I, Shane › Shane Adams’ personal weblog

The middle of May to the middle of June is a miserable time for me. 

Hi, my name is Shane and I have Hay Fever.

I didn’t always have allergies. I was outside all the time as a kid and I don’t ever remember sneezing for 5 weeks in the beginning of summer. (I did, however, have a bout with chicken pox when I was 15, but that’s another uninteresting story entirely.)

No, I remember my allergies culminating somewhere around the summer between my 21st and 22nd birthdays. My family was visiting Europe for about 15 days. Alli and I had been together about 6 months by this point and this was, by far, the longest amount of time we’d spent apart.

Traveling Europe in your early 20’s with your family is a lot different than traveling it in your early 30’s with your wife. It’s less romantic to say the least. So when I found out we were staying in a big chateau outside of the city of Le Mans (we were in the city to see part of the 24-hour endurance race), I was unaffected.

Until I got a whiff of the pollen. My eyes blew up and my nose was running like crazy. I sneezed every 30 seconds or so. Since we were in a foreign country where English was limited and I hated already, I was completely miserable. I’m fairly convinced that my premature cataracts in my eyes are a direct result of the eye trauma I received by rubbing and itching them too much in that awful day.

It was a Sunday in a small town in Southern France. Fortunately, we were in a small town, because the people who ran the chateau contacted the pharmacy in town and they got me a prescription without any fuss at all. Some French eyedrops and pills and I was a little better.

Since that trip, my allergies get worse every season. I’ve started trying to get a shot at the beginning of the season from my physician to help alleviate the symptoms and I take OTC Zyrtec, but that has done very little for me this year. In fact, the most effective drug I’ve taken has been plain old Benadryl. It’s the only thing that has allowed me to get through the yard work. Now, if I’m spending more than 5 minutes outside, I pop one of those little Benadryls and it seems to help.

The start of warm weather signals the start of allergy season for me and it’s a huge reason as to why I loathe summer so much. Not only is it just too hot, but it makes me all puffy and runny. And I don’t like that.

WHOA.

Awesome.

Dots - connected. Madness all around. And a cliffhanger to boot.

Benjamin Linus may possibly be one of the single greatest characters in modern television history. Seriously. This is a guy who holds his own against the likes of James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano, Ian McShane’s Al Swearingen, Ron Rifkin’s Arvin Sloane (a lot of similarities there).

Michael Emerson’s portrayal of the creepy “is he good or bad” character of everyone’s favorite ABC drama is so spot on that it’s scary sometimes. And that’s the point, I think. This is a guy who didn’t even come onto the show until the second season and he’s now probably the single most important character on the show, driving the show almost as much as Jack or Kate or Locke.

We now have 34 episodes left to wrap everything up. (Originally, it was only supposed to be 32, but with the strike-shortened season this year, we get two extra episodes.) [source: Wikipedia]

Tonight’s episode was a fitting wrap to the season and a terrific step in the right direction. The show has its purpose. We can see the finish line of the show, but I’m not ready for it to end just yet. I can’t wait for the next episode…

So, when’s January?

Roger Ebert’s quote on the movie says it best:

I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you. 

We got the opportunity to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night. The theater was pretty full, even on Monday night at 7:40, which helps explain the $311 million that it made worldwide.

It was fantastic.

Ebert is right. If you liked the early movies, you’ll enjoy this one. Spielberg, Lucas and Ford take us on a ride so enjoyable that you remember why you started going to movies in the first place.

And despite its long title, I couldn’t think of another alternative that wouldn’t spoil the story.

Speaking of the story…sure, it wasn’t terrific, but the characters carry the story along so well that it doesn’t matter. What they do is take a story that we’ve heard before (and recently, in another movie, sort of) and gives it a different take in a way that makes sense to the Indiana Jones universe of movies.

Still, Indiana Jones is a character that holds up amazingly well. The nods to earlier movies were lighter than I expected, but Spielberg even dropped in a Star Wars reference as Indiana Jones mentioned, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” which was one of Han Solo’s favorite phrases.

Overall, it was a really fun movie and definitely worth seeing in the theater. It reminds us that action movies don’t necessarily need to be about all the special effects. They can focus on good characters and good dialogue and excellent stunt work and still be a great trip to the theater.

It’s a fitting close to this weekend.

Saturday turned out to be awesome. I woke up at 5 with the rain and lightning and was convinced we wouldn’t be able to golf. However, with some prayers, the weather cleared and by 10:00, the only thing we had to worry about at Royal Meadows was the wind.

Golfing was a lot of fun and then we joined some others for an 18-person poker tournament. But in order to give myself a challenge, I grilled 40+ cheeseburgers so Jake’s Man Day attendants would have something to nosh on.

The rest of Man Day was a blast. I finally had to call it a night at 12:30 shortly after I got everyone to the Brooksider. I hope everyone had fun.

Yesterday was a little more relaxed. We went to church, made lunch and I took a nice long nap. Last night, we spent some time at a friends’ house in their recently redone backyard, which made me insanely jealous to redo our backyard. We lazed around, watched the pilot of Iron Chef America from a few years ago, then turned in early.

It is, after all, Red Meat Day.

We’re going over to my parents’ house today. My dad returned from Dubai on Friday in time to ask me what I wanted to have for lunch today. He went and picked up my requested steak - a ribeye from McGonigals. So I’ll finally get to have what I missed for Jake’s birthday.

Tomorrow is MAN DAY…also known as the bachelor party celebration for my brother. We’re going to kick off the day with a 16-person scramble at Royal Meadows Golf Course in Independence, followed by a 20-person poker tournament and grilling some burgers and hot dogs (and one piece of chicken for me). After that, the plan is to head out to the Power & Light district or some other place. Watch out for us…we’re pretty awesome.

There will be more testosterone at this party than you can deal with.

It’s gonna be awesome.

There’s a point in every young boy’s life that he realizes that he’s no longer a boy. He’s not really a man yet, but you begin to realize there’s more to life than running around the neighborhood with your friends.

In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark came out and that was my time. Dr. Jones defined cool to me. He was a guy I wanted to be like. He was smart. He was adventurous. He was heroic. He was afraid of snakes. He had a whip.

Freaking sweet.

I’m so excited for the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, despite its excessively long name. And if the early reviews from people are any indication…it’s gonna be awesome.

Roger Ebert’s quote on the movie says it best:

I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you. 

This pretty much echoes my feelings. The original Indiana Jones trilogy is up there with the original Star Wars trilogy in the pantheon of films. And to be honest, if you don’t like Indiana Jones, I probably wouldn’t be friends with you. It’s a movie to be enjoyed, to be loved. It’s something to make you love movies.

We are probably going to see it sometime on Sunday. This is going to be a huge weekend. Jake’s Bachelor Party Golf Poker Extravaganza. Indiana Jones. My first cheeseburger in months. It’s going to be incredible.

Three days left until my self-imposed meat boycott is over.

For those who are new to the game, in January, I challenged my blog readers to raise $500 to buy a dairy cow from Heifer International. The catch was that if the money was all raised by the end of the month that I would swear off all red meat until Memorial Day.

It’s the home stretch. I should have made my boycott until Memorial Day weekend so I could eat it tomorrow, but it’ll be like my last big challenge. And it will be a big challenge because we have a huge weekend planned.

More on that in a bit…

In the democratic primary, this would be a landslide. Not even close.

56% to 44%

David Cook wins American Idol by a landslide, just like I thought he should. Not only was I surprised he won, but I was SHOCKED at the margin.

The hometown KC-Blue Springs boy is the man. The haters will come out of the woodwork tonight.