"One Great (Father's) Day!!"

Sunday will certainly go down as one of my favourite days of all time. Besides it being Father's Day, we also got to see Disney Pixar's "Up"! Was really good. I kept trying to guess who the voice of the old man was the entire movie. I kept wanting to say Paul Newman, but I soon realized it would be very hard for him to do the voice, what with having passed on and all. Never would have guessed Ed Asner.

But before we saw the movie, there was: a present! Now this I did not see coming as I was told that the "Shark" we had bought earlier would be sufficient as my present. Hey, I had asked for it weeks ago, so when I got it I was okay with making that my present. But here is what Cari and the kiddos had made for me:


Isn't that cool! There were some granola bars taped to pick-up sticks and a $25 iTunes gift card! I keep telling myself to get music free like everyone else, but I feel better inside paying for it through Apple.


Here is a picture I will have printed a few times. Everyone smiling at the same time! It's a rarity in this house.

I hadn't realized how much my face had slimmed down since I started working out until I saw myself in this picture. The only problem is, now the scar on my forehead is a little more pronounced. How did I get it, you ask? Well, let's travel back to ancient history (1985). I was playing little league baseball and we were shagging fly balls before the game. One coach hit one right at me and as I was about to catch it the sun came out from behind a cloud and *WHAM* smacked me in the forehead. We had to wait like a day before the doctor could stitch it up and after that was done, there was some scar tissue that was left inside (gotta love 1985 medical technology). So now I have this bump that will be with me until I have some cosmetic surgery to remove it I guess. Ah well. It's our imperfections that make us who we are right?

"Well, I'm...Ba-a-a-ck..."

Yes I'm Back in Black!!

Okay, I'm done.

Whilst singing the praises of AC/DC, I of course am referring to my alter-ego, "The Collector" as I have returned to acquire two of the new Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen toys during my only hour lunch this week. Not as many choices as there were in 2007 since I already had most of them. But I did pick up two sports cars, one good, one evil. First, the evil:

Sideways


Don't remember him from the G1 series...or the G2...or Energon...heck, from anywhere! But I'm a fan of the Audi sports cars.

Sideswipe


Now him I remember. Of course, he was red...and a Lamborghinni...but hey, The Vette works. See what happens when you give GM all the creative control in picking your cars?

I wish they had been more true to Sideswipe's original form from back in the 80's and kept him red, but this one isn't too bad looking. Actually, I kind of like how they re-imagined him. We're missing Hound and Mirage, but hey, I like what I have.

"Welcome Back..."

...your dreams were your...ticket out...

Huh?

Don't mind me. Just humming a few bars of the theme song to one of my favourite shows, "Welcome Back Kotter"! Why, you ask? Well, as of this week, Toys 'R' Us has finally...and I mean finally...released the new toys for the upcoming megamonster "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen"! I say finally because they are out just about everywhere else except for here in Dallas/Ft Worth! What gives? I thought we were this great economic Mecca of opportunity and we can't get this stuff until everyone else has it? Ah well. I have been given the go-ahead to pick up a couple of things next Friday (which I'm sure I will showcase), so for now I present to you: The Toys R Us store in North Richland Hills and how they have set up their display for the upcoming movie:









Pretty neat yes? The store near our house did a pretty good job back in 2007 and I'm glad someone else has kept up with the tradition. Onward and upward I say.

I remember the first time I saw the cartoon Transformers. The year was 1984. I was 9 and it came on at 7:30 in the morning. I had to leave for school at 7:45 so I would see half of it and someone else would fill me in on the other half at some point during the school day. I would look at the different cars and wonder...wonder if there was more to them then meets the eye. Of course, there never was, and my utter disappointment built up week after week until I outgrew them some point around 1989. Then, in 1994, in a strange twist of fate, I grew back into them and haven't looked back. In 1998 my roommate and I went down to his parent's house at Lake Whitney for the weekend. On the way, we stopped at an outlet mall and found the KBToys store. they had rows of Transformers, some of which I had never seen. I think I spent $100 or so on them. We spent the weekend playing with them and his parents were like "What are you guys, 9?" Well, I sure felt like I was at that time. And ya know what? It was pretty cool. Never let go of your inner child. There's more to him (or her) then meets the eye *wink*.

"Yes, The Case Is Curious..."

OMG, if you haven't seen this movie yet, you are doing yourself a huge injustice! We rented it from one of those Red Boxes inside the Walmart last weekend and I don't usually admit to something affecting how I live my life, but I will start here. I'm sure you know the premise: A baby is born looking like a very tiny, but very old man and eventually as he ages becomes younger as everyone else becomes older. He ends up with Daisy who is the granddaughter of one of the ladies who lives at the nursing home that Benjamin grows up in. After a while they "catch up" to each other age wise and have a daughter. Knowing he cannot be the father she needs, Benjamin takes off and doesn't come back for about 10 years. This was the only time his daughter, now twelve, ever saw him, and didn't even know it. Fast forward about four years when, now in the stages of dementia, he is discovered in an abandoned house not knowing his name but he has his journal with Daisy's name in it. A lot. So she takes him and moves into the nursing home where they both used to play as kids and takes care of him. He gets younger, eventually forgetting his name, and then, as a baby, takes one last look at Daisy, now an old woman, as if he knew who she was, and passes away.

I've been reading a lot of message boards about this movie and while everyone seems to be split as to if it was "that" good a movie to be nominated for Oscars, one thing we seem to agree on is that it is a movie worth seeing. All I have been able to think about since I saw it was how sad it ended. Daisy got to hang out with him as a young boy, an old man, and a man the same age as her, but in the end, she had to say goodbye to him and he had no idea what was going on. I sometimes wonder what the point of a lot of things we do in life is. I mean, what we did five years ago has absolutely to significance right now, does it? What we ate, what we wore, what we did. All we can do is file our memories away in a giant album of sorts, and hope when we want to relive them, we know how to find them. I really feel for people with Alzheimer's and dementia. Not knowing who your family is, not remembering most of what you did when you were a kid, not being able to tell your grandkids stories of things you got to do and see. I guess that's why I keep this site going. If I ever had trouble remembering things, I have it all on here. Or at least most of it anyways ha ha. One of my special (i.e. trivial) talents is being able to recall a lot of what I did as a child, to the point that my family wonders how I can remember this stuff and get C's in school. Hey, what can I say, I remember what i want to remember. I try to instill in Zach and Emmy how much fun it is to be a kid and to enjoy every day of it. Hopefully my knowledge of the past will play a part in their future.