Happy Birthday Terri, part 2

Well, it's over a week late, but suffice it to say that Terri's birthday was a happy one...mostly.

As we pulled into our parking space at the Magic Kingdom, I ask Terri to stow my iPod in the glove box. As she opened the glove box, there was a small, blue box with a white ribbon waiting for her. I usually wait for Christmas to give Tiffany's, but I figured I'd shake things up a bit this year. It wasn't a diamond or a platinum band or anything, but it was a silver ring with "I Love You" engraved on it. Simple and elegant and, it turns out, a HUGE hit!

We went to the will call window and got Terri's birthday present from Disney...an 80 dollar gift card. This year Disney is offering everyone free admission to the parks on their birthday, but Annual Passholders are given a gift card of equal value to an admission ticket. She also got a large pin that said "Happy Birthday Terri" on it, which she wore throughout the day and got more birthday wishes in one day than she will likely get for the rest of her life.

It turns out that I've created a bit of a theme park touring monster with my numerous "Dad and Hanna" trips to Disney. Hanna has a set routine that includes the following (in this exact order):

1. It's a Small World
2. Dumbo
3. Peter Pan
4. Go and meet Ariel, the Little Mermaid
5. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
6. The Carousel (sometimes)
7. The Walt Disney World Railroad

Any deviation of this plan will result in extremely bad behavior. This time she cried for the entire time on the carousel, as if those lovely horses were racing her to her doom. No idea why she did this. And don't even think about venturing outside Fantasyland. Terri wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion, but it became clear as we approached the menacing structure that Hanna was not having any part of the happy haunts that dwelled within. Nor was she going to be setting sail with the Pirates of the Caribbean. Amazingly, we did get her into the Hall of Presidents. I wanted to see the updated show with the Obama robot, and when Obama took the stage Hanna said "There's Donald Duck!" It was hilarious. I'm not sure why she said that, as Obama neither looks nor sounds like Donald Duck, but it provided a chuckle for us and those sitting around us.

We then headed to Epcot to grab lunch at the China pavilion at the Nine Dragons restaraunt. This almost didn't happen as Hanna decided it was going to be time for a complete meltdown just before we sat down to eat. After a trip to the bathroom with Terri, Hanna's attitude was put back into alignment, and we had a nice meal. For her birthday, Terri got a delicious piece of some kind of ginger cake and the serving staff wrote Terri a birthday note in Chinese script which was very neat.

After a walk around the World Showcase part of Epcot, we rode the Finding Nemo ride and decided to call it a day as it had started to rain a bit. Despite a few bumps it was a wonderful day with the family. I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, but amazingly I didn't think to take any! Next year perhaps...

Bye for now...

Happy Birthday Terri

August 12th is my lovely bride's birthday. I am a gentleman so I will not reveal her age, but I will say that she was born the same year I was and I was born in 1975.

I bought her an ice cream cake and got her a George Foreman grill to replace the one she had (this was what she wanted -- just to be clear). Our old grill had nonstick coating flaking off in our food and always shot out a wicked spark every time I plugged it in. So the grill was not only a practical gift, but one that probably saved our lives. Yes, the days of gifting Victoria's Secret and Tiffany's have given way to electric grills. And she was thrilled to get the grill! We are well on our way to being an "old married couple". And that is just fine with us.

We celebrated with the cake and the gift the evening of the 11th since on the 12th we will be heading to Walt Dis....do I even need to type it out? This year as Annual Passholders we get a $75 gift card on our birthday. I claimed mine back in March, and Terri will do the same. Of course $75 at Disney World will get you a t-shirt and a hot dog if you're lucky. But I'm sure we'll have fun. We'll be lunching at Nine Dragons at the China pavilion, which is Terri's favorite place to eat at Epcot.

The saga continues tomorrow. Stay tuned...