"Monty Python's Spamalot" - Roseville Theatre Arts Academy

Celebrate Natomas 2014

Manuel Practices His English - Fawlty Towers

Purse Stolen At Arden Fair Macy's

Well, this sucks balls. Accompanied E. to Arden Fair Macy's on Tuesday evening to buy a dress for an upcoming wedding. Thief was already in the fitting room and posing as store personnel. She walked out with E.'s purse and $300 in cash.

Store management was rather clinical about the whole thing. Wonder if this happens often, or maybe it's just no one knows how to react to events like this: "sorry for your loss"? Security wasn't able to locate purse outside (assuming it had been rifled and quickly tossed).

Thief took E.'s iPhone 3. Didn't have Enhanced Support on it, so they couldn't trace it. Maybe time to upgrade that phone! Still, she couldn't call her BF, or cancel checks quickly, or attend to changing house keys quickly because we had to go to Kaiser ER first to try and to get meds replaced. Wanted to get Sac PD to do a driveby of the house just to make sure it was safe, but Sac PD don't do drivebys, it seems. Call them back if the place has been ransacked, they recommend.

The ironic thing is that E. never, ever, EVER wins at the casino - no one in the Universe has ever had worse luck - EXCEPT the day before, when she apparently crept over there and won $200. Universe is trying to tell her something.

It was interesting was how the thief posed as store personnel and guided E. to the preferred location in the fitting room for the theft, then departed just as E. came out to model the dress, thus distracting me. Diabolical. No description at all. A fuzzy picture of the thief departing the store was apparently recorded, but nothing clear. That door on the north side of the second level is just too close to the fitting room.

"Shrek - The Musical" Closes

Dinosaur Egg Smuggling

Holy cows!

CEDAR CREST, NM (KRQE) - Federal agents raided a New Mexico-based gallery company last week looking for evidence in a dinosaur fossil smuggling case. The investigation centers around Touchstone Gallery. The company, which sells jewelry, fossils and minerals, has four locations in New Mexico and Arizona.

Agents searched the company’s Cedar Crest headquarters, its Taos location and owner Joe Wilhelm’s Sandia Park home. A federal search warrant application filed in late September and obtained on Wednesday by KRQE News 13 explains why.

In July 2013, Homeland Security Investigations agents were first given a tip that Touchstone was selling Oviraptor eggs at its Sedona location. Months later, agents say they entered the Santa Fe location and spotted a pair of Oviraptor egg clusters for sale, advertised as coming from Mongolia. That caught investigators’ attention. HSI has been returning fossils to Mongolia for the last few years because of that country’s artifact laws.

Ant Attack!

John E. posted this a few days ago:

A routine patrol for a Tracy-area California Highway Patrol officer, Daniel Garza, turned into a fight to save the life of a 41-year-old Los Angeles man paralyzed by an attack that no one saw coming.

...As he changed the tire, Johnck said he noticed a dozen ants climbing over his feet, which were exposed by his flip-flops.

...“All of a sudden, the dozen turned into 10 dozen and my whole leg was blackened with ants,” Johnck said during a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home on Sept. 24. “I freaked out and started to brush them off, and that’s when they started to bite me.

...Within minutes, he said, he became lightheaded and thought he was going into shock. He said he lay down and put his feet up on a cooler but soon realized he needed help fast.

...He was going into anaphylactic shock.

...Johnck said he researched red ant attacks and discovered that they cause a few deaths in the United States each year. As a director and producer of travel films, he has climbed Mount Everest, Mount Whitney and the Swiss Alps and been bitten by many insects in different parts of the world, but he has never had a reaction like the one he experienced in Tracy.

Garza said he was happy he was in the right place at the right time.

“With most incidents, we get there after the incident,” he said. “We don’t usually get there from the start to finish. It was one heck of an experience. Something you don’t expect to happen while out on patrol every day. I was glad I was able to do what I could to help save him.”

Yuba City, Land Of Mysterious Smoke Plumes

When I first moved to Sacramento in 1990, Sacramento was the Land Of Mysterious Smoke Plumes. That was the case until rice field burning was largely-phased out in the area by the Air Resources Board and McClellan Air Force Base was closed.

Now, it appears Yuba City is the Land Of Mysterious Smoke Plumes....

The First Annual Breaking Bad Fan Fest - Coming Soon!

Coming soon! The First Annual Breaking Bad Fest, November 7th & 8th. I will have a table and be selling books there:

THE ALBUQUERQUE BREAKING BAD FAN FEST: The 1st annual ABQ Breaking Bad Fan Fest is more than just a festival, yo. It’s a chance for Breaking Bad fans to make their pilgrimage to Albuquerque, see the filming sites, meet Breaking Bad cast, and meet other fans from all over the world. Come be a part of Breaking Bad fandom history. There will be lots of surprise guests at Fest events. Let’s Cook!
Friday Nov 7th:

$48 for 6 tickets (Buy Now) 2pm-4pm Geeks Who Drink Breaking Bad Trivia Contest at Tractor Brewery--Wells Park. Prizes are VIP passes for the winning team. Under 21 must be accompanied by adult and are not eligible for VIP passes. Open to the public.

$10 (Buy Now) 5pm-7pm Karting Bad. Go Kart races at Albuquerque Indoor Karting (as seen in Breaking Bad). The fastest time wins Breaking Bad: The Complete Series 2014 Barrel [Blu-ray] collection. This is a great all-ages event. Open to the public.
Saturday Nov 8th:

$30 General Admission (Buy Now) includes entrance to all events at the Kiva Auditorium Sat. Nov 8th:

1pm-2pm "Behind the Scenes" panel discussion of Breaking Bad crew moderated by podcasters Jim & ARon of Baldmove.

4pm-5:30pm Costume Contest! (Want to be a contestant? Free and open to the public). Prizes include Mezco toys for under 21, or VIP passes for 21+. Contestants please arrive at 3pm.

7pm-8pm "Breaking Bad Cast" panel discussion featuring Steven Michael Quezada, Charles Baker, Jeremiah Bitsui, Luis & Daniel Moncada, and Max Arciniega, moderated by podcasters Jim & ARon of Baldmove.

$225 VIP Admission (Buy Now) includes all of the events on Sat Nov. 8th at the Kiva Auditorium listed above PLUS:

8:30 pm fully-catered VIP After-Party at Casa Esencia where you can MEET THE CAST featured on our panel and other special guests! Panel cast members will be signing autographs for free. 21+ only!

AND the first VIP ticket buyers will receive a free 1.5 hour RV tour of Breaking Bad locations! Thats church, yo. Please see the Tours tab for more information. Seats are limited. As of today there are still seats available.

10% of all ticket sales will go to two local Albuquerque charities benefiting children & youths, YDI and PB&J.

Die Antwoord - Fatty Boom Boom

Their treatment of Lady Gaga is lamentable. I know if Lady Gaga asked me to open for her I'd be flattered beyond endurance. Nevertheless, Die Antwoord's song is so energetic is precious on its own terms.

Interesting Article About Making The U.S. The Home Of Chess

Like this:

Sinquefield launched the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in 2008 on a quaint, brick-laden block in the city’s Central West End neighborhood. The center has 6,000 square feet of playing halls, libraries, and classrooms, and more than 1,000 dues-paying members. Across the street—past a phalanx of outdoor chess tables arranged on the sidewalk—sits the World Chess Hall of Fame. Sinquefield apparently dug its archives out of mothballs from some sad venue in Florida, augmented the existing collection with his own trove of chess memorabilia, and housed it all in a gorgeous, dedicated facility replete with a gift shop full of Bobby Fischer tchotchkes. Not far from here, on the same side of the city, is Webster University, home to the nation’s best college chess team.

Together, these institutions have made St. Louis the new center of American chess.

Drinking From The Half-Full Glass

The nice thing about looking haggard after a sleepless night is automatically getting the senior rate for the buffet.

Drone Footage Of La Bajada Hill

Here is a wonderful video of drone footage of the National Old Trails Road (NOTR) road up La Bajada Hill, the old Spanish boundary between Rio Arriba and Rio Abajo, between Santo Domingo Pueblo and Santa Fe.




There are some wonderful pictures of La Bajada Hill in the old days, like this one: