I liiiiiiiive! Again. Life's been either supremely boring or really distracting lately.

X-Files rewatch continues! We've finished season six now. Dear lord, I loved that season. How the Ghosts Stole Christmas? Triangle? Arcadia? The Unnatural? SO MUCH LOVE. (I had Jesse L. Martin's rendition of "Come and Go With Me To That Land" stuck in my head earlier) Also, after rewatching "Tithonus," I get curious again about how Scully is supposedly going to live forever. So, do any of my equally-nerdy X-Files friends know of any fic that has Scully dealing with that? 'Cause that would be fascinating. And sad. Angsty fic opportunity, right there! Also as part of my X-Files kick, I gave Mulder and Scully some colored pencil love.

I'm picking up on the running a bit! Been doing speed work over the summer, and I can definitely feel my endurance picking up. I'm gonna get myself registered for some of the fall races at Disney and get into the swing of it!

The World continues... they took PAC away from Frontierland. :( Main Street does it all now. And they suck at it. Oh well. Splash has been quiet. Mad props to the CM who put together a GIANT coloring book and brought it in with colored pencils and put it in the break room. It's like going back to kindergarten and it's awesome. I've been training a lot, although for the next couple of weeks I'm just in rotation. Sadly, no guest!win or guest!fail really sticks out in my mind this time around. :( I did get to Star Wars Weekends once and OMG LOVE. Darth Vader dancing to "Can't Touch This"? EPIC WIN. Photos from that here

Birding has tapered off for the season, alas, because the evil mosquitoes of doom have arrived. Oh, and it's a wee bit warm. Details. I've gotten a couple of trips in lately, though...

( Shingle Creek Trail 5/10/09 )

( Canaveral National Seashore 6/02/09 )

I also went back to Shingle Creek earlier this week, but more just to sit and chill than anything. I did see a procession of turkeys walking around - with their babies! It was adorable! I got pics, but I'm still going through them. For the record, baby turkeys rival baby sandhill cranes for cutest birdie fuzzballs around here.

And books! ( May 2009 books )

Yes, I still live!

Really not much going on. Work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep. I need to go grocery shopping today. Glamorous, no?

Celebrate a Dream Come True 2.0 debuted a week or so ago... better than the first version, but it's still pretty shoddy. We just need to junk it altogether and start over. :P Stitch's Supersonic Celebration is now open in Tomorrowland. It doesn't sound spectacular, but I may head for MK tomorrow to check it out, maybe make a photography day out of it. Oh, and now that Space Mountain is closed until November, morning Extra Magic Hours at in Frontierland. Opening Splash at 6:30 am once a week? ICK. In any case, I just applied for a Conservation Education position at DAK... so fingers crossed!

I did do some birding in the last couple of weeks! As always, lifers are marked with an '*' and non-avian species are italicized.

( Split Oak Mitigation Forest, 4/28/09 )

( Tosohatchee Wildlife Mangement Area, 5/5/09 )

I also started using Global Twitcher to keep track of all my lifelists! I've got my bird and mammal ones handy, but now I'm trying to think of everything else I've seen over time. :P Anyways, if anyone's interested, here's my profile link there. Not sure if you can see that without registering, though. I'm still finding quite a few species missing, but they're being added all the time. Oh, and saw the most adorable thing EVAR this past week on the way to work: baby sandhill crane. SO CUTE AND FLUFFY. I'm also going back and looking at pictures to try to learn plants. I really need to learn to identify those anyways. (miwasatoshi! And help is greatly appreciated!)

And some guest!fail for you:
(woman walks up and starts to duck under the ropes in the queue rather than going around to the actual entrance)
Me: Ma'am, the entrance is actually up that way.
Her: (nonchalantly) No, I don't feel like walking an extra quarter mile today. (continues under rope)
Me: ... no, really, the entrance is up there. You need to go around.
Her: (in my face) You're gonna make me walk all the way up there?!
(my note: it's maybe 30 yards)
Me: Yes, ma'am, just like everyone else has to. The ropes are there for a reason
(woman storms off toward the entrance)
(she comes back around and gets in my face again)
Her: There. You happy? (scrutinizes my name tag) Let's see... what's your name?
Me: (pushing my nametag forward) Kirsten.
Her: Okay, I'll remember that.
Me: Okay.
(she leaves)
(And I really wanted to tell her, "ma'am, you look like you could use the extra walk anyways." Alas, I value my job.)

But on the flip side, we have guest!win!
-Overheard on the parade route, from one guest to another - "You smell like you just douched or something."
-The Make A Wish family that came to Photocells last week. Mom didn't want to ride, so she waited outside while I chatted with her. Cheerful, chatty, and a great conversation. Their whole family was so awesome that as they came back out I asked if they wanted to ride again, and then sent them right back on, no wait. Awesome like that deserves reward. :D

Aaaand, I have April books! ( April books! )

You know what makes me happy about spring and summer in Orlando? The epic thunderstorms. Listening to one right now. I absolutely love just sitting here and listening to them go. This is a good one, too, a strike every 5-10 seconds. And we're under a tornado watch. I'm looking at the roof of the next building, and it's raining so hard that the gutters can't keep up - it's overflowing everywhere. Florida during storm season: I love you. (And as I typed that, lightning totally just hit within 100 yards)

Two weeks of getting to work at 6:30 am every day, 6 days a week? *drops dead* I'm sooo glad the craziest week is over. It'll still be busy this week, and then next week is back to peace and quiet until summer! Although Space Mountain closes for long-term refurb on the 19th, so the morning Extra Magic Hours are moving to Frontierland. BOO. I'm training two CPs next week being sent over from Space... and with the earlier open on Thursday, we start at 5:30 am (instead of the usual 6:30). *dies again* But I got my one-year service pin! Yaaaay! My first year of selling my soul finally has something to show for it! XDD

But sana_chan, richiied, and Dustin came to visit! YAAAAAY! It was so awesome to see them again, 'cause it's been like 3 freakin' years! So much playing in the parks happened! I FINALLY got all my pictures for the last month uploaded yesterday, you can see them here.

Went to GameStop and traded in some video games! I picked up the new Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Good game! The missions really aren't very difficult. But the best feature? Walking into a scratch card shop, buying a scratch card, and actually using the stylus to scratch it off. It's a new level of addicting. XD I also got Picross, which is a nonogram puzzle game. So far, it's all a bit too easy, so hopefully they'll get more challenging.

The X-Files rewatch continues! We're up to the last few episodes of season 3, and about to start the season 4 awesomeness.

I also continue to run once a week or so. Usually about 3-4 miles, which I can do in relative comfort, keeping up a 10-11 min/mile pace. Yay! I also reward myself with Taco Bell when I'm done. :P Less than 9 months until race day! I might also do the Everest 5k Challenge and/or Tower of Terror 13k to get a little practice beforehand.

I've been trying to get myself drawing a lot, too. I've got a big giraffe colored pencil piece I'm working on now, and a couple of others I'm playing around with. I'm trying to find ways to make myself finish stuff, because no matter how excited I am about a piece, I tend to get lazy and not finish it. So I'm thinking I might start posting "work in progress" pieces in the scraps section of DA. Maybe that will help keep me motivated to finish things.

And books! ( Errrr..book! )

And this week we have some guest!fail!

(man and his huge party approaches me with a GAC card at the Splash exit)
Me: Actually, sir, with this card you're going to go right through our FastPass line.
Man: Oh, no I'm not! We're coming through here.
Me: Sir, the people who have these cards go through the FastPass line.
Man: We've been doing this for 16 years. We're coming through here.
Me: I'm sorry, sir, but all of those Guest Assistance Cards go through the FastPass line.
Man: Then you need to call a supervisor immediately, because you're in way over your head. You have no idea what you're dealing with.

...WTF? Aside from being a prick, the guy sounded like a cliche supervillain. If I didn't care about my job, I would have made a snappy comeback to that...

And, also, a guest!fail award to the guy at FastPass Return who called me a "Nazi" because I made them wait until their time on the FastPass. Again, if I didn't care about my job, I might have saluted him...

And a big collective guest!win award to all the guests who brought their patience this week, and remained cheery and friendly despite standing in line for hours. Those whom I joked around with... you were a huge relief!

...OMG, a real update!! One with a lot of randomness.

We had our Frontierland trainer outing last week, which rocked. First they fed us all breakfast at Splash. Then we went to DAK, and rode a Safari truck from storage out to the attraction, got our own ride through the safari, and then rode back. We got a free lunch, did a big scavenger hunt, then got a tour of Dinosaur's tower and got backdoored. So much win! And we got paid for all that. XD

The parks are PACKED. Holy crap. I think Disney was caught unawares by this year's Spring Break rush. Recession? What recession? They've had to extend park hours and/or add extra Spectros this week almost every day. Oh! And I finally saw Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It!... and LOVED it. It's everything that the new day parade should have been. I have way too much fun with it. I got lots of pics, I just need to get around to uploading them. I also finally met the fairies! Tink was AWESOME. She was afraid of leprechauns. XD I got pics of all that too that I need to get up.

Character audition... as thought, back in the pool! They combined it with a CP audition, so there were like 300 people there. I didn't get out til like 8, and I was one of the first ones there. But I'm back in the pool... yet again. (They also turned away HORDES of CPs... if they took any, it wasn't much)

Swallow-tail kites are back for the summer! Eee! I've seen them twice in the last week, right in front of my apartment complex.

And at the same time - the rains are finally back! There's been showers on and off today. We need it badly. Hasn't done anything to stop the fires up in Volusia, though. Yesterday the park smelled strongly of smoke, and when I did the morning ride-through, everything at the top of C-lift (that tied-up Brer Rabbit) was really hazy. And we're a long way away!

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is out... I totally need to go to GameStop and trade in some stuff and get it. :P And DDR: Disney Groove for the Wii comes out on the 2nd! WOO!

And OMG HULU.COM FINISHED ADDING ALL THE SEASON ONE FLIPPER EPISODES. That totally made my day. XDDDD

I totally got my roommates hooked on X-Files. We've started at the beginning and are watching the whole series beginning to end, 2-3 episodes a night. :D Half of the episodes I'd totally forgotten because I saw them once and never again. :P

Also... Free Willy 4. No joke. Bindi Irwin and Beau Bridges. XDDD

And in a last note, recent Guest!win quotes:
"Why does the water smell bad?"
(kid gets off, soaking wet) "I took a HUGE dump!"

...OMFG.

I just registered for the 2010 WDW Half Marathon.

...

The entry fee is non-refundable, so please feel free to kick my ass and make sure I'm out training regularly, and not one of those people picked up in the van for not keeping pace.

So today I got up at the ass-crack of dawn (before it, actually) for more hiking and birding! Today's site was the Orlando Wetlands Park, up in Christmas.

DUDE. Bird photography for today, FOR THE WIN. Good things happen when I get un-lazy and actually carry my tripod. XD

Early this morning... my first pileated woodpecker! WOO! And OMFG, fuckers are HUGE. I picked him out from 100 yards without binoculars, even.

I also got my first bittern, an American bittern. That made me happy, 'cause I've been looking for one for awhile. :D

Still waiting on my damn purple gallinule, though!

I also got this photo, which confuses the snot out of me. It looks like maybe a starling, but the red on the face throws me. I also thought maybe a red-winged blackbird, but it was too small, and again, had that red face. I also thought maybe a Cape May Warbler, but there's no yellow at all on it. Confused Kirsten is confused! Mystery solved!

Alligators. I have a healthy respect for them, but I'm not afraid of them. (Seriously, how could anyone who's truly afraid of them LIVE in Florida?!) In fact, I think it's really cool to see them in person. However, coming around a corner not knowing it's there and practically tripping over it? O HAI MISTER ALLIGATOR. That happened to me TWICE today. They were both small ones, maybe 5 feet at the most, but it's that element of surprise that I hate. They were both awake and alert, too. Probably not looking for breakfast, as there were a million and one coots and moorhens swimming around them that would have been an easy snack, but they were holding their heads up and had their eyes open. Probably desperate for any warmth they could get, really, because it was frickin' freezing and super-windy this morning (I had a t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, wool cap, and gloves on and I was still dying!). But still... DUDE. Don't STARTLE me like that!

I also found my first rabid raccoon. I was going down a small, heavily-wooded trail, and heard a rustling in a small palmetto. So naturally I stopped and waited. Soon I see this tiny raccoon (not a baby, but thin) slowly climbing up. And I mean he was having TROUBLE. Practically tying himself in a knot as he climbed, almost disoriented. And every 20-30 seconds he was stopping to rest. Now, if you know palmettos, there's plenty of handholds for ANYONE, let alone a raccoon. He should have been up that in a heartbeat. Then when he got about 6 feet up, he turned around and started coming down, having just as much trouble as he had going up. So I figure he's going to bolt as soon as he hits the ground, because he saw me long ago. (I was only 6 or 7 feet away - I wasn't exactly hidden) But he doesn't - in fact, he looks like he's struggling just to walk and control his rear legs in particular, almost falling over. And eventually he just flops, flat-bellied, onto the ground and lays still. And he's looking up at me with the most pitiful face. And at that point I actually stopped taking pictures because I felt so bad for him. It almost felt like I was exploiting his pain for photo ops. And then I realized that he was probably rabid, and moved on quickly. I actually called the site manager after I got home and reported it - apparently they've had a few reports of that lately but hadn't been able to find him yet.

Also... I'm curious who compiled the data for their site checklist, because... sandhill crane? "Accidental"?! Really?! They're all over the place here, and the list says they've been seen no more than five times in the last few years? I find that hard to believe. I ran into them twice today alone.

Anyways, here's the day's list! ( Orlando Wetlands Park, 3/03/09 )

Photos are all up here! Will probably editing some for DA and birding sites, too. Yes, there are lots of red-shouldered hawks, savannah sparrows, great blue herons, and swamp sparrows. They posed pretty, I couldn't help it. :D

(And the obligatory helpme!unknowns:
#1 - The aforementioned quandary Red-Winged Blackbird
#2 - The same species as #1???
#3 - Palm warbler in funky lighting?)

( Some straight-off-the-camera faves... )

HAPPY FUN WEEKEND TIMEZ!!! XD

...not that I did much this week. I got pulled to do requals the entire week! Hooray for requals!! XD (When we change something in the OG, we have to bring each CM in, one by one, and explain the changes to them. It rocks.) I pretty much kicked back in the training room and took turns with the other trainers going out to bump people out of rotation. And I got trainer pay for it. WIN.

I also helped teach an evacuation class this week. HAH, we ROCKED it. First, our new batch of CPs kicked some ass and did really well. Second, we trainers planned out our ideal class and executed nicely. Third... you can't go wrong when you get to play the totally loony guest in the log. XD ("My log has PIXIE DUST ON IT!" "The mean voice told me to keep my feet inside the log! I was just trying to be like that frog!") Or when you show the trainees how to trackwalk after an evac by marching them through the mountain singing Christmas carols. And the Rocky theme as you run up the 99 stairs up C-lift. XDDD ...or "hand-check!" CMs on ride-through. HEE! (Sadly, that's the only time I've ever been the one evac'ed off any ride... and it was all planned!)

In Guest!Win this week... the one that puked off the chicken bridge onto a log filled with guests below. You made my day, in such a sick-but-hilarious way. XD

And god help me, the music from "Celebrate a Dream Come True" is growing on me. It's catchy. Anyone got a rehearsal CD? XDDDD (...what's even more sad is that I've already picked up half the routine for a couple of units, including the show stop :P) I also really need to go to MK and see "Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It!" in person, because I watched it on YouTube and it looks like everything that the new day parade SHOULD have been. And 'cause I wanna get my ass out in the street and shake my tailfeather. XD (sana_chan... MUST DO IT. XDDD)
(PS... how do I learn stiltwalking? Because that looks WAY too fun.)
(PPS... anyone got a rehearsal CD for that one? ;))

But YAY for trainer outings! (the first in like 2 years, apparently) Yay for getting paid for a day of playing next week! I'm psyched. They haven't told us where we're going yet (they want it to be a surprise) but they did say we're allowed to dress casually (tank tops, jeans, sandals even!).

So I'm considering auditioning for the Encore Cast Choir show this summer. However, since I haven't done any form of singing audition since middle school (runner up for the solo... GRRR!) I'm a bit intimidated and lost by the process. :P Still not even really sure how to pick a good audition song or 16-bar segment.

I also saw Coraline with ariellen last week! It was really good, but I think if I'd been a little kid I would have been scared shitless. It was much creepier than Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride.

The roomies and I watched ESB last night... and found a Hidden Mickey on Cloud City. "NEEERD!" (And what looks like an Ugnaught orally pleasuring Han Solo. Just sayin'.)

Aaaaand books! ( February 2008 books! )

...I live??

I called in sick today. Mental health day. I didn't get my last break at work yesterday, and consequently was stuck for hours in the most stressful, upsetting position for hours with no break. Kirsten got cranky. Kirsten picked fights. Kirsten took Ativan. Kirsten doesn't remember anything after coming home from work last night until her alarm went off this morning. Thus, Kirsten called in. Kirsten may also call in Wednesday and give herself a 4-day weekend, because she has a crappy-ass shift that day and hasn't called in since last September anyways. I do have my first official trainee scheduled next weekend, though. He's an ICP... hopefully language barrier is not an issue. :P

Let's see... what's up since my last post...

My parents came to town! YAY! :D It was good to see them again. And to get free food. :P MMmmmm... steak... We went to Animal Kingdom together, too, and I geeked out over wild birds there, like this red-shouldered hawk by the Theater in the Wild that could care less that we were standing ten feet away. (I had to take my tele-extender off my 400mm lens just to get that much of the bird in the frame, he was that close!)

Been birding a couple of times, of course!

( Merritt Island NWR, 2/10/09 )

( Three Lakes/Prairie Lakes WMA and Joe Overstreet Road, 2/17/09 )

...and that's really all I've been up to. Isn't life interesting? :P

I'm thinking I'd love to get more into overnight hiking. I just wish I could afford gear! :(

Training day where we close the mountain? WIN. Why? Because it's 10:30 am and still only 33 degrees, and I don't have to be at work for 3 more hours. :P It's so cold that, for awhile, the Orlando Sentinel's main page didn't even have news stories - just weather stuff.

I chopped my hair off yesterday! Yaaaaay! It was too long and annoying, so I got it cut it back to shoulder-length. I still wanna get it re-dyed red, but I need money for that. ;)

Been totally rocking the Little Mermaid Broadway CD. Love it. I sing along. Sadly, Ariel's range is slightly too high for me. Ah, well.

Also been getting back into painting. Now let's see if I can actually finish a project!

I saw yesterday that Disney is finally releasing a Disney DDR game for Wii. SO MUCH WIN. *counts down to April*

( Disney Movie Meme! )

...update! Yaaaay!

I started shadowing trainers this week, and love it. I think I'm gonna have fun training!

That's about as exciting as life has been for me. :P

Super Bowl Sunday was fun, we had a few people from work come over. Good times! I also put my name in for one of those free 7-day Universal tickets, because it's 15 minutes away and that would rock. :P

I did head back to Shingle Creek last week for a little afternoon birding! A fairly successful afternoon, with a couple of lifers to boot. ( Shingle Creek Trail, 1/26/09 )

And it's been awhile since I've updated this. I haven't gotten as much reading done lately as usual... ( December 2008 and January 2009 books! )

ariellen and I went to the Jon McLaughlin concert last night at The Social downtown. OMG EPIC WIN. First of all, this place is TINY. I mean like just barely bigger than the size of the station at Splash. TINY. Which means OMFG WE WERE LIKE TEN FEET AWAY FROM JON MCLAUGHLIN. Second... $12! Rock!

The opening band was Mark and James, and they were AWESOME. Ellen and I were immediately fangirling. They were fun up on stage, and their music was really, really great. We had to go over and see their booth after the show and get stuff. If I'd had cash on me, I totally would have bought their CD, but I was out. D: I did get stickers, though, and chat, and get a signed postcard. I'll have to keep an eye out for more of their appearances. Anyways, HIGHLY recommend them. Check them out, they're on iTunes!

And of course, Jon! He was, in a word, amazing. He has such passion when he's up there on stage. He gets SO into his music. And his piano playing.... GUH. His hands moved so fast they were a blur. AMAZING. He did a GREAT cover of Rocket Man, too. And seeing all this from like ten feet away? LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. And because I'm shallow... he is pretty, oh yes. XDDD

Oh, and I can't forget the sketchy guy in the corner that was all over some other chick. They were WASTED, and it was hilarious. Ellen and I were trying to figure out/make up their story. It was dramaz. And then we turned around and realized that half the people around us were watching them too, and we all started laughing. Good times!!

Anyways, AWESOME concert. We really had a blast! The venue was such an added bonus. When they said small and intimate, they meant it!!

So people wanted to see pics of my new place...

( New apartment pics! )

...can haz real update nao?

The holidays are over, the insanity is done. YAAY! I had my two weeks of the coloring table and self-breaking (and occasionally getting pulled to playing Phantom Hourglass on my DS TSI custodial), and it was GLORIOUS. Alas, Splash is back now, so I actually have to DO something. I'm finally getting the Day PACs I asked for though. And new parade on Friday! It'll be interesting to deal with show stops from the PAC side now. :P

On the other hand, I got trainer status at Splash! WOO! I start shadowing other trainers next week. I shadow one group through the whole training process, and then I'm on my own. *fingers crossed*

I'm also going to one of those Spotlight On things for animal keepers on Wednesday. DAK peoples! How do I get to DAK's cast services building?? I have no idea where it even is, and the Hub is not being helpful. :P (Is it the same as the wardrobe building over on Sherberth? Or is it actually AT DAK?)

I also got moved into my new - permanent - apartment!! Hooraaaaay! It's in the same complex I was in, because I liked it a lot. I just gotta finish moving the last of my stuff over. I even bought furniture, with the help of family, and I have a nicely-furnished room! I also broke down last week and ordered an art desk (yaaaay for Dick Blick's $5.95-shipping sale!) because I'd like to get more serious about my artwork. So now I can paint and not feel like I have to constantly be moving everything out of the way when I'm done with a session.

...and that's really all that's going on in my oh-so-interesting life. :P

So birding happened again today! Wooo! I met up with miwasatoshi in the morning and headed out birding for the day. The weather wasn't the best - cloudy and dark - but at least we didn't get rained on! In the morning, we went to the Disney Wilderness Preserve. It's a Nature Conservancy-run preserve in Poinciana on land that Disney purchased as a mitigation site. Beautiful landscape, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. After that, we met up with ladyseiryuu for lunch, then all went out to Brinson Park/Lake Toho for some afternoon birding.

It was a very productive day, with some great lifelist additions for me! Unfortunately, I lost my notepad with my list for the morning, so I'm trying to do this list from memory. (miwasatoshi, if I'm forgetting any, let me know!)

As always, lifers are marked with an asterisk.

( Disney Wilderness Preserve list )

( Brinson Park/Lake Toho list )

Took plenty of photos, as usual, and got quite a few good ones!
Disney Wilderness Preserve
Lake Toho

So I made it back to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge! Of course, it's a) winter break, and b) winter migrant time, so it was PACKED. Had a great day of birding, though, and a chance to try out my 1.4x extender. Got some great shots, and picked up a few lifers while I was at it! This time, I did Peacock's Pocket Road, the Visitor's Center Boardwalk, Black Point Wildlife Drive, and Cruickshank Trail.

Peacock's Pocket Road
Very narrow gravel road that took me a few extra minutes to find because it's not even marked. Well, I lie: it is marked, but not by the road name, only by a sign saying "Waterfowl Hunter Access." In any case, a nice little road! Some highlights: red-shouldered hawk, glossy ibis, lots of shorebirds and gulls, tricolored heron heaven, and an osprey with a snack and a desire to pose for the camera. Also home to the mourning doves with No Fear. I almost ran them over before they got out of the road. Also, can I reiterate how much I hate gravel roads with a big grassy hump in the middle of the road? I'm always paranoid that my car will ground out. (Total time: ~2 hours)

Visitor's Center Boardwalk
Short, and packed with people. This is like the Trail For Visitors Too Lazy To Actually Walk. Not much in the way of birds, and really, a gator or two got more attention from the guests. I did pick up a couple of woodpeckers here, though. (Total time: ~15 minutes)

Black Point Wildlife Drive
Wow, it was, like, rush-hour! Lots and lots of cars this time. And the migrant waterfowl are here! Woo! Lots of American wigeons, northern pintails, northern shovelers, blue-winged teals, and a few hooded mergansers to boot. Quite a few shorebirds, too. Last time I did this one, the water level was MUCH higher, so it's interesting to see the difference this time. And there were more gators this time, too - at least 4 or 5 that I saw. Finally found the bald eagle nest, too! The stop on the road is marked, but I wasn't sure where to look last time I was here. This time, I asked around a bit and found it - with one of the occupants hanging out in it! (Total time, including Cruickshank Trail: ~4.5 hours)

Cruickshank Trail
So I didn't exactly intend to do the whole five mile loop on this one. I just kind of did. By accident. I started walking. I did what I often do when I walk, and started zoning out and pondering life. And before I knew it, I was passing the 3-mile marker. Might as well go all the way at that point! Lots of yellow-rumped warblers here, and quite a few common yellowthroats and tree swallows. Also spotted a sora hiding in the reeds near the parking area, probably one of my favorite lifers of the day. I got lucky on that one, too, it was hard to spot, and I just happened to glance over at the right moment. (Total time: ~2.5 hours)

( Merritt Island NWR, 12/30/08 list )

Photos happen here!! There's quite a few unidentified, so if anyone can help me out on those, I'd love it! I'm getting better with songbirds, but I still suck ass at many shorebirds. As always, corrections are always appreciated! Or any species I missed in those mass group shots!

( A few of my fave photos of the day... )

Some random observations:

Belted Kingfishers: Guuuuuuh, I love them. They're gorgeous birds, possibly my favorite. But dear lord, they're spazzy! You can't go within a hundred yards without them taking off, flapping and screaming at you. Just sit still, dammit!

Yellow-Rumped Warblers: OWN the Cruickshank Trail. And OMG, they pish up like nobody's business. I felt like the freakin' Pied Piper.

Other People: As busy as it was, that kinda rocked. As I walked around the visitor's center, I heard lots of families talking. And it wasn't just "that place that mom and dad made us go on vacation," it was kids getting really into it. One dad was teaching his son how to identify anoles. Another was teaching his kid about habitat edges. It's just neat to see kids not just enjoying the scenery, but getting excited and learning about it. Also, lots of birders is great. The winter migrants attract a crowd, so I had people to chat with while I watched - confirming species, pointing out birds, etc. And hey, if you see a lot of cars pulled over, it's like a neon sign saying "look here!" ;) I had an older lady grin at me and tell me, "I'm so glad that people your age are into this, watching and identifying birds." Yes, kids, birding is alive with the younger generations. :P

You know what is funny about Splash going down for refurb starting on the 4th? AN ENTIRE WEEK OF PERM-GREETING FOR ME.

(...I just hope they have the coloring table again, like they had last year :P)

Headed to Best Buy to use a Christmas gift card. Holy crap, the place was PACKED! I was thinking I was all smart waiting until a weekday to beat the crowds, but it was still a zoo. In any case, I picked up Guitar Hero: World Tour while it was on sale (game and guitar, $80), and then used the gift certificate on top of that. WOO! So now I can spend even more of my time playing video games. XD (I have that, Phantom Hourglass, Mario Kart, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl in progress at the moment)

I went down to Shingle Creek this evening to play with my 1.4x extender a bit. Not much bird life for practice (it seems to be an AM-only birding spot), and it was already getting pretty dark, so I had to use 1600 ISO. Two things already learned: grain at 1600 is drastically more visible with the extender, and the camera seems to over-compensate slightly for the 1 f-stop loss, so I have to manually adjust that. Both good to know! Tomorrow will be the better test. I'm heading out early in the morning to Merritt Island to catch some of the winter waterfowl, so I'll get a real chance to play with it. Autofocus doesn't work with the lens I'm using (Canon 400mm f/5.6L) because the maximum aperture isn't wide enough, but that's fine... I find that with birds, half the time the autofocus seems to confuse the birds with the background anyways.

I have a belted kingfisher piece in mind that I really want to paint, I just need to get un-lazy... :p

And lastly, I need to burn this song to CD, because it rocks my socks. It makes me excited for the new parade...

I had my last Candlelight shows for the year last night. But OMG, what a show to end on!

Edward James Olmos? Freakin' best Candlelight narrator I've ever seen! He was so passionate, so comfortable up there, and he really put his heart into it. What's more, he was so incredibly gracious, and clearly just happy to be there. As we filed into the wings just before the show, he stood there, grinning, shaking hands with every single cast choir member, and sincerely thanking us for being there. He's the only narrator I saw this year to do that - most hang out in their dressing room. During the show itself, I really loved that he repeated a lot of parts in both English and Spanish. While the show narration is generally English-only, there's so many guests that speak Spanish as their first language - and for many, that's their only language. So it was really neat to see that group of guests really be included. And his introduction and closing comments were some of the most heartfelt I've seen. He was cracking jokes at the cast choir during the second show, about how we could never hear him at the top of the tree (OMG, the fans are so loud there I can't even hear myself sing). And the choir responded to his enthusiasm... we really had a fantastic 8:15 show. At the end of the Hallelujah Chorus, he turned around and looked at us, wiping tears from his eyes. That sort of praise was just incredible. :D

I also put his family/friends on Splash during the afternoon yesterday. I wasn't really paying attention - I was chatting with a first time guest who was waiting to come through our wheelchair entrance. A Guest Relations person came up and flashed the purple PEP pass, and I waved his group through and went back to the conversation I was having with the guest. At the time, I happened to be suggesting the Candlelight Procession to them as one of the Epcot highlights, giving them tips, telling them about it. When I sent them on into the station, I turned around to chat with the Guest Relations guy, and found that Edward James Olmos had been standing a few feet away that whole time, chatting on his cell phone while he waited for his group to get off the ride (they went twice anyways). Too cool! :D

For the second time in a week, Splash went down two minutes before opening today. :P We had it "parked," and no logs had moved in about 5 minutes. I was the tower opener, so I was just chillin', listening to the morning track talk, and waiting. Well, everyone gets up to go to walkdown, and all of a sudden the console alarm goes off. I turn around... "...WTF?! For reals? NON-RESETTABLE!!!" Oh, Splash. :P It goes down for refurb on the 4th, and I think Bubba (the computer) is telling us he wants it already. :P Maybe that means I'll actually get scheduled Bears for once. :P

I also saw a wood stork at Shades of Green on my way home tonight. Another lifer! Rock!

Merry Christmas!!

Work is done, presents are opened, and now it's time to kick back!

The parks have, of course, been insane. I had log wash yesterday morning, thus was out of rotation from 6:45 to 9:45... went into rotation until 10:45, when I got my parade bump out. Yay for only one hour in rotation! Yaaaay for double day parades! I then nearly lost my voice doing parade, screaming "stay to your right!" And eventually, "...hold up this hand! It makes an 'L'! That's your left! Hold up the other hand! It doesn't make an 'L'! That's your right! Stay to your right!!" ...and of course, because people still didn't listen, there was such a bad traffic jam at the crosswalk that we had to start turning people back mid-crossing, practically shoving them off the street as the parade started.

Also, there are 37 elves in the Once Upon a Christmastime Parade. Just sayin'.

Today was crazy... we had about a 100 minute wait at Splash. But for all the waiting, few people were cranky about it. Most were very cheery, and I had some great conversations with guests who'd already been in line over an hour.

Oh, and for lulz, Sunday morning while picking logs, we found an empty 99 Oranges mini-bottle in a log. Party on Splash Mountain, yo! ;) We had it proudly on display in the break room until a coordinator got cranky about it and threw it out. :p

And through it all, nature gave me a cold for Christmas. I've blown my nose so much that I got a bloody nose. Yippee!

And of course, the Christmas presents today! This year's haul so far:
-4 GB Compact Flash card
-Spare camera battery
-1.4x tele-extender for my 400mm lens (methinks next week I should go out to Merritt Island to play with it...)
-"The Beauty of the Beasts" by Ralph Helfer
-"Steve and Me" by Terri Irwin
-"Alex and Me" by Irene Pepperberg
-Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass, for DS
-Super Smash Brothers Brawl, for Wii
-"How to Draw Disney-Pixar Characters" (those books, while simplistic, have some AWESOME reference info)
-"The Book of Animal Ignorance" by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd
-Mad About You season 2 DVDs
-Lenox Mickey Mouse ears ornament
-Mickey Mouse ornament
-Polar fleece pullover

Still got a bit more to come, too! :D

Other than that, I'm just relaxing. Slowly moving stuff over to my new apartment, which now is getting some furniture thanks to my new roomie's awesome mom! Also trying to draw a bit - did this one the day. Also feeling the need to do some Enchanted sketches. And I'm totally hooked on this year's Tokyo Disneyland Christmas parade music, "Mickey's Jolly Christmas Snowtime." Seriously, everything they write is so freakin' catchy! Got my last two Candelight shows tomorrow night, too!

Everyone have a happy holiday!

I kept noticing a sign nearby for the Everglades Trail Nature Site "Shingle Creek Trail," right down the street. So I headed over there today for a bit of hiking and birding... and by a bit, I mean I walked about 7-8 miles round trip (took about 3.5 hours). :P And it was WELL worth it! A great diversity of birds, and great photo ops - right in my backyard! I've split up my list by section since I walked there... birds I saw along the street on the way, birds I saw around the middle school (at the trailhead), and birds I saw actually on the trail.

( Shingle Creek Trail, 12/22/08 )

Lulz... loved that there was a 7-8 foot gator sitting in the pond right behind the middle school. Welcome to Florida! The otter was adorable, too. It kept giving me the stink eye, which you can see in the pics. :P

The birds were posing all pretty for me today, too. I was able to walk up as close as the trail would allow to the hawk, the vultures, and I got pretty close to the shrike and sedge wren, too. Close enough for easily-cropped photos! And omg, the swarm of tree swallows was insane! I was kinda surprised to see killdeer there... they were all sitting in the middle of the soccer field at the school. I wish I'd been able to get a pic of the cranes. They just breezed overhead before I could get my camera up.

And that's just what a novice birder could pick out, and moving at a quick pace to boot. There's plenty more there - birds that were too hard for me to identify quickly or get a photo of, birds I heard but didn't see (I suck at birding by ear). More experienced birders could probably get more out of it.

All of my photos for the trip are up here! And oh, lordy, did those birds want to pose today!

I did my first Candlelight shows! WOOOOO! It was a BLAST. Of course, being tall, I was way up the risers, surrounded by basses and baritones. It was already a hot day (about 80), and when you pack everyone on the risers under the hot lights, it was killer. We had 4 cast choir members drop out mid-show during the 6:45 show, and from what I hear, 2-3 high school choir kids dropped out after each number. But I remembered my part, save a couple bars of the Hallelujah Chorus which I could "fake it till I made it." :p Monique Coleman was the narrator, and she did a great job! For those in Orlando, my other shows:

Sat. 20th: 6:45 pm and 8:15 pm (narrator: Abigail Breslin)
Fri. 26th: 6:45 pm and 8:15 pm (narrator: Edward James Olmos)

Come see me!

I also finished training at TSI/Bears! I'm official there! Still not scheduled there at all this week or next, though. :( All Splash! :( My Splash shifts next week are all way early, too, like 6:30 to 6:45 am. Hopefully I can get pulled to parade (double day parades, showing Once Upon a Christmastime).

My weekend has been all insanity, though! I can't wait until life settles down again. Christmas shopping, errands, meetings, shows... gah! I did find some time to hit up MK for a couple of hours yesterday, though. OMG, hooded mergansers in the parking lot! I saw them in one of those little wooded drainage areas from the tram when I was on the way back to my car, and jumped off at the next stop and ran back to get pics.

Still trying to finish art. I may sit down and work on some tonight while I watch a movie. I'd like to put together a portfolio eventually, but I'm not sure exactly how I want to put it together.

And to end it on a totally random note... Bottle Caps are love. They're like the yummiest thing ever. Why can you not buy them anywhere anymore? :(