RunDisney’s new Registration System

In the virtual queue for the Princess Half Marathon weekend, hoping to get in and register for the Fairy Tale Challenge. The challenge used to be the Glass Slipper Challenge, so the name change indicates that it is not exclusively Cinderella themed. 10 minutes in “line” and the page keeps on refreshing to this view:

Patiently waiting for the page to open up. It is reminiscent of my first time signing up for the Disneyland Dumbo Double Dare challenge. I am trying not to worry, but the wait is nerve racking!

20 minutes in and it is still refreshing. I can feel the slots filling up! I miss the days when they had a bar chart on the event page to see how full the races are getting.

Wait…What?! I’m on the log in page! Shy of 30 minutes I am sent to the first step of the registration process.

As you can see you need to have a Disney account to log in. I’ve had mine for years and entered the necessary information to get in. Tada…now I am in and seeing the options of the races. I am here to get into the Fairy Tale Challenge. Scroll down and I click on the option…nothing happens. Okay what is going on? Ah you have to scroll down further!

Since it logged me in through my Disney account it pre entered my information, pretty nifty. Next it showed the extra items you can pre-order. I got the pins, and proceeded to the payment area. They have an option for Disney gift cards and Redemption points, which is a nice option, but I read that you cannot split the cost between cards. I only wished that they would give the Chase Disney Card discount for this. Entered my information and clicked…

Whew…I got in.

Not bad for the registration, I read that there were a lot of people that had issues. Thankfully I didn’t! Now let the planning begin!

Christopher Robin

Winnie the Pooh fans would love this movie. Especially if you are an adult and grew up with Pooh. This movie is not your typical Winnie the Pooh movie. It is based on the viewpoint of Christopher Robin as an adult and how Winnie the Pooh relates to him as an adult.

The movie starts as Christopher Robin is a young boy and he says goodbye to his friends in the 100 acre wood before he is sent off to boarding school. In the prelude of the movie we quickly see the events that happen until Christopher Robin becomes an adult. It is pretty dark, it involves a death and war, but it then brightens up where he meets his wife and has a child, but then it becomes dim and that is where the story starts.

The premise of the joining of Pooh and Christopher is that Pooh has lost his friends and he goes and through the tree that transports him to London to find Christopher. Throughout the movie you see Christopher is helping Pooh with his predicament, but he also finds out that he also needs Pooh and his 100 acre friends to help him as well.

The movie works well, because the characters of the 100 acre wood stays true to their mannerism. There is a lot of reference to the past Winnie the Pooh movies that makes the movie endearing. The quotes that Pooh gives are quite simple, but yet they are very deep, which makes his character so appealing and lovable. For a bear with very little brain, Pooh is very wise in the simplest sense.

I can see that there may be a lot of people that may not like this movie, because it is very different than the past movies that featured Winnie the Pooh. If you go with an open mind, and watch the movie for what it is, you will be pleasantly happy with the story and the visuals.

This is a great addition to Disney’s live action repertoire, and I hope that you are like me and will enjoy this story of Christopher Robin and the Silly old Bear.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Marvel has done it again, they produced a fun, entertaining, action packed movie with a storyline.

The prologue brings us back to events just after the first Ant-Man movie with Dr. Pym and Hope, which cuts out and the Marvel Logo appears.

After the title scene we are now a couple years after the events of Captain America Civil War. We see Scott under house arrest because of the events in Civil War. This also explains why Ant-Man was not present during Infinity War, and what happened to Dr. Pym and Hope during this time.

To summarize what is happening without exposing too much of the plot line, Scott (Ant-Man) is faced with balancing between being a super hero and being a father at the same time as being under watch by the FBI. There is a lot of comedy that works and some fun action scenes.

As revealed in the end credit scene in Ant-Man, Dr. Pym shows Hope the Wasp suit, so you know that she was going to be a major role in this film. Besides her name is in the title, so definitely The Wasp (Hope) has a lot of screen time in this installment. There is a mission which they need Ant-Man to participate in, which brings Ant-Man and the Wasp together to complete this mission.

It was good to see that they brought back Scott’s friends, Luis, Kurt and Dave. The four ex-cons trying to make it without slipping back into crime, they all started a business and also helped the super heroes. They also brought back Scott’s ex-wife and husband as well as their daughter Cassie, who defends her father and encourages him along the way.

There are new characters from Dr. Pym’s past that are all mixed into this story, as the saying goes the past will haunt you, and Dr. Pym your past is here to haunt you. This time around you get a little more history on Dr. Pym and start to understand him better.

Overall, this was a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and would recommend this to anyone that like superhero/action movies. Remember to stay for the mid-credit scene, it ties their storyline to what is happening currently in the Avengers story…Thanos’ infamous snap! There is also an end-credit scene, so stay for the whole thing!

Erasure World Be Gone Tour

Oh L’Amour, What’s a boy in love supposed to do? Go to the Erasure Concert!

Erasure came back to Chicago and performed at the Chicago Theater on July 27 & 28. We got tickets to see them on the 27th and it was a blast!

I’ve been following Erasure since high school in 1987 and see them in concert numerous times and each one has been entertaining and fun. This concert was filled with popular songs from their previous albums and a few from their new album “World be Gone”. The mix of Andy Bell’s showmanship and Vince Clarke’s musical beats made this show memorable.

The evening started with an opening duo Reed & Caroline. Not the best opening show, but nonetheless we were excited to see Erasure. For the Violet Flame Tour we had seats in the balcony, so I decided to get seats on the ground floor. I got seat at row M, but didn’t realize that the seating started with double letters, so we were a little far back than I thought we would be. They were OK seats, but I think we would have had better viewing if we were in the balcony.

The stage is set, three lighted boxed on stage, Andy comes out from the middle box and the light show begins. You hear the introduction to Oh L’Amour and the crowd roars. You see Vince on top of the middle box surrounded by his synths and guitar. Its hard to see him, but you know he’s there. The two backup singers are in the side boxes and the energy is pumped up and the house is full of singing, screaming and dancing.

They played old favorites like the popular “Sometimes” and “Who Needs Love Like That”, as well as others from the Innocents album “Ship of Fools” and “Phantom Bride”. I was happy that they performed a lot of my favorites such as “Blue Savannah” and “Drama!” from their Wild album. Staples like “Stop!” and “Always” was a crowd pleaser as well. They paid homage to Blonde and performed “Atomic”. Where we were it was hard to hear the conversations that Andy was having with the crowd, but we got the gist of it when he spoke.

The evening ending with their encore “A Little Respect” and this was the time we got to see Vince clearly. He played his guitar as Andy sang and the crowd loved it.

It was a fun night and I hope that they produce another album soon so we can see them perform again. You can tell that Andy loves to perform, they have been entertaining the fans for over 30 years and he is still as he was when I first saw him live during their Wild! Tour. As usual the outfits are some that you have never seen before and Andy did not disappoint this time. At one point he shed all his clothes until he was down to a body suit that looked like he was tattooed all over.

As long as Erasure continues to make new albums and tours, I will continue to be a fan!

Chicago Rock n Roll Half Marathon

The half marathon started an hour earlier than the 5K and since the course encompassed a lot of the downtown area we decided to drive down to Belmont and take the Red line down to the start. We got there just before 6 and headed to the Art Institute steps because there was a Half Fanatic picture meet up planned.

I got to meet a few half fanatics and then walked our way to the corrals. I was placed in corral 12, and there were 20 corrals this year. It started to rain when we were waiting in the corral, Rick was there with our umbrella so he stayed with me while we moved up to the start. Once we got to the start the rain stopped, which I was hoping was the last of it, since they said it was predicted a 30% chance of rain in the morning. No such luck, it started drizzling as we went north on Columbus towards Randolph. We took a right and ran on Lower Randolph so that shielded us from the rain. They split the half marathon and the 10K course at the end of Randolph, where we went left and the 10K runners took a right.

The crowd started to thin and it was easier to maneuver around the runners and now the big water puddles. The course took us up to Grand Ave and we made our way south via State street. The forecast of 30% chance of rain was pretty much wrong, it rained on an off throughout the course. The magnitude of the rain ranged from drizzling all the way to a deluge. Needless to say I was pretty much soaked throughout the entire run.

Our tour of the downtown area brought us down State street where we saw the Marina Towers and the Chicago Theater. The course also routed us through the Theater District, the Chicago River, looped us around at Des Plaines St and brought us back to the Loop are via Monroe Street. They brought us back to State street via Clark, Madison, LaSalle and Washington, where we saw a lot of Shops and the Harold Washington Library, where we took another turn going west on Van Buren until we hit Franklin and then Harrison Street to bring us back towards the lake.

We took a right on Michigan ave and ran south all the way down to 31st street, where we took a left heading east until we got to Martin Luther King Drive. We took a left and ran the Drive and looped back and ran the other direction of the Drive and took another left back onto 31st street and proceeded to the lake.

We crossed Lake Shore Drive overpass and took a left on Fort Dearborn Drive and make our way towards McCormick Place. As we exited the tunnel at McCormick Place they routed us to the pathway towards Soldier Field, just before we got to Soldier Field, they turned us to the left and we went on the off ramp of Lake Shore Drive, and we ran along the Southbound shoulder of Lake Shore Drive. This year they had a row of box trucks shielding us from the oncoming traffic, which made it feel safer.

We took the on ramp towards Roosevelt Road and once we got off Lake Shore Drive, you could see the finish at a distance on Columbus Drive.

I finished in 2hrs 51min and 55sec. So much better than my last half marathon back in the spring. Despite the rain, it was a good run overall. If my feet weren’t so soggy throughout the race I would have said that the rain felt good while I was running. I picked up my remix challenge medal and we decided not to stay since it started to rain hard again. This was my seventh year running the Rock n Roll, and this year was quite an experience. I already signed up for next year’s challenge, so I will be running it again next year, I wonder what the weather would be like next year!

Chicago Rock n Roll 5K

As you know I like doing the challenges if it is offered in a race series. The Remix Challenge for the Chicago Rock n Roll includes the 5K and the half marathon.

Saturday morning, we drove down to the start, but Rick just dropped me off because there was a release of the July Mickey Mouse Memories on the same morning. So, I went to do the 5K and Rick went to the Disney store and waited in line.

The morning was overcast, and the forecast predicted 40% chance of rain in the morning.

I was placed in corral 3, which I believe that they had 10 corrals. They were not very strict on the division of corrals, I almost was released with corral 2, but I stayed back with my designated corral. They released the corrals very quickly and we were off to complete the 5K.

We started on Columbus just before Jackson and went north. We took a right at Lower Randolph and proceeded towards the Lakefront trail. From the lakefront trail we continued south and made our way to the Museum campus where we took a right and ran under Lake Shore Drive and proceeded to the sidewalk that way adjacent to Lake Shore Drive towards the finish.

We had great views of Lake Michigan along the course. They had a few music areas, which I really didn’t hear since I ran with my headphones. The view of Buckingham fountain was obstructed by fencing, but when you ran past it you caught a glimpse of it on your left.

When we reached Jackson we reached the 3 mile mark and took a left and crossed the finish line. I finished in 35min 17sec. I received my medal and made my way to the Disney Store to meet up with Rick and made it just before they opened the doors, and was glad that Rick went because there was a big line waiting and he was the 6th person in line. It was an enjoyable run and it was good to loosen up my legs for the half marathon the next day.

The Incredibles II

The Supers are back! The Incredibles II (I2) picks up where we last saw them, getting ready to fight the Underminer. It’s been 14 years since we last saw Bob, Helen, Violet, Dash and Jack Jack, along with Lucius and Edna Mode. At the end of the Incredibles you probably thought that the ban on Supers was lifted, in I2 we find that they are still illegal. Their house got was destroyed when Syndrome’s plane crashed into it, and now they are in trouble with their involvement in fighting the Underminer.

I2 main plot is trying to get the Supers back into light and lifting the ban on Supers so that all Supers would be legal. In the previews you see that it is Elastigirl who is the face of the Supers and her new job is to help the cause. This leaves Bob (Mr. Indcredible) to be a say-at-home dad. Violet is having problems with boys and entering adolescence, Dash needing help with his math homework, Jack Jack is showing a lot of his super powers, all at the same time Bob is reassuring Helen that everything is going well at home.

I2 has the same feel as the first movie, and it continues the storyline. I enjoyed the sequel, it’s been a long time coming. There were rumors way back that they would be coming out with I2, and finally it is here. If you liked the first movie and the magic of Pixar, you would enjoy this film. It ran over two hours, but it didn’t seem like it and I still wanted more.

Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom

From the previews of the movie premise of the movie is that the volcano on the island where the last movie took place became active and our heroes Claire and Owen are back to help save the dinosaurs from the volcano.

It is much more exciting and action packed than I thought it was going to be. I was glued to the screen throughout, well except when I had to tell the girl to my left that her cell phone was very distracting.

At first when I saw the preview and it showed that Jeff Goldblum was reprising his role as Dr. Malcolm, I was worried that it may end up like Jurassic Park II, which was the weakest in the franchise. Also, I am not a big fan of Jeff Goldblum’s acting and characters. I was glad to see that it was a minor role in the movie and he wasn’t part of the whole storyline.

This new installment of the franchise brings in new characters, a storyline that ties in the last movie as well as the original trilogy, and brings up a bunch of questions on what is going to happen next?

The start of the movie brings you back to the island and sets up what is happening in the movie, although you do not know what they are exactly doing until later in the film.

It is hard to say what I like most about this film, without writing any spoilers. The story is one of the things that I liked. It brought another twist to the dinosaur universe, you basically know that something is going to go wrong, dinosaurs are out to eat people, pretty much what you have seen in previous installments. This one still has the basic elements, but it shows you a different side of the story and that show us as watchers that there are so many different stories that can be told…it is not all centered around John Hammond and InGen.

Overall, as a fan of the Jurassic Park movies, this one is very entertaining. The 2 hour 4 minute movie is one that is filled with adventure, drama, comedy and dinosaurs! I would definitely recommend this movie.

Chicago Proud to Run 10K

As part of Pride month this run is scheduled the same weekend as the Pride parade. The days that prior to race day was filled with a lot of rain and cold weather, I was a bit worried that we would be running in non-ideal weather. To our surprise and relief the rain blew over and the sun was trying to break through the grey clouds.

By the time we arrived at Montrose Harbor the sun was coming out and the lake breeze made it quite comfortable to start the race. They did have an announcement in the beginning that they had to re-route part of the course because of construction around the park and also since it rained a lot in the past couple of days to be aware of the course where there are big puddles and to run cautiously.

As we lined up, the 10K runners were first, then the 5K run/walk participants. After the national anthem was sun they released us and sent us up north towards Foster. At Foster the route had us take a right and looped us back down south along the lakefront path.

Just before Wilson we took a right and made our way towards the path closest to Lake Shore Drive and brought us down to Belmont Harbor. Just before Belmont Ave, they looped us around and routed us back north towards the finish.

The re-routing they did, had us running in grassy areas which I was careful where my feet landed. I am prone to landing my feet in trails that results in sprains. Luckily it didn’t happen during this run. There was just one confusion area that I was following this one runner, but then I saw the 5K walkers on a different path. I saw another 10K runner join that path, so I cut across the grass and asked if this was the correct way, and she confirmed that it was. The areas that was majorly flooded was an underpass, which we had to go single line to cross, and the course just before the finish line that usually goes towards the beach path. Instead they routed us on the path that was closer to the street, which wasn’t a big difference.

I finished the course in 1hr 13min 53sec. This is the first race that I ran with my new Hoka shoes, they felt good and my feet did not hurt after, and my recovery time was pretty low. Another Proud to Run 10K done, and again a great way to start the Pride weekend festivities with.

Let them Eat Cake

We got married near Disneyland on November 13, 2016. We had a reception in California and also in Chicago. I am very grateful that P.F. Changs and Kings Hawaiian Bakery in California and Mastros Steakhouse in Chicago were very accommodating to our needs for our receptions.

The Paradise Cake from Kings Hawaiian Bakery and the Butter cake from Mastros were both delicious!