Nicole Wilker

Just me, in your face!

Archive for February, 2009

Disney Day 2 at Animal Kingdom

Feb 15

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Sunday we headed to the Animal Kingdom Theme Park! We wanted to get there early, to ride the safari ride. I know it’s not africa and it’s really just a big zoo – but i was excited!!  We got there right after the gates had opened and we raced to the back to get in line or grab a fast pass! Luckily there was only a 10 minutes wait! Woohoo!!  Yeah me!!

We hopped into the "bus" and off into the African Safari we went!  The animals were all in view, all relaxing, having been fed an hour or so earlier!
We saw tons on elephants! A baby and a teenager to boot!!

We saw a cheeta, and a big old lion like from the lion king, sitting at the top of his area sunning himself!
It was really fun! After that, the Jungle Cruise ride at the Magic Kindom, is kind of a let down! ;)

We were able to get off the Safari Ride and grab a ride on the Mt Everst on the other side of the park! The ride was similar to The Matterhorn in Disneyland, but better, steeper, backwards and darker!  It’s a pretty cool park. Last time i was at Disney with the family we skipped it, definitely not too kid centric, but fun!

We had a nice – and really really expensive lunch at the Yak and Yeti – not to be confused with the dinner we had Monday night at the Yak and Yeti!
Yummy ribs, pho, and beef and broccoli as well as some asian appetizers! Mmmm!

On our way out we took a walk around the "tree of life". Which is the central item in the park. It is huge and all carved with a ton of different animals!

We were able to get everything done we wanted to get done by 1 o’clock – and that included a leisurely lunch!
We headed back to the hotel to let L head on home and meet up with the Birthday gal!!

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Happy Valentines Day!!!

Feb 14

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To one and all – Happy Valentines Day!

 

 

 "Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

 -Franklin P. Jones

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Hubby!

Feb 13

Posted by Nicole in Ramblings | 2 Comments

 

Have a most fabulous birthday sweet pea!

Disney Day 1 Part 2

Feb 13

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Saturday night we decided to head to Downtown Disney for some adult time! 

Way back when – like the 90′s – i was here for a US First competition and remembered pleasure island being super cool, adult only, every night is midnight, lots of bars type of place.  Sigh… Alas that has gone the way of the wind. Poop!  I was hoping for a respite from all the children. Too bad for me!

All the bars are gone except one – the explorers and that didn’t seem to be open at 9pm…  And they had added on to downtown Disney – a whole additional arm of shops and a giant movie theater and the best place in the universe to get a slushy!!  Stop in at the Cauldron next time you are in the area!

As we walked around checking out the options for snack we decided on the Fulton Crab Shack. The place was hopping. To me days blur in Disney but we found out later that a Saturday night is still a Saturday night even in a giant resort! We attempted to belly up to the bar, but were only able to gain a small foot hold at the end with no seating! Hubby got a Pop Rocks Martini – super duper cool presentation! The fill the bottom of the glass with a whole packet of pop rocks, then the bartenders ducks and attempts to get as far away from the glass as possible as he pours the drink in! The little pop rocks went everywhere – hubby found some in his hair much later that night!

We had some fun conversation, saw some bar tricks, and enjoyed ourselves!

We eventually headed back to the hotel but did stop to get birthday ears for mom-claudia, since she was meeting up with us the next day and monday was her birthday!!  Pretty cool set up- you pick the base hat,the ears – bout 6 different styles, and they button onto the hat, and then there are all kinds of iron on patches to add! We thought it was great!

We returned to the hotel just in time for the end of night vision animalviewing. They had just put out food for them to eat, so all of theanimals were right by the fence having a midnight snack! It was supercool! 6 giraffes, some long horn cow thingies, some antelopes, and evena bunny! It was a neat feature of the hotel!!  We loved it! And to seethe giraffes drink! They splay their legs and dip their head down toget the water. Crazy!

It was great day! And ended wonderfully!

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What Flower are you?

Feb 12

Posted by Nicole in Question/Survey of the day | 1 Comment

I am a
Sunflower

What Flower
Are You?

 

"When your friends think smile, theythink of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can’t findsomething good about the world and your fellow human."

 

(hmmmm….  )

Disney Day 1

Feb 12

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Saturday we slept and slept and slept- gotta love vacation!!
Our only plan was to meet up with L and enjoy the florida winter weather!  (it was darn cold i tell you!)

I awoke first – big surprise! And i headed down to the fitness center.I wasn’t sure what to expect as some times hotels skimp on the fitness area.
Disney did not skimp!
The had a front desk (also there for the spa), and tons of equipment!
There were 3 ellipticals, 6 bikes, 4 treadmills and a TON of weight machines as well as an entire free weight area – darn, was bummed that it wasn’t a weight day! The only bummer were the idiot parents that thought it was a brilliant idea to let their kids play on the cardio machines while they looked around. Sigh….

I got back to the room and woke up the hubby – he was a little put off till i told him what time it was!

We looked out at our "standard room" view. Which at this time was anempty animal enclosure! And my favorite, was the sign on the slidingdoor!

We headed out to see if we could scrounge up some grub before L came to see us! We found Mara – the snack bar- at the hotel.
Not great, not terrible, but they did have a yogurt parfait that became my breakfast choice for the entire time!


The weird thing was that the menu board was movie like and the food choices would come out at you…  strange.

The cool thing that the snack bar did have was a large selection of wine and even had little plastic glasses – we partook of that on thelast night!

L arrived around 2 after a quick tour of downtown Orlando since her nav thought she meant the Disney there as opposed to Lake Buena Vista (note to self, don’t make that mistake!)

We headed out to the Board Walk – the new mini downtown Disney. Kind of a let down during the day! And be aware that if you think you can get there via Epcot – you best have a ticket to get into the park because the boat ramp in through the park! We went the long way, but it was a good time for me and L to catch up! We finally got there around 3:30 – and were hoping some places would be open for a very late lunch or even an early dinner…  alas, no such luck…  We ended up at the Big River Grill and Brewery , not terrible, not fantastic either.

On our way back to the hotel was saw "when birds attack".  We were just walking down the board walk and notice a seagull start to come in very very very low near the people in front of us. Then this bird scared and proceeded to knock the pizza out of their hands and then the rest of the flock swooped in and had an easy meal. Too crazy!!!

We enjoyed the boat ride back to the Hollywood Park and took the bus back to the hotel – lots of time was spend on transportation

 

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Heading to the land of the mouse

Feb 11

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We headed off to the world of the mouse Friday afternoon!
Security was light! Yeah!
We decided to chill out at Chef Jimmy’s for an early dinner.
After a long flight which included a wee one that had colic or an ear infection and cried the ENTIRE 3 hour flight. Ugh!!!!
Really helped the determination to remain child free. The parents attempted to placate the baby but failed completely!!!
I don’t know why they flew with a baby that young in the first place, flew when it was in pain or sick, and flew in the front of the plane where the people that fly the most sit!!! (i know, snob!) ARG!!!  I really wanted to let them know what i thought of their lack of parental control but whosed out!

Our next joy was getting to wait for the magic express… ugh. Can’t say i would do that again, but one usually forgets how long and painful that whole bus process is between trips! (it was worse coming back – but that’s another post!)

We arrived at the property pretty close to it being almost the next day! Sigh!
We went to check in and Brian – from UNH – our Animal Kingdom host was less than thrilled to be on his shift.
He asked if our address on the license was correct and we said no – yes we have yet to update our addresses, shame on us.
And he gave a big old sigh, and when the other check in gal mentioned she had already printed a bunch of stuff for check in, he huffed that it didn’t matter that he had to do it all over again…  I guess having the wrong address is a big deal…

We arrived at our hotel room which was just down the hall from the main lobby and all the action – yeah!
We open the door and there are 2 queen beds. Hmmm…  I was pretty sure that i had booked a king and a trundle…  But alas our travel agent is not all that and a bag of chips – she even forgot to enter our frequent flier numbers so our seats were further back then they should have been… 
I returned to the front desk to chat about this…  They informed me that i had a "standard" room – a.k.a. – you bee a cheap ash and you get what you get!  I was perplexed by this…  Hubby and I don’t do well in a queen bed. We both seem to sleep – wide, so it’s really not a great arrangement…
She looked to see if there was a room with a king bed and said we could pay for a cot…  um, ok…  But alas, at 1am, no rooms available, but we could check the next day… sigh…  I have having to change rooms…

We fell into bed, pulled the fabulous black out curtains and attempted to sleep like the dead!

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New doctor – new issues!

Feb 5

Posted by Nicole in Ramblings | 2 Comments

New doctor – new issues!

So i had to find a new primary physician. Through 6 degrees of separation i found one! Who knew so many were no longer taking new patients… sigh…

So I arrive this morning, not really expecting much except – is he creepy and do i feel comfortable dumping all my "issues" on him!

He a nice tall Asian fellow, nice picture of a good sized family on his desk and he makes me laugh! Yeah!
We go over some of my issues and he indicates i need to get more fiber by eating more whole grains… Well one of my successes at losing my weight is cutting out carbs  and leaving my calories for the yummies….  Well bummer.

We do an exam and it turns out my heart valve sounds funny (again) i go through this about every 3-4 doctors. They freak out about and extra thump when listening to my heart valve. So again, off to get an ultra sound  (that will be scheduled later).

He also took a peek at my tonsils and told me I had gurd. I’m thinking – i think i would notice if icky bile was rolling around in my throat. Well guess what folks, now there is a silent gurd! Who knew? So i’m supposed to be off spicy food (SAY WHAT????) – i balked at that and he said, well just as dinner…  You mean the main meal i get to share with my sweetie pie? The who’s heat threshold matches mine to a tea? Well poop.
The other thing he said was that my sinuses etc were very dry and i needed to put olive oil on my notrils before bed (weird) and think about a neti pot. I said – oh hell no – to the neti pot. He promised if i bought one, and brought it into him, he would show me how to use and that i would fall in love…  I said i would think about it, just so we could move on from the topic!

Next thing he found was that my feet had some issues on the bottoms. He put a bit of pressure in the middle of the bottom of my foot and said see – doesn’t that hurt. I was like… yup! So now i need to find a golf ball and roll it around to break up the ickies there…
And go see an orthopedist…

So, i went for a check up and cholesterol check and now i have all kinds of things wrong with me!

Whirlwind weekend

Feb 2

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Whirlwind weekend

This weekend we were in Irvine, CA. Hubby had a conference to run and I was all about taking advantage of the free hotel room!

Wearrived around 7, and had the hertz gold action going and no checkedbacks, so we cruised right out onto the 405 in record time!!
Myfriend Laura and Mike (the ones that got married in Big Sur) were ondeck for dinner! Hubby wanted Round Table – i could do without thecalories involved in an outing to Round Table. Laura ended up being theone to have to pick where to eat, so she went with their favorite sushiplace. Full Moon sushi. We enjoyed some yummy sushi (some not so yummy- but they took it off the bill) and some Japanese beverages!
Afterstuffing ourselves there, they wanted to show off their next most favorite dining experience – yogurt land. Oh my! I was able to contain myself by knowing it was a big bowl – a waaay too big bowl, so i put aslittle in as possible to get a good taste!

By the end of the night we were pooped! Still on Denver time – 11pm is late for me!

The next morning hubby I got our breakfast from Starbucks, and headed overto Boeing for his conference.

I hung out for a while, but there was no-one there to open the doors. I eventually left him to figure it outso i could start my day of fun!!

I first headed to see my "kids". I got some kisses and slobbers. We played some ball. And we took a walk too!
The time came too an end waaay too fast.

My next stop was to see my friend C and her twins. Last time i had seen them in person I was here for the baby shower which turned into thebaby birth and they were in their little warmers in the neo-natle area. 
I hung out and played with the little buggers for a bit and then C and I headed to lunch and our massage appointments…  Mmmmm!
We went to Tortilla Flats which is right on Mission Viejo Lake and then to Spa Tisari. I had a tough time relaxing enough to enjoy it completely- my second cup of coffee when i was visiting with Mo and Scoot just put me into over drive!

After our relaxing afternoon I headed to see my friend Sunshine at his wine locker. He had offered up some tastes of his stock. Don’t ever turn that down!
That turned into an impromptu party with the other locker owners. I tasted some really good and really expensive wine!
Even a 63 Fonseca port! Mmmm! Hubby was jealous!!!

Hubby and I eventually connected back up at his after conference pizza party at – yup you guessed it – Round Table Pizza!

It was a long long long day, but i loved it all!

The next day was still packed! We stopped by kim’s place – she had had a deviated septum operation and couldn’t come out and play over the weekend.
It was nice to sit and chat but never long enough!
Next was Robbins Brothers to get my diamond checked. It’s doing fine and is now sparkling brightly!


And then we ran out of time to stop and see the kids again.  :(

We ate lunch at the new little asian meca built off Jamboree but it was crazy busy so we ate at the Greek Restaurant! 

The flights were both annoying! On the way to OC there was an employee with 2 little ones taking up the bulk head seats and apparently had no experience dealing with his own children. They yelled and screamed and cried and were generally disruptive the entire time. Sigh. Some parents are just not really good outdoor parents! They have no idea on how to control their own children.
On the way back to Denver we have the privileged of sitting across from a self absorbed, yuppy family with a small child.
They expected to just be given an extra seat even though they didn’t pay for it. Then the mother also thought it would be enjoyable for everyone if she sang and talked to and about her daughter in an extremely loud voice. Ugh! I really hate people!!