Gator Tail

Last night we went to Gators for one last time with our friend Crazy Lady. As usual she had a billion and one stories to tell us. She is very animated and always uses big hand gestures. I will definitely miss her.

I was determined to at least try gator before I left Florida because there is gator everything everywhere. At Gators one of their specialty appetizers is gator tail. My friend Brad said it was good so he ordered it. It is cut in pieces and put in a breading and fried. I tried it and it was pretty chewy...I didn't really notice a distinct taste more just texture because I haven't had anything chewy like that in so long. But they serve it with a dipping sauce and that was pretty good.

So there you have it...I tried gator :)

Stealth/Titans Game

Yesterday I was able to switch my shift so I didn't have to be in funnel and I got to work earlier and shorter...and the icing on the cake I got to work in Nacho! My favorite stand that sells ice cream. :) It was a fantastic day at work. I got off at 3:30 and took a guest bus to the Old Key West Resort where Lisa picked me up. We went home and got the rest of the family and went to mass.

After mass we went to Gators for dinner. I enjoyed a nice Parmesan sandwich and sweet potato fries. And of course I couldn't resist a long island as a little treat to finishing my 58 hour work week.

Now to the game! The Orlando Titans play in the Amway Arena which is the same place that the Orlando Magic currently play in. The Magic are getting a new arena which will be ready for next year. It is maybe three blocks away from where Amway Arena is and seems like kind of a waste of money. The Titans were playing the Washington Stealth from Everett Washington. It was a "best of the west" versus "beast of the east". It was fun to watch, it is pretty fast paced like hockey or indoor soccer. But has parts of other sports in it too. There is a shot clock and you can't go over and back of the half line. I think the final score was 17-7 Washington...they kind of ran away with it in the second period. Overall it was fun to watch and a great night out.


Paul Rabil has the legs of a Greek God.


Similar to hockey...a potential fight breaking out.



Casey Powell (left) and Paul Rabil (right) were the best players on their respective teams.

Superbowl Sunday

I awoke from a terrible dream in which people broke into my house. My parent's house where there is a door into the basement and no alarm system so if people really did break in while I was sleeping I would be screwed. Some how I karate kicked the first one and ran upstairs to wake my parents. I woke up my dad who was able to call 911, then I ran down the stairs to fight the others. I was quite successful with kicks and punches to each one. Then the last villain faced me and my dad. He pulled out something black, I thought it was a gun and turned to duck. Then I heard a click and it wasn't a gun click, it was the click of an empty stapler, I kicked it out of his hand, punched him, and he was out for the count. Then I woke up and was still scared out of my mind. I occasionally have bad dreams and when I do they are incredibly vivid, which is why it is so scary for me.

Later on it the day, I tried to imitate the karate kick from my dream and when my leg would only go up half that high I knew it was a (little bit, haha) of a stretch in my dream. Anyaa, maybe in real life you can teach me some tricks from your training. (Anyaa is training in some different fighting techniques right now).

My Superbowl Sunday involved very little Superbowl. Olivia picked me up for work and on our way out of the apartment complex we met a friend in the middle of the road. A crane!!! Just walking, walking in the cross walk. Now there are a billion and one bodies of water in Orlando so he/she probably wasn't too far from home, especially since Little Lake Bryan (yes that is its real name) is our backyard. When it gets warmed and I go play in the lake (which rumor has it alligators live in...gators, gators everywhere) I will take pictures. But starting the day off with a crane was quite unusual.

We got to work and as usual my name was under Nacho on the big board that says where everyone is working that day. Olivia was supposed to be in Beastly which sells corn dogs. By some miracle I talked my leader into switching me into Beastly to work with Liv. She felt bad for me that I was always in Nacho and it was always boring and I guess the girl that was supposedly to work with Liv is really flaky and they thought that she would call in. Liv and I had a fantastic day working together. We were busier than Nacho is but still only had 140 transactions between the two of us. On my lunch I found out that they didn't even open Nacho so I would have been stuck doing something else anyway. This way I got to hang out with my buddy!!!

Olivia and I decided that we were going to head to Epcot since we got off work a little early and do some shopping (because it is our last few days of our big discount. Katie and I are going shopping today so I didn't buy much I just scoped it out. We made it to all of the countries and even had time to do the Nemo ride, Soarin', and a few random rides in some countries including "a slow boat ride" in Norway (land of my dad's side of the family). I am looking forward to taking my dad on it for his take. We left Epcot and stopped at McDonald's. All of my friends here love McDonald's---its kinda weird.

I got home in time to see the last 8 minutes of the Saints victory :) Supposedly we should be getting some of the players here this week, so I will be on the lookout. One of the guys that has worked here before told me that he has seen Brett Farve, Steve Young, and Joe Montana here before. I will keep you posted.

Melted Ice Cream, Rain, and Gators

So the past few days Nacho has been having trouble with the ice cream freezer. Yesterday when I got to work we had to throw out 5 two and a half gallon containers of ice cream. One was so melted that I could stick my hand through it and pull it out covered just as if I had put it in paint can. I would put the scoop in to get the ice cream and it would just start running everywhere. It was a sloppy mess trying to get some of the containers out because they were so full from being brand new.
Today they were a little better but some of the containers were still very melty. Between myself and the girl i worked with we only had about 70 transactions in a 6 hour shift. Which is NOTHING for here. It was so slow and boring. I was cleaning everything in sight because I was so bored. The afternoon came and as predicted the rain began to fall...hard. All of the ice cream carts were brought in early and everyone was soaking if they hadn't put on their rain ponchos in time. Yet people were still coming to me as I was packing everything up asking if I was open. One woman couldn't understand why I was closed and kept asking me questions in a very rude tone. She asked me if she could just get two scoops anyway. I explained to her that we were closed pretty much because the ice cream was so melted and wouldn't even scoop on the cone...that finally got her to leave. I had to take all of the ice cream out of the freezer in the kiosk and put it in other freezers in hopes of it freezing today and being able to use tomorrow.

A man tried to leave me a tip for the ice cream today. When I told him I couldn't accept tips he just complemented me on Gonzaga basketball...

Tonight Natalie, Olivia, and I went to a place called Gators (Dockside) for Crazy Lady's birthday. Crazy Lady is really Heidi. She is in her mid-forties and she is awesome!!! She works with us in ODF and is always looking out for us and helping us. She invited us to meet her out for dinner and we couldn't pass it up. Gators was a cool bar and grill. The theme was obviously alligators and just like Montana has big game stuffed and hanging on the walls. Gators had alligators stuffed and hung on the walls. I wasn't really in shock but it didn't really seem normal...however in Florida gators are very normal. What really shocked me was what was on the menu. Gator Tails=the most popular appetizer. Yes it is real alligator tail!!! Crazy Lady says it tastes really good. She encouraged me to try it. I quickly informed her of my vegetarian diet and she asked if I ate fish. Well yeah...but gator is not fish. Someone it is??? Whatever! I didn't try it...maybe before I leave I will get up the guts (literally) to try it. I had Bourbon Salmon with sweet potato fries and broccoli. It was delicious and far more satisfying than the gator tails I am sure.

We all really enjoyed Gators and hope to make it a weekly ritual.