Yule '17

Many days pass away, as always busy as can be at this time of year. Here's a little recap!!!

Started the month off with the company Christmas party. Since the year we had it under the shuttle at the Science Center, it's been the tradition to have every other year at some sort of destination. This year was at Harry Potter land in Universal Studios!!!

That was a lot of fun, first time I've been to Universal out here since they put in Harry Potter, and a lot of other stuff. I'm pretty sure it was 2008 last time I was there. Only time I'd been on the Harry Potter ride was last time we were in Florida, and it was real soon after it had opened, and it was a zoo!!! Don't know if I ever posted about that, we had been staying at the Nickelodeon resort, and had been to one of the two Universal parks there the day before. My wife and the younger boy wanted to take a day off and just stay at the hotel that day, so only the firstborn and I went to that park. Besides the ridiculous crowds in that area, a couple things I remember were the Jurassic Park themed area with water cannons shaped like velociraptor heads, and some indoor area where a bunch of foreign kids laid down for their siesta. But I digress.

My wife doesn't get around walking for any length of time so well these days, so we rented her a wheelchair after we'd walked the half mile or so down City Walk to get in the park. Asked them about returning it after hours, you know, like when the rest of the park is closed and it's just the company party until late. "Oh, no problem, we'll have someone there" they said. You can guess how that went. I wandered deep into the bowels of that area, and when we finally got someone over there, they had issues getting the register back open.

I went on the Harry Potter ride, which was pretty much a walk on with such a reduced amount of people there. Got up to the first projection dome, and the ride broke down!!! Started back up a couple minutes later, but the video for that part didn't go, so we were shaking around and the audio was going, but no visual. On the way out, they directed us to a short cut if we wanted to go again. Three of the four of us who'd been on with me (all bin fillers!!!) did it.

Since I've got a troll living in my basement now, a lot of the stuff down there has been moved around. I'd seen these before, but never set them up. Vintage Christmas decorations, Santa and his reindeer!!! Well, 8 of 9 anyway.

This year I strung my lights to a pole, something I'd done years ago, again, simulating a Christmas tree. I also finally got rid of all the old incandescent Christmas lights I had knocking around which I haven't used in probably 5 years or more, replaced by LED lights. Oh yea, there's a vintage color wheel down there I'd been seeing the box for for years, finally dragged it out and replaced the heat lamp with an LED bulb, and picked up a white tree to change from the super campy pink tree we've been using for years, and used it with the wheel. It's different, kinda nice for a change. That, as well as Christmas morning, I've got on my DSLR card, I'll unload at some point.

Then there was the annual announcement of the profit sharing (480%, very good, and word is next year should be good, too) goody day, and profit sharing distribution day. Should I say here that, with that very generous profit sharing, this is my first year breaking six figures??? Might as well, I don't think hardly anyone reads this. Comment if you do!!!

Just like the end of last year, I'm hearing a lot of people complaining about what a terrible year 2017 has been. I don't get it. Worst I can say about it was I had a few people I know passed.

On Christmas Eve we went to John's Incredible Pizza. They were having a deal, and it was as empty as I've ever seen it!!! They had this cheese bread which was basically pizza crust with cheese. My childhood friend Sean had been sensitive to tomato sauce, claimed it was too spicy for him, so he'd always order pizza with no sauce. In fact, around a week before I heard about his death, my younger was saying how he was one of the most sensitive to spicy food people, and I regaled him with tales of Sean and his sauceless pizzas. At the celebration for Sean, one of the guys who spoke of how he'd order pizza, so on into his forties he was still having it that way!!! Of course, I had to have a slice of their "cheese bread" in his memory.

Last Saturday, Alt 98.7 was doing a meet and greet at a T-Mobil store over on Whittier Boulevard, with Ravey from The Woody Show meeting the plebs. It was 2 till 4, and I am out of work at 3:30 on Saturdays, and it's about halfway between work and home, so I was able to go over and visit. I like all the guys on the show, but after meeting and getting to talk to Ravey in person for a bit, I like her even better now!!! She's cool. Never made a post on it this year, but we'd gone to the Renaissance Faire on the same day she did. Never saw her there, but on the way in the station had a booth set up. They set us up with a couple shirts, that's where I got the sweet #ALLIN shirt in the picture. It's super soft material, too.

The very next day, at John's Incredible, got to meet and take a picture with Incredibear!!!

Yuleish Random

I'm so far behind on blogging, I'll never hit it all, so I'ma gonna go a bit random, and I've been needing to for a while.

Last weekend my company had their Christmas party. It was the same place as last year, but it was better than last year. The bar lines were shorter, and it was less crowded. The former likely was related to the latter. It seems rather early in the month, but this month does get busied up, so it worked out well.

We also got a room there this year. It was just about as far as you could get between the party and our room. And it cost about twice what the place we stayed at last year. Nice room, but hardly worth the extra money in my estimation.

A rather cool thing that happened, though. I'm not sure if it was the hotel *excuse me, Resort (one of those places that you're sure they have the word resort capitalized in their minds as they refer to the place... ANyway...) or my work, but they were giving vouchers or gift cards for $50 when we were checking in. For use at the Resort, but could be applied to your room price if you'd like. Nice, it almost exactly covered the room tax and mandatory valet parking.



In other news... the Christmas season is coming on fast. I went to Wal Mart around two weeks back, and was hoping not to again until next year or later. Now I'm thinking I may end up having to again. Dread.

Goodie day is going to be this Thursday. I signed up to bring my Chili. I just now decided that my Chili shall be capitalized thenceforth.

Friday, my older boy's comp apparently spontaneously shut off, and now refuses to do anything. I attempted to use a different power supply, and then even tried to swap everything into my Linux computer's case. No luck. If it's not a power supply issue, I don't have a clue what it could be. Rather unusual that I'm at a loss.

I've already purchased one of my own Christmas presents. A Garmin GPS unit. The main reason I got it at an early date was it comes in most handy going somewhere you've not been before. I got it prior to the Palm Springs trip, and it works out pretty nice. Of course, you kind of need an address of the destination to have it navigate you somewhere. I'm very pleased with it. I'm also further pleased that every time I've seen it (or even the small screen twin of it) the price has been at least $20 more than I paid!!!

On goodie day, several of us are having a first ever T-shirt gift exchange. Funny T-shirts are the idea. I got mine for it today, it's pretty cool. It has a skull and crossbones, with a bandanna around it and a scimitar clenched between it's teeth. The message above it reads "Just A Pirate", and underneath, "Hunting Booty".

I've missed the last two mileage updates, so here they are: 27.59 MPG and 30.66 MPG. I noticed a dip on the first one following the anomalous 42.31 MPG fill up, likely related. Brings the lifetime average to 29.98 MPG. I'm good with that.

I had been planning on taking the family to Universal Studios on Saturday, but by the time we got out of bed and started the chili up (that's right, I'm making it up almost a week in advance. Don't want to be up till one AM on Wednesday getting it going, then not have it be done in the morning. Besides, my Chili is always better after it's been out of the pot and in the fridge. Perhaps that will be the final step in my Secret Recipe) (Dang, talk about a run-on parenthetical statement or two!!! Now back to our regularly scheduled sentence) it was near noon. I had been wanting to get one more in before our annual pass expires, but that my not happen now.

They announced the cash profit sharing number on Friday. 350%!!! And this year, after having been employed longer than two years, I'm eligible for all of it!!! I'm pleased indeed!!! Right on the announcement, there was mention that next year's number will not be so good. They must have crystal balls. Of course, they almost always predict the number of orders and lines per day within a couple hundred, which I find remarkable.

Interestingly, after I put everything back into the Linux case, now that one does nothing when you go to turn it on, either!!! I'm wondering if it could be power supply, and whatever caused it to go in the original configuration could have done it again. That case did have a much weaker power supply. I'm hesitant to use the power supply from mine.

Along the inner wall (which used to be an outer wall before our last expansion) at work, in a stretch with nothing but walkway and wall, they've placed one of the decorative poinsettias right on the ground. It is totally random looking there, and I smile every time I see it there.

Maybe that was the idea.

I'd been thinking of getting myself a laptop for Christmas, but last week I saw an ad for the same DSLR camera my dad has, with a 300mm lens kit, for only $599+$29, with no sales tax. Price was good for quite a while, too. Sigh. Right after I'd talked myself out of getting a DSLR.

I haven't gotten a ton of things for my wife yet, either. I'm thinking of buying her something like 50 or 100 big spin lottery scratchers. Good times!!! Maybe I'll buy 50 for each of us!!!

I'm not finding the laptop I want for a price I want anymore. Back around October, I was seeing nicely equipped Toshibas with 17" screens for under $600, but now they're asking almost $700 for almost all nicely equipped PC's with only 15.4" screens. I thought for sure that with the economy tanking they'd actually try and get people to buy stuff near Christmas. Oh well, I'm in no hurry.

Actually, I would like to buy before the end of the year. The sales tax goes up another 1/2 percent come 2009. *Rollen my eyes*

Instead of going to Universal (and getting the all you can eat pass like the older boy and I did last time, but for both us and wifey this time) we went to John's Incredible Pizza again. The price was about the same, but that included $25 of game credits. I got to try the garlic pesto and BBQ chicken pizza this time, and they both rate high with me now.

Maybe I'll buy neither. I'm considering buying myself some commodities. If I'd bought about $400 of oil last Thursday and sold it on Friday, I could have made around $100. I've heard talk of it getting down to $25 a barrel for light sweet crude, but I honestly don't see that happening. what I do see happening it it going back up... eventually...

I see Tiger Direct has a build your own system with a dual core AMD 2.2 gig processor, 2 gig RAM, 250 gig hard drive, as well as the motherboard, case and power supply for only $149.99. Really, almost too cheap to pass up!!! Could likely be the easiest way to get my boy up and running again.

Honestly, I can't imagine the oil companies even bothering to extract oil at only $25 a barrel!!!

After returning from John's Incredible Pizza, the boys and I FINALLY got the Christmas lights set up. Nice, wouldn't likely have gotten that done if we'd gone to Universal Studios!!!

I had wondered if the plummeting gas prices would help the fortunes of the big 3 auto makers. They profit best making gas guzzlers. Which, ironically, is why any bailout will fail. There's this thing called Corporate Average Fuel Economy, and it will torpedo any turn around attempts. Opinion stolen from the Wall Street Journal, but if you think about it, it makes sense.

I've been thinking of buying annual passes to Six Flags Magic Mountain for the family for next year. I'd been looking at Disneyland, but the price!!! Insanity!!! Six Flags is a relative bargain, and they throw in passes for one extra visitor one trip, and one pass to the water park. I'm thinking yea. Maybe wrap 'em up, then after we open everything Christmas morning, take the family there for the rest of the day!!!

I don't think they've done this before, but they told the day they're going to give out the profit sharing checks. It'll be on the 22nd. Nice, you don't get a weekend in between to spend it. Not a big deal to me, I'll take me gravy no matter when it comes!!!

I'm not especially worried about posting possible Christmas gifts here, only one member of the household reads this, and that is only once in a blue moon.

By the way, I just checked the dates Six Flags is open, and it's closed Christmas day. Glad I checked that, it would have been JUST like National Lampoon's Vacation, starring Magic Mountain as Wally World!!!

There's more random left within me. If only there were a way to safely extract it!!!

Scary Decorations

How I used my last vacation day!!! I took the Monday after Halloween off, and took the boys (who had that day off from school) to Universal Studios.

The older boy and I had just been there on Saturday, and they had a lot of the scary decorations up still. He said that I needed to bring my camera with me when we came back. Look who we saw there!!! Beetlejuice, the ghost with the most!!! Later on, by Jurassic Park, we saw him walking and carrying on a conversation with the mummy. Totally candid, who knew they hang out together???

Marylin was there, too. We actually saw more characters there this time than any other, I think. When we first got in there, we encountered a living statue guy. No pictures, but I did get a little video clip of him. Doc Emmit Brown from Back to the Future was driving a Segue around the park.






On the Saturday before, the boy and I stopped at Philippe's near Union Station for dinner. We ended up waiting half an hour in line, but it was worth it. A lot of fans from the SC game showed up there, I didn't know that was a thing for them.






Some of the various decorations.

There were skeleton solders up on the military vehicle. Many other ghouls and corpses all around the park.

In the airplane wreckage from War of the Worlds, they had set up many bloody bodies.



I think I made mention in one of the previous visits, they've Incorporated Norman into the Bates Motel set there. He spots the tram, and advances on it with his knife. The last shot had some guy's head in the way when he was close, but it actually came out pretty cool, with him peering around him!!!



Yesterday I bought another tank of gas for Baby. I hadn't updated since last time, which was a new low of 26.67 MPG (which, honestly, is still pretty darn decent). My wife drove her three days on that tank, which was soon after getting Janice back on the road. All her drive, while about 1/4 the distance, is city driving. Add in at least one day being stuck in a bad traffic jam and it all adds up. This tank was back on track, netting 30.51 MPG. Over the weekend I gave her her first oil change (mental note: buy a strap wrench for doing that, none of my filter wrenches worked well at all for it) and checked the tire pressures. The tires were all pretty low, so this should help quite a bit. Once all these fires are cleared up, I'll probably change out the ash-laden air filter. Coming up for the Thanksgiving weekend, we've got a fairly sizable road trip coming up, should be a good test.

One of the Stupidest Things I've Seen

Oh, SO many things have happened!!! I've got four more cup pictures that I may or may not post, I've gassed up Baby again (who direly needs a bath, but small amounts of intermittent random rain have made that seem like a bad idea) and a lot more pictures I need to get off my cameras (video and still), but I'm going to share this one.

Weekend before last, my wife and I decided to see if we could possibly hit the Wicked lottery again, TWICE, and take both the boys. If not, we'd go on (just a ways up the tracks) to Universal Studios. We got there, and all put our names in. My wife told me later that when she saw our younger putting the first letter of his name on the slip, she knew he was going to get drawn. He did, and we bought two tickets on his draw, and waited to see if another name would come up. Another of the entrants had only wanted a single ticket, so at the end they were drawing for a solo seat. I think it was my wife's name that came up for that, and I was thinking of sending the other boy, but since the seats were split up, we decided not to. Besides, the older boy had already expressed interest in going to Universal instead. Momma and the younger stayed for the show, and we headed on. One of my friends from work also showed up with her girlfriend for the drawing.

Up the tracks we headed, and spent a fair amount of time at Universal. Being it was the first of November, a lot of the scary decorations were still up. Of course, I was prepared for the theatre, and didn't have my camera. It rained on us, we rode the Jurassic Park ride several times (in honor of Michael Criteon's impending death???) and the Mummy coaster more than a few, too. At the end of the day, we lined up for the Simpsons ride, which always has the largest line. Getting on, we were in the front of the car, and there was some commotion and confusion with the loading of the back seats. I thought nothing of it.

Very shortly after the attendant left the room, there's more commotion from the back seats. I look around, and one of the girls back there is all twisted with her leg wedged funny under the safety bar. The other girls back there are calling out for the attendant. We all start calling out, but no one is coming. I'd thought she'd gotten pinned under it wrong when it closed, but she was trying to get out from under the bar, and she did before the ride got underway!!!



We all told her just to hold on and stay down. She laid down across the back seats, and was that way throughout the ride. I have no idea what her deal was, if she was claustrophobic, foreign and didn't understand what was going on, or whacked out on goofballs, but it was about the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Probably made more so by the fact that it seems there is no monitoring of the ride while it is in progress.

Afterward, we viewed the on-ride photo previews (first time we've ever even looked at them, the kiosks are usually too crowded to bother with), and the girl who's lap she had her legs on joined us. I'd thought the whole back seat was together, but that was not the case. She said she was holding her hand and telling her "you're all right!!!" for the whole ride. Said her heart was going like crazy, and she didn't know if she was having a heart attack, but she was screaming and laughing the whole ride. Nice shot of the backs of our heads, huh??? The picture is at the very end of the ride, when it's pretty much stopped. They had an option to E-mail the picture for $5, and I figured since I'd spent $50 for a play already that day, and not a lot else (besides train fare) all day, I'd go for it.

I had to schedule my last vacation day, so I had chosen the following Monday, since the boys were off school that day, and we went back again. That's what most of the photos I've yet to take off my camera are of, but that will be at another time, if there's anything worth posting!!!

How I Spent My Weekend

Oh, what a weekend!!! I had to take Friday off to go to court. Shockingly, one of the two defendants actually showed up!!! The judge was not too amused that the other didn't, and couldn't be bothered to inform the court in advance. I could have proceeded with my case, but it could have been vacated. I figured I'd just go with continuing the case while I could attempt to schedule it away from my vacation times, rather than the inevitable vacating and rescheduling while I'm out of town.

I was home fairly early, and had plans!!! Since we're into summer, Universal has the weekends blacked out on the annual pass. Fridays are good to go, though, so that's where we were heading. On the way home, at the top of my street, there was a spill of sand where my street comes down from the street above it. I hit it, locked up the front end (not having the wherewithal to ease off the brakes and steer out) and before I knew it smacked the front wheel broadside on the curb. Damit, I just had it aligned after doing the brakes!!! Thing was pushed in a couple of inches on the bottom edge.

Got the idea on the way home to haul the recycling to the recycle yard on the way to the train station. It's right on the way, about a block from the station. Got home, and had the boy load up the trunk. Ended up with $26.00 from it, not bad!!!


We had great luck with the trains going there!!! Being a weekday, the lot was near full when we got there, and I dropped the family near the platform, gave my wife the money to get the passes, and parked in the back of the lot. Just as I was getting to the platform, the train was there!!! Actually vaulted the rail to make it. Same thing on the next train, just as we got to the bottom of the escalator it was getting ready to pull out. At Universal, the tram up the hill got there within a minute of our arrival at the stop.

First ride was the Simpsons ride again. The youngest didn't want to go, so we did the kid switch thing. I don't know what his problem with it is, it's not that intense. That ride is one of the best simulators I've ever been on!!!

Finally got to take the family on the "Backdraft" effects show they have. The older boy was impressed. The younger boy was scared.

The Mummy coaster again. That ride... Isn't the greatest coaster, but it has some very cool points to it. At the last part of the ride, it stalled out or got jammed or something on the boy and I in the dark.


We got to see the place where the fire was. The tour goes right by it. Don't think I made mention, but the King Kong burned, and apparently the earthquake part of the tour is off for now, too. Clock tower square from Back to the Future is also the town square in Ghost Whisperer, too, so I'd be interested to see what they do next season. Interesting to see where everything used to be, it's just charred ground mostly, with a few piles of rubble still being cleaned up. The fascinating thing, though, is how there's blocks and streets, but there are no utility lines where the buildings used to be.

One thing they added (I guess to make up for the King Kong and Earthquake part of the tour being out) was an actor done up like Norman Bates coming out of the Bates Motel with a bloody wrapped up body. He sees the tram, goes back in, and comes back in with his knife and advances on the tram as it pulls away. The youngest does a pretty amusing imitation of him now.

Saturday I got up a bit early and took the Maverick back to the tire shop. They said they couldn't do it, they have one car in already getting the whole front end done, and it'll take all day. They sent me to the Burbank store. I didn't want to drive it on the freeway, it felt unstable at speeds over 30 MPH or so. Ended up driving through Griffith Park, the same route that they do the Christmas Festival of Lights. That was interesting. I got there, and the guy comes out to look at the car. He bounces the front, and it stops after about a bounce and a half. "You need new shocks." Wrong thing to say, dude!!! I got rather loud: "Oh really?!?!?! These shocks need replaced?!?!?! These shocks that I put on two weeks ago are already worn out!?!?!?" He stammered a little, "These are new??? Oh, maybe they sold you the wrong ones..." Yea, or maybe you're trying to pad your repair bill!!! Anyway, there was a car ahead of me there, too, and it took them a couple of hours before they got to mine, plus the time to do the repair. That ended up taking most of the day, and I was pretty tired by the time I got home. Washed the cars, and that was about it for the day.

Sunday we had lunch with some friends we haven't seen in a while. Home Town Buffet!!! Nice seeing them, it's amazing how much the kids grow. Visited my parents after that, and went swimming. A very full weekend!!!

Out of Left Field

Now this was cool. Last Thursday one of my supervisors came up to me just a bit before lunch time. "Hey, would you be interested in going to the Dodgers vs. Cubs game tonight???" My mind raced. The first game of the Laker's finals was on that night, and while I wasn't planning on watching all of it (I'd be at work and driving home for the first part, anyway), I had been thinking of catching some of it. Oh well, guess I'd get over that.



Next decision I'd have to make is who to take. My good friend Sammy is a huge Cubs fan, wonder if he's got tickets already. If not, I'd have to give the first shot to my wife. When I called her, her first response was, "You've gotta take Sammy!!!" Turns out that Sammy, while he would have liked to go, is having car and money difficulties, so he couldn't come. Wifey wasn't really into it (and we'd have to find a last minute sitter for the boys) so it was going to be one of the boys. Ended up taking the older boy, I think he has more patience for sitting a few hours for a sporting event. He also loves ball park food. I think that is actually his favorite part of going to ball games.

The game was well underway by the time we arrived and picked up some dinner. There was a Carl's Jr. franchise there, which the boy decided was the fare for the evening. I'd been thinking a Dodger Dog, and happily they also had those at the same stand. Fourth inning by the time we got to our seats. I also was able to grab my camera on the way out of the house.

Here's something else pretty cool, too. After a couple of innings, I noticed a few rows behind up there was a girl with a glorious display of cleavage going on. I glanced around at it a few times, trying to keep it subtle, and trying to think of a way to snap a picture for posterity. They left around the seventh inning, taking my chance at getting a shot with them. After taking the pictures out of the camera a couple days later, I realised that I'd gotten her in the corner of the self portrait (first photo) I'd taken!!! Nice!!!

It was Takashi Saito bobble head night. When he was called up to the mound, one of the classy Cubs fans threw the box containing his said bobble head onto the field. Another fan, a couple rows back, fashioned a noose from a plastic bag and hung him in effigy.



And what a game!!! If I recall, the Cubs had four runs when we sat down, and the Dodgers hadn't even put any wood on the ball yet. Just a bit later, they got their first hit, and a bit later their first run. By the time the eight inning had rolled around, the game was tied up. In the top on the ninth, the Cubs scored again, for a 5-4 lead. The Dodgers managed to load the bases by the time the last guy was up, but alas, he struck out. I think it was the most exciting game I've seen there in years!!!

For the last part of the game, the boy was looking for a cotton candy vendor. I think all but the ice cream vendors had left early. No cotton candy for the boy. I would have gotten off much cheaper taking the younger boy. Fun times, though, and the Dodgers went on to win the next two.



Yesterday I took the family back to Universal Studios. I had to do some other stuff earlier in the day, so it was kind of a late afternoon trip. Next time we'll head over earlier. Two reasons I had wanted to go, one is that last weekend there was a fire there, destroyed the King Kong attraction, New York Street, and the clock tower from Back to the Future. I was hoping to take the tour to view the charred remains, but that didn't end up happening. The other reason I'd wanted to go is because the new Simpsons ride is now open. None of the commercials have really shown what kind of ride it really is, but I had been suspecting it is a motion simulator, being as they'd taken out the Back to the Future ride, and it is located very near to Doc Brown's Chicken. I was right, it has been nicely re-worked, and its an EXCELLENT ride!!! Got some cotton candy for both boys, as well as pretzels. Would have got off fairly cheaply, too, if the oldest boy hadn't wanted to stop off in Chinatown for some Chinese food on the train ride back. Bad idea, the food was excellent, but rather spendy.

More back logged blog posts to come, I've got at least a couple more posts, and probably more than that by the time I get to 'em. Company picnic again next weekend!!!

Rapid Random

Just a few random things I wanted to post on!!!

My wife got lucky and got Jury Duty. Had her calling in since last Monday, but Friday was the first day they actually had her come in. So far, she's on a jury. I notice that when I was on Jury Duty, there were wild fires going on then, too. I saw the smoke rising from the hills yesterday when I was taking the boys to the railroad open house.

I know I've been hiking up there, but I remember the name of the place more than the place itself.

Incredibly hot this weekend. I kind of wanted to take the boys or the whole family to Universal Studios to partake in some of the moist activities that occur there, as well as getting some use out of the year passes. Of course, I don't think I'd drive, but take the rail line.




All images swiped from the 'Net.

The system went down several times on Friday. I wrote about it on my cup. "For a buggy system, it is remarkably stable" and "Do not attempt to adjust your computer. We are controlling the transmission." I wonder how many people actually made the Outer Limits connection.

Wifey's going to take the rail line to court tomorrow instead of driving. If she'd had the presence of mind, she could have gotten a Metro pass at the court and gone without having to pay. Hopefully (and if commuting that way suits her tomorrow) she'll pick one up when she's there tomorrow.

Instead of going to Universal, I did yard work yesterday. That, and the railroad open house. The lawn actually came out looking fairly decent just running the mower over it and weed eating around the edges. Had to cut back a lot of other greenery, too, it's that time of year when the Fire Department does inspections.

Writing about the yardwork reminded me that I should water the grass a little.

My mom called today and talked a bit to my wife. Catching half of the conversation I got that she'd bought something for my oldest boys' birthday present. As she was getting ready to hand the phone to me, wife tells mom that she'll have to tell me so I know what she got him. As soon as I'm talking to my mom, she starts telling me about a Stanley Kubrick video collection she bought. I thought that was quite cool, but a rather odd thing to have gotten for the boy. Apparently, it was not for my son but just something she'd picked up.

Earlier in the week I'd needed something for my cup, so I wrote part of an Emily Dickinson poem:
HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all!!!

If she'd had the Metro pass, could have used that to ride free to Universal. I don't suppose that she could grab a handful of them???

They had a note on the board at work to let them know if anyone is interested in a permanent Saturday shift. Oh yea, I am interested!!! Saturday shift means you get Fridays off, and the shift is from 6:30 to 3:15, so you've still got some Saturday left. If you don't fall asleep after work. It also means a little more gravy in your paycheck. Now, there's something to hope for!!!

I know there is more random, because I had a thing or two that got left off the last random!!! The hour grows late...

Universal Appeal

Over the weekend, in observance of the younger boy's birthday, we went to Universal Studios. It was the first time for both of the boys, and probably the first time I've been there in about 15 years.

As theme parks go, its interesting and fun, but not so many rides. More about the shows and attractions. My original thoughts had been to take to Gold Line out to Universal again, but the price for a day pass has gone from $3 to $5, and, of course, it ends up taking more than an hour to make the trip. At $12 for the family, it would be almost cheaper than the parking, but at $20 it was hardly worth it. Of course, this was before we got out of there and the 101 freeway was completely stopped.

There's the 74 Dodge Monaco Bluesmobile from The Blues Brothers.

One of the cool things that was new to me was the Terminator show. A cool mix of live action and 3-D film. Also new is a Shrek 4-D film with articulating seats and moisture effects.

Jaws. I had my little video camera with me, and the older boy and I attempted to do the lines from Jaws (Monkey cage? Shark cage), but I blew my lines.

They took out the Back to the Future ride that they used to have, but I'd never seen this "Doc Brown's Chicken" before. Didn't have any, but good theming. Also, when we went on the back lot tram tour, they do have the entry statues for Lyon Estates from that series of movies.

Ah yes, the back lot tram tour. One of the better things this park has going for it. Many street facades, many sound stages (which look like nothing but warehouses from the outside) and some interesting movie memorabilia and sets. New to me on the tram ride is video screens on the tram. Strange thing, several of the trees were wrapped up in white paper. The tour guide said they had been filming a car commercial there the other day, and that's why that was. As if that explained anything.

I didn't know it was filmed there, but Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives is at Universal. They said that they were filming while we were there, and asked us all to be silent while we rolled by. I didn't see anything other than the security guard. Lets see, what else happens on the tram??? Well, you go through one sound stage where King Kong attacks the tram, another one where you are involved in a Frisco earthquake. Nice for people visiting California. There is also the parting of the lake, which now has a little model of the ship approaching Skull Island from King Kong, and the Jaws Attack, and a flash flood.

Here's something surreal: The houses from the Grinch who Stole Christmas movie are located right behind the Bates Motel and the Psycho house.

Last picture is from the Water World stunt show. I'm not sure, but I think the show might actually be better than the movie was. Did I mention that the weather was somewhat inclement??? Not real bad, but it was overcast and cool all day, whereas every day leading up to this day and every day since has been beautiful, clear and warm. I only make mention because most every seat for this show is in a splash zone, and several are in soak zones. Worked out nicely, though, because there weren't too many people there, short lines.

Another ride we went on was the Jurassic Park ride. The younger boy had no interest in riding it, but each of us parents went with the older boy once each. Pretty good ride, with the potential to get wet.

The best ride there, in my opinion, was the Mummy coaster. Not a great coaster, but it has great themeing, as well as an awesome power launch. It goes through the whole track (mostly in the dark), then reverses and does the whole thing backwards!!! Rather unique!!! I rode it twice and the boy rode it three times.

Oh, and the deal that sealed it for me: The park lets you come back for the rest of 2008 (black out dates excluded), so there will be more of this!!! In Spring they are opening a Simpsons ride. More to follow...