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There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart. ~Celia Thaxter

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Always so much to be thankful for!  We are marching in to June and the calendar is filled with fun things on the days that work isn’t scheduled (and even on some days when work is scheduled!).

Here are a few things I am thankful for from the past few weeks —

  • Friday nights!  Spent a seemingly rare Friday night off at Jabbers (and evidently the last Friday night we’ll spend there, as it just closed!) getting in some Jabbering with Jabber Juice.  Fun fun.   And even after work last Friday night, it was fun to sit outside on the patio at Fat Willy’s!  Fridays still rock!
Love this selfie with Rushford in the background!

Love this selfie with Rushford in the background!

  • Rushford friends and family – had a lot of fun showing Chris around Rushford – the bluff, the new coffee shop – and hanging out with friends.  Take Note! sang at the ExpoCulinaria and it was a lot of fun with good food tastes and good company!  Followed by more good food and a good campfire at Brenda and Roger’s!  It was chilly so that fire felt good!  It was a Starry Starry Night!
  • Speaking of Starry Starry Nights – loved the time with Beth at the painting event by Wine & Canvas!  It was a challenging painting but I think we did a respectable job – and it was so fun!
Love Starry Night with Rochester Wine & Canvas! And Beth!

Love Starry Night with Rochester Wine & Canvas! And Beth!

  • Memorial Day weekend I had to work overnights, but I still was able to indulge in a last minute invitation to hear Temple Grandin speak on Friday night, followed by coffee at Chester’s!  And Monday Chris and I went for a good meal on a rainy afternoon before I went in for night four. I always manage to fit in the important stuff!
Love last minute invitations and loved hearing Temple Grandin again! She's something!

Love last minute invitations and loved hearing Temple Grandin again! She’s something!

  • Trajan turned 15 in May and we celebrated him at Texas Roadhouse!  I also love that I’ve been able to help out and drive him to his basketball practices in the Cities and to watch him play a few games.  He’s on a competitive team and they are all so fun to watch!
Love this kid who isn't afraid of the saddle on his 15th birthday!

Love this kid who isn’t afraid of the saddle on his 15th birthday!

  • The weather has been great so I have been getting in some great walks!  Some with friends, some with Chris, and some with his daughter and granddaughter.  It’s been fun to play with a 2 year old again!
Love this guy and love hanging out with a 2 year old every once in a while! It's been a while...

Love this guy and love hanging out with a 2 year old every now and then! It’s been a while…

  • Books – I’m finally on a little reading streak!  I finished Allegiant, moved on to The Fault in Our Stars (heartbreakingly beautiful… just lovely), and Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares (a fun little read with dares all over NYC!).  I bought a used Kindle so it’s exciting to fill it up (it holds a TON!) and look forward to reading it at the end of the dock.
  • Audiobooks – I’ve officially been an Audible member for a year!  Yikes… I have purchased more than I’ve listened to (sound familiar??  I guess I’m growing my TBL (To Be Listened to) pile, as well!).  I tend to buy the long books that I want to read but doubt I’ll have the time or stamina for.  So far I’ve listened to 11.22.63, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Fin & Lady, Ready Player One, The End of the Affair, The Goldfinch, and The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog.  I’m currently listening to Whistling Past the Graveyard for book club (if they don’t give up on me!).  Love listening in the car, still, but much less commuting time so now it’s while puttering around.  Love it!
  • Movies – always thankful for movies!  Movie nights at home on the couch, movies while trying to sleep, movies in the theatre with a tub of popcorn.  Love them!  This month in the theatre I’ve seen Neighbors (pretty funny, Seth Rogan stuff) and Belle (interesting story about Britain’s position in the slave trade business).  From Netflix on DVD I’ve seen Here Comes the Boom (very funny and fun!) and Love Is All You Need (unexpected story about Danish people traveling to Italy for a wedding, with Pierce Brosnon! Pretty good!).  Mindless instant viewing includes Drop Dead Diva (series) and The Sweetest Thing (Cameron Diaz craziness that was pretty fun).
  • Of course, Jimmy Fallon always makes me laugh, which is a thing to be greatly thankful for.  Fun stuff.  Look for his clips if you can’t commit to an entire week of shows!  🙂

As usual, I have much to look forward to, as well.  We are working fewer weekends than last summer, so I’m looking forward to that!  I am penciling in fun plans with friends and family – so give a shout if you want to get together!  Let’s make this the best summer ever!

If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. ~Bern Williams

11.12.13 – What is Making Me Happy

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First, the date.  11-12-13 – How fun is that?  I guess it’s the big wedding date of the year – what will next year’s big date be?  12-13-14 I guess.

Other things making me happy –

On the reading front…

  • I’m feeling a little bit like I got my reading groove back!  Yay!
  • Since “Freud’s Mistress,” I’ve read “Falling Together” by Marisa de los Santos,
  • “Paris was the Place” by Susan Conley (see review here) and
  • “My One Square Inch of Alaska” by Sharon Short (for FC book group next week).
  • I’m currently reading (and flying through!) “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” by Helen Fielding,
  • and listening on audio (slowly) “Finn & Lady” by Cathleen Schine.
  • Woot!

    QUESTLOVE

    QUESTLOVE (Photo credit: thetortmaster)

  • I think the moral to this story for me is that I need to read books of my choosing rather than for book tours and blogging for a while. I have enjoyed the books I’ve read for book tours, but find that I read them even slower than normal and the blogging aspect adds even more time.
  • Hopefully I can crank out (and enjoy!) a few more before the end of 2013!
  • Next on my reading list are “Pope Joan” for the ED book club,
  • and “Mo’Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove” by Questlove and Ben Greenman.
  • Then maybe I’ll FINALLY read “Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah, and some other seasonal reads.

On the film front:

  • On DVD or streaming on Netflix:  “The Oranges,” – a slightly disturbing story about a college aged girl who starts dating her dad’s best friend and neighbor; “Springbreakers,” – a very disturbing story about spring break gone awry, jumpy and weird; “Bachelorrette” – a story about a bride who asks high school friends to be in her wedding, even though they were mean to her in high school, interestinglly famous cast;  “Mike Birbiglia‘s: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend” – stand up routine by this guy… love his stuff;
  • and in the theatre on a mid-week date night, “Enough Said.”  Elaine Bennis (Julie Louis-Dreyfuss) and Tony Soprano (James Gandolfino) meet and begin dating.  It’s James Gandolfino’s last film and it was a very sweet story.  Lots of good discussions – in the movie and after.

On the social front:

  • Lots of great dates with Chris – whether it’s cooking a meal, eating out, going to football games, exploring the SPAM Museum, watching DVDs or going to movies, we have a good time.
  • Met some girls at 4 Daughters’ Winery for a delicious afternoon lunch and conversation!  Was a great time and hope to do it again soon!
  • Had 1:1 time with great friends, as well – Beth came to Rochester and we hit consignment shops and had a great lunch and some coffee, had a birthday lunch with Ellen last week, and Vicki and I shared a bottle of wine in Mom and Dad’s basement, discussing life!
  • The SPAM Museum with Chris and Marissa was a ton o’ fun… I don’t know what it is about that place!  Maybe the SPAMples we ate throughout our time there, the gift store with everything SPAM you can imagine, or the knowledge that was absorbed, as evidenced by the SPAM game show.  Fun fun times.
  • I went to the ED Book Club for the first time last night to discuss a book I recommended to them and read in 1998!  I didn’t re-read it but read the SparksNotes for Angela’s Ashes, and there was great discussion with people I don’t know very well.  Was a fun night and I’ll go again!
  • Feel like I’ve been working a lot, but I guess no more than normal.  Just recovering from overnights, so a little brain dead yet today.
Spam Museum

Spam Museum (Photo credit: isNoOp)

George and Gracie are spokespeople!
Steel Mesh Gloves for protection
On the SPAM assembly line!
Gotta love SPAM Hotdish!

And so I’ll close… I feel a little bad that I’m not participating in the month of Gratitude leading up to Thanksgiving… the days fly by and there is always something to be thankful for.  I’m working this Thanksgiving, so I am trying to figure out what I can do to celebrate in some way.  I’m thankful for TimeHop App which tells me what I posted on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare for the last 5 years, so that I can remember all the good things that have gone on before… Life is good!

What is making YOU happy??

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Monday Movie Minute…

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I saw TWO great movies in the theatre this week – how much fun is that?

The Wehrenberg 100th Anniversary logo (2006).

The Wehrenberg 100th Anniversary logo (2006). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First, Jenni and I attempted to celebrate VIP Free Movie Day at the Wehrenberg, but the movie we wanted to see was not included in the freeness of movie day.  But we stuck with our plan to see Captain Phillips – and it was worth it!  Such a tense and stressful movie!  Even though I knew the outcome, it was hard to watch, and the ending was so powerful and emotional.  I highly recommend this movie!

Then, Saturday night (date night!), we saw Gravity (3D) and wow!  I thought the movie was beautiful to watch and, if it’s possible, I was even more tense throughout!  It was a little bit of a “whatever could go wrong did go wrong” story, but going in I knew nothing about it, so it was all a surprise.

Image representing Netflix as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

On Netflix, I’ve seen The Trip on Instant – two British comedians on a foodie road trip.  They are real-life famous comedians (Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon) but it was a mockumentary.  Funny and serious.

On Netflix DVD:

Stories We Tell – a filmmaker re-creates her mother’s life and gets the family to tell the stories they remember.  I sort of fell asleep for a few minutes because it was booooooooring, but it got better and it was actually pretty good.

Loosies – a pickpocket who is trying to pay off his dead father’s debt, attempts to go straight.  It was just ok – sometimes I wonder why the movies in my queue are there.  But I guess sometimes it’s nice to have just a brainless, silly movie to watch.  I don’t recommend this one, but it was ok.

What next?  Hmmm… Movies Coming Soon that I’d like to see include About Time, The Wolf on Wall Street, The Book Thief, and Delivery Man (because Vince Vaughn?).  My Netflix Queue includes The Kings of Summer, Frances Ha! and Smashed… among 331 others. 🙂

How about you?  Have you seen anything good?  Have anything you want to see?

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Snapshot of a Sunday 4/7/13

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Frankie and Johnny (1991 film)

Frankie and Johnny (1991 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am thankful that I didn’t make a lot of plans for my weekend off.  I was so looking forward to having three days in a row off – Friday, Saturday AND Sunday! So when I woke Thursday morning feeling a little stuffy and scratchy and sniffly, I hoped it wasn’t true.  I bought salt refills for my Neti pot and hoped for the best.

Friday was a busy and fun-filled day, even though I was sneezing and sniffly all day and a true mess by 10:00 PM.  I went to PT (very little knee pain anymore!), got a relaxing facial leaving me looking positively dewy, and then went to happy hour for a Perfect Margarita followed by dinner at Whistle Binkies on the Lake with co-workers.  That is a good day off. 🙂  But I do apologize for being all sniffly at the end of the night – no one wants to be around that!

Yesterday brought a 4.5 hour work meeting on my day off.  It was fine, although, again I apologized to all for being all sniffly at the end of the meeting! Then I was on the couch, finally watching “The Intouchables” on DVD (yay! just as good the second time!) and then going to Zorba’s for a Greek dinner with Jennifer!  Flaming cheese and souvlaki – yummy!  And the soup… delicious!   Last night was the new episode of Smash on Saturday night!  It was fun to watch.  Oh, that scamp Jimmy.  It’s so predictable, but good fun.

Today I’ve been lying on the couch, watching movies, eating soup, and drinking water and a pot of hot tea.  Tomorrow will be better.  Right?

Cover of "Frankie & Johnny"

Cover of Frankie & Johnny

But in the mean time, Netflix has been keeping me company.  For some reason I have an itch to watch some old Al Pacino movies.  So I put “Scent of a Woman” at the top of my DVD queue and today watched “Frankie and Johnny” on Netflix Instant.  Good stuff!  Loved the movie in 1991 and love it still today!  Last week I recorded “Valley Girl” at mom and dad’s, and really think that I need to add that DVD to my collection!  Such a great movie… ah, Nic Cage before his fake-y teeth.  So dreamy. 🙂

Looking forward to:

  • Mad Men season starting tonight!
  • Cosmo Girls this Thursday – some fun adventures will be had!
  • Finishing “Gone with the Wind” – I’m over 600 pages!  It will happen!
  • and having this cold behind me!

Hope you have had a fun Sunday!

March Movie Report

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movies

I love movies!

It’s been a while since I did a post exclusively about movies.  The list is quite long since my last film post just over 6 weeks ago and most of them were in the last few weeks  as I’ve been hanging close to home and resting my knee.

In the Theatre:  

Oz The Great and Powerful – Saw this last Wednesday (free popcorn at the Wehrenberg!) with Jen.  We didn’t go for 3D,  because isn’t that getting a little old?  Everything does not have to be in 3D.  This movie did not need to be seen in 3D but it was obvious when they were playing it up.  James Franco is pretty cute, the China Doll was adorable, the monkey was a great side-kick, and it was fun to think about the land of Oz pre-Dorothy, and pre-Wizard!

Quartet – Saw this today and loved it!  I want to live there or a place like it, say in 30-35 years, so I’m going to start building my community!  The home for retired musicians was filled with the ever-constant presence of beautiful music, people rehearsing for fun opera or showtunes, and croquet and walks on the grounds.  Sounds blissful, eh?  The characters were lovable and the story was fun.  And no one died. 🙂

Liz on the Satellite Sisters podcast was talking about creating her own retirement community for her future and I was thinking about that throughout the entire movie.  Instead of moving to some canned community, she was going to create hers, inviting the people she loves to spend time with and figuring out where they want to live and hiring someone to live with them to prepare meals.  So, who’s in?  🙂  You know I’m a great social organizer!  I will ensure that there will always be something to do!

From Netflix Instant:

The Giant Mechanical Man – What a nice little find this was!  Starring Jenna Fisher (the Office) and Chris Messina (more about him later!), the movie is about not fitting in and not knowing what to do “with the rest of your life.”  Chris is a street artist and Jenna struggles keeping temp jobs.  Family and friends try to assist, but they don’t fit their mold.  Very sweet movie.

Butter – And what a hoot this was!  I saw it on preview somewhere and saved it to my Netflix queue.  Surprising cast in this film about the competitive butter sculpting world in Iowa!  The cast includes Jennifer Garner, the guy from Modern Family (Ty Burrell), Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry, and a surprise appearance by Hugh Jackman.  And a funny and sweet plot about a pre-teen girl who is living with yet another foster family.  Good stuff.

7 Up, 7 Plus Seven, 14 Up, 21 Up, 28 Up – These British documentaries are interesting, although I’m not watching them fully engaged but while multi-tasking.  In the first they meet a group of 7 year olds and they follow up with them every 7 years.  I believe that 56 Up was just released, so I have some catching up to do and I’m glad they’re all available!  Just a “slice of life” for a small group of people in Britain.

From Netflix DVD:
I have mentioned a few of these in previous posts, so these will be brief.  

Beasts of the Southern Wild – Fascinating story about people living in the “bathtub” of Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina.

Ruby Sparks – Did not keep my attention.  Interesting premise – a writer meets a girl like the one he is writing about and then realizes that she is, in fact, the girl he is writing about.  I don’t know what I was multi-tasking with this day, but I let it play without re-watching it.

Eulogy – Liked this neat little movie with many unexpected stars!  

Undertaking Betty –

 

Celeste and Jesse Forever – Starring Rashida Jones (also one of the writers!) and Jason Samberg, these BFF get married and then divorced, while remaining BFFs.  It is awkward and uncomfortable for their friends and gets in the way of their ‘moving on” so they have to figure out a new relationship.  Also starring Chris Messina!

 

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing – Well, the one thing is HAPPINESS, but it’s not a very happy movie at all.  Lots of story lines and stars. Not a recommendation.

 

From DVR: 

 

Ira & Abby – Starring Chris Messina (!) as a neurotic guy who gets dumped by his psychotherapist after many years, and Jennifer Westfeldt as the loosey-goosey gym membership salesperson.  They meet and feel a connection and decide to get married.  Lots of talking in this film, crazy family members, and a pretty fun story.

Next!

Next!

 

Coming up on DVD:

 

The Sessionsabout a quadraplegic’s experience with a sex therapist and The Intouchables (again!), the lovely French (?) movie about a quadraplegic’s caregivers.  Wow.  That’s interesting, eh?  Good timing.  

 

I have purchased Anna and will plan a viewing party soon!

 

Ira and Abby

Ira and Abby (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Movies starring Chris Messina:
So as I was watching the third movie starring Chris Messina lately, I decided to look him up on IMDB and see how many of his movies I have seen.  He has been in a lot and I have seen a fair number of them!  It is surprisingly a lot!  I counted 30 MOVIES on IMDB (he has also been on several TV shows).  

 

Of those 30, I have seen:   Argo, Ruby Sparks, The Giant Mechanical Man, Celeste & Jesse Forever, Julie & Julia, Greenberg, Away We Go, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Ira & Abby, Made of Honor, You’ve Got Mail, and Vicky Christina Barcelona

That’s 12 movies through the years!  Crazy, odd statistic.

Well, that’s enough. More than enough!  

Let me know if you’d like to be in on the retirement community I’m planning!

 

 

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Final Film Footnotes from 2012

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In the Theatre: 

  • Lincoln (with Cindy at Wehrenberg) – Wow, Daniel Day Lewis was amazing.  He WAS Lincoln.  It was an interesting story about the politics around the passage of the 13th Amendment.  Definitely worth seeing – and probably seeing again when it comes out on DVD!
  • Les Miserables (with Marissa, Cindy and her friend Andrea at Winona 7 Dec 26) – Wow, again.  It was a great capture of the Broadway musical with very powerful performances.  There were tears, there were laughs (seriously? Sasha Baron Cohn?), and there was a little singing along.

Netflix Streaming/On-Demand:

Image representing Netflix as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

  • Brief Interviews with Hideous Men – A grad student tries to figure out where she has gone wrong romantically while doing her research interviews with a variety of men to hear their confessions.  Meh.  Not bad. Not good.  Fine for cooking in the kitchen!
  • Sleepwalk with Me  – Re-watched this – saw it On Demand.  Good story about a stand-up comedian who sleepwalks – dangerously – and avoids discussions of importance.
  • The Fitzgerald’s Family Christmas  – Edward Burns made another movie ala The Brothers McMullen – set in Brooklyn, family drama, good characters.  This time a dad asks to be allowed to have his last Christmas with his estranged wife and their children.  So many siblings!  So much drama!  Such good stuff!

Netflix DVDs:

  • Damsels in Distress  – I unfortunately didn’t pay too much attention to this. I was looking forward to it but it didn’t grab me.  May have been more about the circumstances (pre-Christmas busy-ness) or the B&W TV that I was watching it on, but it wasn’t captivating.  Was just ok.
  • The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – A re-watch.  So good and fun.
  • Seeking a Friend for the End of the World  – Pretty disappointing.  I am not a sci-fi or dystopia fan, so watching people prepare for the inevitable end of the world was not very fun.  I suppose it could be interesting to think about – how would you act? who would you seek out? where would you go?  But it didn’t pull me in that much… I may have been distracted by other things (work!) but it was just ok.
  • Big Miracle (with Mom, Dad and Marissa on Christmas Eve) – based on a true story about 3 grey whales who are stuck in the ice off the Alaska coast.  They are migratory animals who need to get to CA.  To get them out of the ice or harvest them for food?  The small town becomes overrun by media and activitists and the President eventually asks for Russian assistance.  Loved the actual footage that was shown during the movie and during the credits.  I was a little preoccupied in 1989 so I don’t really remember this happening, but it was a good story!

Christmas Views:

  • Love, Actually – Watched while decorating. Such a great movie.

    Cover of "Holiday Affair"

    Cover of Holiday Affair

  • Elf – Always makes me guffaw
  • The Holiday – A fun one every year
  • The Family Stone – Gets me every time!
  • The Holiday Affair (TCM recording) – oldie with Robert Mitchum playing the romantic lead. He’s unemployed and gives a widow’s son an expensive train for Christmas.  He’s going to stay in town long enough to make money to get to CA, but the widow’s new fiance can tell that they’re in love and encourages her to convince him to stay.  Hmm.  Silly holiday movie.

And now, we’re in 2013.  January 1 and one movie down!  Silver Linings Playbook!  Sooooo good!  And another will be seen on January 3 –  This is 40. Can’t wait!  Will write more about these and others that I can’t wait to see later!

Happy New Year!

 

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2011 in Movies

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The Wehrenberg 100th Anniversary logo (2006).
Image via Wikipedia

The last post of the year, I promise.  Three in a day, really?  🙂

I am a bit of a movie fiend, as most people know.  So it was fun to sit down and look back on my moving viewing in 2011.  I’m a Netflix subscriber, even through their troubles.  I even upped my subscription, going to two DVDs at a time plus streaming!  I cancelled my cable (and don’t even miss it) so my streaming and DVD watching has drastically increased.  I stream a lot of TV shows – watching old episodes of Cheers and thirtysomething or finding British TV shows that I’ve never heard of, or even American shows I’ve never heard of (What About Brian? – heard of it?).

I also took advantage of the “theatre near me” and their Rush Hour Pricing – all shows between 4-6PM are $5 (or $5.50 now) and they have free popcorn on Wednesdays for Wehrenberg card holders (and of course I am!).  So I have gone to the theatre a lot on Wednesdays.

Going to the theatre hasn’t lost any of its appeal.  I remember a long time ago going to the first movie in a theatre in a long time and wondering why I didn’t do it more often!  I believe the movie was “City of Angels,” and it just is a magical experience to see a movie in the theatre.  I try to prioritize my theatre-going and keep up with what’s new and coming soon through podcasts and IMDB gazing.

In 2011 I watched more than 110 movies, probably more than 120.  30 were seen in the movie theatre and the rest from Netflix, streaming, or the library.  I watched 16 TV series either partially or in their entirety (mostly in their entirety).  During my Ferragosto vacation in August I watched 7 movies – 4 in Italian.  I find that without cable I often will turn on a streaming movie or rewatch a movie that I own while I am doing other things.  It feels more purposeful than having a random TV channel on!

Below is the movies I saw in the theatre in 2011.  I know there were some clunkers, but I always enjoy the theatre-going experience, whether it be alone, with kiddos, or with good friends and family, so I have nothing but positive feelings about all of the movies below.

Here’s to more movie magic in 2012!

The King’s Speech
Take Me Home Tonight!
Cedar Rapids
Something Borrowed
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
Company
Cars 2
Bad Teacher
Larry Crowne
Horrible Bosses
The Help
The Guard
Puss in Boots
Harry Potter
Crazy, Stupid Love
Smurfs
Sarah’s Key
Our Idiot Brother
The Lion King 3D
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Footloose
50/50
The Muppets
Hugo
New Year’s Eve
The Descendents
Young Adult
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)
My Week with Marilyn