Disney World vacation

Last week I went on vacation with my husband, son, parents, sister, and some more of my family to Disney World.  We had a good time though it was hot and we all were super tired every night.  We started out at Epcot on the first day which was the longest and hottest.

Day Two took us to Animal Kingdom which was a nice day with lots of pretty animals and the very fun Everest coaster. We also went to the Magic Kingdom that night to watch the parade and the fireworks. Day Three was an all day trip to the Magic Kingdom and Day Four was our day at Hollywood Studios.

The last day (Friday) was suppose to be my day at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter but I didn't get in.  Due to some poor planning, in my opinion, on the part of Universal, it was a 9 hour wait just to get into Harry Potter World and that was after a 2 hour wait just to get into Universal's Islands of Adventure Park.  That was very disappointing, I'll tell you.  But I spent the rest of the day at the Magic Kingdom with my husband and son and that was extremely fun and I'm glad of that.  We all had a good time and my son saw a lot of characters and we rode as many rides as possible.

Hogwarts: the only picture I could get

A few more pictures:

Tigger, me and Pooh.  Tigger is my favorite

Illuminations Epcot

On vacation!

This week I'm going to be on vacation at the fabulous Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  We are super excited at my house especially my little 3 year old who is dying to see Mickey Mouse.
See ya next week! Have a good one!

Memories of wedding dance songs

We went to a wedding reception the other night.  The wedding was in California but they had a reception down here for the groom's Louisiana family.  It was...nice, very plain and not fancy but still they tried and the little boy had a good time.  He, of course, found some other little boys to play with so he ran off with them.  And the place was small so he could play and I could see him at the same time.

And we discussed wedding songs.  I can't remember what they danced to, a Ben Folds song, I think.  Our wedding song was "When You Say Nothing At All" which was really my husband's choice.  I wanted "At Last."  I told my mother-in-law that I thought we danced to the wrong song and she looked at me weird, but it's the truth.  I gave in for our wedding dance song.  It was less a compromise and more like a "I'm tired of talking about this" type of thing.  And it is a beautiful song, just very cliche and I tried so hard to stay away from cliche.  Really we should have danced to "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" because that would have been more appropriate for us and it would still be a good choice for us.  It's what I engraved on the inside of BT's wedding ring and it is a lovely song though less about love per se. My other choice was "Elsewhere" by Sarah McLachlan, but BT was having none of that.  Ah, well.

Here are the lyrics:

Howl's Moving Castle (Movie)

I also love Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.  And I love the anime of the book.  The story is almost completely different which normally would bother me, but it is a great movie on its own.  Sophie is still cursed by the Witch, but for a different reason.  The Howl/Calcifer relationship is mostly the same, but Sophie's sisters and their subplot are almost eliminated as are several other characters.  Some characters and plot elements from the book are combined or eliminated to create a much simpler and more streamline story.  I realized this had to be done because there is a lot going on in the book that would be too busy for a movie.  Still it is a lovely movie, both in plot and in looks.  The voice acting for the dubbed version is great.  Billy Crystal plays Calcifer and that gives him more of a comedic tone so that was an interesting choice.  It's not as successful as Phil Hartman in Kiki's Delivery Service, but it still works.  The only problem I had with it (*spoiler for the book*) is the removal of Sophie's magical powers.  I love that part of the book and I wished they could have included it.

Howl's Moving Castle (book)

Sophie is put under a curse by the Witch of the Waste and made into an old woman.  When she sets out to break the curse, she finds herself at the moving castle of the Wizard Howl, a wicked man who is said to eat the hearts of young girls.  But as Sophie begins to work for him, she discovers more about Howl and his fire demon, Calcifer and how to break all their curses.

But there was this method to her remorselessness: she calculated that she could not clean this thoroughly without sooner or later coming across Howl's hidden hoard of girls' souls, or chewed hearts - or else something that explained Calcifer's contract.  p.68

I love Diana Wynne Jones.  I was obsessed with her Chrestomanci books when I was younger and that lead me to Howl's Moving Castle.  I hadn't read it in at least 10 years, but the other day I was watching the movie and I decided I need to read it again.  It is a slower moving book, less action than some books especially in a fantasy, but it is such a good book.  I thoroughly enjoyed it as much as an adult as I did when I was a child.  Sophie is such a funny, plain girl, but after she becomes an old woman she gets really feisty and funny.  Howl is very selfish and odd, but he can be kind as well and the scenes with the two of them are great.  Calcifer, though, is one of my favorite characters (I must have a soft spot for demons (I'm looking at you, Bartimaeus.)) and I like the whole story of the Witch of the Waste and where Howl originates from.  It makes it more fun.