Watching the USA women’s soccer team take on Brazil with Emily at the Citrus Bowl.
USA Soccer with Emily
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Category Archives: Jason
Up early for Abby’s first swim meet
At the Orthodontist
At the orthodontist with Izzy this morning to get fitted for braces. Trying to get her crazy front teeth under control.
Pumpkin Carving 2012
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Death by pony
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July Update
Earlier this month, Nana and Poppy finally came for a visit. Poppy had never visited since we moved back to Orlando and Nana was last here just a few weeks after we moved back. It was nice spending time with them and giving them a tour of Orlando. We decided to do what Nana likes best: shop. While we were at one of the outlet malls, we tried to see the final space shuttle lift off, but it was too cloudy to see it from Orlando.
Since Nana & Poppy were in town, this gave Jennifer and myself a chance to escape to one of the Disney resorts. We had a nice dinner at Portobello in Downtown Disney and then went back to the Bay Lake Towers, where we were staying. At the top of the tower, was a Disney Vacation Club exclusive bar called Top of the World where we were able to watch the fireworks from across the street at The Magic Kingdom. The show was amazing. They even had speakers for all the music that plays during the fireworks.
We enjoyed Nana and Poppy’s visit and hope they will come back soon.
The following Tuesday, July 12th, was the launch of NCAA Football. The studio was decorated with NCAA Football banners and they served the whole studio breakfast.
Finally, July 24th was my birthday and we had big plans. For my 30th birthday, we were still in Austin and celebrated at Dave & Buster’s. Well, they finally opened one in Orlando, after saying that this would be a great place for one after moving here. They just opened this past Monday and it appears they are still working out the kinks. While the food was good, it wasn’t all that hot when it came out. It was also pretty crowded. It’s good to see we can start this tradition back up after 9 years.
Our second stop on the birthday was Blizzard Beach. We decided since we were down south at Dave & Busters, we might as well use our passes to the water park and we spent the whole day there. There was a bit of a scare when Jennifer misplaced one of her bags in the ladies’ changing room, but it turned out okay when she visited the Lost & Found. Phone, driver’s license, and credit card were all still in there.
Our final stop, even though it was 9:00 p.m., was Mellow Mushroom for some pizza. Hands down the best pizza in Orlando and it didn’t disappoint. We were so tired from the whole day, everyone pretty much collapsed.
It was a great birthday and thanks to everyone who wished me a good day on Facebook.
Back to Fireworks
We used to have this tradition of going to see fireworks in Sanford each year. However, since we moved back exactly two years ago this weekend, we haven’t gone back to Sanford. Well, instead of trekking up to Sanford, we decided to try out the Fireworks in our local Oviedo.
The event took place at the newly renamed Oviedo Mall, which hasn’t been doing well economically. Hardly anyone visits the mall and there’s a lot of empty stores as you walk along the mall. The irony today was that there were a ton of people there today for the fireworks, but someone thought it would be smart to close the mall at 6:00. So, the mall has the most people I’ve ever seen, but all the stores were all closed.
Like many others we just hung out near the truck and waited for the fireworks to begin. Expectations were low, but it wasn’t too bad. We had a good vantage point from the back of the truck to watch the fireworks. They handed out these 3D glasses which made the letters “USA” appear next to any light source. They were pretty cool.
The show lasted about twenty minutes and then we tried to get out. It was a mess as all the cars tried to pile out of the mall parking lot with no police directing traffic.
Overall: the fireworks were a hit, but everything else was a bust. The concert and booths in the parking lot were cheap and the mall was closed. They need to get real vendors (like ones in the mall) to either stay open or man booths at the celebration. Also, is it so hard to ask for funnel cake at a 4th of July celebration?
Lazy Week Off
What a relaxing week. Took the whole week off from work in order to rest and recover from the push to get the NCAA Football client ready and off to manufacturing.
We put our new season passes to the Disney water parks to good use, going to Blizzard Beach on Tuesday and then Typhoon Lagoon on Friday. Our verdict: Blizzard Beach is much better. The lazy river takes you around the whole park and you can jump off at a few different points in order to go on various rides. At Typhoon Lagoon, the rides just aren’t as good and aren’t logically grouped together. We rode a “family” tube ride, which sat max 4 so, we had to divide up into 3 and 2 per tube. We then waited in line for 30 minutes for what seemed like a 5 minute (or less) ride. Not worth it. If you have a choice between the two water parks, Blizzard Beach is the one you want.
Fixing our master bath shower progressed a little this week. We had to replace the marble shelves and then order glass for the outside and the door. It should be installed next week. We also fixed the sheetrock in the closet on the opposite wall that we tore up looking for the water leak. Almost done. Jennifer has been busy texturing and repainting the closet wall.
Finally, Father’s Day was on Sunday and we started it out with a trip to The Townhouse for breakfast. This is always my favorite thing to do on any occasion. Besides that, it was a pretty lazy day, not doing much of anything. We ended the day with barbecuing some kabobs on the grill. The marinade we used was excellent and they whole meal was really tasty. Probably the best thing we’ve grilled in a long time.
New Grass Across the Universe
The new lawn finally arrived! Last weekend we had a stalled out bobcat tractor in our front yard and I’m sure our neighbors were thrilled with that. The tractor just died while ripping out our old lawn. They fixed it on Monday and had the rest of the old grass ripped out. On Friday, the new stuff was laid down and then today we noticed the grass was looking dry. Turns out they only set our sprinklers to 16 minutes. I jacked it up to 45 minutes. I’m going to water the hell out of this lawn. There’s no way I spent this much money on grass to just let it dry and and die.
On Saturday was EA’s annual “company picnic”, which is basically tickets to our choice of Universal parks and lunch. We chose Islands of Adventure because we had yet to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’m not a big fan of the books or movies, but Jennifer and Abby like them. Jennifer has read the whole series and Abby just started the first book the other day. We entered the park and headed straight for Hogsmeade at the back of the park. We had some Butterbeer which tasted like cream soda with extra cream on the top.
We knew that we needed to get back to the Harry Potter Ride because the line would be crazy. We got there and the sign said a 75 minute wait and to top it off, Izzy was too short to ride it. Fortunately they offered what is called “ride swap”. We got in line (which took about 60 minutes) and when we got to the front, Jennifer and Emily rode while me and Abby waited with Izzy in a waiting room. When the ride was done, we switched with Jennifer and Emily. It is a very good ride. Like the Spiderman ride, it’s part screens which give you a sense of flying through the air and part fake dragons and spiders that drop down at you. Very well done.
For lunch EA had bought out Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville for a couple of hours. We had a few drink tickets for margaritas and Cheeseburgers in Paradise to eat. I was impressed that we reserved the whole place for lunch. It was roped off to the public and you had to show your tickets in order to get inside.
The kids were tireless. We walked all over that park riding stuff in Jurassic Park-land and getting soaked in Toonland on a Popeye ride. We kept threatening to leave, but the kids kept dragging us to different areas of the park. Finally at 7:00 p.m., we gave up and did a force march to the front of the park, Izzy crying the whole way. I guess 9 hours at Universal wasn’t enough for her. She promptly fell asleep when we got to the truck.
Spring Training 2011
Having such a great time just doing a double-header last year for Spring Training, I told my friend Tom Carbone that I wanted to go more extreme and do a “Spring Training Tour”. So, we did the planning in February, Tom got the tickets, I booked the hotels and we set out Thursday afternoon: Five games in Four days.
Needless to say, that was a lot of baseball, but it was awesome. The trip included visits to four different parks, two of which I hadn’t been to yet. The first was Brighthouse Field in Clearwater, FL, home of the Philadelphia Phillies and near the original home of Hooters (confirmed on Wikipedia). It was a very nice park, reminiscent of the Detroit Tiger’s Lakeland park: not too big and great atmosphere, which included awesome Philly Cheesesteaks.
The second park I hadn’t been to was the home of the Yankees: Steinbrenner Field. I would say this park was too big. It might have been our seats, but it didn’t feel like a Spring Training game. We were so far from the players and the park just swallowed up the atmosphere. The Astros didn’t look too good in the two games we saw, but it did get me pumped up to watch baseball again starting this weekend.
While I was gone, Jennifer’s parents decided to visit. Jennifer’s dad helped around the house, mainly cleaning out our garage (Thanks, Jack!) and helping to install some low-flow shower heads in the girls’ bathrooms. I appreciate all the help while I was out of town on my “tour”.
Frenchville 