Milwaukee

This weekend we went to Milwaukee, WI. "We" being myself, Deanna, and Sam from CSz. Milwaukee Csz was having a regional tournament and we went to represent.

We left at 2:30pm to get Sam's girlfriend from her job downtown...we got to Milwaukee around 6:00. Almost 4 hours.

Other cities in attendance were Indianapolis, Quad Cities, Minneapolis, Houston, and Milwaukee.

It was fun to watch other teams play. There are a couple new games we got. A couple different ways to play games that work great. And a couple games that I can do without.

We played 3 games total, and we went 3-0! No losses!

On Friday night we stayed at the Hilton. We got a pretty good deal through Hotwire, and Sam go the same deal. Here is where I tangent a little.

Deanna and I have been watching this show on TV called "Little People, Big World" on TV. It's about the Roloff family from Oregon. The parents are both Little People. They have a young son, an older daughter, and their oldest kids are twin boys. Of those four kids, only one of the twin boys is a little person as well. This show is great. One, I get to see Oregon stuff on TV (I think they live in Sherwood). Two, it's great to learn about little people. The dad sells kits (Stools, clothes rack extensions, etc) to hotels that help accomodate little people. He also goes to Little people conferences around the nation.

Back to the story. As we were leaving the Hilton on Saturday to get lunch, we saw a little person. Normally if I see someone "different" I stare a little...more because I'm curious than scared or appauled. When she walked by I didn't get that feeling. It was great. THEN I saw another little person. What!? As we got in the elevator to go to the parking garage there were four little people coming out of it. I don't get giddy or starstruck around celebrities much. But I totally got that feeling as we got on the elevator and then headed to our car. THERE WAS A LITTLE PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE IN THE HOTEL!!(I assumed). I wondered if the Roloffs were there. It was a crazy feeling.

From there we went to eat at "The Safe House". If you're ever in Milwaukee, go eat here. It is fun. It is very spy themed. When you go to the restaurant you enter down through an alley. You then go into the "International Export Company" It's a small waiting area that looks kind of like an entrance to a export company. If you wait long enough someone will get on the speaker and ask you for the password. If you know it, they flip a switch and a bookcase opens up to let you in. If you don't, the voice on the speaker has you prepare for your assignment. The room is also displayed on monitors throughout the restaurant so you can see what the people are doing. We watched people: Act like monkeys; do ballet; do the hokey pokey. Once you go through the bookcase you go through a passage and when you step on a certain piece of floor, a panel of wall opens up to reveal the restaurant. The whole place applauds as you walk in if you had to do something to get in.

The Safe House is filled with Spy stuff. Some just being wall displays, but there are some other neat things: The bathroom plays a police scanner instead of music. In the women's bathroom there is a picture of Burt Reynolds in the buff with a metal heart covering his privates. If you try to move the heart you get hit by a burst of air and an alarm goes of in the restaurant letting everyone know what you've done. There's a room in the women's bathroom that let's you see through a mirror out into the restaurant. You can turn a light on in there to let people see you. They had an alibi phone booth that would let you play sound effects over the phone to disguise where you were. The pub on the corner called "the Newsroom" has a special booth that rotates into the Safe House. The neatest little thing we found was a secret exit. You can go through the main exit, or go into a phone booth. Put a quarter in the phone and a voice tells you to enter a code. When you do, the door you came in through locks and says "occupied" to the out side people. Meanwhile a wall slides open and lets you down into a passage that exits the building.

This place was great.

From there we went back to CSz. Did a 3:00 show. Then headed to the Polish Fest for an hour. Luckily we crossed paths with a man and woman who asked if we had our tickets. We said "no". They gave us four tickets. We got in for free! Wandered the grounds. Deanna and I danced one Polka...well we scurried around the floor with other people dancing around us.

Then headed back for the final of our shows.

It was a great time overall. We got on the freeway at 11:01 and made it home by 12:34am. Much better than the drive up.

Today...the Pride Parade is right out our doorstep.

Father's Day

Tomorrow is Father's Day...HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!!! (he's one of the few people who read this) (also, you'll be receiving a gift in the mail)

Today we portrayed father's for a client. While on break I noticed one of those mall photography places. On a whim I asked how much the sitting fee was. She said "There's no sitting fee. Also, I'm in training so if you get a picture you'll get a free 8x10". Sold!





Pictures compliments of the fine photographers at http://www.kiddiekandids.com/

Butterflies and Nature (words)

Today Deanna and I settled the remaining phone snafus. When I started up a plan for her, it was under the pretense that she would use her current BlackBerry phone. So I got a Razor phone to use as a second phone if I wanted. Well, she wanted an updated BlackBerry, so we returned the Razor and got the process started on switch her Oregon number over to the new account.

After that we headed home, hopped on our bikes, and rode down to the Nature Museum where they have a Butterfly Garden. A sealed in green house with a lot of butterflies and moths. It was great. See the post below for pics.

There were a lot of Butterflies, and a lot of dead ones as well. We also saw a bird of some sort chilling out in there...Deanna found it. It looks like the bird(s) might nibble at the butterflies as seen in some of the photos...there are a lot of wing tips missing from the bigger ones. They also have a bunch of cacoons on display outside the garden. They release newly hatch butterflies every Sunday at 2:00. Some of the Costa Rican species have glassy looking cacoons that were pretty cool.

After that we went outside to walk around and look at birds. Just as were we're getting ready to walk back down to the main level a red-winged black bird landed on the rail nearby.

I like birds and butterflies.

Butterflies and Nature (photos only)

The "F" is for "Finally!"

Part two.

I didn't wait the full hour to call back. When I called the computers were up.

I presented my case and said I would like my Cingular account closed, AND my AT&T account that it would revert to closed with no cancellation fee. Here was the CSR's clever retort, "Ok."

I wasn't expecting it to be that easy.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I wanted to keep the number to be "ported over" (tech talk) to whatever other service provider I picked. THIS is where she needed to get a manager. She reinstated my phone service with a note saying "Customer will return phone today, waive the cancellation fee". We'll see if that holds true. Just to be safe, before I called them I went online and cancelled my automatic payments. This way they can't just charge a cancellation fee to my bank, they have to bill me...and I can say no to that.

So, mission objective 3: T-Mobile BlackBerry deal. Good ole Rico Diablo is diabolical about finding great deals. One he stumble across involved the BlackBerry: 1000 anytime minutes with unlimited email and text messaged. Email and text is where I was getting extra charges with Cingular so I was in. I went to the store he told me to and Boooooo. They were out of the phone I wanted. So I started talking plans. He says he's never heard of the plan.

I call Rico and ask for the plan details. He confirms them. I tell him my dilema. Rico, the mastermind, says "go to [another nearby location] and see if they have the phone...actually, have the guy there call them to check."

That I did. They had plenty BlackBerry 7105's. Off I went.

I did some masterminding of my own and told the person helping me I left a pamphlet in my other pants that mentioned the deal. She said "Sure!" and hooked me up.

Not only did I get service for myself, I set up Deanna. We now have T-mobile. We now have phone service in our house! And I have one of those Lt. Uhura ear pieces!

PS...all of this traveling was on bike! Jim would be proud...well, he SHOULD be.

The "F" in Phone

I just got effed. I have Cingular...but not regular Cingular...the Cingular that AT&T turned into. I stuck with my old AT&T plan and Cingular just took over the billing. Well...over the last 3 months my signal has started to suck ass. Deanna called in and found out it is because they are taking down the old AT&T towers. I called as well and confirmed.

So, I researched phones and finally picked the one I wanted. I got a Pocket PC from Cingular. I'm still on AT&T contract until September so I figured if I went Cingular I wouldn't have to deal with any cancellation fee hassle.

So I got a phone, signed up, even had them check the service in my area and it said "High" but right near a patch of not so good.

Well. I got home and I have the same shitty service. So, I went back and said I wanted to cancel and return the phone. Joni (the lovely lady who helped me...no sarcasm, she really was great) said I would have to call in to make sure they don't charge me fees. If I return the phone it would revert back to my AT&T plan, but it would take 10 days to get that up and running. If I go to T-mobile (which I am going to) and keep my number, it automatically cancels my plan and I get charged fees.

So I go outside the store (where I DO get a signal) and call to cancel. After holding awhile I get through and ask first to cancel my automatic billing (incase they try to charge me a fee...easier to not pay a bill and keep talking to a manager than to just find out they autobilled it). She says "Our system is down right now but I can answer any general questions". To which I reply "All I have are specific questions." "You should try calling back in an hour."

Bah. So that's where I am. Waiting.

More BEEF

Like I said...Sun screen (it wouldn't let me post more photos). This is Emily teaching us about Dance Pilates. There was a lot of frisbee, sitting around, and sleeping at the beach. It was a nice day. Sunny, but not too warm. I mention sun screen because we all put it on, but a majority of us didn't do it well. My ankles and a small part of my foot got burnt. And I SWORE I would never burn my feet again after a terrible sun burn on my feet a couple years ago.

Ed got burnt, I'm sure some others did too. After hanging out awhile Deanna said she'd go back to the cabin and make sandwiches and bring them back to the beach. Monty went with. About 20 minutes after that, Ed and Susi said they were going to leave and I felt the beach trip diffusing so I said I'd go with them and hope to catch Deanna. We did...right as she was coming down the steps...with sandwiches. So everyone but Ed and Susi stayed a while longer.

Oh, most of the guys were playing frisbee in the water. This is funny for three reasons. 1) Ed had his car keys with alarm in his pocket and they got soaked (I assume they still worked). 2) Later in the afternoon Chris picked up Todd from a train station and met us at the beach. When Todd got in the water he had his phone on him. and 3) Playing frisbee in the water literally tore open the side of Jim's shorts. And then when he went back to play again, it tore open the other side.

That night we ate played games out in the front area like track ball and horse shoes. I don't play horse shoes much, but I played a little out here. I took a picture of one lucky round. I couldn't believe I threw a double ringer. You can call me Roger Miller if you drink tea.

That was the beef trip. Good times. Well done, Beef. Katie, Bill, Piero...you were missed...that's why we called you doing terrible bits.

BEEF CABIN!

I forgot to write about this. Last weekend Deanna and I went camping with my i.O. team, Johnny Roast Beef. And by camping I mean we rented a cabin that had a tv, dvd player, and hot tub. It was Emily's find, and thus was reffered to as her Country Home (said in country accent).

Here's Emily on the porch of her Country home.

I really don't care for camping at all. That was the original idea. "LET'S GO CAMPING!" Boo. I worked at camps for 5 years. I've been outdoors enough to know that it's okay as long as there is an "indoors" at the end of the day. Sleeping on the ground is for animals, suckers, and apparently Chris McAvoy.

We (Deanna, David Montgomery and I) drove up (down and over a little) on Friday. About a 2-3 hour drive from Chicago to the cabin in Michigan. We took off around 3:00pm just to get out of the city before traffic got extremely bad. Emily told us she wouldn't be at the cabin until 6 or 7, so we stopped at Bluechip Casino to kill some time. I lost $57 on a texas hold 'em style table game. Deanna lost $20 on slots. David won $5.25. $5.25 was the big winner.

After that we were on our way and the first to arrive (after Emily, Brian and Jim) at the cabin.

The whole trip was pretty fun. Friday night was a lot of sitting around and eatting. A few slogans or catches phrases were "whose up for the tub?"

"There's no parents here. We can grill whenever we want."

And "you sackin' out?" Which was said to anyone who was saying they were going to go to sleep. I don't have any pics of that.

Saturday, all 9 of us got up and Emily (with help from some other ladies) made a breakfast fit to feed an ARMY! (of 7 or 8)

We then all headed to the beach and put on our Sun Screen...more on that later.

Time out for love

I am surrounded by a lot of good people out here. #1 of course is Deanna. Hands down. She's been working her butt off on a project recently and she is kicking ass at it. She get's stressed out, but I still love her.

A long while ago a few of us from ComedySportz got together. Everyone seemed to be bummed out. I was bummed, Deanna was bummed. I knew of someone else who was, Deanna knew of someone...and those someone's knew of someone. I think there were about six of us initially. Well we got together to hang out and stop being bummed. We had a ridiculous photo shoot. I made CDs for everyone and labeled them "Fun City!"

We've met a few more times with varying people here and there, but Fun City has stuck. So much so that David, the marketing guy at CSz had an idea for something and called in Fun City to take care of it...he calls us Fun City.

So...it looks like Fun City is there to come to the rescue!

To everyone in Fun City...you're the best.

Of Singing and Cinging

For the past month or so...while I've been back in town and done with the teaching gigs, I've been part of an improv group called ACE. What do we do? Well, three of the last 6 Sundays we did an improv set. The other three we did a staged reading of "Guys and Dolls", with music. It was a blast. I was Benny Southstreet.

I had never seen Guys and Dolls before. We got a CD to listen to when we first met. As I listened to it I thought "This is going to suck". The music was okay, but there were a lot of boring songs. Luckily, as we got more familiar with our roles and what not, it started to be fun. Once we got it on stage, it was a blast! Last Sunday was our last Guys and Dolls show. We're taking July off and we'll be back in August with something...maybe Bye Bye Birdie...maybe not. We were talking about doing School House Rock, but it looks like that won't show up until I'm in Maine.

Totally unrelated, our (Deanna and I) phones have been getting really crappy service in our apartment for the past couple months. Deanna looked into it and found out it is because we were AT&T and that got transferred over to Cingular. We didn't necessarily get transferred to Cingular service, we still had our plans, and our phone still use the AT&T towers, it's just handled by Cingular. Well, Deanna found out that they are slowly taking down the AT&T towers. The only people using them are people who haven't "migrated" to new plans. Add to that that my phone is falling apart. TIME TO PHONE SHOP! Deanna will probably switch to T-mobile. I am still undecided. I would like to get a pocket PC so I can connect my GPS (see earlier post) to it on the road.

I also bought a 580EX flash for my camera. I understand my camera fully. I understand my headshot lights. I have never liked the look from a mounted flash. So, I'm taking an online course that looks great. If nothing else, it will help me like using a flash when needed.

Yeehaw!

In Dallas. Back to doing Yahoo stuff. This week is a little more relaxed, 1 training slot on two out of 3 days...so just two trainings total instead of 3 a day.

Today, after training, I went out with my camera to fins cows or horses. It actually wasn't long until I found an Equestrian Club. Took some fun pics that I can't put up until I get home.

Now if you'll excuse me, the Lost finale is starting.

Did we really like this stuff?

Right now I'm watching "Top Secret" on HBO Family. Maybe I've been doing improv so long that campy bits are lost on me now, but this movie is ridiculous, and I remember loving it when I was younger.

It's like a terrible pun every 2 minutes. It reminds me of Mel Brooks' any movie.

I never saw "Blazing Saddles" when I was younger, but everyone speaks of it's hilarity, and I did a VO that changed the words of a scene in that movie. I then bought the DVD of this hilarious gem. I then watched it.

It is a different era, friends. The humor in it is very punny/HA HEY! And a lot of it is racist.

Speaking of HA HEY! Val Kilmer in Top Secret was at a play and had to hide. He went into the "Prop Room"...once inside it was full of PROPELLERS!!! HA HEY!

Was it a simpler time? Are movies that are currently out as stupid, but in a different way?

Around the world...

...in one buffet!

This week I'm in lovely St. Louis. I drove to see the St. Louis Arch...done.

So...what else is there to do in St. Louis? Apparently smoke. Other than that I decided to go to Harrah's Casino. You'll be happy to know my fame and fortune automatically boosted me to the Gold level. So that was cool. You're required to get a points card before you go into the casino. Apparently it helps keep track of the people. There is a law that you can only gamble (lose) $500 every 2 hours.

When I got my gold card I also got a free ticket for the buffet...which was great because I hadn't eatten yet. I got there around 7pm and looked for my game....Let It Ride. I found something similar called something like Texas Hold'em Style. You ante in with $3-$50, you also have the option to play the bonus. The bonus is a $1-$25 bet and you win based on your first two cards. You are dealt 2 cards only, and if they are any pair, or some combo of Ace & Jack or higher, you win based on your bonus bet.

Once you see your two cards you then either bet double your ante ($6-$100) to see the flop of three cards that everyone gets to use, or you fold. The dealer will then deal a fourth card and a fifth. You get a chance to match your ante before each of those cards are drawn. Then it is your hand vs the dealer's hand. My very first hand I bet $3, and then $1 on the bonus. I was dealt two Aces, which is great. The dealer ended up winning the had with three of a kind, but he gave me $30. I didn't get it. It was because I played the bonus! And getting Two Aces pays the highest bonus odds, 30-1. Well...this game I liked.

I played for 2 hours and ended up being close to even when I was ready to go to the buffet. On a whim I bet $5 on the bonus for my last hand. I was dealt an Ace King, which paid out 15-1...so I won $75 on that bonus even though I lost the hand.

Then I was off to the previously hinted buffet. I had food from the four corners of the world: Crab Rangoon, Pizza, Chicken-fried steak, and salad.

You know you're in a good casino when they have a cigarette vending machine, AND every restroom has a convient disposal for insulin syringes! FUN!

Back on the Road

Same company, different training. This time I'm in Detroit, MI.

I get the strange feeling you're asking yourself, "But Rance, what do you on the road?"

It is pretty simple and usually involves TV. I like to go out and explore if I have a day free, but I don't...and these trainings can be draining. So, my week usually includes watching shows I don't normally watch on TV...like Amazing Race, Wheel of Fortune, and last night...Myth Busters.

Since I'm doing 5 trainings a day, I get home around 6:00 and I'm tired of standing so I order food or get food and then TV! Kind of boring.

Hmm.

Today while waiting for my Honey BBQ Steak to go from Chili's I went across the street to Comp USA. While killing time there I found Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator. WITH GPS LOCATOR!!!

Add to that there was a $40 rebate and you have awesome.

I have a laptop that is now a GPS locator with voice driving directions. I just tried it out and it works. It will be extra handy for any future gigs, and for when Deanna and I drive to Maine this Summer.

Thank you, technology.

Farewell DSL / Rumor Has It...

I finished my last training job yesterday. I'll be back training on a different topic later on in the month, but this leg is done.

I was in Alhambra, CA near L.A. for most of the week, and then Sacramento on Friday.

Upon returning to the airport to fly home I noticed everyone looking out the window. Human nature kicked in and I followed them to see what was up. Right there on the runway was Air Force One...and just 5 days after I had seen it blown out of the air on 24 (season 4 disc 4...oh yeah...SPOILER).

It was far enough away that I couldn't see if the President was there. I know he was flying in to meet with the Governator.

I then flew to Denver, then to Chicago.

On the flight from Denver to Chicago there were a couple things.

1) one of the flight attendants HAD TO BE in witness protection. A stout, older guy...totally looked like he could have been ex-mob and now was a flight attendant. It was bizarre.

2) I saw the movie "Rumor Has It..." with Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner. Rumor Has It...that Jennifer Aniston can't act that well. She did ok, but anytime she was supposed to hysterically cry I found myself thinking "I could do better than that if I were playing the female role...I would be more believable." Another thing about this movie. The guy playing her fiancee (no idea what his name is)...this guy has popped up recently and pretty much plays the same roles all the time. I've seen him in two different movies on airplanes...both as the straight man love interest. I don't remember what the first movie was. He was also the straight man love interest in that movie where what's-her-name from Walk the Line is a ghost. I can't believe I can't think of her name...Legally Blonde...that girl. Anyway, I'm sure Eric or Rich will know the name of her, and the guy I'm talking about. So this guy. He seems to be in everything in this role, he's good at the role, but just not that interesting. He was also...uh boy....I'm blanking on names...he was in that movie with Tom Cruise (bad guy) and Jamie Foxx (cab driver). All I can think of is Minority Report...and it's not that. Anyway, the guy I'm talking about is a cop/detective that is trying to catch Tom. That's the only place I've seen him NOT as the love interest.

Man...I think I just found something hereditary that I got from my dad...inability to remember movie names and actor names. And if it IS hereditary, it will only get worse from here. My favorite movie name guess of my dad's: "Stench of a Woman" instead of "Scent of a Woman".

Back in Action

Well...I had a week off. Stayed home and took some headshots, AND had a fun easter celebration!!

That's right...bunnies and bees!

The day after easter I flew to my current location...Alhambra, CA. Things have been low key this time around. One of the bonuses of flying is that someone is always sick...always. I'm feeling it a little, but fighting it off.

My flight was potentially terrible, and then got better. I was standing behind a lady who was about 5'4". As we slowly made our way to our seats on this full flight, she went to an aisle seat in the emergency row...5'4"!!! If you're short and you sit in the emergency row, Karma will get you (PS. my new name is Karma).

I, and my long legs, had a window seat. My last two flight have blessed me with aisle seats (so I can pop my knee...those who know me, know)...but they were next to an old man with a newspaper. TWO FLIGHTS! DIFFERENT OLD MEN! Why do I mention the paper? Because it would drift over onto me, as well as old man elbows. At least I was in the aisle and could easily escape.

As I took my window seat I waited to see if my old man fate would reach me. Nope...a baby! A cute adorable baby..well...1-2 year old. She sat right there in the middle seat as her mom sat in the aisle and her huge, muscular dad put things in the overhead. I'm thinking "GREAT! This is the best! I won't be fighting for the arm rest or leg space with this little kid in the seat!" And then, her huge dad sits in the middle seat. Ugh.

I had been Pepsi-ing up and used the bathroom. When I came back he offered to have me sit in the aisle and everything was good and well. Whew! That was a close one!

I got to see the Chronicles of Narnia finally. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is an animated film that I remember very well from my childhood. I almost started crying when Aslan made his "agreement" just because that little kid part of me remembered what happen and I felt like a little kid again. It wasn't that bad when they finally got back to it. Glad to finally see it.

I've been meaning to get out to IO West while I'm here, but being slightly sick has made me do nothing more than watch TV and go find food. I got 10 hours of sleep last night...which is VERY odd for me considering I woke up at 7:00am.

In other news. I got an interesting message on my MySpace page. It was from someone named simply, Kim. Turns out Kim is the Kim who is the sister of my old friend Aaron. I've been friends with Aaron since at least the 9th grade...maybe 8th...definitely not 7th. Aaron and Blaine were my friends from that era, and the only ones I really hung out with after High School. I ended up working with Blaine at the job I had before moving to Chicago (I was there for 5 years, he's still there) and still hung out with Aaron.

One day, and I don't really remember when, but I feel like it was before 1996...definitely before 1999. He just left. He didn't say anything to Blaine or I. He was just gone. We never heard from him. At my 10 year reuninon I bumped into some guys he hung out with that I also knew (I guess they were kind of friends) and they had seen him time to time, but he was always on the go, and usually burning bridges.

Well, Kim sends a message saying "how's it going" and gives me Aaron's phone number. He's living in Phoenix. I called him and got voicemail. It's weird to have a friend from childhood and later just disappear. So, it's good to know he's still alive.

Of Blasting and Stupidity

As promised...your's truly, destroying the evil Zorg.

Something that has been bugging me lately is the general stupidity of the population. In specific...ignorance...I think.

Here's what I'm talking about. I'm in at least two airports twice a week when I'm on these gigs. If the airport has a moving walkway, there is a voice saying "Caution, you are about to get on a moving walkway" at the beginning and "Caution, the moving walkway is ending" at the end.

Are we that dumb? C'mon people. Use your brains. You see a part of the floor is moving. If you pay attention, then you'll do just fine. But there are the idiots out there (case in point, grandmother on AFV who is standing backwards on the walkway and smiling at the camera, and then the walkway ends and she falls over) who don't. And quite possibly, these same idiot take it to court to be rewarded for their stupidity. I can only imagine that is the case or the airports and other businesses with other warnings would go to all the trouble to put obvious warnings on things.

If you can't tell that a toy that has small parts could be a choking hazzard for your one year old, you don't deserve to be a parent. You failed...failer.

This kind of ties into my trainings I've been doing. One of the first things they do is fill out a little form with some info for a fun activity. This week, hardly anyone brought a pen. I ask "do you have a pen?" and the reply is "nobody told me I would need a pen." Time to make some assumptions, America. I'm going to go somewhere to learn...I might need to write something.

So, there. Stupidity. Stupidity and indecisiveness drive me crazy. I may do some stupid things sometimes, but I'm decisive and informed when I do it.

The Happiest Place on Earth!

I'm still in Tustin, and 7-10 miles away from Disneyland. DL is open until 11pm...I get done with training at 4:30.

Today I braved traffic and went to Disneyland. A lot of changes since I went in 97-98...like California Adventures where a parking lot used to be. It took me a while to find the actual parking lot. Once I did the rest was easy. I'm all by myself here in Tustin and I was all by myself in Disneyland. I got there around 5:00 or so.

First place I went was Indian Jones!!! This ride is my favorite, and it still is. I was sending pics to Joey, Tara, Rich and Deanna as I went. This ride is even better when the wait is 15 minutes. This is the perfect time of year to go to Disneyland.

From there I was going to try a ride I hadn't been on before, but I saw Star Tours and the sign said the wait was 5 minutes. On either side of me was a parent with a small child. The dad to the left of me was trying to tell his kid:

Dad: "now, this is going to have a movie screen that will show a movie. It will seem like we're going into space, but we aren't really. The room will move too..."

The kid was fine the whole time, but the dad kept checking in through the whole thing.

From there I went to Astro Rangers? The Buzz Lightyear ride with lazer tag. This was fun. You get scores and a picture. I'll put the pic up here if I remember.

Next was space mountain. High speed roller coaster in the dark, fantastic. I was laughing hard by the end of it. So fun! WITH HARDLY ANY LINES!

Then it was time to ride the Matterhorn...for Prouty! I called Prouty and had him on the phone for the ride, so that was kind of fun and ridiculous.

Then I hit Small World. Creepy as ever. This is where it dawned on me that this place isn't as fun by yourself.

There was some parade. A typical one.

I ate a $9 crappy burger and went to Thunder Mt. Railroad...another great. From there it was back to Indy Jones and Buzz. The fireworks display was cancelled, and I was ready to leave.

It was fun...but I wish you were there.

Tustin Cologne, Tustin Fits

I'm in Tustin, CA this week...a.k.a. Santa Ana. It's weird being here after living in Chicago. I can drive for 10 miles in any direction here and go through at least three cities. Chicago is huge, these places are small.

While in the O'Hare Airport on Monday I saw...DITKA! He was on one of those carts that take people to their gates. I was heading to get food and didn't realize it fully until the cart had gone by, otherwise I would have hopped on and snapped a photo.

I'm very close to Disneyland here. I hope I make it out there sometime. The traffic is TERRIBLE when I get done doing training. It will probably take an hour to make the 10 mile drive. Add to that it was raining today. But I think I'll still go. They are open until 11:00pm, so I'll get in 5 hours. Figure I'll hit the new things that I haven't been on since I was there last (97-98ish).

SPEAKING OF CREEPY!...Kenny Rogers is on American Idol right now as the guest "star" who goes over songs with each singer. He...is...BOTOX'd! He and Barry Manilow are cree-py looking.

Hi-ho the derry-o. Spring is finally here.

Tomorrow morning I will be dressing up as a bumble bee. If you know me, you know I've also been: Willy Wonka, Prince Charming, a farmer, and a reindeer. Tomorrow...a bumble bee. I'll be hanging out with a Pixie and the Easter Bunny.

How else do I know Spring is here? ANTS!

I hate ants! HATE!

If you ever want me to destroy another human, cover them in ants. Ants trigger something in me that instantly says "destroy". Thank you, RAID. Although your "Kills on Contact" spray is lacking a little as I watch ants walk around after they're sprayed.

Also Deanna has killed 4 spiders this week. The bugs they are a-thawing.