Minivans
I need to have a rant. Why is it that minivans seem to render their drivers inept? (this does not apply to our friends J+M – at least it better not!) Here’s a list of the things I’ve noticed that bother me about minivan drivers (and yes, I know some of them apply to more than just minivan drivers, but every single one seems to apply to every minivan driver.):
1. If the speed limit is 45, you should be driving somewhere around that. Not 25.
2. Curves (slight curves, not full turns which require blinkers) in the road are not scary. You do not need to brake and go 10 mph.
3. Speaking of blinkers, I was not aware that minivans were produced without turning signals. Perhaps you should stick your arm out the window to signal if that’s the case.
4. If you are turning onto a main road from a side road, it is generally not advisable to pull out directly in front of an oncoming car.
5. Similarly, if you are turning onto an even bigger main road (4 lanes) from a shopping center, with you trying to cross 2 lanes to make a left, do not pull out and stop in the middle of the road in front of oncoming traffic.
6. Those lines on the road? They’re there for a reason. Try to stay between them.
7. Those pretty green, yellow, and red lights? Are also there for a reason! Green means go. And more importantly, red means stop. Red doesn’t mean “I think I’ll go now, even though the light has been red for 5 seconds, 2 other cars have gone through it ahead of me, and the cars are now starting to come from the other direction because their light is now green.”
8. Those half spots at the local Publix? Do not fit your car! I’m not even sure they’re supposed to be spots. Maybe they’re for motorcycles (there are a lot of those around thanks to the big Harley dealer), but they’re not long enough or wide enough for your minivan. A hint would be the fact that your big ass car is sticking out into the aisle and is over the spot line. Don’t squeeze in next to my car, leaving me with 5″ of clearance to get into my car (I’ve got really long doors on my Celica!). Or maybe just leave a can opener next time so I can get in.
9. Really do not leave your cart sitting behind my car while you load up your car. Especially if I’m trying to leave. But even if I’m not there, you shouldn’t invade other people’s car space with those pointy carts. Keep it in your own zone. If I find your cart touching my car (<shudder>), I reserve the right to give you stink eye and possibly mutter under my breath that you’re about to lose a testicle or a boob (whichever is appropriate).
I’d also like to add that if given a choice, I won’t park next to a minivan (or dented cars, but for a different reason – basically if you don’t care enough to fix your car, you probably won’t care about getting one more dent while you rail your door into my car. If you just can’t afford to fix it, you can’t afford to fix mine either, so you probably won’t leave a note. Anyway…). This picture will show you what I see in my head every time I consider parking next to a minivan:
So, in this picture, there are 5 kids getting out of the minivan. My car is the smaller one. All 5 kids are puking, carrying sticky lollipops, and have sticky hands. My car is now covered in all 3.<shudder>
Now then, I do not mean to say that I’m a perfect driver. I know I’m not. If minivan drivers are idiots, I’m the asshole tailgating them, speeding past them, cutting them off, and flipping them the bird. I’m a bit of an aggressive driver (unless I’m in an unfamiliar area or the weather is bad – then I’m much safer). Chris hates it. Whatever. I wouldn’t need to occassionally be an ass if other drivers paid attention to what’s going on around them. So wake up, put down the phone, and drive. For the record, I realize I’ll need to drive more carefully when I have kids (which, despite the horrific picture above, I do very much want!). I will. But I vow to never become a “minivan driver” as described above. If I do, shoot me.
That’s it. Rant over.
TSO part 2!
Well, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. We went down to Texas to spend Christmas with Chris’s family, which was lots of fun. One of the major highlights of the trip was going with them to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra!! They had never been to a show before and when we were ordering our tickets for Greenville, we asked them if they were interested in the Texas show and we decided to all go together.
The bonus of seeing TSO in Texas was that we got to see TSO West! All we’ve ever seen is TSO East, which of course we love, but we were excited to get to see the other group (especially my favorite bassist!). The show was great!! The show itself followed the same format, but there were subtle differences due to the different musicians and a few different song choices in the second half. It would be very difficult for me to say which I think is better. I wish I could just combine them both and see them all together! But a few musicians stood out to me:
- Chris Altenhoff, of course, who I maintain is awesome. Also, while I earlier said that Johnny Lee Middleton wasn’t so bad this year, after seeing Chris again, there just is no comparison. Chris is so much fun to watch because he’s got a ton of energy, he smiles from time to time (but not too much like Angus), he interacts with the audience, and he genuinely looks like he’s having a blast, and I think an important part of a live show is having good performers. He’s also got awesome hair. Anyway, sorry for the fangirliness. <swoon> (Yes, my Chris knows the extent of my fangirliness already – he calls me Chris’s groupie, lol. I’m just an enthusiastic fan.).
One of 2 semi-clear shots of him - he was constantly moving, which is great in the show, but every picture was blurry.
- Angus Clark, who for some unknown reason, left several of the guys in our little group quite enamored, lol. I dunno. He was a fine musician, and I liked his energy, but I don’t really see the appeal. He got the most girly cheers in the introduction, but I think he’s a little too smiley. Who plays guitar with a huge smile on their face the whole time!? He was kinda Ken-ish (as in Barbie and Ken). He also didn’t make it out to the meet-and-greet, but I’m trying to assume it was for a good reason, like he wasn’t feeling well or doesn’t do them because he routinely gets mobbed, and not that he’s a princess.
Sorry for the noggin in the picture. It was kinda hard to see around the guy in front of me.
- Al Pitrelli. Wow, he was a really great guitarist. He was all sorts of improvising on the songs, which was quite impressive. And he can do that thing where you play notes without strumming, just by moving his fingers on the upper portion for the notes!! How do they do that?? He had a kinda funny guitar face, but whatever. His talent makes up for it. He was also pretty nice in the meet-and-greet.
Al Pitrelli
- Several of the singers – Jeff Scott Soto, Bart Shatto, Tommy Farese, and Andrew Ross. All really great singers, with a variety of sounds, from smooth to rugged. I’m also pretty sure at least a few of them were the CD singers, which was cool. Chris particularly liked Bart Shatto’s “Old City Bar”. The people with large noggins in front of us were big Jeff Scott Soto fans, taking more pictures than I did. It looked like they were trying to make a movie out of stills they were taking so many.
Jeff Scott Soto
Bart Shatto doing "Old City Bar". He normally looks nothing like this, obviously.
Tommy Farese singing either "Ornament" or "This Christmas Day"
Andrew Ross singing "An Angel Came Down"
The few people I really noticed that I missed were Alex Skolnick, Anna Phoebe (I’m sure Chris agrees, she’s his “Chris Altenhoff”, though West did have an energetic Roddy Chong and they hired a new violinist, Caitlin Moe, who was pretty good too. Perhaps not quite as energetic as Anna, but close. Some of the other guys were quite enamored with her, too, lol. I’m pretty sure at least one wanted to marry her. 
), Jeff Plate (West’s drummer is fine, but he didn’t have a solo or stand out in any way and his drum set seemed much smaller), the narrator Bryan Hicks (he had an amazing voice and was much more theatrical), Chris Caffery (simply because he’s great with the crowd, getting people to stand and everything, but I wouldn’t replace anyone on West for him), and Robert Kinkel on keyboards (maybe it’s just that I like the music to sound a lot like the CD, but the West keyboardist made the songs sound a bit more different than I like. And maybe I just have a terrible ear for music because the rest of the group absolutely loved her, but I though she sounded a little off. I dunno. I can’t play myself, but I don’t think I’m tone deaf!).
Roddy Chong and Caitlin Moe. This is sadly the clearest shot I got...
Anyway, the show was great and after they announced they were having a meet-and-greet, we all decided to stay for it (yay!). Like last time (and every time), my mind went blank coming up to the table and I made it through the line with a smile, but not a whole lot to say other than “We really enjoyed the show” and “Nice to meet you”, which makes me feel stupid. Stupid introversion. I did manage to get this though:
Ticket signed just by Chris Altenhoff!
It’s signed just by Chris. 
I did manage to get up to him and ask if I could have just him sign it, though I followed it up with a lame “You’re my favorite”, like I’m five and he’s my favorite crayon in the box. No, no, Melissa. Don’t sound intelligent, telling him why you think he’s a great performer. <sigh> But he was very nice and said “Thanks, darling!” with a smile. <swoon> My Chris and I also told him that we really missed him on East.
Chris also got the program signed by everyone and we got a few guitar picks. Though, one of them we can’t remember who we got it from and the signature looks like it says Jeff Scott Soto…who doesn’t play guitar. Why would he have a pick?
Signed program and 2 guitar picks. Black pick is Al Pitrelli's and white is unknown/Jeff Scott Soto? (also some kitteh toes at the top!)
Everyone seemed to really enjoy the show – both the music and the lights. I’m always happy when something we recommend goes over well! As for next year, I know we’ll see east again for sure – we’ve both decided it doesn’t quite feel like Christmas till we see TSO, so it will become a yearly tradition – but I’d love to see west again, too. We’ll see. For now, here’s a few more shots from the concert:
Jeff Scott Soto and the stage with the impressive light setup.
Angus Clark with fire going off in the background
Roddy Chong with steam jets
A singer, Erin Henry I believe.
Tony Gaynor, the narrator
Group shot! Roddy Chong, Angus Clark, Al Pitrelli, Tommy Farese, and Chris Altenhoff
Al Pitrelli, Angus Clark, and Chris Altenhoff
(For anyone interested, the rest of the pictures are here – there are a lot of blurry shots, but a few good ones)
I’ve also got a video, but it’s taking forever to load onto YouTube, so I’ll post that tomorrow or something when it finishes.
Disney Trip Shirts!
According to my Disney trip ticker, we’re 1 month, 1 week, and 3 days away from our trip!! Squeee! So, this week, I decided to make the personalized shirts I mentioned earlier for it! For materials, I shopped at Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, and Target. I got:
- cheap blank t-shirts (some long sleeve and some short) in black and gray. I actually needed to make 2 trips for these. After I washed the first blank shirts, some of them shrunk quite a bit, despite drying them on a low heat, so we needed bigger sizes.
- light shirt iron-on transfers (intended for the gray shirts, but only used on 2 shirts because they were turning out too transparent). One note here – I tried Printworks and Transfermations brands – Printworks was much better in terms of printing the designs. The Transfermations paper jammed every time. As for wear (fading, cracking, etc.) I have no idea yet.
- dark shirt iron-on transfers (I tried both above brands here too – I didn’t notice a difference this time, either in printing or ironing, but again, still don’t know as far as wear is concerned.)
- a cardboard t-shirt form
- a cheap iron (I left our better one at home. Hahaha, like I iron things anyway!)
- sticky Mickey head patches to sew onto the sleeves (like Champion shirts, lol)
I also used a cookie tray at some points because I didn’t have a flat/hard enough surface to iron on (not supposed to apply the iron-ons on the ironing board, and while the cardboard form was useful in centering iron-ons, it was leaving ridges in the print, so I needed something solid).
Because I’m not terribly good at creating decent patterns myself using only MS Paint, I got my patterns online at Disboards.com (there’s so many helpful and fun forums there, but I looked in the Creative DISigns forum specifically). I did have to make a few alterations to a couple designs (adding names and stuff), but most of the hard work was done by the lovely people on the forum.
So, without further ado, here’s the finished products!
Shirt 1 - Baby Mickey and Minnie, customized with our names and year of our trip! So cute! Mine is long sleeved and Chris's is short sleeved. Done on dark transfers. Slight boo-boo on the top of this one (mine) and Chris's got a little burned, but we'll just call it "aged", lol (his shirt was 50/50 cotton/poly while mine was 100% cotton - the iron-ons said ok to use with 50/50, but I guess you have to shorten the time you iron, which it didn't say).
Shirt 1 - Little Mickey heads on the backs. Chris's is red and black mini Mickey heads and mine is red and pink hearts. Done on dark transfers.
Shirt 2 - Chris - Personalized Mickey name on left chest. Used a light transfer for this - Mickey's a bit too transparent for my liking, but overall, still cute. If we had done it on dark transfers, the background behind the name and within the Mickey head would have been white, which I'm not sure would have looked that great. I wanted the background to be clear, but I wanted the Mickey to be vibrant, too. Oh well. Guess you can't have both!
Shirt 2 - Mel - Personalized Minnie name on left chest. Used a light transfer for this, like Chris's.
Shirt 2 - Little Mickey heads on the backs. Chris's is red and black stars and Mickey heads and mine is red and white polka dot. On dark transfers.
Shirt 3 - Chris - Personalized Mickey head with Mickey on the side. On dark transfer.
Shirt 3 - Mel - Personalized Mickey head with Minnie on the side. Done on dark transfer.
Shirt 3 - Little Mickey heads on the backs. Chris's is a blue starry pattern and mine is a pink and white swirly flowery pattern. Done on dark transfers.
Ta-da! Haha, well, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, especially for my first iron-on experience. I did have a few errors, like the uneven top on that first shirt – I think I must’ve pulled up on the shirt somehow in the middle of ironing it, and slightly singing Chris’s version (which isn’t pictured) – but I’m not sure I could’ve known about that one. I followed the directions exactly. Also, I think a few might be slightly off-center or tilted, but I don’t think it’s too noticeable. I can’t wait till we get to wear them at Disney World!
Trans-Siberian Orchestra!!
We went to see TSO for the 3rd year in a row in Greenville this past weekend. We were 6th row, center and once again, it was fabulous. The first half was mostly the same, but since they have a new CD out this year, the second half had some new songs, which was exciting. Also, the lighting seems to get more impressive every year. There seemed to be more lights set up and more effects. The only people changes I noticed this year were 1) Roddy Chong has either gone solo and doesn’t tour with TSO anymore (I’d hear this earlier this year, but I’m not sure because he’s still on the website) or he’s gone over to West and 2) One of last year’s singers (I unfortunately don’t remember his name) was replaced by Rob Evan (who, by Chris Caffery’s intro, seemed to be back from being gone). Apart from the pretty cool violin duel last year, I don’t think the changes made too much of a difference.
The one definitely positive development was that Johnny Lee Middleton, the bassist who I complained about last year, was much more entertaining this year. Maybe he just had a bad day last year. He seemed more into it this year. So…no longer a complaint in my book. Also! Since we went to the later show this year, we got to stick around for the meet and greet! Yay! It seemed a bit rushed this year, which was unfortunate because I get flustered when I’m rushed. I wanted to be able to tell at least some of them I enjoyed the show and that we were repeat visitors, but I only managed to blurt it out once or twice. But some people stuck out in my mind as really trying to be personable, which I really appreciated – the drummer Jeff Plate, Johnny Lee Middleton, one of the singers James Lewis, and the violinist Anna Phoebe (who asked me a few questions!). Chris also spoke to Alexa Goddard, one of the singers, and Chris Caffery. Sadly, Alex Skolnick, who I was most looking forward to talking to, seemed distracted, but did respond when I told him I enjoyed the show. Plus, I remember him being nice the first year we went, asking me questions, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Overall, though, it was really cool to see them all up close and even just say hi. And I got a few more guitar picks to add to my TSO pick collection!
Here’s some pictures from the Greenville concert (sorry for the blurriness. I gave up trying to get decent pictures halfway through. I don’t know what the problem was – the pictures were much better last year. I think I need a new camera. A DSLR! Hint, hint. ):
The Stage
Johnny Lee Middleton
Chris Caffery
Anna Phoebe
Alex Skolnick and Chris Caffery
Anna Phoebe and Chris Caffery
James Lewis
Steve Broderick and Alex Skolnick
Jodi Katz
Signed TSO program
Assorted TSO stuff - Promotional cards, 1 signed ticket, 1 blank ticket, 3 guitar picks (gray=Chris Caffery, purple=Alex Skolnick, yellow=Johnny Lee Middleton (even though he doesn't use a pick))
And here’s a video (which actually came out decent):
So, we had a really good time and I can’t wait to see TSO West in December!! It’ll be exciting to see the different group (and Chris Altenhoff!! Squee!).
Life Update
Well, I haven’t really posted a whole lot since our anniversary Disney trip and there was a reason for that. I didn’t really know if I wanted to write about it or not, but since things have turned around, I feel more comfortable doing so now. So…
After we got back from our trip (literally, the next week), Chris found out he was getting laid off along with a bunch of other people from his plant. It really sucked. At first, we just felt shock and sadness. He had just gotten his 5-year gift from the company (well, he had just ordered it. It didn’t actually arrive for a month or so) and despite the bad economy, he was pretty much told about a month earlier there’d be no layoffs. Some people were put on furlough the month prior, but Chris wasn’t. So, it really did seem to come out of nowhere. Though we both had some rough moments where it felt like that period in our life would never end, Chris worked really hard to get a new job. At first, we had somewhat narrow search parameters – trying to either stay here, or at least somewhere in the Southeast or Texas. After a couple months of barely anything coming in from the recruiters, we removed all location preferences and Chris started getting more openings to apply for – though some were in bumble (like the one in Death Valley) – and he applied for everything. After a few dashed hopes from companies who really liked Chris, but didn’t have a job to offer him (why are you interviewing him then??), Chris finally got 3 job offers, 5 months after initially being laid off. We weighed the pros and cons of each and actually ended up with what we initially wanted – a job for him in the Southeast. We don’t get to stay here, since the job is outside of Charlotte, a good 1.5 – 2 hours away, but the feel of the area is somewhat similar.
Unfortunately, that means we have to sell the house and move. Our first house. 
We put the house up for sale at the beginning of the month and we’ve had several showings already this week with 3 more scheduled tomorrow, including one second showing (let me go on a ranty tangent for a second here – to any of you touring houses, please don’t track mud through the house. It’s incredibly rude. You wouldn’t do that in your own house – and this may one day be your own house – and the owners go to a lot of trouble to make sure the place is sparkling just for you to see it, so don’t ruin it! Ranty tangent over.), so we’re hopeful it’ll sell quickly. We got positive feedback from the first showing (though I don’t think that’s the one that’s coming back since we were told they’re probably waiting to buy thanks to a lease that doesn’t end till next year), so we just need someone to be ready to buy. The realtor is optimistic, too – she says the house is “darling” and we priced it appropriately, although we’ll be lucky to break even as far as money is concerned, which kind of sucks since that (minus commission and taxes and fees) eats into our next down payment (not to mention we’re kind of hoping to upgrade a tiny bit, which necessitates a bigger down payment). We also can’t get a new house till we have a down payment, so we’re in a temporary apartment till the house sells. It’s a decent place. It’s cute, but after living in a house we love, it just doesn’t feel like home. Which, I guess it doesn’t have to. Hopefully, we’ll only be here a few months max. It does kind of suck to be in a temporary apartment over the holidays though. I love decorating for Christmas – I go all out. I’m not even sure I’ll decorate this year, though. But we’re spending Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with Chris’s family, so I guess it’s not as big a deal. Plus it’s a bit expensive living in temporary housing. It’s almost twice our mortgage payment in rent, in addition to still paying our mortgage, so the quicker we can sell the house and get into a new home, the better.
We may start looking around at homes in the new area soon, but I’m a bit nervous. I love looking at homes, but when I see something I love, I get attached. And since we can’t buy now, the best we can do is make an offer contingent on the sale of our house, which…ok, so we’ve had interest in our house in terms of people deciding after seeing pictures that they want to walk around it, but it’s not like we have an offer or anything yet. I don’t know how those contingency offers work, but I doubt we can make an offer on a house and have that offer sit there for possibly months until our house sells. I wouldn’t want that if I were the seller. I’d want to sell and move on. I do want to sell and move on with our current house. It will be exciting to look at new houses, though. I made a list of wants and needs for the new Charlotte-area realtor (who seems to have stopped contacting us after we shot down nearly all the initial homes she sent us info on – but I’m not really sure she looked at our list because 1. half the homes were in Charlotte, itself, whereas we expressed interest in Gastonia, 2. half the homes were fixer-uppers or didn’t have garages (a garage is on our need list and we don’t want a fixer-upper – we can’t handle it!), and 3. half the homes were smaller than our current house, so come on. I can do better than that. I found a bunch of homes I like on Trulia.com without her help.). But, yeah. I’m excited. There are a lot of things I love about our current house – the size of the master bedroom, the 2-story great room, the purple dining room, but there are also a few things I’m looking forward to looking for – a dedicated office (so we can keep our guest bedroom and have the third bedroom be a nursery), a better kitchen, a bigger shower, more curb appeal. Another thing we need to consider is living just across the border in South Carolina (we’re really close right now) – apparently the taxes are better, the homes are at least somewhat cheaper, and we wouldn’t have to retake the driver’s exam (bleh, I don’t want to study…I’ve been driving for like 10 years without even a ticket, just give me my license.). I do need some recommendations on towns though, so I can start looking into homes there too. Hopefully Chris will get some info from work.
On the upside, Chris is really enjoying his new job and is really happy to be back at work. He was getting pretty discouraged and stir-crazy being unemployed. Plus! We’re 90% sure we’ll still get to go to Disney World in February, which is fantastic. We didn’t need to touch our savings during the unemployment and the new job gives him vacation right away. He has a few days this year and 17 days next year, so basically as long as his boss gives him the ok, we’re going! It is a tad pricey, but again, as soon as we’re in a new house, we can start really saving big time again and it is the last vacation we plan on taking before we have kids and probably for a while after (minus visiting family for holidays, of course), so we both agree it’s ok. So, we’re really excited about that. I’m even planning on making a few customized shirts for Chris and me (yeah, I know, I’m such a dork. And I also know I’ve got a fabulous husband for agreeing to wear them! ). I’ll post about those when I start making them.
We’re so happy to have our life back on track and I’m so proud of Chris for staying strong and working so hard to get a new job. I think we may have come out of this experience stronger. Please think good thoughts for us that the house will sell quickly and we can settle into a new home soon.
Odd Searches
We need to have a chat, people. I’ve been noticing an odd trend over the past few weeks. A while ago, I saw a funny post on someone’s blog (sorry, I don’t remember whose) about search terms leading people to their blog. I thought that was pretty interesting because you see some weird and funny terms that lead to your blog, so I decided to check mine out. Most of them are pretty mundane – I get some WoW searches (for my whole 2 or 3 posts about WoW), some searches for the Crush haircut from American Gladiators (I do think I’ve got a pretty good picture of it from different angles, so you’re welcome people! Hopefully someone searching for it actually had the courage to get it done, unlike me), some Trans-Siberian Orchestra searches, and lately a bunch that are looking for nighttime streetlamp photos for some reason.
But what’s really weird to me is one search in particular. There are an awful lot of searches for “big forehead”, “fivehead”, “big forehead girl”, and “big forehead baby”. I first noticed this search term come up a few months ago and I’ve checked every now and then since for new funny searches and it’s there at least once a week (not that I get tons of traffic, obviously, but still)! Geez people! Why the heck do you keep looking for that?? Are that many people really interested in big foreheads? Are you worried your kids’ foreheads are too big? Is it some sort of weird attraction? I dunno. I’m not even sure why it leads here, really. The best I can tell, I mentioned the word fivehead once (well, twice now – gosh, this post is gonna bring even more of you fivehead-lovers here isn’t it? LOL). So…I guess I’m sorry to disappoint you if you were looking for the blog, Mel’s World of Fivehead, where you can read all about fiveheads and people who have them. Though I am sort of tempted to rename my blog that now, hehe. Maybe it’ll give me more readers! Though I guess I’d have to actually post now and then for that, huh?
Disney Vacation – Day 5 (last day)
Well, day 5 was our final day at Disney World, and only a half day. We had surprisingly gotten pretty much everything done that we considered “must-dos”, so we took this day pretty slow. Our last day has always been at the Magic Kingdom, because that just is Disney to me, so we headed over there with the intention of possibly hopping on a ride or 2, grabbing lunch, and doing a little shopping. Unfortunately, we did things a little backwards and did the shopping first (well, “unfortunately” may be the wrong word. I love shopping. I love Disney stuff.). Most of it was fairly small, but we also picked up an interactive R2-D2 for Chris’s dad for his birthday, which was really cool, but quite large. So, we decided to skip rides, since we’d already done everything we wanted to anyway and it was already almost noon. We did get offered a set of fast passes for Thunder Mountain from a Dad and son (yay, fairy dust!), but we ended up giving them to another couple once we decided R2 probably wouldn’t fit on the ride with us. For lunch, we went over to El Pirata y El Perico in Adventureland for Mexican. We both got tacos and chocolate cakes.
That was the last of our CS credits, but we still had 6 snack credits we hadn’t used, so we knew exactly where to go to spend those. Goofy’s Candy Co. in Downtown Disney! I’d heard they have amazing customizable snacks that you can get for a credit each, so we knew we wanted to try those. Instead of taking a bus back to our hotel and then waiting for a bus to Downtown Disney (and I wasn’t sure if there were buses straight from MK to DD), we decided this would be a great time to use the express monorail over to the Ticket and Transportation Center! Yay, we got to ride the monorail at last! After our quick ride, we got out at the TTC and started looking for a bus to DD. Apparently there isn’t one. Luckily, we found out that we could make the short walk over to the Polynesian and get a bus there. That gave us a chance to gage the walk between the Polynesian and the TTC for February (if we still go). It wasn’t bad. Quite a nice walk, only about 5 minutes. We just made the bus – it was there as we ran up – and we were finally off to Downtown Disney.
We don’t typically go to Downtown Disney often, since we’re usually busy with the parks and tired at night, not to mention most guys don’t like shopping much. I really like it, though! I hope we get to go again next time. There’s so many shops and restaurants! We were on a mission, but I did manage to stop in the Christmas store and the big World of Disney store to pick up a few things (like a Disney YA fantasy book!! <cheesy grin>) and a few more pressed pennies. Goofy’s Candy Co. was also a great success. We both put in our custom orders (mine a Mickey Crispy Rice Treat dipped in white chocolate and topped with chopped peanuts and milk chocolate drizzle and Chris’s a Mickey Crispy Rice Treat dipped in dark chocolate and topped with chopped pecans) and looked at all the goodies in the glass display counter. We came out of the shop with our custom orders, a set of 3 dipped and topping-ed pretzel rods, a set of 4 dipped and topping-ed marshmallows, a huge toffee brick, and a large chocolate covered smore.<drool> We didn’t get to try any of them till after the trip, but they were amazing and they lasted us a while. I highly recommend saving the snack credits for a huge candy blowout like this for everyone. We didn’t really feel we needed the snacks most days and the Goofy’s candy, particularly the custom orders, are a great deal for the snack credits. You could even go there early in the trip and buy snacks for the duration of your trip (to eat during your daily breaks or something!).
After using up our snack credits, we decided to take the boat back to the hotel, since it was getting kinda late and we still had a long drive home. We had a bit of trouble figuring out where to go to get the boat, but we found a really nice cast member named Nancy who stopped what she was doing just to lead us to the dock. She even gave us a personalized button to give to Chris’s dad for his birthday, with a cute little Mickey head instead of an “o”! We were at the wrong end of Downtown Disney, so we ended up taking the ferry to the other end and then transferring to the boat that goes back to Port Orleans. The boat ride was cute and peaceful, but a bit hot. Lots of green to look at on the way. Once back, we took a few more pictures and then it was time to say goodbye to Disney World.
Downtown Disney from the boat
POFQ from the boat
I always hate leaving. I get really sad. But I knew we’d be back in less than a year (maybe), so it wasn’t too bad. Our trip was great. We had a lot of fun and quite a few romantic moments. A great way to spend our second anniversary!
Also, for anyone who hasn’t already discovered it, the full album is here.
Spoilerific Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince review
Just a quick break in our regularly scheduled programming (I know I have one more day of vacation still to blog, I’m slow):
Ok, just to warn you, there will be spoilers, so if you don’t want to know what happens (because you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t read the books by now), stop reading now! Really, if you have any interest in the books or the movies and haven’t gotten around to either, I don’t want to spoil it, because there’s nothing worse than spoilers (I wore earplugs on my 2-plane trip up to NJ for a wedding the weekend book 7 came out – I might not have been able to lock myself in my house like I wanted, but I wasn’t going to let the end get spoiled!). Read the books, though! (and then see the movies for fun)
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Ok, for those still with me, for the most part, I really enjoyed the movie. I found myself laughing at some bits and almost crying (though I’ll get to why it didn’t quite cry in a few moments) near the end. The story was fairly clear (even though the scenes jumped around a bit quickly), even to Chris, who doesn’t read the books – he only had a few questions after the movie. Overall, the movie was fun to watch and the acting was better than in previous movies. Some of the new characters were pretty well cast – Professor Slughorn was great and Lavender was pretty good. Also, a few things surprised me as being good that I didn’t expect to like at all. First, Michael Gambon. I’ve hated his portrayal of Dumbedore since he started in movie 3. He was too harsh and too insane. Not grandfatherly or slightly bumbly or caring enough. I was concerned that we’d get to this movie and I wouldn’t care at all about him dying because he wasn’t the Dumbledore I know from the books. I’d already had a crisis of faith in him with the final book’s revelations (and particularly after Snape’s comment about Dumbledore raising Harry “like a pig for slaughter”), but I’ve come to terms with his character and didn’t want Michael Gambon’s failure to read the books to ruin it again (for the record, if you take a movie role based on a book, read the damn book. It’s your job to get the character right.). However, he got it closer to right this time around. He toned it down a bit and seemed more caring. So that turned out ok. Second, Helen McCrory as Narcissa. Don’t get me wrong, the hair is BAD. It’s completely wrong. But I thought she had the personality pretty good. And her scene was short enough that she didn’t have a chance to ruin it by doing something out of character.
Also, when I originally read that the movie makers had decided to put a rather large focus on the teen relationships blooming, I got very nervous. To me, this is a dark book about Tom Riddle (Voldemort) and about several people struggling with their alignment, so I didn’t want to see a bunch of fluff when there should be substance. But, really, I didn’t mind it so much. I thought there was a good balance of happy and not so happy. Plus, with the book mostly being free of action (till the end), I guess I can understand why they’d want to emphasize the funny bits to make up for the relative slowness of all the background information and building up to the last book that book/movie 6 is.
However, when I consider what had to be cut out to make it so balanced, I start to get a bit “grr” again. Now some bits, I understand being cut out. For example, the first scene of the book with the meeting between the Minister of Magic and England’s Prime Minister was interesting, but I can see how showing a few short scenes of turmoil affecting the muggles explains well enough that muggles are now being affected by the Dark Lord’s business. Also, cutting out Dumbledore’s funeral. I was originally really upset to hear it had been cut, but I thought the scene around the body was pretty good and showed emotion, so even though they cut out a few good bits specific to the funeral, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. A bit more annoying, was cutting most of the battle at Hogwarts at the end and the use of the rest of the Felix Felices to keep the gang (Harry’s friends and the members of the Order, who were barely mentioned or seen in the movie apart from the trio) alive. I can understand why it was cut – we’ll basically have a repeat in the final movie – but it made it seem a bit stupid that the Death Eaters had to show up just to watch Draco try to kill Dumbledore and then all run off together. Why did 4 people (several of which hadn’t even been introduced, like Fenrir Greyback) need to show up to do that? Why even have the vanishing cabinet? I guess to flesh out Draco’s role more (who’s performance was better than I expected). But really? I would’ve preferred more time for explaining why Voldemort is the way he is or delving into Snape more, both of which I think are the worst of what was sacrificed.
I’m willing to consider that perhaps the fact that Snape is one of my favorite characters is probably the main reason I’m so upset at how Snape’s role is perpetually lessened (way too many scenes cut) and sometimes cheapened (he’s not comic relief batting people on heads with books. He’s an unpleasant, harsh guy who holds a grudge. That’s not so say he isn’t overall a good guy. Perhaps if they hadn’t made Snape’s memories in movie 5 so jumbled and quick, it would be more clear that he’s a complex guy worth rethinking.). But yet again, Snape’s scenes were cut down to a few, despite him being the title character (never even an explanation of why he’s called the half blood prince). We lost the entire sub-plot of Snape acting as professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, where he actually was trying to teach Harry non-verbal spells. Because of this, later on, during the final face off between Harry and Snape, the line “Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!” is also left out. I always found that line interesting because it seems that even though he doesn’t like Harry and they’re in the midst of a wand fight, he’s still trying to teach him to be a better wizard. Even worse though, they cut the line “DON’T CALL ME COWARD” with the look of intense pain on Snape’s face during the same scene. It was just so poignant in the book because Harry had just said “Kill me like you killed him, you coward”, so the fact that Snape got angry and looked pained made it possible to argue that he felt terrible for having to kill Dumbledore (but it was part of Dumbledore’s plan) and that it did take a great act of courage to do it. We needed to see Snape, who is typically cold and emotionally withdrawn, show that loss of control of his emotions. It was a powerful scene in the book, but the scene in the movie is just lame. He reveals that he’s the half blood prince, tells Bellatrix to leave Harry for the Dark Lord, and off he goes. For anyone just watching the movies, there’s been absolutely no hints that Snape’s not a bad guy. Those people probably just think Dumbledore was stupid to trust him and that Snape thought it was easy to kill Dumbledore. <sigh> The books fleshed the character out so much better. There were plenty of subtle hints that made you question his alignment. I downright felt for him, wanted to see him redeemed and happy.
Another scene I found a bit lacking was the tower scene. Harry wasn’t immobilized by Dumbledore to prevent him from interfering and getting himself hurt. He just stood downstairs and watched. Snape walks by and says “shhh” and Harry just lets him go up. There’s a reason that didn’t happen in the book. It’s stupid. Harry would never just let Dumbledore get killed if there was anything he could do about it. At least they left in Dumbledore’s pleading “Severus…please.” which was a highly debated line in the Snape alignment question.
Yet another minor complaint was the cave scene. It was pretty cool looking and the effects were great, but the emotion wasn’t there. It was a painful scene to read, with Dumbledore suffering and Harry forcing himself to convince Dumbledore to drink more of the potion. The chapter’s ending line was really touching to me – after Harry tells Dumbledore not to worry, that he’d get him back to Hogwarts to get help, Dumbledore replies “I am not worried, Harry. I am with you.” But no. Not in the movie. It was rushed, both Harry’s actions and Dumbledore’s suffering. It was hard to hear Dumbledore mumbling about it being his fault. I just didn’t feel what I felt when I read the scene in the book.
This makes me scared for the 2 scenes I thought were the most emotional in the final book – Harry’s walk through the forest and Snape’s memories (and partly his death – I was a bit disappointed in the actual method of death and the lack of oomph leading up to it, but the eyes bit was touching.). I’m just worried that a) Dan Radcliffe can’t pull off the emotion and b) they’ll continue to reduce Snape’s role in the movies. I bawled during those scenes in the book, but so far I haven’t cried much in the movies. I cried after Cedric died mostly because of the music and because of Harry’s parents talking to him and I started to cry both when Sirius died and when Dumbledore died, but was quickly distracted. With Sirius, it was just action and stuff going on that distracted me. With Dumbledore it was my anger at how the following Snape scene was handled. I got a bit teary again when Harry went back to the castle and everyone was looking at Dumbledore.
My main complaint however, and I think most valid, was the lack of memories regarding Voldemort’s family. Yes, we got the memories from when Dumbledore first met him and when Voldemort asked Slughorn about horcruxes, but without seeing the memories of Voldemort’s family, his motivation goes out the window. In the movie, it seems as though we’re asked to believe that Voldemort is bad because…well, he just is, ok!? In the books, we see that Voldemort was born into a family without love (his mom used love potions to trick his dad into marrying her and then when she thought he might just love her on his own and stopped using the potions, he left her), wasn’t raised with any love (his mom died after giving birth and he went to an orphanage where he tortured other kids), and he eventually killed his remaining family to make horcruxes. I think all that is rather important. And I thought the memories should’ve made the cut.
What to cut instead, so that we don’t end up with a 10 hour movie (hey, I’d watch it) – how about the manufactured Burrow attack scene? It wasn’t in the book and I didn’t see a reason for it to be in the movie, yet it took up like 10 minutes. How about just a little bit of the teens kissing all over the castle? Or the scene in the beginning with Harry flirting with the muggle waitress, also not in the book?
<sigh> I don’t know. I mean, I did enjoy it and I fully intend to buy it when it comes out on DVD and watch it a bunch more. I think I just need to go to these movies expecting less. They can’t be perfect transcriptions of the books or they’d be hours and hours long (again, I’d go see it, but I’m not everyone. I’m a bit crazy.). I need to just appreciate it for what it is. But really, read the book. It’s better.
Disney vacation – day 4
We decided on day 4 to get up an hour later than normal and skip rope drop for EPCOT. We were both pretty tired, but luckily my ankle was doing a bit better. EPCOT does have 2 rides that are very popular, but we figured we had all day to get a fast pass for one and wait in line for the other, so our tiredness won out. Our ride to EPCOT was pretty nice thanks to our driver, Hector, who really liked to chat with people. When we got on the bus, he noticed our buttons and asked me how long we’d been married and then on the bus ride, he proceeded to congratulate us (with everyone else on the bus), joke around about how 2 years isn’t a lot (though we’ve technically been together almost 9 years now, but he didn’t ask that!), and give us advice on marriage (just say, “Yes, dear”).
When we got there, there was a pretty big line to get through the bag check at the entrance, but soon we were in and headed off towards Soarin’, Chris’s favorite ride at Disney World. The line wasn’t too bad, so we just got in the standby line. I really like this ride, too. I love the feeling of flying and the scents they pump in for certain scenes. And the music is really pretty. After Soarin’, we went over to Test Track, the other popular ride, which also didn’t have too long of a line, so again, we got in the standby line. It was a bit longer than it looked, but the wait wasn’t too bad. Next, we were off to the Figment ride, which I don’t remember at all, if I’ve been on it. It was kinda cute, though I almost lost my sunglasses near the end in the jet of air. That wouldn’t have been good. After a quick walk through Innoventions, just to see that it’s still not geared towards us at all, we had lunch at Seasons, which is in the Land. This was the best counter service lunch option we found at all of Disney World. There are so many choices from salads and sandwiches to Asian food and grilled salmon. And the desserts! Oh, the desserts. There’s so many. Great use of our CS credits for this lunch. We both had plates of Asian food (different types of chicken, beef, vegetables, rice, and noodles) and Chris had pan au chocolat for desert and I had a rice crispy brick (it was huge). Yes, I know, a rice crispy treat probably sounds pretty dull, and if you’d seen the dessert selection, you’d probably think I was crazy for choosing it over all the other delicious choices, but Disney rice crispy treats are really good and I just had to have it. I’ll try something else next time I go.
For a break, we had originally (like, before the trip) talked about going and hanging out at the Beach Club where Chris has stayed in the past. It’s within walking distance of the World Showcase and would allow us to not have to waste time on taking the bus home and back, but we seemed to forget about that once we were at Disney World. I’m not sure it would’ve been enough anyway, since we both ended up taking a nap back at the hotel.
After the break, we were back at EPCOT, ready to finish perusing the countries in the World Showcase. We had an early (4:45 pm) dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh in Morocco, which is one of the furthest places from the EPCOT entrance, but we got there on time. It was really pretty inside and the entertainment was cool – there were 2 guys who sang and played drum/bongo things and a belly dancer. We both had couscous (his with lamb shanks that just fell of the bone, it was so tender and mine with really tasty vegetables) for dinner and for dessert, I had Moroccan baklava while Chris had bastilla. My baklava was pretty good; tasted like baklava, only with pistachios in it, but Chris’s bastilla was amazingly good. It’s layers of crispy filo covered with vanilla cream sauce and toasted almonds that is just so tasty. So, all in all, another restaurant we’d never tried before that we’d definitely go back to.
Kind of a dark picture of the inside of Restaurant Marrakesh
Both of us in Restaurant Marrakesh
Chris in a telephone booth in England. He said it was really hot inside.
Us waiting for the fireworks. I look a bit quasi-modoish in this picture.
After dinner, we went back to Norway to ride Maelstrom, which Chris hates, but I think is kinda cute. So, in reward for his sacrifice, he got a Grey Goose Lemon Citron Slush in France (and I got a Grand Marnier Orange Slush). They were both really good and quite refreshing. After finishing up Canada and England, we decided to stake out a spot for the Illuminations fireworks. An hour and a half ahead of time. Ugh, it was a long wait. We watched a bunch of spiders make webs in the bushes. Gross. Finally, we got to see the fireworks though. As I might have said before, I’m not quite as big a fan of the EPCOT fireworks as I am of the Magic Kingdom fireworks, but it was still a good show. I could just do without the middle bit with the music, fountains, and pictures on the globe that takes forever to get to the center of the lake and open up. The finale is pretty good though, really bright and explodey!
After a quick stop in MouseGears, the big EPCOT shop, we headed back to the hotel to call it a night. I was pretty sad that it was our last full day at the parks. Up next, day 5: a bit of this and that to end the trip.
