.: bistan.net :.

For the second time in my life, I was able to take part in the taping of a very popular Christmas special.  In 2007, Kimberlie and I were a part of “Oprah’s Favorite Things” and were showered with overpriced merchandise by a television diva.  Other than that, there is only one other holiday television special that I would love to be a part of, and somehow I managed to pull it off this year.

This past weekend, we were invited to be part of the taping of the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade.  Basically, they entice you to come be a part of the crowd with free entry into the Magic Kingdom for the day.  We were unable to make the Kris Allen (American Idol) taping on Thursday or the Celine Dion taping on Friday due to work and school schedules, so we decided to go down for the Jonas Brothers on Saturday. 

The Jonas Brothers sang a three minute song called Summertime Anthem, but it took us four hours to shoot the performance.  The director made them sing it no less than 10 times.  Part of that was teaching the 5000 member audience to break out into a flash-mob style dance routine towards the end of the song.  It was awesome!  By shear luck, we ended up at the very front of the stage!

The parade taping was another grueling six hours, because performers had to perform over and over and over for the perfect camera angles.  Steve Rushton (singer) and the Santa Buddies (dogs from a new Disney Christmas movie) were there and all of it was hosted by Kelly Ripa.  No Regis this year due to surgery!  And by shear accident, we ended up on center street, where the performers performed.

Of course I shot over 500 pictures and 3 videos.  Here is a small sample:

Check out the video to see how close we were to the action!

Be sure to watch the parade Christmas morning on ABC.  There is no possible way that they can show the parade without including some very good shots of us.  You should definitely watch for the shot of  Tristan and me dancing (above) during the “Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it” portion of the parade.

So after the accident, we finally made it to the bowling alley.  Kimberlie and I have only been bowling together twice before — once on a double date and once with the neighbors.  Bowling just isn’t our thing.  If we feel like bowling, we have a Nintendo Wii to keep us entertained.  Mackenzie didn’t really care for it much either, but as you can see from the pictures below, Tristan LOVES it!

I hope your weekend was enjoyable as well.

The second birthday party didn’t go quite as well as the first.  It rained . . and rained . . and rained.  And we were outside . . . on a farm.  A farm with a really fancy playground.

This weekend was certainly a busy and interesting one.

Saturday, we had two birthday parties — one at a skating rink and one at a farm.

Below are pictures from from Jameson’s party.  Jameson is a little girl in Tristan’s kindergarten class.  We didn’t know her or anyone else at the party, but we always try to go when he gets an invitation from a friend because 1: it helps meet people and 2: we usually return the favor.  Sometimes these parties are fun and sometimes not so much.  The one yesterday was great.  Before I start critiquing the party like its a new restaurant, I’ll just say that it was an enjoyable time for all of us.

This was Tristan and Mackenzie’s first time roller skating.  It was also the first time I have been in almost 20 years!

Stay tuned for Saturday Part Two and Sunday.  Desperate Housewives is coming on so they will have to wait!

We spent this past weekend on Jekyll Island, just getting away from life.  Our Colorado trip was work for me and the Lousiana trip was work for Kimberlie, so we decided we needed a mini-vacation that the entire family could enjoy.  Friday night I watched Space Shuttle Discovery finally lift off, even though I was 200 miles away.  Saturday we were beach bums all day.  Yesterday we played a quick round of mini-golf before heading back home to normal.

So I looked at the calendar yesterday . . . and it’s August? 2009?  Where does the time go?

Instead of apologizing for not posting in the last week or so, I’ll just tell you what I’m up to now:

Tuesday we are headed to Six Flags.  We only go when we have free tickets because it sort of sucks.  We scored two free tickets off of mycokerewards.com and bought a $15 ticket for Tristan off of a twitter special.  Mackenzie has been taught that being two at Six Flags and WDW saves Daddy lots of money and I think she’s OK with that.

Thursday my boy starts kindergarten.  25 years ago, that was ME starting kindergarten, but the blur between then and now called life happened so here we are.  He’s going to the same elementary school that I went to and believe it or not, there are a lot of teachers still there . . . including my 1st and 3rd grade teacher and the principal!

Work is hell. School starting back is enough, but over then summer there has been over $1,000,000 worth of construction in our building and the technology that comes with that isn’t just going to happen by itself.  On top of that we are suppose to have a new website (first time in 5 years) by September and our web developer conveniently quit in June.  That leaves me working literally 7 days a week, sometimes around the clock.  This weekend was spent getting familiar with Drupal, our chosen (but not my me) CMS.

My half-marathon training plan is on.  That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I’ve been sick pretty much all week, but I don’t have a choice except to keep going.  I went 120 hours without drinking coke, which was a major feat for me!

Also, classes start back for me in a few weeks for that stupid graduate program I put myself into.  This semester I dropped everything but one class so that I can deal with all of the above.  I’ll be taking a class that deals with artificial intelligence in game programming (fuzzy logic, probability, and a few other things I could spell out here to make myself sound smarter).

So obviously, I’m still working on “getting all of my ducks in a row”.  (That’s Rachel’s phrase.)  And when I do . . . this blog will be BACK!

This morning, after dropping Kimberlie off at the hospital for class, we headed off to City Park to visit Storyland. Basically it’s a playground made out of oversized storybook characters.  This evening, we headed back to the French Quarter, where we sampled beignets at Cafe Du Monde, then we took a ferry ride across the Mississippi River and back, and then we strolled through the streets (and got an eye-ful on Bourbon Street).

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll leave you will 21 of them to ponder . . .

When we found out we were going to Las Vegas, I thought I was going to hate it.  I loved it!

When we found out we were going to Baltimore, I thought I was going to hate it.  I loved it!

When we found out we were going to Boulder, I thought I was going to hate it.  But, I loved it, too!

So naturally, when Kimberlie’s class was scheduled for New Orleans, I knew I would hate it.  My vision of this place was people who eat weird food, drunks wondering between bars checking out strippers and ignorant people that don’t pay attention to hurricane evacuation warnings.

Of course, I LOVE IT HERE!

Yesterday on the way, I added two new states to the list of state that I’ve been to: Mississippi and Louisiana.  Today, after checking out the local mall (which is fabulous — better than any Atlanta mall), I took the kids and drove down to the French Quarter to take a steamboat ride up and down the Mississippi River.  The French Quarter was awesome . . . tons of history, interesting people, and beautiful architecture.  Parts of it remind me of Savannah but also reminds me of Nassau.  We didn’t have much time because we had to pick Kimberlie up not long after our boat returned, but I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.

After picking Kimberlie up, we went back to the mall so that the kids could get stuff from the Disney store and make an overpriced bear at the Build-A-Bear factory.  Then we hit Acme Oyster House.  I got the New Orleans sampler: jambalaya, red beans & rice, sausage, mojo potatos and gumbo.  I hadn’t tried any of it before and I’m usually funny about trying new things but all of it was delicious.  These people really know how to eat here!  Before I ordered, I asked the waiter to describe each item.  This would be the equivalent of him going to Georgia and asking what barbebue and bruswick stew is.  He even brought me some free oysters since I had never tasted them either.  They were great as well!

Tomorrow we hit up Storyland, which is a giant playground, and then chill for a while until Kimberlie gets out of class. Then its back to the French Quarter for some more culture!

Monday we plan to tour a cemetery before heading back to boring Macon.  My Day Two post may have to wait until I return home because I’m too frugal to pay this hotel another $13.00 for another day of internet.  I guess I can’t complain since I got the (really nice) hotel for $60 a night.

For the next six days, I’ll be blogging (or not) from Boulder Colorado.  I’m a speaker at the CALI (Computer Aided Legal Instruction) conference.  Its pretty much a conference for folks who do technology work at law schools.  This is my third time going.  In 2007 it was in Las Vegas and last year it was in Baltimore.  We usually work it out so that I can take the family with me.  My hotel and flight are covered so we just buy tickets for Kimberlie and the kids and end up with a great deal on a cross-country vacation.

In Vegas, we added 4 extra nights to the 4 that the law school covers and we explored sin city along with Los Angeles and the Pacific Coast (keep in mind Mackenzie was less than a year old then).  Last year we added 2 nights and I took the family on a quick tour of Washington D.C.  This year we only added one night because there’s not too much exciting about Colorado when the slopes are closed.  I do hope to visit Jon-Benet’s former home as well as Columbine High School — and of course the usual wonders like the Rocky Mountains.

About three weeks ago, I went to Academy Sports and purchased an Intex Easy-Set Pool.  I’ve always hated these things.  If you ride through a trailer park, you’ll see these things everywhere.  But we don’t invest in an in-ground pool at this house, because we only plan to be here for a few more years, and I think the regular above ground pools are even worse.

We had to get something because I’m about to drop a good bit of money for the kids to take swimming lessons.  Tristan took lessons last year, but forgot a good bit because he didn’t have anywhere to practice.  

I am certainly getting some practice on maintaining proper pool chemistry.  I guess it will come in handy when we do have an in-ground pool.  For now, we will enjoy our white-trash pool.