...And the Crazy Continues...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi.

I thought I would get in that last post from the Old Testament portion of  the heart study before we left town for a week and a half...but there was just too much work to do, on too many fronts, to do it justice.  We should get that this weekend, though.  Hopefully.

But I thought I'd throw in a post about where we went.  The Actor, aka Number 2 Son, had a birthday the day before Mother's Day, and we had a carload of household goods that came from the grandparents' house in Elkhart to take down to them, so we headed down for that weekend, then checked into Disney's Caribbean Beach resort for four nights before making the return trip.  The kids were blessed with a couple of days off of work to hang with us in Disney, so we got an almost family vacation out of it (Thanks Pastor John!).

I will say, those long hot days are getting harder the older I get...but we had a good time.  My feet almost feel normal at this point, lol.

The Essential Photo...the Actor's wife, the Little Red-Haired Girl, had to work.  Different boss.

I will share one thing that struck me whilst we were there...we had several character meet-and-greet moments, some because we stood in line and some because we got a couple of major discounts on character dining.  And after the last day, something that I had kind of been subconsciously stewing on finally bubbled up into actual coherent words.

Every one of those character interactions involved a character who behaved exactly as if we were the folks s/he had been waiting all day to see.  And I watched them treat the folks before and after us in line the same way.  I'm not sure how that training goes, but it was clear that is a major priority.  They noticed details...even with the limited visibility out of the, um, outfits they were wearing.   I had a celebration button ("I'm celebrating a data base migration!")  and every character pointed it out.  I have had characters notice those little pins on my lanyard before.  I tell you, it's one of the charms of visiting the kingdom of the mouse...it's a real esteem boost, even knowing that it's the job.  It *feels* real at the moment.

I need to study that approach.  I don't think I need to immediately embrace everyone I meet, but surely I can learn the art of making folks feel like I've been waiting all day to meet up with them.  

Everyone needs a bit of that from time to time.

A Walk At Sunset

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The cooler air arrived, and I wanted to go for an evening stroll.

I put in my earbuds and hit the 'Makers and Mystics' podcast, picking up in the middle of a roundtable discussion and started down the hill.

Then I noticed the sky.

And I turned around and went all the way back to the front porch to get a picture.

The textures in the sky were glorious.  I took the pic and then headed back down the street with every intention of doing the Usual Route...maybe a bit shortened, since it was getting on for dark.

I took another picture as I started down the hill again.

The lighting was already changing when I got to the curve at the bottom of the hill

I went around the corner and, coming up on the intersection where I typically would go straight, a couple with a little dog came  up from the main road and turned that way.

Suddenly, I decided I wanted to head to the main road and follow the sunset.

There's just one house between the neighborhood street and the main road through the valley; one little bit of road heading west.  I planned to turn south at the main road and look for open sky.

But just a bit south I decided to cross the road and walk through the park as the light was still changing.

There's a creek that runs along the back of the park, with a foot bridge to the greenway on the other side.  

I got a bit of the reflection in the water.

The athletic fields at the middle school on the other side let me get underneath the power lines and get an unobstructed view.

It's amazing how much the color intensifies when zoomed in a bit.

But the power lines do, after all, add a bit of context/ texture.

I turned around and started back home.  The sky off to the southeast was lit up as well.

I looked back over my shoulder and couldn't resist another shot zoomed in on the fabulousness.

There's something rather metaphorical about looking at the sunset through chain links.

The last look back before I left the park:

Heading back up from the main road the streetlight was just barely strong enough to cast a shadow in the twilight

And finally, took one last picture from the end of the porch...where I took the first one.

Had I taken the normal walk, I'd've been mostly on tree-lined streets where I would barely get a glimpse of the sky now and then.

I'm so glad I followed the sunset.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  - Ps. 19:1 - 3, NIV84

Post number 1, 000 - Reader Appreciation

I happened to look at the post counter tonight and it read '999'....

 One thousand posts in a little over 12 years at Beer Lahai Roi. It's been a journey. 

To those of you who have been here all the way...thanks for hanging with me. 

To those of you who have joined along the way...thanks for hanging with me, too, lol. 

Seriously, this is a 'talking to myself outloud' kinda blog, so I know it's not the kind of thing that really appeals to the masses. The dozen or so of you who stop by faithfully are greatly appreciated. 

If I could, I'd have a party for all of us together. That would be fun. But...I'm just going to have to say 'Thank you all!!!' :-)

We Got Mousified...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's been, like, 3 weeks now and I am still trying to catch up. Doesn't help that we launched right into the middle of one of the busiest months I can remember in the recent past.  It's not the busy of a Big Project..it's the busy of a myriad Small Projects, short trips and approaching holiday preparations....Christmas production tryouts?

I've managed to squeeze out a couple of the Desert study posts by writing them in small bits over the week and then posting, but I didn't make it last week...and the next couple of weeks are iffy.

So...thoughts on the trip to see the mouse in Florida...

We planned for, like, almost a year.  First it was the reservations themselves...then it was the dining reservations...then it was the fast pass selections...and the installment payments...the hotel reservations for the trip down and back...the arrangements to board the cat at the vet's...watching the tropics to see if we were going to get hit by the tropical storm or merely sideswiped...and then it stayed off the coast all together and we barely had any rain.

The Princess and her hubby are serious fans...in fact, she has done the training and is now a certified vacation planner for all things, um, relevant to the mouse.  So they Knew What To Do.  The Actor had been once with a church group 5 years ago; My Sweet Babboo and I had visited the mouse back in March of 1982, when there was only one park down there.  So that almost doesn't even count.

The Artist and the Flute Player had never been.

We had tickets for the 'exclusive event' they do from mid-August to Nov. 1...and, honestly, the 'exclusive event' had the biggest crowd and longest wait lines of the week we were there.  But it was fun to dress up in a character costume and interact with castmembers a bit.  And the fireworks were jaw-dropping.

We actually saw 4 major fireworks shows.

We ate some incredible food.  Yay for the dining plan...we would have cheapskated it had we not had that all covered.  We also ate some of the cheapskate food...it was handy at the time...there's definitely a difference between the good stuff and the cheaper stuff (which, honestly, ain't cheap).

We got to go to the edge of the galaxy and 'flew' the legendary smuggler's ship. I even came home with a light saber that I assembled myself...the 18 year old inner me was totally geeking out.  That may actually  have been my favorite bit.

We had a lot of fun with our kids plus one, and I suppose it's possible that we could do it again.

But not for a while, lol.

A week back...Christmas auditions...then another weekend away...Alabama Royal Rangers Lead Conference.  The 'fun activity' for the event was...skeet shooting.  But they also had some target shooting w/a .22 rifle.  Now,  growing up,  shooting guns was not an approved activity for girls.  I think I snuck in a bit of  tin-can pinging with a BB gun at some point, but that was it.  I didn't brave the shotgun, but I managed to hit the iddle bitty .22 target a fair number of times ..for a first timer, lol.

And it's not going to slow down for another 2 ish weeks.  More random busy for the rest of the month.  But...then it will be November, and at least  the only real crazy will be Christmas production prep.  Oh, and Thanksgiving, lol.

All of this is basically to say I will do my best to be consistent with the Desert Digging posts...but if they fail to show, well, I'll get something up as soon as I can.

25 Random Facts

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Lord have mercy, it's been heavy around here lately.

So, completely without any forethought or planning, I'm going to do my best to be completely frivolous.

The title just came out of thin air, and so will most of these facts...although they will all be true.  I promise.

1. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is not located in Indianapolis.  It is in, I kid you not, Speedway, Indiana.

2. Every ear of corn has an even number of rows.

3. Sir Isaac Newton's dog was named Diamond.


4.  Rats cannot vomit.

5.  In early drafts of 'The Lord of the Rings', the character 'Strider' was  a hobbit who wore shoes, because his feet were wooden prosthetics.


6.  In those same early drafts, Frodo's original name was 'Bingo'.

7.  The Wise Men did not come to the stable.

8.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three of them, either.

9. The initial skirmish of what became the first battle of the American Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run, was fought on the farm of a gent named Wilmer McLean.

10.  After that battle, McLean moved his family about 120 miles south, to avoid further involvement.

11.  The name of the little crossroads town that McLean selected for his new home was Appomatox Court House.

12.  General Lee formally surrendered to General Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's house.

13.  There are 4 generations of Monarch Butterflies every summer.

14.  The life expectancy of the adult butterflies in the first three generations is two to six weeks.

15.  The 4th generation of monarchs lives 6 to 8 months, migrating to a tropical climate, then returning north to lay the eggs that will be the first generation in the following year.

16. Scientists still do not know how cats purr.

17. Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Tin Woodman in the 1939 MGM production of  'The Wizard of Oz' when the show first went into production.

18.  He had an almost fatal reaction to the aluminum powder used in the makeup and had to withdraw from the production.

19.  The ensemble numbers had already been recorded, and were not re-recorded with his replacement, Jack Haley.  So it is Buddy Ebsen's voice we hear on those songs.

20. A kernel of popcorn reaches an interior pressure of about 135 psi and temperature of  356 °F before the outer skin ruptures and the kernel explodes.

21.  Ludwig von Beethoven was completely deaf when he composed and finally conducted his 9th symphony.  One of the female soloists had to turn him around so he could see the people standing and cheering at the conclusion of its debut performance.

22. Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous by Europeans when they first encountered them and were cultivated as ornamental plants.

23. The weather phenomena that causes the most annual deaths in the US is not hurricanes or tornadoes or flooding or lightning...it is heatwaves.

24. Despite being nicknamed 'Killer Whale', orcas are actually the largest of the dolphins.

25.   Cashew nuts are never sold unshelled, as the shell is toxic, containing oils similar to that found in poison ivy.


26.  This was a lot harder than I thought it would be!  :-)