“I need a vacation”

Those were the words I heard back in the Spring that started it all.  Go visit family, Diamond mine in Arkansas, some random place on a map?  Then, being me, I checked how much it would really cost to go to Disney World.  In fact, it wasn’t bad.  Booked.

Somehow, we got a really good deal and I played all the cards right.  The free Disney Dining plan was running for late Summer again.  The rest of the details….

Disney Value resort.  Cheapest one there.  Really, who spends time in the room while here?  Out of the All-Star resorts…sports had nothing to do with Disney, the Music resort didn’t catch my fancy.  Movies, giant Toy Story and Dalmation decorations.  At least it said “Disney”

Free Dining plan.  Consisted of 1 snack, 1 counter service meal, and 1 sit down meal - per person - per day.

Park Tickets.  The trip was for 7 days, but arriving at 4pm and leaving at 7am, you don’t need a 7 day pass.  Thanks website.  Trimmed that to 5 and removed the park hopper option.  We will plan on staying at certain parks, all day and plan around any special events.

Free Disney Magic service.  What’s that?  Well you drop off your luggage at the airport, Des Moines, fly there, get onto a Disney bus, pickup your room key and get to your room.  Oh did I mention the luggage again….nope…it shows up a short time later.  After we got there, we went out for dinner and found it in our room when we came back.
Airfare….the only bummer.  Then you get charged $15 a bag.  This added up to about half of the entire package.

Another secret.  I have a Chase Disney rewards card.  $275 “Disney Dollars” saved up.  Works like a gift certificate.  Cashed that in for food, drinks, and spending.
Ah Disney….We had a few hours left on arrival day.  So we went to Downtown Disney.  Crowded, but saw the massive Disney store, the Lego store, and tried to find a place to eat.  There was a Wolfgang Pucks in the back that had no line, so we ate.  The first ‘free’ meal would have cost $120.  I had it in my mind to see how much we would claim on this deal.

We finally started planning which parks on which days as we found the weekly guide to shows and which park was open early or late each day.

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I’ve been talking to my boss about different schedules, trying to fill gaps in the coverage model.  Then he surprised me with moving back to my old shift, 4pm-1am local time.  Day #2, done.  I’m not quite used to it yet, the last 60-90 minutes are a little hard to keep focus while studying new products.  Few more days, and I’ll be used to it.

What is different, is the amount of time I have during the day.  I’ve been getting up around 9, and out the door around 10.  In the last 2 days, I have gotten a weeks worth of errands run, did laundry, cleaned the garage, worked on the corn crib, mowed the farm, tilled under the garden beds, and regraded the shed floor.  No more ruts or that large scary hole in the back.  All that, and I can casually roast coffee when needed.

The 2nd floor of the crib is opening up, and we just hauled the first wave of sub-floor up a ladder.  That will give us a place to work on the sides, while we pull up some bin floor and frame the end wall for windows.  The piles of construction supplies are dwindling.  I might need to made one more lumber yard run before winter.  I’ll probably park the truck for winter again.

The goal this week, fasten 3 sheets of sub-floor, add a joist at the end wall, add a bit more floor, then frame for the windows.  We’ll probably just plug the holes in the open windows at the very top with plywood this winter.  There is a little bit of exterior siding to do on the bottom of the greenhouse, and we need to sheath and side the inner wall as well.  I’ll need to frame for an inner door from the inside of the crib into the greenhouse.  I’d like to find at least 1 of the doors and get it installed as well.  Well, maybe this is a 2 week long to-do list.

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