Traveling Gingerbread Man

On behalf of my niece, my sister-in-law sent me a gingerbread man made of paper who was "visiting" and I was supposed to take pictures of him and show what he did while he was with me. I guess this is in the tradition of Flat Stanley.

Well, obviously, living in Washington, DC, gave me a million options but I decided to stick with Arlington since that is where I spend 99% of my time. So, here are the pictures I took of Gingey... at the Iwo Jima Memorial, at Arlington Cemetery, at the Netherlands Carillon, looking over the river to the DC landmarks and then, amazingly, as I was walking past the gate to Fort Myer to go back to my car, s Santa appeared out of nowhere and said he saw me taking pictures and wondered if I wanted to have one with him too.

Seriously, it was crazy. But the pictures are kinda cute. It's a little tough to take a picture with my phone and hold a gingerbread man at the same time.

Nationals Game

A couple friends and I went to the Nationals-Giants game the other night and it was 1924 night with the teams (and other personnel) wearing uniforms from that year plus tickets and food that sold for the same price as the 1924 World Series. It was all in commemoration of the last time a Washington baseball team won the World Series, in 1924, when they beat the then New York Giants. As such, the now San Francisco Giants wore uniforms that said "New York" on them. Overall, all the extra touches to make it seem historical were pretty cool. And it was a good game, with the Nats coming from behind to win at the bottom of the ninth. Nevermind that my friends talked me into leaving at the bottom of the eighth. Below is a highlight reel made to look 1920ish and here is a link to some more pictures and information. While a good price in today's market, I still find it hard to believe that tickets at the 1924 World Series sold for $6.60 though. That seems high for 90 years ago.

Something always goes wrong...

I'm sorry I've been such a bad poster this year. I have about ten posts from the last few months that are half-started or almost finished that I should just go ahead and post. I can't even seem to make it through a whole post anymore. So, you readers (if I have still have any readers) might see some old things showing up and wonder where they came from. At work today, I was telling a co-worker how frustrating it is that we have so little free time in our lives after you put time in at work, commuting to/from work and sleeping. Add to that the time it takes to run errands or do things like paying bills, etc... that are essential but not fun and you literally are down to like zero minutes of free time. Anyway, today was one of those days where I had errands to run after work but amazingly, I found myself at home by 7pm even after running three errands (I get off of work at 6pm so you know that I made good time). However, my feelings of being overjoyed at how quickly I was able to do my errands were quickly usurped by my realizing something was wrong with my cable. I suddenly was only getting about a dozen channels, not the hundreds that I am supposed to get. WTF? So I called Comcast and proceeded to wait on hold for 59 minutes before they picked up and then it took another 30 minutes before they figured out the problem and fixed it. So much for all that extra time I had in my day. Bummer. As it turns out, the problem was that my year of promotionally priced cable had been up in June and even though they put me on another year of a promotion and I'd already paid two months of it, they apparently did not program that into their computers so when their system finally caught up, it thought I no longer had cable and stopped conveying the signal. The woman I talked to had to re-program me as a subscriber and voila, all those channels were back. The good (and sneaky) part of the process is that while I did not use to have cable in my bedroom, whatever she did has given me cable in my bedroom for free. Or well, I think it's free. So now, ha ha, I can lay in bed watching TV for all those hours of free time I don't have.

Electricity returns

Woo hoo! My power is back on after being off for almost exactly 24 hours. Not sure if you all heard but a crazy storm came by last night around 10:30pm, with winds of up to 80 mph and now there are like a million people in the DC area without power. It was such a crazy, quick, out-of-nowhere storm that seriously was gone in like 15 minutes but left all this destruction. Most maddening to me was that the people across the street didn't lose power and the people the next block over didn't lose power either. But my block did. And we're in the midst of a horrible heat wave so it's like 100 degrees, temperatures that make air conditioning essential. So after the power went out, I immediately knew it wasn't going to be coming back on soon. There was a tree right next to my building that had lost huge branches so even though those hadn't knocked down the power lines, I knew trees somewhere had surely done some damage. I tried to get some sleep and opened all my windows. There was a bit of a breeze, thankfully, but so many people were out and about inspecting the damage that I heard voices and noises all night. I finally got up and had some breakfast but by like 11am, I could tell the apartment was going to be too hot so I decided to leave and spend the entire day in air conditioning. Of course, I wasn't sure who did have power. I started at the local library and they did have power... and also had hundreds of people there already in every spare inch of space. On my way into the library, though, several of us got stuck in the elevator. That sucked. Luckily, we got out within 5 minutes. Since the library had power, I wondered if my work building had power since they are on the same street. I thought I could sit there, use the internet to discover what else was open and charge my phone at the same time. Success! While there I did some investigating and bought a movie ticket to see Ted at a theater that still had power and was able to sit in a cold theater for two hours. And hit up some retail shops that had power. And got some food at a grocery store that hadn't lost power. By the time I got home that night, it was about 9 and I decided to watch a DVD on my laptop. I hadn't even gotten all the way through the movie when the power came back on. Hooray! Some people apparently won't have power for a whole week, though, so I'm very lucky.

SNL Goodbye

This closing bit last night on Saturday Night Live was such a sweet goodbye to Kristen Wiig, who was reportedly leaving after this season. Guess that's an affirmative. I don't remember anyone ever getting their own goodbye segment before - of course, as much of an avid viewer as I am, I don't remember all 37 years of episodes. In fact, Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis are supposedly leaving also and got no acknowledgement. Jason looked really somber at the end, though. But who are we kidding? Kristen has by far been the biggest star of the show in the last few years. She's in nearly every skit every week. She will be missed.

Cool site: Fictional Characters Birthday Calendar

I came across this web site, which has compiled a birthday calendar for fictional characters, and it's pretty cool. It has the birthdays, by month, of famous fictional people from books, from TV shows and from movies. I can't even imagine the work required to create this. Turns out I share a birthday with Patrick Trueman, from EastEnders, whoever that is. Too bad it wasn't someone a little more exciting. I hope each of you readers have better luck! (via)

Movie review: The Lucky One

I had a free screening pass to The Lucky One, which is based on a Nicholas Sparks book and I would say it's a lot like one would expect for a Nicholas Sparks book... some romance, some tragedy, some destiny and a cute boy. I am quite the admirer of Zac Efron and he's fine in the role as an ex-Marine who is struggling to get back into society but can't seem to manage so he tracks down the girl in a picture he found in Afghanistan, a picture that saved his life. While it's a fine enough story and everyone did an okay acting job, I didn't really buy into the chemistry of the two main characters as much as I wanted to. There's a lot of satisfaction that comes from a nice girl getting away from a jerky man and into the arms of the sweet guy watching from the sidelines, which is the basic premise here. However, the actress (Taylor Schilling) just looks so much older than him and while there's nothing wrong with an age difference, it just seems extra noticeable here. I think she is supposed to be older because she has like a 8-year-old boy, but it was just distracting. Not to mention that Taylor Schilling bears a strong resemblance to Teri Polo, in my opinion. I kept wondering if they were related. On top of all that, her ex-husband (who's now a bad cop) is supposed to be like her high school boyfriend, yet HE looks like he's about 10 years older than her. Which, after checking IMDB, I'm not far off. So, the casting is questionable but it isn't a bad movie. My recommendation is to rent it.

I Want One: Magic Showerhead with Color Changing LED

Okay, maybe I don't really have a need for this but it seems pretty cool. Like a disco in your shower. (via)

Changing my Netflix account

I changed my Netflix account for the first time in a long time, getting rid of all mailed movies and sticking only with the streaming movies. You probably heard the big hullabaloo last summer when it was announced that the Netflix pricing structure would change, basically doubling the cost for me. No longer would streaming be included with the rental of DVDs. Well, I paid for both for a couple of months and then got a gift of three months free but now that the gift has run out, I've decided that I do not need both the DVDs and the streaming. I'm a big viewer of new releases and those are rarely available for streaming so I was leaning towards keeping the DVD and giving up the streaming but I can get DVDs at Redbox or the library so the plan is to pay for the streaming only for a few months and knock some movies off my queue and eventually if I find that I'm missing the DVDs, then I can switch to that. I know many people complain that the movies they want to see are never available for streaming but I do manage to have a streaming queue of over 100 movies so I think I can make do for a few months, at least. However, the way Netflix sets up their Web site for streaming only makes me mad. A movie ONLY shows up on the site now if it's streaming. So, if I watch a movie at the theater and want to rate it on Netflix so that it can be used to make suggestions for me, I can't do that. If I search for a movie or an actor, the only things that show up are those available for streaming. That's ridiculous. Primarily it's ridiculous for them in terms of sales because if I was searching for movie after movie and it was coming up on their site that I would have to get a DVD account in order to watch that movie, I might be swayed into getting a DVD account so I could watch some of the movies. They're stupid for not trying to plus-sell in this way. Overall, I am paying a lot less with the streaming only package and I'm glad about that. Time will only tell if I watch any more streaming movies now than I did before. It won't take much to use streaming more than I used to because I probably averaged like 1 steaming movie every two months. I also might write more movie reviews on this site since I can't rate a lot of the movies I'll be watching.

Movie review: Friends with Kids

I know I go to free movie screenings fairly regularly but the ticket I got to see Friends with Kids was kind of extra cool because the writer/director/star of the movie, Jennifer Westfeldt, graced us with her presence afterwards and answered questions from the audience.

Funnily enough, I was very late getting to the movie, which meant there were very few seats available at the screening when I got there so I ended up in the second row. But, since Jennifer was there, it ended up being a great seat because it meant I was two rows away from her!

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie. Jennifer and Adam Scott, from Parks and Recreation, star as two friends who are the last in their group to settle down, get married and have kids. However, after seeing their married friends kind of lose all fun in their life once the kids come, they think the best way around this is to remain friends and have kids that way, without the complications of romance. Of course, the just friends thing doesn't work out exactly the way they expect. Overall, it was a cute film with a lot of funny moments and despite the predictability of the premise (it's a romantic comedy, at its core), I felt the circumstances that took place between the main characters were very believable. And it surprised me how much I liked Adam Scott's performance, because quite frankly he's never done much for me before. I've seen him in several things and while he's fine, I would never have rated him any higher than fine. But he did a good job as the male lead here.

Got it Maid

When I resigned my lease this year, as a thank you for my loyalty, my apartment complex offered me either a free carpet cleaning or a free maid visit. I selected the maid's visit since I feared getting the carpet cleaning would require moving all of my furniture out of the apartment. So today the maid came to visit! Happy Valentine's Day to me! I wasn't entirely sure what the maid was going to do exactly but they definitely dusted, vacuumed, threw out my trash, threw out my recyclables, mopped the floors, cleaned my stove, cleaned the bathtub, sink, and toilet and made my bed. They definitely cleaned more thoroughly than I do; that's for sure. I'm kind of excited at how good it looks and am even thinking I might fork over the money to do it again, depending on the cost. I've seen Groupons, etc... that offer cheap maid service.

Valentine's Day movie reviews: The Vow and This Means War

I found this article very interesting about how Fox Pictures is delaying the release of its movie This Means War because it doesn't want to go up directly against The Vow. I've seen both movies over the last week or so thanks to advance screenings and I can say that it might be a smart move. The Vow is the much better movie.

The Vow is about a married woman who gets in a car accident and wakes up with amnesia, not remembering her husband or the last five years of her life at all. And in those last five years, so much had changed for her. The movie basically tells the story of the husband trying to get her to remember. It's part sad and part sweet and part funny, too. The film does a good job of getting you invested in the couple. And even though Channing Tatum isn't the world's best actor, I thought he did a fine job.

Meanwhile, This Means War is one of those that tries to attract both guys and girls by mixing action with romance. In this movie, two special agents both end up falling for the same girl (played by Reese Witherspoon) so they spend their time using their special agent skills to try to win the girl. In other words, they place microphones and secret cameras in her apartment; they put a GPS on her car; the one shoots the other with a tranquilizer dart to put him to sleep on a date... you can only imagine what else. While I have to say the film is a little original in seeing the spy gear being used against each other, somehow overall the plot of the film is crazy predictable. You can see every move before it happens. Ugh. And putting Chelsea Handler in the film as the best friend that helps Reese make decisions on what guy to choose was an awful decision. She's so grating. Finally, even when Reese finds out what's going on, she actually chooses to be with one of the guys, which I found utterly ridiculous. While it also has some funny and enjoyable scenes, you couldn't care less about either couple here. Thank God I didn't have to pay money for this one.

So, overall, just like Fox expects, if you're going to spend your movie dollars on just one of these films, I recommend you go see The Vow.

Christmas movie review: 2011 wrap-up

It's time to wrap up another season of holiday movie reviews. Besides totaling 100 reviews, this year I watched 21, a record for my six years of reviewing. I think you can thank a really bad cold I got the weekend before Christmas that kept me on the couch for three days straight. I probably watched half of the movies that weekend. I actually have about 15 more still saved on my DVR but I guess they'll have to wait until next year. Or maybe this summer I can do a Christmas in July special edition. I also think I should get started earlier next year and I can probably fit more in. Anyway, as you can see, it's quite the mix of ratings for this year's crop; there were quite a number of good ones.


A
Debbie Macomber's Trading Christmas
12 Dates of Christmas
Debbie Macomber's Call Me Mrs. Miracle
A Christmas Kiss
Christmas Magic

A-
12 Wishes of Christmas
Annie Claus is Coming to Town
A Holiday Engagement

B+
Desperately Seeking Santa
Lucky Christmas
The Christmas Pageant

B
Three Wise Women
The Case for Christmas
A Christmas Wish
A Nanny for Christmas

B-
The Heart of Christmas
Battle of the Bulbs

C
A Christmas Wedding Tail
Christmas Mail

C-
Christmas with a Capital C

D
The Perfect Gift

Christmas movie review: Christmas Magic

My final Christmas movie of the year was Christmas Magic. I actually was going to stop with the last one since it's been about ten days since Christmas and, as much as I like Christmas movies, once Christmas is over I'm not usually in the mood to watch them. Regardless, I counted up all the Christmas movie reviews I've done since 2006 and realized I was on number 99. Well, I couldn't leave it at that so welcome to Christmas movie review 100! I cannot believe I've reviewed so many (or that there are even that many to review).

Anyway, I have about 15 still on DVR so I wanted to end the season on a high note and I sure did. Christmas Magic was really good, one of the best I watched this year. Again, not an original story because this tells the story of workaholic Carrie, who gets in a car accident in the beginning of the movie, and then finds herself an angel assigned to help someone still on Earth before she can get into heaven. She has a couple weeks to help a guy, Scott, who runs a small, struggling restaurant in New York City. Not only does she easily help him update his menu and promote his business, but she helps him with babysitting (he's a widower with an 8-year-old girl) and getting over his hatred of Christmas. She knows she's headed to heaven on Christmas Eve so she tries to not get too attached, but of course she starts to fall for him. Meanwhile, she has an angel guide who gives her advice whenever she needs it. I don't necessarily want to spoil it because I definitely recommend watching this but everything works out happily ever after of course, since after all the title of the film is "Christmas Magic." I have no idea who the actors are (Lindy Booth plays Carrie but I've never heard of her before) but they did a good job and took a possibly predictable story of an angel trying to get her wings and made it very watchable and enjoyable.

Rating: A

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Pageant

The Christmas Pageant debuted on Hallmark Channel this year, although I noticed on its Web site, it does not say it's a Hallmark Channel Original Movie so I guess someone else made it. Interesting. This one stars Melissa Gilbert as a bitchy, demanding Broadway theater director who gets fired again... but before she's unemployed for too long, her agent gets her a job directing a Christmas pageant in some small upstate town. Because she needs the money and no one from Broadway is going to come running in the immediate future, she takes the job and experiences culture shock. Not only does she have to adjust to small town living, but she has to adjust to a Christmas pageant that has been put on in exactly the same manner for decades. The actors do not want her to change anything. Only one little girl is particularly welcoming to her and it turns out that the little girl is the daughter of an ex-boyfriend who now lives in this small town and actually recommended her for the pageant job. Melissa's character and this ex-boyfriend reconnect; she becomes a much nicer person; the townfolk open up to her unique way of doing things; and everyone has a great Christmas. It's one of those stories about a stingy, cranky person who becomes a better person and finds love thanks to the Christmas spirit. It was pretty cute.

Rating: B+

Christmas movie review: A Holiday Engagement

Hallmark Channel Original Movie A Holiday Engagement stars Bonnie Summerville, who I've liked since she was on Friends, so I was kind of excited to watch this. The plot isn't entirely original - woman hires actor to play fiance when she has to go home for the holidays - but it's a great plot for a romantic comedy and this was well-done and enjoyable. In this film, our main character has an overbearing and judgmental mother and when she originally plans to bring her fiance home for the holidays, she really does have a fiance but then he breaks up with her days before she's ready to leave so instead of telling this to her mom (who already thinks she's making up the fiance), she decides to find a new, fake fiance. Over the next several days, naturally, the fiance-for-hire and Bonnie start to get to know each other and start to develop some feelings. Of course. And everyone in her family seems to really like fake fiance. I'm sure it will come as no surprise that there is a happy ending. I'm rating this as an A- basically because the titular holiday is actually Thanksgiving, not Christmas, and because I was a little skeptical about how quickly the romance happened. I mean, it's one thing when someone falls in love quickly but she really should have still been really hung up on the fiance who dumped her. No one gets over someone AND finds someone new so quickly. Still enjoyable, though.

Rating: A-