meinen Reisen MY TRAVELS mijn reizen mes voyages meus cursos mis viajes minhas viagens mo taisteal mine rejser mina resor i miei viaggi

I forgot to post last Sunday night’s events. I went to Magic Kingdom where I had a waffle with Nutella, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas on it. I also had dinner there. Later, I went over to Universal and saw the Barenaked Ladies perform. They were ok, but they didn’t get to their good songs until late and it was “cold.”

The video pretty much sums up the weekend except it is kinda confusing as we did not run the Disney Princess race. We went to Tampa to run their Pirate Half-Marathon. However, we did go to the expo for the Disney race. We went to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. Also, we drove down to Clearwater to eat dinner.

Whirlwind Weekend

I will update more of the weekend tomorrow night.

Andrea has arrived. I picked her up at the airport last night. We are running the Tampa half-marathon. I will post again on Monday. Have a good weekend.

Universal announced a “deal” where Florida Residents can get 15 months for the price of an annual pass. So for $276, I have an annual pass to both Universal parks including parking for the next 15 months. It is $189 plus tax for a non-Floridian for one day for both parks. (I think the Harry Potter areas, Mardi Gras Concerts for two years, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade/ Christmas season will make it worth it).

I am not a fan of Universal, but today was really fun. I started at the Hogwarts area (in Islands of Adventure) of the Harry Potter world. I spent like 5 minutes there. I waited 45 minutes for the Hogwarts Express. The Express takes you to London (from Islands of Adventure to Universal), so you have to have the two-park pass to ride the train AND the train is amazing! I can’t describe it, so I will add a youtube video of it below. The train stations are so neat. I loved arriving in London in the tube station and walking out into the streets of London. Then,  a weird looking world was behind the facade. I am sure all the readers of Harry Potter will love it as much as I loved the London portion. Diagon Alley (the new part) is quite larger than the Hogswart area. There is a lot more to explore. I had some ice cream from the ice cream parlour. The new area has at least one ride. The line was 60 to 75 minutes long, so I didn’t ride it. The lines at Universal seemed really long to everything including the bathrooms and even Starbucks.

I also saw the Mardi Gras parade and went to the Jessie J concert. I left early as it was getting cold and there were a lot of people that I didn’t want to compete with leaving.

(At work, we had the Free Trade Agreement seminar finally. I was able to play my game.)

I was thinking about Chinese New Year and I saw this picture. Neat picture of what it is like to be in a country where no one looks like you and everyone looks at you.

Last Thursday was SmallBiz 360. It was quite fun. There were about 15 speakers who spoke 10 to 30 minutes each on small business topics. We also had an event dealing with Cuba on Monday.

I spoke at as the Evening MBA Program alumni last night at the UCF MBA Open house when I returned home Andrea told me about a mug I purchased last Saturday.

I have a hard time writing this as I have regrets. Starbucks released a special “Epcot” mug last Thursday. I went to purchase it on Saturday. It was only sold at the Starbucks in Epcot. I knew people online wanted the mugs, but I didn’t think it would be worth my time to buy them and sell them on Ebay for a $2 to $5 profit. I didn’t even buy one for my own sister.  I thought the mugs would be around forever and she could buy one when she is here next.

Well, this mug has a purple monorail on it. In 2009, a college program student was killed in a monorail accident and Disney took it off the rails. Out of respect for the accident, Starbucks has pulled the mug. It was only on the shelves for one week. I only bought one mug!!! I should have bought so many. The mugs are now selling on Ebay for over $200!! I saw one person post one for “Buy it Now” for $2,500!

It is neat to see a company like Starbucks make mistakes as even the best proof-readers miss things. I make mistakes and often times it is only me looking at things.

(I also was on a radio show talking about international trade and CFITO today)