Mr Papa's World » Entertainment

How Do You Get Your Kids to Appreciate Classic Movies?

Suzanne — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:38:24 +0000

I’ve had some success and some utter failures over the last few weeks to get my kids to appreciate some classic movies. I love classic movies, but I have had the hardest time getting my own kids interested in watching older films. Sometimes the pacing is just too slow, and other times the subject matter not very interesting to them, other times it is simply the artificial look of technicolor, but they have had no interest is watching some very good classic movies with me.

In the fall I thought my son would enjoy “Ben Hur” since it won so many awards and told the story of a Chariot Racer. He watch the first 15 minutes and became bored and only joined me again to watch the chariot race scene near the end of the film. He liked the movies “Gladiator” and “300″ ... READ MORE

There is Nothing Like a Suit!

Mr Papa — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:39:00 +0000

I had to break down this weekend and actually go shopping for clothes. Its not something I ever enjoy, but with an upcoming business trip, I needed a couple of suits to wear. Since our office is business casual, I really haven’t needed a suit at all, and can usually get by with just a sports coat when meeting with customers. I had Suzanne do most of the hard work and call around to find who had the best selection and prices for me. We ended up at her favorite men’s store, The Men’s Warehouse.

I don’t mind going there too much since they have excellent service and a very good selection in Big and Tall sizes. We actually had a pretty good selection from which to choose and and one point we had three sales people helping us coordinate ... READ MORE

Football Week 2

Mr Papa — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:41:42 +0000

Yes! The Lions finally win! They broke their 20 game losing streak and beat the Washington Redskins by a score of 19 – 14. And you know what, they actually looked quite good doing it. They have been steadily improving each week. While I don’t think they will win a bunch of games or make the playoffs, as a life long Lions fan, I am encouraged.

The same is sort of true for Sean’s football team. This was week two and they were definitely improved over the previous week. Still, they went down to defeat this week by a score of 26 – 6. The game was really closer than the score, but still they lost. If it wasn’t for three long passes for TDs by the opposing Douglas team, the game was really tight. Honestly, it was quite refreshing to see a ... READ MORE

Hooters for Sean’s Birthday!!!

Suzanne — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:04:51 +0000

[image title="IMG_5928" size="medium" id="2902" align="right" ]

Well wouldn’t you know it! Sean turned 13 this year and he picked Hooters for the location of his 13th Birthday Celebrations. Sean said he wanted to go their for the food (which is still quite good) and yes, for the scenery.

The Hooters Girls didn’t let him down. They made a birthday banner for him, had him do the Hooters Chicken Birthday Dance and sang a birthday song for him. Sean got to bring friend with him. The Hooter Girls were really nice, but Sean commented “They were way out of my league!”.

Savannah commented that they were quite short which actually put them in Sean’s league. Actually, I don’t know why Hooters has such a racy reputation because the girls wear more than what I wear to the gym, but maybe it is that they look ... READ MORE

Bachelor Time – Sort Of…

Mr Papa — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:37:28 +0000

It’s that time of the year again – Bachelorhood! The time when Suzanne and the kids make the Summer trek back to Dallas to visit with her family. Well, sort of anyways. Yes, she left this morning for her trek, but unfortunately, I am so buried in work, I am not sure how much of my time alone I will get to enjoy.

I was assigned a major project a couple of weeks ago and need to bring it in by the end of August. This means many long nights and weekend. Already, I can’t remember the last day I had off from work or when I last got home before 8:00 at night. Luckily, these times don’t happen too often.

The other day, Suzanne commented that at least it was good timing and that my heavy workload was happening while she and the kids would be ... READ MORE

Sad But True Quotes

Mr Papa — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:55:56 +0000

A friend sent me the quotes below today. I don’t usually post these kind of things, but frankly, today, they seem kind of apropos. I also don’t know if they are all “real” quotes or made up.

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. — John Adams
If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. — Mark Twain
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. — Mark Twain
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. — Winston Churchill
A government which robs Peter ... READ MORE

Stanley Cup Time

Mr Papa — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:15:27 +0000

It’s Stanley Cup time again in the NHL and once again the Detroit Red Wings are playing for Lord Stanley’s Cup. I love watching the NHL finals, especially when the Red Wings are there. I don’t get a chance during the season to watch too many games but I always make it a point to watch when the playoffs and the Cup series arrive.

The final matchup is a rematch of last years Stanley Cup Finals between Detroit and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Its the first repeat match up in a long time. Detroit was victorious last season and I am hoping for a similar result this year.

Detroit jumped out to an early 2 – 0 lead in the series with me glued to the TV set watching. This whole playoff run they have done very good when I have watched. In fact, I hadn’t seen ... READ MORE

The Girls Win Big At Showstopper

Suzanne — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:21:56 +0000

Once again Suzanne and Savannah traveled to Phoenix to attend the Showstopper Dance competition. This year was a little different as they were the only two soloist from the dance studio to attend the competition. The only group that went was the St. Andrew’s/Alma Dolores Folklorico group.

Suzanne kicked off the entire competition with her 40-49 year old song and dance routine to “Cabaret.” With her time slot at 8:00 in the morning, that meant leaving the house at 4 am to get to Phoenix on time. She was overall pleased with her performance but felt that a few of the details could have been better. She won a Gold First Place in her category, and not only her age group, but also the 20 and older division too.

After her awards, the girls enjoyed some shopping, swimming and dinner ... READ MORE

Showstoppers Weekend Again

Mr Papa — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:27:18 +0000

Well, sort of… It is time for the regional Showstopper dance competition weekend in Phoenix once again. However, Suzanne’s and Savannah’s dance studio has decided to not do Showstopper this year. I am not really sure why, but the studio is passing this year.

That doesn’t mean the girls are passing this year – at least for Regionals. Tomorrow morning, bright and early at 4:00 AM, Suzanne and Savannah will head out the door to drive up to Phoenix for the competition. They both are only doing their solos. Technically, they still represent the dance studio, but I think they are the only ones going. Suzanne will be doing a single song and dance while Savannah will be doing two dance solos.

Suzanne’s song and dance routine is at 8 AM on Saturday, so she will need to try to get fresh after the 2 or ... READ MORE

Birthday Fun

Mr Papa — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:28:05 +0000

As I mentioned this weekend, it was Savannah’s Birthday and we headed into town for fun and dinner. First stop was the mall as Savannah wanted to walk around and shop with some money she had received for her birthday. It was kind of convenient too since the movie theater was right there.

She ended up getting a couple of new games for the Nintendo DS that we got her for her birthday. I don’t remember the titles, but not sure how much of a game they really are. They seemed more like doodling apps for little girls. She was excited though. Somehow, Mr Papa managed to get out of there with a new Xbox 360 game too. Well, not exactly new as it was a 2nd copy of Call of Duty 5. Now Sean and I can play together on the two ... READ MORE

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Mr Papa — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:23:27 +0000

Well, technically it was yesterday, but today being Saturday, we are doing most of the celebration activities today. More on that later…

Yesterday the kids had a half day of school and their 1st Semester awards program. Both kids received honor roll once again with Sean earning a 4.96 grade point and Savannah earning a 3.79 average. Pretty good!

Savannah has been watching a lot of cooking shows lately on the Food Channel and decided she wants to be a chef. She has been at my side for years now helping me cook. One of her favorite Food Channel shows is the Challenge Show where folks make really, really outlandish and beautiful cakes. So yesterday, she decided she wanted to make her own birthday show cake – and she wanted minimal help from me or Suzanne.

She actually went as far as making molding chocolate and fondant, ... READ MORE

Feeling Like An Idiot

Mr Papa — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:44:52 +0000

As a pretty technical savvy guy, I am feeling like quite an idiot tonight. For the last year or two since we replaced our last HDTV with our current model, we have struggled with an issue on the TV that I have been unable to resolve. But, that’s not where the problem really lies.

This Samsung DLP TV has been a really good TV. I have set up a movie mode that is a series of settings optimized for TV viewing at night. However, whenever I would select this movie mode I had created and calibrated, the setting would revert back to default or dynamic mode after about 30 minutes.

It was really aggravating while watching a movie to have to change the settings back every 30 minutes during the movie. It definitely interrupted the flow of the movie.

I had scoured the manual and settings on the ... READ MORE

Smoking and Super Heroes

Mr Papa — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:04:01 +0000

Yesterday I put my new Christmas present, a smoker to the test. We also decided to have a Super Hero movie marathon to watch three relatively new movies that we hadn’t yet seen.

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday getting the meats ready to smoke. I had decided to smoke a top loin pork roast, some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and some pork baby back ribs. I prepared a cure or a marinade for all of them and let them sit over night.

I decided to smoke the meats with apple wood. After warming up the smoker, in went the pork. I had planned to smoke the pork roast for 6 or 7 hours. A couple of hours later, the ribs went in, followed by the chicken a couple of hours later. All three were smoked at a temperature between 200 and 220 ... READ MORE

Vantage Point

Mr Papa — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:53:00 +0000

We just finished watching a very good movie this evening. The movie was Vantage Point. It had very novel concept of seeing events and then backtracking.

The move viewed one specific event from the eyes of about six different people. It would first show you the event, in this case, the assassination of the US President, from the viewpoint of one person. The movie would then backtrack in time and show you the same event from the perspective of a different person. Each time you saw the event from the viewpoint of someone else, you learned a bit more about the event.

The movie was very riveting and very, very enjoyable. The whole family, even Savannah, enjoyed watching it. It was intriguing to see the way the director revealed bit more information each time from the viewpoint of a different person. It ... READ MORE

What’s Up With the Lions?

Mr Papa — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:47:47 +0000

Holy cow, what has gotten into the Detroit Lions lately? They are finally starting to act like an NFL football team. Most of my readers know that I am an avid, loyal, long time Detroit Lions fan and am not afraid to admit it!

They have, unfortunately, been the doormat of the NFL for many years during the reign of Matt Millen as the President of the Lions. Lately, despite being 0 – 5 this season, things are beginning to look up for us Lions fans.

Recently, the Lions fired Matt Millen and signaled the end of the current era. In the 7+ years he was in Detroit, no team lost more than the Lions as they compiled a 31 – 84 record. Why it took Ford Sr over 7 years to realize Millen wasn’t working out is beyond me.

Then today, ... READ MORE

Sean’s Team Doesn’t Lose

Mr Papa — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:17:49 +0000

No, they didn’t win either. Technically, I guess they did lose as they had to forfeit only having 10 players for the game today. The weather has been pretty rough today – on and off rain – and several kids didn’t show up or did other things because they didn’t think we would play in the rain.

That kind of thought pretty much sums up the team – not really football players. Sean was disappointed. He was ready to go and with only two more games after today, he really wanted to play. It wasn’t even raining that hard and definitely no thunder and lightning, so not sure why you wouldn’t even bother to check.

Its been a fun day other than driving out for the game and then coming right back. The temperature has been wonderful, hovering around 70 all day. We shut the ... READ MORE

Football Season is Here

Mr Papa — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:05:38 +0000

Oh yeah! It’s that time of the year again. Football Season! Along with the cooling of temperatures here in Arizona and our annual fall/winter cruise approaching, this is an awesome time of the year! College football is already under way. The NFL starts tonight. And, Sean’s football season begins this weekend.

I am actually holding out some hope for the Detroit Lions this season. They made some good strides last year and Coach Rod completed his house cleaning this off season. He now has a team in his image. It will be interesting to see if “his team” is able to put it together.

Not that it matters much, but the Lions did go 4 – 0 in the pre-season. I still think the team to beat in the NFC North is the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions have a good shot ... READ MORE

Sean’s Birthday Festivities

Mr Papa — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:21:19 +0000

Sean’s Birthday was last Thursday, but today we had his fun day. Most of the presents were opened last week, but today was his day on the town. As previously mentioned, the kids get a party with their friends every other year and then on the other year, we have a family day.

It started today with a morning of video games. He spent the morning playing some of his new Xbox 360 video games. For presents, he received Madden 09 (yes, we took the plunge again), Bourne Identity and Civilization Revolutions. He has enjoyed all of them. He and Savannah spent 2 or 3 hours this morning alone playing Civilizations. She has even tried a game or two herself. I remember the game from the PC days and still looks as addicting as ... READ MORE

Interesting Web Site

Mr Papa — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:07:57 +0000

First and foremost, I am not claiming what that image says. In fact, I had some trepidation about doing this post, but after the initial shock (and laugh) its a serious site. Recently, on the open source WordPress forum plugin that I help develop, we had a support request from a site called I Married A Fat Bitch.

My first instinct, on seeing the support request, was that is was spam and it should be deleted. But, I went and checked out their issue (which is real, but not likely related to our plugin). I was still very curious about this site. A quick check of their About Page will give you a good laugh, despite the seriousness of the site.

Like I said, this is indeed a real site. ... READ MORE

Sleep Deprivation

Mr Papa — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:10:41 +0000

I have mentioned this before, but I have been thoroughly enjoying the Olympics this year. The past couple of Olympiads, I have had a hard time getting interested. A large part has been the crappy coverage. This year, there is more sports and less human interest stories and fluff. Unfortunately, this Olympics has also been causing a good deal of sleep time to be missed. I am finding myself staying up way too late at night watching instead of going to bed. And it doesn’t matter what time I go to bed, I tend to wake up at 5:30.

The primary NBC coverage begins at 7 and usually lasts until 11. That might not be so bad if I went to bed then. However, at 11:30, the Olympics coverage switches over ... READ MORE