1990-1995 Disneyland
1995/6 Universal CityWalk
1996/7 Disneyland
1997/8 Club Universe
1998/9 Dad's House
1999/2000 The crazy disco Hollywood sign affair
2000/1 Santa Barbara
2001/2 Working at Disneyland
2002/3 Working at Disneyland/Horrible Club in Hollywood
2003/4- Quality Time at Home
2004/5 - Sick at Home
2005/6 - Working at Buzz
2006/7 - Quality Time at Home
2007/8 - Quality Time at Home (I'm certain I was asleep well before midnight)
2008/9 - Working at Disneyland/Long Beach Bar with Nathan and Daniel
2009/10 - I worked until 10 at Disneyland then raced home to watch CNN.
2010/11 - Got off work in plenty of time, but sat at home and watched CNN, fell asleep at 12:05
2011/12 - Attempted to see New Year's Spectacular at Disney California Adventure, but by 10pm it was so foggy you could barely see the top of Mickey's Fun Wheel. Headed home where I watched a History Channel show on what happens after a pandemic, and then CNN.

This was the most excitement I have had on NYE in years. I will need to set a calendar invite to see if I can remember to plan that great NYE party next year...

We finished packing and showering, with me trying not to put too much of a show on for Mom and Gary through the frosted glass in the bathtub, and headed down to check out. We were right on time and after getting some quick sunrise photos, we piled into the Ford Excursion taxi and headed to the airport. I was the only one traveling on American as everyone else was on US Air. They disembarked first, and I was left alone on the Excursion until we reached my terminal.

It was bedlam in the airport which was surprising for it being 7am! I got my bag screened by the agriculture machine and after checking in, settled in for the long wait at bag drop. Little did I know that that line was not nearly as long as the TSA line. Initially, there was only two lanes open and the lines were evenly filled with waiting passengers, but as we waited they opened anothe line on the other side and our line took forever as people struggled with the basic laptops and shoes rules. It's only been 10 years, and I can't believe people still can't figure it out.

I wandered around after security looking at the shops for water and last minute souviners before heading to the gate. The flight to Miami was full to the brim, but thankfully I boarded in group 2 so I was able to put my backpack up in the overhad compartment to give myself a bit more leg room. The nice couple next to me were already on board and they slept through most of the flight. Sure enough there was an obnoxious baby behind us, but I just blasted my music to make it go away. The flight was a pretty uneventful two hours save for the landing in Miami which occurred in the middle of a thunderstorm and featured a couple of steep drops and a nice crosswind landing.

My layover in Miami was tight and I had a long way to go to get to the gate for my LAX flight so as soon as I could get off the plane, I hustled to the tram to go to the other end of the terminal. Once at my gate, I discovered there was a slight cleaning delay for our aircraft so I took the opportunity to forage for food. I found some chicken strips at Nathan's (I wasn't about to eat a snappy hot dog!), and the waited to board. This flight was less than full leaving an empty middle seat for me and the elderly gentleman in the window seat.

I settled in and finished watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture which I had started on the flight over. I then made it all the way through Star Trek 2 and halfway through Star Trek 3 before we had to pack everything up around Palm Springs due to windy conditions and some extra turbulence. We made it on the ground a few minutes early which was great since we had left about 15 minutes late.

Daniel arrived just as I got my bags from baggage claim and we headed home. The trip has finally come to a close and I hope the cold weather doesn't make my sore throat come back. Now going to rest and plan the next adventure!

We loaded up the Fusion and headed on the road. The Fusion rides good over the bumpy roads of Puerto Rico, and Gary and Shirley loved the displays. With just a hint of confusion and my expert directions, we were on our way to points east. Our travels took us to the PR-66 Toll Road and the first automated toll lane we went through buzzed at us with a red light, so confused, we decided to just pay cash as it seemed we were not getting the transponder to register that we were paying the fees. Come to think of it, we couldn't find anything that remotely looked like a transponder, so that made our choice to pay cash and any further stops, that much easier.

Our first stop was at the Outlet-66 Mall to get a quick breakfast. The first place we saw was a Wendy's, and since bisquits haven;t made it here yet, they breakfast menu items were served on normal buns. Mine was actuallly good and not greasy. After our meal break, it was a quick 20 minutes more to the El Yunque National Forest. We ponied up the $4 entry fee per person at the visitor center (or El Portal as they like to call it) and wandered around to get a feel for the rest of the forest. I got my obligatory magnet, and after we walked through the exhibits (skipping the Spanish only movie), we headed up into the rainforest.

We didn't spend that much time - maybe an hour or so - driving up the hill where we saw La Coca Falls and Yokahu Tower. There rest of the real highlights in the park required a bit of hiking, and sadly we did not have enough time in our day to spend wandering the upper trails. I wouldn't mind coming back and doing the 1.5 hour hike to the top opbservation tower, but I really would need to get in shape first.

We headed back down to the main highway and we decided to head around the Eastern edge of Puerto Rico to do a mini circle route back to San Juan. We headed around the island via Luquillo, Fajardo, and Humacaro. We missed one of the scenic turnoffs to do a mini coast loop, so we decided to push south to the Faro de Punta Tuna (or the Point Tuna Lighthouse), which had an awesome name. We stopped in Yabucoa for a snack break and search for unsweetened tea at McDonald's. While there I popped into Walgreen's to get me some new Solar Shields as the glare from the tropical sun was getting to me.

We then headed south to finally get to the Faro de Punta Tuna. Once we got into the smaller streets, I used Google Maps to help me navigate. It turns out Google wanted to send me up and down some extreme streets, so we just decided to follow the signs. We passed a cool looking beach near Maunabo, and made sure we hit it on the way back. Arriving at the Lighthouse, I discovered that, yet again, it was closed Monday and Tuesdays - just like Aricebo! I took the obligatory fence shot, and careful not to disturb the dog sleeping in the road, we headed back to the beach we saw earlier. Turned out to be a hidden gem as it was isolated and there was no one on it at all. We took a lot of photos and even got our feet wet in the Caribbean Sea.

After soaking in as much as possible, it was time to head back to San Juan and Condado. We took the interior route back and despite a delay at the toll plaza with traffic, it was a smooth ride back. We made it with 30 minutes to spare before Charlie's closed. Gary got clarification on the Autopass system, and apparently we would have been fine, but I am glad we payed anyway since the tolls were not over $1.50 each and it gave us piece of mind.

After chillaxin' at the room for a bit checking on Mom, Gary and I decided to have dinner at Chili's of all places. Despite a bit of a language barrier, the food was good and much cheaper than the hotel. It was time to relax some more before our early departures tomorrow. I have the earliest flight, but as a bonus I get in several hours before everyone else due to my tight connection in Miami. I am hoping there are no delays and I don't miss the connection like what happened coming back from Argentina.

Lunch was great, tho a bit overpriced, and the view was awesome. The SJ Marriott has a much better beach than the La Concha Resort. Gary and John attempted to secure the car after lunch and it was then that I realized I missed the fact that the Aricebo Observatory was closed on Monday and Tuesday. That left us 15 minutes to get a car to make the drive out there. Turns out there were no rental cars available which meant no Gorn at the Aricebo Observatory photo. I was majorly bummed, but at least now I have something to see if I ever make it back to Puerto Rico.

We walked back to La Concha and worked with the reservation desk to get a car for tomorrow. This way, we can all drive out to the rainforest and possibly do some zipline action. So we could accomplish something today, we piled into a cab and headed to Old San Juan again to visit the two Forts that guard the city - Castillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro (or "El Morro"), both which are part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Traffic was pretty heavy getting there. Mom decided to sit it out and read at the Entrance area to San Cristobal which was our first stop. Gary, Shirley, John, and I hiked over and under the fort and took tons of photos.

Following the outer wall, we headed over to El Morro. Along the way, we took photos of the historic Cemetario Maria Magdalena de Pazzis and the expansive park in front of El Morro. The park was going to host a Yanni concert the following week, and some of us were more excied than others. (I was in the ho-hum section). Gary and Mom decided to relax on a bench, and John, Shirley, and I headed into El Morro. It was $5 to visit both fortresses, and was well worth it. The lower levels of El Morro were full of great photo ops, and we all took full advantage. We spent about an hour wandering around before we all met back up at entrance to the park and then after a short walk, caught a cab back to our hotel. It was an arduous trek back as traffic was worse than when we arrived. I was completely zonked by the time we got back to the room.

We relaxed some more before heading out to Mike and Charlie's pizza which was just down the street in the opposite direction than we had ventured all week. I think we were all suprised at how much nicer this section of the road was compared to the area between La Concha and the SJ Marriott. It took forever to get our pizza and it was good, but not exceptional. I enjoyed everyone's company and it was a nice way to end a busy day.

After everyone had settled back into the hotel rooms, I did some strolling along the waterfront over to this lookout point of our cove. It was just past a full moon so I played with my camera a bit to try and get some good shots. Finally, I headed back to the room to call it a night. Can't wait to go exploring tomorrow!

After a lot of hours of work, the day was finally over and the conference came to an end. I decided to change and take a power nap upstairs before heading back down to see what was left to be done. Once everything was wrapped up, everyone else changed and we headed into Old Town San Juan. I was happy to finally get out of the hotel after so many days and hours inside.

Old San Juan was hopping with action compared to the Condado section. We headed to dinner at Barrachina, the so called place where they invented the Pina Colada. The food was pretty good, we got a sampler appetizer tray that everyone enjoyed. I was only brave enough to enjoy the fried Cod (basically fish fingers). My filet was a bit off for me, but was still nice to have a steak. It was bacon wrapped which I think was the culprit is setting my stomach lurching again.

We decided to walk around for a bit and before too long, we were ready to leave. Not wanting to catch a taxi in the heavy traffic area, we cut through a back street to get to another square. Unfortunately, just behind the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, Mom stumbled on some loose asphalt and scraped up her knees pretty bad. We got her back up and she was shook up, but managed to get one of the big taxi vans nearby and were able to get her back to the hotel where we could wash the wounds and get her relaxed and comfortable. It was a downer to end the day, but hopefully she recovers with no issues.

Not sure what the plan for tomorrow is, but we want to rent a car and get to the Aricenbo Observatory, but we will play it by ear and see how Mom feels in the AM.

During the sessions, I was able to use my iPhone to record some comments by the doctors that we will use to promote the conference. It was nice to feel productive with my gadgets.

The conference went very smoothly and the doctors all seemed very pleased. As soon as it got a bit slow after lunch, I went upstairs to relax and ended up sleeping for a few hours. My throat was in full red alert, so I started adding some Sprite to the mix to soothe it. While I was upstairs, I checked and it looks like my tonsils were swollen - yay tonsillitis! At least there are a lot of doctors around if things go horribly wrong..

At the end of the day, we had a reception for all the doctors with some great food. It was a nice way to end a long day! After we wrapped everything up by playing YouTube roulette, I headed upstairs to take some Excedrin and another Emergen-C. I felt a bit feverish, so hoping that by turning off the AC I will help my throat relax and recover.

Today was also the first day I started to feel under the weather. I had been sort of "off" since I arrived in Puerto Rico, which I associated with jet lag. Now, I feel like I am coming down with a cold or something. At any rate, it certainly affected my energy the whole day.

By the time dinner rolled around, I was happy to eat, but had zero energy for anything else. We had a bunch of tapas at the pool restaurant and I also had some Churrasco Steak which was pretty good.

After dinner, we went back and made sure we were ready to go first thing in the morning. I decided to head up to bed as soon as I could to try and get some rest.

The higlight of the day was when Mom and I had a nice lunch to ourselves outside of the hotel in the breezeway. The wind has been gusty and the seas have been choppy the entire time we have been here, and as we were eating, the wind started to pick up. Our waiter even brought our food out while walking backwards so it would not get blown off the plate. As we were eating, Mom had to fight with her salad, as the wind turned the lettuce leaves into little flags that kept flapping at her face. It was pretty hysterical!

The rest of the day was back in our room sorting out odds and ends. For dinner, we ate at the hotel Italian Restaurant called Voga, which features home made pasta that they make in the lobby down from the stairs that lead to the reataurant. It was the same place we had the buffet breakfast in the morning and as Mom pointed out, looks completely different ambience and color wise from the AM. I enjoyed the Chicken Parmesean which was great and I even had a little bit of leftovers to go im my fridge in my room.

Not a lot of photos today, but I did manage to get a shot of me on the beach which I will upload soon.

Tomorrow promises to be more of the same, with the real action coming this weekend.

Daniel and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4AM in order for me to get to LAX early enough for my 715 flight to DFW. As I got up in the morning my stomach was not feeling too good, and I was hoping that before I left the apartment, it would take care of itself. In a half asleep stupor, we finally hit the road. Of course two minutes outside the complex, my stomach decided it was going to go into overdrive. Honestly, I didn't think I was going to make it to LAX. Thankfully, there was not much traffic, and we made it to LAX about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. This allowed me to have some quality time before I went through security and boarded the plane. Luckily, everything returned to normal failrly quickly and after risking eating a plain bagel, I was all set to board. I lucked out in finding the cheap botled water vending machine so I only paid $1.50 instead of $3.00 for a 20oz.

The flight to DFW was very pleasant. Just a bit of turbulence owing to the high winds over the western US, but once we climbed to a higher altitude, things smoothed out. I was very happy there was no middle seat occupant so I got to stretch out. We cruised into DFW about 10 minutes early which gave me ample time to grab a snack and then walk to my gate. Perhaps I was a little too leisurely in my stroll since they were almost done boarding by the time I arrived at the gate.

The plane was packed, but my row mates didn't show up until the last minute. Of course they had a small child, but they were very nice and the child was mostly well behaved after we took off. There was another small child right behind us, so when I started to watch movies on my iPad, I had to turn the volume way up. In honor of it's 20th Anniversary, I watched Star Trek VI and made it part of the way through Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Before long, the 4 hour flight was over. I do feel a bit congested, so I am wondering if I have a head cold or something. Good thing I brought the Emergen-C! Puerto Rico was very nice and balmy when we landed. I was able to get my bag after a bit of a wait, but thankfully the taxi stand was close. A quick 15 minute ride later and I was at the La Concha Resort. Mom and Chantel met me in the lobby. I took my things upstairs, and then headed down to the boardroom which is our hub for the conference.

I was hungry so I attempted to eat some Wendy's (really not the best thing, but I was starving) and then we headed to the Walgreens down the street to get some water and other supplies for the week. Chantel informed me that the main street is pretty safe, but apparently you shouldn't wander too far away unless you are in a cab.

We went back to the boardroom and hung out for the next couple of hours, and then finally headed to bed at 130am local time. I was tired, but managed to unpack my clothes and get settled in my uber-swanky suite.

Looks like the next few days will be all prep for the meeting so hoping to get out and see the city at some point!

The biggest shock is that the Gallery program I have been using seems to be the long pole in the tent. As you may know this program powers my photo galleries on the Gorn Page, my Disney Park galleries, as well as the Charo galleries on Charo.info. I shudder at the idea that I would have to re-build these galleries from scratch. The Gorn Page gallery will be the most work as there are over 800 photos and I want to attempt to keep as much traffic as I can. The Disney Galleries can go away if need be, and the Charo ones will be pretty easy to do, although I am not sure of what Charo.info will look like in 2012.

In the meantime, there is a trip coming up next week! So Gorn photos will show up post trip in their normal place, and the diaries will show up on the main Daily Update page and then the mobile site.

Perhaps 2012 will be the year I get it all fixed!!

So far the Daily Update, What's New, and Trip Diaries have been converted to Wordpress, but I am not happy with any of the templates I have attempted to implement. Of course, I really need to design and create my own custom templates, but I have neither the time or patience to get that accomplished. The data was the hard part, so I can always launch a new site and tweak the design after it how live.

The Gorn Page represents the biggest challenge as I am attempting to go from version 1.5 to 3 of Gallery. I attempted to try to convert the site to Wordpress, but I seem to be limited with the amount of photos I can input. The site is currently close to 200MB by itself so I am sticking with Gallery and will just reuse the old customization. I've attempted twice to get the 1.5 version to work on the new server with no success. At least I am relearning how to get into a unix server in a shell environment. I'm sure 1998 Josh could get this site up faster that 2011 Josh!

So taking a break for now, I have a little over a week before my next trip, and i am cutting it close to try and get the new site up before I leave. Since I will be on a working vacation, it might be just what I need to get the site relaunched!

After all my content is done, I just have to tweak the templates and I will throw the switch. I really, really want to get the new site up by the time of my next trip in December. I have a good chance and hopefully all your patience will be rewarded!

Next weekend is my last big stretch before the holidays to actually get this done and completed. Fingers crossed!!

Apart from the complications of rebuilding a site like mine from the ground up, I have actually been busy at work as well as getting the heck out of town!

First up: I had a great weekend trip to Arizona to see the family and catch a baseball game. The Tuesday before I went, I managed to go to Dodger Stadium with my friend Ricky to see the Dodgers and Giants play. It was the first time I had been to the stadium since 1996 I think. Tim Lincecum was pitching for the Giants, and when I went to the Diamondbacks/Giants game the following Sunday, he was pitching again. It was also an interesting combination seeing Dodger Stadium and Chase Field (Nee BOB) back to back. My, baseball stadiums have changed. Since I go to mostly Angels games, it is nice to see a game in a modern stadium. I do hope to actually see a game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, but they sure don't make it easy with all their sellouts and high prices!

After coming home from the Phoenix weekend, Daniel and I set off on another Walt Disney World Trip. Since I wrote a trip diary in 2000, I usually do not write one for the trips afterwards. This was my 5th trip to the resort since 1992. I enjoy my time at WDW, and this time we stayed at Port Orleans - French Quarter and the Coronado Springs Resort. I wanted to stay at places I had not been at before, and of the two, I would recommend French Quarter. It's smaller, and just seems more convenient to all the parks except Animal Kingdom. Coronado actually was not that bad getting to the resorts, but since there were 5 stops at the resort, sometimes you had to wait that extra time to either get to a resort or get home.

While at WDW, we got to see the 40th anniversary celebration for the Magic Kingdom. A nice little ceremony was given for the Guests, and we received a free button and souvenir maps to boot. We also did some non-Disney parks while there. I had been to Universal's Islands of Adventure back in 2003, but they added the new Harry Potter attraction/mini-land and I wanted to check it out. Since I had never been to Universal Studios Orlando, we got park-to-park tickets which allowed us to visit both.

Overall, I really enjoyed the new Harry Potter section - a must see. It's too bad the rest of the parks lack some finish here and there. I was really nauseous after the Simpsons Ride and the Spiderman attractions. I am not sure if it was the heat or a bit of synch problems. I did enjoy the Hollywood Coaster at Universal and the Twister special effects page. All in all, it was another fun Florida trip and to boot we ran into some friends who were there and got to see them for a bit.

After being home for a week, Daniel and I headed on a last minute trip to San Francisco to see The Bad Seed at the Castro Theater. They had Patty McCormack, who played Rhoda in the movie, on-stage for Q&A and then autographs afterwards. They really put on a good show and we really enjoyed it! I think we need to do more of these when they are in LA or even in SF again. Daniel and I rode in and out of SF on the BART system, which I hadn't done in years. A bit of an odd group when you are on the last train!!

On the way home, we walked around AT&T Park, still no game though, and then we went to a Corn Maze in the central valley which featured huge amounts of corn over several acres. Daniel did way better than I did, so he's totally doing the challenge on Amazing Race.

Finally, this week has been an exciting one as I celebrated 10 years working at Disneyland! I can't believe it has been this long, it seems like yesterday I was blogging about getting my job. I'm very thankful for all that I have been able to do in that time, and can't wait to see what I get to do next.. It's also my birthday month, and its been 9 years since I had a themed party. I think next year as a milestone year, will be the time to host another one!

One final note: All summer I have been way behind on posting photos. When I get this server/new site sorted out, expect a big update!

Despite the moving 5 times in 16 years, the site still is not as neat and organized as I would like it. There are still some legacy parts - the worst offender being the Trip Diaries section. As many of you know, it has been the bane of my existence over the last 10 years as I have struggled to get the time to completely re-do the site. I have made progress on the redesign, but I have stopped as I am thinking of re-doing the whole concept.

I am going to try and set up Wordpress and migrate the site from Movable Type. Don't get me wrong, I love MT, but it just does not have the templates and themes that WP offers. Part of this new server migration will allow me to start fresh - either just with the Trip Diaries section, or putting the whole site into it.

There is some confusion on my part if I can run several different "blogs" (Gorn, Diaries, Daily Update) with the same install and have different themes for each. I'm thinking that there will be a master "Club Josh" look and feel to most of the site, and then the Gorn and Diaries will become sub-sites with their own look and feel.

The goal is to make my site into something that is easily updated and not saddled by what has been done in the past. That's the goal at least, and with my vacation to Florida and Arizona coming up, my goal would be to get something up and running by the 11th anniversary of the Daily Update in October. Then, who knows, maybe WP will allow me to have a new mobile site that has everything as opposed to just select content!

Stay tuned..