Evey and Eric are here! Off to WDW.

We picked Evey and Eric up at the airport around 11 yesterday.  Evey even had time to do the TSA pre-check interview for overseas clearance.  They are going to Iceland for a week on her birthday, so she wanted that to make it easier to get back in the country. Eric already had it.

They were pretty tired since they both worked Thursday and then took an overnight flight, but they are troopers.  They stayed awake and did stuff with us.  We had lunch at the Bistro, took a mile walk in the indoor track, and even checked out the progress on our new pharmacy and sundries store.  Mark and I did our fifteen minute weight routine while the kids played on their phones in the Palms lobby.  Then we had a nice Shabbat dinner and watched a Disney movie from 1989, Cheetah, before heading to an early bedtime around 10.  We got up at 5:30 because we are heading out at 7.

This weekend is the D23 Fan Club weekend at the Contemporary Resort Convention Center, so I booked us three nights at Old Key West with my DVC points.  That was before I knew E and E would be here, so they are happy to share the room with us and play at the parks.  This morning while we are registering at the convention, they have snagged an 8:40 a.m. Character Breakfast Buffet at Ohana in the Polynesian Resort.  Then they plan to check out all the Christmas displays in the three monorail resorts before checking in to OKW, maybe swimming in the pools in the afternoon, and then exploring Disney Springs for the rest of the day and evening.  We will meet them for dinner at 6:30 at Paradiso 37, and sometime in the evening we will see the new Drone Lights Display and Music which is being shown three times a night for the holidays at Disney Springs.  There's also a Christmas Tree trail to see.

Sunday while we are at the convention they will do Animal Kingdom all day.  Monday all four of us are going to Epcot.  They got us Fast passes for the new Frozen attraction and with luck we will make rope drop for Soarin'!

I am not taking my laptop on this trip, so there will be no blogs or pictures here until Tuesday night.  I will probably post a few pictures on Facebook when I can.

See you Tuesday night.

Weighing In

The last time I reported my weight was October 26.  At that time it was 270.2. The morning I am up one pound to 271.2.

Of course, I have continued to jump on that scale every day, so I know that I have fluctuated from as high as 276 to as low as 269 during these few weeks.  Yesterday morning I was 273.4, so I dropped three pounds in one day.  That was simply water weight.  I had been eating a lot of high sodium foods as well as lots of completely unnecessary snacks.  I had a very good day yesterday, so that was reflected in three pounds of water being released.

Today all my meals will also be at home, so I anticipate a good day.

In addition, once the last performance of Art and the cast party were over Sunday night, Mark and I went back to exercising on Monday.  We went to a delightful Coffee Talk about backyard wildlife and turtle rescues.  Then we went to the gym followed by a mile walk.  I'm so out of shape and fat that I had to break up the mile with a 15 minute rest on the bench.  Tuesday we walked a mile, but I only waited on the bench about 5 minutes.  Today I hope to walk a mile without sitting down.  My back just hurts too much from carrying this weight to walk very far.  I also ran a two hour rehearsal and then sang a different two hour rehearsal yesterday, which expended plenty of energy.  It all contributed to that three pound loss over night.

After my morning mani/pedi, I plan to go the gym again for the weight machines and then do that mile walk.  Hopefully, this all happens.

Friday Evey and Eric arrive.  Saturday we check in to Old Key West for three nights, which means a lot of meals in restaurants.  Then it's Thanksgiving!  If I could just keep my weight the same through the next week or so, I will consider that an accomplishment.

Art

The fall play here in Solivita opened Thursday night.  Mark and two other great Solivita actors, Peter and Dave, star in Art, a three-man show.  It's very funny but also has a deeper message.  Mark plays Marc, a character brought to life by Albert Finney in London and Alan Alda on Broadway.

This is the first time in a long time that the fall play did not sell out, but each of the past two audiences was very appreciative.  They got a standing ovation last night!  Two more shows to go and our lives can return to normal.

Post Election Stress

I couldn't write a blog yesterday.  I was too depressed.

We have a new president.  It wasn't mine.  I cried.

My candidate has lost before, but I never felt like this.  This person--I can't even bring myself to put that name in the blog--is not someone I can rally around.  I believe he is despicable, misogynistic, narcissistic, out of touch with the common person, a chronic and pathological liar, and a generally BAD person.  He will spend a good bit of his presidency in court as there are about 30 civil suits still pending against him for things he did before he was elected and several criminal cases as well.

I do not live in the country that I thought I did.  My country is apparently dead, so I wore black and mourned all day yesterday.

It's going to be a very long and stressful four years during which most of the strides forward in rights for women and minorities will all be undone.  That's a good reason to mourn.

ELECTION DAY

A lot of people thought today would never come.  The long, and sometimes hateful, campaign has gone on for over a year.  Now it's time to go vote.  Mark and I have not voted early or by mail-in.  We actually like going to the polls on the actual day.  I'm about to go up to the Solivita Ballroom in about 10 minutes and vote for a woman for President for the first time in history.  I was very excited to vote for our first African-American President eight years ago and again four years ago.  I certainly hope he goes down as one of the best Presidents ever.  That's how I feel about him.  Now I will go vote for the first woman.

I don't have time to write too much more.  I will be VERY BUSY today and mostly out of the house, starting with voting.

All I can say now is that "I'm with her"!

Epcot

We had a wonderful time at Epcot yesterday.  After arriving at noon, we had lunch at the Scotland, Ireland, and Japan pavilions.  We also had a chance to watch the music group Albert Bound on the stage in Canada while sipping an alcoholic iced coffee.  Nice.  Then we met Barb and Al at Journey into Imagination for the ride and some time in the DVC Member lounge followed by riding Soarin' and the Finding Nemo ride at Living Seas.  Dinner at the Coral Reef was better than we expected.  Barbara and I both ordered from the prix fixe menu which included a wine pairing for each course.  Delicious.  Then we picked up our Passholder tumblers from this year's Food and Wine Festival before heading home.  What a lovely Disney day!

Today we are watching movies on TV and just catching up on some chores in the house.

Tomorrow we will begin another crazy week of rehearsals, Mahj, and who knows what else!  Hopefully, Mark can easily get his car towed by GEICO up to All Cars to try to get a new battery and new keys and clickers.  We really need that done.

Alberta Bound performed for thirty minutes.

Enjoying his iced coffee with Jameson's.

Barb and Al with us up in the DVC Member Lounge.

Magic Kingdom and Epcot

I forgot to take my camera Wednesday night after all, so there are no pictures of the Trail's End restaurant or the hayride.  It was our third time, and it was great fun.  There are probably similar pictures from last year on this blog somewhere!

Thursday after play rehearsal we spent about five hours at the Magic Kingdom.  It was great because we hadn't been there in so long.  We probably have not been there since early last summer because of our big trip. We had fast passes for three things, saw the parade and two other live shows, and got on three other attractions easily.  What a wonderful day!  I do have some pictures here of that.

Today we are having lunch at the Food and Wine Festival.  Since it's Shabbat, we have put money on gift cards in advance.  It's also our third time, so we can get our free Festival glasses today.  Around 2:30 we will meet up with our friends Barbara and Al, whom we have not seen in many months either.  We are taking them up to see the new DVC Member Lounge in Journey into Imagination.  Then we have Soarin' Fast Passes and a dinner reservation at the Coral Reef restaurant in the Living Seas pavilion.  I see another great day coming!

Weight is up another pound, but I'm not surprised.  I ate way too much the last three days.  Today does not seem to be different what with eating lunch and dinner out.  Tomorrow should be better.

Our timing for the castle show was perfect.  It started just as we got up there.  We wanted to see the Alligator from The Princess and the Frog back in the show.  He had been replaced with Goofy for awhile.

Next we strolled into Liberty Square and our perfect timing held up again.  The new live Muppet Show was just starting.

Heading to Peter Pan for our first Fast Pass, we ran into our synagogue friend Leslie, who is also a long time cast member in Fantasyland.

Mickey's Philharmonic has this cool poster in the lobby.

Hall of Presidents is always a favorite.  

Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean were our other two Fast Passes.  We also went to Country Bear Jamboree and Tiki Room.  Mark used the shooting gallery, which was free for some reason, and we caught the afternoon parade.

After the park, we went to shop at the Winn Dixie and saw this awesome Coke display!