Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - RACHEL BILSON Saw Ghosts in the Brass Bedroom
Episode Date: February 13, 2024The lovely Rachel Bilson joins Seth and Josh on the podcast! From her stories with "mom mom and pop pop," her star studded birthday party, the night of the soups, ghosts on vacation, traveling to Ital...y, and more, Rachel came prepared with a ton of fun memories to share! NissanGo find your next big adventure, and enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at Nissan U S A dot com. US BankGo to usbank.com/altitudego to learn more about how you can earn 20,000 bonus points, worth $200, if you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days of opening your account. Eat out or eat in, with the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card. Limited time offer. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Some restrictions may apply. FidelityLearn about the planning effect at fidelity.com/planning effect SquarespaceGo to Squarespace dot com/TRIPS to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Eight SleepImprove the way you sleep by using my link at eight sleep dot com slash trips for $200 off plus free shipping on their high tech Pod 3 Cover.Â
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Hi, Pashi.
Hi, Sufi.
Well, Mom and Dad visited this weekend.
Oh, yeah.
Can I just tell you?
Exceptional work.
Oh, yeah?
I feel as though maybe some of our notes about their visits
have been getting through to them via the podcast.
Uh-huh.
Like what specifically?
Anything specific?
Nothing spilled.
Oh.
Dry as a bone.
That's what I would call the floors of our home after Mom and Dad left.
Dry as a bone.
Also, they brought an A-plus toy for the boys. Oh, I heard about this. Yeah. I don't know
what the name of it is, and I apologize to the manufacturers because I'm sure they're listening,
and I'm sure they're going to say that's one of ours. It's basically just plastic tubes with an
air machine that shoots air, and you feed balls into the machine, and they shoot them through the
tubes. But you can make loop-de make loop de loops and it's great.
Oh,
that's awesome.
I used to love,
I remember we had a toy some Christmas.
I got this toy that was like,
you built your own roller coaster and then you drop a marble in it and you'd
sort of,
yes,
it's very much that.
And weirdly they have a marble toy.
And then because of that,
the boys keep calling these things marbles,
even though they're clearly balls and it's driving me crazy because they call them marbles also there's 20 of these little foam
balls and let me tell you if there's something my wife likes it's toys with a lot of different
pieces she likes when they can roll and get underneath stuff and stay there. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm sure this toy, whatever it's called,
sells new packs of balls.
And they would be delighted to have your money.
I mean, I actually think 20 was a little over the top.
I think five would have been the right amount of balls.
But anyway, it was a really good weekend.
Like I said, they did fantastic work.
I will also say they listened to a couple family trips on the way out.
Mom and dad love the podcast.
You know that, right?
Yeah, big fans.
They're big fans and they're great guests.
They're great guests.
And because they're such great guests,
I think that sometimes they're a little unkind to our other guests.
Oh.
I'm not going to name names, but they gave one of them a B+,
and another one a D-.
I can't wait to find out who.
Yeah.
I'm not going to name names now, but I thought that was a little unfair.
Yeah.
It was a D-, D-?
D-.
Wow.
I was taken aback.
I mean, again, that's with the great inflation of you and I, it being our podcast.
Yeah.
It's almost more of an insult to give someone a D minus than an F.
It's almost the only reason they give them an F is because that person gave an hour to their sons.
Yeah.
Oh, boy.
Also, we've talked about, you know, this was, we are a gateway drug to dad and other podcasts.
Oh, is he listening to more of pods?
Yeah, because this, he'd never listened to podcasts before this podcast.
And then he reached out to you and asked you to name other podcasts.
Yeah.
I told him a couple off the top of my head.
And then he was like, put them in an email.
Yeah.
Larry Myers doesn't get a pen.
He was like, put him in an email.
Yeah.
Larry Myers doesn't get a pen.
And I was like, all right, I'll Google what are some great podcasts out there.
I've made some good recommendations.
I hope they're listening.
He would like, if there's anyone out here, he would like you to know that the New York Times does one called The Daily.
He wants to hip everybody to that.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He likes it.
And then he said he was listening to one. ours or a different one a different podcast and again not gonna name names and he said you
know i like that one and then i i thought it got a little repetitive and i said you know i sometimes
you know i worry because we're about family trips do you ever find that this podcast gets repetitive
and he said it doesn't he but he feels it's very important to stay focused
on the trips oh yeah and then i said you know we are trying to do that but at the same time
josh has come to the conclusion that maybe he was a little bit of a topic scold yeah i feel like
you've loosened up a little bit to a degree i mean it's like yeah it's still inside me it's still a
simmering yeah i'm a simmering ball of let's get back to what we're
let's get back to the trips as you like to say yeah give me them trips give me them trips if we
do start selling sweatshirts and stuff i feel like boilerplate you want a family trips one uh-huh and
then maybe a different one if you were looking for sort of a more niche sweatshirt would be uh
maybe your face with a voice bubble saying,
let's get back to the trips.
Yeah.
And then there'd be like a Seth version of that.
And that's a picture of Lorne Michaels
at a house in St. Bart's.
Yeah.
And tell that story again.
It would be me.
Everyone loves talking about Lorne Michaels inels and saint bart's it would be like
one of the thought bubbles of just lauren at saint bart's and then my voice bubble would be me saying
wait what were you guys talking about i'd lost the topic because i would just be thinking about
lauren on his nice vacation yeah but really uh really good work, Mom and Dad.
Oh, also, we went bowling.
Oh, yeah.
The boys got invited to a bowling birthday party, which is great.
So I got to bring Ash and Axel and Mom and Dad.
Perfect.
Yeah.
Mom has been in bowling leagues.
Yes, but here's the problem.
Mom has been in a candle pin bowling league. Now, for those of you who have not spent any time in New England,
candle pin bowling, they're very small.
Think of a very heavy softball.
Would that be about right?
Yeah, that feels right.
And smaller pins.
And so, again, no holes.
You've got a ball in your hand, you roll it.
There's no holes for your fingers.
Now, again, I get that candle pin bowling is the bowling she grew up on,
but everything about this bowling alley,
which is how bowling looks in every TV but everything about this bowling alley which is
how bowling looks in every tv show and movie you've ever seen yeah from happy days to big lebowski
there's been bowling balls as a whole she walked in and was just like
like just everything about it was and i'm just come on right and also i feel like the important
thing to teach children is when something is new
you want to just be uh shocked out of your mind also uh she put her so she puts her three fingers
on first roll breaks three fingernails this is funny she i spoke to her earlier she said she
broke four yeah i think there's. But there's only three holes.
Yeah, I'm wondering if she was trying to cycle in a different finger at some point.
I showed you a photo.
First round.
And again, this is hard to do in bowling.
Yeah.
She got 25 points.
I mean, that's a low bowling score.
Yeah, it's really hard to do that.
To get that low.
And then Axel, granted, bumpers up for Axel.
But again, he's five.
He got like a 98.
Yeah.
So 25's tough.
She got better the second round.
Oh, that's good. I heard Dad suggested she use bumpers, and she was insulted by that.
Yeah, she was insulted by that.
Yeah.
I mean, I think, you know, again, she's insulted by anything that begins with,
Dad said. was insulted by that yeah i mean i think you know again she's insulted by anything that begins with dad said she also kept saying um it's not my game and it's just really funny that anybody would think it would be her game yeah but it was great and uh there was a nice bar on site oh that always
that always does well yeah middle of a saturday, you know, to be having a couple cold ones,
bowling with the kids. Yeah. And if you're having a bad round of bowling, a nice stiff cocktail
might be just what you need to get you back on track. Axel bowled so slow that he would roll
the ball and then totally lie on his back with his hands interlocked behind his head and sort of lift his head up to watch it.
Like he was catching some rays?
Catching some rays and maybe watching a dog catch a frisbee down a beach.
But a real solid weekend.
And again, you know, top to bottom, can't say enough about their visit.
Great.
It was just great.
And it's great to see them and it's great to have them around their kids.
They got very quality time with all three. So it was visit. Great. It was just great. And it's great to see them and it's great to have them around their kids. They got very quality time
with all three.
So it was outstanding.
Awesome.
And now,
speaking about outstanding,
our friend Rachel Bilson
joins the pod.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And she was a lot of fun
to talk to.
And I think you're going to
enjoy listening to her.
But first,
who do you think
we should listen to?
Knowing Rachel
as you know her now,
who would you recommend as the singer-song rachel as you know her now who would
you recommend as the singer songwriter to lead us into that conversation probably that the
the dude from wilco oh yeah yeah jeff tweedy oh yeah jeff tweedy perfect yeah give a listen
family trips with the Myers Brothers, here we go.
Hi, Rachel.
Hi there.
Hi.
How are you?
I'm good. How are you?
Oh my God. I almost wore a very similar hat to you, Rachel, and I wish I had.
I thought you were going to say sweater and then we really would have been twins. That would have been cute.
Yeah. Seth doesn't really do the deep V that often, but when he does, it's worth it.
Yeah. It turns heads.
Deep V is a strong choice all across the board. I agree.
We always like it when we get to talk to a fellow podcast host.
You've been in the game for a while.
Yeah, but you put the pressure on me,
and now I'm like, I'm just going to really let you down.
No, I have a question, though, a genuine question.
Do you feel more relaxed when you're about to be a guest on a podcast
or when you're about to host your own podcast?
I think relaxed when you're a guest because you're like, okay, you guys have to do the
hard work.
I agree.
Yeah.
We have to drive.
And I can just sit here.
Yeah, you have to drive the car, you know?
Yeah.
I had a lovely time doing your podcast, Broad Ideas, with your dear friend, Olivia.
Yes.
Thank you.
We loved having you on.
It was a really fun conversation.
It was a very fun conversation. I feel like it touched on a lot of things I haven't
talked about, which is always nice. But I want to say Broad Ideas is a really good name for a
podcast. Which one of you came up with it? And did you know when you came up with it that it was A
plus?
That it was A plus. I mean, I think we're still working on that. I forget. We're a big fan of
puns, you know, or other meanings, whatever. What's the word for like words that have,
there's like
a fancy word for it yeah similes homonyms oh boy i just figured you'd come up with something that
sounded really good yeah yeah yeah and we were just toying around with things and we liked the
double meaning behind it it's a good one if there was a gentleman at a restaurant and came over to
like you and you were with a couple of your gal pals and he was like, hey, could I buy you broads a drink?
Would you appreciate that?
Maybe more so because of the podcast?
Yeah.
I'm thinking without the podcast, like how does that come across?
Because not well, I don't think.
And you're like a speakeasy and you're like, listen, broads, let me get you a mint julep, you know?
At a speakeasy might be the only place I'd be comfortable saying broads and even then i would be on eggshells on the approach yeah well
it's a really you know it's a tough environment for any language so i think speaking to a lady
what is the correct way i don't know i think we can bring broads back i think we should try it's
a safe one yeah i think it's a safe one, I do think there's a whole generation of younger gentlemen who perhaps watched Broad City,
perhaps hip to your podcast, and they might think, you know what?
This word has been positively reclaimed by female creators, and I'm going to bring it back.
I'm going to start saying it with the respect that it deserves.
I like that.
Yeah. And it's underused, I think the respect that it deserves. I like that. Yeah.
And it's underused, I think. Yeah, it is underused. Now, you grew up in Los Angeles.
I did. You're a showbiz family. Yep.
Do you feel like because of that, when you talk to other people who are non-showbiz,
do you feel like their upbringing was completely different from yours? Or do you feel like you also
kind of got a classic upbringing? I think there's a combination. And it's actually funny that you say this,
because it also will eventually, as we get to talking family trips, it kind of goes hand in
hand with a certain trip, and I'll get there. I think I had a mixture of both. My parents were
very like, you're going to be a kid. You're going to do the kid thing. When you get old enough and
decide if you want to do this, fine. but then there were also like the things like my dad making projects and
and then i'm going to different locations while he's filming and i'm on sets and so i think that
is probably not the norm yes you know like knowing what craft service is at like three years old
probably not common also awesome though, because the snacks.
Yes.
But yeah, it was definitely a mixture, but I for sure did the school thing, did the get in trouble
thing, experiment thing, and then decided, you know what? Maybe I want to act. But that was like
after high school.
Gotcha. So it's so funny that craft service thing, because even when the
few times my boys have come to the show, we just in that way that I think, well, maybe that's not
true. I was going to put it on show business, but I think a lot of offices have just jars of candy
for adults to eat during the day, which is the dumbest thing in the world. Nobody is more
productive. Yeah. And for anyone that doesn't know, like when you're working on something,
like there will be a meal and there's like a proper meal and there's time carved out for it. But in between those meals, there is a station. Sometimes it's a cart. Sometimes it's a truck. Sometimes it's a corner of a studio where there is truly like you could make every meal there, but there's every kind of candy imaginable and snack and chip. And it is so hard to not just eat all day. And I imagine like
if you were seeing those as a three-year-old, it must have blown your mind. Oh, yeah. It still does.
I'm like, I have a real thing for Flaming Hot Cheetos. And let me tell you, the abundance of
Flaming Hot on these tables. Huge fan.
Yeah.
Do you put a glove on when you eat them?
Like if you're working?
It's a whole thing.
I know.
Yeah.
It's everywhere.
Because like wardrobe or makeup would just be terrified.
Yeah, they don't love me.
Seeing you eating Flaming Hot Cheetos.
Yeah.
They do not love me on set.
Yeah.
It seems like there should be a little bit more.
Craft services should work in concert with the wardrobe department, the makeup department, and not have even the option of flaming hot dustings.
I might revolt.
But yeah, you're not wrong.
Yeah, that's true.
You'd walk right off set.
That was what a lot of the sag strike was about that.
That was the main thing.
I don't know if they solved it either.
No, I think they did.
They still have flaming hots.
Yeah.
they solved it either.
No, I think they did. They did.
They still have flaming hots.
Yeah.
I went off to do my first movie
and I remember coming back
to the OC at the time
that I was on
and the craft service
was so monumentally like,
let me make you a smoothie
and like fancy, right?
And I remember coming back
to the OC
and going to like
our crafty guys
and I was like,
you guys,
can you make me a smoothie?
And they were like,
um, fuck no.
Like absolutely not.
I'm shocked because that is sort of heyday network television. OC's a hit. I would have guessed a
Fox show like that would have had over the moon craft service, but the movie was better.
Listen, I'm not shitting on our craft service people. They were amazing. They were so nice.
So many sandwiches. I just remember being like i
was made a smoothie and it was like the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and you know
but they were great i've had very good craft service experiences across the board you guys
yeah let it be known yeah let it be known from flaming hots to smoothies yeah you've done it all
your career has spread the breadth of craft
that is how i look at my career and reflect it's all through the craft service experiences
on every set is it correct that you have two sets of half siblings
when you put it that way yes i so i grew up with my brother. My brother's my brother, even though biologically we have different fathers. And then I have two very much younger half sisters. They're 22 and 16.
And my brother's older.
Gotcha. So you and your half brother are close in age.
Yes. We're four years apart, but we grew up same household together.
So that's a regular sibling. There you go.
Yes. He's a reg.
And when you guys grew up, was that then the four of you were going on trips together?
Yes. My parents were together until I was nine. So for those nine years, it was the four of us
doing the family vacations. And the one, because I was thinking about it and I'm like, God,
I have to like go down that hole of trips and things. And there's one like really big one. It was like a road trip
in one of those VW buses, you know, with like the pop-up bunk bed that my brother and I had to share.
And we were on our way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. So we did this whole road trip.
As a family, there's pictures. I refused to wear a shirt when I was five. I was five. So all my
pictures are I'm in a skirt and desert boots and that's it. A flasher. I don't know. A look. Clearly it paved the way for
my career. It was like Joshua Tree chic before Joshua Tree chic was a thing. Oh, I burning
manned it up before burning man was a thing. Okay. At five years old. So what's funny is we do this whole trip and it's so memorable. It was so
much fun just being in this camper van and just really, and it was brown with like orange and
yellow stripes, like super seventies, you know, flannel plaid everywhere. But the funniest thing
is we were on the road to go to Jackson Hole because my dad was shooting a movie. So he wrote
and directed this movie called The Wrong Guys. And the people in it were Louis Anderson, Richard
Lewis, Richard Belzer, John Goodman. It was like comedian, heaven, actor, heaven, Ernie Hudson. There were so many people in this movie.
And what I remember, I remember we had a condo in Jackson Hole and it was over the summer and I
turned six. It was my birthday. And my birthday party was literally me, Richard Lewis, Richard
Belzer, Louie Anderson. These were the guests at my sixth birthday party.
So like when you were saying like, you know, grew up in showbiz, whatever.
And I'm thinking about it and I'm like, oh my God, those were like the people I celebrated
my sixth birthday with.
Like they would have got party favors.
Like those were my friends.
Yeah.
Were you guys playing like pin the tail on the donkey?
Did you have like, were there games? I want to say yes. to say yes absolutely i feel like no i remember there were m&ms like these are
the things in my mind there was a bowl of m&ms and richard lewis so i mean you know it's really
funny because in a way you think about oh really connected showbiz family you hear the stories you
know they got taylor swift to come to their daughter's bat mitzvah
like no six-year-old was ever i want belzer i want lewis i want all the sort of mid-80s stand-ups
that's who i want yeah i mean it's kind of iconic though like looking back because i hadn't thought
about that at all you guys and knowing i was going to talk to you, I was like, oh, my God.
Not many six-year-olds can say.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's an incredible list for a six-year-old birthday party.
And I bet it was the only – not only was that the only film they all did together, that was the only birthday party they ever all appeared at.
Do you know if you have pictures from that party?
Do you know?
I'm going to ask.
There has to be.
Unless my parents were just assholes and didn't document my birthday, which is possible.
The worst would be if there was tons of pictures, but it's just of the celebs and none of you.
It's none of me.
It's literally like my dad, just him and, you know, all the celebrities.
When you drove up there, did you camp along the way?
Because you can't do Jackson Hole in a straight shot, I wouldn't think.
Or do you go to a hotel?
Or do you remember?
Do you recall?
We stopped.
We did Yellowstone, for sure.
Okay.
Yosemite.
Yellowstone.
Yellowstone.
No, it was Yellowstone.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, they're the Y ones.
They're the Y ones.
Yeah.
Yeah, we definitely did that.
There's pictures of that.
So everything I can remember through photographs,
and I can picture us in Yellowstone for sure.
So we definitely camped.
I feel like there may be a horse picture somewhere along the road.
I got to give it up to your father,
because I feel like if you were about to direct a movie,
it would be hard to be like, but right before we do it,
I'm going to go into Yellowstone with my family
for however many days you were there and just forget myself.
Yeah, I would have to imagine he did it like way far in advance,
but it's possible he didn't.
I don't know.
Yeah, I thought that the whole time, Josh.
I was thinking I'm so impressed with the kind of father.
If I have something coming a week away
i feel like i can't fully focus on being a parent so i'm very impressed with this i'll have to ask
him although when you i kind of thought when you said a horse that it was maybe that you went horse
back riding but then when you said there's just a picture of the horse on the side of the road
maybe it was a little more slapdash than we're giving maybe it was just a straight shot and in
my mind i thought we did all these things and he just like superimposed us in front of like geysers at yellowstone and yeah he used he used
the movie department like the many departments on the yes special effects i need a favor years
from now i want my daughter to look back and see that she went to yellowstone when in fact we went
nowhere near it yeah did you do a lot of travel that was based on your dad directing films on location yeah so another trip
we did we went to rome he did this other movie oh god zone troopers okay it was like what's it called
zone troopers okay funniest thing is this sounds so i never talk about this stuff and like when i
say certain things like i feel like quentin tarantino i don't know if you've heard of him
he yes was a big fan
of this movie and has talked about it so that's why people may have heard of it and it's kind of
like a sci-fi world war ii like weird i've never seen it because i was three but we did we went to
rome and we were there for like three months and he was shooting that movie there i'd have to look
at the cast list i feel like tim van patten
that's a name i'm gonna look it up because i'm so excited about okay anyway and i was three and we
lived in an apartment and so you know it was a lot of italian language obviously sounds like a stupid
comment uh and there was a little boy i was friends with, and so everyone would refer to him. They'd be like, Louie, Louie, Louie.
Well, I thought his name was Louie, but it turns out Louie means him in Italian.
So the whole time, I was just calling him him, my best friend, while we were in Italy.
Yeah.
Louie.
You know, guys, as we're talking about all this, and I'm like thinking about all of it,
I'm like, oh, this makes so much that I am the way that I am.
All these experiences. I'm currently
looking. I went to the IMDB
page for Zone Troopers and
a clip of the film starts playing
and I am desperate
to watch this film.
Here's the tagline posh. In Italy
during World War II, some American soldiers
find an alien UFO. And I think that's all we need posh. In Italy during World War II, some American soldiers find an alien UFO.
And I think that's all we need to know.
Go check out Danny Bilson's Zone Troopers.
Did he write and direct these, do you think?
Yes.
Okay.
Do you think he was like, I want to go to Jackson Hole.
I'd like to go to Italy for a while.
I mean, honestly, yeah.
As you're saying it, these locations, clearly it seems like i'm only doing this so i can travel
and live here for a little while because i mean three months in italy is like is fantastic and
and did your mother enjoy that did she like sort of being away so my mother is from italian descent
oh so we brought my grandparents wow oh yeah it was a whole thing, which was so sweet. You know, the whole troop got to go.
Yeah.
And I remember the strollers.
Like, I have visions of, like, there was a red stroller and a blue stroller.
And Tim Thomerson.
Yes.
He was in it.
And his wife and his son, who I was also friends with, we both had these matching strollers,
except one was blue and one was red.
And I remember at first I was, like, adamant.
I'm like, I need the red stroller. I was three. I was like, I need the red one. This is mine.
Cut to halfway through the trip. I was like, give me that blue stroller. Like I threw,
I have, these are my memories. I remember throwing a fit at three years old
because I now needed the blue one. You know, like a little tyrant. And I'm like,
how did I get away with that? I heard a story that craft services watched you have that.
They're like, just mark my words,
20 years from now, she's going to want a smoothie.
She's going to be over here demanding a smoothie from us.
She's going to demand,
that girl who's demanding the blue stroller, 100%.
So I have a question.
Yes.
Josh and I, every vacation I took with our parents,
I felt like they acted like people who were about to get divorced.
They're still together.
Did you, you know, you were nine when your parents got divorced.
Did you ever, was it something that you ever saw?
Do you feel like as a kid being young?
Because I feel like parents sometimes are the most stressed out on vacations.
Yeah.
And being a parent now, we can relate to that, right?
Of course. It's always like, ah. Yes. My wife just went on a trip and left me at home with the kids,
and it's the least I ever felt like we were getting divorced. We were in two different places.
Yeah. You're like, this is amazing. This is great. She's having a good time. I'm like managing.
Barely managing. Yeah. You know what's so funny is I don't remember my parents being stressed.
My biggest memory is like my dad loved to always like take pictures of my mom's butt.
Like I have so many memories of like he thought it was hilarious.
Always filming her walking.
And there's like so many pictures in our family photos of my mom's butt.
And like more than the kids.
Yeah.
So maybe it was the opposite, but that's probably more telling because they divorced a few years later.
So the fighting probably is a better sign than what I had.
I do feel like maybe at one point during a fight, your mom yelled, I'm more than just a butt.
She still does.
She still does. Yes. I'm a whole person. Yes. Did your mother's
parents, your grandparents, did they live close to you in LA? Were they? No, they're from Philly.
So my mom's from Philly. Yeah. But I was still so close to them. We saw them a lot. We did a lot
of trips with them as well. And my cousins and my aunt and my uncle, they all live in Tennessee.
So like we would all try to like come together either East Coast, West Coast.
I remember doing a big trip to Georgia.
I feel like we drove from Tennessee to Georgia and we went to like this place called Calloway Gardens.
I don't even know if it still exists.
It was like some, this is a really weird, it sounds like a weird choice.
I don't know.
I mean, it sounds lovely so far, but keep going.
Calloway Gardens.
Calloway Gardens.
And I remember my grandparents being there.
And I remember us going to this restaurant called the Gingerbread House.
And we're like, oh my God, that's so cute.
Let's go eat there.
This is my memory of this trip.
And we all still talk about it.
It was the worst food you've ever eaten in your life.
It was horrific. my my we called
her mom mom my grandmother she ordered the club sandwich and she was delighted she had the best
sandwich she's ever had and she said you guys whenever in doubt order a club sandwich oh that's
a good life lesson i don't think that's wrong i don't think that's wrong i know although i'm like
well the meat is a questionable you know because it's not you never know but that's wrong. I know. Although I'm like, well, the meat, is it questionable? You know, because it's not, you never know.
But that's what she got.
And it was great.
And we all go by that.
Yeah.
Ma-mon?
Wait, what would you?
Ma-mom.
Ma-mom and Pa-pop were my grandparents.
That's good.
All right.
Our mother had a Pa-pop and a Nani for her grandparents.
Yeah.
When my first was born, I asked my parents what they wanted to be called.
Do you remember what mom wanted more more more more which is the swedish sort of grandma and
my mother certainly has some swedish heritage but we've never flexed on it at all and she was
gonna flex so hard and it was a term that none of us had ever heard it wasn't like we remembered
like oh remember that movie my life as Dog, that was so important to us.
Like there was no connection.
She was just like, I think more, more.
More, more.
And it was like, what?
I mean, it's pretty good.
And we shot it right down.
I said, I'm not learning a thing I've never said.
I'm just not doing it.
Wait, so what do they call your parents?
Well, what did dad want to be called also?
Oh, and my dad wanted to be called Cisco.
What?
Like the thong song?
Oh, that would be great if it was for the thong song.
Yeah.
He, much like your dad, he's pretty pro-butts.
And it was from the Cisco Kid, which was an old Western show.
Oh, yeah, sure.
And he just thought, oh, it'd be funny.
He thought it'd be funny.
So my parents, I was like, what do you guys want to be called?
And they were like, more, more in Cisco.
I'm like, you are officially out of this conversation.
It will not be up to you.
More, more in Cisco is pretty epic.
It would be really funny if it called Cisco.
But my son couldn't say grandparents.
And so he said Poncas for grandparents. And so he said Poncas for grandparents.
And so we loved Poncas.
And it was, you know, he came to it organically.
So we just call them collectively the Poncas.
They're just called the Poncas?
Yeah, it's like the Poncas are coming this weekend.
And they get really excited that the Poncas are coming.
But when they're addressing them, like if they want, you know, your mom to hand them something,
it's like, hey, the Ponca, can I have that juice? juice it's ponca yeri which is my dad who's a larry and ponca hurry which is my mom who's a
hillary so ponca hurry that's the cutest thing i've ever heard it's pretty good and by the way
so much better than you guys know more more and cisco more more cisco i can't it's like your dad
living out his lifelong dream of like being in a western
or something yeah exactly waiting until he's like a 70 plus year old man he's like i'm the cisco kid
it's so amazing though we also very very strangely we used to call our dad daddy boy
um and still kind of do um or d or d boy When dad was pushing Cisco, I was walking up the street in Los Angeles,
and someone had spray painted on the sidewalk,
who is Cisco D-Boy?
And I was like, what?
Like, these are.
You're like, I know him.
It's my father.
I can answer, yeah.
It's my dad.
Very strange.
That is very, I mean, that's a sign.
Yeah. I don't know if I've ever heard one. I think. That is very, I mean, that's a sign. Yeah.
I don't know if I've ever heard one.
I think you should change it, and I think he should now be Cisco.
I'm just going to throw that out there.
Guys, Callaway Resort and Gardens is still a place in Pine Mountain, Georgia.
It is in Georgia, right?
And it says-
It's like gardens.
It's in Georgia, yeah.
And it says on its website, it says, we're known for our club sandwich and nothing else.
And nothing else.
Forget the flowers.
It's all about the club.
Yeah.
The menu is now just club.
I think they learned a lesson and they're not even going to try anything else.
My mom told them.
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So you had extended family in Tennessee.
You said some aunts and uncles and cousins.
And so how big would you be when you were all together in terms of party size?
My aunt and uncle have three kids and my first cousins, who were all very close.
Three cousins, and then my brother and I and my mom and my dad and then our grandparents.
So, I mean, I can't do the math.
Yeah.
Sounds like 12-ish
a gaggle yeah it's a gaggle it's a full guy yeah a little gaggle and so would all of you like go
stay at the same hotel calloway gardens or wherever you were going and sort of set up shop for a week
or a long weekend we did yeah oh wait so every year we go to the same place where my family, my aunt and uncle have a house.
I won't say specifically where, but Jersey Shore.
Okay, great.
Ish.
Yeah.
Not when you think of Jersey Shore, but you know.
Yeah.
And every year we go and now we all have kids.
So now it's turned into all of us.
It's like an old Victorian house from the 1800s.
It's haunted, by the way. Oh. Oh oh oh yes i stay in the haunted brass bedroom more on that later please uh and we all go
every june um and now that we have all our kids it's literally so between us oh here goes the
math again she has three she has two i have, six. And then the neighbors across the street who are like family,
there's basically like 10 kids running around. Now my brother has a baby, so then we're adding
another one this year. What's so cool is like, they're never like watching TV. They're out in
the street on their bikes, making up games, throwing the ball, chasing the lightning bugs.
We're at the beach all day. You know, There's arcades. You walk the boardwalk,
like all of it. And it is so special. And now my daughter, since we do it every year,
it's become her tradition. She gets so excited because right when school gets out, we kind of
go there for like 10 days and we're all together. And it's so awesome.
That's great. And what is the age range of that whole group of kids?
So now we have our seven-month-old baby up into 15 years old.
That's so exciting because your daughter is sort of right in the middle.
She's nine.
And that just must be so exciting to have older cousins.
Oh, yeah, especially her older cousin who's 12, who's a girl, you know.
So she wants to just fit in with that because the best friend across the street is like 13, and they're all, you know, she just wants to just fit in with that. Because the best friend across the street is like 13,
and they're all, you know, she just wants to be a cool girl.
And that was me.
Is the 12-year-old cousin nice to her 9-year-old cousin?
I would say a few years ago, it was touchy.
Yep.
A little tough.
But we've turned a corner.
Last year was kind of turning a corner where her
and her best friend across the street
kind of brought Briar in to the trio.
And so across the street neighbors, when I was a kid and we would go,
my older cousin who I always looked up to, it was her best friend across the street,
and they would take me under their wings.
And like we'd go to the parties that were happening.
You know, they were taking me around.
It's so funny as a parent of a daughter now,
and I have my daughter, Addie,
has an older cousin, Agnes, by a couple of years.
And again, they're, you know, at this point, five and two.
But I can just tell it's going to happen
because she already is clocked.
I want to hang out with her.
And I know at some point I'm going to say,
Agnes, you have to take Addie with you. And then know at some point I'm going to say, Agnes, you have to take
Addie with you. And then two years later, I'm going to be like, you have to stop hanging out
with Agnes. Like I just know. Yes. That's exactly it. It goes like this. It's like a roller coaster,
right? Up and down. And it's going to be both of those things for sure. That must be so nice
to have a destination that your daughter looks forward to going to that you also like.
Oh, my God.
It's really just the coolest thing.
Like, we already have all our tickets booked.
You know, it's the one thing we all do together every year.
And you can all be in that same house?
Most of us.
But now that my brother added a baby, they're getting their own place because they have a baby.
Sure.
Yeah, yeah.
But we all make it work.
And there's, like, a super scary attic that has a bunch of beds in it now we put all the kids up there great because it's an
old house and so where the house is there was like the biggest hotel i want to say no don't quote me
on it but i feel like in the world at the time mount vernon hotel and it burnt down and there
were people that died in the fire that perished in the fire. And I'm convinced that there is a little girl ghost
in the room that my daughter and I sleep in.
We call it the brass bedroom, which is fitting.
Wow.
Have you both seen the ghost?
I don't let her in on this information
because I don't think it would sit well.
She's sensitive.
Yeah, gotcha.
It's just a feeling.
Like, I just think she's there with us. But you haven't heard anything or seen anything. It's just a feeling. Like, I just think she's there with us.
But you haven't heard anything or seen anything.
It's more of a sense.
People have heard and seen things in the attic.
Okay.
Where you put all the kids.
Where we put all the kids.
We've heard murderous scenes.
The kids have heard, and again, I'm paraphrasing.
They've heard a child's voice say, I died in a fire and I live here now.
Yes.
And that's where we put all the children.
That's great.
And so, see, a Victorian house by a beach, this seems like a really nice vibe.
Does it have like a, I feel like ramshackle has a negative connotation, but I think like a beach house, sometimes you want it to feel a little lived in, right?
It's not a fancy old house where you have to.
It's very lived in, cozy.
That's right.
Cozy vibes.
The stairs are the most, the steepest stairs you've ever seen.
I don't know why they built houses like this in the 1800s, you guys,
but like, it's like ladder yeah climbing up to the
second story it has all of that they did add an addition years and years like probably at least
20 years ago um so there's some there's like a newer part of the house and my uncle passed away
a couple years ago so we're sad that he can't be there with us anymore sure but we all still go and he's buried that buried there my
grandparents are buried there that's lovely yeah and my grandparents used to vacation in this same
town when they were kids and my pop-pop his family had houses there and we're so mad they didn't keep
them because let me tell you this was like prime beachfront, massive Victorians. And we're
like, why did you, we could have owned the town, but you know, he, he did not pull the trigger
on some houses. We spend the summer with my wife's family and the same thing's happening,
like my wife and you know, she and I have kids and her friends that she used to spend the summers
with have kids. And I just think used to spend the summers with have kids.
And I just think she's in the best time of her life,
which is her parents are still around and getting to be grandparents.
And then also there's this whole generation
underneath them.
And it is.
That thing of having a thing
your kids look forward to all year is so nice.
It's so cool.
It's just really nostalgic.
And I feel like, especially today in this day and age
with all the technology and the social media and all the crap that's out there
and the school drama and whatever, but just to know you have that really special time
with your family for the kids.
And it's really old school.
It's really classic.
Like I said, till dark, they're out after dark playing these games they make up.
Briar comes home with scars all over.
She's fallen.
Yeah.
Oh, that's great.
How do you do meals for that many people?
The people like, I'm doing tonight and Aunt Betty's doing tomorrow.
We do.
So cheesesteaks, we're big cheesesteak fans.
But there's a place called, i don't know if i should
no you don't have to give away well no i'm like you know i'm sure you feel the same you're not
going to be like giving away whatever where you go and what's there but my brother is obsessed
he says we always need the night of the soup lineup okay so there's a place as classic seafood
place where you can go to the takeout window and it's it's like right on the water you know there's all the lobster and this and this is like they're ready to go fresh and
we'll do that like we'll do a pickup from there one night and we do a soup lineup we get all their
soups i mean it's and you know and everyone has their samplings and is there a soup that like no
one takes any of and it's like why do we always get this one why do we get like the crab claw corn chowder
yeah for sure there's always like yeah like i need the you know the spicy crab bisque and all
the kids are like but why and then i'll make a big pot of mac and cheese because the kids are like
i'm not eating that shit right you know it's just like a smorgasbord of things and like i don't know
but it is when we all take turns or like i'll treat or there's like
the most special little restaurant that the grown-ups the parents we're now the parents
get to go out to dinner and the grandparents stay with the kids and we go to this place and it's
so special still like it was like cash only for so many years it's just all these special little
things but my favorite is what we do and the kids still look forward to.
We save our arcade cards.
Across the street, there's like Putt-Putt.
They all call it Putt-Putt.
Out here, it's mini golf.
I don't know.
Yeah, that is true.
East Coast thing, maybe?
We were mini golf.
That's true.
You were mini golf.
Yeah.
Okay.
Back when people were like,
what do you want to be when you grow up?
I always wanted to design mini golf courses.
I wanted to be a mini golf course designer for like a huge stretch when people were like
baseball player, astronaut. I was like, I want to design mini golf courses.
I don't think that dream has to die. I feel like.
Yeah. I don't know if there's like a real future in it. So you putt-putt?
Putt-putt and arcade are across the street from each other. So it's like we do putt-putt and then
we go and go to the arcade and the kids.
What's your game?
What's your game in the arcade?
I'm a mean skee-baller, I got to say.
Oh, yeah.
It's the flick of the wrist.
How about you guys?
Skee-ball's good.
Skee-ball's good.
It's good.
I loved Off-Road.
There's like four steering wheels and you drive around.
That I quite liked.
And Rampage.
Rampage I always liked as well.
Rampage.
And Ms. Pac-Man.
Sure.
See, I'm more about like getting the tickets because the kids are super competitive like with getting the tickets.
So I'm like at that grab machine just to get the tickets.
The claw machine.
The claw machine.
Yes.
The claw machine is the worst thing that has ever been
i will shout out to toy story which made the claw machine a wonderful plot point but the claw machine
is a devastating it's hopeless for the kids but then we were recently at a trampoline park
and there was a claw machine that guaranteed a win every time and it was rubber duckies. Yes, I know them well.
And now I just feel like
this is why the next generation
is going to be useless.
The fact that they're getting
guaranteed winners at a claw machine.
They already get participation awards
for everything.
Participation.
Participation.
Yeah, by the way,
if you at a spelling bee
spelled it participation,
they'd still give you an award.
That's the problem with kids these days.
I'd advance to the next round.
You'd go to the next round for close enough.
Yeah.
The rubber ducky of spelling B.
Yeah.
It's true.
They do have that.
And part of me is like, oh, cool.
Because then my daughter like get, but I agree with you.
But I am, I do get competitive.
Do you ever pool tickets?
Is there sort of anything that you guys like collectively are like, we're going to get
this radio? Absolutely not. They are all for them every man for themselves and what are they getting
like what kinds of things do they want like dumb little bracelets and dumb little toys dumb little
things that kids like well it's also like we have to travel back with all this crap you know because
we don't live on the east coast and so my daughter's like i want that big gumball machine
and i'm just like we're not taking a gumball i understand i will get you a gumball machine you're not traveling
with that but she'll you know stuffies the amount of stuffies these kids have can we talk about this
oh my god also let me tell you something if you get a stuffy with skeeball tickets that is a badly
made stuffy that is for sure coming apart in your dog's intestines.
You are lucky if it comes apart in your dog's intestines and doesn't start a home fire.
I know.
They really are.
Too many stuffies.
Too many stuffies.
I'll say stuffy is a word that's never sat well with me.
Because it was always stuffed animals.
Yeah.
And I don't know when stuffies started.
Now,
how do you feel about stuff?
Stuff?
What do you feel about if,
if we're going to do putt,
putt,
can we do stuff?
Stuff?
But you're right.
Cause stuffed animals,
there's many different creatures and things that are not necessarily animals
that are stuffed.
Yeah,
I suppose.
But I do prefer a stuffed animal.
I had a night last night.
And again, I don't want to keep flexing over the fact that I had like three nights with my wife away, but got my boys asleep.
They have bunk beds.
And last night, my five-year-old called me in four times because he couldn't find different stuffed animals.
And that's the thing.
He's adding to this roster. And if I keep hoping, oh, he'll get a new stuffy.
And then one of them will fall off of importance.
They all matter just as much.
I thought you were going to say a cliff.
Well, I like when we retire a stuffy, I push them off a cliff.
And I just say they're dead now.
I feel like it's helpful.
I want to teach them about the circle of life.
Life lessons.
We had a lot of stuffed animals.
We did.
Yeah.
But Axel was like, where's Commander?
I'm like, you got to know where they are.
You got to know where they are.
And I'm like, what am I doing?
Also, I'm trying to get them to go to bed.
And then I'm like, it's not helpful for the last thing to be me threatening them.
Like, if you don't know where they are, we're going to get rid of them.
So that wasn't good. I know. It always turns to that, though. me like threatening them like if you don't know where they are we're gonna get rid of them so that
wasn't good i know it always turns to that though i feel like there's always that minute like those
few minutes before like you absolutely have to be asleep where it just gets like very horrifically
scary or you're there's threats and it's not the peaceful like lulling them to sleep as it should
be there's arguments there's negotiations yes it's all it. Axel now wants you to scratch his back. Then he wants you to scratch individual letters that he
has to guess. And then he goes, just three more, just two more, do a hard one. L is too easy.
And then at one point, again, this is just trying to get him to peacefully fall asleep and it always ends with me being like,
we're out of letters.
I can't do four more. We're out of letters.
The letters have been pushed off a cliff. They're dead.
They're dead. X is dead.
I think you should blindfold
him and play a game where he has to identify
his stuffed animals
by touch.
So then that could maybe solve your middle of the night
problem. Oh, that's a good one.
I like that.
Look at you actually being helpful.
I guess that must be your New Year's resolution,
being helpful in the podcast.
Helpful uncle.
Uncle.
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smarter sleep. I have a question about a night of the soups,
which I do feel like I want to just make a new tradition.
Like, so I had a summer thing.
And I don't know if this has ever happened to you,
because obviously you have both a face and name that are recognizable.
A couple summers ago, I had to go out and I went to a place.
I ordered and picked up like 20 burgers for my
wife's whole family and walked in. It was me. It was my name. It was my face. And then I brought
them back and I will say the burgers were overcooked. This is a fair assessment of the
burgers I got for the whole family. I do sometimes think maybe this was not a restaurant that is
making 20 at a time.
So we maybe just, you know, it was fine.
But again, we're all eating them.
And everybody, my wife's family,
if they think food is overcooked,
doesn't keep that close to the chest.
That is something that's shared with the group.
Anyway, we're all eating it.
And I'm like, I'm fine, whatever.
And then my mother-in-law comes out and goes,
hey, I just want you to know, I called the restaurant and they said they're not going to charge us. And I said, Joanne, I go, you cannot do that on my behalf. And then she goes,
I thought so. I thought it might've been a mistake. I'm so sorry.
Oh my God. You're like, I'm never going to this place again. You can't do
that. Like part of it is we just have to eat it. That's fine. We eat it. Yeah. You eat it. You
don't say anything. They made 20 burgers. They don't normally do this. Yeah. You know, it's not
their fault. Or next time you call and you're like, Hey, they were a little overdone last time.
So if you could, you know, just keep an eye on that. I appreciate it. I don't think you ever
do that either. Yeah, no. I think, look, by by the way we go there all the time it's a great restaurant i again think
it was just bad but we can't be the people on my name no to call sure can't do you have you gone
back there since i have gone back there and let me just say everything's okay well it's okay because
i am now tipping you can't believe like what i, just so you know, whatever you save me, it's going to be gone
the next time I go. It's going to cost us thousands of dollars. Absolutely. She has just driven it way
up. So the other night, I went out to dinner with friends that hadn't seen in a long time. There
were five of us. And it's a place that it's hard to get a table. And we were lucky enough. They
gave us a table. They kind of hooked us up. And that was so awesome. Okay. I felt like I have it made and this place is not
something really fancy. So it's kind of funny that like the hookup at this place was the best
thing that's ever happened to me. I get it. It's more cool than fancy, which is better. Yes. And
I don't even know if you call this place cool, but whatever. So we got there and we wound up
sitting there for like three hours. Okay. Cause we hadn't seen each other. There's five girls. It's like
our only night out. And after three hours, a man in a chef's jacket came up to the table
and was like, ladies, I'm so happy you are enjoying yourselves and having a nice time.
There are only a certain amount of tables we have for five people. And would you mind moving your
party maybe to the bar or the patio? And I was like,
oh my God, like I was mortified. Okay. I felt so bad. I was the same. I was like, oh my God,
I can never come back to this place again. I have fully overstepped, overstayed my welcome.
We are now being asked, which I don't know if that's ever happened before, but like asked
to leave the table. I don't know that I can go back. But I think if he did it kindly
and you were like, oh yes, of course, then I think
you can go back there, absolutely.
I'm such a sensitive person, though, that
I'm like, oh my god, I'm a rule abider.
I have broken the
rule. I have totally overstayed
my welcome. I can never show my face
here again. I will say,
here's my takeaway from this, and both
of you guys can use this.
Because have you ever been in a restaurant where you can tell your table's almost ready,
but they're taking too long? You know, like it's, you know, let's just, for lack of a better term,
let's call it the Bilson party. So sometimes you're waiting for the Bilsons. Here's what
I'm going to start doing. I'm going to start bringing a chef's jacket with me, putting it on
and just walking over and
saying, I'm so sorry if you could just, cause I feel like, no, that's the move. It's just,
I don't know that you can do that, which is just, you know, goes to like what we're talking about
here. I don't know that you can get away with that, but you could try. You're right. I would
need somebody else in my party to do it. But I will say the part of it that would stress me out,
cause I'm with you a hundred percent, Rachel, even though I don't feel like you did anything wrong, I would have the same anxiety of, oh, I should have sensed this before.
The fact that the chef had to do it, that's the part I could never.
They literally went to the top guy.
They went to the godfather.
You've got to leave the kitchen.
They did.
And he came.
And do you want to know how fast I shot up out of that booth, you guys?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
He wasn't even done talking. And I was like, we're out of here. We're good. And do you want to know how fast I shot up out of that booth, you guys? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He wasn't even done talking.
And I was like, we're out of here.
We're good.
Thank you so much.
I've had a great time.
And I appreciate everything.
It will never return.
I will sometimes do the same thing where you get a pole at a table, you know, and I'll bring maybe my wife and her sister, who I love both of them.
But we'll sit down and I will just watch them clock
whether or not it's a table they like.
And I will just say, stop it.
Stop it.
I know what you're doing.
We're not.
This is good.
Everything about this is good.
Yeah.
No.
There's no uh-uh.
What makes a table that they like?
Is it easier for them to look at their phones?
Yeah. They like good phone light.
Ideally, if it's the three of us, they're looking for a two-top,
and then I go to the bar.
Not so they can talk, but so they can both silently look at their phones.
I do wonder, though, with people, like, you know, what makes it a better...
I'm also a people pleaser, you guys.
So I'm totally the one that's like, thank you so much.
I will sit by the bathroom.
Yeah.
I think we're the same way.
If we've overstepped or if we've, yeah.
Any request that is made of the venue of us, I think we're pretty quick to oblige.
Yeah.
I want to get back to the Jersey Shore real quick because you got all these people together.
Do you play any collective games? We do. And what are your games like? So Monopoly
started last year and I was like, you guys, like it was it was like, you know, they have Monopoly
to like specific places now. Yeah. Yeah. So they got that. They thought that was super cool.
And it's just never ends. It never ends. And people get their feelings hurt. It's too much.
Yeah. It's like you guys. And it's also like now in my life when I have a mortgage, it's a whole different game.
Like you play Monopoly and you're like, I can't pay the mortgage.
I need to like take out a second loan on Mediterranean.
I should be able to pay for this and I can't.
And I just, I'm sinking and I'm going under.
I played one game of proper Monopoly recently and I was like, this game's awful.
It's awful.
I have that feeling where it's like,
I used to own a railroad.
How did this happen?
Yeah.
Exactly.
I was flying high.
Oh God, it's really depressing.
You're making me look at my life.
Yeah.
But no, well, you know,
we've busted out Battle of the Sexes,
which is funny because,
I don't know if you guys have ever played that game.
No.
That was kind of before
when the kids were a little younger
and they weren't really kind of in tune with it. Sleeping Queens. Do you guys know Sleeping Queens? Sleeping Queens. That's a great that game. No. That was kind of before when the kids were a little younger and they weren't really kind of in tune with it.
Sleeping Queens.
Do you guys know Sleeping Queens?
Sleeping Queens is a great game.
We love that.
Lots of card games
and always on the porch.
There's like a proper porch
around the house
and they're playing speed
and spit and learning
all the things.
Oh, great.
Yes, that is super fun.
There's a puzzle.
There's always a puzzle
taking up the entire
dining room table
and it drives my aunt
absolutely insane because she's like, there's nowhere to eat.
Yeah. But does the puzzle act as sort of a hub? Do people, do you just find yourself sitting there
chatting? Yeah, there's definitely one. My cousin's husband is definitely the professional
puzzler, so he's always there. But then, you know, people will sit, come in and out as they
just pass through the dining room. Sometimes you'll, you know, add a piece or two.
You feel like you've accomplished so much.
Who's the pro puzzler, did you say?
My cousin's husband.
My oldest cousin's husband.
Do they use a spatula?
I'm sorry, what?
I've talked to, I have a friend who's part of a puzzling group.
And I know some friends that are-
Part of a puzzling group, by the way.
Amazing.
Okay.
They get together.
This is like people whose names you would know,
they get together and they puzzle.
So don't look down your nose at puzzles.
Oh, no.
I love a puzzle.
I'm a huge puzzler.
I just want to let the group know
I will continue to look down my nose, but proceed.
But there are these like, if you get a large spatula,
it is a great way to pick up a whole piece of the puzzle and so you can move it
in front of you and like i'm gonna focus on this and then you can transport it again and i have
bought these they're like it's not the size of like a pizza peel but it's just like i'm thinking
like yeah like they need to make specific puzzle spatulas that it's kind of out there and i've like
on amazon i've got I've given a couple to
puzzling people and they're always like, this is amazing. This is amazing. Because they have
pancake spatulas. Because I'm always like, why is the spatula not big enough to be the size of a
pancake to flip it? And it exists. I feel like that would fare well in the puzzling group as well.
Absolutely. Maybe that's what I'm buying, but I've only used it for puzzles, never for pancakes.
I would say the worst thing that could happen to me is if I went over to a house, saw one of those, and said, oh, my God, are we making pizza?
And they were like, no, it's so much worse.
We're doing a puzzle that's so big we got to move sections around.
That is such a good tip, though.
I'm going to use it because I do puzzles.
Yeah, or just buy one for your cousin's husband.
Yeah, that's a really nice thing.
I mean, everybody's always, they say the, or just buy one for your cousin's husband. Yeah, that's a really nice thing. Oh, my God.
I mean, everybody's always, they say the hardest person to shop for is your cousin's husband.
No.
Josh is giving you the perfect gift.
But he's also the guy you want.
So we did our first escape room with the kids or with at least my daughter's first last year on our family trip.
We definitely brought the Puzzle Pro because that mined and we escaped.
Now, how was a nine-year-old in an escape room i would think that might be the the lower like threshold of what could enjoy
an escape room oh my god she talks about doing one all the time see what's great what the problem is
though we started so high because we had the put the puzzler pro yeah and we had people that were
very good at these kind of things so it's's totally screwed her expectations. So I don't know that we'll ever escape again
if it's just me. Right, right, right.
Basically is the issue. She loved it so
much. She was so into it
that it's all she wants to do.
It's pretty sweet. They're fun.
I like them. They are fun.
Mind-boggling. Alright, you've been wonderful
and now, if you don't mind,
Josh is going to ask you some questions.
This, by the way, you are exactly as good a podcast guest as I thought a podcast host would be.
Just A+.
Start to finish.
Thank you so much.
I'm still sweating.
All right.
Well, you got a little ways to go.
I got some easy questions.
This isn't too hard.
You can only pick one.
Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or educational?
Definitely not educational. can that be my answer
i like how quickly no shame and just pooing the idea of education
what is your favorite means of transportation train plane automobile an rv an rv great yeah
all right yeah how often do you do do you roll around in an RV?
Never.
But it's what I want to do.
Yeah, goals.
Goals.
Put it out there.
If you could take a vacation with any family other than your own, fictional, they could be alive or dead, which family would you like to take a family vacation with?
I mean, I want to go with Mormor and Sisko, obviously.
Not a bad choice.
If I could go with Larry David, that would be my top tier.
That's really good.
So you really want to go on vacations with people who don't like vacations.
I just need it.
I need it in my life.
If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family,
who would it be? Oh God, who's going to keep us alive? That's really the question. I'm going to pick my kid because like, I can't be away from my kid. And honestly, I think she could keep us
alive better than myself. Yeah. And maybe it's really nice. Maybe you have everything that you
need there and you're just going to exist. That's what, that's what I'm picturing. Like we're just
living off, you know, into the sunset together.
Maybe it's not even such a survival thing.
It's just like, hey, this is where we live now.
Yeah.
And are you from Los Angeles proper?
The Valley, to be specific.
I grew up in the Valley, yes, of Los Angeles.
Can you be more specific or do you not choose?
Do you not want to be?
Oh, yeah, like North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks.
Okay.
Would you recommend North Hollywood or Sherman Oaks as a vacation destination?
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Thank you for your speed.
All right.
Very good.
And Seth, last question.
I'm so excited to ask you, Rachel.
Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?
Oh, my God.
No.
Uh-oh.
I'm worried based on how you answered that I know the next half.
Do you want to go?
This is what I want to do. I'm going based on how you answered that I know the next half do you want to go?
this is what I want to do I'm going to tell you guys
not only do I want to go
in my RV
I want to do the river rafting
in it
in the RV?
yeah
it's a terrible idea
it's a whole new concept
bear with me
I very much want to go
Seth is really
has been poo pooing
the Grand Canyon
I can tell by how you phrased the second part of your question
that you are not interested.
Yeah.
But you know what?
I appreciate that not only do you want to go,
but you have a specific desire for things to do there.
Oh, yeah.
I don't want to just go look at it.
I think people who their goal is to look at it
are the ones who are suckers and, you know, wasting a trip.
But I have a little bit of enthusiasm and optimism for your plan.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
I hope you get it done.
I've had it for a long time.
We'll see if I get there.
Well,
Rachel,
we cannot thank you enough for your time,
your lovely stories.
Thank you guys.
This was so much fun.
Yeah.
Thank you.
This was great.
Awesome.
All right.
See you soon.
Safe travels. Bye. Bye. Bye. was so much fun yeah thank you this was great awesome all right see you soon safe travels bye
when rachel bilson turned six years old had a star-studded birthday all the way up in jackson
hole ernie hudson and louis and a symbol showed up. Richard Belzer provided some
yucks. Her dad was shooting
a movie as well as
pics of her mom's butt.
Now
every year she goes to the
Jersey coast.
Kids sleep in the attic with Victorian ghosts.
My mom said a club sandwich would always do.
But you need more food with such a big group.
So what do you do?
You order a lineup of suits.
A lineup of suits.
A lineup of suits. Pursuits, a line of pursuits, a line of pursuits, a line of pursuits. Thank you. Pupkins. Pupkins.
Inked up.