So, as I go through my entire MP3 collection, which is based upon my entire CD collection, I hear some songs that I just don’t recognize at all. Indeed, I can’t even identify the artist… I happened to be in the living room chatting with dad, who’d just showed up to invite me out to supper (it was craft night for mom), so I went into the den to first check who the artist was and second turn off the music (hey, I was going out for supper – didn’t need it playing any more).

Turns out the musician in question was Robyn Hitchcock. Ah yes, I remember now. Several years back I’d heard “Uncorrected Personality Traits” and liked the song. I remembered the artist name well enough to find CDs at stores, but not the song title. So I bought CDs hoping they were the ones with the right song. None of ’em were. Years afterwards, I became an online presence and asked folks on IRC one evening. I got both the song title *and* the album title. So I was able to order the CD finally.

Flip forward to a few years later. I hear a song that I rather like, but don’t know the title or artist. I ask in IRC and someone tells me the title. And *then* I go to one of the many sites available for downloading music at 79-99 cents a piece. Rather than buy several CDs to find one song, I buy the one song. It saves me money and having music in my collection that I’m not terribly interested in listening to. And that’s cool. (The second scenario, btw, was “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” by Eminem, which I bought from Rhapsody for $.79.)

So I’m happy that things are conspiring to make music purchasing even easier for listeners like myself. If only the RIAA could see the possibilities of the Internet rather than suing prepubescents and octogenarians.

Some links to places to buy music legally:

• eMusic.com I preferred them when they were 99 cents a song or $9.99 an album rather than the “download as much as you want for $30” or whatever their current pricing is now.
• Rhapsody You can get to the Rhapsody service through a number of outlets, but this link is for listen.com. It’s a streaming audio site, which has a monthly fee for as low as $9 a month. But you can also buy songs for download for 79 cents each.
• MusicMatch My MP3 player (software) of choice now sells downloadable music for the same prices that eMusic used to. However, they come as .wma files. Thankfully most of my MP3 players (hardware) can handle .wma.
• iTunes Not just for Apple anymore… They sell songs for 99 cents each, however I think they are proprietary files. Ever since I got screwed on a Liquid Music purchase a few years ago, I steer clear of all proprietary music files.

I know there are more dowloadable music sites out there – please share your favorite sites with me! I’m always on the lookout for more obscure songs for my collection and the more sources, the better chances I have of finding stuff. (I’d love to find Nat King Cole & Stubby Kaye singing “The Ballad of Cat Ballou” somewhere!)

Yesterday, I invited mom over for popcorn and a movie for Sunday afternoon. So today, she came over and we popped REAL popcorn – not that microwave stuff. Thanks to Elsa’s birthday gift, I now have 4 types of organically grown popcorn to try. My cheap-o sauce pan was just big enough (with some popcorn pushing up the lid and showing over the edge at the end) and the bowl which came with the popcorns was the perfect size. Mother and I marveled at the magic of popcorn – just 1/2 cup of kernels made all of that popcorn! We sprinkled on the popcorn salt and settled down on my sofa to watch a DVD. We picked Billy Elliot to watch since she’d never seen it and I haven’t seen it in awhile. The popcorn (we picked Savanna Gold – with a smooth, sweet flavor) was good, the movie was good, and the company was good. Afterwards, I showed mom most of the photos that we took on our trip. (It was getting late and she had to go home before I could finish the slide show.) It was just cool using my laptop to show off the photos.

So, thanks Elsa for the fun birthday present! I’m hoping next weekend we can do this again – this time with Bend It Like Beckham and one of the other types of popcorn. 🙂

You can check out elsaf‘s and judiang‘s LJs to see how things are going in McGannland. Sounds like they’re having fun. 🙂 (I suspect I’ll be getting a fwap or two from my choice of topic…)

As for me, I’ve updated my Science Page. You can check it out here. I managed to combine 3 collections of science links and I think I’ve weeded out the dead sites. I think my brain is dead from all of that. Probably should go undecorate the house in the meantime. I’m sure Leo’s ready and eager to help.

Oh, I have a new LJ icon as well. I liked the picture of Sylv so much that I needed to icon it. Dunno if the saying on it works, but hey, I was listening to Queen at the time.

I know, it’s funny to see a McCoy fan like myself post about Paul McGann, but I’m just reporting (as Elsa will soon do, I’m sure) that the PMEBers who went to London to see Paul in Mourning Becomes Electra were able to meet the man himself afterwards. He even bought them drinks and invited them for tea the next day. Sounds like a successful venture to me. 🙂

Way to go gurls! Have a blast! Say “Hi” to McGann for me! 😉

I wore my snow boots today hoping to get to walk in the snow. I bought a pair of “all weather shoes” from Land’s End (though I bought them at Sears) and really haven’t had a chance to “break them in” yet. It seems to be snowing a bit more now, but I doubt there will be much more than a dusting tomorrow.

We were jinxed out of getting 4 inches of snow today. Yesterday in the announcements, the home ec teacher informed everyone that in the event of a snow day, the mock wedding would be rescheduled for Friday. Well, gee, as soon as you make an announcement like that, you’ve scuppered any chance of there being a snow day! Tsk tsk! So we didn’t have any snow on the ground today, and very little on the ground by the time I walked home from school.

Our other curse is the I-70 curse. I-70 (one of the country’s east-west interstate highways) seems to be a weather line in Ohio. “People living north of I-70 should expect to see 1-2″ of snow, those south should see 3-4″” etc. Well, when I lived south of I-70, it was the folks north of I-70 who seemed to get all the nice snow. Well, now that I’m living north of I-70 (again – I grew up here) the snow’s gone south. *sigh* I think it’s all waiting until March.

Tomorrow’s Friday, so I’ll probably dress casually. And wear my snow boots again. Just in case, see…

When the Christmas season was upon us, I decided that I wanted eggnog every night before bedtime. And that was a fun little tradition. And it may well have helped me sleep. So now that we’re in the cold, dark, days of winter, I’ve decided upon a new nightly tradition. I’m going to see about having a cup of hot cocoa each night before bedtime.

Currently, I’m sipping a cup of hot peppermint cocoa, one of the 3 types of cocoa that Rachel gave me for Christmas. It’s very tasty. And as with the Starbucks peppermint cocoa that I had while in MN, I’m still amazed by the cold/hot feeling you get with hot peppermint drinks. The minty flavor makes you cool, but the heat from the cocoa makes you hot. A fascinating sensation.

(Poor Leo’s sitting on and jealously watching. No hot cocoa for kitties!)

One thing that I forgot to mention in yesterday’s journal was about my latest Birthday present. I received a package in a plain brown wrapper in the mail. It was from my sister. It was The Muppets Monopoly! YAY!!!!!! The note explained that now I no longer had to covet my sister’s Monopoly. 🙂 Awwwww!

So, what does one do when one lives alone with one’s cat? Why, one challenges one’s cat to a game, of course!

Leo picked Miss Piggy as his character piece (and are we surprised?) and so I took Kermit. Leo wanted to eat his piece, but I kept putting it back in place. I let Leo go first and rolled for him. And then he wandered off for awhile, bored. So I watched The Vicar of Dibley and played Monopoly for the pair of us. Leo returned occasionally to see how the game was progressing (and to lay down on the game board). And eventually he knocked the pieces off the board and took up residence himself. So I figured we were done for the night. Which is a shame since I was in the lead. (Leo landed himself in Jail once, poor kitty.)

Yeah, yeah, I know… I need a friend who lives nearby… 😉

I only ever seem to update my main page at pagefillers.com whenever the new year rolls around. The main thing I need to do is change the year in my ACME Page Fillers, Inc. logo, but I also change the page text. Well, this year, I’ve come up with the perfect solution to my rarely updated page. I made the page for the entire year. Yes, each month of 2004, you can return to ACME Page Fillers, Inc. and see the content specific for that month. Or you can read it all in one go, if you’d ruther.

I shall also be updating my “About Me” page and “trinalinks” page. And if I’m really good, I’ll work on the Science Page. I have a HUGE collection of URLs at school for cool science pages. Just need to spend a bit of time making the page viable.

Home again, home again! Leo’s sitting in front of the monitor and I’m listening to my music. Things are good.

Elsa and I got back to Ohio last night around 11:20pm and then were home by 12:30am. My folks were good enough to pick us up, despite dad having to preach this morning. (He spoke on mentors – good sermon, IMO. However, I was a little disappointed because I’d originally thought he was preaching on Mentos.)

I got to open Elsa’s birthday present to me last night. It was a big sampling of different kinds of popcorn, plus popcorn forks (whatever the hell they are) and a huge bowl to serve the popcorn in. Cool! I told mom about it and she’s also excited. We’ll have to have popcorn while watching The Vicar of Dibley or something like that. 🙂

This morning, Elsa headed off to the wilds of the North while I headed off (with the parentals) to the Unitarian Universalist church where dad was preaching. On the way home from church, we stopped at The Little Inn at Fort Jefferson for lunch. I had fried chicken, mashed taters and chicken gravy, bean greens, and a salad. The three of us at for under $18, including tip. Quite a culture shock from the prices I’ve been paying for the past week. 🙂

Now, besides my online journal, I have a hand-written trip journal. The one for this trip was really the bookend for what I’ve written in the LiveJournal. And for those of you who are interested, I’m going rewrite the entries here under some LJ cuts. I think you’ll see the style isn’t much different. (The one thing I like about the LJ is that I can go back and insert a bit that I’d forgotten. In the hand written journals, I have to just write about it out of sequence. The Miracle of the Hats is the closest that I came to that with my LJ.)

December 29, 2003

7:15am On an AirtTran Boeing 717-200 waiting to depart to Orlando! Elsa is seated next to me, and we hope our luggage will join us there!

Boy, I’ve never seen Dayton International as busy as this morning. Mom & Dad picked us up at 5:30am and mom drove us to the airport. As soon as we entered the 1st doorway, we saw the AirTran line was out to the doorway. So we got in line. The security folks who need to check the checked luggage had a HUGE backload of bags to search. Which is why we hope our bags made the cut.

By 6:25, we were done w/ the AirTran line and had our boarding passes. We dropped off our luggage (I waved bye-bye to mine) and headed for the security line.

Wow! Now, you know Dayton International… the security line went all the way down to the far end of the baggage claim & wrapped around almost half that length. It was impressive!

Believe it or not, but we were actually through security by 7:05am. Of course, our gate was the last one on the concourse. But there was practically no waiting to get on board. Folks have finally gotten on board now & we should be taking off shortly. It’s almost 7:30am. Next stop, Orlando!

9:20am Probably over Florida by now. Ah – 160 miles from the airport. Should be at the gate by 9:50 (only 25 minutes late).

I just finished reading You Bet Your Life, a Murder, She Wrote book. And boy am I hungry! Our delay, BTW, was caused by our luggage being loaded still long after everyone got aboard! Hopefully ours was among the loaded luggage!

We’re hoping Judi got on her flight OK. If so, we won’t have as long to wait for her as originally thought (unless she’s delayed too).

So, what to get for breakfast. I’m thinking Egg McMuffin, myself!

10:30am Sitting down at Baggage Claim A waiting on Judi. Elsa is down aways & I’m perched by the escalators. Thankfully both our bags turned up. Mine was rather early, Elsa’s was in the second dump. And, thanks to Trina getting an Egg McMuffin, we didn’t have to wait long for our luggage.

Looks like the best way to get to our hotel is via Taxi at ~ $50 for the trip. Split 3 ways, it’s not too unreasonable. Judi’s flight isn’t due to arrive until 10:42, so we’ve a bit of a wait, yet. The flight after Judi’s has already been delayed. Let’s hope Judi’s on her flight & so’s her luggage!

January 3, 2004

9:00pm [There is an arrow drawn pointing to the date.] My first time at writing 2004 in the year! Happy New Year!

Well, I didn’t keep up this paper journal during the trip. What I did instead was write it all up in my Live Journal. In the LJ, however, I didn’t always go into money & food details as I tend to do in my paper journals.

So, where are we now? On our plane to Dayton. Alas, it’s not in the air (though it should’ve taken off 1 1/2 hours ago!) but is still boarding. Judi’s flight was delayed even more than ours. She was supposed to depart at 6:30, but when we parted company at 7pm, her flight (and ours) was delayed to 8:45pm. It’ll be interesting to see who gets home 1st.

Poor dad preaches tomorrow & here I am having him come out late to pick us up. Mean Trina… But he knows of the delay & I figure he & mom will be waiting for us when we arrive. I have wonderful parents.

Once we’re airborne it should be 2 hours in the air. So hopefully we’ll arrive in DAY by 11:30pm. Home a bit after midnight. Knock wood!

To thank mom for babysitting Leo, I bought her a selection of Disney coffees & a cool Mickey Mouse (old fashioned) mug. I hope she likes it! I hope it survives the trip! [Yes to both of those, it turns out…]

So, the trip was a blast. After a rocky start, it turned into a trip to remember. & the most exciting NYE I’ve ever had. And if all goes well, I’ll have the Rose Bowl Parade to watch (while I grade papers). Never used my new VCR to record. Oh yeah, and there is a present still awaiting me. Cool!

I had just over $400 cash with me on the trip (including my b-day gift and $100 emergency bill) and at the end I have 11 cents. Pretty impressive.

So, we got up late (ish) this morning and scheduled a late check out. We played in the room (computers mostly) until 1:30 when we headed down to check out. They stowed our luggage until Gene arrived & we hung out by the pool for the rest of our stay. Lunch was from the restaurant – I had a Reuben & fries & a Coke. I was suffering from dizzy & needed the burpy pop. Alas, it tasted terrible to me, but Elsa said it was the normal taste. Fries seemed substandard too. So I think maybe my taste buds were screwy. Could be sinus drainage or the onset of a cold. Bleh! The Reuben, at least, tasted fine.

I listened to my MP3s while I sat w/ my bare feet up. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, as it had been our whole stay. And it was lovely just vegging. Judi fell asleep to the sounds of her Xmas carols on her Ipod.

After 4pm, we started to get our gear together. When Gene arrived, promptly at 4:30, we loaded up & he headed off. Nice guy though he was, I think he gouged us. He didn’t turn on the fare meter and charged us $55 as we paid the last time. And with the traffic rather mild, the trip (plus tip) would probably have been less than $50. Ah well, he got us where we wanted and at a reasonable time.

“We’re moving! We’re moving!” as dad likes to say. Actually, we’re taking off. So we should be in Dayton by 11:25pm.

Had to take off my hat to see out of the window. Cool – Orlando’s pretty at night. Actually, most cities are. 🙂

American and AirTran were on the same side of the terminal, so we met up after checking in. And I think they’ve rearranged the way security & the food court relate. I’m sure the shops & food court used to be behind security, but now they’re in front. So we sat at the food court & vegged some more. I listened to Scherzo, Judi to carols, & Elsa finished her Spike & Angel book.

At 6:30pm, I got us some supper from a noodle place. Judi & Elsa helped subsidize my supper. Elsa & I had pad Thai & Judi had Miso soup. The pad Thai was OK – either my taste buds are still screwy or it was a substandard pad Thai. Not as bad as the UK one I had this summer, however.

At 7pm, we parted company, Judi to her concourse, we to ours. We were the first gate at the concourse.

Then it was the waiting game. I listened to more Scherzo after showing Elsa the DW 40th anniversary stuff on my laptop. She then went to get a book from WH Smith’s. The plane were were to travel on arrived at 8:35 & they booked it to get us boarded & out there (however things were delayed when the flight crew went to get McDonald’s for take-away.) Now we’re in the air & awaiting beverages. Time to read more Blue Box.

So, y’all now know that for all the detail I gave in my LJ entries, I get even more nitpicky in my paper journals. I have such a sucky memory that I feel if I write everything down, I’ll remember it all better. And indeed, when I reread the journals, I do indeed remember it better. 🙂

We managed to get Late Checkout so that we don’t have to vacate the room until nearly 2pm. So now we’re all in the room vegging. Elsa’s deleting spam from her e-mail account, Judi’s napping, and I’m going to finish writing about yesterday. Before I did this, however, Judi and I watched episode 1 of The Vicar of Dibley on my computer. We shared the earbuds (from my MP3 player) and since both of us are deaf in one ear, that worked out just fine. Very funny stuff – I shall enjoy that birthday present. (Oooooh – and I just remembered that I have one more present coming – the one sitting at home that’s from Elsa. Sweet!)

All right… I was writing about our reservation for supper. We met up with Elsa and told her the plan. Since we’d inevitably miss the 10pm bus back to the hotel, Judi agreed to pay the cab fare. Works for us!

It was shopping time. I still had one more souvenier that I wanted to buy myself. Since we now have to wear staff IDs at work, I wanted a Disney lanyard to wear some days. We stopped at the Emporium so that Judi could buy some Minnie Mouse ears (hers were old and becoming uncomfortable to wear thanks to the plastic clipping). Elsa was also looking for a lanyard to hang her camera. And you know about my search. I bought one that was blue with red (more like pink) writing that said “Walt Disney World.” I also bought a Mickey Mouse pin for it. And then I transferred all of my pins from my bush hat onto the lanyard. Finally, I hung my camera (or rather mom’s digital) on the lanyard. I was set for a day of photo taking!

While helping Judi with her purchases, I finally found out what all this Pin Trading was about. Apparently you can trade pins with Disney workers who have lanyards. Provided the pin you trade them is Disney and they don’t already have it on their lanyard, you can do it. Since I’d been eyeing one cast member’s Cheshire Cat, I asked if I could swap it for one of the Animal Kingdom pins. She agreed and now I have a Cheshire Cat to go with Mickey and the purple lion and the stylized rhino that came with my hat. (I also have one that says “Animal Kingdom.”) I seem to have lost one of those pins from the hat, however. Perhaps it fell on the ground when I removed them from my hat to put them in my purse. Alas…

Elsa had found a simple black lanyard for her camera and was waiting for us outside the shop. Having mentioned “ice cream” about 4 times already that morning, the girls agreed to join me at the ice cream parlor at the end of Main Street USA. Elsa wanted a fresh bottle of bottled water and Judi was going to do likewise. I bought a caramel sundae in cone cup and Elsa bought an ice cream sammich made with 2 chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip ice cream. Judi, who’d only gotten the water, felt betrayed by Elsa for buying more than the water, so she had to go through the line again for an ice cream sammich too. (To think Judi had to be goaded into buying ice cream – that’s a rarity!)

We sat outside the parlor and ate our ice cream while enjoying the lovely day. I refilled my water bottle (from the day before). Then, as the sun was getting to be too much, we moved onward. Elsa took our photo in front of the castle, but then her camera attempted suicide by jumping off of her lanyard and onto the ground. We rounded up the batteries that had fallen out and put ’em back in, but the camera gave her a warning. Hmmm, perhaps the batteries were damaged – one certainly had a dent in it.

Elsa had a set of 4 replacement batteries in our canvas bag which was back at the locker. So I raced off to get them. They, being rechargable, were completely dead. So we returned to the Emporium and Elsa bought a 4 pack of AA’s. Judi was concerned her camera battery might go dead, so she bought one over at the photo store. Once Elsa replace the new batteries, she was still getting a warning. But this time it turned out to be the memory card. It had been jarred loose. Once returned to the slot, her camera worked just fine. Hooray!

We decided to check out the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. On our way there, we got fastpass tickets for the Jungle Cruise. Then we got in the Pirates line. Took about 20 minutes or so to get through but I’m not even sure it was worth that wait… It’s incredible that such a lame ass ride could inspire the wonderfully entertaining movie that it did.

We had lunch after the Pirates ride at El Pirata Y el Perico Restaurante. We all ordered the empanada special – one empanada with rice and black beans. And I got a Coke with mine. We found a place to sit where the birds were bold. Thankfully none of them tried to take our food while we were eating.

When dinner was done, it was time for the Jungle Cruise. The fastpass line here was the usual 10 minute wait or so (better than the 55 minute wait for “standby”). And we got in the front of our boat – hooray! Our guide was trying too hard to be funny – in fact, he seemed almost like a disgruntled Disney employee. The only one we encountered the entire trip. Just couldn’t handle being happy all the time, he turned to sarcasm instead. Lots of plastic animals to see and the ride was very pleasant and cooled us off.

When our cruise was done, it was nearing 4pm. So we found Elsa a nice place to sit and read while Judi and I headed across the park to Space Mountain. We were 10 minutes early for our fastpass time, so we went to the TimeKeeper 360 degrees movie. It was entertaining and Jules Verne had a blast in it.

When we got to Space Mountain, the fastpass line was the fastest we’d ever gotten so far in the parks. And then we got to race through space in one of my favorite roller coasters. As always, it was a blast.

We returned to Adventure Land where Elsa was awaiting us. Then I was offered a free pineapple spear if I stood in line to buy pineapple spears for the girls. Judi then changed her mind and had me order a pineapple float for her. Seeing the lovely soft serve ice cream that they had, when I finished my tasty pineapple spear, I went back in line for some soft serve vanilla ice cream.

It was after 5pm and Judi was getting a little chilly. So it was time for jackets. Judi and I left Elsa again and headed back to the lockers. I switched to my shoes from my sandals and Judi got her coat and Elsa’s jacket. We returned to Elsa and made our way to the Haunted Mansion to get fastpass tickets.

Along the way there, we stopped to photograph one of the riverboats and my camera died. Geez, couldn’t it have done this before we went to the lockers? Well, we got our fastpass tickets and then I raced back to the locker to pick up my spare pair of batteries. I snapped some evening photos of the colorful lights and the Magic Castle. Then I joined the girls in front of the “It’s a Small World” ride.

We were in line for about 20 minutes or so until we got on our little boat. Then we all took loads of pictures. Probably enough to recreate the experience. I decided that the ride had better looking dolls than when I’d first ridden on it – some really cute little critters there. The song, however, still got on my nerves. And it doesn’t help that Judi keeps singing it!

It was nearly time for our Haunted Mansion visit. By now it was nicely dark – perfect for visiting a haunted house. I thought the best bit about this ride was the extending room effect at the start. I also liked the lighting effects that they used to make the ghosts, but it’s a trick that I’m aware of anyhoo. Still, it was far better than the Pirates ride.

It was quarter til 8 when we were done with the mansion, so we headed back to Main Street to find a place to watch the lighted parade. It was an incredible show. The Holidazzle Parade that Minnesota puts on has a few more years to go before they can even come close to this parade. And Elsa got quite a few nice photos taken of it.

We headed to the Crystal Palace to check in for supper and sat outside to wait. They got us in 20 minutes early, so we got inside and our waiter informed us that Pooh was on his way to our table, so we should wait a couple of minutes before going to get our food. Pooh arrived and Elsa took a photo of Judi and I with him. Then we headed off to the buffet. And my, do they know how to put on a spread at the Crystal Palace. Even the salads looked delictable – I had some artichoke heart salad and potato salad and leaf lettuce salad. There was roasted chicken and mashed taters and pasta and a kale & bacon dish that was yummy as well. I had fruit punch with my supper. And for seconds, I got more taters and pasta, plus a chocolate chip cookie.

The dessert bar was even more incredible. I mean, they not only had Elsa’s favorite (bread pudding) and Judi’s favorite (tiramisu), but they had mine as well (creme brulee). I had some creme brulee (no shit – literally) and vanilla flan plus a smidgen of bread pudding. But I got too much and wasn’t able to finish.

As for the character visits, Piglet came while I was getting food, but Elsa got her photo with him. And when Tigger arrived, we all got our photos with him. Elsa was fascinated with his tail, but there’s a bad (dirty) joke involved that I shan’t go into.

After supper, we decided it was time to go. It was after 10pm and we mosied to the front. First to get our locker stuff and then to get Judi’s package pick-up. We took the ferry back to the transportation center and then walked around looking for a cab. Coincidentally, there was a cab driver walking around looking for clueless people walking around looking for a cab. And she found us. She directed us back to her cab and agreed to take us to the hotel for $15. She was a nice lady from Philly who misses the snow but not the cold.

We were back by 11:30 and there were two messages waiting for us from Gene, our cabby who took us from the airport to here. He informed us that our hotel name had changed. Wow – we came here to the Rennaisance World Gate and will leave the Orlando World Gate Resort. So we stayed at 3 hotels (once you include the Mariott World Center in the count) for this trip.

We spent the evening transferring photos onto my laptop, watching the “dailies” (ie, slideshows of today’s photos), and burning CDs for each of us with all of the photos. I copied a game for Judi while I was at it. And eventually, we got to bed.

This morning we slept in – some… By 9:30, we were down for breakfast. It turns out the reason the buffet was gone yesterday was because the Orlando World Gate doesn’t have a breakfast buffet. So we ordered off the menu instead. I had blueberry buttermilk pancakes, sausage, and milk. The pancakes were grilled to perfection – lightly crispy on the surface and fluffy inside. Paid $11 for that (and Judi owes me $11 as well…)

Now we’re in the goofing off stage. Still over an hour and a half before we must vacate the room. So I’ll probably play with my laptop for awhile more. Then I’ll sit outside by the pool listening to Scherzo on my MP3 player after we’ve checked out. Gene won’t be here to pick us up until 4:30pm, so we have time to cool our heels, so to speak.

This has been a truly enjoyable vacation. I had a blast with my friends and we’ll all very happy that Steph could join us. And tonight I’ll get to see my kitty again and open my last present. YAY! Let’s hear it for Disney!