23 Days: Sending Good Vibes To Florida

Somehow, reading all the live reports from Florida on Twitter, it doesn't seem right to gush about the Magic Kingdom. I gotta say, it is very nice being able to sort of keep tabs on the places affected by the storm and some people who, though we've never met, I feel an attachment to. Disney Twitter is a community, and while it sometimes goes a bit nuts freaking out over boxed meals, it's a loving and caring community.

So tonight it's all about sending love and good vibes to all facing Hurricane Matthew. Stay safe friends. I'll be on Twitter first thing in the morning (and whenever the dog has be between now and then) to check on you.

54 Days: And Awwwwaaaayyyyyyy We Go! Into The MouseLife

We did it. MouseLife is live on SoundCloud as of about five minutes ago with a special Preview Show featuring our discussion of Walt Disney's response to the Zika virus and the effects it may have on Disney travel planning.

Want to listen? Sure you do! It's right here:

https://soundcloud.com/john-zack-490927445/mouselife-podcast-previewshow

It's been quite a ride getting this together. I mean just this weekend I became the licensee of our theme music and the owner of the future home of the MouseLife Podcast Website. A month ago I hadn't ever listened to any part of a podcast. Hell, even today, I've only listened to ours all the way to the end. But with the help of Google, YouTube and some terrific new friends, I'm producing one.

Those new friends? That's been the best part. As much as I've enjoyed learning the ins and outs of podcasting and audio editing, the real joy has come from getting to know a group of people with basically just a love of Disney in common. Turns out we have more in common (three of us are Penn Staters, which makes me VERY happy), but the only thread weaving us all into this venture was Disney. And it worked. It not only worked, it worked amazingly well. We've spent maybe three hours total together on Skype and already feel a camaraderie and friendship. We are as far away from each other as New York and Texas; we are hairdressers and travel planners; some of us are moms and dads, some not; some of us save to visit WDW once a year if we're lucky, some live close enough to go on a whim. But despite the differences of situation and experience, we seem to be fitting together like the pieces of a puzzle.

I would never have meet a single one of my MouseLife cohorts if not for Twitter, the Twitter-based Small World Club created by another friend I've never actually met, Barry Percival, and this project itself. But I am so very glad I have. These folks have become friends, real ones. They are all positive and intelligent and articulate and have wonderful senses of humor. The level of support and cheering on as we get this show off the ground has been unbelievable.

Or not. I mean if we Disney Geeks are anything we are Believers, in ourselves, in others and in that Magic that we keep our eyes open wide enough to see. Guess in hindsight, I shouldn't be surprised this is so much fun :-)

Safe Zone

Remember playing tag, or kick the can or any number of games with a "base"? It was that one place you could go to escape for a minute, re-charge and rest? Sometimes we need them in real adult life, don't we? We need a known safe zone where we can go regroup, de-stress and then re-enter the situation ready for another go at it.

I'm a bit of a misanthrope, not real fond of strangers or large groups of people even if I do know most of them. I don't mingle well, I am awkward socially. I do enjoy parties but I'm never really completely comfortable at them. It's a weird contradiction, I know. Our great friends the Iapaluccis love to throw big parties, ones with lots of people I don't know, people I do know who I 'm not so sure about and lots and lots of really wonderful mutual friends. We love to go, *I* love to go. But they can be really a lot to handle sometimes, for someone like me.

I have a "base" at Jen and Adrian's house, though, that makes it much easier. It's the kitchen. Almost every time we are over there, I end up spending time in the kitchen, and not just hanging out. Probably why it's such a great escape is because I tend to do proper kitchen-y things in there. I wash up, put out food, cook. Often Jen is in there, she's the hostess with the mostest and head chef so it's perfectly natural, but sometimes I think she's on "base" too. And when she is there, she usually gives me a mission, which is awesome. The other night, for example, it was well into a party, 10:30 when the festivities got going at six, and Jen announces she's forgotten to cook the shrimp and I need to toast the coconut. So there we are, with all the dozens and dozens of guests milling about and partying, at the stove cooking coconut shrimp late at night. Yes, 10:30 is way late for me, don't judge. When we were done, we plated up and I followed the shrimp out into the yard and re-joined the party. It was great. I just love the idea that there's a place to decompress. It involves the magics of shared cooking and friendship at the same time and it's a really cool thing.

See, it's not hiding, it's essential party stuff going on :)

Coconut Shrimps!!

The Great It's Almost Umbrella Drink Weather Cool Blogs Giveaway

My windows are open. My doors are open. I drove the boy home from band practice with the windows down and singing very loudly along to the Beach Boys (he loved THAT, let me tell ya). I planted flowers in Estelle. When Lisa gets home we are going to have cocktails on the back porch. May even eat dinner out there, we'll see if it gets cooked before dark (see cocktails above).

What, you don't have a five-foot flamingo planter on your porch? Sorry to hear that :-)

All of these things mean SPRING is here!!!! Or at least coming very soon. And spring means new beginnings and growth and........cocktails in Tiki Head mugs. We -- myself, Lisa and our pal and partner in crime Jen -- are taking the opportunity to get ourselves into the habit of blogging more regular-like. That's more fun with more eyes on our blogs. So we have a plan to entice you.

The Lovely Miss Lisa just started a new blog all about food and the fun that goes along with food. It's called Parmesan and you should check it out. She's the best kind of cook, the kind that loves food, loves to experiment and loves to seek out new ways to make the same old same old new again. I'm a very lucky guy. Food is one of the ties that bind around here, we cook as a family very often and love it, you will, too. 

Jen Iapalucci has been writing on her blog Sartor on and off for several years, but has recently re-invigorated and re-imagined it to reflect her life and loves and adventures. It's a happy place full of wit and ideas and color and imagination. Come to think of it, it's full of many of the things that make Jen the Jen that we love. Stop by and read a bit, explore, and introduce yourself to a really cool woman. You'll be glad you did.

Actually, you'll be REALLY glad. I mentioned an enticement, right? How about a giveaway? Free stuff!!! Who doesn't like free stuff. And it's not just any stuff, it's cool stuff. This stuff:

TIKI HEAD MUGS

Anyone can put an umbrella drink in a glass. But YOU will be the envy of the neighborhood with these authentic Tiki Head Mugs. Ready and willing to hold any libation you can dream up. Maybe you'll find a nice drink recipe on Parmesan sometime.....

Guinness Pint Glasses

A set of TWO matching Guinness pint glasses, because 12 ounces of beer is a waste of time. And Guinness Is Good For You.

Pooh Sticks Home Game 

You've read the blog, now go OUT INTO THE WORLD and PLAY!!! That's what the world is there for, for goodness sake. Use it. These handy playing pieces come with instructions and will set you on your way to hours and hours of enjoyment. Watching things float under a bridge is cool. Trust me.

Ok, so how do you win this awesome stuff you ask? EASY! Just visit this link and enter up to six times in one visit. You'll be visiting our blogs and Facebook and Pinterest pages along the way, it's all part of the fun. Stop by, visit with us, and join the happy. I can't wait to send YOU the prize :-)

You Gotta Be Kidding Me

So I found the PERFECT birthday card for my niece who just turned 8 years old. The perfect card isn't easy, especially kids' cards. See, I generally go for a good fart card or a monkey card, but Lindsey is just eight and I thought she needed a nice, normal kids' card. Generally they are terrible and generic and stupid, but I found one that was, as I said, perfect for Lindsey. Here it is, the inside isn't important, it's the outside that rocks.

This has Lindsey written all over it. See, it's a QUIZ! And it's a trick question. See, they ALL belong).

Lindsey loves school. She excels at school. She does math workbooks at home. For fun. She had bugs on her birthday cake because she loves bugs and science and biology and nature. She doesn't carry around a doll, she carries around a microscope. Not a magnifying glass, mind you, a microscope. She makes lists of things, like a miniature Linnaeus. Get the picture?

See that list? Brains, Charm, Talent, Skills. She has it all, in spades. She's smart as a whip and cute as a button. She sings in the church choir and takes dance lessons. She won a prize in the school science fair. That card, and Mickey's list, may as well have been made for HER.

And Mickey. She and her family recently went to Disney, so she is all about Mickey right now. But this isn't just any Mickey, it's Mickey with glasses. Lindsey just got glasses, not too far off from the ones cartoon Mickey is wearing. See?

Told ya she was cute.

Ok, so it's the perfect card, right? It even plays "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" when you open it. You'd think I'd be happy. Wal-Mart gets a "win" for having just the right thing, right? Wrong.

This is where the card sits on the shelf.

FOR BOY???!!!???

WTF?

I'm sold on this card, but just for the heck of it I look in the "For Girl" section for something comparable. Nope. They are all "cute" and "adorable" and "special" and "sparkle". No brains, no talent, no skill. Sparkle.

I'm not one to see creeping sexism (or any other "ism" for that matter) around every corner, but this really burned me up. Why is the one card that perfectly describes my little niece in the "For Boy" section? Why is there no brains-are-good girl card? One more reason I'm thankful I don't have a daughter. I would be a basket-case constantly fighting back against this crap.

But I have nieces. And a wife. And a mother. And a sister. And some really damned spectacular female friends. And they have to live in this world with this silliness all around them. And it was worse yesterday than it is today, but we STILL throw "sparkle" at girls and "brains" and "talent" and "skills" at boys. The women in my life are still judged by how they look and how they present themselves. The doctor has to dress as conservative as she can to be taken seriously at work. The director is condescended to and figuratively patted on the head by men she could run intellectual and creative circles around. The reporter is underestimated. The office professional is taken for granted. It's ridiculous.

This isn't to say these women, and my nieces are following right behind, aren't attractive, cute, adorable or whatever. They are. I guess you could say they even have their own sparkle. But it is in their eyes. It's a reflection of the intelligence, the creativity, the discipline, the drive and the strength that it takes for a woman to overcome a society that puts THAT card in the "For Boy" section.The very things presented as boy traits are exactly what makes these women awesome.

Lindsey's future IS bright. She has it all and she will grow up learning to appreciate herself and use her talent and brains and skills to improve herself and enrich her community. Her parents and family will see to that.

I love that dancing, singing, microscope toting math geek with all my heart. I love that GIRL. Just the way she is.

Run, Kelly! Run!

Almost exactly three years ago, our lives were enriched by the addition of a new friend. Kelly Gottsman walked into our house one night in early January of 2010 on the arm of my best pal Micheal Howard. We ate chocolate fondue and talked for a few hours, just the five of us, and when Michael and Kelly left, my wife and I turned to each other and made bets on when the wedding would be. You'd have had to know Michael at the time to know how outlandish the idea had been hours before, but we'd witnessed the magic of two people meant for each other that night, and as holders of that torch ourselves, we recognized it. Eight months later, the Doctors Howard were married and living Happily Ever After. They totally beat both our guesses.

Kelly is the one without the top hat :)

I was going to say Kelly is larger than life, but she'd probably take that as a joke about her height. Instead I'll say she is one of the most completely ALIVE people I've ever met. She IS tall, taller than me and I'm over six feet. It was hard to tell at first because Kelly is fond of heels, but one night standing next to her, both at the kitchen counter chopping veggies, both barefoot, I saw she had me by a good half inch. Yes, within weeks we were at the barefoot in their house helping cook dinner without being asked stage of friendship. That's the kind of person Kelly is. She is also drop dead gorgeous. The boys in our little social group, all around 10 at the time, had goo goo eyes. She also has the most awesome sense of humor EVER. Maybe I say that because it is often rooted in the meanest sarcasm ever, much like my own, but I love it that way. She is also one of the smartest people I've ever run across. I have some very smart friends and relatives and had some genius professors in college, and I'd put Kelly's mind up against any of them. She pulls up facts and data like a computer and that thing YOU think to say a day after the argument has ended comes to HER right then. It isn't fair, really, but isn't her fault, she's just that way. She uses her powers for good, usually, and helped save my sanity and that of my sister and family just a couple months after meeting me. She didn't know these people, yet she was there with expertise and advise and comfort and while I won't go into the details, I'll say I won't ever forget it and can't ever repay her for it. And that's just what she is to me and my family. She worked a miracle on Michael and his son. You ever want to meet the real life Mary Poppins, I'll introduce you. But Kelly is really much better than Mary Poppins. For one she is real, as real as you can get. And what's best, she didn't leave when she had worked her magic. She may not have a talking umbrella, but she has magic just the same.

Last year was a tough one for Kelly. The problem with being a real life Mary Poppins is that sometimes real life comes up and bites ya in the ass. She had some health problems that didn't look like they'd ever leave, and then she lost her father to cancer, actually a form of leukemia. Earl Gottsman was awesome. He is the source of Kelly's height, and from what I knew of him and have found out since his death also her kindness and love and generosity and good humor. He was a college professor and sometimes administrator. Even into retirement, he was an adult league softball star. He was friendly and accepting and threw himself into Kelly's new family (which happily includes us) with vigor and enthusiasm and love. He adored Kelly and was incredibly proud of her and he was her Daddy and he was too young to die, yet he did. Devastating.

Kelly was sad. You'd have to know happy Kelly to understand how heartbreaking that is. But Kelly, amongst everything else, is a fighter. She proudly claims to "never half-ass" and she lives up to that better than anyone I know. Kelly has decided to honor her dad by raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by running the Disney World Half Marathon this weekend. Kelly was a runner in high school and maybe college, and she was fast. She says she wants to get her fast back. Hell yeah, Kelly! She has raised $3800 so far and if you'd like to add to that total, there is still time. Her fundraising page has a blog that is funny and inspiring and also features a link to easily donate by credit card. It's on the right hand side. The big button that says "DONATE NOW". Hee hee :)

Kelly hopes to finish in under two hours, which is good time, I understand. She explains it this way, in perfect Kelly fashion,

When I ran this race 10 years ago, my finish time was 2 hours and 39 minutes. Provided the course hasn't changed to include running up Space Mountain, I'm confident that my 32 year old self could dust my 22 year old self by a solid 40 minutes.

Anyone looking down the barrel of getting older has got to admire that. She's awesome, see?

I'm looking forward to Saturday morning. I'm going to wake up at 5:30 am to "be there" in spirit at least for the start. Kelly thinks she can work out a way for me to track her progress through the race online, and I hope she does. I'll do it. I'll be her cheering section back home. Michael is going to be a "ChEAR" person on site. That term is too cute. So too cute it even makes a dedicated Disney Geek want to hurl, but that's what they call it. He'll get to see the start at Epcot, then get on a monorail for the Magic Kingdom where he will get to see her run through the Cinderella Castle, the half-way point of the race, before heading back to Epcot to see the finish. It all sounds so cool. I'm so happy for and proud of both of them. I'm beyond thrilled that this is all happening at DISNEY!!!! All I needed was further proof the place is really magic, right?

Via con Dios, Doctors Howard. Have a great time, be proud and be safe. I love you both.

Dickens Diary 3....Great Expectations

I've never had them.

Ta Da. This stupid thing has caused untold confustication :(

Have I had high hopes? Yes. Dreams? Surely. I dream and hope and fantasize and wish as much or more than anyone I know, but expectations are a different matter. That's not to say I'm a slacker. I feel I've had a pretty good idea of what I'm capable of and have done very well with my skill set. I knew very well I could move here from PA and set up a life. I had Lisa with me and she makes me feel very confident. I knew we could have a forever marriage and raise a family. We're a great team and we both had very good role models in that regard. I took a job based 100% on commission because I've always known I will do what I have to do to bring home a paycheck. The big things I know I have under control and I am narcissistic enough to rarely ever doubt that I always will. Maybe it's because I'm so fortunate in the things that matter most that I don't expect much "icing on the cake."

 Great Expectations can lead to disappointments. One thing I'm NOT good at is sports. I tried a lot of them growing up with no success. My Little League baseball team never won a game, may not have scored, and the coach made fun of the way I ran. Our soccer team lost all of its games and I do remember we did score one goal in one game. I remember because I didn't even know it had happened until I asked what all the excitement was about. I tried basketball thinking my height would be an asset, but again, we never won a game and I sat on the bench most all the time. Not surprisingly, I was pretty much the last picked in gym class or the playground. It didn't really bother me, I'd just learned not to expect any different. I didn't expect my team to win, or score. I didn't expect to make any sort of contribution. Sports just wasn't my thing. I did still know what I COULD do, though, I was perfectly comfortable in the water. I was a fully certified SCUBA diver before I was old enough the drive.

The arts were another area I never developed any expectations of success. We had a downright evil art teacher in the latter part of elementary school that made sure I knew I had zero talent in that area. But it wasn't a disappointment because I had no expectations there. From the earliest days I was no good with the visual arts thing. My friends didn't want me using their coloring books because I scribbled. I couldn't stay in the lines with my crayon like the other kids, so I didn't even try. Playdough was for making snakes. Period. And I hate snakes. I was in the church children's choir but in the back and off to the side where I couldn't do any damage. I even joined the bell choir, but ended up being entrusted with only one bell and even then the director had to pause in her conducting and point at me when she wanted me to bong the thing; I was lost.  I took up the trombone in 4th grade after the band guy came in and gave an assembly showing us all the different instruments we could learn. I had meant trumpet, but wrote trombone. Whatever, I didn't expect to be able to do it, so what difference did it make? I was in a small class with two of us, me and Doug Miller. Doug was a musical prodigy. I struggled for about four months trying to learn three notes and then gave up. I eventually took a photography class in high school and that's been my "artistic" outlet ever since. Recently I've started mucking about with Photoshop and fooling myself that THAT is "art."

I don't mean to be complaining here, I have been perfectly happy living within what I know I can do and do well. Controlling expectations leads to minimizing disappointment, right? I don't get jealous of the people who can hit a baseball at the picnic (I struck out at wiffleball at a work picnic once), or sing or dance or play golf once in a blue moon and still score less than 120. I enjoy them for what they are and remain happy with what I am, in my comfort zone. That is until this year.

Munchkin Houses :)

I've written before about how our involvement with the Brunswick Little Theatre has opened new doors for our whole family. For the first time ever I am participating in "the arts." It's not a new thing for the rest of my family, Lisa sings in the church choir and John plays trombone (how fitting, huh?) in the school band, but it's new to me and definitely moving away from my comfort zone.  Whether it was on purpose or not I'll never know, but Jen couldn't have drawn me out more expertly. She played to what I knew I could do with the stage manager job. She was very vague about her expectations at the start and let me grow and learn my way into the role. It worked. On opening night she gave her director's pep talk and announced she was turning it over to her stage managers. She sat in the audience during shows, watching her creation in the hands of others. I was one of three stage managers, the other two much more experienced than myself. On that opening night, after Jen had taken her place out in the house, one of the other stage managers came to me and asked if Jen really wasn't going to be back stage, was this show REALLY all up to us now? She was terrified by the idea, and she has a degree in Theatre Arts and has stage managed many, many shows. And there I was, totally new and inexperienced, waiting to see a curtain open from the stage side of things for the first time in my whole life, and I was well within my comfort zone. That comfort zone had actually grown. I had grown. I had broken rules I had for myself for years and years. It's a small thing, a very small thing, but I had painted two of the three munchkin house roofs. Mrs. Dunleavey, the art teacher witch at North Wales Elementary, would have had a coronary. I had learned how to paint a set piece, not like a pro for sure, but well enough to be proud of, I think, because Jen's expectations are greater than mine. The houses started out as a part of our parade float. Jen wasn't at all happy with them. I thought they were fine, not because I'd helped paint them and was happy with my work, but because I figured it was an amateur production, it was a set for a scene full of little kids and I was as usual willing to settle for what was easy and quick and already done. Jen wasn't. She said we re-paint the Munchkin houses because they didn't look as they should. I took a deep breath, shut my mouth and tried again with the thatch roofs. Jen watched and corrected and watched and judged and set me to it again. She taught me like no one in my life had done before. She could have done it herself a thousand times better and much faster, but she didn't. She asked, well demanded, that I begin to learn how to use three colors of paint on plywood to make an audience see a thatched roof. It was the closest thing to "real art" I've ever done, and I am proud of it because it was finally good enough. It could have been better, but because Jen has real expectations, good enough is a compliment. There's a real lesson for me there, if my thick skull will let it in.

Now we come to the Charles Dickens Festival. After telling Jen I was happy to be involved with the theatre, but couldn't act, sing or dance, I find myself preparing to portray Uriah Heep, dance in front of an audience and help sing showtunes from Oliver! Once again, Jen drew me out of my happy place gently. She told me the character acting wasn't that much different than the murder mystery parties we'd done a few years back. She told me the dance was more walking around and clapping then really dancing. She just bluntly told me that I was going to join in the singing. A few years ago I'd have had no part in these things, especially trying to sing in front of people, but something's changed. I'm wondering if I don't set my bar too low. I'm wondering if I'm not just lazy. I'm wondering how much of a disservice I've done to myself allowing that laziness. It's been on my mind a lot this week.

I love having people in my life who accept me as I am. I try to be that to others, to remind them that they are great just as they are. But lately I've been challenged to be more than I was. It isn't always comfortable and I fight it sometimes. I have dismissed high standards people hold for themselves and others as "perfectionism," and that was wrong. Comfort zones are for lazy people and I'm going to try to break that habit. And I promise to try to help others do the same in the future. It's a big switch for me, but I have every idea that given time and maybe a few reminders I can maybe bring others the gift Great Expectations.

Getting It

We saw more "bad behavior" on this Disney trip than any before. We saw a physical fight over parade watching spots narrowly averted by a cast member our first night in the park. The next day we witnessed a man jump off the Walt Disney World Railroad train while it was going regular speed between two stops. He'd apparently dropped his cell phone. He was almost thrown from the park, saved, we assume, by his pre-school daughter wearing a princess costume. Groups of foreign tourists speaking loudly over the narration of attractions was the norm rather than the exception. We noticed an unusual number of parents screaming at kids, and often kids who seemed to be doing nothing wrong. We saw 8, 10, maybe even 12-year-olds attached to dads with leashes. I don't know if we were just more sensitive to this stuff because we ourselves were so relaxed and happy and paying a lot of attention to everything going on around us, but on this trip all three of us picked up on many people who just weren't getting it. It made us feel really lucky to not be one of "those families," and coming home, I've become very happy to be surrounded by people who really do "get it."

We are a Disney Geek family. We all three see the Disney Magic as something real and valuable and important. I'm not shy about my love for Disney, as evidenced by this blog and it's accompanying Facebook page, and neither is the lovely Miss Lisa. This has led us to some good natured ribbing, of course, but also to discover some other Disney Geeks in our daily lives. I've found that others in the salesman community are as enthusiastic about Disney as myself. We can go on for hours in the back room of a grocery store discussing the latest discounts, the pros and cons of renting Disney Vacation Club points, character meals, crowd levels and all other aspects of trip planning. We use so many acronyms, I doubt anyone else can understand what we're saying. Lisa works for our town government and has found a cadre of dedicated Disney Geeks in charge of our police force. One officer sent us down with pins to trade and when we brought him back a Mickey sheriff's badge pin, he went to brag to the Chief, who already had one of his own of course. They proceeded to try one-upping each other with Disney collectibles they owned. The pastor of our church is another Disney-phile who made a point to tell me how much joy he gets out of the pictures I post and assured me that the experience our son gets on a family trip to Disney World is worth much more than any money we spent. Disney Geekery is everywhere.

I wrote before we left for our trip about how much fun I expected to have sharing our memories upon our return. What makes that sharing fun, and rewarding, is having people who "get it" to share with. Going through the Disney parks with Lisa and John is pure heaven for me because we all three appreciate it, nothing is forced, no one is just going along to see the others have fun. When Walt spoke in the movie shown at the end of "One Man's Dream" about wanting to build a park where parents and children could enjoy a place completely together because that's what he wanted for himself and his daughters, Lisa teared up. She understands what makes the magic. It's love, pure and simple. Behind all the corporatism and licensing and money, is the love one man had for his family and the world at large. That's why Disney works, why it's different. It's enough to move anyone to tears, anyone who get's it anyway.

Lisa's doorknob pic

my doorknob pic

My family is lucky to have another family who sees Disney in exactly the same way. Adrian and Jen and their boys Max and Milo are exactly the same kind of Disney Family as we are. They recently returned from a trip to Disneyland and the sharing of our two experiences has been a true joy. The similarities in the way we take in the parks is uncanny. We all try to capture the magic on camera, we have several thousand pictures between us, but I was amazed at how we all saw the same things as interesting or noteworthy. I've gotten used to pretty much sharing a brain with Lisa, so when we found we'd taken pictures of the same doorknob we weren't the least bit surprised. We shot lots of "detail" picture, ones we laughed about no one seeing us knowing what the heck we could be taking a picture of. Well, Jen would have known. While I took a picture of the light fixture on the ceiling of the WDW Railroad passenger car, Jen took one of the light in her room. Lisa took tons of door pictures, Jen has several of the inside of an elevator. Jen and I both took pictures of the entrance to Adventureland that aside from being from opposite ends of the country, could be the same shot. It's just really funny to me, and heartwarming. It's nice to have kindred spirits out there.

light on the train

A door in Norway

Elevator in the Disneyland Hotel

A faucet in Disneyland Hotel

Disneyland Hotel light

 It's not just the pictures, though. I mean how many people take the time to set down in a blog the joys of waiting in line? Back in February, I did, and here's a part of it:

"We aren't opposed to waiting in line, though, for something we all really want to do. Two hours is a bit much, but even for an hour and a half we have been known to suck it up and wait. It's really not the end of the world. There's lots to do in line. Disney has spent a tremendous amount of time and imagination and money making even the queuing areas of its attractions interesting. That's not even to mention the people watching opportunities. I pity the people who never wait in line and as a result miss out on mocking the other Disney guests' dress, hairstyle, accent, mannerisms and child-rearing skills. What do you people talk about at dinner? Even if you are sickeningly nice and don't get snarky and mean about strangers, you could spend time in line talking to your family. Imagine that! You are on vacation and the children, if not the adults, are probably close to sensory over-load. Talking about what you've done and seen and what adventures are yet to come make passing the time in line rather enjoyable."

Jen wrote on her personal blog yesterday all about waiting in the Radiator Springs Racers queue in Cars Land at Disneyland for two hours while they got the ride working again. She wasn't complaining, she was celebrating one of the best parts of her trip. Not only did she and Max take the time together to just be together, she experienced the joy of seeing her son get it while he pointed out Imagineering details to her. I couldn't have expressed it better myself, though I did express the  very same experience from our trip. Here's a bit from Jen's blog:

 "It didn't really matter....because even though, all told, Max and I stood on that queue for almost two hours, it was so very enjoyable.  At no point did he whine or complain (that would have made me get out of the line immediately, and he probably knew that!), and he tried his best to entertain the people in line around us (yeah, you know he did).  Even better, HE kept pointing out all these amazing Imagineered details to ME, and I loved how observant and interested he was.  We talked and we laughed and we shared an overpriced water bottle that a costumed cast member wisely started hawking to his captive audience, and we giggled over the texted photos of Milo enjoying A Bug's Land, and we imagined and we planned and we enjoyed each other.  There was no laundry to be done, there were no emails distracting me, there was no need to do school work, there was no Milo hanging on me....just two hours of Max and Mom time, doing something purely for fun."

That's what I mean by "getting it." It's what made Lisa get emotional at a movie. It's what makes me write this blog. It's magic, the real thing.

Just after we got home from Disney and a day or so before they left for their trip, I was dropping something off at Jen and Adrian's house. As I was leaving, Max came over to give me a hug and said, "I can't wait to get back so we can get together and share our stories!"  A seven year old looking forward to getting home so he could relive his experience with his friends. He gets it. That's what keeps the Disney Magic alive.

Walt Disney World's Adventureland entrance

Disneyland's Adventureland entrance

Escaping at Disney and Bringing the Magic Home

I don't know why, but I read the first post on this blog just now. It's from January 6, almost eight months ago and it talks about why I write this. Here's the last paragraph, the important part, I think.

 We are planning a trip to Walt Disney World this fall and I wanted to record my rather obsessive planning for my own sake as much as thinking anyone else would be interested. But I got to thinking about the reason we love our trips to "The Dis" as much as we do. Our good friends are going  in less than a month and I know they are hoping for the total escape that only the magic of Disney can offer. Disney, for those of us who love it, can truly make all the stress and bad and worries of the real world go totally away. It's a haven, a sanctuary, one of the last truly magical places left. I was thinking how great it would be to carry at least a bit of that feeling with us even when we were stuck here in the real world. So that, too, is what I plan to write about, living a happy and magic-filled life no matter where we are and what is happening around us.

I don't know what possessed me to read this, but I am very glad I did. I needed it. That trip we were planning is over, and I've switched from sharing plans to sharing memories. I didn't know when I wrote that paragraph how true it would become. I didn't know how much I'd need that trip when it came time and how much it would help change my attitude around. I called Disney World "a haven, a sanctuary, one of the last truly magical places left" and I used it as such. I immersed myself this trip. I locked the car keys in the room safe. I swore off news. I put work and all the other stressors of my life away for a week. I left voicemails sit on my phone unlistened to. I deleted emails like mad. I asked for our room TV to be tuned, if it was on at all, exclusively to the annoying brunette telling you all about what to do at the parks. I limited Facebook to Disney pages and bragging about the fun time we were having. I escaped.

I knew I needed it. My only reservation was that putting all that stuff aside would leave me facing an avalanche of crap upon ":re-entry." You know what? Didn't happen. All the bad things that had me down before our trip were still there when I got home, but they looked smaller and less important. The good things about home, the family and friends and the wonderful island I am lucky enough to call home looked bigger and more important. I had a total attitude adjustment and it carried over through that dreaded re-entry. I'm home and working (well, not a whole lot as you can tell, seeing as I'm writing on my blog at lunchtime), the keys are out of the safe and in my pocket, I'm up on all the news, I'm reading emails again, I'm facing all the bad things that can't touch a person in the Magic Kingdom. But I'm just as happy today as I was two weeks ago when I was riding Pirates of the Caribbean on Talk Like A Pirate Day. I took the magic home.

I spent a lot of time on this trip looking for the small details built into every facet of Walt Disney World. I thought about what it took to not only execute such detail, but to have the sort of mind set that allowed you to come up with the ideas in the first place. I looked at the park through the lens of the things I've learned about Walt Disney himself. I thought about how he wouldn't ever hear "no" or "you can't." Walt saw his dreams and made them real, for himself and generations to come after he was gone. He knew it was fantasy, he knew the world wasn't perfect and that sometimes bad things happened to good people, but he didn't let that consume him. Mickey Mouse himself was created after Walt Disney was swindled out of his very successful bread and butter cartoon character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt was betrayed by people he trusted and cheated and basically had his dreams crushed and stolen, but he responded by creating Mickey Mouse, on a train ride home to LA from the meeting in New York where all this happened. I realized last week that while I'm not Walt Disney, I don't have all he had in the way of intelligence and drive and talent, I can still be as much like him as possible. I don't have to accept the negative or the bad. I can see that watching evil and hate and dishonesty triumph sometimes doesn't mean they always will and it doesn't mean I have to put up with it. I can hold onto that hope, that optimism that Walt always had in his heart, and eventually it will win out. Just as Walt didn't design and build all the things that made his movies and his theme parks unique, I don't have to be the one to fix the problems I see. But by being like Walt, by carrying that optimism and that magic around with me and sharing it with those I care about I can help them find the way to break through their problems and stresses.

The friends I mentioned in that post did need the Disney Magic back in February, and they got it. What I didn't know was how much they'd need it again. And again, Disney is there. As I write this, those friends are on an airplane headed to Anaheim and Disneyland. Tomorrow they will walk through the gates of the Magic Kingdom that Walt built himself. The magic will be there, they will see new things and experience old ones in a new place. They are praying this works, that the escape can provide a break from some dark times and give them new strength to face troubles. I know it will. And I know that when they come home, I will do all I can to make sure they don't leave the magic behind. It's what Walt would do.

Disney Dinner, At Home!!!!

What's better than a night of Disney Parks behind the scenes shows on the TV? That would be sharing the fun with friends and turning it into a Disney food feast, of course! The food at Disney is one of our favorite parts of the experience, and it's fun and surprisingly easy to try duplicating some of Disney's dishes at home. Chip and Co. have recipes on their site and Disney cookbooks aren't hard to find. Our cookbook is almost 20 years old, so it has recipes from restaurants that no longer exist, which is kind of cool, really. Our feast included treats from Ohana, the Yachtsman Steakhouse, Le Cellier, the old Top of the World and a couple classic treats from the parks.

Jen's Ohana Wings and my own Onion-Cheese Soup

We started out with what my son has declared "the BEST chicken wings ever. Seriously. Ever"  and onion-cheese soup. The wings Jen made are part of the Ohana family-style dinner and are truly delicious. The soup was my contribution and came from our old Gourmet Mickey Cookbook attributed to the Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club Resort. I've had neither dish at the actual Disney location, but Jen says the wings pretty much nailed it. The soup may or may not be exactly like Disney's, but it was really good.

Poutine = Heaven

After devouring the wings and soup around the campfire, we moved inside for Jen's Poutine, a wonderful potato dish from the Canada Pavilion's Le Cellier restaurant. Poutine is basically baked potato wedges topped with caramelized onion and cheese, then covered with a red wine reduction sauce. While that may sound good, words can't describe the deliciousness of this dish. The reduction alone is good enough to eat with a spoon.

Lisa's Mickey Treats-on-a-stick!

For dessert, my lovely bride Lisa provided a classic Disney Parks treat, the Mickey Head Rice Crispy Treat! What could be better than a rice crispy treat that looks like Mickey, on a stick, with ears dipped in dark chocolate? Nothing. Period. For post-dessert TV watching treats we had Dole Whips! Both straight up and in a float, these things are hard to replicate exactly without a soft-serve machine, but ours were awesome and topped off a spectacular night.

Monorail Yellow

Disney also offers some fun and unique cocktails. The beverage I chose to accompany our meal may or may not be offered somewhere on the Disney property today, I don't know. It's the Monorail Yellow cocktail from the old Top of the World restaurant, the place that used to be at the top of the Contemporary resort. Top of the World has been replaced by the California Grill, but we brought the Monorail Yellow back for an encore. The original is a frozen concoction, but I turned it into a martini because I didn't want to bother getting out a blender. It worked nicely.


Trying to re-create some of your favorite Disney cuisine is fun and, thanks to the interwebs, not really hard. If you want to try for yourself, you can start searching either Chip and Co.'s recipe page or the Disney Family web site's recipe pages 

Pin Codes and Disney Visa and Free Dining, OH MY!!

OK, so, it seems like ancient history to me now, but I figured out the pin code thing with the help of my Disney bud. It turned out to be a package discount when you booked a room and ticket combo including both the Park Hopper and Water Parks and More options. We weren't interested in the water park option, and the discount wasn't enough to lure us away from our planned stay at a Fort Wilderness campsite. Even though we weren't using it, I was still thrilled to have received an elusive Pin Code just the same.

Fast forward a couple weeks, to last Thursday. The same Disney buddy who helped me figure out the pin codes, fellow Disney Geek Jen Iapalucci, sends me a text early in the morning asking if we have a Disney Visa. We do, I say. Well, she says, it seems a Free Dining offer is being extended to cardholders and it covers exactly the time we plan to be at the Dis! This was the deal I was hoping and waiting for! Free Dining is sort of the Holy Grail of Disney discounts. It can save a family a huge amount of money, or allow them to stay at a resort they otherwise couldn't afford. The Dining Plan is a bit complicated and it isn't for everyone (I'll talk about it more in a future post), but when it's free I think you'd be a fool to pass it up. My momma didn't raise no fool, so we were on board!

I'd been having reservations about staying in a tent for a seven-night trip. My son and I have camped quite a bit, but my wife, not so much. I was worried she'd be uncomfortable or something would flood in a Florida thunderstorm, or blow over. I just wanted our trip to be as stress-free as possible and I worried that I was tempting fate a little too much. I'd decided that if I could find a Free Dining deal, I'd move our reservation to a Moderate resort. I had done the homework on the Disney reservation site and found that with Free Dining, a room at a Moderate would be about $100 less than staying at the campground and paying for the dining plan. I was torn between wanting to give my son the Disney camping experience and wanting to be SURE everything would be stress-free all week. I was waiting for a sign. And Jen gave it to me.

Our minds were made up that we would stay at one of the Moderate resorts now, but which one? We'd stayed at Coronado Springs the last time we spent a week at Disney and loved the place. The last trip we made, we stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, and loved that as well. We looked at the French Quarter's sister resort, the next door Port Orleans Riverside, and found it to be nice, but not our style. The only Moderate we haven't seen is the Caribbean Beach Resort, but Jen stayed there a couple times and gave it a thumbs up.

Caribbean Beach Resort's Pool

I found out that the Disney Visa offer would be extended to the general public on Monday (today), so I figured we'd think it over and call for a reservation Saturday morning. Well, we didn't need much thought. We all pretty much agreed that Port Orleans French Quarter's pool was a little small, so that left a choice between the Caribbean Beach Resort and Coronado Springs. The CBR pool looked pretty awesome and since we are a family that loves trying new things, we were all happy trying out the Caribbean Beach Resort this time around.

That was decided Thursday evening, which turned out to be a good thing. Friday morning the Disney fan pages on Face Book started reporting that rooms for the Visa Free Dining deal were going fast. I was sent into a near panic. I feared my "sign from above" deal being ripped from my fingers. Luckily, I have some flexibility as to work hours and this is our very slowest time, so I got home at lunchtime and called the Disney Reservation line, with fingers firmly crossed.

After a short hold time, a very friendly woman came on the line and asked me a few questions. She was able to bring up all the info I'd put in the Disney website and seemed very happy with how many times I'd been to Disney World in my 40+ years and especially how many times we'd visited in the last 5 or 6. I have no idea if this helped me get the room I wanted or not, but after a few minutes we were booked into the resort of our choice in the room type we wanted for the dates we wanted and for about $150 less than we had planned to spend camping. Others seemed to be having trouble, but perhaps they wanted different resorts or room preferences, who knows? The important part, for me anyway, is that now our Disney vacation is a reality, booked and reserved and deposit paid and accepted.

All this has just reinforced my belief in the Disney Magic. As Jen said when she was telling me about the deal, it's like they put it out JUST FOR ME!! And it's made it more obvious that Disney Magic is even better when shared. Our family are all believers in the Magic of the Mouse. Finding another family who shares that with us just multiplies the happy. Jen helped bring the magic home for us, and that's magical in itself. She's the best sort of friend and we are lucky and blessed to have her and her whole family in our lives.

Now, it's time to sort out dinner reservations!!!!!

Sorcerers Of The Magic Kingdom

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is a new game being play-tested right now in the Magic Kingdom. Similar to a Kim Possible adventure available in Epcot, this game will allow park guests to assume the role of Sorcerers defending the Magic Kingdom from Disney villains. There is a great description of the game by a couple that were part of play-testing last week over at MouseSteps, including lots of pictures (such as the one at left) and a couple of videos of the game in action.

It appears players will sign up at the Fire Station on Main Street, then proceed to one of the other lands to play. Completing the mission in one land lets you continue on to the next. Play is accomplished by finding special locations on a map, waving a playing card over a key symbol, then interacting with a video that pops up. You use your cards, each player is given five, to cast spells and defeat the villain.

I'm personally really excited to try this. Our family loves a good adventure, we (well especially me) love us some maps and we are regular Geocachers, so this game is right up our alley. On your first trip to Disney, there are probably other things you should do instead. This game is meant, I think, for those of us returning to the parks after multiple trips. It looks like it will let us enjoy the Magic Kingdom in a new way and find parts of it that maybe we had missed on previous trips. That's what I'm hoping for in any case.

Our good friends and fellow Disney Geeks are heading to the Dis in a couple weeks. Our fingers are all crossed hoping that Sorcerers is up and running when they arrive. If they get to play, the lovely and talented Jenny has agreed to write a guest blog for me about her experience. Expect to hear reports from their trip here in any case. One of the best things about Disney friends is reliving their trips vicariously, and I find myself really excited for them.

Pooh Sticks

"Pooh had just come to the bridge; and not looking where he was going, he tripped over something, and the fir-cone jerked out of his paw into the river. 'Bother,' said Pooh, as it floated slowly under the bridge, and he went back to get another fir-cone which had a rhyme to it. But then he thought that he would just look at the river instead, because it was a peaceful sort of day, so he lay down and looked at it, and it slipped slowly away beneath him, and suddenly, there was his fir-cone slipping away too.

'That's funny,' said Pooh. 'I dropped it on the other side,' said Pooh, 'and it came out on this side! I wonder if it would do it again?' And he went back for some more fir-cones. It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at once, and leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one of them did; but as they were both the same size, he didn't know if it was the one which he wanted to win, or the other one. So the next time he dropped one big one and one little one, and the big one came out first, which was what he had said it would do, and the little one came out last, which was what he had said it would do, so he had won twice ... and when he went home for tea, he had won thirty-six and lost twenty-eight, which meant that he was - that he had - well, you take twenty-eight from thirty-six, and that's what he was. Instead of the other way round."

                                                                               --A.A. Milne in The House at Pooh Corner


That, friends, is Pooh Sticks, simple fun for young and old, boy and girl, man and woman. As a small boy, I loved Pooh Sticks. Our family was always out and about somewhere on the weekends (thanks Mom and Dad) and often in a park or other outdoorsy space, these being generally free. Whenever we crossed a bridge over moving water, we'd have to play Pooh Sticks.

As I got older, my friends and I would play in streams and creeks, building dams and bridges and such. I'd always suggest a "stick race" and it was always fun. Calling it Pooh Sticks then would have been very uncool, but that's what it was, and I knew it.

In high school, when I started spending a lot of time with a certain girl, Lisa, who would become my wife, we would always be going off somewhere, often in the outdoors, it being generally free. Once, when  crossing a bridge, I asked Lisa to play Pooh Sticks. I didn't think about it at the time, but it didn't occur to me to call it anything but Pooh Sticks, because Lisa was Lisa and would understand. She did understand, and we played Pooh Sticks together for years and then brought our own little boy into the world.

Today that little boy is 12, a "tween" as he is fond of reminding us, and he too enjoys Pooh Sticks, often asking to play on our way across the canal to the beach on the little slice of paradise on which we were blessed enough to settle. And every time we play, I smile, inside and out.

I have to thank Walt Disney for a lot of that smile. I didn't pick up on Pooh Sticks from the books, though I'm sure my mom read them to me. I fell in love with Pooh Sticks, and the Hundred Acre Wood, through Disney's cartoons. I can't read anything of Pooh without hearing the cartoon voice (which made watching his voice come from Kaa the snake in Jungle Book a bit disturbing) and seeing his chubby wubby self waddling down the path. It's a little piece of that Disney magic that's been with me and a part of me since my earliest memories. And it's that magic that made me want to write this blog.

We are planning a trip to Walt Disney World this fall and I wanted to record my rather obessive planning for my own sake as much as thinking anyone else would be interested. But I got to thinking about the reason we love our trips to "The Dis" as much as we do. Our good friends are going  in less than a month and I know they are hoping for the total escape that only the magic of Disney can offer. Disney, for those of us who love it, can truly make all the stress and bad and worries of the real world go totally away. It's a haven, a sanctuary, one of the last truly magical places left. I was thinking how great it would be to carry at least a bit of that feeling with us even when we were stuck here in the real world. So that, too, is what I plan to write about, living a happy and magic-filled life no matter where we are and what is happening around us.