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Of the three Twilight movies, Eclipse is the best one. However, in the scheme of things, that’s not saying much. My girlfriend swears it’s because I “Haven’t read the books” and in all fairness, she may be right. But why make a movie if you “have to read the book” before you “see the movie”? You should be able to make a movie that is entertaining and goes somewhere. But my biggest issue is character development.

Edward, Bella and Jacob are boring as they brood over each other. Edward is cold (he is the undead) and Jacob is warm in his wooly wolf buff body and both have the teens and some adult females swooning over them and I get it. What I don’t get is whatever do they see in Bella? My girlfriend spent thirty minutes telling me why Bella was so intriguing to these two guys. I finally got it after what she told me but that didn’t come across in the movies at all. If I don’t care about the characters then I don’t really care about the movie. But since I do have a Twilight lover as a lover, I can’t wait for the fourth and final movie in the series. If for no other reason, so she can explain to me the rest of the story.

Visiting Nashville, TN last week was a treat! I had the chance to go see some of the damage done by the recent flood but more importantly had the opportunity to see first hand all the wonderful things the people of Nashville are doing to help those that were impacted get back on their feet. It was a joy to see.

One thing that really surprised me was the restaurants we ate at; they were magnificent! I have to admit that I went to one of them more than once and want to put a word in for anyone visiting in the future; you must go eat at the Silly Goose in East Nashville! I was amazed at the flavors of the sandwiches and thought I would die for the homemade ice cream. I don’t know how the chef comes up with these flavors but they are truly magnificent! The friends that took me there live in the area and eat at the Silly Goose several times a month and they were telling me about the Honey Beet ice cream and the Peanut Butter and Jelly ice cream just to name a few. I had the Chocolate with Salt and Cracked Pepper which was a wonderful finish to a great meal. I highly recommend it!

Everyone knows that the newest James Bond movies have not exactly been at the level that the other James Bond movies of the past have been. Plenty of people like to blame the new actor Daniel Craig for the decline but I do not think that the acting is the problem.

I have seen Daniel Craig in other movies that I have enjoyed. I usually really enjoy his characters. Daniel Craig always looks and acts so cool that you would think he would make a perfect James Bond. I do not think his performance as the super spy was that bad. I think that the script and story line that he was supplied with is the real problem. If they had been up to par with the rest of the Bond movies then people would not have criticized Craig.

On top of that, perhaps the 007 movies need to end. There are more twenty different Bond movies and they have been being made since Sean Connery was a young actor. He was, after all, an early 007. It is just time for the Bond movies to go.

I recently realized just how valuable Facebook is. I always thought that it is just another way to communicate with your immediate family and friends. In my opinion, it was just an alternative to calling them on the phone, texting them, or emailing them but can be used for so much more than that. It hit me when I received an invitation to a party on Facebook. Normally it would not have bothered me but for some reason this one did. It got me thinking about how, with the use of Facebook and other online network websites, we would never have to use the US Post mail for invitations. The fact that the post office is having so many financial problems today would have been unheard of just 10 to 15 years ago. It’s not so crazy to think with networks like Facebook that even email may one day not be needed anymore.

After all I already use Facebook to reconnect with old college and high school friends that I have lost touch with over the years; keep in contact with my parents and siblings and; also use for some of my closest business relationships. My wife has several hobbies she follows and gets tips and tricks with on Facebook so I can see a time when we are relying must more on these types of services.

Every year about this time my son asks me what my favorite Christmas gift was and this year it came from a very unfamiliar place; my mother-in-law. That’s not to say that my mother-in-law gives lousy gifts; it’s that she hardly ever gives me a gift at all, which is okay since she concentrates on my wife and the kids. So knowing that, I was really surprised to open a small package to find a book called, “I Didn’t Know That – Why We Say the Things We Say” Volume 1, a fun little book written by Karlen Evins.

Ms. Evins has done the research into many of our favorite little sayings such as “Lame Duck”, “No Bones About It” and many more. I like books that give me a good deal of information in a compact space so I can get the information without having to read a lot of fluff. The author has certainly done it with this book and I highly recommend it for either a quick, fun read or to have handy when you just have a minute or two of time to kill. It will enlighten you about some of your vocabulary an entice you to buy Volume II and other books written by Karlen Evins. I just hope my mother-in-law is reading this for next year.

Liz Davis with Liz Davis Homes is someone who takes care of aging people during some of the hardest times in their lives. We all think that retirement brings with it rest and relaxation but sometimes what people get is stress and worry and this is exactly what owning a home after thirteen years has become for two elderly sisters. Several years ago they made a mistake and somehow got one payment behind on their mortgage. Though they thought they were paying on time every month; they were actually behind a payment and had racked up almost fifteen hundred dollars in late fees.

Add to that the fact that a heating and air conditioning company had come out to look at their heating and air unit and had disconnected the electricity and left them with no air conditioning this past summer as they did not have the money to fix it. After talking it over with their children, they decided to sell their home so they both left the house and moved into other facilities that could cater to their needs. This meant that the house needed to be sold very quickly because they could not afford to pay rent and the mortgage. Liz walked them through the process and sold the home within a month! Well done. They both walked off from the property with money that can help them live a better life without the stress and worry.

I’m the kind of guy that likes to read maps. I like to plan were I am going and know exactly which route I am taking to get there so the thought of this voice from nowhere telling me how to get to where I am going has never appealed to me. I have always gone to one of my many maps and figured out which way I want to go and then took off. However, on a recent trip, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to borrow his GPS to just try it since I was going to a town I don’t frequent and going to some areas I have never been. After thinking about it I decided I would try it.

At first the lady in the box drove me a little bit crazy and I quickly realized it was because I was taking a route she could not have understood; going to the bank and the post office before actually leaving on the trip. The recalculating when you don’t go her way can be annoying but once I got to the town I was not familiar with, I was very impressed with the directions and the way you can see where you are in relation to where you are going. Using this GPS was a lot easier than having to go to a map. I will definitely consider purchasing a GPS the next time I travel to a place I don’t know.

If you weren’t raised in the South, there are a few things that are just unexplainable to those from the outside…. one of those things is Sweet Tea! I do not know why McDonald’s decided to pick that one up, but thank goodness! Yum…. I don’t remember how many years back when the chain decided on unveiling this super sugary drink as a beverage option, but it began in the south and took years to begin infiltrating some of the blue states – and yeah I live in one. I waited patiently and hallelujah the day arrived!

Holla for sweet tea for a dolla! At limited McD’s… two of them being down the street from me! Man I can’t get enough… so thirst quenching on a hot sizzling summer day in LA. It’s cheaper than slurpee right now. There’s something comforting about this drink. Must be my permanently embedded association with sweet tea and the great belly busting food of the South… fried oakra, bbq brisket, grilled corn, hush puppies, pretty much anything gold brown and presented with some sort of savory sauce. The floodgates have been opened… if sweet tea is here I have hope the others are following right behind the leader.

Jane Austen has totally ruined my life. I grew up watching every form of Pride & Prejudice starting as far back as the Lawrence Olivier version up to the Bollywood try, as well as reading the book and the Bridget Jones’s series. I always had a love for the period pieces and the British accents. I’m obsessed and doomed because I am very skeptical of finding my Mr. Darcy. I’m totally a Lizzy and proud and stubborn… she must have been a Taurus. Getting wisped away in this fairytale since I was about 9 and living in Hollywood just sounds like an equation for hopeless love.

Please let there be hope for me. As the clock keeps ticking and everyone around me seems to stay young I’m waiting for that guy that can hold his own against me. Apparently I am very intimidating and I scare guys off. Well until then, I must restrain myself from putting in the BBC miniseries. Colin Firth is so dreamy. Maybe I need to spend some time obsessing over Persuasion or Mansfield Park; I need to give the other novels some of my time. Chances are I will find some dreamy qualities of a fantasy man there too.

It’s been about five years ago that I reached down to pick up a towel off the floor and stayed in that position for longer than I thought imaginable. I have gone through several physical therapy treatments and chiropractors since then as well as a daily exercise routine that I do religiously twice a day and as much yoga as I can stand at one time. Slowly, I have gotten better over time but it has taken work, some pain medication and patience. So this spring when my hip started hurting as well, I just wanted to throw in the towel.

I was expressing my frustration to a friend of mine and he recommended a chiropractor in our neighborhood that I had never heard of. My friend told me he was different from anyone he had seen before and was helped when he was giving up. What did I have to lose; so I went to see Dr. John Olsen. It was a very small chiropractic office but I got very big results for my hip and back. Dr. John is a quite man on a mission to help those in pain manage their pain and live a great life. It didn’t happen overnight and he said it wouldn’t but day by day and week by week, I got better results than I have ever gotten before. I didn’t need a Dr. with the latest technology or machines; I needed a chiropractor who cared enough to listen to my body and interpret what it was saying. Thanks you Dr. John!