December 2008 Archives

Christmas Eve at Disneyland
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

One of the Christmas Eve traditions is that all sorts of characters gather in Town Square and wave goodnight to all the guests. It's something simple, but it sure did please the thousands that gathered and stood there for a long time taking photos and saying goodnight back to them. I'm not an overly sappy person, but I thought it was a
pretty neat thing to stand back and watch.

IMG_1403
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

I paid a visit to Susie in Santa Barbara today. It was just a quick trip since she is only down for a week and a half, and today was the only off day I had to drive up there. It took three hours in traffic and rain to get there, but it was worth it!! Susie, her husband Chuck, and I got caught up and had a great lunch. The visit was too short, and hopefully I will be visiting them in College Station soon!



Best moment - looking at the radar and noticing the "Chaos Bubble" around Santa Barbara. All of Southern California was experiencing light to moderate to heavy rainfall except for this peculiar bubble of dryness that seemed to be centered near Montecito. Chaos Lives!

Last Thursday and Friday, I did my first of two express trips to Phoenix. This time was with my Dad as sort of a late Birthday visit for my brother. It was a long drive, and we were there less than 24 hours, but I always like driving there with my Dad. When I was younger, I never really liked the long family road trips, but for some reason I actually like them better when I am older.

While in Phoenix, we visited the restaurant of one of Kevin's friends and it was fun to see how at home they felt in the restaurant. If they were in LA County, I am not sure they would receive an A rating since my nephew was passing gas and then running around the kitchen.

I did get to see some of my Mom's photos of her trips to the Mediterranean and then to Argentina in October. I am very jealous since she visited Greece and Istanbul as well as a continent that I have not been to. She really has put some distance between her and me on the Traveler's Century Club List. I really need to plan a long massive 10+ country trip to at least get back in the hunt. Right now, I am in last place!!

I'll be back in Phoenix for another overnight stay at the end of the month. Mom and I have noticed that it is either feast or famine - we go months without seeing each other than we see each other multiple times in the span of a few weeks.

On Wednesday night, Daniel and I went to the Kodak Theater to see Kathy Griffin in concert. Mandel had to give up his tickets at the last minute so we were eager to snatch them up. The show was at 8pm, and it was a race to get there before it started. We left OC around 6:30, and headed up the 405. Traffic was moving until we hit a car fire in Carson which slowed everything down. Thankfully it had just started so we were able to get past the incident before traffic came to a complete halt. After navigating through West LA in the middle of post rush hour traffic (though it says it lasts until 7pm, I really think rush hour in that part of LA lasts until 8pm or so), we arrived at the Kodak right before showtime.

Thankfully, they held the curtain for 15 minutes so we had time to freshen up, get some water, and head to our seats. Our seats were awesome - middle of the theater and just a few rows up from the orchestra section in the Parterre section. Our eyes were right at stage level and other than the camera for the jumbotrons, we had a perfect view.

Kathy had a great show - I think only a few slow bits here and there, but I really like the way she works the crowd and she has a great sense of timing so if something is lagging a bit and the energy is kind of low, she throws in something that gets everyone jazzed up again. I also was impressed that she was able to go for a solid two hours non stop. A great show that was totally worth the money - and way better than watching the Bravo edits of her stand up shows. I am excited about her new season of My Life on the D List, and only wish her cameras were there for our show so we would have a chance to be on it!

I tried out Netflix's new instant service for my TiVo the other day since it is the perfect marriage of two services that I already subscribe too. The premise is very cool that I can have instant movies waiting for me on my TiVo while I am waiting for the next Doctor Who or whatever to come in the mail in DVD format. Unfortunately, the first two times I tried it, the sound did not work. I tried queuing up the 30 second Bunny Theater DVDs, and it would start the sound, but cut out when the main show started. Granted these were 30 second to two minute shorts, I still was surprised that they had not gotten the bugs worked out yet.

The queuing also was not quite "instant" as it took several minutes for it to get to the TiVo, and I wonder how much longer it would be for a full length feature. Also, I do prefer the extra features on the DVDs for most movies, but there are some that I know I am just interested in the feature and this will be perfect for them. The next thing I want to try is the downloading to my Mac and see if the quality is better and if it is faster.

Holy Smokes!

I can't believe it has been three weeks since I posted! Why is it that I seem to be able to post 21 days consecutively on vacation, but when I am home I just neglect the site.

Actually, I have had all of my spare time recently taken up by helping my friend Lev get his web site off the ground. As is typical with me, when I start to work on other sites, my site gets neglected.

Honestly, the last few weeks since I returned to Florida have been a whirlwind:
- I am getting used to life at the Main Entrance - it's actually quite fun!
- I did get some bad news about something I was looking forward to doing, but I have high hopes that once we can get the economy turned around it will be back on and I will be right there to snatch it!
- Thanksgiving was a bust for me, I had these big grandiose plans to surprise the relatives, but I could not pull it together. I will just have to save the surprises for later.
- Mandel has two tickets to Kathy Griffin for sale and I snatched them up - ah the wonders of Facebook Commerce! I will be going with Daniel on 12/10/08 to see her at the Kodak Theater. Part of me wants to wear a tuxedo so I can really pretend I am at the Academy Awards.
- December is "Get achingly close to Josh and hopefully meet up" month. Kris is coming soon to visit Laura, and I am hoping for a quick drive by visit. This has potential for something even greater, but I am going to hold it in so that it will actually happen! Susie is coming to Santa Barbara for the second half of the month, and hopefully I will get some time to drive up and see her as well. Maybe she will want to bring Chuck to Disneyland?? And finally, Nathan is coming to stay with me to close out 2008! I can't wait and I am hoping we can have a nice blend of wild crazy times and kick back and relax times.
- I am working on my first "holiday letter". It's hard to summarize a year in greeting card format, but I'm going to try!

More details as they develop..