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Brer MichaelWell, I've been AWOL for a couple of weeks. Wish I could say I had a really good excuse, but although I have been busy and fairly wedged with stuff to do at work (and thus, rather stressed out), frankly my evenings have been going to catching up on taped television (finally finished last season's West Wing and Smallville!) and similar frittering around (e.g., on Wikipedia). I just haven't dragged myself up to do a journal entry until now.
 Well, we did go to Disneyland last weekend. I went with Debbi, Lisa and Michel last year and decided to join them for their trip during the Christmas season. Lisa's roommate Yvonne and her boyfriend Wender also came. We were fortunate in threading the weather needle: It rained a little, but not so much that we couldn't go on rides or were miserably wet (or even very wet at all), but the clouds and drizzle kept many others away, so the parks (Disneyland itself and the California Adventure) were not as crowded as they might have been. The biggest bummer for me was getting up at 7 on Friday to get together to drive down to Anaheim, and getting up at 6 on Saturday to get to the park early. I was pretty wiped from the work-week and was just about done around 10 pm Saturday. I slept in on Sunday and caught the hotel shuttle to the park around 9:30, and was much happier on Sunday. We went on some rides I hadn't gone on last year, because they'd been closed. One of these was not Big Thunder Mountain, which is closed indefinitely due to a death on the ride earlier this year. However, Splash Mountain was quite a bit of fun. Apparently the scenery is based on the film Song of the South (1946), which Disney has re-released on occasion, but which isn't available on video or DVD due to concerns about racism. Which makes the ride a bit odd since most people who ride it have never had a chance to see the film (I never have). Still, it's a fun ride. As for It's A Small World, well, it's cute. But it is perhaps best summed up by a hilarious comment a guide on another ride made: "Any children left behind will be taken to It's A Small World where their shoes will be glued to the floor and they'll be made to sing that horrible song! It took me 15 years to figure out all I had to do was untie my shoes to escape. But they caught me and look where I am now!" It is an impressive technical accomplishment, though. We rode the California Screamin' coaster three times, and I was just about used to it the third time. It is a great ride, though, especially at night! Having experienced it before, I was less shell-shocked at the prices of food. And to be honest, you can find decent food at the park and you won't generally go away from a meal hungry (which I can't always say for restaurants with similar prices, albeit better food). Sadly, we missed going on the Grizzly River Rapids, which I remembered fondly from last time. The others were concerned about getting wet, being miserable the rest of the day, and maybe getting a cold. So Debbi had brought some medical drysuits from work for us to wear, but we didn't bring them over to California Adventure the first day, and by the time we got there the second day the ride had closed for the day due to technical difficulties. Bummer! I'm still pretty impressed at the sheer extravagance of Disneyland. The wide, circling loops of the monorail which do nothing but show off swaths of the park - to great effect. The effort to create the illusion of different environments by cleverly-placed walls and foliage. The extravagant exterior (and interior) of the Haunted Mansion, and sets of Pirates of the Caribbean. Pretty nifty. As I said last time, I'm not a Disney fan (I made Debbi go on the Snow White ride - which is pretty lame and Debbi knew that ahead of time - because it's one of the few Disney films I've actually seen [to be fair, it is more of a kids' ride]), I'm there for the rides, and to some degree the ambience. So I had a good time, overall, though nothing like the girls did.
I've been sick this weekend, and I'm already planning to miss work tomorrow because I was even sicker today than yesterday. Ugh. It's a sore throat, stuffy nose, and general exhaustion. Hopefully not the flu - I did get my flu shot a month or so ago. However, I also need to stay home because I got an Unexpected Joy of Home Ownership today: My hot water heater is leaking. And not from a valve, from the tank itself, which I've been told is pretty much game over for the heater. So someone's coming to look at it tomorrow, and will probably replace it. Before you ask, yes, we've turned off the gas and drained the tank. No shower for me tomorrow morning. But the heater is just about the only appliance-type thing in my house over 5 years old, so I can't really complain. It's dated 1994, which my inspector told me when I bought the place means it could have been installed as late as 1997. But smart money says it's probably nearing the end of its lifespan naturally. Coincidentally, the pilot light for the hot water heater at Debbi's apartment complex died today. We were there last night, so we waited until we came down here to have showers (lucky my heater didn't die in such a way that I had no hot water!). Hopefully both our problems will be fixed posthaste!
We also bought a Christmas tree, and put it up. We had greater ambitions for Christmas decorating today, but between the heater and my illness they'll have to wait for another day. I'm looking forward to putting the lights out front, though. They look cool.
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