I'm taking a little vacation this week so there will likely be little new material until after Labor Day. There are a number of reasons for this decision:

• There's a hurricane coming. Chances are we will lose power tonight and won't get it back until tomorrow


• The end of the quarter is here. I have lots of finals and projects to grade before Wednesday


• The new quarter starts next week. I have to prepare for all of my classes. 11 weeks worth of material for 6 classes in less than a week. Lots of fun there.


• I'm going to Atlanta this weekend to celebrate my 5 year wedding anniversary and see the Mets and Braves play (among other activities).

So, I've got a busy platter. Hopefully, upon my return I will have at the very least a review for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Erika had planned to do this but her prep for school took a lot of her time over the past few weeks. I've also got reviews for The Island and Brothers Grimm to work on as well. It looks like my site redesign will never get done. Such is life.

Correction: My wife is not letting me get an iguana (or two), she is actually buying them for me.

This past Sunday was a first for me. It was my first visit to Visionland, my first participation at a water park and my first glimpse at a food court with only one restaurant (located at the Visionland Outlet Mall). At Visionland, I almost lost my vision a few times. Walking into the complex I was met by a 40+ year old lady who easily weighed 300 or more pounds wearing a tiny little leopard print bikini. My eyes still hurt. Her stomach was so big that it hung over her bikini bottoms. After seeing that I suddenly didn't feel so modest in front of a bunch of strangers. I stayed in the water park for about an hour riding through the lazy river a few times, going on the toilet bowl slide (a water slide that spits you out into a bowl that you spin around until gravity pulls you out the hole in the bottom) and a water raft slide. It was pretty fun.

Visionland is certainly nothing to write home about though. There are maybe fifteen rides including a ferris wheel, log flume, and a couple roller coasters. I really liked their wooden roller coaster (the Rampage). It was really fast for a wooden coaster. The first drop was pretty steep and it didn't let up until the end.

I also learned on Sunday that we are getting a new addition to our household. My wife has decided to let me get an iguana (or two). I haven't had one since the summer after we first met. I probably won't be able to get them until mid-October, but that gives me plenty of time to do some research and planning.

It's been quiet here for the past week plus. The Summer quarter is quickly coming to a close, but the Fall quarter starts in about 3 weeks. I have a much better schedule which allows me to be home a little more and see my wife more as well.

If you haven't read it, my Weekly Rundown covering the past two weeks is posted in the Gameroom. Enjoy the review of March of the Penguins in Now Playing

At long last, my childhood idol has been recognized for his greatness. Dan Marino was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame yesterday. Many may say that he isn't as good a quarterback as Joe Montana or John Elway because he never won a Super Bowl ring. It is sad that he never experienced the thrill of winning a Super Bowl, but a ring does not make a quarterback great. Championships require a team effort, not an individual effort. A quarterback can throw 48 TDs a season, but what does that mean to winning games if the defense can't hold the other team in check? Marino holds almost every major passing record in the NFL. As a record holder it stands to reason that he is great, Super Bowl ring or not.

And as luck would have it, I moved a year earlier from Cleveland and wasn't able to attend the ceremony.

Uh-oh. I had to be a grown-up again yesterday. Our mattress was basically becoming a bed of nails. The springs had slowly worked themselves through the mattress and were starting to poke me in the back. So, off we go shopping. I had done a little preliminary work at the furniture store down the street and found a few mattresses I liked. Erika joined me to give her opinion and I ended up dropping about $300 for a new mattress and box springs which they promptly delivered later that afternoon. I'm obviously not used to the new mattress as I slept horribly last night.

I've posted a new movie review for Fantastic Four in Now Playing. Fantastic Four is one of the better movies of the summer so take a look at the review.

New updates that aren't movie reviews!!!

I've recently posted new additions to The Gameroom and Old School. In The Gameroom read my new Weekly Rundown giving you info about what I'm currently playing. Revisit the 80's and bring back those childhood memories of M.U.S.C.L.E. Men littering your living room and bedroom in Old School. Look for new movie reviews later this week.