual romance can have a lot of attraction because you never see the "warts." There are never dirty dishes in the sink or arguments about whose turn it is to take out the trash. Because the person on the other end of the connection is simply a collection of words, you may be filling in the blanks about what they are really like, and coming up with an idealized version.

But at some point we each realized that when we had a good day, or a bad day, or special news to share, the person we wanted to talk to most was that virtual "figment of the imagination" typing at a computer far away. I had a dream in which a caterpillar and tadpole fell in love, but could not enter each others' environments. Then, they turned into a butterfly and a frog. When I told "Siegfried" about this dream, we decided we had to meet.

To make a very long story short, we talked on the phone, exchanged photos, and planned to meet in England on "neutral ground" where we both had our own hotels and own business to attend to, so if things didn't work out, it wouldn't be a wasted trip for either of us. Well, I never used my own hotel.

I still remember walking down a dark street in Oxford toward a man I'd only known online and giving him a big hug. After that trip, we took several vacations together and finally, in summer of 1995, I moved to his city. In summer of 1996, we got married.

So that's the short version of the 15-year anniversary celebrated by a couple of "nut-cases" who met on the internet!

In other news, as of yesterday I can now wear my "skinny jeans" I wore to Disney in 2004!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

I love your story of romance! I think the internet can be a great place to meet people and in the right circumstances meet! How wonderful that you found love that way!

Congrats on the skinny jeans! I need to get on your bandwagon! I think I'm spending too much time on the DIS and perhaps need to spend more on the treadmill......