Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

I, unfortunately, was disappointed with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. I had high hopes for this film and have been looking forward to seeing it for the last five years, ever since hearing rumors that a news script was in the works. Unfortunately it has the feel of an old Bert Reynolds movie where a group of friends just wanted to get together, drink some beer, and make some money.

This older Indiana seemed to be pattered the Young Indiana Jones TV show, which I never liked. They just seemed to be two different characters.

Im not sure if it was because of the need for secrecy or budget issues but most of the scenes had the feel of being roped off from the real world or on a production stage. They didn't make me believe that they were someplace real, and they never made the danger seem real. This would have made a good "The Mummy Returns" type move staring Brendon Frazer.

If you are any kind of Indie fan at all I would recommend seeing it in the theater. I don't think I would bother renting or buying the DVD. I do hope they taka another shot at making a good Indie movie. Maybe they could bring in Sylvester Stallone as a a consultant

My current thought

Im sitting out on the deck, waiting to leave for my xml class, looking up at all the seeds in the tree hanging over me and the house that are eventually going to fall on my deck and in my gutters. This makes me think "I really hate trees"

100,000 Jackpot!

Girl at work hit the 100,000 jackpot while playing the slots at Lumiar casino in downtown St Louis. (it was the penny slots, but that still one-thousand dollars.) Get this, she was only there because she was giving two free nights at the hotel. Apparently she had gone once when the place opened, spent about ten dollars, and never gone back(she did fill out a form for their free membership). The hotel called out of the blue to offer her the free nights.

Life just isn't fair!

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Day at the Botanical Gardens

Yesterday Yvonne, Steve and I went to Chinese Culture Days at The Missouri Botanical Gardens. What a nice day it was. PHOTOS!



These type of events arn't really the type of things I enjoy but the weather was perfect and the gardens really are pretty. I think I mainly enjoyed taking pictures with my new camera which seems to have more features than I know what to do with.



Besides the Chinese events the gardens were hosting sculptuers by Niki de Saint Phalle. Everything was big, bright and shinny.

finally we stopped a small antic store where Steve developed delusions of grandeur.

Chinese Culture at the Botanical Garden's

Nice Day

Friday I took the pups for two walks and went for a bike ride on Grants Trail. Hopefully today will be more of the same.

Link

How to be a Man

Is it me?

Anyone else think this is strange? I went down to our cafeteria today wanting to get some soup at our self service soup bar. There was someone that stood at the soup bare for about 3-5 minutes filtering out, ladle by ladle, what bits and pieces from the soup they wanted. Does this seem odd to anyone else?

Internet Down

At my favorite blogging spot, the St Louis Bread Co. in Des Peres, the internet connection went down. Their line is backing up now because they cant accept credit cards, and everyone with a laptop is getting up and leaving. I, though, happen to have a handy dandy AT&T 3G card!

Happy Mothers Day!

Speed Racer

Steve and saw I the10:30am showing of Speed Racer at the Wehrenberg Chesterfield Galaxy 14 Cine this morning at on the Mega Screen for $6.00. I forgot how much more enjoyable watching movies on that screen is.

After having heard from three different people that the movie had gotten bad reviews i went in not expecting vary much. Wow, was I that wrong! Fun, fun, fun at the theater. I wouldn't say this was award winning material but they did an outstanding job of turning a Japaneses cartoon, convented to and English cartoon into real life movie.

The movie started off fast, then they seemed to think it was necessary to spend time setting up the rest of the move with a lot of dialog. After that, Just hold on for the ride!

By the way, I think Racer X is also Batman. He might even be a better batman than the current one Warner Brothers is trying to sell us.

Finally, I think i love Trixy

Simulus Rebate Payment

I checked my bank account this morning an my Stimulus Rebate Payment form the IRS had been deposited im my checking account on Wednesday (Yah!). So I guess my next action is to send in a $600 payment to Discover Card (Boo!).

Now, for a depressing exercise. What could I have done with this check if I would have gotten it without using it to pay off my credit card.

1. Bought a Boat: A small aluminum canoe or * that I could leave down at my parents pond in Steelville, MO would have been really nice.
2. It would have supplemented a nice vacation in Las Vegas. Someplace I still have not been.
3. A new garage door
   
4. Chairs for the TV area in my basement.
5. Steam cleaner & Second vacuum Cleaner
6. New BBQ grill, My old one is about shot.
7. A target rifle or pistil might be fun

After reading me list, I've concluded that i need a better imagination :-)

Thought for the Day

"It's only in the movies where the pretty girl ends up with the uggo"
-Bob Kelso

Cinco de Mayo

Saturday night Nancy and I celebrated Cinco de Mayo with dinner and margaritas at the Casa Gallardo in Des Peres. Afterwards we watched the first episode of the HBO series John Adams and then four (yes thats right four) one hour episodes of Hotel Babylon! I'm not sure how I was able to drive her home and come back with out falling asleep at the wheel. I didn’t roll out of bed until ten the next morning.

Iron Man

Saturday morning Wendy, Steve and I went to see Iron Man at the Wehrenberg Chesterfield Galaxy 14 Cine in Chesterfield, Mo. We went to a 10:30 am show which pleasantly only cost $4 on weekends if pick a movie time before Noon and sat in auditorium 4. One other advantage besides the price was fewer people in the theater. One disadvantage, a lot of younger children come to these early shows.

Back to the movie. Though I have a history of collecting comics, mostly late seventies - early eighties, I never paid much attention to Iron Man and his universe, so I can’t tell you if the movie is true to the comic book character. I will say this, the movie was a lot of fun to watch, had incredible action scenes and is vary humorous. I would definitely recommend it to a comic book fan and I think others will enjoy it also. Fortunately Robert Downey Jr., who admittedly as an actor I’ve never been vary impressed with, not only did an outstanding job as Tony Stark, but has also indicated he would love to do more Iron Man movies.

I definitely look forward to seeing the sequel!

A new month!

I was able to beat my budget last month by $1.08. Wow, that was cutting it close. I'm not sure where all the money went. My biggest expenses were, in order: Mortgage, Utilities and Pet Supplies and maintenance. The coming months are going to be tighter in that I'm starting to put away $100 a month for an emergency cash fund which i sorely need.

I get an extra paycheck this month, because there are five Fridays this month and I get paid every other. I'm also getting the full $600 government stimulus check. Unfortunately they are both going towards paying off replacing my exhaust manifold and other maintenance work done on my car a couple of months ago.

I broke my camera last year on at trip to DC with my cousin when I got salt water on it while taking video of the ocean waves on a side trip to Fenwick Island in Maryland.

My parents are now getting me a new camera, the Canon PowerShot SD750 for my birthday (i think they like seeing my photos and know at family events ill just click away with a digital camera) so in the future there will be more color to this blog.

My foot seems to be getting better. one more week of not doing anything stupid on it should do the trick.