Lynda Carter in Atlantic City

My wife and I decided to take a mini-vacation and drove down to Atlantic City last week to see Lynda Carter perform at Harrah’s. Funny, I remember Ms. Carter as a singer and my wife remembers her as Wonder Woman. I knew she played Wonder Woman but I never watched the show. I did have her album Portrait and loved the song Toto (which she had written).

Waiting forty five minutes to check-in, another twenty to get the tickets at the box office and paying more for dinner than what the room and show cost was not a good sign.

Ms. Carter performed many songs (including my favorite from above) and chatted about her life and band members. Overall, it was a good show, we enjoyed ourselves and I think we were two of the youngest people in the audience. I would have loved to meet her after the show but that wasn’t happening.

We had a few drinks at one of the casino bars and my wife played the slots (and won!). I lost. We stayed overnight and left the next morning. It was an uneventful ride home, but then I remembered I didn’t have my suit. I had left it in the hotel room. Have you ever tried calling a casino “Lost and Found”? Three calls and four days later, they returned to call to say housekeeping didn’t find a suit. Now I am waiting to hear back from her supervisor to file a report! Of course, I am wondering why I bothered to bring a suit since it seems the dress code of the average Atlantic City guest is velour sweat suits or shorts and a t-shirt.

Oscar the Goldfish is Dead

On top of my desk sits a fish tank that used to have two goldfish in it. I’d like to watch them as I type on my laptop (which sits on my desk, so why don’t I have a desktop). There was Felix and Oscar, but Felix died a horrible death, due to bacteria and my inability to take care of it. Felix was replaced by Zachary. But Oscar must have gotten some of that bacterium that killed Felix.

It wasn’t noticeable at first. He and Zac swam around the tank, fighting for the food and he seem to be doing okay. He used to suck up the rocks, but stopped doing that. His mouth seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Now mind you these goldfish are about three or four inches long, not tiny by any measure. His mouth was disappearing. He became listless and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to take a knife and cut him a mouth. When he wasn’t moving any more I finally put him out of his misery.

I found out later (searching online, which I should have done earlier) that it was probably the bacteria that closed his mouth making him unable to eat or breathe. I also read that although there are chemicals to clean such bacteria, one person wrote that he had the same problem and cut along the mouth line with an X-acto knife and rubbed it with salt and all was well.

Damn! I knew I should have done that. I am a terrible man to let that fish suffer (especially after I killed Felix). What will happen to Zac? I don’t know. I watch him now looking at me (wanting food, or course) as I type furiously on my keyboard.

GPS systems and reading Ken's Blog

In the past few months, we have driven down to North Carolina a number of times for some family affairs. My wife owns a GPS system, and I was having a blast watching it, letting us know when restaurants and gas stations were coming up and when to make a turn even when we didn’t want to go that way (especially in the Washington DC area). It was obsessed with us driving through the city instead of around it.

So when I read one of my favorite blogs yesterday, I knew I had to share it with you because I enjoyed it very much and it certainly hit the spot.

If GPS Systems Could Really Talk

Read it and laugh!

A Self Portait

I just completed a pencil sketch of myself, which I thought turned out not half bad, although photographing it and putting it on the internet makes the drawing appear grayer than it really is. So I am not a Photoshop wiz.

Anyway, this is the first step towards painting a larger self portrait using some left over acrylic paint that I have. I want it to look like one of those Andy Warhol paintings.

It was all for this contest I wanted to enter. I was psyched about doing the sketch and I spent all this week working on it. I know the painting would take longer, but the sketch could still be entered into the contest. Unfortunately, the contest ended about six months ago and I am a big procrastinator!

HURRICANE HANA AND THE WEEKEND

This weekend we experienced Hana by receiving a much needed rain storm. Although, we did receive plenty of rain, we did not get flooded in our crawl space. I am so happy about that. What I am not happy about is that in the middle of watching We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson, we lost electricity for two hours. I never got to see the end of the movie. So how did it turn out?

The storm did shake the trees and there are so many leaves in our yard that it looks like autumn has come. Does this mean there will be less to rake in the next few months?

I did some reading this weekend. No great books to report, and I also worked on some other projects. It was a peaceful and restful weekend. Our homemade wine is in its third week and I will be testing it tonight before moving onto the next step. It certainly looks too dark to be a white zinfandel. Wait, maybe it’s not a white zinfandel and it is the right color. Hmm…..must check out what I purchased.

This coming week will be a quiet week with nothing much going on, but I will continue to write. About what; who knows? Hey, a couple more weeks and the new fall TV schedule will begin!

My Artwork

I just realized that although I sent out a mass email about six months ago regarding my artwork for sale, I never posted it on my blog, so the two or three of my readers that are not in my address book were unaware of it.

Anyway, I am selling some of my artwork. I don’t have enough walls in my house to display them all. And I have been displaying the works of other artists also. I know, I thought I would never do that, but yes, we have been collecting pieces from other artists.

So with that said, come check out what is available at http://grumpydan.etsy.com

Enjoy!

Labor Day

Did everyone have a nice Labor Day weekend? Enjoy the three or four days off from work, those lucky enough not having to work on a weekend? We had a nice quiet one; just me, the missus and the daughter. Stayed home, barbequed and rented movies. Not just any movie, but horror movies. We watched them in the dark at night with our popcorn and movie candy.

The first film was the unrated version of The Ruins. It certainly was gory, but was I scared? Nope. It was a ridiculous movie. Even the extras didn’t amount to much. I’d give it maybe 3 stars. Who gave the go ahead on that film?

Next up was Prom Night. The remake; not the original. I never saw the original but I am guessing it was scarier than this version. This was not a horror film. Give me a break, totally boring and predictable. Maybe one star and that is for the gag reel in the extras section of the DVD.

Last but not least, I would have to say was my favorite of the bunch, and was recommended by my daughter – The Mist. It had its horror moments, not enough to make you jump out of our seat, but it was suspenseful, and made you think. Yes, there were some parts predictable and other parts that left questions unanswered, but the ending was so unexpected and had me thinking about it two days later (that would be right now). Although, I do read Stephen King, I had never read this story of his. I give it seven stars.

But you want to know the best thing about this weekend (and it wasn’t all the Good ‘n Plenty’s I ate; although that is a close second), it is the fact that it is the end of the summer and all the summer people have left the building, okay, the neighborhood.

No more loud parties or people walking the darkened streets at 3:00 in the morning. No more beer cans and red plastic cups tossed about. Not until next Memorial Day!