Teen Titans

This cartoon is great! I love everything from the opening song to the end of the credits. Bonus for me: my kids like it too so I get to claim I am spending time with them. Mrs Gorilla and I are actually having fun looking for the (inevitably expensive and expanding collection of) action figures. Woohoo..we found Starfire and Raven today!

Only 437 more pieces in the "sold separately" accessory collection!

Long Time No Blog

Hey everyone...I just thought I had better get something up or you might think something is wrong with me. Well, something IS wrong with me. I have rediscovered something I used to do ages ago. It has been so long that I barely remember what it is called, or if it is even called the same thing now. It's called...

Reading for pleasure.

I dusted off all of my old Sci-Fi and Fantasy books we have accumulated over the past 20 years. Mrs Gorilla and I are powering through them like J-Lo powers thru boyfriends.

Anyone have a reading suggestion? I will read it and you can live through me vicariously. I like stories where a farm-boy ends being a powerful king or warrior or something like that. You know, rags-to-riches stuff. Any suggestions?

The story behind my name

I went to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina for Basic Training in 1989 (Army). There were people from just about everywhere in the country but for some reason there was a majority from New York. Something like 15 out of 60 guys. Anyway, they tended to dominate all of the conversations like most east-coasters try to do. I thought they were a pretty funny bunch of guys so I usually gravitated toward them when we were in the barracks. Since I was the only white guy that (I would like to think) they liked, they started calling me Vanilla. "Hey Vanilla, do yall still have problems with Indians running around out there?" etc. <--I swear one guy asked me this question and I will believe to my dying day that he was SERIOUS. One day the guy in the group with the biggest mouth notices how hairy I am (sorry ladies). He then proceded to run all around the squad bay telling everyone I was not Vanilla anymore. I was now the Vanilla Gorilla. The nickname survives.

Just in case you were wondering.