How do they do it?

Yesterday I went over to my sister's to baby-sit Esmé. She really is cute.


One thing I noticed though, it's amazingly hard to get any computer work done while she's awake. She's wasn't much for just hanging out in the crib or the bear seat while I was there. Some stuff I could do while holding her with one hand and using the computer with the other, but typing was out. I don't know how you stay at home types do it. Thankfully from a getting things down perspective, she took about a half an hour nap.

Decisions, Decisions

I noticed a few guys wearing hats in today's inauguration broadcast. Then Melissa tells me she read hats are coming back. This makes me happy. I've always wanted to wear hats, and I'm not talking of the baseball variety. Of course since I'm way too self-conscious to just say fashion be damned and wear them anyway, the only hats I own are golf hats and the one German hat. I'm thinking either something Key Westy to go with the linen on those oh so common hot and humid New Orleans days or something more Bogarty to go with the trench coat. Hmmm.

My Damn Eyes

I'm writing this after having just come home to Melissa saying "Umm, something is wrong with your eye. It's like you aren't looking at me." After I made a face she continued, "No, worse than normal." Grrr. Well that might explain the headache I'm starting to get.

Over six months ago, I tore my last contact. Having not found an eye doctor in town yet, I just decided to go without for a while. "Decided" is a strong word. I just never got around to making an appointment and used my glasses to drive. Near Thanksgiving I decided to finally go to the eye doctor and was surprised to find out my prescription had changed. I now had an astigmatism in my right eye and so would need a toric lens to correct it.

Six different contacts later and I'm still trying to find the right one. Ugh. While I see better in the distance with the astigmatism contact, it seems to really piss off my left eye to the point of looking more cross-eyed than normal and giving me headaches. But in true Flower for Algernon fashion, going to the closest non-astigmatism lens that doesn't give me a headache just pisses me off all day because I remember how clearly I should be seeing. I'm hoping the headache and cross-eyed is due to reading with this contact so hopefully I can get some glasses to use when I want to see sharply.

For all of you out there with perfect vision, please remember how lucky you have it.

Resolution

My big resolution this year is to be more social during the work day so that I see people other than those who hang out at Cafe Luna. I went to lunch yesterday with my dad at the restaurant in the clubhouse at the Audubon golf course. We sat outside, ran into Chimene, and basically just had a great time. Today I drove out to Metairie and had lunch with Tony at Parran's. I had never been there before but had always wanted to go so that was the perfect spot. Hopefully I can keep this up. I'm shooting for a lunch out with someone once a week.

While I was in Metairie I stopped by the bank to deposit some checks, which is the only time I ever really walk into the bank. While there is an ATM just a few blocks from the house that I can walk to, the branch is in Old Metairie. Stupid me for picking my Uncle's bank. Anyway, it turns out that since I hadn't been into the bank in a while, they had been charging $5 once a month to my savings account saying it was dormant. This despite that fact that every few months I make a transfer online from the checking to savings (or the other way). When I questioned this, the teller informed it was an FDIC I thing and there was nothing they could do. Assuming she is correct, this is a pretty stupid rule for 2009. I have to walk into the bank once every six months or you charge me? Ugh.

Saturday temp title

And my final lazy recap. I'd love to promise you I'll fill in more information, but I don't like to lie.

up and packed and out of the hotel by 8:30 - hollywood stuidos near opening - toy story fast pass and line - greg and mo skipping in line - jerky spins queasy - 121k score - aerosmith roller coaster - takeoff not as bad this time - group went to tower of terror - I took a break - shopping, pretzel, coke - snacks - gave away fast passes - walk back to hotel - bus to airport - check in sky cap - lunch - airport - bumpy landing - home

Friday night temp title

Sitting in the airport not feeling great so you get another lazy update that I may or may not go back and edit. Yeah, I'm like that. Too bad for you. :)

magic kingdom - fast pass space mountain - thunder mountain - splash mountain - priates - dole whip - fast pass jungle cruise - mickey philaharmagic - its a small world - lunch tomorrow land - monstors inc laugh - space mountain - they left - swiss family robinson - jungle cruise - monorail to epcot - mo at the seas - nemo seas - greg and brit scuba - UK shopping - Canada beer - three on mission space - french shopping - new orleans girl with cabbage - french restaurant - back to hotel - sugar bowl - finish bottle of crown

Thursday temp title

It's late, I'm tired and I'm lazy. Here's a bullet point recap of Thursday. Now off to shower and go Utes!

Hollywood Studios - fastpass for Aerosmith - Tower of Terror - lunch at abc commisary cuban sandwich - fastpass for star tours - no fastpass for toy story with two hour wait - backlot tour - muppet 3d - star tours - roller coaster - mickey icecream - walk back to hotel - downtown disney - disney store - irish dinner - geardeli - back to hotel

Now that's a fireworks display

I've got a few minutes today before dinner so I'll try to recap yesterday.

After staying out late the night before we got a slow start Wednesday. Worried that the parks might reach capacity and close, we wanted to pick one park and stay there for the day. Greg thought drinking around the countries would make a good evening so we went to Epcot.

We started in the land getting fastpasses for Soarin' and then grabbed some food. After, we hopped on the boat ride through all the fancy plant growing stuff. I don't remember seeing the huge lemons last time I was there and the rosemary Christmas tree was amusing. With the huge crowds for New Year's Eve, Mission Space and Test Track were impossible without a FastPass and they were out of them pretty early in the day. So we tried Universe of Energy which was shut down due to technical difficulties. With our options running out we went into the center and rode the Segways in Innovations. Having never been on a Segway before, it was pretty cool. The guys helping you could have been a little nicer however.

With lunch approaching we headed back to the countries. We grabbed fastpasses for the Norway ride then got lunch in China. The crowds in there countries were amazing. Just getting food, finding a seat, and using the restroom became a ride in and of itself. After lunch we watched the 360 China movie. When the airplane tilted I had to hold on to the handrails, my sense of motion was that off. The unintentionally amusing part of the movie was the big talk about Tiananmen Square. As Melissa said, "Taylor would love this part."

Next up was Germany for some beer. Sadly all they had was Becks. On the upside the girls behind the counter were ... authentic. :) After Germany we headed to American for the show but had to stop by the restroom due to the beer and found the longest restroom line ever. I believe it took the girls about 30 minutes. With the show no longer an option we walked back to Norway to do the Maelstrom ride. Soarin' was next due to the beauty of the fastpass. I have to admit Soarin' was pretty cool. Unlike any other ride in Disney and a nice easy going pleasant motion ride instead of an "I'm gonna hurl" ride. The scents were a nice touch. To kill some time, we did the Circle of Life movie and I certainly understand why it's not on the must do list. After that to kill even more time we did Spaceship Earth. Turned out to be a good call. The narration is now done by Judi Dench and there's this thing at the end where you plan a future vacation and they use some facial recognition software to good effect.

At this point it's around 9PM and Melissa is way past hungry so we went back to the countries intending to get the first food we say. The quick food in the UK wasn't appealing, accurately so, but the next country, Morocco, was awesome. I like lamb and the sangria was tasty enough. With a good two hours before midnight we figured just some country hopping and window shopping would be a good idea. Turns out Morocco is perfect for that. It was the first time I actually momentarily felt like I was in another country. Well done Disney. Next up was shopping in Japan, which due to weird Japanese joys, and awesome things like swords and knifes, was a perfect way to spend some time. By the time we got to American, the show back there was about to start so we caught that as our last activity before the fireworks. It's an interesting perspective on American history. Not exactly inaccurate but certainly not the story I would tell.

With about 30 minutes to go, we braved the restrooms lines one last time, then the guys went off to get some adult beverages. With the way the lines were moving, Greg and I were convinced the two of us would watch the show from the wine line and the girls would miss the show in the restroom. Luckily for us an Asti Spumante station opened up right next to us, and just as we finished paying, Mel and Mo walked up.

The fireworks started at 11:40. The first 15 minutes was the normal Illuminations show. After, they did small fireworks in each country in the order in which the New Year reached them accompanied by country specific music. They started a countdown from 10, then the big show started. It was amazing. We could even see the Magic Kingdom show in the distance. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the finale blew me away. What a perfect way to ring in the New Year.

Last Night

Got in pretty late last night so no time for a post. Short version: New Year's Eve during the day at Epcot is crazy, but the last 30 minutes of the year made up for it. Well done Disney.