Orlando Vacation

Melissa and I went to Orlando for Labor Day weekend. The day we arrived, we picked up the rental car, checked into our room, and picked up our free tickets to Disney World at the concierge desk. We stayed at the Marriott Grand Vista Resort...Pimp. The room was awesome: full kitchen (with appliances), dining room with a huge table, living room with TV and DVD player, bedroom with King bed, and bathroom with 2 sinks and jacuzzi tub for 2...saweet!

We rolled out and ate at Texas Roadhouse for lunch. After lunch, it was off to Downtown Disney.
The toll roads were stupid...or I was stupid...or something. We couldn't figure out which exit to take to get there and we were going back and forth on a toll road because we didn't go far enough. We finally asked for directions, paid a few more tolls, and made it there.

Downtown Disney was cool, but did have a bit of a downside. The shops were awesome. We didn't go down there with bank-rolls so we did a lot of looking. An AMC Theater was there, a Virgin Megestore, House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, a Lego store and a bunch of other shops, bars, and restaurants. One store was a type of sports and entertainment memorabilia store. I can't remember the name of it, but it had baseballs thrown by presidents, guitars by musicians like Kurt Cobain, and original movie posters. All of this stuff was in the hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. We just looked.

We did a lot of walking...a lot of walking. A store that Melissa liked was called Basin. It had a lot of bath balls and fragrances and stuff like that; the whole place smelled like one big bubble bath. After we left the Basin, we had our picture taken. Actually, it was a black & white shaded drawing of us. It's pretty cool. We took a break and got some water and ate some cookies at Goofy's Candy Store...a kid's sugar dream and a parent's nightmare.

We looked around a bit more and then headed back to the rental. Now for the downside. Ok, this place is pretty big and the layout sucked. Downtown Disney is setup like a strip-mall, but unlike most strip-malls, at least in the mid-west, the shops can only be accessed from the interior. What I mean is, when you drive up and park, there are no doors to the shops until you walk to the interior of the mall. It was just kinda weird. Anyway, it started to rain and we to walk all the way back to the car...from one end of Downtown Disney back to the other. What would make sense to me would be to construct it in some sort of circle so that you could finish where you began. That way one could walk the whole thing...once, and the just go to their car. But ohh nooo...thay had to...

It's ok, I'm back now. When we left Downtown Disney we decided to get some snacks. We went to the gas station first. Melissa went to the restroom and then we decided to get the snacks from Wallgreens. But when we got to Wallgreens, they had just closed a short while ago. So then we decided to just go to McDonald's. While we were on the way, all of the windows on the car fogged up for some reason to the point were we couldn't see. We tried adjusting the air conditioning controls, but nothing worked. Well, something eventually worked because the fog cleared up after about 3 minutes of sitting on the Wallgreens parking lot...wierd. Anyway, we get some grub at Micky D's and then head back to the room. We called it a night.

The next day we did some shopping. Started out at Ron Jon Surf Shop, then we went to an outlet mall we found nearby. This outlet mall was kinda different and this will be a bit difficult to explain. Instead of parking and walking into the stores from the parking lot, we has to walk into the inner mall area to get to the shops. Anyway, we searched for a select few stores that we wanted to visit, hit them up, ate lunch there at Subway, and then rolled out. We then went to the store to pick up a few just in case munchies so that we wouldn't have a similar episode from the night before. Then we went and picked up some stuff to make drinks, and then we went back to the resort and hit the pool. After the pool we cleaned up, ordered some Pizza Hut, had some drinks and played some Skip-Bo...ahhh yeahhh. Lastly, we tested out some of the bath products we bought a Disney from the previous night.

The next day we went to another outlet type mall and this one had the same setup where we had to walk into mall area to get to the shops. That's just strange for an outdoor mall. We did some shopping, ate some ice cream, did a bit more shopping and then finally left. We ended up at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch (mmm mmm mmmmmm). I can't say I remember much of the rest of this day besides the fact that we went to the pool again.

The following day was Disney World and we went to Epcot. After paying unnecessary tolls for circling the highways, we finally found it. We walked around for a bit, saw some cool stuff, took some pictures, ate, and then we left. I think I enjoyed it more than Melissa did. Other than Disney, I don't remember much about this day. I know that one day we ate Popeye's for dinner and watch some softball, but the memory is starting to fade.

The next day we left and came back home to Des Moines, IA. It was on this day that thumb-nail friendship was born. I will not elaborate.

It was a great trip and I still can't get over how awesome the room was. Something Melissa didn't know at the time was that I was carrying around her ring everywhere we went waiting for the right moment, but it never came...not on this trip.

Parental Consent

Today was a pretty big day for me. Not because of a productive day at work; not because I mowed the lawn; not because I cleaned my closet. Nope, today I got to do something that, until now, I had always wondered just how it would go and just how I would go about doing. Today, I went to Melissa's parents house; and, while sweatin' bullets, asked them if they approved of me marrying their daughter.

Melissa was still at work when I got off work, and I went home first to check on the dogs. Melissa doesn't or at least didn't know that I had planed to do this. I drove over, knocked on the front door and Deb answered. I had interrupted dinner as she and Brian were eating salads in the kitchen. They could tell I had something to say, but they had no idea what. I had a nice little speech kinda planned out, but all I could to was just stand there looking at the floor as I grasped my hands together. They looked at me with concerned faces thinking I had some sort of bad news. Eventually, I managed to get some words out that bared some resemblance of what I had planned. They smiled and said yes. All three of us teared up a bit and laughed at the sweat pouring down my face. Little did they know it was pouring down my back too. Deb hugged me, Brian shook my hand, and it was one of the most special moments I have ever had in my life.

They Went to Jared

Well, we have rings now. We were told the bands were going to take about three weeks, but we got the call on Friday and picked them up on Saturday. We bought the diamond two weeks ago, ordered the bands a week ago, and we had her rock mounted and set yesterday when we picked them up. She LOVES her ring. I must say that the rings are awesome and that this is all pretty exciting. Now for the engagement.

Sick

Sore throat, chills, abdominal pains...it sucked. I woke up yesterday at at about 4am and had to use the bathroom. I couldn't get back to sleep cause I was freezing. The alarm went off at 5am and I started getting ready for work. After using the bathroom again, I managed to get myself together and go to work. Once I got to work I was pretty much useless. My whole body was aching and the chills and abdominal pains increased. I got to work at 6am and left at about 7:30am. I got to my car and starting puking in the grass...fun. I picked up some orange juice on th way home and scared Melissa when I walked in. She thought someone was going to steal her...LOL (Inside Joke)! I got into bed and the aches and chills took over. I was miserable and was in and out of sleep all day. I felt better after Melissa had me take some Tylenol. I later ate some saltines and drank some 7-up that she got for me. We finished up the night with dinner from Applebee's and watching House. She took good care of me and I love her so much.

I'm pretty much back to 100% now. I've got some chili simmering and we're gonna watch some American Idol tonight. I think David Cook is gonna end up winning the whole thing. That dude is pimp.

Knock on Wood - An Andy Rooney Moment

Where did the term 'knock on wood' come from? As we all know, the phrase, also known as 'touch wood', is commonly used to ward off bad luck once one's good fortune has been acknowledged. For example, one may say, "My delivery team hasn't had any traffic incidents in 4 months...knock on wood." That person may then actually search for a piece of wood and knock on it.

The brief research that I did indicates that the origin is unknown but may be derived from Christian and/or Pagan beliefs. The Christian derivative comes from the touching a wooden cross. The Pagan version comes from good or evil spirits in trees that either could or could not hear a statement made while knocking on wood.

I took the time to look this up because it's something I was curious about and I wanted something to blog about. However, I had a thought while typing this: What if I made something up? What if I completely fabricated an origin right here right now? Some people search for answers, some people search for truth, and some people don't know the difference.

Hello World 2.0

My new blog and new blog home. I'm not much of a blogger, but we'll see what this turns into.