Barers Of Maple Valley Enjoy LA Weekend

We just returned from a few days in the LA area. We arrived last Thursday around midnight.  Friday morning, we went to Rancho Mirage to visit my Dad and Jean, we all went to McCallum Hall to watch the play Cannoli, Latkes, and Guilt.  We concluded the evening and visit with dinner at Pizza Vino in Palm Desert.  We returned to LA area to pick up Deb's sister and family at the airport. We stayed in Anaheim where we could see Disneyland from our room (third picture from top).
Saturday, we had dinner in lovely Newport Beach, where we watched the sunset (third picture from bottom).
On Sunday, we all went to Universal Studios.  We went on the back lot tour where I shot the staged crashed plane from War Of The Worlds (second from bottom).  We also went on rides like the soon to open Hogwarts Castle from Harry Potter (bottom picture). 
On Monday, we all went to Huntington Beach, a surfing mecca that was popular with teens (4th picture from top) we had lunch.
Monday evening, Deb and I drove to LA and had dinner at Sur, a restaurant made famous on the show "Vanderpump Rules"(second from top). Since it was Grammys night, we look up to see if there were any after parties.  We found that the Sony party was at the nearby Hotel Bel-Air (top picture).  The hotel was very welcoming although we did not actually attend the party, it was fun to people watch and enjoy the atmosphere. 
We had perfect weather during the entire visit.

The Apprentice: The Final Task

The last four contestants are talking in the kitchen. All are members of the old team Arrow, a late starter, whom at the the beginning of this season, had spent weeks in the tents before they earned their first victory. They are surprised when Donald Trump and his son Donald, Jr walk in to the mansion (without knocking) telling them to get dressed up because they have a cocktail party to attend to in Beverly Hills with the 5 previous winners of the show. When they arrive at the party, they learn that Bill Rancik, the first winner and show mouthpiece, was unable to attend because of a last minute business meeting. Randall, Sean, Kelly, and Kendra are there and dispatch what seems to be useless wisdom to the candidates. Kelly informs them of one final task. Both teams can pick 2 fired candidates. James and Stefani pick Aaron and Kinetic's Angela , a smart choice because she had a big fan in Trump. Frank and Nicole pick Suryea and Tim.
The candidates are split into 2 teams and are to meet Donald Trump at the backlot of Universal Studios. Teams will make a one minute movie (commercial) for Renuzit.Trump mentioned that was one of his mother's favorite products. They will show their commercial to a popcorn chomping audience at an AMC theatre.
After watching the real commercial for Renuzit, neither ad is terribly inspiring, but the audience seems to like both and Trump does not fire any candidates. On to next week when Trump will pick the winner from the final four.

The Apprentice: Yes, It Is Personal

Team Arrow has now won several tasks but somehow does not seem to think it commands the respect that it deserves. Arrow is gathered in the kitchen when Trump calls, James answers the phone and is told that the Kinetic team is "decimated" and by golly that is his favorite team (he didn't say that part, really). James was charged to pick a member to go to the opposite team. It is no secret that he would not mind breaking up the Nicole-Tim thing has it seems to have become somewhat of a drag on the rest of the team members. James sends Nicole over to Kinetic, and she does not go gracefully. She is not only angry at James, she does not think her team fought enough for her, especially Tim.
On Kinetic, it is up to Angela to step up to be PM. Her work has come into question many times but she has always been saved because Trump loves champions and she has a Gold Medal in Olympic Hockey. Nicole joins the team with fire in her eyes. You would almost expect Nicole to be PM.
The two teams meet at Grauman's Chinese Theatre (LA's number one tourist trap). Trump wonders why his name is not on the Walk Of Fame, and while we are at it, where's the "Donald Trump Dr." in Palm Springs? Forget it, what he really wants is the naming rights to the "White House". Basically the project is to use something called Adwalker to sell annual passes to Universal Studios at the site. This will be the first time the two teams have gone head to head on the same "turf".
Nicole pitches her new team on a roller skate gimmick, it allows them to be flirty and sexy. Only trouble is it doesn't quite fit their Conservative sorority make up and flops badly. Arrow brings a kiosk set up plenty of signage and an aggressive attitude and wins the task.
The reward this week is the very tired and much cliched helicopter trip over the city. Tim is working like crazy to patch things up with Nicole but to no avail. Frank is angry that Tim is talking to the other team and everything just isn't that simple anymore.
Kinetic is once again in the boardroom and Donald is distressed. Can Angela dodge another bullet? Trump looks for anyway he can avoid firing her (he really could have canned Nicole), but it is obvious that it is time for Angela to leave. Nicole opens her big mouth, and says she wants Tim to be on Kinetic, it was stupid for her to do that, but Trump just tells her to go away.