Cap'n John's Blog

Recap of another looong weekend

A minute of silence is had at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, in rememberance of those who gave their lives that we may be free. The rest of the free day was spent playing video games :)

The evening was spent at Dave & Busters with Liz's relatives, some from L.A., and some who'd flown in from out-of-state...and boy, were their arms tired! :P

This was also Amber's first major public appearance and she handled it with grace and aplomb. We had great food at D&Bs, lots of fellowship and fun with the video games and skill games. The kids all won cool prizes. While the video games at D&Bs are more for adults (or older gamers) I much prefer the prizes the kids can win at D&Bs to the little plastic cars and their ilk from Chuck E. Cheese. It also seems that one spends less money at D&Bs to win the prizes.

Friday JE and I met up with Liz's cousin, her husband and their two kidlets at DisneyLand, which has changed a lot since I was there several years ago. Now there's an exit from the carpool lane off the 5-South (and probably the 5-North as well) which dumps you straight out at the entrance to D-Land parking. After having our bags searched we were allowed to enter D-Land, and after wandering around the park, and standing in line for an hour for a 2-minute ride, we finally wound up in Toon Town. There I took JE's picture with Mickey & Donald.

We had to line up outside Mickey's house for what seemed like half an hour to get this photo.


Donald, being less popular (poor guy), stood outside in Toon Town, in the cold, and practically begged us to take this picture.


Not really, but there were just a few kids in the very informal line for Donald. JE was in line for less than a minute to meet Donald, who was also signing autograph books for the kids who had them. JE asked me why Donald didn't give him a book and I had to explain that the kids had given the book to Donald, who'd written his name in it then given it back to them. Good answer, right? Wrong. JE then asked, So why don't I have a book for Donald to write his name? Good question, no good answer. Next time, son, next time.

After battling traffic on the 5-North, cutting across Rosecrans to the 605, then battling traffic there, we finally made it home, picked up Liz and Amber and headed for Liz's parents' house where we once again had dinner with the relatives (whose arms weren't so tired now :P)

Saturday morning was JE's usual swimming class, followed by a few errands, inc. a visit to Toys-R-Us. Then there was a casual, relaxed lunch at home with just the four of us. Of course dinner was once more with the in-laws and the rel's, this time at a local favourite Chinese hangout where we managed to be the absolute last patrons left in the restaurant. The owner and his wife were actually balancing the till when we finally left :)

Sunday we picked up JE from Church before the in-laws could take him to see a very sick (possibly contagious) great Uncle & Aunty, followed by breakfast/lunch at the Monrovia Family Restaurant. No, it wasn't brunch. It was our first meal of the day, eaten at noon :P I surprised myself by eating like a total pig, consuming not just my polish sausage & two fried eggs with breakfast potatoes, but the two pancakes JE decided he didn't want, as well as my english muffin, all washed down with about 6 cups of coffee :) It ended up being my one meal of the day, although I did snack later that evening.

Xinh dropped around after lunch and after we managed to get JE napping, Ju-on:The Grudge was put on. Really, I don't know why Liz did rent it, because she really did watch it (or not watch it) with her hands over her eyes for darn near 90% of the movie. I found it very disjointed, akin to a Quentin Tarantino movie, with the movie shown in chapters, each chapter being dedicated to one of the players. Sometimes scenes from one chapter would emerge in another chapter to bring the story together, but when the movie jumped ahead about seven years in time it became rather confusing until we realized the 15 year old girl was the 8 year old girl we'd seen earlier. A couple of other things just didn't make sense. If the ghosts are haunting the house and killing people who enter the house, why do they let some people live for several years before killing them, while other people are killed almost as soon as they set foot inside...and why do some people who never go near the house get killed? And why do some people get killed inside the house, and others are killed in their own homes, or their place of work. And why are some bodies found but others just disappear? And, and, and...ok, so it was still a very good, scary movie, although Xinh says the American version was the better of the two. From the sounds of it, the American version had the better editor.

After Ju-on we put on Scooby Doo 2, which was an enjoyable, albeit predictable movie. Nothing to write home about, just something to waste a good hour and a half on ;) JE woke up shortly after Scooby Doo started so he watched it with us. Better than watching Ju-on which is, of course, why we made him take a nap :)

I had a dreamless night Sunday night, although rumor has it that everyone dreams, just some people are unable to remember their dreams, so I guess I did dream but nothing worthy of remembering the next morning. What did happen Monday morning was a little freaky. While getting ready for work I heard that horrid creaking/croaky sound made by the dead mother in Ju-on. Fortunately I realized it was JE (or Liz) grinding their teeth in their sleep, but for a second or two it scared the living bejeebus out of me.