Halloween at the Manor

Halloween '06. I went to work as "Three Hole Punch Zack." Anybody who is an avid fan of "The Office" will know what's up with that. Turned out that few people down at Us Airways did know. I realized early on that I was gonna be spending all day explaining my costume choice. Eventually whenever someone would ask about "those dots on your shirt," I would in turn ask, "Do you ever watch 'The Office?'" Then, when they shook their heads no, I would say, "Then don't worry about it."
I filled a huge tub with an enormous candy salad consisting of M&Ms, Snickers, Kit-Kats, Mike & Ikes, Now & Laters, Tootsie Rolls and Dum-Dums. My apologies to any candy I've omitted. Generally I would just grab a small handful and drop it into their bags. One little girl said excitedly to her parents as she walked away, "He's giving handfuls!" There were lots of princesses, one Darth Vader, many super heroes, and one kid who showed up as Napoleon Dynamite - complete with a Vote For Pedro t-shirt and nerdy afro. It was quite funny. On a couple of occasions we got the obligatory visit from young punky types whose voices were just a little too deep for Trick-or-Treating. But hey, those punky types need candy too. Who am I to deny them?
It was a fun night. There were actually two or three kids who knew about my shirt dots. "Hey, you're like the guy from The Office!", one kid said. Seems to me that Halloween is gradually becoming fun again, not withstanding the safety measures which have become necessary. Some things won't ever be what they were, the state of the world being what it is. I was happy to see parents accompanying most of the groups. Hooray for Halloween! Which besides being a lot of fun, is also the Big Kahuna of candy holidays.....Candy is awesome.

Giving the Gift of Al

Many of my favorite musicians or bands have gone the way of the Dodo. As an 80's teenager, I saw Van Halen give David Lee the boot, then have a sucession of frontmen (kinda like Spinal Tap's drummer curse). The Monkees had a comeback, which was nice for awhile - then they went away again. The Straits are no longer Dire and the Men quit Working. Where have you gone, Thomas Dolby? Howard Jones? Duran Duran, where are you, are you?

Somehow, even though so many acts have fizzled, retired, or broken up - a man named Wierd Al soldiers on. Bless him, for whenever a diva starts to believe her own hype, a lead singer starts acting like Bono, or a band starts believing they are the next Beatles - Al will be there to burst the bubble.

L.A./"Idol" Pics

Here are some photos from the trip Judy, Mom, Caitlin and I took to L.A. back in August to see the American Idol show. Judy very aptly described the show itself, so I don't have much to add there. I spent my time alternately enjoying the show and snapping away with my camera.

Caitlin, Judy, and Mom on the Santa Monica Pier


The Santa Monica Pier. We try whenever possible to steer clear of the "touristy" type places, so we decided to dine at a charming little "out-of-the-way" place called Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.



Caitlin, myself, and Judy outside the "venue" with one of the posters from Taylor Hicks' triumphant performance in Provo back in July. The poster turned out to be too big to take in, so Caitlin ran back to put it in the car, which was lucky because we then found out that cameras were allowed, so Judy called her and had her bring mine to me. Thanks, KK!


Caitlin, Judy, and Mom in their seats just before the show started.


MANDISA. A perfect way to start the show. She sang "I'm Every Woman." She did great and got everybody pumped up - her legs really are that big, btw. My camera added nothing, I assure you. She was definitely a crowd favorite, just like on the tv show.


Ace Young. Whatever. Doesn't look as though he's seen any "pretty butterflies" yet.


Lisa Tucker. She's cute and talented, but seemed kinda dull after the "Deesa."


Paris Bennett. She did great. I think here she is singing 'Midnight Train to Georgia.'


Bucky Covington. He did pretty well. This, as well as the ones of Paris and of Taylor below are kind of blurred - it's hard for me to stay steady when focusing on things far away - but I think the blurr made them look kinda cool.


Kellie Pickler. During the tv show I found her pretty annoying most times. Nothing against her voice, though. But during the live show, I don't know, she seemed a lot more cute and charming. Maybe it was just her hottie-tottie outfit.


Elliot Yamin was g-reat. The crowd loved him and he totally worked them. I agree with Judy about the shirt, though.


Here's one of the guys sans Taylor. ??? They harmonized well. I was particularly pleased with how this one turned out.


Ace and Chris Daughtry. Check out Daughtry belting as he rocks his acoustic. You know, I'm just now realizing I forgot to include one of Chris by himself. I'll get to it.


This photograph represents my biggest regret of the night. This was the very best shot I could manage of the lovely Katharine McPhee. No cool blurring action like with Paris, Bucky, and Taylor. I tried, Kat. Man, did I ever try. No, the blurring in her case produced a variety of undesired effects such as "Kat with receding hairline", "Kat with third eye", or "Kat with no neck." Judy can tell you that I am a card-carrying member of the Soul Patrol, but I also have case of McPheever - in an extremely advanced stage. I just wish she'd be herself and not go for the Aguilera acrobatics.


THE MAN. I love this one of Taylor doing a classic Taylor spazz-move with his classic Fender Strat.


Here Taylor is doing his thing accompanied by a surprisingly mild mannered-seeming keyboardist. Maybe he has a day job as an accountant. Judy commented how the staging of the show really didn't give Taylor his spot as "the winner." I agree, but I'd have to add that it was the audience, along with Hicks himelf, who gave that to him. As much as sections of the audience might have had their particular favorite, it became clear when Taylor hit the stage that he was The Guy. He just has a knack for energizing with his performance.



At breakfast the morning after the show. Caitlin and I found another nice out-of-the-way place with sidewalk seating. What was the name? The Best...West...ern... I....HOP?


After breakfast we drove up the coast to look around a bit. I'd heard that in Malibu there is no public access to the beach. Well, we found out that there really is no public access to the beach. So, we drove back down towards LA, stopping at one of the first public beaches so that I could get a shot or two. I was really happy with this surfer action shot.

Another Taylor

Well, I had planned on going to Dallas this weekend to visit and make a long overdue visit to the Texas State Fair, you know, "corny dogs, shetland ponies" and whatnot. However, my prospective return flights on Sunday were all filling up and I decided not to risk getting stuck and missing work.
As it turned out, I'm glad it worked out the way it did, because I was able to see Jeff and Alisha's new baby girl, born just after 3pm today. She appears to have Jeff's nose and Alisha's jawline and mouth. Can't say much about the eyes, though, cause she never opened them. What's up with that?
Anyway, here are some pics of the little bundle.

Gas is the Word

Yep, it's been awhile. Since the last blog entry I went to LA with Mom, Judy and Caitlin to see the Idol show (more about that - including pics - later), answered hundreds & hundreds of phone calls regarding air travel, and.....acquired a GAS-powered lawn mower - the first gas lawn mower my family has owned, at least since I've been in it.
As we were discussing this fact, my Mom said, "Yeah, Dad sure swore by those electric mowers, didn't he?" I swore by them too - just about every time I used one. Operationally they aren't that bad, but managing the power cord is a pain, and you just don't get the same testost-o-rush plugging in your mower that you do when grabbing the cord and letting 'er rip.
Other fun happenings in recent days - My friend Melissa and I went to the Greater Phoenix Greek Festival this past weekend. I can Greek dance, btw. Uncle Dwaine, I can bring some music to the reunion next year. That is, if you don't already have some. I began going to the festivals years ago because of Becky's husband Ted. They are sure fun. It's fun seeing inebriated WASP-y white folks try the steps (like Ian Miller's parents in Big Fat Greek Wedding). Years later I invited Melissa who, due to the fact that she is already an accomplished dancer, picked up the steps in about two seconds.
She had a blast and it became kind of a tradition for us to go. Anyway at the festival this past saturday night we went out on the floor and joined in with a particular line of dancers which unfortunately was being led by a tall young girl who danced like a newborn fawn. Several other ladies then zeroed in on Melissa and her "awesome skills" and eventually asked her to move to the lead position, which she did. I was pretty proud.
They have lots of interesting things for sale - jewelry, pottery, music, and several Greek-type grocery items. They sold great crocks of Kalamata olives. I bought a package of Greek oregano (It's a powerful smell - no need to open it to find out), a wooden morter & pestel (sp?), and some Greek olive oil (extra-EXTRA virgin olive oil - that's e-e-v-o-o to you Rachel Ray).

Hey Melinda, here are two of my favorite "Office" quotes:

Michael: "Was this year's Dundies a success? Well, let me see, I made Pam laugh so hard that she fell out of her chair and almost broke her neck. So, I killed...almost."

Jim: "You look cute today, Dwight."
Dwight: "Thanks, GIRL."

Mom's Las Vegas B-Day Fest, 28-30 July 2006

"There was this kid I grew up with - he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition we ran molasses into Canada - made a fortune - your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him - and trusted him. Later on he had an idea - to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Green - and the city he invented was Las Vegas..."

Las Vegas. The above quote of course is from Lee Strasberg's character Hyman Roth in the classic film "The Godfather - Part II." I found out later that "Moe Green" is Godfather code for Bugsy Siegel, much like how "Johnny Fontane" is code for Sinatra (according to Puzo, he never intended for that connection to be inferred - but I think it's pretty obvious). Anyway, the Hyman Roth quote came to mind late Friday night, July 28th, as we passed through the mountains and could finally see the city lights in the distance.
Ironically, it rained for about the first four hours of the drive, but luckily it ended before the mountainous parts leading up to Hoover Dam. We exited the freeway at Las Vegas Blvd. Making our way towards the strip, we saw a number of the infamous wedding chapels, and then further along there were two "Elvi" walking along - one in a dark jumpsuit, the other in a powder blue jumpsuit. Viva Las Vegas.
And then, at about 11pm, we arrived at the "Strip" and checked into our hotel....


Ahh, the exquisite and lavish Bellagio Hotel - which is right across the street from Bally's, where we stayed. It's kind of a generic hotel, meaning it doesn't have a theme like MGM Grand, or Caesar's, or Venetian, or...


The Paris Hotel, which was right next door to Bally's. Bally's was pretty cool, though. One good thing is the kiosk in the lobby sells awesome strawberry tarts. And if you do the breakfast buffet, get the breakfast steak. It was while walking through the Paris on friday night that I first experienced what I will call "The Vegas Effect." We were walking through the Paris casino, then we passed into a mall area with shops and restaurants - all very Parisian, the cobblestones were even treated to give them that "just rained-on" look. Anyway, we were moseying along, seeing the sites, and then all of a sudden we were entering the Bally's casino. ??? I would later find out that The Strip, and the Hotels on the strip all have a certain labyrinthine quality.




This photo, as well as all of the previous ones, was taken friday night. I was pleased with how this shot across the water turned out. As for the Bellagio fountain, seeing it on tv or film does not do it justice. I was amazed at how high the water shoots. During the first "show" the soundtrack was Gene Kelly doing 'Singing in the Rain.' Appropriate. The spray from the fountain felt good with the breeze.


Saturday, after my first official "Vegas Buffet," (it was at Bally's Big Kitchen Buffet, which Jennifer dubbed "The Big Fat Food Kitchen") we went over to Mandalay Bay to see the Shark Reef exhibit, and just to look around in general. This giant reptile resides at the Mandalay Bay pool. I thought he looked cool, and just look at him now, immortalized in a blog.

This is one of three specimens of the rare Golden Crocodile at the Shark Reef exhibit. Dig that devious, croc-y grin. The other two were a little darker shade of gold.


Here are some fish in a tank.


Mom and I are standing by the stingray pool, waiting for them to make another go around.


This is the Big-Daddy stingray, or...the Big Mama stingray. It's a stingray. It's probably two feet across and maybe three or four feet from tip to tail.


Here are Jenn and I, hands-on with the stingray. They feel basically kind of slick and gelatinous. BTW, they also had a couple of small sharks in the tank, just a couple feet long. I think it's pretty cool that they encourage touching the stingrays. Incidentally, I heard that it's been much more of a hit than the original concept, "Bobbing for Stingrays."


This is a cylindrical tank containing many jellyfish - the effect is a living, breathing (do they breathe?) lava lamp.


Here is a close-up of one of the jellyfish - apparently mugging for the camera. While looking at this picture, see if you can spot a certain member of my family.


An eel.


"Floss much?" Now smile and say "chum."

Mom's Vegas B-Day Fest ~ continued ~

This is the famous canal inside the Venetian. It is so beautifully designed - the gondoliers all have opera-grade singing voices, and they do sing. The singing, together with the design of the place combine for a wonderful ambiance. However, I suspect that the boats were mostly self propelled.


Now this big room was a-mazing. I just kind of stumbled into it as I was trying to find the rest of the group. There I was, suddenly entering an open Venetian plaza. I was told by a co-worker that it is patterned after St Mark's Square in Venice.

Here is a "human sculpture." In the previous picture, he is blocked from view by the bridge in the foreground. I did not instantly realize that it was a live person, but I did so quickly enough to avoid embarrasing myself by going up and touching the dude. Every so often he moves ever so slightly - I would imagine he would need to for circulation and to minimize any discomfort. People left tips in a pile at his feet. Many people came over to watch him, some sitting and some standing. Some would snap photos, others would pose with him - which wasn't a no-no, but whenever anyone would get up and walk away, I always imagined them to be thinking "I'm sitting here, watching a guy not move." We ended up getting ice-cream, and afterwards we looked around the shops a bit more before heading back to Bally's. After napping (I took one, anyway) we all got spruced up for the signature event of the weekend....


I started hearing talk that a Beatles themed Cirque show was in the works as early as last year. By the time Judy and Becky were starting to make firm plans for the trip I had heard lots more about it - mainly that the fellow in charge of producing all the great remixes of the Beatles songs to be used was none other than Sir George Martin himself. So I suggested it to them, and since Mom had always wanted to see a Cirque show, and since we all enjoy their music, they went for it. Showtime was at 7:30pm saturday evening.


Here are some of the young folks getting ready to scan tickets (no more tearing).
The guys were wearing "Sgt. Peppery" type military getups, and the girls had on what I assume were "Lovely Rita Meter-Maid" costumes.

Mom and I are standing in front of the mirror Beatles cutouts. The gift shop is to our left and it had lots of great memorabilia - t-shirts (though the ones from the show were $40 or so), postcards, lunchboxes, calendars, commemorative plates, etc. The cashiers and helpers were all wearing these Beatle-y colored blouses. One cool thing was that with each purchase they'd throw in two or three pin-on buttons with the show logo on them.


Our own "Fab-Four."


The show itself was absolutely fantastic, fab, gear, and whatever other superlatives you can come up with. We were completely gobsmacked. The show is so energetic and creative that it borders on sensory overload. Afterwards as we were waiting to exit we could do little more than look at eachother - shaking our heads and grinning. The above shot btw is of the same show logo as the previous shot, but straight on. It was taken post show, and a fun game to play when looking at it is to count the bald spots.


Here is the ceiling of the Caesar's Forum Shops. I wish we'd had a little more time to look around. It, like the Venetian, shows incredible attention to detail. If you go, check out the moving statues by the fountain.

Jenn and Mom at the Bellagio sunday brunch. We sampled many things there - there are just too many different choices to ever have lots of one. My personal favorites were the polenta, the tenderloin medallions, the pesto mashed-potatoes, and the mini-lemon meringue pie. I may have to do a day-trip just to go there and try some new stuff.


This is the Bellagio observatory. The current exhibit is US historical sites (Mt Rushmore, the Capitol Building, Golden-Gate Bridge, etc) in miniature. And I don't seem to have included any pictures of them. Maybe later.


The above shot is of the glass flowers which adorn the Bellagio lobby ceiling. If you watch Ocean's Eleven, Carl Reiner walks right under them when he checks in as Lyman Zerga. And the below shot is in the Bellagio observatory. HAPPY BIRD-DAY (as little Emma would say it) MOM!


Las Vegas. It really is quite an invention. Somebody thought of a way to create one of the world's top tourist attractions out of a really bleak and desolate piece of desert. A place that people would flock to in order to get rid of as much money as possible, as fast as possible. There are some fantastic things to see there, lavish hotels, good food. The people in charge really know their business. There is beauty there and it is real, but it's also there for a reason. It's all there to shout, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" Go a mere block off the strip in either direction and you'll see the other side of Vegas. I suppose that's unfair. After all, most towns have sides. But they rarely change so abruptly from one to the other. It was a fun trip though - no question.
I'd have to say that in my opinion, Las Vegas is best summed up by the following description of a breakfast item in our room service menu: