Disneyland

Today we took Harry’s family to Disneyland. We arrived about 10.30 am. The first thing we did was ride the Jungle Cruise. Leonhard really enjoy this, next was the Tarzan Treehouse, that was a lot of fun but Leonhard didn’t like the animal sounds, as he thought they were real. We then checked out Tom Sawyer’s island (or whatever new name it has) that was a lot of fun though Harry’s nephew didn’t like the dark caves and after going through one of them decided it was safer not to do it again. From there we went to Splash Mountain. There was a long waited for this ride… about an hour but it really took about 80 minutes. Harry’s mom stayed behind as she didn’t want to stand with us in line for so long and she didn’t want to ride any of the more “wild” rides. I guess it had been a while since I had road that ride, as I didn’t remember getting soooo wet on it. Everyone got soaked but everyone seemed to really enjoy it including Leonhard. Next we went over to Big Thunder, but it was closed. We moved on to the Matterhorn and the Finding Nemo’s Submarine ride, but the lines were too long for Harry’s sisters taste so Harry and I decided to grabbed a bite to eat, while the rest of his family took the Train ride around the entire park. While eating we got to watch the new Jedi Academy Training show…that was a lot of fun

After lunch we met up again and rode Autotopia and Leonhard really loved that ride. After that we tried Space mountain, but after we stood in line for about 20 minutes, we were told that they had issues with the ride and was going to be shut down until further notice. So we walked over to FantasyLand and one ride caught Leonhard’s eye.. it was the Circus Train, Harry’s family rode that while Harry and I sat down and relaxed. After they train ride, while heading over to Toontown, the Parade started and Harry’s family decided to watch the Parade instead. His nephew really loved the parade, which was cool since he had never seen a Disney movie and didn’t really know the characters. We decided to ride Big Thunder since it was working again. So we left Harry’s mom and nephew with another ride on the circus train ride and Bernd, Gerda, Harry and I went over to Big Thunder. We had the fast pass so it only took about 15 minutes to get on the ride and everyone really enjoyed it. Everyone was tired but Gerda wanted to take Leonhard on one last ride, the Storybook boat ride. We headed over to Downtown Disney to grab a bite to eat and then we headed back home... all in all it was a really great day. It’s not how I would have spent the day at Disneyland but when you have a five-year-old you tend to change you plans. It was still a lot of fun on the ride we were able to get on.

Sailing the Pacific

Around 10 am Harry’s family picked us up at our place and we drove down to my Mom’s in Newport Beach. She and my step dad Chuck were taking us out for a sailing trip. We got to my Mom’s around noon and a 1/2-hour later we made our way slowly out of the harbor. We sailed for about an hour and a half, Bernd enjoyed doing all the boat duties, it’s always fun bringing along guests as it means I don’t have to do the work myself. Bernd even drove the boat for a while. As we headed back in we stopped by the seal “hotel” as they call it. It’s a buoy at the entrance of the harbor where a lot of seals sunbathe… Harry’s family really enjoyed that part. We got back to my Mom’s and they made us some burgers and fish on the BBQ. Everyone enjoyed lunch. Harry’s nephew Leonhard likes to pretend fish and I knew Chuck had real fishing poles so I went and got one. Leonhard’s eyes lighten up instantly. He was so excited to really fish. After a few attempts we finally go the pole set up right and he started to fish. You would never think a five year old would be so quiet and still for so long. He fished for hours but in the end didn’t get a bit.. but he seemed to have fun just the same. My mom told Chuck that they should give Leonhard the fishing pole he had been using (it was brand new) and they did. Harry’s family seemed genuinely shocked and very appreciative of the gesture. Leonhard LOVED it and even said Thank you to Chuck in English (which is a big deal). After that we drove back home and called it a night. Another fun day with Harry’s family.

Fishes, Sharks and Earthquakes.. oh my!!!

Today we picked up Harry’s Tux at the The Men’s Warehouse and it fits perfectly...whoo hooo. Around 11:30 am we gave Bernd a buzz to let him know we were ready to be picked up, as we had planned to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. We left our place around 11:30 am and got to Long Beach around 1:00 pm. We started to walk through the exhibits, Harry’s nephew, Leonhard, was really excited and seemed to have a lot of fun. Harry’s sister and I took tons of pictures while Harry took about 1 hour of video.

We were about half way through the entire exhibit when my Dad called, he had asked if we felt the earthquake, supposedly we had a 5.4 earthquake at Chino Hills at about 11:42 am. Of course we did not feel it as we were driving but it was a pretty bad shake… the worse since the Northridge quake 14 years ago. Several other people from around the US gave me a call to make sure we were okay also.

We continued through the exhibits and got to see the feeding of sharks, sea lions and sea otters. This part Leonhard really enjoyed. Around 5.00 pm we were done with all the exhibits and decided to head back home. I’m really amazed at Leonhard’s endurance while walking through all the exhibits.

We got home by 6:30 pm and Bernd and I picked up some fast food from Taco Bell, which Harry’s family had never eaten. We hung out in our backyard for a couple of hours and spent some quality time together.

Later that night when we watched the News it seemed that the quake had been felt widely in the San Fernando Valley and even in Canoga Park, what is only a couple of blocks away. Then Harry noticed that our Serenity / Firefly pictures were out of alignment, so we checked the rest of the house. Turns out that in my toy room some books and the Enterprise D model tipped over, the Voyager model fell from the shelf and a bunch of loose action figures either tipped over or fell of the shelf. Other than that nothing really happened at our place. All in all another fun day though I’m a bit tired from all the touristy things, but it’s fun hosting out of town guests.

A Relaxing Day

Well, today Harry’s family came over to our place around 10:30 am. We had planned a low key day, so we hung out at our place. Later we headed over to the Topanga Canyon Shopping Mall and spent time shopping at Target. After Target we headed over to the Northridge Shopping Mall, where Bernd stopped by at the Apple store as he was looking for a 3G iPhone and a new iPod. After that we took a stroll through the Mall, it was fun to see Harry’s Mom so amazed by the variety of shops and store. After that we tried to get some lunch a Panda Express, but turns out that all the meals without meat are prepared with animal byproducts so Harry’s Sister and Mom as vegetarians and really didn’t appreciate that fact. We finally found a food place that worked out for all of us, California Chicken Cafe. After having lunch Harry’s family dropped us off at our place, and we decided to meet again 1 1/2 hours later for some quality time at our place. We spent a couple of fun and quality hours together, we even tried to test out Leonhards new Remote Air Plane, that Bernd bought for him at Target, but the wind gusts really didn’t allow for that. Later that evening the wind died down and we managed to make a few flight attempts in the front of our house. After the ‘Flying Adventure’ we had a BBQ Dinner in our backyard and everyone really enjoyed the food a lot. Harry’s mom has corn on the cob for the very first time in her 70 years. She loved it… all in all it was a really nice and relaxing day.

Poor Daisy

Today we noticed that Daisy was really lethargic and not moving. We investigated and noticed that she had blisters on her paws. During the hike yesterday we walked out on this large cement slab and noticed that she was bouncing back and fourth on her paws so we moved her to a dirt area but I guess it was to late. I felt horrible and so guilty. Not only because of her paws being burnt but yesterday she was taking extra long breaks and stopping a lot but we keep making her move on. Her paw blisters didn’t require a vet visit but she needed to be carried out to the back yard to go to the bathroom and she didn’t move much today.

Hiking

Today we picked up Harry’s family around 10 am and went out to Griffith Park. Harry’s family are outdoor type of people, we also decided to take Daisy along as it was a great opportunity for her to go for a really long walk and to get to know Harry’s family better. About 2 hours later we ended our hike up at up on top of Mt. Hollywood, the view was really great, considering the air quality, we had a really good view of the Hollywood Sign. Harry’s 5 year old nephew did really well on the hiking up to Mt. Hollywood. Harry’s family really enjoyed the long hiking trip, his Mom was really amazed by the beauty of the park and she really loved the view from the top, as you can see the Valley, Los Angeles, Hollywood and the Hollywood Sign. One thing we should have done different, we should have started earlier, it was quite a hot day, the temperature was in the mid 90’s and the humidity was about 30%. While we were spending quality time at the top, we saw helicopters hover over an area of Griffith Park by the LA Zoo, when then saw smoke. There was a wild fire in the park, it didn’t appear to be that big and it was far enough away, so when we were hiking down we got a better look. Harry’s family where kind of excited as in Austria, SoCal is known for its wildfires and here they had it happening right in front of them. But as the wildfire started to flare up more we decided to head back down and 1 1/2 hours later we ended up at the car. During our way down Daisy got really tired and needed way more rest stops than the previous times on this same hike. We contributed that mostly to the heat and humidity. During the hike Harry’s nephew, Leonhard, managed to pet Daisy several times, which is quite amazing, considering the experiences we have with our dog and kids. Guess we gave her enough time to get used to his family and by taking a long hike together she has accepted them as part of the pack and therefore they’re all okay.

Due to the wildfire we couldn’t take the same road back to the hotel and had to make a little detour... We then dropped my family off at the hotel to freshen up and rest a little. About 1 1/2 hours later we picked them up and headed over to our place for a pasta dinner. And believe it or not Daisy let everyone pet her and she got lots of attention especially from Harry’s nephew... all in all it was really fun day.

The Beach

Today was Harry's family's first day in LA, so we picked them up around 10 am at the hotel and then we drove over to our house and gave them a tour of our place. They really liked our place and of course my toy room really impressed them. To Harry's mom it looked more like a museum than a toy room. LOL We weren't sure how Daisy would react to them, but it went very well... she was a little frightened and unsure at first, but settled down very quickly.After the house tour we gave Harry's nephew a haircut and now he has a nice crew-cut, after that we decided to take them to the beach. We took them via Kanan Canyon to El Matador Beach, a very secluded beach with some amazing landscape, they loved it as this was their first time in SoCal. Plus this beach is very beautiful. We spent about four or five hours at the beach and we all had a really great time. Leonhard, Harry's nephew really enjoyed himself. Of course we all got a little of a sunburn. We then took them back via Topanga Canyon... after we all had taken a shower... we took them out for dinner to Outback Steakhouse... and dinner was awesome... all in all it was a really great first day and everyone had a great time...

Harry's Family Arrives in LA

After driving back from Comic Con in San Diego I picked up Harry then a rental van and drove to LAX to pick up Harry's family. We got there about 10 minutes before the landed. We found out where they would be walking out of and waited. Of course Harry was excited as he hadn't seen his family in over four and a half years. I was nervous because this was the first time I was meeting anyone from his family. We waited and waited what seemed hours but it was only about 15 minutes and we got a call from Bernd (Harry's sister's fiancee) called up and told us they got off the plane and was walking to baggage area where we were waiting. They walked down and Harry and I approached. He first hugged his sister and I shock Bernd's hand. Then Harry's mom got a hold of him and wasn't going to let go. She cried and he cried, she held his face as if she couldn't beleive she was actually holding him.. it was such a sweet moment. I then greeted his mom Zita and sister. We picked up there luggage and then headed back to the hotel.

After several hours in traffic we finally got them to there hotel and checked them in. We then went out to dinner and introduced them to El Torrito.

We dropped them off at their hotel and made plans for tomorrow.

Comic Con Day Two

Today I had only a few hours to spend at Comic Con before I had to head back home to pick up Harry so we could go to the airport to pick up his family. I spent most of my time on the dealers floor taking pictures of people in costumes. I spent most of my time at the Star Trek/Paramount section. They had these cards that you had to scratch and you were given a job. You had to build a crew of eight. If you did you build a team you all got these really cool Star Trek bags and your name went into a drawing for a laptop computer. Even thought my comic con 2008 was short it was alot of fun and I look forward to next years.

Our First Wedding Present

Today while at Comic Con I was talking to Harry at home and he said we got our first wedding present. It was from his Sister Gerda and it was the fire pit that we really wanted. Whoo hooo.

Comic Con 2008 Day One

Today I got up super early and left the house at 7am so I could get to San Diego by 9:30, that's when the first day of the San Diego Comic Con started. Everything seemed okay but then I hit traffic and for the next five hours traffic crawled. What should have taken 2 1/2 hours took 6 1/2 hours. I had missed the two panels I really wanted to do that day (Doctor Who and Torchwood). Also since Harry's family is coming in tomorrow night this was going to be my only full day at the con.

I finally got there and decided that I was not going to do any panels and just walk around the dealers room which is alot of fun. The day started off horrible but ended on a high note.. it was alot of fun.

Vacation Time

Today is my last day of work for a few weeks. Since Harry's family is coming this Friday and our wedding is next Saturday I asked for a few weeks offs to enjoy this time. I am actually looking forward to the time off. Work has been really stressful and busy the past few months and I need a few weeks away from the craziness. I don't go back until August 11th.

Making Centerpieces

We finally got our final pieces for the centerpieces. We now could actually start building them. The first few were our test centerpieces and turned out pretty good but once we got it down the other six turned out great. We decided to go with a small round vase. We filled it with some sort of candle making wax stuff that was clear. We then put Star Trek micro machines in them along with my favorite flower, Sunflowers and one candle in the middle. We think they turned out quite nice.

Catering

Today I booked our Catering for the wedding. Harry and I decided on Boston Market for food as we enjoy going to lunch there once in a while. What was great is you can do everything online and it was fast and easy. This was so far the most I have spent on the wedding. We are trying to keep it upder $5000.00 and so far we are doing pretty good.

Still got a bunch of things to do.. but things are moving along nicely.

More Wedding Stuff

Today I found out that one of my friends is actually a Bartendar, or at least he has done it in the past. So I quickly emailed him and asked if he could do our wedding and he said for us, he would do it for free.. Thanks AJ... you ROCK!!!

The other thing I did today was place an order for all of our party rentals.. tables, chairs, champaign glasse and so much more. Now I wait to see how much this will all cost me.

Dinner with Friends

Tonight Harry and I went over to our friends John and Moises' apartment for dinner. It was alot of fun as Moises is an excellent cook and we always enjoy his dinners. Afterward we all sat down and watched Sky High. It was a cool night with friends.

More Wedding Stuff

Today we went to Ralphs and filled an entire shopping cart up with 2 liter bottles of various soda.. people thought we were crazy until we told them if was for a wedding. Spent over $70 bucks.

Shopping, Shopping and More Shopping

Today Harry and I went out and bought a ton of stuff for our wedding. We only have a few free weekends left. And since we are doing everything ourselves there is so much to do. Today we got plates, forks, spoons, knives, napkins, salt, pepper and containers and a bunch of beer. We looked for alochol but didn't buy any. So much to do still.

Wedding Cake

Finding a wedding cake has been alot harder then I thought it would be. I had someone lined up who could make what I was asking but he couldn't do it on the day we needed it. I knew of one other cake maker that could do it but she lives up on San Francisco but my best man Christopher was visiting family up there and this person was one of his good friends so I asked him to ask her if it was possible for her to make it and just ship it down here of something. I didn't think anything would come of it but tonight while I was at my 2nd job I got a call from a friend’s friend. Her name is Tina and I met her a few years ago while she was done here.. one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. Well she said that she heard I was getting married and needed a cake. I could not believe what I was hearing. She heard what I wanted and was so excited and wanted to make it so we started to make plans. What is great is that she and her husband (who's taking days off work) are coming down here for the weekend to make us our wedding cake. I was in shock when she told me this.. this was been a huge stress in my life and it was as if someone took a huge weight off my chest.

We talked about the details (keep it a secret for guests) on what Harry and I wanted and worked out the details and costs.

This cake is going to rock and be everything that Harry and I want it to be. Thank you Christopher for helping me get Tina to make our dream wedding cake.

Kenny's Appreciation Day

Today when I got back from work I noticed that there was birthday wrapping paper covering my office door. When I opened my door my office decorated with various goodies and there was a Happy Birthday banner strung on the wall but the "birth" part was blocked by a sign that said Kenny's Appreciation.. so the sign read Happy Kenny's Appreciation Day. There was also a present on my seat, it was a Internet urinal, it's a bottle that you can pee in and it has an adaptor for women... it's way too funny.

Come to find out that several of my co-workers who know I've been a bit stressed out with this job decided to make this Kenny's Appreciation Day. I was very touched and it just shows you how great some of my co-workers are. So for the rest of the day it was Kenny's Appreciation Day :)

Harry the Assisant Editor

Today after a long day at work I had to go to my other job and try and clean up a huge mess. When we got there they needed alot of help and was looking for an AE at the last minute. I volunteered Harry who happens to be with me. Harry knows the avid and would make a great AE. So we spent the next eight hours working on cleaning up this mess of a show. It was fun working with Harry and it was cool that this was Harry's first official job as an AE. I was exhausted after a 20-hour workday but it was cool that Harry got to work as an AE.

Hancock

Today Harry and I went down to visit my Dad, we took him out to lunch and to a movie. We saw the new Will Smith movie Hancock. We all enjoyed it, it's not your typical superhero movie. The people of LA hated this superhero because he would cause major property damage while saving people. He saves a guy named Ray who is a PR person and wants to clean up Hancock’s image. He also met Ray's wife and you know something is up. Come to find out that Hancock and Ray’s wife Mary our soul mates and have been alive for over 3000 years. Even though they are drawn to each other when the do get together they start to become mortal and can age and die. These two are the last of their kind.

I really liked the story idea... there was no huge battle at the end of this film. It's a very unusual love story with alot of funny moments and some awesome action scenes. I do wish they went into more detail about them being "immortal". But you can't have everything. All in all this was a very cool and unique superhero movie.

Doctor Who Season Four Finale

Okay just finished the finale of Doctor Who Season Four. I have to say it was a Fanboys dream episode. From beginning to end I was smiling from ear to ear. The Doctor and his Children of Time vs Davros and the Delaks. This episode was the perfect ending to the RTD era of Who.

I loved the set up for Martha and Mickey to join Torchwood next season (if the rumors are true).

Rose and the Doctor (well clone doctor) live happily ever after (at least for now)

Seeing K-9 special appearance was awesome.

And I have to say that Catherine Tate (Donna) was MAGNIFIGENT!!! I didn't really like her in the Christmas special but when they brought her onto the series she changed and turned into one of my favorite companions of all. Her acting is brilliant and she got to shine in many of season four episodes. And what happened to her in this episode was heart wrenching. She's the woman that saved the universe and when the Doctor took her back to live with her family and removed the memories I thought..okay at least she's not dead. But then I remembered her life on Earth and her unsporting mother who makes her believe she is nothing and worthless and it makes me sad. Donna is so much more and it might have been better if she had died the woman she was rather then go back to the woman she use to be. I just hope all the crazy experience that Donna's mom had will change her mind about her daughter and she'll give her encouragement and respect as she deserves.

Anyways.. a wonderful ending to a wonderful season.. this is a must buy when it comes out on DVD.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope you all have a great Fourth of July.

22 Hour Work Day

When I got to work at 9am on Wednesday I had no clue that I wasn't going to get off till the following morning Thursday at 7am. We were outputting our first episode to NBC and it had to be perfect. So I stayed and outputted it myself and it took a lot longer then expect.

I haven't put in a 22 hour work day in a long while but it's nice to know that even though I'm getting older I managed the long day pretty well.

One Month to Go

Today is our one month mark.. one month from today Harry and I along with our friends and family will be celebrating our union. We still have a lot to do and I'm starting to stress out a bit but whatever happens will happen. Harry and I will enjoy the day regardless on how well things turn out.