Disney's Orlando Hollywood Studios Update Part 2

As we explained a little while ago ... we were able to pick up some SUPER cheap visits to Disney's Orlando locations by donating a day of our time. On our last day, we decided to head back to Hollywood Studios for two key reasons.

1. They have two of the absolute best Disney rides
   - Hollywood Tower of Terror
   - The Rock n' Roller Coaster
   Both of these rides turn out to be our family's favorites. They are both absolutely awesome, adrenaline rush rides - for us and for the kids.
   
   
2. We all agreed that we had to take the Disney character drawing classes. We had taken two last time (the Toy Story alien and Bolt), and they were fantastic. On this visit we decided to take as many of these classes as we could.

Here are some pics from our trip. We'll start with the Disney drawing class pictures. As you can see ... in 20 minutes you learn to draw (with pretty amazing results) people's all-time favorite Disney characters.

Here's Dale

Here's the Genie

And Mickey Mouse

And Uncle Scrooge

Finally, here's Tigger Too!

And to top it all off, Keeley had the awesome idea for this sweet picture at Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror ride. The first time you get on this ride, it's an adrenaline rush because you're not sure what's going to happen or when? It really messes with your head, which is great. The lines to this ride are consistently shorter than most other rides because most people are afraid to ride it.

After five or six trips you come up with something sweet like this:



We have to thank Keeley for such a KILLER idea! Check out the guy right behind Kait. Yep! That's exactly how it feels the first time you ride the Tower of Terror. And his face absolutely shows it. We were laughing so hard at this pic, we HAD to buy it. What a great memory.
The girls love it!

SOCIAL Media

It's odd to me, how social media has become such a HUGE part of life lately.  It's as if everyone wants to be a part of some community and share their identity with others in that group.

What's strange for me, though, is the concept that while people are willing to share their personal / private lives within their social community, no one is making the leap to create social workplaces.  By that I don't mean socially connected workplaces, because you know every profiteer on the planet is trying to get socially connected so they can make money off of it.

What I am referring to ... is why there aren't more socially OWNED businesses.  If we were truly attempting to become socially connected, wouldn't we also try and step into socially owned workplaces?  I don't mean socialist ... as in government owned.  But I mean socially owned.  As in, a group of people would think of partnering together to create a company that they could run together.  They would pool their money to buy supplies, equipment, and the things to make the business work.  And they would all share in the income and profitability of the business.

This is what I have been expecting to see, especially the more I see popularity of social media.  But, so far, I'm not seeing very much of the idea of social ownership of businesses.  I am hoping and praying the concept will start catching on.  But, it seems, that as far as business and income goes, the idea of 'SOCIAL' ownership may be too foreign to a bunch of independent Americans.

That's too bad!  Personally, it would make me extremely excited to bring my skills and strengths to a group of like-minded people so we could help ourselves grow, rather than helping a bunch of 'fat cats' continue getting overweight.   

For an example of what I'm talking about ... check out the documentary by Michael Moore - "Capitalism, a Love Story".  Personally, I'm not a fan of his movies.  But, in this particular show, he interviews several people at a bread company who co-own the business.  That is what I am expecting to start seeing from our up-and-coming, socially connected generation.

My Amigo, Mr. T, (aka Circle of Two) Going live in Downtown Lakeland

I've known Tim for a couple of years now. He is a rare type of person who always makes me laugh, and brings levity to conversations even when it's a heavy topic. And I love it!
Why?
Because we are in desperate need of seeing things in a lighter frame of mind. He never steps away from intense, and controversial, ideas ... but he's not afraid to take a light-hearted view of the situation.

Here were a few pics Chris took of him playing at the last show we saw.  In the middle of a blazingly hot October evening.

See details for his upcoming show ... below.  He'll be playing on June 16, 2010.
I can't wait to see him play live again. Catch you soon as Circle of Two.
Al

clipped from campaign.constantcontact.com  Tim Hutchins is "Circle of Two" Circle of Two Local musician Tim Hutchins, musically known as "Circle of Two", will perform on Wednesday, June 16th at the Farmers Curb Market over the lunch hour from 11:45 - 1:15. Tim, 31, is one of those rare things known as a native Lakelander!  He identifies his musical style as acoustic pop / folk /rock. He performs a mix of familiar covers and his own original songs. Tim Hutchins is "Circle of Two"

Money making at Target!

So I finally made it to Target for all the great gift card deals that they have going. The last day for the sales is this Saturday so you still have just a bit of time to get these deals for yourself!

I paid $16.84 out of pocket for all of this but I got back $25.00 in target gift cards! So that is a Money Maker of $8.16! 
Here is the break down and the coupons that I used:
  10- Smart Ones frozen meals. On sale for 1.84 each, Buy 10 get a $5.00 gift card. I used this coupon $5/10 Here  These actually taste really good and are perfect for work lunches!
3- Olay regenerest facial wash 5.99 each
3- Olay Toners. 2.99 I am not sure if these are sale prices or not but when you buy 2 you get a free $5.00 gift card. I used 3 $5.00 off Olay regenerest coupons from a P&G rebate coupon book and for the Toners I used a $1.00 off any Olay cleanser from the 5-16 SS insert.
10- Sobe life waters are on sale for 1.00 each and when you buy 10 you get a Free $5.00 Gift Card.
There is a great BOGO coupon. Here and a Target store coupon for .50 off one on the Target site. I had Al print out 2 of the BOGO and 2 of the Target coupons so that I could use them all in the transaction.
1- Bounty basics paper towles .99 and I used a coupon from an insert a few weeks ago. Sorry I don't remember what one. But it was A Target store coupon. I was happy tp see these restocked because I had gotten some before and they were never back in stock to get my last free one! No gift card deal with this one.
The total after coupons for all of the above was 26.84 and I used 2 other gift cards from prior purchases. Then I got back 5 more $5.00 gift cards for another time!
Sometimes Target is just awesome for deals. I so love being able to get them at one of my favorite places to shop!
I think that I may go back and get some more of the Smart ones and Sobe waters. But I will have to see how our Saturday is first.
Let me know if you get any of these deals, or others that are there this week!