Ranking Pixar

So Toy Story 3 finally came out this weekend, and Pixar continues it's streak of awesome films. Now, there are some I liked more than others. But they were all enjoyable, solid movies and I own all of them. (Well, except Toy Story 3, obviously.) Here's my ranking of them, from lowest to highest.

11. Cars
This movie is really popular, and while I like it, I'm not really big about cars. I didn't even see it until years after it came out, actually!

10. Ratatouille
This movie was so hyped, and while it's good, it didn't quite reach it, in my opinion. I'm sure many people can argue with me on this, but I don't think it was the strongest story Pixar has done.

9. A Bug's Life
This was Pixar's second movie, and I just love all the little supporting characters. I also think Hopper is a great villain

8. Finding Nemo
I was surprised to see how low this one ended up, because this is really great movie and I've watched it many times. Just goes to show how great Pixar films are. Who can't love Dory and Crush?

7. Monsters, Inc.
Just love the characters in this one. And the ending is great. Can't wait for the sequel that's on the horizon.

6. The Incredibles
This movie is just so much fun. No capes!

5. Toy Story
The one that started it all. I just watched it yesterday and found I was still laughing and enjoying every minute of it. "The word I'm searching for, I can't say. Because there are preschool toys present."

4. Up
My husband will defend this movie to the death, and he's not even a huge Pixar fan. But the story of an old man's journey to complete what he and his late wife always dreamed of is such an engaging one.

3. Wall-E
There's hardly any talking in the first half of this movie, and yet it's so engaging. The first time I saw this I came away amazed at how easy it was to love characters that couldn't even speak.

2. Toy Story 2
More of the same great characters plus some new ones - including The Prospector, a great villain. "You're outta your box!"

1. Toy Story 3
Pure brilliance. A great continuation of the story. I've never cried at a movie so hard in my life. Very emotional and deeply touching. Pixar's finest one yet.

Imersed

I am like the most boring person recently because I did the exact same thing every night this week. Came home. Had dinner. Worked on my book. Went to sleep. That's it. I have been working on this chapter non-stop for the past few weeks. I have one scene left to go and then it's onto the last chapter of this book. There's still another book to come, but I can't believe how much progress I've made. I'm somehow keeping myself motivated considering I've written two chapters (that are 150+ pages each) in a few months. That's really quick for me, considering the previous chapter to that took me a WHOLE YEAR to do.

How long have I been working on this? Actively, well, since 2006. So four years. But I started off really slow. I kind of started working on it when I still worked at my old job, and then when I was unemployed I kind of picked it up again and wrote a chunk. But then I got a new job which ate up a ton of time. So I wrote less, but I still worked on it, writing sections here and there. I finished the first book sometime last year. And I started the next one.

And I stalled, stalled, stalled big time. I guess I was busy and unmotivated and lazy and all of that. Because I stopped writing for months. But then I picked it up and forced myself forward. And now here I am, 2 (almost) done chapters later.

And I intend to press onward until it's all finished. I can't possibly hope that I'll stay this motivated forever. The words will be harder to come by and life will get busy again, but I'll get myself back on track.

You know what the biggest motivating factor for me has been? The whole E-book movement and self-publishing. Because now I know that even if no one will buy my crap, I can get it out there anyway. And maybe someone will read it.

Rising

Yeah, I'm still alive. I've totally been neglecting this thing. It's not that I don't have anything write about, it's just that I've been writing other things. Like my book. Which is coming along. I'm past the halfway mark, which is something to be proud of...I guess. In fact I should probably be working on it right now, but instead I've decided to revive this thing.

Here are some quick reviews of things I've seen/played recently:

Iron Man 2 - Awesome, I actually liked it better than the first one.

Final Fantasy XIII - Really great, but there were some issues and kinda lacking some of the draw of the earlier titles.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Currently playing this. Super fun. Retains the charm of the original while managing to still be fresh. The addition of Yoshi and the ability to let you play as Luigi is awesome.

Okay, you don't get briefer than that.

The Sex Ed Debate

This is what's in the news this week. I'm glad to see there are quotes from students and even parents basically saying "WTF?!" Teaching a kid how to use a contraceptives is contributing to the delinquency of a minor? Really? Get real.

Here's the thing. I don't understand why sex ed is such a huge issue. Sex is a part of life. Everybody's gonna do it at some point. (Well, most people. Many people.) Teenagers are more mature than you think - they deserve to know the real deal. Should they be having sex? Noooo... Will they probably anyway and should they have all the facts? ABSOLUTELY.

At my high school - guess what: health class was REQUIRED. And my mom didn't have to sign any stupid note that it was okay for me to learn how human biology works. We learned all about sex. The good and the bad. Did they take the time to emphasize how you probably shouldn't have sex? Yup. And guess what? I don't remember any pregnant teens walking around my school. Not that it never happened - no school is immune. But not while I was there. Not that I saw.

There are more important things worth fighting about. Let the teens learn about sex properly. The more you hide from them, the more you try and convince them not to do it...the more curious they get. Human nature. Give them the facts. They'll be adults soon enough. It's okay to treat them like one once in awhile. Give them some credit. And move on to something that's more important to argue about. Really. Showing someone how to use a condom really isn't worth fighting over.

Ticket Scam - Part Two

Do you remember my last blog? Where I complained about how difficult it was to get baseball tickets? Well, here's an interesting follow up.

Over the weekend I was checking my email, as people are known to do, when I got that seemed a little strange to me. The subject line was: Thank You For Purchasing Yankees Tickets...only the email hadn't come from Stub Hub - the "3rd party" outlet I'd been forced to buy my tickets from. It came from Yankees.com ticketing. And when I opened it up, there were all the Yankees graphics and the Yankees disclaimers and links and all that lovely crap. (Of course, this really originates from MLB.com)

The real kicker here...was not only did the official Yankees site apparently know I had purchased tickets from STUB HUB (no mention of that website in the email, by the way) but it knew the EXACT GAME I had purchased the tickets for. Then it tried to pimp out tickets to another series - a series of the Yankees vs. The Mets. Yeah, because those tickets are still available.

Are they kidding me with that email? Just shove it in my face some more that you know exactly what's going on, and you could care less about it. It's not right, and it's not fair, but that's business in the society we're living in. You're getting screwed, and we don't give a shit. Thanks for the money.

Well, I won't be buying tickets to any more Yankees games or any other game where I can't purchase them directly from the box office or the official website. And yeah, there will be someone else happy to spend their money in my place. But I don't care. Because it's not mine. And it makes me feel better.

Getting Baseball Tickets Sucks

So, as I've previously mentioned, I'm a Yankees fan. And I haven't been to the new stadium yet. This is not cool. I also have many family members who are fans, so for various relatives as Christmas/Birthday gifts, I told them I would buy us all tickets to a game.

Well, single game tickets went on sale on Friday. I needed to get six. Do you know how many I managed to get via the official website? ZERO.

I was pissed off. You know why? This whole ticket thing is a SCAM. They pimp their season ticket plans all damn winter long. And then, roughly two weeks before the season starts, they put the single tickets on sale. And there are none? I was trying RIGHT when they went on sale at noon. Oh, and I have to point one thing out - there were tickets available. Oh, there were. If I was willing to pay $150 or even $300 a damn ticket. Are you kidding me? I guess someone's gotta pay Arod, but you know what? It ain't gonna be me.

So the reasonably priced tickets are gone. Can't get any. Not for any weekend game anyway. And that's the only time we can go, since we live kind of far from the stadium now. We can't just jet down after work like we used to. What to do now?

Why there's StubHub of course! Get tickets for any game from people who have tickets they want to get rid of! How convenient! I need tickets, and these people just HAPPEN to have EXTRA tickets they don't need!

Hi, people who bought season ticket plans JUST FOR RESALE BECAUSE THEY KNEW THEY COULD MAKE A PROFIT. It's disgusting. Yes, I'm sure there are people selling tickets on StubHub who are season ticket holders and do need to get rid of tickets to a game or two they can't make. This is understandable. But you know most of these jerks bought tickets during the winter long season ticket pimpfest, intending to list them on StubHub to make a profit. Because it's so easy to scalp these days. Thanks, internet. Who cares if people who actually want tickets to go to an actual game. Just give us our money. It's so frustrating, and it's really not fair. StubHub has built their business around this, obviously. And do you think the Yankees or Ticketmaster give a crap? Of course not! Either way, they're getting their money.

This practice disgusts me. And I didn't want to use StubHub, just out of protest. Because I shouldn't have to pay more than face value of a ticket I was willing to buy as soon as tickets went on sale. And it's not like this is a 2 or 3 day concert event - there's at least 20 weekend games this year. But unfortunately, I had promised other people tickets. So I had no choice. But you know what? In the future, I'm keeping in my money in my pocket. Sorry, Yankees. I'm still a fan. But unless the ticket situation improves, I'll just watch from the cheapness of my living room. Somebody else can shill out for Arod's paycheck.

Review ~ Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Saddest sentence ever.

I'm a big fan of the Ace Attorney series - I've played all three Phoenix Wright games as well as the Apollo Justice title. Miles Edgeworth has always been my favorite character, so when I heard they were making a game all about him, I knew I was going to be all over it. Who else can pull off a fuchsia suit and a caveat and still be awesome?

This game is not like the other games in the series - you are never actually in court. Instead, Edgeworth, Gumshoe, and a cast of new and familiar characters cracks cases by investigating and taking testimony out in the field.

Gameplay - You're investigating crime scenes now, and you actually get to move around. No more just pointing to stuff on the touch screen, unless Edgeworth decides to go in for a closer look. As you can see from my above screencap, you still get the sprites and all their amusing quirks. You can still shout objection if you so choose. And you're still presenting evidence and pressing people when their testimony doesn't quite add up. What's new is the "logic" feature. As you investigate, Edgeworth will occasionally come to a conclusion that will be added to the "logic" section you can access in the upper left hand corner of the screen. You can then put two together and come to a conclusion that pulls you further into the investigation. The new features in the game aren't much of a departure from past titles, and I feel it's much better then that perception crap you had to do in Apollo Justice where you basically got up in someone's face to see if they were slightly sweating on one word. Ugh. Hated that. Logic is an easy system, both to use and figure out. There's not too much mystery when you're trying to put two and two together.

Characters - Edgeworth, obviously, is the focus of this game. You're accompanied most of the time by your old pal Gumshoe, who I always enjoy seeing. There are a bunch of new characters in the game but there are also a lot of familiar faces as well. I was happy to see what characters came back for a spin in this new game. But if you're expecting to see Phoenix...don't get your hopes up.

Story - I would have to say this is probably the weakest part of the game. That isn't to say it's bad by any stretch, but compared to past games, it's a little lacking. There are five cases in the game, and they're all tied together. You kind of jump around taking on the cases out of order, which can make your mind spin a bit. The storyline is clear and enjoyable, but not particularly engaging like in past games, even though all the cases are related in this case. I found many of the cases were pretty short, except for the last one. In the true tradition of an Ace Attorney title, the last case goes on and on and on with no end in sight. And by the end you're screaming at your DS. Fun times.

Graphics and Touch Screen - The graphics are the same as they've been for the other titles. Touch screen use is pretty much the same too. You can use it to advance dialogue or move (or you can use the control pad) and you use it to access your evidence and sometimes make a response or too. You can also interact with specific pieces of evidence by zooming in and turning them around - but we've seen this in past games already too. There's really nothing new to report. Unfortunately there's no cool luminol or other crime scene tests like we've enjoyed sporadically in the past.

I really enjoyed this game - but I think I enjoyed it more because I'm such a huge Edgeworth fan. If you're a fan of the Ace Attorney series though, regardless of whether you're an Edgeworth fan or not, I think you'll enjoy it. Yes, it's a little different and I did miss being in court a little bit, but overall it's more of the same enjoyable experience with a few new twists.

8 out of 10 (The fact that Edgeworth was the main character jumped the score about half a point)

Why I'm breaking up with American Idol

I'll admit it - I've watched American Idol since season one. I didn't catch the whole thing, but by the time I started tuning in, there were about six or seven contestants left. And I've watched most of every season since. I say "most" because I tended to lose interest in most of them, and stopped watching by the time there were only a few contestants left. You gotta admit, the show is basically the same every week. People sing. A good chunk will butcher their chosen song. A few others will be good, and one, two or maybe even three if you're lucky will be amazing. This is one of the reasons why TiVo was invented. So you could fastforward through all the crap in American Idol.

This season began for me like all the others. I started watching. Even with Paula gone and Simon leaving, I went back to it like an old familiar friend. The auditions rounds were pretty standard. Hollywood week is my favorite, and it was pretty enjoyable. But once the top 24 were chosen, my already waning interest in the show pretty much died completely.

Why? Well, there are several reasons.

1. I'm not digging Ellen as the new judge. Don't get me wrong - I really like Ellen. I just don't like her on the show. I don't think she makes a good judge and I really miss the unpredictable antics of Paula Abdul. Nothing could replace that.

2. The talent this season mostly sucks. Every year they put a bunch of people through who clearly are getting pushed ahead by the producers. And America is stupid and will vote for these people because they are voting with their hearts instead of their ears. But this year, after hearing Randy proclaim "Most talent ever" like 40 times like he does every year, I quickly realized he was clearly lying. Big time. I haven't watched any of the top 24 performances. I haven't had time, so I've been reading the recaps and I was planning to go back and watch them from my DVR later. Well the recaps proclaimed pretty much every performance bad, and not only bad, but terrible. So why would I waste my time? And I'm not going to fast forward through 45 of bad singing just to see one good performance. Not worth it.

3. Which brings me to something that has never happened before. Probably the biggest reason I stopped watching American Idol is that I just don't care about any of the contestants. Not enough. Every year there's always a contestant or two that I really like and want to root for. And I'll tune in faithfully at least until they get eliminated. But this year...I was drawn to no one. And the repeated reports of subpar performances is maybe a good indicator as to why. So if I don't care, and most people aren't delivering anything worth watching, why is it worth my time?

So right now this season is a total wash for me. Oh, I'm sure I'll keep tabs on it. It's American Idol - I always do. I can't help myself. It's habit. But as far as actually watching it again... I'm sorry. It's over. And since Simon will be gone next season, I'm done.

I'm sorry, American Idol. I appreciate the entertainment you've given me over the years. But I just don't feel that spark anymore.

Oh, and it's totally you. Not me.

Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part Two

Well, I have absolutely no pictures for this segment (there really wasn't much that was photo worthy) but at least I have some video.

So when I left off, we were enroute to get our rental car in a taxi. We rented the car from Alamo, which was located near Union Square. It was the best price I could find for a one way rental, and I actually booked it online through Orbitz.

So the taxi dropped us off, and I dragged all our luggage inside and waited while Brian signed all the paperwork and got the GPS I had also rented. I thought about bringing ours from home, but across the country and a two week vacation seemed like too much trouble for one day. So decided it was worth $11. There was a little confusion as to where our car was, but we got pointed in the right direction. We had to go into another garage and find our red Chevy Aveo. (Yes, of course I had reserved the cheapest type of car!) The trunk was small, but we had all the backseat, and so we loaded everything into the car and I started to try and get the GPS to find us.

I don't know what it is with GPS', but they always seem to take forever to locate us! We knew we had to leave the garage in order to get a signal, so into the roads of San Francisco we went. Of course the roads around Union Square are pretty congested, unlike the rest of the city we had seen. It was kind of stressful, driving in one direction waiting for the GPS to catch up with us! (I had TOTALLY forgotten that I had written directions in my phone. Yeah. Way to fail.) Anyway, the GPS finally got with the program and we got on the highway and headed out of San Francisco to San Jose. The drive was rainy but fine and the roads weren't very crowded because it was before rush hour. I found a decent station on the radio and enjoyed the lovely CA scenery. Despite the rain.




We arrived at the DoubleTree San Jose about an hour later. It was still raining. We went to check in and our room was ready. We were also given two delicious chocolate chip cookies. I love those! Brian had a little confusion with the parking situation, but we got to our room and brought our stuff in. It was very nice! Big, and we had a small balcony, even if the view was of the parking lot and it was raining.

We just relaxed for awhile and discussed what we wanted to do next. We both wanted to see a movie - sherlock Holmes - so I researched where the nearest theater was and we decided to head over there (with the help of our GPS) to see the movie.

I forget what time the movie was, or what time we left, but it was dark when we got there. We didn't have any trouble finding the mall (Thank you, GPS) but the parking lot was crowded and it was still raining. We weren't really sure where we were going, so we just parked where we found a spot and went into the mall. This mall was technically in Milpitas and it was called Great Mall. I swear, that's what it was called. Anyway, this mall was one level and it was HUGE and full of great stores. There was actually outlet stores in the mall! Man, I wish our malls were that awesome out here. I saw some stores I wanted to stop in, but there wasn't a ton of time before the movie and we still had to find the theater, so we kept moving.

The theater ended up being at the total opposite end of where we were - and it was outside. And still raining. There was a bit of a line, so we hopped on it, and gawked at the prices. And we thought NY was expensive! It was almost $11 a ticket. But more than that, I was perplexed why they felt the need to post a sign stating that firearms were not allowed in the theater. We weren't in a bad area or anything! Very strange. But luckily we just made it in time to get the matinee price, which I think lasted until before 6.

Anyway, we grabbed some snacks and saw the movie, which we both enjoyed. I just love Robert Downey Jr. He's a very good actor. Afterwards there wasn't too much time before the mall closed. Brian wanted dinner, but I had eaten popcorn and I was good, so I went shopping while he headed to the food court and had a hot dog or something. I ended up buying this really cute dress. I don't remember the name of the store, but it wasn't a store we have out here. It was kind of like Forever 21, because the clothes were cute and inexpensive. It was called Love Culture actually. Afterwards we found our car, went back to the hotel, showered and went to bed. We had a big day ahead of us!

Here's a look at the weird street lights in San Jose and a brief review of the our night:

NEXT...

Winchester House...of Mystery!
An important lesson about rental cars
San Diego delays

Following Team USA

Well, I'd love to make a long post detailing all the medals that Team USA has won in the past week and a half, but as it stands right now we're up to 26 medals (as of the time I'm writing this) and that would take awhile.

26 medals! That's insane! We only won 25 in Torino. We only won 6 (6!) in Calgary - the last time the games were in Canada. And the games ain't over yet!

Right now the medal count looks something like this:

Alpine Skiing: 2 Golds (Lindsay Vonn and Bode Miller), 2 Silvers and 2 Bronze.

Snowboarding: 2 Golds (Shaun White and Seth Westcott), 1 Silver, 2 Bronze.

Speed Skating: 1 Gold (Shani Davis), 1 Silver, 1 Bronze

Freestyle Skiing: 1 Gold (Hannah Kearney), 2 Bronze

Short Track: 1 Silver (Apolo Ohno), 2 Bronze

Figure Skating: 1 Gold (Evan Lysachek), 1 Silver

Nordic Combined: 2 Silvers (First medals EVER in this event!)

And I apologize for spelling any of the athlete's names wrong - those were off the top of my head.

So! With several events to go, how many medals can we rack up? I'm expecting some in bobsled, definitely at least 1 in hockey, and the short track speed skating isn't over yet either! There are so many great performances and so many great moments - this is what the Olympics is all about!

Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part One

It's our last day in San Francisco already? But we just got here!

We packed up our stuff (including the huge bag of chocolate I bought on our first day...and am still working on finishing over a month later) and headed down to the lobby where I enjoyed another delicious blueberry muffin. We had to leave our bags with bell services since we weren't picking up our rental car till that afternoon. We had to wait for a bit, but eventually someone showed up, we checked like 5 bags, and headed back outside into the 50 degree weather.

Finally no fog! Beautiful.

We'll be back here later - The Cannery.

Our goal? To ride the damn cable car finally!

The Powell/Hyde cable car started (or ended, depending on how you look at it) right near our hotel, so we took a ride over there. I wanted to go first thing in the morning because I had seen longer lines later in the day. It was nice and quiet over there. We bought our tickets, which amounted to $5 each way for each of us. Expensive, right? Well, you can get a pass for cheaper but there was no point in us doing that at this point. There was a car about to leave, and we could have gotten on if we wanted to stand, but we decided to wait for the next one. Standing on the cable car...not the safest looking thing to do. Those things pass very close to cars and other cable cars! But...we'll get to that later.

Took this video while we waited:





So we waited awhile for the next car, and we were the first ones on. The car filled up pretty quickly because a line had formed behind us and so before we knew it we were heading up the hill and riding the cable car!





I was filming as much as I could and enjoying the view until the second stop - that's when this guy got on and stood right in front of me. He couldn't stand in front of someone not clearly filming? Thanks a lot, buddy. Anyway, I tried my best to film around him. He got off at like the second to last stop.





Riding the cable car was really cool. I don't know how the brakemen control those things. Cars zoom around them, and they have to stop at traffic lights - it's pretty crazy. I think the video tells the story better than words could. But we rode the cable car all the way to the end, which was Union Square. And you have to get off at the end of the line.

The line to get back on the cable car? SUPER LONG.

And we were a long, long way from Fisherman's Wharf.

Oh well! Might as well make the best of it. We wandered around Union Square, and ended up in the huge, beautiful mall. This was probably the nicest mall I've ever seen. It had escalators that kind of curved around like spiral staircases. And it was packed full of high end stores, of course. There was also a really nice looking movie theater. And there was a gorgeous dome. It was pretty big, and we explored the whole thing but didn't go in any of the stores.

The beautiful dome.

Once we were sick of that, we started thinking about how we would get back. There was no way I was waiting on that long time. So we decided to walk a ways back up the cable car line, and just catch it at another one of the stops. We wanted to check out Lombard Street anyway, which is right along the cable car route.

So we started walking. In San Francisco. And have I mentioned how hilly it is in San Francisco?

A beautiful city it may be, but a walkable city it is not.





But we toughed it out. And we walked up about three or four stops. This British couple joined us in waiting for the cable car. One came along after a few minutes, but there wasn't a lot of room on it. We let the British couple go ahead of us since we saw another one was coming right behind it. So we got on that one instead. I got to sit, but Brian had to stand and hang on for dear life. He wasn't too thrilled with this, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.





But there was a problem! We were on the Powell/Mason line! Oops! Wrong line! Brian discovered this - I had no idea. We came to a stop where we could transfer, so we hopped off and waited for the right cable car line. This car was crowded too, but we were able to stand inside - at least there was no hanging off the side this time! We listened to a family from San Francisco chat with a family from Canada. It was funny, because the San Francisco family were acting like such tourists - they had small children with them, I'm thinking maybe the kids had never been on a cable car before?

At no point did anyone ask to see those extra, expensive tickets we had paid for. What up, California? And this wasn't the last experience we had with that.


The stop for Lombard Street came, and we got off. Lombard Street is really cool. There are houses right there, and people literally have driveways right on the street. I wouldn't want that to be my driveway! The view from there was awesome, and there are stairs leading down, so we walked down the street. Lots of people were driving down at the snail pace of 5 mph. Lombard Street is part of the much advertised 40-something mile drive through San Francisco.

Check out that view!

Yeah, it's just a little windy.

Me taping, what a shock!

Lots of cars coming down!

After taking some pictures and video, we decided to head back down the hills towards the Bay and find somewhere to have lunch. Along the way, we saw a truck that had run into a pole (the truck was hardly damaged at all - it wasn't a bad accident or anything) and there were a couple of police and firetrucks around. So, I took a picture by the firetruck. One of two accidents we saw in California, and the only one I wish I saw.


The walk back was nice. The streets in San Francisco are so much quieter than any other city I've ever been to.

Do not do this in New York City unless you want to wind up in a hospital.

Once we were back in tourist land, we headed to this place called The Cannery. If you guessed that it used to be a cannery, you're right! Anyway, now it's a bunch of shops and restaurants, but there really isn't much there. It's kind of a shame, because the building is really cool. We went in a sock store, but didn't buy anything. According to the directory, there was supposed to be a hot dog place in there somewhere, but we didn't see it. Maybe it closed. We kind of just wanted to grab some hot dogs, but since that clearly wasn't going to happen, we decided to go to The Buena Vista, which had been recommended to us. It's the first place in the U.S. to serve Irish coffee.




It's right by the cable car stop, so we headed on over. I don't remember exactly what time it was - kind of early for lunch - maybe somewhere between 11 and 12? Anyway, the place was small and it was packed! We walked through the whole thing and there wasn't a seat to be had - even at the bar. It's kind of a casual place, and there's really no one there to seat you. It's really pretty inside though. We weren't sure what to do, and we were just kind of standing there when the bus boy found us a table - a table for six! But we sat down anyway. And I was cold! So I just ordered some hot tea and a grilled cheese. Brian had the Irish Coffee and I forgot what he ate - maybe a hamburger?

Anyway, we were sitting there for a few minutes when an older man and his grandson approached us and asked if they could share our table. Of course we said sure. We had a table for six, and we were only 2 people after all. Anyway, the man was very nice and his grandson was adorable. (I think he was about 4.) He was from CA - just outside San Francisco, and we started telling stories about New York and such. He was very emotional about 9/11, and talked about how much he admired the NY police and firefighters. Since his grandson was visiting and they were planning to ride the cable car, Brian gave him our tickets that no one had taken on our return trip.

Mmm...Irish Coffee.

We had a very nice meal. The little boy, Casey, was very well behaved. The older man got an Irish coffee too and he got crab cakes that he offered to share with us, but we don't eat crab. Anyway, when our check came, the older man grabbed it and insisted on paying! We tried to talk him out of it, but he was insistant. He told us in exchange we could just buy a drink for a cop or firefighter from the Hurley family. It was so nice of him! Needless to say we thanked him profusely and headed back out to kill some time before we picked up our rental car.

So we wandered down in the direction of Ghiradelli Square, but we stayed at sea level. No more hills for us! There was this historic bathhouse place, so we walked inside. There wasn't much in there - just a pretty mosaic on the wall and a nice view of the Bay outside.

Shot this out there:




I thought we could walk down these steps and head to the path that runs along the Bay, but there was like a senior center down there with a bunch of older people exercising. Um, nope! Can't go that way! So we went back outside and found our way to the path and just walked along the bay for awhile. It was really nice. I miss San Francisco! It's such a fantastic city - I can't wait to go back.

The Rock

After that we found our way to this free ship museum. I know it sounds boring as hell, but it actually wasn't that bad - and there were benches! They had an interesting section on shipwrecks (there have been plenty off the coast) that I spent time reading about. When it was nearly time to pick up our rental car, we headed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and had the valet call us a cab. (Using this interesting whistle... I had never seen anything like it. But then again I don't really ask valets to call me cabs in large cities.)

Just one more thing I want to say before I forget - at some point I decided I wanted to get the paper - you know, the San Francisco Chronicle. I decided I wanted the newspaper from every city I visited. Well, that dream died right in our first city. I could not find one! I tried a couple of drugstores (they carry the paper here in NY!) and even our hotel gift shop, but they did not have it. Unless I wanted USA Today I was out of luck. Very strange. Oh well.

Next!

Oh god, we really do have to drive here!
Another lovely mall...
The clothes here are better. They just are.

Every 4 Years

I'm obsessed with the Olympics. Winter or summer, it doesn't matter, I'm there. I tend to prefer the summer Olympics only because there are more events (and I'm a huge fan of gymnastics), but I love the winter games as well.

I've been following the Olympics since I was a kid in the early 90's, but I would say I've been following it closely (aka obsessively) since the mid 90's - 1996, if you want to start getting specific. I don't watch the opening or closing ceremonies - I find them boring. Just give me the events!

So. This year. What am I most looking forward to? Why Apolo Ohno, of course! I just love him, and I've been a fan of his since the Salt Lake City games in 2002. Already he tied Bonnie Blair for the most decorated U.S. speed skater ever - one more and he'll surpass her. And, with 3 events to go, I would say his odds are good. I like speed skating in general - it's one of my favorite events.

Usually I'm a big fan of the figure skating usually, but since I don't except the American's to contend in the pairs or the woman's skating (I hope I'm wrong...) I'm not really too excited about it this year.

Yeah - I'll admit. I tend to get more interested in the sports Team USA is likely to medal in. I'm a big time couch cheerleader. You should have seen me cheering on the Nordic Combined this afternoon. (That was exciting!!) If an American isn't contending I still enjoy it, but not nearly as much.

Mostly this year I'm looking forward to the skiing and snowboarding events. I REALLY enjoyed the woman's moguls last night - amazing performances. I hope the American men do as well!

So - go Apolo! And go Team USA!

Trip Report ~ Day Two - Part Two

And so day two of our trip continues in the lovely city of San Francisco.

Only we were about to embark to a place that isn't quite so lovely. In fact, I referred to it as the "Unhappiest Place on Earth" - hey, something had to be opposite of Disneyland. I think Alcatraz fit the bill.

Our night tour left at 4:20, and I knew we had to be there about an hour before, so after relaxing and uploading my videos, we left our hotel room at about 3 and took the walk to Pier 33. It wasn't too far.

Once we got there I picked up the tickets, and noted the tours were now sold out until Thursday! I'm so glad I got the advice to buy my tickets online a few weeks before! (If you're planning to go to Alcatraz, I can't stress that enough!) Tickets in hand, we got in line to wait for the ferry. They didn't keep us waiting out in the cold for too long. Soon enough we were moving towards the boat. They made us pose for a picture in front of this Alcatraz backdrop like we were having some Disney character breakfast. the photo was also ridiculously overpriced - like $25 bucks or something for a 5x7. Et tu, National Parks Service?

Once aboard the boat, we chose to stay on the first level near the door so we could get off quick when we docked. We grabbed some seats and eventually we pulled out, heading for the island.

I actually taped the entire voyage out, but it was too long to upload to YouTube - over 10 minutes. Along the way we heard the history of the island and got some pretty nice views of the bay and the bridge. When we were nearly there we passed a buoy that had seals on it! Unfortunately it was on the other side of the boat, so I didn't get very good video. But it was cool.

Once we arrived at the island, they explained how we'd be walking up a steep incline towards the island. They did have a transport that took people who couldn't make the walk to the top. Anyway, when they opened the doors we were in the first group that headed up. We had a guide and along the way he paused to tell us a bit more about the history of the place.

Down near the docks. You can still see the evidence of the Native American occupation in the 70's.

This, if I remember correctly, was once the Officer's club - both when it was a military prison and a federal prison. It was burned down during the Native American occupation.

It was a pretty steep walk up there! It kind of zig zags - you climb one big hill, turn a corner, and then go up another big hill. One of the stories we heard along the route was how once someone took the tour who had actually served time on Alcatraz - he can now be heard on the audio tour.

At last we arrived at our destination. The prison.



So we were taking the Night Tour - which I cannot recommend enough. It included the audio tour, the guidebook (which you usually have to pay like a dollar for, it's not very big) and tons of extra talks about the prison, but I'll talk more about that later. For now we were led into the building to pick up our headsets - and we got to see the showers.

Yeah, this looks like fun.

So we picked up our headsets and put them on to start the tour. I was happy that they were real headphones - not those stupid ear buds that don't stay in my ears.

If you've never taken an audio tour before (as I hadn't, before this one) they basically lead you around by telling you where to go - so there are a lot of people moving to the same areas at once! You can pause at any point, which is good if you want to hang back a bit. I took advantage of this a few times. It was also kind of weird because it was so quiet in there with everybody listening to the audio tour! Alcatraz creeped me out enough as it was. It was pretty scary in there, honestly. And just thinking about all the history there...I was a bit unsettled! But it the audio tour was really fascinating. Definitely don't tour Alcatraz without it!

So one of the first things we saw, was a cell. There are a lot of them, as you can probably imagine! Now I'd never seen a prison outside of TV or movies before (thankfully!) so I had no idea what to expect. And I was a little surprised, as this video shows:



After that the audio tour really got started, and we saw pictures of the 4 former inmates and 4 former guards that we would hear on the tour. And then everyone started shuffling around at the same time.

Our crappy camera sometimes takes some pretty neat pictures in low lighting. There are 3 rows of cells on each side. It's really overwhelming.

A better look at a cell.

The most dangerous place on Alcatraz - the kitchen and mess hall. They had the actual benches you could sit on...I declined. Creepy!

A view of the recreation yard.

Brian inside a cell. Again, I declined. Have I used the word creepy yet?

Hmm... This might be a picture of D-Block - where the difficult prisoners were kept. This was also where "the hole" cells were - you know, the isolation cells. You could go in one if you wanted. Brian did.



I, once again, declined. ULTIMATE CREEPY. You can see on the video how QUIET it was in there.

This damage on the floor was done during the battle of Alcatraz - an escape attempt gone horribly, horribly wrong. There were a lot of escape attempts on Alcatraz, but this one resulted in the deaths of a few guards and so much control at the prison was lost that marines had to drop grenades down to try and subdue them. This is damage from the grenades.

Eventually we got to see the administration offices and such - then we were led outside where we got a great view of San Francisco at night. It was pretty cold outside though, so we didn't stay outside too long. Though it wasn't much warmer in the prison.

Administration offices.

After this we learned about the famous escape attempt where the two brothers and their friend put fake heads in their beds and escaped on a boat of raincoats - they were never found. We'd learn much more about escape attempts later.

After the audio tour ended, we had our choice of a few talks that were happening that night - this was all included in the night tour. There was a talk about bank robbers, escape attempts and a cell door demonstration that we were interested in. There were two more boats leaving that night - I think the earlier boat left a little after 7 and the later boat left around 7:40. They made sure to let everyone know that they would make sure everyone got on that last boat! (Can you imagine getting left behind? Yikes.)

Anyway, first we went to the bank robbers talk. Many of the prisoners on Alcatraz were bank robbers. It was interesting - she gave us a little quiz to see how well we knew what it took to make a bank robbery attempt more successful. I got all the questions right!

After that we went outside to wait for the escape talk. It was cold, cold, cold outside now! It was pitch dark, and we were on an island in the middle of the bay. Brian had brought a hat with him that he didn't want, so I quickly stole it.


Anyway, despite being cold, this talk was AWESOME. In one of the escape attempts, the convict managed to steal a whole military uniform over YEARS, finally sneak on a boat - only to sail to nearby Angel Island where he was quickly caught and returned. In another attempt, the guy actually managed to swim all the way to the shore near San Francisco, but he was suffering from hypothermia and passed out. The teenagers who found him called the police. It was a really fascinating talk.

After that there was a little time before the cell door demonstration, so we checked out the store. Brian got on line to buy a few things and the line moved super slow because the store was closing soon so everybody could get the hell off creepo island. So we were a little late to the demonstration. But we made it in time to watch them open and close the doors a few times - you can see why they call jail the slammer. They could open all doors at once, or just one if that's what they needed to do. And when a door was open you could see it perfectly because of the red paint on the inside of the door.

After that we headed back down toward the dock. We caught some of another talk on escape attempts, but this guy wasn't as interesting as the first talk.

While we waited for the boat to board, I recorded this:



On the boat back, we sat in pretty much the same place. I was starving, and while there was a snack bar on the boat, it was nothing I wanted. The people who worked on the island were also on the boat, which makes sense. It really was the last boat off!

After we disembarked, we looked for our overpriced picture just to see how terrible it turned out - pretty terrible. Then we started walking back to the hotel. We were both hungry and just wanted to grab something quick - so we started wondering if there was a McDonald's nearby. We hadn't seen one yet. I knew there as an In & Out Burger on the Wharf somewhere, but in the dark who wants to go wandering around, you know? Anyway, believe it or not we ran across a McDonald's. Lucky us! So we got some food there (I think I got chicken nuggets), took it back to our room, and just relaxed for the rest of the night.

In conclusion, the Alcatraz tour was AWESOME. Take the night tour. It's totally worth it. It's really well done.

Next time:
Omg, we have to drive in California?!
Mmm...cookies.
No firearms in the theater?!

The Super (Ad /Puppy) Bowl

Watch the Super Bowl? I did. I'm so not into football, but I always end up watching it anyway. There's something about the Super Bowl...it's like an unofficial holiday. Last year I had tickets to something and didn't watch, and I felt strangely empty. Anyway, I actually enjoyed the game (Congrats to the Saints) and the half time show - but what's always talked about almost as much as the game itself?

The commercials, of course.

I, like many people, usually hate commercials. Most of them are just so stupid. There are very few commercials in my entire life that I actually enjoyed watching. The Super Bowl is like the most expensive ad time a company can buy all year, and for good reason, and most of them feel they better bring it. And they damn well better. Because people are waiting for those entertaining ads.

Well, this year I felt the game was better than the ads. But I did enjoy a few:


Monster.com Beaver - this was adorable!!


Betty White for Snickers... I think everybody enjoyed this one. Betty White is awesome.



Griswolds!! I laughed my ass off at that one, I must admit. This is the full length "movie" the commercial had clips from. It's pretty entertaining.



Bud Light House - My favorite of the beer commercials.



Careerbuilder.com - Casual Friday. Ew. But hilarious.



There were a couple of other good ones - you can visit Hulu to rewatch any you liked.

Of course, there were a couple I did like, like the GoDaddy.com ads (Totally lame), I've never been a fan of the eTrade babies, the only Doritos one I liked was the one with the Samurai, the TruTV one with the football player Groundhog was horrible, as was the one with Kiss (for Dr. Pepper, I think.)

But the cutest thing on TV yesterday? The puppy bowl, of course. How can you NOT love puppies, a kitten halftime show, bunny cheerleaders that sleep the whole time and hamsters in a blimp! If you missed it, you can check out highlights over at Animal Planet's website. Watch out for that unnecessary rough-rough-roughness and excessive napping.

On Broadway

In between trip report, I'm going to start a series on something very dear to my heart - Broadway musicals. As I've said before, I was obsessed with Annie as a kid. I also really enjoyed Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, which you cannot find on video anymore, which is a real shame. Mary Poppins was another favorite.

Living close to New York City, I've been very fortunate that I've been able to see quite a few Broadway shows in my life. Several more than once. The first show I ever saw was The Secret Garden. It was fourth grade, and we had just read the book in school. (Still love that book!) We went on a class trip, and I remember we sat in the mezzanine. And the song about the garden being a maze still pops into my head. I bought the cassette tape (this was the early 90's) and I used to play it a lot as a kid. I used to love the music, but I'm not quite as enamored with it anymore.

The second show I saw was Guys and Dolls. Nathan Lane was in it at the time. I believe we went for my dad's birthday, and I remember enjoying it, but I don't really remember specifics. Guys and Dolls is a great, classic show with several well known songs like "Luck Be a Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat'. Why do I not own the soundtrack?! I haven't seen the whole movie, but I would like to sit down and enjoy the whole thing sometime soon. Frank Sinatra plays Nathan Detroit.

The third show I saw was Show Boat. And Oh. My. God. I was enamored. (I want the soundtrack so badly, but unfortunately it's now out of print.) The sets, the music, the story - Show Boat was the first musical that had song kind of story. And a dark story at that. It deals with interracial marriage. Pretty heavy stuff for 1927. I was in 8th grade and it was a class trip. This was the year I really started to get into musical theater, mostly because I was in my first show, but that's a story for another time. I would love to see a production of Show Boat again. It's a classic show - the kind that changed what people thought of when they thought of Broadway. Probably the most famous song from the show is the iconic "Old Man River". Great, powerful, song.

So what other shows have I seen? Well, this is a list of all the shows I've seen on Broadway. I've seen other shows in touring productions, community theater and dinner theater. (And since we're so close to Broadway itself, our dinner theater is pretty damn amazing and features Broadway talent.) But these are the shows I've actually see on "The Great White Way". I've seen shows with a * more than once.

And these are in noooo particular order. That would take forever:

Beauty & the Beast
1776
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Miss Saigon
Jekyll and Hyde *
Rent *
Aida
The Scarlet Pimpernel *
Ragtime
Kiss Me, Kate
Spring Awakening
The Producers
Civil War
The Full Monty
Little Shop of Horrors
Movin' Out
Spamalot *
The Music Man

I may have forgotten one or two. I haven't seen a Broadway Show in over a year, so I'm a having a bit of withdrawal!

I (heart) Netflix and Broadway

More trip report will be coming up in the coming days. But I needed to take a break from that for a bit.

I signed up for Netflix awhile ago, and after the free trial was over I kept it. I have the cheapest plan - one DVD and unlimited streaming. I use the streaming the most. Between the PS3 and our Netflix enabled Bluray, it's really handy to have so many movie and TV shows ready to watch whenever I want. The streaming library grows all the time - just today I discovered they have Into the Woods! Into the Woods!! Really?! That isn't exactly a common movie to have. When it comes to musicals their selection leaves a lot to be desired, but there are a couple of good choices and I'm sure there will be more as time goes on. (Where is Show Boat?! I know it's old as hell and probably never came out on DVD, but come on! Find a way!)

I've been on a bit of a Broadway kick lately, which is evident in what I've watched on Netflix streaming lately:

Stagedoor - A documentary about the musical theater camp in upstate NY. It was interesting, and a quick watch.

Life After Tomorrow - This was an interesting and slightly disturbing documentary about the girls who were in Annie during the 70's and early 80's on Broadway and on tour. (Including Sarah Jessica Parker - totally forgot she was in that.)

Broadway: The American Musical - this was a six part series that originally aired on PBS, I believe. Hosted by Julie Andrews, it chronicles the history of Broadway from the turn of the century until like 2004. Very interesting and entertaining.

Singin' in the Rain - Can you believe I had never seen this before? It was really good - Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Man. Stars don't have talent like that these days. And Gene Kelly was like 40 when that movie came out and he's dancing all over the place.

Besides being on a musicals kick, I'm also on a old movie kick. I plan to watch a bunch in the coming weeks... I'm sick of new movies. Most of them suck. Why can't people write a story any more? It seems to be we're just relying more and more on special effects and computers to tell our stories for us...which is impossible.

I have seen two new movies lately - The Hangover and Zombieland. Both were good. The Hangover was amusing and entertaining but not the non stop laugh-a-thon people make it out to be. I only laughed out loud a handful of times. (I do, however, finally get what's so hot about Bradley Cooper. Yum.) So over hyped, but still good. Zombieland was amusing, the perfect length and not very gory for a movie about zombies.

That's about it for now - FYI, if you set up a station on Pandora Radio for Wicked (Original Broadway Cast) you mostly seem to get music from Rent, Disney movies and Glee. (And Wicked, of course!) That's what I've been getting with my latest station, anyway.

Day Two ~ Part One

If you're ever looking for other parts of this report, you can view them all by scrolling to the bottom of any entry and clicking on the trip report tag.

The next morning we got up around 8 and took showers. Then we started thinking about what the hell we were gonna do.

Remember how earlier on in this report, I mentioned how I didn't plan this trip as much as I would have liked?

Yeah. This would be a great example of that.

After we got ready we headed down to the lobby and I bought a blueberry muffin and a juice from the little cafe downstairs. That muffin was goooooooood. Brian just had some cereal we had brought. There was a concierge desk in the lobby that had a rack of brochures nearby, so we perused it and found some tours we were interested in. We were kind of trying to save money (at this point in the vacation, anyway...) so there were a few that we thought were too expensive. But we did find a tour we thought looked good, so we decided to just walk down to the office listed on the brochure and check it out.

Using the iPhone maps, we found the place. It was a few blocks away. And...it was basically a hole in the wall place that wasn't even open yet. So I was kind of annoyed that we had just wasted our time walking all the way over here for nothing.

A shot we took on our journey.

So we started heading down back towards the Bay (hey, it's downhill that way, can you blame us?) and we run across this tour company office. There are a bunch of people inside waiting for buses and such, and I send Brian up to inquire how much it would cost to do a city tour. They were offering a few different tours, so we decided to take the cheapest one - which was a hop on/hop off city bus tour. I forget what time it left - 9:30 or 10 - but whatever time it was, we had a few minutes to wait, so we milled around and sat on the benches until it was time to board the bus.

I did not take my jacket with me today (I had meant to, but I forgot) and I was a little chilly. So when we got on the bus, we did go to the top level (it was one of those double decker buses) but we sat under this covered portion. It had rained yesterday, as you may remember, so things were a bit wet up there, but under the covered portion it was fine. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect on this tour, since I had never been on anything like it, but I was hoping to see a good chunk of the city.

In this case, I must say, not planning ahead definitely worked in our favor.

On the bus we had a guide who told us all about the different areas. His name was Stephen and he was British and very informative. Brian really took a liking to him, and so he never wanted to get off the bus and get a different guide.

Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, which I was super excited about. I have a weird obsession with the bridge - it always looks so great in pictures!) so I couldn't wait to see it in person up close.

It was a little foggy that morning. Here was our ride over the bridge:






I was totally excited to be going over the bridge! I know that must sound lame, but to me the bridge kind of summed up San Francisco for me. (From my tourist standpoint, anyway.)

On the other side of the bridge there's one of those scenic points where people park and take pictures. It was a very large area, and the bus stopped there for a few minutes so we could take some pictures.



After our photo stop, we got back on the bus and went back over the bridge to San Francisco again. We went by the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. There was stuff in the park I wanted to see, like the Japanese Tea Garden, but there just wasn't time this trip. Along the way I took some video of the many gorgeous Victorian houses in San Francisco. They are also very expensive if you want to buy one! If I ever get super rich, I'm totally buying a Victorian here. I just love Victorian houses.



We also passed by Alamo Square, where the house from Full House is located - it's part of Postcard Row. I don't know why I don't have a picture taken of the houses, but I wasn't in charge of the camera, I was in charge of video, so I got some of that instead.



Next we saw city hall, which is the area where they finally stopped the fires after the earthquake in 1906.



After that it was on to Union Square! The bus stopped for quite awhile so we had some time to really see things - at least from the bus! This is the premiere shopping area of San Francisco - tons of high end stores, and in the winter they even have a (very crowded) ice staking rink.

A shot of Union Square - complete with a beautiful Christmas tree.

It was getting kind of cold on the bus at this point - for me, anyway. In order to see better we moved to the uncovered part of the bus. Brian let me have his coat. I still don't understand how he can have short sleeves on and be fine, and meanwhile I'm freezing my butt off.

Next we cruised by Chinatown and Little Italy. More places I wanted to check out, but we didn't have the time.

Chinatown Gate.

That's Lombard Street up there in the distance.

So we cruised around downtown, and then we headed back towards the Bay. We stopped at Pier 33, where the Alcatraz tours leave for, and they were sold out until Wednesday! (This was Sunday.) We would be back later to take our tour, and we were looking forward to it.

After that was the last stop on the tour - Pier 39. This is a very touristy area full of shops and restaurants. We got off here because we had a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe and they also give a AAA discount. Yeah for discounts!

The Hard Rock Cafe wasn't very crowded and we were seated right away. I had never technically eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe before, believe it or not. (I say technically, because I went to one once at Foxwood's for a special corporate event and the food sucked.) Our server was really nice. They didn't really seem to have any awesome rock memorabilia that sticks out in my mind, but we enjoyed the music videos that were playing on the TVs scattered around. (Even though I totally don't wanna watch Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane" while I'm trying to eat. Yuck!)

I don't remember exactly what I had, but it was some kind of salad, and it was very good. I don't remember what Brian had, but it was either chicken fingers or a burger most likely. That's all he eats! After our meal, we used our coupon to get a free lanyard and we got a free sundae with the AAA discount that Brian enjoyed. Then we headed out back onto Pier 39.

It was crowded! This was definitely the most crowded area of the city we had experienced so far. There were people everywhere. As we walked along, I stopped a tiny puppet store and just HAD to go in. I'll admit it - I'm a fan of puppets. I used to collect them when I was a kid and they all had elaborate names (most of which I unfortunately forgot.) and sure enough I found a puppet I just had to have - a cute little rabbit!

There was a carousel right by the puppet store. I kind of wanted to ride it, because I love beautiful carousels, but I decided I'd better save my money.

Next I wandered into a candy store and bought a really expensive coconut cluster candy. It was like 3.50 or something. It was good, but not really worth that much. Brian had wandered into the Del Sol store - I was kind of surprised to see one in San Francisco. It's not exactly sun central there. But I guess one pops up wherever tourists tend to gather in large groups.

We didn't do too much more at Pier 39. We wandered into a couple more stores, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed back to our room. It was really crowded, and I wanted to rest a bit before our Alcatraz tour.

Huge Christmas Tree at Pier 39

COMING UP...

More hills?!

"I am not getting in there."

Getting all bundled up at the unhappiest place on Earth!