Whine and Cheese

After work on Friday, I hurried to the nearest movie theater to catch a 3D matinee of "Wonder Woman". The character was one of the few highlights of "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice," so I was eagerly looking forward to seeing her solo movie.

I was surprised that the theater was so sparsely attended, even for a matinee, as it was just me and two other folks. I have to remember that I get off work earlier than most.

The movie was FANTASTIC! Any concerns I had about Gal Gadot getting the role of Diana were quickly dismissed. The story was great, the characters were entertaining, the setting was amazing, etc. The setting of the movie is WWI (hardly a spoiler), which is a bit outside of canon as Wonder Woman started in WWII, but it's forgivable. I loved the action. When Diana whips out her glowing lasso and it flies around the screen, I was almost giddy as it brings a character I adore to life for me.

I will watch it again in the theater, very soon, I think.

Saturday was a relatively dull day. The appliance repairman was supposed to show up early Saturday afternoon, only to show up at 6 PM that night. It does irritate me that I was left to linger about the house waiting for this guy to show, but the time wasn't wasted. I inked a lot of comic book pages that day. And the washer is fixed and fully operational again.

Now it's Sunday night and work will come early again tomorrow. Ugh.

I meant to post this earlier this week when I heard of the news, but things got away from me. I read online that Canadian ginger daddy-bear actor Chris Wiggins had passed away at age 87.


John D. LeMay, Chris Wiggins, and Robey
from "Friday the 13th: The Series"

He's probably best known by most of us as Jack Marshak, the occult expert on "Friday the 13th: The Series" that aired back in the late 1980's. There was one episode where Wiggins was shirtless and the fur was plentiful. He was in his late-50's at the time, but still in great bearish shape.

I also saw him in the 1969 "The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar", which won him the Best Actor Canadian Film Award (the Canadian equivalent of an Oscar, now called a Genie award). The movie is pretty good, and also stars a young Margot Kidder in her first feature role. You can watch the full movie online on YouTube and on the National Film Board of Canada website:

http://www.nfb.ca/film/best_damn_fiddler_from_calabogie_to_kaladar/

I'd recently bought a book about Friday the 13th: The Series, which included behind-the-scenes commentary from the actors, but noticed that Wiggins was not included in the interviews. I guessed that his advanced age might have been the reason and I was right. Wiggins passed away on February 19, 2017, from complications from Alzheimer's disease.

I was pretty happy to have the weekend start. Knowing I have several days off certainly did help. It's been a good weekend so far.

• Friday was a Christmas party at a friend's house. I had a great time. I met several new folks and I wish I had gotten last names so I could connect with them again, but I'm sure I'll see them around.



• Saturday was unseasonably warm. I got a break between rain bursts to get a late morning run in. I managed to do a full 3.4 miles, which felt really good. Once it gets really cold, I lose my enthusiasm to go out, but I force myself to do it.



• Saturday afternoon, I went with friends to see "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" at a swank new movie house called Cine-Bistro, where they serve dinner along with the movie. The movie was AMAZING! I'm not giving anything away, but, in my opinion, it is exactly what Episode Three should have been.



• I was invited to another Christmas party after the movie, but the rain was torrential and I just wanted to get home. It was so heavy that it almost doubled my drive home.



• Today, I went out to grab lunch and get the last of my Christmas shopping done. It was just a trip to Bath and Body Works to get some lotion that my mom likes, but it was a zoo. I was the only guy in there and the lines were long. I grabbed three of the lotions and a bath soap from the men's section for me, only to have the cashier tell me that I could get two more for free. After standing in line that long, I didn't want to get out of line to grab them, so I just told her that I didn't need them. She told me it would be cheaper and I still begged off, saying it was worth the money not to have to stand in the line longer. She nicely said that if I told her which ones, she would grab them while I paid for the goods with my credit card. So I got three of my bath soaps too.
  
  But still, this is how I feel about standing in lines during the Christmas season, I'm willing to forgo free stuff to get out. Luckily, I am now DONE!

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

While I was getting the latest issue of my comic book done, I spent a lot of time watching horror movies and true crime shows. To be fair, I do that often anyway, but I'm always looking for new shows/movies to watch. During the coloring of pages, I watched a couple of things that had some significantly handsome fellers in them.

The first was the movie "Devil". I avoided this movie when it was in theaters as I'd gotten burned so much by anything M. Night Shyamalan directs. I figured it was crap and dodged it. However, several friends had said it was good, so I watched it on Netflix. A movie about five strangers trapped in an elevator only to find one of them is probably the devil, and I found it was actually pretty good. The guy that caught my attention was Chris Messina (<---), who plays the police detective who shows up to solve a suicide/murder in the building.

While he's a bit on the skinny side, there is something very attractive about him. From what I've seen of him online, he seems to be pretty furry. What caught my attention was his lips. Seriously, his lips are full and made me want to kiss him!

This past weekend I watching the true crime show "Killer Couples." This show generally does re-enactments using actors that are far more attractive than the actual people involved in the crime. In this particular episode, a muscled fitness guy who shares a house with a single woman is murdered by her and her new fiance so he'll get out of the house.

The murder victim in this episode was played by actor/stuntman Derek Russo (-->). He's big into science fiction and horror. Muscled, bearded, and furry, he also seems to have a great sense of humor. While he's not a big name yet, he definitely caught my attention.

Granted I'd have watched these things if such handsome guys were not in them, so it's just icing on a particular cake for me.

Last night, softball was canceled because of rain. I was actually relieved for reasons I've posted before. Instead of sweating it out on the field, I worked out, inked a couple of comic book pages, and went out for a discounted 3D showing of "Ghostbusters".

When bookish physics professor Erin (Kristen Wiig) is up for tenure at a prestigious NY university, her hopes get derailed when a paranormal book she co-wrote in the past gets published by her former friend Abby (Melissa McCarthy). After confronting Abby, she joins with her and tech wizard Holtzmann (SNL's wickedly funny Kate McKinnon) to investigate a increasingly-threatening series of ghost sightings, adding street-savvy Patty (Leslie Jones) to the group along the way. The group gets joined by handsome, goofy, somewhat stupid Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) as the Ghostbusters' receptionist, who is a big source of comic relief.

The movie is not necessarily a remake. It doesn't run the same plot, just the same stereotypical characters as the original. The movie includes cameos from many of the original movie's stars. It stands pretty well on its own.

There are several extra scenes at the end, so wait out the credits if you see it.

I got home at nearly midnight, which made for a rough morning for yours truly. Thank heavens for caffeine.

After a long day of work, errands, and getting a tire fixed, I met my buddy Rob for dinner and a movie. We went to go see "The Conjuring 2".

This sequel tells another supernatural investigation by Ed and Lorraine Warren, this time they travel to London, England to help a family terrorized by the ghost of a elderly man. Weary of the stresses this is having on them, the Warrens reluctantly agree to go to monitor the situation, but become very engrossed in the supernatural goings-on in the home.

The first Conjuring movie gave way too much away in the previews. The sequel learned their lesson and loaded this movie with startling jumps and scares galore. The demon in the film takes on the form of a terrifying nun, guaranteed to spook anyone, especially anyone with a Catholic background. The theater was packed and the young lady sitting next to me was stereotypically jumping and screaming at every hair-raising moment.

With the scares and the wonderful 1977 setting, including the teenage girl room full of posters of Starsky & Hutch, The New Avengers (with Joanna Lumley), and pop stars of the era, I loved it.

Patrick Wilson, who plays Ed Warren, has some nice pecs under that shirt of his, though no bare chest scenes (darn it). My buddy Rob proclaimed this as the best horror flick I ever dragged him to. It's got a 70-something % rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is high for a horror flick.

Since I've not had much of a chance to update of late, here are some odds and ends:

• Milo the Cat (TM) is doing well. His butt fur still hasn't grown in yet. It is coming in, but it's taking its time. He's not hiding any more for the part. He's learned he hates the vacuum cleaner. He spent his first weekend solo as I had gone to my hometown for the first time since I adopted him. He seems okay, no cat barf, no pooping issues, etc. He seems to have settled in well.



• My sister and her family like my car. I put a bear flag plate on the front of it, which has led to one of my coworkers to refer to it as "The Bearmobile." I thought my car was unique at my office, and it was for two weeks, but lo-and-behold another Kia Soul in "latte brown" showed up last week, virtually identical to mine. I've not quite figured out who it belongs to, but I'll ask him or her where they got it. I suspect that they could have bought it from the Kia dealer where I test drove an identical car before I bought mine. That bear flag plate is going to come in handy in making sure I get into the right car.



• I spent a good chunk of yesterday and today in my hometown. I saw family and celebrated Mother's Day with our mom as much as she wanted. I tried to take her out to dinner, but she wouldn't go. My sister and I bought Mom a new phone, as the caller ID on her old one was hard for her to read. The new one has big, bright screens, and announces the ID of the caller out loud. To be mean, my sister and I programmed the phone to announce our brother Joe as "Joe the Golden" when he calls. Mom has a bit of a blind eye to my twin's rudeness and forgives him anything, so we (jokingly) refer to him as "The Golden Child."



• I pre-ordered "Deadpool" on Blu-Ray and it should show up on Tuesday. Since I'm expecting a rainout for softball this week, I'll be diving into that. I can't wait.



• Things I need to do this week:
  
  1. Send off my passport renewal.
     
  2. Get the new car registered.
     
  3. Work.
     
  4. Workout.
     
  5. Nap.

Have a good week everyone!

In Lexington, KY, about 80 miles south of Cincinnati, there was superhero-themed bear run. You would think that I would have flocked to something like this, but I just am never comfortable enough to go. I'm not sure why, I should brave it, but I let it go.

It being the 3rd Saturday of the month, I scheduled a Cincinnati MovieBears outing. The Cincinnati MovieBears is a social group in the Cincinnati area where a group of bears go to a movie, followed by dinner, in the area. I've been the coordinator of the group now for several years. I pick the theater time, the theater, organize the restaurant for dinner, etc.

With near 70 degree temps and sunny weather, it was a perfect night to try a newer theater. We all went to see "Deadpool," which a lot of us had already seen, but wanted to see again. There is so much going on in the movie, so many new and dated pop culture references, both visually and in dialogue, that there is always something new.

At the 4 PM showing, the theater wasn't packed, but I think people wondered when an entire row of the theater was almost all taken up by a group of bearded men. Thirteen bears showed up for the movie, about twice the normal group attendance. The eye candy outside the group was good too, every girl seemed to come in with a bearded cubby, a bear, or a daddy bear. We had three new people come last night, one of them was a local daddy bear and his out-of-town partner Kelly, who was a stunningly beautiful bearded muscle bear. And he was so sweet too, which magnified his attractiveness. One of the other guys made a comment when he walked past, "Wow, I wish he was with us," I responded, "Oh, he is!"

The group loved the flick. We walked to the nearby restaurant who had a table ready for us (even though they don't take "same day" reservations). We were an easy group to handle, I think. One of the new guys bought my dinner for coordinating the outing, which was nice. Everyone had a good time, I think.

Our outings end usually around 9 PM, as it allows for guys to head to the bars if they want. I usually go to a coffee shop with some to hang out. Last night, I didn't do either. Organizing these events, especially getting restaurant reservations, sometimes puts a bit of stress on me, so I'm relieved when everything works out but I'm also a bit tired when it's done. I slept well last night.

Ye gods, what a night...

Last night, a small group of us went out to the movies to see "The Boy". The theater was full of teenagers, but they were strangely well-behaved. Despite some decent acting and a cool setting, the movie was rather dull. The guys thought so too, as we tore it apart while having dinner.

On my way home from the outing, I stopped and bought some Nyquil as I coughed intermittently all evening. Before bed, I started coughing so hard that I threw up a couple of times. I blamed it mainly on eating too much for dinner and went to bed after things settled down.

Then the night went south fast.

I have had chills before but not like last night. From midnight to 3 AM, I shook so violently, I couldn't sleep. The whole bed was shaking like crazy. At some point, I had to get up to go to the bathroom, and the chills were so bad, I could barely walk to the bathroom and back. At 3 AM they finally stopped. It freaked me out so much, that I worried that I needed to go to the ER. Seriously, they were that bad. The last time I had a night even remotely close to this was an evening where food poisoning was involved, so I worried that had happened again.

It took an hour for me to build up the strength to get out of bed. I tried so desperately to get the chills to stop that my muscles were incredibly sore and I was exhausted. I finally got dressed and drove over the ER, which is only a couple of miles away from my house.

The ER was thankfully not busy. The intake clerk was an @$$hole. I told him that I thought I might have food poisoning. I told him it started with the sneezing and coughing and he cut me off with a tone of disbelief.

"That doesn't sound like food poisoning," he snarked, giving me a look like he didn't believe I was sick.

"Well, hang on a second, and I'll tell you WHY I'm worried it is," I retorted.

After he checked me in, a nurse took me back to a room where I was found to have a 103 degrees F fever (take THAT check-in clerk!) The doctor saw me and she wanted a chest x-ray to make sure I didn't have pneumonia. Luckily, my lungs are clear, so she concluded that I have a flu. She told me the usual -- rest, liquids, etc. She checked my temperature again, it had dropped down to 99 degrees F. They finally discharged me around 6 AM and I drove home.

I crashed for five more hours, this time sleeping better than before. I'm still coughing, but all the other symptoms seems to have passed.

I'm beat. :(

After a quick trip to the grocery store tonight, I decided to stay in and be lazy. Netflix provided some cheesy entertainment in the form of "Two Thousand Maniacs!", which was pretty gory for a 1964 movie. It's not the best written flick, but it provided a good backdrop to do some drawing.


The chain-breaking superhero pose isn't new, but I think this might be the first with a shirtless hero. Or at least I like to think so.