Two months in Florida! Yesterday morning I helped out moving furniture at Al’s parents’ place. Back at the house it was pack up and say goodbye then back on the road to Tampa. Back in Tampa after a much quicker journey than the one up there we were dropped off at Anastasia’s. We went briefly to Sam’s to pick some stuff up, then back to the house to hang out, so homework and watch television. I couldn’t sleep again and was up till 3am.

Slept in mightily today. Didn’t do jack for the rest of the day. Went out with Anastasia to the store, to Blockbuster to rent a video (or a DVD rather) and Chick-Fil-A for dinner. We watched Tomb Raider 2 on Satellite and delayed watching the DVD of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen until tomorrow. Feeling quite bleh today over work frustration.

Wohoo! Park day! However, it was raining, so the early start was postponed. Anastasia made breakfast for everyone (she likes to do this) and I needed coffee. We almost went to DisneyQuest, a big gaming centre, but eventually it was decided upon to go to the Parks. We arrived at the parks and hopped on the monorail to go to Magic Kingdom. We got in and went to Tomorrowland. First up was the Buzz Lightyear ride, which turned out to be like a large arcade game that you ride. Once I worked out what I was meant to do, I acquired about 23000 points. After Buzz Lightyear we went to Space Mountain, which was a big indoor roller coaster that took you through “space”. I had a lot of fun on my second roller coaster, although my head kind of hurt from the sudden turns afterwards. After that the group split up and Jen, Chris, Kevin, Anastasia and I went on the Teacup ride, it’s actually called the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party or some such, and I got spun three different ways by various wheels – kind of dizzying, but fun nonetheless. From there we rejoined the others at Pinocchio’s Village for lunch where I had two lunches because I was hungry. ^^ We then went to Mickey’s Philharmagic 3D Show which was absolutely fantastic! Very cool effect sampling some classic Disney films. After the 3D show we went on the “It’s a small world” ride which was a bunch of toy midgets singing “It’s a small world”, in different languages even. Anastasia was somewhat reluctant to go on this ride, but was overpowered by common consensus. It stopped on the last room, and the true horror of the singing toy midgets was revealed. Eventually we were released from our repetitive prison and it was on to the Haunted Mansion (inspiration for the movie). This was kind of cool, starting at the stretching room and moving on to a ride through “haunted” halls, rooms and graveyards. After a not-so-scary ride in the dark with glowing things, we went back on the monorail to Epcot. On this ride Chris, Jen, Anastasia and I rode up front with the driver which was cool. At Epcot we ran to Mission: Space (the mission to Mars training simulation ride). On the ride we quoted Spaceballs and Monty Python all through this which was hilarious. After Mission: Space we briefly lost Jen, but found her to find out her ride had jammed. We then ran to the Rose and Crown pub to meet up with the rest of the family. Some great fish and chips, some Irish Baileys creme brulé dessert and a picture of the waiter later (all very nice) I went to the sword shop with some of the others and ogled swords, chess pieces and statuettes. Then we all joined back up and went to the Imagination rides and rooms. They were closed so we went to Mission: Space again and while some others went on Test Track. We managed to go right to the front of the line, no wait because we went on as single riders. Lots of fun. We then sat around trying to get a hold of the others on the radio (they had to wait in a monster line at Test Track) while Kevin and Chris went on Mission: Space again. We watched a big fireworks display from a distance and so missed all the cool stuff which was lower down. After reuniting with everyone we went on the monorail back to the car and back to the house. We then messed around chatting and making bad Gollum jokes till we drifted off to sleep.

A slow start to today after restless sleep. Breakfast was of the Anastasia-large variety, then chilling out for a while before getting ready to head out. I met Diane, a family friend and for once I was not in a towel, but clothes!! Diane goes diving with Anastasia sometimes. A bit later, Chris came and picked us up, Elicia throwing a bit of a spat as we left. We picked up Jen from work then headed off to Orlando. Traffic on the motorway was a bit slow, dead still at times, but we eventually got to Al and Susan’s place. Dinner was scavenged from whatever we could find, then it was some Xbox action courtesy of Chris where I got killed a lot. Then it was get changed into some nice clothes before heading out to one of the purposes of the trip. Pleasure Island in downtown Disney! I brought my camera to Orlando, then managed to leave it behind at the house. Doh! Pleasure Island was fun and interesting, full of people, lights, dancing and music. Al, Jen, Chris, Amanda, Amanda’s friend whose name escapes me, Anastasia and I went to Pleasure Island while Susan and Kev went to see the Last Samurai. Lisa stayed home as she was not well. In Pleasure Island we went to the Beach Club and played air hockey and pool and listened to some ok music. We (being Jen, Chris, Anastasia and I) went to the comedy warehouse for some stand up improvisational humour, which wasn’t bad. We went to the Adventurer’s Club which was humorous and colourful, decorated with all sorts of foreign masks, treasures and so on. We went to to Motion to dance to some crap music (or in my case pretend to dance and hope no one busts a gut laughing). We went to Live Music, which is the Pleasure Island Jazz club where we listened to Schleigo, a New York jazz quartet (piano, drums, bass, guitar) who were playing. Great black guy on bass, really talented. The music was good-ish and the atmosphere was superb. After chilling out there for a bit it was back to the Beach Club for a bit of classic rock then it was out to the main West End outdoor stage for the pseudo-New-Year’s-Eve countdown and fireworks. Then rejoin the clan and back to the house. Back at the house it was a matter of sorting out who sleeps where and drop everyone did. Except me, sitting up writing this damn thing so I don’t forget. Tomorrow it’s off to Magic Kingdom apparently. Oh yeah, I did call Nick back who said they didn’t receive my application, even though they’ve had a week. I’ll give it a few days then go back in and see what I can do.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time writing up my online journal and chilling out. Anastasia came home and proceeded to go work out, saying she intends to do so more often, so in the spirit of actually keeping with such exercise intentions I shall make the attempt to keep up my exercise as well. Ugh, I may even get up early and do it. I shaved again. This is getting ridiculous. Spent the evening quietly watching movies. Since I couldn’t sleep I was up till around 2am. Yuck. I didn’t go to Blockbuster earlier as planned, postponed till tomorrow. Anastasia also gave me a bunch of pictures of her to take home.

Understandably I think, I was not keen to do exercise at 5am this morning after very little sleep, so I forewent it in favour of shuteye. I will, however, go to bed earlier and proceed to get up and do it starting hopefully tomorrow. I spent the morning trying to do email, including some rather unusually long ones which was not made easier by an abnormally slow connection. After Anastasia got home we went out to visit Angel Heart with Jess and her friend Summer. After browsing around there then dropping Jess and Summer off at Jess’ place, it was off the bank, the grocery store, Blockbuster to talk with Nick the manager guy then back to Anastasia’s to settle in. I’m calling Nick back tomorrow to see what he finds out. I cooked Nachos, but it was a fairly average and not very spicy batch. There seems to be something wrong with the cayenne I think. Not very spicy at all. Ah well.

On Monday Leith rested. Again. <insert maniacal laughter here> One of those days where I sat and did computer work, watched tv and thought about extra-terrestrial technology and space exploration, wondering at the proverbial stars. Anastasia and I watched some Hercules when she got home and had Chinese for dinner.

Yesterday Leith rested yet again! After Anastasia came home we went out to Sam’s and Publix to get groceries and also briefly to Blockbuster to take back Donnie Darko and see about my application. The lady at the desk said that the manager in charge of that was reviewing applications presently. Back at the house we had Chinese leftovers and watched Stargate SG:1 (they have a marathon every tuesday of older episodes).

Not a lot today, did email and organised a few work things for back home. I watched documentaries about Mars and space and did some research on the internet about Martian exploration and manned trips. President Bush has just allocated NASA more funding for manned Mars missions scheduled for sometime after 2030, and plans for a Lunar base some time in the next decade or two. Not entirely frivolous research in light of my taking an Astronomy paper this year! I did some mass updating of my paper diary. I chilled out and talked with Anastasia in the evening, I’ll update my online version tomorrow and maybe try and go see the Blockbuster management guy about a job and plead my case in person, so to speak, make sure it all went through.