ADLA

First of all - happy 22nd birthday, Tiffany!

Spencer's final competition with Full Force Percussion was last Sunday, April 27 at the ADLA competition in Corona. ADLA stands for American Drum Line Association. Full Force placed third out of seven other drumlines in the Independent World class.

Nice job, Spencer! Now, on to VK!

What makes you laugh?

When I was a little kid, Soupy Sales, Allan Sherman and The First Family comedy albums made me laugh. As a grown-up, I tend to still like the silly stuff. My kids can make me laugh. My husband knows what cracks me up. But I'd have to say that the person I can laugh with the most, the one who gets me laughing about stuff so hard that tears come to my eyes and my stomach hurts and I can't breathe, is my sister, Sarah. That's one of the things that hurts about living so far away from her and her family. Whenever we get together, it's as if I remember who I am. But that's another story.

So last night I got home from work and Amanda had something on the internet she wanted me to hear. So the three of us, Marc, Amanda and I, sat around the computer and listened to this broadcast from a local morning radio show. And I had one of those moments. I guess you have to be in just the right mood, or be with the people you love, or the people you have fun with the most, or both, in order for it to hit you just right. I must have really needed it, because it felt so good to laugh hysterically. It was a gloriously silly moment. So silly, in fact, that I sneakily listened to it again at work today, and spent the afternoon breaking out in fits of occasional giggles. Last night in the few minutes before I finally fell asleep in bed, I kept trying to stifle giggles with little success.

Oh dear, now I've probably oversold it before I've even told you what it is. It's a broadcast on a morning radio show (Kevin and Bean) where they have a (scripted) telephone conversation with (not really) Bob Dylan, based on the premise that no one can understand a word he says. Oh my, I'm giggling already. Here it is:

http://kroq.wmod.llnwd.net/a168/o1/kbaudio/bob_dylan_5707.asf

My dad was good at laughing. One of my memories of him is hearing him down the hallway in the den laughing at Johnny Carson long after I had gone to bed. If something was funny, he had a great laugh. And if something was really funny, his laugh pitch got higher and he had this great giggle. I can hear him now in my head. Laughing is good.

Spring Break - Sunday

Well, it's Spring Break Sunday, and we've managed to stretch our vacation to the very end! And, what better way to bring it to a close on the night before heading back to work, than at a Fab Four concert?

They performed at The Grove in Anaheim, which is one of our favorite places to see them.

And now - The Fab Four.

Here's one.

Here's two.

Here's three . . .

. . . and here's four. This one is my favorite.

Cool, huh?

The concert was all Beatles music in the first half, and Wings in the second half. It was amazing, and we always have a good time seeing our Fabbie friends.

Well, back to work tomorrow. Spring Break was fun while it lasted!

Spring Break - Saturday

On Saturday we went to see Spencer's drum line perform at a competition in Ontario. He's with a winter drum line called Full Force Percussion. Here they are in action:

The name of their routine is "Capture the Flag", and Spencer is (obviously) on the Red Team. They took first place in their category. Spencer wasn't too impressed, because there was only one other drum line competing in that category against them. However, he needs to allow his mother to think that it was pretty cool.

Spring Break - Friday

Today we spent the day with our friends Doug and Claudia, trying to see where we could go and what we could do on the Metro. (Again with the trains!) And - I think we did pretty well. Here's a sample:

We had lunch at Felippe's near Olvera Street. They are celebrating their 100th year in business. 100 years of YUM!

After lunch, we rode downtown to 7th and Figueroa and walked to the Fashion Institute of Design (FIDM) to see the travelling display of movie costumes in their museum. (Do we detect a pattern here?) Among others, Harry Potter costumes were on display.

The above costumes were worn by (from left to right): Professor Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), Tonks (Natalia Tina), Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in Order of the Phoenix. There were other costume displays there, from movies such as 300, Blades of Glory, Elizabeth: The Golden Years, Marie Antoinette, Across the Universe, 3:10 to Yuma, Beowolf, Hairspray, and Sweeney Todd. It was really cool.

Here's Doug and Don, waiting patiently on a park bench under an arbor at the beautiful park outside FIDM while Claudia and I were inside looking at costumes.

Here's me and the angel statue (for some reason she's wearing a cat mask - I'm wearing sunglasses) outside the museum.

This is the view of the El Capitan Theatre (where The Little Mermaid is currently playing) from above the courtyard at Grauman's Theatre. We went there again because Claudia hadn't seen the footprints before. Another beautiful day in the neighborhood . . .

Here's another handprint (and my camera strap) - this time from former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda - only we're not at the Chinese Theatre anymore. These are in front of the Dodgers store at Universal City Walk. The store is pretty extensive - just about everything Dodgers you could think of. These hand prints were the only thing I found photo-worthy while we were at City Walk. We took the Metro almost to the end to get there, and fortunately there's a shuttle to take you up the hill to the mall. There's also a square with Eric Gagne's handprints next to Tommy's, but the shuttle was leaving and I didn't have time to take a picture of them. I had my priorities straight, tho' . . .

We Metro'd all the way back to Pasadena (end of the line) and the four of us had dinner at Islands. Yaki tacos - yummy! There and back again, all for five bucks. (Except for food, and the ninety-nine cent ceramic chicken necklace I bought at Olvera Street . . . ) Another all-around good day.

Spring Break - Thursday

On Thursday, we arrived at Disneyland and took a three-hour guided tour of the park called "A Walk in Walt's Footsteps". The guide wore a headset and microphone attached to an iPod, while we wore headphones and radio packs. She could talk to us without shouting and we could hear everything clearly. She would play recorded quotes from Walt or various Disney songs while we walked around the park, and was a veritable fount of information and Disney trivia. She took us past landmarks that had specific history or meaning where Walt was concerned, and we went on a couple of rides as a group and had dinner together at the end. It was very cool.

Here's the "Partners" statue at the hub of Main St. - the original plans had Mickey holding an ice cream cone.

We rode the Jungle Cruise together. Originally Walt wanted live animals on the riverbanks, but decided they would probably be sleeping during the daytime and no one would see them. Bad idea.

We had a private viewing of one of the original Tiki Room flowers from the early 1960's. Her name is Ophelia. She's retired now.

This is Don's sandwich. Everybody got a Disney character name on their lunch. His was kind of obvious. ;>

This is a tiny courtyard opposite Sleeping Beauty's castle where they hold weddings. (Little, tiny weddings.)

This is the actual Disney family crest. It is positioned at the front of Sleeping Beauty's castle right over the entrance. I hadn't heard it was the Disney crest - but Amanda had.

This is the fountain next to Snow White's wishing well to the right of Sleeping Beauty's castle (otherwise known as My House). The statues of Snow White and the seven dwarfs were sculpted in Italy of Italian marble. When the statues were finished and delivered to Disneyland, they didn't have the heart to tell the sculptor that Snow White wasn't supposed to be the same height as the dwarfs . . . so they put her at the top of the waterfall to give the illusion that she is taller.

This is Jingles, the carousel horse (or the back of Jingles, rather). She has the distinction of being the horse that represents the one Mary Poppins rode in the scene when they all jumped into the sidewalk chalk drawing. She has an umbrella on her right . . . flank? hip? whatever, and a crest with a drawing of Mary Poppins and some other things from the movie which are covered by the girl who was riding her at the time - I didn't want to freak her out so I didn't ask her to move her leg. Julie Andrews herself had ridden this horse the day before this picture was taken when they had some kind of special Mary Poppins ceremony.

This is a model of Sleeping Beauty's Castle which is on display in the Opera House at the entrance to Main Street. We enjoy looking for Hidden Mickeys while we're in the park, but if you crouch down and look inside the opening at the entrance of this castle, you'll see . . .

. . . a hidden Walt! Cool, huh?

At the end of the day, we went to California Adventures to see a show and then we went to Downtown Disney and saw a movie at the AMC theatres ("Leatherheads"). The movie was okay, but our day at the parks was AWESOME. More Spring Break on Friday!

Spring Break - Wednesday

On Wednesday, we packed our bags for an overnite at the Hyatt Regency in Garden Grove and headed for Disneyland, just the two of us. We had lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Adventureland and then embarked on a walking trip to see how long it would take to walk the perimeter paths of the park. We started in New Orleans Square and headed up past Pooh Bear's ride, down through Adventureland and up past Big Thunder Mt. Railroad into Fantasyland, around past the Matterhorn and up into Toon Town, back down past Small World and into Tomorrowland by way of the Nemo submarine ride, around past Star Tours and back down Main Street. It took us a little more than an hour and we figure we probably covered a couple of miles. We definitely weren't power-walking (it's too crowded for that!) and we did sit down in the shade a couple of times. Along the way, we stopped at every Kodak photo spot sign and took a picture. One nice lady in New Orleans Square took pity on us and took the picture for us . . .

This is New Orleans Square with the newly updated Tom Sawyer's Pirate Cove Island.

Here's the Kodak photo spot by Thunder Mtn. Railroad.

Here's the Kodak spot by the Fantasyland Carousel.

Here's the Kodak spot in Toon Town (well actually the photo spot is a fire engine, but there were a bunch of kids in it, go figure).

Here's the Kodak spot for the Matterhorn.

The weather was beautiful (sunny, cold and windy). Sometimes we don't go on any rides at all, we just re-invent ways to see the park from a different perspective. And we have a blast doing it!

Spring Break

This past week I have been on Spring Break from my job at an elementary school. Don took the week off from work too, and we have crammed as much activity and fun as we possibly could into one week - and it's not over yet!

Monday - The week started out slow, with a trip to the Krikorian Theatre in the afternoon to see "Nim's Island." It was pretty cute, and Gerard Butler was absolutely adorable.

Tuesday - We started out the day by taking the Metro gold line to Chinatown for dim sum at the Empress Pavilion with our friends Beth and Anne and Beth's mom Dot. Whenever Dot comes to town from Texas, it's always time for Dim Sum with Dot.

After lunch we got back on the Metro and went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to see the star's foot and hand prints. Seeing all the stars in cement was great, but here's the main reason I wanted to go:

It's the hand, foot and "wand-prints" of the trio from the Harry Potter movies! These were in the center of the courtyard and were made just before the premier of the most recent installment of the series in July of 2007.

Here are a couple more:

Here's me with my hand in Emma Watson's handprint, and

Here's me standing in Donald Duck's big (webbed) feet. I took pictures of tons more, ranging from Bing Crosby, Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra to Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Johnny Depp. I hadn't been to Grauman's since the mid-60's, so it was almost like seeing it for the first time. We had a blast playing tourists!

Easter

These are our family pictures from lunch at Bahooka on Easter Sunday. We were celebrating Easter and my birthday on the same day.

Here's the whole fam. Easter was the earliest I can remember it being in a very long time. Somebody told me it's going to be about 49 years before Easter comes this early again.

Here are Spencer and Tiffany. Bahooka gives you suckers when they bring your bill.

Here's Spencer and Marc . . . and Don holding the sugar.

Here's a very silly mom and a very pretty Amanda.

Here we are on Amanda's front porch. I remember Easter being right next to my birthday only other time in my life. It was my fifth birthday and we had just moved to California six months earlier. The reason I remember is because we had a birthday party and invited my little friends and had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard and played pin-the-cotton-ball-on-the-bunny. Nice consolidation of party games and Easter tradition, don't you think?