My Wicked Weekend

(Image stolen from here, I could have used the poster artwork, but wanted something different, and this was)

My company has employee outings every year. I heard about a trip to Santa Anita horse races, and thought that would be interesting, as I've never been to the track. When sign ups came out, they had three choices: the aforementioned Santa Anita trip, a golf outing, or a brunch at Lawry's Prime Rib and matinee showing of Wicked. Even though I don't especially follow theatre, I was aware of the acclaim surrounding Wicked, and I've heard of Lawry's for years, and use their seasoning salt extensively in my culinary creations. I don't golf, and Santa Anita, while it sounded interesting, well, I'm not a big gambler or drinker (open bar is another of the perks sweetening that pot), so my choice was clear. Unfortunately, it is for employees exclusively, no dates or spouses allowed.

They have a charter bus from the company to the events, but from my location it made more sense to drive to both destinations. In fact, the Pantages Theatre is right across from the red line station we visited on our rail trip in times past. If there were an easy was to get from there to Lawry's public transportation would have been ideal!!!

Lawry's was good. The service was a bit slow in starting, but once it got rolling was good. Ironically, I got the salmon at a place renowned for their prime rib. Prime rib is OK, but I really like seafood, and since I had the choice, that is what I chose. Actually, while it was good, it wasn't up to the level of the hype I've heard. Oinkster may not have the ambiance or the Beverly Hills address, but I'd take their food over this any day!!! (Mental note: forward this URL to Lawry's and see if they want to comp me a meal to see if they can have a second chance to tempt my taste buds for a more favorable review, haha!!!)

Wicked, if you are not familiar (I wasn't real familiar before I signed up, other than knowing it was something of a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz") is a musical. Really, I am a straight male. Maybe that's what the accompanying picture is about, LOL. Prequel isn't really right, either, the play spans from well before the events of "The Wizard of Oz" to after the credits have rolled. It was PHENOMENAL!!! No spoilers here, but I will say these things I learned from it:

The origins of those creepy flying monkeys, the tin man, the scarecrow, and the cowardly lion

Why the Wicked Witch of the West wanted those shoes (I always thought it was some power or magic reason, but seems not)

Why she was all green like that

You don't get the full effect of The Wizard's facade in the movie

Where the Wicked Witch of the West got that hat from

I would guess disabled advocates and PETA groups applaud this production

Those witches have some pipes!!! I'm glad I saw this show, they didn't really showcase much of that other than Glenda's in the movie

Glenda is truly incredibly narcissistic!!!

Tickets to this show are near impossible to get!!! After I saw it, I thought it would make a great birthday present for my wife, but NOT easy to do!!! Actually, probably a great way to make money, reselling them on Ebay...

Thanks, Mick!!!

Mark and Brian are doing a promotion for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Funny thing, their station is owned by ABC, which in turn is owned by Disney, so there is a lot of tie in between them. They are having a private event at Disneyland where they will be closing the park to the public and having an exclusive event for their listeners who win passes. Back in 1998 (I think) I won passes to their grand re-opening of Tomorrowland. The winning of the passes isn't the hard part usually, just call them up and go on the air with something fun or entertaining. The hard part is getting through on the phone!!!

One thing they have been doing every day is having a "kid's break" where chilluns (or rather their parents) call up with some kind of talent or tell a joke or something. Yesterday I managed to get through, and had my youngest sing The Stones' "Get Off of My Cloud". So, you see the way this whole thing comes full circle??? A Pirates event, Johnny Depp based his Jack Sparrow character loosely on Keith Richards, and I get into the event by having my boy sing a Mick Jagger Lyric!!!

The 4-20 Random Post

Welcome to the 4-20 random rave.

They have added a new row at my work. It's on one side of the middle of the wide aisle in the middle of the rows. Row 256, 456 or 656, depending on how far over you are. I don't like filling on it, because you are filling with your back hanging out.

Several weeks ago I purchased a pack of new magnetic letters. They are strange things, made out of chipboard and kinda chunky. Ever since I've gotten them, I haven't done a post of the magnet letters.

One of the fun things about my job is seeing some of the company names or peoples names. One of the funny ones I saw recently was "Midnight Meat Train".

I see the grocers are considering going on strike again. They did this a few years back, and everyone pretty much took their business elsewhere. The stores involved lost an estimated over two billion. It ended up with a new contract where the new hires ended up getting hosed. A true lose-lose situation. And now they're thinking of doing it again???

One of my co-workers came up with the philosophy of thinking of the work periods between breaks as 2-hour segments, even though they aren't. The first one is 1:30, the second is 1:30, the third is 2:00, and the last is 2:30. It does seem to go quicker if you don't think of that last one as 2 and a half.

One of my son's friends visited the other day, and they played some on the computers. I asked if he had a computer at home, and since he did, I wondered what the attraction to playing on it here was. Apparently, they have an Apple, and it's not nearly as fun as the ads would have you believe.

Another amusing company name is "Beaver Heat", a heat treating company.

I see Rick Dees is back on the air out here. I thought we were finally rid of that guy.

I'm lacking supplies to celebrate 4-20 in a proper fashion. Imagine how random this could get if I wasn't!!!


The electricity was out for a couple of days last week. The first night it was out was the night the Lakers lost to the Clippers. The next day, one of the guys wore in a Lakers shirt with the slogan "Lights Out" on it. I thought that was ironic.

The Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory is located on Cyclotron road. I thought that was cool.

Have you seen the Doritos "Fight for the Flavor" competition they are having??? Two new flavors, only one will survive. I saw them at the gas station, but wasn't hungry and even if I was, couldn't really justify buying two bags of chips. The next time I was at Wal Mart, they had a full size bag, but they only had one flavor. Guess Wal Mart already made up their mind!!!

Is anyone actually surprised that there are beginning to be a lot of problems for companies that do sub-prime loans??? I mean, isn't the name pretty much a clue???

On one order, the name of the person ordering was listed as "Mike with the big muscles". I was fairly amused by that, but I was even more amused when I got another order from the same company that had the name listed as "Mike with the bigger muscles".

The Smokin' Cheddar BBQ Doritos have my vote.

Neither of my boys wanted to go to John's Incredible Pizza for their birthdays. I think I'll go there for my birthday.

Try this: Advance the first vowel of each word in Rick Dees' name to the next vowel that occurs in the alphabet. I think that pretty much sums it up.

I saw the other day that they are making Chuck Taylors with all black rubber, as well as a black logo. They look pretty tight, but doesn't that kind of defeat the look of classic Chucks???

I'm thinking of designing a cap for my pen at work with an exacto knife switchblade built into it. I carry my pen behind my ear when I work. If I experience a mishap, my Van Gogh impersonation could improve significantly.

Idaho Tech is another company I see orders for a lot. It always makes me think of that B-52's song, "Private Idaho", and I'll have that in my head for hours.

When the Lakers play the Clippers, who's home court is it???

They are working on the street at the bottom of the hill. It looks like there are some old rail tracks embedded under the street. I wonder if that's the old railway that used to come up the hill???

Tried to send Rick Dees back to his hometown, but Lilly wouldn't stand for it. Cant say as how I blame her!!!

Seagate (A manufacturer of hard drives) is located on Disk Drive. That's pretty cool, too.

Give It Back!!!

I always procrastinate. I don't know why, it always ends up good for me. OK, not much time left, time to get to it. All the stuff is over there on the counter, let's see... Damit, I'm missing one of my W2 forms. Dig, dig, dig... minor setback, but I finally found it. Starts off easy, then comes line 6C, gotta put in the kids SSN's in there. I don't know what that number is, I'll have to find that. I'll be back for that. Line 7, add up my income. 8A, add in the pittance that I get in my meager savings interest. 10, add in my refund from the state last year. Not a whole lot more for that section, managed to dodge having to fill in line 19 for unemployment compensation. Add it all up for line 22.

Lines 23 to 36. Adjusted gross income. Nope, nothing in there for me, move the sum from 22 down to 37. While I'm at it, flip the form over and put that same number on 38. Line 39 has a place that says to check this box if you are blind. I consider putting a check mark a few inches away, and decide against it. Line 40, now things start looking good. Time to break out the Schedule A for more line filling fun.

Lines 1 through 3 on Schedule A are all about medical. Being as I'm nicely insured, it's usually under the threshold of 7.5% of my gross income, so I've not kept track of that. Possibly I should start, but I'd have to start doing that. From the beginning of the year. Not real likely to happen. Lines 5 and 6, state and property tax. A little preview of what I can look for from the state. Not bad. Skip down to line 10 for the interest on the mortgage. Down to 15 and 16 for gifts to charity. Gifts other than cash. How much do those old clothes and appliances I gave to Goodwill rate??? Probably they get considerably more for 'em than I'll claim. Call it $85 to keep from raising any flags. No job expenses, no casualty or theft losses, I don't even know what other miscellaneous deductions would be. Add it all up for line 28. Nice.

Back to the 1040. Line 41, take out the Schedule A deductions. YES!!! Line 42, multiply the number of deductions on line 6D by $3,300, then subtract that for line 43. Even better!!! Line 44, go to the tax tables and see how much they'd like to get out of me. Not bad. No alternative minimum tax for me, so blank 45 and move 44 down to 46. Nothing for me on lines 47 through 52, but at 53 things start looking good again. Child tax credit, see page 42. $1,000 per kid, or the amount on line 46 of the 1040, whichever is less. Haha, THAT'S where I break even!!! C'mere and gimme a hug, my little deductions!!! Could this get better??? Less than zero taxes??? Well, lets see, taxes minus credits is only line 57, this goes all the way to 76.

From there to line 63 is blank for me. Line 64 is what they withheld, how much I could ask for, nay, will ask for back. Line 66a, earned income credit. What could this be??? Flip to page 46 and check it out. Nope, apparently I make more than enough to be less than eligible for that. Line 68, additional child tax credit. Hmmm, I'll be needing a for 8812 for that. Subtract the difference between the child tax credit I already took and the $1,000 per kid. Takes it from the tax table amount to the full $2,000. Not bad. Not a huge amount, but made it worth my while to spend a few hours working this all out.

Didn't I tell you before??? I don't mind The Man taking his chunk. I'll have it back come April 15th, and then some!!!

Tundra

Here's another new comic that

my paper has started running recently. Once again, not one of my favorites, but every once in a while one of 'em tickles me. Anyway, this is the one from today's paper, which I found to be amusingly topical being as I just read Moon Goddess' post last night that she is thinking of starting each post with a nursery rhyme!!!

Eaton Canyon

Not only has it been a while since I've made a substantive post, but it's been a while since I've gotten out with my camera and taken any shots.

My mom called up on Thursday, I think it was. They were planning on coming up on Saturday for a little picnic and hike up Eaton Canyon. Were we interested in meeting up with them to join in???



Actually, that sounds like a great idea!!!

The road closest to the falls was locked up, so we ended up hiking up the streambed from a ways farther back. Strange, the streambed was dry, but once we got back in the canyon, the stream was a-flowin'!!!

Can you tell which shot I knew was the money shot as I took it???

A great way to spend an afternoon!!!