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For those of you that know me, you might call me a gadget freak.

For those of you that don’t know me, the people that do know me might call me a gadget freak.

One of those things is cell phones.

In the last two years, I’ve changed my cell phone three times. Not a lot compared to some people, but a lot compared to others.

It should be no surprise to some that I just upgraded to the Sprint 6800 “Mogul” phone.

Click below to read my review of this phone…

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don’t give “The Price Is Right” job to Rosie.

Next thing you know, she’ll be ranting about how steel doesn’t melt between Plinko & Cliff Hangers.

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So yep, we’re back.

In all our adventures, we did not see one celebrity. Of course, we didn’t hang out at LA jail to see Paris Hilton.

The one celebrity we did see was on the flight back to Phoenix. Brad Perry from Channel 3. Was in LA covering the Finding Nemo opening. Said hey to him, and left him alone. (Oh, and for the record, he was in coach. In the back o’ the plane. Didn’t even board with the elites!)

So how was the Finding Nemo ride? It was fun. Since we received annual passholder tickets, we didn’t have to wait in line. And I’m glad we didn’t. The day we left was opening day for the ride, and it was over a 3 hour line. No thank you. The special effects were pretty amazing, and this was fun to watch:

Seagulls at Disneyland’s Finding Nemo Ride from Thomas Bates on Vimeo

We also made time to head down to Pink’s Hot Dogs. Tasty and delicious.

And, we went deep sea fishing. Since the boat left at 6:30am, we had to be there at 6:00am, which means we had to leave the hotel by 5:30. Yuck. But wake up we did, and made it.

Did we catch anything? Unfortunately, no. The only thing we caught was the live bait in the bait tanks. (Sardines, if you must know.) And then towards the end, the wife was getting a little bit ill from quite a lot of rocking. I’m just glad we only did the half-day outing instead of a whole day. Next time, bring the meds.

We did like the Toyota Prius we rented, though. Over 200 miles of driving, and we only had to half-fill the gas tank, for a total of about $30. I don’t know that I’d spend $25,000 - 30,000 for one, though. It felt like a low-end Toyota, not an expensive car. But I guess that’s not the selling point.

As for the pictures, you can check them all out here, at the icedlatte.com Gallery.

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So, it’s now the 11th, and as I write this, I’m sitting at John Wayne International Airport.   Thanks to the miracle of EVDO at Sprint, I’m writing this.

We sure did do a lot.  Of course we rode the Nemo Submarine ride, (it’s ehhh.  Glad we didn’t wait in line for hours to ride it.), went deep sea fishing.  (Didn’t catch anything, though.), and all in all, had a great time.

Look for pictures later this week, when I’ve had time to decompress.

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and as I write this, I’m sitting in the Anaheim Hilton, on the 13th floor. (Yeah. The 13th. The hotel skips the 10th floor, though… Weird.)

Anyhoo, we mentioned while checking in that we’re here for our 7th wedding anniversary, and they upgraded our room: (Click the picture for a larger image.)

Not a bad deal for a Priceline hotel for the low, low price of $70 a night.

Oh, and, of course, the hotel happens to have a Starbucks in the lobby.  Double plus good.

Tonight we’re going to head over to Disneyland, and ride the new Nemo submarine ride. We’re pretty pumped.

Well, some of us are. Some of us are also tired, since we did have to wake up at 3:30 this morning to catch our flight.

Look for updates and pictures later!

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For those of you that know me, you might describe me as a guy into his gadgets.

I have a lot.

And with that, I’ve seen some things that really annoy me with electronics.

Not to bore you, but I’ll list two that are the biggest annoyances for me.

1. LED lights on electronics. This is a huge one for me. It seems anything you buy nowadays has at least 1 LED to let you know it’s on, or on some, that it is on. Or that it’s charging. Or that there is network activity.

Do I really need to know that my TiVo is talking out on the network? Or that my Airport Express is sending traffic? For the Airport Express, the only options are to either leave the light on, or make it blink when it is in use. No turning it off altogether. For a device that’s supposed to be used near your entertainment center, that’s just stupid.

My computer room is very bright at night, due to all these devices telling me they’re on.

I guess I just need some black tape.

2. Large ‘brick’ power supplies, or “wall warts”. You know the one’s I’m talking about. These are the power supplies that either have to plug in on the end of a power strip, or cannot have another item plugged in right next to them, since they ‘overlap’ another plug

For example, I just purchased a new USB hub, since my old one bit the dust. A nice Belkin one. It’s small, and can be expanded.

And then I take out the power supply for it, and it is huge. That is just terrible design. Oh, and the power cord for it is really short. Like a couple feet.

I guess I just need to design my own line of electronics.

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Ahh.. the weekend.  When you have time to sleep in, pick weeds, and work on drip systems.

We did find out that we got picked to ride the new Finding Nemo Submarine Ride at Disneyland.   Turns out that a lot of people didn’t get picked, so we’re pretty psyched by it.  And we got 10pm-11pm as our ride time, so we get to ride it at the best time… at night.  I always thought the submarines were better at night, since it did the effect better of making you think you’re deep, deep underwater.  Good times.

Look for some pictures after we ride it.

So, other than that, not a lot going on.  Just trying to get things cleared up at work before leaving on vacation.

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