More Habitat For Humanity

As reported previously, Jake continues to work on a Habitat For Humanity Project. We are making good progress. The roof is complete, and the windows and doors are in.
Today's project was to install the siding on the house. The first step was to install the J-Channel around the edges and across the top. This kind of frames the siding and holds the siding in place.
The next step was putting the siding in place. It isn't hard, but it is time consuming, because your have to cut the siding to fit around every door, every window, every spigot, every electrical outlet. Once the piece is cut, it goes on pretty easily. Just snap in place and add a few nails.
By the end of the day, we had about 75% of the siding on the house.

Davy Jones at EPCOT

Davy Jones is performing this week at Disney's EPCOT and there was no way that Molly was going to miss him. He puts on a pretty good show. He did a mix of songs and humor and he worked the crowd pretty well. When he first came out on stage, he sang for a bit and then he said, "Hi, I'm Davy Jones' father." It was funny and got a big laugh from the crowd. He also said that the three words he hears most when people see him on the street is, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha". This is a reference to an episode of the Brady Bunch that he guest starred in. Here is some video from that episode.

Some of the songs that he performed at the concert today included, "I'm a believer."

He also performed, "Daydream Believer".

He also performed a song from the musical "Oliver" that he starred in before joining the Monkees.

Relaxing Back at the Port Orleans French Quarter

After a hard day at the amusement park, we headed back to the Port Orleans French Quarter Resort where we are staying. Jake and the girls did a little swimming in the pool and then grabbed pizza at the food court. After dinner, we relaxed along the Sassagoula river.
The resort has some flatboats that go up and down the river carrying guests between the resorts and Downtown Disney. The resort also has a variety of different types of boats for rent. There are also horse drawn carriages that carry guests along the river.
It was really relaxing just laying in the grass, watching the boats and ducks.

Disney's Magic Kingdom

We spent the last two days at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Day one was very crowded, but the second day was great. It is amazing what a difference one day makes. We debated why attendance would be so different on a Friday compared to Thursday. We aren't really sure, but we all agreed that the park is much more enjoyable when it is not so crowded.

The girls took a little time to pose with one of Scribble's favorite Disney Characters Stitch. It was interesting because after waiting in line to meet Stitch, he had to take a break. We were disappointed, but after a one minute break he was back. And a little taller. And with a different handler. Hmmmm... How unusual.
We also took a little time to do a little shopping. Jake had to try on the classic mouse ears. Disney now has about a thousand variations on the theme though.
The weather has been great all week. Every day so far, it has been about 80 degrees and sunny. We have been careful to wear hats and have used a lot of sunscreen.
Every once in awhile we had to take a look at the map to re-evaluate our strategy. Usually Jake was sent ahead to get fast passes for a ride. It is a lot more fun to make use of the fast pass system and walk right past all of the people who have been waiting in line for about an hour.
Scribbles did a little driving practice on the Disney Speedway. Jake hopes that she does better on her real driving test which she should be taking soon.
Not to be outdone, Sarah Ray did some driving as well. This was the first time that she was old enough to drive herself.
Jake and Molly have decided to get some of these stocks for the house. It is a great time out and attitude readjustment tool.
At the end of the day, we caught the Magic Kingdom Parade and said hello and goodbye to the main mouse.

EPCOT

First Stop today was Mission Space at EPCOT. The Pohick's took a little trip to Mars. Scribbles was the Commander. Molly was the Pilot. Sarah Ray was the Engineer. And Jake was the Navigator (And no, they didn't get lost)
We did a "Behind the Seeds Tour at the Land". The Land is a large greenhouse complex with lots of neat and innovative methods of growing food. We learned how the biologists control pests at the Disney Greenhouses with minimal use of pesticides. One method is the use of helpful bugs like ladybugs. The girls even got to release some lady bugs into the complex.
Here we see Sarah Ray releasing some lady bugs among a bunch of pineapples. Much of the food grown in the greenhouses including the fruit, vegetables and fish are served in the Disney Restaurants.
One of the neat tricks that the Disney growers do is growing food in the shape of Mickey Mouse. These vegetables are placed in clear plastic forms when they are young. As they grow, they fill out the forms until they are the shape of Mickey.
In addition to growing fruits and vegetables, the Disney Growers also raise fish and alligators for food. We fed the fish in one of the tanks as part of the tour.
One of the neat things going on in EPCOT was the Kim Possible Experience. The girls got a cell phone that was connected to Kim Possible and her team of crime fighters. The girls received phone calls and had to rush around to different countries in search of clues to stop the bad guys. Kind of like a way cool scavenger hunt. When they located a clue, they pushed a button on the phone and some animatronic event would occur.

We finished the evening at the Biergarten in Germany. Jake and Scribbles did a little bit of dancing while they were there. Check out a short video of their moves.

Disney Hollywood Studios

Our second day at Disney World was spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Our first stop was the fast pass line for the Toy Story Midway Mania Ride. We arrived at the park exactly at opening time and it was a good thing that we did. The fast passes for Toy Story sold out pretty quickly. As it was, we waited in line for about 20 minutes so that we could avoid waiting in line. The normal line was about 100 minutes long. The ride was awesome, but we don't think it would have been nearly as much fun after a 100 minute wait.
Jake got to do his favorite thing and appeared as an extra in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. This is the second time in a row that Jake managed to get into the action. To quote Jake, "You either have to go big or go home." The price of celebrity is that people were accosting Jake all over the park telling him what a wonderful job he did in the show.
We had lunch at the Brown Derby restaurant. Jake really enjoyed his meal, but everyone else was a little iffy. There was a lot of fish on the menu, and Jake is the only one in the family who appreciates that sort of thing. Of course there are very few foods that Jake doesn't appreciate.
We got fast passes for the Rockin Roller Coaster and everyone rode. Molly and Scribble's actually got to ride twice because someone gave them extra fast passes. Some people have all of the luck.
Scribbles got into the performing bug and danced as part of the Block Party Bash. This is a combination parade and live performance with dancers, and disney characters. Scribbles' feet just couldn't be stopped and she was out there shaking it like a polaroid picture.

Disney Animal Kingdom

Our first day at Disney World was spent exploring the Animal Kingdom. Our goal this year was to focus on some of the things we haven't done on our previous trips. Upon arriving at the park, we went immediately to Expedition Everest to get fast passes. The ride was a lot of fun. Disney roller coasters may not be the fastest and scariest, but they have the best themes.
After getting our fast passes for Expedition Everest, we caught the Finding Nemo Live show in Dino Land. The staging of the show and the costumes were amazing. We really felt like we were under water.
We also visited Rafiki's conservation station this time which we haven't done in the past. It is kind of a laid back refuge which can only be reached by train. At the conservation station you can watch actual veterinarian procedures being performed on some of the animals from the Animal Kingdom.
There is also a petting zoo at the Animal Kingdom with goats, llamas, and big cows.
And of course there are always the character greetings.

Disney World Port Orleans

The Pohicks are staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter at Walt Disney World, Florida this week. This makes the french speaking member of the family very happy. She is pretending that she is actually in New Orleans. Jake is just happy to be away from work for a while. Actually, he is having so much fun that we may need to get him some plastic surgery to get the smile off his face. The resort has a very nice pool with a giant sea serpent with a built in water slide.
The family rented a four seat surrey bike today a rode it around the lake at the resort. It was a lot of fun, but there was some discussion about who was or was not peddling.

Space Shuttle Launch

Molly decided that we since we were going to be in Florida this week, we should all go and check out the Launch of Space Shuttle Discover STS-119. We drove over from Orlando to Titusville and camped out along the beach for a couple of hours. The launch went off right on time at 7:43. It was pretty cool. Because the launch occurred right at dusk, there was some neat lighting effects from the smoke from the Solid Rocket Boosters. It was really exciting to be there and hear the rumble from the rockets. What we didn't count on was the terrible drive from Titusville back to Orlando. We left at 8:00 PM and didn't get back to Orlando until about 1:30 in the morning. For the first 3 hours, our average speed was 3 miles per hour. That's walking speed friends.

Huntsville Havoc

Jake's friend Jeff was visiting this week from Texas. They decided to see a Huntsville Havoc Hockey game. The rest of the Pohick clan decided that this was too much fun for Jake to have all by himself, so they came along too. It was a good game and the Havoc beat the Twin City Cyclones pretty fair and square. The seats were a little too good. We were right behind the Havoc bench and we could see the blood, sweat and tears.

Habitat For Humanity

Last year, Jake participated in a Habitat For Humanity build. He had so much fun that he decided to do it again this year.

Last week the team constructed all of the wall sections in the Huntsville Habitat For Humanity warehouse. This week, the wall sections were transported to the home site.

The weather was awesome today, and we made a lot of progress. Starting from an empty slab, the team raised the walls, put the wall decking in place and installed the roof trusses. We are all hoping that the rest of this build goes just as smoothly.