Just passin' the time
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Megan's LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 ]
| Saturday, October 31st, 2009 | | 9:21 pm |
A Story of Unfortunate Coincidence
I was going to say that this is a story of "terrible irony," but I don't think Richard Castle would approve my terminology there. So it's really just the story of an unfortunate coincidence. The story starts out as an extremely exciting, happy one -- Friday night, October 30th, was a screening of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog in LA, and I was fortunate enough to get in on the action early enough to get 3 tickets before they sold out (they only sold 400 tickets for the small theater). I went with my mom and Leslie, and all three of us were stoked -- I dressed up in my groupie #1 costume that I wore to ComicCon, my mom dressed up as a laundromat lady (complete with laundry basket with Captain Hammer shirt as dirty laundry), and Leslie wore my Serenity shirt. The sing-along was fairly similar to what they did at ComicCon this year, although they also showed "The Guild" season 2 to make it a full night of Felicia Day. Once we finally got inside and they finally got going (these Browncoats never seem organized or efficient for these events), Felicia Day was there to introduce everything and to thank everyone for coming -- very cool! "The Guild" was funny, but extremely LONG, especially when we were anxiously awaiting Dr. Horrible. Apparently Nathan Fillion couldn't make it because he was filming Castle till midnight. Doh. But we got a goodie bag with all kinds of props for the Dr. Horrible sing-along (i.e. bubbles, a shrub, a penny, lacy gently wafting curtains, "his hair," a dry cleaning bill, a finger horse, etc.), so it was really fun to get to use all of our props as the whole audience sang along and participated. Fantastic! Another thing they had going on throughout the night was a raffle -- $1/ticket, and you could win cool things like a Dr. Horrible DVD, or a Buffy trade, or a Dr. Horrible poster signed by the cast, etc. Each of us bought 5 tickets, mostly assuming we didn't have a chance in the world to win anything, but it would be really cool if we did (since we never win anything). After the sing-along, they had this posterboard set up in the lobby with tiny ticket stubs taped to it next to the prize that each ticket had won. Once we jostled our way to the front of the crowd to inspect the board, we soon discovered that I HAD WON THE GRAND PRIZE!!!! Holy crap! I never win anything! "Grand prize worth $750 including the following..." wowza! So the grand prize THAT I WON includes: 2 gold-level passes to the Firefly/Serenity convention in LA, including reserved seating in the front row at each panel, autographs with ALL the cast members and front-of-the-line priority for autographs, tickets to a dessert party Saturday night where members of the cast will be there, tickets to a Sunday brunch where more members of the cast will be there, a "special gift," etc.! Isn't that like the awesomest prize package ever?! And all for Firefly and Serenity, too!!! And the best part of it all?! IT'S FINALLY MY CHANCE TO MEET NATHAN FILLION!!!!!!! The rest of my family has had a chance to meet him before (my brother in the street after the bars closed during ComicCon and my mom at a Richard Castle book signing at Border's), and they tease me endlessly about it! So I finally won my way to get a chance to meet him! And maybe even spend a decent amount of time with him! HAHA, family! Take that! So, you can tell I'm excited, right? Well, you wanna know what the "best" part of all this is? Guess when this Firefly/Serenity convention takes place. THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 22nd. Ha. Haha. Hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Seriously?! You have GOT to be kidding me. That is an extreme "unfortunate coincidence" if I ever saw one. Perhaps one could even call it irony. I mean, COME ON! I NEVER win anything, and the one time I win something REALLY COOL, I can't even go because I'M GETTING MARRIED THAT WEEKEND. Gee, what a coincidence that the Firefly convention happens to be the same weekend as my wedding. Normally I wouldn't care (because I wouldn't really be planning on going to the Firefly convention), but given the chance to go for free and to get to meet castmembers and get priority everything while I'm there... it's just like a knife through the heart, man! Fate is so cruel. Now, okay. The convention is two days, both Saturday and Sunday. The wedding is on Sunday the 22nd. So theoretically I could ditch the out-of-town family for the day on Saturday and dash off to a Firefly convention the day before I get married. It could happen. The dessert party Saturday night might be extremely cool, you never know. BUT, now, get this. It appears that Nathan Fillion won't be making any appearances until SUNDAY. SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why?!?!?!?!?! Because fate is cruel, oh so very cruel. I definitely can't dash off to a Sunday brunch while I'm supposed to be getting my hair done and getting ready to get married, etc. Could someone just do my hair while I'm in the car?! It appears that I am destined to remain separated from Nathan Fillion while the rest of my family mocks me endlessly. SO unfair. Oh man, this is such a heartbreaker. I mean, it's so unreal that it's extremely laughable, but even that ends up with me crying at the cruel twist of fate. So sad. So very sad. So now I'm thinking I should start a bidding war among all of my browncoat friends to see who wants to go to this convention and meet the Firefly cast the most. Who can dash off to a Sunday brunch with the cast and race back to get to my wedding by 3? Or, I'm sure some of them would rather skip the wedding altogether and just stay at the convention all day Sunday. :-P And I can't really say I would blame them.... So, who wants to start the bidding? Any takers? ;) And no, Daniel won't let me postpone the wedding. Sigh.... | | Friday, September 25th, 2009 | | 3:46 pm |
| | Monday, September 21st, 2009 | | 5:18 pm |
Girls' Weekend in Coronado
This past weekend was what has become "annual girls' weekend in San Diego" -- where my mom, Aunt Lora, and my cousins Shirley and Marissa come down for the weekend and we do fun San Diego activities. Last year they came down and just stayed at my apartment, and we went to the Wild Animal Park and saw the tall ship festival downtown at the harbor. But this year we decided to branch out a bit and decided to spend our weekend on Coronado, nifty little peninsula town that it is. It was an awesome weekend, and I am all set to move to Coronado and live there permanently (if only I were a millionaire). I left work a bit early on Friday and met everyone at my place around 3pm. From there we went to the Zoo for a few hours to hit up the annual white elephant sale and to check out the new Elephant Odyssey exhibit that they hadn't seen yet. The Zoo's white elephant sale is the best thing ever -- always such good deals and neat stuff. Aunt Lora had hurt her back a couple days beforehand, so we got a wheelchair to push her around in so she wouldn't have to walk so much. That made for an interesting afternoon of getting around to the Elephant Odyssey exhibit and then back down the huge hill by the polar bears. We ended up catching a shuttle to take us back to the front when we were too daunted by the remaining hills between us and the exit to get out. :-P It was a nifty afternoon at the Zoo, though. From the Zoo, we drove over the bridge to Coronado, and got to see a lovely fog descending over downtown San Diego as we did. We checked into our hotel, the Glorietta Bay Inn, which is right across the street from the Del. It's the old mansion of Mr. Spreckels, a huge investor in San Diego from the late 1800's. The main mansion house is mostly for the lobby, breakfast area, and music room (has an awesome piano that plays itself, plus comfy chairs for lounging in while looking at the books on the bookshelves). There are something like 10 rooms that you can stay in actually in the mansion, but the rest of the hotel rooms have been built up around the mansion itself. We had a lovely room, #558, on the ground floor right next to the back entrance to the mansion itself. Perfect! Even with two queen beds, a rollaway bed, a little kitchen area, a desk area, and bathroom (including 2 sinks!), there was still plenty of room inside, and we didn't feel crowded at all. Perfecto. We even had a TV and DVD player, so we could easily watch our DVD selection for the night, "Some Like It Hot." This Marilyn Monroe/Tony Curtis/Jack Lemmon movie was partly filmed right across the street at the Del in 1959. That makes this the 50-year anniversary of the movie, and it just so happens that a big "Some Like It Hot" weekend celebration was going on at the Del all weekend long THIS very weekend that we were there. Perfect timing. :) We walked downtown to have dinner at the diner that's attached to Moo Time Creamery first, and then came back and watched the movie. I had never seen it before, but I thought it was hilarious, especially for an "old" black and white movie. Not dated at all. I guess there's something timeless about cross-dressing and running from the mob. :-P Everyone else kind of snored their way through the film, but I saw it all, heehee. :) Saturday morning we got to get up and start with our free continental breakfast, one of the nicest that I've had. I had a toasted bagel and cream cheese, a banana, and some pineapple. Plus some apple juice, and I could have chosen any other number of things to eat and drink, too. We ate out on the front patio of the mansion, looking out towards Glorietta Bay and seeing all the sailboats parked out there as the sun rose higher in the sky. It was a lovely morning. We played some Apples to Apples in our room, and stuffed all my wedding invitations for me! Then we got ready and headed out to the Del and the beach for the day! Walking around the Hotel Del Coronado is always so cool -- it makes you feel like a wannabe rich person, heehee. We strolled around the hotel a bit and then headed out toward the beach. We climbed on some rocks for awhile, strolled in the GOLD sand, and just generally enjoyed the view of the ocean and the Del. I even managed a bit of a nap while laying out. :) When we got tired of being sun-baked, we walked back to downtown and went to Moo Time Creamery for an ice cream break. I had orange sherbert and "silly vanilla," a bright blue/fake-colored vanilla ice cream. It was delicious. :) Afterwards mom, Shirley, and I continued walking around downtown and went in a few shops along the way. The best place that we visited was the Coronado Historical Society building, where they have a little museum and gift shop inside. The museum tells some of the history of Coronado, and they also had a big exhibit on L. Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz, who penned many of his stories while visiting Coronado. It was pretty nifty. Makes me want to actually read the books! We made it back to the hotel in time for afternoon snack time, so we got lemonade and cookies and sat on the mansion patio again to enjoy it. I had brought some strawberries, so we had strawberries with our lemonade, and we played some Yahtzee while sitting out there. No better way to spend an afternoon! We headed over to the Village Pizzeria for dinner, since we had seen a lot of people going there over the past couple of days and it sure looked promising. We got a nice table on the sidewalk and ordered a huge pizza for the 5 of us to share. It was good, but not quite as stellar as I had hoped. Mostly because it was quite spicy, I think. Still good to have pizza, though. :) After that we walked on down to the Coronado Playhouse (I LOVE how everything is within walking distance!) to see our 8pm showing of Hamlet. I do love free Shakespeare. Nevermind that it's quite the amateur performance; no matter how Hamlet is done, there are still all of the famous lines that are in there, and it's so neat to hear them all again. I do love me some Shakespeare. :) We made a detour through the Del on our way back to our own hotel, just in time to see the back of Tony Curtis's head as he was signing things for an art auction thing for part of "Some Like It Hot" weekend! We saw the back of his head in a white cowboy hat through a window as we walked up to the main lobby. Then we tried to sneak in to the art auction thing, but we were promptly asked to leave as apparently it was obvious that we didn't belong there. Ha! But at least I've been in the same room as Tony Curtis, heehee. :-P We walked through more of the hotel as well, and got to ogle at the ornate architecture and sheer size of the entire hotel, too. The Del is pretty cool. Then back to the hotel to turn in for the night! Sunday we once again started with delicious breakfast, but we ate in the music room this time. Mmmm, so good. I sat around on a couch in the music room after we were done eating just to read my book and enjoy being there for awhile. It was lovely. Back in the room, we played some Simpson's Pit for a bit before packing up to go. We checked out and went up to the north/east end of Coronado, by the ferry landing, for the morning. We stopped at an art show thing in the park that we were just driving by on Orange Street on our way up, too. Then up near the ferry landing there was a big arts and crafts show thing going on, so it was fun to walk around and look at all the stuff, including the Scottish store. :) There was a band playing live music, and the beach was lovely to walk along, especially with a view of downtown San Diego right across the water. For lunch we went to Clayton's Coffee Shop, back towards the south/west end of Coronado. It's another Coronado institution, a diner that has been there for over 60 years. It's a 50's diner with mostly an elliptical counter in the middle that you sit at the "bar" to eat from, but there are a few booths on the side. We managed to snag a booth, so we could put in quarters to the little jukebox machine on our table to have oldies music played on the loudspeakers throughout the restaurant. It was awesome. And they had the perfect lunch combo of a half grilled cheese sandwich plus a cup of soup (chicken tortilla, no less). Love the old school diner. Next time I'm getting a hand-crafted milkshake and some of their famous pie. Or perhaps breakfast, their other specialty.... :) And that was about it for our Girls' Weekend on Coronado! We headed back to my apartment briefly, but then everyone else headed on home up to LA. It was a lovely weekend, most excellent for all things Coronado. I'm ready to move there and just stay on the "island" all the time. As soon as I get my hands on some millions.... :) | | Monday, August 10th, 2009 | | 10:45 pm |
ComicCon wrap-up
Okay, so I'm a couple weeks late with the ComicCon stuff. But I'm finally getting around to it. ComicCon 2009 was exceptionally good. Here's how it went and what I did: **WEDNESDAY** Preview night! My first one ever. It was cool to get in on the exhibition floor early and get to walk around and get some free stuff ahead of time. I bought a Serenity t-shirt from the Browncoats booth, an exclusive signed Star Trek Countdown comic, and got some free stuff. Not too shabby. **THURSDAY** -after a brief look at the line to get in to Hall H (never saw the end of it -- it wrapped around the convention center off towards Seaport Village), we decided there was no chance of getting in to see the Disney 3D panel (missed a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp because of this). This is because Twilight was in hall H in the afternoon, and all of the crazy Twilight fans had been lining up since Tuesday night to get in. So no chance for anyone else to get in the room. I heard later that 11,000 people were in line (room capacity is 6500). Yikes. Freaking Twilight fans. -So, first thing of the day on the floor, I got Ben Templesmith to sign my Doctor Who: The Whispering Gallery comic. Love that guy. My mom and brother were there at the same time, so he now knows the whole "Kennedy Clan," as he put it. Quite a funny guy. I should read Wormwood at some point. -Richard Hatch: Battlestar Galactica in review panel. A good panel, with Richard Hatch starting it out with chants of "so say we all!" He and the actress who played Kat were there, as well as Bear McCreary (music) and a few of the writer/producer/director-type people. Apparently Richard Hatch didn't quite envision his character ending by being thrown out the airlock, but hey. At least he made it that far. :-P -Female Power Icons, aka the "Kick-Ass Women" panel. Sigourney Weaver, Eliza Dushku, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Zoe Saldana were there talking about women in sci fi-type shows. A pretty good panel; Sigourney Weaver was the most engaging and best speaker by far. She's almost 60! -Top Shelf panel. Was hoping to hear new info about League III, but no such luck. Saw some cool upcoming covers for comics, though. -Saw part of the Science Behind Science Fiction panel, just to hear Jane Espenson talk for a bit. She's awesome. I hope Caprica takes off and does well. -Dr. Horrible sing-along! This was truly truly awesome. We were all given booklets of lyrics and callbacks to yell out during the sing-along. Felicia Day came out and introduced it, and then the Whedon brothers (minus Joss) and Maurissa came out at the end and talked a bit. Very cool. And it was VERY crowded as it was only in room 6A; Robin and Sal couldn't even get in until the Commentary sing-along part. You'd think they'd learn to put the Joss stuff in bigger rooms.... Oh, and I was dressed as Groupie #1 for the day, so that made the sing-along extra fun. :) **FRIDAY** -FAIL at getting an autograph ticket for Neil Gaiman later in the day. They really need a better system for ticket distribution -- it was horribly organized and I'm not lucky enough. -Coraline panel with Neil Gaiman and Teri Hatcher (and some other people). This is the first time I've ever seen Neil Gaiman in person, so it was lovely to hear him talk about the story in his lovely British accent. Oh yes. :) And Teri Hatcher resembles the Other Mother a bit too much, it's kind of creepy.... -Couldn't get in to the BSG/Caprica panel, so I decided to check out the FlashForward panel instead. It's a new show that starts in the fall and is supposed to be "the next Lost." I mostly went because it stars Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love guy!) and John Cho (Harold!), and I wanted to see them. To my pleasant surprise, it actually looks like a good show. Joseph Fiennes had some funny comments about how it's so nice to get to wear jeans instead of pantaloons, and how awesome it feels to have a gun strapped to his hip instead of a sword in his hand. Pretty funny. AND the best part was at the end. Someone asked during the Q&A if they could confirm the rumor that Dominic Monaghan was going to be on the show, and they said they had no comment. But then at the very end they showed a brand new trailer/commercial for the show, and the very end shows them bringing in a new guy to help out... and it's Dom!!! And THEN, they brought out one final special guest... and it was Dom!!! So cool to see him again and to see that he's still making good stuff. He didn't get a chance to say much because it was near the end of the panel, but it was just so cool to see a random guest appearance by him. What a way to announce that he's going to be on the show. :) -stood in line to meet and get Jane Espenson's autograph on a Buffy comic. She's awesome, but she showed up an hour late to her own (scheduled) signing. Kinda sucky, but at least we got to see her. -went to Ballroom 20 for the rest of the day to make sure we got in for Joss Whedon stuff. Had to work the bathroom pass system to get everyone in, but it worked. First up, the 24 panel. Having never watched 24 before, I was pleasantly surprised and entertained enough for this panel. David Fury was there! And Katee Sackhoff was on the panel, as she will be in the upcoming season of 24. So it was worth it just to see her (she was looking very feminine, too -- quite a change from Starbuck). She said her character is much girlier than Starbuck, so she kind of misses going around with a gun strapped to her hip and beating everyone up. But it still sounds good. Maybe I'll catch this season of 24 at some point. -Bones panel. The only part I was looking forward to was seeing David Boreanaz -- and he ended up not showing up because his wife was going to have a baby at any minute, so he stayed home to be with her "just in case." Wah wah. He sent a 5-minute video clip thingy apologizing for not being there, but that was it. The rest of the panel was really boring because I don't actually watch the show. Oh well. -Dollhouse + Joss Whedon panels. TWO HOURS of Joss goodness. :) First, we got to watch the unaired 13th episode of Dollhouse, Epitaph One. It was quite different from the rest of the show and looks to take the show in an entirely new direction for season 2. I sure hope they show this on tv before they start season 2, otherwise people will wonder what happened. Then Joss and Eliza talked for awhile, and they brought out special guests of Topher and Sierra (I don't know their real names) as well! Pretty cool. I'm glad that Dollhouse got renewed, and I hope they keep up the good writing and interesting story. I was disappointed that Alan Tudyk wasn't a surprise guest, but oh well. I can't have everything, I guess. :-P -James Cameron & Peter Jackson panel. These two movie giants were discussing the future of film in hall H. It's Peter Jackson's first ComicCon ever (it's about time!), so it was just cool to see him in person. He's still awfully skinny compared to his LotR days. **SATURDAY** -First up, the Angel comic panel. The upcoming issues of Angel sound awesome. Namely, Angel and Spike go to ComicCon! And the same thing that happens in the Halloween episode happens there -- people become their costumes and what they're dressed up as. AND, the best part is, at the time Spike is dressed up as Angel! Haha! And Juliet Landau (Drusilla) was at this panel because she's just written a 2-issue story for Angel. So it was cool to see her there, too (especially in a small room that wasn't that crowded). -I got to meet Russell T. Davies and get his autograph at the BBC booth! Totally awesome! He's a very nice, personable guy. And he signed an awesome David Tennant postcard for me, so that was really really cool. -Wandering around the floor with mom, we saw lots of famous people (and took their pictures from a distance) -- Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, John Barrowman, Edward James Olmos, Saul Tigh (don't know his real name), Camden Toy (the Prince of Lies and the head gentleman from the Buffy episode "Hush" (we actually talked to him, he was really nice -- and creepy)), and a few others. I got my picture taken with Snoopy at the Peanuts booth, too. :) -Extract panel. New movie starring Jason Bateman that's coming out soon. I knew nothing about the movie, I just wanted to see Jason Bateman (his first ComicCon, too!). He's pretty funny in person, too. The movie looks all right. -caught the end of the Gerard Way panel to make sure to get in to room 6DE for... -Boondock Saints II panel!!! I think this was my favorite panel of the whole con. It was so awesome. First of all, the room was packed and a lot of people didn't even get in (yeah cult following! and yeah mom for working the bathroom pass system to get me in!). The entire cast was there, and Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus were having a ball with it all. They came out on stage with video cameras rolling to capture the crowd, and Sean Patrick Flanery couldn't get past the fact that he was "on a *bleeping* jumbotron!", meaning the big screen right next to him that he was projected on. The boys were filming everything for their mothers, who apparently were never going to believe this. Troy Duffy has awesome Veritas Aequitas tattoos on his arms and got lots of love from the crowd for his creation. Julie Benz (Darla) is also going to be in the second movie, so she was there too. Can't help but hear Darla in her voice when she talks. AND we saw the world premiere of the trailer for the second movie, which looks AWESOME. We even got to see it twice because even the actors thought it was so cool. Okay, and Billy Connolly is insane. Hilarious, but insane. He has a great Irish accent, and he kept going on and on about how he has the best job in the world because he gets to go to work and kill people, and how he just loves killing people and getting to shoot everybody and having 6 guns strapped to his chest, etc. He's a scary man (but so funny). :-P They opened it up for questions, and the very first question was this angry sounding man being like, "So, are you gonna bring Rocco back for the next movie?!" And the guy asking the question turned out to be ROCCO! Surprise guest audience plant, I love it! So Rocco was there! And then Ron Jeremy also popped out from the audience somewhere. Oh man, this panel was so great. Everyone was there, and they were all having a blast, and the next movie looks awesome, so it was all fantastic. The movie should come out in November of this year! -Joss Whedon autograph signing. None of my tickets won in the drawing for a chance to get Joss (and other Dr. Horrible creators) autographs, but mom got one! So I stuck around to take her picture and watch from behind the rope as she got to get autographs and meet Joss. So cool. And so jealous! She did take up my Buffy trade of Wolves at the Gate to get signed by him, though, so I did at least get an autograph. :) And he waved at me cuz mom pointed over to me so I could take their picture. Woooo, a Joss wave! -The other best part of the con was Saturday night at the screening of the last episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth and Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (one of the final 4 David Tennant episodes). I barely got in to the packed room, and I was just excited to see the new Doctor Who episode. Then to my surprise, Russell T. Davies was there to introduce the shows! Awesome! And then, he brought out John Barrowman! The man is so gay and yet so hilarious. Quite a character indeed. And THEN, they brought out -- you'll never guess -- DAVID TENNANT!!!!!!! NO WAY!!! Best surprise guest ever! The room went wild with screams and everyone leapt to their feet to applaud and cheer and yell some more. It was so amazing. And they all talked and chatted for about 10 minutes (David Tennant sounds so Scottish in real life), and John Barrowman ended up kissing both David Tennant and Russell T. Davies, and they were all hilarious and awesome, and it was just amazing. Seeing David Tennant that close up in a small room (6DE again, and so many people got turned away -- they really gotta put these things in bigger rooms) as a surprise was so great. Perhaps the best single moment of the con. :) Then mom showed up just as the guests had just left and Torchwood was starting (she was out getting dinner with the boys and didn't get back till too late!). Oh, so many tears for Ianto. The Doctor Who episode was okay -- not spectacular, but it's definitely setting it up for a big death scene. I'm going to miss David Tennant. This was an awesome way to end Saturday night, though. :) :) :) **SUNDAY** -up and out the door way early to get in line for Ballroom 20 and the Doctor Who panel, which was the first thing of the day. We eventually got in and got decent seats. The panel was awesome -- with Russell T. Davies, David Tennant (sporting a shirt with a sequined/shiny Darth Vader helmet on it), and Euros Lyn, a director. We saw a trailer/ad for the final 4 Tennant episodes, and it looks awesome! Apparently the Master is back! Wha??? Something ominous about 4 knocks. And there will be a whole episode on Mars. Can't wait for it all, and yet I don't want David Tennant's run to be over! I also can't wait to see the film version of David Tennant's Hamlet performance. That should be out late this year or early next year. Again, should be awesome. -failed at getting in to the last half of the Smallville panel, so I walked the floor one last time with mom for a bit. Awfully tired out by the last day of the con. -went back to Ballroom 20 to sit through a few mini-panels before the Torchwood panel started! Russell T. Davies, Euros Lyn, and John Barrowman were there! It was so great. John Barrowman is a showman through and through, and he kept going on and on about how hot everyone was. A bit over-the-top, but he is hilarious. He makes some funny faces. And how can you not love Captain Jack?! -And right after the Torchwood panel was the last panel of the con: the Buffy sing-along! It's always great to get to do a Once More, With Feeling! sing-along. This year was way nicer than last year (apparently they got a sponsor), so they passed out big buttons, grrr argh monsters, and nicely-made parking tickets (rather than the crappy photocopied ones that we got last year). What better way to close out the con than with a Buffy sing-along?! It was so great, just like usual. :) And that was it for ComicCon in 2009! What a whirlwind 4.5 days. I swear, I needed another day or two off afterwards to recover (but I didn't have days off, so I had to suffer through work while being sleepy and exhausted). The best parts by far were the Boondock Saints II panel and the surprise appearance of David Tennant at the Doctor Who screening. So amazing. I also thoroughly enjoyed meeting Jane Espenson, Russell T. Davies, and Ben Templesmith. That's the best part about the con -- the opportunity to meet some of your heroes! :) And I already bought my 4-day pass for next year, so I'm set. They jacked up the price to $100 (it was only $65 last year -- ouch), but it will still be worth it. Can't wait already! | | Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | | 12:55 pm |
San Diego Zoo Outing
Yesterday evening I had a lovely visit to the San Diego Zoo. I'm keeping myself entertained while Daniel's off in Dubai for work, so I'm doing things that he doesn't really enjoy, like going to the zoo and watching Torchwood. :) It was such a nice evening -- I went down after work, got to the zoo around 5pm, found a close parking spot (since people who had been there all day were leaving), and got in for free with my membership card. The zoo just extended their hours to 9pm for the summer as of last Friday, so I can actually come in the evenings now! I had a coupon for a free bus tour ride that expired at the end of June, so I figured I better use it (I'll take almost anything for free, heehee). I took the ~40-minute bus tour around the park, which is not something I would normally do (since it costs like $10 or $15). But it was an interesting way to see the park, and kinda cool to hear some of the commentary stuff that they tell you. I didn't get to sit on the top level because it was already full, but I don't think it mattered much. When we drove by the polar bear exhibit, there was actually a polar bear in the water! I swear, for an exhibit deemed "Polar Bear Plunge," I only ever see the bears lying around on the land. So it was neat to see one swimming around, even if it was from a distance. After the bus tour, I went over to see the naked mole rats, and a couple of them were actually active this time! So freaky, and yet strangely fascinating creatures. One was especially active in scurrying around and moving bedding from tube to tube, going backwards and forwards. Crazy to watch. Then I took the Skyfari skybuckets thing up to the top by the polar bears. The polar bear was no longer swimming by then, but it was eating carrots, per usual. Then I walked over the newly-re-opened hill to go to the Elephant Odyssey exhibit/area that just opened a month ago! It's a huge new area for elephants and other "prehistoric"-type animals. It was cool to see everything looking so new and nice. It looks like the elephants have a nice big home -- they were happily drinking water from a little lake, eating hay from a thing hanging from a tree, and taking dirt baths by tossing dirt onto themselves with their trunks. There were also CUTE capybaras, a little spotted leopard, and some tapirs and whatnot. I also had a 20% off coupon for food, so I figured I might as well try out the new food place in Elephant Odyssey as well while I was there. So I got a burger and fries for dinner and ate my dinner out on the patio area while I watched the elephants some more in the sunset light. It was a pretty cool view. :) After Elephant Odyssey, I walked back towards the front and stopped in to see the koalas. There was a cute little baby koala hanging onto its mom's back, and they climbed from one branch to another and were eating a bunch of eucalyptus leaves. Baby koalas are adorable! From there I visited my favorites, the visayan warty pigs (the little babies are so cute!), as well as the new baby red river hogs (although they were all sleeping rolled up against one another -- like pigs in a blanket, heehee!). I saw how a hippo sleeps, with its body in the water and the top of its head out of the water, against a rock. Yeah, it turns out that when the sun starts to go down, a lot of animals turn in for the night. Imagine that! :-P As the last thing I got to do, I went to a bird show at 8:30 and saw some cool birds fly around. They're still working on training the birds (apparently the show doesn't ACTUALLY open until next weekend because they're behind schedule), so we got to see more of the training part than the actual show, but it was still interesting. And the show went long because it took them awhile to get some of the birds to do what they wanted. So I got out at 9:15 instead of 9 when the zoo actually closed! Woo hoo! :-P So all in all, it was a pretty cool day. It wasn't too crowded on a Monday evening (yay for being a member and living right here!), the bus tour was a cool way to mix it up, Elephant Odyssey was neat to see, and all the animals (especially the babies) were awesome! I quite enjoyed my evening out. :) | | Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | | 12:13 pm |
HUZZAH!!!
The news was released last night that DAVID TENNANT is going to be at ComicCon this year!!! Holy crap, I can't believe it! He was on my list of "people I really hope will be at ComicCon but will never actually show up" -- but now he's showing up! For a Doctor Who panel!!! Oh man, I can't wait until the end of July! The panel is going to be on Sunday, so it turns out that Sunday may just be the best day of the con this year. CANNOT wait, I'm SOOOOO excited!!!!!! :) :) :) | | Monday, June 15th, 2009 | | 4:53 pm |
Awesomeness
So, it's been awhile since I've updated. Here's a basic rundown of what's been going on lately, and what is soon to come: Awesomeness #1: I sprained my left ankle a week and a half ago. Daniel and I went for a run at night (note to self: never go jogging in the dark), and despite my attempts to be "safer" by wearing a headlamp (my mom cracked up at the mental image of this), I still stepped right on and rolled right over a pine cone while running. I got a nice loud pop out of my ankle as it turned on itself, it was great. Except, not so great in that I couldn't walk all the way home and had to make Daniel run back home and get the car to come pick me up. A week and a half later, most of the purple has turned to yellow and it's only slightly swollen still. I don't even limp when I walk anymore! I can run on it with a brace on, and I've stepped up my "rehab" regimen at the gym. Stupid ankle. Stupid pine cone.... Awesomeness #2: Trying to run more in preparation for an attempt to run a half marathon in October. HAHAHA. Half marathon. That's like 13 miles. At once. I mean, give me 3 days and I could probably do it, but finish in a few hours? Right, that's going to take some training this summer. Daniel and Grace convinced me to do it. I mean, I'd like to lose a little weight and trim/tone up a bit before I fit myself into a wedding dress, and running is the best way for me to do that. So I guess to make sure I actually do it, training for this half marathon thingy is the way to go. Or something like that. We're gonna run the Detroit Half Marathon in October. It's a cool race cuz you get to run to Canada and back -- international! Hopefully I can finish in under 2 hours 30 minutes. We shall see, we shall see. Hopefully there are no pine cones on the course. Awesomeness #3: I get to go to Dubai next month! Daniel's going for work for a couple weeks, and I get to fly out and meet him at the end of his duty to hang out and tour around a bit. Granted, I will be there for a grand total of 3.5 days (I hate having such little vacation time), but I think it's worth it to just take the opportunity and go with it. I'll probably never go to Dubai or the United Arab Emirates again, so I might as well take my chance now and just do it, even for a short time. Daniel already gets to go on the company dime, so it's at least not as expensive as it would be if we just wanted to go as a random vacation and had to pay for both of us! On the plus side, I get to take a direct flight there from LAX on the fancy Emirates airline -- award-winning with multi-course meals and brand-new airplanes, etc. Should be pretty nice! At least I hope so, as it's a 16-hour flight.... Awesomeness #4: UCSD commencement was last weekend and Chad got his PhD. Pretty crazy. Makes me wonder if I would ever want to go back and get a PhD... and then I slap myself and say, "what, are you crazy?!" I don't think it's going to happen. Once you leave school, you don't go back. I have no desire to spend another 5-6 years back in mind-numbing school. I enjoy my working life, thank you very much (I have free weekends AND money to spend! now if I just had more vacation time...). Awesomeness #5: my weekends are booked from June 27 - July 25. A busy summer is shaping up quickly. I'm already getting all kinds of ComicCon hype from various people for the end of July. Can't wait!!! I wish the schedule would come out earlier. Main goal of the Con: see Alan Tudyk. Heehee! Awesomeness #6: wedding-planning update -- bridesmaid dresses acquired, and cake tasting completed. I am already looking forward to some yummy wedding cake. Okay, I think I'm done now. I need to stop buying candy to keep in my desk at work. Too tempting. But oh so tasty.... I do love "just a little" piece of chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate.... | | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | | 11:58 pm |
May entry
Just squeezing in one entry for the month of May. Ha! Two minutes to go. Things have been busy and fun lately. Maybe I'll write more in June. :-P | | Sunday, April 26th, 2009 | | 11:49 pm |
Wedding Checklist to Date
date - check (Nov. 22, 2009) location - check ( http://www.lindleyscotthouse.com/) wedding party - check wedding dress - check minister - check save the date cards mailed - check guest book - check website - check photographer - check basic guest list - check Need to do: flowers/florist cake tasting find bridesmaid dresses DJ/MC? invitations favors etc.... Seems okay for still having ~7 months to go, right? I think we're ahead of schedule. | | Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | | 11:51 am |
Dodgers Spring Training in AZ
This past weekend my mom and I went out to Arizona to catch some spring training action in the Dodgers' inaugural year in the Cactus League. It was a long 48 hours, but very fun and awesome to see baseball again! I left San Diego at 8pm Friday night and got home ~10pm. We went to bed around 11:30pm and then got up at 3:30am and hit the road by 4am. Ahhh, the early morning road trip through the desert. We arrived in Glendale at Camelback Ranch by 10am (and that was with losing an hour due to the time difference -- so it really only took us 5 hours to drive there!) to hang out and try to get some autographs before the 1:05pm game. The first indication that things were going to be different here than at Vero Beach was that we had to stand in line to GET IN to the gift shop. At 10am. We just wanted to buy a baseball to be able to have people sign it, but we had to wait in line to even get in the store, and then wait in a longer line inside to check out. Sheesh! Vero Beach was never that crowded. We eventually bought baseballs and headed over to the practice fields where they were doing some pitchers drills and a little batting practice. Manny walked off of one field to the clubhouse, and people took off running across the complex to try to get close to him to get a picture or an autograph, it was crazy. Camelback Ranch is a nice, brand-new facility (Opening Day was just on March 1st, and we were there on March 7th! BRAND-new!), so I'm sure all the amenities for the players are superb. But as a fan, I think it's definitely missing a lot of the character that Vero Beach had. There are no 'Dodgertown' signs anywhere, no streets named for famous Dodgers within the complex, you don't just see Tommy Lasorda driving a golf cart around all the time (we didn't see him at all -- I don't know where he is), although Manny Mota was still getting around on his bike. In Vero Beach you can wander on paths through the complex, get right up to the practice fields to lean into the dugout to get an autograph from someone, etc. You can sit around by the batting cages to watch people come in and out and to watch the kids get on the bus to head out for an away game, while Rick Honeycutt is standing right out there as well. In Arizona, they have people penned-in much more, and you can't walk on all the paths or get close to many practice fields. It makes it seem much more crowded that way, and the players seem much less accessible. Pretty much, you can stand at the rope and watch them walk by as they go to and from the clubhouse to the fields. In Vero Beach, this is where everyone would stop to sign autographs; in Glendale, NO ONE stopped to sign anything. They must have told them not to for some reason because no one did it. It was so sad. So where the heck else are you supposed to get autographs if you can't get close to the players anywhere else?! Kind of sad. I guess we got some good pictures of players walking by, but that was about it. Manny Ramirez walked by and was talking Spanish to someone in the crowd, so it was cool to see him up close, but it was only for a few seconds. Sigh. We saw two games while we were there. Saturday they played the Mariners, and while we were hoping to see Ken Griffey, Jr., apparently he didn't make the trip for this one. Adrian Beltre was there, though, so it was good to see him again, too. The Dodgers had a one-run lead with 2 outs in the 9th inning, and 2 strikes on Bryan LaHair. LaHair!!! (remember him from the AAA game we saw in Vegas last June?). Apparently he got tired of us heckling him, because he launched a 2-run home run to put the Mariners up by one and to give them the game. Sigh. Stupid LaHair. So the Dodgers lost that one in a close game. On the plus side, Maury Wills ended up sitting in front of us for a little while, so we got his autograph at least. Hey, if you can't get the current players, at least the old guys are still wandering the stands. He was MVP in 1962 or something like that -- he made base-stealing a real statistic because he was so good at it, pretty impressive. On Sunday they played the White Sox (with whom they share Camelback Ranch as their "home" facility). We had good seats right behind the dugout for this game, so it was nice to be pretty close there. We had 3 foul balls come right near us, but we didn't manage to get any of them. In Vero Beach, the dugout is uncovered and you can just reach over and get autographs from the players while they sit there before the game starts. Here, the dugout is covered with a big block of concrete and the players are pretty much invisible. Sigh. We did manage to get James McDonald's autograph from there before the game, but that was it! Two lousy autographs for the whole weekend. In Vero Beach I filled up 2 baseballs with ~20 signatures. Yeah, WAY more accessible there. The Dodgers lost this one pretty handily, without really giving much competition. Promising things of the weekend: Billingsley pitched a good 3 innings on Saturday, and Kershaw pitched a good 3 innings on Sunday, so the starters are looking good at least. Raffy played both games and didn't look like his back was hurting or anything. Orlando Hudson made some amazing defensive plays at 2nd base, plays that Jeff Kent never would have made, so it's good to see that he's quick and has large range. It could be exciting to watch him play. Jason Repko looks good, too. Outfield prospect #75 Xavier Paul also played amazingly for both games -- good batting, good fielding, etc. Too bad they have so many outfielders already, because he could be good as well. Also as a plus for Sunday, Carrie and Jimmy came to the game. It's always fun to see them. They're getting a dog, too! Mal, a browncoat puppy. :) How exciting! I want a dog someday, too. We left AZ about 4:45pm, soon after the game was over, and we got to San Dimas around 10pm (no time change this time, as Daylight Savings happened over the weekend). I left around 11pm and got back to San Diego at 12:30am! Lots of driving and very little sleep, but it was a fun weekend. So, my final opinion: Vero Beach was better. It will be nice to be able to go to see the Dodgers in spring training every year now because they're so close, but I would trade that for the accessibility and character that Vero Beach offers, even if I could only go there once every 5 years or so. Oh well, there's no going back now. I'm just glad I got the chance to go to Vero Beach in 2007, before it was too late! | | Friday, February 20th, 2009 | | 10:20 pm |
Engaged!
Well, it's old news to most of the world now, but I just wanted to document it here as well, since my livejournal is a little more easy-to-follow than my facebook profile. As of Valentine's Day, Daniel and I are officially engaged! He surprised me with a ring and a proposal while we were just staying in on Valentine's night. He had promised to cook me dinner, but before he did that, he got me flowers, a sweet card, and got down on one knee and proposed to me. Awwwww, it was very romantic. :) We're looking at getting married in October or November, in the LA area somewhere. I guess those are the first things to figure out -- when and where. The rest of the crazy wedding planning shite can hit the fan after that's decided. So my question goes out to you, if you're married -- how big was your wedding? How many people? We're looking at maybe 200-ish people, but we may want to pare that down a bit and go for a slightly smaller wedding, we'll see. Daniel's ready to splurge on a big, long, fun honeymoon, though, that's exciting. Where should we go? :) So for now I'm just enjoying the "being engaged" part of everything before actually diving in to planning mode. It's fun to tell people you're getting married and to watch their faces look shocked, surprised, and happy all at once. Or to hear it in their voice over the phone. Heehee. And my last question: can you picture me as Mrs. Wu? I mean, my friends have always said I was "whasian", but maybe they didn't think I'd go so far as to become Megan Wu, hmmmmm.... :-P | | Monday, February 9th, 2009 | | 3:50 pm |
I do love Weather
Finally, some real Weather has arrived this past weekend in San Diego! It's been rainy, windy, gray, and stormy since last Thursday, and it still continues today! I am mostly excited because I actually got to stay home this weekend, and I didn't have to go OUT in the rain/storm. :) That meant I could just curl up and stay cozy inside while listening to the rain outside. Ahhhh, I do love getting to do that during the winter. It's so peaceful. :) My mom came down to visit me for the weekend this time -- hooray for visitors! Daniel went skiing in Big Bear on Friday and then went to Claremont for the weekend (and to Irvine for work stuff through Tuesday this week), so we had a lazy girls' weekend. Thursday night we went to Coronado to see a play of The Wizard of Oz, and it was surprisingly good for a small community theater! The Dorothy was amazing -- she's a high school freshman who could do it all. And real dogs for Toto were extra cute as well, especially since we were sitting in the front row! Friday I worked a short day at work and then hung out with my mom -- we went to the grand opening of my new local BevMo! (yay free chips, caramel corn, and good coupons), saw Coraline in 3D, and had Pat & Oscar's for dinner. Coraline was really good, despite the addition of a boy as a character (Coraline figures everything out for herself in the book!). I still like the book better (how can you not? It's Neil Gaiman!), but the movie was good as well. Afterwards we took dinner home and hung out, played games, listened to the rain, etc. On Saturday, it was more of the same! Sweet sweet indoor activities included booking our hotel for our upcoming stay in Washington, D.C. in March (good deal on the Hilton, yeah!), watching hummingbirds eat from my hummingbird feeder on the patio (apparently they do go out in the rain), watching Radioland Murders (it's been too long -- best movie EVER, I swear), playing more games, reading comic books (I'm all caught up on both Buffy and Angel comics now! quite some amazing stories going on there...), reading novels (working on Ender in Exile right now -- it's awesome to be wrapped back up in the Enderverse again :) ), etc. We tried to take Penny for a walk once (she came to visit, too!), but it started raining hard on us after about 5 minutes and we had to pick up the dog and carry her home quickly while the downpour continued. We ordered a pizza for dinner and hung out some more before mom went back up to San Dimas. A most excellent visit. Sunday I had an indoor day to myself while it rained on and off outside. I read some more, as well as went on a little Firefly-watching spree. I hadn't watched that show in awhile either, and the episodes are just so good. I made it so far that I only have one disc left of the entire series, which I plan on finishing tonight. :) I did go to the gym for a little while as well, but apparently it closes at 4pm on Sunday (so early!) so I didn't stay as long as I would have liked. Oh well. I spent some quality time with the rat on the couch all day instead. :) And this morning I woke up to the sound of rain outside my window still, which made it oh-so hard to get out of bed and get going. It stopped raining long enough for me to drive to work, but then late this morning it opened up and really started storming! It's super windy now and it has poured rain off and on all day long. Oh, so great. I plan on going home and cuddling back up on the couch with the rat, a cup of tea, and my book, and staying cozy while it continues to rain outside. Heehee! I love rain and Weather when I can stay inside and enjoy it from under a blanket. :) | | Friday, February 6th, 2009 | | 3:06 pm |
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
My favorite quotes from seeing The Wizard of Oz play on Coronado last night: - "She put an enchantment on my axe!" -Tin Man (and it didn't quite sound like he said axe....) - "What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage!" -Lion Happy 70th Anniversary to the Wizard of Oz! | | Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 | | 12:36 pm |
A Dork or so to Speak
Phoenix Comicon 2009! I went this past weekend to visit Carrie and Jimmy, and we hit up some hard-core dorkage. It was extremely awesome, as Carrie is my true nerd soul-mate. The event was held at the Mesa Convention Center, so it was way way smaller than San Diego ComicCon. That was both good and bad -- there were fewer stars and celebs overall, but the ones that were there were MUCH more accessible than anyone in San Diego. So I guess it's a trade-off. We only went on Saturday and Sunday (missed everything Friday, as well as Thursday preview night), but that was really enough time to see everything. There were a couple Friday panels that would have been interesting, but besides that there wouldn't have been much else to do. Headline star #1: Aaron Douglas, aka Chief Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica. We got in line only 45 minutes before his panel started in the biggest room in the place (actually, we STARTED the line -- no one else was there yet), and we got to sit in the very front row (but off to the side a bit). I am quite certain I will NEVER sit in the front row of any panel at San Diego. This was incredibly awesome. It also made it a bit awkward because I was listening to my mp3 player for much of the time so as not to hear any spoilers (I'm only halfway through season 2 right now). But I did hear him tell some funny stories, and he really is hilarious in person. He's also very HAIRY! He had a full beard and curly hair that was practically a 'fro. I almost didn't even recognize him. I guess his hair grows REALLY fast and he hates shaving, so he lets it go when he's not filming. His one word answer to "why do you look like that?" was "Laziness." It was awesome. :) Headline stars #2-4: Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)! This panel was conveniently in the same room right after Aaron Douglas, so we had front row seats for this one as well. The three of them were hilarious together, and a little strange and random as well. They were awesome in that they didn't want to sit behind a table the whole time, so they had the tech guys move the tables away so that they could just stand on the stage and walk around up there for an hour. It was great. Wil Wheaton and Brent Spiner were in some twittering war about how Wil Wheaton stole Brent Spiner's girlfriend and married her or something like that. They were all quite funny and they all do a really good Patrick Stewart impersonation. It was fun to hear some stories from the TNG days. Brent Spiner speculated that if there had been another NextGen movie, we would have seen DATA return, not B4. I sure hope so, because Data's death was so so sad. It was an entertaining panel for sure. And the room actually filled up for this one -- they weren't letting people in because the room was at capacity by the time it started. Another thing I found fairly amazing was that you didn't have to line up at a microphone to ask a question -- you just raised your hand and waited to be called on so you could shout out your question to the people in the panel. The rooms were so small that no big screens were necessary to show what was going on on stage to the people in the back of the room -- even the people in the back of the room could still see the stage. Pretty crazy after spending a lot of time in hall H at San Diego (the 6000-person capacity room). In the afternoon, Carrie and I got our picture taken with Brent Spiner -- we are true geeky Data lovers, it's true. He greeted us with a warm and loud "Ladies!" and proceeded to put an arm around each of us while getting our picture taken. Quite awesome. He has lovely gray-white hair now and looks very distinguished. I would love to see him doing some Shakespeare. I also made my rounds around the artists corner and found Ben Templesmith (the guy dresses like Doctor Who and just did a Doctor Who one-shot comic that's coming out in a couple weeks -- how can you not love him?) -- I had to get my picture taken with him to join the ranks of Jason and Mom (and Ryan?). We took our traditional Templesmith picture British-style, so that was awesome. And I also got to meet Jo Chen, who does cover art for Buffy Season 8 and Runaways and some other stuff. She's very nice, has amazing artwork, and it turns out that she's a big Lord of the Rings fan with a soft spot for hobbits and especially Frodo. Her husband made sure to point out that he was a big fan of the books BEFORE the movies came out. Love it. Sunday we went to the theater room first thing to see the "trailer dump" panel, in which they just showed a BUNCH of trailers for upcoming movies. It was cool to see them, and to hear how the audience reacted to each one. Star Trek, Watchmen, and Wolverine got LOTS of cheering, while the Pink Panther 2 got the most booing, I think. But the best part about this panel was that everyone got free stuff! I scored a Watchmen poster and a Coraline tee-shirt here -- it was my best free schwag. We also went to a couple smaller panels just for kicks -- a Comics to Film panel about how to get your comic book made into a movie; a how to do voice-over panel, which was interesting to hear how they do it for video games and cartoons and movies and stuff; a Trek Talk panel where 3 guys (including a guy from the geology department at ASU, in full Kirk costume, who is also apparently the president of the Phoenix chapter of the Star Trek fan club, who knew) talked about upcoming Trek stuff -- everyone's really excited about this movie, too; and a Watchmen panel, which should have been cool but was instead really lame. It was just a "comics director" guy sitting up there with a copy of Watchmen being like, "so, let's talk about the book." But people really wanted to know about the movie, and he didn't know anything. In fact, people in the audience knew more about it than he did. And he had promised free posters and free stuff, but he didn't have any of that, so we didn't even get anything out of it. Unfortunately, lame. But the movie is still supposed to be REALLY COOL. Apparently Alan Moore is actually involved with it now? Sounds fishy to me, but maybe it's actually true. And they say there won't be a giant squid at the end, but some other appropriately-terrifying disaster scene. I was kind of disappointed not to get the real inside scoop. And of course there's always fun stuff to see just by walking around. I'd say nearly 50% of the people there were in costume (lots of high school kids in anime costumes who were very strange), so just gawking at everybody was fun. I just wore dorky tee-shirts all weekend. There were a few Doctor Horribles walking around, and even a Captain Hammer. We also saw the guy who played Chewbacca in Star Wars, Lou Ferrigno (when is he NOT at a convention?!), and some other smaller-time actors. There were storm troopers and Jedi running a Star Wars thing for kids outside, an R2-D2 "life-size" robot rolling around (making the right noises and everything!), a Delorean parked outside, etc. All quite entertaining. Whew, I guess that's enough of that. Comicon is always fun, no matter where it is or how big it is. Next year the Phoenix Comicon is actually moving to the Phoenix convention center, so it will be bigger and right downtown instead of way off in Mesa. It's also moving to Memorial Day weekend next year, so I don't know if I'll be able to make that work as well as a random weekend in January. But I'd like to! A full-con pass is only $20! I mean, how can you beat that?! | | Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 | | 10:44 am |
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Yeah, it's January 2009, and I'm still writing about Christmas. So sue me. It's just about right, actually -- I'm generally about 2 weeks behind on things I want to accomplish, so I'm still doing pretty well for myself. So anyways, here's the fun Christmas season wrap-up that I've been wanting to write for weeks now. :) -Christmas fun started the week of Thanksgiving with Daniel and I watching It's A Wonderful Life on DVD and then going to see a play of it at a small theater in San Diego. It was not only a play, it was a play/"live" radio broadcast of the play, so the whole set was like a 40's radio station set, and all the actors walked up to big microphones and read their lines off of paper, just as if they were doing it for the radio. And not only that, but there was a sound effects guy who made all the sounds, with all kinds of cool props. That was probably the best part. :) It was a very festive set, and the lead actor did a good Jimmy Stewart impersonation, so I was quite happy with the outing. -The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend I got to go to April's house for her annual gingerbread house-making party. I missed it last year, so I was excited to get to go this time! My gingerbread house was pretty terrible, but it was fun to play with frosting and candy and get to see some high school friends that I never get to see. And April always cooks wonderful food to eat and snack on, too. :) -I helped my mom decorate our house for Christmas (in 80 degree weather!) before I went back to San Diego after Thanksgiving, and then I got to decorate my own apartment for Christmas once I got home! I love putting up Christmas lights and putting out all of my candles and decorations and whatnot. So festive. :) -December 5th was our MSSS company holiday dinner. It was at some fancy hotel in La Jolla, and this year we had a banquet room all to ourselves. It was pretty good food and company, although somewhat awkward because no one (not even Malin) stood up and said "thank you for coming" or "happy holidays" or anything like that. Rather odd, but whatever. Yay for a free meal on the company dime. ;) -My mom came down to visit on Saturday the 6th and helped me pick out and decorate my Christmas tree! We got a small one this year (~5 ft), but it was the perfect cute size for my apartment. I have lots of exciting ornaments to decorate with now. -That afternoon/evening we made our annual trip to the December Nights festival in Balboa Park. Just us and 300,000 other San Diegans, it was great. :-P We planned it out much better this year and had a game plan for all the food we could eat. That's really the best part -- the international village and all the different foods you can get. We had mini-donuts, meatballs, potato soup, latkes, shortbread, cider, winter pudding, a bunch of other Scottish desserts, sausage, etc. Oh man, so much food. We went in the San Diego Automotive Museum (cool cars, motorcycles, and scooters!) and the Air & Space museum (got to see the cool lobby of the Star Trek exhibit!). We heard a handbell choir do some Christmas carols, so that was pretty cool. And of course all of Balboa Park was decorated with lights and music and was full of festive people, so it was just fun to be there. -On the 7th we went to Chad and Carrie's Christmas concert for the community orchestra that they're in. It's always fun to hear them play Christmas music and to marvel at them playing the French horn. Pretty nifty! -Friday the 12th was Daniel's company party, which was much fancier than mine, by far. NGC put on a "Winter Ball" this year, so we got to get all dressed up and go to a party at the Hilton that was very reminiscent of prom, or at least Winter Formal. There was a buffet dinner (yummy!) and then casino games to play (with fake money, of course). With your winnings you could "buy" raffle tickets to try to win an XBox at the end of the night. I did fairly well in roulette and Daniel did well in Blackjack, but we didn't win an XBox, oh well. It was a fun party and good to finally meet all of Daniel's work friends. -I went home on the 13th and helped mom get and decorate her Christmas tree (almost in the rain!), and then that night we went to look at lights and have movie night with the Bucks and the Coxes and the Browns. It was fun to go out to Upland and walk around and look at the decked-out neighborhood, like usual. I got to wear my new coat while walking around since it was so cold out. Then it was back to the Bucks' house for Christmas tamales and to watch Nightmare Before Christmas. All of the Cox kids were there (at least for awhile), which is a miracle in and of itself. -The 14th was our extended family Christmas party, which was okay. We're never thrilled about going, but hey. The homemade gift exchange was about the same as normal, except mom actually picked #1 this time. And in singing the 12 Days of Christmas, I only had to be a 7 so that wasn't *too* bad. We need Ryan to go next year so we can all wear our Death shirts together. ;) -On Wednesday the 17th I took a sick day (*cough cough*) and went to Disneyland for the day! Natalie signed me and mom in, and the 3 of us spent the day there. It was raining ALL DAY LONG -- I swear, it never let up even once, it just changed in intensity. But we were bundled up with raincoats (I even had rainpants), so it wasn't too bad, despite being really cold as well. But the rain meant that hardly anyone else was there, so it was fun to have an empty park all to ourselves! It was a great day -- we did everything (except some of the rides -- not so good in the rain) and had plenty of time to spare. We hopped over to CA Adventure and tried out the new Toy Story ride, went on Soarin' Over California, and got some free (warm) tortillas to warm up our faces and hands with. :-P At Disneyland we did all the fun Fantasyland rides with hardly any wait -- I even got to go on Dumbo, which always has a HUGE line, but this time Natalie and I were the ONLY ones on the ride. It was ridiculous. We also got very wet while riding it, but I've been wanting to go on it again for years and I've always been deterred by the long lines. Oh, AND we got to see the Billy Hill show at the Golden Horseshoe and sit right up front to have the right Billy make crazy eyes at us the whole time. Oh, it was great. That is by far my favorite part of Disneyland. I love Billy Hill. We also ate chili in a breadbowl, chili cheese fries, and 5-layer chocolate cake while we watched. :) We went on Small World once it got dark and we could see it all lit up -- thanks for making it look pretty, Danny! :) They closed the park two hours early and canceled fireworks because of the crappy weather, but that was okay -- we left earlier anyway. We saw the castle light up with white lights/"snow" and the Main Street Christmas tree light up in white lights all special, and then we went home. I bought myself a stuffed animal (Natalie's employee discount convinced me to do it) -- the dog with a ring of keys in his mouth from Pirates of the Caribbean! He's so cute, I love him to death. :) And we found the perfect wedding present for Jenni, too. It was an awesomely fun day, despite being wet and cold. I love Disneyland at Christmas. -On Saturday the 20th Daniel and I threw a Christmas Open House at our place and got a bunch of people to come over and eat a lot of food and play games with us. We played Scene It, Taboo, and Cranium, and ate all kinds of junk food. And our little apartment can hold enough people, yay! -I went home on the night of the 23rd, after work and after packing myself up. The 24th was the usual busy, starting early in the morning with last minute Christmas shopping, then exchanging gifts with the Bucks, visiting Grandma, lunch from McDonald's, Glenkirk, watching A Muppet Christmas Carol, eating spaghetti dinner, and going to the Cox's house for their annual Christmas Eve party (more games, food, fun, and visiting). Then back home for our other Christmas Eve traditions! -Christmas was the usual level of awesome -- we had a lot of fun opening stockings and gifts in the morning. It was pretty much raining all day, so that was a nice change of pace from some of the 80-degree Christmases we've had lately. And I got a new teacup for Christmas, so I got to try it out right away to have tea and coffee cake for breakfast. :) We went to Joe & DeeDee's for Christmas lunch to hang out with the family (just the way we like it), and we even got Grandma out of the home to come over for a few hours, too. It was a nice and relaxing day, as Christmas always is. Daniel came over in the evening for a bit, and we tried out mom's new Raving Rabbids TV party Wii game for a bit. Plus we played with all our other new toys, too. Yay for Christmas! -The day after Christmas mom and I ventured out on our usual early morning shopping trip to hit up after-Christmas sales. We did well this year, and then went to pick up Aunt Lora to go to tea at the Huntington! It's so expensive these days ($25!) that we can only afford to go like once a year as a special treat, and we decided to make it a nice Christmas treat to ourselves. We got to sit at a nice window table at the front, the food was delicious, and we were there early enough where it wasn't terribly crowded yet. Walking around the Huntington is always fun, too. -Saturday the 27th Natalie and I went over to Kimi's house at night to celebrate her birthday (and her mom's), and we got to eat more food and play more games (Apples to Apples and Taboo). Their house is always cozy at Christmas -- I do love the fireplace. :) -And then it was back to work in San Diego for the 29th-31st. On the 30th I took myself to the Wild Animal Park to go to the Festival of Lights since it's the last year it'll be there (it's moving to the Zoo next year). It was nice to walk around and look at all the cool light displays and have a cup of hot chocolate. I like being a Zoo member. :) -I drove home straight after work on the 31st to make it home in time for our Hogmanay party. Yes, we celebrated Scottish New Year's this year. My mom and I had kilts and plaid sashy things to wear, and we had steak pie and stew for dinner. And at Cost Plus we bought a YARD of shortbread to have, so there was that in abundance as well. Keith was sick and couldn't make it, sadly, but he sent a cardboard cutout of his head in his place instead... and oh my did we have fun with that all night long. See my pictures on facebook for some of the excitement. :-P At midnight we did poppers and champagne toasting and then did some sparklers in the driveway. I drank half a bottle of rum, but couldn't get drunk. Hmmmm. So much for "copious amounts of alcohol." :-P Hogmanay was quite a fun party. :) -On the 1st we watched the Rose Parade on tv, then went to Shirley's/Grandma's house for lunch and the afternoon. We had fun playing Apples to Apples and watching Marissa put noise horns in her ears and nose. Quite amusing. Grandma got to come again, and Val came over for awhile, so that was nice. -On the 3rd we went up to Pasadena with Aunt Lora to look at the Rose Parade floats up close and personal. They're all very impressive! -And the rest of my vacation (through the 4th) was spent relaxing at home and reading my new books, playing with Penny, etc. New Year's vacation time was much more relaxing and low-key than Christmas vacation weekend was! But all very much fun. And that's it! That's my entire December and holiday time. Mostly these are just notes for posterity, sorry if anyone actually read the whole thing. :-P But I do love Christmas and New Year's and love getting to celebrate! | | Monday, December 1st, 2008 | | 11:56 am |
Thanksgiving weekend in review
I just spent the last 4.5 days at home in San Dimas and had a most lovely time. We did lots of stuff, had lots of fun, ate a ton, and slept very little. Here's a brief review of the long weekend: *Wed., Nov. 26 -- drove up from San Diego in the rain ~8:30-10:30pm. Got home in time to play the annual game of Lord of the Rings Risk with mom, Ryan, and Jason from about midnight to 4am. Snacks, cookies, tea, and lembas bread were in order, of course. Sadly, I was not the lord of the ring this year, but I did avoid being annihilated. Jason was the champion. Perhaps it does all hinge on Moria, hmmmm. Didn't go to bed till 5:30am. *Thurs., Nov. 27 -- Thanksgiving! The family gathering was held at our house this year for the first time ever, so I got up at 8:30am to help my mom get the house and food ready. We had the usual core family come over to eat and hang out all day, so that was very exciting. Thanksgiving is my favorite family gathering. :) We even broke Grandma out of the home for a few hours to come eat with us -- I think she was glad to get out. There were appetizers and the usual turkey dinner (my mom can cook a turkey, who knew?), plus pumpkin pie for dessert of course. Then we hung out and played Wii and ping pong and just sat around and talked for a long time. At 5pm it was time to head over to Daniel's parents' house for Thanksgiving meal #2 -- more turkey, potatoes, stuffing, etc., plus sushi (not for me, though, thanks). Got to hang out and watch a big, fancy HD TV, see Edward's nifty photos, and play with the Shens' doggies (one of which looks exactly like Mr. Muggles, heehee). Got home and watched the Chumash episode of Buffy (traditional Thanksgiving at its best) and went to bed by ~midnight. *Fri., Nov. 28 -- Got up early (6:30am!) to meet with Ves, Johnson, and Daniel for breakfast. Ves had a screwy flight that kept getting moved around, and he ended up having to head back to Delaware on Friday at 11:30am. So the only time we really had to get together was ass-early for breakfast. They all came to San Dimas and we walked down to Roady's in downtown San Dimas to have breakfast, and then came back and played Wii for awhile before taking Ves down to Orange County to drop him off at the airport. In the afternoon mom, Daniel, and I walked down to Wal-Mart to do some Black Friday shopping, but avoiding the crazy early-morning crowds. We found way more stuff to buy than expected (always the case), and then had to carry it all home with us. We played Wii Fit in the afternoon and then Mexican Train/dominoes all night long. I am the champion of Mexican Train, woo hoo! :) Got to bed around 11:30pm. *Sat., Nov. 29 -- Got up around 8:30am. Headed down to Costa Mesa with mom to have lunch with Ryan at Beach Pit BBQ. QUITE good food, and lots of it. Hung out at Ryan's and listened to records for awhile before heading back. At home, I got to go up on the roof and bag up the turbines/vents for the winter, and mom and I put Christmas lights up on the house. At 5pm Kimi picked me up to head out to April's in Stevenson Ranch for her annual gingerbread house-making party. It was awesome to get to spend some time with my high school friends, and even Robin (newly married!) was there. My gingerbread house is pretty sad looking, but it was fun to play with frosting and candy and to just get messy. April also fed us delicious dinner and snacks, it was perfect. :) We played Apples to Apples afterwards and didn't leave April's till after midnight! Got home and went to bed by 2am. *Sun., Nov. 30 -- Got up by 8:30am to enjoy Sunday morning tea and coffee cake with my mom before getting busy for the day. We rode our bikes down to Cost Plus to get a free candle that they were giving out that day, and we did a little Christmas shopping (such a fun store). Back at home it was time to decorate the inside of the house for Christmas, so we turned on John Denver & the Muppets and got busy! The living room/dining room/kitchen are now all clean and totally decked-out for Christmas. I can't believe it's the Christmas season already! So hard to believe. We also finished putting up lights outside by putting the no L sign up and getting the Christmas seal out on the lawn. Yes, we have a light-up seal with a yellow bow tie on our lawn for Christmas this year -- we're working on getting a hand and a swatch to put next to it as well, and if you understand why this is so hilarious, then you are truly well-versed in high forms of comedy. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you should WATCH ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT because it's the funniest show ever and things like seeing a seal with a yellow bow tie on a lawn will make you double over into hysterics. It's just that easy. :) In the afternoon Daniel and I went to Pasadena to Aimee's farewell party, as she is leaving and moving up to Seattle this week. It was good to see her and some other random Techers again, as well as get to eat some good food and play more Apples to Apples. We also scored several new things from her box of free stuff that she was giving away, so that was exciting too. Good thing Aimee and I are about the same size in clothing! ;) And then we stopped back in San Dimas real quick to pick up the rat and pack up the car, and we drove back down to San Diego. Getting in at 10pm was a bit later than we would have liked, but I think it was worth it to have a full day at home and in Pasadena the rest of the day. Whew! See? Quite the packed weekend! I am thankful for my friends and family and for having a stable job and relationship to round out my life. All is quite well these days! I guess I can just say that I am thankful that I have a comfortable life that looks to be stable and unchanging for awhile now. I like knowing where I'm going to be. :) And now on to Christmas, I guess! It's December 1st! I won't have time to decorate my apartment until Wednesday, but then I shall be truly ready for the holiday season. Such fun! | | Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | | 3:10 pm |
The End of an Era
Well, it's finally over. Last night I finished watching Angel season 5 -- my time in the Buffyverse has come to an end! What a trek it's been -- it's taken me about 9 months to watch 7 seasons of Buffy and 5 seasons of Angel. It's been quite an entertaining trip. Joss Whedon is great (ad nauseam), although clearly he does not like happy endings (which I knew already, duh). I guess that just makes it all more "realistic", at least as far as the characters go (how realistic can vampires and demons and apocalypses be?). Now I just need to get my hands on the Angel comic when I'm home next weekend so I can see how the story continues. So sad that these shows got taken off the air! They could have done so many more great things with them. They were just getting into the groove with Spike and Angel fighting side by side and yet annoying the crap out of each other. I do love Spike. I won't rant and rave too much, I just want to say that I've enjoyed watching it all. I think overall I like Buffy better than Angel, but I really like how the two shows share the same world and have crossover characters and plots and all that. It's pretty nifty to see your favorite character from Buffy show up again on Angel. I think I'm already going through withdrawals (I'm sure Daniel is shaking his head already), but I shall have to buck up and move on. Afterall, we start watching Battlestar from the beginning on Friday night! | | Friday, October 10th, 2008 | | 11:18 pm |
Fall is Here!
Tonight, for the first time this year, it finally felt like fall. I had forgotten how much I love the feeling of cool, crisp air, the sound of my windchimes on the patio tinkling in the wind, and the smell of candles burning. It was a nice, cloudy and cool day today, and was windy and almost stormy tonight. It was full-on Halloween weather, and I enjoyed it immensely! It makes me want to sit around and drink hot cider all night long while burning candles around the apartment. Curl up with a good book, work on a cross-stitch, or watch some postseason baseball! It's all intertwined into a wonderful appreciation for fall and the changing of the season. Never mind that the Dodgers lost a horrible game tonight -- it's October 10th, and I'm enjoying postseason baseball! Now it really is the Fall Classic. Hopefully the Dodgers can pull off wins for me on Sunday and Monday nights at Dodger Stadium when I'm there to cheer them on.... That would make my fall complete! :) And now to go read some scary stories and enjoy wearing pajama PANTS to bed for once (it's finally cool enough!). Hmmm, I'm thinking I'll read Poe this year.... :) | | Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | | 11:47 am |
Wake Me Up When September Begins
Is it really the last day of September already? How did that happen? I swear, time passes oddly at this job. Well, first of all, living the life of a "normal" person and not a student makes all time seem the same. There's no ending of terms, finals to take, new classes to begin... each day is pretty much the same as the last, week after week, month after month, etc. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but there are far fewer distinctions in time that way. And second of all, this particular job makes time seem skewed. For example, it is currently September. However, I've mostly been working with CTX data from July and August still, so my brain is still processing things from a couple months ago. And yet, I'm targeting new data to be taken in the month of October already, so I'm worrying about dates and orbits all the way out to October 25th already. So I'm constantly in the past and out into the future, but hardly in the present here at work. I had hardly even noticed that it actually WAS September, and now the month is over already! I guess that's all right -- it still feels like summer, but I do love fall, and perhaps it will begin in earnest soon. And of course, this means that tomorrow is the start of... OCTOBER BASEBALL!!! :) Of which I am happily a participating fan this year. The Dodgers better give the Cubs a run for their money, that's all I'm sayin'. :) | | Thursday, September 25th, 2008 | | 3:26 pm |
Dodgers Clinch the NL West Title!!!
It's official -- the Dodgers are the 2008 NL West Division champions!!! Arizona oh-so kindly lost their day game in St. Louis today to allow the Dodgers to clinch the division before they even have to play tonight. That's probably a good thing since they're facing Jake Peavy, although I think they should go out and beat him for once just to cap off their victory celebration which will undoubtedly take place after the game tonight. I'm so excited, this is fantastic! And even better cuz I already have tickets to all possible NLDS and NLCS games at Dodger Stadium, so I hope they go far and do well!!! It feels good to be back in the postseason, especially as division champs and not just the hard-luck wild card winners. Granted, they only have a .525 record right now, but that's all it takes to win the division this year. And now that they're in, the overall record doesn't matter anymore -- they just have to play up to their full potential in each and every game of the postseason and they can go all the way! Go Dodgers! Go Blue! I can't wait to go to my first postseason game on October 4th!!! :) |
[ << Previous 20 ]
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
megank's journal