AdamandTiffy.com

We had a terrific storm about a week ago that practically buried us in snow. All the remnants are practically gone, but we did take a few pictures while winter was in its glory.

… to give you Tux and Hexley’s New Years resolutions.

Tux:

1. Eat more
2. Sleep more

Hexley:

1. Eat more
2. Sleep more
3. Dominate the universe

We had a little break between home improvements for awhile, but now we’re starting to make some progress again. We recently installed a nice new front door with an arched piece of leaded glass and full sidelights. Photos will go up sometime as soon as there’s paint and trim! (Regular readers can keep their snide comments to themselves.) As soon as we have some good weather, that will happen. Also, Tiffy’s dad donated some of the oak that had been “aging” in his basement and we ripped a few pieces into new thresholds for this new front door and our bathrooms. It’s all coming together. This March will be our four-year anniversary in the house, and now you can’t see any of the subfloor at all. We’re moving right along.

They make it snow in the Magic Kingdom in December as part of the Christmas celebration. They can do this even though it’s 65 degrees out. It’s miraculous! I’m sure that most regular readers are tired of hearing about our Disney trips, so we’ll cut to the chase and just point you at the photos of Disneyworld during the holidays.

We’re back! We have an excellent selection of photos from our 3109 mile loop through some of the national parks and other scenic sites in the west. We had a great time! Here are the places we passed through.

• Rocky Mountain NP
• Wind Cave NP
• Mount Rushmore
• Crazy Horse
• Yellowstone NP
• Teton NP
• Salt Lake City
• Mesa Verde NP
• Sand Dunes NP
• Silverton ghost towns
• Ouray
• Durango
• Pike’s Peak

We’ll have captions up as soon as we can. In the meantime, please enjoy the photos of our trip to Yellowstone and beyond! There are more photos at http://www.hanulec.net/photos also.

That is to say, because of Tiffy, we won’t have to! We have a trip planned with her family to visit Yellowstone and other national parks this August. It’s taken everybody awhile to agree on a plan, but now that we know it, Tiffy’s made virtually all our hotel arrangements overnight. (Yay! No sleeping in the car!) We’ll get to enjoy a wide variety of great American accomodations, including the Best Western, Econo Lodge, Holiday Inn, La Quinta, the Ouray Chalet Inn, and the Hotel Monaco. I was really hoping we could work in a Motel 6 or a Super 8, but alas, it was not to be. Also, unfortunately, there are no creepy hotel rooms available in the Silverton, Colorado, which is where we’ll be touring a cluster of ghost towns. I was really hoping to have some kind of Scooby Doo style adventure and foil an old prospector in a glowing costume. Us darn kids!

Congratulations to us! It’s our seventh anniversary today!

Our friend Tom had come across a working computer that was being tossed out by his office, and I volunteered to take it off his hands for fun. I’ve been trying to relax a little more on the weekends, so I saved up the fun of installing an operating system — yeah, I’m a geek — on my new toy for this Saturday.

Our friend Dave was staying with us since this is Swarthmore’s alumni weekend and we live within shouting distance of the College. He was watching me drag the little purple box upstairs and asked, “So, just how many computers do you have?” I rattled off a short list to him and left it at that, but it occured to me later that it might be interesting for the people who know us to know just what kind of techie stuff we have sitting around the house. And, yes, we do actually use just about all of it. Here’s a general list that includes more than just computers.

• 1 SunBlade 100 running Solaris 10
• 2 Gateway 1.5 Ghz P4 towers running Windows XP (for games!)
• 1 Gateway 266 Mhz P2 tower running Debian Linux
• 1 Powerbook G4 running MacOS X 10.4
• 1 Powerbook G3 (Pismo) running MacOS X 10.4
• 1 Gen1 iPod
• 1 iPod mini
• 1 iPod Shuffle
• 1 Dell Axim X30 PDA
• 1 Nintendo Gamecube
• 1 Playstation 2
• 2 TiVo Series 2 DVRs with wireless adapters
• 1 Linksys 4-port wired/wireless router (802.11b only, sorry)
• 1 Nikon CoolPix 3200 digital camera
• 1 Canon Multipass MP730 photo printer/fax/scanner

I also have a Dell D800 laptop running Windows XP and Solaris 10 x86 that I cart back and forth to work. I probably shouldn’t bother to count that. You get the picture, right? The funny thing is, just yesterday, Tiffy said to me, “You know, Sims 2 is running kind of slow. Think we should buy new computers?”

Of course I do.

Thanks to a lackluster post-sweeps tv week and our Tivo (which clearly has a sick sense of humor) we have watched some extremely strange things in this past week.

1. Beauty and the Geek. See now, this show is interesting to me because the so-called geeks actually look way less geeky than 90% of our friends. And one of them bears a strong resemblance to the husband of my best buddy (Hi, Jared!). I also have a hard time believing that there are really grown women in this country who don’t know that North Carolina is south of South Dakota and are truly stumped when trying to figure out the “capital of New England.” And if there are, it’s really just not fair to ask them trick questions. That’s just mean.

2. Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. This is a late-90’s show hosted by Jonathan Frakes that was on Fox. It depicts five “mystical stories” cheezy re-enactment style and you as the viewer are to guess if the stories are true or false. As far as I can tell, even when they are real they are just “based on accounts” given by people who were clearly drunk during the so called events.

3. Pride and Prejudice. This is the best one. I love Pride and Prejudice. It is quite possibly my favorite book ever and I’ve seen all of the movie versions as well. The six part BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is by far the best one out there, minus the tacked on wedding ending. So, imagine my surprise when Tivo records one that was made in 2003. How could I have missed that? So, unawares, I start watching. It seems okay at first, lots of toothy white people with dorky hair cuts and improbable names dancing around love in a slightly charming fashion. But then… One of the silly sisters is reading a faux-The Rules kind of book and sensible Elizabeth says, “Am I interrupting your scripture study?” Zing! But wait, what are they talking about? Then come the references to dressing inappropriately in church and respecting the sabbath. And wait, is this all taking place in Utah?!?!?

Yes folks, Tivo had stumbled across the officially sanctioned Church of Latter Day Saints modern re-telling of Pride and Prejudice. After this sunk in I was morbidly curious and had to keep watching. And while I knew it was truly cringeworthy, it actually seemed some how strangely right to me. At least then there is a logical non-contrived that they never get around to the booty thing; it would make the baby Jesus cry. It can retain the nice, pure true love charm without resorting to ridiculous plot lines like email romance or something. All in all it was not a complete waste of an hour and a half.

I am off from work tomorrow and perhaps I will spend some time finishing up my “Why Star Wars: Episode III is NOT the worst movie ever” blog post. Don’t get too excited, folks!

My first post on our new fangled blog! It looks like the new site doesn’t tag the posts anymore so it’s not as obvious that Adam does all the blogging, but he does. What a guy.
This is a report on our most recent trip to Disney World at the request of one of my co-workers who offered some good travel tips.

This is all pulled from my general journal from these days so I apologize in advance for the places where it may seem a bit disjointed and also for its massive length. (You don’t have to read the whole thing, people. Seriously!)
Read on….

5/4

I checked into the Wilderness Lodge Villas this afternoon. They were having computer problems (something to do with printing room keys) so what should have taken ten minutes took over an hour. I was glad it was only me. Greg would have blown a gasket after fifteen minutes.

The staff was very apologetic but I could feel the frustration of those around me. The very tired man in front of me in line said he’d been reminding himself since he left his house this morning that he needed to be patient. He’d paid a lot of money for this trip with his family and no one would enjoy it if he was shouting about the long security line at the airport or the inefficient guest registration. I wish all the people yelling at their kids non-stop on these trips would stop and think about that too.

I am sitting out on the deck now waiting for the arrival of Adam and Greg. It’s about 70 degrees, overcast and a bit breezy. Our room is on the fifth (and top) floor. It’s far from the elevator and has a nice view of the road but there is a nice bit of foliage between and it’s nice to get a birds eye view of everything. I think I am sitting out here partially to enjoy the weather but also I am watching from Adam as he pulls into the drive. This is silly, of course, as I have no idea what sort of rental car he got, but I am so anxious to see him it feels right to be a bit foolish if it will make time go faster as I wait.

Being on the top floor has other advantages. Some of the windows are dormered out so the ceilings are interestingly curved and sloped which makes everything seem more charming. In general this place seem nice so far though it’s not quite my taste and I have a strange fit of “homesickness” for Old Key West where we usually stay. All day when I was imagining making my transition from work to vacation I was envisioning myself at OKW and am strangely let down not to be there.

It’s only 5:30pm on Wednesday. The day before the big 50 year celebration starts. MK is open until midnight tonight but I am so tired right now I can’t imagine going for an hour, let alone six. I am hoping the company of Adam (after a seemingly endless five day separation) will energize me enough that I can enjoy the evening. In the future though I may want to consider doing vacation first and conference second.

– Massive amounts of personal information deleted, written over a 30 minute period –

In the distance I just heard the horn from the boat that takes people from the Wilderness Lodge to the Magic Kingdom. I am definitely feeling more refreshed after this time to myself and am now anxious for the arrival of Adam and Greg.

Wait! They’re here! YAY!!! More later.

Thursday 5/5

Cinco de Mayo! Today is also the 50th anniversary celebration at WDW. It’s an exciting day to be here though we haven’t really done anything that takes part in that event.

Last night we went to MK from about 6pm until 11pm. It was sort of grey and rainy but was amazingly empty. We literally didn’t wait more than five minutes for any ride.

When we first got there we immediately headed over to Columbia Harbor House and grabbed some dinner. Afterwards we went and rode Haunted Mansion which has always been one of my favorites. Other highlights of our evening included, Greg finally enjoying one of the famous Dole Whips, riding Big Thunder Mountain while the fireworks were going off all around us and seeing the newly refurbished Small World. SW looks awesome. It appears they bathed all the figurines and doused everything in twenty times more glitter. And hey, who doesn’t need more glitter?

This morning we were all feeling pretty sleepy so we skipped our planned breakfast at Whispering Canyon in the lobby of our hotel. We woke up at the reasonable hour of 8am and headed to Epcot where we were once again pleased to see very small crowds. We headed immediately for Soarin’. It had a fifteen minute line and before we even rode we grabbed fast passes, thinking it would keep our options open for a later ride.

I had previously ridden Soarin’ but it was the first time for Adam and Greg and they were both as impressed as I had been. I know in my head that I’m not going anywhere and that I’m basically just suspended over a curved IMAX movie, but the sensation of flying is so real that it’s an amazing experience. And the smells are so amazing! We will have to search for a candle that is like the ocean smell from the ride.

After checking out Soarin’ a few times, riding Living with the Land and having a quick breakfast at the newly refurbed Land food court Adam and Greg checked out Mission Space while I shopped. I have this idea that if I were to ever ride Mission Space I would experience motion sickness unlike the world has ever known….

After lunch, Test Track and a few more smaller rides we decided to head back to the hotel to get some rest. Epcot is closing at 3pm today for a press event and by 2pm we were feeling tuckered out.

Just as we arrived back at WL the skies opened up and there was a brief but violent storm. We felt very lucky in our timing!

I also need to officially revise my opinion of WL. Last night as I was lying in bed and staring at the artfully curved ceiling I realized that there is a sense of calm and coziness here that I’ve never really felt at OKW. I would love to stay here in the future and think we should be able to do that as long as we keep traveling at off times.

After a brief siesta we were up and off to dinner at O’Hana. The weather was still inclement so we were happy we only needed to go from covered valet stand to covered valet stand.

Oh have I mentioned our rental car is a Dodge Magnum? If you’re never seen one just picture a super pimpin’ hearse and you’ll get the idea. Best.Rental.Car.Ever!

O’Hana is a particular favorite of Greg’s and he was looking forward to the opportunity to break his personal best record of 32 shrimp consumed in one sitting. After we were seated (the lobby was mobbed and people were being told it was a 60-75 minute wait! I was thankful for our priority seating arrangements) they bought out all the side dishes and appetizers and we started chowing down. Greg didn’t remember to pace himself and by the time the shrimp arrived a few minutes later he was almost full. I think he ended up eating a measly twelve shrimp. He’ll have to give it a try next time we are here.

After our two hour dinner we hopped back in the car and drove off to Disney Studios. There were 8:30 and 10pm Fantasmic showings on the schedule and we were interested in catching the later show. We weren’t quite sure what would greet us when we arrived. I was preparing for the worst and was thinking we could always pass the time shopping if it was mobbed. We were all holding our breath as we made our way towards the Tower of Terror and were shocked to see the wait was listed at 13 minutes! We eagerly made our way in and were ushered onto the ride in as much time as it took us to walk there. There was no wait at all!

After our first ToT ride Adam and Greg headed onto the Rocking Roller Coaster and I decided to sit that one out on the bench. I though the dinner I had eaten at O’Hana wasn’t entirely compatible with being flung upside down repeatedly. While I waited I formulated a plan for one more trip on the ToT (again, no line at all!) and then a visit to Star Tours for Adam and Greg which I would also plan on sitting out. After they finished up we made our way through the Star Wars shop and all purchased Star Wars tees to wear to our 12:01 am showing of Episode III in a week and a half. (Yes, we are huge freaking geeks.)

We then raced over to Fantasmic arriving with five minutes to spare and were ushered to a seat in the center section, five rows up from the front. It was amazing! There have been times we’ve waited over an hour to sit in the back on the far right and this time we got great seats at the last minute. It really felt like such a lucky day.

As always Fantasmic was incredible. It’s always been my favorite night-time show and this visit was no different. It did seem like maybe there was a bit more fireworks this time, though I can’t be completely sure.

When the show was over we were all pretty bushed and eager to head back home and get a good nights sleep so we could prepare for Friday. Hopefully our luck holds out with the small crowds and the decent weather!

Friday 5/6

I think I jinxed us! On our way over in the boat to the MK on Friday morning we were all gloating about how this is the best trip ever and patting ourselves on the back for using our superb planning skills. Then we arrive to find ourselves in the midst of the “Nightmare on Main Street.” Wall to wall people, most of them mowing down anyone in the way with their triple wide strollers loaded down with bags rather than their kids. EEEK!

We all resisted the urge to turn and run at the sight of all this and soldiered on into Tomorrowland to visit a few of the attractions we missed Wednesday night. We rode Buzz Lightyear (Adam passed 300k, woo!) and then Carousel of Progress. CoP is one of our favorite rides and since we are in constant fear it will one day soon be shut down we make a point of riding it every time we are there. It seems like they fixed a few little things that were broken so that was encouraging. Maybe it’s not totally a goner?

We made a little jaunt through Fantasyland stopping at a few top picks (Philharmagic and Peter Pan) and then were off to the Crystal Palace for brunch. We had a PS for 10:20am and we arrived around 10:10. There were mobs of people waiting in line for a table and we weren’t seated until 10:45 or so. Breakfast was awesome as usual and we lingered for a bit.

After breakfast we decided to flee the crowds and enjoy the beautiful weather at the hotel pool. By 12:30 we were installed on some lounge chairs at the Hidden Springs pool at the Wilderness Lodge. We were some of the first out there though it seems it was a popular idea and within an hour almost all the chairs were taken.

The pool is interestingly shaped and there is a cool water slide that comes out from a rock formation. On the far end there is also a water fall that feeds the pool from a little stream that starts in the hotel lobby.

After we got outside Adam and I slathered each other with sun screen (spot the mistake there, fair skinned people!) and headed into the hot tub, then the pool and the hot tub again. Adam and Greg are both non-swimmers so I had a good time trying to explain the concept of treading water and laughing as they both kept sinking during their attempts at buoyancy. (As the depth was only about 5’5” neither was in actual danger at any time.)

I then decided I needed some relaxation time and retired to a lounge chair with a book. Adam bought me a few girly drinks (how did I get to be 29 without ever having a pina colada? They’re really good!) and we all just enjoyed the nice weather. We took a quick dip in the pool at about 2:30pm and then decided to head back to the room around 3pm to get ready for the evening.

Adam and I took a quick shower and got dressed to head to Epcot. We had dinner reservations at Le Cellier at 7pm and wanted some time to walk around beforehand. Not surprisingly GP was tuckered out and decided to make a foray into slumberville. He said he’d join us at Epcot before dinner.

As we were leaving Adam said, “Hey, you look kinda pink. Are you okay?” I answered, “I’m don’t think so. Ask me again in three hours or so and I’ll know for sure.” Ha ha ha. So foolish.

Upon arrival in Epcot we decided to hit Soarin’ one more time. The line was forty-five minutes (all fast passes were long gone, of course) but we expected the estimate would be high (which is usually the case) and decided to give it a whirl.

About fifty minutes later we were finally on the ride and realizing just how popular this ride was going to be. As we exited we saw that the wait time was up to ninety minutes. Yikes!

We then headed back towards the World Showcase and as we walked I started to feel a bit funky. Once again, those of you with fair skin will know exactly what I’m talking about. Tight, hot skin, strange chills and just general malaise. Blah. We launched an unsuccessful search for some sort of aloe and then just decided to chill and wait for Greg so we could eat dinner.

Now, the reason we were at Epcot this particular evening is that, in spite of our many, many trips to WDW we have never seen Illuminations. It’s one of those weird things. Every time we try something weird happens (Emily is sick! It’s raining! We’re stuck on line at a broken Test Track!) and we were determined to make it stick this time.

Greg arrived at Le Cellier at about 6:30 and we were able to get seated a bit early. I was feeling less well as the evening wore on and knew the food would be wasted on me so I ordered the less expensive Chef’s Excursion and figured I could give the boys anything I didn’t want. The food was actually quite good and I would have enjoyed it if I had been even a little hungry. Adam and Greg loved their stuff and Greg also has a new love affair going with Canadian ice wine.

All through dinner I was stubbornly insisting that I could stick it out until 9pm for Illuminations. As we were finishing our dessert I admitted what everyone else already knew; I needed to go home and go to bed. Everywhere on my body hurt and I was freezing though my skin was putting out heat like a supernova. Sigh.

On our way back to our room we stopped for a small bottle of aloe from the gift shop. Ahhh. Not too much better, but I’ll take what I can get at this point. Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow!

5-7-05

Saturday and we’re heading home today! I am both sad and really excited. It’s been a week since I left for my conference and I miss the kitties, making dinner in my own kitchen, my bed and just being *home*.

Since I am still feeling sun diseased and bleh we decide to forgo our planned early jaunt to the Animal Kingdom and have a leisurely morning getting ourselves organized and having breakfast at the hotel.

At 9am we head down to the lobby and check our bags with the bellman and head to the Whispering Canyon for breakfast. This is our first time to eat here. I’d heard stuff but was completely unprepared for the complete chaos of the place. I don’t want to give away too many of the surprises but I will just say that Adam and Greg really make fine “Little Teapots” and I’m sure everyone else in the restaurant will back me on that.

After our breakfast we fetch our bags and are off to MGM again. We have a 1:30pm PS at the Brown Derby (Adam’s top pick) and are hoping to hit some of the rides again. As soon as we arrive we head to the far back of the park and get on line for the 12pm showing of the new car stunt show. I am still completely sunburned and am rallying as well as I can but am pretty much miserable. And, of course, the line is right out in the sun. Oy. I was smart enough to sun screen up before I went out this time but just the heat on me is really painful and I do my best to stand in Adam’s shadow and not whine too much. I hope I succeeded on the last count!

After much standing and sweating we are rounded up and corralled onto the shaded bleachers in the massive auditorium. The show started promptly and was a lot of fun. Once again, I don’t want to ruin the surprises but it’s neat to not only see the stunts but also get a good idea of how they are done.

It’s about 1pm when we are done so we beeline over to ToT which, again, is completely line-less. We walk right onto an elevator and decide when we are done to go once more. The last time we are seated in the front row for the first time ever and I have to admit it’s a bit scarier. Also, after our five rides on this trip I finally noticed the camera for the ride photos is mounted on the back of the Hollywood Tower Hotel sign on the outside of the building. This is good to know so we can feign hysteria in our quest for the funniest ride picture ever.

It’s now 1:30 and none of us are even slightly hungry. Adam and Greg head off to Rock n Roller Coaster again while I browse the shops a bit. When they are done we journey to the back of the park again for a quick viewing of the Muppet 3D movie which we always find entertaining.
For some reason my ability to see in the dark has been getting better of late (all the carrots I’m NOT eating?) and while we were watching Little Mermaid (Greg’s favorite attraction at DS. I think he digs the chick who plays Ariel) I noticed that all the puppets are actually being manipulated by people all in black who are running around on the stage. Adam saw it as well after I pointed it out and also figured that is why they make a point of telling you not to use flash photography. I suspect he right about that.

At around 3pm we left the park and head to the Downtown Disney Marketplace. By this time we are starving and decide to have early dinner at the Earl of Sandwich (best name ever!) and then dessert at Ghiradellis. Throw in a bit of shopping and before we realize it it’s 6pm and time to head to the airport for our 8:30pm flight.

So, all in all, a very successful trip in spite of sunburns and a bit of chaos here and there. I am looking forward to going back next year! And big huge thumbs up to Wilderness Lodge and Soarin’, the highlights of our trip.