Austin Weekend

When I started this blog I meant for it to be a log of all the fun things there are to do here in Austin. Unfortunately, lately we have done very little "Austiny" things. We have been busy with the house and traveling so we haven't really taken advantage of all that Austin has to offer. Last night though we did two very Austiny things. We went to an art opening at a local coffee shop to check out one of the barrister's work and to see if there was anything reasonably priced that we could hang up in the house. The work was stunning and actually really affordable but we are such cheapstakes and didn't get a thing but we are thinking about one or two pieces. On the back patio, a small group of musicians were playing the entire Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. WE missed the first half of the performance but the second half was really impressive and very professional. Actually, it was surprising how entertaining the whole performance was. After the art show and performance we headed town down to meet friends at a new bar. The bar was nice but we all admitted we are just too old for the loud recorded music. I don't mind if it is loud live music, I expect it to be loud but it is annoying when you go to have a beer and chat with friends and you have to scream at them. Excuses, excuses, I guess it is true if it is too loud you are too old.

2006 Florida Vacation Phase 2: Disney World

Disney, wow where do I start? From the moment we got to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday night I was so taken with all the shiny, prettiness of the park. Everything is clean and dazzling. I thought that I would be bored but really I had a fabulous time at the happiest place on earth. The first night we had a buffet dinner with CornyT's family and all the Winnie the Pooh characters, eyeore, tigger, piglet, they were all there. We then headed to Big Thunder Railroad, then we caught the first of a lot of great 3-D shows, and then we completed the night with a ride on the less than stellar Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland.

With that small taste of Disney we were ready to really get to it the next day at the Disney/MGM studios park. We first hit the Tower of Terror and picked up a Fast Pass for the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Our favorite ride was without a doubt the new Expedition Everest at the Animal Kingdom park. The roller coaster is housed in a replica of Mount Everest which actually looks like a real mountain and creates some beautiful views throughout the park and you actually have to remind yourself that it is not a real mountain. In fact, it is the highest "mountain peak" in Florida. Anyway, the theme of the ride is that you are treking through Mt Everest and run into some local wildlife. I won't give the whole ride away but it is truly Disney at it's best.



To anyone going to Disney, I recommend grabbing fast passes for the popular rides first. The fast pass is an ingenious system that allows you to make a reservation to ride the attraction at a specific time and go through the fast line. This can often cut as much as an hour or two off of your wait. And while I am giving recommendations, I also highly recommend staying at a Disney Resort because you get access to early and after hours access to certain parks on certain days. Also, if you go get the Disney meal plan. Disney food is notoriously over-priced and the quality is only about mediocre. The meal plan however makes eating at Disney a lot more affordable. For 38 dollars a day you get a huge lunch, a snack, and a sit-down dinner. The dinners alone were typically 30 dollars a person if you didn't have the meal plan so it was quite a bargain. Plus you didn't have to carry any money around, just your Disney room key. They certainly have extracting money from the guest down to an art. If you are staying at a resort and purchase a souvenir, they will deliver that souvenir to your room so you don't have carry it around with you all day. What better way to convince you to buy even more things. The one thing I found actually a little creepy about the whole Disney experience was the biometric/fingerprint reading they take as you enter the park. That's right, Mickey has your fingerprints on file. Feels a little creepy and big brotherly to me and I am not really sure what purpose it serves but it is written on your ticket that you cannot enter the park without a providing a biometric reading. Strange. But the park is so much fun and everyone is so happy that you forget all about the potential invasion of privacy;). I also learned that it really is actually a lot of fun to go as a couple without kids. I am sure going with school-aged kids is a lot of fun but with really young ones it just looks like more work than fun. Their scared of all the creepy dancing animals and the loud noises, heat and crowds just make them tired and cranky.

The Princess dinner was probably the time the little kids in our group were the happiest. Five Disney Princess, Belle, Alice, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Jasmine, walk around the dining room and stop at every table to meet you and take numerous pictures with you. It really was a lot of fun to watch CornyT's 3 year old niece become overwhelmed with excitement and absolutely starstruck by each Princess. Although, she I am not sure she was completely fooled by it all because later she said "they looked different." Smarty pants.

2006 Florida Vacation Phase 1: The Wedding

OK I know it has been a long time since I have posted but I have a good excuse: Disney World has very limited internet access. I was a little frustrated by that but also kind of liked being cut off from reality. This post and the next will fill you all in on what I have been up to for the last week, because I am sure you have just been dying to know:). Unfortunately, there are no photos of the wedding because I was too lazy to pull my camera out while we were there but I did get lots of shots of Disney.

On Thursday July 13, CornyT and I arrived in Orlando Florida to begin our week-long Florida vacation. We rented a car at the Orlando (MCO) airport and drove to Jacksonville for our friends’ wedding celebration. We flew to Orlando because following the wedding we are meeting his family back in Orlando for a madcap four days in Disney.

Unfortunately, before we even got on the plane the trip was already a little stressful. The night before the flight, as we were packing, CornyT and I had a small disagreement about his wedding attire. The disagreement was the same squabble that couples have had for time immemorial, I am sure; I thought he should wear a suit, he thought he should wear khakis and a sports jacket. After a lot of bickering and phone calls to other wedding attendees, he decided to wear a suite that was not as fancy as his business pin-stripe suit (which I wanted him to wear) but appropriate for the occasion. This particular grey suit will forever be known as the compromise suit. And by the way at the reception he conceded and said that I was 100% right he would have been out of place in the more casual wear. Woo Hoo 1 for women everywhere;).

Once we got to Jacksonvilleand went to the wedding all the stress of the wardrobe war dissipated and we had a wonderful time with our friends. As soon as we got to town, we had dinner with the bride and groom and our little gang of buddies at a fabulous Thai restaurant and then spent the rest of the evening strolling along the beach and chatting.

The next day I spent the WHOLE day with my dear friend Aimee. That day alone was worth the price of the plane ticket. We bobbed in the Ocean and chatted, we lounged in the pool and hot tub with a few fruity drinks and chatted, and we concluded the whole day with a Heineken on her balcony while, yes you guessed it chatting. All the while our significant others were off writing and chatting at a café (Starbucks). In the evening, we attended a “beach themed” dinner hosted by the groom’s family. The highlight of this event was the interpretive dance the groom’s sister performed to express the couple’s long relationship. When asked earlier in the evening if she were giving a toast, the sister replied “no I am doing an interpretive dance. We, of course, all thought she was joking. She wasn’t. She really did perform an interpretive dance depicting the major events in their relationship. Yes, very strange indeed but kind of oddly sweet as well.

After the dinner, all the “kids” hung out around the beach, drinking and talking and finally found our way back to the hotel at about 2 AM.The next morning I took part in a 10 AM Yoga class the bride arranged for all the guests. It was a really good class and a nice way to start my birthday. Yoga was followed by yummy omelets with all our friends and then swimming in the ocean and sipping margaritas. We then went to the reception where the bride’s father surprised me by announcing my birthday and another guest’s birthday at the beginning of the dinner. I thought it was so sweet of him to mention it and I was so surprised and touched that I didn’t know how to react so I stood up and did a silly little princess wave. I didn’t even realize I was doing it until CornyT whispered, “I like the wave.” Later the bride told me that her father was so relieved he could announce our birthdays because he didn't know what to say when he was handed the mic and he really didn't want to give a speech.

The reception was a blast. Lots of dancing and eating; actually I have to recommend having your birthday the same day as someone else’s wedding because it is such a good excuse to get all dressed up, eat great food, hang out with people in a festive mood, and dance the night away. Of course, that is if you like to do those things. Luckily, those are all some of my favorite things to do.

The next morning we all said our goodbyes at the brunch and CornyT and I headed off to Orlando to meet his parents at Mickey’s house.

GIDDY, GIDDY

Tomorrow, CornyT and I head to Florida for our close friends' wedding followed by a few days in Disney with his siblings and their kiddoes. Right now, I seriously feel like a kid before Christmas. Mostly, I am so excited to hang out with all of our friends at the wedding. Some of these folks we haven't seen in months since they moved away on us and they are just such great people I can't wait to hang out with them. Many pictures and accounts of our exploits will be forthcoming!!

Polka dotted Pug

Yes, I know that a pug theme is developing on my blog. But omigod a pug in a couture dress. She is ready to go to tea. This web site, that I honestly just happened upon, has pages and pages of little dogs in dresses. These poor dogs. The indignity that they suffer. What would really be funny is a picture of a pitbull or a doberman in a little dress.
Vicious, vicious dogs. Beware the dog in a sun dress and ribbons.

Happy Friday

This pup has the right idea!

New Blog

To celebrate the one year anniversary of this blog, I am going with a new look here (as you have probably noticed- what do you think?) and starting a new blog with my sis. You can find this new blog at mamiecorp.blogspot.com. This is of course Mame's blog to record her Americorp experiences that she will be beginning next Tuesday, but as the bossy older sister I insisted that I help her with it.

I am looking forward to helping her share this exciting new phase of her life with her friends and our family. And I can guarantee that her blog will have a lot more substance than my yammering about cute men and web fads.

Adventures in Baltimore

My trip to Maryland was fairly uneventful. The first night the rain was unrelenting and I was very pleased with myself for remembering an umbrella. However, that was the only rainy day and the rest of the week was beautiful and sunny and the umbrella and raincoat took a lot of precious baggage space. The training went very well and everyone was just as nice in person as they have been on the phone. One evening the took me out for drinks and fresh crab. I was so excited to learn how to shell my own crab and to clobber the suckers with the hammer. However, I did not get half-way through my first crab before one of the ladies said "Give me that thing, you are demolishing it" and she subsequently removed all the meat in about 5 seconds. From then on I got all the crab meat I could eat from her and a couple other native Marylanders at the table. The crab meat itself was not a disappointment; it truly was better than any crab I have had before. YUM YUM.
On Saturday, I had some time to kill before my plane left at 5 that afternoon so I tooled around Baltimore proper for a while. Finding Babe Ruth's birthplace and the nearby sports museum was no problem and I was really impressed with the quaint narrow streets and the turn of the century architecture in that area. Once, I had gone through the Babe Ruth House and the Sports Museum (YAWN), I was ready for a little adventure. I was determined to find Edgar Allan Poe's House Museum. I was told it was on a less than desirable part of town but it looked so close to the down town area that I was sure it couldn't be that bad. I was so proud of myself for being able to maneuver the narrow, one way, down town streets and find the street that the museum was on but once I got to the stree I could not find the house at all. All I could find was a couple official looking signs that said "E.A. House this way" with an arrow pointing to an empty lot with a couple dillapidated buildings. The museum was probably amongst that mess of derelict homes but I wasn't sure where I could park and the area didn't really seem friendly. So I just drove on. What a wimp huh? If anyone reading this as ever actually been to the museum leave a comment because I spoke to one of my friends who had the same experience trying to find the place. Poor Poe he died peeniless and his legacy isn't doing too much better in that rough part of Baltimore.

Happy 4th!!

Hope all of you are having a good Independence Day? Apparently I liken independence to pure laziness because I slept REALLY late and now I am just laying around the bed in my pjs, surfing the net, reading and doing nothing really all that productive. Our holiday is going to be kind of quiet. We don't have any plans and just having one day off in the middle of the week makes any travel plans hard. I think we are just going to continue the big lazy-fest and maybe venture outside to see Superman and make some hamburgers. We probably should have hosted a bbq here at the house but sometimes a low key holiday isn't bad too. Sunday the neighbors had us over for a bbq and beers, so we have done some socializing in celebration of the good ole' US. It was very fun to go to a party right next door- WE could just jump over the fence when we were ready to go home.