The World of Joel Szerlip

When you work as much as Jenn and I do we don’t always get a lot of opportunities to go out and just relax and enjoy living out in Orange County. So this past weekend we took full advantage of having some time to just R&R and went out and saw two movies and a play. On Friday night along with my brother Jake we went and saw The Other Guys staring Will Ferrell. Saturday morning we went out and saw The Expendables staring every action hero you can imagine, and that evening we went out and saw In The Heights at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The Other Guys

Both my brother Jake and I are huge Will Ferrell fans. I still can’t stop laughing when I watch Anchorman and Talladega Nights and I have probably watched those each at least two dozen times. So my expectations going into this movie were pretty high and I have to say I was a little let down. One of my main complaints is that a lot of the funnier moments in this movie were seen already in the movies previews. My biggest problem however with The Other Guys was I just never got into it. To me there was just not the right pacing in this comedy that has worked so well in past Will Ferrell movies. Don’t get me wrong its a funny movie but not on the top of the list of Will Ferrell movies in my opinion.

The Expendables

If you have frequented my blog at all you know I am a big Rocky fan. In fact that is my favorite movie/series of all time. I am also a big action movie fan so when I first saw the trailer for what looks to be the reunion of some of the biggest action stars of the last twenty or thirty years who wouldn’t want to see it. And to my surprise and delight I came out of The Expendables pumped up and ready for more. The movie was pretty much a guys dream action movie. It had a little bit of plot, a ton of explosions, and non-stop action from start to finish.What could be bad? Heck even Jenn enjoyed it!

In the Heights (@ Orange County Performing Arts Center)

Jenn and I trying to get out of our comfort zone more and one thing we don’t do enough and we want to do more is going out and see plays/musicals. So our first stop on this quest was at the Orange County Performing Arts Center to see the very popular musical In The Heights. Neither Jenn or I would be considered real “musical” fans, but are always open to something new. First off we had great seats, near the middle of the stage and in the second row. But secondly and more importantly the musical was fantastic. It was upbeat, the music was catchy, and the story was really good. Honestly it was one of those perfect date nights that you just hope for.

I have never read a Stephen King book; outside of The Bible I have never even tried to read anything over a 1,000 pages. However neither of these things stopped me when I undertook the 1000+ page (34 1/2 hour audio book) thriller from Stephen King that looks at life in a small town after a dome is placed around the town lines. The book opens up at a snails pace introducing all of the characters, slowly building up their back stories and then continues once the dome covers this town. I have to admit I started this book around six months ago, got a few hours in and gave up. Read a few other books and decided to come back to it and give it a go. So I listened through the first few hours of the book twice, but the second time I got hooked. Once the introductions are taken care of and the dome comes down the book takes off. I am a big fan of movies/books that are based upon Apocalyptic settings. If you read my review of One Second After a book about a town after an EMP you can see that Under the Dome was going up against pretty stiff competition. What is so engaging about this book is the human instinct that overtakes the whole town. Literally the town of Chesters Mill goes from a small hick town to a Nazi regime in the matter of days.

There is a lot of metaphors used throughout the novel that really ring true to the history of the world and how fragile it really is. The slight hitch in normalcy can literally transform the world around you. Although I understand that if everyone got along and worked for the common good it wouldn’t make for an interesting read, but a lot of the scare tactics that the leadership of this town use are very similar that of many evil nations over the years. The book portrays this “us vs. the world” and you are either with us or against us and how quickly friends and family can become enemies. Although there is no doubt that the book could have been shorter, the amount of detail into the characters lives truly made you feel like you were part of the story. Without giving away the ending, I will say that it is not all sunshine and rainbows and really holds true to the core flow of the novel. Having spent over a day and half listening to this book I can say without a doubt that if you like these kind of novels then you have to give this a listen. There are some very mature themes (some I think he took a bit over the top) but I would say for the average adult this book does raise some interesting debate.

Jenn and I have almost been married a year now and I cannot believe how time has flown by. It seems like only yesterday I was proposing in St. James park in London and we began planning our wedding. It has truly been the best decision of my life and I look back on September 19, 2009 with nothing but pure joy. Recently we received our wedding book that we had the opportunity to work with a graphic designer on in developing. We spent hours on picking photos, thinking about placement, and ending up make final decisions on what goes where. I have to say the hours we put into the making of this book will not even compare to the hours we spend looking back at this book and this day.

I realize looking back that I never really took the chance to recap the day and all that went on. I remember the night before the wedding hanging out with Chris and Jake. We met Jenn’s parents for drinks/dinner at the St. Regis not knowing that they only invited us so that the bride to be and her brides maids were out toilet papering our hotel room. It was a great laugh when the three of us got to the room and saw the great work the ladies had done. Looking back it actually helped me calm down and just truly look forward to the day. One of the moments of the night before the wedding was walking down to the wedding location. I remember standing there and running through the day to come. I remember standing there and looking out at the golf course and ocean and just feeling like I was literally on top of the world.

When September 19th rolled around I just remember waking up and not feeling nervous. It wasn’t until the rest of my groomsman arrived at the hotel that the butterfly’s started to come. I remember walking walking outside a bit to early but standing around wondering what I was supposed to do. When I finally walked my mom down the isle I couldn’t believe the day had finally come. I remember standing at the alter looking down the isle at what is and will always be the most beautiful bride that has ever graced this earth. Her eyes sparkled, her smile was as contagious as ever, and I saw my wife, the love of my life. Sure I rushed my “I Do” and even missed some of the words on my vows, I was still a bit nervous, but I just remember looking at Jenn and knowing that there was no place on earth I would rather be then right there. The rest of the day flew by, the reception felt like it was only a few minutes long rather then a few hours. It was was truly the best day of my life and having this beautiful wedding book to help remember the day.

Working full-time for the past two years has been an adjustment for both Jenn and I. We are both extremely grateful for having a job but there is no denying most days we come home and just want to veg. During most of the year we have a DVR full of shows to catch up on and usually that will help give us something to relax to during the week. Well during the dog days of summer our DVR is literally empty outside of the two hours of The Bachelorette and Friday Night Lights.

So this summer we have decided to give a few series that have been highly praised by critics and honestly looked pretty interesting and those are Mad Men and Breaking Bad both amazing series on AMC. Using Amazon Prime’s two day shipping I have been buying these seasons as we go through them and I have to admit we are loving it. Both shows are extremely well acted and both super entertaining. So even though there may be nothing on TV during the summer at least there are two great shows available on blu-ray!

One of the things Jenn and I both love is taking vacations. Heck I have a feeling most reading this blog have noticed that I more frequently post before, on, and after Jenn and I take trips. As much as we love traveling abroad there is also something really awesome about getting in the car and just have a nice weekend getaway. Case in point this past weekend. A little over a year ago we did the exactly that, we booked a quick weekend getaway to Indian Wells, CA for the Indian Wells tennis tournament (PNP Paribas Open). We got an amazing deal at the time for a two bedroom villa, booked it, and enjoyed a great weekend. Why do I bring this up? Well I posted a YouTube video of the room and we were contacted by the Hyatt and thanked for the video and asked if we would want to come back, and of course our instant answer was of course, so they comped us two nights in a one bedroom villa.

So a year later we took the nice people over at Hyatt up on their offer and enjoyed a fantastic weekend at the Hyatt Grand Champions. In fact in the tradition with the last time we went to their hotel I took a video of our room. I apologize for the poor lighting in the video but I wanted to make sure I took video while the room was still some what orderly.

We had such an amazing weekend. We got down to the hotel at around 4:30pm Friday 6/25/10 and checked in with relative ease considering the massive line of people checking in. We got into our first villa which sadly did not have a spa in the backyard area, so Jenn called up and they moved us right away to a unit that did. Once settled in we went to a Yelp.com suggestion of Ristorante Mamma Gina’s an upscale Italian restaurant. We shared an order of calamari while Jenn ordered her normal pasta with meat sauce and I had a pasta with a red pepper sauce and shrimp. I had a very good creme brule for desert while once again Jenn went with her go-to vanilla ice cream. It was a lovely (albeit a bit pricey) evening dinner that was really a wonderful start to the weekend. Saturday came around and Jenn was making sure that we got out their to enjoy the 105+ degree temperatures by laying out by the pool. First I managed to have her let me watch the US World Cup game in between laying out. We did enjoy a number of Pina Colada’s at the poolside bar. For the most part we just took it easy throughout Saturday laying out by the beautiful pool taking in the rays.

Saturday evening we ventured out of the resort and went out to dinner at Outback where we got our classic lineup of wings, prime rib, and our favorite desert in the world the cinnamon oblivion. We went to go see Toy Story 3 that night in 3D which was a great movie, it 100% kept true to the Toy Story series. One observation that both Jenn and I had about the Pixar movies as of late is that they have been a lot more heavy handed then some of their earlier films. The weekend wrapped up much like it started laying out by the pool and just enjoying every minute of being away from the normal day to day.

This weekend was the perfect weekend getaway and we really appreciate the nice people over at the Hyatt Grand Champions for giving us the opportunity to come back. This once again reiterated in both Jenn and my minds how much we love to travel. Which in fact we are not done doing in 2010 we have a few more trips planned throughout the rest of the year that we cannot wait to plan and enjoy.

I have wanted to do this for a long time. Being an avid gamer and movie watcher I know how much I have been missing out on experiencing all of this in surround sound. Living last year in an apartment and now in a townhome both Jenn and I have been leery of even purchasing surround sound given that we don’t want to drill any un-needed holes in the wall nor the ceiling to hide the rear cabling. Well recently I was fortunate enough to receive some kudos points (my job gives these award points that you can buy stuff with when you do a good job) this week so I decided to splurge and get some surround sound speakers.

After doing hours upon hours of research I decided to go with the Sony HTS-S370 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers. I decided to go with this unit for three reasons. First off the rear two speakers are wireless so I don’t have to take a cable from the TV to the back of our living room. Second I didn’t need a blu-ray player since I already have a PS3. And last but not least I just loved the look for this unit over the others in the same price range. These are not the most powerful speakers out there but that was on purpose since I don’t want to drive our neighbors crazy.

I have heard there are some challenges with getting the wireless rear speakers to work but I am hoping I am fortunate enough not to have this problem. I have to admit I am hoping to get these in time to test them out with the Lost finale only a few weeks away! Hopefully they come in time!

As I was rushing around getting as much as I could done before the work week I walked upstairs to our family room to find our TV still on CBS after The Masters, it was 60 minutes. I have never been a big fan of 60 Minutes, in fact I can’t remember the last time I watched it. However last night I caught the last few minutes and saw Andy Rooney talking about how fast life goes by. It was was a subtle yet effective reminder that time goes by far to quick. To me its great to have things to look forward to, but don’t loose sight to our great today is.

I have to admit this past weekend is a bit of a blur. In many ways I am glad it went so fast I have never really “moved” before. When Jenn and I got our first place we had little to nothing to bring with us, and a year later we had a jam packed one bedroom apartment and it took us quite a bit of time to box it up. Speaking of boxing it up, Jenn just so happened to come down with a cold on the week we were moving which left me to pack up 95% of the place. I say it was a bit convenient but hey that’s just me. Before I get into the moving process here is the video of Jenn and I when we got our keys to our town home. You can take a tour of the place before we moved anything in, which honestly now that I look back seems like years ago.

So onto the moving experience. As I have never moved before I hadn’t had any experience with “movers” before so I just went off google reviews and Jenn and I picked Excalibur Moving. They had given us a window of 12pm-6pm for our moving so Jenn and I moved all day Saturday morning (March 27th). So after spending all of Friday night and Saturday morning moving we headed to Islands at around noon to get some lunch. No later then about 5 minutes after we sat down and had already ordered the movers called and said they would be there in a half hour. So we got our food to go, and ran back to the apartment where the movers came right on time.

When we reserved the movers we got a 2 man crew, well wouldn’t you know it four guys showed up. We ended up working out a deal to pay the same amount we would have for 2 with the 4 which did end up getting us moved out of the apartment much quicker. They got the apartment packed up in an hour and unpacked at our townhome in less then an hour. We spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and are continuing to do so throughout the week to get ready for our mini goldendoodle puppy this weekend. What a crazy couple of weeks.

By this point in our trip Jenn and I have completely given up on trying to adjust to Barcelona’s time, it is just not going to happen. So we ended up getting to sleep at around 5am and woke up close to 1pm. We headed down to the concierge to have him print out our boarding passes for our flight back to LAX tomorrow. After we got that taken care of and had our boarding passes prepared we were off to enjoy the day. Jenn had one more place she wanted to check off her list before leaving Barcelona and that was the Sagrada Familia one of the “must see’s” according to the few travel websites we read before coming. Instead of taking a taxi, or any form of public transportation to the Sagrada Familia, Jenn thought it would be a lot of fun to walk from our hotel to the church. She spent about fifteen minutes mapping out our route, and then we were off.

Yesterday proved to be a rather interesting diversion in the weather because at no time in the weather forecast did it call for snow, although that is exactly what it did for most of the day. However if you came in to Barcelona today you would have had no idea that the weather had been anything but sunny as the weather outside was as close to perfect as you could possibly get. The sun was shining, there was a nice light breeze, and everything just smelled fresh. Jenn did an amazing job mapping out our route and we made it there in a little over an hour with no navigational issues as at all. I am so glad we chose to walk it was nice to get out of the tourist areas of Barcelona and take in some of the more less traveled areas of the city. When we did make it to the Sagrada Familia it was as breathtaking as you would expect, and yet it still has a long way to go before it is complete. We had seen the Sagrada Familia earlier in the trip on the bus tour but this was something you really did need to walk around and experience first hand at least on the outside. We were so impressed by the outside of the massive building that we paid the 12 euro per person entree fee to see inside and boy was that a mistake. The inside is so far from complete and was being constructed on all over the place that you really could not appreciate anything inside. I am really glad we made the trek to see the Sagrada Familia even if touring the inside wasn’t necessary the experience was perfect.

Jenn Leading the Way to the Sagrada Familia

Double checking the map to make sure we are on the right track!

Standing in front of the Sagrada Familia

Jenn giving a great shot of me standing on the other side of the Sagrada Familia

On our journey back to our hotel we stopped at a modern restaurant called Brown 33, by far the most modern restaurant we ate at all trip. I started off with the house white wine and Jenn stuck with water. For starters I went with the shrimp tempura with rumescu and Jenn went with a vegetable soup. For our main course we switched roles as Jenn went with a four cheese pizza and I went with Tagliatelini (fresh pasta) with Pesto Oil. This was a great meal, and the atmosphere  was exactly what Jenn and I look for. In fact we were joking on our way out of the restaurant that if we were to ever open a restaurant it would look a lot like Brown 33.

The front of Brown 33

Enjoying a European Tradition, a Glass of Wine

I wish there was more, the Shrimp Tempura was delicious

A very nice size portion of the vegetable soup

Fresh Pasta with Pesto

Jenn went with the delicious four cheese pizza

On our way back from Brown 33 to our hotel Jenn decided she wanted to stop off and do some shopping something I had fortunately avoided for the majority of the trip. We ended up going to an H&M which are all of the US and also all over Barcelona which made Jenn’s day. An hour or two later we got out of H&M after Jenn had tried on half of the store and purchasing the other half we headed back to our hotel. We decided to hit up the hotels cafe to relax a bit after our long journey and I enjoyed a nice cappuccino while Jenn enjoyed her hot chocolate. It is times like sitting in the cafe talking about the trip that truly make trips memorable and to sit back and talk with Jenn about this entire trip over some nice warm drinks was a perfect end to the afternoon.

Jenn never leaves anywhere empty handed.

We ended up heading back to the room to rest for a few hours while we awaited the Opera that we had tickets for this evening at 8pm. I decided to take a power nap while Jenn played a bunch of games on her iPhone. When 7:30 rolled around we left the hotel and walked down to the Gran Teatre Del Licue (5 minute walk) to see La Fille Du Regiment. We had bought tickets a few days prior but at the time tickets were extremely limited so we purchased what they called “limited view” seats and boy were they not kidding. You literally had to hold your neck under or over a railing to see 1/2 to 3/4 of the stage. In the end it really didn’t matter to much the Opera was of course in Spanish and it was immediately apparent that neither Jenn or I had a clue what was going on and that wasn’t going to change whether I was in the front row or the back alley. The experience however was what we came for and that is exactly what we got. It is truly amazing that people are so gifted with such amazing voices to carry in such a large theater and to captivate an audience. The theater itself was spectacular, not as pristine as that of which we saw in Paris but it was gorgeous all the same. Although I couldn’t tell you what the Opera was about (besides what the program said) nor could I say what happened at the back left part of the stage, but what I can say is it is one of those things that you have to do when your in Barcelona and I know Jenn and I are glad we did.

Our partial view of La Fille Du Regiment at the Gran Teatre Del Licue

Beautiful atmosphere for an Opera

Taking in all of the sights at the Gran Teatre Del Licue

After the Opera Jenn and I headed back to the hotel for our last meal in Barcelona once again at the Cent 111 Once. I once again went with their set menu this time though I had a potato soup with almonds and parmesan cheese, chicken a la chilidron, and truffle served in a glass with tangerine and strawberry ice cream. Jenn being Mrs. Consistent went with the filet of beef and vanilla ice cream. It was a superb final meal in Barcelona and one that lasted for over two hours with us talking about the trip, the opera, and of course our upcoming journey back home. It is hard to put into words how great our final day in Barcelona ended up being, but I will say this we are leaving Barcelona having seen and done everything we wanted to do, and that is all you can ever ask for our of a trip.

Potato soup with Almonds and Parmesan Cheese

My second course the chicken a la chilidron

Jenn’s favorite food in the whole world, filet of beef.

A Nice Light Desert, truffle served in a glass with tangerine and strawberry ice cream

It couldn’t be our last meal in Spain without Jenn getting vanilla ice cream.

After one of the best meals of the trip last night I fell asleep within seconds of hitting the sack, while Jenn on the other hand did everything but sleep. At around 1:30am I heard Jenn still awake and so we turned on the TV to see if there was anything in English we could bare to watch. After doing a little surfing we found a German television station showing the Academy Awards Red Carpet Special. Every year for the past four years Jenn and I have put together a little party for the two of us to pick the winners and enjoy the Oscars, so having this one was quite the treat. The red carpet coverage was for the majority of the time broadcast in German but they did have quick points of English thrown in depending on who the host was talking to on the red carpet. However to our delight when the Oscars did begin it was 100% in English which to be honest we were really excited about. I am not sure if it was the fact that we hadn’t had anything to watch on TV the entire trip, or that Jenn was wide awake in the middle of the night but we did enjoy this years Academy Awards, although didn’t love the duo of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. The show ended at 6am Barcelona time so we went to sleep just as the sun was starting to rise and at that time it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.

Watching the Red Carpet Show & The Academy Awards in Barcelona

I ended up waking up at around 1pm and looked outside and to my utter surprise that snow was coming down. After waking up Jenn to show her the snow fall we decided to get ready for the day and go check it out. After going outside to just see how it felt we ended up heading off to lunch at a very modern restaurant on La Rambla called The Attic. Given the snow I decided to wear my trusty Angels hat which actually got Jenn and I talking to one of the restaurants waiters who was from La Habra and of course recognized my hat and told us that he used to live out in California for a while. It is always interesting how much more pride you have in where you live when you are overseas and how you do still seem to always come across people who live in the same areas as you do. We started off our meal at The Attic with Cod Fitters and Bread with Tomatoes, Jenn went with a filet (no surprise there) and I had a shoulder of lamb. By the time we finished this extremely tasty lunch the weather outside had really started to pick up and the snow was really starting to come down.

The Snow is Just Starting to Fall

Our First Starter: Cod Fritters

Our Second Starter: Toasted Bread with Tomatoes

My Shoulder of Lamb

Jenn’s Filet of Beef

A Great View of the Snow Falling from The Attic looking At Our Hotel Le Meridien

Being from an area which never experiences snow, and only being in snow a handful of times Jenn and I had a boost of adrenaline from what might otherwise be an inconvenience to a trip, especially from those trying to get away from this kind of weather. So for fun Jenn and I decided to walk up and down La Rambla and just take it all in. We ended up heading down towards the end of the street where the Opera House is to see if there was anyway we could pick up our tickets for the following night. After a few minutes on this walk we realized we were under prepared and under dressed for this sort of weather and quickly realized the weather was winning the battle. We ended up getting our tickets at the Opera House (unlike directions we had been previously given from our Hotel which said we had to get them at these ATM’s) and literally speed walked back to our hotel.  When we got back to the hotel we decided to stop at the hotels coffee shop where I had a Espresso and Jenn went with a really good hot chocolate. After the warming break we decided that it would be much more intelligent to watch the snow come down from our nice toasty room, so that is exactly what we did.

Walking on La Rambla in the Snow!!

I Wish I had More then a T-Shirt On Underneath the Jacket!

Some Much Needed Warmth from the Cool Snowy Day in Barcelona

Keeping in mind that we wanted to relax, we decided to call it a day and just watch the beautiful snow come down through La Rambla from our hotel room. I have to admit that watching the roofs get covered in pure white and just sitting back and enjoying the trip, this was one of those feelings that you think can only happen in movies. We ended up ordering room service for dinner, where Jenn got spaghetti with tomato sauce with vanilla ice cream, and I had a club sandwich. Today ended up being a really relaxing day, starting it off watch the Academy Awards and finishing it watching the sun go down and the streetlights highlight all of the days snow throughout La Rambla. We cannot wait to see what our last day in Barcelona has in store for us.

Snow Filled Rooftops (View from our Room)

Tree Branches Are Covered With Snow

Much Heavier Snow.. Beautiful Shot Across from our Hotel Room

Club Sandwich from Room Service

Our Room Service Meal