Happy New Year! Hello 2015.

Greetings and Happy New Year to all.
We wish you a very healthy and happy 2015.

The end of the year just flew by - as we knew it would. With all the travel, Hobbit festivities, and the holidays it was a whirlwind.

We managed to squeeze in an early Thanksgiving Dinner with our Ex-pat friends before heading out to our various destinations. Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin Pie are always the highlights.

All of Eric's travel went as expected. Even with the demonstrations(riots) in Mexico City, they managed to get it all done, and the Premiere there was a big success. They even had a day off to explore Teotihuacan.

Eric was then off to Korea for the last pack down there.

                 Korean dinner - you won't see this too often in the states (thanks OSHA)

As for my trip to Brisbane, it also went well. Overall the weather was nice and warm. The only exception being the freak storm cell that came through while we were setting up for the show on Thursday. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was a storm like I had never before seen or experienced - It was unbelievable. Hurricane force winds and golf ball size hail. Windows were smashed, cars were dented, and there was lots of flooding. We watched it all through the large glass windows of the convention hall. I stood back a bit, and was surprised at how many people were close to the windows just to watch. We were very lucky that the leaking roof of the convention center did not reach our booth. Our friends at Popcultcha were not as fortunate, but the show opened on time and was a good fun.

Then we were on to Hobbit fun!
Our friends Cassie and Chris have joined us here in Wellington. They will be staying with us for a bit and are now working at Weta Workshop.We all attended the Red Carpet Tour Costume Party at the Roxy theater and Midnight Screening. Eric and I had already seen the film once at the cast & crew screening a few days earlier. Chris had seen it in spanish in Mexico. So Cassie was the only one seeing it for the first time. But it did not matter as we all enjoyed it. It was great to see Eric's name up on the screen again. And it was only slightly bittersweet to know that it was now all coming to an end.

The following week we had the Weta Workshop holiday party and Eric and I had tickets to a performance of Jethro Tull here in a small venue. It was a great treat. Unfortunately the theater did not have working air condition and it got uncomfortably hot inside. But other than the heat, we really enjoyed the show.We had seen them many times before over the years and this was likely the last time they will tour. The show was great. Ian Anderson can still play that flute like nobodies business, but he can't quite get his voice to do 2 hours of lyrics. They had an additional performer -Ryan O'Donnell that helped out on vocals and he sounded identical to Ian when he was younger. You had to watch carefully to be able to discern when one stopped and the other started singing.

We had a small (just the 4 of us) Xmas Eve dinner -round two of the sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie and a simple Xmas morning opening stockings and gifts.

In the afternoon we headed over to our friends house and had a nice potluck meal. The weather was not as nice as we had hoped for, but it was dry so we sat outside in the front yard enjoying everyone's company.

FINALLY! Lewis Road Chocolate Milk! We managed to luck out at the market and get a hold of the ever elusive bottles of Chocolate Milk. This is the chocolate milk that has been the latest craze. And we finally managed to be at the store when the new stock had just arrived. Limit 2 per customer! This milk is very rich in flavor and almost has a malt thickness to it. It is delicious!

On a separate note those "flat white" coffees that are now all the craze back home… they  have been here for a very long time and are nothing new. - LOL

We had a few days to rest, gather ourselves and pack for our trip.We were very much ready to get away for a week… And what a week it was!

Our room was great - quiet and private. and with air conditioning. NO wifi/internet!
the staff and fijian people were incredibly friendly. They all spoke english, but we soon learned that they did not quite always understand it as well. But they always tried to be helpful.

This was our little place, Garden Bure #6

The traditional Fiji Greeting. (hello)

...with indoor/outdoor shower

Apparently falling coconuts can be dangerous.

The diving was also wonderful. We cannot say enough great things about KoroSun Dive. Janine and Collin were fabulous hosts as was their great staff - Steven, Lai, Sarah and Kate. The conditions unfortunately were not as ideal as we were hoping for, but that was out of everyone's control. Water temp was a bit cooler than the norm for this time of year, but I was still quite comfortable in my wetsuit. Mostly, it was the rougher ocean currents and lower visibility that were the issues. We did get in all 4 of our days of diving -2 dives each day. We saw turtles, sharks (white tip reef, and faint shadows of hammerheads off in the distance), a moray eel, some other varieties of small eels, and an incredible amount of beautiful coral as well as plenty of tropical fish. Here are just a few of the highlights...

The dive boat.

The food was very hit and miss. Our best meal was the dinner for Eric's birthday. Even if they had timing issues… Okay, so I had tried to surprise Eric with a romantic dinner for 2 on his birthday. I had emailed the resort prior to our arrival and had arranged the dinner. They had described the romantic garden setting that included dining on mats. I explained that we would prefer a table with chairs that had back support and was told that that could be arranged. I also tried to arrange the menu complete with chocolate cake but was told to finalize that with the chef once we were on site.

Managed to even do that without Eric finding out about the surprise. Unfortunately, the night before, one of the dining room staff slipped and Eric figure out I was planning the surprise. He was a bit concerned with the heat and the bugs that the "outdoor" dinner might not be ideal for a b-day dinner, so we asked the staff to show us where we would be dining. It was a nice little hut in the middle of a lilly pond -they called it "Orchid Island." It was apparently featured in an episode of The Bachelorette.

Anyway, so much for table and chairs with backs. - more of a low padded sofa type seat. But Eric was a trooper and said it would be fine (once we sprayed down with bug repellent). We were to meet the staff at 7:00pm to then be escorted to the hut. You know what they say about island time… so at about 7:45 we were escorted to our hut where we sat for another 15-20 minutes watching the sunset while we waited for our food. The salads arrived and they were very good. We then waited another 10 -15 minutes for them to come clear the plates away. We are now sitting in the mostly dark except for the table lanterns waiting for our entrees, when the lovely singers and cake arrive. Apparently they were not notified that the meal was running behind (LOL)
So we had cake! - "Life is short - eat dessert first" must also be the motto here in Fiji.

They finally brought out the entrees which were also delicious - the best food we had had there.
All in all, it was a very nice evening and we laughed a lot. (I think Eric enjoyed it too - I did!! It will certainly be memorable.)

What's next?
We are off again - this time to Seattle/Portland…Looking forward to catching up with some family and friends, and running the Weta Workshop Booth at the Wizard World Show in Portland Jan. 23-25.

We are looking forward to whatever adventures 2015 will bring.
Hope to see many of you at some point this year.

Love & Hugs
Stacy & Eric

Another day…another plane - Part Two

And Happy Halloween!

We blinked and another 2.5 months flew by.

Which means if we blink again it will be 2015. But we are not there quite yet.

It is absolutely crazy how fast time goes by when you are busy.

WARNING - long blog follows...

So since last we checked in on this blog lots more adventuring has taken place.

At the end of August Eric returned to Korea to break down, relocate and set- up the show in Busan. From there he flew to Los Angeles to meet up with me and the rest of our crew heading to Salt Lake City Comic Con. 

Salt Lake was an interesting show. It was only its second year and while it has grown in size, they are still trying to learn the logistics and so there were still quite a few issues. The biggest being that they were unable to get all of the fans processed, badged and into the convention center on the first day. The lines outside were city blocks long and apparently the staffed stayed through til midnight getting everyone waiting in line badges. Needless to say the first day was slow due to the low numbers of fans that actually got in. Overall the fans were great, the booth was well received, but sales were not what we had hoped for.

After wrapping up the show in Salt Lake, Eric flew back to NZ and I went down to LA for a week - a mix of a few days off, and some business meetings before heading off to Hong Kong/China. (yes -again)

LA was great. Enjoyed the nice late summer/early fall weather, and had some good visits with friends and family. 

The following week in HK and China went as expected.

The last two days in HK went by slowly and I was really ready to get back to NZ.

Feeling like it had been forever since spending any quality time with Eric - and Myztyc.

"I can't believe they left me again"

And knowing it was only a few weeks back before we would be heading back out again for New York.

 

Queenstown Escape

That said the very next weekend I was off to Queenstown! I took a 3-day weekend and went down to Queenstown with some friends to get in one day of skiing. I have been here in NZ for over 4 years and had yet to go skiing. Partly due to my crazy busy schedule and partly due to the lack of a ski buddy. Since Eric's knee injury he is not interested in skiing (I don't blame him). Anyway, I really wanted to ski - I had not skied since Seattle. And the 2014 winter season was coming to an end. This was the only weekend I had left if I was going to do it. And what a glorious weekend it was! The weather was beautiful. Great spring skiing conditions. No lift lines. The snow, while it was not great (snow snob) was good enough, especially for someone who was 4 years rusty and not trying to push herself too hard. Just wanting to have some fun and confirm I can still ski.

CONFIRMED! In addition to a successful and fun day on the mountain - Cardrona. We enjoyed walking around Queenstown in the sunshine. FYI it was a rainy weekend back in Wellington. Double bonus! We ate good food. I thought "Fergburger" was overrated-    http://www.fergburger.com 

Found an amazing Chocolate Shop - Koko Black. The dark chocolate covered salted Carmel is heavenly. http://www.kokoblack.com   It was a great escape and much needed break.

New York ComicCon

Another week back and then we were off to New York. This was the show that I was most looking forward to and most fearing. Looking forward to because it was a new show that I had not attended and was known for being a great one- second only to San Diego ComicCon. And feared due to the setup requirements and strict union/labor rules. 

It was also going to be a very long travel day -  28 hours door to door.

Arriving at about 1:00am New York time. Glad to have had the whole next day off to sleep in and acclimate. Eric and I took a nice walk up to Lincoln Center and wandered around a small arts & crafts show. Checked out the Apple store. If you have not seen it, it is a really cool glass box entrance and a jumbo size store below -and it's open 24 hours.

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped for some slices of NY pizza -sooo good.

And finished our lazy day in our hotel room on the bed watching Chargers football.

The next few days were all show focused. And as it turned out, it was a great show. There were a few glitches with set up, but nothing major and nothing I was wasn't prepared for. We had a great crew and we were able to complete set up on time. On time being a little early as a private tour of the Frank Frazetta estate museum had been organized and we really wanted to be able to attend.

So at 3:30pm on Wednesday a large Mercedes van limo pick up 9 of us from our hotel in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan and drove us 2.5-3 hours - there was an accident so we took a long route -and the driver got lost...into Pennsylvania to the Frazetta estate. It was a wonderful treat. 

I loved seeing the pencil work.

The next 4 days flew by with the convention. We were busy each day open to close. We were staffed well so we could enjoy some of the show as well. Lots of great booths to see. Both from a business stand point as well as from a personal one. Bought a few things. 

Too Cute!  - had to have.

And managed to see 2 panels. The Howard Shore music panel and the Sesame Street - 45 years of parody panel (the one I had wanted to see in SD but was not able to). We were a bit disappointed with the Howard Shore panel. An entire panel focused on music and we heard not a sign note or tone. It was interesting to hear what he had to say about the various themes and instruments, but it would have been helpful to have shared some short clip examples to accompany the discussion.

... And of course, I loved! the Sesame Street panel. 

Once the show was over and all the pack down completed Eric and I had a few more days to enjoy NYC together. 

We saw Aladdin on Broadway. The sets and costumes were amazing and the actor playing the Genie - James Monroe Iglehart was fabulous. We also went to see The Blue Man Group. It was my second time seeing them but this was a much more intimate performance as the theater only held about 150 people. Again it was very entertaining and we enjoyed it.

I took Eric to Serendipity, the ice cream parlor I remember being taken to as a child. It is still there and just as I remember it. Mmmmmmm sooo good.

As for things as I remember it…We went to see the Martha Washington Hotel - where I lived one summer … Not at all the same. ( I was there in 1987/88) Totally renovated and no longer the dump I endured.

Fao Schwartz toy store - it was sad to see what it has been reduced to. 

And Steuben glass gallery was also gone. 

We went up the Empire State Building, visited Ground Zero, walked Times Square, and the Highline. 

GROUND ZERO MEMORIAL POOLS

Really thought they were very impactful.

HIGHLINE in the Fall

The Library Guardian

Too fun!

I also went to see the Sesame Street exhibit - 45 years at the Library of Performing Arts and the Spectrum show at the Society of Illustrators. I was sad to learn that we had missed Brian and Wendy Froud. They were there for the week, but our schedule did not cooperate.

                                                                       "SNUFFY"

Guess who I found!

We had a lovely lunch with cousin Ann and I caught up with Alex Drosin - it had been 30 years since we had seen each other! It was great fun to catch up. And I also had lunch with a childhood friend.

The time passed by quickly but we packed it full before heading back to New Zealand.

Our Seattle house sold and we closed escrow on the 25th of October. The 26th here in NZ -kind of like an extra Anniversary gift. (18 years and still counting) Although bittersweet. We are thrilled not to be paying both mortgage and rent. But we will miss the house. We have learned a lot and both determined that we would want a very different type of house next time. It was exactly what we wanted in 2002. Now almost 15 years later, we would look for something smaller, with less stairs, and with less yard. We have great memories of our time there and we look forward to the day when we can do it all again. 

We had a lovely celebratory Anniversary dinner at a place called The Portlander. Not as good as our original place - Crazy Horse which has closed,  but still a good meal and dessert.

Eric left tonight for Mexico City. He will be there for 3 weeks setting up and breaking down in multiple locations. Then he is back to NZ for a quick suitcase refresh and off to Korea for the last break down there. (He will now also have earned the Gold Elite Frequent Flyer status!) I will be off to Brisbane at the end of the month and then…(still pending). But we are both off for the Holidays starting the 19th of December. We will enjoy Xmas together at home...And we used our miles for Fiji! So we are looking forward to a nice tropical getaway for the New Year., and some much needed down time together. 

We look forward to sharing that adventure too.

Warm wishes to all,

Stacy & Eric

Another day another plane

When it rains it pours…and we go in search of sunshine.

It has been winter here in Wellington. Cold, dark, wet and windy. And did I mention cold?

So what have we been up to? ...Work.
We have both been very busy, and traveling a lot. As of right now, I am still a Gold Elite member of Air New Zealand/Star Alliance and Eric is now a Gold member as well.

I did head off to China at the end of March and then we both went to Calgary, Canada for Calgary Expo in April. On our way back we had a few days in Los Angeles to catch up with some family, a few friends and managed to catch "The Book of Mormon" at the Pantages Theater. We enjoyed it very much. It was very inappropriately funny -as we had expected.

Then I went back to China again in May and Eric went on to Korea to set up a Weta Show in Seoul.

From there he went to San Diego and Los Angeles where I met up with him along with a few others to head off to Denver for Denver Comic Con.

From Denver I went to Hong Kong and China for a week of production and quality assurance. While Eric went back to Los Angeles/Seattle to sort out some of our House stuff. It is currently on the market, but not much interest. We may need to rent it out again.

I came back to New Zealand for about 10 days before heading back to LA to join back up with Eric for some much needed "down time".

July was a big blur. It was great to visit with family and friends, and to celebrate my birthday at my favorite restaurant.

The weather was fabulous! - warm, sunny summer weather. I was really ready for that. Back in NZ we were having the shortest days of the year with sunrise at about 8:00 am. and it stated getting dark at 3:30 pm. It felt good to be wearing short sleeves and flip flops (sandals). We enjoyed many In N Out burgers (I lost count) as well as lots of good Mexican food. And quite a lot of frozen yogurt.

The days went by too quickly and we were off to San Diego to set up Comic Con.

Lots of work and a huge success. It took 3.5 days and a crew of about 12 to set it all up.
and we miraculously broke it all back down in a day and half.

The highlights of the show for me were that I did actually get a few breaks (as opposed to the 2 previous years). I was able to meet an author I admire -Cornelia Funke and got my copy of Inkheart signed. And I was able to enjoy the John Barrowman panel. He is very entertaining! I am looking forward to seeing him again in Salt Lake City. We also had a great photo taken of a group of us at the The One Ring.net Laketown Luau.

We had a few days to recover before taking a quick trip to Indiana for Eric's grandmother's memorial service. Ruth was am amazing 97 years old when she died. A life well lived, and we will miss her.

It was a very quick trip. We left early Friday morning and were back Sunday night.
Flying in to Indianapolis and then driving about an hour to Hagerstown (picture farms and lots of open spaces) It was nice to see some of the family we had not seen in several years.

From there it was back to San Diego, LAX and then Auckland. Good to be back.
Unfortunately, we knew it was not for very long.

Eric had about 10 days and then he was off to Korea again to take down the show he helped put up in Seoul and move it to Busan to set up again. He will then go direct from Korea to Salt Lake City to meet back up with me and others to set up Salt Lake City Comic Con.

After Salt Lake City Eric will return to New Zealand for bit. Our kitty Myztyc will be pleased. She has not been too happy with us of late. I will get a few days to see family and friends again in LA a well as have a few work related meetings, before heading off to Hong Kong/China for a week. Then I will be going back to New Zealand.

…But only for a few weeks before Eric I go back to New York for Comic Con in October.
This will be our first time attending this show and our first time together in the Big Apple. We are looking forward to it and are going to take a few days after the show to stick around and enjoy the city. Hoping to see a show as well.

So, aside form traveling the globe, living out of our suitcases and working shows, there is not much more to report.

We had a hail and lightning storm the other day and a bolt of lightning hit our wind needle, and it was caught on camera. Very cool. Unfortunately they had just finished refurbishing the installation about 2-3 month before. They are repairing it again now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyrometer

The Wellington sign (see earlier posts) has been revised changing the "W" to a "V" to honor the indie -mocu-mentary "What we do in the Shadows" about vampires living in Wellington.

It was great seeing those of you we did and our apologies to those we missed this trip and hope to see you again soon.

…Now where shall we go next with all of those frequent flyer miles?

Warm wishes to all,
Stacy & Eric