Pages

Dial Up

I finally get my mom on DSL, and she doesn't have wireless.

I tried connecting directly to her modem but that didn't work (probably needed the account info and password), so then I spent over an hour trying to connect through dialup. I'm on now, at a snail's pace, and getting through comments as fast as I can.

When I get home (next week) I'll be sure to catch up on everyone's blogs an I'll be adding some pictures from this trip as well. I got a bunch but, between dialup AND still being on my old computer, right now "online" is a real pain! :P

(PS: If I get a wave of extreme patience I might try to upload picts before I get home!)

 

Last Day of Nablopomo

Did you make it? The last 8 days have been a bit tricky with limited to NO internet access, but I still made it through!

I don't know if I'll be posting anymore before I return home. I should be back in another week. If the blog goes silent, check back around then. I should be getting all stressed psyched up for Christmas by then!

 

Paradise

It's really beautiful where my mom lives. And so QUIET. GOD I love quiet! I just wish it wasn't so darned hot. I'm hoping for rain...

 

Mom's

Today I'm at mom's. I may or may not have internet access here. One never knows. The last few times I was here she still had dialup. At least she's on DSL now. That should help.

Chances are we'll be hitting the thrift stores this week, in between my fixing various things at her house. -I'm the family member who "fixes" things.

 

Next!

The plan for today is to finish up last minute Disney stuff, and then drive back with my mom to her place. I bet I'll wish I stayed at Disney longer. I really want to start visiting the resorts more -whether I'm staying there or not. Just walk around and check them out. They're like their own little worlds...

 

Thanksgiving - Italian Style

What is it with people choosing Italian places for large gatherings? And why are they always so freaking expensive? I mean seriously... what is Italian Food? Bread, pasta, tomato sauce, and variations on that theme. Last time I checked, none of those ingredients cost a whole heck of a lot. They've got to be among the cheapest ingredients you can find!

Nevertheless... it seems our reservations for tonight are for "Italian" and the cost is going to be close to $40 a head! Honestly, if they'd given me all that money, I'd have been happy to cook dinner for everybody -In their room of course. Mine doesn't have a kitchen. Mine doesn't even have a COFFEE MAKER. -Seriously. Remember? VALUE room...



 

The More the Merrier

Another cousin arrives today. -More people to go park hopping with :) Unless I'm so run down when they arrive, that I take a day to myself and hide in my room! Sometimes ya gotta do that!


 

The Resorts

I'd like to spend more time checking out the resorts this trip - Especially since I have relatives staying at the "real" resorts - and I'd also like to check out some of the trail walks if I can. I wonder if they're relaxing and pretty or just a bunch of boring paved  walkways?

Re: "The real resorts" -did you think I was staying at one of those? No. I'm staying at one of Disney's VALUE resorts.  Which is kind of like Disney's answer to a tacky motel. This isn't to say that they don't have their charm. Plus, they're still on property so they have all the perks that the other resorts do, but don't cost nearly as much. Great for sleeping and park hopping, but for "hanging out" I'll be making use of all the extras at the relatives' hotels. I heard one of them has a water slide...


 

Epcot: Club Cool

This was possibly one of the "coolest" new things in the park for me. New to me anyway. I think it's actually been there for a while.

It's a Coca Cola gift shop, and in it are lots of little self-serve soda machines with samples of Coca Cola from different countries. And even better -it's free! You can drink as many little sample cups as you'd like!

Some weren't bad. Some were pretty good (I liked China). And one was... well... let's just say Italy's is made for a different kind of palette. They were out of Mozambique's Ginger Soda that day. I would have liked to try that.

 

Epcot: Mission Space: DON'T go in the ORANGE line!

Never having been on "Mission Space" and not having had time to sufficiently research this ride before leaving on my last minute vacation, I was unaware that there was a spinning and a non-spinning version of this ride. I thought it was "spin or get out of line."

Now, I know I get motion sickness, but since I'd just come from the "Test Track" ride, and ignored all its scary precautionary warnings and done just fine, I thought I'd ignore Mission Space's warnings too. But that's because I didn't realize that I could still go on the ride and NOT SPIN if I went in the GREEN line.

I won't go into all the details, but, I've now learned an apparently little known fact about Disney World. A fact that the RIDE EMPLOYEES don't even know about and insisted was not so. Many of the gift shops, in all the parks, have a special plastic bin that they keep under the counter, out of view, that contains Advil, Pepto Bismol and DRAMAMINE. Nobody on the "vomiting rides" seems to know this!!! But all the little gift stands do! Most also have some kind of dry crackers or pretzels available for the "easily-queasy."

I sat with another woman, a complete stranger who I bonded with as she generously shared her peanut butter crackers and sips of water with me, as we sat together, side by side, after the ride, both of us afraid to move -for fear of hurling- for over an hour, as employee after employee told us that no place sold any kind of anti nausea meds or crackers nearby because that would compete with the food stands in the park. But about an hour and a half later (yes, an hour and a half!) when we both, unsteadily, decided to try to venture outside, she decided to say something to the ride's gift shop about how they should carry stuff like this, and that's when the man behind the counter gleefully produced his "drug bin" and informed us that most of the gift shops had them. -This guy was one room away from where we'd been sitting for over an hour! The gift shop was part of the attraction, yet nobody working on the ride seemed to know that pretzels, Pepto, and Dramamine were available only a few feet away.

Grrrrrrrr!

On two additional occasions during this trip, I needed to avail myself of drug boxes, and I had no trouble finding them -Now that I knew they existed! One was at the gift shop attached to Expedition Everest in the Animal Kingdom (which also had pretzels for about a buck or two) and the other was a shop at the end of the Winnie the Pooh ride in the Magic Kingdom.

To Clarify...

Expedition Everest:
Fine except for one part in the pitch darkness which must have done some kind of spin because, while I couldn't see it, I suddenly wasn't feeling so hot.

Winnie the Pooh:
NOT a problem. ;) But, after having had the unexpected problem with Expedition Everest, I bought  Dramamine in anticipation of going on Space Mountain an hour later, (but the ride malfunctioned and I never got on!)

Mission Space:
Orange line = Unsteady on my feet and unable to move my head without feeling like I was going to vomit,  for over an hour after the ride. Then generally queasy for the entire rest of the day (and this happened at 8:30 am, so that was a very LONG "rest of the day!")
Green line = Probably a much more pleasant ride. Unfortunately I wouldn't know!



 

The Plan

My general plan for the next few days is to visit the parks early and late in the day, when it's cooler outside, and to either nap or hang out at the resorts in the afternoon. Heat + me = Not a good match!



 

Disney Day 1: Icicles on the Castle

I was at the Magic Kingdom from 6:30pm to about 12:30am. The castle is decked out in icicle lights for Christmas. It's amazing. And the lights change colors over time. Mostly blue and purple but I also saw it pink, green, orange, and white.




It turned out that 6:30pm and onwards was the perfect time to get on every ride at the Magic Kingdom with no lines. So much so that, as I walked through long empty winding corridors, that usually hold  lines of people, I sometimes wondered if I was going to get mugged!

The reason it's a great time to get on the rides is because people line up an hour or more in advance to see the 2 parades and the fireworks, so if they're THERE, that leaves very few people on the rides! The first night I missed the fireworks but I caught a few from the top of a Splash Mountain. That was cool! I, and several cars of strangers, cheered each time fireworks burst over our heads as we we zipped up and down the tracks.

Speaking of parades, I finally caught one. I'd never seen a Disney parade before, but I decided to watch the 11pm Spectro Magic parade. It's AWESOME! I am now in love with the bizarre, and kind of creepy, clowns at the beginning of the parade. Particularly the ones spinning around on what look like giant lit up Christmas Ornament balls. SO cool!


 

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm off!

Hopefully I won't miss my bus, plane, other bus, or other buses. Hoo boy this is going to be a long day!

The plan is to either meet people for dinner once I arrive, or collapse in my hotel room and pretend I'm not there yet. I think the Magic Kingdom is open until 3am tonight/tomorrow, so there's no real rush.

Yes, that's right. 3AM.

How great would it be if, whenever someone had insomnia, they could think "hmmm... not sleeping.... may as well go ride Dumbo."


 

Does this dress make me look pregnant? (Which I'm not!)



ME
I found something I can wear! The only problem is, the way it hangs on me makes me look pregnant. -Which could create problems with my getting on some of the rides.

HIM
Might mean you get a seat on the buses though...

ME
EXCELLENT point!




 

Deck the blog with boughs of holly...


I finally had made some time to play around with the blog's template. I'll probably tweak it a bit more, but I think this will be its overall look for the holidays.

If anything doesn't look right (or if the "snow flakes" are causing problems with your browser), let me know. Don't assume I did a bad job on purpose! It all looks fine on my computer but you never know...

Note: Credits for any codes, graphics, or templates I use can always be found at the bottom of the page. In particular I'd like to thank the following sites for making their resources freely available:


 

Luggage Tag


If you stay at one of Disney World's on site hotels, they now have a FREE shuttle service that will take you from the airport to your hotel. You don't even have to claim your luggage when you arrive. They'll do that for you and bring it to your room a few hours later.

I'm impressed these arrived so quickly. I only made reservations a few days ago.


 

There's a pill for everything...

HER
(Foreign Accent)

Would you like some Tylenol? I'm not going to use it.

ME

No thank you.

HER
(Foreign Accent)

Are you sure? Look. Here's the box. It says "Tylenol: Extra Strange."




 

Mobile Blogging (Not!)

I am getting nowhere fast with this. I tried five test posts and none of them worked correctly.

First I sent one as an email from my cell phone, with a photo. -Text came through, photo didn't.

Then I tried to set up a mobile blogging account. THREE TIMES. Each time, none of the posts went through at all. Even though my blog settings say I'm set to go (yes I merged the mobile blogging account with this one using the token etc.)

Then the fifth time, I emailed from my phone to another email address and had that address forward the email to my account. I wanted to see if getting the message from an email provider instead of a cell phone provider would make a difference. The results were the same as #1. Text but no pictures.

- My blog posts are going to be VERY BORING if I can't figure out a way to set this up before I go away :P

Edit: Tests 6, 7, and 8 from a friend of a friend's phone... same thing. Text but no photo. Grrrrrrr.

 

29 Characters

Yesterday, I spent the entire day making travel plans. The place I'll be visiting was thoughtful enough to include a space where I could tell them of any additional needs I might have - in 29 characters or less. 



How much is 29 characters? 29 characters is enough to type:

"If it's possible I would like"
or
"It is very important that I h"
or
"More space 2 type would be ni"

 

No idea what time it is

I was trying to figure out how much time I had left to write a post, but I couldn't find a clock. Because I unplugged them all. Sort of.

A friend and I were talking about what kinds of items we kept unplugged when not in use, and she said that anything with a clock built into it, used electricity while plugged in. So I unplugged my stereo, my vcr, and my microwave, because I rarely use those so it seemed kind of silly to keep them plugged in if they were only being used as oversized clocks.

So now, I'm saving electricity.

I also have no idea what time it is.


... I need to buy some clocks.

 

Sure... NOW it's a big deal...

My friends wanted me to go to Costo. Friend A was the only one who had a Costco card and she couldn't go. (I'll have a card soon. I got a coupon ;) ) Friend B wanted me to use friend A's Costco card so the two of us could still go. Friend A was fine with this and also wanted me to use her card. I didn't want to. I'd get too anxious. Both kept saying it'd be fine, they never check... friend A and I look alike (-we look nothing alike!) I stood my ground. It's really not the principle of the thing. I have no problem with someone ELSE doing that. But it would make me extremely nervous if I were the one doing it. I didn't want to.

Today when I saw my friends, they told me someone else they knew had gone, used another person's card, and they were stopped and weren't allowed to make their purchases. As far as I know, that's all that happened. They just weren't allowed to make their purchases and had to leave. -But if you could see the looks of relief on MY friends' faces that it wasn't them who got caught! They've been thanking me all day saying "Thank God we didn't go!" and that I was right and "made a great call!" -I got high fived for this!

It's bizarre to me how casual they were about how it wouldn't be a big deal even if we did get caught, yet today, instead of being equally nonchalant and saying "hey guess what... oh well..." they're acting like we just dodged a bullet and I saved them from prison.

 

I've figured out how to save time folding laundry


  1. I am no longer turning clothes "right side out" when folding.

    I admit it took my slightly OCD-ish self a couple of weeks to get used to this, but really, things fold or hang just as well inside out as they do right side out. And in the end, I'd rather take an extra 30 seconds while dressing to turn things the right way, than take an additional 30 minutes while folding laundry to turn everything right side out.

  2. I've also stopped folding underwear.

    Yes, folded underwear looks nicer and neater in the drawer, but once underwear is on your body, you can't see any wrinkles in it. At least not under anything I wear. And on occasions where it is absolutely CRUCIAL to me to be 100% seamless and wrinkle free in all areas, I use that lycra/spandex stuff and that never gets wrinkles anyway.

 

It begins with an "O"

(After Grocery Shopping)
HER

I don't even know what half this stuff is. If it said "Organic" I put it in my cart. This... this says "organic." And this says "organic" and this... well this doesn't say organic but it says, umm... "Original."

ME

Oh. Well good. Because, you know... that's the same thing.


(???)


 

Dear Campbell's

As a long time consumer of your fine cuisine, I was wondering if you'd consider making a product called "Just the Meatballs" -because I would totally buy it. Plus it would save me the time of picking them out of your various soups.


Dear Lucky Charms,

Ditto for "Just the Marshmallows."

 

Not Prejudice

HER
That awful woman on the phone just now? She was Greek. I could tell. You know how crazy those Greeks are. They're nuts. All of them. There's something wrong with those Greeks.

ME
You think everyone who isn't your nationality is crazy.

HER
That's not true! Don't say that! You know I don't think that way. I know there are crazy people in my nationality too! I would never be so stupid as to think everyone from my nationality was a saint. There are people from my country who I'd never want as neighbors. So don't say that about me. I am not that kind of person. I'm smarter than that. I'm not ignorant.

- But there's a horrible Greek woman where I work too and she's completely nuts, all those Greeks are...

(Someday I'll tell you about how she and her husband figured out that "the Jews" were responsible for 9/11...)

 

Timing

I know my posts have been a bit short. There's a reason for that. I'm not typing these on my regular computer. I'm typing on my older computer and it's a bit cumbersome. But at least I am fortunate enough to have an older computer that I can use as a backup.

As for my regular computer... today it looked like this:




which is a step up from the completely white screen from a few days ago, and/or the screen that was filled with nothing but vertical lines. Now I can actually see some icons and alert boxes ...in duplicate.

Note to self: Do not break computer 2 days into NABLOPOMO.


 

The Remote

I used to wish that I had a zapper to zap people I hated to... well...  "The Aisle of people I hate."

It'd be like a tv remote. I'd carry it with me and I could just zap people as I went. Point.... zap. No fuss. No drama. Just gone from this existence and banished to a place where they could all annoy and aggravate each other. They'd deserve that. And of course, they could never ever leave. 

But then, I thought it through a bit more (as I do with all my insane fantasies) and I realized what would happen next. -Someone would get ahold of my remote and zap ME to that other world which would be populated ONLY by people I hate and can't stand  -and I would never ever be able to leave.

 

I'm eating Halloween candy

Not candy I got trick or treating.

Not candy left over from a lack of trick or treaters.

- Candy I just bought myself a bag of because it's 50% off.

(Yes, I'll wait while you get yours.)

 

Subtle (NOT)

The problem with telling someone that you think their 16 year old son is really cute - a kid who, while adorable, is young enough to be YOUR son- is that that same person could gleefully turn around a few days later and say "Look! He's here! Your crush! Honey, this is the lady I was telling you about! She loves you! She thinks you're great!"

- I quickly jumped in and said "Don't say that!  You'll embarrass.... HIM." 

 

You know you're having a bad day when...


The boring bloody game that your friend's son is playing, full of senseless violence and carnage that you'd normally turn away from, is suddenly appealing. Especially when you hear your formerly pacifist self saying "What'd she do? Oh well get her then. She had it coming."

Other key phrases from the conversation:

"That's me? My life sensor is on my back? Who planned that?"

"Where'd all the monsters come from? Maybe they're the good guys, ever think of that?"

"I need a weapon? What do you mean I need a weapon. I don't have one? Why the hell don't I have a weapon?

What do you mean I didn't know what I was walking into?

What?

I was called to the station for an emergency but I didn't know what it was?

Ok, but within seconds a quarantine and lockdown protocol was initiated. And those protocols generally exist in places that expect trouble. And I was called to this place for an "unknown" emergency, but I entered without a weapon??? Sounds like SOMEBODY needs to go back to training!!!

What?

- I didn't think I'd need a weapon because I'm only a technician?

I don't care! Didn't you say we're in space? Has NOBODY studied their 'away mission protocols!!!???'

-Amateurs."

 

Mom

My mom wanted to show me what had graced her door for Halloween.

"They're twins!" she proclaimed, holding them up to her webcam. -My mom is a twin, so I asked, "Which one is you?" Her reply: "The prettier one."




 

I peed in a bag

I needed to use the bathroom, it was occupied, so I peed in a bag. Two bags actually. I wanted to be extra sure everything would stay "enclosed." I've thought about doing this many times. I even discussed it with people -who confessed that they'd done this when things got desperate and that it was no big deal. And yet... I never did it. Until now. And you know what? I felt SO MUCH BETTER. It's WAY better than the alternative. I will be peeing in bags  from now on. And if I ever visit you at your home, and you're taking too long in the bathroom, I will pee in a bag in your home too.

PS: When I was having trouble coming up with a name for this blog, I almost decided to name it after my first post. But since this was originally going to be my first post, I chose otherwise.

 

What I can, when I can

First posts... so much pressure!

A little about me. I won't be able to make a commitment to this blog. If you need stability in your blog reading, it might be best for you to pass on this blog. But I will do what I can, when I can, and if that means I skip a day, or a month, or a year, or more, then that's what it's going to be.

To anyone who may read here regularly and be disappointed by that, and might even think someday "Well yeah I read that, but I didn't think it applied to me!" I apologize now, in advance. Consider yourself -hmmm.... "warned" sounds so ominous. How about "Consider yourself informed."

Still here?

Great! Welcome! I love company. Pull up a chair! Oh... I see you already have one :)