A Sign Its Saturday

Once more life has kept me tasked in other directions. What with work, an online art course, Christmas play rehearsals and presentations, planning for the holidays, not to mention family, things keep standing between me and here.

But today, I wanted to return for a moment to share A Sign Its Saturday. This sign is somewhat special, in that it is found on an island that has been a favorite spot of one of my best friends. And today is that friends birthday.

Happy 30th Birthday Ryan! I hope you find the paint brush!

I'm Going to Need a Minute Here

If you are one of the few readers who check The Disney Obsession on a more or less regular basis, you'll notice a definite lack of activity during the next few days. I'll be away. I'll be in Walt Disney World for a few days, then sailing aboard the Disney Dream, then back in Walt Disney World for a few more days. Yep, they call it, "a vacation".

I am not technically savvy enough to have photographs from my iPhone populate directly into my blog, but I do have a Facebook account that I'll post photographs to, and you can always look at the right margin here and see updates via my Twitter feed. Or go one step further, follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/greggrimsley.

Mind you, I don't tweet a great deal, but I will be trying out my new toy this trip so there may be a few more tweets in store.

So, I'll be away. But I hope to come back with some good stories and some great photographs. I hope each of you have a great week and I'll see you real soon!

Dining with Doc: Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup

It has been awhile since we've visited the kitchen.

Every month I get together with a group of Disney friends. Nothing formal, not too serious, just a group of friends who share a passion for Disney. There is usually food involved and we spend the evening noshing and talking. A nice way to spend a Saturday evening.

For 2011 we've decided to try and theme our get gatherings and decided that Epcot World Showcase would be a nice place to start. So each month we'll visit a country and for the month of January we began our journey, starting counter-clockwise along the promenade, and started in Canada. For music, Off Kilter played in the background and we all enjoyed a bowl of Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup.

The recipe for this LeCellier staple is found on page 8 of the Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs Cookbook*. The ingredients include:

1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

3 celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups chicken stock

4 cups milk

3/4 pound grated white cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt, and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1/2 cup warm beer

Chopped scallions or chives, for garnish

To begin, you take a 4 or 5 quart Dutch oven and cook the bacon, stirring over medium heat about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. I found that I needed to cook it a bit longer so that the bacon fat would have more time to cook. Once you have the bacon prepared add the red onions, celery and butter. Saute until the onion has softened, about 5 minutes.

Following this, add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes. Whisk in the chicken stock and bring to a boil for 1 minute, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. I have to pause here and say that for me, this was the "what have I done wrong" phase of the preparation. I reread the recipe several times trying to determine if I had missed a step as I looked upon a blob cooking away in the Dutch oven. I didn't see how what was staring back at me could possibly be the same soup that I can not wait to order whenever I eat at LeCellier. But, I found that in preparing Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup, one should enjoy the journey as much as reaching the destination. You can also say, "it doesn't like much now, but just wait."

So after coming to grips with the mass simmering on the stove, and hearing the clock buzz indicating that 15 minutes has passed, you then add the milk and continue to simmer for additional 15 minutes. Do not boil after you add the milk. I'll add, that it is during these 15 minutes that I am getting vigorous work out as I am using a whisk to break up the clumps of everything that preceded the adding of the milk. This is what, for me, makes things look more like a soup.

After 15 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the cheese, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper until the cheese is melted and the soup is smooth. Stir in warm beer. If the soup is too thick, add some warm milk.

Serve the soup hot, garnished with chopped scallions or chives.

This is recipe that I am so glad that I tried. I watched video some time back about preparing this soup and was somewhat intimidated by the process. In preparing this recipe I did not seek any video previews. On one hand it may have got me through the 'blob' phase easier, but then, it may have been off-putting again. Now that I, Mrs. Doc and our friends have enjoyed the soup, there is a very good chance I'll prepare this again. Just as it is in the Canadian Pavilion, it was just that good!

* edited by Pam Brandon, copyright 2004 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Something On A Sunday

Balloon Ride 06.20.10

One of the items that sat high up on my wife's bucket list was to take a balloon ride. This summer, she and three of her girlfriends took a ride over Williamson County to celebrate her birthday. She had a wonderful experience!

A Blast From the Past: The Adventurer's Club

Every now and then I take a notion to plug in the flatbed scanner and scan old photographs from the pre-digital age. This is often a very slow process for me because it affords me many opportunities to reflect on days gone by. As it relates to Disney, I had one of those opportunities recently.

My first trip to Walt Disney World was in March of 1972. I was in the ninth grade. From that time several years passed before I would find myself back in the World. I wrote about that first return trip on October 13, 2007. Since then I have made more trips than I can accurately count, but there were some of those early trips that were taken with my friends Bill and Leigh Ann Staley. These were great trips! I was exploring a whole new world. Somehow we managed to find our way to the Adventurer's Club almost nightly during these holidays.

Every now and then The Disney Obsession will share some old photographs with you; some of my Blast from the Past. It will not always be Disney oriented, but it will be meaningful to some extent. At least it gives me a moment to pause and look back on what got me to where I am and share a bit of that with you. But for now, here are three scans of some early days in The Adventurer's Club. Kungaloosh!

... with Marcel

... with Pamelia Perkins, Club President

... with The Maid

A fun time was had by all!

More to follow...

5 Days in October

For five days in October, I didn't go to work. I didn't go to the beach. I didn't take my wife on a weekend getaway to an old grand hotel somewhere. I didn't go to Walt Disney World. And I must confess that I very glad I didn't do any of those things.

I had heard about how people will take time off from work and do nothing but stay home. It was foreign concept to me. I believe it is called a staycation. I have long held that time away from work was time that must be spent going somewhere or doing something. To take vacation from work and stay home seemed, somehow, wrong. We work so that we can do. At least that is how it has been for me these past few years; work hard, save money, and then go.

For these 5 day is October, I am on staycation! Merriam-Webster defines staycation as "a vacation spent at home or nearby" and Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge) has a rather nice article including etymology of the word along with some of the benefits and risks of a staycation.

Yes, I am on staycation and I am learning that it is okay to take time off just for yourself. It is okay to take time to be sleep in, to be lazy, to read for the fun of it, to listen to music, and to catch up on movies. To not keep to a schedule has been my schedule these 5 days in October. I started by thinking there were some things I'd take care, things like fixing the back gate, straightening up the garage, organizing some video, try some new recipes, and so forth. But as these days have come and gone, these things seemed less important to me than they were this time last week. I have been content to simply look out the window and enjoy a beautiful Fall afternoon, or to take a nap on the sofa with the dog.

These 5 days in October will come to an end this evening and I am happy to say that I have only thought of not being in Walt Disney World once. And when that thought occurred, I congratulated myself for not having any regrets for not having gone. It is the same with the beach. Yes, I could have been just as lazy watching the surf roll in, but being lazy at home doesn't carry an extra cost.

Let me wrap up by saying two things.

First, for all who think I my obsession has lapsed, fear not. I have a week planned following Christmas and I will celebrate the arrival of the New Year at Epcot! And... Mrs. Doc and I may just hop in the car and drive down, spend a Saturday at the International Food & Wine Festival, then drive home. So the obsession continues.

Second, I hope that from time to time I write something here that can be an encouragement. We all live busy lives. We have families. We have our work and perhaps, most importantly, we have our hopes and our dreams that drive us; sometimes to the point of exhaustion. I work harder and longer because I am pursuing a dream just as many of you are. But amid all this, let me encourage all of us to, from time to time, stop. Simply stop. Stop to enjoy the time you have in the world around you at this moment. We all work and hope for tomorrow, but sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy today.

So what have I learned during these 5 days in October? Work hard - rest well.

More to follow...

Disney World After Dark: Yacht Club

One of my favorite restaurants in all of Walt Disney World lies just across the water there. It is the Yachtsman Steakhouse. I celebrated my 50th birthday there in 2007. Following perhaps what was one of the best New York Strips that I ever tasted, my family and I walked out to the dock and just next to the lighthouse there, was a boat. They gave me an IllumiNations fireworks cruise as one of my birthday gifts. Not only that, but friends who couldn't be in Walt Disney World to help celebrate helped with the surprise.

Tomorrow, I'll turn 53. I am not going to be in the World to celebrate. But I will be in a very nice place nonetheless; with my family and whatever friends would like to journey to Nashville to celebrate with me. I may be getting physically older, but I am trying ever so much harder to not grow up.

Whatever You Call It

What do you say when you're closing in on the next trip to Walt Disney World? Some say they are doing the "Single Digit Dance". I like to refer to my walk through Orlando International as doing "The MCO Shuffle". And we may recall the commercial that has the little boy saying, "I'm too excited to sleep!" Whichever you choose (and there may be other expressions you use), it all says, "I'm going to Disney World!"

And I am! I am preparing for my fourth trip in the last 176 days.

It is difficult people who do not share or understand the passion that some of us hold for Walt Disney World to grasp why we take so many trips to The World, and then start planning the next one the minute we get home. And sometimes it is hard for us to express why.

On this occasion, my reason is simple. I am flying down to visit with a friend and his family. While I lived in England I played in band and became great friends with a guy named Dave Steer. I got to know his family and we would take the occasional road trip down to London together.

It has been a long time, too long in fact, since Dave and I have seen each other. So when I heard he was bringing the fam to the U.S. I jumped at the chance to visit. It could have been anywhere in the country and I would have made the effort. But as luck would have it, he felt it was a good idea to share Walt Disney World with his wife and sons. Frankly, I can't argue with the man's logic.

So, beginning today I am doing the "Single Digit Dance". On 02.25.10 I'll be laying awake in bed crying out "I'm too excitied to sleep!" Then at 8:35 p.m. on 02.26 I'll be doing "The MCO Shuffle" on my way to spend time wth Dave, Sue, Ben and Jake.

More to follow (I'm sure I'll Tweet a few updates)...

UPDATE: I Am Resolved

Sometimes it just helps to be accountable! I mean, if you're going to make a resolution and have any hopes of keeping, it just makes sense to share, or provide a status report from time to time. So let's see where we're at. If you need to, look back at my 01.01.10 post for the score card.

Number 7 - looking at dates for a solid week of doing absolutely nothing at all on the Gulf coast. I have to manage this against what traditionally tends to be a busy time (Labor Day week) in my calendar.

Number 6 - currently reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Yes, it is on the list and I somehow managed to never get around to reading it earlier in life. In fact this whole "Essential 100" thing has grown into a much larger project which we'll discuss here in the future in more detail.

Number 5 - my first trip to Walt Disney World is scheduled for February 26th. I am flying down for a few days to visit with a friend from the UK. We used to play in a band together in the late 90's and I have not seen him and his family since just before Christmas 2000. A short trip, yes. But it will be memorable one.

Number 4 - still taking pictures, but I am learning that when a tripod is in use, it also a good idea to use the remote shutter release. Don't trust a steady hand.

Number 3 - what can I say about weight loss? Well, I don't like being successful at it. You see, if you have no luck with one of those sucks-your-will-to-live diets, it is easy to quit. But when you've lost 12.2 pounds since beginning a diet earlier in the month, well, you just got to keep at it. I have and I am, but I sure would like a big plate of french fries.

Number 2 - for those of you keeping score, this is my 10th post for the month of January. This is landmark way to start a year and make a real attempt of making this experiment worthwhile, for you and for me. How far have I come? Well, in all of 2009, there was only one month when I had posts in the double digits - that was April and I had 10 posts. And I am not finished with January yet. But do me a favor, if see something you like, leave me a comment. If there is something you'd like to see, leave me a comment. Comments are fodder for bloggers - they are what inspire us and keep us going.

Number 1 - my family. Let me just say that Mrs. Doc, well, she is my heartbeat. And as far as my family is concerned, nothing has changed my firm belief that my family is the best part of me. Without them, I am nothing.

So there you have it. Thanks for letting me share how I am doing and I hope whatever goals you set for yourself are progressing as you like. If not, press in. Remember Uncle Walt, "If we can dream it, we can do it."

More to follow...

In Response

This is a response to something I read this week on another blog; one of my favorites. It has to do with friendship and instead of simply commenting on the post, I chose to provide my comment here. In this way, those of you who read this blog and the other (which of course begs the question, "why aren't you?), can perhaps reflect on its meaning. It is this:

Life is busy. I think back to how simple life was when I lived in England. When I moved back to America I was astonished at how quickly life got incredibly busy again. So, while it is perhaps polite and proper to apologize for how busy we are, I do not believe it is always necessary. Busy is who we are; it is what we do. True, while we all aspire to a slower way of living in a simpler time, it more often than not escapes us. We strive to do best the we can inside our busy condition.

As to friendship (and this is my comment), true friendship can be measured in that, friends can be apart for long periods of time and have little time to talk, yet, when they are reunited, it is as if there was no separation at all. They pick up just where they left off, as though one had stepped away only for a moment. I am blessed to have friends like that and the author of the blog you should be reading is one.

While I am here...

I have not taken the time to post a Thanksgiving message. This doesn't mean I have little to be thankful for; quite the contrary. If you follow TDO then you know what 2009 has meant to me. It may not included as many trips to Walt Disney World as I would have liked to take, but I did enjoy an Alaskan cruise with my wife, my mother, my sister and my youngest nephew. You know I got to answer the question, "What will you celebrate?" by walking down Main Street U.S.A. my grandchildren (a dream come true) and being back in the parks with my son. Then last month I had the honor of presenting my daughter to be married.

All-in-all, not a bad year and great great deal to be thankful for. And all this without mentioning home, health, provision, and all the daily ways I am thankful.

More to follow...

This post carries no photographs, therefore, there are not photo credits.

"Pals"

You may remember some of the films of the Eighties that starred a group of young actors that became known as the "Brat Pack." This group, collectively, gave us some memorable films including two in 1985, The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. One actor who starred in both of these films, Emilio Estevez, went on to play William H. Bonney in 1988's Young Guns.

Alongside Emilio, Kiefer Sutherland played Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock. Doc was the poet warrior of this band of outlaws and he narrates the closing scene of the film as he shares the fate of each member of the group. It is the last line of his narration that lends itself to the title of this post. Sutherland says, "The epitaph read only one word...'Pals'."

I want to share with you something that has been said already by many others in this community; this collective of Disney enthusiasts, who proudly wear the badge of "geek". We're a compassionate and caring group! True, we are not the only collection of like minded individuals who celebrate our friendships. There are others can be equally as compassionate and caring. But, we are who we are, so we celebrate the inspiration that we provide and receive from each other. We have each others back in this.

We're a giving group; don't believe me? Have you taken a look at the current Dream Team Project total? We are, in big and small ways, working together to create and share some magic with terminally ill children. Not a bad thing to do.

But we also give each other little bits of magic from time to time; magic beyond our friendships and shared memories. Sometimes these bits of magic arrive in boxes. This was the case for me on yesterday.

I have a friend, a pal, if you will, who knew that I was unable to attend the recent 20th Anniversary celebration at Disney's Hollywood Studios. It is Doc's effort to spread those recession vacation dollars around and experience other parts of the world. (Long story - another post.) So, the post arrives and in it I find:

Thank you Ryan! Pal!

More to follow...

Postscript: you can't tell from the photo, but there are at least four of each park guide map. My pal knows that (for some unknown, idiosyncratic reason) I get four copies of all the ephemera I collect. Strange? Maybe. But its me and my pal(s) look out for me - they have my back.

Another Year Older

It's odd, this year. Not that it has been a long standing tradition, but for the past two years, I have spent my birthday in Walt Disney World. In 2007 I was joined by my wife and other members of my family to celebrate turning,

As with any good trip to Disney, there was plenty of food to be had. We ate dinner at Le Chefs de France, The Yatchsman Steakhouse, Boma's, Mama Melrose's, and The Rose & Crown. My birthday dinner, at the steakhouse, was topped off with a Illuminations Fireworks Cruise.

Now, let Doc give you two tips. One, The Yatchsman Steakhouse is probably one of the top five restaurants on Disney property. Splurge. Have dinner there. Trust me on this. I recommend the rib-eye, medium rare. And two, you have not experienced Illuminations until you have seen it from the water. If you can have my friend from Passamaquoddy along for the ride to narrate the story, yes, there is a story to Reflections of Earth, all the better.

In 2008 I celebrated my birthday with friends in the Magic Kingdom. Among them, Ryan Wilson of the Main Street Gazette, Glenn Whelan of Passamaquoddy, and the godfather of Disney Geeks, Lou Mongello. There was no big deal made of the event, other than it was big deal to me to spend time in my one of my favorite places on Earth with some of my favorite people on Earth.

So, back to the premise of this post. It's odd this year. On the year that I could get into Walt Disney World on my birthday for free, I am not going. Whoa! It has taken a bit of getting used to that fact. And it will be tough missing my friends who will be gathering later in the month for the Studio 20 event. But, I suppose I'll get by. Because...

I'm Going To Vegas Baby!

For this year's anniversary of my entrance into the world (thank you mom), I will celebrating in Las Vegas with my daughter and her boyfriend. Now, as with any trip that involves me, there will be plenty of food. So far we have reservations at Canaletto in the Venetian, the Social House at Treasure Island, Joe's Seafood in the Forum Shops at Caesar's, and for my birthday dinner, we'll be enjoying the fountain show at the Bellagio from our table at the Eiffel Tower in Paris Las Vegas. Oh, we also plan on picking up a burger at BLT Burger at the Mirage, and I am sure we'll discover a few other places where we can enjoy some in-between meal snacks.

Oh, and I need to mention, that while we're there, we'll be seeing Cirque du Soleil "Love." This is the fireworks cruise for 2009! My daughter called me as she was leaving the show last year and said, "Dad, we have got to this." So, we are. And...Paul McCartney is at the Hard Rock Las Vegas our first night there. Yes, we are looking into tickets.

If you plan on being in Vegas, and see me walking down the street, taking pictures of all the lights, stop and say hello.

Okay, I won't look quite like that, but, you get the general idea.

More to follow...

Road Trip: Passamaquoddy

I do enjoy the drives that Mrs. Doc and I take. They allow us to slow down the usual hectic pace of life and share in some wonderful conversations. They are worth the high price of gas to have these hours to reconnect. Because, let’s face it, life can be busy, making these “little wonders” so important.

We recently had one of these occasions during our drive up to Passamaquoddy for the 4th of July Cookout. Mrs. Doc asked, “What is your favorite Fourth of July memory?”

Wow! What a question. As I thought about it, I began to realize that I don’t have that quintessential 4th of July memory. So after agreeing that I have lived a sheltered life, at least where the 4th of July is concerned, I began to think about what memories I do have of the Fourth. There aren’t many that stand out.

Yes, I remember running around as a child with the different colored sparklers and watching “snakes” grow on the pavement. I thought smoke bombs were neat. It always seemed that my friends in my hometown in southeast Missouri had a supply of these on hand (Fourth of July or not), whenever I would go there to visit as a child. We would come home from the Saturday matinees and re-enact the latest James Bond film or pretend we were The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Yes, I know, I am dating myself with that one. And I digress. The point is that smoke bombs were neat.

As a teenager I remember having bottle rocket battles. That was kind of cool because as every one knows, when you are a teenager you’re “20 feet tall and bullet-proof!” No firecracker on a stick could possibly hurt you.

Once during a Fourth of July break in production of a play I was in, we all convened to a fellow cast member’s house to an afternoon pool party. It turned out that no one wanted to brave the enormous crowds that gather on the riverfront in Nashville for the city’s annual celebration. So, we held our own improvised celebration, firing roman candles across the pool, while humming Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

The Overture! Viola! That is my memory. I remember the 1812 Overture!

My mom tells the story of how as a child I could hum the entire 1812 Overture! I suppose there were nursery rhymes and children’s songs sprinkled in here and there. But I could go practically note-for-note on Tchaikovsky’s commemorative opus. I remember I would lie in front of the family console stereo. It had a blonde wood finish and an amber colored light that indicated the power was on. At the age of four I thought the people who made the sounds lived in the stereo and if I looked close enough through the light I could see them. I would stay there for hours listening to the light phrases of the first section and the celebration as the cannonade fired with every downbeat of the finale.

As the years went by that piece of music stayed with me. I remember watching Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra on television once performing the Overture at the Hatch Shell in Boston.

And then one time in 1989 some friends and I changed our minds about going to Breckenridge for a ski weekend and instead drove to Walt Disney World. It was the first time that I witnessed Illuminations. There at the end of Act III, was the Overture serving as the Finale. All my memories associated with the music came flooding back. It was magic to me.

So, my wife is right. Perhaps my Fourths have been sheltered in terms of creating that one special memory. But I have that piece of symphonic splendor that I have carried since childhood. It is a work that I associate with the annual Independence Day celebrations. I know that on Friday night, down on the banks of the Cumberland River, the Nashville Symphony will be performing this celebratory masterpiece while shells burst overhead and a waterfall of fireworks cascade over the side of the Victory Memorial Bridge.

I won’t be there. Mrs. Doc and I will be found setting on a blanket near the band shell, listening to the Passamaquoddy Philharmonic. I only hope they play the Overture.

Well, there you go. I have a memory now.

As we neared the outskirts of P-quoddy our conversation drifted from the upcoming holiday to herring whips and crab burgers. Oh, and my strategies for increasing my score in Buoy Store Minnow Mania. The key, I think, is to jump start your overall score by doing well in the Frat House room. I don’t know, but am going to test my theory during the long weekend.

Happy 4th of July everyone!