President's Day at the Dallas Zoo

Today my family and I spent mos of our President's Day at the Dallas Zoo. They were having a special "Penguin Days" promotion going on (due to the colder weather), where admission was only $5.00 per person.

We saw plenty of snakes, lizards, alligators and frogs in the Reptile House, including one big albino gator. We also saw plenty of birds in the aviary exhibits; however, most of the other animals were being a little elusive. Although the weather was over 60 degrees, some of the animals were inside the closed off sections of their enclosures or were grouped together in the farthest corners of their enclosures. I am assuming this was their, or the zoo's, effort to keep the animals warm. We did get to see some elephants and plenty of giraffes, which are always cool to see, and we saw some very smelly warthogs. The big cats were hiding out or sitting in places that made them hard to see. We really wanted to see the cheetahs, lions and tigers, but all we got were glimpses of them. The gorillas (photo above) were mostly indoors; although we did see one gorilla sitting forlornly by himself on a stump. The chimps were the same way. The lemurs were hiding out, but the flamingos were out in their full pink glory. We did see two very curious meerkats who came very close to the edge of their exhibit. Somehow we missed the kangaroo area. The new Koala exhibit opens in the spring.

Today was still a fun day with the family and we hope to return in the summer, when maybe the animals will be more active.

Woo-Hoo! I'm Going to See Jimmy Buffett in Concert

I am so excited; I just purchased two tickets to go see Jimmy Buffett in concert. He will be in Dallas on April 19th.

I used to listen to Jimmy Buffett as a kid, but I really became a fan when I was attending Tyler Jr. College. A friend of mine was a real "Parrothead" (fans of Jimmy Buffett are called Parrotheads) and he listened to Jimmy Buffett all the time. Now, after all these years I finally get to go see him in concert. I will blog more about later, as the concert day approaches. Yea!!!!

Words With Friends and Other Stuff

Recently I finally decided to get in on the latest internet/online game app around; Words With Friends. Darn it, now I have 6 games going among family and friends. It is an online version of Scrabble and it is very fun and addictive. Since I do not have an I-Phone or an I-Pad, I have to play through my Facebook Account.

Other stuff: My wife and I do not like the new Starbucks Blonde Roast Coffee. We tried the Willow Blend and found it to be very weak and it just does not taste right. Sorry, Starbucks, nice try but as far as your coffees go; Blonde is not better.

Jamie and my, Mystery Dinner Date was fun. We hope to do this again sometimes, maybe with the entire family.

I also substituted to the first time with Mansfield ISD today. It was only a half-day assignment; however, it is work and hopefully it will lead to a full time job with the district soon.

Death at the Doo-Wop

Tonight my beautiful bride, Jamie, and I are going to a Murder Mystery Dinner. It's theme is "Death at the Doo-Wop"! It is being performed by The Murder Mystery Company in Dallas who will customize a Mystery Dinner for audiences across the United States. Here is there description of our dinner tonight: "Grab your Poodle Skirts and Horn Rimmed Glasses; the class of 1957 is having one killer Prom! Before the King and Queen can have their first dance, tragedy strikes! You'll play detective in this 'swell' interactive murder mystery dinner. Can you bring the true killer to justice before this Sock Hop Prom is ruined? Golly Gosh!"

All guest are encouraged to dress in 50's attire to promote the theme. Jamie and I went to a local Goodwill and a Salvation Army Store to look for anything that remotely looks like 50's clothing. What we found may not be exactly 50's; but it is close enough for us anyway.

Click here for the menu...MENU. I have a feeling we are going to really enjoy ourselves!

Why I think they are bad movies!

The movies I am about to blog about are on my list of my 20 Least Favorite Movies Ever (See bottom of Blog). Some of them I saw believing that they would be good movies; either based on recommendations of friends, or based on the trailers I saw on TV or as previews shown at the start of other movies I went to see; however, all of them turned out to be bad or at least inappropriate to watch. At least one of these movies I was "forced" to watch by my kids, who, when they were younger loved to watch movies like that. What is sad about me watching these movies, is that even though I realized these movies were bad or that I shouldn't be watching this kind of movie; I sat through the entire movie from start to finish. So here is my list of my 10 least favorite movies and why.

My #1 Least favorite movie is Me, Myself and Irene. It stars two of my favorite actors in what I think is their worst roles ever. The movie was full of very crude sexual humor, which I can't stand, vulgar sexual scenes (especially one with a dildo), and vulgar language. I was sick to my stomach over some of the scenes and I was hoping no one would see me watching a movie like this. The story line didn't even keep my interest. Sadly I kept thinking it's got to get better (after all it had Jim Carey and Rene Zellweger ) and I stayed until the bitter end. It did not get better it just got worse and worse and worse.

#2. Jaws: The Revenge (Jaws 4) -- Jaws 3-D was bad enough, I am not sure why I even wanted to watch a 4th Jaws movie. Maybe because they were back in the ocean, not an aquarium, or maybe I was just hoping it had to be better than Jaws 3-D. The main reason why I hate this movie is: SHARKS DON'T GROWL/ROAR or whatever that shark did in the movie. Bad story line, plus a gargling shark put a bad taste in my mouth for any future shark movies. Nothing can beat the original Jaws.

#3. The Late Great Planet Earth -- When I was barely a teenager, a friend of mine and I went to go see some movie one weekend. After we got there we decided to watch this movie instead. Big mistake. (not sure what the other movie was now). BIG mistake. This documentary movie is based upon some guys interpretation of various prophecies about the end of the world. All I remember was that I had trouble staying awake, it was boring and the narrator's voice was driving me crazy. It talked about how the Iranian Revolution was the spark that was going to end the world in a nuclear holocaust. Needless to say, we are all still here, although I barely made it out of the movie alive. If we were not relying on someone else for transportation, both me and my friend would have walked out, instead we sat through the entire 91 minutes, which seemed like 91 hours.

#4. Bolero -- Not sure where I watched this movie, but I am ashamed to have watched this movie. It is basically a porn movie. The story about how a girl wants to and finally looses her virginity was a snooze fest . I think the only reason I watched it was that I was just out of High School and wanted to see Bo Derek naked. Sadly I sat through a boringly long film waiting for what few nude scenes it did show and then I felt bad inside for watching it. I do not support Porn movies at all! They are degrading to women especially and it warps God's gift of sex between a husband and wife. What makes this movie even worse in my mind, was that it was directed by Bo Derek's husband. How can a husband let his wife be in a movie like this, much less direct it.

#5. Dragon Hunters -- My least favorite animated film of all time. Not only did my wife and I not like this movie, my kids hated it. They were the reason we watched it. The type of animation used was not my favorite kind of animation. That big dude with the little bitty legs gave me the creeps and I just couldn't watch the film. The story was boring and I was glad the movie was only 80 minutes long. Weird film, made in France! That's what was wrong with it! Ha!

#6. Halloween III: Season of the Witch -- Three words, No Michael Myers. I thought for sure they would work in Michael Myers somewhere. Nope! Just a conspiracy about some cursed/haunted/something Halloween masks designed to kill children. It was not even that suspenseful. Stupid plot + bad acting = bad movie. Nothing to do with the original Halloween movies (or those that came after) at all. Just a waste of money and a waste of time.

#7. Airplane II: The Sequel -- Sorry folks, but I am just not a fan of movies with lots of cliche, often sexual, puns with goofy story lines. The first Airplane was ok; but it was not that funny to me. When asked to watch the sequel, I reluctantly went. I am sorry I did. I laughed a couple of times; however, overall it just not my kind of movie and I wished I had stayed home to watched something on TV.

#8. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams -- Another movie I watched because my kids wanted to watch it. I didn't like the first Spy Kids and I did't want to watch this one. It may be an great movie for kids, but the movie was just to unrealistic for my taste and just plain silly to me. At least I got to spend time with my kids, but I feel like I "Lost" money more than I gained any entertainment.

#9. Popeye -- It's a wonder I became a Robin Williams fan. This musical adaptation of the comic strip Popeye makes me sad I ever wasted money to watch it. It was bad, bad, bad. I like musicals, but I didn't think this movie was going to be a musical. Maybe I didn't watch the trailers close enough; but I thought it would be better than it was. Instead I got bad singing, bad acting, bad everything. Popeye will never be the same. What makes it worse was that Popeye was not one of my favorite cartoon characters anyway. I think I got out voted by my sister and my mother and was forced to watch it with them or stay home. Wrong choice on my part.

#10. Batman Forever -- The silliness of Batman's villains and his love interest in this movie, is what makes this movie so awful. I love Tommy Lee Jones as an actor; however, his portrayal of Two-Face in this movie is probably his worst performance as an actor. The silly laughing and the overly bright costumes made Two-Face more of clown than a super-villain. Once again, I like Jim Carey as an actor, but his portrayal of the Joker could have been so much more. I don't know if the director wanted to make a comedy or not, but that is how the movie looked to me. It was a bad comedy rather than a super hero movie. Nicole Kidman's performance in the movie was also one of her worst performances.

So there you have it!

The Robins Have Returned, Spring is a Comin'!

Several weeks ago my family and I set out a bird feeder in our backyard. We have seen several types of birds including sparrows, turtle doves, cardinals, finches and some cool looking black birds with orange marks on their wings. (I really need a bird watching guide). Today I saw the first robins of the year; which normally means spring is not to far behind. (Not that Texas has had much of a winter.) My wife, the cats and I enjoy watching the birds in the morning as we drink our coffee. We may have to buy another feeder to put out because we like watching them so much. We also may try to get a hummingbird feeder as well. It's amazing to see just how many types of birds we have around our home.