Book Review: Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters

Title: Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters
Subtitle: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know
Author: Meg Meeker, MD.

How I found out about it: Dave Ramsey raves about it on the air
How I obtained it: Courtney gave it to me for my first father's day

First impressions:  It's a really alarmist book, listing all of the horrendous stats about teenage girls in US, such as prevalence of STDs or drug or alcohol abuse.

Lasting impressions:  I'm really left with the impression that I need to protect my daughter.  I need to encourage her, so that she doesn't need to get her self worth from the culture around her.  I think also, as I said the book is alarmist, I think I will be less naive and more aware of all the pitfalls out there for youth.  I don't know if it is good for me to be paranoid, but it may be good to at least be aware of the possibility of the temptations out there.

Aside from cultural types of things, the book also encourages fathers to teach their daughters humility and to "teach her who God is."

Writing style: the entire thing is written in a "spoken" style. It sounds like a motivational speech.

I think it was a good message to hear overall. It may be a decade before I can put the things into practice, but I will be ready!

Restaurant Review: Holy Land Cafe

The Holy Land Cafe (12275 W 87th Street Pkwy, Lenexa KS) is truly authentic Middle Eastern cuisine.

I was always under the impression that it was a place where you walked in and ordered at the counter...kind of fast-foodish.  But maybe that is contrary to being authentic.  We sat down and had a waiter.  He was doing some double duty as waiter and cashier, so he took a little while to get back to us.  I would really like to go back for lunch, because I think it's a popular spot.  The evening that we went, it was not particularly busy.

The prices are good, probably less expensive than other authentic restaurants such as Thai Place.  The food is excellent.  I had Lamb Kabobs.  Really I wasn't sure if I wanted lamb, but I was in the mindset that I only live once, and need to try out different things.

The have a room for hookah, and it seemed like a waste of space with all of the couches, where they could fit in more tables.  But that is a cultural thing as well.  Maybe it's an American thing to squeeze every last penny out of your space.  It made a nice play area for the young children who were with us.  I do not really understand hookah, and I don't feel like reading about it right now.

so in summary, it is authentic, if I haven't said that yet.  And I do recommend it.

I do not recommend eating out more than twice per week, just for budget purposes.  i am thankful that Courtney cooks for our family.But if you choose to eat out sometime, you should try Holy Land Cafe.  It has many gluten-free items, in fact that is most of the menu.  And it is authentic.

Movie Review: Rain Man (1988)

I just received a funny and random comment on my review of On Golden Pond:  "WOW. Way to spoil a movie and not even do a proper review."  That confirms it's a good thing I stopped writing plot lines.  But I wonder how someone reached my review from 2009.  I don't what a "proper review" is - I just write down my thoughts.  I have thought about reading more real reviews, just to get some pointers, but I haven't been too interested.

Anyway, we saw Rain Man, Best Picture Winner 1988.  I think Tom Cruise got gypped, not even nominated for Best Actor for playing Charlie Babbitt..  I think maybe the movie role of an impatient immature jerk doesn't get many nominations.  I am used to seeing Tom Cruise in action movies, so I was impressed at his acting.   But notable is that Dustin Hoffman won Best Actor.  I definitely agree with that, because I actually forgot while watching it that this was an actor - it was just so believable.  He is so consistent while playing the role of Raymond Babbitt.

Rain Man is one of those movies that integrates comedy and drama just so seamlessly, and it is strong in both areas.  Forest Gump would be another example.

There are some movies where the death of a person is the climax of the movie.  Some examples are One Flew and Midnight Cowboy.  However, in Rain Man, a death of a person sets the plot into motion.  Charlie Babbit's father died, and left the money to a mental institution. Without that, the plot would have never gotten started.  Another example of this is the Cinderella Story, or Ever After, which I haven't seen, but I've seen the beginning several times.  Without the father's death, the plot would have never happened.  So it is with our faith -Christ died, so that we could have life.  His death and resurrection set the real plot of mankind into motion - it's kind of the beginning and the end all in one.

My favorite scene is when Charlie Babbitt realizes that his brother was the "Rain Man" who came and sang to him when he was young, and then Raymond sings "Saw Her Standing There".  I would definitely watch the movie again.

Movie Review: Charade (1963)

Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant are the main actors in the movie.  It is a combination of mystery, suspense, action, and romance.  It wasn't until the end that we really knew what was happening, so the movie was successful in tricking us.  Kenny, my dad-in-law, recommended the movie. I recommend it.  I stopped writing the actual plot of movies in my reviews, because it takes a really long time, and then I tend to give up halfway through.

I didn't particularly care for the style of the banter between Hepburn and Grant.  It's kind of the old style.  The music was also old style.  In 1963, the huge shift in movie making had not really happened yet.  However, I miss the innocence of the old style - although there is violence, the romance is really old fashioned.  The movie's conclusion is a marriage proposal, which is the ultimate goal of the romance.  Now in movies, they sleep together nearly before they know each others names, and then that is supposed to be romance.

Restaurant Review: Chez Elle

When my wife told me about Chez Elle, it sounded like a rare and unlikely place.  In fact I loved it before I even went.  First of all, it is a creperie, which hearkens me back to my childhood in Quebec, where crepes were standard fare.  Second, they can make crepes with gluten-free batter for no extra charge.  Third, this is in Kansas City.  It is located at 1713 Summit St. Kansas City, Mo 64108.

The reason we heard about it was that one of our church friends, Lyndsay Heidebrecht, had art on display. Her art was about to be taken down on Sunday Oct 31. So I had taken the day off on Friday and we went on Oct 29.

It terms of our experience with the food, it was beautiful-looking.  And I'm not sure that I loved the taste of the gluten free batter. But as someone with the gluten allergy, often the experience of eating normally restricted foods is more important than the taste.   I had Le Jardin, with some good vegetables in there - mushrooms, artichokes, spinach, onion, and cheese.  The experience was fun and we will be returning for sure.  And I'm sure it will be the location of family Christmas Eve Ladies Brunch, if that tradition goes on.

We brought Annique and she was very cute in her Halloween outfit, and everyone around kept watching her.

Life Update Fall 2010

I haven't posted for several weeks.  We are probably closing one of the most challenging stretches I've had in the past few years. For 6 out of the last 10 weeks, I have been unavailable to be at home on Saturday.   4 of them I have had no control over, and 2 were at my discretion.  5 of them I was physically away, and for this last one I was mentally away, because I was working at home.

This past weekend has felt like a punch in the gut, because I worked around 14 hours on Friday, and got home at 2 AM.  And Saturday, my help was demanded in a high pressure way, but it was on and off throughout the day.  And these activities didn't get on my calendar until 2 weeks ago.  But thankfully things settled down and we went to a piano concert (David Nevue) Saturday night that was just fantastic.  Then daylight savings occurred and I'm super tired now at 8 PM.

Obviously, if there was no child in our house, my absence would be a more minor inconvenience.  However, I'm needed for emotional support.  Plus, I need to get some things done around the house, and the baby pretty much takes up my time that is available to do those things. Right now I'm choosing to blog rather than do those - because this is one of the things I've been wanting to do.  But when she smiles at us, it is just an awesome feeling, and we forget about any troubles we had.

Don't mean this to think I regret any of these activities, but I thought it would be fun to list
Sept 4 - Labor Day trip (don't worry i don't regret it)
Sept 11 - Disaster Recovery Exercise
Oct 2 - SQL Saturday (at my discretion)
Oct 23 - Disaster Recovery Exercise
Oct 30 - KSU vs OSU football game (at my discretion)
Nov 6 - work from home

 

Little 'Nique