Summerthing 2008

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Photos from Icer Air 2007 at Pac Bell park

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Some photos from Buzz and Jessica's wedding

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Two days before the Finding Nemo Submarine Adventure ride opened in Disneyland, Pixar and Disney employees were allowed to ride it. Alex invited Carolyn and me down along with Brian from Portland and Burke from Seattle. We met up with Scott, Youngjae, Chad, Kevin and Nick. Carolyn and I stayed near Disneyland so on Sunday when Alex, Brian and Burke were flying home, we rode on Space Mountain. It was my first time to Disneyland and it was many hours of smiles.

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The first day of the surprise party saw the return of our near annual go-kart racing championship. We had a couple great meals and many drinks at the Gorski's, our fine hosts for the weekend.

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The second day of the party involved a BBQ featuring lost Canadians, being Shanghaid into the tunnels beneath Portland and more martinis than someone who really really really really really likes martinis.

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The third day of the weekend was a bit more low-key. After a breakfast in which the Burkes left, we went back out to the bocce and baseball field for some more spring time calvinball enjoyment.

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The Puhalas, Alex, Bert, Carolyn and I went up to Skywalker Ranch for lunch right before we all started dispersing throught the US.

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A group of us got together to go on a winery tour with Carolyn's cousin. It was very informative and quite tasty to boot. Little did we know that there is a magical land called Livermore that is full of the best zinfandels and pinot noirs in the US.

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The Poohs invited Carolyn and me to the Ratatouille animation wrap party. It was fun being at another party that I had no real reason to be at. It was nice to see the DNA peeps and to see a bunch of people I went to school with. They also had a great band that I saw a few years ago called the Dead Hensons. They're a cover band that plays only stuff from the Muppets and Sesame Street. Pixar people tend to point at each other a whole lot less than those from DNA, but it was definitely still good times.

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Oscar Party for Pirates of the Carribean 2

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Chewbacca and the pack attack

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For Carolyn's birthday, we grabbed some friends and watched the Oscar nominated shorts. Well, first, I made a few martinis for her. Then, with a flask in tow, we went and saw the shorts. After that, we dropped in on a bar around the corner and had all sorts of laughs and fun.

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LucasFilm hosted a great holiday party in San Francisco at the Regency Center. It was my first holiday party like this. Last year DNA had a party at Six Flags but somehow this party was a tad swankier. There were three floors that we could mill about in. The top floor had a Salsa band and a tarot card reader. The main floor had lots of gambling and nice general purpose band. The lower floor had an employee submitted art gallery and a Jazz band. All three floors had plenty of alcohol and assorted foodstuffs. I wish I'd gambled a bit more and ran into a few more people, but it was a great night. Fortunately, they even let Mike infiltrate the party and steal all of our trade secrets.

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Carolyn and I drove up to Portland for Thanksgiving this year. It was a pretty nice mid-ground for the DNA folk who live in Seattle and for the DNA folk who live in San Francisco. And it was a pretty much a spot-on perfect middle-ground for the DNA folk who currently live in Portland. The Gorskis did a damn fine job of hosting us all for the Thanksgiving feast and Brian F. Menz was a hero for letting us crash at his place. The Burkes cooked up quite the Burkey, Carolyn cooked up some fine pumpkin dishes, Alex played some mean Wii Sports and the Russells did a great job of letting one of their daughters wander into the dog kennel. I brought a Tofurkey that LucasFilm was kind enough to give me, but we botched cooking it three nights in a row. It was definitely a change of pace from the usual trip to NYC but it was grand to see DNA folk again. Carolyn and I were hoping for more photos of our trip along the way, but it was pitch black on the way up and 100% rain and snow on our return trip.

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On the way home from a wedding in Minnesota, Carolyn and I came across a wandering Mid-western behemoth. I managed to tame the wild beast so we took some photos of my conquest. After the photos I set him back free. Also, we saw an amazing license plate. Amazing...

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Carolyn and I flew home for the opening of The Ant Bully. My mom got in touch with a very large part of my family and we all managed to squeeze into the empty theatre to watch the movie. Some friends from UIUC and Nathan from DNA managed to join in on the fun too.

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I flew down on Friday to help Carolyn pack up and move to San Francisco. I had to get back for work on Monday. So, it was a pretty jam packed couple of days. We didnt make it nearly as far as I would have liked the first day so we had to make a huge haul across a few states on Sunday. Unfortunately because of that crunch, most of the pictures were taken from the passenger's seat. We did make a few stops though, such as our Route 66 detour, which ended up making the trip all the more worthwhile.

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My friend Sheldon managed to get some extra tickets for a screening of Cars at Pixar a few weeks before it came out. Carolyn was in town for Memorial Day weekend so that's how we kicked the weekend off. Later on that weekend we snuck on over to LDAC and took some photos of Yoda standing on top of water.

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I spent my last night in Texas with Carolyn and my dear DNA friends at Gameworks.

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My contract at DNA was extended for a final two weeks which meant that I was able to spend my 25th birthday down in Texas. Which, oddly, is exactly what I wanted. So I was able to spend my birthday with not only my girlfriend but my friends that I had made over the last year, Burke, Alex, the Poohs, Brian F. Menz, Jason and Bert (I knew Bert from before...) It was not a crazy drunken birthday, it was a nice relaxed gathering of friends and it was great.

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Once animation was nearly completed, we had a big ol' wrap party at Rena's loft in Deep Ellum. There was a Brian F. Menz look-a-like contest, a lot of beer, and a lot of pointing. It was fun.

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Prior to one of our animation meetings, Dave Tart challenged Joe "DDR Hero" Gorski to a dance off. No one knew what to expect, but damn, Joe brought it that day.

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Just some photos of the DNAers in their natural abode.

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These guys put the "uita" in Guitar Heroes.

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Deanna and Aaron threw a party at their house in Dallas. My brother was in town for the weekend and Carolyn managed to join us as well. Being that I was in Texas, I went as a cowboy. And I grew out some pretty sexy looking pork chop sideburns. Yeehaw!

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