Coolio was in line one checkout over from me at the grocery store last Taco Tuesday.  Yeah, that's right, Coolio.

I also got my first taste of Guitar Hero on Sunday night.  Then, we played some more tonight at Taco Tues.  I think I'm hooked, and I shall be purchasing it after the 4th of July.  My only fear is that I'm going to waste a lot of time on it.

Be sure to check out the latest additions to ShowTimeMaps as well.

Well, I didn't get much done on my movie maps thing this week, but that's mostly because I was busy doing other stuff.  Jamie and I were in Austin for a day, because my work sent me to an AJAX conference.  Unfortunately, the conference didn't answer all of my questions, but it did at least let me know that I'm not too far behind in learning how to use it.  Fortunately, we got to hang with some friends a bit at dinner.

The night we got back from Austin, the Baylor telecom alumni party was at The Spanish Kitchen.  As we were walking in, Jimmy Johnson, Howie Long, and Terry Bradshaw were walking out.  Then, yesterday, we went to a restaurant in Hollywood named 'eat' for Mother's Day/Jamie's birthday.  While we ate, we saw Zach Braff and Mandy Moore as they made their way past the hostess.  So, two solid celebrity sightings this week.  Enjoy!

Jamie and I just spent 11 days in Texas.  We were glad to see so many Austin/Temple/Belton folks while we were there.  Sadly, we missed our Dallas folk.  Here's a smattering of what went down:

• The first weekend, I hosted SING at Baylor University on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  The show lasted 4 1/2 hours.  I showed some of our old Segues videos, including Making of Sing, DPS, Shredder, Titanic II, and SLC.
• On Sunday, we went to Austin, where I held Jenna Miller (pics here).  This is definitely the youngest baby I've ever held that wasn't related to me (if not the only).
• That night, we met up with B-dub & Jan, Perk & Darby, and Ben Burch for dinner.  Afterwards, we went over to the Wilsons' to check out their new house.
• We spent the night at the Driskill Hotel, our lodgings of choice in Austin.
• Monday (Presidents' Day), we hung out with my family in Belton/Temple.
• Tuesday through Thursday, I worked via my laptop, while Jamie volunteered her time to re-merchandise Congress Clothing, a retail clothing store that our friends own in Waco.  (I'm working on their web site, which I'll link to when it's done.)  The store looks great the way Jamie merchandised it!
• Friday and Saturday, I had more SING hosting responsibilities.
• Sunday we finally returned home, on a plane carrying Ivan Drago, no less.  But first, we stopped at Perk & Darby's new house and had lunch with them.
• Clinton was along for the whole trip as well.

It's good to be home.

...Medicated Powder.  That's what I think you should get.  That's what I wanted to say to Clinton tonight when we were getting stuff for Taco Tuesday at the neighborhood Ralph's...while we were standing next to James Bond.  Granted, not everyone's favorite James Bond, but nonetheless, James Bond.  That's right, Timothy Dalton was doing some grocery shopping, and our old neighbor Russ snapped his photo, but not before getting a shot of Clinton and me.  Are Clinton and I as famous as Timothy Dalton?  If Russ mails us copies of the pics, I'll post them.

Speaking of celebrity sightings, I can't believe I forgot to mention this.  Several weeks ago, when Jason was in town, we were eating at the Farm, and I noticed at the table next to us was none other than Jack Bristow, aka Victor Garber, aka Jamie's co-star in Titanic.

We went to see Kung Fu Hustle tonight.  It was pretty good.  It was kind of a mix between a movie, a video game, and a cartoon.  It was interesting to me how influenced it was by American culture.  As an added bonus, Wayne Knight was there watching the movie as well.  You may know him better as TV's "Newman".

Jamie and I did a bunch of our Christmas shopping today.  We left Best Buy and headed down the escalator.  Coming through the doorway was none other than Topher Grace, whom I just mentioned in my Ocean's Twelve entry.  We kind of juked each other trying to figure out who would go left and who would go right.  This gave me the time I needed to decide whether I would actually try to start a conversation with him.  Once we had gotten out of each other's path, I started my conversation brilliantly with, “Do you know Steven Cooper?”  See, Cooper was best friends with a guy that Topher had roomed with in college.  Unfortunately, we couldn't remember the roommate's name, and Topher, though the name sounded familar, couldn't place Cooper.  Topher ended the conversation just as brilliantly as it had begun with, “Is Best Buy just right up here?”  Yup.

Oh, another thought, I don't typically feel sorry for celebrities who have to suffer the masses because of their fame, but I kind of felt bad for Topher knowing how freakishly long the line was that he was going to have to wait in at Best Buy, and how in that line they were selling his Win A Date With Tad Hamilton at a drastically reduced price.

Jamie and I got to go with Tony & Martel to VH1's Big In '04 awards show last night at the Shrine Auditorium.  It was quite a production and a lot of fun.  We got to their place about 5:00 pm, which gave Jamie a chance to get her eyes done by Martel.  We were dressed “hiply”, and Tony was sporting a designer sport coat from a designer whose name he could not pronounce.  The limo driver, Milos, came to the door to pick us up about 5:30, and we piled in and headed our way through the traffic to get to USC.  Traffic has never been so nice.  There was a wide array of beverages for our enjoyment, and we got to catch up with the Hale's as we hadn't hung out in awhile.

We arrived at the drop-off point, where we received our credentials: a “Talent Guest” card and a ticket.  Jamie and I got out of the limo first, exiting on the side of the limo furthest from the crowd.  They couldn't tell who we weren't from that distance, and when they saw the back of Jamie's blonde head, I heard someone yell out “Paris, Paris!”  The setup was basically on a street corner which was full of onlookers.  The red carpet, which was actually a yellowy-beige, led us past the onlookers into the press tent.  Jamie, Martel, and I walked behind the press, while Tony and his publicist navigated through the photographs and interviews.  We watched as others showed up, including Joss Stone, Jeffrey Tambor, Alia Shawkat, Black-Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Ron Jeromy, Joe Rogan, Kathy Griffin, and others that we didn't recognize.

Once Tony was done going through press, we went through security, and then headed on into the green room.  This was a pretty sweet spread.  The bar was open and the food was plentiful...and free.  We hung out mostly with AD cast, including Alia, Tony, and the girl who has played George Michael's girlfriend in the last couple of episodes.  After a little while, we were joined by Will Arnett and Amy Poehler.  This was my biggest got-to-meet-a-celebrity moment of the night.  Will is on AD, and Martel knows Amy from her SNL days.  Martel introduced us, and I admitted that she is my favorite cast member at the moment.  We also talked with Tony's publicist, who has skydove-skydived-skydiveded over 500 times, and does it at the same place where I jumped.  Before the show, in the green room, we saw Nikki Hilton, Chad Muska, Jason Bateman, that's all I can remember.

We stayed in the green room until the show started, and they made us leave.  We weren't sitting with Tony & Martel, so we went to enter by another door.  On our way, we came across the guys from The Lonely Island, of 'Just 2 Guyz' fame, waiting to get in their door.  We struck up a conversation and got along really well.  Jamie hooked them up with her backstage pass for use while we were watching the show.  I talked to them several times as the night progressed, and I'm hoping that I can connect with them again soon to do some video nonsense.

The show itself was pretty pathetic.  I booed Michael Moore when he won some award, but at least his speech didn't mention Bush and didn't sound bitter, so I didn't have to boo his speech, too.  Nick Lachey was the host, and I can only hope that the Segues did a better job of hosting Baylor events than he did.  (Yes, even Diadeloso, though we weren't hosting.)  In his defense, the jokes didn't suit themselves to play to the live audience.  Perhaps it will be better on TV.  The low points were Anna Nicole Smith's acceptance speech, and Brigitte Nielsen & Flavor Flav's award presentation.  The musical performances of note were Maroon 5 and Green Day.

After AD accepted their award for Big Family in '04, we met Tony & Martel back in the green room, where the entire group of Lonely Islanders had all managed to get in.  We enjoyed some more food and beverage, while watching the likes of Ron Jeromy, Brigitte Nielsen, and Flavor Flav mingle with the crowd.  We headed out to go home, and while we were waiting for our driver, Jamie spotted the Hamm brothers and went and introduced herselft.  That was her highlight of the night.  OK, I think that covers just about everything.

UPDATE: Fixed spelling of 'sporting'.

As I type this, I'm listening to the Garden State soundtrack, which Coop was kind of enough to send me, as it was sold out already in these parts.  I forgot to mention a couple of celebrity sightings from the ArcLight the other night when we saw Garden State.  When we arrived, there was some special screening for Shaun of the Dead, and there were several zombies walking around outside.  Inside was a tall, balding, blond comedian whose name I don't know.  I'll have to do some research.  After the movie, as we peered out across the lobby from upstairs, I spotted David Carradine.  I couldn't think of his name fast enough, and so I pointed him out as “Bill” from Kill Bill, fortunately out of his earshot.  Then, as we hung around talking in the parking garage, the diminutive Giovanni Ribisi walked by.  Actually, by the time I finished typing this, I'm now listening to The Postal Service.

My name is Pete.  Welcome to my blog.  July has been quite busy.  It all started when Jason came out from the east coast back on July 2nd.  He came to visit his girlfriend out here, and Clinton took advantage of his presence to shoot a video.  We all met up at the Siebers (including Doug and Jeff and Lindsay) and started shooting.  Clinton rented a Panasonic DVX-100, which is an awesome camera that Mark can tell you all about.  I called Mark and got a plethora of operational advice.  We shot a few scenes and learned how to use the camera as we went along.  It really is amazing how good this camera makes our production values seem.  Anywho, we shot for awhile then went to a restaurant who tried to overcharge us by $100.  Took several go rounds with the owner to straighten that out.  We shot some more the next day, then on the 4th, most of us went to the Padres game at Petco Park followed by a cookout at the Wonders hosted by Jamie's cousin Aaron.  What a fantastic day!  There was a jerk at the park during fireworks, but we weren't going to let him spoil our day.

The following week, my sister and her family came out to visit for a few days.  They stayed down in Anaheim, which was pretty central to all the activities we had planned.  We met them at Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  The next morning we headed down to Carlsbad to go to Legoland.  We had a good time, in spite of the fact that the rides were definitely aimed at young kids.  Afterwards, we met up with the Siebers at Ruby's on the pier in Oceanside.  That was a very enjoyable experience, and I recommend it to those visiting the area.  On Saturday, the Theodores met us out at the construction site to check out our new digs.  The kids couldn't go inside and for some reason had the hardest time figuring out that we didn't actually live there yet.  The finish date has been pushed to mid-February, but hopefully they'll finish early.  We then introduced the Theodores to In-N-Out, which is really near our new place.  That night we ate at CPK at Hollywood & Highland where I'm sure we saw Robert Downey, Jr.  We just missed Hillary Duff at her premiere of The Cinderella Story.  My niece, Lauren, was anxious to try to catch a glimpse of her.  The kids spent the night with us that night to give Grace and Steve a much-needed break.  The next morning we took the kids down to the La Brea tar pits where you can actually watch them excavating some fossils amidst the tar-y ground.

After the Theodores left, we had a couple of days to catch up on work and housecleaning and such.  But then on Tuesday, we drove back down to Laguna Beach to see the Pageant of the Masters, where they recreate life-size works of art.  It really is amazing how they can make the 3-dimensional live people look like they are a part of the 2-dimensional painting.  We had a couple more days of normalcy before the Siebers came up this weekend for their anniversary.  We saw The Clearing and Napoleon Dynamite with them.  Yes, I did enjoy ND for the 3rd time.

Amongst all of this, I actually did get some work done.  I'm finishing up my first big project with my newest client, and I meet with the producers of CSI this week to discuss my next big project.  Jamie got booked yesterday for a 16-day straight job starting today.  She'll be quite busy, but the pay is good, and she's getting to work for a new stylist, so her experience and connections are growing by leaps and bounds.  OK, exhale.

Clinton's mom and several other of his female relatives came through town this week.  We went and met them for dinner on Sunday night down at El Cholo in Santa Monica after church.  The next day, while I worked, Jamie went with Clinton and his mom down to Playa Vista, as part of our plot to get our LA friends all to move to the same community.  She really liked Tapestry, so who knows?

Last night, Jamie and I went to see The Terminal at the ArcLight.  In spite of my initial reservations, I quite enjoyed it.  It was a great mix of humor and story and love and sadness.  Plus, there seemed to be a tribute to Wes Anderson there in the middle, in which I laughed out loud quite a bit.  Thanks, Ben Dudley, for your recommendation.  When I went out to get popcorn and a soda, Harland Williams was in line in front of me.  After he left, the concessionaires and myself tried to recall the stuff he's been in.  My first recollection was from The Whole Nine Yards.

I hate it when I go for more than a week without blogging.  Alas, I've been pretty busy this past week working on a project for a new client out in Santa Clarita.  It's a pretty cool company that provides IT infrastructure to film and television productions.

I'm happy to say that I finally completed Everything Or Nothing, the latest PS2 Bond game.  I raked in my last platinum during my last break.  I don't what I'm going to do on my breaks now.

Last night we had Guacamole Wednesday at Clinton's.  It wasn't the same as Taco Tuesday somehow, but it will have to do.  Clinton has rehearsal on Tuesday nights for a pilot that he's been selected for that shoots in September.  Pretty cool, but it would be cooler if it weren't on Tuesday.

We saw Judge Reinhold at church on Sunday.  He's been in tons of stuff, but I remembered him only as the close talker on Seinfeld.  Coincidentally, that episode was on last night at Guacamole Wednesday.

Jamie and I (and Clinton) bought tickets for a matinee of Harry Potter tomorrow.  She's “super-excited”, while I am merely “looking forward to it”.  I watched Bjork's Dancer In The Dark today.  It was quite sad, but somehow not depressing.  It was sad enough though that I was still sad an hour after watching it.  Jamie would probably have found it depressing as well, but the enormous personal sacrifice that Bjork's character willingly makes in spite of everything kept it from dipping to depressing for me.  The musical numbers also kept the spirits up.

On another note, Tony & Martel have decided to rent an apartment across the park from us in Playa Vista, so we'll be neighbors.  It's already turning into a little community for us.  Hopefully, we can get Clinton to get a place over there as well.

As I was checking off the categories, I saw 'Celebrity Sightings', and I thought of a couple that I may have forgotten to mention.  You know the dorky looking guy with the spiked red hair in the new Burger King commercials set in an office?  We saw him at Anthropologie.  OK, not really a celebrity, but still.  The other actually happened months ago now.  We were at church at Bel Air Pres, and we were exiting out to the courtyard after the service.  That's when we saw the Hoff.  That's right, David Hasselhoff, in all his Germans-love-him glory.

That's enough categories for one night.

Clinton and I went up to the ArcLight to catch a special AFI presentation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest last night.  It was quite pleasant.  The audience was full of film buffs.  The popcorn was free.  And the film we were watching was the producer's (Saul Zaentz) personal print.  Which made me think that I want to have my own personal print of a movie I produced some day.  After the movie was over, everyone headed to the restroom, where Clinton spotted Luke from The O.C.  Pretty exciting.

I ventured out today to try to track down some Big Red (soda) in order to make some awesome ice cream.  Jamie had already checked at Ralph's, so I went down to the Target to check it out.  They had nothing.  In the same shopping center, there's a store called BevMo that has Beverages and More!  While they did have a lot of exotic carbonated beverages, they had no Big Red.  They did have IBC Cream Soda, so I thought I'd give that a try.  Now I needed to get some sweetened condensed milk, so off to Ralph's I went.  I grabbed the Eagle Brand (which is what some people's rap is filled with), and got in line.  There at the check out counter about 4 people in front of me was none other than Julian Sark.  For you non-Alias fans, this means nothing to you.  However, for me, I would really have liked to talk to the guy.  I thought about doing the cell phone camera, but I didn't think I could get a good shot.  Usually, when I see celebrities, I think “That's cool.  There's so-and-so.”  This time, though, I think that I would have enjoyed engaging in conversation with him.  One, because Alias is one of my top shows.  Two, because he's just a supporting character, I feel like I could have a normal conversation with him without a bunch of people swarming.  And three, because it was in our neighborhood Ralph's, I felt like he was on my turf.

Off to Texas tomorrow!

I got an ice cream freezer for my birthday, and it got its first use at our place for Taco Tuesday.  I made vanilla ice cream, then added chopped up chocolate chip cookies to the mix during the last 5 minutes.  It was quite tasty.  The freezer is really cool, too, because no ice or rock salt is necessary.  You keep the freezer bowl in the freezer.  It has some sort of liquid in its lining that freezes.  Then, you put your ingredients in the bowl, and turn on the mixer.  Twenty minutes later, you've got cream.  I'm really looking forward to trying out my favorite homemade ice cream flavor: Big Red Peppermint.  I would have made it first, but we haven't found Big Red (the soda, not the gum) out here in California yet.  Boo.

In an unrelated story, we saw David Spade once again at The Grove last night.  This time we saw him at the theatre where we watched The Whole Ten Yards.  I didn't notice, but Jamie said that he was laughing really loudly and then left halfway through.  As for the movie, it wasn't as good as the first one, but it wasn't too bad.

I haven't been real motivated to blog.  Sorry.  I'm not sick anymore, which is good.  I have picked up working out again regularly, and my abs hate me for it.  Just one more workout, and I'll surpass Don's two week prediction.  A celebrity sighting that I forgot to mention happened last week.  Clinton and I were making some transactions at our local Bank of America, and who did we see at the teller window but Emilio Estevez!  To Clinton, he sounded exactly like Jason Jenkins.  I'm not sure what the best part was about his exchange with the teller.  I'll tell you the top two, and you can vote for you favorite.

A)  Teller: “I haven't seen you in anything lately.”

B)  Emilio: “Is a roll of quarters ten dollars?”

I imagine Emilio doing his laundry at the local laundromat.  Anywho, I'll try to be a better blogger.

It's a little bit blurry, because I was taking the pic on the sly.  I was at In-N-Out tonight, and in comes Dominic Monaghan (Merry from Lord of the Rings), and yes I did have to look his name up.  He was unaccompanied, and I was quite surprised to see that no one approached him.  Wish the pic was better quality.

On our way to Chipotle for lunch today with Clinton, we saw up ahead on Beverly Drive that some sort of film shoot was going on.  As we drove by, there was none other than John Travolta and James Woods sitting on two chairs side by side on the sidewalk.

I got the email about the Elliptical machine shipping yesterday.  It is scheduled to arrive on the Ides of March.  Should I beware?