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At Home Vacation

September 9, 2009 / Paul posted in Entertainment, Movies, Rare Events / 1 Comment

This Labor Day I took some vacation time. Alexis and I went to see a couple of movies, caught a couple of fish at lake Lavon, worked a bit on the shower, and went to a FC Dallas soccer game.

The two movies we went to see were Gamer and 9. Gamer was not a good movie at all. The concept of controlling someone remotely in combat as if one were playing a game was interesting, but wasn’t explored completely. There wasn’t much of a friendship between the player and the guy pulling the trigger. 9 was a good movie although it lacked a decent ending and the characters were a bit shallow. I liked the fight sequence with the flying bird-like machine. It involved several of the 9 and put more of them at peril, requiring them all to work together. The best line of the movie was also said at the conclusion of the fight, “You owe me a cape.”

The FC Dallas soccer/futbol game was quite a lot of fun. The game was against DC United. I don’t know who was favored to win, but Dallas seemed to be the better team through out the game. Professional soccer is usually mired in dives, where the player falls to get the ref to call a foul. When a foul is called the team gets a free kick, which is a chance to perform a set play or shot on goal. During this game, it seemed like the ref was biased, calling several fouls on Dallas. One of DC United’s goals came after a free kick and the other was from a penalty kick. The penalty kick was awarded after what appeared to be a dive, but the ref saw it differently. The game ended with a 2-2 tie. It would have been nice to have a shoot out as there wasn’t much closure. The overall experience such as parking, traffic, seating, half-time, and atmosphere were all good. We will definitely go to another game.

Vacation Then Jury Duty

May 4, 2009 / Paul posted in Family and Friends, Photos, Rare Events, Travels / No Comments

Alexis and I drove all over Texas and half of New Mexico for our vacation. We drove to Ruidoso and stopped in Lubbock on the way there, then stopped in Odessa on the way back to visit with family and friends. Our stays in all three places were great. In Ruidoso we went to a stocked pond where we caught some rainbow trout. They provided the poles, bait, license, and cleaned the fish. It was fun, but being a stocked pond, the fish hit the bait less than a minute after dropping the bait into the water. Here’s a few pictures:

The fish were placed in a sink after we caught them. Shortly afterward they were cleaned, hence the knife on the left.


This is one of the first fish I caught. The biggest one was 11.5 inches.

One of the strangest moments during our trip was when we noticed a car pull over near some road kill about 20 miles outside of Lubbock. Alexis and I figured they picked up the road kill, but for what purpose is a mystery. In Odessa, we were invited to go to an art show, which was the last thing I thought we would do on our trip. It was surprisingly a lot of fun. One of the funniest moments during our trip was seeing Hunter, my nephew, taste a lemon. At first he didn’t think anything of it until he managed to get enough of it to make a sour face. It was priceless.

Near the first of the month, I received a jury summons. I was panicked a bit when I opened it, but relieved when I saw that the date was after our vacation. Alexis had a jury summons several months ago and when she arrived at the courthouse, she was notified that it was canceled. I was hoping for the same. No such luck for me as I went through the whole process. To top it off it was a child indecency trial. There was testimony from the victim, the victim’s mother, a couple of police officers, and a child advocacy worker. No solid evidence and no other witnesses. There was evidence that the guy was in the area, but it really came down to whether the jury believed the child’s story beyond a reasonable doubt. After much debate and nearly a hung jury, a painful process, the verdict was guilty. I don’t know what the sentence is, since the jury doesn’t decide the punishment. I would be happy never to go through that, or anything similar, ever again.

Symphony of John

April 11, 2009 / Paul posted in Music, Rare Events / No Comments

This weekend we went downtown to the symphony, which was playing music composed by John Williams. They played Raiders, Jaws, Star Wars, Memoirs of a Geisha, Jurassic Park, and more. I liked the music it sounded great and I had fun while I was there, but I’m not sure it was worth it. It’s not convenient to go to, there were people whispering occasionally behind us, and it sounded about the same as if I were listening to it on headphones, except for the solos. The solos were great and impressive. My problem may be that I have heard the music too often. Many of the songs played are in my library of CD’s and MP3′s.

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