On Sunday, a friend of Naomi's who had moved out of town was coming for a visit. They had arranged that they would go roller-skating for the afternoon. Fiona, never having been roller or ice skating, was given the option of coming along or staying home to have a "special day" with daddy. She chose to stay home, further showing that my genetics are in there in a big way! It was a lot of fun spending the time with her one-on-one. As to what a 3 year old considers a special day? Dancing to AC/DC music; lunch at pizza hut; playing with her Disney figurines (I was assigned the princesses to play with while she played with the fairies) and finally, a trip to the park. A good day was had by all.
Other spare time on the weekend was spent clearing a space for our planned vegetable garden. Mindy and I have really no idea what we are doing but I guess we will learn from our mistakes, of which there are bound to be more than a few.
Movie watching over the weekend - a trip down memory lane to watch "The Great Escape". It occurred to me that this is probably the movie I have watched more than any other over my life...MANY days of my childhood were spent on the couch watching this one. Great stuff!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Planes, (Trains) and Automobiles
On Thursday and Friday of last week I was in Chicago for a two day training class. Everything was going fine, Thursday was the first day of Spring and even though Chicago is colder than New Jersey, I did not expect weather troubles. Then on Thursday I find out that there is a winter storm watch for all day Friday. Great. Sure enough, Friday morning greeted me with a few inches of snow on the ground, however, I figured that being Chicago, they would be used to this sort of thing and I would get home, perhaps with a delay.
Well, checking my flight status brought me the thrilling news that my flight was cancelled. I called SAP travel to see what they could do for me and was told the news that every Continental flight was cancelled out of Chicago but that I was booked on a flight leaving on SUNDAY NIGHT, connecting through Cleveland and getting me back to LaGuardia airport at 11:00pm. I would then need to take an approximately 45 minute cab ride to Newark to get my car. Clearly I wanted a better option and after much searching, a flight on American Airlines was found that was leaving in a few hours. I raced to the airport and got to the American desk, only to find that that flight had been cancelled as well. I was told to try Continental!
Not expecting any good news I went to the empty Continental desk and asked about my options. I was helpfully told that every flight was cancelled and I was booked on Sunday night. I asked again if there were any further options for me and was told that IF I wanted to drive to Indianapolis, I could get a direct flight from there tonight. 180 miles was the distance quoted, although with the now quite heavy snow, it could take a while. So, I booked a rental car, got the bus BACK to the Hertz lot and began my trek. Of course, I had no idea about the location of the airport but got some basic directions for Indianapolis and headed out.
Fortunately a consulting buddy of mine lives in Indy and after a call, was able to reassure me that I would see signs to the airport from the main interstate. The drive took about 4 hours. It was kind of crazy...40 miles south of the airport, the snow turned to rain and 40 miles south of this, it was sunny. Apparently it was just a stupid narrow band of snow stuffing everything up. After this, everything went quite smoothly, except for reaching a fast food restaurant in NJ hungry and two minutes after the close...
Saturday was spent sleeping. Mindy had taken the kids to visit her family in Virginia so I had the rare luxury of taking an afternoon nap on the couch. At 4:30, a group of friends left to go to Atlantic City for some gambling.
I stuck to poker again and only lost a little money. I really had no decent cards all night but it was a lot of fun. The guy I was sitting next to was quite amusing and we both got a kick about laughing at another player who was falling asleep at the table, CLEARLY under the influence of herion or another narcotic type of drug. Whatever it was, it certainly was not an upper. He was also playing like a drugged out idiot, however he was being lucky enough to be dangerous. A few players got busted out through bad fortune (or by trying to bluff a calling station) but eventually, some players managed to catch him out. The line of the night came from the guy next to me. A complete knucklehead sat down, acting like he owned the place and strangely proud of his $60 in front of him. He was rude to the dealers and trying to be a big shot. The really funny part was that he only looked about 17 years old as well. Finally the guy next to me had had enough, so he asked: "Dude, how old are you anyway?". He answered "28". "You're 28?" came the mock reply, sending this guy into a tirade about how old he was, do you want to bet, do you want to see my license etc... Cutting him short, the guy next to me said "Whatever McLovin". Now, anyone who has seen "Superbad" will get the reference and it is really tough to do this justice but it was quite simply, the perfect put down. This caused another rant and he left the table soon after. Not long after this we also called it a night and drove back home.
Sunday was again spent sleeping and relaxing and preparing for another week in the trenches at Colgate. Preparing for work really just involves sitting on the couch reading/watching TV and I can say that I was certainly quite well prepared.
Well, checking my flight status brought me the thrilling news that my flight was cancelled. I called SAP travel to see what they could do for me and was told the news that every Continental flight was cancelled out of Chicago but that I was booked on a flight leaving on SUNDAY NIGHT, connecting through Cleveland and getting me back to LaGuardia airport at 11:00pm. I would then need to take an approximately 45 minute cab ride to Newark to get my car. Clearly I wanted a better option and after much searching, a flight on American Airlines was found that was leaving in a few hours. I raced to the airport and got to the American desk, only to find that that flight had been cancelled as well. I was told to try Continental!
Not expecting any good news I went to the empty Continental desk and asked about my options. I was helpfully told that every flight was cancelled and I was booked on Sunday night. I asked again if there were any further options for me and was told that IF I wanted to drive to Indianapolis, I could get a direct flight from there tonight. 180 miles was the distance quoted, although with the now quite heavy snow, it could take a while. So, I booked a rental car, got the bus BACK to the Hertz lot and began my trek. Of course, I had no idea about the location of the airport but got some basic directions for Indianapolis and headed out.
Fortunately a consulting buddy of mine lives in Indy and after a call, was able to reassure me that I would see signs to the airport from the main interstate. The drive took about 4 hours. It was kind of crazy...40 miles south of the airport, the snow turned to rain and 40 miles south of this, it was sunny. Apparently it was just a stupid narrow band of snow stuffing everything up. After this, everything went quite smoothly, except for reaching a fast food restaurant in NJ hungry and two minutes after the close...
Saturday was spent sleeping. Mindy had taken the kids to visit her family in Virginia so I had the rare luxury of taking an afternoon nap on the couch. At 4:30, a group of friends left to go to Atlantic City for some gambling.
I stuck to poker again and only lost a little money. I really had no decent cards all night but it was a lot of fun. The guy I was sitting next to was quite amusing and we both got a kick about laughing at another player who was falling asleep at the table, CLEARLY under the influence of herion or another narcotic type of drug. Whatever it was, it certainly was not an upper. He was also playing like a drugged out idiot, however he was being lucky enough to be dangerous. A few players got busted out through bad fortune (or by trying to bluff a calling station) but eventually, some players managed to catch him out. The line of the night came from the guy next to me. A complete knucklehead sat down, acting like he owned the place and strangely proud of his $60 in front of him. He was rude to the dealers and trying to be a big shot. The really funny part was that he only looked about 17 years old as well. Finally the guy next to me had had enough, so he asked: "Dude, how old are you anyway?". He answered "28". "You're 28?" came the mock reply, sending this guy into a tirade about how old he was, do you want to bet, do you want to see my license etc... Cutting him short, the guy next to me said "Whatever McLovin". Now, anyone who has seen "Superbad" will get the reference and it is really tough to do this justice but it was quite simply, the perfect put down. This caused another rant and he left the table soon after. Not long after this we also called it a night and drove back home.
Sunday was again spent sleeping and relaxing and preparing for another week in the trenches at Colgate. Preparing for work really just involves sitting on the couch reading/watching TV and I can say that I was certainly quite well prepared.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Recent Viewing
Over the past few weeks I/we have watched a few movies, all of them good...
Firstly "The Kingdom". This is about a team of FBI agents who go to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist attack on a western living compound in the country. I guess part of me found this interesting as I worked with a consultant who was at one of these compounds when a quite noteworthy attack happened. Hearing him describe being trapped on the floor of his apartment, under the stairs, while gunmen were driving through the streets strafing all of the buildings was quite chilling. He mentioned seeing the bullet holes appearing in the wall above him. To make matters worse, his wife and two children were trapped in another building so he had no idea if they were OK. It was quite chilling stuff. The next day they flew out of the country, leaving their stuff behind, never to return...so anyway, back to the movie. The sequence of the terrorist attack was very well shot and certainly compelling viewing. The rest of the movie was I guess somewhat of a cliche with the interplay between the Americans and the Saudis however I did find it all quite engrossing. I guess much of it was realistic, OK...except for the ending sequence where a couple of FBI Agents and one Saudi officer, all lightly armed, drove into a well defended, terrorist stronghold and shot them all up. The ending was an attempt to show the difficulty of the current situation which I guess it achieved...but kind of an obvious point I thought. In any case, if you are after a couple of hours of suspense, action etc, you could do worse than this.
Next was "The Bourne Ultimatum". Talk about non-stop action. There was no wasted time at all in this film. It was exhausting to watch as every scene seemed to be constant action and running, following Bourne with a hand-held camera...while always flashing back to a room full of dudes watching stuff on TV...flashing to bad guys doing stuff...back to Bourne...etc . Mindy came in about 1/2 way through (she had said she was not really that interested in watching it) and was glued to the screen for the rest of the movie. The highlight of the film was the long sequence in Waterloo Station - for sustained suspense and intrigue, this really cannot be beaten. The three movies in this series are all amazing action films so if you have not seen them yet, make sure you fix this!
Finally I purchased the DVD for "Into The Wild". I normally don't do this, but I guess since we have the book and the CD already, it makes sense to round out the collection. I was interested to see how this movie was made. In short, it is the story of Chris McCandless who walked away from society to wander the country. His journey ended in Alaska where he lived off the land for a few months. Unfortunately he passed away in Alaska, either simply from starvation or from some kind of poison/fungus, depending who you ask (the details are unclear). Much of the book is concerned with his travels before he gets to Alaska and all that is known of his time in Alaska is a few journal entries that he kept. I was curious to see the movie and what I had expected was an account of his time in Alaska, filling in the blanks as a fictional movie can...where a factual book could not. However, the movie also stuck to the facts that are known and primarily dealt with his dealings with those he met before going to Alaska. I guess that I had not really thought about it too much but endless scenes of him lying around and hunting would not have made an entertaining movie, one of the reasons I am working at Colgate and not in Hollywood, I suppose!The highlight for me was the performance of Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz, an elderly man who befriended Chris. In real life, Ron Franz stated that he was incredibly religious and when he said goodbye to Chris, he prayed that God would look after him. After finding that he starved to death in Alaska, he proclaimed himself to being an atheist, stating that if God would not look out for Chris, then he wanted no part of it. Quite an amazing impact that he had. Overall the movie was quite good, although perhaps a little long. Sean Penn really enjoyed making this film and felt a connection with the characters involved. Worth a look but perhaps read the book first. It is hard to say but I think that a lot of the people involved would make more sense getting this background first.
Also, we finished the latest season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on DVD. This is one of the best things on TV and I hope Larry David makes another season. Certainly check this out if you have not done so...but also, give yourself a few episodes to get the feel of the show. It is certainly worth the effort (and at times watching him go through his life, it truly feels like an effort!).
Firstly "The Kingdom". This is about a team of FBI agents who go to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist attack on a western living compound in the country. I guess part of me found this interesting as I worked with a consultant who was at one of these compounds when a quite noteworthy attack happened. Hearing him describe being trapped on the floor of his apartment, under the stairs, while gunmen were driving through the streets strafing all of the buildings was quite chilling. He mentioned seeing the bullet holes appearing in the wall above him. To make matters worse, his wife and two children were trapped in another building so he had no idea if they were OK. It was quite chilling stuff. The next day they flew out of the country, leaving their stuff behind, never to return...so anyway, back to the movie. The sequence of the terrorist attack was very well shot and certainly compelling viewing. The rest of the movie was I guess somewhat of a cliche with the interplay between the Americans and the Saudis however I did find it all quite engrossing. I guess much of it was realistic, OK...except for the ending sequence where a couple of FBI Agents and one Saudi officer, all lightly armed, drove into a well defended, terrorist stronghold and shot them all up. The ending was an attempt to show the difficulty of the current situation which I guess it achieved...but kind of an obvious point I thought. In any case, if you are after a couple of hours of suspense, action etc, you could do worse than this.
Next was "The Bourne Ultimatum". Talk about non-stop action. There was no wasted time at all in this film. It was exhausting to watch as every scene seemed to be constant action and running, following Bourne with a hand-held camera...while always flashing back to a room full of dudes watching stuff on TV...flashing to bad guys doing stuff...back to Bourne...etc . Mindy came in about 1/2 way through (she had said she was not really that interested in watching it) and was glued to the screen for the rest of the movie. The highlight of the film was the long sequence in Waterloo Station - for sustained suspense and intrigue, this really cannot be beaten. The three movies in this series are all amazing action films so if you have not seen them yet, make sure you fix this!
Finally I purchased the DVD for "Into The Wild". I normally don't do this, but I guess since we have the book and the CD already, it makes sense to round out the collection. I was interested to see how this movie was made. In short, it is the story of Chris McCandless who walked away from society to wander the country. His journey ended in Alaska where he lived off the land for a few months. Unfortunately he passed away in Alaska, either simply from starvation or from some kind of poison/fungus, depending who you ask (the details are unclear). Much of the book is concerned with his travels before he gets to Alaska and all that is known of his time in Alaska is a few journal entries that he kept. I was curious to see the movie and what I had expected was an account of his time in Alaska, filling in the blanks as a fictional movie can...where a factual book could not. However, the movie also stuck to the facts that are known and primarily dealt with his dealings with those he met before going to Alaska. I guess that I had not really thought about it too much but endless scenes of him lying around and hunting would not have made an entertaining movie, one of the reasons I am working at Colgate and not in Hollywood, I suppose!The highlight for me was the performance of Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz, an elderly man who befriended Chris. In real life, Ron Franz stated that he was incredibly religious and when he said goodbye to Chris, he prayed that God would look after him. After finding that he starved to death in Alaska, he proclaimed himself to being an atheist, stating that if God would not look out for Chris, then he wanted no part of it. Quite an amazing impact that he had. Overall the movie was quite good, although perhaps a little long. Sean Penn really enjoyed making this film and felt a connection with the characters involved. Worth a look but perhaps read the book first. It is hard to say but I think that a lot of the people involved would make more sense getting this background first.
Also, we finished the latest season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on DVD. This is one of the best things on TV and I hope Larry David makes another season. Certainly check this out if you have not done so...but also, give yourself a few episodes to get the feel of the show. It is certainly worth the effort (and at times watching him go through his life, it truly feels like an effort!).
Monday, March 17, 2008
Horton
One of my favourite Dr Seuss books as a young kid was "Horton Heard a Who". Both of our girls like it as well. So, when we saw there was a movie version being released, we were looking forward to going. Mindy had a prior commitment that she needed to attend but when the offer came for the girls to go with some friends, she insisted that I take them.
I really enjoyed the movie, as did the girls. I think they did a really good job of expanding the story to fill out the 90 minutes, while staying true to the style and details in the book. The narration was select passages from the book with some additional stuff, done in Dr Seuss rhyming style.
After this, we went back to Gary's for some socializing...the kids were happy to play and the adults could enjoy a few drinks and some conversation. Mindy arrived for dinner and afterwards everyone sat down to play some poker. Due to the presence of the wives, "play money" was initially the stakes. Once the women got either bored or busted out, we started a real money game. I continued my winning streak, finishing with a $4 profit. Kevin was once again the big winner, busting out Gary and Bob over the course of the game.
Sunday involved a sleep in (for me) and waking up early with the kids (for Mindy). The afternoon was spent at another friend's house for a birthday party. Upon returning home, the kids went to bed quite quickly and we settled to watch some TV. I selected the Force v Blues Super 14 game on my computer while Mindy chose some reality TV. This was another great performance by the Force who are really playing some good rugby of late. It was actually a good sporting weekend for me - the Eels won, despite starting their season 40 minutes too late and also, NSW appears poised to win the Pura Cup (not really a surprise now they have their test players back).
This week will be busy - getting stuff done early in the week, then off the Chicago on Wednesday night for a training class.
I really enjoyed the movie, as did the girls. I think they did a really good job of expanding the story to fill out the 90 minutes, while staying true to the style and details in the book. The narration was select passages from the book with some additional stuff, done in Dr Seuss rhyming style.
After this, we went back to Gary's for some socializing...the kids were happy to play and the adults could enjoy a few drinks and some conversation. Mindy arrived for dinner and afterwards everyone sat down to play some poker. Due to the presence of the wives, "play money" was initially the stakes. Once the women got either bored or busted out, we started a real money game. I continued my winning streak, finishing with a $4 profit. Kevin was once again the big winner, busting out Gary and Bob over the course of the game.
Sunday involved a sleep in (for me) and waking up early with the kids (for Mindy). The afternoon was spent at another friend's house for a birthday party. Upon returning home, the kids went to bed quite quickly and we settled to watch some TV. I selected the Force v Blues Super 14 game on my computer while Mindy chose some reality TV. This was another great performance by the Force who are really playing some good rugby of late. It was actually a good sporting weekend for me - the Eels won, despite starting their season 40 minutes too late and also, NSW appears poised to win the Pura Cup (not really a surprise now they have their test players back).
This week will be busy - getting stuff done early in the week, then off the Chicago on Wednesday night for a training class.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
More Poker Stuff
This weekend was highlighted by a trip to Atlantic City for a night of poker. Once again Gary and Kevin were my partners in crime for the all night event. Arriving at the relatively early time of 10:00, we decided to try our luck at the Tropicana this time. Within 10 seconds of us arriving, we were all ushered to different tables and began the grind.
I stopped playing at 3:30, and am pleased to announce a $21 profit for my 5.5 hours of "work"! Hey, it is better than a loss. Actually got a little unlucky in one big pot that would have seen about $300 come my way (I hit my flush at the end...but the flush card made my opponent a full house), but generally played a lot better than on my last trip. Gary was a few $$ down but Kevin was a big winner, having a few straights get paid off. Hopefully next time, with a little more luck, I will be in the "big winner" column also.
We got home around 8:00 and then I had to immediately leave for a car appointment, then came home and grabbed a few ours sleep. On Sunday, Mindy and Holly spend the afternoon out shopping while Gary and I "watched" the kids. This watching involved watching sports and poker on TV, drinking beer and then playing some poker...this parenting thing is pretty easy, actually!
I stopped playing at 3:30, and am pleased to announce a $21 profit for my 5.5 hours of "work"! Hey, it is better than a loss. Actually got a little unlucky in one big pot that would have seen about $300 come my way (I hit my flush at the end...but the flush card made my opponent a full house), but generally played a lot better than on my last trip. Gary was a few $$ down but Kevin was a big winner, having a few straights get paid off. Hopefully next time, with a little more luck, I will be in the "big winner" column also.
We got home around 8:00 and then I had to immediately leave for a car appointment, then came home and grabbed a few ours sleep. On Sunday, Mindy and Holly spend the afternoon out shopping while Gary and I "watched" the kids. This watching involved watching sports and poker on TV, drinking beer and then playing some poker...this parenting thing is pretty easy, actually!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Gilly's Farewell
It was a shame that Gilly went out on a losing side, doubly so due to him not scoring too many as well but in the context of his career, I am sure that the good memories will far outweigh the bad. It will be interesting to see where the side goes from here. Haddin clearly comes in for Gilly in both Tests and ODIs. I was wondering whatever happened to White in the ODI team? He did OK for us when last selected, then was dropped for no apparent reason. Perhaps now he will come in and give us a good lower order hitter and another option, along with Symonds and Clarke to getting through 10 overs.
On the plus side, at least now I can get some sleep...and the torture of Mindy can end for a while. I am sure she is not going to miss having to deal with me spending hours on the couch watching cricket...now I guess it will be hours on the couch watching something else! However, the real cricket season for us is only a few weeks away - practice starts in April - so she will not have to miss the game for too long. On this topic, we are looking like pulling together a good team for the Philly Festival this year so hopefully we can make another run at the title.
On the plus side, at least now I can get some sleep...and the torture of Mindy can end for a while. I am sure she is not going to miss having to deal with me spending hours on the couch watching cricket...now I guess it will be hours on the couch watching something else! However, the real cricket season for us is only a few weeks away - practice starts in April - so she will not have to miss the game for too long. On this topic, we are looking like pulling together a good team for the Philly Festival this year so hopefully we can make another run at the title.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Tag Team
This weekend, Mindy an I seemed to alternate child watching activities, not the original plan but it just worked out that way. Saturday morning was spent at the ice rink again, Naomi has started her next round of classes and is starting to learn some new skills. I told her next week to avoid the knucklehead kid in her class that does not take direction from the teachers and basically distracts everyone else. Hopefully he settles down for next week. After this we went to meet some friends at the same Cuban restaurant we visited a few weeks ago. Again, I enjoyed the food and the kids had fun.
In the afternoon I played at being a lumberjack and set about splitting up some firewood logs we had picked up. It was interesting to me that adding 20% to the diameter of a log adds about 200% to the difficulty of splitting it. I did have some success but I think I will need the services of a chainsaw to finish the job.
On Saturday night, Mindy went out with some friends to watch a belly dance show, I fell asleep with the kids trying to get a few hours sleep before the cricket began. Everything went to plan, except for the actual cricket! I stayed up all night to watch a very frustrating game where we were slowly milked to death by Tendulkar. Hopefully we can play a little better for the next match. Inbetween, I was also watching downloaded Super 14 rugby games on my laptop. Enjoyed watching the Aussie teams do well, even though (with the exception of the Brumbies) they did not play particularly well. Still, the value of getting away wins for the Waratahs and the Force is huge. I like the new rule variations as well - seems to make for a much faster game and the ball is in play for longer. Hopefully they soon become the norm.
After grabbing a few hours sleep, the morning was spent playing with the kids. In the afternoon, we had planned to go swimming at the YMCA, but perhaps due to my lack of sleep, I was not feeling the best. Mindy then went with the kids and I grabbed some more sleep. After this, I took Naomi to the park to ride her bike with some friends. This was pretty much enough for me for the weekend.
This morning, still not 100%, I think I am getting sick with something...but it could still be due to the lack of sleep as well. Time will tell.
In the afternoon I played at being a lumberjack and set about splitting up some firewood logs we had picked up. It was interesting to me that adding 20% to the diameter of a log adds about 200% to the difficulty of splitting it. I did have some success but I think I will need the services of a chainsaw to finish the job.
On Saturday night, Mindy went out with some friends to watch a belly dance show, I fell asleep with the kids trying to get a few hours sleep before the cricket began. Everything went to plan, except for the actual cricket! I stayed up all night to watch a very frustrating game where we were slowly milked to death by Tendulkar. Hopefully we can play a little better for the next match. Inbetween, I was also watching downloaded Super 14 rugby games on my laptop. Enjoyed watching the Aussie teams do well, even though (with the exception of the Brumbies) they did not play particularly well. Still, the value of getting away wins for the Waratahs and the Force is huge. I like the new rule variations as well - seems to make for a much faster game and the ball is in play for longer. Hopefully they soon become the norm.
After grabbing a few hours sleep, the morning was spent playing with the kids. In the afternoon, we had planned to go swimming at the YMCA, but perhaps due to my lack of sleep, I was not feeling the best. Mindy then went with the kids and I grabbed some more sleep. After this, I took Naomi to the park to ride her bike with some friends. This was pretty much enough for me for the weekend.
This morning, still not 100%, I think I am getting sick with something...but it could still be due to the lack of sleep as well. Time will tell.
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