My daughter

Let me tell you a little about my daughter. Her name is Lauren Elizabeth Kelley, she is 7 years old and loves every living thing. She told me one day not to kill a mosquito because it was only doing what came naturally. She cares about her family and her friends a great deal, more than most 7 year olds should. She always wants to help and has a very dry sense of humor for someone of her age. Today, while i was at work, she sent her mom to bed and told her that she couldn't come out until she was told to. My wife, Kim, felt this was a good opportunity to stretch out and complied. I got home about 3 pm to my daughter sweeping up the floor and finishing up her cleaning of the living room. Nathan looked up from the computer and Lauren was thrilled that someone could see the job she had done. She did an amazing job cleaning the living room, The tables were cleaned, the floor was swept and the trash and clutter which was visible was all combined to one area. When I asked why she had done this, her response "so mommy wouldn't have to worry about it." This is a 7 year old who could have been playing or watching TV. Instead, she cleaned the living room, just because. So even though some may not look at this as a big deal, I do. I am proud of her initiative and the job that she did.

Comic Reviews Continued

Well, I was able to get by my Comic Shop, Comic's Kingdom in Beaumont , Tx. this week. These are some of the books that I picked up and read so far. I try to avoid spoilers in my reviews, just wanna give a feel of what I see. If you want more answers let me know.

JLA Classified #54: It was the last issue in the series, and while the finale was not as good as it could have been, As a whole it was the best arc in the series. I understand reasons that books get cancelled, but to me the JLA is something that sales wise could support two concurrent books, but they usually fail creatively in my opinion. I am sure that the new JLA title in the rumormill will start out great, but if it takes away from the uniqueness of the regular series it becomes an issue. Same as JLA crossing into JSA every couple of issues is getting stale. Back to the point, I enjoyed the issue. 7/10

Justice League of America #19: Let's see, the JLA clashes with the government. Transports themselves to the wrong planet to check on the conditions of the residents of the Salvation Run planet and can't find anyone. I really liked the splitting into teams aspect but didn't understand the groupings. Let's put Superman and Batman on one team, GL and Wonder Woman on another team, and the three newbies(Hawkgirl, Arsenal, and Vixen). Well, they may not be newbies, but they certainly lack in the A-Team experience of the other group. Finally the payoff of the classic villain who has set the trap. All in all, a very good issue, but enough with the Arsenal, Hawkgirl, Cheshire triangle. I've had it, and don't care to here about it anymore. 8.5/10

Booster Gold #7: LOVED IT. Pure and Simple, Blue and Gold together again will probably only last for another issue or two, but it has been fun to see again. I like how Geoff Johns slipped in another Aquaman reference into one of his books(he's leaving Booster for another project in the near future right?). The storey was fun and the reveal on the last page just gets more and more interesting. This may be the best book I'm currenlty reading.9/10

Countdown #8-5: Yay It's almost over. While the stories have finally converged and has become a cohesive mess, rather than an incohesive mess, it is getting a little better. Still don't see why I've dropped the money on this that I have, but Final Crisis should prove interesting.4/10

Batman and the Outsiders #5: Oh, the Dibny's, I love the Dibny's. I thought it was a good issue, I like the verbal sparring between Metamorpho(the team veteran) vs. Green Arrow(the JLA veteran. I enjoy this title a lot and am intrigued by it's direction. 7/10

I'll post a some more in the next few days including thoughts on Salvation Run, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps. Teen Titans and Flash.

Opening Day is Two Days away

I love Baseball. Sadly though, the Astros are my team: We have little to no quality, proven pitching behind Oswalt in the rotation. Brandon Backe is a great spirit and has a lot of drive, but his elbow just got repaired, and some think he has pushed to get back too quickly. The #3 pitcher, Wandy Rodriquez had a 7.5 ERA this spring. Shawn Chacon is a mystery to me at the #4. We have Woody Willaims and Chris Sampson battling for the #5 spot with ERA's above 10.
The defense is gonna be attrocious as we've replaced the best defensive SS in the NL,Adam Everett, with a guy with below avg. defensive skills, Miguel Tejada. Holes on defense in left with Lee and Center with Bourn(it has been stated recently that he can get to the ball, just has trouble catching it.
We gave up a lot young talent over the winter. Long Term options like Chris Burke, Brad Lidge, Chad Qualls, Mike Lamb, Luke Scott(a personal favorite--GO LUKE) and Eric Bruntlett are gone for the likes of Jose Valverde, Michael Bourn, Doug Brocail. Of course Craig Bigggio retired and Brad Ausmus has taken a back-up role to mentor J R Towles. I am very happy to see Jose Cruz Jr. and Geoff Blum back with the team.
Everyone talks about our line up, Well Bourn and Matsui were supposed to be at the top, Boune has struggle with hitting and Matsui is out for 3 weeks with a backside injury. Pence will slide in at #2 for now and that is a plus. Berkman as the #3 hitter and "leader" of the club is overrated, Berkman is someone that I'd love to drink a beer with and cut up with. He has a very dry sense of humor, but the example that a young player in today's game needs is one of mentorship.
Carlos Lee is worth the contract he was given period. But, if the money he is making could have been spent on an outfielder, a 3rd basemen and a starting pitcher, this club would be in better shape. I've talked about Tejada, and I think he'll do well. He just needs to drive in 120 runs to make up for the defensive liability that I see him as. At 3rd, it's Ty Wigginton, oh well, I thought that Lamb was a better option, and Loretta is a viable option in the infield as well. As stated Towles will be behind the plate, I think with his bat,he'll end up moving up in the order with Masui dropping to the 8th position.
Bench not previously mentioned looks like it's between Darin Erstad, Humberto Quintero and David Newhan.

In my opinion,

It's gonna be a long year to be an Astro fan, and with the Rockets performing at the level they are the casual sport fan may not notice the Astros until mid-May. By that time, they may already be out of the mix. The Brewers and The Cubs are the class of the division this year.
I would like to see the Astros commit to a youth movement, so at least there would be justification for what we may witness this year. I hope I'm wrong, but a 4th place finish is what I believe will happen this year for my guys. A 4 th place finish with a young club is acceptable. This is not a young ballclub.

Favorite Cartoons

It's Saturday morning. I am just thinking how I used to love Saturday's. I would wake up early, run into the living room and catch my favorite cartoons in my P.j.s on the floor with my cereal in front of the TV. The greatest thing was that if my dad was home and walked through the room, he would always stop and watch Bugs Bunny with us. Things have changed a lot. The three "main" networks don't even show cartoons anymore. I miss that, and my kids don't know what they are missing.

My favorite cartoons were:
Aquaman/Superman Hour
Bugs Bunny
Super Friends
The Batman and Robin Adventures
Thundarr
Spidey and his Amazing friends
The Hulk
Land of the Lost
Laff-O-Lympics
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Flinstones
Yeah, I liked the action stuff, but there was that category that could get me to volunteer for yardwork:
Smurfs
Strawberry Shortcake
Muppet Babies

It's nice to share the memories, if you have any on the subject, please let me know.

Been A While...

Well, it's been a long week. See, as mentioned previosly, I am a retail manager for a major chain. While others enjoy their holidays with friends and family, it's crunch time in retail. It's not about relaxing and letting the Ham settle, it's about getting ready for the next season as well as the daily tasks associated with business and life in general. I made it through my Easter to summer conversion rather painlessly this year. The people that I work with all do a great job and make work enjoyable more often than not. I have been doing this for a while and have built a very strong team of co-workers who do a great job of keeping me de-stressed the majority of the time. So, thank you to my team...Roger, Keitha, Rachel, Sylvia, Delores & Kevin.

Kelley Family '08: The Voyage Home

Yesterday, I wrote about the family's trip to Six Flags. Today, I'll write about the trip back to the house that turned into so much more. I knew the morning would not start off well when I tried to shower in our QC room and their was no hot water. It was okay though, the morning would get better at our "hot continental breakfast." I don't mean to complain about little stuff, but you know what...I will. We got to the lobby at 745am, and they were out of my breakfast staple. Not eggs, bacon or sausage mind you...Cereal. I'm pretty flexible when it comes to my choice of breakfast foods, but I love my bowl of cereal in the morning. Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran, heck I don't care...give me Grape Nuts and I'm thrilled. Not this morning, no cereal or bagels for me for breakfast. I knew it would not be a good day. Okay, the kids were happy, and things would be okay.
We went to Fair Park in Dallas for the end of our weekend getaway. It is an area in Dallas which houses the Cotton Bowl and six museums. The Science and History museums were both great. The staff was helpful, and their was a cute elementary school tour going on. All lined up together, holding hands, and behaving so well. It was going so well, until THE JUNIOR HIGH KIDS ARRIVED. When the Junior High tour arrived it was like seeing time lapse photography of a colony of insects moving upon a picnic. Except it was in real time, and these kids were freaking loud and didn't give two hoots about science or history. When the headache started, I was done and ready to go home.
Home for us though, is Baytown, Texas. 250 miles from our location. I am not a person who is really in a hurry to get any where, today I should have been. If you have ever made the drive on I45 from Dallas to Houston, you know there is not a whole lot to see. The best thing we saw on the first half of the trip was the Russel Stover Outlet store in Corsicana. It is a candy store attached to one of the 4 Russel Stover factories in the Country. Pretty much anything they make was in this store at discounted prices. The kids got what they wanted, the parents did too. But we still had 200 miles to go, and we gave our kids candy. Sugar on a long car ride, not one of my better ideas.
There is so little to do on the trip back, my wife and I played a dumb little game of trying to name sitcoms based on letters of the alphabet. You took turns until someone had to pass. Whoever named the last sitcom got the point basically. It is not as easy as it sounds. After we were done, we realized in the "B's" alone, we missed Benson, Barney Miller, Bosom Buddies, and the Brady Bunch. When you're in the car, try it....and if you know of a sitcom which begins with Q, V, or I you get the point.
Upon getting back to our home area, Cafe Adobe was where my wife wanted to eat. She loves this dish they have called "The Avocado Adobe". They take an Avocado, top with fajita meat, batter and deep fry it and cover it with queso. Yeah, it's real healthy, but she says it is worth it. We stopped, piled out of the car, went in and waited to be seated, and waited. Finally, we were given a table in the middle of the restaurant in plain sight of everyone except I guess of restaurant staff members. One guy walked by us three times without even acknowledging we existed. Finally after about 5-10 minutes, I wrote never mind on the back of Nathan's kid menu in green crayon, and we left. Bad Breakfast, Bad Dinner experience and Chocolate for lunch, things weren't going well. We did stop at the Red Lobster close by and had a great dining experience. So, thank you for the staff at the Woodlands Red Lobster for rescuing an otherwise horrible dining day. We finally got home about 630 pm. Everyone exhausted, but thrilled to be home. With hot water in the tub and cinnamon toast crunch in the pantry, tomorrow will be a better day, and I don't have to drive.

Have a great night.

Six Flags Over Texas

My family and I spent the day at Six Flags over Texas. It is located just south of Dallas in Arlington. There are a lot of really cool rides, the kids and the parents had a great time, Remember when you were young though. Your parents were always the ones ready to leave and you always felt that you had missed something. That didn't happen today though. When we go to a theme park, Kim likes to get there early. We were able to start riding the most popular stuff very early. Kim won't ride the Roller Coasters, I don't do well with the spinning stuff, it works out. There was a ride simulating a bobsled run which was Kim's favorite, a cool back and forth coaster named the Shockwave. Nathan liked the Aquaman Splashdown, we got drenched. Lauren liked the Mine Train best, and my favorite was Mr. Freeze, 0-70 in 3 seconds. It went through loops, climbs and corkscrews, and then went through everything backwards.

Six Flags is a great family place. The weather was great, and Lauren was thrilled with the Supergirl cape and giant lollipop which was her souvenir...Too bad, that remnant of the lollipop are all over my foot. The only drawbacks were quite a few attractions were closed for maintenance(a couple of the coasters that Lauren could ride), parking was $15 and the new Tony Hawk ride is not fininshed yet. If you go, have fun and try the exclusive "pink thing", a sherbert pop on the way out. Nathan loved his.

The New York Giants sign David Carr

First of all, I am not a Giant fan. I was happy they beat the Patriots, but with my wife being a Geen Bay Packer fan, and I being a Dallas Cowboy fan, I was not happy with their NFC run. They got hot at the right time, and won it all. But, that's not what I want to discuss today. I want to discuss David Carr.

I am a Houston Texan fan. When the Texans drafted Carr, I went out and bought a jersey like a lot of other people around town. The only problem was, that the Texans never had an offensive line which could protect him or a consistent running game that could take off some of the focus in Carr's first years with the team. The man took such a beating over his first 4 years, that by the time Gary Kubiak got there, to me there wasn't a whole lot left. I think the man was punch drunk from all of the hits he took. He can still make the throws, and I think he has all of the tools except one...Confidence. The year he spent with Kubiak, I think he improved, but Texan fans were upset he wasn't Vince Young. They were also upset he didn't have Reggie Bush to get the ball to. In hindsight, we did well with Mario Willaims. When the Texans picked up Schaub, Carr was done in Houston. After that, Carr spent a very forgettable year in Carolina.

I wish David Carr all of the luck in the world. I believe him to be a fine family man, and an upstanding citizen with all of the tools of a steady NFL cquarterback. I don't think that there are many tougher QBs in the NFL. I hope that he gets his confidence back and realizes the potential that he has in his new situation. He's behind Eli, and others, but I hope he does well.

Write at ya later.

Survivor

Okay, last night I wrote about Idol, tonight it's Survivor's turn. Like Idol, in my opinion, these have started to run together. This is the 15th season of Survivor. 15...How can it be fresh and new if it's been done 14 times before? Sorry, it can't. The first season I watched was Australia. With Colby, Keith, Jeri and whoever won. That is how these things run together in my mind. I mean, I can tell you that Dallas beat Buffalo 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII. But, honestly...I don't know who won the last Survivor. It's relatively clean mindless television, and it was really the beginning of the reality TV genre. But, it just doesn't grasp people like it used to. Maybe I'm wrong, but I could swear that I've seen one of those challenges before. Oh well, Opening Day is just 19 days away for the Astros. That will be my must see TV. I just hope our pitchers don't hurt their necks from watching the balls fly around the yard.

American Idol

Do you remember when Idol was a must see show?

I mean, I started watching the show in the Fantasia Barrino/ Jennifer Hudson season. Since then, while some of the performances have been really good, the only album I have picked up is Daughtry. We DVR idol now, so we don't have to sit through all of the fluff.

I also think that there are too many "pros" who are on the show. The performers that I am rooting for are David Cook(the rocker guy), and Brooke. She has a beautiful voice which has a lot of soul in it in my opinion. I really have no idea what that Amanda person is doing on stage, I don't care for her stuff either.

The problem is, it becomes a popularity contest. I know that the appeal is getting America to vote for the one's to keep, but I think a change to the format where each judge selects a performer who is eligible to go home and the lowest vote total gets the ax would be a better way to go.

Just my opinion, have a great night.