Cripes!

Holy Crap things are busy today!

Buffy creator Joss Whedon is guest starring on Veronica Mars this Wednesday!!! With Charisma Carpenter and Allyson Hannigan already on the show - it seems that the series is becoming a Slayer filled fun land.

Devin! Are you reading this!?!??!?

Yo

veronicamars!

BTW

No reruns tonight baby! IT IS ON!!!

(I hope Jess beats Logan's ass - just to get that dumbass smirk off his face)

YOU LIKE EATING THE RED CARPET!?!?!?

For the first time in a looooong time - Family Guy was the funniest show this week.


I watched the back to back Arrested Development last night - almost choked to death after Michael pushed Mr. F into the volcanic lava (the choking started with Mr. F holding out the prize to Rita - that shot was hi-lar-i-ous!) - yet felt a little lacking after.

The gang ran out and got some Dairy Queen (which is always a good call) and came back and watched FG and AD! HOLY CRAP! Family Guy's opening left me in ruins!!! I was dying with the Osama bit (pushing the limits of taste... but that is why it is wonderful!!) and then the entire Naked Gun opening was the best thing they have ever done. Ending with Homer being crushed!!!! Dear God - it was perfect!!

Props to the FG crew! Well done boys (and gals).

AD was pretty good... strange "to be continued" thing.

"I'm off my ass and I have not gotten down to the label yet!!!"

YO!!!!

Mr. F

Another wild Arrested D. ride last evening......so much good, so little time!



"There's no I in WIN!"


Bunny Out

No suck...

A quality weekend for the Damfinoworld - even got to fit in a little nap time amidst all of the fun.

As I mentioned on Friday, this weekend was a celebration of birthdays for our family - and things started off with a bang on Friday night. We hit the Latin King for a semi-expensive meal of Chicken Spadini, their most well known and perfect dish. After Stevens did some present opening (he finally received Sopranos Season 5 - don't spoil anything here... he has not seen it yet!!!), we ran off and got to see "Jarhead."


Sam Mendes has talent - no doubt about it. He creates some striking images in the film (DP Deakins kicked ass!!!!) and produces a very slick thoughtful movie... but I still left the theater going "huh?" The movie is really about what happens to a trained killer - who has no other function but to slaughter - but who is forced to sit and do nothing. This is not a film about why we were in the Persian Gulf... or the shocking images of death in war.... it is about man's psyche - and how corrosive inactivity is on it.

Mendes includes a nice dream sequence to Nirvana's "Something in the Way," one of the highlights of the film. While watching - loving the song and the idea behind using it... I realized that this dated me.... and then I wanted to pummell the kids behind who giggled at the film.


Saturday hit and we found ourselves at the Valley Drive-in Theater in Newton, IA. One of the last remaining in Iowa (and midwest), we showed up waaaay early and found that we had the place to ourselves. Dan, Matt and I, passed the time by playing football in the rain and mud right in front of the screen - it was a blast!! The films were ok - "Dreamer" - kind of gross horse film with Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russell, and "W&G Curse of the Were-Rabbit" - we love Wallace and Grommit... but it was not fall out of the car funny.

It rained all night... I was scrunched in the back seat with Caleb and Josh... but we had a ball.


Sunday brought PAINTBALL!! We did this last year for birthdays and had fun because the four of us (Dan, Matt, Caleb - me) got to play against each other... this weekend, we were thrown in with a large group - and some fun was had. In the first round I got shot point blank between the eyes... then proceeded to let my entire paint container pour out onto the ground. Not cool. Got some welts... endured my screaming knees... and continued on.


Finally, we wrapped up birthday weekend with a trip to Buca de Peppo - and found out that it was their final day open. They had gone out of business. We got the Pope room... and Caleb got the Pope's chair. Good eats... and we had fun unwrapping gifts and mocking each other's mean cards.

I landed at home around 5 pm... worn out... full... and unprepared to work on the Cavalier... the OverDrive shifter solonoid went out on it. Ugh - look for a report later this week on how much fun Devin and I have with that one.

Later!

Yo

Never thought much of November 4th...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!!!!!!

Today marks the birthing of young Mr. Dan Stevens. I believe he is clocking in at 28 years old - WOW!


Stevens has been missing from the blog here for a quite while and we miss his bitter f-bomb laiden comments. The blog just aint the same without him. Not to worry - he is still his brazen over-pompous self that we all know and love!


The big plans are as follows; Tonight we head out to the Latin King (his favorite restaurant) for a splendid Italian dinner... Chicken Spadini! Then we are gonna see "Jarhead," hoping that it lives up to "American Beauty" and "Road to Perdition." Then tomorrow, we are going to a Hawkeye football game kegger... then on to the Newton Drive in for "Wallace and Grommit!" Finally, we wrap up everything on Sunday with a wicked game of paint ball!!!


If you get a chance, send on some birthday love. Happy Birthday old man!!!

Yo

There's nothing like a Texas morning

Hey everyone - I posted my photos from my trip to Houston. You can click on the title of this post to see them all!

Ok...trying one more time...click here to view the photos.

God Blessed Texas

Dan and I conquered Houston, Texas recently and here's some photos. Ok...only three photos, but I'll be posting the whole set sometime soon. However, here are three exciting ones...

This is us at the beach at Galveston. There were words written in the sand, but...well...they weren't really nice. Oh and...the water was cold.

This is the Kemah Boardwalk. Lots of fun restaurants, games, and fish. I even won the Scooby water game and brought home a stuffed Scooby Doo. Grrrrrr!

These are my friends Mikey and Shelley. They were my roommates in Georgia and were our gracious hosts for our trip!

Good times had by all! When I get all the photos uploaded to my web page, I'll let y'all know - there's some awesome ones from the NASA center. Ooooo astronauts!

ITS OFFICIAL!!!

I just watched the new "Jesus of Suburbia" video that was produced - it is a 12 minute steaming pile! It is completely atrocious... devoid of any interesting visuals... filled with f-bomb laiden stupid dialogue... and it really the biggest disappointment this side of "The Evening Star!"

The director is a steroid pumping jack ass named Samuel Bayer - he has directed every video for Green Day off the American Idiot album. Green Day has never had the best videos ever - and "American Idiot," the first single, was a mediocre video at best. But who knew that was to be the highlight of the bunch. "Boulevard"... "Holiday"... "September Ends"... all crap... but this new one... this is the above all worst thing I have ever seen. Bayer needs to be destroyed... he needs to be dragged through the streets and beaten... and then forced to apologize to each and every Green Day fan for single handedly destroying their best work.

Then we should f*cking kill him.

GAAAAAA!!!

Go puke puke for yerself

Yo

A long time ago - we used to be friends...

Addictions are a fun past time - and it is always great to drag others down with you as one falls deeper into the sad black realm of uncontrollable needs.

Take for instance my newest addiction, Veronica Mars. I got the DVD set for me birthday and proceeded to jump into it. At the time, Devin had just moved in and was busy doing moving stuff while I sat on my butt watching the discs. Yet, slowly, I could sense he was being pulled in. He started to sit around for eps - often staying up with me well past midnight watching good V fun!

By the time we got to the end of the season - our addiction was very sick and needy! The season ended with a semi-cliffhanger... which led to me reading how the 2nd season started online the next day - and when I got home Devin admitted to doing the same. Devin quickly scanned the internet and found the first 5 episodes of the new season to download! Who the hell can wait a year for more eps!?!?!


The main problem is that UPN is not offered as a local station in the Des Moines (or Iowa!) area. Veronica Mars airs on Wednesdays on UPN... killer. So, what can an addicted person do? Well - add a un-needed package of 6 new channels to your Dish just to have UPN! It is only another $6 a month... for one show... hmmm.


Veronica Mars is actually much better than I expected it to be. The story revolves around young Veronica, a high school private eye who works with her father - a full time private eye. The back story is that V's best friend Lilly was murdered, V's father,once - town sheriff, lost his job for going after Lilly Kane's father (richest dude in town) - she also lost her boyfriend, Duncan Kane, in the process. She kind of helps out mystery type situations... while investigating Lilly's murder along the way.


Early comparisons where being made to Buffy - a series that basically defines what addiction means to me - thusly my expectations were quite high for Veronica. As a matter of fact, I read the Joss Whedon blog (he is the creator of Buffy - and his blog is linked right here on my blog) and a few months back he posted saying he just did a 22 hour marathon of the series... and loved the hell outta it! Buffy similarities are there but the series has its own voice... and humor! I can see why it has become the coolest of the cool as far as low rated shows go.

If you have UPN - shame on you for not watching it yet. If you are with us... "WHO'S YOUR DADDY!!"


Yo

Elementary my dear Sheriff

On the literary front - I just wrapped up Mitch Cullin's "A Slight Trick of the Mind." This is a tale of Sherlock Holmes in his declining years (pushing 90) and how his own mind begins to slip with age. Three mysteries (if you wish to call them that) are interwoven in the story... but the book is far better than any crappy summary I could produce. Cullin paints the impressive image of a man dying... coming to terms with the reality of moving world around him.

There are some very beautiful moments in the book - wonderful ironies and contradictions that really help in making Holmes a very interesting character. It is a quick read... and a completely different Sherlock story than what you might expect.


In a similar vein - Peters' "A Morbid Taste for Bones" is handled like a Murder She Wrote... or an Agatha Christie mystery. Written in the 70's, the book follows Brother Cadfael, a monk who solves mysteries that come his way.

Wow - this book was a struggle to finish. I read it for my book club... and I think I can do without the mystery sets and series novels - they bore me.


Finally, I have moved on to the Harry Potter series (thank you Miss Buttercup!) and have started things off with "Sorcerer's Stone." I had a hope to get past the fourth book before the movie came out - but I doubt that will happen. Right now (half way through) I am really enjoying Rowling's voice... and I regret not reading these before seeing the films. Though, it seems they nailed the casting on quite a few characters!

We'll see how fast they move... I will be reading "The Sweet Hereafter" in my downtime... with a little Martin Amis lingering in the back.


Remember! Jess returns tonight!! Time to shake up the Gilmore world.

Yo

F*CK Motel 6

BC and I were planning on leaving the two girls (see exhibt A)

with our usuall dog sitting lady while we were in Chicago this weekend. However, she was out of town so we decided to take them with us. We had booked a room for 2 nights at the Motel 6 in Joliet because they have reasonable rates and per their web site they are "pet friendly". So we plunked down our $97.50 and got a double room for Friday and Saturday. We arrived at the Hotel at 1:30pm on Friday and checked in without incident. The desk kid was very nice but had B.O. and looked like he had had a long night. No big deal. We mosey up to the room and it is clean and workable. We hang out and wait for the evening event to arrive. I watched the Chicago White Sox World Series rally on TV and the girls slept on the bed with me. Buttercup was off spending time with her cuttie pie niece Ella Pearl. (See pics prievious posts) Our room is right by the emergency exit stairwell so we do not have people on all sides. I figure they put the dog people away from the middle rooms to keep complaints down if the dogs began to bark. During the afternoon on Fri I do hear dogs barking down the hall but don't even think to complain since we have dogs too and it wasn't that loud to me.

We leave for the shuttle bus to the wedding at about 5:45pm and leave the dogs behind. We arrive back at the hotel about 12:45am on Sat and our keys don't work in the lock. I make the trip to the front desk and encounter the "Night guy" manager. (More about this puke soon)I tell him in my best half drunk voice that our keys don't work and ask him to fix them. He agrees and from behind the bullet proof window (like at the teller window at the Payday Check Store) takes my keys and re-codes them. Minor pain but no big deal....hey it's Motel 6 not the Ritz.

So, Sat am and the sheriff has a little of the Gin and Tonic flu....after a trip for breakfast that came up 25 min. after consumption I hunkered down in the room for the remainder of the day locked in mortal combat with my headache and lack of energy. The dogs were with me the whole day and nary a bark. However, the dogs of Friday afternoon were back at their bark opera and were at it for most of the day. My phone rang once in the afternoon but after three hellos on my part the party on the other end hung up.

Sat evening we leave to go the costume party at 7:30pm. Dogs in their diapers for another fun evening at the motel. We get back to the room at 12:30pm and our keys once again don't work...becoming more of a PITA...I go back down to the lobby and see a gentleman in a rent-a-cop uniform sitting in the lobby....no biggy...I ask Senior Dipshit to once again re-code my keys and tell him that I am in Room 221. He says to me, "Oh, you are being kicked out of the hotel because your dogs were barking all day...the security guard will escort you up to your room so you can get your stuff!" I being about as shocked as I can be say, "what?" I was in my room all day and our dogs were not barking. However, the dogs down our hall were loud all day...did you try to call our room or knock on our door to see if it was us?" Dipshit responds..."I called several times and you were ignoring my calls...you can either leave now or I can call the police and they can escort you out!" I as calmly as I can speak, "well then I would like a refund for the night." And was responded to by "There will be no refund."



So, I was escorted up to my room by the rent-a-cop who tells me as we are walking that the night guy is a real "dick". We get to the outside of our room door and there is no noise comming from inside. No barking..nada....just like there wasn't the night before. Tulip and Lilly are excited to see us and Lilly goes into the hall to sniff the rent-a-cop. I proclaim that these are the monsters that have conspired to have us kicked out of the hotel. Rent-a-cop laughs at the absurdity of the events. Drea and I load up the car and drive home..leaving our hotel at 1:15am and arriving home at 4am.

I am currently drafting a letter to the President/CEO of Motel 6 on my legal office letterhead outlining the wonderfull experience I had at his pet friendly motel and informing him of the qualtiy people he has working for his fine company. I have experienced some strange events in my lifetime but to be kicked out of a hotel at fucking 1:15am in the morning is absurd. Especially because all dipshit needed to do to get the correct room number was to get off his fat ass and walk up one flight of stairs and walk down the hall to hear who was actually making all the noise. A knock on the door goes along way dumbass.

This is my tale of woe. Needless to say unless some major tainlicking is done by said company I will never be spending my hard earned money there again and will encourage all I know the follow suit. More to come when or if I receive and answer to my "fan mail".

bunny out

Chi chi chi... ka ka ka....

We did it!! We pulled off another fantastic Halloween... and this was probably the best we have ever done!

Ok - so we have two seperate tales here. One is the Sheriff - Nut Flop - and Buttercup off in Chi town ripping up the place doing a wedding and Halloween extravaganza. Here are some pics... but the B team will have to relay details.


The Kreitners - Jason - the Sheriff - Vorhees.. and Oompa Buttercup.


Mr. Nut and Mrs. Flop - and some baked goods.

The second tale of Halloween fun was taking place at my humble abode. We had 20 odd people show up - all dressed up in various degrees of naughtiness... and we proceeded to play the Great Pumpkin Hunt game that we had planned. It was a complete ball - running from spot to spot taking pics of our pumpkin in different situations. Being held by a Hooters waitress was a fav... sitting on a Harley Davidson was also a top pic of the night. We partied til about 3:30 am... and then collasped. All went very well. Here are the pics.


Tina gets into the Halloween spirit!


No, you are not seeing things... that is Dan Stevens as Sir Elton John!!!!


I thought Devin's Indiana Jones outfit was nothing short of stunning!


Senor Johson was pushing war bonds.


My mother went as a hippie... I thought it was a bit much when she smoked up an apple bong.


Drunk - sweaty - ready to meet the ladies.


Count em... 9 pumpkins! Wait... you can't see the big one!! Damnit!


Much later in the evening, Dr. Tiki arrived to hand out prescriptions.


The day after... I am holding a gun on them to get this pic.


The only victim of the evening - Mr. Pukey - had been nursing a 40 in brown paper bag all night... of course I laced the bag with ether!

Bring on H06!!!

Yo

HELTER SKELTER!!

Last night was the Paul McCartney concert for us yokels here in Des Moines. We had the worst seats ever...

but thankfully there was some very large monitors that aired a spectacular video version of the show! It saved the night.

Paul was really on - did not see any age in his voice or step. We got to hear a majority of the great Beatles tunes that we were hoping for... and a few from Wings that sounded pretty darn good live. The real excitement came in the second encore (he did 3) when they fired up Helter Skelter and did it in style. It was loud - hard - and amazing. Paul noted that this tour was the first time he had ever done the song live in the US.


Aside from some cheesy crowd butt kissing... it was a spectacular show!!

Weekend is upon us.. Sheriff is gone off with Nut Flopper for a wedding/Halloween extravaganza in Chicago... I am sure his update on Monday will be envious. We are throwing a little Halloween party of our own this weekend... check out the game we are going to play... quite similar to the scavenger hunt we did for my birthday a few years back.. yowza!


Have a good Halloween kats!!

Yo

News Damfino Will Likely Appreciate

As there is no new post up yet, I thought I would toss this little nugget out there since Jed was talking about how much fun he was having listening to Ryan Adams' Gold record the other day.[Note: Gold is Kern's second least favorite album of all of Ryan's material besides Rock and Roll. In fact, he wasn't sure if he would ever like anything else besides Heartbreaker until his last two albums. End rant.]

Anyhow, there is an article up at Pitchfork which has the release date of the brooding one's new album called 29 which is to be released on December 20th. That's a day after my birthday for those of you keeping score. It sounds like a damn dark record, and if that's the case Mr. Adams can officially consider his last three albums a hat trick in my book.

If you want to read the whole thing go here.

Red Six: RIP

On a sad note, let's all take a moment of silence for character actor William Hootkins, best known to us here at the Damfinoblog as Jek Porkins. He died earlier this week of pancreatic cancer.



This time we'll cover you, Porkins...

random

As I sit here listening to Ryan Adams' GOLD (which is flippin brilliant!!!!!!) and avoiding the true filth that is the Deit/Kern/S&M convo happening at the post below, I started scanning pics. Here is an ultra cool image of the Kreitner fam with me (post party weekend) that I discovered in high res. Now I can use it as a desktop image (it changes every 30 min - how entertaining!).


Yes we are all secure in our sexuality.

And here is the image that I think Nut Flopper should use in his comments... but I am sure he has something. It is just too wonderful not to share.


Ah well - lunch is over and back to work... later b*tches!

Yo