Blue Blankie

I spent the weekend restoring Blue Blankie, which involved deconstructing it, reinforcing nearly every original flowered blue square, replacing several squares, new batting, back, binding, quilting.

Here are series of photos that document the progress.  One shows the back side, with the number of light colored reinforcements (not all - I think only two or three of the floral squares ended up without basking).  The final product has a free "icky corner" - a corner that is not encased in the binding, so Lian can rub her eye and nose with it (hence the name icky corner).   Lian picked out the fabrics.

Heading Home

Up in the air, on our way to Atlanta.  The marvels of air travel today never cease to amaze.  I'm uploading the last of the photos to Picasa, while looking up just how long one should expect to cough with a chest cold (up to three weeks, totally unacceptable).  Mr. Sha is several seats ahead of us, working on math homework.  He got his art homework posted at the Orlando airport.  We have a very short layover at Atlanta, then a long flight, medium drive, then home!  Home, give Stuc her gifts and see the puppies!  It will be nice to see the Joid too, but don't know when that will happen.

Illuminations from our balcony

So nice...you can see the fireworks, but don't have to sit through the annoying globe scene:

Dinner at the Derby

A nice, slow, relaxing day for Mr. Shaw, Math Man, and me.  We went to Hollywood Studios today, and Mr. Sha ran around collecting Fast Passes for us.  This meant we rode Tower of Terror, Rock and Roller, and Toy Story Mania all in quick succession at the end of the day.  Lunch was at SciFi Drive Inn, were we enjoyed clips from some classic grade B movies (including Plan 9 from Outer Space).  Dinner was at one of our all time favorites, the Hollywood Brown Derby, and we were not disappointed!

Mr. Sha, waiting to be seated for dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby.

Hanging out at the Yacht Club tonight (sounds so snooty).  Math Man is doing laundry.  Mr. Sha was wandering around.  I spoke to the Joid (who did well at his conference and is headed home) and Stuc, who is keeping the pups occupied and out of trouble. We miss them both!

Slow and Steady

Taking it slow and steady tonight.  We moved to the Yacht Club - our first time here.  Our room is the second room furthest from the lobby, with a lovely view:

Two Sickies, But Still Having Fun

We might be slow, but we are steady! We modified our plans to skip Epcot tonight and went mini-golfing instead.  A close game, 40-42-42, with the par for the course at 56.  Math Man came out ahead, but then again, he was keeping score.

Dinner tonight was the best kind...whatever we could scramble from the gift shop.  A couple of healthy options (some fruit and veggies) and of junk.  We all feel rather sick.  We tried for a quick food place, but they were all backed up and we were too tired.

Since we had a good (and healthy) lunch at Crystal Palace today, I don't feel too bad about this!  This is vacation after all!

We had a great view of Illuminations from our balcony, with the benefit of being able to come inside for the boring globe parts!  What a life!

We all miss the Joid, since he should have been here today...we hear he could be having a better time.  Oh well.

Stretching the Umbilical Cord

This darn cold forces me to retire early, so of course Mr. Sha does not trust Math Man on his own and send him with me, leaving Mr. Sha all alone at Epcot.  I know he will be fine.  He will do better on his own than the Joid, I think (at least in terms of navigating his way back).  Still, the fact he so grown up, and the fact the Joid is so grown up that he is going on a trip to present a poster at a conference all on his own...well, that umbilical cord is sure stretching.

In spite of the fact my lungs are filled with gunk, we had fun.  We had a great cast member, Iliana, who was from Puerto Rico, guide us through the aviary today.  She pointed out every bird and explained that if the males and females looked exactly alike, they would band the males on one leg, and the females on the other.  She also told us about a bird who accidentally broke her first eggs, so they gave her another species of egg to hatch, and that bird still hangs out with the mother, even though the two species don't typically get along.  Another interesting tidbit is that the birds generally don't need to be acclimated to the new group, but once in a while they do get overly aggressive birds (for some reason more often from Asia) and then these birds have to be sent to another partner institution.  Math Man got lots of great bird pictures.

Mr. Sha and I posed like the ancients.

We saw Festival of the Lion King.  Joid will be very sad to know he missed another musical.

The early evening (before I wimped out) was spent eating our way around the World Showcase in Epcot. We sampled food from Morroco (Kefta Pocket, Harissa Chicken Roll, Baklava), Japan (Pork Kakuni - very tasty), Singapore (Shrimp Cake on a Sugarcane Skewer with Singapore Noodles, Tiger Beer), Italy (Ravioli di formaggio all'Emiliana), South Africa (Seared Filet of Beef with Smashed Sweet Potatoes and Braai Sause, Bunny Chow-- vegetable curry in a bread bowl), and Norway (Rice Cream).  Delicious!

Now Math Man and I are back resting and Mr. Sha is out in the freezing cold, all by himself, with me worrying.  He's probably having the best time ever!

Some memorable photos from the day: