Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: A nurse, Amy Leatheran, is hired by an archaeologist, Dr. Erich Leidner, to care for his wife, Louise, while he and his team dig for artifacts in Iraq. She soon learns Louise is living in fear because of anonymous letters she believes are related to her first marriage to a German spy. At first, Amy doesn't believe her patient because she believes the letters might have been written by Louise herself, either from guilt or an effort to get attention. However, when Louise is murdered, it becomes apparent Amy and Dr. Leidner were wrong and Hercule Poirot is brought in to help solve the crime. Review: When I went to the library a few days ago, I had intended on taking a short break from Agatha Christie. However, the book I wanted to check out wasn't on the shelf and, since I really didn't have time to search for it (or ask for help from the librarian), I wound up checking out this book instead. And, to tell you the truth, when I first started reading this ...

I took this photo while on my walk  a couple days ago but didn't get around to sharing it until now.

I actually found out about this on Friday but I (along with every other parent) was asked to keep quiet about it until today, when the Beaver Dam Family Center was announced as the winner of $50,000 in new LED lighting. Below are some photos from today's announcement ceremony, which was attended by city officials, local media, dozens of parents, figure skaters and hockey players and members of the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL), including their president Jon Greenberg. Thank you to everyone who voted and helped our volunteer-run rink get this much-needed upgrade.

After 9 years, our previous mattress was starting to get a little bit uncomfortable (I would wake up feeling as though I slept on an uncomfortable futon all night). So, as an anniversary gift, my wife and I picked out a new one a couple weeks ago. It was delivered yesterday and we both had a comfortable night's sleep on it last night. Of course, as you can see from the photo above, the cats seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.

Synopsis: Five years after the last Sharknado attacks, the world has remained Sharknado free. However, that peace is broken when new Sharknadoes form and once again threaten to destroy the world. Who's in it? The movies star Ian Ziering , Tara Reid , Cody Linley , David Hasselhoff and Masiela Lusha. Review: I decided to review these two movies together, both because my wife and I watched them back-to-back this weekend and because, once you reach the fourth and fifth installment of a movie series like this one, there's honestly not a whole lot of difference between the films. I ended up watching these movies this weekend mostly out of curiosity. After seeing Fin's (Ziering) wife April (Reid) crushed at the end of the third movie, I had to see just how they would manage to bring her character back. And, let's face it, there really wasn't much on TV this weekend anyway. While I did love the original film and even kind of liked the sequel, after watching ...

Synopsis: When a drought threatens to cost Dan Evans his ranch, he quickly agrees to accept $200 and escort captured outlaw Ben Wade to Contention City and put him on board the 3:10 train to Yuma. However, Wade's gang is determined to set their leader free and, with the town drunk being the only one willing to help, the odds of Dan completing his task alive are slim. Who's in it? The movie stars Glenn Ford , Van Heflin , Felicia Farr , Henry Jones and Robert Emhardt . Review: This film has been on one of our movie channels on multiple occasions but, every time I've attempted to watch it, I always managed to get interrupted and, because of that, never made it past the first few minutes. I was, however, able to find the time to finally watch this film in its entirety this past weekend. Unfortunately, I don't think it was as enjoyable as I was expecting it to be. Overall, I liked the plot of this film. Dan (Heflin) is a reluctant gunman who only takes the jo...

My wife and I finally had a chance to have a belated anniversary celebration and decided to do so by heading out of town, visiting Fond du Lac (about 40 minutes away) and having an anniversary lunch. A friend of ours recommended Salty's Seafood & Spirits and, since we don't have a big selection of seafood restaurants around here, I decided to check it out. We got there a little after 1 yesterday afternoon and were both very impressed. First of all, the food there was amazing. I would especially recommend their "award winning" cheese seafood soup. My wife and I shared a cup of that and, after leaving the restaurant, kind of regretting not placing a to-go order for more of it. We loved every bite (although it did make me a bit thirsty). In addition to the soup, I ordered their perch lunch and thought the fish was pretty good as well. The breading was perfectly crisp and had just the right amount of seasonings. And, it proved to be a lot more filling than I ...

Synopsis: A battle between a merchant marine ship and German U-boat results in both ships being sunk in the middle of the ocean. The merchant marine survivors take refuge on a single lifeboat but are short on food and water and don't know when they will be rescued. When they also rescue the captain of the U-boat that sunk them, it adds additional tension, especially when the captain may be the only person who can lead them to safety. Who's in it? The Alfred Hitchcock -directed movie stars Tallulah Bankhead , William Bendix , Canada Lee , Mary Anderson and Walter Slezak. Review: I came across this film on one of our movie channels this morning and, thinking it sounded somewhat interesting, I gave it some consideration. When I saw it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, that sealed the deal. After watching it, I have to say I enjoyed it. Even if this movie had simply been about a group of survivors trapped on a small lifeboat, the good mix of characters would have made ...

It's not quite warm enough for them to be sunning themselves on rocks, logs, etc. but I was pleased to see some turtles swimming in the water today, another sign it is spring and warmer days are coming. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a good photo of them because of the sun reflecting off the water, but I did manage to get a few other photos.

After a couple days of cold/windy weather, it warmed up just enough to justify a walk in the park today. I didn't see anything too unusual. But, the geese are coming back in large numbers, almost completely covering one of the ponds and there was a pair of ducks hanging out on the ice as well so I did get a few photos as a result.

Synopsis: A Creeper-obsessed sheriff and local authorities try to stop the ancient creature from harvesting residents. Their efforts are hindered, however, both by the immortal monster and the various deadly traps on its truck. Who's in it? The movie stars Stan Shaw , Gabrielle Haugh , Meg Foster , Brandon Smith and Chester Rushing . Review: Our hectic schedules have prevented my wife and I from watching movies the past couple of weeks (we have, instead, been trying to catch up on our missed television shows). However, we had some free time Tuesday evening and, since we couldn't find anything else interesting to watch, decided to give this film a try. We both loved the original Jeepers Creepers movie and have watched it on multiple occasions as a result. However, the first attempt at a sequel, in 2003, was a pretty big disappointment so, when we started watching this film, I really wasn't expecting too much from it. As it turns out, it was better than expected...

Our daughters finally didn't have to be at dance/skating last night so, in the interest of getting to our much-needed couch/TV time as soon as possible, I stopped at the store in search of a simple dinner for two for my wife and me. After some consideration, I ended up picking up this product from the Michael Angelo's brand. I picked this item out primarily on price and, because it was affordable (less than $7), I really wasn't expecting too much from it. As it turns out, it barely met those lowered expectations. Since my wife was going to be home a couple hours before me, I asked her to follow the oven instructions for this item, mostly because they were the ones that were recommended. As far as that goes, preparing this was simple enough. All she had to do was preheat the oven, remove the pasta dish from the box and bake it for a little less than an hour. It was done a few minutes after I got home. Unfortunately, the overall quality really didn't li...

It was actually kind of cold out today and, when I decided to take a walk by the lake before going into the office, I wound up cutting it a bit short as a result. However, while there, I still managed to get a few photos.

This woman and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary today! Unfortunately, by celebrate, I mean we are mostly just acknowledging it since we both have to work and the girls have dance/skating tonight until after 8. But, she is still the love of my life and I couldn't imagine my life without her.

I decided to make some pasta for dinner tonight and picked up a loaf of garlic bread to go with it. I saw this particular bread in the freezer section and thought it looked somewhat different. Since it wasn't any more expensive than the other garlic bread choices, I decided to give it a try. After having it, I'm not sure it was a good choice. There wasn't anything, in particular, that was necessarily bad about this product. I thought the bread had a good taste and everyone in the family seemed to like it. It's just, other than the fact you were able to break it apart, there wasn't anything special about it. And, that bake & break was a bit overrated in my opinion. First of all, as I was reminded of tonight, bread is pretty darn hot when it comes out of the oven. So, breaking it apart right after that is something you have to do at your own risk (unless you really want to wait for it to cool down first). I also found the bread isn't completely break ...

Last night was our typical Monday night. My wife was at the dance studio with our youngest daughter until 7:30 and I was at the skating rink with our oldest daughter for part of the evening as well. As a result, we needed to figure out something simple for us to have for dinner and ultimately decided on a frozen pizza. I have a couple cheese pizzas in our freezer already but, since my daughter and I were across the street from the grocery store anyway, I decided to stop there and pick out something with some toppings and ended up buying a Palermo's King Cheese Supreme Pizza. This was actually my first time trying this particular pizza. I've seen it before, but never took the time to purchase it, both because it has a thinner crust and it is normally around $10. However, it happened to be on sale yesterday ($4.99) so I decided to use that as an excuse to try it. As was expected, I was less than thrilled with the thinner crust on this pizza. As is usually the case with t...

The Beaver Dam Family Center (the ice rink my daughter skates out of) is holding a very slim lead in the race for new LED lighting but voting doesn't end until tomorrow. If you can, please help the volunteer-run rink win this much-needed prize by casting your vote. You can vote once every 24 hours. http://www.lightlikethepros.com/vote/entries/172060059?type=vote

Synopsis: Super sleuth Hercule Poirot must match wits with a serial killer that is targeting his (or her) victims in alphabetical order and is taunting the detective by sending him letters that give advanced warning of where he will strike next. With no witnesses and no information about how the killer is picking his victims, it is one of the toughest cases Poirot has been asked to solve. You can read my review here: https://wizzley.com/book-review-the-a-b-c-murders-1936/

The cats' new climbing tree has stairs. But, Mouse doesn't like taking the easy way and insists on climbing up the side of it. Climbing, however, isn't as easy as it was when he was just a kitten and pulling up that extra weight last night seemed to take a lot out of him. Shortly after making it to the top of the cat tree, he ended up flopping down for a nap and was out for about an hour.

It was a beautiful day out today (though a bit chilly) so I managed to get my walk in. Unfortunately, I didn't see too much while out and didn't get a lot of photos as a result. However, I did manage to get another photo of the smoke from that apartment building fire and a photo of one of the news choppers flying around as a result of it.

More than a week after one of our local apartment buildings was severely damaged from an accidental explosion caused by someone making bombs in his apartment, the local fire department has set fire to the building. I haven't seen anything explaining why he was making bombs (he was killed in the blast) but officials deemed the building too unsafe to re-enter and, since the chemicals he used weren't able to be removed safely, saw burning it to the ground as the only solution. Please keep the 15 or so families that lost their living space (and all their personal belongings) because of this in your prayers.

Some days, I can go for a walk and snap some totally awesome pictures. Other days, like today, I am reminded why I don't do this for a living.  I'm not sure why, but I just had one of those outings where I seemed to blur every photo I took. I did, however manage to get a few that looked OK and am posting them.

I woke up this morning (15 minutes before my alarm, as usual) and decided to lie in bed under my blankets until the furnace kicked in and took some of the chill out of the house. Well, after a minute or so, the furnace wasn't firing up and, at that moment, I realized I forgot to move the clock on the thermostat ahead one hour on Sunday. As Homer Simpson would say - "Do'h!"

Synopsis: A French moneylender and blackmailer, Madame Giselle, is found dead on a plane traveling from France to England and detective Hercule Poirot, also a passenger, determines she has been murdered by a poisoned dart. When a blowgun is found behind Poirot's seat and a grand jury nearly indicts him as a result, the famed detective takes it personally and tries to determine which passenger is a murderer and, just as important, how that person killed Madame Giselle without being seen. You can read my review here: https://wizzley.com/book-review-death-in-the-clouds-1935/

Call me old fashioned, but I just don't believe spring is around the corner until I see at least one robin. And, today, I was able to see this one while on my walk.

Just a photo of a squirrel having breakfast in our front yard this morning.

Some photos I took this morning:

OK, he seemed a little less than thrilled when I took his photo this morning. But, I think it was only because I was distracting him from watching the birds outside.

Our little mouse turns 1 year old today. It's almost hard to believe that, along with it being hard to believe how much he has grown since we first adopted him back in June.