Goodbye Toronto!

Well, this is it. The last post from Toronto. There are moments when it seems to have flown by and most when it seems like we have been here forever. In the morning we will board a plane and fly to LAX where Wil will then head to Disneyland for some training before he gets on the ship on April 1st. He is very excited to get to the ship and start then next phase of this awesome journey. He is probably most excited that he gets to see the current cast perform their shows. Since he is in every show he cannot watch them and this is his chance to sit and enjoy and learn. I have been able to see all 3 shows that he does and all I can say is Disney knows how to put on some amazing productions. Each show has a level of that special Disney Magic that keeps you dreaming and turning you into a kid every time you see Mickey and Minnie come out.

We have enjoyed being in Toronto overall. We found some great food, including Mexican! We even tried Poutine, Canada's dish which is basically fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. At first we really didn't want to try it because lets face it, cheese curds does NOT sound appetizing. However after being persuaded by a Canadian in Wil's cast we tried it and loved it! I will defiantly be hunting down a place to get poutine back home. We were able to go to Niagara Falls which was amazing. We had a wonderful tour guide who came straight out of some mafia movie with rings on his fingers, a snazzy outfit, and a hardcore New York accent. He would say "Yous guys are gonna love this, and cause Ronny's got the connections I can get ya anything yous guys want." I'm not kidding, this is what he said. And he did get us some awesome deals. We went to the tower that is at the falls and loved it. It was amazing to look down at the falls and see the mist rising into the air and overlooking how grand the falls really are. After the tower Ronny took us to the falls. The roar of the water pouring over was amazing, it was so powerful to stand at the side of these massive waterfalls and not be able to see the water hitting the bottom because of the mist rising from the waters below.  The birds would fly right at the edge of the falls and just hover at the edge, letting the air current just lift them into the air. The most amazing thing was the brilliant rainbow that was there the entire time. It was so beautiful and bright you could see every color without even trying. Niagara Falls was truly a sight we will never forget.

In a way I think we will miss Canada. It was such an interesting time in our lives. Living in a high rise apartment downtown, getting hot dogs from a great corner stand, walking everywhere and being right in the middle of it all. This strange place of being a foreign country but yet having enough similarities to the states that you really feel like you haven't left, only to have some thing happen to remind you that you're not in the states anymore. Like being looked at strangely when you ask for ranch to dip your chicken fingers in and not plumb sauce. Or having your one and two dollar bills become coins and be referred to as Loonies and Toonies.

While we loved our time here we are defiantly ready to come home. And come tomorrow we will be back in the states enjoying wonderful weather and Disneyland.

More to come as the days go on. :-)

Time Goes By!

Hey Everyone! Well we are down to just a few weeks until we leave Toronto! We can't believe it, time has gone so fast it seems. It was slow the first month but after March hit it just seems like we have blinked and another week has passed us. Since our last post we have now gotten our internet back to normal, which makes it much easier to upload videos and such. We have now had a total of 10+ fire alarms since we have arrived, people really need to learn how to cook in the Rosemont. Luckily for us we have not set it off again :-). The worst of these alarms happened at 7:15 in the morning! Sadly at this point the fire alarm has become a lot like the boy who cried wolf. So we hit the silence button for the alarm and tried to go back to sleep while the alarm sounded in our hallway for 20 minutes! Once the fire department had arrived and we had been informed that it had been a false alarm we fell back asleep...only to have the alarm sound again 10 minutes later. Needless to say we are very sure the Toronto City Fire Department hates the Rosemont Residences.

Earlier this week I was allowed to finally see two of Wil's shows that he is performing in! The first was The Golden Mickey's, this is a very cute show and I was so excited to finally see everyone doing what they love and watching them all transform into their various Disney characters. The second was...wait for it...Toy Story the Musical!! This was the moment we have been waiting for since November. I walked into the studio and saw Wil wearing his cowboy boots and the music began. I was grinning ear to ear the whole time as I watched my husband transform into Woody and soon I was swept away into the world of Toy Story as some of my favorite lines from the movie were said and Buzz Lightyear flew to Infinity and Beyond. It came to a point in the show where Woody sings a song when he realizes that Buzz is taking over his time with Andy, the song is about Woody remembering the good times with Andy and wanting to be the One Toy in his life again. As soon as it came to the point in the song where I realized this was the song Wil had to sing for his call back I got excited. Then Wil got to the point that I new so well from hearing him rehearse it so many times and I was overwhelmed. To see my husband having his moment in the spotlight and singing his heart out for the roll that has given him his chance brought tears to my eyes. The show is wonderful, everyone is perfectly cast, Buzz and Woody are perfect together and their voices and personalities take over the stage. I can't wait to see them all on stage on the ship and see everything put together.

We will make another post this week as we are going to Niagara Falls on Sunday! We even get to do the Maid of the Mist tour. We are counting down the days until we return to warm weather and In-N-Out. We love and miss you all.

New Happenings in Toronto

Hey everyone! So sorry that it has been a while since we have posted! We have discovered that we only get 60GB of Internet usage a month, how do we know this you may ask? Well, with Wil being at work all day and with it sometimes being to cold to walk around outside I will have Netflix marathons or watch my shows from home during the day. Apparently that takes up a lot of usage, so on the 15th we got a notice on our Internet browser that we had used 100% of our Internet usage...opps. So my lesson has been learned and the Netflix marathons are over. Luckily this forced me to really find some good stuff to do during the day. I have discovered a wonderful 3 story bookstore just a few blocks from us. It has everything, Starbucks, nik nacs, and most important of all an ENTIRE display devoted to the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic!! I have never seen so many Titanic books in my life. So much of my time has been spent there drinking coffee, reading a good book, and using their free wifi :-).

Wil is doing great! They have started rehearsals on the Toy Story Musical which Wil is very excited about. Today they are running through one of his songs and a run through of one of his other shows. He is loving it and has been uplifted by having several members of the cast and the directing team say that he is perfect at portraying Woody. They have said his voice is wonderful and the way that he captures Woody's movements is great. He is also very excited to discover that after almost a month of strength training before every rehearsal and some of the scenes that he is doing that he has developed quite a bit of muscle :-) Of course I don't think this is a bad thing at all, it just makes my already handsome husband that much more of a hunk :-)

It has been very hard though being away from everyone that we know and love. Wil is busy during the day with rehearsals so he hasn't really gotten homesick yet, though he misses everyone. But I have been having several days of homesickness. I even broke down crying at a movie because for some reason it got me thinking about my best friend Laura and I just lost it. It's very hard being so far away from everyone, luckily Skype has helped, at least that way we can see our family and friends. But I can't wait to get back home and see everyone personally.

The cast has been great though! We have been getting to know them and Wil is so grateful to have a cast the gets along so well. And none of them have a problem with the tag-along wife :-) So I have gotten to know a few of them and it is wonderful to have friends up here. We will all go out a few times a week, there is $5 wing night, a pound of wings by the way. There is a $3 martini night and karaoke night that always proves to be a fun time.

We will post a video as soon as our Internet gets better but so long for now! We miss you all.

Baby it's Cold Outside!

So we had snow here! YAY. So I decided to walk around while Wil was in rehearsal and take some pictures, of course it was very very cold. There was wind and snow was blowing off of the buildings. But I did go to a beautiful church to take some pictures so I decided to share it with you and just a little more of our neighborhood.

Recap

So a little update of the last couple of days.

So after we met the fire department the alarm went off two more times within our building, not us those times, within the last time we talked. I have been super into the American Horror series and have watched that pretty much every night while during the day Nichole has been trying to finish the BBC Torchwood series. We were able to get my Buzz, Peyton, into Doctor Who and a guy from our character cast wants to get into it as well, so that is good. I wanted to make some Who-vians so... yay! Everyone is super cool and really nice and we hang out all the time.

Rehearsals are going swimmingly as usual and yesterday I even got to dabble into some Toy Story music. We actually aren't going to get into rehearsals for it till another two weeks so it was fun to look at the music early and get an idea. It is going to be so much fun. Peyton got a chance to sing with me as well and I honestly think that it is going to be the most fun show of all of them. The strength conditioning is super tough though and I am definitely getting into shape with the Tarzan number, but it is good for me and makes me a better, more athletic performer.  

We went to an outdoor shopping area yesterday and found some pretty cool little clothing stores. There are a lot of vintage shops and I even saw an awesome vintage civil war general's jacket for $120 and I might get it if it is still there in two weeks. We also found a store that has 70's esque clothing and a lot of vests, so I might have found my new vest store, ha ha... Two days ago, though, Nichole and I discovered a comic book/collectible store and she even got me the 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver, which is awesome (I have the best wife), as a surprise and we went there to check it out and they have an entire Doctor Who section so... we might be coming back with a lot of DW stuff. On our way back, Nichole needed some cute boots so we stopped inside of this store that looked like it might have some. Well, it ended up being a fine jacket and pea coat store and I found some awesome, warm leather jackets that I might be looking at as well. It is pretty expensive and the coats are at about 250 to 500 dollars and up, but they are totally worth it and the styles are very appealing but individual as well, so you aren't wearing something that a million other people have.

We have had some trouble with our money situation, apparently we were supposed to get paid today and the money is nowhere to be found, but hopefully we can get that settled so we can start enjoying the finer things...

like some extra video games for me and food for cooking for Nichole.

Great to talk to you guys and we will keep you posted on our next video of our next adventure.

Meeting the Toronto City Fire Department

So we had a very wonderful opportunity to meet the Toronto City Fire Department last night, as they ended up coming to our apartment with ax in hand ready to break down our door. All over a slightly burnt pizza :-) I had gone shopping earlier in the day while Wil was doing rope training and decided to surprise him by getting a pizza to have ready when he got home. I got Dellisio which is Canada's brand of DiGiorno, even has the same slogan, "It's not delivery, it's Dellisio." :-) Well, the oven is a bit different than what I am used to so by the time Wil came home it was not quite ready. Once our oven indicated that it was ready to have the pizza placed in I read the directions once more to make sure everything was good, 400 degrees for 26 minutes. The 26 minutes was a bit strange to me considering that at home when I would make a pizza I would cook it for 15 minutes, but I decided to follow the directions because, hey who knows, pizza could be different in Canada. So in the pizza went and the timer was set to 26 minutes and we sat down to watch The Big Bang Theory while we waited for our wonderful sausage and pepperoni pizza to be done.

Wil decided to take a little nap and I was looking on Pinterest for anything new to add to recipes or crafts. After 26 minutes and an episode of Big Bang our timer went off for our pizza, Wil was still sound asleep on the couch after a hard day's rehearsal so I went to get the pizza ready. As I walked over nothing was wrong, no smell of burnt pizza, no smoke, nothing. Until I opened the oven door. Smoke came pouring out of the oven and through the burners like a gust of wind as the smell of burnt pizza suddenly filled the apartment. As I sounded my disappointment loudly Wil wakes up and comes to inspect the damage. The pizza is a little bit more brown than what we are used to but nothing horrible. That's when the smoke alarm went off. Wil goes to wave off the smoke from the alarm while I grab an oven mitt to remove our crisp pizza. Suddenly a second alarm goes off as the whole building is alerted to a potential fire. I am waving the oven mitt around while Wil has removed the smoke detector and is pushing any button to get it to turn off. For about a minute we are trying to turn this thing off. Setting off the smoke detector is no new thing to us as over the years we have burnt popcorn, cooked hamburgers indoors, and other mishaps. However, no matter how much smoke has filled our apartment we have always been able to turn off the alarm and open a few windows and everything is fine, and the other apartments are not exposed to the horribly shrill noise that will fill our apartment...not this time.

After we have been trying to turn this fire alarm off the speaker in our ceiling turns on, "Hello." I see this as my golden opportunity to tell security that all is fine, so the inner blond that I am I answer the voice in the ceiling. "Hi, It's just a burn pizza. There's noth..." I am interrupted as I realize that I am speaking to no one and the voice says "A fire alarm has been sounded on the twelfth floor, please stay in your apartments and out of the stairwells, the fire department is on its way." Wil and I just stare at each other as we are both thinking, you have got to be kidding me. I tell Wil to call security and tell them everything is fine as we here the sirens in the distance. The alarms have come back on keeping everyone informed that there is still a potential danger in the building.

Wil gets a hold of security to tell them that everything is fine, it's just a little burnt pizza. But they inform him that there is nothing we can do, the fire department has to come and inspect everything! They tell Wil how to turn off the alarm in our apartment so at least the shrill noises have been reduced to only one shrill alarm. I go unlock the door and open the balcony door and the window and continue fanning out the smoke with my Finding Nemo blanket as Wil informs me that two fire trucks and an ambulance are parked outside our building. About a minute and a half after Wil talks to security there is a sharp knock at our door, "Come in!" I say as a fireman opens a door to reveal two more men one with a very scary looking ax raised, ready to break down the door if it was locked. I begin to explain that everything is fine and point to our brown pizza on the counter as they look around and take notes. The fireman who entered first asked me if we fell asleep or what, I proceed to tell him that we just got a pizza and cooked it at 400 for 26 minutes. "WHAT?!" He says, "26 minutes! You should sue that company." He is at least smiling and doesn't seem upset at the fact that they came out here for a burn pizza. They proceed to ask if I burnt myself as the one with the ax checks the oven and pizza. I tell them I am fin and Wil asks if this happens often and they reply "Oh yea." We then ask if it is normal for the fire department to come for a little burnt pizza and they explain that in a high rise building if the smoke alarm goes off, no matter what the reason is, they have to come. It could be a burn pizza or a burning mattress. After about 3 minutes they leave, making comments on weather or not we should get another pizza or plow through the brown thing that sits on our counter.

After they leave we decide to inspect our dinner, it is still in the good category so we eat it as Wil proceeds to tell me not to tell anyone in the cast! We had a party later in the night to watch Smash at our place so there would be cast mates coming over. I agreed and let it go until 9:45 when everyone came over. After munching on snacks for a while someone says, "So what happened with the fire alarm? It started on your floor, right?" I turn bright red and start to turn away as they all figure out it was us! Voices of "I knew it was someone from our group" and "You guys did it?!" sounded in our apartment. So we explained how it was only over a pizza and we tried to turn off the alarm. Everyone was laughing as a few of the girls shared how they thought it was them as they were cooking at the same time and they also talked back to the voice in the ceiling. One girl was even in the stairwell with her jacket, ipad, and purse ready to leave. I continued to change various shades of red as the stories were being told of the event. Luckily for me Smash came on and the subject was forgotten.

So, that is the very long and embarrassing story of how the cook burnt a simple frozen pizza and summoned the fire department. I'm sure there are many more adventures awaiting us here in Toronto.

P.S. Wil's cast mate Stacey took the picture :-)

Toronto Shenanigans

Hey everyone, Wil here. Everything is going really well and rehearsals are going great. The weather is cold but we are getting used to it. We just finished the Mulan segment and I get to work with pole staffs! Yay! I do get to have some training with ropes doing what they call "the web." That is fun because it is spinning on the ropes like in a circus. I am starting to work out almost everyday so my goal is to tone my upper body by the time we get back or at least by the time my contract is over. We were able to find a grocery store not too far from us with pretty good prices. It is funny because food is either to expensive or wicked cheep. Ha ha. This is just a compilation of us walking around Toronto and our apartment. The PATH is super cool. It is a series of tunnels with shops that runs all through Toronto... Oh yeah, and ITS UNDERGROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!