best picture show 2011 day 2

Remember the all day movie marathon from last Saturday?  Well because they select so many movies as part of the best of 2011 at the Oscars they show them all over 2 Saturdays.  Yesterday we headed back to AMC for the other 5 movies.  Here's my take:

• Winter's Bone - This was an interesting story and it's sad that there are probably families out there that really are like this.  There was some messed up stuff in that movie.  I think this is one of those stories that's better as a book (although I have not read the book).
• Black Swan - I wasn't sure I wanted to see this since I was a dancer back in the day and had heard some strange comments about the movie but I ended up really enjoying it.  It's like a train wreck - you can't stop looking.  Don't watch this with your mother!
• Inception - I had already seen this one.  It was much easier to watch the second time around.  It takes a lot of paying attention because it's hard to tell what's real and what's a dream.  I enjoyed it.
• The Social Network - This movie is about the controversial creation of Facebook.  Hard to believe all that went on.  It's worth watching.
• The King's Speech - This is about the Duke of York and his stammer.  The whole movie is about him trying to overcome this speech impediment.  I couldn't wait for this to get over - I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND!!!  For that very reason I'm sure it's going to win.

Since I had already seen Social Network I skipped that one and headed to dinner to help celebrate a 60th and 40th birthday for some of my friends.  It was a great Saturday!!!

If there's an AMC anywhere close to you that's participating in this next year - GO!

Make sure to watch the Oscar's tonight!

we're famous!!!

Ok, so maybe we're not - I'm mean, they're no Time or Good Housekeeping or anything - but I still think it's pretty cool that our mugs are in print.  I now have proof they'll put anyone in a magazine.  Within mere weeks of each other, we received two separate magazines in the mail with pictures of US.

Our wedding photographer was AWESOME!!!  She captured some amazing pictures of our amazing day.  If you need a photographer in Maine - call her (Mariko Brown Photography) - you will not regret it.  Check out her website to see some of the pictures from our day.  She has some of our engagement pictures on her site, too.

A magazine about Maine weddings found a picture she took at our wedding and loved it so much they published it.  Can you believe that???

Go to Mariko's website to see the picture as she intended it to look - all beautifully bright and clear and not grainy and blurry as it looks when I tried to take a picture of it in the magazine with my camera.

Sean took a trip to his old college to talk to the students about real world job possibilities and they wrote a story about it in their magazine.  As you can see from these pictures, Sean regrets showing me this picture cuz I made him pose with it.

best picture show 2011

Remember my day of movies last year?  Well, it's that time of year again - the Oscars are just around the corner so we headed to our local AMC for the first five movies up for best picture.  This year I was actually able to get Sean to join us!

aren't those some sexy glasses?!?!

This is my personal take on the first five movies (in the order we saw them) and whether I liked them or not.  The movie name is a link to the movie website if you want to learn more about the movie.

• Toy Story 3 - Andy is heading off to college and Woody and the gang get donated to a day care.  The movie centers around their shenanigans at the day care and trying to get back to Andy.  Whether you have kids or not you should see this movie.  I just can't get over how clever it was.  I think the Toy Story series just keeps getting better.  Oh, and it was in 3-D!!!
• 127 Hours - This is a true story of a guy that goes cave exploring without telling anyone where he's going and ends up in an accident, getting his arm stuck between the rock and a boulder.  That all happens before the opening credits.  The rest of the movie recounts his thought process and survival. It was interestingly filmed and VERY graphic - glad I saw it - even if it was through my blanket for part of it.
• The Kids Are All Right - This was about a lesbian couple that had children from a sperm donor.  When the children are old enough they want to meet their "father".  I couldn't wait for this one to be over.  B-O-R-I-N-G!!!  Not sure why it's up for best picture.  Because of this movie we almost lost Sean for the rest of the day.
• True Grit - This was the story of a 14 year old girl whose father was shot by an outlaw.  To avenge her father's death she enlists the help of a drunk U.S. Marshall to hunt down the killer.  I loved, loved, loved this movie!!!  Go see it!  I don't like westerns but somehow this was different.
• The Fighter - This was about two boxing brothers and their journey in the boxing world.  A little boring and predictable.  It was alright but not my favorite.

After Sean having been gone for 3 months it was so great to just sit and hold his hand for an entire day!  As usual, it was a great time with my friends, making funny comments about the movie, sharing snacks and having dinner together.

Can't wait for the next 5 - even though I've already seen 2 of them.

roll of the die

Friday night I cooked a dinner for 12 that turned out to be 15 plus 4 little ones.  This was my month to host Bunco.

In case you're not familiar with Bunco, it's an excuse for a bunch of women to get together, gossip, drink wine, gossip, eat, gossip and drink more wine - oh and eat.  As the host, you supply the house, dinner, dessert and determine who's going to win the prizes.

duke wanted to join in

For dinner, I decided to make beef brisket, squares (which I named way back when I was little - my mom used to make them and I loved them, but I've added my own twist), string beans (as Sean calls them), Chip 'n Dale woopie pies, vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate sauce.

You may remember my new kitchen gadget.  I used it to make the ice cream, chocolate sauce and brisket.  For the brisket I seasoned it with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and jalapeno garlic salt.  I then sealed it and cooked it in the water bath at 147 degrees for 2 days.  The new gadget really does make the difference.  I heard so many comments like "this is so juicy for brisket" and "I don't even like brisket but this was really good".

In case you're wondering what in the world squares could be I've included the recipe.

Squares
olive oil
minced garlic
1 can whole new potatoes
salt and pepper
jalapeno garlic salt

Heat up a little olive oil in a pan.  Add the minced garlic.  Cut up the new potatoes into squares.  Season with salt, pepper and jalapeno garlic salt to your taste preference.  (I can't find a website for the jalapeno garlic salt but there's a phone number on the packaging in case you want to order some for yourself (210.287.4535).  They also have a jalapeno lemon pepper that I have.)  Cook the potatoes until they're heated up.

The whoopie pies were chocolate chip with salty peanut butter filling.  YUMMY!

I didn't win any of the prizes but it was a great night!  Do you play Bunco?  Do you have any special traditions or rules you play with?  My favorite we play with are the "grabs"!!!

happy chinese new year

It's been a very busy week (as for the lack of blogging)!  The week was spent doing a lot of cooking.  First off was supper club.  This month's theme was Chinese New Year.  I enlisted some help from one of my co-workers for a recipe - well, or list of ingredients.  Turned out she cooks like I do - throw it all in a bowl until you like how it tastes.  This makes it a little hard to pass on the recipe to others though.

Based on the list of ingredients, this is how I made my version of Vietnamese Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls
Vietnamese rice paper wraps (this was the only ingredient I couldn't find at my local grocery store)
Vermicelli noodles
Chicken breast
Pork chop
Bag of red leaf lettuce
Cilantro
Cucumber (cut into small sticks)
Bean sprouts
Mint

Boil the chicken and pork, shred it up and season with salt and pepper.  Mix up the lettuce, cilantro, cucumber, bean sprouts and mint in a bowl.  I actually cut up the lettuce but you don't have to.  Cook the noodles according to the package and season with salt and pepper.  Heat up some water.  Take one rice paper wrap and soak in the warm water for about 5 seconds.  Place some lettuce, then meat and noodles on top.  Tuck in the sides and then roll it up - similar to a burrito or egg roll.  The rice papers look a lot more fragile than they are.

Peanut Dipping Sauce
1 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup peanut butter
3 tbsp natural honey
Salt & pepper to taste
Siracha sauce to desired heat level

In a small sauce pan heat up all the ingredients.  If it's too thick add water.

I wasn't so sure about this as I was making them but I have to say - VERY tasty!!!  I was surprised by the mint but added a really nice touch.  I had never had the siracha sauce either but I'll be using it on a lot of things.  It adds a really good heat but not too much.

duke's weekend fun

Meet my friends...

mattie

pete

Can you believe he was smaller than me at one point?

When mommy and daddy go away for work I usually go play with my friends.  Their mommies went out of town over the weekend so they came and played at my house.

When we got too wild inside, Mom sent us outside to play.  I devised a scheme though to get Mom to let us back in.  I sent Pete to look all sad like at the window.

He did a great job because it worked like a charm!

I had to tell Pete to be nice to Mattie a few times.  Boy does he have a short term memory problem.

I assured Mom, though, that all the rowdiness was Pete and Mattie's fault.  I'm pretty sure she bought it and still thinks I'm the sweetest thing EVER!!!

I can't wait until the next time we get to play together.

love is in the air

this man...

has been gone for far too long...

Remember the London trip?  Well, we went because Sean had been there for work since November (love me a vacation with a free place to stay).

I can't say it's been easy...or enjoyable...being home alone while he's off touring Europe working hard.
In fact it's been the hardest thing I've had to do in quite some time.

I didn't realize how much I had come to love having him around 24/7.
I knew we were meant to be together considering we could work together all day and still want to be around each other after work.
So, when he's all of a sudden not around, I freak out!

6 hours doesn't sound like much - but it is when you're trying to find time to talk during the day.

But he's back now and I'm ecstatic!!!

I love that he loves my baby as his own.
I love that he supports me no matter how many hobbies I try.

I love that he loves to travel as much as I do.
I love that he's such a softy - even if he doesn't want people to know.
I love his free spirit and fun nature.

I love that he's also focused and gets stuff done.
I love our life together and so glad we're physically back together!!!

accountants just wanna have fun

I travel so much for work and have done so for so many years I have gotten to the point where I don't take advantage of what the city I'm visiting has to offer.  I've been to Tampa so many times all I want to do is just sit in my room and do nothing at the end of the day.

This week was a little different.  We actually went out and had a little fun - Splitsville style - where their gig is...

I'm IN!!!  I'm IN!!!

We bowled...

and played pool...

I totally loved their "rules".

The first round of bowling we had to guess what we would bowl.  I guessed 109 -  bowled a 106 - ROCKED IT!!!  Won the prize for coming closest.

What's your best bowling score?

funny photo

I saw this on the shuttle that takes you from the terminal to baggage claim in Tampa.  As soon as I saw it I died laughing and immediately thought of Ellen's funny photos.  I'm sure the other people in the shuttle thought I was a little strange for laughing and taking a picture (maybe should have included more of the ad in the photo).  Do you find it as funny as I do???

my weekend

Based on how my weekend started, it could only go up.

Nothing like waking up, putting in a load of laundry, going about my business when an unfamiliar sound startles me from the other room.  I quickly jumped up to see what it was to find water, spewing EVERYWHERE in the utility room.  Remember those pictures of all the snow and stuff?  Well, I guess I had a frozen pipe, so there was nowhere for the draining water from the washer to go except on the floor.  After having a freak out moment (and a calm down from some friends) I proceeded to clean it up.

The ShamWow is AMAZING in these situations.  I will never go back to a regular towel in these circumstances again.  If you don't own one - get it NOW!  (I have not been compensated for this shout-out.)

Do you have one of these...

- a big pile of clothes needing SOMETHING - a button, a hole sewn - anything?  Mine has been growing for years so I decided to finally do something about it.  I found all the buttons needed too - TOTAL BONUS!  It was like getting a whole new wardrobe!

There was also a lot of this going on, too...

I capped my weekend off by sitting in first class sipping a cocktail during the Super Bowl.  Bummed I missed Christina - love her - but heard she totally messed up the National Anthem.

Just when I thought things had turned around...
I got called "sir".  Oh well, tomorrow is a new day!

what a difference a day makes

little of this, little of that

FINALLY a picture of the new do...

***********************************************************

The dress in the picture above I bought several years ago.
It totally fit when I bought it...
but not when I got it home.
UNTIL last weekend!
Took the tags off.
On a similar note - put on a pair of work pants this week that I have to retire - WAY too big now and look horrible.
20 pounds to go!

***********************************************************

Sean wasn't home so the cardinals came for a visit - they're his favorite - wants them at the Camp but they don't come around.  I took a picture so he could enjoy them, too.

***********************************************************

Lesson learned this week - check the weather for the day you come back from a trip.
Left for Tampa when it was in the 70s in Texas, came back to an ice storm.
Only had flip flops and very light jacket.
Luckily I was parked REALLY close to the door.
Took me 1.5 hours to drive home from the airport.
Only fish-tailed once.
But ended the journey by sliding right into the garage.
Don't worry Sean - I didn't hit the wall or anything.

***********************************************************

Kermit looks like he's sunbathing in the sand...
except from this angle he has a scared look on his face.
Oh, that's left over ice from the storm on Monday night - picture taken today.
Snow is on the way again tonight...
but 50's on Saturday!

***********************************************************

Duke has the greatest name to add to any song...
"Ain't no other man but Duke..."
"Despite all my rage, Duke is still just a rat in a cage..."
"Since Duke's been gone..."
"But tonight I'm loving Duke..." - ok so that one came out creepy sounding...

I can hear you now - "what a freak" - but just wait - you're going to find yourself doing it, too...
...when you're all alone, in the car, stereo cranked, beltin' it out...just wait!

big beauty

I can now say I've been to two pageants - or can I really count it as three?

Many years ago I had a friend that was in the Miss Kansas pageant.

This past weekend I had a friend judging the North Dallas County Texas Plus America Pageant (it had two categories - Ms and Miss).

I would have to search through "real" pictures to find some from the Miss Kansas pageant (I didn't have a digital camera back then).  I took my camera last weekend though so you'll have to settle for those.

These two pageants couldn't have been more different - 2 contestants vs who knows how many, no interview during pageant vs interview competition live, contestants, size of the audience, I could go on and on...

But, at the same time, they were exactly the same - there were categories they competed in...

and winners were crowned...

It was such a BLAST!!!  Who said "big" isn't beautiful???

Thanks to Mark for getting us the hook-up!  We on for Nationals?