Going to be another hot one today.
And seriously, I want to see the tape of someone trying to get that guy into the gold foil tee shirt.
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on July 10, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/10/todays-earworm-389/
Today’s Earworm
It was Africa hot today, and it’s going to get worse as the week goes on.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 9, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/09/todays-earworm-388/
News Roundup
- From the “Want” Department – A man in Germany has invented yet another thing for my “Own Before You Die” list: a laser gatling gun. A green laser is used to aim, an electric motor turns the chambers, and 6 1.4 blue lasers lash out to bring flaming death to your target. At least, they bring flaming death to the balloons that have been shot so far. I just want one for night shoots, whether I hit and damage anything or not.
- From the “What Happens in Ibiza, Stays in Ibiza” Department – A German tourist to Spain had quite a night recently when the emergency department had to call in firefighters to saw off the steel ‘toy’ he had affixed to his nether regions. Wow, I got nothing here. I’m just standing in awe of the number of inappropriate jokes that can and probably will be made at this man’s expense.
- From the “Canine Vandalism” Department – Officials in the town of Henley, England, have determined that the lamp posts in the town have been weakened so much by rust on their bases that they are not safe to hang flower baskets from. Apparently the local dogs have been using the lamp posts so much that the resulting rust has become a problem. Might I suggest a better paint be used for the replacements?
- From the “I Believe I Can Fly” Department – An Australian surfer ended up in the hospital recently when the whale he and a few buddies were playing with decided to flip him around with its tail. I suspect no malice on the part of the whale. Rather, I suspect that he was just trying to return the high-fives and ‘hang loose’ gestures the dudes were offering him.
- From the “Smelly Scivies” Department – A French company is marketing a line of mens underwear that gives off a scent when worn. As the wearer starts to sweat into his briefs, they start giving off a delightful essences instead of the normal smell of a man’s sweaty underwear. Ladies, if your man suddenly starts wearing “Eau de Scrotum” underwear, you may have a problem.
- From the “Kinder, Gentler Mordor” Department – The legislature in Illinois voted today to override the “amendatory” veto of gun legislation sent back to them by Governor Quinn. Illinois lawmakers rejected proposals that would have limited concealed carry permit holders to carrying one gun at a time, restricted carry in establishments that serve alcohol, and have made business owners post if they allowed firearms, rather than posting if they rejected their carry in their establishment. Illinois now joins the rest of the states in allowing some kind of concealed carry. I’m interested in seeing how this shakes out in reciprocity.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 9, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/09/news-roundup-193/
Thoughts on the Day
- Never make your solutions so brilliant that it takes someone smarter than you to unwind them.
- Good – Changing out the filter on your air conditioning unit the first Saturday of the month as regularly as clockwork.
- Bad – Noticing a whining sound coming from the blower motor while you are changing out said filter.
- Worse – The noise gets worse as the day goes on.
- Worst – Your mind dances with the cost of a new blower motor when the repairman inevitably finds that the bearings are shot.
- Outstanding – Honest repairman reaching into the access panel on the air conditioner, removing the electrical schematic that has come unglued from the panel and lodged itself in your motor, thereby removing the loud whining.
- I tipped heavily and paid him to clean out the outside unit while he was here. It was still a lot less expensive than replacing that motor.
- First pickles of the season are in the jars.
- I started out with Thai chili garlic dills. My jalapenos won’t be ready for a couple more weeks.
- I’m not sure what the heck was going on in the dinosaur show I watched with Boo tonight, but a young plant eater ate some red mushrooms, tripped his butt off, and ended up fighting off a couple of meat eaters while freaking out.
- I guess just saying “no” wasn’t cool 80 million years ago.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 8, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/08/thoughts-on-the-day-148/
Coming Soon
These were the movies that were previewed at the theater this afternoon. Looks like feast or famine for the next few months.
- R.I.P.D. – A policeman dies, and gets inducted into the police force for the afterlife. Jeff Bridges might make this one enjoyable, but it looks like a renter at best. Graphics in the preview looked pretty good, though.
- Grace Unplugged – The daughter of a former celebrity turned good church-going person gets in touch with her father’s manager, who gets her a shot at the good life in the music industry. Can she remain true to her good Christian upbringing while surrounded by all the sins of the world? If Billy Ray Cyrus didn’t write this, someone owes him a check for making a movie about how he sees his life. Pass.
- The Ultimate Life – A grandson goes through his grandfather’s journal to try to find the secret to being a good man. Looks like an interesting story, but I’ll probably wait to rent. This is a sequel, so I probably ought to watch the first movie.
- Planes – A crop duster gets into airplane racing in the Pixar Cars universe. Looks really good, and I’m probably going to take the kids to see it.
- Free Birds – A turkey gets a presidential pardon, then gets recruited into a secret turkey mission to go back in time and keep turkeys off the table at the first Thanksgiving. Queue probable bad jokes about meateaters, caucasians, and conservatives. I’d usually avoid this like the plague, but Irish Woman says it looks good, so we’ll probably go see it. The things I do for love….
- Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 – The cast of the original movie go back to the Gastronomic Park that they created to try to shut off whatever it is that’s turning weather into food. Queue lots and lots of food puns. Probably see this one, but I’m on the fence about paying to see it in the theater.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 8, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/08/coming-soon-8/
Movie Review – Despicable Me 2
Irish Woman and I took the kids to see Despicable Me 2 this afternoon. We all enjoy the original, and to be honest, this one was just as good.
The plot revolves around Gru and his adopted daughters, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, voiced by Steve Carell, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Geier, and Elsie Fisher. After giving up being a super-villain, Gru has begun using his extensive research and production capabilities to develop a line of jelly and jam. An international agency that tries to track down evil geniuses and bring them to justice recruits Gru to find out who stole a serum that turns animals into vicious killers. Enter Lily, voiced by Kristen Weig, who partners with Gru to find the super villain and the formula. Adventure ensues, and we all learn a valuable lesson about friendship and family.
The strengths of this movie are the same as for the original. The voice acting is excellent, the animation is top-notch, and the humor is appropriate both for adults and children. The minions, the little yellow fellows who work for Gru, are back with more physical humor than ever, and they make the movie go from an enjoyable romp into a side-splitting comedy on multiple occasions. The way that the story connects on a personal level is how it deals with the family dynamic between Gru and his girls. As a member of a blended family, the way that the movie deals with that is, to me, wonderful.
One of the few weaknesses of the movie, and there aren’t many, is that it follows very much the same formula as the first one. Gru has a task to do, he does it, someone close to him gets into danger because of it, and he goes to the rescue. The formula is finished by a disco song played at the end of the movie. That being said, even when I recognized this, it didn’t distract from a wholly enjoyable movie.
One other quibble I had was the absence of Julie Andrews, who voiced Gru’s mother in the original movie. This was a tad disappointing, as I enjoyed that character as much as I did any of the others.
Overall, I’d recommend this movie to anyone who enjoyed the first one. You definitely need to have seen the first movie in order to understand some of the major plot points in this one, but it’s not much of a chore to enjoy a good movie so that you can more fully enjoy this one.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 7, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/07/movie-review-despicable-me-2/
Thoughts on the Day
- The rain slacked off just long enough this afternoon and this evening for us to take a nice long walk through the zoo and shoot off some fireworks.
- Note to adults at a venue like a zoo – most of the patrons of such places are children. Cussing like a sailor at the elephant because she won’t turn around and let you see her trunk is rude and suboptimal behavior.
- On the other hand, the wife/girlfriend who slugged one of the worst transgressors upside the head and chewed his butt in hushed tones gets a gold star next to her name today.
- We took a ride on the new train at the zoo today. It’s good to see this attraction back, although the staff is being extremely methodical about operations and the train went much slower than I remember. Of course, who can blame them?
- Made a trip to the gun store today. They actually had .22 in stock, so I got a box. They’re up to their eyeballs in AK and AR magazines, but not a lot of pistol magazines were in stock. They also had 5.56, .45, .38, .22, 9mm, and 12 gauge 00 buck, but in limited amounts and they’re limiting each customer to a few boxes.
- I have done my patriotic duty and burned off my requisite amount of gunpowder and metal oxides. The demons of tyranny should be held at bay for another year.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 6, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/06/thoughts-on-the-day-147/
Today’s Earworm
H/T to Dennis over at Dragon LeatherWorks on this one. This young lady has one of the prettiest voices I’ve heard in a long time.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 5, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/05/todays-earworm-387/
Musings
- A steady, dripping, cold rain does not make for a very memorable Independence Day.
- I may not have been able to grill out, but you are never without good cooked meat when you have a large cast iron griddle and a gas range.
- I’m quite proud that Boo won’t touch a fast food cheeseburger, but asked for seconds when I made them at home.
- Waking up with the smell of fresh bread in the bread maker is wonderful.
- The only thing better was having a couple of slices of it slathered in homemade apple preserves.
- It must have been chilly in the house Thursday night. We woke up with both cats not only on our bed, but also burrowed down into the covers.
- Irish Woman put up about 10 pints of strawberry-lime jam this afternoon. The entire house smelled delicious.
- Between the blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and apples she’s preserving in one way or another, I don’t think we need to worry about scurvy this winter.
- How do I know I have a good dog? Bluegrass is 12 years old, arthritic, and spends as much time as she can just lying around and relaxing. But when someone, who she didn’t know, came to the door this morning, she was a full-on burglar alarm and intruder eradication system on four spry legs.
- I don’t care whether it rains tomorrow or not, we are taking Boo to the zoo to get some of this energy worked off.
- He’s been pretty much cooped up in the house for two days due to the weather, and he needs to get out and run.
- We’re going to experiment with Boo’s food over the next month. We already know that artificial sweeteners, some non-organic dairy, and red food dyes seem to contribute to him losing his self-control, but we’re going to try cutting out a lot of the non-organic fruit out of his diet.
- We’ve noticed a difference between his behavior after eating produce out of our garden or from an organic local farm versus after eating something from the grocery store.
- We’re not going fully hippie drum circle organic with him, just trying to see if a diet without some of the chemicals they spray on fruit to keep it fresher longer will help.
- Notice that I never said that no-one should use those products. Y’all keep me honest on this, but I never want to tell someone else what they should eat or how they should raise their kids.
- One of my shooting buddies reported that one of the local gun stores has PMC brass cased FMJ .45 ACP for less than 50 cents a round, and Federal FMJ for a little over 50 cents a round.
- The drought is starting to ease.
- And now, if you all don’t mind, I’m going to kick back, enjoy a cold beverage, and talk about Star Wars with my youngest son.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 5, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/05/musings-7/
BS Alert
Via Tam, we learn that apparently the authorities in Massachusetts have no sense of irony or decorum. It would appear that they are searching TJIC’s house on Independence Day after he got his FID back and is applying for a License to Carry, which for those of you in free America, means he’s gotten back his mother-may-I to own a firearm as a law-abiding citizen, and has requested that his license to carry a firearm be reinstated as well.
Tam reports that they are in contact with legal counsel. I’ve asked if there is a legal defense fund or something we can contribute to, and I’ll post here if I learn more about that.
Remember, kids, if one of us is not free, none of us are free. Spread the word.
Sort of Update – Weer’d provides some excellent background on how the licensing scheme in Massachusetts works.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 4, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/07/04/bs-alert/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 