Little Green Army Men

Little green army men.   Remember them?   They were one of my favorite childhood toys.

For a dollar I could get a large bag of these toy soldiers.   They had a base to them to help keep the toy soldiers from falling over.

I visited Walt Disney World, Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Land this week.  It was a nostalgia trip down memory lane with huge representations of toys from my childhood.

And along came these "Little Green Army Men" drumming a nice marching beat on their drums.   Actually, they weren't so little.

They were completely covered in green material.   It is August and incredibly

hot, especially at 100% humidity.   I don't know how they managed to tolerate  the heat.

What was interesting was that they had flat pieces on the bottom of their boots similar to the toy army men.   And they could walk without any problem.

I only saw about half of the Toy Story Land but evidently they have the Little Green Army Men for sale in a gift shop.

By the way I was a big fan of R. Lee Ermy.   He was great both in Full Metal Jacket and Mail Call.

Have a really nice day wherever you may be.    Lew

 

Gaston's Tavern

Gaston's Tavern.   It is located in Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom.  

 

A good place to get a nice cool LeFou's brew on a hot day.   It was really hot this day, 94 degrees and 100% humidity.

I had read several times about LeFou's brew and wanted to try it.

 

LeFou's brew is a non-alcoholic slushy/slurpee drink that is mainly unsweetened apple juice with a mango/passion fruit whipped topping on the top.  

For being unsweetened apple juice it tasted really good.   Plus I was really hot and drank the drink a little too fast.   What happens when you drink a slushy/slurpee type drink too fast?   You guessed it, a brain freeze.   So I slowed my drinking way down to alleviate the brain freeze.  You can get your drink in a nice goblet or mug, but I opted just for the plastic glass.

This is a counter service snack eatery.  

Do you like cinnamon buns?   How about a cinnamon bun with extra icing.   No, I didn't get one, but it does look good.   Really good with a cup of coffee.

The interior of the tavern reminded me of a Bavarian hunting lodge.   They had a chandelier made of deer horns (well, actually they probably were not real deer horns.   But very impressive none the less).

 

There was also a blunderbuss (early form of shotgun) hanging on the wall.

There is so much more to see at Disney than just the thrill rides.   Each time I go I discover new things.   Having a great time at "The happiest place on earth".    Lew

Disney magnets

I like going to Disney World so I got an annual pass.    An annual pass has a lot of perks:   free admission, free parking, discounts at some of the restaurants and gift shops, and just an all-around good thing to have.

I forgot to mention that you get to enter the park through a special line that is just for annual passholders.   I don't have to stand in the long lines with everyone else.

Oh, and I also got a free wristband that does the same thing as showing my card for admission and discounts.   Technology is amazing.

About a week or so after getting my annual pass I received a welcome card for becoming an annual passholder.

Attached to the card was a Disney PASSHOLDER magnet on it.

I had seen these magnets on the backs of vehicles and so I decided to put mine on the tailgate of my pick-up truck.   Now the whole world knows that I am an annual passholder.

The magnet is a rubberized magnet and sticks real well to the tailgate.   No problems with it until recently.   I was at Hollywood Studios at Disney World.   When I returned to my vehicle in the parking lot I noticed that my magnet was gone from the upper left corner of the tailgate.

Instead, it was now in the lower right hand corner and upside-down.   The magnet would not have fallen off while parked.   It might while I am driving but not while I am parked.   Perhaps a child saw it and took it off and the parents told the child to put it back.   That is the best speculation that I can think of.

I returned the magnet to its rightful place of upper left corner and decided to secure it a little better to my tailgate.   I know. it looks as though I riveted the magnet to the tailgate.  

But it isn't really rivets, it is little tiny powerful rare earth magnets.   This should make it a little more difficult to get off.

Each year they send me a new magnet.   Plus throughout the year they give special ones out to Annual Passholders in a theme park.

At Epcot I got two for their flower festival: one of Mickey and the following month one for Minnie.

Recently I got one of Donald Duck.

By the way, these magnets make great refrigerator magnets.   How do I know?   Yep, there is one on my refrigerator door. 

Well, that was my adventure with my special Disney magnets.   Have a great day filled with lots of fun things which is easy to do when you visit Disney World.   Lew

Sushi

Sushi.   I really don't care all that much for fish.   Never have.   And raw fish is a really big NO.  

But sushi always looks so good.   If only there were a kind that didn't have raw fish in it.   I finally made a compromise with a sushi called California Roll.   I believe that it may have a very small amount of fish eggs in the middle.

But Disney now has "sushi" which is right up my alley.   It is PBJ roll.  

Yep, it is pretty easy to guess what a PBJ Roll is.   Peanut butter rolled inside whole wheat bread with jam drizzled over the top.   What a great idea for kids.    I think that it is pretty neat.   Yep, that is going on my Bucket List.

There is so much more at Disney than just the rides.   The more I explore, the more I find.   Have some fun today and be happy.    Lew  

Frushi

Frushi.   Looks like sushi except instead of raw fish and rice, it is fresh fruit and rice.   Maybe because it is raw (fresh) fruit that the dish can have a name similar to sushi.

I must admit that it looks good.  It is made with Fresh Pineapple, Strawberry, and Melon rolled with Coconut Rice and, it's sprinkled with Toasted Coconut and Whipped Cream with a bit of Raspberry Sauce on the side. 

Actually, I was really never big on eating raw fish anyway.   This dish is being served at a walk-up food kiosk named Hanami at the Japan pavilion in Epcot at Disney World.

So how much for three Frushi rolls?   See for yourself in the picture below of the Menu Board.

If you aren't able to read the menu board because you are viewing this on your celfone making the print too small, the price is $5.95, which is a good price.    And yes, this is going onto my "Bucket List".   Things to do before I "kick the bucket".   So far I am up to age 90 before I can complete everything on my Bucket List.   And the list is growing.   The secret to growing old, Keep adding things to your bucket list.

I had never heard of Frushi before.   An interesting concept for the squeamish and those who grimace while watching Andrew Zimmerman on Bizarre Foods.

Has anyone had Frushi?   Any sushi lovers?    Now here is one for Andrew Zimmerman, hot dog sushi.   To the best of my knowledge this is not served at Disney World.   I just got the pictures off of the internet as a curiosity.

 

Pigs in a blanket are good with lots of mustard, but I am not sure about the hot dog sushi.   Plus I would hope that it has been thoroughly cooked, not raw or right out of the fridge.   Have fun today and if you can find it, some frushi.   Lew  

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2018-epcot-flower-and-garden-festival-hanami/

Mr. Potato Head

Nursery rhymes begin with "Once Upon a time.....".    I was working at Disney Springs in a toy store called Once Upon a Toy.   A nice play on words between the nursery rhyme and the toy store. 

What a great job.   Can you imagine what fun it is to work in a customer friendly toy store?    No?    I can tell what fun it was ad infinitum.  

I had injured my knee and was on temporary light duty and was assigned to "stocker duties" at the toy store.    I worked in the back.   When you work where the guests (customers) are it is called "onstage".   When you work in the back where the are no guests it is called "backstage".   To go backstage you pass through a portal.   The portals are not readily apparent but if you know what to look for you can spot them.  In the picture below the portal (door) is behind the large Star Wars sign.   See the woman in the blue blouse and the tan pants?   She is close to the doors.

Now you can see it better.   Doesn't look like there is much behind those doors.   But there is: a large stockroom, offices, break room for employees, etc.

My job was unwrapping the accessories (arms, legs, hats. eyes, ears......) for Mr. Potato Head.

 

These were small items and came with tissue paper very tightly wrapped around each individual piece.    I have no idea how they got the paper so tight.  I really enjoyed my work because of the great working atmosphere.   Initially it was quite difficult getting the tissue paper off but I finally mastered a technique for getting the tissue paper off easily.   In a 6 hour shift I would unwrap literally thousands of these pieces.   It was a repetitious job but my fellow cast members were always friendly and happy.   And the managers were the same, very pleasant and nice.    As a child I had a Mr. Potato Head but back then you would only get the accessories and would have to use a real potato.   But times have changed and now there is a plastic "potato".

And the variety of accessories are mind boggling.  

In the store the accessories would be placed in these long plastic tubes with a different accessory in each tube.  

 

All of them unwrapped by me.   Here is a curious aside;   one day a manager asked a fellow cast member if he would do an inventory of the store after it closed.   I asked the cast member how he was going to count all of the thousands of little accessory pieces.   He laughed and he said that they weigh all of the accessory pieces of a single kind at once, say the arms.   They knew how much each arm weighed and so they could calculate how many individual pieces there were.   A neat idea.   What would I have done?   Probably sat there and counted each piece one at a time.   LOL.    What I am coming to is, that I do a jigsaw puzzle on the internet each night and one night there was a Mr. Potato Head puzzle which I did along with a flood of memories from my days working in the toy store.   But I guess that you could say that I was the Mr. Potato Head guy because I unwrapped all of the little arms, legs, eyes, ears, lips, etc.   Below is a picture of the completed jigsaw puzzle and a link to the jigsaw puzzle.   The puzzle only has 50 pieces and so won't take hardly any time at all.

https://thejigsawpuzzles.com/Puzzle-of-the-Day/Mr-Potato-Head-jigsaw-puzzle?cutout=50classic

Have a lot of fun doing the Mr. Potato Head jigsaw puzzle.   And hopefully for those of you who had a Mr. Potato Head it might bring back some fond memories.   Did anyone have the early version where you had to provide a real potato?

Bye.   Lew