Whit "Pop" Haydn, Richard Turner, Johnny "Ace" Palmer

Last night at the Magic Castle, the magic teachers of DC comic’s The Spirit got together.

In the December issue of The Spirit, 2008, the Spirit shows some card tricks and explains that magic is his hobby and that he had three magic teachers, Whit Haydn, Richard Turner and Johnny Ace Palmer. Also in the same magazine, our friend and fellow Magic Castle member, the lovely Misty Lee appears in the story as a character.

All of us are old friends, but none knew what had brought us together like this.  It turns out that Mark Evanier, a writer for the comics, was a Castle member, and we were his favorite magicians. He had attended lectures and classes by all of us, and considered us teachers, so he just wrote us into the story with the Spirit.

It is  a wonderful honor.

My life seems to continue to become more and more fictionalized…

The Huntington Beach Central Library is getting into the spirit of the season — the Halloween season that is. Check out Halloween Family Evening Storytime on Thursday, October 13, 7pm at the Tabby Theater. Have kids wear their pajamas or Halloween costumes. Ms. Barbara will share spooky books, puppets, funny songs and creepy flannel boards.

On Tuesday, October 25, top magician Johnny Ace Palmer will have two Halloween Magic Shows at the Library Theater. There will be a show at 4pm and at 7pm. Tickets are $4 each, available at the Children’s Desk. Attendees are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes. There will be a costume parade following each show.

We used the rest of our ingredients from the day before to make a small portion of breakfast to eat. (We had to finish all his food since he was going to be up in Fremont for a week or two!)

Parts 3 and 4 of my anniversary presents for him! I gave him the external hard drive the day before. I think that was his favorite! Part 4 was a cute picture frame for his desk! He thinks I’m taking over his room, hahah.

I think aside from his “I’m angry” face pose, this is his favorite pose. Truly a big fat Snorlax.

My lover!

Gotta eat wings when you watch football, right? After the first rounds of the football games were over, we headed over to Original Buffalo Wings to get some wings and chips take out. We got the lemon pepper and garlic parmesan wings and an order of chips with cheese and bacon (his favorite!). The lemon pepper was a lot more lemon-y than I expected! The chips with cheese and bacon was delicious, but I can’t eat very much of it. I don’t really like feeling like I’m eating a heart attack.. Chris inhaled all that food in though.

All dressed up and ready for the Magic Castle! I brought black flats and my black heels.. I ended up wearing heels the whole night, and I didn’t even complain. One step closer to being a real woman, lol! We were originally planning to leave earlier so we can eat at a Thai restaurant close to the castle, but Chris was super tired, so he over napped. So we headed straight to the castle!

The pretty awesome fountain that you pull up to right in front of the castle.

The Magic Castle! They’re so fancy – valet and everything! Even though I’m so used to Chris opening my car door (see? chivalry ain’t dead), I was a little caught off guard when the guy came to open my door and make sure I get out of the car safely.

We can’t take pictures inside the castle, but we could snap pictures in the front desk area! You have to say the “magic words” to the owl to get into the castle, hehe!

We got to see Danny Cole and Fielding West for the first show. Danny Cole is a two-time AMA Stage Magician of the Year winner (I think that’s a big deal!?), and Fielding West is a top casino headliner. Apparently, he has a magic show tv show, too. We watched Alfonso next. He’s pretty entertaining and funny! We went to Magic Castle to watch Johnny Ace Palmer, who was the featured performer, and also Chris’ friend, John George’s mentor. But we heard that he was sick and they had another magician.. everyone that was in line for that show left, hahah. We ended up watching Bob Cassidy, who was a “mentalist” and the show The Mentalist was based on books he wrote, before leaving Hollywood!

We stopped by the Subway that was close to the castle and ate our late dinner. Chris and I were so out of place cause we were all dressed up in a pretty janky place, hahah. It was cool though, the Subway guy making my sandwich hella hooked me up with lots of olives!

Monday morning, Chris slept in cause he was super tired. So while he slept, I cleaned and packed. After he woke up, he packed real quick, and then we headed out. We dropped by 85C Bakery to get some bakeries to bring home to my family.

On the six hours drive back, I ended sleeping probably for five hours. I was probably tired from waking up early.. and the sun was making the car all warm.. Regardless, I felt bad for sleeping so much cause Chris kept calling me the Snorlax. Sigh, I was only able to stay awake to change the radio stations to sports broadcasts or a new music station every once in a while.

Anyways, we got back to Fremont around 6:30pm, and I had to rush to Santa Clara for my 7pm class. I was five minutes late, boo. I hate being late!

The weekend was super fun.. and I’m glad Chris is back in Fremont for a few days!

It's been a while since I've seriously blogged last – but I've had my hands full!  This past Saturday, we finally picked up the newest addition to our little family – the much awaited Papillon Puppy, Johnny Ace Pawer!

Johnny Ace Pawer & Dan

The breeder, Rebecca (owner of Hitch Hiking Horses) met us in Carmichael before one of our library shows (which oddly enough was accidently double booked – the other performer won out because he had a flier…ah well).

Ace has been behaving great and has even learned a few commands including "kennel", "sit" and "jump up!".  We're hoping that he'll solidly learn a good batch of tricks before the summer (even if he doesn't perform them perfectly – we're just looking at getting him some stage experience!)  We'll see how that goes…

Downtime doggie style

In the meantime, I can say this – having a dog is a lot like having a kid….he doesn't like being left alone and he wakes up virtually every two hours at night….GAWD I miss a full night's sleep!!!  (Maybe I'll even write better if I get MORE of it…..)

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