Category Movie Reviews

The place where I work is typically pretty boring,  It got a big dose of excitement on Friday afternoon however when a a joint connected to a ceiling drain let loose in the middle of a downpour.  This was a big pipe, probably 5 – 6 inches in diameter.  By the time I got up front to see it there was already an inch of water on the floor of the department with a non-stop waterfall coming from the ceiling.

I felt sort of helpless, not having the means to stop the water although I wondered if I could stand on something to push the pipe back onto it’s fitting.  In total the water was pouring in for a good 15 minutes until someone from the maintenance department got up on the roof and plugged the drain.  Of course as the network administrator my first concern was the equipment.  Luckily most of the computers were off the ground although there were a number of live power strips/bricks laying in the water with juice still flowing to them.

Our department got busy disconnecting the computers and getting them up on the desks.  Within 90 minutes Fire Service was on site starting to suck up the excess water and hooking up their huge collection of dehumidifiers and fans. When I got into the office this morning that department was a mess.  All of the furniture was moved around to gain access to the walls where they drilled multiple holes to help dry out any moisture that seeped in there.

We have been told certain areas might not be completely dried out for a week.  We are going to have to juggle things around to keep at least bare minimum services available while allowing the repair/clean up to complete.  It will be a a frustrating week for sure.

Saturday any sort of mowing was cancelled due to the huge amounts of rain that fell during the week, I have standing water everywhere.  Of course I had no shortage of other things to do.  I did a bunch of work on Cindy’s Miata as well, replacing the spark plugs, fuel filter and troubleshooting a pesky water leak problem.  The fuel filter was much more inconvenient to change on the Miata than the van, surprisingly enough.

I brought the girls out to play with Lucky on both Saturday and Sunday.  They had a lot of fun.  Watching Lucky chase Sadie around the house brought instant smiles to my face.  It reminded me of how Sadie and Nicki used to play years ago.  Nicki still tried to get involved in the play the best that she could however nowadays that is relegated to a bit of squaring off with her dropping the “big paw” now and then.

On Saturday night we went out to see Kick Ass 2.  I saw the opening week box office for the movie was pretty poor, something like 16-17 million.  I was kind of surprised, until I saw it.  The original Kick Ass was a mostly light hearted movie about a kid who winds up being a real life super hero.  I recall there being a few moments in the first film that seemed overly graphically violent but for the most part they were minor.  Well Kick Ass 2 took it to a new, highly inappropriate level in my opinion.

The movie  vacillates wildly between a light hearted, silly theme to a Schwarzenegger in Commando style of violence. One minute you are laughing out loud at the snooty high school girl puking and shitting herself and then the next minute you are seeing Kick Ass’s dad brutally strangled in a jail cell.  It was ridiculous and in very poor taste.  Machetes through the chest while a guys dogs is watching, jokes about not being able to get it up to rape a woman, and graphic close up headshots of cops vaults over the line of good taste.  I was feeling legitimately disgusted during certain parts of the film.

It’s a real shame because the movie would have been quite fun if they would have dropped all of the graphic violence.  It was totally unnecessary and irresponsible.

If I wasn’t annoyed enough by the film, we had to deal with some young kids that decided out of an entirely empty theater, their best seating option was directly behind us.   The movie was rated R and most of these kids were probably 14 or younger, kudos to to whatever adult allowed them into to see the movie, idiots.

So of course the film is going to get a bad rating from me, it could have easily been a B+ if they dropped all the unneeded bullshit, instead I would award it a C- and would not recommend you waste money seeing it any format that requires you to pay for it.

During the day Saturday I had another annoying encounter at Dunkin Donuts.  I documented it pretty well on FB so in order to save time I will take the easy way and copy and paste.

So I am ready to turn left into DD and a Mercedes sedan comes whipping around the corner and turns in ahead of me (no turn signal). For some reason this man and female companion stopped for 30 seconds at the entrance to the drive thru before finally approaching the ordering area.

After I realize he has been at the ordering window for awhile I turn off my radio so I can hear what is going on. I see this asshole’s triple chin wobbling as he is chastising the young girl for not having the variety of donut he desired. He asked her “what the hell is going on in there?” in a total condescending prick tone as if this girl was responsible for making sure his favorite donuts are available at all times.

He instructs the girl to read him every donut variety they DO have. She does so without losing one ounce of pleasantness in her voice. Asshole says he guesses he will have to take a key lime donut since he has little choice.

He whips around the 90 degree corner of the drive thru. The girl hands the fat fuck his donut and then hands him his receipt which he promptly throws on the ground before he speeds away.

This is the exact type of affluent individual that I despise. I hope his key lime donut gave him explosive diarhea.

Moral of the story – don’t be an asshole

My post struck a chord with many people who chimed in with their thoughts about this chode.

On Sunday I decided to keep my brick close to home instead of spending three hours away from the house.  It was Lucky’s last day with me so I figured he would appreciate it if I stuck around.   I did a relatively quick 4 miles on the treadmill, most of it spent with Lucky observing me.  I made the time on the spinning belt more bearable by watching YouTube RC videos on my Kindle as I was running.  It definitely helped pass the time with less mental anguish than normal.

After the run I jumped in the pool and did around 30 minutes of swimming.  Since my pool is only 28 feet long I only get 4 or 5 good strokes in before having to spin around but it was good enough.  Again Lucky spent most of the time watching me, he is so funny.

On Sunday afternoon I thought I would take my Blade quadcopter outside.  Although there was standing water everywhere I planned to keep the copter up on the mound where the house is built, keeping it high and dry.  I had a huge scare while I was out there.  I was flying around cautiously when a gust of wind pushed the copter farther away from me than planned.  At the same time the copter gained altitude rapidly, almost like it had lost contact with my transmitter.

Before I knew it the copter was at least 150 feet high and moving away from me.  I was freaking out.  At that height I could not tell the orientation of the Blade at all, I was just trying to use trial and error to get it closer to me.  I wound up doing a huge high C shaped path over the house.  I was trying to cut throttle to get the damn thing down but at the same time not too much so I could keep bringing it towards me.  I somehow managed to get it somewhat close to me and cut the power just before it hit the oak tree branches.  I felt very lucky to have gotten it back dry and in one piece.

Sadie and Nicki were not fans of the copter, they both scurried inside when I started flying it.  Lucky on the other hand saw this as a flying dog toy.  As I was hovering it he would jump up and bark at it, he thought it was the best thing ever.  I had to keep calling him off of it, he almost got his nose nicked by the blades a few times.

My buddy came to pick up Lucky around 5.  It was sad to see him go, he has so much fun out at the house and just loves everything.  He’s a good boy.

Sunday evening I saw the latest GI Joe movie.  I was very tired and dozed off multiple times, especially towards the end.  What I saw was decent, I’d give it a B.  If I saw more I might have rated it higher, or lower, who knows?

So Saturday morning I skipped the club run.  I didn’t feel like getting up early and both of my knees felt varying degrees of ouch.  I also had a very sore lower back from my 110 back extensions the day before.  Instead I directed my energy towards chores, lot and lots of chores.

I did just a ridiculous amount of things.  For fun I wrote down everything I did, it added up to close to 20 different to do’s.  Most of my effort was outside.  I decided to address a lot of pruning and trimming that needed to be done on various trees and bushes.  We are in the absolute epicenter of horribly humid and hot Florida summertime weather.    I literally felt like I was melting as I toiled in the yard.

The amazing thing is with all of that work, I still felt like I had left stuff on the plate yet to do.  I found all of this work despite having mowed the entire property during the week, which was a good thing since standing water has returned in force thanks to multiple deluges the past few days.

I originally had hopes of spending some f around time on Saturday playing video games or trying to fly my wing but there was just no spare time to be found before heading out to the movies.

We saw the new Wolverine movie.  Despite it being opening weekend, Coconut Pointe once again delivered a sparsely populated theater, even with us walking in right at the 7:30 showtime.  It was the 3D version but to be honest I am having a hard time remembering exactly what was 3D about it.  Perhaps I am just so accustomed to 3D now that my brain hardly even recognizes the difference.

I liked the movie,  I thought it was very solid from start to finish.  Hugh Jackman is REALLY jacked nowadays, he is built like an NFL linebacker.  There were two little odd things I noticed in this Marvel film.  If Stan Lee was in there for his customary little cameo, I totally missed it.  I don’t recall seeing him at all.  Marvel films also are known for putting a little bonus scene at the VERY end of the credits that reveals what is coming next.   There was a short scene about a minute after the movie ended but we stuck it out another 10 minutes till the actual end of the credits.  There was nothing there, damn it.    Anyway, it gets a solid A from me.  The little bonus footage made me anxious to see the next film, it looks like the X-men are reassembling.   🙂

On Sunday my knees still did not feel great so instead of a brick I wimped out and did just a single exercise, swimming.  I figured since I was only swimming I should go longer than I normally do, both in my segments and overall distance.  The water in the lap pool area was really warm, if I were to guess it was easily in the upper 80’s.   Warm water is nice to soak your feet in, it is pretty lousy to try to swim distance in.  I felt like I was lapping in a bath tub.

Despite the warm water I was strangely faster than normal in the pool, averaging a minute per 50 yards, completing each 500 yard segment in right around 10 minutes.   I did a total of 4 segments totaling up to 2000 yards in the water.  I wasn’t quite sure why I was faster, I guessed it might simply be because I did not pre-fatigue myself with running or biking beforehand.

Even with just doing the swimming, I emerged from the pool thoroughly spent.  The faster pace and warm water did a number on me.

Once again Cindy had a run in with a clueless individual.  This time some guy decided he would exit the diving pool area by flailing across the lane Cindy was swimming in, once again causing a near collision.  Cindy stopped abruptly and asked him what he was doing.  His explanation was he thought he could beat her across the lane before she got there.  Unfortunately this behavior is a by product of trying to swim laps at a public pool, the dumb asses are on a very loose and long chain.

The dogs seemed to be having a good weekend with me, despite the property being overrun with mosquitoes which made an outdoor excursion a swat fest.  They both got baths and Nicki has been eating her revamped meals quite eagerly.  The addition of boneless chicken thighs seems to be the trick.

Sunday morning I spent some time remote controlled into mom’s laptop.  She had been complaining of overall poor performance for awhile.  I have done various tweaks over the years trying to extend the usefulness of the 7 or 8 year old laptop but I think we have reached the end of the road.  Today’s internet assumes you are running hardware with a big blob of memory and a fast processor.  512 MB just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

I have a spare PC that I may be able to add enough memory to that I am thinking about giving mom.  If for some reason it doesn’t work out I will just buy mom a new or lightly used pc to replace the old laptop.

Sunday afternoon I still found myself with stuff to do, part of which was replacing the door speakers in Cindy’s Miata to accompany the new headrest speakers that were installed the weekend prior.   I had to do some creative engineering to get them mounted in a way that was more secure than the horribly low effort way the old shitty speakers were thrown in there.  I would really like to meet whichever prior owner that did some of the “upgrades” on the car.  I have a feeling he has a large stockpile of duct tape somewhere.

Sunday evening a good friend of Cindy’s came out to the house to hang out and watch movies with us.  He happens to have Corvette, a less than a year old beast.  I saw an interesting photo op with a real Corvette behind my SSR that sports a 2005 Corvette LS2 motor in it.

I use my Xbox 360 as a dvd player.  A couple weeks ago I made the mistake of agreeing to participate in a beta program with my living room 360.  Basically they are testing new versions of their operating system, presumably as part of the roll out of the new Xbox One this holiday season.

Well as a result I am getting tons of these huge, slow to download updates every time I turn the damn thing on.  Before we could watch a movie last night I had to sit through yet another at least 15 minute download/update.  It’s very annoying.

We watched Idiocracy (again).  I made sure to  have 3 BLP’s in me before watching.  Despite this being my third time watching the movie I still laughed at it, a lot.  We followed it up with The Campaign, yet another Will Ferrel comedy.

A lot of Will’s recent films have been a mild disappointment to me with most of the funny moments shown in the previews with precious little else to make me laugh beyond that.  Well I found The Campaign very funny, possibly assisted by my mild drunkenness. Perhaps it was also the direct smacks in the face of the likes of George W Bush or the slimy Koch brothers. Regardless, I laughed out loud, a lot. I would give it an A-.

So when Alfred left I hopped in the SSR to pull it back in the garage.  It had been sitting in the driveway since I pulled it out to work on the Miata.  As soon as I slid in the seat I knew something was fishy, no interior lights popped on with the door being open.  When I inserted the key my suspicions were confirmed, it was dead as a doornail.  WTF.  How could the truck go from starting a few hours ago to COMPLETELY dead.  Perhaps something was ajar or the ignition switch wasn’t completely off, allowing the radio to still be on?

Well whatever the reason I wanted to get the SSR back in the garage.  The solution seemed simple, jump it.  I pulled the Tacoma next to the SSR and grabbed my jumper cables.  The SSR is a bit of an oddball when it comes to the battery, it is located under the truck, in the rear in a box.  However they try to make jumping the vehicle less of a pain by having remote jump start terminals in the engine bay.

So as I was working in the open air I was getting absolutely mauled by hungry mosquitoes, freshly hatched in the once again abundant standing water.  When I slid back in the SSR to try to start it, the blood suckers followed me, it was pretty maddening.

I was baffled when the interior of the truck still seemed totally dead except a very faint glowing of the check engine light.  I got back out and reattached the cables, this time I got a spark and some life from the interior.  I tried starting it but only got a partial turn followed by clicking.  I told Cindy to bring the RPM’s up on the Tacoma to try to increase the amperage from it’s alternator.  Still, I got a couple turns but not enough for the truck to start.  DAMN IT!

So my next plan of attack was to try to jump directly on the SSR battery.  I crawled under the truck with my stick light and removed the side panel which gave me access to the terminals.  I was getting bit non-stop by mosquitoes but at this point my frustration was masking the repeated pin pricks.

I exposed the battery terminals, reconnected the jumper cables and had the same level of success as under the hood, half turns followed by clicking.  ARGH.  For whatever reason I was not getting a solid enough connection with the cables to support the amp draw to start the SSR , mother f….

Ok well maybe I can at least get my beloved truck in the garage, out of harms way.  It was on the incline part of the driveway leading up to the garage.  For some reason I thought that possibly I would be able to push the 5000 pound vehicle up the hill and into the garage.  That was an epic fail of course, as soon as Cindy released the brake it started rolling backwards, despite my efforts to move it the other direction.

Ok I was officially out of options.  I once again returned under the back of the truck and dropped the battery box as I was getting riddled by mosquito bites, pulling the battery out so I could get a new one today.  I am crossing my fingers it is JUST the battery.  Despite having a number of batteries goes from good to dead since moving to Florida, the symptoms I saw with the SSR make me think something else could be in the mix.  I’ll find out tonight after work.

Friday after work I did my normal post work grocery shopping which this week included a stop at Sam’s Club. One of the things I needed was to restock on Mexican Coke.  Evidently being a Mexican Coke dealer can be pretty profitable.  On the internet I found sites selling cases such as these for upwards of $50.   Considering they cost $18.88 at Sam’s there is a nice fat profit margin out there.

On Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed at 4:30 am for the second week in a row to go do the club run.  Turn out for the run was on the light side but the run was on the faster side, averaging in the high 8’s for the nearly 7.25 mile run.

When I got back home I was feeling  pretty tired from the combination of early wake time with the energy depleted from the run.  I knew I had to get back up and moving else I would fall victim to a nap.  I had hopes of getting a lot of manicuring done in the yard since the standing water had finally evaporated.

I got the weeding done and then decided to eat lunch.  After lunch I needed to go fill the gas cans, by the time I got back the skies had turned menacing.  I got about 10 minutes of weed whacking in before the first downpour hit.  I retreated inside and played some of 400 Days, the Walking Dead sequel on the 360 until the rain stopped.

The break in the rain was only temporary but any rain that fell on me at that point was not enough to force me back inside.

So I was about 90 seconds away from finishing up the weed whacking, trimming the edge of the driveway, walking towards the road.  All of a sudden I hear the rpm’s of the motor rev way up.  I look down and confirm the spool just ran out of line, fck, great luck.  Now of course I could have simply said f it, the 15 yards of un-whacked driveway is no big deal, more than likely I am the only one on the planet that would even notice.  I could simply put the weed whacker away and reload the spool the next time I get the whacker out.

Well whether it is some sort of OCD or whatever it is that drives me to want to finish something I started, I instead chose to walk back to the shed, reload the trimmer line and walk back out front and knock down the remaining hairy edge.  The rain had crossed mowing off the to do list for me, I guess I’ll need to try to knock it out this week.

I mentioned I played 400 days, I actually finished the WD add on Saturday afternoon.  It is basically short story lines about 5 or 6 other people in the zombie apocalypse.  It was fun but not as engaging as the main game and probably a little short on content since I completed everything in a couple hours.

Saturday night Cindy had a small party at her place that was attended by mostly people from the running club I know along with a few that I didn’t.  I utilized BLP’s to help ease the social anxiety I can suffer from in those situations.  It was a fun time that went later than expected.

Sunday morning, after sleeping in much later than normal, I went and picked up the dogs.  Ali is out of town for a few days.  I sat the blue ottoman in the middle of the great room for Nicki to see.  Nicki sniffed it but didn’t have any interest in getting up on it.  The way Nicki’s brain works, if I am too forward in getting her to try the ottoman the more distrustful she will be of it.  However I did lay on it myself to show her it’s intended use.  Sadie also had no issue jumping up there and hanging out for a little bit.

Sunday was a very dreary and wet day.  It seemed like the weather conditions somehow crept into myself as well, I just didn’t feel like doing very much.  Outside of a few scattered chores I spent a lot of  time just vegging out, catching up on Tivo as well as my latest Netflix rental, Surrogates.

Surrogates was a decent rental with an interesting premise, in the future, the majority of people no longer directly interact with the world.  Instead they lay in a contraption which connects them to a cyborg version of themselves, a surrogate.  The movie has Bruce Willis in it so you know it can’t be awful, I’d give it a solid B rating, which may be a little low because I was drowsy while viewing it.

So late Saturday night the jury returned a not guilty verdict on George Zimmerman.  I am not sure if I have talked at all about his shooting of the young black kid.  To me it seems like basically Zimmerman vaulted over the line of what he should have been doing as a member of neighborhood watch, wound up getting his ass beat by the kid that he accosted unnecessarily and decided the gun he was carrying was the way to even the playing field.

From the bits and pieces I heard about the trial, I wasn’t shocked he was found not guilty.  It seems that if the jurors were going to follow the instructions they were given by the court and make a decision solely on the evidence, this was going to be the outcome.

From a moral standpoint, Zimmerman absolutely was to blame for Martin’s death.  He started the conflict with his police officer wannabe mentality and ended it when he pulled the trigger on a kid that didn’t deserve to die.  However with our court system, if the evidence isn’t there to convict someone under the law, you aren’t supposed to be convicted, regardless of the moral circumstances involved.

Although Zimmerman is a “free” man, I don’t expect the rest of his life to be anything anyone would envy.  I imagine he will basically take on the life of someone in a witness protection program.  I doubt he can ever be assured that the next corner he turns won’t be his last, when a Trevon Martin sympathizer decides to invoke their own personal justice on him.

Friday night I threw in my Netflix DVD, a movie named Primer.  This was an 8 or 9 year old low budget movie.  I am pretty sure I added it to my rental queue based on a recommendation of one of the hosts of a WoW podcast I listen to.   They said it was excellent but you had to pay attention.

Well when I hit the play button I was already drowsy.  I was drifting in and out throughout the movie.  As a result I basically I had no fcking idea what was going on.  The movie is very dialogue heavy and since I missed tons of it I was just lost.  I can tell you the movie involves time travel created in a garage and the complications that arise from it.  Other than that, I got nothing.  I can’t even give it an accurate rating but unless you are going to be laser focused on what is going on through out the flick you may want to take a pass.

On Saturday I met Ali early to go buy hardware to hang her three bikes in her garage.  I needed some stuff at Lowes myself so it worked out.  Of course hanging the bike racks had complications as most projects I am involved with do.  The tapcon screws I bought were nice and long to ensure a secure attachment to the cinder blocks.  The problem is the threads on the screw only extend halfway up the screw itself.

Since the cinderblock of the garage walls was not filled with poured concrete, once the wall of the block was punched through there was nothing but air waiting behind.  So if I turned the Tapcon all the way in the threads had nothing left to grab onto.  Luckily I had brought some of my shorter concrete screws that saved the day.

Ali thanked me for the work and I loaded up the girls to hang out at the house while I worked outside, working with the stuff I bought at Lowes.  I was basically doing a lot of reshuffling, the intense humidity and heat made it not much fun.

First I moved the boring ornamental grass that was in two boring/beat up pots in the front of the house. For a couple years I thought these things were an eye sore but I never got around to doing anything about it.  I wasn’t quite sure where to repurpose them but wound up putting one on either side of the small shed ramp.

I was utilizing similar procrastination with two small trees that had been wasting away in pots by the house for at least 3-4 years.  Ali and I never could decide exactly where to put them and I just didn’t give any further thought to it once I started running things solo.  Finally, after much walking around, trying to decide what spots would be visually acceptable while remaining in the sprinkler zone, I put both trees in the ground, one to the left of the small shed and another to the left of the big one.

In front of the house I replaced the boring grass with some new pots with colorful plants.  That area needed something visually interesting to counter the native, but very boring green bushy things that inhabit the small strip between the sidewalk and house.

I also put two new plants in front of the main supports by the front door.  That area had been barren for several months after I ripped out plants that spread unevenly and looked ratty.  The replacement won’t spread and if it thrives will add additional color with it’s dark purplish “leaves”.

I also did some work in the garden.  I amended 4 or 5 beds with fresh bags of garden soil and then planted 7 or 8 rows of different seeds.  Summer is a rough time to get much garden productivity in Florida, at least for me.  I figured I had nothing to lose by throwing some seeds in to see if I get lucky. I planted, spinach, carrot, beet, bush beans, and broccoli.

I even addressed some indoor plant issues, dumping the one big pot and filling it with a much healthier and colorful plant.  I didn’t drink much during all the of the body melting labor besides chugging a beer.  I felt thirsty most of the rest of the day.  It was so damn hot out there, I was spent.

You can see all the pictures from the day here.

Saturday night I did something I had not done in years, went bowling.  Growing up I was an avid bowler, bowling in a Saturday morning league as a kid and even bowling for my team in high school although I was pretty much regulated to JV.

I also bowled in adult leagues for a good part of my 20’s and even bowled in a league down here in Florida for one year back in the early 2000’s.  Since then I can count the times I have bowled on one hand, probably two fingers actually.  Bowling, despite the added bonus of the lanes no longer being smoke choked, just fell out of the the circle of things I would do regularly.

So the alley we bowled at was the one I had not been to before, it was not huge but cozy.  I was a bit taken back when I saw the per game prices, a pretty ridiculous in my mind $4.75 a pop per person.  However I also saw the alley had a flat rate deal where you could rent a lane for a period of time.  Since we were having 5 people bowl this was the obvious way to go.  $37 for two hours of lane time seemed like a good value.

We were put in a lane to the right of what seemed like a big family group utilizing two lanes.  The family included one very old man although I had no idea just how old.  It turns out he was 94.

I was wondering what the big metal ramp thing was that was straddling the ball return.  When it was the old dudes turn I quickly figured it out.  You take this contraption up to the lane, point it and then push the ball down the ramp.  It is evidently something designed to help both ends of the human age group, the very young and the very old.

The ramp turns bowling into more like a big game of skee ball but hey, if it lets the old guy get out for a night of fun with the family, great.

Now of course when you are right next to gramps when he is bowling it is distracting.  The problem was made worse by some rather  oblivious females in the family that were helping him.  They would bring the ramp up to the line and place the ball for the old guy, which was fine.  But what wasn’t fine was after placing the ball they would stand to his right, in our approach lane, the entire time his ball slowly rolled towards the pins.  Several times the women noticed their bad positioning yet they continued to do it.

After pulling this bonehead move time and time again a young guy in their party that was actually paying attention helped out grandpa and stayed to the left.  If someone was really thinking, since the two lanes the group were occupying were the two left most lanes, they would have simply set up gramps on the left lane instead of the right. No one in our group made a big stink about it.  Everyone realized that above all it was great he was out there trying to participate.

I was not very happy with my bowling performance.  Early on my 1o year old bowling shoes were sticking like mad, making almost every shot veer to the right.  I didn’t start really feeling comfortable until game 2.  Then just as the old bowling muscle memory was kicking in the lanes went into Saturday night party mode.

They turned off the lights, turned on the video screens playing music videos and filled the lanes with various color lights shooting patterns all over the floor.  Well once they did that my game once again went south.  Not being able to see the floor removed the normal visual reference I use.  I was all over the place once disco mode was initiated.

I did manage to roll a few of those satisfying strikes where the pins are obliterated into the pit.  I always enjoyed that feeling. It is right up there with a called strike 3 when a fastball cracks into the catcher’s glove.

The scoring of bowling has come a long way from my hey day.  Gone are the clear score sheets on a projector that you filled in with a wax pencil.  Everything is computerized with video screens that keep score, give you visual feedback on your efforts, advice on shooting spares and even a radar gun telling you how fast your ball is heading towards the pins.  Others in my party were impressed I was consistently clocking in at 19mph + on a typical roll.

In total we spent 3 hours at the bowling alley.  It was a lot of fun, assisted by a steady flow of beer.

On Sunday morning I got up for a running/swimming brick.  I only ran 4 miles but it was one of the most uncomfortable 4 miles I can recall .  Early on everything felt tight and rigid.  My legs just were not interested in running.  Even my breathing, which is normally not an issue was labored, amplified again by the very sticky air and hot temps.

I really felt like bailing after the first 2 mile loop, I was that miserable.  I continued on anyway, knowing the disappointment in myself for quitting would be greater than the physical discomfort in the run.  The overall pace was actually on the quick side for me, just under a 9 minute mile but I felt every single stride of it.  I was REALLY beat at the end of it.  Of course running the morning after a late night of bowling/drinking typically is not a blue print for success, at least not for me.

The run, after a sizable breather, was followed up with 1200 yards in the water park lap pool.  By the time I was done I was a click over zombie mode. I was really beat.

I had plans to get some more stuff done outdoors during the day Sunday but the weather did not cooperate.  It was a bizarre rain pattern.  At least a dozen times the weather swung between blue sky and hard rain.  By the time I woke up this morning there was standing water adorning the yard, very early on the calendar for this to be happening already.  It could mean I am in for a very swampy summer.

This will be a short but busy week for me.

Saturday morning I got up to do the club run.  It was a “bagel run” where the running store provides breakfast items for free after the run like juice, coffee, bagels and more.  Of course the lure of free food resulted in a big crowd, there might have been 75-100 people there.

I only ran 4 miles, I had not run in somewhere between 3-4 weeks so I was not interested in going very far.  When the run first started both of my knees were not feeling very happy with various jolts of pain shooting through each of them.  Luckily as I warmed up my knees felt better. I wound up running a much faster pace than I expected, averaging right around an 8:30 mile.  After the 4 miles I was pretty much soaked from head to toe from the thick, humid air.

When I got home I wasted no time before hitting the to do list.  After weeding I hopped on the tractor.  I officially need to mow every week.  The high temps and ample rain has kick started the yard into it’s normal summer growth rate.  Before starting I took the blades off and tried to sharpen them with a small grinding wheel attached to my dremel.  It’s far from an ideal set up to do so and I’m not really sure if it helped much.  The blades are really beat up at this point and need to be replaced.

After a hot mowing session I moved inside to handle all indoor work until heading back outside once again to wash the SSR which was dirty from last weekends road trip. I was in chore mode until right before 4pm.

Saturday night I saw World War Z, the new Brad Pitt film which puts the zombie craze onto the big screen in a big way.  I have never seen a movie that Brad Pitt was in that I did not find enjoyable and this film is no exception.  It was like Walking Dead on steroids, minus the compelling character development of the tv series.

We saw the 3D version which was effective with zombie action.  A couple times I almost pushed my seat back off it’s mounting studs when a zombie popped off at the screen at me.  Imagine humanity mixed with fire ants, that is World War Z.  A-, make sure you don’t have stuff in your mouth during the scary parts.

On Sunday I rounded off my endurance exercise training with a 12 mile bike ride at an average 18.4 mph pace followed by 1600 yards in the pool. I was thoroughly tired when I was done.

I picked up the dogs on the way home as Ali is out of town for a few days.  Dog watching has additional complexity now because Ali has dropped the full time dog daycare.  Today I am running home at lunch to let them out and then tomorrow my mom is lending me a hand by going out to the house to let them out mid-day.

The rest of my Sunday was pretty low key, including  paying bills and watching Horrible Bosses on dvd, a damn funny comedy which gets an A-.

I am well into my Soprano revival, taking down 7 episodes so far.  Watching the show makes me feel even worse about James Gandolfini passing away.  His portrayal of Tony Soprano is amazing.

So on Friday I decided I was tired of farting around regarding the Tacoma tire situation.  I had spent a couple weeks scouring both new tire prices and Craigslist ads, looking for a cost efficient way to get new rubber on the truck without spending an arm and a leg.  I had mentioned last week I had a goal of getting it all done for less than $600.

Well it became pretty obvious I was not going to be able to hit that goal.  So Friday afternoon I called my local Tuffy, the place that handled my SSR tire problem last year for free.  I figured I may as well give them my business as a thank you.  I called them up and got a quote of $674 out the door for a set of General Grabbers, a nice looking, raised white letter tire.

So it is a little more than I was looking to spend but at least it would be done.  The garage ordered the tires.  I told them I would be in first thing Saturday morning to have them installed, good deal.

So I roll into the garage a little after 8 am and see Brad, the manager I dealt with before.  Brad is a bit of an enigma.  His demeanor is very subdued and you would almost get the first impression that he was annoyed to be even speaking to you. However despite his somewhat unfriendly outward appearance, he does try to take care of customer needs.

So I handed over the keys and took a seat in the lobby.  I had a conversation with Brad and another customer in the waiting room about how things used to be in Collier county and how much things have changed in the last 20 years.  The convo went much along the lines of what Mitch told me the week before with stories of drugs, gangs and crime being the norm.

So the mechanic that was working on the Tacoma came in and talked to Brad.  Brad tells me that the driver side tie rod is bad, allowing lots of back and forth movement.  Replacing the rod and doing the required alignment afterwards was going to tack another $200 onto the bill.  Well I knew I had little choice, you don’t want to throw new tires on a loose front end.  Brad said they could get the part in less than an hour.  I told him to go ahead and do the repair.

Well the tie rod and alignment of course meant I was spending more time waiting.  I didn’t get out of there until 10:30.  By that time I was quite tired of waiting but glad to have the work finished.  I hopped in the truck and headed home.

Well almost immediately I noticed an odd noise once the truck got over 40 mph, it was like a droning sound.  At first I thought it could possibly be the little rubber nipples that are on new tires however it didn’t make any sense that it would be that loud and that the noise would come and go.  Instead of turning around and going right back to the garage I went home, I had stuff I wanted to get done around the house before it got too damn hot.

I did call Brad when I got home and told him about the noise.  He told me to bring it back in and they would look/listen to it.  I told him I would stop back later in the afternoon after I got some work done.

I got my work done and drove back to the garage, still hearing the noise, and frustrated that I had yet another vehicle issue to address.  When I got there the mechanic that worked on my truck went for a drive with me.  He clearly heard the noise and agreed it was coming from the left side.  I described the noise as sounding like something was rubbing or similar to how it sounds when you drive over rumble strips except the noise fades in and out.

When we got back to the garage he put the truck up on the lift.  He called me out several minutes later and handed me his amplified automotive stethoscope.  He had me hold it against the back of the driver side rear wheel as he spun it.  I heard what sounded like the brake shoes lightly rubbing against the drum, he told me what I was hearing was the wheel bearing.

I immediately questioned the diagnosis.  I told him that before the tire/tie rod replacement I never heard the noise.  I assured them I was pretty in tune with what noises my truck makes after all this time.  It made very little sense to me that changing the tires, a tie rod and an alignment would have caused the rear wheel bearing to fail, yet the noise did sound like it.

Replacing a wheel bearing is nothing I am equipped to do and it is a part that is only available from a dealer, meaning it was not going to get addressed on Saturday afternoon.  I am going to be getting a quote on the repair later today and am going to have to make arrangements to get the truck there sometime this week.  I am hoping it isn’t too steep, my total expense could reach double what I was looking to spend originally, fantastic.

Saturday night before going to the movies I was an inadvertent accessory to fatally maiming an anole,  it somehow got itself wedged under a sticky sliding glass door I was trying to pull shut.  I felt absolutely horrid when I looked down and saw it’s small tail frantically thrashing.  I lifted up the door off the track and got the poor guy out.  He was still alive but the damage was done, the 3/4 of his limbs were wrecked and the skin on his back was torn back.

I immediately felt a heavy wave of sorrow hit me as I picked up the little lizard in my hand.  I took him outside, thinking he would prefer to die peacefully outdoors under a plant or tree.  However when I tried to put him down he acted like he preferred the warmth of my hand.  I realized that in his condition he was likely to be attacked by ants or other insects while he was still alive and unable to do anything about it.   That certainly wasn’t what I wanted to happen.

So as I held him in my hand I lightly rubbed his tiny head with my fingertip, wondering what I was going to do, I was already late to leave to go to the movies.  So I did the only logical thing, took him along to the movies.  I knew he wasn’t going to last long but I thought the least I could do was let him die with company instead of alone since I was responsible for his fatal injuries.  By the time I got to the movie theater he was almost completely faded away.  When the movie was over he was gone for good.  I felt really bad about the whole ordeal.  When I got home the little guy was buried in the garden even though it was pushing 11:30 at night.  Sorry buddy…

Speaking of the movies, I saw Fast and Furious 6.  You would think a movie with 6 sequels would be rather long in the tooth.  Well the FF series seems to buck that trend.  This was not only a pure action film, it was old school, relying on honest to goodness car chases, explosions and fight scenes that were real and not CGI creations.   I can only imagine the budget involved with destroying that many things.

The Rock  is f’ing huge.  He looks like he washes down his Revita-T with steroid milkshakes.  The guy is just a monster, tons bigger than his days a s a WWE wrestler.

The movie was just fun.  Yea the plot is predictable but with a movie like this you really don’t care.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself from start to finish.  Maybe the most amazing thing is they are clearly making a 7th installment, and you know what, I will go see that one too.  It gets a solid A from me as long as you are just looking for brainless entertainment on a grand scale.  If you are looking to boost your IQ, look elsewhere.

You may recall I had this dumb idea to replace my dishwasher with a higher tech version for no good reason.  Well the higher than expected Tacoma repair charges did a good job of derailing that idea.  I did make a tech appliance purchase this weekend though, a toaster.

A toaster, much like my dishwasher is an appliance that sees a lot of usage in the house.  This particular toaster injects some fun tech into the process.  It has no traditional lever to drop the bread.  Instead you place the bread in the slot, hit a button and it is lowered into the toaster.  The unit has a LCD screen where various info is displayed, including a count down till your toast is done.  It looks super cool, at least as cool as a toaster can be.

The purchase satisfied my gadget itch without putting a major dent in my wallet like a dishwasher potentially could have, a good compromise.

On Sunday I did another training brick, this time just a run and swim.  Since I omitted biking I felt like I should stretch the run, doing 6 miles instead of 4.  This was the first time I have run 6 miles since doing 16 with Tracy what felt like eons ago.  It almost wound up being another 4 miler.

As I was coming close to completing lap two of the two mile loop I was in the midst of heavy internal conversations.  One voice was really interested in stopping at 4 miles, I just was not feeling great. Stopping short was sounding really good.  However thankfully the “don’t be a pussy” voice was louder and pushed me into lap 3.  Despite feeling pretty shitty the entire run I averaged slightly over a 9 minute mile pace which isn’t terrible for me.

In the pool I stretched things as well, doing three 500 yard segments instead of the 400’s I normally break my swim into.  I was quite pooped by the end of it all.

I picked up the dogs on the way back to the house.  They had fun hanging there as always as I worked on various things around the homestead.  They both just seem so happy when they get to run around (fast walk for Nicki) the yard with no tether.

My Memorial Day started early as it has the past few years due to timing a race.  For awhile it was just Bill, who drives the running club supply truck, and myself.  We seem to be the only two that are on site two hours before a race consistently.  Bill was actually there far earlier, having to do some last minute changes to the course due to a large soccer tournament that was going on at the same time.

The race wasn’t all that big with around 300 entries.  Timing the event went very well with no major issues at all.  It almost felt relaxing compared to some races I have been part of.

I had a bit of downtime early Monday afternoon so I thought I would fill it with a physical challenge.  I targeted the big 300 pound tire in my backyard as my exercise, specifically flipping it.  I have done some flipping of the tire before, it was tough.  For the holiday I wanted to push the envelope, flipping it from the parallel bars to the fence line and back, somewhere close to 500 feet in total.

Before the attempt I applied one of the temporary Bud Light Platinum tattoos that Ali gave me awhile back.  For some reason it felt appropriate.

As expected, flipping the heavy tire that far was pretty brutal.  It didn’t help that my knees both felt shaky from the run the day before and that my forearms were still feeling mildly irritated.  None of it mattered though, I was going to get the tire to the fence and back if it killed me.  It probably took me close to 15 minutes but I completed the challenge, sucking wind majorly by the end. On the return trip I tried to count the number of tire flips, I think it was 38 flips meaning for the round trip I probably flipped the big ass tire somewhere between 75-80 times.

Late Monday afternoon was the GCR Memorial Day picnic.  On the way there I drove through torrential downpours, I was hoping that the picnic would have different weather conditions since it was located much further south and on the coast.  For the most part, it was.

There was a period of 45 minutes where it rained quite hard.  I stood over the grill with a big umbrella, trying to keep our grill master Dave dry as he cooked the burgers and hot dogs.  There was a great spread of food this year once again.  Unfortunately we also were once again plagued with a large amount of flies trying to get their fair share.

Although the food was great, I actually had very little of it besides a small veggie burger and some healthy pasta salad.  Most of my consumption was the alcohol variety.  I didn’t keep an accurate count but I think I downed something like 5 BLP’s, an equal amount of Miller Lites and a couple jello shots to boot.

I was drunk, really drunk.  At one point I was trying to bump a volleyball around and was physically unable to do so, shanking nearly every ball towards the water.  Much like last year, I was one of the few that basically closed out the picnic sticking around till the very end.  All I can say is thank goodness Cindy, the woman I am dating, knows how to drive stick.  Otherwise I may have still been sitting there in the SSR waiting to sober up.  It was a fun time for sure.  I am still feeling the side effects though.

Saturday I grabbed the dogs relatively early and brought them back for a day of home labor.  It was one of those days where it seemed like despite my consistent hard work that I was making slow headway, not a feeling I enjoy.  To make things worse it was brutally hot and humid Saturday, especially for mid-May with temps scraping 90 degrees. The highlights of the chores was replacing a defective sprinkler in the front yard and utilizing the battery powered pruning chain/pole saw Todd got me for Christmas. It made short work of the huge seed branches on the coconut palm.

On my way to drop off the girls later I made a pit stop at mom’s place to give her my garden harvest for the day.  It was also nice for the dogs to get to spend a few minutes with grandma, they always are very excited to see her.

Saturday night I got out to see the new Star Trek movie.  I have never been a hard core Trekkie but I always enjoyed both the tv series and movies.  I have seen every Star Trek movie that was released in the theater.  I had not read anything in advance about the storyline of this installment, only seeing the previews leading up to it, which looked pretty bad ass.

The movie was good, I enjoyed it.  There were a few things that went down that I mentally lol’d at because they made no sense but I won’t reveal them here to protect from being a spoiler.  I came away from the movie satisfied but not blown away.  Official rating of A-.

On Sunday morning I was on my way to the water park to do another training brick.  As I passed under the interstate I noticed something large against the left curb of the three lane wide road.  As I went by I saw it was a large turtle.  Instantly I went into my animal saver mode.  The closest place I could turn off was a turning lane about 300 yards away.

I hop out and start running towards the turtle.  At first I ran up on the raised median.  I saw the turtle had made it’s way to the center of the three lanes, a prime kill zone by some idiot not paying attention.  Luckily there was not that much traffic on the roads yet at that hour.  However as I was about 100 yards away I saw a decent amount of cars stopped at the traffic light just before the unofficial turtle crossing.  I get off the median and am now running in the center lane, against traffic.  My thought process was if someone did not see the turtle, they would at least see me.  The last thing I wanted was to witness the turtle getting obliterated as I was only a few seconds away from getting to him.

My strategy seemed to work as cars slowed and avoided both myself and the turtle.  I didn’t bother to make eye contact with any of the drivers, I am sure quite a few “wtf is he doing?” looks were shot my way.   I scooped up the misguided turtle and carried him across the road to the side next to a canal, figuring that was his intended destination.

When I picked him up he hissed, not realizing that his turtle guardian angel had arrived.  As I was making my way down the steep embankment I was rewarded for my efforts with a stream of turtle urine running down my leg.  I wasn’t sure if it was fear or another defense mechanism.  I sat him by the waters edge, told him it was ok now, and climbed back up.  That was one very lucky turtle.

For the second week in a row I did a three headed brick, a 4 mile run, a 12 plus mile bike and a 1200 yard swim.  It went better than the week before where I found myself dying at various points.  Of course I was still quite tired this time around, especially on the bike, but it was less severe than the prior session which is progress in my book.

This weekend I installed a SSD drive in my home computer.  Of course having the experience of doing the same thing at work helped tremendously when migrating my home system, allowing me to avoid a couple pitfalls.  I am now enjoying similar performance at home as I have been at work.  A cold boot is super fast, the longest part of the process is the initial computer POST and the network authentication time.  Anything related to hard drive access is done nearly instantaneously, it’s pretty awesome. 🙂

Sunday night I threw my latest Netflix dvd in the 360, The Dictator.  I was a big fan of Borat, I thought it was quite funny.  I thought Bruno was much more stupid than funny.  Well The Dictator was 100% stupid, well the 15 minutes of it I endured.  Yes, it was so stupid I turned the damn thing off.  I can not tell you the last time that has happened but it is a testament to how awful the movie was.  I did not laugh once during my brief time watching it and I could pretty much guarantee it was going to be a monumental waste of my time to watch anymore.

I’m not sure if it is fair to give a rating to something I only could stomach for a few minutes but I will anyway. It gets a “don’t waste a rental on this piece of shit even if it’s free” F.  What I saw was so utterly ridiculous I have no plans to watch another Sascha Baren Cohen movie, ever. It really sucked.

So after work on Friday I went straight to mom’s place.  We had arranged to do an early Mother’s Day celebration.     I took the SSR to work for the occasion.  I took a few pictures of the truck through out the day.  This one came out the best.

I took mom up to Hemmingway’s in Coconut Point.  We had a nice meal in their outdoor seating area facing the water. During dinner I utilized tech in a way that even made me, a certified geek, appreciate.

Mom had asked me last week if I could pick up a supplement she uses at Costco.  Unfortunately when I went last week they were no longer carrying it. Mom was bummed. However technology came to the rescue.

I whipped out my Iphone, loaded my Amazon app and found the supplement, available with free two day Prime shipping no less.  I placed the order, arranged for it to ship to mom’s place and was done in the span of three minutes.  Tech is so commonplace nowadays I lose appreciation for just how powerful the internet is since it is used so frequently.

After dinner I asked mom if she needed anything else while we were out.  She asked if we could stop over at the nearby Super Target to try to find another ion bracelet similar to what I bought her a couple years ago for Christmas.  They didn’t have  that exact model anymore although they had something similar.  Mom wasn’t interested in the alternative.  I dropped her back off at home and made plans to take her to Trader Joe’s some night this week.

I had an early Saturday morning planned.  Alison was one of the organizers for an all girl 5K that was being put on.  Even though it wasn’t an official GCR event a number of our people showed up to help.  It was a good thing.  Things were pretty chaotic early on.  My role was much different than it is on a typical race day where my nose is mostly planted behind the screen of a laptop.

I wound up on the crew that was setting up the course, using my truck as the transport vehicle.  There was some confusion regarding the course layout so we wound up using the Tacoma odometer to do it along with some guesstimation.  It turned out the course was around 3.2 miles, a little long but pretty damn good for figuring it out on the spot.  After laying the course out I was recruited once again for my truck, this time to take the course marshals out to their various spots.

I got back to the registration area with only 10 minutes to spare.  Luckily the only thing involved with timing this fun run was activating a stop watch at the start so I could set the finish line clock.  Those ideas I had about chip timing the run would have never worked out.

There was a decent turn out for the race, over 150 women signed up.  The number is very good when you factor in that the race was only organized a couple months ago.  A nice chunk of change was raised for the charity the race supported and the women all seemed to have a good time.

Saturday afternoon I was dragging from the early wake up call.  I cut some corners with the house chores, something I don’t normally approve of but it felt like a smart move.  One of the chores was tending the garden.  I pulled a MASSIVE carrot out of the ground, it may be the biggest ever.  It looked like a couple different carrots may have grown into this singular monster.

Saturday night I watched my latest Netflix dvd, John Carter.  This Disney movie made a lot of noise when it was released for both it’s huge production costs (about a quarter of a BILLION dollars) and it’s relatively small box office numbers (only 73 million domestic gross).  Still, it looked like something I would find entertaining.  I did.

The movie was not horrible at all although it certainly did not merit the kind of money that was spent on it.  It seemed like they were definitely trying to hop on the Avatar band wagon in many ways.  John Carter certainly is not a movie that leaves any sort of lasting impression but for at least 2 hours it did a good job of keeping me entertained, B+.

On Sunday morning I did my first endurance training in a looong time, I had not run a single mile since the 16 miles I logged with Tracy a month or so ago.  It has not been a deliberate avoidance of endurance work, just other things have gotten in the way.

Well I went full boat yesterday, combining a run, bike ride and swim.  I paid the price.  The weather yesterday was summertime muggy.  Even with starting relatively early I was sweating my ass off after the 4 mile run.  The bike portion didn’t feel any better, especially after the turn around point where I was pedaling into a slight headwind.  My legs just were out of gas.

I also decided to not wear bike shorts for the ride, instead thinking my running shorts would suffice for the 12.25 mile ride.  I regretted that decision greatly during the last 4-5 miles. My nether regions felt raw.

I was totally spent by the time the swim segment of the workout came up.  When I hopped in the pool, despite very warm water, I had heat exhaustion style goosebumps going on.  The first 400 I swam felt very difficult.  I kept my ass in the pool until I covered an additional 800 yards.

I emerged from the workout exhausted but glad that I completed it.  I need to get more consistent with my Sunday tri training.

Sunday afternoon I was doing my bills.  Part of it was reconciling my credit card statement.  I came across the charge for my visit to Zookies when Troy was down.  I noticed they charged me $6 more than I had authorized.  This pissed me off of course.  There are lots of stories of this going on, restaurant staff padding the charge, assuming most people are too lazy to look closely at their CC statement.

Well that amount of anger was nothing compared to what I felt when I saw the next charge, $599 at UnderArmour Direct!!!!  What the fck??!!  So I immediately call the CC company and report the charge.  I also hopped on to their website to verify that I didn’t see any other bullshit charges, nope UA was the only one.  Someone bought a shitload of athletic clothing on my dime.

Now I have to go through all the bullshit of them cancelling the card, sending me a new one and then my having to update every situation where I have stuff billed directly to the card.  There are a lot of them.

Once I hung up I was doing more head scratching.  The overcharge at Zookies was two days before the Under Armour charge.  I wondered if whomever was brazen enough to pad my food bill also was the person that made the UA purchase.  All they would have needed was the info on the card in many cases.

I called up Zookies and asked for one of the owners, neither was there but they said they would let them know and have them call me.  I got a call back shortly from Mrs Zookie, whom I have talked to several times at the bar, she is very nice.  I explained to her about the overcharge at the bar and my suspicions that it could be connected to the massive UA charge two days later.

She was very concerned by my story.  I told her I have no way of knowing for sure if they are connected but wanted to make her aware that one of her employees could be dealing in CC fraud.  She said she would review the receipts from that night to see whom cashed out the bill.  I thanked her for her effort.

I actually plan to try to do a little investigation on this myself.  Far too often banks basically ignore this fraud and write it off as a cost of doing business.  They won’t even try to prosecute the criminal perpetrating the fraud.

I am going to try to contact Under Armour and get details on the order, specifically what address it was sent to.  Since it was done in my name with my CC I am hoping they will give me this info.  If they do I will pass the address along to Mrs. Zookie to see if it matches up with the address of one of her employees.  If so, BAM, gotcha.

I also have a phone call to make to Comcast.  My promised 49.99 rate seems to have been smoke and mirrors, this months bill was $68. I really dislike Comcast…

After work on Friday I stopped at the bank, hoping to finally get the funds from the tax refund in the bank.  I had stopped at Ali’s place first thing in the morning to get her to sign off on it.  So I sent the check up the tube at the drive through teller and heard a voice coming back to me a minute later.

The teller told me that she was unable to deposit the check because it is made to me AND Ali.  Since her name is not on the checking account they are unable to deposit the check without Alison being physically present with her ID.  Damn it….  Ali was equally frustrated when I gave her the news.

Friday night I watched my latest Netflix rental, Chronicle.  I remembered very little about the plot of the movie so I quickly read the description on the dvd sleeve.  Some young guys find some sort of extra terrestrial object that gives them super powers, ok I’m in.

The movie was quite good, better than I expected.  It made me think about how I would react if somehow I managed to obtain some sort of super human ability, if I would use it for good or allow the power to corrupt me.  I would expect it to be somewhere in the middle maybe.  Anyway, I found the movie to be very good, rent it, solid A from me.

Saturday I kept myself quite busy.  We are getting back into the time of year where I can no longer ignore mowing the grass for a month at a time.  I buzzed around on the tractor after tending the garden and weeding the property.  I picked up the girls earlier so they enjoyed themselves hanging out while I toiled.

I actually went around the house with the Dyson, something I need to do less and less because of the robotic sweeping that goes down 3 times a week.   I followed up by letting the Scooba scrub the kitchen and master bathroom, again something that hasn’t gone down in close to a month.

I then targeted vehicle cleaning as the non-standard chore of the day.  I started off with the Tacoma, something that rarely gets washed anymore.

I remember early on in my ownership of the truck I used to be pretty meticulous and regular in washing it.  However 12 years in the Florida sun and a shitty repair job on the passenger side of the truck that has left it with peeling clear coat has made washing the Tacoma a rarity.

As I washed the mostly faded white paint I found myself feeling somewhat sentimental.  I thought about just how many parts of my life the truck has accompanied me through.  It has been a dependable, rock solid companion that has moved me over 120,000 miles around the planet since I bought it in 2001.

The sentimental feelings perhaps were a result of some recent ideas about eventually replacing both the truck and the van with a full size dual cab truck, thinking that would kill two birds with one stone.  I’d be able to still transport all of the raw materials needed to maintain the house but also have plenty of room to carry 2 or 3 additional people and more importantly, two dogs.  Of course to even think about that I would need to get the SSR paid off which isn’t happening anytime soon.

After washing the Tacoma I washed the SSR, the second time doing so in as many weeks.  After I washed it last week I wound up in an unanticipated downpour, negating the work.

I followed up with the party van, not washing the exterior but thoroughly vacuuming the interior to suck up the abundance of dog hair that was filling the space.  I also pulled out the comforter in the bed and threw that in the wash.  I don’t think I had swept out the van since the trip my dad’s in January.  It was long overdue.

Mixed among the chores/projects I needed to do preparation for the race I was timing on Sunday.  I had the freshly washed truck all loaded up and ready to go by 9pm.  My eyelids were closed 30 minutes later as the alarm clock was set for 4 AM.

Some race mornings I pretty much spring up out of bed, ready to tackle the challenge of making everything come together.  Sunday was not one of those days.  The alarm was not welcomed and I almost wound up falling back asleep after turning it off.  I drug myself out of bed and managed to get on site shortly after 5am.

We seemed to have less hands on deck than normal, I was buzzing around for quite awhile until I got to the point where I could settle in and help Alison do data entry.  The race actually started a couple minutes late because I had a little bug to iron out last second.

We had some issues because for some reason participation in the race this year saw a huge unanticipated swelling of numbers.  For the most part our year to year race participation has either been flat or slightly down, mostly due to an oversaturation of races in our area.

Last year the race had less than 350 entries , this year we wound up with just less than 500 people signed up.  There were only 300 shirts ordered for the race and I had only requested 500 race bibs, figuring that was more than adequate based on prior years numbers.  We actually ran out of bibs late in the registration process.

Despite a large amount of runners, timing the event went very smoothly.  I had basically no errors, something that rarely occurs.  I was driving off site by 9:30.

After getting all of the post race work done and eating lunch I felt exhausted.  I laid down for a close to two hour nap and woke up still feeling tired.  I also woke up still coughing and sniffling.  I am going on my third week of this annoying illness.

Sunday night I saw Ironman 3.  I had heard one review of the movie going in and it was very positive.  I came out of the movie agreeing with the review, overall it was a great movie with some very funny moments and one liners sprinkled amongst the kick ass action.   Unlike Spiderman, which was pretty firmly in the lame bucket by the time it hit the third sequel, Ironman 3 delivered and left me wanting more. With the ending of it however, I’m not quite sure where the story goes from here.  Solid A.  My only really negative thought was the 3D version of the film really offered me nothing extra.

I had a very odd dream last night, surely related to my thoughts about replacing the Tacoma.  I saw someone selling a used 2007 Ford pick up truck in the paper and I went to look at it.  The young guy selling it seemed like a pure breed redneck.  When I saw the truck I found it hard to believe that the truck was only 5 or 6 years old.  It had a lot of rough spots which the kid explained away as minor problems.

I knew that there was no way I should buy the truck but instead of just telling the guy no thanks I stuck around and listened to him ramble.  He told me he had a spare body for the truck that I could have, it was at at garage of a “friend” of his.  We hopped in the beat up Ford and drove over there.

The guy opens the garage and it is a cluttered mess.  The kid starts throwing stuff out of the way, creating Iron Man-like chaos as parts and objects crashed into the floor and each other.  He was trying to reach the back wall, evidently there was a secret door where the spare body was kept.  I wound up helping him throw stuff out of the way to get to the door.

Once the door was open it revealed a large sunken space, the top part surrounded by a ledge that had a ton more stuff on it.  The guy again goes on a destruction rampage, pushing the stuff off the ledge, crashing onto both the concrete floor below and the things on it, mostly other cars.  I asked him why he was making such a mess.  He replied simply “I don’t give a fck”  His reply reaffirmed my belief that I should not buy his 2007 Ford.

He pointed to a corner of the area below, saying that was the spare body he was going to give me with the truck.  It was the shell of a late 50’s Corvette.  I remember thinking how mounting a Corvette body on a 2007 Ford truck frame would be more hassle than it’s worth.  Plus where would I put the mulch?  End of dream.

So on Facebook on Friday I saw one of my FB friends had posted he had two oversized tires by the curb that were up for grabs.  He does a lot of unconventional outdoor work outs like I do.  I contacted him and he told me his address so I could pick them up.  He said one was about 300 pounds and the other was 200.

So I stopped on the way home to load up the Tacoma with 500 pounds of rubber.  I got the 300 pounder leaned up against the tailgate but was having a hard time getting a grip and body position strong enough to hoist the very heavy tire up.  Luckily just as the sweat was starting to build on my back a young guy was riding by on his bike and helped me out.

We stacked the tires in the bed and I used my strap ratchet to make sure they didn’t wind up rolling down a road somewhere.  I thanked him for his help, I would have been struggling mightily to accomplish the same task solo.

When I got home I dumped the tires in the back by my bar park.  I have various ideas of how I can incorporate the tires into workouts including flipping,  jumping, sledge hammering, and pushing them, among other things.

For fun I stacked the 200 pound tire on top of the 300 pounder to see if I could box jump on top of them.  Together they were about as high as my waist.  I managed to clear the jump, barely.

I went to my second Tarpons game of the season Friday night.  Despite my enjoyment of the games I am having a hard time imagining the team is going to be around much longer if attendance doesn’t pick up.  I am not sure if there were even 500 people there.

It doesn’t help that the team/league seems to change game times/opponents at a whim.  I think games have been shifted at least 4 or 5 times this season.  It makes it hard to regularly attend games when they are a moving target.

So during the day Saturday I worked on getting everything done around the house in anticipation of Troy’s arrival.  His plane didn’t touch down until a little after 5.  It was the first time I saw Troy since I flew up to his place to watch a Ravens game a couple years ago.  He was sporting a thick and heavy beard, a benefit of being able to work from home full time I suppose.

I told him I wanted to head to Zookie’s for dinner after unloading his stuff at the house.  On the way there we drove through some very heavy rain.  My neighbor later told me his rain gauge showed that an incredible 6 inches of rain fell in 90 minutes out at the house, unheard of in April around these parts.

Anyway, I figured Troy would enjoy the Zookie’s atmosphere.  We drank and ate our fill and even played a couple games of pool in the back of the bar.  I found myself distracted by the live lobster tank “game” they had.  I felt terrible for the lobsters and genuinely wished I had a realistic way to set them free.

Sunday morning I asked Troy if he was interested in walking the swamp with the dogs.  He said it sounded good.  The temps were nice at the start of the walk but got pretty steamy towards the end, both dogs had enough by the end of the 2.5 mile trek.

We didn’t see a ton of wildlife although Troy did get a good look at a decent sized gator, maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 or 8 feet long.

When we got back to the house, while Troy and I were playing some Borderlands 2 on the 360, Nicki was laying out on the lanai.  I noticed she was laying right in front of the dog door but didn’t think much of it.

A little later I hear her wimpering.  I went out to her to see what was wrong.  She looked at me pathetically and tried to get up.  Her rear legs were slipping on the newly painted deck and she didn’t have the strength to compensate.  She basically was stuck.

I felt terrible and grabbed around the middle to get her back on her feet.  One she was up she hobbled back to the bedroom, looking like a geriatric dog.  Poor thing, the swamp walk might be a little too much for her unless somehow we can get her doing it more often.

So as I mentioned, Troy and I were playing Borderlands 2 for quite awhile, a game Tim included when I bought the Xbox from him.  I never played the game before but had heard it was very good.  It is a good game, Troy and I had a lot of fun working in tandem to take down scores of bad guys.  It also can be very frustrating.

I found the way you do things like manage your weapons very klutzy and annoying.  I also found the questing to be a pain in the ass.  More than once Troy and I found ourselves stalled out trying to complete a quest objective that was not clear at all.  I could not find a way to simply drop a quest that was being a thorn in my side.  Certain things in the game just are not intuitive enough IMO.

Sunday night we went to Silverspot to watch Oblivion.  Troy was impressed by the upscale theater with assigned seating with a generous selection of food and alcohol.  We actually had dinner before the movie at Chipotle, the first time I ever stepped foot inside the popular chain. It was good stuff.

The movie was pretty good, not quite as compelling as I hoped with a cast including Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise.  Morgan actually had a surprisingly small role, less than I expected from the previews.  I found myself yawning a lot but to be fair I think that was more to do with a lack of sleep than the movie.  I’d give it a B+

So Monday rolled around, already the last full day of Troy’s brief visit.  We pegged it as the day we would go to the casino.  Troy and I have had a few gambling adventures in our time.  The last time Troy was in the Immokalee casino it was still basically a warehouse with slot machines in it.  Since then a lot of money has been spent expanding and renovating the casino, it’s pretty nice. I was a bit taken back when we pulled into the parking lot and saw so many cars on a Monday afternoon, holy shit.

The one thing they evidently were not able to upgrade was the ventilation system.  Walking in the door immediately filled my lungs with disgusting second hand smoke.  In today’s world and it’s increasingly stringent rules about smoking, I rarely find myself in a smoky environment.  Perhaps that is why when I do find myself in one it seems worse.  It felt like almost instantly my eyes, nose and throat started to feel irritated.

Troy and I did a big loop around the casino to get a lay of the land.  We had to laugh out loud at both the clientele, almost exclusively 60 and older and the games they were playing.  The slot machines at the casino are more video games than anything else anymore, meant to divert your attention from the steady flow of money that is being sucked out of your wallet with big video screens and fancy graphics.

The theme for these games made both of us laugh.  I saw Family Guy, Michael Jackson and even Judge Judy slots.  These machines were all well populated with old people that somehow found enjoyment pulling a lever or pushing a button time and time again, hoping against hope that the next pull will be that elusive jackpot.

Much like strip clubs, spending much time in a casino quickly lowers my opinion of the human race.  I couldn’t help wondering how many social security dollars were getting funneled into the machines.

So anyway, my initial plan was to play some blackjack.  I gave myself a $100 stop loss number.  However the cheapest table they have at this casino is the $10 variety, I much prefer a $5 table minimum.  Plus the two $10 tables were full.  Well not really but one old decrepit gambler in a Navy hat was playing two spots himself as well as funding his wife’s spot.  My desire to play blackjack was not strong enough to make me want to wedge myself next to this guy.

Troy went off and played a little video poker while I did some more circling.  I stumbled across something new at the casino, roulette!  I always thought games like roulette and craps were not allowed in Florida casinos however this roulette game was different, it involved no casino personnel.

It was an automated roulette system.  In a large bubble in the middle was the robotic roulette wheel.  Around the outside were 7 or 8 seats where customers can sit down and control their bets with a large touch screen.  It was pretty damn slick.  Once I found it I told Troy about it, he came over to join me to play a bit.

I was quite surprised that more people weren’t playing at the game, there were always a couple seats open.  I theorized that the electronic interface may have confused or scared many of the old farts so they shy away.  Whatever the reason I found the experience quite fun.

Each cycle of the game takes around a minute.  You have your betting period ($5 minimum) where you can wager anywhere from 50 cents to $1500.  After the bets are placed the ball is shot out and the fun ensues.  I used a pretty conservative strategy most of the time, betting $5 on red or black with a smaller bet on a couple individual numbers hoping to get lucky.

Overall I did ok, losing maybe 40 bucks in 45 minutes.  Troy didn’t fare quite as well.  I cashed out and found Troy who had returned to the video poker machine.  I was amazed when he showed me his $140 voucher, he had just hit a royal flush, nice.

We both agreed we had enough casino time.  I felt fortunate to leave well above my stop loss figure and Troy’s poker hit actually meant he was leaving the building ahead.

I suggested that on the way home we stop at Ave Maria and have a few drinks at the on campus bar.  Troy made the term “sin it up” famous a few years back when we stopped at the Ave Maria Publix on the way to a Dolphins game and Troy walked out with a lottery ticket and pack of cigarettes.

We were both disappointed to see that we picked the one day a week the bar is closed.  We still hung there for awhile, grabbing some stuff in the next door coffee shop.  We were dumbfounded when we walked out and saw no less than a half dozen police cars with their lights on, blocking a side street.  We weren’t 100% sure but it looked like they were called to the jewelery store.  Theft in Ave Maria??  Wow Troy and I were both struck by the irony.

The rest of Troy’s final night at my place was laid back.  We played more Borderlands 2, grabbed a pizza, (saved a turtle in the process) watched Stern shows on YouTube and drank a LOT of beer.  I am not quite sure how many BLP’s I drank in total but I am sure it was a record for one sitting.

Troy is a fellow Stern fan as I am.  We laughed our asses off watching shows involving Sourshoes, Medicated Pete and finally the Artie Roast.  I am not sure the last time I had compressed so much laughing out loud into a small time period.  Troy is one of the few people that can bring that part of me out.  I did not hit the pillow until a ridiculous 1 AM.  My bedtime was slightly extended because I insisted on jumping in the shower first to wash the remaining casino stench off me.

When I woke up Tuesday morning I was not feeling well, the sore throat and general malaise was all attributed to the casino,  late night and large amounts of alcohol consumed.  I do not typically drink much at all. To have two heavy sessions in three days just never happens.  I tried to shake it off the best I could as I had a long day ahead of me.

Troy’s daughter, girlfriend and her son were coming down to visit Disney for 5 days.  I told Troy I would drive him up to Orlando to meet them instead of him having to rent a car.  We piled his luggage and the dogs into the party van and pulled out.  I have to admit I was a bit nervous doing so with Nicki after the disastrous diarrhea incident when I tried taking her north in January.  Luckily there was no repeat of that incident this time.

I stopped and loaded up on gas and coffee for the 3 plus hour drive north.  The drive went well, Troy and I are able to roll in and out of conversation easily, another rarity in my circle of friends.  Sadie even gave Troy’s lap a brief test run on the road.

We arrived in Orlando right about one o’clock.  I dropped off Troy and wished him good luck, he was going to need it to survive 5 days in Disney.  It felt like a very brief but fun visit.  I am hoping I get a chance to visit him up north sometime in the not so distant future.

I stopped for gas on the Disney grounds.  I remembered from before that for whatever reason, the cheapest gas you will find is at Disney which makes little sense since everything else is so overpriced.  Once again the premise proved true as I paid 3.30 a gallon, almost 20 cents less than I saw it out on the public roads.

I had an aggravating moment as I was pumping gas.  Troy had given me 50 bucks to help offset the gas I was using to get him to Orlando.  I had just shoved the $50 bill in the pocket of my Adidas gym shorts instead of taking the extra 5 seconds to place it safely inside my wallet.  Well as I pulled out my wallet to grab my credit card I felt for the bill, it wasn’t there….

So I check both pockets again and then once again, even turning them inside out.  I then surveyed the ground and the inside of the van, nothing.  Son of a bitch.  As I retraced my steps I am pretty sure the money was lost at the rest stop when I removed the keys from my pockets.  Somebody more than likely got an unexpected $50 smile maker.  Oh well.

The drive home felt long.  Instead of feeling better as the day went on, which is normal for a hangover, I was feeling worse.  My throat was getting more sore and a dry hacking cough was starting to show up.  I was also feeling very tired.  I stopped for another cup of coffee in Sarasota but it felt like it hardly made a dent in my alertness level.  I pulled back into the driveway at 5pm.

As the night went on I was still progressing upward on the “feeling shitty” meter.  My voice started to sound like a 2 pack a day smoker and I was just exhausted.  By the time Ali showed up to pick up the dogs I had no doubt I was in full blown sick mode, so much so that I called off from work today.

Speaking of Ali, her trip to Costa Rica sounded amazing.  She had such an awesome time.  I was happy for her.

Time to go lay down. Here are the pictures I took from Troy’s visit.