Tag Archives: disneyland

february update

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Random entry alert! I’ve wanted to do a “what I’ve been up to” post for awhile now (really an excuse to post some pics) but am always too lazy… here’s a quickie version. 🙂

Back on Valentine’s Day, Rob and I went to the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland. We bought annual passes for each other for Christmas and finally went to get them activated. The best thing about having annual passes is that we don’t feel the need to do EVERYTHING in one day. We can totally take our time, relax, and visit select attractions. The most important thing we wanted to do on this trip is ride Toy Story Mania at California Adventure. It’s an interactive midway ride and it is SO FUN. Seriously. It’s a MUST.



Here I am in my Mickey ears and the Toy Story 3-D glasses. Spiffy.



Of course a trip to CA is not complete without visiting the Animation Academy. This time we drew Goofy. My drawing is on the right.



Lunch was at Cafe Orleans. We shared French Onion soup, Pommes Frites (garlic fries with the yummiest aioli ever), and a Monte Cristo sandwich (turkey, ham and cheese fried in a light batter with berry puree). Not the healthiest lunch but SO GOOD.



Before we left, we made sure to get on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. I had a measly 46,300 points. Rob totally beat me with 93,700. Too bad for Rob the picture got our scores mixed up. OOPSIE. Hehe.



The following weekend we celebrated our friend Sebastian’s birthday with pizza at Round Table (his choice) and dessert at Guppy House. There were 9 of us and we shared a large mixed fruit shave ice. It was GINORMOUS. We barely finished it.

I’ve been going through lots of Netflix movies lately too…

Eagle Eye
Entertaining but not very good. :/ Reminded me too much of I, Robot. Not very original. Also, I guess Transformers didn’t really require much acting from him because this movie made me realize Shia LaBeouf is a pretty good actor. I liked him a lot here.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Another Shia LaBeouf movie! Only meh. Lots of potential too. I just didn’t care for the storyline AT ALL. And the dialogue was so predictable. I lost count at how many lines Rob would guess before the words even came out of the characters’ mouths. Disappointing.

Wanted
I had no expectations before watching this movie so it was a pleasant surprise to find myself really enjoying it! Lots of thrilling action sequences and a well-constructed storyline. Plus, James McAvoy!

What else? Hmm… a couple of random things…

I love when DVDs have digital copies included. I load them right onto my iPod to take with me to the gym. As much as I love listening to music when doing cardio, my mind inevitably wanders, I get bored, and I stare at the clock. Watching and listening to episodes or movies definitely keeps me occupied.

Our Wii broke. 🙁 I tried to use it yesterday but the console was eerily quiet (you couldn’t hear it booting up) and the TV just had a blank screen. After checking all the connections and looking up the problem on the Nintendo site, we determined that we had to send it back. Unfortunately, the repair would cost $75, $10 shipping, and CA tax, which was almost $100. !!! We might as well buy a new one. UGH UGH UGH.

excuses excuses

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My friend Ricardo reminded me that it’s been almost a week since my last post. Here are my excuses…

1. I’m still unpacking. Yes, STILL! The kitchen and office are pretty well organized but there are still boxes and piles all over the floor in the living room and the bedroom. It’s taken so long because we’ve been waiting on a few large pieces of furniture (TV stand, bookcase, bed frame/mattress) and didn’t have anywhere else to store our stuff. We have everything now except for our bed frame (it’s coming next Tuesday) so YAY.

2. I’m too busy living at Target. HEH. I’ve been to Target 4 TIMES in the past week. And I’ve purchased many, many items during each trip. Moving is not cheap.

3. I haven’t watched TV regularly in over a month so have nothing to blog about. I know, right? What is wrong with me?!? One of our Tivos broke during the holidays and OF COURSE, it was the one that I used to record my shows (aka the shows that Rob refuses to watch like Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, etc). Shows were on hiatus around that time so it wasn’t a big deal but then in January, I got caught up with packing and planning for the move that I let weeks and weeks go by… now I am so behind. 🙁 The good thing is that we now have a DVR to replace the broken Tivo. SCORE.

4. I’m lazy. HEE! This really sums it up. Case in point, take a look at the navigation on the left. It badly needs some TLC. For one, I am now 29 not 28. For another, all the site links no longer work (I took the pages down awhile back). I really need to a huge site overhaul. But again. I’m lazy.

In other Kelly news, I have a 3-day weekend coming up (thank you US Presidents) and Rob has agreed to go to Disneyland on Valentine’s Day. I have THE BEST hubby in the world. We actually bought each other annual passes for Christmas so we’re going to activate them on Saturday. I hope it doesn’t rain. I’m so excited to wear my Mickey gear again. 😀

Random picture of Rob today during office hours. Isn’t he such a hard-working employee?



Finally, WTF Chris Brown. WTF. You are dead to me.

happy 2009

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So it’s the last day of my holiday vacation. 🙁 So sad. But before real life begins again, I have to share some vacation highlights!

1. Spending time with friends and family.
Christmas Eve is spent with my family — my cousin and his wife just bought a Wii so they asked us to bring our games so they could try them out. We brought Guitar Hero with us (with our one measly guitar) and my cousin pretty much spent the entire night playing it all by himself. Heh.

Christmas Day is spent with Rob’s family — his parents hosted lunch and there was a constant stream of relatives visiting all day. I was pretty much parked next to the food table. YUM. Rob watched the Lakers crush the Celtics. 😀

Rob and I also hung out with friends — my best friends and I had a yummy dinner and annual gift exchange (where I received the Gossip Girl s1 DVDs and a gorgeous Paris picture book among other FABULOUS presents). And our friends Daniel and Carolyn hosted a potluck where we dined on healthy foods such as fried chicken, spam musubi, and korean bbq and played Rock Band 2 all night. Well, the guys did. I sang “Hungry Like the Wolf” and that was it. I suck at Rock Band.

2. Looking for (and finding!) an apartment.
Rob and I spent all day on the 26th and 27th driving around Orange County visiting various apartment communities. OMG. They were built by the same developer so after seeing 2 places, they all started to look exactly the same. Except for the kitchens. We barely cook at all but for some reason, the look of the kitchens really made a huge difference in how we felt about the apartments. We really liked 2 communities — Option #1 is a new-ish community (6 years) on the border of Tustin and Irvine and very close to a major retail shopping center and lots of “hustle and bustle.” Option #2 is a brand new community a few miles south close to the Irvine Spectrum but in a more quiet, less developed area. After visiting both locations a second time we went with Option #2. The rent was over a $100 less per month and we couldn’t pass up having a brand new apartment with granite kitchen countertops (sooo pretty). We still feel like we’re central to lots of stuff in the OC (South Coast Plaza!) so that’s good. We anticipate moving in sometime the last week of January. CRAZY!

3. Seeing Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost!) at South Coast Plaza. Rob spotted him going up an escalator while we were looking around in Crate and Barrel. I didn’t believe it was him at first but it totally was! I wanted to follow him but chickened out. 😛

4. I had Pinkberry!
I snagged a Pinkberry gift card from work (for some reason, a vendor thought it was a good idea to give out gift cards even though there is not a single Pinkberry in the Bay Area) and treated myself to a large. Oink oink. SO GOOD.

5. Going to CA Adventure and Disneyland!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve never been to DCA and it’s been about 5 years since my last trip to DL so I figured it was about time and I begged Rob to go with me. 😀 He agreed to 2 whole days! WOOT.

First day was spent at CA Adventure. A rundown of our day with some pics thrown in for good measure…

CLICK to see larger versions of the pics.

Grizzly River Run. Fun but I got SOAKED. ICK.



The Golden Gate Bridge!



Tower of Terror. OMG. I screamed and held on to Rob’s arm for dear life during the entire ride. Looking back the feeling of weightlessness is actually pretty cool.

Taking a quick shopping break and trying on the bride and groom Mickey ears!



Next up we went to the Animation Academy where we learned how to draw Donald Duck. This was definitely our favorite attraction of the trip! My drawing is on the left. 😀



Walking around the Wharf (does not beat the real thing right here in the Bay Area)…



Soarin’ Over California. A simulator ride that takes advantage of scent in addition to sight and sound.

California Screamin’. Awesome wooden roller coaster. Probably my favorite ride at DCA.

Mulholland Madness. Fun little mini-coaster.

At the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, I found the cutest fountain. So here I am with my Sorceror Mickey ears taking a picture with the Sorceror Mickey fountain! I have no idea why I am smiling like that. Dork.



Monsters Inc. Cute kiddie ride that takes you through the movie.

And to close our day at DCA, we went back to the Animation Academy to draw Jack Skeleton. My drawing is on the right.



Last picture of the day – Mickey, the “C”, and me!



Some random comments:
— Wow, I am SO OLD. We were only at DCA from about 11am to 9pm but my feet were KILLING me. What happened?!?
— I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it but Rob smokes. And I honestly had no idea that there were smoking areas at DCA. So Rob would leave the park every once in awhile to handle his business. Then we happened upon a smoking area in the Condor Flats area across from Soarin’. Isn’t that crazy? The other one is in the Hollywood Pictures area near the Muppet Vision show. (At Disneyland, there’s a smoking area near Big Thunder Ranch and another at Fantasy Gardens, which I dubbed “Smokey Gardens.” :P)

Overall, I enjoyed DCA but I probably wouldn’t spend another whole day at this park alone… I’d definitely have to mix it up with some time at DL. Still tons of fun, though. I’m sure I’ll be back to draw some more characters at Animation Academy and ride Screamin’!

Our second day was spent at Disneyland. YAYAYAYAYAYAY. I seriously love this place. My face lights up and I get so happy here. *giddy* There was an INSANE amount of people at DL and we missed a lot of the “kiddie” rides due to long lines (and the fact that they don’t have Fast Passes) but we trudged through and still had a great time. 😀 Since it was DL day, I forced Rob out of bed at 6am(!) so we could be at the park by the 8am opening. That didn’t happen exactly as planned but we still arrived around 8:30am.

Matterhorn. Always a classic. One of my faves.

Splash Mountain. After agreeing not to ride any water rides (considering how wet we got after GRR the previous day), we still went on SM when we saw that the stand-by line was only 5 minutes. Well, we got UNBELIEVABLY DRENCHED. So soaked that I had to buy a t-shirt and sweatshirt to replace my dripping sweater. I wish I had a picture of us after the ride but I was preoccupied.



Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. Going on this ride totally made me want to see this movie.



After breakfast, we made our way over to DCA to go to the Animation Academy again! This time we drew Winnie the Pooh. My drawing is on the right.



Back at Disneyland sporting our Mickey tees!



Hanging out at the Star Trader store in Tomorrowland. One of my favorite stores because they have Star Wars themed merchandise. Heh.

Rob as Buzz Lightyear.



Me as Goofy.



Rob as Eeyore.



Me with an awesome R2D2 backpack I found. 😀



It may be unbelievably crowded during the holidays but I just LOVE seeing all the decorations. Look how gorgeous Sleeping Beauty’s castle is!



Eating a pineapple dole whip. A MUST HAVE.



Indiana Jones Adventure. Not as crazy and fast as I remember but still a goodie. Thank goodness for Fast Pass — the stand-by line for this ride got up to 2 hours!

Pirates of the Caribbean. A good time to rest our tired feet. Also got to see the holiday decorations in New Orleans Square.



Space Mountain. MY MOST FAVORITE RIDE EVER. The Fast Passes for this ride ran out quickly or I would have tried to get another one so we could ride it a second time. It’s the BEST.



Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. My first time on this ride! Rob’s score: 63,800. My score: 52,200.



The HUGE Disneyland Christmas tree in the middle of Main Street. We passed it because…



… we were on our way to DCA and the Animation Academy for a second time! This time we drew Minnie Mouse. My drawing is on the left.



Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Another oldie but goodie.

The castle all lit up!



And Small World too! I took this picture as we were waiting for the Fireworks Spectacular, which were pretty fantastic. I always love the music and the buildup to the Disney “snow” at the end.



Star Tours. Went on this ride because the line was only 10 minutes. It’s ok. I kinda think the video needs to be updated.

And finally, we end our day with another ride on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Rob’s score: 14,800. My score: 48,500. I WON!!!



And so ends a great day and a fantastic holiday vacation. 😀

Back to real life tomorrow.

holidays

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Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

I’m down in Southern CA and have been keeping very busy… eating, visiting family, eating, apartment hunting, eating, opening Christmas presents, eating… 🙂

I had a very loooong day at Disney’s California Adventure and I have to get some rest for Disneyland tomorrow… but I wanted to say Hi to everyone! I promise a better holiday update after the New Year when I’m back in the Bay.

womanizer

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I just downloaded Britney’s new single Womanizer from iTunes. It’s #1 right now. YAYAYAY.

It’s almost birthday time! AND I have a 3-day weekend to celebrate (thank you Christopher Columbus). I just have to get through the next few days of work…

Speaking of birthdays, Disney is offering guests free admission to Disneyland or Walt Disney World on their birthday in 2009. You have to register here. WOOT. I AM SO THERE. I’m totally going to have a Disney-themed 30th birthday next year. (Maybe).

I don’t have anything else to blog about so Diesel wants to say Hi…



OH! Before I forget… to answer the questions from the previous entry — Robyn, you win the award for most photobooth pics. You were in there a whopping 12 times! Rob, Uly, and I tied for second with 9. And Grantland was next with 6. 🙂

paris day 3

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I want to go to Disneyland. I have absolutely no idea why. I just do. So just a minute ago, I took a look at the ticket prices online. HOLY MOLY. When did it get so expensive?!? $63! And that’s just for 1 day and 1 park. If you want to park hop or whatever, it’s $83 for 1 day. Oh well, I’d still love to go. Maybe when I’m in Southern CA for the holidays…

Had an okay weekend. I got a stomachache on Saturday so I spent a good part of the day in bed. Ugh. I caught up on The OC (really, really liking this season so far) and I watched The Break-Up. HATED IT. There were some funny moments and Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn were good but the whole storyline was… EH. I also went to see Borat today, which was pretty hilarious. I wouldn’t say I *liked* it, though. The highlight of my weekend was getting an iPod nano! Rob got me a 4gb red one as a belated birthday present. I’m going to use this one for the gym. 😀

More Paris…
Sun, October 15: Day 3
After our Parisian breakfast of croissants and coffee (I must have gained about 10 pounds from all the bread I ate!), we were off to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur. (Montmartre is the northern part of the city where many artists reside). We took the Metro (we’re total pros now) and got off at Anvers. I was actually hoping the Abesses stop would be open by now (it’s been closed for renovations). That was the Metro stop featured in the movie Amelie and I just wanted to see it! Maybe next time. 😀 We walked up a hill (huffing and puffing the whole time) that took us to the bottom of the steps leading to Sacre Coeur. We took a breather by the carousel and prepared ourselves for the stairs. I guess we could have taken the funicular up but we were feeling adventurous. As we headed over to the stairs, we were approached by the men who try and stop you to tie a bracelet around your wrist. If they happen to get you, you’re tied to them and have to give them money to be released. They try to convince you to take the bracelet by saying it’s free. We walked away from them quickly (though one of them totally grabbed Rob’s arm) and started the hike up the stairs. It took us a little while (we stopped every time there was a bit of platform) but it was worth it when we arrived at the top. The basilica is absolutely gorgeous and the view from up there was wonderful. We were overlooking all of Paris! We went inside and lit a candle for my mom and walked around admiring the statues and sculptures. As we exited, I noticed that they had those machines that make impressions on coins for souvenirs. Is it just me or is that the *last* thing you’d expect to see in a church? I’ve made them before but at an amusement park!



We walked down to Place du Tertre to check out the artists’ square. There were some absolutely gorgeous watercolor paintings of the Arc and the Eiffel Tower and I was incredibly tempted to purchase one but I decided against it since they were pricey (between 25-50 Euros) and I didn’t know how the heck I was going to take it with me on the plane. We continued our walk through Montmartre and into the Pigalle area (Red Light District) on the way to the Moulin Rouge. Since it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed (so weird to me!) but we did find one sex shop that happened to be open. We went in but there was nothing exciting. LOL. Just a few more steps down was the Moulin Rouge! It was so fun to see the famous dance hall and its iconic windmill.



Our next stop for the day was the Marais. We made our way there via the Metro. As we walked up to the street level, we found ourselves at the Place de la Bastille. There’s nothing left of the prison at all so there’s nothing to see. Across the street, though, stood the Colonne de Juillet (memorial to commemorate the deaths in the street battles of 1830) and also the Opera National de Paris Bastille. The Opera completely stood out because it’s made of glass… I actually didn’t like it at all. We continued walking over to Place des Vosges. It’s a beautiful park that’s perfectly symmetrical (nine houses on each side of the square). I just loved all the parks/gardens in Paris. They’re so well-maintained, gorgeous and peaceful.



By this time, we were so hungry. We spotted a Quick fast food restaurant (like the McDonald’s of France) and ordered Supreme Cheese burgers meals. It wasn’t really a very good burger (my all time favorite fast food burger is from In-n-Out) but it came with Coke! And it didn’t cost us $5! Heh. After lunch, we walked along the Rue de Rivoli down to Ile de la Cite. We sat in the Square du Jean XIII, which is a beautiful garden behind Notre Dame. I think I love the back of Notre Dame even more than the front. The flying buttresses are spectacular. Guh.



I wanted to pick up a book to read for the plane ride home so we looked for the English bookstore Shakespeare & Co, which I knew was nearby. What a great little store! It’s TINY. It felt so homey and the employees are really friendly and give you recommendations on books and things to do in the area. I picked up The Time Traveler’s Wife, which a good friend had suggested to me. (I finished the book on the plane and didn’t like it :/).



By this time, we were absolutely exhausted from all the walking so we bought tickets for a 1 hr. sightseeing cruise on the Seine. We sat on top of the boat for a good vantage point of all the sights. The boat passed many of the monuments (D’Orsay, Conciergerie, Notre Dame, etc) but once we got to the Eiffel Tower, our camera battery died after just a few photos! GRRR. I was a bit surprised to see that the homeless population of Paris have tents set up all along the river banks. Some of them looked pretty permanent too. Looking back, though, I’m not sure why I was so shocked. Paris is a big city and all big cities have homeless problems. Still, it was a nice trip down the river and we got to rest our poor feet. After the cruise, we picked up gyros and banana/nutella crepes for dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Up next: the Louvre!

music post!

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I really really want to go to Disneyland. When I was still in elementary school, I went to Disneyland every year for my birthday with my parents. I guess I’m just feeling nostalgic. Plus, I’ve heard Space Mountain is open again! I LOVE Space Mountain. It’s my all-time favorite ride ever. Hmmm. Maybe for Christmas…

I’ve discovered lots of great artists and songs from all of you so I thought I would return the favor and upload some of my current “songs of the moment.” 🙂

Please right click and save target as…
username: cookie
password: monster


Black Eyes Peas – Don’t Lie
Black Eyes Peas – Gone Going
Black Eyes Peas – My Style (with Justin Timberlake!)
Death Cab For Cutie – What Sara Said
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek
Jack Johnson – Better Together (if I ever get married, I want this song to be a part of my wedding somehow)
Jack Johnson – Banana Pancakes (Yum, reminds me of Hawaii)
James Blunt – Tears and Rain (Many thanks to Barry for reccing him in the first place!)
Kanye West – Gold Digger
Kanye West – Touch the Sky


I’ll probably take these down in a week or so. Songs deleted!

And some VERY brief TV talk while I’m here (beware spoilers)…
Veronica Mars, 2.02, Driver Ed
Wasn’t feeling this episode at all. It was all Jackie’s fault. She SUCKS. But yay Meg!

Gilmore Girls, 2.04, Always a Godmother, Never a God
How rude was Lorelai during the baptism?! UGH. If I were Sookie, I would have thrown her out. That entire scene was obnoxious. It made me so mad!

Prison Break, 1.07, Part 2
EEK. T-Bags is so awful. I hope he’s offed and doesn’t get a chance to escape. The actor who plays him is amazing, though. I seriously feel icky and squirmish watching him onscreen. *shudders* Anyway, loved the Michael/Sara interaction (ie. sexual tension :P) and the Michael/Lincoln hug at the end (you can just tell all is right with the world when they see each other). Too bad we have to wait 3 weeks for the next episode. Stupid baseball.