the best kind of campus tour

we were lucky enough to be invited to go have lunch with our friend trish, who works at dreamworks animation in burbank.  we'd really enjoyed our tour of the campus a few months ago, and this time the old lady was able to join us.  she loves fun outings like that, and i was glad she could come with us.

it was an exceptionally hot day, so we didn't spend a ton of time outside.  i did take a few pictures, although these are mostly the same shots i took last time.  i couldn't help it though, the campus is so pretty.

as we walked over to the commissary, the old lady leaned in and whispered "look mom, that's p. diddy's son!  the one who plays the boyfriend on "star"!"  we giggled like little girls about it and i tried to sneak a photo, but he had already turned around to walk in the other direction.  that's okay though, we were all aflutter from our "celeb" sighting on the campus.  heh.

it was lunchtime, so the commissary was bustling with activity.  the bean and i remembered the setup from last time, and lilcee took her and mini cee outside to the grill to grab some cheeseburgers while the rest of us went through the lines and picked up the hot entree of the day - lemon chicken with rice pilaf, plus some chinese chicken salad and a piece of cheesecake for dessert.  at the beverage station the old lady was stoked to find an icee machine, and i decided to grab one for myself to cool down a little.

we sat and enjoyed our meals and chatted for a good long while in there, sucking up the free a/c and grabbing drink refills and stuff.  before going outside to walk off our lunch, the girls stopped to pose with po from "kung fu panda."

the old lady pointed this out and said "look, it's like that crazy crooked street up in san francisco!"  indeed it is.

with a relatively new order from the powers that be that prohibited trish from taking visitors into any of the buildings, we settled on walking around campus along the nature trail.

we ended our visit back in the front lobby, where we stopped for potty breaks and hugs with trish before she headed back to her office to get some work done.

on our way back to the parking structure, we commiserated with this poor squirrel who was just trying to escape from the heat somehow.

and then we made one quick stop for afternoon treats in pasadena at our favorite cupcake shop.

not bad for a monday, right?

who is A?

the old lady has been watching "pretty little liars" on abc family (yeah yeah, it's called freeform now. i'm hip to the skip) since the very beginning. like, she was still in high school when that show began.

i watch it with her every now and then, but i never really got into it. and even she started getting tired of it as it just got more ridiculous and farfetched over the last few seasons. 

still, she's pretty bummed that the show is finally coming to an end. it's kind of like a part of her teenage years is going away. i guess we all go through that though, don't we? that's how i felt when they cancelled "all my children." i basically grew up watching that show with my mom and nanay, and it was sad when they cancelled it for good. 

anyway, i got a request last week for a set of cookies for a mom at school whose daughter was planning a series finale viewing party for PLL. she sent me some examples she'd found online and i was happy to oblige. 

the old lady thought these were pretty cool, and when i sent a picture of the finished cookies to the mom she immediately showed it to her daughter, who also gave them her stamp of approval.  see:

it was kind of fun to practice some basic calligraphy i hadn't done in a very long time. it's not very good, but it'll do, especially for cookies that'll just get eaten anyway. right?

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one last visit for movie magic

our passes for universal studios don't actually expire until early august.  but we took a closer look at the blackout dates for 2017, which included random days in june, the entire month of july and the first two weeks or so of august.  d-oh!  and so we decided to the park for one last visit.  the van eaton gallery (where we checked out all that fun disneyland memorabilia) just happened to be a couple of miles past universal, which was perfect for our afternoon of fun.

because it was about a zillion and seven degrees that day, i'd made sure to pack a towel and extra clothes for the bean.  there's a super fun water play area next to the "despicable me" ride, and i knew she'd want to head over there one last time.

okay, maybe i wanted to cool off a little too.

afterwards, we did a little reminiscing about our european vacation.  it's hard to believe it's already been four years.

and then it was time for a snack.  ice cream from the simpsons area seemed like a good pick.

because it was so late in the day, the lines for rides weren't terribly long.  the minions ride had a 30 minute wait time posted, but we were on it in about 10.

it's not a trip to universal without getting on the tram for the backlot tour.  doesn't matter how many times we've done it...it never gets old.  and it's fun at night, when all the lights are on.

the simpsons ride had an equally short line.

the harry potter area was super crowded with folks waiting to watch that light show we'd been so unimpressed by.

by then we'd pretty much done everything we really wanted to, so we headed outta there.  on the way home we stopped at a wienerschnitzel to grab some hot dogs.  i'm pretty sure this is the only one we've ever been to where they have beer on tap.

we typically alternate years at universal, so we probably won't return until next year.  they're one of those parks that does a "buy a day, get the year free" deal, so it's actually a really good deal.  and it seems like things change every other year anyway, so hopefully by next summer there will be something new for us to check out.

until then, we'll go back to all disney all the time.  yaaaaaaaayyyyy!

more minions fun

social media came through for me once again, as the bean and i were lucky enough to secure a couple of seats for a special advance screening of "despicable me 3."  our friends lilcee and mini cee were able to score seats too, and while the old lady did the same she and her special friend opted not to make the trek out to century city with us.  i guess date night is more appealing than hanging out with your mom and her friends...psh, whatever.  heh.

driving out to the west side on a weekday afternoon is always a little challenging.  starting from the time we left our house to picking up lilcee and mini cee to parking and joining the already-long line for the movie took a total of two hours.  sheesh.  and we knew there would be a plethora of folks there early...after all, nothing brings in the crowds like an exclusive-sounding freebie.  i can't really trash talk since clearly i'm usually all up in that mix too.

while i got in line, lilcee took the girls to the restroom and then to pick up some waiting-in-line snacks.

it took awhile for us to finally get to the front of the line, as they were rather unorganized and not actually checking the confirmation sheets we'd printed out at home.  they were letting 20 people in at a time though, and then as we got inside the theater we realized that there were staffers who were seating people as they came in.  we typically head towards the very back of the theater, but with all of the other folks in front of us in line already seated we were given spots a lot closer to the screen than we're used to.  but it wasn't too bad, and this was our view:

much excite.  you like our matching minions shirts?  the lady next to me seemed to, because she asked us where we got them.  i always feel an odd mixture of pride and embarrassment when i get this question and answer with "oh, i made them."  like, i'm totally proud of being able to make wearable clothing and that i often have some pretty awesome fabric for whatever occasion we're dressed for, but i don't really want to be all braggy about it either.  you know?

i almost never see a movie without hoovering up an order of nachos all to myself.  yeah, it's a box of basic tostitos chips and some melted cheese food, but it's delicious and i love it.

i'm not going to drop any spoilers about the movie itself, but what i will tell you is that it's super cute and i'm pretty sure it's my favorite out of all the "despicable me" movies, including the minions one.  it has a fun story, great music, and just the right amount of gru/lucy/girls and minions in it.  i'm even willing to go again and watch it with the old lady when it comes out on june 30th.

fun photo ops!

and then we capped off our super fun evening with my first trip to shake shack.

after consulting with lilcee, i decided to go with a simple shack burger, an order of their bacon cheese fries and a "concrete" frozen custard dessert.  YUM.  the buns are super soft and delicious, the patties are perfectly seasoned and it was a really, really good burger overall.  and who doesn't love a good crinkle fry?

as for that concrete (i keep wanting to call it "cement"), it was crazy delicious.  i was actually really full from the nachos, the burger and some fries, but it's frozen custard and it's not like i could've saved it for later.  this was their "beverly chills" flavor - vanilla custard with salted caramel sauce, chunks of dark chocolate and toffee and malt mixed in.  so so so good.

such a fun evening!  it's always a good time with lilcee and mini cee.  we'll have to see what other summertime shenanigans we get into as the weeks go by.