Jan
28
Juno and Pasta
Filed Under Movies | 4 Comments
My wife and I enjoyed some adult time last night. First, we went to see Juno last night. Excellent flick, can’t recommend it enough. Great performances from some unlikely sources. The only criticism I have is that they tried to make the soundtrack too-cool.
I also picked up a new euphemism for penis: Pork-Sword
And they say you can’t learn anything from reading this blog.
Then, we were off to Olive Garden, because we don’t get enough faux-italian tasteless plates of food at home. But, the service was ok - we were waited on by little Miss Personality, so that was good. Her bustle hustled, and that’s all you can ask for.
Dec
7
Florida Memorabilia
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Florida memorabilia and collectibles are hot right now.
Nov
12
Danger in the mist
Filed Under Interesting, Movies, Weather | Leave a Comment
I saw a trailer for a new movie coming out that spooked me and took me back to something scary from 20 years ago: The Mist by Stephen King.
The plot is classic Stephen King - something unknown and unseen is scaring the bejeebers out of the townfolks. In this case, it’s creatures hidden in a mist after a terrible storm.
Twenty years ago, my father owned a boat and we’d go fishing off the Homosassa River. Boaters in Florida know that you can see a thunderstorm coming from miles away, and you need to head in to shelter because those suckers can move fast. In this case, it was winter and there was no storm. We were fishing on an overcast day.
An overcast day on the water just looks gray. At some point, we found ourselves enveloped in a foggy mist without realizing it even happened. We were only 10 miles or so from the mouth of the river, but we could see no landmarks, not even the sun. We turned on the Loran and pointed the bow towards a waypoint, but we could literally not see 6 feet away from the boat, In addition, we couldn’t hear anything because of the motor.
Unlike the movie where creatures attack people, we had to look out for inorganic monsters - other boats. We knew there were other boats on the water, and the only way to get back tot he river was a narrow channel cut through very shallow water. We were reasonably confident in the Loran to keep us out of the shoals, but we knew that channel could very well be filled with people like ourselves.
What’s the solution of father’s everywhere in this situation?
Send the oldest out on the bow to watch and listen for danger.
Thanks Dad.
It was a terrifying 2 hour crawl to make it those 10 miles. But, obviously, we did it. Remind me to tell you about the time my brother and I got caught 30 miles out in a thunderstorm with an engine that wouldn’t go above 1200 RPMs.
Oct
28
No one under the age of 30 should be allowed to vote
Filed Under Florida Government, Jacksonville, Movies | Leave a Comment
From the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, where Recount, a movie about the 2000 election, is being filmed:
OVERHEARD
Don’t know much about recent history
Two 20-somethings chatting in a San Marco bakery earlier this week.
First guy: They’re filming some stuff for that HBO movie Recount today.
Second guy: Yeah, I saw the crew working on signs. Why are they setting up so much stuff to make it look like everything is happening in Palm Beach?
Sep
24
Football - Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Denver Broncos
Filed Under Football, Jacksonville, Sports | Leave a Comment
Oh, it was quite a big football weekend here in North Florida!
We’ll get to the Gators shortly; for now, I wanted to point to an article about the Broncos by Woody Paige at The Denver Post. He ain’t pullin’ any punches folks:
They were lucky the first two Sundays. They were lucky on the third Sunday they didn’t lose by the 1,000-0 score I predicted.
It was rather difficult for the Broncos to kick a winning field goal on the final play when they were behind by nine points. And on their behinds.
The previous week there was a half-hour postponement because of lightning. The Broncos needed an invasion of locusts Sunday.
…
Afterward the Broncos offered more excuses than the boy without his homework. The dog must have eaten their playbook. The Broncos said they have to look at the films. Wes Craven wouldn’t release those horror movies.
The final implosion occurred when the Broncos had fourth-and-5 at their 9-yard line with 4:19 left. They were within a touchdown. Jay Cutler threw down the middle to tight end Daniel Graham, who was more wide open than Wyoming.
Graham clutched the ball, then dropped it. "It’s a play I should make," he said. The 76,463 who got up to leave would agree.
Looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes.
- Elton John…
Which brings up the special teams, whose play would bring up lunch.
Domenik Hixon, as mentioned here the week before, should not be returning punts or kickoffs or pop bottles. It will be mentioned here again. He fumbled the second-half kickoff. Jacksonville recovered at the 18 and kicked a field goal for a 20-7 lead.
The Jaguars had a 42-yard kickoff return in the second quarter - without a fumble.
Jacksonville attacked Denver where it hurt - up the middle against defensive linemen and linebackers who were playing as if they had motor oil on their hands..
How important was that 12 minute drive in the first half? If the Broncos have one minute, two minutes moe in the fourth quarter, do they go for that idiotic 4th and 5 or do they punt? I don’t know about you, but I saw some momentum swinging their way after the Jags had a series of disasters in the red zone. And if the Broncos had converted that 4th down and marched downfield for the score, winning 21-20, it’s Del Rio on the hot seat for that 3rd down spike at the one - talk about completely losing track of where you are in the game!
I said it before and I’ll say it again: Winning solves sports marketing problems. The Jags will sell a few more tickets thanks to this game, for which they should thank the Broncos.
Sep
7
Movie review - The Bourne Ultimatum
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Stacey and I saw The Bourne Ultimatum last week. I love movies like this, and read books like this, so it’s a slam-dunk that I’m going to like it even when they cast some dude as pretty as Matt Damon to play someone as tough as Jason Bourne.
While they didn’t close the door on future sequels, they did bring some closure to the story in the form of learning how Bourne got this way and who was responsible. There was also a reference to what seemed like a past relationship between Bourne and Nicki, Julia Stiles’ character.
Mmmmmm… Julia Stiles… she wore scarves and overcoats through most of her time in the film and STILL looked way sexier than Franka Potente did half-nekkid in The Bourne Identity…. mmmmm
Some people might not like the brutal violence and extended car chases, but my enjoyment of a movie like this is in direct proportion to the amount of brutal violence and car chases I get. I mean, you go in knowing that’s what you’re going to get, right? This isn’t a romantic comedy, and no one is doing any deep introspection because they have cancer, right? This is action/adventure and suspense, and you get both in spades.
Good stuff, two sun-dog paws up.
Apr
22
So, you’re ready for a vacation in Florida…
Filed Under Florida Vacation, Interesting, Orlando, Theme Parks | 1 Comment
Where do you start?
Of course, you want to pick a destination, or even multiple destinations. The whole world knows about the Disney attractions, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens… I could go on and on. Florida is the place to be. Orlando has all the big theme parks, so you, the missus, and the 2.5 tax deductions will have plenty to see and do there.
Next, you’re going to want to find a hotel. So, you toodle on over to HotelReservations.com, the sponsor of this post, and start checking into resorts. You sort by best value, but you’ve never been to Orlando and you have no idea where these places are in relation to the theme parks. Orlando is a big freaking city, the definition of urban sprawl in my opinion, and it would be really easy to wind up in a hotel that advertises “just a few miles from Disney” but neglects to say it’s a few miles up Interstate 4 and will take you an hour to get there in the morning and back in the evening because of the traffic.
Not to worry; this website has a feature that allows you view hotels near landmarks. You select “Disney’s Magic Kingdom”, and up comes a slew of resorts right on Disney property. And, you can make your reservation right from this website. There’s a whole bunch of resorts at a whole bunch of price points, but you’re on a budget so you slide down the page to Disney’s All-Star Movies resort - $99!
Or, maybe a hotel or resort atmosphere isn’t for you and your brood. Not big enough, you need a little elbow room, room to stretch. No problem, just go back and select “Vacation Rentals” and a whole new list of condos and Bed & Breakfasts are there for you to book.
But, are these good deals compared to other sites? HotelReservations.com offers a Special Internet Price Guarantee, so you can put them to the test. If you decide to check other places, you can book the room to make sure you get it, check a few other places, then go back to this website and they will match the lowest rate or cancel the reservation without a cancellation fee. So, there really is no risk.
Check ‘em out.
technorati tags: florida, hotel, vacation, orlando, disney
