The 1st official Cody Family Movie Night took place over the weekend. Kyllan selected Disney’s “UP” over “Transfomers 2.” We both really enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it*. You can probably skip the special features though.
Unrelated info: Kyllan met Bobby Knight at a luncheon yesterday. Weird.
*Don’t worry. Unofficial movie night occurred earlier in the week after I finally got all my AV stuff up and running and was tested with a viewing of Star Trek on Blu-Ray.
Kyllan was in Denver this past weekend for the 4th. We had a great time hanging out time together and just relaxing. We managed to catch two movies, The Proposal and Public Enemies, while she was here. Interestingly, I found The Proposal very entertaining and didn’t really care for Public Enemies. The Proposal didn’t do anything new, but it was executed well. As predictable as The Proposal was, somehow the characters were more developed than in Public Enemies. I thought that Public Enemies had some great acting and cinematography, but the story didn’t do anything for me. It tried to do too much with too many characters and the lack of focus left me bored.
Kyllan’s trainer was happy to hear that we continued going to the gym while she was here. We did manage to eat out quite a bit, but we keep an eye on our portion sizes.
I spent the weekend with Kyllan in Dallas. It was a last minute decision, I bought the ticket Thursday night, but we managed to put together a fun filled trip.
Saturday morning I joined Kyllan as she volunteered at an event for a charity organization. Saturday evening I convinced her to see the new Star Trek movie. I had already seen it, and absolutely loved it, but couldn’t pass up an opportunity to expose my wife to quality sci-fi. And guess what? She enjoyed it! I’m telling you, Kyllan is a scifi fan, she just doesn’t know it yet. Sunday we went to church and joined Kyllan’s sister and her family for brunch. After eating we hit up the outlet mall for 50% off sales. Later we had mini-24 marathon. (We used to both watch 24, but I schedules got so busy that we have been unable to keep up.) Monday we had our own little BBQ. Pictures from the weekend are on my Flickr. A slide show is below.
Finally! Kyllan now has an iPhone. Well… sort of. Her company phone is now an iPhone. I have been amazed by how much she likes it. She spent the weekend trying out a bunch of different apps; Some which I recommended and others she found on her own. For the iPhone users out there, which apps do you like? My favorite apps are listed below.
WeatherBug: Weather Forcast (Kyllan prefers AccuWeather’s app)
Tipulator: calculates how to split the check & tip for a large party (at $0.99, it is my only paid app)
USA Today & Mobile News: News
Yelp: Location based restaurant guide and reviews(Kyllan perfers open table, which I haven’t used yet)
Flixster: Location based movie times
iPhlix: Netflix queue management
Lose It!: Meal Diary with a nice graphic user interface.
Tripit: Trip itinararies from Tripit.com , which I think is a great site.
Bloomberg: Stocks: It’s more advanced then the deafult Apple stock app
Amazon: Amazon.com’s app. I like to compare prices when I am out and about
Here are a few stories from this week that I found interesting.
I should send this article about browsing the internet at work to my boss
I’m not sure what the details are but this story about alternative grading policies makes me angry
I thought this story about achieving early NASA lunar photos was interesting. The corresponding photos can be found here. The “Photo of the Century” that is discussed in the article, but never shown, is the 3rd from the top here. The photo featured in the article is actually another photo often refereed to as “Photo of the Century” from a mission later the same year.
Infographic on where your tax dollars end up
Infographic on sports and race
Are you kidding me? This article list 10 “good” TV shows that are likely to get cancelled. 1- 6 are some of my favorite shows. I saw the piolit episode for #10 last night and really enjoyed it.
I had a great time in Dallas this past weekend. We did a lot of good eating at some of my favorite restaurants. I was in town for 5 days so we had time for a couple more movies than usual. I really enjoyed Monster vs. Aliens in 3-D. We saw it at the IMAX. It was no Toy Story, but if you have small children, or a child at heart like me, you should check it out a 3D viewing. (Make sure it says 3D when selecting the time & theater. Most theaters are not showing the 3D version, and those that are only showing it on one screen.) We also saw I Love You Man. It was pretty good, but you can wait until it comes out on video. Duplicity was horribe. Do not see that movie under any circumstances. (My father happens to agree with me.) Kyllan surprised me with Dinner at Ruth Chris and we spent the night on the town. Here are a few photos from the weekend.
Last week was crazy. Along with meeting with my dissertation committee, which went very well, I had jury duty. Amazingly, I was selected to serve on the actual jury. (Why would anyone ever put me on a jury for a criminal case?) The case was over in one day, so it wasn’t to bad. Also, someone made a mistake at work that I spent an entire day fixing. I wasn’t able to start anything that resembled a normal workday until Friday, which was to late to really accomplish anything.
The series finale for one of my favorite shows of all time, Battlestar Galactica, aired Friday. It was a 2 hour special. I really enjoyed the action packed 1st hour where most the storylines were brought to a close, but just sort of liked the 2nd hour which… okay, I’m not sure what exactly was going on there. I think it was some sort of exposition on man and technology.
Battlestar Galactica (The “reimagined version, not the 80’s version) is my 2nd favorite TV series of all time, behind HBO’s The Wire and in front of the BBC show MI-5 (Spooks in the UK.) If you haven’t seen any of these shows, or are unfamiliar with them, I highly recommend checking them out.
If anyone is wondering, I did see Watchmen the week before last. I absolutely loved it, but I think it may be a difficult movie to enjoy if you are not a fan of the graphic novel.
It’s no secret I am a fan of Netflix. Even though I ahve been a member since 2002, I hadn’t tried the “Friends” feature until a few weeks ago. The feature lets users send notes back and forth about specific movies. I am really enjoying exchanging my thoughts on movies with friends and co-works and have gotten some great suggestions on rentals. If you are a netflix subscriber, you can add me as a friend here.
Sorry, we’ve been post less frequently than we would like. The two of us were been pretty busy this past week. Don’t worry, Kyllan is still cooking her one recipe a week and we are both still finding time to make it to the gym and meet our fitness goals. So… here are a few random things:
Who would have thought that the Super Bowl would actually be better than the ads! The ads were lackluster again this year, but there were a few that I enjoyed. Which ads made your list? Catch ads you may have missed below and see our favorites below that.
How could you not like this one?
Kyllan LMAO
I thought this was funny
By far, this was our favorite
and just because (w/ scene by scene break down here)