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