I think summer has finally set foot here in Utah.
 
This last weekend found me playing a round of golf (9 holes and a small bucket of balls, but hey it’s a start), swimming with my daughter and staying outside without cursing the weather.
 
The previous weekend was spent in Wendover, NV, where we stayed for free at the Wendover Nugget – that is if you don’t count the $90 I spent playing roulette and the slots.
 
And the first weekend of June found me on a bike for the first time in a long time. I did the 25-mile Bike Tour at the Salt Lake City Marathon. Finished it in 1 hour 38 minutes. Not bad for someone who’s over 40 and having been 10+ years since the last time I rode seriously. If this sticks and I get out a couple of times a week, I may be doing a century at the end of summer. We’ll see…. stay posted.
 
So let’s hope the weather is nice from here on…. or at least until Labor Day. In the meantime, I’ll try posting more activities that I do this summer.

Ok, so I’m a bit late reporting this. My new MacBook pro arrived last month.

A bit shocking that I waited over a month to post this? So am i. But hey, it’s a new month. This is a great notebook. All of the reports about being too hot have seem to evaded the model I got. While most laptops run hot anyway, this could be an issue for some. Regardless, I’m really enjoying it. Even one of my friends ventured over to the Mac with the MacBook Pro.

So now I have 4 Macs at home, one still being the older Umax running OS 9.1. The PC has left the building, or at least it will once I get it built for my daughter (who is patiently still using a Pentium II Micron PC). I still have an older Toshiba Tecra 720CDT that isn’t worth selling or giving away. Until I either get something like Parallels Desktop for Mac on my MacBook Pro or it dies from old age, I’ll keep it around.

Finally, some of the bands that I really want to see are coming to Utah this summer.

• May 23 – Wolfmother – In The Venue
• June 27 – Poison and Cinderella – USANA Ampitheater
• August 16 – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Delta Center
• August 16 – Def Leppard and Journey – USANA Ampitheater

UPDATE: I’ll add more entries to my MySpace page. I’ll most likely be doing the RHCP show over the Def Leppard show. I’m a big Def Leppard fan and have never seen them live, but it’s hard to miss the Chili Peppers (which I have seen once before) and the show they put on.

Yes, just a bit more than a month since my last update out here. This has been quite the month so far. Most of it dealing with personal issues, specifically my mom passing away at the beginning of the month. I have learned that even though I don’t think I deal with loss very well, in reality, I am doing better than expected.

The last time I dealt with a loss was in December 2003, when one of my best friends died (he was hit by a car in front of his home). It took some time to adjust, as we were pretty close and not being able to call him on the phone as often as I did left quite the void. I called my mom at least four times a week (it ended up being three times a day the last few weeks of her life) and I feel that void pretty heavy now. But as with time, it gets easier to deal with.

So with another week left to April 2006, it will be nice to see the month come to a close. Watch for more from me next month. Thanks for your patience.

Well, it was actually last year (2005) on July 17th, but they are still doing the celebration until later this year. We took my gradndaughter for her first visit and it was great. Lots of fun and it was way cool to finally ride the new Space Mountain ride. Since I grew up just blocks away in Garden Grove, I’ve been going there for many years. Always nice to return.

I know I was shocked when Jack Nicholson read the winner for Best Picture on Sunday night’s Oscar awards shows. Most were expecting “Brokeback Mountain”, after Ang Lee won for Best Director. But when “Crash” escaped from Jack’s lips, it sent waves of surprise throughout the entertainment world.

Regardless of the “Crash” win, it was a great night for “Brokeback Mountain”, who also won for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Score. My picks this year were 14 out of 24, which was a bit better than I did last year (12 out of 24). Click the photo to see the complete winners list.

To be honest, I didn’t hate “Crash.” I thought it was a good movie. My daughter liked it as well, and actually predicted it would win Best Picture. But overall, I didn’t feel it was up to Best Picture status. For me, a best picture has great scenery, a wonderful story and actors that draw you in from start to finish. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal kept my attention the entire film, with emphasis on Heath’s character, Ennis DelMar. For some reason, “Crash” didn’t draw me in until half way through the movie. I enjoyed the overall message of “Crash”, but just felt it wasn’t Best Picture calibur.

Perhaps the best moment of the night for me was Philip Seymour Hoffman taking the Best Actor Oscar for “Capote”. He’s been one of my favorite actors for some time now, with his best role in “Almost Famous”, playing music guru Lester Bangs.

As Truman Capote, he was dead on and enthralling enough to capture my attention throughout the entire film. Very much enjoyed his well-deserved win of the top actor prize.

I am now curious to see what role he takes next. While most of the movies he’s been in have been great (“Magnolia”, “Almost Famous”, “State & Main”), others like “Along Came Polly” left a bit to be desired, regardless of the fact that his character he played was still entertaining.

While I never expected something like this to happen, last year’s Tsunami Relief Benefit Show in Seattle was a big hint [NOTE: if you’ve not heard the bootleg of this, and you are a fan of AIC, you’ve got to hear it] . Now Jerry Cantrell has come forward today and made it clear that Alice In Chains will be touring this summer. Here’s the MTV news story. As the article states, reuniting as Alice In Chains is only going to be a “one last time” deal and if it progresses any further, they’ll choose another band name.

Since their inception back in 1990 (at least based on the commericially-released album, “Facelift”), Alice In Chains have always been considered along the birth of the “grunge” era. They have also been one of my favorite bands. The death of Layne Staley in April 2002 pretty much ended the band, even though Layne became a reclusive drug addict for the previous six years. To me, this is good news and I’ll do what I can to catch them on the road (you know, they’ll skip Salt Lake, like 80% of the other bands out there do).