DerekRx

More than likely I won't be doing the breakfast on Saturday. Maybe if it was 4 hours later I'd get up in time for it, but I fear with the craft fair, traffic is going to be a pain getting to and then to leave again for Selingsgrove and back, yeah kinda annoying. See everyone tomorrow afternoonish though!

Tonight was IPA Thursday. And one can never have too many shirtless Derek photos (Bring this to PPP and I'll sign it for you, free of charge) Lots of chunks of unfiltered hoppiness in this Lost Coast brew Quite happy, considering I passed up free beer and dinner Starting out the night with the old fave

If Nicole can manage to go, I suppose I can too. No definite plans for the weekend except Knoebels during PPP.

As a shout out to all my peeps who are deeply saddened at missing the greatest few days in Food & Wine's celebration at Epcot, right now I'm honoring you all by listening to Starship- "We Built This City".

What happened to me in Episode 6? Does the hotel not have a bar, or DO they have a bar and that's an entirely different story saved for a later chapter?!

^Quick! We need a moderator in here to fix this!!! I find this to be totally against TOS. Why am I not a mod yet?! Oh the pain, the shear pain! Even in desperation, I don't think I would drink a Coors Light. Maybe wash my glass, or use it like a bidet. But its ok, I know not everyone is as strong willed as myself Originally, tonight I was going to go to BBW for my birthday meal. Well, since there was supposed to be really bad weather in that area, I opted for staying home, prepping my car for the winter, and then hitting Fridays. If I was Jack, I would have held out until they brought this around! and for Lost watching, take the Devil with you Maybe I'll get to Bethlehem for my free birthday, but Friday's and its Sam Octoberfest will substitute nicely tonight

As much as I loved TSI as a kid, lately its pretty tame. No Fort Wilderness, several of the bridges and stuff closed, etc. If it was done correctly, Pirate Island could be pretty cool. But if they're just going to slap a statue of Sparrow hiding in the woods kinda like how they ruined Swiss Family Treehouse, I'd be pretty ticked. Lots of rope bridges and nets, keep the caves, add like a treasure room, do up the Mill right, it could be pretty cool. But yeah, they gotta stop there, no turning Splash into Pirate Mountain or anything like that. Disneyland Paris has a more pirate themed area instead of a TSI and I enjoyed it. Of course, with ADA, all the coolness that the refurb could bring could all be washed down the drain.

^People Under the Stairs is based on the movie People Under the Stairs. Movie came out in the early 1990s.

If one night is opened later than the other, do that night instead. But otherwise, just stick with Friday night, but beware of the risk of rush hour traffic while trying to get there. Maybe leave a little earlier and do Chocolate World before the park opens. Between the Chocolate Tour, the 3D movie, and the Funfactory, you should have enough to keep you occupied for a good hour, plus you can grab food there too. Start off your night over at Storm Runner and work your way around clockwise from there, ending at Comet for the least amount of crowds. Be sure to check out the Extreme Cup Challenge, and look for the single rider line if there's any significant wait.

what do you get a guy who already has a hot chick and pretty much buys himself anything he wants as soon as he gets the notion? The answer, beer he loves! A tad older and still a hophead One of my coworkers got me a whole case of these babies

Thanks for the bday wishes everyone. Tonight I'll celebrate by going to a seafood buffet, and then I'll break into the birthday beers I got. And for everyone who thinks ACErs are bad, nurses are worse! Someone managed to cut into my birthday cake this morning and take a piece before they even could give it to me! Now you know why I drink!

Must get back to Pittsburgh this winter!! But in the meantime, I'll stick with hanging out with my buds at the ole LBC, holla! The second one makes him more like the Heath we know and love! So good I'll have another (horray, now I'm up to 1 Liter of Lancaster Oktoberfest vs 3.5 Liters of Lowenbrau Oktoberfest) This dude looks familiar, though the Oktoberfest doesn't give him his patented Face Where of course, we'll have an Oktoberfest, which is the reason we came! Back to the LBC again, this time in October

Maybe I am thinking of Scotland and haggis, but the bacon, lamb, and cabbage stew served in Ireland isn't much better! Not without like 9 shots of Bailey's first!

More photos: And that was our 4 hours at Epcot, or at least the Cliffs Notes version. I'll be back, don't worry! Here's the little bit of stuff up so far for the new celebration I'm sorry. The fountain, its just so beautiful, I can't help it. After consuming mass amounts of beer, it was time to ride Soarin, which Lunchbox loved. He's such a softie Even the non-beer drinkers can enjoy a Sam Adams My chick wasn't there, but my beer still was! Free Sam Adams, not much else is better than that! Finally, the first seminar of the day was ready, and so was I!

Part 2: Epcot's Food and Wine Festival Probably my favorite time of year to visit Epcot is in October and early November when they're hosting their annual Food and Wine Festival. All the normal World Showcase places have little appetizer portions of some of their foods for purchase and there are some more countries not usually displayed. Oh yeah, they've got beer too, and some of it is free! We figured since we were in the area and this was the first weekend of it, we may as well do it. Besides that, Todd hadn't been on Soarin yet, and since it was the 35th Anniversary of WDW that day, we decided it'd be a good time to visit. The new celebration started that day as well, but sadly we didn't win anything. Countries represented for food and wine: Florida Argentina Mexico Chile Scandinavia China Thailand South Africa Australia Germany Italy USA Sam Adams Japan India Morocco Spain Turkey France Great Beers of the World Ireland Poland Canada Greece New Zealand The trolls tried to make us disappear, but they failed. They did help me remove a blemish though, so thanks for that guys! We followed that up with some Maelstrom It started to get hot, so we decided it was time for the Rio del Tiempo! We even won our own boat! Thailand also looked pretty interesting, but I didn't want the weight to go straight to my thais, err thighs And Reed enjoyed the meerkat custard Next up, South Africa. Instead of Malaria, I picked up a bobotie, a sorta meat pie, almost like Sheppard's Pie with a mango salsa When in Germany, its law that you must find Soren! Reed craved that pretzel filled with sausage and sauerkraught too And then a pretzel And of course, Tons of Fun had to get something to snack on, this time pizza Next up, back to Oktoberfest to finish off my last liter! Start out the day with a Sam Adam's 11th Anniversary Festival Ale, brewed just for the event Welcome to my little kiosk of heaven Here's Lunchbox eating a BBQ pork rib and corn on the cob Strangely, they didn't have the poultry there Spain, once again gazpacho-less. booo!! France, with escargot and some other foofoo things Now that's what I'm talking about! Too bad I don't really consider those beers served there to be that great, just marketed well Ewwww, Ireland, like goats stomachs and stuff No Poland for me, I've got a flight tonight! Reed also enjoyed the soup, while I went with the maple custard. Tasted like flan Todd couldn't pass on Canada though and its beer and cheese soup. (you'll see a lot of Todd eating in this update!) Greece is the word, but we didn't care to dance around on lightposts, so we skipped this too Just around 11am the kiosks started opening up. Here's New Zealand, they probably served sheep or photographs We'll skip Journey this time, we're still bitter about the old old Figment going. Bring back Dreamfinder and small sized Figment!! Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown The prairie dog wanted to say hi to Elissa Our first stop was the Land pavilion because we wanted to ride the new Living with the Land without castmember. Even Reed came out for the festivities! Todd says "look at me, I'm at Disney again, and I hate Disney!" Here's Epcot, in case you can't tell by the giant golfball and the word 'Epcot' above said ball

good Mummy at USF, back row with a loose lapbar. Happy times! Shame the fake station wasn't fully operational, but the rest of it was great as always.

Today it was off to Food and Wine Festival (where they also have beer, but not as much as wine) and I finished off the short 4 hours at Epcot with the Sam Adam's Pale Ale. Wasn't too bad, though it was still kinda warm Even Todd and Reed got into the action! Followed by some free Sam Adam's Boston Lager at the History of Beer seminar first up, the Sam Adam's 11th Anniversary Festival Ale, a porter

Yesterday I had to go somewhere, so I drank. After arriving in Orlando, it was off to Bubba Gumps for a Kona Pale Ale before HHN started, as I knew I wouldn't drink their watery yellow beer. And that's what I got! New on tap is the Flying Fish OktoberFish I remember this place, do you?

More of HHN: After a long wait for Mummy (even with the Express passes, it went out the entrance) it was time to call it a night (because it was closing time) Had fun, looking forward to next years! It was kinda Bill and Ted-ish, like Bill and Ted Lite Since I've never done it, we decided to see Beetlejuice Another thing from the past: the chainsaw drill team! At least this tent has a fake fascade Final new house to get, thank goodness for express passes! Harvest is a bit cooler now that its dark and the characters have come out, but its still kinda meh. Horny dude and his tall chicks mingle at the arrival stage thoughout the night The blood masquerade scare zone brings new meaning to the term "bridezilla" Kinda cool how they bring back homages to the past with the old parade floats and stuff Another stinking good house, I may have liked this more because of the grandmother who went thru right in front of us and waved at everyone My favorite house, great themes, nice rooms, fantastic scares Screamhouse was pretty good, nice theming, cool soundtrack, but a bit too much Caretaker Finally its dark enough and time to go do some houses! First, a walk thru Deadtropolis. No one can save you, not even Jesus Now is the time on Sprockets where we dance! And then there's some fighting, dancing, and some T&A and has some good pop culture rips tied into the plot (when there still is one) Bill and Ted starts with the usual montage

So, with no conference this weekend after all, I decided to go down to Florida since my friend, Todd, was also down there and had nothing to do. Since it was the first weekend of both HHN and Food and Wine, we decided to hit them. Halloween Horror Nights 16: From past years, opening weekend is usually a good time to go. All the actors are more enthusiastic and pumped up, and crowds are less...supposedly. Fortunately we got Express Passes just in case and its a good thing we did, because they came in handy. Thanks to them we managed to do every house, a few twice (Run and Dungeon of Terror). I won't spoil things too much, but I'll give some of my views on the stuff, and then you can look at pretty pictures. Part 2: Food and Wine will be up tomorrow. Overall it kinda seemed like a cheaply done year, having a house from every year from the past couple of years. It was nice though that some were more updated with all new scenes, instead of just using old props and throwing a "2" in there. The scare zones didn't seem really that good this time. I don't know if it was the lack of characters, hiding places, or the crowds, but nothing really struck me in these areas as cool or scary. The houses: Here's how I'd rank the houses 1. All Nite Die In- Take 2: The best house with the most new scenes and things that could actually really "get ya". I enjoyed the scene with the director and the introduction of some newer characters from recent horror movies 2. Psychoscareapy- Another house that brings back the best things from the orginal, but also adds a bit of new stuff. Jack was interesting 3. Screamhouse- Really well done, reminiscent of the past 2 Screamhouses, but this time with more caretaker. I kinda didn't like how he was in almost every scene. The only house we had an actual wait even with Express passes. 4. PsychoPath- I wasn't around for the orignal house way back when, but I thought it was nicely done. I liked the use of funhouse props, and it wasn't too difficult to figure out the storyline. Really hot in there though! 5. Run- I liked it, the props were great, but I really couldn't figure out the story. How am I supposed to run if I can't even walk thru the thing?? I much prefer the old Run where it was actually like a maze with chainlinked fences. This just seemed like a bunch of random stuff to torture people (and every house has that anyway!) 6. Dungeon of Terror- Hillbillies are scary, but what this had to do with anything I can't tell you. Kinda something I would expect at another park's Halloween event; ok, but Universal can do better. 7. People Under the Stairs- maybe it was because we did this one first when it wasn't even dark out, but I didn't really care for this one. It seemed really unfinished (I know its supposed to be a house under construction), it was really hot in there, and not really scary. Of course, a lot of that could have been because it was before it was even dark (and since its just a tent, all the light was let in). Maybe they should consider opening this and Psychopath AFTER its actually dark! Bill and Ted was funny as expected, making lots of cracks at this year's pop culture situations. As with recent years though, they try to cram too much into a little amount of time and the storyline is pretty much over in the first half the show. Though it was amusing how even Bill and Ted picked up on that and mentioned it. Not as much T&A as previous years, and I didn't like how there was no Universal Express reserved seating area. Onto the pics: Run, should be called "Inching your way thru random stuff" "Old and stupid" Still too light out, let's do Jaws Chainsaw guy at the end gives one last scare "Durrr, I'm a Zombie or something" A little bit darker, so let's attempt Dungeon of Terror since it also has little wait To kill some time waiting for darkness to arrive, we decided to hit MIB with a 5 minute wait Todd was special and needed to wear a helmet The "homes" of People and Psychopath. Not a good idea to do these when its still light out First up, People Under the Stairs (its based on a movie) RIP BTTF Paying last respects on the way Trekking thru the Harvest of the Souls when its still light out isn't very scary All the main icons showed up (except for Eddie) and tortured someone The big horny dude welcomes us all again and tells a poem about recent years as Horror Comes Home The Arrival begins My rubber face/ Sammy Davis Jr impersonation Todd gives it a go Time to blow some fog! Oooh! Fog machines, that can only mean one thing... But this time Todd actually made it! Another year, another Horror Nights! Finally, fighting the Sea of Humanity to get to Universal Studios Popping shrimp I got the world's most expensive Shrimp Po'boy Todd enjoys some hushpuppies filled with shrimp and corn and stuff First, we need some vittles! May as well try out the new Bubba Gump's in CityWalk Down there be a amusement park about to close its doors forever. But I'm going to start Halloween!

Every ride is from a different vendor, and therefore there is no POP. The best you can get is a "Family Day" when things are like .50 Euro cheaper, which was the case on the day we visited. Not sure if I can find the vacation to go, but I'd love to go on the next trip, I'll even help set up what I can! Besides, I need to actually get that 4th Liter finished!

I'd be willing to give the looping slide a try, maybe one will get built by the next time I visit Europe or Asia and I can seek it out. I still wish I went to Action Park before they took out theirs.

I'm sad to see Hydra Fighter go, it was a really unique attraction. Hopefully its replacement is super awesome fantastic! Its gotta be something great though if its going to beat the Star Wars music in the Black Hole! "Star Wars....its a good MOVIE...its really GROOVY...its got special effects!"

Tonight, I find myself at home for the first Friday in like....a long time! Hoptastic! May as well break out a Pale Ale Three Floyd's style

Oktoberfest's update is complete, check out page 11 of my trip to Germany in the roller coaster forum for lots of pictures of the rides and the beer! Last night it was back into the swing of things, jetlag all gone! Nice and spicy, pumpkin spicy that is! My last bottle of Pumpkinhead for now