I wish every Thanksgiving could be just like this one! (Part 1)

It all started at 2:30am.  That’s what time Scope, Wednesday, and I flung ourselves out of bed the day before Thanksgiving.  (And on purpose too.)  We rushed around our house, throwing things into suitcases, cramming Pop-Tarts in our mouths, and calling out guilty goodbyes to our frog, Trevor, who was not at all amused by our early morning hubbub and was pouting profusely in the corner of his tank.


(Frogs.  They like their beauty sleep.)


(Apparently.)


By 4:00am, we were running down our building’s breezeway in the dark, lugging luggage to our waiting taxi, which whisked us away to O’hare airport in record time through the foggy and eerily deserted streets of Chicago. 


We had been a wee bit nervous of what manner of hellish mob O’hare would have awaiting us that morning (being one of the heaviest travel days of the year), especially after seeing an ominous news report a day or two beforehand which said O’hare was expected to be the Nation’s busiest (aka most murderously unbearable) airport that day.  But I guess the hellish mob didn’t get the memo or something (or perhaps just favored beauty sleep, like the frog) because the airport was almost as empty as the streets outside. 


This is what it looked like as we sailed through Security….





We don’t typically look that chipper at 4:30am.  But we had a really good reason for our freakishly-good predawn mood:  We were on our way to…. (….wait for it….) ….DISNEYLAND!!!!


Uh-huh!  I know!  My family members back in Seattle and Arizona had been planning a Thanksgiving reunion in Disneyland for about a year and a half.  Due to certain Court-y thorns in our sides during that time, Scope, Wednesday, and I, sadly, didn’t see how we would possibly be able to afford to go along too.  This particularly bummed out Wednesday, who really, REALLY wanted to see her beloved little cousins getting their Disney groove on.  But then at almost the last minute, just like magic, the planets aligned just so, and the Disneyland reunion became a realistic possibility for us. 


And we pounced on it.


So,  there we were, lounging around O’hare in the wee hours of the morning.  Soon we were boarding our plane and shooting through the sky towards The Happiest Place On Earth.  On the way, we flew right over the Grand Canyon….





Pretty cool, huh?


Once we landed at LAX, we found the Super Shuttle we had reserved to take us to our hotel, and—bibbidy-bobbidy-boo—there we were at the Best Western Plus on Harbor Boulevard, which had our room ready for us six hours earlier than promised!  (Yay!  You go, BWP!)  We dropped off our bags and then (literally) ran right across the street to Disneyland. 


Here is what the Christmas-ified Disneyland entrance gate looked like….





(Oooooh.  Sparkly.)


We took our obligatory picture by the Mickey flowerbed and Disneyland train just inside the entrance gate….





And then, because Scope was a Disneyland virgin and this was his first time setting foot inside this particular Disney Park, Wednesday and I took him to City Hall on Main Street to get him his free First Visit button….





We were having a little trouble getting in contact with anyone in my family (people, turn your cellphones ON), so we decided to just take a walk down Main Street USA to checkout the holiday decorations.  We had never seen Disneyland all decked out for Christmas before.  It was really quite pretty….









Next we headed over to New Orleans Square to show Scope the Jack Skellington-y Haunted Mansion Holiday ride….





We knew that Disneyland was bound to be crazy-busy over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we had done a little Disney Survival research and arrived at the park armed with a bulletproof game plan to avoid the worst of the crowd traps, including the following rules:


1.  Get our rears to the park as early as humanly possible each morning.  (When it comes to Disney, sleeping in is for idiots who like standing in lines all day!)

2.  Go back to the hotel and nap during the hottest, busiest, and most long line-iest part of the day.  (Well, duh!)

3.  Stay in the park as late as possible each night.  (The idiots who like standing in lines all day will have already hit the road by then!)

4.  Covet and hoard Fastpasses for the busy rides.  (Did you know you can still use Fastpasses after they have expired?  It’s true.  They let you on anyway without even raising an eyebrow.  So, collect as many Fastpasses as you can throughout the day and then use them all at night!)

5.  Don’t—I repeat, DO NOT—join any ride line that is more than 30 minutes long.  (Seriously.  Why would you do that to yourself?!?!)


Naturally, we had assumed that at this time of the day (about 11:30am) the line for the Haunted Mansion Holiday would be disgustingly long and icky.  We were all prepared to just take a quick peek, ooh and ahh, grab Fastpasses, and then try to track down my family again, but lo and behold, the line was actually runty, so we gleefully skipped our happy selves into the Mansion to enjoy its Tim Burton-y deliciousness!





This is what the gingerbread house in the ballroom inside the Mansion looks like this year.  (They design a new one every year.  And, yes, that’s REAL gingerbread!)  It’s Jack’s House!….





After our romp through the Mansion, we tracked down my brother and his girlfriend—YAY!—and we took a cruise through Pirates of the Caribbean with them….





Then the five of us had lunch at Café Orleans.  Wednesday and I shared a cheese Monte Cristo sandwich and it was incredible!….





As we left the café, we ran into my mom, my sister and her kiddos.  Here’s Wednesday with my mom and the two oldest kiddos. (Let’s call them Thing 1 (the boy) and Thing 2 (the girl).)….





We were all gabbing away in New Orleans Square when a Halloween-ish chill suddenly filled the air.  We looked yonder and Wednesday’s jaw hit the floor.  Jack Skellington was there, live (well... okay… dead) in person!!!!  So, of course, we ran over to meet him….





Jack Skellington was hilarious!  The kids all thought he was fabulous!  (And, even more importantly, I didn’t make a drugged-up moron of myself in front of him this year—so, yay!)  If you want to see Scope’s video of the kids’ meet and greet with Jack, click HERE.


Next, we went with the group to Fantasyland.  On the way, we got a gorgeous view of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle all frosted and jeweled for the holidays….





In Fantasyland, we hit It’s a Small World, which had also been given a festive makeover….









My sister’s youngest kiddo, Thing 3, really, REALLY enjoyed this ride!….





We got in some good quality time with the Cheshire Cat in Fantasyland….





(Awwww.  I have a picture just like that one from 2001, only Wednesday was a wee little one in a stroller.)


We had an ice cream break….





And then before we knew it—BOOM!—it was dark out.  Scope and I took Wednesday, Thing 1, and Thing 2 up into Tarzan’s Treehouse….





My sister joined us on Splash Mountain….





Twice!….





Wednesday and Thing 1 took a trip through Space Mountain….





Wait—let’s get a closer look at that picture.  Check out Thing 1’s face!….





*snicker*


We enjoyed the fireworks show from an almost-deserted Tomorrowland while we ate a late dinner at Pizza Port, and it was a spectacular way to catch the fireworks show without being swallowed whole by the mammoth crowd on Main Street….





We went on a few more rides, including The Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion Holiday (again), Pirates of the Caribbean (again), and Star Tours.  After Star Tours, we got our Yoda and Wampa fix in the Star Trader Store….









I kind of wish I’d bought that Wampa hat now.  I can rock that thing!


By this point, Scope, Wednesday, and I had been awake for almost 24 hours and we were starting to feel the pain.  We decided to call it a night and crash in our hotel.  On the way out of the park, we saw Sleeping Beauty’s Castle all aglow and looking gorgeous….





And this is what Main Street USA looked like, all lit up with Christmas lights….





We even saw Mickey as he ran (literally!) right by us as we left the park….





(Pfffft!  Just don’t stare at that pic for too long.  It will give you nightmares, I swear.)


Then soon we were at our hotel across the street and falling into bed for a few hours of blissful sleep before doing the whole thing over again the next day. 


*le sigh* 


I’ll be telling you about Day 2 next week…. once I figure out which pictures to post, which is kind of a daunting job because we took over 3100 pictures while we were there!  (No, I’m not kidding!!!!)  Oy.






© Coracabana

Hello, my baby, hello, my honey, hello, my ragtime gal….

Aaaaaaaand now for another update on this year’s Project 365….


Day 53 (2012-02-22) ~ Here is the third picture in my Strawberry Shortcake Doll series. As a kid, I had a lot of SSC dolls, but I never had a Huckleberry Pie. My neighbor did though and I loved getting my dolls together with hers! When I started re-collecting my much missed SSC dolls on eBay several years ago, I decided to get all the ones I remembered, not just the ones I once owned, so Huck joined the collection and I'm so happy to finally have him after 30 years!




Day 54 (2012-02-23) ~ The Project 365 site where I post all these daily pictures (in addition to posting them here) has a theme contest each week. I don’t often participate in the weekly themes, but I decided to take a whack at it this week when I found out that the theme was “balance.” Immediately, the idea of a wobbling tower of pennies leapt into my head and I ran straight to the coin jar to dig the pennies out of it. I really, REALLY love how this one turned out. I like how you can see the different colors, textures and thicknesses of the different pennies. Getting them to balance like that was not easy, but I think it was worth the effort.




Day 55 (2012-02-24) ~ This picture is of my itty bitty little African Dwarf Water Frog, Trevor. You might remember Trevor from the posts from the road trip Scope, Wednesday and I took over the summer. (For a refresher, click HERE.) In a nutshell, we drove Trevor (and his brother, Kermit, who, I’m very sad to say, died in October. *sniffle*) across the country because we couldn’t take him on the plane when we moved. We drove from Seattle to Chicago, and Trevor rode in our car with us for five days, seat-belted in his little tank in the backseat and we carried him with us everywhere we went. He stayed in the hotels with us, went into restaurants with us, and even visited Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park and The Badlands with us.

(Yes, really.)

He is one loved little frog! One of the things I love most about Trevor is how he likes to balance on one foot in the center of his tank. Sometimes he looks like he is doing yoga. Other times he just flat out reminds me of Michigan J Frog from Looney Tunes (that frog that sang "hello, my baby, hello, my honey, hello, my ragtime gal....") He's quite the funny little guy.

It is aggravatingly difficult to get a good picture of Trevor. Shooting through the slightly scuffed up tank and through all the water, trying to get a miniature frog who almost never sits still in focus just is NOT easy. So, no, Trevor isn't completely in focus here--GRRRR--but I still like this picture a lot anyway. I plan to keep photographing the little fella and, hopefully, one day I will get him completely in focus! *fingers crossed*

Day 56 (2012-02-25) ~ Bubble bubble toil and trouble…. So, I thought I would try a macro shot of bubble wrap on a dark background. I'm an eBay seller, so, sadly, a picture of shipping materials was really only a matter of time!




Day 57 (2012-02-26) ~ It was the big Spring cleaning in our house this day, so there wasn't much time for photo play. I quickly shot this macro picture of a glass Scope got at a craft show. I like it quite a lot! It reminds me of a school of fish swimming along.




Day 58 (2012-02-27) ~ Walking down the street on my way to meet Wednesday, I came across scattered shards of glass strewn all over one corner of the sidewalk. I'm not quite sure what had smashed there—it contained bits of mirror, clear glass, as well as blue glass too. But whatever it was, I think it's safe to say someone had a pretty bad day. Whoopsie!




And there we go for now. I’m about 15% of the way through the project. There will be more on the way soon!

© Coracabana

Why I have had ABBA perpetually stuck in my head for three months.

*sigh*

I know. I deserve a Crappy Blogger Award. Or a slap on the hand. Or, at the very least, a stern glare and a murmured ‘you stink’.

I feel the shame.

I haven’t really been participating much in Blogaritaville lately. There’s no single big, bad, burly reason to blame it all on explain it. More like a steady stream of distractions—SQUIRREL!—which have kept me preoccupied: I’ve been feverishly job hunting, selling things on eBay, Christmas/birthday shopping, and attempting to write this year’s Christmas Letter completely in rhyme like ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.

It’s a bit surprising how time-consuming those activities can be. However, the guilt and shame of ignoring you all has finally gotten to me, so let’s blog!




Yesterday was a BIG day here in Chicago. Even if I hadn’t been paying attention to the news, I still would have known Rod Blagojevich was wearing the dunce cap again.

I can always tell.

How? Well, I live in Blaggy’s neighborhood and whenever the Governor Gone Bad is having a bad day, helicopters swarm over my house. Yesterday morning there were at least four helicopters hovering overhead waiting for Blaggy to leave his home and head to court for sentencing. This was the view from my deck.




The noise was utterly obnoxious. It sounded like the sky was full of ticked off bees. I decided to take a stroll down the street to see how big the media circus was outside of Blaggy’s house, because how often do you get to see news crews camped out on your neighbor’s front lawn, right?

(Hopefully, not too often.)

There were reporters everywhere. The street was clogged with parked cars and vans. I stood across the street from the mob just kind of taking it all in. I started snapping pictures of the crowd as they waited for Blaggy to appear, when suddenly there he was!

Blaggy and his wife emerged from their house to go to court and I realized—WOAH!—that I was taking pictures of them.







(And, yes, his hair is even MORE ridiculous in person.)

Once Blaggy got into his car, the crowd swarmed around it trying to get pictures of him through the windows.



Then off the ex-governor went to court where he found out he has been sentenced to fourteen years behind bars for being an asshat. Ouch.

And that, my friends, is how I became an accidental paparazzo. I had no idea I would be seeing and snapping pictures of Rod Blagojevich on his way to court! I had only planned on scoping out the media frenzy, not actually participating in it. Whoopsie.


Other news from around here lately? Well….


Our Halloween costumes turned out pretty awesome. Wednesday was Catwoman, I was Poison Ivy, and Scope was a Rastafarian.




(And, yes, Wednesday and I sewed every silver stitch on her costume by hand—and I still have the callous to prove it.)

We spent our Thanksgiving visiting Scope’s family where Wednesday and Scope pulled the wishbone and Wednesday won.



But Wednesday’s most favorite Thanksgiving Day moment was seeing the brand new Tim Burton balloon in the Macy’s Parade!



(She still squeals when she thinks about it!)


Most sadly, one of our little pet frogs, Kermit, died unexpectedly. We don’t know what went wrong. He was swimming happily in his tank one minute, then flat on his back then next. Wednesday and I are completely heartbroken and we miss him very much. I’m just glad we managed to move the little frogs from Seattle to Chicago over the summer, so Kermit could spend his last couple of months with us. I know that means a lot to Wednesday that she got to have that time with him here.

We had a funeral for him. Wednesday picked out a planter that looks like water and a plant that looks like lily pads, then we buried Kermit beside the plant and she wrote his name on a heart-shaped rock.




*sniffle*


And, last but not least, we have been playing bloggy hosts to Blogaritaville’s travelling porcine pal, Fernando Von Bakonstein!




Fernando used to hang out at The International House of Blogcakes (RIP) and has spent the last couple of years travelling around Blogaritaville, visiting his blog buddies. He came to us from our good friend Skyler’s Dad and we have been taking Fernando everywhere around Chicago and showing him a good time.

Hey, we even took Fernando to “The Hog Capital of the World”!!!!



We have been GREAT hosts…. but bad bloggers. We just haven’t gotten around to writing about our adventures with Fernando Von Bakonstein. Yet. However, REAL Fernando posts are in the works and I will be serving them up for you soon, swearsies!

Until then, please sit back and suffer through enjoy the song that has been chronically and mercilessly stuck in my head ever since Fernando arrived on our doorstep: ABBA - “Fernando”.



(SOMEONE HELP ME!!!! I BEG YOU!!!!)

© Coracabana