A Movie for Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to any dads (especially the stay-at-home variety) that happen to stroll on in today! I'd like to direct your attention to what I consider to be one of the greatest "overlooked" movies which happens to have a father-son theme. A GOOFY MOVIE is a little gem from the Disney studios that isn't regarded in the same league as the studio's other animated films. Released between THE LION KING and POCAHONTAS, A GOOFY MOVIE quietly debuted in the spring of 1995. The story of Goofy and his son Max on a cross-country road trip is full of originality, humor, and warmth.
Goofy decides to spend some quality time with his son by taking him on a fishing trip. The unannounced trip happens to be the same weekend Max has just scored a date with the prettiest girl in school. Like any good roadtrip, the teenage son doesn't want to go and is embarassed by his father's enthusiasm. Along the way, Goofy and Max stop at Lester's Possum Park, a spoof on Disney's own theme parks. They also have a run-in with Bigfoot that involves the Bee Gee's hit "Staying Alive." There's even some cameos by a few of Disney's other animated stars.

One of the standout features of the movie is the musical numbers. While not a "musical" like most other animated films, there are are a few stand out moments in the film set to music. "After Today" is a fantastic quick little song that pokes fun at the many different social groups in high school, and is on-par with anything from GREASE.

In the end, A GOOFY MOVIE is about a father's love for his son. It's a sweet, funny movie that most people have never seen. Everytime I watch it, I can't get over how well done it is, and whenever I share the movie with someone they are also blown away by how good it is. As my friend Aaron said after we saw it in the theatre 11 years ago, "That movie was way better than it had any right to be!"

Get your hands on a copy of A GOOFY MOVIE today...you can thank me later!

Cars

We made it to the theatre this morning to see CARS. If you've been keeping up with your Wonderful World of Blog posts you know that my two and a half year old son Elias and I have been anticipating this film for quite sometime now. I have to say, It didn't quite have that WOW factor that most of the other Pixar films had. It started off very fast and somewhat obnoxious and there were parts in the middle that were slow and seemed to drag on. Honestly, the movie probably would have benefited from another trip to the editing suite, but that's not to say the movie is bad. It's bright and colorful and funny and has a large cast of crazy characters. The theme, about not forgetting what's important in life and taking time to slow down and smell the roses, is relateable enough.

Maybe it's that Elias and I had read some of the books based on the movie, or that there are only so many ways you can make a "racing" movie and we just saw HERBIE FULLY LOADED last summer, but CARS didn't pop off the screen the way I had hoped it would. For whatever reason, Elias was more interested in the projection booth than the image on the giant screen infront of him, so I spent a considerable amount of time paying attention to him and getting him settled than paying attention to the movie. Once the movie left the race track, and Lightning McQueen visits the small town of Radiator Springs...all the different characters that Elias knew started to pop up. Elias proudly announced to the entire theatre the name of each Car as it made it's first appearance on screen. Whenever a car would rev it's engine, Elias would loudly supply his impression of a car revving it's engine. Elias also felt the need to get up on his seat and dance during musical montage scenes. No amount of "shhhh's" and "you have to be quite in the movie theatre" kept Elias under control. For years I've had movies ruined by people talking, cell phones, noisy popcorn eaters, and disruptive children...it was nice to give something back to the community!

Overall, it's a good movie. Comparing it to other Pixar films, I'd have to rank it below MONSTERS INC, TOY STORY, TOY STORY 2, and FINDING NEMO. Comparing it to other movies, I'd have to say it's way better than your average movie. I'm sure it's safe to say that CARS is much better than THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS TOKYO DRIFT or GARFIELD A TALE OF TWO KITTIES.

With that all said, we still need three more CARS toys to finish our collection, and I'm not resting `till I find them!

Little Plastic Figures

I used to have a ton of these little plastic figures that I'd pick up in toy stores, yard sales, Happy Meals or where ever I could get my hands on them. These little guys were all over my bedroom when I was younger. Now that I'm an "adult" and "all grown up," what remains of my collection is now regulated to a few shelves hanging in the playroom. From time to time when there's nothing better to talk about, I'll share a couple of these treasures with ya!


I wanted to start off with two of the cooler pieces of my collection. The man you see driving the police car is none other than Big Mac, the resident law enforcement officer of McDonaldland. This is a 1986 Happy Meal toy that I got in Canada. The striking gentleman standing in the background in the one and only Turnpike Man. Turnpike Man was the mascot of the New Jersey Turnpike! Why the Jersey Turnpike needed a mascot I do not know, but Turnpike Man was promenantly featured in various ads and posters hanging up in the turnpike rest areas. I was already familiar with Turnpike Man's work when in 1994, on the way home from Six Flag's Great Adventure, we stopped for some Roy Rogers' at one of the turnpike rest areas (at about two in the morning) and discovered that if you ordered a large drink it came in a souvenir Turnpike Man cup! Of course I screamed in delight, and the woman behind the counter was so surprised that I knew who Turnpike Man was (yet alone was a fan of his) that she went in the back and came out with a Turnpike Man little plastic figure for me to cherish! Twelve years later, TM still stands proudly in my collection.

A Long and Sleepless Night

Last night we were out running errands and getting dinner and we didn't get home until much later than we had planned. Jennifer and I both had to get up very early in morning for various things so we had hoped to go to bed early. As it turned out Elias didn't get to bed until about 11:30, Jennifer and I 12:30. (Tanner was long ago fast asleep for the night!)

Cut to less an hour and fifteen minutes later, Elias comes strolling into our room at 1:45am. "Elias, it's still dark outside. It's nite-nite time. You have to go back to your Nemo-bed," we told him. "I want to sleep in Mommy & Daddy's bed," Elias protested. Elias has been waking up earlier and earlier lately, pushing his wake up time into the 5am hour! But 1:45am is too darn early. Jen got out of bed, and walked Elias back down to his room. She sat on the floor next to his bed for a little while as he drifted back to sleep. As soon as Jen got up to go back to her own bed, Elias starts screaming at the top of his lungs...beginning our THREE HOUR journey into Hell!

After hours of singing, telling US stories, and asking us if we could go to Chuck E. Cheese - Elias collapsed a little before 5am leaving Mommy and Daddy very little time to sleep.

It was a very LONG day!

My Dear Ol' Lunch Boxes

How awesome were lunch boxes!? They were an expression of yourself that you had to make in September and had to last you all the way through June. Your lunch box said something about YOU! I don't know the status of lunch boxes with today's kids. I know they don't have the real metal boxes that we had. Nowadays they are lame-o plastic or even lamer - the zippered tote style. Back in the day, we had metal and if we wanted to knock a friend upside his head with our lunch box and send him to the nurse's office, it was our prerogative! Now, strap yourself in for a riveting look at the lunch boxes that I carried to school everyday from 1978 to 1985.

My first lunch box I didn't have much of a say in. Probably because I was only 5 years old, but also because my mom bought it at a yard sale before I was born! I don't think at the time I was very fond of my "Disney on Parade" box. Since it was second hand, I didn't have the matching thermos. I had a glass American flag thermos. Why you would send a kindergartener to school with a glass thermos is beyond me. Looking back at it, it's a pretty cool lunch box and if I were selecting lunch boxes today it would probably be my selection. Isn't it funny how it all comes around!???

One of the drawbacks to having a birthday in August (like me) is that you often got school supplies as birthday gifts. Pencil boxes, notebooks, and backpacks are no substitute for games, Atari cartridges and action figures! So you can imagine how disappointed I was when I received this dumb lunch box for my 6th Birthday. Never a big fan of Cracker Jacks, I have no idea why my grandmother picked this up for me. But I was stuck with it! And to make matters worse, my mom instituted a "2-year" policy on lunch boxes! She didn't see the need to spend money on a new box every year, no matter what new lunch boxes were sitting on the shelves the next school year. No "The Black Hole" lunch box for me, I was sentenced to carry my Cracker Jack lunch box through 1st and 2nd grade.

So here I am in the 3rd grade, 8 years old, and I finally get to pick out a lunch box to call my own. Can you get any better than THE DUKES OF HAZZARD? Bob-howdy, my brother and I loved that show. In fact, my brother picked out the very same lunch box. There was more than one occasion when I would open up my lunch box at school to find his boring cheese sandwich inside instead of my Peanut Butter & Jelly. As much as I loved that box, I was still upset that I had to repeat it again for my 4th grade year. Still, you'd be hard pressed today to find a kids lunch box with the confederate flag on it. (Except maybe in the south!?!)

In 5th grade I took a chance and made the jump from metal to plastic with my Atari Lunch Box. It was a unique box that paid tribute to some of the greatest video games of all time. Most of the other boys that year had PAC-MAN lunch boxes, but I went the different route and I stand by my decision to this day! However, being an inferior plastic lunch box, it broke near the end of the school year. At last my opportunity to not have to repeat a lunch box for a second year!

Even though most of the other kids had abondoned lunch boxes by the 6th grade in favor of brown paper bags, I was proud to carry my lunch to school everyday in my brand spankin' new GREMLINS lunch box! As I've mentioned here before, I loved (love) GREMLINS. In 1984 I couldn't get my hands on enough GREMLINS stuff. After a summer of reading the GREMLINS novel, wearing my GREMLINS painters cap, and trading GREMLINS trading cards with the kids in the neighborhood...oh yeah, and seeing the movie too...I was so excited to get a GREMLINS lunch box, especially because it had my favorite scene from the movie depicted on the box: Gizmo driving the Barbie car. That is good stuff right there!

In summary, brown paper bags suck - lunch boxes rule!!!

Six Flag's Power Plant

Poor Baltimore...we've wanted a theme park to call our own for so many years. From time to time rumors have popped up that somebody, somewhere was building a huge new theme park near the Inner Harbor...but that's never happened. There were actual plans in the late 70's for a world class theme park to be build in nearby Jessup, but the people of Howard County fought hard to see that it never happened. Baltimore was even at one time a major consideration for Walt Disney's "Disneyland East" project...but we all know how that turned out!

At some point in the mid-80's the Six Flags company announced that they were constructing a major indoor theme park in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in an old abandoned power plant building that sat right on the water. The name of the new park...SIX FLAG'S POWER PLANT. Boy, oh boy were we excited...and boy, oh boy were we disappointed right from the get-go! Instead of anything resembling an attraction at a "real" amusement park, The Power Plant was filled with shows only slightly more compelling than a Showbiz Pizza Place.

There was THE DUNGEON OF THE MYSTERIOUS, where you took an elevator to the basement and a leprechaun took you on a tour of some silly haunted house scenes. Or you could visit THE LABORATORY OF SCIENTIFIC WONDERS where you took an elevator to the top floor and some robot voice took you on a tour of some silly inventions that made no sense what-so-ever! There was also a theatre with mysterious magical live action shows like THE FABULOUS 50'S REVUE and THE BUGS BUNNY STORY.

The prized attraction of The Power Plant was THE SENSORIUM, a 3-D movie that had no point to it...like all good theme park 3-D movies. What set this 3-D movie apart was the addition of "smell". Several times throughout the movie, the chair in front of you would loudly blast some sort of scent up your nose making you cough and gasp for air and drowning out the soundtrack to the movie. After a few months of blasting smelly air, the overpowering smell of pine and skunk hit you the moment you walked into the theatre, before the movie even started.

THE POWER PLANT didn't last very long. Six Flags continued to own the building and turned it into a night club called P.T. Flagg's. That didn't last very long either. The building is now the proud home of the first ESPN Zone, a Barnes & Knoble, and a Hard Rock Cafe. Now you can relive all the excitement or see what you missed courtesy of YouTube.com...

Yeah!...New "Weird Al" Song

There are few things in life better than a new "Weird Al" song. Am I right!? Check out a brand new song from Mr. Yankovic from an upcoming album that has not been announced yet! Pretty sweet! Also, for you "Weird Al" fans, the DVD of THE WEIRD AL SHOW - THE COMPLETE SERIES hits stores August 13. Double Sweet!

The song may take a few moments to load.

Yogi's Cave & Smurf Mountain

Since I've been on a kick about amusement parks, I thought I'd finally file this post about two of my favorite long-gone attractions from Kings Dominion.

Yogi's Cave was one of those simple attractions that a visit to Kings Dominion would not be complete without. This walk-thru experience was located in The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera section of the park. Guests were greeted by a large audio-animatronic Yogi standing outside his cave fishing. While singing the "Yogi's Cave Theme Song" he would eventually catch a boot on his fishing line. Boo-Boo made a cameo appearance hiding in the pic-a-nic basket.

From there, you'd cross a long boardwalk and enter the cave. Upon entering the cave, silly music and mysterious sound effects filled the air. The walls were covered in pastel and neon colored "gems" that glowed in the dark. There were several different paths to choose from, but they all led to the same spot in the next room. A waterfall and several singing bears and flowers awaited around the corner. Boo-Boo (seen here in a poor picture) conducted the creatures of the Jellystone park in a sing along. Following the chorus were several scenes of woodland creatures invading a cabin and making off with campers goodies. The finale of Yogi's Cave was the Ranger's Cabin. Yogi had helped the Ranger build the cabin and it was a little off-center. Basically, the whole last room of the cave was slanted and it took quite a bit of skill to walk through it without slamming your head against the wall. A great finale to a unique walk through attraction.

The cave still remains today, however Yogi has moved out and it's now known as "Treasure Cave". Why Yogi is gone is somewhat of a mystery!?! One would assume legal reasons, but the two rides that surround the cave are both still Yogi Bear themed!? Treasure Cave is an utterly pointless experience. Most of the fun of the Yogi Bear days have been replaced with left over props from The Haunted River ride that closed many years ago. I suppose there are now some more gold and skeletons from the recently closed Diamond Falls ride as well. It's still a popular place for teens on field trips to make-out in semi-private, and if you look closely on the walls you can see some Yogi hieroglyphics...but it just isn't all the same with out Yogi and Boo-Boo running the show!

Now don't even get me started on Smurf Mountain one of my all-time favorite amusement park rides! I loved the Smurfs back in their heyday so of course I was thrilled when I learned that MY local theme park was getting a Smurf ride. Smurf Mountain was visited via a very slow moving train that traveled 2 M.P.H. (tops!) The train entered the mountain and began a very steep incline. Once you reached the top of the chain-lift it was pure Smurf goodness for the next 12 minutes! The train slowly weaved through numerous slightly animated scenes of Smurfs at work, Smurfs at play, Smurfs at home, Smurfs doing what ever the Smurf they smurfwell pleased! All the while, the Smurfs chanting their "la-la-la-la-la-la!" anthem plays on and on as you progress through the ride.

Of all the useless crap on the internet, I can't find one picture of this great ride! All I could dig up was the promotional poster above, and this picture of a live stage show that debuted around the same time as the Smurf ride. I believe the theme of the ride was the four seasons, as I remember Summery scenes in the beginning of the ride and I vividly remember ice skating and Christmas scenes near the end of the ride. Between the ice skating and the Christmas scenes, the train traveled through Gargamel's castle...where you came face to face with the bad guy himself and his cat, Azriel. Such a great ride!

Smurf Mountain occupied one third of The Lost World mountain in the back of the park. The Smurfs moved out of the mountain a while after their popularity dried up. The mountain still stands, but it was completely gutted in the mid-90's and now a roller coaster winds it's way through the remains of Smurf Mountain, The Haunted River and The Time Shaft. Rumor has it that there are still a few Smurfs hiding in the mountain, but since the current ride zips along at 70 M.P.H, it's probably hard to spot them!

All the parks owned by the company that owned Kings Dominion in the 1980's had a Smurf attraction. Kings Island in Ohio had the Smurfs Enchanted Voyage which was a boat ride through similar scenes as the mountain's. Carowinds on the North/South Carolina border had Smurf Island which was a barren island with a few waterfalls, empty caves and outdoor Smurf scenes. And Canada's Wonderland in Toronto had Smurf Village which was a cross between Smurf Mountain and Yogi's Cave. Sadly, I made it a point in my younger years to visit all three of the other parks to sample their smurfy goods....Kings Dominion's Smurf Mountain was my favorite.

I'd also like to mention that they used to have a snack bar in the Hanna-Barbera area that served Smurf shaped french fries and Smurf-blue ice cream. Those were the greatest things EVER!

Kings Dominion TV Ads

Kings Dominion's TV ads in the 1980's often promoted a new ride long before the park was open for the season. These commercials were usually shot nowhere near Kings Dominion, and rarely featured any actual footage of the ride itself. In addition, the spots greatly exaggerated what you would actually find inside the park. I can remember specifically, being disappointed that the Haunted River ride was nothing like the creepy-cool commercial that they used to run ad-nausea during afternoon cartoons on WDCA TV-20 in Washington, D.C.

Diamond Falls was Kings Dominion's new ride for the 1985 season. This ride, now found at almost every park, is basically a log flume ride with a larger boat. The splash at the bottom of the hill is much greater than that of the standard flume ride. Once leaving the station, the boat went directly up the chain lift, made a U-turn and then plummeted right down the chute. After the splash, the boat entered a tunnel where the boat basically made the same sized U-turn back into the loading area. The tunnel had a few un-animated scenes of gold and skeletons (a Kings Dominion favorite!) The layout of the entire ride was visible from anywhere in the queue area, leaving no surprises as to what lie ahead.

So take a look at this commercial that I found on YouTube for the opening season of Diamond Falls. This TV spot is from 1985 and sure makes the ride look a heck of alot more thrilling than it really was. It does have actual footage of the ride itself, but the shots are so tight it could have easily been any flume ride at any park.

Chocolate Thief

Two years ago I spent the summer working in the Guest Services department at Hersheypark. One day a co-worker and I were having a conversation with one of the engineers who helped select and develop the attractions at the park. I mentioned a few ideas that I thought Hersheypark had really missed the mark on. I suggested that they needed to add a "dark ride"; that they should try and incorporate Hershey products into the names of the rides; and they needed to use the Hershey product characters more - like in a show.

New at Hersheypark for 2006 is Reese's Xtreme Cup challenge. Hey, that's a catchy name...isn't it?!? And in case you can't tell by the picture, it's a dark ride! Guests ride around in cars and shoot laser guns at targets for points. Along the way, the Reese's products are incorporated into six different extreme sports scenes. Riders are divided up into two teams: the Chocolate Lovers Team and the Peanut Butter Lovers team. Isn't that clever!? Also at Hersheypark this year is a new show called Hershey's Character Party.

Now, I'm not saying they stole my ideas! Besides, I probably signed one of those agreements that any thoughts or ideas I came up with on company time were the legal property of Hershey. However, if Hersheypark's new attraction for 2007 is a motion simulator ride called Alf's Mission to Melmack...I'm getting a lawyer!

Also...watch the odd TV Spot for the new ride, it's totally like something from Saturday morning cartoons circa 1984.

Tickle Me Lightning

These Disney/Pixar Cars toys are becoming the next Cabbage Patch Kids or Tickle Me Elmo! They are becoming impossible to find! Of the million or so toys that they've put out for the upcoming movie, the small "Matchbox" sized vehicles of all the main characters are selling like hot cakes! The stores can't keep them on the shelves! Our local Wal-Mart was all sold out of them a week or so ago, so I went to some stores near my mom's house to see if I could find the remaining cars that we didn't have yet!

At the Toys R Us, the shelves were bare! There were other parents there too looking for one or two of the remaining cars they needed. I started talking to some of the other parents and it turns out that these toys are in high demand! Suddenly, it was a quest to find the three remaining characters that we needed to complete the set. Does my 2 1/2 year old son care if he gets three more cars!? Does he even know that there are three more out there!? No!!! But it wasn't just about him anymore! It's the accomplishment of collecting all 12! The package says "Collect Them All" so by-golly we're going to collect them all! Even if it kills me!

Five stores later, I still didn't have the three characters that we needed to complete our set! Toys R Us, K-B, Target, Wal-Mart...all sold out. Even Giant grocery stores are getting in on the act, but they too did not have the ones we needed. A lady at Target told me that they had some "King" cars at a Giant in Burtonsville (about 20 minutes from where we were) but I didn't get that crazed!
At the end of the day, I did add to our collection of merchandising the carrying case (pictured here) to store all your Cars. It has spots inside labeled as to which Car goes where, and when you close the case you can use the top as a race track! That's pretty cool.

And we added "Mack" to our line-up! Mack is a Mack Truck that drive Lightning McQueen to all his races. The toy version - the back of the truck opens up into a "home-away-from-home" for McQueen. Elias has been playing with it pretty much non-stop since we got home with it last night!

And I've even got Tanner in on the fun as well! The Disney Store has all kinds of exclusive merchandise, including this little Pit Crew Shirt that I got him!
This picture doesn't do the shirt justice, but ain't he cute anywho!!!!

CARS hits theatres Friday June 9

Now That's Italian!

Guess what Elias had for diner tonight!?! This is what Elias looks like after eating a plate of "noodles with red sauce" when I wait `til he's all done to wipe him off. (This doesn't usually happen when Mommy is around.)

McIce is Nice

Have you seen what's new on the McDonalds drive thru menu!? A 10lb. bag of ice!? What!? Where did that come from!?! I saw the sign for the ice while going through the drive-thru at the Mickey D's in Thurmont, MD the other day. I figured it must be some kind of "local" thing, but then I looked it up on the internet and it seems that many of the McDonald's stores are starting to offer this unusual item?!? Strange, ain't it!? I don't really even have a joke here...I just thought it was so strange I had to share it!

And while we're on the subject of fast food, here's some new food creations out on the market that we don't need:

• Cheesesteak Thickburger @ Hardee's. It's all the goodness of a cheesesteak sub on top of a hamburger. Who needs this!? If you simultaneously want to eat a Cheesesteak sub and a hamburger then you're probably already fat. Just eat a Cheesesteak sub and then go hunt down a burger...why rush it all in your mouth at once!?
• French Toast Sandwich @ Burger King. It's funny when one chain does something new and then the others poorly copy it. McDonald's came out with the McGriddle which is a breakfast sandwich made with two little syrupy hotcakes, so then BK copies with a breakfast sandwich between two little syrupy slices of French toast. Nice Try Burger King!
• P'eat Zaa Sandwich @ 7-11. A deli sandwich inbetween two slices of pizza. Who the hell came up with this!? This was the most disgusting thing I ever heard of until I heard of...
• Famous Bowls @ KFC. This is for real! A bowl of mashed potatoes, covered with corn, popcorn chicken, gravy and cheese. What? Why? Who? Not only does this win the prize for most disgusting food out there, it's also the prize winner for dumbest name for a product.

Charming Local Site of the Week: Man dropping his pants and urinating on own car in an empty parking lot on Memorial Day. Then, taking pants completely off and walking away from "scene of the crime."

Tanner Gets His Laugh On

Oh Boy! I've got another video for ya today!

I read somewhere that babies will laugh at their siblings before they react to other people. This was certainly the case when Elias was a baby. Only Joey could elicit big smiles and laughter from Elias. Now Elias is the champion at making Tanner laugh. While it doesn't take much to make Tanner smile, Elias posseses the power to generate big harty belly laughs from Tanner!

Here's video of Elias dropping toy balls on Tanner's tummy:

A Bug's Life

It's easy to forget how fun it is to look at the world through a child's eyes. One day last week we had a very exciting morning when Elias spotted a rabbit in our front yard. After watching him from the porch for several minutes, Elias and I raided the refrigerator for something to feed the bunny. We put some strawberries on the sidewalk infront of our house and waited for the bunny return. The rabbit never did return, but Elias had a blast anticipating his return.

Later the same day, Elias and Tanner and I took a walk down the street to see all the different trucks at a neighbor's house. The neighbor is getting a new pool! We saw several dump trucks and a cement truck in action. Both the boys were very enthralled!

A couple nights ago, we spotted a little bug crawling across the floor. Elias adopted the bug, naming him Mr. Bug and spent the rest of the evening playing with the bug and carrying him around the house. Unfortunately, Mr. Bug's life was tragically cut short due to an accidental squishing...but we'll always have our memories:

Now That's A Photo!

Ocean City Eats

Last night we squared away our plans for a week long visit to Ocean City, MD this summer. Although our trip is over two months away, I'm already thinking about all the wonderful things I love to eat while at the ocean. If you're planning on hitting the beach this summer, here are some of my most favorite foods that you should sink your teeth into:

• Pizza omelet Dough Roller This is my absolute favorite thing that my mouth starts watering for the moment someone mentions Ocean City! First of all, I'm a big fan of the concept of crossing pizza with other foods. (Except that 7-11 Pizza sandwich thing...that looks friggin' disgusting!) Dough Roller is famous for their pizza, and their Pizza omelet is filled with gooey mozzarella cheese, thick cut pepperoni, and then topped with their signature pizza sauce. Soooo good!!! I think they only serve it at breakfast time, so you gotta get up early - but it's worth it!
• French Fries Thrasher's I know I'm not alone in naming Thrasher's Fries one of my favorite beach foods. It's a tradition for millions of people. No ketchup here, just a sprinkle of salt and plenty of vinegar! That's eatin' my friend!
• Seafood Festival Buffet Phillips Crab House Not only is this a meal, it's an evening's entertainment! This buffet is huge! Very huge! And it's all fresh seafood! Crabs, shrimp, fish, clams, muscles, more crabs, more shrimp and all kinds of other stuff. They even have hamburgers and hot dogs! Did I mention they have crabs!? They have whole steamed crabs, crab legs, crab cakes, crab soup, crab imperial...if there is a way to prepare crabs - they'll do it for you! A tad pricey, but worth every penny of it! Go early in the afternoon (4:00pm) to beat the crowds and get an early bird price special!
• Burger/Soft Shell Crab Sandwich Atlantic Stand We like to eat here more for the atmosphere than the food, but the food is really good. At this stand on the boardwalk, you can sit at the counter right in the middle of all the O.C. action. They have decent burgers, but my wife really loves their Soft Shell Crab Sandwich. It's simple, but very tasty!
• Anything Crab Cake Factory This unassuming spot is one of Ocean City's best kept secrets. It sits in the ground level of a hotel on 120th street ocean-side. Their food is incredible! Some of the best seafood I've ever had. We only discovered this place on our trip last summer, but we are all looking forward to another meal there!
• Double Cheeseburger Tubby's Simply put, I had one of the best hamburger experiences of my life here! Tubby's is a take-out place on 59th St. with some picnic tables out front. Make the time if you can, the food is great!!!!
• Cream of Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup B.J.'s on the Water I guess soup doesn't usually come to mind when you think of beach foods, but this fancy restaurant always seems to have the Pepper Soup as their soup de jour everytime we go in. It's an incredible taste that I haven't had anywhere else! Their entire menu is chock full of fresh seafood! Pricey...but good!

Do you have any eats you look forward to "down the ocean"?

Waterfalls Aren't Worth $250

My wife and I spent the past weekend in Tampa, Florida to attend the wedding of her best friend from high school. We decided to splurge and stay at a really nice hotel, the Marriott Suites Clearwater Beach on Sand Key, because we don't get away from the kids EVER and the hotel had this really cool looking pool with a waterfall. For some reason, Jennifer and I have this thing for waterfalls and we've always wanted to go someplace where we would have a waterfall at our disposal.

Well, the waterfall wasn't all the fun we thought it would be. What do you do with a waterfall!? You stand under it for a minuet or so and then you cross it off your list of things you'd like to do before you die!!?

We had a nice time in Florida, however. As I mentioned Sunday, instead of the Ford Tarus we had rented online, we upgraded to a sporty little convertible which was a ton of fun! We had some good eats at this cool little place on the water called Sculley's and did some shopping in the adjoining village of John's Pass.

The wedding Saturday night was on the sands of Clearwater Beach. The ceremony was right at sunset and the picturesque backdrop could not have been more beautiful.

We spent the day Sunday mostly relaxing around the hotel. Jen took a nap in the afternoon and I almost drove to Walt Disney World, but the guy at the front desk told me it was probably about a 2 1/2 hour drive so instead I paid $12.00 to watch Date Movie on the in-room movie service!

I snapped tons of pictures of Clearwater Beach, the wedding, our hotel and some other cool stuff we saw while we were down there. You can see all two pages worth of pictures in the Photo Album.

Checkin' In From Clearwater Beach

What's The Deal With That Don Henley Song

Seriously, what's the deal with that Don Henley song "Boys of Summer"?!?!? I heard it on the radio today for what must have been the 100,000,000th time and I had to think...Does anyone really need to hear this song again!? It's not that it's a bad song, or that they play it all the time, it's just that radio stations have NEVER stopped playing it like it was still on the charts! Most 80's songs went away and then came back when 80's music was retro...but not that Don Henley song, that song has been sitting in a CD player on standby in every radio station in the country for the last 20 years! And every station plays it too...pop, soft rock, classic rock, easy listening, mix stations...you can't escape it!

O.K. Don Henley, We Get It! The summer is over and you miss some girl you hooked up with! Get over it!

They should have a show like "American Idol" except every year we all vote on one song to have locked in a underground vault for 100 years! Some other contestants on the show could be any song from the 80's by Heart or Steve Winwood.

Obligatory Idol Prediction

I can't believe that I've followed the entire season of "American Idol" and what's harder to believe is that I haven't commented on it here on the blog since the very beginning. About two or three weeks ago I started to loose interest but by that point it was so close to end I felt I had to stick it out. Besides, a couple of my favorites were still hanging in there, and now as we get down to the bottom two tonight, I've got two favorites that look like they could take the prize.

One of the main reasons that I kept watching Idol after the audition shows was the unlikely choices of Taylor Hicks and Kevin Covais. They were both underdogs that didn't have the looks, but they had the talent. As the season went on there were other singers who I found very enjoyable as well, most notably Katharine McPhee and Kellie Pickler.

Tonight they announce the two contestants that go on to next weeks final show. I'm going to go on record with my prediction of Mr. Taylor Hicks our next American Idol. Taylor has never been in the bottom 2 or 3 and there seems to be some dislike of McPhee out there in the blogosphere. I'd like to see Taylor win. I think he will put out a good album and have a great career. I also would like to see Katharine win. She probably has just as much potential as Kelly Clarkson to go pretty far in the music biz.

Well, enough of me waxing philosophic! All I really wanted to do was list my favorite performances from the season. And here they are....

• Unwritten, Alya Brown
• Midnight Train to Georgia, Paris Bennett
• Copacabana, Bobby Bennett
• Reflections, Alya Brown
• Never, Mandisa
• Walking After Midnight, Kellie Pickler
• Superstitious, Bucky Covington
• Part Time Lover, Kevin Covais
• Taking It To The Streets, Taylor Hicks
• Fancy, Kellie Pickler
• Bohemian Rhapsody, Kellie Pickler
• Jailhouse Rock, Taylor Hicks
• Think, Katharine McPhee
• Bringing Out the Elvis, Katharine McPhee
• Black Horse and a Cherry Tree, Katharine McPhee
• You Are So Beautiful, Taylor Hicks
• Over the Rainbow, Katharine McPhee

Anyone else have a list of some of their favorite performances!?!

Aren't You Lucky

This evening Joey and I figured out how to get pictures off his new camera-phone and into the computer! So now you can look forward to lots of unnecessary photos like this one we took a few weeks ago of a Hidden Mickey in my salad at the diner!

Kool-Aid Man Video Game

This was one of the great games of the Atari 2600 era. Kool-Aid Man brought all the fun of powdered soft drink mix to your home video game console. You played as Kool-Aid Man and had to defend a back yard swimming pool from the evil Thursties.

You couldn't buy this game in stores. The only way to get your hands on a copy were to save up points from the back of Kool-Aid packages. But this game was so special you couldn't even order it from the Kool-Aid catalog (which my mom did a lot of shopping from.) You had to get a special order form for the video game from a comic book. I remember standing in High's at the comic book rack looking through several books to find the special ad. We ended up buying a Return of the Jedi comic. Saving up the points to order the game was not a problem, as we went though Kool-Aid like Donald Trump goes through hair gel. My mom had an envelope bursting at the seems with Kool-Aid points, so we were able to send for our game right away.

The game itself is pure video game goodness. It starts out with a very quick intro of Kool-Aid Man busting through a wall...just like he did in all his commercials. Then you maneuvered Kool-Aid Man around the backyard and tried to stop the Thursties from drinking all the water out of the swimming pool. You couldn't touch the Thursties unless they dropped a straw into the pool and started sucking out the water. Every-so-often Kool-Aid Man could grab a packet of sugar which made him invincible for a few seconds.

As with all good video games, the objective never changed. You just kept grabbing Thursties until all the water in your pool was gone. The Thursties would move faster and faster, but the levels never changed! Eventually everything would move so fast the game would be over in a matter of seconds no matter how good a Kool-Aid Man you were! They really ought to update this game for the XBox 360 or PS2! I'm sure it would be a big seller!

By the way, have you seen Kool-Aid Man lately!? He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans now!?! Sure Kool-Aid Man, you're a giant glass pitcher of fruit punch...you don't need to accessorize!

Life of the Party

Last night Joey had some friends from school over for his birthday. Elias just thought he was one of the guys and pulled up a chair and ate pizza with them. He thought he was pretty darn cool. Everytime the guys would all laugh at something, Elias would laugh along too! It was very cute. Elias loves his big brother very much and it was cool that Joey included him in the fun...not that he had much of a choice. Joey has adopted an old bit of mine by getting birthday cakes with ridiculous things on them. See for yourself!

The other day we were at the mall and Elias was riding a Merry-Go-Round that costs a dollar to ride. After his first ride, he wanted to ride again on a different spot on the carousel. I told him we didn't have any more dollars to ride again. Elias replied, "We can go to the money store and buy some more moneys!" Then he thought about it for a moment and added, "We can go to the DOLLAR STORE and buy some DOLLARS!" He was very proud of his idea. So was I actually, that was pretty clever of him.

Local Charming Site of the Week Old man in restaurant pouring two packets of sugar into his bowl of chili.

Two Mickey Notes

If you've got little Mouseketters in your house, you've got to tune into Disney Channel's latest addition to their Playhouse Disney lineup! Mickey Mouse Clubhouse features Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the gang in brand new adventures designed specifically for 2 to 5 year olds! It's very much inspired by Blue's Clues and Dora The Explorer as Mickey and friends have simple missions and the kids at home help out. At least a couple dozen times in each episode, Mickey turns to the audience and asks for help in figuring out colors, shapes, sounds and other very basic skills that preschoolers are mastering. It's very simple, and very cute. If you aren't too keen on letting your little one watch TV, this is one show you should consider letting them watch. Besides the fact that it's commercial free, it's fun to watch with them and help them play along, and it's awesome to see the look on their face when they think Mickey is talking to them, congratulating them on a job well done.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in on Disney Channel Saturday & Sunday mornings at 9:00am. Even if you don't have kids, you should check out the very infectious song Hot Diggety Dog performed by They Might Be Giants at the end of each episode. (They also do the theme song.)

In other news, In case you just can't get enough of my writing I'm now doing some writing for the Disney DVD website Ultimate Disney. This site has grown over the last few years as one of the major sources on the internet for news on upcoming DVD releases from The Walt Disney Company. I've been a big fan of the site for a few years now, and I just joined the staff as a writer on their weekly newsletter. The newsletter goes out to about 1200 subscribers, I just finished my first issue that was sent to readers earlier this week. By summer's end, I'll also be writing DVD reviews for the site which I'm pretty excited about. Of course, I'll be blabbing about everything I do over there on this site....so ya won't miss a thing!!!!

The Ultimate Disney Newsletter is by subscription only. If you want to see it, but not subscribe, e-mail me and I'll send you a copy!

Daddy's Day Off!

Yesterday, I had the whole day off from my daddy duties and hung out with my good bud Kevin. Kevin and I both have the same hobby...eating. That's probably why we've been friends for 13 years!

We started our adventures off with lunch at Pioneer Beef, one of those little run-down looking Pit-Beef stands that sits off the road on a gravel lot and most people just ignore. It's on Rolling Rd. in Catonsville, near Security Mall right under the 70 Overpass. We've had a lot of pit-beef in our days, and Pioneer Beef continues to be the best pit-beef sandwich you can get for your money. Fantastic! They also have outrageous fries! I got a huge sandwich, fries and a large Diet Coke for $6.75. The place is great, we've been going there for years. You should check it out! Kevin and I would be glad to take you!

Our next stop was The Candy Box which is a little candy store in Catonsville on Frederick Rd. They had a cool selection of penny candy and chocolates plus they have an awesome concoction of a snowball mixed with a soft serve ice cream. I think many places do this now, but The Candy Box was one of the first. I opted out of the frozen treat and instead decided to "be good" and get some sugar free candy. The lady behind the counter asked if I've had sugar free candy before, which of course I had, and she proceeded to tell me that eating more than two pieces has a laxative effect on you. Whatever! I've eaten plenty of sugar free candy and never gotten sick! Thanks for the warning! But then I felt like I was being rude if I bought too much so I only got three little pieces of chocolate.


We eventually made our way to The Mall in Columbia. They have a vendor at a cart that makes really cool copies of keys. Guess what kind of key I got!!! That's pretty sweet, ain't it!? We also took in a movie at the mall, Hoot. It's about some kids that fight evil land developers to stop construction of a pancake house in order to save baby owls. I love movies with evil land developers plus it had music by Jimmy Buffett so it was a win-win situation. Cute Movie.

When we left the movie, my stomach was hurting really bad. I felt like I had stuffed myself with junk food. Yet all I had really eaten was lunch (hours ago), some candy, and some free samples at various locations throughout the mall. Man, I felt horrible. Then it hit me! The candy! The sugar free candy that supposedly had a laxative effect! The sugar free candy with the laxative effect warning that I disregarded and ate several pieces of!

I HATE public restrooms! But, to make a long story short, I spent quite a bit of the evening in the Sears bathroom and later at a bathroom in a nearby bookstore. I still didn't feel right all night!

And I was trying to be good by eating something sugar free!!! I guess I'm taking sugar-free chocolate off my list of things I eat! Wow!

Mouse Around the House

We have lots of Mickey Mouse stuff in our house because if there is something that they can put a Mickey Head on they will make it and I will buy it. How many other things can you be obsessed with and get a kitchen sink stopper to feed your obsession. I bet they don't even have NASCAR sink stoppers! We have alot of Mickey in our kitchen. There is actually an entire store of Disney kitchen stuff in Walt Disney World.

Like these Mickey dining utensils, how cool are they!?! I used to have Mickey and Donald forks and spoons when I was little, but these are nice adult utensils. When I'm dead and long gone, Elias' and Tanner's wives will be fighting over who doesn't get to keep these family heirlooms!

I actually got a Mickey toaster for my birthday that toasted Mickey heads into your bread and it played the "Mickey Mouse Club March" when your toast popped up...but it turned out to be a piece of crap! (Shhh...don't tell Mickey I said that!) However, Santa made up for the Mickey void in the kitchen by stuffing this Mickey Mouse Egg Timer in my stocking. How proudly it sits on top of our stove!

This is my wedding ring, and this is how you know you've met the right girl...we saw this ring in Disney World and I commented on how it would be a cool wedding ring. So, when Jen and I decided to get married, she called down to Disney World and had them track down the ring in my size and ship it to us. How cool is that!? By the way, I didn't propose to Jennifer in Walt Disney World, but you can ask her how that story goes if you have an hour or so to kill!!
Our last stop on the tour is our bedroom. It just so happens that these Mickey TV's came out at about the same time the TV in our bedroom died. It was karma...it was fate! This odd shaped red TV set doesn't match the bedroom set we have that my wife had always dreamed about. But even she can't deny the powers of the mouse, I mean, come on...the TV's got Mickey Ear speakers for cryin' out loud! And when you adjust the volume, Donald runs across the screen with his footprints measuring how loud the TV is. Now that's swell!

Saturday Morning Cartoons - 1981

Saturday morning cartoons were awesome! Back in the day, Saturday morning was the only time you got to see brand new cartoons on television. Nowadays the kids got the Cartoon Network and Nick and Disney running cartoons 24 hours a day plus they got their DVD's and their internets...they can watch cartoons whenever they want. When I was little, we got up early on Saturday mornings and planted ourselves infront of the television set for the rest of the morning. Mom and Dad would sleep in and when they did wake up, they wouldn't dream of taking control of the TV. And remember, that was the only TV in the house too! A big bowl of cold cereal and a chocolate milk were all the other ingredients needed for a perfect Saturday morning.

The new cartoon line up for each year would be unveiled in a two step process. The first would be ads (like the one above) in comic books. Then right before the new lineup would debut, there would be a half-hour special (AT NIGHT) hosted by one of the networks younger stars who would show clips of all the new shows and what time they were going to be on! I remember one of the specials was called "Back to Next Saturday Morning" which was hosted by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd playing their "Back to the Future" characters. A high-point in both their carrers, I'm sure!

This ad is announcing the 1981 lineup for NBC, my preferred network when it came to Saturday morning cartoons. "The Flintstones" were a staple of my cartoon watching diet from as long as I can remember. While reruns of the original primetime sit-com version played every morning and afternoon, the Saturday morning episodes were brand new and made for kids. There was about 100 different reincarnations of The Flintstones in the late 70's to mid-80's. Wilma and Betty worked for a newspaper with Captain Caveman, Fred & Barney solved mysteries, the Frankenstones lived next door, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were teenagers that loved to drag race, and my favorite...Fred and Barney were cops partnered with the Schmoo, a white blob from the Lil' Abner comic strips of the Great Depression! (??? WHAT ???)

Now let's talk about "The Smurfs." The Smurfs WERE Saturday morning cartoons for the majority of the 80's. When I was 8 years old, I couldn't get enough of the Smurfs. I watched that cartoon so religiously I almost turned blue by the end of the 3rd grade. I was a Smurf for Halloween in the 3rd and 4th grade! My 4th grade costume was so much better than my 3rd grade one! Every couple of years "The Smurfs" show would get longer. First it was a half and hour and before long I believe it was up to two hours. It was all smurfy goodness as far as I was concerned!

I've never really been one for superheroes, but I liked Shazam simply because the show was made by the Filmation animation studio, and I would watch anything made by Filmation. Their most famous show was He-Man. Nobody at Filmation had any art training, and all the voices were done by the same two or three people. Nothing in their cartoons really ever moved except for mouths and vehicles. All I remember about "Shazam" is that it was done by Filmation, beyond that it didn't make much of an impression on me.

Next on the line up was "Space Stars" and I must have switched over to another network because I don't remember ever watching it. Among other characters pictured in the ad, you can see the Herculoids. I loved the Herculoids, but they had their own show at some other time. I was probably off at ABC watching Pac-Man or Richie Rich.

Now "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" was a great show! Peter Parker and this other guy and some chick all lived in his Aunt's basement and their apartment turned into a cool crime lab. And then they would all turn into their superheroes. The girl was Firestar and she was all fiery and stuff, and the other dork was Ice Man or something like that. I think he was supposed to be the Silver Surfer or somedude from the X-Men but they changed him all up for the cartoon or something like that. And then they would all fly around the town and Firestar would shoot fire at things and say, "Looks like we need to heat things up a bit!" And Ice Dude would be surfing around on his personal ice path and say things like, "Looks like you need to cool down a bit!" And then he'd shoot ice all over them. And Spider-Man would be flying around from his webs and say things like, "Thought I'd drop in!" And then they would all learn the meaning of team work! Man, that was a good show! (I think they play it on Toon Disney now!)

And then whatever other older shows rounded out the network line up, the local station would not air in favor of Soul Train or It's Academic! That's when it was time to go outside and play and reenact all the stuff we saw on TV that morning! Good Times!

National Hamburger Month

Hey, did you know it's National Hamburger Month!?! Well it is! On my calendar every month is Hamburger Month! But to celebrate National Hamburger Month here's a list of some of my favorite burgers that you could probably get your hands on!

• 1/2 lb. Hoss Burger Hoss's Steak and Sea House This is quite possibly the best tasting burger around. It is real ground beef, very juicy and very tasty. I order them plain and just put a dab of ketchup and mustard on myself. It comes on a nice moist roll too! Hands down my favorite burger!
• Classic Double with Cheese Wendy's As far as fast food goes, Wendy's has the best burgers. I'm sure they are frozen at some point and come from the same grade of Kangaroo as all the other fast food burgers, but their burgers taste great! Quality is their recipe you know! Plus you get a little more burger at Wendy's because their patties are square!
• Ground Peppercorn Burger Chilis This big burger is crusted w/black pepper & spices, then topped with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickle, Awesome Blossom® strings and bleu cheese dressing. A very unique flavor. Excellent!
• Western BBQ Colossal Burger Friendly's This puppy's got crispy Fronions over their really good BBQ sauce, with spicy Queso sauce and melted Cheddar cheese. Served on a grilled bun with lettuce, tomato and mayo. After eating, I almost don't have room for a five-scoop Resse's Pieces Sunday!
• 1/2 lb. Burger Fudrucker's Like Hoss's, Fudrucker's makes a mean burger. They offer their burgers served different ways with all kids of different toppings, but I like mine straight up! They have an awesome fixins bar where I add just a little bit of shredded lettuce, my ketchup and mustard, and some spicy jalapeno cheese sauce. Fantastic!
• Maryland Crab Burger Bill Bateman's Bistro I know, this one sounds weird at first. I was skeptical to try it on my first visit, but somebody in my family orders it everytime we go to Bateman's. This is a big huge burger topped with Crab Dip, Cheddar Cheese, Crabmeat and Old Bay Seasoning. That's eatin' right there my friend!
• Havana Burger Bill Bateman's Bistro This is a new entry to Bill's menu and it is fantastic! Iliterallyy get cravings for this burger and have to go just to get one! Combine Cuban pork, Capicola ham, Swiss cheese, sliced pickles, Dijon mustard, chipotle mayo, sliced tomato & 100% Angus beef burger all toasted on a ciabatta bread loaf. This one WILL fill you up!
• Big Mac McDonald's You know the drill...two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun! Sure, the burgers could be bigger and it doesn't really do anything in the "HungerFulfillmentt Department," but it's a darn good burger! The tastes just go together so well! That Ronald McDonald is a genius!

Feel free to comment on some of your favorite burgers! Happy National Hamburger Month!