Cookout....mmmmmm....

Well, our cookout went pretty well this past Saturday. We kicked off at 2:00, but the main crowd didn't show up until later in the afternoon. It was a good turnout with several of my highschool chums showing up, including Woody, Moe, Amy K, Betsy, and Herb. Herb showed up with his wife and three little girls (all cute) and Amy showed up with her husband and daughter (also cute). My bowling buddies showed up with their ladies and kids, and several of Jessica's work friends came with spouses and kids in tow. I think everyone had a pretty good time. The beers were flowin' and I mixed up several drinks throughout the evening. I still have a ton of alcohol, but thankfully most of the food is gone. We stil have some cookies, which could be a threat to getting back on out diet. I have to say, it was really great to see my highschool friends. We don't get together nearly as much as I'd like. It will be even harder now with Moe, Bryan and Gretchen, Amy and Johnny, and Tonya and Jay all moving out of Columbus (not to mention out of the state). I will do my part and try to have a cookout every year. Check out Woody's site if you want to see some pictures of the party.

New Star Trek Flick

I bought a TV guide this week. Not because I need a television guide, but because it was a 'Sci-Fi Preview' and had articles about BSG and a new Star Trek movie in the works. There wasn't much information regarding BSG, just that there are a lot of changes and someone will die in episode three (a substantial character). The big news to me was that there will be a new Star Trek movie. Yes, I've stated that twice already, once in the title and then in my first sentence, but I found this information very interesting. I've seen all of the previous Star Trek and TNG movies to date. The best Star Trek movie, in my opinion, is The Wrath of Kahn and the best TNG movie, in my opinion, was First Contact. There have also some real stinkers in the Star Trek movie line, including Generations (Kirk in a Next Generation flick? Come on.) and The Final Frontier (the one where they go looking for God). Anyway, the next movie in the Star Terk line is going to be based in the Kirk and Spock era, back when they were in the Academy together. The article didn't go into too much detail, but the creator of Lost is going to be at the helm of the project. I don't watch Lost, but I hear it's pretty good. I'm not too sure how thrilled I am about the general idea of the movie. It seems like a step back. I guess that a Voyager movie is out of the question, since the crew made it back to Earth, and a Deep Space nine movie would be dumb too since that series wrapped up too. I guess the only options are Enterprise, which wasn't that great of a show, TNG, or the original crew. If it were me, I would create a whole new crew for future Trek movies. I really see no need to use Kirk and Spock or Picard and Riker for every movie. At least they are changing up things a bit by putting Spock and Kirk in their Academy days. I just hope that they don't try to squeeze William Shattner or Leonard Nemoy into cadet uniforms.

The Drink Menu

For our cook out this weekend, I thought I'd go through my drink book and come up with a list of drinks that I can make with the ingredients that I have on hand. Ok, so I went and got a few extra supplies so that I could make a few different drinks that sounded good to me, but that doesn't make me an alcoholic, does it? Well, here's the list. If you can't find a drink that you like, you need to bring your own drinks. Yes, we will have soda and lemonade for the kiddies and for those of you that would rather stay sober.

ADULT

Blue Hawaiian
Bay Breeze
Blue Margarita
Cape Cod
Margarita
Long Beach Tea
Long Island Iced Tea
Lynchburg Lemonade
Madras
Manhattan
Appletini
Orange Crush
Pink Lemonade
Rum & Coke
Screw Driver
Stone Sour
Kamikaze
Nuclear Kamikaze
Lemon Drop
Sangria
Beer

I started making some food this weekend. I want to get a jump on things so that I don't have alot of cooking to do Saturday.

Eureka

So, I watched the premire of this new show on Sci Fi the other day, called Eureka. It was prety good. Not great, but it didn't suck. It's about a US Marshall that stumbles into a small town (called Eureka) full of geniuses working on top secret experiments. Security is tight and the town sheriff tries to keep the marshall in the dark, but there are too many strange side effects that are effecting the town and the marshall finds out the town's secret. An interesting idea. Really though, the most exciting part of watching Eureka was a five minute teaser of the third season of Battlestar Gallactica. IT LOOKS GREAT!!! I got excited just watching that few minutes. I am still angry that we need to wait until October for new episodes of the greatest show on TV. Anyway, Eureka was pretty interesting. If you are bored and it's on, I'd watch it.

The day is near

T-minus nine days until our big cookout. It looks like we will have a pretty good turnout. I went to Sam's to get some party suppies yesterday. I am concerned about having enough food, but it seems like the last few cookouts that we've had, I made entirely too much food. After the last cookout, we had to eat left overs for almost a week to get rid of everything. Of course, this one looks to be bigger than the last. I'm predicting about 30 people. It looks like almost all of the AWHS grads I;ve invited will be able to make it. There will also be several people from my work and several people from Jessica's work. All in all, it should be a pretty good crowd. If you read my posts and are interested in attending (if I accidentally forgot to invite you) peave me a comment and I can email you the info. Anyway, the menu will include burgers, brats, hot dogs, and chicken. Also, baked beans (for the tooting), salads, chips and dips, and some other appetizers. I am planning on making monster cookies and a chocolate peanut butter bar thing. Yum. We will also have plenty of yummy drinks if you are planning on imbibing alcohol. I'll be able to mix margaritas, Long Island Iced Teas, Appletinis, Manhattans, well, basically anything that you could ask for, even beer! For the kiddies, we will have a variety of sodas. I was thinking about getting one of those Corn Hole games, thinking that they'd cost only a few bucks ($40 or $50) but they are on sale online for over $100 plus shipping. I guess I could look locally, but I doubt that I'll be able to find them much cheaper. I think that we should have enough going on since there will be people that haven't seen each other for ten years or so. Lots of catching up. I guess if people get bored, I have some board games and cards, plus the Xbox. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone.

Pirates and Racism at Toys R Us

I may have mentioned previously, but we recently found a pair of sisters that are of babysitting age. This means that Jessica and I can get out of the house every once in a while to escape the kids. Last night was one of those occasions for us. I was going to have a poker game, but I cancelled it because no one could make it. So, I suggested a night on the town. It was a pretty good time. We started out with dinner as BD Mongolian BBQ. It's like a buffet (we took a night off of our diet) where you put together your meal (they have a large variety of fresh meats, veggies, and sauces) and they cook it in front of you. You can go back as many times as you want. It was pretty good stuff. We were then going to go see Pirates of the Carribbean 2, but had about 45 minutes to kill before we needed to be at the theater. So, we decided to go to Toys R Us to check out the latest in toys and games. I was looking for one of those BSG Colonial Vipers and and Xbox games while Jessica was looking at dolls. After I was through looking, I met Jessica at the girly toy area and she said that she was a little offended. I naturally asked why and she pointed to two dolls marked for clearance. They were the same size, had the same clothes, were made by the same company, and were vertually identical in every way. Only, one was a black doll and one was a white doll. The white doll was $19.95 and the black doll was $9.95. Is that crazy or what? Granted, there were, like seven or eight black baby dolls and ony one white one, but how can you sell the same toy for different prices just because the skin pigmentation is different? If I were a black man, I think I would have been really pissed off. I know we were in Dublin, which is a predominantly white community, but what kind of message does it send to little girls who see that a black baby doll is worth half as much as the white baby doll? It wasn't just this model either. There was a smaller doll on clearance and the white ones were $9.95 and the black ones were $2.95. I think that Toys R Us is really risking some serious PR issues with this. Get Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson in here and Toys R Us is in a world of racial troubles. I understand the concept of supply and demand, there were more black baby dolls than white ones, but you can sell the same toy, or any product, for different prices just because the colors are different. Can you? I'm still a bit floored by that. I wsh I had my camera with me for documentation.

We finally made it to the movie. It was pretty good. Some of the scenes were a bit over the top for my taste, but there were some good funny parts and good action sequences. The effects were good too. It was sorta like The Empire Strikes Back in that it leaves you hanging at the end. I won't go into details, but this is the first part of a two part movie story. You definately get a 'Han is frozen in carbonite and things don't look good for the rebellion' feeling at the end of this movie. You need to have seen the first movie to get all of the jokes and dramatic character appearances. Almost everyone is back from the first flick. If you were a fan of the first movie, you should go see this one too.

Don't They Care?

As you may or may not know, I enjoy playing poker. Texas Hold'em is my game. I've been playing for a year or two and like to think that I am an OK player. I'd say that I win money about 50% of the times that I play. I started out playing in tournaments where all of the entry money goes into a prize pool and the winner of the game gets most of the money, depending on the pay-outs. You may get $2000 in chips for a $20 entry fee. When you lose your chips, you're out. If you watch poker on TV, you are watching a tournament. Lately, I have been playing in a cash game every once in a while. What a cash game means is that if you put in $20 as an entry fee, you get $20 in chips. If you lose your chips, you can buy more. I have played in this cash game three times now. Needless to say, I think I have the players figured out, but maybe not. I say that I think I have them figured out because, the first time I played with them I put in $73 and left with $138, the second time I played with them I put in $40 and left with $148, and last night I put in $20 and left with $200. This is why I am starting to think that I have gotten pretty OK at this poker thing. Doing the math shows that I am up about $350 on these people. I don't think that I am overly aggressive when I play or extremely lucky. If I get a hand, I play it. If I miss a hand, I can usually tell if I can bluff a person out of the hand or not. I also think my success is because the other players can't really figure me out. I have most of them pegged and know most of their tendancies. I ask 'Do they care?' because it just seems like they are ok with betting, losing, and buying back into the game. One of the guys lost all of his money and went to the ATM to get more. TWICE!!! Me, I took out $60 because that is what I'd be willing to lose. Thankfully, I did not need the whole $60. I guess it's good that they are willing to put in more money because the more they put in, the more I can win. I guess I just don't get the mind set of the poker player that is willing to keep throwing money into a game when they are constantly losing. It must be nice to be able to afford losing a ton of money playing cards. Actually, I think I am happy in the role of the person that collects.

DVR, Worth the $7 per month

I just got the greatest piece of technology on Tuesday. DVR. It's like TiVo, but you don't need to buy a special box for $100 or so. All I did was call Time Warner and say, "Hey, I want DVR." The set up a time for us to get a new box, sent out a tech and I had DVR after a five minute installation. If you don't know, DVR adds the availability to your cable box to record TV shows. You can watch one show while taping another, or you can tape two shows at once (if you are out of the house. The only thing is that you haev to be tuned into one of the shows.) We can also pause live televisions and then rewind and fast forward accordingly. Want to watch that touchdown pass again? Rewind and replay. Want to pause commercials? Hit pause for a few minutes and then hit 'live' and the show will continue in real time. It also has a picture in picture feature. I can watch the OSU game on one channel and another game in the PIP. AWESOME!!!! The coolest thing is that we can tape the shows and then fast forward through the commercials and boring parts. Fo example, we watched Nightmares and Dreamscapes on TNT (shows based on Stephen King stories) but weanted to watch the last hour of America's got Talent. We pressed record for America's got Talent and tuned in TNT. After the Stephen Kind shows, we went to the recorded America's got Talent (an hour was left in the show) and fast forwarded through the commercials and BS parts and just watched the acts in 25 minutes. IT WAS GREAT!!! The thing that drives me nuts about reality TV is the waisted minutes on BS things. Cut to the chase. Get to the good parts of the show. Now, I can do that. I highly recommend the DVR feature it it is available in your area.

Goofy New Dog

I am sure I have mentioned that we have a new dog. His name is Moose and was Jessica's mom's dog. There was much drama getting him away from the guy that Jessica's mom lived with, but we knew that Sue would not have wanted us to leave Moose with that jerk. Long story. Anyway, He is pretty well behaved. He was spoiled like crazy, so it's taking him a little while to be treated like a dog again. He likes to crap upstairs, so we don't let him up there anymore. Maybe in a while when he is used to going outside all of the time (he's getting alot better about that) we may let him have the run or the house. Personally, I don't mind having a space that is dog-free. Lexie gets along with him alright. There are a few times when she gets irritated and has to let Moose know that she is the boss-dog of the house. Oh by the way, Moose is a French Bulldog. Goofy looking thing.

BSG collectables

As you may know, I have been collecting Star Wars die cast ships for Gabriel. I decorated his room in a Star Wars motiff and used the ships as decoration. It looks pretty cool. Anyway, I was checking Target for any new ships that I may not have already (I saw a Millenium Falcon there, ut I already had a Millenium Falcon with battle damage. Didn't think I needed both) and I came across a cool discovery. My favorite show, Battle Star Galactica, has some die cast ships out too! I think there are only three, the Battlestar, a Cylon Raider, and a Colonial Viper. I only saw the Battlestar and the Raider, so I am keeping my eyes peeled for a Viper. I am not one of those obsessive collectors that keep the ships in their protective cases, I actually get them out to look at and display. I don't care about resale value. They're toys for crying out loud. Anyway, I just thought these were cool.

Signs of Summer

Do you know how I know it's Summer? I have had a sever allergic reaction to something growing in my back yard, not once, but twice this year. I think it's poison sumac. I know what poison ivy looks like and would never touch it, but I've never really seen poison sumac or poison oak before. I guess it could be poison oak, but does it really matter? The point is I am itchy and miserable and have been sine the weekend. I finally broke down and called our doctor. He's great. He works with Jessica sometimes (some of her nursing home residents are his patients) and he knows that she is a good nurse, so she can just call him and request a perscription and he'll write it for her. No, he won't give us morphine or anything serious, but he wrote me a perscription for something to help with my rash. We also got some soap that helps and an anti itch spray. I am feeling a bit less crazy now. When I touch one of the 'poison' plants mentioned, I get the bad reaction on the point of contact (itchy blisters) but it also travels thoughout my system and makes me break out in a rash everywhere. That's what makes this so unbearable. I can deal with an itchy hand, but throw in my arms, legs, and body, I go a little crazy. Anyway, it's clearing up a bit, so I should be ok in a few days. Needless to say, I am spraying any weeds that I cannot identify myself.

Sign number two of summer, this pretty butterfly that flitted around out backyard for a while. We think is may be a Buckeye, but are not sure.

I am George Lucas's Bitch

I am sure that you all know by reading this blog that I like sci fi. I've always been a fan of the Star Trek shows, and LOVE Battle Star Galactica. What you may not know is that this sci fi streak in me was born when I saw Star Wars. Back then, it was just called Star Wars, not Star Wars, Episode Four, A New Hope. I own three copies of the the original trilogy. Mr. Lucas, or as I like to call him, Mr. Marketing Genius, sold the movies on VHS, which I bought. Then sold the Special Edition movies on VHS, which I bought. And then released the films on DVD, which I was gifted on Christmas. I also have two copies of Episode One, the Phantom Menace. VHS and DVD. At my parent's house, there is a huge box of old figures and vehicles from my childhood. I own several Star Wars Lego sets, Star Wars Xbox games, Star Wars Nintendo games, Star Wars Pez dispensers, and Gabriel's room is decked out in Star Wars decor. Needless to say, I've lined George Lucas's pockets a bit. This was done yet again yesterday when the family and I went to COSI, the science center here in Columbus, to see the Star Wars exhibit. It was pretty cool, but we had to wait two hours before we could get into the exihibit. No, we weren't in a line that long. We bought our entry tickets to Cosi at 2:00, but were not allowed into the Star Wars area until 4:15. They obviously know that they everyone wants to see the Star Wars stuff. So, we went around to the other exhibits to pass the time. Oddly enough, we ran into the Hogg girls (Tonya, Terry, and Tammy) and Doug Sheridan. They were a bit distracted though since all of their children (between the three Hogg girls, they have 8) ran into the Space exhibit as we were exiting. By the way, the Space exhibit and Ocean exhibit freaked out Gabriel and Alydia a bit. They are a bit loud. When we finally got into the Star Wars exhibit, it was pretty cool. There were several scale models, lots of costumes, and other attractions. It was pretty cool. We took lots of pictures of the boys in front of things. Alydia wasn't so impressed. She was a pretty good girl though for being in a stroller so long. If you are interested in Star Wars, I recommend that you check out the COSI exhibit.