Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Devin, Julie, Liz, Justin and I all went into Orlando to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra holiday concert. The trip didn't go quite and smoothly as planned because Devin got stuck at work with a couple in finance. We ended up dropping off his ticket for him at the dealership and the rest of us drove together and he joined us later. We made it just in time for the concert and were seated just as it was getting dark after kicking other people out of our seats. The music was fantastic and what surprised me was the amazing laser light show and pyrotechnics. I didn't realize there was going to be so much fire...I like fire. My favorite songs were the Nutcracker medley and Into the Hall of the Mountain King.

"Friends"giving

As if I haven't been stuffed enough with Thanksgiving and all of the leftovers, we had a "friends"giving at Julie's house with more delicious food and good company. Devin, Julie, Liz, Justin, Will, Svea, and I all gathered at Julie's house for some macaroni and cheese, meatloaf (obviously I didn't eat it), drunken berry pie, and lots of other yummies. While everything was getting ready we had a Friends's thanksgiving episode playing in the background. I don't think anyone was really watching it but it helped make it a "friends"giving. I am very thankful to have a best friend like Julie and so many other awesome friends in my life. I don't know what I would do without you guys.

Witch Way 5K

Today I ran (jogged/walked) my first 5K in Florida. I haven't attempted to run this much since I lived in Madison. That's partly because all of the runs happen to be on days that I work but I was finally able to make one. The extra motivation came from it being Halloween themed (glow in the dark t-shirt - yay!) and it sponsors the Nature Conservancy. It started and ended in Nance Park in Indialantic, FL. My time was 30:31. There were some pretty neat costumes including a couple people in morph suits. Unfortunately I wasn't dressed up because I came straight from work and I forgot to bring one with me. It was actually a really nice run along the ocean and through some natureish areas and then a short part through some nice neighborhoods. Maybe I'll get motivated to do some more races and even try out something longer than a 5K.

New laptop

So my old laptop has had some issues for a while now. You have to balance something on the power cord and position it at a particular angle for it to connect, it has practically no battery life, and sometimes the screen goes blank and you have to hit Function + F6 a bunch of times until it finally flickers back to life. I figured it was probably time to get a new laptop even though I'm still very attached to my old one. Devin had ordered me a new one a while ago after I said yes and then I got it in the mail and took one look at it and instantly disliked it. Devin, being the understanding and wonderful husband that he is returned it for me. That was before the screen started blanking out. The black screen gave me the extra motivation to actually get and keep a new laptop. I found one I liked for only $330 at Best Buy and bought it from the store on my way to Zumba. It's a charcoal gray 15.6" display HP with AMD E-Series Processor and 3GB memory. When I got home I turned it on and there were green lines going through a blue screen of death. I turned it off and on again and it did the same thing. Today I took it back to Best Buy and exchanged it for a working computer. Now I'm working on installing all of my programs, software, etc. I haven't come up with a name for this laptop yet but I'm still working on it.

Animal Kingdom

My friend Julie got Devin and me three days at Disney for our wedding and we finally took advantage of our tickets and spent our first day at Animal Kingdom. When we checked in I told her the tickets were a wedding present (which is why they were under Julie's name) and the lady gave us buttons that said, "Happily Ever After." The first thing we did we go to look at the Tree of Life which I love; I wish I could have one in my backyard. I've often thought it would be neat to have a tree of life tattoo. Then after not too long we were off to the Lion King show. The singing was really good and they had acrobat "monkeys" which were fun to watch. I still remember a lot of words from all of the songs even though it's been awhile since I've seen the movie. After the Lion King we headed over to Africa and went on the Kilimanjaro Safari where we saw lots of animals including some giraffes that came pretty close and a baby elephant. We also went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, visited the Conservation Station, saw the Flights of Wonder show where I got to go onstage and have an owl fly over my head, and I even got Devin to go on the Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain roller coaster with me. The Flights of Wonder show was probably one of my favorites because when they asked for a volunteer with a camera they picked me and I had to try to take a picture of an owl as it whooshed right over my head. Unfortunately I didn't get the picture but it was still really neat. For dinner we left the park and headed to the African buffet that is located in one of the hotels. All of the food was delicious and I ate way to much. Especially since after I had already stuffed myself our server noticed we had our "Happily Ever After" pins on and brought us a special dessert plate which we couldn't even finish. All in all it was an awesome day and it was so nice to have some uninterrupted time with Devin.

Stuffed and Unstrung

Julie, Liz, and I went to go see Stuffed and Unstrung for Julie's birthday. Before the show we headed to Outback to get drinks and dessert (and in Julie's case steak). After some yummy sweet potato fries and cheesecake we headed over to the King Center. The show, which was created by Brian Henson, is an improve comedy group that uses Muppets, and of course I love all things muppets. There were juggling bunnies,

crabs that yodeled about accounting, and hot dogs that sang while working in a pet store. They used my suggestion of "how my zombie ate your mother" as a title for one of their skits. My only criticism is that the audience, which was pretty sparse, was not very creative in their suggestions, although I think the cast did a great job with it. The audience responses were things like sex and pole-dancing - really people? One part of the show that I really loved is that they recreated two of Jim Henson's original skits, I've Grown Accustomed to His Face and Java. It was really neat to see the performers behind (or in this case under) the puppets.

Ripley's and Cirque du Soleil

Devin and I actually spent our day off relaxing and going out (instead of running errands and doing chores). I spent most of the morning napping and trying to get caught up on my rest since I am still trying to kick the end of my month long sinus infection but we spent the afternoon in Orlando. First we headed to Ripley's Odditorium where we saw fertility statues from Africa (supposedly if you touch them you will get pregnant - I did not touch them), a 25 foot high mural of Jimi Hendrix made out of over 8,500 playing cards, a replica of Wall-E made entirely out of

car parts, a rare fossil of a T-Rex lower leg, and of course a shrunken head. Devin's favorite part was all of the weird animals (sheep with two head, cows with too many legs, etc.) and my favorite part was the sculptures made out of parts.

After Ripley's we went to East Side Downtown Disney and visited the Lego Store which had some very impressive lego displays, my favorite being the

giant sea serpent. The we headed over to the West Side to see Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. As always their show was simply amazing. Amazing use of color and textures in the costumes. Amazing live singers and musicians. And amazing talent from their amazing performers. I love watching the ribbon dancers (I wish I could do that) and watching the trampoline performers and Devin enjoyed watching the bicycle go across the high wire
.