Los Angeles: Part Two

ok, i officially take back everything bad i said about brian and how long it would take to get the rest of the pictures. he was a super sweetheart and sent them to me during his layover today. (awwww…..)

so, without further ado:

DAY THREE: DISNEYLAND

here is a map of the park:

we started off in tomorrowland, because space mountain is beyond a shadow of a doubt brians favorite ride in the world. see that towering round thing towards the bottom of tomorrowland? that’s this:

space mountain!!!!

the whole wait line indoors was tricked out like a space ship, very star trek style. brian got a picture of me about to board through the awesome space-doors:

it was fantastic, like being inside of a high-speed rock-and-roll disco ball. towards the end, theres an especially bright flash, which is them taking a picture of you. you can pay some ridiculous amount for prints, or you can take a picture of the viewscreen at the exit with your iphone:

(this was trip #2 down space mountain. in the first one, i didnt have that nice-old-lady hand-to-the-breast thing going on, but i was giggling like crazy and looked ridiculous)

a lot of tomorrowland was shut down or simply abandoned, since apparently walt disney’s imagination of the future cant really keep up with actual technological advances enough to put it in a futuristic tomorrowland.

next was fantasyland, for the very obvious reason that it has a fucking fairy tale castle for a gate:

inside were many wondrous things, including the whale that swallowed pinocchio, the white rabbit’s house, princess jasmine’s castle wall, and a whole load of other things that we saw and did and didn’t think to take pictures of (peter pan, mad hatters teacups, mr. toads wild ride, snow white, dumbo, and the matterhorn):

(yes, thats me with aladdin and yes, he looked so much like the cartoon it was creepy. but he was nice. and the only character we saw all day. i guess unemployment affects fictional people, too)

oh! and i think its a small world was in fantasyland, too. it had this awesome facade with bush sculptures. heres a moose:

brian took this of me, inside the little boat, listening to its a small world after all for about the thirtieth time. im still smiling, but im not sure brian was…

adventureland was right next to fantasyland, and it had the indiana jones ride, the enchanted tiki room (which was untouched from the 60s and awesome. the whole damn room sings to you and its emceed by an anamatronic parrot), tarzans treehouse, and the jungle cruise (which was led by a snarky, flamboyant guide with pun after pun. it was one of my favorites). we got some pictures of the jungle cruise elephants:

then there was frontierland, which had the thunder mountain railroad rollercoaster, mark twains riverboat, and tom sawyer island.

my favorite area was new orleans square. it was home to pirates of the caribbean and the haunted mansion (which both were amazing and a lot of fun) and the whole area looked like a scale model of new orleans and was insanely detailed and very well designed. sadly, no pictures of pirates, but here is me at the haunted mansion!

then there was toontown, which was mostly set up for the little tots, but we were trying to find goofy. all we found was goofy’s house, so i sat in his chair and took and picture of that:

later, a couple asked us to take their picture and then returned the favor:

we certainly saw and did a lot more than we got pictures of, but that’s what ive got to show for disneyland. it was a great time and, despite all my eye-rolling for the past 26 years, it was definitely worth it. unfortunately, the fireworks, parade, and fantasia fountain show had the night off along with all the characters, so when it started getting dark out, we took one last jaunt through new orleans square to see the lights, then headed out in search of our hotel. turns out, it was across the street. you could see the matterhorn and space mountain from our window and the room was finding nemo themed. perfect.

DAY FOUR: ORANGE COUNTY BEACHES, BITCHES

for some reason, we didnt really get the camera out much on wednesday. my apologies.

we packed up our bags at the hotel, since our flight was around 8pm, but that left us the whole day to explore the orange county beaches. i was excited to see huntington beach, since i heard somewhere that the beach boys songs were based on that beach. we got there and it was beautiful out- sunshine and surfers and volleyball games. billabong stores and quicksilver store and vans stores. it was essentially a strip mall instead of a beach town, but it was still awesome.

i collected seashells that had washed up- there were tons of them! stripey, gorgeous fan-shaped shells everywhere. i think im gonna try and make jewelry from them. this is the pier (that has the cameras in it that record the live feed of the surf that abercrombie shows on their giant lcd screens in their stores, brian tells me). also, me and my shells. huntington beach was also the site where i lost my left black flip flop. sad.

next, we headed south towards newport and balboa.balboa was a lot more of a cute little shabby beach town. we walked around and got some pacificos and fish tacos at a place called sharkeez, then took a nice long walk down the beach itself.

after that, we killed a few hours at the second largest mall in the country, returned the car, went to the airport, found out we screwed up our return flight, booked a room for the night, took the shuttle over and spent the next day lounging by the hotel pool and hanging out at the mall (since it was the only thing walking distance from the hotel). it was actually kind of a nice, relaxing bonus day with no car and therefore nowhere to be. the mall had a rainforest cafe in it, and we took some pictures. please note the very awesome bar stools. thank you.

i took a picture of brian on the duck feet, but it has suspiciously gone awol. hmmm….

 

well, folks. thats the trip. we had a blast, but its good to be home. time for the sunburns to heal.

Read Full Post »

Los Angeles: Part One

this is the guided photo tour of my trip to LA. picture sitting in a dark room, looking at a rolled-down screen, hearing little ca-ssshunk noises as i change slides, while narrating my adventures.

DAY ONE: BEVERLY HILLS AND HOLLYWOOD

this is the hollywood sign. and me. directly after getting our rental car, brian and i drove around for ages, trying to find the sign, then get closer to the sign, always trying to keep it from getting blocked out by trees or buildings, while trying not to hit any parked cars or oncoming traffic in the windy roads of rich people land. once we found it and got out, three other sets of people did the exact same thing in the exact same spot. i saw one of them had a guided tour of LA brochure that listed this as the perfect spot for taking this picture. brian and i were very proud of ourselves, having found it on our own. as promised, my photo pun:

Oh! also found in both beverly hills and hollywood:

we then had brunch at Fred 62, a fantastic little diner in Beverly Hills where the waiter wears a bowtie and you can get cornflakes-crusted french toast called the “bearded mr. frenchy”. also, they have homemade pop tarts:

that night, we explored our fabulous hotel:

http://www.standardhotels.com/los-angeles/virtual-tours/

i wish we had gotten more pictures, it really was one of my favorite parts of the trip. everything is as crazy and cool as it looks. also, those red rooftop bed-pods? waterbeds. oh, yeah.

i do have two pictures of the hotel… one is an homage to past giant-chair pictures, the other is me in the elevator, on our way back to beverly hills for dinner at Matsuhisa:

i realize you cant see my shoes or the rest of my dress, but take my word for it- i looked fabulous. 😉

before dinner, we swing by this hidden place called little door. it was a small wooden door, tucked between a bunch of run down shops with no sign or anything, but once you got inside, it was unbelievable. the pictures are dark, but the whole place is outdoors, with a garden growing across the top. vines and flowers hung down so thickly, the place smelled amazing.

we had a couple glasses of champagne before dinner:

more pictures of me… at Matsuisu (brian was playing with photo apps):

it took me awhile to notice, but on one side, there were shadows of people eating painted onto the wall (trippy):

DAY TWO: LA BEACHES (SANTA MONICA AND VENICE BEACH)

who takes pictures of their room service breakfast? i do. because it’s one of my all-time favorite parts of nice hotels. also because it was too pretty not to and i want to show off all the little miniature things i got to steal off the tray, like tabasco bottles less than an inch tall. ladies and gentleman, my breakfast:

after a lounging, lazy morning, we headed out to the beaches. first was Santa Monica, which was very cool because this is where lost boys was filmed, with the ferris wheel and the pier and all the stands and everything. i had a churro. (one of many on this trip- churros are everywhere in LA!)

we had some In N Out burgers, which i have no pictures of (but i assure you, they are the same as the burgers in portland, much to the great denial of anybody from california and their endless devotion to In N Out), and then headed down to Venice Beach:

venice beach was a lot like saturday market, only with a lot more weed shops, american apparel and sunshine. its on a long strip with beach along one side. there was an elderly black lady sitting next to a karaoke machine, singing along to some jazzy tunes with the little microphone attachment. there were endless tye dye, blown glass, sunglasses, and feather earrings stands. also a zoltar fortune teller (seen above).

ok, are you ready for the best part of venice beach? it didnt occur to me to look for it until we had been there awhile, but it didnt take long, once i had my eye out for it:

see it?

OMG! ITS THE TOP MODEL HOUSE! OMG! OMG! OMG!

and this is me in front of the top model house (omg)

after i freaked out about that for awhile and brian patiently took a thousand pictures of it, we went back away from the beach and explored the hidden canals that gave venice beach its name.  we found some of the weirdest and cutest little tiny canal houses along the little waterways:

(please forgive the tokyo girl posing, i was running out of ideas)

(brian got the same lettering for his house. very exciting)

well, folks, thats all ive got for now. there are a ton more pictures, tucked safely away in brians phone, somewhere on its way to florida at the moment. ill put up part deux as soon as i can, including disneyland and orange county beach pictures.

Read Full Post »

the intervention of the wheel

on april 26, 2011, i was handed two tiny, stinky, unhandled and ill exposed ratty boys from a plastic grocery bag.

almost a month later, i have two very social, friendly ratties who wouldnt think of biting (but who would just love a cheerio if you happen to have one…), crawl happily onto your hand, into their ball, or around on your shoulder or in your shirt.

oliver can run races in that little ball of his, no obstacle stands in his way. he is so damn smart, it amazes me. i showed him, step by tiny step, each one rewarded with many cheerios, how to run on a wheel. i am proud to say hes finally got it. now, he will run on the wheel in hopes of a cheerio, or just for fun. he likes it.

igby may not be as adventurous or bold or bribe-able (they key to my every success- bribery and repetition), but he has his own agenda, for sure. he is my jumper, goddamn it. its ridiculous how high he can jump. i introduced my brother to igby and he asked if igby went down. ironically, all igby ever wants to do is go up, up, up. he wants to climb or jump to the highest possible point, all the time. he sleeps at the very top of his cage. so, i worked with that. he has a trick, too. if i take the door off of their ball, it will sit still and igby can scramble on top of it and stand on his hind legs to reach for a treat. he looks like a little circus seal, it is so damn cute.

i have video of all of these fabulous achievements (also some hilarious video of failed attempts along the way), but i cant seem to get it upload to this blog. at some point, i may figure it out and add some on. (and if anyone knows anything about quicktime videos- HELP!)

until then, another caught moment of sleepy cuteness:

Read Full Post »

blob!!!

Read Full Post »

same rat time, same rat channel

the boys are doing very, very well. better than i thought they would be by now. they are both basically used to me, will relax enough to sleep on me (IF i catch them when theyre sleepy, which can be hard to do), they both come to my hand when i first open their cage (granted, this is because of very consistent treats, but hey. thats how you do it with rats) and although neither of them are very interested in their wheel, they are no longer scared of it and oliver has been having some success in his blue rolling ball.

the most exciting thing, perhaps, is playing games with them. ill often take them out for some couch time while i do my homework. ill cuddle up with a blanket, and theyll tunnel and zip around, climbing on me and getting more and more used to my smell, while having some nice out-of-cage adventure time. whenever they come “find” me, i give them a cheerio. sometimes it takes them a minute to get it down, but theyll usually learn quickly and pop up again and again for a treat. after awhile, oliver will pop up, grab the cheerio and stash it, then zip right back out for another without eating it. thats when i know its more about the game and its fun for him. the first time he did that, it absolutely made my day- my rats were playing with me! ive also worked the big blue rolling ball into the game, with a treat always waiting in there for them to nab. im hoping theyll become more comfortable with the ball and not have to spend the first few minutes of ball time in freak-out mode.

i found a free trial program that lets me use my webcam to take pictures:

my fatty ratty boombah, learning to eat from my hand (or teeth) without grabbing and running. hes doing better, for sure. and see how sweet and snuggled he is in the little rat sling!

Read Full Post »