Mickey's Premium Ice Cream Bars

I love me some Mickey's Premium. It's nothing terribly special in terms of recipe...it's simply a Nestle concoction of vanilla ice cream dipped in dark chocolate and placed on a stick. It's also in that awesome Mickey shape. But the best part? They're available just about everywhere in Disney. Why is that good? Well, because I just got back from Disney and I love them! I was able to limit myself to just two during the trip, but I didn't limit much else!

A couple months ago our friend Jane sent an email to a group of her friends, including Ashley and I, asking if anyone was interested in an adults-only trip to somewhere and she was particularly interested in New York City. Little did she know, however, that the group she sent it to didn't include anyone who was interested in going to NYC. Everyone had been and liked it okay, but just wasn't interested in going back right now. But I suggested we do something crazy and go to Disney instead! Sadly, some of our other friends just couldn't do it right now, but Jane and Alan and Ashley and I found a weekend that worked for us, lined up babysitters, and made the trip.

We flew out really early on Saturday morning and stayed through Monday evening on Southwest Airlines. Big plug here...yet again, SWA had great service. I really love that airline. Upon arrival in Orlando we boarded the Disney Magical Express bus service to our resort. Even though the service wasn't busy, I will say it doesn't seem that incredibly organized and isn't terribly easy to find from the gate area. I suppose if it was more busy you could just follow the crowd, though. But the bus service was good. We didn't use the baggage service as we were only there three days so it was easy to just carry-on and keep everything with us, though that might not have been the best plan since if you fly out very early (we left at 7:15am and were at our resort by 9:30am) you still have to store your bags until later anyway. But this way you do have access to your bags and a bathroom if you need to do any preparation before heading to the park, so consider that if following this basic plan.

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. That was probably the biggest problem area on the trip, but not for us, for Jane and Alan. We booked rooms together so they gave us adjoining rooms (though we didn't really request that and didn't need it, it would have been handy). Unfortunately, while our entire building was non-smoking, the previous occupants of their room had taken it upon themselves to leave it smelling like a chimney. Understandably, they complained. That got them a complimentary deodorizing service (yippee) and a small credit on their bill for that night, but there were no more rooms available until the next day (right!) so they had to live with it. The next day they did get another room, but were stuck in that "it won't be ready until 4pm" state, so they just put their bags in our room. Sadly, the new room was also a LONG way from ours (as in four buildings away), so it made meeting up to get going a bit more of a problem.

Aside from that, everything was okay at Port Orleans, but not great. I typically try to stay at Hampton Inn hotels when I'm traveling to most places because I like that they seem to have clean duvet covers, replace their carpets on good schedules, and generally keep things working well enough to not have lots of room key issues and the like. Port Orleans gets a fail on all of that as they just have typical polyester comforters, fairly old carpets and such, and Jane and Alan had two occasions where their room keys wouldn't work on the new room (in 24 hours!). They did end up with a free night in addition to their small credit for the first night, but our term for the Port Orleans stay was that it was far from "magical." I don't believe these kinds of things are nearly as likely if you stay at a more deluxe resort, so keep that in mind when making your decision on how much to spend on your Disney resort. We were only there two nights, and it was pretty annoying for Jane and Alan.

So what did we do? Everything! Well, dang near it. We stored all our bags and headed for our first park, Animal Kingdom. We chose our park order based on the schedule of hours things were open. AK is usually only open until 5pm, so we hit that first. There we did the Kali River Rapids where Ashley and Jane got SOAKED by a huge wall of water on the big drop. Alan and I were a little wet, but they got drenched. The wall of water was so huge it was like watching it happen in slow motion. We also hit Expedition Everest, and in my opinion no Disney trip is complete without riding that at least once. Great roller coaster. We did the Kilimanjaro Safari as well (with NO LINE!) along with the Dinosaur time travel thing and the tiny little roller coaster in the "fair" type park right outside the Dino ride. Lines were all pretty minimal. Ooh, we also had some pretty good pork BBQ for lunch there.

After that, we headed over to Magic Kingdom where we got our first taste of trying to do a sit-down restaurant for supper at Disney. Here's a recommendation...make reservations for sitting down to eat as soon as you possibly can. Like when you book your plane tickets! It was a no-go everywhere with sit-down service. Oops. As for rides, we did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Alan and I twice!), Splash Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, the Philharmagic, and probably another or two I'm forgetting. I think we headed out around 8pm after a really long day that started at 4 a.m. for Ashley and not long after that for the rest of us! We still hadn't eaten yet, so we ended up back at the resort food court. But at least they did have a mai-tai for us.

Next up was getting up and heading to Disney's Blizzard Beach water park. Now this was awesome! Aside from just having a lot of kick-butt slide-type rides, the place is awesome. Lots of natural shade, clean, nice, and fun. We did pretty much everything there at least once, including Alan and I hitting the huge slide. You go near 60MPH thanks to a huge drop before letting the water slow you down nicely. That's an insane rush. We also did some toboggan racing where I won the first one barely and Ashley crushed us on the second one (she figured out at least one trick, possibly more!). The hit of the day was really the lazy river, though. It meanders around the ENTIRE park. I think we spent about 45 minutes on it, just bouncing around, splashing, getting each other wet in the various little waterfall and squirter sections, etc. It was really great. I think we spent about four hours there, but the lines were reasonable and everything was a lot of fun (well, maybe except Alan's big boo-boo he got on his knee trying to get a big start on the tobbogan race!).

After leaving there we went back to our hotel, showered and changed, and headed to Hollywood Studios (which used to be MGM Studios, but they've changed the name) to finish off our day (it didn't close until 10pm that day). Again we tried to have a sit-down supper to no avail (did I mention you need reservations insanely early for that!) and had to settle for the "ABC Commissary." Alan and I rode the Aerosmith Rock-n-roll rollercoaster twice and the girls rode it once. Past that we all rode Star Tours, Tower of Terror (still probably my favorite ride ever) and finished with the new Toy Story ride. None of the lines were bad except the new Toy Story ride, and it was TERRIBLE for most of the day. We saw as high as 85 minute wait times posted on the board, but we went right before closing and probably only waited 25 minutes or so. But let me say, that thing is pretty cool. It's just a video game type ride that's in 3D where you compete against your partner in a shooting gallery type game, but it's really well done and a lot of fun. As I predicted, once I found out what it was, Ashley won. We were trying to do a boys versus girls team competition, but Jane's score was apparently so low she refused to report it and thus we're pretty sure the boys won.

So after another pretty long day we turned in around 11pm with plans to meet early on Monday, our last day. We had to store our luggage and check out, so we did that, got breakfast, and got on a bus to Epcot to get there right when it opened at 9am. We immediately headed to Soarin' where we got fastpasses and got in line. We waited about 20 minutes to ride that first time, which was pretty good. We found out we had ridden it a bunch of times before and always been in row 1 when loading by some fluke, but this time we were row 3. It's still good, but in row 2 and 3 you see feet dangling above you. Nothing in row 1, which is nice. Anyway, after that we headed out to ride Test Track, where we had almost no wait. Back over to Soarin' for our fastpass ride, where we got row 1. Yay! Then off to Norway to ride the water ride there. Not worth bothering with, but at least there was no wait and it was air conditioned. Oh, we got another fastpass for Soarin' while we were there and did it one more time. Then we went and rode Mission: Space. Wow. What an incredible ride. I can't even describe it. Jane and I did the "more intense" version and Ashley and Alan the less intense one (thanks to her motion sickness), but all enjoyed it a lot. Then off for food and a margarita in the Mexican area, and then time for a little shopping and back to our resort to pick up luggage and take the Magical Express back to the airport.

It was a whirlwind three days, that's for sure. But it was great. Lines weren't that bad, though a few were a little unexpected. One thing Disney does is manage their buses well. That's good for them, but not so good for visitors. By that I mean there are still adequate buses, but they're gonna still be full, too. More often than not we were standing on the bus, and even when sitting they got pretty full. They also manage park hours pretty well and that keeps line length up on the high-demand rides, though again, nothing was too bad right now. One thing to remember is that if you want to go to Hollywood Studios for things like the stunt shows and the backlot tour you can't use evening hours for that. Those shows all seem to stop around 5pm, so you still have to get their early for that stuff. So check those schedules!

We did try hard to maximize fun per dollar, and three days was enough to do a water park, hit every big ride, and not feel like we missed much (though we did want to see a couple of those stunt shows). But you're tired after it all, too. The dreaded "I need a vacation to recover from my vacation" syndrome, as it were. A more laid back approach would have been another day, obviously, but that's gonna cost you. I liked how we did it and felt like it worked out great. I think our only "wish" might have been better accommodations, but then again we might not do it much different if we did it again since we just didn't spend much time there anyway (and while the room key and smoke thing was a major pain for Alan and Jane, it isn't that likely to happen again).

All in all, great trip, fairly affordable, and great fun with great friends.

Ticks suck.

Ticks suck. Literally and figuratively. And they are extremely bad around here all of the sudden this year. I've pulled six off of me after three mountain bike rides this week, and three had bitten me already. This is highly annoying. Thinking of stealing the dog's Frontline or something. Yowza!

Get your elbows off the table!

So my family and I were eating dinner tonight and the conversation ended up on manners and Ashley pointed out it was bad manners to put your elbows on the table. This example of bad manners has always bothered me, so I challenged her on it. Why? Because I couldn't think of any reason why it should be offensive, discourteous, or annoying to anyone else.

So Ashley does what she does when I challenge these things, she googled it. As she read me the results, I became even more convinced that it was a silly rule. It seemed that the most likely culprit of where this originated is noted here, and it's basically that in castles and great houses in England they didn't have large dining tables, they merely erected a temporary table that diners sat on one side of only. If you leaned on the table you could cause it to topple, which is obviously bad. So somewhere along this way this "rule" may have turned into "bad manners."

There are other explanations listed like you could be blocking others from being able to have conversation or if seated close together your elbows could cramp the space of the folks on either side of you. So sure, in those cases perhaps the act of putting your elbows on the table is indeed bad manners. But that's not because you have your elbows on the table, it's because your elbows on the table are infringing upon the will of others. The infringing on the will of others is the bad manners part, and shouldn't carry over to situations where you are NOT bothering anyone else with your elbows on the table. But these days we have enough room at our tables that this is very rarely a problem anyway!

Basically, it's an outdated part of what some folks consider "etiquette." In researching this, I found an interesting comment on a forum about this issue, and it was "etiquette is all about considering other people's sensibilities." I agree, but old rules that no longer bother anyone's sensibilities need a way to go away. Continuing them "because I said so" simply makes no sense.

Now, if you keep reading links on this subject you'll find all manner of other reasons why you shouldn't do it. Most seem contrived or completely outdated to me, and thus I'm now on a mission to destroy this tiny part of "etiquette." This rule must die.

Where will we find our music?

I know, that's a strange question. But here we find ourselves in the iPod age and I have to wonder where we'll find new music. In the old days we relied on the radio to find our new music for us. I even remember shows every Tuesday night at 8pm where they'd play a couple new tracks from different albums and let you vote on which was better and such. DJs told us about the new bands and about changes in band members and when bands broke up. But now as more and more people get iPods and put their music collections on them, where will they find new music?

Oh, don't say iTunes. I just can't fathom a world where Apple's suggestions actually let you find new music you love. Sure, you can sample the new songs from the bands you already know, but past that I've never sat there just trying random artists I've never heard of. I'm sure some people do, but not most. Maybe they ultimately do come up with ways this can work, but for now no amount of "artificial intelligence" can do a good job of recommending music for me. My own assistant, who is pretty good at knowing what I like and don't like about most things, stays pretty befuddled by my music tastes.

Okay, the next way is social networking. Almost everyone is on Facebook or MySpace or Twitter and we all like to "tweet" about what we like, so maybe you hear from your friends who have similar tastes to yours. And then there's the first person, where we're riding in the car together and all listening to only one iPod. Okay, I get that, but it's still not terribly common to do that, I don't think.

You can still listen to the radio, but as has been pointed out by Jane on her blog, the radio can just plain suck. It's always seemed bad in the Triangle area of NC for some reason to me, and that's funny that I agree with Jane on that because I don't think she and I have much in common when it comes to music taste at all. And others who moved here from other areas seem to have the same opinion of the general state of radio in the Triangle. Why is that? I've been here for fifteen years now (oh...my...GOD!) and it's been that way the entire time.

Another old-fashioned method of finding new music is going to listen to bands at local clubs. But that's more a young person type thing to do. While popular and covering much of the music buying public, it still doesn't reach the vast majority of folks out there, I don't think.

So these days I find I listen to a LOT more satellite radio. I've got it in most of the vehicles I drive with any regularity and find I quite enjoy it. I can always find something I like one one of the "standby" type stations (80's, 90's, oldies, current country, etc), and when I want to branch out there are several good opportunities for that, too. For the last couple of years this has been my best way to find new music to add to my collection. But is it working for others? The subscription numbers and the fact that had XM and Sirius not been allowed to merge would have likely sent both into bankruptcy seem to indicate it's not catching on very well. So this one isn't helping the masses, at least not yet.

But maybe more people do have good local radio than not. Maybe those of us who don't were driven to the other alternatives and are doing quite well. Maybe the sum total of these methods is still better than back when it was all just AM radio or, uh, before radio at all (duh) and there is no problem whatsoever. I don't know. I just know it seems more difficult for me to find new music that I like these days. Seems like when I put the effort in I find it, so it's not a lack of music options. Maybe I'm just lazier. Or maybe I'm just pickier.

There was an episode of the old sitcom called What's Happening that's always stuck out in my mind. I don't remember the exact context, but the regular cast members (all high-school students) were talking to a football player who couldn't read and trying to figure out how he was passing his classes. They ascertained that one of his classes was "music appreciation." They asked what he did in that class. He said "well, they play me some music and I say 'I appreciate that!'" I often feel like I'd fail that class, because it might be too difficult for the teacher to find music that I appreciate. *cough*

At any rate, I suppose my point here is a general question more than any good point. How do you find your new music? I also wonder if there are people out there that don't care if they find new music or not. Do you get old and set in your ways such that you've heard all the new music you want to hear and will now just settle in with your collection and call it quits outside of that? Would it be okay if I did that? I sort of hope not, in one way, but in another, maybe that would be fine. Or do most people have no urge to find new music and just let it find them? Or do most people enjoy the hunt more than I do and find that all these new tools really make their lives easier, even if they spend more time doing it?

Man, I'm full of questions on this topic. I should have been in bed 45 minutes ago. But instead I was watching What's Happening minisodes on YouTube. *sigh*

Blog readers, the good, the bad, the mildly disfigured.

Okay, so they aren't that bad. But I have to stop and think. On the one hand, I find it very convenient that the Mac email program has the ability to let me subscribe to the blogs I want to follow and let me know when there are new posts. That's handy.

But on the other, I find that I no longer comment on my friend's blogs. It's a lot of extra clicks and the associated waiting to get the pages loaded to then comment. So I just don't do it. And I feel guilty about that, because as a blog writer, I like it when people comment. It lets me know that people are reading it, and gives me reason to continue to do it. I can't help but think most of my friends are the same way. Not that we wouldn't blog if we didn't get comments, but it's extra motivation and validation for what we do.

So what to do? I'm pondering this one and welcome your comments on what you do to solve this. Or what you think I should do. Or what you think I should watch on TV. Anything, just comment!

Cadillac Records

Took some time to watch Cadillac Records tonight. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that rock-n-roll evolved mostly from the blues, but this movie is more a history of many of the people involved in that evolution, primarily Muddy Waters and to a lesser degree Etta James and Chuck Berry. It's "based on a true story", but I left this one wondering just how much of it was "based" and how much was "true." Did Little Walter really just shoot a man who was in a traveling band impersonating him? I'm skeptical.

That said, the story was very good. And for a movie with a good many recording artists having turned to acting, it had VERY good acting. I'd say the direction was very good, too. Writing was good. Casting was excellent with the exception of Cedric The Entertainer as Willie Dixon and the narrator at the beginning and end. But where it was lacking was in production quality. The editing was just plain odd...there were several scenes that I don't even understand why they made the movie. The musical performances were far too obviously studio recorded and then sync'ed...this is not hard to do properly these days.

Overall I'd say if you're a music lover, this is a good film to see. Even if the stories aren't completely accurate, I did feel like they gave a good sense of the emotion of the time. It also made me want to learn even more about Muddy Waters. I knew through interviews with people like the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton that he was a major influence on the early days of rock-n-roll, but he was much more than that. While he never played much rock-n-roll, he did sort of champion it through his influence at Chess Records.

Definitely a recommended movie, particularly for music lovers.

The "big one."

When NASCAR races at Talledega, they always talk about when "the big one" is going to happen. "The big one" is the inevitable large crash that takes out much of the field thanks to the tight racing caused by the restrictor plate. Well, I didn't involve anyone else, but today I had my "big one."

We were in our qualifying session for the first of the two races at the SCCA Double National at VIR. I was drafting with Glenn Stephens (of Traqmate fame and a heck of a nice guy...thanks for the data help this weekend!) trying to get a good time in when I overcooked the entry to Oak Tree just a little and ended up looping it part of the way around. Glenn and I hadn't gotten a clean lap up to that point, but were still motoring pretty good. But Glenn got away, and I checked the track for traffic and took off. Never even killed the car, and I really only did half a spin to a stop with the rear wheels off the pavement.

I made one mistake, and that was not checking my brakes. Something about that off caused my front left brake line to get cut. I went full bore up the back straight and was passed near the end of it by another Spec Miata. But I still hit fifth gear and was right on his tail going into roller coaster. He hit the brakes and I did as well, only my pedal went to the floor. I dove to the inside of him so as not to hit him (that would have been ugly for both of us!). As I was navigating his car and trying to make sure he didn't turn into me (nobody in their right mind would try a pass like that, so I knew there was a good chance he wouldn't see me or at least wouldn't be expecting me to be doing that), I kept pumping the brake pedal. I'm pretty sure I got five and likely six pumps before I left the pavement, but none did anything. As I cleared his car I tried to turn the car back to the right. As I did I knew it wasn't going to stay on the pavement, but I got it turned just enough to go sideways in the dirt, which helped scrub a LITTLE speed off. I hit a peak of 115MPH and the data showed I was only down to 100MPH when I hit the wall with the right rear corner.
It would appear my Miata will live another day, too! Thanks to the awesome engineering by Mazda it would appear this thing still has straight frame rails and everything is "merely superficial." Not so superficial that it will buff out (as Tom at OPM said, "we didn't bring that much wax!"), but not so bad, ultimately. Especially for a triple digit hit. I can't complain too much, but I can take this moment to thank all the fine folks that helped me out this weekend, inlcuding Reid Allred, Glenn Austin from Traqmate Data Systems, OPM Autosports, and Rossini Race Engines.

For whatever it's worth, it looks like I would have been 11th on the grid (and maybe higher, a few people were found illegal in impound after qualifying) on my time now, and could have probably improved to around sixth or seventh if I had some clean track and working brakes. Oh well, we live to race another day.