One Week!

We leave for vacation in one week!  Flying down to my home away from home...  Walt Disney World!  This will be the first official stay utilizing our vacation club points at The Beach Club Villas.  This will also be the first vacation at Disney in January.  I have heard good things about the low crowd levels during this time of the year although the first few days of our stay are during a marathon weekend.

Who can argue with a view like this?  The first time we stayed at this resort in 2008 it totally changed how we like to vacation.  You can be more relaxed and take the time to enjoy little things.  Being able to walk to two of the parks is a huge plus for me.  Having Epcot in my back yard has brought a heightened appreciation for the park.  There are more 'little' things to enjoy and not having to spend time riding a bus to get there lets you slow down to appreciate them.

I think the simplest perk I am looking forward to is the ability to get up and go for a walk around Crescent Lake.  An early morning stroll is always so relaxing and a stop at the Boardwalk Bakery for coffee is the best way to start a day.  I will have to convince my wife that all the stopping to take pictures is a good thing.

Now to start working on getting everything ready...

The Year Concludes

The year is almost over and I am realizing that this blog has been silent for almost 6 weeks.  I have let my interest in photography consume me to an almost exclusion of everything else.  I need to learn some balance.  There are books I need to be finishing, games that have to be completed (or started considering the next game's arrival soon - looking at you FF XIII!) and a gym membership that needs to become my friend after all the holiday eating!

Over the holiday break I dove back into some gaming, giving my portable systems some love (DSi and PSP).  I think I was just getting them prepped for my vacation in 7 days.  I always travel with them to help distract me on long flights and I didn't want them to feel used.  I'm close to finally finishing Tactics Ogre on the PSP and there are a few of the free downloads I haven't even touched yet.  On the DSi I am always consumed with Civ Revolutions even though I have a few games on stand-by.  Is it a cliche to say 'time to make time'?

There is also a few things that need to be attended to on the consoles.  Bastion on the Xbox isn't going to finish itself and Plants vs Zombies on the PS3 is almost over.  This might be a tough time considering the kids have new games they are playing and sharing is always an interesting proposition.  I can't always kick them off even though dad should be allowed to.

As I mentioned above I need to get to work on Final Fantasy XIII now that XIII-2 is almost upon us.  I'm sure it will be released before I can manage to complete the original.  I think I avoided this game because of all the negative comments and I should let it stand on it's own  I haven't always agreed with reviews or comments in the past so why I let them cloud my thinking I'll never know.  Sticking with the PS3, I loved the original Dragon's Age game.  I've played through that one numerous times and the DLC and expansion pack where great too.  I just didn't fall in love with the demo for Dragon's Age 2, so this is another of those games that I need to consider.  I'll need to plan my backlog because I still need to pick up Uncharted 3!  OMG...  good thing it is winter, I get the most of my gaming done when it is cold!