To Cosmo who turns 4 today.  Well actually like 9 or 10, but 4 years since came into our lives.  I can’t believe it’s been that long.  She is our pride and joy with her unique personality.  I remember the day we got her.  We were late in getting to the Wisconsin Humane Society.  Ren had saw her picture on the web site the day before and knew she was the one.  We got there and some tard family was looking at her in front of us.  Thankfully they had cats and hadn’t brought the cats paperwork in.  Which gave us the inside track to getting Cosmo.  What a change in the quiet, shy girl we met that day to the queen of the house attitude today.  But we still love her.

So I made an appt on Friday the 8th for Saturday the 16th at 8am.  So I get there 8am sharp and the guy tells me I’m not in their computer and they only  have 1 tech on duty today, the manager is on vacation, so they can’t help me.  huh?  Needless to say, I blew up told him what I thought of the situation and left.  So Monday I called the general manager of the dealership and let him have it and asked him how he was going to rectify this situation.  Well at 2pm Monday, my car is now fixed, correctly.  Turns out it was the strut mounts.  So it buys me some time to search for a better car rather then trading mine in immediately.

Tomorrow I will be taking my Vue back to the dealer for the 3rd time for the same problem.  There’s something knocking in the front wheel well going slowly over rough roads/bumps.  So far they’ve tightened the exhaust manifold (I could have told them that wasn’t the problem), and the 2nd time they replaced the front sway bar linkage.  So obviously I am going to have to go for a test drive with these bozos and point out exactly the noise that is the problem.  So there goes my Saturday morning tomorrow.  If this attempt doesn’t fix it, I am giving up on American cars and going back to reliable foreign makes.

For those of you that saw what was arguably one of the best performances ever by Heath Ledger as the Joker, you know what this title means.  That had to be one of my all time favorite scenes of any movie.  And no, this is not some crap attempt to martyrize the recently deceased (<cough> Kurt Cobain<cough>), but rather a truly outstanding piece of acting by Heath as the Joker in the recent Batman movie.  What made the Joker one of the all time great villains in the comics was his sadistic, no morals, unpredictable, complete lunatic personality.  And Heath nailed this.  On the flip side though, I did feel the story overall dragged a bit in places.  The 2 1/2 hours felt like 4 at some points.  But for any lover of the Batman nostalgia, the movie is a must see.

We went and saw the remake of this classic Jules Verne saga in the movies this week.  OK, Brendan Fraser is not exactly in my top 100 favorite actors, but he did do a respectable job in this movie.  While the movie is nowhere near the 1950’s original version in terms of classic-ness, the remake does use technology, including 3-D in select theatres, to weave a respectable story line.  It’s a fun journey that is appropriate for all ages, but admittedly is a bit far-fetched at times.  Not in respect to being chased by dinosaurs, which is expected in a movie like this, but rather in the fact that no one gets seriously hurt with all the crashes, falls, and drops.  C’mon… how about a broken leg or something.  I give it a B- minus rating.  It was better then I was expecting, and the acting by the 3 major characters (2 of whom are newcomers) is pretty good.   But it doesn’t rate with the original, and there’s the little problem of a lack of any scratches or bruises.

Or is that “wee wee” or “oui oui”?

In any event, we bought a Wii this weekend.  Finding these things is like trying to find a winning lottery ticket.  Everyone advertises them, but everyone is sold out.  We bought it mainly for the Wii Fit, which is harder to find then the console itself.  But on a tip, we found the Wii Fit at Toys R Us and the console at EB Games.

So I got it all hooked up today and we spent most of the day playing with the games.  So what makes this outfit so unique?  Well it gets your lazy ass off the couch as you have to interact with the game thru a wireless controller.  That’s right, for baseball you actually swing, throw, etc.  For bowling, you are throwing a ball.  And for Wii Fit, you are on a balance board as trainers take you thru a bunch of fun games employing balance, yoga, strength training, and aerobics.  It takes the video game experience to the next level beyond just sitting on a couch with a controller.

We saw Iron Man last weekend.  It was ok, but not as good as The Hulk.  Maybe because I’m not a big fan of Iron Man.  Robert Downey Jr. did a great job (I didn’t know he was out of rehab), and the story line was ok.  But I felt like it lacked something.  And it was a bit disappointing that the “Iron Man” song from Black Sabbath didn’t make an appearance until the very end.  What’s up with that??  Oh well, hopefully they will move on to the anticipated “Avengers” movie now instead of making an Iron Man part 2.

I’ve started growing a pet grasshead.  No, not that kind of grass.  This kind is legal.  We picked it up at a craft fair a few months ago.  It comes as a stocking like material filled with grass seed and decorated as different animals.  In our case, a dog.  Anyway, you soak it then put it in a glass of water, and a few days later you have a grasshead.  He really needs a haircut, but I haven’t decided how to style it yet.

Went to see the new Hulk movie this past weekend.  All I can say is “WOW”.  Awesome movie.  Possibly the best superhero movie to date.  For any fan of the original TV series, this is a must see.  From the homage to Bill Bixby in the beginning, to the music we all came to love, to Banner being on the run (like he should be), this movie rocked.  Forget that green piece of Hulk crap that came out 5 years ago.  This movie makes that one look like the green piece of Hulk crap that it was.  There’s even a cameo by Lou, for what that’s worth.  Sorry, my opinion of him has been tainted since my experience of meeting him 5 years ago at a Sci-Fi convention.  And just when you thought the movie couldn’t get any better, the ending is a bit of a surprise and way cool in it’s own right.  Though non-comic book fans probably won’t get it.

Geddy Lee, lead singer and bass player extraordinaire from the rock group Rush has recently graciously donated some 200 signed baseballs of former Negro League baseball stars from his personal collection to the Negro Leagues Museum.  Lee is widely known as an avid baseball fan.  The Negro Leagues were popular back in the early part of the 20th century as a way to give african americans a chance to play ball before the color barrier was broken in the Major Leagues.  They produced some great talent including Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays.  The latter two would go on to claim their spot in Major League Baseball history.  The significance of the Geddy Lee donation to the museum is such that most of these players have died, and the opportunities to get such memorabilia nowadays is extremely slim.  Kudos to Geddy for this great donation for all to enjoy.  Read the stories in the Kansas City site, as well as the Major League Baseball site.

Happy Summer Solstice everyone.  Enjoy the long days and the upcoming bounty from the harvests.

So in case anyone has been wondering why I haven’t posted in a while.  Well, I’ve been spending almost every moment of my free time for the past week or so researching our 5 year anniversary vacation next year.  It came down to a cruise to the southern carribbean, or a trip to europe.  After much debating and cost analysis, we came to a consensus to do both… well sort of.  We’re taking a cruise, but to Europe instead of the Carribbean.  I did say “to Europe”, not “of Europe”.  So yes, we are going to sail across the “pond” to the old world.  4 days at sea, then a flurry of port of calls in the Azores, Portugal, Spain, Corsica, Italy, France.

But wait, we’re not done yet.  After that initial 2 weeks, the plan is for another 2 weeks tramping thru the European countryside as we work our way back north (currently on the docket is Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands).  But that part is still in planning.  Return airfare would be with a stopover in Iceland.  Gotta break up that 8-9 hour flight home.

So today I booked our cruise, and taking a breather before I start planning phase 2 of after we get off the cruise.  We’re looking at it as, let’s do it now before we have a mortgage again.

So we’ve all heard for about a year now how anybody using an antenna (or that has basic cable (non-digital)) will need a digital converter box if they plan to watch TV after next Feb. 17. This is due to the FCC forcing all stations to digital and out of the analog spectrum for broadcasting. Well, here’s the catch… your VCR isn’t going to work either. Well, it will, but with one big catch. The convenience of having the VCR programmed with the channel to record will be gone. This is due to the VCR having a non-digital tuner. So you will have to go thru the digital converter box before going to your VCR. So you will have to manually set the channel to record on the converter box ahead of time. Otherwise all you will get is fuzz and snow.

But hey, I guess if you’re still using a VCR to record nowadays… well, it’s time to upgrade to at least a DVD recorder anyway. Just make sure you buy one with a digital tuner.

All over the place.  What I don’t understand is why do they put those barrels or cones down one lane to block it off for miles before you even get to where they’re working.  And in some cases, they’re not even working.  And you know you’re going to get behind that one truck that is determined to do 15 mph under the construction zone speed limit for the entire length of the blocked off lane.

So after battling 8 months with AT&T to come out and fix their box at the end of our driveway, they finally did it yesterday.  Some drunk driver destroyed the box back in November and they came out back then and wrapped the wires in plastic.  And it’s been sitting like that ever since.  Then the storm last week (70 mph winds) snapped the wooden stake holding the circuit board in the ground.  So I called and complained 5 more times over the weekend, and complained it was now a safety hazard.  Sure enough, they showed up bright and early Tuesday morning and spent 9 hours repairing it.  Idiots.

And so, that is where Alexander “Sandy” Courage is now.  Passed away at age 88 (CNN article) he was the composer of the out of this world theme to the Star Trek TV show.

They seem to be dropping like flies, but Bo Diddley died today at age 79 due to heart failure.  Bo was pioneer of rock and roll with his signature guitar rhythm that influenced everyone from Buddy Holly to the Yardbirds to U2.

According to the Rush fan site 2112.net, John Rutsey, founding member of Rush and their original drummer, died May 11 due to heart attack from complications with diabetes.  Not very well known, he only played on the first album back in 1974, and then left to pursue other interests.  Ironically, it was his leaving that I believe opened the door to the band’s later greatness as Neil Peart took over the drumming seat and lyric writing and the band never looked back.

I see Jose Canseco is at it again.  This time it’s boxing.  For the uninformed, Canseco was a key member of the Oakland A’s championship teams of the late 80’s early 90’s.  After his big years with Oakland, he journeyed around to other teams and finally racked up over 400 home runs.  Then in 2005 he releases a book, appropriately called “Juiced” admitting to his use of steroids and calling out current ball players saying how he witnessed them using steroids and getting them in trouble.  Early this year, the books sequel came out, pretty much doing the same thing.  So that’s just the start.  Then a few weeks ago while I was on vacation I hear on the radio how he is losing his house because according to him people have to understand that just because someone makes 41 million, the gov’t takes like 40% of that and he has a family to support.  HUH??  Do we even need a calculator for this one people?  Puh-lease.

So today in the newspaper there’s an article about him now getting into boxing.  His opponent is  Vai Sikahema.  Former football player from the late 80’s.  Wonder where they dug him up from.  Anyway, the purse is for $5000.  $5000??  Dude… if you can’t make it on 25 million (math from above), then what the hell are you planning to piss away 5 grand on?  Are you that desperate??  Go back to writing books.

So a few months ago I had to go get fingerprinted for a background check at work.  So I go to my local police office figuring they probably know what they’re doing.  Found out yesterday that apparently they are idiots as the fingerprints weren’t readable and now I have to get them redone.  So now our local police department can’t even take fingerprints correctly?  I guess this is good news to anyone they arrest.  But I don’t know which is worse, the fact that the police can’t take fingerprints, or that it took the FBI 3 months to determine they can’t read them.