i got a fun pass

Yesterday, I took the train to Chicago, to meet up with Chris, Mike, Tim and Julia, and Mom and Dad. I caught the early train, expected to arrive around 8:30am CDT. Just outside Union Station, the train stopped. The train sat for just about three hours because of a derailment.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1839852,amtrak-train-derails-chicago-river-102209.article

Once the train arrived, I joined the group and we were off exploring the city. First walked to Chris's place to check it out, then to the bus stop, jumped on a bus and headed over to the Museum of Science and Industry to wander about. A walk over to Medici, for dinner, and a bus ride back to Union Station to catch the train home. This time it was only delayed an hour. I had a very enjoyable time with everybody and hope we plan to do it again.

any time i want to

A Day at the Magic Kingdom Park is a never-before-seen look at the park in miniature scale. The video is created from a series of photos snapped inside the Magic Kingdom Park. And the trick is tilt-shift photography.

Its a sunrise-to-sunset story told without words. But the message is clear — celebrate.

Our celebration begins at the Magic Kingdom front gates and the Seven Seas Lagoon. The character train welcome and Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! are also featured.

Also, we captured some amazing images of our attractions and the SpectroMagic parade on one of the days it was running on Main Street, U.S.A.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/

and today I want to be there!

settling in

I know how to get to Target now, along with the grocery stores (Martin's and Kroeger's), Borders book store, the Post Office, Starbucks, McDonald's, the gas station. I even know how to get to the Opthamologist, welcome to South Bend, here's a nasty eye virus for you to wear. I have been getting around using the GPS system I bought prior to moving. It is nice to have to drive around. It sends you up and down some rather interesting streets to get you to where you're going, but it does a good job getting you there. Tonight going out to dinner, then to my favorite hang out, the Chocolate Cafe!

the hundred acre wood/winnie the purist

I was excited to see that Disney is going to be releasing another Winnie the Pooh movie in the future based on new stories from a new book released Monday "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood" by David Benedictus in the tradition of Pooh's creator A.A. Milne. Disney had taken creative license with the characters to create a wood inhabited with lovable characters. I read a review of the new book that tore it apart, stating that the original feel and personalities of the characters is lost by having a new author scribe the tales and ruining the wood by adding a new character to populace. I purchased the book today and while I haven't read it indepthly, scanning pages has brought a smile to my face and I look forward to spending a couple of hours in the hundred acre wood.

highs and lows

Spent the last couple of days acquainting myself with my surroundings, slowly unpacking and settling into a routine. All has been going well. While I have been familiarizing myself, one of the cats, Peanut, has been slowly deteriorating healthwise and it's been a hard thing to watch. She had diabetes and stopped eating just about a week ago. She has been to the vet and received subcutaneous fluids, but her kidney and liver functions were starting to fail. On Friday, she started to become lethargic, and stumbled around while walking. By Saturday, she had absolutely no coordination and just layed on the cool tile, panting. I picked her up and held her for several hours until Shane got home from work and we took her to the emergency pet clinic. The Vet seemed concerned about her liver function, but felt she could recover with additional fluids and nutrients. We left her there with the intent of picking her up Monday morning. Early today, the clinic called, and Peanut had gone into cardiac and respitory failure while receiving treatment. Shane and I drove to the facility and were able to spend a few moments with her. I find that words can not accurately describe the experience, but having the experience helped to deal with the passing, especially for Shane, who had Peanut since she was just a kitten, 12 years. It has been a weekend of extremes.

driving

I noticed people drive just as terrible here as they do back in Milwaukee. I remember growing up and the common statement about Illinois drivers and how bad it is driving through Chicago. Well, I drove through Chicago, drove through parts of Illinois, parts of Indiana and the roads were exactly the same everywhere I went. No one drives the speed limit anymore, either extremely fast or agonizingly slow; tailgate dangerously; thoughtlessly drift over lanes; talk incessantly on cell phones, rules of the road be damned.