tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-122924992024-02-06T18:47:40.819-08:00:: Giddy Girlie ::a happy disposition is the first symptom of insanitygiddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.comBlogger1082125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-56559572965397020962016-01-19T16:12:00.000-08:002016-01-19T16:12:14.620-08:00the booze tubeMaybe I should just chalk it up to the fact that I'm becoming a grumpy old lady, but I'm starting to miss the TV shows from my youth. It's not just that I'm getting a big dose of midlife nostalgia (although I'm sure it's partly to blame) but I feel so overwhelmed watching so many of these new TV shows that have such an alcohol-centric focus that booze is practically another character in the series.<br />
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I suppose I should digress here and clarify that I am not sober. I do not have a problem with drugs or alcohol, so seeing people on TV drinking or being drunk does not "trigger" me in any way. And yet it bothers me. It bothers me a LOT.<br />
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I'm sure someone has done better research on this topic than I ever could, but the way I see it the blame goes back to advertising standards. In the United States there are very strict laws governing the way that alcohol (and firearms and tobacco, which are all lumped together under "adult activities") are marketed and advertised. Up until the 1990s, cartoon characters and other imagery was used that was clearly intended to catch the attention of younger audiences. This isn't a dubious claim and it wasn't a mistake. They intentionally started marketing their products to children and adolescents, knowing that they would be the future consumers of their products - which was a base of users that they needed to build after their current crop of consumers aged out of the products or died (some from medical complications caused by the products themselves). A fifty year old man drinking beer didn't care a lick about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spuds_MacKenzie" target="_blank">Spuds McKenzie</a> but the kids in my elementary school sure thought he was cool. After decades of complaints, the temperance movement finally caught up to the governing bodies of advertisements and those ads, along with most others, were removed from sight. Well, at least from the mainstream. Sure, there are still enough beer ads out there to fill the Grand Canyon but they're not as ubiquitous as they used to be. On television, you'll rarely see an alcohol commercial at all (unless the network and program meet certain criteria to be allowed to air such an advertisement) and those that make it through the filter generally are trying to sell you on the excellent qualities of the <i>product</i> (quality hops, high-end distilleries, etc.) instead of the party-time, rock-n-roll lifestyle that they used to portray (Spuds McKenzie, etc.).<br />
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But booze wasn't going away, so if the brands couldn't advertise in commercial spots, where could they go? They went into the programs themselves. True, many programs use prop products (you'll see a box that looks like Cheerios but is called Cereal-o's or something like that) which also includes beer like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Studio_Services#Fictional_brands" target="_blank">Heisler</a> but the big brands find a way in (by buying their way in; product placement is lucrative for any production company which is why your favorite characters sometimes go to Subway or incessantly talk about Quiznos). How many scenes in TV/movies are set in a bar? Do you see neon signs in the background for name brand beers? How many characters are chugging a distinguishable bottle or order a "jack and Coke"?<br />
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And beyond the product placement, booze culture found it's way into the "mainstream" television program. Sure, look back to the programs of the 1950's and TV parents often had a cocktail before dinner, but it wasn't made into a big deal. It was a thing people did. Mom baked cakes, kids rode bikes, dad had a Manhattan, no big whoop because that wasn't the <i>story</i> of the episode. But today's TV environment is totally different. Characters aren't just out at a bar, they're getting drunk at a bar. They set out with the intention to get drunk. Their friends say "oh, you've had a terrible day - what you need is a drink!" Several popular TV shows have a repeating theme of binge drinking games which have now been <a href="http://www.trueamericanrules.com/" target="_blank">adapted for at-home use by the viewers</a>.<br />
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What bothers me about all of this is that most people don't stop and think it through. I come from a background in Marketing and Advertising so maybe I see things or think of angles that others don't, especially young people who are impressionable. I'd much rather my nephew watch The Simpsons where Homer's alcohol problem is played <i>as a problem</i>. He goes to a seedy bar full of unhappy people who visibly - and literally, often by saying the words out loud - warn against becoming like them. When Homer stops drinking, his life improves and his family is more content. That's totally unlike most of the shows out there that appeal to teens, who want to emulate "cool" people like those shown on network TV every night of the week. I know it's no longer a new show, but a show like How I Met Your Mother is in syndication like crazy - and it's a funny show - but it's another example of how the main characters spend their time almost exclusively in a bar and drink to deal with their emotions.<br />
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So when I watch these types of shows, I feel slightly irritated -- why can't they ever have a bagel or coffee instead? Why do friends have to get drunk so constantly? -- and I can't imagine how difficult it must be for someone with a substance abuse problem. It must like having a stomach ache, because I can tell you from experience that whenever I feel nauseated <i>every commercial is for greasy pizza</i>. It bothers me that alcohol is just another character in every show these days and that a lot of that is funded by the alcohol companies themselves - they provide sponsorship money, props, and 'samples' for the networks in exchange for writers creating a scene where it's applicable. So here the characters go back to the bar. Again. But it makes me sad for the younger generation. Will they be able to see through the bullshit and not try and emulate what they see on TV? Will they get to college and think "hey, my friends and I can hang out together at this bubble tea place" instead of a bar?giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-60568742614172265642016-01-18T11:02:00.000-08:002016-01-18T11:02:41.312-08:00Evolution is making a full circleBack in the early 2000's I started a blog. I don't remember where I heard about blogging but it immediately struck a chord with me. I was never great at journaling or diarying or whatever but I liked the idea of keeping some sort of electronic journal and by the early days of the new millennium I was enamored with a handful of the new-fangled public journals that people were posting. Maybe because no one was watching (or maybe they were? At the time, it wasn't easy to tell), people opened up a bit. They wrote about their lives, their passions, or simply what they had for lunch. There were no rules or expectations so people just wrote what they wanted and it was super appealing to me.<br />
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I started off by following a number of craft blogs. The writers would talk about what they were making and often share techniques and along the way would sprinkle in bits of their personal life. Since they were publishing into the void, there were no guideposts and so you'd see posts on a single site that ranged from issues with health, money, family, and then an excellently detailed post about how to knit in-the-round. Also, this was before putting pictures on the internet was easy or fast; most of us were on dial-up modems at home and even so, photo sharing sites weren't born yet. So posting a blog entry was a laborious process. You had to build a page template and then, essentially, upload a new one every time you made an update. Images were separate and HTML was still pretty rudimentary so photo tutorials (nevermind <i>video tutorials</i>) were still a long way off. It was challenging, it was slow, it was the perfect way to waste an hour at work (you're still staring at your computer, typing and clicking - it looks like real work when, in fact, you're just taking advantage of internet access that didn't require an AOL account).<br />
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I didn't really get into the swing of things before some free blogging platforms became available. Even with "major" services like Blogger the interface was archaic and if you didn't know HTML coding you weren't going to get far. RSS was also in a very early phase and only served to send out "pings" when content was updated -- it was a long time before an RSS feed was developed and then an RSS feed <i>reader</i> where you could follow websites by viewing the content in a single location*. Instead, we had blog rolls.<br />
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Ah, the blog roll. Now this was my favorite part. Some smartypants programmer had created a way to keep a list on the side column of your web page where you'd enter the URLs of sites that you liked. People visiting your site could then see who you liked and it was an excellent referral source. If I liked one person's writing style then they'd likely be in a circle with other writers of a similar vein. I'd add them all to my blog roll and you'd add some to yours. On a daily basis, I'd go down the checklist of sites and read any updates and then maybe click through to their recommended pages and add that person to my list, too. I remember what an exciting day it was when the blog roll was updated with RSS capability! Now it would show an icon next to any sites that had been updated - so you could easily identify where to find new content! What a brilliant discovery!<br />
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My regular routine, which I think was shared by a lot of people, was that I'd read the updates and then if I had something to say, I'd email the author. Yes, there was a time before comments were invented! So then I'd usually have an exchange of some sort with the author - and ditto to the people commenting about <i>my</i> site. And then I started finding overlaps. I'd get an email from a few different people who had a shared opinion or complimentary senses of humor and so I'd reply to them all at once. In this way, you were introducing your friends and inviting them to interact. Which is how you used to "meet" people online. At least, it was how I met people.<br />
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Comments eventually came to blogs, and although they weren't as advanced as they'd get someday, it brought more of the conversation out in the open. You'd be able to respond to someone else's feedback and they to yours; it was great. And the sites that I followed were all friendly banter, so the comments were a rich source for hilarious jokes - I honestly can't recall a single "you suck" comment on any of the hundreds of sites that I followed. It wasn't a negative space. Instead, by the shared comments and interactions and the individual blog posts, I began to find <i>my people</i>.<br />
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Eventually, I started meeting My People in the real world and it was wonderful. Instead of having a friend based on proximity (which most of our friends are; you live near people growing up or sit by them at school) I found real, actual, adult friends based on my <i>interests</i>. We shared a love of crafts and humor and comedy and so many other things. When we met in person it was a party. There was no awkwardness, nobody was shy. You already knew these people - you already liked these people and they liked you. It was amazing. Over the years I have met up with a LOT of people that I've met online. On more than one occasion I have traveled great distances specifically to meet "online friends". This dynamic absolutely has changed my life in the best way possible.**<br />
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Over the years as most of us have retired from blogging - people started families, changed careers, lost interest, or just simply relocated to social media - I kind of lost the fire for writing here. Not that I ever cared how many people read it (even though it's all integrated and easy now, I still never look at web stats) or commented, I just have a hard time finding the energy to blog much anymore - and <i>knowing</i> that nobody is watching makes it easier to abandon the project. But I have been thinking about it lately, about making a comeback. After years of writing regularly, I still get little snippets of ideas that pop up in my head and I start mentally crafting a blog entry of it. I've been wanting to start actually typing them up and then <a href="http://laurustina.com/" target="_blank">Jules</a> suggested that we "get the band back together again" and has invited several of us olde timey bloggers to come back, to create a blog roll, to catch up (beyond the 140 character limit of Twitter). So here I am. The evolution of blog technology led to the demise of this particular blog, but I'm back again. Let's see where it goes.<br />
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*Google Reader was my favorite RSS feed. It was the first RSS reader that allowed for social interaction. Rather than sending you to a 3rd party site (i.e., "tweet this!") you could leave comments directly within the Reader page. You could share those comments with your friends who could then comment back. It was easy to share articles and have conversations all on one page. When Google sunset Reader to push everyone to Google+ it was a sad day. Luckily, a new RSS feed has entered the arena whose only goal is to bring back the Reader experience. If your friends sign up (free) for it, you can share content, comments, etc. plus it's got an easy sharing interface for social networks outside of the blog feed. I personally love it - and you can connect with me there, too, if you care to: www.theoldreader.com<br />
**So much so that I feel guilty when I hear people talk about how hard it is to meet people. They just want a handful of friends, someone that they can go to a movie with or whatever, but where do you meet people when you're almost 40? Work? Church? Bars? It's very hard to do and I feel weird that my "secret" is that I meet people online because there's still an outdated notion that the internet is ONLY for weirdos and creeps. It's not strictly their domain, but sometimes I like those guys too. ;)giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-46709718639140308092015-01-27T17:52:00.003-08:002015-01-27T17:52:56.891-08:00Kidlet Turns TenFor the Kidlet's tenth birthday we wanted to do something special. He hasn't traveled much so we toyed with the idea of taking him out of town or even out of state. Usually at this time of year I have a business trip to Florida and so we kind of thought that it would be fun to extend our stay and make a mini vacation out of it. We would all fly in a few days early, hit the Orlando theme parks, and then the boys would fly home while I went to my conference. But it was decided (at a very late date) that I didn't need to travel to Florida after all and by the time I looked at flights and hotels for the three of us... well, things got <i>pricey</i> and it just seemed like a bit too much to swing so early in the year.<br />
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But I still wanted to do something special, so I thought "hey, Kidlet has never been to Universal Studios" so we cooked up an idea to take him to the one here, in Hollywood. His parents agreed to let him skip school on a Friday so that we could sneak him away for a fun-fueled weekend at the park. Perfect!<br />
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Friday morning, he was dropped off at our house instead of school, which was a surprise. He thought he was going to class but instead ended up with us. Of course, he's smart enough to know that <i>something</i> fun was about to happen but he didn't have any idea of WHAT. And we didn't tell him. Instead, we hauled him in the car and drove north. We told him to prepare to be in the car for a long time (he hates long car trips for some reason) but we were lucky that the Traffic Gods smiled upon us and we made it to Hollywood in about 40 minutes - unheard of! His first blip of excitement was seeing the Hollywood sign out the window of the car. He didn't know that it was a real thing (but was aware of it from TV and movies) and honestly we could have said "that's it!" and turned around and gone home and he would have been pleased. For some reason the sign reminded him about Tom Hanks and he started telling us all about Tom's acting career. Not sure where THAT came from but it was funny...<br />
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But we headed to our hotel for the night -- he'd only stayed in one hotel before so this was <i>thrilling</i> for him. We stayed at the Universal Hilton which is pretty fancy and he was impressed. Again, we could have said "here's your present!" and he would have been satisfied. But instead we checked in (all my business travel came in handy! My Hilton Honors membership got us a beautiful room that was ready for us at 10am instead of the usual 3pm) and headed up to the 19th floor. The hotel has lovely views of the valley and we could see the hotel pool by looking straight down the floor-to-ceiling windows. It was like standing on the ledge of a building! So cool!!<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> At the bottom of the pic are my feet, pressed up against the glass.</span></i></div>
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Kidlet was so excited that he immediately claimed the bed next to the window as his. He was chuffed at all the pillows and the big fluffy blankets. He really didn't want to get up, he just wanted to roll around in the down comforter forever. But we said "let's go downstairs" and immediately found the courtesy shuttle to the theme park. He caught on pretty quick and his ear-to-ear grin said it all.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The famous Universal globe and our hotel. Plus my right eye.</span></i></div>
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We started telling him the history of the Studio and the fact that they filmed actual movies right there, within view. So we headed to the tram tour first. Of course, since he's ten, he can only make goofy faces when a camera is pointed at him. I promise, he is having a good time. While waiting for the tram, we came across a picture of Tom Hanks in line. Hey! There's Tom again! The tram tour is pretty impressive and you get to see some cool stuff, plus there's the King Kong 3D experience that was awesome and JAWS jumped right up at Kidlet in the tram car. Perfect! For some reason, the highlight for him was Norman Bates coming out of the Bates Motel and chasing the tram with a knife. Kids!<br />
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Then we headed to the Lower Area where we passed the Apollo spacecraft and who else but TOM HANKS again? The boys posed for a picture with the astronauts.<br />
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The rest of the rides require that you leave your bags in a locker, so there's not too many pictures. I think we all liked the Transformers ride and the Mummy roller coaster, but they were a bit action-packed for the boys. I think everyone was a little dizzy after those two. Luckily, the Jurassic Park ride is just a mild boat ride (until the giant splash at the end).Kidlet's <i>favorite</i> was the Jurassic Park boat ride, by far. It's got everything. Action, adventure, a life-size T-Rex <i>and</i> you get really, really wet. All told, I think we rode it five times! That's a lotta splashing! It's hard to tell from these photos, but he is SOAKED. His hair is 95% wet and his shirt looks like someone dunked him upside down in the pool. I, however, just got lightly splashed and misted. The Kidlet is super-absorbant!<br />
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Universal is currently expanding their Springfield area (opening later this year) and so after the Simpsons ride and shopping at the Kwik-E-Mart, we stopped to take our picture with Homer and Marge. This was the highlight for me and I'd spent the days before our trip crocheting beanies and accessories especially for this! I found a men's tank top that had almost the right color of green for Marge's dress and altered it into an A-frame dress. I even spiffied up my red Converse shoes! Then I crocheted a beanie out of bobble stitches to make Marge's hair and a red beaded necklace to match. I also made a Homer beanie with his requisite three hairs and made a matching scarf out of donuts. Mmm... donuts! The back of the scarf had Homer's muzzle which could be worn to create his whole face, as modeled by the Kidlet. The employees in the Springfield area were very excited for us and we got LOTS of compliments. The biggest from Homer himself who tried to eat the donuts at their sequin sprinkles. :)<br />
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After a long day at the park, we headed back to the hotel. I sent the boys on a scouting mission while I ran up to the room to get the party started! I bought banners and balloons and streamers - even a tiny pinata! But the boys were so exhausted that they came back early, so I only got half the decorations up. Even so, Kidlet was ecstatic and couldn't stop laughing.<br />
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We were all pretty tired but the Kidlet insisted on going swimming. The hotel's pool was heated year-round and open until midnight! There were tons of other kids in the pool, too. All of the out-of-towners thought that 50 degrees at night was downright <i>balmy</i> so they had no qualms about night swimming in Hollywood! Kidlet swam for about an hour and then was so exhausted that it took all of his strength to have some pizza before he fell asleep for the night. Successful day!<br />
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The next morning we went back to Universal Studios and went on the rides that we didn't get to on Friday and also saw all of the shows. They each have their own charms, but I think Shrek 4D was the Kidlet's favorite. It was good for the adults, too! No problem convincing us to sit in the air conditioning for 20 minutes! It was another great day that passed really quickly -- with more Jurassic Park boat tours, obviously. Then we headed home and everyone was suddenly drained of all energy. Both of the boys kept saying "no, I'm awake!" the whole drive - even though I saw their chins drooping as we were driving. Good thing I was behind the wheel!<br />
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All in all, it was an awesome trip and I think the Kidlet had a good time.<br />
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Happy birthday, Kidlet! I can't believe you're already ten!! Tia Mia loves you! xoxo<br />
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giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-19083840547718267822012-11-19T16:51:00.000-08:002012-11-19T16:51:43.427-08:00Epic Mickey 2 ReviewI have to admit that playing this game is unusual for me. I tend to be the last one to join in on any given fandom, which in gaming usually means that the games I am buying have been around for a while (usually, years) so there's a lot of information about the games online that can help guide me along or offer reviews to help me decide what to try next. Epic Mickey 2 is a brand-new title and I actually bought it yesterday, the day it was released.<br />
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Since I am going into this game "blind" I thought that I would offer my perspective. <i>Note: I am not playing a preview copy and have not been compensated for my thoughts.</i><br />
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Platform: Wii<br />
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I'll admit that I'm a sucker for Disney and the original Epic Mickey was such a fun game that I actually completed the game twice. As established in the original game, Epic Mickey 2 carries over the paint vs. thinner "fighting" technique, and the outcomes of using one over the other affect the overall ending of the game.<br />
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The controls for Mickey are virtually identical to the original game, only this time you have a few added options when interacting with the second player, Oswald. Oswald generally stays near Mickey and follows him from place-to-place and will operate independently if only one player is active. However, at any time, Player Two can link up the Wii remote to take over control of Oswald. I haven't done this yet, so I can't comment (although other reviews lead me to believe that it utilizes a split-screen perspective, which is part of the reason why I'm not in a hurry to try it out). However, when left to be managed by the CPU, Oswald often lags behind when walking (which does NOT affect the ability to move forward, thankfully -- if he lags too far behind, he will reappear next to you in a poof of smoke) and is generally pretty useless in battle. The Oswald character has some really great moves (he utilizes a remote control, capable of shock) but Mickey can't command him to use them. The result is that he does and doesn't and often uses them in a counter-productive way. It would be much better if there was an option to assign Oswald to a task or even a spot in the room, even if it just meant keeping him out of the way.<br />
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The enemies in this game also seem a little uneven. Nearly from the beginning, we encounter more challenging enemies that were seen in the later levels of the original Epic Mickey and then they sort of level off to the relatively "easy" enemies. It left me with the impression that you could not easily pick up Epic Mickey 2 without having played the original game, which is a shame since every game should have an entry-level opportunity. Not having a guidebook or walkthrough or any other reference could mean that I am doing certain sequences out of order (entirely possible) but by all indications, I am following the story line that the game has devised. Which leads to the first boss battle, Pete's Dragon, which was seriously challenging. There are several factors at play (movement around a circular field, spraying the dragon's skin, avoiding falling rocks and flames, while jumping over lava pits...) and the escalation of the battle doesn't seem to follow standard video game logic. In general, video game "bosses" follow a "three strikes rule" (you overcome them three times and you win) or are designed to strengthen a particular skill set. This battle takes on ALL of your skills and has several layers - painting the dragon's skin (which is a 360 degree process and maybe 15-20 areas?), then it respawns, then taking out the creature controlling the dragon, then moving up to a higher level where - again - you take on the dragon's skin, then the controlling creature inside and then... it just keeps going! Perhaps with a second player controlling Oswald, I might have fended off the dragon quicker, but it just seemed incredibly difficult for the "level one" boss. In addition to the big boss, there is a repeating clockworks enemy that looks like Herbie the Lovebug and seems to only be disabled or defeated by Oswald. None of Mickey's tactics seem to work, so extra effort is needed to herd Oswald to where you need him, in order to disable the car and then Mickey can paint/thinner the 'driver'. I like the idea of the cooperative play and that two are needed to defeat an enemy, but without having a human being controlling Oswald, these relatively minor baddies end up taking a LOT of time and energy to defeat (in addition to the number of times Mickey will 'die' during the process).<br />
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My favorite parts of the original Epic Mickey game were the sets and the music. The sets were so well crafted and areas like the Junk Pile were so fun to explore -- Epic Mickey 2 brings more of the same and even steps up the level of "set dressing" a little. However, there's a downside. Firstly, in the "underground" areas, you travel via a left-right scrolling game (similar to the projector screens) but the level of detail is so intense that it is difficult to tell where you're supposed to be or where to go. There is no clear "entry" or "exit" and I'll admit that I got stuck in the underground for a good 20 minutes. Take a look at this photo and see if you agree. The walkway that the characters are standing on is obvious enough, but can you jump on that turtle? The scary face on the right? The white circle at the end of the walkway?<br />
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In addition to being just plain confusing, the underground passages require you to set off a system of Rube Goldberg-type of contraptions in order to open a door or clear a pathway for movement. So you may end up climbing up vertically (or being tossed or sprung up there) to find a pinball in which to roll down a hill, which will knock down something, etc. </div>
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The music, again, is expertly executed and I honestly would purchase a soundtrack. However, in EM2, a lot of the soundtrack is lost by voice-overs. Every character that you interact with has an on-screen display (which you can turn off) as well as a spoken voice. This gets old FAST and is discouraging me from the side-quests, where you have to talk to multiple people to get clues. The voices are loud and "cartoony" (overly exaggerated bad accents) and everyone has a LOT of dialog. No one more than Gus, who is the Gremlin who accompanies you on your quest. In the original game, Gus was annoying because he'd interject here and there but didn't have an actual voice, just a grumbling noise which was bothersome. Now he speaks several sentences whenever he feels that you need to pay attention to something. His voice itself isn't bad, but about an hour in, I had to mute the TV because I couldn't listen to him anymore. As the quest continues, he seems to butt in less and less, but in the early phases? Ugh. Too much talking.</div>
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That being said, I really am enjoying the game over all. I wish that Oswald were a little more responsive or could be directed while in Single Player mode, but I'm adapting to working around it. I adore the sets and the "picture taking spots" are a fun touch. So far, my favorite is the Bog Easy level which is based on the New Orleans Square area at Disneyland. This game even has a Club 13 (a play on Club 33) which is so exclusive that not even Mickey and Oswald can enter! The different areas offer a lot of small challenges, which makes the gameplay even better -- it's not just chasing down the next bad guy, but also climbing on the sets and finding hidden treasures. </div>
<br />giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-19931406727655368552012-06-20T16:39:00.000-07:002012-06-20T16:39:47.098-07:00AustinA couple of weeks ago, we finally got to visit Austin, TX! Ryan has some friends there and there's so much to see that we've been wanting to plan a trip for a long time, but it finally worked out since I had a business trip there and so I bought Ryan a ticket to tag along.<br />
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Our first night we went to dinner with some of my work mates to Moonshine, which had a relatively small menu but it all looked so good that we couldn't decide. We literally sat in the restaurant for about 45 minutes trying to decide who would order what. Ryan settled on the chicken fried steak, which was as big as his head (in this photo it's actually <i>bent in half</i> so it looks smaller than it was). Texas sized portions, to be sure!<br />
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The next day while I was working, Ryan went and met up with his pal <a href="http://www.cobracage.com/">Billy</a> who he hadn't seen in about 12 years. They spent the day exploring the city a bit; Billy had moved away for a while and just moved back so he was interested in seeing what was new and different. They took some excursions to Barton Springs and other local spots and came back that night to meet me when I was done. We asked the concierge for a recommendation for somewhere <u>quiet</u> for us to catch up and chit chat and she recommended <a href="http://www.easytigeraustin.com/">Easy Tiger</a>. It was a cool place but definitely not quiet. It's more of a college crowd, instead of the bikers that had taken over all of 6th street for the ROT Rally (biker rally).<br />
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The following day, I had to work again so Ryan met up with his buddy, Riley, who he hadn't seen in 10 years. They hung out all afternoon and I caught up with them at the Jackalope but it was starting to get busy (Friday night, plus the bikers were coming out in full force) so we went up to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/thegrackleaustin">The Grackle</a>, which is an out-of-the-way dive bar with perfect atmosphere. It was supposed to just be a detour, but we ended up staying all night. Totally different crowd. Yeah, it got busy, but everyone was unwinding after a long week so it was mellow instead of rowdy.<br />
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Saturday was our big day to explore the city, so we went up to South Congress and did some toodling around. There are a few thrift stores and lots of vintage stores, but I expected everything to be pretty well picked-over. Instead, we scored some great souvenirs, including these vintage 1980's Converse for Ryan ($20!).<br />
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We also stopped by <a href="http://www.vulcanvideo.com/">Vulcan Video</a>, where Riley was working. It's an AMAZING video store. I know that sounds weird, but it really was awesome. They specialize in hard-to-find titles and formats (they even have their original VHS collection) and most of the "good stuff" is categorized by director or genre. We spent probably an hour in there and couldn't buy or rent anything since we aren't locals, but it was still great to see.<br />
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One of the places that Ryan and Billy had gone was Fran's hamburgers. Back in the 90's Billy had founded an art studio and they made the sculpture of "Fran" on the roof (below).<br />
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I had been pestering Ryan to get a haircut for weeks, and he totally ignored me. SOMEHOW the Austin heat and humidity won out, so when we passed Bird's Barbershop, he relented.<br />
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Before:<br />
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During:<br />
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After:<br />
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He lost about 2 pounds of hair and lowered his temperature by about 30 degrees. He was so pleased with the cut that he told the stylist (Mark) that he will come back to Austin just for the haircut.<br />
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After that, we grabbed a grassy spot near the Congress Bridge to wait for the nightly bat exodus. Millions of bats live under the bridge and fly out at dusk to go eat bugs.<br />
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I was wearing my Rigatony's shirt that I bought in Tempe, which I adore.<br />
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Thousands of people turned out to wait for the bats.... but none came! Bats are sensitive to noise and if it's raining they'll often wait until very late at night to come out. I think the constant parade of bikers scared them off. The bikers would cross the bridge by the hundreds and loop around about every 2 minutes. We'd heard that the night before, the bats didn't come out until about 9:30pm and even though we stayed until nearly 10pm, we only saw a few come out at a time. Maybe 20-30, instead of the <u>millions</u> that were waiting, so we called it a night and went back to the hotel.<br />
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Sunday was our last day, and we'd been advised to see the animatronic LBJ statue, so we headed over to the museum. Unfortunately, almost all of the presidential stuff was under construction, so only the First Lady's section was open. It was surprisingly interesting. Plus, Ryan got an art boner over seeing an ACTUAL Norman Rockwell piece of Ladybird Johnson.<br />
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Outside the museum is a life-sized statue of LBJ who was gigantic. Ryan whispered a secret in his ear and made him smile (for reference, Ryan is about 6'1").<br />
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Then we headed back through Austin to look at some of Billy's murals. It was swelteringly hot - 106 and humid - so when we stopped to look at the Joseph's mural, I stayed in the car. The window tint gives the pictures a "hipstamatic" look.<br />
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Our favorite was the Greetings from Austin mural. It's on the side of the Roadhouse Relics building at 1720 South 1st Street in Austin. A lot of visitors expect it to be near the airport or in the general downtown area, but you have to go looking for it. Ryan "bent the font" for a few photos and then we went across the street to Flashback, which is a vintage clothing store that Billy and his studio made the sign for.<br />
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After that, we headed over to Blue Genie Studios, which is the studio that Billy founded with his art partner. The giant foam genie on the roof is spectacularly impressive in person.<br />
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The statue of "The World is Yours" is hands-down my favorite. If I wasn't a law-abiding citizen, I would have shoved it in the trunk and driven home!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7364540272/" title="The World Is Yours by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="The World Is Yours" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7227/7364540272_031bcf2cd5.jpg" width="374" /></a>
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The day was sorta cooling off, but felt hotter than ever. We'd walk around a bit and think "man, it's hot" and then get into the air conditioned car and almost faint. It wasn't until you were inside that you realized how close to heat stroke you were.<br />
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As we were driving, I saw a hand-made sign for a shaved ice company and decided to follow it. It was a little set-up in someone's driveway and we dropped in and ordered two right away. The best $2 I have ever spent! We sat in front of their house for the next 30 minutes and ate our shaved ice with grape syrup. It was sooooo good!<br />
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We still had some time to kill before going to the airport, so we looked on Yelp for some interesting stuff in the area. One of the listings was for <a href="http://www.talbotworld.com/">Casa Neverlandia</a>, which is a private residence. The house itself is a giant art project, covered in tiles and paint and sparkly things. Pictures really don't capture the beauty.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7179367765/" title="Casa Neverlandia by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Casa Neverlandia" height="500" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5279/7179367765_1eb93a154e.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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The owners of the house allow for private and self-guided tours, but since we didn't plan ahead we didn't want to bother them by calling "Hi, we are outside your house! Can we come in?"<br />
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Next time, I'd definitely like to explore more.<br />
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The trip home was uneventful. We were exhausted and a bit heat stroked and just wanted to sleep on the plane, but the gossip girls behind us were too loud. They were super annoying and we just made fun of them the whole time, so it was actually kind of fun.<br />
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I have no idea how to end this post, but I loved Austin and would love to go back when it's less hot - maybe in the fall. Ryan has been invited to a comic convention there in October, so we may be back in 2012!giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-60757087116027419322012-06-15T18:00:00.000-07:002012-06-15T18:00:34.358-07:00Phoenix Comicon 2012Time flies when you're having fun and dang if I haven't been having a ball! Before I forget, I wanted to post a little something about Phoenix Comicon and all the fun that was had.<br />
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So! This year I upgraded my artist alley table to a 10x10 booth (!!) and was able to get a spot right next to <a href="http://www.sockzombie.com/">Erin</a>, <a href="http://www.puppetpie.com/">Stacey</a>, and <a href="http://www.thecrowshop.com/">Brianna</a> so we became the ultimate party booth of handmade awesomesauce. I decided to get my paintings up off the table for the first time and bought some gridwall to display them. I think it really worked out well and having them at eye-level helped people find me better. The peg people were still on the table in their dollhouse, which worked out okay. We've already booked the same booth configuration for next year and I'm noodling some ideas to get the peg people up off the table, too. Stay tuned!<br />
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<a href="http://www.katedanley.com/">Kate</a> also shared space with me, which was really great. She just released her third book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Get-Your-MacKay-ebook/dp/B00855LBFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339806296&sr=8-1&keywords=kate+danley">Maggie Get Your Gun</a>, which is the 2nd in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Hire-MacKay-Magical-ebook/dp/B005MZ1F8E/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2">Maggie McKay, Magical Tracker series</a> (super fun - go get your copy NOW!).<br />
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It was SO MUCH FUN hanging out with these ladies all weekend. Plus, it was great to have some back-up. Like, you could go to the bathroom and <i>someone would watch your stuff!</i> Or if you needed some back-up, you could call out a code word and someone would come running. It was excellent!!<br />
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And as if the convention wasn't enough excitement, Adam, Kate, and I had an additional adventure! To start with, we went to Ryan's panel discussion about various DC Comics which was really fun and funny and Ryan, of course, had a moment where a moth came out of nowhere and landed on his head. Always a bug attraction, that guy! HP took some excellent photos, including this one:<br />
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So, after the panel was over, Adam, Kate, and I were rushing back to the booth because it was time to close up shop for the night. We decided to take the elevator because it was the quickest route. Well, it should have been. Instead, we got in and a guy and his daughter squeezed in at the last minute and just as the elevator started to descend, the guy realized that he'd wanted to go <i>up</i> so he pushed the button for a higher floor and - SHUDDER STOP. The elevator just stopped. After a minute, we realized it wasn't going to fix itself, so we used the emergency call button and alerted the maintenance crew that we were stuck. They were very kind and patient and were ultra concerned that we would panic. They stayed on the line with us through the intercom and also called my cell phone to "maintain contact" and gave us minute-by-minute updates (which were mostly "we're working on it, sit tight."). After about 30 minutes, we decided to take a seat on the floor and wait it out.<br />
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The little girl on the elevator with us was determined to 'save the day' with her new lightsaber and was constantly whacking at the door with it (seen above). But there wasn't much that could be done from inside.<br />
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It was boring and stuffy (when they emergency stop the elevator, it also disables the air conditioning) but otherwise uneventful. We had to wait for about an hour for the fire department to come. I was expecting that they'd just jimmy open the door with a crow bar (I had pulled it open about 1/4 inch with my fingers and could see that we were only slightly higher than the floor - about 2 inches). Instead, they decided to "rescue" us through the ceiling.<br />
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I made a short video of the fireman opening the roof hatch and moving the heavy panel over.<br />
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Here's our rescue squad! Dropping through the ceiling!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7305241950/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/7305241950_97beff8c15_b.jpg" width="332" /></a><br />
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The firemen dropped in a ladder and then instructed us to climb out, one at a time, up through the roof. So we did. Adam was the gentleman and the last one out, so I was able to snap a few pictures of him being rescued.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7305258672/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7087/7305258672_354221761f_b.jpg" width="332" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7305265546/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7237/7305265546_53f2377f9c_b.jpg" width="332" /></a><br />
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The best part was that when we finally got out, there was a HUGE crowd of people standing around the elevator, cameras ready! Flashes were going off, videos were being made. We felt like babies being saved from a well! It was hilarious. And then Security whisked us aside to sign some paperwork and confirm that we were safe, etc. They were pretty strict about the crowd not touching us or talking to us... it was like a celebrity getaway! Only with more legal forms and security dudes who were not fluent in English trying to fill out paperwork for us (they wouldn't let us write it ourselves, we had to dictate our names, addresses, etc. but the guys were really slow on the translation, so spelling your name A-D-A-M took about 10 tries. It took a long time.).<br />
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We missed the end of the show, but thankfully our cadre of friends closed up the booth for us and made sure our stuff was safe.<br />
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The next day, we were minor celebrities and got to enjoy telling everyone not to overcrowd the elevators because "we were trapped in an elevator last night and don't want to go through that again!" Luckily, we were all cool, calm, and collected so it wasn't really a bother - more of an adventure and a bit of a time waster, but it was okay.<br />
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My prizes from the show were a pair of Ocarinas. Okay, I know! Shut up! But <a href="http://stlocarina.com/">this booth</a> was near ours and I could hear the ladies playing the Legend of Zelda songs and it was so charming! I had to have them!! The first one is a ceramic Ocarina that plays 12 notes, so it can play the full Zelda songbook (included!) and the second one...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7311400740/" title="photo.JPG by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo.JPG" height="332" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8158/7311400740_417ee153e1_b.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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The second one is a TEA-carina. Oh yeah, that's right! It's a tea cup AND an ocarina! So you can sip your tea and when you're done play a little tune. OBVIOUSLY this is the next step in my career: master ocarina player. And I might have been listening obsessively to the songs that <a href="http://stlocarina.com/cd.html">St Louis Ocarina has recorded</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7311422784/" title="teacarina by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="teacarina" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7099/7311422784_199387fd20_b.jpg" width="332" /></a><br />
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The whole weekend was so great that even Tracy had to come by. We were so punchy and tired by the end, that we started doing cheerleading moves or something while pictures were being taken. Maybe that was just me. I dunno. It was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again next year!!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7376839282/" title="phxcc_2012 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="phxcc_2012" height="332" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7376839282_7772440d32_b.jpg" width="500" /></a>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-47283241327781119132012-04-18T14:35:00.001-07:002012-04-18T14:35:39.690-07:00Concept to Collaboration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last night, I was invited to attend a gallery event at the Fowler Museum at UCLA which was being put together by Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching. (Since the event was open only to current students, we didn't discuss the event publicly - so don't feel left out!) As an extension of the <a href="http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/order-and-disorder-alighiero-boetti-afghan-women">Alighiero Boetti exhibit</a>, we "stable" embroiders came to work on a collaborative piece. More about that in a minute.</div>
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First, let's talk about ME. Okay, so I am generally pretty clueless (duh) but last night was a pinnacle moment. I wore a blue sweater which matched my blue nails and my blue sewing kit... 'twas a bit much, I concede. I also had blue sunglasses (last night's look re-created today in the middle image below)... oops!</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6944762500/" title="Peggy Bundy hairstyle by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Peggy Bundy hairstyle" height="240" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/6944762500_635aaa35b3_m.jpg" width="180" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6945362316/" title="re-creation of the blue lady by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="re-creation of the blue lady" height="240" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7243/6945362316_bbf61ae3d8_m.jpg" width="180" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6945004324/" title="blue nails by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="blue nails" height="240" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5034/6945004324_be1458746f_m.jpg" width="179" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6944759940/" title="tools of the trade by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="tools of the trade" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7246/6944759940_8241cc9fdd.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Regardless of my matchy-matchy blueness, I was so excited to see some of my fellow embroiderinos who had traveled from near and far across Southern California to be there. I was so excited to meet <a href="http://jessicakallam.wordpress.com/">Jessica Charleton (nee Kallam</a>) in person after following her online for years. It was great to meet some new friends, too, like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68403903@N00/sets/72157625275437447/">Drop Dead Quirky</a> who I didn't realize was Shannon's real-life friend (jealous!). Of course, Shannon (<a href="http://gigglytimes.blogspot.com/">Giggly Mama</a>) and Mark (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bieraugel/">FilmResearch</a>), and <a href="http://schindermania.com/">Ellen Schinderman</a> were all great to see again -- old friends are the best friends, right? I think I successfully scared off <a href="http://sublimestitching.com/">Jenny Hart</a>, who has been an embroidery hero of mine for many years. She was so sweet and cute and funny (you know her darling blog? Her cheery emails? SHE'S JUST LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE!!). I was a bit of a dork and she probably left thinking that I am the Queen of the Weirdos (I mean, with that Peggy Bundy hair style, who wouldn't run the other way?!). I hope our acerbic little gossip group didn't terrify her too much because <i>we really, really, really liked her!!</i><br />
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Okay, so, the show: Boetti is a collaborative artist, which is controversial in itself, and for this show the pieces on display were hand embroidered LARGE pieces that were stitched by people (mostly women) in Afghan refugee camps. Part of the "controversy" if you want to call it that is that the ladies doing the work didn't really know or possibly couldn't understand what the end-vision was for each piece. They were stitching away for hours and days and weeks on these gigantic maps and coded alphabet 'samplers' without knowing exactly what the end product would be or how it would be represented. The pieces ranged from maps to alphabets to icons of people and machines -- some of it likely to be unfamiliar to the people doing the work. Could they know if these things would be offensive? Political? Dangerous? Inspirational? Admittedly, looking at the gallery online, it's unimpressive. You really have to see these works with your own eyeballs to appreciate the labor, the craft, and the SCALE of these projects.<br />
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As an adjunct to the gallery exhibit, Jenny Hart was asked to create a collaborative piece that would be assembled in a similar fashion. She chose a piece of prose (known only to her) and the words were written on individual slips of paper. Participants - we "stable of stitchers" as well as students - would choose a word at random and then select how it would be depicted: lowercase, backward, cursive, repeating, etc. and write it on to a piece of fabric. The only "rule" was that no one could stitch their own words. The "stable stitchers" were on-hand to kind of get the ball rolling and assist students who may not have embroidered before. It was a lot of fun to interact with students who popped in to the room to see "what's this?" between rounds of Drag Queen Bingo and see how they went from "oh, I can't do this. I don't embroider" to "man! I'm almost done but I have to get back to the dorm! Can someone make a call for me and tell them I'll be 20 minutes late?" All of the finished words will be assembled by Jenny Hart and the final piece will be presented on May 31st (open to the public!) at the Fowler Museum.<br />
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The first word that I selected was "did" and, true to form, I chose blue floss to work with.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7090805867/" title="did by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="did" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7220/7090805867_184cba1ce7.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Our end of the table immediately clicked and the hours literally flew by. We talked about everything (and everyone!) under the sun and had a blast. I only remembered a few times to click some pictures and Amy (DDQ) successfully evaded them all. She's a crafty one!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7090803509/" title="Shannon & Ellen by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Shannon & Ellen" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7262/7090803509_6bbd74a5f1.jpg" width="374" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6944748426/" title="Concept to Collaboration by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Concept to Collaboration" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/6944748426_ee77b6cbff.jpg" width="500" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6944742916/" title="Shannon, Ellen, & Mark by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Shannon, Ellen, & Mark" height="374" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5345/6944742916_e2d4b18760.jpg" width="500" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/7090808165/" title="sitting next to Cathy and Jessica by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="sitting next to Cathy and Jessica" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7232/7090808165_4553dc9e87.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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It was a great night - very productive, lots of fun. I sincerely hope that we can make it happen again sometime, even if for no real reason!<br />
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Also, I have to thank Jenny Hart <b>again</b> for including me in this group. I sincerely appreciated being a part of it. And I also want to highlight her generosity in letting me keep my <a href="http://www.sublimestitching.com/collections/scissors/products/silver-scissors">scissors</a> (squee!!) and gifting me with a set of the new <a href="http://www.sublimestitching.com/collections/new/products/shy-girl-shy-boy-pillow-set">Shy Girl/Shy Boy pillow cases</a> to embroider!giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-83562421144186252292012-03-09T11:41:00.001-08:002012-03-09T11:42:01.354-08:00RIP Ruckus<br />
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<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6967552115/" title="RIP_Ruckus by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="RIP_Ruckus" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6967552115_b5251efa7d.jpg" width="500" /></a></center><center><br /></center>
I have been trying to compose a respectful tribute to Ruckus, who lost his battle with FIP on February 22, and it's just been hard to write. Not even in an "it's too emotional" kind of way, but just... I try to write something and it never seems to be the <i>right</i> type of thing or the best retelling. I haven't given up, there will be a few things posted here soon. I want to include a retrospective of his life and also an overview of his disease, treatment, and outcome because there is very little available online today about adult cats with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_infectious_peritonitis">FIP</a>.<br />
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<i>So why post this today? </i>Because today we bring home the final earthly remains of our dear friend of twelve years. I don't believe that "he" is in his ashes or anything like that, but all the same it's a small comfort to bring him home. We are planning to scatter some of his ashes (again, my selfishness and need to keep some small part of 'him' with me prevents me from throwing them all to the wind) in some of his favorite places. He loved being outside and his daily walks were a great source of his happiness. He had some established "spots" along his walking path that he would stop daily, so it seems fitting that a tiny trace of him should be left there.<br />
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I look forward to finishing my remembrances in the hope that those who knew him will find some comfort in the knowledge that he lived a full and wonderful (I'd even say <i>spoiled</i>) life and that all that could be done, was done in his illness. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.<br />
<br />giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-44180755909032001362012-02-08T21:12:00.000-08:002012-02-08T21:12:00.523-08:00derpy Christmas presentsI've been reading (and loving!) the <a href="http://www.booksofadam.com/">Books of Adam blog</a> for a while now and I've always coveted his <a href="http://www.adamdraws.bigcartel.com/">custom derpy pictures</a>. A few months ago, I showed them to Ryan and he wanted one of us immediately. Unfortunately, Adam's drawings are in-demand so you have to act at just the right moment to commission one. I caught a break in the fall and sent in my order.<br />
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Ryan has always liked this picture of us, so I sent it in to Adam...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/1805124863/" title="IMG_2175 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_2175" height="500" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2215/1805124863_761afb2b27.jpg" width="375" /></a>
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...and this is what we got back! I was so excited to show Ryan but I wrapped it immediately and held out til Christmas.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6839500403/" title="derpy Ryan & Mia by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="derpy Ryan & Mia" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7171/6839500403_4450dc6f64.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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I need to scan it out of the frame to get a clearer picture, but you get the picture!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6839439161/" title="derpy Ryan & Mia by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="derpy Ryan & Mia" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6839439161_6c089642cf.jpg" width="374" /></a>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-49173525317367775772011-12-20T20:41:00.001-08:002011-12-20T20:58:59.914-08:00Making ChristmasThis year I made good on my threat, er, promise to decorate for Christmas. The tree, truth be told, looks pretty much like every year. The same ornaments just always look the same. But every year, I have to marvel at the Tinker Bell on top of the tree. This year, Ryan did an amazing job at arranging the lights behind her wings to give her a lovely glow.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509748487/" title="Tinker Bell topper by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Tinker Bell topper" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6509748487_c4bfd1fb72.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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To step it up, I decided to use some extra mini trees to gussy up the shelves on the TV console that hold my various toys and bric-a-brac.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6547141709/" title="Pee Wee's Christmas, lit up by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Pee Wee's Christmas, lit up" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7152/6547141709_efc1c28384.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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First up was the Pee Wee's Playhouse crew. Pee Wee and Cowboy Curtis are having fun playing with their new train set and teddy bear (respectively).<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509738385/" title="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7168/6509738385_4f53c59a5f.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509739889/" title="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6509739889_70322f0aff.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Miss Yvonne smiles happily at the gigantic pink diamond (my gift from the Kidlet gave me last year) and the cupcake themed Vinylmation toy from Disneyland.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509743099/" title="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6509743099_2d5e88342d.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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The miniature dollhouse is actually a miniature Barbie Dream House that was a Hallmark ornament from the 80's (maybe?). I found it at a comic book store in Florida, of all places, and had to have it. On the balcony is a Mardi Gras baby Jesus and a miniature Cinderella in her winter finest. Beneath is a Disney bus and Mickey Mouse's house (look, the tiny Disney things come in blind packs and to get the Haunted Mansion that I wanted, I had to get a lot of other random things). There's also a naked black baby girl that Styro sent me. The little ghosts are wooden cut outs from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30135689@N05/">Chris Yates</a> who makes custom cut wooden puzzles and for Comic Con a couple of years ago, he had some surplus wood pieces that he made into ghosts. I just love them. Also hiding under the tree is Nibbler from Futurama.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509744575/" title="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Holiday vignette: The Pee Wee's Playhouse friends playing with new toys" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7161/6509744575_960ae4e286.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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The Haunted Mansion shelf got a "Haunted Holiday" make-over that mixes the Nightmare Before Christmas with Haunted Mansion.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6547148305/" title="Haunted Mansion Holiday, lit up by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Haunted Mansion Holiday, lit up" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7171/6547148305_2cd781eed8.jpg" width="374" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509918551/" title="Making Christmas: Haunted Mansion toys get some Christmas cheer by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Making Christmas: Haunted Mansion toys get some Christmas cheer" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6509918551_4b7ef0920f.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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The Mansion got some snowmen and a miniature Christmas tree, along with some Dia De Los Muertos characters from Mexico.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509915257/" title="Making Christmas: Haunted Mansion toys get some Christmas cheer by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Making Christmas: Haunted Mansion toys get some Christmas cheer" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7163/6509915257_3b26727931.jpg" width="374" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6509921387/" title="Making Christmas: Haunted Mansion toys get some Christmas cheer by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Making Christmas: Haunted Mansion toys get some Christmas cheer" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6509921387_2443a89277.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Sock Zombie took over Rocket's sweater and Santa's mini chair and is waiting to hear your wishes! Next to him are the three wise bacons, courtesy of <a href="http://theimaginaryworld.com/scroller.html">Mr. Toast</a>, and clay angel cats.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6547189887/" title="sock zombie Santa holding court by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="sock zombie Santa holding court" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6547189887_c5a0b41c1b.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Sharing the shelf is Godzilla wearing the reindeer antlers and decorating his own tree. Beneath is a woody replica, hauling its own tree and the sock puppet versions of me and Ryan and Ruckus (made by <a href="http://katedanley.blogspot.com/">Kate</a>).<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6547196217/" title="Godzilla decorating by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Godzilla decorating" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6547196217_da6fbfe9e6.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Even the mermaid lamp got in on the action! She's wearing a plaid green scarf to keep herself warm out of water.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6547204553/" title="mermaid lamp in her festive scarf by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="mermaid lamp in her festive scarf" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7023/6547204553_c43f0af9e8.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Of course, we'd be remiss if we didn't also decorate the local livestock! So here's Rocket, modeling his collection of holiday ready-to-wear!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6491165443/" title="The other reindeer: Grumpy by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="The other reindeer: Grumpy" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6491165443_ef9956e7d4.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6491103789/" title="Need to find the elf hat by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Need to find the elf hat" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6491103789_fe427b7914.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6462637343/" title="Rocket's new "ugly sweater" from Target by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Rocket's new "ugly sweater" from Target" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6462637343_a8c35fa27e.jpg" width="374" /></a>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-89641187927233760782011-10-07T13:13:00.000-07:002011-10-07T13:13:20.329-07:00Hare today goon tomorrowIRT the post title: did anyone else say this joke at the end of Little Bunny Foo Foo? Because the fairy would threaten him with being turned into a "goon" if he didn't stop bopping field mice on the head... so after his third warning she says {along with the music} "Little bunny Foo Foo/I've already told you/ STOP picking up field mice/ and bopping them on their heads" and with a wave of her wand POOF! He was a goon! And the moral of the story is <i>hare today, goon tomorrow</i>.<br />
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Am I the only one who did that? Probably.<br />
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ANYWAY, this post is about hairs not hares. It's about styling that mane on your head while you sleep without curlers or rollers or hot tools of any kind!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aYxS1ohz4Ao" width="560"></iframe><br />
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This is how I started out - freshly washed and air dried hair, about 90% dry, naturally curly with NO products or hairspray<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6221203294/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6039/6221203294_75936bf710.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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Then I rolled it up, according to the video's instructions<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6220684525/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6119/6220684525_94211612be.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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I wore the roll-up overnight, but I had a pretty bad night's sleep. I tossed and turned and thrashed around a lot so I was surprised to see that the whole thing hadn't come undone.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6221205664/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6169/6221205664_ed1c8d883f.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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After taking out the headband, I didn't brush or spray my hair. This is what it looked like. Incidentally, it's hard to photograph dark hair!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6220686961/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6212/6220686961_964b198a35.jpg" width="374" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6221208606/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6051/6221208606_9023a327a6.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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This last picture was taken about 5 hours later. You can see that the curl has relaxed a bit, but not a lot. If I had used some product, it probably would have held tighter but this was just an experiment.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6221208820/" title="photo by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6221208820_83767bfa2a.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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Overall, I'd say that this was a success! Although I'd probably touch it up with a curling iron here and there if I was going someplace exciting (today was a work-at-home day), it still saves SO MUCH time when you're getting ready. Rolling it up took about 5 minutes and taking it down was about 10 seconds. A curling iron touch-up might add 5 minutes, but a 10 minute hairstyle to look this good? You're WAY ahead of the game!<br />
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Notes for next time:<br />
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<ul>
<li>roll while hair is wetter, so that the natural curl doesn't fight against the roll-up</li>
<li>use a tiny bit of liquid gel or mousse to help hold the curl (unless waves are desired)</li>
<li>touch-up with a curling iron where needed in the morning</li>
<li><i>don't take pictures of yourself at 8am. No one wants to see that.</i></li>
</ul>
giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-77453174983499254612011-10-07T10:00:00.000-07:002011-10-07T10:00:06.429-07:00Camera HogRuckus was sitting by the front door, as usual, whining and whining and whining... meaning that he was ready to go for a walk. As soon as I turned on the camera, he clammed up and refused to speak.<br />
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Instead, Rocket took over.<br />
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Note: I was holding the camera against the front door at the height of the peep hole.<br />
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*when used to film the contentsgiddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-52481240693770095182011-09-29T17:09:00.000-07:002011-09-29T17:09:11.757-07:00Birthday Bonanza Part 3So... on my actual <i>birthday</i> Ryan was deathly sick. He was running a fever and a crazy cough and a ridiculously runny nose. That was a bummer.<br />
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It was a bummer because the following day I had to attend an event, where I would be for the next few days. Part of my company's event sponsorship included hotel rooms at the event property, which just happened to be the St Regis hotel - not a bad place to spend a few days!<br />
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Saturday night, on my actual birthday Ryan was still falling apart, so I just went and checked into the hotel and dropped off all my event gear and then came home.<br />
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This was the view from my room.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6168005538/" title="view from my balcony by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="view from my balcony" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6168005538_aeb7384c05.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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The conference had sent this welcome platter for me. Isn't it nice? The candied oranges were delicious!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167469473/" title="snackies by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="snackies" height="374" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6161/6167469473_6837453548.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Ryan and I spent the afternoon Sunday at the hotel. He swears that he was cured by a $25 gin & tonic and a conversation with the bartender about how this was the best gin in the world. So while he sipped on that, we enjoyed some housemade garlic pretzels and truffle fries (OH SO GOOD) out on the restaurant balcony, overlooking the pool.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167470961/" title="pool at the St Regis by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="pool at the St Regis" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6167470961_6bd332f8c4.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
The pool looked so nice, but this place is too swanky for us to SWIM in, right? So we just sat poolside and stared at the ocean view - but mostly at this seagull who was using the fountain as a bidet.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167472243/" title="bidet bird by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="bidet bird" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6153/6167472243_75eb97d311.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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The hotel offers a "shuttle" service to their private beach, so we went to check that out and watch the sunset. Yes, it's possible to walk but the walkway is a public path outside of the hotel. The shuttle is allowed to cut through the golf course, so it's about a 5 minute trip. It's terrifying, truth be told. The driver was pushing the limits of what this cart was capable of. I was certain that the brakes were going to fail or we were going to get thrown out of the sides.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167473027/" title=""shuttle" to the beach from the hotel by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt=""shuttle" to the beach from the hotel" height="374" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6179/6167473027_0cb479009e.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Down at the beach, the hotel provides towels and beach chairs, umbrellas and BBQs. There are outdoor showers, clean restrooms, plus a private restaurant with indoor or outdoor seating and indoor/outdoor fireplaces. Not a bad place to spend the day!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167474443/" title="us at the beach by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="us at the beach" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6178/6167474443_a0c7afd0ba.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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We walked in the water, because you're SUPPOSED TO. And then we sat on the specially-tiered seating to watch the sunset. It was lovely. Then we washed our feet and took the shuttle back to the hotel.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6168012550/" title="sunset by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="sunset" height="374" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6180/6168012550_82e3952851.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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I could barely keep my eyes off the giant soaking tub. It was so... GIANT! There was a shuttered window pass-through to the bedroom, which allows you to watch TV and converse with your spouse while you soak in the tub for <i>hours</i>. The bathroom area also had a speaker system that connected to the TV, so you could adjust the sound in the bathroom to better hear your 'stories' from the tub. Or the toilet.<br />
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My only beef with the tub is that it was SO deep that I (4'10") had problems getting in/out easily. Because everything surrounding is Italian marble, it's super slick. It was a trick to not kill myself. BUT TOTALLY WORTH IT.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6168001462/" title="soaking tub by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="soaking tub" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6168001462_07a3891855.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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There was a lovely moon and Ryan and I enjoyed the evening out on the balcony, listening to the ocean and eating room service pizza.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6168003374/" title="view from my balcony by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="view from my balcony" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6179/6168003374_c6892ba99a.jpg" width="374" /></a>
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The next morning, my event was in full swing and Ryan went home. The event went pretty smoothly and I loved every minute of my St Regis experience. Ryan, however, hardly remembers any of it. Apparently, it's all a hazy fever dream for him.giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-62078117152536731952011-09-27T18:13:00.000-07:002011-09-27T18:13:27.219-07:00Birthday Bonanza Part 2: Dapper DayAs per usual, one of my birthday requests is always a trip to Disneyland. You know, because I <i>never</i> get to go to Disneyland. Well, this time it's true! I hadn't been in months because the summer crowds were beyond outrageous, especially with 2 new rides opening simultaneously.<br />
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We started off the day (around 1pm) at California Adventure to check out the new Little Mermaid ride. It opened around the same time that the new Star Tours revamp did and Star Tours has had solid lines (usually about 3 hours long) ever since. I figured the same for the Little Mermaid, so I held off... well, it turns out that because this ride has a MUCH higher capacity, the line is shorter and moves fast. Hooray for us! In less than 5 minutes, we were boarding our little clam shell (aren't they cute?).<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167977274/" title="Little Mermaid ride by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Little Mermaid ride" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6167/6167977274_b746675c09.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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And look how cute the Cast Member uniforms are! I'd totally wear that any day!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167977880/" title="look how cute her uniform is! by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="look how cute her uniform is!" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6165/6167977880_4c696083df.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Since I am a dunce and <i>still</i> have not learned how to use my camera, all of my pictures turned out blurry. I only ended up posting a few just to give people (myself included) an overall <i>flavor</i> of the ride. The animatronics are top-notch. The Ariel shown below bobs and weaves and dances, while blinking her eyes and waving her arms.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167978194/" title="Little Mermaid ride by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Little Mermaid ride" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6158/6167978194_4f2b63ddcd.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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The day was surprisingly hot. All week, the temperatures had been pretty mild (low 70s) but by the weekend, the heat was on again. So after a short while in the sun, we were ready for some refreshment. We decided to try out the brand-new Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel. Although I am still a bit heartbroken for all of the things that are gone now from the hotel - including the waterfalls - seeing the new Polynesian restaurant and tiki bar softened the blow.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167443707/" title="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6167443707_4958e360ce.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Inside, the bar is AMAZINGLY, elaborately themed. Some of my art heroes, <a href="http://miehana.blogspot.com/">Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily</a>, did some of the design and decor. If you decide to venture inside 1) prepare to have your eyes be boggled - there's so much to look at! 2) stick around long enough for someone to order certain cocktails. Depending on the drink order, various <i>enchanting</i> things happen. I won't spoil it for you, but if the staff starts yelling SHIPWRECK, get over to the bar a.s.a.p.!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167445161/" title="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6167445161_70539d1b60.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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The bar had a nice little <a href="http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/men_tsam.htm">snack menu and a surprising number of non-alcoholic drinks</a> as well. Which is great because none of us are big drinkers and if ANY of us had a cocktail, all three of us would still be asleep by the wishing well.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167983502/" title="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6174/6167983502_a0aa3b90f7.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Kate tried the Jungle River Sunset.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167447965/" title="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6167447965_7fa91205d8.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Ryan tried the Skipper Sipper.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167447621/" title="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Trader Sam's enchanted tiki bar" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6167447621_f14dc2de0e.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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And I got the Schweitzer Falls (which was my favorite of the three). After resting our bones at Trader Sam's, we headed back to the car to get our 'dress up' clothes for the <a href="http://www.dapperday.com/">Dapper Day</a> event.<br />
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It was such a hot day that I copped out entirely. I wore a linen sundress and my comfy shoes and called it a day. I was fine with my choice until I saw Kate's gorgeous polka dots and then I wanted to run home after I saw the group gathering in front of the carousel.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167449121/" title="Dapper Day by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Dapper Day" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6166/6167449121_84c519e7cf.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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I clearly looked like I was part of the group, but maybe not. About 10 different people came up to ask ME (out of a crowd of about 120 people) what the deal was... why is everyone dressed up? If you're unfamiliar, here's the elevator pitch: Disneyland designers had envisioned the park as a <i>destination</i> where people would anxiously await their visit and when they got there arrive in style. In the early years of Disneyland, this is exactly what happened (remember the stories of the ladies who got stuck in the hot tar on Main Street because their heels sunk in?). Since then, people have gotten more casual, so (another of my art heroes!) <a href="http://justinspace.com/index1/jshome.html">Justin Jorgensen</a> had the idea to organize a meet-up for people who wanted to visit the parks in a dapper way. There's no cost and no commitment, just wear your finery and meet up for photos!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167449579/" title="Dapper Day by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Dapper Day" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6179/6167449579_0213825386.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Ryan got out his waistcoat and tie.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167986260/" title="Dapper Day by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Dapper Day" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6153/6167986260_0091023782.jpg" width="333" /></a><br />
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Kate, as always, looked like a doll! And Kevin decided to honor the currently-being-refurbished-to-make-way-for-something-new Carnation Plaza by wearing a dapper outfit, similar to the original CP uniform.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167988306/" title="Art Heroes by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Art Heroes" height="333" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6162/6167988306_3da5c0217c.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Kevin and Justin were the Big Celebrities of the night. Everyone wanted to photograph them!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6167985706/" title="Dapper Day by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Dapper Day" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6155/6167985706_224000eab2.jpg" width="333" /></a>
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100563017350519&set=t.100000568145252&type=1"></a><br />
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See? Here's my cop-out outfit. More comfy than dapper.<br />
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After the event, everyone started posting pictures to Facebook and I got tagged in two. The group below is centered by Kate's buddy James who had an excellent green-on-green ensemble.<br />
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In the last picture, I was captured randomly and just happened to be in the center of the photo. I am scratching my head which was full of purple dye. I swear I wasn't posing! This is probably the most embarrassing picture of me that could have been posted. Naturally, I have to link to it for posterity!</div>
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After the Dapper group meet-up, everyone sort of dissipated around the parks. We were getting hungry and Ryan was starting to not feel well, so we opted to leave Disneyland all together and seek dinner elsewhere. We ended up at one of our favorite chain restaurants and ate a metric ton of biscuits. Well, I did anyway. </div>
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At dinner, Ryan was draining fast and so I got him home right after. Within the hour, he was running a scorching fever and was miserably sick. Poor guy!</div>
giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-50687345638890552672011-09-08T16:28:00.000-07:002011-09-22T16:35:02.540-07:00Detective Comics #1So... yeah. Ryan's part of that whole "<a href="http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/the-new-52/">New 52</a>" initiative over at DC Comics. Whatevs. It's just a major reboot of their top 52 titles and he's just working on one of the top titles, <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/comics/?cm=20087">Detective Comics</a>, from which the company gets its name. NO BIG DEAL.<br />
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After months and months and months of hard work - literal blood, sweat, and tears - the book was released on September 7, 2011. As part of the launch, our old pal Mike invited Ryan to sign his book at his shop, <a href="http://thecomicbug.com/">The Comic Bug</a>, so we headed there in the evening to doodle some sketches and sign autographs (him) and crochet granny squares (me).<br />
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The first part of the night, I was sitting at the table beside him, quietly crocheting and keeping myself busy. Until I realized that everyone in line (20+ people) was staring at me. I guess since I was visible and moving, because <i>something</i> to look at. It made me feel weird, so I retreated to the couch by the window.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/6127662340/" title="Giddy Girlie by eyduck, on Flickr"><img alt="Giddy Girlie" height="421" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/6127662340_69a8a885c3.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Shortly after that, who should arrive but <a href="http://katedanley.blogspot.com/">Kate</a>? We told her, specifically, NOT to. Signings are boring (that's why I brought my crochet project!) and the shop was far away and she has a crazy schedule, blah blah blah. But she's such a trooper that she came all the way out to Manhattan Beach after an audition for Glee where she had to read opposite Jane Lynch. NO BIG DEAL.<br />
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I had brought along cupcakes for the comic book masses. There was a lot of back-and-forth on whether I was going to the signing or not... and if I was, then I was going to make custom cupcake picks to match the book. Since I didn't know for sure until just before we left, I ended up using some Batman rings for cupcake toppers. Kate snapped a pic of ours because they are super awesome. Also: I did not BAKE anything. The cupcakes were from Ralph's which means they were super tasty.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/6127114965/" title="Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na BATMAN! by eyduck, on Flickr"><img alt="Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na BATMAN!" height="375" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6191/6127114965_211fb2dc56.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Ryan signed books and did sketches for 4+ hours and there was a steady stream of people all night. We guessed that at least 100 people came and got sketches and autographs. The shop had ordered several hundred copies of the book and when we left that night, there were 12 left. Not too shabby!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/6127662496/" title="Line of fans out the door by eyduck, on Flickr"><img alt="Line of fans out the door" height="375" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6199/6127662496_47b7f56e60.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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As tired as we both were, we closed the place out. Literally. We ate the crusts of the pizza and stood around talking (directly in the path of the guy trying to sweep up so he could go home) for hours. It was awesome. And a great way to kick off the book!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/6127662384/" title="Quiet at the end of the night by eyduck, on Flickr"><img alt="Quiet at the end of the night" height="375" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6196/6127662384_9b7737934c.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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As of this writing, <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-touts-new-52-sales-success-110912.html">the book is going into a second printing</a>, which means that it sold more than 200,000 copies in the US -- and most were sold within the first 24 hours of release. I heard that it was selling on eBay that same night for $20+ (cover price is $2.99) and even now there are several copies listed for $15 or more. Pretty cool.<br />
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Another cool thing: this book sold as well as some of the other titles and didn't have variant covers! To the uninitiated, it works like this: some books come out with special variant covers - say 3 at a time, each drawn by a different artist or whatever - but the variations are printed in small quantities and randomly packed. In theory, every 50 copies of a book that is ordered should contain at least <u>one</u> variant cover. So if there are 3 variants out there, retailers will order 150 copies in the hopes of getting one of each variant (not guaranteed). Thus, a lot of books with variants -- such as many of the New 52 -- may have sold more copies than usual because retailers were trying to get the coveted (and valuable; variants technically retail for the same price but shop owners often increase price based on demand) variant covers. Detective Comics only had ONE cover and sold as many copies. That's pretty danged cool!giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-63972171175996615762011-09-06T16:38:00.000-07:002011-09-22T17:04:11.183-07:00Birthday Bonanza Part 1: LACMATechnically, this was <i>everybody's</i> birthday bonanza. It's so hard to celebrate for/with all of your friends when everyone is so busy. So for those who we missed or who got half-assed birthday wishes, we had a make-up day. It just happened to coincide with the start of my birthday week. S'all good!<br />
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After going back and forth on whether we should mini golf or roller skate or just go to brunch, Kate suggested that we head over to the LACMA to see the <a href="http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/tim-burton">Tim Burton exhibit</a>. Perfect!<br />
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The exhibit has timed entry, and we had tickets for later in the afternoon, so we helped ourselves to some of the other galleries in the meantime. In the Broad Gallery were some works by Jeff Koons, including his giant metal balloon dog. Charlie is standing in front of this picture, to give it some scale. Charlie is a big dude - over 6 feet if he's an inch - so you can see how massive this piece is. It's pretty to look at and danged impressive when you hear about HOW it was made and the cost, including <a href="http://slamxhype.com/art-design/jeff-koons-%E2%80%98balloon-dog%E2%80%99-fabricator-carlson-co-shuts-as-recession-hits/">bankrupting the company that fabricated it</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6121049284/" title="Jeff Koons balloon dog by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Jeff Koons balloon dog" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6078/6121049284_b1e60e5cb9.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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There were several other Koons pieces, including these gigantic collage-style pieces on the wall. At first glance, I thought "eh, collage" and moved on. Ryan, however, stood and stared for a good long while. It was then that I realized OH! These weren't collaged or printed, these were PAINTED to look like collage. Ok, so they were pretty impressive too.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6121043800/" title="Jeff Koons paintings by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Jeff Koons paintings" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6210/6121043800_d48ed57cca.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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Several other sculptures were in the gallery, including Michael and Bubbles -- a tribute to Michael Jackson and his pet chimp, done in a gold porcelain style.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6115043169/" title="Michael Jackson and Bubbles by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Michael Jackson and Bubbles" height="375" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6186/6115043169_47ba956fa7.jpg" width="500" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6115586588/" title="Michael Jackson and Bubbles by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Michael Jackson and Bubbles" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6190/6115586588_7cc0d84aa1.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
And immediately behind these were some of Warhol's famous works, like his soup cans (both big and small).<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6115002363/" title="Small Campbell's Soup Can by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Small Campbell's Soup Can" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6062/6115002363_23ea87cd6b.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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In another corner were Warhol's screenprinted boxes for Corn Flakes. Interesting, but... I dunno. I wouldn't pay millions for them (each one is individually owned and listed as a gallery object).<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6115000583/" title="Warhol's boxes by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Warhol's boxes" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6201/6115000583_49cd5d509c.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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When we got into the Burton exhibit, we were told that there was a zero tolerance policy for photographs or use of cell phones. So I have nothing to show you from there. The exhibit was PACKED. Plenty of cool stuff to see, like pages and pages and pages (thousands!) of Burton's sketchbook pages. These were just ok. I mean, I like his style as much as the next gal, but once you've seen the first 200 it's reasonable to say you've seen 'em all.<br />
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The stuff that I liked the best were the pieces and props from Burton's movies. Most of these weren't made by Burton himself, of course, but were nonetheless extremely impressive. One of the items displayed was Johnny Depp's suit from Edward Scissorhands. Whoa - super tiny! Did you know that Depp is super tiny? I didn't! Miss Bliss and her husband knew that from working in the biz that he's an "apple boxer" - meaning that he stands on a lot of apple boxes to get the right height in movies - but it was a surprise to me. Depp's IMBD page says that he's 5'10" and online people speculate that he's closer to 5'7" but I'd say that based on the Scissorhands suit, he's probably a little shorter - maybe 5'4"? Maybe even smaller. In any case, he's TINY and thin, thin, thin!<br />
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The costumers that Burton works with are hands-down the best and looking at the various pieces were my favorite part of the exhibit.<br />
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The exit leads you right back outside, where we caught glimpses of rainbows in the sky (no rain, it was still pretty hot outside, maybe 85 or so at 6pm). I also walked back around to the front to snap a couple of pics of the lamps outside the LACMA. I love these, they're salvaged from the "old" LA and still fully functional. They're beautiful at night.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6114998317/" title="lanterns at LACMA by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="lanterns at LACMA" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6210/6114998317_91c78edddf.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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Rainbow and signs of the zodiac around the plaza.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6114994881/" title="rainbow and zodiac by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="rainbow and zodiac" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6190/6114994881_35d2e0e064.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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I also spied <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0393222/">actor James Hong</a> waiting to enter the Burton exhibit. I wanted to say something... but what do you say to a guy like that? "Oh, I loved you as the evil Chinese guy? You were great as the smarmy Chinese guy?" Yeah... so.... I just snapped a stealth pic and moved on.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6115539818/" title="Actor James Hong outside the LACMA by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img alt="Actor James Hong outside the LACMA" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6198/6115539818_8ab71d329a.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
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After running through the last of the exhibits and gawking at mummies, the group headed over to our favorite all-night eatery, the <a href="http://www.frenchquarterwest.com/">French Market Place</a>, and ate everything in sight. The waiter recognized us (*gulp*) and when he saw that I had a gift bag, he asked who's birthday it was so I pointed to Kate. He secretly arranged for an eavesdrop around the dessert menu review and when Kate said the carrot cake sounded good, he sent out the whole team to sing to her and bring her carrot cake. It was great!giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-83566913984434426232011-08-27T09:32:00.000-07:002011-08-27T09:32:00.184-07:00Snuggle Up Saturday<div>Taking a break from catching up on the break that I took.... um, yeah. I thought I'd share some pictures of Rocket, who is hands-down the biggest snuggle hound I've ever seen. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>This picture is from the day we brought him home. He would go exploring and then run back for me to hold him.</div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/4995188840/" title="snuggly by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/4995188840_185e1df50b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="snuggly" /></a><div>
<br /></div><div>The picture on the left is one of his first days living with us, when I'd sleep in the Office with him at night. The one on the right is 2 months later and my throat is still his favorite place to sleep.</div><div>
<br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5218637103/" title="L: 11/29/10, R: 9/18/10 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5218637103_6e8a831ff9.jpg" width="500" height="252" alt="L: 11/29/10, R: 9/18/10" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>Then he wanted to be held ALL the time, so I pioneered the <a href="http://giddygirlie.blogspot.com/2010/09/kitty-sling-tm.html">Kitty Sling</a>!
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5016242533/" title="Kitty Sling(tm) mobile version by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5016242533_bdd61feaa1.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Kitty Sling(tm) mobile version" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>No fancy apparatus is required, just a warm pair of arms.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5079852276/" title="sleepy buddies by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4035/5079852276_137942822e.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="sleepy buddies" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>He's also learned that if he snuggles in <i>juuuuuust right</i> that Ruckus will let him be the Little Spoon.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5308260263/" title="He tries to fight it but sometimes Ruckus likes a snuggle pal by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5045/5308260263_5fc2b5141e.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="He tries to fight it but sometimes Ruckus likes a snuggle pal" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>But with these guys, you can't just snuggle one! Ryan was holding Ruckus (who enjoys being held, too) and Rocket got jealous and jumped up on top of the pile.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5284588998/" title="my family by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5043/5284588998_89683d70b2.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="my family" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>Sometimes, snuggling is uncomfortable. But it's the price you pay!</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5334607727/" title="IMG_9132 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5206/5334607727_1c66b4a75d.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_9132" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>It's super worth it!</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5335215338/" title="IMG_9086 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/5335215338_5ed9fbb8ae.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_9086" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>The problem with snuggling is this: Rocket has no boundaries. In this picture, I am working in my home office. I am talking on a conference call and taking notes and he is taking a bath. He's licking his feet and displaying is butt in my face with no regard for the fact that I am trying to be SERIOUS.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5474418484/" title="Current status: I'm on a conference call with a cat bathing in my lap by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5257/5474418484_0730c467a2.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Current status: I'm on a conference call with a cat bathing in my lap" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>His favorite is when he gets to snuggle with everyone at once. This is a lazy Sunday morning with the whole family (not pictured, Ruckus who sleeps near the foot of the bed).
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5615582376/" title="Lazy Sunday morning by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5068/5615582376_887f3cd516.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Lazy Sunday morning" /></a>
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<br />He doesn't care at all that I'm trying to crochet (that's what the pile of yellow and blue is in the background), he just wants to be held ALL DAY LONG.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6078285427/" title="Rocket snuggly by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6068/6078285427_997a0aa1f2.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Rocket snuggly" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>And when I can't hold him or need my arms, he's happy to burrow into my shirt. He's like a baby kangaroo.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6078825700/" title="My Joey by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6197/6078825700_fc858a4d9f.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="My Joey" /></a>
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6078319171/" title="typical Rocket by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6208/6078319171_eb1d448012.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="typical Rocket" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Once he gets situated inside my shirt, he'll usually bite my chin lightly (his version of kissing) and then settle in and go to sleep. The bottom picture is from Thursday and he slept like this for more than an hour.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6081352462/" title="Thursday by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6183/6081352462_245b5ee3eb.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Thursday" /></a></div></div>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-17304495078540330442011-08-07T17:36:00.000-07:002011-08-31T18:19:14.686-07:00Convergence of Awesome<span class="Apple-style-span" >Post title stolen from <a href="http://katedanley.blogspot.com/">Kate Danley</a>'s photo</span><div>
<br /></div><div>Thanks to BlogHer for bringing MORE cool people to our neck of the woods! Erin, who you know and love from <a href="http://outofcharacter.net">Out of Character</a> and <a href="http://sockzombie.com">Sock Zombie</a>, came out to San Diego and attend the conference. I was debating whether I should check it out or not... but it all came down to laziness. Basically, I'm not trying to make money from this blog or build an empire. I don't have any real designs other than to keep a real-time journal for myself and my friends to reference and I pretty much SUCK at that. So, shelling out hundreds of dollars hardly seemed worth it to go to a conference and be all anti-social and hide in my hotel room. ALTHOUGH the upside is that all the ladies with blogs come out and have fun and I could meet some people and make new friends... well, in the end I didn't go but <b>don't worry</b>. I still made new friends.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>See, Erin went, right? And she knows loads of people and she's not a shy violet like me, so she gets out there and networks and junk. And so she <i>meets</i> people. And I text her constantly from the car wash where I'm avoiding eye contact because I don't have a bra on and I have sweat rings forming and my <a href="http://itchy-armpits.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Sweaty-Armpits-Solutions.jpg">baloney pits</a> are growing. And I hide out in my living room. So she goes alone and meets people and then she brings these people that she's met to be shanghaied at lunch by me, served up on a platter (or a bucket, as it were) and then I get to pinch down on them with my lobster grip and <i>never let go</i>. In the end, I make new friends, they have a new follower - EVERYBODY WINS. (Which also translates to "no one trusts Erin to arrange a lunch date")</div>
<br />SO. When Erin said she was coming to San Diego, Kate and I begged and pleaded for her to play with us. She agreed after all of her other dates cancelled! Hooray! So Kate and I drove down to downtown San Diego to meet Erin at her hotel. Immediately, we drove her to a mall basement parking lot, as the Ambassadors To Local Culture that we are. At the mall, we met up with Phil, who Erin was meeting for the first time and we had only a vague description of who we were looking for (blue shirt, camera bag) and so we were staring down every man at the mall "are you Phil? No? Well, close enough - let's go!" until one of them agreed to come with us. He was nice enough, so we kept him.<div>
<br /></div><div>We wandered around the Gaslamp District, not really knowing where to go. We needed some lunch and probably some booze, but where? Honestly, we just kind of ended up at Rockin' Baja Lobster but it worked out perfect. We got a great table next to the open window, where the breeze would dance in and dry my sweaty brow.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6098004237/" title="Erin!, Kate!, Phil! by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6061/6098004237_1f41b063a6.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Erin!, Kate!, Phil!" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>We then ordered lunch, which comes by the bucket-ful. We just kind of ordered one of everything: shrimp, lobster, crab legs, steak, battered fish, and chicken. Oh, and a cauldron of guacamole for the side. And extra butter. And some lemon. And more napkins, please.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6098005201/" title="Buckets of lobster and shrimp and crab legs and shrimp by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6068/6098005201_682d26ce52.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Buckets of lobster and shrimp and crab legs and shrimp" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>It was decently tasty and I think I won the "clean plate" contest by leaving just a bucket of shells behind. TAKE THAT, lobster!</div><div>
<br /></div><div>After I ate an embarrassing amount of food, another bloggy pal came to meet up with us and I got to meet the world-famous <a href="leahpeah.com">Leah Peah</a>! She was so sweet and mellow and I probably scared her away by talking TOO MUCH about Disneyland and being a geek. But all the same, she sat at my table! So now I get to claim her on my List of Awesome People That I Have Met.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>After Leah went home, we started our head back toward the car so we could get Erin to the airport in time for her flight home. Along the way, I diverted the group inside the <a href="http://www.hortongrand.com/">Horton Grand Hotel</a> which is a funky old historic hotel that is rumored to be haunted. Our friends stayed there once (and swear it's haunted) so I had been into the lobby which has historical artifacts and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6098552702/in/photostream">a horse!</a> Why? I have no idea. So I made the group come inside to look at it. They happily complied.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/6029218447/" title="Convergence of AWESOME! by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6136/6029218447_22a6db0c68.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Convergence of AWESOME!" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>We didn't see any ghosts, but when we crossed the street back toward the mall we saw this graffiti art piece by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Os_G%C3%AAmeos">Os Gemeos</a> telling us not to believe the hype. So maybe there AREN'T ghosts after all...
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6098553606/" title="San Diego - Don't Believe The Hype by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6207/6098553606_e9a899ab1a.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="San Diego - Don't Believe The Hype" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>After bidding a fond farewell to Phil, Kate and I took Erin to the airport with plenty of time to check in and get comfy before her 8pm flight. Then we hit the highway. About 20 minutes north of San Diego, I got a text from Erin that her flight wasn't until 8:30 and she'd breezed through security so now she had lots of extra time to waste in the terminal. Kate and I both felt terrible that we'd left Erin. Not just that the airport is boring but that we could have <i>sat around talking for another half an hour!</i> Or gone to see the famous tiki bar! Or meet Shamu! Whoever was in charge (still undetermined) should be in trouble for that one.
<br /></div></div>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-21023269628609627152011-08-05T09:44:00.000-07:002011-08-05T09:44:00.445-07:00Flashback Friday<a href="http://www.booksofadam.com/2011/08/better-living-through-chemistry.html">This recent post on the Books of Adam</a> about test-driving his anxiety medications before using them on an airplane reminded me of my mom.<div><br /></div><div>She traveled a lot for business when I was young, but she never got over her flying anxieties, so she had something with her (probably Ativan. Hell, it was the 80's, they might have just given her opium) for those times that she couldn't cope. If memory serves, she was coming back from the east coast on a non-stop flight (to California, that's generally about 6 hours) and they were hitting turbulent "weather" left and right so she took a pill. Next thing she knows, she's being woken up by a flight attendant. She was the last person on the plane, it was only the flight crew left and they were all standing there holding their purses, tapping their toes. </div><div><br /></div><div>Embarrassed, she leaped up and grabbed her luggage and headed out of the plane. She didn't realize how drowsy she still was until she reached the exit - this was back in the olden days (or still today, at Long Beach airport!) when they used <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2673/4156754693_aab1667ab5.jpg">stair cars</a> to load passengers. At the top of the stairs, she grabbed the handrail, took a deep breath, and.... slid down all the stairs on her butt, bumping each one on the way down. By the time she met my dad and me at baggage claim, she looked like she'd gone three rounds with Mike Tyson.</div>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-78229597535974513352011-07-28T21:23:00.000-07:002011-08-23T22:13:50.204-07:00Anti Comic ConThis year for the big Comic Con in San Diego, Ryan got an Artist Alley table (I was denied - boo hoo) so we'd planned on making a bigger to-do than usual. I was able to grab a hotel room when one became available in June (for those in the know, the tickets usually sell out in November, the hotels shortly after) which was a giant coup. Plans were made with <a href="http://katedanley.blogspot.com/">Kate</a> and <a href="http://www.adampictures.com/">Adam</a> to come down and join in the festivities. Adam was going to drive all the way from Utah since we haven't seen him in so long and we were all excited about the 4 day slumber party of awesomeness.<div>
<br /></div><div>Of course, it didn't work out that way. Ryan's <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/sites/thenew52-qr/qeujvutfo/">big new project</a> had some accelerated deadlines so his plan was changed at the last minute. He went down to San Diego on Thursday for the preview day of the show and had a great time. The plan was that Ryan would take the train to San Diego for the show Thursday, then come home that night to work, then we'd drive back on Friday where we'd meet up with Adam and Kate. Good times! Por supuesto, the train was wildly off-schedule and the return trip scheduled for 5pm was delayed to 11pm so he was getting pretty anxious. Instead, he ended up hanging out with <a href="http://www.jgonzodesigns.com/">Gonzo</a> and crashing in his hotel room for the night. Ryan was able to go to the convention the next day, too, where there was all kinds of drama. The least of which was that poor Adam was struck down by the flu 3 hours into his 10 hour drive. He was too sick to continue and went home instead. We were sorry to have missed him, but at least he didn't have to witness the convention ridiculousness. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>A wee bit of backstory: Ryan's buddy had started this big art project, which was going to be made into a book. The theme of which was based on an ex-girlfriend who was sorta starting to be a new girlfriend (at the time). A few months back, the two of them had a falling out and were no longer dating. No biggie. Only, she turned up at the convention and somehow had her own Artist Alley table (she's not an artist, but she has connections with the conference planners) where she was selling prints of the work that Ryan's buddy did. There were lots of artists already mumbling about why this girl was there, when so many working comic artists were denied tables, so a fan alerted Ryan's buddy to the situation. He went over to talk to her and ask her nicely to stop selling his artwork and she got pissy and called security and said that he threatened her. Security came and told him that he had to leave. They took away his badge and made him pack up his table. By the time the convention organizers came around, Buddy (goaded by Ryan, no doubt) called the organizers out on letting the girl have a table and they were kind of caught off-guard. Someone suggested that the organizers look at the girl's table - all exhibitors are required to sign a document agreeing not to sell bootlegged material. Well, the organizers were embarrassed because it was going to cause a fracas to kick the girl out, so they agreed to let Buddy stay. By then, everyone was over it and Ryan decided not to come back either, out of solidarity. There were lots of other issues leading up to the show with table assignments, etc. that were really crappy and we suspected that it all had to do with the Buddy/girlfriend issue.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>ANYWAY, Ryan decided to throw in the towel and come home. He went to catch the 2pm train, which ended up being delayed again. This time until 7pm. He stuck it out and eventually made it home. The hotel reservations that I had were pre-paid and non-refundable, so Kate and I decided to take advantage of them anyway. BEST. DECISION. EVER.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Ryan got to spend the weekend home alone, working. Kate and I went out and enjoyed the weekend. We decided to skip the convention all together and do our own thing. The hotel in Old Town was right by the state park, which we had never been to before. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>We started off the day by wandering around the shops and there was even a street fair. I bought some awesome stuff. Like this fingerpuppet! And also a hand-embroidered image of ducks with eyebrows! The man who owned the imported Asian emporium shop saw our interest in the embroideries and <i>wouldn't stop talking about them</i> because, apparently, he purchased them himself on a trip to Vietnam. The workers would spend months on these pieces (which he was selling for dirt cheap). The ducks are kind of awesome.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5972996626/" title="FINGERPUPPET! by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6126/5972996626_ce63626b42.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="FINGERPUPPET!" /></a><div>
<br /></div><div>We hadn't realized that the state park is like a true Old Town. Historic buildings and all that jazz. It also was Stagecoach Days with lots of "innocent amusements" including sasparilla, games, and stagecoach rides.</div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5983179196/" title="Innocent Amusements! by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6002/5983179196_a623b7afab.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Innocent Amusements!" /></a>
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<br />We went through all the buildings. Some were "educational" stuff, like the first restaurant in California. The first stagecoach emporium, etc. There was also a tobacco shop with a historic wooden indian.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5972439343/" title="Thumbs up for America! by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6004/5972439343_fd5fb3f2dd.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Thumbs up for America!" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>We also ate Mexican food, naturally.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5972447131/" title="Lunch in Old Town San Diego by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6013/5972447131_9a98b63025.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Lunch in Old Town San Diego" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>And then looked at exhibits of the Native Women of San Diego. Like this one. Happy bunch!</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5973000368/" title="The Women of Old Town by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6149/5973000368_eb2d361953.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="The Women of Old Town" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>While wandering, we came across this offer for a ghost tour. WHAT!? So we decided to take the 11pm tour for extra spookiness!!
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5982624215/" title="Ghost Tour by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6025/5982624215_46be2b154e.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Ghost Tour" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>After wandering around through history for a few hours, we went back to our hotel room to take a foot rest break. We watched cheesy TV and rested and it was, seriously, the best thing ever. After a couple of hours, we decided to make a break for Sea World. WHAT?! I can stop any time! The plan was to see some fishes and junk and then the fireworks before hooking up for the ghost tour. The park was so busy, though, that we ended up leaving before the fireworks and went back to the hotel where we had a <i>prime view of the fireworks from our own balcony</i>. It was awesome!</div><div>
<br /></div><div>After another small break, we walked back to Old Town for the ghost tour...
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5982629065/" title="Kate, ready for ghost hunting! by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6008/5982629065_3c6c3293fe.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Kate, ready for ghost hunting!" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>The man who led the tour was... flat? Boring? Too serious? He claimed to be a true ghost hunter. That he would come down to the old parts of town in the middle of the night to look for ghosts and take pictures (one of the things he kept impressing on everyone was that often you won't see a ghost, but a camera can capture it. To 'find' one, you simply take LOTS - hundreds - of photos and then examine them for slight differences, the difference being a ghost of course). He had some dry tidbits about most of the historical buildings and claims of sightings, many of which are patently false because the building itself is only a facade or wasn't there for hundreds of years.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>He led the group down the street to the <a href="http://usgwarchives.net/ca/sandiego/elcampo.htm">El Campo Cemetary</a>. There the group wandered a bit and he told us of various sightings over the years.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5982633807/" title="Campo Santo Cemetery by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6150/5982633807_a211f15def.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Campo Santo Cemetery" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>After we'd walked around a bit, he pointed out the gold washer markers in the dirt. Those are indicators of where human remains are. Most of them were not near markers or stones or in any way distinguishable as graves. The geological service had used sonograms to ping the ground to find remains, which extend far beyond the present-day cemetery and out into the street and even under the restaurants on the other side. Markers in the sidewalk and roadway tell you where they found one or more bodies.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5983207272/" title="Grave Site marker by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6126/5983207272_b5541519a4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Grave Site marker" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>The pinnacle of the evening was the Whaley House. It's steeped in ghostly history and is considered one of the most haunted places in America. The light in the upper window is the Children's Room, where the story goes that even if it is switched off it somehow turns back on again. It has happened so many times that the caretakers no longer bother to turn it off.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5983212712/" title="Ghost Tour of Old Town San Diego by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6132/5983212712_abeda23a8c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Ghost Tour of Old Town San Diego" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Outside the house is where our guide told us all about vortexes - places where the electromagnetic fields are disturbed in a fluctuating pattern and where some believe ghosts are moving through our world to their own. ooOOOoooo He brought out his <a href="http://www.lessemf.com/ghost.html">EMF</a> device and showed us how it worked. He then let some of the kids in the group take turns finding vortexes - where the readings were strong. There were quite a few in the area, which grew substantially stronger toward a tree. Near the tree, he invited everyone to put their hand in the area and "feel" the vortex. Most people could feel it. I mostly didn't. But I'm a jerk.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>After this, he led us to the back of the property where the city's gallows once stood. Nothing going over there, but he claims to have heard footsteps. Then we ended the tour back at the starting point where he showed us his pictures of what he believes are ghosts. They were all dots or blobs of light that looked like bubbles. One was blown up to 100x magnification and people could see the face of a dog in it. Um, yeah. It was sorta cartoon dog-like, but seriously?</div><div>
<br /></div><div>All in all, it was great fun and we loved every minute of it. We weren't spooked, but it was still great. Although we were slightly irked at the attention hog teenage girl who was disrupting the guide at every turn - seriously, obnoxious! and who's parents never said a thing. Boo!</div><div>
<br /></div><div>The next morning, we slept in (!!) and decided to tour the <a href="http://www.heritageparksd.com/">Victorian Village</a> which was just on the other side of our hotel. It's an area where the local historical society has salvaged the original Victorian mansions and is actively restoring them. They were all closed inside, except for the one that serves as the visitor's center. We ended up watching too much of a documentary about San Diego's history and the fight to save the historic structures. It was kind of great, but too long.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5983214850/" title="Victorian Village by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6020/5983214850_ea13d03945.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Victorian Village" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>After that, we decided that we should play it smart and head home early. Beat the convention traffic northbound and get home at a decent hour to have some "home time" on Sunday evening.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>It was a really fantastic weekend. Lots of rest, lots of activity, lots of sun, lots of fun. Man, we should ditch comic con every year!
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<br /></div>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-23335274468197872172011-07-28T18:04:00.001-07:002011-07-28T18:06:11.038-07:00ketchupJust an FYI to the 6 people who read this blog, I'm making an attempt to "catch up" on the lost months from April to July. Since I actually use this blog as my journal and I often refer back to it, I want to post up some stuff before I forget it. Anyone coming to the site won't see the difference, but if you view in RSS you'll probably get a bunch of outdated news. Warning!giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-67558949411046605892011-07-05T16:32:00.000-07:002011-08-19T16:51:22.677-07:00Fourth of JulyBack by popular demand: Fourth of July at Sea World! <div>
<br /></div><div>Again, <a href="http://katedanley.blogspot.com">Kate</a> and I headed down to San Diego for Fourth of July. Why? Because Sea World is just... nice. I can't even explain it. Yes, it's hot. Yes, it's busy. Yes, it's full of sweaty tourists. But somehow it's just... nice.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>We started off our day with a buffet. WIN! Sea World has all kinds of economical dining options, and there's a new one for the summer that is a picnic buffet that is extremely cheap. I think it was like $9 and it's all-you-can-eat with a menu of BBQ chicken, sausage, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, several salads, corn, breads, beverages, and a dessert bar. It really was a score.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Somehow, I didn't end up taking many pictures, but I took some videos with my Flip camera, which I converted into stills.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>This picture is from the Blue Horizon show, which is CHEESY beyond belief, but still kind of awesome. This has replaced the old "dolphin show" so this is the only place where you'll see dolphins doing acrobatics. Plus, there's a whole aerial aspect to it (hence the wires on the lady, she rides the dolphins around the pool and then is pulled high into the air to do acrobatics).</div><div>
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6060649820/" title="Video 31 0 00 54-32 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6204/6060649820_b5be8a3bff.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Video 31 0 00 54-32" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>The new orca show was pretty cool, too.</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6060099473/" title="Video 32 0 00 00-31 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/6060099473_e3356caba2.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Video 32 0 00 00-31" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>We also got our first look into the new Turtle Reef, which replaced the manatee exhibit.
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/6060100005/" title="Video 34 0 00 45-13 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6185/6060100005_4b58bee3c1.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Video 34 0 00 45-13" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>We also watched the Sea World ambassadors walking a capybara on a leash, out to meet and greet people. Yes, you can pet a capybara at Sea World!</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5905473063/" title="Walking the capybara by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6035/5905473063_25394dda68.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Walking the capybara" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>We also got tattoos. No, scratch that. Better than tattoos! GLITTER TATTOOS!! (Obviously, I wore an obnoxious giant hat to keep the sun off my face - poor Kate had to be seen in public with me!)
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5906026808/" title="She's So Hardcore by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6056/5906026808_a604c16cbc.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="She's So Hardcore" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Mine was a cat face with a crown called "Princess Kitty" which I changed to "King Rocket" because it has big, kitten ears like him. Unpaid advertisement: this glitter tattoo rocked. It stayed in place for 10 days before it started cracking and peeling. That included sweat and sunscreen and daily baths for 10 days. And for just $10! The face-paint that most people were getting sweats off immediately and costs nearly triple. Glitter tattoo= great value!
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5905470125/" title="She can do it! by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5160/5905470125_6b3e3f4b6b.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="She can do it!" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Kate got a dinosaur, because that's how she rolls! Also, the new dino exhibit was opening at work so it was a fitting tribute!
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5905471267/" title="GLITTER TATTOO! by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6049/5905471267_139f78862e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="GLITTER TATTOO!" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Last year, I had brought a cache of glow in the dark bracelets for Kate and myself which was really fun and I ended up passing a bunch out to the kids around us and it was really fun and made me feel good. So as I was loading up my stock of bracelets Ryan asked "oh god, are you going to be THAT lady? The bracelet lady? Creeping around, looking for little kids to give stuff to?!" and I said <b>YES.</b>
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyduck/5906026308/" title="Fairy of the Glow Bracelets by eyduck, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6099/5906026308_737ced1140.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Fairy of the Glow Bracelets" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>I started out by making myself lovely with glowy goodness, and then when we found our spot to watch the fireworks I distributed the remaining bracelets to the kiddies nearby. Let me tell you, NO ONE thought I was a creep. The parents were grateful for the distraction, the kids LOVED it - heck, who doesn't like something for free? So it was a winner. Except, again, Kate had to hang out with me and be super embarrassed. <i>Are you detecting a pattern here??</i></div>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-73939316078250939412011-07-03T23:28:00.000-07:002011-08-19T16:32:51.053-07:00America's Favorite Pastime!<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5899524380/" title="At the Angels/Dodgers game by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6024/5899524380_8fa91c499e.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="At the Angels/Dodgers game" /></a><div>
<br /></div><div>Ryan's BFF, John, got some great Angels vs Dodgers tickets for the July 3rd game courtesy of his boss. They were season ticket holder seats in the VIP section, including VIP parking. The original plan was for Ryan to go with John and his wife, Rosey, because I had too much to do. I dropped Ryan off at John's house around noon and went about running my errands. Just as I was about to drive into our neighborhood, I got a call from Ryan who was home already. Apparently, the game time had changed and these guys didn't know until they got to the stadium. Whoops!</div><div>
<br /></div><div>So Ryan came home to work for a few hours, during which he talked me into going to the game too. So I did.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I haven't been to a baseball game in years - maybe, like, 10 years? I dunno. It had been a while. I was pretty excited to go, but as soon as I got there I realized that baseball games are boring. I saw a little girl braiding a lanyard and immediately got jealous. WHY DIDN'T I BRING AN EMBROIDERY PROJECT?? Instead, I bought myself some peanuts which kept my hands busy, but somehow I forgot that shelling peanuts is freaking MESSY. Luckily, the etiquette of the ballpark is that you can sit around with peanut debris all over yourself and toss your shells on the floor. PLAY BALL!</div><div>
<br /></div><div>The high point of the game was the pop-fly that came right to us. I, instinctively, ducked and hid under the seat. Ryan caught the ball! But then some jackhole Dodgers fan in front of us <i>took it out of his hand.</i> Which was super lame. I mean, we didn't WANT the ball. We're not huge fans or anything and if the guy had even just said "aw shucks" Ryan would have handed it over. Instead, the guy was a dick. Typical. Dodgers people are... <i>Dodgers people</i>. 'Nuff said.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>After the 7th inning stretch, I decided to take a potty break and as soon as I came out, the entire stadium started clearing out - the Angels won already. What? I clearly don't know much about sports... why don't they play til the end? That's weird.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Anyway, it was a fun outing - except the Dodgers fans (who were everywhere!) and the religious nuts. I seriously contemplated calling the police or something. The fanatics were everywhere with their signs and screaming in your face to REPENT! which is okay, I guess (even though it's totally off-putting) but the worst were the kids. The people would send their kids to stand among the lines and walk around, begging people - CRYING! - to accept Jesus and go to church. It was disturbing. Seven year old kids shouldn't be subjected to begging strangers who (half of which are already drunk) to accept religion and upsetting themselves.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>So, yeah. It'll be the last baseball game for a while. But it was still a good way to spend an All-American weekend!</div>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12292499.post-2214670364516779612011-06-20T20:32:00.000-07:002011-08-15T20:48:12.766-07:00Disneyland with the Giggly FamilyIt's been a couple of years since we've gotten to go to Disneyland with the <a href="http://gigglytimes.blogspot.com/">Giggly Family</a>. In fact, little Max had never been! They came to explore the parks for a couple of days and stayed at the hotel - what a great first time, right?<div>
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5866811673/" title="sunny Max by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3186/5866811673_fa6eb59e8d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="sunny Max" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>We took the Kidlet with us, because he looooves Disneyland and he was excited to see the Family too. He was determined to be BFFs with Max by the end of the day. They sat next to each other on the Jungle Cruise. It was really sweet. Kidlet kept pointing out his favorite parts "look! It's a tiger! I think it's real!"
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<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/giddygirlie/5866813999/" title="Jungle Cruise 6/20/11 by giddygirlie, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5034/5866813999_062786e946.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Jungle Cruise 6/20/11" /></a></div><div>
<br /></div><div>I'll be honest, I was hoping that Max and the Kidlet would be surprised by the 'piranha attack' part of the ride. The fish suddenly come out of the water and it splashes everywhere, so I started filming. I was hoping to capture screams of terror... instead, I got "oooh, look! Fish!"
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<br /></div><div>It was a really hot day and the park was really crowded, so the Gigglys took a break and went to their room to rest for a bit. They had been at a family reunion all weekend so it was probably nice to have a little space to themselves for a bit. While they were gone, we "big kids" took advantage of a short line for Thunder Mountain Railroad and jumped onboard. The Kidlet was so excited to be seated in the "way back" of the train, so I decided to film it on my new Flip camera. Of course, since I was filming, he whacked his head. LOOK AT WHAT GREAT GUARDIANS WE ARE!
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<br /></div><div>The lines were pretty long all day long so there was a lot of "sorry, Kidlet, that line is 2 hours long. We can't go on it today." We did get to ride Indiana Jones, which is a top pick for the Kidlet, and while the others rode the Haunted Mansion (he has nightmares about Medusa for some reason and the picture of the snake-haired lady sometimes bothers him. He's always just looked at his shoes until we get past it, but I think he was overly tired and couldn't cope) he and I went hat shopping. He picked some mouse ears, which was super fun and cute. After that, I think he was feeling bold. He wanted to go on Space Mountain, even though the wait was over an hour. He HAD to try it for the first time. Needless to say, he enjoyed it immensely!</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I was sorry that we couldn't come back the next day to play with the Gigglys again because my brother was graduating from high school. Lousy brothers!</div>giddy girliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853784493500255790noreply@blogger.com1