tikistitch

So, this hyper-cute painting of Stitch reading the Ugly Duckling was hanging in one of the shops on WDW Magic Kingdom's Main Street. Of course, even though we know we probably couldn't afford it, we asked the clerk about it.

"It's not for sale!" he answered. "But," he continued, sounding mildly irritated (or at least as peeved as you could sound at Dizzy World without getting the old heave-ho from Mickey), "people keep asking about it!" As if this were the most perplexing thing in the world. Um, Dizzney Dude, the painting is hanging in a shop. When you put something out in a shop, people tend to jump to the conclusion that, you know, it's for sale.

From TWO MILLION YEARS AGO!



OK, actually it was like two weeks ago. At Animal Kingdom.

( dinotopia )

Here's another cute items from Los Bros Arribas on Main Street. We thinks it might be kinda new, as we haven't seen any images before.



You can has the surfboard personalized, but Mr. Tiki (who in his spare time serves as our own personal Arbiter of Collectible) disdained that notion.

So, here's the deal. When we were Dizzying around Dizzyland, Mr. Tiki bought us some awesome cool Stitchie glass stuffs from a store on Main Street. But, like the naughty spouse he is, he forced tiki to go outside whilst he shopped, so we could not seee all the nifty stuff we're getting. In other words, a surprise! Which, there is nothing tiki hates worse than surprises.

And, even more naughtily, and unbeknownst to us truly (as we wouldn't tried much harder to peek), Mr. Tiks had all the stuff shipped directly homeward from Florida, meaning we needed to wait on tenterhooks, or some kind of hooks, until the dwarfs decided to get around to mailing our box.

Fast forward.... Or, actually, slowly tramp through molasses to reach the date today. We have returned to work, and we are cranky. And only today, we realized that in order to do the work our lovely officemate just passed on to us, we're going to have to recreate all the tables our former grad student assembled before the server crash. Plus, we probably fatally pissed off a EuroStitch dealer because we wouldn't buy her all 15 snow globes in addition to the $400 of pins she wanted from the web. (Nothing is madder than a pissed off EuroStitch dealer.)

Thus, homeward, where....



It's THE BOX!!!!

With presents. For us.

BUT... We can't get Mr. Tiki on the phone to see if it's ok to open everything, or if he wants to inflict even more torture by wrapping it or something even more evil.

[Poll #1137016]

Since jeepersjournal brought up those fatally enticing Epcot glass boutiques....



( South of the border )

So, this was from our Ohana breakfast. Usually, we'd shy away from blowing this kinda money on a single photo.

( Ohana means breakfast )

It's 38 frickin' degrees out there.

We mean, frickin' A.



Here's a wet paint sign from the Polynesian Hotel. Some say, a similar sign may have made it into tiki's luggage. Or so they say.....

Since the signal for out Stolen Intarnets is strong on the balcony tonight, we'll try to make sense of our Epcot Experience. Basically, Mr. Tiki remembered this park fondly from baby-hood, so we decided to spend a pleasant afternoon.

The experience started off pleasant enough, with Mission Space! And the whole fact that it had made people literally drop dead just added frisson. Though we're still kinda pissed at Lt. Dan for leaving our asses up on Mars (after we'd completed the mission, we repeat, WITHOUT a navigator, and we're not sure about the feasibility of space travel lacking a partner to slur, "Captain, I need more powerrrrrr!!!"), we had drowned our sorrows at the Cokes of the World place.

Since our Fast Pass for Soarin' wasn't valid for several hours hence, it was then on to the countries.



Mr. Tiki read out the list of Dizznified Epcot countries, and, being the picky sort, we perseverated on the quirks: besides Thailand and China, it appears that, within Dizzney property, "Africa" also qualifies as a country. (Oddly, no AIDS-plagued develping nation had prioritized providing funds towards getting an exhibit in Orlando). Since Germany was represented, many happy hours were enjoyed making tasteless jokes about the demise of an imaginary adjoining Poland exhibit.

One realization, amongst just the tiki component of the group, was that we had actually (in real life and carrying real luggage that is) travelled to almost every one of the real countries represented by the cheesy Small World-ified exhibits. Our skepticism detector increased when Tommy revealed, upon our questioning the somewhat odd selection of coutries in the Epcot park, that the exhibits were in fact paid for by the respective tourism bureaus of the countries in questions.

One of the countries in question was Canada. Now, we love Canada as much as the next man, and what we love most is poking gentle fun at our beloved neighbors in North Montana, who reciprocate by taking our humor in great stride. And, we should mention, the very fact that a country should stand apart due to the fact that the people are so bloody nice is possibly something of which its citizens should take some pride. But, dude, you have a world showcase, and out of a half dozen candidates to represent the diversity of Planet Earth and it's denizens....Canada??

We asked our living guidebook for further information regarding the Canada exhibit. For once, the man who could tell you not only the name of the ride that stood in the park before the ride that came before current ride, but the date it was replaced, the reason, and the name of the Imagineer in question's third cousin on his mother's side, was pulled up short. He hemmed. He hawed. Come on, a Canada showcase? Do all the clerks say "Eh" a lot? Or what? "Um," Tommy began. "You can get English candy there!"

Somewhat later, we went on the jolly Viking ride sponsored by Norwegian cruise lines. It involves animatronic trolls, and you're not allowed to exit before viewing a short film regarding tourism in Norway. And then we tried to eat at the Dining Nemo restaurant with the squid, but it was booked 6 months in advance. Also, our feet hurt after walking from Canada to Mexico.

We found a glass Stitch with a guitar in Mexico.

We're still pissed at Lt. Dan.