Friday, 4 July 2003: Let this be said for the world to read... I must truly love my wife. With all the big summer movies that I have yet to see -- including The Hulk, Terminator 3, Matrix: Reloaded, and (well not exactly a "big" summer film, per se) 28 Days Later -- what do I buy tickets to yesterday for us to see? Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde. Okay, so I wasn't exactly against seeing this movie. I did enjoy the first one because it was cute and funny in a whole Clueless sort of way.

Well, let me tell you all something, the Sequel Curse is alive and well. This movie was horrible. Katie was groaning at how bad most of it was. Heck, she was apologizing to me after it was over. You know there's a dark cloud lingering over the theater when this happens. It's usually me apologizing to Katie for boring her with an indie flick that I wanted to see. We even heard teenaged girls in the theater grumbling about how bad this movie was. Not a good sign for America's new princess (Reese Witherspoon). Put simply, I would not recommend it. Spend your money on something worthwhile like killer virus laden zombies (28 Days Later), the not-so-Jolly Green Giant (The Hulk), or an overtly sensual homicidal cyborg (Terminator 3). Just don't spend your money on this drivel.

Oh, and have you ever had that feeling like you just don't belong somewhere? I had that feeling last night in the theater. The "clientele" was comprised of 95% females under the age of 19. I'm talking Frat Boy Smorgasbord here. Below are my signs that I just didn't fit in...

• I was right around a decade too old -- 28 is not that old, is it?
• I had way too many clothes on -- you know it's bad when a T-shirt, jean shorts, and sandals constitute "overdressing."
• I had a penis -- don't get the wrong idea by the use of the past tense, I do still have one.

Nope, I definitely did not fit in last night.

The MPAA really needs to work on their film rating system. LB2 should be rated NMA-20 as in "No Males or Adults over the age of 20."

Oh, and Happy Birthday, U.S.A.

Thursday, 3 July 2003: I guess if you were to read my Cruise Chronicles, you might start to think that I didn't enjoy the cruise and would not recommend cruises to other people. This is simply not the case. I realize that I may have said a few harsh things about the experience or I may have led you to believe that I had more to complain about than to praise. Don't get me wrong, Katie and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. But, in all honesty, what vacation that you take doesn't have one or two things that you would like to change if you were to do it again?

So, to summarize the whole experience... yes, we would do it again, but here is what we will change for the next time we go...

• We will take an adult cruise. There were far too many kids running around and we even heard babies crying. Why, oh why, would parents pay to take infants on a cruise that they're not old enough to enjoy or even appreciate? Wait a few more years, people.
• We will go someplace a little more tourist friendly. Hindsight being 20/20, we would not have minded if we stayed in port in Grand Cayman the whole time or just sailed to the various islands that make up the Cayman Islands. We would like to try Bermuda next time or, should money and time allow, Australia.
• We will wait until we're a bit more financially stable so we don't have to sit there and question whether or not we should do something based on our current financial situation. Dunno if this will ever be the case, but we can hope.
• We will definitely get a better room. For the sake of saving money, we got an inner stateroom with no window. Big mistake. It's like sleeping in Dracula's tomb. But we didn't know that at the time. If you're going, dish out the extra couple hundred dollars and get a stateroom with a window and, if you're really looking to splurge, get one with a balcony. Oh baby. Yes, most cruise ships do have a few rooms with balconies.

I did not mean to scare anybody that was considering going on a cruise. If I did, I apologize. If you have the money and time to do so, go on a cruise. They are worthwhile and you will enjoy yourself. Just take some of my ideas above into consideration when planning your vacation.

Wednesday, 2 July 2003: I was going to write about something else entirely today until I came across this little gem. I just decided for kicks to type my name into the Yahoo search engine and see what came up and here's an interesting little snippet from The Dover (Delaware) Post dated 31 October 2001:

Fugitive arrested in Wyoming on drug charges

At about 10:15 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20, Wyoming police stopped a car on Southern Boulevard for a traffic violation.

The driver of the car, who initially gave a false name to the officer, was found in possession of a small amount of heroin and a hypodermic syringe.

The man, Kevin Apgar, 23, of the 100 block of S. Fairfield Drive in Dover, was arrested on charges of criminal impersonation, unlawful possession of a hypodermic syringe, driving while license revoked and a registration violation. He was also wanted by Kent County Superior Court on a probation violation.

Apgar was committed to the Delaware Corrections Center in Smyrna in lieu of $1,600 secured bond.

Do I know how to party or what? Try plugging your name into random search engines like Google or Yahoo and see what comes up. It could be fun.

If you want to see it for yourself, here's a link to the original article. Mine is listed about number five on the page.

Tuesday, 1 July 2003: I would like to welcome a new guest reviewer to the pages. His name is Ron Henry and, out of the blue, he contacted me about putting up a couple of movie reviews that I didn't already have up. One of them I had not yet seen (Donnie Darko). However, I have seen and did very much enjoy the second film he reviewed (Rounders) and I am still in shock that I forgot to post the review myself. I'm slipping in my old age.

Yes, people, your reviews can be posted here as well. If there is a movie or book that you have seen or read that is not already reviewed here, please type it up and send it to me. Please clearly mark in the subject line of the e-mail that this is a guest review so I don't just delete it thinking it's spam. Include the full title of the movie, your review (100-150 words for movies and 100-250 for books), your rating on a five-star scale (half stars are included), and your name as you would like it to appear on the site and send it all over to me at [email protected].

Monday, 30 June 2003: Now it's really over, isn't it? We flew back home today. However, our plane was stuck in Tampa for an extra hour because of all the little thunderstorms that were plaguing the southeast thanks to Tropical Storm Bill. We were afraid we would miss our connecting flight in Atlanta. When we finally got there, we ran and made our plan which was right next door. The woman next to me on the plane told me they were delayed an hour because of us. That would be one benefit of traveling in such a large group, the airline realized that rescheduling us all would be too much of a hassle, so they delayed the plane instead. Nice how that works.

When Katie and I got home, we just dropped our stuff on the floor, changed out of our clothes, and jumped in bed to watch TV and eat some dinner. We were dead tired so we didn't bother with any laundry. Why worry about it? We've got all week, right?

Thus ends the Cruise Chronicles...

Sunday, 29 June 2003: We pulled into dock today and leaving the ship was not something we really wanted to do. It's never fun to realize that your vacation is coming to an end. I'd much rather it not. But, then again, who wouldn't want their vacation to go on forever?

We went back to the same hotel that we spent the night at last weekend and sat out at the pool for several hours sunning, swimming, and reading. Katie's really hammering it out in the new Harry Potterbook. She's kinda competing with another guy on our cruise crew named Jonathan. They've been pretty much neck and neck the whole time. But now she's ahead because he was macking on a girl from Seattle he met poolside.

That night, we went into Ybor City in downtown Tampa which is a Cuban district that seems to be striving to be like New Orleans' French Quarter but seemingly can't escape the trend trappings that so typify many downtowns across the U.S. and the rest of the modernized world. It has many of the same style balconied buildings of New Orleans as well as the bars and tattoo/piercing parlors but it's just way too clean and has too many Gap style stores and a giant, incredibly high-tech theater in the middle of it all. Kinda ruins the aesthetic.

We went for dinner at a place called the Green Iguana which was pretty good. However, considering that the real nightlife hadn't even begun to creep in yet, the place was really loud with music, but there were no bodies in the place to show for it. So we ate our food with a side of premature deafness to boot.