It's clobberin' time...

Oh wait, that's the Fantastic Four's battle cry. Last Saturday I went to see "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". Now, this may not be common knowledge, but I used to be a pretty big comic book geek. I know, I know....you wouldn't think it to see me now, but I was all into the X-Men and the various spin-offs from them. And my favorite character just happened to be Wolverine. Something about being short, mean, claws, indestructible skeleton, super healing and general bad attitude...can't understand why I would like a character like that.

Comic book movies are not like comic books, with the exception of the first Spiderman movie. That one was pretty close, actually. The X-Men series was good, but really didn't dig into the background of the main characters. Especially Wolverine. I was hoping this movie would do that, and it did, but....

Now, in the first paragraph I said I was a pretty big comic book geek. Not a HUGE geek. I don't know the "real" origins of Wolverine. I knew he and Sabretooth were related (half brothers in the comics, I think). I knew that the claws didn't start out with the adamatium on them. I knew he was Canadian. And the movie covered all that, although it made Wolverine and Sabretooth full-on brothers. It made a big deal about Wolverine leaving his "super unit" and striking out on his own. I can't reconcile that with the comics, cuz I didn't start reading about Wolverine until after he was with the X-Men...

The movie was good. Well worth the matinee price of $6. The action was great, and Liv Schriber steals almost every scene he's in as Sabretooth. He was much better than that wrestling dude that was in "X-Men". I wish the movie would have had more of Ryan Reynolds in it...go figure that I like a wise cracking, smart alek psychopath. I wish that there would have been more scenes with Gambit. I wish..I wish...

Super geek comic lovers will enjoy the movie, but will pick it to death. Folks who don't know anything other than what they've seen in the latest "X-Men" movies will probably really enjoy the backstory.

Next week (probably Monday, it's Confederate Memorial Day and I'm off!)...."Star Trek". At the end of May, after all the Bike Weeks are done and I'm at home for more than two days at a time, "Terminator: Salvation". Summertime movie time!

Funny Sayings

Peaches calls quick sand "fast sand".
Peaches told me that our neighbor was going to have her baby today. She then said really loud (picture her eyes really big), "That's gonna hurt".
Peaches told John that she was glad he was a boy so he didn't have to have a baby.
Today in the car Flo Rida was playing on the radio, Peaches asked if he was Brown and then said, "How did I know that?". No comment.
Peaches also knows most of the words to the other Flo Rida song, Apple Bottom Jeans. She also gets him confused with the Slow Ride song........imagine her singing to the tune of Slow Ride, Take it Easy but actually saying Flo Rida, take it easy.
Peaches calls my friend Hairy instead of his real name because, well yes he is indeed quite Hairy.

I like golf..but sometimes it doesn't like me

Today was the SLED golf tournament, actually it was the spring tournament. Since I've been at SLED, I've only missed two. I've always played with the same guy, and we compliment each other pretty well, given that we both are not super good. Today we shot the best we've ever done, and on a new course (for us). Normally we play out in Saluda at Persimmon Hills. It's a nice course, very forgiving (which is key for me!). This spring we switched to Cobblestone (out in Blythewood), the course USC calls it's "home" course. It was much nicer! The fairways were wide and green, the greens were well maintained (and FAST!), and the service was excellent. Oh, and the price was pretty good too! No, it wasn't free.

So anyway, on to the golfing. Hue and I usually shoot into the 90s. In reality, that's about where I expect to shoot, given that I play maybe 3 times/year. When Laura and I lived in Texas, I played at a little 9 hole course in Pasadena. I could get on and play all I could handle for $6. Now, that course was not well maintained. But I played so much (for so cheap) that I got where I could shoot in the low to mid 80s. Not great, but just a bit over par. So today we started playing and we just kept getting pars. We had a couple of birdie attempts, but not many. Just steady pars. I used to laugh when I would watch the Golf Channel, or read some magazine article where the host/instructor/author would say, "You need to concentrate on your short game, cuz that's where the scoring is!". I no longer laugh. My putting is mediocre. My lofted wedge was junk (today). My mid irons were on like Donkey Kong! My driving was ok...I was happy with about 70% of my drives. I wish I could hit my driver like I hit a 5 iron. I swear sometimes I hit that dang 5 close to 200 yards. It's a good thing that Hue was there to make up for my mis-hits (we play 2 man Captain's choice). Like I said, we compliment each other. By the end of the day, we shot 4 over on the front and 5 over on the back, for a total of 80. By far our lowest score in the 4 years (8 times) we've played. We didn't win anything (that I know of), but I came away feeling good about my golf game...ask any mediocre golfer what keeps him playing and he'll tell you that it's the one good shot among all the junky ones. I'll tell you that it's the progression from playing bogey/double bogey golf to par/bogey golf. Now if only I could get control of my wedge....

What are weekends for?

It seems here lately that I am obsessed with fixing, repairing, painting, organizing and cleaning everything. This past weekend we worked ourselves silly in the house and at Church. On Saturday morning we cleaned the building which took about 3 hours, then came home and put in 2 more closet kits in Peaches room. For some strange reason her bedroom is the smallest but has 2 big closets (go figure). I then had to reorganize and clean her closets and bedroom. I also painted a bookshelf that really didn't need painting as John likes to point out. It had some nail polish stains and chips so it looked rough.....besides it only cost me $2 for the paint so what the heck. I then had a friend come over to give me an estimate on painting Peaches room (which will be done on the 15th of May while John is at Bike week). My next project will be the bathroom remodel then the kitchen. If you know me at all, I HATE to paint so I pay someone else to do it. I also HATE to sweat so I pay someone else to do that too. I am obsessive, compulsive about my house and just about anything else in my life. I like to be organized and scheduled and it drives me nuts when my routine gets out of whack. Anyway, I pretty much have my Saturdays planned out for the next year until I complete my projects. I found out that the best time to do them is when John is away :)

Who says I don't work?

Just in case anyone believes my wife when she says that "I do all this work, while John goes to Virginia for school and gets to stay in a cushy hotel and see the family for Easter, and sit in a classroom all day and eat out every night, blah, blah, blah!" Well, it's mostly true. I did go to VA for a class at the FBI, and I did get to spend Easter with my family. I didn't stay in a cushy hotel. It wasn't the Ritz Carlton, but not bad. I didn't eat out every night, just on Thursday and Friday. Most important, I didn't sit in a classroom all day from Monday to Thursday. Just all day Tuesday. 1/2 day Monday, all day Wednesday and Thursday were out on the explosives range. Let me tell you, Wednesday was nasty. Upper 40's with rain and drizzle, and we were digging out what was left over from explosive shots. Enough of that....on with the pictures!



The first shot is 3 1-gallon cans of gasoline with a little explosive in them to get them to blow. Not that gas needs much! This is called a "Hollywood" shot. Most explosives don't have a long lasting fireball, but that wouldn't be good for a movie, so they add a little gas to the mix, and viola!





The next picture is a hand grenade inside a 55 gallon drum. Or rather, the results of setting off a hand grenade inside a 55 gallon drum.














Not much left. Imagine that going off near you....see all the little holes?

This is a very distant (~300 meters) shot of the drum before the grenade went off.

And this is the same drum when the grenade goes off.
This is three holes with 10 pounds each of C4 in them. If you look closely you can see two drums off to the left. They were previously hit with an improvised claymore. This is from about 300-400 meters away, and the blast wave rattled the shelter we were in...think tin-roofed carport with bleachers under it, and felt like someone giving you a good thump in the chest. If I had hair it would have blown back. Now for the results:
I know there's only two holes, but you get the idea. The explosive wasn't covered up with much dirt...just enough to cover it. If you fill in the holes around the charge, then tamp it down the holes would be much bigger. Believe it.

So that's what I did last week. In reality, I don't consider having that much fun to be work either!