Amazon Vine Review: WordPerfect Office X4

Wow, this took more work than I expect, but I've got my review of Corel's WordPerfect Office X4 posted on Amazon. It's really a nice product if you don't have to work with MS Office documents. However, right or wrong, the business world still revolves around MS Office. While I'd rather use something else, I don't get to make that decision at work. On the bright side, WordPerfect is a cheaper alternative if you just need something to use at home.

Until next time...
PH

Wedding Weekend Revisited

As we are in the home stretch of Memorial Day weekend, I'd like to turn the calendar back one week. Christy, Damon, and I went to Hot Springs for my brother-in-law's wedding. Brandon and Mandy had their rehearsal dinner last Friday at a little Mexican restaurant called Jose's. Everyone had a good time as we crammed 30+ people into the space that they had set aside for us. Here's a shot I snapped of the happy couple.


The actual ceremony was that Saturday at the Hamilton House Estate. The setting was nice out on the back patio overlooking Lake Hamilton. About 100 people came to witness the event and wish Brandon and Mandy well as they begin their life together as husband and wife. The reception was immediately after the ceremony also at the Hamilton House. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures that evening. Here's a shot from the actual wedding pictures.



The reason I didn't get any pictures was because I wasn't feeling well that day. Toward the end of the reception, I wound up making a trip to the emergency room for what turned out to be a urinary track infection. I was relieved that it was nothing serious. After a quick lab test and diagnosis, we left the ER to pick up a couple of prescriptions. The worst thing that actually came out of it was that we didn't get back to Okey and Jeri's house until about 1 a.m. This put a damper on our travel plans for Sunday, and we wound up extending our stay by a day so that we could drive back to Hurst after resting up a bit.

I've since finished my prescriptions, and I've been "back to normal" - whatever that means - for a few days now. At the end of the day, it just made our trip (and the wedding reception) much more interesting than planned.

A Weekend of Movies

Christy and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull this afternoon. I was a bit concerned because it only got two stars in the paper yesterday, and they trashed it on the radio. However, I'm happy to report that it is a decent flick. While I doubt you will mistake it for the best movie ever made, I also doubt you'll be sorry that you saw it. Harrison Ford still has it, and it made me wonder what Han Solo would be like 25 years later. While the characters are different in a lot of ways, the common thread is Ford. I've been enjoying his movies for my entire movie going life, and I hope that he keeps making movies for years to come.

Another actor that I've liked in a number of movies is Johnny Depp. We rented Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street last night. While it is a little on the gory side, it is done in a way that won't be mistaken for reality. If you aren't familiar with this movie, it is actually a musical. Yes, Depp does his own singing, and he does quite well. Viewer beware. This is a Tim Burton movie. If you haven't been fond his work in the past, you are unlikely to find this pleasurable either.

Until next time...
PH

May on the Vine

Wow! This month has really gotten away from me, but there's a three day weekend coming up. Hopefully that will give me a chance to catch up on blogging. The two Vine cycles have come and gone, so here are the items up for bid this month:

1. Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds. That's right, folks. There are usually some food and drink items, but I rarely go for them preferring CDs, DVDs, books, and electronics. These actually came in Monday, and my review is up.

2. Corel WordPerfect Office X4. This also came on Monday, but it is going to take some time to put it through the paces and evaluate it.

3. The CD The Seldom Seen Kid by that juggernaut supergroup Elbow. OK so I'd never heard of them either. However I'm willing to try a pretty wide variety of music if you've been following along over the last few months. A lot of the time it works out nicely.

4. The Anime DVD Vexille. Definitely exploring new territory here, but I'm hoping to be able to let Damon watch it. It's PG-13 so I'm going to screen it first.

There you have it. I promise some posts that don't have anything to do with Vine over the weekend.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: All That Road Going

My reading of All That Road Going mercifully came to an end today, and my review is hot off the press. This book is worse than bad. Stay very, very far away. I'm not even going to apply the Literature label to this post for fear of offending all of the legitimate works that deserve to be in that category.

Until next time...
PH

Scattershooting Sunday

Hello one and all. So much to cover, so little time. Without further ado, here is a brain dump of what's been going on.

Today is my sixth wedding anniversary to my lovely wife, Christy. We have had an enjoyable weekend. Friday I came home to a nice home cooked steak dinner with a dessert of sweet potato pie - yum! Saturday we went out for dinner at JR's Steakhouse. While we enjoyed our dinner together, it had more to do with the company than the establishment. My steak was very unevenly cooked which is unacceptable at $32.99. At Chili's or the like you might overlook it, but not at a "fine dining" establishment. Today we put six pennies in the "chapel piggy bank" during Sunday School and had "Happy Anniversary" sung to us by the remainder of the Sunday School group. Overall it was a very nice weekend. Can you believe it has been six years since that hot Saturday afternoon at Faith Lutheran Church in Plano?

Today was also Confirmation Sunday at Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church. I absolutely love being in a small congregation. This year's confirmation class totaled one young lady. Someday Rachel will appreciate the fact that she had a sermon preached largely for her - that day may actually be today. The sermon was based on Rachel's confirmation verse, 1 John 5:13. I thought it was very special. It made me remember my own confirmation some 20 years ago. While there were seven in my confirmation class, I found it easy to relate to being a class of one. Much like Rachel, I could picture myself up there alone with the Pastor reciting the responses as quickly as possible during the Rite of Confirmation. Let me say again that this is a special congregation. If you are looking for a Church home in the north Fort Worth area, give it a shot.

Christy will attest to the fact that I am a spontaneous - read unplanned - person. However, even the post take it as it comes person enjoys some stability. For about a year now, Marcus has been the coffee man at work - that was until about 2 weeks ago. Monday Marcus was there, and Tuesday he had accepted a promotion at another location. I saw Marcus between 7:00 and 7:15 a.m. everyday for at least a year, and for I can't remember how long he greeted me each morning with, "What's up, bro?" He had worked at Starbucks prior to working our Starbucks Cafe at Southwest Airlines. He explained a lot to me about coffee and the Starbucks way of preparing and serving coffee. We also talked about Cowboys, Mavericks, cars, and many other things that you might talk about with a bartender. Now he is gone, and I can say that I miss him. There hasn't been a consistent replacement for him yet, but no one will ever truly replace Marcus. He understood customer service. He knew me, and he knew what I wanted when I walked up. While he had a different mild, medium, and bold coffee each morning, he knew what I wanted. It wasn't always the same each day. It would be easy to remember that someone always gets the bold, but I don't like Sumatra. On Sumatra Friday, he knew that I wanted House Blend - the medium. So far the random face of coffee neither has a consistent rotation of brews nor do they know what I want. This doesn't even consider the small talk about life. Wherever you are Marcus, I hope that you are enjoying your promotion.

Vine leftovers day was the Thursday before last. Since then I've been reading All That Road Going and Christy and I have watched The Best of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen on DVD. My review of the comedy DVD is hot off the press while I'm a little less than half way through the book. The next Vine newsletter is scheduled for May 15, and I'm hoping for another good selection of music. While it is fun to get the electronics stuff, the music is what I wind up getting the most out of on a consistent basis. I enjoy most of the books, but I have never read a fiction book a second time. I'll refer to a good work related book for years to come, but there haven't been many of these. Plus my music tastes are pretty diverse, and I love finding new artists. (BTW, Christy got me three CDs for our anniversary, and one of them was by a trumpet player, Chris Botti, that I had not heard of before.)

There might be more, but I've been writing for a while now. It's after 10:00 p.m., and that means it is time to get some sleep. I know that I haven't been the best at responding to e-mail or making phone calls of late. Rest assured, I am not mad at anyone or anything else bad that you might think of - beyond having an insane amount of things going on. (I didn't even mention the garage sale that the Church youth group had last weekend. Ask Christy about her "tan".)

Until next time...
PH