I just paid $7.25 for one can of Guinness in the world showcase. Dear Lord.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I have to admit that I was freaked out riding Tower of Terror alone.

Popularity: unranked [?]

We're Here!

Alex and I arrived in Florida yesterday afternoon after a very easy trip here via Southwest air. That was the first time that either of us have flown Southwest. We booked through SW b/c the airfare was SO cheap and because it was a direct flight from ALB to MCO. I was a little nervous about the “no seat assignment” thing but it worked out fine. You’re assigned a boarding group (A, B, or C) and a number within that group based on the time that you check in. Alex checked in about an hour ahead of me on Tuesday and was A51. I was stuck in a meeting and by the time I checked in, I was B9. There were about 100 ppl on our flight and 137 seats, so it worked out fine. We were in a row of three, Alex had the window, I had the middle, and no one filled the aisle seat (thank God). Going home, we’ll need to try and check in 24 hrs in advance again so that we end up in an early boarding group. It’ll be more difficult as I’m pretty sure that around 8pm on Saturday we’ll be out at one of the parks or something, but you can check in via your mobile phone and I set alarms for us to remember so we should be all set. Isn’t technology great?

Our room at the Walt Disney World Swan is very nice. And what makes it extremely nice is that it’s paid for by Alex’s company. Booyah! I’ve posted my pictures from yesterday here. We were in our room by about 4:30pm (after arriving 20 minutes early at MCO around 2:40pm). Our bags were out very quick and we hopped in a cab (also paid for by Alex’s company) and had no issues checking in. I joined the Starwood Preferred Guest (or something like that) rewards program, so we should be earning about 2000 points for this stay. Sweet. We were upgraded for free by the very sweet girl at the front desk who was from the Syracuse area originally and whose ex-fiance is from Clifton Park. Random fact. She put us on the top floor of the hotel (12) on the “preferred guest floor” and gave us a Disney Studios view room. We can see the Tower of Terror from our room and at night, if we’re in the room, we’ll be able to see Fantasmic, the fireworks display. Very cool!

We didn’t hit any of the parks yesterday because that would have been a waste of a day on a ticket, so we went to Downtown Disney where I hit Guest Services to pick up my Disney Rewards card from my Disney Visa. I’ll use that today to purchase my park tickets (which will be more than completely covered by my rewards card – score!). After walking around Downtown Disney for a while, we caught a bus back to the Boardwalk and wondered around for a bit before going to dinner at the Flying Fish. We were going to go to Jellyrolls (the dueling piano bar) afterwards, but we were both very full and tired, so we just walked back to our hotel and went to sleep.

I think that I’ll either walk to Disney Studios or Epcot today since both are so close. Alex is already at his conference – it started at 7am today. I woke up hella early at 5:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I’m going to have to come back to the room and nap at some point today. We’re going to “Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party” tonight at the Magic Kingdom and want to hit Jellyrolls later on.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Sarcastic Wednesday

clipped from www.youtube.com

“Today everyone will love every idea that I suggest.”

“Hey, is it already 5? I wish we could start this day over!”

“Honey, I can’t do anything tonight because I’m doing extra work for work.” “Are you getting paid for it?” “No, but it’s fun! I’m convinced I’m needed – that’s how sick I am!”

Freaking funniest thing ever. I LOVE Hoops & YoYo!!

Popularity: unranked [?]

You mean Shenanigans?

Wednesday night was Celtic night at the Empire State Plaza. Steve, Alex and I went out because the Glengarry Bhoys were going to be there (along with the Prodigals and the Saw Doctors, but we’re not too familiar with either of those bands). Glengarry went though some changes in the last year or so and the only remaining members from their previous lineup are the lead singer and the drummer. The bassist, fiddler, and bagpiper are all new to the band. The previous fiddler, bassist, and bagpiper went on to be in Greenwich Meantime (GMT), which is now one of my favorite bands. We’d seen “the Bhoys” once or twice since the change and weren’t all that impressed, but we had an awesome time on Wednesday night.

The new fiddler is a redhead and is pretty hot (which makes Steve very happy), but she’s not as much fun as the previous fiddler, Shelley. Shelly is an awesome dancer as well as a fiddler and watching her perform was always a lot of fun. The new fiddler seemed pretty moody. She didn’t smile a lot on stage and they had her dance for one song and she seemed pretty unhappy about it (and not very good). The new bassist is just kind of lame. He’s weird looking with long red hair and he doesn’t face the audience – just stands sort of back near the drums and looks off to the side.

The new bagpiper is hilarious. Picture Farva from SuperTroopers and give him a set of bagpipes. Hilarious! He kept strutting around the stage and dancing like he was Bon Jovi or something and it just cracked me right up. I was hysterical. Then, during one of his big solos parts, he ran off the stage and played through the crowd. We were right in the midst of the crowd and I joked to Alex that he was coming right for us. Then he stopped right in front of me and proceeded to bounce around while he played on his bagpipes (which, by the way, had flames printed on them). I lost it. I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe. I’m sure that he thought that I was having a great time and enjoying the show. Oh, I was…

We had a great time and it totally made me freaking excited for IrishFest. I can’t wait!!

Popularity: unranked [?]

The Quest Begins….

clipped from www.kods.net Wedding Name Change Tips and Information Name Change Checklist Social Security Change Application: http://www.ssa.gov/online/ss-5.html Driver�s License – check your local DMV U.S. Passport Agency U.S. Post Office Employer / Work Car/Title Company School or Alumni Associations 401k / Retirement plans Bank accounts / names on checkbook Mortgage Post Office (change of address) Voter registration Card Credit card company Doctor, dentist, HMO Health, life, auto, and home insurance policies Clubs and Gyms Magazines and Memberships Discount, courtesy, and frequent-flyer cards Utility companies (phone, cable, gas, electric, etc.) Legal Contracts Will (you may want to change the beneficiary to your spouse at the same time) Start using your new name! It will feel weird and may sound funny at first, but the more you start using it your friends and family and coworkers will catch on and get used to it and before you know it you�ll think it sounds weird when you hear your maiden name.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Geeky Excited!!

I maintain a pretty busy calendar at work and, unfortunately, there’s not a way for me to view my calendar away from the office. It’s difficult for me to make commitments during the work week without knowing when my scheduled meetings with clients are. I’ve created a Google Calendar for my work stuff and have been adding meetings to it while I’m at work to keep me in the know away from my desk. But… I wanted a calendar app. I didn’t want to have to have my browser open and I wanted something that would sync automatically for me.

I decided to switch to Thunderbird the other day (because I just needed something new) to handle my email. The promise of extensions was just too much to resist. I discovered the Lightning calendar add-on and then… ta da! The GData Provider extension which allows for 2 way communication with Google Calendar. After following the easy step-by-step installation instructions here, I was up and running. I’m so excited and can’t wait to get this going at work as well!

I’ve found a few other extensions that I am looking forward to using at the office as well. The Xnote extension for Thunderbird allows you to add sticky notes to email messages. I love it! I’ve been so busy lately at work that I’m not able to respond to emails right away. With Xnote, I’ll be able to quickly jot a note about an email – right “on” the email – so that when I am able to respond to the email later on I’ll have my notes right there. Also, the sticky notes look like little yellow post-its – so cute! Love it!!

The Show InOut extension is going to make my life a little easier. I store all messages – incoming and outgoing – related to a client in a folder for that client. When I open the folder, it’s sometimes a little confusing to look at the emails because the outgoing copies always say my name since I’m the “from” person on it. Show InOut adds a graphical designator to show if the email was incoming or outgoing and then shows the sender or recipient. Nice!!

Yay! I love new things! Especially new things that don’t cost me a thing.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Extra Super Way Cool Online Music Thingy

clipped from www.visualcomplexity.com Musicovery Musicovery, by Frederic Vavrille, is an interactive webRadio Frederic made all come together in Musicovery. The user can start by selecting a mood in the mood/energy matrix or choose a radio acording to their mood by clicking in the colored matrix. After that the interaction is very similar to MusicPlasma, where one can easily navigate between different artists, only this time with sound. URL: http://musicovery.com/

Popularity: 9% [?]

Guidelines for Cats

clipped from www.jamesshuggins.com Guidelines for Cats Doors: Do not allow closed doors in any room. To get door opened, stand on hind legs and hammer with forepaws. Once door is opened, it is not necessary to use it. Bathrooms: Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything . . . just sit and stare. When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted. For book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself. Bedtime: Always sleep on the human at night so s/he cannot move around.

Popularity: unranked [?]

What's Next?

Months of Planning – check.
Wedding – check.
Honeymoon- check.

umm….

What’s next?!

I think Wham and Pa would like a grandchild, but we’re WAY too poor to do that yet. Oh, and I think Alex’s head might explode. It’s fun to tease him about it, though.

So what’s really next? Well, here are some ideas, in no particular order:

* Thank you notes, thank you notes, thank you notes.
* Buy a Hutch so that we can put away all our beautiful wedding gifts.
* Decide on colors and paint apartment.
* Work on resume.
* Organize office/guest room.
* Do official changing of name with Social Security, DMV, etc, etc, etc…
* Edit wedding and honeymoon pictures and provide captions. Get prints.
* Review professional proofs and decide on pictures for albums.
* Work on Wedding Albums, scrapbooks, etc.
* Scottish Games!
* Irish Fest!
* Alex’s Birthday!
* Joe & Christina’s Wedding then Michele & Darrel’s Wedding!
* Halloween.
* Clean out and organize room of doom – transform into library/organized storage area.

Ok. I’m starting to feel a little better – all of those are things that I expect to do in the next few months and it’s starting to look like I won’t be as bored as I thought I’d be! And then it’ll be Thanksgiving and Christmas… Time is going to fly by!

Popularity: unranked [?]