Friday Fun at the Convention – With a Capitol C
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
I was up early the morning of Friday, June 18, 2010 – with enough time to play around on the computer and make it to breakfast in the hotel lobby in the Cyprus Grille Restaurant with Bob, David, and the Wileys for a delightful breakfast buffet. The waitress was a little dimwitted and while Bob was away in the restroom, she asked us if he had enjoyed his meal. I told her that she’d have to ask him when he was done throwing up. Then David, the Jimmys, and I took a walk to the California State Capitol. It was about 10am when we arrived
Which do you remember him best for? The single episode of Star Trek: Voyager in 2000, or his role as Mike Teevee in the mega-cult classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? If you’re like me, once you’ve seen Willy Wonka, you’ll never forget it. Even if Paris Themmen, the actor portraying young, obnoxious, TV-loving Mike Teevee, has become largely forgotten. Perhaps his endearing lisp didn’t translate all that well once he grew older than eleven. So he ventured into computer retail, film production, and even worked for a while as a Disney Imagineer. No matter what he’s done, when I met him at the Hollywood Show on Saturday, April 24, 2010, he was a pretty nice guy. 
I skipped the continental breakfast at our comfortable Super 8 motel in Monterey on the morning of Monday, June 14, 2010 – opting instead to chat online with Erin for a bit while Bob gathered his morsels. We didn’t have to get up too terribly early that day as the cemetery in town that we were going to visit didn’t open until 8:30am. It was the Cementerio El Encinal (or Cemetery of Many Oaks). We weren’t visiting any graves here. We were dropping off. Not a body, but a marker. Bob had spearheaded some fund raising to put a stone on the unmarked grave of Viola Richard.