Movie Reviews

Over Her Dead Body
It sucked. Quite dull. Not much more can be said about it.

August Rush
Four Stars! Excellent! See it!

(I'll bet you thought this was going to be a long one, didn't you?) *G*

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It Takes A Mother

It takes a Mother's Love
to make a house a home,
A place to be remembered,
no matter where we roam.

It takes a Mother's Patience,
to bring a child up right,
And her Courage and her Cheerfulness
to make a dark day bright.

It takes a Mother's Thoughtfulness
to mend the heart's deep "hurts,"
And her Skill and her Endurance
to mend little socks and shirts.

It takes a Mother's Kindness
to forgive us when we err,
To sympathize in trouble
and bow her head in prayer.

It takes a Mother's Wisdom
to recognize our needs
And to give us reassurance
by her loving words and deeds.

It takes a Mother's Endless Faith,
her Confidence and Trust
To guide us through the pitfalls
of selfishness and lust.

And that is why in all this world
there could not be another
Who could fulfill God's purpose
as completely as a MOTHER!

Helen Steiner Rice

Happy Mother's Day!

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More Of Nothing

I got more nothing in the mail lately - from Capital One. It was another form letter, again not acknowledging my ID Theft or their own evidence. I have updated my "Your Wallet" page, if you care to look in on it and see how fine a company they are to deal with - and to not deal with.

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Carrie Underwood - in Concert!

Last night, Shelley and I went to see Carrie Underwood and Josh Turner in concert at our Civic Center. Josh started off the night with his performance, which was exactly what you would expect. He did an excellent job! He sounds as deep and rich as his recordings are. We were discouraged from taking pictures, but there were so many pocket cameras and camera phones that they couldn't do anything about it. We took Shelley's Canon A630, and I managed to get a few decent pics. Unfortunately, we were at the back of the coliseum and couldn't get very close shots.

Here is one of Josh on stage. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Carrie came out next, and I can only thing of words like "awesome", "fantastic", "incredible", etc. That young lady was the Energizer bunny! For nearly 2 hours, she belted out an amazing collection of her songs, and even one of her favorites by Randy Travis.

Five minutes before her show, they put up a timer to count down the seconds. Here it is at the "2-minute warning":

The crowd went nuts when it hit "0:00", and she appeared from below stage. She rode a platform up from below. The timer was shown on a giant "dot-matrix" video screen, where they showed live video of her performance and other videos for effect. There were laser light displays, smoke, confetti, and various other well-orchestrated props and videos. None of it took away from Carrie's performance, or steered your attention away from it. It simply augmented it in an excellent choreography of sights and sounds. Here are a few pictures I got of her performance:





Every few songs, the spotlight dimmed on her and some background music played. A minute or so later, she reappeared in the spotlight with a completely different outfit on. It was extremely well done! She expended so much energy throughout her performance that her voice was showing fatigue on the last one or two songs. She's an amazing young lady, for sure!

I would not have imagined such a professional family show to appear here. It was "awesome", "fantastic", "incredible"!

If you ever get the chance to see her in concert - do it!

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Movin' Out

No, I'm not movin' out. Shelley and I saw the Broadway musical "Movin' Out" with one of her brothers and his wife last night. His wife got us tickets for the show (she works in radio), and we just couldn't turn it down.

The show was amazing! Many of the songs they did sounded just like Billy Joel. All were extremely well done. The choreography was what you would expect from a show of this caliber.

Movin' Out is a story of high school love - and separation, of war, of rejection, of self-destructiveness, of reunions and reconstruction of lives. Songs included "Still Rock and Roll to Me", "Movin' Out", "She's Got a Way", "For the Longest Time", "We Didn't Start the Fire", "Innocent Man", "Shameless", "Captain Jack", and many others. It was great!

Next week - Carrie Underwood and Josh Turner. YYYYES!!!

Spring Is Here!

We might have another frost, but we just had one the other day. Might be our last. No biggie - the temps are higher, and it feels great today! In the mid 80's as I type, with a little breeze. Might be 50% cloud cover, but pleasant clouds.

Spring means work - fixing up the yard and house after winter. In celebration of Spring's arrival, I already completed a couple jobs this weekend. A badly needed wax seal got replaced on our toilet, and I put a new fart fan (pardon the expression, but it's the trade name for it) in the bathroom just about an hour ago. Since then, I've been tending to the garden and back yard, giving them a badly needed drink. Later on, I'll have to mow the yard - or maybe just use the blower/mulcher and get rid of those pesky elm seeds. There are so many of them out there that it looks like it snowed.

We've got to start cleaning out the garage this weekend, too, so we can start filling it up again. Next weekend, I plan on replacing the front porch lights with motion sensing lights - one in the alcove, and one on the outside wall above the steps.

Sounds like a lot, but not really. It's all in the interest of making our home more pleasant and secure.

Have a great Spring, everybody!

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The Cross

We took a little jaunt with Shelley's brother yesterday. We went to The Cross at Groom, TX. They say it's the largest cross in the western hemisphere. Of course we had our cameras with us. Every time we go there, I manage to see different views in the various stations around the cross, as well as the area around it. Maybe the light changes, maybe I just see things a little differently each time.

The expression on His face caught my eye this time.

The sun's sparkle at the juncture of the arms was captivating.

This one was a powerful statement that did not go unnoticed.

What can be said here? A visitor was reflecting.

This view had escaped me before.

This is one of my favorite "short jaunts" and I always look forward to visiting it. The wind was pretty brisk, but we managed to carry enough ballast with our cameras to keep us from blowing across the panhandle. We did not do the gift shop this time. That might be a good thing. ;)

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Planting Time

In recent days, I cut the sod off a 12' x 12' section of out yard (by hand) and tilled it up. Yesterday we bought some seed to begin planting and growing some fresh vegetables. We got some squash, carrots, and lettuce. Oh yeah, we got some rhubarb, too. I haven't had any good rhubarb since I was a kid. I hope we'll have lots of it next year (2009). I wish we could this year, but they have to mature for at least a year before you can start harvesting. The rhubarb I've had in my past life out East was always in a pie, and always tainted with strawberries. I like strawberries too, but not with rhubarb. Rhubarb pies and crisps are best with only rhubarb. As a matter of fact, let me pick a ripe, red stalk, and I'll eat it on the spot! Yummy! I think I might have some competition with it, though. Shelley likes 'em, too! We'll have to be sure we have enough for pies and crisps. I can hardly wait!

Nature's Candy

Anyhow, I planted one row of rhubarb (6 plants), two rows of lettuce (seed tape), and two rows of carrots (seed tape). I planted the shorter plants in the front and worked my way back, except the rhubarb. I put them in the back so that if we didn't plant anything in one year, we wouldn't have rhubarb stalks to mow around in the middle of the yard. I still have room for the squash and hopefully some tomatoes - the small, cherry-type tomatoes. They have several varieties, and I'm not sure which ones we'll get.

It's gonna be a good year! I can hardly wait for them to mature.

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Honesty Is Alive And Well

Yep, my supposition has always been that most people are honest. That belief was reaffirmed today. We had an old swivel/rocker/recliner with a "floating" footstool (it rocked like the rocker) we were trying to get rid of, so we put it out on the curb with a sign on it - "$25.00" it read. We had to step out for a few minutes, and while we were gone, someone got it. We laughed and weren't concerned that it was probably stolen. It wasn't a bid deal. We just wanted it gone. As we got up to the door, there was an envelope on it, with something written on it. "This is for the chair." and signed by "Anthony" with a phone number. Inside the envelope was $25.00 - cash! Now, I ask you, what could be more cool than that? I called the number he left, and left a message thanking him for his honesty. That was really cool! All I could think about was the honesty this young [sounding] man exhibited. Awesome!

What's In Your Wallet?

In my opinion, Capital One is a very unethical company. Here is what they are trying to do to me:

My Story

Yes, it can happen to anybody. The old rule of thumb applies: "Caveat emptor" - let the buyer (customer) beware.