California Love

LTD and I just got back from a great "Tour of California" stretching from San Francisco to San Diego with a stop in Los Angeles in between.

Our flight from MCO left just after 4:00 pm, the late departure time was because I had just finished up a wedding weekend for a good friend of mine. We chose to fly direct with Virgin Airlines, which, if I can afford it (big if) I will fly as often as possible. Great experience with them.

Arrival in SFO 7:30ish pm. FTD was gracious enough to pick us up (and let us stay with her, but who are we kidding she desperately wanted us to stay with her). We were pretty hungry, even though, technically we should have been asleep on east coast time. Nonsense. Food would need to be consumed. We went to a great place called Pizzeria Delfina, which was delicious. Big fan. Also, by this time I had decided SFO had a good vibe, and I was feelin it. On to FTD's spot, which I also liked, although the pull-out isn't crazy comfy, but what pull-out is?

The next day, FTD went off to work, and LTD and I hit the bricks(paved street) to catch the double-decker open air tourist bus. LTD loves this stuff, I'm generally medium on it. We hop on (its a hop on, hop off) and decide we'll just hop off wherever it suits us. We ride around Fisherman's Wharf, through the downtown/financial district, past the painted ladies, and up to the Golden Gate bridge. We decide to hop off and walk across. The tour bus narrator tells us it takes 1.5 - 2 hours to walk over and back. I scoff at this. It did end up taking us over an hour, even with slow walkers and crazy cyclists sharing the sidewalks. I saw some seals (I think) swimming around, so that was cool. There are also a lot of "Don't Jump" signs and call boxes. We hop back on and ride some more, until we hop off at the Buena Vista, where the first Irish Coffee in America was served. I of course had one. It was delicious. After that, we got some chocolate (LTD twisted my arm to get a brownie sunday) and walked around Fisherman's Wharf for a while, until we decided to walk over to FTDs work and wait till she was off so we could have a drink before dinner. She had a cocktail hour meet and greet thing, so LTD and I sat at the bar while she pretended to be interested. The three of us then went to meet an across-the-creek friend at the Slanted Door for some dinner. Oh. Back up. LTD and I left before FTD, and took her purse etc with us. I texted her like a normal person to let her know. LTD almost went into the double handed above the head wave to get her attention. Luckily, I was able to stop it in time. Dinner was great. I definitely ate some stuff I probably wouldn't normally, but I thoroughly enjoyed everything. It was a good day. Also, I managed to get a little sun-kissed, er, sun-punched in the face, whilst on our tour.

FTD took us to a great breakfast spot right near her place before taking us to the airport to pick-up our rental car. Brief, but great SFO trip. On to LA. Via the PCH.
LTD driving, me navigating (begrudgingly). Before too long, we decided to stop for lunch. (Breakfast was at like 9, and it was now 1-ish for those of you thinking, "boy, they sure do eat a lot") We stopped in Santa Cruz and stumbled upon a place called, simply, "Burgers." It was pretty awesome. I had never heard of it, and don't know if it's a Cali chain or anything. But, if you're ever in Santa Cruz, I recommend it. Onward. We/LTD decides to drive the 17-mile drive on the Monteray Peninsula, which actually ended up being pretty cool. We continue on down the PCH, but actually want to get over to the 101 so as to not get into LA super late. This is impossible. We had to continue seeing breathtaking views for hours being able to cut over. Sidenote, I have taken over driving duties. After a dinner of chicken fingers from Jack in the Box, we arrive at our hotel in LA. It is different. Nice, but different.

LTD and I decide to eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant mainly because we don't know of any place else to eat. It is oh-my-gosh good. And equally expensive. LTD then leaves me to attend to business, and goes to get a facial. I reach out to all my contacts to try and set up lunches/meetings etc, which didn't go exactly as planned, but was still good. One guy who I had a lunch scheduled cancelled, and a producer I had worked with couldn't meet in person, but she and I talked on the phone. We chatted and I asked questions, which she said would probably be answered better by her casting director friend, so she gave me her info. The CD and I then exchanged emails for a while, and eventually she said she would pass on my headshot/resume to her commercial agent friend and try and set up a meeting for when I actually moved there, so that was a success. We then spent the rest of the day half sight-seeing half looking for places to live. For dinner, we finished off the day with some California Pizza Kitchen. When in Rome, right? Oh, those things are everywhere? Dang. Day two was really more of the same, as I was calling/emailing friends of friends, trying to get a network started before I moved, so that would already be taken care of when I got there. All of that went swimmingly. I separated from LTD for dinner as I met a fraternity brother from the college days. That was good although it turned into drinks as well, and I got back much later than LTD would've liked. Whoops. Admittedly, not a good move. We decided to finish off our LA stop with more of the delicious breakfast they served in the lobby. Back in the car.

The drive from LA to San Diego was considerably shortly than our first leg, but was littered with calls/texts from our tenant at 101 about the washer situation, which I won't get into here because it's a post in its own right. Wooo-saahh. Deep breaths. Oh, I was furious. Focus. We got into SD and checked into the hotel before meeting up with RBDIII for dinner and a baseball game. We ate at a great mexican place right by PETCO park, which was delicious. The baseball game was great fun, even though the Padres crushed the Braves. I am a Braves fan, RBDIII is a Pads fan. The next morning we dropped RBDIII off at work and had breakfast on Coronado, which was great. Then we just walked/drove around for a couple hours looking at all the different houses. Whose idea do you think that was? After picking RBDIII back up, we went back to the hotel to hang out for a minute before headed to grab an In-and-Out burger, which of course was tasty. Then we went to Balboa Park and walked around for a while. You know who else was at Balboa Park? Every wedding party in SD. No joke, they were everywhere. We bough some tickets to Shakespear's "Much Ado About Nothing" which was being performed in the outdoor theater that night. Had dinner back at the hotel, which was okay, then headed back to Balboa Park. The play was really good. We had front row seats, and it was just a delightful experience. Part of the play was literally at our feet. Like, we had to move them. We all thought we recognized different people in the play, and we did. Their TV credits all read like an encyclopedia of show's we've all seen. Pretty cool. RBDIII took us to a church he goes to, followed by fish tacos (again, delicious) at a local spot the patronize from time to time. Off to another baseball game (the Braves won the night before, so this was the rubber match). The Pads won, and a pitcher who I said was un-hittable(becuase he had been) got rocked. So, I wasn't thrilled, but it was still fun. For dinner we went to a place called Blue Fish Market (I think I got that right), and the line was forever long. It was worth it. All of our food was great. Save for the idiot people who can't follow instructions, it was a lovely experience.

The next morning, I took RBDIII to work, showered up and headed to the hotel to nap before LTD and I headed home. This time on Southwest. Not as awesome at Virgin. And we got home at 1 am. But, what a great trip. It was so fun getting to hang with 2 of the 3 other coastal BS's (sorry LDL!) I am looking forward to moving out there to continue my pursuit as an actor(dont tell LTD I'm looking forward to it). Anyway, I think that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed my trip as much as I did.

sweet baby p...

my precious p is growing into

a little boy.

and i think i am at that stage in pregnancy where i

am beginning to mourn baby p.

i LOVE toddler p, 

walking, talking, laughing, cuddling,

tantruming.  :)

this really is such a fun stage,

a challenging one, but fun.

soon though, my little guy won't be the baby of the house.

how are we going to handle that?

its definitely not a "how can i love another child"

feeling.

much more of a my little baby boy,

will soon be off to college.

but at the moment?

he is refusing his nap again,

which i am fairly certain college boys would

NEVER do.

so at least i have that.

these were the days...

on a totally unrelated subject:

my current project is to use everything in my fridge

before i go to the grocery store again.

so tonight?

making homemade pizza dough

and topping it with blue cheese, lettuce, grape tomatoes.

grilled.  hope its delicious!

plus we'll have grilled zucchini boats with our extra

squash, more tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese.

and tomorrow?

the grocery store.

The Weather is Here I Wish You Were Beautiful

LDL wrote a blog post earlier about our awesome trip back to the great Sunshine State. The whole thing was Planes, Trains and Automobiles and in typical D family travel fashion, very few things went smoothly. Thankfully, one thing that did was P sitting quietly in his seat entertaining me and the people behind us with his love of waving on the plane. That was pretty phenomenal.

It's HOT in Florida and being life-long Gator fans, there is no real love for anything remotely related to Tallahassee (especially given the current governor but that's not worth mentioning). 102 degrees. Car A/C appears to stop working. LDL in backseat while P sleeps, watching sweat beads form on his head. FTD in front seat with giant plastic ball at her feet desperately moving air vents to get the flow starting again. LTD driving in quiet desperation, knowing that things are about to get, well, heated.

LDL - Can you guys send some air back this way? It's boiling back here.

FTD - I know! All the air vents are pointed back there but we're hot too.

LTD - Winces in silence, flashing back to days spent traveling in a station wagon.

5 minutes later. . .

LDL - Seriously, if we don't get some air here P is going wake up screaming hot.

LTD - We're doing the best we can. The car reads 102 degrees and no air is circulating.

LDL - FTD, why don't you look in the manual to see how to fix it.

FTD - reading manual on all climate control options and follows directions to reset AC. Put AC back on Auto. Wait for it to re-set itself, just like the manual says. Nothing happens.

2 minutes later. . .

LDL - Will you let me see the manual?

FTD - scowling

LDL - praying fervently

LDL - I KNOW you're going to be irritated but P can't regulate his body temperature like you can and he is on fire. I know you don't really care about anything but you're own comfort but I have to look out for both of us.

FTD - Yeah, because clearly I forgot how to READ in this heat and you're going to be able to figure out the climate controls from the backseat even though I've already followed the outlined instructions and you have to give it time to cool. The air is 102 degrees after all, its not going to happen in 2 seconds.

LDL - Whatever. Just give me the book.

FTD - throws book toward LDL without looking.

LTD - Maybe we should just pull over and head inside for a little while. . . .

1 minute later. . .

LDL - Great. P is awake and sweating and breathing hard already.

FTD - This giant plastic ball is melting my skin off.

LTD - Thinks to herself, please, dear Jesus, please let there be an exit soon. Look! Publix!

The whole clan practically jumps out of the car and races for the Publix and it's ice cold, air conditioned aisles of goodness. P laughs as I run through the store with him in the cart. LDL and LTD head straight for the freezers. We all load the cart with frozen goodies, extra water and I grab some frozen lemonade mix and put it on P's legs to cool him down. The boy is going to need anti-perspirant before he turns 5.

A few king sized ice cream sandwiches and a game of kick ball in parking lot later we braced ourselves for the rest of the ride. Thankfully, God was laughing at us because things started working again. P and I made up over Kung Fu Panda on the ipad and LDL put up with that plastic ball at her feet.

Road trips build character.

and now!? fathers day!

we woke up from our

super,

awesome,

incredible

birthday party.

and set out to d.c. for the

nationals v. orioles game

for fathers day.

p man napped in the car (never happens)

woke up just in time to meet J &M,

our gracious hosts,

and head to the ball park.

we were nationals fans this day,

we brought no luck to d.c. as they played

pretty terribly.

but we had a great time!

p was perfect, loving mostly the fans behind us...

and their peanuts and beer bottles.

he snacked on frozen lemonade,

survived a downpour during the

presidents race,

and clapped along with nats fans, and O's fans.

he loves to clap.

and then,

he waved to everyone on the way out.

precious.

 everyone got nats hats to take home...

 not only does p love to wear his around the house,

he wants us to wear ours too.

happy fathers day b!

and of course,

happy fathers day to the one and only Judge D.

you're the men.

p man has such great role models,

thanks for that.

love you both!!

happy 30th birthday B!

bml is 30!

we were late with our party, having it this past saturday.

we intended on a small get together,

but including kids small quickly turns into

chaos.

i loved it.

3 kiddie pools,

 a plastic slide into a soap filled pool,

corn hole (which was a big hit with p man who "helped" everyone score),

lots of big, fun, bouncy, balls.

the menu?

burgers, dogs, black bean salsa, corn on the cob,

brussel sprouts (bml's favorite...gross),

frozen grapes, watermelon & lastly,

my mom's famous chocolate sheet cake.

which was delicious.

success.

p was begging for cake.

so were all of the other kids -

bml had to rush to blow out the candles,

he had lots of help with singing and instruction

from the little ones.

it was sweet.

it would be nice to have ONE nice family photo,

we were hot, and sweaty, and sticky, and tired.

and loving every minute of being 30.

seriously, this was a great project.

celebrating each other, and our friends.

from here on out we are having birthday parties,

and celebrations for every occasion,

why not!?

we were exhausted at the end of the day,

but in love with our lives.

can't ask for a better evening than that.

we are blessed.

happy birthday b.

hiatus

well, it looks like everyone has taken

a blogging hiatus.

we were all out of our respective towns a couple weeks ago,

celebrating birthdays and summer.

BML and CMD share a birthday,

RBD follow shortly after.

so all of the boys headed out to Idaho for some

celebratory fly fishing...in the warm Idaho

SNOW.

(i am SURE one of them will tell you about it in the near future.)

on the other hand, FTD, P man, and I

headed to the Emerald coast to visit with mom/bluegee

and grandmother.

is there anything more beautiful?

maybe bathtime with aunt t

 (who learned quickly to just stay in her bathing suit)

or popsicles on the porch...

or fried crab claws, fried fish, and fried shrimp with GG.

we did it all in our short, sweet, wonderful visit

back to our home state.

we beached...

which P loved...the harder the wave smacked him in the face,

the happier his giggles.

the more sand aunt t threw in his face,

the bigger his grin.

we pooled...

 (at 830am - would hate to be there with the crowds)

and on the way back to o-town,

we over heated.

big time.
so, as every floridian would do, we stopped.
at publix.  the coldest, most awesome grocery store
in existance.

p man stole my ice cream sandwich.
it was 102 degrees.
and the car air conditioner went out on us.
he was a trooper.
FTD and I....well...that's another story.

Gems and Big Skies

Most people probably don't think of Idaho or Montana first when they think of taking a vacation. What could be so awesome about a bunch of potatoes and cows. Well, actually looking at both of these seemingly mundane things for acres and acres, you gain an appreciation for the farmers who provide food stuffs for the rest of us(or at least I do). Even if you don't have a sense of amazement from the rolling fields, it is impossible to look over miles of land with snow-capped mountains in the distance and not be awe-stuck. It truly is a beautiful and under-appreciated area.



So this is where BML, RBDII, and RBDIII, and I went to celebrate a few birthdays and to just generally have a great time. We went to the same location last year and had an incredible time, so we were all pumped to get back and 'rip some lip'.

We had been warned that the weather was a little shaky, but when we arrived, it was perfect, so clearly we(I) thought that it would stay that way...

Day 1 of fishing:
"I don't think the heavy stuffs gunna come down for quite a while"

Cold. Like, really cold. We drove down to the put-in spot for the drift boats and geared up for a cold, but awesome day of fishing. Then it started to mist. I was concerned. Mist was followed by rain. I was quickly miserable. Like, so miserable that, without my asking, our guide brought out a skull cap and a couple pairs of gloves for me. Now, you can't really fly-fish with gloves on, but, today, you could.



Thankfully RBDIII caught a fish fairly early on in the ordeal, so that certainly lightened the mood a little, since we knew we wouldn't be shut out. At one point, I had to literally take a break from fishing to sit down and warm my hands. Which may or may not have been directly linked to the fact, that I too had caught a fish and stuck my hands into the icy water to retrieve it for a picture.



Finally it stopped raining, which was awesome. It was still real cold. We all caught some fish, which was great, and we finished the drift at about 3. Some(BML and RBDII) thought we were done for the day. Au contraire mon frere. We went back to the shop to drop off the boats and headed to "The Outlet". Oh yeah, when we stopped, it started to snow. No lie. Snow.

The Outlet was pretty awesome. I found a little honey hole and was just crushing fish(As were others, but I was mainly concerned about me). Totally made up for being miserable for the first 2/3 of the day.






Day 2:
"We are fishing today my friends"

Well, the morning weather wasn't much better on the second day of our adventure. However, we were all pretty excited for what was in store. The plan was to head into Yellowstone and fish what is called "Firehole", named for it's "warm" water. (Sidenote, there was some warm water, it just wasn't the water we were thigh deep in)

The drive from our place to the "put-in" was pretty long, but most of it was interesting once we got into the park. The Buffalo were walking literally in the road for part of the way, and didn't even have the courtesy to have their "wide load" signs and light on. But, I digress. We pulled over on the side of the road (no lie) and geared up to hike to our first location. As we hiked the mile plus to the river, we spotted a lone Buffalo just kinda hanging out. It caught us by surprise (or at least it did me. I wasn't interested in being "Buffalo'ed")



I was fishing pretty terribly early, so when we took an early lunch, I was not disappointed. After lunch, everyone went back to fishing, but I took a little cat-nap, because I needed to rest up and refocus for the remainder of the day. Our guide was kind enough to document my nap for me.

We bounced around to a few other spots in Yellowstone, which was just really cool. It was interesting/hilarious the looks we got from other tourists who couldn't believe we were just parking and walking into the water. High comedy. I think everyone managed to at least catch a couple fish along the way, so it was a highly successful day when you couple the fishing with the incredible landscape.



Day 3:
"The Sun'll come out, tomorrow"

Blue skies and warm weather. What a great day to finish off a great trip. Well, it wasn't exactly warm early in the day, as I still had on most of my "warm-weather gear" but, it certainly looked like it might warm up as the day went on. I will admit, I struggled early in day 3 as well. Just not a fast started I guess. I was pretty impressed with my ability to get my lures out of snags. I was told to cast aggressively, so I did. Really tried to get under those trees, in tight to the bank, and let the drift run a little closer to rocks than normal. Of course, right as our guide would say, "Ok, this is a great bank, we need both guys casting good here." Dad and I would inevitably both get hung up. It happened often, it was kinda funny, but mostly not.



Dad was able to rip some monsters from the depth, as I, the birthday boy (one of them) was shut out. Pretty much got no-hit by the fish during drift number one. The good news was that it was warm enough to strip down to a normal t-shirt, which I was happy about.



We drove over to the next spot and stopped for lunch prior to launching for drift number two of the day. I little while into the drift, I decided to crack open a birthday beverage. I figured, if I'm not going to catch any fish, might as well have an ice-cold (not really) bevey to enjoy. Well, as soon as I popped that top, I managed to land a few fish. All they needed was for me to have some liquid refreshment. Come on get in my boat, fish. Come on and get in my boat, fish fish. (You either got that or you didn't. If you did, you think I'm hilarious. If you didn't - well, you might still do) Sadly, my run was short-lived and not a great many fish were caught that day by me. Though my back-seat partner managed to grab himself a good number.


OH. This happened earlier, and I forgot to mention it, but the Dallas Mavericks gave me a great early birthday present by staging an incredo-comeback in game 2 of the NBA finals. Like, super incredo. I was pretty pumped to say the least.

Anywho. That about "sums up" the fishing trip. I did leave dinners etc out, because well, it would have been way longer than it already is, and there are only two places to eat there, and both are really just OK. Although I did have some delicious ribs night number one.

I hoped you enjoyed reading about out journey. I'll try and make the next post happen sooner than later, and certainly a bit shorter.



As our guide Dan would say: tight lines,
MD

Crime to be Broke in America

Today I went down to the ferry building because I forgot to pack my lunch. I spent $11 on a bento box that I didn't enjoy that much just because I couldn't decide what I really wanted. Then, because I have a bit of a sweet tooth, I stopped by the candy shop and spent $7 on a package of chocolate graham wafers. Later in the afternoon I went with a co-worker to grab an afternoon cup of coffee and spent $3.95 on a chai tea latte.

While we were sitting and sipping in the evasive sunshine, an old woman who looked a little worse for the wear approached. "Excuse me, pardon me for interrupting and bothering you but I am wondering if either of you can help me get something to eat" she said. I was taken aback at her demeanor, clearly downtrodden and embarrassed. I wondered what had made her choose me instead of the 25+ other people sitting in the same area. Immediately I knew that I wasn't going to be able to turn her down. "What do you need that you would like me to help with?" I replied. "Just maybe a slice of pizza or a sandwich, doesn't have to be much". Since the city has quite a large (and aggressive) homeless population, it is not unusual for people to ask for money and be upset when you offer them food. This woman seemed genuine. I asked her if she'd like to walk across the street to subway so that she could order her own sandwich. She grinned with an empty mouth and said that sounded just fine and thank you for not being rude. We quietly walked together through the crosswalk and into the shop, engaging in some small talk but unable to hear each other well. There was a lot of smiling and nodding.

The women behind the counter seemed surprised when I directed her attention to the petite woman dressed in sweats, missing some teeth when she asked for my order. My friend was fairly soft spoken, so I needed to be there to relay the requests. "What kind of bread would you like?" the server asked. Your softest kind was the response. Please add turkey and swiss cheese. Do toppings come with or are they extra? She looked at me for approval. "They come with the sandwich", I said. "Please, order what you would like". Tomatoes and a little bit of dressing. I paid the bill of $4.95 as the cashier still looked curious about the situation.

I walked back to work with a little spring in my step. I'm not sure how hungry she was or if anyone else had helped her that day. But I gained a little bit of perspective about the things that I take for granted and hope that I can remember this lesson. Everyone deserves to be shown a little kindness. Regardless of my other charitable contributions, sometimes it just feels right to give in the moment.