My Doctor Who Break

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big Doctor Who fan.  With the severe lack of anything good on television at the moment I have decided to re-watch the new series in it's entirety and blog about each episode.  I don't want to bog this blog down though so I have created a new blog that will be strictly Doctor Who based.  I will blog about a new episode each weekday and will perhaps have the occasional weekend blog featuring some classic Doctor Who or maybe even a book review.  Now don't think that this means I won't be writing about any more Doctor here...on no.  You will still find plenty of references to him here, it's just that there will be a second outlet for my geekiness now.  If you wish to follow along, you can find the blog at:
http://timeandspace-faeriegoddess.blogspot.com/

Safe travels everyone.

Fright Night :A Review

My girlfriend DG asked me to go see this one with her on opening night.  She, like me, is a huge David Tennant fan.  Truth be told, that's the only reason we even wanted to see this one, but I'm very glad we did.  Fright Night surprised me.  It was slick, funny and well done.  It's kind of like the Zombieland of vampire flicks.

I'm not the biggest fan of Colin Farrel but he really surprised me with his portrayal of Jerry the vampire.  He was modern and creepy.  I loved the scene where he was trying to get invited into the house by borrowing some beer.  And the "Hey guy" line was fabulous.  Although I wasn't a big fan of the vampire transformation.  The shark-like face was unrealistic and really over the top.  That aside, Farrel was smoldering, sexy, creepy and funny.

Anton Yelchin was really great in this film.  I loved him as Checkov in Star Trek and he didn't disappoint here either.  He was funny and portrayed the growth that his character goes through very well.  Yelchin has impeccable timing with his line delivery.

And then there's David Tennant.  My Doctor.  I was a little leery that I wasn't going to care for him in this role.  However, in true Tennant form, he was absolutely fabulous.  The scene where he is being "interviewed" by Yelchin and slowly strips off all the trappings of his Vincent character while musing on how to kill a real vampire was superbly done.  It doesn't hurt that he looks pretty great in a tight pair of leather pants either.  I loved the break down of his character into a scared little boy and then rebuilding himself into a chicken fighter.

I am not a big fan of the 3D fad.  I think in most cases it's a money grab and does nothing to add to the film.  I prefer to see them in 2D unless they are films that the 3D adds to (ie. Avatar or Despicable Me).  This film was only playing in 3D at the theatre so we had to go that route.  Most of the 3D in the film did nothing to add to it, but there were a couple of small scenes where it did get kind of cool.  The ashes of a dead vamp floating around were pretty neat and the paint can that went through the window and straight at my head was well done but I don't think you'll miss anything by seeing this one in 2D.

Overall, this was a really well done film.  They took the original concept, stripped it down and brought it into 2011 fantastically.  The entire cast was great.  The writing was quick witted.  The effects, while over the top at times, were good.  I loved the comeo appearance of the original "Jerry".

I highly recommend this film as a fun, freaky Friday night ritual.

I give this film 4 out of 5 wooden stakes and raise it with a bit of holy water.

My Vacation

Today is the last day of my summer vacation, and it's been great.  J and I didn't have any major plans but we had a wonderful time anyway.  Last Sunday we spent the day out at my mom's place visiting with the family and spending some time with my Aunt that was up visiting from Arizona.  It was a great time and some great food.  J still had to work Monday so I went in for a couple of hours to get caught up on some stuff and then went and did some shopping.

Tuesday was our anniversary - see last post for details on our day.

On Wednesday J got a call that he had a coaches meeting that night for the football team he's helping with this fall so we headed out to the farm for the rest of the week.  The first few days were pretty uneventful just hanging out at the farm with a few of my nephews.  My oldest nephew and I did sit outside and watch a pretty amazing thunderstorm on Wednesday night which was followed by a biblical down pouring of rain that only lasted 5 minutes but made me wish we had an ark during that 5 minutes.  On Friday, J's sisters both decided to pull their trailers out and we could all camp together.  It was so nice to camp out with everyone and not have any major chores that needed to be done.  On Saturday it was hot out.  One of those sweltering heats that makes you now want to do anything.  My youngest nephew was bored so we turned on the sprinklers for the kids to run through.  None of the other kids wanted to play with him so I decided to jump in even if I didn't bring a bathing suit with me.  I got really tired of the other kids being lazy and just hanging out in their great-grandma's house watching tv and playing video games so I decided it was time to do something about it.  J's dad went in the house and yelled that it was time for them all to come outside and play and as they grumbled their way out the door I got them with a bucket of water and an hour long water fight ensued.  It was so much fun!  After the water fight died down we decided to take the kids swimming in the canal.  The water was clear and moving quite fast and was surprisingly warm.  Despite dousing myself in sunscreen I still walked out with a super bad sunburn.  We headed back to camp and relaxed around the fire while my brother-in-law cooked burgers over an open fire.  They were fantastic!  We stayed up late around the fire visiting and watching J and the kids play a late night game of "war" running around the fields shooting each other and having a grand time.

Sunday we were supposed to leave in the afternoon to pick up a friend at the airport but I decided to stay while J went back to town so I could go horseback riding with my sister's in law.  Things were going well at first.  I caught Jack with no problems and got him haltered and in the round pen with no resistance.  He was acting a little funny once I put his bit in but calmed down after I walked him around for a bit.  I decided to get on him in the round pen and ride a bit in there before we went into the field just to make sure everything was ok and that's when things went wrong.  I got on him and it was ok for a minute and then all hell broke loose.  He just started bucking like mad which he has never done before.  I tried to get him back under control but I soon realized it was a losing battle.  I managed to hang on until he turned away from the fence and then I bailed.  I hit the ground hard landing on my right foot and left knee  I scrambled to climb the fence quick as he was still bucking and had just reached to top when one of the kids and one of my sister in law's rand around from the other side of the barn.  My ankle was hurting pretty bad but I walked around a bit and C and I got Jack calmed and started checking his tack to see if we had done something wrong to make him buck.  C got on the phone and called my father in law to come down and help.  When B got there he checked things over and thought things were ok so I got back on with B holding a lunge line just in case.  Things went good for a couple of minutes and then he started again.  I lost my balance and my inner thigh's slammed into the pommel of the saddle hard and down I went.  B got him calmed and lunged him for a bit and then back on I went.  He seemed much better at this point so B gave me the reins and we went to riding.  I screwed up a bit and scared him and he jumped in response which threw me off balance again and scared him even more and he started bucking again.  In my head I knew what to do, but in that moment my body didn't respond and he managed to throw me high in the air and I cam down flat on my butt and my wrist.  That really hurt and I wasn't able to get back on at that point.  My nephew got on him for a bit and I went back to the campsite.  I found out later that my nephew got bucked off as well but thankfully he's ok.  I, on the other hand, am not.  My ankle is bruised and swollen.  Both of my thighs are jet black with some of the worst bruising I have ever seen.  And I have very limited use of my right arm.  I have injured my ulnar nerve which is really making life difficult since I'm right-handed.  Work tomorrow is going to suck!

Right leg 3 days after.

Left leg 3 days post "rodeo" I love how you can still see the seam line of my jeans in the bruise.

Anniversary "Traditions"

Yesterday J and I celebrated our 8th anniversary.  We also discovered a new anniversary tradition.

It started last year.  We left the house for breakfast and on our way we came across an accident.  An elderly gentleman on a bike had been hit by a car.  We pulled over and ran out to help.  I spent roughly 35 minutes kneeling in the middle if a busy road immobilizing his head while an off duty paramedic checked him over and J directed traffic.  We stayed until the ambulance and police showed up and then we quietly headed on our way.  (The man was ok.  He had a slight shoulder injury but was coherent and has since recovered fine, although I haven't seen him on a bike since.)  Needless to say, we didn't make it to breakfast, but we did a good deed.

Yesterday we left the house and went for lunch and on our way back we came across a guy whose truck had stalled in a very bad place on a very busy street and he was trying to push it uphill to get it off the road.  Without even discussing it, we pulled the car over and jumped out to help.  4 other people stopped to help as well and then a truck pulled over with a tow rope and we quickly hooked him up and got him off the road.

Now J and I are the type of people who always stop to help.  If we see a car on the side of the road, we pull over.  We hold doors open for people.  We boost cars regularly.  And now we joke about our new anniversary tradition of doing at least one good deed and then fading into the background like some superhero.

Here's to many many more years of keeping this tradition alive.