So much has happened since February....

Luisa Fernanda went off really well for Brad. He was treated to a surprise visit by Val and Mike which I knew about, but kept quiet about. He was incredibly happy to see them both!

Around the same time, his company merged with it's new parent that bought them out some time before he came on board. Sadly, there will be no more commuting into Hollywood via the Gold and Red line. Now, it's a 15 min commute to Burbank. Oh well.

By the end of that month, Bradley auditioned for PCC's Opera workshop class that lasted til late spring, where he ended up being cast as Count Almaviva from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. I think this was the first time he found himself totally engrossed and effectively challenged. Not only did he have to sing well, but acting was new to this round of performances.






As for me, I found myself re-connected with a long lost friend from Jr. high school. We had not seen each other in a good many years and happily, our friendship didn't skip a beat, as we picked up the good vibes of that friendship, right where we left off: 4+ hour long conversation on the phone, followed by a road trip to Monterey.

March was filled with work and birthdays and more work. Did I mention work?

In April, I was offered a permanent job working for an awesome client in Glendale. I also was inspired by my BFF to try my hand at growing food on the porch.

Brad had his plate full with rehearsals for the PCC opera workshop, Angel City Chorale for Bradley, including him being asked to help lead the tenor sectionals as well as covering for his absent co-worker post move to their new location and having to now support creatives in addition to being the Jr. Sysadmin for those same workers.

About mid month we took a spur of the moment trip to the Sequoias. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Really, this trip was a needed break, even if it was only an overnight drive up and drive down deal.

This was also while the incredible heat wave was pounding Southern California, so seeing snow so high up and having the cool weather was a great treat. We were rightly reminded of the awesomeness of God and his amazing handy work seeing these groves of giants up in these mountains. I imagine that by now most of the snow has melted and people are getting the last of their camping in before fall sets in.

Once we got back down off the mountain, Bradley continued with his singing and work. At ACC he was asked to help lead some of the sectionals and he auditioned for a few solos at ACC. One of which was a Mongolian piece he's singing in the picture shown here. Funny thing is, on the second night the mic lost it's feed and so he had to sing it acapella, for real.

You might be able to see, he belted it and he actually sounded way more awesome than the mics could ever do.

I'll post more about May, June, July, and August later. As it stands now, we're planning a much needed vacation for September and we are just counting the days now.

2009: Hit the ground dancing?

dancing 2
Originally uploaded by tanguera75

We hit the ground running early last month and hope to wrap this month up with soon. Bradley was cast as a member of a chorus for a Spanish language musical called Luisa Fernanada.

The production found *him*, when he sang with a smaller subsection of his community choir group doing an opera reading in Hollywood. A scout gave him his card and invited him to audition. Funny thing is I don't think Brad thought the guy was all that serious. Eventually Bradley called him back. December rolled around and an audition opportunity opened up and he got in.

The cool part for Brad is this is a paid gig. It's not much but the intention is not lost on him, he's actually pretty stoked about it :D

Since then, it's been rehearsals almost nightly. Thankfully they are close to his job site, so he doesn't have to rush. As is the tradition in standard musicals, there will be singing, dancing and acting, all of which Brad's doing. It's kinda fun because he's getting all kinds of compliments on his dancing.

As for the "Spanish" aspect of it, yes, Brad will be singing in Spanish, however, it's an older flavor of it. Think thou and thy, but in Spanish. Thankfully it will have super titles so everyone can understand the story.

As for me, I'm taking a 6-week class in Philosophical Critical Writing which has a schedule similar to that of Bradley's. It's grueling, but my spirits are up, as it's half way done and my first paper got a really high score.

What has really thrown a curve in my schedule has been not having enough time to properly catch up with a long lost friend from Jr. High. We had been roommates at one time in our lives. A mutual friend found her and tipped me off. I sent a preliminary email and after the first couple rounds, and a 4 hours long conversation on the phone, it's like we never really skipped a beat in our dynamic friendship. It's truly an amazing thing.

Work is steadily moving along. Brad's company is moving to a new facility, so he's a bit more stressed than usual. Sadly, our Valentine's Day festivities will be postponed, as the move was slated for this weekend. It's fine, because if they moved it up further, he might have had to miss his performance on the 21st.

Thankfully, March is around the corner. With it, some needed low cost recreation.

Starting the new year with roses!

City of Los Angeles float
Originally uploaded by bradandmilly

Happy New Year to all our friends and family!

You all know that Milly and I like to have fun doing crazy things together. This time, we thought it fun to go walking at midnight to see the Rose Parade floats lined up for inspection. We joined THOUSANDS, who walked until 3 AM, while volunteers stayed awake even later to finish the decorations.

In these photos you will see what the floats look like when they are "asleep" before the big day. The artificial lighting created strange and beautiful contrasts.

To see the rest of the pictures we took, click here

I've been fooled by The Onion.

I regularly check my favorite news aggregation site, DIGG, for interesting articles on the stuff that matters in the world today.  Of particular interest to me are the Macintosh and Apple related articles.  My wife and I used to work for Apple Retail, and we are very fond of Apple as a company and of its products.  The company has established a brand, a reputation, and a cult following based upon its founder's ideal of "thinking different."

So imagine my surprise when I read this gem in the sidebar:

Apple Employee Fired For Thinking Different

At first glance, I thought it might actually be a story about some crazy guy who, literally, lost his mind and tried to form a jihadist movement at the Campus.  I also feared that the pending departure of Steve Jobs from the company might spurn some unexpected and very "corporate" policy changes.  I suspected that this might be the beginning of the end for Apple.

It's a good setup for a believable prank.

So I clicked the forward link and began reading the news article, which featured a picture of a young bearded fellow sitting in front of his Mac looking slightly serious.  I began to read the sad story of what led to this man's termination.

I was reading this aloud to my wife, who was half-paying attention.  It occurred to her as I was reading the last major paragraph—wherein Apple's human resources team carefully outlines the policies and parameters within which its employees might "think different"—that she suspected the whole thing might be a joke.

And that's when I scrolled up to the top and saw the green "Onion" masthead.  I had been duped by the greatest satirical newspaper of our time.  We had a great guffaw and all was right with the world again.

Grand Californian

Grand Californian
Originally uploaded by bradandmilly

Did you know there's a secret entrance to The Grand Californian in the middle of Downtown Disney? Ok, it's not so secret, but it's gorgeous. We hung around in wet shoes and pants taking a load of pictures on Christmas Day.

This excursion to The Happiest Place on Earth, was preceded by breakfast with Kern side of Brad's family. There was enough food to be had which included... awesome cinnamon buns (thanks Tawnie!), cheesy potatoes (thanks Debbie!), and spinach quiche (That was Tina, I think)!

Sadly, the rain would simply not go away and with Brad's shoes getting soaked, (his really nice work shoes, I hope the get all dried out today), we opted for just lunch at the resort and headed home to enjoy our spoils from the night before.

Be sure to click on the picture and see the rest of the set of pics we took at the resort!