A couple of Benners and a Baumann come to visit

That's right folks. Grandmom, Aunt Marge and Dad/Ray came to visit us in LA last month. Here's a slideshow of their visit, followed by some of the many highlights.


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- The first night they came, we visited the original Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, CA, where they hold classic car shows every weekend. You'll notice Dad in the photos standing with a bright yellow Charger that he just might have stolen if he weren't with his mom at the time.

- There was an obligatory stop at Rodeo Drive, where Dad stood next to a bright yellow Ferrari. Something about bright yellow cars and that man.

- Grandmom, Marge and Dad went to a taping of the Ellen show, after which Rhianwen took them on a tour of the Warner Bros. backlot. They got to see the spots where many shows and movies were filmed, including parts of Spiderman, ER and Pee Wee's Big Adventure. That's where those photos with the statues of Bugs and Daffy happened.

- Dad and I went to see the LA Dodgers play the SF Giants. We wore Phillies gear. The Dodgers fans in right field didn't really know how to deal with us. (In related news, the Phillies beat the crap out of the Dodgers last night, 7-2. Woo!)

- All of us checked out Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the famous Hollywood cinematheque where films are premiered and stars put their hands and feet in the cement. There were many interesting celeb prints, but clearly the best ones were R2D2 and C-3PO.

- Marge got to stalk her crush, George Clooney, quite a bit. Not only did she get to see his parking spot on the WB lot, we took her to his house around the corner from us and she stood in his driveway. "Oh George," she called. "I'm here for you!" We're not sure, but we think we spotted Clooney shaking his head and shutting his window blinds from the bottom of his driveway.

- Griffith Park Observatory was on our list of stops, as it's quite a landmark. It's the site of the famous knife-fight scene from James Dean's Rebel Without A Cause, and it also offers one of the best views of Los Angeles in the entire city.

- Dad didn't seem that impressed with In 'N' Out Burger, which I just don't understand.

- Grandmom was definitely impressed with that giant donut you saw up there. The thing was huge!

- The biggest celebrity we saw the entire trip was James Cromwell. That might sound a little disappointing, but it just about made Aunt Marge's life.

Thanks so much for coming to visit us in Hollywood (Note the song we sang all week together)! We had such a great time and miss you already.

Stan Fran visits Los Angeles, and all is well...

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting one of Rhianwen's oldest friends in LA:

CHRISTINE! WOO! Christine marks our fourth East Coast visitor out in LA (after Jen's parents, Rhi's mom and our unforgettable friend Adam), and she made the trip with her brother Tony (shown here, often referred to as To Fro) and cousin Valerie. As a bonus, Christine's cousin Dave lives in LA too, so it was one big Buglione fest!

We kicked off our time together at the Warner Brothers lot. Rhianwen met up with the Buglione crew at a taping of Ellen DeGeneres taping. Rhi was so thrilled to be hug Christine, in the flesh, in Los Angeles!

Then came Ellen. It was Rhi's first time in the studio as an audience member and she wasn't quite sure what to expect. There was a lot of clapping and dancing, and a lot of energy. There were some great laughs, particularly in the opening act where Ellen had audience members play musical chairs blind folded. No matter how many times she sees it, Rhi still thinks it's fun! The guests that day were Meredith Vierra and Olivia Wilde from "House."

After the show, Rhi gave a mini tour of where she works and they all headed out to dinner at one of the best mexican joints known to LA: Don Cuco's! We enjoyed yummy margaritas and muchso queso! And here we are enjoying ourselves:

We had a slight pause in our vist as Rhi and Benner flew home to Philly to be with Benner's family in celebration of GM and GP's 50th Wedding Anniversary. Thankfully Rhi was able to book a super early flight back on Sunday to spend some more quality time with the Buglione posse. After 3 days of sleep deprivation and a 6 hour flight, Rhi was greeted by Dave and Christine with coffee in hand! We swung by Dave's to freshen up before heading to Orange County to visit the acclaimed Aunt Bobbi and Uncle Jack!

It was a great day. We enjoyed the pace of hanging out, touring their "so California" backyard and garden. Notice, if you will, the firepit that Uncle Jack made himself, with his own bare hands:

We even got to pick our own grapefruits from the tree. We stuffed ourselves with the delicious and filling taste of an authentic Italian dinner. We drank wine while Aunt Bobbi's fiesty dogs threatened my sense of security. LOL, no I'm serious. I'm surprised Aunt Bobbi still has all her fingers. Seeing Aunt Bobbi interact with her dogs is something you can't fully describe. You have to experience it for yourself.

Oh, and Aunt Bobbi has a princess-and-the-pea bed. I rightly gave it that name, since it's the height of ten mattresses stacked on top of each other. Which is ironic because Aunt Bobbi is under five feet tall, and seeing her climb up there is like watching someone mount a horse.

That night was Oscar night, so we retired to the sofa for wine and M&M's. Hours later we emerged from the house and faced the hour long drive back to LA. Our motivation: In N Out burger! I couldn't let Christine go back to Philadelphia without tasting the magical, dilectable, satisfying scrumptuousness of an In N Out burger and fries. Also, they gave us hats.

Which may or may not have been a good idea.

Oh Stan Fran, we miss you already and are so happy you came to visit us in the sunny LA. Lots of love and kisses!!!! Mwah!

Mama Gwenyth Visits!

Rhianwen's mom Gwenyth came out for a visit last week. We felt bad that we had jobs and other responsibilities to tend to while she just kind of hung around our neighborhood but Gwenyth, ever the good sport, made the most of it. She even got to help Sarah and Steve pack up their apartment for their move back to San Francisco.



Here we are eating breakfast on Saturday morning, and later the girls got pedicures. This coincidentally was the same morning Sarah and Steve were leaving town. (More on them later.)

After Sarah and Steve left, we surprised Gwenyth with tickets to see the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, which is one of the most gorgeous music venues we've ever been to. They were playing a special program of Warner Bros. classics, with orchestral pieces taken from classic movies. The orchestra played them in time with film clips that were projected onto big screens. It was very fun, and we even added a few titles to our Netflix queue because of it.

These pictures don't really do it justice, but we'll give it a shot.




That last one is of an escalator, which we thought looked cool at the time but maybe isn't so cool now. You be the judge.

Gwenyth got to also visit Rhianwen at work, and they had lunch on the Warner Bros. lot. Here they are in front of Ellen's new studio:



What you don't see on the top of that marquee is "THE JONAS BROTHERS"!!! OMG THE JONAS BROTHERS OMG!!!

I haven't even been invited to the lot yet, by the way. So Gwenyth, if you're reading this, Rhianwen loves you more than me. You should feel special.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Gwenyth as she had an important work conference in Las Vegas to go to. Which made us sad.


We love you Gwenyth!!! Please come back!