Exhausted

--Working on a project for Lexus right now. Spent yesterday and today viewing video footage and writing notes on the first episodes.

--Pitched a new TV series with my writing partner to ABC Family. Went extremely well, now the waiting game begins again.

--Setting up multiple other pitch meetings for projects next week.

--Rewriting my first fiction book; two agents are asking for it and I'm having a hard time focusing. I hope to finish between now and when Steve leaves for Hong Kong in a week.

--Met this evening with two friends on a radio show we're developing.

--Calling around for some magazine work so that I can pay the mortgage bill.

AND the new TV season has started... Needless to say, Mamma needs some rest!

Kurt Departs For Detroit

We had our farewell dinner with Kurt and Uncle Bernie last night. Here we are with...
John, Jeff, Kurt, Steve, Uncle Bernie and me.

Kurt and Uncle Bernie are driving out to Detroit. All of us have visions of a Wild Hogs meets Boys on the Side road trip movie.

Hmmm I am looking for my next writing project...

Much happening in the next couple weeks leading up to Steve's Hong Hong trip. More tomorrow.

Celeb Sighting-- Runyon Canyon

Steve's Uncle Bernie is in town-- he and Kurt (Steve's dad) are driving out from LA to Detroit for Kurt's move. So we had dinner last night at Micelli's in Hollywood. Great pizza and a lot of cool history; this is where JFK would have secret dinners with Marilyn Monroe. It was also fun meeting Bernie, since I've heard so many stories about the family, and Steve and I will be seeing them all over Thanksgiving. (Yes, that's right, we're going to Detroit for Thanksgiving. Please don't laugh.)

So this morning we went hiking in Runyon Canyon. This area is known for having celebs, but usually during the week. Seeing D-lebrities at any time is no surprise, so when we passed Lucky Vanous we didn't blink. Lucky was the "Diet Coke Hunk" from those commercials years ago. Just to be clear, he doesn't look like this anymore (though it is used as his MySpace photo, which makes me laugh). This other pic is what he looks like now, standing out of his Hollywood restaurant, Lucky Devils.

But the real celeb sighting?

Laurence Fishburne. I KNOW! That's like A-list "I'm kicking ass in The Matrix and so many other movies that you can't even think of them right now" Laurence Fishburne. Steve and I were coming down a hill, he was walking past at the base of the hill with a pretty women. Steve said, "Oh that's..." and stopped speaking. I looked up and tripped on a rock. Classy.

Fortunately, I recovered.

So much is coming up this week but I have to write more later. Steve and I need some time together now, and this laptop is getting in the way.

Even MORE Brady Bunch News-- FOR VAGETARIANS!

Doria Biddle, producer of the Frank DeCaro show on Sirius radio, just sent me this link about Marcia Brady's lesbian fling with Jan.

SHOCKING!

The next time Steve and I go over to his brother's place, we should go up to Eve Plumb's apartment wearing "The New Jan Brady" and "Vagetarian" T-shirts. Hmmmm....

Celeb Sighting-- This one wins a prize!

Yesterday's blog was all about our new T-shirts. Lovely.

So Jeff, Steve's brother, read the blog at the end of his work day and then went home to his West Hollywood condo. He got out of his car, went to the elevator, and as the door opened guess who walked out and into the parking garage...

Eve Plumb with her dog.

Yes, we knew she had a condo in his building, but it's still pretty cool to finally meet her.

T-shirts: The New Jan Brady & Xanadudes LIVE!

If you're on MySpace you may have seen some of this info in my bulletin area, but Steve and I made a new "test" shirt. Check it out.
Yes, fans of Brady Bunch beware! We're testing this design in other colors-- as in ordering them first to see what they look like before we sell them-- but as of this moment we know this particular design works on a shirt. We also put this design on a mug, for those of you who have e-mailed about having the images on things other than T-shirts.

What you're looking at above is a fitted guy's T (American Apparel) and it looks hot, thankyouverymuch.

Speaking of hot, couple Jeff and Beau just came back from their big gay cruise where they wore their Joanie Loves Tchotchkies (Jeff) and Xanadude (Beau) shirts!

This is them on their way to Elia beach in Mykonos. The helmets really make the outfit, don't ya think?














The boys were a hit, and Beau is kind enough to credit the shirts. (I personally think it has to do with how happy they are in general, but I'll gladly take credit for the it being the shirts.)

Relative Insanity: The Disneyland Trip

Actually, there's nothing really crazy to report.

Last Friday, Steve and I took Kurt to Disneyland because he's leaving LA for Michigan and he loves the parks. Our theory of going after Labor Day really paid off. We waited 60-minutes to get on the new submarine ride (a bit chaotic, if you ask me, but maybe I'm just getting old) and that was it. Every other ride was a 20-minute or less wait. Seriously.

We literally hit every ride except for Haunted Mansion, which was being renovated for the Nightmare Before Christmas holiday edition.

After that we checked into our hotel room at The Grand Californian. We had a park view room, from which we could see The Tower of Terror and the Grizzly Rapids at California Adventure. Super cool.



Let me also say that there is nothing better than having a hotel room to chill out in; escaping the noises and crowds is the best way to survive a Disney weekend.

That night we ate at Catal, which is a Patina Group restaurant located at Downtown Disney. Let me just say, there's a reason it's a Patina restaurant. Great food, wonderful service, and strong drinks (I don't know if that' s indicative of their venues, but I can say it was fun getting tipsy with Kurt.)
On Saturday, Jeff and John joined us. Notice the soaking wet clothes from our adventure on Splash Mountain.
So that was the weekend. And even though there's not much to report, it made for a great farewell weekend with Kurt. Next weekend? The move out.

We're off to Disneyland

Hey Kids,

As I may have mentioned, Steve's dad is moving back to Michigan. Now he loves Disney almost as much as his son, and he's never been to California Adventure, so we thought it would be a fun way to spend one of his last weekends in LA. (I don't know how it is that he hasn't gone when Steve has a free pass to the park, but time moves quickly in this world...)

Another bonus (which I probably shouldn't mention) but the weekends following Labor Day are usually less crowded because everyone is back in school. So we may even have an easy time of navigating the park. Who can say?

Anyway, Kurt, Steve and I are going today. Jeff and John will join us tomorrow. I'll take lots of pics. If you see us, say hi.

New Shirts - For the lesbians, straight dudes, and jokers in your life.

Check it out. We just uploaded a funny (dirty) new shirt to our store on Cafe Press!
I'm still laughing.

Own Some of Steve's Disney Stuff - pt. 3 Princesses

We're at the final bunch (for now) of Steve's work that you can find at The Disney Store or purchase online. This edition is all about the Princesses.

First off is this Sleeping Beauty lamp. Super cute. In fact, it's so cute that I needed to do the zoom in and let you see it close up.

Of course, talking about Steve's work wouldn't be complete without including at least some snowglobes, and this series is a return to a more traditional snowglobe look. You'll notice in this case there's one globe on a base, the Princess with her Prince, and that's it; nowadays you normally see those enormous sculptures with multiple globes and characters.

While these are the first three, there will probably be more globes with other Princesses-- made in this same round style-- in future seasons so that you collect all the Princesses. (BTW, right now you can find a Hercules globe in the stores that fits this same look even though it's not technically in this line of globes.)
Here's the Princess Snow White globe...
...the Beauty & The Beast Princess Belle snowglobe...
...and from Aladdin, the Princess Jasmine snowglobe.

If you're a Princess fan, you should really follow the links and blow them up-- the details on the faces and such are pretty incredible.

What's driving me crazy (as it always does) are all the future items I know about but can't show/talk about yet on the blog. Like when I knew about those Nightmare Before Christmas things that I couldn't mention until now. Or the upcoming Christmas ornaments we have at the house that I can't show you yet! They're amazing. Some even light up. You'll love them.

Why We Love Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel

Hey Kids,

We could spend the day talking about the MTV Video Music Awards and Britney's pathetic "not trying" performance, or how our best friend Jennifer Garner looked FANTASTIC as she struggled to promote her movie and present an award, but instead we'll talk about something we love unconditionally. Like Samantha Brown on The Travel Channel.

Who is she? How can you not know??? Samantha Brown is the host of Girl Meets Hawaii, Great Hotels (where she gets to stay in these fantastic hotels around the country and you feel like you're on holiday with her), Passport to Europe and the current Passport to Latin America.

Steve and I first met Sam about three years ago. I was reviewing a resort in Palm Springs. Steve and I were sleeping in a wonderful suite with a pillow-topped mattress, and Steve turned on the Travel Channel-- something we didn't have at that time in our apartment. And there was Samantha Brown doing her wonderful job on a Great Hotels marathon.

Four hours later, we decided we should get something to eat. So we did. And then we came back to the suite, and rather than do any research/writing on this resort, we sat in bed eating snacks, drinking cocktails and watching more Great Hotels episodes.

The thing about Samantha that's so amazing, is you feel like she's your best friend. She's so funny and smart, but she has such a genuine respect and appreciation for the places and people she visits that she's a delight to watch. And when she says things like, "I booked us a suite..." you're thinking, Oh my God, how cool! I can't wait to see it! because she's natural in her hosting skills that you think you really are there with her. She's kind of nerdy (in a really good way), super funny, and we know she loves the same stuff we do. We knew it before-- we sensed it-- but then we saw this segment on Passport to Latin America.

(I recorded a lot, so pause it and move on once you've gotten the joke.

Anyway, after all this, we want to accomplish a couple things with our Samantha Brown obsession. The first, is getting Samantha Brown one of our Xanadu shirts. She will love us for that, even more than she already will upon meeting meeting us (if that's humanly possible). The second, is to have her and her husband over for dinner. Or we'll meet them out for drinks. Or we'll just connect with them when we're traveling in some foreign country or state and have a fantastic time together.

If anyone knows Sam, please pass on the word. Seriously. We know she'd love us as much as we love her. I mean, if nothing else, she's a Xanadu fan, and cool people like us need to stick together.

Celebrity Sighting - Desperate Housewives & family news

Talk about random celeb sightings this week. Today I ran into Mark Moses who plays Paul Young, the dark husband of Mary Alice on ABC's Desperate Housewives. It was at the YMCA where I work out. I was in the cardio room chatting with Lisa, my boxing teacher who also works out there, and he walked through. He's quite handsome, even in sweats.

In family news... Kurt, Steve's dad, is moving back to Michigan. That means we have to clear out all that stuff you store at your parent's house when you move into your own place. Stuff you should have culled through and sold/donated/trashed but you felt too sentimental about. I'm not talking photos or awards or even the videos of me dressed as Wonder Woman and performing at Comic-Con's Masquerade competition in San Diego. I'm talking about Steve's Happy Meal toys and random articles I wrote before entering college.

So this weekend we plan on purging from our own house first, then possibly heading up to Kurt's and cleaning that out. Perhaps we'll do that part next weekend (baby steps).

But the best part of this weekend? Other than dinner tonight we have no plans! This feels like the first weekend we'll be able to rest since the summer started. Well, that is if you consider digging through closets and purging restful.

God it's depressing to be old.

Celebrity Sighting - Grey's Anatomy

Had breakfast this morning at King's Road with the boxing class and I ran into Eric Dane, Mr. McSteamy himself from Grey's Anatomy.

Even in a sweatshirt, baseball cap and sunglasses he's pretty fine. I'm just sayin...

I'm writing...

And it's taking up a lot of time.
More soon. Promise.

WORD OF THE WEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!! (Sept. 4, 2007)

The word of the week is: Bitchelorette

Definition: Noun. A woman who is a bachelorette for a reason.

In a REAL LIFE scene:
Rick and Steve are watching Ann Coulter behave like an evil, miserable, hate-mongering, barren hag on television.

RICK: God, I hate Ann Coulter.
STEVE: She's single, right?
RICK: Yes. She's a bitchelorette.


For more Words of the Week, visit the Archives!