TV Action Shows and my growing up years

I thought that we could have some flashback Wednesdays as I relive some of my favorite tv shows growing up. I have three classics below and all bring back different kinds of memories.

Seriously, one of the all time great shows: Greatest American Hero. In fact, I could sing this song straight thru and sound beautiful while doing so. You will also notice the special effects are stupendous:




And then you have a show that I would watch with my best friend when I was 6 years old, Jonathan Blumhagen. The A Team was on every Friday night right after Dukes of Hazzard and right before Dallas. Man, this show could not be any cooler. There was 'Face' who the ladies loved...there was 'Hannibal' the leader...there was 'B.A. Barracus'--Mr. T with an attitude. They fought crime and nobody ever got hurt even with all of the crashes and gun shooting. The cool thing (or the scary thing depending on your perspective) is that they are making this into a movie. Yeah, I'll be there.



And then there was the cool show, 21 Jumpstreet. This was Johnny Depp's big break...and who could forget the beautiful Holly Robinson? They were undercover acting as High School kids (though I don't think any of them was under the age of 22 and none of them looked younger than 25). Yeah, this show rocked.

Midway and Park City in a weekend

A nice Memorial weekend so far. We spent the weekend up at Brodi's parents condo in Midway where we played some tennis, went to a park, had a nice dinner and watched an entertaining NBA game. One of the nights was long as well as Beckham decided that he sleep was overrated and he just wanted to hang out and not sleep. The joys of being a parent.

We are also fans of Park City's Alpline Slide and Coaster rides. The kids love them. Beckham squealed and Carter yelled 'lets go back again, lets go back again' after every single ride. The coaster ride is actually pretty cool. You slowly go up the mountain but when you hit the top, it is hang on time as you pick up pretty good speed.





It is not cheap though. They know how to charge you a lot of money for what amounts to 10 minutes of action. We would have liked to have stayed longer but we realized that we were completely out of money so it was time to go. Definately a lot of fun though.






On another note, Carter had a few interesting things to say to us this weekend. The first was on our drive up to Midway and Brodi and I decided to have a conversation with each other (I know, crazy!). Carter asked something and Brodi told him just a minute to which Carter responded, 'I command you to listen to me now.'

Carter has allergies though not as bad as Beckham. Well, he says that he gets bubbles in his throat, so we have been giving him Zyrtec to make him more comfortable. He let me know right before he went to bed: "Sam, will you put the pill on my tongue to get rid of the bubbles." Yes, the new slogan of Zyrtec: Try Zyrtec and say good bye to the bubbles.

smooth as silk but as manly as a man can get

So, ever since I was a young little guy, I used an electric shaver. I think my dad was worried that I would accidentally slit my throat if I used a manual razor. He was probably right. I have since gone thru 3 Norelco shavers.

On my last trip to Pakistan, I forgot and left my electric shaver at home. Now, I don't grow hair as fast as a wildabeast, but after a few days, it can get a bit scruffy. So, I got the courage and tried out a manual 'hotel' quality razor and went to work on my face. I did it. No tragedies involved. It was liberating. I was ready to shout to the world that "I CAN DO IT." Alas, I did not do that as this was not too dramatic of an accomplishment, but nonetheless, it was impressive.

I have turned over a new leaf...I am now a man's man and I use a manual shaver. I went to Costco and purchased the Gillette Fusion razor because it looks just so awesome. I bought the shaving cream and I am in business. Yes, there will be occassional misfires, but that is what toilet paper is for--to stop the little nicks that can bleed until the cows come home (that last phrase was a shout out to all of you cow lovers).

Now ladies, you are welcome to come up to me anytime and feel my smooth manually-shaved face. Its OK, Brodi has approved of it. Now, I just got to get the courage to shave my chest. Totally kidding, I will not shave my chest...I am going to let those 7 little chest hairs stay right where they are.

Carter, the sportsman

I honestly don't know how big families do it. We have 2 boys. One of those boys is not even old enough to play in organized sports. So, basically one kid and it seems like we are always running around to different activities.

Our week, with only one boy: 2 Nights a week of T-ball games. 1 Night a week with soccer practice. And a soccer game on Saturday. 4 days a week. I actually enjoy it quite a bit. Though Carter enjoys hanging out with his friends more than playing the sport. He has perfected though his 'run' to first base after he gets a hit. Instead of running, he just struts to 1st base. And then he skips to 2nd base and 3rd base. And he has yet to be convinced that he should touch home plate when he goes to home. Anyway, we have had fun with it.

The Road

I read a lot of books. I truly enjoy just being in bed and reading. Last year, probably my favorite book was 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. It is a fabulous simplistic disturbing book about a post apocalyptic world. It is the story of a dad and his boy out in the world trying to survive. Fabulous and difficult.

Well, they are coming out with the movie. I want to see it, but it is tough...the cast looks good. Anyway, here is the trailer for those interested. If you haven't read the book and the trailer looks good, go and get the book and read it before you see it:

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it now!

My extremely lovely wife Brodi put together a fantabulous list of things that must go or things that must stop immediately. You can see her post right here

So, I decided to post two things of my own that absolutely have to get out of my life. These are things that need to be stopped. NOW.

The first thing that must go? Naked men and they seem to be loving every minute of it!
I hate locker rooms. Let me tell you why--I may need to go in and go to the bathroom or take a shower or wash my hands or whatever. But you know what happens every single time? Do you really want to know? The minute that I enter the locker room, you enter right into the sink area (4-5 sinks along a counter). And guess what I see? Naked men. Naked men that are usually 60+ years old standing buck naked at the sink--brushing their hair, washing their hands, brushing their teeth, whatever. C'mon! Are you frakkin' kidding me? There are 2, only 2, places that anyone should be naked in the locker-room: In the shower and at your locker as you change your clothes. If you are at the urinal, put on a towell. If you are at the sink, put on a towel. If you are unsure if you should be naked or if you should be wearing a towel...put on a towel! That must go. NOW!


The second thing that must go? Excuse me while I flush.
There is nothing worse than going into a bathroom and there is a guy talking loudly on his cell phone. "Hey honey, yeah, I'll pick up the mustard and the hamburger patties...yeah, I love you too [FLUSH]. Yeah, sorry about that...I'll see you soon."
Really? Are you kidding me? And then I go in and some yahoo is in the stall yakking on the phone. So, now I just flush the toilet about 13 times so that the person on the other end of the phone knows for certain that this goofball is going to the bathroom while talking on the phone.

I'm sure that I will have more soon. I get annoyed pretty easily.

Allergies--my Nemesis!

I considered grabbing a small ice cream scooper and using it to scoop my eyeballs out of my sockets. I would then grab a toothbrush and scrub my eyeballs out of all of that frakkin' pollen that is ruining my life.





Spring is wonderful for so many reasons but there is 1 problem with it: Allergies. Over the years, I have taken zyrtec, claritin, claritin d, allegra d and nothing quite does it for me. When its really bad, its nearly unbearable. My mouth has lots of bling bling in it--gold crowns. I have these because of the 5 root canals that I have had done in my mouth. Yes, the girls dig the gold in my mouth. When Spring is rocking and rolling, my sinus start having major issues...and when the pressure in my sinus is there, it builds up pressure on my root canal'ed teeth and my gold crowns. Yeah, not a good feeling. I went a couple of weeks at a time taking way too many Ibuprofen, curled up in the fetal position in my office in DC as the pain was excrutiating.


Beckham is our disaster baby. Those of you that know Becks, know that Spring is terrible for him...that is why he takes 3 medications every day to make him feel better. He is a tough kid though, probably much tougher than me, and he just continues on, sniffling and itching and surviving for about 1 more month. For both of us.

Ramblings and Rumblings

I took the kids down to my office over the weekend so that I could grab a few work things. We then walked over to the SLC Library which is right next door. The kids love running across the bridge and going to the roof of the library. Well, they were playing over by a fountain area and Carter and Beckham would put their hands in the water and then run around. I was then informed by one of the homeless men hanging out nearby that my kids shouldn't do that. I politely asked 'why' and he told me that they just should not do that. Well, to make a point, I proceeded to take off all my clothes and jump headfirst into the water and ask him what he thought about that. Ok, that didn't happen, but I sure wish I had.

I don't think my boy has called me 'daddy' in the past 6 months. 'Sam?' Yes, every day since then. But at least I am not alone...Brodi lost her 'mommy' status about the same time and is now simply 'Brodi.'

I lost in my last tennis tournament. Of note, I did win a point with a very nice backwards between the legs shot (looked something like the picture on the left, though definately not as graceful) to win the point. It was a thing of beauty and I almost gave myself a standing ovation. My opponent complimented me on the shot...I told him not to be too impressed as I probably spent too much time on the trick shots as obviously, the rest of my game was not good enough to beat him. If I am going to lose, I am going to lose in style.



Not to toot my own horn, but I am coaching Carter's soccer team. First off, We do not keep score! With that said, our team has outscored the other teams 16-4 so far this year. We are a juggernaut and my yelling and swearing is really paying off for these 6 year olds. But as a quick reminder, we do not keep score!

Nice to see the good weather. I guess I can now dust off all of my old tank tops and denim cut off jeans.

Give me those foods and I would live happily ever after

I have no idea why I was thinking about this over the weekend. Maybe it was because I took the kids down to the public library and we stayed longer than expected and I was starving, so I began to wonder--if I was stuck on a deserted island but was told that I would be given 3 dinners and 1 breakfast that I would have to live on for the rest of my life, what would I pick.

Now, I know that you have all wondered that, so now is your chance to put your 4 meals (3 dinners/lunches and 1 breakfast) in the comments section. But for me, here is my list:


For Dinner
Ribeye Steak and mashed potatoes--If you know my food choices, you would have seen this meal coming from a hundred miles away. Actually, I could probably survive on ribeye steak all by itself. If my house does not smell like steak, something is wrong.
Spaghetti--This is the perfect lunch, dinner or breakfast. I would prefer Brodi's or my mom's brand over anything store bought. But seriously, few things are as tasty as a nice little spaghetti breakfast.
Hamburger and Fries--This was a tough call as I love pizza as well, but it would be good to have the nutrition of the french fries.


And for breakfast:
Belgian Waffles and Hashbrowns--you can't go wrong with either.

So there you go...give those 4 meals and I would make it happily for the rest of my life.