pop rocks and armageddon

So I'm here eating a new chocolate bar I found in Detroit by Nestle that has tiny pop rocks embedded in the chocolate! It also comes with a Armageddon collector trading card which I immediately chucked.

By the way, I forgot to mention something else that happened at the showing of Armageddon that Jeff and I attended a couple weeks ago. Anyone spending much time in downtown Toronto is sure to be familiar with Ben Kerr, an elderly busker who stands on the northeast corner of Yonge and Bloor singing hokey songs into a microphone in a wavery voice as he accompanies himself on guitar. All his songs are performed at the same speed (i.e. slow). He's been there for as long as I can remember and is considered part of the Toronto landscape now. Anyway, the owner of the Plaza theatre (movie theatre at that location) apparently asked Ben to write a song about Armageddon, which he promptly did, calling it "Armageddon Girl". He sang it on opening day, and got such an overwhelming response that the owner has hired him to play at other showings as well. I think he has a cult following now. :-)

Celebrated Sara's 4th birthday yesterday (her birthday is actually today...if you want to send her birthday greetings, you could send them to her mother to relay (be sure to mention me somehow so she doesn't think you're some kind of wacko :)). Two of her favourite presents were a pink tulle tutu with an elastic waistband from my dad (with white gloves), and a two-speeder with training wheels from her parents. After licking all the chocolate icing over the top of her piece of cake, Sara immediately went outside to ride her bike happily down the sidewalk to Yonge Street (still wearing her white gloves and pink tutu over her regular clothes; she refused to take them off), singing a song from Anastasia at the top of her lungs (the one Anastasia sings while learning to ride a bike: "if you can do it, I can do it too" or something like that).

Leaving for California tomorrow. I'm taking a laptop, and should hopefully be able to post the occasional Blathering while I'm gone.

san jose

Flew to San Jose last night...I'm typing this from Scott and Amanda's living
room. They have Marvin the Martian hand soap in the bathroom!!! I am so impressed. :-)

Alisa, Paul, Beckett, Scott & Amanda met me at the airport last night (at the right time in spite of the fact I told them the wrong time!). Went to Denny's, had some breakfast-type food, yum.

Today's Guest Blatherer: Amanda Snyder (Campbell, CA):

High ho! Amanda here! On Sunday night at 7:54 pm my best friend Kathye MacNamara had a baby girl named Alyssa Jordan Schemell. She weighed in at eight pounds six ounces and has a full head of blonde hair. She passed right through the ugly baby stage and came out beautiful. Another California girl!
Just finished up a book called "Confederates in the Attic" A look at the continuing interest in the Civil War 130 years later. A woderful take on the views of southern society from ignorant rednecks to erudite African-Americans, a wonderful sourse of sociological tidbits.
I am highly recommending "Saving Private Ryan". Now I understand why my vice principal in 8th grade got so upset about students refusing to say the Pledge of Alligance. Speilberg pulls no punches in portraying how horrific the storming of the beach at Normandy really was. Take tissues!
We are having wonderful weather today and it looks like we are headed off to Santa Cruz. I'm starting to go stir crazy staying home so I plan to look for a job after I get back from my visit to Southern California next week. Hopefully the Winchester Mansion will hire me as a tour guide and I will finally see a ghost.

Go Highlanders!!!

alisa and rich

This time I'm blathering from Alisa's and Rich's guestroom in San Jose. Their dog Silas is looking up at me with mournful eyes, begging for attention (I am cruelly ignoring him for now and doing some work). Yesterday was pretty busy...had breakfast with Paul, Scott & Amanda at The House of Pancakes (Scott introduced me to Butter & Pecan Syrup!! YUMMM!!!). Spent the afternoon with Beckett and Amanda at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. :-) We feasted corn dogs and slushies, sat on the beach, waded along on the surf, played Skee Ball (Amanda is Skee Ball Queen), screamed on the log ride, got out picture taken twice (once in one of those do-it-yourself photo booths, once in an Old-Time Portrait Studio...Amanda & I were flappers, Beck was a gangster). Came back to the Snyders and went swimming/hot tubbing. Yes, it has been a stressful day. :-)
At around 6 pm, we hooked up with Paul & Scott, Alisa & Rich, & Taunya (who is in the midst of packing for her big move) and picked up food to go at Arby's. Then they took me to MY VERY FIRST DRIVE-IN MOVIE!!!! We saw a double feature: The Negotiator and Lethal Weapon 4. Ate our take-out food, chocolate pudding, mini Kit Kat bars, cheesies, chips, iced tea, other nutritious munchies. I was also presented with a bottle of plum wine, but I forgot to open it last night.
After the movies (2 am), went to crash with Alisa and Rich. Was introduced to Silas the dog and their three cats: Sneak, Ugly, and Bree.

flying to L.A.

I'm typing this on the plane from San Francisco to L.A. I didn't have time to blather from Paul and Beckett's place this morning since my flight was at 8:10 a.m. which meant that Paul & I had to leave at around 6 am (THANK YOU PAUL!!!!). Yesterday, went to Fairview Valley mall and then the Winchester Mystery House with Amanda, Alisa, and Beckett...fascinating place with extremely bizarre architecture (doors that went nowhere, for example). Had dinner at Paul and Beckett's...splendid meal prepared by Amanda, Alisa, and Taunya. Got to hear Puzzlebox practice (and Taunya pulled out her violin!), also got to hear some new songs by Scott (including a song he and I cowrote about pizza over the net; we worked on the lyrics together and he wrote the music which I never heard until last night). Shared some chocolate truffles that Alisa bought for me (yum).

Paul and Beckett have a lemon and an orange tree in their backyard! Also a cool hammock-chair in their living room, ducks swimming in the ceiling, stand-up arcade games. Got to see Beckett's working space, which is packed with artstuff and sketches.

Update: At my friend Lee's in Santa Barbara now. Took a walk along the beach before picking up her son at nursery school. We'll be heading to the conference in L.A. tomorrow so I will likely not be blathering tomorrow. Whether I blather when I'm there depends on whether I can get connected ok via the phone and also on my schedule. I'm hoping to do daily conference reports on Editor Ink, but we'll see.

lee wardlaw visit

Had fun yesterday at Lee's, played with Patterson a bit. Patterson is an extremely cute 2 year old. He started saying my name (with a toddler accent) soon after meeting me, and my heart Melted. :-) Went swimming in the pool, went out with Lee & Craig to a GREAT Italian restaurant whose name I forget. Learned lots about wine (Lee & Craig own a winery, Jaffurs Wine Cellars) but didn't drink any since I was already pretty tired and didn't want to fall asleep at the dinner table. :-) Read Lee's one of Lee's newest books before going to bed around 9 pm. You can find out more info about her books at http://www.inkspot.com/author/lee/. (I hope I got that URL correct...I'm doing this offline to save on phone charges).

We took off at around 7 am, got to Century City (L.A.) just in time to register. Heard some great talks by S.E. Hinton and Paul Danzinger, among others. If you want a more detailed report, see my Editor Ink.

The hotel (Century Plaza Hotel) is really gorgeous, and is across from the ABC Entertainment Centre. I'm not exactly sure what the latter is, but plan on checking it out tomorrow. There are palm trees visible from my hotel room balcony, which is kind of cool (I'm sure palm trees are common to you West Coast types, but I still get a touristy thrill out of seeing them! :)).