Category Archives: Friends & Family

We didn’t go to the airshow Saturday because we were supposed to go fishing; when the weather prevented that, we decided to give it a miss. We didn’t go on Sunday because it was Sunday. (The Thunderbirds will be in Lafayette at Halloween, and the Blues will be in New Orleans the week before; maybe we’ll go for one of those). Anyway, Micah eases the pain with a trove of cool airshow pictures, including an album showcasing Air Force One’s arrival and a great clip of the Thunderbirds taking off. Micah, you can definitely put me down for a copy of the DVD when you get it done!

Last week, David experienced a rite of passage that most young men face at some point: he started learning to cut the grass. Our yard is about 2/3 acre, but it’s got a fairly regular shape, so I put the mulching plug in, gassed up the mower, and outlined an area for him to start on. He had a great positive attitude at first, but that faded somewhat when two of his friends came over to play. He didn’t much like that Thomas got to play while he had to cut (though he liked it a little better when he got a crisp $5 bill as payment). You can definitely tell that the yard was cut by an amateur, as there are lots of wandering, curved tire tracks and more than a few little triangles of missed grass. Overall, though, he did well. Thomas picked up a quick $2 for sweeping the sidewalks and piling up a bunch of tree branches that we’d trimmed. Now they’re both talking about cutting yards next summer. Hooray for entrepreneurial spirit!

Last Friday: my friend Chris, his wife Karen, and their three kids leave for the Outer Banks. Last Saturday: my friend Nathan, his wife Camille, and their three kids leave for the Outer Banks. Today: Hurricane Alex. Be careful out there, guys; we’ll be praying for y’all.

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Tonight we had the four missionaries over for dinner. The discussion turned to one of the young women in our ward– she’s very attractive. I told Arlene that she cleaned up nicely, whereupon Thomas shouted out “But you cook even better than you clean, Mom!” Hilarity ensued.

This is very cool: my old friends Lawrence and Elaine MacDonald are now enroute to Poland. Why? So they can adopt some children, of course, those two being natural-born parents. Good luck, Godspeed, and don’t forget the good-luck charms.

Today is Tim’s birthday. What a pleasure it’s been to spend more time with him since we moved up here! I’m impressed with, and proud of, how he’s developed as a well-rounded person since the days when he used to sleep on Kermit the Frog sheets. I enjoy his company, and I’m happy– and thankful– to be his brother. I’m just sayin’. (Now, back to work before the slave drivers notice I’m blogging again…)

Kate Gregory, the woman who got me started in book writing, has a blog. How cool is that? Kate, welcome to the wide world of blogging!

Imagine if Grandma Bloch had her own Cajun cooking show. If you can form that image in your mind, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what “Miss Lucy’s Classic Cajun Culture & Cooking” is like. I stumbled across it while setting up the new TiVo (turns out it’s on RFD-TV, which bills itself as “Rural America’s Most Important Network”). It’s terrific. I just ordered two of her cookbooks, Classic Cajun and Classic Cajun Deux. I’ll report back on whether the recipes are any good, but I’m betting they will be.

That would be Tim, who now has a real blog.

On our previous visit to MGM, we had a great time but didn’t hit most of the big-ticket attractions because we went around dinnertime. This time, we hit the park first thing in the morning. We started off with the Indiana Jones stunt show, which recreates a couple of scenes from various Indy movies. It’s actually quite cool. Thomas was particularly enthralled, since now he knows how to throw a character punch (plus there were lots of explosions, always a plus for the 5-year-old set.)
Mom, Thomas, and I rode Star Tours, which was mildly amusing; it’s a simulator ride through a Star Wars space battle. I rode the Tower of Terror— it was great. You go up in a Twilight Zone elevator, then you free-fall a random distance, then you repeat that cycle a few times. Matt has since taken great delight in pointing to the Tower every time he sees it and intoning “Tower of Terrrrrr!”
David, Mom, and Thomas went to the Drew Carey “Sounds Dangerous” show, which the non-Disney guidebooks all describe as lame. They all liked it, though. For lunch, we had reservations at the Prime Time Cafe, where the schtick is that you’re eating at home with “Mom”. Our waiter, Mickey (yes, that’s really his name), was very zealous at reminding the boys to keep their elbows off the table, and he wouldn’t let Arlene or David order dessert because they didn’t clean their plates. He also did something that I found incredible: after Thomas popped Matthew’s balloon sword, Mickey went next door to the Indiana Jones shop and bought Matt a plastic sword to replace it. Try that at Burger King.
I didn’t keep any notes on them, but there were two other noteworthy activities. David and I played Millionaire, which was loads of fun. It was wicked cold in the the studio, though. I squeezed in a ride on the Rock-n-Roller Coaster. I’m not a huge Aerosmith fan (as in, I wouldn’t have them over to dinner), but this ride was particularly good at providing an immersive environment– you see a projection of them in the studio, then descend into a very realistic parking garage for a “limo ride” to the concert. A very fast, smooth launch and several corkscrews.
Then we went back to the hotel and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, one of our favorites. The food was excellent and served in large portions (I recommend the Parmsesan-crusted snapper). We got a coupon from the hotel concierge that gave us head-of-the-line seating and a free appetizer. The animatronic animals are pretty neat, and they play some really invigorating background music. The fish tanks are impressive, too. Note that there are two of these restaurants here: one in Downtown Disney and one in Animal Kingdom. Then, to bed.
Pictures:

For day 3, we went to the Magic Kingdom. It was, well, magical. We got up, ate breakfast at the bus stop, and caught the shuttle to the ticketing and transportation center, where we caught the monorail. The boys and I sat in the front cabin with the driver, giving us a great view of the lake and various Disney resort hotels on our way. When we got there, Arlene rented a stroller and we set off for Fantasyland, but not before seeing Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration. This was certainly a surprise, since we had no clue it was going to happen. Thomas particularly liked it; he has a real crush on Cinderella.
Last time, we hit pretty much every ride in Fantasyland. This trip, the park was more crowded and we had, shall we say, a difference of opinion among the boys over what they wanted to do. We hit it’s a small world, the Peter Pan ride, and Mickey’s PhilharMagic, a simply brilliant 3-D film with terrific effects (including a 3-D apple pie with accompanying scent.) I thought it was one of the day’s highlights.
We also finally visited the Haunted Mansion, on which Thomas hid his head the entire time. David seemed to like it pretty well. (Hopefully on Monday we’ll go back and hit Winnie the Pooh, which was a big hit with David & Thomas last time.
We had lunch reservations at the Crystal Palace for a character lunch. The food was quite good (but pricey), and the boys were delighted to visit Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, and Piglet. After lunch, we hit Tomorrowland. To my disappointment, the ExtraTERRORestrial Encounter ride was closed, but we managed to ride the Tomorrowland electric railroad and the famous Tomorrowland go-karts. David and I each drove one; Matt was busy napping. After Matt woke up, David, Matt, and I went on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin; Arlene and Thomas had already been. We squeezed in a visit to Frontierland at some point, but I honestly don’t remember when; all we did there was visit Goofy’s Diamond Dance Jamboree– country music, line dancing, Toy Story 2‘s Woody, Jessy, and Bullseye, and, of course, Goofy. We all loved it. (We also rode the steam train, but darned if I can remember when).
We had burgers from the Starlight Cafe for dinner, then we navigated over to Main Street for the Spectromagic parade. Although this was billed as all-new, much of it was familiar to use from our previous visit. Matt in particular seemed to enjoy it, but we hightailed out of the area before the fireworks started. Here are a few excerpts from the day’s pictures (actually, they may be from other days; I’ve given up trying to keep track):

For our first real vacation day, we went to Animal Kingdom. It’s the largest park in terms of area, but it has relatively few things to do. We started off with an invigorating shuttle bus ride, then made a beeline straight for the safari ride, which is basically an open jeep you ride on a track through a zoolike area. We saw several elephants, a group of giraffes, some Thompsons’ gazelles, a few oryx, a batch of hippos, and a lioness. Matthew was entranced, especially by the elephants. This was Arlene’s favorite ride. We also went for a walk on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, where we looked for (but didn’t find) the legendary white-bellied go-away bird.
Next, we wandered over to the Asia section and the Kali River Rapids. Matt and I sat this ride out, since a)I didn’t want to get wet and b) Matt was too small. The riders were unanimously thrilled with it. After a quick snack, we went on to see It’s Tough to be a Bug. Mom and the older boys loved it; Matt spent the whole time with his face buried in Arlene’s shoulder. David and I rode the Dinosaur thrill ride, which he said was “so turbulent” that it “aggravated his motion sickness”. Indeed. So, here are a few pictures:

So, yesterday we packed our stuff and set out for Disney World. It was snowing.
We got to the airport about an hour earlier than I would have if traveling alone—a wise precaution given that we had all three boys. Checkin was uneventful, but then we hit the first of several travel snags: our inbound aircraft from Cincinnati was delayed due to weather. It arrived about 20 minutes late, and we hustled aboard. Then we had two rounds of de-icing, which the boys liked pretty well (we told Matt that they were spraying the plane with orange juice to make it sticky). Bobby Brown, the flight attendant working our flight for ACA, was bar none the friendliest, most cheerful FA I’ve ever had, anywhere. His boss is getting a glowing letter.
Our flight to CVG was bumpy, and we got there just in time to board our connecting flight to Orlando. Borrrrring, smooth flight. The real fun began when we got to Orlando: our luggage wasn’t there. The DL ramp folks in TOL hadn’t loaded it because our aircraft was overweight. I guess they figured bumping luggage for a party of six was better than bumping three sets of two, or something. Anyway, I didn’t find that out because Thomas and I had gone to the Budget car rental counter. Imagine this scene: a 50-foot-long counter with about 15 computer terminals and 17 people in line… manned by two rental agents. When we finally got to the head of the line, the very helpful agent fixed up our reservation and arranged to have an Explorer for us, so I went back to baggage claim to check on our bags. DL promised to have them delivered to the hotel. (They eventually arrived around 11:45pm, festooned with big red “VIP” tags. Evidently “VIP” in Delta’s lexicon means “leave off airplane”). We trooped out to the parking area and boarded the Explorer, which turned out to have a defective airbag. Oops. Back to the rental island, where they instead gave us the minivan that I should have reserved in the first place. (All this way to take an exotic vacation, and what am I driving? A minivan. Sheesh).
We found the hotel easily, unloaded our carry-ons, and walked across the street to Downtown Disney. I have some good pictures of Matt with Buzz Lightyear and the older boys at the Lego store, but they’ll have to wait until everyone else wakes up and I can find the camera. Everybody remained really cheerful and flexible throughout our travails yesterday, which I appreciated greatly.
This morning, our plan is to hit Animal Kingdom early to ride the safari ride, then see Legend of the Lion King and some of the other live shows (because I’m in a hurry now I’m not linking to any of the Disney pages for these; you can find more links here

So, the mercury posse came back today with a Lumex, a mysterious device whose noise level is only exceeded by its cost. It’s basically a portable mass spectrometer that can be used to measure extremely low levels of mercury. The State of Ohio standard is less than 1 µg/m³. In the breathing zone, our levels were lower than that, but inside the affected cabinet and on the floor beneath, we were around 1.4µg/m³.. So, according to the health department, we’re still contaminated. Time to call State Farm and give them the good news: at minimum, we need to replace the affected cabinet (which of course means we’ll probably have to replace the others, since matching a 12-year-old cabinet set is unlikely) and the contaminated section of floor. Since the floor is 12-year-old sheet linoleum, it’s probably going to have to be replaced too. What the hey, let’s remodel the kitchen.