A Movie Meme

From

1) Name a movie you've seen more than 10 times. When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, Enemy Mine (because of a girl I used to babysit)

2) Name a movie you've seen multiple times in the theater. I saw ET 18 1/2 times in the movie theater.
3) Name an actor who would make you more inclined to see a movie. Johnny Depp, John Cusack, Ice T, Campbell Scott, Eric Stoltz
4) Name an actor who would make you less likely to see a movie. Jim Carey, Uma Thurman
5) Name a movie you can and do quote from. The Princess Bride
6) Name a movie musical to which you know all the lyrics. Little Shop of Horrors
7) Name a movie you've been known to sing along with. The Sound of Music
8) Name a movie you would recommend everyone see. Grand Canyon
9) Name a movie you own. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Home
10) Name an actor who launched his/her career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops. Ice T, mmmmmmmmmm.
11) Have you ever seen a movie at a drive-in? If so what? Maybe, I'm not sure if I did or if I just imagined it.
12) Ever made out at a movie? At a theater? Totally.
13) Name a movie you've been meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to yet. Seriously, The Godfather
14) Ever walked out of a movie? First: Poltergeist, because my sister was scared. We saw that 1/2 of E.T. Then Born on the Fourth of July, because my friend was grossed out.
15) Name a movie that made you cry in the theater. Most recently I cried during Christmas with the Kranks, watching it again.
16) Popcorn? Definitely, with butter.
17) How often do you go to the movie theater? Maybe twice a year.
18) What's the last movie you saw in the theater? I have no earthly idea.
19) What's your favorite/preferred genre? Gah. Romantic comedy I guess.
20) What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater? I might be crazy because I think it was The Rescuers but I wasn't even three when it came out.
21) What movie do you wish you had never seen? A Walk in the Clouds with Keanu Reeves, truly the biggest baddest movie ever.
22) What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed? Ishtar. I loved that friggin' movie.
23) What's the scariest movie you've ever seen? I don't know the name, it was a 3am movie I saw as a kid where twin girls were in a car accident and one assumed the identity of the other.
24) What's the funniest movie you've ever seen? A Fish Called Wanda, Shanghai Noon, Auntie Mame, Best in Show

March Macaroon Madness

Oh man are these tasty. I decided to make Jac some macaroons because he adores coconut and I adore him. I used Ina Garten's (the Barefoot Contessa) recipe for these decadent pillows of creamy coconut goodness. Now to find some chocolate for some of the bottoms.

Invasion of the Spork People

I admit to being a little more Blair than Jo when it comes to many things. Particularly, I don't really do fast food. When I was little, there was no bigger summer day than hiking up to McDonald's with a pound of change and getting matching double cheeseburgers with my BFF. But that was a long, long time ago. I just don't find much that looks appetizing at fast food places. I thank my lucky stars for the recent "quick casual" additions because I can get a fresh custom burrito or a bowl of noodles. It's a good thing.

Today though, I had a culinary emergency of the fast food variety. All day I'd been nursing a sinus (what would be the right word to capture the balls-to-the-wall explosive agony?) issue. I'd put everything my doctor gave me and anything else in the house that would fit up my nose or in my bloodstream and still I felt like someone was tugging my eye through my nostril. (Sporks should have clued you in that this would not be pretty.) Maybe I needed something approximating food.

Anyway, so as Jac and I drove into the sun on our weekend venture to the country, I asked him to stop at Taco Bell. This was really my last choice on the edge of civilization and it took me a good 40 miles to determine that Taco Bell was the place I could find something that did not contain kangaroo meat.

As I pondered getting lettuce (so soon after the Great Taco Bell Lettuce Plague?) on my bean burrito I grabbed a spork and started to look around at my fellow prospective KFC/Taco Bell combo diners. This is the part where I admit that a big reason I am loathe to swing into a fast food restaurants is the menu system. Oh, give me a menu! With articulate, lengthy ingredient descriptions! Are these beans vegetarian or do they have tiger baby tears in them? But all these people knew just what they wanted from the cryptic glowing menu. They were "#3's" and "Super Burrito Bowls" and "KFC Bowls" and they didn't have any questions. Which was actually good because our cashier's like, sister-in-law came in to catch up with her, and then all the people who'd gotten off work from McDonald's (wearing uniforms) streamed in to get their bowls and before I knew it, the place was full of spork people. I didn't really understand. You have to ask for "Border Sauce" when you order. It's like some kind of crazy populist Soup Nazi where everyone else knows the rules but me.

We got in the car and I took my bean burrito "ADD lettuce" in hand and reveled at the discovery: I don't need no stinkin' spork.

Like I Need Another Show

I want to want to watch Notes from the Underbelly whenever the hell it eventually premieres. These people are like, totally, my age. They are like totally married and stuff. But they are totally having babies. All of the shows Jac and I really like get cancelled just about immediately. We loved Thief, Wonderfalls, Eyes, Keen Eddie, Love Monkey, Wanda at Large, Significant Others... I know, you've never heard of those shows because they're all cancelled 15 minutes into their series premieres.

I feel like this show has been around for years. That happens with movies sometimes - I'll hear about a movie in like February and then it's seemingly everywhere, but it doesn't actually show in theaters and then next thing I know it's in the 3 for $10 bin at the video store.

And Jac and I really dig the Triscuit, yogurt, cell phone chick, whatshername? Ah yes, Rachel Harris, we adore her. But can I get into a show that is going to do nothing but remind me that my biological clock is ticking and that I live for the snooze button? Ick, having a Carrie of Sex in the City inspired gag moment about my writing.

Ahem. My Friends With Babies sent emails with their kid pix yesterday and the baby who was born a couple weeks before Jac and I got married has turned into a full-fledged Child. You can tell that he knows words and sentences and that people are relatively sure he won't fall down when he walks across the room. He might not even use a sippy cup anymore. Dammmit.

omg. Are those people younger than I am?

Sheep AND Cake!

Well! What could be finer than combining the love of fiber from sheep with the joy of cake in cup form?!?!?! I just don't know!

From Bite Me Cookie Co. via the wonderful blog Cupcakes Take the Cake.

Welcome to Hell on Earth

There are a lot of "fun" things that I think are retarded. There are also a lot of "fun" things that are too crowded or expensive for me to head right out there. The Times Square Toys R' Us has a ferris wheel. It also has a bazillion person line streaming out the doors. They better give away money and chocolate on that thing.

I don't have a fear of heights. I have a fear of suspension. Ick, just typing it makes me uncomfortable. I'm way cool with being up high, I just don't like the notion that the thing I'm standing on is above sea level. So imagine my horror - both environmental and phobic when I heard that they were building this thing - it's a sky walk. It dangles over the side of the Grand Canyon. That was frightening enough.

IT HAS GLASS WALLS AND FLOORS.

gah.

I can barely take the basement steps with open space in between the risers that let you see the floor. I guess that means I just saved $75-199 for the ticket. Hmm, what's on my Amazon wish list?!?!

Pity Television

At some point the painting "The Scream" was missing. Well, I don't know where the picture is, but the sound is totally in my house. I know parents of newborns and two year-olds think they've got the market cornered on screaming going on in the house, but they should try living with a 35 year-old horror film fan. I don't know how Jac does it, but he finds all the screaming on tv. I'm pretty sure right now he's watching the Chiller channel which is basically one long scream. God help me when he gets harder of hearing. I am really going to have to teach the man lip reading.

Modays are Funny

Ah, it's another Monday, but since I wasn't off this weekend, it doesn't quite feel like a Monday. It feels more like a Wednesday. I did manage to make some yummy stuff yesterday while I wasn't working. This is just day old bread made into crostini - but oh yum! A little olive oil and kosher salt and these are wonderful.

I got my artichoke fix and had not one but two whole artichokes for dinner on Saturday. I went to the grocery store and got a host of fresh spring goodies for this week's meals. I've even gotten some knitting done of late. I was able to knit for a while while waiting for my meeting to start on Saturday too.

Unusual Bloom

This is a totally weird day. I don't actually have to go to work until 8pm. On a Friday night. I haven't done that since I was a waitress. I had a little work to deal with during the day so it wasn't like I was totally free, and I feel pretty tethered because I have to drive an hour and a half to some hotel north of Baltimore for my thing. So I am frittering a bit.

I was reading the WaPo and mmmmm, artichokes are coming into season. Now I am absolutely crazed for an artichoke or perhaps two - but no time to go buy them and steam them before I have to get dressed and leave. I wish we had artichoke stands - like the little burrito joints. Artichokes are on the agenda for tomorrow though. I may even buy them on my way home tonight. I think a weird vegetable is a good accompaniment to my weird day.

Started off with a Bang

This week was really supposed to be a bit of a yawn. I did a big proposal last week and really didn't have much on the schedule for this week, so I was hoping to catch up on some general admin stuff and life. But today was totally a whoa -- where'd that come from ?!?! day.

I headed out a little late this morning and during my commute I took note of just how much illegal driving stuff people do on the freakin' roads. As I drove through Old Town I followed a little truck that didn't top 12 MPH. It was mind-numbing. Finally, I reached the last light before my office. Naturally Mr. Slow Truck got us caught at the light. As I sat I noticed a little industrial vehicle in my rear view mirror - only he just kept zooming toward me then BANG. He'd hit my rear bumper. He was moving slower than Mr. Slow Truck at the time, so it was no catastrophe, but I was still fairly fired up. Then, seriously, Mr. Outlaw apologized to me. That is probably not a pseudonym because honestly, how can you improve on reality?

Anyway, so I chased him all over town and got his insurance info, headed into work and as soon as I settled into my desk, a client called all in a tizzy over a design. Hurry up, hurry up. I had to schedule a meeting with them for the afternoon to straighten things out.

And then before I knew it I was on the phone with Very Big Company giving them creative advice. And then a moment later a friend was calling about doing what we do for a Very Secret Organization - who I don't even freaking know and if I did I would probably have to kill myself for telling myself. Wild!

Then a customer called and said we should bill him more than we did. WTF, is this seriously my day? Then Jac and I went shopping and grabbed a bite to eat and finally, I spent the evening with my wonderful knitting group where I got a much deserved glass of wine.

I'm glad my current knitting project is all garter stitch because today was too complex for anything else.

Music to My Ears

Don't be a hater. That's what I kept thinking the last few days as my neighbor's wind chime signalled the arrival of Spring. Frequently. Robustly. Vigorously. Incessantly.

Yesterday I had intense sinus issues. I trotted off to the doctor to re-up my allergy meds and came home and flopped onto the bed.

Tinkle. Tinkle. Bing. Chime. Tinkle.

I'd been eyeing the chimes - which were actually some sort of bell thing hanging from their front porch for the last few days. They were a recent arrival. You can almost touch my neighbor's house from my bedroom window.

Chimes are wonderful in theory. The thought of a lazy Sunday afternoon on a porch swing with a glass of tea and your sweetheart just begs for a gentle wind chime tinkle. But amp those puppies up on a gusty weeknight and it's like being in the percussion section at the Kennedy Center.

I contemplated telling Jac I couldn't live here anymore, we'd need to move again. --A welcoming thought after having a house on the market for a year and a half. I mean, the mice, flooding, parking, and non-air conditioning issues with the house are one thing; but wind chimes just might put a girl flush into bat shit insane.

I steeled myself for a lifetime of pleasant tinkling chimes all day and night. So, imagine my surprise when I arrived home this afternoon and noticed the chimes were gone. Had they gotten their fill of the tinkle-tinkle?

St. Patrick's Reprieve

Go right ahead and call me crazy. But when I heard that we were in for a last gasp of winter weather this week, my heart did a little flip for joy. In the same way that legions mournfully pack away their sandals and sundresses, I greet the dawn of Spring with a fleeting regret. Spring itself is of course, full of wonder. The days are suddenly crisp and fresh. Everything that had been stripped of color begins anew. At college each spring we were greeted by tulips sweetly defaced with smiling graffiti. The first day you can walk through the grass barefoot, is just about the best treat you can find.

But for all its beauty and freshness, Spring just isn't winter. Winter is for nesting - spring is for cleaning. Winter soups give way to spring salads. Reading curled up by the fire is replaced with get togethers. Spring itself almost always seems cruelly short. It seems just after the thaw we'll get two nice weeks of that most perfect of temperatures - when you can wear either long sleeves or long pants or short sleeves or shorts and be equally comfortable - before, wham! It's just plain hot. Spring is the time when we emerge from our cocoons and rejoin the world, it's refreshing at first, but before we know it, it's time for a gauntlet of birthdays and holidays and suddenly it's Back to School and whoa Christmas.

So yes, I'll gladly cling to my last weekend of winter, feeling those last days of chilling cold and cuddly warm countermeasures.

Random Intent

I dunno if my allergy-prone head can fend off burgeoning Spring long enough to make sentences, but let's see.

Viacom, you're retarded.
Lexi, our dog, proves once again she is a Terrier, not a Retriever.
At a lunch meeting today I was distracted by a kid eating a French fry.
Mistakes were made. Yeah, you said it.

Skimping

You know, I really don't get how other people go through the time change without losing it. I mean I've been losing it over and over all weekend. I was supposed to be "off" on Friday, but clients crept in and work sneaked in and so the long weekend started late.

Of course, this is the shortest weekend of the year. When I was little, I have seemingly endless memories of arriving at church just as the service was ending on the first Sunday of Daylight Saving Time. I feel like it happened every year, though it was probably only twice. As a grown up I've spent this Sunday trying every different approach to feel less like I was cheated. Sometimes I change all the clocks really early and try to make the adjustment disappear overnight. Other times I don't change the clocks (forwards or back) until the last moment. Still, I can't help but feel time slipping over and over all weekend. "So it's really two." I remember saying for weeks after the time change.

It doesn't help to know that I really should work tonight, and that I'm on a big deadline all this week and will have a client on my shoulders every day starting bright and early tomorrow at 9. (Or is it really 8?) It also happens to be a radiant day at the river and when we get in the car to drive back to the city, that three hour drive will feel like an extra theft of time.

The most abominable creature on the Food Network these days is a skeleton called Robin Miller. Her schtick is "Quick-Fix Meals" and they are really pushing her these days with the release of a cookbook and DVD set. Her show is distressing not just because she wants you to cook chicken and pasta on Sunday and use them on Thursday, but also because I can't stand the notion that home keeping is the thing we sacrifice all for our "Crazy Lives" as the show says - which really means being in pointless meetings, sitting in traffic, waiting in line - oh, everywhere. Let's rush those things let's savor things that are pleasurable. How ass-backwards.

I headed to the yarn shop this week intent on getting a pattern I would actually make and the precise yarn and quantity the pattern indicated. It took me no less than an hour. I scoured the books in the front of the store so long that the girls at the back table took noticed and wondered what the heck I was up to. Ultimately I settled on 12 balls of scrumptious yarn and a pattern that I quickly cast off after I had it home for being far too boring. Now I'm knitting a wrap in basketweave with the yarn and wonder how tedious that might become.

So I've been keenly interested lately in having the exact right tools for the job - whatever it may be. This morning, I woke up with a yen to bake a loaf of some hearty bread - some old fashioned sweet bread. I flipped through an old church cookbook and stumbled on the recipe for Dump Cake. What a dreadful name. The recipe though, was straight out of convenience baking of the past - a can of pineapple, a can of cherry pie filling, a box of yellow cake mix, two sticks (yes) of butter, and ground nuts. Bake it for an hour at 350.

I thought of my Granny's recipes. I've been archiving my Granny's recipes in fits over the last few months. She had collected quite a few back-of-the-package brand name recipes. As I enter them, I wonder which ones she made, which ones she meant to make, and which ones were her favorites.

Dump Cake is such an unglamorous name. I have to remember that when that name was christened, the idea of just tossing some ingredients in a pan without actually preparing them was kind of wild. It must have been carefree to think of the frivolous disregard for structure and formal cooking. The resulting dish is pure comfort food. That should be obvious from the two sticks of butter. So on a day for cutting corners and skimming off the top, this is what I'll cheat with.

Yarn Jones

I am going to need some yarn.

Now, I do realize that I have quite a bit of yarn. But I don't have the yarn I need. I need yarn dedicated to a specific project with a matching pattern that I don't have to guess at or convert or think about so that I can just sit down and knit for Heaven's sake.

I think that means a trip to the yarn mecca today.

Knit Goods

That's cool, Aryon Hostleton and Alison Macrina's shopping bag:















They made this for a handmade goods show.

Past-tastic

So we already know that I have a bit of a Murder, She Wrote problem. Jac says I fully rounded the bend when I started referring to the program as MSW. As in CSI. But Jessica really knows how to solve some crimes around the world.

Jac and I have had a big Match Game situation going on lately. We can't resist it on weekend nights at the river. Now I've started Tivoing it during the week. There's something addictive about Nipsy Russell and Charles Nelson Riley.

My favorite crazy-ass accented detective - on The Closer won't be back until sometime this summer, but I am catching up on the show in re-runs. A review I read of that show today called it "formulaic". Dude, I am all about the formulaic. It's my favorite formula.

Except also that I like Scrubs which is about as anti-formulaic as a 30-minute medical sitcom can be. I am glad they are going to pay Zach Braff $350k an episode. Good for him.

And of course, last night I had a little revelation while watching Brothers & Sisters, namely that everyone is younger than I am. When the hell did that happen? Balthazar Getty is younger than I am and I remember when he was in Young Guns and I swear he was older than I was! Apparently the 70's were a very, very long time ago.

So yes, I have been rocking the Tivo'ed tv. But also reading lovely Laurie Notaro and knitting and reading all my freakin' bloglines. I even managed to make Jac dinner four times in one week! What the hell is going on here?!?!

Friday At Last

Most people would crack open a nice cold frosty beer to celebrate the end of the work week.

I am all about an ice cold Coke.

These are our drinks from yesterday at the Cheesecake Factory where Jac got his lovely shrimp sandwich and I got my club and all was well with the world.

Knitting Going On

There is actually some knitting going on in my world. Proof:

Jamaica Me Crazy, Pt 1

Jac and I have discovered that there are so many things on the Cheesecake Factory menu that we can satisfactorily go there and not have to count the restaurant against either of our "turns". We have different tastes so we try to alternate who we're favoring in restaurant choice.

I should also mention that Jac and I firmly believe in dining when no other sensible person would so that we can avoid people. It's a great system. We would never in a hundred thousand years consider going to the Cheesecake Factory or any such place when there was a wait. We'd duck into our favorite diner.

Anyhoo, so here's something I don't understand: Not telling the diner what they are going to get to eat.




Um, excuse me, what kind of pasta is in this pasta? And no, it's nowhere on the menu. There's no list.

Luscious.