Hunger Games Midnight Show

I will work for Hunger Games tickets! Will do designing work for Hunger Games tickets!

That only sounds like one of my daughters, the culprit that I too am glued to these books. Being almost at the end of "Catching Fire" the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy I too am excited about watching the movie on the big screen however I don't know that I am built for midnight shows full of screaming teenagers but nevertheless being that my sweetheart will be here with me and will go with us will make me stand anything.

I am putting off watching "Breaking Down" part one only because I didn't want to wait half a year to watch the second part. So, I will patiently wait until part two is released and then watch the first part just before the theater release of part two. With Harry Potter I always waited to read the book just before the movie release but I believe the release of "Catching Fire" the movie won't be until November 2013 and that's too long to wait so... I will just finish the three books and then just wait for the movies to come out.

It is expected to be a huge opening, a "Twilight" kind of opening so I am preparing for anything. As long as I am on a full stomach I will be happy, let the name of the movie be just a name, no need for acting it or living it. First food then movie, and when it comes to me, hopefully no hunger. Did I hear somebody say tacos?

Well fast forward a little bit. Abby got here at around 4:00 pm, we visited my mom and got fed, and later we joined Michelle and Nichole at the theater and got to wait for two hours still for the showtime. I think they waited about four hours but were able to get us good seats. Little by little we all got there in the end out little group consisted of eight people.

No, I won't spoil the movie but I will tell you that even if you have not read it is a great movie to watch. The violence contains no gore and the acting was not too bad so yes now I look forward for part two which as I stated before won't happen until November 2013, I think!

'Hunger Games' Review: Compelling But Implausible, Like 'American Idol' with a Body Count ~ Alonso Duralde

Will I do another midnight show? Probably not! I can patiently wait for the second week after release to watch the movie in peace and without noisy teenagers that won't shut up.

Catching Fire

I am reading:
Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

So far this year I have read:

The Broker by John Grisham
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
In The Name of Honor by Richard North Patterson
Timeline by Michael Crichton
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


So I am now reading "Catching Fire", the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. These are really easy books to read, big letters, big spacing, and no fancy wording, obviously design for teenagers. They are however hard to put down, once you start you want to push that one more chapter before putting it down.

I really enjoyed reading "The Hunger Games" and now I can't wait to watch the movie. My daughter Nichole whom is a fan of midnight movie openings is trying to convince me to be part of her posse next Friday for the movie opening. The only problem with a midnight show is that I think that instead of me catching the action scenes and taking in the movie I'll be catching some Zzzzzzzzzzzzz's instead and posibly getting kicked out for snoring.




I am really enjoying this renewed habit of mine. I substituted reading books because there were so many blogs I would visit on a daily basis but little by little most of my blogger friends have abandoned their blogs to just being on FaceBook and I once again find myself with time for reading books.

So go ahead and recommend some books, I do however stay away from romance novels, I am more of a fiction and adventure kind of guy.

What's on your reading list? Have you read any of the ones I’ve read?

Super Heroes Birthday Party!

For Diego and Ramon.



Can somebody explain to me how this happens? How is it that in one more year Diego will hit the double digits and Ramon is already two? How did that happen? I know it's cliche but I could start this post with "Wasn't it just yesterday...?" The fact is that last Saturday we celebrated just that, Diego's ninth birthday and Ramon's second.

To see them grow is nothing short of wonderful, it's like each time I see them I see changes. They are just getting too old too fast and that only means one thing, that I am becoming a dinosaur of sorts.

My daughter Michelle has the best ideas for parties and this was no exception. They erected a metropolis in their dining room and every so often the buildings started falling but on this particular occasion no one feared the danger as the house was filled with super heroes.


Here, Super Grandpa leaped from the hot dog machine to hold this falling high rise building, I think one of the many batmen in attendance knocked it in error but Super Grandpa's sharp reflexes prevailed and saved the building placing it back in place.

It was like the super hero convention at the Duckworth's abode. Batman, Captain America, Superman, Bat girls, Super girls, and many other heroes made the party and fun was had by all, specially the mini heroes which were running and jumping all over.

Batman, Superman, and Captain America.
Batgirl and an older Captain America.
Birthday boy Ramon with his super daddy.

I think you just have to appreciate who you are and hopefully they can see what a superhero is about. ~ Lucy Liu

As you can see, super heroes come in many sizes and shapes.
As always, we had a blast. The food was delicious, the super nachos were the BOMB!, the hot dogs had a POW! once all the toppings were in place, and the PUNCH! well it was refreshing. I even had me a care package which I gladly ate the following day. Ummm que rico!

Well, in a couple of weeks Ariele and Atalie will have their birthday party and I heard it through a very reliable source that Ariele a.k.a. Rapunzel will be hosting a formal party. I guess if you are invited to a ball it has to be formal, and in our household with so many princes and princesses around formal attire will be required. Oh and Ariele says that when the tea is served our pinkys have to be sticking up.

Tidbits

While in Los Angeles I observed that every third car was a Mercedes Benz and not the classics but the brand new kind. Did Mercedes dropped their prices or is everyone well off there. All I know is that they are sweet and I want one. You think I'm kidding? I am not, they are all over the place.



I was in the city of Monterey Park and we were taking a walk on Garfield Blvd. Then I saw this. Even my hometown missed me and sent me this subliminal message in the form of this street sign.



The freeways are always packed and commuting is slow, of course if you are from there you don't notice *wink, wink* but us visitors notice this just as soon as we get there. Yet, I navigated through them as best as I could.



More than once, actually four times to be exact the ghetto bird was busy, the black and whites were blocking the entrance of every street for a five block radius on both sides. Another time about ten patrols to a mini van, on another one a car chase that ended near my sister's house, and again the ghetto bird flying and using their loud speaker first thing in the morning. Yep, never a dull moment in the La Puente area.



Just some of the highlights from last weeks trip.

* Three out of four images borrowed from the Internet.

Thank God It Was Just a Scare

Let me start this post by saying all is fine and God is good.

Well the 3-day weekend in La Puente was unpredictably extended into an eleven day stay.

As I mentioned before when I got there on Thursday afternoon Abby was already there waiting for me, she had missed work due to her being sick with the flu and so instead of staying in Lancaster she drove to La Puente and surprised the heck out of me. Me? I love these kind of surprises.

Apparently everyone there had been sick with the flu all week long so when I got there it was like an epidemic. They were all getting flu shots the kids and the adults and the weather which was hot during the day and cold during the night was not helping either. Abby too was still battling the flu but I noticed her dad was really, really struggling.

We left to my sister's to spend the night and then we got the call. It was roughly 4:00 am when Abby's sister called to let us know her dad was having a hard time breathing and so they called an ambulance and he was taken to the hospital to have him checked.

I knew he really looked bad the day before but did not anticipate this. During the next six hours in the emergency ward it was determined that it was heart related and not flu related. They contacted his doctor whom had him transferred to a medical center in Monterey Park and it was inevitable but he was going to need an operation and it was a risky one. His arteries were completely shot and were not working at all so for the next couple of days they needed to stabilize him, including controlling his sugar as he is diabetic.

He was neglecting his health and God in his infinite wisdom sent him and us a reminder of how wonderful life is, and that it is worth living til the end.

Finally on Wednesday the operation took place, a quadruple bypass that took six long agonizing hours but when the doctor came out he told us that as soon as the arteries which were donated by his own leg were in place his heart took over right away.

He is a strong man and his faith helped him through this hard time and now we just wait for his fast and full recovery, he needs to because he has to walk Abby down the aisle pretty soon.

He is still in the hospital recuperating very nicely but your prayers for a faster recovery will be greatly appreciated.

The Hunger Games

So while I was in California I finished reading Timeline, I really liked the book which is a typical Michael Crichton story. It had adventure, action, and some romance but not much, it was mostly a race against time to save their professor from a parallel world in the past during the medieval time in France.

I didn't realize a movie based on this novel was released back on 2003 so I went searching for the trailers on Youtube and it looks good even though I can already tell they did some major changes for the screen play. Still I think it will be a good watch if I can only get the movie. Since Blockbuster closed its doors in my neighborhood it is hard to find general titles now and as you all know Red Box is very limited when it comes to older movies.

So far this year I have read:

The Broker by John Grisham
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
In The Name of Honor by Richard North Patterson
Timeline by Michael Crichton

I am reading:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The new book I am reading comes highly recommended by my daughter Nichole whom made me read the entire Harry Potter and Twilight sagas.



The Hunger Games is the first of three books and the movie will be released at the end of this month so hopefully we will get to watch it on the big screen.

I went to the library looking for it but they had a huge waiting list for the few copies they have available so I put a note on FaceBook for someone, anyone to send them my way. Luckily my nephew whom only lives five minutes away from me had all three and I now have them here with me and have already started on the first one.

I can already tell they are very easy to read so I figure it will take me about a week each since I only read at night unlike my daughter Nichole whom can probably read this type of books in two sittings.

What's on your reading list? Have you read any of the ones I’ve read?

Anorther Trip, Another Adventure

Every trip is different, you would think after a whole year of going back and forth I would be fed up but the truth is that I make them as enjoyable as I possibly can. I wanted an early departure going to Cali but the best I could do was 10:00 am. This is including a stop at Costco for gas.

In full leathers and ready to ride.
The Fatboy was also loaded and ready to take me to California.
I got on the freeway and headed towards California, forty five minutes later I stopped in Tonopah to top off the gas tank again. Here a poor lady was getting frustrated because her poodle got off her SUV and was running all over the gas station, luckily it wasn't a very busy gas station.

She asked a young kid for help but he was on the phone so she asked me, so we started chasing the poodle around, the kid got off the phone and joined us. At this point the poodle is like what the heck, who are these two fools trying to get me so he sheltered himself behind the lady. What frustrated the lady was that because she was old she couldn't just bend down and scoop the dog up, eventually the poodle chose her over us and finally got in front of her and did not move anymore. She then gently picked him or her up and back in the car he went. Then as I left I noticed she now was fighting with the gas pump, but I was already saying sayonara and was on my way again.

Second stop was right before the California border. I once again put filled my gas tanks and then I noticed this wall that to me screamed photo up. So, I put my bike right in front of it and captured these two images. I really like them.


This shinny wall was a great place to photograph the bike and then I took the opportunity and got a shot of my reflection as well.

I guess by now you already realized that my Fatboy is the star during this trip right? I few miles up the road is a very small town if you can even call it that. The name of the town is Desert Center and it's a middle point for trucker to exchange trailers between Los Angeles and Phoenix. There's an empty gas station, an old abandoned house, a train wagon, and a few other interesting things. I once again liked the setting for some more photo shots. I had been here before so this time I placed the bike exactly where I wanted it.

This is truly a ghost town, even in the daylight it's a bit eerie. Right away you find this gas station which has now been closed for at least three years, but even when it was opened it was a freaky place to stop. We pretty much never stop here as 25 miles up the road there's a more enjoyable stop in Chiriaco Summit. So as I took this picture a heavily tattooed young man came over and asked me if I wanted a picture on the bike all the while I kept thinking if he so wants he can just run with my camera and I have no chance of catching him. Well, he didn't but he did ask me for money and better yet a ride to the next town as supposedly he needed gas. What? A guy on the back of my seat heck no.

Luckily tattoo guy didn't run and took this shot of me.
Then I rode to the train wagon and was taking more bike shots when another random kid came to me with a very similar story as tattoo guy. And he also wanted to ride on the back of my bike, what? Are you guys nuts, this I took as my clue to leave Desert Center behind and move on.

After the second intruder came around my inspiration was gone. I took captured this image real quick and just rode off into the sunset.

Twenty five mile up the road you find another Chiriaco Summit. This is a very nice and safe stop for travelers complete with a nice restaurant, a store, gas station, The George Patton museum is there too as well as the West Coast Vietnam Wall. There's even an airport for Cessna's. I have already posted lots of images from this place but I will post a few more today.




At The Patton Museum there are lots of tanks on exhibition, so I chose them as background for some more Fatboy photo shoots.

One more gas stop in Coachella and the next stop would have been La Puente but as I came down the hill before Coachella I knew that for at least the next hour and a half it was going to be a bumpy ride because the wind was really blowing making my bike in a not so straight line.

It got even worse when I crossed the Palm Springs area, I think I was riding against the wind because the bike's engine was really pushing and I was only doing 60 miles per hour. That one and a half hours got me more tired than the whole trip, when riding in high wind the body tenses up and the mind becomes very aware that the wind can make you change lanes even when you are not planning on making them.

I had already ridden in high wind so I knew exactly what to expect. The last leg of the trip the sun got covered by clouds and the temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees to where I was getting very cold, so I stopped as soon as I could and bunddle up. Once my sweat shirt went on under my leather jacket I was fine the rest of the way.

All this things I endured during the trip were totally worth it because my sweetheart was supposed to meet me there the next day but instead she surprised me by being in La Puente a day in advance so needless to say that made me very very happy.

Hello Love!