It's A Lot

Look for a picture here soon!

It will be of an empty lot (number 199) with trees in the background, and if the angle is just right, a glimpse of the tiny pond that will complete our backyard. On this lot is where we are building our home. By late August there should be a house with grass, and shutters and people living in it; the Brown Family.

For the past few weeks we have looked at houses and decided to build instead of buy an existing home. The process of looking for a house with a partner who can be capricious at times is a bit annoying. Okay, its a lot annoying. I could have picked two or three houses from the fifteen we saw. Lisa, on the other hand, found one reason or another to question a final decision. I decided for my sanity and our marital bliss to take a step back until Lisa could narrow it down. Finally, she stopped in a new development that I drive by on my way to work everyday. She did the research, brought home a some plans, and put forward a good argument to build. Dollar for dollar, square foot by square foot it's about the same to build as it is to buy built.

But for now it's a lot - but not too much - I couldn't pass on the double meaning there. Its a lot to get your head wrapped around. It's a lot to think about all of the decisions that go into a building a house; color schemes, lighting fixtures, carpet choices, cabinet stain and drawer pulls. Where will the furniture go? What about window treatments? Considering the aforementioned capricious nature of my wife - this could take a while.

Building in a new community going in from the ground up also has its challenges. There are no homes on the right of left of us right now, but there will be. In fact, there will be construction on our street for the next twelve to eighteen months. And I mean, left, right, and across the street from us. I imagine that our place will look like a little oasis amidst all of the other places in various forms of being built.

This house will fit us well as we grow into it over the years. Its not too big as to get lost in the house and its not too small where everyone is on top of everyone else.

We'll keep you posted as things move along.

Vacation. Part 2 - Easter

In this family vacations always begin with road trips; a van packed with luggage, strollers, cameras, DVDs, toys, and sleepy human beings. Our road trips always have three common elements: the Get-to-the-State-First game (only the people in the front can play), Waffle House, and one DVD played no less than three times.

The "State" game consist of reaching out onto the dash board as possible in order to get into the next state first. The game is rife with subterfuge and trickery such as spiking brakes to "lock-up" the other persons seat belt (Lisa, on more than one occasion), faking a crisis, or pretending to have already crossed the state line. I once convinced Lisa that she missed the state line during her cat nap so she paid no attention when we actually crossed.

Trips also consist of at least one stop at a Waffle House - waffles, eggs, coffee, hash browns, toast, and meat all in one meal. This used to be a treat when we drove down from New York because we've never seen a Waffle House north of the Mason Dixon line. It's still a treat to people watch at Waffle House. The staff is always cast the same; an overweight cook with a grease stained apron, an impossibly too old waitress who insists on calling everyone at the table, "Dear," "Hon," or "Sweetie," and a restaurant full of truckers, families, and local geezers.

We arrived in Homosassa, Florida on Good Friday to spend all of Saturday with Lisa's sister and her family. It was the first time we'd all been together in one place at one time since Christmas 2007. We had a traditional Easter dinner and egg hunt a day early as well as taking liberal use of the boat and kayak. TJ quickly got the hang of hunting for Easter eggs and would then re-hide what he had found, usually behind just one seat cushion, although I imagine that Betty will continue to find plastic eggs for sometime to come.

The highlight of the easter weekend, before driving to Orlando, was getting up at 6:00 am to watch the space shuttle launch. I had never seen a rocket launch before, so I offered to drive the family from the west coast of Florida to the east coast of Florida to see it. Naturally, when they found out the launch was at 6:20 am, Lisa and Sam both bailed on the idea. I, of course, was curious if I'd be able to see from over 200 miles away. I mean, what's there to see from that far away, right?

I found myself standing on my mother-in-laws dock at 6:00ish in the morning, not really knowing which way to look and not knowing exactly what to look for. After 15 minutes of feeling like I lost an hour of good sleep I was about to go in when I saw it. WOW. From the opposite coast it was as bright as a roman candle on top of a thick pillar of smoke. I ran inside an woke my slumbering wife who ran out in the dark with me. We were able to see the shuttle rise as the separation of the solid rocket boosters glowed a neon fluoresent blue in the pre-sunrise sky as it moved off into space. (This morning I learned that shuttle program is being phased out later this year and that I may never see something like that again.)

Next stop Orlando!

Vacation. Part I - Why Disney

I can remember my first trip to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in February, 1976. (Coincidentally, Lisa made her first trip there in the same time frame; did we stand on line for Space Mountain together?) While I don't remember meeting Mickey Mouse or any other characters for that matter, I do have fleeting memories of walking in the middle of Main Street USA, seared impressions of terror on Space Mountain, being woken to the wonder of the Illuminations on the Lake, and the fun spookiness of the Haunted Mansion as two ghosts tried to hitchhike their way home with us. I also remember tickets, thus the term, "E-ticket ride."

It was the first and only vacation we ever took as a family.

Disney was sort of special to our family. In addition to that vacation, we'd all sit in front of the television on Sunday nights at seven o'clock to watch The Wonderful World of Disney on NBC. The Goofy cartoon shorts were always my favorite. However, whenever Walt Disney himself introduced something we all took notice. EPCOT anyone? I can't remember if the show was a half hour or longer, but I remember that in my pre-teen years we rarely missed a show.

And somewhere in all of that muddled growing up I learned to associate family to Disney.

I've been back to the Magic Kingdom four times (as well as the other parks) since 1976. Each time I look for something I've never noticed or done before. For example, after five trips, I still haven't been on the Astro-Orbiter or visited the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Sometimes its a rare character sighting - like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, with Lisa, or watching the sword in the stone ceremony, or the "snow fall" at the end of the electric parade in December, 2005.

Since 2001, its watching the magic through the eyes of my children; Samantha literally exploding with excitement upon seeing Cinderella's Castle when she was three, or watching TJ get his first "real kiss" from Snow White when he was 13 months.

I understand the Disney is a corporation whose board of directors are just as concerned about the return on their investment as they are about entertaining the world. And I don't care. For all of the money I have given Disney, I can report that they are consistently exceptional leaving no detail unnoticed.

When my mom died in 2007, she left us a little bit of money. Just enough to invest and put some aside for something special. I originally thought of taking several grand and blowing it on a top of the line stay at Walt Disney World. Mom was a huge Disney fan. She wouldn't have minded at all. Then Lisa and I spent an hour listening to the sales pitch for the Disney Vacation Club - Disney's version of timeshare property ownership - and it became crystal clear. We paid our money and again we were not disappointed.

Last week we took our first vacation to our vacation club as a family. We stayed at the Kidani Village in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. As my "seen-it-all-at-12 years-old, too-hard-to-impress" daughter turned to me and said, "This place is totally cool," I realized that I am starting a new generation of family memories. I am fortunate that I share this Disney affection with Lisa.

Yep, I get misty when I think about mom, her love for her kids and Disney and how she passed that tiny little thing on to me so that I can pass it on to Samantha and TJ. She would be so, so happy right now.

Why Disney? It's about family. It's about this family.