Most people know that Shad owns a website called mylargescale.com for G-scale train hobbyists. It is a website he has owned for 8 years in August. It started as a small gathering place and had ballooned over the years to the most active web community for model trains online. He has always loved trains and wanted to put one in our garden and he found a website that had forums where he began posting and just joined in. Suddenly one day in July 2000 he went to the train website he frequented and found it gone. The guy who ran it had decided it was just too much for him and had shut it down. There were a lot of people who went there and were lost without it. At the time Shad worked for a company that he could just throw something together just so these guys would have a place to meet again and talk. Over the years mylargescale has become a family and every year the first weekend in June they have a big train show in California. It used to be on the Queen Mary but it outgrew that a few years ago and is now at the Ontario Convention Center. Shad went for a few years and had a booth then the twins happened and he missed two years. The people on the site went and ran the booth for us those years he couldn't attend. I went with him last year for the first time and these people just welcomed me with open arms. It feels like family. I went with him again this year (even though my back has been killing me) I am glad that I did. We had a great time and talked to a lot of people. Here are a few links to see pictures of the show (including some of us) Big Train Show
follow links that reference BTS, Big train show or just the show...
Also because of the way the flights go we flew out Friday morning and decided last minute to fly into Burbank rather than Long Beach. We were going to try and take in The Tonight Show. Will Smith was the featured guest on Friday and I am a BIG fan. You have to order tickets in advance and they mail them out to you, then they release standby tickets starting at 8AM the morning of the show. You get a number based on the order you come to get standby tickets and you can have up to 4 people per ticket. We got to NBC about 9:30 am and got the 6th Standby ticket. We were told to be there at 3:00 pm and the show starts taping at 4:30. We spent the day driving around LA.
Since my back is not great we just drove...saw all the biggies, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, Graumans Chinese Theater, Walk of fame, all the major studios..
you name it we saw it. We ended up stopping at a museum on La Bea Ave called La Brea Tarpits. Shad remembered going there as a boy and it was very interesting and enjoyable. We left there and headed for Pinks for lunch. It is a world famous hot dog joint in Hollywood, CA and it was so yummy!!!! Then we headed for Jay Leno at around 2:15, there was a line all the way down the block already. They told us to wait by this planter with the rest of the standby's. We did so until about 3:10 when they told us that we could line up by number behind the reserved ticketers. At that point any reserved that showed had to get behind us so we were thinking we might have a shot here...At about 3:40 they star
t parading all these people from who knows where to form their own line and go in! In front of all of us who had been standing in the hot sun for an hour and a half...nice. At around 4:00 they let the 1st standby group in (there were three in their party) 2 and 3 did not show up 4 was one guy in front of us, no 5...then there was us, 6. So after they let the 1st group in they came out and told us the show was full! We were like 10 feet from the door! :( It was kinda sad...oh well.
And also on Thursday, the day before we left, I had an MRI. I have been in severe back pain for 5 weeks today and I am at my wits end with it. It just won't go away! I don't sleep without Ambien. No pain pill seemed to work..nothing I can do at all. So I got the MRI and I got the results today. I have torn disk with a herniation. That sounds like fun. I guess they are referring me to a pain clinic. Today was an OK day. No pain medicine. All weekend I was living on Lortab 10 mg. If I missed a dose it was unlivable but with the Lortab I was alright, albeit drugged. I feel bad about the fact that I was so out of it at the train show...but I really could not have gotten through the weekend without the Lortab. I really hope that #1 this pain stays the way it was today until it finally just goes away(although I do not have high hopes because it has gotten better for a day or so before only to go back to severe again within a day or two) or #2 they can figure out something (ANYTHING) that will relieve it so I can live and be a Mom and wife...not to mention get back to the gym! It is annoying. I am an active person and I really hate having to just sit around and wish I was not dying of pain... I have a pretty high pain tolerance too, I have had 2 babies drug free and the twins pretty much drug free (I got to an 8 with nothing before they pretty much forced me to have the worst epidural on the planet) Anyway...good riddance to the pain! Please go away....Viva La Vida!
follow links that reference BTS, Big train show or just the show...
Also because of the way the flights go we flew out Friday morning and decided last minute to fly into Burbank rather than Long Beach. We were going to try and take in The Tonight Show. Will Smith was the featured guest on Friday and I am a BIG fan. You have to order tickets in advance and they mail them out to you, then they release standby tickets starting at 8AM the morning of the show. You get a number based on the order you come to get standby tickets and you can have up to 4 people per ticket. We got to NBC about 9:30 am and got the 6th Standby ticket. We were told to be there at 3:00 pm and the show starts taping at 4:30. We spent the day driving around LA.
Since my back is not great we just drove...saw all the biggies, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, Graumans Chinese Theater, Walk of fame, all the major studios..
you name it we saw it. We ended up stopping at a museum on La Bea Ave called La Brea Tarpits. Shad remembered going there as a boy and it was very interesting and enjoyable. We left there and headed for Pinks for lunch. It is a world famous hot dog joint in Hollywood, CA and it was so yummy!!!! Then we headed for Jay Leno at around 2:15, there was a line all the way down the block already. They told us to wait by this planter with the rest of the standby's. We did so until about 3:10 when they told us that we could line up by number behind the reserved ticketers. At that point any reserved that showed had to get behind us so we were thinking we might have a shot here...At about 3:40 they star
t parading all these people from who knows where to form their own line and go in! In front of all of us who had been standing in the hot sun for an hour and a half...nice. At around 4:00 they let the 1st standby group in (there were three in their party) 2 and 3 did not show up 4 was one guy in front of us, no 5...then there was us, 6. So after they let the 1st group in they came out and told us the show was full! We were like 10 feet from the door! :( It was kinda sad...oh well.And also on Thursday, the day before we left, I had an MRI. I have been in severe back pain for 5 weeks today and I am at my wits end with it. It just won't go away! I don't sleep without Ambien. No pain pill seemed to work..nothing I can do at all. So I got the MRI and I got the results today. I have torn disk with a herniation. That sounds like fun. I guess they are referring me to a pain clinic. Today was an OK day. No pain medicine. All weekend I was living on Lortab 10 mg. If I missed a dose it was unlivable but with the Lortab I was alright, albeit drugged. I feel bad about the fact that I was so out of it at the train show...but I really could not have gotten through the weekend without the Lortab. I really hope that #1 this pain stays the way it was today until it finally just goes away(although I do not have high hopes because it has gotten better for a day or so before only to go back to severe again within a day or two) or #2 they can figure out something (ANYTHING) that will relieve it so I can live and be a Mom and wife...not to mention get back to the gym! It is annoying. I am an active person and I really hate having to just sit around and wish I was not dying of pain... I have a pretty high pain tolerance too, I have had 2 babies drug free and the twins pretty much drug free (I got to an 8 with nothing before they pretty much forced me to have the worst epidural on the planet) Anyway...good riddance to the pain! Please go away....Viva La Vida!
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