So I planted my tomatoes today! I got me 2 Topsy Turvey’s and selected two different varieties of medium sized tomatoes. Don’t ask which ones, I’ve already forgotten. I think a Jersey Red Rutgers and some kind of Celebrity variety, Early Girls or something? We shall see how this goes and I will keep you updated, though as I never grew tomatoes period I don’t have much to compare this too. If it works I’m going to have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. I guess I’ll be making a lot of sauces! I will probably also be giving them away to friends if they want them.

My friend Kaitlyn said I was a dork for doing this, given I’m dating a farmer. John told me I was a goober and that growing tomatoes was highly over-rated. I couldn’t make them see that this was “As Seen On TV Upside Down Tomatoes!” Everyone knows anything you make from an “As Seen On TV” product is always superior. These tomatoes will be redder, juicier and plumper than anyone else’s!

So here are some photos from my trip with some quick descriptions.

Mall of America Coasters

Drag Queens! Lady Boys meet Sailor Moon?

The House on the Rock from afar, and the gardens.

Giant chandelier from the organ room, giant carousel

I found Baby Jesus at the House on the Rock! The Mikado Pipe Organ

The Infinity Room

Creepy Doll Carousel , Creepy Killer Doll (in the back)

So I am typing this as Heidi drives us to Minneapolis for the day and evening. I just wanted to get a quick post up with some updates on my mini-break. Photos soon!

Upon arriving we went to the Mall of America, where we did some shopping and rode some coasters. One of them was impressive for a coaster In a shopping mall!

I broke down and bought some of those Sketchers Shape-Ups. I have had pretty poor shoes lately un terms of support, so I wanna see if these do what they advertise. I just thought they helped your back, but they are supposed to tighten the buttocks and your abs as well. We’ll see!

We spent two days in Wisconsin Dells at the Great Wolfe Lodge water park. It was so empty that we walked onto every waterside and ride. We also did a number of other things like Wizard’s Quest, Magi Quest and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum.

On the way back from the Dells we hit this place called The House on the Rock, a unique house built on an old Indian Rock Shelter by this guy who collected anything and everything. He had guns, cars, armor, dolls and dollhouses, pipe organs and a giant carousel. Very neat place, the dolls were a bit creepy though.

We hit their hometown nightspot Friday night, The Wild Moose. This band Jonah and the Whales was playing. I got a bigger kick out of the two Asian/Malaysian drag queens on the dance floor dresses up like they were some anime super heroes or something.

Tonight we hit Minneapolis. Actually today. We are on our way now. Hoping to see a museum or two, have yummy food, then go dancing.

I’ve had a roller-coaster week and a half let me tell you, one I have not been enjoying either!

Things had begun to look up. I got an email from University M asking if I could teach some classes for then next fall and spring. I thought combined with University R, I might make a decent wage! However University M is a hike, an hour and 20 minute hike! So I was weighing my options, thinking maybe a part time job locally at the pet store would be better. Of course it wouldn’t look as good on my resume.

Well the choice got taken out of my hands, as an issue came up with the class I was to teach at University R in the fall. As it stands it’s in limbo, but the department is trying to make it work. It’s budgetary problems and shuffling stuff, nothing that reflects on me. I’m still scheduled to teach in the spring. However this means possibly no income for fall. Yikes!

I have since interviewed with University M, and officially applied to teach up there. We’ll see how it works out, and maybe they’ll pay well. Keep your fingers crossed!

I may still entertain a part-time job, depending on how things go. If both University’s work out for the fall, then I won’t need to, and I am not going to work over the summer. I really need to use the summer to finalize my giant ass dissertation draft and get the whole monster turned in and over with. I’ve already registered for writing boot camps to get my ass out of the house this summer.

Anyway, all I have to do now is finish grading and turn in my students grades by next Monday. My conferences are over, thank the Baby Jesus. I do however really like this paper I gave, and think it is one of the best I’ve done. I might entertain editing it over the summer and submitting it for publication in some journals. We’ll see. After next week I can finally write full time, not being able to has been stressing me. Between now and then I’m taking a mini-break. I’ll be going to see Heidi, and doing my best to relax. That’s never easy for me. I’m gunna try and get a massage at a place we are going to, I just hope that small asian woman from the cruise isn’t there. She hurt me!

So on Friday I went to see the new version of “Nightmare on Elm Street.” The original has always been one of my favorites, so I was wary. After the suckfest that was the “Clash of the Titans” remake, was I ready for another disappointment? The recent horror film remakes have mostly been disappointments for me, be they remakes of Japanese/Asian films or remakes of classic American films.

This one I feel was MUCH better than some of the recent remakes, such as “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th.” I couldn’t even make it through “Texas Chainsaw” to be honest, it just grated on my nerves and I can’t stand those “back woods killer” horror flicks anyway.

Everyone under the sun knows what this movie is about, and if you don’t you should be slapped on your ass with a wet fish! Rent the original if you haven’t already seen it for sure. I’m not going to spend time recapping the movie. I’m going to steal Sean’s method of movie reviews for this one. So here are 5 for and 5 against for the new “Nightmare,” then my final verdict.

5 For . . .

• Freddy is a child molester rather than killer in this one, which works in this day and age (as opposed to the “Adam Walsh” period of the 80s). They give a good back story without the snore fest that Rob Zombie dragged out far too long in his remake of “Halloween.”
• There are several jump out of your seat moments in this one. Yes even I got got!
• The acting, for the most part, is top notch. Of course they did use the usual “let’s cast adults as high schoolers” approach.
• There is a fairly good twist in the movie as well, which I won’t give away. Bravo for actually doing something new that works!
• It really is one of the best remakes of a horror film to come along. Not perfect, but not too bad.

5 Against . . .

• They changed one of the best lines of the movie “This Is God!” and made it bland and dull.
• The story was out of whack in comparison to the original. I found myself saying one too many times “this is supposed to happen later!” or “this happened to a different character in the original!” It’s not that it didn’t work, it just felt like they were picking the most memorable scenes to reuse but wanted to try and do them differently.
• The new Freddy look, while looking more realistically like a burn victim, just wasn’t as scary. The sense of dread also wasn’t there, just a lot of seat jump scare tactics.
• Nobody can replace Robert Englund in this role. You can’t help but just feel something or someone is missing from the movie. That would be Robert.
• The new Nancy was atrocious. I mean nothing likable, I really loathed her. Not only was she the school outcast, she was some bohemian hippy painter and WEAK. The original Nancy was strong and took on Freddy on her own. In this one she had to have her boyfriend help her figure out half the mystery as well as help her fight Freddy.

If you love horror movies, I’d give this a see it. If you are a purest and every little change will annoy you, wait to rent it. I’m sure it will be on DVD within 2 months.