New Addition to the family...

So Letha and I have been talking about getting a puppy for a while...so without further ado...it's

KAYLEE!!!!!!

She's a black lab mix born June 23rd. She is being watched by her Grandmother (Letha's Mom...THANK YOU DAWN!!!!) until Letha can bring her home on Labor Day.

If you want to, and I hear she loves people, anyone is more than welcome to come visit her and her parents when she gets here. She told me she's sad that she can't be in town for Mom and Dad's wedding.

She's soooooo cute, isn't she?

And here's another pic...

Pretty cool for...

a fan film.

If you dig Superman and Batman?

It isn't true...

THE BELOW WAS POSTED LAST NIGHT...

I was just told that Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi died tonight at Mass General. I am hoping that this isn't true and that people are passing around bad information...but I don't think that all the different avenues this information traveled would ALL be wrong.

I can only guess that it had to do with his heart (he had surgery after the Pro Bowl in 05), he had suffered a slight stroke.

This brings to mind the question, why did he play again? Would he still be able to play with his little boys if he never had put on a helmet after that stroke? Or would it still have ended the same way?

If this is true...then my heart goes out to his family. If it is false then I hope he is okay. I will write more on this soon.

FROM TODAY:

Who's idea is it to start a rumor like this? Why would you do it unless you're an @$$hole? I should've known it wasn't true when I couldn't find it anywhere this morning or last night. If Marquis Hill dissapearing in a lake can be told to the world in the matter of hours than TB passing should have hit the news (or at least the web) instantly. My apologies for premature information.

I do have to say I am quite surprised that I was so upset about this when I thought it was true.

Love his art...

The MAIN reason I ever got into comic books was because my brother Mike was into them.

I would have to give my props to Mr. Jim Lee for me sticking to comic books for soooo long. My first issue ever purchased for the purpose of collecting was Uncanny X-Men issue 275 (amazing folding cover). Since then I have been hooked on almost ANYTHING that Lee as drawn.

Anyways I happened to come across his MySpace page today and got to look at a bunch of art he's done, feel free to check it out yourself:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=112200319

I found one pic that he did for a certain actor that I think is awesome...

The writing is smaller than I would like...but it says, "For Heath - Happy Birthday - Go Nuts!"

More than meets the eye...

TRANSFORMERS

So I saw the movie on Monday night. It was awesome and I only know 2 people who didn't like it (a film critic and my brother Mike). As far as everyone else they all agree with me (even my fiance and sister in-law), it has everything you want in a film and more. I can't believe I was in awe of this movie so much. From the first time one of them transforms, until the very end, I was enjoying every second. The CGI was mostly flawless (got to hand it ILM again), the action scenes were cool, and the story made just about as much sense as giant robots that transform.

I haven't been THIS happy with a movie since X2 (I know I'm a geek).

If you haven't seen it yet, get off your @$$ and go to see it today or tomorrow or even both days. I think I'm going to try and squeeze it in again sometime this week.

Justin and I would be happy...

According to this posting on the Boston Globe, Justin and I are most likely to be happy at the end of this upcoming NFL season.

I still worry about the Colts, and who wouldn't...especially when you see what happened in the 2nd half of the AFC Championship.

I hope the posting is right.

Back in the area!

So I was back in Indiana this past weekend for a wedding (congrats goes out to Chris and Mary Meek). It was a whirlwind vacation weekend...Friday party at Justin's for a couple of hours. Saturday met with our photographer (she's awesome and here's her website http://www.towerstudiophotography.com/), saw the Meek wedding, went to 2 partys (thanks Lee and Justin). Sunday played paintball, went to dinner, saw Kathleen, and whooped some butt in Scrabble (love you Letha and Mom, it's just I don't know if I have ever won before).

Now, back in MASS. I slept for 11 1/2 hours last night to try and get over a cold that snuck up on me Thursday. So today I am relaxing, doing some house work, and might go and see a movie, we shall see.

Talk about a movie I would like to see...

Now it is no secret that since I have seen THE GIRL NEXT DOOR that I think Elisa Cuthbert is a hottie, but doesn't she look good in the outfit?

Her acting chops aren't the best thing in the world, but then again there are plenty of "ACTORS" who get by on just their looks. As long as there is a good surrounding story, why not go ahead with this project. I'm pretty sure this was done up by someone in photoshop, but it's a darn good looking fake. She has my vote...

Movies and life!

Interesting films I've seen:

Paris Je'Taime - A movie made from 18 short films. Each one is done by a different director and actors. Some are funny, sad, and just plain weird. A few of them were made by directors from different parts of the world, this was apparent by the different narrative forms. Overall, a good experience.

Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End - Better than the second, but that's not saying a whole lot. Depp has some amazing scenes (where Jack has lost it) and besides that it's a CGI orgasm, that leaves you dissapointed.

Ocean's Thirteen - Like Pirates it's a lot better than the second one, and it gets close to the feel of the first one, yet doesn't pay off like the first. I did get some parts that got me excited like the first. Good LAST movie, if it is the last one?

Surf's Up - Cute family film, that is fun. It did seem like they just wanted a movie with penguins in it because of the success of HAPPY FEET and MARCH OF THE PENGUINS.

Besides that I have been working, eating right, and getting to the gym. Trying to lose 30 pounds before the wedding, we'll see how that goes. Tony Lenter is visiting right now. He is staying with my brother (his sister is MY sister in-law), and we're hoping to show him a good time when we can.

Found our new apartment, it's one street over from where Letha and I live right now. It's a cute place , just a little small, but it will allow us to save up money for all sorts of things.

I got some big news hat I can't share with everyone yet, hopefully soon I can talk about it. It's causing me a little anxiety currently.

Besides that all I can say, is that I can't wait to come home next weekend. It's always a good time, I love seeing my friends and family.

A great read, so far...

I bought a book for my brother a while ago...Let Me Tell You a Story : A Lifetime in the Game.
It's somewhat an autobiography of Red Auerbach (He's THE legendary coach of the NBA Boston Celtics). A friend of his John Feinstein wrote this book off of stories that Red use to tell when a bunch of guys use to go to lunch together, every week.

The book is fasicinating to me, but I've been a Boston Celtics fan for my whole life...heck as far back as I can remember I was rooting for the Celtics. I was born in 1980 and Larry was drafted that same year. Speaking of which...in the book someone asked him what he thought was a better thing, drafting Larry Bird while he was a junior (he played his Senior year, and therefore was drafted a whole year before he played in the NBA) or trading for Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish? He said the McHale/Parrish trade, he then gave the answer that NO ONE knew Bird was going to be THAT good.

The other story I started laughing out loud at was how the Celtics got Bill Russell (most likely, the best center EVER in the NBA) with the #2 pick in the draft. Red got the guy who owned the Celtics at the time to talk to talk to the owner of the #1 pick team. He got them to not choose Russell by giving them the Ice Capades for a one week engagement. Thiink of how that would effect the game today.

Just a little info for you basketball fans during the playoffs.

Interesting...

My brother's posting is so cool but so scary. Have fun reading...I know I did.

The Future?

Heroes and stuff...

Okay so Shane was right Heroes is a good show. Not a GOOD show a REALLY good show. I've made it thru 12 episodes in 2 days basically. This makes me wonder a couple of things...is a show good just because it gives you a cliff hanging ending? No, because I am losing my love for a show that use to be about endings, 24. I defended the show when he turned one of the characters into a crazy person this season and when it killed one of my favorite characters (that I was happy they brought back to the show, but he was on a pilot that got picked up on a different station).

It's just that I enjoyed 24 for the way it kept coming up with new scanarios for Jack Bauer. Between the last two seasons I got caught up on all of the past seasons, maybe why I liked it so much was because it was fresh to me. Knowing all of the seasons now, you can see a plain as day formula they use every year, it's getting old. This season might not be the end of 24, but it might be the end of Jason watching with anticipation every week.

That's what so good about Heroes...it's fresh.

Change of subject. I started freaking out about the wedding a little bit the other day. We are on the website THE KNOT (use it if you are planning a wedding), and it has a to-do list and is it long. Some of the stuff doesn't apply to what we are doing, so I got it off our list...but there is still lots to do. I called Letha and started expressing my worries, and she told me to relax.

"There is a reason why I've been planning since September."

She's the best. Right now we are trying to figure out where we are going to live come August 1st. Should be lots of fun apartment hunting together...yeah right.

I'm excited about coming home next month, still trying to cram to much into a weekend. We have the wedding to attend on Saturday, the reception, a party afterwards, and then paint ball the next morning. It's been a while since I got to shoot anyone. I'm looking forward to it, the thrill of freaking out while on the playing field. This time I have an advantage, I'll be on Mark's team. Mark takes his paintballing seriously. It's always a challenge to play against him. Looking forward to being on his team for the 2nd time.

So it might...

be a little late! My brother asked me to provide a link to the stupid people that caused multiple bomb scares in Boston around the end of January beginning of February.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombscare/

Here you go Mike!

Hey Y'All watch this...

It's your Man of Steel stopping by to tell you NOT to watch a fellow superhero movie. No, it's not because he's a Marvel character and I'm a DC one...it's cause it sucks.

I to know how it feels to be a part of crappy movies (look at my Superman 3 and 4). My only wish is they don't make another Spider-Man movie EVER! The box office grosses say that isn't going to happen. I must say that I'm happy with how my movie career is taking off (bad pun, but I had to do it) again. Bryan Singer didn't give us the best Superman movie yet, but he had to give everybody a movie that was and wasn't an origin story to get all the new fans who might not have seen the originals. I am SUPER excited about the next one...his track record only got better with the 2nd X-Men movie (such a shame Fox couldn't wait to do another one, they can wait over 10 years for another Die Hard, but they can't wait a couple of more years for him to do the X-Men movie that would've knocked everyones socks off.).

So back to the turd that sam Raimi laid out for the world to see. I can't put all the blame on Sam Raimi, but his directing was bad. The words were bad and BADLY delivered. I was chatting up the Green Lantern earlier and he insisted that Spider-Man 2 was the worst of the series. But then again GL thought that X3 wasn't THAT bad of a movie. He also mentioned that he wished he could have lowered my expectations for the film. First, I already had from what Lee and the Flash told me...but second, I shouldn't have to lower my expectations for a movie of this magnitude. This movie should have delivered on everything I wanted it to be...but it seems they dumbed this one down like X3. Now for some reason the masses love both of these movies but they just feel like crap. At least I didn't have to sit thru 2 and 1/2 hours of a bad X-Men movie.

Okay, so it's been a while...

Well I'm back in Quincy, after a long and fast weekend in Indy.

Friday, I got home from work around 12:30 a.m. and didn't fall asleep until 2 a.m. Letha woke up at 3 a.m. and got everything ready. Woke me up and then drove down to Providence, RI for our flight at 6:10. This is where U.S. Air started to piss us off. We get to the airport and they are the only ones with a line that looks like an amusement park ride in the middle of a summer day. Their automated check-ins were down, and they were in such a hurry to get everyone situated and to their flights they didn't check us in to our 2nd leg. We didn't think anything of it, and proceeded to catch our flight. So we land in Washington D.C. around the time we were suppose to and got to the U.S. Air counter and asked about our boarding passes. They instructed us to go down stairs and everything would be good. So we get downstairs and stand to the side, they then tell us they have 1 seat left. Letha and I looked at each other and couldn't believe what we were being told. Basically what happened is they over sold our flight, and since the jackasses in RI didn't check us into any seats in the morning we got bumped to stand by without being told. (Side note - if you purchase your seats online with CHEAP TICKETS, EXPEDIA, or any other cheap site, make sure you choose your seats as quickly as possible or this could happen to you to.) So our next option was to leave D.C. at 4:30 p.m. and get to Indy around 6:30 p.m. For our troubles we got bumped to 1st class, given 2 round trip tickets, and $20 in food money at the airport. I felt really bad for Lee and Justin (and found out Shane took a half day, just today) for taking the time off from work to see Spider-Man 3 with Letha and I. Needless to say that didn't happen, sorry again guys.

Saturday was a lot of fun. We (Letha and I) woke up at 5:45 a.m. and made our way downtown with Letha's Mom and Niece (Tia). We got in line for the half marathon known as the MINI and then proceeded to walk 13.1 miles. Yep, I stupidly thought I didn't have to prepare for it...boy was I wrong. I wish I had done a little of training for this thing. It hurt after mile 6, it was painful around mile 8, and I wanted to say forget it around mile 10, but I kept going. Letha's Mom was my inspiration. She is around the age of my mother and she has not 1 but 2 bad knees. So bad the doctor's told her to have them replaced 5 or more years ago. She looked like she was hurting also but she pushed thru it and we all finished together (finish time offically was 3:54). I had trouble walking all day long afterwards, and have a HUGE blister on my right foot. After that was when we started the partying. We had a cookout at Letha's Mom's house, who lives on 2 1/2 acres in Anderson. We played some football (which for some reason I thought was a good idea after beating up my body all morning), hung out at a bon fire, and drank. I stupidly drank alot. My problem was I couldn't feel what I had already had drank so I kept drinking more wondering why I wasn't drunk. Then all of a sudden I was DONE!!!!! Apparently I was funny, I hope so. Cause I put myself to bed at one point...

Then that leads us to Sunday. I woke up with the haziness of being hungover. Dazed and barely able to figure out where I was, I decided to make my way outside. OWWWWWWWWW, my legs were burning with the fire of a thousand suns (I guess dehydrating myself by walking the MINI, then running as hard as I could during football, and then more dehydrating of myself by drinking ALOT wasn't the best ideas I have ever had). I crawled out of the tent and found my way to the fence where all of the Irish Car Bombs I had comsumed the night before decided they didn't like being in my stomach. They violently forced themselves out the same way they went in. Usually, I feel better after throwing up...that didn't happen this time. So I stumbled my way back to the tent and fell back asleep. Waking up an hour later, feeling the same as I did when I last woke I decided to get back to the business of Paris Hilton and all of those other really skinny girls. This time I didn't make it entirely out of the tent. My head popped out of the tent as if emerging from some comedy to spy on someone. There I finished throing up the alcohol. Next up was the dry heaves. My body was freezing, which is why I left it in the tent, but my face was burning up (perhaps it was the sunburn from not wearing sunscreen on Saturday) so all of the people up that morning got to see just my head heaving every couple of minutes. At least I did it while smiling like an idiot.

It was a great weekend, and I have been doing nothing but relaxing today as my legs and lower back aren't too happy with what I did this weekend. I'll be back soon...maybe.

Peace.

Stuff...

First of all I would like to bring up my recent trip to New York. It was this past Sunday and Letha and I did everything we wanted to. We woke up and made it to the Museum of Natural History (the one that the current hit movie NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM is based in.

It was very cool. Knowing what it is now, I wish that we would've made the time to go before now. The place is huge and takes up a few NY city blocks. We were there for 4 hours and didn't get to see everything, I think next time I'm going to have to dedicate an entire day (keep in mind that might not be for YEARS). I have this problem going to the same place over and over again. that's why last May we went to Cedar Point instead of King's Island. I hadn' t been there since 2000. Sooooo, back to the museum. I had no idea what would be in it. Letha kept talking about seeing the dinosaurs (a THE LAST FIVE YEARS reference), so I figured they would be there. Then there were lots of things from the movie that I would expect to see. Needless to say the movie took some liberties (as they should when they can afford to) and things weren't were they were in the movie. No biggie. So we got to see dinosaur bones, replicas of almost every living thing on this planet, lots of artifacts from hundreds of thousands of years oof the Earth's history. My favorite would have to be all the dinosaur bones and other extinct animals. Seeing a turtle as big as a small VOLKSWAGON was quite unexpected. I mean the thing was huge. Also seeing the bones of a swimming thing that looked like the Loch Ness Monster was neat.

So after making our feet hurt from ALL the walking we did, we decided to go to dinner. CHEVY'S is Letha's favorite mexican restaurant in NYC. I will admit it is good food, but I can't find a single place like LOS RANCHEROS out here at all. Not that I'm seriously looking for a place with authentic mexican food for low low prices, but I haven't stumbled across one just yet.

Then we went and saw the movie ALPHA DOG (thanks Fallon, you rock). Which I guess most critics panned and it hasn't been doing so well at the box office. But I enjoyed it, my only problem with ALL movies lately is I feel like I'm watching this or that actress do this or that role. It has been over two years since I was completely fooled by Leonardo DeCaprio when he grew facial hair for his portrayal of Howard Hughes. I haven't seen a performance on screen since then that made me forget that I was watching an actor portray a certain part, and heck that was only HALF that movie. I was talking about ALPHA DOG...so good story, and knowing it's based on a true story made me more interested. I liked everyone's performance in it, and I liked the director's eye for the film...but I just like it.

But, yesterday I saw SMOKIN' ACES. This director must've made a lot of friends before making this film because it has a ton of people in it. Jeremy Pivon, I have watched this guy since he was in JUDGEMENT NIGHT with Emilio, and I have always liked him. But I tend to like him as a complete prick (Entourage) or as the little sidekick (Serendipity), he is not a MAIN character. There a lot of actors who've realized this and have gone on to make lots of money, hopefully he understands that soon. Another okay movie but nothing to get excited about. On the front of the movie was a trailer for OCEAN'S 13. The first one I love, the second one was a horrible attempt to get more money from people, so we'll see how this one comes out. Even though, I'll be watching Clooney and not Daniel Ocean.

I hope Hollywood keeps having to pull away from huge movies and goes independent a lot more often. This is where the stuff is good, those are the type of movie's that I lose myself in lately. TV is starting to become to predictible. For instance, I love 24, but it's always the same. Jack dealt with something huge in between the seasons, comes back for some reason, works with CTU (even though he's not an agent anymore), has to torture someone he doesn't want to, feels bad about it, then saves the day, and quits CTU again. And every now and then there is huge twist that throws the whole thing into turmoil. Do me a favor writers of my favorite TV show (right now), keep Jack on staff during the off season and stop letting people infiltrate CTU. I sware the place is easier to get into then most private buildings with their own sercurity. If you do that then he won't have to adjust to CTU when he comes back and maybe he could stop the terrorists a few hours earlier. Just kidding I know you have to have 24 episodes, but stop feeding us the same story line EVERY year. But gives us the next few seasons like you've already promised us.

I know I complain about my favorite show, but I also complain about movie and I still go and watch them all the time. Most of the time I sit back and enjoy while it's happening, it's only afterwards when I'm bored (and bad things happen when I get bored) that these rants come out.

Till next time...which might be next month if I keep up with the way things have been going.

Sometimes...

I wish I still lived in Indy.

First of all, my brother Dave and I were talking about this, it's weird being in the state of your team. Everyone rooting for the same thing. I guess I got use to the "Underdawg" mentality. I use to get (verbally) beat up by Colts fans all the time living in Indy. That doesn't happen here, tomorrow I'm going to work and will talk about my team. I'll be talking to someone else who cares for my team (besides my brother) for the first time ever.

Tomorrow is going to be a day that I will REALLY miss in the city of Indianapolis. Let me explain what I would do if I were still living there. First, I would get up and go to IUPUI (cause I most likely would still be in school). Then after my classes I would probably have to go to work. All of which I would do wearing (PROUDLY might I add) my Tom Brady jersey, if I could figure out some way to stay up in the booth for my whole shift. I would allow anyone that wanted to, to take their shots at me.

That's what real fans do...support their team when they're up...and carry their team when they're down.

But alas, if I wear my Patriots gear tomorrow here, I won't hear anyone giving me a hard time. It's really going to be quite different, I am finally around people that support my team, and I'm longing for the heckling that I would receive in another city....ummmm...

Don't want to hear it...

If ANY Colts fans try to blame the whole game on one call at the end of the 1st half, you're NUTZ!!!!

Patriots fan or not...if you watch the replay Wayne trips over his own feet, let me repeat that...HIS OWN FEET!

More to come later, after I watch one hell of a game.

You want some cheese with that...

The Chargers...it was their year. They looked right past the Patriots, they looked right pass the Colts, and they looked right past the Saints or the Bears. According to them, they had already won Super Bowl XLI.

Why even play the rest of the games.

All that they did was talk $h!t. Now, they want to be upset that MY New England Patriots danced all over their helmet, doing the stupid "I'm having a seizure while standing up" dance known as LIGHTS OUT!!!! Well, sorry Chargers, but not only did we just beat you, the team you didn't give a chance, but we beat the team NO ONE gave us a chance to beat.

This is why you do the playoffs. And why the top seeded team from each conference doesn't play the Super Bowl right after the season...oh wait, that wouldn't have been you anyways, it would have been Baltimore.

Not the classiest thing I've seen from the Patriots, but this team has been given NO credit, until now. We weren't SUPPOSE to beat the Jets and we COULDN'T beat the Chargers. As Sean Salsbury on ESPN said, "With #12 in your corner, watch out." The Patriots bit their tongue all week long, and got snubbed when it came to Pro Bowl selections. SORRY for playing with a chip on our shoulder. Down by 8 going into the 4 quarter, and then you come back to beat the #1 team in the AFC. They waited until the clock ran out and then celebrated like they should be able to do. I would have done it with a little more class, perhaps the LIGHTS OUT dance on the sidelines or even on the bench, not so sure about at mid field on their helmet, but it still would have been done. How could you not, for a team that believes personal achievements are more important than a game.

I'll poor you your wine Tomlinson, red or white!

Back in the saddle again....

Well I'm back in Quincy. It was a great trip back home to Indiana.

On Thanksgiving, my parents and brother Mike, joined Letha and I as we went to her cousin's house near Hamilton South Eastern and had a Thanksgiving feast with members of Letha's family. Overall, it was probably 20 people all together. This was the first time Letha's family and mine met. It went great overall.

Then I had my annual Shane M. White poker night. I was first out at the tables, this didn't make me happy. But I did get to play the New Nintendo Wii. This gaming system is awesome, it's all controlled by a wirless controller that's movement based. I think I enjoyed bowling the best, because it was most life like. Depending on when you release the ball, how your hand moves at the beginning or the end of your throw, it all affects the ball's movement.

Then we did our insane go to Best Buy and stand in a long line and freeze, actually it wasn't that cold this year. Then we hit Circuit City and McDonalds before going home. I fell asleep at 7am. I turned off the phone so not to be disturbed and then was woken up by electric hedge trimmers at 9 am, or so I thought. Cause I was still really tired it had to be only a couple of hours, so when I looked at my phone, it was 2:30 PM! How I had gotten seven hours of sleep and felt like it was only 2 hours is beyond me.

Then we had a good night at the tree lighting and hanging out afterwards.

Our last day was a quick one. We saw a movie, had lunch with Letha's Mom (thanks Mom), and then did some shopping, and then got to the airport to fly back.

It was a great trip and maybe if I'm lucky we can get a less hectic visit next time.

Since then it has been business as usual. Lots of work...playing a lot of Halo 2 online.

Till next time...