Best TV Line Ever

From this past Sunday's Office (after the Superbowl).

Michael Scott:

Meredith, you've slept with so many guys you're starting to look like one. Boom roasted.

I've been laughing about this all week.

Classic!

Lost Season 5 Premiere

WOW!! That was awesome!

Here's some of the things I think I learned and am now thinking...

Sun
Sun wants Kate to pay for leaving Jin behind on the freighter - and pay big time! I guess I noticed in the finale how Kate said she was going to get Jin, then didn't. But I didn't think much of it at the time - things were chaotic and Jin wasn't on board. They had to move fast and there was no time to really search the ship for Jin.

Obviously Sun sees it differently and has been holding this grudge against Kate for 3 years.

What I'm not sure about is how teaming with Widmore is going to help her get revenge on Kate?

The Kids
Whoa! They all turned into fire-arrow shooting vigilantes and went all Lord of the Flies (without the aid of strip malls and skateboards)? How could this happen? I'm sure we'll soon find out.

It seems that ending scene must be like 5 or 10 years in the future.

The Island
I love the "time skipping" aspect of the story. We're gong to get to learn a lot about the Dharma Initiative, the history of the Island, the future of the Island and everything in between - all very quickly.

I still don't get how the Hatch and the "donkey wheel thing" that Ben turned are linked. It seems that both might somehow be related (because of the white sky thing), but what real purpose of the hatch is remains kind of a mystery to me because nothing really happened after it blew up.

Was the Hatch just a "cloaking device" station to protect people from finding the Island and the "donkey wheel time machine thing"?

At least we now seem to get why Alpert showed Ben the compass and the other objects when he was a boy.

Desmond
Desmond is going to be huge this season - he's seemingly a "walkie-talkie" for communication between the different time periods.

Oceanic 6
Again - I love the shell game being played with the survivors! This was great in the finale, I can't wait to see how they all come back together to finally return to the Island.

Lost Finale - Season 4

Last night, ABC replayed last season's finale - all 3 hours. I was happy to see Lost back on TV again. This was a really good episode (3 hours), but definitely not my favorite finale.

Here are some of the parts that stood out to me...

• The funniest (or at least the most light hearted) moment was when Locke and Ben were descending into the Orchid station. First, Ben teases Locke about not finding the right kind of flower in the greenhouse (Locke shrugs and says, "I don't know what it looks like"). Then Ben sits Locke down to watch a video while Ben does "big boy stuff". Finally Locke watches in disbelief as Ben loads the chamber with metal even though the video specifically prohibits it.
  

Of course it all turns horribly dark when Ben kills Keamy, only after learning that doing so will in turn blow up everyone on the freighter.

The whole sequence, although pretty funny, was a reminder just how ruthless Ben will be to "Protect the Island", and just how pathetic Locke really is. Locke really is like a kid - or a puppy dog - constantly looking for approval and not really able to do much of anything on his own.

Part of what I'm looking forward to in the upcoming season is to find out, just how Locke manages to bungle everything up and if Jack can in fact, fix things.

• I also liked the "Survivor Shell Game". We knew through the flash forwards who the 6 survivors would be. The problem was, all 6 were never together to be rescued until the very end.
  

It started with Jack, Kate, and Sun together, Sayid in the freighter, Hurley on the other side of the Island, and Aaron somewhere in between. Jack and Kate leave and find Aaron. Then Aaron and Kate leave. Aaron is passed to Sun. Sayid leaves the freighter. Sun and Aaron leave for the freighter. Kate and Sayid go back into the jungle... and on, and on it goes for 3 hours. Well played!

• I also forgot how sad I was when Jin died - or more so - Sun's reaction when she (and the chopper) were forced to leave the freighter with Jin only steps away from joining them. Powerful stuff.
  

I'm hoping that Jin is not really gone. You never really know with this show...

Christmas Grill!

I woke up Christmas morning to find a new grill under the tree! This one's a beautiful charcoal water smoker. It has a great charcoal basket, two doors to access the meat or add fuel, and three vents (two on the bottom and one on the top). One of the nicest features of this grill is that you can remove the two upper sections and use it for direct grilling. This should be the perfect form factor to take camping. I can't wait to get it fired up!

The rest of my grill family looks like this:

• Beefeater 3-burner gas grill
• Char-Griller Smokin' Pro offset smoker
• Weber Smokey Joe

Big Boys Christmas

Last year I started a tradition of getting my brothers a toy for Christmas. Something cool and frivolous. Something with a remote control...

We don't have a lot of time to spend together on Christmas anymore, so it had to be something relatively easy to use and something we could get instant gratification from. Just 10 minutes of pure fun was my goal.

Last year I bought remote control helicopters. They were a huge hit! It took us a while to figure out how to fly them, but once we did it wasn't long before we were making kamikaze runs at each other.

This year I got these cool Air Hogs Zero Gravity cars. They drive vertically on walls and upside down. They are way cool and totally fun. After dinner, we raced above our family on the living room ceiling.

I started this gift tradition because I wanted something fun we could do together on Christmas Day. Something that brought back the excitement of Christmas past. Gift cards or new Christmas sweaters don't pack the same punch.

If the "big boys" in your family are anything like me and my brothers, give this gift approach a try. Remember, you're not looking for something they'll necessarily use all year long, just 10 minutes on Christmas Day.

Disney Christmas Wish

If I had a Christmas Wish to bring back one extinct Disney attraction what would it be? Easy. I'd want the Journey Into Imagination With Figment to be restored to it's original glory.

This ride was great! In it, Dreamfinder and the product of his imagination, Figment, takes us on a tour through the process of creativity and ingenuity. "One Little Spark" may be my favorite all time ride anthem and the characters and ride scenes were vivid and alive.

As good as the attraction was itself, the ride exited into ImageWorks, an awesome interactive "playground" where you could continue your exploration into music, art, and color. It was a lot of fun! This area encouraged you to really explore the limitless potential that exists in each of us and playfully create something. Did I mention it was a lot of fun!

Part of the reason I want this attraction back so badly is that its replacement is so bad. I enjoyed other now-gone Epcot attractions like Horizions and the World of Motion, but I also enjoy their replacements (Mission: SPACE and Test Track). I cannot say the same for the newest "Imagination" version. I'm not even sure why they still call it "Imagination" as the ride now deals more with the five senses - meaning things you experience through sight, sound, or smell. Contrast this with the original version which encouraged you to follow the conviction of your own ideas - things you must "believe in" to create and share with others.

Associated with the new current attraction is ImageWorks: The What-If Labs. It is similarly uninspired when compared with the original.

WDW Radio explored the history of this attraction in great detail (start listening at the 39 minute mark).

I get a little sad when I take my daughter into this attraction and realize all that she's missing. I also feel this way in the new Tiki Bird attraction which is equally bad when compared to the original.

If only...

Disney Tip Idea #2 - Share Stuff

I've heard the idea to share fast passes a number of times and I had the opportunity to try it on our last trip.

We had gotten 3 fast passes to Peter Pan earlier in the day, but as the time for SpectroMagic and the fireworks approached, we realized we wouldn't make it back to Fantasyland in time to use them. We found another family of 3 and asked if they wanted them. They couldn't be happier! It was fun to see their excitement as they raced off toward the ride.

*****

Another time, as we sat waiting for SpectoMagic a family sat next to us and offered my daughter an extra sucker they had just purchased at the candy store. It was a sweet gesture (pun intended) and we had a nice conversation while waiting for the parade to start. What a simple way to to make fast friends!

*****

On the first day of our last trip, we bought my daughter a Mickey balloon - one of the large double balloons where a Mickey balloon floats inside of a large, clear, outer balloon. Anyway, this thing lasted the entire week! We knew we probably wouldn't be able to take it on the plane home, so we told my daughter to find another little kid who looked like they could use a balloon and pass it on. She found a little boy and he was really happy to get it. His parents were touched by my daughter's gesture and it was a good lesson in sharing.


For some reason, this type of sharing and openness comes more naturally for people in Disney World. I can't believe all the nice people we met while waiting in line or on the buses traveling to the parks. It gave us a good feeling to make these new friends. We've been trying to follow some of these simple sharing techniques now that we're back home.