Monday, July 30, 2007

Steer Over Embers

As most of you know, last Saturday I celebrated my 33rd birthday (although today is my actual B-day). As has become our tradition, Jennifer arranged a fantastic meal at Boi Na Braza with many of our friends. For those of you unaware, Boi Na Braza is a Brazilian Churrascaria, which means that guys in funny pants bring loads of meat to your table until you explode or develop the willpower to flip a small card from the green side to the red side. All in all, fun times. I asked Jennifer to take pictures of the event, so here you go with my pictoral culinary journey.

In the picture above you will see me with the only menu you will find at Boi Na Braza, the large board at the front door that lists the meat that is served. You aren't close enough to see it, but I promise you that the sign informs you that at this location you can have every part of every animal you can imagine from the ears to the hoofs (and all of it is delicious).


Joanna was the first to join us for the evening, although only because she hitched a ride with us to the restaurant. She was, as always, a source of constant entertainment, sharing with us her stories of visiting the Comic Book shop to covertly pick up a birthday present for me (which rocked, by the way), and of an embarrasing game of Taboo with the fine folks at churchofchristsingles.com.


The Deisters took a break from packing for their Australia trip to join us. We were especially blessed this year with Andrew's newfound expertise on all Brazilian cuisine since he spent a couple of weeks in the country this year.

The Wages were part of the group as well. I was particularly thankful to have Alan there, as he inspired all of us to go for just one more plate of meat in honor of our absentee friend Kent. In fairness, however, Alan was not the last one finished, as our Maitre De commented on in the night's first big faux pas. As a side note, the preceding sentence may have been the most pretentious thing I have ever written.

Our one out of town guest was Regan who came with Randy and LaRae (who somehow managed to avoid Jennifer's camara). It's always awesome to see Regan, who is one of my greatest friends.


The Swayne's and the Brown's joined us as well. While Eric and Larissa are old pro's at the Boi Na Braza experience, I was excited to have the Brown's as this year's rookies. One of the thing's that I love about this tradition is the ability to take stock of the new people who have come into my life in the last year. The Brown's are phenomenal people that I am lucky to know and call friends.

Of course, one of our two youngest rookies was Lukas Swayne (the other being Joshua Price, who was as shy as his mother was), who seemed to enjoy the experience. In many ways, this meal is my opportunity to look back on the year in the lives of myself and my friends. While it always seems that very little changes in my life, this year was certainly the bumper crop of babies in our little group. Along with Lukas and Joshua, Kaleb Wages, Maddie Benfer, and Jacqueline Price have all seemingly joined our group overnight (okay, I know Jacqueline joined us more than a year ago, but I don't see her often enough to know how old she is. If you want me to put her in the right age group, Regan, come visit with her more often. We've got a guest room always ready for you).




Jamin was our last guest for the night. "The Body" was in rare form, and was particularly helpful in allowing the guys to win at Rachel's game of "Succotash" (Obscure Baseball players + Jamin and Alan= Big Wins).

It's interesting. As I thought about what I would write for this entry, I figured that I would focus on the extravagance of the meal, or the awesomeness of the presents I received (which they were), but none of those things defined why Saturday night was so special to me. It reminds me of this silly picture that Jennifer has hung in every apartment and house we have lived in since we got married. It says, "Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears." I'm not sure I ever understood it until now. Rachel and Larissa went to a comic book shop for me. Regan drove hundreds of miles to be there. All of you took the time to celebrate the day with me. If my life is to be counted by my friends, then it is a life overflowing with happiness.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?

First things first, I recognize that the post is very late. I'll blame it on our VBS which was held earlier this week, although the truth of the matter is that my actual time at VBS was fairly limited, while I have spent most of my week reading back issues of Avengers Comics.

So, you might not have heard, but there is a movie coming out based off of the Simpsons animated TV show. I've always enjoyed the show personally, although I know that there are some of you opposed to it (for what reason I'm not sure). Where Kent last week mentioned the theological significance of Nacho Libre, I tend to see theological importance in many episodes of The Simpsons, and have even used part of an episode in a class at VRCC. For the record, my opinion is shared by at least some others in the world. Anyway, all of this is to say that I am looking forward to the release of the movie on July 27th.

As much as I am anticipating the release of the movie, I am already enjoying some of the pre-release marketing. In conjunction to the release of the movie, a handful of 7-Eleven's in the United State's have been transformed into the Simpsons' equivalent of the convenience store chain, The Kwik-E-Mart. One of the really nice things about living in Lewisville is that we are close enough to visit Dallas, where one of those stores appeared. More than anything, I'm impressed by the effort that was put into the redesign. They actually repainted the outside of the store (or put up a faux wall, which is no easier to create) as you can see from the pic above.

As you can see, just like everything else, the Kwik-E-Mart charges just a little bit more for its gas.

The whole store is an homage to various episodes of the series, such as this exhibit, where one of the tirtiary characters, Jasper, gets locked in the Kwik-E-Mart freezer, only to be woken a few minutes later believing that he has been cryogenically frozen and is now thirty years in the future.

As well as this sign. I'm not sure if you can read it, but it lists a number of candies that are not sprinkles, which is an almost exact recitation of a line that the Kwik-E-Mart manager, Apu, delivers to Homer when he tries to buy a suspiciously candy laden donut. Speaking of donuts . . .

In addition to increased signage, the Kwik-E-Mart's are offering four Simpsons themed items for purchase. The first are special Simpsons style donuts, complete with pink icing and oodles of sprinkles. Although I tend to turn my nose up at Donuts unless they come form Krispy Kreme, I have to admit that these were very good.

Two of the other Simpsons styled items are above. Frosted KrustyO's, sadly, is nothing but Fruit Loops, but the packaging is pretty nifty. I haven't tried the Buzz Cola yet because I'm saving it for my birthday party to see if it is as good as Moxie Cola. The last item, the Slushie, is just a renaming of 7-eleven's typical slurpee, so I didn't get a picture of it. I am, however, now addicted to the "Blue Vanilla" flavor slurpees / slushies.


Here we find one of the Kwik-E-Mart's most reliable customers, Marge Simpson. The store was littered with these 3-D versions of popular characters from the series. Sadly, I was unable to get a picture of my favorite one of these, Comic Book Guy. He was positioned on the outside of the store during my first trip, but before I came back with my camera, someone had taken him. On a related bit of trivia, Comic Book Guy was originally going to be named Louis Lane, which would have been awesome, but apparently the name didn't take.


Alright, here is a special reward for Joanna if she made it this far in the post. Jennifer saw this on the outside of the Kwik-E-Mart and broke into hysterical laughter. Apparently, it's a math joke.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Our week in Entertainment

What a difference a little less than a week can make. Last week I informed you all of my technology woes, most notably my dish network upgrade that wasn't. Well, I'm happy to report that after a 30-minute service call, my satellite service is back in working order, including the reemergent ability to record three programs simultaneously. So, once again I am a happy Dish Network customer.

Last week without working television, Jennifer and I managed to get caught up on a lot of movies we had somehow missed. In between Netflix and a couple of visits to the local video rental place, we have watched eleven movies in the last five days. Since I have nothing much going on in my life that is blog-worthy, here are some quick reviews (Spoilers ahead):

1. Monster House- A cute little animated movie about a possessed house that eats people who trespass on the property (yes, I know that is a really weird sentence). For an animated movie, it really isn't kiddie fare, as there are more than a few scary movies, but it was enjoyable for Jennifer and I.

2. Talledega Nights- Not the best Will Ferrell movie, but more than a little fun. I'm sure this might offend some, but in my opinion Ricky Bobby's dinnertime prayer is worth the rental by itself.

3. Bridge to Terabithia- In the interest of full disclosure, I had never read the book. With that being said, it was a really good movie except that major characters should not die in "family friendly movies". That's all I'm saying.

4. Deja Vu- Time Travel, whether in movies or comic books, always leaves me with a headache, but this was a good take on it that kept you thinking. The movie leaves you with as many questions as it answers (most notably why Denzel Washington still gets leading actor roles), but it is certainly a fun ride.

5. Pirates of the Caribbean 2- It's hard to convince me that this wasn't just filler to get us to the third movie in the franchise. For the record, I despise the "Back to the Future" format, where one movie leads straight into its sequel and therefore can't stand on its own.

6. Zoom- Tim Allen will always be funnier on TV than in movies (there is even a joke to that effect in the closing credits) , but he isn't the reason you would watch this take on the super-hero academy genre (yeah, it's a whole genre now). For my money, Sky High did this better, but Zoom is worth a rental if for no reason other than the fake PSA's you will find in the special features section.

7. Nacho Libre- If Jack Black had done Napoleon Dynamite, but with wrestling instead of dancing, it would have been Nacho Libre. Unfortunately, I really did not like Napleon Dynamite, and Jack Black is far from my favorite comedic actor.

8. Breach- This was a really interesting spy story, and even based on a real story. Like all "based on a real story" movies, however, it doesn't get tied up in a neat little bow at the end, which bugs me some. Warning: This is one of those movies that you have to focus on, and you can't get it if you are multi-taking while you are watching it. Jennifer and I had to back it up several times because one or the other of us got distracted by something.

9. Touristas- I think it says something about the refinement of my cinematic taste that there aren't more horror movies on this list. Okay, it really says something about Jennifer's veto power when it comes to renting movies. This was the worst kind of horror movie, by the way. It wasn't necessarily gory; it was really just kind of boring.

10. The Fountain- I wasn't smart enough for this movie. I know it is based off of a graphic novel; I'm sure it was attempting to say something profound, but I spent two hours just confused out of my gourd.

11. Thank you for Smoking- This was well worth the rental. It was at times humorous, thought provoking, and, in its own way, touching. If you never thought you would root for a tobacco lobbyist, rent this and see if it surprises you.


Sorry for the pointless post this week, but maybe it will guide you through the long dry days of summer television programming.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Happy Whatever!



To all of my friends who are not teachers, Happy Independence Day! I hope you are having a restful and relaxing day off. To those of you who are teachers, Happy Wednesday! I hope you weren't planning on going to the bank or the post office today. I know I'm the big History Teacher and all, but isn't there some way that we could move July 4th to sometime in April when I need a good three day weekend?



So, I've developed a new pet peeve: Upgrades that aren't upgrades! Last week I got a call from Dish Network saying that because of "improvements" that they were making to my service, I would need to get a new receiver to keep all of my HD channels. Before I could debate the logic of an improvement that placed a new burden on me, the operator explained that they would send the new receiver for free. Okay, not bad. Yesterday, I finally got around to hooking up the new receiver, and that is when everything fell apart. I can't get a picture on the TV, although the audio works just fine. After spending 45 minutes on the phone with the technician, we determined that I have a "LNB line drift", which the technician assured me was a pre-exisiting problem and not unique to the new receiver. Of course, he really couldn't explain why I had no problem with seeing TV with the old receiver. Worse yet, we have always been able to tape three things with the old receiver, but now can only do two. So, yeah, upgrades that are in no way an upgrade.




To keep me from losing my mind trying to fix the TV problem, Jennifer and I went out to the movies last night and saw Evan Almighty. I know it has received some negative reviews, but I really enjoyed it. It was as close as we will likely get to a mainstream Christian movie. There were some very positive, faith-promoting messages, and it was funny as well. I know my opinion doesn't carry a lot of weight with some of you when it comes to entertainment, but you really ought to catch it while it is still in theaters.