No Interest in the Drama

For the first time in over twenty years, I will not finish a season of Survivor.  Meg watched last week with me in what turned out to be the most intense tribal council ever.  The person that caused all of the drama was not voted off even though he asked to be.  Instead a fan favorite was gone in a complete blindside.  Doug had gone to bed before it was over, so I was glad that I had Meg to talk to about the drama.  She thought it was weird, but not quite as much as I did.  She's used to watching Dance Moms and more dramatic shows than I am.  The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.  I definitely thought twice about watching any more of this season.  My friend, Jim, felt the same way.  

Tonight's episode was even worse.  There was way too much arguing and the tribal council was just as intense.  I hadn't really liked the season very much because of the drama, but once my favorite player and the only one that I was rooting for this spring was voted out tonight, I knew that I had to stop watching.  It was no longer entertaining.  He wasn't the only one that had been blindsided or gone home with an idol in his pocket, but he was the only that I remembered ever being flat out lied to by multiple people. 

The ending was just awful to watch and I turned it off immediately with no plans to continue the season.  I realize that Survivor will continue.  Losing one viewer out of millions will mean nothing to them.  It isn't a protest.  I am just at the point in my life where I can no longer handle any type of drama.  I can't wait to find out if Jim felt the same way.  

Deal or No Deal Island

Several months ago I saw an add for a new Deal or No Deal Island reality television show that was scheduled to start in February.  It was a combination of the old Deal or No Deal show and Survivor.  Although it looked very lame, I was interested in watching it because my favorite Survivor player, Boston Rob, was on it.  Doug made fun of me for trying it, but then figured out the truth behind the show way earlier than I did.

When the show first started, I hoped that Boston Rob would make it to the second week.  Doug said not to worry as he would be there a lot longer than two episodes.  I didn't believe him at first, but after a month I realize that Doug was right and finally asked him how he knew what would happen on the show.  He said that he assumed that the only way to get Boston Rob to agree to be on the show was to guarantee him that he would be around until the last three episodes.  He said that the episodes were most like staged to give Rob an advantage as he was the reason that people tuned in weekly.  I had never thought about it before as Amazing Race and Survivor were completely different reality tv series.  They definitely use creative editing, but there is no guarantee of surviving each round.  I've seen way too many fan favorites get voted off in Survivor or finish last in Amazing Race.

Tonight, I sat on the edge of my seat sure that Boston Rob was going home.  He and his ally, Aron, had lost the challenge and both were on the chopping block.  When Doug went to bed a half hour before the show was over, he said not to worry.  They'd find a way to keep him another week.  Of course, Doug was 100% correct as the person playing Deal or No Deal made a bad decision sending him home instead of Rob. I wasn't even mad that Doug was right.  I was just relieved that Boston Rob survived.  It no longer matters to me if it is rigged or not.  I'll be watching next week.

Golf Season Begins

Golf season started early for Grandpa, Cal and Cameron this year as the weather in March was beautiful.  Even though it hasn't been as nice lately, the three of them have still found time to play.  Grandpa and Cal have even played a few rounds together.  Most of Camerons round have been with friends.  He was able to get in eighteen holes last weekend at the IU course with a friend of his in Teter.  He was proud to announce that he had shot a 43 on the back nine.  Cal also made time to play with friends this past weekend, driving to Erskine in South Bend to meet them for an afternoon.  He also felt great about his early season round, shooting an 88 on the day.

Grandpa had the most memorable start to the golf season.  He bought new clubs and was very pleased with them as he shot 73 twice with them.  Grandma had talked him into buying a new bag as well as the zipper on his old one broke.  Several weekends ago, Grandpa got a call from the golf course letting him know that the storage barn had been broken into and fifteen bags with clubs had been stolen.  He was obviously bummed, but hopeful that they would find them especially when he heard that they had caught a suspect.

After a lot of investigation, they police were able to find out who the second thief was.  He was AWOL, but they were able to recover multiple bags and clubs from his storage shed.  Unfortunately, Grandpa's clubs were not among those recovered.  The good news was that he got his monkey head cover back and Maxwelton would replace his bag and clubs.  Soon he will be back out on the course shooting a 73 with his "new" new clubs and would have an interesting story to tell.  

Little 5 Weekend

I heard from Cameron several times this weekend.  It was Little 500 and I enjoyed hearing his thoughts on the famed bike race.  He found the competition interesting and talked about the wrecks that occurred. There was one that left a rider stranded across the field from his teammates, costing his team precious laps. One item that Cameron wasn't impressed with was the drunk parents in front of him, but knew that came with the territory.  He wasn't sure if he would go again next year, but was glad that he witnessed the race in person especially after watching Breaking Away. 

There was one text from Cameron that caused concerned.  There was a shooting Friday night near the stadium.  Thankfully, he was safe in his dorm, but this was the third year in a row that someone had been shot during Little 5 weekend.  Fortunately, no one was killed.   We had the same thing happen when Doug was a senior at IU with a more tragic outcome during that shooting.  Although all of these seem to be isolated circumstances, it is a pattern that I hope does not continue.  I would hate for the tradition to end because of unsafe behavior by others.  

Magic Kingdom

After a fun stay at Art of Animation yesterday, we headed to Magic Kingdom for the day.  Although it was very hot, we still had a lot of fun.  My DAS pass was extremely helpful in that we did not have to stand in line for rides and could enjoy all of our favorites including The Haunted Mansion, Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.  I was thrilled when we got a reservation for Tron, but the heat and hills made me think better of it later.  Meg and I still enjoyed the ride, just not the intensity of it. 

Although Doug loved all of the rides, especially the Jungle Cruise, I believe that his favorite stop of the day was lunch at the Skipper Canteen.  Although the food was absolutely delicious - Meg ordered a noodles dish, I had vegetable curry and Doug tried their chicken with rice - the atmosphere and the break from the heat was very nice as well.  

Meg had to be at the airport at 6:40 tonight for her flight home, so after doing a little bit of shopping and grabbing chocolate covered bananas for dessert, we left for Orlando International.  Meg was very sad to leave.  We had had a nice week together and a lot of fun this weekend.  I hated to see her go as well, but was thankful that we would soon be together in May.  

Art of Animation

Meg worked from home until 1:30 this afternoon.  Once Doug arrived back from Winco, the three of us packed up the Pilot and headed to Orlando.  I had made reservations at Art of Animation for tonight and was very excited about it.  We had never stayed there before and thought it would be the perfect time to try it.  

We arrived at the resort a little bit after 3 p.m.  Our room was ready, so we headed straight to the Lion King wing once we made it through the gate.  The suite was really cool.  There were giraffes behind the pullout couch, Simba painted on the table bed, and birds on the master bedroom's headboard.  We had a small kitchenette, two televisions and two full bathrooms with plenty of room for all.  Outside of our window was a giant replica of Skull Rock with hyenas perched on top.  It was just like walking into the movie.

After Meg and Doug checked their emails, we went on a walking tour of the resort.  We saw the Big Blue Pool with giant characters from the Finding Nemo movie.  We then walked through the Cars wing of the resort and got some great pictures of our favorite characters of the movie knowing that Nick would have loved staying in that area.  We ended our tour of the resort with a stop at the pool bar, shopping in the gift store and cupcake desserts at the food court. 

Next, we caught a bus to Disney Springs where we enjoyed dinner at Splitsville, Meg's favorite restaurant on property.  We also did some shopping at the M & M store, the World of Disney, Co-Op Marketplace and Francesco's.  We were done in Disney Springs by 8:15 and Meg asked if we could go to the Boardwalk next.  The bus was on break, so instead we rode to the Riveria and took the Skyliner over to the Boardwalk.  It was a fun ride.  We enjoyed waling along the familiar resort taking in the sites, watching the street acts and trying the margarita stand.  Our journey back to Art of Animation took a little longer due to the line to board the Skyliner, but the ride was a lot of fun.  We flew over both the Caribbean Beach resort which we stayed in on our March trip and our current resort, Art of Animation.  It was beautiful and a wonderful way to end our evening.  

It Had to Be Snakes

Last week we were chasing a frog out of our house.  I thought that was horrible, but this week's visitor was even worse as I found a snake on our back patio.  Doug had said that he had seen a garter snake in the backyard several weeks ago, but this definitely was a lot bigger than that.  It was all black with a thin head, almost five feet long.  Since I scared him when I walked out the back door, he decided to try and scare me by raising up and hissing at me.  I screamed and he slowly slid back to the west side of the house into a hole in the fence post.  

I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I frantically spread all of the Snake Away that we had left around the fence line.  It must have smelled as bad to him as it did me as I heard him thrashing around but never saw him come out of the fence post.  I went inside and looked through the computer for more help.  First, I identified the snake.  It looked a black "rat" snake that fed on its name sake.  I knew that Grandpa had a lot of those in Arcadia and most were twice as big as what I saw.  I was glad to find out that that typed of snake was not venomous.  The other option was a black racer which was pretty much the same but with a thinner head.  Either way, the biggest issue would be to avoid scaring either type so as not to suffer a bite.  

Needless to say, I was pretty jazzed up after my encounter.  I probably went overboard in my reaction.  I found out online that snakes did not like the smell of Epsom salt, so the yard that I did not cover with Snake Away was soon white with salt.  I hoped that I would be relieved with all that I had done to scare the snake away, but instead I only felt more anxious about my encounter.  After a lot more research, I decided to invest in a snake pole, reptile gloves and another bag of Epsom Salt.  I knew it would take some time to recover from my encounter, but I did at least feel better about my chances of surviving  another unwanted visitor.