TODAY IS THE DAY!! THE DR. PHIL SHOW THAT I WENT TO IS AIRING. IT IS ON AT 4PM ON CBS. IT IS CALLED WACKY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS. I'LL LET YOU KNOW IF I CAN BE SEEN IN THE AUDIENCE.
On December 13, 2006, while in California, I got to go to the taping of the Dr. Phil Show. I was supposed to be going with Jenny, but she ended up waking up with the flu. She insisted that I go without her, so I did. It didn't take much convincing, but it would have been WAY more fun if I had gone with her. Here are some pictures from my day.
Above is a shot from where I parked my car at the top of a parking garage. If you see the building with the whales on it, that is the studio where the show is filmed. If you look in the top left corner of the picture you can see the famous Hollywood sign in the hills. 
This is on my walk. I knew I was closer.
I finally found the entrance. Boy was I excited. The Security Guard at the door took this picture right before I had to turn in my camera and my cellphone. Sorry no pictures of Dr. Phil.
The show was about WACKY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS. One lady was scared of costumed characters and her resolution was to take her son to an amusement park by the end of 2007. Another lady thought that she was going to have her brains sucked out from her computer and that her mouse would shock her, so her goal was to learn to use a computer by the end of 2007. Another girl is getting married and still sucks her thumb and has a blanket, so her goal was to get rid of them before her wedding day. Another lady is a dentle hygenist who doesn't floss and had guilt. Her goal was to floss everyday this year. It was a fun show and he had a lot of good advice for them.
I was seated at the back of the studio, but straight across from Dr. Phil. I had no cameras blocking my way and was pretty close to his wife, Robin. There was a camera man on our section for awhile, so he might have gotten a close up of me, we'll have to see. Also, when Dr. Phil left the stage I stood up and was waving and cheering and no one else stood up, so maybe I'll be able to see myself then. I'm excited to see if I can see myself or not. Even if I can't, that's ok, it was a great experience.
Because Jennifer was sick I had some time to spare before heading home, so I went on a tour of the Paramount Studios. It was a 2 hour tour and a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures from my tour. Enjoy!!
This is the entrance to the highschool on Happy Days. Look familiar? Also, we got to go in the sound stage where Happy Days was filmed. I was and am such a huge fan, that even though the sound stage was empty it was still fun to be there knowing that the show had been filmed there.
Here I am on the other side of the Dr. Phil soundstage. This is the door that Dr. Phil goes in and out of. It was fun to be on this side, but, sigh there were no sitings of him. :-)
I was having cameral malfunctions at this point, but here I am on the set of Entertainment Tonight, The Insider show. I have watched that here and there, so it was fun to see in person.
Another fun thing that happened while we were there is that we got to see them filming part of the new show UGLY BETTY. I have never watched the show, but have seen ads and heard great things about it. We got to see the main character. That is not her real hair. We saw her putting on her wig before the shoot. This picture above is a facade of a New York street, often used in the filming of Seinfeld and in the foreground is the Ugly Betty Wardrobe truck. There were all these extras in cars waiting for their cue to start driving and we got to zip around on our golf cart right in the middle of it all because they weren't filming yet.
These two pictures are a lot of fun. The one above is the facade to Jerry Seinfeld and Kramer's apartments. The door to Jerry's apartment is the third one from the left. If you are a fan this was used in a episode where they were throwing rye bread up and down from the window. Below is a picture of Laverne and Shirley's basement apartment. Being a big fan of the show I was very excited to see this. I also got to see the front of the Beer Factory where they worked. 
One of the highlights was getting to go on the set of the new Tom Hanks movie Charlie Wilson's War. Here is the storyline: Charlie Wilson's War is a drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects. Tom Hanks is the Texas Congressman. I got to be in Tom Hanks office and walk through the building where a lot of the filming is taking place. It was a lot of fun. We had an older gentleman on our tour who was touching props and sitting down when he was tired. He didn't care who was filming there or not. He was tired. :-) It was cute.
Overall, it was a great day. I was sad Jennifer couldn't be with me, but I made the most of my day and really enjoyed myself. After my tour I headed to my sister-n-laws house. I got to play PS3 with my brother-n-law, Kevin and I kicked his butt at BOXING. It was great. I spent the night at their house and headed back to be with Jennifer the next day. She was starting to feel better. The good news is, I never got sick.
Blog more later.
Here is Luke and I on his first birthday. He turned 1 on January 21st, 2007. He had a Mickey Mouse Party and I got him his first Mickey Mouse ears from Disneyland. They even say Luke on the back. 
When I got back from California Darlene and I had a girlfriend's trip to downtown Chicago to see WICKED. I have always been a Wizard of Oz fan, so this was a lot of fun. If you get the chance to see it, you should, but I wouldn't bother reading the book. 
As you all know I am a BIG Disney fan, so it was great to get to go back to Disneyland after about 7-8 years. I would go there as a kid when we lived in California. I loved being there with my two childhood friends, Jenny and Cicily. It was fun watching Madison (Jenny's Daughter) and Max(Cicily's Son) enjoying all the rides. It was also great to be there with Jennifer's friend Jaime. She works at Disney's California Adventure and was able to get me into both parks for free and get me 40% discounts off of everything I bought. Thanks again Jaime. You are AWESOME. Thanks also for what a good friend you are to Jennifer.