The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The wife and I found some time to other day to sit down and finally watch this movie. It was not exactly what I was expecting and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought there were some pretty good quotes in it and instead of posting them as my status (since some are too large for my status messages) I figured I'd put the ones I liked together in a quick little blog... It's not a true spoiler alert, but for those who have not yet seen the movie some of these quotes might give away parts of the movie.. so don't read no further if you haven't seen it ;)

Captain Mike: You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.

Benjamin Button: Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.

Benjamin Button: For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

Benjamin Button: Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people can dance.

Benjamin Button: Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it. A woman in Paris was on her way to go shopping, but she had forgotten her coat - went back to get it. When she had gotten her coat, the phone had rung, so she'd stopped to answer it; talked for a couple of minutes. While the woman was on the phone, Daisy was rehearsing for a performance at the Paris Opera House. And while she was rehearsing, the woman, off the phone now, had gone outside to get a taxi. Now a taxi driver had dropped off a fare earlier and had stopped to get a cup of coffee. And all the while, Daisy was rehearsing. And this cab driver, who dropped off the earlier fare; who'd stopped to get the cup of coffee, had picked up the lady who was going to shopping, and had missed getting an earlier cab. The taxi had to stop for a man crossing the street, who had left for work five minutes later than he normally did, because he forgot to set off his alarm. While that man, late for work, was crossing the street, Daisy had finished rehearsing, and was taking a shower. And while Daisy was showering, the taxi was waiting outside a boutique for the woman to pick up a package, which hadn't been wrapped yet, because the girl who was supposed to wrap it had broken up with her boyfriend the night before, and forgot. When the package was wrapped, the woman, who was back in the cab, was blocked by a delivery truck, all the while Daisy was getting dressed. The delivery truck pulled away and the taxi was able to move, while Daisy, the last to be dressed, waited for one of her friends, who had broken a shoelace. While the taxi was stopped, waiting for a traffic light, Daisy and her friend came out the back of the theater. And if only one thing had happened differently: if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by. But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control - that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted, and that taxi hit Daisy, and her leg was crushed.

Date Night - Comedy Club

For the first time in what seems like ages the wife and I were able to get out for a bit of fun this past Saturday. As it happens it's usually quite a tad on the short notice side of things, but hey when you get the opportunity most the time you have to sort of take advantage of it. Well, we had to make a delivery up to Tallahassee to drop of some of the tables from closing the shop down. (This is a good thing, cleans up the garage that much more getting me just a nudge closer to being able to set my pool table back up) After that we drove around for a few min.. mainly killing time to meet some friends for dinner. During this time our plan was to check out the Comedy Club in Tallahassee. I've been wanting to go there ever since I noticed the small little building when we drive around town up there. Finally, go our chance. Being somewhat thoughtful I figured hey why don't I just stop in while we are up this way and buy the tickets. It was about 5:30pm.. The show started at 8pm and we were going to be eating at Logan's right around the corner. All went smooth the tickets were about $12 a piece, not bad considering it would cost more to see a movie and this was going to be much funnier lol.. This was only my 3 time going to a comedy club, and later I found out that they "assign" your seats based on when you purchase tickets. This put us right under the microphone. Seriously, we were so close that if I laughed it was broadcast over the whole room.. Anyway, It was a really good time. Some highlights were:

• The feature comic looked down at me and told me I had "Soap Opera" hair. I was like dang, I'm glad I got that hair cut last week!
• Next he asked my name, not wanting to sound professional I used my nick name and replied with Bobby, his reply was "What are you 5? I'll just call ya Big Mike"
  

There were quite a few things that happened, but I must say I completely enjoyed it. The comics were quite funny, and you can never go wrong with a night of laughter. It was a fantastic evening with the wife and some friends that I know will be talking about for years to come. I love making memories like that.

Vegas 2009

We are back home and things are sorta back to normal. I must say though I had an incredible time in Vegas. I'm sitting here trying to recall everything in detail, but since we might have had a total of 16hours of sleep in 5 days everything is a little blurry :) It was well worth it. We left Tampa at around 6am, had a layover in Atlanta, then on wards to Vegas arriving at around 10am'ish. Fortunately, the resort we stayed at allowed us to check-in early. Me and Chris quickly showered and changed then found our way over to Circus Circus while the girls got ready and I watched Chris play some blackjack (he doubled his $20) then we went back got the girls and headed over to the Sahara for some dinner even though we were warned the food was not the greatest.. and btw, when a local tells you not to eat somewhere it is very wise to listen.. About 2 hours later every one of us had Issues and needs bathroom breaks often for the next 2 hours. Right off the bat me and Chris jumped into a small cash game. Chris did great winning quite a bit of cash.. Me not so good.. Thankfully, Chris gave me back the $100 bucks afterwards.. This allowed me to gamble the rest of the time we were there. Vegas is much bigger than it looks when you are there. Things that seem like they are only a few blocks are actually quite further than you would expect. Especially, when someone gives us bad directions and we end up taking the "Scenic" route that took about an hour to reach that should have only taken about 15min.. ouch that was a long walk. It was cool though, we got to see parts of Vegas that most miss out on.. Right Becky? lol... All and all it was a great time, and I'm would love to do it again. Maybe without that first meal at the Sahara though lol.. I'll write more bits as I remember them.. Plus, I'm going to try to post some really funny pics once I get them. Have a Great Easter!!

Poker Table #4

My latest and I think Best Octagon poker table so far. This one I started with the full intention of building it in a kinda old western type style. It was quite different because in order to get put the rail all the way around it, I had to borrow a sewing machine. This was quite an interesting learning experience. But in the end I absolutely love the way the table turned out. Unfortunately, Now I am table less again. That's ok though, my next table is going to be quite contemporary and hopefully will be my own personal table ;)

Here are a few pics of table #4 before it was sold.

The Epidural

Let's begin with a quick brief history. Just about everyday for lunch around 1ish, I leave the office and head into the house to have a nice lunch with the wife and during this 30min to hour time together we usually catch up on some tv shows that we enjoy watching. Since we are caught up on most the shows that we do like, I figured we could take this time to check out a new show that's been out there called "Worst Week". It sounded kinda funny and figured maybe this would be a good change up from the other shows we watch. The title of the most recently aired episode was called "The Epidural". From this one episode it seems to based on this one particular guys unfortunate luck in life and the chain of events that seem to follow. Often with detrimental effects on his well being. During this particular episode he ends up getting beat up by a mail lady, taken to a hospital, given an epidural for his broken tail bone inflicted by the mail lady. During the same time his wife is in labor at a different hospital about to give birth. In his haste to make it to the other hospital he ignores the nurses warning that the effects of the epidural will take about 15min. However, before this time frame is reached he manages to make it out of the hospital, hail a taxi and get within 3 blocks of the correct hospital. At witch point they encounter heavy traffic (of course) and he must exit the taxi and walk the rest of the way. This was pretty funny, because by this time the epidural has taken full effect numbing his lower extremities. Something he has completely forgot about. As he attempts to exit the cab he immediately falls to the ground due to the lack of feeling in his legs.. My wife and I laughed out loud at this together. Now I told you that to reveal just how fun our family can be. Tonight, I came in from work, grabbed the remote and sat down while Amy was over browsing the net. I'm not quite sure how long she had been there, but after about 20min she went to get up to start dinner. She was sitting in the chase lounge and since it practically swallows her up it takes a second or two for her to crawl out of it and almost exactly like the show we had watched earlier as she begins to stand up and walk she immediately does a face plant into the floor. Apparently, due to her vertically challenged legs, and the way the chase elevates her legs while she is sunk in, her legs fell asleep on her. I know, I really should have gotten up and attempted to help her up.. but it was too difficult to move while laughing my ass off. Just so you know she is ok, and she was laughing her ass off too ;) We have such a great time around here.

Just thought I'd share a little piece of what happen on practically a daily bases. I'm shocked we have not needed more medical attention yet.....

Quote for Tonight

"The superior man is slow in his words and earnest in his conduct."
-Confucius

A 2000 year old way to say what your mother always told you. Think before you speak :)

Attack in the Attic...

Sometimes idea's for blogs come in spurts I suppose, but figured I would tell a little story that happen recently. Especially, since now all visible indications that it really happen are now healed :) Since the closing of the shop my "honey do" list has increased dramatically. Actually, this is a good thing. There are lots of stuff I've been wanting to get accomplished around the house, but just have not had the time to get to them. One example was re-arranging the living room and finally getting the speakers to the surround sound hooked up properly. This involved running some speaker wire up in the walls and in the attic. This was a fairly easy task, especially since our attic above the living room is huge. Making it much easier to walk around pulling cable. Well, by the time we had everything straight in the living room it was around 7ish or 8ish at night. The wife being the very enlightened observer told me when I started to head up into the attic to run the wires, "Hey, isn't it going to be too dark to run cables up there?" to witch I responded with "Honey, It's ALWAYS dark in the attic..." ;) Later this would prove more that I should not speak until after a task accomplished. Everything was actually going very smoothly, wires were rather easy to get to, I was getting quite comfortable walking around and dodging the rafters. After spending about 30 min in a sitting position yelling back and forth with Amy with terms coming from her like "Pull it back", and me asking if that was enough.... (yea I know almost worth a blog itself lol) I stood up for a little break leaning against one of the trusses. After stretching a bit, and hearing a few bones crack, and smacking the flash light because it had flickered off again. I quickly, and I mean very quickly turned to my right just like one would do when they were heading through an open door. Forgetting that at my current elevation there was a cross-brace attached between the 2 rafters I was attempting to walk through at exactly the same height as the top of my cheek bone. As much as I would love to be able to actually walk through wood, the old law of physics in addition to Newtons 3rd law of motion would prove to be extremely painful. Very similar to the results of a baseball bat hitting the grand slam. I don't recall if it was the proximity of the pain to my head, or just the shear fact that for about 10 seconds I couldn't think straight, but I found myself crouched over right hand on a rafter, yelling various superlatives as if time would somehow reverse itself so that I might properly duck before beating myself up. Fortunately, these types of incidents are rare (for me), however me swearing like a sailor for unknown reasons is fairly common.. So after a few min I hear Amy ask: "Everything Alright?" and I say sure, except for feeling like my head just got hit with a 2x4. She laughed a bit thinking I was kidding around witch I normally do.. Then once I came down as she was painting the bathroom I go in to make sure my eye ball is still contained within it's socket. As I turn the corner and look into the mirror I some how managed to cut the top layer of skin on the bottom part of my right eye socket with the FLAT part of the 2x4. Due to the impact I had a ever so slight mini black eye for about a week. Good thing I'm a quick healer ;)

What did I learn from this?

• 1) Be careful when picking on the wife, she has voodoo black magic!! lol
  
• 2) Never get comfortable walking around the attic
  
• 3) Avoid all facial contact with 2x4's (always)