Computer is finally back up and running pretty normal after our hard drive crash. I was able to recover a lot of information from our old computer but we did lose some stuff. I learned my lesson - I took one of our old hard drives, got a case for it and now we can use it as a drive to back up information to.

Here is a brief review of some books and movies that I read/watched the past two weeks. I know I have to do a music update as well - it's halfway through the year so I should do my top 10 so far.

MOVIES
Munich - Good but not great
Hoodwinked - Funny - the Schnitzel part alone is worth watching
Pretty Persuasion - OK

BOOKS
The Children on Men by P.D. James - Very good - looking forward to the movie in the fall.
Ptolemy's Gate: Book 3 of the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud - excellent ending to a series - J.K. Rowling, are you taking notes?
To Hate Like This is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittingly Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivaly by Will Blythe - This book was really good even though I have the opposite feelings of the writer. He did an excellent job explaining the crazy things one does when obsessed with a sports team. Definitely a must read for any sports-crazed lunatic.
Bad Twin by Gary Troup - Being a big "Lost" fan I had to read this book. It was really a fast read, kind of entertaining but there are no huge secrets to be gained by reading it.

Took the clubs out today and headed out the links for a round of nine holes. Managed to shoot a 34!!!! Yes, the course was a par 30 but I was still really happy. I had never played this course before - we've driven by a zillion times so I stopped in today. Price was right and I had fun - I hadn't played a par 3 course (well, there were 3 par 4's too) in a while. I love my new irons - if I had putted a little better I probably would have been right around or under par. Putting wasn't bad but I missed 5 birdie putts of under 20 feet.

This is my 100th post for my blog!

Just finished an outstanding book that I would recommend to anyone, sports fan or not. It is called Getting Open : The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball by Tom Graham and Rachel Graham Cody. This is the story of a young man who became the first African American to play basketball in the Big 10 conference, opening the doors to many other athletes. The authors did an excellent job of researching the topic and present everything in a vivid manner. The story is fascinating and inspiring at the same time. Definitely check it out if you have some time.

We saw 4 movies of the past week so let me give you a brief review:

The Island - This one was kind of fun if you can get past the "yeah, right" scenes. Plus, Scarlett Johansen is a very attractive women - who wouldn't want to see her on screen?

Flight Plan - The premise was intriguing but it sort of collapses as the movie progresses. Kind of a disappointment

Match Point - Interesting yet very depressing movie. The twist type ending was good.

X-Men 3 - This movie plain sucked. I mean I've seen movies that sucked before but this was the suckiest bunch of suck that ever sucked.

I just finished a pretty good book. It was written by John Schuerholz, the GM of the Atlanta Braves, called Built to Win. He does a good job of discussing how the Braves have been successful and the philosophy that they've stuck by. He also discussed his time in KC when the Royals were actually a Major League caliber team. I would recommend this book to fans of baseball.

Visions of injured Kirk Gibson hitting a home run to win a World Series game flashed before the spectators eyes yesterday as Brett Lowman, three days off surgery, limped to the start line of the annual Wheaton 5K Run for the Animals. Although he wasn't able to finish in record time, he managed to complete the course in approximately 30 minutes, elicting cheers and tears from the many onlookers. This will no doubt go down in sports history as one of the greatest challenges overcome by an injured athlete, who with pure determintation, was able to finish his goal.

School's done so now it's time to do some real work and get out and find some vintage sports equipment. Yesterday afternoon it was off to Kane County. Not as many dealers as I though there would be but I did pick up three nice gloves and this cool vintage football jersey from the 1920's. All of my purchases cost me a grand total of $40 so it was a very good day. Going to Sports Fest in Rosemont, IL this Friday to see if I can find any good deals.

Last night we watch the movie The Island. It was pretty entertaining. The film definitely wasn't the best thing ever but it went fast and kept me interested. There were some scenes where you just went, "Yeah, right" but it was good enough to garner a recommendation.