First, Donald Duck Orange Juice:

Donald Duck Orange Juice (No Pulp)

Tal and I found this at the grocery store in Blaine, WA near where I get my mail. At first when she tried to point it out to me I was completely oblivious and thought she was trying to point out Newman’s Own Lemonade to me. I’m not a huge OJ drinker, but I mean come on, it’s Donald Duck. It’s not immediately apparent to me the connection between Donald and OJ, but I don’t think it really matters. FYI, it was available in two versions, the regular no pulp seen here and a no pulp with extra calcium. Apparently Donald doesn’t like pulp, but that’s ok because neither do I.

And Sea Monkeys:

Sea Monkeys (No Longer on Mars)

You may remember (or probably not) that I had try to start a sea monkey family before. Actually I tried twice. And failed. Twice. Each time I ended up with only one sea monkey left alive after a week or so. This time looks to be much more successful. Instead of ordering the sea monkey stuff from Amazon I bought them from Walmart, and I gave up on making my sea monkeys live on Mars. It’s only been a week and a half since they hatched, but it looks way more promising then the last times since there are way more than just one sea monkey alive at this point. It’s hard to see in the picture but there are dozens of them in there. And yes, I’ve named most of them. And no, I can’t tell them apart so I might be calling some of them the wrong names.

We flew out of Bellingham to Orlando (connecting in Seattle), and the Disney fun started once we found the Disney Magical Express. We got a little lost in the airport but eventually found the check in and got on the bus and on our way to the Pop Century Resort.

We had 7 nights there, and it didn’t seem like nearly enough. I wish we could have stayed for at least two weeks.

Some of the highlights of our trip included:

• Eating at the Sci-Fi Dine In. A really cool restaurant at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios where you eat in fake cars inside a fake drive-in, and they play movie trailers and cartoons from the 50s and 60s on the movie screen. We had Magical Star cocktails that had cool multi-color glowing ice cubes in them.
• MISSION: Space at Epcot. It is an amazing ride, you are in a giant centrifuge with control stick and a ton of buttons and switches right in front of you. Riding it is as close to actually going into space as I will ever get. The ride is so intense that two people have died on it.
• Royal Andapur Tea Company. Everyday was a really hot in Disney World, but most parks have a ton of shops and places with air conditioning, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is an exception. The first day that we spent there felt extrememly hot and we had a very relaxing break with some ice cold drinks from the Royal Andapur Tea Company. Tal had a frozen chai and I had a frozen strawberry drink, both of which were extremely refreshing.
• Wearing our Heart shirts while watching the fireworks in Epcot. For valentine’s day I bought Tal and I the 8-bit dynamic heart shirts at ThinkGeek. They are basically t-shirts with glowing hearts fully light up when in proximity with another of the shirt. We wore them one evening when we went to watch the Illuminations fireworks show at Epcot, and we must have been asked about the shirts at least a dozen times. They got us a lot of attention. I was more than happy to refer them to Thinkgeek to get their own. ThinkGeek has some of the best customer service of any company I’ve dealt with.
• Crazy thunder storms. While we were there we experienced some strange thunder storms, none of them lasted especially long or anything, but it was weird weather. Tal had packed her jacket-in-a-packet and it sure came in handy. One night just after we came back to our room it really started to just dump rain. Even though it would just pour rain for a while, it was so hot there that any evidence that it had rained would disappear within an hour.

One of the funny things that we came to realise is that we like Disneyland a whole lot more. It’s not that Disney World is bad or anything, it was awesome, but Disneyland is better. Especially food-wise, I definitely prefer to eat at places in Disneyland like the Carnation Cafe and Blue Bayou compared to the places we ate at in Disney World. Next Disney trip for us is definitely back to Disneyland.

But up next is a little road trip down to Seaside, OR.

Cat Bowling with Isadore:

Here’s the awesome rotating waffle iron that Tal got me:

ROTATING Waffle Iron

And thanks to Amazon.com I have 3 large containers of Golden Malted Waffle mix:

Golden Malted Waffle Flour

Now, I’ll tell you one of the reasons why I think this waffle mix creates the best waffles. One of the ingriedents is MELTED BUTTER! Melted butter is one of the best things on earth. Half the time when I order crab legs or lobster it is simply to eat something that I can dip in melted butter.

To conclude, this a picture of the waffle that I ate for dinner last night:

WAFFLE!

Since I have the time, lately I have been baking my own bread. With my Costco American Express rebate I bought a bread machine:

Sunbeam Bread Machine

I got the bread machine around the middle of February and have already went through I large bag of flour making bread such as this:

Bread!

It tastes so good, much better than store bought bread! I also have made Apple Walnut Bread with apple juice and apple sauce in the recipe, it was also amazing tasting.

This was my lunch today:

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake from Trade Joes. Only $1.99! It’s hard to tell in the photo but it’s pretty big, big enough that you wouldn’t believe that it’s only $1.99. It tastes so good!

Let’s see what else. I also got a new bonsai tree a couple of months ago. I had one before but it died while I was staying at my Dad’s house after the car wreck. So Chantal and I found a new one at Safeway.

Bonsai!

Hopefully this one will live a while…

And what I’m looking forward to the most… Disney World!
Chantal and I will be spending 7 nights in sunny Orlando Florida at Disney’s POP Century Resort. We have been to Disneyland 3 times in the past 18 months and have had so much fun there, Disney World is like 10 times larger so we should have about 100 times more fun. We are even going to eat at Cinderella’s Royal Table inside the castle at the Magic Kingdom. I can’t wait!

Pepsi Throwback

And some:

Mountain Dew Throwback

I have no idea why they show a cowboy with a hat shooting moonshine jug on the packaging, I’m assuming they are trying to equate the high caffeine content of Mountain Dew to the kick moonshine.

And last, but not least:

Heritage Dr Pepper

Now, you may remember last post I was talking about ordering some Dublin Dr Pepper. Last week I received my order of Dublin Dr. Pepper and I can say that it tastes pretty damn good. But how does it taste compared to Heritage Dr Pepper? I have no clue, the Heritage is still cooling in my fridge, I’m not drinking warm soda. I’ll update this post tomorrow when I actually drink some.

UPDATE: I tried some Heritage Dr Pepper, and it tastes remarkably similar. If anything it is maybe a little too sweet compared to the Dublin Dr Pepper. Either way, they both taste good.

For closing, here’s a shot of the different cans of real sugar soft drinks that are currently inside my refrigerator:

L to R: Heritage Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew Throwback, Pepsi Throwback, and Dublin Dr Pepper

All that awesome sugar!

I also got a new deep fryer today, but that’s a post for another day…

Here’s a couple of cool things I’ve found:

PRE-MADE BACON EXPLOSION!
You may have heard of the awesomeness this is the bacon explosion, but either been too lazy, lacking a smoker, or both to ever enjoy one. Enter BBQAddicts.com where you may purchase your very own pre-made bacon explosion (but only shipping to the continential USA). I would have ordered one already, but they are shipped in coolers packed with dry ice, so I would have to be able to pick it up from my mailbox the same day it arrives. Since I can’t drive with my leg, or have a car right now, I won’t be getting one for at least a couple of months.

Dublin Dr. Pepper
Most soft drinks these days are made with high-fructose corn syrup as the sweetner. Corn syrup is no replacement for real sugar. You used to be able to buy Mexican Coca-Cola made with pure cane sugar from most Costcos in the US, but since Coke and Costco are feuding you can’t buy it there anymore. Dublin Dr. Pepper is Dr. Pepper bottled in a small bottling plant in Dublin, TX. Unlike almost every other bottler out there they still use real sugar instead of corn syrup. I’ve order a case of cans, and I’ll see how it tastes.

In other real sugar soft drink news, apparently Pepsi Throwback, which is Pepsi made with real sugar, is available again for a limited time. According to Pepsi’s website it is being carried at Target in Bellingham, so hopefully I can get down there before the discontinue it again. It was available for a limited time in 2008, and I was sad I didn’t buy more when I had the chance.

I haven’t updated in a while, and for very good reasons.

Coming home from a movie on New Year’s eve Chantal and I were hit by a drunk driver that ran a red light. Chantal and I had to be taken to the hospital in ambulances. It really really sucked. Chantal hit her head so hard she was unconscious for a bit after the hit, which was the scariest part for me.

I ended up with three fractures, two in my pelvis, and one more in my hip socket that is more serious. To prevent damage to my hip I can’t put any weight on my leg until at least March 25 when I see an orthopedic surgeon again. So I’m stuck on crutches until then. Which means a complete loss of freedom. I have to rely on others to get anywhere (doctors, lawyers, grocery store, etc…). And on crutches you can’t carry anything, which makes everyday tasks a lot more difficult. The timing was really great considering I’m moving. I’ve had to hire movers to come in and pack everything for me, move it all, and then unpack it all for me.

So, I can’t work, can’t go anywhere by myself (even if I had a car, I can’t drive with my leg the way it is). I have to sit at home all day and watch TV or browse the internet. And that’ll get old real fast.

And now for the cherry on top.

The x-rays I had while in the emergency room showed that a residual mass in my lung after chemo has grown. So I have to have surgery to remove this mass from my lung. But with the wait times for surgery in BC it will probably be scheduled for just after I can start walking again. So when I recover from the car wreck I will most likely be then laid out again from lung surgery.

So, 2010 has not been, nor is it looking to be, very good.

"A Christmas Story" boxer shorts

I went to Target in Bellingham today for no particular reason and ended up coming home with those lovely undergarments. Target actually has the coolest holiday merchandise of any store I’ve shopped at this season. Previously I had been there and almost bought a Ralphie t-shirt.

And since this year I have a miniature Christmas tree adorning my kitchen table I also bought these:

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" Ornaments

When I bought my tree I also picked up a pack of generic ornaments, but I didn’t realize you must purchase hooks seperately. What’s with that? Anyway, these are way cooler. Actually they are bells, not strictly ornaments. But they hang on my tree so I don’t think there will be much ringing happening.

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" ornaments on my little tree

Now that’s not the best picture of my tree. I still have more ornaments to hang, and Tal is right in that it also needs some garland. I guess I also need something for the top of it still too.

My shopping for gifts is mostly complete thankfully. I just need to find a couple more appropriate gifts for certain people and I’ll really be done.