World Without End Update

Well, I finished World Without End. What a book. Really, really good, although not as good as Pillars. Lots of political intrigue within the church, which makes for very interesting reading. Also, lots of info about the plague in Europe and how devastating that was.

It was good all along, but about halfway through it becomes really, really good.

It definitely was a book to stand on its own - it had some references to characters in Pillars, but you can read it by itself with no problems.

Wicked

So I've been listening to the Wicked soundtrack. I had a passing awareness that there was such a musical, and that it was a big hit and all that. When I was planning the NYC trip, a friend from work had just seen it on Broadway and raved about it. I didn't think it would be up the boys' alley, so we passed on it this time. But I bought The Lion King recording on iTunes when we got back, and Wicked was available as well. So I downloaded it to see what all the fuss was about.

All the fuss is about some very good music, and from what I can tell, a very good story. It's based on a book by the same name, which tells the story before the story of The Wizard of Oz - how the witches came to be witches and what was going on behind the scenes while Dorothy did her thing.

It's kind of funny to listen to a musical soundtrack without seeing the stage production. You have a good idea what's going on, but not exactly, and when you do see it staged, it's always different then what you imagined. I knew the music from Phantom and Les Miz by heart well before I ever saw them on stage.

And so I'm learning the music from Wicked and filling in the gaps as best I can. I hope to see it on stage one day. It's coming to the Fox Theater in Atlanta in October, in case anyone's interested...

NYC - The Outtakes

Some of the less-than-stellar photos from our trip....

NYC Vacation - Odds and Ends

When we went through security at the Statue of Liberty, we had to stand in this machine that blew air on us in concentrated bursts. What the heck was that?

When I was ten, my parents took me to New York and I puked in a taxi. Ben is ten - we take him to New York, and he pukes in a taxi. Worm hole? You decide.

We saw one family three different times while we were there.

I highly recommend the Holiday Inn on West 57th - nice rooms, reasonably priced, and in a quiet area.

While we were waiting for our flight today, we saw the actress who plays Pam on The Office.

Three home runs were hit while we were at Yankee stadium. I left my seat twice - once to go to the bathroom and once to get shirts. I missed the first two bombs.

Mark got separated from us on the way back from the game - we were on the same train, just in two different spots. He discovered he was next to a woman who lives in Kingsport and works at the track. Small world.

We got really confused only once while we were there - the train we were on to get to Yankee Stadium stopped at 145th st and didn't go any further. We had no idea what to do - we're on the platform trying to read the subway map and are helped by some very nice Canadians from Canadia. Fortunately, we were all wearing Jeter jerseys and they knew where we were going. I asked if they were here supporting the Jays - not at all - they were Yankee fans, ay.

I had an attack of vertigo at the Statue of Liberty, climbing the stairs in the monument. I'm not sure what I was expecting it to be like, but certainly not how it was. Certainly not that.

For those of you who have experienced The Lion King - you think anyone ever got beaned with one of those birds?

A 16 oz beer costs $8.50 at Yankee stadium. We estimated that the party in front of us spent approximately $87 on beer.

"A Starbucks on Every Corner" is not just a cute phrase.

If you go to MLB.com and look for video of Stairs's homer for the Jays on Thursday, you can clearly see Ben just to the left and several rows up from where the ball lands. He's in a red PC shirt and is slightly behind another guy in red shirt who is standing and raising his hands. I am, of course, not visible as I was in the can at the time.

NYC - Final Day

Got up early and walked to Central Park - enjoyed a picnic breakfast - then back to the hotel to pack - cab to the airport - flight back to Charlotte and a drive home. Good times.

NYC Day Three

Yankee Stadium. The Yankees hosting the Blue Jays, and the Yankees win! The-uh-uh-uh Yankees win! In dramatic fashion too - the Yanks were down by a run with one man on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth - Giambi came in and went deep - an upper decker that went right above our heads. It was awesome!!!

NYC - Day Two

Breakfast in the hotel....Subway downtown....Ground Zero....Trinity Church....Wall Street....NYSE....Battery Park....Ferry Ride....Statue of Liberty....Lunch on Liberty Island....Pizza and Hot Dogs....Exploding mustard dispenser....Anxiety attack in the statue....Subway uptown....Museum of Natural History....Funny waiter in a diner....Roof top pool closed....Movie in the room....Early night. That about sums it up. We're having a great time!!!

NYC - Day One

We made it! We had an uneventful flight, apart from a delay on the runway, and two in-flight trips to the john by DP. We hit Times Square last night - ate at the Brooklyn Diner (see Mark's leaning tower of potatoes, below) and visited the Toys R Us store - they had a really cool Lego display and, of course, the ferris wheel (which we didn't ride, but did gawk at). And then there was The Lion King. I can't tell you how amazing that was. AMAZING. I cried during the opening, it was so awesome.

Zucchini Bread

So I'm watching the Contessa one afternoon not too long ago, and I'm trying to think of what to cook for supper. Namely, I'm trying to think of something new and exciting to do with some zucchini I have in the fridge that is about to go bad.

The Contessa goes off, and Paula Deen comes on. She's making...you guessed it...zucchini bread! I watch the spot, and sure enough, I have all I need to make the bread.

I had never baked zucchini bread, and really couldn't even think of a time when I had eaten zucchini bread, so I decide to give it a shot.

As you can see from the photos, it didn't rise all that well (but neither did Paula's) and one of the loaves broke in two when I turned it out of the pan, but it was darned tasty. I had it toasted with butter every morning for about a week.

Combine Dry Ingredients:

3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups sugar

Combine Wet Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup water

2 cups grated zucchini (about 2, average-sized)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix. Add:

1 cup chopped walnuts

Pour into two prepared loaf pans, and bake at 350 for one hour.

Don't thank me, thank Paula.

Guerdon

guerdon - noun - \ˈgər-dən\ - something that one has earned or gained; reward, recompense


This was the winning word in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Let's use it today, shall we?

Baseball

Ben has been watching the Baseball tapes. I couldn't be happier.

Many baseball fans site one person as the reason they love the game. "I'm a fan because of Mickey Mantle," or "I'm a fan because of Ted Williams," or even "I'm a fan because of my grandpa." Well, I'm a fan because of Ken Burns.

My friend and boss-at-the-time Jennifer K first recommended this documentary. My mom was looking for something to buy Mark for Christmas in 1996, and Jen and her husband had recently watched Baseball on PBS. I passed that advice on to my mom, and Mark got the nine-tape set for Christmas.

We randomly picked one tape from the set to preview on Christmas morning. It featured the story of Roberto Clemente. I was spellbound.

See, I wasn't a fan of the game. I found it rather boring. But earlier that year - in the spring in fact - we discovered that our back-woods-locally-owned cable company, for some reason unknown to anyone, piped in WPIX out of New York. Mark had been able to watch his Yankees play all season.

1996 was a good year for the Yanks. They had a rookie shortstop - you might remember him, Derek Jeter - and they beat the Braves in a six-game series that had me on the edge of my seat every night. Me, who didn't really like baseball. Found it boring. But I liked this Jeter guy, and I liked the way the Yankees played.

And then there was Ken Burns. Mark and I started watching the documentary, and watched about half a tape each night. For those not familiar, this long history of baseball was laid out into nine-innings - each inning looking at a period in the game, usually about a decade, and each inning lasting about two and a half hours. John Chancellor narrated, and tons of people provided commentary. It was the most well-presented documentary I had every seen, and it made me love the game. The history, the magic, the curses, the underdogs, the House that Ruth built - all of it. I was hooked.

And Ben is getting hooked to. In a time when steroids are killing the game, and the Yankees are miles away from the team they were in 96, it's good to remember the positives. It's good to cook dinner and hear Buck O'Neil's voice talking about Jackie Robinson and what it was like to play with him. And to hear Billy Crystal talking about going to Yankee Stadium for the first time when he was a kid and thinking Casey Stengal was going to call him in to play.

My kids are going to Yankee stadium for the first (and only) time next week. I doubt they'll be called in to play, but who knows, maybe one day they'll be on TV talking about their visit. Great things can still happen in baseball.

What's For Dinner?

My mom is in town this week, so we tag-teamed dinner tonight. She made a grits casserole, and I grilled shrimp and sausage. Delish....

What I'm Reading Now

World Without End, by Ken Follet.

I cannot even tell you how pumped I am about this book. It's the follow-up to Pillars of the Earth, one of my all-time favorites. If I remember correctly, my brother read Pillars first, then got me to read it. I read it right after Mark and I got married - I always associate it with our tiny two-room apartment, which was barely big enough to hold the thousand-page tome. It's one of those books that you don't read as much as you experience - you get absorbed in the characters and the places and the stories, and you can't put it down, but when you're done, you miss it.

World Without End takes place two-hundred years after Pillars ends, and focuses on four characters with ties to characters in the first book. Not a sequel, from what I understand, just a follow-up.

I haven't even started it - it just came today - but I can't wait to crack it open. I think I'll do that now...

Decoration Day

Ben and Daniel presented the colors this morning during our Decoration Day service. They did a great job!

May Movie Recap

I blogged a while back about summer movies I was (and still am) pumped about. I have seen three of those movies in the last two weeks, so I thought I'd offer my thoughts for those of you considering a fun flick for your Memorial Day festivities:

We begin with Iron Man. I am a big fan of the Marvel Universe, but Iron Man has never been one of my favorites. But I really liked this movie! I know the first movie for a new character is usually slow, what being tied to the back story and all that, but this one was action-packed. Maybe because I didn't know the storyline very well, I was more into it.

Robert Downey, Jr. was an awesome Tony Stark. He was just likeable enough to play an unlikeable character and make you like him. The special effects were great - the final version of the Iron Man suit (red and gold) was wicked cool.

If you're considering taking the kiddies, there was the obligatory violence, but nothing over the top. Also, a couple of racy scenes, but they don't last long. The big thing with this one is whether or not the younger crowd will follow the storyline. DP loved the movie, but was totally lost for the first half. Ben really loved it - he's since been reading all the Iron Man comics he can find - and I think he followed it pretty well. Not for the younger kiddies, but the older ones should be fine.

Overall, a strong showing. Two enthusiastic thumb's up.

Next up, Prince Caspian. We all loved the first one, and it was so loyal to the book. I couldn't remember enough about the book in this one to know if it followed the story as well.

This one was definitely darker, and had lots more fighting. That was a big plus for DP - he lives for battle scenes - but more of a detractor for me. There wasn't as much "magical" stuff in this one, but I did like it. Standing on its own, not being compared to its predecessor, it was a good movie.

It had a good message, too. One line has really stuck with me: they were discussing why Aslan had not come back to save the day, and one of them says "Why doesn't Aslan prove himself to us?" And Lucy says "Maybe we should be proving ourselves to Aslan." Maybe we should.

Since this one is technically for the kiddies, I'm guessing most of you will be taking the kiddies. Two words of caution for the younger kiddies: one, very hard to follow, and two, there's one scene where they are trying to conjure the white witch, and these two wicked creepy things show up. Might be a little unsettling. I was unsettled, and I'm 37.

Overall, a good flick. I think the franchise will continue.

And finally, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I think the working title was Grandpa Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

All kidding aside, I was surprised to find that an old Indy worked well. But it really did. Harrison Ford was still great in the role.

This one had all the same plot devices as its predecessors. Same basic story as well. Indy gets dragged into an adventure involving some ancient thing that we've all heard of, but don't really know much about. Could be historical, could be bunk, who knows, but it works. The effects were good, but not over the top. It had the same look and feel as the others. There was also the obligatory "large amount of something gross" - in the others, it was snakes, insects, rats, and now.....I'll let you watch.

This one would be fine for the kiddies, I thought. Some bad words peppered in here and there, but nothing over the top in the violence department. One kind of disturbing part involving the "large amount of something gross", but it's brief. Both my kids LOVED this one.

Definitely a winner.

To sum up, I am thus far enjoying Movie Summer 2008. Ranking these three in relation to each other, I would have to go with Iron Man first, then Dr. Jones, and finally Prince Caspian. But you can't go wrong with any of them. Fine summertime fun.