It's been a while since I mentioned zombies

Zombie Hello Kitty Cake! Ain't that somethin'?

Here's a link to pictures of its creation.

Are you flippin' kidding me?

I went to the Wellfleet movie theater to see "Gran Torino" with my buddy Lou this evening. We both thought the movie was great ... and then the fire alarm went off in the theater ... film off, lights on, annoying alarm ... all four movie theaters in the building had to evacuate.

They gave us passes for a future movie (good for a year), but neither of us really wants to sit through the good portion of the movie (about an hour & a quarter) that we've already seen. We're thinking we might end up using the passes to see another movie, but get to the theater early and sneak in to catch the last half hour or so of "Gran Torino".

Anyway ... it looked to be a really good movie. Good performances, good writing. Just wondering how the freakin' thing ends!

Girl Scout Cookies

I bought a box of Girl Scout Cookies from some scouts who had a table setup at the grocery store the other day and was handed this along with the box of cookies and my change:


I never got a thank you note with my cookies before ... I thought it was a nice touch.

Surfin' Word

So ... here's a little idea, I'm hoping it catches on ...

For the blogger version of my blog (http://valetconfidential.blogspot.com/, as opposed to the MySpace or Facebook copies of the same blog), I have the commenting setup so that you have to enter a "word verification" in order to comment. I've noticed that here at blogger, the words are usually nonsense combos of letters. Either that, or my Word Power is a whole lot worse than I thought it was, anyway.

So ... my idea is that whenever we comment on a blog and enter one of these confirmation words, also add the word to the text of your comment. If you want to try and come up for a definition of the word, too, that would be a great extra bonus.

Just an idea ...

Speaking of being 'bout stinkin' time ...

Yet another way over-due appreciation of one of the greats is the announcement that Wanda Jackson has been elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I got to see Wanda play 12 or so years ago on a tour she did with Rosie Flores for Rosie's album "Rockabilly Flores". Wanda is still singing these days, belting out her old hits.

















Wanda's one of the true great voices of real Rock & Roll - it's great to see her finally recognized for it by the Hall of Fame. It's a semi-dubious recognition, given that their definition of "Rock & Roll" has turned into "post-Elvis dance pop" ... it includes heavy metal, funk, disco, etc ... this year's other inductees are Jeff Beck, Chic, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Metalicca, Run-DMC, The Stooges, War, and Bobby Womack. All of which had their impact on the music scene, certainly, but I sure wouldn't call some of 'em "rock & roll". That argument aside, every once in a while they do the right thing and give props to someone who truly deserves it and isn't so well known by modern music fans.

Let's Have a Party!

Who are You (who who? who who?)

According to Lady Trout, it's National Delurking Day!

I had forgotten/didn't know; I better hurry and break out the Delurking deocrations, play traditional Delurking games, and listen to all of my favorite Delurking music.

I know I have a few regular readers - via Google Analytics I know there are a fairly good number of regular hits to blogspot version of the blog - plus at this time there are 4 subscribers to the blogspot version of my blog, and 6 to the MySpace copy of it.

So, if you are one of my anonymous readers, please feel free to comment here and say "hi" - or not, if you prefer to remain anonymous. If you don't feel like commenting but want me know who you are, you can send me email!

Anyway, thanks for reading this, folks.

And remember, just 365 shopping days until next Delurking Day ...

'bout stinkin' time!

Just heard that Jim Rice was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his last year of eligibility. I'm so glad he finally got in.


There are a few baseball games I remember fairly clearly, here's an example of one that sticks in my memory purely because of Jim Rice.

My first game at Fenway Park was in the fall of 1980. I went with some MIT fraternity and a group of freshman during MIT's "rush week". We sat way in the back of the bleachers section, on honest-to-goodness real bleachers, if I remember correctly (I think that was the last year of real bleachers in the bleachers section at Fenway). I think we were just underneath the front of the centerfield video scoreboard (back then it was still black & white, and if you were looking straight up at it, it was basically unwatchable). The Red Sox were playing the Billy Martin-managed Oakland A's (this was the height of "Billyball"). The Sox were down in the 9th inning and Jim Rice hit a home run to start a game-tying rally, then another home run in the 10th to win the game.

Here's a box score of the game.

That second home run was one of the longest I've ever seen hit at Fenway. The back of the centerfield bleachers is FAR away from home plate, and I swear it landed just a few rows in front of where I was sitting.

Congrats, Jim-Ed! You deserve it.

Oh, and congrats to Rickey "Hot Dog" Henderson, too - no doubt he deserves it, too. Hell, I half expect him to come out of retirement and play in the majors again after being elected to the Hall of Fame.