hazelchaz | There's a natural mystic blowing through the air. If you listen carefully now, you will hear.

Photos now online:
A day with Sarah (15/16-Feb-2009)
Old Homestead, New Bookcases (22-Feb-2009)
Barney's Beanery with Tadao (22-Feb-2009)
LASFS/Aftermeetings part 337: Coral Cafe (26-Feb-2009) et seq.
The picture of ala_mokita with the books is from our late night at Coral Cafe.

Interlude: Two weeks between Gallifrey and ConDor.

Picking up where we left off at the end of Galllifrey: summoner_lenne9 slept on our couch. (left) The plan was for her to go home Monday. When we got up it was still raining, and the Grapevine was closed. So we didn't want to send her on her way if she might not be able to make it over the hill.

Instead we took her to see a few of the sights. She asked if we could drive by Disneyland, just so she could wave at it. Well, that's easily done... We started off by stopping at Anaheim Gardenwalk. This is a long-delayed project near Disneyland. It's finally open, and library_lynn and I had never been.

It's a small shopping center or outdoor mall, in the middle of the hotels east of Harbor/north of Katella. There are a number of stores, a few upscale restaurants downstairs, and a movie theater and food court upstairs. On a rainy holiday it was practically deserted. (right)

We found "Johnny Rockets" and had a little lunch there. (left)

There's a Johnny Rockets in San Jose, right on the trolley line behind the Fairmont Hotel, so it's a familiar comfortable place for many people who've been to FanimeCon.

The Johnny Rockets here was running a promotion where you can get a discounted movie ticket if you eat there. We didn't have time, but it seems like a nice easy "dinner and a movie" date destination. Lynn and I might be back.

After lunch we had dessert at Joe's Italian Ice. We learned that their "buy one, get one free" only applies on rainy days when it's actually raining when you walk up to the window. Since we were there between cloudbursts, we didn't get the discount. It was delicious, anyway. When the lady at the counter learned that it was Sarah's first time, she lined up a whole row of samples for her to taste... (right)

For those of you not familiar with this little place about a mile south of Harbor Blvd. and Chapman in Garden Grove (south of Disneyland), they make their own fresh fruit ices. It's always fresh -- anything still on hand the day after it's made is thrown away. The "Bada Bing Cherry" is particularly good, if you like real cherry flavor.

Then we went over and parked at the hotel/Downtown Disney lot. Because of the rain they weren't charging for parking. We browsed the Lego store.

A man at the Lego store named "Ariel" (acto his nametag) had a cool ring, like Sarah's wolf ring, so we got a picture of his Lion Ring. (left)

We walked the full length of Downtown Disney, into the Maingate Courtyard. There are these concrete paving stones there, each engraved with a different message. Were these all winners during the 50th Birthday giveaway? Or... what? (right)

I went over to the mouseplanet.com "Mousepad" forums and searched for "paving." The courtyard is called the Esplanade (mispelled "Esplande") and the bricks are for sale. Less than $200. I'm not surprised there are so many at that price. I'm interested in the technology, though: how do you get a zillion customized paving bricks like this?

A tour of Downtown Disney isn't complete without taking a look at the Grand Californian Hotel. Their garden with the evergreens and the neocraftsman architecture is a calming place to take a break. (left)

There's no riot of colors, there are no illustrations or headlines vying for your attention. The few signs are small and discreet. If you've been experiencing a little sensory overload in Downtown Disney, this is the place to duck out to.

And after the garden, we went inside the hotel, poked around a little in their function space and theorized about having a convention in the hotel and why it'll never happen. (Veterans of the Anime Expo held at the Disneyland Hotel years ago can explain.)

We realized the sun was setting and that we'd have to get a move on if we were going to see anything else before it got cold and dark. We bought beignets at the Brennan Jazz Kitchenette. All powdered sugary deep fried goodness, big and chewy. We raced the sun down to the coast. Didn't quite make it to the beach by sunset, but we walked out on Newport Pier anyway.

In hindsight, given how the evening turned out, the beach sidetrip was a mistake. We should have immediately headed out from Disneyland to the Grapevine, and we could have dropped Sarah off in Bakersfield and still been home in our own beds by midnight.

After our outing, we went to the house to learn whether the Grapevine was still closed. And to decide whether Sarah was going to take a bus, train, or if we'd drive her to Santa Clarita to take it from there, or some other combination of transportation options. An interesting development, though, was when we learned that the snow on the mountain meant that she couldn't get picked up at the Flying J in Lebec (Frazier Park exit). The roads up from there were too slushy and icy to risk.

So we had the option of waiting who-knows-how-many-days for the mountain roads to clear up; or figure out how to get her to get her to Bakersfield, either to school Tuesday morning or to a friend's house to sleep the night.

Lynn and I weighed alternatives, whether we should take Sarah to Union Station to take Amtrak's bus to Bakersfield, or up to Santa Clarita or Magic Mountain at the beginning of the Grapevine, or what. And whether we should plan to start before the break of early on Tuesday, or head out that night.

By the time we determined that the Grapevine wasn't listed as "closed" on the CalTrans website, and that we were best served taking her straight into Bakersfield, it was getting late enough that we were down to two options: drive now, or drive in the morning. It would be three hours of driving there, three hours back, plus an unspecified amount of time in safety rest stops.

Ideally this sort of excursion should be begun no later than sunset, and would involve at least two licensed drivers in the car. Ideal circumstances don't always turn up, though. ala_mokita wasn't available, selinawoman couldn't justify a last-minute midnight run (even if we invited husband Albert to ride along). friendlypinet was still dealing with Gallifrey truck issues. Almost anyone who'd be willing to step forward and help with this kind of madcap trip was already the sort of person who'd be putting in the extra mile to help with the truck moving and unloading Gallifrey needed. So it was up to us.

Sarah and I drove to The Tower, said "hi" to Christian and moved on. Played the original BBC The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio production to keep us company. We made it to Carissa's house by midnight (and I even got an In-N-Out hamburger when we made it off the hill). Turned around, headed back, filled up at the Flying J.

When I finished up there, there were little flurries of snow. No! No snow! No, no, no! I wailed. I got in Saltine and fled the scene. We can make it over the hill before they've got so much snow they close the road. Faster, little gerbils! (Saltine has a four-gerbilpower engine.)

Three hours of driving, in stages, got me back home by early morning. My boss knew I'd be in late, as I'd texted him the night before. I actually got about seven hours of sleep before going to work, so it all worked out.

For the record, it should be clear that Lynn and I understood when we offered to host Sarah that there was an excellent chance that one or both of us would be getting up early, staying out late, or otherwise sacrificing a few hours of sleep somewhere along the line. It may have come as a surprise to her, but we knew it was a likelihood all the time.

We heard later that a number of people at the school were startled to see Sarah on Tuesday -- with the snow on the Grapevine, they weren't expecting she'd make it in.

The following weekend we took care of some business at our house and my parents'. missmea came over and helped us cull through books in the living room bookcases. We ended up with a big box of books that we wanted to make sure went to good homes.

We also delivered a carload, 19 bankers boxes of books from my storage unit down to The Old Homestead.

For those who tuned in late: My parents have lived in the same house, which still has the same zip code, at the same phone number, which still has the same area code, for 45 years. They're the original owners of the house. A year ago, they finished (mostly) remodeling the house, and have been having custom bookcases built to store and display their many, many books. (right)

They actually own more books than when I lived there. Not just from normal acquisitions, but because my grandparents and great-aunts passed away and left them books. Some of which were passed down from their parents, i.e. my great-grandparents and other relations of their generation. We are reluctant to let go of our books. Every room in the house that doesn't have plumbing ought to have bookcases...

Having dropped off a carload of boxed books, I now had room in the car to go pick up stuff. Lynn and I drove to lasfs to look for Animé Los Angeles materials that had been borrowed by Gallifrey, or had been delivered to the clubhouse after our convention.

I was expecting to find a bunch of our carts, such as Ala and Alexander. (The yellow one that belongs to the convention, and the beat-up purple one that belongs to me.) Cookie and Nessie (blue, green) are also still missing, as well as the light blue one that was going to be named after one of the Pac-Man ghosts. They weren't at the club. It's believed there aren't a lot of carts in the POD. Where are the other carts? (I still need to contact Pam and ask her what she knows...)

At my office, I have a four-foot long power strip, with 16 outlets on 2.5" centers. This means that I can plug in a lot of computer equipment. Because each power cord is plugged into the closest outlet, the cords generally stay untangled. (Which is handy when I need to unplug something.)

I thought they might be useful things for the animelosangeles Registration Department to have, so I bought one to show people and brought it to Coral Cafe Thursday night. I got the three-foot/12-outlet size, because I figured it would be easier to pack and store. Its own cord is 15 feet long. Martin Young and friendlypinet (left) were fascinated by it.

Patrick Beckstead and his girlfriend "Patrick" (Korinne was wearing his sweatshirt with his name on it) were there, adorably sharing a milkshake. (right)

We noticed that Darnell Coleman and Whisky have surprisingly similar builds, facial structure, beards, et cetera. We hypothesized that they might be cousins. We dare not accuse them of being twins, because then they'd squabble over who got to be the Evil Twin. (left)

We should see if we can get them in matching flannel shirts, though...

I brought that big box of books I mentioned. About the equivalent of six bankers boxes. I pulled some books out of the box, spread them on the table and let it be known that they were free for the taking. By the end of the frenzy, there was about one bankers box to take home. Here you see karl_lembke and Christian going through them at the end. (right)

There was even a mundane woman in the restaurant who stopped by on her way to the restrooms and picked a book or two to take.

I brought the few remaining books back home. The next day, I'd be going to ConDor, and there's a free book swap there that caprine oversees -- I'd put out the rest of them there.

Next: Party time at ConDor.