🍕 Happy Pizza Day!

"Pepperoni Please" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/125 sec, ISO4000
“Pepperoni Please” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

I don’t know how long this has been a tradition, but today is National Pizza Day! Perhaps it is the brainchild of Pizza Hut or Dominos, but whatever the origin, it’s time to celebrate! 🍕🎉

Tonight we had two pizzas, both pepperoni, but one was thin crust, and the other was a rising crust (both from frozen). Koa and I preferred the thin, while Mariko and Bay went with the traditional crust. But I’m pretty much a fan of all types of pizza. 😝

********************

In other news, I was listening to ZARD today, which is one of my favorite bands/singers. It has been almost 10 years since Sakai Izumi passed away, so it’s a sad occasion, but I still enjoy her music a lot.

One of my favorite tunes is “今日はゆっくり話そう”. Please give it a listen, preferably loud 🎸🔉🎵, and check out my favorite songs page! 🎶

I hope you had a nice day!

バロン

Easy Cooking

"Egg on Rice" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/45 sec, ISO3200
“Egg on Rice” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

This evening, Mariko had to work. but she prepped some food for me to cook up for myself and the kids. Thankfully the dish just involved cooking some eggs in the pan, and pouring over rice to make a simple but delicious donburi.

The egg mixture had some sugar, shoyu, surimi, and peas in it. We also put a little Sriracha on the final dish to taste. おいしかった!

ーーーーーーーー

By the way, in my regular blog posts, I don’t write about politics too often, but today I wanted to say that I actually called my Representative’s office and voiced my displeasure about Trump using his office to comment on his daughter’s business. These things get me so riled up! I don’t want my tax money to go towards his bank account, but that’s what is happening. Just like I don’t want my tax money to pay for religious schools (ugh DeVos!), I don’t want my money used to fill Trump’s family coffers.

Give “Building An Autocracy” with David Frum on Think a listen to find out more.

Anyways, I usually try to keep my politics to my Twitter feed, and if you are interested at all, you can find me at @barron.

Back Home

"Airport View" Orlando, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO250
“Airport View” Orlando, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

We are back home after our short vacation. The plane ride ✈️ home was uneventful (yay!) but I am so exhausted tonight, I literally could only read only a dozen or so words on my Kindle before I had to turn it off.

Speaking of Kindle, it was cool to see another Kindle reader sitting in the row in front of me. 😎 Stalker shot:

“Kindle Reader” Orlando to Austin, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
“Kindle Reader” Orlando to Austin, 2017

While on vacation, I tried to stay away from all news (except the Super Bowl) and just have fun, but now that we’re back, I am following the news again and it’s so depressing (to me). 😢

I want to go back to Disney! 😜

Take care and now I must sleep. おやすみ

バロン

Day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

"Disney Hollywood Studios" Orlando, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, ISO400
“Disney Hollywood Studios” Orlando, 2017

For our second (and final) Disney park visit of this trip, we chose Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As mentioned in the previous post, the park is accessible via Friendship Boat shuttle, which makes a stop at The Boardwalk – a waterfront of shops and restaurants. We decided to walk to the Boardwalk from our hotel and get some breakfast before catching the boat to the park. It’s a nice area, and we had beautiful weather and enjoyed our coffee and breakfast next to the water.

"From the Boardwalk" Orlando, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/800 sec, ISO200
“From the Boardwalk” Orlando, 2017

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is currently dominated by Star Wars. If you are a fan of the franchise (and we are!), it’s a great time to visit! Not only does the park have Star Tours, but there is a short film “Path of the Jedi”, live-action character shows in the main courtyard featuring Star Wars villains, and also C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB-8, and the really cool Star Wars Launch Bay building. The Launch Bay has a theater with short making-of film, detailed models of the spaceships, pod racer, Rey’s speeder, cantina bar, costumes and uniforms, photo ops with Chewie and other characters, and awesome artwork. It’s really a Star Wars fan’s dream! Highly recommended.

"Star Wars Show" Orlando, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/80 sec, ISO12800
“Star Wars Show” Orlando, 2017

Other highlights of our trip include:

  • Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular – Amazing combination of images/video projected on the Chinese theater and fireworks/lasers/lights. Make sure to get a good spot where you can view the Chinese theater and adjacent buildings.
  • Toy Story Mania – It’s one of the only things that I am better at than my family. I need to hold onto this one as long as possible!!! 😜
  • The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – Bay didn’t want to go on this ride last time because he doesn’t like “dropping” rides, but we convinced him to ride it this time. He says he didn’t enjoy it, but I think he’s glad he conquered it. And now we can’t make fun of him anymore!
  • Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano – We celebrated Mariko’s birthday with a nice pasta dinner here. The food was yummy and it was a nice restful break before heading to more rides!

Please enjoy more photos from our day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: