You are obviously in a Very Important Hurry. Your Jeep Liberty’s V-8 is screaming as you force your way through traffic at 6:20 in the morning, darting from lane to lane in an attempt to maintain a clear shot, concentration on your face like a cop on his way to a donut shop. Thank you for using your turn signals, no matter how briefly. At the point where the two lane road gains a third lane, you take that far right lane, knowing that it will be – yes! Clear through the intersection! Never mind that it will disappear right after the intersection – you’ll deal with that when it happens.

What’s this? You’re slowing down – your right turn signal is on – oh, you’ve reached your Very Important Destination – the 24 hour adult shop!

Dude, if you’re that desperate, you need professional help.

I pledge allegience to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
UNDER GOD,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If any of the words or phrases in the preceeding paragraph offend you, please exit the country using the most efficient means at you disposal. Mr. Newdow, I will personally pay for your one way ticket out of here, with the proviso that you renounce your citizenship in a more direct manner than whining to the Courts. As for the “judges” who are passing laws – that ain’t your job, stop it now.

OK, so I haven’t really posted anything here lately. I’m kind of in a post-vacation-don’t-wanna-do-anything phase.

This, unfortunately, includes more chapters in The Wisconsin Cartters. Although I have a bunch of pages scanned, and I have most of chapter four transcribed, I just haven’t gotten around to posting or transcibing any more. Lazy, huh?

That, and the beautiful weather here in the mornings means that I can plan/execute some outdoor projects around the house. And, as we all know, Union Rules state that once an activity involving power tools or sweating is complete, one should take a nap (this is, of course, disregarding the Union Rule prohibiting sweating). With the household pets, if so equipped.

Anyway – stay tuned. I promise I will notify all three of my regular readers when/if I put anything new on here. They will notify the rest of you.

One thing I noticed while at the Mouse House last week – people with their very young child(ren).

Now, I am a little more than 21 years old, and I really enjoy going to Disneyland. Granted, I don’t ride all the rides anymore, although I will go on the ones that the girls want to ride, but still. These couples with the very young children seemed to be causing more grief for themselves than memories for the young ones. Especially the “adults” who, on the pretext of making sure the children can see the parade, lightshow, or fireworks, push others out of the way.

Specifically, I’m talking to you, grandma of the poor little girl who was up way past her bedtime – we had been holding our spot for over an hour and when you didn’t feel the child could see, you pushed my wife out of the way so your tired, cranky, didn’t-want-to-be-there little granddaughter could stand on the rail (against the instructions repeated over and over by the cast members in charge of crowd control) and be fussy in front of us instead of behind us.

God teaches us to forgive and turn the other cheek, so we did. You, however, really need to learn some manners and how to use them. I shudder at the example you have set for your children and their children; and at how much of an ordeal you have made of a trip to Disneyland before the little girl was ready to experience and assimilate the memories.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoyed the trip overall? I did, really. I just wish we could do that more often.

The Most Beautiful Woman in the World and I picked up our friend, A, and her daughters, H and M, at about 5:00 Thursday morning. We drove to the Mouse House West, arriving at about 10:30 or so and parking in the parking structure that was erected when California Adventure was planned to encroach on the old parking lots west of Disneyland’s Main Entrance. We must have planned things just right, because the parks were not very crowded at all – in fact, on Thursday, we managed to ride Grizzly River Rapids several times in a row for a lack of line, and the girls enjoyed themselves on the Nature Challenge Trail in relative solitude.

TMBWitW, A and I just walked around enjoying the weather (around 80°, thanks for asking. Compared to 115° in the Valley of the Sun.) and I would go on the rides with the girls that their mother or my wife wouldn’t go on.

We hit the Tower of Terror first – the girls loved it, I got a kick out of the negative gees, and the ladies just watched from a distance. We got pretty decent seats in the Hyperion Theater, to watch Alladin, then we wandered over to Paradise Pier to find out why California Screamin’ wasn’t running – refurbish! What a bummer. I was really looking forward to riding that one.

We made up for the lack of a full loop by going on the Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and the Jungle Cruise the next day. OK, the Jungle Cruise isn’t a coaster, and IJ isn’t really one either, but the wisecracks from the one and the whiplash from the other were more than worth the price of admission. The rest of the day was spent on Pirates of the Caribbean, eating lunch at the Blue Bayou (try the Monte Cristo – first rate!), and watching Fantasmic.

Saturday was spent shopping in Downtown Disney. Much money. Much, much money. We ate lunch at the Whitewater Café, located behind the pool at the Disney Grand Californian hotel. From where we were sitting, we could see the bear at the entrance to the Grizzly River Rapids. We can’t afford to stay at this hotel, just eat there. Occasionally. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Walnut, and our rooms overlooked the parking garage at Disneyland. If we could have figured out a way to walk over to the tram, we would have been set. As it turned out, we drove and parked every day.

We pulled out of Anaheim (after filling up at $2.85/gallon) about 3:30, and we pulled up at A’s house around 9:00. We are very happy with the mileage – the car still had over a quarter tank when we arrived at both ends.
Lots of pictures – I’ll try to post them over the next week or so.