Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Double Feature Weekend

This weekend, I went to a double feature.

Okay, so that's very misleading, but I said it that way on purpose.  :)

I saw two plays this weekend, specifically two musicals.

First up, I went down to Glendale Centre Theatre for a matinee of 1776.  I'd watched the movie version a few years back, but I'd never seen the stage version.  Turns out I'm not a big fan of the show period.  But that's not to say the cast wasn't phenominal.  Considering how many people they had to fit on such a small stage, it was great.  I love the intimate setting of that theater.  They also had their season for next year announced, and I'm already looking forward to several plays there.  And we're going back in a few weeks for their next play.

Anyway, that finished up in time for me to drive back to town, grab some dinner, and make it to the evening show of The Music Man.  I've fallen in love with the movie version of this musical (specifically the remake), but I'd never seen the stage play.  As soon as a local theater company announced they were doing it, I knew I wanted to see it.  Then it turned out some friends were in it, so I had to see it.  One of them was even Marion.  It was great!  I loved every minute of it.  They did it at the performing arts center at the local community college, and that auditorium is amazing.  I enjoyed every minute of it.

Plays are wonderful.  I don't know why some people who love movies hate them, but I am glad I finally have a friend who loves going to them as much as I do (although I did go to The Music Man by myself since I'd pretty much forgotten I'd need to go that weekend until the last couple of days).

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Last Week's Game

We're winding down Summer League.  Just got tonight's last official game and then tomorrow's make up game before Saturday's tournament.  Since we have only won one game so far, I'm not exactly going to miss it this year.  Hopefully next year I'll be on a team that at least has a 50% record going into the finals.

Anyway, I've already given away the ending of last week's game.  We lost in over time 16-18.  What's worse is we were way ahead at half time, 9-3.  What happened?  They stopped messing up and we started messing up.  That's pretty much all there is to it.

Not that I was really helping.  I got scored on a time or two and either didn't catch it or couldn't pass it on when it was thrown to me.  Not one of my better performances.

Our games this week are against two of the better teams.  Then on Saturday we'll start off by playing the #1 seed (we're 8 out of 8).  So I'm expecting to have four games of summer league left this year.

Still can't believe the summer is almost over already.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Word Association for August 15th

Wow.  I'm doing the word association on Monday.  What's up with that?

Eating :: Dinner
Cowboys :: Indians
Nightmare :: Elm Street
Impress :: Date
Year :: 2011
Kiss :: Date
Corn :: on the Cob
Humping :: Dumping
Mirror :: Wall
Brains :: Smart

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Weekly TV Recap Aug 13th

In Plain Sight - Season finales have weddings and babies, so this one had to have both.  Actually, I wasn't surprised about that or the fact that Mary's job interfered with the wedding.  I saw that coming from the premier.  What was nice was that our witness of the week was actually someone we had seen before.  It's the first time they've brought someone back since season one.  I'm not happy about Brandi leaving Peter at the altar, however.  I like how they have matured her and I loved her with Peter.  I hope that they bringing them back together somehow.  I believe I saw Peter rushing to Mary in the final shot of her in labor, so maybe that will be a way they can do it.  Of course, all that assumes they get picked up for another season.  I sure hope they do.

White Collar - I was on the edge of my seat the entire time wondering what the cliffhanger was going to be.  And Keller kidnapping Elizabeth was the last thing I expected.  Holy cow it's going to be a long wait until the next episode.  With the cat of the treasure out of the bag, too, I wonder what will happen between Neal and Peter.  I was glad to see Neal confess that he liked his life and wanted to stay.  Obviously, we'd seen that all along, but it was so nice to hear it.

Covert Affairs - I actually felt they handled Annie's sister finding out about Annie's real job very believably, and I can understand her asking Annie to move out, even after she's calmed down.  Annie has brought danger home with her a few times.  I guess they've written the brother-in-law out of the show since there was no mention at all of him, just taking the kids to his mother's.  I don't like that, although he was never a big part of things.  I was surprised that the defector actually died.  I figured they'd save him.  Sorry to see the doctor go, although I am rooting for Annie and Augie all the way.  Meanwhile, who did Jai call and what is he up to?

Wipeout (Tuesday) - All I've got to say is the classic video game references for Kong were great, especially during the qualifier.  Loved it.

Royal Pains - Okay, so they found a medical reason for the magician to be freaking out, but it felt like an episode for Necessary Roughness.  That aside, I quite enjoyed his story.  Didn't enjoy Evan and Hank's story as much.  It was nothing but embarrassment humor, and we all know how much I hate that.  Boris took Jill much more seriously than he let on, so what's up with that.  And as soon as I saw the doctor, I knew he and Divya would go out.

Necessary Roughness - This show is just too serious for me.  Maybe that's my problem with it.  Well that and I hate seeing people in self destruct mode, which is what TK is in most of the time.

Melissa and Joey - One or two funny lines, but most of it wasn't that funny.  Actually, the funniest part was having a character on a sitcom who is joke impaired.

Burn Notice - I really felt like we had two main stories dueling it out for most of the episode, although we focus more on Michael, Jesse, and Pearce at the end.  Jesse and Pearce shared so many funny lines, too.  I was wondering how the show would work with Michael no longer officially burned, and I think it's working quite well.

Suits - Okay, so generally I can't stand Louis.  He's egotistical and pushy and obnoxious and slimy.  But I felt really sorry for in this episode because he was trying to help the case, but it kept backfiring.  Okay, so quite often it was questionable, but still.  Meanwhile, Harvey was right at the end, he's not the kind of guy to take the credit and not share it when he knows he needs to.  And as a TV geek, I was happy with the guest stars, Bill Buchan from 24, Claire from Women's Murder Club, and Tuvok from Voyager.  Mike's storyline was only okay this week, although the hacker discovering his lie so easily did make it more interesting.  I'm thrilled this show has been renewed for next season.  I love it.

Wipeout (Thursday) - No one really stood out to me this week.  And after 7 months of the show being one once or twice a week I'm really tiring of it.  I hope they have the blind date episode with some people I met at a mud run on soon so I can give it a rest.

Expedition Impossible - My money has been on No Limits and Gypies to make the finals (I guess there will be four teams in the finals) for a while.  The only thing that could stop them are injuries.  And that almost happened to No Limits who went from first to last in the second part of this leg.  Still, I'm glad they are around, although I really wish Fab 3 would leave already.  I hate the way they yell and fight with each other.  Drives me up a wall.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

What I Read in July

Even if you take out the picture books and comic strip collections in this list, I still had a very good month.

All ratings are on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (great).

THE BOOK OF ELSEWHERE: THE SHADOWS by Jacquline West - 4
Olive Dunwoody and her parents have moved into a new house, but soon Olive begins to suspect that something out of the ordinary is happening.  In fact, she's pretty sure the pictures are moving.  What's going on?  I wasn't prepared for a supernatural book when I picked it up, but I still enjoyed this story aimed at tweens.

MY SPACE: BABY BLUES SCRAPBOOK #24 by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott - 5
The MacPhersons never fail to make me laugh, and this comic strip collection is no exception.

DARKWING DUCK: CRISIS ON INFINITE DARKWINGS - 5
This fun second new adventure finds Negaduck trying to destroy Darkwing Duck by bringing in all the Darkwings from every universe and brainwashing them for evil.  Very clever and lots of fun.

ATTACK OF THE DERANGED MUTANT KILLER MONSTER SNOW GOONS by Bill Watterson - 5
More laughs with this classic comic strip.  There's a reason it's a family favorite.

MR. MONK ON THE COUCH by Lee Goldberg - 5
While Natalie tries to figure out the identity of a John Doe who died of natural causes, Monk investigates a string of murders that have the most unual common element - a couch.  Another fun book with friends old and new that includes some good twists and laughs.

PULL MY PAW by Sue Ann Jaffarian - 5
The Bowen family faces a tense Mother's Day when family traditions come into question and one of the sisters tries to paw off an unwanted dog.  Humor and heart felt moments in this e-short story and leaves you ready for the next chapter.

ROYAL PAINS: FIRST, DO NO HARM by D. P. Lyle - 4
Hank is trying to figure out why a bride to be is having spells where she doesn't know who she is, spells that leave her with holes in her memory.  Meanwhile, a new health drink seems to have dire consequences.  I enjoyed the story, although the portrayal of Evan bothered me.  Still, a fun tie in.

SHOULD I SHARE MY ICE CREAM by Mo Willems - 5
Poor Gerald has a dilemma when he thinks maybe he should share his ice cream with best friend Piggy.  Will he make the right decision?  A bit of humor and some good, organic lessons about sharing (and indecision) make this another winner from Mo Willems.

THE FINAL DETAIL by Harlan Coben - 4
Myron returns to New York from an unannounced vacation when he finds out that business partner has been accused of murdering one of their clients.  But she didn't really do it, did she?  Outside of one scene I really didn't care for, I found this book to be a very good mystery with great characters.  I have a feeling I'll be reading more.

ELI by Bill Peet - 5
The story of an aging lion that is ashamed after saving a vulture from being killed.  But might that act of kindness save his life?  Bill Peet's pictures are great, and the story is fun if fairly predictable.

BURN NOTICE: THE BAD BEAT by Tod Goldberg - 4
What Sam and Michael think is a simple job of helping out a guy hounded by loan sharks becomes much more complex when they find Russian mobsters are also after the guy.  While the climax felt weak, overall the book was still good.

Word Association for August 10th

Time for this week's word association:

Injury :: Hurt
Incentive :: Comment
Suitable ::  Replacement
Cheating ::  Games
Remembering :: Funeral
Nasty :: Comment
Games :: Fun
Wife :: Husband
Challenged :: Hard
Barbaric :: Uncivilized

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Wonderful Weekend

As I may have mentioned once or twice on my blog, I spent the last few days in Texas visiting my niece (and brother and sister-in-law).  Specifically, I flew out there Thursday and flew back yesterday.

Now, what was wonderful wasn't the heat, although it was a big of a shock to come back to weather in the mid-80's yesterday.  They are going for a record of triple digit days in Dallas this year, so it was hot.  And unlike good old California, it doesn't cool off at night there like it does here.

This was the first time I'd seen my niece since Christmas.  I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get.  When she first saw me at the airport, she wasn't quite sure what to make of me, but we were halfway back to the car when she started looking around like crazy to make sure I was coming with them.

And that's prety much how the rest of the weekend went.  If I left the room she was in, she started asking about me, yelling for me, or searching for me.  Some times, she'd do all three.  And shen she was ready to leave a room, she'd grab my hand and pull me with her.

As I told some of their friends at one point, I was eating it up.

Okay, so it seemed like it was split between being called Uncle Mark and Uncle Mike, but I'm not going to quibble over minor details like that.  This is the first time I've seen her when she really was calling me Uncle anything (she's just over two), so I'm quite happy.

It really doesn't seem like I was there for three days because there was a lot going on.  Thursday, I got there in the middle of the jr. high meeting at their house.  Friday was the only normal day.  We played at the house for a while and then headed to a splash park near their house.  Basically, it's a play area with water jets of all kinds.  It was fun and cool, at least for a little while.

Friday night, the youth group at their church was having their all nighter.  My brother, the youth pastor, had originally planned it for a few weeks ago, but it had to be postponed.  I went too, and I had a blast.  I even managed to stay awake.  We played broomball, and I scored the winning goal in the adults vs. youth game.  Then we went to a place with lazor tag and whirlyball, a comination of bumper cars, lacross (with the plastic track balls and catchers) and basketball.  It was fun but pretty tricky.  Our final stop was bowling.

Naturally, that meant B and I were tired, so we slept some Saturday late morning/early afternoon.  And again Sunday afternoon.  But Sunday was church in the morning and then a meal with some people from church afterward.

So as you can see, it was busy.  And even though I can get more sleep here at home, I would go back in a heart beat and do it all again just to hear "Uncle Mark! Uncle Mark!"

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Weekly TV Recap for August 6th

I made it through everything through Wednesday before I left town.  Not sure yet if I will include Thursday's shows I haven't seen yet this week in next week or not.  We'll have to see what happens in them.

In Plain Sight - Mary thinking about keeping the child herself? I wouldn't have predicted that earlier in the season, but when I realized what the plot of this episode would be, I knew that was coming. I'll be curious to see what they do with that next week. The witness was so monumentally stupid this week that I was rooting for her to lose her child and her freedom. Nice to see it finally happen for a change. And is it just me, or is Mary more annoying and less lovably funny with her constant snarking right now?

White Collar - Yeah, there was some plot involving an Egyptian artifact. I don't really care about that, and I was supposed to since they really hyped Elizu's guest starring spot. What captured my attention was the treasure story. Holy cow way to ramp that up. And I'm not looking forward to seeing what kind of cliffhanger they leave us with next week. So, Mozzie has fenced one of the paintings the FBI knows about. This is going to be serious trouble. How will Neal wiggle out of this one?

Covert Affairs - Annie is about to tell her sister. I wonder how that will change the dynamic of their relationship. I can see her being upset but also understanding after a while. In the plot of the week, I was glad to see that the wife wasn't a spy for the other side. She was just a scared woman on the run. I really liked her character and felt for her.

Wipeout (Tuesday) - I so wanted to see the Back to the Future guy go further. The jokes around him were so funny. Second choice was the poker guy. But I figured the body guard would be the one to win, and boy was I right there.

Take the Money and Run - An interesting premise as two citizens hide $100K and then two detectives, aided by two investigators, attempt to find it. I found it interesting that the brother, who said in the pre-show interviews that he'd love to do stuff like this every day, was the one to crack. However, I was ready for the show to be over after about 30 minutes. And they spent more time with the interrogators, who must work for the show since they are on next week's episode, then with the police detectives. I'll probably pass, although if I were bored some night (fat chance), I could totally see myself getting hooked on the show.

Royal Pains - So many interesting developments tonight. First, it sounds like they've written around Tucker, at least for the time being. Bummed since I love that character so much. Divya is pulling double duty to pain off Raj's parents. (And I'd forgotten she owned part of HankMed.) Evan and Paige are sort of engaged. And what is her secret? Meanwhile, Jill pieced together something about the "accident." I've thought all along it was someone targeting Boris. But who and why are the big questions.

Melissa & Joey - So we got two episodes tonight. I thought Emily might be Melissa's sister, although I wasn't seeing the resemblance. Turned out I was wrong on that. Still, I wasn't happy with the kids trying to find some kind of prejudice at the lesbian wedding. The second episode was some better, but still not their best stuff. Kind of makes me wonder why I keep watching in a way.

Necessary Roughness - So Wednesday must have been lesbian day since they appeared on all three of my shows. Not impressed with that storyline, and the skateboarder felt rather predictable as well. This show definitely needs something to shake it up. I was interested to see the husband trying to make things right, although I doubt that will happen. What I enjoyed most was the TK storyline. I actually didn't think it was predictable and the way he reacted to things showed a different level to the character I hope they build on and explore in future episodes.

New TV on DVD Reviews:
Get Smart - Season 1

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

When Does Life Slow Down?

In a lot of ways, this has been a very long week for me.  Tomorrow, I leave for a few days in Dallas visiting family.  Can't wait to see them, especially my niece.

But in other ways, it has sped by.  Granted, that's my fault for trying to cram too many things into this week.  Too much TV, too many reviews.  Laundry.  Tonight I've got to go home pack, and go to my ultimate Frisbee game.  I'm hoping to squeeze Royal Pains in before I leave for the game.

This last weekend was great, too.  Saturday, I went with a friend to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie.  It was a whole lot more fun than I thought it would be.  We both laughed all the way through it.  Well worth seeing.

Then it was off to a book signing for the latest round of USA Network tie in novels.  It's strange, but I'm actually up to date on those, so I don't have any to read between now and January.

Sunday I decided to head out to play ultimate Frisbee in the late afternoon.  I was going to try to go for a run, but I did that instead.  I had a blast.  But sooner or later I'm going to have to start running sometime other than playing ultimate Frisbee again.

And I think that's about it from here.  Expect a shorter than normal TV recap this week since I won't be watching all of tonight's shows or any from Thursday until I get back next week.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Word Association for August 2nd

Yes, that's right.  I'm posting my word association today.


  1. Nag :: Chores


  2. Smug :: Arrogant


  3. Barry :: Burn Notice (money launderer)


  4. Righteous :: in Christ


  5. Hairstylist :: Salon


  6. Vibrate :: Phone


  7. Deal :: of the Century


  8. Communicate :: Talk


  9. Telling :: the Truth


  10. Andrew :: Peter