why I love Disney

Where do I begin? My fascination started in late January 2004 when I was in a frenzy planning for a trip to the Walt Disney World Resort (WDW) in Orlando FL for March Break of that year. My DH and I were actually trying to figure out a place to go for our first ever, non-cottage-up-north family vacation, and we were aware of the option of WDW, but started out not that keen on the idea. We considered a few destinations, even cruises, but could not find anything that was as family friendly and reasonably priced, with the promise of warmth and sunshine as WDW.
Well as I started researching, what can I say? Something in me apparently just snapped! I just went completely wild finding as much information as I could possibly find - I joined a couple of Yahoo groups about Disney, lurked in a few other Disney discussion forum sites, searched avidly through Disney information websites such as All Ears and the Mouse for Less. Oh, and I even joined the Disboards too - that's not always the most friendly place, but you can learn a lot there. Needless to say, I found an incredible amount of information - and after sifting through it, sharing my brilliant findings with my family - kind of drove my DH around the bend with it all - we managed to have a fabulous, and *yes* magical time. Eight nights, nine days, staying at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside Resort (POR) on the Silver Wishes plan. Ooooh those Wishes were truly magical things - we redeemed them for amazing meals at places like California Grill (on the 15th floor of the Contemporary Resort), the Brown Derby at MGM (now Disney's Hollywood Studios, DHS), Flying Fish Café at Disney's Boardwalk Resort (BW), and so on. And we also redeemed those wishes for some amazing art pieces - a crystal Mickey sitting on some film canisters, a cute sculptural vignette of Walt's desk with Mickey in his various stages of development...and some gifts for family when we got home. We just fell in love with the four main theme parks - we had so much fun exploring them! And we were blown away by the level of service we experienced. We literally found that if we stood still and looked even slightly puzzled, in a moment a Cast Member (CM) - the name for employees at the Disney parks - would ask us if we needed help. That was unbelievable!
I had read a bit here and there about Disney's Vacation Club (DVC) prior to our trip - mostly that it was their version of a timeshare, and that DVC members (as they are referred to) qualified for lots of great discounts. Well, nearing the end of our trip, curiosity got the better of me and I wandered up to one of the (countless) DVC kiosks onsite - the next thing you know DH, our older son and I (we only had him at that point) are being picked up by a DVC van and brought to Disney's Beach Club Resort (BC) for a tour of the DVC models and an information session. We were assigned a very helpful and friendly 'Guide' - DVC's name for a salesperson. She could not have been less pushy as she showed us all about DVC. We learned that like most things Disney, DVC could be affordable - of course, also like Disney - you can spend almost limitless amounts on it too ;-) All of this certainly made sense if we planned to continue to visit WDW, or other Disney destinations in future years. So shortly after we returned home from that first historic WDW vacation we made the decision to commit to future Disney family vacations and purchased a DVC membership - at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa (SSR). We haven't really looked back. I do know that without the DVC membership we certainly wouldn't have been able to take family vacations with everything else that has been going on. It was a great decision.
The other thing that happened after we returned home, besides the DVC membership, is I got even more involved with online Disney groups. I researched every way I could to save money on future Disney vacations - and to squeeze more into our vacations too. I have learned a tremendous amount, but one thing that happened - that I wasn't expecting at all - was to meet entire communities of people online who are at least as passionate about Disney as I am - many even more so. Many of these people I have gotten to know over the past - gee, I guess it's now over *five* years!! - and am pleased and honoured to call them friends. That part is especially exciting to me. My Disney friends live all over the globe, and I have even managed to meet several of them in person. It is a lot of fun to do meets. I look forward to doing many more of them. Someday I hope to attend one of the huge Disney meets, such as the Magic Meets held in the summer in Pennsylvania, or Mousefest, usually held annually in December at WDW (but not this year), or maybe the RADP (Rec Arts Disney Parks - one of the original online Disney groups) meet - also in December at WDW.
Another goal I have is to someday visit other Disney Parks. So far we've visited WDW six times and Disneyland Resort (DL) in Anaheim CA once. There is still a tremendous amount we have not done even at WDW, believe it or not, so I look forward to many future visits to WDW too. I think DL Tokyo and Disney Seas in Japan look very interesting, and then there is EuroDisney...oh, and now DL in HongKong. And don't even get me started about Disney Cruises - these look just completely awesome! Then there are these new Adventures by Disney too. I'm not quite convinced touring with AbD is a perfect match for us, but everything I have read about them makes them seem amazing....but they are $$$$$. So far there is no AbD for Less ;-) I think a cruise is in our future long before any AbD, but these are all something to dream about.
And this brings me back to something else I love about Disney. There are loads of things you can dream about with Disney vacations. We have many many treasured memories of wonderful family moments at both WDW and DL so far. We look forward to making many more of these in the years to come. I feel I can count on Disney vacations for the family friendly aspect of them and also for the quality. We have been truly impressed with our experiences at Disney with only a very few exceptions. And when our experiences have been less than stellar, as soon as we have let them know, Disney has done their very best to correct the issues. If it weren't really fun and full of new things to see and do, I don't think we would be visiting WDW repeatedly, that is for sure. It's just plain fun, and it gives us something to look forward to. Knowing we will be returning sure makes the end of our Disney vacations a *lot* less painful too.
There is an amazing variety of things to see and do at WDW - even after six visits I feel there is a tremendous amount that we haven't managed to fit in so far. And then there are our favourites - things we've seen or done that are just so much fun, we can't wait to do them again. I love Soarin' at Epcot - partly because I also happen to have a love for the places in California that are shown, but also for the experience of feeling like I'm flying through the air with the wind in my hair. Chocolate milkshakes and other treats at Ghirardelli's in Downtown Disney (DTD). Riding Dumbo and Peter Pan with our sons.. And so far, even It's a Small World - so many people say this is just awful - but I always come out of it smiling. Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Buzz Lightyear...and The Castle! And aside from Soarin' and the milkshakes, all of those are just in the Magic Kingdom at WDW...There are things we love in every single one of the four WDW main parks. We haven't even managed to visit one of the water parks yet - or see Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba at Downtown Disney. In fact I haven't even tried most of the big 'thrill' type rides so far - on our trips it was either too difficult to wait with little kiddos, or I was pregnant. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it ;-) There are quite a few restaurants we have not tried there yet either...there are well over 100 restaurants onsite. Dining at WDW is an adventure too, if you are into great dining - although some say the quality is not what it used to be - that darned Disney Dining Plan!!! And there is more - so much more...parasailing, golf, shopping, shows....So, I think, or at least *hope* you can start to see what I'm so fascinated with.
The other aspect of our Disney vacations I just have to mention is that we are there as a family, together, with nothing else going on...we get to spend all this fun time together, relaxing and (for the most part) enjoying each other's company. Every once in a while there are bumps - some of us tend not to get enough sleep while on vacation and it makes us grumpy after a few days 8-* ...but nothing so serious that some time at the resort pool and a good ol' nap can't cure.
So there it is...one of my passions. I don't expect anyone else to join me in my obsession, but maybe, just maybe you will understand it and tolerate it a little better.

competence?

Where I live it is necessary to drive to get pretty much everywhere. The road we live on is very busy, so sometimes I feel like I'm taking my life in my hands just to get our mail out of the mailbox across the road. Thankfully, our driveway is a bit long, so the house is a bit out of the way of traffic. This means there is a lot to shovel after a snowstorm, and what it also means is it is a pain to get to the store. The very closest store to us is a convenience store, but it doesn't carry much of anything I need, so it's not really convenient - and therefore it doesn't really count. The closest real store is about a ten minute drive away.
As a result I keep an ongoing list of what I need, so when I do drive to the store I won't forget something. There is nothing quite like driving ten minutes to the store, walking around and picking stuff up, then ten minutes back home, only to discover that I didn't pick up X, Y or Z. Not to mention that my sons are not big fans of shopping - unless it involves toys.
Fortunately, it is less than ten minutes to drive to my local post office. Mail order is a very good thing! I have become extremely fond of shopping online. As long as the shipping charges are reasonable and I can get a good price for something I need, I will no longer drive any further than the post office to get it. Usually this works out extremely well.
Lots of people I talk to (not online ;-) still seem to be very hesitant to shop online - in fact my own mother still does not have internet at her house. I got over that hesitation quite a few years ago now. I bank online, browse online and have purchased everything from clothes to plane tickets online, and have researched and booked quite a few vacations online too. On the whole, I have had very few problems and even some very pleasant surprises along the way. The winter coat I got from Lands End a year or so ago had the zipper fail. I was so disappointed at first, but then I checked online and they still had the same style available. I contacted them through their website. Lands End guarantees their products - and they told me I could return it and have it replaced. All I had to do was pay for shipping. OK, so far so good, and I sent the coat back to them. Well, I am happy to say they replaced it no problem - within a couple of weeks. I was delighted...but the thing is the price for that particular coat actually went down - so get this: Lands End sent me a check for the difference between what I paid and the new lower price of the coat! I got the new coat and a refund! The refund was about $20 more than what I had paid for shipping the coat back to them. Is that great or what?!?!?! Needless to say I'm very impressed with Lands End customer service. I have also had excellent experiences with LL Bean - just in case you are wondering where I shop.
I have tried other shopping services with less successs. Just over a year ago I got a phone call from a company that delivers groceries - boxed stuff, canned goods, paper products, meat (frozen) and other frozen food. I figured if there is another way I can make even fewer trips to the store, I'm all for it, so I decided to give it a try. Last year it worked out reasonably well. The people we dealt with were very pleasant and the cost seemed OK, quality was very good - and we are very fussy about our meat. Ah, but sadly the good part of this story ends there. This year, ownership and management of the company have changed, and not for the better I might add. They called us repeatedly to place a new order for this year - I was annoyed with the number of calls we received. Needless to say we had to wait until we had enough room in our freezer to make room for a new order. When we did indicate we were ready we dealt with the same person who came to our place to put together our order, so that part was fine. Beyond that though, things have been a mess this time around. The delivery people brought the wrong order - I got such a creepy feeling when I realized that the boxes I was opening were someone else's food.... Then when the delivery guys finally showed up with the correct order a couple of hours later, I discovered that quite a few items were still wrong, some things were missing, and that they had also substituted lower quality items than what we ordered. They are supposed to fix any problems right away. After several phone calls back and forth with various people at this company, and about a months's time a delivery truck is supposed to show up this afternoon with 'part one' of the corrections to our order. Hopefully at some point this mess will get straightened out, but I am pretty sure I will not deal with this company again. It's not saving me any time, and after all this trouble I would be fine with going to the store and picking up the correct stuff myself! The current view seems to be that change is seen as a good thing - continuous improvement and all that. In this particular case though, change was not a good thing for this company.
Oh how I wish there was a Garden Grocer here! In Orlando, when we go to DisneyWorld there is this delightful online grocery service I have used numerous times to place grocery orders online. Their service is impeccable, and reasonably priced too.
I guess I'm also not as big a fan of shopping and dealing with things over the phone compared to dealing with things online.
Maybe it's too much to ask for everyone to be competent.

Oh crud...

Thankfully I don't get sick very often. Oh, of course I feel tired, lack energy and feel kind of crummy sometimes, but I don't end up really under the weather to the point where I can't function properly very much at all. With that in mind this past couple of days I have had a doozy of a cold. Sinuses blocked up, headache, runny nose, sneezing, coughing up a lung, frog in the throat, just totally exhausted - the whole nine yards. When I am like this it is totally frustrating. I'm reminded over and over again that there are none of those fairies here that I discussed previously...lots of work just piles up and doesn't get done.
On the bright side, I was smart enough to marry a man who can put together a decent meal when he has to. The laundry might pile up to the ceiling, the floors quickly start to look like a tornado flew through the place, but nobody will go hungry. Oh, and he does dishes too!
I know how to pick 'em.
I am now hoping for a very swift end to this nasty cold. We are planning to drive to St. Jacob's tomorrow morning very early and go to the Farmer's Market - see some fun stuff and get some yummy things.
http://www.stjacobs.com/html/shopping-farmersmarkets.html

There is no sock fairy

Just a few minutes ago as my son was sliding through the kitchen on his white socks, this is what I heard myself say:
Stop that! All you are doing is making your socks dirty, then the sock fairy has to clean them....
Then I added (dramatically):
Oh, wait - there is no sock fairy. That would be me!'
And then I thought to myself (because my son had abandoned me by this point) there is no:
Pick up the shoes fairy.
Fold clothes and put them away neatly in the drawers fairy
Ironing fairy
Fairy to plan, shop for and make nutricious, delicious meals and clean up afterwards
Fairy to put away toys
Fairy to make the beds
Fairy to clean the counters, shower stall, tub, sinks, floors, mirrors, windows, toilets, etc., etc., etc.
Fairy to dust and vacuum - this is different than cleaning (in my mind)
Fairy who finds things that get lost
Fairy who mends clothes
Fairy who puts out the garbage

And when you get right down to it, sadly, there are no fairies of any kind at our house. There may be a bunch of gremlins, but that is a whole different story for another day.
What I wouldn't give for at least one of those fairies I mentioned above to appear just once a week. Of course I couldn't pay them, and our place isn't terribly magical, so I don't expect one to show up anytime soon. So, darn it all, I guess it's mostly up to good ol' me, myself and I.
Next time I can't figure out what me, myself and I did all day, we're going to read this over.

Ahh February

That's it! I have come to the conclusion that February should be canceled.
February is an in between time and it usually gets to be downright painful every single year. The holiday season is over...and spring isn't here yet. The days are still short (at least in the northern hemisphere), people are grumpy because there is not enough sun, the stores have not yet gotten new stuff in, and the old stuff is all picked over. And don't we all know deep down that Valentine's Day is just some made up crummy excuse for something that isn't even a real holiday? Nobody actually gets Valentine's Day off, do they?
Perhaps the people who made up the calendar thought that if they stuck this short month of nothingness in near the beginning of the year nobody would notice. Oh, but I notice...The weather is just plain awful. I'm sure we get more snain* in February than in any other month. If there is snow it has gotten dirty and ugly and everyone is tired of it. Most people are just plain miserable.
The bottom line is I'm not convinced there is anything of any value that happens in February that could not be moved to some other, much nicer time of year. We can easily move the relatively new completely made up holiday 'Family Day' to a different month. I'm sure the powers that be stuck it in February just to keep people going. Seeing that it is only the second year for Family Day, nobody has established any real Family Day traditions yet, so let's move it to a different time of year where people can actually have real fun together. I am also fairly certain that in the US President's Day can be moved to another month too. And no offense to people who have February birthdays, but wouldn't you be just as happy celebrating on a nice sunny day in June as a cold crummy day in February?
I really think I'm onto something here. I just don't quite know what to do about it.

*snain: n., snow combined with rain

It's not exactly Animal Kingdom...

I suppose I should be thankful for the all the wildlife that appears to thrive around me. As much as I enjoy animals, and certainly Disney's Animal Kingdom is one of my favourite places to visit, it's just not the same being surrounded by wildlife at home all the time. Some of the surprises are quite delightful and amazing...others, not so much.
Sometimes we see deer on our property. In the winter it is very easy to spot deer tracks in the woods. They are all over the place. Just this past weekend, a female white tailed deer was feeling particularly brave - and hungry - and was having breakfast right near our house. She was happily, albeit nervously, nibbling on the birdseed that had fallen from our birdfeeder to the ground. She was so beautiful! She looked up in a little panic every time she heard a sound, but usually it was a car going by and she happily went back to her breakfast. My younger son spotted her first, then my older son and I joined him, and we watched her for a good ten minutes before she casually wandered away towards the treeline and disappeared.
In the spring we have wild garlic that grows in the woods. For some reason we noticed the garlic patches always end up flattened. Then one day someone told us the deer like to lie down in the garlic because it covers their scent. Now I like garlic, but I'm not fond enough of it to sleep in it, but that is a pretty intelligent thing to do if you live in the woods and need to hide from predators.
We have seen other amazing things too. We have had flocks of at least sixty wild turkeys wander around right near the house. Who knew these enormous birds could fly up and perch in the trees? Kind of a funny sight when they are sitting way up in a tree. Let's just say they are not the most graceful creatures in nature.
There is a bird sanctuary just a little ways down the road from us. As a result there are literally hundreds of Canada geese and different varieties of ducks that hang out in our neighbourhood, so we are often treated to displays of them flying very low overhead. It is fascinating to have them so close you can hear their wings flapping and little honks as they fly over. We also get to see the cute goslings when they hatch in the spring. Sometimes they even hold up traffic.
We have been lucky enough to witness great blue herons nesting nearby too. A rookery is very interesting to see. They are huge, but strangely enough, herons build them right at the tops of trees. Occasionally we see herons at the back of our property or fishing in nearby creeks.
For me, the birds are one of the most enjoyable benefits of living in a rural setting. There are tons of birds around here, and I love watching and listening to them. We have goldfinch, sparrows, nuthatches, rose breasted grosbeaks, hummingbirds, robins, junkos, mourning doves, several different varieties of woodpeckers, and entire families of blue jays and cardinals that visit our yard frequently. One time I saw this brilliant blue bird that I later identified as an indigo bunting. Occasionally we have Baltimore orioles too. They are gorgeous. At night I have heard owls, but I have not seen them on our property...but have seen them not too far from here on a friend's property. One of my favourite things is to listen to the cardinals calling in the evening. I have learned recently that an inexpensive method to treat slippery spots in the winter is to sprinkle some bird seed over it. The side benefit is the birds enjoy it too. Hopefully someday my biggest problem will be to be woken up by the sound of chirping birds early in the morning. At that point, I figure I will be living a very happy life.
Ah, but for now, all is not perfect here in this haven. There are plenty of not-so-cute critters that show up here and unpleasant things happen. Living in the rural wilds of the southern Niagara Peninsula can be a huge challenge for me in the warmer months. As you may recall from an earlier installment of Life as Joan sees it, a creek runs through our property. The first summer we lived here, I lived in our house full time, but Alex was still working in Toronto during the week. My darling husband thought I was either losing it, or imagining things, because in almost every phone conversation we had while he was away, I complained about all these traumatic encounters I was having with snakes. I learned first hand that snakes love to live near our creek. Unfortunately for me, our house had not been occupied for close to a year before we moved in...so the snakes had really moved in and made themselves at home! Of course after Alex was here full time, it only took him a little while to figure out I wasn't imagining things - we actually have a remarkable population of these creepy reptiles that enjoy living around here. I have encountered many a snake in the driveway, a snake stretched out horizontally along a rose trellis, snakes in the grass, snakes in the garden, and snakes in our house! Nope, I kid you not....on several occasions I have discovered a snake in the basement, and one time I happened across one just inside the entry door when I walked in. Yikes!!! And yes, Alex finds them occasionally too, but for whatever reason I have this uncanny ability to encounter them the most. As it was, when we moved here, roughly fifteen years ago, I was not even able to comfortably look at photographs of snakes...but believe me, this abundance of these critters up close and personal has done nothing for my fear, or I should say at this point, full blown phobia of snakes. And it's not that they might bite me. These are only garter snakes and milk snakes (so far....), but it's not the kind or size of snakes for me, it's the fact they don't have legs, and the way they move.....I've just got to run away - fast! Just over a year ago our generous, wonderful friends, Mike and his father Moe Montgomery were kind enough to help with our lawn maintenance while Alex was in hospital. After mowing our lawn several times with their crew, Mike shared a few less than savoury stories about the snakes he and his crew had encountered here. Mike commented that he thinks we must have the highest population density of snakes on our property that he has ever seen. I tend to believe him, based on my personal experience, and considering Mike and Moe are professional landscapers who have worked in the area for quite a few years. Obviously I have no photos to show you...I could never stay still enough near one to take its photo! You will just have to take my word for it.
Well, sadly, or possibly happily, this is not the end of this wild tale. Twice now cars have hit a deer along the road in front of our property. They are such graceful, gentle animals. I get teary eyed just thinking about that.
We also have an abundance of rabbits, voles and more than our fair share of cats wandering around. I have not had much success growing tulips because the voles and rabbits enjoy them so much. And considering our one and only (spayed) house cat met her demise about five years ago, we have an awful lot of felines wandering our yard. I guess some people think it's fine to go out on a back road and dump off their cat because they don't want them any more. I can't imagine what is going through their minds to do something so cruel. I suppose the problem is they don't really put any thought into their actions. They don't just die right away...they try their best to survive. I don't know that we can do anything about it. We see a lot of cats...it's this neverending variety of them. They do not tend to be around for very long though, just different ones show up and prowl around for a while, then they disappear. Very sad...
There have been salamanders in the basement, I suppose that isn't so bad. Then there have been a couple partial carcasses of rabbits (we suspect they were the unfortunate victims of hawks or coyotes). Oh yes, how could I forget the coyotes! Apparently they enjoy living near the railroad tracks a little ways from us, so sometimes at night we hear them howling and barking away. We did see one walk across our property one afternoon a couple of years ago, then it wandered across the road and into the bush. Thankfully, we don't see them much and our dog has not had any close encounters with them - at least not that we know of.
Speaking of close encounters, we have had raccoons hanging out in the tree right near the house in the summer. Try as they might, they don't seem to be able to figure out how to get into our bird feeder, or the carport, thank goodness. The Ministry of Environment periodically visits our property to trap raccoons in order to vaccinate them for rabies. One time they found a partial albino raccoon.
And then there was the skunk. This very sad, extremely slow moving skunk wandered in and took up residence in our dog's house one afternoon. Thankfully, neither our dog nor anyone else got sprayed. I ended up calling the SPCA because I could not figure out for the life of me what to do. A kind fellow came out to the house and told us that it was suffering from distemper and then he put it down and took it away. That was awful. Then I had to disinfect the dog house. Yuck!
It is all very interesting, I suppose, and just how life is here, but sometimes it would be nice to have a little less of this interesting stuff.
I'll keep you posted.

Struggling with Small Things and Big Things

I am searching. Too much big bad stuff is going on all around me. I cannot ignore the failing economy. Obama is very busy in the US. Closer to home, strange things are going on in Ottawa. People are losing jobs, losing their homes, starting to worry about getting by. Many who still have a job live with the stress that they may lose it sometime soon. There is no doubt about the fact that we are struggling. Let's just put it this way: I hope things get a lot better for us all very soon.
In the mean time, while it is so easy to get caught up in the big picture, I must keep reminding myself that the only way to keep my head up is to take things one day at a time...sometimes just one moment at a time. I cannot afford to let myself be distracted by the misbehaviour and greed and selfishness of others...that is something I cannot control. I must focus on what I can control.
Small steps. My own small steps. Eventually, I am convinced, if I can keep them focussed and directed, they can make a difference.
The other day I picked up a penny off the floor in a Tim Horton's shop. Almost anywhere else I would have put it in my pocket - you know, the old 'See a penny, pick it up, put it in your pocket and you'll have good luck' thing. This time, I decided not to keep the penny, but instead put it in the collection box they have at the counter for Tim's foundation. Then, afterwards I wondered why did I bother to do that. What on earth can one penny do? Then it came to me...if every Canadian, that is what...somewhere around 30 million....picked up one measly penny and put it in a donation box, that would be $300,000.00!!! Nobody can possibly think that $300,000 doesn't make a difference for a children's charity. Of course it won't fix the national deficit, but oops, I digress again. The point is I am very happy now that I did pick up that penny and put it where I did. I kind of hope the two people who watched me pick it up and put it in the box will do the same thing next time they see a penny.
Small things. I'm doing my best.