I'm ba-aaack…Remember me?

Wow, it has been too long since a fresh column of mine has graced the digital wonderworld of LaughingPlace.com. I'm not saying that YOU were deprived, my dear reader- it was I who was deprived.

When I last appeared here, it was as a single guy in the twilight of my bachelorhood, reminiscing on being a single, childless guy who was into Disney. Michael Eisner was still in charge of Disney. Bruce Gordon was still employed at Walt Disney Imagineering. That was way back in late 2004. I was days away from joining with the love of my life in holy matrimony. In traditional Disney animated features, that usually ends the story. "And they lived happily ever after." Of course, once business people figured out that just about anything you put on a TV screen will keep little kids occupied long enough to give their parents some relief, Disney started putting out all sorts of "sequels", mostly directly to the home market, that give more detail than simply "and they lived happily ever after." But I digress.

Meeting Kori and falling in love with her really was like a fairy tale, and we did get married shortly after I wrote my previous column.

As I've told anyone who will listen, Kori and I were matched up on EHarmony.com. One of reasons we were interested in each other was our shared enjoyment of Disney and Disneyland.

For our first date, we met at Compass Books at Downtown Disney Anaheim (a nice, safe, neutral, public place – a guy can never be too cautious), had dinner at the PCH Grill at the Paradise Pier Hotel, and then strolled through Disneyland Park. When I proposed marriage to her, as detailed in a previous column, it was at Snow White's wishing well in Disneyland Park.

The wedding was in early December, and it has taken me this long to write another column because things stayed really, really busy.

After the glorious wedding and reception - and yes, we used Disney music at the reception – it was off to a honeymoon. With a history like ours, it only made sense to have a Disney honeymoon, and so we decided to spend a week at Walt Disney World and a week on the Disney Cruise. The timing was right, with a slower period for Walt Disney World falling right after our December 4 wedding, before the real holiday crush, yet with all of the holiday decorations up. I would be able to return to work just before one of the busiest weeks of the year at the office. Speaking of the office, this was going to be the longest I had ever been away from the office.

It had been over three years since I had been to Walt Disney World - the longest dry spell since my first visit in September of 1989 - and Kori had never been to Florida at all. Neither one of us had ever been on a cruise before, so this was going to be a great opportunity to have fun and relax as newlyweds.

Yeah, yeah, I know. But upon returning from the honeymoon - which I will eventually get around to telling you about - it was right into the holidays. After that, southern California was hit with some record-breaking storms throughout January and February that kept me very busy and involved what seemed like an endless stream of print, radio, and television news coverage.