Pedroza's Place

We had the snow and now we have the rain. It has been raining pretty hard for the last 24 hours. The result has been that our build-up area under the house and our bathroom have turned into a little river. I have two pumps right now pumping out the water as fast they can. I have also discovered a few more leaks in our roof. We really need to fix them, but there is no money for that right now. Such is life I suppose. I called the mortgage company to see if they could help me out with a construction loan, but they said I don’t make enough money. I asked them if I could have a home modification and then they told me I have too much money. It was at that point that I said “Thank You” and hung-up. If this house falls apart I might have to walk away from it, but the mortgage company can’t say I didn’t try.

Today I found out about this site called tripfilms.com. I haven’t gotten paid by them yet, but I hope to in the future. At this site you can post your travel videos and get rewards for it. At first you start out by getting things like amazon.com gift cards and american airline frequent flyer miles, but if your videos get really good or if they commission you for a video shoot you can earn free hotel nights and they will actually start paying you money for your videos. Anyhow, from now on my travel videos will be done through tripfilms.com and my other vlogs will still be posted through youtube.com, but I thought others might want to know about this cool site. Here is a sample of the first video I have put up through tripfilms.com:

I was watching a youtube video about Otaru, Japan:

and I was reminded of back in 1993 when I was a California Youth Ambassador and I had the opportunity to travel to Japan for a few months. Otaru was a very fun place to visit. I had very nice exchange hosts and they took me with them on their family vacation around the island of Hokkaido. I remember visiting the music box shop:

and the Glass Blowing Shop:

I often wonder if I will ever get the chance to go back.

Anyhow, what are you dreaming about? See what others are dreaming about at: http://www.motherofalltrips.com/

Today I would like to talk about our night at DCA (Disney’s California Adventure) and Downtown Disney, but before I do that I have to tell everyone an AJ story. Denise was away on Saturday so it was just AJ and I at home for most of the day. AJ was doing what I call “scout mode,” which basically consists of him “scouting” up trouble. Anyhow, so he finds my lunchbox that I take to work and he immediately decides to dump everything out. It is a Saturday, and since I don’t go to work on the weekends I didn’t really think much of it. Except for the fact that I forgot that I on Friday I didn’t drink all of the Crystal Light I had in my water bottle. So as you can imagine AJ figures out how to open the water bottle and begins to squirt red cherry Crystal Light all over our light beige carpet. I see him do this and I tell him “no, bad boy,” he runs away and then comes back with a towel, gives it to me and then proceeds to say “papi, clean-up,” and then goes on playing again.
Anyhow, after I cleaned the Crystal Light disaster are and Denise got back we went to DCA (Disney’s California Adventure).

By the time we got there it was starting to get dark. Theme parks definately have a different atmosphere at night:

I really like looking at the neon lights:


We didn’t do much while we were there. We went to play Toy Story Midway Mania:

It is a game where you where you put on these 3D glasses and use the shooter device to play games while you ride the attraction. You play against the partner sitting next to you:

If you are wondering who won that would be me (if you see the bee come out shoot it).
We also went to the Michat 5 Year Anniversary Meet. Michat is one of several Disney fan clubs. Pretty much it was a chance to geek out on Disneyland trivia (Do you know that the official elevation of Disneyland is 138ft?)
After that we took a stroll down Downtown Disney:
The World of Disney store has almost every Disney related item you could ever want:

There are plenty of outdoor singers at Downtown Disney:

I thought these Minnie Mouse apples were kind of neat looking:

In all it was a very fun night.

Many of those reading this probably don’t know who Rodger Swan is or what he did. I can’t say that I knew him personally and I know I never will. Unfortunately he died rather suddenly yesterday. What I can tell you is that he was a teacher working for the JET program in Japan (its a teacher exchange program where foreign teachers go and teach in Japan). He was also a you tuber (someone who posts videos on youtube). Nothing really special I guess, but what stuck out to me is that he had a dream and through his videos you could see that he was accomplishing that dream (that to me is very extraordinary). It is also interesting to me that in this day a person who I have never met, nor who knows me, can have an effect on me, but it does. Technology is a weird thing and it interesting to see how it can shape our interactions with people. Anyhow, I just wanted to say goodbye to Mr. Swan and offer my condolences to his family. If you get the chance I would encourage to go to youtube and check out his videos:

www.youtube.com/rodgerswan

It has taken me awhile to edit the video for this place, but I think I have it to the level of “one notch above horrible.”
Anyhow, one of the other things we did on our way home from our last trip to Arizona was to go to Casa Grande National Monument. Casa Grande is a place that leaves the visitor with lots of questions. Normally, when you think of Ancient Native American habitations in Arizona you think of cliff dwellings, but this monument is an exception to the rule. Set right in the middle of the town of Coolidge, Arizona, Casa Grande National Monument shows a different type of Ancient Native American dwelling. Most likely built 1000 BCE, this building has two features that immediately jumped out at me. First of all, it is a huge complex for being out in the desert. How many people lived here? Why did they choose to live so far away from the river? How did they live so far away from the river? The answer to that last question is that these people had learned how to (on their own), build a very immense aqueduct system to this very remote flat land. The second feature that struck me is that it looks like Casa Grande was a two (or maybe even three) story structure. No other Native American structures in this area are that big. How did they do it and why?
I am sure if you visit this place you will have a lot of your own unanswered questions, but you’ll also have lots of fun imagining your own answers.

Oh, and if you are wondering what happened to AJ’s soda I figured it out:

If you are interested in seeing what other people are doing for their family trips one blog I would suggest is : www.motherofalltrips.com

People often ask me after a storm “So, How Cold Was It?” This is a hard thing to convey to the rest of my Southern Californian friends. I can’t blame them, snow is not really something we see too often in Southern California. Being a mountain dwelling Southern Californian I get to see the snow every year. Unfortunately, we had to go to court on Friday (stupid Red Light Ticket…) and with the weather we didn’t want to risk getting stuck at home (thus being in contempt of court), so my mom graciously hosted us for two days. When we did get back home however, this is what we saw:

Now, I am sure if you are from most of Southern California you will look at this video and say to yourself, “I would never want to live in that.” This would be valid, but before you judge our situation too harshly I give you this picture:

This picture was take about an hour after I had been shoveling out our driveway. Several enterprising teenagers had come by while I was shoveling and had offered to help, but when I told them that I only had $10 in the house, they left rather quickly. So while I was shoveling this man in the Bobcat comes up to my house. I look at him and I tell him “Sorry, I only have $10.” (the going rate for Bobcats is like $40). He looks at the driveway he says “whatever” and proceeds to dig out an ample space for my car in less than 5 minutes (thus saving me about 3 hours of work). While he is doing this I tell Denise to get my $10 dollars, but before Denise comes back the guy goes away. This is why I live in Crestline. You may have some good neighbors, but I have great ones. Oh and just so you don’t think I am a bad neighbor, an hour later when the road scrapper came by I went with my shovel and helped a different neighbor dig out his truck.

PS Don’t come and visit us for a few days because CHP just announced that our mountain roads are closed to any visitors.

Yesterday was a free day at the LACMA (most holiday Mondays are free). We met up with my sister-in-law Erica and my niece Harper and went a saw what there was to see. It was a rainy day, but being an Art museum it was good because it was all inside. This did not however, stop AJ from tossing his jacket aside and going puddle jumping:

As far as the exhibits go, it was interesting. We saw a new Korean and Indian Comic exhibit:

The Indian Spiderman was really interesting:

We also got to see the Japanese Art wing, which was a personal first:

This week we are supposed to get a big storm, but yesterday was a beautiful day in Crestline. It was sunny with just a slight breeze. I didn’t have anything planned until the afternoon, but I knew it was too good of a day to waste inside. So off I went for walk. In total almost all around town, being a town however that isn’t very far. In total from Top Town, down the strip, and around Lake Gregory I estimate I walked about 5 miles. Denise and AJ came for two miles of it and then ditched me. It was such a beautiful day that I felt I could just keep walking on forever. Unfortunately, I had some things to do in the afternoon so I had to go home, but it was fun while it lasted. Here are two videos I made of the walk. The first one is of the town of Crestline and the second one is walking around Lake Gregory. Hope you enjoy them:

Today was my flex day and Denise had taken a sub. job so it was just me and AJ today. I had been home all weekend and had no desire to stay at home so AJ and I went to Disneyland. One of the benefits of having a pass is that you can go to the park for just a few hours and not feel like you wasted your money.
It was a fun few hours, we did a handful of attractions, but the main one I wanted to see was the newly re-opened Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Recently restored, the Main Street Opera House and Bank is now home to three different attractions. The first thing is that they have redone the Main Street Bank and it is now home to the Disney Gallery. Here you can see many different Disneyland inspired art displays. The second part is the Disneyland Story. Here you can see the bench where Walt Disney first thought up Disneyland, some original sketches and models, and a little musuem about the history of the park. Going on further you get into the Lincoln exhibit. You watch a short preview film of the original voice of Lincoln and head to the theater for your encounter with Mr. Lincoln himself. After the presentation, you go into the Spirit of America hallway where you see portraits of influential Americans such as John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King, and Hanna Montana(not really sure why she is there). In all it was a fun day with AJ and we really enjoyed our Dole Whip:
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