Sunday, July 14, 2013

Crashed Star, Black Star

So last night I was going to log into Runescape for just a few minutes, to swap my 13 bones for bonemeal & ectoplasm and to do my mining for Managing Miscellania, keep my approval rating at %100, you know. When I got there, however, there was a crashed falling star!!! Size 6, and no one had found it yet!!! Tag!!! Not the first time I've tagged one, but every time I do I think to myself that I've got to get over to the observatory and get a screenshot of my name on the noticeboard... then I forget!!!

Last night was no exception. Of course, I was on a world with less than 150 players, so no one else came to help. Six layers to go through with no help. I got a good amount of experience, but it disapeared before I made it to the middle. Oh well. Stayed up a lot longer than I'd wanted to. This morning I remembered I hadn't made it over to the observatory, so I quickly did that and got my screenshot, just in time it would seem!!!

Whenever I go to do a post, I usually get distracted looking at the stats and traffic sources. Apparently having Black Star mentioned on the older's birthday post pulled in several views from Japan. Surprisingly. In a shameless bid for a few more views, here's a few more pulled directly from the WWW!!! Love to Japan, and WTF Japan!!!

One of my favorites from Soul Eater is that crazy moon!!! The sun isn't bad, either.

Never made mention of the time we were at a park, and the younger found a stick with three long branches going three different directions, and a handle branch coming out of the middle. He thought it a great Black Star throwing star!!! Should have had a camera with me... I need a pocket sized that takes good pics like the older has!!!

So, the referring site was a Yahoo image search page in Japanese. When translated, one of the lines was "Black Star do you satisfied with the sound and amplifier rattle change! The free gifts the quick fix of efficacy distinguished" I love translation software!!! An apparent refrence to Black Star tube amplifiers. Never heard of 'em, but I'll bet they sound awesome!!! Another line: "are selling now if this!"

I'll bet another show that'd get me a TON of views is "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt"!!! Not great animation, but some pretty funny lines!!! They've got a Hummer they've named See Through. The line: "See through always gets us there in style!!!" Interestingly, it seems like if you were doing an image search trying to find actual pictures of panty and stocking with garterbelt, you'd likely be disappointed!!!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

The Sweet Suite

As mentioned at some length in the last post the executive suite at our stay in Catalina was awesome. In fact, that whole situation is the one that gets brought up most when telling people about our vacation!!! Thought I'd put together a post on the room we had there.

Here again we see more of that enthusiasm, and in the background the balcony overlooking the courtyard.

Next shot is the dining area, where I parked my laptop pretty much the whole time we were there.

And there's the wall of kitchen. Last time we stayed here, our breakfast most days was bagels and cream cheese from the restaurant on the premises, to go which we would take back and eat on our balcony. Pretty much the best bargain for breakfast in Avalon. As of yet, I've not actually dined at that restaurant, maybe next time. My wife got in on the nachos one afternoon (during happy hour for the half price!!!) while the boys and I were out either paddle boarding or swimming. Since we had a little fridge this time, we stopped at the Vons and bought a pack of bagels and a couple cream cheeses, juice and milk. The next day the older bought himself a 6 pack of IBC root beer, which he ended up carting around a few of for the rest of the vacation!!! Also worked out for having leftovers.

And there's the balcony on the other side, looking out towards the mountains. There was the butt of a cigar out there when we arrived. Made us consider buying another couple...

Giant two person whirlpool tub...

And giant two person (at least!!!) shower stall. There was a red phone on the bathroom wall right next to the toilet. Just in case you run out of paper, I guess.

And the final few shots are of the courtyard we were overlooking. The two with the pool are actually shots from last time, apparently I didn't get any shots of that this time.

In the second shot you can see the patio area for the restaurant. Not pictured is the gazebo with the hot tub in it. It's all really nice!!!

Final shot was on the morning we were departing. Low cloud cover, and just a touch of drizzle. Good time to get out!!! The shuttle van driver was saying that the island makes it's own weather system, guess that makes sense when you've got a mountain rising out of the ocean!!!

So there you have it!!! The hotel room that all others shall be judged by henceforth... and found wanting!!!

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Let's Try That Again...

Once again, back from vacation with many a picture and many a tale!!!

This vacation, due to the financial constraints imposed by the sewer repair from earlier this year, is something of a revisit of two years ago's vacation where everything broke!!! This year came out somewhat better than the last one, but there were a few rough patches along the way this year, too.

The first couple of shots here I'm thinking of entering in my works second photo contest. I entered a couple shots in the first one, and didn't prevail with either. To be fair, there were a LOT of great shots entered!!! The first shot is of Descanso beach, where you go to start the zip line tour. Yeah, we did that again this year, on the first day we were there!!! The price has gone up, but they've improved the course with automatic braking at the end of the runs. They've added night runs, and that was (kinda) what we got. It was actually a twilight run, which could have gone until it was full dark, but the tour we were on only had two other people besides our group. Only had to have our headlights on for the last line. The younger is heavy enough to go on his own now!!! The second shot is from the top floor of the Casino building.

We went paddle boarding & kayaking around the harbor the next day (or the day after??? It's all a blur)... after we'd gone parasailing!!! Another that the younger had wanted to do, but chickened out on last time. He made it this time, though, and thoroughly enjoyed it!!!

A couple of new things we got to do this time were the inland tour (on a 1953 Flxable bus!!!) that made it to the far side of the island with a stop at the Catalina airport, the Airport in the Sky, and the behind the scenes tour of the Casino. Both were very cool, and both could get a post of their own. See if that happens!!! First time I've ever been inside the Casino, even though I've been to the island probably a dozen or more times since I was a kid!!!

I'd meant to put a shot or two of the Airport in the Sky... still could, but if I don't maybe I'll get to doing a post about that trip!!! There's the bus...

And there's a group shot from on the bus!!!

What about those rough patches??? They were both due to online travel sites, or at least so it seems. First one came on the day we arrived in Catalina. We caught the shuttle van up to the hotel, same one we'd stayed at last time, and went to check in. The desk clerk checks, and lo and behold, no reservation!!! She looks a bit further, and finds it... three days later, the day we were supposed to check out!!! Of course, there's no available rooms of the class we'd reserved. The desk clerk was awesome, and it took about 45 minutes and four hang ups on the phone from Expedia, but finally they got them to fax over an overwrite, and they put us up in an open room... the executive suite!!! Awesome room!!! It has a separate master bedroom, full kitchen, huge bathroom with a two person whirlpool tub and a giant shower stall, and two balconies on either side!!! EPIC!!! Better than our home, but a bit smaller. If I win the lottery, I'm moving in there for a few weeks straight!!!

The second came back on the mainland. To avoid any vehicular mishaps, a la last time, I had a rental car reserved. Headed over to pick it up, and, surprise, no reservation!!! Furthermore, no, we don't even have any cars, so you're out of luck!!! This was in Long Beach, so I headed over to my parents house to use their computer and retrieve the reservation information. Half an hour on the phone with Hotwire (much of it on hold) and they finally connect me to Budget rental company: "Oh, I see you've got a reservation with us... yes, we have that and we have your car waiting for you..." Funny how now they do... Needless to say, I'm not much impressed by either of these companies. From this point on, I called ahead on every reservation to verify.

There's the minor outline of the island portion of our vacation, as well as the worser parts. Back on the mainland we hit several parks, but none of them for a full day. We did a night in Buena Park, with an afternoon and evening at Knott's Berry Farm, then the next morning Knott's Soak City water park. Down to Carlsbad (same resort as two years back) and a morning at the Lego water park (which you have to go through the Legoland park to get to) then left for lunch with the thought of returning to Legoland for the afternoon-evening. Both boys were tired out and stayed back, but mom and I had to return to retrieve our stuff from the locker, as well as go on the Dragon coaster and check out Miniland some. The next day we went to Legoland some more, then down to San Diego. We went to Boomers mini golf & fun zone that evening, where we rode the go-carts several times, did the batting cages, rode the world's weakest bumper boats (but with a cool built in water cannon) and played 18 holes. Our last full day we headed off to Sea World until around 2 or so. I know there's a lot more I could tell about, but we'll save that for another post!!!