Go

Would you like a peek at the car made for the live action Speed Racer movie? Of course you would.

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.

Butter

A few more plants on my balcony have bloomed a bit. There is a pale yellow calla with a tiny bit of pink/orange on the edges. Kind of reminds me of the Peace rose that my mom likes.




And some beautiful red gloxinia which I like because of the contrast between the red and the white and the fact that it looks so velvety and soft. I also planted some other gloxinias but one of them hasn't bloomed yet and the third doesn't seem to be doing very well at all.

On the way

Okay it's been a while. The only things I've really posted since getting back from our fantabulous vacation with my parents have been quizes and memes. After some prompting (Hi Anne, Hi Karl's mom ;) I've finally gotten around to starting to explain the awesomeness that was our trip to Disney. Unfortunately it's taking me a while to get it all typed out and the pictures processed and what not. Hopefully I will have a post for you tomorrow!

Date

My walks are getting fewer and farther between as the temperature rises. I'm currently getting up around 7:00 to beat the heat, but it's catching up with me. Here are a couple of palm trees I noticed the other day.

You see a lot of palms down here are aren't coconut palms, so here is one that actually is a coconut palm with coconuts to prove it.


And the other is a different kind of palm with the cool cross-hatch bark. It has some ferns growing out of it that I thought looked pretty sweet.

Where are the reindeer?

In the program I assist with sometimes at the nature center we talk a bit about lichen. Usually we talk about it in the hardwood hammock habitat, but here is some growing on a tree along my route.

Duck!

Tagged by Alien Ted.


The first rule of the game is to post the rules of the game. Here they are:

* Each player starts with eight random facts/habits.
* People who are tagged need to write posts on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
* At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.


1. I have very sensitive eyes. I usually have at least one bottle of eye drops on me at all times. I even have a brand preference.

2. I now blow dry my dog after a bath. He doesn't care for it. Feel free to shake your head at me on this one. His allergies since moving to Florida are a lot worse and leaving him wet leads to all sorts of biting and itching and possibly a trip to the vet.

3. My favorite genres for reading are sci-fi and fantasy. I also enjoy the occasional romance novel (although it is a bit difficult to find the ones that are written well enough to stomach) they are perfect for reading by the pool or at the beach. I blame Kate Leggett for this habit.

4. I would really like to try a new hair style, but am too chicken to do it. Am I afraid it won't look good? Not so much as that I won't have the first clue what to do with it. I haven't ever really had a hair cut that involved styling. Also, I can't seem to find a stylist that I like down here.

5. I am so thankful I found a fellow like Roland. He is my perfect companion and even loves me for me nerdly-ness not in spite of it.

6. My parents still have an operational rotary phone in their home. Do you remember how long it takes you to dial a long distance number on one of those babies?

7. I like chocolate. I like it a lot. I recently tried a new restaurant and as part of a dessert I ordered there was chocolate mint soup. It. Was. Awesome. I think it may be my favorite dessert evar.

8. I've tried very hard to like beer and wine, but I just can't seem to do it. Coffee either for that matter. This worries me about traveling to Europe.

I tag only in the you-can-if-you-want-to-but-feel-free-to-ignore-it fashion.

Roland, Anne, Jason, Karl, Katie, Henry, Heidi, Shannon

Knowledge (elements) = 1d20+30

You think you know your elements punk?


Periodically Speaking

Score: 100% (8 out of 8)

Try and match my nerditude!

Quiz via Anne.

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...

Ahoy

I have my first bloom on the deck! It is from a calla lilly, but so far it isn't the color I thought it was going to be. We will have to see if it changes as it matures. It was supposed to be one of these, but it is currently a lot more purple with only a hint of very pale yellow (almost white) along the edges. It's still very pretty though!

Succulent

I found this neat little garden in front of a house I walk by. I never really notice it before, but I love the cactus! Although I would have designed the garden a bit different, but who knows? Maybe it's relatively new and will look different once it has had time to mature.

Fuzzy

Bleys likes to destuff his toys, and today while napping he got a little on him.

Snap

I think this is a gumbo limbo tree.



Sometimes the gumbo limbo is known as the tourist tree because the bark is always red and peeling.

Aeroga

I took some pictures at flyball practice this week. Some were okay, but a few were actually pretty good. What do you think?









Maybe someday there will be a picture of Bleys doing this?

Beware

On my walk I saw this tree in full poof.


The poofs were pretty and there were a bajillion of them.


It was fairly early in the day so the sun was coming through the poofy tree and I took this picture. Maybe you can find a poofy tree and take a picture too!


But be careful, poofs eat kites...and possibly babies.

Nerd Fighters

Thanks to Brotherhood 2.0 for pointing me to Threadless T-Shirts. My favorites would be this one (suprising since orange isn't my usual choice) , this one (that Hank was showing off), and this one (very sad that it is out of stock). I also liked this one.

Muscovy

This is what passes for a duck around here. They are actually domesticated animals that have set up a feral population here. They are not terribly afraid of people and like to congregate around strip malls looking for handouts, yet they are protected by state law so no hunting or hurting them.

With feeling

I still sometimes have a hard time believing that I live somewhere that if we had a house I could wake up, look out the window, and see this.





I thought the reflection of the heron in the first picture was pretty cool. I was also suprised that they turned out quite so well because I was facing into the sun and was using my hand as a shield over the lens.

Bray

A long time ago Roland gave me a present. It was sweetest day, I think, and he got me a potted plant called a burro's tail (or lamb's tail, or donkey's tail). I really liked it, it was different and very thoughtful. Unfortunately it is a rather delicate plant and didn't survive all the moving around I did back then (pretty much every year at that point). I wish I could find another one, but I haven't had any luck at all.

River

I sort of want to try out some different shoes. I ran across these and these and wanted to see if they really do improve posture, and ease up on the knees. The good news? There is a store that sells them not 3 miles from our apartment. The bad news? For a girl who buys her shoes at Payless and Target prices I don't think I can even go try them on.

Still Addicted

So, I'm enjoying watching Brotherhood 2.0 every weekday. Today's installment involved watchers wishing Hank a happy birthday. You should check it out, for in it you can see CreepyKarl, Anne, Brogan. I did not participate in this one. My creativity has been at an abysmal low lately and I couldn't think of anything to do.

Pointy

Today, near the same place I saw that cool bicolored plant I saw some sort of euphorbia. It's probably a crown of thorns, but it sure looks wicked. I wouldn't want to have to weed around that bad boy.

Random

While crusing around the intarwebs I found a couple of things that are cool. One, going back to my food related silicone fascination, are these silicone muffin liners. The other is just cute. I just wish they came in sets of two different styles, not the same one twice.

This and That

For your entertainment (thanks to Dethroner).

Do you know someone who looks like thier dog?
I hope to heaven I never see a pair of these walking around, but considering where I live, it doesn't look good.
Maybe we could afford a house like this?
Fun with ping pong.

It's ALIVE

Good news! It's not dead yet either! It turns out that the poor little teeny tiny dead lookin' tree was just dormant. I think it might be a cypress, which is one of the few conifers that drop their needles.

Post It

Inspired by some random anonymous Trogdor art, some folks over at UCSC have made an homage to Donkey Kong that is made of awesome.