Black Swan

My wife and I were able to slip out and see a movie tonight thanks to my oldest son, who was nice enough to watch his brothers. (Thanks Sean, watching your brothers is #429 on my list of reasons you rock. ) At any rate, we saw ‘Black Swan’ starring Natalie Portman. I like Natalie Portman a great deal, I like the arts, and I like thrillers. I thought this was a terrible movie. Neither my wife nor I liked it. It was supposed to be a dark psychological thriller. I didn’t find it scary, in fact I found myself laughing at the what was supposed to be scary. I like all kinds of movies, mainstream, art, sci-fi, drama, mystery, comedy, old, new and consider myself to be a bit of a moviephile. I rarely get bored with movies, even bad ones that I’ve seen more than once, but this was tough to pay attention to. I was bored, not scared, didn’t care about the characters, and guessed what the resolution was going to be after 10 minutes. It was bad. I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes when I got home and was STUNNED to find it’s getting 88% positive. I don’t get it.

The Most Interesting Man in the World

This is my favorite ad campaign. The best line, 'He speaks French, in Russian.'

The HTML Gnome

I brought in a garden gnome for my friend and co-worker a month ago. He had no furniture and he hates mushrooms with a passion. The gnome is sitting on a big mushroom. The gnome took on a life of his own. We have been working for months on a re-build/relaunch of our main web site. He quickly became known as the HTML-gnome. We put the gnome in the office of our marketing director, who is leading the redevelopment project and it got a lot of strange looks and comments. It spent a month, prominently displayed on or near her desk. Gnomes have also made brief appearances in the new web site as 'Easter egg' jokes.







We launch on Monday. Today is the last full big push before we turn the key on the new site. We the gnome and an owl on our desks with notes, and donuts holes. The HTML gnome turned in a vacation slip requesting 40 hours off because he had been working so hard. The owl, is 'Mo' the marketing team mascot, and he's here to keep an eye on the gnome.

Buttitta's

I took my wife and Grandmother out to dinner at Buttitta's tonight. I have wanted to try it since it opened several months ago. I was very impressed with the food and service. The prices were reasonable and the atmosphere was pleasant. I would highly recommened it to anyone. My wife and I may have found our new favorite resturaunt.

I had the Chicken Galena, my wife had Barramundi and my grandmother had raviolli. Everything was fantastic!

Check out the full menu here: http://buttittascu.com/index.html

Disney World

After much planning and saving my wife and I were able to take our three wonderful kids on a trip to Disney World. Here are a few photos.

Oil Spill Deja Vu

Farewell Lost

I was a latecomer to LOST, but it was one of the best TV shows ever. The series finale was amazing. Just for fun here are three alternate endings to the show:

Boatload of children

After a rather intense day and week of work I returned home to start what I hope will be a relaxing three day weekend. I was suprised and amused to find a crowd of children racing back and forth across my front lawn. Four older neighborhood boys were playing basketball in my driveway. My kids were racing around with some younger kids. My great grandmother in law was watching from the front step, she had just dropped off the younger boys from Tae Kwon Do. My neighbor who runs a day care was also watching, and had a couple of very young kids running back and forth from her yard to mind.


I don't mind one bit at all, but the level of activity was both unexpected and amusing. I did not expect a boatload of children when I rounded my corner but there they were.



When I opened the garage door to park my van, a throng of them ran in and then back out carrying an assortment of toy lightsabers, and balls. It was really something to see.

Great Family Day

I spent most of the day with my family.

My younger two kids had Tae Kwon Do belt tests. My youngest earned his first belt, a yellow belt, and my middle son earned his third belt, a green belt. My oldest was there for one of the tests to support an encourage his younger brother.

This was followed by a play date for my middle son, which went extremely well. Everyone played well, no fights, and they kept themselves very well occupied.

Next it was off to my folks. My dad was teaching my wonderful wife about woodworking. She has a lot of intrest in the topic and a lot of interest in tinkering with light home repairs. My father is a home repair and woodworking guru. We had a light dinner with my parents (which was great), relaxed and headed home.

The kids went to bed I was surprised to see my middle son appear in the door of the home office. My wife was working and I was keeping her company working on a hobby of mine. At any rate, my middle son gave us a hand written note which read:

Dear Parents,
Thank you for a home and food and shelter and cloze and freinds and helping me on my blet test. Love [middle sons name]

This was followed by a copy of his schedule for tomorrow, which included 'fun with parents among other things. At the bottom was a picture of my wife, him and me.

How cool is that.

One man a cappella tribute to John Williams

Correspondence with a friend

Here are two recent emails from ongoing daily correspondence between a friend and I. There are the actual emails word for word. I'll let you wonder which is mine.

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To this simpleton's palate there reside yet few foods that can register true epicurean delight. Loftiest among them is the meatball. How grand a vision you delivered to me of steaming pots bristling with a battalion of these pan-fried crumbling concoctions slithering amongst one another within a hot tomato bath. Neither the armed will of spartan soldiers nor the entreaties of greek philosophers could compel this aging revolutionary away from a kitchen so enlivened as yours must have been on that day. My dearest Abigail, observing me in this state, has deemed me lost to Lucifer's will, the insidious devil having, with the greatest alacrity, traded away from the dangling of tobacco and spirits in favor of that singular vice from which this Achilles suffers - the meatball.

Your humble servant.

- - - - - -

Dear Sir, — The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I send you a Meatball, to evoke the exclamation of `mon Dieu! jusque à quand'! would make me immortal. I can never send half a meatball in addressing you when only a whole not the part would suffice. Indeed I think that every culinary pallet gives a great handle to sauced meatball that, without a revelation, there would be tomoato sauce on their cravat. Please give my best to dearest Abigail.

Going Batty at Work

While I was leaving the office after work yesterday I notice a small brown blob on the wall, about 5 or 6 feet over my head. I couldn't quite make it out but my friend and co-worker Bruce recognized it as a bat! He's been there all night, we're speculating he died in the cold. Here are some photos.

Click on each image for a larger view.

Those were the droids you were looking for.