Grown Ups - Movie Review

At what point do you truly become a grown up?

Is it when you take responsibility for yourself and your life? Is it when you lose the kid inside you?

Ah, who knows! I think everyone should have a little kid inside them, otherwise life would be dull.

But I don't really want to wax philosophical, I actually just watched 'Grown Ups'. It was definitely a fun movie with a lot of big names which made for a great movie.

Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade and Selma Hayak were a fantastic and funny combination!!

Two Thumbs Up!!

Abandoned Tunnel





What a neat thing to be able to walk through an abandoned tunnel! It would have taken too long to walk through the whole thing but we walked in far enough that we couldn't see either end. If we turned off our flashlights it was pitch black! And it started to get foggy, which made it that much more spooky!

White Water Rafting – WV

Hubby and I decided to go white water rafting for our first anniversary, in 2006. Since then we have gotten a group of our friends together each year for a rafting trip. Our normal trip is to the Poconos in PA which has Class I, II, and III rapids. This year we stepped it up a couple notches and went to West Virginia for Class III, IV and V rapids. Our West Virginia Trip was an awesome great weekend! In some of our down time, our one friend was climbing the walls out of boredom…literally…climbing the walls, haha. Anyway even he had fun through the sporadic boredom.

Rafting itself was a lot of fun! Our group ended up splitting into two rafts and the one raft had a crazier guide so they obviously had a lot more ‘swimming’ time. Two friends went through the first two rapids then had to be walked back to our starting point. One was blacking out from the stress of falling into the rapid and the overexertion of trying to get out of the dangerous part. The other I think was also a little scared (although he would never admit it) and he’s more of a father figure so he wanted to take care of the first guy.

I went in once but I’m pretty sure it’s because my hubby unintentionally landed on me and knocked me over. I actually came up under the raft which was strange yet comforting because I at least knew where it was and knew I wouldn’t have to swim to be rescued. I made sure to brace myself better the next time so when he landed on me I stayed in the raft!

Another friend had a bad experience closer to the end of the trip; he fell out of the raft and was caught in the rapid. He was so disorientated that he was trying to swim upstream into the rapid which obviously is not what you want to do in that situation. It’s a scary situation to be in. We happen to have all of this caught on tape which is kind of awesome!!

The only person that didn’t fall in during our trip was a newbie to our group who had never been rafting and ironically can’t swim. I’m not sure how he lucked out but it’s probably for the best that he didn’t experience that.

Something else that was new to all of us, including our regular rafters, was when the guide had us go through a small rapid outside of the raft. It was definitely a new perspective and I have to say I, being one of the more daring people of the group, really enjoyed it.

We also had the opportunity to jump off of a 25 ft rock which is appropriately named ‘jump rock’. About half of the group jumped. It was a little intimidating, yet fun!

Another fun experience was what our guides call ‘riding the bull’. On the last rapid (I think it was a Class IV). Our guide asked us if anyone wanted to ‘ride the bull’ and, being a little crazy, I agreed to it before knowing what it was. Well I ended up sitting on the nose of the boat holding onto a strap while we went through that Class IV rapid! It was awesome even if I did get knocked back into the boat half way through. I’m still the only one in our group that rode the bull!

War of the Roses

One of white; one of red
Entwined in a lifetime of battles
Hearts forever tangled between

Stems twisting tighter
Thorns perforating
Wisps of life lost with each puncture
Wounds deepen; petals fall

No solutions; no victors
Only aggression and resentment
Engraved in past, present and future.

My original ‘War of the Roses’ poem is still among the missing, but I flexed my poetic muscles today and wrote this new one! Who would have thought I still had it in me!!

Earthquake

I felt my first earthquake today. I didn't completely realize that's what it was since I'd never felt one, but I was sitting at my desk and it sounded like the building's hvac system was going haywire or something. Then I heard someone down the hall say it was a tremor.

---

Earthquake sends tremors throughout central Pennsylvania
By The Patriot-News
June 03, 2010, 9:40AM
Another earthquake in central Pennsylvania?

At about 8:25 this morning, the U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 2.9 magnitude earthquake centered in the Dillsburg area that was reverberated across the West Shore.

The quake was also felt in New Cumberland, Camp Hill, Shiremanstown, Mechanicsburg, Boiling Springs and surrounding areas. There were even reports that the tremor was felt across the river as far away as Harrisburg and Middletown.

The duration of the tremor was about two seconds, according to one Franklin Twp. resident. There have been no reports of damage from residents.

In fact, minor earthquakes are not uncommon in the region. According to a Millersville University study, there were a whopping 49 tremors centered in the Dillsburg area between October and December of 2008. though all under 3.0 on the Richter scale.

One of the most powerful Pennsylvania quakes in recent history was an earthquake of magnitude 4.6 struck that Berks County in 1994, rattling homes as far away as the Philadelphia suburbs.

How did the West Shore tremor rate compared to a catastrophic earthquake?

Each jump on the Richter scale of one point equals an order of magnitude of 10. So, for example, a 4.0 quake would be 10 times more powerful than a 3.0, while a 5.0 quake would be 100 times more powerful.

The recent earthquake in Haiti was magnitude 7.0. That means it was roughly 10,000 times more powerful than the tremors centered in northern York County on Thursday morning.