The Jack Noodle Journal

Day number 6 here at puppy central. We are doing just fine. A little sleepy around here though. Phillip has his sweater on this morning because it’s a little chilly. It should warm up later today I hope.

Boy oh boy. Did you all see the helicopter crash on Mount Hood? Wasn’t that crazy? They went up to go rescue 9 mountain climbers that fell into a crevasse and crashed the helicopter into the side of the mountain. Horrible. 3 mountain climbers died and several people, including the ones in the helicopter were injured. It was all happening live on the news. I was watching the rescue attempt and turned the TV off, I’m sure minutes before the crash, because I was bored with it. The replay of the crash I saw later in the day looked like something cooked up for an action movie. The propellers went everywhere.

Well my friends here it is: The Jack Noodle Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones review! Yes I forced K and myself away from the puppy long enough to see the movie.

People… thumbs up. I thought it was PRETTY good. I’m actually one of the Star Wars fans that didn’t mind Episode 1, and I think that Episode 2 was better than that. Boy it was a beautiful picture. The whole screen was just filled with all kinds of movement through out the movie. The effects were spectacular. Some of the time though I did feel a little annoyed that I was basically watching a cartoon. The computer effects they tried to hide though, like the scenery, were perfect.

There were a few scenes I thought they could have expanded on a bit more and some they could have cut down a bit. Oh man, one scene, Anakin gets really, really pissed and it looks like we’re going to see some serious Darth action when it cuts to a different scene!! I groaned! Man that scene would have been sweet! He refers back to what he did later in the movie, but that hardly has the impact. I thought the first half of the movie with the love story stuff was a bit slow, but man the second half of the movie was a real kick in the pants. WOO HOO! Excellent light saber battles.

I’m going to have to see it again soon. The first time through these last two Star Wars movies I have been so nervous and anxious that I have a hard time relaxing and enjoying the movie. I feel pretty comfortable around the 3rd time going and seem to catch all the stuff I missed the first two times. It’s fun seeing the next chapter and trying to fit it into your own interpretation of the bigger picture.

Oh my goodness! Having a puppy is a lot harder than having a kitten. We’re doing good though and I think we are raising the perfect gentleman. I didn’t sleep very well last night because it was actually the first night that the puppy DIDN’T cry the whole night and I was laying awake thinking that he smothered in his crib sheets. What a ball of fire! I can barely get a spare moment to write in this wonderful journal. I can’t hold him in my lap because the spot is saved for Pierre while I am working in the laboratory. When young Phillip finally falls to sleep this afternoon, I will have to go out and mow the lawn and see if I can get some more work done around the house. He’ll probably love the sound of the lawn mower. Hold on one second…. Gosh he’s just a little tiny baby. We took him to a vet check up yesterday and all the doctors and assistants were just in love with the boy.
Alright Noodle, enough with the puppy talk, let’s get back to business. Hmmm… Okay, well let’s see here.

We saw two more movies over Memorial Day neither one of which were Star Wars. We rented “The Heist”, starring Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito. It was a movie about a gold robbery. It was directed by David Mamet. It was alright. I have seen better Mamet movies like “Homicide” for example. “The Heist” was trying too hard to be a Mamet movie. The second movie we saw was “The Man Who Wasn’t There” I liked that one a bit more. It was written and directed by the Coen Brothers and starred Billy Bob Thornton, and Frances McDormand. The cinematography on that was beautiful. It was kind of a sad, dark story.

Oh boy, that puppy won’t stop whining. Can’t he see I’m working here? Well up on the lap he goes I guess. Sorry Pierre. You can get the spot back in a week or two. See that’s how it starts, give an inch…
No he will be a well mannered dog I swear. K and I will work really hard.

Oh hey today is Wednesday. Time for the Freedom Walk again. This time I’ll need a leash.

Have you guessed it?
K and I got a PUPPY! Can you believe it? The lovely lad’s name is PHILLIP! Woo Hoo! Boy I am tired this morning. He was a little whiney last night. Phillip is a little cutey let me tell you! He’s a 6 week old Boston Terrier. The smartest little puppy you have ever seen. Well what do you think friends in Japan? Alicia and Lori had some sort of bet that a puppy would come to the Noodle house while they were away in Japan. Phillip is great, I can’t wait for him to get a little older though. He looks a little like Yoda. Our first son St. Pierre Caffeine III seems to be doing okay. He seems a little pissed and confused.

Oh my goodness! We watched Donnie Darko last night. Everyone kept telling me to watch it and didn’t believe them for some reason. They were right though! I loved it! Awesome movie. What a great brain teaser. That is one of those movies that you have to watch over and over again so you can figure it all out. The bunny Frank was so creepy good. I loved his voice. I would like to see the DVD of the movie to see if it had any extra stuff on it. We just had the video version last night.

We are going to watch “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion” later today. It was fun going to the video store last night because we haven’t been there in so long and we haven’t seen any movies in a while. We had quite a bit to choose from.

Well today is the BIG day folks! Yes the top secret event is going to go down today! I hope you are all ready to have your World rocked. Everything you thought you may have known about Mr. Noodle will be thrown out the window with one single word… TA DA! Loud thundering music begins, and lightning crashes. Oh please, those of you who don’t know WILL know tomorrow morning when I pull back the curtains here in this lovely journal. Everything will begin to fill up.

I saw Fight Club again on DVD last night. Man that’s a cool flick! I don’t think I am tough enough to take a punch. The DVD was excellent and had some cool behind the scenes stuff. I need to watch it again and listen to the voice over commentary. I hear Ed Norton is really interesting to listen to. I was paying close attention to Brad Pitt’s muscles in the movie, because that is the look of muscles that I am trying to grow. I think I am going to have to do more than 25 push ups a day.

Hey it’s memorial day weekend! Do any of you have any big plans? Not much going on here, well I mean besides today. I think the lovely K and I will just be hanging out and chilling. I hear it’s suppose to start raining again. We might want to get a bike ride in before the floods come.

People, the season finale of Smallville was great! Cliff hangers and everything you would expect from a season ender. K and I are in love with that Superman guy, he is one cute hombre.

I think we might try to go in and see Star Wars today maybe. I might call and have someone come out and fix the furnace though, so that may occupy the prime kids in school movie times. We’ll see. Hold on a second I have got to get some coffee so my sentences make more sense. I’m falling back to sleep here!
There that’s better.

Happy Birthday to my Super Friend G! You are the best. You rule the school. Any fun planned yet for your special day? Maybe you guys should go see Star Wars with us. That would be cool. I don’t want to pay full price for it though so we’ll have to go during economy hours or we’ll have to sneak in without paying.

As soon as I am done with the update here, I am going to add some new tunes to the Transmission. Yes I really, finally am. I got some requests and ideas from the most excellent Martin last night. Our handsome, smart and humorous friend Joel (oh, and strong), gave some powerful suggestions and words of wisdom also. That Joel and I were laughing about how cool it was that he has a friend that works in the graphics department over at Columbia Sportswear, and how great it is that they love Mr. Noodle so much over there.

How in the World was a person suppose to watch all of those great season finales last night? We only have 1 working VCR. Buffy, NYPD Blue, Smallville, 24, and Frasier were all on at the same time! Buffy and NYPD Blue were both 2 hour episodes so that didn’t help. It was like a math problem. I watched the first half of Buffy, recorded Smallville, then watched the first half of NYPD Blue, went to a rock concert and recorded the 2nd half of NYPD Blue. I missed a bit that way but come on it’s just television.

We saw Martin play his drums last night with the lovely Andi Camp at the Blackbird. Good job kids! We showed up a little late due to the whole TV fiasco, so we only saw the last half of their show. The girl who came on after Martin and Andi was a tremendous singer. She really had the pipes! Her name was Danielle Howle and she was from South Carolina. She had a good mix of a country, folk, blues, thing going.

Hey the Presidents Show is still up if any of you want to get down there still. Probably for another week? If you haven’t seen my rendition of James Madison, there is a picture of it now here. There is also a good write up of the show here. They forgot to mention James Madison in the article because I’m even further underground than the Portland Underground artists. I think I’ve said it before here, but once again, Khris Soden did an excellent job organizing that show. I hope I can be involved with his next gig.

Wednesday people! I know you were a bit worried last week with my doom and gloom talk of the “death” of the Freedom Walk, but alas… The Freedom Walk continues! Today will be a beautiful day to get outside and travel amongst the hipsters. Maybe my buddy K, who is sick today, will gather up enough strength to walk with me.

Happy Birthday to the beautiful Lori today! What the heck are we going to do to celebrate your birthday tonight?

Good morning everybody! How are you this lovely rain soaked morn? Me? I am just peachy. Yes our big stack of dirt is getting drenched. Should we cover it with a tarp? Hmmm, I don’t know. It’s going to turn into a solid brick. I shoveled a few more wheel barrel loads full yesterday before the rains came.

I watched the Japanese animation, “Metropolis” on DVD yesterday. It was pretty cool. It had some excellent art Deco designs in it. The art for the city scenes was phenomenal. The buildings and machinery were so cool looking. Some people I guess had a problem with the characters looking too cartoony, like Disney characters. I don’t know, I can see what they’re saying but I kind of thought the traditional looking Manga characters fit with the whole 1920’s futurist look. It was a nice contrast with the realistic looking backgrounds. It got kind of long in the middle story wise I thought. Well worth seeing if you get the chance.

Hey get out those pocket books again and go visit the Noodle Shop. The hot item to purchase this month is the “Jack Noodle is an idiot” coffee mug. I got mine yesterday and it is SO nice. I’m sipping my warm coffee beverage from it right now as I type this.

So I was just wondering out loud to myself if I am ever going to see the new Star Wars movie? Gosh I can’t believe I haven’t seen it yet! The younger Jack would have seen it 5 times by now. Oh well.

Hey there is some wackiness brewing here at the Noodle house. I can’t speak of the details yet but you guys aren’t going to believe how crazy K and I are! More details to come.

Oh my god people! Didn’t the last episode of the X-Files suck? I can’t believe how bad it stunk. I was so angry the whole time it was playing last night. Two hours of pure crap. The acting was laughable. The lines they were reading off the prompters was garbage. Who cares if the smoking man came back? Was that suppose to be a surprise? How can a show that use to be so good turn into such a pile? Man! I’m going to write my congressman and complain. I want those 2 hours of my life back. Shame on the X-Files creators! The truth is out there? Who cares. The Simpsons on the other hand, was pure genius as usual.

The Sun is shining bright this morning! People, believe me this time when I say it, this week is going to be AWESOME. For real this time. I swear… Oh wait, the Sun went behind a cloud… No wait, here it comes again.

K’s studious father, Mr. Baptist, bought her a dump truck full of top soil for her up coming birthday. We have been shoveling dirt all weekend. Man, we are sore! We’ve got some good garden beds now ready for some planting. We spread the dirt around as much as we could but there is still quite a mountain left. I will probably go out and dig in it some more today. We added some dirt to the rock garden also. I don’t think we were watering the rock garden enough, some of our plants have died. They are directly in the Sun most of the day there.

HEY, HEY, HEY. Did you miss me? I’m back baby!
I was mistaken last entry. Phantom Menace came out in 99 which makes the time between, 3 years. That makes my point even more valid though. It’s been 3 years! Time flies! Thanks to Lewis from North Carolina for bringing that error to my attention.

Happy Birthday to the lovely Ms. Rebecca! I’m right behind you with the whole 30 thing. She had an entertaining shin dig in the park and the mandatory drinking afterwords of course. The theme was “street games”. There was hop scotch, jump rope, marbles and other games. The real action was at the 4 square court. Oh my goodness! I thought Eugene was a balls out bike rider, but man you should see Eugene and brother Benny ride. Those kids are nuts together. Speed demons!

Boy it seems like a lot has happened since the last entry. Hmmm I’m sure I’m missing something.

We got to baby sit my nephews on Thursday night. Them are some good kids! I got to play with the elder Noodle and K had the baby Noodle duties. We had so much fun! Elder Noodle ran me ragged. That kid has got some energy! We played in the sandbox. I have much admiration for my brother and wife. I can’t imagine having a baby. I would be a nervous wreck!

No Star Wars here yet. Have you kids seen it? I want to. I want to! I kind of think it is going to be way too crowded this weekend. I may go during school hours next week. Martin saw it and he was ecstatic. It was so funny. He wanted so bad to talk about it, but I covered my ears and went “La! La! La! La! La! La! La! La!”

Hey Star Wars is soon upon us people! I am so excited! Aren’t you? I can’t wait to see more light saber battles. I hear Yoda is going to kick some butt this episode… No wait, don’t tell me. I’m sure some of my associates have already seen the movie and could ruin the whole thing for me. I think I will probably wait a day or two to see it. I do want to see it this weekend. Some of my chums were going to try to get some tickets for the 12 AM showing tomorrow morning, or would that be tonight? Gosh has it already been 2 years? I remember talking to my friend Seth after Phantom Menace, saying how 2 years was too long to wait for the next one.

Well it’s cloudy out there now, but the Sun is suppose to be out later today. Yesterday turned out to be really nice around the afternoon. I let the lawn get a bit taller this time so it could grow in a bit more. I think it will be due for a trim in a day or two.

Wednesday, kids! Best day of the week. Time for the Freedom Walk! I’m sorry to say it people, but this could be the LAST Freedom Walk. No, don’t worry I will still keep the freedom in my heart, but the time of me doing it on the Man’s dime is running out. You know me though I will still keep it real for all the homies. We’ll see. I go find out today if I can still keep the torch lit.