You’ve probably seen this if you were bored today or following at least one geek: Cassini spacecraft has been circling Saturn for 7 years now, taking pictures like a crazed tourist with Memento syndrome. Some brilliant human has strung them together. Good Show Sir!!
CASSINI MISSION from cabbas on Vimeo.
I’ve found a new fetish: There’s nothing I love more than capturing the range of emotions people display on rollercoasters.
Bro! Did You See Me Coming?
I’ve made a whole set of Screamers pics over on my Flickr account.
The weather was 99% excellent, the company was wonderful but the parks were CROWDED. I guess my sis in law and I should have looked up the most busiest times for The World… Which was last weekend! Blarg! I’ve never seen the parks so full.
But I never look a trip to Disney in the mouth. It was a great time. Expect some pics up on Flickr and right here on my blog to pump up some sagging pageviews. Here’s a tidbit:
And…
So much going on in this photo...
…and of course by now, today, you’ve found out that your sister and her family are joining us as part of your birthday and our niece’s Graduation celebrations! HA!
Syl was fantastic through all this, helping out with the accommodations and reservations! Thank you Syl! Love ya!
Still love you, too, kiddo. Race you to Space Mountain!
Back in December I decided to do something awesome for SharkBoy’s birthday – something barn-door blowing off cool that he would be knocked out at it’s awesomeness. Back then, Disney started to air these “We’re going to Disney!” surprise commercials that made me tear up like a weepy prom mom. This is what I wanted to do: drop a trip on him without his knowledge and just take off.
However, most of you know I utterly suck at keeping or giving surprises. This time was going to be different, I promised myself. This time I was going to keep my big yap shut. Could I keep such a surprise to myself and his co-workers (I had to ask his boss for time off) and not let it slip?
The first hurdle I encountered was the money. I had to shuffle large amounts of cash for the airline/park/hotel reservations which either meant fast talking and distractions with sparkly things off in the corner of his eye whenever he opened the online banking, or planning another vacation and skimming money as we made reservations for that trip. While we organized for our trip to Disneyland in August, I flipped the cash I needed. Both distractions worked excellently. I’m not saying SharkBoy is easily distracted or money-unwise, but I did have to stammer out a couple “lies” when he quizzed final balances at one point.
Secondly I had to clear it with his boss. I contacted a co-worker on Twitter who in part put me in contact with his boss. A few nice words and gentle pleading secured me the time needed without paper trail, just in case SharkBoy checked to see how many actual vaykay days he had left. I’m surprised Erin hasn’t said anything and I would like to thank her for her trust.
Then I was my own worst enemy. I vowed that I was going to stop telling people… after I told my mom and family. And I was good at keeping it to myself but after a couple months I couldn’t stand the pressure. I told his sister, Syl. She just got mad because she wasn’t invited. But she was supportive.
I told the Beach Boys, Sean and Josh while we were at Disney last spring. They looked like they were going to throw up from the treacle. That or they had too much of the rich food. Anyway, they kept quiet.
I told my co-workers who make a face when I mention Disney all the time. They’re more jealous of the time off, I think, not the destination.
And finally, just because I was going batshit crazy, I told a Disney store shop clerk in utter anticipation desperation. Last weekend we strolled into the Eaton Centre Disney store and while we were split up, browsing the cheap merch, I got into a conversation with a Cast Member. She mentioned she liked my Star Wars tee shirt and did I know that Star Wars Weekend was happening right now?
“YES!! I can’t wait… WE’RE GOING NEXT WEEKEND! BUT SHUT UP BECAUSE IT’S A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE FOR THAT GUY OVER THERE!!”
She laughed and we chatted briefly about The World. When SharkBoy meandered over to us we clammed up and laughed. When he quizzed me as to why we were laughing, I said we were talking about how gay he was. I really can’t keep my mouth shut.
Anyway. This morning SharkBoy insisted on opening his letter from my Mom which had USD$ in it. I figured he was going to question why so that’s when I handed over my iPad with all the reservation PDFs on it.
“Oh like these aren’t fake.” He said.
I’m good at Photoshop, but I’m not cruel.
I showed him another PDF for the flights. His face went white. I showed him the reservation for the park tickets. His face went whiter. I tell him about the email conversation I had with his boss. “I need to see it,” he says calmly.
I go to my computer and pull up the email. I turn and find him standing there, hands on his cheeks, mouth open.
I wish I had a video of it. Then again, it’s something I will always remember.
After a moment he turned and started to write a blog post about it. When I got out of the shower (sadly, I have to work today) he was running up and down the hall of the apartment collecting things while simultaneously checking the weather in Orlando. He does have an eye appointment this morning and will most likely have to rest for the afternoon, but I am sure he will be cleaning for the cat sitter.
I love you very much, Michel. Happy Birthday!
Yes, I made it all the way to the gym this morning without noticing my shoe malfunction. Thank the lords of Kobol for SharkBoy. He brought my shoe salvation from home.
We walked a lot this weekend. Seriously a lot. Since we’re 2 months away from a big California trip we’re homebodies this long weekend and walked everywhere.
I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool
On Saturday we got up early and grabbed some coffee/tea and hoofed it from Cabbagetown to Henry’s camera to Silver Snail to a couple construction shops (looking for helmet inserts for our trooper buckets) to Mountain Equipment Co-op to the Bell Lightbox for a big screen viewing of Swiss Family Robinson. I totally forgot how much of a drag queen the South East Asian pirate was. Also if you look hard you will notice that the shirtless Second in Command of the pirates has had Asia eye prosthetics added. Why? Who can say. Something Disney took to his grave. Still it was wicked awesome to see it on a big screen again, like when I was a little turnip! Can’t wait for 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea in two weeks time!
It was also wicked awesome to see little kids stream out of that theater into a lobby full of gay/lesbian/bi sexual health pamphlets! Ha! As we were leaving the Inside Out Movie festival was in full swing so there’s a nightmare for you conservatives.
One odd thing happened at Silver Snail: As I was geeking out in front of their wall of action figures a woman of about 50ish was trying to get the counter clerk’s attention so she could get some help. Obviously she was in a rush (or the store creeped her out) and she needed to get a boxed figure down from the top shelf.
“I can get it,” I offered, “I have spider monkey arms.”
It was a bobble head of The Destroyer from the movie Thor. “This is from Thor, right? Is there anything else more Thor-like?”
“Yes,” I say “No,” I respond.
“Who is he?”
“You haven’t seen the movie?”
She makes a face that says “Come on…”
“It’s the protector of Thor’s arsenal.” And snicker inside my head because I just said “Protect Thor’s Arse”. I’m also pretty proud of myself that I was able to not utterly go off on a geek soaked tangent of who this character was, EVEN THOUGH I’ve barely read any Thor comics.
She thanks me and runs to the cash. Nothing like a well thought out present.
Back on track: after the movie I ran home and bagged up my (ahem, Rannie) SANDtrooper armor and rushed off to the Gladstone for a impromptu photoshoot. Rannie runs a party called #Tweetgasm at the Gladdy where twitterers meet up IRL. LOL! Anyway, he needed shots of pink people for the next party because the theme is #PrettyInPink Happy to say if you click that link you’ll see me in all pinky!
And here is an outtake from the shoot. The knees and legs on a trooper suit make it near impossible to bend to 90 degrees. Getting on the bed was a chore.
Anyway it was fun being treated like America’s Next Top Model and having impart a lot of Star Wars trivia with a group of women who just wanted a sexy Trooper pose.
Sunday and Monday – we walked. Around. And took pictures:
We also went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which wasn’t awful, a hell of a lot better than 2 & 3 combined and quite enjoyable for a pirate movie.
So Pirates in, Pirates out for this weekend. I hope yours was fabbooo!
*Yeah it’s safe to say I’ve quit the 64 question challenge. It gave me mono.
23. 5 good things that happened since you started the challenge
1. I would have to say that I’ve started to get back to the gym regularly. That’s good, amirite?
2. I finished Portal 2 and wasn’t disappointed. It wasn’t as “puzzle-y” as the first Portal but it did make me smile!
3. I’ve done the laundry a couple times.
4. I met a Twitterer that I’ve been following for a while IRL. He was nice!
5. I’ve reduced my use of acronyms by 90%