…it must be a record! I’m just giving you something to do while Andy and I are gone for a few days. Here’s how we spent our evening:
This will do…
…for a great float/camp trip for the next few days!
Thanks Elizabeth!!!!
…and thanks to everyone else who made my b-day awesome!
I was always bad at geography…
…but I got the “Geoquiz” right today! That never happens!
Energy Efficiency
We’ll thank Maya and Morgan Moody for the idea, but it was suggested last year at Josh and Sharon’s wedding that we consider getting a single-room air conditioning unit for our upstairs bedroom. As many of you know, we live on the second and third floor of a brick building in Soulard, and one problem with living on the third floor of a brick building is that it gets hot up there and stays hot, even past dark. Having our central A/C maintain a comfortable temperature on that third floor (when the thermostat is on the second floor, mind you…) means that it’s running almost constantly, along with fans, etc. in the bed room to make sure I can sleep.
Well, we received a “personal energy report” from AmerenUE yesterday in the mail, telling us how much power we’d used over the last few years living here. As the graph above indicates, in the warm months of June, July, August and September (average temperatures ranging from 71 F to 81 F…but we’re talking about 100 F days in there, too…), we decreased our average energy use by a few hundred kWh. In our monthly billing statements, this translated to a savings of $101.33 over July – September.
We bought the single-room A/C unit in late-June 2008. We spent a little less than $100 on the A/C unit.
I think we made our money back. 🙂
Not a bad day afterall….
…even after the trek to Chesterfield yesterday! So, for lunch my coworkers took me to Michael’s in Maplewood where I had an awesome gyro samdwich! Everyone else also enjoyed their meals, and Angel LOVED real tatziki instead of the stuff that comes from a plastic container from Shop n Save.
Then, for dinner Andy and I went to Canyon Cafe at Plaza Fronetnac, where I had this lovely “2 drink limit” maragrita, that I swear was pink the last time i had it, but oh well….
Year 26
Brooke is going to be updating her blog a bit more often. As in. Every day, and hopefully with a picture! You should check out her blog for details!
She also has a picture and description up from her car over the weekend, which had its windows broken out by hooligans…grrrrrr… Thankfully, car insurance paid for most of it and it’s all taken care of now, but when you’ve got multiple weddings to attend over Memorial Day weekend, having to deal with such things is an annoyance.
Happy Birthday To Me…
So…..I woke up Saturday morning to my driver’s side windows both being smashed out. Our cars are always parked on the street, so it’s really not all that surprising, but not how I expected to spend my Saturday morning. So, I made the police report, settled everything with the insurance company, and have new windows, but this morning I had to drive to Chesterfield to have an estimate made of the damages to the inside from the glass and rain. As far as I know, the punks (or “knuckleheads” according to the officer who took my report) have been apprehended and are being charged with breaking the windows out of multiple cars.
As far as this blog goes, my plan is to try to update more frequently since I feel like I consume an awful lot of internet information without putting anything back out there, so I’m trying to even out my kharma a little. And I needed another good reason to purchase our Nikon D60 and this seemed like a good enough one! Comment often and enjoy!
Transforminators
If you haven’t seen any Terminator movies, or Transformers, this probably won’t amuse you. But if you have, it’s pretty hilarious… 🙂
Review: Terminator Salvation
The first “Terminator” movie came out in 1984 and helped to make James Cameron a household name. It would be seven years before “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” would grace the screens, again helmed by James Cameron, but those seven years were well-spent, as “T2” is largely considered the best movie in the franchise (and one of the best sci-fi movies of all time). “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” didn’t come until 2003, almost seen as a re-boot of the franchise, but this time without James Cameron directing. This one was decent, but probably the worst of the three.
Which brings us to 2009, and another re-boot of the franchise. “Terminator Salvation” takes place in 2018, after the machines under the control of Skynet had nuked the planet and started eradicating the human race (which the first three movies were trying to prevent). Basically, the first three movies centered around machines from the future sending back Terminators to the past to kill off John Connor, who would grow up to lead the resistance against Skynet. Well, all the details surrounding this fictional history are kinda complicated, but long-story-short, this most recent movie has jumped to the future where the actual resistance is occurring, giving us an idea of who this John Connor really is.
This movie, “Terminator Salvation,” probably falls somewhere between “The Terminator” and “Terminator 3” on my list of best movies in the franchise. It does many things well, including special effects and acting (especially in the case of Sam Worthington, a relative unknown that actually does a better job than Christian Bale, in my opinion). The story itself is mediocre, however. John Connor isn’t quite in control of the resistance, yet, but has many followers and commands much respect for his knowledge of the machines and Skynet. He learns that he and Kyle Reese (his father…as explained in the first movie…) are being targeted by Skynet, so he needs to find Kyle and save him. Marcus (played by Sam Worthington) is a new character that knows little of his past but, as we later find out (and as is implied in the previews), is actually a cyborg of sorts created by Skynet. John doesn’t trust Marcus, but from his previous experience with Terminators, knows that there are more to the machines than others think. John and Marcus, thus, work together to rescue Kyle from Skynet.
That whole “rescue” part is, by far, the best part of the movie. The whole first half sets things up, but pretty slowly. Once Marcus and John go after Kyle, we start seeing more Terminators, we get more action, and, in a particularly badass way, we get to see Arnold Schwarzenegger. How was this done? Well, advances in digital effects now allow a VERY convincing digital form of circa 1984 Arnold pasted on top of another actor. You have to see it to believe it. It’s uncanny.
Other than that, though, the movie is just “okay.” The effects are good, the acting is good, the dialog could be better, the story could be better.
In short, better than “Wolverine,” not as good as “Star Trek.” See it if you’re a fan of the franchise, but as you may have noticed from the description(s) above (if you even made it that far…), if you haven’t seen the previous three movies, “Salvation” won’t make much sense to you.