Cautionary Tales

A pretty good episode about dealing with the loss of someone you love. Highlight below to see more:

First off, let's talk about Matt Parkman. His power is growing, and he's taking a little bit of advantage with it. Not only can he read minds, but now he can control them somewhat, too. He first realizes it when he tells Molly to come back to the table to finish her cereal using only his mind. Later, he makes his boss let him keep working on the Nakamura case, and finally he forces Angela Petrelli to tell the truth about what is going on.

Angela explains to Matt that Adam can heal himself and that at some point those that can heal will stop aging. She tells Matt that Adam is 400 years old and that he is the one that killed Mr. Nakamura. She also tells him that if he forces her to reveal the identity of the woman in the photo that he will be just like his father. Apparently, Matt forces her because at the end he has her labeled as Victoria Pratt. She also tells Matt that her generation mortgaged their souls to protect Matt's generation. What does that mean? What did they do? And why didn't Matt just let Molly find the people in the photo rather than forcing Angela against her will?

Hiro is attending his father's funeral and refuses to eulogize his father. Instead he travels back in time and meets his father on the roof of the Deveaux building. Mr. Nakamura tells Hiro that he is being childish and that even though they have the power of the gods it doesn't mean that they can play God. His fate is to die, and so he must die. Hiro doesn't really want to believe that, so he takes Mr. Nakamura back to the funeral of his wife. While there, Hiro meets a younger version of himself and realizes that he is being childish. The two return to the roof of the Deveaux building in time for Mr. Nakamura's death.

Hiro seems to leave, but in fact is there when his father is pushed off the roof. He stops time briefly and identifies the killer. Of course, Hiro knows him as Takezo Kensei, but the rest of us now call him Adam Monroe. If Kensei's beef is with Hiro, then it makes some sense that he would kill Mr. Nakamura, but why wait this long? And why is he attacking the other founders of the company? Angela had said that it was because they kept him imprisoned. Does that mean that he is over his beef with Hiro?

After all of that, Hiro returns to the present and finally speaks at his father's funeral. He says that his dad taught him everything that he needed to be a great hero and that as long as he is alive his father will live on through him. It was a pretty nice eulogy, and a pretty nice change from the relationship that Hiro had with his dad when we first met Mr. Nakamura.

Finally, the Bennetts are packing to leave California. Noah is convinced that the company is going to track them down, and Claire is refusing to leave. As a matter of fact, Claire flat out tells her family that Noah is a liar, and that he abducted West. Noah does come clean with his wife, Sandra, about abducting West and that he thought they were doing the right thing. Sandra looks like she almost ready to leave. Noah shows her the painting of his death, though, and says that he really needs her to stay.

Meanwhile, Mohinder and Bob are in California to take out Noah. They are going to use Elle to make the kill.

West and Claire meet in a field somewhere and Claire tells him that she is not going with her family because she wants to stay with him. West still doesn't believe her, so he has to find out for himself. When Noah steps out his front door, West swoops in and abducts him. Since Noah had called Mohinder (still believing him to be on the same side) to use Molly and locate West, this was somewhat good. Noah has to convince West that Claire was not trying to set him up, though. When the two finally land, Mohinder calls and gives Noah a bogus location for where West is supposed to be. Of course, since West is with Noah, he realizes that it is a setup.

Mohinder's plan is to convince Noah to give them Claire so that they can use her blood to save the world. He says that he doesn't want to kill anyone. Bob and Elle are playing along with the intent of killing Noah anyway. When Noah shows up, he refuses to give up Claire and Mohinder forces Noah to drive to a back alley at gunpoint where Elle is waiting to take him out. West gets to Elle first and Noah disarms Mohinder. That was a quick change for West it seems. One moment he's terrified of Noah and the next he's helping him fight off attackers. I suppose he would justify it as trying to protect Claire, but it still seems a little too quick for me for a guy that's spent most of his life living in fear of "the man with the horn rimmed glasses."

Anyway, Noah and West take Elle hostage. Bob has already managed to get Claire as a hostage. Her hatred of her father seems to have played into Bob's hands and she gives him some of her blood. What are they really going to do with it? Do they really intend to save the world? Or are they going to use it to make an army of unstoppable "specials?" I'm betting more on the latter.

I think that Bob intends to use the Shanti virus to eliminate anyone that could stop him and he plans to use Claire's blood make his army immune. Based on what Noah says happened to Elle over the years, it seems that he's already created one little soldier.

Anyway, it was pretty cool when they tied Elle up and put water all over her so that she would shock herself if she tried to use her powers. Why couldn't they figure out a way to keep her in water during the prisoner exchange? If they had, then maybe she wouldn't have been able to take West and Claire down. As it was, Noah seemed intent on killing Bob believing that if he died, the company would die. Mohinder couldn't let that happen, so he shot Noah. Claire witnessed it, and then West took her home. I feel kind of bad for Claire. At least Hiro had a way to say goodbye. The interesting thing, is that Noah was given some blood that healed him and brought him back to life.

Who gave Noah the blood? Was it Claire's blood given to him by Bob? Or was it Adam's blood given to him by Adam and Peter? I'm looking forward to finding out.

So, out of the eight paintings, we've seen them all now. The last one that I couldn't identify before was of Claire on the steps of the high school the night that she and West pranked Debbie. Now what? Is Noah going to be good or bad now that he's back? Is Adam good or bad? What will the Bennets (and West) do?

Tell me your thoughts.

Gotcha!

Everyone has played tag, haven't they? I sure hope so, it's a great game for kids and adults. I remember when I was a kid, I even saw a movie where college students had taken tag to a whole new level. In the movie Gotcha! the college students played tag around campus with paintball guns. If you haven't seen it, go rent it for a look at a young Anthony Edwards and some serious 80s cheese.

Anyway, apparently, we're taking the game of tag virtual with blogs now, and I've been tagged by my good friend Graham. It feels a little like a chain letter, but it might also be a good way to find some other interesting blogs, so here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
   
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
   
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
   
4. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
   

And now, my list of random and/or weird facts about myself, if you really want to know:

1. My high school had no football team or baseball team, and I liked it. We were a true nerd school.
   
2. Speaking of being a nerd, I once won a computer programming competition. Yes, they really do have those.
   
3. My wife has to match my clothes for me.
   
4. But I buy all of my wife's clothes for her, so it's fair. Did I just cheat and turn one thing into two?
   
5. I work puzzles for fun, and I'm not just talking about jigsaw puzzles. I mean word puzzles, number puzzles, and anything else that makes me have to think.
   
6. My greatest dreams are to fly an airplane and go to space. If I could afford it, I would've already been up on the shuttle.
   
7. I am a very picky eater. I figure that if you are what you eat and animals eat vegetables, then eating meat is like killing two birds with one stone.
   

Finally, I get to tag seven people. I've just got to think of seven that might actually respond:

1. Caci
   
2. Ben
   
3. Windy
   
4. Melissa
   
5. Peyton
   
6. Cole
   
7. Patti
   

Back to regular programming the next time I get inspired.

Coonskin Cap

Every young man needs to know how to make a coonskin cap, and I really feel a bit left out in that it wasn't included in any of the coursework that I had as a child. I mean, how can you expect a person to grow up to be a responsible, self-respecting citizen without intimate knowledge of how to skin a coon and make a head covering? Honestly, it's a serious shortcoming in our educational system.

Rather, it's a shortcoming of the system that I was brought up through. Some parts of the country like Huntsville, Ark. still include special instruction on skinning animals it seems, but their program is not without its flaws. I must admit that when I first heard about this, I imagined that the idea would have a few inherent issues like parents and the general public crying out about the images of torture that would fill the children's minds, the ACLU trying to defend the rights of animals to keep their clothes on in a public school, and of course, the charges of violence breeding from such gruesome practices. I did not, however, anticipate the only real issue that seems to have been present: live animals.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21791520/

If you've read the article, then you know that an instructor at a Huntsville high school had been promised a raccoon for an animal skinning demonstration. Setting aside the wonder that you might still have at the idea of actually doing a skinning demonstration in school (it's really not that much different than a dissection is it?), ask yourself how you would react if you were the parent donating the raccoon. Would you expect the teacher to want (a) a live, possibly rabies infected, angry raccoon, (b) fresh roadkill from the road yonder that I drove on up on the way over, and by the way save me a drumstick and a gizzard, or (c) a humanely dispatched specimen for scientific study?

I'll grant you that that's a tough question to answer if you've never been in a class that was doing a skinning demonstration, but I think we can safely assume that a live raccoon was not the preferred option. Either they didn't have this class when that parent was in high school, or there were other issues with this parent and high school (I'm not saying they didn't finish; I'm just saying there might have been issues) because they brought a live raccoon to a skinning demonstration. What was the teacher going to do with a live raccoon?

Obviously, the lesson has to go on, so the raccoon needs to be dispatched. "What do we have lying around that we could use to accomplish that?" I imagine the teacher thought to himself. I'm sure he went down the list of possibilities quickly:

• Crack his furry little head on the corner of my desk. Nah, too bloody, and I don't want to slip on this tile floor.
  
• Just start cutting with the knife. Death'll catch up soon enough, and this class isn't for wimps.
  
• Run over it with my car. It'll be just like real life, but someone has to hold the bugger in place while I drive, and if I have to hear another lecture about torturing my students I'll scream.
  
• Shoot it with a nail gun. Doesn't everyone have one of these handy just in case they're given a live raccoon for a skinning demonstration?
  

While the rest of us are still thinking of the possibilities that never occurred to this teacher, he was busy loading the nail gun and putting the raccoon to rest (or prepping the material by causing the least possible damage; however you choose to look at it). Of course the school superintendent was quick to point out that, "It wasn't like he held a nail gun against the head of a cute little animal in front of the class." Well, that's a relief. For a minute there I thought this was an unusual teaching method.

The good news is that the teacher has been told not to kill animals on school grounds anymore, at least one lucky kid got to go home with a coonskin cap (with a slight hole just to the left of center), and the volunteer parent had first choice of the meat.

Okay, okay. That's not all in the story, but do you really think it didn't happen?

Four Months Ago…

We played last night, but NBC.com has saved me once again. I really love being able to watch TV on the internet. After a few mediocre episodes, these last two seem to be pulling us out of the slump. Highlight below for more:

This episode jumped around between storylines and timeframes, so I'm going to try and consolidate all of the storylines separately.

We start off right where the last episode ended. Peter and Adam are in the building in Montreal, Peter has just attacked him, and Adam has just reintroduced himself. Adam says that the Haitian must have taken away Peter's memories, but that since Peter can heal himself, he should be able to get them back by healing his mind. He encourages Peter to focus on remembering and images start to flood back.

We start Peter's story back at Kirby Plaza with Nathan and Peter flying away to keep New York from blowing up. Nathan is severely burned from being so close to Peter, but he's not planning to let go. Peter has to make him let go and after Peter explodes, Nathan is falling unconscious. It's then Peter's turn, and he flies Nathan to the closest hospital and leaves him there for treatment. So, now we have an idea of why Nathan sees himself as burned. That's the first image he saw of himself after he woke up in the hospital, and it's his way of remembering that he lived and Peter died (in his mind anyway).

To avoid any unnecessary questions, Peter went invisible and tried to sneak out of the hospital, but he was stopped by Elle and Bob. How did they know Peter was at the hospital? And how did they track him when he was invisible? Regardless of all that, they took him to a company facility and offered him drugs that would suppress his powers with the promise that one day soon they would be able to remove his powers completely. Peter bought into the whole deal.

Locked in a room, Peter began to develop a relationship with the man in the next room through the air vent. That man was Adam (aka Kensei). Isn't it interesting that he chose the name Adam? Is he really the first one with powers? And did he, over the past 600 years, spread the powers across the globe through his offspring? Anyway, while Peter wasn't talking with Adam about the company, powers, and why they were in prison, he was being played with by Elle. And let me just say that she is one psycho chick. According to her, she burned down a house when she was six, shut down the power in a city when she was eight, and was labeled a sociopath when she told her counselors she would kill them. I'm probably missing something there, but the point is that she really seems to enjoy inflicting pain. The good news for us is that we finally found out how Peter got his electricity powers that he's been using so far this season.

Adam helped Peter see that they needed to escape from the prison because they weren't really being treated, they were being held captive. Peter stopped taking his meds and the two escaped together. The first thing that they did was go to Nathan's hospital room and put some of Adam's blood in the IV. It immediately started to heal him, and that was pretty cool. Do you think that the same thing would happen if you gave Claire's blood to another person? And how long does it last?

Elle and the Haitian caught up with Peter and Adam at the hospital. The Haitian chased Peter while Elle chased Adam. While I'm not yet sure if Adam is good or bad (although we know that he hates Hiro), it is convenient that Elle chased him and he got away. Peter was caught by the Haitian, but in response to the fact that Angela had helped him before, he spared Peter's life and only took his memories leaving him alone with a bad case of amnesia in a shipping container bound for Ireland. What happened between Elle and Adam? How did the Haitian explain that Peter got way? Is this the reason that the Haitian was suffering from the Shanti virus earlier this season? And who is Elle's father?

In a slightly different storyline, Angela went to visit Heidi (Nathan's wife) and implied that Nathan was going insane. She insinuated that it was a problem that ran in the family and that Nathan had inherited it from his father. She even went so far as to encourage Heidi to leave Nathan. The most interesting thing here to me was the physical touch between Angela and Heidi. Angela was touching Heidi's arm, shoulder, and hair nearly the entire time that they spoke. Does that have something to do with her power? And why did she want Heidi to leave? Was she trying to get them out of the way? Or was she trying to protect them from the people that might come after Nathan? Who knows, but at least know we have some idea of why there is a restraining order against Nathan (if you recall, the teacher said that he wasn't allowed to be that close to his kids).

We also got some back story on Maya and Alejandro. It was no more valuable than any other plot line we've seen with them. First of all, we saw Alejandro marrying the town hooker. I mean what else can you call a girl that tries to get jiggy with a guest at her own wedding reception. But who cares? Maya found them because she could tell that something was off about the way the new wife and the guest were behaving, but she can't see that Sylar wants to do more than just take them to New York in the present? Come on! And then she got upset because the wedding guest was getting a little rough when Maya interrupted their interlude, and she ended up killing everyone that was at the reception. That's pretty powerful, but exactly what is her power? And what triggers it? And why do we care?

Of course, we got another brief glimpse of them as the police come to arrest her and Maya accidentally kills him, too. Seems like that was the first moment that Alejandro realized that he could take the black goop away, but that also raised the question of what happened to it after she killed everyone at the wedding reception? Her whole power and storyline just don't make good sense to me.

Finally, Niki and Micah took D.L. to the hospital after the events at Kirby Plaza and D.L. survived. That made sense, but what about when Bob showed up to pay the bills? Was he after Niki? Micah? D.L.? All of them. He seemed to only be interested in Niki just like he seemed only interested in Peter and not Nathan. Why is he specifically targeting certain "specials?"

Most weeks this season Niki has been a welcome sight because the story doesn't revolve around her and she is totally hot. This week, the tights and silver cowboy boots nearly knocked off of my hot list in a single moment. What was she thinking? Anyway, the story centered around them was pretty lame.

Micah had the fun idea of tapping into police band traffic and stopping criminals, Niki had the fun idea to take unknown drugs, and D.L. had the only really good idea which was to become a firefighter and actually use his power to help someone. He saved a child from a fire by phasing through the flames and had a short moment in the lime light. It was about then that Niki's new alter ego came out in the form of Gina.

While Jessica was a super strong witch (with a capital B), Gina seems to be more of a super horny party chick. Don't know how that will ever come in handy; at least Jessica could kill with her bare hands if things got rough. Anyway, D.L. tracked her down in a club in L.A. and had a little scuffle with the guy trying to dance up on his wife. It was pretty cool that the guy's hand went right through D.L.'s head when they fought, but it just made the guy more angry and he shot D.L. at point blank range. Contrary to my theory last week, maybe the guy really is dead.

So, now Peter says that he remembers everything and he and Adam are going to save the world. So, is Adam good or bad? Does he still hold a grudge against Hiro? If he's bad, then what's his angle? For that matter, what's Bob's angle? Why is he collecting certain "specials?"

Out of Time

We had softball last night, so I just got around to watching the episode. It's a pretty good turn for things. Read below for more info:

First off, we see a strange green glow around the earth in the title scene. A foreshadowing of the holocaust that the Shanti virus will unleash, I imagine.

Next, Hiro and Kensei have finally gotten the end of their journey together. Or at least Hiro has finally been able to get out of his own personal purgatory called feudal Japan. Why he went there in the first place is still beyond me, but our theory that he would end up being his own hero, Kensei, has been proven true. After the real Kensei turned out to be bad, and he and Hiro fought, Yaeko swore that she would tell the tale of Kensei as if Hiro were the main character. Those are obviously the stories that Hiro heard as a child and so the show has conveniently avoided any time travel issues by making the events of Hiro in feudal Japan a part of the known history in this universe. Nice, neat, and thank goodness we're done with it.

Also, as we suspected from the start of the season, Kensei (aka Adam Monroe) is the main villain. His hatred for Hiro has been stewing for centuries, so he's primed and ready for making everyone's life miserable. According to Bob, he's using Maury Parkman to do his dirty work, and based on the final scene, it looks like he's working on using Peter to his own ends as well. I still wonder whether Adam and Peter have ever met before, but I am very confident in saying that Adam is not out to destroy the company (or at least not just the company).

Mr. Bennett saw, photographed, and destroyed the original paintings. All eight have been shown now, but I could only make out the details of seven. Several of the events depicted have already happened, so I'll note that beside each description:

1. Mr. Nakamura dead. Of course, we saw this at the beginning of the season and while this painting wasn't among those that Mr. Bennett destroyed in the Ukraine, we know that it is part of the series.
   
2. Mohinder with a bandaged nose and company pistol. This hasn't happened specifically but it must be coming soon. Mohinder's nose is now bandaged since Niki attacked him and Bob just issued him a pistol for protection and noted that Mr. Bennett is a threat to the company.
   
3. Mr. Bennett dead (with Claire apparently in the background). This hasn't happened yet, but considering Mr. Bennett's dialog with Mohinder and Mohinder's dialog with Bob, I think that Mr. Bennett is beginning to believe that Mohinder may be a threat.
   
4. A hand with a vial of the Shanti virus. We didn't see this directly that I recall, but it may refer to the fact that Niki took a vial and used it on herself.
   
5. A woman banging on a door (possibly Niki). This could be Niki trying to get to Bob when she believed that he had been hiding D.L. and then had killed him.
   
6. Hiro fighting Kensei. We saw this. It was the last time that the two of them have seen each other in nearly 500 years from Kensei's perspective.
   
7. Peter behind a pane of glass with a biohazard label. We saw this while Peter was in the future. The Shanti virus has caused a global crisis.
   
8. Something that looked like a man doing something. This one flashed too quickly to get a good look. No ideas here. Anyone else get a better look?
   

While trying to make sure I accounted for all eight paintings, I also noticed that there were other images between the frames. I saw two flash briefly, but I couldn't get the NBC.com player to stop right on those frames so I never got a clear look. They both look like landscapes or something. Maybe one of you has this episode on tape still and can identify the "pictures between the pictures." I don't know if there is anything of value there or not, but I'm pretty curious at this point. The first one is just as the scene cuts from Hiro's face to the paintings and the other one that I noticed is while the scene is cutting between paintings.

In other storylines, Parkman and Nathan show up at the company to try and protect Bob from Parkman's dad, Maury. Bob reveals to Matt that his abilities don't stop at reading minds. He should have the same ability as his father and be able to control minds essentially. I wonder why Matt has the exact same power as his father, but Claire doesn't have anything resembling her parent's powers and neither do Peter, Nathan, or Micah. Why is Matt different than the rest?

West has just appeared at Claire's house to make breakfast. At first, this kept me suspicious of his motivation as I still suspected that he was only using her to get close to her father. When Claire failed to reveal that her dad is the one that abducted him, and he saw Mr. Bennett on his own, I sensed a genuine fear and sense of betrayal from the character, though, so I think now that he genuinely believes Claire tried to set him up. Oddly, while West was making breakfast, he inquired as to the whereabouts of Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Bennett said that she couldn't recall. Was her memory wiped? Or was it really just unimportant to her?

Mohinder was faced with a moral dilemma when Maury first arrived at the company facility. Bob wanted him to inject the virus into Maury to eliminate his power. Mohinder was not sure about that plan because he didn't want to risk infecting anyone else. Should he save himself and risk the world, or protect Maury from the virus and risk the world? As things turned out, Mohinder slipped out of making that decision when Matt locked Maury in his own nightmare and Niki injected herself with the virus. Now the only problem is that this strain of the virus can't be cured. The only answer, of course, is the regenerative powers of Claire. Once again….save the cheerleader, save the world.

And if they don't, Peter and Caitlin have seen the future. The Shanti virus will create a devastating worldwide epidemic. It's not a nuke this time, but it's still oddly familiar.

Niki is still mostly a worthless character, but Ali Larter is totally hot, so I can put up with her a little more as long as she isn't the focus. I just can't understand why she injected herself with the virus. That seemed like the most idiotic decision that she could have made, but they don't ask me to write this stuff. The images that Maury put in her head got me to wondering, though. How exactly did D.L. die? I know he was shot at the end of last season, but he seemed to be doing okay. Is it possible that the company whisked him away for observation and faked a funeral so Niki wouldn't come looking?

Before you say that's ridiculous, let me point out that Bob revealed to Nathan that Peter is alive, and he showed Nathan relatively recent footage of Peter in the company facility. If they could get Peter, observe him, and not let Angela or Nathan find out, then why couldn't they cover something like abducting D.L.? The other questions here are whether the company took Peter's memory or if it was already gone? And did the company put Peter in that shipping container? Or did he simply escape?

Who is Adam Monroe? We've been asking that since last week, and as many of us suspected he turns out to be Kensei. I suspect that he is also the father of the lightning girl that was looking for Peter a few episodes back and that he was directly involved with Peter being in Cork in the first place. I think that he put the tickets to Montreal in the box and sent his daughter to nudge Peter into action. With a well placed note in his office, and a man that has little memory, he makes Peter believe that they are working together and suddenly he has the most powerful weapon in the world. Unfortunately, the only thing that Adam has going for him is that he can heal himself, so I'm not sure how he's going to deal with things when Peter gets wise to the game and brings all of his power to bear.

Interestingly, Bob indicated that Adam had been locked up for years and had only recently escaped. How did he get out? If electricity girl really is his daughter then she may have been instrumental. On the other hand, Bob could be lying through his teeth about Adam ever having been under their control.

While in the future, Peter meets his mother and Angela reveals to him that he is the most powerful of everyone. Nathan didn't make it to the future, but now that Peter knows he exists, I suspect that he will try to track him down in the present. Nathan has been put on the same trail by Bob, so they are likely to find each other soon. Suddenly Peter remembers his mother while they are talking. Did she give him that? Or did something just click in his head? And if she gave it to him, did she give him an accurate memory? I really wish that we knew for sure what her power is.

Scariest Environment Imaginable

How many of you have ever seen the movie Armageddon? If you have, then you might remember the scene where Oscar (Owen Wilson) asks what it's going to be like when they land on the asteroid. Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) responds with a lengthy explanation of temperature swings and landscape features which Oscar then summarizes into, "Okay, so the scariest environment imaginable." That's about how I feel about Zimbabwe right now.

I stumbled across a site with news from Zimbabwe (following a link from another story), and this site just has to be the equivalent of a US rag mag. It can't really be serious. At least, I surely hope that it's not for real. Check out some of these stories, and I'll even start you in the same place as I:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4249949.stm - Given that this one is on the BBC, I'm betting that it's actually real. Read the story and you'll see that it's about a man that might be a woman. Or maybe that's the other way around. Regardless anyone with a penis, a vagina, and name like Sithole certainly has all their bases covered. Reportedly, Ms. Sithole (or is it Mr.?) used the services of a traditional healer to make the penis disappear. "Hmmm….how do you make the penis disappear? I know, I'll wave some branches around, crush some insects, spread some goo on things, and then hide it in this conveniently placed and just the right size orifice. And if they ask for my help again, I'll just tell 'em to go screw themselves." Reportedly, the process worked for a while but the penis returned when the traditional healer wasn't paid. I'm not sure I believe that, though. The end of the article says that a fellow female athlete (believing Ms. Sithole to be female) disrobed in front of Ms. Sithole. I'm betting the penis "mysteriously" reappeared shortly after that.

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/incest11.11624.html - Following links on the story above, I came across this story related to witchcraft in Zimbabwe. Now as odd as stones raining down on someone's house might sound, I think that it pales in comparison to this one line buried in the middle of the text. "The family's late father, Caseman Chigova made news in the 1990s for sleeping in a coffin, which he bought to 'get a feel for his future home.'" If I lived next door to someone that crazy, I might want stones to rain down on their house, too. He's just one step away from mowing down all of his friends and family to "make sure I'm not lonely in my future home."

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/satanists2.11436.html - Finally, I also ran across this story of a traditional healer in Zimbabwe who was burned by goblins. Apparently, the healer has been removing goblins from people's homes and after a short wrestling match with one of the critters was burned in the fireplace. The article was unclear as to whether anyone else could see the goblins or not.

Given that you can't necessarily tell the difference between men and women, you might get rained on by stones or shot by people with coffin fetishes, and there are crazy pyromaniac goblins on the loose, I'm recommending that you not plan any family vacations to Zimbabwe in the near future. At least not until the elves move back, the ring of power is destroyed, and peace and harmony are brought back to the land. No, wait, that story was definitely fiction. I guess the truth really is stranger.

Can I Ride Your Bike?

I'm sure that you can remember at least one time that you stayed at your friend's house too late without a bike when you were a kid. It started to get dark and you didn't want to be late getting home, so you asked, "Can I just ride your bike?" Sometimes, your friend might say yes, but if it was a particularly cool bike they probably just offered to pump you. If you're not familiar with the term it just means that they'll give you a ride on their bike. Typically the passenger (the pumpee) would sit on the handlebars and try to yell directions to the driver (the pumper) who couldn't see anything because your big head was in the way. Sometimes things would go really wrong like the pumpee's foot would get caught in the spokes and a twisted mangled mass of flesh, blood, and metal would crumple to the ground, but generally it was safe.

Honestly, I still don't understand exactly how this is possible, but now I understand that riding bikes and getting pumped on a bike doesn't necessarily mean what you and I think it means. Has anyone else seen this story?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/26/nsex126.xml

Despite the title, the man in question was not having sex in the courtroom. He was in his own room at a local hostel when workers found him having sex with a bicycle. Hmmm…

My first thought is that it sounds painful. I can't imagine any part of a bicycle that would be any fun in a sexual context. Not any at all. The good news for the perp, though, is that if he goes to prison, his cot will be almost exclusively metal tubing and he'll have a tin cup to eat out of both of which will apparently keep him entertained for the duration of his sentence. He might not ever want to leave. His cellmate, on the other hand, won't ever look at anything metal the same way again.

But what ever possessed the man to try this strange act of self gratification. Did he hear that the bike was an easy ride? And is it really his fault if the bike taunted him with its tight seat and stiff spokes?

At least the neighbors can sleep safe at night since the guy's name will be on the sex offenders list. I can just imagine the mom's now. "Sure, you can trick-or-treat at the neighbor's house, just don't ride your bike. You never know what strangers might want to do with a cute little bike like yours." Or "Have you heard about the sex offender down the street? My kids told me that he tried to get them to look at bicycle frames with him. Thank goodness they didn't ride down there, or they'd probably have been walking home."

Most disturbing of all, though, is the last sentence of this article which tells us that this man is not alone. Apparently, someone else has been convicted in recent history of sex with pavement. Ouch! Exactly how much KY does it take for that to feel good? At least a bike is already greased.

The Line

Well, we did play softball last night, but I went ahead and watched Heroes online at lunch. This episode was okay, but like so many other shows this second season seems to be struggling to keep the pace set by the first. I'm not ready to give up yet, but I do hope things improve soon. Highlight below to read more:

First off, who is Adam Monroe? If you didn't notice, that was the name on the file that Bob had laying on his desk when Mohinder first walked in and found out about the serum that he was supposed to give to Monica. I just can't wait to meet another "hero."

Anyway, Mohinder is such a dork, and it's becoming a bit annoying. Supposedly, he enticed the company into extending him an offer so that he and Mr. Bennett could work together to bring them down. Apparently, they are suspicious of him, so they set him up in a lab at Isaac's old loft to keep a close eye on his work. So far, we've gotten the impression that Mohinder knows they are bad and that he knows they are suspicious of him. Then the next thing you know, he's bringing Molly back to them for treatment and taking Monica away from her family and halfway across the country without even letting her say goodbye so that he can experiment on her. And to make it even better, he actually considers giving her an untested treatment that might take her powers away. Finally, he acts like he's standing up to them only to back down because he doesn't want to take Molly away. It just makes me want to scream.

Now, Mohinder is such a threat that the company has assigned Jessica (I know he called her Niki, but we all know better than that) to keep an eye on him while Bob took Monica home to New Orleans. Thank goodness he gave her a plausible excuse though, "Remember, you were at an impromptu Burger Barn training session and you couldn't call home." She wasn't gone for a few hours. She was in New York. She had to have been gone for days. I just wonder if Bob gave her the shot at some point during the trip and then put the iPod in her hands so that she'll try something, fail, and then call them for help.

Plus, what game is the company playing anyway. Why would they want to take Monica's power away? I don't think they do. I think they want to control her by having the ability to take her power away. The only question is why Bob is helping them. He has the ability to make millions just by touching stuff, so why does he want to help the company have that kind of power over others with abilities? Do they have something over his head? That's about the only thing that makes sense because money sure wouldn't be good leverage on him.

On the other side of the world, Mr. Bennett and the Haitian have met up with Ivan to find out about the paintings. Apparently, Ivan is pretty high up in the company since he says that he setup the company that Mr. Bennett worked for in Texas and made a ton of promises about what could do if Mr. Bennett came back to work for the company. Of all the stuff he said, only one thing really caught me as interesting. He said that the paintings were in the warehouse where they tagged the liquid guy. Is that a guy that has power over liquids or a guy that can turn to liquid? Maybe we'll get a glimpse of him sometime this season.

And if Mohinder is a dork, Maya is an absolute moron. Has she never been hit on by a guy before? Or has she never met a total creep "somewhere in Mexico?" Sylar (or Gabriel as he likes to be called this season) is radiating psycho, stalker vibes and Alejandro seems to be the only one that can see it. The only thing that Alejandro has wrong is that Sylar isn't interested in any of Maya's physical entertainment, just her power, and now Sylar has enticed her into using her power for her own gain. The only positive thing about this storyline is that it won't be "somewhere in Mexico" next week; it'll be "somewhere in America."

Ando is still reading the notes from Hiro, and I am amazed at the fact that the guy helping him out isn't asking any questions about their origin or contents. Anyway, Hiro accidentally revealed his power to Yaeko and finally admitted his love for her. Unfortunately, that meant a rift between him and Kensei which has altered the course of history. The stage is now set perfectly for Hiro to become his own hero by taking over the tasks that Kensei was supposed to perform, and Kensei is set to hold a grudge for the rest of time. Perhaps this slight shift has rippled though time, though, and explains the slight timeline inconsistencies that we've seen so far this season.

Back in the United States, Claire faked death to get back at the cheer captain for not letting her on the squad. With the help of West, they made it appear that she flew up in the air and fell to her death. Now Debbie is not only humiliated but also suspended for drinking and Claire is on the cheer squad. Her lie to her father looks like it's going to work out, but in the background I saw a look on May's face that makes me think that she doesn't completely believe that Debbie made the story up. Maybe May has a power, too, and she realizes that what Debbie saw could have actually happened. I think that this little prank is going to cost Claire more than it's cost Debbie.

Finally, Peter and his new girl found the building in Montreal with the godsend symbol. Now they just have to figure out what they really found. Someone named Adam left a note for Peter indicating that the company is bad. When was Peter investigating the company? Was it during the months between the end of last season and the start of this one? If so, then why doesn't Nathan know that he's alive? And who is Adam? I'm betting that it's Adam Monroe (remember the file in Bob's office), and I think that he is playing Peter and wants to make him believe that he was already on this journey and that Peter and he are already friends. At the end, Peter accidentally teleports to the future using the powers that he snagged from Hiro, but since Peter is again not very good at using any of his abilities, I wonder if he'll actually be able to get himself back home.

Where’s the Oil?

When I was a kid, there was a commercial on television that showed some guys in a lab running engines that allegedly had no oil in them. The point of the commercial was probably something about how one engine was better than another because it could run with no oil, but I don't recall those irrelevant details. The important thing is that they were allegedly running without oil.

My wife's van is putting on some miles. We just crossed the 100K boundary a short while ago and we're on way to seeing just how far a Windstar can go. What we didn't plan on was testing the truth in advertising from my childhood. We didn't intend to drive it with no oil.

I guess you can probably see where this is going. On Tuesday morning Leah called to say that she had seen the oil light on her dashboard flash on and that she had stopped to check the oil. She then went on to say that the engine had no oil in it. Of course, I replied that she must be looking at it wrong. That would be practically impossible. We just had the oil changed a month or so back, so for us to lose 4-5 quarts of oil in such a short timeframe would mean that there is either a huge black puddle in my garage or that the van would be pouring smoke like James Bond trying to get away from Dr. No (or whatever movie he used a smoke screen in). Ladies note that I didn't say that just because she's a girl, I said it because it didn't make rational sense.

Anyway, when she got to the office, she had Mark (senior pastor) go ahead and check the oil. He agreed with her original assessment and graciously went to the store to pick up some oil for the van. He ended up putting four quarts of oil in the engine. Four quarts! How in the world did the van lose four quarts of oil with no external signs? This just didn't make any sense.

Since I had a meeting in Arlington, I headed home early after the meeting and met Leah at our mechanic's place. Joe (the mechanic) and I (of course in a white dress shirt) put the van up on the rack and took a look at the underside. We hunted and hunted for a leak but we couldn't find anything. There was no evidence of oil being blown back on the undercarriage as you would expect if it leaked while driving, and of course, neither of us have noticed the van smoking meaning that it is unrealistic to expect that that much oil had burned off in a short period of time.

Next step: I headed back to the scene of the last oil change. The Sachse Kwik Kar has been doing the oil changes on both the van and car since we moved to Sachse, and they have generally been a great place to do business. They typically don't find anything else to service on either vehicle and they even helped Leah out with a windshield wiper issue free of charge a couple of weeks ago. Tuesday was a little different story, though.

In all fairness, the guys that I saw on Tuesday were unfamiliar to me, but here's what transpired. I pulled in and told them that I wanted to know what happened to my four quarts of oil. They were the last ones to work with the oil until we put four quarts in that morning, and I needed to know what happened. The guy got under and started checking around and a few minutes later he came out and told me that there were no leaks. I said, "Okay, I didn't think there were, so where did my oil go?"

"Out the tailpipe," he replied.

Looking for clarification I asked, "What do you mean out the tailpipe?"

He explained, "Oil burns off the engine and is transferred out the tailpipe."

I inquired for further information, "So what you're saying is that the missing four quarts of oil burned off my engine and out the tailpipe over the course of the last several weeks?"

"Absolutely!"

Not one to take an answer at face value, I pressed further, "So if you knew that an engine was burning oil at that rate, would you expect to see a ton of blue smoke coming out the exhaust pipe or not?"

"Well of course it's going to smoke to high heaven."

Now we're getting somewhere, "Alright, well did you see my van smoking when I drove it in here?"

"No sir, I did not."

"So, do you think it's possible that there is another explanation?"

With a look of consternation, he stooped down to the tailpipe, swiped his finger on the inside and showed me a black smudge on his index finger, "All I can tell you is that that is oil."

"Really?" I asked, not looking one bit convinced. "I figure that pretty much every car out here is going to have black residue in the tailpipe, so that doesn't impress me much, and I think we would both expect more of a bluish white residue if it was burning oil. How about we try to come up with a more plausible explanation?"

"Well, sir, I don't have any other explanation."

Still unsatisfied, I inquired further, "Do you think it's possible that the last time my van was in here that it left without enough oil?"

"That's ridiculous and impossible. If your engine didn't have oil, it wouldn't have run this long."

"Whoa, buddy. I'm not saying it left here with no oil. I'm asking if it's possible that it just didn't have enough oil. Maybe I got shorted two or three quarts and it burned off the rest in the normal course of driving."

"Sir, that is absolutely impossible," he protested, "we have a 16 point inspection system and our mechanics are highly trained and efficient. There is absolutely no way that any of them could possibly allow a vehicle to leave here without the proper amount of oil."

"Well, I understand that you have systems and processed in place to prevent this and it sounds like the idea that one of your employees made a mistake is about as ludicrous to you as the idea that my engine burned four quarts of oil in four weeks sounds to me."

Unapologetically he responded, "Listen, if you want to know what's wrong with your engine you can take it to our approved mechanic and I'm sure that he can tell you what needs to be fixed."

"I'm sure that he can, but I think for now that I'm going to stay away from your associates."

Now, how hard would it have been for them to have offered to comp me an oil change, verify that level of the oil, and help me monitor the vehicle for a few hundred miles or so to help me determine the issue? They didn't have to lose a customer over this, but now they are not only losing me but also any of you that might have ever gone there in the future. Too bad.

Fight or Flight

Three weeks in a row softball has been rained out. Oh well, at least I can keep up with Heroes. Highlight below to see more.

So, Matt wanted Molly to find his dad and then he didn't want to go see him. Does that make sense to anyone except Matt? Then he finally meets his dad (with the encouragement of Nathan) and seems surprised to discover that the guy has powers of the mind, too. And how stupid do you have to be let yourself get locked in a dark room with a psychic? And not just a psychic at that, the man that put Molly basically in a coma from another state. The guys says, "I'm sorry. I really love you," and all of Matt's police training goes out the window. Interestingly, though, while in the dream that Matt's dad put them in, Matt saw Janice and the baby and she claimed that the baby is his. At the same time, Nathan himself again as Mr. Scars, and I still don't know what that's all about. I did think that it was interesting to find that Matt and Nathan were fighting each other, but they did't realize it until Matt apparently realized at some point that he could control the dream.

Hiro and Kensei are still wandering around medieval Japan tyring to fix history and doing unknown amounts of damage to the present. For example, Ando has taken Hiro's writings (which still don't make sense given that Hiro can travel through space and time) and given them to some kind of expert in ancient scrolls. Tell me that's not going to change the history of Kensei. Is Ando crazy? He's just revealed a potentially huge historic find for Japan.

Peter is really starting to get into the Irish chick (no pun intended) and Mrs. Lightning shows up to rain on the party (no pun meant there either). Anyway, Peter finally opened the box with his identity, and there was nothing of importance in it. Why in the world did they spend three episodes building up the box and then have it be a worthless prop? Thankfully, though, Peter's new girlfriend is a painter, so he had a chance to use his painting the future power on a blank canvas that she had sitting on an easel. Now we just need to figure out who is in the painting and where are they? Peter supposed Montreal because he had a ticket to go there, but I'm thinking New Orleans since the street names are in French.

Mrs. Lightning, on the other hand, failed to apprehend her prey and killed someone in the process. That seems to have made her father angry and so now she appears to be headed back to wherever she came from. I wonder if it was her father that set Peter up to be found in that container in the first place. But, then again, if that's true, why not send his daughter in before now?

Mr. Bennett and the Haitian are supposed to be in the Ukraine, but in an uncharacteristic moment for the show, it looked more like they were in a poorly painted alley in the back lot of an old movie studio. Honestly, I don't even know why that scene was included in the episode, but if it was because it turned out better than what they had planned to show of Maya and Alejandro wandering around Mexico trying to find America, then it was worth it.

Micah, down in New Orleans, revealed his secret to his cousin, Monica after he realized that she has a power, too. I was ready for something cool when they decided to go test it out, but who in the world would choose to jump rope with that power? And to make matters worse, the next time we see her, she's learning Kung Fu from a Bruce Lee movie! Have they fired all the good writers and filled in with random people off the street? The only interesting thing that happened here was Mohinder showing up on her doorstep. I wonder if he'll recognize Micah.

Before Mohinder went to New Orleans, though, he took Molly to the company. Isn't this the same guy that rescued Molly from the company last season? Isn't this the same company that wanted to exploit her power to find all of the "specials"? So why do Mohinder and Bob act like none of that ever happened? I'm still missing something in the storyline there. But since Mohinder was there, we got a brief cameo of Niki/Jessica who is apparently still alive and well. Jessica seems to realize that things are really going well there and she wants out. Niki seems to be drugged and doesn't care. I have changed my mind since last season, though, and realize that she's definitely not the weakest character they could come up. "Hey, watch me double-dutch with my super power," has completely trumped the Niki/Jessica bomb.

Guns, Beer, and Skeet

I stayed with my brothers this weekend for a little man time. Jeffrey, Logan, and I all hung at Jeffrey's house in Bossier and we had a great time playing video games, watching movies, and we even got to catch a Mudbugs (local CHL team) game on Saturday night. Overall, it was an awesome weekend.

For entertainment on Saturday, I bought a skeet thrower and we all pitched in on some skeet and shells. Jeffrey came up with the location since his company just acquired some land outside of town for riding ATVs, and we were all set. We headed out to the land with the intent of setting up in one of the pastures, shooting some skeet, and heading home. Little did we know, the entertainment had only just begun.

When we got to the property, we were surprised to find that Scott (the owner of Jeff's company), his dad, and at least a half-dozen other guys (and girls) were all out on the property riding their ATVs. We didn't want to be rude, so we stopped and spoke to everyone there. It wasn't long, though, before the fateful question was asked: "What are you guys doing out here without a 4-wheeler?"

Of course, we had to answer truthfully which turned out to be our first mistake. "We're just gonna shoot some skeet…" And while the rest of that sentence would have been, "…in that pasture over there," it was never heard over the SCHICK SCHICK of at least a dozen shotguns in unison. Where cans of LoneStar and Coors had been, there was now a full arsenal of weaponry. Pockets that I thought were only big enough to hold oversized wallets, skoal, and a pocketknife were apparently also hiding shotgun shells. I mean to tell you, we no more got the word "skeet" out of our mouths and the beers went to the ground and the guns came out. "Where they at?" a chorus of twangy voices echoed while Jeffrey and I tried to regain our composure and figure a way out of having these half drunk, well armed locals shoot all of our skeet. And let me tell you, that's not the kind of "on-the-fly" thinking I normally do. It really is different when the guy (or girl) on the other side of the table has a loaded weapon.

We agreed to let them shoot a few that we threw in the air, and then Scott encouraged them to continue riding with him. Thank you, Scott! If we had broken out the actual skeet thrower, I'm pretty sure that we'd have never gotten them to leave. I did tell Jeffrey that it might have been funny to take the skeet thrower back apart and watch them try to assemble it, though. Jeffrey and I together (and straight up sober) took about an hour to put the thing together and we had to redo several parts of it several times before we got it right. Assembling that thing with anything less than a PhD in Astrophysics is nigh impossible. I don't know how the manufacturer figures that a country boy is going to put down his LoneStar and cigarette long enough to get that thing assembled. My bet is that they have a 70% return rate and most of those have scratches and holes due to the fact that the owner gave up on putting it together and just started shooting at the pieces.

Ours was already assembled by the time we arrived at the field, though, so we just set it up and starting having fun. Logan went 5 for 5 his first time out which just proves that he is Dan Doughty's son. You don't need a paternity test when you see a kid shoot like that. Jeffrey and I took a little longer to get going, but we started smoking them, too, before long. About the time we got to the end of our second case, the ATV riders returned. We were tired and ready to go home. They were tired of riding, on the verge of being drunk, and ready to break out the firearms. That's when we made our second mistake.

Jeffrey put a few mostly whole skeet under the twine of a nearby hay roll and pulled out his .45 pistol. Well, these guys weren't going to just sit around and watch. Jeffrey fired a few rounds and cracked the target. Good shooting. Then Jeffrey handed the pistol over to one of the riders. This guy took six shots and missed every time at which point he turned to Jeff and I and said, "Looky here. Ifn there's any ol' boy up in my place, he ain't gonna be standin' still waitin' on my ter shoot 'im; he's gonna be a movin'. Whatcha gotta do is throw sum dem skeet up in the air yonder 'n' I'll bust der eyes out." Jeffrey and I disarmed him and pointed him back to the cooler. The last thing he needed to be doing was waving a pistol around.

Next up: Michael. I took my stance and got one round off when I hear Jeffrey hollering at me, "Michael, move! Get down! Get outta there!" What the heck. I turned around and I was looking down the barrel of a .357 Magnum. One of them old boys on the 4-wheeler behind me had done pulled out his own pistol and was drawing down over my shoulder. I said, "Hey, this ain't the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, man!" To which he replied, "Naw, it's good. I can drive nails with this thang!" I said, "Maybe so, but they ain't gonna be the nails in my coffin!"

Now I know what you're thinking. We should have left a long time ago, but certainly by that point we should have been out of there. We weren't, though, and you've really got to understand that it wasn't so much a question of whether we wanted to leave. It was more a question of whether it would be safe to leave. Trust me. We were outmanned and outgunned. No single one of them could have hit us (or the truck for that matter) but together someone was bound to get lucky (or unlucky if you were in my truck).

Regardless, we didn't leave at that point. No, we set up some more skeet as targets while they took turns shooting the .357. Shortly after, though, someone says, "Well, that .357 is alright, but you can't take down any deer with that. Let's shoot my .30-30." Ought came the rifle, and more shooting ensued. Next I hear, "Ya know. The .30-30 is okay, but if ya want to hit anything, you gotta shoot my .30-06 with a scope." Out comes the second rifle.

Just to make sure that you are keeping up. So far, Jeffrey, Logan, and I all have shotguns. Jeffrey has a pistol. All of the riders have shotguns. One of them also has a pistol. Two of them also have rifles. There is a total of about 15 firearms in the field at this point.

Back to the story. They start shooting the .30-06 with a scope. They are still missing the target. Exasperated, Jeffrey says, "Let me give that a try." Politely, he listens while they tell him that he has to aim about an inch low at this range, but I know what he was thinking: "Why would I listen to you dorks. You haven't hit the target yet." Calmly, he takes his stance. Slowly, he adjusts his aim and squeezes the trigger. BOOM! CRACK! Nearly instantaneously the feedback from his shot is a cracked target. Dead on. I mean, isn't that what you expect from a scoped rifle? I guess the other guys were aiming at the one on the left (out of a vertical arrangement of targets) when they should have been aiming for the one in the middle.

At this point, two things happened. First, we heard someone mention that if you really wanted to do some damage you'd have to shoot his .50 caliber. Second, we made our goodbyes and quickly hopped in the truck. I just knew that showing them all up in one shot wasn't a good idea, and the only thing that I could imagine coming after a .50-caliber would be a tank from the woods (and it wouldn't have surprised me a bit). We needed to leave before things got any more out of hand.

Thankfully, we survived, and we learned a valuable lesson. If you ever feel threatened in the backwoods of Texas or Louisiana, just holler "Skeet!" listen for the response, "Where dey at?" and watch the guns appear seemingly from nowhere.

What the %#*@&!

I distinctly remember the day that I experimented with swear words. I'd heard my dad use them frequently. I'd heard my grandfather use them frequently. I figured that they were part of the package if I was ever going to be a man. My sister had other ideas, and after a long conversation with my dad, I swore off swear words.

That's probably a good thing, too. Take a look at this article:

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/14352081/detail.html?rss=dfw&psp=nationalnews

It seems that woman has been cited for shouting profanities in her own home. I don't know when foul language became illegal, but I'm sure glad that my dad saved me from a life of crime. Of course, this article does raise some interesting questions. For instance, the woman said that she was dealing with an overflowing toilet. Is it possible that her language was simply describing the situation in layman's terms? So, when she goes to court is she going to have to prove that the bathroom really was full of $#i+?

Honestly, it's surprising to me that this incident didn't foster solidarity between the woman and her neighbor. In fact, it did just the opposite. It created a situation where her neighbor called the police on her (which is odd anyway since her neighbor is a police officer), and this will likely be a rift between the two for years to come. The reason that this surprises me, though, is because it's in direct contradiction with a recent study on swearing at work:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071017125814.w6whem5y&show_article=1

It seems from this study that we should allow our employees to use foul language at work because they are going to do it, it helps the build a team, and everyone agrees that the CEO is a &*$#$% anyway. I guess the relationship between employees and neighbors is a little different, though, since outside the organization this activity really turned out to be negative for the woman from Scranton. What might have helped is if she had brought the neighbor over and made him stand in the pile of $#i+ that was coming out of the toilet. Then it would have been just like two employees at many organizations across America, if not literally at least figuratively, and they probably would have cursed together.

I'm still a little old school, though, and I have a hard time believing that foul language at work will really make a difference. The proof is in the pudding, though, and you can't deny the results. Just watch this video of the potential for leveraging foul language in the workplace. It really shows a team the pulls together and works for a common goal with a liberal sprinkling of words that your kids can't hear (the language is bleeped, so don't worry about your kids overhearing something that might scar them for life):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJJL5dxgVaM

If you don't do anything else, you have to watch the video. It's absolutely hilarious.

The Kindness of Strangers

Softball was rained out again. I'm beginning to feel like we're flashing back to the spring where every game and make-up game was rained out for a couple of months in a row. The good news, though, is that means I got to watch Heroes last night with the rest of America. The bad news is that it was a pretty weak episode. Highlight below to see my take:

Who couldn't see the deal with Micah and his cousin coming? Honestly, I thought it was a little lame on the writer's part. How many times does the guy have to mention that he wants $65 before the viewers can see the foreshadowing? And who can blame Micah? He's just a kid trying to make friends and fit in.

Now, Micah's older cousin, on the other hand, I didn't see coming. It was obvious that there was something there when she cut the tomato into a rose at work, but I didn't see her as having a power even until after that. Regardless, what kind of power does she have? Does she "learn" things by watching in general? Or does she have to be watching TV to "learn" things? And wasn't it convenient that the burger joint she works in has a stripper pole right by the register so she could do her newly learned wrestling move on the perp?

Here's the deal. I'm not really interested in learning more about a bunch of new characters. I want to see more development of the ones that we already know, but so far we've got West (flying nerd), Bob (Mr. Midas), Micah's cousin (couch potato), Molly Walker (okay, technically not new, but we didn't know anything about her last season), Maya and Alejandro (The Wonder Twins), Takezo Kensei (swindling samurai), and based on the preview for next week there are more coming. Personally, I like Kensei and I think he has something to do with the murders. I like Molly when she's not whining about a nightmare. I think I'd be okay if West accidentally flew over an Air Force base and got shot down. I know I can do without Micah's cousin. I like Bob fine and his power is cool. Finally, Maya and Alejandro I'd really be okay with a flash flood at the border just about the time they try to swim across and the two of them could just be swept out to sea with all the rest of the garbage; but darn it, they're crossing into California and there's no river there.

So we missed out on seeing any more of Peter's story because we were watching burger girl do wrestling moves on criminals. Too bad. He's definitely the best this season. We did find out some interesting stuff about the Petrelli family, though. Nathan is not only divorced from his wife, but there is apparently a restraining order against him. How bad did things get before she left? And if they got that bad, then what makes him think that he's ever going back home? Or was he just saying that for the kids? Also, thank goodness he finally shaved. He was looking a little like grizzly Adams in a suit there for a while, and it was definitely not his best appearance.

Also, I am glad that Nathan didn't try to deny his ability to fly when Matt pointed it out. That road would have been a whipping for sure. As it was, we had to listen to Matt vomit his life story to Nathan while they searched for a picture. I was just as bored with it as Nathan was. Later in the episode, we saw Nathan looking at himself in the mirror again and seeing his face burned and scarred as if he were in a nuclear blast. I still can't figure out exactly what's going on there, though. How come he sees that and no one else does? How come he only sees it sometimes?

Angela confessed to a crime that she didn't commit and told Matt to let it go. I thought it was interesting how Matt's partner didn't even question her story. Did Angela make him believe it? Or is he just gullible? Anyway, I think Angela definitely knows what's going on, and I wonder if she is going to prison because she thinks it'll be safer for her.

Matt's not going to give up solving the murders especially not now that he knows his dad is connected and that several of the people in that photo are dead. What I don't understand is why he pushed Molly to help him find his father after she said that he was the man in her nightmares. Or did I misunderstand that? At first I thought that she was just saying that someone in the picture was the man from her nightmares, but when I watched it again it seemed like she was specifically talking about Matt's father. Further, when she went looking for him, he could see her and now he apparently has her trapped in her own mind. It would make a little sense that both Matt and his dad would have similar powers related to the mind. It just doesn't make sense why Matt made her go and look. He's a cop. Surely he has other ways to find his dad than using Molly when Molly has already told him that his dad is the nightmare man.

Meanwhile, "somewhere in Mexico" Maya and Alejandro nearly run over Sylar. Too bad they were paying attention because "thump, thump" could have been the end of that storyline. Anyway, Maya (the ultimate in gullibility) believes every word that comes out of Sylar's mouth (well, I guess he's going by Gabriel this season). Thankfully, her brother seems to be a little more skeptical, but it doesn't seem to do them any good.

Is anyone else wondering how they got Sylar all the way to western Mexico from New York with a gaping sword wound in his chest? The best idea that I have is that somehow Candice managed to get him to the airport using the sewers and then put him on a private jet funded by the company. Once they were in Mexico she set about healing his wounds and helping him recover using some fairly sophisticated gear. Point being, someone spent a good deal of money to keep him alive, transport him, and heal his wounds. Why would they have left him alone with Candice when he's known to feed on "specials"? I'm wondering if he's being tracked or tailed right now so that he can be used by whomever it was that saved his life.

Finally, Claire and West are sneaking around town together and somehow manage to not be seen, and the guy is encouraging Claire to lie to her dad. I'm telling you that he's bad news, and I feel sure that he already knows who Claire's dad is. I'm just not sure whether he's working alone or with someone. Mr. Bennett, on the other hand, doesn't seem to know about West specifically, but he seems convinced that the other person in the picture is a boy that Claire might be seeing. I'm just not clear on whether he thinks that boy is a threat or not.

And Mr. Bennett is going to take a little trip. The Haitian says that there is a lead on the paintings in Odessa. Seems a bit odd that it would be there and a bit coincidental that that's where Mr. Bennett just ran from, but that's what he says. I imagine that Mr. Bennett is not going to tell his family what he's doing, and I wonder if he's going to figure out a way to alter their memories again. Just remember that Mrs. Bennett has been reset so many times that she's already been in the hospital once. She can't take any more memory adjustments.

Kindred

Softball was rained out last night, so I actually got to watch Heroes on a Monday night. Very nice. Highlight below to see what I thought:

Niki and Micah said goodbye to D.L. Apparently, D.L.'s injuries were too severe for him to survive at the end of last season, so his final scene was as a grave marker in some Las Vegas cemetery. Of course, it's also possible that Niki lost control of Jessica and killed him in his sleep one night. Anyway, Micah is now in New Orleans with a relative (how many classic Star Trek actors are going to appear on this show anyway?) that could be his grandmother. She looks pretty scary to me, though, and Leah thinks that it's actually her eyes that Molly is seeing in her dreams.

Niki wants to be cured and has made some sort of deal with the company to make that happen, but she has to do something for them first. I wonder who they want killed. I'll bet that they send her after the Bennetts.

Mohinder is setup in Isaac's old apartment and is continuing to work for the company. He thinks that he's pulling a fast one on them, but I think that they let him in to try and locate the Bennetts. I did enjoy the scene where he comes back to his apartment and Matt pulls a gun on him. They bickered just like a married couple.

Claire is getting closer to the flying kid at school, and I still think that's trouble. At first I thought that he was sent to gain her trust and then use it against her. Now I think that he's just disturbed and he's using her to get back at her dad. There's no doubt that he has issues with the "man in the horn rimmed glasses," and with all the times he's been peeking in her windows, I find it hard to believe that he's never noticed that the man that kidnapped him is Claire's dad. I wonder if he's going to be the one to kill Mr. Bennett.

Speaking of which, the final painting that Mr. Bennett was searching for shows that he is going to die from what appears to be a gunshot wound. It also looked like Claire is going to be a witness and that someone else will be there either hugging Claire or restraining her. We can't really tell from what I saw whether that person is the killer or not. It definitely could be the flying kid or it could be the same person that killed Mr. Nakamura.

With Claire realizing that her dad kidnapped her new boyfriend and Mr. Bennett seeing his death in a painting, I suspect that we'll have a much cooler atmosphere between the two of them in the next few episodes. I just hope that that doesn't necessarily lead to the events of the painting. Remember that not everything Isaac has painted came true despite the fact that someone (I don't recall who) said last night that they had all come true. New York didn't go nuclear, Claire wasn't killed by Sylar, and this painting doesn't have to happen either.

Hiro is getting better. I mean the actor is getting better. Hiro is still a little annoying, but he did seem somewhat more mature in a few of the scenes last night. I really enjoyed the moment when he put Kensei in front of the 90 angry Ronin and left him there. "Exactly how angry are they?" What a great line!

I think it's ironic that Hiro is the only one so far that has the classic superhero double-identity going. He's both Hiro and Kensei to the princess, and I suspect that he's going to figure out over time that he is his own childhood hero. The only thing that I'm still trying to figure out is why he is writing notes to Ando and how did Ando actually get them? Maybe I'm looking too deep into this, but I see two problems with that plan. First, how likely is it that Ando is the first person in 337 years to notice that butt of the sword says "Open this, Ando," and that it contains notes written by Hiro? Second, if Hiro can travel through time and space, when he returns to his time, why wouldn't he just return to Kirby Plaza right about the same time he left? If he didn't do that, how would he know what time to return to?

Anyway, I still don't trust the real Kensei, and I don't think that he is actually going to be the hero that Hiro wants him to be. I feel pretty sure that he is going to end up being a bad guy, and despite Leah's theories about Micah's relatives, I still believe that he is the man Molly sees in her dreams.

I'm about tired of the whole Maya and Alejandro story already. I really hope that we're not three more episodes into the season and they are still "somewhere in Mexico." Of course, last night, we saw Maya use her power intentionally, but she still didn't kill anyone. I guess that was because Alejandro was able to clear things up quickly. The way things happened, though, it seems like it's not just her tears that cause the problem (if it's her tears at all). It seemed like she had to get a little angry or maybe scared to set things off. With them picking up another fugitive, though, I suspect that we'll get some sort of an explanation. He'll be asking questions about what happened back at the jail.

Sylar finally showed back up, too. I really hope that this season doesn't turn into another Sylar's power of the week series, though. We've already done that, and I don't want to do it again. My preference would have been for him to just stay dead, but since that didn't happen, I am interested in figuring out why his powers are gone. Just as the scene opened on the beach, I figured out that the girl was Candice. I guess she lived, and she also revealed that she is the one who saved Sylar. Makes you wonder who she is really working for because it's someone further up the chain than Linderman. Too bad she had to die for Sylar to realize that he can't even collect new powers, but at least now we know what she really looked like. Last season she made an off-hand comment to Micah about being ugly and overweight while she was holding him prisoner, and now we know for sure that that was the real her.

Now, about Peter. The guy has obviously been working out, and he's really enjoying showing that off. How many scenes this season have we seen him without a shirt? How many more are there to come? Maybe the ladies don't mind, but that's getting old for me.

Again, I hope that we don't have to go through another season of Peter trying to figure out how to use his powers. He's too cool for that. I just want him to get everything under control and move on. The bad thing is that it looks like he's about to walk down a criminal path just for fun and because no one can stop him. I hope that he gets that out of his system pretty quickly, though.

The interesting question to me is whether or not those guys were supposed to find him. They were sent to steal some merchandise from that ship and they found Peter instead. Is someone pulling strings and playing him? Or is this just all coincidence? And the company has managed to find and track a large number of "specials" in the past, do they not know where Peter is located? And if they do, then have they or will they notify Angela Petrelli? It seems like they would.

At the end, though, Peter got inked into the clan. My first thought was to question how he could even be tattooed since the wound would heal so fast. That seemed to be answered by the fact that the tattoo disappeared. Interestingly, it appeared to change shape into the "godsend" symbol before it disappeared, though. Why would it do that? Was that just stylistic for the audience? Or is there something in their DNA that's linked to that symbol? Remember that Niki doesn't have a tattoo but Jessica does have one that is also the "godsend" symbol. Is that linked to whatever happened to the tattoo on Peter's arm? I guess we'll just have to keep watching to find out.

Tour of Texas

Every once in a while, Leah and I try to get away for at least one night, and with four kids, that only happens once or twice a year. This past weekend was one of those weekends, and we were planning to be away for two nights. Leah actually was planning to surprise me with a getaway to Austin, but she wanted to put in a round of golf and didn't know where I would want to play, so she ended up having to tell me beforehand so I could set a tee time. Regardless, it was a very nice idea and a sweet gesture to set up a surprise trip.

Since Leah has to work on Sunday mornings, our two nights away were Thursday and Friday. Aunt Sis and a couple of friends of ours would watch the kids and help get them back and forth to school while we were away, and then Aunt Sis planned to take the girls to my mom's Friday night. More on that later.

I took off Thursday and Friday and Leah and I left for Austin Thursday morning. We had a nice, easy drive down and got to our hotel in the mid-afternoon. We were staying at the top of the downtown Hilton. Leah had set us up on the Executive floor with the "Romance Package." Basically, that meant that we had some extra amenities on our floor like breakfast, drinks, and evening appetizers in the lounge, we got free breakfast in bed or a dinner at the restaurant downstairs, and we got chocolate covered strawberries and champagne in our room. It was pretty cool since we had never done anything like that before.

Since our hotel was downtown, we walked around down there a bit Thursday afternoon while we were trying to decide what to do for dinner. Finally, we settled on going to get barbecue on the other side of town. It was really good barbecue, though. We ate at The County Line, which is situated on a hill on the west side of Austin and has a great view from the patio at sunset. So we got a good view and even better food. What a deal!

The next day, we went to play golf. Leah did really well on the few holes that she played, but I think she had more fun driving the cart around and watching me. I played fairly well, but it wasn't the best course I've ever played on. The ground was really hard and the greens were pretty rough. Regardless, it was a well spent four hours.

We had our dinner at the hotel that night, and like most other hotels, the food was just okay. It was nothing compared to The County Line. Afterward, we just went back to our room and, like most other couples with kids dream of doing, enjoyed a television show without screaming kids in the background. We were both pretty worn out after being out in the heat all day at the golf course.

Saturday morning, we got up, checked out of the hotel, and started on journey home with intentions of shopping at the outlet mall in Roundrock after lunch. As we headed to the mall, we got a call from Aunt Sis. Remember that she had taken the girls to see Mom and was supposed to be headed home at the same time. She was calling to say that they had gotten on the road and had made it all the way to I-20 and a little past Marshall when they stopped at a rest area to rearrange the children. After everyone was situated, they tried to get back on the road, but they couldn't get the van to start.

We arranged for Mom to pick up Aunt Sis and the girls and take them back to her house, Leah and I diverted onto highway 79 and set out across Texas to meet Aunt Sis and the kids at Mom's house, and Jeffrey was alerted to meet us at the rest area later that evening to see if the two of us could get the van going. Six hours and one stop at Wal-Mart later (I didn't have a car charger for my phone) we finally arrived at Mom's. The plan, at that point, was for Leah and the girls to take me back to the rest area where Jeffrey would meet me, Leah and Aunt Sis would head home with the girls so they could be at church the next morning, and Jeffrey and I would figure out something to do with the van.

It was about 10pm by the time Leah headed for home, and Jeffrey and I couldn't get the van to do anything. The two of us just went back to his new house in Bossier to rest and regroup before trying to tackle the next problem: how to get the van fixed or back to Sachse. My idea was to rent a car trailer and truck from U-Haul and just tow the car back to Sachse on a one-way rental. U-Haul had a slightly different plan.

I went into the U-Haul place by Jeffrey's house early Sunday morning and told them the plan. They said that they couldn't rent me the car dolly (two wheels up) because a Windstar is too wide for that. I would have to rent the full car trailer (four wheels up). Further, they said that they couldn't rent me an F-150 because it wouldn't be able to pull a Windstar. As a matter of fact, they said that the smallest thing that they could rent me that would pull it was a 14 foot moving van.

We went down that road a little way until I figured out that I was going to have to pay for two days of rental time to do a one-way deal, and they had no way to make it just one day. Ridiculous. I didn't want to pay for more than double the time that I needed and the total cost for that whole deal was going to be about $400. Of course, that was still less expensive than trying to get a wrecker to take it to Dallas, and it would be more convenient than waiting in Marhsall for someone to fix it on Monday. Regardless, I figured that there still had to be a better way.

As it turned out, while I was explaining the situation to Leah, a man at our church overheard the conversation and offered to bring his F-250 to me and pull the van home. All we needed to do was get the trailer. Well, the U-Haul lady where I was said that an F-250 couldn't pull it either. Jeffrey and I just laughed at her and informed her that either the computer was wrong or she was reading it wrong because an F-250 wouldn't even know it was back there. No big deal, though, because we weren't going to rent the trailer from her anyway.

I got Leah to rent a trailer from a U-Haul place in McKinney on an in-town deal so we wouldn't have to pay for two days, and our friend Don brought the trailer to me behind his F-250. Now, there was only one problem left to solve. We needed a way to get the van on the trailer. Since it wasn't running, we couldn't drive it up there, and there is no way that three guys would be able to push it up there. I had already asked the U-Haul lady that I had been talking to if we could get a trailer with a winch on it, and she said that U-Haul didn't have anything like that at all. I guess they figure that people only ever put cars that are running on trailers.

Thankfully, Jeffrey knows a guy in Bossier that had a come-along and some chain we could use. Problem solved. All we had to do at that point was wait for Don to get to Marshall. Once he got there, we hooked everything up and pulled the van up on the trailer. Of course, that took some time. The come-along didn't move very far on each turn and we had to reset it and do it again a couple of times to get the van all the way up, but we finally made it, and Don and I were on the road to Sachse.

Once we got around my house, I directed Don to the mechanics, and we dumped the van in the parking lot for them to look at today. Getting if off of that trailer sure was easier that putting it on. We just had to push a little and she rolled right off. Now, the mechanics are working on it, and they just called to report that that offending part is a fuel pump sensor. Of course, it's only a couple of hundred dollars for a part that's probably smaller than my little toe, but isn't that always the way it goes with car repairs?

So after all of that my four hour trip home from Austin ended up taking closer to thirty. I am so glad to be home!

Lizards

Monday night softball games are killing me. I hate having to post these a day late. Oh well, softball only lasts until November, but then again, there's always the spring season. I guess I'll have to tell the league that my team can't play on Monday nights in the spring because of Heroes. I did finally get to see the latest episode, though. Highlight below to read my thoughts:

Peter is AWESOME! The whole learning his powers again deal is going to get hold fast, though, so I hope that they don't drag his storyline out too long. The way that he handled the guys in the bar, though, was sweet. Apparently, he picked up all of Sylar's powers when they met at the end of last season, too, because he was moving things (people) with just a wave of his hand. The Irishmen seem to have not figured out that they were actually sent to find Peter, but I think that they know more than we think at this point. I mean where did the box come from? Someone wants them to know about him and to use him, and I think they're playing him to see just how powerful he really is.

Hiro is still fun and has his great moments. I love the "Battle of Twelve Swords." Very cool move, but when is he going to figure out that he can't keep jacking with history. That's what got terrorist Hiro into trouble in the future last season. Of course, I'm still waiting on him to mature into a similar character to the terrorist Hiro and get away from sounding so whiny all the time.

The cool deal is that Kensei is one of them. I theorized last week that Molly is seeing Kensei in her dreams, and I think that is still true. Now that we know he can heal, then we have to wonder if he can die. Or at the very least, it would make sense that his healing power would give him extraordinarily long life. So he could still be around haunting Molly's dreams. Additionally, I'm going to refine my theory and say that the reason she only sees his eyes is because he's wearing a samurai mask. I don't remember who gave me that idea, but I like it and if you're reading: thanks!

How does the symbol play into all of this? Kensei is supposed to go and rescue the sword maker, and the symbol is on his daughter's sword. Is the sword maker one of them also? Or does Kensei just adopt the symbol over time? And how does that symbol end up tattooed on Nikki/Jessica's shoulder? Was she engineered?

Speaking of being engineered, I still think that Mohinder was genetically engineered to be the cure for his sister's disease. I theorized on that last season, and I still believe that it is true. I just wish that we knew more about the disease, what it does, and how it spreads. Interestingly, when talking to Mohinder, the company agent indicated that he already knew that Mohinder is the key and that he had saved Molly. If he knows that, then I'm still thinking that there is a disconnect between last season and this with the whole Mohinder working for the company angle.

Matt is investigating Nakamura's death and he's met up with Nathan and Angela Petrelli again. I loved the scene where Angela screamed at him to get out of her head, but his line of questioning (based solely on what he's reading in her head) is going to generate suspicion with his superiors. He needs to keep that in check. But what in the world was after Angela in the interrogation room? Was is the man that Molly sees in her dreams? Was it the same person that killed Nakamura? At first I thought it might be the same and that Nakamura might have been alone and just believed that he was being pushed, but remember that Ando saw two people. When Matt and Nathan saw Angela they didn't see anyone else, so this attack was definitely different, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it was a different person doing it.

I did like seeing Nathan step up to save his mother instead of just wallowing around in self pity like last week. Maybe over the course of the season he'll regrow his backbone and help out. I would imagine that reuniting him with Peter is all he really needs to get going.

I was very happy to see the Haitian return and I loved the way that they shot the scene of him leaving and Mohinder not even remembering where he was. That was classic. And now he's hooked back up with Mr. Bennett. That could go two different ways. Either they are going to work together to help everyone (and they will make a formidable team) or they are going to slip back into old habits and it's going to stir up controversy. I'm betting on a little of the latter.

Also south of the border, Maya and Alejandro are still trying to get to America. Finally, we got to see a little of her power, though. My guess is that she can't cry. When she cries, that greasy junk comes out of her eyes and kills everyone around except Alejandro. Alejandro appears to have the other half of the power (which makes sense since they are twins) and he can absorb the bad junk and clear it out. He kind of reminded me of Michael Clark Duncan's character in The Green Mile. It makes me wonder if he could do the same with someone else or if his power only works on Maya. The thing that I still don't understand, though, is exactly what happens to cause death. The lady that was crossing the river with them didn't die. She just passed out or something. Did she come back because of Alejandro? Or did Maya just not get far enough gone to kill her?

Finally, Claire. We know for sure this week that Mrs. Bennett remembers what happened and that she knows about Claire's powers. I assume that that means that Lyle also knows and remembers. Claire's just pushing a little too hard to let her secret out, though. She flirting with danger and she's bound to run into some. I hope that this season doesn't all revolve around saving her again, though. That would be bad. I did love it when she cut off her toe, though, and it grew back. Not only was it cool special effects, but it tells us a little more about her abilities. Now, I just can't figure out why she never looked up when Mr. Muggles was about to have a caniption about getting something that was above him. And what's going to happen to the toe that she cut off? I wonder if that's going to turn up somewhere that it shouldn't and be used against her. I'm still suspicious of the flying kid, so I expect that he'll swipe it and take it to his masters while continuing to try and woo Claire.

HoneyDo

Nearly every husband in the world has a HoneyDo list somewhere that they are constantly working on, and nearly every one of those lists contains a line item that reads something like "Kill Bugs!" It doesn't matter if you actually have bugs in your house or not. If you do, then it means to kill the ones that are there and don't let any new ones in. If you don't, then it means to kill the bugs outside so they can't get ever get in. Either way it's the man's mission.

Some men approach this as the CEO of their home. They hire the lowest bidding pest control company they can find in the yellow pages, or at least the first pest control company that they find. Other men approach this as the General Manager of their homes. They head down to the Home Depot or some other pest supply store and find all of the traps and pesticides necessary to do a good job and create a virtual barrier to the outside world of six-legged critters. Virtual red tape you could say. Finally, the last few men left approach this more like the Temp Receptionist for the day and just do what it takes for now because no one worries about tomorrow until its tomorrow.

This last group might make some dramatic display with a shoe as they squish the one bug that they saw today not ever considering the others that might be hiding in the dark, they might take a deft swipe with a fly swatter at the flying insects as if they were practicing for their next round of racquetball, or they might set their house on fire. Because not only is fire a dramatic way to end a bug's life, it also has a tendency to get into those hard to reach corners where the little critters like to hide.

There are definitely some major drawbacks to the fire approach: water damage from trying to extinguish the flames, smoke inhalation, possible death, potential arson charges, and of course, fire damage. None of these are to be taken lightly, but if you've tried everything else and you just can't get rid of those bugs then I would suggest a small wad of newspaper carefully placed between the rafters and a safety match or small lighter (strike anywhere matches are far too dangerous; we're not trying to set the house on fire). Insects hate smoke so they'll either suffocate or flee. Just be sure to put the fire out before your house actually does catch on fire unless you want to end up like this guy:

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/14250002/detail.html?rss=dfw&psp=nationalnews

Thankfully, the assistant Greensboro Fire Chief has said, "We certainly do not advocate the burning out of these insects, although it may work." Tell me that's not an invitation for someone else to try. So the next time my wife asks me to get rid of the bugs, I'm sure she'll here me, at some point, say, "Don't worry dear, the assistant Greensboro Fire Chief says that this may work, and who would know better than a fireman?"