We’re headed to Walt Disney World Saturday. Like most families, we’ve taken few family vacations that weren’t visits to some relative over some work-sanctioned holiday. Last year, Anna insisted that we go on a real family vacation, just us and the kids, to someplace fun. She had wanted to go to Disney for many years and basically told me to shove my politically correct concerns about Ariel and the other princesses up my mouse-hole, because we were going anyway. Being wise enough not to argue with someone fighting terminal cancer, I signed on with the proper amount of enthusiasm and gusto. And we actually had a very very nice time when we went last December. I took a drawing class and managed to create a likeness of Tigger that was downright passable, despite my complete lack of visual artistic skills. And the rides and stuff were pretty swell. It was great to go swimming in December. Mostly, we just really really enjoyed one another’s company. Yeah, I still have more than a few gripes about the role models that Walt and friends have provided my daughters over the years, but I hope my girls see me and those in my community walking a far different walk regarding race, gender, and ethnicity. Plus, Disney has customer & corporate policies that do not discriminate against my GLBT friends.
Anna knew that I’m a bit of a slacker and that my ADD gets the best of me sometimes. And she knew she probably wouldn’t be around to kick my ass much more about family vacations. So being the wise woman she was, she had us buy into the Disney Vacation Club. We actually cashed some of our retirement savings in to buy what amounts to a timeshare. This would ensure we had (and had to use) a vacation at Walt Disney World every year. A family tradition started by my dying wife to compensate for my sorry-assed, tradition-impaired self (though I’m quickly taking up the slack on that and a lot of other things I thought I sucked at). The nice thing, too, is that we don’t actually have to go to Disney World. We can use our “points” to go to other Disney properties, Disney cruises, and tons of non-Disney places too (i.e. African safaris, bike trips, eco tours, etc).
So we head out for a week with Anna’s sister (who I enjoy quite a bit, along with the rest of Anna’s family). If I can get online there, I’ll probably post something or another -perhaps what I’m having for breakfast.
Now I just have to find some Disney geocaches to make it really interesting.













thordora
| 07-Dec-06 at 8:02 am | Permalink
Gee, all my Dad ever did was take me to Nova Scotia.
I worry about “appropriate” role models all the time, but it comes down to the fact that YOU are the best one. I had to relinquish my hatred for Disney once Vivian saw the Disney store.
Sigh.
Have fun!
Venessa
| 07-Dec-06 at 9:30 am | Permalink
Have fun! We took the girls to disney two years ago when A (the oldest) was three. She STILL remembers the trip and for her, all planes go to Florida. Literally. As an adult and mother of 3 little women, the Disney princess stuff drives me batty. But as a kid, I was sooo into it and I still turned into a flaming liberal feminist. Go fig.
jen
| 07-Dec-06 at 10:04 am | Permalink
just happened across you site. i hope you and your kids will have a great time at disney and a great christmas. i will say a prayer for your family.
jase
| 07-Dec-06 at 12:18 pm | Permalink
Thanks, all. The weather’s looking good, so it should be fun. A smattering of rain to keep the locals away, and we’ll have the parks to ourselves.
jase
| 07-Dec-06 at 12:19 pm | Permalink
btw, Venessa, I’ve tried to get to your site several times and have had no luck at all. Is it possible the link isn’t right above?
jase
| 07-Dec-06 at 12:25 pm | Permalink
Ok, either this is it or there’s another radical leftist Venessa lurking around
You have some fun posts. Looking forward to catching up. (I hate that Blogger doesn’t have an RSS feed for comments. Foo.)
Venessa
| 07-Dec-06 at 12:33 pm | Permalink
oops! blogspot, not blogsport. silly me.
jase
| 07-Dec-06 at 12:37 pm | Permalink
Also, it should be .com, since blogspot.net is just a domain squatter.
jase
| 07-Dec-06 at 12:58 pm | Permalink
And finally, it does look like Blogger Beta has RSS feeds for comments, though they don’t advertise the URL very well. Venessa, yours is http://mama2-3girls.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default
Venessa
| 07-Dec-06 at 1:30 pm | Permalink
your computer jargon is messing with my head. what is a domain squatter? what is an rss feed? ouch…
jase
| 07-Dec-06 at 2:06 pm | Permalink
Sorry. I’m letting my geek show
RSS is a way you can “subscribe” to someone’s blog or comments and copies of new posts/comments will show up in your “feed reader”. You might also hear the term “Atom”. RSS and Atom are, for most purposes, the same. Nearly all blogs publish RSS feeds (including yours).
I use bloglines for my feed reader to keep track of new posts on about 20-30 blogs I frequent so I don’t have to go to each website and then try to remember what I’ve read and what I haven’t. Other feed readers include My Yahoo!, Google Reader, NewsGator (all web-based) and some other programs that you can download if you don’t want to use web-based readers. Outlook and other email programs will soon support RSS, so you’ll be able to check for new blog posts when you check your email.
To subscribe, you’ll see a little orange icon like this:
that you can click on to tell your feed reader you want to subscribe to stuff (at least in newer versions of web browsers).
A domain squatter is someone who registers a domain name (i.e. blogspot.net) and puts up ads and other crap there hoping to get hits from people’s typos.
Sorry there aren’t more links above. I’m sleep deprived from staying up late and then having nasty nightmares last night.
thordora
| 07-Dec-06 at 8:15 pm | Permalink
geek
karrie
| 08-Dec-06 at 11:18 am | Permalink
Have a safe & fun trip!
I actually enjoy reading about what people ate for breakfast. Food rocks.
jase
| 08-Dec-06 at 3:02 pm | Permalink
Thanks karrie! Hopefully I’ll have a chance to post from down there. Now if I can stop barfing today, I’ll be able to finish packing.