Saturday – 29 November 2008
Today’s been action-packed. SaraRules, Rachel and I got up and had coffee/tea before we hit the ground running. Our first stop was Rich’s Bagels for a bit of breakfast. It was SaraRules’ recommendation, as Rachel had said that she wanted “real” bagels for breakfast. It was the first time that I’d been there, but it was a nice place.
Next stop: The Garden of Sweden. Objective: EXPEDIT (birch finish), for the office closet. And a few more NYTTJA frames. And a couple other miscellaneous items.
Back to the apartment. Rachel headed back for the southern reaches a little after we got back. Logan called and asked if we wanted to go with him to see Transporter 3; we said “sure.” He came over and we headed to the theatre. The movie wasn’t what I’d call “cinema verite,” but it was entertaining. And fun. I had something of a revelation about 30 minutes into the movie: It was an odd amalgamation of Smokey and the Bandit and the old kung-fu movies of the 70s and early 80s. That made me smile.
Back home and then over to SaraRules’ parents for dinner. Thanksgiving leftovers. And they were just as tasty today as they were on Thursday. We watched The Fast and the Furious while we ate.
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. SaraRules and I set about putting together the new bookcase – we finished it in about 45 minutes… including time for me to put a bid in on a Superman Prime ‘Clix. And now, I’m deciding on whether or not I want to go to breakfast. (Decisions, decisions…)
Thursday – 27 November 2008
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Last night, I watched Tropic Thunder with SaraRules and her family. I was originally ambivalent (at best) about seeing this movie. After seeing it, I have to say that I not only enjoyed it… I laughed my ass off at parts of it. (Not a bad thing, given that today is Thanksgiving and will be a “pile on the pounds and calories” fest.) It was silly, mindless, turn-off-your-brain fare, but it was well-done. And, Robert Downey, Jr. playing an Aussie playing a Black guy was very funny, as well. If you’re looking for a light – and funny – way to pass an hour and a half, this isn’t a bad way to go.
Today, I slept in. Way in. Double-digits in. And it was good. SaraRules stopped by and picked me up for Thanksgiving dinner. And football, which I’m watching now. The Titans vs. the Lions – the best team in the NFL vs. the worst team in the NFL. I’m not sure that I’d call 35-10 “a game,” as much as a “blowout.” But, it’s football. And that’s enough. Soon there will be food. Lots of food. And sweet potato pie. Selah.
Stray Toasters
MightyGodKing takes a look at the last year of Spider-Man in Brand New Year.
I just saw the new/latest/whatever trailer for The Spirit. I like.
I just spoke with , who is on his way to visit his family for the holiday – he said that it’s (nearly) time for the holiday season “stop driving like an idiot” posts from the Council for Better Driving.
Wednesday – 26 November 2008
First off, congratulations to and on the birth of their daughter.
Last night, I stopped in to see and help sort out a problem with her bed. Fortunately, it seemed to be a fairly easy fix. After that, we headed down to Red Espresso, a new coffee shop at 509 East 300 South. It’s a very small, but quite cozy little shop; it’s been open for about a month. I had a caramel mocha (made with real caramel, not just caramel-flavored syrup), while Nyx had a chai latte – we enjoyed our respective drinks. If you’re downtown and looking for a new place for a coffee drink, give it a try.
After that, SaraRules met me at my place and we traipsed off to Best Buy… who is having a great movie sale. We walked out with something on the order of ten movies for a little over $70, including the new 2-disc Hancock and 24: Redemption (which I missed the other night); the other movies clocked in between $3.99, $4.99 or $6.99. Check out the Best Buy website for titles and prices – as I recall, there are about 520 titles on sale.
Today will hopefully be a relatively quiet day around the office. I have a training module to do and a server fan to replace, but I think that’s pretty much it. Then, I’m Ivory Soap sure that I’m heading to Far West to play a game or two of ‘Clix before heading off to make sweet potato pies for tomorrow.
A Pillsbury cookie commercial came on last night and the following question popped into my head: Who would win in a fight between the Pillsbury Dough Boy and the Gingerbread Man (from Shrek)?
As a kid, I think that this was one of my favorite after-school cartoons. And it also piqued my curiosity about boomerangs… thus generating many trips to Toys ‘R’ Us to buy toy boomerangs.
I just found a bunch of opening credits from cartoons that I used to watch as a kid:
Tuesday – 25 November 2008
Day 2 of 3. Selah.
It’s been a quiet day. I had a meeting. I have another meeting in less than an hour. WHEEE!
Workout
Marci, Wes and I hit the gym for a lunchtime workout. In the locker room, I had a realization:
I have two (2) pairs of navy blue gym shorts:
An “around the house” pair (the waistband is a little frayed, has a few holes – that give them character) and
A “going to the gym” pair – in good all-around condition.
Guess which pair wound up going with me to the gym today.
That didn’t stop us from having a good workout. Wes and I went for max presses today – He’s still a couple of weeks out from hitting 225 lbs; I’m still not back to 300, but I had a good 250 rep. Then we went into the rest of the workout – Marci joined us for everything but bench press:
Wednesday – 19 November 2008
After work – and after taking SaraRules to pick up her car – we headed to Best Buy. I picked up Wall·E, Season 1 of Smallville and The Illusionist. With my goodies in hand, we headed back to my place, where SaraRules made a rather tasty chicken and spinach gumbo.
Later this morning, I get to make the trek over Point of the Mountain and go to Happy Valley for a bit. Yay. Hopefully, I’ll be back in SLC by or shortly after lunch.
Stray Toasters
I have to thank Sib-3 for pointing me in the direction of Fringe.
Speaking of Sib-3, he and my sister-in-law are expecting their first little bundle of joy in a few weeks – it’s a boy.
It’s fairly common knowledge that if I get to choose how God appears to me, I want him to look like Morgan Freeman. However… last night, I was poking around Amazon.com for Christmas presents and stumbled across The King James Bible, read by James Earl Jones and thought: “That’s awesome!” I mean, how cool would it be to have an audio version of The Bible narrated by Darth Vader… Mufasa… King Jaffe Joffer… Admiral Greer… I mean James Earl Jones?!
These comics, from Invisible Spiders, amused me: One and Two
Tuesday – 18 November 2008
Today, while relatively uneventful, has been good. Discounting the road monkeys that I had to deal with on the way to work being the main exception.
Marci, Mark, Wes and I hit the gym for a back and triceps workout today:
Lat Pull-downs: 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs
Reverse Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
Row (machine): 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
Dips (unassisted): 3 sets/10 reps
Tricep Press (t-bar): 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs
Tricep Extension (rope): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
Push-ups: 3 sets, 15-15-10
It was a good, focused workout and everyone seemed to like it… despite the pain/tense muscles.
Post-workout weight: 182.4 lbs.
Stray Toasters
I have a tasty birch beer to go with my lunch!
The LJ server upgrades must (finally) be complete – I can access WP again. Apparently, the LJ Crossposter plugin has to check in with LJ on every page load. Fortunately, someone posted an easy workaround for the “transport error” problem that occurs when LJ is unavailable.
Friday – 14 November 2008
And the week is nearly at an end.
Last night was date night… and my night to cook. SaraRules had requested spaghetti and homemade sauce; that’s what she got. We watched a couple episodes of The West Wing and the new episode of CSI: before we fell into channel surfing.
Today we are having a team-building exercise; that exercise is known as Quantum of Solace. ‘Nuff said.
Drew just sent me a link for making gummy candies… shaped like LEGO bricks. Apparently, the “recipe” calls for using actual LEGO bricks to make silicone molds and using those molds to form the candy.
While I still enjoy LEGO Fruit snacks from time to time, this made my inner five-year-old very happy.
Tuesday – 11 Nov 2008
Yet another in the work-a-day grind.
But, I hit the ground running and got a couple of items off of my task list, right after I got in.
Last night, I watched the 49ers – Cardinals game with SaraRules and her folks. I wasn’t expecting a lot out of the game, to be honest. I was pleasantly surprised that an actual football game broke out. Kurt Warner still looks fairly impressive – it was almost like he couldn’t throw a bad pass if he tried. The receivers and running backs did good jobs. And on the other side of the ball, Shaun Hill (SF’s 3rd string QB) did a good job of leading the team, including an impressive end-of-game drive that very nearly won the game for SF.
If you kids (or are just a big kid), you may be familiar with Marvel’s Super Hero Squad toys. Marvel Comics is now showing the (mis)adventures of the heroes and villains in daily strips (1, 2, 3) on their website:
Monday – 10 Nov 2008
It was… an interesting weekend, to say the least.
Saturday was a sleeping-in, lazy day… to a degree. SaraRules, her mother, her brother and I went to the Garden of Sweden to pick up a few things. Okay, okay… I (ostensibly) went as an observer, but wound up finding a few things that I couldn’t live without. Next on the docket was a couples massage at The Spa Club, that SaraRules had signed us up for. It was nice. Very nice, indeed.
The relaxation of the massage, however, was somewhat undone by some extended family drama. *grblsnrkx*
I spent a few pre-breakfast hours Saturday evening trying to be productive: I took pictures of and prepared some auctions for some of my extra HeroClix. I should be posting a few auctions this evening, God willing and the creek don’t rise.
Sunday was good: Another sleep-in morning, followed by football. SaraRules and I watched the Titans-Bears game, while I watched the “coverage” of the Ravens-Texans game on NFL.com. The Ravens wound up with another game in the “W” column, which makes me happy – and it means that they’ve already done better than last season’s record.
I headed over to Far West Comics to play dolls ‘Clix with Chris, Nano and Eric. We went with 800 points per player. We broke up into two-player teams: Eric and Nano vs. Chris and me. The teams broke down like this:
Chris
Batman
Doctor Destiny
Dr. Strange
Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)
Superman Prime
My team (themed: Sinestro Corps)
Arkillo
Batman (Sinestro Corps)
Parallax
Sinestro
Eric
Benjamin J. Grimm
Gamora
Hulk (Zombie, dual Hero-/HorrorClix figure)
Rampaging Hulk
Superman (Justice Legion A)
Nano
Emperor Joker
Green Arrow (Connor Hawke)
The Flash (Justice Legion A)
Living Lightning
Time Trapper
Trigon
Warskrull
And then, it was “Game on.” Chris came out of the gate like gangbusters. Eric had flown his Superman and Gamora to the mid-map area. Chris took Superman Prime, picked up an object and swatted her for 7 clicks of damage, right off the bat… insta-kill. I was really looking forward to using Arkillo, after hearing Chris talk up the figure last week. Unfortunately, Eric and Nano had other ideas: They put Rampaging Hulk, Ben Grimm and Trigon in close combat. And then, just for an added measure, had Eric’s Superman ping him from long range. *sigh* Oh, well… I guess I’ll have to use him another time.
Chris had good success in using Doctor Destiny to Mind Control Trigon and use his special power, Doppelganger, against the other team. So, we played a game of attrition: We got rid of Eric’s part of the force and the front half of Nano’s team. The we settled in to take on Green Arrow, Flash and… Trigon. Our team consisted of Batman (Sinestro Corps), Parallax, Doctor Destiny, Prime and Dr. Strange. The problem with Trigon – aside from Psychic Blast and Ranged Combat Expert – is his Mystics team ability:
When this character takes damage from an attack, it deals 1 damage to the attacker. This damage may not be evaded or reduced.
We beat up Green Arrow, Chris used Mind Control and Doppelganger to get rid of the Flash… and then it was just the big guy to deal with. Fortunately, Nano dealt Trigon a few clicks of damage by pushing him and we had a couple of figures who did 3, 4 or 5 clicks of damage when attacking him. So, taking a click here or there was worth it.
In the end, with the remnants of our teams, Chris and I came away with a win.
After the game, I headed over to SaraRules’ parents for dinner and football. Not a bad way to wind up the evening, I must say.
Stray Toasters
Whoa… I just found this on the WizKids site:
The Topps Company announced today that WizKids will immediately cease operations and discontinue its product lines. Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said “This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office.â€Upon notifying our partners, Topps will immediately pursue strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without noticeable disruption. To that end, WizKids will continue supporting Buy it By the Brick redemptions for Arkham Asylum, and the December Organized Play events for HeroClix.
For consumer announcements, please refer to www.wizkidsgames.com over the coming days for further information.
Friday – 07 Nov 2008
What better way to kick off a Friday than with a little Johnny Kemp?
Yeah. And there you have it. I believe that’s the first Dance Break we’ve had in a while. I’ll have to see to it that there are more in the future.
Last night, SaraRules and I went to The Paris for her birthday dinner. I haven’t had a lot of experience with French cuisine before, but this restaurant was very nice. Great service. Excellent atmosphere. And wonderful food. I had a rotisserie chicken, prepared in a “lavender honey glaze,” and it was simply wonderful. Succulent, flavorful… delightful. I’ve eaten many chicken dishes – including different takes on rotisserie chicken – but this seriously beat them. Hands down. If you are looking for a new or different dining experience, I heartily recommend The Paris.
Tuesday – 04 November 2008
It’s Election Day in the U.S.
Get out there and vote… if you haven’t already, that is.
I don’t care for whom you vote.
Really.
As long as you’re voting with your conscience (yes, I take mine out of storage, dust it off and actually employ it on certain occasions) and not just to be “one of the ‘in crowd'” or because someone said that you should vote for Candidate So-and-so because they are voting for him/her.
Vote for the person who best reflects the values that you want in a leader, be it local, state or national.
Just… vote.
And remember:
Stray Toasters
It was snowing earlier.
In keeping with tradition, I called my father to let him know.
Also, in keeping with tradition, he laughed.
loonybin88 made a comment about “dressing up” for a meeting this morning. I told him that sounded like a challenge. I haven’t seen him yet, but from what I’ve heard, he didn’t. I did… somewhat.
To complete the look, I wore my tan double-breasted trenchcoat and my fedora. (A couple of the ladies at my polling place complimented me on the ensemble, which was a nice way to kick off the day.)
, in response to someone’s tirade about political candidates, posted a great forum item called “Why I HATE Milk.”
This year’s costume marks the third time (in four years) that I’ve gone with a Samuel L. Jackson-inspired costume: Mace Windu (SW: The Phantom Menace), Neville Flynn (Snakes on a Plane) and this year…
Yep, Nick Fury (1, 2), from Marvel Comics’ Ultimate Universe and the verrrrry end of the Iron Man movie. And a tip of the hat and a wave of the cane to Mr. Jackson for making sure that I have at least one possible costume idea per year. I’ll have more pictures of the overall costume later tonight… to be posted probably tomorrow.
It’s “a little” busy around the office, as we’re prepping for an audit by our robot overlords. (Did I say “overlords?” I meant “protectors.”) Fortunately, our little “pre-audit” seems to be going fairly well.
SaraRules: I remember seeing an escaped gorilla drill a while back. Crazy Japanese. Me: Well, it’s hard to hold Godzilla drills, I guess… SaraRules: That would, however, be awesome.
We had great seats: lower level, 15th row, in one of the corners. It was on the visitor’s side, but there were PLENTY of purple (and black and white… and even a few red) jerseys in the stadium our area. On my right, was a couple (a man and his wife) of Raiders fans, so SaraRules wasn’t all alone in a sea of Ravens fans. The game was good. And it was a lot of fun. It was also SaraRules’ first live football game. Ever.
High school? Nope.
College? Nuh-uh.
NFL? Not until today.
The Ravens came out of the gate with their game faces on. And they went to work… although, they did manage to have a little fun, as evidenced by this play. Both teams played well, but the Oakland offense didn’t really come alive until the second half of the game.
After the game, we stepped into Geppi’s Entertainment Museum for a quick walkthrough. It was neat – there were manners of pop-culture memorabilia, past and present. In retrospect, I could/should have taken more pictures… but the ones I took can be seen here.
Next, we went to Harborplace. We ate dinner at Phillip’s Restaurant. (I know… who could have guessed?!) I had broiled crab cakes and calamari; SaraRules had a seafood combination dinner that included shrimp, a crab cake, mahi mahi and a couple of other items. Before leaving Harborplace, we picked up a chocolate mousse cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.
Back home. Tammy (my Godsister) and her youngest daughter, Kayla, came by to visit for a bit. That was nice, as I haven’t seen Tammy in… I’d say a year to a year-and-a-half. I tried catching up with Bret, but our schedules just didn’t synch up. Oh, well… maybe next time. After Tammy left, SaraRules and I hung out with my ‘rents. We showed them some of our travel pictures while we all had cheesecake.
Thanks to all of the good tidings and well-wishes for my birthday. I am very fortunate and blessed in my collection of friends.
Tomorrow: The Return to the Land Behind the Zion Curtain.
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