Big Weekend

I need a big weekend
Kick up the dust
Yeah a big weekend
If you don't run, you rust.

This is my big weekend recap. It was actually quite cool.

If you go back all the way to Friday, where it all started. I drove the Falcon to work for a change. (side note: I need to take more pictures of the Falcon!!!) Only AM radio, but it is such a fun car to drive!!! A big part of the reason I drove it is because gas is usually around fifteen cents a gallon less by my work.

On my way out from work my phone rings. It's my wife. She says she has a surprise for me, turns out one of my boy's friends mom invited both of the boys to spend the night with them, so we've got a kidless evening. My good friend Sammy (who I sadly don't see that much these days) had called, and turns out he's got a couple of extra tickets to the Dodgers-Cubs game!!! Nice seats, looking straight down the third base line. Straight home, then straight to the stadium. Dodger dogs for dinner!!! It was a good game, even though the Cubs lost. Dodgers dominated at the beginning, Cubs rallied to take the lead, then the Dodgers had to play catch up. Won 9-8. I think it's probably the best, most action packed live game I've ever seen.

Saturday I finally deposited the tax refund checks in the bank. That's a story in itself, suffice to say that my bank has made its way onto my short list. I wasn't going to let 'em bring me down, tho. Picked up some oil and filters for the cars and did oil changes, then did a little modification on my irrigation system. Both of the hose bibbs were leaking around the valves, and the south one I've got one of those Y adapters for two hoses on, so you can turn off one or the other. Never worked that well, so I bought three new valves, a tee fitting and a 90 degree elbow. Put the tee on the south one, and put a valve on either side, and the elbow on the other one, so now the hoses are actually pointing down instead of out. I'm very pleased with the results. Later on that evening, I saw that "Kill Bill", volume one and two, were going to be on. I had yet to see either, but it has been on my list of movies to watch. They were very well done, but I fell asleep during volume two.

Sunday we went to Carl's Jr. for lunch. I had read an article in the paper that they are bringing legal action against Jack in the Box over their insinuation about the unsavory whereabouts of their Angus burger meat origins. Made me want to eat at Carl's Jr. is all it did for me. Turns out they have a Hawaiian burger on the menu now. I had to try it, and it was pretty decent, but I think I would have rather had a Western Bacon Cheeseburger. After that we stopped by Comics Factory in Pasadena. I haven't been keeping up on the Gunslinger comic books, and two more have come out since the last time I was there. Something cool happened while we were there, too, the sound system in the place played two Counting Crows songs back to back. One of them I think it was the first time I've ever heard it not on my comp or stereo. When I got home, "Kill Bill", volume two was on, so I got to see the last of that.

Monday we went to Sammy's house and barbecued. The boys really like his cat, Tyson (Pictured above, a big Cubs fan, too). Played Frisbee football, did a bool hunt with the kids, and went for ice cream. Good times.

CSI-Legoland

"Lieutenant Caine, I found this decapitated head in the bushes next to the motorway..."

(This was the "more fun with this guy" I referred to in the Legoland post)

The Return of Magnet Letters

Welcome to the first installment of my magnet letters since I got a whole new set of funky cardboard ones to add in. As you can see, my creativity is expanded...

Disneyland After Dark

Cuz it's after dark now
And Disneyland is closed
We've been served
Ice cold beer
And Walt is our host

It's after dark now
And Disneyland is closed...
The party is over
The night is here
Let's bring out a toast...

Well, here it is, the recap of our Disneyland trip!!! The event was on Thursday night from 9 PM to 1 AM. We left to get there early, and it was a full half hour before that we arrived. Good thing, because there was a HUGE line to get the tickets from will call. By the time we made it through that and got from the tram and through the security check it was around 9:45. There was also a bit of a line to turn in some recyclable plastic bottles to get a Mark and Brian treasure map.

Upon arriving in the park, there was a touch of the surreal. Disneyland after dark is usually somewhat strange anyway. I remember one time when I was probably around ten or so, we went to the theatre in Fantasyland to see a play while the park was closed. Very strange. This was also strange, we got into the park, and walking up Main Street USA, they have the broadcast of KLOS playing. Tying into the Stones reference once again, the song playing upon our entrance was "Paint it Black".

Our first area that we wanted to visit was the New Orleans Square area, because last time we were there the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed, as they were re-tooling it to add in Jack Sparrow. On the way we passed by the Indiana Jones ride, and I asked the firstborn if he wanted to go on that. He did, so I left him and momma in the line and set off with the younger to find something to do in the meantime. On our way through, we came across the first of the treasures that we had to find on the treasure map. Five different lands were specified to have a treasure hidden in them, and we needed to write down the color for each. This one was a projected image on the ground right outside of the Golden Horseshoe Revue. Cool.

The Sailing Ship Colombia is one of those attractions that I have seen for years, but have never been on. It was docked a bit from there, and he wanted to go on it. The attendant invited us aboard, but informed us that it wasn't sailing that night. It was very cool, anyway, great detail, and the boy enjoyed playing pirate for quite a while, until I got the call that they had gotten off the Indiana Jones ride. Met up with them, and they had spotted another treasure projected over a shop opposite the ride.



After that we went to the Pirates ride. I have to say, they did a great job of adding in Jack Sparrow while retaining the original feel. The cannon ball shots are much better than they used to be, and they added in a really awesome Davey Jones effect.

We had figured that going on Splash Mountain would probably be a very short line, because who wants to get wet at night??? That was our next destination, but it was closed when we got there!!! Bummer. OK, what next??? Space Mountain, pretty much on the opposite side of the park. OK, we'll catch the train from there to the other side. Got to the train station, and it's closed, too!!! Fine, we'll walk that way, and ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds on the way. Guess what, those are closed down too!!! Looked like they were working on it, though. Onward to Tomorrowland, and surprise of surprises, Space Mountain is actually open!!! While standing in line, we saw the third of the treasures projected on a wall. I was a bit surprised that the younger wanted to ride it. On the last part of the ride, I looked around to see how he was doing, and he's shaking his head "NO". Guess he didn't like it so much.

We headed back towards Fantasyland, and the Matterhorn is up and running again. Once again, the oldest and momma get in line while the younger and I head off to see what else was of interest. He wanted to go back to the pirate ship (not the Pirates ride, but the Sailing Ship Colombia) but on the way there I spotted the Jungle Cruise (with a very short line), and he was up for that. I'd never been on that after dark, either, and it was cool, with a whole new set of their famous corny jokes.

As we were getting off that, I got the call that the other half had finished up their ride (actually got to go twice) so I told them to make their way to Sleeping Beauty's Castle (which has gotten a whole new pink and purple lighting scheme, looks pretty nice) and we'd meet up there. Wandering through the castle, I spotted the final treasure projected on one of the back walls of the castle.

There was a bit of a line to turn in the completed map for the prize, but took care of that, too. The prize was a VERY cool Mark and Brian pirate flag. I now have a new most valued possession.

The boy was getting hungry and momma was thirsty. None of the pretzel or churro stands were open, so we ended up going to the Royal Street Veranda for some of their AWESOME clam chowder and gumbo in sourdough ball bowls. That was the only part of the evening that cost us a thing, even parking was free for this night.

By the time we were done eating, it was a few minutes until closing. We weren't too far from Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we headed that way. We made it in time for the last run of the night, and got to choose our seat and everything. The younger boy was a bit unsure about it, and wasn't going to go until he saw that it was a train. Afterwards, he wasn't so sure about that ride, either!!!

So, we only got onto a few rides and were out until well after 2 AM. Still, last time I went to Disneyland I was out $228 by the time we got into the park, so this was still very cool. And I got a new centerpiece for my Mark and Brian shrine!!!

Fire

Perhaps you heard of the fire that was burning today in Griffith Park.



Or maybe not, I know the one that was up by the Hollywood sign got a lot of coverage.



Anyway, it's not too far from my home, and on my way home tonight I took these shots.



They say that it is contained, but still...


Worrisome.

11 Years

11 years ago today my firstborn was born.




His desire was to go to Legoland with his friend, so that is what we did on Saturday.



It's great that there is a Legoland in the southland now, back when I was his age the only ones they had were overseas, and all I could do was read about them.



The Las Vegas mini land is new, I may do a full post with nothing but pictures from there.





That is a Lego alien coming out of a Lego toilet... on the way to the bathrooms!!!


I think any parent with Lego maniac kids can relate to the mural!!!






Police brutality!!! (I've got more fun with this guy to come...)

Like A Family

One of the guys I work with has made some observations over the course of several weeks that I thought I would share here, for lack of anything else of interest having happened recently.

One of the other guys we work with comes out to the outside tables where we usually take our breaks one afternoon. "Hey, does anyone have any change they can spare???" A couple people gave him some, and he thanked them and scurried back inside to the vending machines for some snacks and soda. As he got back inside the building, this guy made the statement, "He's like a little brother, always hitting everyone up for change!!!"

Another of the people in our crew is a young lady. She has a mouth on her like a longshoreman, and plenty of attitude to go with it, but she's sweet and endearing, too. Most everyone gives her a hard time at one point or another about something, always in fun and to get a reaction out of her. One day after she went back inside, this guy observed, "She's like everyone's kid sister, everyone picks on her, but you can tell they like her!!!"

Another day, we were eating lunch. He had his fill, but had a nutty bar left over. He asks if anyone wants it. Everyone turns him down. He turns to me (I happened to be sitting next to him) and starts going, "Come on, Aye, you know you want it..." I had really had my fill already, but it did look good, so I took him up on it. As I was indulging, he says, "He's like my kids, you can tell when they want to snack something, even if they say they're not hungry, and you can talk them into it... easily!!!"

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!!!

The Doctor Is In

This is a relatively new comic strip to my paper. Probably about a year they've been running it. It's not much on dialogue, usually more of a visual. Its not my favorite, in fact a lot of times it's not that funny. Today's, however, I thought was great.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

My wife has been dieting and exercising for a bit more than half a year now. So far she claims to have lost more than 90 pounds (I seem to be weighing a bit less, too, but I'm not going to go messing with the wheel on the scale). Her main things are counting calories and fat grams, keeping the calories under 1200 and fat grams under 20 (I think). She also walks around the neighborhood for something like 300 minutes a week. As I said before, I'm not sure about the actual weight loss, but she sure looks a lot better!!!

In addition, she feels better and has more energy.

Way to go, baby!!!

The Ides of March Random Post

Did I actually hear what I thought I heard on the radio after the 2007 Rose Parade??? A storm trooper from the 501st Legion calling Bob Eubanks out over comments he made during the broadcast???

I bought gas tonight. I didn't need to that bad, but I figured it would probably be the last time I would be able to get gas for under $3.00. I pumped until it stopped, and it took 2.92 gallons. After I got my change, I checked the trip odometer, and it was at 92.9. Wild.




Why are there always long lines at Wal Mart, and they never seem to open more than maybe a fourth of the registers???

Didn't the clock in the cafeteria at work used to have red numbers??? They're green now.

There are several staircases to go to the different levels of my area of work. All the ones in the center are split so you come up uneven if you try to skip every other step. The ones on the north and south end work out evenly, though.

If the gas I bought tonight had been selling for $2.92 a gallon instead of $2.999, I might have had to bought a lottery ticket or something.

These chipotle crackers my wife found at the dollar store are REALLY good!!!

A few weeks ago, they were fertilizing or mulching or something (whatever it was, it STANK!!!) out in the center courtyard at work. I think if work were a learning institution, they would call that area the Quad. I was walking through in the morning, and one of the gardeners was dumping the stuff from a wheelbarrow. There was steam rising off the stuff, and I thought to myself, "That's the stink coming off it, you can actually SEE it!!!"

I hope you are enjoying these pictures. I took them all on the same day, and there's more where that came from!!!

A family that we are friends with got a new dog. They named her Olive. The mother told my wife to sing the first part of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to her while they were walking her one time. When she got the the part that goes "All of the other reindeer", Olive turned around and nipped at her!!!





Now the clock in the cafeteria is back to red. Huh???

I guess Olive was in no mood for that old gag.

That's how the dollar store always gets you. They have something you fall in love with, then they stop carrying it.