Ohio: The Number Two State

Once again an Ohio team got to the title game of a sport and came in second. It seems to be our lot in life. OSU got to the National Title Game for football against Florida, and lost. Then, they got to the National Title Game for basketball against Forida, and lost. The Cleveland Cavs got to the NBA Finals, and lost. Now, the Columbus Destroyers got to the Arena Bowl, AND LOST!! Anyone see a pattern? I didn't watch a single game of the Destroyers season until the Arena Bowl yesterday, and then I only half watched it as I worked. It really isn't my bag, but I wanted to witness an Ohio team, ANY Ohio team, bring home the gold. My first taste of bitterness at a loss of an Ohio team was when the Cleveland Browns lost to Denver in the playoffs, twice, years ago. I've also seen the Cleveland Indians get close to the World Series and the Cavs get close to the NBA title. I'm probably wrong, but the only title that I can remember an Ohio team winning in my lifetime is Ohio State's win in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Ever since then, it has been close, but no cigar. A perfect year for me would be a National Title for Ohio State in ALL sports and the Cleveland Browns, Indians, and Cavs to win their respective titles along with the Columbus Bluejackets and Crew (the Destroyers too, I guess). Sorry Woody, but I gotta put the Bowns above my desire to see the Bengals win the Super Bowl. Of course, it is more likely that the Bengals will do it first, but I a not a huge Cinci fan. Anyway, the Arena bowl was close in the first half, but they the Destroyers ended up losing by about 22, I think. I forget who they played, but they got an ass whoopin'.

Instead of a Summer Cookout.....

Sorry folks. This summer has just gotten past me too quickly. What with going to California and trying to keep up with yard work and other things, planning a cookout just slipped my mind. Besides, most of the people that I would have invited have moved out of state or are having kids this summer. So, I dicided to put off the summer cookout and will plan an early fall birthday party. Jessica's birthday is in September, so I will tempt the fates and risk having a party during football season. It will probably not be anything too big, but I will certainly include your names on the invite list if you feel the need to come to C-bus for some Rhodes home cookin'. Again, I am sorry to those of you that were looking forward to a summer cookout here. It just doesn't seem like it will work out. It would probably be on the 8th or 22nd of September. More likey the 22nd, since I have the opportunity to go to an OSU football game on the 8th. Still, I need to check the OSU football schedule (yes, I plan things around the OSU season) and also check with Jessica to see what would work best for her. I may go with a Friday or Sunday date instead. We'll see.

I need to check and see if I have a vagina

Not only do I watch homo-suspicious shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance (mostly Jessica watches them and I don't NOT watch), but lately I have been we have been watching an old show called China Beach. It is an '80s show about a R&R site/hospital in Vietnam during the war. It's a pretty good show, actually, but has some bad acting and an occasional cheesey story. Typical '80s TV. I would class it as a chick flick-type show, but it's not bad due to the occasional war action and attractive women. One of the show highlights is Dana Delaney (seen on the left here). I always thought she was attractive. She is a nurse in the show and apparently, likes to run around in her bra and panties. Marg Helgenberger from CSI and Robert Picardo from Star Trek Voyager are both in the show. I don't know that the show would be for everyone, but Jessica likes it because of the nurse connection. I won't go on too much about China Beach, but it is sometimes on the History Channel or the Halmark Channel. It's a decent show if there is nothing else on.

As a side note, Dana Delaney is reported to be one of the newest cast members on Desparate Housewives, one of my guilty pleasures. If you follow the link, you will also see that Mal is joining the cast too. Nathan Fillion will be Dana Delaney's husband on the show. It is good that Mal keeps getting jobs. It will be weird watching him as a resident on Wisteria Lane instead of shootin' bad guys and delivering clever one liners.

A Few Updates

HARRY POTTER MOVIE - As mentioned in the comments of my last post, I went to see the latest Harry Potter film. It was really good. Therre was alot of action and good special effects. The story was good too, of course. Order of the Phoenix has been my favorite book to date. The only issue I have with these movies is that there is SO much more in the books that never makes the silver screen. The same is true for Order of the Phoenix. I guess the same is true for any book turned into a movie. Still, a good movie. The only issue I had was with the theater. We went to the Movie Tavern, where you can order food and sit at tables, and they did not turn the lights off until all the food was served. That means that we had to watch several minutes of the movie with lights glaring off the screen. I'm doing pretty well with the latest book. I get a little tired of all of Harry's whining though. He's going up against the most dangerous and evil person in the world. Get over yourself!! I know teens are full of hormones and aggression, but it gets a little old after a while.

DEAD RISING - I finally beat Dead Rising. The real ending this time. I got through the game once, but did not make it back to the helocopter in time, so I didn't really beat the game the first time. This time I got to the chopper, which caused 'overtime mode'. It took me a long time to get through overtime mode, mostlt because the commandoes kept kicking my ass. They had body armor, so guns were not too effective. I figured out swords worked well though. I got through to the end and completed the game, causing infinity mode. I haven't played it yet, but am hoping that there are no time limits for any of the quests. I should be able to get more, if not all, of the quests completed.

FUNNY ONIONS - I went to the Sam's to pick up some things (when you have three kids, you need to buy things in bulk) and I went to grab some onions. They were the funniest onions I have ever seen. Not actually the onions themselves. They were orginary run of the mill onions. It was the packaging. Did you know that NASCAR sponsored onions? I found this to be HI-LARIOUS. Don't believe me? Well, that's why I added the photo. Now, I get Wheaties boxes, even some of the special edition cans of pop and packages of snacks, but who knew that a bad of vidalia onions peaked enough of a buzz to make NASCAR want to sponsor them. I mean, how ofter do you peal an onion and think to yourself, "I needs to watch me some NASCAR."? I chuckle a bit just thinking about it.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE? - I watch too many of these stupid talent/reality shows. Mostly because there is nothing else on and Jessica likes them. One of the shows is So You Think You Can Dance? It's like American Idol, but with dancers. I was actually reading the latest HP book last night, more than I was watching the show, but it was on. I mostly look up to see hot women in the sexy dancer outfits. Also, the dancing can be a little interesting. It amazes me how these people can make their bodies twist and move. Some of the dances they have to do are a little silly sometimes though. Another fun side effect is that Alydia always dances when this show is on and it is SO CUTE!! I enjoy watching her dance. I should really video tape it some time, since we have that fancy video camera.

Harry Potter Mania

Lefty's posting about it: Harry Potter mania is sweeping the globe this month with both the release of the latest Harry Potter movie (Order of the Phoenix) and Saturday's release of the final book, The Deathly Hallows. 11 million books sold in one day? Are you kidding me?? That's amazing. Did you know that J.K Rowling was broke and living on the streets when she wrote the first Hary Potter book? Can anyone say, "multi-millionaire?" I knew you could. Anyway, due to the lack of a reliable sitter, we have not yet seen the latest movie. I think that we are going to go tonight. I did, however, add myself to the 11 million people that bought the book Saturday. I have read all of the books to date and have been looking forward to the release of The Deathly Hallows. I am not the fastest reader in the world, and I really don't have a ton of time to read, what with my enormous Xbox habit, but I am already several chaptes into the book. I was up until 2:30 am on Saturday night because I got caught up in an exciting chapter. Needless to say, so far this has been the darkest and most grusome book to date. And I am not even half way into the book. It will require some serious editing to avoid an R rating in the movie theaters if the gore continues. It's not the movie Hostle gore, but still, some gross parts so far. I think that I was fortunate in the fact that I saw some of the movies before reading the books. The First book, The Sorcerer's Stone, was a bit weak and definately more of a kids book. The same was true for The Chamber of Secrets. Rowling's writing improved and The Prizoner of Azkaban really got good and all the other books to date have been excellent. If you have never ead them, give them a try. My favorite book so far has probably been The Order of the Phoenix. I can't wait to see the film. I was suprised when I asked one of my co-workers, April, if she was getting the new book and she said she had never read any of them or saw any of the movies. Are you kidding me? I thought that everyone has read at least one of the books. You should really start at the first book though so that you get all of the back story and character develpoment. The movies do a good job of telling the story, but you really miss out on some good subplots and side stories if you don't read the books.

NCAA 08

I went ahead and bought NCAA 07 Football. It's pretty good. I haven't had too much time to play yet though. I started a dynasty and played a few online games. It's amazingly easy to gain ahievements. I picked up a bunch yesterday. One just for playing a game online. I also got others for multiple sacks and big plays. The game plays like the 07 version, but there are some changes. There are more audibles and moves. It's taking me a while to get used to them. My biggest beef with the game is that, after your opponent picks an offensive play, you only get seven seconds to pick one on defense. this was OK in the old version because you could view six plays at a time, but the 08 version only shows you four. It takes time to scroll to the play you want, so sometimes you don't get to the right play in time. As a result, I only played three or four different plays on defense. I think my mistake was playing online before playing a few more games in my dynasty. the AI in the game is easier to beat than an actual person. I would also have a chance to learn more plays. I also need to set up audibles. I used a few back in the day, but I think they will really be beneficial in the new game. My other beef is that it is about ten times easier to throw an interception. The second game I played, I threw easily six interceptions. Pissed me off. Two went back for TD's and I lost the game by 3. I caught 3 or 4 myself, so it's not just that I suck on offense. Ohio State is more average than last year. I never played against them then someone played them online and I never played as them online because of their insane speed on offense and defense. It was unfair and even no talent people could win with OSU in the 07 version. Now, the game has them ranked #12 and they are more average. No Troy, Teddy, or Gonzo. The running game is still pretty good and their linebackers are good too, but the QB and receivers are average. Another thing that suprised me about this game was that, when I started my dynasty, I played a school that I never heard of. In the 07 version, you played the actual 07 season of your team. If that were the case here, I should have played Youngstown State. I have no idea who I played in my first dynasty game on 08. UNW FC or some crazy acronym like that. I clobbered them 52-0.

All in all, I think I will enjoy NCAA 07 Football. I really need to take the time to master the more subtle skills if I am going to be competative online. Otherwise, I will get my ass kicked all over the place.

I need to start writing stuff down.

I can't believe it. At age 32 (I had to do the math real quick) my memory has turned to shit. It's my mom's fault. Genetically, at least. My grandma had altzeimers real bad and my mom fears she will be the same way. I will probably be right there in years to come. Why do I think this? I come up with ideas and think of things that I need to do, but if I don't write them down, these ideas and plans are forgotten quicker than water through a strainer. I usually don't post Tuesday and Wednesday because I don't usually come down to my office. I think of things to post some times, but if I don't write the ideas down or post right away, I usually forget what I am posting. Anyway, I had a senior moment a few minutes ago when I forgot I was going to post about Doctor Who and Eureka.

THANK GOD FOR SCI FI IN THE SUMMER

Otherwise my summer viewing schedule would suck. Doctor Who and Eureka are two good shows that supliment my summer viewing. David Tennant is starting to grow on me as the Doctor. I really liked the second episode when the hospital he was in was transported to the moon. He absorbed some radiation and then shook it down into his shoe in front of his new friend. He took his shoe off, she said he was mental, and he agreed because wearing only one shoe looked silly. It translates poorly on a post, but was funny in the episode.

Eureka is about a top secret, hidden, town of geniuses that invent new wave high tech stuff that often malfunctions. The sherriff, a US Martial who stumbled into Eureka, kind of stumbles into solutions for the malfunctions. It is a pretty good show with neat ideas.

As a side note, the commercials I am seeing for BSG are a little troubling. Admiral Cane was in one. I hope they are not jumping back to before she was offed. Maybe they are going to go in depth about the Pegasus' crew and their route after the Cylon attack. I hope not. It would piss me off if they would drop the "these guys are all cylons" bomb on us and then avoid that whole story line next season.

First picture used from my Flickr page

I got a suprise the other day when someone asked me to use one of the pictures I posted on my Flickr page for another internet site. It is a pretty cool picture. It's a full sized Volvo made of Legos. I guess I am more of a photoprapher than I thought. Anyway, here's the link to the story. Does this mean I should expect a royalties check?

I'm not Rinnert

If you check out Rinnert's site, you can see some pretty cool pictures. One of these days I need to look through all of them. Anyway, since I own a camera, I figure I should use it right? The problem is that I own a crappy digital camera and the zoom sucks. Actually, I have two cameras. One is a DVD camera and also takes stills and the other is a normal digital camera. Well, the two pictures here are with my non-DVD camera. I like it because it is small and easy to use. The problem is, when you zoom, you can't move at all or the picture blurs. These pictures are the best that I tried to take of these two butterflies in my back yard. The white one had blue on the inside of it's wings, but it wouldn't hold still with it's wings open. It was about the size of a dime, so I had to get really close. You can see from my Flickr page that some of my pictures aren't too great. Probably because of the fact that I don't really know how to use the camera correctly. If the light settings are off, there can be a lot of glare. The beach pictures are the most obvious example of this.

California Trip

Day one: Thursday, we packed the kids up and went to Columbus International Airport for a 10:40 flight to LAX. Oh, first we had a quick lay over at Cincinnati Airport. It was pretty quick though. We got off and right back on to another plane. We landed in LA, got our baggage, picked up our rental car, and then stopped by Jessica' s aunts (Becky) for dinner. We hung out there for a while (pretty late, I guess if you consider we were on Ohio time) and eventually got to our hotel in Palmdale around 11:00 (2:00 Ohio time). I ran to Walmart real quick for a few things, and went to sleep.

Day two: Friday we went to Jessica's cousin Christy's house. Her grandma and other aunt came over too. We ordered Pizza and eventually went home. Christy and Jessica's grandma are pretty religious. I guess Jess' grandma hasn't spoken to her Aunt Becky for years because of their different views on faith. Also, her grandma has avoided all contact with her dad since he came out of the closet. Anyway, it was about 110 degrees out, so I stayed in the AC on the couch.

Day three: We left hotel #1 and went to the beach and then checked into hotel #2 for a night. The beaches were nice. It amazed me the temperature differences from Palmdale (about 100 everyday), to the LA (about ten degrees cooler), and the beach (low 80's). Noah had fun in the waves and Gabriel and Alydia got their feet wet, but were too timid to go in too deep. At hotel #2, the kids all enjoyed the pool. It was a little cool in the water, but we all had a blast. I think we may get a pool next summer. We definately need to get the kids swimming lessons.

Day four: We left hotel #2 and went to Legoland. It was pretty fun. There were all sorts of cool things made by Legos. There are lots of pictures on my Flickr page. Gabriel said that he liked Legoland the best. He had a lot of fun on the rides and checking out Legos. Back to hotel #1 again.

Days Five and Six: We basically chilled out at the hotel and at Christy's again. We swam alot in the pool and went to see Jessica's grandma again. A funny red neck side note: Jessica and her cousin are both on her Grandma Burkert's side. The other grandma is Jessica's dad's mother. Cousin Christy's mom died a long time ago and Grandma Walters divorced and remarried........Christy's dad (Jessica's uncle). So, Jessica's grandma is her aunt and her uncle is her step-grandfather. "You know you're a red neck when....."

Day seven: We left hotel #1 again and went to hotel #3 and Disneyland. It was really weird. The streets and walkways in Disney were packed with wall-to-wall people. Images of standing in line for hours or sitting with Alydia for hours while Jess took the big kids on rides flooded my brain. However, the longest wait that we had for any ride was 45 minutes (Jess took the boys on Space Mountain while I played Galaga and watched Ally). Everything else was 30 minutes or less. If there was a line that looked long, there would be another ride next door that would have no line. The only thing we wanted to go on but didn't was the Finding Nemo submarine ride. We couldn't even find the end of the line for that. One cheesey thing was the Pirates of the Carribean ride. It was just the Pirate Ride, but with "Where's Capitan Jack Sparrow?" dialogue added in. At the end, there was a Johnny Depp animatronic puppet sitting on a pile of gold singing a pirate song. Cheesey. (I had been on the Pirate Ride back in the day)

Last day: Did I mention Hotel #3 was a dive with black mold in the bathroom? Luckily we were only there for one night and only to sleep. Next time (if we go back to Disney) I told Jessica that we can spring for a Disney Resort hotel so that it will be clean. It was nasty. Anyway, we went back to Disneyland and also to Disney California Adventure, which is more of a 'big kid' ride. I got stuck with the little ones while Jessica and Noah went on a roller coaster. We went on a carosel and had some ice cream. I got my turn to go on a 'big kid' ride when we went on the Tower of Terror. It's a left and drop kind of ride. Gabe didn't like it too much since it literally lifted you out of you seat when you fell. The ferris wheel was interesting. most of the cars were on tracks so that you would go up and down and swing back and forth as the wheel revolved. We left the park around 7:00 (after the parade) and made it to the ariport with plenty of time to check and grab some dinner before the flight at 10:40. We arrived back at Columbus at 5:50 am. (remember the time difference) It was a pretty miserable flight since Alydia was having trouble sleeping and there was some turbulance. Still, we made it home in one piece. I am going to add beach pictures to my Flickr site soon.

I lied

I know I said that I would post more about our trip to California, but I have a few other items I feel I need to address first:

First, a few trip tid-bits that I should have added to yesterday's post: 1. there are more Spanish TV channels in LA then English speaking channels. 2. Denny's is a heart attack waiting to happen. We don't have Denny's in Columbus (that I know of) so when we went to one in CA, I was suprised a the about of meats on each breakfast. Each egg dish came with bacon AND sausage as a side. There were other dishes that included extra bacon and sausage, plus even more that had ham and smoked sausage added to the meat mix. The craziest, heart-stopping meal was the 'caver omelet' which was stuffer with ham, sausage, and bacon, then topped with cheese sause, and served with a side of bacon and sausage. I needed a triple bypass just looking at the picture.

Xbox news: To NCAA 08 or not to? NCAA Football 08 is coming out this week. Do I want to buy it? I sort of do because all of the online gamers will be upgrading and I will need to as well if I want to play any online football games. Still, I have a few other games I need to attend to first and may not have the time to give the game the attention needed for me to be competative online. I'll probably cave and get it.

I beat Dead Rising last night. Well, sort of. I should say that I completed the game. I killed the last 'boss' the butcher, but the these army commandos came in and kicked my ass, tied me up, and I missed the deadline to escape with the truth. The game saved and I now haev to start over. I will probably keep playing so that I can kill more bad guys and save more people. Plus, there area alot of achievements that I need to complete. Still I was frustrated that I got to the end of the game and then got my butt kicked in a heartbeat and catipulted back to the beginning of the game.

TRANSFORMERS: I took the boys to see Transformers this past Friday. I figured it was a good way to unwind and also give the girls some alone time. Plus, I really wanted to see it. It was pretty good. There were a few editing schemes I would have avoided (like the smattering of slow motion action segments here and there) but all in all, I thought it was pretty well done. The effects were neat, there was plenty of action, and a hot girl. What more do you need? I didn't like that the Autobots were all Chevys. Bumblebee is supposed to be a VW Beetle, not a Camaro. Still, other than that, I was pleased with some of the old school dialogue like, "One shallstand and one shall fall." Oh, and did I catch that Prime and Megatron are supposed to be brothers? Hmm. All in all, this is a movie that I will probably buy when the DVD comes out.

I still need to see Harry Potter. The new book is out this month too.

Flickr Pics

So, I added all of the interesting pictures from our trip to my Flickr page. I hope you like them. I will post more content tomorrow, but here are a few observations that I made about Cali:

1. in California, they say 'soda' not 'pop'.
2. in California, every highway is preceeded by saying 'the'. The 104. The 14. The 405. etc. In Ohio, we just say the route number: "Take 315." rather than "Take the 405."
3. driving in LA brought out a whole new aggressive driving style I never knew was in me. No one yields to merging traffic and keeping 'safe distance' from the car infront of you is open invitation to others to cut in front of you.
4. LAX is a pain in the ass compaired to Columbus Internation Airport
5. 'Dry heat' is bull shit. Hot is hot.
6. LA has TONS more fast food options. They have the McDonalds, BK, and Wendy's options, like in Ohio, but also, Jack in the Box, Popeyes, Weinerschnitzel, an In'N'Out Burger. Funny since California is supposed to be a 'healthy' state co0mpaired to Ohio.
7. POP (remember, they say 'soda') is way over priced in CA. Here in Columbus, I can get a 12 pack of pop for $3.99, sometimes 4 for $10 if they are on sale, but in California, it was $5.50 for a 12 pack.

A few interesting things we saw:

1. Barbed wire on the bottoms of interstate signs to prevent grafitti
2. A highway sign indicating illegal immigrant crossings on the highway (like a deer crossing sign in Ohio)
3. A brush fire
4. Mountains
5. 110 degree temperature. It was a 'dry heat' though.
6. I saw a child on a leash. I thought of Woody, took a picture, but it was kinda far away, so it looked like I was taking a picture of the mom's ass. It was a nice ass at least, but I deleted the picture.
7. A lotof people swim in shirts. I do it to spare the world from the sight of my grossness, but there were alot of kids in shirts swimming too. Probably because of the intense sunlight.
8. Smog is gross. On a perfectly sunny day, thereis a gray haze over LA.
9. There weren't as many women with obviously fake boobies as I thought I would see. A few, yes, but my guess is that the local women that would (steriotypically) have the fakies probably don't hang out at Disney or Lego Land.

More Tomorrow.

I'm Baaaaack

We arrived in Columbus at 5:50 am this morning. The flight was pretty miserable withAlydia not wanting to sleep. It wasn't too bad though. All in all the trip was pretty good. Some low points, but mostly a good time. I will go into details as the week goes on, including pictures and commentary about Lego Land, Disneyland, California Adventures, the beach, and other general happenings. I am pretty beat today, so the plan is to relax and recover from vacation. I think I will take the boys to see Transformers today and Jess and I might go see Harry Potter tomorrow. So, I should be chalk full posts in the next coming days. Also, be sure to check my Flickr site for pictures. I had to go through and delete some pictures from the memory card (like blury pics and similar pics) because I took so many (over 200). So, more later.

Last Post For Awhile

Well, we are leaving for California on Thursday. I don't own a laptop and am not sure if I will have any computer access, so this is going to be the last post for a while. We get back on the 13th at the butt crack of dawn (like 6:00 am). We should all be pretty wiped out, since we will have a week chalk full of activities. Lego Land, Disney, the beach, and family gatherings... should be fun. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures to share. Now, I'm not going to be as organized as Mona was with her European escapade, but we do have a list of things to pack and times that we need to be places. I'm going to be taking my IPod as my main source of entertainment in our down time. I have all of the last season of Lost to watch. I'm also going to take an old Game Boy with Tetris. I love that game. We also have a portable DVD player for the kids to watch in the car and on the plane. I feel a little nervous taking all this high dollar stuff on a trip out of state. If forget something in Cali, it will be harder to retrieve than if I forgot something at my parent's house a few hours away. I just hope that I will be able to survive a week without my Xbox and computer. I do like my high tech toys. I'll be off for the next two days, so hopefully I will be able to get in a good zombie killin' fix. I don't know how I'm going to go back to work after being off for 12 days. It is going to be tough dragging myself out of bed. Well, I guess I will be back online in a few weeks. Be sure to check back for trip updates and pictures.

Garden Before and After and Pansy Final

Not much to post today, so I thought I would post a few pictures. I took a picture of my garden a while back and another one today. You can see that most of the plants have gone crazy. There is also a picture of that pansy I was posting about from time to time. Lame, I know, but I have lots of time on my hands. The last picture is of a cucumber and yellow squash out of the garden. I am looking forward to eating them. We picked enough green beans of a meal too. YUM! I just hope that the tomatoes start turning red soon. They are the whole reason that I grown veggies. Home grown tomatoes are the best.