so if you are in safety harbor, florida. you might wanna check out this tree.
1.31.2008
1.23.2008
dali.1
um, so, to put it lightly, i'm now a new dali fan. if you're in the tampa area and you have a chance to get to st. petersburg. . . even if you think, 'eh, who can look at dripping clocks for that long?'. . . .
no no no, so much more than dripping clocks. get thee to the salvador dali museum. i'm now all about locating the animation short that he did with disney.
really?
find the hidden symbol.
i was helping sara put away her christmas decorations.
i get it, it was the 70's and everything was psychedelic man. . . but who do they think they were fooling with this 'candle and holly' ornament?
dad's morning
its christmas time, only there is no snow to shovel in florida. so dad sat in front of an open door with a cup of coffee watching deer approach.
the set up
ok, seriously. we got the idea from this: http://xkcd.com/249/
(go there now :)
and this: http://xkcd.com/chesscoaster/
(ok, go there too)
we wanted to attempt it. and we knew from being in disneyland, that they take a picture on space mountain. we even knew approximately where and when. we formulated plans, where to procure chess pieces and glue. do we do a whole set?- eh, too many pieces, maybe just the two kings fighting it out. maybe we can make the whole thing from paper? that would fold seriously flat and wouldn't be difficult to carry around all day.
then we opted for something similar. dan would string playing cards together and it would look like a floating card trick. i could easily set up a cats cradle with some shoe laces. so we made a quick stop at walgreens before driving to disneyworld.
we planned to take turns for the camera, taking the ride a couple of times, even planning a dry run to figure out where the camera was etc.
this is the only picture that exists. and i didn't even get a shot of him holding it up. it looked good.
space mountain in florida is sadly different from california. no red hot chili peppers, no flashing crazy lights, no double seats, and no picture. dan held the cards and i held a 'pondering' look nearly the entire ride. . . err. dammit.
florida also doesn't have the holiday 'nightmare before christmas' haunted house.
guess we'll have to make due. . . in the happiest place in the world. . .
for the record, it would've looked really cool.
epcot
dan had never been to epcot. we were little kids when we were here together last. i had been back about ten years ago with some friends from college. and then there was dan's and my trip to disneyland just this past spring. it was important to get to epcot first, since he had never seen it. it turned out to be just a little disappointing. the lines were unbelievable when we rolled in. we didn't start plowing through rides till after 10pm in the magic kingdom.
our first attempt resulted in a two and a half hour line wait to get on some space ride. there were all the signs to make sure you were in good health and what not, but i kept thinking, 'it's disney, how bad could it be?'
well, after 2.5 hours waiting, we had a three minute ride that both dan and i nearly felt faint on. the g forces were impressive.
we walked around a bit, but then headed to find less crowded territory in another park after we ate at epcot.
mgm.2
holiday music, LOTS of lights, and fake snow. we hit epcot, magic kingdom, and mgm. we didn't get on everything, but we got a lot. and it seemed to satisfy some bizarre desire we had for us to get to both disneyland and disneyworld within the same year.
mgm.3
for all the problems that people have with disney, man, do they know how to do it up. there are no details left out. this is in the mgm park, in the avenue of america's. sponsored by sylvania (duh) all the buildings were immensely covered with lights, and there was a light show nearly every 15 minutes. and from the street view, even the interior of the window canopies were lit, since it would be visible in the reflection in the glass from the street. unreal.
mgm.4
while grabbing lunch in 'france' at epcot, we think we caught a scam in action. i don't think i've seen dan so outwardly angry in a long time. this woman, with a kid, a husband, and an elderly woman in a wheelchair was attempting to pay for their lunches. her card was declined. suddenly she had a problem with a mayo packet that she stepped on and squirted on her shorts. well don't you know she was now going to lose a day in the park because she needed to go all the way back to her hotel to change all because someone didn't clean up after themselves, and that was the restaurant's fault.
blah blah blah
err, we were held up in line for an extra thirty minutes, we only wanted to pay for our food and eat. after we got through and were eating outside, dan waited for the woman to come through. in his words, when i asked if she had emerged yet, 'have i been thrown out of the park for assaulting someone yet?'- as i predicted, we never saw her.
disneyworld.1
it got a whole lot easier to get on rides after 10pm hit. i guess a number of people cleared out and all the line times plummeted. . . dan and i got to ride the haunted house three times.
we didn't know that later that evening we would be stranded nearly a mile from where we parked because the parking shuttles no longer ran. not the news anyone is looking for after a long day in the sun on your feet.
park.lites.1
why am i such a SUCKER for these light up holiday walk through parks? even the cheesy ones, it's like a moth to a flame!
and of course you know i was walking around pointing out all the lamps that were out, and where someone forgot to plug a set is, and where the rope light had been severed, and how the two prongs sticking out of the rope light could be a real menace to someone who didn't know not to touch it. . . though i smirk a little at knowing that i'm not responsible.
park.lites.2
careful dan, don't get too close. . . there might be big caterpillars and beetles to go along with that giant flower.