Our first visitors!

On Monday, September 17th, Darren and I had our first Canadian visitors! Mom, Dad and brother Ian decided a road trip was in order in the new I-Van, heading out from Saskatoon to experience the wonders of the open road. After driving down through Idaho, Montana, Iowa, and Nevada, they arrived late Monday afternoon for a 4 night stay at Chez Boyd. Well, actually they stayed in one of the guest suites, as our apartment isn't that large. Nevertheless, it was great to have them here. Monday night we had a quiet meal on Main Street (in Venice), and then went for a moonlit walk on the beach. We spent Tuesday toodling around running errands in the morning, and then 4 of us (Darren had to work) walked down to the Venice boardwalk where Dad got a tattoo and Mom tried not to laugh at the honesty of the signs the homeless people displayed - $1 for weed, Need money for beer - etc. We spent a few hours there, and then went back to collect Darren before going out for supper again.

On Wednesday, Mom, Dad, Ian and I went to the Fender museum in Corona California, which is currently featuring a Johnny Cash display. While the museum was much smaller than we expected (less than 1500 sq. ft in area), the displays were pretty cool. I really liked this display of Muddy Waters' Fender, built into a picture of him. We stayed off the interstates on the way there and back, and instead drove past a bunch of interest points, like the Staples Center (where the Anaheim Ducks play), and Disneyland.

Thursday Mom, Dad and I got up early and went to Hollywood. Dad got his wish of standing on the corner of famous Hollywood and Vine, and Mom and I had a great time checking out the foot and hand prints at Grauman's Chinese Theater. We saw Paula Abdul filming something for her Hey Paula! series, and were offered tickets for a Singing Bee taping, but couldn't make it timing wise. Took this pic of Mom and Dad, with the Hollywood sign showing the right-hand corner, and then drove home along Sunset Boulevard and through Santa Monica. We got home just after Darren had finished putting together the new barbeque, so before dinner we headed down for a walk around the Marina, checking out the boats. All 3 left early Friday morning, heading for the giant Redwoods, and travelling up the Oregon coast before heading home.

The weather was great, sunny skies but not too hot, the whole time they were visiting. The night they left, however, we got the rain storm I referred to in my earlier post. They missed it on the road, which was good, and had a nice drive home. Having been that way last year with Darren, I know they were treated to some pretty spectacular views.Thanks for coming guys! Come back and visit us again!!

I miss summer!

Well, it appears that summer has finally left, and I am now left with - oh wait a minute, still blue skies and mild temperatures. What has changed here is that it has finally rained - and I don't mean a little. On Friday, September 21, we experienced a downpour the likes of which I haven't seen in years, with rain falling in sheets off the balcony roof, and a couple of inches of water running over the main streets, making driving very scary. I was coming home from The Grove after dinner with friends, while Darren was home taking pictures. You can see in the first one that the water is running in from the edge of the balcony, with part of the rug not even wet yet, even though it is pooling on the table. Good thing Darren moved the cushions of the outside chairs. It took a few days over the railing edge for the carpet to dry out. According to the weather guys, the rainfall even hit Death Valley - dropping more rain there in a couple of hours than Death Valley has otherwise received in the rest of 2007!! This followed a very dry summer, with no measurable rain in the previous 5 months. The weather guys also said this is typical of December or January weather, not September. Guess this means the winter might be a wet one. At least I don't have to shovel it!!!!

Comic-Con

At the end of July Darren and I went to San Diego for 3 days for Comic-Con, the world's largest comic book, sci-fi and geek pop culture event in the world. Terrence came with us 2 days, and Jenn joined us for one afternoon (having to go to that whole job place to do that work thing in the morning).

Started in the '70s with 500 attendees, this annual convention now attracts more than 125,000 people a year to the Convention Center. This shot of the crowd doesn't do it justice, as you can't see just how wide, and how long the hall really is, and that is just the trade show part of it. On the next floor there were dozens of meeting rooms where you could go see talks on all aspects of the industry, and one huge hall where studios previewed movies and the actors, directors or producers would come out and talk to the crowd. Terrence and I went to one where Jessica Alba was promoting her new movie Good Luck Chuck, and we saw Peter Fonda talking about 310 to Yuma. All 4 of us went to a preview for the new Stargate movies. Many fans, of all ages, show up in costume - parents dressed up their babes in strollers, children of all ages wore their favorite character, groups of teenagers roamed around dressed as groups of Hogwarts students, and then there were these two women --- There were lots of superheros and sci-fi characters (these are just fans dressed up, not paid actors walking around. The only way to distinguish many of the actors from the fans was the ident badge the fans had to wear to get into the convention),storm troopers (apparently even intergalactic evil doers need to check in with the office occasionally),and a very large number of women dressed up in the gold bikini Princess Leia wore when held captive by Jabba the Hut. I think those women were very brave wearing such a costume, as the convention center was FREEZING cold, and they didn't have a lot on!Also, a ton of fans were dressed as Japanese anime characters, and it was fun to watch them act out scenes (even if I don't know who any of the characters are).
We were very impressed with the level of detail and the quality of costumes that were here. We talked to one girl visiting from the mid-west, who was rather dismissive of some of the anime costumes that "were obviously store bought". Apparently true fans make their own outfits. Like this guy dressed as J'Kar from one of my favorite series, Babylon 5!
Most of the studios, gaming companies and memorabilia folks were out in full force. The displays, from Batman out of Lego to a full size Jabba the Hut were amazing. I think Mitchell would really like to see the displays and lego characters, and of course the Batmobile!
We saw celebs like Jessica Alba and Lou Ferrigno, and stood in line for autographs from Amanda Tapping and the gang from SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.Terrence and I chatted for a while with Marc Singer, aka Beast Master, Jenn had her pic taken with other fans dressed as original Battlestar Galactica Psilons, and I had to document my encounter with the only Elvis Stormtrooper I have ever met.With Darren taking most of the photos, we don't have any with him in them! It was a great time, and we will have to go back another year.

Go Kings!

I think it must be fate that the very first game of the new season was won by Los Angeles! Especially considering they were playing the defending Stanley Cup Champions. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a good year of hockey. Of course, this is still pre-season, and two of the Duck's biggest names weren't playing, but still, I can still hope for a few wins by my local team :).

The room doesn't spin here, it shakes

I've been patiently waiting for my first earthquake experience since moving to SoCal. There's been a few since moving here, but I actually didn't experience them in any discernible way. Today, however, I finally got my first real earthquake experience. Well, sort of. It was a reasonable quake, coming in at 4.7 on the Richter scale. It was quite a distance from us, though, so the effect in Marina del Rey was barely perceptible. In fact, I didn't actually feel it. The only thing I noticed was that my monitors were shook. Rayla didn't notice at all, which isn't surprising, there really wasn't much to notice. In a way, I think we are still waiting for a 'real' earthquake experience (although, I'm not entirely sure I want one :)).