Tomi-Rocket

You didn't care for KFC fried chicken!? Very interesting...I guess up here in Joisey we're not exactly known for fried chicken, so maybe that's why I thought it was so good. One of these days I'll expose myself to some real southern food.

I don't even think I could wrap my mind around the idea of cancelling. I get so excited for our trips that I'd be going through some SERIOUS withdraw should a cancellation happen.

That's so odd, because my mom is half-Lithuanian half-mutt and she absolutely loves Mexican food (but Italian food isn't her favorite). Did your parents used to cook meals respective of their cultures when you were growing up? Growing up with my mom, we pretty much had every kind of food. I'm essentially the European Union...Lithuanian, German, Italian, British, French, and a bit of Native American. So I'll eat anything!

Silly - I got my Disney Magical Express package in the mail...I haven't gotten my resort package yet..I hope it shows this week! am crossing fingers and toes...aye carumba did 37 minutes on the treadmill this morning, burned 200 calories...and it was about 1.5 miles...I do 2.3 or 2.4 miles per minute which is a fast walk. Anything faster and I'd fall over! Had to work extra hard because I moooooo-ed down yesterday!

Gotta love those huge homemade dinners. My grandmother (and great-grandmother), who are 100% Italian, used to throw huge Thanksgivings, with five courses and 30 people. There used to be tremendous offerings, and gosh, do I miss those days! I'll try to dig around for some pictures.

Does the Prime Time do fried chicken especially well? Fried chicken and milkshakes are my weaknesses, believe it or not. Believe it or not...I can count on one hand the number of times I've hat chicken pot pie. But where else but WDW to try it?

The water add-ins definitely seem like a good (cheap!) idea. My family may be interested in buying some.

Have you ever had a WDW trip where you almost didn't go? I remember last year, we were very much in doubt over going, with my mom's epilepsy diagnosis and my dog's deteriorating health. Luckily, everything seems okay for this trip! Oh yea, and three years ago, we had to delay our trip for a tropical storm. But at this point we just got to wait and see!

Honey chicken...mmm... I hope you didn't starve at that dinner! I don't know what it is about seafood for me. I hear that mainly the reason we don't like food is because of the texture, not the taste, and I think for me the sliminess of seafood makes me gag. Hopefully I start liking it again.

Mmm...Stouffer's mac and cheese. Are you trying to make me hungry?! LOL. I've also heard that the 50's Prime Time Cafe is good for comfort food, but mainly when we're at WDW we like to eat things we normally wouldn't.

I go either way with packing. I rarely forget anything, and since I'm doing it myself, I do it on my own time (which means the night before we leave). I'm fine with it, though I usually wind up bringing a little too much. But now, I really can't wait to pack for WDW!

Haven't tried the water add-ins. I'm usually fine with plain drinking water...I'll buy a bottle and then refill it in a fountain. That does sound like a tasty alternative though...

you must REALLY be feeling crappy to lose out on the dollars off LOL but i totally understand....and if you aren't doing the party - i'm not going by myself. just wishful thinking. got my DME packet and not sure what to do with it LOL a couple yellow luggage tags of some type and an info book...i'll have to read. my cat just cost me $115 at the vet I was NOT expecting to have to fork out since I have that banfield plan thru petsmart...unfortunately this was for all his medications..and they were discounted!!! all his blood work, exams and such like that is totally covered...meds are discounted 15-20%...he had 5 of them lol

ohh so sorry! yeah one thing I do NOT miss is cramps..hysterectomy 2 years ago was the best thing ever LOL but up until then every time that time came....you'd thought i'd died LOL pale, OMG i can't even explain how heavy....it was just gross LOL

yes psyched about decorations - woohoo! have never been over halloween so very excited...i vote lets do the party ha ha!

having a terrible time staying on track today - not sure why but am gorging ....food food gimme food. i need a smack LMAO!

oops I forgot to tell you...my trip is PAID OFF!! woohoo!

sorry you aren't sleeping well! hopefully you got some much needed rest last night...wanna hear something cool? they are putting up the halloween decorations at MK on 8/29 which means the other parks will follow suit...we'll get halloween decorations while we are there! that is SO cool! I'm so used to christmas decs so this is something really new! woohoo! are you guys going to do the MNSSHP or not for sure? just curious!

chinese is YUMMY love it so I have to be careful careful when I partake..this from somebody who had Big Pie last night LOL hey I counted it! ha ha!

I think I counted wrong..I think I hit 33 on monday...monday is the 15th..I leave the 18th so yeah 33...I hit 30 on Thursday - my office better look out lol

What do I typically eat as far as Chinese food goes? I generally eat anything, except if it has seafood in it. From what I hear, authentic Chinese food (as well as Italian) is heavily seafood based. Is Liberty Tree open for walkins? That may be an option for us t9 try; I haven't had Thanksgiving food in ages!

Glad to hear that the teacher situation worked out well. I suppose it would be wise for the teachers to plan accordingly for kids to be absent that day.

Could I hire you to do the packing for our family? LOL You seem to be very professional at doing so!

You must let me know how Le Cellier goes. You'll love Boma, as I'm sure I told you before. We're trying Nine Dragons in a few weeks so I'll let you know how it goes! How was Liberty Tree Tavern when previously?

The first few weeks of freshman year aren't too bad from what I remember; you don't generally get bogged down with work until the winter. I'm sure he'll have ample time to finish his work (and then some). How many days are your kids missing?

I hear you and what a roller coaster! LOL I leave work at noon tomorrow. Lindsay's open house is from 1-230 (do they NOT realize peeps work! lol) - 8th graders meet at 1 in the auditorium cause we are special ha ha! have no clue who her teacher is nor what classes she has...I just know she is taking cello and chorus again.

I too am excited about the trip...come Monday it will be my 30 day countdown...i'm afraid i might burst LMAO!!! can't wait till we hit 10 days - we will both be so silly they might lock us up!

Sounds like you've had a busy day sorting thru clothes! lol I try to get Linds to do that and sometimes do it when she isn't looking ha ha! She would hang onto stuff foreverrrrr but claim 3 years from now "she'll wear it" LOL noooooo gotta go honey ha ha ha ha!

got a thing in the mail from the Disney Vacation Club - 10 minutes on the phone and you get a free $25 gift card ordered to arrive before your next Disney vacation....It only took me $5 minutes on the phone because after the speech for which I already knew I couldn't afford the DVC...they had already ordered the gift card so there is $25 more to my trip - yeah!

good thing i get a payroll check and a bonus check friday..I have SO much going out..gotta pay off disney and that is 158...have 800 aside for my tickets to Punta Cana and I think instead of priceline..will call airtran directly and offer that up and see what they say...and a host of other crap but such is life....come tomorrow morning....

37 DAYS!

Hey, it's not like you're going to cancel a vacation you planned forever for because the school board is incompetent enough to make decisions on what some suits think are best for their children, not what parents think. That seems like a bit of conflict of interest, doesn't it?

Which restaurants are these? You're crazy! LOL

Oh I'm fine regarding the book. Once I see something at the parks that "rings a bell", it will come right back to me for what to look for but thanks! YES I did see about 8 or so photos...love the Epcot one with the flag...I love my photos too. OH next meeting I can bring my photo album and we can make total dorks out of ourselves!!!! lol 38 days - woohooo!!! when i hit the 30 day mark my "disney boxes" come down..that is all the stuff that are repeat items that i take with me like ponchos, autograph books, lanyards...stuff like that...they it is all sprawled out all over my room ha ha!

poopers when i clock on that it just brings up the WDW threads of photos and i can't find you lol maybe you can send me your photo album thru gmail? you going tonight? you better be! it's lesley's last night - i'm sad but getting thru it...she has taken me on this almost 4 month journey so i'm hoping at least another 1.5 down to make me happy LOL done with the book also - so much to learn. I'd need to read it about 10 times LOL hey 39 daysssssssssssssssssssssssss

Never look at the food thread before eating. It's like not swimming right after you eat...except the reverse. As I'm about to have dinner in an hour, I shall refrain from looking at that thread...but I'll let you know how successful that goes.

A lot of the shots are processed after they are taken on the computer, though some people (like me!) luck out by being in the right place at the right time. Who knows what you'll run into!

I'm really going to try to take some nice night-shot pictures on our next trip, but it's going to be a pain lugging that tripod around!

Hmm...excellent choices on rides! I believe I would choose the same.

You're currently uploading photos using the WDWMagic photo feature, which is great, but it doesn't make your pictures appear as prominent. You're going to want to create an account on flickr.com, and upload photos there. Once your picture (or pictures) is/are loaded, click on the photo page, click 'share' and copy and paste the code they give you below.

Great pictures! The one of the Grand Floridian is especially beautiful.

Well, when you think about it, your vacation is twice as far away as my WDW trip. (I have 20 days left, you got 40.) It will come soon enough!

Interesting point...what do you think your boys would do if they were in a park unaccompanied? For example, what ride would they go to first?

LOL is it bad that I know exactly what Spongebob episode you're talking about? Nevertheless, I know exactly the feeling. You have to try riding Big Thunder Mountain...aaat htttttt. ;) A lot of the rides are much better at night, like Test Track or the Jungle Cruise. With younger kids, it's definitely more difficult to spend more time in the parks at night. Being a party of three non-kids, we kind of thrive at night, though when we travel with my mom, she usually heads back to the hotel earlier. Do you know I've never actually stayed in a park until closing? I mean to the point of them physically clearing people out of the park. Maybe that's something to try on this trip.

By the way, I found this thread, needless to say, I'm in heaven! http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=733177

My rebel is new as of December of 2010, so I haven't used it outside of NJ or NYC. The size is smaller than a normal DSLR, but larger than a typical point-and-shoot. I had some experience with DSLRs before, so I didn't find it too difficult to use, until I started playing around with the manual setting. Right now I just use the "no-flash" preset, though when I use nightshots, I'll have to play around with it a bit more. I've experimented some with long-exposure shots, with some cool results. When I'm on one of my photographing expeditions, I use the neck strap and just carry it around like that all of the time, and I can't imagine I'll have a difficult time with it in the parks, since it's relatively light.