My daughter Lindsey and I are off on a two-day photo safari to the Washington coast. The general plan is to head out towards Westport, but who knows where we’ll actually wind up.  I’ve got a motel reservation out in that general area for Saturday night at least.

I know that there’s a kite flying event nearby and a maritime museum with a lighthouse that sounds interesting. Aside from that we’re going to follow our instincts and see where they take us. I suspect a fantastic seafood dinner should be included at some point. I know the motel has an indoor, heated pool and Lindsey is looking forward to that also!

Hope you have a great weekend too!

Lindsey and I went to see Walking With Dinosaurs at the Tacoma Dome today. This was the opening venue for this Australian show on its North American tour. If you or your kids like dinosaurs, I highly recommend you see it visits a city near you! It’s an entertaining and dramatic history lesson featuring life-sized dinosaurs operated via animatronics and puppetry. Hosted by a live actor in the role of a paleontologist, it is surprisingly humorous and touching at times. We both had a blast!

A few more photos at Flickr.

Brilliant so far… A genuine “must see”!

Lindsey and I are waiting patiently at the Tacoma Dome for “Walking With Dinosaurs” to begin… 40 minutes to showtime!

I was in Best Buy yesterday looking for a DVD.  They didn’t have what I wanted but I did find (and buy) the 25th Anniversary Edition of the movie Taps.

Talk about a blast from the past! This movie came out in 1981, while I was in high school.  I was a gung ho young Army ROTC cadet in those days and along with many of my friends, saw this movie several times when it came out. It actually led to discipline problems at school when many of us were inspired by the movie to wear red berets. The administration finally cracked down on the practice and banned us from wearing them. I honestly don’t remember what kind of trouble we caused but it must have been noteworthy!

The photo above is from my senior year. On the left is Cadet Carl Cummings, a school chum from the period and one year behind me I think. As I recall, he was a cadet captain at this time. I’m on the right, a cadet colonel and the overall cadet commander of the two school ROTC unit we belonged to. I can only tell you that I’m a senior based on the medals and ribbons I’m wearing, I don’t remember the occasion of this photo!

Hard to believe all of this happened so long ago… apparently, I’m getting old…

I made a huge mistake today. A friend was getting rid of a really nice futon set and I’ve been wanting to replace my old couch, so I offered to take it off of his hands. That wasn’t the mistake, I love it already. It’s a really high quality frame and futon mattress and the color is wonderful, lots of dark reds, blues and greens. But I decided I needed new pillows for the couch (old couch was blue) and a burgundy throw for my old, comfy easy chair so it matched better. So I went shopping.  That wasn’t the mistake either.

The mistake happened as I was checking out with my new stuff. I spied at the counter a bag of red “Kookaburra Liquorice.” I was hungry, so I bought it. Big mistake. Crikey, this stuff is hideously addictive.  I’ve been eating it off and on all day and thinking about ordering more from their website. If you’re used to red vines, this stuff will blow you away. It has so much more flavor and texture.

It’s from Australia and I guess they take it pretty seriously.  It’s imported by a company in Monroe, WA which isn’t far away. I wonder if I showed up at their offices if they’d sell it to me by the case?

I’m about to upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress. I’ll no doubt break something, you have been warned!

Update: Looks like it’s all working… knock on wood!

Tonight was Lindsey’s “graduation” from 5th grade. This is the last grade in elementary school here, after the summer break she moves on to middle school. It was a mercifully short event and the kids had a lot of fun. Can you tell from this photo that they’re 5th graders?!

After the celebration, we continued to celebrate by going out to dinner before I dropped the kids and my ex off at their house. A fine time was had by all. The kids have a partial school day tomorrow (about 3 hours for some reason, they won’t actually do anything) and then summer vacation commences.

In other news… my review of Eagle vs. Shark, the independant romantic-comedy from New Zealand, is now online. The quick and dirty summary, if you liked Napolean Dynomite you might like this, if you didn’t you may want to steer clear.

I can remember watching Scrubs in it’s first season and really liking it. For some reason I stopped watching it. Dealing with my kidney problems last month, one of the effects was that I was often tired with no energy to speak of. I took a lot of time off and just stayed on the couch. One of the things I’d often found myself doing is watching old re-runs of Scrubs on Comedy Central.

It reminded me what a sharp and funny comedy it is. But one of the things I like most about it are the serious moments.  Set in a hospital, they often deal with serious issues that you would expect to encounter in such a setting. Even then, they tend to apply their own unique spin on things.

Tonight I caught an episode from Season 2 called My Philosophy. One of the patients in this episode is a woman named Elaine who is waiting for a heart transplant. At one point in the episode, JD (one of the main characters, a doctor) and Elaine have a conversation about the nature of death.  Elaine’s hope is that death is like a broadway musical, and that you go out with a flourish.

As you might imagine, this is a foreshadowing of events to come.  The result is an ending that I found incredibly touching. Scrubs is a show that emphasizes music a great deal and this is one of the best moments I’ve seen so far.  Fortunately I was able to track down a video of the ending to share with you.

I took Lindsey out to dinner tonight so I could show her the new car.  Matt got to ride in it over the weekend but we kept it a secret from Lindsey.  She and Laura were out of town this weekend visiting Walla Walla, WA.

That all went well.  On the way home just as I’m coming up on my exit I see this motorcycle barreling up on my six. I notice these things mind you.  Then I notice the Tukwila police car behind him with lights flashing. I peal off on my exit, so does the bike and police car.  I figure the bike is going for the side of the off ramp so I don’t pull to the side immediately.  Nope, he whips by me on the left and runs for it so I immediately dive to to the side of the road to clear space for the police officer.  And off they go, through a red light and away. I don’t know what happened after that.

Honestly, it makes me angry.  I see this guy on a motorcycle, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, tennis shoes, basically no gear except the helmet. And of course he’s running from the law. And that’s what most people think of when they think of sport bikes at all. It really chafes me that squids like this guy are out there tarnishing the reputation of those of us that do take motorcycling seriously and take responsibility for our actions. I ride fast and hard at times, when I feel it’s safe to do so.  But if I blow past a trooper and he decides to light me up, I’m going to pull over and take my lumps. You play the game, you pay the bill when it comes due.

I can’t fathom what idiots like this guy I encountered are thinking… I guess they aren’t, are they?