The Sopranos - Series Finale

I started watching The Sopranos from the beginning (I was always a week or so behind watching the episodes because I didn't have HBO. One of my US Steel co-workers at the time would tape it for me so I could watch it the next night. A few years later I finally got HBO). I was hooked right away; maybe because I have always been intrigued by 'The Mob' or 'Mafia'. I love watching those types of movies.

If you are a Sopranos fan, the series finale aired on Sunday night (and will air again and again if you missed it - do not read any further if you want to see the final episode - I don't want to ruin it for you!) and there are a lot of speculations to the ending. Here are my thoughts and what I believed happened:

He was killed....

In fact, the ending was great, if you've paid attention to the show or are just a fan of well developed, well thought out plots that all tie together, and if you have a great memory to remember it all. The ending was simple; he got killed, but let me tell you why I think this and explain in detail...

There were 3 people in the room who had a reason to kill Tony. The two black guys were paid before to kill Tony, but he was only shot in the ear (this was in one of the earlier seasons). The truck driver, who was sitting at the bar stool, was Nikki Leotardo, Phil Leotardo's nephew (he was in one of the early season episodes where Phil and Tony have a sit down).

When Tony walked in the diner, the camera focused on him, then it switched to his perspective, and you see him looking at the booth where he is going to sit down. The camera switched back to Tony's face, then it once again switched to his perspective. You then see Tony looking at the door and watching people come in to the diner.

Every time the door opens, chimes sound. Carmela walks in, chimes. AJ walks in, chimes. Then Meadow finally parks the car and starts running in to the diner. The door is about to open, Tony looks up and no chimes, no music, everything goes black (I thought my cable went out at first and I thought, "Great! Now I won't know how it ended!" Then the credits started rolling. What an awesome ending.)

In one of the early episodes of The Sopranos, Tony talks to Bobby about what it must feel like to die. Bobby said, "At the end, you probably don't hear anything. Everything just goes black." So in the end, the Journey song was playing, the chimes on the door sounded, but when Meadow came in to the diner, the guy in the trucker hat came out of the bathroom and killed Tony. The reason you didn't hear or see it happen is because it is from Tony's perspective...and everything went black.

The ending has received mixed reviews by the 11.9 million people who saw it. I will watch it again!

Alex's Lemonade Stand

What an amazing story! http://www.alexslemonade.org/

Shortly before her first birthday, Alexandra "Alex" Scott was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a form a childhood cancer. At age 4, before one of her surgeries, she told her mother that she wanted to help her doctors raise money for other cancer children. And thus began the Lemonade Stand legacy. She and other children have raised over $1 million! What impresses me most is here is a 4 year old girl who hasn't been formerly educated, but was already smart enough to figure out a way to help others. We all can learn so much from her.

San Juan Islands

During my visit with my brother's family, we spent a few days on the San Juan Islands. We took an hour ferry ride to Friday Harbor, WA on the San Juan Islands. Even though we arrived at the ferry dock 2 hours ahead of departure time, we were still put on standby for boarding the ferry. If we missed this ferry we would have to wait another 2 1/2 hours to catch the next one so we were very excited to board this ferry.

The San Juan Islands are located on the western coast of the United States in Puget Sound off the coast of WA. Victoria, BC is about 5 miles from the islands. The ferry ride was incredible as we viewed many islands and enormous homes while commenting on the beautiful blue color of the water. My pictures do not do it justice.

We visited the Whale Watch museum which was fascinating as I learned so much about the orca whales. The scientists are currently tracking 3 different pods and one of the females in the pod had a calf. We then were off to catch our boat to our whale watch tour. We saw lots of orca whales, including the calf and the oldest orca whale and she is 91 years old. Many came so close to our boat. It was amazing. A great trip!

Lighthouse at Lime Kiln Point State Park. This lighthouse is used for whale watching and whale research. We hoped to see some whales from here, but no such luck.

No whale sightings at Lime Kiln Point State Park, but I did see my first bald eagle! Amazing!

We spent about 4 hours on a whale watching tour. Saw lots of orca whales, which I wasn't expecting to see any. Trust me, there are 3 whales in this picture.

Spencer and Garrett waiting for the ferry boat to Friday Harbor.

Garrett on the ferry boat.

Spencer looking for whales on the ferry boat.

View of the islands from the ferry boat.

Friday Harbor, WA

Some More Pictures
from my trip to Seattle

I was able to see 2 of Spencer's T-ball games. Here he is ready to knock it out of the park!

Spencer, the Catcher, ready for action!

Spencer and Garrett having fun playing on the slide.

Garrett, knocking the ball out of the park, literally!

Spencer playing with his new birthday gift (an automatic baseball tee). I am not sure who had more fun, Spencer, Garrett (below) or me (not pictured)!

My Seattle Vacation

I spent a week with my brother and his family in the Pacific Northwest. I had been almost 2 years since I had visited them in Snoqualmie. I had a great time seeing everyone again and playing with Spencer and Garrett. Here are some pictures from my trip.

A clear day in Seattle allowed us to see the Olympic mountains.

A view of the downtown Seattle skyline from the Space Needle.

The famous fish throwing at Pike Place Fish Market. We enjoyed the biggest and best king crab legs I have ever had for dinner. And can't forget the world's best clam chowder and lobster bisque soups.

The Space Needle

A hard to see view of Mount Rainier (way in the background).

A Year in Review

I can't believe it has already been 1 year since I left my beloved state of Michigan and moved to the south. I've made my home in the metro Nashville area which is a new experience for me to be so close to a major city. I love having the option of going to downtown Nashville to hang out with my new friends. And Nashville has a small town feeling with big city attractions. I really like the community I selected. It is a growing area with a new library, police station, community center, mall and train depot (the four corners near my subdivision recently replaced the 4-way stop signs with an actual traffic light). I also picked this area because it is a short commute to work and the airport. Housing values continue to rise in the Nashville area with all of the business growth with Nissan and Dell.

Work has taken up a lot of my time. I actually spent 119 days away from Nashville this past year traveling to my customers in Mexico. There are some definite changes that I am still getting used to with living in the south.

• Life is a lot slower in the south. My driving habits have changed and I don't drive as fast anymore (I can't because I can't speed around the slow cars in front of me!).
• Sports are a bit different down here. The majority of southerners are into college football and basketball (in that order) and not too many follow pro sports. And of course NASCAR ranks right up there.
• No state income tax!
• High sales tax 9.25% because there is no state income tax (keeps me from shopping!).
• One of the best things about Middle Tennessee is the weather. It is sunny and warm most of the time.
• Country music - still can't get into it!
• Central Time Zone - only 1 hour difference from Eastern, but I still cannot get used to it. It seems I am always an hour late watching something on TV!
• I have great neighbors who look out for each other.

For the most part, I am happy I chose to move to the south. I can't wait to see what's in store for me as I enter my second year in middle Tennessee.