The Blindside -Movie Review

Went and saw the Blindside on Monday night at the District. I'm pretty sure that's my favorite theater around here. It's not super close but for some reason I like it best.

Anyway, I thought this movie looked really good from the previews and it did not disappoint. Honestly, this has to the maybe the first drama I've seen in a while (I'd have to go back and look through my posts here to be sure).

Here's the basic plot (I don't know where the links go, I just cut and pasted from another site)

“A poor, undereducated 344-pound African-American teenager in Memphis, whose father was murdered and whose mother was a crack addict, is shuffled through the public school system, despite his low grade point average and absenteeism. But his tremendous size and quickness attracts the interest of a wealthy white couple who take him in and groom him both athletically and academically to become one of the top high school football prospects in the country.”

The Blind Side movie is based on the true story of football player Michael Oher, whose incredible track was traced in Michael Lewis’ book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game”.

That isn't a completely accurate assessment of the plot, but I don't think this was the official statement about the movie either. The Touhy's (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw) take Michael in because he has no place to go, not because of his size or athletic ability. That does become a focus for him and them, but so does academics. They really do make this guy's life 1,000,000 times better than it ever would have been otherwise. In fact at the end they show one of his buddies from the hood has been shot and killed in gang violence - which, it's implied, could have just as easily been Michael if he hadn't been taken in by the Touhy's.

Anyway, I was warned that the movie was really sad and I should be ready to cry. It wasn't that sad. In fact it was actually a really nice story. There was one scene where Sandra Bullock has gone to visit with Michael's actual mother, and she becomes very emotional and Sandra holds her hand that was sad-ish, but not tear worthy. Bottom line is a black kid from the hood of Memphis ended up getting a really great deal from a very giving and caring rich family from the "right side of the tracks" in Memphis and got a much better life out of it. He now plays for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL - pretty dang cool!

I really liked the movie. At one point it did seem to be dragging a little but that didn't ruin it for me. I'd say 4.5 out of 5 stars. Tim McGraw's hairpiece was VERY distracting it was so bad. Every time he was on screen I couldn't take my eyes off it. He should have just gone bald. I mean the Movie family was WAY more attractive that the actual family (as it should be for the movies ;-) ) so Tim being bald would not have taken away from his role at all.

I'd recommend this movie, maybe the "feel good" movie of the year. :-D

REAL SALT LAKE TAKE THE CUP!

In an amazing, I mean AMAZING turn of events, RSL won the MLS Championship last night.

Kyle Beckerman celebrating the win

They just barely got into the playoffs on the last day - and EVERYTHING fell into place for them that day (including Colorado getting bumped completely :-D ). They had to GO to Columbus in the 2nd leg of their first round matches, and yet they won 3-2 there and 4-2 on aggregate. For those who don't know, in the first round they play a home and away "tie" to determine who moves on by aggregate. RSL won at home 1-0 - the boys were there, I think I posted that pic in my birthday post, and then RSL won in Columbus against the #1 seed (RSL were the 8 seed out of 8!) Next they had to beat Chicago IN Chicago, and did so in miraculous fashion after 90 minutes of scoreless regulation time, 30 minutes of scoreless extra time they won it in Penalty Kicks when Nick Rimando saved 3 straight attempts from Chicago to seal the win! Sean and I watched this together at his house and we were jumping up and down and screaming and loving every second of it, it was pretty funny.

Then the finals last night! I put together a Facebook event and had 60+ people say they were comingto watch the match...and then the snow hit. The roads were miserable and we ended up with about 25 people or so at Sky Box in South Jordan to watch the game. This time RSL were facing the LA Galaxy as pretty big underdogs. Yet again, RSL played great in regulation and it ended 1-1 after 90 with Robbie Findley getting the tying goal after LA had taken the lead in the first half. After 30 minutes of pretty even play and no scoring in the extra time (though RSL really should have scored right at the last second, but Andy Williams missed a cross in the box that he surely could have put away for the win. I think his legs were really tired.) RSL were off to PK's again! Needless to say, the tension at the Sky Box was palpable! My heart was jumping into my throat! Amazingly, Nick Rimando came up HUGE again and saved 2 PK's while Landon Donovan of LA, the league "MVP" whiffed his attempt up and over the cross bar to miss as well! RSL's guys came up big under a lot of pressure and Robbie Russell, a defender sealed the victory and the championship with a lovely PK into the right corner while the LA keeper dove to the left.

The Sky Box went CRAZY. There is video of the last few PK's and the final victory celebration, but I can't copy it from Facebook for some reason. It's hilarious because it is sheer pandemonium, hugging, yelling, cheering, I think there was even some crying, it was surreal. I wish I could hit rewind and do it all over again, it was that cool.

So, here are some pics, and congrats to RSL!!!! Finally Utah has a professional sports championship!!! (maybe the Jazz will take notice and step up for #2, eh?)

Fish tacos with Ben during the first half. Pretty crappy, but I was starving and they didn't have the bacon-wrapped shrimp. I almost left because of that. SO glad I didn't.

We thought Robbie Findley had scored the game winner late in regulation...

Alas, it was just side-netting and I was like WHAAAAATTTT????

This is during PK's - there wasn't much tension, can you tell???

PURE JOY after the win. I really don't think I've smiled this big in a VERY long time - it was AWESOME!!!! Russ is ALMOST smiling as big, not quite though.

Oh and this is from when I met Nick Rimando last week to get my Nick is my Homeboy t-shirt that you see in the pics above:

Movie Review - Where the wild things are

I think Sean said it best when telling Amy about this movie, "If Griffin had been old enough to realize how depressing this movie was, there would have been three of us wanting to kill ourselves." Worst Movie I've Seen In a LONG Time, 0 Stars, it has NO redeeming qualities, is nothing like the book, and may have scarred two adults for life. Horrible, No Good, Very Bad!!! Not even Red Box quality.

Return to an old favorite

The weather on Saturday was pretty cold. SO, the boys went out goofing around and we ended up at an old favorite - NICKELCADE!

Sean teaching Griff the fine art of Snowmobile racing

Griffin perfecting the art

Nickelcade is pretty fun. $5 lasts FOREVER in my hands, not so long in Griff's. He decided he wanted to play the ticket games. 2 minutes into being in the Nickelcade, his little baggie of Nickels is empty and he has a fistful of tickets. He came running up to me and claimed he found the jackpot ticket machine (this is a holdover term from when we actually did hit the jackpot on a ticket game at 7-Peaks 2 summers ago, for something like 500 tickets on one quarter). His "jackpot" was 130 tickets or something, and he happily jogged off to trade in the tickets for prizes. He came back with a "baby cheetah" stuffed animal, a para-trooper, and a black spider ring. Pretty good haul for $2.50 in nickels :-D

As you're reading this, you're probably thinking, "How fast is the swine flu sweeping the Nickelcade while you're playing games?" We had the exact same thought (the place was pretty busy). Fortunately, they had a Costco-size drum of Germ-X (or the Kirkland equivalent) on the counter and we pretty much bathed in it while we were there, and we're all swine flu-free. Successful trip to the Nickelcade, and we all had fun.

Birthday Weekend

Another year has come and gone in my life and I'm amazed at how fast time goes by, seemingly.

As I sit here eating my breakfast contemplating my weekend, I realize how blessed I am. Is everything perfect in my life? Of course not! Right now it's not even close! But I realize all the positive things going on and the negative things don't seem to have as much impact as they could. I'm always a bit amazed when I hear people complain that their lives aren't great and they aren't happy. I think to myself, well that's a choice you make. You let the negative aspects of life weigh on you too much and they seem to take over. I just refuse to let the negative things take over. Of course I have my moments, some of my friends and family are unfortunately aware of a recent cranky spell, but it's always very temporary and really happens very rarely. So, as I think about my 38th year on this planet, I'm pretty happy! I got to spend a lot of time this year with people I truly care about and ultimately that's as important to me as anything else. Hopefully, in my 39th year I get to spend more time with the people I missed in 38 :-) Anyway, enough with the ruminations and on with the Birthday weekend post!!!

Thursday Nov 5 - The beginning - My High School and College buddy Rich came to town, and he treated me to a Jazz game for my birthday. Thank heaven it was the Spurs game where they played SO great and just ran the opposition out of town. We had 3rd Row seats and had a really great time. Nothing like being able to yell at referees knowing they can hear you. :-D We also went to Market Street for some amazing seafood and a lot of catching up. I hadn't seen Rich since last year's Utah vs Oregon State game, so there was a lot to talk about and we had a good time doing that. All I knew was, the weekend was off to a marvelous start.

The Jazz Bear during the Player Introductions. I need a new camera.

D-Will hitting freethrows, see how close we were? It was really cool. Thanks Rich!!!!!!

Friday Nov 6 - The celebration of the day of my birth 38 years ago (everytime I try to type 38, it comes out 28 - I think my computer is trying to tell me something) - Since I started my new job in April, I haven't taken a single day off (hard to take a day off when you're 100% commission), so I figured I was due, and it's my birthday, so I deserve it! It was so sweet! Nothing like being able to sleep in a little bit in the morning and then go do WHATEVER you want all day long on a work day! I kind of felt like I did on those days OH SO long ago, when Mike Smith and I would sluff school and take the Had' Bug or Mav' (I think usually the Mav') up to Sundance to ski. It's just a little piece of liberation that feels very good. So, I went and had birthday breakfast at Hagermann's.

They have some of the best french toast anywhere, and it's all you can eat for like $3, HOW can you beat that??? They make it on their freshly baked cinnamon swirl bread and provide all the powdered sugar and syrup you can handle, Buddy the Elf would be in heaven. Look at me, I didn't even bother getting ready for the day, I just got out of bed and went to breakfast - excellent.

Then I went to help a friend build a filing cabinet. WHYYY would I be doing work on a birthday weekend, you ask? Well, I like little projects like this and I like helping, so it worked out. The filing cabinet was of fine Swedish design and construction and excellent instructions with no words were provided, making this project a snap! For some reason I didn't take pictures, not sure why - too focused on creating such a fine piece of furniture, I guess.

The office where I was assembling the cabinet is located up by the U and happens to be about 2 minutes from the "Bobsled" mountain bike trail. So, with some forethought I had packed up my biking gear and was prepared to try out this trail for the first time, I was pretty excited. After a bit of a climb to get to the trailhead (you have to put in the work to get the payoff, you know!) I was ready to go. I launched myself into the downhill and literally was laughing like a kid on a rollercoaster the whole way down, it was THAT much fun! I would do this run every day of the week if I could. This REALLY made my day.

View of downtown SLC from the trail leading to the bobsled...

The car jump that I skipped on the bobsled trail, it was way sketchy looking...

The car jump that I took! I actually got a little too much air and almost flew the landing. Luckily it was set up with a great landing and it didn't jolt me too badly when I landed. Nitro Circus here I come!!! Though I'm sure the Nitro Circus guys would do this in their sleep, on a tricycle, blindfolded with one arm tied behind their back.

After getting home and getting cleaned up, I relaxed for a while and then had dinner and a movie to wrap up a great birthday day. Unfortunately the sushi I got was REALLY bad, so I won't be saying any more about that, other than I won't be going back. The movie was GI Joe on Red Box, and it was OK I guess. I'm used to the REAL American Hero - GI Joe, not futuristic soldiers who wear robotic gear??? For what it was and for a dollar, it was good I guess. Maybe 2.5 stars. Anyway, after hanging out for a while (a loooooong while) I finally went to bed at 4am :-)

Saturday Nov 7 - The aftermath. I awoke a few hours later to find a truly glorious November Saturday awaiting me. First thing on the agenda? Flag football in Sandy!!! The game was So much fun. Again, no pics because I was playing and I left the RiPhone in the car. I know, amazing. It's kind of like leaving one arm in the car. But I couldn't text and play football, so it got left behind. It was coed flag football and at least one play in four had to go to a female player. Coming up with inventive ways to get the ladies involved in the plays was pretty fun. We ran a lot of end arounds and flea-flickers. In the end, the ladies scored a few touchdowns, the guys got to show off a little and it was a lot of fun. We're scheduled to play every Saturday morning until the weather cuts us off. Hopefully, thanksgiving will be good weather so we can play a Turkey Bowl too!

After the flag football came some tailgating at the U and the Utes vs Lobos at Rice-Eccles Stadium. As is becoming our yearly tradition, Rich went with me to the game (the tradition isn't the UNM game, just A Utes game at home each year). Rich fit right in with the crazies around me in the area where I sit and we had a really fun time watching the Utes dismantle the hapless Lobos (they're 0-9 now). Again somehow, no pics, I don't know what was wrong with me Saturday. After the game (and it went a while, since it was on TV - the commercial breaks were excrutiatingly long) we headed back downtown for some REAL sushi. I had a recommendation for Ginza, so we tried it out. It was sooooooo good! Everything was SO fresh and tasty. Octopus, yellow tail, Mars roll, X-roll, and Ham and Eggs roll. I liked it as much as Tsunami, but they don't have the large selection of rolls that Tsunami has. I did find out too late that they have quite an extensive off-menu selection, so if you ever go, ask them about it. Luke Wilson was our Sushi chef, man that guy is talented! Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Charlie's Angels, Old School and now Sushi Chef! Amazing. (Actually, it was just his doppleganger, but we called him Luke as he prepared our food. Luckily he took it in good humor and didn't feed us bad puffer fish or anything.) Again, we hung out for a while and Rich retired to his hotel to get ready for an early flight home the next morning and I headed back home to chill before heading to sleep myself.

Sunday - Nov 8, the conclusion. I was again feeling like a good breakfast was required this morning, so I took a drive up to Emigration Canyon to Ruth's Diner. This is another "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" location, and it was really, REALLY good. The wait was about an hour. And it was NOT warm up the canyon. It was, as you can kind of see in this picture, a beautiful day, just very chilly:


Once I got to my table, I asked the server what the specialty was. I kind of already knew, but I wanted to make sure. Sure enough, it's the "Mile-High" biscuits and gravy. I'll tell you right now, I have never been a fan of biscuits and gravy. BUT, I was determined to try the specialty as I have at each of the other DD&D locations I've visited in the SLC area. Let me just give you a visual of what I thought of the Biscuits and Gravy at Ruth's:

BEFORE:

AFTER (after like 2 minutes):

Yeah, it was unbelievably delicious. The biscuits were fresh and flaky, the gravy was so flavorful and not gelatine-like (you know what I mean, when gravy congeals a little and gets that gross, semi-solid gelatine consistency - bleck!) and the sausage patty and hashbrowns just added a nice bit of variety to the meal. I personally would add an egg or two to this meal, but who am I to question something that has obviously worked so well for so long??? No one! I just ate and enjoyed every bite, and thought to myself - could this weekend GET any better??? I just don't know how it could.

You're all probably wondering why this post is sooooooo long, well it's 4 days' worth of posting and I'm long-winded :-) You may also be wondering why most of the post is about various dining establishments? It's my birthday, so it just is. :-D You could also be curious to know if I got any presents. I did go get myself a present:

I got these boots. I'd been looking for some new boots for a while and everything is WAY too bedazzled right now, and these were the most plain ones I could find. I got them home and I think I hate them, so they're probably going back. But it's the thought that counts. Maybe I'll go to Costco and get a new point and shoot camera instead...

Finally, to wrap up the weekend, we had family dinner with all the local Hadlocks (except Griff, but I did call him :-) ), Donahoes and Grandpa. Amy made a really good chicken enchilada dinner, and there was Andrea's famous bean dip too! And Amy made Lemon-jello cake. As I told her while I was eating it, if there was one more drop of lemon juice in this cake, it would cease to be a solid and transform to a liquid. It was SOOOOO dang good, I could have eaten the whole cake with a little vanilla Ice Cream, it was awesome. I told Amy she did a great job filling in for mom on my birthday dinner, and she really did. Thanks AMY!!!! :-)

While everyone was sitting around talking and looking at Payce's amazing New Zealand pics, the weekend finally caught up to me and my eyes got HEAVY. So, it was off to an early night's sleep and back to reality on a beautiful Monday morning. THANK YOU to everyone who remembered my birthday and even just sent a Happy Birthday text. I'm not a big birthday guy, but I appreciate those who remembered and said something. Here's to a great 39th year!!!!

Halloween

I would say we had a pretty successful Halloween, and I'm pretty sure Griff would agree! Friday, we went to the Trunk or Treat with Paul, Andrea, Kaja, Jaxon, and Blakers. Griffin had a very hard time containing his excitement and was almost always 2-3 trunks ahead of us. He had a very successful haul, as did the other kids.

Saturday, after working at Grandma and Grandpa H's house for while (are you kidding me with the leaves dad??? Jeez!) Griff, Paul, Sean and I hit the REAL match for some playoff soccer. It was great, they won 1-0 in the 88th minute, so we went home very happy. AND...Griff knew there was more trick or treating to be had...

So we went out again, this time with all the local cousins. Even Auntie Amy came along, despite just showing up from VA a few hours earlier. All in all, we had Stacy as a Vampire, Griff as a Clone Trooper, Kaja as a witch, Jaxon as a pirate, Quincy as a Bee, Blakers as a bat, and West as a frog. Quincy's cousin Avery came along too, she was Tinker Bell (because her mom was Captain Hook and her dad was Peter Pan - tights and everything - I was speechless when I saw Rob dressed up and all I could do was laugh. That guy is truly a good sport when it comes to costumes.) Griff also went out with his buddy Kamas and they scored lots of treats, but I didn't get any photos of that for some reason...

(Photo courtesy of Stacy)

I did happen to discover "chewy" Lemonheads & Friends, which was not a good thing because the are DELICIOUS and I ate way too many of them. Then, Stacy and Sean had Baby Ruth's and I ate a ton of those. Needless to say, I ate more candy in 2 days time than I had all year, so I'll be living at the gym this week. Luckily, I sent all the candy with Griff yesterday, so I don't have any more temptation.