Disney Tip Idea #1 - Pack swim suits for kiddos in the parks

I've read a lot of Disney travel tips (and will repeat my experiences following some of those), but one we've stumbled into on our own is pack swim suits for your kids in the parks.

All the parks have water areas where kids can cool off when it's hot out. Usually, these "fun fountains" squirt water randomly up from the ground over a rubberized surface. Our daughter loves to play in these and gets totally soaked.

We've started to pack her swim suit and bring it to the park each day. We're usually the envy of other parents in the area - especially those who must tell their kids that they can't get their clothes wet because they are close to a dining reservation.

So even though you don't plan on being near a pool, don't forget pack your kids swim suit everyday! Your kids will thank you!

Lost Season 5

I've started to see promos for the next season of Lost on TV (1/21). To be honest, I almost lost interest. I still love the story, but last season was fragmented with the writer's strike and now there's this horribly long (8 month) layoff between seasons. The producers of Lost attempted another Alternate Reality Game during this down time, but I never got into it much and it ultimately failed.

Then I found http://www.sl-lost.com containing...

• a Mr Friendly message for Jack
• a count of all the times Hurley said "dude" in 4 Seasons
• a series of "In preparation for Season 5" videos
  
• and some new videos from Damon and Carlton
  

Great stuff!

It's got me thinking again...

• Why is Locke now known as Jeremy Bentham and why do they need to take his dead carcass in order to return to the island?
• Can Ben go back to the Island? It didn't seem like it when he left.
  
• Where is the island?
• What about dead Michael and dead Jin - do they need to return to the island? What about Desmond and Frank?

All this and the usual smoke monster, where are the kids, what is DHARMA questions....

Old Enough for Disney?

When discussing the right time to take kids to Disney World for the first time, I often hear "I want them to be old enough to remember it". I don't prescribe to that line of thinking. This summer I entered a contest and tried to describe why I think taking little ones to Disney is a great idea. Here's that entry...

Last spring I planned a trip for my wife and 2-year-old daughter to Walt Disney World. I got plenty of "advice" leading up to the trip on how my daughter was too young and wouldn't remember anything. While that may be true, nothing could ever compare to the memories I'll carry with me - experiencing The Magic through her young eyes.

Cinderella was my daughter's favorite movie then, and I could almost feel her eye's bulge out of her head as she spied The Castle for the first time. While we explored the mosaics under The Castle and rode the carousel, nothing prepared me for what happened when we dined with Cinderella at 1900 Park Fare that first night. It was a while before Cinderella made our way to us, and we watched with eager anticipation as she visited with other diners and posed for pictures. It was truly hard to eat our meal. When our turn came to meet Cinderella, it wasn't my daughter's silence that surprised me the most - it was my wife's! My wife was wide-eyed with her jaw hanging open (I so wished that Mary Poppins was there to say "Close you're mouth Miss, we are not a cod fish"). Anyway, to try and help break the awe of silence - I attempted to make smalltalk with Cinderella and asked if she was wearing the glass slippers? Even though I had seen the movie about 100 times, she proceeded to patiently explain how one slipper had broken and she could no longer wear them anymore. Oh the horror! Now I was red faced and wanted to crawl under the table. A quick picture and autograph, then Cinderella was on her way. We looked at each other and giggled at how we had acted.

Over the course of the week, we experienced (and fell in love with) all the parks. We especially enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast Show at Hollywood Studios, playing in the jumping fountains outside the Imagination pavilion in Epcot, and experiencing the Animal Kingdom's Festival of the Lion King. In addition, we probably rode (and re-ride and re-ride) both Dumbo and It's a Small World about a dozen times each.

My favorite memories though, are of our last day. We knew we had just spent a most wonderful week together - one that would be difficult to ever duplicate. It was a very tender morning in the Magic Kingdom. We started with a final spin on our Fantasyland favorites (which was just about everything). On our way toward the front of the park, my daughter spotted Winnie the Pooh (who we had not seen yet that week). She looked up at me and said "Daddy, I'd really like to meet him" - so of course we got in line. She had the patience of an angel - pen and autograph book in hand - never lifting her gaze from Pooh for the 10 minutes we waited. She approached him gingerly, without my hand, and gave him a big hug. I have a hard time expressing the emotions I felt as I watched my little girl grow up - just a little - in that very moment. Our final moments in The Kingdom were spent at the foot of Main Street sharing some popcorn and ice cream as we watched other families excitedly begin their vacations.

After eighteen months, my daughter still talks about how she met Pooh, and we laugh about our starstruck experience with Cinderella. Recently as we've been talking about and planning our next visit, I'll catch my daughter humming the Small World theme. When I ask her what she's doing, she replies, "Just thinking about Disney World, Dad". I cannot thank Disney enough for giving me these wonderful memories of love, tenderness, and fun with those closest to me - even if my daughter doesn't remember any of it.

Millennium Trenching (West Seneca, NY) - Review

I recently hired Millennium Trenching owned by Larry Boll to install some drain tile and gutters. I've never had a worse experience hiring someone to do work at my home.

Larry gave me an estimate to install 390 feet of drain tile. The contract called for the drainage system to tie in the 7 downspots from my house and connect to the culvert at the road. The estimate also included a price to install gutters on a portion of my house.

First of all, Larry shorted me on the amount of drain tile installed - installing only 350 of the 390 feet of drainage specified by the contract. He neglected to tie in one of the 7 downspouts on my home and did not tie the system into my sump pump line. All of these items were specifically called out in the contract.

I've never seen a more amateurish gutter installation. The downspouts were "attached" with a 3 inch gap from the siding. There was none of the strapping that usually reinforces the downspouts to the house. The contract also called for Larry to install a "leaf guard" system on the gutters, which he did not do.

Adding insult to injury, Larry's workers cut into and removed a portion of my very expensive, previously installed LeafGuard gutters. There was no need to do this. The guys simply did not follow instructions, causing unrepairable damage to these gutters (and voiding the LeafGuard warranty).

I was ultimately forced to take Larry to court to gain settlement for the uncompleted work as well as the damage to my home.

DO NOT HIRE LARRY BOLL OR MILLENNIUM TRENCHING!!!

The Look

I've become a big fan of all things Disney. A BIG fan. Almost an addict.

It all started when I planned our first trip to Disney World a few years ago. I was looking for planning tips in order to make best use of our vacation time and I discovered an enormous community of fan sites and podcasts devoted to nothing more than helping people like me have better vacations. It was unbelievable! At that time I didn't quite understand why people would donate so much time and energy to talk about a theme park. It didn't take long to figure out that Disney World is much more than a theme park

At the same time, I was introducing my daughter to all the classic Disney movies and characters... Cinderella, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Mickey and the gang. I hadn't watched these movies since I was a kid myself, and had forgotten all but the broadest storylines. When Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Nemo were released, I was in high school or college and didn't pay much attention. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed these movies when I finally made time to watch them with my daughter.

My love for Disney was firmly cemented when we finally visited the parks. The stories are so complete and alive there. Every little detail is attended to. Sure there are attractions based on the movies, but there are also stories built around the non-movie attractions. I experienced a mixture of excitement and embarrassment last week when I realized I knew the name of the mythical town where the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is - Tumbleweed. I knew that. Yep, I got it bad...

What could possibly possess me to remember that little fact? In part it's all of the things above, but more so it's the look on my daughter's face (and sometimes my wife's and I'm sure mine) when a character in a parade waves directly to you (or blows you a kiss). You. Like you're the only one there.

There are hundreds of places in the parks which can produce this look.... when you turn on Main St and see The Castle, when you take off on Soarin', or when you play Toy Story Mania. All elicit that look. Every time.

I even saw the look on my parents faces when they joined us for a trip this fall. And they're old. They've seen it all a hundred times. I know, because they told me all about it when I was growing up. They had the look too!

That look - a mixture of awe, wonder, excitement, and pure joy. Everyone gets it at Disney. And it's the feeling I get when I see that look that's got me hooked.

Superior Remodeling (West Seneca, NY) - Review

For the most part I feel John Ianello and Superior Remodeling did a good job on our addition, but the stress involved in working with John (if your a hands on type of person) is not worth it. There are some things in the way John conducts his business that really shook my confidence in him (and therefore his work).

If he doesn't want to answer a question, he won't. He'll double talk you, tell you that you have nothing to worry about, ignore your request, or tell you that this is not the right time to think about it. The thing is, it's never the right time for John. He'll dictate to you what is done and when.

• Before we signed a contract, I wanted to hear his approach for how he'll tie the new gutters into the existing ones. Granted, it was a relatively small detail, but I wanted to work though it. John brushed me off. This should've been a red flag that I'll have a hard time talking to him to get details on information he's not ready (or unwilling) to give... which turned out to be true.

• John showed up at our house to start work a month before his anticipated start date. We didn't have our financing in place yet and asked him to delay starting. He didn't, and we scrambled to get something in place to pay for the rest of the job. We settled for a higher interest loan to fund things until we could put better financing in place. This added a lot of stress to what should've been an exciting time at the beginning of the project.

• After they started digging the foundation, they ran into a septic pipe that ran next to the planned foundation. They hand dug around the pipe, but the next day I came home to find the entire hole filled with cement. My concern was that they encased the pipe in the cement. When I called John and asked him how they dealt with the pipe, again I got the runaround and he didn't answer my questions directly. He did call back later and explained in detail what they did, but I always felt uncomfortable that he needed to call me back before giving me the full story - like he needed to concoct something. I still don't know for sure what happened.
  
  I would've liked him to call my wife or I outside before filling the trench to say "Look, this is how we're going to deal with this situation". And then either explain "this is a good idea because x, y, z" or ask "what do you think".
  
  Yet more stress at the beginning of the project.

• We had a vacation planned and made John aware of the dates well before he started. We made it clear that we didn't want any work being done while we were gone. Of course he starts 2 weeks before we are to leave - again dictating that either the house will be open and exposed to the weather while we're gone or he's going to continue work.
  
  The day before we leave, there are big questions with the electrical plans. The electric planner who came out said that some limbs need to be removed to make way for the new service run. John also told us that we need to upgrade to 200 amp service (which turned out not to be true). He said that "he knows a guy" to do the tree and the electric work and gives us some ballpark estimates... and then asks us what to do? We tell him that we need actual estimates and we spend the day before our vacation scrambling to line up people to come out and price the work. It turns out John's "ballpark numbers" were off by 50% in both instances. Of course, John got his way (again) and continues work while we're gone.
  
  This is a stressful way to start and spend a vacation.

• The original job was also supposed to include installing 4 vinyl replacement windows in the rest of the house. In the original estimate John insisted in keeping these out - estimating the addition only. He assured us that he would complete these as part of the overall work. My wife had the windows measured and priced by John's window distributor and had yet more "ballpark estimates" for installation from John. We thought everyone was on the same page, but when the addition windows were delivered there were no vinyl replacements. Once we realized this oversight, John told us the lead time to order the windows was an additional 2 weeks (well after they were to complete the original job). John also wanted to re-quote the price. It was little surprise that new estimates were close to $100 more per window than John's original "ballpark" price.

• As the job came to a close, we asked that they not hang our new ceiling fans until we had a chance to paint the ceiling. As they would be working on a job we referred them to at our neighbors, they readily agreed.... until they realized this would push back their completion date a few days and they would need to wait for final payment.
  
  There were 4 items that needed to be completed before they were done - install the fans, final electric inspection, the electric wires outside needed to be raised (tightened) back to their original level (John lowered them to move the service), and the dumpster for the job needed to be removed. John wanted us to make full final payment before any of these things were complete. When we refused to pay until all work was completed (we did offer to make a partial payment early), he insisted on installing the fans to get the electrical inspection done. He said that the dumpster would be removed Friday, but still insisted on payment Thursday.
  
  He said that the electrical service was not his responsibility - the electric company was in charge of that sort of thing. My reasoning is that he lowered the wires on his own and that the job was not complete until all these services were back to where they're supposed to be. We disagree on this point.
  
  Yet again, we should be excited to be in our new space but are frustrated by John's insistence on being paid before the job is complete. More stress.

Again, we're happy with the new space but I don't feel that the added stress that comes in dealing with John offsets the cost of dealing with a more professional contractor. It definitely wasn't as bad as some of the contractor horror stories you hear, but it wasn't a great experience either.

The other thing I fail to understand is why John was so insistent on being paid before the job was complete. He knows our future plans call for a complete kitchen remodel (and installing the above mentioned windows). My father also asked John to look at some work at his house. His stubbornness and ignorance cost him at least 2 future jobs. Why would he risk that by insisting to be paid a few days early for a job he hasn't completed yet?

Lost Returns!!! (finally)

I'm really excited about the Lost premiere tonight. It's been a long time coming. I'm excited to learn the series of events that leads Jack to such despair and why he now desperately wants to get back to the island.

I'm a little bummed because ABC has been marketing it as a 2-hour event. Looking at the TV listings, it looks like a 'clip-show' followed by 1-hour of new content. I was greedily hoping for 2-hours of new content.

I watched ABCs rebroadcast of last season's finale. There was some text added to the bottom revealing some back story and easter eggs in the episode. I didn't care for it. Many times I was so drawn in my the story that I was ignoring the text and needed to "DVR back" to read the text. I didn't feel like it added that much... "Oxycodine is a powerful and addictive drug"?? Thanks. I sort of figured that out but why do I care?

One thing I had forgotten about in the finale was the reaction (or non-reaction) of the hospital staff when Jack told the new Chief Surgeon to go upstairs and see how drunk his father was. It seemed like everyone in the hallway dismissed that remark even though Christian Shepard had been dead for some time. I don't know, I guess I would've expected a different response. Why did Jack even say that anyway? It just seems weird.

I've also been following along in the new Lost alternate reality game, find815.com. It's no where near as engaging as the previous Lost ARG, but it's at least something. I'm wondering if the freighter where the game takes place will tie back to the freighter coming to rescue the survivors?