[Soundgod]

It's really not the cappuccino girls. They shut down the coffee makers and lock the lounge after 10 PM and my last cappie was never later than 6:30 and no coffee with dinner. I've always had trouble sleeping to one degree or another since I was a child. It's not the iced tea either. There's probably a sleep study in my future.
I've been holding off all day on posting because 5,000 had to be a video announcement and I've been trying to render and convert a file all day and only just downloaded a copy of the file before I could publish the links.
This is post 5,001.

[llama]

Thanks for the report SG - I'm enjoying it.....

[Soundgod]

OK, there isn't much left.
A few years ago, we ate at Artist Point. I remember having the buffalo and Gail had the salmon. She mentioned that she thought she hadn't liked the salmon, which I didn't understand, because I've grilled on cedar planks at home and she's liked it. As we're looking over the menu, it dawns on her that she wasn't feeling well the last time we'd been there and nothing tasted good for a couple days. So we both got the salmon, only Gail asked for them to omit the pear glaze and any aggressive spices. As an appetizer, I tried the venison spring rolls. They were good. Light outer covering. But hotter'n he11 because they were straight out of the fryer. Pretty enjoyable. Next was the salmon. Again pretty good, but the pork belly hash it was served over didn't do much for either of us. The hash was composed of a bunch of root vegetables, and not much pork belly (bacon). If I'd known, I would have had them switch it out for a different side/vegi, but it did sound interesting. For dessert, I had the coffee two ways (vanilla latte' creme brulee and mochaccino bread pudding). Loved the creme brulee and liked the bread pudding. No coffee with dessert, that is, no cappuccino or brewed coffee. Just some iced tea. As it's Jan 1, we weren't able to get our DDE discount. This pretty much closes out the day.
Temperature is still dropping.
Somewhere around 5 AM, I give up on tossing and turning and get dressed for a walk. Out to the dock. It's freakin' cold now, close to 40 and the wind really cuts through. I stay out here maybe 10 minutes before I can't take the cold. I had considered bringing my winter coat, but figured I could make it with my heavier Disney jacket and Busch Gardens hooded zip front sweatshirt for all but the worst of it. Let's not waste this though. The air was cold and the sky clear. I could see planes flying into MCO and there was an unidentified morning star, probably Mars, but I'm not sure. The lake is serene, the birds all huddling for warmth somewhere. I'm cold and still want to fall asleep, so I head inside and back to the room. Mercifully, I drift off for a couple hours sleep.
Well, time to pack up and leave the room. We've decided not to spend much time in the parks, if at all, so we called for a bellman and the car. We do have a 10:30 reservation at Kona Cafe. Again, we can valet park free because we're DDE members, but also because our car has been valeted at WL, we still have an active valet ticket for the day.
Here's a secret about Kona at breakfast. They used to have a shrimp omelet on the menu, but don't anymore. However, you can still order it off menu and for some crazy reason, they don't charge any more for a shrimp omelet than they do for ham and cheese! Time to pay the bill, and this is the first time we've had the automatic tip added to a DDE discounted meal. We've already seen last night that the check now includes a "guide" showing suggested tips at both 15 and 18%. This was an 18% automatic tip added to an OOP meal, not a pre-paid DDP meal.
I have my camera because I want to take pictures of the GF's lobby before they tear out all the Christmas stuff. Well, that's what the monorail's for, isn't it? Somewhere I've got a picture or two of them tearing apart the gingerbread house. It's not really all gingerbread. It's gingerbread siding and roof tiles on a wooden frame. I remembered I'd wanted to get some salt water taffy from the MK candy shop (They label what the flavors are! No surprises or mistakes.) While in MK, I took some daylight pictures of the Christmas tree and town square. Gail stopped a CM to look at her pins and wound up trading for a monorail pin for me. We got back on the monorail and picked up the car. Off to DTD for a look in World of Disney and Days of Christmas. Suddenly, Gail decides she wants one of the fleece throws that they're bundling with $50 purchases all over WDW. Now, if she'd had this thought on Sunday, we could have done this when I bought all the ornaments. If I'd know yesterday when I bought some ornaments in the WL's store, I could have dealt with this. I did spend over $50 at Days of Christmas, but they weren't participating. At least she did find a Nightmare Before Christmas throw, but it cost a bit more than that snowman would have. I'd originally thought of getting an order or red beans and rice to go from HoB, but it was already getting pretty late and by the time we got home now, it would be time to make dinner. We stopped for gas at the Hess station across from DTD. Gas is much much cheaper than just outside WDW on Apopka-Vineland Road, by as much as $.60 a gallon and about $.15 a gallon less than in South Florida.
That's pretty much it, except that when I got home and opened the refrigerator, I could smell something had gone bad. Yep, the ribs I was going to make for dinner, which were good for sale until today, had gone bad. I should have gotten a to go order at HoB. I called my favorite pizzeria and discovered they were closing early so they could have their holiday party. The nerve! I found some ravioli and made that instead. I was too tired to drive to the stand by pizza joint.
And that's it. Pictures and other thoughts later.

[Soundgod]

Picture time.
This is from New Year's Eve

[Soundgod]

These are all taken on 12/30 with my camcorder.

[Soundgod]

A castle show, probably Night Before Christmas. By the way, I took this from that circle over by Crystal Palace that I love shooting fireworks video from. Shame the camcorder has better low light performance than the camera.

[Soundgod]

Different color lighting, same icicles.

[Soundgod]

Zoomed out

[Soundgod]

View from our room. This is about as good as the weather looked during the day on the 31st.

[Soundgod]

I used filters to burn through some of the murk in both these pictures. Here's a monorail on it's way into the Contemporary with Space Mountain in the background.

[Soundgod]

Zoomed out so you can see some of the WL.

[Soundgod]

Boats on Bay Lake

[Soundgod]

Wilderness Lobby pictures

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More lobby and tree

[Soundgod]

More pixels-camera, not camcorder

Looks more like Germany than Florida!
Not the buss in the bottom center.