Recently Skip Caray passed away, a son of famed Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray.  Skip was actually famous for his work announcing the Atlanta Braves rather than the Cubs, but his death in the news made me think of his father and everything he brought to Cubs games.

Since I didn’t watch many Braves games, I wasn’t really familiar with Skip’s work, so I looked him up on wikipedia.com and found the following:

Skip Caray’s broadcasts were characterized by his witty and sarcastic sense of humor, a personality trait that endeared him to most fans, but alienated him from others.  For example, during a particularly long losing streak in the 1980s, Skip declared at the start of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates “And, like lambs to the slaughter, the Braves take the field”.  More recently, in a game against the Florida Marlins, the Braves had loaded the bases, to which Caray quipped, “The bases are loaded, just like (Marlins manager) Jack McKeon probably wishes he was.” During the 2004 season, Caray frequently made fun of Braves relief pitcher, Jung Bong, declaring every time the opposing team got a hit against him, “that’s another hit off of Bong”. In 2008, a player popped a fly ball so high that Skip said “That would’ve been a home run in a phone booth.”

Sounds like a funny guy, and I’m sure he’ll be missed by legions of fans, much like his late father, Harry Caray, the voice of the Chicago Cubs.

Now that I’m well on my way to full recovery after being unable to do normal things for so long because of the pregnancy and cesarean, I’ve resumed my big grocery shopping days at Walmart.  And since I haven’t been there much in the past few months, I was shocked to find how much many of the prices have raised.  So this inspired me to make a list of all the prices I remember from when our Super Walmart opened 26 months ago.  I did some math, and this is what I came up with.  The first price is how much the item was for the first few months the Super Walmart was open.  The second price is how much the item is now, and the percent is the percentage the price has increased in 26 months.

parmesan cheese – $2.94 to 4.18 = 42%
american cheese singles – 1.98 to 2.58 = 30%
shredded cheese – 1.98 to 2.58 = 30%
garbage bags – 1.67 to 2.98 = 78%
bananas – 19¢ to 58¢ per pound = almost 49%
toilet paper – 1.00 to 1.24 for a six pack = 24%
baby wipes – 1.44 to 2.16 for one pack = 50%
baby formula – 10.64 to 11.88 per can = 11%
milk – 2.00 to 3.80 = 90%

I’m no math whiz, but if I did the calculations correctly, this is insane.  I realize there is inflation, the economy is terrible, and food comes in on trucks which use gas whose cost has also skyrocketed, but this is still ridiculous.  I used to love Walmart for their one-stop shopping concept, but now I hate them for ruining the little guy and for always changing their prices.  It makes it impossible to shop around for the best price unless you have no job or kids – and they know it.  WALMART SUCKS!  But I will keep shopping there, and they know it.  Why?  Because with 4 kids, I don’t have time to go to a bunch of stores trying to find the best price.  I need to go where I can get it all under one roof.

Ok, I’m done venting…  at least until my next Walmart trip…

In all honesty, I have to say that the current production I am part of is the most difficult time I have ever had and I do not have to memorize one line of dialog. There are several roles both on stage and off in any show. It just so happens that my presence for The Nerd is strictly off stage. Not that it has not been and continues to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I get to sit back night after night and watch the thespians on stage create their roles. All eight of them are doing a fabulous job developing realistic personas not only through the written word but through movement and (to me) most importantly facial expression. Not only are the lines significant, what goes on along with those words may be even more so.

The character playing Rick is just bewildering. Even when he is not speaking, he is doing something that is just soooo hard not to focus your attention on, making the other characters on stage that much more uncomfortable. His mouth open, staring at a character one minute, wandering around paying no attention to someone yelling at him the next. The eyeglasses add an even greater effect. Once he gets his script away, I know that he will be able to take it to an even higher level. I cannot wait to see the costumes. And that voice?! 😯 Plus, I am so excited to be watching HIM on stage.

I have also been impressed by the gentleman playing Tocky (… or is it Ticky?). He has some of the best lines in the show and is very strong characterwise. Audiences will howl when he gets angry at his young son or becomes flabbergasted by the nerd’s constant nerdiness. Thor (Ticky’s son) is a very close relative of mine and he can be as bothersome as the character on stage.

Everyone else is doing great; I will make it a point to focus on others in future posts as soon as I can find intriguing things to mention about them.  I stilll have a bit of time.

People in our corner of Ohio often make fun of our local paper, and sometimes I can see their point.  Sometimes the articles are not well-written or seem one-sided.  But I think it’s normal to feel this way because I read an online version of a suburban Chicago newspaper, and people are always leaving comments about how this newspaper’s writing stinks.  But here is a case in point from our local paper:  a few weeks ago, they ran two headlines on the front page that had nothing to do with each other.  In fact, they seemed to contradict each other.  I think this was an example of poor journalism.  They should have moved one of the stories to an inside page or saved it for another day because the front page headline was:

College on Its Way Here

And right there in the right column of the front page, was this headline:

Alcohol Deadly for Collegians

Enough said.

…according to the movies, anyway.  Not one but two well-known movie franchises have plots revolving around adventure-seeking archaeologists, Indiana Jones and The Mummy.  I couldn’t resist the hype of the new Indiana Jones movie and made that my first experience with Indiana Jones earlier this year.  It was entertaining, though I still don’t really get what all the fuss is about, although I’m told the latest (and last, supposedly) Indiana Jones movie is not the best one by far.  So for date night last week, we decided to give the latest Mummy movie, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor a try, and again, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.  I did like it better than Hellboy 2, but I really think that has more to do with how sick I was when I saw Hellboy 2 because I just wanted to leave the theater.  My husband liked Hellboy 2 better.  I’m comparing the two because they are somewhat similiar movies; both action-fantasies involving the raising of ancient asian things.  But anyway, back to the latest Mummy movie…  Archaeology is dangerous in the movies!

Brendan Fraser plays an archaeologist who is hired to guard a precious artifact as it makes its journey to become a gift.  There’s a guy who is trying to raise this emperor from the dead; it has something to do with a curse.  So the emperor is raised, and that’s what I really liked about the movie.  The emperor was made out of what looked like metal and fire, and I really enjoyed these special effects.  When they were coupled with the emperor’s voice, it made for a nice scary villian – I hope you appreciate the oxymoron of nice scary villian 😉  The one thing I didn’t understand about the movie is why they threw in the random yetis.  You’ll have to see it to know what I’m talking about, I guess, but let’s just say that there were some yetis all of a sudden and they didn’t seem to have much to do with the rest of the plot.  As far as the plot goes, it wasn’t really my kind of movie, but it was a $3 matinee, buy one get one free, so for that price, I was thoroughly entertained.  Three random notes I have are:  1.  I didn’t realize the Mummy movies take place in the past, in the 1940’s.  2.  Is it a requirement for sequels to have extremely cheesy references to the original movie?  This movie is no exception.  3.  Anyone visiting Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida should definitely try the Mummy ride.  It is a thrill ride with special effects; a haunted house roller coaster, and it’s unlike any other roller coaster I’ve ever experienced – totally awesome!

Ok, of course all the credit goes to God, but I was going for the catchy title.  Yesterday I had one of the biggest scares of my life – a near-death experience.  I’m going to start at the beginning of an otherwise wonderful day…

We were looking for a fun place to take the kids, and we decided upon the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo.  The kids had their usual fun playing in the water hole, and the capuchin monkeys were quite active, enjoying a game of tag.  It was really cool to see; one would chase the other and then when he caught him, they’d switch and the chaser became the chasee – is that a word?  Doesn’t matter, I think you get the point.  Capuchin monkeys are smart.
There was a kangaroo separated from the rest of the roos, and we thought it was a baby, until we looked a little closer and noticed she actually had a little baby sticking out of her pouch – SOO cute!  It must have been a different type of kangaroo or wallaby than the eastern grey kangaroos though because it was much smaller, and obviously an adult since she had a baby.  But anyway, they were definitely the highlight of our trip.
Earlier in the day, when we were deciding where to go, we had brought up the possibility of go-carts, and our 4-year-old had not forgotten.  Since the kids were being (somewhat) good and it was still early (we were hoping for a triple kid pass-out on the hour-long drive home), we decided to stop for some quick laps around the go-cart track.  I stayed in the car because we had 2 kids who fell asleep, and from there, I was able to watch the storm roll in.  It was really neat; there was a lightning bolt that struck near the go-carting place, and everyone waiting in line said “whoa!”.  It was followed by a VERY LOUD crack of thunder, and that was the end of the go-carting.  My husband had already ridden once with our 4-year-old, and they were waiting in line so our 8-year-old could go.  But the poor kid has her father’s bad luck because they shut the place down for the storm before she got to go.  But she was a good sport about it; I actually think she was just so happy to be out of the storm and in the “safety” of the car…  but you will soon see why I put the “safety” in quotes while referring to the car.

As we headed away from the go-cart place, it rained heavily.  So heavily that the road flooded immediately and visibility was down to almost 0.  I told my husband he should pull over, but you couldn’t even see enough to do that.  But then it cleared a little, and there was a huge rainbow.  It was beautiful; I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in a full arc like that.  I tried to take a picture but we had now gotten on the interstate and were travelling fast, so we’ll have to see how it comes out.  I was distracted by the rainbow, and this is where everything happened so fast it’s kind of a blur.  But I’ll recap best I can…  The cars in front of us were braking, so my husband made a hard stop – not all that hard, so I didn’t really feel like we were in danger.  I see a car on the shoulder all smashed up and facing us.  The driver is getting out and looking at his car, and that’s when I realize that it had just happened – no emergency vehicles were on the scene yet, and it’s still happening because I hear horns honking.  Then my husband says very calmly, “We’re going to get hit.”  I looked in my sideview mirror and saw a semi coming at us, and he’s not stopping.  Instead he’s coming right at my mirror and the next thing I know, the semi is next to us on the shoulder.  Thank God there was a shoulder.  Thank God my husband didn’t pull onto the shoulder trying to save us, or he would have steered into the path of the semi.  Thank God for a lot of things, but most of all, for the safety of my family.  Turns out the horn that was honking was the semi warning us of our impending doom.  All these news stories were flashing through my head on the rest of the way home about people whose vehicles got pancaked by semis.  It was a split second away from happening to us, and there was nothing that could have stopped it, except Divine Intervention.  I called 911 to report the accident, and that’s when I learned that my cell phone makes a little noise when you do that – to make sure you really want to call, I guess.  But the good news is, it didn’t seem as if anyone was hurt because like I said, the driver of the car that caused it all was out and looking at his car.  He was either brave or not very smart, because if that semi hadn’t of stopped next to our car where it did, he would have been plowed over.  Someone should tell that Subway guy from my last post  that this is what 911 is really for!  And this whole incident makes a case for my husband to try to get me to fly to Florida next time rather than drive.  All I know is, in the car, we had a very close call.  Rarely are there close calls on a plane – you either crash or you don’t!

A reminder to all to be thankful every day for everything you have!

Last night somebody mentioned something about guys wearing pantyhose. Well, being me, I thought they were talking about Mel Brook’s Men in Tights. Little did I know that it is a new fashion statement for men.

Sometimes enough is enough. Most guys, myself included, have no fashion sense at all. Now people are trying to throw in another accessory for men to wear? I can see it now…. When do we wear our pantyhose? What color is best for my outfit or legs???? I don’t see that happening in NW Ohio anytime soon.

I’ll stick to my kilt thank you very much…..

Yes, this is a picture of me in a kilt on the occasion of my eldest daughter’s wedding. It was a wonderful affair, but that kilt was extremely warm on that 80+ degree May day.
The things that fathers will do for their daughters…., but I draw the line at pantyhose…

I’m not one to drink to excess very often, but when I do, I try to make sure I am in secure surroundings. I am one of those who will make sure I have a designated driver, or a place to stay if I will be having more than 1 drink. Even then, I have the drink finished early. It has been more than a few years since I’ve been intoxicated.

Now I come to the point. Seems like a bunch of kids in England found themselves someplace that wasn’t so secure, and they were too drunk to be rescued. I wonder how that story would have been reported here in the states. Would the rescuers have had that option? My guess is that the story would have been reported that “the conditions were just too hazardous to make further rescue attempts”. I don’t think much would have been made about the condition of the teenagers. Too many times have the rescuers been sued in cases just like this.

I really think it may have done those kids a lot of good sitting on a ledge waiting until morning to be taken out. But should someone be billed for the expense of the rescue? I didn’t see anything in the story about this, but I have heard that is happening more often. The rescued party is sometimes charged with the cost of the rescue operation. Hmm, going to have to find a link for that…

While playing a game, the question was asked: “What is the saddest movie you have ever seen?” I said the first thing that came to mind: E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial No fooling. It still gets to me. Then we went farther and started naming movies that were so bad they were sad. Titanic being one of them. I actually laughed when the ship slit in two, and the people slid to their doom. Forgive me if I give any SPOLIERS, but the ship crashes into an iceberg and sinks. The lovey-dovey story between the young artist in third-class who chances upon his aristocratic muse was added to give some dramatic oomph. It also added about 90 minutes to the already 2 hour long movie (and some people say that Dark Knight
was too long). Myself included, but, eh… whatever.

Two of the original cast Star Trek movies fall into the so terrible they are sad. I will save the first feature-length film for another post.Star Trek V – The Final Frontier is the WORST film in the 10 movie franchise. It features the crew of the good starship Enterprise being hi-jacked by a renegade Vulcan who is on a quest to literally “find God” on a planet that lies beyond what is known as the great barrier. The Vulcan, Sybok’s, connection to Mr. Spock is entirely ludicrous. His ability to relieve his “followers” pain by simply touching them is laughable. Sybok even manages to convince most of the Enterprise crew to “see the light.”

The only plausible excuse I can come up with for this mess is the fact that it tried to follow up one of the most lucrative and entertaining films (and in fact, one of the best moments) in Star Trek history. It also may have had something to do with William Shatner’s much publicized ego. The previous 2 installments had been directed by Leonard Nimoy and of course the captain could not allow his first officer to become more powerful than himself. Bill directed this pitiful excuse for a movie and also was credited as a contributor to the screenplay. Of course, the star has placed blame on everyone else and has frequently stated that the finished product was not “his vision.” Ok, Bill …. twenty years from now, you can go back and find your missing footage and attempt to redeem yourself. But, for anyone who has seen only the best of the series, you need not bother with this debacle. Also…. check out the ridiculous poster promoting the movie. And, I almost forgot about the dispenser that Spock used to toast “marshmelons” with while on shore leave at Yosemite with Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy. If I had collected one more proof of purchase from Kraft Marshmallows, I would have had my very dispenser. Would that have been something to say that I was embarrassed to own? Or is the DVD enough?  “Life is a dream.”