BeMused

“> “> “> The end of the school year is the herald of vacation for millions of people across America, and so it is with my family clan this year, 2004. It’s not often we get to travel on vacations together, with either myself or Gail having to work, but this year, with the help of generous in-laws, we all managed to take time together to fly out to visit family and friends. It was also a time to reaquaint ourselves with the majesty that is the Southwest… Read more

Gail discovered that the Diamondbacks were coming to Baltimore to play the Orioles on Monday, the day before the game. We talked about it, and I said we didn’t have the time, or money, to go. She pouted and begged and pouted some more, and finally went to bed. Tuesday morning I figured ‘what the hell’, and ordered tickets for the two of us. I got our friend Christy to watch the kids (thanks Christy!!) and then called Gail about 3:15 to tell her we were going. She was very excited.

I’m glad we left when we did because the traffic around the beltway was horrendous. It usually is, but when you’re trying to get somehwere in a hurry it’s twice as bad. When we finally got up to Camden Yards, we had about 25 minutes before first pitch at 7:05. I’m glad we had that time left because we had to park about three-quarters of a mile away. Gail started walking very fast, and it was all I could do to keep up. When we got to the Will Call ticket booth, my shins were burning. Guess it was a good workout.

Unfortunatly, because of AOL’s great spam filters (insert sarcastic tone there…), I never got the tickets emailed to me as requested. You’d think they’d whitelist the MLB’s ticketing agency, but noooo…so we had to go wait in a line to get it all worked out. And when they finally let us into the stadium, the first pitch had happened. We were also on the complete opposite side of the stadium from our seats, so that by the time we found them, the side had been retired and it was the bottom of the first.

Regardless, when we did find our seats, we were pleased to see we had an excellent view of the field. The weather was absolutly perfect, and the game was a blast. Randy Johnson was pitching, and he went 7 innings with 4 strikeouts and only one walk. Final score was 8 to 1. The Diamondbacks killed them basically. We were one of the few people cheering, but hey, this is my hometeam we’re talking about! Of COURSE we’re going to cheer! And Gail cheered louder than me…she finally got to see her beloved Diamondbacks with Johnson pitching.

I have a wife who loves baseball. How cool is that?

Over the past week or so, it seems I’ve seen quite a few movies. I used to do movie reviews in the past, but fell out of that habit a while ago. I thought maybe I’d just do some quick blurbs about the movies I’ve seen recently.

Shrek 2, in my opinion, was better than the first. I thourghly enjoyed the storyline, as well as the addition of Julie Andrews and John Cleese as Princess Fiona’s parents, and Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots. There was quite a bit of adult humor in this one, but enough of the kid variety that all in the family should have a great time.

The Day After Tomorrow is one of the apocalyptic-types of movies where the special effects and CGI take just as much of a front seat, if not more, as the storyline does. Or is supposed to. I’ve always liked the “All-hell-breaks-loose” type of movies, and this one was no exception. Great FX, and a decent storyline made it enjoyable. I didn’t like the wolves, but other than that, I had a good time.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban will probably get the Oscar for the longest titled movie this year. While much darker than the previous two, I think it serves the series well, as Harry is starting to approach his turbulant teenage years. I think Alfonso Cuaron did an excellent job with a difficult task. The photography and scenery is awesome and the acting from the main three is definitely improving.

Monster was an excellent and disturbing movie. Charlize Theron does a fantastic job as Aileen Wuornos, the prostitute turned serial killer. It was easy to see why she won Best Actress, as her performance was outstanding. I think another award should’ve gone to her makeup artist. They did a great job of taking a beauty and turning her into a beast…well, that on top of Theron’s acting skills turning her into a beast. Amazing job.

Yes…I’m at it again.

Leave me alone…

–edit–

Ok, that was relatively painless, and I bet no one even looked and saw the gobbly-gook that my blog had become.

Just don’t look at the comments section yet