Universal

So I met Dragan in Orlando last Saturday night. We bought two day twoi-park (Universal and Islands of Adventure) passes. We went to the Universal City Walk for dinner on Saturday night and it was raining and around 50 degrees. It was pretty chilly. Then we went to the parks on Sunday morning. It was sunny but windy and only in the low 50s (normal is 75). Well, it must have kept the people away because the place was empty. We rode every ride at Universal by 1 pm and headed over to Islands. We were done there by 5, but we skipped the 3 or 4 water rides because it was too cold. The new Mummy ride at Universal was awesome as was the Spiderman ride at Islands. The two real roaller coasters, both at Islands, were cool but the Hulk ride banged the hell out of my head. The Hulk was unique because instead of going slowly up the first hill and dropping, it shoots you up the hill so you are at full speed at the top and go straight into a 360 twist. It goes upsidedown 6 or 7 times. It was a great time and I would trade the warm weather for the incredibly short lines any day. Since we saw both parks in one day and our second day ticket is non-expiring, I have two one-day multi-park passes left. So maybe that will be an incentive for somebody out there to come visit me.

That night we found a nice little neighborhood bar and grill restaurant in the residential area of downtown Orlando. The next day we went to Gatorland and saw about a thousand gators (literally), some snakes (see above), goats, turkeys, yada, yada, yada. It was too cold for the gators to come out and play but we still had a good time. Next was the dog track. For the second time in as many trips since I've been down here I walked away a winner. I hit a $58 quinella thanks to the number 2 dog pictured above (and number 5 not pictured). After the track we played mini-golf, some air hockey, had some dinner, and headed home. It was an enjoyable weekend.

This week at work was good again. I haven't done punch in over 3 weeks now. Today I primed a house with a group from a Baptist church. Earlier this week we finished the ceramic tile and it doesn't look too bad. We even put the shoe mold trim in around the edges of the ceramic. I also spent time cutting studs in our panel plant for house walls. We are going to Dallas either the week before or after Mother's Day for a "Blitzbuild" with other Americorps around the country. The Blitzbuild is the name they give for building like a million houses in a week. It should be crazy.

The weather here has been great this week. I bring this up because I've seen the artic blast on the news that has hit my friends back up north. We were in the upper 70s yesterday and over 80 today. It feels like Spring here already. Ha ha.

I'm watching a profile on Chicago's own Shawni Davis, the long track US speed skater. He's doing the interview from the Howard platform of the L. I spent many nights freezing my ass off out there waiting for a transfer. Hey, they just said he moved from the Southside to my old stomping grounds in Evanston.

Take care.

-ME