DLR APH.. Huh?

Disneyland Annual Pass Holder…

That’s what I became last weekend. After having gone to Disneyworld and Disneyland so many times over the years, I finally decided the fun never wears out and you can never get tired of or outgrow these places. With Disneyland only an hour’s drive away, I now plan to go back MANY times. ‘A’ was out of town, so I played single mom and took three kids there for 13 fun-filled hours last Sunday.

What a BLAST we had! Of course, there was a lot of build-up prior to this day because, quite simply, my kids are CUCKOO over pin trading. I’d say they’re just a lil’ bit obsessed.. Okay, so I am, too.

For those of you non-fanatics, Disney Pins are a hot collectible that have been around for years. What I love about them is that aside from being super cute, they are small and do not take up a lot of space.

When you start, you typically purchase a booster set that includes a lanyard stocked with 4 or more pins. You can then begin trading with cast members (Disney Park employees) or other willing collectors. While many people will just buy and trade pins that appeal to them in the moment, others will stick to a certain theme. Having a theme is great because it can help keep you stay focused in dealing with the overwhelming selection of pins available.

My son, for example, focuses mostly on Stitch pins and Mickey Mouse pins. My daughter loves Ariel/ The Little Mermaid pins as well as other princess pins. And I love the VILLAINS (esp. Ursula the Sea Witch and Cruella) as well as any mother-related pins like Mrs. Incredible, Lady and her puppies, Perdita and her pups, Nani and Lilo, Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother etc.

Here's my personal favorite from my collection:

And then there’s the Cast Member only pins or “Hidden Mickeys” that we love to gather. These are the pins that you can’t buy. They can only be acquired by trading for them with a cast member. They have a tiny little mouse ears logo stamped on the pin (hence “hidden Mickey”) as an indicator. I swear my son can spot these from a mile away. He will always try to acquire these even if it doesn’t fit into his themes because they can be valuable when trading with others.

*Sigh* I must say, we spent just as much time trading pins as we did going on rides. We just can’t get enough of the magic right now. We’ll probably go back every other weekend not to mention our upcoming trip to Disneyworld over Thanksgiving… Crazy, I know.

What can I say? Catch the fever and trade with us!

Fifty's back!

OMG.. I am loving the new track, "Peep Show"-- Fifty is HOTTTTTTT. This track. His voice. They absolutely LIGHT my fire. Throw in a little Eminem and forget about it. Now it's my latest ring tone and pole dance song.

He is the KING of Hip Hop. (Nice try, Kanye.)

YouTube Crazy

Do I love YouTube or what? It seems in every other post, I include some zany video clip.

Really, though, what an insane success story YouTube is. It was founded in February 2005 as a medium to allow people to upload and share video clips (some serious, some just plain whacked out). And just twenty months later, Google acquired YouTube for a hefty $1.65 BILLION in stock. 20 months! Today, YouTube delivers 100 million video views daily with 65,000 new videos uploaded each day.

And I am a happy contributor. Lucky for you, today I'm sparing you the horrifying Britney Spears performance at the VMA's as well as the equally mortifying display by her number one fan, Chris Crocker. (Congrats on making Yahoo! front page..)

No, rather, in the spirit of back to school, check out this video below highlighting how an eleven year old girl gets herself to and from the classroom.

In Full Fall Force…

Well, vacations are over. Labor Day is behind us. School has started across the country. The US Open tennis tournament wrapped up on Sunday. And, the VMA’s have come and gone (Poor Britney.)

For many of us, the next three months will be our busiest of the year. If you’re in business, it’s crazy 4th quarter time with mega-preparations for 2008. If you’re a mom, it’s homework galore, child taxi-ing and holiday insanity coupled with numerous family gatherings. And if you’re both like me, well, this is what I tell myself, “Everything will be fine, just put on a little lipstick.”

Really, what more can you do?

Hmmm… yeah, I guess going to a Justin Timberlake concert could certainly lighten things up a bit. Anyone have tickets for this Sunday’s LA show???

Lookin' to go, lookin' to go...

US Open Fever

During this week's match between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer, John McEnroe and Ted Robinson surprised viewers with a special guest commentator--- tennis royalty, Angre Agassi!! The first 2 sets were fantastically close and exciting to watch, but I think I had even more fun listening to Agassi speak about the player's games. Wow. He had such insightful comments and observations. I hope to see him do more of this in the future.

Here's one of my favorite commercials:

This One Just In...

Here’s another shot from the party. It’s me and ‘J’ (a two-set) with Mystery and his wingman, Matador, from “The Pickup Artist” on VH1.




Check ‘em out.

My Night at the Playboy Mansion

Whew! What a NIGHT!! A bunch of us were shuttled over to the mansion from our hotel (Hyatt Century Plaza) at 7pm. When we arrived, we were greeted by a red carpet-- paparazzi style, photos and all. I made a beeline for the bar and started with a lovely vodka-mixed drink. Took the tour, checked out the celebrity wares up for silent auction, chatted with some bunnies, and wafted in all the dinner eats made by Hef’s personal chef.

The rest of the evening was a pleasant blur. In a word: tequila. In two words: Patron Silver. Aaaaaaaaahh, talk about Premium. As I was downing shot after shot, I kept thinking of those lewd t-shirts in Ft. Lauderdale and one in particular that read, “One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, FLOOR!”

Luckily, I never hit the floor. I even managed to make a few flies on the free-standing pole. And yes, I swam in the grotto! All in all, it was a fabulous time. I met some great people and had an absolute blast.

There was an after party back at the hotel and believe it or not, I even made it to the after-after party. I made it back to my room at 4am and even remembered to set my alarm for 7am. Oooh, waking up to that was PAINFUL. I had to make the 2 hour drive back to San Diego to take my beautiful daughter to her ballet class. Couldn’t miss that. Then after ballet it was my son’s soccer game followed by a skateboarding lesson. All of this sans Tylenol. Didn't want to overload my poor liver anymore than I already had... Goes to show what hangovers will do to your logical thought processes.

At 2pm, I nearly passed out while driving home. I don’t know how I made it. But when I did, I crashed hard and slept ‘til Sunday!!!!

Thanks for everything, Hef!