Wednesday, October 24, 2007
We've Moved
We've moved our blog elsewhere. Blogger doesn't do images very well. Hopefully our new location will make it easier to share pictures.
Friday, September 28, 2007
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 gian
t 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!!!!
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!!!!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, September 14, 2007
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 :).
Sunday, September 2, 2007
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 :)).
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
it's been too long
I've been delinquent in updating the blog, mostly because I can't load pictures from my new camera onto this laptop, and so I haven't been updating anything. I have decided to at least try to remember to put in the typing parts, and get around to the pictures when I can use Darren computer (we are shooting raw images on our new digital, and organizing them on Darren's computer).
On Saturday (august 18), Darren and I spent part of the day in the L.A. Fashion District. I had talked to a number of people that said this was a great place to buy clothes, that there were designers and sample sales. I went online to the website and ordered a map, as there are 90 blocks of shopping, divided into categories - women's apparel, men's apparel, sportswear, accessories, etc. I thought this was going to be heaven (and a place to buy the 2-1 sketchers my sister has tasked me with finding). You can imagine my disappointment when we arrived to find the area more like a Tijuana flea market than a outlet store on steroids. Great place to get cheap clothes, not cheap place to get great clothes. Knock off designer handbags and sunglasses were everywhere (and yes, I was tempted to get an over size pair of white plastic and rhinestone studded Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses like Paris wears, or a "real" Coach purse for $49.95, but I didn't. I always have a problem when there are no prices on things, and the sales guy says things like "Well, for you, today, I have special price, only..." I know they inflate the price when they see me coming. I really have to learn spanish to find out what the price is for the woman shopping ahead of me.
There was a sample sale going on, which we checked out as well. For those of you who don't professionally shop, a sample sale is when the designers sell the clothes and accessories they have had on models to show to wholesalers or other buyers. It usually means there is only 1 of each item, usually in small model-like sizes. My friend Agnes has bought dresses, purses and belts at sample sales, but since she is a model, she often gets to go to the ones right after the shows, and then can buy the stuff she wore on the runway. I wanted to check it out, and Darren was good enough to humor me . We paid the $1 admission fee to get into the auditorium, but saw really nothing that appealed to us. Okay, that's a lie. I saw one purse when I walked in the door, a nice white leather hobo bag, I think it was Channel. This one I would have paid $49.95 for, no problem. Oh, I'm sorry, you said $490. Right. I can only imagine what the retail was on it.
Did I mention it was also stinking hot? This was our first extended tip into downtown LA. After living on the beach for a few months, you forget how hot and sticky the rest of LA is. This area has few trees, no open spaces for air to circulate, and was packed with weekend shopping families all out to get the best bargain on their 3-for$9.99 T-shirts. We had some water with us, thankfully, and found a great place that made fresh fruit smoothies when we stopped for lunch, but it was uncomfortably hot. I made a comment about bringing Rhonda here to shop (since she'll fit the small sizes, she might find some great deals), and Darren just laughed, saying he could imagine Mike here too -- with weaponry maybe. Remembering how much he hated the heat in Vegas in March, I'm sure he wouldn't have liked the Fashion District at all. Best moment - getting back to the parking lot and taking a swig of water from the bottle we had left in the car, only to find it was as warm as a cup of coffee.
Anyway, we left there about 2:30. Not yet ready to head home for the day, and having bought nothing except lunch, we decided to try the Farmers' Market at The Grove
I thought it would be a nice, open air place after the hot and sticky downtown. It was certainly more civilized, and after checking out all the sites we even found a place to sit and have a nice cold beer. Much better! Not much for fruit and produce in the farmer's market, but a great place to spend a Saturday afternoon. Once I check out the outlet malls, I'll know all the best places to shop.
On Saturday (august 18), Darren and I spent part of the day in the L.A. Fashion District. I had talked to a number of people that said this was a great place to buy clothes, that there were designers and sample sales. I went online to the website and ordered a map, as there are 90 blocks of shopping, divided into categories - women's apparel, men's apparel, sportswear, accessories, etc. I thought this was going to be heaven (and a place to buy the 2-1 sketchers my sister has tasked me with finding). You can imagine my disappointment when we arrived to find the area more like a Tijuana flea market than a outlet store on steroids. Great place to get cheap clothes, not cheap place to get great clothes. Knock off designer handbags and sunglasses were everywhere (and yes, I was tempted to get an over size pair of white plastic and rhinestone studded Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses like Paris wears, or a "real" Coach purse for $49.95, but I didn't. I always have a problem when there are no prices on things, and the sales guy says things like "Well, for you, today, I have special price, only..." I know they inflate the price when they see me coming. I really have to learn spanish to find out what the price is for the woman shopping ahead of me.
There was a sample sale going on, which we checked out as well. For those of you who don't professionally shop, a sample sale is when the designers sell the clothes and accessories they have had on models to show to wholesalers or other buyers. It usually means there is only 1 of each item, usually in small model-like sizes. My friend Agnes has bought dresses, purses and belts at sample sales, but since she is a model, she often gets to go to the ones right after the shows, and then can buy the stuff she wore on the runway. I wanted to check it out, and Darren was good enough to humor me . We paid the $1 admission fee to get into the auditorium, but saw really nothing that appealed to us. Okay, that's a lie. I saw one purse when I walked in the door, a nice white leather hobo bag, I think it was Channel. This one I would have paid $49.95 for, no problem. Oh, I'm sorry, you said $490. Right. I can only imagine what the retail was on it.
Did I mention it was also stinking hot? This was our first extended tip into downtown LA. After living on the beach for a few months, you forget how hot and sticky the rest of LA is. This area has few trees, no open spaces for air to circulate, and was packed with weekend shopping families all out to get the best bargain on their 3-for$9.99 T-shirts. We had some water with us, thankfully, and found a great place that made fresh fruit smoothies when we stopped for lunch, but it was uncomfortably hot. I made a comment about bringing Rhonda here to shop (since she'll fit the small sizes, she might find some great deals), and Darren just laughed, saying he could imagine Mike here too -- with weaponry maybe. Remembering how much he hated the heat in Vegas in March, I'm sure he wouldn't have liked the Fashion District at all. Best moment - getting back to the parking lot and taking a swig of water from the bottle we had left in the car, only to find it was as warm as a cup of coffee.
Anyway, we left there about 2:30. Not yet ready to head home for the day, and having bought nothing except lunch, we decided to try the Farmers' Market at The Grove
I thought it would be a nice, open air place after the hot and sticky downtown. It was certainly more civilized, and after checking out all the sites we even found a place to sit and have a nice cold beer. Much better! Not much for fruit and produce in the farmer's market, but a great place to spend a Saturday afternoon. Once I check out the outlet malls, I'll know all the best places to shop.
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