Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Birthday and Fireworks


June 28th, Wednesday-Daryl got a job for the day, so he wasn't around, but he did give me a duckie T-shirt for my birthday which I was very excited about. And Maurissa took me out to lunch. After which we all met up with Christian for a lovely walk on the beach at night. Fabulous. I so love my husband.

July 1st, Saturday-Well, today Daryl and I are celebrating my birthday by stuffing ourselves with our favorite food. First off, we have Vietnamese crepe and Vietnamese noodles. Oh my, it's so good. The waitstaff keep going out the back so I walk back and peek out and see that they've got a TV set up and are watching the World Cup. They're very excited about the Brazil match against France. Then it's off to Starbucks for a soy chai latte and a round of Scrabble. Daryl beats me again. Next time, Frame, you're going down. Chulada Grill and their enchiladas are next and my cousin Judy and Maurissa joins us for a nice meal and then we go home to make molten chocolate cupcakes and play games. Judy bought us Cranium and we have a nice round of that and then ice cream with cupcakes. Daryl then got me the rest of my presents, blinky lights to wear when I'm walking so cars don't hit me, and a G-Raid drive, which is so wonderful. Now I can store all of my footage on my very own drive. Daryl even already moved my media over. It's such a lovely present! Daryl walks Judy to her car and afterwards we play Scrabble with Maurissa. We even invite our neighbor Julie who happens to be home. She has two sweet cats one of whom likes to visit Babouschka and our supply of catnip. Kitty is not amused. All in all a very nice birthday. I wish I could have days like this all the time.


July 4th, Tuesday-We went down to San Pedro to see the fireworks and have a little picnic. We picnicked by a large Korean Bell, which was all chained up so you couldn't ring it. Apparently, the bell was made for July 4, 1976 for peace and cooperation between Korea and the US. People were setting off their own fireworks right on the streets before, during, and after the sanctioned fireworks. It was all very exciting even though last year it was all happening on the beach. This year the town took over and policed the people going to beach making sure no one had alcohol or fireworks. So people just did it on the street or in their own backyards. (As is the case with Christian's outings, we had the very best seats. The fireworks barge was directly in front of us.) On the way back to the car, there were a few times when we had to stop walking so the lit fireworks in front of us could go off. It took 2 1/2 hours to get home and poor Christian was driving. We were all exhausted.

This is Daryl on the beach apologizing to me for forgetting the earplugs. (Christian is the figure in the back walking on the beach.)

Thursday, June 22, 2006

LUCHA VA VOOM

I wasn't told where we were going. Christian told me to avert my gaze until we were in the Mayan Theater.



June 22nd, Thursday-Lucha Va Voom! This is the best show ever. How can you go wrong with Mexican wrestlers and burlesque dancers? Words cannot convey. This must be experienced. (www.luchavavoom.com) Also, if you ever go, get ringside seats and be prepared to move when they throw a dwarf at you. Or a ref. This is a great birthday present.



Cassandro is the best! He's the guy (yes, he's a guy) with the red hair and the blue outfit. So much drama! He actually cut his opponent's hair off onstage. Unbelieveable.

Cat-sitting


June 21st, Wednesday-Look at who I'm cat-sitting! It's Delilah and Samson. These cats are very laid back compared to Babouschka. All they wanted to do was sleep. Babouschka, on the other hand, insists on shredding all of our junk mail...and then puking on it. At least we wish she'd puke on it. Most of the time she pukes in the most hard to clean places. I'm just saying, it's a good thing she's cute....

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

SCRABBLE!



June 8th, Thursday-I finally win at Scrabble against Daryl. Woohoo!

What's on Hollywood Blvd.?

June 16th, Friday-I take 2 buses to go to work in Burbank, the 717 and then the 163. At the bus stop to wait for the 163, I see this:

It's a bus stop! Get it?.....Well, I found it funny.

I got this job at Disney at just the right time. I needed something to fill up my week and put money in my bank account and it really was a godsend. (Or is it Godsend if you believe in God, like I do?) I love Disney.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

X-Men are among us!

June 5th, Monday-I finally got around to seeing the latest X-MEN movie. Now, I'm a huge fan of the comic books so I see the movies with a little more of a critical eye when it comes to the characters, so when they completely change a character's mutant superpower or give it to some other nameless mutant I get a little annoyed. But I got over it, because they die fairly quickly. In fact, so many mutants die you can't even keep track of who they are, let alone what kind of crazy superpower they possess. And as a movie fan as well, I also thought, yes, a flaming car being thrown at people and exploding is really fantastic to look at but do you have to repeat it FIVE times? After the second shot of a flaming car hurtling towards unarmed soldiers, I thought, ok, that's nice, what else can you do? The filmmaker's also move the Golden Gate Bridge and place it so that it connects to Alcatraz. The first thing I thought was, that's really gonna put a damper on the ferry tours. Plus, traffic is going to be hell. Daryl's reaction was, why even bother? Just commandeer a boat and ferry all of the mutants over, or better yet, use the helicopters that are already enroute. The plot revolves around the manufacture of a "mutant cure" and there's the question as to whether or not being a mutant necessarily needs to be cured. Those mutants afraid of involuntary "curing" by a government afraid of what they don't know, are not unreasonable in their assumption, especially when the government starts putting them in guns to control the "bad" ones. But the plot is really not that important here, or at least to this director. It's all about the fighting and explosions. There's a fight between Pyro and Iceman or, to get elemental, fire vs ice. As they shot bolts of fire and ice at each other the only thing I thought was shouldn't there be some rain as a result, maybe, at least a little mist? I mean, this is Alcatraz, why not fog? But then, that's the responsibility of Storm, who's so powerful she controls the weather, but gets too preoccupied fighting one mutant, to really have any effect. I did like the appearance of Angel, a mutant who has wings and can fly, but this poor actor was given way too little to do. The effect of him flying was poetic and lovely and kudos to the effects people. Plus, his hair was hairsprayed to the hilt and given frosted highlights, just to emphasize the angelic head. In fact, the hair on these mutants made me think that maybe the mutant gene also comes with a phalanx of serious hairdressers because everyone looked terrific even when they were supposed to look tortured and beaten up. Nearly all of the "hero" mutant ladies had long shiny hair, and the "bad" lady mutants had hair that made me think they were all the members of some punk band. It helped that they all wore black and were tatooed. There's a huge buildup to the terrific powers of Jean Grey, telepath/telekinetic extraordinaire, but when the fighting starts she just stands there like a statue. Wolverine, a man with claws of adamatium, supernatural agility, an almost feral ability to sense danger and smell fakers, and quick healing powers, has a moment where the special effects really shine as bits and pieces of his body repeatedly get torn off and then heal. What I wouldn't do to have an immune system like that. Ellen Page does a great job as Kitty Pryde, a girl who can walk through walls, and you really believe that she's smarter than Juggernaut, played wonderfully by Vinnie Jones. It's a summer movie so it's too much to hope for subtlety and character development, but if you like pretty people flying around in skin tight suits with explosions and gunfire going off around them, then this is the movie for you. (A side note: Beast, a blue, agile mutant who happens to be extraordinarily smart (no one is ever ordinary in these movies), was one of my favorites in the comics and I did not like the casting of Kelsey Grammar in the role, but he did better than I thought. Thank goodness his stunt double was the one flying around and pouncing on people because I can't see Kelsey Grammar doing that.)