Christine and I were cleaning the garage when we stumbled upon this magical box of history. we proceeded to open it and inside we some of the coolest treasure from our Disney career. For those of you that know me I am kinda sentimental and I really enjoyed this little find. Inside was a collection of name tags. You will notice that one of them is the original Disney name tag that was given to me in good ol’ 96 when I hired in. Also is a collection of clips from various guest control location around the park. check out the metal mickey ring on the right. Those where milled by Gerry Halberg. Christine and I’s 5 year pins are at the top and some old re-ads where in there. The leather Mickey head with my name on it. And also the ever so hard to find and goes for alot at Disneyana conventions guest control pin set. Anywhoo! It was great stumbling upon this little find and know I am going to go in search Of my huge Disney box with the bigger things.

Last night we celebrated Sam’s birthday by going out to dinner and a few hours of bowling. It seemed like everyone had a good time. We ate at Claim Jumper and then proceeded to bowl at the Irvine Lanes. I suck at bowling and don’t really enjoy it but It was fun to be surrounded by your friends and being goofy. Afterwards we headed to casa de Floyds and played some rock band and apples to apples. I know! sounds a little old to play games but hey. we all have kids damn it. You can view the photos here!

Last night after I saw Rambo, Cameron and I went to the Foxfire. If you have never heard about it it is located on Imperial at the 91 freeway. It is a typical bar slash dance area with a patio outside for smoking. words can not describe the beauty of this place. I don’t consider myself an attractive person at all. Maybe in my youth I was able to slay the ladies. I sometimes wonder how I have managed to keep my gorgeous wife next to me for all these years. But last night Cameron and myself where the two studdliest guys of all time. The people that go to this place are nothing short of magical. 90% of the guys there had mustaches and where all over 40. The women where awesome. I guess it can be described as a place for older people who are still trying to act youthful. Cameron ended up dancing with the oldest, longest hair, shortest women in the bar. She kinda looked like Charo. And then she invited her daughter onto the dance floor to dance with Cameron. I had trouble looking at him when the mother and daughter tag team started freaking Cameron. Other characters included 50 year old Indian pimp guy. Black pimps looking for older white ladies. several young couples that did not know any better, and really really really desperate women and men. I even overheard a young couple outside saying how embarrassed they where to actually be there. After Cam and I had our drinks and walked around the area a couple of times it was time to leave. I don’t know If I will ever go there again but my memories of that experience will last forever.

Last night I went with most of my coworkers to see the latest Rambo flick.  I went in with skepticism, low expectations, and thought it was going to be so bad that it would come back around again to funny.  Boy was I wrong.  This is probably my favorite Rambo movie of all.  gone is the unrealism of Rambo fighting off thousands of people with one machine gun and overall silly factor of the last two.  This was a much more human story line that dealt with the civil war in Burma.  Don’t get me wrong! Rambo still kicks ass, but it was handled in a much more realistic fashion.  The pacing of the movie is great.  It starts slow with enough character development that you really care about them at the end.  The movie gradually builds up to an amazing shoot em up kick ass bullet fest.  Also there is plenty of blood and guts.  Actually, in the movie there is a sniper with a 50 Cal that shoots alot of people.  Having seen that gun in action, the movie toned down the gruesome effect of what the gun is capable of.  Cameron also joined me to see the flick. And a special appearance of The Captain came too.  This was a great movie and I highly recommend it if your into this sort of thing.

Tonight Jeremy and I saw the opening of Cloverfield.  Unfortunately the Captain did not make an appearence as the theater was packed and pouring alcohol from a flask into a cup of coke is a little tricky when there are hundreds of people around you.  I’m not going to do an in depth review because you can find a million of them out there.  What I will say is that I can see why alot of people are going to be polarized on this movie.  I personally loved it.  But I can see why some wont.  Jeremy’s crit was on the creature design and that it was a little too anthropomorphic and I completely agree.  My favorite device was the camera work.  I know many people hate the shaky cam and makes them sick but I had a love hate relationship with it.  It was great for the fact that it controled what you where seeing but on the other hand I wanted to rip that damn thing out of the hands of the kid filming and point it the other way.  Kinda like when you bite a fruit roll up and the sweet and sour taste make you want to shove the whole damn thing in your mouth.  I think this movie is a new and fresh perspective on the monster movie genre and I think will even improve with age.  I can’t wait to see it again on dvd.  Oh! BTW,  The best thing about the movie is the sound design.  Absolutely amazing.

So i was talking to Geoff about the escaped Tiger and the jackasses that taunted it and I got to thinking about Grizzly Man.  The story about Timothy Treadwill living up with the grizzly bears in Alaska.  If you have not seen the movie you must.  The stupidity of this guy is amazing!  Anywhoo,  The final song of the movie is The Cowboys rendition of a Don Edwards song called Coyotes.  I found it on youtube so here it is.  It actually is a great song!

Today was Aiden and Chase’s first trip to the dentist. Besides the appointment being bumped back an hour to coincide with there usual nap time, everything went great. Chase got a little over tired and was not liking the entire experience but Aiden did not seem to mind. We got some good information for there teeth hygiene and also discovered that Long Beach was one of the first cities to start adding fluoride back into the tap water. They also have the best water filtration systems of any L.A. or Orange County city. We discovered Chase was getting a molar. Christine was a little jarred from having to hold Chase down forcibly while the dentist examined him. Aiden was a breeze. afterwards they got a little toy and where very happy. The dentist was recommended by our pediatrician and again have found another great resource for our kids. All the doctors and health care professionals seem to know each other from Millers Children’s Hospital and its really a good feeling to know that they all practice together and attend up to date board meetings and seminars. His office was all decked out in under the sea theme and they had an aquarium that rivaled the Long Beach Aquarium containing the same type of pacific fish. His assistants where awesome (Like a hot dog) and every one was overly friendly there. Good times where had by all.

Except for Chase.

You can view the gallery here!

Every year I tell myself that I am not going to watch American Idol.  And every year I find myself getting sucked into the beginning episodes for the tryouts.  From there it is a crap shoot. If I care about someone, I continue to watch until they get eliminated.  Fortunately for me most of my picks get eliminated fairly quickly so I have never watched it to the end.  On the flip side…  I’m watching American Idol.  Do you see the problem with that?  I hate myself.  Kinda like that icky feeling you get when you finish masturbating and you think you are going to hell (Catholic guilt only).  Oh well,  I guess I will look forward to Lost which starts in a couple of weeks.  That show makes me happy.

So Christine and I decided we wanted to get a Thomas the Train set for the kids this Christmas. My mom wanted to buy the train and after she purchased it looked over at me and said “well, I paid for the train so you get the table.” I started shopping around and for a hundred bucks you could get a crappy table. So I looked at Christine and told her “I’m gonna build one” Instanty I know that something was going to go wrong. I had never made a piece of furniture before and did not realize what I was getting myself into. After some searching on the internet I discovered all sorts of groups, forums, and downloadable plans to make a table. Of course I was not happy with any of them. The plans I found continued the pattern of cheap flimsy crappy tables. I made the decision I was going to create it from scratch and my own ingenuity. So here goes…

I started with the sides of the table. For that I decided a nice red oak would be good. I then routed the edges with a half round bit to soften the edges and make it kid friendly. I then did a 45 degree corner. I learned that 45’s are really difficult and the slip all the time. I will attempt a dove tail joint or a biscuit joint next time the situation calls for it.

For the legs again I used a red oak and this time did a channel edge with the router. This hides the seam better and makes both sides more even.

I used a quarter round molding for the inside and reinforced the table top with some pine. Pine is cheaper. Alot cheaper!

Here is the table completed with a malomine top which is really durable and can handle much abuse.

And here is the final pic with the train installed on it. All the track has been screwed down so the kids don’t destroy it and makes for easier track modification.

I really surprised myself I was capable of creating such a beatiful piece of furniture that should last my kids years to come.