Woo-hoo.  I have Good Friday "off" (actually, hours worked last Friday), so what to do, what to do ...?

Hmmm.  Well, I can finish off my Disney World travel blogging from last weekend.  I have the posts pretty much all done -- just want to do some linking in them.

I can get the laundry started.  Told Margie I'd do that.

Hey, maybe I can finally get my WIST blog/database in shape.  That would be great!

No, no, no, I know ... I can spend all day coordinating by phonecon and e-mail a repair to our payroll/HR system getting all frelled up today, three weeks before it's supposed to be retired.  Yeah, that's it!!  That sounds like much more fun!  Yay!

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: Travel - WDW 07 :: WIST
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I've finished updating the photo posts for our Walt Disney World 2007 expedition, and loaded the blog posts for the individual days of adventuring.  Yay.  You can see the whole kit and kaboodle at the category listing (albeit in reverse-date order).

The only thing I haven't finished is getting our pictures loaded:

• Stuff from our little camera (we skipped taking the big camera, electing for portability over quality).
• Stuff from my cell phone (not happy with the cell pics I took this year).
• Stuff linked from our PhotoPasses.
• Develop to CD the photos from the disposable cameras that Katherine had.

That will have to wait for another day.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Travel - WDW 07
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As we walked down the DIA Concourse C last evening, I saw a sign by some of the (scant few) lockers  that, due to the "heightened security," the lockers were officially Closed.

The immediate questions that came to mind:

1. Will security ever be actually low enough to reopen them?  And, if not, why not just remove them?
2. What does closing the lockers actually do?  I mean, all us passengers have all been screened.  All the employees have been checked.  What could possibly be put into the lockers, and by whom, that might be a threat to anyone?

(Margie suggested that we might be smuggling in 3 oz. of Deadly Terroristic Liquids at a time, creating an Evil Stash in a Communal Terrorist Locker that could be used to make something Really Bad.)

And,  on a related note ... well, maybe the lockers are locked down because DIA security sucks.

Filed under :: Homeland Security :: Travel - WDW 07
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Filed under :: Travel - WDW 07 :: Walking
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So, after an offhand comment from Doyce the weekend before, I discovered a new way to "stay in touch" with the office.

The biggest problem I have while on vacation is knowing what phonecons I need to attend regardless.  I try to keep the whole work-life balance in balance, but there was some big stuff going on Thursday-Friday that I knew I'd need to dial into.

I'm not all hooked up with a Crackberry, and though the Treo is a "smart" phone, doing IMAP mail with it from the office has always been a bit problematic.  Besides which, I don't need to access everything.  Most of what I need is to know about important meetings, both that they are coming and a reminder when they are happening.

Aha.

I already have an Outlook rule to shunt meeting invitations into their own folder (so that they are highly visible for responding to).  I simply extended that last week to (a) send a copy to my cell phone (so that I got an immediate notification that something was scheduled), and to (b) send a copy to my Gmail account.  Gmail then automagically made it a tentative appointment in my Google Calendar, complete with time zone-adjusted notification alarm before hit happened.

I immediately knew, then, when a meeting was scheduled.  I also got a reminder message before it was actually supposed to start (keeping track of the Real World is tough enough in Disney World) and could act accordingly (which, in a couple of cases, meant getting on the phone whilst the family was lounging at the pool). 

Good stuff.

It's also been suggested that I do something similar on the other end -- forward invites to Gmail events to my office e-mail, so that they can be sucked in (not quite as automagically) into my Outlook calendar, and thus synced onto my Treo.  Also a good idea that I will (selectively) pursue.

Y'know, pretty soon all this computer stuff is going to actually make our lives easier.  Imagine!

(As a parenthetical note, the WDW Coronado Springs resort had wired Ethernet access in each room -- $10/day.  It also had WiFi in the Conference Center, I heard.  And there was a Business Center where Net access could be had for $10/15 min (!), plus $1/page to print things ... except (a very nice touch) any sort of travel arrangements/documents.  I.e., I could go in there yesterday morning, and check in Margie via the Internet and print a "B" boarding pass for her, for free.  That was, in point of fact, the only online stuff I did for the weekend, except some very rare Gmail checking by phone.)

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: My Computer :: Travel - WDW 07
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We got in around 10ish last night -- a long (though short), fun, exhausting extended weekend.  I got about 2/3 of my travelogue done on the plane back (having kept much better notes this year on my Palm), and will try to get that finished up post-haste ... along with, y'know, catching up with work stuff.

(No, I haven't looked at any comments on the pictures posted or anything like that, nor read anyone's blog, nor done a whole heck of a lot of online stuff at all.  Disney's like Faerie in that.)

And, yes, for those who keep track of such things, that means my business trip this week was canceled (good news for me, at least).

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: Travel - WDW 07
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Just a few more things that didn't fit into the narrative.

1. Katherine is clearly headed toward a career in parkour.  Everywhere we went, every queue we were in, every walkway we walked, she was climbing up on rails and and walls, reaching as high as she could go, bouncing off of objects, and generally being a climbing/running monkey.  It was very cute, in-between the times we were shouting, "Katherine, no, get down from there!"
2. If the visitors to WDW are to be believed, I am about in the 10th percentile in weight amongst adult men.
3. Related to the above, Margie has dubbed hiphuggers the worst fashion idea of the century -- and the century is still very young -- based on all the women who, disastrously, wear them.
4. I have to wonder how much water WDW would save if they changed over to using the new waterless urinals that are available.
5. Generally speaking, we eschewed purchase of automatic ride photos.  These show up mostly in "E ticket" rides -- Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Test Track, etc.  They usually suffer from three flaws:  (1) While it's fine to have the family in a picture as we start to descend down final drop on Splash Mountain, why would we want eternal memories of those three yahoos who were in the front seats of the car? (2) Disney insists on adding in a cretinous "decorative" border to such pictures, which often as not actually obscure parts of the photo that are important.  (3) The photo packages cost an arm and a leg.  It's still fun to look at after the ride, though.
6. Saw an interesting number of things -- ride supports and busses alike -- that had nuts on bolts with little strings of paint across them so that if someone had loosened something, it would be obvious.
7. Croc bling -- little Disney images that clamp into the holes on Crocs -- were available and a very cool concept, until you realized they were $3.50 ... each.    Yeesh!  75 cents to a buck, tops.  Of course, Disney was also selling its own line of Crocs, with little Mickey mouse cutouts rather than simple circles, for about three times the price of your average pair, so maybe that's how they calculated the price.

Overall, a fine time -- better, in fact, than I'd expected.  You'd think that going to Disney World so often would, in fact, get kind of old-- we were there less than a year ago, fergoshsakes -- but, so far, it hasn't.  Fact is, Kitten enjoys it more and more each time, and it's sort of become an old and enjoyable friend.  I look forward to the next time -- which will not, probably, be in 2008 ... though you never can tell ...

Filed under :: Travel - WDW 07
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Concluding our Walt Disney World travelogue ...

1. Our flight was not until 7 that evening.  The day before, we got the Disney Magic Express confirmation of when we should pick up the bus to MCO.  Alas, Southwest is not one of the airlines that lets you check your bags through and get your boarding passes at WDW, but it was still a convenient service.  So we got up around 9, called the bellcap service to pick up our luggage at 10, got packed, and headed off. 
2. Well, Kitten and I headed off -- Margie stayed for the bellcap, while Kitten accompanied me to the Business Center at the main complex.  Two of the five computers were down, and the other three were occupado, but we eventually got onto one to print off Margie's boarding pass for Southwest (thus graduating us from a C queue to a B queue -- if we'd done it the previous evening, it would have been the A queue).  While the Business Center computers are $10 for 15 minutes, and the printer is $1/page (yeesh!), it's all free if it's having to do with travel arrangements, which is kind of nice.
3. Margie caught up with us at that point, and we headed over for a last breakfast.  Good waffle, but one is advised to stay away from the Pepper Market right before the meals change (Lunch starts at 11, Dinner at ... 4?).  The staff is busy trying to prep the next meal and get it set up, and the patrons are busy trying to get last helping of the previous meal.  Since we had already been auto-checked-out, had to pay with a credit card, rather than the insidiously easy cardkey/room charge card.
4. Since we'd not finished Epcot, and since Katherine was jonesing to finish her mask, we headed back there.  We eschewed any rides, and just went straight to World Showcase, heading clockwise to start in Mexico (the ride there is down for refurb and "rebranding" as a Three Caballeros ride), Norway (always a long line for Maelstrom, which we skipped this time), and China (skip the green tea/plum wine slushies),   We managed to slip past the face painting stand, and make it to Germany.  While Kitten queued to see Snow White, I got ice cream cones for the womenfolk, and a citrusy hefeweize for myself.
5. In Italy we saw a fun juggler.  We ran across a lot of street performing types during this trip, and considered it worth our while to stop and watch in each case.  Highly entertaining for kids and adults alike.
6. We made it to the US, then to Japan.  That should have been the final stamp and dongle for Kitten's mask, but we found out the Mexican lady hadn't stamped it.  So, after enjoying once again the Tin Toy exhibit there, and while Margie did a bit of shopping, Katherine and I headed back over to Mexico (which was, of course, directly opposite us).  We hoofed it, since we'd proven last time that, unless the boat is at the dock and about to leave, it's faster to walk around World Showcase than depend on the launch to take you across.
7. Great acrobats (with stacked chairs) in France.
8. Kitten got her mask stamped in Mexico.  She'd already gotten the cool certificate in Japan, so she felt pleased that she'd accomplished her mission.  Somehow we managed to miss Margie (as she walked over going the other direction), but all was well because it allowed her to buy me a frozen margarita  (and a kiwi margarita for herself, which wasn't nearly as good).
9. And it was time to head back to CS for the bus, so we did so.
10. We sort of hung out at the shop, then Katherine and I stocked up on lemonade in our CS mugs while Margie went to the luggage claim area to get our checked bags so we could shift them over to the bus.  She discovered the "Hershey's Kissmobile" over there, tied into some convention going on, and holding an odd videotaped/karaoke contest/event for "World's Best Mom" (with plenty of bags of mini-kisses for the kids).  That chewed up an inordinate amount of time, so we had to quick get our bags before the bus arrived.  There was enough time for me to change to a fresh shirt, then we were on the bus, and heading to the airport.
11. Ignore the signs on Level 1 that imply there are ticket counters down there for a few airlines, including Southwest. There are not.  Go up to 3.
12. The Southwest counter area was a madhouse.  Not sure why.  We electronically checked in (no Dave Hill, International Man of Mystery problems), then checked our bags (like Ontario, we had to lug them over to the X-ray machines ourselves).
13. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we grabbed dinner at Macaroni Grill (Orlando has a wealth of restaurants and shops; it's more of a mall than an airport, sometimes).  Security on the Southwest side was trivial go through.  We got to the gates, I stood in the B queue, and when we finally boarded we had seats about 2/3 of the way back on the plane.
14. The flight home was uneventful.  Mercifully, I'd been informed (while at WDW) that the business trip that I'd been going to fly directly from Orlando to was canceled, so that made life easier for everyone.  We staggered to the car (which Kitten had memorized the location of), and drove home.  We got Kitten to bed, and then ourselves.  And it was all good.

-fin-

Filed under :: Travel - WDW 07
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Filed under :: Travel - WDW 07
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Filed under :: Travel - WDW 07
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