WE SAW MARILYN MANSON AT DISNEY!!! And the place didn’t burn!!
No serious. We did see Marilyn Manson. Friday, Barry, the kids and Thomas and Rene’ decided we all needed to get “dusted” (our term for the cure to the stress, anxiety, and doldrums that we often get). We pack up and headed off to Disney for a day and received a big dose of Pixie Dust–hence the term “dusted”.
Anyway, we were just about to leave Magic Kingdom when Barry went to use the rest room. He came back and had this quizzical look on his face and asked if we’d seen Marilyn Manson. We all thought he was kidding with us so he made us wait until the guy came out. It was HIM!!! Dressed in black, wore big shades. If you just past him, you’d assume he was just another goth. But once you really LOOKED…it was Manson! It was funny. Love the music. Did you know he has no chin? No kidding. I’d never noticed it before.
Rene’ got pictures so I’ll have to see if I can nab any from her.
Anyway, we kinda watched to see what he and his body guard would do. They walked past us a bit then met up with some other people and a Disney escort. Hmph. Who’d a thunk Marilyn Manson has to pee?
But that wasn’t our only celebrity siting of the day, either. While we were at The Grand a group of 5 people walked past us. One guy said hello. I kinda half heartedly answered hi back. Then once again Barry asked…You know who that was right? It’s the guy who played Veronica Mars dad! His name is Enrico Colantoni.
Barry’s got this unique gift for seeing and remembering people. Warning: Never, EVER play any type of trivia game with Barry unless you want to get your feelings hurt. He stores all these facts and data up just waiting for something.
Anyway, we had a wonderful, if not tiring, time and I think we all feel the better for getting “dusted”.
Ah! Ikea!
I keep telling myself this place is a wretched place. Children don’t belong here…I don’t belong here. By all rights I should hate this place. Yep, Ikea has come to Orlando, FL.
This store actually opened up in mid-November here. Of course it had to cash in on the Christmas rush. My first awareness of Ikea came as I was trying to make my way to a local huge, rather exclusive mall. It JUST happened to be on the day the dreaded store was opening (I Later found out as it was explained to me by a Ikea junkie friend). Traffic cops were at the ready at all surrounding stop lights. It was as if a President were visiting and they were awaiting the motorcade. Folks around here whisper with reverent voices anything having to do with Ikea. What was the big deal???
A week or so later I took the 3 kids and went to see what was so special about Ikea. Well, it’s huge.
2 stories.
Did I mention it’s huge? And blue?
And huge. And way cool looking furniture. And what’s this? Not too badly priced!?!? Cool beans! I can even leave my kids (provided they are housebroken and over a certain height–so Chloe is in, Fox and Molly are out) in a kiddy care facility while I shop (get this part)for FREEE???!!! I
And it’s huge. HUGE I tell you!
Chloe can’t wait to go into the child care area (hell, from the looks of it *I* wanted to go into the child care area!!)
Chloe is ensconced in the play area and Fox, Molly and I bravely set off on adventure.
Ikea is rather like an uber-conformist Wal-mart on steroids. Seriously. Upon entering you are handed a brochure/map. The floor plan is laid out (even arrows on the cement floor to encourage your conformity just in case you get sassy and want to freestyle your own path) so you pretty much have to follow one serious traffic flow or risk the glacial stares of staff and customers alike. Yes my pretties, conform!
The kids and I wandered around and quickly the time went. Before I knew it, an hour had past and I had to go spring Chloe from her play area and then we continued on gawking.
Then we came to their cafeteria (one of 2 it turns out). Even the food is cheap!! They serve this salmon dish that looked divine, and cost under $5.00. I just kinda glanced over at the eating area and we moved on to perusing mode. We came to the bed area, and the cabinet area and I came to the most startling of realizations.
IKEA IS PRESSED WOOD FOLKS! Pretty, yes (if you like that Euro style) but it’s JUST PRESSED WOOD!!!
AND YOU PUT IT TOGETHER!!! YOUR OWN DAMN SELF!
I’ve been back many times. The kids absolutely love to go there. Chloe loves to go to the play area and run around for her hour with other kids. Fox loves to go play with the wooden toy train sets that are set up in the kids area. Molly just likes to chill.
As bizarre as I find it I am always amazed at the people that I’ve met while there. I’m always running into people that are in Orlando JUST to come to Ikea. This time I met the coolest man from Miami. He’d fought in WWII. He’d traveled over 3 hours just to see this store. But then we were talking over cheap hot dogs, so I’m betting he came up for the food.
Then we all go and get cheap kids meals (they have hot dogs for fifty cents!!!) The kids yesterday got a full on mac n’ cheese dinner for $1.00! I just watched not believing I’ve drunk the cool-aide as well. sigh.
We go back to Ikea at least twice a month now. I still think it’s a gyp. The furniture IS just wood particles glued together, not some sort of exotic wood, mind you. And you have to pick up the stuff and put it together. The prices are nice, but they ain’t all that.
Fox has built up his collection of toy trains (kids obsessed) to mammoth proportions. I have to admit, playing with this train set it pretty darn fun. It’s cool to make patterns and connect lines and to see if you can make two paths conver…damn. I do get carried away. I see where the kid gets it from.
But I’ll still be there feeding my kids Mac n’ Cheese or Hot dogs SOMETIME this week.
Ya Damn Creepy Kids!!!
So the kids have taken to sleeping in our bed. Well, they start out in their beds but soon they migrate. I try not to let them scare me, let them know they have power. But do you know how damn creepy it is to wake up only to find these two kids standing beside you…staring? Gah!!
Their eyes really don’t glow at night. Mine just glow red from lack of sleep.
Things I’m into at the moment:
Fiction Plane:
My man Sting has spawned a hell of a singer. Maybe I’m biased because his boy sounds just like him. I love this band. Give a listen to ‘Two Sisters’. Funny, well written and led by the son of one of the most important musicians of our time.
White Stripes
Icky Thump.
I got the kids to love this song because it actually has the word Icky in it and there’s one hell of a beat. Great music.
Jerricho Season I DVD
It’s coming back!! The series that made me extremely happy is back in February. Go. Buy this DVD and get caught up. And don’t forget your nuts.
NOW!
The Wire
It’s the fourth and last season for this incredibly fantastic, and far too overlooked series. The Wire is about Baltimore cops. Wonderfully acted, wonderfully written. EVERYONE should be watching this series.
Go watch it!
Speed Racer
Is it me or does that tasty hunk of man meat also known as Mathew Fox look like a gimp in this flick??
As a kid I had a SERIOUS thing for Racer X. Maybe it doesn’t translate to real life, but I’m kinda not feelin’ this Racer X costume thing.
Breaking Bad
I should be distressed by the over abundance of drug themed shows at present: Weeds (I want to like this show, but I’m just not into it) and AMC’s new makeover includes exclusive network programming starting Breaking Bad. Bryan Cranston plays a chemist who has X amount of time to live and opens up a meth lab to make $ for his family. I LOVE Bryan Cranston and while I didn’t have a chance to watch the show tonight, I have it DVR’d for my viewing pleasure tomorrow. Yes, I realize I should be outraged over the drug theme, but I want to give it a shot and who knows, maybe this will bring needed attention to meth and treatments or maybe it will just be another great show.
Cool Stuff
Get touched
There are few people who follow and love gadgets as much as me. I LOVE them. From Digital cameras, to bluetooth headsets, to MP3 players, to massage chairs– I love GADGETS!!! My best friend got an Ipod touch and I think it’s the coolest thing out there.
Wi-fi enabled, sleek, oh so slim, it rocks. I still hate that it’s I-tunes exclusive. But I do hear that you can crack that.
I still absolutely LOVE my Creative Vision M (60Gigs o’ joy) but I gotta admit that Touch is one FINE looking toy.
I got to go away for business last week. I had a wonderful, creative, and enjoyable time. I got to take LOTS of photos of cities and buildings. I love high rises. They creep me out, and my anxiety and fear that SHOULD something happen and I need to leave a building quickly and can’t because I’m on the 30th floor of some freakin’ building … was sometimes manageable.
Womblees
Here it is. Page one colored and unlettered of my new series Womblees. I am thrilled and utterly happy over this book. It’s coming along and I can’t wait to have it finished in time for Megacon!!!