Monsters, Bugs, Birds and Other Fun Things

There were a lot of fun things to see at the various parks. Here are a few:

Sully from Monster's Inc. at the Disney Hollywood Studios parade :

The 'Mine!' birds from Finding Nemo at Epcot's The Living Seas:

A plastic army guy from Toy Story giving autographs at Disney Hollywood Studios:

The stick bug from A Bug's Life at the parade at Disney Hollywood Studios:

Toy Story stuff in the parade:

The Tiki Birds!
(Both the hubby and I were glad that the Tiki Bird show was back to it's original format - sans
Iago from Aladdin and Zazu from the Lion King. But the kids were disappointed. They remembered that part from our last trip 5 years ago and thought it was boring without them.)

The blow fish from Finding Nemo:

 Quack!

Things Are Looking Up

Here are some of our Disney photos that are uplifting, that show a new perspective on things:

Sweet Pea's shot of the schwoop inside the big Mickey hat at Hollywood Studios:

An egret with aspirations:

The Epcot dome:

Looking up at one of the Japanese pavilions at Epcot:

Looking up at one of China's buildings at Epcot:

Quack!

Digging For Nostril Nuggets At Walt Disney World

This picture is from the Italy Epcot World Showcase. I find this picture interesting not because of the beautiful sculpture, or the scenery or the sunshine, but mostly due to the two people in the front who appear to be picking their noses. I imagine they keep a lookout for people taking photos and begin digging for nostril nuggets as soon as the cameras appear. Why, I bet there are dozens and dozens of photos from all over Disney, taken by dozens of different people, all with this same couple in it picking their noses. They are forever immortalized! If only I had thought of this sooner I too could have such a legacy!

Quack!

Fan-Headed, Evil-Eyed, Giraffe-Legged Bird!

As I warned you the other day, we took plenty of photos. Here are some of the more exotic (and by that I mean, not northern) species that we saw:

We love these little lizards that are all over the place. So cute!

I want to trim the bushes out front this way:

 The ibis and egrets are everywhere, like sparrows are on my back deck, but more interesting:

 Would you look at the feet on that bird! It's like clown feet, but bonier!

A sweet little yellow bird:

 

A palm tree. There was no hugging involved. I don't like to think about what must live up there!

Some sort of dove:

A very pretty, if somewhat evil-looking bird. I think it's the red eyes.But check out his legs! Giraffe patterned. Nothing better than a fan-headed, evil-eyed, giraffe-legged bird!

Look at the crazy beak on that thing!

I don't know how they hold their heads up. Either those horns are filled with puffed rice, or they have the strongest necks ever!

Quack!

Duck Butts

So, we travel all the way down to Orlando Florida and what do we take pictures of? Yep, squirrels, ducks, grackles and butterflies!

There were some very cute little squirrels in Florida. They were identical to the ones up here really, just slightly smaller:

And I think this is a female boat-tailed grackle. Very pretty in a plain-brown-bird sort of way:

A pretty swallowtail butterfly on a fence. We have these up here too, but hey, it was just begging us to take a picture:

And we LOVE the ducks! Ducks are so cute. These little guys were very interested in us our snacks.

And here they are leaving. Snacks were gone. We were no longer interesting. And I know this is a terrible picture. I think that's why I like it so much. Second only to the one above:

But we also got plenty of other photos that I will amaze, amuse and delight you with over the next week. Consider yourself warned!

Quack!

The Extreme Dangers of Hugging Palm Trees

The entire family recently visited Walt Disney World. For the most part we had a great time. I'm going to tell you about one glaring exception to the good times.

Sweet Pea wanted to hug a palm tree while we were there. I mean, who doesn't want to hug a palm tree? So, our first day there as we were wandering around we saw a perfect tree. She ran to it and posed while I took a few photos. The next thing I know she starts hopping up and down, tears off her shoes and runs several yards away, slapping at her legs.

It didn't take me long to realize that her shoes that were pink earlier, were now black. Black with little tiny swarming biting ants that were angry that someone had dared to stand on their nest.

Poor Sweet Pea! I helped her get the ants out of her anklets and off her feet. Then I went back for her socks. I stomped on them repeatedly, then began searching for ants. The socks weren't too bad. But it must have taken the hubby and I 15 minutes to extract all the ants from the shoes. They were in the holes the shoelaces go through. They were under the liners. They were in every single tiny little crack and crevasse in the shoes. And they were still biting! Nasty little buggers!

But eventually we did get them all out. And then it only took another 10 minutes to convince her that they were out and another 5 to convince her to put them back on.

Needless to say, we refrained from hugging any more trees for the duration of the trip.
 
Quack!

Flaming Race Car Shoes With Shooting Rockets

A recent conversation between a mom and an 8 year old:

Mom: Those are awesome shoes over there!
Doodlebug: Where?
Mom: Those blue ones over there.
Doodlebug: No they aren't.
Mom: Oh, you're a boy. You wouldn't recognize awesome shoes.
Doodlebug: There's no such thing as awesome shoes. There's just shoes.

I think at first, when he heard the word awesome, he must have been picturing flaming race cars and shooting rockets. Then after thinking it over for a minute, he realized that even flames and rockets couldn't make a shoe awesome. Afterall, they are only shoes.

Only shoes! Can you imagine? These were awesome. Blue, strappy, delightful. And with no rockets in sight.

Quack!

A Secret Subconscious Vendetta Against Rodents

We have a cat. We also have a guinea pig.

The guinea pig is kept in a cage with a door on the top that is kept closed.

You may notice similarities between this post and the last post. I think I may have some secret, subconscious vendetta against the rodents in the house.

The guinea pig has a very large (home-made) cage with two floors. When we got the cat I put hinged covers on the top to keep the cat out. They work great most of the time. The only time they don't work so well at keeping the cat out is when I forget to close them.

The other day was one of those days. Apparently Sweet Pea heard a noise and walked into the room to investigate and there was the cat. In the cage. With the guinea pig. With the doors shut! Apparently when she jumped in the doors slammed shut behind her.

Needless to say she was extremely freaked out by the slamming door. So freaked out she didn't even think about the rodent that was in there with her. Thank goodness! As soon as Sweet Pea opened it the cat shot out. Hopefully it freaked her out enough that she will be afraid of getting in in the future should I leave it open again. (yeah, right!) I suspect the guunea pig was all "Hey! Hi!! Wanna play?"

Poor sweet little innocent rodent.

Quack!

A Flying Rhinoceros in a Crowded Room

We have a cat. We also have a gerbil.

The gerbil is kept in a room where the door is kept closed.

Sometimes if I'm in the gerbil room I'll keep the door open. The cat doesn't mess with the gerbil too much unless the gerbil is particularly active, rustling and kicking chips out. And if the cat gets too interested in the gerbil I can just kick her out and close the door. Apparently what I failed to do the other day was the step where I kick the cat out prior to closing the door.

And how did I find out I neglected to do so? No, no - nothing like that - no bloody gerbil remains are involved. It was simply that the hubby and I were watching TV and relaxing - a rare occurrence for me. Then we heard a huge thump from upstairs. Like a furniture tipping over thump, or a flying rhinoceros landing in a crowded room thump. I yelled out, asking the ducklings what just happened and if everything was OK. Then I realized they were on a different floor from where the flying rhinoceros had landed.

Hubby and I raced upstairs. The gerbil door was closed as it should be. The hubby pushed it open and there was the cat, all wide-eyed and innocent, staring up at us. Next to her was a pile of toppled stuff from the shelf next to the gerbil cage. Who, me? she seemed to be saying.

And the gerbil was just sitting up, poking his head from his pile of chips and bedding, blinking at the light sleepily. Huh? Wha? What's all the noise?

Somehow the cat got closed IN the room and when she awoke she decided to check out the gerbil. From up close.

Quack!

10 Seconds of Uber-Coolness

  As I mentioned recently, the ducklings and I will sometimes feed the seagulls by throwing snacks out the car windows into a parking lot. It's very entertaining.

Well, the other day, we stopped in the midst of a rather sizable flock and started throwing snacks out. The birds loved it! We actually rolled the windows 3/4 of the way up because it rather looked like a few wanted to come in to check out the interior of the van.

And then . . .

We looked out the other window. The one at our backs.

And what did we see?

At least 100 more seagulls flying in from the distance. It was like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'! We considered turning tail and fleeing, but since we were encased in a car made of metal and thick glass and hadn't yet seen any reason to believe they intended to attack and eat us, we stood our ground (or sat our car as it were).

And when it was time to leave, all 150 birds took off at once and we sat in the car surrounded by white bodies rising up like bubbles in champagne and hearing nothing but the beating of wings. It was really pretty awesome for about 10 seconds.

But we must have gone through an entire box worth of stale cereal. Little pigs!

Quack!

Voting Like a Cave Man

I voted. Of course I did. And you know what was the most annoying thing about the whole process? The fact that we took a huge step back into the stone age and voted on paper. Paper?!? WTF?!? Gone are the fancy, uber-high-tech, paperless, voting machines with the curtain and the lever. Gone are the green and environmentally-friendly methods of the past. We've moved full circle back to voting on paper. Way to go!

For some reason this really irks me. I spent my entire 3 minutes of the voting process scowling and muttering oog! I felt like a cave man.

Ooog!

Donuts and Uncooked Spaghetti

  Sometimes in the middle of the night Doodlebug comes looking for me. In the interest of getting as much sleep as possible, I stumble down the hall, flop into his bed next to him and swiftly fall asleep.

But on one particular night as I was snoozing peacefully, I heard something from the bed next me where Snickers was snoozing somewhat less peacefully. And what did I hear from my sweet, innocent, gentle little duckling?

I heard . . .

"What the fudge?!" {Actual text modified to protect the innocent. The word uttered was the real "F" word.}

said in a way that led me to believe he was dreaming of watching a sailboat on wheels crashing through the fence into the neighbors yard. And this boat was full of ducks in sweaters quacking riotously, throwing doughnuts overboard while dueling tigers with uncooked spaghetti. You know, one of those things that makes you say, What the Fudge?!

Yes, that's right. My little duckling uttered those verboten words, albeit in his sleep. I thought I was in the same room as a sailor! I sat up, asked him if he was OK and getting no reply, turned over and went back to sleep.
 
Quack!

Sometimes My Egg McMuffin Talks Back

  So, there I was, minding my own business and chatting with my breakfast when I was rudely accused of being weird. Me! Weird? Hah!

Could it be because not only was I talking to my homemade egg McMuffin as I assembled it, but that it was talking back? In a high squeaky, egg-and-cheesy voice? Can't be!

I remain firm - I am SO not weird. Really.


Quack!