Home Again

Back from an excellent vacation at Disney World, feeling refreshed, if not fully recharged. I definitely had fun and ate a ton of good food. The highlights:

• The Coral Reef. My wife and I got seated directly in front of the aquarium, next to a statue of a green sea turtle. Or at least that's what I thought, until the turtle opened its eyes, glared at a stingray that had settled on its flipper, and took off for a swim like Gamera rising from the deeps.


• Teppan Edo. Excellent community dining, and the chef (Eri) did a great show. Also, my wife got to wear a chef's hat while the whole restaurant sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and survived with only minor embarrassment.


• The Tower of Terror. Always scary, no matter how many times I ride it.


• Epcot's Biergarten. Disney does buffet-style dining better than most, and I got a new appreciation for German food and beer.


• Running into a fellow patron of Third Eye Comics after a fireworks show, and being recognized by my Red Lantern T-shirt. Sometimes it really is a small world.


• Renting a SeaRay and going tooling around Lake Disney for half an hour, which was just enough time to speed by every hotel on the lake. A very relaxing experience: the SeaRay can go fairly fast, but once you've got it pointed in the right direction you can pretty much just sit back and enjoy the breeze.

--Dave

Author's Log

Surprisingly, I did get a fair amount of writing done on the trip: two scenes for the novel, around 500 words each. I also wrote a new setup for the novel (which has desperately needed a complete rewrite since the first draft, and may finally get it), and jotted down some vital details for a short story (which shouldn't need as much work, God willing).

Finally, I jotted down a poem across two pages of note paper while I was on the flight home, equating roller coasters and airplanes. As you might expect, there was some turbulence on the flight.

Current Reading

Storm Front, the first book in the Dresden Files, was an excellent read. Harry Dresden is a fascinating modern-day wizard, magic is nothing to be trifled with, and things get very dangerous for everyone involved before the end. I'll definitely be continuing with the series.

On Vacation - Because I Can

As of tomorrow, I will be on vacation, flying down to sunny Florida where the Mouse is in charge and Internet access runs about twenty bucks an hour. Naturally I won't be updating during that time, which I'd feel worse about if I'd ever gotten a regular update schedule going in the first place. If you are reading this, I hope you'll be willing to check back in a week or so, and thank you very much for your patience.

Where writing is concerned, I'm not optimistic. A theme park can be a marvelous wellspring of ideas, I'm sure, but it doesn't work as well when your wife is getting annoyed about the repeated stops to jot down notes. "But honey, how else am I going to remember what that man was screaming while Chip and Dale beat on him with the official Disney bats" is unlikely to pass muster.

No, I learned my lessons about note-jotting in Cooperstown. But I will be bringing the digital recorder, just in case.

--Dave

Author's Log

Nothing to report but shame and failure. I'm bringing a notepad and pens along on vacation, though, to ensure more shame and failure.

Current Reading

I just picked up the first book in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, Storm Front, to read during the R&R portions of next week. It's been a series I've been curious about for a long time but never got around to reading, but a review of the comic series adaptation in the latest Fantasy & Science Fiction finally pushed me over the edge. Once I get back, I'm going to owe Charles de Lint either a thank-you or a beating.