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

Do you want to build a snowman?

Tonight, the NEC had the Southwest Suite at the Orlando Magic game.

The suite was really nice with free food and drinks. I had 3 bottles of water, a veggie burger, some pico de gallo mac and cheese, some carrot cake, a brownie, some popcorn, and some pretzel bites.

The Magic played the Atlanta Hawks. It was close the entire game.

Devyn Marble, a former Hawkeye, is on the Orlando Magic, but he did not play. He wasn’t even in uniform.

I believe this picture is him. Lenses longer than 6 inches when extended are prohibited, but it didn’t seem like the security guard even saw my lens. I got it through anyways, so I was able to some close pictures from the box where we were.

It was fun seeing the stadium, etc.

Today, we spent the day at Epcot for Staff Development Day. I saw most of the Holidays around the World shows.

I believe I have lived two lifetimes this week and it is still Thursday!

On Monday, we had an event, “Doing Business in Trinidad and Tobago.” On Tuesday, the Turkish delegation arrived. It was a comedy of errors. The translator showed up and when she saw too many people, she bolted. We had to wait for another translator. Then, the fire alarm went off when the main dignitary was speaking. Then, the delegation complained about it being too cold twice. I also had to find batteries for one translator box. I had to find a charger for another man’s phone. It was crazy.

We had our entire 11 organization Christmas party last night and we had our Christmas luncheon today.The Christmas lunch was downtown at the Citrus restaurant. It was really fun. Everyone was there. I drew Lisa for Secret Santa and I gave her a photo mug and the movie, The Book Thief.

But, first, this morning, I had to meet the delegation at Lowe’s. They were already out the door when I arrived, but I made them take a tour. We get a lot of delegations here for Disney, but employers will only pay if they do some other work-related tours. A man I was working set-up the OUC tour which is an energy company and the delegation canceled deciding to go shopping at the outlets instead.

Tonight I went to a party for SCORE (once called Senior Corps of Retired Executives) until 10 p.m. Fortunately, we have staff development day tomorrow at Epcot!!!!  (I think the Turkish delegation was staying at the hotel where I was tonight. I saw two of them!)

Here are some links to the pictures from the week:

Trinidad and Tobago

Turkish Delegation on Tuesday

NEC Connections Mix and Mingle

Turkish Group Lowe’s

NEC Team Lunch

I went with Kelly from work to the Singing Christmas Trees tonight at First Baptist Orlando. It was really good. It was as good or better as anything one would see at Disney.

The other pictures are from Mall at Millennia and IKEA.

Today, I kinda took it easy until I didn’t. It started by me slowing getting over to the lake to run around 11 a.m. Somehow, I didn’t make it down to Downtown Disney until close to 4 p.m. Then, the Lego store had a deal on a Christmas present for some little kids. The present took me a while to construct. I made it to Hollywood Studios around 6 p.m.! The Dancing Lights were packed. I heard a rumor that it might be the last year for them which is sad.

Finally, I made it to the Assistant Director’s home for a Christmas Party. I stayed until around 11 p.m. It was fun talking to a few people I knew from work. I met Bob’s wife. They have a son who is 60 years old!!! Wow! Really seems impossible.

(We also decorated at work on Friday)

Around 7:05 a.m., there was a launch of a rocket over on the Space Coast. It is a test flight preparing to take people to space in 2020 or 2021. I think it will take two trips around the Earth in its 4.5 flight. The rocket had the ability to lift 200 elephants or 350. I don’t remember. Also, I believe it cost $375 million to develop and launch. It was supposed to launch yesterday. I thought about going outside, but I wanted to watch it on tv as it was cloudy. I don’t think the people actually there were able to see it too much after the launch. I heard something fly over my head, but I live in the flight path of two airports. I assume it was a regular plane. (I thought about taping it too late)

My taping:

I stole this from Lynn’s Facebook page: (She is close to the West Coast, so maybe I could have seen this too)

On the way to the airport, I found a news article about a German Christmas Market in Peoria. We stopped by. It was so nice. It had inexpensive schnitzel and gluhwein. There were stands with wooden Nativity scenes, etc. Germans have some neat cultural traditions, so it is sad about their past. I will learn German once I master Spanish. 🙂

I was delayed a few hours leaving Bloomington. I think last time I was there I was on board and we had to deplane. It happened again! I saw the de-icer and then heard the plane restart a few times. The pilot came on said that they gave it the old “ctrl+alt+delete” try and it didn’t turn off the indicator light, so a mechanic was needed. Fortunately, one was on call. When we got back on the plane, the pilot said, “Let’s get this old lady back to Florida” which I don’t think was the best thing to say. Anyways, I made it back at 1:15 a.m. 4 hours later than expected. I knew Dad and Andrea had a long drive back, so they left me at 4 to return to Burlington. Andrea was in Iowa City before I had left Bloomington!

It was Neil Patrick Harris’s 9th year of being a narrator at Epcot’s Candlelight Processional. I didn’t expect so many people. I was 5 to 10 people deep out of the theater which was actually fun. I kept getting a light on his face, so I manually changed the light getting in or something (I just messed with it until I got a good picture). I got a few good pictures from a long distance. I need to continue to practice.

I also saw the Norway Christmas tradition show.