Delaware Vacation Day 2 – Weathering the storm

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Joel

Ah, nothing like weathering a rainy day from inside your own house. We’re on day 2 of our “beach vacation”, watching the wind blow and the rain come down, safely and comfortably from inside our house. The storm was pretty bad last night, and knocked a free in the neighborhood. Most of the rain seems to have stopped for now, so I made a run to 7-Eleven this morning to get coffee for my wife. Thankfully, we had no leaks or flooding in our house, nor did we lose power. We are both thankful and relieved.

Today, no big plans to go outside. We’re staying inside, doing laundry, cleaning up the house, and packing for the trip. We expect to leave tomorrow morning, and the weather looks to be sunny and 80 degrees the rest of the week!

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Delaware Vacation Day 1 – Batting down the hatches

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Joel

Day 1 of our “Delaware beach” vacation is being spent getting ready for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, plus back-to-school shopping. We made sure we had supplies for the trip, and the storm. We went out around lunchtime, had lunch at Chick-fil-A, then completed much of our shopping. We picked up new clothes for the kids, for us, a mini trashcan for the cat litter, additional cat supplies, etc. We got back around 3:15pm, which left me about 90 mins to change and hit the gym one last time before we left. Hey, it’s always good to take an opportunity to squeeze in one more workout.

Tonight, we’re cooking tandoori chicken for dinner, and watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. The kids have been clamoring to watch it, so we’re renting it on Vudu tonight. And yea, it’s the 1970’s version starring Gene Wilder. None of that Johnny Depp crap.

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Our Delaware vacation has been slightly delayed due to Hurricane Irene

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Joel

Stupid Hurricane Irene.

We’ve been planning this Delaware beach vacation for a few months now. We originally intended to go on vacation in mid-August, but the condo we were looking to rent in Bethany Beach was no longer available. That worked out, since I had some stuff come up at work. We moved the vacation to the last week of August instead. Initially, this seemed to work out, as our original vacation week turned out to be a rather wet week, and who wants to be stuck indoors on a beach vacation? Not I.

Fast-forward to today, and we have Hurricane Irene blowing its way towards the East Coast, and the Delaware governor has issued a mandatory evacuation of non-residents from those shore communities. Rats. I hope we’ll eventually be able to get down there, and that there won’t be too much damage to the area. For now, it seems we’ll be vacationing at home for the next 1-2 days.

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My niece Abigail’s baptism

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Joel
Abby's baptism - Joseph family photo

Abby's baptism - Joseph family photo

Last Sunday morning, we up early for my niece Abigail’s baptism. I gave the kids baths/showers, we got them (and ourselves gussied up), and we were out the door a little before 9am. It was pouring rain, so we were hoping the weather would not cause too many delays on the southbound NJ Turnpike. You know how even a little bit of rain or snow or meteor shower will cause drivers to slow down to a crawl, even here in the Northeast. Luckily, I was able to maneuver around the slower-moving vehicles, and we arrived at my sisters’ church around 10am, and before the morning service was to start.

At the present, I don’t remember the name of the church or the town, but it was a very nice Methodist church. Lots of kids and good usage of multimedia, demonstrating this was a young and vibrant church. Josh was amazed during the sermon when, to illustrate a point in the message, the AV folks in the back queued up a clip from the 1971 Gene Wilder classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Personally, I wouldn’t say it was the most relevant movie clip to accompany the sermon, but it certainly keeps the congregation (and the children) interested and paying attention.

Eventually, we reached the portion of the service for the baptisms — Abby’s and another child from this church. I may have failed to mention this earlier, but Namita and I are officially Abby’s godparents, so this baptism was extra special for us. We stood up there, did the whole hands-on-the-baby thing, and I guess we’re officially vested in Abby’s welfare and upbringing. New and exciting!

Afterwards, it was time for family pictures, then driving to the lunch at the Italian Affair restaurant in Glassboro. I tried to stay close to my daily calorie goal, but it is tough when a plate of Chicken Parmigiana is staring you in the face.

We skipped the after lunch hanging-out at my sister’s, as my wife had to get to work. Got home around 4pm.

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The Hurricane (1999)

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Joel

Saturday night, I watched The Hurricane, a 1999 film starring Denzel Washington. This is the Hollywood version of events surrounding the incarceration of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a talented African-American boxer in the 1960’s who was wrongly imprisoned for a triple-homicide for about 20 years in Rahway State Prison. Directed by a fellow named Norman Jewison, the cast is decent, and I noted Liev Schreiber, Dan Hedaya, John Hannah (from The Mummy movies) and Harris Yulin among the actors in this film of note. Oh, and of course, Vincent Pastore of Sopranos fame.

I think much like many people, I first heard about the plight of “Hurricane” Carter from Bob Dylan’s protest song “Hurricane.” It’s natural to be curious, no? Turns out, there’s a bit of a controversy with the song, as no one truly knows the truth at this stage about really happened at the Lafayette Grill that night in Patterson, NJ. Patterson police have never solved this crime. Also, many facts cited in the song were not accurate.

This film is generally well-received by critics and people who have watched it (83% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes.) Jewison was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Directory. Denzel Washington was nominated for an Academy award, and won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor. Personally? I’ll give credit to Denzel for a fine acting job. However, I didn’t like this film very much. Why is that? Why do I fly in the face of overwhelming love for this film? I find fault for the misrepresented facts of Carter’s life and the case itself, as documented in both his criminal and military records, and police reports and court documentation. I’m a guy who likes his documentaries, and his character dramas. If you are going to make a film about historical events, I want to watch this visual representation of what happened. It’s like watching a documentary, but with better acting and a bigger budget. To watch a movie that has significantly revised events, it’s less about what happened, and more a fictional tale that pretends to be accurate.

I remember back in 2001 when my wife and I went to the theater to watch Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, the story of mathematician John Nash who suffered from schizophrenia. A well done movie, but criticized for historical inaccuracies. Once I read the whole story about John Nash, I liked Ron Howard’s film a lot less.

Apart from the historical whitewashing of actual events, I didn’t quite connect to this film. It wasn’t the acting per se, but there was a certain 1990’s “this film is a character battling adversity” vibe that was all too blatant for me to enjoy. It felt dated, and not subtle. Sorry, folks. Not my favorite movie.

The Hurricane (1999)

The Hurricane (1999)

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2011 NJ State Fair: Sussex County Farm & Horse Show

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Joel

Saturday afternoon, after we ran some necessary errands, we picked up some lunch for the road, and drove up to Augusta, NJ, to the 2011 New Jersey State Fair – Sussex County Farm and Horse Show. Namita and I went years ago when we were just a young couple, which was many years ago. Back then, it was mainly animals and exhibits, from what I can remember, and then we attended a Toby Keith concert on the fairgrounds. Like us, Toby Keith has also gone on to live a luxurious life of fame and fortune. This year, we went with kids in tow, and met up with our friends, the lovebirds, Doug & Kathy.

View from the ferris wheel - 2009 NJ Farm & Horse Show

View from the ferris wheel - 2009 NJ Farm & Horse Show

Now, I haven’t been to a fair in a while, not since July ’09 and the ill-fated 2009 Quick Chek NJ Festival of Ballooning. That festival/fair scarred me for life, I tell you. The heat, the rain, the costs, the threat of a tornado and everyone told to evacuate to their vehicles. Running through the mud. I can feel the PTSD coming back already. The weather for this year’s NJ State Fair was originally forecasted for rain, but the weather cleared up into a beautiful day…. for a while. We got to the fair around 3pm, bought admission tickets and the first set of 20+ ride tickets. The fair was lot bigger than I remembered. This year, there was a ferris wheel, mini roller coasters, bumper cars, and much more. When did all this happen?

We walked around, ate, did our thing, saw the sights, and alternated with taking the kids on rides. The weather was pretty good, until dark rain clouds began to appear on the horizon. By 6 or 7pm, it began to lightly drizzle, and yes, my PTSD came back, but it wasn’t so bad. The food was pretty good at the fair, and the rides weren’t expensive — between 3-5 tickets for admission. I initially attempted track my calories, but I eventually gave up. One day of fair food wasn’t going to kill me, and sometimes you just need chicken-on-a-stick.

We called it a day around 8pm as we ate a late dinner under a tent while the rain fell. We parted ways with Doug & Kathy, who I believe actually had a good time bonding with the kids. We drove home in the rain, and got home around a bit after 10pm. The kids were exhausted, but they had a great time.

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My uncle in India died this week

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Joel

This week, my dad’s brother in India died. He was my father’s oldest and last living brother. Now it’s just him and his two sisters left, who also live in India. One of my nieces (well, daughter of my 1st cousin, but niece is close enough) posted pictures from the funeral on Facebook this week. It was something else to see recent pictures of my relatives, who I haven’t seen since 2004, sitting with grief etched on their faces. Everyone is older. The “kids” have grown up, and their parents have more grey hair and worn faces. I haven’t seen my relatives in seven years. I do miss them, and I don’t know when we’ll be going to India again to visit.

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The Hurt Locker (2008)

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Joel

I watched The Hurt Locker, a 2008 film by Kathryn Bigelow not released in the US domestically until 2009. The film stars Jeremy Renner as a Sgt. 1st Class William James, a reckless man talented with defusing explosives. Sgt. James deploys to the U.S. Army’s Bravo Company in Iraq in 2004 after their unit’s team leader is killed in an IED explosion. James is blessed with natural skills so he’s very good at what he does. However, his reckless behavior and disregard for protocol unnerves his team, and causes serious conflict. The film counts down the last 30+ days of Bravo’s Company’s tour in Iraq, and the soldiers’ primary goal is to stay alive until they can get home.

This was a pretty good movie. Of course, the acting was good, and the direction was good. No doubt about it. What I liked most about it was that I couldn’t predict what would happen next. So many films that I’ve watched recently, I could predict the plot twists a mile away. Here, with the nature of the film being a bomb disposal unit during an intense war, you don’t know what is going to happen next. A war zone is inherently unpredictable.

The Hurt Locker (2008)

The Hurt Locker (2008)

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Our gardening efforts are bearing more grass than fruit

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Joel

Here’s the update on all the gardening efforts of the past month.

Short summary:

The grass is growing, but the flowers ain’t blooming yet.

Details:

Our lawn after one week

Our lawn after one week

I have good news. I may not be any good at raising aquarium fish, but I’m not so bad at gardening. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but we’re making strides through research and hard efforts. Our perennials and annuals planted this year, and the hanging flower baskets are still alive, which is the good news. The side flower bed hasn’t sprouted much except errant clovers. I’ve done more mulching to fill in areas where the weeds are sneaking through. It’s a never-ending battle against the weeds. Those Scott’s commercials are rather sadly accurate.

Now, for the big news on the front lawn. About a week since we readied, tilled, and planted grass seeds in the front lawn, grass sprouts began shooting up. I was initially ecstatic, but upon closer inspection, I noticed they were primarily growing where there were heavy concentrations of Miracle-Gro. Where the Miracle-Gro was light or non-existent, I had barren dirt. Still, it was progress. Not to get discouraged too early on, we waited and continued to water the grass/dirt daily. I figure that if the grass doesn’t sprout later in the barren spots, I’ll just do additional tilling and reseed those problem areas.

Fast-forward another few more days, and today the grass is looking healthier and fuller. It’s not perfect, but it’s looking more respectable. I still have problem areas, such as the barren spots, and the original grassy areas that are dead or are wilting. I suppose I should have ripped those up at the same time when I put down the new top soil and seeds, but live and learn. I plan to wait a few more weeks until the heat wave is over, then do the fixing up.

Our lawn after 1.5 weeks of growth, view 1

Our lawn after 1.5 weeks of growth, view 1

Our lawn after 1.5 weeks of growth, view 2

Our lawn after 1.5 weeks of growth, view 2
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Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Joel

This week, the kids and I finished watching Green Lantern: Emerald Knights off of our Netflix queue.

As the home planet of the Green Lantern Corps faces a battle with an ancient enemy, Hal Jordan prepares new recruit Arisia for the coming conflict by relating stories of the first Green Lantern and several of Hal’s comrades.

Good voice acting cast: Nathan Fillion, Jason Isaacs, Elisabeth Moss, Henry Rollins, Arnold Vosloo, Tony Amendola, Kelly Hu, and even Roddy Piper. The overall storyline about this giant baddie named Krona who seems invincible was just a backdrop for the producers and storytellers to tell a collection of stories about some of the famous members of the Green Lantern Corp. The specific vignettes are:

  1. The First Lantern (about Avra, the scribe.)
  2. Kilowog (as a new recruit in bootcamp.)
  3. Laira (on her first solo mission to confront her family’s atrocities.)
  4. Mogo Doesn’t Socialize (meh, but the baddie is voiced by Roddy Piper.)
  5. Abin Sur (not bad, and you get to see Abin Sur in action.)
  6. The big action of the finale as the entire Corp fights Krona.

It wasn’t one big story, just an anthology of smaller stories that, to be honest, weren’t the most interesting. I don’t know precisely why, but they just weren’t all that interesting. Green Lantern: Emerald Knights isn’t the best film in the DCAU, but it’s not the worst either. It’s okay, but I think the kids would like it. Josh liked it, but it’s PG, so there is some violence that happens on screen, so I tried to distract him until that part of the scene was over.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)

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