Friiiiiiday

So the misses and I have started making Friday night, movie night. I picked the Simpsons (power went out 20 mins into the movie, stupid lightning, so I never saw the rest), she picked Stardust, and this week I picked Superbad.
I'll give you my thoughts, then Sarah's. I thought it was funny, but not nearly as funny as I thought it was going to be. Some laughs, but no huge laugh out loud moments. I'd give it a 7. As far as its place in the high school movie rankings, American Pie was funnier and Can't Hardly Wait was better. My friends know of my love for high school comedies, but I think I'm over it now. Watching the movie didn't make me feel nostalgic for high school (when I peaked in life I think), it just made me feel old haha. Anyway, overall, it was good, but not great...

my thoughts:
My favorite part was the end, because it was in a mall, and it was finally over. I think I lost a day and a half of my life- and the movie was only really about a 24 hour time span. This movie doesn't even compare to Can't Hardly Wait. I think there were 4 funny moments, and that might be generous.
So as you can see, Sarah really didn't like it. But she went in with an open mind, and thats all I can really ask for.

Just Another Day

Not much to write about today. Tons to write about about work, but since its not smart to talk about work on a blog, I won't.
But I do have a question for everyone out there. Why is it, that i get about 25 hits a day, but hardly anyone ever comments? Are my postings not that interesting? Do I not leave my thoughts open to postings? Just curious. There's a few of you out there who post often, and I really appreciate that, but beyond those 3 of so people, that's it. So I guess my question is, what can I do to make the blog more interesting? Reader feedback time.
Moving right along, no big plans for the weekend. Lots of yard work and the Blue Hill Fair ahead of us, but that's about it. Sounds like a great weekend all around.
So I've started watching Big Brother on CBS. Does anyone else out there watch it? I've never watched any of the other seasons, but because of the lack of good shows on this summer, I've been watching it. I'd give it a 6.5 to a 7, entertaining, but more than a season or two of it could get really really repetitive. The only other reality show I watch consistantly is the Amazing Race. I'd love to go on that show, anyone wanna try out with me? riiiiiiiiiiiight..
Another fun thing about Maine... Powerball. Just one more thing for me to blow my money on.

Let the ridiculing begin!

So not much really going on in our Bangor life. Busy at work, looking forward to a long weekend of relaxing, yard work and the Blue Hill Fair..
Last night, the misses and I took a ride to the Bangor Humane Society. TONS of animals, so if you're looking for a cat or dog (for those of you in Maine who read this) that's the place to go. Being the bleeding hearts that we are, we of course wanted to adopt another animal. You have to have no soul not to be effected by those shelters. Tons of animals just looking for a home, c'mon...never mind the look the misses gets on her face, pure sadness and compassion. Thankfully, them closing at 6 didn't allow us enough time to go thru with it, so we went home and enjoyed a normal night at home.
However, we went back at lunch today, and I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our household... Zoey
Take away the crazy eyes (stupid camera) and you get a very nice cat. She's really affectionate, when she's not hiding under the couch, however, any and all noises above a pin dropping sends her running. (for all you crazy Northrups out there, she's very similar in color to Elfie) So far the other two cats don't seem to have a problem with a new friend, which is good. (the main reason we got her was because one of our cats used to go outside, but we don't let her out in Maine, too many other cats in the neighborhood etc, so she's been depressed and bored lately. hopefully having someone to run around with all day will help)
So there you go, let the jokes begin. I'm now a crazy cat person, along with my wife. Although if we ever got divorced, she'd be stuck with the cats, and instantly would become a crazy cat lady, which is like a dating death sentence, so I've got that going for me which is pretty sweet.
The added bonus is, that for all you people that really have no interest in coming to visit, but kinda feel like you should, this gives you an excuse not too. Everyone seems to be allergic to cats these days, so having 3 cats (but a cat free guest room) is a good excuse :)
Off to the Power of Ten, followed by Mythbusters.
Let the jokes begin...

Wanderings

• Did you know that there are very strict rules for doing laundry? I'm 30 years old and have NEVER separated the darks from the lights and have never had anything run. But the wife likes to separate, so I've recently started doing so as we've finally reached the point in our relationship where we are now combining our laundry. So I separate the colors from the whites, but apparently yellow and khaki are whites sometimes, depending on how dark the dark colors are. This is too much for my little brain to handle. Everything goes in together and there are no more rules, simple as that!
• Rob, you'll be happy to know that I purchased a thatch rake yesterday. This weekend is the big yard clean up/weeding so that I can plant new grass in a couple of weeks. There will however, be no aeration.
• A Bangor cab company has recently started using Mercedes for cabs. One would have thought that, being Maine, they would have started using crew cab pickups instead.
• Inappropriate for work, but wicked funny. No Kids please, lots of bad language!
• So I'm listening to espnradio at work today, and at 4pm the local radio show takes over. Most of the people calling were like caricatures of sports talk radio callers. So I'm thinking, that with a listening audience of maybe 50,000, I should totally become one of those regular caller guys that everyone loathes, but I need a cool handle. Jay from Bangor just isn't going to cut it..
• Speaking of sports talk radio, they were talking about their all-time favorite sports video games, so I figure I'll chime in with my top five...

1. Techmo Super Bowl - the best sports game ever, I will not argue this.
2. NHL 94-95 - hockey made perfect. good fights, the occasional blood on the ice, perfect.
3. Baseball Stars - the first game where you could climb the wall and really dive for balls.
4. Madden - they just keep getting better and better
5. RBI baseball - for nostalgia sake, how could I not put it on the list.

Anything you want to add?

Random Thoughts

• Scrubs is on Comedy Central right now. What a great show, too bad its the last season coming up.
• Watched Midway and The Dirty Dozen this weekend. Both great movies. Its amazing how many big name actors are in them. And did you know that a very young, very thin Officer Poncherello is a fighter pilot in Midway??? You just don't find movies with that many stars in them anymore, with the exception of the Ocean's movies of course.
• Have a new favorite show, Holmes on Homes on the Discovery Home channel. Its this guy who goes in and fixes things in your house (major issues) that the contractor you hired royally effed up. Its an entertaining show because he's a real ball buster and I'm pretty sure its filmed in Canada, so he talks funny, euh. Hearing the word "organization" pronounced OR-gan-I-za-tion, just makes me think of the interviews they do between periods in hockey games.
• Beauty pageant contestants are smart.. no seriously, they are... or maybe not so much...
• And I think I'm addicted to baba ganouj .
• The BlueHill Fair is this weekend, and I'm pretty sure we're going to go. Nothing beats wasting tons of money on rigged carnival games that are next to impossible to win, and when you do win they give you the smallest prize there is. Can't go wrong with carnival food either. Everything is fried, and its perfectly fine and socially acceptable for me to eat a corn dog there. Fair's are the only place that's allowed. mmmmm corn dogs....
• This one is just for laughs..
• And one last item, a big congratulations to my brother and his lovely girlfriend for the newest arrival to their little family(the one with the yellow border around the picture). Any suggestions on a name??? Throw out your suggestions and I'll post them in a poll on the blog...

Baba-Ganouj!!!

So its Sunday, and the end of the weekend, but what a good weekend it was. Sarah's parents came to visit, and the arrived around 3:30 Friday evening. I of course, got stuck at work late, and didn't make it home until 6. Luckily that was the time the lobsters and steamers were scheduled to be picked up. So we lit a fire, that didn't want to stay lit, lit the citronella candles/torches and settled outside to eat. The lobster, as always was fantastic. Before picking up the lobster, I stopped at the grocery store to get some beer. I tried a Wingwalker beer a week or two ago and loved it (honey wheat), so I decided to try to more kinds, lager and amber ale. The lager was fantastic (very similar to a Brooklyn lager, not too far off from Sam Adams), the amber ale wasn't as good, but my father in law might beg to differ. For those of you who like lobster, (not you Phil) we'll have to get it when you come up. The place we get it from will cook it for us, and its always soooooo good. I'm not a huge fan of lobster but they just taste better up here. The rest of Friday night was spent basically just hanging around and catching up.
Saturday we drove to Acadia/Bar Harbor. Sarah got the bright idea to walk around Jordan Pond. She told us it was only 2 miles, but it ended up being 3. Three miles isn't a whole lot, but it was really hot and humid out. Needless to say, Sarah is never in charge of planning a day again.

As you can see, part of the trail is boardwalk, and the other 2/3 or so is just normal dirt hiking trail.
The halfway point where we promised the in-laws that it would be shady from there on out. Not that we were lying, but it wasn't.
This is a view from the start of the trail around the pond. Its a beautiful place to hike, I just think we needed to be better prepared (and in better shape). If you're into the outdoorsy stuff, I highly recommend you come up to Acadia National Park, we can even go camping if you want.

After that, we went to Bar Harbor for lunch. Bar Harbor is a typical little New Englandy seaside town. Lots of shops and restaurants. We had a nice time walking around, etc, nothing all that exciting, but still fun.

After Bar Harbor we stopped over my uncles house so the in-laws could see the barn/horses they've heard so much about. We hung out and chatted for an hour or so and headed home for a nap (seperate naps of course). That night we hit the local Thai place for dinner. (good food as always, tried Singha, the Thai beer. Good stuff, basically a better quality Coors light I thought.) After we went to the American Folk Festival, which was in Bangor for the weekend. Maine is a state of around one million people, and over 200,000 come to this festival ever year. The music was good, the Tibetan monks "singing" was pretty interesting I guess. With all due respect to the monks, to my uncultured ear, it basically sounded like a burping contest. (the funny part was when they were giving a synopsis of the music before singing, the monk speaking said that the lamas were going to come out and sing now. My first thought of course was llamas, not lamas, and it provided a pretty funny visual.)

Sunday morning we went over my other uncles house for coffee, but it was basically so my in-laws could meet the rest of the family we talk so much about. Good time all around I'd say.

One of the perks of Sunday morning coffee was the presence of many yummy foods, one of which I'd never tried before.. baba ganouj . Fantastic stuff. I actually bought some more when I went grocery shopping this evening. Its good, but not as good as the home made stuff I had over my uncles house, so I'll need to get the recipe for it from them.

All in all, it was a a great weekend. We had our second official houseguests and we haven't heard one complaint yet. Two for two, not bad...

FRIDAY!!!!

Today was the kind of day that drives one to drink.. but now its Friday night, and I can drink, so it makes it all better..
Won't be posting much until Sunday night as the in-laws are visiting.. stay tuned for a full wrap up Sunday night though. Have a great weekend!