Up Close & Personal with a 747

After our adventure at Disneyland this morning, Jen and Callum dropped me at LAX airport so that I could get on a plane to Austin, Texas for the next few days for a conference.

We arrived at the airport a little early so I had time to kill after I once again braved the inhumanity that is airport security these days. So I hit the Frequent Flyers Club and watched some football.

While sitting there I noticed an Australian icon going past.



But then something quite impressive happened, they towed that bad boy right into the gate near where I was sitting. In fact when I say "near", that is probably the biggest understatement of the year. Check out the photo below.



By the time they finished manouvering it around, I think the front tip of the nose of the plane was probably less than 4 meters (12 ft) from my feet. I just sat there, didn't move and they pulled it right up to me. Very cool.

Now if only it had been one of their new A380s - now that would have been something.

CHOC Walk

This morning, was the fundraising walk for the Children's Hospital of Orange County (you may recall I mentioned it previously). Between the two of us, we raised $400 for the cause and got out of bed at an ungodly hour today to do the walk.

The walk was 5km long (3.1 miles) and the course was laid out through both the Disneyland park and also the California Adventure park. I am not sure how many people participated but it must have been in the vicinity of 10,000.

One aspect of the day that Jen and I had not expected was that there were a lot of groups walking together in support of a specific sick child who is being treated by the hospital and in some cases the groups were walking in memory of a child who had been treated at the hospital but had lost their battle. You don't have to see too many t-shirts that say things like "Walking in loving memory of ..." and have dates like "2001 to 2006" on them before it gets you a little choked up, especially as we walked along with our exceptionally healthy baby.

Anyway, Jen got a little snap happy with the camera while we were there and I took a couple of photos too when I could wrestle the camera away from here. We took so many that we put them in an album instead of trying to put them here in the blog. So here you go:

CHOC Walk 2008

Callum With the Giggles

Here is a video of Jen playing with Callum which shows of Callum's newly discovered giggling ability.



Here is some more of it. This one goes a little "Blair Witch" in the middle when Jen try's to adjust angle mid-stream, but if it doesn't make you sea-sick, it does get better.

BMW For Sale, Slight Fire Damage

Coming home from work this afternoon, I came over the rise on the toll-road next to our apartment complex and I caught site of a huge plume of black smoke coming from the exact direction of our apartment.

After I busted out a few colorful words and my heart started again, I exited the toll-road and got caught in some traffic on the exit ramp. I snapped this photo while I was waiting to get up to the lights to see exactly what was on fire.



Finally when I got to the intersection, it turned out it was not the apartment complex, but a black BMW SUV which had "left" the road and hit an electrical transformer.



The building in the background of that photo is our apartment complex.

Here are some of our neighbors nervously watching the fire creep down the hill towards their garages.



Anyway, since the BMW decided to hit an electrical transformer our entire apartment complex was without electricity. There was some chaos as people realized that the automatic garage doors weren't working so no one could park their cars. Also, those who already had their cars in their garages couldn't get them out - like our neighbor the nurse who needed to leave for work. We saw a bunch of people coming in with pizza and other fast food, since there was not going to be any kitchen action.

So, if you are in the market for 2nd hand BMW, I think there is a bargain available in the Aliso Viejo area.

BTW, since I am posting this, you can safely assume that yes, we have electricity back, and no it did not take all night.

Patriots @ Chargers

Jen and I went to an NFL game this afternoon down in San Diego (the closest pro football team to us). Of course, it was not a coincidence that the San Diego team was playing against my team, the Patriots.

The game didn't end well from my point of view (ie. the Patriots lost), but it is still always fun to wear the opposition's colors into someone else's stadium!

The Cat is Away (Again)

Callum and I are bachelors again this week until Friday night. Jen is off to "exciting" Tulsa, Oklahoma today for work. I am not expecting quite as many photos from her on this trip as her trip to Manhattan the other week!

This means I am sick-kid-duty solo for the next few days. Callum woke up Thursday morning with a crazy cough and some congestion. We ended up taking him to the doctor Thursday afternoon, where he was diagnosed with Croup. So far everything has gone as the doctor predicted with him being worse Thursday and Friday nights and then starting to get better Saturday night onwards. Fingers crossed this continues, as my sister had Croup when we were kids and she ended up in hospital for days in an oxygen tent. Not good.

Beer Tour w/ Brian and Nikki

This afternoon we took our friends Brian and Nikki who are visiting from Colorado to a couple of the fine beer establishments in the area. First we stopped at Pizza Port in San Clemente for lunch (of pizza and beer).

Next stop was Port Brewing / Lost Abbey Brewery in San Marcos. Jen and I hadn't been here before, but we will certainly be returning - definitely worth the visit. Here are some photos.






Lastly we ended at Stone Brewing Company for dinner. What can I say, we just can't get enough of that place.