turkey legs at Disney

On a recent trip to Disney World I ate lunch and took a close look at the Disney napkin.   I noticed all of the food items on it which Disney sells.   I saw the turkey legs and I remembered how good they looked.

When I worked in Animal Kingdom at Disney in the It's Tough to be a Bug show

and I would be the "marquee greeter" (the person who stands at the entrance inviting people to see the show) I would see guests walking by with these huge turkey legs and eating them as they walked.   

Doesn't that look good?    It is so big that the turkey leg is a meal all by itself.    They are sold throughout the parks.   

I was recently visiting Hollywood Studios at Disney and decided to try one of the turkey legs that always looked so good.   This is the walk-up that I got mine at.   I know that it is hard to read the name so I got a close-up of it.

As you can see by the picture this restaurant is called Toluca turkey legs.   By the way, the Star Wars ride at Disney Hollywood Studios is fantastic and a must-see.   Have a great day and if you ever happen to visit Disney World be sure to try one of their turkey legs.     Lew   

Happy Face

Merry Christmas!   I hope that you are having a nice Holiday season.   This morning for breakfast Mary a special Christmas French toast.   She made the French toast and then sprinkled powder sugar on top which looked like snow.   And then she put a red maraschino cherry on top which looks like Rudolph's red nose.   But with the reflection of the fluorescent ceiling light on the plate it made the whole thing into a "happy face".   And the maraschino cherries become the eyes.   Pretty neat.

But the harsh bluish light of the fluorescent lights in the kitchen took the color away from the French toast.   Here is a picture with the camera flash which overrides the tint from the fluorescent lights.

This picture is what the French toast actually looked like.   Doesn't it look yummy?   I put a pat of butter under each piece of French toast and some pancake syrup poured gently over the top so as not to disturb the snow, I mean powdered sugar.   Those are two sausage links at the top of the plate.

How did we decorate the house?   Well, Mary gave the deer head a Christmas make-over.   How do you like it?  

To the left of the deer head is one of those talking fish that has a motion sensor and sings songs whenever you walk by it.    To the right is a squirrel.   Very woodsy.      We each got lots of presents and I hope that everyone who reads this got lots of nice presents also.   And please answer this one question in the comments section of this blog:   If you had to give up all of your presents except one, which one present would you choose to keep.   Have a great day this very special day.   

Would you like to see our chihuahua in her Santa Claus outfit?   Here she is.

Mary made the whole Santa Claus outfit herself which is really quite a job.    Anyway, this is the end of my blog so go have fun with your presents.    Lew

greed

I am living in sunny warm Florida now but there was a time when I was a child that I lived in a small town in New York where we had lots of snow in the winter.   This picture is just how I remember the snow, perfectly smooth on the surface.  

No one had walked through here since the snow had fallen and I would look back and see that my footprints in the snow were the first.    I found it to be a little adventurous as if I were a trailbreaker, walking where no one had walked before.   Of course this was not true but at that young age it is fun to pretend.   Then one day I had my friend Artie with me.  At this time in my life I was a teenager and Artie was in the same grade as me.   It had snowed the night before and Artie and I were walking across the unbroken snow and chatting as we went.   Then off in the distance about 75 feet ahead of us there was a single dollar bill lying on top of the snow.    It was easy to spot because it was green side up (the back side).   

How it got there I have no idea.   There was absolutely no snow on it and so it must have blown to that spot on the wind.   Since it had snowed the night before the dollar bill could not have been there very long.    And where could it have blown from?   As we walked and talked I could tell that Artie had not spotted that green-back dollar bill lying so nicely on the snow.   Then I started feeling an emotion, greed.   I wanted that dollar bill.   If I made a break for it and ran, Artie would have seen what I was running for and Artie could run a lot faster than me and he would overtake me and pass me as he got to the dollar bill first.    I would have to wait until we were close enough so that there wouldn't be enough time for him to catch up and overtake me.   I was nervous.   What if he spotted the dollar bill?   We kept walking and I kept getting more nervous as greed raged within me.   We kept getting closer and I decided to wait no longer but we were close enough for Artie to beat me to it.   I turned to Artie and pushed him and as he fell sideways into the snow I raced to the bill and clutched it in my greedy little fist.   Artie was perplexed.   What was wrong?   Why had I pushed him down in the snow?   The snow had gone down the front of his coat.   The greed left me and now I filled with guilt about being so greedy.  As he stood there pulling handfuls of snow from the inside of his coat I told him why I had acted the way that I had and to make up for it, I told him that I would split the dollar bill with him.   And so off to the soda shop we went.  

This was a time when an ice cream soda was 25 cents.   We each had an ice cream soda and then spent the remaining 25 cents each on candy.   What a sugary feast that day turned out to be.  

I learned a lesson that day about the evils of greed and how it can make you turn on even your best friend.   I also got a strong lesson on how bad guilt can make you feel.   But I tried to atone for it all by splitting my windfall of good fortune with my best friend and all turned out well in the end.   Sometimes we may not realize when life is teaching us one of her lessons.   I learned mine well.   And I also tried to be good because after all Christmas is coming and we all know that Santa has his list of boys and girls.   What a wonderful legend for the very young children who believe the story of Santa with all their heart.  An exciting time for the little children.   

I invite any one to leave their story of a life's lesson in the comment section at the bottom of the blog.   Have a nice day and an even better holiday season whatever your religious convictions may be.     Lew

Peter

I grew up eating Frosted Flakes.   I can't even begin to tell you how many bowls I have eaten.   It is my favorite cereal.   But lately I have been eating Special K.   My favorite is the Special K with cinnamon and pecans.

A very close runner-up is the vanilla flavored with almonds.

There is a tremendous variety.

I was looking at the different types of cereals.   I remembered my struggles with the Rice Krispies.

Being a gourmand I like to fill my bowl with cereal.   This presents a problem when I pour the milk into the bowl because the rice krispies are so buoyant they float and start spilling over the sides of the bowl before I have put hardly any milk in.   As I pour in more milk, more rice krispies spill over the sides of the bowl.   I use my hand to gently push the rice krispies down into the milk and (you guessed it) even more rice krispies spill over the sides of the bowl.   Now there are rice krispies all over the table around my bowl.    I know, put less rice krispies into the bowl, but remember I am a gourmond and so I like my bowl full.   Then I spied a rice krispie cereal that I had not noticed before,   Rice Krispies Treats.

Oh boy, did that bring back memories.   When I worked at Disneyworld, the management gave Rice Krispie treats shaped like snowmen and Christmas trees to the employees during the Christmas season as a treat.   They were sealed in plastic and were sold in the gift shops.  Disney always seems to be giving unexpected treats to its employees which makes working there even more pleasant.   We had a small office where we would take our breaks.   I ate my Christmas tree shaped rice krispie treat with gusto.    It was good.   Over the next few days I noticed that there was a rice krispie treat sitting on top of our small refrigerator.   Someone had written something on it but it was smudged and I couldn't make out what was written.   After it had been there for almost a week I figured that nobody wanted it and so I ate it.    It was just as good as the first one that I had had.   A couple of days later a coworker named Peter came into the office and said "Who took my rice krispie treat."   I felt terrible and immediately told him that I had eaten it because I didn't think that anyone wanted it.  He said that he had written his name on it.   I told him that I had seen some writing but that I couldn't read it because it was smudged.  He seemed disappointed over not having his rice krispie treat.   Peter had been in the military during the Vietnam war.   He was an army ranger.   The best of the best but unfortunately he stepped on a land mine which took both of his legs off up to the hip.   Now he was in a wheelchair.   He handled this very well but my eating his rice krispie treat made me feel like Attila the Hun.   I ate Peter's rice krispie treat shaped like a Christmas tree!   Yes, to make matters worse I had done this at Christmas time.   I was "lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut" as they say.   I went to the nearest gift shop and bought a replacement and gave it to him.   I had to appease my conscience.   Atone for my error.    I apologized to him profusely and he laughed.   Peter really was a very nice person and an inspiration to everyone.   Never again did I ever eat anything that wasn't mine, even when it had been sitting around for a long time.   So here I am with the Christmas season upon me and the incident with Peter came to mind when I saw the rice krispie treats cereal.   Have a nice day and if you happen to feel bad, just get a soft serve ice cream cone (preferably the large size and waffle cone) and everything will seem better as you eat the ice cream.   It works for me!   Take care and enjoy yourself.      Lew

life springs eternal

This is a tree stump and the center of it is rotted out and so I planted some marigolds there.   Marigolds are my favorite flower.   Wait, that is Molly the cat in the picture.   You all know Molly.

I call this her silly picture because of the face that she is making.   Actually, she has just finished a sumptuous breakfast and is licking her chops to get every last bit of food.   Let me show you a better picture of the marigolds and how nice they look.

In the above picture you can see how the center of the stump is gone and I filled it with dirt.   But now the cold weather is coming and it reminds me of the folk song Where Have All The Flowers Gone sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary.   I know that Pete Seeger wrote the song and sung the original versions of it but I only remember Peter, Paul, and Mary singing it.   It is a pretty song.    And now I hum the tune "Where have all the flowers gone"

With the coming of winter comes the lack of rain along with the cooler weather.   The flowers have died off and dried up.  But wait, what is it that I see?   Could it be flowers?   No, it can't be.

Well yes it is.    One small blossom and one bud getting ready to blossom.    Amazing. 

We had a very small amount of rain (and I do mean small) and this must be the result of it.   Voyager once told me that to keep my marigolds growing that all that I had to do was to keep watering them.   It looks as though she was right with some good advice.   I will be sure to water them today and see if I get a response.   In Florida, water is something that we have an abundance of.    Isn't it amazing though how life just springs eternal.   Lew  

good news, bad news

Let's get the bad news over with first.   A sink-hole opened up and the car fell into it.   

This happens in Florida from time-to-time.   You can be washing your car and you go inside the house to have lunch.   And when you come back outside your car is gone and there is a hole where it once was.   You look down into the hole and there is your car.    How to get it out?   I have no idea.   So what is the good news?   How can there be any good news about something terrible like this?   The good news is that this wasn't my house or my car.    I know, I know, someday a sink-hole may open up and swallow my car.   And then somewhere someone will be writing on their blog about my car being swallowed by a sinkhole and that they are so glad that it wasn't their car.   Could this be like the old expression "what goes around, comes around?    And in closing here is a riddle:  "how daddy is doing".    Have no idea?   If you watch the movie LA Story starring Steve Martin you will find the answer.   Good luck and have a great day shopping amongst all those crowds.    Lew

my parents

These are my parents.   My dad had a small vegetable market in Catskill, New York.   My mom always worked right along next to my dad.   They were a devoted couple and as you can see in the picture that they are holding hands.    This picture was taken a very long time ago and I was around 4 or 5 years old.   As young as I was, I do remember the vegetable market.  Or should I say the Catskill Fruit and Vegetable Gardens.    And I also remember Ted's Diner next door.

This was all a very long time ago and back then buildings weren't one story just for the stores on the first floor but were three story structures with the 2nd and 3rd floors being rented out as apartments.   Now that makes sense, why collect rent only from the markets when with the extra two stories you can collect apartment rents.   Makes sense to me.    However my parents didn't live above the store, they lived in a neighboring town called Athens.   Like I say, all of this was a very long time ago.   How long ago?   Well this picture should tell you.   Just take a look at the car parked in front of the store.

I guess business wasn't as good as it should have been because he eventually left the vegetable business and went to work first at the Liberty grocery store just down the block and then on to Grand Union grocery store in another town.   He remained with Grand Union for the rest of his life.   He really loved the grocery business.   But, oh my, what a serious expression.   He actually smiled all of the time and everyone liked him.   He probably decided to pose with a serious expression for the picture which people did back then.

It is good to remember our parents from time to time.   They were good times.   I was young.   I didn't worry about how the bills were going to be paid.   My parents did that.   I didn't have to go to work.   Once again, my parents did that.   I didn't have to lay down in the snow to put the chains on the tires of the car.   My dad did that.   So what did I do?    Well, I played all day.   What a great life!    Have a fun day today.    Lew

Atomic Soldier

I recently checked out a book from the local library.   It is about atomic testing.   The book is very good.   In this particular book there was a note written in blue ink by an individual.

It appears that his name is David Baird and that he lives here in Florida.   I see that the note was written 15 years ago.   I have tried unsuccessfully to make contact with this individual.    I think that he would be an interesting individual to talk to.    Does anyone know of this individual?   Any information would be helpful.

Here is a picture of the atomic blast Upshot-Knothole - Encore.

I wonder if Mr. Baird was in this picture.

Or maybe in this picture.

The Atomic Soldiers, as they are known, were  brave men from a bygone era.    It was a much different world back then.

It must have been an awesome site for those who were there and fortunately according to Mr. Baird he didn't suffer any ill effects.   The movie Nightbreaker starring Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez was a good movie about the soldiers participating in the atomic tests.   There is also a good book Atomic Soldiers which also describes the experiences of the soldiers at the Atomic Test Site.   I have had the good fortune of having visited the Nevada Atomic Test Site.   It was very interesting from a historical perspective.

Have a nice day and enjoy life.    Lew

rocket launch

So there I sat in front of the television watching the launch of the Mars rover with only 1 minute and 12 seconds to go.    The clarity of the picture was exceptional.   The moiré pattern is from my camera and not the television.    The camera must have a polarizer somewhere which is creating this pattern.   I have cable television and I was watching the launch from the NASA channel.   The launch was spectacular.   I watched the rocket go up until the external supplementary rockets fell away.   Then I decided to go outside to see what I could see.   From the front porch I could see the smoke trail from the rocket.

As I looked at the wavy rocket trail I chuckled and thought "who is steering this thing".    It is weaving all over the place.   But actually it is the winds moving the smoke trail around.   I waited too long before going outside to look at it.   Normally it is nice and straight.  

I didn't hear the actual rocket roar (which can be heard here in Orlando) because as I watched the launch on television, the roar of the rocket engines from the television speakers was so loud that it would have drowned out the actual roar from the engines outside.

Hey, would you like to see a picture of my nephew?

Yeah, he had a job putting the tiles onto the space shuttles.   Sounds like a really neat job.   And it is also neat to be a part of history.   Have a fantastic day and one more left-over turkey sandwich for lunch.    Lew

cannonball hole?

Do you see anything unusual in this picture?   No?    Look more closely.   See it now?   Okay here is a little hint.

How about now?   See it?   Well some of you do and some of you don't so here it is.

Isn't this just absolutely incredible?   A large hole through the middle of the tree.   How did it happen?   I don't know.

And look at it from the backside.   It is hollow inside.   How can the tree possibly survive?

But here is the real "kicker".    This is an orange tree and with all of this damage the tree is still producing oranges.   It is amazing how living things cling to life and in the face of terrible adversity still keeps on doing its purpose in life. 

I think that this tree deserves a medal for carrying on after it has been so seriously wounded.    It looks as if a cannon ball from civil war had plowed through it.  Perhaps, it was from one of Ponce de Leon cannons as he was searching for the fountain of youth.  I know, a fanciful imagination run amok.    But hey, anything is possible.   I will keep an eye on this tree to see how well it does.   How long has it been like this?   Once again I don't know.   Sometimes things will just amaze me and this is one of them.    Have a nice day and take time to smell the flowers and appreciate all that nature has to show us.    Lew

Mars Rover Launch

Are you ready for the rocket launch to Mars tomorrow?   The launch is scheduled for 10:02 am.   Get yourself a nice warm cup of coffee and watch the launch on television.   Preferably the NASA channel if you receive it.   The Mars rover called Curiosity is being launched on an Atlas V rocket.

This is quite a razzle-dazzle piece of space hardware.   It looks like it is going to be landing in a pretty sandy place on Mars.

I find it interesting that so many meteorite impact craters are still visible.   I would have thought that they would have been buried by the planet-wide dust storms that they have on Mars.   I would bet that the two guys from the show Meteorite Men would love to search this area with their metal detectors.  

By the way, the television show Meteorite Men is really fascinating.   Watch it if you get a chance.   On Saturday morning I will be in front of my television watching the launch.

The picture above is what I will see on television.   And then I will run out into the front yard here in Orlando and this is what I will actually see.   But I can also hear the roar of the engines right here in Orlando.   Absolutely amazing.

So set a timer to remind you of the launch so that you will be sure not to miss it.   It will be a piece of history in the making.   Oh, by the way, if you don't drink coffee then how about a drink and some chips when you watch the launch.   Enjoy the day tomorrow and have a turkey sandwich with turkey left over from Thanksgiving.   Take care and enjoy the launch.   Lew