Jake's Random Ramblings

We've Moved

2012-02-11T19:24:00.001-06:00

I'm very tired right now. We just completed a move into a new house. We lived in our old house for nearly 10 years, so we had accumulated a lot of stuff. About 6 weeks ago, we decided we were going to move. We loved the first house we saw, but decided to see a few more. After seeing several more homes, we decided to make an offer on the house we saw first. Thankfully our offer was accepted, and here we are in a new house that we now get to make a home.

I will be sending out a more personalized thanks. But I'd like to thank all the friends that came to help us move. I think we had close to 20 people throughout the last few days help us get our stuff moved the 2 miles or so from our old house. I am so grateful for these friends. I don't know what we would have done without them.

That's all I have tonight. Hopefully I'll get back to blogging more regularly very soon.

Amen!

2012-02-05T15:06:00.002-06:00

Today at Mass, our pastor spoke out against the recent Health and Human Services decision on Obama-Care that will require all insurance providers to cover birth control and abortion. While he hit on important points like being active by letting our representatives know what we think about this decision, he also talked about the options the church has. First off, the church could go along with this, but that likely won't happen. Secondly, the church and affiliated organizations could cut health care to their employees, but again, that's not right for the employees. Third, if forced to, the American Bishops could refuse to comply, and then refuse to pay fines, and force the US Government to arrest them. How would that play on the 24 hour news cycle...a bunch of Catholic Bishops being marched off to jail for listening to their conscience and following the precepts of their faith? I can't imagine that there is any way the media could spin it so that the Obama administration wins that one.

But, prior to this President, I couldn't imagine living in a country where the Ruling Regime would force this kind of thing on us. As our Pastor said, "For evil to happen, good people must do nothing", and that was the main take away of the entire homily. For too long in this country, we've sat idly by while we let evil happen around us. When are we going to stop and say that we've had enough?!!!

Well, I for one, have had enough. I'm not going to apologize for my beliefs, and I'm not going to apologize for trying to teach my kids those beliefs. We all need to stand up and say that we've had enough. Start small...quit participating in entertainment that is unnecessarily degrading to a particular group of people. Spend time with your kids or your family. Teach your kids why abortion is wrong. Teach your kids why the Obama regime and a huge central government is wrong. Be good parents or grandparents. Frankly, it might be too late for our generation, but it's not too late for our kids. If we teach them to know right from wrong, there might be hope for the future. If we fail now, we are doomed to more President's like Obama, and probably worse.

Finally, get out there in 2012 and get Obama and his cronies voted out of office. Don't force the US Catholic Bishops to have to face jail time to make this point. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure most of them would be willing to endure jail time to stop this evil from happening, but let's try to stop it before that becomes necessary. Stop this the only way you can, with your vote! The primary mission of 2012 has to be to ensure that Barack Obama is a one term President. If we are successful in ousting President Obama, the next President's first act should be to sign an executive order stopping Obama-Care and all it's evil from becoming law. Let's make it happen!

I Love Florida!

2012-02-04T17:52:00.001-06:00

I just got back from a very brief business trip to Florida. I was near Orlando on the Atlantic Coast. This is now my fourth trip to the great state of Florida, and I have to confess that I love it!

This past week, the temperatures were in the 70s, with light winds and no rain. The seafood was fresh, and the smell of salt water was in the air. Given that my favorite place on earth, Disney World, was a mere 75 minutes away, I was a pretty happy traveller, despite having to work while I was there.

I do have some observations after having made a few trips to the Sunshine State. First off, it's really flat, but then what do you expect from a big swamp? Secondly, I like the Gulf Coast better than the Atlantic Coast. I love the white sand beaches and really clear water of the Gulf Coast near the panhandle.

Finally, you can get some really good food in Florida. We all know that the Seafood is really fresh and it is really delicious. But, what you don't realize is that there are enough transplants from around the country that you can get all kinds of good food. I had a great pastrami sandwich for lunch one day, and fantastic baby-back ribs at another lunch.

I don't know that I would ever move to Florida full time...I do love the Midwest, but I may have to snowbird when I get older. Well, if I got offered a job a Disney World I might have to take it. :-)

The Goodness of This Movie is "Unknown"

2012-01-30T19:03:00.000-06:00

Whoa! Two movie reviews in 1 week!!!

My wife has been trying for the last 2 days to watch the longest tennis grand slam final in the open era. She recorded this match, as it was on in the very early morning hours of this past Sunday. But, when it's a nearly 6 hour match, it takes time to watch, even with being able to fast forward through commercials. So, I had the opportunity to watch my 2nd movie in a week last night. The latest is "Unknown", starring Liam Neeson.

In this thriller, Neeson stars as Martin Harris, a University Professor who awakes from a coma to find that another man has assumed his life. As Harris struggles to maintain his sanity, he allies with Gina (Diane Kruger) and Juergen (Bruno Ganz) to try to recover his life. What he finds though, may not be what he expects.

This is a very entertaining movie that I did enjoy, though it's really only a 3.5 star movie. The car chases are really well done, and Liam Neeson kicks butt as usual. Where it fell a little short is the plot was thin, and the (*****************spoiler alert!!!*******************) "Salt" like twist near the end was not as unexpected as it was in "Salt". If you haven't seen "Salt", then that wasn't a spoiler, and you should watch that movie instead of "Unknown" if you get the chance. Even if you have seen "Salt", that may not have been much of a spoiler.

Anyway, "Unknown" is fun ride that I would recommend for a night when your significant other is watching a seriously long tennis match, or just doing stuff without you.

Sci-Fi Western - the next great Genre!

2012-01-26T18:34:00.000-06:00

I was thinking about writing another political blog tonight, based on a discussion I had today with an Obama disciple, but I am still too annoyed about that conversation to write a blog about it.

So instead, I will talk about one of the new really fun movies out there. This movie would be "Cowboys & Aliens", which turned out to be surprisingly good. Will this usher in a new genre of Sci-Fi Westerns??? Well, I hope so, but if not, at least this was a really solid movie.

When I first saw the trailer for "Cowboys & Aliens" during the 2011 Super Bowl, I scoffed a bit. I was really skeptical, but I thought actors like Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig wouldn't be in a movie that is stupid, so I decided I would give it a shot. But, then I got busy and never got around to watching it, until a few nights ago.

"Cowboys & Aliens" opens with amnesiac gunslinger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) alone in the desert. Soon, Lonergan wanders into the town of Absolution, and after "rocking the boat" a bit, gets caught up in a crisis when the town is attacked by demons (a.k.a. aliens). The aliens are kidnapping humans and experimenting on them. So, the townsfolk, led by Col. Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), set out to track down the "demons" and get their people back. They are soon joined by Lonergan, who with his mysterious wristband weapon and flashback memories seems to be the key to stopping the invaders.

As Nuke put it, this movie starts out as a great western and Daniel Craig is an awesome cowboy. But then it gets weird when aliens show up and all of the sudden and POW!!!!...we have a Sci-Fi movie on our hands. I didn't find it weird at all...instead I really enjoyed the nice balance struck between western and sci-fi. As stated above, Daniel Craig is a really great cowboy. Harrison Ford is good in what turns out to be a very different role for him. The rest of the cast is solid as well.

I liked "Cowboys & Aliens" a lot. I almost rated it 5 stars, but then cooler heads prevailed and I settled on 4.4 stars. I highly recommend this movie to all Sci-Fi and Western movie fans.

Freedom of Religion?

2012-01-23T19:40:00.000-06:00

This blog is to my fellow Catholics. You know who you are...you are the liberal Catholics that supported President Obama in the 2008 election and John Kerry before him. You are the Catholics who told me that we didn't need to worry about Obama's pro-choice public stance because privately he is pro-life and that he is open to conversation about the pro-life issues in a way other Democrats have not been. You are the Catholics that told me that the social programs widely supported by the Democrats and Obama were the most important reason to vote for Barack Obama.

You didn't listen to me when I told you that Obama was a Democrat first and foremost and that he would toe the party line, no matter the cost. You didn't listen to me when I said that Jesus didn't tell us to vote for people who would "feed his sheep" (see John 21:15-17), he told us to do it. We aren't free of our responsibility because we voted for some guy who promises to take other people's money and give it to the poor...we still have to get off our butts an act. I wonder if you wish you would have listened to me a little more carefully? Or are you one of those people who still blindly believes what Barack Obama says.

Here's why I ask...late last week, the Obama administration through the Health and Human Services (HHS) department, essentially declared war on religion and specifically the Catholic Church. This war stems from a mandate requiring all employers to provide health insurance for their employees that not only covers birth control and sterilization, but practically makes them free. Before this ruling came out, Obama called Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York to give him the news. As a supposed olive branch, the Obama administration gave the Catholic church an extra year to implement this. Archbishop Dolan said something along the lines of "President Obama gave us an extra year to figure out how to violate our conscience."

I can't imagine that many of you Catholic Obama supporters are thrilled with this. Even the most liberal Catholic leadership is speaking out against the President. Cardinal Roger Mahoney, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles and a known liberal said that he "cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience" - and he has urged people to fight this law. Another liberal Catholic, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, FL has vowed that he will drop insurance coverage for diocesan workers rather than comply. They are joined in outrage by the leaders of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities, which combined employ approximately 70,000 people nationwide.

So, liberal Catholics everywhere? Are you happy with this decision by the Obama administration? Are you happy that the President has basically given the middle finger to the idea of freedom of religion and conscientious objection? You should be outraged. You should be giving all the Republican candidates a hard look right now. You should be praying that Obama will be voted out of office later this year. Finally, you should write President Obama immediately and tell him how disgusted you are with this mandate! People like me will never be able to stop this madness, but when Obama loses you, his precious supporters, he will have to take notice and listen.

Not Newt!!!

2012-01-22T19:28:00.000-06:00

So, Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary. What once looked like a runaway for Mitt Romney became a race this week after Iowa recounted the votes and found that Rick Santorum actually won, and then Newt won South Carolina.

Newt Gingrich makes me feel icky all over, and now my nightmare scenario seems to be happening. Whoever wins South Carolina generally wins the nomination. If Newt wins the Republican Nomination, right now, I fee like I have to vote 3rd party. I know that Newt cheated on his previous wives and was reprimanded by Congress for ethics violations. If you will cheat on your wife, what won't you cheat on? What wouldn't you do to get elected?

I read today that many Conservatives don't support Romney because he has been bad on abortion in the past and he signed health care legislation in Massachusetts that is similar to Obamacare. He has repeatedly said that he is Pro Life and that what was right for Massachusetts is not necessarily right for the entire country. People don't believe Romney has changed, despite evidence that overall Romney is a good family man and someone who could be trusted to do what he says he will do. Newt on the other hand has given us no reason to trust him, yet for some reason, "Conservatives" say they believe he will be better than Romney. I just don't get it!!!

As a Christian, I know I should forgive Newt and give him a 2nd chance. Because of that, he will have an opportunity to show me that he's changed, but it's going to take some serious evidence of repentance for past mistakes for me to support Gingrich for the highest office in the land.

If the election were today, and my choice was between Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich, I'd vote Constitution or Liberatarian party in a heartbeat. I'm done voting for the lesser of 2 evils...and frankly if the choice were Obama or Gingrich, I'd have a hard time deciding which is the lesser of 2 evils.

Spongebob

2012-01-21T09:37:00.003-06:00

My children are addicted to Spongebob! We hadn't watched this show because we thought it was just stupid potty humor, and frankly, it is a lot of stupid potty humor, but it also has some really funny moments. Every chance the kids get, they turn on Netflix and watch an episode of Spongebob. Given that my wife and I have been sick and we're preparing to move...well, they are getting more chances than normal to watch TV.

At some point though, I hope they'll grow out of this phase. While Spongebob is a funny show, it's no Phineas and Ferb.

That's all for this quick post today.

Will There Be a Sequel?

2012-01-15T13:54:00.000-06:00

The Denver Broncos season ended last night at the hands of the New England Patriots. I'm convinced Patriots coach Bill Belichick is evil, by the way. I mean, who would put up 45 points on Tim Tebow, other than someone who is evil? But that's a story for another blog.

The Broncos never showed up last night...and lost 45-10. It was one of their worst games of the season at the wrong time. Tim Tebow was chased all night by the Patriots defense and really struggled. The Denver defense, meanwhile, fell apart. They were never able to get a pass rush on Patriots QB Tom Brady and he destroyed them. I am so sick of QBs like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning standing back there having all day to throw the ball against the Broncos defense...again a story for another blog.

What I'm wondering is will there be a sequel of Tebowmania next season? Obviously, Tim Tebow needs to improve. He needs to become a better passer...he completed about 45% of his passes this year which is awful by any standard. But, he brings an element other QBs don't, so if he improves as a passer he will be really tough for opposing defenses.

The Broncos can get him some help too. They need to get him a big, pass catching, tight end. They need to get depth at running back, because starter Willis McGahee is 30, and that's ancient for a running back. They need to bolster their defensive middle so they can get pressure on quarterbacks like Tom Brady. Finally, they really need to spend the offseason coaching Tebow on the finer points of quarterbacking.

I'm excited, despite last night's loss, because I don't think the Broncos are that far from being a top flight team. For the rest of this season...go Packers or whoever is playing the Patriots.

The Return of Tebowmania

2012-01-10T19:48:00.000-06:00

With the Broncos unexpected playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend on the strength of Tim Tebow's left arm, Tebowmania has officially returned. Yes, Superman has gotten his Tim Tebow pajamas back out of the drawer after not wearing them during the Broncos recent 3 game losing streak when Tebow didn't play well.

Even Nuke, who doesn't follow sports, talked to me about Tebow today. Though it was around the fact that the deeply religious Tebow threw for 316 yards on 10 completions for a 31.6 yards per completion average. The crazies out there, and even some sane people are pointing out that John 3:16 is one of the most quoted Bible verses and the verse that Tebow used to write on his eye black in college.

Anyway, with the return of Tebowmania, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Tebow one-liners. Some of these are the same as the Chuck Norris one-liners, just using Tebow's name instead, but it's still fun.

Santa Claus used to wonder if Tim Tebow was real.

People with Amnesia still remember Tim Tebow.

Referees created instant replay so they could admire Tim Tebow more than once.

When Batman is in trouble, he turns on the Tim Tebow signal.

Michael Jordan buys Tim Tebow's shoes.

McDonald's brought the McRib back at Tim Tebow's request.

Tim Tebow and Chuck Norris once had a talk. Chuck Norris walked away a better man.

Friends don't let Friends hate Tim Tebow.

Lord Voldemort tried and failed to kill Harry Potter. He didn't even attempt to mess with Tim Tebow.

Chuck Norris wears a Tim Tebow jersey.

and possibly my favorite...

The NFL is not challenging enough. That's why Tim Tebow waits until the 4th quarter to start playing.

I have really enjoyed this season by the Broncos, and I think it's really fun to have Tim Tebow as my favorite team's starting quarterback. I am looking forward to next weekend's showdown with the hated Patriots. Nobody is giving the Broncos a chance, but I have a good feeling about this game...I think they have a shot. We'll know by Saturday at 11:00 pm.

Caucusing like Crazy

2012-01-07T09:01:00.002-06:00

On Tuesday of this week, we had the famous Iowa Caucus. You know, that was the vote where Mitt Romney (a.k.a. the Mittster), beat Rick Santorum by 8 votes. Despite rumors that the vote count was wrong, Santorum has taken the high road and said that it doesn't change the fact that the Iowa Caucus was essentially a tie.

The caucus is kind of a crazy process, and I can't really describe it for those who haven't gone. Ours lasted about an hour and featured lots of commentary from the voters. As Iowans, I think we did our duty...we weeded out the field. Michelle Bachman, who I really like, is out, and I think Rick Perry will follow soon. I really hope Bachman is the pick for VP by the eventual winner. By finishing 3rd, I think we're assured that Ron Paul won't be the nominee. Though I like Paul on a lot of issues, I just think he's too crazy in a few areas to support.

In general, I think the consensus at the caucus is that we had a good field of candidates. Nobody was really against any one specific candidate, which I think bodes well for the general election. We all have to keep in mind that defeating Obama in this the most important thing. I believe any of our candidates would be able to do that, though I am not a Newt fan.

In my opinion, we are left with a 3 man race, with the Mittster as the clear favorite, Santorum as the underdog and Newt as the darkhorse. Romney has the most money and the best infrastructure to win. What remains to be seen is can he withstand the firestorm that Newt Gingrich is in the process of causing. Newt was really upset with the way Mitt's groups went after him in Iowa, essentially costing him the state. Newt is almost out of money, but he's staying in at this point to trash Romney, which may give Obama ammo to use against Romney if he wins the nomination. Newt has to be careful here.

This leaves us with Rick Santorum, who I really like. I think he's a true conservative, but also willing to be pragmatic when needed. I love his tax plan, which would really simplify things by reducing it to 2 tax brackets (28% and 10%) among other things. He also has a strong plan for deficit reduction and is a big proponent of "Made in America". I supported Santorum in the caucus because I felt he best represented my total vision for the country, both fiscally and socially. Ron Paul is stronger fiscally and it's possible Bachman is better socially, but no candidate brings the entire package like Santorum.

I normally advocate that we should select former governors as our Presidential candidates because Executive experience is important. That is one reason it took me so long to come around to Santorum. But in an election year where we only had 2 Governors to choose from, The Mittster and Perry, I had to go in another direction. Don't get me wrong, I like both Perry and The Mittster and I would support both in the general election against Obama. I just believe Mitt is a little too moderate on social issues to support when there are more socially conservative candidates, and Perry just didn't get me excited...hard to explain why. In the end, I just felt Santorum more aligned with what I believe on all issues.

Check out Santorum's webpage if you are interested. If you aren't, that's ok. I do like Romney as well and I think he is a strong leader. I will strongly support Romney if he wins the nomination as I expect he will. But I want to do my part to give Santorum a chance.

The media is now out in full force against Santorum, calling him a big government Republican and a racist, among other things. They are taking quotes out of context and using them against him. I just encourage you to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. The media wants Romney to win this nomination, which I don't fully understand. I believe Romney will easily beat Obama and may steal some conservative Dems away from Obama. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

Another BBQ Adventure

2012-01-01T21:25:00.002-06:00

I love my new smoker! On Friday, I had a friend coming over to watch the Iowa-Oklahoma Bowl Game. I decided I wanted to smoke something, and that something was pulled pork. So, I bought a pork shoulder (3.2 lbs, boneless) and dressed it up with my favorite Pork Rub and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Here's the rub recipe (I use it for ribs as well because it just works for pork):

Pork Rub:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne

Just mix it all together and you have the magic pork rub.

After 24 hours, I took the pork out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. While it was doing that, I preheated my smoker to 225 degrees...I tried really hard to keep the smoker between 225-250 degrees on this one. Then I threw on the pork shoulder and added the hickory wood. I added more wood chips every 45 minutes or so for the first 4 hours.

After 2 hours, I started spraying the pork with a "mop" that was really simple...1/4 cup water and 3/4 cup cider vinegar. This helped keep the pork from drying out.

After 4 and a half hours, the pork was at 145 degrees...you want it at 190, so I wrapped it in the foil and put it in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour to git 'r done. I figured this was ok since after 3-4 hours, you really don't impart much smoke flavor. Plus, it was getting cold outside which was making it more difficult to keep things warm.

After the pork reached 185, I pulled it from the oven and let it rest for 1 hour. During this time, it came up to 192 degrees. After an hour I shredded it and served it on white junior hamburger buns with my homemade barbecue sauce. I also provided pickles for those who wanted it. My friend and my wife both ate some, and gave it rave reviews. The next day, my son had a sandwich, but used Famous Dave's Devil's Spit sauce instead and loved it.

I thought it was a really good first attempt at pulled pork. I'm excited to try a full, bone-in, pork shoulder next. That will take all day to cook. I am thinking I might need to play with different woods too, though I really like the flavor I get from hickory. Also, I learned an important lesson about smoking when cold...it takes longer! I should've known that.

Anyway, another great experience with my smoker. That was a great investment!

The Best of 2011

2011-12-31T11:11:00.000-06:00

Here we are at the end of 2011, so I thought I'd list off some of the best things that happened in 2011.

Best Movie of 2011 - "Super 8", by a hair over "Thor". "Super 8" is just a classically great movie. Everybody I've talked to has liked it, but I only talk to people with like opinions because I can't handle conflict.

Best New Recipe of 2011 - This was a close one, but in the end, I have to pick my BBQ Chicken recipe. It was so good...so very good.

Best Sporting Moment of 2011 - I'll have to give this one to my South Dakota State Jackrabbits Men's Basketball team, upsetting the University of Washington a few weeks back. It was a big win for the Jackrabbits, and in blow out fashion.

Best Family Sporting Moment of 2011 - This one goes to my 11 year old, who had his first bowling game over 100 earlier this year.

Best Individual Sporting Moment of 2011 - This may not count as individual, but it would have to be my golf trip with my friend Stanton to Cragun's Resort in Brainerd, MN. Such a fun trip.

Best Blog of 2011 - Nuke's Retro Movie Review was top notch. He had me going until I got to "Highlander 2".

Best Purchase of 2011 - This would have to be my new smoker. I've had so much fun smoking various meat products. There's just something manly about smoked meat.

Best Tebow Moment of 2011 - The comeback win over the Bears was insane...INSANE!!!

Best Faith Growing Experience - The 15th Annual Catholic Men's Conference was an awesome day. This is always one of the best days of the year.

Best New TV Show of 2011 - "Person of Interest" on CBS is the best...the best I tell you! Of course, it has Jim Caviezel in it, so how can it not be great? Caviezel is like Denzel, everything he touches turns awesome.

Best New Cartoon of 2011 - This would have to be "Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness". I love "Kung Fu Panda".

Best "Phineas and Ferb" Episode of 2011 - "My Fair Goalie" may be my favorite Phineas and Ferb episode of all time. It's available on Netflix Instant Watch if you want to see it. Not only do we learn about the Emu Curse, but we also get to listen to "Nostrils on the Bus".

Best Book of 2011 - It's tough for me because I read 2 Rick Riordan books this year, but I'm gonna give this one to Inheritance, which is the final book in the Eragon series started so long ago. This was Paolini's best written book of the series and captured me the way Eragon captured me.

Best Golf Shot of 2011 - This would be the drive I hit on #4 at my club on an unseasonably warm day in October while playing golf with my friend Joe. I drove the green on the 288 yard hole, sticking the ball about 6 feet from the hole, then I made the eagle putt.

Best Trip of 2011 - I'll go with our family trip to Madison, WI. We stayed at a hotel with a water park, had a positive zoo experience and ate some good BBQ.

Best Work Trip of 2011 - Though I went to Brazil twice this year, and Maryland and South Dakota for work, my best trip was Germany, way back in January.

Best Gift of 2011 - I got a new Food Processor for Christmas. I love to process food!

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie of 2011 - This would be the cookie I had yesterday at the Prairie Soup Company. It may be the best Chocolate Chip Cookie ever!!!

Best Dip of 2011 - We had a dip day at work. This is a day when everybody brings a dip (salsa, cheese, etc.) in and then we vote for the best dip. The winning dip was a desert dip that was like a pumpkin gingerbread dip...it was so yummy.

Best Commercial of 2011 - The Jonah Hill Modern Warfare 3 commercial cracks me up every time I see it.

Lazy Day Movie Reviews

2011-12-29T13:56:00.002-06:00

Yesterday afternoon/evening was a lazy day for me. The family was in South Dakota, so I was batchin' it. So, other than making Buffalo Wings, I decided to just chill out and watch movies. I watched 3 yesterday.

"The Captains: A Film By William Shatner": Nuke already rated this one, and I agree with his rating of 3 stars. I had virtually no expectations of this Shatner directed film. Basically, Shatner goes around and talks to each of the Star Trek Captains about being a Star Trek Captain, including Chris Pine (though he doesn't talk to Pine very much). It's a little weird, but once you realize that this is Shatner's attempt to justify the fact that he will forever be known as Captain James T. Kirk and justify his place in Star Trek history, it's sort of a fun ride.

A couple other observations from this. Avery Brooks, who played Capt. Benjamin Sisko is a weird dude. Patrick Stewart and Scott Bakula are the most down to earth of these actors, and both seem the most comfortable in their own skin. Finally, for being 80 years old, Shatner isn't doing too bad.

"Memphis Belle": How is it possible that I had never seen "Memphis Belle"? That was the question I was left asking myself after watching this 4 star movie for the first time yesterday.

Made in 1990, this film is loosely based on the actual Memphis Belle, a B-17 that flew during WWII that is believed to be the first bomber to successfully complete 25 missions. The movie focuses on the crew of the Memphis Belle as they prepare for, then execute their final mission. The story weaves between the battle and the relationships of the crew members, who don't all get along, but somehow band together when most needed to complete the mission.

If you like WWII movies, this one will be right up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader": The 3rd movie in "The Chronicles of Narnia" franchise is, like it's predecessors, much more action packed than the book. In this installment, we find Edmund and Lucy Pevensie back in Narnia with their cousin Eustace, aboard the Dawn Treader on a mission to find the 7 lost lords of Narnia. Again, they are aiding Caspian, who is still King of Narnia.

I actually liked this movie better than "Prince Caspian" because I got really tired of the bickering between Peter and Caspian in the last movie. They did attempt to have a little conflict between Edmund and Caspian, but it was not to the extent or annoying level of the 2nd film. Still, neither movie has captured the excitement or epic nature of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe."

I gave this one 4 stars. If you are a fan of the Narnia movies, I think you'll like "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

Buffalo Wings...at home!

2011-12-28T22:03:00.001-06:00

Like a beacon of hope in the darkness, today when I checked my e-mail, I had a weekly update from allrecipes, and included in the food offerings was a recipe for Buffalo Wings. I could pretty much live off Buffalo Wings and BBQ if it was healthy to do so. Sadly, it's not, even if you eat celery with your wings.

As an aside, one of my pet peeves on recipe websites are when people give a recipe a 5 star rating, then you read their review and they changed just about everything about the recipe. I'm fine with minor tweaks, but check this one out from the Buffalo Wing Recipe I used (note, I left the typos and spelling errors):

"This recipe is pretty basic with most wing cooks. I on the other hand jazz them up with the Frank's hot sauce, or you can use your favorite. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon juice and garlic. If you want to mello the flavor, add a half a stick of butter. Heat all those ingredients up togetherand pour over the wings when they come out of the peanut oil. If you really want to have what I call "rip your lips off hot" add a small amount of chilli powder and or cayanne to that mix. Now your talkin' cookin' HOTWINGS, "GMAN" style"

Seriously! Just post your own recipe...geez! And really, if you are going to claim that your cooking is good enough to be called GMAN style, then learn how to spell CAYENNE and CHILI correctly!

Ok, glad I got that off my chest...now back to the topic at hand. I made this recipe for wings tonight. I did have to tweak it because I didn't want to deep fry the wings in a gallon of peanut oil. And really, who wants to buy a gallon of peanut oil? So I "pan fried" them. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
Enough peanut oil to fill an electric skillet or cast iron skillet to 1/4" depth of oil
25 wings
1/3 cup unsalted melted butter
1/2 cup Frank's RedHot
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:

Preheat the oil to 375 degrees (I used my electric skillet for this).
Prep the wings by rinsing with cold water. Pat the wings dry and gently add them, 1 at a time, to the oil. Cook for 10 minutes, then flip to the other side and cook for another 10 minutes. This should get it done, but you can check with a meat thermometer. The wings should be at 180 degrees.
Add the melted butter, Frank's RedHot, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes to a bowl and mix until combined.
Add the cooked wings to the sauce and toss to coat.
Serve with celery, carrots, blue cheese, ranch, or whatever else floats your boat.

This turned out to be a really good wing (see picture above of the actual wings I prepared tonight). It's not what I understand the flavor of a "traditional" Buffalo Wing to be, but I've never actually eaten a Buffalo Wing in Buffalo, NY, so perhaps I don't know what the true flavor is. That said, I really liked these wings and I will make them again. They have plenty of heat (my lips were burning when I finished, but it's a good burn), but the garlic powder adds a nice twist. Think "traditional wing" with a garlic/pepper kick and that will get you close. I am so excited that it is possible to make really good wings at home, without a deep fryer!

If I was making these for a large group, I'd probably make multiple batches to tweak the spiciness. For a more mild wing, I would think leaving out some of the black pepper of all of the red pepper would do the trick. For a hotter wing, more red pepper would git 'r done. Try these out as Super Bowl Sunday approaches!

Overdue Movie Reviews

2011-12-26T13:32:00.000-06:00

Again, I'm not watching many movies, but I have watched 2 worth rating recently.

"Cars 2": Those who know me know that my favorite Pixar style animated movie is "Cars". My kids got "Cars 2" for Christmas so I finally got to watch it. While it's not as good as the original, and wouldn't make my top 5 list, it's still a really good movie.

In this sequel, Lightning McQueen is off to race against the best racers in the world in the World Grand Prix. But, that's not the real story here. The real story is that Mater, who finally gets to come along to a race, gets mistaken for a secret agent and drawn into a James Bond style action movie. Along the way, Lightning has to learn the value of a friend, and that he has to accept Mater as he is.

Like I said, really good movie. I give it 4 stars.

"Season of the Witch": The best thing I can say about this Nicholas Cage flick is that it's not terrible. In fact, if you go into this one with really low expectations, you might actually enjoy it. I had almost no expectations, and found that it was a bearable 94 minutes of movie watching.

Nothing really stands out in this movie, good or bad. Basically, if you're really bored, you might enjoy this movie. Otherwise, stay away.

Merry Christmas 2012!

2011-12-24T19:33:00.000-06:00

We just finished our Christmas Eve Chili and playing some Christmas Carols on our respective musical instruments. Chili has become a Christmas Eve trend at our house, and with David playing trombone now, we should make a tradition of music on Christmas Eve.

We also went to Mass tonight. I was astonished at the number of people at Mass...if that many people showed up every week, we'd have to build a gigantic church. While the Christmas Mass is always a great experience, it always makes me a little sad at the number of people who only show up at a church on Christmas and Easter. But, at least they were there tonight, and I pray that some of them who wouldn't normally attend, think about coming back next week.

Finally, I would like to wish all my family, friends and loyal readers a very Merry Christmas. I hope that you are with loved ones this holiday season. And, remember the real reason we celebrate. It has nothing to do with a tubby guy in a red suit and everything to do with a little baby, born over 2000 years ago in a manger in Bethlehem.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

Reaction: Patriots vs. Broncos

2011-12-18T21:11:00.001-06:00

Since it seems that any moron with a blog can get his opinion out there about how Tim Tebow fared today against the New England Patriots, I thought, "hey, I'm a moron with a blog, I can get my opinion out there." So here it goes.

Many "Tebow-haters" will claim that today's 41-23 loss at the hands of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots is proof that Tim Tebow will never be a big time NFL quarterback. Those who love Tim Tebow will point to the fact that he is looking more comfortable as a passer, and that he is really the best player on the Broncos offense.

At this point, I agree with those who love Tim Tebow. He is the best offensive player on a fairly weak offensive team. Willis McGahee, the team's best running back is always injured. The team's top 2 receivers would probably be the #2 or #3 receivers on other teams, and the Broncos do not have a tight end who can catch the ball with any regularity. So, considering all that, going 11-22 for 194 yards and rushing 12 times for 93 yards and 2 TDs is a pretty good game for Tim Tebow.

But it's not all roses. Tebow had a costly fumble in the 2nd quarter that led to a Patriots touchdown, and he took a couple of really bad sacks in the 2nd half. Considering, however, that Tebow now has 12 NFL starts, and is 8-4 in those 12 starts, I think he's got a bright future in this league.

Look, Tebow is the face of the franchise. Thus, he gets too much credit when the Broncos win and too much blame when the Broncos lose. I still don't know if he is the long term answer at Quarterback, but I think that he's done enough this season that the team can address other need areas in the offseason. If we're still not convinced that Tebow is the answer at QB after next season, they can draft a Quarterback.

At 8-6, the Broncos are still in 1st place in the AFC West. If they win their last 2 games, they will win the AFC West and host a playoff game. As such, they won't have a very high draft pick. Today's game against the Patriots showed me that the team is still very thin across the board, especially in the defensive secondary.

In my opinion, the teams needs are (in order of priority):

1 - Secondary - they gotta get younger and healthier in the secondary.
2 - Running Back - Coach John Fox wants a run heavy attack. They need to build depth at running back, because right now they are too dependent on Willis McGahee's health.
3 - Receiving - The team needs a pass catching tight end and more depth at Wide Receiver. Demaryius Thomas may be the #1 receiver, but he's been injury prone, so depth will help.
4 - Defensive Line - The Broncos are really strong on the outside of the D-line and at Linebacker, but they need more interior pressure. They really gotta find a big fat guy to plug the middle.
5 - Backup QB - I'm sold on Tim Tebow as the starting quarterback, but you gotta find someone who can fill in for him if he gets injured, and he needs to have a similar style to Tebow.
6 - Offensive Line - the unit is young and has been really healthy all season, but more depth is always good.

So there you go. Tim Tebow is not the main problem on this team, and I hope cooler heads will prevail after this loss and see that this is a young team that still has a lot of growing to do. Did Tebow have a great game today, no? But, he did show improvement as a passer today and was the best offensive weapon for the Broncos. As a Broncos fan, I'm encouraged, despite the loss.

Questions We Don't have Answers To

2011-12-17T19:29:00.002-06:00

There are many vexing questions out there. Here are just a few:

-How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?

-If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

-Why couldn't Bill Clinton ever tell the truth?

-What did we talk about before Tim Tebow?

-Who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop, who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dop?

That's all I got...as you can tell, I'm struggling for blog topics right now.

Top 5 Movies Starring Leading Actors Who are Otherwise Awful

2011-12-10T18:18:00.001-06:00

Anybody who has read this blog knows that I have a few actors that drive me crazy. Chief among them is Nicholas Cage, who can make some of the best movies, but then makes a bunch of duds. And, generally, Cage is really bad except for a few specific roles. Other actors in this category include Brendan Frazier, Keanu Reeves and Mark Wahlberg. Nuke would put Ed Harris in this category too I think.

Since I do not have any Mark Wahlberg movies in this list, I suggest you go watch the SNL Skit: Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals. I've seen it several times and it's always funny.

Brendan Frazier doesn't make the list below, and is frankly the worst actor of the bunch listed above. His only passable movies are The Mummy movies, and that's only because there is some really good CG monster action.

Anyway, here are the top 5 movies starring some of these otherwise awful actors:

5 - National Treasure 2: The first Nicholas Cage movie in this list. He doesn't carry the movie, but he doesn't ruin it either. Really, this movie is just a lot of fun and Cage doesn't wreck the funness.

4 - Constantine: This movie is so underrated. It's actually really good, and this movie has the best type of roll for Keanu Reeves...one where he is not required to talk to much and participates in a lot of cool action scenes.

3 - Sorcerer's Apprentice: Another Nicholas Cage movie. As with #5 on our list, Cage is not required to carry this movie, Jay Baruchel does that as the title character. But, Cage has his moments in this recent movie that was my favorite movie of last year.

2 - The Rock: This movie is why Nicholas Cage confounds me so much, and why he has been one of main subjects of another top 5 list already. In The Rock, I think Cage really carries the movie, and it's a really good movie. Of course, having Sean Connery never hurts, but I still think Cage carried it.

1 - The Matrix: The best possible role for Keanu Reeves. Spend the entire movie looking bewildered, not saying much, and participating in a lot of fight scenes. The first of the Matrix Trilogy is the best, in my opinion, and Keanu Reeves doesn't destroy this movie, in fact, he actually works well in the role of Neo.

Golden!!!

2011-12-05T18:29:00.001-06:00

I now have Gold Status on American Airlines (Yes, that's the airline that just filed for bankruptcy protection! Don't ruin this for me!). In fact, I just got my "Gold Card" in the mail. This little card entitles me to many perks, including bonus miles, so I will get richer in terms of miles...yes, the rich get richer. I wonder how liberals feel about airline mileage programs.

It's weird, but getting the gold card in the mail actually made me feel good! I didn't do anything to earn these miles. All of them were earned while flying for work. In fact, while I was earning these miles, I got to sit and watch movies, eat good food, and sleep. Essentially, I was a lazy bum and I got rewarded for it. Now I'm wondering what conservatives think about airline mileage programs.

All I know for sure is that I'm Gold for the next 14 months. I'll probably have a few more trips to Brazil in my future. I'm thinking Platinum comes after Gold, and I'm sure that will be even better.

Top 5 Movie Themes

2011-12-03T09:27:00.001-06:00

To be a great movie theme, you have to know the movie when you hear the song. There are lots of these great theme songs out there, but which are the top 5? Well, I have a top 5 of my own, and I bet some of these hit your top 5. Note that I've provided links to all my favorites. Also be aware that I didn't watch all of these to the end, but I went far enough in with each to be convinced I had the song.

5 - Indiana Jones Theme - You will see a "theme" of John Williams in this list. The man knows how to compose memorable, orchestral, theme songs. When the theme hit at "Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", I got goose bumps. Sadly, the movie didn't live up to the theme song in that case.

4 - Jurassic Park Theme - John Williams again! What did I say...the man knows how to write movie theme songs. I liked the Jurassic Park theme song so much that I bought the piano sheet music to learn how to play it. Frankly, it sounds better with a whole orchestra, but it's still fun. The theme song was the only reason to watch Jurassic Park 2 and 3.

3 - Forrest Gump Feather Song - Another one that I've been working to learn on the piano for a long time. And, our first non John Williams song...this time it's Alan Silvestri. I just love this song...I especially love the piano music. And, it leads us into a fantastic movie.

2 - Rocky Theme Song - While there didn't need to be 6 movies (though I liked them all except #5), you automatically know it's Rocky when you hear this classic song by Bill Conti, with lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins. You hear this song and you picture Rocky running up the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

1 - Superman Theme Song - Though not my favorite super hero, this movie has the best opening theme of all time. Every time I hear it, I get goose bumps, and that's what good songs do. This is John Williams at his absolute best. When we get the Superman reboot in 2013, I really hope they don't reboot the opening theme. Best movie song EVER!!!!!!.

The Best Bowling Game of the Week

2011-11-29T19:17:00.001-06:00

Today, in my Tuesday noon bowling league, I rolled games of 258-219, which are very good games for me. We only bowl 2 games. Up until I got my new bowling ball, I had gone a long time without a game in the 250s, but I've had 4 games of 256 or higher since I bought my ball. Note that I've only rolled about 30 games with the new ball.

But, that wasn't the best game of the day. A guy bowling on the pair of lanes next to my team rolled a 296 the first game. That's 11 in a row to start out, followed by 6 on the last ball. I still have never seen a 300 game...and I've been bowling regularly since I was 12. The 296 was great, but it wasn't the best game I've seen this week.

So you're probably thinking, what's the best game you've seen this week Jake? Well, I'll tell you...it's the 124 that my son, David, bowled in his junior league on Saturday. Up until David joined this league, he hadn't bowled 10 games in his whole life. But he's really taken to bowling, and he's really listened well to his old dad giving him advice (maybe too much advice), and even more importantly, he's listened to his coach at bowling league who does a great job.

Before Saturday, David had bowled a 99 and a 96, but other than that, most of his "high" games were in the 70s. David has made steady improvement all year, so I figured a 100 game was coming, but I didn't expect it so quickly, or so easily. He started off the game with a strike (a rarity), then he doubled (2 strikes in a row) in the 3rd and 4th frames, and he got a patch for that. Bowlers love their patches. He surpassed 100 in the 8th frame. And then, for good measure, he picked up a spare in the 10th frame and pushed his score over 120.

David was so proud of himself, and I was really, really proud of him. David isn't a big "sports" kid, but it looks like we've found one sport we both like and can do together. I just have to watch myself and make sure I don't become "that dad". You know, the dad who is overbearing and ruins the sport for his kid. I don't want to be that dad. I do want to be the dad who gets to watch his kid have fun and do well at something though...I like being that dad.

Hickory Smoked Turkey

2011-11-24T17:21:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all my loyal readers out there. I appreciate all 6 of you. :-) This year, in addition to my family, my job and my health, I'm thankful for my smoker...and I got to put it to use again today.

It is just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving this year. With temperatures being in the 60s, I decided to smoke a turkey breast for our thanksgiving turkey. Along with mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie, it's been a really great Turkey Day.

So, for those of you who have a smoker, here's what I did to smoke a turkey breast, which turned out to be one of the best tasting turkeys I've ever eaten.

I bought a 6 lb turkey breast, which is just about right in terms of leftovers for sandwiches. Last night, I made the following brine, which I found at my favorite smoker cooking website. Smoker-cooking.com has all the tips and techniques needed to make great smoked food. I used the techniques found on that website for the last 2 smoked meals I've made, and both have been great.

Here's the brine;

Ingredients:

1 gallon
1 cup
1/4 cup
1 Tbs
1 Tbs
1 Tbs
1/2 Tbs
1/2 Tbs
1/2 Tsp
1/2 Tsp
1/2 Tsp

water
Morton kosher salt
white sugar
onion powder
garlic powder
paprika
white pepper
powdered ginger
mustard powder
powdered sage
nutmeg

I boiled the water, then added the sugar and salt. Once the sugar and salt was dissolved, I added the remaining ingredients. After the brine had cooled to room temperature, I put the turkey breast in and refrigerated for 9 hours.

After 9 hours, I removed the turkey from the brine and washed the brine off. I then let the turkey "rest" in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Next, I dusted the cavity of the turkey with the following rub (dry ingredients only).

1/8 cup
1 Tbs
1/2 Tbs
1 Tsp
1 Tsp
1 Tsp
1/2 Tsp
1/4 Tsp

vegetable oil
onion powder
paprika
garlic powder
kosher salt
white pepper
powdered ginger
powdered sage

After dusting the cavity, I added the vegetable oil and put the wet rub all over the outside of the turkey.

Now, on to the smoker. Again, I only had hickory wood, but I like hickory flavor, so no big deal there. I got the smoker to 250ish degrees and held it there. I cooked the turkey at that temperature for a little over 5 hours (gotta get that white meat to 160-165). I added 2 handfuls of hickory chips every hour for the first 3 hours (the chips had been soaked in water since last night). I also basted with butter 3 times over the 5 hours.

After 5 hours, I pulled the turkey breast off the smoker and wrapped it in foil for 20 minutes to let the juices settle throughout the meat. I then carved and served.

The turkey was really moist and very flavorful. I liked it better than the Alton Brown Roast Turkey I made at Christmas last year, but my wife said that while this one was really good, she liked the Alton Brown Roast Turkey better. So, I guess I have 2 turkey recipes to roll with in the future.

What I'm Watching

2011-11-22T21:47:00.001-06:00

There are actually 4 new shows out this fall that I'm finding interesting, in addition to my usual stalwarts of "Castle" and "Psych". "Psych" is still great, and "Castle" is holding it's own so far. Curse my DVR for making me capable of keeping up on 6 series...now you know why the movie reviews and book reviews have slowed way down.

Here are the new shows I'm tracking:

"Terra Nova" - this new Monday night show on Fox focuses on mankind in the year 2149, and then 85 million years in the past. In 2149, mankind has so destroyed the environment, that the earth is nearly unlivable. But, a doorway to the past of a parallel universe has been discovered, and certain people get to go back and start over again. One such family is the Shannon family. I think this is going to sorta be like "Lost" but with dinosaurs. Probably the most likely of this list to be removed from my DVR, but for right now, I'm sticking it out.

"Person of Interest" - this one is on CBS on Thursday night. Starring Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson, this show is just great. Emerson plays a billionaire who created a machine that is designed to spy on us and find probable acts of terrorism. But, it finds everything, including normal crimes, which the government ignores. Emerson programmed "the machine" to spit out a number to him every night, and he uses that number to find a person who needs help. But, to help these people, he needs help, and that is where Caviezel comes in. Caviezel plays an ex-spy gone underground who is looking for redemption. This one is great...but then, anything with Jim Caviezel is great.

"Grimm" - I've got 3 of the 4 major networks covered with this one. NBC has this show on Friday Night, which is a bad night for a show. But, this is a really good show. The main character is a Portland police detective who learns that he is descended from the Brothers Grimm, and it's his family's job to combat the things that go bump in the night. There's only been 3 or 4 episodes so far, but they've been really good. This show remindes me of the early days of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Lots of potential here, if it can survive the Friday night curse.

"Once Upon a Time" - Now I've got all 4 major networks covered. "Once Upon a Time" is ABC's foray into the world of fairy tales. In this show, all our well know fairy tale heroes and villains have been transported to Maine by a dark spell cast by the evil queen from Snow White. These people are all miserable, and they don't remember who they are. But, our heroine Emma shows up and things start to turn around in Storybrooke Maine. A little bit more of a girly show than "Grimm" but really good as well, and enough action to keep me interested.

I hope all 4 of these shows survive, and I hope that you can give them a shot now that we are nearing rerun season. I would put them in this order if you have to choose:

1 - "Person of Interest"
2 - "Grimm"
3 - "Once Upon a Time"
4 - "Terra Nova"

And of course, don't miss out on "Psych" and "Castle".

Tebow Time!

2011-11-18T18:19:00.001-06:00

So, five and a half games ago, the Denver Broncos made a change at starting Quarterback from Kyle Orton to former Florida Gators star and all around good guy, Tim Tebow. For those who don't know, Tebow won the Heisman trophy as a sophmore at Florida and was also part of 2 National Championship teams. Tebow is regarded by many as the Greatest College Football player ever.

Tebow is also a devout Christian. His parents are Christian Missionaries to the Phillipines, and they homeschooled Tim. In fact, while pregnant with Tim, doctors recommended that Tim's mom have an abortion due to the fact that they were expecting Tim to be still born. Tim's mom refused to have the abortion and Tim was born alive and well.

In the 2010 NFL draft, then Broncos coach Josh McDaniels, traded up into the first round to select Tebow, much to the chagrin of the so called football experts. The experts said Tebow's skills wouldn't translate to the NFL...his throwing motion is too long, he's not accurate enough, he runs too much and he's going to get hurt. But, McDaniels took a chance because he liked Tebow's intangibles...his leadership skills, will to win and eagerness to work harder than just about anyone.

Well, late in the 2010 season, the Broncos were mired in a 3-10 season and they fired McDaniels. At the time, Broncos fans were clamoring to see Tebow, so the Broncos threw them a bone and started Tebow the last 3 games of the 2010 season. Tebow went 1-2 during those starts and showed potential. Broncos fans believed Tebow was destined to be the QB for the 2011 season.

Then the NFL strike happened and Tebow missed the entire offseason of work with the new coaching staff and his receivers. When the season started, Kyle Orton was installed as the starting QB because he was better in a "traditional" NFL offense. Four and a half games into this season, the Broncos were 1-3 and getting spanked by the San Diego Chargers. The Broncos switched to Tebow at QB and he nearly led them to a victory over the Chargers. Tebow was named the starter, and won his opener against Miami, leading an improbable comeback from 15 points down in the final 5 minutes to tie the game, and then win it in overtime. A week later the Broncos and Tebow got embarassed by the Detroit Lions.

At this point, the coaching staff made a change in the offensive philosophy of the team. They abandoned the "traditional" NFL offense and started running a more "college" style offense that Tebow excels in. The outcome of this change is a 3 game winning streak to get back to 5-5 and the Broncos are officially in the playoff hunt. Tebow hasn't been great, but he's been good when needed, like last night against the Jets. Tebow and the offense had been stymied all night, but with 5 minutes left and 95 yards to go, Tebow led the team down the field and ran the final 20 yards to score the go ahead touchdown, leading the Broncos to a 17-13 win.

Tebow's critics, and there are many, say emphatically, that he will never be a successful QB in the NFL. They are saying the same things that they said about him when he came out of college. His throwing motion is too long, his passes are too inaccurate, and he's going to get hurt running the ball so much. And, to some degree they are right, he does have his flaws as a QB. But there's another side to Tebow. His teammates want to play better when he's in there. Since he's been the starting QB, the offensive line as improved, and the defense has really stepped up their play. I believe it's because they know that if they can just keep the game close, Tebow will find a way to win it at the end.

I don't know why so many people are critical of Tim Tebow. His story is remarkable, and he's a genuinely good person by all accounts. Everyone who know his says it's impossible not to like and root for him. I know some people are turned off by the fact that he's out in the open about his faith in Jesus Christ. I believe old school football guys don't want to admit that a guy can play the game the way Tebow plays it and be successful. Whatever the reason so many people dislike Tebow, I for one don't think they should count him out. Tim Tebow is a guy who has proven his doubters wrong every time.

And frankly, how can you go against a guy that has the Bible as his playbook? I couldn't resist throwing that one in there. I don't think I've ever rooted as hard for a player to do well as I am rooting for Tim Tebow to do well. I know that I've never seriously prayed for an NFL football player, but I do pray for Tim Tebow. I think he's a young man who has been given great gifts and now he has a forum to do a lot of great things with those gifts...great things that go beyond the football field. He's already building a hospital in the Phillipines. Selfishly, I want to see him succeed as an NFL QB because I want the Broncos to win another Super Bowl. But most importantly, I want Tim Tebow to be successful so I can use him as an example for my kids of what faith and hard work can lead to. My 8 year old already thinks Tim Tebow is great and I want to see that continue.

So here's hoping Tim Tebow and the Broncos continue this run for the foreseeable future, and here's hoping the Denver Broncos leadership has the foresight and vision to continue to support Tim Tebow.

Finger Lickin' Good BBQ Chicken

2011-11-14T19:51:00.001-06:00

My second foray into smoking meat products came yesterday when I smoked some chicken legs and thighs. I did 10 legs and 8 thighs, which was just about the maximum amount of food I could fit in my little smoker.

To make this chicken, I did extensive research to determine the best cooking methods. I went to roughly 8 websites before deciding on a cooking method. Giving credit where credit is due, I found the brine and rub recipe at www.smoker-cooking.com, but I'll duplicate it here for 1 stop shopping.

First I made the following brine...combine 1 gallon of boiling water with 3/4 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons Paprika and 1 tablespoon ground black pepper. Ensure the salt and sugar is dissolved before adding paprika and pepper. This is enough for roughly 3-4 lbs. of chicken. I made 2 batches of the brine.

For separated thighs and legs, they only need to brine for about 90 minutes, so after chilling the brine, add your chicken for 90 minutes or so. There are suggestions online for brine times, so just dig around...you can find everything for cooking online. I brined my chicken for 90 minutes.

After brining, I rinsed the chicken and dusted with the following rub:

2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon crushed oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon powdered cayenne pepper

While I was preparing all this, I was also preheating my smoker. I got it to 240ish degrees Fahrenheit. I loaded the chicken, and then added 2ish handfuls of hickory chips to the coals for the smoke. The hickory chips had been soaked in water for 4-5 hours. After about 45 minutes or so, I added another 2ish handfuls of hickory chips. Total time on the smoker was 1 hour and 20 minutes, which got the chicken to 140 degrees.

Then, because we were hungry, I moved the chicken to my gas grill to finish. I had the gas grill set to 350 or so, and I let the chicken go for another 30-40 minutes. I was having difficulty with my meat thermometer, so I may have gotten the chicken past 180 degrees, but dark meat is flexible, so it was still juicy. For the last 15 minutes on the grill, I was brushing with my homemade sauce, which let the sauce caramelize nicely.

I served the chicken with extra sauce for those who wanted more. The chicken was moist and delicious. The hickory smoke added just the right amount of flavor, the rub and the sauce came together nicely, and finishing on the grill was a good move as it allowed the outside of the chicken to crisp, while still keeping the inside moist. I served 4 adults and 6 kids, and there was nothing left over. I cannot wait to make this again...it was a lot of work, but very worth it.

Business Class Movie Reviews

2011-11-12T16:13:00.001-06:00

Ok, so as I believe I've said before, when I travel internationally for work, I get to ride in business class. One of the nice perks of my company. And, when flying business class, there is an opportunity to watch movies.

On this trip, I watched 3 movies, "Super 8" which I've reviewed before, and really liked the 2nd time, "Green Lantern" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon". Neither was a standout movie, but neither was terrible either.

"Green Lantern": Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, who becomes the Green Lantern after he is chosen by his ring. Apparently when another Green Lantern dies, the ring chooses the next Green Lantern. Jordan is a test pilot and a sort of afraid of commitment "ladies man". When chosen to be the Green Lantern of Earth's sector of space, Jordan is intrigued, but in the end he has to decide if he's ready to be responsible and do the right things in his life.

"Green Lantern" is not a bad movie, but it's just not great either. I found it sorta disjointed in terms of the plot. One other problem I have with this movie, and with movies like "Iron Man" is that my kids can't watch them. Like Tony Stark, Hal Jordan is portrayed as a "play boy" and acts inappropriately in some situations. Why can't more super hero movies be like "Thor" and "Captain America" where I really have no qualms with letting a 10 year old kid watch them?

I really like the Green Lantern as a hero, so I had high hopes for this movie. Sadly, it fell short. This one gets a 3 star rating.

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon": The third, and hopefully final, installment of the Transformers movie franchise takes yet another plot turn in the series to introduce more robots to us. Much like the cartoon, every time a new robot is needed, another plot twist happens, whether it makes sense or not, to introduce that robot.

This time we meet Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy). Sentinel is Optimus' predecessor as leader of the Autobots, but he's gone rogue and made a deal with Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving...Hugo's a busy dude). Aided by their favorite human, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), Optimus and the Autobots have to stop the Deceptecons from enslaving the entire human race.

Despite some really good robot fights, "Dark of the Moon" falls short of the original "Transformers" movie, much like "Revenge of the Fallen". The attempts at comic relief by Sam's parents and Agent Simmons (John Turturro) mostly fail and just end up annoying. Nearly as annoying is the subplot of Sam trying to find a job and "matter again". In addition to all that, the plot is weak, very weak. But, cool robot fights have to count for something. Thus, this movie gets 3 stars as well.

Oh, and listen for Sentinel Prime repeating the famous words spoken by Kirk and Spok near the end of "Wrath of Khan"..."The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

The First Avenger

2011-11-05T16:18:00.001-05:00

I'm off to travel the world again this week. I'll be in a whole other country until Friday. Before I leave, I wanted to get this review out there for "Captain America: The First Avenger."

I think Nuke described this best to me when he said that it felt like a prequel to "The Avengers" rather than a super hero movie. I thought "Captain America" felt more like a war movie than it did a super hero movie. Overall, it wasn't a bad movie, but it just didn't stand out like "Thor" or "X-Men: First Class".

From what I know of the original Captain America story, I think this movie follows the story pretty well. Captain America is played by Chris Evans, and he does a reasonably good job in this role. The villain is Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving (a.k.a. Smith from "The Matrix", Elrond from LOTR and V from "V for Vendetta"). I really like Hugo, so I did like him as the Red Skull.

"Captain America: The First Avenger" is a 3.5 star movie. While it's rated PG-13, there is no reason that I can see why an 8-10 year old kid can't watch this one...it's a pretty tame PG-13. In fact, I'm going to let my son watch it tonight before I mail it back.

I'm Sappy

2011-11-03T19:51:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite lines in the Sorcerer's Apprentice is when Dave and Becky are in Dave's lab and Dave goes on this monologue about how listening to Becky's radio show made him stop and see things he'd never seen before. Then he says "I'm sappy" in a groaning voice.

I have those moments in my life. I had one of those moments tonight. Lately I've been on a country music kick, mostly Garth Brooks but some other stuff too. This brings me to the Garth Brooks song "Standing Outside the Fire" and the following Youtube video:

This video really hit my soft spot. I don't know if it's because my wife and I have a special needs child and I'm all too familiar with the father's role here (except for the yelling part). You want your child to succeed and to try the things "normal" kids do, but are afraid of the potential negative consequences. I'm also familiar with the elation when your child succeeds, like when our son won the spelling bee.

It could be that...or maybe it's just that I'm a sucker for happy endings. Whatever the reason, I felt the need to tap into my inner teenage girl and share this video tonight. I hope you enjoy it.

Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

2011-10-30T19:07:00.000-05:00

Today I was really excited to watch Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos. Had I known that Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos were going to play terrible and lose 45-10, I would not have been so excited. But, alas, I was excited so when I made this week's meal plan, I planned a recipe for the crock pot so I could get it going well before the game started.

For the last 2 years, my wife and I have made several attempts at a vegetable beef soup with mixed results. We made all these soups without recipes. Some soups have been really good, others have been average at best. As we all learned from past chili experiences, I'm better off with a recipe. Today, I think the soup turned out really well, and I actually remember what I did to cook it, so I'm going to document the recipe on this blog so we have it for future reference. Note that I didn't completely make this up. I reviewed several recipes online and took themes from them to make this soup, so this is a variation on 5 or 6 different recipes that I looked at.

Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients:
1 - 1.5 lb. stew beef
1 yellow onion, diced
3 large russet potatoes, cubed
32 oz. beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz.)
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (16 oz.)
1 TBSP Italian Seasoning
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Black Pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Olive Oil

Directions:

Heat Olive Oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add stew beef and cook until brown.
Add diced yellow onion to the skillet and cook until onions appear translucent.
Combine beef and onions with the remaining ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on high for 2 hours then on low for approximately 4 hours. Stir once per hour.

This soup turns out to be very hearty. It has the typical beef soup flavor with an Italian flair to it due to the tomatoes and Italian seasoning. The black pepper brings a little heat, but not in an overwhelming way.

I loved this soup, and my oldest son liked it a lot too. My wife gave it 3 out of 5 stars, but I learned for the first time in our wedded life that she's not a big fan of stewed tomatoes, which would be a problem since that's essentially what happens with the diced tomatoes.

I will be adding this one to our rotation, especially if the Broncos ever get better.

Adjusted and Expendable Movies

2011-10-29T17:30:00.001-05:00

It's been a really long time since I've reviewed any movies. That's because I haven't been watching many movies lately...ok, any movies. But, I have watched movies 2 of the last 3 nights, and I'm planning to watch "Captain America" tonight. I suspect that one will merit it's own movie review. Here are a couple of other movie reviews.

"The Adjustmet Bureau": This Matt Damon film is based on the short story The Adjustment Team by Phillip K. Dick. Damon plays a Congressman, David Norris, who is a rising star in the political scene. And, or course, he's a Democrat, because politician heroes are always Democrats according to Hollywood.

Anyway, after losing a bid for the Senate, Norris meets Elise (Emily Blunt) and feels an immediate connection. Meeting Elise inspires Norris to give a concession speech that sets him up for another Senate run 4 years later. On his way to work a few days later, Norris meets Elise again on the bus, and again there is the immediate connection. When he arrives at work, David Norris sees something he should never have seen...the Adjustment Bureau changing the world to meet "the plan". We learn, along with Norris, that the Adjustment Bureau is a group of beings that work for "The Chairman" and are responsible for ensuring that the world follows, "the plan". After explaining all this to David Norris, the Adjustment Bureau agent tells him he can never see Elise again and take steps to ensure that they don't meet. But, three years later when chance intervenes, David and Elise meet again. At this point, even the Adjustment Bureau struggles to keep them apart. Which will win out...David and Elise's free will or the predetermined plan?

"The Adjustment Bureau" is a really good movie. I rate it 4 stars. I can't wait to see what Nuke rates it. I think it poses some interesting questions about free will vs. predesination. Frankly, this could have been a "deeper thinking" movie, but it does leave you thinking. In fact, my wife had take aways that I didn't see. I'm really looking forward to Nuke's review on this one. Overall, a very good movie.

"The Expendables": I watched this one last night on Instant Watch. "The Expendables" is Sylvester Stallone's attempt at a star studded action film starring action heroes from the past and present. The cast is a who's who of action movies. We've got Sly Stallone, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke and Julia Roberts' brother (a.k.a Eric Roberts).

Look, this is not a great movie. It's a 3 star "guy movie". But if you are looking for a movie filled with senseless violence, explosions, fast paced fist fights and no plot, then this is the movie for you.

Book Review: The Son of Neptune

2011-10-28T13:00:00.003-05:00

I absolutely love Rick Riordan as a writer, and my favorite character is, of course, Percy Jackson. When The Lost Hero came out last year, I really enjoyed the book, but I did miss Percy. Well, I miss him no more...with the release of The Son of Neptune, Percy Jackson fans don't have to wait any longer for the return of their favorite hero.

Just like Jason in The Lost Hero, Percy has lost his memory. All he knows is that he's supposed to head south, and eventually he finds Camp Jupiter...the Roman equivalent of Camp Half-Blood. At Camp Jupiter, Percy meets Frank and Hazel, 2 other demi-gods. Soon after Percy helps the Fifth Cohort of the Roman Legion regain some respect, Frank, Hazel and Percy are sent off on a quest to free Thanatos, the angel of death, so that people and monsters will start dying again. Can our heroes succeed? Will Camp Jupiter be saved? And what of the new prophecy in which 7 demi-gods must band together to save the world? Well, I can't give it away...you'll have to read to find out.

The Son of Neptune does a fantastic job of mixing playful banter, pulse pounding action, suspense and the right amount of feel good moments. Really just another masterful book by Mr. Riordan. I can't wait for the 3rd book in this series, due to come out next fall. We already know the third book is called The Mark of Athena so one would have to conclude that it will center around Annabeth. A year is going to be a really long time to wait.

It's All About Experience

2011-10-25T20:14:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, my son and I got a smoker and we were planning to smoke some ribs. Well, we executed that plan on Sunday, and overall, it was successful.

We got an inexpensive Master Forge Charcoal Smoker from Lowe's so in case we didn't like it, we weren't out a lot of money. This smoker is really easy to use. You load some charcoal and wood chips in the bottom of the smoker, then put water or some liquid in the water pan above the charcoal/wood. Above that there are 2 racks for food. When cooking, the meat gets smoked, of course, but the water also steams the meat to keep it moist.

We followed a cooking method for ribs that I found online, which was supposedly for "competition" ribs. This involved putting a rub on the ribs 24 hours before cooking, then cooking at 225-250 for 3 hours. After 3 hours, you wrap the ribs, loosely, in foil with apple juice and return it to the heat. Then you cook for another hour, then unwrap the ribs, sauce them for 30-60 minutes over the heat and serve.

The ribs turned out very tasty. I made my own sauce and rub which makes a good combination. Most importantly, I loved the hickory smoked flavor. Now, the downfall is that the ribs weren't as tender as I would have liked. From what I understand, "competition" ribs aren't fall off the bone like you get at Chili's, but should pull off the bone easily. The key is to be able to get a clean bite mark in the ribs. These ribs came off the bone, but it was a little work. We'll have to work on that next time.

Here's what I learned this weekend:

1 - Kids don't have patience for 5 hours of cooking, so my son and I will continue to tackle this little by little.
2 - Next time I make ribs, I'm going to wrap them in foil a lot sooner. I think most of the smoke flavor was imparted in the first 90 minutes and I think more time being wrapped would make the ribs more tender.
3 - I can get away with using less charcoal. I didn't realize that having a bunch of food on the top rack would affect the temperature gauge as much as it did. When I took the ribs off, the temperature shot up 30 degrees. So, I probably cooked the ribs too hot...you live and learn.
4 - I'm going to try something easier next time, like a pork loin, turkey breast or brisket.
5 - Smoking is a fun way to cook...I am really looking forward to my next adventure and I hope my son will help a little more each time.

My BBQ Sauce Recipe

2011-10-22T16:11:00.003-05:00

My son and I bought a smoker a couple of weeks back. Today we are preparing to smoke some baby back ribs tomorrow. Nothing like picking one of the hardest things for our first venture into smoking.

This summer, I stopped buying barbecue sauce in a jar and starting making my own. I just thought it would be fun to make my own sauce, plus there is a lot of preservatives in store bought sauces that I can do without. I'm actually cooking some of this sauce right now and it is making the house smell so good that I thought I'd share.

This recipe is a fairly simple barbecue sauce, adapted from the Neely's Recipe on Food Network. I'm finding more and more that I prefer simple recipes because they are easier to make and they always seem to taste good. Sometimes a ton of ingredients just muddies the flavor. If you follow the link to the Food Network, you'll see that I haven't changed this recipe much.

Ingredients:
2 cups ketchup (I prefer Hunt's)
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 TBSP brown sugar
5 TBSP white sugar
1/2 TBSP black pepper
1/2 TBSP onion powder
1/2 TBSP ground mustard
1/2 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 TBSP liquid smoke

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, for 1 hour 15 minutes.

I've tried a few other barbecue sauce recipes and this one is the best, and it's super easy. If you like tomato/ketchup based barbecue sauce, you will like this. It ends up being sweet and tangy with a peppery kick at the back of your throat. I think this recipe tastes very similar to Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy, just not quite a sweet.

Where's the Beef?

2011-10-17T17:58:00.001-05:00

Wendy's has been running a commercial where a young guy buys a "Where's the Beef?" T-Shirt at a Goodwill-type store, and then as he's walking around, everybody is reading his shirt out loud. He super confused because he's too young to remember the commercial, until he arrives at a Wendy's and sees a sign that says "Here's the Beef." It hearkens back to the commercials of 25+ years ago where the old ladies are asking "Where's the Beef?" about burgers that compete with Wendy's. Wendy's is bringing back this old catch phrase to highlight their newer, slightly bigger burgers and better toppings.

Today we were driving back from visiting family and we stopped at Wendy's. Being super hungry, I decided to try one of the new burgers. I got a double bacon cheeseburger...yes I'm going to regret that later. I know as a food guy I'm supposed to show disdain for fast food, and I generally do. But, I have to say, this was a darn fine burger. The burger patties were thick and juicy, and the bacon was actually a thick cut of bacon so it added a ton of flavor. My mouth is watering now just thinking about how good it was.

I hope I don't lose points as a "foodie" for this. I was forced to eat McDonald's on the trip and that was miserably bad...hopefully that earns points back.

Wrangler Jeans

2011-10-16T18:42:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, I bought 2 pair of Wrangler Jeans at Target. As you all know, one of the main pitchmen for Wrangler Jeans is Brett Favre, former NFL QB, most famously of the Green Bay Packers, but also of the NY Jets and Minnesota Vikings late in his career.

I gotta tell you, these Wranglers really make me feel like Brett Favre. When I first put them on, I had the strong urge to retire, and then unretire, then retire again, then unretire, then retire, then unretire when my friends show up, and then finally retire and go on radio bashing my successors.

Good thing I've been able to overcome those urges brought on by these powerful blue jeans.

Punkin' Chuckin'

2011-10-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

No, this will not be a funny blog, unless you laugh at stupid situations. Last night my son and I were driving home from his band concert. We had just made a right turn, when I caught something flying at the right side of our vehicle out of the corner of my eye. It hit near the front bumper and was very loud. We circled around to see if we could see anything, and all we could see was half a pumpkin lying in the street.

When we got home, we found the other half of the pumpkin lodged in the grill of our van. One of the bars in the grill was broken, but thankfully there was no other damage. The pumpkin was relatively small...and fortunately the people throwing it weren't too accurate. I think there could have been real trouble if the pumpkin would have hit the windshield or any of the windows.

I'm sure it was stupid kids who did this. I don't understand that...I never had the urge as a kid to cause damage to other people's property. I just don't get what drives some people.

Luckily, no real damage was done. A lot worse things could have happened so we're thankful that we got off as easily as we did.

The Weirdest Round Ever

2011-10-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

It's been an unseasonably warm October, and as such, I've been fortunate enough to still be playing fairly frequent rounds of golf. I generally play well this time of year because I just don't care as much about my score...maybe I should find a way to take that into the rest of the season?

So, I've been playing quite well lately...no super low rounds, but a lot of consistently good rounds of golf. Yesterday afternoon, in 85 degree temperatures, I played 18 holes with my friend Joe. Little did I know when we tee'd off that it would be one of the weirdest rounds I've ever played.

I started off with a birdie at #1, but bogeyed the next hole. After 7 holes, I was 2 over par. Number 8 at my course is a 300 yard par 4, and I drove the green (it was playing down wind). I had a 45 foot eagle putt, which I made for my 2nd eagle of the golf season. So, I was back to even par. I hit a really good drive at number 9, but screwed up my 2nd shot and my chip and ended up making a bogey to shoot a 1 over par 35 on the front nine.

As I've said before on this blog, my golf course is a 9 hole, par 34. So, to play 18 holes you just go around twice, but play a different set of tees to make the course a little different. The 2nd time around, the course plays a little longer.

The 2nd nine, I started out with a par, but then bogeyed number 2...I really struggle with number 2. On #3 I hit a good drive and a good 2nd shot and made a 10 foot putt for birdie, so I'm back to +1. Number 4 is a 288 yard par 4 that was playing into the wind. I don't always hit my driver there, but since it was into a 10-15 mph wind, I used my driver. I hit the ball real hard and figured I'd be 10-15 yards short of the green. As we walked to the green, we saw my ball sitting 6 feet from the hole. I made that putt for my 2nd eagle of the day, and now I'm 1 under par for the day.

I parred #5, then hit a terrible tee shot on the par 3 sixth hole. I chunked my chip shot into the bunker, blasted out and then lipped out my bogey putt, for a double bogey...back to +1. I parred 7 and then made a really good birdie at #8, so I'm back to even par. At number 9 (or 18), I hit a terrible tee shot, and had to punch out from behind a tree. I had 100 yards left for my 3rd shot and hit a really bad shot, then a bad chip and lipped out my bogey putt for my 2nd double bogey of the day.

So, in summary, I had 6 pars, 5 bogeys, 3 birdies, 2 eagle and 2 double bogeys. That adds up to the weirdest 2 over par round of my life. What did I learn? Well, there are all kinds of ways to get the ball around a golf course. Oh, and I learned that I always make my eagle putts when playing golf with Joe on unseasonably warm days in October...it has now happened the last 2 times I've played golf with Joe on unseasonably warm days in October.

Why So Unhappy?

2011-10-06T19:28:00.002-05:00

Tiger Woods made his much anticipated return to the PGA Tour today, shooting a two over par 73 at the Frys.com open, a Fall Finish event. Normally, Tiger doesn't play in the Fall Finish events, but due to injuries and poor play, he added this event to get is game in better shape before the President's Cup.

After his round, he said that he is "Not Happy" with his round. Tiger is never happy these days. In fact, he's generally really miserable. I can't say that I blame him...he screwed up his marriage, his health has been a wreck and his golf game resembles mine more and more every day.

But, at the same time, I can say that I blame him. Tiger has lead a pretty charmed life. He was the best golfer on the planet for the better part of 15 years. He's won over 70 tournaments and 14 majors. He's got 2 kids. He's become the person he dreamed of being growing up. So, why isn't it he happy?

Well, because there's more to life than being a great golfer. I tend to think that Tiger got to the top and thought, "this is all there is?" So then he tried to fill his life with other things, and it never got better. That happens to us all when we achieve something we really want...in the end, accomplishments of this world always disappoint. So then, like Tiger, we try to fill our lives with other things, looking for the one thing that will make us truly happy.

Maybe Tiger, and the rest of us, need to spend less time looking for things of this world to make us happy and more time looking for Jesus Christ. True happiness can only come through living a truly Christian life. Personally, I struggle with this every day. But I have realized that I'm a much happier person when I quit trying to find things in this world to make me happy and realize that I should be happy with the many blessing God has already given me...such as a great wife and 2 wonderful boys. Don't get me wrong, I still fail more often than I succeed, and I'm still somewhat convinced that a pickup will make me happy, but that's a problem for another day.

I wonder if Tiger will ever realize Who the true source of happiness really is?

Baseball vs. Football

2011-10-01T17:42:00.001-05:00

With the baseball playoffs going on right now (sorry Red Sox fans), and the start of the NFL season, it's time to review the differences between Baseball and Football. Nobody does that better than George Carlin, who is one of the funniest men that ever lived.

Here's one of my favorite Carlin bits of all time. This is one of the few bits that Carlin did that has clean language. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Top 5 Non-Super Hero Movie Heroes

2011-09-30T19:12:00.001-05:00

Whenever we think of heroes, we think of soldiers, firefighters, policemen, our fathers and grandfathers and sports stars. When we think of movie heroes, my brain always goes to Super Heroes. But, there is a whole other realm of movie heroes. So, I got to thinking, who are my top 5 favorite movie heroes that are not super heroes?

I decided I had to set some ground rules, because otherwise there would be too many to choose from. So, first off, I decided that the hero had to be in more than one movie (i.e. he or she had to be compelling enough to make more than one movie). Secondly, he or she cannot have any supernatural abilities whatsoever, so Jedi are out. Finally, he has to be a fictional character, not based on any historical person.

Note that I'm 33 years old and I really don't watch too many movies from before I was born, so I suspect there are people out there who will think of heroes from the early 70's and earlier that I missed. So, here are my top 5 non-super hero heroes:

5 - Aragorn: Viggo Mortensen perfectly played the Ranger turned King in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I've had a hard time accepting Viggo in any other role because he was so good as Aragorn, and so darn heroic. Plus, he got the girl at the end, and the hero always gets the girl.

4 - Rocky Balboa: Ok, let's forget that "Rocky V" was ever made. If we look at the other 5 movies, Rocky Balboa is the quintessential American hero. A hard luck guy who overcomes a lot, gets the girl, wins big, falls from grace, finally becomes comfortable in his own skin and returns to glory. One of the best movie heroes out there.

3 - James Bond: Many people would put 007 as the #1 guy on this list, especially because he has stood the test of time. From Sean Connery in the 1960's to Daniel Craig in the last few years, James Bond has fascinated movie viewers for nearly 50 years. My favorite Bond was actually Pierce Brosnan, but I understand the people who love Connery. Overall, a great hero who seemingly can do anything.

2 - Indiana Jones: Harrison Ford's classic archaeologist, explorer, hero is one of the greatest heroes of all time. I would have put him #1 on this list had Steven Spielberg and George Lucas not decided to make "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Indie is always funny, always saves the day, and generally does it with a flair and brilliance not seen in other heroes. Indie gets out of every jam and always makes the right decisions in the end. Hard to top this one, but...

1 - John McClane: Detective John McClane just can't seem to get a break. First he goes to Los Angeles, only to have to save his wife from a sadistic Alan Rickman. Next, he has to save an entire airport. Then, without much help from Samuel L. Jackson, McClane has to save the entire city of New York. Finally, in "Live Free or Die Hard", Detective McClane is pitted against a cyber terrorist bent on taking down the United States, while making a lot of money and threatening to kill McClane's daughter. As we learn in the latest "Die Hard" flick, sometimes you gotta be the guy because there's nobody else to be the guy. That is what makes Bruce Willis as John McClane the #1 hero on this list.

Movie Review - Battle: Los Angeles

2011-09-24T16:16:00.000-05:00

Honestly, I had really low expectations for "Battle: Los Angeles", and as I've said numerous times on this blog, low expectations is key for a good movie watching experience. Surprisingly, this movie wasn't terrible...in fact it wasn't even bad. And, as a bonus, there was no Michael Ironside, which I was expecting in this movie...he's typically in any movie like this.

In "Battle: Los Angeles" meteors are crashing to earth, at least that's what the silly humans think. But, it turns out the meteors are aliens, and they are bent on taking over earth and using it's resources. Yes, we've seen this movie before. This is where we meet Staff Sargent Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), who is part of a group of marines responsible for clearing civilians from a lost area of Los Angeles before the Air Force bombs the snot out of that specific area. The remainder of the movie follows these few marines as they save the civilians and eventually find the key to defeating the alien invaders.

Aaron Eckhart is actually really good at Sgt. Nantz. I've been seeing Aaron Eckhart in more movies lately, dating back to "The Dark Knight". I really like him as an actor. The rest of the cast is not memorable, but Eckhart manages to carry the cast well enough.

The story is interesting. Usually these types of movies focus on the President and some other "top level" guys who are trying to stop the invading aliens. Sometimes they even have Wil Smith, just because it always helps having Wil Smith when facing off against aliens. So, to see a relatively small group of "regular guys" just carrying out their part of the job was sort of refreshing. Of course, having them save the day was also important to making this a true "Hollywood alien movie."

I think I'll rate "Battle: Los Angeles" 4 stars. It might have been 3 if I would have had higher expectations, but given the low expectations I started with, I'm pleased with how much I enjoyed this movie.

Book Review: The Power of Six

2011-09-19T18:17:00.000-05:00

The Power of Six is the 2nd book in the Lorien Legacies series by Pittacus Lore (a Pseudonym for the 2 guys working on this series). You will recall that I really liked I Am Number Four, and I liked the 2nd book as well.

This 2nd book continues to follow John Smith (a.k.a Number Four), but in this story, we also get to know Six, who we met at the end of the first book, Seven (a.k.a Marina) and Nine. The Power of Six takes place over a very short period of time, and thus moves extremely fast and is packed with action. The story continues to follow the conflict between the Lorien's (good aliens) and Mogadorians (bad aliens) on earth. The Mogadorians are trying to exterminate the remaining Loriens before they attain their full power...yes they have super powers. Trust me, it's a good story.

You will discover that this book does not have top notch writing. I mean, it's not terrible, but I wouldn't describe it as literary genius either. Still, this was a great read and I'm excited about the third book, which will probably come out next summer. My brief internet search did not reveal a title, and I'm too lazy to keep digging.

If You Love Me....

2011-09-17T15:19:00.000-05:00

Remember back during the 2008 election when we Conservatives were saying that Barack Obama has a Messiah Complex? Well, maybe not all Conservatives, but definitely Rush Limbaugh, and me, to name 2 prominent Conservatives. Personally, I still believe that, and this week, President Obama gave me further confirmation that I'm correct on this one.

During a speech in North Carolina, President Obama, presumably off the teleprompter, said "If you love me, you got to help me pass this bill!" If the teleprompter told him to say that, I question whether the teleprompter is doing his job. This statement was made in reference to Obama's notional jobs bill.

How does this prove that Obama has a Messiah complex? Well, to borrow from Nuke, let's look at scripture. In John 21:15-19 we have the famous exchange when Jesus asks Peter 3 times if Peter loves Him. After each time Peter professes that he loves Jesus, Jesus gives Peter a command. For another example, let's go back to John 14:15, where we hear Jesus say "If you love Me, you will keep My Commandments."

In the light of what I just cited above, what Obama said does sound like an attempt to sound Messiah-like, doesn't it? Again Barack Obama is making it all about himself, rather than about the people in this country who are out of work. Rather than making some emotive statement like that, Obama should try to lead and actually present something that makes sense for creating jobs and growing the economy. But, I truly believe he doesn't have the faintest idea of how to do that.

To those who are super cynical who are thinking right now, "Why is it ok for Jesus to say what He said? Isn't He doing the same thing Obama is doing?", I would answer that the point is that it is all about Jesus. It's an entirely different thing...altogether. As Christians, we profess that Jesus is #1 in our life, and as such, when He says what He said in John 14 and John 21, we need to do what he asks.

That's all I have to say about that.

Double Your Animated Fun

2011-09-12T18:15:00.001-05:00

I've watched a couple of Animated movies with my kids lately. So, I guess I should review them.

"Toy Story 3": The third, and I think final, movie in the "Toy Story" franchise from Pixar is my least favorite of the three movies. With that said, it's still a good movie...4 stars. Disney/Pixar has managed to bring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen back for three of these movies, and I have to say that I'm grateful for that. Without the same vocal talent, it's just not the same movie.

In "Toy Story 3", Andy is off to college, and the toys are facing the reality of life ahead of them. When they are mistakenly donated to a day care, the toys learn the harsh reality of life on the inside. Can our heroes make it back to Andy in time? Will they ever be played with again? Well, you have to watch to find out.

"Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil": My kids were really excited about this one. We really liked the original "Hoodwinked", so my wife and I were looking forward to it as well. Sadly, we were very disappointed. "Hood vs. Evil" is only a 2 star movie.

For starters, Anne Hathaway is not back as the voice of Red, which really bugged me. Hayden Pantierre is ok, but the change in voices just threw me. Secondly, it just felt like the producers/directors were just going for cheap laughs rather than any substance. Finally, the story just wasn't that good. Everything just fell really flat with "Hood vs. Evil."

Not the Broncos of Old

2011-09-08T18:16:00.000-05:00

This post was actually requested by a friend/reader that lives in Colorado. So, in the interest of keeping one of my 11 readers happy, here's my blog about the Denver Broncos, and Tim Tebow.

First off, with the NFL season starting tonight, let's just face it...the Broncos are going to be terrible! If I were a bandwagon fan like Nuke and rooted for teams that win all the time, I wouldn't be a Broncos fan. I'd be a Steelers fan, and I'd probably predict a Super Bowl title. As it is, I'm predicting 4-12 for my Denver Broncos, so one more win than last season. I'm basing this on the fact that I think John Fox is a slightly better coach than Josh McDaniels, and I think the schedule is slightly easier this year.

As far as the team...it's awful. Yes, they added Von Miller at Line Backer, but he's still a rookie. And yes, Elvis Dumervil is back from injury, but they still have way too many problems. Here's the problems I see:

1 - The Defensive line is not good. Line backers are not free to do the things that they need to do if they have to tackle running backs 5 yards down the field all the time.

2 - The Offensive line is unproven. Maybe they'll surprise me, but I wouldn't want to be a Quarterback for the Broncos this season.

3 - They are still relying on Knowshon (don't call me Slowshon) Moreno as their #1 running back. The guy looks like he's running in quick sand all the time.

4 - The secondary is old.

5 - The wide receivers are unproven and probably overrated.

6 - Kyle Orton is not the long term answer at Quarterback.

So, I got to the sixth problem before I got to Quarterback, which is the position most fans want to talk about. A year ago, the Broncos drafted Tim Tebow in the 1st round. Tebow is definitely the most polarizing figure in all of football. The left in this country hates him, because he's a good, upstanding Christian kid, who was probably taken too early in the draft. The right in this country loves him for the same reasons. Tebow is definitely not the prototypical NFL Quarterback. But, it's not his fault he was taken early in the draft, and it's not his fault that the offseason was lost due to labor issues. The bottom line is that nobody deserves the criticism Tebow has gotten. If an African American QB were criticized the way Tim Tebow has been criticized, the sports media in this country would have a field day with the criticizers. But, since it's a white, Christian kid, the criticism goes largely ignored.

I hope Tim Tebow is successful. My eyes tell me he won't be, but I hope I'm wrong. I do not understand the team's decision to play Kyle Orton over Tim Tebow. We know exactly what Kyle Orton is...he's a system Quarterback who can win with a strong defense and running game. On this team, he will win 3-4 games this season. By starting Orton this season, the team is just prolonging the inevitable. They have sold way too many Tebow jersey's not to give the kid a shot. Whether it's this season or next, Tim Tebow must be given a shot to succeed in Denver. And I, for one, think that shot should come this season. Throw him out there and see if he can perform. He's surprised people his entire life...who's to say he won't surprise us once again.

So there you go...my pessimistic, rambling Broncos preseason blog. Go Team!

In The Beginning...

2011-09-07T19:16:00.003-05:00

There was Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnserr. It's the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the Marvel universe is just learning about the existence of Mutants. In "X-Men: First Class" we see the beginning for the famed Marvel X-Men, and the genesis of the villain Magneto.

As I said above, this movie is set in the early 1960s. Erik Lehnserr (Michael Fassbender) is hunting the Nazis responsible for his imprisonment and his mother's death. While seeking out the man he most blames for his mother's death (played by none other than Kevin Bacon), Lehnserr meets Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and a friendship is formed. But, Lehnserr and Xavier have different ideas about the futures of Mutant Kind and Human Kind that comes to a head at the Bay of Pigs. Out of this event, Professor X and Magneto are born.

I really enjoyed "X-Men: First Class". I watched it while on the plane back from Brazil last week. While not as good as the other Marvel movie of the summer, "Thor", "First Class" is one of the better X-Men movies. The story was great, and while it was an action film, there were some humorous moments, including a cameo by Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and several hair jokes by Charles Xavier (in the X-Men movies set later, Xavier is played by bald actor Patrick Stewart).

James McAvoy continues to be a fantastic actor. From Mr. Tumnus to Charles Xavier, he gives his all to every role. This was the first time I've seen Michael Fassbender in a movie, and he was terrific as Lehnserr/Magneto. At times, he really steals the show. Finally, any movie with Kevin Bacon is automatically excellent because we have another movie we can use for Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

"X-Men: First Class" is a 4 to 4.5 star movie. If you are an X-Men fan or a fan of Marvel comics in general, give this movie a shot.

Famously Good

2011-09-05T16:38:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm probably going to catch grief for this one, but I really like Famous Dave's Barbecue. I know it's a chain BBQ restaurant, and I'm sure those from the south will tell me that it's not nearly as good as the BBQ you get in Memphis or Texas or Kansas City. But as a guy who grew up in the midwest who just wants some good hickory smoked ribs or pulled pork, it's pretty darn good.

This weekend, we were outta town in a locale that is not exactly a BBQ hot spot. My family all really likes BBQ, especially my 10 year old. He loves Famous Dave's spare ribs. So, last night we went to Famous Dave's, and it was sooooooooo good. I had the Georgia Chopped Pork, which I smothered in Rich and Sassy sauce. I got the Spicy Green Beans and BBQ Chips as my sides. I love to dip the BBQ chips in the different sauces. My mouth is watering right now thinking about how good it was.

Some other items around the table included Baby Back Ribs, Spare Ribs and BBQ chicken. Also, Buffalo Wings...they have really good Buffalo Wing sauce at Famous Dave's. All of the food was very good.

I still look forward to getting to take a trip to the south for some "real BBQ", and I'm planning to get a smoker and learn a little more BBQ cooking myself. But, for now, when I'm in the midwest and I see a Famous Dave's, it will be very hard for me to pass it by.

Movie Review: Enemy At the Gates

2011-08-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

My Netflix queue is definitely deficient right now in movies I really want to see. "Enemy At The Gates" is one that Netflix figured I'd give 3.5 stars, so I gave it a shot. It's not a bad movie, but there were enough things that I didn't like or that made me uncomfortable for me to drop this from 4 stars to 3.

"Enemy At The Gates" stars Jude Law as Vasilli Zaitsev, a renowned Russian Sniper during World War II. I believe this movie is loosely based on actual events, though the movie is largely fiction. When the Russians start using Zaitsev as propaganda during the war, the best German Sniper, Major Konig (Ed Harris) comes to Russia to kill Zaitsev. What follows is a battle of wits between the 2 snipers that ends in the death of one of them.

Like I said in the opening, there were a few parts of this movie that I didn't like. The opening 15 minutes is really hard to watch, and I nearly shut the movie off. Additionally, I was sort of annoyed that all the Russians spoke with a British accent...come on, it's not that hard to do a Russian accent. But, there were enough redeeming moments for me to rate this 3 stars. The battles between Zaitsev and Konig are done very well. And, for the most part, Ed Harris didn't annoy me like he often does.

I don't know if I'd recommend this. I think if you like movies like "Saving Private Ryan" and other WWII movies, you might like this, but be prepared for some hard things to watch.

Why Not Jack?

2011-08-27T13:57:00.000-05:00

It's pretty much official now that I'm a weekend blogger. When I get home at night, I just don't feel like being on the computer. Next week, I'll be on business travel all week, and then we'll be outta town for the weekend, so I might get one more blog in before a pretty long hiatus by my standards. Though, if my energy level allows, I may blog while I'm on my trip.

Anyway, this blog is not about my lack of blogging. This blog is about the pick of Tiger Woods to be on the US President's Cup team. Fred Couples, the team captain, said that Tiger is the best player forever and had to be picked. I hate to disagree with Fred Couples...he's a likable guy, but he's flat out wrong with this pick. Tiger is not the Tiger of old...Tiger isn't even in the top 15 Americans right now. I could name off at least 15 Americans that I'd rather have on the team before I get to Tiger. In his last 2 events, he finished T-37th and missed the cut...those finishes coming off 4 months off due to injury.

But, if I use Couples' logic, then why not take Jack Nicklaus for the team. Sure, he's in his 70's now and can't play anywhere near how he used to play, but Jack Nicklaus has more career wins than Tiger Woods and more career majors. Jack is obviously the greatest player ever, so shouldn't he be on the team too?

I wish I could take credit for that one, but a friend at work made that point last week. I thought it was great, so I used it. This pick doesn't make any sense to me, and it's not just because I'm not a Tiger fan. I enjoy the President's Cup and I'd like to see America win. I believe that to do that, we need our current 12 best players on the team...not our 12 best of all time.

Another of the Things That Make Me Go Hmmm...

2011-08-21T17:43:00.000-05:00

Last night, my wife and I watched the movie "Tristan and Isolde", which was billed to me as a love story with sword fighting and battles and such. Well, it's not...it's a star-crossed love story with a few moments of action, followed by long moments of heartache and sorrow. I only rate it 2 stars, because I'm a happily-ever-after kind of guy.

This got me wondering...why do people like to watch movies and read stories that end poorly? Why do we want to end up sad or scared or both? I've never been a fan of movies that have sad endings, and I'm also not a fan of horror movies, and frankly, I don't understand people who are. If I'm going to invest 2 hours of my time into something, I'd rather laugh than cry, and I'd rather my heart start pumping because of action as opposed to something scary.

This is another blog without any real point, other than to wonder in writing about things that I think are weird about other people. I guess to each his own. I'll stick with my over the top action films and sappy happily-ever-after stories, and the crazies out there can watch their horror films and shows with sad endings.

Movie Review: Tangled

2011-08-20T17:54:00.000-05:00

Last night, we decided to watch "Tangled" on Netflix Instant Watch. The boys had already seen this in the theater with their grandmother, but my wife and I had not. After some recent flops in "Princess" movies, Disney tried to create a "Princess" movie that would also appeal to boys. I think they've succeeded based on the reaction my boys had to it.

"Tangled" tells the traditional Rapunzel story with a new spin. As in the traditional story, Rapunzel is living in a tower and she has never cut her hair. The spin is that Rapunzel is kept there by an evil woman who has convinced her that staying in the safety of the tower to protect her hair is the best thing for her. What the woman really wants is to keep Rapunzel and her magical hair all to herself. But that's all about to change when Flynn Rider, a thief, stumbles upon the tower and sees it as a place to hide. When Rapunzel gets the drop on Flynn, Flynn is forced to take Rapunzel out of the tower to get what he wants. Along the way, Flynn discovers there's more to life than money and doing whatever you want.

I think "Tangled" is a 4 star movie. We all enjoyed it. It's a musical, so it borrows from the tradition of many of the older Disney "princess" movies, but the animation is updated to the computer generated animation we are familiar with today. The songs are good, but nothing really sticks out.

Overall, "Tangled" would make a great family night movie for most anybody with kids under the age of 10 or so.

I'm still choking!

2011-08-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

Today was my annual trip to Finkbine Golf Course with a group of golf friends. Finkbine is the golf course for the University of Iowa, and is one of my favorite courses. Playing at Indian Creek Country Club this year, I haven't gotten to play golf at many courses besides my club, which is ok. But, my club is unique...it's short with very small greens, so going to a place like Finkbine which is longer and has huge, sloping greens, can be a bit of a shock.

Today was a beautiful day...85 degrees, light humidity and not much wind. We tee'd off at 8:10 am, and finished around 12:10, so a perfect golf day...except for my game. I started out really well...in fact, I shot 35 (1 under) on the front 9. How I shot that score was a little weird though. I made 4 birdies, including a chip-in and a 50 foot bomb that would have run 10 feet by if it would have missed the hole. Really, all the breaks went my way on the front nine.

Now, I've been playing pretty solid golf lately, but I haven't shot a real low score all year. My best 18 holes this golf season is +2, which I've done 3 times. So, here I was today, going to the more difficult of the two nine's at Finkbine 1 under par. I striped my drive at 10, and that's when my brain shut off. I screwed up my approach into 10 and made bogey. Then I doubled 11, before righting the ship a bit at 12 with a par. But, then I made 3 more double bogeys, 2 bogeys and 1 birdie over the final 6 holes to shoot a 46 on the back nine, for a very mediocre 81. I really choked away a great chance for a good round.

I'm really not sure why I'm struggling to shoot low scores this season. Last year, I shot under par a couple of times, and even par a couple more times. I know I'm capable, but I seem to be getting in my own way too often this season. I know that great round is out there, and hopefully I can figure out a way to quit choking long enough to allow it to happen.

It's a Trap!

2011-08-13T18:51:00.000-05:00

That title contains the famous words uttered by Admiral Ackbar when the Rebel Fleet gets ambushed by a fully functional Death Star at the conclusion of "Return of the Jedi." Why is that my title? Well, it's because I believe we all have an Inner Admiral Ackbar. We all know when we are heading for trouble, and we need to listen to our Inner Admiral Ackbar prior to engaging in that trouble.

Some examples of when we should listen to our Inner Admiral Ackbar:

1 - When a politician tells us they will do what we want them to do if elected...all we have to do is vote for them. It's a trap! They never do what they say they are going to do.

2 - When someone asks for you to come over and help them move a few things. It's a trap! You're going to be moving their whole house!

3 - When your kid offers to do any chore. It's a trap! They want something.

So, listen to your Inner Admiral Ackbar and everything will go more smoothly for you.

My Happy Place

2011-08-12T18:46:00.000-05:00

I've had a good couple of weeks at my new Happy Place...Indian Creek Country Club, where I've been playing my golf this summer. I realized this was my happy place about 10 days ago. I was playing golf on Men's night with a group of great guys. The weather was hot, but not raining, and I was playing pretty good. My family was at the pool, swimming and eating supper. I knew they were having fun, and I was having fun, and I realized that I was a happy camper.

We've really enjoyed belonging to this little 9 hole country club here in town. We've enjoyed the pool immensely, and both boys have exponentially increased their swimming ability. I think we've made some good family memories around that pool.

I've really enjoyed the golf as well. At first, I was struggling with my golf game as I adjusted to a shorter, tighter golf course with small greens. But, I've made some strides and seem to be playing pretty good now. I've also met some really nice people...in fact, everyone has been super nice.

And, I've managed to do fairly well in some golf events. I finished 6th in the Club Championship, which is pretty good given that I played pretty poorly the first day. Last Sunday, my friend Jared and I finished 2nd in the "Ryder Cup" format tournament. We played 9 holes of best shot, 9 holes of best ball and 9 holes of alternate shot. We shot -3 in the best shot, -1 in the best ball and +2 in the alternate shot to finish 1 shot behind the winners. Jared blames himself for us not winning...I blame him too...lol. No, not really...we both missed a few putts we should have made, but overall, we played very well, and we lost to 2 really good golfers.

Today was another great day. I have been busy at work lately and feeling somewhat stressed out. I left early today and planned to play 18 holes if I could. I had about 3 and a half hours, which is doable if it's not busy. Well, I got to the course, and it was not busy...in fact, it was slow. I finished the first 9 holes in about an hour, so I played a second 9, and finished with 1 hour and 20 minutes before I had to be anywhere. So, I went around again...I walked 27 holes and had some good company from some of my fellow members along the way. Just a great way to let my stress out and relax.

I am so glad that we chose to join Indian Creek Country Club. It's a great place for the family and for my golf game...it's a win-win!

Worth the Wait!

2011-08-06T19:25:00.000-05:00

My children have been waiting all summer for the Disney Channel premiere of "Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension". Well, it premiered last night, and as of 15 minutes ago, they've watched it 3 times. Thank goodness we have that DVR.

What starts out like any other day for Phineas and Ferb gets complicated when they accidentally smash Dr. Doofenschmirtz's latest invention, the Other Dimension-inator. So, being the charitable boys they are, Phineas and Ferb help Dr. D fix his invention, much to the chagrin of Agent P (Perry the Platypus). In the other dimension, the boys find that the other Dr. Doofenschmirtz has taken over the tri-state area. What follows is an adventure to save Perry, get back home and save their own tri-state area.

This movie was surprisingly good. It wasn't just a longer version of the TV show, but actually had a "movie" feel to it. I rate it 4 stars, and my kids rate it the best movie ever. Of course, they are prone to exaggeration. Hopefully "Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension" will be available on DVD or Blu-ray soon. Otherwise, I'll never be able to delete it from the DVR.

Some Book Reviews

2011-08-02T19:02:00.000-05:00

Well, it's not quite Nuke with 600 book reviews in one post, but I have 3 to review in this post.

Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles Series #1): This Suzanne Collins book is one my kids and my wife really wanted me to read. They have listened to the first 2 books on CD, and are planning to listen to/read the other 3. So, last week we got book #1 on the Nook and I set to reading it.

Overall, this isn't a bad book. It's probably a 3.5 star book. Gregor is 11 years old, and he lives with his mother, grandmother and 2 sisters. His father has been missing for 2 years, 7 months and some days. While caring for his 2 year old sister Boots, Gregor and Boots fall into The Underland, a world underground where humans, giant bats, giant cockroaches and giant rats live and not in peace. When the humans find Gregor, they tell him he is a prophesied warrior, and he sets out on a mysterious quest. Along the way, there are betrayals, some action, new friendships and a reunion.

Like I said, not a bad book, and since it reads fast, I was glad I read it.

True (...Sort Of): This book was one my wife chose to do as a read aloud to the kids on a recent trip we made. As I was driving, and almost all the reading was done in the car, I got to listen too. Author Katherine Hannigan spins a really good tale of friendship, of overcoming perceptions and of learning how to do what's right.

The story centers mostly around Delly Pattison, a 5th grader who likes surpresents (surprise presents). But, her surpresents tend to get her in trouble. In fact, she is in trouble so often, that most of her family and friends have given up on her. That all changes when Delly meets Ferris Boyd, the new kid in town who is like no one Delly has ever met before. Ferris comes with her own set of troubles though. Can Delly overcome her troubles and help Ferris?

There is a side story involving another kid's (Brud Kinney) interaction with Ferris as well, but I think the Delly/Ferris story is definitely the main theme. I really enjoyed this book, and my wife read it so well. This story is funny at times, sad at others, and heartwarming at others. A great choice for a read aloud book with kids. There are some tough themes at times, so I'd suggest kids 8 or older.

The Warlock (Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series #5): This book actually made me want to read the 6th and final book in this series by Michael Scott. Everything that happens in book #5 happens in a 24 hour span, which makes for fast paced action. Where book #4 seemed predictable and frayed, this book starts to bring things back together. I'm glad I stuck with this series. Here's hoping the final book brings it home.

It's Over

2011-08-01T13:51:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II", which will be known as HP7p2 for the rest of this blog. The Deathly Hallows was my favorite book, and I thought HP7p2 would be my favorite movie, but I don't know if it was as good as the fourth movie.

Don't get my wrong, I liked HP7p2, but since I knew what was in the book, I was a bit disappointed with the few things that were left out of the movie. Overall, the movie was true to the book, but where it deviated was a bit disappointing. I give the movie a 4 star rating, trending towards 4.5.

If you think about it, the 8 movies in the Harry Potter series is really pretty amazing. So often, these great books get screwed up when converted to movies. As examples, see "Eragon" or "The Lightning Thief". The fact that the producers, directors and cast were able to stay relatively true to J.K. Rowling's vision is pretty remarkable, and that has to count for something. And, if you have never read the books, the movies do a really great job telling the story, but once you read the books, you'll miss what was left out of the movies.

I never wanted to be one of those "the book was better" type of people, but...the book was better.

Monday Night Madness

2011-07-28T21:37:00.000-05:00

The SyFy Channel has gone too far. Many networks do onr good show in an evening. Occasionally, we even get 2 good shows in an evening. But SyFy has dared to put 3 good shows all on Monday night.

Starting at 7 pm, we have Eureka, which is in season 5. This continues to be one of the better shows on TV, even as the cast continues to evolve. I'm not sure how season 5 is going to go based on the first 3 episodes, but given the pattern of past seasons, I expect great things.

Then at 8 pm, Warehouse 13 comes on my screen. This is one that my wife and I both really like. We laugh a lot while we watch it, but it has enough suspense and action to keep me interested. Pete Lattimer, played by Eddie McClintock, cracks me up. This is just a fun show.

Finally, at 9 pm, SyFy unveiled Alphas. As my wife said, it's like someone took the concept of NBC's Heroes, and made it good. The concept is similar to Heroes and/or X-Men. Some people have special abilities, and these people have been nicknamed, Alphas. A small team of Alphas, led by Dr. Rosen, help the government solve Alpha related crimes. We're only 3 episodes in, but it seems like SyFy might have hit on another winner.

Add in the fact that TNT has put out a winner in Falling Skies, and I've spent way too much time watching TV over the last month. Luckily I have a DVR...I really don't know how I ever lived without it.

Is It That Time Again?

2011-07-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

It's getting close to caucus season in Iowa...ok, really it's not. But, almost all the Republican candidates for President are hanging out in Iowa a lot this summer. As such, I'm hearing a lot from these candidates, even though I'm trying not to.
This year, I'm torn, because I really like Michelle Bachman, and I think she would create the most interesting race against President Obama. Bachman is like a smarter version of Sarah Palin...she definitely won't make any of the blunders Palin has along the way. Don't get me wrong, I think Sarah Palin is great, but I don't think she should be President.

Anyway, back to Bachman. I think she has a lot of upside, and she definitely annoys my liberal friends. One friend told me that Bachman is just a "noise maker". So, for the shear entertainment value, I really want to support Bachman.

But, the other day we got a letter from the Ron Paul campaign. The letter was signed by his son Rand (Senator from KY), so I have to assume he at least consulted on the letter. As I read through the letter, I found that I agreed with 99% of what Ron Paul stands for. I struggle with some of his isolationist views in terms of our military, but economically and socially, I'm right there with him.

At this point, I'm left with a choice. If I'm honest about my political beliefs and the direction I want to see our country take, I have to support Ron Paul. If I want to be entertained, and end up with a candidate who is also really solid, I have to support Michelle Bachman. Right now, I'm leaning towards being honest with myself, but the side that wants to be entertained is still trying to win out.

I guess I have to make a decision by January 2012...better keep working on it.

Top 5 Westerns

2011-07-19T20:32:00.000-05:00

I haven't done a top 5 list recently, but was inspired to do so while defending the greatness of "True Grit" (the new one, not the old one). I'm not a huge western fan, but I do like a good, slightly dark, western. Because of this, I really don't like the older westerns that seem campy, so you won't see any of the "Spaghetti Westerns" in this list, or movies like "Hang 'Em High", which had potential, but ultimately fell short. Also, I haven't seen "Cowboy's and Aliens" yet, so...you know...that's not on this list either.
So, here's my top 5 Westerns.

5 - "Back to the Future, Part III" - Hey, IMDB has this listed under the genre of Western, so I'm counting it. The finale to the classic 1980's trilogy was also my favorite of the 3 movies. I laughed, I worried for the characters, and in the end, I applauded a great movie.

4 - "Tombstone" - Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliot, Powers Boothe and yes...Charlton Heston all play parts in this 1993 classic. "Tombstone" is my favorite telling of the Wyatt Earp story, and Val Kilmer is my favorite Doc Holiday. Plus, it has Charlton Heston...that has to count for something.

3 - "Silverado" - This 1985 movie is probably the least well known movie on this top 5 list. Starring Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Kevin Kline as the heroes, and Brian Dennehy as the main villain, "Silverado" is a surprisingly good Western. With a story of redemption and friendship that happens to include some good gun fights, and Scott Glenn (one of my favorite actors), "Silverado" has always been one of my favorites.

2 - "True Grit" - The 2010 remake, starring Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn is a really close 2nd on my list, and that's saying something considering that #1 is one of my favorite all time movies. While I loved Bridges and thought Matt Damon was very good as well, Hailee Steinfeld steals the show as Mattie Ross. This remake is so much better than the original that it's not even worth having a conversation about which one is better. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll move you Bob (and if you don't get that Veggie Tales reference, I'm sorry for you).

1 - "Unforgiven" - This 1992 Best Picture Winner, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, also earned Eastwood and Oscar for Best Director and Gene Hackman an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. "Unforgiven" is the greatest Western ever made. Eastwood masterfully tells the story of William Munny (Eastwood), a retired and reformed gunslinger, who reluctantly takes one last job to help his friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman). But, when Little Bill (Hackman) pushes Munny too far, Munny becomes the gunslinger of old in my favorite movie shoot out of all time.

Blogger's Block

2011-07-16T18:49:00.001-05:00

It's been a really long time since I've blogged, in relation to how often I normally blog. If I were Nuke, this would be a really short time between blogs.

Anyway, the reason I haven't been blogging is because I've had blogger's block...I just haven't had any topics pop into my head. I've been in sort of a reading and movie watching desert for the past few weeks, so I haven't even had any of those to fall back on. Well, I do have one, but it's the 5th book in a series, so I really need to combine that one with another book review. Frankly, it's been frustrating. On Tuesday night, I sat down to blog and had nothing...I just stared at my computer screen.

Some ideas have been slowly filtering back into my brain. Hopefully I'll have some real topics soon. Please hang in there with me.

Ranking the Commanding Officers

2011-07-06T20:35:00.002-05:00

An interesting topic came up amongst 2 engineers today...who were the best Star Trek Captains? Well, I've changed the title to Commanding Officers because I'm not sure Benjamin Sisko was actually a Captain in the early seasons of "Deep Space Nine". We really have 6 commanding officers to choose from...Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), Cmdr/Capt. Sisko (Avery Brooks), Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) and New Captain Kirk (Chris Pine). I'm excluding Captain Spok because he never really commanded the Enterprise. I'm also excluding Mr. Sulu, who was Captain of Excelsior in "Star Trek 6". Finally, I'm excluding the bearded one, Cmdr. Riker, who was Captain of the Enterprise while Picard was a Borg.

Without further adieu, here's my list:

1 - Cmdr/Capt. Sisko (Avery Brooks) - Sisko was the Commanding Officer of "Deep Space Nine" and is my favorite of the group. He just had presence, and you really believed he could kick anybody's butt if he needed to. The show was not my favorite of the group, but I really liked Sisko. He provided a reason to watch a subpar show.

2 - New Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) - I loved the J.J. Abrams reboot of "Star Trek" and I love Chris Pine as Captain Kirk. Pine was perfect for the role and easily stepped out of Shatner's shadow. He could eventually be #1 on this list, but he has to show a little more first.

3 - Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) - "Enterprise" was my favorite of the TV shows, and Capt. Archer was a big reason why, but not the only reason. That was a really great cast, and I think Archer's coolness suffers because of it.

4 - Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) - I just couldn't put a French guy with a British accent higher on this list. Yes, he is a fine actor, but he was often overshadowed by Data's brilliance/quirkiness and Riker's beard.

5 - Original Captian Kirk (William Shatner) - To some, this will be blasphemy, but when compared to the younger, and better Chris Pine, Shatner seems old, slow and frankly, his overacting seems campy. I do love him in the Priceline.com commercials though.

6 - Captain Janeway - She really struggled with a subpar show..."Voyager" was terrible.

Match Play, Round 2

2011-07-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

This will be the final update from my club match play tournament, because I lost my 2nd round match. We played last Thursday. I was carrying a 5 handicap and my opponent was a 6. I'm actually a 6 now...had I waited one day we would have been playing straight up. Yeah, I'm not proud of that 6 handicap...I'm just not making enough putts to shoot low scores. But...I digress. Playing straight up wouldn't have mattered much anyway, because I played terrible and my opponent played ok...ok beats terrible every time.

Last Thursday was the first of the super hot days here in eastern Iowa. The heat index was well over 100 degrees when we tee'd off at 4:15 pm. I quickly yanked my opening tee shot behind a tree and proceeded to make bogey, going 1 down. I made a lot of bogeys on the front nine, shooting 7 over par and falling 4 down. On the 2nd nine, I made a little charge, making birdie at 10 and parring the difficult 11th to get back to 2 down. But, on the next 2 holes, I lipped out putts that would have closed the match to 1 down, instead, I was 3 down with 5 to play. We halved 14 and 15, so I was dormie, meaning I was 3 down with 3 to play. I won 16, but then we pushed at 17, so I lost 2 and 1.

The gentlemen I lost to was a great guy, and I'm now rooting for him to win the whole thing. If I had to lose, I'm glad it was to him...I just wish I would have played better. It was my worst round of the year. But, I guess that's why I don't play golf for a living.

A Super Movie

2011-07-02T08:14:00.000-05:00

"Super 8" is THE must see film of the summer. Yeah, I really liked "Thor" and I think the finale to "Harry Potter" is going to be great, but even I'll admit that those movies aren't for everybody. "Super 8" is for everyone over the age of 15...I say 15 because there is some language.

Directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, "Super 8" is a nod to Spielberg's sci-fi films of the late 70's and early 80's, but made relevant to today's audience by J.J. Abrams. This movie is really a combination of "E.T.", "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind", "Goonies" and "Star Trek" (the new one).

The first thing you have to realize is that "Super 8" isn't about the alien that escapes during a train crash. "Super 8" is a story about the 6 kids who witness the train crash and film the alien escape on their Super 8 brand film. It's sort of a coming of age story about friendship and moving on after tragedy. The 2 main kids are Joe Lamb (played by Joel Courtney) and Alice Dainard (played by Elle Fanning). The other kids are important to the story, but the movie really focuses on Joe and Alice, who we find out are somewhat bonded by the tragedy that killed Joe's mother. Both of these actors do a great job, especially Elle Fanning. The Fanning kids can act.

After the alien escape, mysterious things start happening around town, and the Air Force shows up to "help". The 6 kids continue to try to make their movie, despite the mysterious happenings, while Joe's father, Deputy Jack Lamb (played by Kyle Chandler), tries to get a handle on the things going on in their small town. Meanwhile, Jack and Joe struggle without Joe's mother, and their relationship is a secondary story line throughout. Everything builds to a great crescendo and really cool final scene. Oh, and the credits are worth sticking around for too.

I laughed a lot, jumped a few times, and was reminded of how good a movie can be by "Super 8". This is a 5 star movie and definitely worth the $9.25 I paid to see it. I'm so glad the coworker told me that this movie was worth seeing, and I hope you'll get out there and see it too.

Now That Was Tasty

2011-06-29T20:55:00.000-05:00

Living in Iowa, our grocery store is HyVee. Back in April, HyVee announced a partnership with Celebrity Chef Curtis Stone, which I thought was really exciting because I've seen Chef Stone on the Food Network before. Chef Stone is providing recipe ideas for HyVee shoppers, and a few weeks ago, we saw the recipe for Seared Steak with Caramelized Onions and Gorgonzola. I followed the recipe exactly, so I won't rewrite it here. Follow the link if you want to make it.

Here's what I would suggest if you decide to make this. Make a lot of the onions...they are soooooooo good! Also, the Gorgonzola is really powerful, so I would recommend going easy on the cheese. I made this recipe using New York Strip steaks, but I got less expensive steaks because I was dressing them up. I just tenderized them a little bit by pounding, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled them. I cooked them for 4 minutes over high heat, and then moved them to the cool side of the grill for 7 minutes. This got the steaks to medium well. These were 5 star steaks.

For a side dish, I made one of our favorite grilled sides...roasted potatoes with red peppers. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 russet potatoes diced, skin on
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:
Combine olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and whisk together. Toss the potatoes and peppers in the olive oil mixture. Wrap the potatoes and peppers in non-stick aluminum foil, sealed tightly.

Preheat grill to 400 degrees. Cook potatoes and pepper packet on the grill with the lid closed for 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

This was a magical combination, and was pretty easy to make. Try it some evening at your house and let me know what you think.

Movie Review: "Space Cowboys"

2011-06-26T09:39:00.000-05:00

In keeping my promise to go back and watch more Clint Eastwood directed films, I watched "Space Cowboys" last night on Netflix Instant Watch. Another solid Eastwood movie.

Frank Corvin (Eastwood) is a retired engineer. Corvin was a test pilot and engineer in the late 1950s, right before the formation of NASA. When NASA was formed, Corvin and his team were shut out of the space program by James Cromwell. Now, forty years later, an aging Russian satellite is about to fall back to earth, and the only team that has the knowledge to fix it is Corvin's team, that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garvin. But, can they handle what the find when they intercept the satellite?

This is a solid 4 star movie that is really focused on the relationship between Eastwood's character and Tommie Lee Jones' character, with Garner and Sutherland providing solid support. The relationship between these 2 characters is complicated, but both have to learn to get over their past if they want to get to space. It makes for a really compelling story.

If you skipped "Space Cowboys" when it came out in 2000, go back and give it a shot now...it's better than a lot of the stuff that is coming out lately.

Rick Riordan Is At It Again

2011-06-23T19:18:00.000-05:00

All the man does is write entertaining, high quality books for kids, young adults and 30 somethings who are recapturing their childhood. In The Throne of Fire we are once again reading the transcript of a recording made by Carter and Sadie Kane. Carter and Sadie are descendants of the Egyptian Pharaohs, in fact, 2 of the most powerful Pharaohs, and they are also magicians. The problem is, other magicians think they are outlaws because their father released trapped Egyptian gods back into the world. He did this to save the world from the return of Apophis, the most evil of all the ancient gods. Carter and Sadie believe that their father is right, that the old gods of Egypt are the solution to stopping the rise of Apophis, and they are bent on seeing this mission through. This time they have the help of a few other junior magicians who answered the call they put out with their first message in The Red Pyramid.

The Throne of Fire is another masterfully crafted story from Rick Riordan, who is my favorite author. As this is the 2nd book in The Kane Chronicles series, we have already met our narrators, Carter and Sadie. Each character tells about 2 chapters before "switching" with the other narrator. Riordan varies the storytelling style enough that you really believe you are reading 2 different views of the events. It's a really cool way to read a story.

At first, I wasn't thrilled with this book. It took me a while to remember what I read in The Red Pyramid, which is the problem with only releasing 1 book per year. Once it all came back to me though, I thoroughly enjoyed the 450ish pages of this book and really look forward to the final book, due out next year. If you haven't picked up The Kane Chronicles, by Rick Riordan yet, give these books a shot. I think you'll really enjoy them.

What Do You Expect?

2011-06-20T19:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, 22 year old Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland won the U.S. Open with a record score of 16 under par, capping off the 5th straight major victory for a non-American born player...also a record. McIlroy, who plays with an interlocking grip by the way, won by 8 shots over Australian Jason Day. Robert Garrigus and Kevin Chappell were low Americans, finishing 10 shots back and in a tie for 3rd. Garrigus and Chappell are not exactly household names.

Ever since Phil Mickelson turned 40 and developed Psoriatic Arthritis, and Tiger frittered away his career, the sports media has been searching for golf's next superstar. Sure, Phil still wins every once in a while, and Tiger may still make it back, but he'll never be the same, so the media has been on the lookout for the next big thing. Rory McIlroy may be that next big thing, but there's a problem with that, according to some in the sports media...he's not American. Right now, most of the top 10 golfers in the world are from Europe, not from the good ol' U.S. of A. In fact, it's not obvious who the next great American player is, and I ask, what do you expect?

For the last 10-15 years in the U.S., we've pampered our best golfers. Most of the top teachers have created Golf Academies where the best teenage golfers attend high school and focus on golf. In a lot of circumstances, kids leave their families to attend these academies, or if they are lucky enough to have a parent with them, it's only one parent. At these academies, the kids receive great golf instruction and get told over and over again how great they are. They play in tournaments, but even if they don't win, they are told how great they are. Then these kids are recruited by colleges and told again how great they are by the college coaches. While it is true that some of the kids don't succeed at college golf, those that do leave still thinking they are super great and that life as a pro is going to be easy.

Then they get on the mini-tours and they realize how good the other guys are, and they don't know how to handle it. I would submit that they don't know how to handle it because they've spent a lot of time away from their families and have never had to face adversity. On the other hand, many of the best golfer's in the rest of the world have to scrape their way to the top. McIlroy had a great family and his dad is a really good golfer. This definitely helped him, but so did playing golf with his dad and learning to win against the guys at his club. Take another example...Y.E. Yang from South Korea is the 2009 PGA Champion and finished T-3rd at the U.S. Open. Yang didn't even pick up a club until he was 19. Or look at Yang's fellow countryman, K.J. Choi. Choi learned to play as a teenager and had to drive 3 hours to even get to a course. Face it, the rest of the world is just tougher than the young golfers are in the United States.

If we want to find the next great American golfer, we need look for the kid who was raised by both his parents, played regular high school golf, and didn't have everything handed to him. I don't know who that kid is, but I suspect we haven't heard of him yet. I think we're in for a few years of the rest of the world dominating golf until some young American kid steps up and proves he is ready to consistently compete with the big guys in Europe. Until then, as American golf fans, we have to put up with what we've created...a generation of kids who don't know how to handle adversity. Come to think of it...this seems to be true in just about every aspect of American life these days.

And that, my friends, completes my grumpy old man blog.

I Love that Sound

2011-06-19T17:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my 10 year old and I went to the 25th Annual Quad Cities Air Show. I haven't been to an airshow in about 11 or 12 years. When I was a kid, we used to go to the air show at Ellsworth AFB every year. I've seen the US Navy's Blue Angels, the USAF's Thunderbirds and the US Army's Golden Knights Parachute team. I was a lucky, lucky kid.

The Quad Cities Air Show is one of the best air shows around...at least that's what I've heard. They had a lot of top notch entertainment yesterday, but the best was the Blue Angels. I was so thrilled that they are back in action after being grounded recently.

For those who haven't seen a Blue Angels show, they start off with their C-130 (a.k.a Fat Albert) doing some flight demonstrations, including a steep descent. Fat Albert carries their maintenace crews and ground support equipment. I love C-130s, so this was really cool for me. Then, after Fat Albert lands, the 6 US Navy's F-18 Hornets that make up the Blue Angels team show up. Airplanes 1-4 fly the entire show in formation, while airplanes 5 and 6 do solo maneuvers. I took way too many pictures, which I may post at some point. The highlight of the show for me is the "sneak attack". I'm not sure if that's what they call it. Basically they distract you with 4 of the airplanes doing something, and then one of the solo airplanes comes in from behind the crowd, and you don't hear it until it's right over you. This was the maneuver that got the team in trouble a couple of months ago because they flew it too low.

The show was great, and I love the jet engine noise. We got to see an F-15 as well...so loud, so wonderful. My 10 year old was thrilled with the noise and the demonstrations. It was so great to see him so excited. When I was a kid, it was going to airshows that got me interested in aerospace and led me to a job in the aerospace industry. I don't know if yesterday's airshow will ever lead to anything like that for my son, and it's not really my choice. All I know is that it was so much fun to see him excited, probably like I was at that age. For me, that was even better than the Blue Angels.

If you ever get an opportunity to go to an airshow with the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds, take it. You won't regret it.

My Golf Trip

2011-06-16T16:11:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, I left for my annual golf trip with my friend, Stanton. Stanton and I have been friends since the 1st grade, so a long time. We try to get together and golf every year. This year, we went to Cragun's Resort near Brainerd, Minnesota. We played Dutch Legacy at Cragun's, then we went to Deacon's Lodge, and then we finished up with Bobby's Legacy at Cragun's. Actually, we finished up with Cragun's par 3 course, but that's not really golf.

Dutch Legacy: Dutch Legacy is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design. For those who don't golf, RTJ Jr. is a fairly famous course designer. This was our opening round, and was probably the worst course of the three. That's not a knock on Dutch Legacy...it's still in my top 5 courses ever. It's just that Bobby's Legacy and Deacon's Lodge were probably the 2 best courses I've ever played. Dutch Legacy is relentless. It's a little over 6,800 yards from the back tees, and fairly narrow, but at the same time very fair. I had a little trouble, but still managed to shoot 81. Stanton, who is a much better golfer than I am shot 76. This picture is from #15. Both Stanton and I made birdie on this par 3. I hit a good iron shot and made the putt and Stanton chipped in.

Deacon's Lodge: This was my favorite course of the weekend and probably my favorite course ever. The fairways are very wide, like you would expect from an Arnold Palmer golf course. Palmer was famous for his risk/reward style of play, so it makes sense that he would design a course where the premium is not on driving, but on the 2nd shots. Once I realized the fairways were wide, I was swinging freely off the tee, and hit it great. The only thing better than my driving was the scenery...such a beautiful setting. My favorite hole is also the #1 handicap hole, the 7th. It's the ultimate risk/reward hole...you can play it safe out to the fairway and leave yourself 150 in, or you can try to carry a ravine and get inside 100 yards. I opted for safe and made my par. Deacon's Lodge ended up being my best round of the weekend...I shot 77, but still got beat by Stanton's 74. It's a good thing we weren't playing for any money. The picture here is of #12, which is a cool par 4 of 320 yards. Again, on this hole you have options...play an iron to the fairway, or try to drive the green over a marsh. The distance to the green was only 273, but I played it safe again and made par.

Bobby's Legacy: Our final round was at Bobby's Legacy, the other 18 hole gem at Cragun's. Deacon's Lodge is not affiliated with Cragun's, but was available to us in the package we got. Bobby's Legacy is also a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design, and in my opinion, was the better of the two Cragun's courses for 2 reasons...it was more fun and it was prettier. Bobby's Legacy is the only par 73 course I've ever played, and the only course with 19 holes...there is a par 3 at the end to "settle bets". The views on this course were unbelievable...probably the best was #17, which is a downhill par 4 of 427 yards. We had a forced carry of 240 over part of Stephen's Lake. I probably played my best golf on Bobby's, but had a few bad shots that killed my score. I shot an 80 for the day. Stanton played the best round of golf I've ever seen, making 12 pars, 5 birdies and only 1 bogey for a 69 (-4). To top it off, he birdied the 19th hole. It was fun to watch someone play that well. The picture here is from #4, which is an uphill par 4 with lots of bunkers. A very fun hole.

Oh, I did manage to shoot and even par 27 on the par 3 course, and beat Stanton by 1 shot for my lone victory of the weekend.

This was a great trip. I think we'll go back up there next year and may take 2 other guys along so we can round out a foursome.

I'm Back!

2011-06-15T19:49:00.000-05:00

I've been away on a golf trip the last few days, hence, no blogs. I'm back now, and will be blogging again soon, so please stand by. I will probably be recapping my golf trip in my next blog.

I'll leave you with a joke told to me by my 8 year old:

Question: Why was the baby ant confused?

Answer: Because all of his uncles were ants!

Badoom ching!

Is This the End?

2011-06-09T19:47:00.000-05:00

It sure feels like the end. The Emperor of Nihon-Ja really does feel like the end of John Flanagan's great Ranger's Apprentice Series. This is the 10th book in the series, and it ended in a way that makes me think it's the last novel in the series. Wikipedia says there will be 12 books, but book 11 is called The Lost Stories, and sounds like it will be a collection of short stories about the characters. I'm sure that is going to be a fine book, but it's not the same as a full fledged novel.

I really hope there will be 2 more books because I love this series. Have you ever read a series that just makes you feel good about the world? For me, this is the Ranger's Apprentice series. Harry Potter was more epic and Percy Jackson was more action packed, but Ranger's Apprentice has it's own special place in my pantheon of books. Sure, sometimes it's a bit corny, and other times it's a bit sappy, but I like a little bit of that. Overall, these books have all been really well written and have a positive message about friendship and doing what's right, often at great personal sacrifice.

In The Emperor of Nihon-Ja we find that Horace has gone missing. As the reader, we know where he is and what is going on, but his friends don't know anything other than he's in the far away country of Nihon-Ja. With that knowledge, Will, Halt, Alyss, Evanlyn, Selethan and the crew of a Skandian Wolfship set off to find him. When the do finally find their friend, they end up smack in the middle of a civil war, and have to help defend the Emperor from those who would usurp his power out of fear over the fact that he wants to change the class system that has dominated Nihon-Ja's past. Can Will and his friends save the day and all of Nihon-Ja in the process? Well, you have to read to find out.

Overall, just a great book. One of my favorites in the series. With 10 books, it's hard to pick a favorite. But, with 10 books, you also really know the characters, and I think I've come to care more about them with each successive book. I look forward to any additional books John Flanagan decides to write in this series.

Match Play Madness!

2011-06-05T12:22:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I signed up for the Match Play Tournament at my golf club. Match Play is one of the craziest forms of golf. Each hole is essentially worth 1 point. If one players wins a hole, he is considered 1 UP. If the opposing player wins the next hole, the match is considered All Square. The goal is to be at least 1 UP at the end of 18...and yes, you can win in less than 18 holes.

Match Play can be extremely volatile, with wild swings in momentum, as you'll see in a minute. I haven't played much Match Play in my 25 years of golfing...in fact, it had been 15 years since I've played a match. So, when I signed up as 1 of the 64 players, I didn't know for sure what to expect. I was hoping to win a match or 2, but honestly, I had no real expectations.

Yesterday, I played my first round match. I had to give my opponent 4 shots, meaning he got a stroke on the top 4 handicap holes...if you don't understand that, it's ok. Basically, we played heads up on 14 holes, and on 4 holes, he got a 1 shot advantage.

Anyway, to the match. I wasn't too nervous, but then I gacked the first hole to go 1 DOWN, but managed to win the 2nd hole to get back to all square. After halving the 3rd hole, my opponent made a ridiculously good birdie at #4, so I'm 1 DOWN again. We halved 5 and 6, with my opponent pulling off a Seve Ballesteros like par save at #6. I lost hole 7, then 3-putted 8 and dorked up 9 to end the front 9, 3 DOWN.

At the turn, I basically gave up. I decided that there was very little chance I could win, unless I managed to play crazy good and got a little help. My opponent had a great front 9, beating me straight up, by 1 shot. So, I went to the #10 tee pretty relaxed (note that my course is a 9 hole course, so #10 is also #1, but we play from farther back the 2nd time around).

The 2nd nine started great for me, with a birdie and the match was back to 2 DOWN. Hole 11 is a 220 yard par 3, and I striped my tee shot to 8 feet...I missed the birdie putt, but the par got me back to 1 DOWN. Another par at 12 and now I'm All Square. On the 13th hole, I hit a great drive and my opponent put his tee shot in the water. After his drop, my opponent hit his 3rd shot to 4 feet for what looked like a par. I hit my approach to 10 feet and made the birdie putt...all of the sudden I'm 1 UP. We traded wins at holes 14-16, so we were All Square going to 17. My opponent struggled with 17 and 18, and I managed 2 pars to win the match 2 UP. I shot even par over the last 9 holes...which is pretty good for me. I played crazy good and got a little help.

Overall, we only halved 4 holes the entire match. Luckily for me, I got some momentum the 2nd 9 and carried it to the win. Most importantly though, I had a great time. The gentlemen I played against is a great guy, so it was fun to get to meet him as well. I don't play real competition very often on the golf course, so this was fun. I'm really excited for round 2. I still don't have any expectations, but I am thrilled that I get to play another match.

Now Thatza Pizza!

2011-06-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

As I wrote in "The Art of Scrambled Eggs", I have a few cooking mentors. Last night the friend who taught me the egg whisking vortex method, made pizza for us, and tried to teach me along the way. Being from the East Coast, this guy is a true pizza snob, and I say that in a good way. We've had this guy's pizza before, but maybe I wasn't in the right mood, because even though that pizza was good, the pizza last night was possibly the best pizza ever. I'm not much of a salesman, but I could sell that pizza. Until last night, I never understood what the big deal was about East Coast Pizza.

Well, here's the big deal, as I can tell. The crust is thinner and gets a crisp on the bottom, and the sauce is a bit sweeter and just tastes more fresh. For me though, the crust and the crisp was the key. We made 2 types of dough for the crust, a warm water dough that was a bit thicker and a cold water dough that was wafer thin. While the warm water dough was easier for a novice like me to work with, the cold water dough was my favorite. I pretty much botched my attempt at rolling out the cold water dough, but we salvaged it and it turned into a good pizza anyway.

A few other tips I picked up:

1 - More basil, less oregano in the sauce.
2 - My pizza oven has never been hot enough...gotta get it over 500 degrees. We were cooking at 525 last night.
3 - The baking stone has to be in the oven when you start...preferably for 20 minutes, so it is nice and hot.
4 - I need to get a pizza peel.
5 - Toppings don't matter if the sauce and crust is right.
6 - Anchovies are really good, but use the sparingly.

I also learned to toss a pizza last night. I think I was successful on 5 of 6 attempts. So, not bad for a beginner. I'll have to try making pizza at home and see if I can come close to duplicating what I learned last night. I also have to figure out how to do something really well so I can teach my friend something...maybe I can help him with his golf game.

A Shaqtastic Career

2011-06-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

My favorite basketball player, Shaquille O'Neal, announced his retirement yesterday. After 19 seasons, 4 titles, 15 All-Star Appearances and about 200 different nicknames, "The Diesel" is done. At 39 years old, his body just can't do it anymore.

When Shaq broke into the league at 20 years old, I was in my middle school years. Shaq was this larger than life center who broke backboards, ran the fast break, and did it all with a smile. He quickly became my favorite player. In an era when it was Jordan this and Jordan that, I liked what Shaq brought to the game. He looked like he was having fun! When he went to the Lakers in 1996, it was a dream come true for me...the Lakers were my favorite team. These days, I root for players more than teams, but back then, I was a Lakers fan. Shaq won 3 of his titles with the Lakers, and 3 NBA finals MVP awards. He would pick up 1 more title with Dwayne Wade (my new favorite player) and the Miami Heat in 2006, but I'll always remember Shaq as a Laker first.

Some of his critics will say that Shaq underachieved, because he was injured a lot, often started the season overweight, and never led the league in rebounding. Even as a fan, I have to agree with that, but that's Shaq. Basketball was never the end all be all for Shaq, it was just a means and a forum for what he really wanted to do, which was entertain. In an era when athletes often wear a scowl and look miserable, it was refreshing to see someone out there who realized he was playing a game for a living.

I'll miss Shaquille O'Neal, but I'm very glad I got to witness his entire career. In tribute, here are the top 5 Shaq nicknames (most of which he gave himself).

5 - Superman
4 - The Big Shaqtus (when he was traded to Phoenix)
3 - Shaq Fu
2 - The Big Aristotle
1 - The Diesel

Some More Reviews

2011-05-30T11:15:00.000-05:00

I've had a few reviews pile up here. None of these deserve their own post, so I'll roll them all into one.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1": I was actually somewhat let down by the first movie in the Harry Potter finale. "Deathly Hallows" was my favorite book, and I was excited to hear that they were making 2 movies so as not to leave anything out. What I hadn't counted on was how the first half of the book is really tough to make into a movie. It ended up being long periods of boring, followed by a few moments of riveting excitement. Whereas the book could tell the introspection going on inside the characters heads, the movie failed in that regard. All the other Harry Potter movies have been 4 or 5 stars, but this one is only a 3 star movie. I'm sure Part 2 is going to be excellent...and pretty much non-stop action.

"Castle, Season 3": Sorry about the picture. Netflix changed how it does TV series...it's highly annoying. Anyway..."Castle" continues to rival "Psych" for being the best show on TV (that's right Nuke, I just said that). In season 3, Richard Castle (Nathon Fillian) continues to help NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) solve some more offbeat murders. With playful banter, and just the right amount of "serious" episodes, "Castle" kept me interested all season long. The season finale was one of the better cliff hangers I've ever seen, and I am really looking forward to next season. Another 5 star season for the "Castle" crew.

"The Event": NBC's new show should have been kept to 1 season, and NBC realized that, but the producers and writers did not. This series, which pits Americans in and out of the government against aliens from an unknown planet had so much potential, and sometimes it lived up to the hype and sometimes it did not. What we ended up having was a 3 star TV series that would have been 4 stars if the show would have ended, rather than cliff hangered. NBC has cancelled "The Event", so the producers are looking for someone to pick up the 2nd season. I expect SyFy or USA or something to pick it up, but in my opinion, it could have just ended. What's wrong with having a great 1 season run? Oh well...if there is a season 2, I might tune in to see where things go, but I also may not.

The Real Story of Alyss in Wonderland

2011-05-29T14:13:00.000-05:00

So, apparently Lewis Carroll totally botched it. Luckily, Frank Beddor figured it out and now tells us the real story of Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland Throne, who ended up stranded on earth for a few years and told her story to Carroll, who twisted it into a children's story.

In "The Looking Glass Wars" we meet 7 year old Alyss, just before her evil aunt Redd takes control of Wonderland. The women of the Heart family are gifted with a powerful imagination, so powerful that they are able to imagine objects into being. As Redd is attacking, the Queen's bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, takes Alyss through the pool of tears to earth. They become separated and Alyss is eventually adopted by the Liddell family and comes to think of her prior life in Wonderland as nothing more than a dream. That is, until she reaches 20 and it is learned she is alive on Earth. Queen Redd promptly sends assassins to kill her niece, but her allies in Wonderland save her, and they hatch a plot to retake Wonderland.

I won't give away much of the follow-on books, "Seeing Redd" and "Arch Enemy" except to say that "Seeing Redd" was the weakest of the 3 books. Overall, I really enjoyed these books. I found them to be a fairly light read and books that I could easily put down and come back to later. This series isn't on the level of "Harry Potter" or "Percy Jackson", but is a good, quick, entertaining read, that you don't have to really focus on to enjoy.

One complaint I do have is that there seemed to be quite a few typos in "Arch Enemy", and I thought the editing in the final book was a little off. Basically, things resolve themselves too quickly...almost as if they had to hit 370ish pages, so the author and editor made some weird choices to end it on time. Still though, these books were worth the time I took to read them, and I'll never be able to look at "Alice in Wonderland" the same way again.

Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

2011-05-28T16:32:00.000-05:00

For my son's 8th birthday, we went to see "Kung Fu Panda 2". You all know my love of the original, so I was pretty geeked up for the sequel, so much so that I was worried that it would end up disappointing. Luckily, it did not.

Dreamworks has really hit on something here with the lovable Po back at it again along with his teammates, the Furious Five. This time, Po and the Five have to save China from a mysterious new enemy that seems to have a power that can defeat even Kung Fu. When Po meets this new enemy, he begins to question who he is and where he came from. Can our hero overcome these doubts, find inner peace and save China? You'll have to watch to find out.

"Kung Fu Panda 2" brings back all the same vocal talents, with Jack Black as Po, Angelina Jolie as Tigris and Dustin Hoffman as Shifu. We're also introduced to Shen, a diabolical peacock voiced by Gary Oldman. The vocal talents are really top notch.

We saw this one in 3D...I wouldn't waste your time (or money) on the 3D. It wasn't bad, but it didn't add anything either. Plus, the movie theater charges an extra $3 a ticket if you go to 3D.

Overall, this is a 4.5 star movie. Almost as good as the original, but not quite there. The story is great, the villain is really well established, the humor is good, the final battle is brilliant and the ending will bring a tear to your eye. Plus, they set this up perfectly for "Kung Fu Panda 3". So, why the 0.5 drop from 5? Well, it just wasn't as crisp as the original. A few things felt forced, but that doesn't mean this isn't still a great movie. I highly recommend it.

Why Does the Media Care So Much?

2011-05-24T19:59:00.001-05:00

So, it's May 24th, and we're all still here. The world did not end on May 21st, as predicted by Harold Camping and his small "Christian" group. I put Christian in quotes there, because it is obviously not a Christian perspective to believe one can know the date of the second coming. In fact, Matthew and Luke are pretty clear about this:

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” – Matthew 24:35-36

“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” – Luke 12:40

Mark Hart writes an interesting post on a "Catholic Perspective" on the end of the world if you want to read more. That's not actually the reason I'm writing this blog. I'm writing this because of a conversation I had with Nuke today. It was brief...we do actually work.

Anyway, Nuke was lamenting the fact that the mainstream media latched on to this one "out there" guy and used it to make all Christians look bad. I responded by saying that the media wants to tear down Christianity because Christians have too much power in this country. To which Nuke responded that this was because "deep down, they know we are right."

I initially objected to this, stating that the mainstream media follows the gospel according to Marx, but Nuke persisted, sending some scripture my way and using an example from his own life. After thinking about this, and reading the scripture Nuke sent my way, I have to agree he's right. Sorry, I can't remember the scripture he sent to me...perhaps he'll comment with the verses. And Marx was just my joke...the media has actually accepted relativism as their "truth." My definition of relativism is that whatever you have as morals is "right for you" and if someone else has a different set of morals, that's "right for them." Basically, the truth is what you make of it.

The mainstream media does know, in the deepest recesses of their hearts, that Christians are right...we have the truth and it scares those in the mainstream media. They have accepted the truth of relativism with their minds, but their hearts don't believe it. Deep down, they know that what is right and what is wrong is not relative, but that there are indeed absolute truths in this world. However, in their minds, they don't want this to be true, so any chance they get to lash out against Christians and against God they take it in an effort to change the truth. But, the truth is the truth and nothing the mainstream media does will change that.

All we as Christians can do is pray for those in the mainstream media who would see us destroyed, and live our lives in a way that makes us different from what the world tells us we should be. We need to be living the lives Christ taught us to live. We don't need to "lash out" at the media. In this instance, we need to turn the other cheek and remain confident in what we know to be true...that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that's all that matters. It doesn't matter what the world or the mainstream media says about us...all that matters is what Jesus says about us when He comes again.

A Couple of Average Movies

2011-05-21T20:53:00.000-05:00

I've seen a couple of 3 star movies on Netflix recently. Neither of these movies will "rock your world", but if you want an evening of entertainment without much heavy thinking, then these 2 movies might be for you.

"City of Ember": I haven't read the books, but I'm betting someone who has will say the books were better than the movie. Well, the movie is slightly entertaining. Ember is a city that was built underground by some super smart dudes to protect civilization after what we're left to believe is Nuclear War. They intended for the population to live underground for 200 years, but due to an untimely death in the line of mayors, the 200 years came and went and nobody left.

This is where the movie picks up. A couple of kids find the secret to getting out, but the corrupt mayor, played by Bill Murray, wants to stop them. What ensues is a light hearted "chase" sequence that results in some entertainment while still leaving a low stress evening of movie viewing.

"Tron Legacy": I'm one of the few children of the 80's who never watched "Tron", but I was told by a friend that it wouldn't matter. Well, it mattered a little bit, but I read up on what happened in "Tron" so I was good. "Tron Legacy" has some really cool effects, and probably would have been great in 3D. Overall, though, it fell short of a great movie, but was entertaining enough.

There was one thing that was a bit off putting, but I eventually got used to it. There is a CGI version of Jeff Bridges that is 20 years younger than the real Jeff Bridges. That was sort of creepy for a while. But, once I got past that, I had an ok time. Low expectations are key with this movie I think. I had no expectations, and that helped.

Book Review: "Be a Man!"

2011-05-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

Father Larry Richards' book, "Be a Man!: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be" was the handout at this year's Catholic Men's Conference for the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Fr. Richards is the Keynote Speaker at the 2012 conference, and if his book is any indication, he is going to let us men have it!

"Be a Man" is a very challenging read. All throughout the book Fr. Richards uses very straightforward language to get the reader to face the fact that he is most likely not living the life that God intended him to be living. From a man's relationship to Jesus, to his role as spiritual leader of the family, to his duty to change the world, "Be a Man" covers it all.

I really enjoyed this book and was challenged by it. Fr. Richards starts off the book by telling us that we're all going to die...it ends the same way for all of us. When we die, we have 2 options for eternity, and the good news is, we get to choose where we spend it (unless you believe in Predestination, but that's a topic for Nuke's blog, not mine). The problem is, too many men are leading lives that indicate that they are choosing the wrong option.

Fr. Richards makes the case for Jesus being the ultimate man, and then spends the rest of the book providing ways to live out the life God intends for you. Each chapter focuses on a new area to work on, and contains practical tips. Some of the tips are very challenging, such as devoting 1 hour every day for the rest of your life to prayer...I find that one very challenging, but one that I'm also going to pray that I can someday commit to.

At the end of each chapter, there are study questions, so I think this would be a great book for men's groups looking for something to study. I highly recommend this book for all men, not just Catholic men. I think it has the potential to change your life. I look forward to hearing Fr. Richards speak more on the topics in "Be a Man!" and next year's conference.

I'm Getting Old!

2011-05-17T21:55:00.000-05:00

If you are a golfer, this blog will interest you...if not, well, you can read on if you'd like.

Tonight, I bought a 5 wood with a gift card I got from my mother-in-law for my birthday. The 5 wood brings me dangerously close to the true old man club, the 7 wood. I now have 4 clubs in my bag with head covers...and it makes me feel old. When I was a kid, all the old guys had 4 or 5 clubs in their bags with head covers, while us "real players" had 2...at most. Never mind that the old guys used to kick my butt...I looked cooler.

I remember when I was in high school and I could rip my 2 iron...now I don't have a 2 iron, or a 3 iron in my bag. I have a hybrid, which is a cross between an iron and a wood. Everybody says that woods and hybrids are easier to hit, and they are probably right, but it doesn't change the fact that it makes me feel old and less cool.

But, I do know that I'm a better golfer now than I was in high school. The problem is, I don't feel as cool as I did then with my 2 head cover set. It's interesting, because I got reminded today about pride and this is just another reminder that I should have no pride, and just accept how things are. The truth of how things are is I'm probably going to be a better golfer and have more fun with a 5 wood in my bag than without. And...well, if I look a little dorky to the teenagers with 2 irons in their bags, I guess I just have to be ok with that.

Movie Review: "Thor"

2011-05-15T11:11:00.000-05:00

As you may or may not have noticed, singular movie reviews are becoming a thing of the past on my blog. But, after seeing "Thor" last night in the movie theater, I decided that it was one movie that deserved it's own review.

"Thor" is a fantastic movie that encompasses everything you could want in a super hero film. We start off with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in Asgard as a selfish, proud warrior who thinks he knows better than his father and king, Odin (Anthony Hopkins). After disobeying Odin, Thor is stripped of his powers, namely his hammer, and banished to earth. On earth, Thor meets Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), and discovers what it means to be a true hero and care about someone and something besides himself. Once he does this, he is able to reclaim his hammer and take Asgard back from his rogue brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

Kenneth Branagh does a masterful job directing this super hero film. It's on par, quality wise, with Chris Nolan's directing in the recent Batman movies. I still like Batman better, but I think Thor has become my favorite Marvel Comics hero, surpassing the Hulk and Wolverine. "Thor" was so good, that if I were to redo my Top 5 Super Hero Movies list, this would be #2 or #3.

Now, the acting is probably not Oscar-worthy, but it's not bad either. Chris Hemsworth was the perfect actor to play Thor, and Tom Hiddleston was the perfect choice for Loki. I'm excited to see both reprising their roles in next summer's "Avengers" movie. Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman add a level of class to "Thor", and Rene Russo was a nice addition as Thor's mother.

In case you can't tell already, I'd give "Thor" a 5 star rating. I believe this is my first 5 star movie of 2011. I'm not really sure why it ended up with a PG-13 rating. I don't remember any bad language, and there were no scantily clad women. The frost giants were a bit scary, but I'm planning to allow my 10 year old to watch this with me on Blu-ray. I will be buying "Thor" as soon as it comes out.

Top 5 Movie Sequels (or Theequels)

2011-05-13T19:05:00.000-05:00

What is the 3rd movie in a trilogy called? The second is called the sequel. Is the third called the threequel?

Not many movies have great sequels, but there are a few. Here is my list of the Top 5 Sequels (or Threequels):

5 - "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers": I actually liked "Two Towers" better than "Fellowship of the Ring". It just built on the first movie, and with the return of Gandalf, it was just better. "The Lord of the Rings" is possibly the greatest movie trilogy in history.

4 - "The Dark Knight": I'm one of the few that like "Batman Begins" better than "The Dark Knight", but don't get me wrong, I really liked the 2nd film in the Christopher Nolan version of Batman. Note that the 3rd and final Christopher Nolan Batman movie will come out next summer. It has a lot to live up to if it's going to equal the first two movies.

3 - "Ghostbusters II": This is a sequel that is almost as good as the first. The laughs keep rolling as the Ghostbusters return to the job, this time to stop Viggo the Carpathian. "Only a Carpathian would come back now, and choose New York. Tasty pick...Bonehead!" Oh, and the walking Statue of Liberty and dancing toaster make this a classic. I wonder when Hollywood is going to "reimagine" this movie franchise.

2 - "Return of the Jedi": My favorite movie in the "Star Wars" franchise is also one of the best sequels, or threequels in my opinion. It was actually really hard for me not to put this one #1 on the list, but I think you'll agree that my #1 is better. By "Return of the Jedi", Luke isn't really whiny anymore, Darth Vader is conflicted, we finally get to see the emperor, and Admiral Ackbar utters the famous words..."It's a trap!" What more can you ask for?

1 - "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King": Yes, two from the same trilogy. As I said, the best trilogy ever! With it's 7 endings, epic battles, impressive special effects and great story, how could I not put "Return of the King" on the top of this list? I can honestly say that this is the only 4 hour movie I've ever watched without a potty break. I just couldn't take my eyes off it the first time I saw it. Even the 2nd, 3rd and 4th times...I was riveted. I didn't even care when they released an "extended edition" because even more movie was better in my opinion. Just a great, great movie.

My Sleep Test Results

2011-05-10T19:01:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, I told you all about my sleep test. Well, I was reminded by a blog reader today that I never shared my results.

As it turns out, I do not have sleep apnea...thank God! I do have really bad allergies, which I've had for a long time. I had been taking medication and thought that my allergies were as good as they were going to get, which was not very good. I was wrong. My doctor added a 3rd allergy medication to my regimen, one that works differently, and right away, I began to breathe better.

Within a few weeks of starting my new allergy medication, I began to sleep better. Whereas before, I was only sleeping 2-3 hours at a shot, it is now quite normal for me to get 4-5 hours of sleep at a shot. A few weeks ago, I fell asleep at 10:30 and didn't wake up until a little after 5 am! That's unheard of for me.

I've had more energy and been more active, though I still don't think I sleep quite enough (that may be laziness more than anything). I can now get through weekends without napping, and have been able to get myself up earlier on Saturdays to start getting stuff done. I'm so glad I went through with the sleep test and have found some help. Even though the sleep test was not pleasant, it was really worth it.

Cold Turkey

2011-05-09T20:13:00.001-05:00

A little over 2 weeks ago, I quit cold turkey on listening to Rush Limbaugh, or any conservative talk radio. Don't mistake this action. I am still a staunch conservative thinker and a Rush Limbaugh fan, however, I found that I could not listen to Rush without 1) Getting Angry and 2) Thinking Ill of Democrats, and especially our President.

Why is this a problem? Well, in taking my faith seriously, I've been hit over the head with the fact that we are all God's children, and Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means that even Democrats are loved by God and thus should be loved by me. I wasn't able to do that very well when listening to Rush Limbaugh, because I found myself thinking horrible things about Democrats and Barack Obama. So, I decided to cut that out of my life for a while and see what happened.

Well, two weeks in, I can report that I'm a happier person. I'm still staying somewhat informed by watching my local news and listening to AP radio news and reading the Internet, but I'm also staying away from the spin, as much as possible. See, while I realize that the Republicans aren't always right, I was treating politics as a "sporting event" in which my side needed to win, even if they were wrong. Now, don't get me wrong, I still believe my side is right 99% of the time, but by not listening to Rush, I can more easily discern that 1% of wrongness.

The other thing I've realized is that I've been able to have better relationships with the Democrats in my life. I'm not always ready to pounce on them with the latest issue of the day in the interest of "winning." And now, when we do talk politics, I think I might be more persuasive because I don't just sound like I'm regurgitating Rush.

So, for now I'm going to continue this experiment of keeping my life a no spin zone. I do miss the entertainment value of Rush Limbaugh, but to be the type of person God wants me to be, I have to do without that form of entertainment at this point in my life.

Saints and Seemsians

2011-05-06T17:31:00.001-05:00

I've got a few book reviews to do. One of the books is part of a trilogy, so I'm going to hold off on that one for a bit until I've read all 3 books. But, I did finish 2 others recently.

"My Life With the Saints": This was one that was recommended by Matthew Kelly at the conference my wife and I went to a few months back. It took me a while to read, because I'm slow and get tired easily. But, I'm really glad I took the time to read "My Life With the Saints" by James Martin, SJ.

First off, James Martin is a Jesuit Priest, so SJ means Society of Jesus. The Jesuits are sometimes called God's Marines because of their founder's (St. Ignatius of Loyola) military background. Google Society of Jesus of you want to know more.

"My Life With the Saints" takes us through Fr. Martin's personal journey to becoming a Jesuit Priest, and the Saints who have helped him along the way, either through the example they provide or through their intervention in prayer for him. To Fr. Martin, the Saints have become like close friends, who he models his life after and learns from. Martin masterfully weaves his own personal stories, with stories from the Saint's lives to create a mini-book in each chapter.

Martin introduces us to several Saints, in the hopes that we'll want to learn more about some of the Saints who have been important in his life. From this reading experience, I believe I'll read more about St. Ignatius of Loyola for certain. There are others that also interest me, but the regimented approach to prayer and life proposed by St. Ignatius seems to appeal to the engineer in me, and therefores is the Saint I'm most interested in knowing more about.

I think most Catholics would really enjoy this book, I know I did. I highly recommend it, and would even be willing to loan it to my friends after my wife reads it...and as long as she says it's ok.

"The Lost Train of Thought": The final book in "The Seems Trilogy" by John Hulme and Michael Wexler, finds our hero, Becker Drane, in serious doo doo. Having violated the Golden Rule of the Seems, which is that people in the world must not know about the Seems, Becker is facing serious consequences in the Court of Public Opinion. On top of that, the train carrying 6 weeks of thought to the world has gone missing, likely stolen by The Tide, and Becker along with a team of fixers are the only ones who can save the world from "The Unthinkable."

(For those who don't remember, the Seems is the land of Seemsians, who are responsible, in this series of books, for creating and executing the day to day operation or the world, according to "The Plan". There are those who think "The Plan" is cruel, and they are known as "The Tide." Some humans work in The Seems because they are the only ones with the 7th sense. It's ok if you don't follow all this.)

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this book. There is some good and some bad in it, and frankly it just sort of ends with a big "huh?". I found the 3 books of this series entertaining to some degree, but in the end, it's not one of the top reads out there. I don't recommend this, nor do I recommend staying away from it...you'll have to make your own decision on this one.

Feeling Crabby?

2011-05-04T19:34:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I was on a business trip to Maryland. My business was near Solomons Island, so that's where we stayed. The seafood delicacy of the area is the crab cake, and I was told nobody does the crab cake better than Stoney's Kingfishers.

So, last night, at my request, my travel companions and I went to Stoney's and I had the world famous Stoney Crab Cake. I ordered the Crab Cake sandwich on the recommendation of a coworker who has spent significant time in this area of Maryland. Frankly, there was no need for the bun...the crab cake was huge, and almost all crab meat and very little filler! Extremely delicious.

Even better than the crab cake, however, was the hot crab dip appetizer we had prior to the main dish. The dip was unbelievably good. Next time I'm out there, I may just get the crab dip appetizer for myself...it's that good. I also had a seafood chowder prior to dinner that was also really good. This meal really capped off the trip for me, and if/when I'm back in Solomons Island, Maryland, I know where I'll be eating.

If you are out that way, give Stoney's a shot...you won't be disappointed.

Top 5 Non-Pixar-Style Animated Moves

2011-04-30T13:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, there were animated movies before Pixar...in fact there were some pretty good ones. Here are my top 5. These are all Disney movies...guess that says that Disney has the animated movie genre figured out better than most.

5 - "Brother Bear" - Ok, this is a bit of a hippy movie. A young Inuit boy needlessly kills a bear out of vengeance, and thus is turned into a bear by the nature spirits or something like that. He then meets a younger bear, and forms a bond and learns that bears aren't all that bad. This is really a pretty good movie, with a message of selflessness. Plus, it has music by Phil Collins, which brings it up the coolness scale.

4 - "Treasure Planet" - This one is a retelling of "Treasure Island" but in space. Jim Hawkins is a troubled youth who gets taken along on a grand adventure to find Treasure Planet. He develops a bond with the ship's cook, John Silver, but that bond is tested when Silver leads a mutiny. In the end, will Silver do the right thing, or give into his life long obsession with Treasure Planet. You'll have to watch this fun, family friendly movie, to find out.

3 - "Mulan" - For me, the top 3 movies on this list were no contest. They are so far ahead of the rest that it wasn't even close. It was simply figuring out where to put each of the top 3. "Mulan" is a wonderfully entertaining movie that has a message of love for family and breaking stereotypes that will choke up even the most cold hearted person. In Ancient China, the title character joins the army, secretly, in place of her aging father, to protect him. To make a long story short, she saves all of China, falls in love, and breaks the stereotypes of the day that say only Men are worthwhile. Just a terrific movie.

2 - "Aladdin" - A raucous adventure with lots of laughs, "Aladdin" was almost #1 on this list...almost. Robin Williams is the Genie in the lamp, and he is outstanding...just goofing off and being Robin Williams. The Genie really steals the show, but to just focus on the genie means you miss the rest of the goodness of this film. Aladdin is a "street rat" who through a set of circumstances, meets Princess Jasmine, finds the magic lamp, falls in love with Jasmine, saves the entire kingdom, and uses his last wish to free the Genie, seemingly giving up all his dreams in the process. But in true Disney fashion, Aladdin's selfless act is rewarded, and we're all left feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

1 - "Lion King" - Ok, you have possibly the greatest soundtrack in the history of animated movies, from Elton John and Tim Rice. You have an all-star vocal cast, with James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Robert Guillame, Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, to name several. Then, you end up with a great movie that has a tear jerker ending. You've all seen it, you all love it. Enough said!

The Unstoppable Megamind Movie Review from Switzerland

2011-04-26T19:51:00.000-05:00

I bet you love that title. I love it...but I'm weird. I have 3 movies to review today.

"Megamind": This movie is essentially "Despicable Me" but a little better. Megamind is an evil genius, voiced by Wil Ferrell, who just can't seem to defeat his nemesis, Metro Man (Brad Pitt). When Megamind finally succeeds and takes over Metro City, he just isn't happy, and nothing, not even his secret budding relationship with a Metro City reporter (Tina Fey) can cheer him up. So, he sets about creating his a new super hero, Titan (Jonah Hill), to have a nemesis again. But, when Titan turns out to be evil, who will save Metro City?

I found "Megamind" surprisingly good. It's heartwarming, funny and something you can watch with your family. This 4 star flick is definitely worth 100 minutes of your evening.

"Unstoppable": Well, since you all know my opinion of Denzel movies, you know I liked "Unstoppable", but, do you know how much I liked it? Well, I thought it was a 4 star film, though it wasn't the 100 minutes of constant action that I expected.

"Unstoppable" is based on true events of an unmanned freight train, running wide open over the countryside. In real life, the train never got much above 40 mph, and they were able to chase it down with another engine, couple to it, and slow it to the point where an engineer could jump on and stop the train. That's not exciting enough for Hollywood, so in "Unstoppable", the train gets to 70+ mph and there are many failures before our heroes finally succeed in stopping the runaway train. As the movie progresses, and the attempts to stop the train are made, we get a mini character study of our heroes, the young kid played by Chris Pine (a.k.a. Captain Kirk) and the old railroad veteran played by Denzel.

Like I said, "Unstoppable" is a very good movie. However, it's got a ton of swearing in it...I was actually surprised with the PG-13 rating given all the language. I definitely wouldn't let a kid under 13 watch this one.

"Swiss Family Robinson": Anybody who knows me knows that I usually don't watch movies that were made before I was born. Given that "Swiss Family Robinson" was made in 1960, you would expect this one to qualify. But, my wife wanted to watch it on Easter, so we made a family event of it. I didn't hate this movie, in fact, I'd give it 3 stars. For its day, it was probably a really good movie, but today it does seem a bit campy. However, I did like it's wholesome nature...it was a good family movie, and I'm glad we took the time to watch it.

Holy Week

2011-04-22T20:26:00.001-05:00

I was sitting here on Good Friday evening, debating whether I should blog about movies or Holy Week. I settled on Holy Week, which I think was the right thing to do. I've got an excellent Top 5 movie list coming up, and a couple of movie reviews.

As of this Easter, I will have been a Catholic for 8 years. Each year, Lent and Holy Week have become more important to me, I enjoy them more each year and I feel like I grow in my faith more each year. This year has been especially good, and it will culminate with the Easter Vigil tomorrow night.

I was explaining the Easter Vigil to a non-denominational friend of mine. I was going on about how beautiful it is, with the symbolism, the incense, the chanting, the transition from darkness to light that signals the Resurrection of Jesus, and this friend said that stuff just wasn't that exciting to them (or something like that). Personally, I love the symbolism all throughout Lent, and especially now during the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil). The holiness, symbolism and ceremony of the Catholic Holy Week helps me feel a closeness to God that grows every year.

Last night, our family went to Holy Thursday Mass, where we celebrated Jesus instituting the Eucharist (communion). At Holy Thursday Mass, there is also foot washing, to follow Jesus' example at the Last Supper. I didn't participate in foot washing, and neither did my wife, but both of our boys did. In fact, my older son washed my younger son's feet...I have to admit, I got a little choked up. I was very proud of him.

Today was the Veneration of the Cross service. I had never been to this service before. I definitely want to go again. It was very new to me, so I'm sure I missed something. I enjoyed the solemn beauty of this service, and was really able to reflect on the Christ's Passion and see that it was the ultimate act of love in a different way than I had previously experienced. And, tomorrow night at 8:30 pm, we will go to the Easter Vigil, which I just love.

This is just such a terrific week. It's wonderful to see so many of my fellow Parishioners attending all 3 masses of the Triduum, making the time to recognize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and what that sacrifice really meant for all of us. And then we wrap it all up with Easter, celebrating His Resurrection 2000 years ago. I can't really describe what I'm feeling, and I'm not overly good at these "reflection" posts, so I'm just going to stop. I pray that all of you are having a fulfilling Holy Week and are looking forward to celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

Distraction or Useful Tool?

2011-04-17T19:27:00.000-05:00

I now have a smart phone. I am the owner of a Blackberry Curve 9300. Mine is black, not any of the fun colors shown there on the web page. A friend of mine, who I think has a droid phone, congratulated me on going with 2005 technology. The Blackberry phones don't have all the apps that you can get with a droid or an Iphone, but so far, I really like it.

Where I get worried though is that this will become a distraction for me, rather than a useful tool. My hope when I bought this phone was to make it a useful tool in my life. Five days in, I think it is a useful tool, though I've bordered on obsession with it. I'm using it for my e-mail, and I've also gotten some apps that are useful for daily things. Here's what I've picked up so far:

-A golf range finder GPS app - this was the first one I got.
-Blackberry traffic - this is a map application that provides directions.
-Weatherbug - this has been very helpful for getting the forecast, checking the radar, etc.
-Sports mobile - now I don't have to go to ESPN to get the scores
-A scientific calculator - because I'm an engineer
-IBrevieary - this is a Catholic Resource with prayers and such. I'm hoping to make more time to pray during day, and hopefully this will help me.
-Olive Tree Bible Software with a New American Bible - This is the only app I've paid for. I had to buy the Bible, but I thought it would be good to have with me as I try to make time to pray during the day.
-FatSecret Calorie Counter - I really want to lose 15 lbs or so, even 20 wouldn't hurt. A friend used this and lost 50 lbs. I started today and can still eat about 30 calories before bed.

That's all I've got for apps. I'm trying really hard to avoid getting time wasters, like games and such. Like I said above, the goal is useful tool, not distraction. Hopefully this will prove to be a very useful tool. If anybody has any suggestions of other apps that might be good to have on my phone, please let me know.

A Change in Direction

2011-04-16T22:31:00.001-05:00

Today was the 15th Annual Catholic Men's Conference of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. This is my 6th year of attendance. I am so thankful to God that the Diocese I live in has an event like this every year. It's such an uplifting experience and I look forward to it every year.

I learned many things today, but two things stick out. The first is from the Keynote Speaker, Curtis Martin. The theme of the afternoon keynote was that we Catholic Christians (and all Christians in general) need to have a Christ-centered world view. The second theme that sticks out comes from Deacon Sean Smith, who gave a presentation on Proclaiming the Gospel in a Digital Age. If you read the post, you'll see that Sean pointed us to a message from Pope Benedict addressing the use of new technologies in proclaiming the gospel. The short of it is that we should use the technology today to further the Kingdom of God...everything else is just for fun or a time waster. Fun doesn't have to be a bad thing, but our end must not be fun. As Curtis Martin hit on in the morning keynote, fun is comfort, and we are not made for comfort, we are made for greatness. Ok, I guess that is three things that stuck out for me.

So, between Curtis Martin and Deacon Sean, I felt a bit convicted about my blog. While the original purpose of this blog was a man diary started out of the frustration of the 2008 Presidential Election, I feel like it needs to be more now, I'm being called to make it more. I've been trying to change my blogging ways recently. As some of you may have noticed, I've quit blogging about politics, or at least slowed way down. As I've been spending more time on my faith, the political back and forth has meant less and less to me. Additionally, even though I do not agree with our President on anything other than Golf is really fun, it doesn't help anybody if I waste my time ripping on the President on this blog. From today on, I plan to keep my political blogs to a minimum, and when I do comment politically, I plan to look at the political issues of the day from a Christ-centered world view, rather than a Republican point of view. After all, I'm a Christian first and that's how I should be looking at these things.

I don't plan to stop doing movie reviews, book reviews, posting recipes or talking about sports. After all, fun is ok, as long as fun doesn't become a god. Remember, we aren't made for comfort (or fun), we are made for greatness. I am, going to make an effort in all my blogs, to take a Christ-centered world view. For example, if a movie is wholly immoral, I'm going to make sure that is included in my review, so my Christian friends can make appropriate decisions.

I pray that all my friends who currently read my blog will continue to read this blog, and hopefully get a little more out of it going forward. I feel that I've moved beyond the need for a man diary, and really want to get into some more in depth sharing with my friends on this blog. But, for those who worry that it'll lose it's random charm, don't worry, it's still my random ramblings because I think I have undiagnosed A.D.D., so random thing pop my head all the time, and some of those things continue to be blog worthy.

Top 5 Movies Where the Bad Guy is Cooler than the Hero

2011-04-14T20:29:00.001-05:00

You've all seen them. They are the movies where the bad guy is actually a much better character than the hero. You may still root for the hero because that is what seems right, but the bad guy is just better.

I think you'll agree with this list, and if not...well...it's my blog.

5 - "Superman Returns": Brandon Routh was wooden as Superman, while Kevin Spacey was a complete lunatic as Lex Luthor. While this is not a great movie, Kevin Spacey finally plays Lex Luthor the way he should be played.

4 - "Demolition Man": Wesley Snipes is Simon Phoenix, and he's a way better character than Sylvester Stallone's John Spartan. Snipes is funny yet decidedly evil. Add in Nigel Hawthorne as the evil Dr. Raymond Cocteau and Dennis Leary as the misunderstood Edgar Friendly, and you have a fun movie. One of my favorites from the early 1990's.

3 - "The Usual Suspects": I don't want to ruin this one for you if you haven't seen it. Just watch it and then tell me if the villain wasn't the best character in the movie.

2 - "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves": Alan Rickman is a fantastic bad guy. He was terrific as Hans Gruber in "Die Hard", but the problem is, John McClane (Bruce Willis) is maybe the greatest hero (of the non-super variety) ever created. As the Sheriff of Nottingham in this version of Robin Hood, Alan Rickman shines. He's the best character in the movie...granted, he was opposite Kevin Costner, who is a better actor than Keanu Reeves, but well, uh...never mind.

1 - "Star Wars: A New Hope": The original movie in the "Star Wars" franchise, and I think we can all agree that Darth Vader is by far the coolest character in the movie. Let's look at the heroes: Luke Skywalker is whiny, Princess Leia has weird hair, Obi Wan Kenobi is old, Han Solo is cool in a dirty sort of way and Chewbacca is, well awesome. But, Darth Vader has James Earl Jones' voice, that freaky breathing and can choke people with his mind...plus he has a light saber. There's no contest...Vader is the best.

Consider it All Joy...

2011-04-12T20:04:00.001-05:00

My friend Nuke, who probably thinks I'm stalking him, likes to quote from James 1:2, which says "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials." I don't know about you, but I think that is really, really, really hard!

Today was a busy and rough day at work. E-mail was flying in like mad, and there's a key milestone approaching for one of the programs I'm working on, so I spent a lot of my day fighting fires there. Now, the weather outside was just about perfect today...upper 60's, sunny and not much wind. So, around 2 pm, I left a message at home asking if I could golf tonight. I had planned to play a few holes tonight after supper, but with it being so nice, I was hoping I could get 9 in. I knew my wife and kids were having a play date with another family, so I thought they could order pizza and I could golf. My wife thought this was a great idea.

This really brought me joy...very easy to Consider it All Joy at this moment. I got to the golf course at 5:00 or so and tee'd off right away. As I was walking to the green on hole 2, my wife called to say that the other family had to leave, but that they were going to ride bikes downtown, hit the awesome pizza place down there and then go to the library. So, more joy for me...everybody was having a good time.

As I got to the tee box on the 6th hole, my phone rang again. It was my wife again, and this time, our 7 year old was having a melt down and I needed to come help. Now, our 7 year old is autistic, so melt downs are not uncommon, but they have been more rare lately. Angry now, I headed for the car, angrily threw my clubs in the back and headed to the library, which is only about 4 minutes from the golf course. At this point, I was not doing very well with considering it all joy. Amazing how easy it is to be joyful when the good times are rolling and how hard it gets as soon as the trials pop up.

I got to the library, loaded my son and his bike into the van and told him that we were going home, we were going to eat supper, he was going to take a shower and he was going to bed. I also explained, somewhat angrily (ok, quite angrily), how his actions were adversely affecting every one's night. This broke his heart and he started to cry. But I was seething, so I still wasn't the nicest dad in the world even after he started crying. When we got home, my son went inside and I got the mail. When I got inside, he was sitting on the steps crying, and my heart melted. We talked for a little bit and I told him that I forgive him and that I loved him. I explained that he still had to go to bed early because that was his punishment and we talked about how he could do better in the future. He's very smart, so once he's calm, you can explain proper behavior to him, and little by little, it seems to be sinking in. Then we proceeded on with our night.

As I was getting supper on the table, "Consider it all joy..." popped into my head. Well, I failed miserably at that tonight. I really should have embraced my job as a father tonight, rather than focusing on my own selfish desire to play golf. Well...message received, loud and clear. I wonder if I'll remember this the next time I'm given an opportunity to consider it all joy in the face of a trial. I pray that I will, but knowing my nature, I'll probably fail again, but maybe next time I'll remember how I'm supposed to behave sooner. I know I can't be perfect and that I'll always slip up, but hopefully, little by little, I'll learn proper behavior too.

They Get it Right Every Year!

2011-04-10T18:42:00.000-05:00

Today was the final round of the 75th Masters, arguably golf's biggest tournament. Played at Augusta National every year, fans are familiar with the golf course which adds a lot because we know what's coming up and it builds anticipation. In fact, it's rated the #1 Golf Course in the country in the latest Golf Digest rankings. Yes, I get excited about golf tournaments and golf courses!

Augusta National is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. I think there are roughly 300 members, and it's a course that is only open for play from October through May. Bobby Jones, one of the greatest golfers in history, built Augusta National to be a Winter Golf Club for it's members. Many of the rumors about Augusta make people think it's a stuffy, old boy's club. I'm not even going to speculate on that. That isn't the point of this blog.

The point of this blog is that the members of Augusta National put on the greatest golf tournament in the world. Every year they set the golf course up in a way that makes for an exciting tournament and a thrilling finish. Additionally, they insist on limited commercials during the broadcast, running 56 minutes of golf for every hour of coverage. This is so great...when you watch the US Open, it seems like you get typical network coverage, which means ~15 minutes of commercials per hour. The British Open and PGA Championship are similar to the US Open.

The course setup though is everything. Augusta National is always set up in a way that a player can make birdies and go win the tournament. The US Open is a survival contest, with few chances for birdies and players often struggling for par. The British Open is great, but it's a bit too reliant on the weather. The PGA Championship comes the closest to the Masters in terms of course setup, but falls short on tradition and nostalgia.

Today's final round was no exception. Rory McIlroy started the day with a 4 shot lead, but struggled mightily with an 80. This brought a lot of players into the mix, and at one point, 9 players were within 2 shots of the lead. The winner, Charl Schwartzel of South Africa shot a 66, and birdied the last 4 holes to win by 2 shots. Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day finished tied for second, and shot 67 and 68 respectively. Tiger Woods also put up a 67 to finish in a tie for 4th. There were birdies and eagles to be had and it was a riveting tournament. This is what we get from the Masters every year, and even in a year like this one, where none of my favorite players were in the mix, I still enjoyed every minute of the Masters final round.

Movie Review: "Secretariat"

2011-04-10T18:22:00.002-05:00

"Secretariat" is definitely the best movie about a horse I've ever seen. Better than "Seabiscuit", better than...um...well, I think "Seabiscuit" is the only other horse movie I've seen.

Disney did a great job with this story. From what I can tell, they did take some liberty with the timing of events, but it appears they were very true to the actual horse racing. In 1973, Secretariat won the Triple Crown of Horse Racing, setting track records at the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, and a disputed track record at the Preakness. Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths...and Disney did an excellent job with this race, especially with the reaction of the rival trainer. Disney seems to have the "sports" movie genre nailed.

Diane Lane portrays Penny Chenery, who took over her father's horse farm due to his illness and her mom's death. Against pressures from her brother and husband, she continues to run the farm, based on the hope of this big red horse on her farm. In the movie, Secretariat was her only "big-time" horse. As it turned out when I did research on Wikipedia, there was another great horse at the farm too. Anyway, what I struggled with is the fact that Chenery sorta left her family to run this farm. As a mom with 4 children, I thought Disney sort of glossed over how hard this would have been on the family. Some of the reading I've done states that it was much harder on the family than Disney showed.

Because I had a hard time with the story of a woman sort of leaving her family, I knocked this down to a 4.5 star movie. It's still a great movie, but I just struggled with that part of the story. As a movie, it's really a 5 star show, and maybe I should have rated it that way since it was based on true events. I don't know...do with this review what you will.