The Canadian Invation Post

Last night I headed out to CityWalk to meet up with Sarah’s Aunt Janice and Uncle Tim, and her cousins Luke and Nolan. They are on vacation doing the whole Orlando-thing and having a blast from what I could tell. It was great to see them again, as it has been a while now that Sarah is stateside and not up in Canadaland. We hung out and got a coffee then wandered the plaza area for a bit, before setting at Margaritaville for some Landshark Lagers and loaded nachos. There was a ring-on-a-string game set up in the corner that had Nolan transfixed. The game pretty much consisted of a small hook on a wall and a beam that sticks out about three feet directly above it with a string dangling a small metal ring [see Fig. 1]. The object is to swing the string so that the ring ends up on the hook, Pretty much an elaborate ball-in-cup game. Anyway, Nolan dedicated more time than anyone ever should to getting the game to go his way and did pretty well, landing the hook three times. Shame it took him about 900 tries… but I find it’s more pleasing to focus on the victory aspect of it. I’m sure he does as well. It was a fun night, if not a bit too chilly for shorts and t-shirt. Great to see the Thompson’s again though, I hope they enjoy the rest of their trip.

The Advancement Post

This week was a bit of a ride for me at work, but one that ultimately paid off in the end. I’ll be able to move into a nicer area and start to save some money each month (finally). Had dinner with Bruce and his buddy Greg at CityWalk last night before catching the team-member only, advance screening of Bourne Ultimatum (see review below). This weekend it will be time to kick the apartment search into high gear and hopefully lock down something for the 1^st of October. Monday will be an interesting day as I’ll be taking Bruce’s place at the Universal creative meeting while he is in California for Siggraph.

The Short Notice Visit Post

Last week Sarah came down for an unexpected visit. With only one days heads up I didn’t get the chance to anticipate her arrival, so I spent the majority of last Wednesday cleaning profusely. We had a great time hanging about together, watching copious amounts of Scrubs episodes and getting stoked for the final Potter next weekend. Did a little apartment hunting as my lease here is up in a few short months too. Hunter’s Creek is the only area we spent any time poking about, but it seems really nice and a reasonably priced place to live. Bruce and Stacey treated us to a terrific dinner at PF Changs on Saturday which was really great, and we attempted to catch some stand up comedy one night at CityWalk (but arrived too late to get any tickets). Visited the new Cricketer’s Arms pub at Festival Bay as well which as cool, and watched comic/singer (Howie something or other) do his thing, which was hilarious and very entertaining. Plus I had my first scotch-egg in a good 10 years…delicious. It was a shame to see her go so quickly as I do so get used to having her around, but she had an interview today she needed to be back for that could work out nicely (with a transfer down here) if she lands it, so I’m ok with it.

The Fireworks Post

Last night I met up with the Godzik’s at CityWalk to catch a movie and watch the Universal fireworks display. All the parks go to town for their Independence Day firework displays so you really can’t go wrong if you head to either or. But CityWalk doesn’t require park access, has a movie theater (I was itching for some Transformers) and is right next to the Hard Rock Hotel, which is where we headed to kill time before the big show. Spent dsome time throwing some air-hockey matches to Bruce’s kids in the arcade, had some really good crab cakes at The Kitchen, and the mosied back to the Universal gate to catch the show. The fireworks were pretty impressive. The sheer volume of explosions and colors in the short time span the show ran for was really impressive. Short, but sweet is definitely how I’d describe it. I caught the last few seconds with my camera which you can check out below. Leaving the area was INSANE. There were over 30,000 people surging towards the exits after the last bang, and it was almost scary how packed it got. You could have body-surfed all the way from the JP ride in the back of Islands of Adventure right to your car door… it was nuts. And traffic was abysmal leaving, as you’d expect. I actually stayed back and spent some more time on the strip while the lemmings marched out. Still had to wait my fair share in the parking deck but it would have been ten times the wait had I left with the masses.

The NASCAR Grill Post

Went to the Nascar Cafe at Citywalk for lunch with Bruce and Victor today. Nice location, pretty classy inside that I’m sure is great when it’s humming with people come nightfall and the parks let out. Parked on the back lot to avoid the mile walk to the car deck and all the lost tourists. Getting backstage was pretty cool, Victor had passes and could have gotten us in if we were stopped. But we weren’t so I feel bad ass.

P.S- According to Microsoft Word, 'Nascar' is not a word but 'NASCAR' is. So when you are next referring to motor-sports in writing (as we all do) be sure that you have a heavy hand on the shift key. You’re welcome.

The Surprise Party Post

Yesterday was Bruce’s surprise party for his 40^th. Stacey (his wife) organized a big get-together at the Velvet Lounge in the Hard Rock hotel. Bruce was genuinely surprised and was really happy to see everyone. Relatives from out of state, past co-workers he hasn’t seen in years, plus loads of long time friends and current coworkers. There was food there was drink there was merriment in many forms, it was a great time. Bruce got pretty tore up and at one point was wandering from hotel room to hotel room with underwear over his pants with a rubber chicken hanging out, looking for people with a giant magnifying glass, while wearing this crazy shirt Craig and I put together for him. He sobered up when we left the hotel to hit Citywalk though, and ended the night on a high note, which is key.

We started out in the Hard Rock, where there was a sectioned of area of the club for us, and a kick ass food selection. Henry (the VP from work) told all the servers that anything I drank was on his tab, which was a terrific gesture. I defiantly took him up on his offer. Actually the whole night I was getting complementary introductions and a lot of ‘oh you’re the Jamie I hear so much about’ which is fantastic and just what I need to hear. Its great to be appreciated and I really feel like I’m fitting in down here. After we left the lounge we went up to the suites that people were staying in and partied up there for a while with jager and champagne, then we hit up Citywalk after that and wandered from club to club (somehow getting in free and into the VIP sections pretty much everywhere we went) which was awesome. Got a ride home from Craig too so I didn’t have to worry about driving, so that was a load off my mind that allowed me to kick back and enjoy the night.

I met my first (pseudo)celebrity as well, in Manny from WildBoyz, who wandered through the Velvet Lounge while we were there, and posed for a shot with me. Really cool guy, very laid back and approachable. His road crew who I met later in the night were kinda obnoxious and asked me to score them some pot which freaked me out a little (they didn’t even say please), but yeah at least Manny was cool.