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Poor Kevin is seriously bogged down this week, so I thought I’d post a little something to make him giggle:

Babe. Love you babe.

As it tends to do when things get going at a fever pitch, life put the brakes on me this week. Here I was, cruising along, and all of a sudden a sinus infection decided to move in. I have all kinds of stuff to get done, but all I want to do is go to sleep (well, that, and rip my eyeballs out of their sockets and scrape out the insides of my sinus cavities). There is an upside to all of all of this, however: It’s 2:15 and I’m still in my pajamas, and the puppy has also decided that a nap is a good idea, so he’s snuggled up next to me. There are way worse things in life than puppy snorgles.

How It DIDN’T Happen

Yes, this is totally disturbing, but if you’re a fan of “How I Met Your Mother”, then it’s frickin’ hilarious. I can waste a whole afternoon on HIMYM clips on YouTube.

It happens every year: November hits, and all of a sudden it’s like somebody hit the Fast Forward button. Between getting ready for Thanksgiving, doing a little organizing (if by little your definition is totally overhauling every closet in the house), and trying to get a little Christmas shopping done I’m absolutely swamped.

Even with all of that, though, we still managed to get over to Epcot for one more visit to Food and Wine (awesome), and we’re heading to Tallahassee for the big Homecoming game this weekend, which means that Oliver gets to go spend some time with his friends at the Dogmahall and the big dogs get a break from all of his manic puppy energy.

I expect things will begin to slow down sometime around February.

No matter who you vote for, just get out and vote.

We headed over to Downtown Disney today to eat lunch at T-Rex. We’ve been waiting for it to open for about a year now, and we were super-excited to check it out.

Let me start off by saying that we are NOT fans of Rainforest Cafe; we’ve never really liked the food, and the coolness factor wears off after the first visit. We kind of expected the same for T-Rex. There are positives and negatives for T-Rex, though, and overall it was a better experience than I thought it would be.

First of all, they do an EXCELLENT job of moving people through the queue and to a table (same procedure as Rainforest—you put your name in and then stand in line). At 12:30 on a Saturday, we waited maybe 20 minutes. Not too shabby. Once we were seated, however, we waited about 10 minutes for a server to appear. Then we waited some more for our drinks. Our appetizer never appeared….but our entrees finally did…a full 30 minutes after we ordered. We sent them back and re-requested our appetizer. In fairness, they DID comp our app, and I’m pretty sure we just had a bad server, but looking around at other tables, everybody seemed to be waiting a while for food. That said, everyone else’s servers seemed quite a bit more attentive than ours.

The food was actually (surprisingly) good. The portions are VERY generous, and the menu was extensive, and there were a whole lot of seafood selections (thanks in part, I’m sure, to the fact that Landry’s owns T-Rex).

The “experience” was totally fun. There are 4 themed dining areas: Fire, Ice, the Sequoia room, and a coral reef. Every 30 minutes there’s a “meteor shower”, complete with comets streaking across the ceiling and much roaring and bellowing from the dinosaurs and wooly mammoths. There isn’t a bad seat in the house for checking out all the dino action, either, and all the favorites are represented: the T-Rex, a triceratops, a stegosaurus, and my favorite, the pterodactyl. It’s HELLA noisy in the restaurant, too, so if you’re looking forward to having a conversation, this is not the place for you. Even at our 2-top, we had to practically yell across the table to hear one another. There’s a place outside for the kiddos to dig called the Paleo Zone, and that definitely kept a bunch of kids occupied. And, of course, there’s a gift shop. It’s Disney…what did you expect?
Of course we had to take advantage of our opportunity to ‘Build-A-Dino”. Build-A-Bear has turned Jurassic at T-Rex, and it was super fun. We learned from our fluffer (get your mind out of the gutter! I’m talking about the girl that fluffs up your Dino with stuffing!) that there are only two Build-A-Dinos in the world, this one and one in Kansas City. The staff here was absolutely WONDERFUL….even as busy as they were, they were all outstanding, and everything I expect Disney employees to be.

We’ll definitely head back over to T-Rex again….but I think that we’ll avoid the peak times. Maybe it’ll be a bit quieter….and maybe we’ll get a better server. This is a definite must for people with kids; every kid we saw was having a blast. We give TRex a solid 4 stars (out of 5).

The Shining

After yesterday’s Scary Mary, I thought I’d make it up to you by posting this recut trailer of The Shining. Kevin will be the first to tell you that I am in no way allowed to watch this movie (although I’m inexplicably drawn to it every time it’s on). I have nightmares for DAYS when I watch it. It’s not that it’s too scary per se, but when I was five years old I saw it by mistake (I was *supposed* to be watching the Love Boat and Fantasy Island) and it permanently scarred me. And no, my mother had absolutely no idea that I was watching The Shining.

So. I think I much prefer this version; no Redrum to worry about!

Scary Mary

I love Mary Poppins, I really do, BUT I was always just a little intimidated by her. She always seemed a little bit scary to me. So, in honor of Halloween, here’s a recut trailer of the Disney classic. Hide your children!

I love the day when “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” graces the airwaves. For me, the Great Pumpkin means the official kick-off to the holiday season. It means that Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away (mmmmmmmm, turkey!), which in turn means that it’s almost time to put up my Christmas tree (side note: I’m super excited about my tree theme this year. I’m *finally* gonna have a beachy tree, after 4 years of wanting one!).

We watch Snoopy and his pals every year (yes, we’re aware that we don’t have kids, thankyouverymuch) with eager anticipation of the next holiday special. Soon, the Grinch will be making an appearance, not to mention Clark Griswold and his family. It’s almost time for 24 hours of “A Christmas Story”.

It may seem a little premature to some people, but just you wait: the holiday season will be over before you know it, and then the only thing you’ll have to look forward to is the “Easter Beagle“!

Wow. This game got some really bad reviews over at Amazon. I’m glad I didn’t read them before I ordered it and actually played. Here’s the deal: It’s not Wii Fit. It’s certainly not cute or “fun”. Then again, Jillian Michaels is known for kicking ass, so I got exactly what I paid for: an ass-kicking workout. I gave it 30 minutes today, and I gotta tell ya, I feel like Jillian herself was in my living room running my ass up a hill.

The response time is a little slow, but that actually makes you work harder. I also like the fact that on the instruction screen (between activities) there is no “pause” function. You are forced to read the directions and move immediately on to the activity….no chance to rest. If you’re me, you can’t have the extra slack, otherwise you might sit down for a minute to rest.

Overall, I really like this “game”. No, it’s not cutesy. It’s absolutely no-nonsense, but that’s the point. It’s also one more weapon in my fat-burning arsenal (even though I’ll be the first to admit I’ve fallen off the wagon since Oliver came into our lives, but I’m committed to get back on now). I can’t wait for Kevin to try it. All in all, I give Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 a solid 3.5 stars.

This was on SNL a couple of weeks ago, and it’s still cracking me up.

Mmmmmmm….rum.

Woke up at 9:00, had breakfast, took a walk, had lunch, explored a new beach, watched the tide roll out, watched Kevin fish, took a shower. I’m beat! Now where’s the Kalik?

I had a great time with Camille and Josh this weekend. I definitely needed a little time in Texas (and yes, I still tear up when I land at DFW). It was a wonderful weekend, and it ended too soon. Thanks for everything, y’all!

Tomorrow, we’re off to our other home away from home, Guana. It’s been a whirlwind of a week, and I can’t wait to get away to my little stretch of beach (and, let’s face it, Nipper’s!).

We’ll be incommunicado for 6 glorious days, so if the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me!

One of the best things about living in Orlando is the annual Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. For the uninitiated, Food and Wine is a collection of kiosks scattered around the World Showcase. Every country at Epcot is represented, of course, but for a few glorious weeks in the fall, lots and lots of other countries move in. For a few dollars (at each kiosk, of course), you can sample cuisine (not to mention wine and beer) from all over the world. One disclaimer just in case you’re worried about Kevin’s diet: the portions are tiny (just tastes, really), and most times we didn’t finish each dish. Plus we walked about 8 miles today, so that cancels out the bad stuff!

This year we were pleased to see the return of some of our favorites (hellooooooo Ireland), and we were excited to try some new flavors (Louisiana!!!). I was also determined not to wuss out; that is, I really wanted to fully commit to making myself sick by eating all day. Mission: Accomplished.

We began the day at 11:00 in Canada. Kevin had the Maple Glazed Salmon (he gave it 4 stars out of a possible 5), and I had the Cheddar Cheese soup, which is always a favorite (I give it 4.5 stars). From there we headed straight to France, since I have an insane need for escargot whenever it’s available (side note: For most people, the smell of fresh-baked cookies or apple pie brings them back to childhood. For me, it’s escargot. I know I’m weird). Three delicious snail-stuffed brioche rolls later (4 stars), we headed onward to Louisiana. I needed something sweet to cleanse my palate, so I hit the bread pudding (a disappointing 3 stars, but probably because I had the best bread pudding I’ve ever had just last night). Kevin sampled the etouffee and the gumbo. Kevin gave the etouffee a whopping FIVE!!! 5!!! stars and the gumbo 4.5. The etouffee was BY FAR his favorite, and I have a feeling he’ll be dreaming about it for a while.

Thankfully, we had at least a little walk before we happened upon New Zealand, where I quickly inhaled a lamb slider on brioche. I had this last year, and although it was tasty, it gets only 3.5 stars, but more on that later. Then we headed to Japan, where Kevin had the spicy tuna roll (note: not spicy at all, which accounts for 3 stars) and the California roll (4 stars, with a special mention of the super crunchy texture). On to San Francisco and the seared beef medallion with cheddar polenta. The polenta was the real star of the dish; the beef was dangerously close to being over-seasoned. Sadly, the over-seasoned beef drags the review down to 3.5 stars, but I should note that I could eat that polenta all day every day.

Since I needed to make a little room in my belly, we skipped the lobster roll and the crab cake offered by America (although both looked especially tasty) and wandered ahead to Ireland. I had the potato and leek soup (4 stars…Cheddar Cheese soup in Canada is slightly better), and the surprise hit of the day, the Irish cheese selection with apple chutney and brown bread. The cheeses were a reserve cheddar, Dubliner, and Ivernia, and this one little plate (and I say little, but those pieces of cheese were HUGE) turned out to be an absolute perfect balance of flavor and texture. This was DEFINITELY my 5 star plate of the day.

Still on my cheese high, I skipped Italy, but Kevin tried the sausage pizza, and about the best thing that could be said was that the crust was fluffy (so not authentic in any way whatsoever). 1.5 stars, and I’ll also go ahead and note that this is the second year where Italy really disappointed. In order to get back on track, Kevin made a beeline for Germany and a sausage with sauerkraut on a pretzel roll (4 stars). By this time I was ready to get back in the game, so I cruised over to Australia for a lamb chop. Aside from being close to over-sauced (a caramelized onion jam), it was perfectly cooked and delicious. 4.5 stars easy, and because this lamb dish was sooooo good, it knocked New Zealand’s down a bit.

We took a little break to hit Soarin’, and then we were right back at it. Chile gave us a spicy beef empanada, and it was yum-may enough to earn a solid 4 stars. Staying in a South American mood, we sampled some beef with chimichurri and beef and corn pie in Argentina. The chimichurri was WAY too oily, which was sad since the beef was perfect (2.5 stars). The pie was interesting and not at all what I expected. It gets points for being the most unique thing I ate all day, and that moves it to 4 solid stars. Still feeling a little south of the border, we marched on to Mexico for chicken chilaquiles. Kevin gave it a 4, and I give it a 4.5 (but that could be because I haven’t had good Mexican food in over a year). Still, though, the salsa verde was good.

At this point, I was a bit beyond full, but still okay, so we went to South Africa. The Durban spiced chicken was crazy good; it came with coconut milk-infused root veggies which it absolutely needed to offset the crazy heat from the spices. My lips are still burning 3 hours later, but it was soooo worth it. Another solid 4.5. From there it was only a stone’s throw to Austria and goulash and tafelspitz (that’s brisket to you and me, Russ). The goulash came with a bacon dumpling (holla!) which by itself earned the dish 4 stars. Kevin’s brisket, sadly, was bland, and the accompanying horseradish sauce was lackluster. The tafelspitz scored the worst today at a meager 1 star. We wandered back around to Greece for Greek salad (4 stars) and spanokopita which was the second best thing I ate all day and gets 4.75 stars. I should also mention that Kevin stopped back in at Louisiana for a second helping of etouffee.

Poland and Puerto Rico were *right there*, but I had sadly reached my breaking point. It was 5:00, and we had been eating since 11:00. I really, really wanted to stop at these two, but I just couldn’t (plus, we had Fast Passes for Test Track and another round of Soarin’). We also skipped Morocco (did it last year and wasn’t memorable), Spain (no room in my belly, but if we go back I’ll try the seared tuna), China (again, did it last year and it was the same menu), and Istanbul (and again, I’ll try it if we make it over there again).

Food and Wine is a definite favorite; where else can you eat your way around the world in a day? The food is also surprisingly good. And sure, there are wine pairing seminars, cookbook signings, and other foodie-type things, but I really only go for the food. Because really? Any place I can escargot AND a spicy beef empanada is someplace I want to eat.