Life is a roller coaster, you have your ups and downs; unless you fall off.

The weather today was great, so after a good breakfast at IHOP, we decided to hit Busch Gardens for the day since I wanted to use my pass once more before it expired at the end of the year. Unlike the trip to the Aquarium yesterday, I remembered to bring the flash card from the camera. We hit all the major spots such as the Myombe Reserve for some ape viewing and then on to the Edge of Africa for some walking safaris. I forgot to bring the telephoto lens but was glad to get a chance to play with the camera a bit while Jason was doing the same with his own (a Christmas present from his mother), though all I got was some cereal and toilet paper (my friend's have strange senses of humor).

Since Jason didn't want to do any of the roller coasters, we tried to hit a lot of the other attractions such as the Pirates 4-D show, bumper cars, carousel, and animal exhibits. There were some nice fireworks around 7:30 as the park got dark and we had an enjoyable time at the park with the evening ambiance. I used to really love going to the park an hour or so before closing (since I live a few hundreds meters from the park anyway) and liked the overall look of the place when it was near empty. While there were a lot of people around, it was still a great time and we finally got to see pretty much everything that we wanted.

So far the week has been a great release, but unfortunately I have to spend most of the day Thursday at work preparing for the end of the year accounting. I recently realized that it will soon be a year since I started blogging. When I get back from the New Year's Eve Campout next week, I'll probably put together some 'year in review' and see what lessons I have learned, what changes I should have made, and what I plan to do in in the future. I'm sure there are some realizations that I'd recognize and maybe even some I haven't determined yet. Overall, I think this year had been among the best of my life, and a lot of that is due to the fact that I set out so it would be that way. sure there are some things i wish that occurred differently, but I suppose if I can walk away with just one major regret, then maybe it was all worth it. After all, good judgment comes from experience, and experience in turn comes from time of bad judgment.

I got a sweater for Christmas. I wanted a screamer or a moaner.

Last night was a fun little get together for a few friends for the Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream event. My friend Michelle had some family coming up from Sarasota as well as one of her buddies Chelsea. A couple of my hash friends, Kiddie and VC, decided to come after I made an announcement a couple weeks ago about going. I figured Thursday would be the best night to go since the crowds would be low. Most of us met at my house after work since I had the kegerator tapped, hot tub filled, and grill cooking up some ribs and such.

The weather was gorgeous and the crowd was indeed quite light. We had to wait in line for only one of the haunted houses. The shows were pretty nice. I would have some photos to post, but when I took my camera out for the first shot I saw the dreaded 'no memory card' message. Doh! So instead, I'll just throw up a photo I took 3 years ago when I worked at Busch Gardens for the Halloween event one season in early college. We were there until closing around 1 o'clock and everyone had to turn in soon because of work the next day. If you do HOS, definitely try to hit it on a weekday. Though you may be dragging Friday, it works out better in that you can actually get a chance to experience everything. I cannot imagine having to wait in line 1-2 hours for a house and really missing out on everything else.