No Pickles...

Still no sign of Mr. Pickles. Vanessa and I went to Orange County Animal Services today, but he hasn't been there. I'm not sure if that's good news or not. One interesting note: The employee at Animal Services said if we put out a flyer we should say the cat needs special medicine. That way if someone did find him and thought about keeping him, they might change their mind if they think they have to spend extra money on his health.

Plans for the weekend include sulking about the cat, playing golf, playing poker, and probrably helping out my dad.

Beer Can Chicken

Last night James and I cooked Beer Can Chicken for the BBQ. I've seen people make it on TV and it always sounded good, but I was always hesitant to try it. We put 6 whole chickens standing up on the BBQ (each one with a 1/2 can of beer shoved inside). 70 minutes later it was done. It was that easy. Every chicken came out perfect. You should try it...

A little depressed…

Our cat, Mr. Pickles has disappeared. Sometime between midnight Sunday and 6:00 am Monday, our cat went missing. He jumped on the bed late Sunday night while Vanessa was sleeping and I was lying in bed watching TV and after 10 minutes or so, he jumped back off the bed and walked out into the hallway. When I get out of the shower in the morning he sits on the toilet or on a pedestal at the top of the stairs waiting for me to pet him, but he wasn’t there Monday morning. When we got back from the concert on Monday night, Vanessa noticed his food hadn’t been touched.

I started worrying yesterday, so I checked the trash dumpsters thinking someone may have hit him, but thankfully there was nothing there. Of course they pick-up the trash Monday, so that doesn’t mean much. Yesterday I walked around the area where we live, but didn’t notice anything. The Orange County Animal Shelter doesn’t show him on the website. L

Anyway, we’re hoping he was somehow locked into someone’s garage, or some kid picked him up and took him home. He has a collar with our phone numbers on it and he also has a computer chip in him which has our information on it.

We’ve had Pickles for 2 years now and he is a great cat. We’ll stop by the Orange County Animal Shelter on our way to the BBQ tonight and I’ll make some flyers up for the neighborhood tomorrow.

My night in Whoville…

Vanessa and I went to the Tori Amos concert last night at Royce Hall (UCLA). We arrived shortly before the doors open and spotted one of our friends, Albert, right away. As we walked inside the lobby and waited for the doors to open, I started looking around. Wow. These were some interesting people. I could have just as easily been at a Dungeons and Dragons convention that was sharing an entrance to the Marilyn Manson concert.

The seats were great, except we felt like we were surrounded by crazy stalkers. The lady next to me was fairly normal other than the fact that this was her 11th time seeing Tori in concert. The guy next to her (not together) was a overweight guy wearing a pink polo shirt, glasses, and a calculator watch.

The concert was great. Tori sang for 2 hours straight including 4 encore songs. I read reviews for some of the earlier stops on the tour, but it still amazed me to watch her straddle the bench while playing a grand piano with her left and an organ with her right hand. Most of the songs played were from her newest album “The Beekeeper” and “Boys for Pele” which are the two albums I know the least, but she also played “Silent all These Years” and a couple of other older songs.

Vanessa was a little pissed during the encore, because the people in the back rushed to the front of the auditorium, so the people in the front row had to stand, so everyone else stood-up. The girl in front of Vanessa stood on her chair which meant Vanessa had no chance of seeing the stage. It does suck to be in the 5th row and not be able to see the stage. Although I too was irritated, I didn’t have a problem seeing.

After the concert some of the girls were shaking, crying, and hugging. I enjoy music, and this concert reminded me of how I miss great live music, but these girls were being a little over-dramatic. We got home at midnight and laid down for a full 5 hours before the alarm went off for work.

Clean cars are faster than dirty ones!

Since so many people have been asking, I’ll fill you in on how we solved the TV/no TV thing. I offered a compromise to have the TV off by 10:30 pm during the week. I was originally trying to have the TV off by 10:00 pm, so this is a compromise and will work for both of us.

Friday we grabbed take-out from Mimi’s Café and watched the movie Troy. I thought it was pretty good, although I was expecting more violence. Oh well. Saturday, Vanessa and I got our cars washed. I used to be really good about this, but lately, months go by before I take it in. I feel so much better when I’m driving a clean car. That night, we went to Diane’s apartment to celebrate her birthday. She has a nice place in Newport Beach. It seems like a great complex to live in and it’s in a good location. After hanging out and eating dinner there, we headed over to Pierce Street Annex. I’ve been to this bar a couple of times and we usually hang out and drink. It definitely qualifies as a meat market, not that I’m complaining. V and I took off early (10:30 pm), so I’m interested in hearing what happened after we left.

Sunday I went to my dad’s for a couple of hours. When I got home I felt like rearranging some furniture, so I moved the small couch downstairs and changed the living room around some. That really wore me out. Ed and Tiffany called, so we met them for dinner and stopped at Cold Stone for dessert. This diet is GREAT!!!!

Tonight we’re going to see Tori Amos at Royce Hall (UCLA).

VaPOOrize this movie!

I remember sitting in a movie theater in 2002. A preview came on the screen for a movie “coming soon” and I knew I had to see the movie. It was Envy with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Christopher Walken and it looked hilarious. It was about two middle class friends. One gets a ridiculous idea to create a product that makes poo disappear (VaPOOrize). It works. So while Jack Black is living in a mansion and driving a Lamborghini, Ben Stiller still lives in his same old house. He becomes envious and that’s when the hijinx start.

Only 6 months until it would be coming out. Soon afterwards I started working for Metropolitan Provisions, which supplied a majority of the movie theatres with their concessions. I would receive lists showing when new movies were being released and I watched for Envy. One day the movie was missing from the newest list. What happened? Did I miss it. Wait… It was pushed back. Why did the release get pushed back? I guess I was just going to have to wait. Finally in April of 2004, it was in the theaters. I tried to drag Vanessa to see it, but I was unsuccessful. In September it came out on video. Every time I would pick it up at the video store, there was something else we both wanted to watch, so I waited.

Tonight, thanks to Netflix, after years of build-up… I finally sat down to watch my movie. It sucked. It was such a good premise and such a good cast. What happened? Even the obvious plot lines would have been better than what they did with this movie. It’s a sad, sad night. If I would have looked at www.imdb.com I would have seen the following information and maybe my hopes wouldn’t have been quite as high:

The movie having been shot almost two years before it was released in
theaters was in danger of being released straight to video due to poor audience
response during test screenings. It was only due to The School of Rock
(2003)'s huge success that it finally got a theatrical release.

Carnitas, big trucks, and bull riding - all in the OC

I got together with James, Reina, Steve, Diane, Ryan, Dan, and Therese last night for dinner. We went to El Matador in Costa Mesa. The food and the conversation were great (strip bars and the lemon law).

James had a couple of drinks, so he handed me the keys to his truck as we were walking out. The truck is HUGE. Besides being a giant truck on its own (Ford F-250 Crew Cab) it’s also raised about 3 feet off the ground. So I’m driving this monster in the dark, looking down on everything, and watching the turbo gauge. I was concentrating just on staying in my lane. I took one look at the touch-screen stereo/navigation/Sirius receiver and decided that would be way too much for my brain to process with everything else I was trying to do. Luckily, it was only a couple of miles to get back to his place. I managed not to run over anything (as far as I know) and to not break the truck.

I’ve thought about getting a big truck like this. I’m a big guy so I think it kind of fits me, but being nimble in a car can also be nice.

I finished watching Urban Cowboy last night. It was one of the movies on my "to do" list. It was better than I thought it would be. I like how every guy in that movie beats his woman and it's pretty much just accepted. It has inspired me to hit and cheat on Vanessa so she will clean the house. I'm kidding of course, but that seems to be the moral of the story.

My... yawn... week is going... yawn... fine.

This has been a slow week. The programmer I work with has been on vacation for the past two weeks, and the VP is in New York this week. I can’t have any of my ideas programmed and I can’t get any of my new ideas okayed by the VP. The other person I would like to run my ideas past before showing them to the VP is in New York this week as well. I created some logic flow charts for the new screens and will spend the rest of the week cleaning-up the mock-up screens. Yawn…

We watched Oceans 12 last night. Actually “we” watched the first hour and 45 minutes and “I” watched the last 20 minutes as well. Vanessa was too tired to watch the end. I don’t understand how you can invest that much time into a movie and not watch the end. Women. Of course this wasn’t that great of a movie. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Vanessa has been stressing about her Masters Program at CSUF. She says the class she is taking is much harder than any of the others. Of course she’s putting on another musical at her Jr. High at the same time. I’m hoping she will find some time this weekend to relax.

3 movies, 10 beers, and trip 6’s

This was a busy weekend for me, especially after a non-eventful Thursday and Friday. We watched a couple of movies between Thursday and Saturday: Finding Neverland, Almost Famous, Taking Lives. They were all pretty good and my next two Netflix movies are on the way…

Saturday, I woke up early and headed over to my dad’s place. He’s going to sell his condo, so I went over to help him fix some things and give him ideas to help it sell. We removed the caulk from one of the showers, then repainted and re-caulked (no obvious jokes, please). We spackled and repainted some small holes in the walls, painted a water stain on the ceiling, moved his couch and exercise bike to the garage, fixed his carpet (kind of), organized the garage, moved a bookshelf and a marble table, and hung some paintings on the walls.

Afterward, we headed to Chevy’s to down a couple of beers and nachos. I got home around 2:45 and was napping by 3:15. That night we walked an entire 30 feet to my neighbor’s house for his birthday. We watched Ultimate Fighting Championship and played poker. I finished 3rd out of 5 in the first game, mostly because I wasn’t getting any good cards. The second game I won.

I had two memorable hands. The first one I was dealt a Jack and Queen off-suit. I figured I would stay in and see what happened. Everyone but two people folded. The flop was nothing but low, off-suit cards. They started raising heavily, but I stayed in hoping to catch a Jack or Queen. One person folded after the 4th card was turned. When the 5th card was turned I didn’t catch a Jack or a Queen. I was playing off of a Queen high. I raised, the last person folded. We showed our cards after they folded. One of them had a King and an Ace, both spades, the other had a King and an Ace, both clubs. They were a little pissed.

Later I was dealt 2 6’s. I raised a little to draw them in. On the flop I picked up a 3rd 6. I raised again. Everyone except for two people folded. They thought I might have a pair, and I played as if I did. They kept raising until they went all in. I went all in and took them both out. Overall I walked out with an extra $30.00.

Sunday, we slept in. We went to breakfast at Polly’s around 10:30, stopped by a bike store, and I go a haircut (way too short). I think the highlight of the haircut is when the lady shot a bunch of cold water down the back of my shirt, but didn’t say anything.

We went to Vanessa’s Aunt Beth and Uncle Don’s house for his birthday. Great food. They had bacon and jalapeno-wrapped shrimp with BBQ sauce on it, sushi (rolled at the house), cashews (yummy), steak, chicken, salad, veggies, and cake. I left stuffed. I spent most of Sunday night digesting and watching shows on the Tivo.

Need your advice…

I can’t fall asleep with the TV on and Vanessa can’t fall asleep with the TV off. This seems to be a no win situation. I thought about getting her wireless headphones or me earplugs, but neither sound comfortable, especially once we fall asleep. Any ideas?

Netflix

After hearing so many good things about Netflix I finally gave in and decided to try the service. I have no clue when we are going to find the time to watch all of these movies since we still have about 20 hours of stuff on Tivo to watch and more recording every day. If we do have time, then it is a good deal.

For $17.99 a month we can watch an unlimited number of movies with no time limits. It only took 1 day to get our first 3 movies and we already have 75 movies in the queue. I am still on my quest to watch the top 100 grossing movies, and the top 100 rated movies. I only have 6 movies left on the top 100 grossing.

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Broke cast odor? WTF? Weirdo...

La Jolla – Part 2

Continued from yesterday... After thinking about my options for about 5 minutes I walked over to the wall and prepared to jump over it. Just then, I spotted a guy in the distance and yelled for his help. He was nice enough to walk around and have the girl unlock the door for me. So far I was enjoying a relaxing morning at the spa.

As I walked into the dressing area, I heard Vanessa calling my name. She had been waiting for me in the Relaxation Lounge. After telling her about what happened to me, two women entered the room and asked if we were ready for our massages. Yes. The older one (damn!) walked up to me and asked if I was John. Well of course. It was supposed to be a Couples Garden Massage, but since it was early and still a bit cold outside the massage was inside a small room with two massage tables. The only bad part was the tables were facing opposite directions, so we couldn’t really see each other.

Regardless, the massage was great and almost made up for my previous bad massage experience in Germany. Afterward we were so relaxed and it was still early, we didn’t know what to do. It was too cold to hang out by the pool and Vanessa can’t sit in a spa for more than 10 minutes without getting bored, so we changed clothes and jumped in the car.

We went to Old Town and decided to walk around for a while to waste some time. After an hour we stopped to have lunch at The Old Town Mexican Café. Now it was 11:30 and we still didn’t know what to do, so we headed to Horton Plaza, which is a large 5 level outdoor mall, to see a movie. We saw The Ring 2, which was pretty good, but not great. On the way back to the hotel I stopped by another mall to find a bathing suit. Apparently, the one I brought with me mysteriously shrunk in the last months ;-). I was planning on going to the pool when we got back, but Vanessa wanted to nap and I didn’t feel like going alone.

We had dinner at a great Italian restaurant nearby named Piatti. We had a great time here, because the food was great and the wait staff was really friendly. The waiter suggested we order a bottle of wine rather than 2 glasses. He convinced us by telling us we could take the remainder of the bottle home if we didn’t finish. Later as he walked by and noticed the bottle with a ½ inch left he jokingly asked if we would like for him to prepare the bottle for us to take it home.

La Jolla - Part 1

The drive to San Diego was as uneventful until traffic came to a crawl and we noticed black smoke ahead on the freeway. When we got closer there were a couple of cars in the grassy median and a guy in full motorcycle gear talking to the drivers, but no motorcycle… until 100 feet later when we noticed the motorcycle was on fire and almost completely disintegrated. It seemed everyone was okay and reminded me that I was having a good day.

When we arrived at Estancia La Jolla I was pleasantly surprised. I knew the place would be nice, but it was even nicer than I expected. We had no problem checking in and the front desk handed Vanessa a packet which included our $300 hotel gift cards. The room was simple, but everything was high quality. We decided to walk around the hotel grounds on our way to dinner. The pool area was really nice and I am a little disappointed we didn’t get a chance to use it.

The first night we had dinner at Adobe, which is a high-end restaurant in the hotel. Dinner was amazing. It was damn expensive, but amazing. We splurged and ordered salads, a bottle of wine, steaks, and two desserts. When dinner was over we were both relieved we didn’t have to drive. I ate way too much and collapsed onto the bed when we got back to the room. The bed was amazing. If anything it was too much. It was about 3 ½ feet off the ground, had 4 down pillows, a bottom sheet, top sheet, blanket, another top sheet, a super thick down comforter, and a cashmere horse blanket folded at the base of the bed.

Saturday we had to wake up early to get to our spa appointment. I didn’t realize how popular the spa was, so the only appointment available was at 8:00 am. We split up and went into the separate dressing areas. It was really nice being the only one there and not having to worry about seeing any naked guys walking around. We had about 20 minutes before the massage, so I took another shower and headed outside to the Jacuzzi. I set the timer for the jets for 7 minutes so I wouldn’t be late for our massage. When the jets turned off, I toweled off and tried to open the door leading back to the dressing room, I couldn’t. I was locked out. We were the first one’s there and evidently the girl who opened didn’t unlock all of the doors.

So there I am naked under my robe and locked out of the spa. The only way to get out was to scale a 6 foot concrete wall and walk around the hotel back to the spa entrance.

To be continued…

It's a tough life...

After work Vanessa and I are heading to La Jolla for the weekend. This is the trip my dad was awarded after completing a big project at work. He was nice enough to give it to me and Vanessa. What a nice dad.

We are staying at the Estancia La Jolla. At least I hope we are. I am a little nervous, because the room is booked under his name, and I don’t have any ID showing my name being John. My plan is to call this morning (as John) and add Vanessa’s name to the room. I think between that and the letter detailing the reservation with the confirmation number, we should be fine.

We have been taking a lot of vacations this year. In July, I went to Vegas. In August, we went to Mendocino. In December we went to Europe. In March, we went to Walla Walla. Now we’re going to La Jolla. It’s a tough life.

Poka wearing one of the helmets. Thanks Steve! 

Another Wednesday and another “BBQ”

I'm not quite sure why we still call it a BBQ when we are going out to restaurants, but it has a nice ring to it. When I walked into James' and Steve's house the first thing I noticed were two metal flake gold motorcycle helmets with pinstriping sitting on the couch. They were definitely from the 70's and reminded me of something one might see while watching "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest". I posted a picture below of a similar helmet. I think he should wear this while wearing a Le Tigre shirt and some corduroy OP shorts!

Anyway, we sat around and made jokes about the helmets while waiting for Diane to arrive. Someone mentioned she got a new car on Sunday, so we were all anxious to see it. She bought a Silver Honda Accord EX Coupe (2 door) with a V6 - fully loaded (leather, navigation, etc). Vanessa drives an Accord EX Sedan (4 door), but it doesn't have the navigation. This is a car I have considered getting so I was curious. I didn't find the coupe quite as comfortable, because I am really tall and I think the coupe has a lower roofline, but the navigation was definitely a nice touch.

We went to a place in Costa Mesa called the Pasta Connection. Italian? Kind of. It's actually Italian and Argentine. Interesting combination. I followed Steve's lead, since he had been to the restaurant a couple of times before. I ended up getting something that was basically a chicken-fried steak with two over-easy eggs on top and fries. I'm not sure how Argentine it was, but it sure tasted good.

James was the bravest and ordered a BBQ combo plate that had about 3 normal things on it, plus blood sausage and sweetbreads. Everyone thought sweetbreads were brains (including me), but after tasting it, we all started to question it. It turns out (just looked it up) that sweetbreads are the thymus gland. You learn something new every day.

Vanessa wasn't feeling well last night. She may be coming down with the cold I am just getting over. Personally I think it's because we are going away this weekend. She has an uncanny ability of getting sick while we are on vacation. Like any good wife, she is pumping herself full of vitamins and other remedys to get better quickly.

A helmet similar to James'

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"Mature women actives in naked dance"? I don't remember writing about that...

Temecula wine tasting

Sunday a group of us went to Temecula to go wine tasting for James’ birthday. James’ birthday? Yes that’s right, three days of celebration. It may seem like a bit much, but this trip was the only one James’ planned and knew about. I have been to Temecula once before for wine tasting when I took a class in wine at Cal Poly Pomona (about 7 years ago?).

James set-up a party bus to take us down there, which is always the best way to go. I could tell it was going to be a fun trip when I saw two coolers of drinks going into the bus. We got off to a late start, because someone was a ½ hour late and we hit some traffic on the way down.

We started off at Churon because we heard they had a deli and eating before drinking is always a good idea. Unfortunately, the deli was closed due to a family emergency. We started sampling some of the wines and they were nice. It was great to have some good wines again. These weren’t my favorite, but they were good. Somehow, James ended up behind the counter serving wine and joking around with the pourers. Only James.

The lady running the deli came back and made us a plate of cheese, summer sausage, and crackers. The weather was gorgeous, so we ate outside on the patio. It really hit the spot and James opened a bottle of wine for us to all share. Someone at Churon recommended we try a winery named Filsnger. It was about 10 miles away, but it turned out to be a good place. It was much smaller and the 24 (or so) of us completely overwhelmed the small tasting room. They had some good sweet wines (Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Muscat, etc.) Someone made a comment in front of the pourer while we were buying some bottles that made me blush. I won’t mention any names, but her name rhymes with “Reina”.

Some of the people were really starting to feel the wine by now and everyone was having a great time. Our next stop was Callaway. It is a much larger company and they consistently make good wine. The tasting room was huge and was completely packed. I was anxious to get out of there and stop at my favorite winery in the area – Hart.

Hart is a small winery and is next door to Callaway. I was a little disappointed to see how many people were already there. By now, some of our friends were completely drunk, but there was already some drunk people at Hart, so they fit right in. I tried about 8 different wines while we were there and each of them was amazing. We bought 3 bottles.

The ride home was really dull ;-) and that’s all I have to say about that.

Getting on the party bus at James' and Steve's place. 

Churon 

James serving behind the counter at Churon 

Lunch on the patio at Churon 

The ride home 

Lil John in da house! What? Okay!

Where do I even start? Let’s get the April Fool’s joke out of the way. Yes, it was a joke as some of you saw through it right away (and confirmed with me privately later). The idea of moving out of state has been discussed, but wouldn’t happen until the summer of 2006 at the earliest.

This weekend was James’ 30th birthday. On Thursday, after I picked Vanessa up at the airport we went to the Jagerhaus for dinner and James' Birthday. I have wanted to go there for a while and it was everything I hoped. The food is amazing and is true to its German roots. There were 9 of us and we were treated well. The owner came out and talked to us for a while. Our picture will be up on the website in a couple of weeks. I am planning on eating there at least every two weeks.

Friday, Reina and Ryan planned a surprise party for James. Reina took James out to dinner and everyone rushed over to James’, Steve’s, and Dan’s place to set-up for the party. There was a theme to the party – Midgets. In the spirit of the theme, everyone brought miniature food - mini cupcakes, mini sodas, mini bagels, mini bread, mini quiche. Anyway, you get the idea.

Several of us put our money together and Reina booked a midget to attend the party. Lil John (the midget) got stuck in traffic, so Reina has to delay James for a while, but when he came through the door blindfolded, I think he was a little shocked. When Lil John came running out and jumped on him, his jaw dropped. He didn’t know what to do.

The first half hour with Lil John was a little awkward. Everyone was timid about talking to him and taking pictures. Once the alcohol was flowing everyone loosened up and was having a great time. Lil John has a “talent” of being able to jump up and kick himself in the head with both feet at the same time. I took a lot of pictures and got some great video of Lil John attacking the piñata and finishing the piñata off with some wrestling moves.

We only paid Lil John to be there until 10:00, but just as I suspected, he was having a good time and hung around for a little bit longer (pardon the pun). We had to be back at James house the next morning for wine tasting, so V and I left around 11:00 pm to get a couple of hours of sleep before heading back.

James after first taking off the blindfold. 

Hangin out (human tripods). 

Mini food

James taking a swing 

Lil John goin after the pinata. 

Lil John getting it on 

WE’RE MOVING TO WASHINGTON!!!

While we were visiting Walla Walla, I noticed several US Foodservice trucks making deliveries. I worked at US Foodservice for 5 years here in Southern California from 1995 to 2000. While we were at the store picking up food for Easter dinner, I saw another one of their trucks and started talking with the driver. It turned out they had a warehouse in the area which opened in January. The driver suggested I stop by the warehouse on Monday before my flight and check things out.

On Monday, before I went to lunch with Vanessa, I made the short drive over to the warehouse. My jaw dropped when the General Manager came into the lobby to show me around. It was Randy Xavier. The VP of Operations for Metropolitan Provisions (the last place I worked at). While he showed me around the warehouse he kept talking about how much he needed someone like me to help him get the warehouse running more efficiently. I thought he was just making small talk, but before I got on the plane, he offered me a position at the Operations Manager.

I have been thinking about it for a couple of days now and after talking with Vanessa last night after dinner I have accepted the offer. It will be a 72% raise for me and housing up there is ½ as much. I will start working there on April 21st. Vanessa will stay in our condo here in Yorba Linda until the end of the school year (3rd week of June). By then I should know the neighborhoods up there pretty well and we can buy a house. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. We will miss our friends, but we can always fly down for a weekend, or they can come up to see us. It is comforting to know Vanessa has family in the area.