300th Post

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Today marks my 300th post...and we're almost up to a year since I started this little blog thing...and boy has it grown. Basically, since last time, I have just seen a LOT of movies pretty much. I went to my dad's and he is progressing swimmingly. Not just a clever English-sounding adjective...but he's actually doing the usual therapy plus swimming and the rec center (where the break happened in the first place) again...and he's just about ready for Vegas...in T-minus twelve days. YAY!!! Anyway, he ordered a pizza and we watched "Monty Python's Meaning of Life" starring...of course, Monty Python. I had never seen this movie before (gasp) but it was quite entertaining. Sure, some parts were better than others like with all sketch troupe movies (Kids in the Hall, other Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, etc.) but overall, it was quite clever and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Their meaning of life is surprisingly similar to mine...but I'm not gonig to spoil it. I did find out how I would like to be executed though if it ever came down to it...and that's being chased down by beautiful, big breasted roller derby girls wearing nothing but some pads and smiles. Now, I'll just have to watch "Life of Brian" to complete the trifecta...or maybe there's more than three movies...but that's all I know of off hand.

Then we flipped through the channels...and my dad has like a dozen HBO channels...and we stumbled upon "Stripes" with Bill Murray, John Candy, Harold Ramis, and Sean Young in her usual mid-80's stunning love interest role. It's about a basic training platoon that's basically a bunch of slack-offs led by the charismatic Bill Murray and his best buddy Harold Ramis who somehow end up using the government special new weapon. That's a really condensed version of the story...but it's Bill Murray back when he was funny, so you really can't go wrong. This was actually the first time that I had seen it all the way through...and I would recommend it to anybody who liked "Ghostbusters", "Groundhog Day", "Animal House", or any of those kind of movies. If that doesn't sell you...then there's a girl's shower scene. Your move.

After that, my dad & I went for a walk and I told him about my job interview with Vegas and our trip down there and the rest of the family, you know, just catching up. We also finalized plans to go see "Iron Man" today...but that's jumping ahead. When we got back to the house, we threw in "Mission: Impossible - III" with Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, and Phillip Seymour Hoffmann (P-Sey-H as I call him). As I'm sure that I've mentioned, I loved the first M:I movie directed by Brian DePalma and loosely based in reality. Number two, directed by John Woo, I felt was ridiculous and have yet to watch it a second time. This third installment, directed by J.J. Abrams, was much more like the first...and P-Sey-H was a great creepy cold bad guy. He has come a long way since being the fat kid in "Boogie Nights" to being Ethan Hunt's archnemesis. This was a great movie with a lot of twists and turns (but not too many to be ridiculous) and guess what, Ethan Hunt isn't a superhero anymore like in Number two. He's just a little guy who likes to run a lot and save the day. Sorry, it's just hard for me to see Tom Cruise as an imposing figure...but that may be why he's the perfect secret agent. I don't know. Anyway, it was pretty good. Then we watched basketball (Pistons pumping it to the 76ers) and I went home.

Shortly after I got home, the Wingmans arrived with their new puppy Tawnie, an 8 week old English Mastiff...and because she's a cute puppy now, here are some pictures.

Here she is with her Moose

After getting some pizza and alcoholic beverages in us, we decided to watch "Army of Darkness" with Bruce Campbell. This was the final installment of the "Evil Dead" trilogy...and I had not seen any of them...but this was quite hilarious throughout...in a completely ridiculous kind of way. So many one liners...and stuff I recognized from the Duke Nukkem video game on Nintendo, so yeah, it was awesome. It's about a man who reads from the Book of the Dead (Necronemecom or something) and is transported back into 1300 AD England...and with his chainsaw hand, boomstick, and witty one-liners must lead the English forces against an army of skeleton warriors...led by his evil double. Oh yeah, it's even better than that. Check it out...but don't expect a real action flick, expect a comedy, because that's what you're getting. Who can forget one-liners like "You're the leader of Jack & Shit right now...and Jack just left town" or "Gimme some sugar, baby!!!" or "Who wants some?" or simply "Groovy." I liked it a lot...and now want to kind of see the other two, though I'm sure I'll be a little disappointed.

After that, we still weren't finished with the movies, so we watched "Charlie Wilson's War" with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, P-Sey-H, and a lot of superhot interns (including Rachel Nichols who'll play Scarlett in the G.I. Joe movie). This is the true story about a Texas congressman who basically took the budget of the covert war assistance of Afghanistan against Russia from $5 million a year to over a billion and effectively ending the Cold War. It was actually a lot better than I expected. Tom Hanks played the part well. Hoffmann played a great disgruntled CIA agent and wingman. Julia Roberts was there. Lots of one-liners and wit in there...and enough parellel material to the stuff going on in Iraq right now to make the movie culturally relevant. I'm not a big fan of war (gasp) but I hope that the government (ours and everybody else's in the world) learns from their mistakes and finds a way to just live in peace with other nations instead of creating conflict that's really just ridiculous. It's usually not a good vs. evil thing, but rather a haves and have-nots that causes war...and we just need to share. Oh well, that's all I'm going to say about that. Don't be greedy. Be content, grow as a person, and help others do the same along the way. That's the path to happiness that I've found anyway.

This morning, the Wingmans & I woke up, had some breakfast at the Belgian Waffle House, one of my favorite restaurants...open 24 hours. I had a Spanish Omelet...and I ordered it because I was intrigued by the mentioning of "Spanish Sauce" in the ingredients...so I thought "Oooh, Spanish Sauce? That can't possibly be salsa." Well, it was...but it was homemade salsa...lots of it...and it was delicious with the ham, bacon, cheese, peppers, and mushrooms mixed up with my eggs. They asked me about Vegas and when/if it was going to happen. I really didn't have any news for them since last time I talked to them...but yeah, we're already thinking about trips down to San Diego and stuff like that. Great friends, great times.

Well, today I'm heading over to my dad's and we're going to go see a matinee of "Iron Man" with Robert Downey II and Terence Howard. My brother saw it last night and says it's "Two thumbs up. Very good" so we shall see if we agree. Probably will though...because it's Iron Man. Also, based on a conversation of international incidents last night with Lilie, I'll have you know that I eventually plan on showing you pictures & telling you stories of my incredible month in China trip a few years ago (as soon as I can find my journal to keep it all smoother than my usual rants), maybe even my five weeks in Europe when I was 18, and my sister-in-law is going to make me a CD of her wedding pictures so that I can show you just how fly a Best Man can be...and how cool a wedding can be. Anyway, until then, I shall bid you adieu. Congratulations to Lilie, Alta, Filly, and Amanda on graduating the past few days!!! You ladies are awesome!!! Have a great day everybody!!!