Monthly Archives: May 2007

Shrek the Third

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Last day of vacation, so I took Abby and Emily to see the new Shrek movie: Shrek the Third. When the king of Far Far Away croaks, he leaves Shrek and Fiona in charge of the kingdom, unless they can find the other heir to the throne: Aurthur. So, Shrek, Donkey, and Puss in Boots head off in search of the new heir to the throne of Far Far Away. It was a cute movie, but not near as funny as the first two. If you liked the first two, then it’s a must see, otherwise, I wouldn’t be jumping on the Shrek bandwagon with this movie. Abby’s favorite part was after Shrek hears he’s going to be a father. He has a dream sequence where the baby throws up all over Shrek.

Home Sweet Home

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We made it back from camping in one piece. The last day was spent mostly at Typhoon Lagoon, but Isabelle kept getting too cold, so she didn’t spend much time in the water. We packed up the camper yesterday morning and headed home. Once we get home, we have to set the camper back up in order to let it air out and so that we can wash all the sheets. That took us all day, but we packed everything up once again and got it ready for our next trip.

Today has been spent just hanging around the house and recovering. There’s a lot of laundry and clean-up that has to be done.

The picture it today’s entry is from a visitor to our camp. Near dinner, we would usually get a bird or two to show up. They must eat well at Disney.

Star Trek: A Time to Die

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Since the Software Estimation book took me away from me completing the Dark Tower series, I decided to take a quick detour and read a Star Trek novel. These novels are nice and simple and doesn’t take much thought since all the characters are established. I’m amazed that it has been two years without any Star Trek on television. There is a movie in the works, but no word on bringing it back to television.

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Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art

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A few development directors at work have gotten together to read the book Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art, which I finished today. It’s a very good book about different techniques for estimating how long it takes to build software. One of the biggest issues we always have at work is making sure we can build the features we want to build into a game. Sometimes we are right on, but a lot of times lately, we’ve been way off. I plan on discussing some of these techniques with the other development directors at work at the end of the week.

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Team America: World Police

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At the recommendation of a few people at work, I Netflixed Team America: World Police. From the makers of South Park, the movie is a satire of the Jerry Bruckheimer disaster movies, but with an all puppet cast. It is also inspired by the old Thunderbirds television show from the 60’s. Team America is a global police force bent on stopping global terrorism at any cost. They uncover a plot by Kim Jong-Il to unleash a 9-11 type plot, but times a thousand, and their attempt to stop them is hampered by members of the Film Actors Guild. The movie tries to play a lot of the plot overly seriously like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, which is hilarious. There’s a lot of puppet violence and that’s probably what makes it so funny.

End Of School Camping 2007, Day 4

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We had some really good Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs on the grill last night and then we headed over to watch Finding Nemo on the outside movie screen. We figured since Hercules was rained out the night before, we should at least try and see a movie. The girls made it most of the way through and said they were starting to get tired. We packed it up, but it was almost 10:00 so we headed over to the beach and watched the first few minutes of the fireworks that were being shot over at Magic Kingdom. Exhausted, the girls all passed out right when we got back to camp.You would thing they would sleep in, but no. Isabelle was back up at 7:00 and when she’s up, everyone’s up. We had some French Toast for breakfast and we’ve been hanging around camp this morning. Right now the girls are taking a nap. Maybe it’s still residual tiredness from the previous night.

End Of School Camping 2007, Day 3

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The day started with a syrup dilemma. We were going to fix French Toast and the camp site, but we forgot the syrup. This lead to a change of plan and we headed over to the Trail’s End restaurant that’s on site for a breakfast buffet. I say it every time we come here: way over priced.

We didn’t feel like going to one of the water parks today so we headed out on the bus to one of the putt-putt courses, Fantasia Gardens. The only way to get there was to go to the Swan Hotel and we leaned a valuable lesson. When going from resort to resort, just get on the first bus you see and then catch a connecting bus to you destination. The directions we had said we had to go to Downtown Disney. When we pulled into Typhoon Lagoon for the second time we figured out what we did wrong.

On the way back from putt-putt, Isabelle fell asleep and now we are just hanging around camp waiting for her to wake up.

End Of School Camping 2007, Day 2

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After dinner we headed over to the campfire sing-a-long to eat some s’mores and watch Hercules on an outside movie screen. Unfortunately right as the movie was going to start, it started to rain. We hopped into the golf cart we had rented and headed back to camp as quickly as we could as the sky opened up on us. It’s going to end up being an early night since we are about to head to bed.

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End Of School Camping 2007, Day 2

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Abby and I gave up on Isabelle falling asleep and headed back to Typhoon Lagoon on our own and I think we did a lot more heading out by ourselves. We stood in the wave pool and jumped into the giant tidal wave that would periodically get whooshed out. Abby and I would hold onto each other and try to jump over the wave and would just end up getting water up our noses. We also rode two other rides we hadn’t ridden before: a tube ride and a water slide.

We kept going until it was almost closing time on the park and then we headed back to camp for hamburgers on the grill.

End Of School Camping 2007, Day 2

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The morning started at 6:50 a.m when the kids started to stir. Overnight rain started to fall and we could hear it pelting the thin roof of the camper. We got up and started cooking eggs & bacon on the outside stove.

Afterward, we headed off for the other water park, Typhoon Lagoon. The campground is considered a resort and we were able to get in 15 minutes early and get a prime spot for our “home base”. We were also able to ride the family raft ride a few times with no line. Jennifer doesn’t like the ride because they make you work for your fun. You have to roll a giant inner tube up some stairs before you can start you ride. Isabelle started to get chilly so we decided to go back to the camp for some lunch.

Back at camp we had some sandwiches and now we are laying in the camper waiting for Isabelle to take a nap.