Lou’s Mega-Mix Dance Party

Reason #626 For keeping a close eye on your Twitter or Facebook friends’ statuses:  Something fun may be announced.

For those people who follow Lou Mongello on either of those mediums they would’ve seen a message about him testing something for the new year.

What was going on was a live video stream from the WDW Radio studios in Scotch Plains, NJ hosted by UStream.

What went on was unscripted and unplanned and strictly a test.  Lou admitted several times that he didn’t expect too many people to show up but at it’s height there were over 50 people logged in and participating in the chat conversation that accompanies the video.

Lou and all started talking about Disney, but it quickly progressed to a trip down the soundtrack of Lou’s life (and many of those of us who were in High School during the 1980’s).

Lou may have insisted on maintaining his composure and not sing or dance to many irresistible tunes that we got snippets of.  But I can tell you that I was belting out the songs.

So, at this point, we don’t know when the next time this is going to happen, but it will and you have been warned.

So follow Lou on Facebook and Twitter to know when the fun kicks up again

Technorati Tags: WDW Radio Live

Announcement: Another way to help the Auction

In addition to the option I posted about earlier, Tim Devine of The Magic in Pixels, has provided a second option on how to help contribute to the Dream Team Auction's final talley from the comforts of your home.

Tim will be providing post card sized prints of his donation print for sale at MagicMeets plus some magnets.  The proceeds from these sales will go directly to the Dream Team Auction.

If you are not able to make it to the auction, Tim has posted the following on his forums:

As you probably know, it was announced that TMIP will be donating a percentage of all sales at MagicMeets on Saturday to the DisneyWorldTrivia.com Dream Team Project.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to offer members of TMIP to participate in this endeavor who may not be able to attend MagicMeets.
The goal of the Dream Team Project is to send pediatric cancer patients and their families to Walt Disney World when they could not otherwise afford to do so.  If you are able and wish to help in the donation, you can send a PayPal to sales (at) themagicinpixels (dot) com and 100% it will be added into the Dream Team donation.
Everyone who donates will receive a postcard featuring the artwork on the 16x20 custom canvas print that is also being donated to the Project.  No donation is too small, even $1 or $5 will be more than appreciated. 
Donations must be received prior to 1:00pm Eastern Time on 7/19/2008 to ensure that they are added to the final total, which will be donated on the spot at MagicMeets.
Thanking you in advance,
Tim

Tim has told me that this offer is available to anyone who wants to take advantage of this option.  So, I thought I should post it here to get more eyes on this opportunity.

So to summarize, there seems to be two ways for people to contribute from home:

1. Donate through the FirstGiving site, as outlined in the previous post, and the WDW Today podcast will announce your name on their Live broadcast from Magic Meets
2. Donate through PayPal as outlined above, and you'll receive a postcard featuring the artwork on the 16x20 auction print.

I think it's awesome that there are such options for people at home to help participate. 

The location for MagicMeets is limited and only allows for about 500 people to attend.  Poor Fred has done the best he can to accommodate as many people as possible.  Unfortunately, there are many more people who would love to be there, not only the comraderie but also to participate in the Dream Team Auction.

We may not have found a way to allow people to be there from the comforts of home (WDW Today does their best with their live broadcast), but at least a few people in the community have found a way to allow those people who wanted to donate to the Auction to have a "voice"

Technorati Tags: Dream Team Auction, Tim Devine, The Magic in Pixels

Announcement: How to help the Auction from Home

The DisneyWorldTrivia.com Dream Team Project is spreading the word about a special part of  Fred Block's MagicMeets Disney Fan Gathering event and their Charity auction happening on July 19th.  The best part is that it is for people who can't be at MagicMeets.

The Dream Team Project (http://www.disneyworldtrivia.com/Dream-Team-2008-Auction.html) raises money to help send seriously ill children and their families to Walt Disney World through The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of America. Their annual silent auction at MagicMeets raised $9000 last year, and this year they hope to do even more to bring smiles to the faces of children who need it most.

WDW Today podcast will be broadcasting live during MagicMeets. Co-host Mike Newell (Mouse World Radio) came up with a great idea to include a tie in to the Dream Team Charity Auction during the MagicMeets Live Show.

Any donations made to the FirstGiving web page for the DWT Dream Team between 9:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on July 19th will be announced on the WDW Today live show podcast.  The FirstGiving website, http://www.firstgiving.com/dwtdreamteam allows guests to make donations securely using a credit card.

All donations made during the time period will be included in the Auction total announced at MagicMeets.   When you fill in your donation, please include your Internet community affiliation in the comment field, so that you can be thanked properly on the air.

Check out the WDW Today podcast website, http://www.wdwtoday.com/ for details on how to join them for this and all their live shows. They will have a chat room going during the broadcast, which is always lots of fun, and sometimes have a live video feed direct from MagicMeets.

For people attending MagicMeets, or those who want to see what they will be missing, check out the DWT Dream Team Blog, http://www.disneyworldtrivia.com/Dream-Team-Blog/  for some previews and behind-the-scenes peeks.  Starting on July 1st, previews of all the auction lots will be available on the DisneyWorldTrivia.com forums. http://www.disneyworldtrivia.com/forums/dream-team-project/17074-2008-dream-team-auction-previews.html

The Dream Team Project is really looking forward to this event and would like to thank Mike Newell for the great idea and WDW Today's help implementing it. Together we can spread some Disney magic and make a difference in the lives of seriously ill children.

You must be present at MagicMeets to bid on the auction items. 
There are no phone or online bids.

MagicMeets is a sold out event.
The WDW Today / Dream Team Project tie-in is asking people to make an online DONATION to www.Firstgiving.com/dwtdreamteam. 
There is no compensation for this donation. 
If you have any questions, please email Pat@disneyworldtrivia.com

Technorati Tags: Dream Team Auction, MagicMeets

Print Sale at The Magic in Pixels

Being the Padawan Learner affords me a lot of benefits as a rookie photographer.  As a form of payment to Tim, I'd like to inform all the wonderful patrons of Grumpy's Hollow that The Magic in Pixels is running a sale on all 16x20 prints.

For a limited time, all 16x20 mounted prints are on sale. 

You'll find the 16x20 prints reduced by 20% of their everyday prices.  These prints are all mounted on a hard backing and shipped to you flat and ready to be framed and displayed.

If you don't see a 16x20 print you like in his store, go over to the gallery of 8x10 prints.  Almost all of the 8x10 prints can be printed and delivered as a 16x20.  So just e-mail Tim at sales(at)themagicinpixels(dot)com if one of the 8x10 prints interests you.

So head on over to THE MAGIC IN PIXELS WEBSTORE, and see if anything strikes your fancy.

Technorati Tags: Announcements, The Magic in Pixels

In case you live under a rock....

I called it.......

Magic Meets 2008 sold all 550 tickets in 38 hours.  That is almost 14.5 tickets per hour! 

The MouseFest crew may need to be prepared for another feeding frenzy once their tickets go on sale.......

Technorati Tags: MagicMeets, Announcements

Get them while you can

Magic Meets tickets are now on sale!  There are over 2x the number of registered parties who are interested in going than are tickets to sell to them.

So, rush over to the MagicMeets website and get your tickets.  They sold out in less than 10 days last year, but many of us in the comm unity are predicting they'll sell out quicker. 

I'm predicting a sell-out between 24-48 hours.

BTW, Enchanted Rose and myself have our tickets printed already.

Technorati Tags: Magic Meets, Announcements

I'm trying out something new

I got an invite from Google today to try this GrandCentral service they recently acquired.  Apparently, it lets you acquire one phone number that you can hand out to people.  Then when people call that number it will either call one or all of the phone numbers you have entered into your profile. 

One of the cool features that it seems to have is the ability to add a "Call Me" button to your blog and have it configured to either actually call you or just send them straight to voicemail.

It's in BETA but I thought it was cool enough to give a try.  So, you'll se the giant "Call Me" button on the left.

If you click it, you'll be prompted to provide a Name and a Phone Number.  Since, I have it going directly to voicemail, it's not necessary to fill in the Name field.  I'll never see that.  If I had setup the service to let the call go to one of my phones, that name box is used to announce you to me and let me take the call or send it to voicemail.  It uses Text-to-Voice technology to read the name put in the box.  But, since I'm sending you all straight to voicemail, it's a feature not used.

By default, it's set to keep your phone number private (I'll just see PRIVATE) on my side.  If for some reason you feel compelled to let me see your phone number, then you'll need to uncheck the 'Keep My Number Private' checkbox.

*** NOTE *** This is NOT a Voice-Over-IP (VoiP) service like Skype.  It will call the number you typed into the applet.  When you pickup the phone, you'll hear my voicemail notification and you can leave your message after the beep.  The call will be coming from California, so you'll want to have it call a phone where you aren't concerned about long distance charges or worried about airtime minutes.

I can also take the voicemail I get and post them back to the blog.  Either as addendum's to the post to allow ya'll voices to be heard, or I can post them as a post by themselves. 

As I said, I'm just trying this out.  The geek in me likes it.  For those people out there that have Blogger blogs, check out the "Blogger Buzz" on your dashboard, you may have gotten an invite.

I figured that those people who also run podcasts, it would be another awesome way to get voice feedback.

Technorati Tags: Google, GrandCentral, Announcements

A Tale of Two Quilts: Addendum

For those of you who don't follow Tim's profile over at DisFriends, he posted a Journal entry about the quilt my wife, Enchanted Rose, made for his son, Billy.  He also included pictures.  For the curious, check it out....

Enchanted Rose's Quilt - Now with pictures!

Technorati Tags: Quilting, Announcements

An Apology

To all my loyal guests:

I would like to extend a heartfelt apology for my seeming neglect of "The Hollow".

Lately, my life has gotten a bit chaotic.  My line of work is project based and client based.  That means there are lean times, normal times, and "you want it done when" times.

I'm in the "You want it done when?" phase right now.  If you add my time at the gym with my time at work you get 10-15 hours (averaging 12 hours).  Add in 8 hours to sleep, you get 18-23 hours of my time already committed.  It seems that lately it's been closer to the 23 hours than the 18. 

So, unfortunately, that doesn't leave me much time to post.  So, until things calm down, I am hoping to get a post up a week.

So, once again, if you haven't subscribed to the RSS feed or e-mail notification, you might consider it.  It really will make it easier for you to know when a new post shows up.

Once again, I apologize, but I have found I don't have that super human strength like Lou Mongello to function off of caffeine and sugar alone.

Thanks again for sticking with us.  I have a lot of blog post ideas but just need the time to get them to "paper".  I definitely know that my wife will be doing a series of posts documenting the quilt she is designing for the Charity Auction at MagicMeets

Technorati Tags: Announcements

A Request from Enchanted Rose

My lovely wife, the Enchanted Rose (aka Nancy), is seriously contemplating making one of her fantastic quilts as an auction item for Lou Mongello's Dream Team Auction at Magic Meets.

She heard from talking to people at MouseFest that a good portion of the items up for auction are branded merchandise (aka swag).  She felt that something that was made from the heart would be well received and since she is a quilter, that is the first thing she thought of.

She has a bunch of Disney Theme fabric she has picked up over the years when shopping for other quilting projects.

My wife has asked that I throw up a poll to help guide the creative process.

The question at hand is this:   If you were to bid on a hand-made quilt (meaning not store bought), what theme would have the best chance of getting your attention and your bid?

You'll find the poll on the left-hand side of my blog right above the "Blogs of Interest".

She wants to make a quilt with the appeal to the greatest number of Disney fans.  Since this item will be ultimately auctioned off, you want to be able to raise money.  The best way to do this is to provide an item that the greatest number of people are interested in.

If you want to see some of the other quilts that she has done, you can check out pictures on our flickr collection

So let me know what you think.

[Ed Note:  Sorry Nerdy Boys, no Splash Mountain theme quilt this year]

Technorati Tags: Magic Meets, Dream Team, Auction, Announcements

JP Digital Graphics & Design has struck again.....

As I sit here using Phoenix's free Internet wi-fi and sweating with a fever (I've sweated though 3 layers of clothes), I notice that the mighty paintbrush of Jeff Pepper (of 2719 Hyperion) has whipped out another great logo for the Disney Community.

Go check out Tim Devine's The Magic in Pixels and see his latest piece of gold.  Once again, he's done it without any input from Tim because he was stumped on what he would want.  Jeff has a real intuitiveness when it comes to this stuff.

Tim says it was worth every penny......

You can also check out all his work on display at his other site:  JP Digital Graphics & Design

Technorati Tags: JP Digital Graphics & Design, Jeff Pepper, 2719 Hyperion, Logo, The Magic in Pixels, Tim Devine

A request for some help from the community

Enchanted Rose's sister, Julie, has a son who suffers from a seriously rare genetic disorder.  His name is Collin. 

Among is extensive list of symptoms are:  dwarfism, extreme sensitivity to light, double cataracts (since been removed), severe autism, and many, many others.

His condition is so rare that he's only 1 of probably a 100 documented cases in the entire world.

Here is a quote from Collin's CaringBridge Site:

What is Trichothiodystrophy you ask. Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) is a rare genetic disorder that involves the production of abnormal brittle hair, Icthyosis, physical and developmental disorders. It can also involve ataxia, stunted growth, skin sensitivity to light, and to UV rays.

TTD is a seriously disabling disorder with a severe skin affliction and serious developmental defects and growth retardation. It can also cause immune deficit cells, premature aging in facial features, cataracts and dental abnormalities, poor weight gain, Autistic characteristic such as irritation to high frequency sounds, and repetitive movements and behaviors.

In other words I have to be VERY careful when I go out in the sun because the sun can hurt me. I have to work extra hard to do things that other people can do with ease. I have to wear glasses so that I can see and wear hearing aids so that I can hear you. I am very small but my mom says that I am like Peter Pan and that I will always be her boy. They say that I might not live as long as other people but I don't believe that. I believe that they will find something to help me grow old with my little sister and best friend Regan. I am often times in pain but my mom says that I am a tough little boy! I have to be careful when I get sick because I can end up in the hospital for a long time. My Immune system is not as good as other kids. Despite all of this I am a very happy boy that loves to play and make friends where ever I go

You can read up on Collin at his CaringBridge site.  The pages that Julie has created to explain Collin and his condition do it much better justice than I ever can.   While you are there, feel free to leave some hugs or sign the guest book.

You can also keep up with Julie and her lovely family on her own blog.

In all this time, Julie has never complained about the seemingly insurmountable role she's been placed in as the caregiver for such a special child.  I am just constantly amazed at her resolve.  It was for that reason, we brought her and her daughter out to our house in January as a late Christmas Present.  She needed some Julie-time.

During his 7.5 years on this planet, Collin has benefited from the generosity of many charitable organizations. 

To try and help repay them for their generosity, Julie has used her participation in the LA Marathon's 5K Fun Run/Walk as a way to try and raise money for a charity of her choice.

This year, she has chosen Ability First.  They are the organization that provides Collin's Day Camp during the summer.

I know you must be wondering why I am asking this on a Disney blog. 

Collin has got to be one of the biggest Disney fans that I have ever known.  He has had the opportunity to go to Walt Disney World through Make-A-Wish but one of his conditions is that he can only get 15 minutes of exposure to UV Radiation IN A WEEK.  As many of us know, that makes going to Walt Disney World a problem.

Plus, they live in Long Beach, California and their entire family has season passes to Disneyland (gifts from the family).

Collin's favorite attractions at Disneyland are:  It's A Small World, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Disney's Electric Parade, Dumbo, and many others.  He is quite the charmer out the Cast Members on the left coast and his wheel chair sports buttons and pins given to him by Cast Members, guests, family and friends.

Julie's goal is $2000 this year.  For the first time that I've known her, I'm actually in a position to help more than just writing a check.  Since I have quite a readership here, and I know the generosity of the Disney Community, I thought there was no harm in asking.

I'm going to close this post with the e-mail I was sent by Julie:

It is that time of year again!!

We are so honored to be working with and fundraising for such a wonderful organization like Ability First. Collin goes to day camp at Ability First and LOVES all of the staff and wonderful people that work with him. It is a "safe" place for him to go and enjoy being a kid! They have an indoor pool, outdoor covered patios, computers, and other amazing actives that allow him to be included in everything!!  

We are so grateful for the love and support that we have received from each one of you over the years. Thank you for supporting us in this change of charities in our fundraising efforts. This will be our fourth year doing this as a family and we LOVE it! If you would like to join us please come on!!! This year we have made it easier for you. You can donate to Collin's fundraising efforts by simply going to this web site.
http://www.abilityfirst.org/la_marathon/view_runner.asp?runner_id=413
We would be grateful if you would like to pass this link on to others that you may feel would be interested in supporting our family in our effort.

So, if you'd like to help out, follow the link provided by Julie above.  You can also link to this blog post, or write posts yourself and help spread the message.

I would be ecstatic if we can shatter her $2,000 goal and show her what the Disney Community is really all about.

It's often the organizations that provide the most help to others that needs the most help from us.

Technorati Tags: Announcement, Ability First, Charity, Fundraising

Here are some of the highlights

For those of you just joining the fun and frivolity that is Grumpy's Hollow via the links from John Frost's Daily Roundup post, I want to say welcome.

I thought to help make your stay a bit more enjoyable, I would provide some links to some of my more popular posts that I feel best represents what this place is all about:

You already know about these two because John linked to them:

• A Grumptastic Restaurant Review: Victoria and Albert's Chef's Table
• The Grump's Opinion:  Will Quality Always Win Out?

But here are some others that you might want to check out:

• A Grumptastic Restaurant Review: Victoria and Albert's
• Do you know what your Theme Park Footprint is?
• The Grump's Opinion - The Giant Golf Ball
• The Grump's Opinion:  Proposed Dining Changes for 2008
• The Grump's Opinion:  Proposed Dining Changes for 2008 (Addendum)
• What would you do with a Billion Dollars?
• What would you do with a Billion Dollars? (Addendum)
• Disney Magic Falling on Deaf Ears
• The Grump's Opinion:  Musicals = Disney Movie Gold?

And no recap of my best posts would be complete if you didn't take a look at the trip reports that seemed to have helped me carve out my niche in this community.

So welcome and I hope you like what you read

Technorati Tags: Announcement

Please leave the place as you found it.....

Well, it looks like the ole grump has to go out for some more training.  Who knew there was so much training involved to be a grump?

I was very impressed on how clean everything was in "The Hollow" after returning from my last trip, so feel free to stop on by and play the XBox 360, PS3 and watch some great Disney Blu-Ray Movies.

Hey, if anyone is feeling industrious, I have left a few "to do" list items on the bar that need to be fixed.

Technorati Tags: Announcements

Never Underestimate the Disney Online Community

While sitting in my hotel room miles away from "The Hollow", I got a called from the lovely Enchanted Rose telling me that her sister Julie got an exciting package from Tim Devine.

Tim had decided to send a couple gifts to her children Regan and Collin.  Tim and his family met Julie and her kids at Disneyland when she was there to meet my wife and I last June.

Tim sent them each a print from his photo collection.  In a way, you could say that Tim sent a some Magic in Pixels to my sister-in-law's kids.

She blogged about it and included some pictures.  Go check it out and don't be afraid to show her what we like to call Disney Geek Love (aka comments)

Technorati Tags: Announcement, The Magic in Pixels

I hear someone had a birthday

A little birdie has told me that a certain blogger, podcaster and graphic artist celebrated a birthday today.

Check out Imaginerding to find out who.

Hopefully, he'll remember to stop by Grumpy's Hollow to kick back a stein or two to celebrate another year.

Technorati Tags: Happy Birthday, Announcement

Please leave a message at the Beep

The Grump has had to step away from "The Hollow" for a bit to get some training in areas revolving around the stuff that pays the bills.  This trip was unavoidable and I'm sorry, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a post or two up while I'm gone.

So, while I'm out, "The Hollow" is still open, so feel free to come on in, kick your feet up and grab a drink or two.  Just leave some money in the till.  Just try to keep George from tearing up the place.

Read some old posts, leave some love or just wander into a few of my linked friends.

If you haven't subscribed to my RSS feed or to get an e-mail delivery of my posts, this may be a good time to rethink so that you'll get a quick delivery and/or notification when a new topic hits the press.

I hope everyone is having a grumptastic start to 2008!!!

Technorati Tags: Announcement

An ImagiNerd in Training

Well, we rang in 2008 with Disney. No, we didn't take another impromptu trip to Orlando and cram ourselves into one of the parks.

We went to dinner and watched a Disney movie (National Treasure: Book of Secrets). We were actually in the movie when the clock struck Midnight.

But to top the evening off, when we got home, there was a package from my non-Biological brothers and ImagiNerds, George and Andy.

Inside the package was a Christmas gift. The Christmas gift was my ImagiNerd Starter Kit:

• The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom
• Walt Disney Imagineering

We broke the Imagineering Field Guide open last night and I started reading to my lovely Enchanted Rose. This will be a new activity for the both of us until the books are done.

I can almost say that I got delivered a helping dose of medicine to help cure my PDD. Thanks guys!

So far, I'm loving the way that the Imagineering Field Guide is written. I'm sure a book review will follow once done.

Technorati Tags: ImagiNerd

Who would've Known?

June 25, 2007, marked the birth of Grumpy's Hollow.  My first series of posts were my trip reports from my 5 day trip to Disneyland.  A trip that would be one of 3 trips to a Disney Theme Park in 2007.

I had been talking about doing a Disney blog for a long time prior to that, but couldn't really see myself capable of saying anything worthwhile.  After much persuasion by my good friend and ImagiNerd, George, I took the plunge.

Who would've known that the way I recounted my trip to Disneyland would be found appealing to people around the world.  After all, I don't tend to write short posts and the trip reports come with tons of pictures.  These weren't the typical one paragraph per day trip reports that you see scattered around the Internet.  I never would've guessed people would have the patience to sit through them.  I just figured they would be viewed as the verbal equivalent of forcing my friends to sit through the viewing of 2000 slides of my trip (you may only get that reference if you were born before the 1980's...haha)

I got a lot of feedback on those initial trip reports and I just decided to keep saying what came to mind.

My blog quickly became more than Trip Reports.  But I still remembered what brought many of my readers here and provided additional trip reports for my September trip to Disney World, as well as, the recent MouseFest extravaganza.

I'm still amazed that people like my trip reports.  But what amazes me even more would be that my most remembered post of 2007 was my Theme Park Footprint post.  What I thought might've been my most controversial post actually turned out to be well received. 

I haven't been alone in this.  My lovely wife, who goes by the moniker Enchanted Rose, occasionally decides to come out of hiding to provide her perspective on things.  But, I think the most exciting thing she brings is a very crafty point of view.  Her posts on her quilts and scrapbooking have gotten a lot of attention.  She is constantly talking about what her next installment is going to be.

I have also made some great friends in the mere 6 months this blog has been alive.

It's no secret that I am friends with Tim Devine of The Magic in Pixels.  But, 6 months ago I didn't know him as anything other than the owner of a great Disney photography forum.

We met for the first time at Disneyland in June.  He was there on a much needed West Coast vacation and he asked me to give him a call when I got to the parks. Who would've known that I would make a great friend in the 2 days I spent with him and his wonderful wife and kid at the parks.  It also happened that his wife and my wife hit it off.  That meant that Tim and I could have more time to take pictures since the wives were able to talk to each other. 

I have known George and Andy Taylor, of ImagiNerding, (my brothers from another mother) much longer.  I cannot remember how long I have been talking to George via instant messenger or over the phone but it was way before the birth of this blog.  As I stated earlier, he was instrumental in convincing me to build "The Hollow".  In fact, when I was at Disneyland, I think I called him every day to let him know how much fun I was having.  He was also the one I called to tell him about getting stuck on Splash Mountain during my September trip.

Along the way, I was also able to make friends with Jeff Pepper, of 2719 Hyperion (Did I tell you he did my logo?).  My friendship with Jeff may be really new, but he has already has been kind enough to pass on sage parenting advice to my wife while we were at MouseFest.

Who would've known that an adult male actually exists that is shorter than Lou Mongello?  Well, he exists and it's yours truly [Ed note:  I do believe your biceps may be ever so slightly bigger].  What's Lou going to do if I ever get half as famous as he is and all the short jokes get pointed in my direction? 

I was finally able to meet the man with the golden touch during MouseFest.  Like there was ever any doubt, but he is genuinely as nice as one would imagine from listening to him on his Podcasts all these years.  Lou and I definitely have one thing in common.  That is having very supportive wives which is essential.  If it wasn't for their support, we'd have had to shut this stuff all down a long time ago.

The Year 2007 was a short one for Grumpy's Hollow, but I know 2008 holds many exciting things.  The blogging community is just now starting to take off.  New blogs are starting every day and we all are trying to spread the love to each other so our voices can be heard.  Nothing but good things can be around the corner when people work together.

The louder our voices, the more power we may have when something important comes along and we need the right ears to hear them (you know they are listening don't you).

So, I would just like to thank you all for coming by all the time to see what crazy things I am talking about.  I'm even more grateful when you all post comments.  It's really nice to know you aren't speaking in an empty room <wink>.

So don't be strangers in 2008.  There is an endless supply of great drinks to be had, plenty of empty steins, and great places to kick one's feet up.  Just check your apples carefully before you bite in.  You never know when that Evil Queen has stopped by to leave behind a deadly cargo.

Finally, I'd like to say.....

To all my family members and co-workers who read this blog......Thanks for humoring this Disney Hobby of mine.

Technorati Tags: Announcements, Year End Review

Grumptastic Links: Evidence of Matt Hochberg's Dinosaur Adventure

I have been a bad DisFriend :(  But I hope this post will make up for it.....

Lisa Farry (aka Sambycat aka Jennifer's BFF aka Half of Those Darn Cats), has posted on her blog, my life on the WDW d-list, methods by which to see pictures or hear audio of Matt Hochberg's charitable, yet fearful, jaunt on that bone jarring dark ride known as Dinosaur.

So, if you are amongst the many that are scouring the Internet looking for this kind of inside information, then head on over and visit Lisa's site and click the links:

Now it can be told

OK Lisa, sending you some link love

Technorati Tags: Announcements, Link Love, Grumptastic Links