The One Time I Went to the Magic Kingdom on my 42nd Birthday

Now I am finally caught up on what I've done in almost the past two months. One thing I should have mentioned sometime earlier in the year: one evening I went to Winter Garden Village to try out an eatery from the West Coast which had just recently opened there: THE DOLLY LLAMA. What a name that is. They offer such treats as waffles, waffle cones, ice cream & shakes. While messy, what I had was still good; one day I'll make my return to try something else. Another place new to me was in the Western area of Kissimmee, known as Island Wing Company. The boneless wings I had were tasty, although not enough of them for the price. Note that the place adds in a gratuity automatically which serves as a tip for all the employees; curious, especially because I had to ask about it as they never clarified it beforehand.

February proved to be memorable and different from the norm as several people visited Florida from the Midwest. First was a great friend of Mom who has known my parents since before I was even born. Each year she visits various people in Florida and this includes me & Dad. Various restaurants were visited and while some were new to me (the small British pub known as Clermont Fish House) others were returns, such as Suncreek Brewery in Clermont or a place that me and Mom went to years ago. Randomly, while looking at Google Maps one day (what, don't you do that?) I saw that there was an eatery which sounded interesting, even if it was in a town known as Howey-In-The-Hills. Me and Mom liked JB Boondock's Bar & Grill so I don't know why we didn't return but that joint proved to be a BIG hit... I mean, bigger than I expected. I was glad to support a local establishment, even if at times some of my fellow customers were on the uncouth side. It's located right on a lake so there was great scenery. As always it was nice to see them.

More unique was that soon after they left, my sister who lives in Rockford, Illinois came down here for vacation with her beau and two small children. It was nice to see the nephew after all that time and I finally got to meet my niece. Time was spent at Disney Springs with them which included hot dogs & treats, and other trips included time spent with the aunt in The Villages and Romano's Macaroni Grill. However, the highlight was on my 42^nd birthday on February 22^nd where we went to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It was a LONG day as we were out of the house for a little more than 12 hours yet for two very small children they both acted as well as you'd expect for their age on a warm day in a theme park. It was a lot of fun as both familiar rides to me and ones I hadn't been on before were experienced. Heck, for the first time since I was a kid I was on a carousel period, no matter where it was located at.

While not everything went perfectly on that day, it's no big deal and that's more my neuroses than anything major; the important thing is that not only did everyone have a fun vacation, but both those little tykes liked me. I am very happy that all my nephews & niece feel that way. It was great seeing all of those relatives in the past few months as it not only added excitement, it was nice considering how the world has been the past three years & all the chaos that's happened.

I will return sometime in April, the first half of the month. Nothing is on my docket... yet.

Coca-Cola Move, Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream, Home State Brewing Co. & Jury Duty

I'll be writing more tomorrow evening when I return to finally catch up on recent activities, but tonight is the time to dispense some odds and ends. One day I got a haircut (yes, it was much-needed) as the next morning was jury duty. Unlike a regular jury trial, it was for a grand jury; Google can tell you the difference if you care but in short, if I had been selected it would have required going in a few mornings over the next six months and going over evidence with my fellow peers to determine if first degree murder charges would be filed in a case.

As fascinating as that process probably would have been, the time plus the huge burden in determining someone's fate like that meant that it wasn't so bad that I was not one of the jurors selected. That said, it was still an interesting first-hand experience at watching the justice system in action and the two prosecutors involved in the process at least explained the whole thing well for all almost 50 people in the juror pool, who definitely were a cross-section of Lake County residents.

The rest of this short entry will be more frivolous. I did have some new soda since early February, although not the PEEPS-flavored Pepsi yet, despite the bottle sitting in the fridge for awhile. I'll provide my opinion in April; that bottle was purchased for the novelty value as of course I am not expecting that to actually taste good! The Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream is as good as I figured; as for Coca-Cola Move... even now, there is debate as to its taste. There's everything from rose wine to bubblegum, coconut rum and vanilla to even popcorn (?!); what do I think? Having just had it once—no idea how to describe the taste! From what I remember it wasn't bad, per se-just strange.

As I'll mention tomorrow, various restaurants have been visited in the past almost two months, most of them familiar to me, although some I hadn't been to in a long while. One I will mention now is a place I went to solo one Sunday; it was a backup selection after I couldn't go to my first place due to an ever-typical Florida traffic jam. It was Home State Brewing Co., a brewery in the Winter Park Hamlin area. It was fine, although the service was more “eh” than anything else. I did have something unique: a peanut butter & jelly sandwich pressed on Cuban bread. Sounds wild, yet tasted fine.

Next time will be on the heartwarming side as it involves family & friends visiting Florida.

Furman Paladins, San Diego State Aztecs, Yalaha Bakery, Scream VI & Cocaine Bear

First off, my apologies for not doing one of these in way too long. In fact, by this time next week I expect to do a few more of these so I can properly catch up. Thus, I’ll be dispensing information in no particular order. This time, it will be the big event I did last Thursday, my trip to a local establishment and the two theatrical movies I’ve experienced since the last time.

Last Thursday was the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, a big deal for college hoops fans each year. This year some games would be played in Orlando at the Amway Center; as the tickets for the early games were relatively cheap (two games for barely over 20 bucks), I hadn’t been to the Amway Center in at least 5 years and I had a good time when the 2014 games were in O-Town, that’s what I did on that way. The second game was fun as the San Diego State Aztecs defeated the College of Charleston Cougars 63-57.

However, the first game was unforgettable. The Furman Paladins played against the Virginia Cavaliers. Virginia was heavily favored; among other things, the Paladins (named after the knights that guarded Charlemagne, which is pretty cool) hadn’t been to the tournament since 1980 and hadn’t won a game since Nixon was in office. Thus, many of their fans drove down from South Carolina for the game. Virginia was ahead most of the way yet Furman held on. Finally, it turned around near the end and how Furman won improbably was incredible.

The highlights that can be found on YouTube show what happen far better than my explanation of same. The Paladin fans lost their mind at the conclusion and that was great. They lost by quite a bit to San Diego State on Saturday but alas…I sat in the upper deck and while there wasn’t much legroom, at least the seats were padded so it wasn’t that uncomfortable. I need to visit the Amway a bit more often; at least I had a good time even if there needs to be more men’s rooms and getting out of the parking garage nearby took at least 10 minutes.

To mention another random activity, earlier this week I went to a German bakery that Mom liked & went to a few times yet until that time I had never visited the Yalaha Bakery. Yes, there’s a tiny town 20 miles away named Yalaha. I picked up a few times and had one; it was in fact quite tasty. After that I went to Montverde and for only the second time stopped by a great ice cream shop known as Orange Blossom Candies & Cream. As the main bridge into Montverde was finally fixed recently, my trips to Montverde will be more frequent.

Finally, the two theatrical experiences I had were for Cocaine Bear then Scream VI. CB, I mainly went as for years I’ve known of the real life story of a random bear in Georgia ingesting coke thrown out of an airplane by a drug smuggler. Of course the bear IRL OD’ed after likely a few minutes instead of going on a rampage as shown in the movie. As for the film, there were plenty of unfunny moments yet the wacky moments, actual tolerable child performers and Ray Liotta’s small role made it just fine. Fine is another word to use when talking of Scream VI. Then again, that’s also my opinion of last year’s Scream V, as it’s unofficially known as. VI had some nice moments-along with gruesome ones-although also some dumb ones, especially in the final act.

When I return real soon, I have quite a few interesting moments to discuss. Everything from new beverages and restaurants to visitors and a special trip on my 42^nd birthday.