KerryAndGabe.com

It’s time once again for my “best of” list for the previous year (inspired by Cindy in 2008). I looked back at 2008 and 2009 for the categories. I also stole some ideas from Cindy’s 2010 post.

Best Restaurant: We didn’t visit too many notable restaurants this year. Most of the restaurants that we frequent these days have high chairs, grilled cheese, and a lot of background noise. Two restaurants were in the running this year: Acme Food and Beverage Company and Sitti. I didn’t have a problem picking Acme, which is where we dined on our 4th anniversary. My appetizer, in particular, was divine. I never know that tomatoes (the teeny heirloom kind) could be so tasty, and I made sure that our anniversary fell during a dairy trial so I could have the fresh mozzarella/tomato salad. YUM!

Best Book: I had a hard time finishing books this year, but I still managed to finish most of our book club reads. I still read enough to make it difficult to choose one best book. Considering how quickly I read the first two books of The Hunger Games, I’m going to have to choose that as my book of the year. I still need to read Mockingjay. I’m looking forward to discussing the series with book club next month (so I guess I better finish that 3rd book). I would have finished it quickly as well, but it hadn’t been released yet when I finished the first two. I always have trouble finishing up a series when I have to wait for a book.

Best Vacation: Our day at Magic Kingdom made that trip the best of the year! I’m so glad that we decided to go at the last minute. The day was wonderful and made us excited about returning in a couple of years. We will fly next time. No way I’m making that long drive to Orlando again, if I can help it!

Best Movie: Despite the fact that we don’t make it to movies very often, I’m finding it difficult to pick just one in this category! We are very selective of the movies that we go out to see. Oh, how I miss the days when we could say to each other over dinner, “hey, let’s go to a movie!” and then we could just go to the movie. Or what about the days when I was able to stay awake through a 9 o’clock movie (and even the midnight showings!). Those days seem to be in the distant past now! This year, we had a couple babysitters and we managed to sneak off during the day while the kids were in daycare. I went to some movies with girlfriends, too. So, out of the movies that I saw in 2010, I liked many of them. The movies in the running for “best” movie of the year would have to be Toy Story 3, Inception, and The Social Network. Despicable Me would have been in that list if we hadn’t seen Toy Story 3. It’s hard to choose between the three in the running because they are so different! I can’t help it, though. I have to pick Toy Story 3. Pixar continues to be a sentimental favorite for me. It’s hard to beat. Which brings me to the next category…

Best Non-Pixar Movie: That’s right, I’m cheating and adding another movie category. It’s just not even fair for other movies to compete. The best non-Pixar movie that we saw was Inception. The Social Network was certainly good and had interesting content, but Inception was the type of movie that I wanted to own and see again.

Best Reunion: I stole this category from Cindy, and every year I almost choose not to use it. I do have a good answer, though. I think the best “reunion” this year is the start of the new Mothers & More chapter. The old chapter had been looking like it would fall apart for a while (and I thought that it had), so it was awesome to have a new chapter open up with many of the great women from the old chapter plus some new wonderful friends. The meeting locations are more convenient for me, too, so that’s a bonus. I look forward to seeing this chapter develop this year.

Best Album: I don’t acquire many new albums these days. Gabe ends up getting more albums than me. The two main albums that I got this year was Barenaked Ladies’ and Jack Johnson’s new albums. Between the two, I’d have to pick To the Sea by Jack Johnson. I enjoyed both albums (and both concerts).

Best Board Game: We actually managed to play quite a few new games since we attended That Board Gaming Thing this year. Almost every game that we played was new to us. I’m going to exclude party games from this category (see the next category). Our favorite non-party game of the year goes to Macao.

Best Party Game: The best party game that I have discovered in a while is Telestrations. We played it quite a bit since That Board Gaming Thing, and it has been a recent favorite at games nights. We’ve had some hilarious moments with it.

Best TV Show: Our TV watching declined rapidly this year. We aren’t too interested in any of our shows these days. I think that the award this year has to go to glee. We caught up on the first season (first half of the first season? when it came out on DVD and have been keeping up with it since then.

Best Toy (for Maddie): Even though the Bitty Twins are currently a big hit, they were a late arrival for 2010. I’m entitled to pick them, but I think the toy that got the most play and use in 2010 had to be Baby, the baby doll she had before Henry and Annabelle. She took that doll everywhere. It helped her develop imaginative play, and she cared for that doll and practiced things like changing diapers and feeding the doll that she saw us do with Cullen. So while Baby was not acquired in 2010, she wins for Best Toy (for Maddie).

Best Toy (for Cullen): My pick for Cullen was a toss up between the Fridge Farm and the Little People Barn. Both were hand-me-down toys from Maddie, and Maddie still gets play out of them, too. As with Maddie, I think I will have to go with the toy that got the most play out of the year. That award goes to the Fridge Farm. He started playing with the Fridge Farm around 6 months old and still plays with it almost daily. It’s great for keeping him entertained and distracted while cooking dinner, too.

Best Children’s Book: We did a ton of reading to Maddie (and some to Cullen, too). Even though we haven’t read it as much lately, I think this award goes to Pinkalicious. She received it for her birthday, and it has been a favorite since then. In 2010, Maddie got more into longer stories and can sit through multiple books of decent length. It’s been fun reading with her.

Best Maddie Moment: This one was an easy pick for me. The absolute best moment with Maddie was when she met Winnie the Pooh at Magic Kingdom. I wasn’t sure how she would do with the characters, but she was so excited to meet Winnie the Pooh. She waited patiently in line (until the last few minutes when we were almost there), and she stood by herself with the characters for pictures. She then gave Winnie the Pooh the longest, biggest hug. It was just about the sweetest thing ever.

Best Cullen Moment: This one is harder. I could just go the easy route and say the moment he was born! I’m going to instead pick a moment that isn’t quite as specific as Maddie’s moment. I have loved the few times that I have seen Cullen interact with the music teacher at school. Little dude LOVES music and LOVES that teacher. It’s so cute!

Well…here’s another post that I started writing last year but never got around to finishing. I had written the intro and outlined the games, but I hadn’t written up the “reviews” for each game. So, of course my impressions now are going to be a bit different than they would have been right away. Oh well…maybe this year I’ll make a better point to write up my report right away! (yeah, right)

We were on the fence about attending our local board gaming convention. We just didn’t know how it would work logistically with the kids this last year, especially with Cullen nursing around the clock. We were finally convinced to just take the plunge and stay at the hotel. I’m so glad that we did it! Each of us had some awful moments with the kiddos in the hotel (not to mention some not-so-stellar nights), but overall it was so great to be back into the gaming world. I will be making this event a priority in the future and can’t believe that I missed the last couple of years!

I thought I would recap the (new) games that I played over our four glorious days of gaming (in alphabetical order). I’m going to do my best to give each one a score on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being among the worst games I have ever played and I’d rather claw out my eyes than play it again and 10 being something I could play every moment of every day.

Agricola: I have been wanting to play this one for a while, so I was glad we finally had the opportunity. Gabe and I both thought that this was one of our top favorites from the weekend. My only complaint is that I felt like the scoring rule wasn’t adequately explained to me. The way that I thought everything was scored was quite different from how it was actually scored. I am eager to play it again with the right rules! We got it for Christmas, so I hope to have the opportunity before too long. This is another one of those games where the players each take turns deciding what actions they are going to want to execute in the next round. I’m always feeling like there’s a million things that I need to do and not nearly enough actions to do them all! I definitely enjoyed it and look forward to playing again. I’ll give it an 8.5.

Attika: Gabe and I managed to play this one together, too. We both liked it well enough. I’m on the fence as to whether we need to own this one, but I would play it again. I’d give it a 7.

Blue Moon City: This is a game that I might not have picked on my own. I think the the name and cover art is just not something that says, “hey, play me!” Gabe didn’t get to play this one. I liked it, too, but I am not itching to own it. I would play it again, though it wouldn’t be my top choice. This one gets a 6.5.

Change Horses: This is definitely one of the worst (if not the worst) game that I played all weekend. I would not play it again. I would not recommend it to anyone. I would not want to own it. That’s too bad. Horse racing games can be fun. This one is not. I even played it with very fun people (and we all agreed, this one is a stinker). It was just too random and there was no way to actually strategize. I give it a 1, though I don’t actually want to claw out my eyes.

Dominion: Alchemy expansion: Dominion wasn’t new, but the Alchemy expansion was. I played it several times during TBGT. Dominion is good when you don’t have the time for a more serious game, though I did have a couple of long dominion matches during the weekend. We both liked it well enough that we wanted to own it, and we got this one soon after the convention. It unfairly gets an 9, unfairly because I’m biased towards Dominion already.

Dominion: Prosperity expansion: This wasn’t actually released to the public yet, but there was one pre-release copy of the expansion floating around the convention. I managed to get to play it a couple of times. I thought it was fun! It added a bigger denomination to the money and a larger victory point card as well. We played a fun game with LOTS of money, but I’ve also played some rounds that weren’t as exciting with the money. I kept watching for it to be released, and we received it for Christmas. Again, this expansion also unfairly gets an 9.

Fresco: I keep overlooking this one, but I like it the more I think about it. The particular game of it that I played may have played a little slow. I would like to play it again to see if it was just due to too many people learning the rules. I liked the mechanisms in the game. You’re all painters, and it has neat stuff like trade in a blue cube and a yellow cube to get a larger green cube, all representing paint. I wouldn’t mind owning this one. I give it an 8.

Lemming Mafia: I played this a couple of times. It is also random, but it was much more enjoyable than Change Horses. It also has cute lemming mafia dudes. I believe that this was another game that had not yet been released to the public. It is a decent filler. I’m not sure that I feel compelled to own it, but I would play it again. I give it a 6. It’s hard to give a filler game too much more than that.

Macao: I think that this was both Gabe and my favorite from TBGT. I liked the mechanism of the windrose and the cubes in this one. We both played twice – one with each other and then another game each separately. This one can suffer from analysis paralysis (as it did for both of us in our game without each other). I’ll give it an 8.5, too.

Ra: The Dice Game: I thought that it was an interesting adaptation of Ra with the use of dice. The play of the game is completely different, but the feel is similar in the scoring. I am not convinced that I need to own it, but I would definitely play it again. I give it a 6.5.

Small World: We actually owned this already, but we hadn’t had a chance to play it. Gabe wasn’t able to play it, but I had the opportunity. I liked it! It has several expansions, and I think that I had played with those expansions at TBGT. This was one of my favorites from the weekend as well. I’d give it a 7.5.

Telestrations: This was one that I knew I had to get for games night and family. It’s a great party game!!! It’s Pictionary meets telephone. I like the little dry erase booklets and the pens. The mechanism is good, and every time I played was fun. I played with 8 people each time, and I definitely think it is best with 8! I have found it to be fun with as few as 4 or 5 since then, but I still prefer 8. We got this game shortly after TBGT (maybe even right after? for my birthday?). I give it a 9 for party games.

Valdora: This was the first game we played at TBGT. I thought it was fun, but it was overshadowed by others the rest of the weekend. The little “book/card” mechanism was neat. Overall, I would probably play it again. It wouldn’t be my first choice. I’m not itching to own it. I’d give it a 6.5.

Who’s the Ass?: I can’t really give this one a fair review as we didn’t play a complete game. I think we played only a few hands. It was somewhat amusing to say “ass” repeatedly, and the group I played with was a fun group. It’s pretty dumb overall, though, and I don’t think that I would seek to play it again. Fair or unfair, I’m still giving it a score. I give it a 4.

Word on the Street: I played this one twice, and it’s a good filler/party game. It’s a word game, but not a serious word game. I liked it well enough, and we got it for Christmas. I’m sure that people will like playing it at games nights, too. I give it a 6.5 for word/party/filler games.

Audrey and I once again went on our annual Christmas date. I love this tradition! We start looking for interesting things to do in about July, and often we’ll even buy tickets around this time. In addition to attending new events each year (with a few repeats and possibly more repeats eventually), we try out new restaurants, too. Last year we had brunch at Poole’s diner and saw Cirque Dreams: Holidaze. The year before that (2008), we tried fancy barbeque at The Pit and saw Mannheim Steamroller (brings back childhood memories for me!). In 2007, we saw Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol by Tom Mula which was a retelling of the classic tale from Marley’s point of view (in a tiny theater!). My memory before that is fuzzy, but I know we saw the Nutcracker a couple times. We’ve eaten at The Irregardless Cafe and a little Italian place where we ordered TWO desserts. Each. Because they were THAT good. (Oops, I’m not sure I was supposed to admit that in print).

This year, we ate at Sitti which is an “authentic Lebanese” restaurant and then saw the stage adaptation of A Christmas Story at A.J. Fletcher Theater.

Sitti: authentic Lebanese

I suggested Sitti because I was hoping to go out somewhere that I could order items right off the menu without worrying about their dairy content or needing to gauge whether I can trust them when they say something is dairy free. I asked my vegan friends for recommendations. Sitti has several special designations on their menu including gluten free and vegan. I figured that a place that is sensitive to food preferences and allergies would be one that I could trust. Plus, it was a bonus that I could just choose any vegan item and be sure that it was dairy free!

I called earlier in the day, as I had some questions about some menu items that contained meat (so obviously they weren’t vegan). They were very helpful at identifying which ones had butter or yogurt (commonly used in these Lebanese dishes, like as a marinade for the chicken). The waitstaff at the restaurant was not as knowledgeable as I had hoped (I’m not stating this as a negative), but they were excellent at making sure that my selections were dairy free and double checking with the kitchen when they were unsure. This is something that I respect when inquiring about the dairy content of menu items. I have encountered waitstaff at other restaurants who are obviously guessing. It’s always nice when someone who is uncertain goes and checks rather than guesses. To me, that is just as good as one who knows right off the bat (though not as convenient). The waitress was also very good at making sure that we could make it to our show in time as we had a somewhat limited time frame.

I ordered Falafel as my appetizer. Falafel is described on their menu as crushed chick pea patties, seasoned and fried, served with tahini sauce. I don’t think that I have had falafel before, but what a fun word to say! It was YUMMY. I had the Filet Kabob for my entree. It was also very tasty. I loved the garlic whip. I had to ask the guy who brought it to be sure that it didn’t contain dairy – THAT’S how tasty it was. I would definitely go to Sitti again.

I enjoyed the decor, the waitstaff was friendly and helpful, and the location was good for going to the theater. The only complaint that I would have is that several areas in downtown Raleigh seem a bit sketchy. It’s not somewhere that I would feel comfortable walking around by myself, at night or maybe even during the day. You can make fun of me for that, but I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to my safety. I was glad that we decided to park near Sitti and then relocate to the theater. The distance was walkable, but it would have been a long walk at night in the frigid temperatures!

A Christmas Story at A.J. Fletcher Theater

When I saw that A Christmas Story would be acted out on stage in Raleigh, I knew that I had found this year’s Christmas date. I was very excited about this one!!! I have seen the movie a zillion times, so I am very familiar with that version. I was curious to see how this would translate to the stage. I had been expecting a musical for some reason, so the show was a bit different than what I thought it would be.

I thought that it was great and another wonderful Christmas date! I enjoyed reliving the classic moments from the movie: Ralphie’s obsession with the BB gun, the bunny pajamas, Flick getting his tongue stuck, the F— moment and the subsequent soap in the mouth, the bullies, the mall Santa, you’ll shoot your eye out, the “major award,” and more. I couldn’t think of too many scenes that weren’t represented.

This theater wasn’t as small as the one we visited in 2007, but it was still a little theater. We had front row seats – right in the center section! Needless to say, we were quite close to the action. There is something exciting about being on the front row.

I felt like the casting was great. The kids especially looked very much like the ones from the movie, and it was obvious to me that the entire cast had studied the movie intensely, mimicking the behaviors of their big screen counterparts. The kids did a great job. I’m always impressed with how well these kids handle themselves on stage. I’m quite certain I wasn’t capable of such things when I was their age! I believe that we saw the show on opening night. I noticed a few line flubs here and there, but overall I think that everyone played their roles wonderfully! The stage version has a narrator that is standing in front of the set and watching each scene while remembering the moments fondly as he relays their significance and story to the audience.

The set itself was neat. Much of it took place in the house, but they had a fence that rolled in front of the house to do schoolyard scenes and scenes that outside (like on the Christmas tree lot). A little schoolroom appeared to the side when needed. They rolled in a “car” for the F— scene. I had wondered how some of the scenes were going to work. I love seeing how sets come together on stage.

I loved it. I’m so glad that we picked this show for this year’s event! I’m already looking forward to next year’s Christmas date.

I have had this video ready to post for almost a month now. I have been overwhelmed with managing videos of the kids. I get behind on photos every now and again, but then I can look at hundreds of them by browsing thumbnails and sort through them in a fairly efficient manner. Video is just so time consuming. I often have long clips with very little usable material. So, I was excited about having video and a way to edit it on my iPhone.

The following embedded video (click through to the post to see it) is my first movie shot and edited entirely on the iPhone. This was also my first HD movie upload, so be patient while it loads… And did I mention that I’m a really bad videographer?? I cannot seem to hold the camera still. It doesn’t help that my subject is moving all over the place.

It is nice to be able to put together a polished video anywhere anytime, but I don’t think that I would use iMovie very often for that purpose. It’s more likely that I would use it to make a very short video clip for sending to grandparents. I did this just before going to the beach with Gabe’s mom. I made a very short clip of Maddie telling Grandma that she loves her and is looking forward to going to the beach. It was nice to be able to splice together a few clips right there on the phone.

iMovie on the iPhone is very, very basic. I expected it to have a few more features, though it’s possible that some features exist and I just haven’t been able to find them. The biggest feature that I would like to see is the ability to split a clip for titling purposes. I was able to achieve multiple captions on a single take of video by importing the clip multiple times and splicing them together seamlessly. That was a bit of a pain.

I thought that the built in “titles” were a bit chunky for the way that I like to use them. I like to put little explanatory captions on the clips to say what the kids are doing or saying, like I did in the video I’ve included. The titles I used were the only ones that weren’t too big (thereby blocking too much of my cute daughter). As always, more themes to choose from would be nice. I feel the same way about iMovie on the Mac.

iMovie on the iPhone allows for importing of videos, photos, and music. Transitions can be added, and there is minimal control over this and all of the various features. Very simple captioning is allowed, but it was a bit of a pain to do what I did (adding multiple captions for one clip). Apparently captions are not possible for images.

I think that I will probably most likely use iMovie on the iPhone for trimming videos for emailing to Gabe or grandparents. I’m not sure how often that I will want to use it for creating a polished video, though that could be useful on vacations. It might be nice to have the videos already put together and polished so that I don’t have to take the time later to filter through all the clips.

iMovie for iPhone is a good start, but it needs more features. The ability to split clips and add simpler titles would be great. More themes (preferably ones that do not take up so much real estate) would be nice. The way that you do video clipping is nice, but it is a big of a pain when you know you want to clip out a large chunk. There might have been a shortcut to doing that, but it was not immediately obvious to me. It would be nice to be able to not just drag the ends of the movie clip but also to specify a start or end time as a shortcut.

Overall, I’m glad that I downloaded the app and look forward to future upgrades.

Audrey and I went on our annual Christmas date, this year to see Cirque Dreams: Holidaze at Raleigh Memorial after a brunch at Poole’s Diner. Our date was at the beginning of December. On the day after Christmas, I went with Geannine and her daughter Allie and a few of their friends to see Carolina Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. I enjoyed both holiday shows! Below is a quick review of each, including Poole’s diner. Photos from the events have been posted here.

Poole’s Diner: Audrey and I started our date at Poole’s Diner in downtown Raleigh which was within walking distance of Raleigh Memorial. Parking across the street was convenient and free on Sunday afternoon. We were also able to leave our cars there during the show – another plus. The outside of the building is pretty ugly and easy to miss. In fact, Audrey got out of her car, glanced at the building, and thought for sure that wasn’t the restaurant and headed in the opposite direction. The inside of the restaurant was nicer. They didn’t have individual menus but rather a series of chalkboards around the restaurant. We found that to be fairly inconvenient, but it wasn’t a big deal once we settled on what we wanted to order. I’m guessing that their menus change frequently. The place is definitely not kid friendly – they even state as much on their website. Poole’s Diner is small, and it seems that almost half of the seating is at the bars. So how about the food? I can only speak for brunch, and I enjoyed it. I ordered some type of big biscuit smothered with a very savory sauce. It wasn’t the southern version of biscuits and gravy but something a bit different. The sauce was tomato based, and the biscuit contained egg, cheese, and meat (I think – since it’s been over a month now, I’m having trouble remembering the details). I also had a HUGE scone which was tasty. I don’t think that the menu was what I had necessarily expected for brunch, but it was very good. I would go there again.

Cirque Dreams: Holidaze: I have seen most of the Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas, and I knew that this wasn’t the same type of thing exactly. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Cirque Dreams is very different. Cirque Dreams had some of the acrobatics that you see in Cirque du Soleil shows, but most of the acts stayed close to the ground. Each piece had music and a primary focus on a performer (or group of performers) who had a specialty, usually involving some sort of prop. I found myself very impressed by most of the acts (and occasionally worried about the safety of the performers!). Many of these performers have been training in gymnastics and circus performance nearly their entire lives. It’s amazing what the human body can do with years and years of practice and training! Each scene was very dreamlike with crazy characters and props happening in the background and to the side of the main focus. Both Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Dreams have a talent for coming up with some truly bizarre ideas! Overall, I thought the show was great and a good kickoff for the Christmas season. It was different, and I’m glad it was our Christmas date for 2009!

The Nutcracker: I have seen the Carolina Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker at least twice before, so it did not carry many surprises for me. I did pay more attention to families with small children (as well as the small children who were in our party). I knew Maddie wouldn’t be ready for the show this year, but I was thinking that she might enjoy it next year. I think I might hold off for at least one more year after that (or two). It’s always fun to see the little girls dressed up in their finest Christmas dresses. The kids around 8-years old seem to really enjoy the whole experience. I look forward to taking Maddie (and hopefully her brother, too). The music is beautiful, and I love the costumes (for the most part – I could do without the male costumes that leave nothing to the imagination!). We had excellent seats. I’m glad that I revisited The Nutcracker this year and look forward to experiencing it with Maddie in a few years!

Last year, I copied Cindy and wrote my Best of 2008. I had intended to do more summary posts from 2008, but I don’t think I got around to it. So, here is my attempt at the Best of 2009!

Best Restaurant: Once again, we didn’t really eat out very much. We had an anniversary dinner at Second Empire, which was new to both of us. I ate at Poole’s Diner for brunch before my Christmas date with Audrey. Those were the two notable restaurants. Both were very good, but I think I’m actually going to make an odd choice here and not go for “tastiest” or overall great experience but make the choice based on the frequency and convenience of Ruckus Pizza. We find it easy to take Maddie and have found it to be a good place to go with family and friends. We like the pizza and garlic knots.

Best Book: This is always a difficult category for me. I don’t get the opportunity to read as often as I did before having Maddie, but I still read enough to make it a challenge to pick the “best.” Once again, I’m going to limit this to books that I read for the first time this year (My Sister’s Keeper and To Kill a Mockingbird are disqualified). I choose The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This is a book club pick for March, so I’m a little ahead in reading it. Of course, I haven’t yet read the books for January or February, so I’m not that ahead.

Best Vacation: We actually managed to take several significant trips this year that did not involve visiting family at their homes. We went to Bermuda, Cincinnati, and New England/Canada. All were wonderful trips! I’d have to pick the New England/Canada cruise as the best of the year.

Best Movie: We didn’t get to watch too many movies this year. We saw even less in 2009 as we did in 2008. One of these days, we’ll get to the theatre more often, though I have a feeling we’ll be seeing even more kids’ movies. I’d have to say the best movie that we saw this year was Pixar/Disney’s Up.

Best Reunion: While this isn’t a reunion exactly for me, it was great to finally meet Gabe’s dad, sister, and niece on our trip to Cincinnati.

Best Album: I just don’t listen to new music all that much these days. Gabe got a bunch of new albums for Christmas, but I haven’t had a chance to give them all a listen. I guess I’ll have to pick Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants (another children’s album). I haven’t had a chance to listen to it too much, but I’m hoping Maddie will like it, too!

Best Board Game: I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this category last year. We were exposed to several new games this year as we had the opportunity to play more this year. My favorite by far has to be Dominion (and associated expansions). It has great replayability, is fairly easily accessible for less serious gamers, and plays awesome with two players.

Best Video Game: This is another new category for 2009. I have to admit that I barely played any video games, but I wanted to include the category so I could plug our newly acquired New Super Mario Bros for the Wii. Fun! Maddie shows some interest in “playing the Mario,” and we hope to turn her into a mini video gamer sometime in 2010!

Best TV show: I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this one last year either. Let’s see, looking over my Fall Television Update, I think I’d have to pick either LOST, Chuck, Gossip Girl, or Dollhouse. Tough choice! Since LOST and Chuck haven’t started yet for this season, I think I’ll have to pick Dollhouse. Too bad the series only has a few more episodes. It seems like we often like shows that get canceled. Boo.

Favorite toy: Ok, this is random, but I’m trying to pick MY favorite toy of Maddie’s (not necessarily her favorite). I think I’d have to go with her new Melissa & Doug Sandwich Making Set from Christmas. The wooden pieces are cool, and I love how they stick together with velcro and are quite satisfying to cut with the “knife.” Fun toy!

I should have written this months ago, but I never did get around to it. We cruised on Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas back in May on a 5-day cruise to Bermuda. I think that the 5-day cruises lack a little bit of the amenities and extras that you will find on the 7-day cruises, but it was a great way to get our feet wet (well, except not literally!) with vacationing and cruising with a toddler.

Our first cruise was on Vision of the Seas. Grandeur of the Seas is in the same ship class and has almost the same deck plan. We felt like we already knew our way around the ship within the first day. It took at least a couple of days to find our way around on the Vision. The Grandeur felt very familiar. Vision is newer with its first sailing in 1998. Grandeur’s first voyage was in 1996. One of our overall impressions was that Grandeur was starting to show its age. It was effectively 4 years older than our last experience (since our experience with Vision was 2 years ago and it is 2 years newer). It just didn’t seem as shiny and new as I’m sure it once was, and we encountered several things that were broken or in need of maintenance. Most of these things did not get in the way of us having a wonderful cruise, but it did make us eager to try some newer ships.

Our overall experience was favorable. The ship is not huge (when compared to some of the newer ones), but it is a nice size. We found that we could almost always find a quiet spot to ourselves. This is pretty amazing considering that several thousand passengers (not to mention the huge staff) are roaming around the ship. We didn’t use the pools (non-potty trained kids are not allowed, which is a common rule for cruise ships). I can’t really comment on them.

It’s hard for me to write an adequate review considering that my only other experience has been with a sister ship. We enjoyed the dining experience (after we were switched to a regular table). I know some of the newer ships have more dining options. We made use of the dining room each night and also ate at the WIndjammer for the first day for lunch and the dining room for most other lunches and dinners. We did try the room service at least one morning, but we weren’t hugely impressed by the selection or quality. We had breakfast in the dining room whenever possible – it’s definitely my preferred place for breakfast! We had some snacks at the Solarium cafe.

Some of our favorite places on the ship included the Viking Crown Lounge (very quiet after dinner before the dance club starts in the late evening). We took Maddie up there in the sling several times and enjoyed each other’s company and a relaxing drink. We spent a lot of time on decks 5 and 10 letting Maddie explore and run around. She loved it.

We had fun in the casino and were pleasantly surprised to find a Texas hold’em table running a $1-2 no limit game (perfect for us!). I wrote a separate post about the poker. The rest of the casino was similar to what we found on Vision. It’s about what you would expect from a cruise ship, in my opinion. We’ll have to see how different it is on Jewel.

I believe the staff rotates between several ships, but we did find them to be very polite and helpful. The dining room staff was accommodating to our picky toddler, and she always had many members of the staff coming by to say hello. By the end of the cruise, it seemed like most of them knew her name and they would just come by to say hi, even ones that were not serving us. They went above and beyond and even offered to wash her sippy cup and utensils after each dinner.

Our stateroom attendant was quite friendly and was available when we needed her. She often caught us in the hall and was very pleasant. Our experiences with the stateroom attendant on our last cruise was odd – his appearances always seemed a bit contrived, and it came off as a little creepy. This stateroom attendant seemed very natural in her approach, and we enjoyed the service (and towel animals!) each day. All of our personal staff received a bonus tip from us.

All in all, we had a very favorable experience yet again with Royal Caribbean. We are looking forward to seeing what Jewel of the Seas has to offer!

We saw Ponyo on the theatre on my birthday. Both of us thought we were going to see the latest Disney animated feature (oops, that’s The Princess and the Frog). Instead, we saw a Japanese animated film which has been adapted for the US. It has received a bunch of accolades and awards, but it was NOT what we were expecting to see!

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

It’s based on the Hans Christian Anderson story, The Little Mermaid, and is about a fish/girl who lives in the sea and wants to become human. Her father doesn’t want her to leave the sea and abhors the humans who pollute and wreck the earth. The fish/girl finds her way to the shore where a little boy puts her in a bucket, names her Ponyo, and shows her to his friends. He’s heartbroken when the creepy sea-father sends his wave minions to retrieve his daughter. His daughter has magic powers and ends up willing herself into human form and escapes with her hordes of tiny sisters (in fish form) to find the boy, Sosuke. She disrupts the balance of nature and causes typhoons and mayhem in the process. Somehow Sosuke realizes that this little girl is his fish, Ponyo. The little boy and his mother accept this fact, which was hilarious to us. “Oh right, ok, this little girl is that fish that you had in a bucket a few days ago. Makes sense. Well, let’s have dinner!”

Sosuke and Ponyo are left alone when the mother goes to rescue the seniors since she works as a nursemaid at the home. Considering how crazy the mother drives throughout the movie, they are probably safer left alone (mind you, they are 5 year olds). The storm and imbalance that Ponyo has created has resulted in chaos for Sosuke’s town. Sosuke and Ponyo wake in the morning to find that they are still alone and set out to rescue Sosuke’s mother. Ponyo turns a toy boat into a larger boat that they can use, and they set out on their adventure.

Long story short, the creepy father and Ponyo’s goddess mother decide that Ponyo can remain human forever if Sosuke’s love is true. Sosuke, the 5-year old. Of course, his love is true and Ponyo is turned into a human (and loses her magic skills) and the kids live happily ever after.

I’m not used to watching Japanese animation, so perhaps all of the genre is a tad strange. This movie certainly was. In the first 5 minutes, we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. The whole thing was quite weird! I didn’t feel upset that we had seen it, though I’m not sure it was the best choice for us considering we’re fairly limited on the movies we can see in the theatre these days! I definitely liked it well enough. It had some cute parts and some funny parts (though I don’t know if all the “funny” parts were intentional). I’m glad that I saw it, but I’m not going to be running out to get the DVD!

Our book club selected Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton as our July reading. I was a bit apprehensive about this selection and I was worried it would be slow reading as a non-fiction (though I guess memoirs are typically “light” non-fiction). I thought it might take me a while to get through it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. I was wrong on both accounts, zipping through the book in two or three days. Considering the amount of time I generally get to read these days, that is pretty impressive. The book was an interesting look at our justice system and some of its flaws. It gave me a different perspective on such cases. I’ll save the spoilers for below, but I will say that I recommend the book to others. If you were in North Carolina in the 80s and early to mid-90s, you may remember seeing some of this case on the news. You may not, so I’ll keep the details of the case below.

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW

The first chapter was enough to make me interested to find out how we got from point A to point B. Jennifer and Ronald, the authors of the memoir, are at a kids’ sporting event and appear to be friends. I don’t have the book since I returned it to the library a while ago, and my memory may be fuzzy on some details. It is then revealed that 20 years ago or so, Jennifer wrongfully accused Ronald of a horrible rape which sent him to prison for over 11 years. I was eager to find out how these two individuals became unlikely friends.

The story flips back and forth between Jennifer’s view point and Ronald’s. Hers starts with horrifying details of her attack and rape in her own home, and his starts with a misunderstanding where he is going down to the police station to clear up the mistake. I have sometimes seen on the news how someone was released from prison because they proved that they had convicted the wrong person, including a vague memory of this exact case.

I have never truly thought about how it must have been for that person to be in jail all these many years. Thoughts about how scary it is that you could be thrown in jail for crimes that you didn’t do have been in my head, but the situation seems unlikely for most people. The news stories made me think for a few seconds, but until I read this book it didn’t really sink in that these are real people with real lives and real feelings and experiences who have been dealt a really crappy hand.

The glimpses into the faults of our justice system and how one eye witness’s false memory and testimony can send someone to prison for life is a bit scary. Jennifer was presented with a stack of photographs of possible perpetrators which did not include the actual rapist. She identified the one that most closely matched her memory of his image (which she very consciously constructed at the time of the rape, knowing that she would have to identify him). This new image, Ronald, had now become superimposed in her memories. She was very confident beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ronald was her rapist. It is not her fault that she pointed the finger at him – the brain and its memory works in interesting ways. When later shown a line up that included Ronald but again not her rapist, she was quite sure that he was the man. A few years later, Ronald’s case went back to trial where she actually saw the man who was the real perpetrator, and she did not recognize him as such. Her memory had already been tainted by the process. The victim wants and believes that the police have presented them with a lineup that must include the guy who did it. The brain makes things fit. And when you look at the composite sketches, they do match well enough. I found all of this to be very intriguing and worrisome.

Ronald’s story was amazing. It really showed you the person behind the statistic. It showed you the rapist’s other victim in a real light. Even after reading his account, I cannot fully imagine what it must have been like for him. And I’m very impressed by his character and his perseverance and his ability to forgive Jennifer for her very large life altering mistake. He was in his early 20s with his whole life ahead of him and then had to throw away over a decade of his formative years. He left prison with no money, no job, no education, and no real marketable skills. His compensation for the justice system’s big oops? At the time, it was $5,000. TOTAL. He was eventually awarded around $110,000 – about $10,000 per year that he was wrongfully incarcerated. He had started to fight and advocate for increased compensation for himself and others who found themselves in similar shoes. Still a ridiculously small sum considering the loss of potential, both in wages, experience, and education.

All in all, I thought it was a great pick for book club, and I’m looking forward to discussing it at the end of the month!

On the first night on our cruise, we decided that we would split the night and each of us would attend something by ourselves. I was going to go to the Finish the Lyrics game show and Gabe was going to attend the comedy show. We were each going to spend a little time in the casino playing video poker.

So the first part of the evening was mine. Gabe was trying to get Maddie to sleep in the pack-n-play, and I headed to the casino. Almost immediately, they made an announcement that the poker table has open seating and the game was $1-2 no limit! I did what either of us would do when hearing the announcement and headed directly to the poker table. I was excited, and I knew Gabe was going to be excited when I came back and told him that instead of going to the comedy show he’ll probably want to play poker!

Our Alaskan cruise was never able to get together a poker game. The demographics were a bit different with less potential for a Hold’em crowd. This cruise had *just enough* players to keep a game going in the evening hours past 8 or 9pm. Aside from the interchangeable Gabe and me, the table consisted of pretty much the same 5 people plus one or two strangers at any given moment.

We had not planned on bringing a poker bankroll on this trip. Our random gambling budget is a bit different than a poker budget. One needs money to make money when it comes to poker. Fortunately, everyone, with the exception of one or two young hotshot players, was buying in for the minimum of $100. I don’t mind playing a shorter stack (when everyone else is short-stacked). I tend to do better this way than I do with a large stack, and the lower risk suits me when I am on a tight budget.

I was ecstatic to be playing “casino poker,” even if it wasn’t an ideal game. All of the players were more or less like us. They seemed to know what they were doing and had spent a decent amount of time playing live casino poker whether it was in Vegas, Atlantic City, or Connecticut. Almost everyone at the table knew more than most of the dealers since this cruise was the first time that they had offered hold’em. They made a few mistakes, but the table was quick to correct them. I cut them some slack, knowing that they did not have much experience dealing.

While Gabe and I collectively came out ahead, it was not a good money making table. On my first night, I cashed out $26 richer. Gabe played the second night, and he lost $26. So we were even on the first two nights. On the third night, the casino was closed since we were in port in Bermuda.

The fourth night was mine, and it was awesome. One of the young hotshot players was a few spots to my right, and he was bullying the table. I was annoyed that he kept raising my blinds, but I waited for the right moment. I limped in with pocket 8s under the gun, and he made a small raise from the button. I called as did several others.

The flop came 88J. Holy crap. I tried to keep my composure. I checked. Bully bet, and I smooth called. I think everyone else folded, though we may have had one caller on the flop. Turn comes, and I check and he bets again. I just called. I knew he was going to stab at it every time. Same thing on the river, except this time I obviously went for the check-raise. He bet $25, and I decided that $50 (total of $75) was a good raise. It was. He declared, “I don’t believe you” and called. Mission. Accomplished. I loved the reaction from the table when I turned over my quad 8s.

The funniest part is that a few hands later, he almost was caught in a similar situation. I had AK, and he was again in the hand. He was still bullying and raised preflop. I just called. Flop comes AAQ. He bets, I call. Turn comes and it creates a flush draw, so I bet out and he thought about it and folded. I still took down a decent pot from the preflop and flop action. I didn’t let him know what I had, of course, but I laughed on the inside. I have been in this situation many times before, and it’s rare for the right cards to come out to take advantage of this type of bully. You really have to pick your moments (or hope you can bully him at the right time). This time I waited for strong cards, and I can’t believe I got them!

I cashed out that session $230 richer. I forgot how much I love playing this game (of course, quad 8s never hurts and getting paid for them is fabulous).

We were walking around with Maddie on the last night, trying to get her to sleep in the sling. Gabe urged me to play for an hour while he gets her to sleep, and then he played for the rest of the night (he could stay out much later than me since he didn’t need to be in the room when Maddie woke up to join us).

This night didn’t go so well. I ended up in a hand against the type of player that I hate to play against. I don’t get intimidated often, but some players I do dread getting into a hand with. I raised preflop with a decent hand but completely missed the flop. I threw out a few continuation bets and then gave up on the hand. Lost about half of my stack on that mistake. I ended up losing around $60 or $70 and wished either I hadn’t played or that I had more time to redeem myself! Gabe didn’t have much better luck when he picked up where I left off. He ended up “cashing out the easy way” by losing his buy-in. Oh well. Overall, we were still slightly profitable! And we both had a great time playing poker after not being able to do it for so long.

We knew better than to play in the tournament on the cruise, and I’m glad that we avoided it. First of all, I hate that the tournament is structured as a shoot-out. Theoretically, they have 7 tables of 7 people each. Each table can play at a different time as every table plays down to exactly one player. Then all of the champs from each table play at the final table. Considering that a heads up match is such a crapshoot, I prefer to not need to do that more than once in a tournament! It’s just not my type of tournament. Plus, we had heard from players on the other cruise that the payouts are horrible. They were again on this cruise. Only 14 people played, so I think they may not have played shootout style. They only paid the top 2, despite the fliers saying they would pay at least the top 3. At least 25% of the prize pool went directly to the house, maybe more.

The guy who got 3rd place made his fair share of rants about the tournament. He ranted quite a bit on the last night, so both Gabe and I got an earful. He was angry about the tournament payouts. He was angry about the dealers in the cash game. He was angry about Royal Caribbean in general and swore to never cruise with them again. He claimed that he inquired about the poker on the cruise before booking, and they mislead him. He had a lot of complaints.

My thoughts are that you do NOT book a Royal Caribbean cruise if your goal is to play poker! First of all, you’re not going up against that many people who are just playing poker to gamble. You’re going up against people like us who are at least semi-serious about it and know what they are doing. The house takes a staggering 10% rake. The game is played on a modified blackjack table with a maximum of 7 people. There are so many reasons that poker is not optimal for poker players on this cruise. I doubt that it varies that much on the standard cruises, though maybe you’d have better luck on a larger ship.

The tournaments are pretty crappy and they were horrible about giving information about payouts and structure. We learned this on our last cruise, and that’s one of the reasons we declined to play. They lacked information beforehand. They either know it is a horrible deal and are intentionally withholding information from the players in the hopes that they will play or they don’t realize that most of their customers are people who actually play poker. This isn’t a slot tournament where everyone is just playing to gamble. Poker is a different beast. I think that the issue is that they just don’t realize this fact, though it may also be a lack of organization as well.

I’m happy we played. My expectations were exceeded in that I didn’t even expect any hold’em tables to be running during our cruise. I knew not to expect any more than that from a cruise ship!

Bottom line: If you want to play poker, go to a real casino. If you want to get a little poker fix, sit down and lower your expectations.