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Friday Night Disney Recap
So yesterday afternoon I left work early so that Sara and I could go play over at Disney and check out the new Monsters, Inc. attraction at the Magic Kingdom. I’ll post my specific review of the preview here in a little bit, but here’s everything else that happened over the course of about seven hours…
I Thought YOU Were Gonna Check the Weather Report…
Aside from a horrible traffic jam because somebody decided to run head-first into a guard rail on I-75, the trip over was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that pretty much as soon as we got on property, it started raining. Not enough to consider turning around, but certainly not the little sprinkle that one would just brush off and be dry ten minutes later from, either. Luckily we had an umbrella in the car, so that got us into the park relatively dry, but Sara feared being cold and wet later on, so we (she) proceeded to spend a whole lot of money in the nearest gift shop on pretty much an entire set of clothes! Good news was that I got a new raincoat out of it … to replace the one I had back in high school … and of course, the moment we stepped out of the gift shop, it stopped raining and we never saw precipitation again that evening…
Buzz Fastpasses
We’ve been getting good at this whole Fastpass game and for the second time in a row, grabbed passes for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin before heading off to eat. We did this last time when we were here with my Mom, too, and were able to get right on after we finished eating – very cool! Plus, this has kind of become a favorite for Sara and I, as we compete to see who can beat who – this time I clobbered her, although she’ll tell you that last time was a totally different ballgame.
I had found a cheat sheet online of where the best places to aim for are, but forgot to brush up before our match – next time should be an interesting game, though!
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – Passholder Preview
http://ssevener.livejournal.com/202716.html#cutid1
The Five Year-Old Flasher
I was so disappointed because I didn’t get to see it firsthand for myself, but while we were waiting in line for the flying carpets in AdventureLand, Sara witnessed quite possibly the funniest thing of the whole trip. All I heard was his mother shrieking something fierce – apparently only moments before I turned to look, this kid no older than probably four or five just happened to have his penis hanging out, just a flappin’ in the breeze! And I’m told it wasn’t just a little at the tip, but the balls and everything … stay tuned for my new sequel to Kids Say the Darnedest Things entitled Kids Do the Darnedest Things With Their Genitals…
I know – I’m immature. Already a known fact, so let’s move on.
Other Attractions
We didn’t really hit up a whole lot of other places after this – we did take a walk through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and go on the Jungle Cruise because we’d never done those before, and I think Sara got quite the kick out of the cruise just because not often do you get to hear that kind of a performance out of Disney castmembers … at least not intentionally! From there we got Fastpasses for Big Thunder, but never ended up using them, and doubled back for some ice cream in Tomorrowland before hitting up a few gift shops on the way out. I picked up a few pins for Sara, as well as another gift that cannot be mentioned here without worry of ruining the surprise, and we ended up leaving the park just in time to catch the last half of Wishes from a great spot in the middle of Main Street USA.
Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf
Of course, the night was still young and lately we’ve been striving to make the most of our time together, so once back at the car we proceeded to go play a relaxing round of mini golf. The last time we played over there, we had an absolute blast at Winter Summerland by Blizzard Beach, so our first inclination was to go play the other course (summer) there, but instead we came across Fantasia Gardens first, which actually proved to be a considerably cooler course, although ultimately it was a lot harder and Sara beat me because I had a couple of really bad holes! Overall it was a pretty neat round and I’m sure we’ll go back, but my biggest problem were the hole on inclines – there were maybe three or four that started off at the bottom of probably 50 or 60 degree inclines so if you didn’t wail on the ball hard enough to hop over the hill, you never even got past the tee off! I had two or three 6 and 8 stroke holes because of this, and Sara ended up beating me by 2 or 3 strokes, so you do the math…
Blackout dates are now in effect through Easter, which is fine because Sara’s working anyways, but it was definitely nice to get over there and have some fun because we haven’t been there just the two of us in a while. I don’t know if we’ll go over anytime in April before our big vacation in May, but if nothing else, maybe we can squeeze in a short evening of dinner and fireworks at Epcot to end a busy week or something. We still haven’t spent as much time at MGM or Animal Kingdom as the other two, but I think hands down Epcot is our favorite park right now and aside from getting there two hours in advance to get decent seats for Fantasmic, you just can’t beat IllumiNations as a perfect end to a day at Disney World.
Good times…
a date on the beach…
Last night was a refreshing change.
Sara’s been working absolutely crazy hours lately – try 60 or70 per week – and so our time together has been little to none, and usually very stressful and prone to arguments when it does happen. But last night was great because we went out for our first night out alone together in a long time! Don’t get me wrong, the quality time we’ve had with each of our families over the past few months has been great and we’re really lucky for every day, but we haven’t really gotten as much time for just the two of us lately and it was really starting to take its toll. Well, Sara just so happened to have last night off, so we went out for a few hours and it was certainly well deserved!
We started out at our favorite Chinese place, Liang’s Bistro, before proceeding over to St. Pete Beach for a couple of hours of just walking around, star-gazing and enjoying each others company. The water was still a bit cold to do any swimming, but then again, it was ten o’clock at night so we didn’t expect much! There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the moon was perfectly lit, so it was anything but pitch dark out – just enough to block out anyone else who may have been walking by, but not so much as to make you forget that you’re on the beach by any stretch of the imagination. Our walking lead us to this really cool looking hotel – the Grand Plaza Hotel Beachfront Resort – which Sara proceeded to fantasize about for hosting our hypothetical wedding, and just for the record at rooms only ranging from $139 – $179 / night with some including beach views, it might be a possibility, hypothetically speaking, of course … but that’s another topic entirely! We finally settled into a spot and threw down the blanket for a while to sit and listen to the waves, and all of that other romantic stuff. I won’t bore you with the gritty details, but needless to say it was a very relaxing night…
Of course, the down side to our little evening getaway is that now our laundry room and my car alike are completely littered with beach sand, which sounds nice until you realize that you’re tracking it all over the house and didn’t plan on vacuuming anytime soon! But that aside, it was good fun and we vowed to do it again sooner than later. One suggestion was hitting up the local Hard Rock Casino because neither of us have been there yet and we can both recall having a lot of fun in casinos in our own separate pasts. I still remember my very first trip when I went to Turtle Creek with Frank that year we worked on camp staff – I made $60, and he lost about $60 … good times… 🙂
I’m not too happy with Brighthouse right now, either…
Me: Yes, I received your advertisement in the mail a few weeks ago to switch my phone over to your Digital Phone service and also upgrade my Internet speed to 15mbps for less than $20 and I’d like to take advantage of that offer.
Customer Service Drone: Ok. That package starts at $99, and the additional Internet upgrade will bring it to $108.
Me: Ok – as long as my bill only goes up by $20 because that’s what the promotion says.
Customer Service Drone: I’m sorry, but your current package is already at a promotional rate – your package is currently discounted to $68, but our digital phone package is $99 plus the additional upgrade to 15mbps Internet access is another $10.
Me: So it’s going to cost me another $40 / month to sign up for the services that your flier says only cost me less than $20 / month???
Customer Service Drone: The discount doesn’t apply to currently discounted packages.
Me: Your flier is misleading – it doesn’t say that. I don’t want to switch if you’re not going to honor the rate that you offered because otherwise I’m still getting a cheaper rate with my existing VoIP provider.
Customer Service Drone: Great! Is there anything else that I can help you with today?
*click*
Later I did notice that on the bottom of the flier in tiny print, it does have their legal disclaimer stating that the discount is inclusive and cannot be combined, but if that’s the case, then why bother sending me the damn flier in the first place?! Your marketing distribution list is smart enough to lambaste me with promotions because it sees that I’m not already a Digital Phone subscriber, but it can’t send me an accurate estimate of what the cost truly is? I was really excited about finally switching everything over to Brighthouse, not to mention the faster Internet speeds, but when I hung up the phone I instantly had to wonder what Verizon has to offer.
Yep, us consumers can switch just like that. Don’t lie to us with your advertising and you won’t have to worry about it…
Why I won’t buy another ProForm Elliptical
| Description | Price | Part # | Model # | Subtotal |
| Â PEDAL DISC | Â $57.71 | Â 176350 | Â PFEL45013 | Â $57.71 |
| Â 5/16″ X 25.4MM HEX BOLT | Â $.25 | Â 013303 | Â PFEL45013 | Â $0.25 |
| Â M6 X 30MM SCREW | Â $3.53 | Â 183635 | Â PFEL45013 | Â $14.12 |
| Â DISC CROSSBAR | Â $49.24 | Â 177057 | Â PFEL45013 | Â $49.24 |
| Order Subtotal | $121.32 |
After shipping, they want over $150 for the replacement parts to fix my elliptical after the pedal broke off whenever-ago that it happened. The whole thing cost me something like $350, so that’s nearly half the original cost because the thing broke less than a year later, and of course, because I didn’t buy the extended warranty, it was only covered for a measley 90 days. I guess that’s what I get for expecting to find a quality piece of exercise equipment for such a low price.
This weekend I’m going to go to Home Depot to see if I can find anything any cheaper. I know that the cover would need to come right from ProForm, but the screws are just hex screws and the cross bars are just a couple of pieces of steel bolted together. Cheap piece of crap…
Scott’s latest exercise CD – Sounds of the ’80s, Vol. 2
1. The Power of Love, Huey Lewis & the News
2. Eye of the Tiger, Survivor
3. Working for the Weekend, Loverboy
4. Tarzan Boy, Baltimora
5. Puttin on the Ritz, Taco
6. Africa, Toto
7. Shout, Duran Duran
8. In the Navy, The Village People
9. We Built This City, Starship
10. I Can’t Dance, Genesis
11. Bille Jean, Michael Jackson
12. Addicted to Love, Robert Palmer
13. You Keep Me Hanging On, Kim Wylde
14. Another One Bites the Dust, Queen
15. Hold On Loosely, .38 Special
16. Jungle Love, Morris Day & the Time
17. Dance Hall Days, Wang Chung
18. Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd
(Did I miss anything???)