New Character to Appear on Lost

Not much on this one, but some news it better than no news.

A new character will appear on "Lost" this fall. Emeka is the name of the newbie to the island, and ABC says that the reason he is there and what he wants will be revealed early on in the season.

Season two of "Lost" begins on September 21.

Like I said, better than nothing...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I just finished reading the last page. What a masterpiece!!! I can't wait to read it again. J.K. Rowling has nailed it this time with her storytelling!!!

I am not going to tell you too much about the book in fear of giving too much away. No spoilers here! You just need to read it. Harry, Ron, Hermione and all the gang are back for another year of adventure at Hogwart's. Malfoy is up to no good, worse than usual. And way in over his head. Has Draco become a Death Eater in the wake of his father's incarceration? Read the book and find out.

The only two things I will tell you are that we find out who the mysterious "Half-Blood Prince" is and what part he plays in our tale. The other is that a regular character dies in this one, killed by a treacherous follower of Lord Voldemort. I have already heard grumblings about how people don't like Rowling killing off this character. Personally, I think it was a necessary evil to progress the story. Sure I wept when this person was killed, but it needed to be done.

Excellent book. If you haven't read it yet, read it. If you have never read any of the Harry Potter series, do it. The first book isn't that good because it was "Americanized" for us, but from the second book on Rowling's writing just gets better. We witness the characters as they grow up and as the story darkens due to the threat of impending doom because of the overwhelming evil that is Lord Voldemort.

Hold on, the seventh and perhaps final book in the Harry Potter series is going to be a thrill ride.

And not to be missed.

Still Here

Life has been extremely hectic for the last six weeks. Everytime I think I have a minute to sit down and rant wildly, something comes up.

I am going on a little mini-vacation starting tomorrow afternoon. Back to Peaks-Kenny for a weekend of camping. I've got the guitar, dry wood, the new Harry Potter book, and stuff for tasty hot smores!!!!!

I just had another doctor's appointment for my diabetes. I have lost a total of 38lbs and have gotten my A1C down to 6.9. The goal was to drop it below 7.0. So since March 16th I have gone from a 9.0 on the scale (which is REALLY BAD) down to a 6.9. I am the talk of the doctor's office. I now don't have to go back for another appointment for six months.

Now I just have to keep this up for the rest of my life.

We also have a new addition to the family that is keeping us busy. No, not a new baby. We have a 10 week old kitten named Tut.

Miller Welding Orange County Chopper

The Miller Bike was on display at a local welding shop. I went over to get some pix and oogle at the bike. You can see pro photos of the bike at OCCs website, but I thought it would be fun to have some of my own.

Could the NHL Lockout really be over?

Apparently, the NHL and the Players' Union have come to an agreement in principle, and should be voted into place next week.

Here are a couple of big things from the agreement.

The expected salary cap likely will have a ceiling of $39 million and a minimum around $22 million.

Player salaries will not exceed 54 percent of league-wide revenues, expected to be around $1.8 billion. Players will also put money into escrow, and after each season that will be used to balance out the set percentage based on actual revenues.

We'll see how that all works out. The players can't be happy about the salary cap situation, even though I think it is a great idea.

The big test though is if fans come back to the sport. The NHL was hemorraging money before the lockout and had a pathetic number of viewers for the televised games. I personally can't wait for the puck to hit the ice, but that is purely out of love of the game.

I stuck with them during the first strike and I'll watch come fall.

But many won't.

Fantastic Four at Spotlight Cinemas

I plan on going to see the Fantastic Four tomorrow. I hope I'm not disappointed. When I was a young lad of 8 or 10 I bought my first FF comic and I was hooked. This movie could be a complete bomb.

Nothing against Michael Chiklis, but the Thing looks horried. They should of went motion capture and green screened Ben Grimm like they did for Gollum and the Hulk. We'll see how it goes.

As my friend Peter has said, no more Hoyt's (it's actually Northeast Theaters, but Hoyt's is how it started out and is what we have always called it) for me. The last box office hike has put the nail in the proverbial coffin.

I am going to drive the extra couple of miles up Stillwater Avernue and go to Spotlight Cinemas.

River City Cinemas

I just got back from viewing the Marx Brothers', "A Night at the Opera" downtown at Pickering Square. There had to be between 300 and 400 people there to see the film. It was a lot of fun.

River City Cinema is putting on films free to the public over the next six weeks. This summer's theme is "Smiles on a Summer Night".

Upcoming films include, "Modern Times", "His Girl Friday", "The Trouble with Harry", "Sleepers" and "Young Frankenstein".

If you are looking for something out of the ordinary to do, grab a lawn chair and head for downtown Bangor.

The movies start at about Sundown.

Peaks-Kenny State Park

Hopefully, this is the first in a series as my wife and I travel around the beautiful state of Maine.

Over the Fourth we spent several days at Peaks-Kenny State Park. Peaks is located in Dover-Foxcroft, which is about 45 minutes from Bangor up Route 15. It's a straight shot, so you can't get lost. Once in Dover there are plenty
of signs to point you to the park.










Here is the park entrace road. Plenty of opportunities here to see Deer as you are driving in or out of the park. Pretty much the only thing here is wildlife and trees. If you are heavily dependant on civilization, maybe not the place for you.














The campsites are very nice. The park crew goes in after a site is vacated and rakes it, smoothing it out for the next camper.

Inevitably when my wife and I go camping it rains, and this weekend was no exception. We erected this tarp to keep everyone dry. Always take extra tarps with you when you camp. You never know when you are going to need one.




Hint. If you see someone leaves the campsite next to you (obviously after they have packed up and there is no doubt their camping experience is over) and they leave some wood behind, grab it! The rangers will take it back to the station and then charge someone else the $4.oo for an armload of wood that has already been paid for.



Lovely nature shot taken by my wife while she and the girls were at the beach one afternoon.














My one and only shot at communing with nature...













Any camping trip (or any other trip for that matter) is not complete with a voyage in from the wilderness to get an ice cream at Butterfield's. Tons of homemade flavors to choose from. There is even something there for the health conscious.






Here is a shot of the beach. During the day there is a life guard on duty. You can get into just the beach area for the day, but it costs $4.00 a person. Obviously if you are camping there is not additional fee.










My feeble attempt at an Ansel Adams type shot. I used my Kodak digital camera set to sepia. This is Sebec Lake. I believe the peak in the background it Borestone. It is about a 45 minute drive to climb Borestone. Plan on making a day out of it. Our group had originally talked about climbing it, but decided we didn't want to spend a whole day. Maybe next time.




This was a very enjoyable trip. If you want a great place to camp, definitely check out Peaks-Kenny.

Blogger Images

I've been trying to get my Peaks-Kenny pics uploaded, but Blogger only seems to accept them from me after a certain time at night. I don't know if this is their busiest time of day (4:00 PM Eastern), but the photos just don't seem to upload.

I'll try to get the Peaks pictures up by this weekend if nothing else.

Sebec Lake

After being away from the computer for so long, I was very excited to see the new feature that Blogger has added. You can now upload images. Nice. Had to give it a test run.

This is a picture of Sebec Lake I took this morning. A nice grassy area leads down into some sand and then a designated swimming area.

Lack of Posting

I want to apologize for my lack of new posts. I started my summer work schedule last week, so I don't have a lot of extra time. Factoring in church, music practice, our new men mentoring men group and friends, this leaves little time for the blog.

We just recently returned from a long weekend at Peaks Kenney State Park in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine on beautiful Sebec Lake.

I hope to have pictures up from our weekend tomorrow.

Hopefully, the goal is to post about the various places that my wife and I go to this summer in our scenic state. This is a lofty goal, but we'll see how it turns out.

Trips planned for this summer include a trip to Greenville to check out Moosehead Lake and a wrecked B-52, a day in the "Downeast" area of our state which includes Eastport, Cutler and Machias, Bird's Acre in Ellsworth, and maybe some pics from our very own beloved Bangor.