Uva Bar and Cafe - grand re-opening June 6, 2012

The downstairs cafe attached to Catal Restaurant, known as the Uva Bar, has been closed for a little while as they re-designed the outdoor seating section and re-vamped the menu.  The Uva Bar was set to re-open to the public on Thursday, June 7, 2012, but there was a grand re-opening party on Wednesday, June 6, 2012, which we were lucky to have been invited to.  The servers came around with samples of many of the items on the menu as well as off the new drink menu.  There was also a band who provided lovely music during the event.

The outdoor seating now has very short shrubbery, and the space has been expanded a bit as well, allowing for more tables and a more open-air feel.

The decor has been changed quite a bit, with vibrant colors and funky designs and some interesting tables as well.

It's a surfboard table!

The new look of the bar.  The TVs have been removed, and there were no chairs out during the event.

But of course, the most important things were the food and drinks!

Uva mule - vodka, fresh house-made ginger syrup, lime juice, soda water and mint.

I love ginger, so when I heard there was ginger in this drink, I knew I had to try it.  But even I wasn't prepared for exactly how ginger-y it was.  It's not just ginger-flavored like you'd get in a liquer, but there's actual crushed/shredded/squished ginger in the drink.  And the ginger definitely gives the drink a distinctive bite.  I very much enjoyed this drink.

Returning to the menu is the lamb burger, and slider versions were available for sampling.  Very nicely done, and very tasty.

Lamb slider - house ground lamb, piquillo peppers, feta, arugula, lemon dill aioli, pickled red onion on brioche bun.

Also making a return to the menu are the tuna tartare tacos.  Tuna sashimi in a tiny taco shell - what's not to love?

Tuna tartare tacos - crispy taco with fresh ahi tuna, crushed avocado, shaved radish, soy vinaigrette and micro cilantro.

Bacalao can also be found on the menu at Catal Restaurant upstairs.

Bacalao - salt cod fritters, malt vinegar aioli, sprout salad and lemon vinaigrette.

Shishito peppers have also previously been available on Catal Restaurant's menu.

Shishito peppers with sea salt and lemon garlic emulsion.

One of the new items to the menu, and a particular favorite of mine, is the octopus salad.  The sauce does have a bit of a bite to it, which I loved.  And the octopus was nicely cooked, not too rubbery like it can be if not cooked properly.

Octopus a la plancha - "banh mi" salad, charred scallion crema, Ho Chi Minh vinaigrette.

Another of the delicious new dishes is the corn arepas.

Corn arepas - seared corn cakes topped with pulled pork, mojo sauce, cilantro and shaved red onion.

The Uva Bar has previously had flatbread, but this is a new flavor.

Market tomato flatbread - fresh mozzarella, Calabrian chilies, chorizo picante, oregano and extra virgin olive oil.

Another of the new dishes I really liked was the shrimp cocktail.

Shrimp coctel - laughing bird shrimp, spicy tomato sauce, jalapeno, cucumber, lime and cilantro.

There are some new desserts on the menu as well, including ice cream sandwiches and milkshakes.

Orange 50/50 milkshake.

Mocha milkshakes.

Ice cream sandwiches, which were quickly melting.

We had noticed that there were many new glassware designs in use as well, so we ended up getting some drinks in the new glasses.  The darker one on the right is a blackberry gimlet, the middle one is a raspberry gimlet, and I can't remember what the one on the left is, except I believe it was also raspberry based.

There was an abundance of glassware and drinks around.

Here's the new menu for the Uva Bar.

(Click on the picture for a larger, more readable version of the menu.)

We had a lovely time, enjoying all of the delicious food and tasty drinks and just spending time with friends and catching up with some of the Uva Bar employees.  As it got later in the evening, the lights in the bar came up, so here are some pictures of the bar and seating areas.

The top portion above the bar changes colors.

Bar chairs have been added to the bar area.

Purse hooks have been added under the bar.

A closer look at a purse hook.

Round seating is now available at the Uva Bar.

Regular chairs are available as well.

What does it look like under the cushion?

Close-up of the design on the planters.

All of the things we tried were delicious, and we're looking forward to returning to the Uva Bar.  The only difficulty will be deciding what to order!


P.S.  Thanks to Matt M., who took many of the pictures you see above.

Disneyland Annual Passholder Fantasmic 20th Anniversary event - May 14, 2012

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the debut of Fantasmic, Disneyland announced plans to host 4 nights of special showings for annual passholders, on May 14, 15, 21 and 22.  These sounded similar to the Soundsational nights that had been held last summer, which we really enjoyed.

I arrived around 4:30pm on May 14 and looked around to see what the evening would entail.  I was able to obtain a copy of the program which included a lot of details.

Click on the picture for a larger version.

As indicated on the front of the handout, the special merchandise was available at Pioneer Mercantile (at the front of Frontierland, next to the restrooms between Adventureland and Frontierland) and at Port Royale (in New Orleans Square, in what was formerly Le Bat en Rouge).  Both locations had the same merchandise, a t-shirt and a zippered fleece with a hood.  Port Royale also had the soundtrack for Fantasmic, but I believe it was the same CD that has been available.  The items are behind the counter, so you need to ask a cast member for what you want.

The pricing for the anniversary apparel.

The logo on the front of the t-shirt is the same as the logo on the back of the zippered fleece.

T-shirt on display with stack of zippered fleece to the right.

The zippered fleece is not very thick but is a lighter fleece.  With the main logo on the back, the front top left has a smaller logo on it.

Both the t-shirt and the zippered fleece have the anniversary date on the sleeve.

I was really happy to see this date on the apparel.

The back of the event program gave details about where the party was situated and what treats would be available for the event.

Click on the picture for a larger version.

As stated on the program, only Adventureland, Frontierland and New Orleans Square would be open for the event.

French Market in New Orleans Square had several items specific to the event.

French Dip Sandwich with N'Orleans Chips at  French Market for $12.99.

The French Dip is what I ended up having for dinner, and I really liked it.  The bread was a nice firmness, not too hard and not too soft.  The meat was nicely cooked and had good flavor.  Rather than dipping the sandwich, I instead used a spoon to drizzle the au jus on each part of the sandwich as I ate it, so it didn't get too soggy, and the flavor of the au jus was delicious.  Instead of the chips, I was able to substitute cooked mixed vegetables instead.  With the meat and bread of the sandwich, having the vegetables and the grapes nicely rounded out the meal.

Popcorn Shrimp Basket with Slaw at French Market for $12.99.

The popcorn shrimp looked ok, but since I'd just had quite a bit of really good shrimp the day before, I had decided to have the French Dip instead.

Fantasmic cupcake available at French Market and River Belle Terrace.

The Mickey picture, the dragon and the ball are all edible.  Some of the cupcakes we saw on display were missing the dragon, and we joked that it was themed for the nights when the dragon is being temperamental and decides not to make an appearance.  I don't know what flavor the cupcake or frosting is.

River Belle Terrace had a few items we considered for dinner as well.

Open Face New York Steak Sandwich at River Belle Terrace.

An Open Face Turkey Sandwich is available as well.


The two table-service restaurants also had special items on their menus.

Special items at Cafe Orleans.

Special items at Blue Bayou.

The program also indicated that a souvenir popcorn bucket was available at the popcorn carts in Frontierland and New Orleans Square.  I had run into some friends, so we decided to go check out the popcorn bucket, which unfortunately was very disappointing to us.  The bucket said "Disney Parks" instead of Disneyland, which I don't much like but have gotten used to because it means Disney intends to sell that merchandise at both the Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort.  What we found really odd, though, was that not only was there no reference to the 20th anniversary, Fantasmic itself wasn't even identified on the bucket.  It had Sorcerer Mickey fighting Maleficent the dragon, but the scene makes it look like they're on a theatre stage, with a few of the Fab Five characters sitting in cushioned individual theatre seats watching, as Ursula, Jafar, Scar and one or two other villains look on from Maleficent's side.  Neither the California nor Florida version of the show are performed in an inside theatre, so the choice of that setting was really odd.  I also wasn't happy that they chose to include villains like Jafar and Scar, who appear in the Disney's Hollywood Studios version of the show, but not Disneyland's version.  So we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of the show at Disneyland, which originated in Disneyland, but there is no reference to either the anniversary or the show name itself on the bucket, and they're more referencing the Orlando version of the show?  That just seems wrong.  A few of us had considered getting the popcorn bucket, but not once we saw the design they chose to use on it.


And while I'm on a rant, here's a note to the Disney folk on another topic.

 
Your program indicates that a premium chili cheese dog and the bacon mac-n-cheese dog are available at "Harbor Gallery".  You might want to know that the *actual* name of the dining location near Haunted Mansion is Harbor Galley.  I'm not generally bothered by guests who don't know the real names of restaurants, shops or attractions.  (If a random guest asks me if I know where the "haunted house" is, I just point them towards the Haunted Mansion without chastising them for not knowing its proper name since I know not everyone is as familiar with the park as some of us are.)  But I would think that an official publication from the park itself would properly indicate the names of its locations.


By the time I was done perusing everything, it was about 7pm, and the rest of my party were arriving at Disneyland, so we went to check in.  The person who has the voucher needs to check in at one of the ticket booths, and all of the guests also need to present their APs.  You then get a "receipt" that you present to one of the cast members standing next to the ticket booths, who then put a wristband on each person, and you can get your program from them as well.  Now in possession of our magic wristbands, we went back into the park and headed to dinner.


After dinner, the husband and I bid farewell to our friends and headed to Fantasyland.  We had a rather interesting and enjoyable ride on Storybook, and then we ended up chatting with a cast member at the nearby chalet kiosk.  By the time we were done, the park was officially closed since it was just after 10pm.  We headed back through Fantasyland to make our way to the Rivers of America, but we discovered that the big gate that leads from Fantasyland to Big Thunder Trail was closed.  We figured that was an easier way to help sweep the park of non-event guests since it was now a dead-end.

We then headed back towards the hub and then towards the Frontierland entrance, which was blocked off by cast members who allowed through people with wristbands.  We made our way in and made a stop at the restroom, and a cast member was stationed at the door to check wristbands as well.  I heard some women inside complaining about having to have a wristband to use the restroom, and I just metaphorically shook my head at their being so non-understanding.  There were other restrooms in the park that non-event guests could still use - it was just THIS restroom that they were monitoring, because it was inside the closed-off event zone.

We headed to the Rivers of America, which hadn't been all that crowded when we'd left French Market but which was now quite full.  We walked around for a bit and then found a little bit of space in the back of a section right in front of Cafe Orleans.  I'm used to not having a particularly good view of Fantasmic since I can't see over many people, made worse when people insist on placing children on their shoulders, turning them into 7 foot giants and making it impossible to see for those unlucky enough to be standing behind them.  If I really want to see the show, then I make it a point of planning and arriving earlier, but I was content to just be able to see part of the show.  I had a decent view of most of the stage, so that was fine.

The show started with a small extra segment, showing the 20th anniversary logo and then footage from some of the news stories at the time, announcing the debut of Fantasmic.  There were also glimpses of some rehearsal footage as well as credits for the show, which we thought was terrific of them to do.

And then came the show itself!

It was a terrific show as usual, even though it was unfortunate that Flotsam and Jetsam were missing from the show.  We laughed at the Peter Pan segment because the first cannon from the Columbia usually startles the audience, eliciting jumpy movements and shouts or screams from them.  In this case, nothing, no reaction.  That's how you can tell it was an AP crowd!  :)

During the Mark Twain segment, we were surprised to see some characters we don't normally see on there, like the characters from Splash Mountain (just from the ride, nope, there's no movie it's based on), and the very top back of the Twain is usually occupied by Woody and Buzz and 2 green army men, but instead on this night, it was the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.

The end of the show was met with much applause.  We hung around to listen to the end of the exit music as we normally do.  I happened to look up at what used to be the Disney Gallery and is now the Dream Suite, and I remembered the one time I attended the dessert buffet up there.  It is the perfect view of Fantasmic.  I'm still sad that we don't have the opportunity to see the show from there anymore, even for one more time.

After Fantasmic was completely finished, we then rode Haunted Mansion, and then hung around some more as we stood near Harbor Galley to watch the Columbia being docked.  We eventually made our way toward Main Street, noticing that some of the restaurants were still open.

As we neared Main Street, we could hear the strains of Fantasmic and realized that they'd replaced the normal Main Street music with the exit music from Fantasmic, which can be heard as part of the music loop being played in the esplanade between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.  We wondered if the music was repeating so sat down to listen, and yep, it would finish and then start up again.  At 1:00 am, in the middle of the song, the voice of Disneyland came over the intercom to thank everyone for coming and to wish everyone a good evening.  We waited a little longer to see if that would be the end of the loop, but when it started again, we got up to leave.

Heading towards Town Square, we noticed that various of the Fantasmic characters were standing up on the train station, much like how they had characters there at the end of the 24-hour Leap Day earlier in the year.  The last ones to leave were the florescent monkeys and the Evil Queen herself, so we got to see them for a few seconds.

We had a wonderful time, and thanks to Disneyland for putting on these kinds of events for annual passholders.

Napa Rose - dinner review - May 4, 2012

On our previous visit to Napa Rose, we'd seen a few things on the regular menu that we'd wanted to try, but the Vintner's Menu that night was too good to pass up.  So we had decided that we'd try to return on another night and hope that the Vintner's Menu wasn't too tempting.  We mentioned this to our server and one of the chefs, who were amused but totally understanding of our predicament.  We were in luck!  The Vintner's Menu for the week was ok but not completely calling to us, so we could order from the regular menu.

Executive Chef Andrew Sutton, Chef Francisco and Chef Gloria were all absent this night - I figured they were all busily preparing for the opening of the new restaurant in DCA - but we were happy to have Chef Alex there.  We decided to ask him for the five-course tasting menu (with no rabbit included) but with two special requests for each of us.  I'd wanted to try the strawberry chicken salad and the salmon carpaccio, but there was a new zucchini blossom starter on the menu, and I *love* zucchini blossoms.  I didn't want to request too many specific things, so I just asked for the salad and the zucchini blossom.  The carpaccio would have to wait for another time, if I get the chance.  The husband's two special requests were the zucchini blossom and the venison main course.

I can't remember what the amuse bouche was and I didn't take a picture of it.  Oh well.

The husband's first course was the first course from the Vintner's - shrimp and octopus ceviche and a stuffed jalapeno.  He really liked the dish, except that the jalapeno was extremely hot.  He gave me a tiny taste of it, and wow, yeah, it really packed a punch.  He ended up just eating the "yumminess inside" and leaving the jalapeno.  Our runner noticed and commented that the spicyness level of the jalapenos has seemed to fluctuate.  They hadn't been particular hot lately, but of course, on a week when they decided to feature the jalapeno, they got a batch that was super hot.

Laughing Bird Shrimp and Tender Octopus Ceviche, Red Jalapeno Cucumber Crazy Water and Avocado Relish

My first course was the strawberry chicken salad.  Overall, I liked the salad - it was a nice mix of ingredients, and I didn't know that there were a few haricot verts at the bottom as well.  It was very refreshing and would make for a good summer dish.  The dressing wasn't quite what I expected, and I would have liked there to be a little less of it, but otherwise, I enjoyed the dish.

Salad of Strawberry Roasted Organic Chicken, Jicama, Upland Cress and Buttermilk Lemon Vinaigrette

The husband's second course was a scallop in what seemed to be the normal accompaniments to the swordfish.  He very much enjoyed the dish.

Seared Scallop, Crushed Heirloom Tomatoes, Garlic, Steamed Clam, Oregano and Capers

My second course was the sustainable fish of the day, which was grouper on this night.  I don't think I've had grouper before, but I really liked it.

Grouper with Laughing Bird Shrimp, Potato Gnocchi in a Lemony Basil Broth

The third course for both the husband and me was the zucchini blossom stuffed with pheasant confit.

Just one word - YUM.

Zucchini Blossom stuffed with Pheasant Confit, Sauteed Mushrooms, Tender Spring Vegetables and Zucchini Blossom Coulis

We then ended up getting a palette cleanser of strawberry basil sorbet, as did the two people sitting in the seats next to us.  I've never gotten a palette cleanser there before, so I don't know if it was just that they were running behind in preparing the main courses or if they were just giving us all a treat, but it was very nice.


The husband's main course, as requested, was the venison.  He loved it.

Roasted Venison Loin, Sage & Bacon Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Black Trumpet Mushroom Essence

My main course turned out to be the main course from the Vintner's, which was a New York steak.  I'd actually kind of been feeling like having red meat, so it was a terrific choice, and very tasty.  I loved the cherries on top, and when I asked one of the sous chefs about them, he explained to me how they were prepared.  No, I don't remember, so I can't relay it here, but it explained why the cherry tasted different than normal.  The dish was a fairly generous portion, especially for a tasting menu, so I unfortunately ended up leaving a few pieces on the plate.

Ranchero Style Angus New York, Sierra Cherry Salsa Fresca, Chorizo Roasted Ramps and Green Chickpea Puree

Time for dessert!  We noticed that the Vintner's dessert that the husband had enjoyed so much last time (carrot pecan cake) was now on the regular dessert menu.

The husband decided to have the no-sugar-added dessert (panna cotta with berries) which for some reason is not advertised on the menu anywhere.  Many of the servers don't even know about it, so they usually go and ask the dessert chef and then are surprised to find out it does in fact exist.

I decided to have the strawberry rhubarb crisp, which I'd been watching them serve all night, and it looked good.  It was very delicious and a rather large portion for a dessert.  I liked the slices of dehydrated strawberry on top too and saved them for last.

Wine Country Warm Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, Buttered Oat Coconut Crust and Strawberry Sorbet

The dining room seemed a lot quieter than most normal Friday nights, and the kitchen didn't seem quite as busy.  The manager we'd talked to last night wasn't working this evening, so I still didn't get his name yet.  Philippe, the general manager, saw us when we were in the lounge waiting for our seats, and he stopped to say hello.  I asked about the Dover sole, and he explained a bit about how they get them from a vendor.  He said they didn't have any this week but were hoping to get some the following week.  He said that the servers had gotten quite good at doing the table-side plating of the dish.




Here's page 1 of the current menu,  and here's page 2 of the current menu.

15

"Mamma Mia" update:

15 shows in 11 different venues across 3 states - the Shubert Theatre formerly in Los Angeles, The Ahmanson in Los Angeles, Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Long Beach Civic Auditorium, the Cadillac Winter Garden in New York, Orange County Performing Arts Center again, the San Diego Civic Theatre, Mandalay Bay again, the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, Segerstrom Center for the Arts again (formerly the Orange County Performing Arts Center) and the Pantages Theatre again.

We've exhausted all of the venues in Southern California that would host the show, so we need to start venturing to Northern California and other states to add more venues to the count.

Napa Rose - dinner review - April 6, 2012

We had reservations for the Chef's Counter for the 8:30 seating. We arrived a little bit early, but the folks who were there for the 5:30 seating had already left, so we were immediately taken to our seats. We were a little disappointed that Executive Chef Andrew Sutton wasn't working that particular Friday night, but Chef Gloria and Chef Alex were there, and Chef Francisco came out a little bit after that.

We hadn't been at Napa Rose in a while and so were interested in seeing what was on the regular menu - which was all completely derailed as soon as we saw the Vintner's Menu.






The husband and I both decided we were having the vintner's (he had the wine pairings, I had my customary Washington Apple martini). We did browse the regular menu just to see what was on it and discovered quite a few items on both the starters/salads menus as well as the entrees menu that looked intriguing. We might need to make a few more return trips to sample everything we're interested in.

We put in our order and then I endured the difficult task of being very hungry and sitting right next to the pass and watching other people's food as they were ready to be delivered. Seriously, EVERYTHING looked so good. We tried to figure out what everything was based on what the main component looked like and what the accompaniments were, and what we'd just read on the menu.

We had just noticed these cute little cones in a holder when one of the runners picked them up and brought them to us - turns out that was the amuse bouche for the night.


Amuse bouche - sesame seed cone with cilantro-citrus-cured hamachi and pesto at the bottom, topped with wasabi tobico caviar.





The first course was then brought over - veal carpaccio and asparagus. The asparagus was a lovely accompaniment to the very thin veal slices.


First course - veal carpaccio pinwheel and warm California asparagus, toasted pine nuts and sun gold tomato vinaigrette.



Next up was the lobster and spring vegetable risotto. I loved the colors of the dish, which was pretty yummy too.


Second course - lobster and spring vegetable risotto, morel mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, applewood ham with English pea broth.



In between the courses, we had been watching the pass as various dishes came through. The swordfish, the sustainable fish of the day (I forget what it was, but it was a whitefish and looked very good), the short rib, the lamb porterhouse with braised lamb shank, the petit filet, and various salads and starters all looked amazing. But we were puzzled by one item that kept showing up. There were plates being prepared that had accompaniments and a sauce but was otherwise empty. And then on a separate plate was just a fish. And it seemed that the two were being taken away together. The kitchen was very busy this night, but we managed to ask what they were, and we were told that they'd gotten a shipment of 40 Dover sole, and they were cooking it whole and then plating it table-side. It turns out that the woman who was two seats over from the husband had ordered it, so we had the perfect view of what actually that entailed. We were a little surprised when it turned out that it was the general manager, Philippe Tosques, who was doing the preparation and plating of the sole.


General Manager Philippe Tosques preparing and plating the Dover sole while Chef Francisco and the pastry chef look on.



First, Philippe took off the top and the bottom of the fish and put them aside on the little plate for the discards. Then he filleted one side of the fish and moved it to the side. He then removed the middle boney spine, leaving the other side filet on the plate. Then he had to put the top filet back on and then transport it onto the plate with the accompaniments and sauce, which you can see in the picture. The clarified butter in the little sauce pot was then drizzled on top.

As Philippe was prepping the fish, quite a number of other chefs and servers and runners gathered around to watch. We thought it was because they wanted to see if Philippe did it properly, but it turns out that Phillipe was the one who was doing ALL of the prep and table plating when the sole was ordered, and they were all watching to learn how to do it. We were told later that at one point, 7 of the sole was ordered at about the same time, 3 at one table and 4 at another. Philippe couldn't possibly do them all himself because the food would get cold before he could get around to doing all of them, so others ended up volunteering to help out as well.

By the end of the evening, about half of the sole had been sold, so there were still some available for Saturday night.


With Act One of the show now over (we didn't know at the time that there would be an Act Two later), it was time for the main course, and the main reason we'd ordered the vintner's in the first place - rack of lamb.


Main course - Colorado rack of lamb with a roasted garlic crust, fried zucchini blossom, garden market vegetables and sangiovese essence.



Lamb, garlic and fried zucchini blossom - surely I've died and gone to heaven? How does heaven become even more wonderful? When we discovered that the menu description didn't quite include every bit of goodness contained in that dish. Inside the lovely fried zucchini blossom was braised lamb shank. Oh.my.heck. It was seriously amazing. The husband and I commented that a few of the fried zucchini blossoms with lamb shank would make a wonderful appetizer in and of themselves, and I also thought that a few on a bed of mixed greens would also make for a nice salad. Of course, the lamb itself was divine.


At various times during the course of dinner, various patrons came by the pass to greet the chefs and offer their thanks for the wonderful meal. At one point when this happened, it occurred to me that the voice sounded very familiar, so I turned around to look. It was Chef Sutton himself in regular clothes. He was actually dining at the restaurant on this evening with some guests, and when he saw us, he came through to say hello to us and the couple at the seats next to us. It seems he was having a wonderful meal himself, which was nice.


As we were just about finished with our entrees, it was time for Act Two. One of the managers (I didn't get his name, but I know I've seen him there for quite some time.) was going to attempt to filet one of the Dover soles - which would then be his dinner. He ended up doing it at the pass, with Philippe and Chef Francisco giving him pointers.


The manager prepping the Dover sole as Chef Francisco looks on.



The half-prepped Dover sole and the little plate of discards.



The Dover sole about to be de-boned. Philippe told the manager that pressing down on the spine with a spoon first would help loosen it from the meat.



Voila, the finished product. (I think this was before he put the clarified butter on it.)



We hadn't had a chance to talk to Philippe on prior visits, but with all the Dover sole prep, we got to chat with him for a bit. We had noticed earlier that instead of the usual napkin that was placed on the counter for the Chef's Counter seats, they instead had leather-bound placemats, embossed with the signature Napa Rose logo. We had been told that they were Philippe's idea, so we were able to talk to him for a bit about the placemats. They are a really nice addition to the setting and much more practical for the plates to sit on than just a napkin.


Ignore the front part of the picture - I'm including this picture because it's the best picture I have of the placemat, even though I didn't end up getting a picture of the logo, which is on the upper left corner.



OK, right, back to the food.

It was time for dessert. While the husband was thrilled with the vintner's dessert selection (he loves carrot cake), I wasn't quite as interested, so I opted to pick something from the regular dessert menu instead.


Dessert menu.



I'd seen the tiramisu as it was on the dessert pass, and it looked intriguing, so I ordered that. I also couldn't resist also ordering one scoop of the blood orange sorbet. The manager and other staff had quickly convinced me that it was perfectly reasonable to order more than one dessert at Napa Rose. They're experts - who am I to argue?


Vintner's dessert course - carrot pecan cake with rum raisin sauce and cream cheese gelato.



A new take on tiramisu - espresso mascarpone semifreddo and Bailey's pot de creme.



Blood orange sorbet.



Desserts were delicious, as expected.


A wonderful dinner and a fun and informative show. What more could you ask for?

One More Disney Day - February 29, 2012

Early in the year, Disney announced a promotion for Leap Day this year in which Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando would be open for 24 hours, from 6am on February 29 through 6am on March 1. We thought it was a bit of an odd promotion and didn't give it much thought, but over the course of a couple of weeks, the husband and I and some friends decided that it would be fun to do. In the days before, Disney announced some special food offerings as well as special entertainment additions to the event that sounded intriguing.

We had decided to get a hotel room nearby so we didn't have to drive either before or after the event. We checked in on Tuesday, February 28, got a few hours sleep (while people were already lining up since Disney was allowing a line to form starting at 10pm), and then the next morning, we walked to join the line, arriving at about 5:45am, with the end of the line at the corner of Harbor Blvd. and Disney Way. By the time we made our way to and through bag check and through the front turnstiles, we got into Disneyland at about 6:30am.

As we were waiting at bag check, it amused me to see this sign with the posted park hours. Not something you normally see!





Disney had announced that they were giving away free event ears hats to the first 2,000 people who entered the park. We weren't in that group of people, but we did get the event buttons they were giving out, which was pretty cool.





They had banners hung up by the tunnels under the train tracks for the promotion.





We had planned to get a locker for the day, but everyone else seemed to have had the same idea, and the line extended to Main Street and further down, so we decided to skip that. Instead, we decided to have breakfast. We had already decided that there was going to be a lot of food involved in our 24-hour adventure.

We headed to River Belle Terrace for breakfast. On the way, we passed by the Indiana Jones Adventure, and I was amused at the posted Fastpass return time, so several of us got Fastpasses just for the heck of it.





We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at River Belle. (Meal count = 1.) It was a good thing we got there when we did, because by the time we left, the lines for both sides were extremely long and out the doors.

As we exited River Belle, we saw a section along the Rivers of America blocked off and went to investigate. Turns out the television show "Modern Family" was shooting in Disneyland in various locations that day and the next, and they had disclaimers and signs up to alert people.





We headed back to Main Street so our friends could put some stuff away in their locker. The jumbo and large lockers were already all sold out, but they still had small lockers available, so we got one of those. Even though the locker wasn't very big, we managed to stuff a couple of jackets in there that we wouldn't need until later in the evening.

It was then off to go on rides! We spent most of the 24 hours with a group of about 5 other people. One friend was with us for almost all of that time, other friends had met up with us while we were in line to get into the park, and we met up with yet other friends during the course of the day. Sometimes, we'd split up to do different things for a little while but then we'd end up getting back in touch with each other again. It seemed that many of the people who had lined up overnight and earlier in the morning than we did had come into the park, gotten their free hat, maybe purchased some of the event-specific merchandise and then left entirely or at least to go take a nap. The park wasn't terribly crowded, and we ended up going on most of the Fantasyland rides without any long waits. The longest wait was for Peter Pan, which was about a half an hour line. Usually, even that's too long a wait for us, since we're all annual passholders and so aren't inclined to wait very long for a ride because we can always do it another time. But, given that we had so much time to spend in the park on this day, we figured the wait time wasn't going to be an issue.

After going on a number of rides, we decided it was time for lunch. Some people got food from the new Jolly Holiday Cafe, some people like me got food from Refreshment Corner aka Coke Corner (they had available the mac and cheese bacon hot dog that they had debuted at the annual passholder Soundsational event last year), and some people got food from the Tomorrowland Terrace, which had a special burger, and we all ate our respective lunch at the tables there. (Meal count = 2.)

We then decided that for dessert, we would try the cherry pie being offered at the Golden Horseshoe, so we wandered over there. We discovered that the Golden Horseshoe had the pie a la mode but that the adjacent Stage Door Cafe had just the pie, and since none of us were interested in the extra ice cream at that point, we just got the pie from Stage Door and sat down at nearby tables. (Meal count = 2 + 1 dessert.)





The pie was a nice little size, and the husband and I really liked that it was fairly tart. We're not fond of overly-sweet cherry pie. I would love if they'd add that dessert onto one of Disneyland's restaurants. Oh, and notice the hidden Mickey in the whipped cream?


As I'd been thinking about the event in the days leading up to it, I was debating whether I was going to adhere to having to spend all of the 24 hours actually inside Disneyland, or whether it would count if I went into Disney California Adventure (DCA) at all. I hadn't really decided one way or the other, and I had decided that being in line by 6am counted. Many of our friends wanted to go over to DCA to see the new Carsland preview exhibit at the Blue Sky Cellar, and that was something I'd wanted to do in the course of our stay as well, so we decided that as long as we were on property and within the boundaries of bag check, it would still count.

We headed over to DCA and spent a little time inside the exhibit, looking at the drawings and models and mockups and watching the new film previewing Carsland, which is due to open this summer. I had already been impressed with the plans when we saw the models and such at the D23 Expo in 2009, so the film just solidified how much I'm looking forward to having Carsland open, and how much I'm going to enjoy just sitting in Radiator Springs on a summer evening, enjoying the sights and sounds and atmosphere.

Eventually, we headed back to Disneyland, and we figured it was going to be getting crowded at the restaurants, so we decided to have dinner at French Market around 7pm. It wasn't too bad there yet, and we enjoyed a nice dinner there. (Meal count = 3 + 1 dessert.)

After dinner, we went on a few more rides, and as we were heading back to New Orleans Square from Critter Country at about 8:30pm, we noticed that the lines for Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean had gotten significantly longer from when we'd seen them right after dinner, and there were also long lines at Harbor Galley, the Royal Street Veranda, and other food locations. I had figured that a lot of people were going to be coming after work, and it looked like they had started to arrive.

For the next few hours, our group was separated into smaller groups as different people wanted to do different things. After hanging out in the Opera House for a while (we didn't actually manage to go inside and see Mr. Lincoln because the timing didn't work), we then went outside to stake out a place to watch the added second showing of the Soundsational parade, which I love. We found a spot in Town Square across from the restrooms by City Hall that wasn't terrible crowded and waited. As we were people-watching while we waited, we did notice that while there were many people leaving during that time, there was an equal if not higher number of people who were arriving through the other side of Town Square. The scheduled 10pm parade didn't actually start until about 10:20, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.

When the last float went by, we waited in the same area for a while for the crowds to clear out, but it took much longer than we expected as we could see the people trying to head up Main Street but at a standstill. After waiting for quite a while, we eventually joined the crowds and eventually made our way to New Orleans Square.

The French Market had a few special menu items that were available during the day, and more menu items and a dessert that would be available starting at midnight. We were interested in the dessert - bananas foster cheesecake - and so ended up being behind a group of other people also waiting for the midnight menu changeover. The changeover was a bit disorganized (different cast members told us completely opposite things in a span of about 3 minutes) and took longer than we'd expected, so the menu items weren't actually available until about 12:20am. We got our desserts, which a cast member put in to-go containers as we'd requested, and we found an empty table by Harbour Galley to try them. (Meal count = 3 + 2 desserts.)

The cheesecake was ok but wasn't quite as "bananas foster" as we had expected. There was banana flavoring inside the cheesecake, but I would have liked if there were several thin slices of banana on top as well as a caramel drizzle over the whole thing. Granted, there was caramel on the plate somewhat underneath the cheesecake, but we didn't really get any of that since we had the desserts to-go.

Disney had announced a 1am showing of Fantasmic, which was all the more special because Fantasmic was currently not scheduled to be shown at all and wasn't due to be back on the schedule for several more days. Also, the Mark Twain, which is utilized in the show, was also not currently in operation, and when Fantasmic runs when the Twain isn't working, the normal sequence of the characters riding by on the Twain is replaced by the characters coming out on stage on Tom Sawyer Island instead.

We had planned to see Fantasmic, which was apparently full, and we found out later that announcements had been made elsewhere in the park, but since we were already in the area, we never heard the announcements. After finishing our cheesecake and with the show due to start shortly, we made our way to a spot that wasn't as crowded as others. There were several rows of people in front of us, and we had a side view where I could barely and only periodically see the stage, but we still had a great time. Fantasmic is a favorite show for many of us, and oftentimes, even just hearing the soundtrack is enough. I was able to see a couple little bits, including the magnificent dragon and the characters on the stage, and it was a wonderful show as usual.

After the show ended, we waited around in the area until the crowds cleared out, and then we headed back to Fantasyland, where friends were waiting for us.

I forget all the details of the origins now, but it has become tradition for many years now for some of us that if we're in the park when it's open very late, we have to ride Dumbo at midnight or after. I believe it originated because we noticed that the lines for Dumbo were always outrageously long, no matter what time of the day it was, and a friend came up with the phrase of "Must.Ride.Dumbo" as an explanation for why so many people were always in line for Dumbo. One of the nights that the park was open late (likely either Fourth of July or New Year's Eve), we walked by Dumbo at about 1am and noticed that the line was minimal, so we decided to ride it, and from there, the tradition of the 1am Dumbo ride was born. I believe the 1am tradition stems from the park usually being open until 2am on some holidays, so the 1am ride is easy to fit in. We've done the Dumbo ride at midnight as well on occasions when the park was only open until 1am. In this case, since we had the 1am Fantasmic to attend and things to do afterward, we had picked 2am for our traditional Dumbo ride. Usually, our late-night Dumbo ride only involves waiting through one cycle before we make it on, but there were a lot more people in line this night, so we ended up having to wait through several cycles before it was our turn to ride.

After our ride, we headed over to Frontierland as Disney had announced that Billy Hill and the Hillbillies had several early-morning shows at the Golden Horseshoe. We got there with a little bit of time before the 2:45am show, and the downstairs was already full, so we headed upstairs. All the seats were taken as well, and it was just standing room only, so we found some spots with a decent view at the back of the theatre, and a few people found the random stray chair to sit in as well. Based on what we saw and heard, it was a packed house for each of the early-morning shows, and I was pleasantly surprised that the four Billys were the ones I was used to seeing in shows. There have been rumours and discussions on a Disney-related board about Disney doing away with some of the live entertainment in the parks, so I hope Disney is paying attention that the Billys are popular enough that they can have SRO crowds at 1:45am, 2:45am and 3:45am shows. Everyone was cheering and having a great time during the show.

After the show, it was time to head back to New Orleans Square as we had a 3:30am breakfast reservation at Cafe Orleans, which does not customarily serve breakfast anymore. By that point, we were all a bit bleary-eyed, and it was getting colder out, and we were seated at a table outside (most of the seating at Cafe Orleans is outdoors). Many of us were loading up on coffee or tea for the caffeine and warmth, and there were some complications with breakfast, but I did very much enjoy my crab meat quiche. It was very delicious, even at 4 in the morning. Maybe Disney will decide to re-open Cafe Orleans for breakfast and put the quiche on the menu. (Final meal count = 4 + 2 desserts.)

We finished with breakfast at about 4:40, and we were deciding what to do for the rest of the time. Not all of the rides were open, and there was also the chilly weather to consider if we were going to do an outdoors ride. We discovered that Indiana Jones had a wait time of about 55 minutes, and with most of the queue being indoors, I figured that was perfect. Some of us got in line while others called it a day, and while the outdoor part of the queue was indeed chilly, it got better once we got inside. The wait time was actually shorter than posted, and we were done at 5:30am. We decided to get our things from our lockers and just spend the last bits of the day on Main Street. As we approached our lockers, I was amused that at 5:47am, the Cone Shop was open, and there were actually people in line to buy ice cream.

We sat on a curb on Main Street to wait for 6am to come. When it did, the Disneyland announcer came on to tell us that the day was over, and that there was only one thing left to do. That was followed by the ending song of the Mickey Mouse Club. Maybe it was just the perfectness of the choice or maybe it was because I'd been up for 25 hours at that point or maybe it was something else, but hearing that song made me tear up. The end announcement and song were met with cheers from those still on Main Street. Afterward, we made our way down Main Street and then noticed that Disney characters were standing in front of the train station in their pajama costumes, waving goodbye to guests.





When we finally left the park, it was about 6:15am and the sun was out. We went back to our hotel room to sleep for a couple of hours.


Yes, a couple of hours. Because I'd had the bright idea previously that it would be funny to spend 24 hours at Disneyland and then be there again when Disneyland opened "the next day" aka Thursday, March 1, aka "4 hours later". The park opened at 10am, and the husband and I finally managed to get there at about 10:15. We did several rides that we'd meant to do the day before and hadn't had a chance to, and then we had lunch before heading out of the park around 2pm and back to the hotel to get some more sleep.

Before the event had started, we had joked with friends about which rides we could go on where we'd be able to catch a quick nap. Well, none of us ever actually did that. Except for a couple of times on it's a small world and one other ride which I forget which one now, where I was falling asleep for a second or two, I was awake the entire rest of the time. And yes, we sat for meals and a few other times when we were waiting for people and shows and such, but we did actually spend quite a bit of that 24 hour period standing or walking.


I've read some reports of the massive crowds that showed up late in the evening, causing Disneyland to close their gates to entrances for a time, causing massive backups in the esplanade, at the parking structure and even on surrounding freeways. Thankfully, I never encountered any of that, and I expect that it was a very different experience for those who came earlier in the day versus for those who came in the evening.


I will say, though, that I had a great time. We kept ourselves busy, and there was never a time when we sat around bored, with nothing to do. We sometimes had to figure out what to do in the amount of time we had before something else we were scheduled to do/see, but we always managed to find something to occupy ourselves with. And the best part was having friends and people around you, crazy enough and interested enough in spending 24 hours at Disneyland as well.

10 years ago

This is taken from Google's main page today.



September 11, 2001 - I woke up around 6am and got ready for work that day, like normal. I turned on the radio, to listen to Mark and Brian while I showered, like normal. They were talking about something, and I figured, oh yeah, they're doing another one of their bits, making stuff up to entertain their audience, like normal. Brian regularly talked about hoping that one day, someone would find the Titanic, and wouldn't that be cool, and when listeners would call to tell him that the Titanic had already been found, he'd "misunderstand" and say that yeah, they've thought several times they'd found it, but it didn't pan out. But someday, they were gonna find it. Mark and Brian also did a lot of prank calls, making up situations that didn't exist just to make a joke. It was all normal.

But the joke seemed to be going on too long. And there was a different tone to their voices. You could tell in the other instances that there was a smile to their voice, and if you knew to listen for it, it was obvious they were joking. But that tone was missing here. And the joke was going on too long. And the joke wasn't funny at all. Big planes crashing into very tall buildings is not funny. And then they cut to the ABC News audio feed.

And I started to realize that they weren't joking. It wasn't a "bit". Something had happened in New York. I don't remember if they'd talked about what happened at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania yet. Something major was going on, but it couldn't possibly be of the magnitude that they were talking about. That was impossible. Those kinds of things didn't happen.

When I got out of the shower, I turned the TV on to ABC. And they were showing the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, in flames. They showed and re-showed the footage of the first and then the second plane crashing into the towers. The husband and I watched, disbelieving what we were seeing. This is the stuff that disaster movies are made of. This does not happen in real life. This CANNOT happen in real life.

And the "normal" continued to be missing. Unimaginably, the first tower crumbled. I saw it as it happened on TV. And yet, I still didn't believe it. There was nothing about this that I could wrap my brain around. It's gotta be a mistake, or a dream, or something. None of this was normal. And then the second tower collapsed as well.

Sometime after that, the phone rang. When I answered it, it was someone from my work. I work in a 30+ story high-rise in the Los Angeles area. Some people were in the office early that morning, and because of the World Trade Center attacks, they were evacuating the building. They were calling to tell me not to come into work that day. I called a few of my friends who worked in the same building, to make sure they knew not to go into work as well, and I also called some other friends, to make sure they knew about what was going on in New York - some did, and some didn't.

The husband left for work shortly thereafter. He said they didn't get much work done that day, but they were all there. I sat at home all day, mostly online on a discussion board that I'm a member of, and watching and reading a lot of news reports.

I went back to work the next day. I wasn't afraid to go back to the high-rise, though we did have a number of employees who refused to go back so soon. The building is near the flight path of an airport, so small planes are normally flying by constantly. My drive home is also near a flight path to a different airport, so I always see the lights in the sky of planes approaching the airport. And for the next several days, there were no planes in the sky, no lights in the sky. It was eerie.

Eventually, life went back to "normal", at least what the new normal is after that horrific day. Thankfully, as far as I know, no one I know had a family member or other loved one who was killed that day, in either New York, Washington or Pennsylvania. But I know that a lot of people aren't that lucky. Lots of people mourn the loss of loved ones that they haven't seen in 10 years and will never see again.

The husband and I took a vacation to New York in 2006, but we didn't go to Ground Zero. I knew I couldn't take it. As we were wandering around Manhattan, we happened to walk past the fire station that had lost the largest number of firefighters on that day. And when we visited the Intrepid Museum, I was surprised to discover a 9/11 tribute section in one corner. Both of those experiences reduced me to tears fairly easily. At some point, I will probably visit the 9/11 memorial in New York, but I know it's something I'll have to prepare for.

I've noticed that for the past couple days, I've been feeling very teary. As today has approached, there are more and more stories about what happened 10 years ago, and I think it's just bringing back the memories. Lots of people take this day on a political level. I don't. I can only think about the people and what happened to them, those that survived, those that didn't, those who had family and friends who didn't survive, those who got one final phone call from someone who knew they weren't going to make it out of the towers or off the airplane.

So today, I mourn for those lost in the towers of the World Trade Center because they couldn't make it down the stairs in time, I mourn for those who ran up the stairs trying to save others, I mourn for those lost in Washington at the Pentagon and on the plane, and I mourn for those heroic passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 who brought their plane down in Pennsylvania, preventing yet another target from being hit. I send love and support to the family and friends of those who lost someone in any of those locations.

And unfortunately, I also have to think of a little girl and her family, who should have been celebrating her 10th birthday today. She was one of the stories of hope, born on September 11, 2001. But she was killed in a senseless act of violence. To her family, and all who mourn her loss, I send love and can only hope that my best wishes added to those of others can have some chance of easing the pain they must be feeling today.


I've posted this video before, but I think it bears repeating. During the Super Bowl in 2002, only months removed from 9/11, Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser had the following commercial. I join in the sentiments of that commercial, in remembrance and in honor of all the victims of September 11, 2001.

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" - spoiler movie review

I had really enjoyed the first "Transformers" movie, but I wasn't all that fond of the sequel, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". However, since the trailer for the third film, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" looked pretty good, I was willing to give them another try.

I did like this movie much more than the second movie, but I think it fell far short of the first film. The story and the film itself was very uneven, and there were a couple story points that I really didn't enjoy. I really liked Megan Fox in the first film, but not in the second film, but I did not much care for the new girl. Yeah, she's a hot model, ok, but she just didn't do anything for me. The only time I liked her was when she made Megatron jealous that Sentinel was going to take over the Decepticons. But I wasn't interested in her story or the story of her and Sam. Let's save the romance story for a different film.

Oh, but I thought it was pretty cool when it turned out that the fancy car her boss had given her was actually a Decepticon.

I also really didn't like the scenes with Sam's parents. OK, they weren't quite as bad as in the second film, but really, could they have gotten worse? It seemed like they were meant as comic relief, but instead, they were still just really annoying and useless. If I could have fastforwarded through their scenes, I would have.

Oh, and ok, the Decepticons want to transport their home world RIGHT NEXT TO Earth. Ummm, ok, is no one else thinking about the detrimental effect that would have on Earth's gravity and orbital path around the sun? I had this same question when the aliens in "The Event" wanted to do the exact same thing. I mean, I know that the rest of the story itself is completely fantastical, but if you're going to take as granted that talking transforming robots from another planet can exist, that's fine, but you can't ignore normal regular things on Earth like gravity and planetary pull and orbits and such.

They had several awesome action sequences, as you'd expect. That corkscrew Decepticon 'bot was just evil - it's got no purpose other than to just destroy on a huge scale. That whole sequence when it took down the skyscraper was pretty cool, but I found myself thinking about what the crew had to go through to shoot those sequences, especially with all the furniture and office supplies and such going everywhere as the building was getting destroyed and falling.

I was actually quite proud of myself for figuring out two plot points before they explained it, which is fairly unusual for me. When they were loading up all the Autobots onto the shuttle to leave Earth, it occurred to me that it was the perfect time for the Decepticons to destroy them - they were all in the same place at the same time! So I wasn't surprised when the Decepticons blew up the shuttle. I will say, though, that I found that scene kind of disturbing because it reminded me a lot of the explosion of the Challenger. I don't think the vapor trails were the same, but just the images of the shuttle exploding, how far above the Earth it exploded, and then the look on Sam's face when he saw it explode so suddenly and unexpectedly - it just all brought back memories of when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff. And to me, it's never going to be ok for a fiction movie to remind me of that real-life tragic event.

However, I did know that even though the shuttle blew up, that the Autobots were not dead. They did something to trick the Decepticons and they were fine. I had thought they'd somehow managed to fake getting on the shuttle, so it was fun to find out that they'd hid themselves all in the rocket booster that broke off and therefore was not destroyed.

The fight between the titans - Optimus Prime and Sentinel - was pretty cool to watch. But while the fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron was good too, it didn't have the same effect. OK, so Megatron was killed, again. He'd already been killed in the first film. Granted, it was a much more graphic ending this time, given that Optimus yanked his spine out instead of just killing his battery/spark/whatever and dropping him in the ocean intact. But hey, who knows, maybe he can still be revived or put back together. Which would make his death (sorry, his SECOND death) even that more unimportant. But if Megatron really is dead, that doesn't work for the story either. Whether or not they plan to make another film is irrelevant - even if they don't make another film, the STORY of the Autobots and the Decepticons isn't supposed to be over, but if the Decepticons have actually lost their leader, then it's not much of a fight, is it? Before the fight, Megatron asks Optimus what he would be without Megatron there, and Megatron is right. The victor is only as good as the opponent he defeats. If the opponent is weak, if there's no great villain to fight, then the "hero" is much diminished. All the great superheroes and "good guy" characters are such because they have a worthy and formidable nemesis.

Shia LaBeouf was fine in this film. He did what needed to be done for an action film. Josh Duhamel was quite good, and I'm glad he had more to do in this film.

I've always loved the voice casting for Optimus Prime - Peter Cullen. He has an amazing voice quality, and I'm amused that he's also voiced the character of Eeyore in several Winnie the Pooh projects.

In the trailers that I'd seen of the film, there was no mention of the character of Sentinel, and it only took a few seconds of hearing him speak for me to realize that he was voiced by Leonard Nimoy, who I had not known was in the film. I actually found it a little distracting to try to separate him personally and his well-known character of Spock from the "Star Trek" universe from the part he was playing in this film. But that then made it all the more shocking when it was revealed that Sentinel, the Autobot elder, revered for having supposedly died in trying to help the Autobots win the war, had actually been defecting and had made a deal to work with the Decepticons. The turn was especially devastating for Optimus, who had been used by the Decepticons to resurrect Sentinel, since Optimus was the only one who could.

However, there is one line in the film, which, as a "Star Trek" fan, really pissed me off. At one point towards the end of the film, Sentinel is sort of justifying his actions and the deal that he made with the Decepticons. And Sentinel says that sometimes, the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. The line "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" is a pivotal line in the "Star Trek" universe as it explained Spock's sacrifice of his own life to save his shipmates in "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", and that point is played in future sequels in the series as well. It really pissed me off that they took that line and used it in this situation, made worse by the fact that it was voiced by Leonard Nimoy. Frankly, I'm shocked and really disappointed that he agreed to actually say that line, knowing the place the original line holds in "Star Trek" history and lore.

Overall, I wouldn't necessarily dissuade people from seeing this film, which I would have done regarding the second film, but it's not really one I can recommend too highly either.

"Mamma Mia" - 14

As a followup to this blog post, we saw our fourteenth show last Saturday night (June 25) at OCPAC. OK, it's now called Segerstrom Center for the Arts, whatever. We've seen the show there before, so our "different venue" count is still at eleven. I don't think that number is going to change anytime soon since we've pretty much exhausted all the venues in the Southern California area, so adding a new venue would involve some kind of significant overnight travel.

I enjoyed this production of the show, though the mixing of the sound levels was a bit off. There were times I had a really hard time hearing Donna because her mic didn't seem to be turned up enough.

Overall, I thought the company was pretty good. The actress playing Donna seemed a bit more reserved in the first act (the song "Mamma Mia" didn't quite pop as much as I'm used to), but she really got into it in the second act. She killed both "Slipping Through My Fingers" (yep, made me cry again) and "The Winner Takes It All". I wasn't completely happy with the actress who played Sophie. She made choices in both her acting and singing that didn't work for me. She was more shrill than I would have liked. The stand-out performance though, was from Alison Ewing, who played Tanya. She was awesome.

In overhearing bits and pieces of conversations from other people, there were some who were seeing the show for the first time, after having seen the movie, so I'm glad the movie is bringing out more people to see the show.

There was a woman sitting on the other side of the husband from me, and I was amused when I heard her gasp when Sophie told Sky she didn't want to get married. She was one of those who'd seen the movie and was seeing the show for the first time, so it shouldn't have been a surprise to her that Sophie and Sky didn't actually get married, but even if it was a newbie to the whole thing, I didn't think that particular development would actually elicit a gasp from anyone.

I can't believe that it was our first time seeing the show in two years - no wonder I was going through withdrawal! Our fifteenth show is expected to be in late March/early April of next year, when the touring company is coming back to the Pantages.