80's Sci Fi & Fantasy Movie Marathon - Saturday

I woke up around 8am and headed out to the kitchen were everyone was up and Chris and Ashphord were already making biscuits and gravy. We had breakfast which was great. Thanks Chris for introducing me to biscuits and gravy. After breakfast Kevin and Doug Rusley arrived. We headed out to play some extreme bocce ball (it was my best game, I got 2 points the first throw and two points again on my second throw. While we were playing bocce ball Anthony, Jennifer C and Michele (Anthony's friend) arrived and joined in the game.

I handed over my balls (yes I know how that sounds) to Jennifer and Michele and headed inside to get ready for the bulk of the guests. Everyone followed shortly after because it was just too hot outside for bocce ball. We then played a very long and awesome game of Uno before Jes started working on her topping for her Ectoplasm cupcakes and I prepped the snacks and BBQ.  During this time Robert arrived (this is Robert's first movie marathon) and Anne. The gang then started a game of Texas Holdem.

Next to arrive was my buddy Thomas who drove back down from Las Vegas for the weekend. Then Dallas arrived. Jen soon followed bringing our total to 17 and it's not even noon yet, the official time the party was suppose to start.

We all then got into our 80's costume, Chris/Ferris Bueller, Olivia/Robin Sparkles, Jes/Zuul, Rupert/Louis aka Vinz Clortho aka The Keymaster, Jen/Flashdance, Anthony/Mad Max, Kevin/Dread Pirate Roberts, Doug/Jack Burton, Dallas/Flash Gordan, Jennifer C/Sarah, Aaron/Nerd, Thomas/Johnny Lawrence, Michele/Joan Jett and as for me.. I just couldn't get a costume together with everything else going on.. but I did have some MC Hammer pants that I actually wore back in the 80's so I wore those. Robert, Anne, and Ashphord did not dress.

I started BBQing burgers and hot dogs when Adam and his two kids (no costumes), Andrew (no costume) and Scott/Cameron arrived. We ate lunch and began our first movie, Princess Bride. During Princess Bride my buddy Will/Ash showed up as well as my buddy Luis/Dread Pirate Roberts.

After Princess Bride we took about a fifteen minute break before we got started on our second movie of the weekend... Goonies. During this time Jennifer and Matt arrived as well as Kim (none of them dressed up). We're now up to 27 guests, but soon after Andrew had to leave and pushed us down to 26 guests when we started Goonies.

After Goonies Adam and his two kids left while we went to watch the Cyndi Lauper Goonies music video. After that we took a break and Leslie/Sloane showed up to completed the Ferris Bueller trio.

Sean Becker was next to show up, he actually came to scout my property as he's hoping to film an episode of Jeff Lewis' 5 Minute Comedy Hour here. He said he was going to stay for maybe an hour.. but he stayed quite a bit longer. We started Ghostbusters but Chris and I headed out to take Ashphord to her friends place and pick up some pizza for dinner.

When we were gone Sean had fun going around my house taking picture of himself destroying things (or pretending). He then went into my bedroom to mess it up but since I didn't make my bed and it was a mess already he decided to make my bed. Of course I had no idea any of this was happening until I saw the pictures/video.

Also during this time my friend Doug L arrived. Doug and I have been friends for years but never met in person.. so it was great to finally meet him.

We got back with pizza and Ghostbusters was ending. That was going to be it for the movies.. the party/drinking went into full force. At this time 2 more guests arrived Josh (no costume) and Nicole/80's outfit and finally our final guest Gabe (no costume) arrived making it a total of 30 (35 if you count the five that left).

We drank, passed some wigs around and just partied it up. Jen wanted to re-enact the scene from Flashdance so we went out to my back porch and Anthony poured a bucket of water on Jen from the roof of my house. We played several games of the card game Asshole.  Sean was about to leave but before he did he signed several autographs, on paper, chests, stomachs and anything else people wanted him to sign on. We then moved on to dancing. Olivia re-enacted the Robin Sparkles music video and everyone joined in.

And that tuned into circle dancing where everyone would stand in a circle and one person or several people would dance in the middle.. that was loads of fun.

After the dancing we decided to watch our fourth movie Labyrinth. When Labyrinth was over it was almost 2am and many of the folks were sleeping. So we took the next half hour to find a place to everyone to sleep. Had to make sure everyone had pillows, blankets and a spot somewhere. We manage to get six folks into my bedroom, 3 in the guest room, 3 in my office, 3 in my TV room and everyone else spread out in the living room and dining room. I even think one person slept outside on the back deck.

All in all is was a crazy but extremely incredible day. Had the most people I've ever had at one of my movie marathons as well as the most people sleeping over. If I'm honest there were to many people I don't think I'll be doing that again. I tend to worry about how everyone is doing, where everyone is going to sleep, and that takes away some of the fun for me. But I can't help being me and making others happy does make me very happy. Anyways.. still have another great day to come.

You can see a few hundred pictures HERE

80's Sci Fi & Fantasy Movie Marathon - Day 0

This all started with my friend Jes who has the longest drive down to my place. She would arrive Friday evening for my movie marathons. Then a few others started coming down and now it a pre-party party Friday nights. Today was the same. Tomorrow is the start of my 1980's Sci fi and Fantasy Movie Marathon weekend. So several folks decided to some over early.

First up was Rupert who arrived around 6pm. He went with me to Goodwill to see if I could find any kind of 80's clothing for the party. On our way to Goodwill Chris texted me and mentioned that he activated his "friend finder", it's an iphone app that allows you GPS your friends. So on the way to Goodwill I noticed that Chris was only a few blocks away from us. I texted him and informed him that we were going to to store and that he can just let himself in my house as he would arrived at my place before we got back. So Rupert and I started shopping when Chris popped up at the store to shop with us.. gotta love "friend finder".  I didn't find anything but Rupert found two really awesome coats, Chris got several old Star Wars VHS tapes and a few Disney soundtracks on tape cassette now that his new car has a cassette player. I did find a regular shirt that I liked and a cool graphic shirt for my buddy Luis.

After Goodwill we headed out to Boston Market for some yummy dinner. After dinner the three of us went back to my place. Chris asked me to dye his hair black as it's part of his 80's costume. So that's what we did. I have to say I had a lot of fun, it's not everyday that I dye my own hair let alone my buddies hair.

While I was dying Chris' hair Aaron and Ashphord arrived. When I was done with Chris' hair we went on to play Apples to Apples until Jes and Olivia arrived around 11pm. We spent an hour or so chatting with them and having a few drinks. Went to bed around midnight excited for this weekend.

So This Happened

While Josh, Nicole and I were heading back to the car to go bowling I had to go to the bathroom but the mens room was closed so we opted to go into a "family" bathroom. Never been in one before but wow it's a really nice lounge area and then multiple bathrooms but my favorite was this teeny tiny toilet that was made for very tiny children.. well I was having a great time so I decided to get a picture of me on this toilet.. and of course I had to pull down my pants for the full effect.

Such a proud moment!!! :)

Family and Friends

Today was my day to spend some time with my family. It's been over a month since I have been able to get away and go and visit them. Took my dad out to lunch at my favorite Chinese restaurant Hong Kong. After that we headed back home and I visited with my sister-in-law, nephew Kenobi and new niece Molly. My brother eventually got home and we hung out for a bit.

Around 6pm I said my goodbyes and headed a bit north them to meet up with my best bud Josh and his girlfriend Nicole. It's been a while since we've gotten to hang out so it was great seeing him. We headed out to dinner at a place called Lucille's. It's a slow cooking southern style restaurant. Had some excellent food. I even tried Fried Green Tomatoes, they kind of tasted like onion rings. After dinner we went out bowling and had tons of fun. Bowling closed at midnight so we then headed back to Josh's house and hung out for an hour and a half before we said our goodbyes and I drove back home. Got home around 3am.

It was a great day of spending time with family and friends.

No Job For Me!!

Got up this morning, had some breakfast with Thomas as he was heading back to Las Vegas for his Tae Kwon Do competition. Didn't really do much for the rest of the day. I caught up on alot of recorded TV but overall it was a pretty lazy day.

I did get a call from the interview I had done a week ago. I didn't get the job. I appreciate the guy calling me to let me know. I hate going on interviews and never hear back from them. I kind of knew it was going to be tough to get this job with 15 other applicants. I mean I have loads of experience but who's to say that it's more then the other 15 people. Oh well.. it wasn't meant to be. I'll just keep on looking.

Disneyland with Thomas

We got up early today to head out to Disneyland. This would be Thomas' first time going to Disneyland. He visited Disney World about five or six years ago. I love taking "new" folks to the Disney parks.

We got to the park around 10:30am and headed to Disneyland first. My friend Lydia had purchased a 2 day park hopper ticket last month but only used one day. So she gave me the ticket to give to someone else.. so Thomas was able to use it. It's President Day here and the kids are out of school so I knew it would be busy.. and they didn't disappoint.

First thing we did was go to Star Tours and get a fast pass, then went over Space Mountain to get in line but the ride was broken down. I then decided to take him over to Indiana Jones Ride but on our way Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster opened so we jumped on that ride first. After that we headed over to the Indy ride and guess what.. it was broken down as well.

This visit hasn't started out well, we got in line for Pirates and that ride actually didn't break down. We then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain and got in line. After about five minutes in line they announced that the ride had broken down and to leave the line... our bad luck continued. We went back to Indy and Space Mountain and both were still broken down. We did Haunted Mansion and then had some lunch. Of course being at Disneyland we had to go to The Little Red Wagon and get a corn dog. Thomas had never had a corn dog before so this was this was his first one. And the fact that he ate it in two minutes would suggest he enjoyed it :)

After lunch we headed back to Indy and this time it was open so we got to ride one of my favorite rides at the part and Thomas really enjoyed it. Next we went to Big Thunder Mountain and it was open as well.. yay!!! Thomas really enjoyed this ride.. I got some video of the ride.. check it out below.

After Big Thunder we headed over to Fantasy land, we didn't plan to ride anything but when we got to the Tea Cups we had to take a whirl... and of course there is video of it.

After the Tea Cups we rode It's a Small World, it's a ride that Thomas wanted to go on because Thomas said when he hears about Disneyland he hears about It's a Small World. We then headed to Towntown and walked around before heading back to the magic castle to get a picture. After that we headed over to Disney California Adventures. First thing we did was get a fast pass for Screamin' and then got in line for Tower of Terror. I think that was the longest line we stood in, but it was worth it. Thomas is a quiet and reserved guy, but on Tower of Terror I actually heard him gasp as we fell multiple times. It's one of my favorites over at DCA.

After Tower of Terror we headed over to Goofy's Sky School and of course it was broken down so we went on Mickey's Fun Wheel, it's a giant Ferris wheel and we rode one of the swinging cars and had a blast. After that we went back to Goofy's Sky School and Thomas really enjoyed that ride.. it looks simple but man is it loads of fun with all those hairpin turn.

We then headed over to Screamin' to use our fast pass and we had an awesome time on that. Thomas really enjoys roller coaster so I knew he would love that one. When then had a half hour to kill before dinner and Thomas suggested the Swings. I've never done these swings at DCA but there was only a 5 minute wait so we did those and it was a short and fun ride.

At 7pm we were meeting up with our friend Jen so we headed over to our meeting place in Downtown Disney. Jen showed up, but locked her keys in her car. We went to a few places and the wait time was crazy but finally decided on House of Blues, there wait time was 35 to 45 minutes. I needed to rest as my back was killing me so I sat down while Jen headed back to her car to get her keys and Thomas checked out a musician who was playing some drums near by.

We finally got seated and had a very nice dinner. We finished around 10pm and said our good byes to Jen and then headed back to Disneyland. We still have our fast passes for Star Tours and Space Mountain. So that is how we finished our fun day at Disneyland. We rode Star Tours and on our way out I had to get Thomas a souvenir and the best is of course Micky ears but since we are geeks we put a Star Wars twist on them and got the R2D2 version... and yes I got his name put on the back of them.

After that we did Space Mountain as our final ride and I think that was a nice way to end the day. Space Mountain was going to be our first be wound up being our last ride. And like I said Thomas is a big fan on roller coasters and this one is one of the best at the parks.. it was a nice way to end the day.

Over all it started out a bit rocky with rides being closed and though it was extremely busy because of the holiday we did manage to ride all the major rides and get a few smaller rides in there as well. But for me the most important thing was spending time with a great friend and getting to know him even better... and he had a great time.. so win win for everyone.

You can check out more pictures from his two day visit (Vasquez Rocks & Disneyland) HERE

Chronicle, Dinner & Once

After our hike at Vasquez and watching a bit of TV Thomas and I headed out to Arclight of Sherman Oaks to see Chronicle. I had heard good things about this and all my friends really enjoyed it so I went in to it expecting to like it. And guess what... I did. First of all the way it was shot, in first person with personal cameras, cell phones, security cameras was just brilliant. I liked how the footage got sharper with the improvement of each camera the guy got. It's a nice slow progression of the story but it never felt like it dragged and the final 20 minutes were just incredible. It's just an overall well executed movie. I think it would make a great origin story for a new super hero.  Both Thomas and I really enjoyed it.

After the movie we went to a local Denny's for a late dinner... then headed home to watch tonight's Once Upon A Time. I love that show but it's always so much more enjoyable when you watch it with a friend. Headed to bed after because we had to get up early for our trip to Disneyland.

Hanging with the Irishman

My buddy Thomas from Ireland came over late last night to stay with me for a few day. He has a martial arts competition in Las Vegas this week and extended his vacation a few days so we could hang out... how awesome is he. We woke up this morning and had some breakfast before doing a 2 1/2 hour hike at Vasquez Rocks. Went to the highest peak at Vasquez.. made a short video.

After the hike we went out to lunch at Islands then came back home and watched Touch and the first 3 episodes of season two of the IT Crowd. Now heading out to see Chronicle at the Arclight Sherman Oaks.. I'll blog about the movie later.