DonMoonsio

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last year, I celebrated Turkey Day on Kodiak Island, Alaska. It was hard being away from home, but the lodge where we were staying did a commendable job providing a great meal for all who were there.

This year, I am happily at home and the menu will be full of tradition:

Turkey
Gravy
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Jelly
Cinnamon Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Sparkling Vouvray wine
Eggnog (with Kahlua and brandy)

Bon Appetite and Have a great Holiday.

So the new TV has arrived and as the gentleman were pulling the box off the truck, I knew I was going to have a long night ahead of me.

Almost two years ago Matic and I were walking around the now defunct Saint Petersburg Circuit City. As we neared the television section, Matic asked what size television I was interested in for the living room. "Sixty-five inches would be nice" I replied. Matic then asked for me to escort her to see a 65" television in person. Milliseconds after seeing the beautiful monster, Matic let out an immediate "no way, not a chance; that is waaaaay too big" (<QuagmireVoice>alllllllriiiiiiiiiight</QuagmireVoice>).

I turned the tables on Matic and asked her to pick a size she liked and she made a beeline to the shelf of puny 30 - 37" screens.

Eight months later, I had successfully lobbied for a screen in the 46" range, but I was still not satisfied. Rather than keep pushing, I let the debate fade over the next 12 months with the hopes of negotiating a screen in my dream range - 50" to 60".

Flash forward to earlier this month - I had narrowed the television selection to four models and off to Best Buy Matic and I went to look at all four screens in person. Of the four, Matic liked the 52" (the smallest of the lot) and I liked the 55". Finally, Matic took pity on me and green-lighted the bigger screen under the condition that we will not have a television larger than our room.

Then I saw the box coming off the truck this morning. "Why is it taking three people to carry it to the door?" I questioned myself. Unpacking the screen (Samsung did an awesome job with the packaging by the way) and placing it on our old stand, I could practically hear Matic crying out in shock all the way from her downtown St. Pete office.

It is amazing how the 55" screen looked, in terms of physical size, totally average in Best Buy and yet incredibly enormous in my living room. Even our cat refuses to walk near the screen - giving it an exceptionally wide berth every time he passes through the room.

In terms of performance, the screen is *almost* nothing short of amazing - HD cable, DVDs, and Blu-Rays all look stunning with one nit. Samsung screens use a controversial technique known as auto-dimming that attempts to control the darkness of any given scene by applying varying levels of dimming to the backlight. Sometimes, particularly in scenes that have dark foregrounds and bright backgrounds, the screen gets confused and fluctuates the backlight.

This phenomenon is noticeable on my screen when playing Blu-Rays and decreases when playing DVDs, and almost non-existent when watching HD television. I need to spend a little time verifying calibration settings and collecting data on the issue. Worst case, I have a Samsung technician come out to check it out. If nothing can be done, then thank goodness for Amazon's exceptional return policy!

So for the second consecutive year, Notre Dame lost their Senior Day football game. It was their last home game of the season against a substantially less talented Connecticut team, yet the Irish still managed to lose the game. After the game as he was walking to meet the opposing coach at mid-field to offer congratulations, Charlie Weis looked truly stunned and heartbroken. Unlike previous losses, this time around it appeared that Charlie understood the magnitude and implications of losing.

Then, while standing with the team to listen as the band played the Alma Mater, Charlie looked as though he realized that it may be the final time he is in Notre Dame Stadium as the head football coach (thanks to RVG for the photo):



Watching the spectacle unfold, I began to feel sympathy for the guy until I remembered all the smugness and arrogance that he dealt out over the years. Had he been more humble and understanding, things would have been different, but alas, he came from the school of Belichick and thus his behavior in the past was all too predictable.

As for Notre Dame's future, I can't see how Charlie can continue as their head coach. With his departure, the Kevin White era will officially close. After Bob Davie, George O'Leary, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis all being hired on his watch, Mr. White's legacy is far from stellar.

Hopefully Mr. Swarbrick will have a brighter tenure...

The Samsung UN55B8000


I spent countless hours trying to dissuade myself from buying this screen. It had a few notable drawbacks - complaints about uneven back-lighting, auto-dimming defects, and perhaps greatest of all, the screen is edge-lit rather than the more desired local-dimming.

But then the screen mounted a comeback when Samsung's recently released firmware update was put through its paces by the television nerds. The new firmware addressed many of the complaints in regard to backlighting deficiencies. The tide turned more as post-firmware-update review addendums began to surface claiming the 8000's black-levels were now quite good and perhaps amongst the best in the LCD world and approaching those of the plasma world.

Of course, no firmware update can address the edge-lit vs local-dimming issue. The just released 8500 series is indeed local-dimming, but that screen is $1500 more than the 8000 (in the 55" size) today. Seeing and playing with both the 8000 and 8500 in Best Buy, I personally preferred the 8000; I am by no means an expert, but I could not adjust the 8500 to a point where I liked it more than the 8000. So in the whole edge-lit / local-dimming debate, I will claim ignorance and just enjoy my new screen.

Personal impressions and updates to follow next week.

This year, rather that purchase each other Christmas presents, Matic and I are going in together to split the cost of a proper television, Blu-Ray/DVD player, and television stand. The stand and player have already been selected but the television presents a major dilemma.

I have spent the past twelve months researching various screens and as product lines were updated, my short-list of candidate televisions was torn-down, updated, and reinvented again. Today, my list has 4 candidates:

Panasonic TC-P58V10 - a 58" plasma television. This screen has the best picture quality of any screen on my list. It's price is also well within my budget. So what is the problem - well, this screen is a complete energy hog and throws off more heat than my Xbox 360. Not to go Al Gore on you, but I would like my new television to be somewhat efficient and ... ugh, this hurts to type, ... green.

Samsung LN-52B750 - a 52" LCD television. This is the cheapest television on my list and by all accounts a fine display. The downfall of this screen is that it is not 'the best' screen I can buy from Samsung...enter the LED backlit LCDs.

Samsung UN-55B8000 - a 55" LCD television that has an LED backlight. This screen has great image quality and is around $600 more than the B750 above. The downside to this screen are numerous reports of uneven or blotchy backlighting when displaying dark imagery and scenes. Various forums that I respect are chock-o-block full of complaints regarding this issue.

Samsung UN-55B8500 - a second generation 55" LCD television that has an LED backlight. This is a brand-spankin' new screen that just hit the market. Initial reviews say all the isssues/nits from the 8000 have been corrected and many claim this screen has the best picture quality that any LCD has managed to date (but still not on par with the V10 Plasma that is on my list). The drawback - price; this screen is the most expensive on my list, nearly double that of the 52" B750.

Sadly, there is no clear-cut winner - each screen has drawbacks that are significant enough to keep me from forking over my credit card. Aside from power and heat, the Panasonic plasma is the decisive winner in terms of image quality and performance. If price is the top requirement, the B750 wins; if I strive for the middle, the B8000 is coming home. Then there is the splurge - the B8500, but that screen is so new, perhaps the critics have not had sufficient time to discover all the nits. Oh how difficult my life can be at times...LOL!

Last night I watched the HBO Original Film Taking Chance - a film starring Kevin Bacon as a Marine Lt. Col. escorting home the remains of a Marine killed in Iraq. I had no idea that every fallen soldier is escorted from Dover AFB to their final resting place by a fellow soldier. The story is true and remarkably powerful. As usual, Kevin Bacon delivers a fantastic performance. Highly recommended.

At Home....for the second time....really?

I am just at a loss; I have trouble wrapping my brain around this notion, but year after year of piss-poor football is sinking in. Golden Tate is an awesome receiver, Jimmy is a decent quarterback and they have an above average kicker....after that, Notre Dame has nothing but tradition.

I now know that while this is a coaching problem, the root cause of all this is at the administrative level. It is the Athletic Director that hires these yo-yos after all. Perhaps it is time to put the tent over the house and fumigate so that we can start fresh.

The 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder. I should not like this car; it is not a 911, it is not a Cayman. It is a Boxster; a car I have poked fun at over the years, but something about this version - the Spyder - has me smitten as a schoolboy; already scheming ways to work out a package that could cover the $61,200 price of entry.

Porsche has taken the Boxster S, shaved over 120 pounds by eliminating things like powered seats, door handles, radio, convertible-top motors, and air conditioning, then added the Cayman S motor in all of its 320HP goodness. The car rides on a custom sport suspension with a true limited slip differential. Doesn't this sound like the recipe for the perfect weekend car???

Love the paint, wheels, and alcantara interior...the front-lip and rear spoiler not so much, but this is a true track car after all. I give you the BMW E92 M3 GTS, available in Europe only for ~$170,000:

It appears George Lucas has found yet another way to cash in on his Star Wars franchise - a traveling show consisting of an orchestra, choir, HD screen, and special effects delivering many of the epic musical scores from the six films. The show is titled "Star Wars: In Concert" and I am happy to report that it is not just a cheap, thrown-together sprint to the fanboy cash machine for George.

The show is divided into segments each consisting of a score synchronized to corresponding and applicable clips from all the Star Wars films that are displayed on a massive high definition LED screen behind the orchestra. The set-list essentially follows all six films in the stories chronological order (i.e. Episode I through VI) and while the Episode 1-3 films are usually not as well received as 4-6, the musical scores of all the films are solid even to the point that the newer scores are at times better than the older scores.

The quality of the orchestra was fantastic; in fact they were so good that the ultimate acoustical illusion was accomplished - The orchestra played with such perfection in terms of tempo and unison that there were times that I felt as though I was listening to a CD or the film itself not a live group of 80+ musicians. As great as the orchestra was, it was perhaps the narrator of the show that pushed the performance from excellent to phenomenal. After the orchestra played the 20th Century Fox fanfare and Opening Credits theme, Anthony Daniels (C-3PO himself) took the stage and introduced each segment of music.

Mr. Daniels voice is no less than iconic to generations of fans and to hear it in person brought an instant smile to my face. He is clearly a dramatic actor as his enthusiasm and vocal-drama really did help set the mood throughout the two hour show. Though he does this show every two or so days, he never appeared anything less than completely enthused and in love with the material he was presenting. He injected several anecdotes (including assuming character when introducing a segment about chases through asteroid belts - "the odds of surviving an asteroid belt are...")

To complete the show, along one of the area's concourses were actual Star Wars props including the original Vadar costume, Han Solo frozen in carbonite, and several blasters, helmets, and doo-dads. Intermingled throughout the crowds in the concourses were actors dressed in full Stormtrooper and Death Star uniforms - very cool indeed.

And she though the Rock Band drums were annoying...



On a different topic, I just returned from a week-long trip to Las Vegas. I had not been to Sin City since the Spring of 1996. In that 13-year gap, Las Vegas has essentially rebuilt itself from how it appeared during my last visit. New hotels to me included the Bellagio, Venetian, Palazzo, Paris, New York-New York, Wynn, Encore, and the massive towers that expand Caesar's Palace.

I was not that into gambling on this trip as I am trying to save my pennies for new BMW Performance Style #269 wheels and my brain sent electric shocks through my body every time I considered plunking down a stack of cash on games of chance. There were two exceptions to this however - video poker while sipping wine at both the Bellagio and Encore (Wynn's sister hotel mega-sort). Surprisingly, the bartenders at Encore did not comp my glass of Chianti despite throwing in $20; rather I was greeted with a $12 tab for the glass. Happily, Bellagio was a different story as I was comped not one but two glasses of wine for wagering $20.

I did manage to take in the Phantom of the Opera show at the Venetian resort. Waaaaaaay back in High School I took my girlfriend at the time to the traveling Phantom show when it played at the Bob Carr Performing Arts center in Orlando. Once I heard "Music of the Night" for the first time (in the First Act), I decided I had seen all there was to see and subsequently fell asleep for the rest of the show. I occasionally snapped to but never long enough to follow or absorb the story. As a result, I never really knew what the musical was about or more importantly how it ended.

This all changed in Vegas. The Venetian version is about 100 minutes and does not have an intermission. The theater was specifically built for the show and is modeled after the Paris Opera house. Cosmetically, the theater really is quite beautiful and frames the show perfectly. The show itself is definitely worth the price of admission. Not only was I awake through the entire performance, but I followed along and was deeply engrossed in the story. While I am sure theater snobs turn their noses up a bit at the Vegas production, I can honestly say that the quality of the actors, staging, and story at a minimum matches if not exceeds anything found on the Great White Way.

From this past Saturday - at the 2:57 mark a S2000 tears out and Big Blue is right behind.

I started the roll at 3K in 1st then rode 2nd to the stop sign. Never noticed the body roll in my car that is visible on film ... I sense some suspension upgrades in my future...

After skipping the September event, Matic and I headed out at 7:00 am this morning to take part in the third-Saturday of every month Cars & Coffee. The weather was happily cool and pleasant and the turnout seemed much higher than August's event (when it was 92 degrees out!). To my happiness, the DuPont guy directing traffic moved the traffic cones and motioned Big Blue into the prestigious west parking lot. "Oh, they are putting your car in the big boy's lot" Matic exclaimed as we pulled in amongst the Ferrari's, Porsche's, and Lamborghini's.

This morning's event was really quite something:

Not one but two Ferrari Californias (one top-up and one top-down)
Two Nissan GTRs (one with a Godzilla license plate)
Porsche 959
Lotus Elise
Lots of Corvettes
Two BMW 335i's (go Big Blue)
Two Porsche Panameras (the new four-door Porsche sedan)
Three Ferrari F430s

One of my co-worker's brought his 1974 Porsche 914 that garnered lots of conversation and foot traffic. By 9:00am, we were on our way to Cracker Barrel to load up on carbohydrates and then made our way back home.

One final post to top off our U2 experiences this year. Matic and I saw three shows, each from a different perspective:

Of the three perspectives, Matic and I are in agreement that Tampa's was the best. By sitting in the end-zone opposite the stage, you can truly appreciate the entire stage and more importantly, the incredible lighting effects that frame the show beautifully. In addition to the visual benefit of this perspective, there is generally an acoustical benefit as well. The walls that line a football stadium tend to produce a good deal of echo that bounces along the width of the space. The end-zones of the stadium are typically immune from these echoes as nothing but untainted sound travels along the length of the stadium. Also, since the concert's sound tent is typically in the rear facing the stage, the seats near the sound tent are usually assured of getting the best possible sound from the PA system.

While on the topic of sound, I believe I can now state as fact what I had previously only feared as imagined - Bono's voice is really not that good anymore. Sometime in the late 1990s, between the PopMart Tour and the Elevation Tour, Bono had a surgical procedure performed on his throat. There are no concrete details about what happened or why it happened, but ever since that time, Bono's voice has never been the same. If you doubt this, all you have to do is pop in the Zoo TV or PopMart concert DVDs and compare them to his present voice.

On the Elevation Tour, Vertigo Tour, and now the 360 Tour, Bono's voice sounds slightly distorted and overly tinny. I always attempted fool my subconscious into believing these critiques were due to limitations in the sound system not Bono's voice, but this tour provided a triple-smack of reality. Seeing Snow Patrol twice in Chicago and Muse in Tampa, I was left astounded at just how great their respective lead singers sounded while performing. Then once U2 took the stage, I was left wondering why Bono sounded so poor - how could the sound system be worse for U2 than it was for the opening act? I would ask myself.

Obviously one can read between the lines here and identify the most probable cause of this phenomenon. While I do not know this for a fact, my ears tell me that Bono's vocals are somehow processed and altered at the sound board to help cover some of his current vocal shortcomings. Of course Bono still has the swagger, attitude, and stage presence that he always had, he just cannot belt out the soaring vocals that helped make him so famous.

My final note is a complaint that I registered in earlier posts - U2 needs to inject more Zooropa and Pop tracks into this tour. The 360 'claw' was absolutely built for songs like Mofo, Gone, and Dirty Day. Perhaps it is time to retire Sunday Bloody Sunday, Unforgettable Fire, Pride, and City of Blinding Lights and replace them with Please, The First Time, Do You Feel Loved, and Numb. I say this with full appreciation of the fact that asking five U2 fans their opinion of a perfect set-list will generally result in 10 responses. To this fan however, as blasphemous as it sounds, songs like Pride and Sunday Bloody Sunday are starting to sound old and dated.

Hopefully the 2010 U2 360 set-list will feature enough variation to justify the expense to attend the shows.

Bono exclaimed as he pointed at U2's immense 360 'Claw' erected in the heart of Raymond James Stadium contrasted against the Stadium's iconic pirate ship in the north end-zone. Of course Matic and I were present for the spectacle and yes, the show had a different vibe than the Chicago shows. The band put in a good but not great performance last night in Tampa. As Matic put it, it was the concert equivalent of modular furniture - very functional, very useful, but not overflowing with emotion or passion especially when compared to night #2 in Chicago.

This really does not come as a surprise however as the Chicago shows had numerous advantages over Tampa - the kick-off of the North American leg of their tour, the first shows after a two-week hiatus, a city that has always worshiped the band, and perhaps most importantly - perfectly comfortable weather. Chicago featured evening temperatures in the mid-60s, mild wind, and low humidity. Tampa on the other hand featured evening temperatures in the high 80s, no wind, and of course our legendary near 100% humidity. Even U2.com reported that it was the warmest weather of the tour yet. This most certainly took it's toll on the band and it did show. The quartet rarely used their catwalks or their b-stage, instead choosing to stay firmly planted on the main stage.

I will forgo the setlist as it was essentially the same with the exception of Mysterious Ways breaking up the opening salvo from the band and instead focus on some special moments last night. For starters, Muse opened for U2 rather than Snow Patrol and while Snow Patrol was fantastic, Muse was very, very special. Matic has become a big Muse fan over the course of the year and when she learned that they would be opening for U2, well being late to the stadium was not an option. When it was all said and done, Muse more than satisfied with their performance. Unlike most opening bands, Muse took full advantage of the entire stage, the lighting, and the massive video screen with a complete performance production. Really quite staggering, it was as though we had two 'main' acts rather than an opener and a headliner.

As for U2, there were several candid moments from U2 that added to the show's personalization - Bono making fun of the Florida heat, saying what a privilege it is to be in a band with the Edge, and then correcting himself when telling the crowd of the origins of the 360 stage - "we bought thi.... well I should say that you bought this spaceship and we built it so that we can be as close to you as possible."

Then came a truly unique moment that to my knowledge has only been done once before on this tour - Bono in the middle of the show announced that Tampa would get to witness something very special - a live video conference with Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte who is currently orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station. Part of Guy's reason for paying to fly into space is to promote his charity - Moving Stars and Earth for Water - which aims to raise awareness regarding Earth's fresh water shortages.

After a few seconds, there appeared Guy on the massive video screen and he and Bono proceeded to have a conversation complete with the awkward delays characteristic of space communications. When Bono asked Guy - the first clown in space - for his perspective on what he could see of our planet from the International Space Station, he replied:

BMW and Audi have been waging all out advertising war against each other for quite some time now. First there were the viral videos from Audi, then the billboard war in southern California and now BMW's Jump for Joy campaign:



And yes at the end of the clip, that is a new 2010 BMW Z4 honking at the poor Audi owner. The new Z4 could perhaps, just maybe, be a Big Blue replacement in the near future....

   I typed those sentences a little under eight hours ago and they have been haunting me ever since. Never would I have imagined myself capable of feeling content never to return to EPCOT. You see, I was a child of Walt Disney World - my father was brought to Orlando by Disney in the mid 1960's to support the creation of Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom. I made countless visits to the Magic Kingdom with my mom and dad throughout my childhood and still to this day remember the joy and excitement I felt with each trip.

While there are numerous memories, I will share one moment that I will never forget - Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. My mom had no interest in going on the ride, so my dad and I made our way through the queue. As our car approached to board, my dad said to me "you had better get behind the wheel - you need to drive me through this ride!" The ride was fantastically colorful, loud and best of all chaotic. My dad, the perpetual comedian, whooped and wailed in play-terror at all the precarious situations I was putting us in. Then came the classic moment where the car turns onto train tracks in complete darkness only to have the sound of an approaching train followed by the visual of a single train-height headlight come speeding towards your car. My dad in a truly panicked voice began to yell "hit the gas John-Boy! HIT THE GAS!" Of course my memories are related through a five-year old's perspective but nonetheless, I will always remember the drama, excitement, tinge of fear and more importantly, my dad's massive contributions associated with Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

When EPCOT opened in 1982, it was the second park in the Walt Disney World Complex. Through it's first five years of operation, EPCOT began to develop a reputation of being a 'boring' theme park. In middle school and high school, we took field trips to EPCOT which to many kids labeled the park with the kiss-of-death qualification of being educational. For me, and I say this with complete honesty, EPCOT was more enjoyable than the Magic Kingdom. I loved the dual-personality of technology and world discovery that the park featured. Where the Magic Kingdom made me feel like I was part of a fairy tale, EPCOT made me feel like I was part of and had a role in the real world - one park was a make-believe escape and the other a reinforcement of the potential of reality.

Like with the Magic Kingdom, I have numerous personal Kodak Moments that made EPCOT very special to me:
1) Horizons - a ride that was destroyed to make room for Mission: Space. I won't go into detail concerning the ride's specifics, but three things made Horizons very special to me - 1) the OMNIMAX screen that displayed all sorts of fantastic movies, (the Space Shuttle liftoff was by far the best), 2) The smell of oranges when you passed the orange farm, and 3) the end of the ride where you got to chose your own ending - a race through space, land, or sea. Throughout the ride, the theme of the exhibit was repeated over and over - "If we can dream it, we can do it". As cheesy as it sounds, this motto had such a profound impact on my childhood experience, that to this day it is my answer when questioned at work whether a technical challenge can be surmounted. Cheesy I know, but deep down, I really do believe it.

2) The Living Seas - Technically this exhibit still exists, but it is a flimsy commercial shadow of it's former self. The exhibit that I fell in love with featured a winding queue with several ancient and modern dive suits decorating the path. Eventually the queue deposited guests into a large movie theater that showed a fantastic film detailing the formation of our oceans. I will always remember two lines from the film - "try to imagine" and "and it rained...and rained...and rained". After the film, guests walked to "Hydrolaters" that were essentially elevators taking guests deep into the sea to "Sea Base Alpha". Once at the sea-base, people-moving sea cabs transported guests and everyone was able to glimpse the massive aquarium featured in the exhibit. Today, The Living Seas technically does not exist; rather The Seas with Nemo and Friends does. Yes, the plucky little fish from Finding Nemo have completely taken over this once awesome attraction. Gone is the queue, the film, the hydrolators, and the sea cabs; all replaced with Nemo characters and merchandise.

Perhaps what has happened to The Living Seas epitomizes what has happened to my feelings of EPCOT in general. EPCOT used to be a unique stand-alone entity in Disney World. There were never any gratuitous character tie-ins or attempts to cash in on the vast arsenal of Disney films. If you wanted that experience there was the Magic Kingdom and eventually MGM Studios (which I learned yesterday is now known as Hollywood Studios). EPCOT however was supposed to impart the experience of a grand World's Fair which in my opinion, the original iteration of EPCOT did just that. But through the years as the park went without updates and attendance began to wane, the tie-ins and 'transformations' began.

For me, Test Track is absolutely no replacement for The World of Motion. Norway used to be one of my favorite World Showcase pavilions, but yesterday it seemed old, tired, and run-down; particularly Norway's ride The Maelstrom. It seemed that much of the ride's animatronics were not functioning and the ride itself felt quite clunky and slow. After the ride, no one stopped to watch the film (remember the little boy touching the viking ship in the museum as scenes of Norway's history play out) and perhaps most surprising gone were the travel agents that lined the hall leading to the Norwegian gift shop. My friend who we reunited with told me that the government of Norway stopped subsidizing the pavilion in 2002 which would explain a lot of what I experienced yesterday.

The last complaint of the park that I will detail has to do with France and it's restaurant "Les Chefs de France". Yesterday, plastered about the exterior of the restaurant were signs inviting guests to come dine with Remy (from Ratatouille) as I imagine they have integrated this rodent chef into the restaurant somehow. Now I love the movie, but you have to understand that Les Chefs de France was opened personally by Paul Bocuse, Gaston Lenôtre, and Roger Vergé - three of the most respected French chefs of all time. To me, slapping Remy on this eatery is a tad disrespectful and definitely diminishes the aura. If you are going to inject Remy into the restaurant, I would rather you go all the way and rename the place Ratatouille to completely mimic the film. Of course there is still the semi-secret and far more plush Bistro de Paris above Remy's joint that to my knowledge is still untainted, so not all is lost.

So there it is, I am still left wondering exactly what happened - has EPCOT changed or have I changed. Truthfully, the answer is both EPCOT and I have changed. In some ways we have grown apart, but we are still together in many other ways. There were moments yesterday when the magic of yesterday was evoked in me - especially when exploring Japan and China; that felt just as it did so many years ago.

Will I ever visit EPCOT again? Certainly; though probably not until next year's Food and Wine Festival. But next year Matic and I will change things up a bit, perhaps by staying at an EPCOT hotel, by visiting on a weekday, and most importantly visiting when the temperature is below 90-degrees.

Matic and I reunited with old roommates and friends from our University of Florida days yesterday at EPCOT's Food and Wine festival. Surprisingly, neither Matic or I had ever been to the Food and Wine festival which is odd considering that we typically plan our vacations around food. Worthy of noting - yesterday was the very first time in my life that I have actually PAID to get into a Disney park. Between my dad, sister, and Matic's connections to the Mouse, we have been bathed in free passes over the years but back in 2007 all that came to halt. I am amazed at the current ticket price - a shade over $70 per person for one park; that is a tremendous sum of money but one must take into account the scale of each park and it's associated infrastructure and that price-tag seems justified.

Growing up in Florida, I have 30 years of theme park practice and experience under my belt. During that time I have visited each of Orlando's offerings countless times and as such I have formed a definitive set of rules when visiting any theme park. In a nutshell, I have to be at the park's front gate when the park opens, visit a strategic attraction immediately (i.e. Soarin' at EPCOT, the Safari at Animal Kingdom, etc.), then set out to arrange meals through reservations. Matic and I typically seek out the more formal sit-down restaurants in each park and these establishments, particularly at Disney parks, require pre-arranged reservations.

To be fair, I must admit to bending a few of the guidelines above when it comes to Universal Orlando parks. If you stay at one of the three Universal Orlando hotels at City Walk (Royal Pacific, Hard Rock, Portofino), your room key serves as a permanent, unlimited 'fast pass' that gets you to the front of the line of each attraction in either park. With this super-incredible benefit, you can leisurely make your way to the park at any hour of the day and bypass all crowds to enjoy each ride regardless of how crowded the park is. Disney, to my knowledge, offers no such benefit to their resort guests.

I have two rules that I vowed long ago to never break - never visit a park in the Summer (i.e. May through August) and never visit a park on a weekend; I despise heat and crowds. Heading out yesterday morning, I thought I was breaking only one of those rules, but in reality, I was breaking both - the heat was impressive for late September and the lack of any measurable breeze made it that much more intense. The crowd was quite sizable as well but to be honest it seemed no worse than I had seen in previous visits.

Seeing our old friends more than made up for the heat and crowds however. It is refreshing to see people that have known you for many years as they have seen and shared in many of the early milestones that end up shaping your life. The couples we reunited with yesterday saw the birth of the Matic-DonMoonsio relationship; they saw our respective graduations, and they saw us married. As a result, we have a deeper bond and understanding than we have with newer friends.

As for the park experience, EPCOT has done a great job setting up numerous kiosks throughout their World Showcase offering a wide variety of regional food, wine, and beverages. Notable standouts included Australia (lamb chops with red wine sauce), Germany (spaetzle and an awesome sausage in pretzel roll), China (potstickers) and Canada (cheddar cheese soup). The food is portioned like tapas which keeps prices low (typically $3.50 per item) and allows one to meander through the World Showcase grazing from country to country.

As an added bonus, Matic and I paid to attend a special cheese tasting seminar - one of the many special seminars that guests can pay to attend during the Food & Wine Festival. The cost was $75 per person and the seminar lasted around 90 minutes. The session featured a tasting of two wines and four cheeses from Spain and was narrated by a Master Fromagier. While the price was steep, we were served four excellent cheeses and two rather pricey wines. The informational content was actually quite good as we were given a history lesson both in cheese varieties as well as production techniques.

It was odd walking around EPCOT yesterday; I have a lot of deep personal memories tied to the place. I remember my sister and I attending the employee/VIP/press only opening day ceremonies back in 1982. Many of the rides (including a few that no longer exist) continually broke and many famous attractions of today, Living Seas, Horizons (now Mission Space), Morocco, and Norway, were still scaffolding structures. In 1997, Matic and I had an amazing second date which finished with an amazing dinner sitting next to the river inside the Mexico pavilion. But yesterday, I could not shake the feeling that if I never return to EPCOT again, it would be okay. Maybe I was just too tired, salt crusted from sweat and weary from walking or maybe I am just tired of the park itself...time will tell.

Ohh, what a shady title for a blog entry but it is perfectly fitting given the following content; stick with me.

Last weekend, Matic and I attended a dinner party hosted by two of our very good, very newlywed friends in their new home. During dinner a story was told of how Mrs. Newlywed had covertly been replacing and masking unhealthy dinner ingredients with healthy and in some cases bizarre substitutes. All seemed well until one night when Mr. Newlywed was dining on what he thought to be spaghetti and meatballs only to question the taste and texture of the later ingredient.

Mrs. Newlywed came clean and fessed up that she had used a frozen meatball that was 100% meat and...hold on to your chair... soy free which prompted Mr. Newlywed to proclaim in disbelief "so they're just balls then?" This of course begs the question, if there is no meat (cow, pig, chicken, turkey, etc.) and there is no soy (i.e. tofu), then what the heck is in that 'meat'ball and how on earth can it be better for you than an all natural meatball??

Well, this story inspired me so a few days later I made my version of meatballs and marinara and thought I would share the recipe with all. The genesis of this concoction comes from Rocco DiSpirito who many will remember from the two seasons of "The Restaurant" that aired on NBC. Rocco at his core is an excellent chef, unfortunately he seems to be more concerned with becoming a celebrity than a better chef so he is known more for goofy, ego-maniacal TV moments then he is food. Regardless, the man can cook and his meatballs and tomato sauce are really quite good.

I will highlight areas where I deviate from Rocco's recipe as we progress:

One final post wrapping up the Chicago trip before I move back to the comings and goings of Casa Del Moonsio.

On our last day in the Windy City, Matic and I headed out to the Museum of Science and Industry. While the Museum has numerous exhibits, there were two in particular that were the motivation for our visit - Harry Potter: The Exhibition and U-505.

The Harry Potter exhibit is a traveling show consisting of numerous costumes, props, and set pieces used throughout the films. Perhaps most astonishing are the visual cues detailing the progression of the actors through the films. We all know that Harry, Hermione, and Ron have physically grown since the first film and their costumes on display show just how much. The exhibit was very well designed and quite enjoyable but for me, the real reason to visit the Museum is the U-505.

Long story short, I have been obsessed with submarines for quite some time - from old (H.L. Hunley) to new (Virginia Class), I love them all with equal admiration and astonishment. Perhaps the most exciting era for submarine warfare was World War 2 - in the Atlantic it was German U-Boats versus allied shipping and in the Pacific it was American Gato-class boats ravaging Japanese merchants. I am not here to deliver a history lesson, so I will cut to the cherry topping - in the end, the German Navy lost virtually all their U-Boats to the massive influx of Allied technology and material in the Atlantic and the American Navy sunk the majority of Japanese resupplies due to the same reasons as above. Today, only five of the over 1,100 U-Boats built survive and Chicago has one of them - the U-505.

What makes the U-505 unique is that it was captured - intentionally captured - by the U.S. Navy in the Atlantic Ocean in 1944. The Museum exhibit tells this incredible story - from its origins as a wild idea of a Navy Admiral, through lobbying the Pentagon for support, to the plan's approval, and finally to the task force deployment to pull off the seemingly impossible task of capture. The exhibit relays this story through a series of films and stages that visitors walk through; each stop progressing the story in a very engrossing and educational manner. The exhibit culminates by exiting visitors into the massive concrete enclosure that houses the U-505 in it's entirety. The music and lighting of the enclosure set the mood perfectly and pathways lead visitors down and around the U-Boat where all the artifacts recovered from the boat are respectfully displayed and detailed.

There are cases filled with uniforms, medals (including the legendary U-Boat War Badges and Front Clasps; more of these went to the ocean floor than are in museums today), cigarettes, phonograph albums, and an assortment of binoculars. There is an entire case devoted to the Enigma Machines (there were two on board) and it's associated cipher book (complete with lead-lined covers). Interactive kiosks around the Enigmas demonstrated how the machines worked and then allow visitors to actively decode messages. Perhaps most haunting were the actual letters sent from the German Navy to crew-members families informing them that their son's U-Boat is overdue and assumed lost. The letters are flanked with plaques that contain the English translations so that visitors can follow along, word for word. The letters thank the families for their son's sacrifice and indicate that all personal affects left at port will be sent back to the family. Each letter concludes with a historic slap to the face - "Heil Hitler". Seeing the words does temper the exhibit and reminds visitors exactly why there was a war with Germany to begin with.

All told, Matic and I spent over three hours in the U-505 exhibit. For me, a visit to the exhibit is justification enough for a trip to Chicago, very, very cool stuff indeed.

For a final note, I would like to vent a few frustrations at U2. While Matic and I completely adore and are borderline mentally challenged for the band, we do share some frustration directed at them. In 1997, U2 released their Pop album. Most hard-core U2 fans bashed the album and it's associated tour PopMart. Since then, U2 has critiqued the album and done everything short of an outright apology to seemingly disavow the album's existence. No tour since PopMart has featured many if any songs from Pop and I for one am tired of this trend.

For me, Pop is the third installment of my "U2 Trilogy" of favorite albums - Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop. The album contains some awesome songs that are certainly deserving of a place in the 360 setlist. I would love to hear U2 break out Do You Feel Loved (have they every played this song live???), Gone, Please, Velvet Dress, or Last Night on Earth during this tour. These songs are as good and in many cases better than anything U2 has produced of late and on top of this, these songs would translate incredibly to a stadium show. Please U2, stop ignoring Pop - that album is no where near as bad as you treat it!!!

Oh and while your at it, why not dust off Dirty Day, The First Time, and Some Days from Zooropa and that awesome single Window in the Skies that you released before No Line on the Horizon.