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

[cmp1111]

I'm missing your writing...

 

[Mr. Silly]

I'm missing your writing...

Sorry. Got distracted by my Guitar. Did you know it's really really hard to play like Django Reinhardt? It's annoying. He only had full usage of two of his fingers on his left hand, but he still is nearly inimitable. It makes me want to lie on a couch and cry. Anyhow, I've got a partial write-up of the next day going, I just need to add a little more, and then see if I can figure out anything interesting to say.

 

[cmp1111]

Sorry. Got distracted by my Guitar. Did you know it's really really hard to play like Django Reinhardt? It's annoying. He only had full usage of two of his fingers on his left hand, but he still is nearly inimitable. It makes me want to lie on a couch and cry. Anyhow, I've got a partial write-up of the next day going, I just need to add a little more, and then see if I can figure out anything interesting to say.

I did not know that, but I'm glad to hear that you haven't given up. On the trip report, or, I am assuming, on the guitar.

 

[UtahMama]

pity bump

 

[Mr. Silly]

The really sad thing here is that the next segment is 93% done, but I keep deferring that last bit. I'm going off to work on it now.

 

[Mr. Silly]

The really sad thing here is that the next segment is 93% done, but I keep deferring that last bit. I'm going off to work on it now.

OK, I finished that last 7% and sent it to H. who will probably complain about something and make me defer for a while. Also I sent it to her but she is reading some trip report and ignoring the thing I sent her despite me whining about it.

 

[cmp1111]

Thank goodness!!!

 

[Philadisney]

i don't know what took me so long to stumble upon your TR, but i must say that after reading the first few pages, it's quite wonderful. any TR that includes a paragraph about Django makes me happy! i am looking forward to reading about the rest of your silly adventure.

 

[Mr. Silly]

Section 18. In which we return to our roots, and we don't get to tea, but do get to the monorail.

So, dear reader, we have reached a turning point of sorts.

So are we down to one reader now?

At this point, I'm assuming that.

Perhaps "turning point" is too strong, rather, it's more of a "gentle course alteration point." As it turns out, in reflecting on things, I realize that I have not been true to my roots. I have not been mentioning Plato, or any cool ancient things or gone over the history of ideas, or any of that recently. (Technically I haven't been doing anything recently since I've not posted anything recently, but let's pretend that those last few segments that have been posted were posted recently for the sake of this discussion.)

Willing suspension of disbelief engaged

And for whatever reasons we have not really included interactive features like puzzles so much in more recent sections. So I will here mention Plato. He was an ancient Greek philosopher. Look at that - we've returned to our roots - we just discussed an ancient philosopher. Isn't that wonderful? I'll also tell you that I have included a very tricky puzzle somewhere in this next section. It's so tricky I don't even know the solution. In fact it's so very subtle and so very tricky that I can't even quite sort out what the puzzle is. But once it is discovered, I am sure it will boggle the minds of all involved.

No wonder this took so long to write, he wrote a dissertation.

Okay there is one other brief excursion into the history of ideas that must be discussed, only because I need to get it off my chest. It is related to my horror at the moth-genocide. Which is not entirely trip report related, though I might try to figure out a way to wire it up somehow if I can. But there are no guarantees. And no refunds for lost time. At the same time I've been obsessing on it a bit lately, so I am forced to account for my very philosophically disturbing situation I am in right now. For I am in the middle of a genocide. But it is a genocide on non-humans. It is a moth-genocide. I have grappled with insect genocides before, for instance we witnessed a general Love Bug genocide at WDW, though I tried not participate in it . But this is a far more serious matter. To understand this perhaps we should take a brief trip back in time to ancient Persia.

In ancient Persia there was a famous figure, Zoroaster (also more correctly known as Zarathustra), who was widely regarded in Persia as a great wise man. About him we know surprisingly little. We don't even know exactly when he lived, where exactly he lived, whether he had a pet dog, what his favorite color was, and so on. His ideas while initially somewhat obscure, ultimately spread across Persia, and ultimately became of interest to the king of the Persians, who adopted this man's thinking as his official religion of the Persians. And in adopting it, the religion picked up some peculiar characteristics that are just the kind of thing a king of Persia might be interested in. The world view was a dualistic view of the nature of the universe. There was an absolute good and an absolute bad and they were in conflict. They thus had a god of goodness, Ahura-Mazda was on the side of good people and good stuff, and there was a bad god Ahriman who actively worked against Ahura-Mazda. The Great King (as the king of Persia was known) liked this religion (called Zoroastrianism) once he made sure it was understood that he was in line with Ahura-Mazda, the absolute good god, and that in their wars they were battling enemies which were aligned with the absolute bad god. Thus warfare and fighting for the emperor of Persia was an affair directly condoned by their mages who divided the world into the duality of good and evil, and claimed that Persia wars were fought on behalf of good against evil. And after one dies, one goes to the Bridge of Judgment where our life passes before us and we are judged by how well we lived and from there we either go to a heaven like place or a hell like place after death. They also believed that there would be an end to history where a final battle between good and evil would be fought and evil would be defeated completely. Zoroastrianism was pretty simplistic in some ways, because they didn't really spend a lot of time ranking relative goods and evils, so when the Persian soldiers marched off to whatever war they were set out on (and they were pretty much always in a war somewhere), they would see other manifestations of evil and attack them as well. Since snakes, flies, ants, other creatures were regarded as evil, while the soldiers marched, when they saw ant hills, knowing that ants were the domain of the evil Ahriman, they would attack them. So they could trample ant hills with a sense that they were being perfectly just in doing so on every level from the highest cosmic scale on down.

When the Persians captured the Jews, some scholars believe that the Persian religion influenced the shape of Judaism (though of course there's much debate on this), and that if one looks back to the early features of Judaism, there is the appearance that the religion changed after the exposure to Zoroastrianism. It was in some groups of Jews during this period that we see the idea of Satan move from being the figure who is God's assistant, a tester of men, to a spiritual force in the world doing bad, though in modern Judaism this idea is rejected and they have reverted back to the earlier. The idea of a Satan as a dualistic principle of evil was later inherited from the Jews by some sect of Christianity and Islam. (Of course it's all more complicated than that but it would take a book to really do justice and this is just an aside.) Also the bad spirits, called deavas in Zorastrianism, are etymologically related to the devas, or good spirits in Hinduism, and the Ahura in Ahura Mazda is etymologically related to Asura in Sanskrit, which refers to bad power-seeking spirits in Hindu mythology. Asuras and devas also appear in Buddhism. As you can see, Zoroastrianism is very interesting to students of comparative religion and keeps them up reading until 2 in the morning when they really should be going to bed.

I think we need an illustration, or Cliff Notes.

When one is obliterating fire ants one can truly have the sense of being a holy warrior fighting against something that really is evil. Fire ants are an invasive species in Texas and they have been instrumental in bringing many species onto the endangered species lists, and will likely be instrumental in moving of a number of species of native insects and ultimately lizards to the extinct list. They are an environmental nightmare. So it's easy to not feel badly about wiping out nests of enemies of the environment on one's lawn. Especially a nest of environmental destruction that attacks viciously whenever anyone goes near it. The ants swarm anything that touches their nests, all join in their attack on whatever comes near their nest. If there were such a thing as a force in the world trying to do bad things to make the world worse, fire ants would be about the best natural phenomenon one could offer as proof (though personally I think the case is still weak). They are that bad. And so when I see them on the sidewalk, I can like a holy warrior fighting against something simply and purely bad, stomp those ants without having to have on my conscience the implications of the thoughts of those nests of ants dying. They had to die, they were the worst sort of foreign invader that is simply unfit for to exist in the environment it is in, for it only brings damage to the environment and no improvement in any respect. Even Captain Planet would approve of stomping on these ants.

But would Al Gore?

Yes, even Al Gore would. He would crush then with copies of his own book, "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit," and let out great jolly bursts of laughter as he did it.

Ralph Nader and Ronald Reagan could join together and merrily stomp the ants as one, perhaps joining in a victory stomp dance on the depleted anthills, reclaiming that territory for all that is good and right. It is that justifiable to wipe out fire ants. These ants (who attack our children, won't we think of the poor children?) form colonies that create an enemy one must carefully regard. They are the reason that the Texas Horned Lizard (often called Horny Toads) are endangered and difficult to find, so too there are some species of Gecko that endangered (won't someone think of the poor Geckos?). If the Gecko's awesomeness may be regarded as some proof that many would accept that there must a God that something so marvelous could exist, at the same time the poor Reticulated Gecko is now threatened due to fire ants, so destroying them before they would destroy a different very beautiful species seems totally justifiable. Yes, I think about these things a lot.

With the moths it's different. With moths I am an unwilling executioner, driven by my duty to eliminate these invaders, but apologizing to the individual victims. It is my duty to wipe out these moths for they get into our food stores and ruin the food, and breed quickly. As a householder I perform my duty, but sometimes I ultimately think about these things differently and feel very poorly to have to be the executor of random moths. Moths that individually did no moral wrong, they just happened to be born from some egg, and ate what they could find, but who wronged us in a certain sense, for they spoil our food. But somehow I cannot come up with an especially persuasive account of why wiping out the moths is as justifiable as wiping out the fire ants. The moths are a native species really, they are just finding a new environment that they do quite well in, but it is an environment that we do not want them in.

I don't have qualms about killing the invading moths. If they can't take the heat they should get out of my kitchen. The thing is, the squish in a particularly gross way. So I leave all the killing to the braver Mr. Silly and sometimes to Sophia, who is not as easily grossed out as I am.

So it goes when I think about whacking bugs, which sadly we must think of at times for the freaking moths are nearly unstoppable in their ability to live off virtually nothing. A nice tasty dry clean cardboard box? Mmm. They'll find that a lovely place to happily settle in and lay some eggs, and somehow those eggs can grow from being eggs to moths subsisting on nothing but whatever they find on a clean cardboard box. It's just a stern necessity that I exterminate them. Needless to say imagining exterminating things while a robot is a more entertaining way of imagining a genocide, so we've watch the Flight of the Conchords "The Humans are Dead" a few times so that I might consider the moth genocide from that perspective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLr3Ppz_Uxo

And so I am a sad executioner, but only because it is that a law that I am enforcing, that moth colonies are not permitted to form in my home, most especially a pantry. I am perfectly willing to use diplomacy to deal with the moth infestations. We would happily relocate them. I've attempted to offer them compensation, such as placing several bows of corn meal in some outside location (far from the house), if they would negotiate with us. Sadly moth negotiations never go very well, for whatever they might appear to agree to, soon thereafter you will find them once again eating their way into the Mac and Cheese which they seemed to have agreed they'd avoid. Treacherous moths. And so I, the sad and unwilling executioner, must perform his awful duty.

Sorry. I went into blogger mode there for a second. Again, sorry. Back to trip report mode now.

This new day began as Mon. Oct., 2 according to the header on the page. My first words were, "woke up groggy." Haley and Sophie did something with laundry in the room, I wrote down that I shaved so I would look,

"repeatable," checked with H. to determine if I was "repeatable." "Sort of," "Did I miss a spot?" It's torture, that bed. Back torture. Also Max kicked me. All night. H. got back. Forgot to charge camera. Also was stressed over time.

I had to cite that in full because it took me about 20 minutes to decipher it, and I felt it would be a shame to waste all that work. The next section looked it could have been amusing, as it involved us getting food, and Max stepping on something, and then raising his hand in a universal gesture which conveyed that he was sorry for stepping on whatever it was. But alas, too many key details were illegible so it was not legible even if it was vaguely amusing. But I still did work at reading it, so I am sharing the unamusing parts I managed to make out here. There is also one section where Mickey was shaking a fireman's... something that I can't make out, but it looks really inappropriate, so I am not repeating what it appeared to say. Though I did mention that it was disturbing somehow, which makes me all the more leery. On a more amusing note, in the few pages that cover the morning of this day, I found the phrase, "Haley is stressed over time," or some variation more than five times.

I think I may have threatened to ditch them, if they didn't hurry up.

I then wrote for two pages about our adventures working out charging the camera battery, which became something of an epic task that Haley made my job. My notes say, "How did charging Haley's camera become my job?"

I think because acquiring dairy free food for Max plus something for Sophia for breakfast in a food court over run with tourists was my job. And the two were mutually exclusive pursuits. So you got the easy job. Because I had to deal with people, often clueless, and kids. Or else it was because anything that involves electricity is your job. One of those. Maybe both.

During the arduous struggle towards accomplishing this goal I was delivered several withering looks. I found a few plugs that did not have power. Somewhere some cruel Pop Century people stood around and decided to put fake plugs around just to trick people. Haley insisted I try the useless plugs again and wiggle the plug a bit. I'd already wiggled it. She still wanted me to try again. I tried again. No power. She insisted that I check in the bathrooms. This continued for a long while. Since I am kind and merciful I will just stop here since I doubt anyone wants to read two pages about charging camera batteries. I will simply say that there was a good plug by the pay phones, so we did eventually get it charged. It was getting later. 10:20. Very late indeed. Haley's stress levels were increasing. At this point my notes contain a long, complicated, and not altogether legible series of exchanges involving us trying to get Max to eat quickly, though we wound up giving Max waffles that he didn't like followed by pancakes that were so bad that he preferred the waffles. We also had to prevent him from explaining several ideas that he had come up with for purifying water, as he was supposed to be eating. Max wants to be an inventor. This is cool, but it does slow down his eating.

Shortly thereafter Sophia was showing us her newfound skill at writing upside-down, the conversation went like this:

Sophie: Look I can write upside-down.
Me & H.: Yes, let's go.
Sophie: Look I can also write sideways.
Me & H.: Yes, let's go.
Sophie: I can also write on a circle...
Me & H.: We need to go.
Sophie: Hey, can I...
Me & H.: We are leaving.

In the notebook there are a few examples of these special alternate writing things. I did show Sophie how to do a cursive capital B upside down, and that was one she found more challenging.

We walked to the bus stop, there was an "evil foot lady" who slowed us down. I am not sure what an "evil foot lady" does besides that she causes us to go slower.

We got to the bus stop, and got in line. We pin-traded with a Cast Member who was right there and got rid of one of our cheap Snow White pin (a sedesma) for something that I did not record, but was indubitably better. The people right behind us traded with the Cast Member for our crummy Snow White pin. There were a young couple from Canada. We talked about Canada for a while, how nice it is to have a public healthcare system so that you don't need to worry about that side of your job. The various challenges for Americans to emigrate to Canada these days and so on.

We got on the bus at 11. My notes say about this, "uh-oh." H. was going to have to seriously book to Norway for some reason, while Max, Sophia, and I could take a more leisurely pace.

It is at this point that I am beginning to worry. Things are sort of beginning to dawn on me. Didn't we already write about some of these things? Am I in a kind of temporal vortex where I am going to keep writing about the same day over and over? Is this like that Groundhog Day movie? I know that I am further in the notebook, but will the notebook repeatedly recurse over the same few days endlessly? Am I doomed to write about the same day over and over, like some kind of Sisyphus thing? Was I unwittingly a bad person in life, and now I have died and this is my punishment? As it turns out those fears are allayed. While we did meet some Maelstrom people on a previous day, and it all kind of blurs in my memory, this is, in fact, a different day. So you need not worry about all that. You're such a worry wart.

Anyhow, we got to the park, Haley took off at full speed running away from us to meet up with her weird Disney obsessive-compulsive internet friends.

That is misleading, I didn't run. I fast walked with purpose. I do not like being late for things, though I often am.

Max and Sophia and I had a nice leisurely walk and traded some pins to get a few nice pirate ones. We got some great pins. By this point we had decided that we wanted to get as many pirate related pins as we could, which we succeeded at. At the end of the trip we had a lot of cool pirate related pins. While I am a technical computer person and should be able to put pictures of the pins in here to illustrate the awesome pirate pin collection we accrued, I am also plagued with inertia, so I will just write about it and let your imagination fill in the details. Imaginations are really better than pictures, aren't they? Sophia mentioned that since we had traded a princess pin earlier - a Snow White one, that we were now obliged to trade for a new Snow White one. We accepted this. She then was concerned since we no longer had a Snow White pin. What if we found one, a nice one, but did not have a pint to trade for it? I explained that surely we would have a pin to trade. She remained concerned. We *might* wind up unable to trade for the best Snow White pin due to past trades. I explained that if there we found a super-excellent-must-have Snow White pin on a CM's lanyard, and we were not able to trade for some reason, that I would buy a pin and we could trade that. She seemed briefly relieved.

We worked our way to Norway. Since I am kind of a shy person, and since I really didn't know any of Haley's Internet Disney World OCD pals, I was actually not especially in a hurry to get to Norway. Meeting new people is one of those experiences I am not so great with. I took one of those Aspergers tests and scored really high. Really high. I always look at the floor when I talk to people, and so on. So I was actually not excited at the prospect of meeting strangers that my wife befriended on the internet. In the tests I have pretty much every symptom. But only the less good parts. I don't have the cool parts - I'm not an ultra-genius with a super memory.

You just never remember anything practical, like dentist appointments or where I put down my car keys. You remember all sorts of other stuff really well.

In fact my memory is so bad that I can't even recall the night that H. and I got married when there was an open bar and we drank and drank and there was champagne, and the bartender was a really great guy. I was not Aspergery after the third or fourth Long Island Iced Tea. And my friend Mike got a luggage cart and H, and I rode on it with Mike pushing us, and then a guy named John tried to stop us. We called him John-boy. He tried to be an authority figure and tried to stop us from running around in the hotel riding luggage carts. Later he somehow morphed into John Kennedy. I think that was because his last name was Kennedy. Then some other things happened but I can't tell you because I can't remember. You see?

Our ceremony was at dusk. It was preceded by an open bar, starting at 2pm. The ceremony was followed by hors d'oeuvres on the patio with a string quartet and an open bar. Next we served dinner with, wait for it, an open bar. We kept the bar open until 2am, when California law forced us to shut it down. 12 hours. That is how long the bar was open, and we both made pretty good use of it. TFI, the bar was my Dad's idea. Actually it was something he insisted on. The whole, beautiful, wonderful, incredibly opulent wedding was really my parents thing. We were just happily along for the ride. For some reason Sophia recently asked me about how much we paid for my wedding dress. "A lot." "A lot like a car?" "No, not that much. Well, like an older used car maybe." "Like a trip to Disney World?" I am starting to worry. She is 9 and already has declared she wants to have her wedding at the Grand Floridian, unless they don't have a Cinderella's coach like the one in California. If they don't the Grand Californian will have to do. "Um, yeah. A lot like a trip to Disney World, or, erm, two." Then a brilliant idea occurs to me "You know, you can wear my dress when you get married. Wouldn't that be cool!"

We meandered towards Norway. On the way I got a really excellent mango wine at the Florida booth. A little pricey but really tasty. I got a nice Pino Noir at the Argentina booth. I spoke Spanish to them which was fun, and I think this was the reason that my cup was filled much higher than usual. Argentines are cool. Muy chévere. I went to the Chile booth, and again practiced mi Español. Again my cup was filled more generously than usual, and I decided that those Chileans were mis amigos.

After dragging my feet about as much as I could justify, and having fortified myself with adequate quantities of wine, I went to Norway to meet the people of the meet. At this point I really didn't know most of these people too well, though I had made some efforts to try to work out their names. I'll admit that I was actually not really enthusiastic about meeting a whole bunch of strangers who were H's internet friends since I didn't remember their names very well, and I am not the best with chatting with new people. In fact I am really terrible at it. But we went and met them and I said very little. Somehow some people seemed to know who I was. There were pictures being taken. We went on the Maelstrom ride which was as thrilling and fascinating as it always is. We did some other Maelstrom related activities. I got a few fastpasses from the Maelstrom ride to use as props in photos. I spoke a little here and there.

Then we went to Mexico to the little restaurant thingie with her friends. H. wanted a margarita, so I left the kids with her and went to the margarita place. The margaritas were 7.75. I wrote that in very large letters in my notebook, followed by '"Jeez!" But it was what H. wanted so I got her one.

Isn't he sweet? He really is. Most of the time. Not sickly sweet though, that would not be good.

At this point sweat was dripping down my back. It was hot. I continued to socialize with some of the Strommers by saying hi while mumbling and looking at my shoes. Grammy, and Java, and Mark, and Chris, and Yak, and Kimmie, and Horsie, and Jami, and other people were there. H. talked to them, and I sort of mumbled a little. H had met them the might before and knew them and was merrily talking to them. I then escaped by going to get a churro for Max and Sophia. They love churros. During this time we got Plutopants from Chris which was an unexpected surprise that pleased H.

We went into the Mexico area and saw the glass blower who has awesome glass blowing skills. There was a guy that walked up and started talking to us about glass blowing. He did this as a hobby. He showed us his special glasses that you use when glass blowing, and we looked through them and it was really cool. And he explained a bit about what the glass-blower was up to. Then I recorded that we did something that involved pennies. But I can't remember anything involving pennies. H. looked at the notebook and said that since the word looks so much like pennies and my writing is so terrible that it can't actually be pennies since it looks too much like pennies, and if I were trying to write pennies it would look like a different word.

I remember the pennies now. Maybe I wrote that down, and that is why it is so legible. Or else it is just one of those one in a million flukes. We needed pennies to throw into the fountain, of course! I think we found one and handed it to Sophia and then struggled for a while to find another one for Max. Never once did it occur to me that I had a mini M&M tube filled with pennies for the pressed penny machines. Instead we hunted through all the pockets in the back pack and camera case until we found one.

After that we back to Norway. I recorded some facts about Erik the Red and his son Leif Erikson and we checked out things there for a while but I recorded nothing. I think we separated from the main Maelstrom group at this point.

Actually we separated in Mexico. Also I took a picture of this guy:

Viking King.

Not sure why.

From there we met Horsegirl and we went to China together. We liked hanging out with Horsegirl, she is a very bright lady, smart and funny, and in general fun to hang out with, and she has a very calm temperament which works well with us Aspergers types (H. is very Aspergery really, and I am more so than H. Seriously). So anyway we were happy to be able to hang out with her, and we looked at the lovely things to see in China. They have the best lotus ponds. I think I blathered on about lotuses for a while since they are a really interesting plant. We went through the China Museum which I always like. They had changed out some stuff and added a section on the new Hong Kong Disney park. Disney Hong Kong looks very nice. Shortly after I become a millionaire I will be visiting. There was also a miniature display of the tomb with many statues of soldiers that I was very impressed by.

We went through the store dealie and got some Jasmine Tea candy that initially all of us liked, though Max couldn't handle it after a while since it became a bit bitter after a while. Sophie and I thought they were really great and we were happily eating the candies for the next week. I was sad when we ran out, and planned to get a few bags next time we went to the D., which I think I forgot to do. But next time I go I will be seeking them out.

They had Caramel Ginger ice cream at some Food and Wine booth that was really good. We circled the World Showcase and seemed to try a lot of wines. The quality of my handwriting is generally poor, but after I have had five or six glasses of wine it is even worse. Also I seem to record fewer details. So I can tell you that we had some kind of custard at the S. Africa booth that I really liked, and that there was some Australian food that was really good. I also wrote, "Sorry Max," which I think indicates that there were a few dessert-type foods that he could have. But it might indicate something else.

I bet it was the Kiwi roll. Max loves Kiwi, but it had custard on it so he couldn't have any. Milk allergies stink. So do nut allergies. Max has both.

Anyway, I have great news here. This is the point at which we prepared to go to get tea at the Grand Floridian. So we had to catch a boat. There was a boat docked in the World Showcase that we saw, so we ran to catch it. But the running was in vain. We did catch the boat, but the boat stayed docked for a long long time. It was full. We had to stand. And stand. And stand. As the boat sat there. Not going across the lake. We calculated that we could easily have walked to the other side at a very slow pace by the time that the boat left the dock. But it eventually did leave, with no explanation for why it had sat there for so long.

Why did the Epcot boat cross the lake? To get to the other side. So there we were on the other side. There was an odd booth that was about honey. They had little straws with honey that they gave out for free. One thing about Sophie that we have tried to curb with little success is a habit she has where when she finds something given for free that she takes as much as she possibly can. So when she sees free mints at restaurants she grabs handfuls of them. She grabs lots of toothpicks too. So there we were at a booth with lots of sealed straws full of honey and she was going bonkers trying to get as many as possible while we tried to moderate this. But given the amount of wine we'd had we were not too effective. So we wound up with a pack full of dozens of little honey straws. While in theory we were supposed to be going to the Grand Floridian, from there we went to the Florida booth instead. This was a booth I really liked since it had (overpriced but really tasty) Mango wine. We got a glass and I carefully metered exactly how much H. took in an effort to ensure it was split 50/50, but I was not very good at this. I handed it to her and 2/3s of the glass later she asked if I had had much. I had the last third.

He should know better by now, he has known me half my life. Chocolate and alcohol are not safe in my hands. If you want me to save some for you, you need to be really explicit about it. Actually the same thing holds true for secrets. Don't tell me something and expect I will implicitly understand it is a secret, that doesn't work. You need to be really really clear. Like underline it three times and use puffy letters. That clear.

My notes at this point are really hard to discern. Apparently we went to a booth that had dark-light boots. I am not sure what I meant by dark-light boots, but I reported that they were there, and that the dark boots were not as good as the light boots. I think that this might have to do with the two colors of honey in the little straws, but I cannot say that with any certainty.

I have no idea.

From there we went to the Monorail to go to tea, and it is at this point that I end this segment. I actually had a lot more to say about the relative merits of jetpacks versus flying carpets, inverse pain reporting, and band-aid coloration, but these will be saved for future report segments since we've reached the end without properly discussing these things yet.

 

[Mr. Silly]

So there were supposed to be some pictures but that didn't work out, so I posted this anyway and when we get the pictures set up we'll either update or add a new comment with them.

 

[celerystalker]

Psst - Haley - They have Cinderella's carriage at WDW. With footmen, even. And a major domo.
Don't let Sophia know that you can start a wish book on the weddings site to start planning.
Also don't let her get to the weddings section of the DIS. it's very addictive. She can start her spreadsheet now.
I've started mine for my ceremony 2 years away.
Sounds like you all will need all the time you have.
College? Who cares about that.
Save for her Disney wedding!

 

[HaleyB]

Psst - Haley - They have Cinderella's carriage at WDW. With footmen, even. And a major domo.
Don't let Sophia know that you can start a wish book on the weddings site to start planning.
Also don't let her get to the weddings section of the DIS. it's very addictive. She can start her spreadsheet now.
I've started mine for my ceremony 2 years away.
Sounds like you all will need all the time you have.
College? Who cares about that.
Save for her Disney wedding!

I knew someone would know.

2 years, do you have a date yet? Am I invited?

Do we need to reserve one for Sophia soon? She is 9 so we figure 18-20 years from now. Well, I figure that, her Dad figures 30-40 years from now.

They give low interest loans for college, but not for weddings, so it seems obvious to me that we should have a wedding fund instead of a college fund.

 

[celerystalker]

Of course you are invited!
We are doing a small wedding, and you can have 18 guests for that.
Per my spreadsheet, we have 8 so far. And that's only if we have adopted by that time (or have a foster child with us).
It'd be a great time for Sophia to get some ideas for her ceremony. Heh.

And no, the date is not set. You can get a tentative date one year in advance, a definite 8 months in advance.
I don't know why they won't plan them out farther than that.
I'm planning on doing it in September since this will be the third year I go during that time, I'm already planning on going next year in September, so it just makes sense.

(plus, like everything at Disney, there are "seasons" for the weddings - and September is a "value")

 

[cmp1111]

Section 18. In which we return to our roots, and we don't get to tea, but do get to the monorail.

So, dear reader, we have reached a turning point of sorts.

See, now, I'm proving that you have at least two readers left. If you accept my posting as proof that I'm reading. Knowing Mr. Silly, this may not be enough proof...

(Technically I haven't been doing anything recently since I've not posted anything recently, but let's pretend that those last few segments that have been posted were posted recently for the sake of this discussion.)

I'm willing to pretend nearly anything.

To understand this perhaps we should take a brief trip back in time to ancient Persia.

Excellent!

As you can see, Zoroastrianism is very interesting to students of comparative religion and keeps them up reading until 2 in the morning when they really should be going to bed.

Absolutely, I can see that.

When one is obliterating fire ants one can truly have the sense of being a holy warrior fighting against something that really is evil.

I had my first encounter with fire ants at my aunt's house in TX when I was about 8. Fire ants are indubitably evil.

With the moths it's different. With moths I am an unwilling executioner, driven by my duty to eliminate these invaders, but apologizing to the individual victims. It is my duty to wipe out these moths for they get into our food stores and ruin the food, and breed quickly. As a householder I perform my duty, but sometimes I ultimately think about these things differently and feel very poorly to have to be the executor of random moths. Moths that individually did no moral wrong, they just happened to be born from some egg, and ate what they could find, but who wronged us in a certain sense, for they spoil our food. But somehow I cannot come up with an especially persuasive account of why wiping out the moths is as justifiable as wiping out the fire ants. The moths are a native species really, they are just finding a new environment that they do quite well in, but it is an environment that we do not want them in.

I can understand the moral dilemma.

I had to cite that in full because it took me about 20 minutes to decipher it, and I felt it would be a shame to waste all that work.

Thanks for trying so hard...

On a more amusing note, in the few pages that cover the morning of this day, I found the phrase, "Haley is stressed over time," or some variation more than five times.

Oh, dear.

I then wrote for two pages about our adventures working out charging the camera battery, which became something of an epic task that Haley made my job. My notes say, "How did charging Haley's camera become my job?"

I am tired and unhappy with my camera, but the good part is that it runs on AA's. No charging, except that being a good environmentalist I use rechargables. But, in a pinch, one can always find them, which is easier, apparently, than finding a good plug.

We also had to prevent him from explaining several ideas that he had come up with for purifying water, as he was supposed to be eating. Max wants to be an inventor. This is cool, but it does slow down his eating.

My son Woody is like this. He is very interesting, informative, and inventive, but normally always while we are begging him to finish his dinner before midnight rolls around.

So you need not worry about all that. You're such a worry wart.

Phew!

Anyhow, we got to the park, Haley took off at full speed running away from us to meet up with her weird Disney obsessive-compulsive internet friends.

As one tries to quote, one loses the Haley bits. But, I think it's about here where Haley mentioned that she hates to be late, though she often is. I just wanted to let her know that I am the same way. My DH is genetically inclined to be late, and with the two children... I feel for her.

In the tests I have pretty much every symptom. But only the less good parts. I don't have the cool parts - I'm not an ultra-genius with a super memory.

Are you sure?

In fact my memory is so bad that I can't even recall the night that H. and I got married when there was an open bar and we drank and drank and there was champagne, and the bartender was a really great guy. I was not Aspergery after the third or fourth Long Island Iced Tea. And my friend Mike got a luggage cart and H, and I rode on it with Mike pushing us, and then a guy named John tried to stop us. We called him John-boy. He tried to be an authority figure and tried to stop us from running around in the hotel riding luggage carts. Later he somehow morphed into John Kennedy. I think that was because his last name was Kennedy. Then some other things happened but I can't tell you because I can't remember. You see?

I loved this whole story, and also Haley's aside, which, as we know, has been lost in my quoting. But, suffice it to say, it's entertaining.

We meandered towards Norway. On the way I got a really excellent mango wine at the Florida booth. A little pricey but really tasty. I got a nice Pino Noir at the Argentina booth. I spoke Spanish to them which was fun, and I think this was the reason that my cup was filled much higher than usual. Argentines are cool. Muy chévere. I went to the Chile booth, and again practiced mi Español. Again my cup was filled more generously than usual, and I decided that those Chileans were mis amigos.

This is why I need to go to Epcot during the F&W Festival. I love wine, and I can speak a little espanol.

I spoke a little here and there.

I'm sure you were more charming than you realized.

The margaritas were 7.75. I wrote that in very large letters in my notebook, followed by '"Jeez!" But it was what H. wanted so I got her one.

Nice. And, again, I recall that Haley said that you were sweet, but not sickly so. I really do think you and my DH would get along.

Disney Hong Kong looks very nice. Shortly after I become a millionaire I will be visiting. There was also a miniature display of the tomb with many statues of soldiers that I was very impressed by.

We circled the World Showcase and seemed to try a lot of wines. The quality of my handwriting is generally poor, but after I have had five or six glasses of wine it is even worse. Also I seem to record fewer details.

This is where I get extremely jealous and can barely keep reading...

I actually had a lot more to say about the relative merits of jetpacks versus flying carpets, inverse pain reporting, and band-aid coloration, but these will be saved for future report segments since we've reached the end without properly discussing these things yet.

Well, I, for one, can't wait.

Psst - Haley - They have Cinderella's carriage at WDW. With footmen, even. And a major domo.
Don't let Sophia know that you can start a wish book on the weddings site to start planning.
Also don't let her get to the weddings section of the DIS. it's very addictive. She can start her spreadsheet now.
I've started mine for my ceremony 2 years away.
Sounds like you all will need all the time you have.
College? Who cares about that.
Save for her Disney wedding!

I knew someone would know.

2 years, do you have a date yet? Am I invited?

Do we need to reserve one for Sophia soon? She is 9 so we figure 18-20 years from now. Well, I figure that, her Dad figures 30-40 years from now.

They give low interest loans for college, but not for weddings, so it seems obvious to me that we should have a wedding fund instead of a college fund.

Of course you are invited!
We are doing a small wedding, and you can have 18 guests for that.
Per my spreadsheet, we have 8 so far. And that's only if we have adopted by that time (or have a foster child with us).
It'd be a great time for Sophia to get some ideas for her ceremony. Heh.

And no, the date is not set. You can get a tentative date one year in advance, a definite 8 months in advance.
I don't know why they won't plan them out farther than that.
I'm planning on doing it in September since this will be the third year I go during that time, I'm already planning on going next year in September, so it just makes sense.

(plus, like everything at Disney, there are "seasons" for the weddings - and September is a "value")

I have actually attended a Disney wedding, albeit 7 years ago. It was lovely, and small (though more than 8) and Mickey & Minnie danced at the reception. Which occurred at 10:30 a.m. And had an open bar. Space Mountain after such a reception was a most interesting experience.

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Well, guess what, you have 3 readers left!

Who needs to go to college when you can get history classes right here on Mr. Silly's report!

I was at the Norway meet, I remember you escaping with the kids, to Mexico, LOL!

Excellent job!

 

[Mr. Silly]

College? Who cares about that.

Me.

See, now, I'm proving that you have at least two readers left. If you accept my posting as proof that I'm reading. Knowing Mr. Silly, this may not be enough proof...

You know, one of the more painful philosophical problems is to really prove that there really are other minds out there. Intuitively it seems to be the case, but coming up with a thorough proof is more complicated.

I had my first encounter with fire ants at my aunt's house in TX when I was about 8. Fire ants are indubitably evil.

When we moved to Texas we assumed they were huge scary red ants. I kept seeing little brown ones. Eventually I stepped into a nest barefooted and determined that the Fire Ants really were those little brown guys.

I can understand the moral dilemma.

It's weird, but not everyone can.

I am tired and unhappy with my camera, but the good part is that it runs on AA's. No charging, except that being a good environmentalist I use rechargables. But, in a pinch, one can always find them, which is easier, apparently, than finding a good plug.

Yeah, using weird little proprietary batteries is a pain.

My son Woody is like this. He is very interesting, informative, and inventive, but normally always while we are begging him to finish his dinner before midnight rolls around.

So are your sons really Woody and Buzz, or are those just screen names?

Max likes to talk a bit, but once you put food in front of him he turns into a chatterbox.

Phew!

Worry Wart.

Are you sure?

I am afraid that I am sure. You only need me limp and stumble through a Django Reinhardt tune to see that I would wish I could even reach mediocrity.

I loved this whole story, and also Haley's aside, which, as we know, has been lost in my quoting. But, suffice it to say, it's entertaining.

Yeah, I just threw it in there since it was amusing, not that it was even kind of relevant.

This is why I need to go to Epcot during the F&W Festival. I love wine, and I can speak a little espanol.

¡Sí!

I'm sure you were more charming than you realized.

Ask Backstage_Gal. She'll tell you. I am as interesting as watching paint dry.

This is where I get extremely jealous and can barely keep reading...

I must say that the Food & Wine gig is nice. Especially the food part. And the wine part.

Well, I, for one, can't wait.

Dang, I started in on the next section but forgot to add in the parts about jetpacks versus flying carpets, and band-aid coloration. We've actually got pretty far into that one but there is still a bit left, so maybe we can work those things in.

Well, guess what, you have 3 readers left!

I can be pretty bad with misunderestimating. We'll call it 3 next time.

Who needs to go to college when you can get history classes right here on Mr. Silly's report!

And no homework or finals!

I was at the Norway meet, I remember you escaping with the kids, to Mexico, LOL!

Yeah, I was not in a super-chatty mood. At that point I didn't really pay very much attention to the Disboards, so I didn't know many.

 

[AshClan]

I am FINALLY caught up. WOW. And And...the Aspergery stuff, yeah. I know quite a bit about Asperger's. You do seem to have a lot of the characteristics. Haley less so. But I beg to differ on the "cool" parts. You have lots of those, too!!

Jay and I did see you and Max & Sophia enroute to Norway. You informed us that Haley had run on ahead so as not to be late. We also passed you by. As I recall, the three of you were definitely meandering. And it WAS late. But it was also very very hot. Despite what Chris says.

A pleasure as always. Can't wait to read more

 

[cmp1111]

When we moved to Texas we assumed they were huge scary red ants. I kept seeing little brown ones. Eventually I stepped into a nest barefooted and determined that the Fire Ants really were those little brown guys.

That's the problem - they look so quiet and unassuming. You'd never guess that they were little sadists.

So are your sons really Woody and Buzz, or are those just screen names?

Much as I like Toy Story, those are screen names... It's actually MY name that is unique and fully Google-able and makes me nervous to publish when I talk about where I live and so forth. But, since their personalities are much like the sheriff and the space ranger, and my DH asked, I gave them screen names, too.

Max likes to talk a bit, but once you put food in front of him he turns into a chatterbox.

Go figure...

I must say that the Food & Wine gig is nice. Especially the food part. And the wine part.

I've actually priced Columbus Day weekend (with some added days) for 2008. Is the F&W still going on at that time?

Dang, I started in on the next section but forgot to add in the parts about jetpacks versus flying carpets, and band-aid coloration. We've actually got pretty far into that one but there is still a bit left, so maybe we can work those things in.

As always, I await it with bated breath!

 

[AshClan]

I've actually priced Columbus Day weekend (with some added days) for 2008. Is the F&W still going on at that time?

Yes, cmp1111, F&W goes from September 28th to November 11th. GO!!!! You won't regret it.

 

[cmp1111]

Yes, cmp1111, F&W goes from September 28th to November 11th. GO!!!! You won't regret it.

Thanks, Ash.

I must also check as 11/11 is our anniversary... Perhaps DH & I should sneak away for Veterans' Day weekend, alone, instead...