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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

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.

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