Eventful Week

Last Saturday, I used my Silver Pass for the first time to go to Disneyland and California Adventure. (I'd never been to the latter park before.) Cousins J, C, and I got to the parks a bit after 11 and didn't depart till 12 hours later. Suffice it to say, we had a lot of fun but were also exhausted by the time we got home! Here's a run-down of what we accomplished during our sojourn at "the Happiest Place on Earth":

• Hit Adventureland first to grab Fast Passes for the Indiana Jones ride.
• Visited the Haunted Mansion (only a 5-minute wait!), which was back to its usual campy spookiness.
• Went on Pirates of the Caribbean (spotted the one instance of Johnny Depp I missed last time).
• Lunched at the Carnation Cafe on Main Street USA.
  
• Went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (so much fun!) and then shared a churro.
• Returned to Indiana Jones, but the ride was broken, so headed over to Tomorrow Land. Got FPs for Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster.
• Went on Star Tours (surprisingly, only a 15-minute line). Upon exiting, heard a young girl say, "That was tight!"
• Still had time to kill before FP window for Buzz Lightyear, so we went to Fantasy Land & got in line for It's a Small World. While waiting, saw the parade of world dolls to mark the quarter hour. Spent the entire ride spotting the newly integrated dolls from Disney films: Peter Pan & Tinker Bell, Aladdin & Jasmine, Cinderella & mice, Alice in Wonderland, Ariel & Flounder, Mulan & Mushu, Simba & Pumba, Lilo & Stitch (only saw the back of these last two, but they were on a surfboard & seemed cute).
• Went back to Buzz Lightyear. Doubled my score from last time, but still suck at it! It was J's first time on the ride & she got over 200,000. I earned an embarrassing score in the 8000s!
• Checked on Indiana Jones & the ride was operational. FPs are a wonderful invention. Instead of waiting 85 minutes, we got on the ride after only 20 minutes. (I later read the in-depth ride description on wikipedia, and even though I've gone on the ride several times, I think I always miss more than half the details described!)
• Went over to California Adventure. While wandering, kept running into the parade path of Toy Story characters!
• Tried to get on the Toy Story Mania ride, but it too broke down. Shared a ginormous turkey leg for a snack. It was pretty good, but made me feel rather barbaric.
• Went to Soarin' Over California (learned about it on a Samantha Brown special on the Travel Channel). Very long line, so we tried the single riders line. It was like having an FP! Very cool ride (and, as luck would have it, I got to sit in the front row).
• Returned to Disneyland for dinner at the French Market. While eating, could hear (and catch little glimpses of) the Fantasmic show on the Rivers of America. Really must catch the show next time. I remember loving it when I saw it years ago. Hearing the sounds made me very nostalgic.
• A fireworks show followed shortly after. It was a bit of a trial trying to make our way through the crush to Tomorrow Land. (Should've tried going the other way, into Critter Country!)
• Went on Autopia. Very bumpy, and not as fun as I remembered. 'Course, the ride is more fun if you can't drive a real car...
  
• Went back to Fantasy Land, looking for rides with short lines: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventure, and Pinocchio's Daring Journey. It was kind of anticlimactic, but hey, the wait was 5 minutes or less! (Unlike Peter Pan, which still had a 40 minute wait when we left!)

With all the late hours I'd been working, it took me longer to recover from the Disneyland outing than I expected. Then, on Wednesday, I went to see the Pairs Long Program at the World Figure Skating Championships. Luckily, I worked from home that day, but it was still quite a scramble to get all my work done and get to my friend Ebs's house to carpool to Staples Center. We got there toward the end of the first group's skate. Our seats, purchased through Goldstar, were pretty good: Loge, above the Media Tables. I'm sure I've never been to this level at Staples Center!

It's been ages since I'd seen figure skating live. The triple twists, throw jumps, and lifts are definitely more breathtaking when seen live. It's amazing what these athletes are able to accomplish... the truly brilliant skaters seem to defy physics with artistry and elegance. I'm glad I went, but I had hoped for more clean performances. Even the champions, Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy, had a minor hiccup (a freak fall on a non-element) in an otherwise beautiful skate. Still, they were so good that there was no doubt in anyone's mind that they deserved to win. And the judges concurred; Savchenko & Szolkowy beat the silver medalists (Zhang & Zhang) by almost 17 points! The scariest fall was taken by Yuko Kawaguchi on an attempted throw quad. She hit the ice so hard, she actually bounced. I thought she deserved a medal just for getting up and skating the rest of the program. Kawaguchi and Smirnov ended up with the bronze.

Even though it was after 11, we stayed for the medal ceremony. I mean, how often does one get to go to a World Championship, right? Because of the location of our seats, we were facing the back of the makeshift medal podium. Thank goodness for Jumbotrons! The funniest part of the night was when the medalists were receiving their awards, and the media photographers half crouched, half slinked across the black carpet to take their pictures. It was really a bizarre sight, and I wish I had used my camera to take a video!

Baseball Blues and Other Random Thoughts

I had intended to write a rah-rah blog about the Dodgers coming back from down 2 games to even up the NLCS, but a pitching melt-down in the 8th inning precluded that from happening. What a bummer. Now they are down 3-1 in the series, and we're going to need a miracle for our men in blue to pull off an upset. Sigh. Less than 2 hours ago, I was marveling at how wonderful it was to see the NLCS back at Dodger Stadium after 20 years, and how the excitement and elation of the Dodger faithfuls, decked in blue and waving spirit towels, transcended the television set. We need some serious magic from the rally monkey... oh, wait, we don't have a rally monkey. Besides, he probably wouldn't be much help right now, considering how easily the Angels were dispatched by the Red Sox. (Being an underdog fan, I am of course rooting for Tampa Bay in the ALCS.) Anyway, even though he's not their official mascot, maybe the "rally koala" can help the Dodgers turn the series around. Sure, history is against them, but teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit before.

In more cheerful news, it is apparently the 50th anniversary of the first Paddington Bear book! Google doodles are a wonderful thing. Not only do I appreciate the artistry and occasional humor, but they are also very informative! Happy 50th to our favorite bear from darkest Peru!
And one last unrelated comment: I hate fire season.

Fortnight in Review

Okay, so it's really closer to 3 weeks than a fortnight, but I don't know of any nifty sounding word that encapsulates a 3-week period. Besides, this is what my blogging habits have dwindled to...

Roadside Assistance. Almost 3 weeks ago, I left work one evening to find that one of my rear tires had gone completely flat. (I later learned that the culprit was a long, shiny silver nail embedded in the tire. I hadn't even noticed when the puncture occurred.) Thank goodness the flat tire was on the driver side; otherwise, I would've attempted the long commute home, blithely unaware of why my car was trundling along. Thank goodness, also, for the AAA. It makes one feel a little safer braving the streets and freeways of the LA jungle, knowing that inability to change a tire wouldn't leave one indefinitely stranded.

Well Fed. A couple days later, we had a 2-day writers conference at work. This meant lots of presentations and meetings, but also lots of free food: 2 catered lunches and a big dinner at PF Chang's. I'd been to PF Chang's many times before, but this was the first time I'd seen their mini-dessert sampler: a tray of 8 different desserts presented in shot glasses. Some were too sweet, but I still thought the concept was pretty cool. (Here's a photo I found on a review site.) We had about 26 people at dinner, sitting at 2 long tables. Three of these samplers were ordered for our table alone! Needless to say, I was in a bit of a sugar coma as I drove home.

OD-ing on Olympics. The Opening Ceremony was amazing, but the glamour of the event waned a bit when I found out that parts of it were pre-recorded and digitally enhanced. Oh, and the fact that the little girl was lip-syncing. Makes one wonder what else was not real. Phelps and the US swim team rock; every superlative has already been used to describe the amazing feat of 8 golds in one Olympics, so I will simply remain in silent awe. Nastia Liukin embodied breathtaking elegance and artistic gymnastics at its best, while Shawn Johnson was an adorable dynamo of power and precision. Too bad the competition was somewhat marred by underage controversies, questionable scoring, and wonky rules. But, then again, what else is new in the world of gymnastics? At least most of the medals went to people who deserved them. It certainly was an exciting 2 weeks of sports, and it was cool to see competitions that are never televised in non-Olympic years. Of course, my sleeping habits became even more messed up than usual during the 17-day span, but I think it was worth it. Oh, and I just love the Google Doodles that accompanied these Games!

Night at the Bowl. It's been 3 years since I last attended a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, so when free tickets were being offered as a bonus at work, I jumped at the opportunity, even though it meant missing part of the Women's Gymnastics competition. It was a wonderful concert, and I thoroughly enjoyed it despite not being familiar with the music (Philip Glass: Two Interludes from the CIVIL warS, Violin Concerto; Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations). And the seats were amazing too: garden boxes. So this is how the other half lives...

More Good Food. Two Thursdays ago, some co-workers and I went out for a vegetarian dinner at Fatty's Café. The word vegetarian turned a lot of people off from attending the dinner, but I'm glad I went because the food really was delicious. Our little group shared a "monster four" appetizer sampler, 4 entrées, and a chocolate fondue dessert. Yum. I definitely plan on going back again.

Parking Lot Technology. Last weekend, I met up with a friend at the Century City mall. (Not surprisingly, it has become yet another Westfield property.) I can't even remember when was the last time I set foot in that shopping center. Probably ten years ago. So, I was quite taken aback by how much it had evolved. The aspect that impressed me the most was actually its parking garage. The massive lot has a sensor above each parking space that remains green when empty and becomes red when a car parks in it. Along the major lanes, arrowed lights tell you how many vacant spaces are available in each direction. How awesome is that?

A House Divided

I live in a rather sports-oriented household. Most of the time, my parents and I root for the same teams. Angels, Dodgers, you know, LA teams. Except when it comes to basketball. My mom is a huge Lakers fan. Dad and I... well, not so much. Mainly because we can't stand Kobe. There's no arguing that he's a brilliant athlete, but we just don't like him... his arrogance, his selfishness, the fact that he is not a good role model for youngsters... So, it has been an interesting, sometimes uncomfortable, experience watching the NBA Playoffs this season. On one side, you have Mom cheering heartily for her men in yellow and purple (like tonight, when she squealed with delight at that miraculous near-comeback in the 4th quarter). On the other, me quietly rooting for the other team and feeling dejected when the Lakers win. Then, of course, there's Dad making disparaging comments about Kobe that put Mom into a bad temper. Interesting times, these playoffs are. (Forgive the lapse into Yoda-speak.)

In other sporting news, poor Fed... steamrolled by Nadal in the French Open finals. Even (gasp!) bageled in the third set. Perhaps it's odd to feel sorry for someone who's achieved so much success, but he truly is a likable champion. I mean, how many athletes have the vocabulary and grace to credit their opponent's play as "sublime"? Well, onward to Wimbledon!

Aussie Open: Final Impressions

I can't say I'm terribly thrilled with the final results of the Australian Open, but there were some brilliant matches during this past fortnight. Alas, my favorite champions faltered, and while I admit the eventual winners played extremely well and deserved their titles, they're just not my cup of tea. Sharapova is too flashy and shrieky, and Djokovic's preening and excessive ball-bouncing are rather irritating. However, I did find an exciting new player to root for: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. What he accomplished in his match against Nadal was utterly amazing. I was awestruck as I watched shot after unbelievable shot. As an avid supporter of underdogs, I was hoping that he'd emerge the Aussie Open Champion. Still, his remarkable run was quite an achievement. All in all, it was an exciting tournament, with many unexpected results. We tennis fans certainly have much to look forward to this season!

Aussie Open Madness

My long weekend seems to have passed in a blur of Australian Open tennis. Though I haven't played in years, I am an avid fan and I do try to catch some of the action of each Grand Slam (despite the time differences). I must say, I can't recall ever seeing anything that compared to the likes of what happened on "Super Saturday."

Since LA is 19 hours behind Melbourne, the action started here on Friday night. When I turned on the TV, James Blake was down 2 sets to love in his 3rd round match against Sebastian Grosjean. I've always liked Blake, so it was tough to see him struggle like that. Andy Roddick had lost the night before in a 5-setter, so Blake was America's only realistic hope left in the tournament. For him to overcome the 2-set deficit, however, seemed a stretch. History was against him: he'd only won one 5-set match before, and he had never come back from a 2-0 hole. He'd also never beaten Grosjean before. Showing what a fighter he was, however, he turned things around in the 3rd set, bageling his opponent 6-0. The tides turned again in the 4th, when Grosjean mounted a 4-1 lead. The see-sawing continued when Blake broke back twice to force a tie-breaker. Again, Grosjean took a lead, and again Blake persevered, winning the tie-break 7-5 and forcing a 5th set. Phew! Despite all the exciting tennis, fatigue born of a week of irregular sleep caught up with me, and I dozed off. When I awoke, it was to the news that Blake had won! Final score: 4-6, 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

The match now in progress was between Roger Federer and Janko Tipsarevic. Who? you say? Well, I hadn't heard of him either, but he sure gave the world's #1 a run for his money. I'm rather fond of Federer because his playing style embodies pure tennis to me. He truly has a complete game, and his one-handed backhand is a thing of beauty. And he doesn't grunt! I find the proliferation of grunting throughout tennis (particularly the ladies' side) decidedly off-putting. But, I digress. The match certainly was a nail-biter! As a fan who'd like to see Federer break Sampras's Slam record, I did not want to see him ousted in the 3rd round here. Down 2 sets to 1, Federer showed his mettle by taking the 4th set in dominant fashion. Before I could breathe a sigh of relief and say, "Ah, he's playing like his old self again," Tipsarevic held strong, and the 5th set plowed ahead with no breaks of serve. Finally, Federer took the set 10-8 (no tie-breaks in the final set at the Australian Open). What drama! A note on Tipsarevic: I think it's cool that he has a line from Dostoevsky tattooed on his arm--"Beauty will save the world." Very poetic. Final score: 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8.

Since the Federer-Tipsarevic match ran nearly 4.5 hours, the evening session was delayed. The match between Venus Williams and Sania Mirza was supposed to have begun at 7:30 PM Melbourne time. Instead, it didn't start till around 10 PM! I watched the first set, which went to a tie-break. It seemed that this was not destined to become another dramatic match, however, as Venus dispatched her opponent 7-0 in the tie-break. As the second set began, I fell asleep again, and when I awoke, it was morning. Surprisingly, live tennis was still being broadcast! Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis were battling it out in the 4th set of their match. They had apparently taken the court after the Williams-Mirza match (final score: 7-6 (7-0), 6-4) and begun play near midnight local time! More than three hours later, they were still pounding it out. Baghdatis, the lovable Cypriot, overcame an ankle injury in the 3rd set and a 5-1 deficit in the 4th to force a decisive 5th set. This was the most dramatic and thrilling match yet, with amazing shots from both sides and a loyal audience still cheering wildly despite the fact that it was the wee hours of the morning. In the end, after 4.75 hours of play, Hewitt emerged the victor at 4:33 AM. It was amazing to have witnessed part of this strange and epic match. Final score: 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3.

After a marathon like that, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. Go back to sleep? The morning light was too strong, and I still had adrenaline coursing through my veins. My sleeping habits seemed more irregular than ever, and I rather felt like it was going to skew my whole weekend. Yet, I was glad that I'd been part of this Aussie Open madness. I think I finally understand why my sister and brother-in-law go out in the middle of the cold, dark night after Thanksgiving to stand in line for Black Friday shopping. "For the experience," she'd say. And, I realize, also because we all need a little bit of madness in our lives from time to time.

Llama Count

Okay, this is getting slightly ridiculous, and I'm sure people are starting to think that I have a camelid obsession. After all, since this blog's inception, there have been (counting this entry) four posts featuring llamas. That means llamas have appeared in nearly 24% of my posts thus far. It is, admittedly, rather absurd. But really, I think the llamas are hounding me, not the other way around! Cases in point:

1. Last night, I was watching the Laker game on TV with my parents. Now, my parents are avid NBA fans, and they naturally have nicknames for some of the players. These, however, are not your average sports nicknames like T-Mac, KG, or AI. These nicknames are phonetically inspired, and they may be English or Taiwanese in nature. For example, Vlade Divac's last name sounds fairly similar to the Taiwanese phrase for pork meat, so that's what we used to call him. And Gary Payton's last name resembles the Taiwanese phrase for mailbox (not the private kind like the ones in front of homes, but the big public kind outside of post offices and on busy streets). It was, then, a humorous and fortuitous "convergence of events" when both Payton and Karl Malone were signed by the Lakers for the 2003-2004 season. (For non-NBA fans, Malone's actual nickname was "the Mailman." Mailman delivers to the Mailbox, get it? It's funnier in Taiwanese.) Anyway, my dad's nickname for Lamar Odom is much simpler and more obvious: llama (of course). So, we're watching the game and cheering on Odom with calls of "llama!" when Dad segues to a discussion of real llamas, those of the animal variety. He starts telling me how he began liking llamas after seeing a llama show on TV. No, not an Animal Planet or National Geographic or PBS special about llamas. I'm talking about a llama version of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Dad goes on to describe how beautifully groomed the llamas were, having no idea just how prominently llamas have figured in my peer conversations (and in my blog) in recent weeks. Today, I googled "llama show," and sure enough, the first hit was for the ALSA: the Alpaca Llama Show Association. Not only do people raise llamas and alpacas for their fibers, they apparently compete with them in the animal equivalent of beauty pageants. Who knew?
   
2. Today, KPGirl sent me a link to a book cover she saw over the weekend. It is just too crazy for words, so I'll let the images speak for themselves. (In case your eyes are drawn to the other amazing gadgets, I included another picture in which the llamacycle takes center stage.)
   

As fun and surreal as all the llama sightings have been, I rather hope this is the last we'll see of these camelids for a while. When I began this blog, I had no idea it would go down this road!

Hum-Dinger

Yesterday was a rather anticlimactic end to the baseball season. As a champion of underdogs, I was really hoping the Colorado Rockies would fare better. Alas, the 8-day layoff between the NLCS and the World Series seemed to have robbed them of their magical spark. Since my own teams had very little impact in this year's playoffs (the Angels were trounced in the first round, and the Dodgers did not even make the playoffs), I was rooting for the Rockies to continue their miraculous winning streak. Or at least give us a long, interesting battle in the World Series. Oh well. Running into a brick wall in the shape of the formidable Red Sox certainly doesn't take away from the Rockies' amazing accomplishment of winning 21 out of 22 games this fall, forcing and winning a one-game playoff with San Diego, and winning 7 straight in the NLDS and NLCS.

And now, to the main reason for this post. Because of the increased media coverage of the Rockies in the past month, I started to notice their unique mascot during a lot of broadcast games. Thinking that the purple triceratops was cute and funny, I did some online research and found that the Rockies chose a dinosaur for their mascot because fossils were uncovered when they dug the foundation to build Coors Field. Now, that's a pretty cool connection. I also found, to much amusement, that the mascot's name is Dinger (for non-baseball fans, that's slang for home run) and that there are fans who passionately call for the demise of the hapless dino as well as fans who stoutly champion their beloved Dinger. I must admit, I was a bit surprised by the vehemence of the Dinger-haters. Personally, I think a triceratops is a way better mascot than many of the other bizarre creatures gracing the MLB universe. Case in point: take a look at the Philly Phanatic. I mean, really, which would you prefer as your team's mascot?

I guess I simply like mascots that actually resemble a recognizable animal. Cuteness, of course, and comic quality are factors too. Here are a couple of other MLB mascots that I like: San Francisco's Lou Seal (please note that liking a team's mascot does not mean I like the team!) and Florida's Billy the Marlin.

One last thing: I kind of understand why the Seattle Mariners' mascot is a moose, given the Northwest connection. However, as an English major, I've always thought it'd be hilarious if the Mariners' mascot were an albatross. Yes, I realize that not many people would get the reference to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," but wouldn't you like to see this intimidating figure staring down the opponents?