Gary took me to see Cinematic Titanic last night. The movie was War of the Insects, originally known as Genocide. It (the movie) was as awful as expected; the performance, on the other hand, was fantastic. Joel came out ahead of time and said it was the first time they'd be performing the riff, but apart from two or three missed cues, it was as smooth as ever. And hysterical. Afterward, we stood in the *very* long line to meet the cast and get autographs. I took my chunk of the Deep 13 set and some t-shirts. Joel, Mary Jo, Josh and Frank signed the four blank sides of the box, and I asked Trace to pick a shirt to sign. He chose the Dr. Forrester "I'm Evil" shirt and wrote, "And so is this shirt if you don't wash it. Trace." Then he took the box to sign also, but since all the "good" sides were already written on, I pointed out that no one had signed the chunk of foam yet. He said, "Then I wanna be *that* guy," and wrote his name on one of the cut sides. Josh said it was probably a piece he had torched anyway, and Trace said, "Yeah, I've probably still got some of it in my lung-- hey, that is my lung!"

Upshot is, they were all very polite, seemed genuinely pleased at the turn out, and a fun evening was had by all.

Yup, Happy Halloween!  Donald as Hades just cracks me up...as does Pluto with his Scar mane.

We were discussing our "next Disney trip" the other day-- we figure there's always a next one-- and Donna mentioned saving up to go to France again.  Gary said he'd like to see the Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris, so "next trip" plans have now been altered to include a trip to Paris.  Yeah, we're crazy-- but ya gotta dream big, right?  Besides, the Paris castle has a dragon living under it-- we've GOT to see that someday. :)  Of course, that means I have to try to learn French again...whee.  I mean, oui.

We've also been tracking the progress of the "Epic Mickey" game...I have a name suggestion for them:



Predictable, yes, but appropriate, I think. :)  I'm sure Spector'll come up with something even better (and creepier), though.

Hopefully, that is. :)  Aziza checked pregnant via sonogram.  Knowing how tenuous equine pregnancies can be, I want to have her checked again around day 110, and probably again after that. <g>  But I feel like we've cleared a major hurdle just getting her in foal.  Many, many people already have their fingers crossed for us, and I am cautiously hopeful.

I also received a great surprise in the form of a visit from technomage , a dear friend of many (many-- yes, sweetie, I'm rubbing it in) years.  He brought me nifty neato Angel and Stitch souvenirs from Japan and also took me out to eat.  He never fails to boost the ego-- Gary couldn't go with us, so upon leaving the house, he told Gary, "She is truced, sir!"  He then explained to me that this is military jargon for safely passing a weapon from one person to another.  He has also, at various times past, told me that I'm not only dangerous but "drop dead sexy."  Or was it gorgeous?  Doesn't matter-- either way, it's good to hear. :P

Plus Remy, who has been quite ill, is starting to act like the antibiotics may be helping.  As I say...I am cautiously hopeful. :)

Saturday Aziza went to a breeding facility with the hopes that a breeding will take this year.  The stallion we chose has up-close Ruminaja Ali and Ansata breeding-- as in, Ali for a grandsire tail-male, Ansata Shah Zaman as his dam line grandsire, and A. Ibn Halima as his dam line great-grandsire.  He's out of Glorieta Shahlima and tail-female Sabrah.  A resulting foal between these two will have a world champion and a world champion producer on Aziza's side in the second generation, and the list of third and fourth generation horses is full of legends-- those 24 horses include Ruminaja Ali, AK Radia, Ansata Shah Zaman, Ansata Sabiha, Ra'adin Royal Star, Simeon Safanad, Ibn Galal (3rd gen.), Shaikh Al Badi, Bint Magidaa, Ibn Moniet El Nefous, Monisa RSI, Morafic, Ansata Bint Mabrouka, Ansata Ibn Halima, Sabrah, ET Crown Prince, Om Khamsa, Sankt Georg, 27 Ibn Galal-5, Galal, Mohga, and Tuhotmos.  I'm not crazy about the number of up-close crosses to Nazeer this stallion has, but he has rock-solid looking legs and hooves and overall is a very substantially built horse.  His head is not as exotic as Aziza's and he doesn't have the width between his forelegs that she does, so we'll have to wait and see who kicks in the genes on those points, presuming she takes and we get a foal.  Ideally, she'll pick up his width of hindquarter and hoof size (though hers look much better proportioned now that she's lost all that extra fat) and kick in everything else herself-- she's got enough of her sire all over her not to need much help, imo.  So if we do get a foal, odds are actually good that it will be a beauty.  Plus, you know, little fuzzy foal.  What's not to love about that?

Got back safely from WDW, spent the next week paying for it, and now I'm slowly crawling back out from under my rock and onto the internet...yay!

BIG Stitch news from this trip.  We had breakfast at 'Ohana's at the Polynesian, and Stitch proposed to me (down on one knee, kissed my hand, the whole bit...Claudia's kid was delighted).  He also spoke-- I've had the "head" characters (Stitch and Minnie, anyway) make kissy noises at me and, in Stitch's case, also slurpy ones, but I've never had any of them speak to me before.  I've gotta call guest services and ask if the head characters ever talk. <g>  It was another great birthday week in my most magickal place on Earth, definitely.