Christmas movie review: 12 Wishes of Christmas

12 Wishes of Christmas aired on ION this year and it stars Elisa Donovan as a woman who visits a life coach after she gets fired and the life coach gives her 12 wishes to find herself. When Elisa's character makes a wish through the wish website, the world shakes and her wish instantly comes true. Of course, as is expected, she blows a lot of her early wishes with material things like a new pair of shoes and a new car. Once she starts granting wishes to help her friends and boyfriend, she finds out that the wishes can have unexpected consequences. For instance, she wishes that her boyfriend gets his book published, thinking that once that happens he'll be ready to settle down with her. However, what ends up happening is that he starts having an affair with his book agent. Oops. And she tries to help her friend at work (well ex-work because remember she was fired) and gets someone fired who desperately needed her health insurance and then instead of her friend getting promoted, she herself gets her job back. It's a big mess but no worries, everything ends well and everyone lives happily ever after.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie because of it's magical qualities and also the lesson of learning that there are consequences for your actions.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: Debbie Macomber's Trading Christmas

Debbie Macomber's Trading Christmas debuted on Hallmark Channel this winter, the third year in a row that Hallmark made a movie from a Debbie Macomber book. This one stars Faith Ford, Tom Cavanagh and Gil Bellows and is similar to the movie The Holiday that hit big screens a few years ago with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Here, Tom Cavanagh and Faith Ford find a home swapping web site and switch homes for the holidays. Tom's character is an author and needs some peace and quiet to finish his book and Faith's character finds herself alone for Christmas, with her daughter deciding not to come home from college so she decides to head to Boston to surprise her daughter. Once Tom & Faith are settled into their new temporary homes, things don't quite work out as expected. It turns out Faith's daughter went off to Phoenix with her boyfriend so Faith is alone again, except now she's away from home. Luckily for her, she meets Tom's brother, played by Gil Bellows, and a romance is started. Meanwhile, Tom ends up with an unexpected houseguest when Faith's friend decides to make a surprise visit for the holidays, not knowing that Faith has flown to Boston, and cannot find anywhere else to stay. And, a romance is started. It's a cute story and well-acted and I enjoyed it.

Rating: A

Christmas movie review: Three Wise Women

Three Wise Women airs on Hallmark Channel and is sort of a twist on "A Christmas Carol" where the ghosts of Christmas past and Christmas future change the present. This time, instead of ghosts we have an angel who, in order to help someone, enlists her younger self and her older self to change her current self. It's kind of a cute idea but a lot of the details were a little confusing to me. The younger self (at age 19) shuts herself off from love supposedly when she catches both her dad and her boyfriend cheating on the same day. And the older self seems to be a lonely career-minded woman. However, the present day woman is about to get married and make a major breakthrough in her career. She's got a little bit of an attitude but I'm not so convinced that she needs saving. That's the major problem I have. This woman is not a Scrooge-like character from what we see. And she clearly hasn't shut her life off to love since she's engaged to be married! Regardless, the younger self goes to work as her assistant and starts to change her life, by reintroducing her to an old friend who always had a crush on her and canceling some work obligations. In the end, everything turns out great and a merry Christmas is had by all. I'd say this is about average for a Christmas movie.

Rating: B

Christmas movie review: Desperately Seeking Santa

Desperately Seeking Santa debuted on ABC Family this season, starring Laura Vandervoort and Nick Zano, who I have to admit is really cute on 2 Broke Girls as Max's possible love interest. Unfortunately, I didn't see the cuteness today. I guess it's the facial hair.

So, this film tells the story of a career-minded rising executive of a mall who decides to put on a "Sexiest Santa" contest in an effort to pump up business and get herself a promotion to the corporate office. Nick Zano plays the contest winner who is trying to raise money to save his parents' restaurant. This being a romantic Christmas movie, it should come as no surprise that the two leads cannot stand each other at the beginning but slowly get to know each other and fall under each other's spell. And they all live happily ever after.

It's cute and light-hearted and I enjoyed it.

Rating: B+

Christmas movie review: The Heart of Christmas

The Heart of Christmas debuted this year on GMC, which turns out is the Gospel Music Channel. Surprising that a channel I didn't even know existed is able to afford film production! Anyway, this film is apparently based on a true story, which then was written about in a song and then turned into this movie. It tells the story of a family with a young child who is diagnosed with cancer. The parents take the child away to St. Judes for treatment, where the parents meet other parents of sick kids and the mom starts a blog to keep friends and family informed about what's going on. It's actually a pretty depressing movie where each child seems to go through remission only to then die. The main parents take their son home around Halloween and the entire neighborhood pitches in to turn the street into Christmas so the boy can have one last Christmas. It's a nice story of neighbors and friends pitching in for a family in need but I found it kind of boring, to be honest. And it claimed to star Candace Cameron Bure but she really was only it for about ten minutes as a busy, cranky mom who reads the blog one afternoon and suddenly turns into a nicer, more helpful person. Overall, it was all right but kinda boring. Plus, it's actually really similar to the plot of November Christmas, which I watched last year, and starred a much better cast so it loses points on originality.

Rating: B-

I'm a Winner!

Our management company at work hosted a holiday party on Friday, with hors d'oeuvres and punch and desserts. There was also the opportunity to enter a drawing to win one of several gift baskets so of course I entered. And I won! I love winning stuff. Here are pictures of both the front and the back of the gift basket I won. Quite honestly, most of the stuff in the basket was kinda lame and mostly things I do not eat. However, the basket itself was a black leather magazine basket which is really nice, useful and actually matches the decor in my apartment. It's always awesome to win stuff!

It's time for Christmas Movies!

It's that time of year again! I've been reviewing Christmas movies on my blog since 2006 and will continue this year. This was my original post about my love for Christmas movies back five years ago. This year, I found a TON of movies to watch since I finally got cable and have a couple years of Hallmark movies to catch up on. I highly doubt I'll get through them all - should have started a few weeks ago - but hopefully I can watch about 20 between now and the end of the year.

Here are my recaps from previous years in case you are flipping through Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, Ion, or ABC Family and wondering if a movie is worth your time:
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010

I'll be posting my first 2011 reviews this weekend.

Day trip to New York City

A friend & I went up to New York City on Saturday just for a day. Originally, the plan had been to go up to see a Broadway show but from the time those plans were made and when we actually went, no one wanted to spend the money to see a Broadway show so we were just going up to do some shopping and holiday sightseeing. Then, two friends bailed so it was down to just two of us. I really wanted to see the tree at Rockefeller Center (which is what is in the picture) so we did that, plus we saw some department store window displays. We also hit up the holiday shops at Bryant Park and Columbus Circle. Perhaps most exciting for me was that I took my first steps in Central Perk and also rode the subway for the first time. Overall, it was a nice short trip. We were there for about 6 hours total.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

I spent my Thanksgiving yesterday with a few friends in my apartment. Here's a picture of the spread! We went in on one of those grocery store Thanksgiving meals. For $50, you got an 11-lb turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, dinner rolls, cranberry relish and a pie, all ready for reheating. I'm not sure it was such a great deal. We thought it would be super convenient and cheaper than any other option and I guess it was but the mashed potatoes and stuffing came in one of those microwave-safe packages you find in the refrigerated food section... which, in fact, is what I bought for myself when celebrating Thanksgiving alone last year. Silly me, I was expecting food prepared by the people behind the deli counter. Regardless, it was nice to have friends over and we had a good time and it was convenient and quick and it did sort of feel like hosting a real Thanksgiving because I had to time everything correctly and did make spinach-artichoke dip as an appetizer for everyone as well as corn and a non-pie dessert. Hope everyone else had a great holiday!

Movie Review: The Descendants

I saw a sneak preview of The Descendants a couple of days ago. I had also recently read the book on which it is based, as I am wont to do. Surprisingly, the movie very closely follows the book, although of course it can't fit in everything from a 200+ page book. I think the edits made for the big screen were smart ones, though, and, in fact, I can't think of anything they left out that should have been there. I feel like you got a good handle of the characters in both and there was really only one very small change they made to the plot towards the end that was something that didn't make much sense to me when it happened in the book so I'm actually glad that it was changed. Sorry for the vagueness but I don't want to spoil it.

That being said, I didn't enjoy the movie that much. It's getting Oscar buzz and, judging by the audience reaction when I saw it, many were enamored by the film. George Clooney is definitely an amazing actor, as if we didn't realize this before. And Shailene Woodley did pretty well, especially since all I've ever seen her do is star in that insipid ABC Family program, The Secret Life of the American Teenager. But, I just found the whole thing pretty boring. Maybe it was because I knew exactly what was coming since I'd read the book. Maybe it was the lack of comedy - I thought the film would be more of a dramedy since the book had some entertaining moments but the movie seemed too serious. Or, maybe it was just the plot.

The general plot of the film involves George Clooney as Matt, whose wife is dying in a coma thanks to a boating accident and who is forced to suddenly up his child-rearing involvement to his two daughters. To make things worse, he finds out his wife was having an affair pre-accident. And, finally, he is a descendant of a major landowner in Hawaii and has a huge land deal looming over his head while his wife is dying. I guess you would say it's about a middle-aged man finally waking up to the world around him and growing up. And that, I guess, is boring. My suggestion is to wait to rent it or skip it entirely.

Movie Review: Tower Heist

I went to an advanced screening of Tower Heist a few days ago and have to say I enjoyed it. It’s a good mix of action and comedy and stars Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy as the leaders of a group that plan to pull off a $20 million heist in the apartment of a Bernie Madoff-type person played by Alan Alda. There’s a great supporting cast of thieves, including Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick and Gabourey Sidibe. The movie has a lot of funny moments and is very well-paced. Sometimes with these types of films, they focus too much on the build-up to the heist. And, sometimes the heist takes forever. But this had a great mix of both. And of course there is some suspension of belief regarding the events of the heist but there’s enough to make you laugh that you are willing to overlook some of the ridiculousness. Overall, a pretty enjoyable movie.

Movie Review: Like Crazy

Like Crazy is the story of a young couple – she’s from England; he’s from California – who fall in love while in college and then when she is due to go back home for the summer, decides that she will just skip out on her visa and stay with the man she loves. Well, when she finally does go home for a wedding at the end of the summer, they won’t let her back in the country for violating the terms of her visa. So then the story follows their attempts at a long-distance relationship. It’s a very well-acted film and I read, after seeing it, that a lot of it is improvised, so that makes it even more impressive. However, I had difficulty getting over the premise and that distracted me greatly. If they are so in love – crazy in love so much that she can’t bear to leave for a few weeks - then a little bit of distance shouldn’t affect them as much as it did. Also, the impetuousness of just disregarding what your visa says to stay with your boyfriend is really something that I couldn’t get over and, therefore, had difficulty sympathizing with her. At least there are consequences for this behavior... This film won awards at the Sundance Film Festival so I guess it could be nominated for an Oscar or two and, like I said, the acting was good, so I'm glad to have seen it. But I'm also glad I saw it for free.

Fort Lauderdale: Day Two

I don't think I mentioned yesterday how hot it is here. Yes, that's no surprise that southern Florida is hot in the summer but I guess I had gotten used to DC being a little cooler lately so I was somehow kind of expecting the same here. Duh.

Today I slept in late and finished watching a movie that I started last night. I finally went out when I realized I desperately needed food. I headed towards the part of the city I'd been in last night with the restaurants and souvenir shops but next thing I knew, I was walking down Las Olas Blvd, where supposedly there is shopping and restaurants. There definitely are shops and restaurants but I didn't really realize it was about 2 miles from my hotel. So it was a very long walk in the crazy heat when I was starving. I guess I didn't even get halfway to the end but I needed to eat (and drink) something. I ended up stopping at a place called Mango's where I got this amazing grilled chicken sandwich with a mango mayonnaise on it. So yummy, it was a great choice. Luckily, instead of having to walk all the way back (which would have been tough since I had started to get a blister!), I left the restaurant and ran smack into a trolley that runs for only 50 cents and took me back to the beach - in about 5 minutes. Next time I'll have to take the trolley both ways.

I got back to the beach and went directly to lay out on the beach for a couple hours. So nice. It wasn't even too crowded down in front of my hotel. Then I went to the hotel pool, which was fine but inundated with dragonflies (they have some sort of infestation down here - luckily the things seem to avoid humans), not in the sun and pretty small. I guess it's not so bad that the pool is situated in the shadow of the building so it gets no sun but I was hoping to get some sort of suntan.

Back to the room I went and took a shower and then got ready to get some dinner. But first I got sidetracked by the Internet. It hadn't been working at all this morning and I even called but they said the entire hotel was without due to a down server. Pain in the ass. Eventually I headed out and walked south a bit this time and felt relieved that I booked the hotel I did and not another one that I was looking at that had not a great location. I couldn't decide where to eat but there was a lot going on because Fort Lauderdale has this "Saturday Night Alive" thing every Saturday night in the summer. It brings in musicians and street vendors and offers some drink specials at various spots. It was fine but very crowded. It also was odd because there was someone singing and then you'd walk about ten steps and someone else would be performing. As you might guess, yes, you could still here the one that you had just passed. I decided to just go back to my room and order room service. My hotel is hooked up with the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. to get delivery to my room so that's what I did. It took forever, though. When I ordered, I was told 25-30 minutes and after an hour, the food still hadn't come. i called and they said that the weather had been awful with heavy rains and winds... umm what? I opened my curtains and realized it was pouring rain. So much for Saturday Night Alive, I guess.

Anyway, my food eventually came and it was good. I watched a movie and am now exhausted, ready for bed. Two more days in Florida!

Fort Lauderdale: Day One

I've been pretty absent from my blog lately. I'm not really sure why; however, I will blog my vacation!

I was desperately desiring a vacation, especially after not being allowed to take a day off for all of June and most of July while the girl who works for me was off on maternity leave. I couldn't decide where to go, but I knew it needed to be the beach. I investigated Virginia Beach, Ocean City MD, Nag's Head NC, Myrtle Beach SC, the Jersey Shore and Fort Lauderdale. I figured it would be more affordable to go to a spot I could drive to but I ended up finding a really great price for Fort Lauderdale that included airfare so last week I booked it and here I am! I'd been thinking of the trip for awhile but it was all kind of last minute. Who knew I would pick the only location where I was actually going to be able to go to? All those other spots have been evacuated due to Hurricane Irene. I totally lucked out! That's a first in terms of a vacation. I've had to deal with hurricanes and bad weather on several vacations.

I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to get out of DC before the storm hit but I left yesterday morning with no problems. We had to change our flight path a bit and it took longer, but the weather today was gorgeous. My hotel room is pretty decent too. It's just an average hotel room but it seems to have a great location and I lucked out in getting a corner room that actually gives me a view of the ocean. I really wanted to be oceanfront wherever I went but when it came time to paying for an oceanfront room, I decided it wasn't worth the extra price. Well, I guess I got the best of both worlds.

The water here is such a beautiful turquoise blue. I've never seen anything like it, even when I was in Miami and the Caribbean, I don't think. I got to my hotel and checked in and unpacked by about 3 or 3:30. Then, I realized I was starving so I went for a walk to try to find a place to eat. There are bars and restaurants and souvenir shops for several blocks past my hotel, so I think I'm in a great spot. I ended up eating at a place called Da Big Kahuna and hit up a CVS to buy some food for my room and the beach. There's a mini fridge in my room. After eating, I came back to the hotel, checked out the pool area, the gym and the restaurants and then decided to hit the beach. It was like 6:30ish when I went down there so I figured I had about an hour before it got dark and it was great. The beach was empty and the water was great. There are a million shells around and once you hit the water, you only have shallow water for about 3 steps before there is a significant dropoff. That takes some getting used to... but overall, it's been an amazing first day of my trip.

Movie review: Larry Crowne

I had another sneak peek screening this week; this time, it was Larry Crowne, the Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts movie that came out yesterday. I would call it cute. It was a relatively enjoyable movie with a lot of fun, quirky characters and Tom Hanks as charming as always playing a guy (Larry) who loses his job for not having a college degree and decides to change that by enrolling in community college. He learns a lot, inside and outside the classroom. I kind of feel like there were too many fun, quirky characters, more than necessary. You had Larry's neighbors, Larry's coworkers, Larry's classmates, Larry's scooter gang friends... it's a lot of people to share screen time. Besides the story of Larry kind of hitting rock bottom and then growing into a better version of himself, there is the romance with Julia Roberts' character, which I feel is played up in most of the previews but is really the worst part of the movie. It's a very rushed and forced romance. Julia's character is married but I guess we are supposed to forget that because he's kind of a jerk. She's also very disillusioned and cranky, so much so that it's very hard for me to believe that she puts that all aside due to the ten minutes of alone time she spends with Larry. I do think the movie was cute overall and I definitely didn't leave the theater thinking it was a waste of my time but I kind of wish they had left out the romance and just showed how someone can turn lemons into lemonade.

"All-You-Can-Watch MoviePass Brings Netflix Model to Theaters"

This article talks about MoviePass, a new service that is currently being tested in San Francisco, with plans to expand nationally by the fall. It's a service like NetFlix, where you pay one flat rate fee and can get an unlimited amount of movies each month. In this case, though, instead of DVDs shipped to your home it's movies at the theater that you get for $50.

It's an interesting concept but I don't know many people who go to that many movies each month to make it worthwhile. Of course, the benefit for most companies like this is that people buy something and don't use it enough to make it worth their while but keep the subscription anyway. It's not a bad idea and I'm honestly surprised it's taken so long for something like this to be developed.

The article mentions a cheaper service that is under consideration that costs $30/month for access to four movies and I have to say that might be something I would consider, especially if you can start and stop the service as easily as you can with Netflix. There are definitely months (like in the summer or around the Academy Awards) when there are four movies I would want to see. But not all months. Plus, movies cost over $10 here so really as long as you went at least three times you would be saving some money.

Movie review: Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher opens this weekend and I had the chance to watch it on Wednesday at a free advanced screening. I have to say, I laughed really hard. It seems to be getting only average reviews but it's not often that I laugh so consistently throughout a movie so I recommend it. It's crude and Cameron Diaz plays a really despicable person but she's remarkably good at it and does get her comeuppance a few times. She has a rival teacher that you kind of root for, plus Jason Segel, from How I Met Your Mother, is awesome in that his character sees right through Cameron's character.

Well-Read Cities

I came across this article - Cambridge, Mass. tops Amazon's list of 'well-read' cities - and while that's great and all for Cambridge, I couldn't help but notice that number 10 on the list is Arlington, VA, where I live!

National Dump the Pump Day

Apparently today was National Dump the Pump Day, brought to us by the National Public Transportation Association in an effort to promote the use of public transportation. While I did not take public transportation today, I have dumped the pump recently. Something major is wrong with my car and I've been holding off on getting it fixed for awhile, sort of seeing how long I can make it without a car. It's been about six weeks and it's not been bad. I'm lucky that I can walk to work and be there in about 12 minutes. If worse comes to worst (like there's a major storm or something), I do have the option of taking a bus that leaves about a block from my house and drops me off directly across the street from my work.

Probably the times I miss my car the most is on the weekends. I have to run all my errands on foot or by using public transportation and some days it's harder than others. I have a grocery store about two blocks away and another about 8-10 blocks so I go to both regularly. My other most common errand-running is to the library, which is about 4 blocks away. So those two things are pretty easy, although it does mean that I can't buy too much from the grocery store at one time. Hanging out with friends isn't too tough because a few of my friends don't have cars anyway so we usually meet at spots accessible by public transportation. Going shopping or to Target, one of my favorite stores, is the toughest. I wouldn't call myself a shopaholic but I do like to go shopping every once in awhile. There are a couple malls or shopping centers directly off the Metro and I've also discovered a bus that leaves from by my house and goes directly to Tyson's Corner Center, one of the biggest malls in the area. I tried that out a couple weeks ago and it was super easy. There is a Target on a bus route and I did that in early May but had my car been working, I would've been to Target at least a couple more times since then. The Target I like best is not a quick bus ride away, unfortunately. I guess there are worse things than not visiting Target several times a month.

I've found that I actually enjoy taking the bus. It's nicer than taking the train because you are above ground and can actually look out the window and see sights. It's also cheaper. And, it's kind of a neat way to see a new area. Plus, the NextBus system lets you plug in your stop information and see exactly how many minutes away the next bus is... that enables you to stay at home until the last minute and not have to sit at the bus stop waiting.

In sum, I do plan on getting my car fixed soon but I gave up my parking pass at work, so I have given up the pump in that respect. While I walked often even when I had my parking pass, this means I can't drive at all so it will be a bit of an adjustment.

Movie review: Super 8

I saw an advanced screening of Super 8 over the weekend and I enjoyed it. It's sort of a mix of E.T., Stand by Me and the premiere of Lost. Perhaps Goonies-esque, although I've honestly never seen that. It has a lot of funny moments, plus some thriller, mystery and sci-fi. And it stars Kyle Chandler, who I've had a crush on for years thanks to Friday Night Lights. Well, who am I kidding? It's probably more like since Early Edition. Anyway, I recommend it.

Hulu Plus now on Tivo!

They've only been talking about how Hulu Plus would be available on the Tivo Premiere since it was introduced (at least a year) but it's only just this week that it finally IS available. It was announced on the Hulu blog last Monday and said it would take up to ten days until it was available on all machines. Well, it finally showed up on my machine yesterday! I'm such a huge Hulu fan and even though Hulu Plus has a monthly cost ($7.99), I still thought I might be willing to pay it to get all the Hulu videos played on my TV. Now I'm not sure. Because of this introduction to the Tivo, however, you get a free one-month trial so I'll be sure to try it out for that month, at least. I need to time it correctly for maximum TV-viewing. There are a lot of Hulu shows that are not available on Hulu Plus. Then again, there are a lot of shows available on Hulu Plus not available on Hulu. And if it keeps adding more shows, it's a considerably cheaper option than cable, which I've also been thinking about getting. I'll let you know what happens!

Unaired SNL Clip

This showed up in my Hulu queue as a bit that didn't make it to air Saturday on Saturday Night Live - unfortunately. I thought it was funnier than many of the things that did air. Justin Timberlake plays Mozart and the rest of the cast makes fun of him when he decides that he wants to move from music into acting.

Book Review: Bossypants

Bossypants is the new book by Tina Fey. It's more a collection of essays than it is a straightforward autobiography but I thought it would be perfect to listen to while I drove to Ohio and back a few weeks ago. Also, considering I haven't read a book since the first week of January, I thought it would be a good way to ease back into things. (Does listening to an audio book count as reading?) Anyway, it was a good way to ease back into reading. It was perfect for a road trip with enough funny anecdotes to keep me entertained but stories that weren't too long to make me lose concentration. I love comedians who are not afraid of making themselves look like fools and Tina certainly does this. She even includes some embarrassing photos of herself. I think I found most interesting the parts about Saturday Night Live because it gave a little insight to how the show is done. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in some easy reading.

Goodbye to Great Characters

I watched the final season of Friday Night Lights on DVD this week, thanks to the library and my friend's portable DVD player (which let me watch it on the train to Philly). It just started airing on NBC yesterday and I might actually watch some episodes again because it was such a great season. I am going to miss those characters so much; I was pretty much crying non-stop through the entire last episode. It took me back to the finale of Lost last year... and makes me wonder how I'm going to feel when One Life to Live goes off the year next year. If I get that worked up about characters I've known 5 or 6 years, how will I handle saying good-bye to characters I've known for nearly 40 years? Crazy.

I Want One: Inflatable Outdoor Color Dot Game

Okay, I don't really want one. It's outrageously overpriced and I don't even have a yard but how fun does this look? It's outdoor Twister. (via)

Cavs game

I went to the Cavs-Wizards game last night here in DC and actually had a really good seat without it even costing too much, thanks to Groupon. I watched the game on TV when I got home and saw myself on TV! It was just a few plays and I knew where I was sitting so I doubt anyone else could see me but I was pretty excited. I am a TV star, ha ha. Anyway, here are some pics from this game (click below for more pics) and the one I went to in December in Cleveland. Both were losses, which I know is shocking considering how many games the Cavs have won all season.

Cavs Games 2010-11 season

Dwight Howard gets it - mostly

Dwight Howard, of the Orlando Magic, was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon this past week and they talked about his impending free agency... and how another former free agent who is also now playing in Florida handled things.

Mount Vernon

I had a LivingSocial coupon for Mount Vernon, George Washington's house, that expired on March 31 so I headed down there to use it before it expired. I'd never been there but had been planning on going at some point. The coupon enabled me to make that happen for cheaper!

The only problems with going in March is that it was still pretty chilly, none of the crops were in bloom, and some of the features do not operate in the winter. However, overall, it was really nice, with the best part definitely being the property's view. The view is just gorgeous, right on the river; it's no wonder he lived there for like 50 years. There are vegetable gardens, flower gardens, (most of which were not in bloom at all) and livestock.

You go through the mansion on a guided tour so you aren't free to just roam around aimlessly or take pictures. Besides the main mansion, there are a lot of other buildings around, like the greenhouse, the slave quarters, the laundry house, the smokehouse, the garages, the stables, etc... There is also the crypt. George is in the tomb on the right, Martha on the left (that you can barely see).


You also can walk down to the dock and get really close to the water and also see his sixteen-sided barn, which was one many agricultural inventions he apparently had.

I didn't take a lot of pictures but it was pretty cool and wanted to share. It's like a little piece out of the 18th century nestled away outside of 21st century life. Someday I might go again because I didn't really have time to walk through the museum part of it and might take advantage of some of the things that are only available April to October.

Tivo Frustration

I've been a Tivo user for almost two years and have been a huge fan of theirs, praising them to everyone who will listen, but a couple of days ago, my Tivo box died. And since then, I've had a lot of drama involving the company. Like, I've found that their customer service kinda sucks.

Let me start at the beginning. My old box (I have two) started acting crazy on like Tuesday of this week. Quite honestly, it had a couple of little hiccups that led me believe it was aging. But, I had moved it into my bedroom and I don't watch or record things in my bedroom much at all so I wasn't worried. But, on Tuesday, I turned on the TV while I was getting ready for work and the "Welcome" screen was on. The "Welcome" screen comes on when the Tivo is powering up. So, I was confused - had the power gone out? I didn't think much of it until I came home from work and the "Welcome" screen was still on. I unplugged it and then it seemed to boot fine. On Weds. morning, the "Welcome" screen was on again so that day I checked out the Tivo online support site, found a resolution and all seemed fine. By Thursday evening, I had had to "fix" it a few more times and suddenly it wasn't booting up at all. It would go through the actions and then right when it got to the main menu screen, back to the "Welcome" screen it would go. Uh oh.

So, Friday, I called tech support. The guy I talked to, Dennis, was very nice and helpful but told me that it was dead. He suggested I could exchange it for a new machine for $149 or perhaps get it repaired (which I later found out cost $279). I had just a few weeks ago purchased service for it for a year, so I was concerned about getting that money back or getting that service moved to another machine. He said that service could probably be transferred to a new machine of the same type but not a newer model. Otherwise, I would be out the $99 service fee I'd paid. I wasn't happy with any of those options. I don't want to have to fork over any money. But, Dennis gave me time to think about my options.

Saturday, I happened to pull up my online account and saw the words "Eligible for 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee" next to the service details for my broken box. Which, I assumed, meant I could get my money back for this $99 service. Hooray! Well, my account is charged on the 12th of each month so I assumed today was the 30th day of that guarantee (a guarantee that Dennis didn't mention at all). So I called customer support again. I got put through to someone named Steve who very rudely told me that he couldn't do anything for me while their system was down for a few hours. "Call back in a couple of hours," he said. Umm, thanks? How about taking my phone number and calling me when your system comes back up? Wouldn't that be good customer service? Or, god forbid, listening to my problem and seeing if it can be answered without the system? I tried that approach and he basically hung up on me.

So, a couple hours passed and I called back and wouldn't you know I got Steve again. When he asked me how my evening was going, I was so tempted to say "Not so great since you were so rude to me a couple of hours ago," but I refrained. So, Steve is clearly a sales guy and in order to give me that money back, first he's going to go through every other option available to me that involves me keeping my service. He mentioned at least 6 options - none of which were the ones that Dennis had mentioned the day before, by the way. Steve kept going on about how if I didn't want to keep the service, then I should sell my box to a friend or family member. I'm like, "The box doesn't work!!" Then, he suggested I put the box on Craigslist. Again, I had to remind him that the box is broken. He seemed to think the box was still very valuable despite being broken because people pay for the service on the box. Whatever. He was driving me a little crazy. So we get to a point where I ask if he can send me something listing all the options he's laid out for me because there were so many. He gets all defensive and says he most certainly cannot send me the options. He explains to me that their privacy settings prevent him from contacting me - even though he had read off my email address at the beginning of the conversation as a way of proving who I was. When I pointed this out to him, he insisted he wasn't allowed to contact me. Whatever. So I asked him to go through those options again and he only gave me two and then seemed to be in a big hurry to get rid of me. It was really rude, honestly. The only thing he did that was nice was extend my 30-day guarantee so that I would have until April 11 to make a decision. The call was kind of exhausting, truth be told. Steve was kind of a jerk and I still had a broken machine and was out $99.

I hung up, unsure what I was going to do. Sunday, my Tivo box was laying in my living room because I had unplugged it on Friday immediately after Dennis told me it was dead. Somehow, I got the idea to test the box on my living room TV. I guess the thought I had was that the power strip in my bedroom had problems. I hooked it up in the living room and of course it didn't load. But then, a few hours after I had plugged it in, I happened to check it and it was working! I couldn't believe it. It worked the rest of the day. Right before bedtime, I moved it back into my bedroom. And it worked immediately there too. And this morning, it was still working.

So I had all this drama with the customer support for nothing! It's so bizarre. It worries me that the box was acting funny once, so how long before it acts up again? Clearly there is SOMETHING wrong with it. Luckily, I do have until April to figure out what to do. Maybe I should take advantage of one of the options presented to me after all and get a new box? Such a roller coaster ride.

Loving Redbox

I just started using Redbox to rent movies pretty frequently in the last month or two, thanks to free rental coupons and a Groupon I bought that gave me three rentals for $1.00. And it's so easy and cool that I can't believe it took me so long and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it and wants to rent movies! I won't be giving up Netflix anytime soon but since I downgraded to one movie out at a time, there are definitely times when I want a certain movie NOW and Redbox comes in very handy for that. It probably helps that there is a grocery store 2 blocks away that has two Redbox machines and is open 24 hours a day, so it really can't get much more convenient. But it's nice that you can check the inventory of all boxes easily online so before I head out to the grocery store, I can see if they even have the movie I'm looking for. Or, maybe go somewhere else. And you can reserve online. And, you can return a movie anywhere - it doesn't have to be returned to the box where you got it. I've used all these features.

Charlie Sheen Fired

I don't know why I'm now posting twice in a few days about Charlie Sheen because truth be told, I'm barely following all the drama... but I came across the full text of the document the CBS lawyers sent firing Charlie and it's awesome. It's eleven pages of trying to prove how he's violated his contract and then ten full pages of references to his craziness from articles and interviews about him, most of which he conducted himself. It's a great read seriously. (via)

Charlie Sheen is ruining my favorite baseball player

As is most of America, I'm intrigued/baffled/obsessed/horrified with Charlie Sheen. Not enough to be one of the millions following him on Twitter or to watch his live web broadcast but enough to watch/listen to some of his various interviews. During a lot of the interviews, he can be seen wearing an Indians hat or jersey, which I find awful (doesn't Cleveland have enough sports woes?) but I chalk it up to his appearance in Major League over 20 years ago. However, during last night's Dateline NBC coverage, I discovered that it's not just the fictional Indians he's a fan of, it's the real Indians too! See the video below, in the shot below and then starting at about 1:11 in the video... notice the baseball jersey hanging in the background on the right of the screen. Lofton, #7. It's Kenny Lofton's Indians jersey!! Only my favorite Indians player ever. Ugh. Then I found out, too, that Charlie invited Kenny over to watch Major League with him and other baseball players a few weeks ago. Kenny, get away fast!!!

Oscar documentaries

The last few years, I'd managed to watch one of the Oscar-nominated documentaries before the telecast and it turned out to be the winner. This year, I watched three of them so I won't be surprised if one of the other two is the one that wins. Ha ha. Actually, I've heard Inside Job is the favorite and that isn't one I watched.

The three I watched were: Exit Through the Gift Shop, GasLand, and Restrepo. Of those three, I would award the first. It told an interesting story, plus the director is a secret figure so I am curious to see what would happen if it wins - who would accept the award?

By the way, I came across this article that details what will happen at the Oscars, segment by segment, so when it starts to run over, you can see how far over it is.

I Want One: Cherry Sweater

I know it's got an extra "e" but this sweater is perfect for me! Too bad it's $360. (via)

Catalog Withdrawal

This sounds super lame, sure, but I'm going through withdrawal because my local public library is switching its library catalog this week and it's been unavailable to patrons since Sunday. I check the catalog like ten times a day, at least, especially when I have books or movies on hold so I can see where I am on the list. And it's killing me to get the black message of doom that taunts me with "The catalog is not available."

Movie review: Just Go With It

I got a chance to see an advance screening of the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston comedy Just Go With It on Thursday and I enjoyed it. It had a lot of funny moments, more than what you see in the previews. Jennifer's character is really likable and her two kids in the movie are real finds. Sure, there's a lot of over-the-topness because the whole premise of the movie is built on Adam's character lying about being married and of course, one lie piles on another and so on... But as long as you don't analyze it too much (my friend & I started to) and just go with it (ha ha), I think it's pretty good. Predictable, yes, but still pretty good. My only complaint is that Adam seems to be talking to the women's breasts the entire movie and I found that pretty annoying. Maybe he isn't, maybe he's just not making eye contact but it certainly looks like that's what he's doing. And I guess that would be in character for him to do that but then again, it would also be in Jennifer's character to call him out for that and she didn't.

New Year's Resolution

The month of January is drawing to an end and I thought before it got too far into the new year, I should record some of my resolutions or goals for the year. So here they are in no particular order.

1.) Exercise more.
2.) Read more.
3.) Stop watching so much TV.
4.) Travel someplace(s) new.
5.) See a Broadway show.
6.) Don't let work stress me out.
7.) Go to bed earlier.
8.) Walk to work more (that could fulfill #1 too!)
9.) Find a new job.
10.) Put myself out there for more dating opportunities.

Yuck?

Umm, this is called the Tampon Organic Catnip Crocheted Toy. What a bizarre idea. (via)

Christmas movie review: 2010 Wrap-Up

I had one more I was going to try to watch this week but who knows when I'll get to it so instead I'll just do my wrap-up post. Not a good year for Christmas movies, with nothing scoring higher than an A-. That's never happened before.

A-
The Christmas Blessing
James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffanys
Unanswered Prayers
Holiday Baggage

B+
A Dog Named Christmas

B
On Strike for Christmas
Home for the Holidays
Christmas on Chestnut Street
November Christmas

B-
Christmas Cupid
Christmas Crash
A Dad for Christmas

C+
The Christmas Clause

C
The Ultimate Christmas Present

C-
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Blessing

The Christmas Blessing is one of those CBS ones that now airs regularly on Lifetime. I'm not sure if I had seen it but it's sort of a sequel to The Christmas Shoes, which I watched and reviewed in 2007. The young boy in The Christmas Shoes is now all grown up and the main character, played by Neil Patrick Harris, of The Christmas Blessing. Neil's character has become a doctor but when he loses a patient he heads back to his hometown to reconsider his career and reconnect with his father. While Neil's character reminisces about his deceased mother all the time, his father is having difficulty moving on and is trying desperately not to wallow in his grief all the time - a task that is made difficult when Neil shows up. Neil volunteers at a playground and meets a sick motherless kid, which reminds him of himself. He also meets a teacher, played by Rebecca Gayheart, who also ends up sick. What cheeriness!

Despite the depressing subject matter and overlooking some major story holes (At least 20 years has passed since the events in The Christmas Shoes but these characters carry on as if it happened yesterday - or 3 years ago. Another glaring problem is that Rob Lowe looks EXACTLY the same despite the time passed - they didn't even try to age him.), this is pretty good. It's well-acted, touching and emotional. It definitely ranks as one of the better ones I watched this year, although truth be told this was a bad crop.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: A Dog Named Christmas

A Dog Named Christmas aired on CBS last year and sat on my Tivo for a full year before I finally got around to watching it. It's about a young man, Todd, who is mentally slow so still living on a farm with his parents. He loves animals and hears a story on the radio about the local animal shelter asking residents to take in dogs for the holiday season while their staffing is low. The dogs can be returned on December 26. Todd begs his parents to let him adopt a Christmas dog and finally they relent, despite the fact that the prospect of having a dog brings back Vietnam flashbacks for Todd's dad. Don't ask. Of course, once the dog arrives - nameless, they call him "Christmas" - everyone settles in and loves the dog and he changes the family. The dog protects the family and when they return it to the shelter, it escapes and comes running back to the farm, where they all lived happily ever after.

I enjoyed the movie - the CBS ones tend to be pretty good - but it was very slow-moving. Very slow-moving.

Rating - B+

Christmas movie review: On Strike for Christmas

On Strike for Christmas debuted this year starring Daphne Zuniga and David Sutcliffe. I give it props for a unique story, for sure. Daphne is a mom of two teenage boys who finds herself doing all Christmas preparations by herself. Her husband shows up like a week before Christmas and announces his department Christmas party will be at their house this year... and offers zero assistance in putting the party on. She's had enough and, inspired by local picketers, decides to go on strike. She refuses to do any of the Christmas preparation until she gets help from her men. Other women like her idea and follow her cause. Meanwhile, the men try to bake cookies and do other holiday tasks and have a gigantic failure. Of course, eventually the men figure out what's what and manage to pull stuff together and the mom kind of realizes that Christmas doesn't have to be perfect. And they have a happy Christmas. It wasn't a bad story and, like I said, it was original. But some of it was so over-the-top stupid. And, honestly, I can't really blame her for being fed up but maybe she shouldn't have let the men get away with doing ABSOLUTELY nothing for 18 years.

Rating: B

Christmas movie review: James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffanys

James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffanys, starring Alyssa Milano, was new this year and was based on the book by James Patterson (obviously). I recorded this movie and then was looking through my books for something to read and saw that I actually owned the book so I both read it and watched it in the last couple of weeks.

The plot of both is that a young girl is basically ignored by her workaholic mother so she has an imaginary friend, or at least she does until she's 10 when the imaginary friend must leave. Apparently, that's just one of many rules of the imaginary friend. Twenty years later, they happen to meet up again in New York, where she is shocked to find that he's not so imaginary. Yes, there's a level of fantasy involved in the plot but I love the idea. Neither can figure out why he has shown up in her life again. She's engaged to someone else but remembers the times she shared with the imaginary friend so they slowly reconnect and then it turns into a love triangle. It's only incidentally a Christmas movie as it's one of those that just happens to take place during the holiday season. Ironically, the book doesn't take place at the same time of year - so it was an interesting choice by the filmmakers. However, considering the magic involved in the story, it was a wise choice.

Overall, I liked this movie. It was sweet and magical and well-acted. I didn't agree with some of the changes from the book, though, mostly involving the imaginary friend character. In the book, the friend is like a 35-year-old man and when he shows up 20 years later, he is still a 35-year-old man. In the movie, he's her age as an imaginary friend and then grows up at a regular pace and is her age when he shows up again. I get that it's kind of odd to have a young girl hanging out with a 35-year-old, but the change meant that she didn't recognize him and that he basically turned into a stalker. Plus, in the book, it's like the character gets these various imaginary friend assignments and does them but lives a life between assignments. In the movie, it was like the imaginary friend had no idea what life was, like he was a naive young baby. I thought the dynamic in the book was much better. But, overall, the movie worked and I enjoyed it.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: Christmas Cupid

Christmas Cupid debuted on ABC Family this year and is this year's version of A Christmas Carol, where an awful person is visited by ghosts of the past, present & future and comes to realize that they need to change pronto. In this case, Christina Milian plays a celebrity PR person who blows off her family and friends in order to make partner at the firm. She's also dating the son of the owner, presumably because she thinks it will get her the promotion. Her biggest client, a young Hollywood starlet who likes to party, dies and gives us our Jacob Marley. The starlet proceeds to show up to Christina's character throughout the movie to both help and warn her. Mixed in with all the work drama is an old flame - a nice guy - that resurfaces who she uses to make her current guy jealous. In fact, a lot of the past/present/future visits involve her love life. Obviously, you can't lose with A Christmas Carol story but some of these have been done better than others and I would put this on the lower end. It seems manic, unorganized, boring, and, quite honestly, I think it suffers from bad acting by Christina Milian. I've liked her in other things but not this.

Rating: B-

Christmas movie review: Unanswered Prayers

Based on the lyrics of a Garth Brooks song, Unanswered Prayers is a pretty good movie but, to be honest, it doesn't really qualify as a holiday film. Maybe a Thanksgiving film (it ends with Thanksgiving dinner) but definitely not Christmas. But, Lifetime did debut it at this time of the year so I'll go with it. It does have the feel of a holiday film. It's about a man who is married with a high school aged son who seems to still be hung up on his high school girlfriend. Actually, I think he's still hung up on high school as he is reliving his high school football career through his son. When the high school girlfriend shows up back in town for her mother's funeral, the guy finds himself spending more and more time with her, to the detriment of his marriage. It's one of those where you think you the grass is always greener... but maybe it isn't. Overall, it's good because I'm sure it's something we can all relate to plus it's well-acted and poignant. Christmas movie or not, I'd recommend it.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: The Christmas Clause

The Christmas Clause sat on my Tivo (well, technically I moved it to my laptop) for a year before I finally got around to watching it. It had some potential; for instance, star Lea Thompson is a top draw for us children of the 80s and its plot is one of the most tried and true Christmas stories - that of the person who makes a wish, gets what they wish for and then realizes things weren't so bad pre-wish. That can be a great, great plotline. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't work at all. It's very disjointed, like they had a bunch of scenes they wanted to film but didn't have an editor. We didn't get a very clear picture of what things were like pre-wish so that we could compare them to post-wish. For example, she wasn't a very loving mother or loving wife pre-wish so do we really buy that she would miss her children or husband? In fact, the entire story post-wish is her trying to get her husband back. Overall, it probably wasn't as bad as the rating indicates but it had such great potential that it was disappointing.

Rating: C+

Christmas movie review: Christmas Crash

Christmas Crash stars Michael Madsen and tells the story of a long married couple who are on the brink of divorce. He is a workaholic; she is fed up. It's Christmastime and they go on their annual trip to their cabin and while there, he takes her up in his private plane in an attempt to rekindle their love. While flying, the plane has trouble and crashes into the lake. He's hurt and she has to help him as they walk to the road to try to find help. In the time (days) it takes to walk to safety, they of course rekindle their love. No shock there. That part of the movie was fine. It wasn't all that interesting but it wasn't all that horrible either. Once the couple gets rescued, however, this whole big conspiracy comes out that the plane crash wasn't just an accident but that the guy's business cohorts were trying to kill him. Crazy. The last part happens over the course of about 5 minutes; in other words, it basically comes out of nowhere. Overall, a very stupid plot point that ruined an okay movie.

Rating: B-

Christmas movie review: Home for the Holidays

Not to be confused with the movie of the same name starring Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr., this Home for the Holidays is a made-for-TV holiday film starring Sean Young. And, she is mighty mighty distracting. Whether her hair is a wig or not, how she is such a bad actress, why she is wearing so much eye makeup all the time - these are the questions you can't stop asking yourself while you are watching this movie. And, it's too bad because in general it's not a bad story.

The movie's plot is that three young children lose their parents in a car accident and their aunt (Sean Young) steps up to take care of them. The youngest boy is so traumatized he won't speak. The parents mortgaged their farm to the hilt, leaving their home in jeopardy. The aunt barely makes ends meet on her own with only a part-time job in the local antiques store (more distracting questions arise from that!). Finally, the aunt gets the idea to move the farmhouse off the farm so the kids can keep their childhood home and the whole city pitches in to help them move it. It's a sweet story, honestly. Plus, another saving grace in the film is the social worker, who in a side story, becomes way too involved in this case that she gets yelled at by her supervisor all the time.

Overall, it's getting a higher grade than it probably deserves because the major downfall is the casting of Sean Young.

Rating: B

Christmas movie review: A Dad for Christmas

A Dad for Christmas debuted a few years ago but I hadn't yet seen it. It was average. It's about a college boy who gets his teenage girlfriend pregnant and has delusions of the two of them raising the baby together, but the girlfriend wants to give the baby up for adoption. When the boy is unable to convince her otherwise, he steals the baby and runs away to live with his estranged grandmother. At first there are complications - the grandmother isn't thrilled to have them living there, for instance. Eventually, everyone grows into their roles and the grandmother and the boy decide to sue for custody of the baby. Not a bad story but no better than average. Predictable. Not-so-great acting. Typical happy ending. And, it was only incidentally about Christmas, which drives me insane as a fan of holiday movies. Don't throw in a few scenes of Christmas celebration and call it a holiday movie.

Rating: B-

Christmas movie review: Holiday Baggage

Holiday Baggage is something I don't remember ever having been on the schedule before but it's from 2008. It stars Cheryl Ladd and Barry Bostwick as a long-estranged married couple who find themselves thrown together again at Christmastime when Barry's character finds himself in ill health and has nowhere to go. For reasons that are never really explained, Barry & Cheryl's characters separated long ago but never divorced. Barry's character has found a young woman he wants to marry so he tracks down his wife to get her to sign the papers, which is when he falls ill. He temporarily moves into her house and must deal with the wrath of his daughter, who he basically abandoned when she was young. By having him in the house, he gets to know his daughters again, helps them all bring Christmas into their lives again, and grows into a more understanding person. It's slightly predictable but it's well-acted, touching, and heartwarming. Pretty good.

Rating: A-

Christmas movie review: Christmas on Chestnut Street

Christmas on Chestnut Street airs on Lifetime (and is actually available to watch online for a limited time). It's about a guy, Lou, who lives at home with his dad (who has dementia) and mom and works at a department store with kind of a jerky boss. The boss's daughter has come to work at the store for the holidays and she is a girl with a plan. She has her life all planned out. When an inventory mistake leaves the store with tons of extra lights, the store comes up with a promotion to sell lights by offering one free hour of shopping to whoever has the best light display on their house. So the neighborhoods go crazy with their light displays. The boss's daughter decides to help Lou win the contest so he can donate the time to charity so the store doesn't have to worry about losing money to greedy shoppers. I'm not sure why the contest only boils down to Chestnut Street (are there no other streets in the neighborhood?) but there's lots of insane light displays which is kind of fun. Of course, Lou and the boss's daughter start to fall in love somehow. It's kind of an out-of-nowhere love story but overall, the story isn't bad, the acting is bearable and I enjoyed it more than many of the year's holiday viewings so I may be rating it higher than I would in another year but I definitely would rate it slightly above average.

Rating: B

Christmas movie review: The Ultimate Christmas Present

This is going to be tough because I'm going to try to fit in all these reviews before the month ends and I watched some of these movies weeks ago so who knows what I remember, but here goes.

The Ultimate Christmas Present is a made-for-TV movie from 2000 about two preteen girls who stumble upon and steal a weather machine and make a major blizzard hit Los Angeles right before Christmas. What starts off as a fun snow day or two becomes problematic when the one girl's dad is stranded away from home and the mother's catering clients keep canceling. On top of that, two of Santa's elves are helping Santa track down the stolen weather machine and a jealous meteorologist is also on the trail. It's pretty over the top stupid but it's a movie made for kids so I guess that's to be expected.

Rating: C

Book Review: Unbearable Lightness

In the midst of holiday preparations and Christmas movie watching, I read Portia de Rossi's Unbearable Lightness. Portia is an actress, probably best known for Ally McBeal or Arrested Development. She is also married to Ellen DeGeneres. The book sort of covers her whole life but really focuses on a few years in her twenties when she was first cast on Ally McBeal and had a major eating disorder. She got down to less than 90 pounds and was really resistant to efforts of help. It was fascinating to sort of get in the mind of someone who has an eating disorder, how little she ate, how much she exercised, the delusion. I thought there would be more about her life as an actress or her coming out as a lesbian but it really focused primarily on the eating disorder. It's definitely required reading for anyone who thinks they might know someone who has an eating disorder.

I Want One: Pajamas Warming Pouch

Okay I don't really want one but how awesome would it be to put on your pajamas every night and have them be all warm and toasty thanks to this pajamas warming pouch!! So awesome. (via)

Christmas movie review: How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale

How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale apparently is from 2000 but when it was airing on Lifetime this weekend, there was some banner on the screen that it was premiering then so I'm not sure where it aired originally. I certainly had never heard of it before. It stars John Stamos, Shemar Moore and Josh Malina as three guys who decide that they want to marry rich before Christmas. Females do it all the time so why can't guys do it? I think they owe money to a loan shark or something. John Stamos is most successful and he finds a girl who is infinitely annoying but quite wealthy and proposes to her within a few days (at least it seems that way). Meanwhile, he has met an artist on the beach who he kind of likes but assumes is a poor, struggling artist so doesn't give her a shot. Shocker, she isn't. It's a really, really predictable and borderline stupid movie that even John Stamos' good looks and charm cannot save. I guess it's based (loosely, I'm assuming) on the Marilyn Monroe movie, How to Marry a Millionaire. It gets a pretty low grade because of its predictability and it being only incidentally about Christmas.

Rating: C-

Christmas movie review: November Christmas

The description on my Tivo says it all to describe the plot: A community works together to help a couple bring an early Christmas to their sick 8-year-old daughter. John Corbett & Sarah Paulson play the parents of the sick little girl who are worried she won't make it through the rest of the year so they celebrate Halloween in August and then Christmas in November, with the help of a very amazing community who is willing to go along for the ride just to help the little girl. It's a great cast - besides those two, it also stars Sam Elliott and Karen Allen - and a sweet story but somehow it never fully got me involved as a viewer, perhaps because it was quite slow-moving. A library plays a prominent role in the film, too, so you think I would give it higher marks solely for that reason, but I will give it a solid "B".

Rating: B

Movie Review: Black Swan

This isn't a Christmas Movie review, just a regular movie review (although the Christmas movies are piling up on my Tivo)... I got the chance to see Black Swan about a week ago and it's sort of taken me that long to decide whether or not I liked it. I think I did. It's a psychological thriller so it tries to mess with your head and spook you and it certainly did do that. But, wow, it's really stuck with me this last week. I've heard Oscar buzz for Natalie Portman and she really did do an amazing job but I'll be honest that it doesn't really strike me as an Oscar-type movie. The plot is that Natalie's character is a star ballerina who is obsessed with perfection and gets the lead role in Swan Lake. She is asked to be both the perfect white swan character and the evil, manipulative black swan. She really struggles capturing the black swan part of the job because she is so focused on perfection. Meanwhile, she is convinced that another dancer is trying to steal her role. Her mom is a scary stage mom type. And the ballet's director is constantly pushing her. The whole thing is really over-the-top, yet also enjoyable.

2010 Holiday Movie Reviews

Any regular reader of my blog knows that I love Christmas movies and regularly provide reviews of them at this time of year. Which I will do again this year but there is one small obstacle I'll have to overcome... I no longer have access to the Hallmark Channel. And, 80% of each year's new Christmas movies are broadcast on the Hallmark Channel - it's the "biggest holiday destination on television," according to this press release. It looks like they have 11 new movies debuting during this holiday season and some of them sound really good. So, I will have to review all of the new movies that air on other channels (Lifetime, ABC Family, CBS) plus I'll possibly review any older movies that I might have missed along the way and who knows, maybe I'll be able to find some of the Hallmark movies on iTunes or YouTube or something. Or have a friend who has the Hallmark Channel record some for me. Or, maybe AT&T Uverse will resolve its issues with Hallmark and get the network back on its schedule. So, in sum, I guess this is kind of a warning that there may be fewer movies reviewed this year, my fifth year of doing these reviews.

Groupon

I used my first Groupon today! It was a spend $25, get $50 coupon for The Gap and it expired today, which is probably the only reason I used it because I have bought quite a few others and have yet to use any of them. I just tend to forget that I have them. Or, as was the case with this one, I printed it out and proceeded to misplace it for like 2 months. Anyway, it was quite a deal because it's basically like getting $25 free. I bought this dress (pictured below). I think it looks cuter in person than it does in the picture and looks really good on me so I'm excited. It was either that or two sweaters that were both on sale so the total was just over $50 but I figured that I already have so many sweaters so the dress was a better option. Very pleased!

Cool site: I Can't Find My Phone

I can't tell you how many times I misplace my phone and when I'm with someone and that happens, the first thing they always say is "Do you want me to call you?" You know, so that the ringing of the phone might help me find it. This site, therefore, is perfect for those times when I am alone. And clearly I'm not alone in having a need for this site.

Of course, the problem for me is that I almost always have my phone on vibrate so even when it rings, it's not like I can hear it.

Shopping Trip

I'd been in the mood to go shopping for a few weeks now but haven't really had the time, until today. I headed to the mall this evening with my 30% off everything pass for the Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic and got some really good deals. I spent $170 and got two dresses, four sweaters, three t-shirts, a pair of shoes, yoga pants and a fleece jacket. Not bad for a few hours, right? Not only that but shopping raises my endorphins.

Currently Reading: L.A. Candy

Should I be embarrassed that I'm reading L.A. Candy? Not only is it a teen book but it's written by The Hills star Lauren Conrad. I'm curious and it should be a quick read, so don't judge me!

I've Got a Good Feeling About This-Wheel of Fortune-2010

This clip from Wheel of Fortune is making its way around the Internet and it is pretty remarkable that she was able to guess the puzzle with only one letter revealed. However, if she had a feeling that she knew what the puzzle was as she claims... why not pick a letter that appears more than once in the puzzle to 1.) truly verify that her feeling was correct and 2.) win herself more money. "G" would have been a good choice. Sometimes I'm baffled by the strategy of these Wheel players.

Re: Lebron James Nike "Rise" Commercial

Yeah yeah, everyone thinks Cleveland should get over it already but that doesn't mean we can't still make jokes about it. This "response" video to Lebron's newest Nike commercial is funny. (via)

Cool site: Wakerupper

I haven't tried Wakerupper but it seems like it could be useful. You fill in the information of when you want a call, including a message if desired, and lo and behold your phone will ring at that designated time. You can use it for an alarm or a reminder or my favorite uses from the Web site - "Escape from a boring date or meeting" and "Remind child or spouse to do chores." Cool.

Book Review: Addition

Our book club met tonight and the book was Addition by Toni Jordan. It tells the story of a girl who is obsessive-compulsive about numbers. She counts everything she owns and times everything out to the minute. Her life is very controlled and borderline insane. She's lost her job and can barely function in society at times. Then she meets a guy (she steals his banana at the grocery store because she had an uneven amount of bananas) who is willing to put up with her wackiness but also suggests she go to a therapist, who promptly puts her on some drug therapy and sends her to group sessions. Slowly, she becomes "better" and turns into a TV addict, gains a lot of weight and barely remains conscious. But at least she doesn't count things anymore!! I guess it plays into the definition of what's healthy and what isn't healthy. One day, she kind of just snaps out of it (there is a reason I guess but it's really not worth getting into) and dumps the boyfriend, dumps the pills and gets back to who she was and finds out life wasn't so bad with her OCD. It's kind of an odd book, difficult to read at times when she's in full-on OCD mode and none of us particularly liked it. Bottom line, I do not recommend it.

Rally wrap-up & other weekend events

I had a busy weekend! I went to see David Alan Grier do stand-up on Friday night. He was funny but that was expected. I thought the opening act, Brian Parise, was really funny too.

Saturday was the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and that turned into a very long day. I left my house at 8:45am and planned to Metro downtown but it was already ridiculously crowded and we had to wait awhile before a train came through the station that actually could fit us. Then, our train was a couple of stops away from the Mall and one of the doors malfunctioned so it was taken out of service - but only after we were all packed like sardines in the stopped train for about 15 minutes while they diagnosed the problem. Luckily we could walk from that point very easily and my other friend was on the train directly behind us so once they took that train out of service, she met up with us in no time. The Mall was already super crowded but we managed to find space and sit down. It only got more and more crowded by the time the Rally started at noon.

Overall, I liked the rally but it was more political than I expected. I wanted more funny. But apparently I was in the minority because most people there seemed to expect it to be all about politics, considering all the crazy signs people made and the fact that people traveled from all over the country to attend the rally. I've loved Jon Stewart for nearly 20 years and I will continue to love him but I won't lie that I was a little disappointed in the rally. The musical acts were pretty awesome though. Here are some clips from the event.

After the rally, my friends & I decided to stay downtown and get some food to avoid all the crowds heading home on the Metro. But apparently everyone had that idea because every place we went to had ridiculously long lines, even when we wandered a few Metro stops away from the Rally. We ended up at this place called the Banana Cafe and it was really good (don't let the circa 1995 Web site fool you) so I'm glad we decided to wait it out for an hour or so. By the time I got home after eating, it was after 7pm. A long, long day.

Today was a friend's birthday so she had a potluck brunch so that meant I had to get up and make something and be at her house by noon. Turns out all we did at her house was watch the Rally, which she had DVR'd. I guess I was lucky because most people had difficulty hearing anything at the Rally. Well, judging by the sample size at the brunch. But, then again, no one else got there anywhere near as early as I did.

After the brunch, I had a couple errands to run and didn't get home until about 6pm. This is my least favorite kind of weekend, where I'm barely home at all. It makes it worse when I am busy during the week after a weekend like that and right now I have plans for this coming Monday night, Weds. night, Thursday night and Saturday night. Something in my schedule might have to change.

Three Day Weekend

It's Saturday morning, I just slept in and I have a 3-day weekend ahead of me! It's not that unusual that I have a 3-day weekend thanks to our work flex schedules (although usually I have a Friday off) but it has been awhile that I've had three days ahead of me without any plans. The next two weekends will be busy for me so I guess I should make the most of this downtime!

One thing I definitely have to do is find out if there's something wrong with my car. I failed the state inspection because I needed new bushings and finally got them replaced yesterday (goodbye $550) but on my drive home from work last night, I heard this weird clunking noise that hadn't been there before. It was late (I'd had dinner with a friend) and it's only 1/2 mile to my house so maybe I was hearing things but I need to check it out and see if that noise continues and, if so, take it back to the stupid shop as soon as possible. Ugh.

Another must is that I need to clean. I've been busy the last couple of weeks and I realized when I got home last night that my apartment is quite the disaster area all of a sudden. In fact, as I sit here on the couch, I realize there is barely a clear walkable path in my living room. Stuff just has a habit of piling up. Ugh.

Otherwise, I think I'm going to watch a movie or two, read, go for some walks, play on the Wii, maybe hit up a mall (or maybe just unpack my winter clothes that have been stored away) and lay low.

Movie Review: 127 Hours

I went to a free advance screening of 127 Hours this past week and it was followed by a Q&A session with its director Danny Boyle, who is probably most well-known as the Academy Award-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire. The whole experience was amazing.

The movie tells the true story of Aron Ralston, who made news in 2003 when he got trapped while hiking in Utah and ultimately had to cut off his own hand in order to free himself. He was trapped for 127 hours, so over 5 days. I realize that's nothing compared to the Chilean miners' 69 days but it's an equally fascinating story.

Because Aron was trapped all alone in such a remote area, the filmmaker decided to film it as it happened and not intersperse it with any sort of outside story. So, basically after about 15-20 minutes, the movie depicts Aron's entrapment and that's all. It's pretty intense and James Franco is so fantastic in it. The movie and James' performance has really stuck with me ever since I saw it. I'd be shocked if he's not nominated for an Oscar.

The Q&A with the author was pretty cool but unfortunately they took questions from the audience and most people had really stupid questions. It would have been nice if they had done some pre-screening. "Why did you decide to use humor when Aron was trapped?" (Gee, I don't know, to break up the seriousness!!) "It seems like you spend a lot of time picking out music in your movies. Do you?" (Yes, don't all filmmakers?) I watched the Q&A session videos for a similar screening in Boston and Boyle said a lot of the same things, so if you're interested, I'd watch...

If not, I'd definitely recommend the movie!

Catching up

Look ma, I updated my blog! It's been a long time coming but I'm done traveling for the time being and had a fantastic four-day holiday weekend where I purposely made few plans so it's one major project I got out of the way. There will probably be more tweaks but I like what I've done so far, should have done this a long time ago.

With all the traveling (5 trips in about 6 weeks), this was my first full weekend home since mid-August, minus one weekend in September when I luckily had no trips scheduled but had a very bad cold. Three of the five trips were work trips so that typically means 15-hour workdays. Exhausting! Anyway, now it's all over, I'm rested, and my next trip will probably not be until Thanksgiving or more likely Christmas. And I'm okay with that.

Book Review: The Forgotten Garden

My book club met last Monday and our book was The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I was not looking forward to the book because it was nearly 600 pages (ugh!) and there was a lot of mention of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett in reviews, which was a kid's book I don't remember enjoying. But this new book I really enjoyed. It was a very quick read, considering its length, there was a mystery to unravel, and there were three generations of stories that are told in various orders throughout the book so it switches up the characters a lot. Basically, it's about an Australian woman who tries to investigate her grandmother's past when she inherits a home in England after her grandmother passes away. It turns out she didn't really know her grandmother like she thought she did! There is a lot of references to and symbolism of fairy tales throughout the book, which is pretty cool. Because who doesn't like fairy tales? And, perhaps best of all, I don't think there are really too many similarities to The Secret Garden.