Jolly Holiday at Park Fare

When we were down in Disney (yes, we're still on Disney...  can you believe how quickly this summer is blowing by?) we had breakfast with the characters at 1900 Park Fare.

Usually when we go down to Disney, Randy insists on having breakfast with Chip and Dale.  As many of you probably remember, Randy has a crazy cute obsession with them.  From past trips, you might see pictures like this one:

Or this one...

But sadly, this year the Cape May Cafe (where Chip and Dale dine for breakfast) was closed for renovations.  I guess they've been taking their morning acorns elsewhere.

This time we got to have breakfast with all of MY favorite characters!  All in one spot!  I have to give Dad all the credit, he's the one who made reservations at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian.  Might as well have been #17 Cherry Tree Lane.

Who are my favorite characters?  Well Mary Poppins is of course my very favorite, possibly because we're both practically perfect in every way.  I also love Alice (who doesn't love a good tea party?) and Winnie the Pooh.  I guess I have a thing for British characters.

I knew Mary is always looking her best, so yes, I dressed up to meet her in my fanciest July-in-Florida dress.  Lucky for Alice, Park Fare is air conditioned.  I would hate to have to wear that pinafore outside.

Randy, the Mad Hatter, and Bryan discussing the merits of coffee versus tea.  Yes, I swear, it was just coffee in that mug.

Mom's shirt won her plenty of hugs from Pooh.

Twins!  Who knew Tigger was a Flyers fan?

Finally we got to meet Mary.  I was a little nervous that she might not think I was as practically perfect as she is, but luckily I had nothing to worry about.

These next few pictures are Randy, Mary Poppins and the Mad Hatter talking about Randy's future career prospects ...as a chimney sweep.

Mary asked about his qualifications of being a chimney sweep.

Mary thought he could do it even though he is afraid of heights, as long as he didn't look down and danced like Burt.

The Mad Hatter suggested he might be more qualified if he were a lizard with a ladder.

Mom and Dad had a lot of fun too.  I don't think Bryan is really into breakfast with the characters, I think he gets a little nervous around big stars.

It was all fun and games until Randy asked Pooh where Piglet was, and Pooh pointed towards the kitchen.  Randy then looked down at his plate and accused the chefs of cooking Piglet.

No, Piglet was thankfully one of the chefs.  Phew!

I'm not sure if we're allowed back at 1900 Park Fare (thanks, Randy), but we sure had a nice time.

Unimaginable Strength

This is a very sad, but also joyful weekend for us as we celebrate the life of our friend's mother, Elizabeth Burke Smith, also known as "Cookie".

We knew her as Liz, and she came into my life through my friend, Megan.  Megan and I studied for our licensing exams together, and became fast friends.  When Randy and I bought this house, it was not too long after Liz and her husband, Mike, had bought a new construction home in Doylestown, PA.  The Smith family moved around a lot, so Liz was an old pro at the new house thing.  She would send me helpful new-house tips through Megan, such as not to paint any rooms in the first year (due to nail pops), and even the name of her favorite Benjamin Moore paint color, the most perfect tan that matches everything.  Her advice became gospel to Randy and I, and we didn't touch the walls for the first year.  Of course, we still haven't touched most of the walls due to color choice paralysis, which would have been cured if I had just painted everything that Benjamin Moore tan she had recommended.

Liz was very supportive.  She became my first Sugar Whim customer, although back then it was a different incarnation called "...And eat it too".  It was their Easter cake that year, a white cake with cream cheese icing, covered in coconut.  I still have the money on my refrigerator.

In spring of 2008, Liz was having trouble remembering words.  Her speech was a little slurred, and her handwriting wasn't quite as neat as it once was.  She was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  She was lucky and got in with some top docs down at John Hopkins.  They operated and removed all they could of the tumor.  My mother and I went to church the morning of the surgery and prayed everything would go ok.  I still remember the exact moment Megan called me from the hospital that night.  I was in bed, with my phone by my head, waiting to hear.  Liz had woken up with full speech, everything was back to normal.  Even the doctors were amazed.

Unfortunately it was a glioma, a very aggressive form of brain cancer.  The doctors warned her she would probably only live a year, and that only 3% of patients make it five years.  She was determined to fight.

Over the next couple of years she underwent cancer treatments and MRIs.  She kept fighting, and she was doing well.  There were countless more early morning church services.  There was a spot that doctors were not sure if it was scar tissue, or another tumor.  They kept their eye on that spot, but it didn't grow.  I think it was around Christmas two years ago that they noticed it was starting to swell.  The doctors scheduled another surgery and removed it, but another tumor appeared.  It was too far into her brain to operate on.

Liz fought long and hard, long enough to enjoy two grandchildren, and saw Megan walk down the aisle at her wedding this past May.

She went into hospice soon after the wedding, but her fight didn't end there.  She pushed on.  She quietly moved on this past Monday, August 27th, 4 1/2 years after the doctors told her she probably wouldn't live another year.

To honor Liz, her great love, and great strength, we will be walking in the Philadelphia Race for Hope on November 4th to benefit the National Brain Tumor Society.  To join our team, or to sponsor Megan, Matt, Randy or I, please click here.

Liz defied the odds fighting for as long as she did.  Let's continue to fight for her and hopefully make brain tumors a thing of the past.

Edit:  We have reached our team goal, but we have not all reached our individual goals.  You will get a receipt for tax purposes.  Please consider sponsoring us.

To Megan and your family, I tried to get all of the details right.  Let me know if I made any mistakes, they can always be remedied.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Jodi:  No, we're not talking about Cleveland, you sillies!  We're talking about Main Street, USA.  A humble little town with a homey, classic Italian restaurant, quaint little shops, a bakery, an ice cream shop, and oh yeah, a huge forced-perspective Castle at the end.  We love Disney World.

Randy and I went to Disney together for the first time on our honeymoon, almost six (!!!) years ago.

This time we went with Mom, Dad, Bryan and Ashley, for a much-needed, but always too short, long weekend trip.

We were really lucky that even though it was Orlando in the summer, we had some great thunderstorms that cooled things off.

One of the great things about Randy in Disney is that he's like a little kid.  Every time he goes on a ride, it's like it is his first time on it.  Here we are on the Jungle Cruise, and Randy's paying attention like we are really going on a boat ride through the Amazon.

Randy loves the characters.  When we were there on our honeymoon, we were walking down the main street in Hollywood Studios.  Out of nowhere, Randy gasped loudly and ran off.  By the time I caught up to him, he was already next in line to meet Chip and Dale.

He was mad at me because I wouldn't let him go stand in line to meet Goofy.  We had things to do and the line was long.  Besides, this was the first character we saw.  Everyone knows you don't wait in line for the first character you see, right?

...But he cheered right up for the Pirates of the Caribbean.

They were threatening to shut down Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride due to the rain, but we lucked out and got on it before the rain got too bad.

Randy has a good time on every ride :)

A secret dream of mine is to take a River Boat cruise down the Mississippi so I can pretend I'm Mark Twain.  A couple of years ago, I saw the family on "Little People, Big World" go on the cruise and I was totally jealous.  I looked up the river boat they took and found out they don't offer those cruises any more.  So until the boat company start answering my letters and e-mails, we will have to make do with the Liberty Belle.

Hold the phone!  I just googled river boat cruises down the Mississippi and found this article.  Future vacation?  I think so!

I'm not sure what Randy is doing here.  Demonstrating how wide the life preserver benches are?

It was a nice little cruise around Tom Sawyer Island, and even though it started to rain.  It was nice and relaxing in a sea of summer theme park craziness.  Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe it was just really hot and crowded.  In the summertime, it's nice to go on the less popular rides, the things maybe you haven't done before, or haven't done in a long time and then hit the roller coasters and such when it's cooled off a little and all the little kids are in bed.

I like going on the carousel, and there was no line.  Doesn't Randy look thrilled?

Here I am afraid that the carousel horses will come to life and lift right off the carousel to join a fox hunt and a horse race.  Just kidding.

Who doesn't love the tea cups?  I love everything about them.  Tea, cups, teapots, doormice...

Then we ran over to Epcot to have dinner with the family, and we saw.............

It was the best day ever!

Would you believe we had to stand in line to get our picture taken with shrubbery?  Totally worth it.

Then we turned towards the World Showcase and saw this:

If you haven't been to Disney lately, you can go on an adventure to save the world from Dr. Doofenschmirtz!  An Agent P mission?  Sign us up!  I think we were the only ones without kids who did this, but it was still fun.  You pick a country in the World Showcase, and they give you a flip phone which you use to communicate with Carl and Major Monogram to get your mission.  We chose Mexico for two reasons, 1.  We had dinner reservations there, and 2.  We're lazy.

Randy:  We didn't choose South Africa because we're against Apartheid.

Jodi:  That's reason number 3.

Major Monogram gives you a mission, you carry it out, he gives you another mission, you complete that, etc., etc.  The missions are actually integrated into each country.  In Germany, Dr. D is actually in a cuckoo clock wearing lederhosen.

At the end of the mission, Carl tells you where to drop off your flip phone.  We dropped ours off just as the texts starting coming in (on my iPhone, not the Agent P flip phone) from Bryan that our dinner reservations were in 5 minutes.  Agent J and Agent R had successfully completed their mission and were all ready to turn back into mild mannered Jodi and Randy for dinner.

We had dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel which is new since last Randy and I were there.  We've eaten at The San Angel Inn many times over the years and liked it a lot.  La Hacienda is even better, and if you get reservations for close to 8pm, you can watch the fireworks from your table!  Randy got the pork tenderloin with mole sauce (it was so yummy, I tried it!) and Mom, Ashley and I got the Pollo al Pastor.  It was the perfect combination of spicy, sweet and savory.  A little bit of sour cream makes it less spicy, but brings out all the flavors.  Sooooo good!  I like spice, but I don't like too much spice, or spice for the sake of spice.  If there is no other flavor to my food, why eat calories I can't taste?  That's just my philosophy.  Randy disagrees.  He actually challenged our wonderful waitress to bring out a salsa too hot for him.  They're not on the menu, but if you like hot, ask for them.

Just a shout out to our great waitress.  She not only put up with our crazy family, but smiled and recommended a great tea.  Red tea, have you tried it?

They play the music for the fireworks inside the restaurant, so you don't miss anything.  Disney sure has the experience down.

Then we all went back to the hotel and soaked our feet.  Bryan's idea was a good one, and we filled the bathtub with hot water and stuck our tootsies in.  Mom had some shampoo, and just as Bryan said, "I don't trust you enough to let you do that..." Mom put in a huge triple squirt of soap.  The bubbles were overflowing the tub, and Ashley and I had them stocked up to the level of our heads.

Too bad we don't have any pictures of that!

The family that soaks together, stays together.

It's the Small Things

Randy and I were watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics last night.  Did you all watch them?  I thought they were awesome.  Best opening and closing Olympic ceremonies I think I have ever seen.  I even liked the reunion of the Spice Girls.  I heard there was a lot more than what I saw...  the Who played?  George Michael played more than one song??  What the heck, NBC?  

Well, a funny thing happened as we lazily lounged after a day of hard labor on our family room renovation.  I started to sing.  That in and of itself is pretty funny, because I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but the funny part is that when I sang, Keller climbed up on my collar bone and vigorously head-butted me.  Ouch!  He rubbed his face against my face, he wiped his little wet kitty nose all over my face.  He licked my nose.  He buried my mouth in his cheek.  

I'm not sure if he liked my singing or was trying to shut me up, but I couldn't help it, I kept singing.  Then Eric Idle came out and sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and I whistled too, through his fur.  I got cat hair in my mouth, but I didn't care.  I mean how often do you get to sing along with Eric Idle at the Olympics?  Keller starting crying a frustrated little squeal.  Once again, I'm not sure if he thought I was calling him and he was thinking, "but I'm right HERE!" or if he was frustrated that I wouldn't shut up.  

And when the song ended, Keller did the cutest thing I have ever seen him do.  Completely tuckered out, he put his little cheek up against my cheek and fell asleep.  Out.  Cold.

Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics.  I couldn't move to get my camera and Randy was asleep too.  All I could do was reach for my first generation horrible-picture-taking phone and snap a couple hoping to get some with Keller and me actually in them.

Then I started to pretend to be asleep too, because I thought it looked kind of weird with my eyes open behind Keller's furry little head.  Like one of those pictures where you're looking for something creepy in a sunny, ordinary room, only to see a freaky face staring back out at you from behind a pillow.  But less freaky and less hidden.

I couldn't move and wake him up.  It was like holding a sleeping baby.  So adorable.

Anyone else have any sweet little moments lately?  Have any feline music critics?  Didja love the Spice Girls reunion as much as I did?  Who else squealed in delight when they saw all those Mary Poppinses come down from the sky during the opening ceremonies?  C'mon, you know you did.

P.S.  All the songs from the closing ceremonies should be on iTunes soon, uncut.

4th of July Cherry Hill Not Asbury Park

Randy:  For those keeping score at home... the title of this blog is "4th of July," and yet the date of this blog  post is August something. We're behind. I blame myself entirely. If I actually helped Jodi write these things, we'd probably be in the same season.

Now, the difficult thing... remember what the heck we did back then. I'll have to write underneath each of these pictures. If I am wrong or mis-remembering what happened... it doesn't really matter. Why? You weren't there. HA!

Jodi made two pies for the BBQ at my parents' house. I had asked her not to make me a birthday cake. Oh, did I mention that my birthday is July 6th?  You're all jerks!  None of you wished me a "Happy Birthday!"  Maybe some of you did.  I don't know who reads this.  But if you're from a foreign country... you didn't wish me a happy birthday.  And yes, that does upset me.  I let you into my life, and now, I realize that this is a one-sided relationship.  If you sent me a card, thank you.  If you got me a present, thank you very much.  If you sent me an email, you're a lazy bum.  Just kidding.  That's probably more than what I'd have done for you.  If you didn't wish me a happy birthday, please understand... unless you're Jodi, my parents, or my brother, I have no idea what half of the year you were born.

What was I talking about? Oh, the desserts that Jodi made.  If you haven't read in previous blogs (shame on you), I am training for a marathon.  So, I asked Jodi not to make me a cake because she goes to such great effort, and I don't really want cake.  Plus, its so freakin' hot, let's have something a little like Jodi's brother... cooler and fruitier!  HA!  I'm on a roll tonight.  I apologize for that comment.  That was unnecessarily wrong. 

Anyway, it's hot and cakes require ovens and I won't eat it.  Hence, no cake.  Phew.  She made pudding pies... vanilla pudding with strawberries, blueberries and nectarines, and a peanut butter pie with whipped cream (both of which I actually ate).  Yummy. 

Below is Denali the Dog. I call him Little Alice Cooper because of his black fur under the eyes... and Alice Cooper is awesome... and so is the dog.  His dogs traits include licking noses and pooping.

This is one of the most important parts of the day. That's me holding Z, my brother and one of my best buddies, Adam.

This guy is one of my favorite guys because he's just different.  Why is this the most important part of the day?

He and his girlfriend, Susan, had a son, Dominic.  That's a very nice Jewish name.  Anyway, they wanted (crap! I just remembered this part) to invite us to their son's first birthday.  It just occurred to me that I have no idea when it was... and I'm pretty sure we missed it.  Now, I feel terrible.  Dagnabit. Now, I'm gonna feel bad for the rest of this post.  Dang.

I have to apologize to them tomorrow.  And I need to buy Dominic something cool.

So, Susan sent me an email to ask for our address.  And her email came up with Adam's last name.  As soon as I saw it, I accused them of being married.  She denied it.

At this moment, Adam admitted he was secretly married.

That's my dad returning D's daughter (Z's sister). That makes Z D's son. Not sure how good you are with family trees.

I got a great idea to recreate the lift scene in Dirty Dancing to entertain D.  That might sound like a joke... I was actually doing that.  Dirty Dancing is a mutual favorite movie of mine and D's.

Z has never seen Dirty Dancing, and posed like a super hero, which he is very good at.

It was a good time had by all.

If you need me... I'm gonna go back to feeling shame for missing my buddy's kid's first birthday.