Category Archives: Movie

January 2, 2011 · 4:14 am

Of the tube and goals

Managed to wake up earlier today – 9:30 or so. But spent most of the day vegetating in front of the TV. Started with a portion of The Alamo – the 2004 version with Billy Bob Thornton and Jason Patrick and some others. I prefer the John Wayne version.

Football followed – a disastrous day for the Big Ten. A great win for Texas Christian. SEC domination. Penn State started well against Florida but faded. I still wonder if it is not time for Jon Pa to retire; I have been wondering that for a few years.

The evening brought the Winter Classic hockey game – and the Penguins lost. That means both teams I care about lost. Connecticut appears a bit overmatched against Oklahoma – knew that going in.

Played Scrabble once again. Eric won two. I did pick up one. But Eric has won more than his share – or at least some of my share – over this vacation.

Another day of overeating with pizza ordered in and cookies sought out. My plan is to adjust my eating starting on Monday. We have folks coming in to watch the Steelers tomorrow – well later today.

Goals for new year – starting Monday
Daily – eating well
Daily – 10,000 steps
Weekly – 5 times of exercise
Monthly – 10 pounds weight loss
Monthly – 333,333 steps
Monthly – 90% normal blood sugar readings
Annual – 120 pounds weight loss
Annual – 4,000,000 steps

The daily steps don’t add up to the monthly or yearly steps – I will have to figure that out.

Not sure what the rewards will be – have to figure those out.

See you along the Trail.

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January 1, 2011 · 2:16 am

The Duke and the Dude

Slept in – again. I am truly liking that.

Eric and I went to see True Grit.

Hailee Steinfeld was outstanding. Jeff Bridges is a better actor than John Wayne. Matt Damon was quite good. It seemed like some of the supporting players were almost trying to channel those who appeared in the original – particularly in terms of their voices and speaking patterns. There was some amazing scenery. A good way to spend part of an afternoon.

Shopping followed. Eric and I went to Aldi to pick up supplies for Sunday’s football game: Steelers v. Browns. The VanRoosDales and Francis and family will be coming over.

Then to dinner at Battiste & Dupree Cajun Grill. Quite good. We consumed a lot of shrimp between the three of us. I can’t find a Web page to give them a shout out, but they are on Warrensville Center in South Euclid – 1992 Warrensville Center Rd.

Eric then headed to Solon to bring in 2011 with the cousins. Tricia and I are watching football. I am reading Fanny Kemble’s Civil Wars. Pretty good.

Tomorrow brings lots of football – and games that I actually care about as opposed to games for the sake of watching football.

All in all, a good day. No wild critters spotted in the back yard, but a good day.

See you along the Trail.

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December 31, 2010 · 5:21 am

A failed, unimportant, quest


Slept in again. That is getting to be a habit. I am getting to like that habit. Of course I stay awake until two or three in the morning. This will all have to change.

Upon rising, I did some email follow-up related to EAPPI, Red Hands, and transferring my membership to the Presbytery of New York.

The animals of the day were deer. Three doe showed up in our back yard (although Tricia was awake early enough to see turkeys again. The doe stayed there a long time, settling in for what appeared to be a nice rest.

Watched a variety of football – no one game in its entirety but saw bits and pieces of Army beating SMU, North Carolina beating Tennessee, and Syracuse beating Kansas State. Now watching Washington and Nebraska. They had played once before this season. Tonight is a different story, at least so far.

Went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It seemed good enough but those who know the book did not like it. I can see their point – the movie not only changed things, it watered things down quite a bit. Not sure if we will go see other movies made from the Chronicles of Narnia.

After the movie went to dinner at Tommy’s – always a treat.

Scrabble again closed the evening with Tricia winning one and Eric winning one and me losing both.

The day also saw a failed quest. Of course it was a completely unimportant, inconsequential quest. I have had a yen for the last several weeks for Wedding Cake cookies by Archway. True, they are not great cookies – crunch shortbread, some nuts, a ton of powdered sugar. But I have always liked them – and I have not been able to find them this year – at least not in Louisville. I went to three different grocery stores in Cleveland Heights and South Euclid and came away empty. Oh well. Some day. Some where. I will find them again.

See you along the trail.

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December 29, 2010 · 4:36 am

Games played; games watched

Today was a games day – once everyone woke up.

We played Scrabble – Sean designed an Excel spreadsheet score card. Pretty cool.

Eric continued to win – I may have picked up one.

Sean left for CLE to return to Madison. I haven’t checked his schedule but I assume he is there by now. Eric went to Solon to hang with his cousins. They enjoy doing that.

This led to me watching football. NC State beat WVU – thought the Mountaineers might do better. The Vikings upset the Eagles – did not see that one coming. Iowa and Missouri are now playing – Iowa has the lead which is a surprise – but good for those who once lived in Diagonal.

Slipped some work in between Sean leaving and football beginning. During commercials and long half-time shows, I watched a fair hunk of the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Tomorrow – another day to sleep in – another day to do some work.

See you along the Trail.

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December 27, 2010 · 12:31 am

Lazy day

Slept in today. I knew I would after last night’s marathon Scrabble playing with the family. Two games. Four players. Eric won one. I won one. But they were both close (my win was even closer) and they were tautly played – keeping us awake until about 2:00 a.m. It’s a Wonderful Life was on in the background as we played.

I had promised some folks that I would see them after church, but I simply knew there was no way I would get up. And I did not. I will try to call tomorrow and see about making it up to them.

I had a fairly significant (and nice) gift to return – because I had already purchased the item. Our conversation over the Scrabble board focused on what we should do with the return. The decision was made to purchase an HDTV for downstairs in Cleveland. Conspicuous consumption in anticipation of football watching. We would cobble together the return plus a couple of gift cards to come up with the needed funds.

Eric made it up for church at Noble Road. I got up about 11:15 or so. Sean was already up and we decided to visit Best Buy and get a TV, hoping to accomplish the task before the Browns game. Traffic proved surprisingly light and the crowd at the store quite manageable. The desired TV was sold out, but we found an alternative. It was purchased – some work needs to be done to activate one of the gift cards – the return trip was uneventful. Sean and I got the TV put up and attached to the cable in time for the second or third play of the Browns game. I rooted for the Browns as their winning would have been in the Steelers’ best interest. Their losing, which is what happened, was not.

Sean headed off for a party with friends; Tricia took a nap. Eric and I watched the Packers crush the Giants and the Cavaliers lose a tough one. Bummer.

The TV should get quite a workout this week with all the football. Then, probably not so much until Sean, Eric, or I return.

See you along the Trail.

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December 23, 2010 · 4:53 pm

Preparations

Along with the usual preparations to celebrate Christmas, today brings preparations for viewing theatrical movies.

A Harry Potter marathon will come to a close with HP 6 up for viewing shortly. At the moment, the original True Grit is on. I remember seeing it on a Boy Scout trip to Philmont – think it was on a military base. We drove from Grove City on a bus and stayed at a couple bases on the way. Interesting trip.

This afternoon – Harry Potter 7.1 or 7A or 6.5 or whatever the right numbering is.

Tonight – the Steelers at the Winking Lizard– several steps up in terms of food from Buffalo Wild Wings.

See you along the Trail.

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December 22, 2010 · 4:44 am

Toward the end of an era

It has been almost two months since my last post. Numerous trips between the Shire East and the Shire West have occurred.

I have been at the Shire since December 8. There were meetings – a wonderful celebration (including a fair imitation of lembas) led by my colleagues in the Peacemaking Program (Tricia and I made the run to Costco to buy many of the other supplies) – a great dinner at Havana Rumba with good friends – a football game won and a football game lost.

Mostly there has been transition – pretty relentless transition – working to prepare the Shire to go on the market. Home repair is no where near the top of my list of either things I enjoy or things I do well – even when my primary role (well, pretty much my only role) is writing checks or making runs to Home Depot.

It is made more than a tad bittersweet because this marks the end of an era.

Tonight’s movie – 3 Godfathers – John Wayne does Christmas.

Tomorrow – Cleveland.

See you along the Trail.

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September 8, 2010 · 4:25 am

The big news


Finally saw a rattlesnake – of course it was behind glass and in the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, but it was a rattlesnake.

Started the day on the treadmill with The Last of the Mohicans. Good stuff. I saw the last of the movie. Daniel Day-Lewis was amazing as always. I once walked a short distance with Russell Means during a demonstration in Cleveland. He’s a big guy.

First stop for the day was the Downtown Aquarium. Since we planned to go to the Colorado Rockies baseball game, we parked near the stadium and walked to the aquarium. Had lunch, checked out the critters. Noticed a distinct lack of octopi. Hmmm.

Great night for baseball – a well played game. Lots of fun. $1 hot dog. Baseball should show up on my to-do list more often.

All of that was great, but the big news is that the step count for the day was 21,294. That’s right. Over 20,000. That is the second time that happened. Once last summer at Ghost Ranch, the count exceeded the 20k level. So I don’t know if this is a record or not. But it is the highest in over a year. And it is pretty darn good. I also managed to eat well.

Tomorrow marks the end of the vacation and the return to the Shire. Ah well. Until the next one.

See you along the Trail.

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August 16, 2010 · 3:59 am

The Shire is empty


Tricia and Eric headed for home today. It’s just me and assorted insects here at the Shire.

I had the great honor and wonderful joy of baptizing Ethan Alejandro Chan Craft, son of my friends Amanda Craft and Omar Chan. It was truly a blessing. He cried pretty much constantly – he’s 13 months. Of course, he was exhausted – he fell asleep very quickly when Amanda took him and walked with him. He had also bitten his lip when I first met him. He was standing by a church pew with his dad and I went to talk to them. He fell down and the rest is history.

Painting continued at the Shire upon my return. The kitchen is painted. It remains to be put back together but that will be tomorrow night’s task.

I ate out for breakfast (with Tricia and Eric – Panera’s – they put the calorie count on the wall – very helpful) and for lunch (Moe’s – they put the calorie count online and actually allow you to figure out the calories as you make your meal your way – helpful but one needs to know it in advance) as the kitchen is pretty disrupted.

Even with the eating out, my eating came in at the goal. I went to the gym and did 40 minutes on the treadmill. 10, 477 steps.

Movies – Three Kings and Tombstone. Neither are classics. Each has issues. But they are entertaining.

A good day.

See you along the trail.

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August 14, 2010 · 6:37 am

Shire renovations continue

With Eric’s help work began on the kitchen. We painted the stain on the ceiling. We also prepped the walls and painted the walls under the cabinet. Moving the refrigerator led to the discovery of some pretty disgusting dirt. But that is no longer there. Tomorrow we will try to finish.

The three goals were achieved with 30 minutes at the gym (got there a bit late) and 10 minutes walking outside. Steps totaled 10,259.

Star Trek was the movie after the painting. Good stuff.

See you along the Trail.

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