In the kitchen today

This afternoon I had a craving for vodka sodas. You know I'm usually a Irish whiskey/rocks woman, but with this crazy summer heat, I wanted a refreshing beverage. Something light and citrusy. While at the shop I picked up a bottle of Russian vodka, soda water (actually it was a low-mineral, sparkling water which is close enough) and a lime.

The guy at the register asked, "Are you 21?"  
Yes.
"Well that's good enough for me. I don't know many teenagers that would buy Stoli."
Yeah, I was once carded at a bar after ordering a Jameson rocks. That's a real teenybopper drink.
[cashier laughs]

***

In the evening, I figured it was about time I transform a package of andouille sausage into a pot of jambalaya. Good thing I didn't have vodka soda tunnel vision and remembered to pick up some fresh vegetables and shrimp while at the shop. I'd never made jambalaya before. And I haven't eaten it too many times. And I think every single time has been at Disneyland—not exactly known for authenticity. In anything.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned sometime that I like to listen to music while I work in the kitchen. My iPod wasn't charged so I plugged in an old radio and found a station playing "When the Levee Breaks." Perfect. I dug out the old Zeppelin cds and started browning the andouille.

I'm beginning to wean myself off cooking with corn or vegetable oil. Extra virgin olive oil—I'm still scared to cook with it. You know, low smoke point and other fears. However, I did buy an expensive (actually it was more affordable than most) bottle of "evoo" first cold press or what have you and I figured this is as good a time as any to really start getting into it. Soon I'm adding bell peppers and garlic, celery and onions. Okay, this doesn't seem so bad. I didn't add enough tomatoes. That was apparent and stupid because I have tons on the kitchen counter. Medium shrimp. Long grain rice. Seasonings and chicken broth in lieu of seafood stock or water. The pot filled up quickly with ingredients. Thoughts going through my mind...

1. I don't think that's enough tomato.
2. I don't think that's enough liquid.
3. I like bell peppers, next time I'll put additional.
4. If I really add all the additional stuff, this pot will be too small. I need to buy a bigger stockpot. A heavier one. Will I ever really buy one?
5. Jeez, how much did I spend on these ingredients? If I have to throw it all away as I did with the cake last week, I'm going to be absolutely livid.
6. Pray for success... To who? To what? I am an athiest.

Well, it came out alright. Certainly no more authentic than the Disneyland versions. I'd try this again but with more tomato and cooking liquids; it was a little on the dry side. What else was it missing? I'll have to think about that. It felt good to have a success in the kitchen again after so many fails. And it felt good to have a hot meal. Leftovers for lunch this week!

More photos from Disneyland

Passholders

Sometimes you can just tell who your fellow Disneyland Annual Passholders are.


Here's a guy I spotted in front of me in line at the recently opened (earlier this year) Jolly Holiday Cafe at Disneyland.

He had the other leg tattooed too. That's pretty intense. He's had them for decades he said.


The lines for food were particularly long around lunchtime yesterday. Apparently, all the cash registers went down Park-wide just as people were getting hungry. Have you ever heard of that happening? Slowly, we'd get word, "Two out of our six registers are up." Then finally, "We're back up." We never left the line since it'd be the same deal anywhere at Disneyland and DCA. The hotels? No one was sure but since they are Disney, the cast members assumed, "probably on the same system." I was tempted to call nearby Downtown Disney restos from line, but this tattooed guy kept me entertained with his body art. Anyway, what in Downtown Disney is worth eating? Seriously, if you know, please tell me. 


And here's what I ate

Jolly Holiday Salad. 

Get it? Because it was at the Mary Poppins themed resto? 

I mainly chose this for the name (I really would have preferred a sandwich). And I can do that because I know I'll be back soon to try the other stuff. No biggie. And the salad was fine. It looked small but was just the right size. Everyone was alarmed at the color of the raspberry vinaigrette (looked like cough syrup) but it tasted alright to me. I'm not usually a huge fan of tomatoes in my salad, but these were small, bite-size heirloom-ish ones. All in all, a nice diversion from my usual corndogs or veggie skewers or other foods on sticks choices. 

Also got a chocolate croissant but it got melty in the hot sun and didn't get a pic in time.

How much was it? Well, y'know... Disney-priced. [$8ish] Passholders get a discount, so don't forget to show your pass at the registers.

Check out the Disney Food Blog for better, detailed pics of the restaurant decor and food.

Happy New Year!

Best to you in the new year.
Let's get some projects going!

RIP Disney Pass.

My Disney Annual Pass expired last month and I'm jonesing real bad.

I missed World of Color's opening by less than a week (ouch!) so I still haven't checked that out. I hear it's good though. Someone told me it "kicks Fantasmic's ass." Which is maybe the best review it could possibly get.

What exactly is it that I miss? Well, everything. Knowing that on a whim after work, I could probably go. Get a corndog. Watch some fireworks. Take some photos. Just walk around and soak all of it up.

I have a few Disney related tracks on my iPod. The Electrical Parade music came up (14 minutes of insane electronic music) and I had a weird emotional reaction. Not joking. Is this a physical addiction to Disneyland? Maybe.

My official word on all of this [for fellow passholder friends] is that I'm not opposed to renewing, but I'll do it the day someone wants to rock a full day with me. When you have the Pass you become accustomed to going for just a few hours at a time. No. When I find someone hardcore who wants to go a full day, then I'll renew. No problem.

Here are a couple photos I took on my last visit.


Chewbacca backpack. I told you it exists! Found this guy in line for the Matterhorn. I also saw a guy in line for Peter Pan wearing a Yoda backpack like mine and we just gave each other a "thumbs up" greeting.


At my suggestion, my friends and I had an adult beverage. Yoda had one too. Whiskey rocks is just what the doctor ordered. Yep, they have alcohol if you know where to look.

In other news, I got my computer back from the shop. It works so to pass the time now (minus Disneyland) I can start re-tweaking my settings that got wiped when they replaced the logic board. Tedium, I love it.

Esmeralda and some random new chick on the block.

I have this thing at Disneyland. I really love walking up and down Main Street and usually on my way out of the Park at the end of the day I like to get a $0.25 fortune from Esmeralda (above) outside the Penny Arcade. I've always done that and by having an Annual Pass this year, I've really amassed a pile of those little fortune cards. When I finally got a duplicate, I stopped. The spell was broken...kinda. I still like this machine and I hope they never get rid of it. If they could restore the penny flipbook viewer things, that'd be even better.

What I DO NOT LIKE, is this new chick they've got...

Who the hell is this?

She doesn't even have a name! "Fortune Teller" is not a name. Not to mention the lack of soul. Also, how ludicrous is it to have 2 fortune tellers in the same arcade. If that's not enough reason to hate it, her fortunes cost twice as much as Esmeralda's.

And before you start arguing that Esmeralda is just a machine and has no soul either, witness this amazing recent photo by blogger-BFF TEXTDRIVEBYS in black and white film. Gorgeous.

EMPIRICAL REPORT: Captain EO TRIBUTE

Went to Disneyland after work last night to check out Captain EO TRIBUTE (exactly the same as the original but I'm assuming because of MJ's passing they added "Tribute" to the signage. A little nicer than seeing "Memorial")

They added some effects but the film itself is exactly the same. Total nostalgia. Remembered when I was a little kid and EO 1st came out around the same time as the BAD album. "Another Part of Me" is the 2nd song in EO, remember?

Took photos last night, but my computer is still down. Nowhere to download the pics. Will have to do at the office on Monday. Us ragtag losers can wait till then to find the landing beacon, right?

---

Meghan: how was EO???

IE: lol
the 3D sucks
doesn't work that well

Meghan: yeah its super old

IE: they srsly just took it out of the attic
and threw it back up on the screen

Meghan: no clean up eh?

IE: not at all

Meghan: oh well

IE: same print
the glasses are yellow this time
the seats rumble
it is way cheesy

Meghan: well it was WAY cheesy then too
just even cheesier as an adult im sure

IE: during the 1st song ["We Are Here to Change the World"], the seats bounce
not kidding
rly obtrusively

Meghan: lol

IE: you can see everyone bouncing around
and not even to the rhythm

Meghan: haha

IE: and there's a puff of air when hooter sneezes

Meghan: haha

IE: the lasers and shit are all the same

Meghan: is that all from honey [Honey I Shrunk the Audience]?
they just reprogrammed it

IE: but whenever Fuzzball or EO is in closeup, you go cockeyed

Meghan: haha

IE: there were lasers the 1st time but they added some stuff
and some things fall out of focus
i think the 2nd time when i sat a little off center, it worked a little better

Meghan: ahh

IE: soooo funny tho
the 1st show i went to was packed
ass to ass
and everyone was rly into it
like going shithouse when eo 1st comes up from the ground
and when he moonwalks..it's like 3 steps, but people went crazy
when angelica huston calls her guards, i heard the guy next to me say under his breath "ohhhh shit"
LOL i think he was high

IE: oh they also run the original video when you queue outside

Meghan: lol

IE: mullets and leotards

Meghan: YES!

IE: one of the dancers had a CATS! cutoff shirt
lol so 80s

Meghan: yeah what year was that?

IE: we were laughing cuz george lucas still had a chin

Meghan: LOL

IE: his chin hasn't been seen since the late 80s
EO dated 1986; they intro it before they begin the film

Last Thursday at the Park

Big Thunder Mountain

I rode all of three things last Thursday at Disneyland. [Pirates of the Caribbean (front row, of course), Haunted Mansion, and It's a Small World.] This is the joy of having an Annual Pass. No pressure to ride everything. You can go after work and blow off some steam, have dinner, stroll around with your gentleman friend. So here's a photo I took on one of our strolls. It was taken from that pathway that goes behind Big Thunder Mountain--which I am still fully convinced has its own name tho no one seems to know for sure. Where am I getting this from? I think I may be remembering some fragment from an old Disney map. Was it called Big Thunder Pass? Do you know?.

Here's a couple things I forgot about until yesterday/today...

1. When we were in line at Haunted, there were two young ladies behind us. They were debating which is more awesome, Nightman or Day Man. It was inconclusive, but they wrapped the debate by singing "Day Man" complete with hip swings and overhead claps.
2. When we were in Haunted's "stretch room" I was saying the Ghost Host script along with the voiceover. I always do though I try to keep it more or less to myself. If not in my head, then very very quietly to myself. I look around, everyone is doing the same exact thing. Thursday night at the Park? With your nerd clothes and nerd gear? Yeah, everyone here's a Pass holder.

It's Always Sunny AND Disney minutiae; I realized I am with my own kind.
Join me next week Friday when I check out Captain EO [TRIBUTE] which reopened yesterday.


Comment or message if you know what that path is called.
Or if you just want to weigh in on the Day Man/Nightman debate.

Thursday Night at Disneyland.

Yoda's childlike sense of wonder as we rode It's a Small World at Disneyland last night...



See also: Birthday Gift

Disney Birthday

Birthday weekend began a couple weeks ago and things are finally starting to wind down. Thanks to the pals that rocked out with. Very big thanks to a friend from New York who flew in to surprise me. It was a fun time for all.

I did something like 16 hours at the Park. I was insanely there from open to close and then some. At the very end, a couple of us walked around Downtown Disney--by around I mean around the perimeter and not through as most people might--to get to the car. This was largely due to exhaustion--we were making unwise decisions at the late hour. I'm still not really clear on how we got outside the gates on foot, walking on Anaheim city streets, we were underground(?) for a brief while, and actually finding the car was a huge challenge.

Lines weren't too long and all 9 of us were on rides all day. There were few rides I didn't go on and I rode most things multiple times. My special request this time was for seven in the front row on Tower of Terror (2 partygoers are missing from this photo) with all hands in the air, please.

Well, six out of seven ain't bad.
Look at the fear in the second seat! Totally worth it..

When we weren't going hogwild looking for thrills, we were eating corndogs, skewers, anything on sticks really. Sometimes it's nice to just chill out in some corner of the park. I spent a good part of the morning by myself doing all the things I never really have time to do leisurely like walking that path that goes back around Big Thunder (what's that called?) that leads to the "European" area surrounding the Matterhorn. I spent about an hour in nursing a coffee for breakfast and watching my fellow nerds--I figure anyone who can afford to mill around taking photos of every statue has to have an Annual Pass. Yeah, I even took the train around the Park. Also went into damn near every gift shop they have; Disneyland gave me a birthday gift card worth $72 and I was determined to waste every cent of it on pirate jewelry, mostly.

Took some photos of course...

Time travel.


I like fall colors and days that are sunny but not HOT.


Dental work.


Flying.

My birthday fortunately fell on the opening weekend of all the holiday stuff so decorations and festivities were in full swing.

It's a Small World.


Sleeping Beauty's Castle w/full holiday lighting.

Birthday Gift.

Check this out:


A Yoda backpack like THIS ONE.
This is my new going-to-Disneyland backpack. It will probably make an appearance with me at the next Comic-Con as well.

Wow this is dorky.

I was wearing it around at home for awhile, imagining that I was in the swamps of Dagobah. I actually said it aloud, "I need a lightsaber next time."

Thanks to Ian and Kristina for hooking me up.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bat cookies yesterday at Disneyland.