I'm Sorry Mickey!

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a Walt Disney World junkie. I love it there. There is just so much to experience for everyone at any age. I like the different parks, the attractions, the hotels, pools, and great restaurants. This one time, I allowed myself to be seduced into going to Universal with the promise of the Harry Potter attractions. I'm sorry Mickey. I tried not to spend much (although the $121/per person fee for both sides of Universal and Islands of Adventure for one day was gasp-worthy), I tried not to enjoy it. Really. I. Did. But, Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey is just the most incredible ride I have ever been on. Ever. I'm sorry Mickey, really I am!

We arrived bright and early and Matt graciously sprang for the valet parking. Hey anything that helped save my knees even a little was most welcome. We started on the Universal side with a few pictures with some characters.

Although I'm not much of a Simpsons fan, this ride was very cool and definitely began the technology that would be used in the Forbidden Journey. Definitely worth doing this one.

ET wasn't open yet when we started, so we did Jaws and Twister. They're okay, a little dated perhaps, but hey, we walked onto every ride in these parks except for the Forbidden Journey. That definitely works for me. Since Jaws is one of Brent's favorite movies we couldn't resist this pic.

Over in Islands of Adventure you find the water rides, the roller coasters (okay, the Hulk was really a great coaster), and the kiddie stuff.

At Matt's suggestion, we had a wonderful lunch at Mithros. It was like eating in a cave. Very cool! Then it was on to Harry Potter. While I absolutely loved the Forbidden Journey, it seems to me that this area wasn't thought out very well. Although I loved Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms, they didn't take into account the high powered hand dryers that would drown out everything in that cavernous echo chamber and poor Myrtle's moaning sounded like just another kid screeching. Many of the "shops" are just store fronts, not real shops and the real shops are waaaay waaaaay too small for the crowd. Olivanders had a huge line and even the main gift shop was tiny. What were they thinking? You can see from one of the pics below that this area was quite crowded.

We couldn't resist a butter beer even though it wasn't really beer. It had a head, and it tasted like a butterscotchy birch beer. Very sweet.

Regardless, when Kera asked what was the one highlight of our trip, I would have to say it was most definitely Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey. I'm soooo sorry Mickey!

Keys to the Kingdom

I have no pictures from this tour as much of it was behind the scenes where photography is a no-n0. This 5-hour tour was really interesting and included headsets that enabled us to hear our tour guide at all times, two rides, lunch, and tours of behind the scenes stuff.

Disney just pays so much attention to detail, and sometimes they are small things that you might not notice without someone pointing it out to you. Just walking down Main Street puts you on sensory overload so you really do miss many of the finer details such as the names of people and businesses written in the upper story windows. For example when the decision was made to build the theme park in Orlando, many dummy corporations were formed to purchase the swampland properties. Obviously Disney wanted to purchase the land as cheaply as possible and for most of it they were able to purchase the land under $80 an acre. When the word leaked out however, prices skyrocketed to $85,000/acre. Those dummy corp names are written in one of the windows.

There was a lot of talk about everything at Disney just being larger than life. In order to create that illusion, they used forced perspective in the architecture. For example, the spires on the castle are smaller than they really would be to create the illusion of the castle itself being much larger than it really is. They use different architecture and differnt colored pavement to delineate the different "lands" as you go through the park. When there are maintenance buildings behind the storefronts and attractions, they are painted "go away green" and "bye bye blue" so that they disappear into the landscape and sky and you really never notice that they are there. Disney wants you to be totally immersed in the fantasy.

This was a great tour if you have been to Disney before. Using your Disney visa gets you a 20% discount too!

Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon

We left the overcast Harrisburg weather to arrive in Orlando with beautiful blue sunny skies. While we enjoyed sensational weather the entire week, folks at home were inundated with three days straight rain. I'd feel bad about it but quite frankly I consider summer 2010 to be the Lost Summer. I felt like I finally had a week of enjoyable summer days.

Brent and Deb pose for a quick pic on the way into registration. While the expo wasn't as big as it is for the half/marathon/Goofy in January, we still managed to find some things. I picked up several Christmas gifts for Kera. They didn't have my Wright socks though!@#$.

They had samples of this sort of frozen chocolate concoction that wasn't bad. Matt couldn't resist the pose.

The race began at 10:00 PM at Wild World of Sports and finished just outside the International Gateway into Epcot. Brent, Deb, and Matt ran the race together, stopping for pictures with the characters along the way. They certainly didn't set any records, but they enjoyed themselves and saw some very different characters like the boy and dog from Up.

Meanwhile, Loren and I waited at the finish line where Loren hoped to capture some good finish shots. We agreed that the finish would be a cluster, so we arranged to meet at Morocco - hey any good Disney fan knows where all the best bathrooms are! Unfortunately, the line of women was so long it stretched out to the lagoon. I heard one guy comment that he was the only guy in the men's restroom. Soon attendants came and converted the men's room to women only and then the poor guys had to try to make it to the American Pavillion. Crazy. In fact, the whole after-race event was a mess.

I believe my ticket to the after-race festivities was $35 and was to include one food item and one drink item. Honestly, there was nothing I wanted bad enough to stand in any of those horrendous lines. My knees had more than enough at 2:00 a.m. so I left and walked back to the hotel and my uber comfortable bed. Sunday would be an early morning with the Keys to the Kingdom tour.

This Crap Is Never Ending

I had my 4 month visit in Allentown today. As you all know, I haven't been too happy with my progress, especially in my left knee. I really thought the surgeon would tell me what many of you have said: it's going to take time. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

He came into the examination room asking how it was going and I told him I wasn't too happy. He briefly checked out the left knee and said he wasn't happy either. Apparently I heal fast and couldn't keep the scar tissue broken down despite doing all the exercises and driving myself and everyone around me crazy. He said that roughly 1 in 20 have this problem; 5% seems like a pretty high number to me, but what do I know.

It's good he doesn't have to open it all back up because nothing would have convinced me to go that route. Instead he'll knock me out, bend the hell out of both my knees, drug me up and send me home. He told me that I should have 120 degrees flexion following this procedure. I had a moment of panic when the scheduler asked if I had my walker and cane because I might need one of them to come home and did I prefer darvocet or tylenol with codeine. All I could think of was "here we go again."

I'll be off work the day after and will have physical therapy every day for a week. Much as I loved Nate, I think I'd like to find a new physical terrorist. If any of you have experience with a good one, please give me a shout.

The surgeon made two other points that are important for my sanity (and thus the sanity of those around me):
1. While I should be exercising 3-4 times a week, it should become more of a normal exercise regimen with the bike, elliptical, walking, with other stuff tossed in and getting away from the physical therapy type stuff. He told me not to drive myself crazy with it and just do a normal program 3-4 times a week. This is a relief because on the few occasions where I skipped something I felt so guilty and was so afraid...so afraid that my knees would have to be manipulated. And here I am, despite having followed all the rules.

2. My knees are going to take about a year and a half to be totally healed and for things to be "normal". This is good since I have been disappointed that things aren't great at 4 months. I will be more calm if I know what the expectation is. I think. I hope. Yes, I will.

In the meantime, I'm going to dry my tears of anger, frustration, and pity, and hop on my bike.

18 Years - And They Said It Would Never Last!

Today is our 18th wedding anniversary. We kicked around a lot of ideas of things to do and ended up just going out for dinner and taking in a movie. Char's Bellamundo in Shipoke is always such a great choice. Then we went to see Inception. We hesitated before because I didn't think I could sit that long. It was a pretty good movie though, pretty complex. I got some booful posies and a great mushy card.

Love and marriage is a funny thing, and it definitely has its ups and downs. Our marriage is far stronger today than it was 18 years ago. The last few months have been so stressful, and Brent and I became closer than we ever have been. We have quite a bit to celebrate today and I'm very thankful.

Breathe In, Breathe Out, I Am Calm, Oooohhhhmmmmm

Hit the hot tub this morning, then did my exercises. Nice and warmed up, knees moving okay. Brent came in and surprised me by taking a measurement. It was crappy. Still 110 R and 100 R. Nate's physical therapy must account for that 10 degrees flexion I seem to have lost. But, I am remaining calm. There's nothing more I can do beyond what I'm already doing. But God help the doctor when I seem him on September 28.

Book Club

I belong to a book club that meets monthly. I only knew two of the women prior to joining the group during its first year. Over the last year or so the group saw many changes as people left and new people joined. It's a diverse group, many of whom are attorneys. There are conservatives and liberals, over the top boisterous and introverts; smart women all.

While the composition of club changed, the members are an amazingly kind group of women. I know I previously mentioned that my book club friends gave me an Amazon gift card and dream dinners prior to my surgery. Last night I was able to thank them all not only for the kind and thoughtful gifts, but also the support and friendship they offered during my rehab. I received visits, cards, and many emails during the first three months. Some of those emails came from women I barely knew. One in particular blew me away with her kindness and thoughtfulness. I know who she is, but not much beyond that. Truly, someone I barely knew took the time to send me thoughtful emails, asking how I was doing, offering encouragement and support.

To my fellow book club friends who were not in attendance last night, please know how much I appreciated your friendship during the past few months.