December 2007 Archives

It has been quite the eventful finish to 2007!

- I was accepted into the Emerging Leader program at Disney. This is an incredible accomplishment that I could not be more proud of and I look forward to all the new challenges at work that come with it. For the first time in six years I will not be involved in attractions - this makes me nervous, but at the same time I am really interested in how other units of the park operate. Hopefully, this is the beginning of something great!

- I had a great Christmas! My Dad's side of the family all trekked to Disneyland to see me working at the Subs. Granted it was one of the busiest days of the year, and they did not see much else, but they all loved the ride. It made Christmas dinner a bit tame since everyone was pooped, but being able to drive a sub for my family was great. Reminds me of the first time I drove the Casey train years ago when my Mom's side came to visit.

- Charo and I shared some quality time in Laughlin. How does tip-toeing across Don Laughlin's Celebrity theater's stage while full Catholic Mass is going on with Charo, her husband Kjell, and David? Pretty crazy, but David arranged a meeting with Charo and Kjell and if I can pull things together in the next week or so, something great is going to happen. I can't get into too many details, but it promises to be amazing. Lunch at Spago's is just around the corner...

This past weekend, I returned to Northern California to visit some friends. The primary reason for the trip was to go to Peggy's Christmas Party and see all of my UCD Co-workers. I was sort of a surprise guest and it was super-nice to catch up with everyone. I ended up staying until the bitter end with Brad and his wife, and the four of us learned a valuable way to get rid of the hiccups (stick a knife in a tall glass and let the handle of the knife hit your forehead as you drink - apparently it helps adjust your throat in a particular way that aids in the restoration of normal diaphragm function).

With my new digicam, I took just a few pictures of campus. The first one was of my namesake lake on the west side of campus and another was the former site of my work. They tore down the old HA2 building that I worked in back in the 90's. it was the old foreman's college and along with central receiving and a few other temp buildings, were tore down this year to make way for a new Physics-Geology expansion.

I also managed to visit Coder in his new home of Rohnert Park. It was great to see what he has been up to as well as enjoy the scenic drive between Santa Rosa and Davis via the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. It was so clear and crisp out when I was driving, it made me want to move back to Northern California ASAP.

Sunday on my way home, I enjoyed a nice breakfast at Cafe Bernardo in Sacramento with Matt and Steve. It was my first time being to this Bernardo, and despite being uber-popular (20-30 min wait for food - but at least they were up front with it) had a great time. Matt keeps trying to convince me that he is not racing to 100 countries, but I don't know he seems pretty keen on hitting some good ones soon. On the way back to their place, we stopped in an open house. It is so hard for me to believe that 3 bedroom 1 bath homes in Land Park are going for 600K. My goodness I remember them being so cheap! The house we walked through had a super neat guest cottage in the back with a pool, but I still like Matt and Steve's house better.

Another funny note: I did a lot of driving this weekend but enjoyed every moment of it. I just wish I received BBC Radio 1 and I would have felt like I was back in Scotland.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I need to upload the photos to Flickr so you can all see how great the new camera is.

and then late for others.

I was surprised today with an early Christmas present from Daniel:

Its a Canon Powershot SD850 IS - 8.1 MP digital camera. After the many problems I had with my old S400 on my recent trip (losing photos, and other misc problems) this will be a welcome upgrade. I will continue to use the S400 for work related stuff. I am excited about is all the new features on the camera such as face recognition and tons of in-camera effects. Of course, I think I will need a new computer to handle the larger files!

On the other side of Christmas, I have been trying to work on a project to give everyone for Christmas, but I am woefully behind. Hopefully, I can get it finished soon and reduce the time after Christmas we will have to wait to get the projects.

Don't forget Charo in Laughlin the last week of December!

So last Friday, I was just getting home from work and I was in a bit of a funk. I had come thisclose to getting something at work by a slam dunk. Instead, I am on a waiting list - which I am very proud of by the way, I have improved so much that I can't believe I got thisclose. But still, since I was not in for sure, I was in a bit of a funk.

Then it happened.

The phone rang.

"Hola Josh! Do you remember who this is?" I replied, "Charo, I could never forget you - How are you!"

We then had a festive 15 minute conversation. Just the day before I had been talking to David - fellow Charo fan who has put me in contact with her and invited me over to take this picture. David and I had been catching up on all things Charo since we hadn't chatted in a few months. He did mention that Charo owed me a holiday call, but I never anticipated what this call would be about.

It seems that with the Writer's Guild of America on strike, Charo cannot promote her appearances on talk shows and other outlets, and she is afraid that no one will know she is playing in Laughlin the weekend of December 27-30. I of course knew this and have it on the Charo.info site, but Charo has asked me to help get the word out. She is sending me a bunch of fliers as well as some art for the site as well as some future concert dates. Not only that, but since David let it slip to her that we were planning on going to see her in Laughlin, she wants us to sit front and center at the show (and I am sure point us out to the crowd).

So now I am working on ways to get the word out about Charo appearing in Laughlin. I am going to see if I can get something on MySpace et. al. so here is hoping we can sell the 1000 seats all four nights!