The rat of packs

It was a fairly good week here in Topeka. After getting over the fact that I'm old enough to have a kid in high school, the rest of the week went rather smooth. For a change I didn't have to go collect papi from the casino on Saturday, so we watched 300 instead. Wow! What a movie! I suspect the guys will like it for different reasons than the ladies though (admit it ladies, mostly naked muscle bound sweaty men swinging swords and defending liberty - you know you want to see it again :0 ).

Sunday, during the 110+ degree heatwave that Lawrence was experiencing (the temp on the clock at People's bank said it was 112), we worked on the back yard of the 5/8 pa. In the dictionary, right next to the term "pack rat" is his picture. I don't believe this guy has thrown anything away in at least the 20 some odd years they had lived in that house. There were those big trash cans full of odds and ends...mostly odds. Like the one filled with junk mail fliers. He was planning, he says, on recycling them. I suppose sometime in the next 20 or so years.

It was a long, hot day, but the two boys helped considerably, and they were mostly civil during the ordeal. Little Sister, being only 8, was not old enough to help. I'm sure she felt just terrible having to stay with her cousin and gramma and swim the whole day.

Movin' on up

Monday was a more difficult day than I had imagined it would be. Not that I would actually admit that out loud, so if you try to hold me to that statement, I will disavow any knowledge of it.

We took No. 1 Son to the high school for enrollment. My kid is in high school. I find it hard to believe, I mean, I am not that old. It took almost two hours to snake through the lines and fill out much of the same (or so it seems) paperwork that we filled out at the pre-enrollment last spring.

Then we had to pay fees. What? Fees? I expected fees to be paid for grade and middle school - he went to a parochial school, we had to pay for that. But fees for the public school? What the heck is this? Don't I already pay taxes through the nose for this stuff? And now another several hundred dollars? Nothing starting of the school year with the feeling that they are double dipping into your pocket.

We managed to get to the end of the line without my losing my cool though. As we were speaking with the mother of the Marine Junior ROTC Sgt. Major, the 5/8 made some offhand comment about the state of No. 1 Son's room, something to the effect that the residents of Greensburg, Kansas would rather stay in Greensburg than have to deal with his room. That is when one of the ROTC folks happened to be coming by. No. 1 Son is joining the MJRTOC program at the high school. I made the deal that if he did that, he would not have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and go exercise at the YMCA with me every morning.

Anyway, this ROTC fellow (I am not certain if he is a student or instructor) told the 5/8 that he would be happy to come to our house, and help No. 1 Son straighten out his room. And that when completed, he would know how to keep his room clean, and that we would be able to bounce a quarter off his bedsheets. What? You mean his bed would actually get made?!?

That is a very tempting offer, and he was completely serious. Of course, No. 1 Son doesn't want that to happen. So maybe it will be the incentive he needs to get moving on cleaning that pigsty and possibly even making his bed (hey! a dad can dream can't he?).

Mikey's Back

When I was a kid, a movie came out that we considered a true horror film. This film was so scary and created some of the most intense feelings I had ever experienced in a movie theater. My buds and I probably saw that movie six or seven times while it was at the theater. This was before video tapes (for those of you born after 1980, video tapes were a way to watch movies at home which have since been replaced with DVDs - kind of like audio tapes were a way to listen to music which were replaced by Compact Discs which has been replaced by MP3s - and you say the space program gave us nothing but Tang).

That movie was Halloween. Not only did it introduce us teens to Jamie Lee Curtis (grrroowwwwll) but also Michael Myers (not the Austin Powers Mike Myers - the creepy killer Michael Myers). Since that time there have been umpteen sequels to Halloween. I think the last one had Jamie Lee Curtis in it again. But sadly, since the 5/8 birthday is ON Halloween, and she takes great offense at having her birthday associated with death (like it wasn't Halloween before it was her birthday - sheesh), I have never been able to see it.

Be that as it may, Rob Zombie (Grindhouse, The Devil's Rejects) has re-imagined the Halloween the movie story. Take a look:

I have yet to see Grindhouse (but it is on my list at Blockbuster) - but it looks terrific. Personally, I think if anybody can do a remake of Halloween justice, it is Zombie. I just hope he keeps the Capt. Kirk mask.


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Halloween the movie

Mini-Series review: The Fallen

I am a sucker for religious thrillers. I love the whole good v. evil thing. The apocalyptic undertones. That is why I loved the turn of the century. The event called for a good many of such movies. Most of them were sad excuses, but, like time travel movies, I had to watch them.

Last year ABC Family ran a made-for-tv movie called "The Fallen." I hadn't seen the movie, nor had I even heard of it. But this year, they ran the original movie, plus two more for a total of six hours worth of God v. Devil goodness.

The premise is, back in the day (way, way back) some angels rebelled against God. You know the story, the whole war in Heaven thing where Lucifer lost and was sent to reign in Hell. Those that were on his side, but didn't join him in Hell as demons, became "The Fallen." These were the angels who are discussed in the Bible as consorting with human women and creating half-breed offspring "abominations" called Nephilim.

God sent "The Powers" to protect his creation, and they started about killing off the abominations and the fallen angels (I didn't know angels could be killed, BTW). The special effects were good, there were only a couple of scenes where the flying angels' CGI was poor, and those were very brief. One thing that got me though, and it seemed strange, was that some of the angels, the good ones, had bat-type wings, instead of the usual feathery bird-type wings. And some had black wings instead of the stereo-typical white wings. It is not a huge deal, but when dealing with iconic imagery, in an iconic situation, one would think they would stick to the stereo-types. Especially considering they went through the trouble to give the angels names that more or less follow the naming criteria used in the Bible (such as Gama'el, Ara'el, Azaza'el etc).

All in all I though they did a great job. There were a couple of scenes that almost made me laugh, but I was able to get over them easy enough. One in particular towards the beginning, there is a member of the Powers who slays a Fallen, and she is wearing this white hooded cloak, and as she is turning and stomping of screen, the cape flowing out behind her she says something to the effect of "find out what it is, and alert me immediately." Which instantaneously sent me back 30 years to Darth Vader aboard Princess Leia's ship saying "The plans are here, tear this place apart and find them" (or something like that).

We recorded the show over the weekend, and watched it all in one sitting, all six hours of it. If you are a fan of this type of story, I would highly recommend getting the DVD.


Technorati Tags: God, Devil, Angels, Good, Evil, The Fallen, Television, ABC Family

Monsters and 3 year olds

Sometimes, you just shouldn't ask a 3 year old what to do about a monster, if you don't think you can handle the answer...observe:

New TV show review "Saving Grace"

Watched a new show on TNT last night. The show aired on Monday night, but we didn't watch it until last night. The show is "Saving Grace" which stars Holly Hunter (looking a bit older, and more ragged than I have ever seen her before).

Hunter is an Oklahoma City cop who drinks too much, sleeps around too
much and proclaims a fervent disbelief in God. It is alluded to that
she was molested by a priest when she was little. Her brother is a
priest (obviously there is tension there!) and her sister died in the
Murrah Federal Building bombing (this part isn't revealed until the
end, and I have to admit, I was wondering why they would put a show in
OKC, I mean, after all, it is fly-over country). And along comes an angel, offering her one last chance at redemption.

But don't be misled! This is no "Touched By An Angel" or "Joan of Arcadia" (both of which I enjoyed tremendously). The angel in this case, is named...get this...Earl. He is not your stereo-typical angel with good looks, with proper grammar and showing a due amount of reverence. No, Earl (played by Leon Rippy - I know, I've never heard of him either) is more along the lines of someone you might imagine inhabiting a trailer park, or working as a mechanic in that lonely, little out of the way gas station on that stretch of desert road that is 450 miles from the nearest cross road, let alone any type of civilization. His teeth are bad, he hair is a mess, he is overweight, he sounds 3/4 drunk, and he chews tobacco and spits into an empty Mountain Dew bottle.

This is not a show to watch with the younguns. Number One son watched it with us, but he was uncomfortable in parts (couple of scenes with Hunter and her partner romping around). It is rated TVMA (which is the first TVMA rating I have seen not on a movie channel). No nudity or bad language, but the opening scene where Hunter and he partner (played by Kenny Johnson) are...err...coupling came very close to showing more than I have ever scene on commercial TV.

Truth be told, I dig the angel guy. I find it refreshing to see a new take on what an angel would look like and how one would act.Another refreshing aspect is that Hunter doesn't just make a 180 degree turn out of her life, it looks like it is going to a slow and sometimes painful process for her to turn her life around.

Also in the case it Laura San Giacomo (hubba-hubba). One might remember her as the evil b**ch Nadine Cross from the TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen Kings' "The Stand", and from the sitcom "Just Shoot Me".

Personally, I give the show 4 out of 5 stars. Its portrayal of an angelic being is probably not for everyone. It is offbeat and for some will be considered heretical. But if you aren't dead set on angels having proper grammar, exceptionally good looks like Roma Downey, living in clouds and being all clean and bright and shiny, I would defiantly recommend watching at least a couple of episodes.




Technorati Tags: television, TNT, Saving Grace, Holly Hunter, Angels

Lessons Learned (22 July 2007)

I have two for this week...

1) When you have pain medication, don't set it in a unique place thinking it will help you remember where it is. Because when you need it at 4:45 in the morning, you don't look in a unique place for it, you look in the regular places where meds are supposed to be - you know, with the aspirin and cough syrup and places like that.

2) When scouring the internet for tips, tricks and how-tos of refinishing a wood floor, take advice with a grain of salt. Case in point: Everything I read about the sanding process exclaimed that a sanding dust storm of nigh-Biblical porportions would be kicked up. Respirators were needed, and an open window with a fan pointed out of it to act as exhaust. That had me concerned, what with plants and electronic equipment (neither of which is conducive to copious amounts of dust and other particles) all over the house, I sealed up that room tighter than that bio-weapons facility that released Captian Tripps in "The Stand." NOTHING was getting out of there. In the end, less than a pound of dust was created. Not only was I sorely dissapointed, but I pretty much wasted about four hours sealing that room!


Technorati Tags: wood floor, medication, refinish, lessons learned

Time Flies Like An Arrow [Fruit Flies Like A Banana]

Man, it seems to have been a long, long time since I put anything up here. Last Saturday we packed up and sent the boys with the scout troop to Camp Laramie Peaks in Wyoming. I wished I could go, but vacation time just wasn't available (I just changed jobs, remember?). The 5/8s and I took this opportunity to drop Little Sister off at gramma's house while we drive north, to Council Bluffs, IA. There isn't much there in Council Bluffs. For those not in the know, Council Bluffs, IA is the sister (sort of?) city of Omaha, NE. Omaha is on the Nebraska side (that is why they call it "Omaha, NE") and Council Bluffs is on the Iowa side (hence, the name...oh you get it). Sort of like Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO - except they don't have the same names, and their not in Kansas or Missouri.

Now, I know what your thinking. Why go to CB? We wanted to get away. We had saved some money for a trip to a casino, and the casino's in this area were just too close. If we had gone to one of them, my father would have wanted to tag along, and then we both would have grudgingly brought him along. So we went way up to CB in order to escape that fate. We've been playing a little poker here and there on PartyPoker.net. It is only play money, but you get to play with other real live people (at least that is what they say - who knows for real?). So we wanted to try out some real poker

I looked online and booked a room at the Holiday Inn right across from the Ameristar Casino. Ok, word to the wise, when you book a hotel near a casino, and pay an extra 50 clams for the privilege of not having to drive across town to gamble, make sure the casino actually has the game(s) you want to play. Ameristar in CB has no live poker tables. So we thought we'd drive over to Harrah's. Much to our surprise, Harrah's has not live poker. I'm starting to think that for some strange and befuddling reason, live poker is not legal in Iowa. I know that sounds strange, but these are Iowans after all, so you never really know what they are going to do. Luckily a nice lady at Harrah's informed us that the Horseshoe Casino does have live poker tables.

Now, here is the strange part. Harrah's has no live poker tables, but the Horseshoe, which does have live poker tables, is owned by Harrah's. Go figure. The Horseshoe was a nice casino. Big and very well lighted. The clientèle was quite a bit different from the casinos in this area. I go to pick poppy up on Fridays and every-other Saturday at the Indian casino north of town. He loves his poker, but can't drive any more due to his failing eyesight. He can still see the cards though - mostly. The people that frequent the casino (which used to be a Harrah's but has since changed to be solely owned by the Indians) are not what I would classify as the 'beautiful people'. They are definitely not the type of people you would see on that TV show "Las Vegas". They are mostly elderly (nothing wrong with that), but they are grungy and look decidedly unhappy. They are sluggish and disheveled. They look like they should be spending their money on soap, toothpaste and new clothes, rather than gambling it away. But I digress...

The atmosphere in the Horseshoe was a good one. Upbeat and happy and light. The noise of the slots was not overbearing. Things seemed to be moving along at a nominal pace instead of being hurried all the time. The setup for the poker room was nice too. We went and put our name on the list for the 3-6 limit, and they gave up a little pager which would blink and buzz when spots were available. They had like 30 tables in the poker room, only about 5 of which were being used. In the casino here, sometimes one has to wait for several hours on the list before they can get a seat. That is because there are only 4 tables in this one. And they usually have 4 different types of games going. So if there are 10 people that want to play 4-8 limit, and the table is full, that can be a long wait.

It took them about 10 minutes to buzz us, they had enough players to open a new table (which is what I figured would happen). We each took 100 simoleans to gamble with. This is money we saved for the purpose of gambling with, so it isn't like we were gambling with the milk money. All in all, we had a fun time, and overall, we lost about $40 gambling (the 5/8 lost her complete hundred, but I ended up $60 ahead).

Heartland on the 4th

The July 4th holiday went well this year. Despite the early heat, the sounding of the tornado sirens and the rain. At least I didn't have to take anyone to the emergency room this year. All the kids finished the night with all of their fingers and only one had a slight burn, but not from the fireworks.

We went again this year to a friends house. He is a hobby-smoker - that is, he smokes meat for a hobby, not...you know...other things. He has a good sized Independence Day shindig and we attended last year and had quite a bit of fun. His kids are in the same scout troop as my boys. In fact his oldest and my middle boy have been together since cub scouts.

They are great people and we always have fun there. It was a little touch and go. It was a question between traveling to Lawrence to do the 4th with the 5/8's bible thumping Phelps-ish father and her snotty sisters. But our friends in town won out (go figure). Plus, we knew there'd be beer at the party here, and...uh water in Lawrence.

As is our tradition, we waited until July 4 to obtain our fireworks. We do that because it is just too dang tempting to want to light some off before hand. And fireworks are like potato chips, in that you can't do just one. So in order to save the family savings account, we wait until the 4th to get any.

This year was even more relaxing than past years. No. 1 Son is almost 15 years old and No. 2 Son is almost 13. Together they were able to police and keep sanity over the younger kids and need only distant adult supervision. Before I had always felt the need to be right there to make sure they didn't do something stupid. But this year, I was content to sit in a chair at the curb of the park and watch them do their thing.

The other thing good about this year, is that No. 1 Son has his license, so I didn't have to worry too much about how much beer I drank! (w00t).