saturday morning leftovers.

Yeah, I'm just now getting around to posting what I should have posted last night.

• Turns out that when you stick a potato covered in eye sprouts in a pot of dirt and ignore it, you just might get potatoes.  We ate them in our dinner last night and haven't died yet, so I think we can all consider this a success.  Seeing as how the only things we've consumed from our garden thus far have been parsley and mint, I am thrilled to eat something I grew myself (albeit accidentally).
  
  
• Our zucchini plants have only produced male flowers so far.  Obviously female flowers are the ones that make fruit, so we are still waiting to see them.  Two of eight tomato plants have flowers - I'm hoping the cardinal I keep seeing in the backyard leaves things alone so that they can produce.
  
  
• Monday Maria and I are taking off to go see Jen & Elizabeth before they abandon us move north for a great work opportunity.  We're also hoping Barb & baby E, and Farah with MT & Armadillo can join us, too.  I will be taking custody of Jen's strawberry plants.  What are the chances they'll survive under my care?
  
  
• We almost never go to the movie theatre anymore - the last movie we saw out was Star Trek.  However, I WILL be seeing Iron Man 2 as soon as possible.  LOVE love love RDj, Sherlock Holmes was (surprisingly) pretty dang good and I'm hoping Iron Man 2 does not disappoint.
  
  
• You may remember I have a great love for Rockin' Green soap.  I recently purchased the Hard Rock variety and am even more impressed.  We were having some diaper cream issues (we use wash cloths as a barrier but still usually get some cream on the diapers themselves.  Hard Rock took care of all that residue and they are back to being squeaky clean.

live-blogging the oscars

[There's a much more important post below this one - please scroll past this drivel and read it. Thanks!]
YAY! The Oscars! I shall live-blog them.
Red Carpet:
8:01 I LOVE Tim Gunn. SO much. Hi Kate Winslet! Ok dress.
8:03 Oy! Nice highlights, Matthew Broderick.
8:04 I've never heard of this Taraji P Henson gal, but she's sure cute and super excited! Also, don't you think it's so neat when the old dudes bring their shy daughters as their date? Adorable.
8:06 Seriously? Miley Cyrus at the Oscars? Isn't there a mob of pre-teens she ought to be entertaining right now?
8:11 I'm not sure these Slumdog Millionaire folks are going to be able to handle any more excitement. They may have reached their limit.
8:15 Tim Gunn, can you please be my friend? You even manage to class up this stupid red carpet banter with your fancy vocabulary.
8:21 Don't you think Meryl Streep would be fun to hang out with? I do.

Ceremony
8:32 That's funny. Pizza boxes and foil. You know what's not funny? Hugh Jackman's vibrato.
8:34 Wow, HJ totally kept up with those hiphop dancers!
8:36 Dang, Anne Hathaway can actually sing! And she looks really good, too.
8:37 That bit about HJ not seeing The Reader was REALLY funny. Awesome opening!
8:43 Best Supporting Actress (good Lord, is every award going to take this long to present?) - my pick: Marisa Tomei. The winner: Penelope Cruz. Didn't see the movie.
8:54 Best Original Screenplay (Tina Fey and Steve Martin are so stinking funny!) - my pick: WALL-E. The winner: Milk. Didn't see it.
8:59 Best Adapted Screenplay - my pick: Slumdog Millionaire. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire.
9:03 Enough filler, people. Move it along! Best Animated Feature - my pick: WALL-E. The winner: WALL-E!! Saw it, loved it, own it. You should too.
9:08 Best Animated Short - my pick: Oktapodi. The winner: La Maison de frenchy french words. Never heard of it or seen it. Apparently it is by some Japanese dude. I love it so much when Japanese people speak English. I'm not making fun of them AT ALL, it's just so fun to listen to. I knew a lot of Japanese people when I lived in Alabama - trust me, they think it's funny too. He ended his speech with "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto." That is flipping awesome.
9:15 Best Art Direction - my pick: The Dark Knight. The winner: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Didn't see it. Want to.
9:19 Best Costume Design - my pick: The Duchess. The winner: The Duchess. Didn't see it, but picked it because it looked the most costumey. I'm VERY scientific.
9:23 Best Makeup - my pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The winner: Benjamin Button. Duh, they have to make Brad Pitt age in reverse. That's hard, y'all.
9:31 Best Cinematography - my pick: Slumdog Millionaire. Oh dear, I love the Joaquin Phoenix impression, Ben Stiller. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire.
9:38 Jessica Biel's dress is perfect. Perfectly AWFUL.
9:40 Here's a commercial for The Soloist. I am SO looking forward to that movie.
9:46 Best Live Action Short - my pick: New Boy (total guess) The winner: Toyland.
9:52 Musical interlude... I think HJ should have just stopped these things after the opening. Leave 'em wanting more, I always say. Hey look, it's Beyonce. NOT a flattering outfit, honey.
10:02 Best Supporting Actor - my pick: Heath Ledger. SO good, so scary, so sad. The winner: Heath Ledger. Bravo.
10:13 Best Documentary Feature - my pick: Trouble The Water. The winner: Man on Wire. No theatres ever show these things around here, so I have no basis for judgement except the Time magazine article I read about them.
10:16 Best Documentary Short Subject - my pick: The Conscience of Nhem En. The winner: Smile Pinki.
10:26 Best Visual Effects - my pick: The Dark Knight. The winner: Benjamin Button? WHAT?
10:28 Best Sound Editing - my pick: WALL-E. The winner: The Dark Knight. Okay. Fine.
(So far I'm only 6 for 15. I clearly have my finger on the pulse of cinema.)
10:30 Best Sound Mixing - my pick: WALL-E. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Those crazy kids are tearing it up!
10:33 Best Film Editing - my pick: The Dark Knight. The winner: what a flipping surprise! Slumdog Millionaire!
10:41 Special award to Jerry Lewis. SNOOZE.... Thank heavens his speech was short!
10:53 Best Original Score - my pick: Slumdog Millionaire (although I WANT WALL-E to win.) The winner: Slumdog Millionaire.
10:55 Best Original Song - my pick: Down to Earth from WALL-E. The presentation of the three nominees is just gorgeous. I am sad Peter Gabriel didn't want to perform, but who doesn't love John Legend? The winner: Jai Ho, Slumdog Millionaire.
11:06 Best Foreign Language Film - my pick: Departures. The winner: Departures! What a lucky guess!
11:13 In Memoriam... I wish they just played pretty music instead of having Queen Latifah sing that morbid song.
11:18 Best Director - my pick: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire. The winner: Danny Boyle.
11:25 Best Lead Actress - my pick: Kate Winslet. The winner: Kate Winslet. It's about durn time!
11:36 Best Lead Actor - my pick: Mickey Rourke. The winner: Sean Penn. Meh.
11:47 Best Picture - my pick: Slumdog Millionaire. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire. I guess I should actually see this movie now!

My fingers are exhausted - all this time I've also been chatting on facebook with Amy. We were less kind than you might hope us to be about some of the dresses. Forgive us. Good night!

sixteen

Some questions for you all:

1. Did I give away my membership card to The North just now when I put on a turtleneck sweater, jeans, and socks? For your information, it's currently 55 degrees outside.

2. How did you all feel about the 4th Indiana Jones movie? I thought it was just okay. Not nearly as good as IJ & The Last Crusade.

3. What are you all doing for Thanksgiving?

4. Who will be the one to get Henry the number one thing on his Christmas List? Watch this video for more information on that:

2/3rds

Yes, I'm solidly into the third trimester! Again, the passage of time seems so warped and has been since January when we found out about Bertha (formerly Sea Monkey). It's beginning to feel real (as if the soccer ball I seem to have under my skin and "muscle" layers wasn't enough to convince me) now that we're nearing July and week 29-ish. Preparations are beginning, lists are being made, purchases are being considered. We think we know what we need/want to have handy to get ready for Bertha's arrival. In fact, I couldn't resist these two little items the other day:

That should be enough for a couple of hours, don't you agree? At the OB appt. where her gender was discovered, we also found that the placenta has migrated to a more agreeable position for delivery, and that she was measuring perfect at about 2.5 pounds. My blood pressure is still great, I have gained 5 pounds total from my pre-pregnancy weight, and I haven't heard anything about my gestational diabetes test, which I assume means I didn't do myself or the baby any harm with that Dr. Pepper I had the other day, or the ice cream I had last night, or the constant consumption of fruit I've been inhaling. But that's all-natural, right?

Yesterday we took Henry to see WALL-E. It was so, so good. Henry was really into it, and laughed out loud and pumped his fist in the air after a particularly dramatic moment met it's victorious conclusion. It was great for kids and (as usual for Pixar movies) enjoyable for the grown-ups, too. Plenty of fun little details are included, too - Keep your eyes peeled for the Big-Mouth Billy Bass, all you fellow Millenials.

I saw Ashley's grandma at church today - she seems to be doing well. She told me that Ashley's mom, older sister, nieces and nephew all went to Disney today using tickets given to Ashley earlier this year when it was still a possibility that she would recover. I think that's a perfect way to begin some healing - Ash would totally give her blessing to that. We also talked about something that weighs heavily on me and has for some time - the week before the brain cancer was found in 2005, Ashley was on a mission trip with me and 3 other youth in Georgia. She complained of headaches the entire time. Of course I felt bad that her head was hurting, but I really didn't take it very seriously. Not that anyone would or could have guessed that her headaches meant she had tumors, but still - it's strange to think that through that fun long weekend, cancer was lurking, just getting ready to show itself. I'm glad to have spent that time with her and to be able to have great memories.

Oh, and yeah, it doesn't compare to your church being destroyed by flood, but the church got struck by lightning last week (again - yes, for the second time in 3 years; not even God's people are exempt from His natural displays) and here are the functions and systems affected:
-the doorbell/intercom is fried
-2 out of 3 phone lines were disrupted but have been fixed
-several thermostats and one A/C relay were blown, but have been fixed
-6 out of 8 computers have no internet access, even after the replacement of our network switch
-the computer network does not function properly - most computers have no printer access
-the fire alarm is not functioning
-the organ is totally gone, possibly unreparably fried - we didn't discover that one till this morning when the organist came into practice before the service.
Awesome, huh? And guess who gets to attempt to handle juggling all of these items getting repaired in the next two weeks while our church secretary is on vacation? If you guessed me, you'd be right. FUN. And I get to do it all while hoisting this belly around:

ironman

Last night some friends and I went to see Ironman. Normally I try to keep this blog cuss-word free, but there is no other way to describe this movie other than to say that it KICKS MAJOR ASS. We loved every minute of it. Robert Downey, Jr. has spent some good years cleaning up his act and restoring his health after years of addiction and he has never looked or acted better. He was always talented, but no one would hire him because no insurance company would take the risk knowing he was in the habit of coming to work drunk and high, if he showed up at all. It is really great to see someone who's overcome this disease.

But the movie - holy crap! It was amazing, and you should all go see it in the theatre - the big screen is a must for this one. I've never been in a movie where people clapped and cheered spontaneously and en masse, which this audience did several times. And we were treated to some great previews for once - the new Indiana Jones movie looks like it will be awesome, and the new Batman movie trailer wowed us too. Heath Ledger looks terrifying as the Joker. It will be strange to watch him knowing this is it from that very talented actor.

On the baby front, I'm having TONS of movement. S/he seems to be very active, but so far has mostly kept the kicks and rolls just between me and him/her. I'm sure that soon enough my stomach will be jumping and jiving for all to see and feel. I am starting to have trouble being comfortable at night, which doesn't bode well for the summertime. Sleeping on my back is all but eliminated at this point, which stinks since I like a good mix of being on both sides and my back, too. Henry is just enthralled with the thoughts of "his" baby. He loves to hug and kiss and zerbert my stomach, telling the baby good morning or night and that he loves him/her. We didn't plan for this much space between children, but it's really neat to see how much he grasps of the fun we'll have with the new baby. I cannot believe that my first baby is getting SO close to four years old. It's gotten almost easy to be parents to Henry because he is so sweet and smart and fun. I hope we're ready to start all over.

weekend

Soooooo, how was everyone's weekend? Ours was busy, but nice. Friday started things off with quite a bang... I took 6 youth to a concert in another part of the state, purportedly headlined by our favorite band ever, downhere. It took us 2.5 hours to travel a distance that should have taken 1.5 hours. Nice. But we kept being reassured, thinking that we'd just miss a little of the two opening acts and be right on time for the boys. HA! We walked in the door of the mega-church where the concert was being held and heard the sounds of downhere coming from the sanctuary! WHAT? So, yeah. They were the opening act. But we only missed one song, and their show, while much, much too short, was incredible, as usual. Frankly, even if they'd played for 3 hours, I'd still want more. The upside to them playing early was that we had plenty o'time to chat with the band after they played. And that's some of the best part of downhere - they love to take time with their fans. After I re-introduced myself to Jason and Jeremy, they remembered me from previous shows and their two visits to our church (even though the most recent of which was in 2003). And, I wasn't my usual starstruck dork moron around them this time. I actually conversed like a grown-up, a fact about which I am exceedingly proud. *sigh*

Then Saturday I had confirmation class most of the day. Not much else to say about Saturday except that we watched The Kite Runner, and it was incredible. Just as awesome as the book, although I'm weird that way, and usually like both the movie and the book it's based on. When you watch it, you'll probably be as incredulous as me at how amazing a country Afghanistan used to be, and how wrecked it has become, first by the Soviets and then by the Taliban.

Yesterday we went to church, then to the church picnic for a short time, then we headed to the ballgame, to see our mailman pitch. He did great, even though I got a crummy picture of it. The game was crummy too, with our hometown ballteam losing 6-0. Oh well. We were able to get close to the field before the game and Henry was pretty focused watching the players warm up and the mascot fooling around. The giveaway at the game were some wristbands, which Henry promptly put on and posed with. They didn't come off until we made him do so at bedtime. He wore them to school today.

Okay, now for the pictures!

Mailman Eric winds up to pitch

what'cha lookin' at, henry?


oh, him. that's the starting pitcher, warming up.


still wearing the wristbands, even while eating
cereal for dinner (we are the parents of the year)

One more photo, and I can't even believe it - here's the bump, at 19ish weeks:

dream

Last night's dream was awesome - I dreamt (dreamed?) about our baby, who was a girl, and that she was an excellent nurser, and that I felt amazing after the birth. Then in the dream I got an email from my cousin A that said she'd be here to visit soon, and I was so excited.

Wouldn't that be a nice dream to have come true?

In other news... I'm feeling lots of baby movement, particularly after eating Breyer's Coffee Ice Cream. Who wouldn't jump for joy getting a taste of that deliciousness? As a related note, I just weighed myself on the scale in the church gym and I still haven't gained anything. Obviously I don't expect that trend to hold for much longer... I feel pretty good, just tired sometimes. Heartburn and nausea still enjoy visiting occasionally, especially if I make the mistake of say, eating lasagna out at a restaurant at 10pm like I did Friday night. Dumb, dumb, dumb. But we couldn't get into the restaurant to which we had a gift card until after our movie was over. We saw 21; it was pretty good. Fairly predictable, but still entertaining. Henry spent the night at his surrogate grandparents' house and had the expected fabulous time.

I'll close this up with a photo Henry took a few weekends ago when my mom, aunt, and gram were here to visit. I think he did pretty well, don't you? And aren't we posing so prettily?

christmas vacation

Yep, I'm watching that classic on TBS right now... It's so so so funny. Tomorrow right after church we are taking off on a 10-hour drive back to the very heart of Dixie (it used to say that right on the license plates) to spend the week with Timon's parents, sisters, and other assorted relatives. I'm sure it will be a delightful time and a very merry Christmas will be had by all.

If you are keeping up with the Eric Volz story, you know that he is out of Nicaragua, but has gone into hiding because of death threats and fears of pursuit by vigilantes who are convinced that he's guilty. Another troubling thing is that I read an AOL News article about it, and most of the comments on the story are from uninformed cave-people who know absolutely nothing about the facts. It's pretty disturbing reading - lots of statements that he must be guilty, or that because he's a Christian, President Bush pulled some strings "unlike how he would for a Muslim or even a Democrat". I guess that's why they call it free speech. At least he is safe for Christmas.

Henry received one of these for Christmas from some nice folks at church who watch him from time to time - it's hilarious.

He calls it his computer and talks back to the little character on the screen who gives the instructions for each activity. When it says, "Push the button for the letter that comes after J," sometimes it takes a minute for Henry to find the right button. The character will repeat the instructions, and then Henry will say, "Okay, Man! I am looking! Stop talking to me, Man!" Another instance of the Man putting pressure on the little people.

5 until 30

I am officially in Christmas mode! Kat and I decorated her house today, and I'll be doing ours when we get home tomorrow afternoon. We're flying back to 80 degree Florida heat from 30 degree Indiana loveliness and I will sure miss this seasonal weather. It's been a wonderful visit and Henry has had a blast. We had plates full of leftovers for dinner tonight (Christmas plates, of course) and it was just like Thanksgiving but without all the work! We just watched Elf and had some great laughs, and right now Timon is telling Kat & Phil all my terrifying snake encounters. Yuck. That's not Christmasy at all. What snake encounters, you ask? Well, look here tomorrow for the true horrible details.

11 until 30

Phew! I almost didn't get to post today! Here's why: I spent this morning re-doing the Sunday bulletin, for "People expect the Thanksgiving covers, Maresi." (But, don't they also expect that we won't waste their offering money by throwing away 150 perfectly good pieces of paper?) Then I practiced the music for tomorrow's youth Sunday School, and then went to a friend's yard sale - got some Christmas gifts there! Not junk at all, but... oops, I almost said too much. I don't want to give the surprises away. It's good, though. Then we had lunch, and while Henry napped, Timon and I watched the first 2 hours of Munich. After Henry woke up, we goofed around for a little bit, then Timon took him to the playground while I worked on a v. important Christmas gift project. Again, not going to give anything away here! I realized that I could actually finish it tonight if I had one more item from the craft store, so I grabbed my coupon and headed over there. I came home, we had dinner, and then during Henry's bath our power went out. But v. strangely, only certain things were affected - for instance, our tv, dvd, and playstation worked, but not the computer which is plugged in 6 feet away from the other stuff. The kitchen light and stove would not go on, but the fridge worked. After some investigation at the breaker box we tripped all the breakers and reset everything, and it all came back on. We got Henry to bed and were about 10 minutes into the third hour of Munich (I wanted to wait until we finished the movie to post here about it. It was pretty good, but the end was weird.) and the power went off again! This time when we reset the breakers nothing came back on. Then we called the power company and they came out to fix a connection on the pole in the alley behind the house.

So, to sum up why I almost didn't post today:
1. I was busy with other things all day long;
2. We didn't have power until just now.

My life is just so entirely fascinating. I don't know how you people can stand it. (gag)

15 until 30

Hey! It's today! How about that?!?

Henry's sleeping (thank heavens); we've played school, had recess, ate lunch... his fever's finally down to normal after the tylenol kicks in - until this morning, even one hour after taking the meds, his temp was over 101. Now it's around 99. He's feeling much better but still doesn't have much appetite. I'm sure he'll be back to school tomorrow. I have gotten some good work done this morning while he did some pages in his workbooks and while he ate lunch, and now while he's sleeping I'm taking 5 minutes to get this post in. I'll finish up tomorrow's Bible study, then get some pumpkin bread in the oven and lentil soup on the stove. Aren't I just the super-mom. (cringe...gross.)

And here's one final thought to contemplate in regards to this and "yesterday's" post:

19 until 30

Some highlights from today:

*I had great french toast today. I fixed it for breakfast and it never fails to delight me. It was made even better because my fantastic husband whipped out a nice new griddle pan that he bought at a yard sale for $2. It was the missing link between okay french toast and excellent french toast. He bought it for my birthday but couldn't wait to give it to me. That makes 3 things he has bought for my birthday that I've received already. If you know my husband at all, you know that this is exceptionally strange and seriously out of character for him. I'm not questioning anything.

*Henry and I played school today. He made sure to tell Timon that "I was gonna be the student, and my Mommy was the teacher." He and Friend and Curious George formed a class at the table and we did some pages from three workbooks, made 2 crafts, played that really fun game called "sort the bills into piles for filing", had recess, and then lunch. He was so funny. I think we'll make it a regular Friday event.

*I'm brining a chicken right now! We're having friends over for dinner tomorrow, and I thought I'd give it a shot. I put lots of salt, lemon pepper seasoning, parsley and bay leaves in water and boiled it, cooled it down, and put a roaster chicken in. It's in the fridge until 2 tomorrow when it'll go in the oven. I'll let you know how it goes.

*Tonight was our first outdoor movie night of the season at church. We showed Evan Almighty, which is really funny and cute for families. Henry had a blast until he got kicked in the face (by accident by one of the youth) and then he claimed his popcorn made him sick (it got stuck in his throat and he coughed a couple of times). Poor kid.

*My parents are gonna love this one: Henry just now came out of his room to tell us he couldn't sleep. I told him "You can't sleep if you're not in your bed." I am turning into my mom! (Not that that's a bad thing.)

23 until 30

Last night we watched Reign Over Me, and LOVED it. Seriously, this movie was so much better than what I expected and it's a shame more people didn't see it in the theatre. It's so worth the few dollars to rent it. I never expected that Adam Sandler of all people would make me cry, but he did, a couple of times - even despite his Bob Dylan-esque look. Apparently losing your family and becoming a recluse makes you look like this:

At any rate, the movie was excellent, and you should see it. Soon, preferably. Nothing else to report tonight... posting everyday makes for quick posts!

29 until 30

Timon and I FINALLY got to see Into The Wild on Sunday. It took forever to get here. Timon was more concerned that the details of the book be exact - and for the most part, they were. I'm one of those weirdos who loves both the books and the movies based on them - I just treat them as separate entities. It doesn't bother me that certain stories are omitted and others embellished to make a movie better. I have to say that Into The Wild lived up to every expectation I had and more. I expected to be amazed at the gorgeous locations they filmed it in, and I was. I expected to be charmed by Chris McCandless (as portrayed by Emile Hirsch), and I was. I expected to be saddened by his unfortunate demise, and I was. And I anticipated being reminded of my cousin Greg, and I surely was. I imagine Greg and Chris are on some kind of adventure together as I type.

Here is a photo from my sister-in-law of the tree Timon gave me as a wedding present. It's planted in my parents' yard - it has tripled in size, at least, from the day before the wedding when we planted it. Neither Timon nor I have tripled in size, thank heavens.

take three

Are you tired of this yet? I'm not. And because it's my blog, you're all at my whims and mercies. Heh heh heh.

The English Patient - Ay yi yi. This is a gorgeous love story, set in North Africa before and during WWII. Told mostly in flashback - the memories of a badly burned "Englishman", it tells a tale of forbidden romance, and who doesn't love a forbidden romance, eh? This is one of the rare occasions where I enjoyed the movie far more than the novel it's based on. It's long, so take a nap first. And if you, like me, luuuuurrrve yourself some Naveen Andrews (Sayid on Lost), then you'll be happy you watched.

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil - This is another movie based on a book, this time a "true crime" story (at least it started that way) by John Berendt which ends up as a saga about society in Savannah, GA. Kevin Spacey is sooooo good in this movie. Here I appreciated BOTH the novel and the movie equally as well.

The Princess Bride - My sister admonished me yesterday for not having included this movie yet. It's fairly obvious why this movie is so well-liked, so I'll just give you some of my history with it. TPB most likely holds the place as the movie I have seen the most times - very likely in the 200 range. I remember a Superbowl party with friends of ours once where we watched it twice in succession - once where we all stayed quiet, and once where we were allowed to recite all the lines along with it. I can still do it. HA!

Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter & The Order of The Phoenix - These are my two favorite HP movies. I know some people hate how much they cut out of the books, but they are seriously LONG books, and 10-year olds just can't sit through a 4 hour movie. Anyhow, these two are good. I'm really looking forward to the last 2 movies.

Much Ado About Nothing - Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Robert Sean Leonard and gorgeous Italian scenery. Enough said. The only flaw - Keanu Reeves. Ick.

take two

Here I am, more movie recommendations for you - I loved reading comments and emails about what your favorites are - keep 'em coming!

Moonstruck - This movie has it all - intrigue, drama, opera, prosthetic hands (well, hand), and a fantastic love story. It's weird because I'm not generally a fan of either Nicolas Cage or Cher, but I LOVE this movie. I like it so well that I'll even watch it with commercials on television.

The Horse Whisperer - Of course I have to include this movie - it was my first date with Timon, after all. But as I said before in regards to The Black Stallion, I think horses are magnificent, and there's no shortage of them here. The troubled horse in this movie also saves the life of a young girl played by Scarlett Johannsen. The only quibble I have is that every time the camera hits Robert Redford, the soft focus is so distracting. It's like, we know you're getting close to 70, Bob. You're not fooling anyone. But other than that, it's perfect.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Here's another comedy that bears repeated viewing. If it only seems mildly funny, just trust me and watch it a couple more times. Who could resist Randy Quaid in a black dickie under a white v-neck sweater, or that deflating turkey, or those insane neighbors, Todd and Margo? I could go on and on. You don't have to (and you simply shouldn't) wait till Christmas to watch this one.

An American Tail - Now, yeah, the mouse is cute... but the real reason I love this movie is because of the music. Once upon a time I truly appreciated composition, and this film score reminds me why.

Life Is Beautiful - It's not only the act of finding beauty among the horrors of the Holocaust that makes this movie amazing - the relationship between the father and son is so fantastic. And the end, OH, the end, when the boy and the mother find each other, and the boy cries out in Italian, "We won!" - Geez, Louise. DO NOT watch this movie with the dubbed English - break out your reading glasses and turn on those subtitles. The original Italian is too gorgeous to be sullied with poor dubbing.

There's more movies to come - but tomorrow's post will be an actual movie. See you then!

can i give it 10 thumbs up?

I've been thinking lately about what movies are my absolute favorites - ones you should RUN to your video store to rent (or at least put in your Blockbuster or Netflix queue). I re-watched one of my faves last night and felt inspired to share with all my tens of readers the preliminary list. I'll put my TOP movie first, then I'll list the rest of them in no particular order.

1. The Black Stallion - I have LOVED this movie since childhood. It might have been one of the first movies I saw on video on the VCR we shared with our aunts, uncles and cousins (thanks, Gram!). Not only does it have one of the most gorgeous animals created in it, but the story of beating the odds and triumph over adversity rings true even now. Kelly Reno plays Alec, the main human character - he was an INCREDIBLE actor for a rookie. Can you believe he now drives an 18-wheeler for a living? Mickey Rooney is there for a couple of laughs and to coach Alec into being a jockey. Plus, the horse kills a snake and saves the boy. That's my kind of heroism!

Waiting For Guffman - This is probably my favorite comedy. It's about community musical theatre, which is in itself a recipe for laughs (no offense, Dad). Of all the Christopher Guest/Eugene Levy improv comedies, I think this one is the most absurdly hilarious. If you've ever been a part of any amateur theatre, you'll recognize that they hit that sweet spot between reality and parody - it's believable, but hysterically funny. Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, and Parker Posey are all a riot.

Whale Rider - I watched this one last night. This is a New Zealand film about a young girl named Paikea and her struggles to fit into the male-oriented traditional Maori community she lives in. Her mother and twin brother died in childbirth, and her father wanders the world while she stays with her grandmother and grandfather (he hasn't gotten over the fact that the boy baby died and the girl lived). It's all about their traditional culture and how Paikea manages to learn the traditions and overcome the gender restrictions. As I re-read that summary, it sounds pretty boring - but TRUST ME, there's something so moving about Whale Rider. I usually watch it with the English subtitles because the accent is difficult to understand occasionally.

I Am Sam - OH. MY. GOODNESS. This one smacks you in the stomach, face, heart, brain, and spleen. If you can watch this movie without at the very least getting teary, then you might have a heart of stone. I believe there's been research done on that very fact. Anyhow, it really doesn't matter how you like Sean Penn as a person - his acting in this movie is beyond good. The fact that he lost the Oscar to Denzel Washington for Training Day still irks me. Plus, this movie has an excellent soundtrack of Beatles covers by some great singers.

Okay, that's enough for today - I'll keep sharing them another time. But seriously, watch these movies as SOON as possible.

i just can't tell you how excited i am for this movie

movies and mayhem

Okay, first things first... why does it take a picture of my sister to get all you commenters out of the lurk-o-sphere? Huh?

On to the mayhem: Today during story-time at the library, I couldn't help noticing how many moms were either conversing full-volume to the mom next to them or were talking full-volume on their cell-phones during all the stories and songs. It was almost so loud that the kids couldn't hear the stories, songs, and fingerplays. I know I was totally distracted, so you know some of the kids had to have been. Henry was bored because he couldn't pay attention to the sweet librarian, and I couldn't wait to get out of there. I understand that this is the only adult interaction some of these women will get during the day, and hopefully the moms spend a majority of their day putting the kids first, but I think the point of these 30 minutes is to encourage the kids to enjoy the stories, to sit or kneel quietly and pay attention, and to respect the librarian who is trying with all her might to maintain the tiniest sliver of control over the 20 kids in the room. I'm not sure we'll go back, which is unfortunate. I've been bringing him off and on since he was about 10 months old.

We recently joined Blockbuster Total Access movies. This is a service similar to Netflix, but WAY better. For $18/month, we can get unlimited movies, shipped 3 at a time practically overnight. Our first movies shipped Monday and we got them Tuesday. I mailed back Breach (an excellent movie) yesterday and just checked the website and they have already shipped the next movie in our queue (The Secret of NIMH)! Plus, unlike Netflix, you can return these movies to any Blockbuster store, and get another free rental there for each one you return, essentially doubling your movies. They have a great selection (the one disappointing omission: Peter Pan, the Mary Martin tv special) of both movies and tv shows. For the cost of one trip to the movie theatre, we have essentially unlimited movies at home. I'll be much more likely to let something in the theatre go by now that we can get it at home so cheaply and easily. They should hire me to advertise.

Henry has been loooooving swimming lately. Our friends have been away for a couple of days and when we go let the dog out and give him his dinner, we've been taking a quick dip in the pool. He has started holding onto the step, putting his face under water and sort of floating while moving his arms around. It's really amazing to see his progress from last summer (completely clinging onto me in the water) to now. Yay!

off I go

Here I go again, on yet another adventure. By my count I've spent the night away from home 19 nights in 2007 already. I'm about to add 6 more to that starting tomorrow during the mission trip I'm taking with 5 youth from my group and my summer assistant. We'll be serving the fine folks in a rural Tennessee community for the next week. I'm excited about it, even knowing just how exhausted I felt when we returned from this same trip last year. All this to say that there'll be about a week of blog-silence. I doubt highly that I'll have any kind of online access to post, check other's posts or get email. I know I'll miss it! I'm certain to miss news of the birth of Krista's baby - check out her blog, it's one of my favorites.

Henry's watching Mary Poppins. I'm so happy he likes it - it's one of the best Disney movies, particularly because it stars my most favorite lady movie star of all time. Julie Andrews is so freaking beautiful and talented, I'm completely in awe of her. I can't imagine what it would be like to meet her. I'm ordinarily embarrassingly starstruck whenever I encounter anyone with the slightest bit of fame - but Julie Andrews, oh, my stars. It wouldn't be pretty.

Anyhow, the van is almost packed, the kids will get here with their stuff soon, and then I'll take it easy, go to bed super-early, we'll leave at 8 sharp tomorrow morning. I'm back late Friday night. Take care until then!