Dress

Mila
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Roland's dad sent of over some of the pictures he took at Disney last week. This is one of Mila in a dress that I made! I'm so glad that it worked out that she was the right size in the right season. The day she wore this we went over into Mickey's Toon Town Fair to visit the play area and fountain there. And a lady even asked to take a picture of the dress so she could ask her mother to make one for her daughter. Too bad the place where I found this fabric went out of business.

Pudding

Pudding
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Roland and I got home yesterday from another trip to Disney. We spent a little time there with his Mom, Dad, sister, niece, and brother-in-law. It was a nice trip, although on the hot side. We don't usually visit this time of year and I had forgotten just how hot it can get out there in the sun. I much prefer the cooler months for waling around so much.

This was taken at the restaurant in Italy. Mila got the chocolate pudding with bananas. At first she didn't realize there were bananas in there, but when she did she ditched the spoon and went face first into the dish. It was awesome.

Whimsy

While we were at Disney I discovered a few more things to play with on my camera and one of them is a monochrome filter. So I took some pictures with it while we were there. When I was looking at them today to decide which one to put in my blog post I decided on this one. Part of that decision is probably because I miss him a great deal right now. It just doesn't seem fair that either I have to miss my family and friends, or I have to miss Roland. *pout* Anyway, here he is waiting for a motor coach back to our hotel at Epcot.

Thus ends the great Food and Wine Festival epic of aught seven.

Your Kerrygold, Sir

About half way through our vacation Roland's parents came down for a visit of their own. They stayed on after we left so the days where we were both there we got together. They flew in late one afternoon and got to their room around 7:30 or so, I think. Then they came over to MGM , where we had told them we were visiting that day and we actually ran into them in the street! I guess that's why it's handy to have a husband who is over 6 foot and has red hair. Pretty easy to pick him out of a crowd. Although this is also the reason why when ever there is a show that involves volunteers from the audience my husband disappears. Suddenly and without explanation. Anyhow, the first full day they were there we went over to the Food and Wine Festival again and tried some more food. In this picture Roland's mom is holding a packet of Irish butter so he can spread it on his bread. She said it had been a while since she had to do something like that for Roland :)

The next day we headed over to the Magic Kingdom and I actually managed to get a decent picture of the castle when there weren't too many people in front of it. I thought it turned out pretty well. There is a bit of a shadow on the lower half of the castle, but all in all, quite satisfactory.

Giraffe

This was one of the pictures I took on the safari ride at the Animal Kingdom (check out my flickr account for a few more). We actually saw more animals this time than any other time we have been at Disney. I guess Jason was a good luck charm! It also helps that it was starting to get cooler in the day time so the animals didn't have to hightail it back to the shade quite so early in the day. I especially liked this one of a baby giraffe. I tried to take it when you could quite see the Disney cheating, but if you look at the tree you can sort of still see where there is a feeding trough attached to the back of the trunk.

Green Archer needs food badly

One of our evenings was spent over at Downtown Disney. I think it was the day we spent in the Magic Kingdom. There are only a few places at the Magic Kingdom that we would choose to eat for dinner and one of them was where we had lunch and the other is seasonally closed. Most of the other places aren't terribly remarkable or have gone to character dinners that we try to avoid if possible. They tend to have way more kids around and be buffet style.

Anyhow, we arrived about 15 minutes before we were supposed to be at Raglan Road (our Downtown Disney restaurant of choice) so we meandered over to the arcade that was across the way from the restaurant. And low and behold we found this...Gauntlet: Legends. My all time favorite video game. I actually have this game for the PS2, but they changed it a bunch from this arcade game so I don't like it nearly as much. The next one they put out, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, is far more like the arcade version of Legends and hence far better. Upon spying this gem tucked away in the back of the arcade I made everyone play with me. Being Downtown Disney the machine took quarters, which was nice because we didn't have to go get tokens anywhere. It was a blast, but alas, before long we had to get on over for our dinner, but man was that a good time. It was especially nice because Roland and Jason are the ones who I used to play this game with in the first place.

As I mentioned our dinner was at Raglan Road. A seriously fine Irish Pub. When we have been there before it has been too early for the live entertainment so this time we specifically set a time that was late enough to catch the band and Irish dancer. And both were outstanding! We got seated directly in front of the band and I was a little worried about the volume, but it wasn't a problem at all. The Irish dancer danced very well and had a lot of single guy admirers (some of whom had a few beers under their belts I'm sure). Ragland Road has two beer flights and Roland got one while and Jason opted for the other. Then they decided that they each wanted another so they switched. For dinner I got the Guiness Stew, which was really quite good. Dessert was some bread pudding with two drizzling sauces. I think Jason like the sauces better than the pudding and after the pudding was gone ate all the rest of the left over sauces by themselves. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

Please stand clear of the doors

Another day at Disney World we went over to the Magic Kingdom. Apparently Jason had to conquer Space Mountain after a harrowing experience with it a couple of decades ago. He aquitted himself well, and also rode the other two mountains. Here you can see Roland and the back half of Jason's head (sorry about that dude) in the second row of the coaster. I didn't particulaly wan't to ride this one at the time, and this roller coaster happens to have a sweet picture taking spot. It's at the very end of the ride and the train is heading into the ending depot, but the track is designed so that if you watch you can identify which train your party is in and then be ready for a picture when they come back around. I'm not sure they did it that way on purpose, but given the thought they put into everything else at Disney, I'd have to guess that would be a yes.

After Splash Mountain we found were a bit wet (some more than others, sorry J) so we spent about a half an hour drying off. The place we found to dry off used to have tables in it, but they have since disappeared. On the up side it was right next to the Dole Whip joint so Roland and Jason both indulged in a Dole Whip Float. Over in Tomorrowland we went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger spin and Jason tore it up! He always has been good at those shooting games. Apparently they are building a similar ride over at MGM with the other characters of Toy Story. I'm under the impression that it will be more along the lines of old school midway games rather than space themed blasters though. In other MGM news apparently they are going to be changing the name of it? I still find it hard to believe, but they are going to change it to Disney's Hollywood or something like that. Wierd.

On a silly note, on the monorail they repeat this phase (after the English version) at every stop. So even people who don't know Spanish, like Roland and I, get to know it pretty well. Roland has been saying it for a long time now at totally random times and places. Apparently he is not alone because now they have a t-shirt with it on it! I thought it was very funny, so I took a picture of it. The other wierd thing about it is that the voice on the monorail sounds a lot like Phil Hartman.

Aperitif

I think our vacation with Jason can be officially reported as a success. Every time we go somewhere with Jason I am reminded how vacationally compatible we are. We seem to move at the same pace and enjoy the same things. I just hope Jason feels the same! We had a lovely time wandering around enjoying good food and wine and not feeling the need to be on the go all the time and seeing every last ounce of Disney.

We started at Epcot this time. Usually when we have new people with us we like to start at the Magic Kingdom because that is the epitome of Disney. However, since we were all about the Food and Wine Festival this time we made an exception and started at Epcot. Pictured above, Jason bravely tries the Beverly, one of the interesting sodas of the world available at what used to be called Ice Station Cool. Then we moved on to the World Showcase and started eating our way around the world. It was very nice and the food was great. We also tried some interesting wines/drinks from other countries. I got to try some of the ice wine this year. I liked it, but I don't think we will be shelling out the money for any!

We were able to watch the candy lady in Japan, which is one of my favorite activities. And, thanks to Roland I was lucky enough to get a hummingbird from her. We also saw some of the bands around the world, including MoRockin' (I think Jason enjoyed the belly dancer), the British Invasion, and Off Kilter. I made everyone stop for a show with the Voices of Liberty too. Since Jason is a diver, we made arrangements for all of us to dive in the Living Seas. It was awesome, and neat to be able to show Jason. I think he agrees that the best part is playing with the people! Although many of the kids are a little freaked out when you come up to them. We were pretty lucky and the wildlife was fairly active while we were diving. A green sea turtle swam right up to us and gave Jason a good looking-over. After that it was over to the Rose and Crown for dinner. Roland and Jason both had the fish and chips (and I snitched a bit) and a beer flight. Add the Illuminations show and sticky toffee pudding for dessert and it was a wonderful evening.

Just stay between the green lines

We have returned. We spent a lovely week at Disney World soaking up the Food and Wine Festival. Jason came down to join us (woot!) and this year we actually participated in some of the events rather than just eating ourselves around the world. Although, we did eat ourselves around the world a good three time...just to make sure we got everything. As an added bonus Dave's parents flew down on Thursday for a vacation of their own so we got to see them as well. They are actually flying back on Wednesday, when I fly up to Michigan and they are going to meet me at the airport and drive me back to Muskegon with them. Then I'm going to spend some time with Dave's fam and my Mom is going to come pick me up there on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing how much Mila has grown and hopefully I'll be able to spend a little time with Ryan and Laura while I'm in North Muskegon. Then I will be in Big Rapids and with a little luck will be able to borrow a car to be able to drive to see Henry and Katie in Grand Rapids, and down to Kalamazoo to see Jason and get back Roland's coat that he left there over a year ago (not much need for a winter jacket here in Florida). Who know's maybe I'll even get to see Shannon and Ronda!

Anyhow, there will be more posts about the Food and Wine Festival soon, along with some pictures!

World

I uploaded some more pictures from my Dad. This set is from Epcot, which we visited for two days on our vacation.


How does he do it? Another picture that looks like it should be a postcard.


Back in the World Showcase we saw some of the various performers, including the group that plays in the restaurant in Germany. They were one of the reasons I wanted to eat there with my parents.


And my personal favorite, the candy lady, Myuki. She makes these fantastic animals out of candy. Here she is making an octopus.


Roland and I also did the scuba thing and my Dad got this picture of me waving to them.


I took a piture of this green heron as well, but my Dad's is clearly superior.


We also ate dinner at the Rose and Crown one evening and I got something called a blue glowtini, which featured a glowing cube.


The theme of this years flower and garden festival was pirates, so the topiaries in Epcot were thusly attired.

Nerf Herder at 12 O'Clock

For pictures from MGM, again from the photo-master: Dad.


Another postcard worthy shot.


Here was a shot that really did the forced perspective in MGM proud. It looks pretty real from here huh?


One of my favorite shots of the entire vacation. I love it when my Dad gets silly.

Via Dad

I got some pictures from my Dad! Here are a few from the Magic Kingdom that were fun.


Is this not a beautiful shot of the castle? It looks like it could be a postcard. He also took another really nice one that includes the bottom of the castle, but of course there are people in that one, and this one had a better blue sky behind it.


I think this was while Mom and I were waiting for Roland and Dad to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I was holding onto Dad's camera bag for him and decided to try out his camera (which is totally awesome).


Dad and Goofy!


Oh Noes! Watch out for Emperor Zurg!

Engage

The third and fifth days were spent at Epcot. Here is where I hope to get a lot of pictures from my Dad. He took some really sharp ones of all the topiaries they have for the Flower and Garden Festival. Again, my pictures were mostly of people.


Mom and Dad over by Minnie's Butterfly House.


A green heron we saw in the ponds of China.


My parents in Germany where we ate lunch one day.


My parents in Germany when my Dad thought I wasn't ready with the camera yet.

Epcot was wonderful, as usual, my parents enjoyed Soarin' and the food was great. I think my favorite meal of the entire trip this time was the one we had at Bistro de Paris. I think I almost died over the dessert there. It's a tad on the expensive side, but boy howdy was it good. We also dined at the Rose and Crown and saw the Illuminations show from there. If you're very lucky (and Dad sends it to me) I'll even post a picture of my drink with the glow-in-the-dark ice cube. We also got to share our diving experience with my parents. I'm not sure what they thought, but it was fun to see them on the other side of the acrylic.

We also went to the Animal Kingdom for a day. It was by far the most crowded day. I'm not sure if we accidentally hit an extra magic hour morning or something, but it was a lot fuller than the other parks. Again, my Dad has even better pictures than mine, but here are some I took during the Safari drive.


I'm not sure, but I think this is the first time I've seen the mandrills out and about.






Various ruminants grazing on a hillside.


Some scimitar horned oryx lounging about.



All in all it was a fantastic trip. I think my parents were pleasantly suprised that the scope and quality of the whole operation. It was a hard sell to get them to come for as long as they did, but I'm glad they decided to. I'm not sure what I would have cut out!

Initial

You may have read we had a wonderful time at Disney with my parents. It was very cool to be able to share with them a place that I find fun and entertaining. Plus since I got my love of edutainment from them, they didn't even mind spending our extra time at Epcot (my favorite park). I think they really enjoyed themselves which is a relief since I wasn't sure they would dig it. They were totally able to embrace their inner silly!

As Roland mentioned the weather couldn't have been nicer, I think we saw it sprinkle once or twice, but we were at our hotel at the time. Temperature-wise, it got warm a few days, but nothing like what I was expecting. We also didn't really have to wait for much, by using the fastpass we were able to skip to the head of the line for the rides that were very busy, but other than that, we pretty much walked into most things, including the monorail and buses! My parents need to come visit some more, they are like a good luck charm or something. :)

Let's see, we started out at Magic Kingdom, because...well because it's the Magic Kingdom. I think my parents got off on the right foot because on our inaugural stroll down main street we ran into a sax quartet and a barber shop group. My dad has some pictures that I'm trying to weasel out of him to post here (plus I want to print some out to put in my Disney photo album). I did get a few pictures, but Dad has a mega-sweet camera and even if he had a disposable, he takes way better pictures that I could ever hope to. My pictures at the Magic Kingdom are of our little group: by Thunder Mountain, by the Tiki (tiki-tiki-tiki-tiki) Room, and just a random place in the middle of the park.


Here are my Dad, Roland (not looking entirely comfortable), and my Mom


My Dad, me, and my Mom.


My Mom and Dad being a little silly (yay).

At the Magic Kingdom I think my parents really liked Mickey's Philharmagic and my Dad like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain. I was still to chicken to go on either.

The next day we headed over to MGM Studios. I'm not sure what they liked the best here, but I think my Dad really like the Rockin' Rollercoaster and the Star Tours ride. Unfortunately we didn't get time to go on the Great Movie ride, but we did go to the Fantasmic show, which is one of my favorite things at Disney.


Roland with my Dad and Mom waiting for Lights, Motors, Action to start.


My Dad on a speeder, although my Mom took a better picture that I hope to be able to post soon.

At MGM the good luck of having my parents with us really shown. Seriously, somehow it worked out that we would see Lights, Motors, Action walk over and sit down just as the Indian Jones Stunt Spectactular was starting and then head over in time to only wait like 10 minutes for Beauty and the Beast. It was crazy. I think the only show we didn't catch was the Little Mermaid.

Well, this is getting to be very long, so I think I will pause here and pick the story back up in another post.

Gone

We're off to see Disney World! I'm super excited to see my parents and hopefully share the wonder that I felt when Dave showed Disney to me. I think Dave is most excited about being able to splurge a little after our rather strict adherence to the diet eating plan. I'll admit that I am going to eat a dessert or two myself. I'm going to try to be reasonable about it, but we will just have to see how that goes...

Rama

My Mom emailed me the other day to ask for a packing list of the stuff I usually take to Disney World. I sent her one yesterday and it helped me realize, I get to see my parents in about 2 and half weeks! Yay for parents coming to visit. Yay for parents coming to visit at Disney World! I really hope they have as magical a time as I did when Roland took me for our honeymoon. I'm super excited about staying someplace new and being on the monorail line again - so convenient. We also have plans to eat at a couple new places which should be fun and exciting. Although I think Roland is still most excited about Boma, which we are going to for dinner on the day Mom and Dad arrive. Since it is way over in the Animal Kingdom Lodge and we would have to make a trek to get there from any park, we thought we would just drive straight there from our resort making the whole thing easier. Sometimes it is nice to have a car at Disney, but hey that's what they have us for.

I also got a call from my Sistrah, who would love to plan a trip down to Disney World this year as well. Apparently she got to go the Animal Kingdom for a meal at some confernece, but they just marched in, ate, and marched out. I'm not sure if they will be able to come this year because they have all sorts of other things they have to work out (it being her first year in a new job and all). But I'm hoping they can come this fall. First of all, four words: Food and Wine Festival. Second, the weather will finally be turning nice again in mid October though early November. Lastly, that would allow us to get the best use of our annual passes this year and then we could not renew them again to save a little money next year. Who knows, we will just have to wait and find out.

Promising

As Roland mentioned. My parents are coming down in May and we are going to meet them at Disney World. This will be their first trip to Disney World so I'm am geeked to show them around a place that I think is fun, but worried that they totally won't grok it. Since this is their first trip I'm not sure how much extra stuff we will do (tours and whatnot), but I'm thinking that Roland and I will go diving and we will probably go see La Nouba. The diving allows me to share my hobby with my parents a little bit, so that will be cool. And who knows with my Dad's camera skills maybe we can get a picture?

Delay

It's been a while since I posted last so I have a few drawings I've completed.

Daisy


Goofy


Pluto

Tough

Last night and tonight I drew Donald Duck. He turned out alright although the full body one is sort of wonky.

Splorch

Today I ran a bunch of errands including ordering a Kapoosh for Roland's new knives and visiting pretty much every store in the area that sells fabric. I'm on the hunt for some fabric to match some that I found at Walmart. The stuff at Walmart is one of the fabrics that Marcie really likes from the picture on a McCalls pattern. Unfortunately I can't find the main fabrics, only the one (4374-B) used on the crib skirt and the crib caddy. I also found some in a different series that I kind of like, but I'm not sure I like it as much as the My Blue Heaven ones. They are much darker and I think I like the lighter better. I also refinished our butcher block cutting board after I got home, so Roland should be in cutting heaven now.

This evening I had some more time to draw. They turned out pretty well, but somehow the full body pose turned into baby Minnie. I'm not sure which proportion is wrong, but she definitely looks like baby Minnie.

Voila

For Christmas I recieved some learn to draw books and a really nice Mickey Mouse sketch book. Tonight I cracked one open and drew a little. What do you think?



UPDATE: Anne asked if my sketch book has a cool cover, and low and behold it does.


Also Karl insinuated that I traced my Mickeys to which I have only one reply...ptthhhhbbbt!!!!

Honey is not made from nuts

Time for the food low-down. Here are a lot of the dishes we tried, however, Roland ate some things that I didn't so you will have to bug him for his input to be fully informed. This list includes items from all three* of our shared meals around the world.

From Argentina - Marinated Strawberries with Basil. Good, but the basil was very powerful, mostly just a cup of strawberries.

From Scandinavia - Kjottkaker (meatball thingy) and Lingonberry Mousse. The Kjottkaker was quite good, but the mousse stole the show for me. Somewhat sweet, somewhat tart, all super light and fluffy.

From China - Pot Stickers, Carmel Ginger Ice Cream, and a green tea plum wine cooler. The pot stickers were the only item I went back for seconds on. Seriously a must. The ice cream was okay for me, but Roland l-o-v-e loved it. We both enjoyed the plum wine. It was quite sweet, but light and refreshing.

From Thailand - Sweet Mango and Tapioca Soup. Awesome. This was a dessert soup, served cold and like the plum wine light and refreshing. Considering I don't really care for mango or tapioca I'm not sure why I like this soup, but it was great.

From Australia - Grilled Lamb Chop with Carmelized Onions. This was all me baby, I enjoy lamb a lot and Roland does not so when I get a chance to try some new lamb dishes I'm all for it. You may notice this a little later in the list. This was a small chop with a tangy sauce. Very good and very easy to eat while walking.

From Octoberfest - Pretzle Roll with Sauerkraut and Debreziner Sausage. I actually liked what they had here last year a little better, but this was delicious too. It was especially good with a little mustard.

From the Hops and Barley Markey - New England Crab Cake with Barley Salad. I liked this one a lot. The crab cake was tasty and the barley salad was served cold and made a nice contrast to the cake. Thumbs up.

From USA - Maine Lobster Roll and Blackberry cobbler. The lobster roll was served cold and I think since I was expecting it to be warm this was a bit of a let down. I'm not sure how I would have graded it if I had been expecting cold. It was good and all, just not what I had in mind. The cobbler was good, but the portion was a bit small.

From India - Curried Butternut Squash Soud with Naan Bread (although they were out of bread so I just had the soup). One of my favorite things. Seriously delicious. I wish I had a recipe for this, I would make it...a lot. The curry sort of cut down the natural sweetness that is usual for a butternut squash soup making it downright near perfect.

From Turkey - Vine Leaves Stuffed with Rice. Meh, this was pretty bland. It needed some sort of dipping sauce or drizzle to make it worth getting.

From France - Chausson au Frommage de Chevre. This was okay. The goat cheese was great but the pastry was a little on the greasy side. I'm glad I tried it, but I'm also glad that Roland ate more than half of it.

From Ireland - Potato and Leek Soup with Dubliner Irish Cheese Crisp and Lamb, Bacon, and Cabbage Stew with a Kerrygold Butter Scone. The soup? Big disappointment. I assumed this was the same potato and leek soup from last year and from the Rose and Crown. Nope. *pout*
The stew? Fabulous. Loved it and the buttery scone was awesome too.

From Poland - Beef Cabbage Roll, Kielbasa and Potato Pierogies, a Paczki, and some Rasberry wine. The first two were great I especially liked the pierogies. The plum paczki was a dissapointment because it barely had any filling. Seriously, I think they had a paszki filling breakdown. The wine was also nice.

From Canada - Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup and Maple Custard topped with Almond Crunch. I started drooling just typing in the name of the cheese soup. Yep it's that good. Roland really liked the custard, but I only had a little taste. Not my favorite.

From New Zealand - Lamb Slider and a Kiwi and Custard Roll. Both awesome. The slider was on a fairly dry roll, but the lamb and juices made it just perfect.


*Three meals? Yeah, and we still didn't get to everything.

Flight

Roland and I have returned from an awesome weekend at Disney World. It turned out to be one of the best trips yet. We chose this time because it was the Food and Wine Festival, because it was the annual passholder preview of the new Living Seas ride, and because we are getting into the "less hot" time of the year. We dropped Bleys off at the vet (where we board him) on Thursday morning and drove up to Disney. We visited the Magic Kingdom after we got there and then, following a lovely day there, we hopped over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma. Just as good as last time, it was an awesome dinner. The soups and salads are my favorites there.

On Friday we spent the day at Epcot, which is probably my favorite park. We started by riding the new ride I mentioned earlier. They reused the path of the old ride that used to be in there, but totally redid it. New cars (clamobiles), new stuff to look at, and some wicked awesome visuals. Then we did lunch around the world showcase with all the wonderful foods. I love that you can get little samples of a bunch of different foods. When Roland and I share each thing it means we get to try a lot of different stuff without overeating. Check back soon for a post soon about all the great food. After lunch we rode some of the other rides, Soarin' and Spaceship Earth among others. Then we went diving and it probably the best dive there yet. The water was a little murky because of the recent construction, but murky at Disney means instead of unlimited viz you might only have 100' viz (rough life isn't it?). The guide who led the tour before the dive was nice and showed us a ton of stuff, the divemasters were great and the animals were extremely active. I ended up an arms length above the very large shark and all of the turtles were out and visible. We were also in the first dive group of the evening and so not too long after feeding time. Apparently one of the fish didn't get enough because my D-rings were irresistible and he followed me around for quite some time nibbling at them. We were lucky because our group was only 6 people and the next group was 11 or 12. Even so, the other four were a bit of a pain. There were very good at not paying attention to their fellow divers (me). It's really not that hard to stay at least a few inches away from other people so as not to kick them and whatnot. Then again they were all pretty flail-y in the water so they were probably not terribly experienced.

Saturday we went to MGM and then Pleasure Island for dinner. MGM was sweet as always. We saw the Lights, Motors, Action show and the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. I made Roland go do the drawing thing three times and we got to draw Mickey, Winnie the Pooh, and as a surprise the last time we got to do Stitch! Way cool (for nerds like me). Dinner was at Raglan Road, which is the new Irish Pub over at PI. It was very good although I wasn't feeling super great so I only got a salad. Guess I'll have to go back. Then today we slept late, checked out and went over to Epcot for one last go at the Food and Wine Festival. I think we tasted most everything that was on our must have list, but we did have to leave quite a few untasted. Ah well.

Conflicted

So do you want the Good News or the Bad News first? The Bad News, okay then. I was at the vet yesterday and Bleys has a heart murmur. This is very common in Cavaliers (like hip dysplasia in labs) but I was hoping we would put it off for another couple of years. We are still in the diagnosis phase at the moment. They did some initial blood work yesterday and we are going in again today for some more specific stuff. Hopefulyl I will have a full diagnosis soon and we can start on whatever meds are appropriate.

Since I'm very carefully not thinking about the implications of so early a heart murmur, my biggest issue right now is that I'm getting shuffled of on a different vet today for the appointment. This happened earlier this year but the problem wasn't a big one (even a vet tech could have taken care of it) so I didn't mind. However, I went out of my way to find a vet that had extensive experience with Cavaliers. I got recommendations from local Cavalier breeders and showers and visited a bunch of vet offices to find one that suited me. I also drive about an hour to get there each time. I guess you could say I'm kind of picky, but after Doc how could I not be? Anyway, for now I'm going to assume that they just wanted to get all this preliminary stuff done as fast as possible, but when it comes down to cases I'm going to need to have my one vet or I'm going to need to find a different facility.

Speaking of Doc though, I did email her about getting a dental scraper for Bleys' teeth (which are not responding to the tooth brush so much anymore) and so maybe she will be able to shed some light onto the situation when I have some more information. I can't tell you how thankful I am that I have that connection. Being about to order stuff that isn't readily available to the general public is such a life saver. Thank you Doc! I miss you.

Okay onto the good news. For the past year Roland and I have had Florida Annual Passes to Disney World. For any who don't know, this means you pay a certain amount for a year long pass to get in the parks. There are a bunch of other perks as well, including cheaper room rates (especially in the off season), special deals they email you about, and currently the most important, you get into new/refurbished attractions early during special Passholder Events. We took advantage of this before Expedition Everest opened. The passholders got to go back over there and check out the area and ride the coaster during a special weekend a few weeks before it opened to the general public. That was mostly for Roland (I'm not so keen on roller coasters), but now it's MY turn. When our passes expire at the end of October we are planning on letting them lapse to save some money. We have visited Disney a lot this past year so taking some time off isn't so bad. However, one of my favorite things at Disney, the Living Seas, has been under refurbishment for over a year and is set to open in November. Grrrr, I thought I was going to miss it. However, we just got an email that they are having an annual passholder preview in mid-October. Woot! Not only will I get to see the Living Seas that is smack in the middle of the Food and Wine Festival that Roland and I love so much. Plus it is in the off season so there will be less crowds and the temperatures will be going down so it won't be quite so hot! I doesn't get much better than that! I'm very excited. Couldn't tell, could you?

Now with 27% more sequins

Another thing I noticed this trip was that Disney has been quietly updating some of their attractions. Well one of them not so quietly. They did update Pirates of the Caribbean and re-opened it when Dead Man’s Chest opened and they made sure everyone knew about that. The update there primarily involved putting audio-animatronic Captain Jack Sparrows in the ride (3 of them). They also added a really cool mist effect at the beginning with Davy Jones made the music better (remastered maybe?) and added some of the music from the new movies. All in all a very nice upgrade. What I hadn't heard anything about but immediately noticed was they have made some improvements to Fantasmic. Most of these changes are in the form of new costumes (Prince Eric's pants were blinding) and different Dragon wings, they also painted the mesh backdrop and changed some of the movie portions. They also freshened up the black light paint on the snake, which I had noticed last time was a little worse for wear. I also noticed that they changed the ending movies at the Great Movie Ride. They added some Pirates and some Narnia among others. I don't know the old one well enough to know what got cut out though. It was nice to see that they are always making improvements.

Buffet Madness

One thing we made a point to do this trip was to try some new restaurants. My favorite find was the place we went for our actual anniversary, Boma. It is a buffet style joint over at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We went to Jiko over there on our honeymoon and really enjoyed it but this time we decided to try Boma. Between us I'm pretty sure we tried almost every dish and I liked every last one of them. Some seriously good food. Some of my favorite items were the butternut squash and creamy corn soups, the calamari and curry noodle salads, the bobotie, the entire dessert table, and a bunch of other stuff. Then to add to the awesomeness of the evening our waitress brought us a special dessert for our anniversary. It was a square platter with some small specialty cookies and truffles and with Happy Anniversary written on it in chocolate, sprinkled with teeny tiny Mickey Mouse shaped sprinkles. It was a fantastic evening and I totally loved it. I highly recommend it.

One of the other new places we tried this time was also a buffet. We tried out the Biergarten over at the Germany Pavilion in Epcot. It was also very good (although my mom makes a better Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte - I think they didn't use any Kirsch or something. I especially enjoyed the various wurst and the braised red cabbage was good as well. It is family seating which means that your party will most likely be sitting with another family. The tables seat eight and they try to fill those up as much as possible. I think I would recommend going for dinner (we went for lunch) because then more people would be up for getting the giant liter sized beers that would be sure to liven up things. They had a good quartet that played a set during the meal including bells and Alphorn. They were quite good and even took a request from someone near the front. Our waitress even told them it was our anniversary and they gave us a toast.

It's just a different style

One of my favorite things this time was back at MGM again. They have this attraction back behind The Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney: Live on Stage called The Magic of Disney Animation. You can watch a short bit where a cast member interacts with Mushu to explain how characters come to life for a movie and then you can go through an exhibit about animators and characters. Then at the end you can go through a short little learn to draw a character segment. A person sits up front and goes through step by step how to draw a character. You can see how he or she does it on a camera and you try to imitate him/her. It lasts about 9 minutes and you have to be quick to keep up, and as I mentioned before they don't give you an eraser.

Now let's get something straight right here and now. I don't draw well. Never have, doubt I ever will. But I love this attraction. I don't care if half of my Pooh was totally bigger than the other so he looked a little trippy. I got to draw Pooh! Some of the young people (mostly middle/high school girls) get very upset if their drawing isn't up to snuff, but I eat this up. The bonus part is you can just do the drawing thing without sitting through the other stuff. I'’m afraid I made Roland do this a number of times while we were there. I got to draw Goofy, Pooh, and Minnie Mouse! It was awesome.

Thank you for asking

Later in the day at MGM we went to the Brown Derby for dinner. This is our favorite restaurant in MGM and they have the Fantasmic dinner package so that is a bonus. We don't really dig having to get to the theater and sit there for 2 hours so the reserved seating is definitely the way to go.

It was still in season so Roland ordered the gazpacho (which may well be his favorite thing at Disney World) and I had the crab cake for an appetizer. For dinner he had a pork dish with a delectable cheese fondue drizzled over the top while I enjoyed the grouper with onion marmalade. For dessert I tried the flourless chocolate cake and Roland went for some cheesecake. All of it wonderful. In the middle of dinner our waiter appeared with two glasses of champagne each with a strawberry on it. Once again to help us celebrate our anniversary. The best part? The waiter made me show my ID before he would give me champagne.

Tom

As I mentioned before we decided to try the ABC Commissary for lunch at MGM. We had never eaten there before and thought it sounded like a good option among the counter service restaurants. We walked in and began to contemplate the menu. We were just finishing the decision to get two different options to share and moving on to deciding which two options we wanted to share when a cast member approached us. He asked if we were on our honeymoon (I was wearing my Minnie bride ears, which Roland bought for me), and we told him we were celebrating our 5th anniversary and he offered his congratulations on that and the fact that we still looked like we were very happy together. He then asked if we needed any help with the menu, which is what I think he came out for in the first place. Perhaps it was in response to the new and interesting things people might not be familiar with. We thanked Tom, picked our options, and proceeded to eat our very good food. As we were finishing up our meal Tom appeared at our table with two chocolate mousse cups to help us celebrate our anniversary. He was so sweet and so sincere it really made