Labor Day Weekend was hot and humid.  I opted for spending most of my time inside in the air conditioning.  Zyla went to her friend Bella's house for a pool party Saturday, giving Ed and I some alone time.  We started watching Walking Dead Season 3, which had just come from Netflix.  After Mass on Sunday we went down to see my sister's family, then had dinner at Mama D's, a fabulous Italian restaurant about a block away from our childhood Manhattan Beach Pier.  It was great to see Debbie and hear all about her spooky historic trip to Iowa with my nephew Matt.  Monday, Zyla went to see the new One Direction movie with a group of her girlfriends from school, while Ed and I relaxed at home.  He was working on the trailer for the new horror movie he was producing with Yossi.  Later that evening, Zyla ordered her Halloween costume online, a Steampunk girl, a sci-fi mix of 19^th Century with anachronistic retro-futuristic inventions, basically vintage and modern combined into a really cute outfit. 

Tuesday our director Marc came to set in a wheelchair again, but did not need the gurney.  Everything was full steam ahead to get this next episode out that had been postponed a week.  The pre-shoot went great, then we camera blocked scene H which had not been done before the break.  My favorite line of this episode was Linda/Lorna saying ‘You don't know' to Sean.  All the actors were really funny and having fun with their parts.  The afternoon went by quickly, the stand ins were not needed, so we watched the camera refresh of all the scenes, before our late lunch then settled into the AD Office for the evening.  It was challenging squeezing all six of us in there, but we made it work.  I read the next script that was really funny about a dance competition Sean ends up doing with Max.  I read some of A Girl Named Zippy, the autobio from author Haven Kimmel.  Wrapped out by 9:30pm.  Zyla wanted to sign up for dance classes again, so I made arrangements for that.  She and Ed had watched a Vampire Diaries season 4 while I was at work, so I needed to catch up.  Now that Zyla was back in school all the chaos business was under way.  Finding things for her to do for her service hours, getting books to read for monthly book reports, registering for Mock Trial.  It could all be overwhelming, but I made lists and took it one day at a time getting everything lined up.  I realized I had been writing this online memoir for over a decade now.  I wondered who read it and if they wanted to know where the sex, drugs and rock and roll were.  I wondered if my writing was weaker for leaving out a lot of the drama that took place in my life.  I loved living a mellow happy life and did not like focusing on drama when it would come up.  But maybe I was leaving out half the story and thought about writing it separately. 

Wednesday I had plans to meet Jodi at her house to watch The Host, which we had postponed for a month after I had read the book because I had gotten busy with work.  We managed to watch over an hour of the two hour movie, then finished it up the following morning.  So many changes compared to the book, tons of things I felt were important left out, and lots of scenes that take place at night in the book would be in the daylight for the movie.  Not to mention completely straying from the book, the Hollywood movie version let her go outside for the first time during the day with the guy she liked!  Not at all how the book was, sorta disappointing, wish they had made it a mini series so everything could have been included correctly. 

Friday I was back at work for a mellow day of taking notes.  Our director Marc was back on his feet but had the wheelchair for breaks.  This new episode was so much fun!  The writers again did an amazing re-write from the script we had read Tuesday night.  They brought back 12-year old Sean and his mom in a dance competition, and Parvesh came back as a regular office worker.  I heard talk that he would be a series regular for at least half the season because he was so funny and no matter what he did everyone laughed.  The day flew by quickly.  We were needed to stay after the run thru for Patti.  The lighting for the dance room was really cool and we showed Patti where our characters would be.  Wrapped by 4:30pm.

I kept the weekend mellow because it was still 100 degrees outside.  Zyla did a service hour at the Stough Nature Center after her Jr. Docent Meeting.  While I was driving away from the Nature Center into the residential neighborhood I saw a monster sized raccoon running down the street with a squirrel in it's mouth.  I really could not believe how big it was, like a small bear!  I took Zyla to get jazz shoes for her upcoming dance class.  I helped her with her study guide for the book The Giver she had read over the summer that she was being tested on the following week.  We watched Vampire Diaries and The Walking Dead.  I loved the new season of The Walking Dead what a brilliant show!  I started reading Carrie Fisher's novel Postcards from the Edge.  I think it was loosely based on her time in rehab and reminded me of when I went in high school.  I found it pretty funny. 

Monday I was back at SSW after getting Zyla to school for Picture Day!   The new episode was a lot of fun, but a lot of work.  There were many dance numbers that the actors had to spend extra time rehearsing.  We pre-shot most of the dance scenes to get complete coverage, but they would still be acting the scenes out for the audience the following day.  Because of these scenes we ran way behind, so when it came time to camera block everything else, the actors just rushed through the remaining six scenes so they could go home, then the stand ins were used to block them.  Our director who was still in his wheelchair decided to take his pain and aggravation out on the stand ins saying we were not professional, not watching our actors closely enough and needed to do a better job of finding our cameras.  The problem was that there was tension about whether marks would be used.  Almost every set uses marks, but our first director James Burrows had his own thing going that he did not use them, which worked for him in his years and years of experience doing multi-cam.  Since Marc saw this example, he wanted to do that too, but it was not realistic and camera focus could be off if actors did not land on their marks.  It was frustrating to be told we weren't doing our job properly when the Tech Coordinator Russ would call out direction for us to move to the next mark, and forget/skip over my characters direction.  I would remind him, my character still needed to do something before we could move to the next thing.  I could not take Marc's criticism too personally considering when the actors showed up on Tuesday for the refresh, none of them were finding their camera or going to the new marks Marc had wanted because we did not mark it.  The actors did exactly what we had done because we had been copying them exactly.  The actors got frustrated with Marc and there was irritability on the set with all the extra time and work that this episode was requiring.  Marc's behavior did not line up with how he had been directing the last few weeks, and I could only assume it was due to his back pain and the slow healing process of that.  I wished it were possible to bring in another director while Marc had the proper time he needed to heal, but I guess that was not how it would go.  As shownight got underway, it seemed we were really behind.  I finished reading Carrie Fisher's book, loved it.  I watched some of the scenes from Patti's monitors that were set up right outside the AD office where all the stand ins hung out during the audience show.  This episode was so funny, and the last minute re-writes made it even better.  I could not wait for this show to air and wished it much success.  Thankfully the dance scenes we pre-shot were only acted out once for the audience and we managed to get out at the regular time a little after 9pm.  I had read the new script for the next episode and it was hilarious.  I found myself laughing out loud many times, so many funny lines.  There were a number of guest stars roles but mostly just for the guys so I doubted I would be brought in Thursday.

On my day off, I took my car to have the check engine light examined.  A few months ago it had lit up after I had pumped gas in my car and I assumed I just didn't twist the gas cap on tightly enough, when I did that about 3 days later the light went off.  Now the light was on and stayed on for a week, so I found out that it was indeed my gas cap that had a tear in the rubber lining causing an emissions leak that set off the check engine light.  I replaced the cap and was good to go.  Kids Management texted for Zyla to be at Fox Studios the next day, but I did not know for sure if I was working and it was going to be her first day of her new dance class.  So I did not book the job for her.  Netflix arrived with our next Vampire Diaries disk and Homeland Season 2.  We watched an episode of each before calling it a night.

Thursday I took Zyla to school then went for a hike at Stough.  I prayed my rosary walking up and when I reached the top of the mountain, I checked my phone because there is usually a signal up there.  I had a message from Todd the 2^nd AD saying they wanted to rush call me into SSW!  I had to run all the way back down the mountain and quickly drive home, shower and change.  I had told Todd I could not make it by 9:30am, but would be there by 10am.  I arrived at 9:50am finding the cast doing a read through of the script.  Because I was late I did not get to read the lines for the guest star girl Tess at the table, but when it came time to rehearse the scene I was used to play the part of Tess.  Michael was upset because he was not being used to do the guest star roles he thought he should be.  When he asked Joe why the PA was being used to run the lines of the lead guest star he was told the director did not like his choices.  Then the 2^nd AD was used to run lines of another guest star.  I told Michael this happens.  That on Whitney the stand ins were never brought in to run lines the first 13 episodes and they just used the PA.  It was not until we got the back 9 that we were called in, and even then Whitney would have the other principal actors run the guest star lines.  Michael was asked to read the lines for the guest star in the last scene so that eased some tension.  My role was a fun little scene in the bar, acting with Thomas Lennon and Echo Kellum.  Thomas said they should give me the role.  The run thru went great and Michael and I were wrapped out to go.  Zack was shooting The Mindy Project on the stage next door to ours and ran into us as we were leaving!  It was so great to see him again and we got caught up briefly before I needed to leave to pick up Zyla for her first Hip Hop/Jazz/Lyrical dance class of the season.  Her teacher informed them that this year would be another Michael Jackson tribute and they would learn Thriller choreography first for Halloween Flash Mobs.  Kids Management texted with more jobs for Zyla for Friday on Crash & Bernstein and The New Girl, but I had to turn them down because Ed and I were both working and she had plans to go to her friend Jaron's birthday party.  Ed and I finished watching our Homeland disk.  It was amazing, just as great as season 1 had been, I really loved this show.  The footage shot on location in Israel gave the show its amazing edge of realism, Claire Danes acting is phenomenal.

Friday, time to return to SSW.  I saw on the call sheet that they still had not cast Tess so I was hoping to be able to play her again for the run thru.  When I arrived I found out that the character Tess had been renamed Donna and that the actress playing her would be on set.  The writers also changed her dialog, so instead of the funny comment mimicking Downton Abbey with an English accent thrown in for a laugh, the new line was just something to push the story along and used to lead up to laugh lines from the main characters.  The actor playing Cody was called in as well.  Matt was asked to run the lines for the character Charles in the elevator with Lorna/Linda.  Alex was told she would run the Asian guy Mr. Kim's lines, but when rehearsal was up, the director wanted our PA Eric again.  After one scene of that, they decided to just skip all Mr. Kim scenes until the actor Bobby Lee showed up to run them.  He was running late, then was held up at the gate.  Security would not let him on the lot.  Todd finally got it straightened out and Bobby arrived on set an hour before our run thru for network.  All the Mr. Kim scenes were then quickly rehearsed so he would know his blocking.  We had a 15-minute lunch before run thru commenced.  All the stand ins were asked to be in the last office scene to sing along with Megan Hilty when she is singing ‘Stand By Me' to Sean.  After all that fun, Zack texted saying he was working on the stage next door to me again, so I went out to say hi and meet some of the other stand ins on The Mindy Project.  Everyone seemed really cool.  The writers and producers talked for an hour about the run thru before Patti could get under way lighting the restaurant bar scene she needed us for.  We finally wrapped out by 5:30pm.  I got home to change then headed to join Jodi at her son's party where Zyla had been all afternoon.  It was 7^th grade hormonal chaos with 9 boys and 4 girls having a pool party.  The girls all baled by 10pm and left the sleep over portion of the night to the boys.

I read through the new SAG-AFTRA magazine and found Zyla!  There was a story about team SAG-AFTRA from the Coliseum, the volunteer job she had been part of last May for Women's Breast Cancer.  I did remember the SAG rep saying Zyla was part of the picture, but I hadn't realized it would be in the magazine.  Ed took Zyla for a make-up test and mold of her face for his new horror film Sin Her Scared.  They met up with Yossi at the special effects lab all afternoon.  Zyla was scheduled to play Delphian, the child grim reaper of souls who kill children.  I enjoyed more of True Notebooks by Mark Salzman.  His memoir-esque novel of volunteer work with kids in juvenile hall teaching a writing class reminded me of when I did prison ministry back in the 90's.  I helped Zyla work on her Mock Trial assignment.  She wanted to be the Defense Attorney again.  This year way too many kids signed up so the teacher was going to eliminate based on a test. Zyla needed to come up with questions for one of the Prosecution's witnesses, based off a witness statement. 

Our director Marc seemed in much better spirits on Monday.  It had been three weeks since his back went out.  He had a lot more energy, fun attitude and had ditched the wheelchair.  The writers had completely re-written most of the script over the weekend, so Sunday night the call time changed to super early so that the actors could rehearse all the new material and do a run thru of it for the writers and producers.  It was so much better!  I especially loved Thomas/Max character, he was brilliant.  I was happy that some singing between Sean and Liz got cut and more fun antics were put into the script.  Lots of role-playing along on this episode kept it very funny!  Linda Lavin's husband Steve Bakunas came in to play Charles.  They had a cute scene together in an elevator as Linda/Lorna's character was interested in dating Charles.  After the run thru, we started doing camera blocking.  Stand ins were used to block the scene first with camera, all the scenes in one location, then the actors would be brought in to run all those scenes.  It made things move much quicker I thought, than how we used to do it on Whitney.  I wrapped out by 6:30pm and made it home in time to join my family for some yummy Mexican food at Granadas.  Kids Management texted Zyla for a job on the new CBS TV show Bad Teacher, but both Ed and I were working the next day so no one could take her. 

Shownight number 5!!   Bobby Lee killed it!  He got the most laughs and loudest cheers of the evening.  Bobby was brilliant as Mr. Kim the episode was a success.  When I first arrived to set, there were new scripts with more new dialog.  I felt the writing had reached its peak of brilliance the day before and now it was sliding downhill.  A lot of the cast agreed.  Thankfully by the time the audience was loaded, most of the dialog had been changed back.  The stand ins did nothing all of shownight, just sat watching everything.  Kids Management texted Zyla with a job on New Girl, but she needed to be at her Mock Trial class the next day because final choices were being made as to who was playing what and she wanted Defense Attorney again. 

I spent my day off uploading my new memoirs from last year, which I had entitled Romancing the Black Lace Water Snake.  It was interesting reading through everything I wrote about last year, I felt very insightful and busy with so much to say.  All those Whitney memories of yummy food and fun.  I was hoping that the stand ins on SSW would get into more of a groove like we had at Whitney, but I knew it would come with time.  We had plans to start taking trips off the lot for Shownight adventures during our down time.  Zyla came home with great news.  She won one of the coveted spots on the Defense Attorney team for her school's Mock Trial.  The two boys she had done it with last year had graduated, so she was in charge of the legal team this year taking it very seriously.  After Zyla's dance class she felt she was ready to move onto the next level since she had taken the class three years ago.  Ed Facebooked the dance teacher Teri to ask how Zyla could move into level 2.  Kids Management texted around 11pm Thursday night with a rush call for Friday but I had already fallen asleep, not that I could have taken her, I was needed back at SSW.

Friday, we had a guest star stand in Candy who would be standing in for Linda Lavin since Alex mom Elaine was out of town.  We were brought in early to block out a 15 second Title Sequence for the show on Stage 35.  After that we went back to our normal Stage 41 to watch rehearsals of all the scenes for the new episode.  It was not my favorite episode, but I was happy with the script changes from what we had read Shownight when the advanced copy of the script came out.  I was glad after this episode we would have two weeks off so the writers could really work on some new material for our show.  Kids Management texted with a job on Bad Teacher for Monday, but again Ed and I were working so we couldn't take her.  After the run thru Patti did not need us for lighting because there were not any new sets and it was a simple episode with lighting pretty much already set from before.  So I wrapped out in time to meet up with Ed at Zyla's school.  She was going to check out Level 2 dance to see if she wanted to move up or stay in Level 1.  After the class, she felt she could do it, but since it was on Friday and she would be missing some classes due to Ed and I schedules with work, she opted to stay in Level 1 on Thursday for the time being and not get stressed out about missing the more challenging class then having to try to catch up with all they learn each week.  We settled at home with some Dino's pizza and enjoyed some Vampire Diaries.

Over the weekend I helped Zyla go over her Mock Trial paperwork.  She had the case brief as well as witness statements to read from both the defense and prosecution teams.  Some of the terminology was advanced for her, considering it was a real court case in the adult world and the same case high schoolers were competing in for Mock Trial competitions.  I had to explain to her what ADHD was, and why someone would take Adderall as an illegal drug.  I also helped her review for her big history test on the Western and Eastern Roman Empire.  Ed held his open audition for his new movie Sin Her Scared.  I started reading Bared To You by Sylvia Day.  I seriously felt like I was reading 50 Shades of Grey.  I mean it was literally the exact same story.  A couple name changes, and the main girl has a guy roommate instead of a girl.  I asked myself why I was reading it and contemplated just returning it to the library.  But my friend Jodi had suggested it, and I had nothing else to read so I decided to give it a chance. 

Back at work on Monday, we jumped right into camera blocking with the stand ins.  Marc, our director asked us to run lines since the first team actors were unavailable to show the scene to the camera crew.  I enjoyed that.  At the one-hour walk-away lunch our On Set Dresser Charlie taught an improv tap dancing class.  Antar invited me to join in, with him, Patti, Ginny and some other camera crew folks interested in tap.  Rodney and Alex joined in as well.  It was a fun little exercise in a dance I hadn't done since elementary school.  We were practicing in the camera lane off to the side of the audience section when Sean came back into the sound stage and found us.  Charlie explained what we were doing and Sean joined in for a couple of steps to dance with us to the music.  The day flew by super fast.  Marc was in a really great mood, things were running smoothly.  I think everyone was happy for the two-week hiatus that would start when this episode ended. 

Tuesday, Show Night #6!!!  Not any of the stand ins favorite episode, but it still had quite a few funny moments.  It was an easy episode to shoot, and we did not think we would be at work very late.  We planned our first stand in field trip to Universal Bar & Grill for our 3 hours lunch break.  Marc, our director said he wanted to be done with the refresh by 1pm.  Sean had the beginnings of a cold coming on and had taken Nyquil the night before.  He wanted a nap before the live taping of the show, but rehearsals ran until 2:50pm, giving him less time to rest.  I'm not sure why we ran behind, some of the scenes were complicated with the dance the actors did around one another with blocking.  Afterward, all stand ins were asked to go to Stage 35 for lighting on the set of the Main Title Sequence we would be shooting tomorrow.  At 3pm we broke for lunch.  I had already told everyone we were going across the street to the Bar & Grill, but only Alex and I ended up walking over together.  Somehow we lost Candi from walking back to Stage 41 where I left my bag in the AD Office before we headed over.  Alex and I assumed maybe they had gone to eat the crew-catered lunch and would meet up with us later.  The bar was fun, dark moody drapes blocked out the sunlight, music from the jukebox filled the air.  It was empty but for a few regulars up at the bar.  It was happy hour so the drinks were cheap.  Alex and I toasted with champagne.  Not long after we got there, Matt showed up.  Just like he said there were free appetizers popcorn, chips & salsa, and chicken fingers with onion rings.  Michael showed up about an hour later, but Rodney and Candi never came.  When we made our way back to set at 5pm the show had just gotten underway.  We all sat in the AD Office all night, except for Alex who mysteriously got wrapped very early, before her girl was even done filming.  I went to move my car from the 5^th floor to the 2^nd because I had to park in a weird place, not my usual since the garage was so crowded in the morning.  Cuban food arrived around 7:30pm, I got myself a tasty plate.  At 10pm we wrapped out and were told to be back at 10:30am the following day.  I had overheard one of the writers talking about how they were re-writing the Main Title Sequence and that Wednesday was going to be a long day.

I got Zyla off to school, then came home to get ready for SSW.  Today was our last day before our two-week hiatus.  I was looking forward to some time off.  We worked all day on Stage 35.  Nothing was changed from the original plan, but they could not shoot the entire 15 second Main Title Sequence in one camera move, so we broke it up into three parts.  It seemed like it took forever to get the first part done, but once we moved on to the second and third the day flew by.  The call sheet said we would break for lunch at 2:30pm, but since we had come in at 10:30am, production decided to work on through until we finished at 4pm.  A lot of the crew went to grab some lunch on the fly, which had been set up at 2pm on Stage 41.  I was able to sneak over and grab some too.  Megan wished us a Happy Hiatus on her way out.  It felt like a time to celebrate all that had been done and look forward to more.  Sean was scheduled to travel to interviews and talk shows on promotion for the upcoming premier.  I left the stages and ran into Zack who was working on the sound stage next to ours.  We reminisced about BOT days when we worked together full time.  I picked up Zyla from Mock Trial, then came home to make dinner.  Ed and I watched The Walking Dead, which always makes me tense but I love it.  Then an episode of Orange Is the New Black.  Uzo Aduba who plays ‘Crazy Eyes' had me dieing laughing.  She is brilliant, love her!  Zyla finally finished homework and asked me to quiz her for her big Science test, before we could crash out for the night.

Thursday, I dropped Zyla to school, then went to park and head into the school myself.  It was back to library duty, checking in and out the books to the 3^rd and 4^th grade.  Denise was back to help me and Diann showed up as well.  The 3^rd grade were out of control.  Never such chaos.  One of the main problems was the class had 40 kids in it!  I had never heard of such a large class at the school before.  I thought more than 30 was a bit much in Zyla's grade!  An assistant came with the kids to try to keep them contained, but that did not seem to do the trick.  Thankfully everyone was just checking out books since it was the first day of library for the new school year.  I dreaded next week when we would start checking them back in on top of everything else.  And maintaining that all 40 children only check out 3 books at any given time, I would be busy.  Back at home I read some more of Bared to You.  While it did not live up to my all time favorite erotica of Anne Rice aka A. N. Roquelaure, it did lead to some sexy one on oneself time.  After picking up Zyla from school, I received a text from Kids Management.  I pulled over to call them and booked Zyla on Parenthood for Tuesday!  She was excited since she had just started watching the show with me this past summer and liked all the characters/actors.  She snacked before starting homework, then it was time for dance class.  Instead of waiting in the lobby of the dance studio, I suggested to Ed that we go for a walk around the neighborhood.  Ed wanted to walk to a local bar so we ended up at The Blue Room.  On the border of Burbank and Glendale this adorable, dive bar with a beautiful blue hue, 70's type vinyl vibe felt lovely.  We sat at the bar ordering from Tony the bartender, my favorite champagne and beer for Ed.  We arrived back to Zyla's Dance Studio before she exited the class.  Ed grilled up dinner while Zyla continued to study for her tests the following day.  I watched an L Word with Ed before he left for the evening to hang out with Yossi.  Zyla and I watched a Vampire Diaries before I did prayers with her and put her to bed.  I watched Side Effects, a recent release with Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Rooney Mara was great as Emily Taylor, a depressed woman on a new anti-depressant she claims caused her to stab her husband to death.  Interesting twists, I enjoyed it. 

Friday morning the weather was beautifully chilly and I wanted to be out in it.  I decided on something new.  I went for a hike at Wildwood.  Nestled on the other side of Stough Canyon, near the Castaways Bar Ed and I had gone to last June, I found the entrance.  I could not believe I had never been there after living in Burbank for over 8 years!  I had just gotten so used to Stough, I had not bothered with the sister site.  Zyla was going to be volunteering there tomorrow so I figured I should check it out.  I drove up the length of the drive finding four trail start points.  I chose the third one in.  Walking through the stone arch, I made my way up the single lane track to the main trail along the ridge of the mountain.  The views were breathtaking, the incline steep and edgy.  Some points reminded me of Runyon.  There had been no cars in the parking lots but I found about 10 people up at the top.  I came down the last trailhead and circled back around to my car.  These trails seemed to have a little bit more shady areas than Stough and I liked all the numerous shaded picnic benches throughout the park.  I came home to get ready to pick up Zyla.  We were heading down after school to see my sister and join her at the Rabbit Rescue Shelter for Zyla to earn some more service hours.  The drive down to Redondo Beach was quick and painless, hardly any traffic.  Kids Management texted for Bad Teacher for Monday, but since I was driving the freeway I didn't check it until they had already cast all the girls they needed.  Zyla got her bunny and went to the park next door to the shelter to let it play in the grass.  My sister and other volunteers did the same.  One little bunny had a broken back and his back legs chewed off.  Linda, the owner of the shelter had rescued him and built a rig for him with wheels so he could get around.  It was so cute seeing him wheel around the park.  At one point he lost a wheel after going from the cement walkway into the dirt and grass, but it was quickly restored.  That bunny liked off roading.  The beach called to us, so putting the bunnies back we headed down to Manhattan for Starbucks and a walk in the wet sand and surf.  Deb's husband joined us at Mama D's for dinner, where Zyla was able to get her free pizza she won from the drawing of our server she had done the last time we were there.  Zyla and I got home fairly quickly as there was no traffic again and settled in to watch a Vampire Diary before calling it a night.  Ed came home shortly after from working all night running the jumbo tron at the Crespi football game.

Saturday, we all woke early so Zyla could get to Wildwood and earn her service hours helping with National Public Lands Day.  The team was set up at the Trail entrance I had hiked up the day before, so after checking Zyla in, Ed and I went hiking.  I took him the same way I had gone before, but added a little more.  We attempted to hike all the way up to the radio towers, but the unexpected heat wave prevented it.  It had been such nice cool autumn air, then all of a sudden it was back to 90 degrees!  We almost made it, but would have to return on a cooler day.  The views walking back down were amazing.  We found a mama and baby deer eating in some darkly shaded overgrowth near the last trailhead.  To celebrate Zyla's 3 ½ hours of service we ate lunch at Fruddruckers in the Elvis booth.  We came home and had to finish up the last three episodes of her Vampire Diaries disk so I could return it in time for her to get the first disk of Glee being released Tuesday.  Ed went to get fresh woodchips for Roseblood's cage, while I went to get groceries.  The tickets for our Thanksgiving play up in Big Bear went on sale, so I lined up our hotels along with getting those.  I told Deb and we were able to line it all up so we would be together again up in the mountains for the holiday.  Ed and I got the last disk of The Walking Dead not realizing we had already finished the entire season!  The last disk only had deleted scenes and behind the scenes footage.  We watched all the deleted scenes then sent it back.  What an awesome season it had been, I could not wait for the next one!

Sunday we woke early to get ready for the last day of Hurricane Harbor for the season.  Within the first hour of being there we had ridden all the waterslides.  The weather was beautiful, the park not too crowded.  Around 3pm we came home to grill up steaks for dinner.  Monday, I dropped Zyla to school, then Shanna came over and we went hiking up at Switzer Falls.  It was her first time and she loved the ambiance.  On our walk back from the waterfall, two deer crossed our path.  We were able to watch the mom and baby snacking on some leaves on the hillside next to the trail.  On our way back, we stopped at Los Gringos Locos for margaritas and the fresh tableside guacamole with chips.  Around 7pm, I got all the details for Zyla's gig on Parenthood.