Here and There Blog

Goes without saying, this is not about alternate universe Trek. Sadly, it's the review of like named Mirror Mirror, the Snow White movie with Julia Roberts. While not a bad take on the famous tale, Mirror Mirror was lacking in suspense or even passion for the Grimm story of Stepmother, stepchild, and apples gone bad. Updating a classic is tough and this version provides a light-hearted take on the story, with Julia Roberts as the evil queen and the best thing about the movie. Our Snow White and Prince Charming are almost boring side stories with the queen and the dwarves being the key points that kept the movie engaging. While getting points for the reverse twist of princess saving the day instead of the prince, Mirror Mirror's strength in in the performance of Roberts who keeps us entertained with her boredom and frustration of being queen in a realm that cannot keep her entertained. Everything else is a time filler. Which is sad because I'm sure that done differently...

I don't have bed bugs. Now you might wonder why should I have bed bugs? After all, there's not much furniture in this house, no carpet, and rarely a life form in the house for a bug to eat. But, I'm paranoid about bugs. Really, truly, paranoid. Ask my brothers. But I travel a lot, get bit by any bug within miles, and have a great imagination. So I called Terminix back out just to ease my fear. I did get bit a few weeks ago although it could have been from anything, anywhere. My mattress looks like new, it has bed bug sheeting, and I have never seen a bug in my bed. To the logical mind you would not think about bed bugs. To my mind, it means they are sneaky little devils that can go invisible. Bug man to me "you don't have bed bugs, I can find them in a house within 5 minutes, You're clean." Best sentence ever. I have really got to relax. It may be time for a nap in the certified bug free bed.

Lock down started Friday night and is almost over as of 3:20 pm Sunday afternoon. Every suitcase is unpacked, multiple loads of laundry done and the floors once again clean. I missed Spring cleaning last year and was determined not to lose out this time. Even the closet got a do-over with old, old, stuff discarded and never or gently used stuff take to Goodwill. The yard lost out though. I was determined to conquer the weeds but Saturday was hot and today is windy and cold and I look for any reason not to deal with weeds. Plus it's about to rain and more will grow anyway so might as well wait until I can do a clean sweep. Like the flowers, I am ready to resurface once again.

In another week or two the Carlsbad Flower Fields will be in full bloom. One field that looks better from the air is the American Flag field. I think the best place to photograph it is from the air or from the Costco Parking lot across the street.  This was taken from Poinsettia Park but I need a better zoom to do it justice.

Sometime this year I should find my way to Brazil. For US citizens, this is one of the countries where you have to get your Visa in advance and the process is not fast. If you live by a consulate then you can make an appointment online and drop off your passport, documents, paperwork and $140 US Postal Money Order onsite. A short interview follows and if all goes well you get a receipt to return in a week to pick up your passport with a Brazil Visa. In Los Angeles, the consulate is located in the Flynt Buiding (a place I never thought I'd end up). You go to the 3rd floor and login at the kiosk and it spits you out a ticket. Then you wait for your number to come up. Appointments are only from 9:00 to 12:00 and the earlier the appointment the better. But for both drop-off and pick-up I was only there for 45 minutes so not too bad. Read the directions carefully. Failure to have everything in place will lead to a rejection of your application and you'll have to reschedu...

Having missed out on Comic-Con for the last couple of years, I was glad to see Wondercon make an appearance in Anaheim last weekend. Wondercon is kinder, gentler version of Comic-Con with all the fun and none of the insanity. You have the dealer's room and people don't step on your feet. Smaller but still plenty of variety for everyone.  Once inside, some big industry exhibits but nothing that overshadows the room.  It wouldn't be a convention without the R-2's. Best of all, you can get into the rooms! No line-up. I was able to walk into Once Upon A Time doing a screening of an episode and the writers in the room and still found great seats. Wondercon dates and location for 2013 are not announced yet but you can check it out at the Comic-Con website. / http://www.comic-con.org/wc/

More people need to go see John Carter . The critics have been quite harsh with this movie and I'm not sure why. Adapted from the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, John Carter is fairly true to the spirit and story telling of the original series. If you've read the books you will enjoy the movie. Take it for what it is, Mars as it was visualized 100 years ago and go with that vision. If you haven't read the books, I admit that some characters and relationships will fly right over your head because in the books, they take a while to build up. In the movie, it's sort of a 2 sentence scene and relationship revealed. What you need to know - Civil War soldier/fighting man John Carter gets transported to Mars, a warrior planet made up of different races of Martians. Green martians don't like Red martians, Red Martians don't like each other. Fighting ensues, drama happens, beautiful princess and John Carter are destined to meet.  Go see this in 3D. I saw the 2D version a...

After a sleepless flight day, I returned home and somehow managed to sleep the night through and adjust back to my own time zone immediately. No time to unpack since the way these things go, I went right into a week of work meetings and local hotel life. So the suitcases were left in an exploded looking state, the dust ignored (how does the house get so dirty when no one is there?) and I haven't glanced at the week damage in the back yard yet.  That means Saturday is becoming clean house, pull weeds, movie (John Carter), and St. Patrick's Day all crammed into a single 24 hour event.  If I think to much about it all my head might spin exorcist style. Instead, this cup of coffee is looking good. Happy Pi day.

The benefit of a way too early flight is that weather pending, you get to see a cool sunrise. As the plane started the descent into Frankfurt the sun was rising in the horizon. A good way to start a trip home.

Caught fresh, cook to order. "In the morning, laughing, happy fish heads..." Yum! No mashed up salads here. You get the whole vegetables to choose from at your table. Below, the shrimps. Peel and eat, the eyes are optional. I choose shrimp, no eyes.

Close enough for the sign but couldn't get near the border if I tried.

We're always in traffic jams. Cars parked on both sides, narrow one-way streets provide plenty of time to contemplate the continual contruction and stare at the cranes. Really I was thinking "please don't let that container drop on us." I don't know what it will look like in a few years. Every available space is getting a high rise of housing, hotel, business.Some going up within inches of each other. No view except your neighbor's wall.

The coastline is beautiful This is Khaldeh, located just south of the Beirut airport. Somehow I managed to get the tanks in the photo but it's all part of the package.  Something new is always going up or being rebuilt. This mosque looks recently rebuilt. And food and drink offer plenty of choices! Beer or wine? Why choose? Today I took the wine since it was too cold for this light summer beer.

Not too bad this morning! This makes for a nice transition from snowy Russia to the next destination.

The sun is somewhat out and the temperature went slightly above freezing to allow for some rain and snow that. Ice is slowly breaking up on the river and soon people won't be able to use it as a walk-way or party area anymore. Around the corner tourist busses were lining up as winter slowly ends in Saint Petersburg.  If you look closely in the below picture, on the bottom right you can see the footprints and beer bottle.

Not sure what church this is but it was dubbed Guns N' God, so that's what it will be. If you look closely, you can see all the cannons around the entrance to the church. Now that's being prepared!  

So cold, so dark. The late afternoon has turned down the sky and the flakes are all about.