On Wednesday, a couple from Tennessee embarked on the Disney adventure of a lifetime. Their mission: Visit every Disney theme park in the United States in less than 24 hours.
Heather and Clark Ensminger arrived in Orlando Tuesday night and spent the evening at Disney Springs relaxing before their grand endeavor. Their carefully planned agenda included at least one attraction and a bite to eat at each park, so they started their magical day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios as the sun rose over Toy Story Land. From there, they hopped to Epcot for a trip back through history on Spaceship Earth, then skipped over to Magic Kingdom Park to meet Mickey Mouse. Their visit to Walt Disney World Resort concluded with lunch and some fun at Disney’s Animal Kingdom before racing off to the airport.
After a cross-country flight to Los Angeles, the Ensmingers slid into Disney California Adventure park before it closed to experience Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! They then jaunted across the Esplanade to conclude their own version of a Disney marathon at Disneyland park.
The couple knew this day could bring some logistical challenges, but they went into it with a lot of experience. The parents of four children all under 10 are Disney park veterans; they made the 10-hour drive from eastern Tennessee to Walt Disney World six different times over a 12-month span from 2017-2018. “In that year, we calculated we spent over a month at Walt Disney World!” Clark said with a laugh. (The kids stayed home with family on this trip.)
While stepping foot inside every Disney park on the continent was a joy unto itself, the Ensmingers said this trip meant a great deal to them in a very personal way. Heather’s father passed away unexpectedly last October, just days before the family was due to visit Walt Disney World together. “As the anniversary of his passing got a little closer, I was sort of having a hard time,” Heather said. “Unbeknownst to me, my husband started planning this special trip to surprise me.” The surprise was accidentally spoiled about a month ago by a random e-mail, but Heather said “it turned out OK” because she had fun helping make the final arrangements.
So what is it about Disney parks that enticed this husband-and-wife duo to attempt a trip like this? “It’s the magic,” Heather said. “We’ve experienced tons of pixie dust over the years – the cast members always go out of their way to make things special.”
And that was true yet again over the course of this 24-hour sprint, Clark added: “It’s just been a dream come true.”
Today is World Sea Turtle Day, and we are thrilled to introduce a very special new member of our conservation team whose amazing sense of smell is actually saving sea turtles.
Meet Dory! She is a shelter-rescued pup we are training to locate rare sea turtle eggs in nests on the beach. Dory is following in the paw prints of Captain Ron, expert dog trainer Pepe Peruyero’s adorable beagle who has worked with us for the last three years. Captain Ron has helped the Animals, Science and Environment Team find nearly 100 turtle nests from three species of sea turtles at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort. While it can take our human team members 30 minutes or more to find the eggs within a large, sandy sea turtle nest, Dory can pinpoint this spot in as little as 30 seconds!
Dory is already spending time on the beach detecting eggs within loggerhead sea turtle nests, and when challenged to find eggs under the massive piles of sand left by a couple of leatherback sea turtles, Dory pointed them out in mere seconds. We could not be more proud of Dory, and we know she is equally as excited to continue all the great work her buddy Captain Ron started in this important conservation mission.
You can see Dory working on the beach at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort this summer (Wednesday-Saturday), and both dogs will make a special appearance at Tour de Turtles July 29!
It’s not every day I stumble upon an artist with a range of geeky work quite as cool as this. Well, until French freelance illustrator Sibylline popped up on my Instagram feed with a stunning illustration of Rey from Star Wars. Sibylline’s work tends to “mix modern and retro feels”, perfect for the nostalgia of many of the characters she illustrates. Check out a few of her awesome pieces below!
Then I saw this adorable Rey and BB-8 pondering life on Jakku! But that’s not all! If these are not the droids you’re looking for, Sibylline has illustrated a wide range of pop culture-related art. Grab your whiskey and check out this Jessica Jones sketch.
I’m delighted to introduce you to Willie, a new resident at Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Willie is an aardvark that frequents the outdoor stage next to Affection Section where I hope you get the chance to meet and learn more about him in person.
Animal keeper Julie has spent a lot of time with Willie as he acclimates to his new home and she already has lots of interesting and fun stories to share about Willie. One of Julie’s most memorable moments happened when Willie first walked into Affection Section and every goat and sheep turned their attention to the new arrival. As Julie explained to me, “They were all very interested and lined up at the fence to check him out. It was just as enriching for us [cast members] as it was for all of them.”
Although Willie generally focuses on learning new skills and exploring his world in the late afternoon, he sometimes decides to sleep through training time. (I’m usually ready for a nap around that time, too!) Willie’s behavior and preferred schedule is completely fine because all of the animals can choose whether they wish to participate in activities or not.
As much as Willie loves to sleep, he seems to like to eat even more, especially bugs, bananas and avocados. On occasion, he’ll get honeycomb larvae as a special treat.
In the pictures above, you may notice Willie is wearing a harness. This common practice is for Willie’s safety during the early stages of training, and while he’s getting used to the environment at Rafiki’s Planet Watch.
In the wild, aardvarks can most commonly be found roaming throughout Africa, south of the Sahara. Because of their nocturnal nature, you typically will see them only at night. Aardvark populations are declining because of human habitat infringement and illegal hunting in the wild. They are hunted mainly for their prized meat, but also for their skin, claws and teeth which are used to make jewelry and some traditional medicine.
Learn more about some of the animals you can visit at the Walt Disney World Resort at DisneyAnimals.com.
Wildlife Wednesday: Meet Willie the Aardvark at Rafiki’s Planet Watch by Dr. Mark Penning: Originally posted on the Disney Parks Blog
UFC 189 was the most successful card in a long time. So why did they go and ruin it with the three pointless cards that followed?
As Conor McGregor fell to his knees after winning the main event at UFC 189 in Las Vegas, Nevada, two Saturdays ago, the promotion was similarly celebrating along with the new Interim Featherweight Champion. After all, he'd helped draw a record $7.2 million gate and millions of hungry eyes on pay-per-view (PPV) whose appetite for a new superstar cannot be sated.
It wasn't just the McGregor show, however, as Robbie Lawler, Rory MacDonald and the other fighters on UFC 189 all turned in exemplary performances, making the event widely considered one of the best in the promotion's history. It was a night in which nearly everything came together just perfectly, reminding mixed martial arts (MMA) fans once again why they love the sport.
But, as we just wrapped the fourth UFC event in less than seven days since that beautiful show ended, you could forgive fight fans for feeling a little jetlagged. We didn't even get a full day to reflect on UFC 189 before we were forced to endure The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 21 Finale, a card of literally no consequence whatsoever, featuring two fighters in the headliner slot who have no immediate importance to the Welterweight division.
Then just three days later UFC put on a midweek fight card in San Diego, Calif., that more or less completely failed to garner any interest from fans. Not only did it feature a lukewarm line up of third stringers, not only did nine of the 12 fights end in tedious decisions, and not only did the main event display two fighters who are the textbook definition of irrelevant in the Heavyweight division, but they even botched whatever capitalization they might have made on a great finish.
By the time Frank Mir knocked out Todd Duffee just 73 seconds into their bout, every gainfully employed MMA fan in the eastern standard time zone was sawing logs. Those New Yorkers and Chicagoans crazy enough to be up at 1 a.m. on hump day would be too few to be of any viewing consequence for UFC on FOX to have bothered putting on the event at all.
Would it have made sense to start the event earlier so that Frank Mir was knocking out the Duffster during prime time (around 8 p.m.)? Yeah, obviously. But, it would also have made sense to not have the event at all, as even hardcore fight fans struggled to muster up a "meh" in response to three events inside of five days.
Clearly, UFC doesn't care about the hardcore fans, since they must realize they're pissing us off. But, who are they going after? The casuals? Even they would have a hard time keeping up with what's happening given all the events happening all the time with little time to reflect on the consequences.
"They shouldn't have bought PRIDE and Strikeforce and just eliminated them," said Peters, who has also trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu with former UFC fighter Carlos Newton. "They should have kept them and then instead of UFC Fight Night, they could have had PRIDE night or Strikeforce. It gives you some sort of scope and then puts UFC at a higher level. 'These are our lesser ones, here's the big one.' But if you call everything UFC ... somebody was like did you catch the fights last night? I was like, 'What f---ing fights? I didn't know there was fights.'"
A fight that belongs in the minor leagues if I've ever seen one. Photo credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
Even UFC fighters are having a hard time keeping up with their own sport. Old school warrior Josh Barnett opined there are too many fighters with "boring fights" and said UFC is "oversaturated." The topic of oversaturation in UFC is nothing new, but as the promotion begins putting on four events in the span of seven days it's getting a big ridiculous:
The issue is that now there are too many fighters and too many stories to tell. The UFC's effort to make the sport into a global entity has saturated the MMA market so much that it's hard to keep track of everything going on.
If veteran MMA watchers like myself find it hard to remember half the guys being featured on UFC Fight Night 72 in Glasgow, the more Peters' statement rings true that getting rid of PRIDE and Strikeforce was a big mistake. I mean, World Series of Fighting (WSOF) and Bellator MMA (and to a lesser extent One FC and Legacy Fighting) take the strain off UFC because they provide a proving ground for elite prospects.
Imagine if Major League Baseball announced they were absorbing all 14 teams in the 'AAA' International League with all their personnel? Would you be able to keep track of 44 teams? Or as Tim Marchman put it in Deadspin:
Imagine if the NBA added 30 expansion teams over the next two years, and then sent out a favored reporter to lecture the public about how true fans should appreciate the diminished quality of play. This sounds impossibly stupid, and yet it's more or less what's happening in one increasingly dim corner of the sports world.
There's still plenty to be excited about in UFC, but the watered-down, oversaturated, repetitive and inconsequential events that come between those exciting moments are really ruining the brand. UFC "Fight Night" was originally designed to provide Spike TV with viewers, while giving UFC a chance to dump its lesser talent somewhere between PPVs.
But, putting minor league fighters like Ildemar Alcantara and Sarah Moras on prime time television can only be turning people off and tuning out of MMA.
★★★
SB Nation presents:Urijah Faber will coach against Conor McGregor in the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. Is it too much of a good thing?
The popularity boom of mixed martial arts (MMA) in recent years has made some of the top names in combat sports very wealthy men. Heck, even Josh Koscheck has his own airplane. But the guys who helped pave the way for today's Octagon elite, like retired Hall-of-Famer Mark Coleman, were not as fortunate.
But that doesn't diminish what the "Godfather of ground-and-pound" did as a fighter, which includes his tournament win at the 2000 PRIDE Fighting Championship Open Weight Grand Prix. The prize, aside from international bragging rights, was a giant trophy and fat paycheck.
Not they too can be yours, and you don't have to fight him for it.
"The Hammer" put those items up for sale on Ebay (via Middle Easy) to raise some capital, or perhaps to make room for something else, since a trophy of that size can take up a lot of closet space.
Coleman (16-10) finished his career in the same place it began, inside the Octagon, losing by way of submission to fellow elder statesman Randy Couture at UFC 109 back in early 2010. The former Olympic wrestler holds wins over Mauricio Rua, Stephan Bonnar and Igor Vovchanchyn, just to name a few.
You can see him on FOX Sports 1 in just a few weeks to help kick off The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 19, where he serves as wrestling coach for coach B.J. Penn (details).
In the meantime, his trophy is up for sale ... who's buying?
Check out the first image of former UFC Welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre playing his role as "Batroc The Leaper" in the new "Captain America: Winter Soldier" movie.
Georges St-Pierre may not be busting heads inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Octagon anymore, but he's still putting his superior fighting skills to good use.
In one of the first promotional images released by Marvel.com of "Rush" playing his role of "Batroc The Leaper" in the upcoming film "Captain America" Winter Soldier" -- which opens in theaters on April 4, 2014 -- the former Welterweight champion is seen battling the leader of The Avengers himself.
St-Pierre nabbed the spot in the upcoming blockbuster sequel last year prior to his title fight against Johny Hendricks. However, it isn't the first time the French-Canadian has dabbled in acting, as his resume includes three low-budget, straight-to-DVD films titled "Death Warrior," "Hell's Chain" and "Never Surrender."
It safe to say his latest Hollywood venture is his highest profile acting gig to date.
But, will it be his last?
He has the look -- one which helped him become the face of UFC -- and if his acting chops prove to be up to snuff, it could lead to more roles in Tinseltown and perhaps shift his temporary hiatus from the fight game into a permanent one.
Pat Barry has two tough battles ahead of him in December. One is facing Soa Palelei at UFC Fight Night 33 on Dec. 7 and the other is being stuck on an airplane for "two days" just to get to the destination.
"I don't like the fact that my itinerary says that I leave Sunday afternoon and land on Tuesday. I think the flight leaves Denver, fly's around Australia, goes back to Denver and to Australia, I have no idea. It shouldn't be that far. Don't tell me we're landing on Tuesday, I can't handle that. When I first signed to UFC I made two small requests. And I'm going to premise that with an awesome statement that I will fight anyone, anywhere at anytime, doesn't matter if it's short notice, I'm always ready, and I will fight the day of, I'm never going to say no. But, I have two requests. One, I never ever ever want to fight in Australia unless you send me a boat to get there six months in advance; and I never want to fight in Colorado. Now I'm fighting in Australia and I live in Colorado."
-- Pat Barry isn't a fan of airplanes, making his apprehension leading up to his upcoming overseas trip to Brisbane, Australia, understandable as he prepares fight Soa Palelei at UFC Fight Night 33 on Dec. 7, 2013. Speaking on "The MMA Hour" this afternoon, Barry revealed that prior to signing a contract with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), he requested to never be booked to fight in "The Land Down Under" or in Denver, Colorado. The former because of the distance and the latter due to the high elevation levels. For the most part, UFC has accommodated his requests, booking him stateside for all of but two fights, with the others going down in Canada. But, his worst fear has come true as he will now face an extended amount of time in the air as he heads to Australia for his twelfth fight inside the Octagon to take on "The Hulk." And he isn't looking forward to flying for what he describes as 48 hours straight. But, he'll have to get over his fear of planes and the jet leg because he'll have to shift his attention to a man with a nine-fight win streak under his belt and looks to make it two in a row inside the eight-walled cage. The good news? Barry will gain all the time back on the return trip, giving him more time to possibly revel in his victory.
I know I'm not the only 'Jeopardy!' nerd around here. For one, I know that fellow staff writer del4rel makes it a point to accurately grunt out responses at Trebek between reps on whatever they call those weight machine-thingies. Hell if I know; just take one look at me and you can see that. One point I'm trying to make here is that Del is the full package: brains AND brawn and that you ladies who have nothing better to do with your Friday night should consider gettin' up on it. The other point is that 'Jeopardy' is awesome and Ken Jennings is a hero to me on par with Tony and Trevor.
I'm not generally one to badger celebrities on Twitter and I was apprehensive to ask Mr. Jennings what I did. I'm sure he gets sick of people being like "Ooh, lay one on me, smart guy!" Nonetheless, because I'm a calloused jerk who doesn't care that much apparently, I asked him via Twitter for the strangest San Diego Padres-related fact that came to his mind. To his credit and my surprise, he responded friggin' instantly. Seriously, within two minutes. The man is still quick on the buzzer.
That really is a great Petco Park easter egg. I feel like most Padres fans heard about it, but it still deserves recognition as an all time great quiet protest. Now, I'm not here to get into what I think about PETA nor am I going to lob accusations of hypocrisy against them for all the animals they murder in the name of not murdering animals, but I will say I love subversive messages and sliding one past the goalie, so to speak. Whether Petco deserved or still deserves PETA's or our derision is not for me to say, but I can only imagine that the genius who thought to buy that brick had her or his heart in the right place.
The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) is back ... and it has got a whole new gimmick (as well as a whole new channel).
TUF 18: "Team Rousey vs. Team Tate" will be the first installment of the combat sports reality show to feature a co-ed cast, beginning with episode 1 TONIGHT at 10 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, immediately following the UFC Fight Night 28 event in Brazil.
Following the show, which features UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey coaching a group of up-and-coming mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters opposite her longtime nemesis and UFC 168 opponent, Miesha Tate, be sure to hit us up right here for the full results and recap of everything that went down during the elimination rounds.
There's bound to be more than a few surprises.
Until then, go ahead and sound off in the comments section before, during and after the show. In the meantime, get up to speed on this season's cast by clicking here and check out a special TUF 18 video preview of what to expect later this evening by clicking here.
Rousey (7-0) is charged with leading a group of up-and-coming mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters through the FOX Sports 1 reality show. Opposing her, both on television and in the UFC 168 co-main event, is longtime nemesis Miesha Tate (13-4), who took over as division number one contender when Cat Zinganoblew out her knee.
"I think it was very good for the women's division, and I think it definitely needed to happen, but you couldn't pay me $10 million to do it again. How could people possibly know who you are from a couple of clips of a video that people are seeing out of context? That's no way for people to get to know you, so I'm just preparing for people to get the worst idea of who I am."
Fans may not know much about her personally, but professionally, I think it's safe to say that what you see is what you get: A dominant female champion with the nastiest armbar in the business who to date, has ruled unchallenged at 135 pounds.
Recipes in Feed Zone Portables cover rice cakes, two-bite pies, griddle cakes, waffles, baked eggs, sticky bites, rice balls, ride sandwiches, baked cakes, and cookies - fifty of them gluten-free and fifty of them suitable for vegetarians. To give you a taste of what Feed Zone Portables is all about we present below two recipes excerpted from the book.
Banana Waffles
Servings› 8
Time› 20 minutes
1 cup coarse gluten-free bread crumbs ½ cup white rice flour ¼ cup ground almonds pinch of ground nutmeg 1 tablespoon brown sugar 2 eggs, lightly beaten ¼ cup almond milk 1 large ripe banana
Heat the waffle iron.
Place the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse quickly to combine.
In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the eggs and almond milk and stir briskly. Pour this into the food processor, add the banana, and pulse. Batter should be smooth and somewhat dense.
Pour enough batter into each waffle form to nearly fill all the squares (the batter will expand when pressed). Cook until the outside of the waffle feels crisp. Repeat, using the remaining batter.
Makes 4 large waffles. Cut each waffle into quarters and top with your favourite spread(s) to make 8 mini waffle sandwiches. Let cool before wrapping.
In a recipe like this one, Gluten-free bread shortcuts some of the extra flours and makes for a unique texture. The water content of bread is somewhat lower than other carbs, though 43 percent is still well above pre-packaged foods.
Per Serving› Energy 112 cal, Fat 3 g, Sodium 60 mg, Carbs 17 g, Fiber 1 g, Protein 4 g, Water 43%
Basic Baked Eggs
Servings› 6
Time› 10-15 minutes
6 eggs 2 tablespoons chopped cooked bacon
Optional Additions
¼ cup grated parmesan salt and pepper
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly coat six cups of a standard non-stick muffin tin with cooking spray.
Carefully crack one egg into each muffin form. Position pan on the middle rack of the oven. To evenly cook the eggs, rotate the pan after 5-6 minutes, or when the eggs begin to turn white.
Bake until the whites set and the yolks look partially set (about 10-15 minutes total). Remove from the oven; the eggs will continue to cook while resting. Sprinkle with bacon or salt and pepper to taste.
While the eggs are resting, use a plastic knife to loosen them from the edge of the pan. Let cool to the touch before wrapping. Store extras in the refrigerator.
Per Serving› Energy 80 cal, Fat 6 g, Sodium 178 mg, Carbs 0 g, Fiber 0 g, Protein 7 g, Water 63%
The Hank Pym Photo Archive by the incomparably great Phil Noto.
I was reminded of these again today, and decided to group them together and share them (again.)
For fans of the Marvel Universe, these candid snapshots of our favorite Marvel superheroes throughout the decades are amazing: sweet, funny, true to life, and a glimpse into the day to day. This is also the kind of exercise shared by a comics artist that reminds us that really, we’re all fans, and we all want more story.
Check out more of Phil Noto’s work from the library here.
seriously. phil noto. it’s almost brutal in how much more he accomplishes than other people drawing superheroes.
Anderson Silva kissed Chris Weidman at weigh-ins today.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) held its weigh in event earlier today (July 5, 2013) at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, for those fighters competing at the UFC 162: "Silva vs. Weidman" event, which is scheduled to take place at the same location tomorrow night live on pay-per-view (PPV).
For complete UFC 162 weigh in results and video click here.
The staredowns were nothing to write home about, as is usually the case, but you can at least get a look at how each fighter chose to square off against his opponent.
I got my opening day t-shirt (does not say "cool story babe", however) and knock off wayfarers. I've already got tickets to this fedora night and the smartphone cover night. There is a flip-flop night we might attend. I will be lookin super cool this summer. #heyladies
Padres President Tom Garfinkel tweeted out news yesterday that the team had expanded their promotional schedule as proof that they were listening to their fans. He credited his favorite Padres blog in the process. OMG PDA, get a room you two.
Thanks to @rjsfro and others who asked us to step up the promo calendar. See the cover of the UT today. Ownership heard you...
There was quite the response on Twitter, but no one had the Union-Tribune and the announcement wasn't on-line. Fortunately I was spending a lazy Sunday with my parents who have been UT subscribers for 42 years. I tweeted out a low quality picture of the full page advertisement to RJ's Fro who is quite the collector of Padres memorabilia.
It wasn't until I was asked the meaning of the Squirrel on the back of the ad did I realize that it was a dual sided ad. I flipped it over and sure enough there was more to it. It reminded me of Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy and Sallah discover that the Nazis only had the clues on one side of the medallion.
Indy: You said their headpiece only had markings on one side. You absolutely sure?
Sallah nod, 'yes'.
Indy: Belloq's staff is too long.
Indy & Sallah: (TOGETHER) They're digging in the wrong place!!
Sallah: (LAUGHS) (SINGS) I am the monarch of the sea...
Acting like I had made a great discovery I kept repeating the last two lines of dialogue, singing the latter, dancing around in a circle.
So here's some crappy pictures of the ad from my iPhone 4. The last picture is a close up of the schedule.
The cryptic picture of the squirrel with June 22nd date next to it, of course, refers to the Rally Squirrel who races fans. He'll be making his triumphant return.
I'm not a huge promotions guy but I like the quirky stuff, the oddities if you will. You can keep your fireworks, bobbleheads and jerseys. I want stuff like flip-flops, luchador masks and fedoras. My favorite is the flip flops. I have real pretty feet. My big toe has a little beauty mark on it like Cindy Crawford's face.
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Per Serving› Energy 80 cal, Fat 6 g, Sodium 178 mg, Carbs 0 g, Fiber 0 g, Protein 7 g, Water 63%
