Day 12: Pick an Orange?

Alright, so we have this list of all the things we'll be doing during our stay in Orlando but we never know what we'll be doing until someone- who we still haven't caught in the act- slips our assignment under our door... Usually they try to be clever, putting our assignment in a folder labeled, "Top Secret", or something like that. This time (possibly because they're mad at us for never returning with Pepsi for the new 67 Day finalists) they just slid a post-it note with a few numbers written on it. At first I thought, "a mystery, how fun!" but then Nic figured out that the numbers just corresponded to the list of activities they provided us with at the beginning of the trip...

We looked up the numbers they gave us; 26, 31, and 47, and found out that today we were to, "Build our own teddy bear at The Florida Mall, go antiquing on Orange Avenue and in Mount Dora, and pick an orange from a tree."

Nic and I both agreed that the "pick an orange from a tree" thing was basically the equivalent of them saying to us, "go f*ck yourselves."


Luckily for us, due to a typo in our contract, we recently found out that WE CAN'T BE FIRED!!!!! That's right, the Visit Orlando people can threaten us all they want but Nic's uncle, a former lawyer turned Orange Julius franchise owner, offered to look over our contract and found that who ever typed it originally meant to write "Upon breach of contest rules, Visit Orlando maintains the right to terminate the remainder of the agreed upon 67 Days of Smiles schedule, and is under no obligation to compensate contest winners for their time."

Instead the contract reads, "Upon breach of contest rules, contest winners maintain the right to germinate the remainder of the 67 Days of Smiles schedule, and are under no obligation to compensate Visit Orlando for their time."

This is a little confusing but what it basically means is that WE CAN'T BE FIRED!!! Nic's uncle, Tad, say's that the phrase "germinate the remainder of the 67 Days..." was a bit tricky to deal with but he thinks we should treat it as meaning, "planting ourselves in Orlando and letting us grow to our full potential..." His words, not mine...

So, it now appears that we have the power and don't have to to a darned thing THE MAN tells us! That being said, Nic and I have talked it over and have both agreed that we're going to continue to play by the rules the best we can, following the schedule that's given to us, and doing our best to smile along the way!

So even though we know that the events we have to complete today were given to us out of spite, we are doing them and reporting on them with pleasure.






First thing we did today was build a teddy bear. In line with our new feeling of cooperation, we decided to name her, "Unit", which is short for "Unity."













After that we headed out to Mt. Dora which, although nice, is not really in Orlando so we're calling shenanigans... Antiquing wasn't a total waste of time. Nic found an amazing brooch...





Unfortunately we both realized we didn't have enough money as Visit Orlando had given us none... Fortunately we realized we weren't women and didn't have any need for expensive brooches...






Then came the highlight. We picked AN orange! And although horribly out of season, Nic and I split that orange and ate it.






So Orlando, even though it's clear you don't want us here, we came for one reason... $25,000! But also because we're good guys and we do really love adventure and we do really love to smile! So you can keep throwing us the crap assignments if you want but we're not leaving for another 55 days so you might as well start treating us better. It only makes you look better in the end!

Peace, love, and Unit!

Nic and Patrick