Another entry from our recent trip back to Walt Disney World. Please excuse the awkward close-ups of my face. When I am my own cameraman, the shots can get a little TOO close! Enjoy.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
8 Years...
On Friday, September 7, 2001 (exactly 8 years ago today as of this writing), Terri and I bid Nashville farewell and headed south to Clearwater, Florida. I accepted HSN's job offer in late July, so we had a little over a month to get the move planned. Terri worked out a transfer with her job at Lerner, NY. When we were in town for the interview with HSN, we did some apartment hunting and found a place that we liked. Fortunately when the job offer was made it was just a matter of a phone call to reserve the apartment. I remember how strange it felt sitting in our dining room in Nashville filling out the Change of Address forms on our bills with a Florida address. A little scary, but very exciting.
The next few weeks we proceeded to pack up our lives into boxes. We also threw a lot of stuff away. I am a pack-rat by nature (I have calendars from the 1990's for no good reason at all), so purging of stuff doesn't come naturally to me. Fortunately Terri has no such qualms about getting rid of junk. To this day she can fill 6 garbage bags full of clothes and send me off to Goodwill without batting an eye! So for the better part of two weeks we lived out of boxes. We finally got the moving truck two days before the move. My friends from work were kind enough to move all of our wordly possessions down a flight of stairs and into a brutally hot moving truck. They were paid with beer and pizza and I could never have done it without them.
The 15 foot moving truck wasn't big enough. We had an 800 square foot 1-bedroom apartment. It wasn't tiny, but it certainly wasn't a palatial spread. How could all that stuff not fit into a 15-foot truck? We ended up stuffing both of our cars full of stuff as well. We would be towing my Nissan Sentra on the moving truck and my folks would be following us down in our Honda Civic. Both cars were stuffed to capacity, leaving only enough room for our dog Wallace, my folks, and their luggage. The one thing we didn't have room for was our vacuum cleaner. It was the last thing to be packed because we needed to use it for one last sweep of our old apartment, and when the time came to pack it there was just no room. So my buddy Mike got a parting gift of a vacuum cleaner in addition to the beer and pizza.
My last shift at Shop at Home was the day before the move. It was bittersweet. I had worked with these guys for 4 years, and had grown quite close to them. Just minutes before I walked out the door, I was invited out onto the set of the Knife Collector's Show to say goodbye. In the following clip I am called "Bullet" as that was my nickname for much of my Shop at Home tenure. The guy next to me is Glen, who was also leaving to continue his career at HSN at the same time.
One big question we faced was what to do with our goldfish Neptune. I had bought Terri this goldfish before we got married, and she had taken care of him for 4 years. It seemed cruel to just flush him, but moving him seemed to be very problematic. We managed to rig up a system in the cab of the truck between the driver and passenger seats where we secured a box on top of a pillow and placed Neptune's fishbowl inside the box. It worked beautifully and Neptune survived the trip. (Unfortunately Neptune passed away in 2003).
Our last night in Nashville, me and Terri slept on an inflatable Coleman air mattress with only a clock radio and a flashlight in the room. The next day, September 7, my folks met up with us in the afternoon and we dropped their car off at the Nashville airport, where it would be waiting for them when the returned on Sunday evening.
On the way out of Autumnwood Apartments, I stopped at the office and handed in our keys. Then, at 4:00 PM Central Time, with my folks and our dog following in our Honda Civic, we headed south. We stopped for the night in Valdosta, Georgia and continued the trip the next day. The rest is history and stories for another time.
Strange to think that just a few days later, on my first day of work at my new job, the attacks of September 11 took place. That day holds different memories for everyone, but for me it was and remains a day of complete overload. New job, new city, new faces, and the world suddenly is turned upside down and you are 700 miles from all that is familiar to you. But me and Terri got through that together, and 8 years later have made a pretty good life for ourselves down here. New friends, new opportunities, new cars, new cat, new house, and most importantly a new daughter. Will we be here 8 years from now? Who knows, but whatever happens it won't ever be quite the same as that first huge step away from the familiar and into the unknown.
The next few weeks we proceeded to pack up our lives into boxes. We also threw a lot of stuff away. I am a pack-rat by nature (I have calendars from the 1990's for no good reason at all), so purging of stuff doesn't come naturally to me. Fortunately Terri has no such qualms about getting rid of junk. To this day she can fill 6 garbage bags full of clothes and send me off to Goodwill without batting an eye! So for the better part of two weeks we lived out of boxes. We finally got the moving truck two days before the move. My friends from work were kind enough to move all of our wordly possessions down a flight of stairs and into a brutally hot moving truck. They were paid with beer and pizza and I could never have done it without them.
The 15 foot moving truck wasn't big enough. We had an 800 square foot 1-bedroom apartment. It wasn't tiny, but it certainly wasn't a palatial spread. How could all that stuff not fit into a 15-foot truck? We ended up stuffing both of our cars full of stuff as well. We would be towing my Nissan Sentra on the moving truck and my folks would be following us down in our Honda Civic. Both cars were stuffed to capacity, leaving only enough room for our dog Wallace, my folks, and their luggage. The one thing we didn't have room for was our vacuum cleaner. It was the last thing to be packed because we needed to use it for one last sweep of our old apartment, and when the time came to pack it there was just no room. So my buddy Mike got a parting gift of a vacuum cleaner in addition to the beer and pizza.
My last shift at Shop at Home was the day before the move. It was bittersweet. I had worked with these guys for 4 years, and had grown quite close to them. Just minutes before I walked out the door, I was invited out onto the set of the Knife Collector's Show to say goodbye. In the following clip I am called "Bullet" as that was my nickname for much of my Shop at Home tenure. The guy next to me is Glen, who was also leaving to continue his career at HSN at the same time.
One big question we faced was what to do with our goldfish Neptune. I had bought Terri this goldfish before we got married, and she had taken care of him for 4 years. It seemed cruel to just flush him, but moving him seemed to be very problematic. We managed to rig up a system in the cab of the truck between the driver and passenger seats where we secured a box on top of a pillow and placed Neptune's fishbowl inside the box. It worked beautifully and Neptune survived the trip. (Unfortunately Neptune passed away in 2003).
Our last night in Nashville, me and Terri slept on an inflatable Coleman air mattress with only a clock radio and a flashlight in the room. The next day, September 7, my folks met up with us in the afternoon and we dropped their car off at the Nashville airport, where it would be waiting for them when the returned on Sunday evening.
On the way out of Autumnwood Apartments, I stopped at the office and handed in our keys. Then, at 4:00 PM Central Time, with my folks and our dog following in our Honda Civic, we headed south. We stopped for the night in Valdosta, Georgia and continued the trip the next day. The rest is history and stories for another time.
Strange to think that just a few days later, on my first day of work at my new job, the attacks of September 11 took place. That day holds different memories for everyone, but for me it was and remains a day of complete overload. New job, new city, new faces, and the world suddenly is turned upside down and you are 700 miles from all that is familiar to you. But me and Terri got through that together, and 8 years later have made a pretty good life for ourselves down here. New friends, new opportunities, new cars, new cat, new house, and most importantly a new daughter. Will we be here 8 years from now? Who knows, but whatever happens it won't ever be quite the same as that first huge step away from the familiar and into the unknown.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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...
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...
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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...
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...
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Hanna's Video Diary, July 13, 2009
In what I hope will be a new series of videos, I present the first episode of "Hanna's Video Diary". The plan is to post these short videos every so often just because I need some blog material to keep my audience of 5 people satisfied. So enjoy and tell me what you think!
We begin with our trip to Disney World on July 13. Yes, I know...big shock. Enjoy!
We begin with our trip to Disney World on July 13. Yes, I know...big shock. Enjoy!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Mila Rae Brown
On Friday, June 26, my sister Julie gave birth to Mila Rae Brown. She was 8 lb, 12 oz, and 21 inches long...(and her head was 14 inches in diameter!!!!)....that part she gets from her father no doubt.
Proud Dad Chuck, his big head, and his daughter.
Chuck's father, Charlie, and his new granddaughter. 
What a beauty!
Way to go Sister! I'm proud of you!
I'm kidding. Sort of.
Proud Dad Chuck, his big head, and his daughter.
Chuck's father, Charlie, and his new granddaughter.What a beauty!Way to go Sister! I'm proud of you!
Monday, June 22, 2009
When Poop Bubbles Attack!
Hanna has come up with what I consider to be the most descriptive and poetic name for gas I have ever heard: "Poop bubbles" (or its variant, "poo-poo bubbles").
Lollipops have been known to cause explosive poo-poo bubbles....
Like her Daddy, Hanna doesn't care where or when she lets it go. At the store, in church, in the car...she will let 'em rip. And now it is always followed by the phrase "Uh-oh....poo-poo bubbles!" Terri always hangs her head to try to hide her smile as she chastizes Hanna for a natural function. I always follow up with "You tell 'em Hanna!"
I am a proud Poppa.
Lollipops have been known to cause explosive poo-poo bubbles....
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