Disneyland was great, especially since it was the first time I was able to wave my employee ID and get in for free. Because of Epic Mickey, I’m now really into Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I managed to score the very last copy in the park of the statue of Walt Disney holding Oswald in his hand. Now if anyone has a line on one of the plush Oswald toys they came out with back in 2008, that would be much appreciated.
Bought a second large rolling suitcase to accommodate all the stuff I got at San Diego.
My trip to LA went fine. Paul and Misty Dini were kind enough to let me crash at their place (Misty put “Having a sleepover with Peter David!” on her Facebook page, so that’s gonna start some rumors.) Had story meetings at both the “Ben 10” and “Young Justice” offices, so that was a full day. Flew back on the red eye and had an interesting chat with a very smart young woman who is an actress and filmmaker and also holds a degree in environmental studies. She was working as a booth babe at the San Diego Con, and I wish her well in her career choices.
Sat around at luggage carousel #4 for half an hour, waiting for my suitcases. A Jetblue employee finally got around to coming over and telling us that, no, despite what we’d been told and despite the sign that was up that said this was where we were supposed to get our stuff, the luggage had in fact come out on carousel #1. So we all schlep over there to discover the luggage just sitting there, having been there so long the belt wasn’t even turning anymore. In terms of the nigh-legendary incompetence of JFK baggage handlers, this isn’t quite up there with the time it took a solid hour for the luggage to offload, but it’s close.
Get home at 7 AM. Tiptoe into the silent house and Caroline bounds out of nowhere and says, “Hi, Daddy,” nearly giving me a heart attack. My startled shout wakes Kathleen. Ariel is already downstairs. I hand out gifts, spend some time with the girls, and then collapse. Only now am I starting to feel back to normal.
Or at least what passes for normal.
PAD
• 
OOOHHH…
I’m curious… If you can tell us… How DO the Ben 10 people decide which aliens to use in each episode?
You know, I’m not sure. Usually I’m just told, “Here’s who you should use in this episode.”
.
PAD
Maybe they HAVE to do it that way to keep the writers from going bananas with the transformations (like I would… I loves me some XLR8 and I’d toss him back into the mix in a heartbeat)
I got home on Monday night at 9:30. My suitcase decided to take a little longer holiday and arrived at 9:30 Wednesday morning. Sigh. At least it arrived with nothing missing or damaged. Too bad about the delay on the gifts that I wanted to give out at a friend’s house on Tuesday night though.
PAD, I want to thank you for allowing me at the fan/pro trivia challenge to put into use my skill of going “ooooooh” that I picked up from watching Saved By The Bell all those years ago. (I am equally proficient at “aaaaaaah” but was seated on the wrong side of the hall.) I suppose I should also thank you for the opportunity of muttering “peas and carrots” as well. How many times will I ever get that opportunity?
Your moderating entertained me through that train wreck.
Misty put “Having a sleepover with Peter David!” on her Facebook page, so that’s gonna start some rumors.
You wish.