random fact

Random fact: I drove an average of 20 miles per day since my last oil change. So it took me 5 months to reach 3,000 miles. I have a feeling that my driving is below average.

*edit - I had gone exactly 3,000 miles since my last oil change when I rolled into the oil place. I think I should get some kind of award.

Movie Review: The Great Ziegfeld

Oscar Best Picture Winner 1936

Nope, still no color. This movie had some really good parts, but it was longer than it needed to be, running at 3 hours. It was the story of a Broadway musical director, who began his career at a Worlds Fair displaying the "World's Strongest Man". The viewers in 1936 were familiar with the real person of Ziegfeld, and the movie seemed to bank on that prior knowledge. There was an amazing set and great camera work for one of the musical numbers. It was amazing. But probably not worth sitting through the movie to see that.

piano on the house

We finally have a piano in our home. It's an electronic. Courtney was given one as a child, and it has been sitting around all this time, waiting for ME. As soon as it came home, I played some Oscar Peterson on it.

South Carolina trip expanded

Day One. Courtney gets sick. Initially blamed on McDonald's which was our first meal. I initially thought it was funny that Courtney puked in our hosts' bathroom trash can. After one year of marriage I'm still working on my sympathy. We just hung out and played a game named "Puerto Rico".






Day Two. Evan took us to play disc golf in Chapin, SC, near Lake Murray. Courtney hung out on a couch in the visitors center.


Friday night we watched a movie named The Interpreter (reviewed below).





Day Three. We headed to the Columbia Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

Later Audrey took us to see the State Capital building, the RiverWalk, and the campus of Columbia International University.

That night we traveled to Batesburg-Leesville, SC to get some of the famous Shealy's Bar-B-Q. See review of this earlier in my blog. I came down with the same sickness that Courtney had.






























Day Four. Our 1 year anniversary.

We stayed home from church because I was sick with a fever. After lunch, we headed east toward the Congaree Swamp National Park. Very cool type of earth that I've never seen before. We walked around a 2.5 mile elevated walkway.




























































The exact minute that we had been married for 1 year.



Day Five. We went on a walking tour of Charleston. Lots of old buildings. Nice day. We got sunburned on the last day of the trip, just like on our honeymoon. People live in these historic homes, and they are filthy rich.











































Day Six. Goodbye. Thanks Audrey and Evan!!

Restaurant Review: Garibaldi Italian

We ate at Garibaldi when we arrived in Charleston. I just had a salad and soup, because I was still queasy from being sick. Courtney had a salad. The atmosphere was nice - we were way underdressed. Me in my Old Navy long sleeved shirt, and other patrons in sports jackets. But they served us anyway - slowly. It took forever, because supposedly they were down to one cook. But we were grateful to be in town, and to be celebrating our anniversary

Restaurant Review: Shealy's Barbeque

This was an interesting experience from all perspectives. When we arrived the line was outside the door to the left hand side of the above picture. In a certain point in the line, you reach a hand washing station. In the buffet, I pointed at an item, and said "What is that?". Courtney informed me that it was the mustard-based BBQ I had wanted to try. It looks like a strange casserole, and not at all like BBQ. The vinegar based BBQ looks equally as strange, but a lighter color. But the vinegar based BBQ is much more disgusting. The dining room is made up of rows and rows of tables like you would see at an indoor church potluck.

I ended up puking everything on the Evan and Audrey's lawn at the conclusion of the trip. And not even the heavy rains the entire night washed it away. But I should be fair and say that the sickness was not related to this restaurant. Plus, I am happy to have gone to this restaurant for the authentic South Carolina dining experience.

Movie Review: The Interpreter

While we were in South Carolina, Courtney was sick one night and our hosts were away, so we plopped in one of their videos - The Interpreter. It is about an intepreter at the UN who overhears a plot to assasinate a head of state. Then investigators try to decide if she is telling the truth, or if she has political motivations. It was not the best movie ever, but it moved quickly and kept our interest.

Jason Whitlock

I'm proud of our local sports columnist for what he said on this video:

Back from SC

It will be difficult to describe my entire trip on this old blog. But the down low is that we were sick with stomach flu for half the time, we saw the sights in Columbia SC, and some in Charleston SC. It is great to be back, and to be holding our food inside.

Restaurant Review: Zaxby's

Hanging out with my friend Evan is the best, because he has a gluten allergy. Zaxby's is his favorite, and it has non-breaded wings. We went through the fast food window. I don't think it would pass for a corporate lunch because I couldn't picture myself wearing my dress clothes and eating wings. But it would make a great weekend lunch. (If any existed in Kansas).

http://www.zaxbys.com/

Movie Review: Mutiny on the Bounty

Courtney and I watched this over the period of 2 days before our trip. Halfway through the second evening, the mutiny still had not happened. Half the movie was establishing that yes, the captain is in fact an inhumane self-centered jerk. The end was good, how the captain was set out to sea to try to survive in a little boat, and the mutineers just kind of secluded themselves on a lonely island, not to be discovered for 20 years. (The sentence for mutiny is hanging). The coolest thing about it is that it is based on a true story. There are descendants of the mutineers living on the same island today, although most people emigrate, because it is a horrible island. They still have the last names of the British sailors. (Oscar Best Picture 1935, and no it's not in color)

Planning South Carolina

Planning a trip is harder work than I thought. It really should have involved some planning. But we've been doing one thing at a time. 1st, pick the dates. Then we bought the plane tickets. Then we found out how to drive from the SC airport. Then we found a ride to and from the airport in KC. Then we found a hotel in Charleston. Next we might plan what to do in Charleston. But our friends planned out some great events for us for when we're in Columbia, SC.

*Corrections: We drove from the Charlotte, NC airport and not the "SC airport"

birthday

I'm finally posting about my birthday.

My parents got me a drill and garage storage shelf, Mo gave me a Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison CD. Awesome. I had been dropping hints about getting a drill. Mom made a cake of fruit. It wasn't a fruit cake. It was actually just fruit on a platter. But I appreciated it.

The most heartwarming gift was Courtney's gift of the Oscar Peterson Note-for-Note transcription. It was on my electronic wish list. She knows one of my only dreams is to be a jazz pianist. I had put this book on my wish list.

Being a jazz pianist is kind of a hard goal to define. I thought about this, and I think it has to involve performing in front of others. The performance wouldn't have to be a concert - I'd actually rather play at a party. And it would involve playing several challenging songs.

Being a jazz pianist to me does not mean becoming an expert in improvisation. I am content with playing from a sheet. However, jazz is somewhat defined by improvisation, so these sheets are hard to find. That is why I found a few, and put them on my wish list, and voila, I have one now. I figure these will be very hard to learn, but once I learn 6 or more, I can start letting people know that I could play for a party.

To read more about Oscar Peterson, go here

Courntey also got me a short cut capo. This helps guitar players to get interesting sounds that would be almost impossible to do without. And she got me some gluten-free snacks.

So I am now involved again with 3 different instruments! Yeah!

And Courtney also made me dinner and a gluten-free chocolate cake!

Best of March

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Grand Hotel
Best Book I Read: A Painted House, by John Grisham
Best New-To-Me Restaurant: A Taste of China
Best Life Happening: my work's "Hallympics"

Movie Review: It Happened One Night

Oscar Best Picture 1934

Featuring: Clark Gable

We loved this movie. I think the title is misleading. It is a story about a runaway, as they are avoiding the authorities, and it ends up being a romantic comedy as well. Clark Gable did a great job, and he made us laugh a lot. Best old movie so far.

*Extra note: This is probably the first movie where there is no annoying background music during all of the scenes. The other movies made it difficult to understand what the actors were saying.

father-son time

I enjoyed the time I spent with Dad last week. On Thursday we took the flat tire off of my riding lawn mower, and took it to QuikTrip to try to pump it up. It worked, and we gave each other a high five! Then we went to the garden store and learned about weed poison.

Then Saturday, we emptied the oil out of the mower. It was black as dirt. We went to the store looking for a new spark plug and air filter. Then I sprayed weed poison onto my entire lawn. It was not fun, so it better work! (I need to mention it got increasingly cold that day too) Then we put up my new garage shelves. And Dad unclogged our kitchen sink with a pipe snake. There may have been a high five involved at that moment as well. If there wasn't, there should have been.

I'm thankful for the good time we had together. Not all sons have their dads in town, and even if they were in town, not all dads would help out like that.

Birthday post coming up!