The kids at Christmas

Thought I'd share a pic of my niece and nephew from Christmas...

And here is a link to a few more pics.

US News & World Report Names Best Careers for 2009

Guess one of the professions that was named as one of the best for 2009? Yep, LIBRARIAN! There is a nice write-up of the librarian profession there. Also, I like the part under "Smart Specialty", where it names Special Librarian. That's what I am!

"Football Yes, Libraries No"

This article from the San Diego Reader isn't all that interesting unless you care about the city of San Diego's financial woes but the opening quote is quite interesting:

"The pride and presence of a professional football team is far more important than 30 libraries."

That comes from Art Modell. Yes, the same Art Modell who stole the Browns out of Cleveland and moved them to Baltimore. Typical that it would come from him. The truth is, though, that a large number of people probably agree with that statement. (via)

Christmas movie review: Our First Christmas

Rating: B

Our First Christmas is a Hallmark Channel original movie that debuted this year and like most of the ones that debuted this year, it's meh. It's about a new family - a blended family of two widowed spouses and three children from the first marriages - who do not want to give up any of their old traditions to truly blend into a new family. There are grandparents involved (John Ratzenberger and Dixie Carter) and they of course are used to their grandkids spending time with them but quickly realize that maybe some sort of compromise should be reached. The kids are having none of it and the parents are total pushovers and agree to go along with what the kids want. For awhile... until - surprise! - the kids soon realize that old traditions are fun but new traditions with their new family can be fun too. It's not a horrible movie but it's not really something I want to watch year in and year out.

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Wish

Rating: A+

Ah, The Christmas Wish. This one is from about ten years ago and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Debbie Reynolds and Naomi Watts - a pretty impressive cast! And yes, I adore Neil Patrick Harris so I might be biased but this one is a very good one. I'm pretty sure I'd seen it before but I didn't remember the ending so it was worth watching again and it's good to have something positive to say about a movie after the disastrous ones that were produced this year.

The gist of The Christmas Wish is that Neil plays a young man brought back to his small hometown to run his grandfather's real estate business after the death of his grandfather. It's nearly Christmastime and he's getting ready to move back to New York City. His grandmother asks for one Christmas wish before he goes - for Neil to find some "Lillian" that the grandfather wrote about in his journals and that no one knew anything about before he died. As Neil embarks on the journey to discover who Lillian is (Was Grandpa having an affair? Is Lillian a love child? Is it a charity case he took care of?), he also discovers a little more about who his grandfather was and of course who he is. It's sweet and touching and the mystery is a nice added element to keep you interested. Plus, Neil is a good actor and you enjoy seeing his journey. Highly recommended.

Christmas movie review: A Christmas Proposal

Rating: B+

Now I'm to the point where I watched like 6 movies in the last couple of days (they are the perfect backdrop to wrapping presents) and they all kind of run together. A Christmas Proposal is a pretty okay romantic comedy. A guy who looks distractedly like Patrick Dempsey brings his new girlfriend to his hometown, where he had planned to propose to her. And, oh yeah, the girlfriend and her father are planning on building a ski resort in the hometown, much to the chagrin of the inhabitants, including his ex-girlfriend and high school sweetheart who basically single-handedly leads the effort against the plans. It pretty much works out as expected.... guy realizes the plans to destroy his hometown are bad and that his feelings for his ex-girlfriend are good and still there and there is a proposal, of course. It's not bad and kinda cute, pretty predictable but in a good way. All the actors were likeable enough. Except I'm not kidding, the main actor looks exactly like Patrick Dempsey, except he maybe weighs 15 pounds more. Way too distracting.

Christmas movie review: Christmas in Wonderland

Rating: C

Had I not just seen Together Again for the First Time, this ABC Family movie might have gotten a lower rating but I think it was just a tad more bearable. Christmas in Wonderland features Patrick Swayze as the struggling dad of three who just moved to Edmonton a few days before Christmas and lost his job. He takes the kids to the mall to get some Christmas shopping done and mayhem occurs. Patrick's character basically disappears then and we follow the kids around. The two youngest kids find a bag of counterfeit money, go on a spending spree and then get chased by the criminals who want their fake money back. Then it evolves into Home Alone. It's slightly cute and, of course, everyone lives happily ever after at the end; I'm sure kids would enjoy it. The best part was the real mall where they filmed the movie. It's gorgeous! The West Edmonton Mall has an amusement park, water park, ice rink, aquarium, miniature golf course and of course tons of stores inside the mall!

This link, by the way, takes you to the full movie online, if you want to watch it after the great write-up I gave it.

Christmas movie review: Together Again for the First Time

Rating: D

Together Again for the First Time was awful. Just awful. It's about a blended family (Mom, a Martha Stewart wannabe, has two sons while Dad has three daughters) where the kids do NOT get along at all. Kids is kind of wrong - these are all young adults. And there's a lot of drama. The oldest guy and girl bicker constantly. The middle girl is engaged to someone that the oldest gal used to date. The oldest guy brings his girlfriend and then proceeds to ignore her the entire time. The oldest guy has arranged for his younger brother to come back to the college town where he lives and enroll in school, even though the younger brother apparently doesn't want to. And, meanwhile, the Mom has a radio show that she apparently is trying to turn into a TV show and decides forcing the kids to participate in a pretend holiday craft session is an ideal pilot for her show. The show (did I mention it is live?) doesn't go particularly well, presumably because it seems like it was sprung on the kids at the last minute. Anyway, on the live show, the movie turns into an Afterschool Special with the reveal that the older son is doing drugs. He is banished immediately but, of course, it only takes about ten minutes for the family to realize that the younger son is really the one on drugs. Then, the family pulls together and tries to save the son, who has taken off without a word and his drugs. It's just so melodramatic and annoying and not well-acted at all. I get the premise of family starting to heal but it's just ridiculous. Ridiculous.

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Choir

Rating: B+

Inspired by a true story, The Christmas Choir airs on the Hallmark Channel this year and features Jason Gedrick and Rhea Perlman. Jason stars as Peter, a workaholic accountant who seems to have nothing going his way... he works too much, his fiance dumps him, he has virtually no relationship with his father. One evening, a couple weeks before Christmas, he meets a homeless man in a bar and they bond over their love of music. The homeless man takes Peter to the shelter where he lives and suddenly, Peter decides to organize a choir for Christmas. This will give him something to do and also will help these men at the shelter raise some money for Christmas. It was a sweet story and it's definitely appealing that it's based on a true story, but I had to drop the rating a bit based on the extreme hokiness of the plot. Pulling together a choir might be one thing but the extent of circumstances that befall this group in supposedly a 2-week period is just way too ridiculous for me to get past. In this two week period in which the movie takes place: 1.) Peter and his fiance break up yet he falls in love with someone he meets who works at the subway; 2.) Peter makes amends with his father; 3.) the homeless shelter burns down; 4.) the choir gets pulled together and is able to perform songs cohesively; 5.) the choir realizes that they are not allowed to just show up at the subway and start singing but instead need to get a permit and coincidentally, find out the permit tryouts are the very next day; 6.) manage to pull off a benefit concert to rebuild the shelter. Like I said, it was just a little too much for me to get past for such a short timespan. But besides that, enjoyable.

Merry Washington DC Christmas

I stopped by the National Christmas Tree madhouse last night before heading home from my day downtown and here are some pictures of the tree all lit up at night. It was prettier than last year. And also way more crowded.

"Breaks on the Bailout"

Last night, WUSA Channel 9 kept advertising a story for its 11pm news about the auto industry bailout plan with the words "Breaks on the Bailout," implying that the bailout plan was delayed. I'm sorry but shouldn't that be "Brakes on the Bailout?" If you are trying to be cute by inserting a word from the auto industry into your headline, you should probably spell that word correctly, no?

Christmas movie review: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Rating: B

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is new this year from Hallmark Channel. It stars Brooke Burns (not to be confused with Dancing with the Stars winner Brooke Burke, although I'm sure you wouldn't be the first one to confuse them and yes they both formerly hosted reality shows. This Brooke hosted Dog Eat Dog and was on Baywatch for awhile.) Anyway, Brooke is a hard-working single mom who doesn't particularly like Christmas but does like making lists. She apparently is very organized, cautious and not a risk taker. Her uncle, played by Henry Winkler, shows up for Christmas and brings with him someone he met at the airport. Of course, random stranger guy turns out to be a pretty great guy and helps Brooke out a lot, with her neighbors, with her house, with her cooking, with her son. The only problem with random stranger guy is that Brooke's boyfriend doesn't like him! Overall, it's kind of a cute story of what happens when someone opens themselves up to a little change and throws caution to the wind just a little. The two main characters have some chemistry and Henry is sweet and adorable. But I won't lie... I dozed off a few times while watching this. Really, it has nothing to do with the movie because I've been really under the weather today and would probably doze off watching anything. But the truth is, I had zero desire to go back and watch the ten minutes here or there that I slept through. So that's why it gets a 'B'.

Christmas movie review: Will You Merry Me?

Rating: B-

I had somewhat high hopes for Will You Merry Me?, which is new this year from Lifetime. It sounded like a cute romantic comedy where a newly engaged couple has to deal with the I'm Jewish/he's Christian issue that I'm sure a number of couples do face this time of year. It's very rare that these holiday movies address any type of Jewish traditions, so I was excited to maybe learn something. Instead, this was the hokiest movie ever. It was completely full of cliches, not just about religions but about dating. This couple has known each other - lived together! - for six months and get engaged but when they end up visiting his parents at Christmas (her parents come too), they realize that they know absolutely nothing about each other. Which I still think is a theme that could have been done better... but nope. Everything from "Wait, you want kids?" to "You want to get married in a church?!" to "You just kissed your ex-girlfriend" is included in this movie. I just did a lot of eye-rolling throughout, which is obviously not a sign of a good movie.

Sell your books online!

Book store Powell's Books has started allowing people to sell their used books to them online. Instead of putting your books up on something like eBay or Half.com and waiting for them to sell to some prospective buyer, you can enter the book's ISBN on the Powell's Web site, they'll tell you how much they'll give you for the book and if you accept, will send you a postage paid envelope in which to mail them your books. Instead of getting cash money, however, you get store credit. So it seems pretty win-win if you have any books you want to get rid of!

Wet

So I've been walking to work for about four months now... well, I walk about ten minutes and then take the train a few stops, although I also regularly walk all the way home. And in all of these four months, I have not had to worry about rain at all. It has not once rained either in the morning on my way to work or the evening on my way home from work. Or, at least it has not rained during the actual time I'm walking.

Until tonight. And it was really coming down. And I got drenched. Yes, I have an umbrella but it's very petite so it fits nicely in my bag. And not only was it raining but it was windy so I struggled to hold onto the umbrella at all and then got wet anyway all over my arm and the bottom of my coat and my legs and shoes. Yuck.

On the plus side, I had quite a record of avoiding rain going and maybe it will now start over and I'll go another four months! Also, it seemed like good arm exercise struggling to hold the umbrella in place.

Christmas movie review: Flirting with Forty

Rating: B

Tonight was the debut of a new Lifetime holiday movie. I personally wouldn't call Flirting with Forty a holiday movie but Lifetime, who produced this one, calls it one so I'll go with them and review it as such. It's basically just a movie that happens to start and finish around the holidays. It's missing the major holiday movie elements of magic or turning over a new leaf or Santa or the spirit of Christmas.... those types of things.

Regardless, this movie has Heather Locklear as someone who is divorced and about to turn forty who ends up taking a vacation to Hawaii by herself, where she then meets a very hunky surf instructor and falls in love with him. The movie then goes on to tell the story of their romance over the course of the year, during which some problems occur since he is significantly younger and lives in Hawaii and she is a busy mom of two who lives in Denver. It's a cute story and the two main characters are very appealing (particularly Robert Buckley, the surfing instructor!!) but I'm rating it a little lower than I normally would just because if you are looking for a sweet Christmas movie to get you in the mood for the holidays, this is not for you. It is, however, a kinda cute chick flick.

Christmas movie review: Four Christmases

Rating: A-

A couple weeks ago, I was able to see a sneak preview of Four Christmases, which is another Christmas movie starring Vince Vaughn and is in theaters now. Alongside Vince, it stars Reese Witherspoon and I quite enjoyed their pairing. The story here is that Vince & Reese are like a perfect couple who don't get along too well with their families and don't want to get married or have children but are very content in their lives. They spend every Christmas holiday on a vacation to the beach. This year, however, massive fog ruins their plans and they end up on television when the news stations are broadcasting live from the airport. Next thing they know, their relatives have called and they must go to four Christmases: his dad's, her mom's, his mom's and her dad's. There's a lot of over-the-top goofiness but also some very funny moments. Vince and Reese both have their moments to shine and the supporting cast is pretty stellar (Jon Favreau, Kristin Chenoweth, Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Sissy Spacek). Pretty much every bizarre type of family member that a person might have is represented here and spending time with all their family makes our two main characters question if their relationship really is ideal and if it has any longevity. So, it's not all light-hearted humor. Overall, I definitely enjoyed it.

Christmas movie review: Fred Claus

Rating: A-

Fred Claus was a theatrical release last year and is new to DVD, which is where I caught it. It also stars Vince Vaughn, who is one of my most favorite actors, so I can't imagine me ever giving a low rating to a movie of his so there's my admitted bias. But, it was kind of enjoyable. The storyline of Fred Claus is that Fred is Santa's older brother who has turned into kind of a scam artist and pretty much derides the whole Christmas holiday but flies to the North Pole to see his brother because he needs money and Santa only agrees to give him some if he comes to work for a week. While Fred's there, he kind of spices things up a bit and messes up some of the processes and procedures and threatens Santa's whole operation. Of course, he's given a second chance to save the day and pulls through with shining colors. But Vince is charming as always and I found myself chuckling a decent amount so I gave it an A-. It does run a little longer than it needed to and, of course, it's extremely predictable but Christmas movies are the one type of movie where I think predictable is okay.

Christmas movie review: Moonlight & Mistletoe

Welcome to my first Christmas movie review of the 2008 season! I've reviewed 33 Christmas movies over the last two years. Here are my wrap-up posts from 2006 and 2007. Maybe I'll get to 50 by the end of the year!

Anyway, as a reminder, a true Christmas movie generally follows a few basic formats. There's the twist on A Christmas Carol, when someone is cranky, grumpy, a workaholic and given up on Christmas but by some sort of magic, they regain their love of the holiday and become a better person. Then there is the person or organization or company that is struggling and has until Christmas to try to turn things around. They always do, of course. There are the ones that personify Santa or reindeers or elves and bring those mystical creatures to present-day US to get help from some lucky kids or single women. Also, there are a lot of romantic comedy Christmas movies where someone desperately wants to find a husband/date/boyfriend by Christmas. They always do, of course. Each year, Lifetime, The Hallmark Channel and ABC Family dedicates most of their December programming to Christmas movies and typically introduce at least a couple new movies each year so there's plenty to go around. Anyway, on to the first of 2008...

Rating: B

Moonlight & Mistletoe is new for Hallmark Channel this year and stars Tom Arnold and Candace Cameron Bure, who I didn't even realize was still acting. So, Tom's character is obsessed with Christmas, fancies himself a Santa stand-in, and runs a tourist attraction called Santaville that - surprise! - is struggling. Candace plays his daughter who left home a long time ago, fed up with Santaville, and only comes home after her dad gets in a sleigh accident. She of course realizes the financial problems of Santaville and through trying to fix those problems and reuniting with a boyfriend from when she was young and just spending time at Santaville again, learns to love Christmas all over again and gives up her workaholic, father-avoiding ways.

It's an okay if not somewhat overdone storyline. Candace is enjoyable, very pretty and not a bad actress at all. Tom, who I normally like, is less enjoyable in what really is a minor part. I found Candace's romantic interest to be entirely unappealing, too. Overall, while it wasn't a bad movie, I felt like some of the plot was unexplained and rushed, like they tried to put too much into one movie. I'd recommend it if you are bored but there are many out there that are much better.