The Sillys Journey into the Heart of Dorkness (new 12/15 - p. 23 criminy crackerswog)

[Mr. Silly]

Mr. Silli!!!!!

First off. I LOVE your new avatar.

Butt.

It kinda sorta looks like your hiney. Smilin' at me. Your hiney. With a hat. And a wart.

Just sayin'.

You know, I hadn't seen the icon in that particular light hitherto, but now that you mention it, it does have some alternate interpretations. Kind of like the sentence "I do not want to be with the Grand Gathering," which could be read several ways.

 

[HaleyB]

I DO have comments to add, though. First this:
Sadly, I know this oh, too well. Only mine is slightly younger. Can you tll me at what age this behaviour first presented itself?

By the time he was four we knew something was up. He taught himself to read at some point, I first realized that he was not just memorizing books when he was four and read one to me that we had never seen before. By the time he was eight he could out logic me. However I can still make fun of his taste in music, so it is all good.

And this:

A strange (to some, though really a more typical to us) conversation started.
Me: (noticing H. who is lacto-intolerant chugging milk) Did you have your lactase?
H: No.
Me: This is among the worst places to have gastrointestinal ballistics.
H: Among, what's worse?
Me: It would be more dreadful if you were alone in the desert, with no TP, had diarrhea, no trees, no leaves, and you are like seriously blasting chunks with some force so they are spattering...
H. Changing subjects
Me: so you can't wipe, all you have to wipe with is sand.
H: Blech
Max: Blech
S: Blech
Me: Hey, now that I have a notebook, I was able to record that conversation that we would have otherwise all forgot.
Haley: Now that's a proud moment.
Sophie: Hey it's a short line

Made me spew all over my desk. Luckily, it wasn't milk. Blech. I don't drink raw ANY milk.

Great start, Mr. Silli and Hayley!

Thanks I almost never do raw milk, but every now and then I need to remind myself why.

 

[Mr. Silly]

Trip Report Continuation of day 2

Haley's Addenda
Friendly warning, if you have not ridden Everest yet and wish for that experience not to be revealed to you, don't read this chapter. So what I am saying is this; Everest spoiler ahead.

You can all be thankful that my recall of this day is minimal, and I didn't take much by way of notes, otherwise this would be much longer... Okay. Fine. I admit it. I am a verbosity recidivist. At least I am avoiding sesquipedalians. I hear they have a bad sting.

We get on the bus. Sophia is in full bus surfing glory. Last time we were here in '05, Max and Sophie had a bit of competitive bus surfing going. They would see who could stand the longest without grabbing a rail, see who could stand on one leg longest (usually about .5 seconds), etc. This time Sophia is still full adoration of all things bus, but Max has mellowed. He sat somewhere, I think near H. and I. Also Sophia is insistent that every time we get on the bus we must go to the back of the bus if at all possible, since that is the best bus surfing area, so back we go.

We get to AK. The Pop bus stop is a ways off. We start walking in. H. has a masterful plan. Instead of going to the front gate the way all the plebs do, we shall go the secret course. We will go the secret way where we go into that evil Rainforest Cafe restaurant, and then go from there through their entrance into the park. You'll note that I called Rainforest cafe evil. That is because they are evil. The company that runs them also runs Joe's Crab Shack which I also think is evil. They have an OK gimmick, but criminy that place is loud. I am cursed to have overly sensitive ears, so I don't like loud noises. You know how according to top pop-psychological scientific studies, we all have an inner child. I am slightly different in this respect. Instead I have an inner cranky old person. You could say I have an "old soul," if you prefer the advanced New-Agey psychological analysis of the human psyche. I'd say a cranky old person's soul would be more accurate. So basically I am a cranky old 90 year old in a thirty-something's body. So I don't like noise, don't approve of the music kids are listening to these days, and if anyone complains about being cold, I will insist they put on a sweater. And I use weird slang. And get a perverse glee from mangling slang in front of my college age kid. And criticizing the music he likes. Especially Reggae. I stunned him a while back by explaining that Reggae is little more than an Island Polka. After he recovered, his only response was, "no it isn't," which was pretty much admitting a loss since he is smarter than me and would have had to have come up with something to top what I had said to win.

Haley's Addenda
I like to play this game too. Later on this trip I asked him to define what kind of music he liked. He said "Indy(ie?) Music" and I pretended to think he meant music from India. I tried not to embarrass him as a teenager, too much, but a parent has to have their fun too.

Back to the Rainforest Cafe. I am betting that Rainforest Cafe is not aiming at the " cranky old 90 year old in a thirty-something's body" demographic. One of my other complaints (there are too many to list here - having an inner cranky old person, I like to complain), is that the place is way expensive. Like most people with a inner cranky old person (and like the ones with inner children too), I am cursed to not have unlimited income, so they present a clear and present danger to my wallet.

Haley's Addenda
Really they are not that bad, until the kids start adding in the glow cubes and flashing glasses. And the huge slurpee in the souvenir cup with the little plastic toy animal at the bottom, which was not the right one so we have to stop by the gift store and buy more small plastic animals...

But they are empty and apparently not even seating people, so it is quiet. At first. And we have time to burn. So I meander around and look at stuff along with the rest. My inner cranky old person is grouching that it is all gimmicky crap. To really explain what was occurring at this point, a brief digression regarding the tripartite division of the soul needs to be gone over, a distinction first found in Plato's Republic, and revived in various forms in the history of thought.

Starting with the philosopher Plato, we have three basic parts of the soul that are distinguished. These parts can either work together or squabble like they are on Jerry Springer. The parts are the appetites, the spirited part of the soul (the cranky, competitive, aggressive bit), and the intellect (nous in Greek - intellect is an imperfect translation really). Each has its virtue - moderation for the appetites, courage for the spirited part of the soul, and wisdom for the intellect. If each part is working for itself, it can become corrupt, but when working for the greater good of the whole and they all get along and you have justice. These virtues, moderation, courage, wisdom, and justice are often called the four cardinal virtues, and I bother the kids about them later, so I figured I would just get that out there now. And Plato, if you are looking up from the first level of the Inferno with the other Virtuous Pagans, sorry for butchering things a bit. This is a Dis trip report, so a full 300 page monograph is just not going to fly. BTW, in case you haven't read it before, if your kids ever have to write a paper on Plato's Republic, now you can casually drop a few general ideas and make it look like you are erudite.

In Freud we have a very similar threefold division of the soul, the id (appetites) , the ego (the spirited part/crank), and the super-ego (intellect). This division was nothing new in Freud, but he did shuffle things around a bit, since Plato wanted the intellect in charge, and Freud was an ego guy. If you ever write that in a paper on Freud, you'll probably get an F, by the way, since I am generalizing fiercely so we can make it through to the gate of the park.

Finally, if you look to the philosopher Nietzche, you'll see that he was a serious Mr. Crankypants type of guy, and in his Apollonian and Dionysian elements you might see something similar. Nietzche also really hated Plato a lot and grouched about him in his writing. So now you can drop some philosopher gossip and really impress the kids. I don't like Nietzche, I mostly bring him up since I like to talk about Apollo and Dionysos sometimes, and he's the guy who pointed out some interesting relationships between the two in an early paper, "The Birth of Tragedy."

Haley's Addenda
I am so glad he stopped using big words.

Well, anywho, these parts of the soul were having a bit of a fight as they sometimes do. The inner crank/ego/spirited part of the soul is insistent on criticizing merchandising. The Apolllonian/Nous part is saying, "look we are about to go into Disneyworld, isn't that awesome? You should be happy." The appetites are saying "hey, we skipped breakfast!" The other two ignore the appetites. Ultimately Apollo, god of light and intellect, wins over. This time. I root for him, so it's always a good thing when he wins over Dionysos or Crankpants.

Then our dear sweet wonderful daughter, she who I adore more than any other little girl ever, has to use the restroom (that's a washroom for any Canadian readers). H. is annoyed at our sweet wonderful daughter. Also they don't know where the lavatory is. I find it, and guide them. Max also has to pee, and I take every opportunity I can to keep the bladder a little flatter.

Haley's Addenda
I already told Mr Silly this part. I was annoyed with Sophia because 5 minutes prior I had asked her if she needed to go. I might have even begged her to go while we had the spare time. She insisted that she did not need to go. She was sure she didn't. Then about 4 minutes before the park opens she decides she has to go. We woke up at some ungodly hour because I have never, I mean the kids have never seen the opening ceremony at Animal Kingdom. And I heard it was cute.

So Max and I take care of our business, and then hang out by the bathroom waiting for H. and S. to come out, since girls always take an aeon to get out of the bathroom. Max asks about this, and I explain that things are more complex but go into few details. We wait some more. The animal noises start blaring. My notes say, "frickin animals are loud (NOF)." We give up on waiting. We wander about. In the eating area is a pool. It has an Art-Deco statue in a pool in the middle of the jungle stuff. Art-Deco? What the heck? I point to Max that the stylization of the statue is totally inappropriate. He doesn't seem to care. Kids these days... But it bothers me. I am sensitive to matters of design. Art-Deco + Jungle = clash of civilizations. In my notebook, I wrote "WRONGNESS." That's how sensitive I am. Also you can see my inner old cranky person is emerging again. But, really, Disney is so much better in their theming.

We wandered over to where the fish aquarium columns are. We have an aquarium, and I like fish, so I stare at this for a while. I discover something very troubling. The fish's faces are melting. There is some disease in the tank. Very troubling indeed. That is so, so, so totally, totally, totally not Disney. Happily I see something shiny or there is some other distraction so I wander away before I wind up brooding on all the implications that I might have found in those sick fish. I also discover that H. and S. actually beat us out of the bathroom. Inconceivable!

Haley's Addenda
Sophia and I had long been done with the loo by this time. We were admiring the fish tanks that bridge over your head (coolness) and wondering where the boys had disappeared to. We concluded that they must have made a late break for the bathroom and worried that they were standing outside the Girl's room door waiting for us, so we went to fish them out. We ran into them on the other side of the over the head tank. It was about time for the gate to open so I moved them along to the back door.

We go by the back doors we are going to go through that are supposed to open at some time H. knows. It gets to be that time. They are still not open. H. is concerned. Then they open them. We burst through and hurry to the gate. The guy at the gate explains that we are early, and he can let us in pretty soon but not just yet. I think his name was Jim(?). He seemed like a Jim(?) anyway. I liked Jim(?). He was a nice old guy. We look at his pins. We talk about pins. We ask him about what it is like working in DW. He only works a few days of the week, and really likes it. He can get into most of the parks for free. It sounds like a cool deal. If it were not for the fact that when I am old I plan to live in an apartment in San Francisco (more on that later), I would do whatever it took to move to Orlando to do this kind of thing when physically I am as old as my inner crank is. He lets us in a little early because Jim(?) was a really cool guy.

The plan is for me to run ahead, grab a FastPass, then meet up and we can all jump in standby after they catch up. Two cast members with a long rope stretched between them prevent people from running or even walking quickly. Including us. The plan adapts to new circumstances. Because we are flexible. I am flexible enough that I could probably jump the rope, or even limbo under it, but that would probably be a VLM (Visit Limiting Move). So I didn't. But as I go along, I am wishing we could just go past the rope and walk a little more quickly, since while they are walking they are looking back so they are not really jamming along at a good clip, but are really leisurely strolling. We finally make it there. There is some hesitation. Sophia is not sure if she wants to ride the frightening new roller coaster. The very idea of Sophie being freaked by this ride has not even entered my mind up to this point. But then I recall she doesn't like Space Mountain. Or Rockin' Rollercoaster.

Haley's Addenda
Yet her very favorite ride is Big Thunder mountain, she is inscrutable. I had thought of this, and I did know what the ride was like. Mr Silly does not always pay attention when I talk at him, it seems.

We get the FPs, and persuade her to at least go in the line with us and we can do the child-exchange thing if needed. As we walk up to the ride, Sophie explains to me that the only roller coasters she doesn't like are the ones that are in the dark or go backwards. No problem, surely this new roller coaster wouldn't be like that, right? Right? Sure. No problem at all. The line is moving really quickly since it just opened, which is kind of disappointing since I wanted to look at the theming more. Yes, that's right, I was disappointed because I did not get to spend more time in the line. But in my defense, Disney is so good with that sort of thing, and I really am interested in the Buddhist art and architecture of Tibet, Mongolia, and Nepal (more on that later).

Haley's Addenda
We did slow down a little once or twice because I have photos. We noticed the skat display. I knew to look for it because (say it with me) I am a Dis addict.

Here is an image of some of the theming stuff I did not have enough time to look at:

We get to the front. Sophia rides next to me. We go on the ride, and it is all cool, nice little cruise into the mountains in the cart thing... Then I discover the horrible truth. This ride goes backwards. And then we drop into the dark. Internally I said some words that I can't repeat here while we shot around. I was preparing to apologize profusely for putting her through that and do what I could to calm things down as we rode, so I didn't really focus on the whole ride. But it was great from what I recall besides the drama that was unfolding. But it was pretty crazy. The track got torn up, and the cart went backwards. Then it plunged into darkness. And proceeded to do crazy backwards in the dark stuff for a good while. And then there was a Gorilla!

The ride ends. We get off the ride. Sophia is all smiles. She liked it. It was fun. Whew. I am reminded of a story I won't tell you that involves frogs and eggplants.

Haley's Addenda
He sad Gorilla! Tee hee hee.

There is one primate behavior that for some reason always comes up whenever we see any primate. Greater Ape, Lesser Ape, Monkeys of the New World or Old. It's always the same. Poop flinging. Thus we got off the ride, and were all relieved that the Gorilla did not fling poop at us.

So then we go to, what is in the view of my inner crankypants, one of the weaker parts of any disney theme park I have seen, the DinoLand section. The kids like it there, and there are a few rides the kids like that I dread, but we must do them. The Apollonian element of the soul begins its counseling. Come along Old Bean, be a good chap, by Jove, stiff upper lip, and all that. My inner life is always like this, by the way, in case you were wondering.

So we get on the bone-rattling Primeval Whirl which is named in my notes the "back-breaker." Max and Sophie like it, in part because H. and I hate it. So we did it to humor the young ones. But it was not actually pleasant for H. & I. Having ones neck snapped around and having each vertebra violently separated and then smashed together is just bad for us. But we did get a pin trade done with a CM, and got a Prince Philip, which was good.

Then we went on a ride that I am not sure what the real name is, but which was called in my notes "Dumboceratops." It was fun. I rode with Sophia again, who insisted on operating all controls despite my being a more experienced and well trained dinosaur pilot, and despite the fact that she already had one easy to reach control, and had to lean over the seat and reach way over to get to my control. Here I am hiding for some reason:

Max liked Dumboceratops:

We walked through the garden thingie towards Dinosaur, and got a photo with the big dino.:

Here are Max and I picking its nose:

We got in the line for Dinosaur. I hate to digress. Really. I always feel a twinge of guilt about it when a digression starts. But here we need to go on another digression. An important one for our story, since it will explain why I said I wanted to live in San Francisco when I get old above. In Disneyland, they have what is among the best Disney rides ever, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Now I still hold Pirates and the Haunted Mansion at the apex, but Indiana Jones is really in the top five. Yes, the movie was the suck. I agree. But the ride is really great. The theming is excellent.

The thing about the theming is that I really like Asian art, and Indian art in particular. We have a lot of smaller less expensive pieces of Asian art around the house, and if I had an unlimited income, there would be larger more expensive ones. The periods of Indian art that I am especially a fan of are the Gandhara and Hoysala periods. That last sentence had three periods. I love Gandharan art since it shows a very clear and direct Greek influence, while I love art of the Hoysala period because it is something like an Indian Rococo. I could easily go into a fifteen page term paper on these two styles, and include lots of really great illustrations discussing each very distinct but fascinating style and their histories, but I will stop here. With just one added comment. I used to live in San Francisco, and I used to go to the De Young Asian Art museum on free days with my friends. I have always hoped that one day when I am old I will live in S.F. and can volunteer to be a docent there. To be able to walk along all that great stuff, and tell people all the great little stories about each piece, point out the Greek influence on various Buddhist works, discuss the things that distinguish the pieces, and discuss their meaning. I would be in paradise. The docents that were there were not really that interesting by the way, but I am sure I would be a kick-*** docent. If there was one, I would probably get the special docent of the week parking spot, though that would be a waste since I would be in San Francisco and would be using public transit.

Haley's Addenda
There are other most wonderful and awesome aspects to that great city, not the least of which is their weather. I like me a cold foggy summer. You may think I am being a smart alec here, but I am most sincere. I like San Francisco summers.

Anyhow they did a really great job on Indiana Jones, and used a lot of very authentic theming (as well as some throwing in very goofy stuff). And then they copied the jeeps and a few of the ideas to made the Dinosaur ride. Sadly Knotts Berry Farm in So. Cal. had a Dinosaur ride first, and it almost looked like Disney cribbed some of the scenery and models from that ride at Knotts. I always think of it when we ride this ride. The theming is okay, and I should like it more since, hey, I am a fossil collector. Max had a long Dinosaur period, so we read lots of book on them. They are really interesting. I even got to the point where I was distinguishing between bird-hip vs. lizard-hip, and knew the distinctions in the different periods. But the ride is a bit weak. As we waited in line I asked if the kids wanted to go see "Velociraptors on Ice" afterwards. Needless to say we did get Dr. Seeker his Iguanodon, even though he was a bit of a manipulative and dishonest person, and I was not entirely happy I was helping him in the end. The integration with the Carnotaour as a display piece and prominent Dino. in the ride is good. But since Jurassic Park, where the general public learned about what scary beasts the Velociraptors would be if they were around with humans, I wish they added more of them in a more interesting way.

Haley's Addenda
I agree with all that,I have even gone so far as to speculate that the track is exactly the same in Dino. I always think "this is the spider room" at a certain point on Dino. That will make sense to you if you have ever been on Indiana Jones in Disneyland.

At least the Carnotaur still scares Max & S., so that's good:

We bailed on DinoLand after that and ran for Tuskers since the kids were hungry. On the way, we went by the bird show area and there was a lady with a beautiful Owl out in the barker stand area. She was showing off the Owl. We had to stand there for a while and check it out. It was such a beautiful bird. We talked to the lady about it for a bit also. We were steadily recovering from the trauma of Dinoland, and feeling that were were in fact in the Second Happiest Place on Earth.

We left the Owl behind to go to Tuskers. As we walked, H. said, "hey look, it's Divine." Immediately I though of the overweight cross-dressing actor who had that name, and who my friends all thought was very funny as a teenager, but who I though was not funny. This thought might have occurred to me because of the cross-dressing Mickey of the night before. But I did not see anyone who looked like an overweight cross-dresser. Then after a while I spotted the person dressed in the plant suit, who I later discovered had a name actually spelled something like "Da Vine." We beheld the plant person for a while, then headed off.

Haley's Addenda
We stuck around and tried to catch her surprising someone but there was this one really lame lady who kept pointing to her and ruining it. Lame.

At Tuskers, Max got an eggs and potatoes and sausage plate, the rest of us got pastries from the kitchen service counter that were really good (but not Max safe). I got the Cherry Turnover which was really good. H. and S. got Cinnamon rolls which were also good. Sophie and I got hot chocolate which was okay, and H. got a Cappuccino. After adding some honey the hot chocolate was better. After we got to the table we discovered on the receipt that they had overcharged us, as there were two Cappuccinos, so H. was determined to go to Pop-central and fight to get that back. While eating time is always central to the little dramas of life, somehow this time things were not too interesting other than Max ate very slowly, which was to set a theme that would plague us for the rest of the trip.

The thing about Animal Kingdom is that it is really a great park. Once you are out of the really weak DinoLand, the rest of the park is just awesome. We walked around almost giddy once we escaped the Dino-Waste-Of-Time. After eating, we did the Kilimanjaro Safari. Here is one place where Disney World clearly kicks Disneyland's butt. We got aboard the tram, and hashed out the sitting order - kids on outside grownups on inside. We went through and beheld all the great things to behold, and just sort of were entranced by the Antelope and Gazelles, and Watusi, and Giraffes. We heard the ranger arguing with that one lady (whose name I forgot) about what to call Thompson's Gazelles - "They're Tommies! Tommies!" He's so passionate. The giraffes are very cool:

We actually saw the Cheetahs on this run, which was remarkable. We only saw them once before:

You might notice that there are no visible Cheetahs in the photo. If you look really hard and squint and stare at the tree-line to the left and add a bit of pixie-dust you can sort of make out a Cheetah. Or you can consider it a photo of what we usually see in that area - no Cheetahs. Here's another image of no Cheetahs along with Sophie's hairline:

contd...

 

[Mr. Silly]

Then the little poaching drama unfolded. It seems that despite having ridden this ride something like twenty times, we never have gotten our two week trip yet. The driver asked us if we wanted to chase down the poachers who kidnapped Little Red. That ranger was oddly proud of coming up with the name Little Red, by the way. The driver asked if we wanted to help track down the poacher. In a sudden flash of realization that this might actually not be a great idea, I called out, "but wait, they have guns!" I was ignored. This was to set a precedent.

Haley's Addenda
Actually the precedent of ignoring him may have been set a long time ago. Possibly.

We got off the ride, and went into Pangani (pronounced Paganini by us) Trail. We always love this trail and walk along it at a leisurely pace to enjoy all the great stuff there is to see. This is the sort of thing that you can pretend is educational for the kids, so pulling them out of school was really on behalf of their education. No, really. Also it can be fun to talk to the CMs. I managed to get a very confused look when I asked a CM to tell me about Fish Psychology.

We checked out the wonderful Meerkat display, and the CM explained about how the chubby one on the rock was the lookout:

We talked to the young lady running the mole rat display, Cathleen, for a long time and traded pins. She told us great stories about the questions she got asked. People saw Duiker (little antelope) and were sure they were Otters and wanted to know more about the Otters, and were offended when she explained that they really were not Otters. There was also someone who thought that a young Okapi was a Rhino.

Haley's Addenda
Cathleen also shared stories about questions she got regarding the nakid Mole Rats. Someone asked her if they were baby Hippos.

Then we went and saw the non-Yeti Gorillas. Jokes about poop and flinging were made. Throughout the AK, an oft-repeated phrase was, "look at the size of that poop!" For some reason there was some amazingly powerful laxative effect we projected on many animals on the trail, and the kids delighted in pointing this out. We are very classy.

I am a bird-brain. I have had various pet birds for a long time (though none right now, alas), and I think it would be good to be a bird watcher when I am old and retired. They are such lovely little dinosaur-descendants. Also in the Greco-Roman world birds had a lot of interesting significances that make them fascinating to me on another level. H. likes birds also. So when we got to the bird watching area we felt very fortunate indeed. The birds were all out, and in very visible spots. We walked around and pointed out the various birds to each other quietly. They are such lovely specimens in the display.

Haley's Addenda
Actually I went on a photo safari of sorts. I tried to get a picture of every type of bird in there. I think I did. They had just put food out, so the birds were easy to find (just look for the millet). I also had a grand idea, I was going to take a photo of the bird spotting guide so I could name them all when I got home. It was then that I discovered my first camera problem. I had the wrong memory card in the camera and the other one was left in the room. Better than leaving it at home, but still a bummer. Because of this I was limited to only 68 pictures for that day. A tragedy indeed. Camera issues are a sort of theme for the first part of this trip.

Then we went into the Fish/Cichlid area. I want to start a Cichlid tank one day, since they are really lovely fish. They evolved distinctly from other freshwater fish, so their coloration is much more akin to saltwater fish than freshwater fish. While we were there, there was a Stork standing in a shallow, peering into the water with those wonderful Stork eyes. He spotted a fish, shot his beak in, and grabbed it. Lucky again.

We finally got to the Gorillas:

Look at the size of... those arms:

We finished the trail, and thus began another thing that was to set a precedent. There are many vendor carts set out that are heaped with ice to cool drinks or spray-bottle-fans. I grabbed a few pieces off one. A brief discussion of my shorts is in order here. Seriously. Before we left, my shorts were all a bit loose on me and very worn, so I went and got a few new pairs on sale. One pair in particular seemed especially well suited to Disney World since it had special double cargo pockets. There is a typical pocket with a button, but there is also a separate large side pocket that is totally open on the top. It's perfect for sticking a map in, or using for something where you want to be able to grab it quickly. These were working out well, as I could grab some maps and we could get to them easily, and they were easy to drop the key holder in as well.

So I have a large easy to access side pocket. And I am grabbing ice and showing the kids that if you carry ice in your hands you'll feel cooler. And if you drop ice into the back of other people's shirts they'll feel much cooler. Sophie comes up with the idea of sneakily dropping ice into my shorts side pockets where it takes a while for it to start melting and be properly felt. But then it was very much felt with a damp cold puddle pressing on my leg as I walked. Sweet little Sophie.

We had to get Max some additional food since not only does he eat slowly, but when he doesn't like food he doesn't tell us and just picks at it for an hour. So he was hungry again. I took off to get Kali Rapids FastPasses while they fed him some kind of snack. We were to meet at Flights of Wonder. I jammed over to Kali Rapids. And there were no FastPasses. So then I jammed to the bird show, and met up with them just as they got there. There was the same lady with an Owl out front that we had seen and briefly talked to earlier. She recognized us. She was once again showing the bird and quizzing people watching the Owl, and later opening things up for questions. I love Owls. They are the bird of Athena, patron goddess of Athens. So Owls feature on a lot of Greek art and on Athenian coins. Max and Sophie, being biologically inclined, answered a lot of the questions, and got almost all of them correct. This was all very full of the whole cool Disney vibe that makes you somehow feel good about answering a stranger's questions about Owls.

Haley's Addenda
I was almost embarrassed because we were the owl nerd family. Well, not because of that, but because we were question hogs. We were like that kid who sits in the front of the classroom and answers all the questions in AP Biology. Only whenever we backed off and let someone else answer they got it wrong. Which is why I was that kid in AP Bio. that sat in the front and answered all the questions.

We were so into the owl Q&A session that we stuck around a little bit after they opened the theater up, even. Also I didn't check my TGM best views guide. Mr Silly was shocked that I did not have a very specific plan on where to sit. I do for most shows, 3-d movies, and parades. I will memorize this before our next visit.

You might notice that I have been capitalizing animal names that are not given names, and thus should not be capitalized. This is in honor of my part-German heritage.

Then we headed in. We were about the first people in, and had a choice of seating so we sat quite close to the front in the center. And then we waited. And I told the kids the story of my first dog Scooby, who was a Great Dane that I could ride like a horse. My mom has a photo of me riding him (and not smiling). But Scoob wound up being attacked by small dogs one too many times and he started chomping dogs that snuck into our yard (to try to get to our neighbor's stink dog Brandy that was in heat). And then Scoob ate a puppy that a neighbor brought over to show me. And, well, it's all very sad after that as we had to get rid of him. I also told them about Nigel, the best parakeet we ever had, but who we couldn't keep since we got him while living in Canada not realizing that it's pretty much impossible to transport birds across the border. And Zorro, my Cockatiel when I was a child who over a long period of time wound up becoming a very old, very bitter Crankypants-Cockatiel that used to hiss and screech at Max when Max would crawl after him across the floor. And my first Guinea Pig Squeaky. Who was thus named since he squeaked. I saw that. I named him when I was about five, okay? Squeaky is a good name by five-year-old standards.

The show finally started, so I couldn't bore the kids with stories about my old pets anymore. Or tales of how I used to wear an onion on my belt, since it was the style at the time. And the bird show was full of that whole cool Disney vibe that makes you somehow feel good about watching some birds fly around close to people's heads. After the show we checked out the birds on display, such as this Owl:

Then we did Kilimanjaro Safari II Electric Boogaloo. This time the driver was unintelligible. He was French? Canadian? Not sure. It was a very loud bus since the people behind us had to loudly discuss everything, and then ignore what the driver was saying, so the driver would say, "and to the left you can see some White Rhinos," and the loud people would shout, "hey, see those? What are those? Are they Hippos?" Over and over. So they didn't even hear the bit about how the "White" in White Rhino came from the Dutch term for "wide", referring to their wide mouths. And thus the name the English later chose for the Black Rhino is nonsensical. They missed it all. And we missed a lot of it, though since we have heard it a bunch of times, and since the driver was pretty much unintelligible that was perhaps not such a big deal. There was also a very cute baby trying to sleep in front of us that bounced around a lot. We got everyone coordinated to shout, "wait they have guns!" when they asked if we wanted to hunt the poachers. But still they ignored us. Then when the ride ended I told the mom that she had a really cute baby. This was very out of character for me. I never talk to strangers out of the blue. But the whole cool Disney vibe that makes you somehow feel good about complimenting a stranger's cute baby.

We had to leave early for an ADR, so on leaving we did one last ride of Everest with our FastPasses and then we got the bus back to the Hotel. As we left we got a pic of us near a bridge.

Jeepers Creepers, that wound up being a bit longer that I expected.

 

[AshClan]

Even if you did steal the Dork theme. No, really, we all know we are Dorks. It's just nice that we are beginning to embrace it.

Mr Silly, you are a wonderful writer. I am truly enjoying this report. And I love Haley's interjections, too.

Reading all about the room struggles has made me happy that we didn't attempt to get in the middle of the Grand Gathering at Pop. I think Sher's avoidance would have given me a bit of a complex. By staying waaaayyyy over at the Wilderness Lodge, I never even knew that she doesn't like the rest of us. Until now......

 

[Mr. Silly]

Even if you did steal the Dork theme. No, really, we all know we are Dorks.

I'd like to say that I didn't steal, so much as I was inspired.

 

[Grammyof2]

Alrighty Folks. I had to turn off the TV, turn up the lights, get a sweater and an online dictionary.

1st I thought I was just stupid. Then I looked at the wall holding my degrees, smiled and said to self. REREAD. Ok now I am in the groove.

"Max also has to pee, and I take every opportunity I can to keep the bladder a little flatter." This line had me cracking up as well as the jobs you will hold when you are old.

Mr Silli - please write a book. I need more brain picking in my life. The more I read the better it gets. I am with Lou, this is the best thing I have read on the DIS.

I say this everytime, but I mean it, can I have your kids for the weekend? They are adorable

 

[javamom]

Starting with the philosopher Plato, we have three basic parts of the soul that distinguished. These parts can either work together or squabble like they are on Jerry Springer.

In Freud we have a very similar threefold division of the soul, the id (appetites) , the ego (the spirited part/crank), and the super-ego (intellect). This division was nothing new in Freud, but he did shuffle things around a bit, since Plato wanted the intellect in charge, and Freud was an ego guy. If you ever write that in a paper on Freud, you'll probably get an F, by the way, since I am generalizing fiercely so we can make it through to the gate of the park.

This cracked me up.... DED!

Finally, if you look to the philosopher Nietzche, you'll see that he was a serious Mr. Crankypants type of guy, and in his Apollonian and Dionysian elements you might see something similar. Nietzche also really hated Plato a lot and grouched about him in his writing. So now you can drop some philosopher gossip and really impress the kids. I don't like Nietzche, I mostly bring him up since I like to talk about Apollo and Dionysos sometimes, and he's the guy who pointed out some interesting relationships between the two in an early paper, "The Birth of Tragedy."

Haley's Addenda
I am so glad he stopped using big words.

ROFL!! Gotta love a trip report that finds a way to include a few philosophers...

or as Freud might have psycho-babbled "Sometimes a is just a "

Love it, can't wait to read more.

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

Mr. Silly - Bravo!

I'll really liking this report.

You can learn about Disney and about ancient philosphers!

I totally agree on you regarding the RFC! Say no more!

Haley - I love your addenda's!

I was almost embarrassed because we were the owl nerd family. Well, not because of that, but because we were question hogs.

Hee-hee - I was the question hog on the Key's tour. I think Amytheguide got a little annoyed at me because it was forcing her to deviate from the script!

Thanks!

 

[HaleyB]

12345

 

[jamal]

Niiiiiice, Haley...

 

[HaleyB]

Niiiiiice, Haley...

You saw me playing with that... What are you doing awake at this hour???

 

[lexmelinda]

Mr. Silly and Haley----I'm subbing for later....gotta get ready to go and I'm still working on post #1. About that middle child...I could insert my daughter's name and it would be an exact description of her....the glass is always half empty isn't it? Can't wait to read more about your trip. PS...I think you might be able to get some sponsorship from dictionary.com.

 

[sheridac]

To really explain what was occurring at this point, a brief digression regarding the tripartite division of the soul needs to be gone over, a distinction first found in Plato's Republic, and revived in various forms in the history of thought.

Why, Mr. Silli!!!! You had me at digression!!!!!

 

[lexmelinda]

Well, I starting reading again when I returned home and when I got to AK day, I realized we actually ran into you. We were at the rope right behind you and we talked briefly. In fact isn't that Mr. Silly removing a love bug, or something, from his ear?

 

[HaleyB]

Well, I starting reading again when I returned home and when I got to AK day, I realized we actually ran into you. We were at the rope right behind you and we talked briefly. In fact isn't that Mr. Silly removing a love bug, or something, from his ear?

I remember you! How cool is that. Plus you have the tatoo/rode Everst tons of times guy in your photo!

Mr Silly is trying to block the sound, I bet.
He has seriouse noise issues.

 

[Mr. Silly]

Well, I starting reading again when I returned home and when I got to AK day, I realized we actually ran into you. We were at the rope right behind you and we talked briefly.

Hey wow, yeah. Cue "It's a Small World" theme. I remember H. was talking to you guys for a while about Tour Guide Mike and other Dis-nerdly stuff.

In fact isn't that Mr. Silly removing a love bug, or something, from his ear?

Yep, that's me in my shirt that H. calls the "ugly shirt." I was plugging my ears because the noise was too loud. My inner old man caught in action. You can see the top of Sophie's head too. The dude in front of me had a bunch of Disney tattoos.

 

[Mr. Silly]

Trip Report Section 4 - Wherein a journey to California Grill is made, and no Creme Brulée is enjoyed.

A brief explanatory note on verb tense agreement.

If there are any English majors out there, or others who are generally familiar with writing rules, you might have noted in past reports that my verb tenses were all over the map. We flip and flop around between present and past tense apparently arbitrarily, and with wanton abandon. I might even appear to be a bit conjugating crazy. In case you are wondering whether this is some conscious stylistic assault on conventions, a general confusion on my part, or just a lack of scrutiny and care, whether the variations are some kind of pattern that might reveal some deeper and trickier question, or some other thing, the answer is unfortunately much much more horrific than any of that. In fact, the answer is forty two. But we can't even come close to formulating the correct question to the answer without deep thought. The only thing that we can say for certain is that the abuses will continue, so gentle reader, I will only ask your patience in the matter.

A brief explanatory note on why it's H's fault this is not very funny

A second brief explanatory note should be added in advance. An attentive reader might note that the following report section is not actually very comical. I intentionally made this one dull to give H. the opportunity to add funny notes to set her shining wit off against my non-shining wit. But I forgot to tell her about that part until it was too late. So she instead corrected my various errors, a thing that she enjoys doing even in contexts where she is not adding addenda to trip reports, but just sort of sitting around. And thus she did not pep up my monotonous droning with shining and witty rejoinders.

She even told me after she sent her notes to me that it wasn't very funny, but did nothing to take advantage of that opening, BTW.

A less brief explanatory note in which we drone on about the definition of humor and fill space

Since this section is already lost to dull droning, I figure I can safely throw in a general theory of funniness safely. I have a friend Sam, who outlined a general theory of funniness to me. According to his theory, the four certain funny things are:
1) Fat people
2) Animals dressed as people
3) Animals that talked
4) Men dressed in women's clothing

He also has a theory that any non-dessert food tastes better if you add butter and/or bacon, depending on which is appropriate.

Now that theory seems okay, but I have made a modified list that I think is a bit closer:
1) Animals personified - corollary: any inappropriate personification is usually funny.
2) Males dressed as females
3) References to Ninjas, Pirates, Velociraptors, or Monkeys. Ideally both Pirates and Ninjas can and should be integrated, while mixing Velociraptors and Monkeys is a bit riskier. See Dr. McNinja (which includes Ninjas, Pirates, Velociraptors, and an Ape).
4) Consciously using one of these rules isn't funny. Mr. Silly's paradox - this means that if you don't consciously use these rules, you are following this rule, and are thereby also not funny.
5) Talking about what makes a joke funny isn't funny.
I bring this up since I have run dry on material, and needed some filler. If cross-dressing Ninjas or what have you are to appear somewhere, please rest assured that it came from some inspiration, and not just me following some canned rules. Then reflect on the fact that even if I were not following the rules, since one rule is that one should not follow the rules, the material still will not be funny. The troubling thing abut this is that at this point all humor in the universe should instantly evaporate in a puff of logic by virtue of these principles.

One thing that we can offer that might be comforting to the reader is that when the trip report for our tea at the Grand Floridian, or the report of our lunch at the Crystal Palace comes along, things will perk up.

Haley's Addenda
Here begins the actual next part of this report. If you read all of the above you have been duped by the author into reading yet another aside.

We left AK relatively early to get back to the Pop in time to be able to go swimming for a little while, change, and then get ready and get to the California Grill for dinner. We ride the bus back to the Pop. During the ride I drill the kids on the four attitudes that they should be cultivating. "Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and that other one." "Equanimity." "Yeah, that one." I am a harsh taskmaster.

We get to Pop. We go to the desk and get our new keys to the new room that we should be moved into.

Haley's Addenda
The CM that gives us the key makes sure to point out to me that I am, in fact, in the 70's now. So I should be pleased as punch. I think maybe we got a mark on our permanent record for being PIB about the room change. Good thing I don't give half a carp. In fact, maybe being the squeaky wheel is not such a bad thing after all. Maybe I should be even more demanding in the future.

I thought about, but in the end did not, trying to get YAK moved too. Because I didn't want to be a bad marine. But I am. I left a solider behind. The thing is, I forgot to add her phone number to my cell phone and they were not ok with me doing it for her. Maybe I should have pushed harder. We will never know. I really was looking forward to all of us being near each other. Next time Grammy is in charge.

We go to the new room in the 70s. It looks closer on the map, though it is still a bit out there. The building is definitely closer, but we are on the 2nd floor in the absolute furthest corner of the building from Pop central in 6260. We begin the trek. It's not as bad as what we had, but it's no walk in the park. It's more of a walk on hotel grounds. A long walk on hotel grounds. I am a bit concerned that we might arrive at the room and find that the keys do not work and then have to walk all the way back. Or that the room key might work, but the park ticket functionality or some other piece might fail. In case you can't tell, I work with computers regularly, and I do not trust them. I think I am actually prejudiced against them. I know some are prejudiced against me. In the coming war between men and computers, I look forward to fragging me a few computers. Especially Dells. In this case my worries were ill-founded, since everything does turn out to work properly.

My notes include a few things that I am very puzzled by. The first is the phrase "rad salads" with no context at all. A few blank lines above and below. What does this mean? I still do not know. After that the phrase, "they sent us a thank-you for riding Expedition Everest." I know that something must have amused me such that I chose to write that phrase down. The idea of it is oddly delightful. But for the life of me I have no idea what it really means. Surely they didn't actually send us a thank-you. But whatever the misinterpreted thingie was, it is lost from memory. H. doesn't know either.

Haley's Addenda
I sort of do know. It was one of the print ads they leave in your room, about Everest. I think maybe it was like a faux-post-card. Sophia saw it and thought it was "a thank-you note for riding Everest" and I let her think that, because it was cute, and there was no reason not to. I think maybe the 'rad salads' came from a conversation where you were wondering what made it a "California" grill. It sounds like the sort of thing you would say. More so than the sort of thing I would say.


Once in the room we see our luggage and are relieved. We count the bags. We are one short. We look at the bags, puzzling over which is missing. The suitcases are there. The ukulele is there. Haley's computer bag is there. My computer bag is... missing. MY. COMPUTER. BAG. IS. MISSING!

M Y C O M P U T E R B A G I S M I S S I N G!!!

doubleplusungood.

A brief period of anxiety commences. While I refer to the computer in the bag as "mine," the computer is actually given to me to use by the company I work for, so it is technically not exactly mine. And it has a lot of internal confidential work information on it that I really do not want floating out there. The company I work for has various reasons to be a bit paranoid about confidential information leaks, and so while I have the machine set up as password protected, I am still a bit concerned. There are people who would pay a lot more for the information on that system than for the new relatively expensive high end MacBook Pro itself.

So that's not good. Though I recall that the one word that the kids were having trouble recalling was "equanimity." Hmm, is there some deeper significance there? We (all three of me) cool down, and breathe slowly and deeply for a while. Then I call the front desk and explain the situation to them. They transfer me to the luggage service people. I talk to them. After a bit too long, they eventually determine that the bag is in their safe. They will be sending it over.

Haley's Addenda
Apparently it was my computer bag that threw them. They probably thought they had already gotten the computer out of the safe... like no one else brings two computers with them on vacation???


H. and the kids get ready and go to the pool. I will meet them once I get the precious delivered to the room. I play "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" on the Uke., as this is a piece I have been working on. I play "Brother Can You Spare a Dime." I noodle. I briefly read my book, but waiting for the person to arrive with my bag has made me restless, so I am not in a good book reading mood. And I don't have too much iPod charge left, so I want to save that for the plane trip back. I unpack some suitcases, then go back to the Uke. and noodle some more. After ten minutes, I decide that if another ten minutes pass with no bag, then I will call again. Eventually I call. Their gopher person still hasn't returned and is kind of busy. Dude. I thought I was in Orlando, not California. Geh. I ask them to hold the bag for me, and I will pick it up myself.

A brief note on crocs.

I got a pair of the crocodile shoes a few weeks before we left. They are supposed to be really comfortable. I was supposed to wear them for a while to break them in. So I did try to wear them when I could, and they do get broken in to some degree (note the verb tenses here - I am adventuresome with the language). The little pokey things are not so pokey and so on. But they rub my feet in a few spots that are a bit iffy feeling. So I decided to wear them that morning, but wear them with socks to keep me from getting blistered. And also they look great with my ensemble - Disneyland ball cap, Aloha shirt, cargo shorts, blue crocs - the white socks just finish it off. This is a fashion statement saying, "rad salads." Or something.

As I start the long walk over to the luggage I notice that my feet are hurting. This is something that I have noticed off and on. I pass by the pool and tell H. et al. that I am just manually collecting the bag. I then walk to the luggage place and get the bag. They don't ask for ID or anything when I collect my bag. What if I was a bad guy trying to get this bag? Sheesh. Whatever the case, I am happy to have the precious again. As I walk back, my feet begin to complain louder. I get back to the room and investigate. There is a very irritated red spot on the upper inside of each foot, but the boat shoes don't touch there, so it's all good. I decide that the crocs are crocodiles that attack innocent feet. I will switch to better shoes.

The higher intellectual part of my soul would like to apologize for that last outburst of complaining by my inner crank. We will do what we can in the future to attempt to subdue his kvetching.

Pushing forward

H. et al. show up and we are to get ready. I am rather annoyed at the clothing restrictions on dining in the CA Grill. It's named "California," for goodness sake. That is the state of casual. As far as I am concerned, they should be like the U.C. Santa Cruz campus, and be clothing optional, rather than requiring a collar,and pants that are not jeans. We put on nicer clothing and try to keep the kids going. The kids have the California vibe going. They are slow and flaky when not directly attended to, so we keep getting delayed.

Since there is no bus to the Contemporary and we are close to the ADR time, we take a taxi, which is a thing I am not pleased by due to my inner Crankypants' peculiar attitudes about money. If you can get a bus for free, or pay for a cab, the cab seems troubling. But we must take the cab due to time constraints.

Haley's Addenda
I think Mr Silly was confused that I was not freaking out about the time. I am not at all a type "A" person and very little rocks my boat. But I do not like being late. I do not like the feeling of being rushed, at all. So my relative lack of concern about the closeness of our ADR time confused him. Until, while walking down the long 'hall' to the stairs (actually elevator, I forgot, I was wearing inappropriate footwear. Cute, heeled, strappy, inappropriate footwear, tfi) and he asked me how we were going to get there. Sophia is concerned also, or just curious maybe. I tell them not to worry, Momma has a plan. They pester me to find out what top secret trick I am going to pull out of my hat this time. I think Silly was disappointed I didn't know some super secret back way. Plus his internal crank is also cheap. So is mine. But I had already decided that flying in instead of driving had associated costs, and cab fare was one of them.

Max and Sophia were excited. A cab is a somewhat new(ish) thing for them. Actually this might have been their first cab ride since they were babies. I think it was.



Mr Silly's Addenda to Haley's Addenda
I can confirm that I was confused by her behavior, though not necessarily for the reasons she assumed.


We get to the Contemporary, and take the elevator to the secret greeting area. From there we get an escort in a special separate elevator to the restaurant. I though this was a restaurant, not a high security military research facility. Dude, like, this is not Californianess, y'know? All the same, I was sort of wishing they did retina scans on us.

We get seated. They do the thing where there is paper on the table that you can draw on, and the waitress writes her name on the table. We get some crayons, so we are all drawing on the table or playing games with each other. We get out menus. Holy Moly! It's a good thing that we are on the dining plan, since otherwise we would all be splitting one appetizer and still going over budget.

Since Max has allergies they will get the chef to come out to discuss what we can do for him. He comes out and we work something out that Max will eat - Halibut. It is Macamadamia Halibut, but they will skip the nuts, and put the sauce on the side. They bring out some sauce for us to try though. It's pretty good. I have some with the bread. The bread was really good.

Haley's Addenda
In fact the sauce was so good we both ordered the Halibut. Which I kinda sort of regret. It was very good, but I should have gone with my original choice- King Salmon.


The place is very loud. My inner Crankypants is trying to compensate for the noise. My inner Apollo tries to shoot him down with his bow and arrow, but Crankypants is fast tonight. My appetites are happy. Perhaps a better term for the appetites would be my inner Homer Simpson. Alas, nothing on the menu looks really good for the main course, but the cheese flatbread thing sounds good, and I order the Halibut thing. H. orders the Halibut too. Sophie gets a pizza. We get smoothies to drink, except for poor Max. Max loves smoothies, but these smoothies have yoghurt in them and they can't make them without it. Sigh.

I am pretty much a vegetarian, but I eat fish. I feel a twinge of guilt when I eat fish. This is not so much because of the vegetarian thing, but to explain why, a brief biographical background might be helpful. When I was a child, I grew up in a house on the water with a dock off the back yard. My father bought a series of progressively larger boats. He loved three things most of all:

* fishing
* fixing boats
* drinking beer on boats with his friends while fishing

I must have disturbed him deeply since I did not like fishing - I was sure it would hurt the fish. I also got sea-sick fairly often. I was not a boat fan. Since my dad went out fishing fairly often, we often had fish for dinner, which was traumatic to me since I really did not like fish, but I was forced to eat it. As I got older my friends from school would want to go out on our smaller boat and fish. I would go along with them, but would sing protest songs, "all we are saying is give fish a chance," or chant slogans like "fish are friends, not food."

Now I have an aquarium, (set up as a heavily planted tank with Amazon species) and my fish are my little wet friends. Anyway, I tried to eat fish while at Disney World, since I wanted to keep my protein intake up. But I felt slightly badly about it. I also really do not like any fishy flavor, so I try to to get the blandest fish I can find, so I figured Halibut would be the thing.

Our waitress was very attentive at first, and despite the noise I generally like things at first. We get our appetizers. The cheese flatbread is good. I share some with Sophie. Max got sushi, which is something he has really wanted to try for a long while. He really likes the sushi. He hates spices, so I borrow his pickled ginger, and have progressively larger samples of wasabi wrapped in ginger.

Our food comes, and this is the last we will see of our waitress for hours. The fish is okay. Not great, but not bad. The sauce is not great. We eat our food and then sit around waiting for our waitress, drawing on the table some more. She eventually shows up and we order our desserts. My original plan was to get a Creme Brulée at every meal. But their Creme Brulée was fig flavored. That sounds gross. I am flexible, so I decide to just skip the Creme Brulée. I get a banana thing. H. gets a blueberry thing. Sophie gets a rice crispie treat sushi thing.

The banana thing is not bad. It's not really great, but it's passable. The blueberry thing is okay too. Max gets a really amazing sorbet - after having some of his the appetites spark dessert envy. The Apollonian element of the soul begins its counseling. "Come along Old Bean, be a good chap, by Jove. Bananas are still good. Stiff upper lip, and all that rot."

I took very few notes of this bit, and as far as I can recall, we eat dessert, and it is close to time for the show.

Haley's Addenda
It is the short term memory thing. We watched wishes first, and I asked the waitress to hold our desserts till we got back. Which she was happy to do, or at least she made a good show of being happy to do this. Did Silly mention that the place was freezing yet? It was. Cold. Really really really cold. And I was not dressed for cold, neither was Sophia. We both had short skirts and bare legs. We were freezing. So going outside to view Wishes sounded great. I thought that it must be warmer out there. Wrong. It was windy and freezing out there. So we had to huddle together, which was kinda nice. Wishes from the roof is neat, but I think I prefer other views. The view from the beach at the Poly has the decided advantage of not having sound (sorry, blasphemy I know, but the music is a bit over the top for my taste. A little too much mood.) And watching them from in front of the Castle has the advantage of proximity. Being up close is nice.



Mr Silly's Addenda to Haley's Addenda
I blame the meds.


We meander out to the balcony thing and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks show from the roof area. They pipe in the sound for the show. DisneyLand has revamped their firework show, and their new show is mind-bogglingly fantastically excellent. The old Wishes/Dreams/whatever show they are still doing here is weaksauce. I sneer down at the firework show with the haughty disdain that only those with some French blood can manage. Feh. I did write a note that I should learn "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" on the Ukulele/Guitar.

Haley's Addenda
That part of the music I do like. In fact I love that song. And I agree and have said many times that if you like fireworks, you must get yourself to California to see what they have going on in Disneyland since last year. Awesome.


Once the show is over we plan to take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom and then catch a bus to the Pop from there. But the monorail is closed. They tell us we have take a bus to Downtown Disney, and catch a ride to the Pop. Dude. That is the suck. After grumbling about this with others in the same boat we work out a plan with some other Pop-people (Poppers?) to share a cab.

Haley's Addenda
It was a rare moment for me. I approached a total stranger, struck up a conversation, and convinced them to split a cab with us. I am not normally outgoing enough to be the one to start a conversation with total strangers. I love to talk to people but mostly they have to speak first. But these poor people had a sleeping toddler in a stroller, a double bus ride would have been no fun for them at all. I also knew that we could have walked over to the buses at MK. It is really not more than a 5 minute walk. But, I had inappropriate footwear on. So I did not mention this option.


Mr. Crankypants says, "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." Luckily while the thought pops in, the filter stops it from being spoken.

 

[sheridac]

FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BBL with commentary.

Back.

The ukulele is there.

This reminds me!!!! Why did you never play for us as we gathered near Hippy Dippy hearth each eve???

Back in a sec....

Back!!

Geh.

Eh???

The kids have the California vibe going. They are slow and flaky when not directly attended to

Hmmm. I am not from California????

Our food comes, and this is the last we will see of our waitress for hours.

You should have asked for Kevin. Trust Sher!!!!!

I love to talk to people but mostly they have to speak first.

Ha!!!!!! I wondered why I always talked first!!! Well. Not really. I mean, it's ME we're talking about. Here.

 

[Mr. Silly]

To the folks who have posted that I have not responded to, hi, thanks for posting, and I appreciate all the kind stuff said. I have been battening down the hatches and getting these things written out so I have been less good about being a responder.

Mr. Silly - Bravo!
I totally agree on you regarding the RFC! Say no more!

Dang! I had another four pages written up on that topic.

Also Grammy, thanks for the kind words about our wee ones. We got very lucky.

On a separate note, I had to cut some corners to get us all the way through day one in the most recent post above, but happily that is done. A full day of Dis-description can wind up taking a surprisingly large number of words. Even for someone like me who is typically taciturn.

Next week is busy and there is camping on the weekend so the Sillys might be too busy to do another update for a while. Also H. mentioned rumblings of the large numbers of posts to all the new TRs all over the board being overwhelming to some, so I will do what I can to help underwhelm.