Friday randomness

This is the first of my four Memorial Day weekends in DC that I'm actually spending in DC, I think. And I'm being welcomed with amazing summer weather - not. It started pouring rain shortly after I got home from work. It's supposed to rain most of tomorrow, too. But that's all right because I have about six movies to watch between Netflix and the library. Why is it if you put a bunch of things on hold at the library at all different times that they all come in at the same time?

Today I went to the post office to finally apply for my first passport. I've left the country before, probably at least a dozen times, but I always only needed my birth certificate before. No longer and I'm supposed to go to Ottawa for work in August. But, I didn't realize that to get a passport, they take your birth certificate and mail it in with the application. You get it back when you receive your passport, apparently, but it makes me nervous. I feel like I'm going to be the one person who doesn't get theirs back.

Last night, I had such a crazy dream. I don't remember the dream at all but it must have involved me thinking something bad was in my bed because all I remember is basically waking up as I was frantically crawling out of bed. I was awake, my heart was beating really fast, it was pitch black, and I was standing beside my bed, yet I had no idea why I was out of bed. It was really crazy. Stress, perhaps? After a few minutes and I calmed down and sort of reassessed the situation, got back into bed and did not get eaten or anything so I don't even know what I thought was there.

Why waste the time?

So I've come to a big decision the last couple of weeks - I'm not going to try to force myself to read books that I just cannot get interested in. I always feel guilty or slightly like a failure if I don't finish a book that I start and I know it's a silly feeling to have but I have had it nonetheless.

This might make it difficult for my book club, which met tonight to discuss Atmospheric Disturbances and will read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for June. I was not the only one who did not get through this month's book, although I'll venture to bet I was the only one who gave it only about 20 pages. I tried it a few different times and struggled with every paragraph so I said "Screw it!" I'm not sure what June's book will hold for me since I haven't gotten it from the library yet but it's apparently there to educate me how to properly eat and grow food and start my own farm (I'm exaggerating slightly), complete with recipes, and it does not sound the least bit interesting to me. So if I start it and cannot stand it, I'll say "Screw it!" I've also recently gotten a few books out of the library that I've started and struggled with (Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is the latest and I heard rave reviews about it yet I cannot stand her writing style) so I say, "Screw it!" I have two shelves of books I haven't read, a list a mile long on Amazon, a couple boxes of books still at my parents' house and four public library districts within ten miles of my house. So I really don't need to force myself, you know? Give it a shot or two and then give up. No biggie. Thanks, I feel better.

I Want One: Star Wars Cookie Cutters

I'm not sure why I want them because I'm really not a huge Star Wars fan but they're just cute! $19.95 at Williams-Sonoma

May Mourning

I was emailing a friend I hadn't spoken to in a few months and was trying to sum up my May and I realized it was definitely full of melancholy and mourning. First there were my beloved Cavs stinking up the joint and ultimately exiting in the second round of the NBA playoffs. Optimistic as I try to be that LeBron will re-sign with the Cavs, I just have a sneaking suspicion that he will not and we will be back to square one.

Then, last night was the finale of Lost, which has definitely been one of my favorite shows since it came on the air 6 years ago. I'm a diehard, not like most people I know who caught on to the show via DVD or online airings at some point after its debut.

I remember reading this article a few months ago about the five types of Lost fans. I'm not entirely sure which category I fit in (a hybrid, to be sure), but I do know that I've run into many of the Catching-Up-on-DVD Set and had many "awkward, one-sided conversations" with people who have questions or want to talk about things that had happened up to a certain point. Once you've watched for years, it's hard to distinguish the exact order that things were revealed and it's a show that really works best if there are no spoilers. One of my coworkers just started at the beginning of the series last month and we attempted to have one of these conversations last week. It was tough but I won't lie that I kind of liked having more information than these other fans.

On Sunday, before the finale, I decided to rewatch some (or part of some) of my favorite episodes. I am definitely a diehard fan but I'm not one to watch and rewatch and rewatch the same episodes over and over. But on Sunday, I watched parts of maybe 8 or 9 episodes. It's funny because after I did that, I came across this article ranking every single Lost episode from worst to best. And wouldn't you know - all the episodes I watched ranked in the top fifteen. I guess I'm on the same page as that author.

Anyway, then there was the finale. I know a lot of people were clamoring to have all of their questions answered but I honestly didn't really have many left. One of my friends wanted answers about how certain things worked - like the science behind it. But the show is a science fiction show so I feel like the best thing to do when watching science fiction is to suspend some reality (hence, the fiction part). You just aren't going to get specific answers on how time travel works because it isn't actually possible! I was mostly curious to see what these flash sideways that showed up this season were and I'm happy with what they were revealed to be. But it's also very sad. I feel really sad that it's all over.

I've read a TON of articles & reviews about the show today, though, and I'm apparently in the minority. I really liked most of the final episode and thought it seemed pretty straightforward. I had no confusion when it all ended; I was just melancholy that the characters were gone. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that people seemed to not understand the finale or were reading much more into it because really that's what many did the entire run of the show.

I have nothing more profound to say but it's just odd that two things that preoccupied a lot of my time in the last few months both came to an end within weeks of each other. I know this sounds melodramatic but I feel like there is a huge hole in my heart for now and I feel like it won't get refilled soon.

Book Review: I'm Hosting as Fast as I Can

I picked up I'm Hosting as Fast as I Can by Tom Bergeron at the library because I love a good celebrity autobiography, especially by comedians, because they are usually remarkably good writers and the books are usually one of the quickest reads around. I guess it comes from having to write jokes that are worded perfectly. One of the best books I read in the last year was Craig Ferguson's autobiography, American on Purpose. So, since I watch Dancing with the Stars sort of religiously and am a big fan of Tom's, I thought why not check out his book. He's great at what he does (live host) but he's not a comedian and his book is not really funny or especially well-written. That's not to say it's awful but I did think it was slightly disjointed and had some big gaps in it. I think he was trying to keep it under about 220 pages but also provide as much information as possible so it left me feeling like he must have a ton more stories to share that I wished he would share. He keeps referring to this huge temper he used to have but only briefly gives one example. I also think he was trying not to say anything mean about anyone - possibly to not burn any bridges - when I'm sure he's got some great stories. After all, he's dealt with interviewing celebrities for about 20 years. So while it was interesting to hear how he became who he is today and see the path he took, I would suggest waiting for his second or third book when he might share some more dirt!

Book and Movie Review: The Blind Side

I finished reading The Blind Side by Michael Lewis a few weeks ago and finally watched the movie, starring Sandra Bullock, about a week ago. I like to read the book before I see the movie. It probably wouldn't have made that big of a deal with this one, though.

The gist of this true story is that this wealthy white couple in Memphis take in a poor black kid, Michael Oher, who attends the same school as their children and then provide him with a home, help him improve his life and then lead him on the path to becoming a multi-million-dollar professional football player. The titles of the book and movie refer to the position of left tackle, which protects the blind side of the quarterback. The book contains a lot more football speak than does the movie and I actually found that pretty interesting. It explains a lot about the history and development of the left tackle position, of which I knew very little. I knew that was going to be mostly cut out of the film, though, and it was. I can't blame them. The three sentence narrative they provided was good enough for most viewers.

The story of Michael Oher and the Tuohys who take him in is the typical tug-at-your-heartstrings type of story and I won't lie that I like those types of stories. The depths of Oher's poverty and shoddy childhood are astounding. The openness and kindness shown to him by the Tuohys is amazing. You really can't go wrong there and it was interesting in the book and perhaps more interesting in the movie. I won't lie that I felt the book dragged at times. They always change things when they make a movie out of a book and I found myself wondering about a few of the seemingly senseless changes (like when certain events happened or the fact that they did not have Michael and the Tuohy daughter graduate together). I don't think the movie truly depicts how much work Michael had to put in to get his grades up and I guess that's fine. I also found the book's description of how the various colleges wooed him way more interesting than they showed in the movie. But overall, I liked both the book and the movie. If I have to recommend just one, however, I would recommend the movie.

LeBron on Nightline

A pretty good interview with LeBron:

Book Review: The Lace Reader

The Lace Reader was my latest book club book. I actually chose the book because it had been on my list of books I wanted to read for awhile and I had seen something about the Salem Witch Trials recently and this book takes place in Salem, Mass.

But first, as an aside, I'm getting pretty sick of my book club. The gal who organized the whole group has probably not read the book in the last 6 months at least. She always tells us something else she's read recently but it's never that month's book. So if you have time to read, why are you never reading our group selections? While I don't think it's required that a person read the book to attend our meeting, what always happens is that she starts it like two days before our meeting so she's just barely into it and then she either asks us not to spoil it or we feel guilty spoiling it as she intends to finish it eventually. That leaves us with trying to talk about events only up to as far as she's read. I'm just getting aggravated now that it's been going on for months because I bust my ass to finish the books that are selected, even ones I don't enjoy, so I can at least talk with the group and she seems to not even try to finish them. It's a recurring pattern with her. So what happened is that I wanted to talk about the book because it's got a lot of interesting events that take place but we couldn't really talk about it. Ugh.

Anyway, this book had a lot to talk about because there were some interesting twists. The main character is clearly crazy, or at least has had a history of mental illness, so she's not especially credible so it's an interesting way to tell a story. You're always kind of wondering if what she's describing is really happening or not. It's got some mystery, some romance, some magical qualities (for instance, the lace reading itself is a type of fortune-telling), a villain.... so a little bit of everything. I wasn't sure as I was reading it if I liked it or not - there are some slow spots - but it really stuck with me afterwards, even now that it's been a week later, so I think that means I did like it. It stuck with me in that I was wondering how the characters were doing and their "voice" was one I missed once I put the book down. I guess it's been optioned into a movie so I'll look forward to seeing that when it's released. I'd recommend it.

I Think I Stole Something from the Public Library

So I was at work and was going to listen to a CD - which is not something I do that often - so I opened the disk drive on my PC. There was a disk already in there - one I'd gotten from the library. And returned to the library. Or, so I thought. Um, oops. I had absolutely no recollection of even listening to that CD at work so I have no idea how long it was in there. It's been at least a couple of weeks since I returned it. Or, returned the case anyway. I'm not sure what to do next. My account says nothing about me still needing to return it. As far as the library is concerned, I returned it. I've checked items out since then and haven't been asked about it. Did they not notice the empty case? Or, did I put something else (one of mine) in the case? Has it been circulating with the incorrect CD in it? Wouldn't someone notice? If I did return it now, would I owe a ton of late fees once they figured out how long I'd had it out? It raises all sorts of questions.

D.C. Horticulture in Pictures

A couple weeks ago - Easter weekend, in fact - a friend & I went down to see the famous Cherry Blossoms. And I took pictures! Today, another friend & I went to the White House Spring Garden Tour. And I took pictures! I've combined the pictures of beautiful DC landscaping into a photo album, so feel free to click on the picture below for more pictures.

DC - April 2010

The Cherry Blossoms, and I hope I don't get kicked out of DC for saying this, were kinda overrated. Way too many people and a lot of walking just for some pretty trees. Yes, they were pretty but there are a lot of trees like that around the area and they are all pretty, not just the ones around the Tidal Basin. I was told by someone who had gone the same weekend that I did as well as the previous weekend that they were far more spectacular the previous weekend.

On the other hand, the White House Garden Tour, was way underrated. I remember I kind of wanted to go last year but another friend of mine wasn't so convinced so we didn't go, but what a mistake because it was awesome. I mean, we literally get to walk all over the White House grounds. We saw their front door, where the helicopter lands, the Rose Garden, the Oval Office, the garden that Michelle planted, the swing set installed for Sasha & Malia, and I don't know what else. It was super cool. Crowded, too, but totally worth the wait and the crowds. Enjoy the pics!

Shecky's Girls Night Out

I mentioned this briefly the other day but I attended Shecky's Girls Night Out on Weds. and one of the big draws with that event is the gift bag. This time didn't really disappoint, as you can see all the freebies I got in the picture below.



Another benefit of the event is the sampling of alcohol. I tried the Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry, which has an interesting non-beer flavor. It would have been a great option before I enjoyed the taste of beer. I also tried Budweiser Select 55, a beer that boasts only 55 calories. It honestly didn't taste any different than any other light beer, but with far fewer calories, I suppose. I wanted to try the Bacardi Silver Sangria, but they had run out of it by the time I got to the bar.

"Americans so caught up in the Net, they would set TV free"

We were discussing the very thing addressed in this article with friends a couple of months ago... would you rather live without a TV or without Internet? I said hands down the Internet, but most of my friends were shocked and said definitely the television. Don't get me wrong, I watch a lot of TV (probably too much) but pretty much everything I watch, I can watch online. Yet, you can get so much more online. I already stopped paying for cable years ago.

Of course, I'm going to keep both my TV and my Internet access for now!

Mid-Week Day Off

As some of you know, we get a "flex day" off each pay period, which we earn for working longer hours the other nine days in that pay period. The best thing is having 3-day weekends. This pay period, however, I didn't have many options for fitting in a three-day weekend. I had an out-of-town meeting last Friday, attended a conference on Monday, and cannot take off this Friday since the other person in my department has switched her day to then. I guess on rare occasions we can carry them over to the following pay period but considering I worked 58 hours last week thanks to three days at out-of-town meetings, I didn't want to wait any longer for my day off. So, I ended up taking today off, which kinda sucked. I guess it breaks up the week nicely but I also am the kind of person who builds momentum at work as the week goes on. Now, tomorrow is going to be like starting over.

I will say that I actually was pretty productive today, though, a lot more than I am on my usual Fridays off. I did a bunch of laundry, did my taxes, applied for a job, watched 2 movies, ran some errands and attended the Shecky's Girls Night Out event and got my super sweet gift bag. That might warrant a separate post, but not tonight.

Another Update: Grow a Christmas Tree Project

I just took these pictures just minutes ago and boy, have my seeds sprouted! It looks so much different since two weeks ago when I posted the last picture, doesn't it? It's amazing. They are over an inch high and the directions say to replant when they reach three inches. I thought that would never happen! Also, it looks like not only will I have one Christmas tree but I'll have three! I'm going to have to open my own Christmas tree lot.

Update: Operation Grow a Christmas Tree

I took a picture a few days ago to show the status of my little gardening experiment and, lo and behold, some green is poking through the dirt! It's working! You have to look closely (maybe click on the picture to see it bigger) but it's definitely started to grow. And, actually, it's grown a lot higher in the four days since I took that picture and I actually think another piece is peaking through the dirt, too. I'll definitely keep everyone updated, maybe post another picture this weekend. Who knows, maybe I will have a Christmas tree by December.

Movie Review: An Education

I just watched An Education, which was nominated for a few Oscars this year, including Best Picture and Best Actress, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The acting is good but it's also an interesting story of a teenage girl trying to figure out what she wants in life. She hooks up with a much older man and you know it's trouble, you just aren't sure exactly how that trouble is going to manifest itself. Anyway, I'm a big fan of it and definitely recommend it. I liked the few sarcastic moments of humor in it.

Netflix downgrade

I haven't found the time to watch many movies the last few weeks so I took the opportunity to save $5 each month and I downgraded to the one-movie-out-at-a-time plan. We'll see. I went through my queue of movies and realized that a good portion of the movies are available at the local library, plus I still have unlimited online "instant" viewing and my "instant" queue is pretty long. So I figured I would cut down my queues those two ways for the time being. I'll let you know if it doesn't work out!

Book Review: Loving Frank

Loving Frank is our latest book club book. We met on Monday, although I finished it last week! Woo woo. I really struggled with it, though. I found parts of it really boring. It's a historical fiction novel based on the period of Frank Lloyd Wright's life when he was with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, from like 1908 to 1914. Both were married when they met - Frank was hired to do the Cheney home of Mamah and her husband at the time in Oak Park, IL - and they fell in love and ran off to Europe together. Mamah left her children for years and Frank's wife refused to divorce him so the whole event was quite a scandal for the time. While it's written from the perspective of Mamah, I found her really unsympathetic. I realize the times were different and a divorced woman couldn't easily (if at all) get custody of her children, but it seems unforgiveable that she chose her own pleasure over even attempting to work something out to see her children. She met a tragic end so I guess there was a tiny bit of sympathy for her then but overall it was a so-so book about a very unsympathetic historical figure. Blech.

Book Review: Your Big Break

I have a large collection of chick lit because 1) that's what my mom buys me and 2.) those are the types of books that I buy for myself, mostly because those are the ones I want to read if I go on vacation. Seeings as how I rarely go on a vacation, they just sit here and pile up. So it is one of my New Year's resolutions to go through some of them this year. That's where Your Big Break came in. A lot of chick lit is pretty formulaic but I'm writing about this one because it sort of wasn't! Instead of being all about finding a guy, this one had a girl dealing with her parents breaking up. Don't worry, she found love, too. But, it was sort of a minor occurrence. The main character works at a company called Your Big Break Inc., which lets you hire specialists to handle break-ups for you. This might be quitting your job or it might be dumping a girlfriend. It's an ingenious idea, really. Pay someone else to do your dirty work. I'm surprised there aren't real companies that do that (there probably are). Anyway, I did enjoy this book. It was kind of mindless, like most chick lit but which I enjoy sometimes, but besides that, it kept me interested and was a little unique.

"Twitter users not so social after all"

I was interested in this article as I've been debating about getting a Twitter account for nearly two years now. It says that 73% of people with Twitter accounts have tweeted less than 10 times. Wow, interesting. And most people only use it to follow others, particularly celebrities. It's funny because I had a conversation with a friend about exactly that just a week or so ago... she is thinking of joining so she can follow celebrities. I told her each person's page has an RSS feed so she can do that without setting up an account. I guess people don't realize that. Or, they want to officially "follow" celebrities and hope that they get singled out like that follower of Conan O'Brien's. Regardless, the article has some interesting stats considering how much attention Twitter gets from the media.

"For the Dishwasher’s Sake, Go Easy on the Detergent"

An interesting New York Times article about how to properly use your dishwasher/washing machine/dryer. Most people put too much soap in there. I might be guilty of that in the dishwasher. But I'm definitely not guilty of using too many dryer sheets. I use one sheet for two or three loads, usually.

Liveblogging the Oscars

What's up with those actor/actress introductions? That's it? Bring them on stage and introduce them? (8:31pm)

The Neil Patrick Harris song intro was rumored, supposedly with Martin Short. However, he said he wasn't doing it with Martin Short. I guess that was the key part. (8:34pm)

Monologue (err, duologue?) wasn't bad. Seemed longer than it needed to be considering it was just making silly jokes about the actors in the audience (8:44pm)

Christoph Waltz was considered a shoo-in... so much so, that I barely even knew who the other nominees were. But I'll tell you Stanley Tucci was unrecognizable in The Lovely Bones so wow. (8:48pm)

Huh? What did he say? (8:50pm)

First commercial break and I'm already kind of bored. So not into the Oscars this year :(. (8:54pm)

Haven't seen The Blind Side yet but I do want to. Am gonna read the book first, though. (8:51pm)

That's two 'sleeping with Jennifer Garner' jokes in less than 30 minutes. Random. (8:56pm)

The animated movie clip was cute. Cameron & Steve? Not so much. Not a fan of Cameron's dress (8:58pm)

Up was amazing. It's definitely one of the top ten films of the year. (9:00pm)

Wikipedia tells me that Randy Newman has been nominated for 19 Oscars. Wow. (9:03pm)

Tina Fey/Robert Downey Jr. writer/actor banter was amusing. Quentin did not look pleased. I think he wanted to win. (9:15pm)

Molly Ringwald & Matthew Broderick - obviously this is the John Hughes tribute. (9:16pm)

Love how they showed so many different people in the John Hughes tribute clips, including our hosts! (9:21pm)

Macauley Culkin looks like he's still a little kid, even though he turns 30 this year. On the other hand, what happened to Judd Nelson? (9:23pm)

I think Pretty in Pink is my favorite John Hughes film. (9:24pm)

Not a fan of Zoe Saldana's dress at all. It look like it's a few dresses put together to form one dress. (9:29pm)

I think this clip about short films is probably longer than each of the short films nominated. (9:30pm)

Logorama? Did he have to get permission to use all of those logos in his film? (9:32pm)

Best Live Action Short? What was that last category? How many short categories are there? (9:36pm)

I hated A Serious Man. Hated it. It better not win. (9:44pm)

I always get Rachel McAdams and Elizabeth Banks confused. (9:47pm)

They should play sisters in a movie. Same with Amy Adams and Isla Fisher. (9:50pm)

Dude if you are going to continue to talk this slowly, you are going to get cut off. Yeah yeah, so you adapted a book into a screenplay. (9:51pm)

Steve Martin: "I wrote that speech for him." lol (9:52pm)

Mo'Nique: Expected. Art Direction: Yawn. (10:07pm)

While I do think some people look nice tonight, Sarah Jessica Parker is not one of them. Blech. (10:09pm)

Tom Ford, on the other hand, yum. (10:09pm)

Charlize Theron's dress: Pretty color, looks like two hands holding her breasts. (10:12pm)

Wow, we have another 75 minutes of this, at least. But a LOT of awards are left. (10:16pm)

Umm, how do you say that "It's been 37 years since a horror movie was honored..." and then show footage of Silence of the Lambs and Misery (both Oscar winners) in your horror montage? (10:22pm)

But, then again, Edward Scissorhands is definitely not a horror movie and that was in their montage. (10:24pm)

Since I've only seen 4 of the 10 nominated movies, I'm glad one I saw (The Hurt Locker) is winning everything (10:27pm)

Did I mention that I often confuse Elizabeth Banks for Rachel McAdams? This is the other one. (10:28pm)

See, I don't hate everyone's dress. I think Sandra Bullock looks amazing. (10:34pm)

Demi Moore too. Amazing. Her entrance to the Ghost music tells me this is where we mourn Patrick Swayze. :( And others. (10:38pm)

I think I'll be skipping Happy Town. (10:43pm)

I never saw Food Inc. for the same reason why I didn't like The Cove. I don't want to know. (11:03pm)

Hey! The one I saw won! I didn't know Fisher Stevens was involved. The doc was kinda unforgettable. (11:05pm)

Heh, Tyler Perry is funny. (11:06pm)

I'll be really surprised if Evan Lysacek doesn't win Dancing with the Stars this season. (11:12pm)

I really like the personal stories from other actors who have worked with the nominees (11:30pm)

It's just a great way to honor all of the nominees... make them feel special. Give us some insight to them. See the other actors in a little more personal light and not just reading straight b.s. from the teleprompter.(11:43pm)

I feel like this is the only acting award that isn't so completely obvious. Everyone seems to think it's either Sandra or Meryl. (11:48pm)

Yay! I'm happy for Arlington native Sandra Bullock! (11:50pm)

It seems kind of shocking that neither a female or African-American director has ever won. (11:56pm)

Yay! One of the four films I saw won! Go The Hurt Locker! (11:59pm)

Operation Grow a Christmas Tree Begins

I bought this little Christmas tree growing kit at Target after Christmas for about 25 cents and today, I planted it! I figured it would be a nice project to track on my blog. Who knows, by Christmas maybe I'll have a cute little tree to decorate! Somehow I'm doubtful that the couple of seeds and soil block that came in the package will result in a tree but hey, I did spend a lot of money on it so maybe it will surprise me. Ha ha.

"Hulu losing `Daily Show,' `Colbert Report'"

Oh no! This is awful news! That's how I catch up on The Daily Show! I know it says that you'll still be able to view full episodes via the Comedy Central Web site but it's just not the same. I've had quality/buffering issues with Comedy Central videos on their Web site that I rarely ever have with anything I watch on Hulu. Plus, what's great about Hulu is that the episodes just show up in your queue if you have a subscription, you don't have to make the effort to seek out the videos. (via)

Movie Review: Everybody's Fine

I've been watching a lot of movies lately. I guess that's because I'm nesting in my new apartment. Anyway, Everybody's Fine was just out around Thanksgiving/Christmastime I think but now it's already on DVD so I watched it last night and it was so profoundly sad. Ugh. Robert DeNiro plays this widowed father who seems to want to reconnect with his grown children, but all of them cancel their trips home so he decides to hit the road and surprise each of them. They live throughout the country and at each stop, each kid basically lies to him, hides their real life from him and sends him on his way as quick as possible. It's just sad. He's clearly trying and is clearly trying to find his way after the death of his wife. It seems like the kids were really close with their mother. And more tragedy befalls him on his journey. I don't know. It was a good movie, actually, just so so sad. I wasn't expecting that at all. Robert DeNiro's character reminded me of my own father in a lot of ways, maybe that's why it affected me so much.

Movie Review: The Cove

You know how at the end of my last entry I said that I like documentaries because you learn something new? Well, sometimes you really don't want to know anything about that new thing. The Cove is a perfect example. This is an Academy Award-nominated documentary about dolphins. It features this guy who was a dolphin trainer and then finally realized that dolphins are not supposed to be confined so he became an activist for their freedom. Along the way he discovered this cove in Japan where dolphins are lured each year. Once there, some of them are captured and sold to aquariums and petting zoos, while hundreds of others are brutally murdered and sold for food. It's really a gruesome story that shows these activists sneaking into this cove and planting cameras to record the footage of what happens to the dolphins. It's truly awful. And while I feel awful for the dolphins, it's tough getting the images out of my head. I guess that's the point.

Movie Review: Eleven Minutes

Eleven Minutes is a documentary about Jay McCarroll, who won the first season of Project Runway, as he tries to prepare his first official New York Fashion Week show. It was really interesting. I mean, you hear a lot about Fashion Week, especially if you watch Project Runway, but you don't really know what it takes to put on a show and this was Jay's attempt to bring us into that world. It's a lot of work, especially because not only is there the fashion show, but there's the attempt to sell the items to stores after the show. This is a perfect example of why I love documentaries - they give you insight into new worlds.

New boots!

I've been unhappy with my clothes the last couple of weeks, so I want to go clothes shopping this weekend. But, one thing I did buy recently was rain boots! I realized that with all the snow we got, my snow boots weren't really that waterproof. Plus, now that I can walk to work, it seemed worthwhile to buy rain boots! Here are the ones I got at Target... Cute, right? They kind of have that rubbery smell, though. How do I get rid of that?

Snow update

I guess I never updated everyone about the snow.... So, we basically had an unbelievable 5 snow days! Friday Feb. 5th was an early dismissal of 4 hours. Monday, Feb 8th through Thursday Feb 11th were full snow days. Friday Feb 12th and Tuesday Feb 16th were 2 hour delayed arrival days. That all adds up to 5 days - although I came in on time the delayed arrival days and worked from home for many of the full snow days, so it wasn't really like a super-long vacation really.

There hasn't been measurable snowfall in ten days but that doesn't stop the streets from being a complete mess. Some sidewalks still aren't shoveled so that means pedestrians have to walk in the streets. Many streets are only one lane because there is so much snow piled up on both sides of the street that there is only a clear space for one car to get by. Some streets that are plowed have ridiculously high snowpiles on the curbs, making visibility difficult when trying to make turns. It aggravates me that there seems to have been very little effort on the part of the city, county, state (whoever is responsible) to go back and do any kind of clean-up plowing. At this point, the plows could have easily come back through and made more room available on these one-lane streets. This weekend has been helpful because it's been in the upper 40s - some of the snow is starting to melt.

At work, my Executive Director berated the entire staff at our monthly staff meeting on Tuesday afternoon. She went on about how just because the office was closed for that long, that didn't mean that everyone should do no work. And, we should have all been checking emails and voicemails remotely. She didn't want to hear anyone say anything like "swamped" or "digging out" because of their heavy workload. And, she said that this would have been a great opportunity for those of us potentially interested in teleworking to show her how much could have been done from home. She finished by suggesting that maybe we should not use our flex day for that pay period since we basically got paid for not working all those days. Well, we were all shocked by her reaction and her assumptions and the more we thought about it, we got furious. Why does she jump to the conclusion that we did absolutely nothing during the time off? And, well, really, isn't that's what is supposed to happen the office is CLOSED! Pretty much every person in our office did check their email during the week and many of us conducted teleconferences from our homes. There is obviously a big difference between telecommuting and trying to get some things done with our limited resources during a natural weather disaster. But no one said anything to her and we all just muttered to ourselves about how wrong she was. Although most of us refused to give up our flex day as she suggested - it's one small act of rebellion. I thought about it but in the end, I took my day off. After all, I pretty much got everything done that I needed to do. I'm no longer swamped in the slightest.

Book Review: Under the Banner of Heaven

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer was our latest book club selection, although our meeting has been postponed for weeks due to the snow. This is a nonfiction book that discusses the Mormon religion, particularly fundamentalism and their beliefs in polygamy and blood atonement. Now, I've read quite a few autobiographies of women who had grown up as FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) and lived in plural marriage and I find the topic fascinating. And although most of these books do try to provide some historical background for their faith (even though the only reason these women have written books is because they no longer are part of that faith), none of them provide the detail that Under the Banner of Heaven provides. So, I was thankful for that, and learned about founder Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, the Mormon trek across the United States to find a place to fit in before ultimately settling in Utah. But, it also was kind of boring, as historical records can be.

All in all, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the book. Parts were very interesting, but other parts were boring. Some parts were thorough, others were lacking. At the heart of the story, the author talked about one family who committed murders but felt absolutely just about doing so due to the concept of Blood Atonement - basically the justification of the death of sinners. And Krakauer did a good job of explaining how this theory has been carried out by Mormons throughout their history. But, I guess I feel like there were points of view that were missing. Did anyone change their mind about the faith after seeing Blood Atonement carried out? I also guess I realized that I'm definitely more fascinated about the polygamous lifestyle than I am about anything else that the FLDS believes and that wasn't what this book was about. So, while it definitely served to inform me about the Mormon beliefs, it also kind of left me with more questions than answers.

Book Review: The Book of Fred

The Book of Fred is a quirky little work of fiction that tells the story of Mary Fred, a teenager who was raised in a bizarre fundamentalist religious cult and is sent to live with a foster family when her parents are sent to jail. Mary Fred is thrust into this bizarre world and with a foster family who was pretty disconnected with each other. The family has a teenage daughter about the same age as Mary Fred, a single mom who still hasn't gotten over her divorce, and Uncle Roy, who appears to be a jobless, lazy mess-up. The writing style is unique in that all four main characters serve as narrators at different points so you get to see the story from each person's viewpoint. But, I think it works really well. In fact, the last section repeats someone's point-of-view and I found myself wishing that things were wrapped up from everyone's point-of-view. Anyway, the story isn't particularly unique - how Mary Fred changes these person's lives and how they in turn change hers - but the writing style is unique enough and interesting to make this a pretty good read.

Movie Review: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

One benefit of being snowed in was that I've been able to watch some movies - although not as many as I would have liked since the post office is behind and so too are my Netflix arrivals. But yesterday I was able to watch Beyond a Reasonable Doubt , and I thought it was pretty good. It features Michael Douglas as a reportedly corrupt district attorney, Amber Tamblyn as another lawyer in the district attorney's office and Jesse Metcalfe (the gardener from the early seasons of Desperate Housewives) as a budding broadcast journalist looking for a big break and hoping to break the story of the corruption. To do so, he decides to frame himself for a murder with only circumstantial evidence and show how the district attorney convicts him with fabricated DNA evidence. Interesting plotline and interesting execution, too, with some twists and turns and surprises. I'd recommend it and I'm also thinking of tracking down and watching the original (it's based on a film from 1956).

Snow Day, Day Three

I guess it's actually Day 3 1/2 since we were dismissed 4 hours early on Friday. Today, though, is one of those blizzardy days with high winds, lots of snow, whiteout conditions, and freezing cold temperatures so I get why today is a day off. The previous few days just had a lot of snow that fell over a relatively short period of time, but the temperatures weren't particularly low nor were the winds particularly high. This city just doesn't know how to clean up after such a large snowfall.

I never thought I'd say this but I'm kind of bored. I've probably worked from home about 8-10 hours over the last few days - there's only so much I can do out of the office. But otherwise, I don't really have a whole lot of accomplishments to list after my five-day weekend. I'm curious to see if we have work tomorrow. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we didn't. It all depends on how quickly they can clean things up and I'm guessing the high winds make that somewhat difficult.

Still Snowed In

Yep, we in DC are still trapped by the snow that fell over the weekend. We had a snow day today and will have another tomorrow. Yay! Can't complain about that. All of the roads around me are really not plowed at all. They are all side streets and therefore low priority, I guess, but it's insane to me to think that the snow stopped more than 50 hours ago and a snowplow hasn't even made it down my street or the neighboring streets. Sure, most of the busier roads near me are completely clear but why haven't all the streets been cleared yet? Not only that, but the above-ground subway stops remain closed and 99% of the bus routes are not working. I guess I just expect a lot because I come from the Worst Winter Weather City in America.

Snowed in

DC has been hit by another huge snowstorm, just about 6 weeks after the last one. 20-25 inches was the norm around town with this storm, which started Friday afternoon and basically continued for nearly 24 hours. It's stopped now so we are in clean-up mode. I kind of hope they don't get it cleaned up too quickly so we'll have another snow day at work. They let us leave early on Friday as a precaution.

My car is completely covered in snow, as you can tell in the picture on the left. Well, actually, you can't tell which is mine. My car is directly in the middle of the picture. You can see the antenna poking through the snow.

The whole thing is crazy. The city comes to a complete standstill. Well, that is true even with like 8 inches of snow, so you can imagine what happens with 3 times that amount. My street hasn't even been plowed once, which makes no sense to me. I mean, it's not a super busy street but you would think it would have been done once or twice in the midst of the storm rather than trying to get the plow down here to clear 20 inches of snow away at once. My parking lot was plowed a couple of times and appears to be passable, should I decide I want to clear off my car at some point. The sidewalk from my building to the street's sidewalk was cleared a little by my neighbor. I swear she was using a spatula. It was something tiny and it took her forever.

"Consider these teams officially tortured"

You know any article with a headline like that is going to feature Cleveland prominently. Bill Simmons, aka The Sports Guy, from ESPN.com ranks the top 15 most tortured teams in professional sports and wouldn't you know all three of Cleveland's professional teams are on the list, at the No. 10, No. 5, and No. 4 spots. I'll let you guess which team is where, although I'm sure it's kind of a no-brainer. There's probably a valid argument for switching No 5 and No. 4, though. Anyway, I guess at least we continue to win in these types of rankings. Yay us.

Wide awake and philosophical

I'm actually really tired but when I lay down, I can't sleep. My mind is so full of all these projects I'm doing at work... I guess they call that stress. So, I pulled out my laptop and spent nearly an hour wandering the Internet aimlessly, half-heartedly googling old boyfriends and crushes and reading celebrity Twitter feeds. Maybe I should start tweeting? I've debated about it for a long time but since I haven't started yet, I guess that really is my answer, isn't it? I could maybe start by logging in to Facebook more than once a month and updating my status more than once a year. Yes, maybe I should make that a 2010 resolution.

As much as I'm enjoying my new solo living situation, it's turned me into quite a lazy person. I need to change that. There's nothing wrong with calming down my schedule and not being out four nights a week but I shouldn't exchange that for sitting on my couch staring blankly at the television for hours, like I did yesterday and today. Well, last night I actually ran some errands and didn't get home until nearly 9pm, so really it was just today I was uber lazy. And I did go out three nights last week. And the week before that, I spent most of my time after work back at the old place cleaning it. And this Thursday is our next librarian Happy Hour. Come to think of it, maybe I'm not as lazy as I feel. Regardless, I do have a bunch of projects to do around the house that I should perhaps work on while I'm sitting on my couch watching television. And one of those projects is to get the slipcover back on that couch. Ha.

Book review: Open

Open is the autobiography of tennis great Andre Agassi. I'm not sure what my opinion was of Andre when he was in his prime (probably apathy), but after reading his book, I can't stand him. All he does for 90% of the book is whine. He hates tennis. He must tell you 8000 times in his book how much he hates tennis. Okay, I get that at first - his dad pushed him way too hard to basically follow his own dreams, regardless of what Andre wanted. But okay, by age 18, Andre was an adult and had probably a million dollars (or at least way more than a typical teenager with a high school diploma, which Andre does not) so if you hate tennis so much, find something else to do. Or, for the next 18 years while you remained a professional tennis player, you could have gotten out at any time. No one wants to hear your sob story when the biggest problem in your blessed life was your overbearing dad. I just feel like Andre has spent a lot of his life feeling sorry for himself and not making any real effort to change. Well-written but a totally unsympathetic autobiography.

Moved!

It's been just over a week but I didn't get my Internet connection working until today so this is the first time I've been able to officially announce that my move was successful! Yay!

This was the first time I used movers and while it was more money than I wanted to spend, it wasn't all that much more than renting a truck and bribing some friends to help. Plus it went really smoothly. Well, except for the movers temporarily putting the elevator at my old place out of service. That had me worried, since all that was left in the apartment was the big stuff. But it was only temporarily out of service, like 5 minutes. The other worry was that I had paid for the movers for three hours and desperately did not want them to take any longer than that. It took them about 90-100 minutes to load the truck. So I was worried. Luckily, it only took about half that to unload it.

Last week, I spent time trying to unpack and organize the new place while simultaneously trying to get everything out of the old place and get it cleaned. The latter item took much, much longer than I planned, but I'm confident that I should get my entire security deposit back. The former item is a work in progress, of course. I do have just about everything unpacked, but I can't guarantee that everything is in its final resting place. I'm still trying to figure out where the best place to put everything is. Of course that will take time.

In the meantime, I am so psyched about my new place and especially the prospect of having a place all to myself. It's so, so, so fantastic; I don't know why I was waiting so long to ditch the roommate.

I Want One: Cash Cab Trivia

Who doesn't want to go on Cash Cab? All two times I've been in New York City, I hoped to get picked up by the Cash Cab - and one of those times I didn't even take a cab! Anyway, this is the next best thing: Cash Cab Trivia. How fun! (via)

Book review: The Lost Symbol

I'm going to try to write more book and movie reviews in 2010. We'll see.

Anyway, I read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown over my vacation. My book club selected it for our next meeting. I'd read Dan Brown's earlier books (Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code) years ago - for another book club - and remember enjoying the first one but thinking the second one followed the exact same formula. Like those earlier ones and the movies that have been made from them, this was a fast-paced action thriller starring symbologist Robert Langdon, who is brought to Washington, DC, under odd circumstances and finds himself embroiled in a mystery regarding Masonic legends and a box he's been asked to hold onto by his mentor, who is the Director of the Smithsonian or something powerful like that. Beyond being interested in the locale, I did not enjoy the book at all. I felt like it was at least 100 pages too long. Literally, some of the chapters kept saying the same things. Even once the bad guy was caught, there were another like 40 pages before the book ended! Who needs that? Some of the symbology and science (the Director's sister studies Noetic science) was quite interesting but even that seemed to get shoved down your throat in an almost condescending tone. The book almost seemed like an advertisement for Noetic science. And the major "reveal" about the villain was so obvious that I can't imagine that anyone didn't see it coming from a mile away. I'm sure the movie will be much better, as they'll be able to edit out all the crap and make it into a more streamlined story. So my suggestion to all is to wait for the movie!

Happy New Year! Back in DC

Today was my first full day back in Washington, DC. I got back last night about 11pm. It was a relatively easy drive, although it was scary for about an hour in the middle of the hills of Pennsylvania where it was blizzarding a bit. Luckily, it passed over... or I passed through it.

It's been so windy here and my apartment is freezing. The sliding glass door to the balcony in my bedroom basically lets the wind pass right through and although I have had my heater going most of the day, it only gets as warm as about 62 degrees. Brr. That's way too cold for the inside of a house. I can't wait to move next week!

Oh so I knew I was going to forget something at my parents' house, what with making sure I brought everything back that I had brought plus the new stuff I bought and the new Christmas presents, plus the belongings that my parents had been storing that I didn't have room for in the apartment I'm leaving. Anyway, about halfway through my trip, I realized I forgot my new Nintendo Wii console. Oops. That was only by far the biggest present I'd gotten and I forgot it! So now we have to figure out how to get it to me, either by mail or by me buying one and sending the receipt to my parents to return the one there.

Christmas movie review: 2009 Wrap-Up

Well, it's been another season of Christmas movie reviews and below is the wrap-up of all the ratings I gave. I actually have two more movies back home on my Tivo that I might still watch but probably not. With the ones below, I've done 64 Christmas movie reviews since 2006. That's a lot of Christmas movies! I wonder if my ratings have been consistent from year to year...

A+
Christmas in Canaan

A
A Christmas Visitor

A-
Debbie Macomber's Mrs. Miracle
The Ultimate Gift
The Christmas Hope

B+
Surviving Christmas
12 Men of Christmas
Fallen Angel

B
The National Tree
A Diva's Christmas Carol
The Three Gifts
Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe
Anne Tyler's Saint Maybe

B-
A Golden Christmas

C
Christmas Town

C-
Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Hope

Rating: A-

New this year on Lifetime, I thought The Christmas Hope was pretty good. It stars Madeleine Stowe and James Remar as a couple who have grown apart after their son's death of two years ago. They are talking about divorcing until they become foster parents to a little girl who loses her single mom just a few days before Christmas. The little girl helps the couple get closer again and helps them both get over their son a little bit. Meanwhile, other small miracles are at work to help them get over their son, too. It's a sweet story of overcoming Christmas pain and renewal and it made me cry, which is always a good thing. It was pretty predictable, but most Christmas movies are. The only reason I rated it an A- and not an A is that The Christmas Visitor, which I watched earlier this month, has most of the same themes and I thought it was slightly better. But this one was still good. I've loved Madeleine Stowe for years and James Remar I only knew from Sex & the City (he was Samantha's older successful businessman boyfriend) but both did a good job. As did Ian Ziering, who had only a small role.

Christmas movie review: Anne Tyler's Saint Maybe

Rating: B

This one was difficult to rate. Saint Maybe is originally from 1998 and always airs this time of year but I'm not sure I'd really call it a Christmas movie. We just happen to check up on the characters around Christmas a few times. Jeffrey Nordling and Mary Louise Parker star as a couple who meet and marry quickly and then seem to immediately have some problems. At least Jeffrey's brother, Ian, thinks so and babysits a lot. After one particular time of babysitting that Ian was not happy about, he says some things to his brother that cause him to drive into a tree. And die. Yes, depressing. Not too long after that, Mary Louise Parker's widow character overdoses and dies, too. Yes, I swear, the first part of the movie had people dying left and right. Well, Mary Louise had two kids from a previous relationship plus a baby that may or may not have been Jeffrey's and now suddenly, the three kids are orphans. Ian feels increasingly guilty and after consulting with a pastor, decides to drop out of school and help raise the children. Which seems to go swimmingly as we then check in with the family like 20 years later and Ian has turned into this near-saint of a person who has basically put his life on hold for these children. Out of nowhere, the kids decide they need to marry him off and just as out of nowhere, they hire a person to come in and organize their house and Ian falls in love with her and they plan to marry. So it wraps up happily ever after. It's semi-interesting in that it shows how one or two events can totally alter the course of one's life but the story just skipped too much in between for my liking. I don't even really understand the title, except that the one daughter says this in passing about Ian right near the end of the film. I'm guessing the book on which it was based tells a much more complete story and I might be interested in reading that someday but, as far as the movie is concerned, it's not really something I have any desire to see again.

Hmm, an interesting sidenote... I looked up the actor who played Ian because he really is the main character and his name is Tom McCarthy. While he's done some acting, he also seems to be a writer and director. He wrote the story of Up, as well as wrote and directed The Visitor and The Station Agent, all three of which are really good and unique stories. So color me impressed.

Christmas movie review: Fallen Angel

Rating: B+

I feel like I'm being harder on movies this year but I'll give Fallen Angel, from 2003, a B+. I think this one originally aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie but since then, it's aired regularly on The Hallmark Channel around Christmas. It stars Gary Sinise and Joely Richardson, which automatically moves it up slightly on the rating scale, as two people who knew each other when they were very young children and reconnect like 30 years later after a traumatic event in their childhood caused both children to move away from the small town where they'd been living. Gary's character returns after his father dies and although he had separated himself from his father, he finds out a little of what made him tick once he returns to sort out his affairs. Similarly, Joely's character decides to visit the small town after all these years, but doesn't even remember that she'd been there before, and meets up with Gary's character. The two of them learn about themselves and their fathers and overall, it's a story of forgiveness and learning, I guess. It's definitely well-acted but I do feel that some of the back story is needlessly convoluted. Plus, Gary's character seems to be all about reconciling Joely's character with her father but doesn't seem all that regretful that he never got to reconcile with his own father. I guess his actions show regret, but I'm not entirely convinced. It's definitely one of those "open your heart and learn a lesson around Christmastime" kind of stories.

Christmas movie review: Santa Baby 2

Rating: B

I was a big fan of the first Santa Baby movie, if you recall, back in 2006 when I first started writing my Christmas reviews. This year they made a sequel, Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe, and I was not as impressed. Jenny McCarthy was as enjoyable as before and Dean McDermott played her boyfriend and did a fine job. Unfortunately, neither even seemed to be in the movie all that much. The main character was a villainess ex-elf who tried to manipulate the elves into doing what she wanted and to sabotage Santa and Jenny's character. I found her really grating to the point that I was annoyed whenever she was on the screen. Which was a lot. I really would have liked to see more Jenny & Dean and wish they would have come up with a different storyline. Or at least a different actress.

Christmas movie review: Christmas in Canaan

Rating: A+

Christmas in Canaan was by far the best of the new crop this year. It aired on Hallmark and tells the story of a young white boy and young black boy who became friends in 1964. It starts off with the two boys fighting on a school bus when the black boy knows the capital of New York and the white boy feels stupid. When the white boy's dad worries that his son is turning into a bigot, he decides the best way to punish his son is to force him to spend time with the other boy and hope they become friends. Genius plan, for sure. Of course, it doesn't work at first but eventually the two boys form a lifelong friendship and that story is played out for the rest of the movie, through deaths and hardships and ultimately, success. It's not your traditional Christmas movie because much of it takes place outside the holiday season but it's a great story of growth and learning and sharing. It's really touching and incredibly well-acted. I was really impressed by Billy Ray Cyrus, who plays the dad. I just assumed he wasn't a good actor but I guess I've never seen him do so before.

Christmas movie review: The Three Gifts

Rating: B

The Three Gifts was totally predictable. It wasn't bad but I'm not particularly eager to watch it year after year, either. Dean Cain stars as the nephew of a woman who runs an orphanage and she seems to think it would be a good idea for him and his wife (who cannot have children of their own) to watch over three orphan boys for a week or so before Christmas. These boys are called the Holy Terrors, too, so they are a little on the difficult side. When one of the boys overhears Dean and his wife talking about the possibility of actually adopting one of the boys, they go crazy acting good in hopes of being the one who is adopted. Misunderstandings abound in this movie and then everyone lives happily ever after, of course.

Christmas movie review: A Diva's Christmas Carol

Rating: B

A Diva's Christmas Carol originally aired on VH-1 nearly ten years ago, but I somehow think I've missed it all these years so I thought I'd add it to my backlog. Of course, it's the same old story from Dickens we all know by heart. This time, it's told from the point of view of a diva pop singer, played by Vanessa Williams, who wants to have a concert on Christmas, much to the chagrin of all of her employees. It's your standard story and has nothing particularly original, although Kathy Griffin is the Ghost of Christmas Past and I'm a huge fan of hers. And, of course Vanessa Williams rocks in just about everything she does. This was basically her current Ugly Betty character years before that show started.

Christmas movie review: The Ultimate Gift

Rating: A-

I might be giving The Ultimate Gift a higher rating than it deserves because I've seen so many bad ones lately but I did mostly enjoy it. This one is from 2006 but I hadn't seen it yet and features James Garner as a really rich family patriarch who passes away and decides to give his grandson, instead of money, a series of gifts intended to make him a better person. Of course, the spoiled rotten grandson is not happy at first but eventually learns how great the gifts really are and totally changes into a better person. It's a little hokey when he ends up in a South American jail (or whatever it is) but I'll forgive it because Abigail Breslin does a fantastic job appearing as a dying girl that the guy meets when he's sleeping on a bench in the park. Overall, it's somewhat predictable but it's also touching.

Christmas holiday 2009

Yesterday was Christmas with my parents and it was a good day. I got some clothes, a Nintendo Wii and a portable external hard drive, which will be great for my laptop.

Today, my brother and his family came over. My niece and nephew got a lot of presents (of course!) and I think really enjoyed themselves. Ben's playing with a robot on the left. On the right, Mia seemed to have more interest in my dad's cane than she had in any of her presents. But that's okay, she's only 15 months.

Christmas movie review: Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage

Rating: C-

Wow, I could not get into Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage at all. I watched this over the course of three nights and kept falling asleep. I WANTED to like it because it pulled in some relatively good, or at least well-known, actors (Marcia Gay Harden, Jared Padalecki, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burgi, Ed Asner, Chris Elliott all come to mind) but wow, was it boring. It's apparently based on true events in the life of the painter Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light whose work is pretty recognizable even if you don't know his name. Basically, this story takes place in the 1970s and deals with young Tom and his brother trying to raise money so their mom can stay living in this cottage. He gets a job painting a town mural and meanwhile, his artistic mentor is in some sort of depressed funk that Tom's trying to get him out of... I honestly don't even know what the deal was with his mentor. And that's only half of what I didn't get. There was some kind of drama with Tom's dad, who is no longer married to his mom. There were a ton of small town folk stories, way too many to keep track of. It really was kind of a mess. Do not waste your time.

Christmas movie review: Christmas Town

Rating: C

Christmas Town also aired on ION this year. It was below average, mostly because the acting was subpar. A workaholic real estate agent mom decides to take her dad up on an invitation to spend Christmas with him in some idyllic town. It turns out this town is like Santa's southern headquarters or something, although no one really comes out and says that, even when asked. I guess I get the secrecy of something like that but, on the other hand, they also make a big deal throughout the movie on how hidden away this place is. The mother and son were invited, after all. Anyway, combining the woman's son trying to figure out the big secret and the woman trying to get the message of Christmas slammed down her throat, not to mention the bad acting, I found it all a bit much. Yawn.

Christmas movie review: A Golden Christmas

Rating: B-

A Golden Christmas was one of a couple of Christmas movies airing on the ION Network, which I'd never really heard of before doing a Tivo Wishlist search on "Christmas." Nonetheless, it wasn't a bad movie. It was average, so for a Christmas movie, that equates to a "B-"ish. It tells the story of a woman who secretly intends to buy her parents' house from them at Christmas but when she arrives for the holidays finds that someone else has already bought it. So, she tries to sabotage his sale. All the while, it turns out that this woman and the actual buyer met as pre-teens and both have idealized their meeting to the point that they both want to live on the property where they had met as youngsters because they feel that the property is magical. But of course neither realizes who the other is and instead of reuniting, they fight and bicker all movie long. Until the end, when it all changes and they live happily ever after, of course.

Christmas movie review: A Christmas Visitor

Rating: A

A Christmas Visitor is from 2002 but I'd never seen it so I decided to add to my archive. I'm glad I did. It was a good movie. It stars William Devane and Meredith Baxter-Birney as a couple who have not celebrated Christmas since their son passed away in the Gulf War ten years ago. When their daughter (who apparently lived most of her life not celebrating Christmas) has a cancer scare, the Dad decides to start celebrating the holiday again. The small town where they live are pleasantly shocked - it's apparently common knowledge that this family has boycotted the holiday all these years. The Dad runs into a stranger who claims to have been in the Gulf War, too, from the same company as his son, and they hit it off and Dad takes him home and he helps all of the family members by claiming that he knew the son, because the Dad asks him to lie. Anyway, it's got some mysticism, as well as Christmas cheer and redemption or reconciliation. Plus, it's well acted. You really can't ask for more in a Christmas movie, in my opinion.

Christmas movie review: Mrs. Miracle

Rating: A-

Debbie Macomber's Mrs. Miracle is, as you'd expect, based on a book by Debbie Macomber. I'm not sure how true it is to the book but the storyline of the movie is that there is a single dad (played by James Van der Beek from Dawson's Creek) with two terrorizing twin sons who cannot find a nanny to save their lives until Mrs. Miracle shows up and not only gets the boys to behave but also fixes Dad's life by finding him a new girlfriend.

The nanny's name is really Mrs. Merkle but the kids mistakenly call her Mrs. Miracle and it sticks. Plus, it's fitting since Mrs. Miracle has some sort of magic power that she uses to put people in the right place at the right time and kind of manipulate them, all for their own good, of course. The female love interest takes over directing the children's play and meets their dad and they tentatively start a new relationship. The dad improves his relationship with his children, which had been struggling. The female lead improves her strained relationship with her sister, and we're led to believe they all live happily ever after.

It's a sweet story (although not original in the slightest) and acted well. A touch of magic is there, which is important in any true Christmas movie, and it actually could be an annual franchise with Mrs. Miracle stepping in to save different families every year.

Snow Day!

I just got a call from my boss that the office is closed tomorrow!! Yay! In case you haven't heard, the nation's capitol was hit with a major snowstorm this weekend. It started Friday night around 9pm and pretty much snowed for like 18 straight hours, I guess. The total accumulation in my neighborhood seems to be about 12-14 inches, I'd guess. Today was bright and sunny but since DC isn't used to this type of weather, the road clearing has taken a long time. The major highways and roads were cleared quickly but my street was finally cleared at about 3pm today. And the driveway into my garage still hasn't been cleared, and neither has the side street I can see out my window.

On top of the uncleared streets, public transportation is nearly non-existent. They are only running the Metro underground, so that eliminates maybe about 40% of all stops. Only a few buses were running today.

Anyway, I'm excited to not have to work, but I did have a lot of things I wanted to get done before I left and now I'm not sure how my Tuesday is going to look. I'm heading home on Tuesday and wanted to work just a few hours. Now it seems like it might be more like 4-6 hours. I also have some errands that I have to run tomorrow so I'll hit the roads, but it's great to be able to have all day to do it.

I'll be moving soon!

After looking at nearly 20 different one-bedroom apartments in Arlington over the last month, I finally found a place to call home and all the paperwork went through today! Hooray! I'm really looking forward to having a place all to myself, especially after all the drama my a-hole roommate has caused while moving out (maybe another post). I get the keys to the new place on Saturday but won't be fully moving in until probably the second weekend in January. It's great to have so much lead time where I can go into the place and take some measurements and decide what I might need. I might be able to get some furnishings and decorations at after-Christmas sales. The best part is that I don't have to pay rent until February 1.

My new place is a little smaller than some of the others I looked at, but I'm confident it will be big enough for me. I'll be about 5 blocks from work so my plan is to walk to work, which is fantastic. It's got built-in bookshelves, which, silly as it sounds, is something I have always wanted in my home. It's got decent closet space and a full-size washer and dryer within the unit, which actually is quite rare for Arlington. It's a little more than I wanted to spend but I think the perks make it worth it. With the month of free rent, my total rent cost over the year goes down considerably so I can't really complain.

Christmas movie review: 12 Men of Christmas

Rating: B+


12 Men of Christmas was difficult to grade. On the one hand, this brand new movie airing on Lifetime this year, stars Kristin Chenowith, of whom I'm a fan. It's a romantic comedy, which you can't go wrong with. Josh Hopkins is the male lead and he's definitely cute. It's a fish-out-of-water story, which is always enjoyable. But it's barely a Christmas story. It starts and ends around Christmas but beyond that it has little to do with Christmas. And the love story seems to happen out of nowhere. The twosome fight all movie long and then he professes his love for her... I wasn't really buying it. Overall, I guess the good outweighs the bad so I give it a B+, by the skin of its teeth.

Christmas movie review: The National Tree

Rating: B

Debuting this year on the Hallmark Channel, this was a little different type of story for a Christmas movie, so I definitely give it props for that but I'm only giving it an "average" grade (B is average for a Christmas movie) because I thought some of the writing and casting was problematic. The National Tree tells the story of a tree from Oregon that has been chosen to be "The National Tree" in Washington, DC, in front of the White House. Some kind of contest was held and this tree was chosen. The tree belongs to Andrew McCarthy's character and his teenage son, who have a very strained relationship. This tree was planted when the son was born and Andrew's character sort of cares more for the tree than his own son. They decide to personally take the tree to Washington, DC, and embark on a 3,000-mile road trip, during which they of course get closer and also find love. And, of course, there is some major drama at the end, too, but everything gets resolved. It was an okay story but I found the teenage son pretty grating. Plus, seriously? They got word like 4 days before the tree lighting that their tree was picked. That seems highly unlikely. There was just too much hokeyness - and not in a magical way - for me to grade it any higher.

Christmas movie review: Surviving Christmas

Rating: B+

Although it came out in 2004, I had never seen Surviving Christmas starring Ben Affleck and Christina Applegate. So I grabbed the DVD from the library and watched it over Thanksgiving break. I know it got panned when it was released but I actually enjoyed it. Ben's character is a multi-millionaire now but had a pretty crappy childhood and basically ignored Christmas every year. Now, he decides he wants to buy a dream Christmas for himself, so he shows up on the doorstep of a family and offers them a lot of money to become his for the week. Of course, the family is having major problems - marital strife, cut-off-from-the-world teenage son, for instance - and needs the money so they are willing. Ben's character is eager to create a fantastic holiday and whenever the family is hesitant to participate in one of his activities, he just throws more money at them. He's met with strong resistance from Christina's character, who shows up late to the party and doesn't understand why her family agreed to this. Of course, by the end of the movie, the family seems to have reconciled and be better for the experience, while Ben and Christina's characters fall in love. Sure, it's a little hokey but it does have some funny moments. Plus, all the actors do a good job and it's light fare that is great around the holidays.

December Goings-On

So, in case you hadn't noticed, I haven't found the time to write lately. I've been SWAMPED with work, social events, apartment-hunting and who knows what else. It's leading up to Christmas and as has been my tradition, I love to watch and then write reviews of Christmas movies. Unfortunately, I haven't found the time to watch many so far this year. I do plan on doing that but we'll see if I can find time.

Apartment-hunting has been a pain. Everything is way more expensive than advertised and I just cannot justify spending the ridiculous rent amounts that you find here in DC. I really do want a place of my own but I might just end up trying to find a roommate for the time being and look again at one bedroom apartments in a few months or even potentially buy something. I have three appointments tomorrow and maybe a few more for Saturday so all is not lost yet.

Roommate News

For those of you who know me well, you know I do not like my roommate. There are dozens of reasons why that I won't really get into right now... but the good news is that he is finally, finally moving out! I've been waiting forever for him to move out as he constantly told me his living there was only temporary. Now, nearly two years later, he's finally moving out. I've been waiting so long that I finally decided about a month ago that I should probably move out first. I even looked at some apartments a couple weeks ago and have been trying to determine exactly how much I can afford. Part of it is that I'm ready for a change... I've been there almost 2 years and that's the longest I've lived in one place in about a decade. Of course, now that Marc is leaving, I have to decide if I want that change to be a 1-bedroom apartment or if getting a new roommate will be enough change for me. Ugh. Big decision. I have to decide relatively soon; he's moving out until mid- to late-December and I've got to give 30 days notice.

On the Bus, Gus

I'm sitting on the bus heading back to Washington, DC, after spending a little over 24 hours in New York City. Gotta love free bus wifi! We left at 6:30 and were supposed to arrive at 10:45 but didn't get to the tunnel out of Manhattan until 7:22 so I'm guessing we are quite a bit behind schedule. Then, a little bit ago, the bus driver announced that we were going to have to detour because of some tractor trailer problem. It was hard to hear what she said but I heard something about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge so if we are going over that, it has to add a lot of time to our trip, I would imagine. I wish I had some idea where we were... but I'm in the back of the bus and it's so dark out. Anyway, I'm fine for now. I can imagine I might get a little stir crazy if we are hours late but I'm good with my reading material, movies and free Internet.

I went to New York to watch the Cavs play the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, which was pretty cool. I'll write a separate post about that and post some pictures later. Today, then, I just decided to walk around, do some shopping, etc... I basically walked for 6 straight hours so I'm happy to be on my butt. I went to the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park, toured the New York Public Library, and then basically just walked all around the Broadway/Times Square area, checking out different shops and the various Broadway theaters. Oh yeah, and I went to the big flagship Macy's, where I actually bought a bunch of stuff. It was a pretty nice and full day actually.

Now, we're literally driving through suburban Delaware, stopping at traffic lights and such, so it makes it a lot easier to find landmarks. Middletown, Delaware. From what I can tell on Google Maps (on our increasingly slow Internet), we're about two hours away from home. 60-90 minutes behind schedule.

Surgery for my dad

Tomorrow my dad is going in for a knee replacement surgery on his left knee. I know it's a pretty routine surgery nowadays but I'm still worried. I know my mom is a nervous wreck and I feel bad I won't be able to be there for her and for my dad after the surgery. Hoping my brother steps up... Anyway, here's praying everything goes well.

No, Fox, that doesn't really make me feel better

So imagine a team that had BOTH World Series Ace pitchers on their staff! How great a team would that be? Oh right, that was the Cleveland Indians last year. So yeah I don't think anyone in Cleveland is too excited to be watching Game 1 of the World Series with the Phillies and their starting pitcher, Cliff Lee, take on the Yankees and their starting pitcher, CC Sabathia. Here's Fox's acknowledgement of the suckiness:

"You Still Have Lebron" is what it says at the top of the screen. Yeah, great. Lebron is awesome but he's not won us a championship. In fact, he hasn't even won us a game this season yet. :-(

Second Place Showing in Trivia

By the way, we placed second tonight in trivia! Very exciting. It got us $25 in gift certificate money for the bar where the trivia takes place plus a bunch of Halloween loot, like candy and fake bugs and a jack-o-lantern pen that has punching arms. I am very proud of us but I do feel like we probably could have won first place again (we won once before) had we actually listened to each other. We had the correct answer to at least 5 more questions but let someone else on the team convince us we were wrong.

Basketball Season!!

Tomorrow is the start of the NBA season and I cannot tell you how excited I am. Go Cavs!! I just bought a ticket to the Cavs vs. Knicks game next Friday night in New York City. I bought bus tickets to go up there about a month ago but I've been struggling to find game tickets. I just kept trying and trying and finally, success! I know it's not the best seat but it's better than nothing. Should be interesting to see all the Lebron wooing in person. Anyway, I'm planning on going to see the Cavs in a few different cities this season. New York, Washington, Philadelphia and, of course, Cleveland. And who knows where else? I might make a trip up to Boston too.

Advance Movie Screening: Amelia

I get these free advanced movie screening passes every so often (seems like once a week lately) and last night was no different. I got to see Amelia, starring Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart. I'm a huge fan of Amelia Earhart's. I wrote my first in-depth research paper in college about her and her feminism, plus my grandmother always claimed that she was a distant relative of ours. I never really believed her since she never could explain the connection but who knows? Anyway, I was eager to see the movie because of the story it told, not so much because of Hilary Swank. She is one of those actresses that I'm not a big fan of. Personally, I mean. When I've seen her on talk shows, there's just something about her that I don't like. Her acting is fine enough. That being said, I found her really grating as Amelia. There is talk (supposedly) of her being nominated or even winning another Oscar for this portrayal and wow, I hope not. Maybe Amelia herself was grating so Hilary did a bang-up job but I think it was more the performance that was grating. I was more fascinated with how they were able to make her so full of freckles, which I'm pretty sure are not natural to Hilary.

As far as the movie goes, it was your average biopic. They overdramatized some stuff and left out a lot of information but it showed an interesting snapshot of her life from the time she was asked to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic until she passed away - basically it's Amelia in her 30s minus one flashback. If the ending happened exactly as portrayed, then it's ridiculous that there have been any rumors that she survived. They were literally in the middle of nowhere.

I would recommend this as a rental or a wait-for-cable viewing unless you are desperately fascinated about Amelia Earhart.