Big things My girlfriend's been up to some big things lately. So big in fact, that it's managed to help out her google status.
Chillin with Tito I attended an RPI alumni event this evening at the estate of Dennis Tito. If you remember, Dennis, and his $20 million, managed to convince NASA a couple years back to take him into space. He was the fist "civilian" to do so. He also happens to be an RPI alum :) so, naturally, he invited us fellow Southern California alum to his place to hang out. Dr. Jackson made an appearance as well, so it was quite the evening.It was great to rub shoulders with fellow alum, and see some faces I haven't seen in a while, but the primary motivation behind this blog, however, is to talk about Dennis' house… err, "estate" rather. I'm not sure there are words in the English language that can justifiably describe it, but I'll try and find a few: it's easily the most incredible home I have ever seen in life, and probably ever will see. I mean, I haven't even seen a home in a movie that comes close to this place. For those of you 'dena residents: it makes San Marino look like a trailor park. To try and put it into perspective, I got to talking to a guy who recently donated $40 million to RPI and is in the process of building his own home. He goes, "yea, my place is nothing like this!" Needless to say, the size of the place is gimungous - for it to even be in the class of home that warrants such comparisons though, it has to be. What really sets this place apart, however, is its location - which is why I was able to say it's probably the best place I ever will see. Dennis was able to purchase one of the hills in the "hills." For those that don't know, the really rich (and often famous) people out here live in the "hills." Dennis owns and lives on the highest inhabitable hill in those hills. From his circular drive, you're able to see damn near all of LA county (of course, you have to look past the Jaguar, SLK, and Ferrari to do so). He's also developed the hill around the house quite nicely, with a pool and small ravine in his backyard. My favourite part, however, was the gazebo. About 200 yards off to the side of the house, nicely secluded, is a small, granite, gazebo. The illest part though is that the floor rotates! So just in case you don't enjoy a particular view of downtown, you can turn the floor to get another. Don't want to look at civilisation? That's cool, just keep turning and you're looking at other beautiful, undeveloped hills. Absolutely out of control. And he was thinking when he built this thing too: there's this counch in the middle of the floor, right under a heater; so you don't fall victim to that sometime nippy breeze (especially at his altitude). Oh, and then there's the standard fridge and integrated radio to boot. If a plot of land the size of most neighbourhoods doesn't get the girlys whet, the gazebo certainly will. And let's be clear, Dennis is really cool guy. He gave me a few minutes of his time amidst being pulled in a thousand different directions (a host like that is a popular guy). He was telling me they put him through 8 months of training just to get him ready to go to space. During that time he even got to ride that thing that spins in circles :)
Craziness Last nights local news really put into perspective our year to date precipitatory (I just made that word up) situation. They displayed this graphic showing the amount of rain we've gotten in 2005 versus the amount Seattle's gotten: we've received almost twice as much! Seattle's had something like 6 inches, whereas we've seen close to 12. This is just crazy. Tony! Toni! Toné! was full of shit.
Pat Riley I had my first celebrity sighting since living here in LA last night (well, in my life really): I met Pat Riley!My girlfriend came into town last night and wanted to go out. Normally when she comes to visit, we head back to my place and do the domestic thing, but this time was a bit different. My usual hang out buddy was chillin' with a friend of his in Santa Monica that evening, so we decided to go straight from LAX to meet up with him. It was a cool, lounge-y type spot just off the Promenade. It had these really plush velvet couches, and a small dance floor in the corner. The crowd was good, and it wasn't too packed. We hung out and danced for about an hour or so and right before we were ready to leave the DJ announced, "Pat Riley's in the house tonight!" It didn't seem like anyone else in the place was paying any attention. I leaned to my boy and asked if I'd heard my man correctly. He said, "no, couldn't be." He was convinced the DJ was talking about "R-Kelly," as right after he made the announcement he started playing R-Kelly. "Riley," "Kelly," I could see how the names would get confused, especially in a loud place like that. As we left we went up to the bar to close our tab. Not quite believing the whole "R-Kelly" thing, I was still kind of looking for Coach Riley. I glanced toward the end of the bar and there he was, his unmistakable slicked back hair and Hollywood look (with a dab of Miami flare) that I had grown up to admire. To me, Pat Riley is one of the greatest coaches of all time. What I find really unfortunate is that there seems to be a new generation of basketball players and fans that don't appreciate his skills. People who only saw his performance in Miami, where his old school, defense first style of basketball didn't go over very well in the young, star studded line up. I think he was kind of screwed over by the officials too, as a ref once said he enjoyed watching Riley's career go down the tube. Lest these people forget what this man did for the Lakers in the 80's?!?! I sure don't though! And I let him know Thursday night :) I was a bit hesitant to approach him, as I didn't want to ruin his night (I'm sure he gets bombarded everywhere he goes). But after some coaxing from my friends I walked up to him. He shook my hand, giving me a warm welcome as though we'd met before. I told him we needed him back out here in LA, to which we both kinda laughed. I thanked him for all the memories and went on my way. Short and sweet, but definitely fulfilled a childhood dream. And if he does decide to come back out here to LA as head coach, I can always fool myself into thinking it was because of me :)
It's here! Miami Vice came today :D I know I wrote about it before, but for some reason it hadn't been real until I cracked open that box. Now I just gotta find time to watch it! I'm kind of afraid though, as there's a few lines on the back of the box that talk about the music, but make no mention of Jan Hammer. I hope this was just a naive mistake on the part of the marketing team and not a bigger faux-paus on the part of Universal…
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