BREAKING NEWS: POTUS visits Burbank

It's not every day this person gets to be featured on the AFB...

Here he is in Car Force One: The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

Our west coast political correspondents Brent and Mary were on the scene today at the gas station when President Obama and his friends drove by. Here's some raw video, just in to AFB HQ!

This was the scene from Tower Command Central as Derek provided aerial surveillance of the events on the ground, which included Brent and Mary's posts on the street and the President's Marine One helicopter on the tarmac at Bob Hope Airport. From AFB HQ, Terri was on Speaker Phone One relating updates from her Twitter feed.

Marine One and Marine Two fly from Burbank to LAX, where Air Force One was scheduled to depart 10 minutes later. Only the President could get from Burbank to LAX in 10 minutes!

We're very thankful to all of our special correspondents for this in-depth coverage. We feel today's cooperative effort has set a new standard for journalistic excellence.

After today's events, Brent was quoted as saying:

"First I report on Tsunami warning sirens from Maui, then an earthquake in Okinawa and now the President of the United States. I almost feel I should retire from reporting because there is not much left to cover."

Brent has been on the scene of many exciting and important world events, and we anticipate that this is not the last of them. We therefore encourage him to postpone his retirement and remain the AFB's Most Special Field Correspondent of Everything for as long as possible!

Fall Festival 2011!

We survived our 5th annual Fall Festival at St. Paul's!

Here are Maren and Deacon in this year's costumes (which are still in progress, but we did our best to get them ready for the parade yesterday)... drumroll...

Angry Birds!

(Maren is the black bird, Deacon is the red bird. Special thanks of course to Velta, who worked late into Friday night to get these in shape.)

Other noteworthy costumes and generally cute kids... Count Cute-ula himself... here's SETH...

Red Five, standing by.

He never says much, but Darth Maul is impressive in any size.

Daddy with our 2nd Grade winner - Maren!

Deacon has visibility issues... he really can't see anything... so we're going to fix that before his next outing in the costume at Trunk or Treat this coming Friday.

From an Angry Bird to a happy kid. The debut of the Beginner Band, with Deacon on the snare drum!

Now he's on the bass drum. He and Caitlyn, the rhythm section, switch off. Those versatile percussionists!

It was hard to get a good shot of the kids singing in the choir, but if anyone blocks our view we're happy it's Vincent, who's the nicest kid in the school.

Maren, ready to sing.

Finally, Sarah and Terri man the most popular booth at the festival: the prize booth! We were busy, but the shade and the nice breeze made it one of the better places to spend the day.

Much more to come during this very very busy October! Check back soon for an update!

A Short Film by Deacon and Daddy

Special thanks to Maren, Director of Photography.

BREAKING NEWS: EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN

AFB Special International Correspondent Brent is providing EXCLUSIVE coverage of a 5.0 earthquake in Japan.

Here's his report, dateline 9/30/11, Okinawa, Japan:

5.0 at 3:30am. Woke me up. Thought I was in LA for a second. It was one sharp jolt then a mild rolling.

(We’re in the city of Naha on Okinawa which just happens to be on the map.)

Stay safe, Brent! We'll be standing by for any further developments. Thanks for the report!

Maren is Student of the Week!

I'm a week late with this update. Sorry!

Maren was Student of the Week again last week! Here's her latest poster creation.



Note she describes herself as "a girl who loves to follow rules. (Most of the time.)"

Congratulations Maren!

BREAKING NEWS: DEREK AND STEVE PURCHASE STAR WARS BLU-RAYS

THIS JUST IN: Steve and Derek were first in line at the Burbank Target this morning to purchase the Star Wars Complete Saga blu-rays.

They also received a free Star Wars lithograph set for their efforts.

Here they are in Super AFB Mega-Zoom Vision 2000:

Raiders of the Lost Ark 30th Anniversary Screening!

September 12, 2011. One man awaits the adventure of a lifetime...

Joining his friends in line for a 30 year-old movie!

Always the scholar, Geek-by-Association Tim brushes up for his close encounter with Steven Spielberg.

Of course we all had to try on Steve's hat.

Ready to meet the media.

But the organizers of this screening did the unthinkable: they graciously checked us in early, reserved our seats and let us go get something to eat, rather than standing in line in the hot sun all afternoon!

So we went off in search of steak at Lowry's Carvery. Here's one of Derek's famous timer pics.

I don't know why Derek took this pic or why I put it on the blog, but here's Steve's broccoli.

A non-geek joining us for the festivities: Suanne!

Inside the theatre!

Somehow Tim got seated a few seats away from us, but perhaps it served him well to have some separation from the truly geek-noxious behavior of the Alffs and Kwants.

After the movie... Steven Spielberg enters to a standing ovation!

Raiders stories.

Telling the oft-told tale of the famous non-fight between Indy and the Swordsman...

But then we heard someone growl, "That's not what happened."

Hey, look who it was - Indy himself!

Surprise guest Harrison Ford. Terri realizes at some point she is jumping up and down and tries to compose herself.

Big thanks to Derek for taking a bunch of great pics.

Our old still camera takes 15-second movies - here's one. Hopefully it'll play correctly.

See you at Indy V!!

After all the excitement - Steve and Derek in front of the poster.

Making our way to the car. I don't know what Derek's talking about...

But Suanne kindly gives an encouraging response!

The scene from across the street.

And being the geek-tastic event that it was, Derek actually went back at some point and MOVED THE CAR so it would be parked in this space, in section AA23. Star Wars fans will know the significance of that. Apologies to all the normal, healthy people who don't.

So it was a great evening! Thanks as always to SUSIE AND MOLLY for not only babysitting the Alff-lets, but for taking them to art class and helping them with lots of homework as well!

Life's so full of blessings and surprises. But when it comes down to it, we don't know - we're just making this up as we go!

A full non-AFB recap can be found here: Raiders Screening