Another day of unused vacation ... used.Today was a nice, relaxing day for the most part. I got to sleep in for a change -- which for me means I slept past 8 AM. Not much, really, but that's about two hours later than I normally get to sleep. And after pulling myself from a slumber -- and a rather strange dream -- and checking my email, my senses were drawn to the breakfast table by the enticing aroma of homemade pancakes made with fresh ground wheat flour. Seriously. Delicious. My wife got the fresh ground flour from a friend of hers who has a new wheat grinder, and now my wife is aching for a wheat grinder of her own.
After breakfast it was time for a little fun with the kids. The kind of fun I used to have as a child. We played a few games of Ker Plunk
(remember that game?) and Tip It
. Tip It was a new one for me, but proved to be quite fun, as my three and six year old kids tried to remove the little discs without causing the whole tower to tip over and spill onto the table. When we got their mother into the game, well, she proved to have the most difficulty at the game. 
Today was our little Nacho's three month birthday. We didn't really do anything special for him -- kind of jokingly sang "Happy Birthday" to him while he sat on my lap -- it's just hard to believe that the little booger is already three months old. And for the most part, he is already housebroken and behaves quite well (for a puppy) most of the time.The rest of the day was spent drinking coffee (I drank about a pot and a half today -- OUCH!), relaxing, and then playing some games on the Wii. It isn't often that we get the whole family into the game,
which might explain some of the scores in this picture, but we got the four of us together playing Wii Sports tonight (after the kids finished fighting over Super Mario Bros
). I cannot believe how good both of my kids are at games like Wii Bowling. My six year old son dominated the competition, winning every game of bowling, but my three year old daughter was incredibly good at the game. I simply cannot imagine being so good at such games when I was her age. Unfortunately, the fun came to an end when my hyper-competitive son got upset at my daughter for getting in his way and hit her in the back with his Wii remote. He was sent to bed and banned from the Wii for an indeterminate length of time -- which will probably mean the whole day tomorrow, which is okay as I want to watch the Cincinnati Bengals in the first game of the playoffs tomorrow.Of course, no vacation for me goes without having to do a little work, and today I had to deal with writing a work schedule and arranging for the termination of one of my employees. It's not a part of the job I particularly enjoy, but after having to do it so many times and realizing that most people bring it on themselves, it starts to get easier.
With four more days of vacation left, I have lots of rest and relaxation ahead, and you can look forward to a few more boring, do-nothing go-nowhere vacation-related posts here over the next few days.
Send me your comments. Joe
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
This evening, we carved the kids Halloween pumpkins. It's an annual tradition for us, following our 
The seventh and final day of our Walt Disney World vacation was spent at Disney's Epcot Center. It was probably my favorite of all the parks. I was eagerly anticipating Epcot Center, mostly for the World Showcase -- where countries from around the world are are showcased, including food, gifts, and even street shows. My hope was to get some schnitzel in Germany, but that didn't quite pan out, for several reasons. I'm quite regretful that it didn't, but my wife has promised to make up for it by taking me to one of Indy's German restaurants.
We started the day at Epcot by riding Soarin', clearly the most popular ride at Disney's Epcot Center, as the cast members responsible for the ride meet the crowd at rope drop and guide them directly to the ride (those who wish to go, which was the majority of the crowd). The ride simulates a hang-glider soaring over the earth. It is quite realistic and an understandably popular ride, but not the best ride at Epcot, by any stretch of the imagination.
In my opinion, the best ride at Epcot -- and possibly the best ride of all the Florida Disney parks -- was Mission Space. Four riders join forces as the Commander, Navigator, Engineer, and Pilot of a space ship that is destined for the red soil of Mars. Each rider has his/her responsibilities in order to achieve mission success. The ride is very realistic (coming from someone who has never been to space, much less Mars), even simulating the G-force of take off. My son, who was quite hesitant to ride most of the rides during our vacation, enjoyed this ride -- twice, first riding the tame version of the ride with my wife, then the intense version of it with me. It was a blast, riding Mission Space with my son (no pun intended).
Of course, like every Disney park, there was the usual compliment of characters that my daughter just had to meet, starting with Snow White, 
and followed by Moulon in the World Showcase. it was especially fun to meet Moulon, as she spent quite a bit of time talking with my little girl and even trying to get my son involved in the whole character thing. She almost succeeded.
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