WDW with Barb and Al

First, it's baby sandhill crane season. I just had to post one picture of the cute family strolling through our neighbor's yard.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. The weather was great; the companionship was better! We met Barb and Al at the Studios around 2 p.m. and headed straight for the Tower of Terror. What a hoot! Barbara talked me into putting my arms up. As you can see in the picture, I only had enough nerve to put up one arm because the other one was hanging on to the handle for dear life as my butt lifted off the seat by several inches. Whoee!! I think we rose and dropped four times.

Next we did Toy Story Mania, which I had only done in California. It's the same ride, but it's still a lot of fun. It's the only game of skill that I seem to be able to do well on. In fact I beat Mark, which is saying a lot. Then the main objective of the Studios was for Mark to ride Star Tours a few times. I rode it once because I had not been in there since they renovated it. Mark rode twice. Then he decided that it is in four segments, each segment has two to three possible choices that can come up, so mathematically that means 54 different rides are possible. He has now seen virtually all of the individual segments, just not in all of the possible combinations. Nevertheless, after two times, he decided it was time to head to Epcot. Riding these rides with us was Barb and Al's birthday present to Mark to make up for missing everything on his actual birthday. Thanks, guys!

We went to Epcot to see The Spinners and then went to dinner at BJs Brewhouse. None of us had been there before, but we liked it. We decided it was great food but pricier than we expected. It's along the lines of an Olive Garden price range, not terrible but not Denny's either. I got a Santa Fe salad with blackened salmon. I left off the avocado and the dressing, so I think the calories were pretty good. I had a skinny Cosmo, 130 calories, and the trio dessert, 583 calories. I ate less than 2/3 of the dessert and I had eaten only 300 calories all day before dinner. I think I came in just under my daily calorie count and was pretty happy about that. The scale will tell me the truth on Wednesday!

Today I almost forgot about my fasting blood test. It was at 7:55, but I didn't set my alarm. I got up at 7:45 and leisurely brought up the computer, sipped some coffee, then looked at the calendar. YIKES! It was 8:10. I threw on my clothes and drove the five miles to the Quest lab. They were nice and had no problem fitting me in. I was back by 9:15. I will NOT forget to go play Mah Jongg at 1 p.m. today. I haven't been there in two or three weeks, so I'm determined to play today.

It's going to hit 90 degrees here today and for the next several days. Way above the usual for early April, but I don't care. I love it.