July and October reports...and in December, the end of this era

[kaoden39]

Thank you. It has been awful because I haven't had a chance to slow down. It is truly the flu, cold and tummy combined.


Well, my trip is cancelled but Loren is going next week with his bffs family. Lucky bug. I admit to being a little jealous.


I think it is for the best we aren't going, what with me being sick and Scotty just having got over that. Plus he has no energy and that would not be fun. I could really use the trip though. His biopsy came back and it was "atypical" so he has to undergo another in two months.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh Michele...


The local health food store was having an open house today, so we got free samples of the Sambucol stuff. Bought it, too. Robert chose to get that Oscillo homeopathic remedy, because he feels flu'y, not cold'y. I look forward to feeling better.

 

[kaoden39]

Molly, thank you.


You guys got really hit hard. I hope that your choices help. I am starting feel out from under on the stomach thing.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm so glad you're starting to feel better, at least tummy-wise.

 

[kaoden39]

Thank you, I hope you guys are starting to feel better.


How is your MIL?

 

[bumbershoot]

I made a big mistake as soon as I felt a little better, and started cleaning the house. Which brought up huge amounts of dust, which caused a two day allergy attack and I backslid a bit. But as of today I realized I'm doing better.


Everything remains quiet on the MIL front. She has been discharged from Home Health, so now gets to have her prothrombin times checked at the lab. Which means a welcome back to me as caregiver, or, really, driver.

 

[kaoden39]

Poor Molly on both counts. That really stinks about the allergies. I hope you are feeling better.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hi again!

Shockingly, the planets came together just right, and an Alaska Air Miles flight came up along with some free hotel nights, and we spent last weekend down in Anaheim.

It was EXHAUSTING, and I don't like Ramada Maingate much, but some good times were had.

As of tomorrow my AP is dead, and DH and DS don't really have plans to go on their own before early February, so this is it for now. Don't know how long or short "for now" will be. Thinking of the AP prices makes me almost cry, but then so does just having a *ticket* for ONE trip in a 365 period. Darn them. Sure they have new stuff, but they are also getting SO many more visitors...they didn't NEED to raise the prices. (especially since carsland, according to all reports, was created from money they *actually had* and set aside back when the announcement was made)


Anyway, my computer was in the shop for about 2 weeks, which was a terrible time in my history, LOL, but now it has a new screen, new screen case, and even a new bottom (I guess the bottom was breaking, in a way Apple considers to be abnormal and not person-caused, and I didn't even know it), all under warranty, and I'll probably post some pictures at some point. Probably.

 

[kaoden39]

I was thinking about you earlier today. I was wondering how you were. I can hardly wait to hear about you most recent trip.

 

[bumbershoot]

I just want to tell one little story from the trip.


We went on Jungle Cruise on Saturday, after dark. Some might remember that Eamon has, in the past, been a little bit scared of this, but he was quite brave. So we were on the ride, and the CM was pretty funny starting out.

When we got to the tiger, the CM said the usual joke...that's a 500 pound Bengal Tiger, and they can jump 15 feet. But it's OK, we're only 10 feet away, so he'll jump right over us.

Ha ha, funny, etc.


So then we see the big snake. That's a 500 lb Bengal Cobra, they can spring 15 feet. But that's OK, we're only 10 feet away, he'll jump right over us.

He proceeded to say that about *almost* every animal on the ride. I mean, seriously, he did the WHOLE thing for many, many of the animals.

I guess there was a lady right near the CM who tried to get him to stop, and from what Robert said later (he was sitting closer to them), that seemed to have fueled the CM to do it MORE.


I was hoping for some sort of "punchline", some sort of bazinga moment, but it never came. However, the sheer number of times he said it was a punchline of its own. You got the feeling that the CM was having fun, and he made it a bit odd, a bit weird, but definitely one we won't forget.


So we were chortling about it that night. We finished whatever we were doing, we left the park, walked back, got ready, packed up, etc, went to sleep.


In the morning we were getting ready, and we turned on the TV. One nice thing I'll say about the Ramada is that they have a decent channel or two, and Jurassic Park was playing without commercials on Encore or Starz (it was one of those channels).

We're watching it and getting ready, and then there's the scene when you see the T-Rex and he's approaching the car, and they are driving away. Dramatic!

And Eamon casually says..."that's a 500 pound Bengal Tyrannosaurus Rex...he can jump 15 feet, but we're only 10 feet away...he'll jump right over us."

 

[bumbershoot]

They moved Disneyland to Seattle!

Just SO damp.

But the light does something neat to the decorations.

And what *side* you're taking pictures from really makes a difference. From the other side, the sun was brighter. From this side, however...

 

[bumbershoot]

I desperately need them to change the word they are describing their bread with.

It's "artisan" bread, not "artesian". I told them in early October, I sent a followup email. Nothing has changed. It's depressing. It's NOT the right word, and it just makes them look silly.

Similar situation at the Y...there's a huge poster about this new boot camp class there. They say that the class can go along with the "regiment" of MMA training. Sigh.

Regimen. Not regiment. Using words that are close but have entirely different spellings just makes you look, well, not intelligent.


E was starving (I'd picked up a veggie skewer at Bengal BBQ) so he needed his usual mac and cheese. Hey wait, this is new.

I commented on the plate change, and they said it's part of their new "green" thing. Ah, OK. Cool. "Oh can we have a jalapeno cornbread for me and a potato bread for him?"

Sure we can. This is how they are served.

Well. So glad for the "green" thing, then.

 

[PHXscuba]

I desperately need them to change the word they are describing their bread with.

It's "artisan" bread, not "artesian". I told them in early October, I sent a followup email. Nothing has changed. It's depressing. It's NOT the right word, and it just makes them look silly.

Similar situation at the Y...there's a huge poster about this new boot camp class there. They say that the class can go along with the "regiment" of MMA training. Sigh.

Regimen. Not regiment. Using words that are close but have entirely different spellings just makes you look, well, not intelligent.

My inner copy editor gets so frustrated when signs are wrong. I let it go when people make mistakes in their online or personal writing (the card from "the Smith's" ... and he's not a blacksmith ), but when someone is being paid good money to commercially create a sign, it just screams at me when it's wrong. Maybe Disneyland should hire us as sign copy editors ... in-park auditing required, of course!

 

[kaoden39]

It always amazes me when big companies make such huge mistakes and don't catch it in quality control. A local McDonald's near where my oldest daughter works has their sign for their "drive trhu". Now I had driven by it several times and never noticed it until our other daughter Kody pointed it out. Now I wonder how I ever missed it.

How funny about E and the Jungle Cruise. I can imagine that was no fun. I think that captain needs an adjustment. I am sure his schtick was funny at one time. Not sure when that time was.

 

[nancy drew]

As a teacher, and an unofficial member of the Spelling and Grammar police, I have often wanted to take a red pen to menus, store signs, information handed out, websites (guess it would really just mess up my computer if I took a red pen to a website), etc. and hand it to someone along with a bill for my correction services. Not that I would expect to get paid, but I figure it would make more of a statement that way.

 

[Sherry E]

I have gotten paid for my proofreading and copy editing services! I've helped people rewrite what they originally wrote if I thought it was a mess! In fact, I would continue to be earning money for it now if my PC hadn't crashed and begun to malfunction, causing me to lose clients.

In my own TR I pointed out a while back that the Disneyland website featured a major error in the text about the ice rink in Downtown Disney. They were calling Tinker Bell by a different name - "Tinkle Bell." I directed fellow DIS'er deejdigsdis over to the hideous error and she caught it before it was magically corrected. Someone at Disney finally saw it, I suppose, because a few days later the typo was gone.

I would guess that the same folks who put the "Strom Troppers" in the MHP map descriptions were also responsible for Tinkle Bell! A huge company such as Disney should have better proofreaders in place. They need them.

 

[bumbershoot]

In my own TR I pointed out a while back that the Disneyland website featured a major error in the text about the ice rink in Downtown Disney. They were calling Tinker Bell by a different name - "Tinkle Bell."

Oh gracious, I didn't see that in your TR! That's just awful.

New story: Tinkle Bell and the StromTroppers


I'm so glad some other people think it's ridiculous. It is not bread made with artesian water, I'm almost certain of it. Then again, it's not really "artisan" bread, either. Can ANYTHING be called artisan if they make thousands of them a day? I mean, really.

So hey, maybe they are "artesian". But I really don't think so.



Shortly before Washington Mutual collapsed, one of the Tacoma branches put in a new drive-thru sign that said something like "for customer's only". I mean, a big huge sign with "customer's only". I took a picture of it, but that was a few cellphones ago and before I had internet access with my phone, so I could never do anything with it. And it was just too painful to me to go in and ask them "customer's only WHAT?", mainly because it's about a 99% chance that NO ONE would understand what the problem was...



completely and totally off topic but it's been on my mind and it's too frivolous to talk about anywhere else

Thinking more about editing, I've been reading a long string of free books on Kindle, and there are so many reasons that most of them are free. I'm a mystery-genre lover, and it seems that everyone is writing those now. If you aren't truly inspired, though, it's so formulaic. And now all sorts of romance writers are getting into it, and it's going to make me ill.

A couple phrases I never want to read again:

"she slicked on lipstick" (it just sounds disgusting...something about the word "slick")

"her lips curved upwards into a smile" (just say she smiled. actually, why are you telling me this? is it TRULY necessary to the progression of the story?)

Just about any overly graphic "bedroom" scene...I'm not reading Anne Rice, I'm reading a mystery NOT a romance, just STOP IT. Ick. They look steamily at each other, they close the bedroom door, end of scene. PLEASE.


And I just read a short mystery where the whole reason the adorable, perfect protagonist, who can eat all of the baked goods her bakery makes without ever gaining an ounce (and for some reason the author describes every movement she makes while eating said baked goods*), gets involved in solving the murder is because she won't get paid until the fiance of the victim knows that the murder has been solved. Uh, what? Ever heard of a contract for your wedding baked good services? The dude's a millionaire, surely you had him sign a contract? And while we're on the subject, when we had OUR wedding, the ONLY vendors that we didn't have to pay 100% in advance were the musicians and the site. Everyone else had a set-in-stone date to pay 100%, and that date was NOT the day before the wedding. The other reason was that she had bought expensive bakery equipment and the pay-in-full date was approaching, and she needed the wedding money. OK, so you are not unfamiliar with the concept of a contract...you just didn't think to make one up for the millionaire's wedding. Ohhhhkaaaay.




I'm about ready to start paying for books again...I'm sick of it.


*that actually reminds me of something else I'm tired of in these books. Describing everything about what everyone is doing, in between the conversation. I actually do not need to know EVERY move the characters make. Especially if it's food-related, unless it actually relates to the story. I think that this started with Diane Mott Davidson and her catering series. Cooking and eating and related movements are actually important in her stories, because she's, you know, a caterer. But most other stories don't have that component.

Also, in the catering books, she is always careful to not contaminate the food she is eating. If she's drinking something, it's something she made for herself. She isn't constantly eating things she's making for others.

Whereas in the book I mentioned above, she is eating cupcakes *while frosting them before putting them into the case for sale to other people*. No no NO. Stop eating while working. Nasty. Just stop. Pretend like you are in public, and stop it. When I had food jobs, I couldn't just *eat*. If I wanted something I had to take a break, get the food, and take it back behind the scenes. And then wash my hands. I couldn't just take a scoop of the fettucine, or salad, or whatever, and eat it right there.



OK obviously these amateur books are messing with my head. And it's only gotten worse since I read Anna Karenina over the last 2 weeks. Now that I've read that, I can't go back to the freebies, LOL.

 

[bumbershoot]

I bought this popcorn bucket. It's Nightmare Before Christmas, Christmas, themed. Not Halloween themed. And is more easily re-used for things than the coffin NBC popcorn bucket I bought in October.

Grey grey grey...

My camera won't stay away from New Orleans Square.

Same spot, slightly different zoom...totally changes the color/clarity/brightness.

And again.

Dreary.

Not so dreary.

I love lights. Hey wait, there was a "lights" thread, wasn't there?

First time ever, loaded on the *other* side of BTMMRR.

Eamon did the "goat trick", and it got him SO bad. He was loopy for 5 minutes after the ride! "Doing the goat trick makes the ride go faster!" No, son, it only makes it FEEL like it's faster...

Did the cars always have padding?

 

[bumbershoot]

With the rain, the teacups were closed, of course, but still lovely.

Autopia was not closed in the rain. 5 minute wait, IF that, thank you!

E measured himself and he's *that close* to getting to go by himself...however, his height is in his torso to a big extent, so he might have to actually be taller to really reach the pedal. While on the ride he tried to do it all by himself, but especially with wet shoes and pedal, he kept slipping off.

Hmm, something is wrong with that sign.

They actually made a Fix It Felix game. It's free to play at the arcade.

I couldn't get a good shot of the castle with my camera. Just couldn't. Went from bad:

to worse:

and worse:

We had to leave before closing in order to drive up to LAX and pick up Robert. If MaryJo is out there, I now know the Hades it must have been for her to pick me up for the Diva trip. If I never have to pick anyone up there EVER again it will be too soon. Making things worse...Robert's plane was an hour late, it was only half an hour late when I left for the airport, and I couldn't find the cell phone lot. I'm sure I'm on a watch list somewhere due to the number of times we looped that airport.

We had picked out a Passat from National's Emerald Aisle, mainly because E said it was comfy...but it turned out it's NOT comfy when you're falling asleep in the back seat. The seats are too straight, it seems, so when you're tall enough to sit without a booster but not tall enough to have your head up above the seat, it's painful.

But we got Robert, got back to the room, and slept.

 

[bumbershoot]

12/1!

Rain, rain rain.

Well that's pretty.

So was this utter lack of line.

We got in that line that early because they announced RSR wouldn't be opening that morning, so we turned right around to get our caffeinated beverages. We also got a s'bux spinach, feta, and whatever wrap, and discovered that it's quite to our tastes!


I like.

This area in this weather did something to my soul. Probably because I was born in SF and grew up constantly taking day trips in the Monterey/SF/Carmel area.

Slippery!

Ooh.

I just love the Single Rider line, that's all there is to it.

Why do I torment myself by taking flash/nonflash pictures of the same things? So often I like both images just the same. Then I torment you by showing them both.