Spoilers below.

I'd use the title of Transformers: The Movie, but the cartoon version took that title, thus the movie is simply named Transformers. Some people call it Transformers: The Movie 2, which is silly. I'm shocked they didn't call it something stupid, like "Michael Bay's Transformers". Whew. Spielberg was a rather un-hyped executive producer.

Violet and I actually saw this a few weekends ago, but I've been a slacker and haven't posted about it until now. So here's my review: 7/10.

• Great acting by many (but certainly not all) of the "human" cast.
• Decent story, sorta.
• Really good sound track, even without Soundwave :( Seriously, that little radio dude could have totally been Soundwave. We were jilted. I guess they're saving SW for the sequel...
• Special effects were really good most of the time, but the camera was so close you couldn't really tell what was going on. I guess that's "war-like" though.

Transformers: I liked the vehicles, for the most part. I'm bummed VW didn't give them permission to use the new beetle, but cest le vie, what can ya do. The camero was OK. I didn't care for most of the Decepticons. The tank, Devastator, was a good name for a tank, even though Devastator is supposed to be the combination of the constructicons. Meh. I also really didn't like how the tank and skip loader could travel across the vast distances as fast as Star Scream, the Jet Fighter. I really didn't like how the cube only produced crazy destructive robots. Bleh.
Oh. And my MAIN issue? The robots look dumb. Can't see or tell anything that they do. I hated the CGI robots.

I liked how the humans dealt with the aliens, although I couldn't decide if the agent dude was there for comic relief (and failed) or was just annoying. The techie cast were kinda stupid, and the hot blonde chick seemed outta place and underused. I really liked the military guys. Next movie: G.I.Joe!

My main issue is that I didn't care for the retreat to the city while being chased by the bad guys. BAD idea. Lots of innocent people were hurt and killed, not to mention the massive amounts of destruction. Hey! We're being chased by Decepticons! Let's drive from Hover dam all the way to LA and THEN evac the human with the cube. Smart!! Couldn't the choppers just evac them from the middle of the desert, or just outside Hoover dam? And didn't they realize the choppers were a bad idea cuz Starscream would blow them up? Oh, Jazz's death was kinda gratuitous. I didn't care for it. Optimus Prime having lips really disturbs me. I was happy a lot of the original voices were used. Neat!

Lastly, Megan Fox needs a shrine or sumthin. I have two words for her. D and AMN.

I finished the nursery this morning. All the furniture is in and the shelves are up. Violet still has some stickers to put up, but my job is finished. I even added a shelf to the closet for more storage. I'm pretty happy with the results, though there are several imperfections that glare out at me, like scrap marks or extra holes in the wall or something. But oh well. I know it can't *BE* perfect.




The Cherry Wood Crib with the pooh themed crib set. It doesn't have the mattress protector or pad on it it, but those can't be seen anyway.






Violet's Glider chair. The footstool was too expensive, so we didn't get it.






A pic I got for 2 bucks at a yard sale, and the painted shelves from my previous blog post. On the left is the Cherry Wood changing table, ready for some poop-inspired diaper changing goodness.








The most expensive piece in the set, this Cherry Wood Armoire is where we will keep his Diaper shirts (The term Onesie is a TM of Gerber), diapers, wipes, current wearable fashions, blankets, and large stuft animals that don't fit on the shelves, such as Tigger there.

Well over a month ago, probably 2 months ago, I bought some shelves from a yard sale. They were cheap and looked pretty cool, and I thought they'd look good in the nursery. Unfortunately, Violet didn't agree. Their coloring scheme was green and natural wood brown, which doesn't match our nursery's color scheme.

Apparently Home Depot has specific Disney color swatches. So I bought a gallon of paint for each of the two colors we're using and a quart of white primer.




Disney Link to colors

I spent a few WEEKS prepping and painting these shelves. What a pain. Anyway, I didn't get around to taking pictures of the shelves before I painted them, unfortunately. Hey, there was a rogue beaver in my garage, gimme a break. Here are pics of the finished products though:

I was thinking of selling my transformers on Ebay to make some money, clear out my old crap, and help pay some bills. Nearly all of them are in poor to fair condition, and I probably wouldn't get much for them. (sigh). So instead I dusted them off (see previous blog post) and put them on a shelf. It would take a long time to list them all out, and several are not Transformers at all. Some are Go-Bots or Japanese imports. For the record, I've been wanting to do this well before the movie was announced. Now that its out though, they may fetch some mediocre prices, but I doubt it.

The ones I recall the names of from the top of my head are:
(top) Metroplex, Perceptor, Omega Surpreme.
(shelf 1) Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus.
(shelf 2) Shockwave
(shelf 3) All the Predacons (They form Predaking), All the dinobots (Grimlock is a japanese import, not the real thing, but I think he looks cooler) [Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Swoop], Blaster, Soundwave, all their cassettes
(shelf 4) The combaticons (They form Bruticus, I think), a pair of rock transformers, and some weird water transformers that I dont remember the names of. Turtle, shark, piranha, and a manta ray.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not immune to disease.
Last week I had a bit of a cold.

Now, I realize the cold that's been going around has made people sick for over a week, and that their symptoms are more sever that what I experienced. Maybe I didn't get that cold. I've been digging around my old transformers and setting them up on a display shelf. Since they've been caked on with dust and dirt and grime over the last 20 years, I'm not too shocked I got sick. I wiped them all down with one of those disinfecting wipes, and I washed my hands often. Apparently not often enough.

However, it's possible I contracted the disease while playing with our friend's kid in their apartment complex's kid play area. I knew that touching any of that playground stuff (slide, ladder, teeter totter, swings) spelled doom. I totally think it was the kid play area.

I had a bit of a sore throat last Saturday, and then some congestion on Sunday and most of Monday. Tuesday was more or less recovery with a few coughs.

Most of the time the Nightquil / Dayquil saw me through it. I also had some honey based cough drops. Cough drops are actually great for sore throats. Much to my chagrin however, I ended up taking Monday off of work. I made it up by working late Tuesday and Thursday though.

During my sick time I mostly took it easy and read A LOT.

In order to not get Violet sick, I found a free full sized mattress a few miles away via Craigslist, and so I used that to sleep on in the other room. The mattress is good, but a little too firm for my tastes. It'll come in handy when we have guests though.

Today, 07/07/07, marks the 7th anniversary of Violet and I's first date.

On our first date, I picked Violet up in my mom's Mercedes. We went to Claim Jumper and had a really nice meal. We then drove to a spot that overlooked the Flower fields of Carlsbad. On the way home we stopped at AM/PM (a mini-market+Gas Station). Very romantic, I know. When we got back to her place we didn't even shake hands. I'm an old fashioned kinda guy, and besides, I had a cold and didn't want to have her catch it. This was easily one of my favorite dates ever though.

We were going to get married on 7/7 for one of several reasons. First, her birthday is on a 7th (Not July). Second, having our wedding on the anniversary of our first date seemed appropriate. Third, and probably most important, having everything fall on the 7th would make it easy for me to remember. :)

We did end up getting married on the 7th, but not of July. Because of our honeymoon plans in Florida and the Bahamas, we decided it would probably be too hot around July 7th. Since we wanted it on a weekend, we choose April 7th instead, which although on a Sunday, was much better for us. So that's the date we set. Oh, and just for the record... no... we did not get married at AM/PM.

I suppose somehow on the cosmic scale, the 7th works for us. Violet is also on her 7th month of pregnancy. Time's have changed a lot these 7 years. They'll change even more in the next 7. I'm overjoyed and thankful at how much happiness my life contains.

In random order, I spent Independence day:

• Played Command & Conquer 3
• Watching a TiVo'd movie with Violet (You, me, And Dupree.. it was meh)
• Finished painting the nursery shelves (Pictures coming eventually)
• Cleaned the house and especially the Garage a lot
• Fixed the lawnmower. (I haven't testing it yet tho.. heh)
• Watched fireworks for a few mins from our backyard
• Went out to eat at a Mexican food place (We tried good 'ol American Dairy Queen, but they were closed).

Overall a fairly relaxing and productive day.

Plans for July 4th include napping, watching TiVo, cleaning the garage, and maybe watching fireworks on TV. You would think that being so close to the capitol of our country there'd be a lot of fireworks around here. Well, there are. There's more firework "Buy One Get One FREE!" vendors than there are Dunkin Donut stores.

My fried Derek created an artistic interpretation of my beaver hiding behind a dishwasher in my garage story. Since I thought it was neat, and with his permission, here it is.

In other news, I repaired the chewed through wires of the lawn mower this morning. Hopefully it won't blow up or set the lawn on fire.

I don't read that much. At least, I stopped reading novels and the like somewhere around high school. I guess reading textbooks substituted for reading books. Besides, reading makes me very sleepy. Over the last decade I've barely read a handful of novels. But the last year or three, thanks to Violet who reads a lot, I've gotten back into the reading habit, sorta. I read when I'm able to goto bed early and I'm not quite tired yet. As a result I've read, albeit slowly, a few books this past year or so. My most recently read, currently reading, and soon to read lists are now located on the right column. Start of Darkness counts, even though it's book full of comic strips. I love Order of the Stick :)

I've somehow managed to snag myself on some bad luck.

A few nights ago I heard a mouse and saw some rodent droppings in the garage. I bought a mousetrap and set it up with peanut butter. The next day the trap was sprung but only bits of fur, and the peanut butter, remained.

Since I've been painting in the garage this concerned me. (More on that later, when I actually finish the project) Also, some items had been knocked off the shelves and several cardboard boxes had been ripped up, nearly through to the containing artwork.

Last night I decided to further investigate and used a push broom to move a bunch of stuff outta the way when I heard rustling coming from behind some boxes. I see something large and furry crawling back behind more stuff. (My garage is quite full of stuff). It didn't look like a mouse. Or even a big rat. It was certainly bigger, and faster, than a rat. I kept moving stuff outta the way, keep at broom handle length, when suddenly out jumps a Beaver, easily the size of a small 15 or 20lb dog or cat. I wasn't startled or scared or anything... I just watched it crawl behind a dishwasher that I had in the garage (I told you it was full of stuff). At this point I ID'd it as a beaver and went back inside the house to hit the Internet. My local Humane Society was closed at 8pm at night, but the site said to call the local police, which I did. 5 minutes later 3 cop cars show up. They can't trap him, only scare him out of the garage. I considered keeping him in the garage until the next morning so the HS could trap him, but then I noticed, to my financial horror, that the little bastage had chewed through the power cable of my electric lawn mower. This did not make me a happy camper. The police offered to either scare it outta the garage so not wanting anything else to be destroyed, I accepted their offer. I really didn't want the sucker to get caught in someone else's garage, or run over by a car, but I couldn't afford any more damage. Heck, I can't afford the current damage done. As they scared him outta the garage he came straight at me. I calmly but quickly braced myself between the 2 cars I was standing between and lifted my legs to let the dude pass right under me. Wish I had taken a picture of him at some point. It woulda made a nice blog entry.

The other major suckage is that Violet's Xterra's AC is out. I bought some refrigerant and filled it just fine, but it only lasted a few days. Figuring I may have done it wrong (Getting pressure was difficult in 95 deg weather) I checked the Internet and found some Nissan forums. The compressor wasn't kicking in, and I read that after 400 bucks of hose replacement repairs and diagnosis by several people, the Thermal Control Amplifier is what ended up needing replaced. 40 bucks. SO I went and bought one and tried to replace it myself. The Thermal Amp, or AC Thermistor as some call it, is a temperature gauge that overrides the AC compressor switch to make it kick on. Something like that. Anyway, The part I got wasn't even close to the original so I took it to the dealer this morning and had them troubleshoot it. They're results were... unfortunate. The compressor and hose line both had a large leak in them and needed completely replaced. Parts were due in on Wed. This isn't something I could do myself since I don't have the tools and vacuum equipment required for this sort of repair. Total cost estimate at this time is about 850 bucks. Le Ouch. So much for that new mattress I promised to buy Violet. ;(

This movie stars Jennifer Garner as a woman trying to pick up her life after her fiancee dies unexpectedly. The movie is full of assumed and subtle back story that I found to be very distracting. I didn't "believe" anything that was happening plot-wise. The dialog wants to be good, especially for Kevin Smith, but isn't. The scenes want to flow but instead they crash. Acting was OK, but I never cared much for Juliet Lewis. This might be a decent date movie via Netflix (it was for us) (Who JUST Lowered their Price. Hurray!) but I definitely wouldn't have wanted to see it in the theatre, and I wouldn't buy the DVD.

Overall, I didn't think it was terrible, but it certainly wasn't 'good' either. Bottom line is that I found myself asking "What?!?!" and "Why??" and "How??" so often that I was distracted from enjoying the film. I give it a 5 / 10.

Craigslist.org is awesome. Low cost and free stuff appears there all the time. Weird stuff too. How weird? I saw a free skeeball machine once. Looked like it was in good condition too. Washers, dryers, weight equipment, shelves, couches, chairs, pianos.. its crazy. I didn't have a way to haul the skeeball at the time, but since I bought my trailer, I can pick up all kinds of things. Including my latest acquisition, The Catapult. Of course, it uses a spring, not a weight, and it uses a sling head for more distance like a trebuchet. Doesn't matter. It was free.
If he who dies with the most toys wins, then craigslist will help a lot.

Is it me, or is anyone else really irritated that everyone in the world who tries to explain something starts their sentences with "Basically"? I've heard some people who didn't know what they were trying to say use the word like 8 times during the explanation. Wow.

I'm also noticing more and more that people are ending their sentences with "so...." and then trail off, not finishing it.

Basically, I just find the whole thing a bit distracting and a little irritating, so....

An old friend of mine was recently hired at the place I work. It's great to see him and I really look forward to having him and his family move out here. It's been busy trying to find him a place to live but today he finally settled on a place. Cool beans.

I've been trying to diet again but thus far that's only last like, 2 days in a row before I quit it again. Being the husband of a pregnant lady isn't good for the waistline. Yes, I totally blame her :)

I've been trying to figure out retirement and financial stuff for the past week or so. I'm terrible at this stuff. Besides, I have a lot of TiVo to catch up on. I like the new tv show Army Wives. I'm watching a few others, like episodes of Two and a Half Men that I've missed. I like that show too. I'm only watching Celebrity Fit Club because Tiffany is on it. Dustin Diamond is a pure jerk and doesn't deserve the camera time. He may have a split personality.

City of Heroes just had a double XP bouns weekend so I played as much of that as I could. Which wasn't too much. I only gained a level and a half. I'm a sad, sad gamer. DDO had a double XP weekend too, with bonus loot, but well, I didn't get a chance to play that at all. Sad Panda.


I'm sure I've done / accomplished / attempted other stuff in the past week or two, but I don't recall any of it right now. sigh.

Wow look what a slacker Ive been.. no updates in a while.
Ive been busy with the baby blog, work, and my mom visiting. And playing games.
Alrighty then....

My mom came and visited last weekend. She was in the area (North Carolina is considered "In The Area") and so drove the extra 5 hours and stayed the weekend. I haven't seen her since Guildhall graduation, so like, just over 2 years. We got lots of great baby stuff, so that's really exciting. As a result, I cleared the baby room, umm I mean nursery, and am about ready to populate it with cool nursery stuff. Violet's really excited too, this being both mine and her first child.

Work's been going pretty good. I've finished my tasks early again so I'm fixing bugs and adding new cool stuff. I haven't had any overtime in quite a while so that's good.

Today on the way home a Shetland Collie was out walking along a fairly busy two-way-traffic road in a residential neighborhood. I turned the car around and drove back down the road towards the direction he was running to try and grab him to safety. Unfortunately, the car ahead of me didn't seem to notice him and when the dog ran out into the road, which I knew he would eventually, the car in front of me slammed on his brakes.. ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Whew. The dog didn't get hit. Yet. He decided to run across the rest of the road, and oncoming traffic had to go up a small hill and then down a small hill. We were at the bottom of the hill, so it was unlikely oncoming traffic would have seen him. So I started driving on the left hand side of the road. That seemed to work because oncoming traffic stopped. Good thing too because the dog might have been hit a 2nd time. He ran into a small grass clearing and started running in circles. He seemed pretty happy with his daredevil antics. Anyway, I pulled up and over into a side road and tried to convince him to come to me. Surprisingly he did, and I grabbed him and put him in my car. He was a very nice, healthy looking collie. I checked his collar. DOh. Flea collar only. No tags, no phone number. Well I guess I'll take him home and wait for a lost poster. As I was about to close the door a man walked up and claimed that was his dog and thanked me a lot. He looked like a military man. Anyway, Apparently the dog's name was Andy and lived a few blocks down the road. They had just moved here and Andy had accidentally escaped from the garage. He had been calling the dog when he heard the car screeching and ran towards our area. He thanked me and I gave him the dog and he carried it back down the road towards his house. I drove away content that I had done what I could to help. In Wisconsin our dog escaped (from a fenced in yard.. still not sure how she did it, probably went under the fence) and I was relieved when our neighbor was keeping her safe. I'm happy both instances turned out OK.

Mmm I retook the test again, and got a halberd instead. I scored higher than 99% on both power and speed. I never thought of myself as much of a polearm kinda guy.. I tend to prefer the sword in one hand and a morningstar in the other. Or duel pistols. Or both depending on the circumstance. Ah well.

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii

Your Score: Desert Eagle

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii

A while ago Violet bought some cheap movie tickets from a solicitor that came to our door. I know, bad idea. But anyway, we went tonight. Normal movie price was $7.75.

It has 4 screens and is in terrible condition. Many of the ceiling tiles showed heavy water damage, the general decor was old and dirty, random plumbing parts were missing from the bathroom stalls, boxes and junk were strewn about, and overly large movie cut-outs were used as walls. They also feature a "dinner theater" where you can watch the movie while eating dinner. I'm not sure I'd care to try that though... I doubt they have an "A" rating for food prep. I did however get a free pinball game because the 50cent machine apparently was already paid for or a bonus game was awarded that no one continued. Instead of "Theater Seating", this theater featured "Dip" seating. The middle rows are lower than the front or rear rows, and the screen is higher up. its an interesting, if very old, way to seat people. No stairs involved too. I kinda liked the concept. The drink holders were attached to the rear of the seats that were in front of you instead of on the armrest like I'm used to. The parking lot was small and part of a small strip mall but there was amble parking since it was Wed evening.

We were the only 2 people in the movie. The popcorn was good but since I'm semi-dieting I didn't order any other junk food. The seats were comfortable enough but I noticed some of the seats weree ripped out or in dire need of repair/replacement. Its kinda like the place you'd see a Live Rocky Horror Picture Show being played, but alas, all they offered was a poster for that event.

Shrek The Third was pretty decent, I laughed out loud a few times. I liked the general story. The animations and voice acting were fantastic. It was a little predictable in places, but I liked how things generally wound up. I don't think I liked 3 as much as 1 or probably 2, but it was worth seeing. I recommend it.

The company took us all to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Friday. I thought it was a good movie, but not "great". It had a lot of stuff in it and was a pretty long movie. Definitely worth seeing. I thought it was a little too much stretching on the weird myth stuff and a little light on the actual piracy side. Oh, there were some good piracy-type scenes, but they were forced and short while not blending in too well with what was going on. I did like how they spotlighted so many characters throughout the movie, giving them their chance to shine. I didn't care for the ending. Perhaps the DVD will feature an alternative that better suits my non-tragic romantic side. The movie featured lots of gross stuff and violence, but the only bare skin was 5 seconds of Keira Knightly's knee. Oh, also, it's a Disney movie, so the previews were somewhat questionable. Even Underdog. That's not the kind of thing I would make up.

Since Ive been working late a lotta night this past week (66 hours) and the one before that, I haven't had too much time to do much else.

Company Softball game was Sat. I thought there'd be a lot of people (30 or so signed up) but like a 1/3 of them dropped so we were short 2 full teams. I did prtty good as first base and pitcher, hit a triple, home run, and left-handed batted a single. We didnt keep track of points though since we were all there to just have fun.

I FINALLY fulfilled my goal of having a pool table with a ping pong table on top Sunday. Craigs list had one for sale (2002 Old Chicagoan drop pocket billiard, 3/4" slate, really good condition with table tennis table that goes on top. Included all balls, paddles, cues, etc. ) New this stuff would be like 2k or so, but I bargained his asking price of 850 down to only 750. Sweet!
Best of all, I finally was able to use my trailer.

Moving it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I had three friends from work that I game with help out and the four of us carried it out the owners backyard without an issue. The fence and gate presented a problem, and we tilted it sideways and slid it on some carpet covered grass to get it past the fence part. Unfortunately, some of the varnish on the side rubbed off. doh.
Then we carried it to the trailer and hauled it back home (the previous owners lives about 15 miles south of my house) without issue. We didn't want to try and truck it through the garage or front door, so for now the table lives in the garage. I'm going to try VERY hard to not use it as a shelf.

Lastly, I reactivated our City of Heroes/Villains accounts. Violet and I are playing at random times when she can stomach it. I miss CoH/V. Its my favorite MMO (for now).