Beach and Vacation Books

I like fiction mystery/thriller books. Probably too much. Anyway, here are few books and authors that I particularly like.


The Road by Cormac McCarthy. They are actually making this a movie and it will be out this summer, I believe. It is dark and difficult (a story about a boy and his dad in a post apocalyptic world) and a great read.

Harlan Coben's books are fabulous as well and 'Tell No One' is one of my all time favorites as well.





David Rosenfelt books. His books are a bit mystery and a bit thriller and a heckuva lot of humor. I love his books because I always end up laughing throughout out.

Lee Child's series on Jack Reacher. Jack is a former military policeman who is out on his own and taking care of the bad guys. Rough and tumble books and always entertaining.





Other writers such as Dennis Lehane (Drink Before the War is one of the most difficult books but finest fiction thriller books that I have read...he also wrote Gone Baby Gone, among others). John Lescroart, David Baldacci, Vince Flynn and Jonathan Kellerman are writers who have many good reads books out among them.

Anyway, if you have other suggestions of other writers that I should look into, let me know.

Acting like a chicken

One of our all time favorite shows has been 'Arrested Development.' Not much to say about this clip except that as Michael says 'Have any of you ever even seen a chicken?'

Craptastic tennis shoes

Sorry for the long delay of no posts. I know that you are all absolutely heartbroken and have been checking every hour for an update. Well, I am back and badder than ever.

I just bought a new pair of tennis shoes. Let me tell you--I spent waaayyyyy too much time figuring out which ones I wanted. I waffled between Nike, Adidas, Diadora and Yonex shoes. I wanted a shoe that looked pretty good, was comfortable and light. I think I found it with this Diadora shoe and I get to officially break them in Friday morning with some tennis.






I did turn down a couple of shoes. There are some shoes that you question the logic behind ever making them. Shoes that are so brutally ugly that a kid who had no shoes would still say 'no thanks. Reebok came out with these two hideous creations. The yellow shoe would drive me crazy as every time I needed a tennis ball, I would reach down and try to grab my shoe thinking it was a ball. Why do I have a feeling that it was the same guy that created both of these shoes for Reebok? Why do I have a feeling that this same guy is now living in a park muttering to himself 'They said they wanted something different, they said they wanted something different, they said they wanted something different.'



I have little to add to these two abominations. I mean, they made the shoes so that means that someone somewhere bought those. Can you imagine walking out onto the tennis court with those bad boys? Can you imagine doing anything athletic in those shoes...the mocking would be too much. I am as metrosexy as they come, but even I could not pull off those shoes.

Ramblin' thoughts

It is good to have my lover home again. Though she has reluctantly returned to me after spending a bunch of time with her part timer Rafael Nadal, she is now officially back and that makes me happy. And for those of you wanting to know...I could totally take out Nadal on a tennis court. Now, he may beat me in tennis, but a quick uppercut or a cheap shot to his netherregions, the fight would be over.

I had steak tonight for dinner. It was fabulously fabulous.

One of my best friends from high school, Justin Spencer, was just named the head football coach of our alma mater West High School. Congratulations to him. He is tough nosed guy that is a great athlete and obviously a terrific coach. Only 35 years old and he leads the storied Panther team to hopefully, great heights. Congrats Pills.

The NCAA tourney is in full swing. Growing up, I used to take the opening days of the tournament off. I would skip school. My parents made me tell my teachers that I was going to stay home to watch the games and if they agreed, they let me. The teachers didn't really let me but they appreciated my honesty. I rarely missed any games as I sat on the couch watching games all day. I had the tv on in my office so that I didn't miss much. And no, I did not miss BYU losing today.

Battlestar Galactica's Series ender, yes series ender, is on tomorrow night. It is a sad day for all of us. Long Live Battlestar and fwiw, in a couple of months 'Caprica' starts up which is a new show that is about 50 years before Battlestar and will tell more of the story.

The way music videos should be

Music videos. I used to watch videos with great excitement to see the music put to a video. Often, I would be disappointed by the video as they were very simple.

But some artists stepped up and made music videos the way they should be--the music and the video told a story...a complete story. You have heard me mention Meatloaf, the singer. He is one of a kind to say the least. One thing that he could do with the best of 'em though was singing a rolling and rocking ballad that was a production more than it was a song. You hear a song and you realize that it is either Meatloaf or written by his people because they are very similar in build ups and execution.




The other thing that Meatloaf could do? He could put together a music video. These videos are so over the top and yet so entertaining that it makes you laugh and it makes you appreciate all that is Meatloaf. Hard sometimes to follow the videos as they are so out there, but they are not cheap to put together:

Meatloaf: I would do Anything for Love (But I won't do that)


Meatloaf: I'd lie for you and thats the Truth


Meatloaf: Its All Coming Back to me now As a sidenote, there have been several other covers of this song including Celine Dion...but this was a Meatloaf song and he ended up not using it on his album and let others use it.



Anyway, no real point to this whole post except for just having the chance to post about Meatloaf again.

2 days without Brodi and counting (but who's counting?)

The following things have happened since Brodi left for another man this weekend (she gets back on Wednesday):

The place is a mess.

Made meatloaf. Seriously, what could be better than a whole lotta meat, some onions and tomatoes? Not much.

Speaking of Meatloaf, with Brodi gone, I have been able to turn up the music to Meatloaf's best. And shockingly enough, I finally figured out what he won't do for love. But, it is such a wonderful revelation, I will let you spend hours listening to that song while trying to figure out the clues.

Played more than my share of the Wii. I am not a computer game player or a video game player...but Brodi goes out of town, and I plop myself on the couch with Carter and play some games. And yes, he is still better than me at every game.

Spent Sunday night watching my TIVO recording of all of the NCAA tournament brackets discussion. Brodi loves her sports but even she would not put up with this much analysis. My body is now numb and my brain is much. And even with more hours to come looking over these brackets, I will still finish #5 out of 10 people in the bracket competition.



I also went to church. Yes, I was late...but how awesome am I to still make it at all? Kudos to me. And I didn't lose the kids.

Carter and Beckham both had ice cream and cake today. Carter had it for lunch as well. I swear there was a carrot eaten sometime during the day though, so they are getting their nutrients.

I have also learned that whenever one of us is away from the other, it sucks. I learned that lesson pretty quick years ago.

And oh yeah, the place is still a mess.

March Madness is coming

But lets be honest, 65 teams aint enough. We need basketball all day every day for months. The NCAA may be announcing something special:


NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams

Norris Day

It is a special day and a day that will probably soon be a holiday--Chuck Norris' birthday. As we all know, few things are awesomer than Chuck Norris. You have probably heard all of these before, but because it is his birthday, I am posting them up again. And now, here are a few notable facts about the Chuck, so hopefully you will all appreciate him even more than just his brilliant tv career as Walker, Walker, Texas Ranger:

• Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open.
• Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.
• When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks the closet for Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity--twice.
• Chuck Norris does not get frost bite...he bites frost.
• When Chuck Norris does a push up, he isn't lifting himself up, he is pushing Earth down.
• Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
• Chuck Norris knows the exact location of Carmen SanDiego.
• Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.
• Chuck Norris drinks napalm to quell his heartburn.
• Chuck Norris doesn't chew gum. He chews tinfoil.

I will save $1 even if it takes me an hour to do it

I like to save money when I buy things. That is a good thing. And, that is a bad thing. Let me explain--if I have to make a purchase of $20 or more, I try and find the best deal. It could be for a $20 book...I will go and see if I can find it at another retailer for cheaper, etc. So I end up spending 20 minutes searching for a better deal and find it for $18. Yay for me, but when you look at it, I basically wasted 20 minutes to find it for $2 cheaper. Yeah, I suck.

Now, if it is a more expensive item like a tv or a dvd player or tennis shoes, etc. That is when I spend more and more time to get a better deal. I usually get pretty good deals on most of my stuff but I spent probably way too much time at night or in the morning trying to find the best deal possible.

My recent saving-money claim to fame? I went to Smiths and stopped by their shoe department. This is a boring story, so I will save you all of the gory details...but the $80 Adidas shoe that I was eyeing, I paid only $8 for...yes, $8. A clearance deal, a 25% off coupon and another $5 coupon brought it down to that price.

Anyway, you will now notice that on the left side of my blog, under the Friend's links list, there is now a new 'Deal of the Day' link. I will try and keep this updated and it will be a variety of different things (from computers to clothes to books, etc.) so feel free to check it out every day to get coupons or discounts. All in my effort to help save the people from this economic crisis. OK, maybe that was a bit too dramatic.

The painful price of looking good

One of the hardest jobs that Brodi and I would ever have to face, we faced last weekend. We knew it would be difficult...we knew there would gnashing of teeth...we knew that there would be choice words hurled our way. But, we did it. We gave Beckham a haircut. It was safe to say that Beckham's hair was moplike. It needed to change.





Our haircutting schedule for him has been to cut a piece here and there when he wasn't expecting it. We decided to get him in a chair, borrow Erin's clippers, and go and get the whole job done. As you can see, it wasn't received very well. But we figured that he is now over 3 years old and he should get a hair cut (crazy, I know).





But as you can see, it turned out pretty well. And he finally decided it was nothing to cry about and now he could go out and dazzle the girls with his hip stylish haircut.

Bachelor: Thru the eyes of manly man

I decided, along with Brodi, to check out the final Bachelor and blog a bit about it. We had seen about 3 minutes of the entire season and that was when we stopped for a sec in between going to another channel. We didn't know the players so I am blind to it all, so here is my rumblings in real time on the amazing events that transpired tonight. We turned out an hour late so I am jumping in without knowledge of what happened at the start.






I do know that he is deciding between Molly and Melissa and I am not sure which is which. I joined in on the episode with Molly, or is it Melissa, giving him a scrapbooking gift of their wonderful 3 weeks together. Really, a scrapbooking gift of their time together. Egads, how could she expect to win by giving him a book of pictures.





I guess the girl that just came on the show was the bachelorette from last year and she chose another guy over the current bachelor, Jason. She tells him--You still have a chance with me. I think he just about passed out. He looked completely dumbstruck. He then told her 'You are the best'...I guess he meant, you are almost the best but these two other girls are much better. She had a better chance at him if she wore either no clothes or very skimpy clothes. Alas, she came fully dressed and lost her chance at love with the love that she turned away on the last show.





An ad for 'Dancing with the Stars' comes on and it asks 'Are you ready?' I can honestly say, 'no I am not ready.'

Now we have different shots of Jason wandering around questioning how he loves two women (I bet the winner will feel fabulous knowing how much he loved the other woman as well). "I am now more confused than ever...how do I make the decision?" I say flip a coin or ask his kid who he wants. He then continues to wander around thinking about it.

Now we have random discussion from the two ladies about how much they love the man they met a month ago. Molly comments on how the relationship started off physical...but now it is so much more. Hey if you can't have a physical tv relationship, well, what can you have.

Emily comes and shows Jason wedding rings. I have a feeling that Jason is going to propose to her. I like Emily, the ring saleswoman. She seems smart. Jason exclaims that tomorrow that he is going to be the happiest guy in the world. No offense to him, but how would anyone even know that! I think he is a liar. I know of some pretty happy people in New Zealand and Buffalo.

We go on to find out that both women are unbelievable. Jason now gazes longingly at the diamond ring. He then decided he knew what he was going to do while gazing at the ring. The ring holds all of the answers.

Jason looks at the camera and cries. I cried with him. Such a tough decision to decide who to marry...I mean, he met this girl over a month ago. Tough decisions. We then get to see some shots of Jason being extra cute with his kid. He has yet to ask his kid who he should pick.

Wild dreams are about to come true. At least, that is what we are told...this time from Molly or was it Melissa.

The Big Unveil--WHO COMES OUT OF THE CAR--ooooohhhhhh, Molly gets out of the car which means she is the loser. I keep thinking, don't trip going down the walkway. That would suck. "I want to spend the rest of my life with him" Egads, sorry babe, that aint happening. Molly rocks and is very cute and gave up all of herself...and now Jason gets to reach inside her chest and pull out her beating heart and crush it with his bare hands. Well done Jason. "I have to let you go." Seriously Molly, yell at him...call him a turd. Kick him in the groin. Oh well. She is a better woman than I because I would haul off and kick him as hard as I could. She tells him, "I think you made a big mistake." You go girl! Good consolation from him though, "Just know that I loved you from the beginning...just know that." OK, thanks. I will take that to my grave you big turd.

Jason cries. Jason cries some more. I think Jason is still crying. OK, he's done now. Oh wait, no he is not. He is still crying. Leaning over the fence now crying. Quick cutaway to Molly who has tears in her eyes. Back to Jason who is partying now, oh wait, no, he is still crying. And he is still crying. Molly just called him a dummy. And back to Jason crying. Jason now contemplates being a polygamist.

Jason is done crying. Now, he appears to be happy. Melissa looks like she is going to puke or pass out. Jason now goes over the details of their long beautiful courtship. Melissa now has an aneurism of joy. He is proposing now! Who saw that coming? I sure didn't. Jason is now kinda crying, but this time its because he is happy. Brodi and I just shed a tear. It could not get any more perfect. Jason exclaims that he is the happiest man in the whole universe. Once again, I don't know how he would know that. Brodi then glumily admits, 'ok, that was kinda sweet.'

Holy crap, the after rose studio is empty! This is going to be dramatic. Uh oh, Jason looks very serious. Very serious. I think we will see tears. This is gonna be awesome! Jason is crying. Jason informs that he has "lived it." I can't argue with that. "We are not right for each other." Say whaaaaattttt? You were together for several weeks, how did this happen? He informs us that the chemistry went into the crapper. MOLLY. Molly fills his thoughts. To be honest, Molly is filling mine and Brodi's thoughts. Jason lost a piece of himself (I think in the ocean or on the countryside) the minute he let Molly go.

We now are hoping Molly found someone else. How awesome would it be if Molly and Deanna hooked up? We are now informed that Jason is a good guy. Jason has informed us that Melissa can take it out on him. Anyone have a butcher's knife? Or a chinese star? Melissa is going to go baaallllisssssttttiiiiccccc. Awkward pauses abound, though Melissa's choice of skimpy leather miniskirt is an interesting one. Jason exclaims how he wanted to give his life and everything else but now, no longer. Melissa looks like she is plotting his death. Jason tells her the line that is never used by someone breaking up someone else, "This isn't about you, its about me." Melissa is irritated. Jason is speechless. "I still have feelings for Molly." Melissa aint looking no pleased right now. And now the line of the night "You are such a bastard." Oh no, you did not just say that Melissa! You go girl. "I am so mad at you." Darn right Melissa.

Jason is crying again. Shocking. Again. So, how awesome would it be for Molly to just say 'Uh, no thanks but best to you.' Molly is coming out for a talk without Jason. Now we get a video montage of Molly and Jason. And she re-lives being let go. And we see Jason cry in the video. Now Molly goes on and admits that she still really digs Jason. And here comes Jason, looking as metrosexy as ever.

Jason is nervous. Molly is now grilling Jason. Jason has no good answers. Host steps in and saves Jason. Jason exclaims, 'My head and my gut have not let go." Molly looks as confused as anyone that I has ever seen. She is lost. Jason is making his play and I don't think Molly has a clue what is going on. Jason asks her for another shot. Molly laughs and looks around like she is expecting a candid camera. "I am still in love with Molly." Molly hasn't spoken in about 5 minutes. Awkward pause as Molly still has not a clue what to say.

Molly decides that she is no longer a mute, "We still have a lot to talk about...my feelings have never gone away...ya know, I think we could see where things go." Molly is now giggly. Molly is making her move on Jason now...hand rests on his knee. She is excited. They kiss. I think she has forgiven Jason. They kiss again. The host informs us that we were all part of a 'historic event.' Yes, he is absolutely correct. Historic is the word that I would use.



I am not ashamed that tears flowed freely as I saw true love rear its beautiful head. Jason seems like quite a catch...not good with decisions and a cryer. How can anyone beat that? I don't know about you, but I can't wait for Bachelor 18 or whatever number they are on now. It is going to be even more historic-er.