Ense-Nada

Steve and I took a three-day Carnival cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada, Mexico. It was a nice little break in what has been a bumpy year. Even though we both had colds (Steve's much more persistent than mine), we did relax and enjoy ourselves.

Not that it's been an unpleasant year, mind you; it's just that things have been much different this: First was the trip to London and Paris, then came Steve's new job and now some changes for me at The Hollywood Reporter (which I am not at liberty to divulge just yet). So the idea of the cruise (my birthday present to Steve back in June) was that we would need a breather by September.

It went well enough, although there were a half-dozen groups on the ship celebrating birthdays or weddings, made up almost exclusively of twenty-somethings with a penchant for drinking 24 hours a day. We were constantly escaping what seemed a nonstop fraternity kegger.

The food was good to acceptable and there weren't too many "bubbas" on board (although there is always a few bikers or truckers from Fresno or Bakersfield whose concept of formal wear is a new Hawaiian shirt with black jeans or the clean plaid shirt with the mother-of-pearl snaps, the BIG silver belt buckle and the BIG turquoise bolo tie.

The biggest downer was that, after a day of tchotchke-shopping in Ensenada, my booty (all in a white plastic bag) was purloined from the end of the security conveyor belt on the way back into the ship. I hope the bitch who took it rots in hell, since it would have been easy to return the stuff, if it was a mistake. It was a couple marble cones that matched one I had bought there last year and a couple kitchen magnets. No big whoop, but MY STUFF.

The cruise lines reaction to my report of the theft was thorough though completely passive. Steve and I both agreed that the next cruise will be with another line and to a different locale. Besides, after two cruises in two years, I'm ready for some other form of vacation.

And the Emmy Goes to...

So I'm at work right now, getting things moving for The Hollywood Reporter's coverage of the 59th Emmy Awards. This year I'm heading up the layout of the editorial pages (which doesn't include the arrivals pages, the fashion page or the parties and suites coverage). The whole experience is like "Oscar Lite," because I really don't care about the Emmys one way or the other (unless someone I know is up for an award, mind you. But that's highly unlikely).

Anyway, I'm sitting around waiting for the stories to get written, the photos to be chosen, the review to be finished, so I can slap this stuff together and get everything out of here in time to hit the presses for tomorrow morning.

Two bright spots: I was glad America Ferrera won and I'm glad Kathy Griffin won. No matter who won, I won't be out of here until at least 1 a.m. How about that?

Another Picture

When "The Simpsons Movie" came out earlier this summer, there were only a few marketing tie-ins with the release. One of them was Burger King, which launched the Simpsonize Me Web site, where people could upload their photos and be turned into a Simpson character. The results were very generic, but if you had the time and inclination, you could hand-select eyes, noses, hair styles, body types, colors, etc to make your mug more special. So here's a shot of Steve and I as our Springfield alter egos.

Actually, this is all just more practice in uploading images to the blog site, wrapping type around them and getting it to look decent.

By the by, here's the originals from the Burger King Web site that I used to make the two-shot image above in Photoshop. I also added the "Simpson Salmon Pink" background.

Adding Pictures

I am attempting to add a photo and see how it all lays out. Here is a photo and myself and Steve in London. You can see Buckingham Palace behind us. There are other photographs from the trip, but I don't want to overburden the site. We'll see how this turns out when I check out my blog later.

Frenetics

Things seem to be going a little bit too fast the last couple of days. They're changing at work and changing at home and, as a rule, change is something that I react to first with irritation.

At The Hollywood Reporter, we're adding new colors and elements to the editorial pages while trying to streamline the various looks of the features and specials pages. I am in charge of the 100-plus page file templates that have to be updated with new color pallettes and new graphic elements. They all have to be ready to unleash all at the same moment, which happens to be Friday morning, first thing.

At home, a new family has moved in next door. They only arrived last night and the only thing I know about them is that they have a toddler (sounds like a girl) who likes to scream and kick the walls until 11 o'clock at night...well, at least last night. I keep telling myself that it was the first night in a new house and that she's probably not that obnoxious as a general rule. I shall have to bake them cookies so Steve and I can introduce ourselves in the proper manner.

In the Beginning

My friend Kathy has a blog, and I was so taken by it I decided to try one.

I have nothing to say at this point. I am still working out the bugs in figuring out how to get this up and running.

Perhaps profound things will be said here. I really doubt it. Once I get things going and get familiar with the lay of the cyberland here, I may add pictures and such. Just getting this first message up on the site is enough for me now, though.