I finally have a halfway decent picture of Gulliver from Turtle World! Here he is resting on some plant life between snacks.

- posted by Chris @ 1:14 PM

 
Congratulations to Lance Armstrong for winning his 5th consecutive Tour de France.

The Final GC Podium - Jan Ullrich (2nd) - Lance Armstrong (1st) - Alexandre Vinokourov (3rd)


In other news, I went to see Seabiscuit with Pennie yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the film. It is a great film in terms of being inspirational. It has that underdog success story feel of a Rocky, but IT's TRUE! I was impressed with the performances of Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges

My mom called it a four-kleenex film and I agree it had some great emotional scenes as well as riveting races sequences. Definitely worth a look!

RATING 7 out of 10

- posted by Chris @ 7:56 PM

 

"Bad Film, Bad Film... watchu gonna do..."

Bad Boys II was just that - bad. Okay, the chase scenes were cool - the shower of cars and near misses WAS exciting. It was waaaay too long - but it was exciting. The gunfights were cool - they were cut together way too quickly, and impossible to follow, but they were exciting. The gratuitous parade of scantilly clad hotties was cool - it did nothing to advance the story, but it was great eye candy. Sure, Martin Lawrence was a non-stop laugh riot - it was the same joke over and over, but it was funny. And yes, Will Smith certainly did look snazzy - the super-slo-mo-camera-circling poses were unnecessary and unoriginal, but he did look cool.

So what was so bad about it? It was a cookie cutter summer blockbuster. It had carboard characters, juvenile sound bites, gratuitous sex and violence - and NOTHING new.

Hey, I like the formula flics as much as the next guy - but at least give me a new twist, a new special effect, or even a new location. Let me trick myself into believing that I didn't shell out 8 bucks for a 2 1/2 hour rerun.

Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay should both be ashamed. You guys have enough money - spend a little less on the silly exploding Cuban village and a little more on a story and originality.

RATING 4 out of 10

- posted by Chris @ 12:07 AM

 
The Tour de Lance continued today with some harrowing moments. With a little less than 10km to race Armstrong seized an opportunity to attack. Iban Mayo – the champion of the thousands of Basques who created an orange tunnel of enthusiasm on the final 13km climb – surged ahead of an elite troop which included all the riders at the top of the overall classification. Only Armstrong and Ullrich could repond. Lance led this trio around a sweeping right hand turn. The excitement generated by the race’s arrival prompted a child, watching from the side of the road, to throw his arms forward. A bag he carried caught the right of Armstrong’s bars and the rider in the yellow jersey went tumbling down. Mayo couldn’t escape the carnage, but Ullrich’s reaction was as swift as Lance’s when he managed to avoid the sprawling figure of Joseba Beloki at the end of stage eight.

Lance went down hard and like the 2001 Tour when Lance waited for Ullrich after he ran off the road and had mechanical trouble, Ullrich returned the favor and waited. When other riders in the lead group threatened to jump on the opportunity to make up time on the leader, former US Postal rider Tyler Hamilton rode to the front and put out his arms and chastised the other riders to wait for the leader. Hamilton and Ullrich proved themselves to be true sportsmen in one of the few sports left that features sportsmanship. The Tour remains the toughest physical test of ALL sporting events and the largest profile show of sportsmanship and honor among professional sports.

- posted by Chris @ 12:32 PM

 
I finally got around to taking some of the pictures off my digital camera. Mom, Julie & Cheyenne visited on Friday and we went and hung out at Buffalo Wild Wings playing trivia. Here is a shot of Jules and Shiny. No, Julie is not a Buckeye fan - she probably doesn't know what a Buckeye is - Pennie loaned her the sweatshirt because it was cold in BWW.

- posted by Chris @ 9:44 AM

 
Lance Armstrong remains in the yellow jersey after today's stage, but the big story is Spanish rider Joseba Beloki's spectacular crash that ended his shot at this year's Le Tour. Beloki was racing down one of the final descents about four kilometers from the finish when his hit some loose pavement. Apparently, the pavement had melted due to the unusually high temperatures in this year's race. The front wheel slid back and forth wildly and when the instability transferred to the rear wheel, Beloki was sent crashing to the pavement in one of the most horrific accidents I have seen.

Beloki who came second last year and made the podium on the two years previously, was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with fractures to his thigh bone, right elbow and right hip.

Armstrong avoided Beloki by taking a short cut through a field and jumping back on to the road carrying his bike to rejoin the race for the final couple of kilometers.




- posted by Chris @ 5:34 PM

 

Well, I just got back from seeing Pirates of the Caribbean... it was EXCEPTIONAL! I was floored that someone would have the nerve to make a movie based on a freakin' amusement park ride... but they did a great job. Johnny Depp was great as always. His portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow was superb. Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa was a great villian. Orlando Bloom continues to find fun roles and has a knack for being believable in each. Also, you'll notice Kiera Knightley - this will not be the last you will see of her. Expect her to get more good roles as she did a fine job and isn't all that hard to look at either. If you get a chance to see this move - take it. And if you do not get a chance - CHANGE YOUR PLANS and go see it!

RATING 8 out of 10

- posted by Chris @ 4:59 PM

 
Team Postal Dominates!!

1 PENA Victor Hugo COL USP in 13h 44' 44"
2 ARMSTRONG Lance USA USP at 00' 01"
3 EKIMOV Vjatceslav RUS USP at 00' 05"
4 HINCAPIE George USA USP at 00' 05"
5 RUBIERA José Luis ESP USP at 00' 23"
6 HERAS Roberto ESP USP at 00' 27"
7 PADRNOS Pavel CZE USP at 00' 27"
8 LANDIS Floyd USA USP at 00' 28"

The TOP EIGHT riders in the entire Tour are ALL U.S. POSTAL riders. And on top of that... the #9 rider is Manuel Beltran. This means that all nine riders from U.S. Postal are in the top ten. What does this mean for Lance Armstrong - who is currently in the #2 spot? It means he is set up perfectly to win his fifth straight victory in the Tour de France as his strongest category is yet to come - the MOUNTAINS!

- posted by Chris @ 8:51 AM

 
Just finished a two-day filming session for Barney Zick. It was a GREAT seminar called Creative Financing Boot Camp and taught some sweet ways of getting a deal done when you find a good real estate investment, but lack the funds to complete the deal. I cannot recommend Barney enough as THE MAN when it comes to dealing in real estate.

Brian and EJ worked the crew with me on the project and did a superb job. I am really looking forward to editing this project together as the repetition will be invaluable in developing my real estate skills.

- posted by Chris @ 8:05 PM

 
Had a really good day today. I will try to put some pictures up later when I get a chance. Pennie and I spent the day together after seeing off my mom, Tony and Allison.

We checked out a place called Lilypons Water Gardens. It had lots of great ideas for backyard water features. (And lots of big prices) We also went out to the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center. We took in all the wilderness and had a good time despite the fact that it was pretty darn muggy out. Afterwards, we went to play trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings where Dave & Laura joined us.
- posted by Chris @ 11:34 PM

 
Well, yesterday was Independence Day - it was a pretty full day! It started off bright and early in the neighborhood with the Kid's Parade. My camera locked up and wouldn't work for most of the thing, but I did get it fixed in time to get a shot of one of the last in the long line of kids, firetrucks, police officers and parents.

Next Tony Vasquez, his daughter Allison and my mom all showed up as we had planned to go watch the Houston Symphony. We loaded up the truck and headed up to The Woodlands to Pennie's house as we had a whole day to kill before the event. At Pennie's house we watched a movie, had a great lunch (thanks Pennie) and generally screwed around. Here is Allison with her new 'edible' bubbles...

Her and Pennie had a good time together as they worked the grill and posed for snapshots...

We headed up to the Miller Outdoor Theatre at Hermann Park to see the show and although we got there pretty early, there was still barely any patch of grass big enough to fit us in. Here are Tony and Mom...

The show started and it was really fun as they played lots of popular songs and even had a few sing-a-longs. Here is Allison belting out some tunes...

The event closed with a rousing rendition of the 1812 Overture, complete with live cannons!

- posted by Chris @ 8:50 AM