Category Archives: movies

A funny

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I have not seen Wanted, the new comic book movie based on the book by Mark Millar, starring Angelina Jolie and James MacAvoy, but Rand and John went to see it Friday night.

When they picked me up after the bachelorette festivities, they told me a little bit about the movie. Rand had filled me in a tiny bit on the source material, so they were telling me about some of the changes to the story.

There was one particular story element that I wasn’t quite sure I had remembered correctly. I thought perhaps I had dreamed it. So Saturday morning, I asked Rand…

Me: I can’t quite remember what you were telling me about the movie last night. There was something about a loom of…what?

Rand: Loom of Destiny.

Me: So I didn’t dream that.

😉

Be excellent to each other

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I was, as many were, very sad to hear of George Carlin’s death. I encountered Carlin’s standup more as an adult than as a kid, so one of my first experiences with George Carlin was as Bill and Ted’s most excellent guide Rufus.

rufus, bill and ted

RIP, George.

June? Seriously?

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Mind you, I’m not complaining. For one, it seems that the weather is finally starting to cooperate, at least somewhat. For another, it means only 11 1/2 days more of *classes* to go (they still have exams after that, but my life will be much easier).

By the way, it turns out that I’m going to be at this job until the official end of the school year. As long as they’re paying me, I can’t complain. 😉

I just don’t know where the time has gone is all. Finally, the fact that it is June 2 means that THERE ARE ONLY 40 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE WEDDING.

40 DAYS!

I am excited beyond words. I am also mildly panicking about the things still left to do. I’ll post more about the to-do list over at the wedding blog…

I also need to do the TC newsletter, which I always, always without fail, put off until the last moment. Ah, procrastination.

We had a nice weekend, which those of you who follow me on Twitter already know included seeing Iron Man. I loved it! I also watched the Lost finale, which I thought was very good. (One scene in particular had me weeping tears of joy. Those of you who watched it know which one!)

Slowly but surely, we are ridding the new place of boxes and putting things away. It feels really good…

And that is all. One more class to go for me, and I’m outta here. Enjoy the rest of your Monday! 🙂

Long weekend update

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I had off Friday AND Monday, but I think I would be more rested if I had been at work! Here’s how my weekend went:

Friday

Planned to go to yoga Friday morning. Did not go. Tried to go get a mani/pedi and discovered that the salon I usually go to has closed. (there was a “for rent” sign in the window and everything…) Ran some errands. Sat at the chiropractor’s office for WAY too long. Shopped for some things we needed for the new place. Went to follow-up contact appointment and bought two boxes of contacts. Waited for Rand to get home. Left for St. Marys.

Trip to St. Marys was incredibly annoying…traffic on 219 into Springville backed up.

Arrived in St. Marys just in time for 7 pm showing of The Music Man at the high school, where my cousin Scott had the lead. He was fantastic (as was the rest of the production). Stayed up too late chatting and snacking with family.

Saturday

Woke up. Helped mom make blueberry muffins. Got dressed and ready for second bridal shower (more details on this to come). Had a lovely time at bridal shower, and got lots of excellent goodies. Visited grandparents. Got ready to drive back to Buffalo. Stopped at Blasedell Pizza in Springville on the way back.

Watched some TV (The Cable Guy, which I had never seen, had shown on cable) and moved some more stuff from the apartment.

Sunday

Slept in. Visited with my brother and SIL, who were on their way to Niagara Falls/Niagara on the Lake to celebrate their anniversary. They got to see the new place, and we went out for lunch at Anderson’s.

Lots more moving/unpacking, interspersed with bits of TV and a dinner break.

Monday

Slept in again. Went to Wegmans to pick up some cleaning supplies. Forgot oven cleaner, which was the main reason why I went. Went back to Wegmans. Headed over to apartment to finish packing/begin cleaning.

Toyed with the idea of paying someone to clean. Decided to suck it up and clean ourselves.

Emptied and cleaned most of the apartment (still left: kitchen floor, living room). Took lunch and dinner breaks. Rand watched 300 (I watched on and off, while hunting around the house looking for things I am missing…), and we headed back over to the apartment to go through the storage area in the basement. Moved or threw away most of that stuff.

Bed.

We should easily finish cleaning and moving today. There’s not much left to do. But man, do I wish I had another day or two to unwind!

Whew. I should get back to work. Look for some photos and a wedding blog update soon! (46 days until the wedding–ACK!)

Oh my, so tired…

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So today was my first day at my new job. It went very well, but I’m beat. Not so much because the work was so exhausting, but because I didn’t sleep very well last night, and I got up way early so that I could get in and get settled. Other than some technical issues, which will hopefully be resolved tomorrow, all is well.

Over the weekend, we saw a couple of movies. Friday night, we went out to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which I found very funny. (there was that one moment when I cried, though…darn Kristen Bell…) Saturday, we finally watched Enchanted, which has been sitting here since it was released on DVD. Squee! Loved it.

We’ve also been (re)watching the third season of Arrested Development, which is always fun.

Traded in another box of CDs for store credit…we went to Record Theatre, then to FYE with the stuff they wouldn’t take. I got a copy of Duma Key out of the deal, which I hope to find some time to read, uh, sometime.

And since I’m barely focusing at this point (seriously, I keep getting distracted by shiny things. it’s taking me way too long to finish this lame update entry), I’m going to call it a night and go do something that involves, like, zero brain cells.

Later!

Weekend wrap-up

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The weekend was fun, mellow and relaxing. Here are some of the highlights…

Spend Friday afternoon with a couple of Rand’s friends up from Houghton. We ate lunch at the Village Grille (best. hummus. ever.) and went to see Be Kind Rewind. I liked the movie. It was very funny, and also very touching.

Later, Rand and I watched The Darjeeling Limited, which Rand had just bought. It was as quirky as you would expect, coming from Wes Anderson, but enjoyable. I don’t think it was as good as Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, but I liked it.

Saturday…breakfast and discussion of weddingstuff. Then grocery shopping. We also watched Once, which we’ve had sitting around from Netflix, oh, forever. I liked it a lot. We immediately purchased the soundtrack. (One note, though…could not stop crying. Seriously. I cried for about ten minutes after the movie was over.)

Sunday, we went out and played at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, looking for items we want to include on our registry.

Other things we watched over the weekend…a couple of episodes of Freaks and Geeks, a couple of episodes of Sex and the City (in watching the early episodes, I remember that I was a Carrie-Big fan. It was later that I jumped ship.) I’m probably forgetting something, but oh well.

And as always, the weekend went by too quickly, and I am at work. Happy Monday!

Reading, watching, listening (Happy New Year edition!)

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Reading: This has been fairly well covered, but I did sneak in one more (short) book in the past few days–Abadazad-The Road to Inconcievable by JM DeMatteis and Mike Ploog. It’s the first in a series, and I found it very enjoyable.

Watching: It’s been a busy week!

In the theater: Juno, Charlie Wilson’s War, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Three very different movies, but I enjoyed them all.

I adored Juno. Precious? Yes, but also smart and funny and very well done. I loved the cast. I first encountered screenwriter Diablo Cody through Eden’s blog, and I was a semi-regular reader of her blog for a while.

I have three words to say about Charlie Wilson’s War–Philip. Seymour. Hoffman. He was fantastic. The story was interesting, and I was entertained by the type of dialog I’ve come to expect from Aaron Sorkin. Rand and I both noted, though, that it wasn’t particularly dramatic…the story had very little drama or tension. Tom Hanks was likable as the title character (duh), and Julia Roberts did a fine job in her role as well.

And Walk Hard was simply hilarious. The songs (many of which were written by Dan Bern) were great. In fact, we downloaded the complete soundtrack from iTunes. The cast was great, too.

What else? Slums of Beverly Hills, season 1 of Buffy (not quite finished), more season 2 of Earl, random episodes of The Office, Styx: Caught in the Act (HEE! awesome.), random bits of various New Year’s Eve countdowns. Probably some other stuff that I’ve forgotten…

Listening: Walk Hard, the soundtrack. Styx (discovering some songs that I didn’t previously know…). Looking forward to listening to some of the CDs that I got for Christmas, including Veronica Mars (whee! thanks, Stephanie!!) and the mix I got from Samantha.

Happy 2008, everyone!

Reading, watching, listening (Christmas eve edition)

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It’s been a very busy few days, and will continue to be busy. I expect posting will be sparse this week. In the meantime, here’s the reading, watching, listening post I actually started on Friday.

Reading: Starman (ongoing). Just Listen, by Sara Dessen. I love, love, loved this book. I may write an extended review for my book blog, where I have not posted in months.

Watching: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original TV special, NOT the movie), Elf (with my kids at school, so I essentially watched it four times. I had never seen it before. Really, really funny…), more Season 5 Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Rand and I have begun watching the DVDs. I’ve seen most of them. He has not…), Mystery Men.

Listening: Greg Klyma and Ookla the Mok (the show at Madame Mocha’s was tons of fun, really.); Christmas music; Hawksley Workman; Larry Miller: Spoiled Rotten America.

And that’s all I have time for right now…enjoy your day!

Reading, watching, listening

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We now interrupt the relentless snow for a report of what Erin’s been up to:

Reading: Essays, journals, portfolios. A little bit of Starman by James Robinson, art by Tony Harris. More essays. 8th grade research paper outlines. It’ll break soon…

Watching: Bits of season 5 of The Simpsons. It’s funny…I’ll often grumble about watching The Simpsons (again), but I always laugh. I especially love watching the physical Homer stuff. For whatever reason, Homer getting injured is funny.

We also watched the last new episode of 30 Rock. Rand and I are both busy grading right now, so we’ll just take short breaks to watch something funny, then go back to it.

We have a mile-long list of movies we want to watch once we make it through the end of the semester. Here are some of them, in no particular order (some are more important to him, and others are more important to me):

Juno, The Darjeeling Limited, Sweeney Todd, The Mist, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Enchanted, Charlie Wilson’s War, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, No Country for Old Men, Into the Wild.
Also, some things I want to see on DVD: Once, Waitress, Hairspray…uh, I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t remember right now.

And one more–I am excited beyond words for the film version of Mamma Mia! It doesn’t open until next July, but I just watched the trailer and nearly wept with joy. (I saw the stage version–twice!)

Listening: Almost a Full Moon, Hawksley Workman. Currently hearing in the background: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Reading, watching, listening

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Reading: Pride of Baghdad, and Ex Machina, vol. 6, both by Brian K. Vaughn. I have an issue of Buffy sitting here for me to read, and I might get to that today sometime.

Watching:  Finished watching Ed Wood, which was good, but really kind of sad. Poor Ed just had this relentless optimism that he was going to be the next Orson Welles. Martin Landau was amazing, and his Oscar for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi was well deserved.

Bender’s Big Score, the Futurama movie. I adore Futurama, and the movie had its moments, but it was nowhere near as good as the show.

The finale of Heroes. Gasp! Ack! Any speculation about what’s going to happen next?

And by the way, I am so sick of Sylar. I want him to go away and be, like, dead for good.

Rand and I are also slowly catching up on season 2 of My Name is Earl courtesy of Netflix, while also watching the current season. I’m happy that this week’s episode got Earl out of prison. I was really tired of that story.

Listening: I finally broke out the Christmas tunes this past week. I need to once again pimp the Hawksley Workman album Almost a Full Moon. (available at Amazon, Maple Music, and on iTunes)

I was listening to my Christmas playlist and “Merry Christmas, I Love You” came on, and that one always makes me a little bit weepy…

Immediately following that one, “O Holy Night” came on. Sigh.

And of course,  we had the Lowest of the Low show last night. More on that to come. I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend!