Vacation heaven for little girls

So technically we were on vacation all week. The hubby made plans to take the week off months ago and we started planning our surf trip to Costa Rica.

Then the strike happened, along with some wackiness at hubby's work, and the week in Costa Rica became 3 days in San Diego.

Thanks AMPTP!

I can't complain too much though because we had a great time. We took a chance on a hotel we found on the internet that was right on Mission Bay. Lucky us - it turned out to be toddler heaven.

Seriously. The place not only was surrounded by beach and calm water, it had a heated pool, playground, duck pond and, I kid you not, a seal pond. Yep, with an actual seal in it that you could watch get fed twice a day.

Baby Girl thought she'd hit the jackpot. So did hubs and I when we realized that $100 for a Sea World admission for the three of us was ridiculous when we had a real live seal we could see up close every day.

The only bummer was that it was a bit colder than Costa Rica would have been. We went surfing at Mission Beach, which was a lot of fun for me in my nice warm wetsuit. Not so much fun for hubs and Baby Girl, as she insisted on hanging out in the water until her lips turned purple, then screamed bloody murder that her father could be so cruel as to insist that she warm up.

We decided to skip surfing for the next day and hang at the Zoo. Of course, no vacation for us can be obstacle-free and we had forgotten to take a stroller with us. We spent part of the night trying to find a place to buy a cheap umbrella stroller. I swear that I've seen those things everywhere yet not one place we went to sold them.

I always wondered why I see people renting those strollers at the zoo for $10, but I just couldn't see spending that much to rent something that Baby Girl would sit in for 15 minutes between jumping out to see animals, so we went without. It actually turned out fine as Baby Girl got nice and tired running between exhibits.

She fell asleep at 8 p.m. every night with no fuss. I guess we just need to spend our lives on vacation for her to sleep well. Oh wait...I forgot the nightmare that was Italy. Never mind.

Still, it was nice to spend a full week with the two coolest people I know.

Another awesome video...

This pretty much says it all.



Check out UnitedHollywood.com for more explanations of why we're on strike.

Big night out!

The hubby and I finally got out of the house on Friday night...sans Baby Girl. It's the first time we've been out alone together in at least two months and, man, did we need it! (Thanks Danielle!)

We went to a great party at Terry Rossio's house. (And there begins my name dropping.) He threw it together at the last minute to give everyone on strike a chance to celebrate our solidarity and...oh hell, it was a chance to get drunk.

The hubby and I are the worst planners so, once again, our night began in disaster. At first, we thought we'd go to a nice dinner at the Tam O'Shanter. It's a kitschy Scottish-themed restaurant but it's owned by Lawry's so they actually have surprisingly good food.

But we realized when Danielle arrived that if we went to dinner there, we wouldn't make it to Terry's place until 11. So we decided to head over to his neck of the woods and find a restaurant.

Big mistake. Everything that looked remotely decent had crowds of people waiting to get in. Desperate for a meal, we ended up at Denny's.

Even though it wasn't exactly a five-star dining experience, it was still nice to be able to eat a meal and talk without little fingers grabbing at my plate, then my eyes, then screeching when I remove said fingers from deep within my sockets.

Of course, when we got to Terry's, he had tons of food. Not one to let free food pass me by, I did take advantage of the dessert spread.

It was one of those weird evenings where people that you know in different ways all seem to converge in one place. Not surprisingly, we ran into most of SoCal Film Group and Monkey with a Shotgun.

But we were surprised and excited to see L.A. Daddy and L.A. Mommy so soon after the arrival of L.A. Baby, who made her first Hollywood party appearance.

Another surprise appearance came with Kevin and Will. We hadn't seen them since the big LA Blogger party earlier this year. We had a great time catching up, especially since this time we didn't have to run off in the middle of the conversation to keep Baby Girl out of the jacuzzi.

We were having so much fun, we had to keep calling home. "We'll be home by midnight." Ok, we'll be home by 12:30." "Maybe it'll be closer to 1:30." Danielle was awesome though and told us to stay as long as we wanted.

We finally dragged ourselves away from the party and got home at 2. After chatting with Danielle and watching a little TV to wind down, I didn't fall asleep until 3 a.m. Luckily, Baby Girl let me sleep in all the way until 8:30.

Gah. I still haven't recovered. But it was so worth it.

The horror!

I had a very full day yesterday. I met my actor friend Tim at Universal for the big "bring a celeb to strike" day. Tim is a regular reader of the blog but never posts a comment. Maybe finally being IN the blog will inspire him.

Anyway, we tried actually picketing at first but got tired of fighting our way past the myriad camera crews. Of course, they were all there to get reactions from the celebs - most of who I wouldn't have known if they smacked me with their picket sign. The only reason I even noticed most of them was because they had cameras in their faces. Tim was laughing at me because I watch television more than most people in the universe.

And yet I am still the absolute worst at recognizing celebrities. Well, not the absolute worst. One of my friends saw someone that looked familiar and started questioning him.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Um, I don't think so."

"I definitely know you from somewhere."

"Well, I'm an actor."

"I don't think that's it."

"Look, I'm Robert Blake."

Ohhhhh, never mind.

Actually, it's not just celebrities I have trouble remembering. I've seen a few people that look familiar to me walking the picket line but I'm too embarrassed to talk to them. Because they're either going to tell me that they're my next door neighbor and I'll feel like an idiot, or they'll tell me they're on TV...and I'll feel like an idiot.

Case in point, I'm at a neighborhood carnival and a woman stops me and Baby Girl to say hello. She definitely knows us and I'm desperately trying to place her. She has a baby so I must know her from a moms group or something... The hubby walks away so I can't even buy a clue from him. I make awkward conversation for a while and still can't figure it out. After she leaves and the hubby comes back, I ask who it was.

"Seriously? That's our pediatrician."

Oh jeez. Yeah, just the woman responsible for keeping my precious child alive. No big deal.

Anyway, after the rally, Tim and his roomie and I went to In-N-Out for burgers. Yum! Then I realize that I am hosting playgroup this afternoon and since I took the Metro to the rally, I'm barely going to make it home.

This is the second time I've hosted playgroup and the second time I've barely made it home in time. I end up offering snacks like stale broken tortilla chip pieces and dried fruit. Luckily the women in my playgroup are cool.

Everyone talks about the crazy competition between moms, especially in L.A. I guess some of that's true but most of the moms I meet around here are great. Anyway, two hours of refereeing toddlers who all want the same toy and I'm exhausted.

Still, we have a meeting tonight to talk about our online sketch comedy stuff. It's now the one project I've got that's still got deadlines.

It's kind of weird that I'm on strike and yet feel busier than ever. I tried to tell Baby Girl I was on a mommy strike today but she just laughed.

Ohmigod, I just realized something.

Baby Girl is a studio executive!

The strike is addling my brain

I was actually excited to hear that today was "bring your kid to strike" day. I've been bringing Baby Girl almost every day but thought this would be much more fun for her. There'd be other kids to hang out with.

So I spent some time making her her very own picket sign. (We tried letting her hold the bigger one while we carried her but she kept smacking us in the head with it.)

Then I looked at the strike information and realized that the shift times had changed and the strike now ends at 2 p.m. D'oh! Baby Girl wasn't set to get home until 3 p.m.

Well, I guess I'll have to make do by posting some of the photos from Friday. I headed down to the big rally at Fox and met up with some cohorts from SoCal Film Group - Steve and Mike G. and Susan (who's technically an ex-member but still beloved).

We stood for a while and marveled at how many people were there. I saw a few people I've worked with in the past and said hello. Mainly though, it was just great to see the massive numbers that turned out.

CAA even sent out some guys in suits with churros. Although I was a little concerned about agents handing out anything no strings attached. I kept asking Steve if the churro was making him feel woozy or strangely convinced that he should drop his current agent for one at CAA.

Steve and I ended up marching all over the place. I was actually disoriented by the time I had to go find my car.

Oh, and I finally remembered my camera. Here are some of the photos I managed to take.


This was my view of the stage. Not nearly as inspiring as I'd hoped.


Aren't they smiling a little too much? What is in those churros?


After we'd walked up Pico past Fox, we turned around and came back to see the people waiting their turn. Pretty impressive sight, especially considering the lazy and/or anti-social nature of most writers.


Now that's really putting your ass on the line. Seriously, how much do the Reno 911 guys rock?

As if I didn't have enough to worry about...

Today, I find out that I can doom my child to a life of stupidity by not naming her something that starts with "A" or "B" or I can doom her to a life of stupidity by buying her toys that turn out to be laced with drugs.

Sweet.

In other news, spent the afternoon picketing at Paramount with Baby Girl. I had a lovely conversation with the immensely talented Phil Rosenthal, who created Everybody Loves Raymond. It made me feel a little better about my one tiny project that was put on hold when I heard about how many things he stands to lose out on. It was funny because I seriously just read his book so I got the chance to tell him how much I loved it. If you're interested in sitcoms, liked Everybody Loves Raymond or just want to know why you should avoid a certain all-inclusive resort, I highly recommend this book.

Also saw Jason Alexander, who came out to support the troops. And yeah, still no pics. Why, dear god, can I not remember to bring a camera?

Unfortunately, looks like I'll have plenty more time to take photos as there's still no end in sight.

Strikes, cookies and ex-presidential candidates

Alright, I realize that I didn't blog for a while and all 3 of you loyal readers were concerned. Especially after my post about leaving for Italy and the disasters that strike whenever I travel.

No travel-related disasters to report, beyond that of traveling all over Italy with a toddler in tow. I'll post separately on that.

So what have I been up to? Well, 3 weeks in Italy was more like 5 weeks when you factor in the extensive battle plans and recovery time.

Beyond that, when I returned, the writing partner and I were under the gun to finish our latest treatment for a development exec. We finally finished it last week and got it to her.

And now we're on strike. Hence, time to blog.

For those of you who don't understand the writers' strike, there's an excellent video on YouTube that explains it well.



This afternoon, the hubby and I headed over to the strike line at Paramount with Baby Girl and some chocolate chip cookies. A bunch of photographers took pics of Baby Girl picketing. Of course, she had to be rubbing a chocolate cookie all over her face at the time. So if your local paper features a dirty-faced little girl on her dad's shoulders holding a picket sign, you heard it here first.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson came by near the end of the day to support us. That was pretty cool. Of course, hubby's phone camera wouldn't work so no photos for us. However, I can say that Jesse Jackson ate my cookies. Why does that sound so dirty?

Actually, we were all heading out at the end of the day and I hear, "Cookie lady, hey, cookie lady!" It was Jesse's (I can call him that now that we're old friends) bodyguard wanting more of my cookies.

You think it was because I was dressed like this?


Hey, gotta make a living somehow now that I'm unemployed...

Halloween is an evil evil holiday!

Yes, Halloween is evil. Oh, not because of the witches, goblins and ghouls. Or the other really scary decorations...


It's because of the candy.

See, Baby Girl is still pretty young. She doesn't really get the concept of Halloween. Every time I start explaining - "Listen, honey, it's a Christian adaptation of the pagan holiday of Samhain" - she just tunes me out.

But that doesn't mean she doesn't want to put on a costume and go up to a bunch of doors and grab handfuls of candy. Even if we made her go as Sean Preston Federline with mommy as Britney and daddy as the court appointed supervisor. Man, were we tired of explaining THAT costume by the 10th house!

We went trick or treating in Hancock Park - one of the ritzy areas of L.A. I would have LOVED this area as a kid. One house was actually giving out full sized candy bars! There must have been hundreds of kids in the streets.

We didn't make it very far before Baby Girl was done with the whole process. I mean, those lawns are pretty big to walk across for someone her size.

Once we got home, I surveyed her candy haul and realized that as a responsible parent, I really only had one choice. I had to make the ultimate sacrifice...and eat all of her candy.

I mean, no loving mother could let her toddler eat that much chocolate, right? Right? I'm still trying to decide if the stomach pain is sugar overload or guilt.

And that's why Halloween is an evil, evil holiday.