Events

Back on the first of May, Tara and I got to haul a trailer to Akron because not only was Grace moving home for the supper, she had then acquired a couch for us to store for the summer. And now that couch has become the cat’s couch in the garage. At least I got Chipotle!

The very next day was something that I had been looking forward for a couple of years, the chance to see the stage production of Spirited Away. The production and filmed and distributed to movie theaters for a limited run. And it was amazing.

We took mom & dad out to an anniversary supper at Salsa’s on the 7th. Katie and Grace L. Joined us.

On the 15th I traveled to Sandusky for the ITIP Ohio Google Summit. It was nice to attend a conference without the pressure of presenting. Stephanie H. remembered me from the February Ohio Educational Technology Conference because of my name tag.

End of year festivities for school took place at the end of the month with Cabaret, Carly’s grad party, the senior cruise, and graduation.

On the 28th we attended church at the Church of the Nazarene for Dave Dooley’s last sermon there. He’s such a great guy, he will be missed.

Movies

• The Stage production of Spirited Away!!! – Spirited Away is a fantastic movie, and the stage production is amazing. I loved how they figured out how to portray the larger than life characters on the screen.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – So much better than 2.
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – One of my dirty pleasures. Don’t bother with the second one, that one is like they forgot about what makes the first one great: a simplistic plot along with cool gadgets, cool fights, and overall fun scenes.
• But I’m a cheerleader – The cast excels in this movie, I mean, how could you doubt RuPaul?!? A great movie about a girl coming out which doesn’t exactly wow her parents.
• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – I didn’t know what I was getting in to, but this movie was excellent.
• Dirty Grandpa – Hilarious movie about getting older and making the most out of what you have now.
• Fast X – It was ok, 9 was better. However, it’s only part one! I didn’t know I was getting into a two parter when I went to see it.

TV

TV I watched (number of episodes in parenthesis):

• Andor (2)
• Beavis and Butt-head (1)
• Cheers (9)
• Jury Duty (1)
• The Neighborhood (1)
• The Office (3)
• Wings (3)

Health

• Average Steps/day: 15,981
• Most steps in a day: 31,445
• Min steps in a day: 12,045
• Resting Heart Rate: 51
• Average Time Asleep: 7h 15m
• Miles walked: 194.8
• Miles ran: 16.6

Potpourri

For my Thursday morning playlist I added I2I from the Goofy Movie, a song that slaps more than you think.

Events

Spring Break 2023, Tara and I checked out an AirBnB in Millersburg. It is a house built out of containers, and the layout shows why you may not want to build a house out of containers. The stay was really cool though.

It was a pretty relaxing stay, although my runs through the hills of Holmes county were pretty tough. Lehman’s was pretty cool too.

A new restaurant came to Kenton, the 101 Smokehouse in the old A. E. Roby building. An extension of their food truck service, the restaurant serves various pulled meat dishes. It was really good, although our waitress was a little stressed.

The last weekend was a whirlwind of activities. On Friday we went to Akron for Grace’s dance recital, and then on Saturday I ran my 6th half-marathon in Columbus with a time of 2:22. Monday was a trip back to Akron, but that’s a story for the May check up.

The half-marathon was a pretty fun run, although the DJ at mile 12 was just plain evil. When you’re getting close to the finish line of these big races, you’ll hear an announcer cheering on the runners. Well, at mile 12, where you take a right to head down to the finish line there was a DJ doing the same thing. You may think this isn’t that big of deal, but when you’re running and you hear that, you think you’re close to the end. In this case, you turned right and found out you have almost a mile to go.

Miles Traveled: 1,102

Geekiness

The Krogers in Dublin had self checkout carts!

As you walked through the store, you scan items before placing them in your cart. It must have a pretty sensitive scale in it or some other mechanism to detect unscanned objects. I tried putting items in the cart without scanning and this just made it angry. The cart turned red and started beeping at me. At the end of the shopping trip I paid at the cart, put my groceries in bags and left the store. Pretty slick, and I didn’t have to talk to anyone at the store. I don’t think they’re used very much, there were probably 20 carts available and I didn’t notice anyone else in the store using them.

April 2023 also marked the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi!! I had finished the half-marathon that morning when I noticed it being played that day, so of course we had to see it on the big screen. And it was glorious.

Movies

• Murder Mystery 2: Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston’s attempt at a Knives Out mystery. It didn’t hit that level, but it was better than the first.
• Up in the Air: Kind of depressing movie that I knew nothing about. Apparently it had 6 Oscar nominations, including best movie, best actor in a leading role, and 2 for best actress in a supporting role. Who knew?
• Cocaine Bear: Did this live up to the premise? Almost… The ambulance scene sold it for me.
• Super Mario Bros.: What can I say, one of the best video game movies released so far. I’m not going to say the best, that goes to Mortal Kombat, but it’s up there.
• Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: This was a movie that gave me a throwback to the fun movies of the 80s. Smart, funny, witty, and an exceptional cast. I so hope it gets a sequel!
• Return of the Jedi: Except for the CGI crap added, this still holds up as a great, fun movie.

TV

TV I watched (number of episodes in parenthesis):

• Cheers (14)
• Coupling (1)
• Parks and Recreation (2)
• The Bad Batch (1)
• The King of Queens (2)
• The Love Boat (1)
• The Mandalorian (7)
• The Neighborhood (1)
• The Office (4)
• The Office Superfan (3)
• Wings (6)

Health

• Average Steps/day: 15,848
• Most steps in a day: 32,530
• Min steps in a day: 12,073
• Resting Heart Rate: 50bpm
• Average Time Asleep: 7h 35min
• Miles walked: 137
• Miles ran: 71