Why I Oughta...

It has been a few months, but I'm now adding this Boathouse coaster to the Coaster Collection here on the blog .  We ate outside on the pier and I had a preetay preetay preetay great Wedge.  This place has been opened in Disney Springs for more than a year but this was the first time we found time to head there and try it out.  Nat tells me that there's a Gibson's connection, and that's what explains the Wedge and the giant desserts. This is just the 13th in the Coaster Collection.  Figured it was far better and less pack-rat-y to take a photo of them than to actually (as my instinct is) horde them.

Just as we were entering the park, these guys came along and marched right in front of us.  Lead by Captain Phasma, I think they went all the way to the hub/center of Hollywood Studios with the good Darth Vader music blasting.  The kids loved it.  And this gives just a small/little glance of what the future of this park will look like in just a few years when Star Wars land opens.

As I've done in the past, this year, I went out early in the morning on Black Friday.   And I went to my favorite store:  Menards.  Yes.  That's right.  I'm guilty.  I was up and out of the house before six am and stood in lines for junk at Menards.  With all of these people. I wrote about my Black Friday experiences before here on the blog . I mean...it was a total zoo.  This is at the new Menards in Melrose Park, so it was the first time I've done Black Friday there, but it was more packed and the people were more aggressive than I've seen in year's past.  By the time I entered the store, all the shopping carts were gone and it was Lord of The Flies time.  People were grabbing garbage cans, buckets and even big cardboard boxes (see the woman in front of me in the line in the photo above with a big box) and jamming all the junk that Menards was peddling in them. The biggest sellers?  It seemed that there was yelling and screaming and huge crowds around

John, a Percheron horse , gets two meals at the Tri-Circle-D Ranch at Fort Wilderness down in Orlando.  We wandered around the Fort one night waiting for Hoop De Doo to start and spent some in the stables checking on the facilities and seeing the horses.  Neat stuff and can't believe we had not done this before. He seems to live on Coastal Hay, which a quick Google search tells me that Coastal Hay isn't crazy expensive/exclusive stuff.  Just normal horse food .  Kinda expected more from Disney?  Maybe I'm wrong?  And Coastal Hay is fancy horse food?

One of the prettiest sights these eyes have ever seen:  snow falling on the beautifully decorated Hollywood Boulevard while some appropriate-era Christmas song is playing over the loudspeakers. We were told about this 'snow' by my friend Adam and he recommended this time of year for a visit.  We've taken him up on his recommendation a few times now and it never gets old.

If you find yourself down in Orlando at Disney's Wilderness Lodge, take a moment to head over to the Villas - which have been recently renamed the Boulder Creek Villas - and go to the "train room".  There, you'll see a bunch of stuff from the Carolwood Pacific train line.  That's the line that ran in Walt Disney's backyard.   They have two of the cars there that you can check out: I took some other photos of the train room (it is a neat space with a roaring fireplace and lots of comfy chairs) that I'll post at some point.  But these two cars, and the box they're in - which has a tramp art style to it - are the stars of the show.  Take the ten minutes after your meal in the Lodge to wander over to the Villas to check them out.  Neat stuff.

The 13th year here on the blog where we mark Thanksgiving day not with the parade or the Turkey Trot (although those are both usually present!), but with the boys from The Band and The Last Waltz. And, this is the 10th post (that I can locate), but the first one was back in 2004.  There are 3 years missing (2006, 2008, 2009). We're marking the occasion in Vic + Equation Boy/Man's house and this *should* be the last Thanksgiving we're here and the final one NOT in our own house. "Happy Thanksgiving."  And a condensed version of 'Don't do it'.  Which they play like it is their own. Here's my post from 2015 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2014 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2013 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2012 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2011 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2010 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2007 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from

Released in 2015, this building from Lemax is called "Twas the Night" and has all the bells and whistles that Lemax offers including lights, music and interior scenes.  It even has Santa in the house with his reindeer awaiting him on the roof.   Here's the official product page . Unfortunately for Mantleburg , there's a moratorium on residential construction in place until they get more businesses or the train station in place.

Recently, Nat endured a little trip up to Wheeling with the express purpose of trying the 2nd location of Superdawg .  We went to the original back a few years and after hearing about how the Wheeling location had a bigger dining room, I wanted to go.  And...it was delicious. We all had our own Superdawgs - lounging inside their boxes - 'cushioned in Superfries' and the kids always get a kick out of a meal in a box.  Of any kind.  Their own little special box of food. The Superdawg in Wheeling feels a bit different than the original location, but the food was the same.  Nat isn't a huge hot dog lover, so I'm grateful she went along on the journey. And who doesn't love the rooftop wieners that adorn both locations??

As we begin the *actual* building of our new old farmhouse (gasp!  Could *it* really be happening??  Appears that way, but I don't want to jinx us...), we now begin to move from the 'drawing phase' to more of the real, actual, 'selection phase'.  That's where Nat reigns and is in control of everything from the big decisions to the smallest detail.  We find out more this week in terms of schedule and such and will be updating our farmhouse blog in short order. But, as I know she reads the blog here, I figure I'll use this platform to try to influence her and persuade her to something I'm keen on:  this tile as seen in the queue in the Peter Pan ride at WDW. In our house at Hilltop, we have designed a vestibule of sorts right inside the front door before you enter the hallway.  If you've been in a period house from 100 years ago, you know the type.  Think about something like this .  Usually has an 'inside' door and serves as a sort of a