Going to try Poker again

I am hosting another card game tonight. I've been on a run of horrible luck lately. I took a few weeks off to try to get my head straight. I was starting to sit at the table expecting to lose. That usually means that I am going to lose. The lasst few times I've played haven't been too bad. I've played well and only lost due to bad luck. Plus, I usually play to have fun more than to win. That means I am a little more wreckless. I am going to try to keep my head tonight and play smart. I need to start recouping some of my losses over the last few months.

Will they be Worth the Dough?

There are alot of movies Jessica and I want to see this summer. I love movies. I mostly buy DVDs, but a 42 inch TV just isn't as good as going to the big screen for the full theatrical experience. DVDs are a hel of a lot cheaper though. $15-$20 for a DVD makes more sense than $20 for the tickets, $10-$20 for drinks and snacks, and $30-$40 for a sitter. Plus, you can watch a DVD over and over, plus you can pause it to go pee. Anyway, here are the films we want to see, in no particular order:

Get Smart - Could this have been cast any better? I watched Get Smart re-runs as a kid, so this should be a cool blast from the past.

The Hulk - Jessica has a thing for Edward Norton. This will probably be delegated to a DVD watching.

The Happening - We love M Knight Shyamalan movies. They are always off the beaten path and pretty original. Some are scary, all are good.

Indiana Jones - This will be the first Indy film we have the chance to see in a theater. If Harrison Ford keeps this up, he may break a hip.

The Dark Knight - I hope this is at good as the last Batman flick. It looks like it is going to be great.

Hancock (maybe, probably a DVD pick) - Will Smith as a grumpy, moody superhero. It looks interesting. We'll see.

Of course, there is the new Harry Potter movie in November and Star Trek in December, but I am talking summer movies here. Did I miss any?

Busy Weekend

Saturday - Alydia's party was fun. She got several nice presents from family and friends. Her favorite seems to be clothes. She is SUCH a girl. Oh, and she got some little kid make up. Nothing whorey, just stuff like lip gloss and nail polish. I think Jessica likes playing dress up as much as Ally does. The food was good, the drink was good, everything was good.

Sunday - Since it was so nice out and I had my parents around to help out with everything, I was able to get a lot of yard work done. I started the day by putting in the veggie garden. YIPPIE!! So far, I have tomatoes, peppers, and cucumers going. I still have room for green beans and squash. I just LOVE summer time fresh veggies. Especially the tomatoes. they are SO much better than the store bought ones. I also cleaned out my garage. It ws getting pretty bad. Now that I have a shed and all of the gardening stuff is in it, I have alot more room in the garage. Plenty of room to park in there again. I think I am going to let Jessica park in there from now on so that, when it is snowing, she will be able to go to work without needing to scrape her car off first. Plus, her car is in better shape than mine now. I have scratched and dings all over my car.

I will try to put pictures from the party up n my Flickr page soon.

Almost Party Time

It's hard to believe that, in two days, my little Ally is going to be turning three. It's true when they say that kids grow up too fast. Sure, it will be nice when she is five and gets to go to school, but for now I am more than happy to have her be a little gorl for as long as possible. She is so sweet (most of the time). Tomorrow, we are having a little party. Friends are welcome to pop over. Unfortunately, most of my readers live hours away from me. Still, if anyone feels like popping in, we are kicking things off tomorrow at 4:00 (Saturday). We will have:

Tony Paco's hot dogs
Burgers
Chips
German Potatoe salad
fruit salad
veggie salad
sourkraut balls
dips
cake
drinks (of course)

I am guessing that there will be too much food, since that is how we Rhodes folk roll. YUMMY!!

Busy Day

Yesterday, Jessica took the day off so that we could do things to get ready for Alydia's party this Saturday. I was a busy fella. We went shopping in the morning and then I went to work on projects around the house. I mowed the grass, sprayed the grass with some weed killer, dug up the garden, and completed a border around the flower bed in the back yard. It took me a while and was bery tiring. Still, I always feel good when I get a lot of work done. You would think that I would try to get more things done, but it doesn't happen. We still need to clean the house and get the food ready, but mostly we should be ready to go for Saturday.

If anyone wants to come to the party Saturday, feel free. We are kicking off at 4:00.

Gas sucks

I went to get some gas Friday before having, yet another, bad week at playing cards. I have stopped filling my tank all the way. I drive a minivan, which isn't as bad as you think (I have a comfortable seat and plenty of hauling room in the back), but I have a 20 gallon tank. When gas prices are almost $4 per gallon, you can do the math. Since I don't do most of the driving anymore, I only put in about a half tank every time I fill up. Sure, I could get a full tank and go to the gas station less often, but I just have a problem with paying $80 for a tank of gas. In the meantime, gas and oil companies are still posting record earnings. Anyone else think that they are gauging the American people? If gas prices are really as high as we need to pay, and people are buying less gas because of the costs, how are these black souled companies still posting record gains? I'm just glad Jessica has a car that gets good mileage. Hopefully Bryan and Gretchen don't go broke paying for gas on their country wide trip.

Wii Fun

I have been playing Super Mario Galaxy lately. It is a load of fun. It is like the classic Super Mario games in that you have to save the Princess from Bowser by going through different levels and defeating different 'bosses' at the end. Actually, sometimes you need to complete difficult tasks. The setting is different though, in that you need to go through galaxies instead of the traditional levels. Each level is a different planet in the galaxy or the galaxy itself. Jessica is playing it too. She is irritated that I am further along in the game than she is. She is stuch on a level that you have to cross floors that move and have holes in it. The floor moves away from your goal, so you need to move fast to jump all the holes (different shaped holes). It is pretty rough.

I am also pretty good and Mario Carts Wii. I think I mentioned it before. I now have almost all of the races completed and have a gold cup on all but two levels. The hardest race for me to beat was the Rainbow Road. I kept falling off. I want to take my skills online and see how I measure up.

"I'll Ro-Sham-Bo you for it"

Ok, maybe I am stupid, but I didn't know what ro-sham-bo meant. I'm sure I have heard the term several times in my life, but the time that sticks out for me is when I watched South Park on DVD (season 1) a few weeks ago. There was a dispute between Cartman and Stan. Cartman suggested they 'ro-sham-bo for it'. When asked what that meant, cartman said that you take turns kicking each other in the nuts until someone gives up. The person that doesn't give up, wins. I thought it was hilarious because someone was getting kicked in the balls.

Last night I watched Criminal Minds and a police officer offered to 'ro-sham-bo' someone for the ugly job of telling a father that his daughter was found dead. I giggled a little (inappropriately due to the situation in the show) because I pictured two grown men kicking each other in the balls on network TV. Now, I know what ro-sham-bo really means. Wikipedia layed it down for me. Rock Paper Scissors would be the game. I don't know why I didn't make the connection when I saw that south Park episode. I guess I am a little dense.

Go read Betsy's blog. The link is on the right. Yet another highschool chum of mine had joined the bloggin' world. Soon we shall take over the internet! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!

More

I think I am getting a little irritated with BSG this season. What started out as a kick ass show with all sorts of action, drama, and great effects has turned into an almost boring show with little action and infused with heavy religious overtones. Baltar is turning into some sort of Christ figure, Roslin is turning into some sort of Moses, Starbuck is being painted as the anti-Christ and the show is more about One God verses many gods than it is Cylons verses humans. Last week's Cylon civil war was exciting, but little else is going on that I am interested in. I'm glad this is the last season. I REALLY hope that there are some exciting changes and revelations to come. The more they say that Starbuck is going to lead the fleet to distruction, the more I think Earth is going to be bad news for the fleet and the Cylons.

I watched an interesting show on NetFlix.com called Dexter. It is a Showtime show about a serial killer with morals. Like Morbius, the comic book vampire, Dexter only kills the wrong doers of the world. Sounds like it would be a weird show, but it is pretty good. Dexter actually works with the police as a CSI. He finds proof of killers and, if the system lets them go, he kills the bad guys. I really liked the show.

As promised, I put more pictures on my Flickr page. Lots of pictures of the kids, the puppy, and some flowers in our yard. There is a link on the right.

stuff

I went ahead and ordered tickets for this coming Ohio state football season. If nothing else, I can go, tailgate, and have some fun. I still hate the idea of paying $130 for two football tickets. I guess that's the price you pay when youare a fan or a perennial powerhouse. The Buckeyes are pre-season number one. It doesn't mean much, seeing as how no one has played yet, but with 18 returning starters, they should have a good team.

I played poker last night. I did pretty good for a while, but then the cards got cold for me. Still, I played for seven hours on my first buy in, so I guess it was an OK night. Some guys bought in several times. I wish I could have taken some of that money home with me, but that's how it seems to be going with me. I walked away when my ace high straight lost to quad kings. Damn. THAT's not something you expect. I did make a great play earlier in the night when I had pocket tens. Another play kept calling me as I bet and then he bet $40 after the last card came out. I read the hand right and made the call on his bluff. He was not happy. I was a little irritated when he said he didn't know if I was a good player that made a good call or a bad player that made a bad call. Whatever. I read him right and won a big pot.

I am going to try to upload some pictures to my Flickr page this weekend. Sorry for the delay.

JJ, I'm sorry

A while back I bashed the idea of Cloverfield. I think I said something about how the 'Godzilla thing' had been done before. SOOOOO SORRY JJ Abrahms! I am about half way though and I engrossed. SO intense! Gotta go!!!

OSU Tickets

Ohio State found a new way to insure sell outs and stick it to us OSU Alumni. There is a new way that they are distributing tickets to alumni. I guess it may be a little better in some ways. Instead of getting stuck with tickets based on how much you donate to the university, all alumni get put into a lottery for all the games. The tickets are then selected randomly. So, instead of getting the crappy first game like usual, I could get Michigan tickets. The down side is, the choice to NOT get tickets because of the crappy game is eliminated. If I get a crappy game, I am stuck with the tickets. I guess I am going to start getting tickets again. If they are for a crappy game, I know some people that I can tail gate with, get some beers into me, and still have a good time.

There was an OSU football "inside the practice" thing on ESPN. Exciting stuff. 18 out of the 22 returning starters are back for a final season together. One last shot at a National Title, I guess. Let's just hope that they don't make it to the game only to lose again to an SEC team. I don't think I could handle that. "We're #2! Again!!!" not a chant I want to be a part of.

Multi Post Maddness!!!

I tend to go days without thinking of things to post, then I get all sorts of stuff at once. I guess it makes sense since I only get the chance to post every once in a while. I could make several posts, save them, and post them periodically, but I am a lazy creature.

Iron Man - I took noah to see Iron Man last night. The previews had me really pumped up for this movie. I was a little worried though because previews tend to show only the good bits of the movie and the rest of the film could suck balls. Plus, Robert Downey Jr is not my favorite actor. However, after seeing the movie, I can't picture another actor playing Tony Stark. He did a good job. All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. the effects were really good, there was good action, some levity, and I think it did pretty well for a 'superhero origin' movie. I am not sure how accurate it was compared to the comic book, but I liked it. The ending was a little predictable, but there aren't any more original ideas out there. It would be difficult to make a movie that didn't have a predictable ending. If you didn't hang around for the final scene (after the credits) you didn't miss much. Apparently, Samuel L Jackson is going to be playing Colonel Fury of SHIELD. I don't see that as a good fit. I like Sam L, but don't see him in this roll.

The Wii is going pretty well so far. The kids love it. I went and bought a few more games and accessories for it yesterday. I got Mario Carts Wii with a racing wheel, Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil 4, and a gun thing that came with a Zelda game. The gun and racing wheel are just molded pieces of plastic that the Wii remotes plug into. They just provide stability and a life like feel to the games. When you tuen the wheel right, you turn right. Really, you are just turning the Wii remote, but the wheel helps a little. The gun is a little different. I thought that with Resident Evil 4, the gun thing would work like a gun. Pull the trigger and you shoot. Not quite. If you pull a different trigger and press A, you shoot. Kind of akward and it has turned me off the the game so far. I will go back to it when I have more time. I am tempted to get a classic controller or a Game Cube controller to see if that will make the game play more like Halo 3 on my Xbox 360.

The People Hate Me!!!

"I know! I will pay them to like me!" At least that is what I imagine George Bush though when he decided to give the American people and advance on their tax returns. We should be getting $2100 next week. At least I am doing what he wants me to do. I am spending the money. Fun stuff. First, I bought a new shed. It was on sale at Sears, so I saved $100. It was pretty easy to install. The hard part was trying to get the ground level. I don't think it is quite right, because the dorrs are a bit hard to close. It is hard to make the ground perfectly level.

Next, Jessica just called me to say she found a Wii at Target. I hope she will get a few good games too. I know we should probably pay off bills and try to save some of the money, but it is hard not to be impulsive.

Finally, we have a new addition to the family. I may have mentioned that I've wanted a Boston Terrier for a long time. A guy I know from college had two. I guess they were his mom's, but they are SO cute and fun. Anyway, we got one yesterday. I didn't really want to spend as much as I did, but I was able to talk them down to about half price. We made up for the discount though by buying a cage, bed, and toys. Her name is Daisy. So far, she has been the best behaved puppy ever. Lexie will always be my favorite puppy, but Daisy is right up there too. Only one accident in the house so far. Not too bad for a little doggie. Pictures coming soon.