chazz

  • Swimming With Dolphins and A Shark Attack!

    What a weekend!  Too bad it had to end, because today the Sarah Palin media blitz began. 
    I’ll get to that waste  of brain matter in a minute, but here’s a quick recap of the weekend:

    • Drove up to Santa Barbara…managed to avoid a speeding ticket despite a few close calls.
    • Eva, Bine & I hung out with Rob & August all day Saturday; enjoying:
    • I caught a cold Saturday night as the temperature in Eva’s house was about 20° cooler than I keep The Hotel Careyfornia.
    • Claudio & Ryan found a Chocolate Lab on the street in Oxnard Saturday.  She and Chazz became best of friends.  We’re calling her “D” (for dog) for now, and searching for the owner, but it’s been 2 days.  Story developing…
    • Claudio & Ryan drove up to Santa Barbara with aforementioned new dog and Chazz, and we had dinner on the beach to yet another breathtaking sunset
    • Drove home and have been drinking lots of hot liquids.
    • Tonight, Bine & I are going to go see the movie Precious.
    • Tomorrow Carolina is coming for lunch and then Bine & I are going to The Jay Leno Show(we were supposed to go last week, but changed the tickets).  Tyra Banks will be the guest.

    Here are my favorite photos from the past 2 days:


    That’s Bine, swimming towards the dolphins…she eventually caught up with them…and loved it!


    Gross, but pretty cool, huh?  They said it was from a Great White, but Joelle said that the bite looked small for a Great White and why didn’t it eat the whole thing??


    A crowd gathered around the departed seal


    Father & Daughter (with bird hat)


    Rob congratulating Bine after she swam with the dolphins


    The winning shot??  Nope!


    The full size photo is even more vivid


    Bine was freezing as she was still wet from swimming with dolphins


    Best friends


    August brought the Filipino pork from Carson and Rob grilled it up perfectly!


    Bine, Eva, Rob, August, Thine & Puneeth


    I woke up Sunday with a bad cold


    I love the back turtle’s legs


    State Street, Santa Barbara, CA


    Sunny Breakfast

     
    In front of the courthouse…and a Tibetan Terrier


    Real trials are still held in this room…but Rob & August are innocent


    The hills of Santa Barbara and the infamous Tea Fire


    August, Riley & Me


    Who’s a good dog?


    Our “new” Chocolate Lab, “D” with Ryan & Chazz


    A great end to a great weekend


    The beautiful Santa Barbara seafront


    Click here for the best of the rest…

      Palin Roundup

    “Prepare for the latest Palin media onslaught. An hour with Oprah, a multi-parter with Barbara, and appearances all across the country. An initial read shows Going Rogue doesn’t reveal much. No surprise there. This isn’t about the book, it’s about the book tour — which includes a politically convenient stop in Iowa — and the money. Besides, it’s not like there’s much we haven’t already learned about Palin since she burst onto the national scene. We even know when her water broke during her last pregnancy. Talk about overexposed. In the end, I expect this will be one of the most mocked books of the year — and one of the biggest bestsellers. Palin fans will find much to love, but I doubt a single doubter will be converted. It’s a 400 page Rorschach test. With no index.”

  • Halloween in Hollywood

    It was a hot Halloween in West Hollywood this year.  The temperature reached 93° (34° C).  This morning I walked to Pavilions to buy my balloon for my costume.  Claudio, Ryan & Chazz showed up later and I took Chazz up to the roof for sunset.  There was almost a full moon and the sky was beautiful:


    Chazz on the roof with downtown LA as a backdrop
    Lisa sent this picture of Andy in his costume.  Cute huh?

    On Halloween night every year, West Hollywood stages perhaps the most extravagant Halloween party anywhere. The City of West Hollywood calls the Costume Carnaval the largest adult outdoor Halloween event in the world. Santa Monica Boulevard, one of the busies streets in Los Angeles, is converted into a pedestrian only zone between Doheny and La Cienega Boulevards.

    So, when it got dark, it was time to hit Santa Monica Blvd. where 500,000 costumed revelers flooded the streets for the Annual Halloween Carnaval.  I took some “before” pictures this morning, to compare to what it looked like tonight:

    The most popular costumes this year were Lady Gaga and “Where the Wild Things Are“.  Of course there were a lot of Michael Jacksons, and several “Balloon Boys“, though the were all older than me.  LOL


    Me, as Balloon Boy’s Dad amidst a sea of balloons.  And yes, I’m holding a Tupperware barf bucket for the Balloon Boy(s) to puke in, just like he did on national TV!  I’m also wearing ABC Wife Swap credentials!


    Chazz was Balloon Dog!


    “Friend in my head”, Levi Johnston was even there with his manager Tank Jones!

       

     


    That’s LaToya Jackson (Michael’s sister) in the orange wig

     


    Pregnant Dorothy


    This was my favorite costume of the night…from “Up“


    Wild Things!

    So there you have it another Halloween has come and gone!  Here’s the best of the rest…


    A slideshow of all the photos from today.  Happy Halloween!


    ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

    For Halloween, President Obama wore chinos, a white button-down shirt & crewneck sweater. So Obama went as the whitest president in US history. -Conan O’Brien

  • Yes We Did – Get Over It (Levi Johnston Reads my Blog)

    9 PM:  UPDATE to the UPDATE:  Levi Johnston just posted my blog on his Twitter page and I got like 300 hits in 30 minutes! Which means that right now, Levi Johnston is sitting in a hotel room in New York looking at picture of Chazz!  LOL!!  Then I got a message on my phone from him that said this:

    Thanks Levi!  I appreciate the help!  If my blog can change one person’s mind about ever voting for Sarah Palin again, I’ll have done my job. 

     

    And Levi, I know you “dated” Kathy Griffin, but did you know she also loves my dog Chazz??  And Chazz knows President Obama, so it’s like 3 degrees of separation!  The four of us should do lunch next time you’re in LA! 


    Chazz, with Kathy Griffin and her Mom at the Prop. 8 rally in West Hollywood in May.


    7 PM:  UPDATE:  Well, Sarah Palin’s daughter’s baby  daddy, Levi Johnston, confirmed today, what I blogged about months ago:  Sarah Palin hates retards!  Now I just need him to confirm that she’s the mother of Michael Jackson’s son, Blanket!  LOL.  I just started following him on Twitter, so hopefully he will follow me and read all of my posts about his whack job, almost monster in law:  He’s actually a pretty funny kid.  He just sent this tweet from New York:
     

    Clever, right?  Of course, 5 minutes later he tweeted this:

    LMAO!!  Sarah must be SO LIVID!!  Actually, she’s already slamming him for “selling his body to Playgirl“.  And he slammed right back with a tweet about her selling her soul!!!  LOL.  Keep up the good fight Levi!!

    1 AM THIS MORNING: 1 year ago today, I wrote a post called “Yes We Will – Count On It“.  It was a exactly one week before the presidential election and I had a conversation with someone who could not fathom a black man in the White House.  This week that same person had the unmitigated gall to send me one of those ignorant emails that spread racism and hate (that I refuse to repost here), telling me I can’t deny “history” and espousing the same disgusting “we’re the greatest country on earth” blah blah blah rhetoric that angry white men like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh puke out (because an ‘uppity negro’ in power obviously makes them sick to their stomachs).  Guess what?  Racism is still alive and well in America one year later.  I am looking forward to this documentary on HBO next week though (almost as much as I’m looking forward to Levi Johnston’s revelations about Sarah Palin tomorrow).  Check out the kid in the beginning and end of the clip.  His name is Lorenzo.  He’s nine years old and he’s priceless:


    Because of copyright, this video only plays in the U.S., so here’s a news piece about the documentary that shows the kid I was referring to and some other nice scenes of the President with his kids and reflecting on his accomplishment.


    The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
    George W. Bush’s Motivational Speech
    www.colbertnation.com

    Meanwhile, George W. Bush is giving boring speeches, charging $4.95 admission fee.  Oh, and the lecture series is being arranged by a former drug dealer.  LOL, what a buffoon.  Clinton is rescuing people from North Korea and W is resigned to meet and greets in Wal-Mart parking lots!

    The documentary looks good, right?  It’s so amazing to think that a year ago today, no one knew for sure that Obama would/could win.  It was also around this time last year that I went to the pumpkin patch with Hannah and Arielle.  Since this is Chazz’s first Halloween, I took him there on Sunday.  When we arrived, there were a ton of paparazzi snapping away as Christina Aguilera was just leaving.  Of course, once we got there, they fixed their long lenses on Chazz, and how great he looked against the backdrop of orange pumpkins and crimson sky:


    If you look closely you can see that as Christina Aguilera exited the pumpkin patch to the stars, the paparazzi waited for the perfect shot of Chazz!

     


    He even went on a hay ride!


    He also got to hang out with his pal Roscoe while Ann & Arielle look on


    On the way home, LA Lakers star Ron Artest was making milkshakes, and Chazz had to try one!  Just another day in Hollywood for a famous dog who has met the president and written his own children’s book!


    Click here for the best of the rest…

  • The Fast, The Furious and The Fierce

    My Dad left Saturday just in time for Claudio’s sister, who’s visiting from Brazil, to check into The H.C.  We had lunch in Santa Monica yesterday, and on the way there, while driving down Sunset Blvd., there were 3 Ferraris and 3 Lamborghinis that were drag racing.  Finally a cop showed up, but none of them even got pulled over!  Anyway, watch the video to see what could have been the disastrous results:


    Fun Fact:  My Dad actually made the famous sign!


    Chazz loves to dine al fresco


    Dancing With the Stars?


    I took this from my sun roof going 70 mph down the 101…the Capitol Records Building is on the left


    Hollywood & Highland – Home of the Oscars


    Opposite the Hollywood Sign


    Ryan’s actually looking at the Hollywood Sign, but it’s too hazy to see


    We found a new little wine bar that had great paninis


    That’s the El Capitan in the background


    A kid at heart!


    Southern California in October!


    When Hugo saw this photo on Facebook he left the following comments:




    Chazz was really tuckered out after a long day…


    Click here for the best of the rest…

  • Saturday Night Lights

    The day started with my aunt and I heading to LAX to meet Claudio and his brother, sister and sister in law, and their two kids, and Chazz of course. Then we picked up my Dad at the airport and headed downtown to Philippes for lunch. Dinner for 17 was at Buca di Beppo and was followed by Joel’s college (American) football game. My brother and his girlfriend and her two kids checked into The Hotel Careyfornia after that, and today they headed down to Disneyland.  I had other plans, and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for the first time in nearly a month.  It has been a very long past 3 weeks, and I’m exhausted!  My Dad is going to stay with my aunt for a few days, and he’ll come back up to The HC on Thursday after we celebrate Lisa’s birthday.  I’m looking forward to a little rest and relaxation until then.  Have a good week!


    Uncle Ryan with the munchkins


    Aunty LuLu and I met the whole gang close to the airport before my Dad flew in


    Dad, me, Chazz, Claudio & Ryan


    Most of the family.  Jennifer couldn’t make it.


    I miss Andy!


    Favorite cousins!


    Orange County kids!


    Me, with Nicole, Tiffany & Rebecca


    Cheese!


    I liked this shot…I wanted to pull down her shirt though!


    Enjoying the game…LOL


    His Dad’s the coach!


    Home run! :)


    Tight ends?


    This is a game I know absolutely nothing about!


    Rebecca made her typical Filipino breakfast.  Yum!  If you want to see more photos from the weekend, click here.

  • Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?


    In August, less than 2 months before he died, my Uncle George visited his hometown of Iron Mountain, Michigan and went fishing with his brother.  To say my uncle loved to fish was an understatement.  I think the only thing he loved more, was his wife, his grandkids and his brother!  Despite a cold rain that day, my 81 year old uncle and his brother hiked more than 100 yards through the woods, carrying a heavy canoe to a secret fishing hole.  They had quite an adventure that day, and his brother wrote a story about it that was published in the local paper:

    Oh, brother, can we fish …

    By JIM SNOWDON, for The Daily News
    POSTED: August 1, 2009

    IRON MOUNTAIN – It was tough, but the end reward was worth it all.

    Let’s just say our fishing trip seemed doomed from the start. It was a bright shining day when I picked up my brother George. Then things started to go a little bad.

    While in the truck, we noted we both forgot sunglasses – number one mistake. We picked up the canoe at the camp and drove a few miles to a lake in the Republic area.

    Then, two senior citizens still had to carry the canoe 100 yards through the woods to the lake. Got to the lake, ready to launch the canoe. We soon discovered that the paddles, life jackets, and fishing poles were back at camp.

    Back to camp we go and we were back to square one.

    Once again, back at the lake, ready to go. Then the minnow bucket tipped – minnows all over the ground. Hand-picked them up (a few even lived); now we are on our way.

    While pushing the canoe out, we sank in mud up to our knees. Two seniors stuck in mud. But we got out and soon were floating across the lake. We paddled quite a ways and got set to put a dead minnow on the hook.

    One hour into fishing and not a bite. We figured it was the minnows’ fault. We would not give up just yet.

    Brother George decided to have a sandwich, took a couple bites and it fell out of his hand into the bottom of a slightly wet canoe. It seems things were getting worse.

    But then the perch started biting.

    In five minutes we had three 12-inch perch on the stringer.

    Somehow, stinger and all fell out of hand overboard. All perch were gone.

    Now for sure he was ready to call it quits. I talked him into staying because the fish were starting to bite.

    Bottom line, 30 jumbo perch (10 to 13 inches) in a couple hours of fishing. We were happy and finally did call it quits for the day.

    Getting the canoe back out of the woods to the truck was harder than getting in. Somehow that canoe got at least 100 pounds heavier.

    I should mention on the way out I lost my pocket knife and Brother got poked in the eye with a tree branch and we crushed the minnow bucket.

    We were glad to get back to camp in one piece.

    But the doomed trip turned out to be a great success. We will both remember it for a long time and George now has a fishing story to tell when he gets back to California.

    I’m sure it was the highlight of his vacation.

    I’m staying with my aunt this week, and obviously there are reminders of Uncle George everywhere.  I smell his cologne in the bathroom when I shower.  I’m sleeping on his pillow, which I find comforting.  Tomorrow, friends and family will gather to celebrate his memory.  We’ve been trying to keep this week as normal as possible for the kids.  Last night we made caramel apples which they loved:


    Tressa, Andy, Dar & Tommy




    Great Grandma (Aunty LuLu) with kids




    Andy likes taffy apples!



       
    Oh Brother let’s go down…down to the lake and fish


    Obviously I can’t be with Chazz on his “special day”, so Ryan just texted me this picture of his first birthday cake:





  • A Year of Chazz

    I couldn’t let today pass without acknowledging a birthday.  Chazz turned 1 year old today!!  In that year, I’ve taken over 700 photos of him:

    Obviously I can’t be with Chazz on his “special day”, so Ryan just texted me this picture of his first birthday cake:

  • Believe, Achieve, Succeed!

    Today was the first day of school for Tommy & Andy.  Growing up in the Midwest, the first day of school for me always involved getting up early, the cool air hinting of autumn and me and my brother walking to the bus stop hesitantly, wondering what the new school year would bring.  (I wasn’t a popular kid until I got to college believe it or not….I was kind of the class clown in grade school, but then withdrew in junior high and high school.)  I even remember my first day of Kindergarten.  I cried and screamed…and didn’t want my Mom to leave.  Andy however, took it all in stride today, bounding off with his teacher ready to start his academic career.  He insists on being called “Andrew” in school!  When his Mom showed up to pick him up, all the kids were lined up in a row.  They were allowed to leave when the teacher called their name.  When she said, “Andrew, you may go”, Andy let out a loud, joyful squeal and ran into his mother’s waiting arms saying “I missed you Mommy”.  (Sound familiar??)  That’s a memory Lisa will cherish the rest of her life.  Good luck in school this year boys!  xoxo

    Unfortunately, Andy & Tommy missed President Obama’s speech to school children on Tuesday.  Tommy would have surely enjoyed it.  Speaking of the President, I was appalled last night as I watched his speech to Congress.  I immediately posted this on my Facebook page and apparently I wasn’t alone in my outrage!

    Glee was on later that evening though, and it put me in a better mood.  Just like this video always does:

    Lastly, the fires here are mostly under control, but the sunsets are still spectacular.  We took Chazz up to Runyon Canyon the other night and I got these shots:


    He met up with another Rhodesian Ridgeback (Chazz is Rhodesian mixed with Boxer) and they played so well together.  Apparently Rhodesians always play the same way with each other and they had a ball!

    Here’s my post last year on September 11th:


    I took the center photo in the summer of 1997 while sailing around the island of Manhattan on my boss’s yacht.  It was a picture perfect New York day.  One I’ll never forget.  I took most of the other photos on September 11th, 2002.


    ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
    “In an interview, President Obama has said that picking up his dog Bo’s poop is one of the highlights of his day. The interview was published in ‘The Journal of Depressing Metaphors for the State of America.’” — Conan O’Brien

  • Hugo’s Huge Basket – A Whole New World

    Hugo, Claudio & I have been friends for nearly 20 years.  As a child, Hugo had an dream that, without going into detail, prevented him from ever visiting the state of California.  When Claudio moved here last year, we both lamented the fact that our good friend would not be able to visit us here.  Fast forward to Thursday, when Hugo bravely flew from New York to Los Angeles, to help me and Claudio celebrate our birthdays; and a new tradition began.  Then Friday, Marcelo & Emily flew in from Portland and we headed up to Ventura County where we had a big Brazilian barbecue with Eva & Bassam in attendance.  Later tonight we head to the Hollywood Bowl for the Rodger’s & Hammerstein spectacular.  I’ll let the videos and pictures speak for themselves.  Ciao!

     


    Claudio & Ryan had shirts made that say:
    Hotel Careyfornia VIP
    Hotel Careyfornia Maintenance
    and a hooded sweatshirt that says:
    Hotel Careyfornia CEO

     
    Click to see all the photos…

  • Horndogs, Tooth Ointment, Toxic Snowglobes and YouDork

    I’m down in Mission Viejo for a week dog-sitting for Buster, the one eyed horndog and Roxy:

     

    Last night, Andy consistently beat me at Wii for hours, and I’m sure I got carpal tunnel in the process!

    This morning I woke up early and was unusually tired.  Even though I didn’t fly here, I brought my travel bag, full of travel sized items.  In my stupor this morning, the toothpaste and the Neosporin looked remarkably similar:

    They didn’t taste similar however, as this reenactment shows:


    OK, I didn’t really put it in my mouth this morning…but I almost did!

    I blame the TSA for this!  (Kip Hawley is still an idiot!)  Their stupid fucking liquid ban has likely caused thousands of Americans to brush their teeth with antibiotic ointment methinks.  There’s a good book called Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World that posits:

    “Lessons learned from Mother Nature [could] help airport security screening checkpoints better protect us from terror threats — if governments are willing to think outside the box and pay heed to some of nature’s most successful evolutionary strategies for species adaptation and survival.

    “Biological organisms have figured out millions of ways, over three and a half billion years of evolution, to keep themselves safe from a vast array of threats,” said Raphael Sagarin, a Duke University ecologist who co-edited the book with Terence Taylor, an international security expert.

    “Arm races among invertebrates, intelligence gathering by the immune system and alarm calls by marmots are just a few of nature’s successful security strategies that have been tested and modified over time in response to changing threats and situations,” Sagarin said. “In our book, we look at these strategies and ask how we could apply them to our own safety.”

    “A study of animal behavior suggests that advertising your security procedures and continually conveying to others that there is a state of elevated threat only helps inform potential terrorists of loopholes in the procedures, while keeping the general population uncertain and nervous,” Sagarin said. Species such as marmots, which continually emit warning calls to each other even when no immediate threat is present, force the other animals in their group to waste time and energy trying to figure out if the implied threat is real, he noted.

    Evolutionary models and ideas also can be applied to non-terrorism threats, such natural disasters and the spread of infectious diseases, he added.

    “Whether you’re dealing with al Qaeda or an emerging pathogen, studying animal behavior teaches us basic principles of survival,” he said. “You can’t eliminate all risks, so you have to focus on the big ones, while adapting to minimize risk from the rest. You have to be aware of your environment, understanding that it’s constantly in flux. And when it comes to adapting and responding to threats, a centralized authority can get in the way. Individual units that sense the environment, with minimal central control, work best.””

    And now comes word that you’re no longer allowed to bring snowglobes through airport security!  Sorry middle America, time to find a new cheesy souvenir.  What will they think of next?  Urinals at the X-ray machine, so we don’t bring our piss on planes?  Idiots!

     
    “A glass eye, filled with weaponized ebola.
    A small child with a belly full of C4.
    A man with his blood altered biochemically to be a powerful explosive.
    A Muslim that has spent the last two decades training in the art of the Ninja, and has just mastered a technique to deliver fatal nerve-strikes from across the room using only the focused force of his own chi?
    WHY DO WE NOT WORRY ABOUT THESE THINGS?
    Oh… yeah. Because at a certain point we have to make the decision to accept the most minute possible risks or to continue rocking back and forth on the floor whimpering while in a pool of our own urine.    “

    In other news, yesterday, Lisa and I went to The Spectrum to see Inglourious Basterds (I loved it).  We also saw that they are auctioning off Designer Dog Houses built by celebrities.  Obviously, Chazz needs this desperately, so here’s a real live PayPal button to donate to The Hotel Chazzfornia Fund.  Bidding for the auction starts at $20,000.00, so dig deep!!

      Chazzitat For Humanity – Put a roof over Chazz’s head!!  DONATE NOW!!

    Speaking of Chazz, Claudio sent me an email with a video attachment of him playing soccer with some kids.  To wit:

    Gmail Carey Anthony
    Chazz Playing Football
    2 messages
    From: Claudio Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:09 PM
    To: Carey


    Chazz has made it to 3 soccer practices with kids at the park. He is very popular around there. Several people call him by name and gather around to see him play. The coach has a separate soccer ball for him already. The first-timers get instructions on how to play with Chazz. Although the 8 and younger kids who are his usual teammates were not there today (when I remembered to take the camera), he still had fun. 
    I got quite a few funny videos, but most are too big to attach… This is the only one that can go.  -Claudio

    From: Carey Anthony Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:35 PM
    To: Claudio

    It’s clear he got his football skills from MY side of the family!  Ugh!!  Too big to attach???
    The 90′s called.  They want their ridiculously huge email attachments back!!

    Ever hear of YouTube, YouDork???

    And where the hell did you film that from?  The Goodyear blimp???  I can see that when I’m not around Chazz’s care is left to amateurs.  We’re going to have to decrease your visits with him.

    Signed,
    Worried in Weho