Peaceful Easy Feeling

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Friday night, I met up with my stepsister and her family in Dayton for some good old fashioned family fun. When I got to her house, she & Hallie (my niece) were waiting for me… and offered me a dinner of bacon, cornbread and eggs. Is that nice or what? After that, we met up with the rest of the clan at a park where they were setting up for a night time (6:30 PM these days) soccer game for the kids of the town. They set up some construction lights, brought a few goals, set up a table with chili from the neighborhood, and a good time was had by all. Those nephews of mine are pretty darn good at soccer. Just like their Uncle $teve was for the few years that he played. Oh yeah, I played. I was the goalie most of the time… because I was a big kid who could block anything… and could kick the ball really hard with great accuracy. Also, whenever some kid tried to block one of my “punts” or whatever the soccer term was, they always caught the follow-through with the leg. They only tried it once. Anyway, those were my glory days. Here are some pictures…

My niece Hallie

That night, after the kids went to bed, the grownups stayed up and watched a movie that I hadn’t seen before… but had heard good things about – “The Count of Monte Cristo” starring Jim Caviezel (“Passion of the Christ”) and Guy Pearce (“Memento”) among others. It’s the story of a fisherman (Caviezel) who has a chance encounter with Napoleon while trying to save his captain with his friend (Pearce) who is the son of a count. Long story extremely short (because I want you to go watch this movie), his friend and several others betray him… to protect their backsides as well as steal his fiancé from him. He is imprisoned in Chateau d’If for 13 years and beaten by a sadistic warden (James Remar) but also befriends another prisoner who tunnels throughout the prison (very slowly). During that time, he educates himself with the help of his new friend… and learns of a HUGE treasure. Now all he has to do to exact revenge… is escape. I REALLY liked this movie… and think that you should all go check it out. I’d tell you more… but there’s a lot of twists & turns… and I want you to be on your toes while watching it.

The next morning, we had breakfast and then went to the kid’s soccer games (the official ones). It was actually a lot of fun… you know, for being soccer… and you know how I feel about soccer. Let’s just say that America perfected football. After the games, they got their trophies for the last game of the season, and we went to play Wii and read books at the house. It may sound kind of boring to a lot of you… but I really enjoy spending time with those kids. Sure, the “Look at this”, “Look at what I can do”, “Let’s play this” and all that kind of get overwhelming when there’s four of them at once… but hey, it makes a body feel wanted, right? That afternoon, I drove back to Truckee in the rain… and it basically rained for 36 hours straight… and then I woke up this morning to snow on the ground. New Orleans is less than three days away. Should be a great vacation.

My stepsister grows some of the weirdest carrots ever...

Speaking of vacation, also this weekend, I watched another great movie that I highly recommend called “A Perfect Getaway” starring Timothy Olyphant (“Hitman”), Steve Zahn (“Sahara”) and my baby mama Milla Jovovich (“Fifth Element”). Sure I told you about it back when Milla signed on to star in it… but it’s the story of a newlywed couple (Zahn & Jovovich) who go to Hawaii on their honeymoon… and while there, read in the papers that there have been a few murders on the islands involving couples… and apparently, police say that it’s a couple doing the murdering as well… like Natural Born Killers or something. Well, they figure they’re on another island and do a BEAUTIFUL trail… but along the way they meet another couple (Olyphant & Kiele Sanchez) and are harassed by another (Chris Hemsworth & Marley Shelton) and things just get creepy from there. I really enjoyed it because it was genuinely creepy… while set in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Kudos to director David Twohy (“Pitch Black” & “The Arrival”). Again, I highly recommend that you check this out… especially since it’s that time of year to be scared.

Also over the weekend, I watched “Date Night” starring Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Marky Mark, James Franco, Mila Kunis (aka the other Milla), Common & Ray Liotta. Most of you probably saw it in theatres… but you know me, if it doesn’t have Stallone or isn’t presented by Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino, I can wait until the DVD comes out. It’s about a married couple (Carell & Fey) who “borrow” somebody reservations at a fancy restaurant… and get involved in some serious shenanigans involving a mob boss (Liotta, of course), dirty cops, a shirtless special ops security guy (Wahlberg), and so on. Good for a few laughs… but yeah, nothing out of the ordinary. Check it out once with someone you love. Why not?

Anyway, I’ve got some packing to start doing for my trip… so I will leave you with that. Have a great day everybody!!! SNOW!!!