Hi Again!

So…to recap since Thanksgiving:

Work is work, it’s okay, eh. Every day is one more on my countdown to my “retirement” career plans. I forgot to tell you that my “assistant” Bless Her Heart, got another job and left. I wish her the best, and hope the company she’s at now can use her skills, whatever they are. I’ll manage fine without her IM-ing me in the middle of a virtual meeting to ask me about critical dates, because she either wasn’t paying attention or didn’t understand it, or whatever. Thoughts and prayers to her new employer.

We Launched our Christmas on Sunday, at the Epcot Festival of the Holidays. As my daughter puts it, “Is it even Christmas if we don’t see La Befana!” We saw La Befana, but we always seem to catch her when the glare at the plaza where she speaks is so bad – she joked about it, “Feel free to cover your eyes like this, eh? I will feel like you are saluting me!” So no new pictures this year because glare, but it was all the warm fuzzies.

After the sun’s glare went down a bit we caught Father Christmas.

We did it a bit differently this year, and I think this too will be a new tradition.

The Festival is known for its food booths, and also its crowds, especially on weekends. If you can go mid week, do it. They’ve added lots more tables than in years past, but the joke about the “traditional festival dining tables” – the flat topped trash cans – still holds. It’s not as gross as that sounds, the trash is emptied and the “table” is wiped down very frequently, and the food is on a tray. The trash can is just a holder for the tray. But when it’s really busy, even those tables are scarce.

I got to Epcot before my daughter and granddaughter, and while I was waiting for them I noticed that Spice Road Table wasn’t that busy. We’d eaten there a few years ago and loved it, so I texted my daughter, who was just arriving, and asked if she wanted to do it for lunch instead of the food booths. She was in, and we had an absolutely wonderful and relaxing meal. We had a view of the water and A/C (there’s a covered outdoor space, but we were seated indoors.) We dined on calamari, spiced shrimp, and Tiropitakia, a flaky pastry dish, and the (famous) fried hummus.

Honestly, the fried hummus may be a fan favorite, but…meh. I won’t order it again. Didn’t hate it, but the other dishes were far better. The calamari and the shrimp were addictive. We ordered seconds on the calamari and the tiropitakia and tried the chicken, which was also excellent. The sauces were all to die for. The atmosphere was quiet and cool, our server was very nice, it was a total winner.

Next time (and there will be a next time soon) we’ll go with the calamari, the shrimp, the chicken, and the bread service, and pass on the hummus fries. I’d also like to try the crispy cauliflower. They do have desserts, but we were too full to care, and there’s a booth outside that has baklava and other pastries as well as drinks, so if you decide later you missed dessert, you can fix that. It wasn’t cheap, but was actually about what we’d have spent at 4 or 5 booths, waiting in long lines and eating off the “festival tables.”

Then we wandered. I had been awake early enough to score a virtual queue for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at 7 a.m., and that was our only ride of the day. I was more impressed the second time, the tech is awesome! You get splashed with a mop and heated by a stove and then popped in the face with champagne, all on a crazy 3D experience while you’re a rat running through a restaurant.

The new Genie system is confusing, I won’t lie, I don’t love it, but we got onto the hottest new ride at Epcot for free, on a weekend, during a festival.

Delaney had to have ice cream, so we waited in a long line for ice cream in France (that ice cream is totally worth it). We had just eaten a rich lunch so she was limited to a single scoop of chocolate, and she snarked about the size of the cup until she tasted it. “This is the best ice cream I’ve ever had.” One scoop was enough, it’s soo rich. I don’t think we’ll get out of there without a visit on every trip henceforth.

I haven’t posted much, but I’ve done a lot of thinking about a purpose for this blog. Mostly I’ve been thinking about planning for “retirement” (actually my next job) and all the things I need to do to position myself for it. And I’m thinking that may be a thing I should write about more here. I am a single woman over 60 in Florida, coming up with plans.