More Pooh this week as A-V Day gears up for this weekend. On Wednesday, the folks from Walt Disney Imagineering working on the ride treated the operators, fellow imagineers and some of the maintenance folks to a dinner at TGI Fridays. It was nice to have a chance to chat and talk to folks outside work. The food was good and the drinks potent. We are also way ahead of schedule for the testing so it looks like next week will be a slow week trying to adjust doors and other misc. items.
I do have a Matterhorn training shift next Saturday. I am a bit nervous since my last shift there was way back in the first week of September and I feel that I have lost the groove that I was in when the ride went down for refurbishment. I have had a few Matterhorn nightmares (mainly about adding and removing sleds from some crazy spot up near the top of the lift – I think its Pooh track switch meets Matterhorn). It is still over a week away, so I hope my nerves settle down by then.
As mentioned before in this space, this year’s Anti-Valentine’s celebration is on the road in Las Vegas. Our parties have fluxed in numbers wildly over the past 12 years from massive house party to intimate gathering. This year’s effort includes mainly the “core” group minus Alex and Mark. They both have valid excuses – Alex is getting married in May and just bought a house, and Mark wants to spend a quality weekend with his squeeze. they will be sorely missed, but I’m sure we’ll have drinks in their honor somewhere on the strip. And if we are lucky, maybe even Charo will join in.
We were going to rent a minivan, hoping to create the hilarity of the 10th Annual A-V Day, but sadly, the rental agencies were all being stingy about their mileage allotments – something to do with a shortage of vehicles since there were so many accidents in the LA area due to our recent deluge. So instead, we are caravanning in the CR-V (It has over 19000 miles and it is the first major trip other than Santa Barbara) and in the Rivello Prius. Me thinks the Prius is going to get a wee bit better gas mileage. Having two cars in Vegas does give us some added flexibility so that we are not all tied to each other for the full weekend. A full report and pictures will be here sometime Monday night or Tuesday afternoon.