thebaldgeek

Whoa, what a day….paintballing for the first time ever and then we went to Griffith Observatory.

The paintballing is way scary, its a pretty full on event these days, lots of high tech, high power gear. (Unlike the rental guns, which are low power, low accuracy….and yes, they call them ‘markers’ not guns). Our first game was a 3 on 3 speedball, we (Steve, Terry and myself) lasted about 10 seconds. The second game was a little better, it was about 2 minutes, and the 3ed game was the best, it was about 4 minutes.
From there Terry had had enough, it was just way too full on for him, so Steve and I left him at the target range and we went up to a bigger field and had quite a few good games. After that the full on guys arrived and it all got a bit over the top.
I have some good welts to show for the mornings ‘fun’, Steve hardly got shot, well, he did, but they were all head shots, because of my back I could not get as low, so I took a few in the chest and legs….. its pretty mad, gives you a bit of taste to war and bullets…… You can see them coming, and hear them as well, and they sure hurt when they hit! Its a weird feeling having about 10 other guys looking to kill you and every one else on your team.
Terry tells me that he wants to stick with laser tag, hes a pretty sensitive kid, he did not want to play because he did not want to cause any one else any pain if he hit them, at lest with the laser tag he knows that they will not get hurt if he hits them……

From there it was home for a shower and a bite to eat. Then it was off to the Observatory. We booked in for the planetarium show as soon as we got there. I stood looking at ‘the big picture‘ wall for a bit, makes you feel really really small and unworthy. Then it was time for the show. Wow. Mind blowing. It was the best show I have ever seen!!! The digital projector shows bright pin point stars, not fuzzy blobs like the one in Melbourne. The show was just staggering with the mix of real footage and digital effects. The clarity was fantastic as well. They covered the story of the universe from big bang to what we know now, it was very moving and exciting, I wish every one could see it. They have put a lot of work and time into the show, it was worth every cent, they really have a world class instillation. Its way better than IMAX even!
Terry and I just got to see their Tesla coil after the show (which is not in resonance, so its not really a true Tesla coil, and the girl showing it had the most crazy mix of truth and error about what Tesla was really up to), thankfully there was a security alert in the middle of her presentation and the whole building had to be evacuated…… we left happy and caught the bus back to the car park (there is no parking allowed up there any more since they rehashed the site, I have no idea why that is the case).
Back to Steves for dinner and a kick back. Nice end to a great day!

Tomorrow, its the ‘Happiest place on earth’….thats right, Disneyland! (hmmmm)

Chow for now.

Ben.

Had a very productive day at Opto22 yesterday. Time will till what comes of it, Im very confident.

Finally made it to a Goldwing shop, was a major pain to get to, and they had the usual 1800 only accessories, a few 1500, and no 1100 bits, so it was a bit of a downer, they did give me a free shirt since I pretty much came from Australia to shop there.
I bought some foot pegs, some deer skin gloves, a vent, a sloppy joe (sweater for the Yanks reading this) and thats about it. They had lots of show chrome mainly. Anyway, it was interesting to see a real shop, it was about 10 times bigger than the shut one in Texas, so I am glad that it was shut…… sort of. I can see why the 1800’s are so popular here, its like its the only Goldwing that exists.

Went from there though some very testing “freeway” traffic to get the family and then head out to our friends place for dinner. It was a beautiful and very relaxing eveining. Eating out under the 12 stars you can see in LA.

From there we played follow the tail lights at 70+ MPH on the freeways……Steve is a digitial driver, full on, or full off. (And he does not believe in using his indercator (“Never reveal your intentions to the enemy”).
They have a nice little 2 bed 1 bath flat right in the middle of downtown LA. Its really nice.

Looking forward to having a nice quite night, with LOTS of sleep! (Well, hope so!)

Big day tomorrow, tell yous about it when its over!

Chow for now.

 Ben.

 

We flew (uneventfully!) from Dallas to Denver, then from there to LA yesterday.
The lady at the Avis counter loved my accent and so gave me a free up grade on the car, so this time we are in a minivan!!!!! Its way cooler than the sports car!

The girls crashed at Jason and Brittanys while Terry and I went and spent 2.5 hours in an electronics shop…… we struggled hard, but in the end we broke down and bought a few things each. (I even found a present for GaryC (who is still pointing out broken things on my web site!))

Today I am off on a little road trip by myself (more on this possibly latter, much latter!), then on the way home I hope to go via the Goldwing shop (and it better be open! (and have the stuff I want in stock!)).

This afternoon we go to a friends house for dinner, meeting Steve and Karrie (and the kids) there, and then following them home. We spend the weekend with them, looking forward to it!

Chow for now.

Ben.

Its been a busy few days.

Saturday we drove down to Tyrell for church, its a nice little rental hall with a great bunch of people, Terry made some new friends pretty easy which was nice to see. (slight repeat with more info than the last post.)

Saturday night we drove the 1.5 hours back to Dallas and had dinner with some friends from church.

Sunday we drove down to Seguin ready for church on Monday, we stayed with some members in their nice little home out of town a bit. It was overcast so I still have not seen any stars! Doh!

Monday was a full day of church. Its a good sized church when its all combined. Amy made some good friends pretty quick.

Monday night we drove into San Antonio to look at the Alamo, we got there just as it shut. Then we walked down the river walk, it was pretty amazing. Its just a net work of footpaths along the river with waterfalls and restaurants all along and built in. It looks like a maintenance nightmare! (But VERY pretty). We had dinner there at the ‘Lone Star’. It was just Ok.

At about 8pm we went to the IMAX movie theater to watch a movie about the Alamo, it was pretty lame and did not really describe the events leading up to it, but it saved us going back in the morning.

Monday night we did not get much sleep, the cheep motel was on a main road and the traffic was really annoying!

Tuesday we went to http://www.Wingthings-texas.com shop front. They were supposed to open by 9am, but we left with no sign of them at 9:30am, to say I am really ticked off and really disappointed is an understatement.

From there we drove the 4.5ish hours to Huston. We went straight to the space center and jumped on the first tram tour. At first we thought it was going to be like the Universal Studios tour we took 4 years ago….’ in the building on the left they do really cool and interesting things, on the build to your right they do blah blah…’ But then they made a stop and showed us to the mock up building contents. Really cool, we got to see some guy get in a space suit. Then the really interesting bit, they stopped and showed us the Saturn 5 rocket. Its amazing. I just could not believe the size of it!

The rest of the space center is pretty lame, the kids liked the play room, lots of tubes and nets and stuff. The gift shop was nice but too busy and rushed. I bought a pen and some patches. We totally missed the Mercury capsule display which I am really ticked about, but Terry and I saw the Shuttle mock up which was pretty interesting).

After that it was dinner time, out to the Texas Roadhouse. Very noisy, and huge serving sizes (Again! Still!).

From there it was to the next motel. 10 bucks a night for the Internet, so this post is a little late….I did not think that any of you was worth the 10 bucks……perhaps all 3 of you combined?????….. nahhhhh.

Ok, thats about it.

Chow for now.

Ben.

P.S Freddy is coming down with a ripper cold. She is shivering and I am in a T-Shirt, hope its not too bad (and really hope I don’t get it!)

P.P.S Slight change of plans. Instead of going to Steves tomorrow afternoon, we are going back to J & B’s. Easier for me to get to Temecula on Friday morning.

P.P.P.S I got Brian’s remote control working for his home theater, this earnt me a single malt scotch, so I am going to sleep well tonight!

P.P.P.P.S MattW, we got you some shoes!!!! I think you will like them, I bought a pair exactly the same, they are that good, so SueW, you owe us a few bucks, but I think you will be happy about the results.
MattB, great to chat with you on Skype the other night, nice that the audio and video on the laptop works, we are still talking (and laughing) about the cat story!.
JasonC sorry for the lack of emails, see you in a few hours, talk is better than email any day?!
BrittanyC Freddy misses you big time!
DanH thanks again for fixing the HP card, I have been enjoying the weather heaps!
GaryC You are a pain in the @#$ to buy a souvenir for, what in the world can you get the gadget guy that has everything? Even America has it limits! (Currently looking for RV books, but lucking out on that front as well!!!!)
NickS Hope everything is going well for you back in the ‘hole’. Give the stereo a flogging for me, but don’t blow the tweeters!