Buff, NY The North Ridge at Comic Con 08

looks like you guys are having a good time!

 

so far so good. Jay and Danielle picked us up this morning, after a brief setback and a u turn to get my badge we were off. Got to the con early only to find out that today is one of the busiest days of the whole thing. We had to park approx 1 mile from the place that's how packed the parking lots are. We took the rickshaw back to the con and have been here since 9am.

We finally found the 501st table and talked to them for a while. Other than that we met Don Bluth, who created Dragons Lair. We are now headed to the Ghost Hunters and Star Wars panels.

Talk to you soon!

 

A RICKSHAW?!?! Man, I would pay good money to see the rickshaw guys face when he saw his next fare! I hope you tipped him well! Don`t get upset with me, Dan. You know I love you, but that mental image is AWESOME!!

 

The Fan Club breakfast was excellent.
Good food, good discussions with Steve Sansweet, the head of Hasbro Toys, Mary Franklin and Dave Filoni. We found out that the "prototype" product for the new Millenium Falcon was Butterscotch the Pony.
We got action figures, commemorative tickets, and Yoda Clone Wars photos autographed and personalized by the voice of Yoda for the new series.

We found out that yesterday they premiered FANBOYS, and elsewhere showed STARGATE: CONTINUUM on an aircraft carrier. Also Hugh Jackman showed up to preview WOLVERINE.

The WATCHMEN panel packed the 6500 seat auditorium. The director was there, Zach Snyder, Dave Gibbons (original artist and co-creator), and ALL the principals. They showed an extended montage of clips, and after the Q&A, the actor playing The Comedian asked if they could run the montage again, as they've never seen any of the final product.

The next panel in Hall H was Werewolf, featuring guests Rick Baker (make-up wizard), Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro.

After Frank Miller's SPIRIT panel, with guests Samuel Jackson and others, we finally got to the STAR WARS Spectacular, which frankly wasn't really. They did show extended clips, and an entire act of the series featuring Luminara and Asoka, along with unseen footage of FORCE UNLEASHED (where Vader saves a young boy after Force-killing his Jedi father), but the infor and discussions were all recycled from the breakfast and the other panels during the day. No mention of the live action series, except that it MIGHT premiere in 2011. They're still discussing the next celebration, but no confirmed venue.

Dan and Biz were with us for the Spectacular, and then we went to dinner at the Sea Port Village, where Jay and Danielle met us for Margaritas and dessert cannoli.

 

And now a preview of:
Girls of the North Ridge 2

[image=http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh266/The_North_Ridge/GONR2.jpg]

 

Accidentally posted Saturday in the Comic Com Swag thread.

Not sure if we'll get to the con today and for how long.
Much more to do in LA.

Mouse.
Universal.
Spudnuts.

 

Good stuff! Watched most of Saturday on G4tv. How was the whole Watchmen setup? What was your favorite parts of the weekend? I also know one of the Slave-Leia's that competed in the Leia championship. Looked like lots of good batman costumes as well.....Hope you guys had a blast

 

We have officially blown Dan and Biz's minds with this first eve at California Experience.
On to the Magic Kingdom Monday.

 

The California Adventure was awesome! We went on a Twilight Zone ride that took you up 6 stories and then dropped you down, then picked you up and dropped you again. Also checked out Monsters Inc ride that was cool. The Animation dept was the highlight so far, as you could see someone draw cells for a cartoon while you wait. Lots of cool expensive stuff.
We went to Seaworld on Saturday and forgoed the Con at all on Sunday. Also took in San Diego zoo and got to see a snake eat a mouse. Not the greatest thing to see in person.

I think I took 600-700 pics of just the zoo and Disney. That includes the blurry one so I will have a better count once I get home. All the pics so far I think Larry said are around 6 gigs, not sure though.

 

Tower of Terror is great, I only wish I had been able to ride it more than the one time while I was at Disney.

Can't wait for the pictures of everything (in anticipation)

 

I just got off the phone with Dan. It sounds like we'll need to plan a get together just to see all the pictures!

 

Well we just finished up the journey to the mouse last night. Great experiance! We got our first timer pins as well as a few lanyards. Indy had a stunt show as well as a great ride next to his show. Met a Jack Sparrow look a like, shopped and did a bunch of rides. Space Mountain, Indy, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain and Nemo.

Now its on to universal to conclude our trip. Then were heading home at 3pm eastren tomorrow.

A little FYI so far the cost to ship everything home is around 200 bucks and that's just my stuff from the con, we still have to make one more stop to mail out the remaining items not shipped home. Who would of guessed that all that stuff would cost that much to ship!

 

Yeah, I found that out the exact same way last year! All that free stuff sure costs a ton to get back home

 

I'll help out with the shipping costs Dan...

 

Heard about the temblor - you guys ok? 5.8 - not inconsiderable...

Last time we were there we were underground when a 4.2 hit. Weird seeing stuff sway around you. We doubletimed up the stairs!

Sounds like you had a great time at Disney. Tower of Terror is the best!

 

I got a text from Dan saying they ere driving when it hit and they didn't seem to notice much. Haven't heard from Jay & Danielle and hope they made it through ok.

 

Thanks for the update Chris. I was hoping everyone was OK!

 

Called Jay and Danielle last night and they said that they had felt the quake. The were in a store that sold bottled oil and Jay said it felt like a truck hit the building. He said that the oil was shaking all over the place. We are on ou way home today, they are on their way to Disney.

See everyone soon!

 

I'm glad everyone is ok, I'm sure there is an oil joke in there somewhere...

 

"Oil be seeing you, in all the old familiar places..."

Sing it with me! (crickets chirping) Anyone?[face_alien_1]

Heard from another California friend, he was pretty blase about it - I guess if you live there, unless something falls on you it's kind of like how a Buffalonian would feel about a blizzard - aggravating and annoying but not unexpected

Good to hear everyone's fine!

 

Funny thing happened on the way to Buffalo....elizabeth and I missed our connecting flight to Buffalo last night. We are currently with Larry, who gave up his seat to make sure we got home safe, at the Atlanta Airport. Its a long story but needless to say we should be home later this morning around 10am. Just remind me at a meeting and I will tell the story of the three of us missing our flight.

 

What a guy!

 

Thankfully we made it out of Atlanta in one piece. The three of us made it in around 930am. This has been by far the best trip I've ever been on, well except for missing the flight last night.

A very special thanks goes out to both Larry and Janice, who worked very hard to make sure that Elizabeth and I got to see and do almost everything that our trip had to offer. Without you guys leading the way I am sure we would still be trying to get on some rides at Disney or stuck somewhere in Hollywood.

And a very very special thanks goes out to Larry, who as I said before gave up his seat on the plane to insure that we made it home from Atlanta, in one piece.

 

Has everyone made it back at this point?

 

Jay & Danielle come back Saturday morning.