Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Although I’m much more of a “dog lover” this quiz says I have the personality of a cat. Funny thing is, they may be right.
Think you have quick reflexes? You can test them out here. You can see my score above. They say it’s pretty good… so my reflexes must still be fast… that or my RoadRunner has a great connection today.
An article on CNN.com [that is no longer available] brought back a flood of great memories. When I was a kid, mom [and sometimes dad] used to load my brother and sisters up in the car and off to the drive-in we’d go.When I was old enough to drive, drive-ins were still popular. I loved the fact that you could always count on at least a double feature and sometimes you’d get real lucky and there’d be a marathon of sorts. Usually it was monster movies [who doesn’t like those?] or comedies, or even a mismash of genres. I hit the drive-ins [we had two in our town] almost weekly and since we lived in Florida at this point, we could go year round.
It’s said that video killed the radio star. I don’t know about that, but I do know that video killed the drive-in theater. According to some reports, drive-ins have been making a comeback the last few years. I hope that’s true because, man, I miss those days.
If you were trying to guess the country with the highest percentage of Zablo family members [and why you’d want to do that is fodder for another post]; what country would you guess? I would have thought Romania, or Italy. I would have been wrong. It’s actually the United States. But even in the good ole US of A the odds of bumping in to a Zablo are less than one in a million. Way less. According to this site, it’s more like .2 in a million.
So if you ever run in to me or one of my family members think of how lucky you are. It’s like hitting the lottery… without the cash pay off of course.
These 1-Hit-1-ders are just too easy. Don’t believe me, 
I’m on a bit of a roll with a perfect score today. I thought that 
Ah, finally success. A perfect score in the Scary Beginnings quiz.
My unperfect [yeah, I made it up] streak continues with this
Arrrgh! Just missed a perfect score again. 8 out of 9. Knocked out of the Gold Medal slot by Bela Lugosi. Here’s
80% means that I got two wrong. The only way to get one wrong is to use the same answer twice. If you use every answer once and aren’t perfect, the best score possible is 80%. Beat my score [or at least give it a go] by clicking 
So I’m pretty good at figuring out who’s more likely to die. Is that a good thing? Can you beat my score? Click here to give it a shot.
After a late breakfast the family piled into my “Jack Cartermobile” and headed to Orlando to hit some of the shopping outlets. On the way over we got caught in one of the worst storms that I’ve ever driven in. Lighting was striking all around, rain was coming down in washtubs and visibility was nil — then it started to hail! Luckily the storm passed after just a few minutes and we continued on. Years ago, when the outlets were truly discount shops, we’d drive over on a pretty regular basis. Now you really have to get lucky to find a real bargain since most of the shops are tourist traps. Chris and Mike scored a couple of t-shirts and the Queen found some sort of bags that keep fruit and vegetables longer in the “As Seen on TV” store.We decided to go to Planet Hollywood for dinner before Cirque Du Soleil. The Orlando Planet Hollywood has always been my favorite due to it’s location and unusual design. We hadn’t been there in a few years, so we were all looking forward to it. I’m happy to say that none of us were disappointed. The menu has been updated a bit, but we were still able to get our “Cap’N Crunch” chicken appetizer [they call it something else, but that’s what it is] and it was as tasty as we remembered. Dinner was even better. Mike and I opted for BBQ bacon burgers, Chris had the Philly cheesesteak, and the Queen had a spinach salad. Everyone thought that their meal was the best and no one left hungry. On the way out, we swung through the gift shop so I could score a t-shirt [see the design in the photo above], and then it was off to the circus… literally.
We were really lucky in that we were seated in the second row from the stage. At first I was concerned that we might be too close to the action and get stiff necks from looking up, but that wasn’t the case mainly due to the amount of action going on everywhere! And once the show starts it doesn’t let up. If you’ve ever seen Cirque Du Soleil on television and been impressed you can just begin to imagine what it’s like to see the performers live and so close you could literally [at least from our seats] reach out and touch them.Everything about the show is amazing. You probably already know how awe-inspiring the acts are, but until you see the show live, you don’t realize how well designed the sets and stage are. Or how the special effects and live music work to change the moods of each performance. Looking back, it’s also crazy to think that once the show started there were no words spoken and it never felt like we were watching traditional acts in a “circus.” The time flew by and I left wanting more; not because I didn’t get my money’s worth, but because I was having such a great time. The Queen and kids felt the same. We’ll definitely go back.
After the show we walked around Downtown Disney. The crowds weren’t too bad and the night was just the right temperature to make trips to the Virgin MegaStore and other shops enjoyable. The drive home was filled with laughter and talk about what a great day it had been… we didn’t even complain about the storm.
If only every day could be so perfect.
I saw this video yesterday at 
Yesterday Doralya, Chris and I decided to drive down and get as close as possible to Cape Canaveral at the Kennedy Space Center to see the launch of space shuttle Discovery. This was our first trip to see a lift-off and things went smoothly. Although I hate crowds, it was worth it to be so close to the launch. Everything worked out perfectly from the drive down, finding a perfect spot in a little park across from the space center to the weather and lift-off. I guess if I wanted to nitpick I could complain about the traffic going home, but even I’m not that much of a grouse.
