Movie/Murder Night

  We parked and walked into the silent courtyard. The night air had a slight nip to it, and the sweet perfume of flowers drifted on the breeze. We couldn't remember which door to go to, so we guessed. My fiancée knocked.
  A small sliding-hatch peephole in the door whisked open, and a man with a serious moustache and an even more serious gaze peered out. "Yes?"
  My fiancée laughed as I wondered if we had picked the wrong door. "No one enters without a moustache," the man said, and passed a tube of black lipstick through the hatch. "Do it however you like," he said sharply, and slammed the window shut.
  Thus began our evening with friends this past Saturday night. We drew ridiculous moustaches on each other's faces, then knocked on the door again, and were granted entry. Inside, there was a whole spread of "spooky" foods, all to match the evening's planned viewing of the Hitchcock classic "Psycho," and a couple rounds of the equally classic boardgame "Clue."

The classic version. Ours was newer, but this was the one I loved as a kid!

  Another couple showed up shortly after us, and they were treated similarly at the door. Nobody was able to take anybody seriously the whole night with our tremendous black moustaches. It didn't matter, though, because we mostly spoke in ridiculously over the top British accents during our games of Clue. This is what happens when you get a roomful of actors together.

I think somebody left this food out a little too long

Sausage eyeballs. Wings, too, as we were originally going to also feature "The Birds"

  Surprisingly, about half the group had never seen Psycho! It was a treat to get to watch it fresh with them and see their reactions. It can still elicit shock and horror to this day. I can only imagine what it must have been like with audiences in 1960. Hitchcock was a master of his craft.
  So much fun was had, that we have all decided to make a new tradition of themed "Movie-and-a-Game" dinner nights moving forward.

Due to a pending murder investigation, we are not allowed to display the other suspects



  Got a great suggestion for a themed night? Comment below!

Birth-daze

  What a month, and what a start to 2015! Both my fiancee’s birthday and mine blew the top right off of January.
  
  It all started on the 14th, when my lovely lady surprised me with a birthday limousine. I had never been in a limo before, and that was the impetus for the whole thing. Inside, the limo was stocked with all manner of drinks, both alcoholic and non. My complete shock and amazement kept me in a bit of a dizzy dream state for a while.

Yep, that's a pretty "What the Hell is going on here" kinda smile

  After a quick stopoff at Yogurtland for some chilled deliciousness, the driver took us to pick up our friend Jalin.

Yogurtland

Jalinland

  As we began to roll to our multiple planned destinations, it was present opening time! Jalin brought a whole bag of amazing goodies and activities, including glow sticks and bracelets, snacks, tasty rum, and a hilarious hand-made coloring book depicting “Bear’s First Limo Ride.” Inside, there were even activity pages, and a word search!

  Reen bombarded me with a trove of amazing gifts, including a set of “Bear Hands” oven mitts, and a brand spankin’ new Galaxy S5 Phone!
Over the next couple of hours, the limo drove us around to some of the most famous sites around LA. First, we hit the Hollywood sign, then, we headed down to Mann’s Chinese Theater. It was tremendous fun playing Rich Guy, because every time we hopped out of the limo, we drew stares. At Mann’s, we made a big splash, and then two of the costumed characters out front jumped into a picture with me. I’ll call them “Stinky Catwoman” and “Angry Storm.” Catwoman had the worst breath in Gotham, and horrified me by kissing me on the cheek. Storm used her mutant powers to be pissed that we didn’t have any money to give her as a tip, even though we didn’t ask for her to jump into the photo in the first place.

Angry Storm and Stinky Catwoman

Walking like Egyptians in front of The Egyptian

  Next, we drove into Chinatown for a brief look at the Dragon Gate, and then we hit up LA Live downtown. I don’t think I’d ever been down there in the evening. It reminded me so much of Times Square in Manhattan. Huge billboards, neon, tons of people milling around, restaurants, events.

Dragon Gate, Chinatown

Confusion at LA Live

  In true Hollywood fashion, we next stopped off at an audition for my girl. Jalin and I spent our time in the limo discussing world travel and completing the all important task of putting together our glow-stick jewelry.

Glow-bling

Post audition glamour

  About an hour later, we were on our way again, and headed to a late dinner at a speakeasy called Next Door Lounge. Typically, you need a password to get in, and my arranged password was “Indiana Jones.” Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the guy at the door didn’t ask for it, and just let us in. Maybe he saw the limo and thought we were too important for a password. Or maybe he just didn’t care. Regardless, the place was awesome! We had some delicious food and drink and enjoyed the live jazz band. At the end of our meal, they brought out the chocolate cake that Reen had been toting around all night. I made my birthday wish and blew out the candles. It was pretty much the best birthday ever.

Next Door Lounge

Delicious dinner

Bear cake!

  Fast forward ten days later to the 24th, when I got to return the favor for Reen’s birthday! There was no limo, but I did have an entire day planned out, and we had amazing weather to top it all off.
First stop was Santa Monica pier, because the beach is one of her fave places.

She got me a limo ride, I got her this. Even Stevens.

  After a delicious lunch at True Food, we headed to our next stop, which was the Hollywood Costume Exhibition next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This was AMAZING. We thought it would be neat to see a few Hollywood costumes, but were blown away by the number they had housed there. Everything from Charlie Chaplin to Liz Taylor’s Cleopatra to Indiana Jones and all of today’s modern superheroes. It was fascinating.

  Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed, so I don't have any cool pics to show. I highly recommend it, though, if you are in the area in the next month before the exhibit closes.
  After that, we headed over to dinner at Lala’s Argentine Grill.

Photo credit: Random Stranger

  We enjoyed some pretty delicious steaks and sides, and then walked down the street to see an 8:00 improv show at The Groundlings.
The show was mostly hilarious, with only a couple things falling flat. The best part was the very last improv of the evening, when a character came into the audience and grabbed my fiancée and took her onstage.

No pictures were allowed, so this is all you're going to get.

  At first, I thought they were going to pick me, and I freaked out, but then I got to enjoy the next few minutes as Reen became part of a farce based around the ridiculousness of the Cirque du Soliel shows. The whole place was roaring with laughter, and it was the perfect capper to an amazing day.
Okay, maybe the pefect capper was the VERY last thing we did in the evening, which was to enjoy a big slice of the gluten free chocolate cake I baked her.

Yes, it was chocolatey and delicious!

  There you have it. Two epic birthdays!

Happy 2015!

  Well, we blew out the last hours of 2014 in fine style in Las Vegas, of all places. It was a last minute decision, and we were so very blessed with easy travel, a great room, and a fairly effortless good time on the strip.

  We expected to run into snow on the drive, from that big winter storm that moved in, but all it did was give a light dusting to the mountains. Traffic was kinda bad, though, as just about everybody on the coast was trying to use Interstate 15 to get into Vegas. I read ahead of time that they were expecting about 340,000 people. I'm not sure the cold weather allowed for that, but it was still pretty packed.
  First off, I have to say that the staff at Bally's, where we stayed, was awesome. They were friendly, helpful, and cheerful, despite having to probably deal with 1000% more bullshit than usual that day. Kudos, Bally's.

Our amazing room

  After a short nap, we ventured out to find something to eat, expecting to come up short. Everything would surely be booked or jammed with people. Because we were slightly early, though, and slightly ahead of the curve, we were able to get into BLT Steakhouse at Bally's. It was certainly upscale enough, and we felt pretty pampered. The food was delicious, as were the drinks.

  After stuffing ourselves silly, we ventured out into the cold night. The strip had been blocked off to vehicular traffic, so the streets were jammed with people. The early atmosphere was good, probably because people weren't drunk yet. Street vendors were selling hot beverages, hats, funny glasses and the like. The Bellagio's fountains boomed nearby, adding to the spectacle.

  Because it was down to about 32 degrees, we decided we'd make our way through the crowds and try to get inside the Bellagio. Once we finally made it (no small feat in itself), we were treated to quite the Christmastime extravaganza.

Décor behind the concierge

Winter wonderland

Beauty in front of beauty

  Besides the giant Christmas trees and ornaments, there were polar bears, penguins, model trains coursing around, and probably about a billion poinsettias. It was simply magical.
  And then it was time to make our way back outside. Midnight was about fifteen minutes away.
  The streets were jammed up with people, who were now starting to get plainly obnoxious. Horns would blow right in your face or ear, people would run into you, step on you, knock you into other people. Despite the overwhelmingness of THAT, the excitement and joy were palpable. We were able to stake out a great spot right in the median of Las Vegas blvd, and had but a short wait for the countdown to 2015. At 11:59, the Bellagio's giant outdoor sign displayed a countdown clock, and the crowd began roaring.

  At midnight, fireworks exploded from the tops of eight hotels along the strip, horns blew, people screamed and yelled, and I kissed my fiancée. We had packed a small bottle of Proseco into my bag, so we were able to have a toast to the new year as well.

  After the fireworks ended and the revelry died down a bit, the crowd got even more obnoxious. People at this point just plainly didn't care. The street became littered with garbage, cans, broken bottles. People were getting sick, and ambulances began to dispatch to the scene for who knows what. We mercifully made our way through the throngs of people and slipped into our hotel via the side entrance, relieved to be off the street.

  The next morning, after a kickass breakfast buffet, we decided to hit one last attraction before we left. Ultimately, we decided on the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Though the hotel is beautiful, we found most everybody there to be incredibly rude, including the Starbucks employee who simply greeted us with "Yes?" and stared blankly when we told her "Happy New Year!" More like Happy Rude Year, am I right? Hello? Is this thing plugged in?
  The aquarium was VERY hot and muggy for some odd reason, and was a bit overpriced, frankly, for the size. Rather than $20 per person, I think $12 or $15 would have been more appropriate. Here are some shitty cell phone pics we grabbed:

Guy Smiley

Hey Bro, nice belly

Side eye

Jellies

Beautiful and deadly lionfish

  All in all, it was a great time. Would we do it again? Eh, probably not, but it was fun to experience once! Happy 2015, folks!

A little bit of everything

  It's time to catch you up, dear reader.

  So much has been going on, I haven't had time to post any of it. So, for the purposes of consolidation and brevity, here's a brief recap!

A few weeks ago, my lovely fiancée and I had some engagement photos shot. We still haven't decided which ones we're going to use (told you it's been busy!) but we got a lot of good ones. We shot at the very famous Vasquez Rocks, which has appeared in many tv shows and films, most famously in the original Star Trek series. We didn't re-enact any Kirk vs. Gorn fights, unfortunately.

  Of course, because we're both big goofy children, we did a lot of really... different shots.

  We also had a visit from my mom a couple weeks ago (as you can see in that LOVELY opening photo at the top of this blog)! It was a short weekend visit, but we packed a lot in. We hit Santa Monica pier, went shopping in Chinatown, ate a lot of great food, and had a lot of laughs. I took the opportunity at Santa Monica Pier to get in some real photography.

  You can see the rest of the images I shot by clicking HERE.

  We had a fantastic Thanksgiving at the home of our friends Rasheed and Sasha, and a bunch of people from church. Laughs, loves, and a table with so much food on it, it nearly collapsed. Unfortunately, they haven't sent me any of the pictures taken, so I have nothing to show you. So, I guess I can make up whatever I want.

  I rode a horse inside the house, and ate an entire three-layer chocolate cake. Then, I put on a jetpack and flew home. Seriously. It was awesome.
 
  We were also SO VERY HAPPY to welcome back our friend Jalin a couple weeks ago. She had been performing on a cruise ship for the past billion months. That lucky girl got to sail everywhere in the world, it seemed, all the while delighting audiences with her vocal talents. We went out to the Saddle Ranch in Universal City and drank ourselves nearly into oblivion. That other guy in the pic is our crazy waiter. That thing he's holding is a gigantic cotton candy.

  Then, just this past weekend, we went down to San Diego and saw a production of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It was really quite charming, and a great way to start the Christmas season.

 Christmas in California is a bit odd, though, because even now, we're still wearing short sleeves during the day. It doesn't really FEEL like Christmas here, but we can certainly drum up the spirit. Next on the to-do list is getting our tree!

  Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season, and I wish you all the blessings you can stand.

Full Scream Ahead

  Halloween on The Queen Mary? The famously haunted old ship? YES! Sounds awesome! And it was.

  Mostly.

As it does every year, apparently, The Queen Mary had a big ol' blowout on All Hallows Eve, including a thing called "Dark Harbor" that features a bunch of scary mazes, costumed characters, food, and a general carnival atmosphere. On board the ship herself, the usual amenities remained, such as several ghost tours. My fiancée thought it would be really cool for us to experience these things this year, and I was naturally game.
  We didn't do Dark Harbor, opting instead to enjoy the tours and then dinner at the swanky Sir Winston's restaurant near the aft of the ship. I think it was a good choice, as it would have been way too much to try to cram into one evening. It did look like fun, though, so maybe we'll give it a go next year. Maybe just not on ACTUAL Halloween. Here's why:


Haunted hallway

  See, the ship was, in fact, haunted. It was haunted by the two assholes that were staying in the cabin directly across from ours. When we checked in at about three o'clock, they were already being incredibly noisy, and were likely already lit up pretty good. This only became a problem when we settled into our cabin for the night, and the noise was still going on at 11:30. I called the ship's security to ask what the quiet hours were, and was told 10:00. I told them about our noisy neighbors, and they sent someone over a few minutes later.
  At 2:00 in the morning, more noise erupted, as an argument started between our horrible neighbors. This time, my fiancée called security, and they again came out to keep the peace. Unfortunately, as soon as they left, the retaliation began. A girl from next door stepped out in the hall and began to yell at us and threaten us and ask why we didn't come out and say something to them ourselves. My girl happily obliged, ripping our door open and yelling "IT IS TWO O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. SHUT. UP." She was met with contempt and a few insults, so we called security a third time. This time, they told the nice folks that if they didn't calm down, they were going to be booted off the ship. I had fantasies in my head of a plank being walked, and hungry sharks below, but sadly, that didn't come to pass. There was some loud banging around and exaggerated coughing after this, but then they finally, mercifully shut the hell up. Needless to say, our sleep was pretty much zero for the night.
  Aside from that bit of nonsense, we had an excellent time! The haunted tours were pretty cool and scary. We both got a couple of good jumps out of it, and even a few pictures of some creepy areas in the bowels of the old ship. No telling how many of the stories were fact, and how many were fabrication, but it was fun and spooky nonetheless. We heard all about the man who had died in his room unexpectedly, and is said to still haunt it. We were also told of a boiler explosion, and a tremendous loss of life that occurred when the Queen Mary broadsided a smaller ship and sent it to the ocean floor. There was even a story of a crewmember who was caught out in a game of hatchway-chicken and crushed by a hydraulic door.

Hallway to the old first class pool

Creepy old signage

The old first class pool, supposedly haunted by a little girl

The eerie bowels of the ship

 
Dinner at Sir Winston's was amazing and pretty fancy. It was kinda hilarious to see people dressed in their finest mixed in with people who were dressed in their Halloween costumes. I thought the guy in the Star Trek uniform looked particularly out of place and awesome. One guy even proposed to his girl right there in front of everybody.
  I have to say, to the credit of the Queen Mary staff, they have offered have us back again for another night to make up for the horrible one we had. We will gladly be back to enjoy more of the amazing history of the old gal, and all the charm she offers. Heck, we even had a rainbow to greet us during breakfast. Can't beat it.