.jeri.

Hi everyone, I'm back!

You can view the rest of my photos from my vacation on Facebook. I had a good time hanging out with Erika and Justin and all of their pets.

Sunday Erika and I hit up the Vancouver Farmers Market, then went to the Portland Art Museum, where we saw exhibitions of MC Escher (more interesting than I expected because there were several drafts and displays of technique), Beth Van Hoesen (some simple, some cute, some colorful), and great displays of tattoos. From there we headed to Hawthorne for some shopping and then to Target to get our fix, and then back home where Justin made us an awesome meal.

Monday we went down to the riverfront to take a walk. The trees are dropping little white puffs, which made it look like it was snowing all day. We drove to a condo complex off the river and took a walk down the little strip of land that goes out into the water and admired the view, then came back and picked up Justin for a long walk along Lacamas Lake. We went out for pizza and then chilled back at home that night.

Tuesday we went to Washington Park to visit the International Test Rose Garden and the Japanese gardens, which were lovely. After an awesome French patisserie lunch and a visit to a co-op grocery store, we went shopping at Nob Hill where we found the little bakery of Two Tarts and enjoyed our cookies and creams. Then we headed downtown to the Pearl District for more shopping. We drove to the Kennedy School for dinner, which is an elementary school that's been converted into a lodge, movie theater, bars, and restaurant. It's kind of surreal to look out a school window and see people in a jacuzzi. The art was crazy there too, big on the creepy factor.

Wednesday we drove to Justin's parents' property in Oregon City, which is 10 acres of awesomeness. Trees, horses, ponds, you name it. I got to ride Rocky, with careful instruction by Mary, Justin's mom. We hung out at their lovely home for a while. I feel like we did more on this day but can't seem to remember what! Mostly hanging at home watching tv, I think.

Thursday we took a two hour drive to Cannon Beach, which is where they filmed some of Goonies. That was a bonus! We walked along the beach and then shopped along the street in town. One of the highlights was Bruce's Candy Kitchen, although I was too cheap to buy anything there! The smell of pizza from Pizza a Fetta sucked us in (wow, good stuff!) for dinner, and then we drove back another two hours while listening to Michael Jackson tributes. We stopped to shop at the mall in Tualatin for a while, then went to Sheridan's for some yummy custard on the way home.

Friday we busted ourselves all around Vancouver and Portland buying things for Justin's sister's shower. We started off our day at Nob Hill again and had a massive breakfast at Stepping Stone Cafe. We hit up grocery stores, Costco, downtown, and Target. Erika prepped a lot of food while I caught up on a lot of emails from work and family, and then we decorated them.

Saturday was the shower day, so we loaded up the car and headed out to the bride's new sister-in-law's house to set up, eat, enjoy, and take down. I tried to relax a little and then started packing. Erika and I headed in to downtown one more time for dinner at Henry's, which I'm telling you you must visit if you go to Portland and are in the Pearl District area. I love their food, including the sesame seared scallops with lime, mango, and chili sauce. I also enjoyed a local-brewed Stout. :) We also stopped by the new drive-thru Black Rock Coffee Bar near Erika's house for some buy one get one action, and it was tasty.

It was a good week for time spent together and visiting new places, but a hard week emotionally with all the trouble with family and friends. I think I'm glad, though, that I had ample time to reflect, and the Ireland-like Northwest was the perfect place for that. Many thanks to Erika and Justin for hosting me for a whole week!

I'm on vacation in Oregon and Washington this week. Sorry for the lack of posts. In the past few days, I've learned of David's daughter's death, Grandpa Price's stroke, Grandma Price's terminal brain tumor, and been weighed down by lots of other people's struggles in life.

I've been listening to Johnny Cash's My Mother's Hymn Book. It's a lot of music I haven't heard in years, and it's rather encouraging. Here's one (last verse especially) I was glad to listen to last night:

WHERE WE'LL NEVER GROW OLD

I have heard of a land on the faraway strand,
’Tis a beautiful home of the soul;
Built by Jesus on high, where we never shall die,
’Tis a land where we never grow old.

Never grow old, never grow old,
In a land where we’ll never grow old;
Never grow old, never grow old,
In a land where we’ll never grow old.

In that beautiful home where we’ll never more roam,
We shall be in the sweet by and by;
Happy praise to the King through eternity sing,
’Tis a land where we never shall die.

When our work here is done and the life-crown is won,
And our troubles and trials are o’er;
All our sorrow will end, and our voices will blend,
With the loved ones who’ve gone on before.

Since this is almost unable to be found online, let me tell you: there's a wilderness preserve right next to Whittier Area Community Church off of Colima. Who knew, right? Sorry, we didn't take our camera, so I don't have good photos for you like the last post.

The Arroyo Pescadero Park is located at 7531 South Colima Road in Whittier. From our area, we drove up Colima past Mar Vista and turned left in a little left-hand turn lane opposite the baseball diamonds at Murphy Ranch. There are a couple of trails there. Parking is free, but limited. There is a map when you get there, but you can also download it here.

The Arroyo Pescadero trail is two miles and goes in a loop. It has an optional extra loop called Deer Loop that adds about a mile onto the hike. We took this trail last weekend and it was a good walk. It's easy enough for first timers, I think, but not just a flat trail. It's got plenty of ups and downs, but they are proportionate to each other so that it's easy to continue without having to stop. The road is mostly an asphalt trail, although I think there might have been some parts that were only dirt. There are tons of plants and trees too keep a person entertained while walking through it. We did hear a little bit of water trickling, so I'm assuming that in rainier weather, there might be a little creek. The signs were pretty easy to follow once we got onto the main trail (from the parking lot, it was a little confusing). On a Saturday morning, we probably walked past about two other parties. We couldn't even hear the nearby traffic at some points, although a helicopter did come hover for a while, which Ric found annoying. Overall, it was a nice walk, and at the top of it all right near our parking, there was a nice view of the city. I'd rate the trail as easy and give it a 7 or 8 for what it is.

The Arroyo San Miguel trail is about 1.4-1.8 miles (it depends on which map you use) from end to end and a hike on it gives you 3 to almost 4 miles when you double back on it. Ric and I took this trail on Saturday. It takes a steep downhill from the parking lot and goes under Colima. This time of year there were tons and tons of mustard bushes in bloom, which meant the bees were all around. We didn't get stung, but if you're deathly afraid of bees, you might not want to go past the halfway point on this trail. We did see several rabbits as well as evidence (berry-filled poo) of other animals. The trail goes up and down easily for a good while, and then the last leg is all uphill. That last leg is also pretty deserted. It looks like no one has gone through to clear the road (which was all dirt) for hikers in quite some time. The mustard plants grow in the middle of the trail and we had to step around a few of the bushes here and there. That put the bees in close proximity, which made Ric a little nervous because he seemed to be a bee magnet. By the time we got to the end of the uphill, we were pretty relieved. It was nice to turn around and have a long period of downhill to cool down. When we came back under the bridge, there was a steep uphill which gave me a good kick since my back was tired. I liked how deserted the Arroyo San Miguel was and how deep it went into the land, but the narrower and unkempt trails were less inviting. I'll probably return to it many more times, though, because I liked its distance and variety. I would probably rate as an easy-to-medium difficulty trail, and I'd give it a 7.

Welcome to the beginning of my new series of posts about trails! I hope I'll be regularly posting about the new places we find.

On Friday afternoon, my friends and I drove down to the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. According to what I've found online, it's located at 18751 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. We took the 5 South to the 133 South, and about 5-6 miles down (right before the 73) on the right side, we parked at the James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center parking lot. Parking costs $3 in quarters. There are lots of trails in the area, and ultimately we decided on this location because a) we found it, and b) we wanted to see a lake. I'll have to go back to check out the other trails in the area some other time, and probably when I've grown stronger.

We decided on the Little Sycamore Canyon trail, which took us under the 133, which sounds pretty cool, by the way!

After getting turned around a couple times due to a confusing map and bad signage, we eventually found ourselves on the trail:

And we quickly found ourselves arriving at Barbara's Lake:

The trail continued easily for the duration, only going in a light uphill a few times. The sights are nice for the most part, except for the nearby power lines. Once at the top of the ridge, we were able to see our parking lot and how far we had climbed:

We took a break up top to bird watch, sing like fools, and to feed the baby in our party. When we started moving again, we grew unsure of whether we would be able to get back by continuing forward on the trail. The map made it look as if all of the trails connected with each other, but not all of them did. We had a scout run out to the top of a higher hill to see whether the trail would lead us back and we questioned some locals to find out that we would have been heading in the wrong direction by continuing on, so we doubled back a little way and took a different road down the hillside.

Little Sycamore was a fun time for us. It was easy on the two of us who have bad backs, it had wide and even trails (some clay dirt, some gravel), there weren't too many people there, and it accommodates visitors with dogs as well as cyclists. If a person is looking for a challenge, I'd probably look up the nearby trails (we saw a much steeper five-mile trail from our parking lot). It was fun to walk under the bridge, see the lake, and get a nice view from up top. The close proximity to power lines and neighborhoods made it feel a little more citified than I would like, and the maps were confusing, but I think when we were headed back to the car, we decided it ranked about a 6 on a scale of 10.

Friday morning I woke up thinking I was going to go to some boring sexual harassment training at work in the morning and then I'd try to find something to do for the afternoon by myself. I did go to the boring training, but it was actually more fun because most of our office sat together and cracked jokes the whole time - appropriate jokes, of course! And after our yummy free lunch at the cafe, I got invited to join a group of work friends to go hiking in Laguna. We drove down to Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and took a trail into Little Sycamore Canyon. It was a pretty easy hike, but there was a lake and some nice views and a cool bird (hawk or falcon), and good friends too. Here's one picture, but more can be found at Ruth's Picasa:

We spent the afternoon there and then headed to Michael and Abby's parents-away-from-home's house in Fountain Valley, where they fed us well, we played piano together, and had plenty of conversation.

Saturday morning I had promised Ric I would go on a hike with him, so we went back to the preserve in Whittier. I think we're going to start making this part of the routine, so I'm planning to start posting information about the trails we visit for any of you who might not know about all the resources we have in this area. In the afternoon, I went to see Sunshine Cleaning with my sister at the cheap theater (it's there this week - two bucks for an indie movie!). I came home and relaxed and then headed right back out with Ric for some Flame Broiler and to see Up. Afterward, we drove to Fullerton, bought some cloves for Ric, and went out to the train station to watch some trains.

Sunday we went to church and finally got to see Liz for the first time in a long time, and we all went out to eat at Ruby's for lunch. We spent the afternoon relaxing and then I went to work entering finances on Quicken. We had to do over a lot of stuff because Washington Mutual changed to Chase, which meant we needed to create new usernames, and Quicken wouldn't allow for that, and when all was said and done, we had to re-enter all of our expenses from March to June. Yay. We ended the night on a higher note with The Soup and Rotten Tomatoes (two of shows that inform me while making me laugh a lot). We tried watching the Mental pilot and gave up about 15 minutes in - it feels so dated! Then I watched Kings and the last episode of Pushing Daisies (talk about a packed last 30 seconds), both of which the networks, thankfully, decided to finish airing for those of us who actually followed them.

Oh yeah. Updates on things at home: the new kitten's name is Ellie. She has a black patch over her eye, and Darryl Hannah plays the chick with an eye patch in Kill Bill named Elle. We also love Elliott from Scrubs, so we thought the name could refer to both of them - more Elliott than Elle, probably. Also, I got my results from my neck and shoulder MRI, which showed nothing special. I get to keep working on physical therapy, and when I'm done with that if the pain is still bad, they'll try cortisone. Same old story, unfortunately!

Up this week: Sound of Music musical on Wednesday (for me), Brendan's birthday on Thursday, a possible trip to Disneyland with Liz, and on Saturday I take off for a week in the Pacific Northwest with Erika. Wohoo! Summer is in full swing.

One never knows what one is going to get when seeing a movie starring Nicolas Cage, but one does know that when seeing a movie directed by Alex Proyas (Dark City), it's probably going to be interesting. It's actually interesting to compare Dark City with Knowing, but that's another discussion for another day. In this movie, Cage plays a professor named John Keslter. His son is in grade school, and when the school opens an old time capsule, his son is supposed to be given a drawing from 1959 that shows how the children of yesteryear envisioned the future. But the son is given a sheet of paper that's covered with numbers. John thinks the numbers are random, but when he zeroes in he recognizes some of the numbers as dates, and eventually figures out that they also signify how many people are going to die on those dates, as well as the exact location of the disasters.

When John realizes that there are future dates on the paper, he decides he needs to do something about it. But one can one man do when it comes to giant disasters? He is ill-equipped, and his efforts would be humorous if the events following them weren't so terrible. There are some really thrilling scenes here, especially a three-minute continuous shot of a plane crash. I can tell you that I knew it was coming, but I had no idea how it would be shot and how effective it would be. It really got to me (minus the Lost comparisons running through my head).

The action sequences in this movie are bigger than I would have imagined for a mid-March movie. They're right up there with anything I expect to see this summer. In fact, the quality and pace are everything I would expect from summer blockbusters, but I guess the movie might not have appeal for all audiences. I was surprised to find it rather suspenseful, even though there were a few cliches. I think what got me was a vision John's son sees. Thank goodness I saw a dad walk his daughter out of the theater right before the scene happened, or it might have given her nightmares for a while. Proyas' vision is effective, and not even Nicolas Cage could screw it up.

Poor Nick Cage. I actually do like him, but there are some moments where his acting gets far too pronounced. Just the way he chooses to stand in certain instances is laughable. I thought that he and Rose Byrne could have toned down some of their reactions just a notch. I know they were trying to communicate the urgency two people would have if they were the only two people on Earth who believed they knew about a terrible disaster that was going to happen soon, but in the theater where I saw the movie, several people were laughing at their erratic driving habits and over-panicked reactions.

The movie takes its premise and decides to soar with it and go much farther than I think most audiences are willing to go. I went with it and enjoyed it. And afterward, I went back and read some articles I had seen online about it that I didn't want to read due to spoilers. There are some interesting ideas about Biblical prophecy out there in relation to the movie, and I'd talk about them here, but I don't want to spoil it for you either. Suffice to say I think it's worth a rental if you're interested in this kind of thing. I liked it a lot and would say it's one of the more underrated (but not understated!) movies I've seen this year.

I heard a lot of good talk about Adventureland when it came out, although it seemed like it got very little box office action, which is why I ended up seeing it at the dollar theater. I think this could be in part because it was advertised like it was some sort of crazy Judd Apatow comedy (see: Bill Hader running around with a bat in the commercials) and ended up being a mellow summer movie. Also, being a movie about summer and completely capturing the essence of a summer in the 1980s, I think the release date in early April was a terrible idea.

The movie stars Jessie Eisenberg, who was also in The Squid and the Whale. I didn't recognize that I knew him from that movie until someone pointed that out. It seems as though there are more and more movies coming out with classic Michael Cera-esque awkward acting, and I did hear some people claim that this was just an imitative performance, but while I can see the similarities, Eisenberg never felt unnatural in his role. The character he plays is James, who has recently graduated from college. He was planning to travel around Europe with his friends before heading off to graduate school, but his parents have some financial difficulties, and he's forced to spend the summer at home. He has to get a job, but as he tells his parents, he's not even qualified to do manual labor even though he has a college degree. I remember those frustrating days after graduation.

James gets a job at Adventureland, the local amusement park owned by a thrifty couple - the kind of people who resort to gluing spare pirate eye patches on stuffed bananas when they run out of googley eyes. There, he makes several friends, including Em, a girl who takes an instant liking to him although she's secretly involved with a married guy. James's awkward courtship of Em is mostly well written, and the other friends he makes feel very legitimate. The whole movie in general feels like someone's real summer memories. They very well may be. That feeling is what makes this movie enjoyable. There are a lot of funny moments but it's got more of a quiet humor and a laid-back mood. It smacks of summer and the time period of the 80s is less gimmicky, which I enjoyed a lot.

While there could probably have been some attention paid to a little more editing, overall I was actually surprised by Adventureland. It had character without being ridiculous, and was more about character development than I expected it to be. I don't exactly know what other movie I would compare it to (which may in itself be a compliment), but I actually liked it quite a bit.

Pip's response to his new sister:

Sister's response to her first bath:

We play bocce on the lawn every Wednesday in a tournament. I teamed with C from our office and we were paired with two lively guys from admissions, R and J. R is very into it, so we dressed up like a stereotype mish-mash of Italians, other Europeans, and a general riviera style of light and flowy clothes - it was the best we could do with 16 hours' notice. We walked in with the Godfather music playing last week, and it got a big laugh from everyone.

We played last semester's champions and won, so we're doing well! It's all up to luck, though, since the ground we play on is so uneven. I'm getting a reputation for bowling accuracy, since I keep knocking the competition out of the way, but in most cases it's purely accidental.

Now we're talking team t-shirts. I'm not crazy into it like R is, but it's fun being on his team and seeing his enthusiasm. I'll go along with it unless it gets too crazy! I think this has been such a good thing for the employees, though. Departments that don't always get along are having fun together, and now people are more comfortable with each other in the office. Hats off to M for coordinating this whole thing. We have so much fun.

Over my long absence from work, I was finally able to finish reading the mammoth Atlas Shrugged. About eleven hundred pages of the tiniest, scrunchiest font one could imagine, it took me about a year and a half to read because I have been spending so much of my time with audio books these days. It was a challenge to get through because it wasn't much like the type of book I usually read (see: Victorian literature). It was engrossing at first, and swept me away, and then I would be so overwhelmed by the thoughts and ideas it sent rushing through my brain that I would put it down for a long time.

It was the perfect time in life and in history for me to be reading this book, though. I don't think it would have made as much of an impact if I had read it while still in school, with not much of a job history or very many responsibilities. No, this was the perfect time for this book, which is all about men living up to their full potential and not relying on words, government, and laws to bail people out when their empty lives come to fruition. In it, the government jumps into the lives of everyone involved by passing bill after bill regarding business. Instead of letting businessmen earn their worth by the value of their work, a select part of the government decides that all men should have a fair chance, whether or not they have earned it.

All discoveries are to be shared by the people and for the people, and Hank Reardon's secret recipe for steel is forcibly obtained and given to others. Reardon and Dagny Taggart, who runs Taggart Transcontinental railroads, fight the best they can for the integrity of what they do, but the "looters," as the book refers to them, continue to find ways to take advantage of them. The book escalates from steel and trains to the transportation of the entire country, which affects the food supply of the nation, and soon, it's a worldwide affair.

One of the weaker points of the story is that as all three of the main male characters are in love with Dagny. I understand that she's the protagonist and is an ideal woman in the mind of the author, but two men falling for her was enough, and three was a bit much. What I fell in love with, though, was the points Rand was trying to make with the novel. Right now a lot of businesses are failing left and right around us, and there's a reason why - they aren't successful because they're not performing well.

Why aren't people buying American cars? Because they suck! Ric and I should know, since he drives a clunker of an Envoy. Why should the government reward car makers for mediocrity by bailing them out? Shouldn't they be urged to step it up and actually compete with the foreign car makers? If they're bailed out, they don't learn any lessons except that when they fail, they can rely on the government by pleading that people will lose their jobs if they shut down. The same goes for people who bought houses a few years back when the prices were way too high. Ric and I decided to bide our time and wait for the right moment when it was actually prudent to purchase a home, but a lot of people jumped into mortgages without doing any research about how much they would actually need to pay, and what adjustable percentages meant, or how much taxes were. The fact that they're foreclosing is because they didn't research and didn't plan. I can't stand that they say realtors and lending companies took advantage of them. They signed their names to the mortgages but can't live up to the consequences, and when the government comes to their rescue, they are rewarded for their immature behavior. And that's the most political I'll get on this blog.

Rand's novel is a warning against all of this, and it was a refreshing one to read. Unfortunately, about 90% of the way through the book, a central character decides to give a speech that summarizes Rand's entire philosophy of life and all of the ideas that have already been explored previously in the novel, which takes 50 pages (I'm not joking). It is so dry that I fell asleep several times while trying to read it, and finally, when I thought it was reiterating everything I agreed with, Rand boiled down the entire philosophy with condemnation of the idea of original sin. What the crap?! The huge setup and scope of the novel basically fizzle away in these 50 pages for me, and only when the speech is over does it make a recovery, although not as strong of a one as I had hoped for.

Still, though, for the thousand pages leading up to that point, I loved the flowing language and the clear pictures Rand painted, the characters, the ideals, the ideas, the smaller stories within the story, the conspiracies, the pirates, the trains, the copper and steel, the sort of alternate New York and the almost timeless (except for the technology) aspect of the novel, and the cool answer to the famous question "Who is John Galt?" For me, the story climaxed sometime around when Dagny finds out the answer to this question, but the overall experience was completely worthwhile for me.

Since I watched the Buffy series, I figured I might as well just delve into all things Joss Whedon, and decided to check out Angel, especially since half the characters from Buffy ended up over on that show. Angel came out a few years into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Once it was established that Buffy and Angel were meant to be together but couldn't because bad things happened when they were near each other, Angel (vampire) ended up moving to Los Angeles and starting up a business of fighting evil. He met up with Cordelia, a high school classmate of Buffy's, and eventually teamed up with Westley (formerly on Buffy as well), Gunn, Lorne, and Fred.

When I first started watching this series, my first thought was wondering how it made it past its first season. It wasn't all that amazing, and didn't really find its groove for a while. I didn't care at all for the lady detective friend/foe storyline, and the show felt too serious. I was really happy to see Glenn Quinn, though, who I loved from Roseanne, although when I looked him up I was sad to find out that this show was the last thing he did because he overdosed and died. So unfortunately, he didn't get to return to the series, and he was one of the strongest parts of it at the beginning.

Thankfully, as it continued, things got stronger. The introduction of more characters lightened things up, and the show felt more focused. I absolutely loved the addition of Lorne, played by the late Andy Hallett, whose singing and backstory gave the show the kick it needed. And who couldn't love Amy Acker when she was introduced? My biggest surprise was when James Marsters joined the show, because I had no idea that his character Spike had a future after the end of Buffy. That sealed the deal for me. Oh, and Skip was one of the nicest touches too.

Just like on Buffy, though, some of the key decisions for the main characters irritated the heck out of me. Whedon must love leaving the viewers unfulfilled, because the favorite characters mostly either die or suffer unrequited love. And as the Cordelia storyline went way out into left field with Connor, the misery of all the characters got to me after a while. It didn't bother me so much in Buffy that as the characters got closer to the end of the world (again), things got darker. But here there were wasn't a lot of relief towards the end of the show, and some of the melodrama got a little too heavy. And I thought it was a little lame how often they teased about Buffy possibly being in the show (last couple seasons) and then never actually showing up in it.

In the end, though, I was absolutely entertained, and it was tough for me to press the stop button, especially since I wasn't working at the time when I watched it and could stay up as late as I wanted. While it drove me crazy some of the time, it made me laugh a lot and was full of interesting characters, plots, and action that I got into more than I would like to admit. I had a fun time. Thanks to Brendo for letting me borrow his set!

Heya!

How was your weekend? Mine was good and full. It started out well with last week being the shortest work week of the year - Monday was a holiday and Friday was the first short Friday of the summer at work. So, after 3.5 days of work, I was out the door at 11:30am on Friday and headed out to the mall. My sister and I did some marathon shopping, and I was happy to find out that my back is getting a lot stronger, because I was able to shop for about 4-5 hours without feeling crippled by the end of it. I stocked up on some clothes and made note of some I'll buy when I return with coupons, got some new makeup, and found some new kitchen items in the Martha Stewart section at Macy's. I swear, that section will be the end of me. After the shopping together, I dropped my sister off and went to Target for more shopping, then headed home for a short-lived break, after which Ric and I headed to uptown to check out some kittens in our quest to find a sister for Pip. We picked out a little calico, and we'll be returning to pick her up in a week, when she'll be about 6 weeks old. We're still deciding on a name. After a good dinner at Panera, I joined up with my sister again and we went to see I Love You, Man at the cheap theater.

Saturday Ric and I woke up early to call in and make a vet appointment for Pip because we noticed something like a hemorrhoid on his rear end. They didn't have anything until the afternoon, so we drove my car to the shop to check out a rattling noise we've been trying to pin down for a while. We left it there and went to a wildlife preserve in Whittier for a nice hike. We never knew the place existed until someone at church mentioned it. It turned out to be a gem - tons of natural life with a minimal path paved through it. Between the hills, we couldn't even hear the street noises. It was flowery, fragrant, and an overall breath of fresh air.

We went home for lunch and I spent a while working out with my new Wii fitness thing, which was tiring but good. This thing has potential, that's for sure. We took the cat in, and they said what he's got is more like a tumor, although it's not a normal looking mass because it's stringy rather than lumpy. I'll be taking him in on Tuesday to have it removed, and then they'll biopsy it to see if it's malignant (80% are malignant). Then we went to pick up the car, and it turned out to be some expensive fan and pump (all Mini parts are expensive because they're too high-tech), which I'll be getting fixed on Friday. Thanks, cat and car, for taking all our money! After a quick grooming at home, I met up with my sister and we drove out to the Dorothy Chandler to see Verdi's opera, La Traviata. We made it early enough for the pre-show lecture, which was entertaining, and then settled into our disappointing seats (we paid a little extra to sit closer, and ended up only a couple rows closer than where we sat in the past), which were made up for by great costumes, sets, and performances.

Late Saturday night we had another power outage, this time from some balloons that ran into the electrical wires outside our complex. The power came back quickly, but it screwed with our clocks. I thought I had a decent battery backup on my clock, but apparently the battery is old, because when I thought I was getting up on time for church, I was really 40 minutes late. We missed service but made it to Sunday School, then came back home to get to work on the house. Ric did all sorts of office organizing, vacuuming, and got our closets all squared away. I got our towel situation in hand (they were in three different closets and not organized at all), and then set in for some painting in the kitchen. I think I'm finally done with paint in my kitchen, which is a nice feeling. I also did some touch up in the downstairs bathroom and the upstairs bedroom. I read some Harry Potter for a while and then napped an hour or two away, and got back to painting. I finished watching season three of Roseanne and am now on season one of the Brady Bunch. Then Ric's brother finally pulled into town for his business trip, so we went over and spent the evening at the in-laws' place catching up with each other. Tonight the rest of the family is off to a Dodger game. There are only 4 tickets, so I thought the people who actually like baseball should go.

Up this week: I've got physical therapy continued, Pip's appointment tomorrow, an MRI for my neck and shoulder on Wednesday, my car appointment on Friday, and we're gearing up for new investment property shopping over the weekend. Busy times!

Last year I listened to an audio book of A Farewell to Arms and absolutely loved it. I always forget about how enjoyable I find Hemingway until I'm actually reading his work. This work seems to be popular for big screen adaptions. I just happened to see that the 1932 movie was going to be on tv and decided to give it a go and see how well it adapted to the big screen. This version stars Gary Cooper as the lieutenant who serves in the Italian army in WWI as an ambulance driver. Helen Hayes co-stars as the nurse with whom he falls in love.

Reading books by listening to them is interesting because one is inevitably influenced by the reader. A man called Alexander Adams narrated my audio book, and his crisp and almost stoic reading of the story gave a definite mental climate to my experience of it. The contrast between Adams' take and director Frank Borzage's is strong. Whereas I read Catherine Barkley's character to wear a strong front despite her own insecurities, in the movie she is much more quick to fall in love and swoon over her relationship. The character of the Italian major, Rinaldi, is also quite different than I expected when played more strongly by Adolphe Menjou (interesting casting choice).

But the differences make complete sense when taken in the context of the time period when it was released. Movies were a lot more fanciful in those days, and actually, that's some of why I ended up liking this movie a lot. I love that, in the early days of the movies, filmmakers didn't know any boundaries and felt free to get creative with their work. There are a lot of creative aspects to this movie. For a story about a man who gets a girl pregnant before they're married, and possibly against her will, the approach to the subject matter is smart and not too blatant while not being completely sugar coated. There are also many really creative shots. Just last year, people were praising The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for the point-of-view camera approach. While that device was used for about half of that movie, it can also be seen in this one for a scene. There's a cool time progression sequence showing the lieutenant's progress in the war as well. I enjoyed interactiveness of the camera in the storytelling process a lot.

I really enjoyed this take on the story, and now I'm interested in watching some other adaptations of it. From the acting to the sets to the camera work, it was fresh, timely, and moving. It might not have been what Hemingway might have imagined for his work, and I might have tweaked the plot a little bit less, but I was glad to have come across it.

In Frozen River, Melissa Leo stars as Ray, a woman whose husband has stolen the family's money for their new double-wide trailer and left the family. She works at a bargain store, it's almost Christmas, the kids have almost nothing, and if she doesn't come up with more money, her deposit will be forfeited and the double-wide will be lost. Ray barely has enough money to feed her sons popcorn for breakfast much less come up with that kind of money, and when she goes looking for her husband she finds that an Native American woman named Lila is driving his car around town because she thought it was abandoned. After a confrontation and some deception, Lila leads Ray into the reservation, which covers part of the U.S. and part of Canada, and involves her in smuggling people across the border in the back of her trunk.

Frozen River is another movie that toys with the idea of illegal immigration in one of the most sympathetic forms possible, but at least it isn't the focus of the movie and it doesn't feel agenda-based like The Visitor did. Instead, the focus is on the character of Ray, and surprisingly, Lila as well. It's an indie mother movie. It almost reminded me of The Deep End, starring Tilda Swinton as a mother who does everything in her power to keep her son safe from suspicion in a murder case.

I was talking about this movie with K from my office, and we both agreed that it was a better movie than we expected, but felt that the script was a little bit heavy-handed in the mother/child theme. Lila is also a mother, although she has no relationship with her kid. And the point of the movie is showing the similarities between these two contrasted mothers, but there's one part of the movie that causes a short bit of crisis involving a child being smuggled across the border that bothered me. While it did serve a bit of a purpose in the development Lila's character, it felt like she could have reached the same conclusion without such a blatant plot device. Who knows - it might have been a pivotal scene for the writer (and I could see it working with a short story, maybe), but the emphasis on mothers and children could have been a little lighter. Some of the dangerous elements of the movie went a little farther than necessary as well.

I did like the overall quiet telling of this story, and while I enjoyed Leo and , my favorite character was actually Ray's son Troy, played by Charlie McDermott. He struggles with being loyal to his dad, angry at his mom, wanting to care for his younger brother, being a kid, and wanting to be his own man. I think that element was what pushed the movie to be much better than it would have been if Ray and Lila had been the only main characters. Overall, though, I was surprised and pleased with Frozen River. I went into it with no real interest except to see an Academy-nominated performance, and it turned out to be a good little movie.

I kept hearing about Encounters at the End of the World at the end of last year, and once I realized it was another Werner Herzog movie, I added it to my queue. His tendency to go to the far ends of the world continues in this film, and that tendency is taken to its farthest extreme since he visits the South Pole. He is invited by Discovery to come and see what researchers and scientists are doing there and document whatever fascinates him. There are endless possibilities. What cracked me up about the beginning of this movie is Herzog's impatience. He arrives at McMurdo and is instantly disappointed by what he sees because it looks like any other small industrial town, and as the movie's narrator, he expresses his desire to get out of McMurdo, get past the survival training, and get out into Antarctica.

For me, though, the most interesting people Herzog meets are the ones in the town. Everywhere he goes, he seems to bump into intellectuals doing manual labor and odd jobs. I loved listening as each person told the story of how they got to be "at the end of the world". The title of the movie implies that Herzog must have been aware of this as well. This isn't a Planet Earth type of documentary. There are animals, to be sure, and sweeping underwater shots accompanied by eerie chorale music, but as unique as they are, it's the people in McMurdo that prove to be the most intriguing subjects.

I know that Herzog is always a character in his own documentaries, but he seemed to be a little more opinionated in this one than I've seen him in his other movies (although I've a long way to go on the list). It bothered me a little bit, but not enough to turn me off completely. I know that I'm always picking on music as well, but my personal tastes found some of the music to sound a little bit too loud and even a bit gratuitous.

I'm happy to have seen Herzog's take on Antarctica and its inhabitants. I learned some things I didn't know and pondered some new ideas. It was slightly disappointing, but overall still quite good. I'm glad it got recognized by the Academy this year, but also glad Man on Wire got the win.

I know that the goal of Terminator Salvation was to distance itself from Terminator 3. That alone is part of the reason why I'm not a good candidate for judging this movie, because I actually liked Rise of the Machines. Personally, I'll take a few cheesy Arnold scenes over a movie that is more about how it looks than it is about truly developing the characters, history, morality, or themes that were developed in the first three films.

In Terminator Salvation, our protagonist isn't John Connor or Sarah Connor. It's a man named Marcus; and that's the first problem I have with this movie. While Marcus really is the most interesting character, and Sam Worthington plays him wonderfully, it was really disturbing to me that John Connor became a backup character, as did Kate Connor (by the way, why hire a name actor like Bryce Dallas Howard to be in this movie if she just looks worried and pregnant for a couple short scenes?). The series has always had a Connor as a protagonist, and when that changes, the mood of the movie changes. Christian Bale is almost completely wasted here, and even then, his performance was disappointing because he is either yelling or giving his Batman hoarse whisper in all of his scenes.

I heard that for the longest time, Bale kept refusing to be a part of this new breed of Terminator movies, and I think there's a reason why. In the hands of director McG (the name alone is a warning sign) and the script writers, Terminator Salvation falls prey to some weak storytelling. For example, this is the future, when Kyle Reese is a young man who hasn't yet gone to the past of the 1980s and become John Connor's father. So, why are the machines searching for Kyle Reese? Why is he even a blip on their radar? Has John Connor been putting out some sort of radio transmission every night telling everyone about his father, and the machines have been listening in? There are also some tired conventions in use, which can be seen most obviously in the form of a cute little girl who doesn't speak. She serves absolutely no purpose in the plot, except perhaps to show an innocent child in the midst of all of the violence, and I think she may hand a detonator to another character at one point. Child sidekicks are a NO my book unless they're written intelligently. And man, the big plant where all the terminators are made and all of the humans are held prisoner only had one security guard for Christian Bale to sneak past! And I'm all for throwbacks to the old movies, but there was one line that actually made me say, "WAH-wah!" out loud. I could go on about the heart themes, but I'll leave it for now.

Like I mentioned earlier, I did like Sam Worthington as Marcus, and actually, Anton Yelchin is great as Kyle Reese as well. Perhaps it's because the movie actually stopped to have some down time with the two before its gears set into motion and refused to stop. I almost think a movie about Reese, leading up to the point where he meets John Connor, would have been more interesting. Another good aspect of the movie was, of course, the action. While some of the shots gave me the impression that McG is a bit pretentious, I did admire a lot of the fast-paced scenes. Some of it was a little too close to Transformers (even the sounds some of the larger machines make seemed too similar) and Batman (hello, motorbikes), but special effects crew were able to come up with some interesting mechanical ideas. The sound was awesome, and the editing was relatively smooth as well. I would say the movie is worth seeing for some of these reasons alone, despite its flaws.

There is definitely something to be said for a more organic approach to movie making. I liked that McG and his crew tried to use more props and explosives rather than CGI. That's what made the original movies feel more threatening, and that's what gives us some great, gritty scenes that make the reality of John Connor's future feel more realistic. I just wish that this humbler and smarter approach might have been applied to the scriptwriting as well.

This movie had potential, and it felt like it could have benefited from a few more pairs of eyes on the script. I would so be willing to go over Hollywood scripts for a nominal fee and give my input! Fifty bucks, even! That would be such an awesome job. But for now, like I feared, this Terminator movie was what I expected it to be given the current trends in summer action blockbusters. I watch all of the first three movies any time they're on TV, but I doubt this one will hold up very well with repeat viewings (if I decide to watch it more than a couple times). I was entertained, but disappointed.

Well, I had a review mostly written at the end of the week last week, and for some reason, my computer got shut down over the weekend and I lost it. Boo. So I'll try to remember all the clever things I wrote before the long weekend.

One sign that the summer movie season is upon us is that I am frequenting the dollar theater more often. It's been quite a dry spell from February until May with only a few exceptions, so I'm excited to be going to the movies, and excited that I have a choice of whether to pay $11 or $2 (or $1 on Tuesdays) to see any particular movie. I love saving money. I also love the kids' combo at the concessions, which is cheap and gives one perfect portions of a drink, popcorn, and a snack-sized candy bar.

I chose to wait to see The International, which was a wise choice on my part. While I think Clive Owen and Naomi Watts are talented people, they can only do so much with a script. Actually, this was a quiet yet decent suspense movie with some good action scenes until it lost me at its end. The movie follows Owen and Watts who work together on a team trying to find information on a powerful bank that has been up to a lot of suspicious activity. It begins in Berlin and travels across the globe as the clues continue to surface. Goody for me, because I got to whisper, "I've been there!" during the scenes in Milan. I love doing that.

Watts is largely underused in her role, and if he isn't careful, Clive Owen may soon become a caricature of himself, or perhaps he has already. He snarls a lot at people and seems a little bit overly worked up, even for a man who has a past that makes him touchy. A nice introduction to the climate is Armin Mueller-Stahl, whose uncertain loyalty makes the movie more interesting.

While I was disappointed with the less-than-satisfying feeling the ending gave me, I did feel satisfied with having seen the movie. If anything, it was worth it to see some of the action scenes and the subdued chemistry of Watts and Owen. Watts was absent for the best scene, though, which involved a shootout at the Guggenheim museum in New York. I loved the echoing noises of the museum patrons and guns, and the spiralling architecture was incorporated well into the direction of the action.

Of course, it's already gone from the cheap theater, and most of you probably didn't see it. I'm not going to tell you have to see The International, but I will say that it might be worth a rental or an afternoon in front of the tv.

Hi again. It's me, the blog neglecter. I will try to be better this week. I don't want to get too far behind with the movie reviews, because now that I'm back at work I'm watching more movies at lunch, and now that tv shows are repeats I'm watching a lot more movies at home too. Coming up are reviews of The International, Terminator Salvation, Encounters at the End of the World, Frozen River, A Farewell to Arms, Adventureland, Knowing, Belle de Jour, Ghost Town, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

The Weekend:

I think my weekend started on Thursday, since I met up with Paul, Chrystal, Michael, Abby, and baby Kate at Disneyland that evening. I got there right before California Adventure closed, but luckily, it was enough time to book it to Midway Mania and get in line. We didn't have to wait all that long, and the ride was a lot of fun. Hey Hutchinses, I have a pass again! Even though the park was closed, we were able to wander around for a full hour on our way out, which was fun. We ended up having dinner at Portillo's, which I highly recommend for good burgers and shakes. It's a must to at least try the cake shake! We had some great conversation and I keep finding myself thankful for the great friends I have.

Friday was the 10th Annual International Meat Day. I can't believe it's been so long since the first time I broke my vegetarianism. Ric and I went out to eat at Black Angus and splurged. We got completely full, then headed out to Brea to see Terminator Salvation.

I was completely wiped out from the week and long Friday (which was also graduation day at the university) that I slept in until 1 on Saturday. Are you jealous? Since I goofed off a little too much at work, I spent a couple of hours working. Ric and I went out on errands to buy things we've been needing. I got a good roll-out mat for me to lie on in my cubicle at lunch, which is so much nicer than the hard floor. We got a new shredder and some office supplies, then headed over to Lowe's (I recognize every cashier now) and bought a bunch of closet organization gear and some gardening items. At home, Ric built the big shoe organizer and installed it in our closet under the stairs. No more shoes all over the hallway and the floor of my closet! I finally got a hanging flower basket like the cheery ones I loved in Britain, and surprisingly enough, Pip hasn't destroyed it yet. Yet.

Sunday we went to church and got to work at home again. I worked on all sorts of organizing around the house and then got to work on painting. I'm watching season three of Roseanne while I paint, and I think it's a really underrated season. These episodes are so rich in actual behaviorisms of families and they've been making me laugh a lot. The early seasons of that show are amazing. I touched up paint all over the kitchen since a lot of it got spackle on it when we had work done. Sometimes I think my work will never be done in there. In the evening we met up with Ryan, Amy, Rob, and Dee. We all had Starbucks before going to see Star Trek, then drove over to the Twisted Vine in Fullerton for some good drinks and great conversation. It was a packed and great day.

Monday we were so tired from Sunday that I slept in again, and Ric dozed on and off throughout the day. We had no Memorial Day plans, so when Ric's mom called and asked if we wanted to come over for a barbecue dinner, we jumped at it. But first we went to the park and I walked while Ric rode his bike, and then we hung out with Ric's parents for most of the night. When we got home, we decided to watch a movie, and settled on Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Wow, I'm glad we're done with that series. It just got worse as it went.

Up this week: hopefully a trip or two to the dollar theater, movie night with Ryan and Amy, and an opera!

Well, since I know lots of you couldn't give a crap about what movies I'm watching, I thought I'd better update this with life in general kind of stuff.

Today I had my 3 month-ish followup with my back surgeon. The x-rays look good and he says I look better each time I come in. He told me to keep up with the physical therapy and that I could start doing light workouts like the elliptical machine and light weightlifting. Good thing, since with my physical therapy, I've kind of already branched out to doing more aerobic work and lifting weights. I'm not sure if I mentioned the therapy, but I am going twice a week to be treated for my back (building strength), hip (I've got some major strain of some kind), and shoulder (impingement). It's been helpful for the back and hip, but I've yet to see a lot of progress with the shoulder. I do a lot of strength building exercises at therapy, and they also do ultrasound, ice, and roll on my hip (like a rolling pin). I can tell I'm getting a little bit stronger, but I still have a good ways to go. In the meantime, I've started up walking regularly after work again, and when I can I do some of the yoga, strength, and aerobic work with the Wii Fit. Progress is good. I have appointments set up to see doctors about my shoulder and hip too.

Over the weekend I went out to see Knowing at the cheap theater with my sister. I'll talk about it later, but if you have two bucks, I'd say it's definitely worth a try - you'll either love it or hate it, most likely. On Saturday, Ric spontaneously wanted to go for a walk, so being the encouraging wife that I am, I went with him. It was too hot, though, and Ric thought to himself that it would be a lot nicer in the mountains. So he spontaneously wanted to go up to the mountains, and since I wanted to encourage his spontaneity, I said yes even though I thought I was going to relax all weekend long. Haha. We ended up dragging my sister along and we went to visit Yo. We spent the night there, and when the sun came creeping into his living room, Ric woke up and suggested we head home so we could go to church. So we left, got home, napped, and headed to church. I watched tv and read in the afternoon for a little while, but Saturday caught up with me and I slept for a couple of hours. Then we headed out to the car dealers to check out potential rides for Ric's new company car. It's not as exciting as it sounds, though, because we have to buy American, so it wasn't all that thrilling. Then again, one can't be picky when it comes to getting a free car. We spent the evening catching up with more tv, and getting ready for the week.

This morning I had a chance between my physical therapy and my doctor's appointment to go to the regional park in Brea and just read (yes, that's Harry Potter - I'm reviewing before the movie comes out!) and relax. It's not such a bad thing to spend a Monday morning in front of a pond watching the ducks and the trees. It was a good time of reflection. There's been a lot on my mind lately. It seems like the older we get and more people we know, the more things there are to be on one's mind. I know so many people going through so many issues, and it's been weighing on me the past few days. I know that there are seasons in people's lives, but there are so many I know who are going through bad ones. I sat there today just trying to think of how I should even prioritize which ones to pray for first, or the longest. It was overwhelming. But I just thought I'd let you know that if you're reading this, I probably think of and pray for you a lot more often than you'd think. I just hope I do it enough, and that you know that you matter to me.

This week promises to be a busy one. I'm averaging about one doctor appointment per day, and have so many things I want to accomplish that I never know if I'll have the energy to actually accomplish. I hope everyone has a great week. Now back to those reviews!

Some of these movies I don't even remember well enough (not to speak of them, but of how long ago I watched them) to give a proper review, so I thought I'd go through the last few movies I watched while on disability and give small reviews for each of them.

Cobra Verde (1987)

I really must start reading up on Werner Herzog and how he chooses his movie subjects. But this is a movie roundup, so I'm just going to leave that as an entry on the to-do list. This movie is about a man who is referred to as Cobra Verde. He is a famous Brazilian bandit, although we do not know what he has done to earn this fame, and he gets hired on by a plantation owner to supervise the slaves. After he impregnates the owner's daughters, he is sent to West Africa to negotiate slave trade with the crazy king Abomey.

Wow, this movie goes all over the globe and in typical Herzogian fashion, it stops to focus on whatever catches his eye, from the landscapes to slave songs. I really appreciated the effort put into making this movie while also finding it a little bit slow. It was original material, to be sure. The lead role is, of course, played by Klaus Kinski, who is wonderful. Due to the lone nature of his character, it's hard to pick up on what is going on inside him a lot of the time, which is what pulled me out of the movie at times. Overall, I was pulled in by the oddness of it, liked the look, and liked the performances, while feeling rather ambiguous about what actually happened.

Lessons of Darkness (1992)

Lessons of Darkness is also directed by Werner Herzog, and shows us the destruction in Kuwait and its burning oil fields. The documentary has little to no narration, and only a couple of interviews. It focuses on sweeping shots of the land, the oil, and the fires. It's quite short, but the quietness of it and the music put me to sleep more than once (one can't fight medication well while watching a movie like this). Unfortunately, there were German titles for segments of the movie, and they weren't translated in the version I watched, so whatever commentary Herzog might have made was almost completely lost on me save for the fact that the images he showed spoke for themselves.

Twilight (2008)

I finally got out of the house and into a theater, and my first try was Twilight. I wanted to see what all the hubub was about. It turned out to be better than I expected, based on the reviews I had heard about it. I thought the awkward interactions of the teenagers seemed realistic enough, and luckily there weren't any crazy audience members in my theater to ooh and aah at Robert Pattinson. I would say the worst part of the movie was the makeup. Otherwise, I thought it was an interesting enough premise, liked the writer's spin on vampires, and thought it was an entertaining movie. I also envied Kristen Stewart's hair, which was always gorgeous - funny for a girl who didn't seem to care about that type of thing.

The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003)

Oh I know, I know. How weird can the variety in this post get? This one's about a camel breeding family in Mongolia! One of their calves is born and is rejected by its mother, and cries incessantly. The documentary follows the seasonal and daily habits of the family, along with cultural rituals. I thought that for a short movie it felt rather long, and I almost checked out from it. But the final scenes made everything worthwhile. I think I might have even shed a tear.

Goodfellas (1990)

Being a fan of Martin Scorsese, I'm not sure why I hadn't seen this yet. He is definitely a master at the camera. I practically drooled over some of his long shots and how he filmed the majority of this movie. I also appreciated all of the performances. It's styled, costumed, has great sets, and a great ensemble cast. I'd say the only thing it has going against it is that the lead character, played by Ray Liotta, isn't all that interesting, and I kind of wished things would have ended differently for him. But it's based on real life, right, so what can you do? This movie moved quickly, smoothly, and is a classic despite my minor qualms.

Starship Troopers (1997)

Ric decided to watch this, and so I joined him. It's a fun one about a futuristic military flick about young recruits fighting giant bug aliens that are trying to destroy Earth. There are some ridiculous deaths and there's definitely a penchant for gore, but it keeps a sense of humor and lightness about it, instead of taking itself seriously, which is what makes it work.

Push (2009)

I went to see this one because it looked reminiscent of Jumper, which I thought was an underrated movie from last year despite its flaws. Push is smaller in scope, but has more depth in the world it creates. Plus, it's got a more talented cast and an interesting style. I was pleasantly surprised. The more I look back at it, the more I like it. It's definitely worth a rental, if you're thinking about it.

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

I saw Singin' in the Rain at the Fox with a few friends. It was my first time seeing the classic, and wow, it was definitely more than I thought it would be! I loved the clever pokes at the film industry and some of the great sets and costumes. The plot kind of wanders off into the background as the movie progresses, which is why I wouldn't rate it as highly as some other musicals, but I definitely had a great time watching it. My favorite cast member ended up not being Gene Kelly, though. I much preferred the antics of Donald O'Connor, who stole every scene he was in with his cooky acting and amazing dancing. I could have watched an entire movie starring him. I had a really fun time watching Singin' in the Rain and I'm sure I'll watch it many more times in the future.

Phew! I pumped that out in like 25 minutes!

The summer blockbuster season continues! I have a cool mother-in-law. We asked her to tell us what she wanted to do for Mother's Day, and she said she wanted to eat out and go see Star Trek. We didn't even have to buy her an expensive dinner! We had a quick bite at a shop near the theater and headed in to see the movie. It's pretty funny going to a Star Trek movie with my in-laws. My father-in-law is a massive fan of all things Star Trek, including the trading cards, and he was convinced that he needed to get to the theater super early and stand in a line outside the theater. I bet he was actually upset that he had to wait until Mother's Day to see the movie instead of seeing it Thursday night. It really tickled me to listen to his reactions throughout this movie. People keep saying "this isn't your father's Star Trek," but mine was oohing and aaahing and laughing and gasping through the whole thing.

This definitely begins a new genre of Star Trek movies. I've only seen a couple of the others, but the difference is just a matter of approach. The story isn't all that different - there's a villain out there in space who is angry and power hungry, and that villain poses a threat to the lives of other people, and it's up to the crew of the Enterprise to save the day. This movie just has an exposition that gets us to that plot, which tells us about how the crew all end up on the same ship together. I liked the stories of the characters, and thought that having those stories made the overarching story less stale. It's definitely different, though, because there's more cursing,more brawling, and there's a Beastie Boys song on the soundtrack.

Before I went to see Star Trek, I heard that the movie contained a lot of winks and references that only devout Star Trek fans would understand. This sounded pretty hokey to me, so I went into the movie with very low expectations, despite the overall good reviews. There definitely are a few lines that feel forced into the dialog, but I was actually surprised at how many fit right in. One can tell that the movie was written with a lot of care and that it's not wanting to take the already existing Star Trek movies and television for granted. It pays homage while starting something new. I was also surprised by the cast and their ability to be a part of this project without overstepping their roles by either trying to imitate or trying too hard to make a new spin on the character. And it's pretty creepy how much some of the new cast look like their predecessors.

Like the Wolverine movie, this is an origin story. It does try to go a little deeper with its content than that movie, but it's also trying to capture a new audience that loves going to see fun and entertaining movies. So it stays on the surface, although it didn't make me cringe at all like some of the gimmicks in Wolverine did. Hopefully, for both series, the writers will be able to delve deeper into their characters and moral and ethical issues now that they know they've got an audience. While both were enjoyable on different levels, the series can't continue successfully for long if they don't start to tackle the issues that made us love the original stories in the first place. I trust that as the crew of the Enterprise mature, there's plenty of lessons for them to learn in the future.

At any rate, I had a fun time, and my in-laws couldn't stop talking the whole ride home, so I'm pretty sure that means it's got their generation's seal of approval too.

For Christmas, I received the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers DVD set. It was awesome. It has all of their major movies together and even includes some great postcards replicas of media items that were used to promote the movies, as well as a CD with music selections from their movies. I also received a lot of other DVDs for Christmas, so I didn't get around to this box set until March. When I opened it, I discovered that 4 of the disc cases were missing discs. Wow. I was able to return it to Amazon, but Amazon didn't allow me to exchange it. I asked for it a few times, but instead, I was refunded the amount my in-laws paid for it, which was about $20 less than it currently sells for on Amazon, and then they deducted a $10 restocking fee. Needless to say, it's been a big disappointment, since I've wanted this set in my collection for a while. I think I'll wait for Christmas to buy it again, when the prices are lower. I hope you don't mind me sharing this experience in my review, but I had to get it off my chest. It was really great of Amazon to allow me to return the item since it was over 30 days after the purchase date, but the fact that I couldn't exchange it really bothered me.

Fortunately, before I discovered the missing discs, I had a chance to see Flying Down to Rio for the first time. This is the first movie that paired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who are supporting actors in a story that's actually about Roger Bond, an American band leader who falls for a Brazilian beauty named Belinha. It just so happens that Roger's an aviator and just booked a gig with his band, the Yankee Clippers, in Rio de Janeiro at the same time Belinha is returning there for the opening of her father's new hotel - where the Yankee Clippers will be performing. Oh, and Belinha is engaged to Roger's good friend, Julio.

This movie is all about Brazilian fever and airplanes. The trailer for it emphasizes the seductive dances of Brazil, particularly the Carioca. The musical scenes feature the flavorful music that, in 1933, were probably new and exciting to the American audience. If this movie hadn't been made in the middle of the Great Depression, I'd almost say it would serve as a great travel advertisement for Brazil. That's why movies from the '30s can be so enchanting - they provided the audience with vicarious experiences like this one.

And boy, did they go all out. The movie is worth it alone to see the crazy musical finale. Due to permits, the hotel is not allowed to host a performance for its opening day, so the band gets the great idea to hire a bunch of brave dancing girls.. and strap their feet to the wings of biplanes and fly over the hotel while dancing! It's the most extreme musical entertainment I've seen in a classic movie. I can't get over it. Since I doubt many of you will rent this movie, let me just tell you that they actually show a girl fall from a plane's wing and then get caught by another plane flying below it. For a movie that's about giving the audience a fun time, I thought this was a weird inclusion, but I guess one can't judge what's weird when the rest of the movie is taken into consideration.

The lead actors, Gene Raymond and Dolores del Rio actually have nice star power and chemistry, and the way they play out their love story doesn't feel as cheesy as the set up it's given. The one person I felt sorry for was Belinha's poor little fiance. I keep coming across movies and books with self-sacrificing fiances; they bother me because the act of sacrifice seems to show that they are the more worthy lover. Oh well.

Overall, I liked this movie. It's got cliches of coincidence, overemphasis of exotic locales, and some of the weirdest stunts I've seen. Those can be a recipe for disaster, but the ease of execution and its sense of humor make it work. There are some great lines and surprising innuendos that keep things fun, and the romance doesn't get melodramatic. It's a fun time.

When I heard a movie was going to made about the origins of Wolverine, I was confused. Didn't that get explored in X2, which is the most popular of the X-Men movies? But of course, comic books usually have more than one version of a story, and, I guess, why shouldn't movies? Well, if the movies are going to be like this one, that's why. I did like it, but I was disappointed, and there was nothing in this movie that was more than what was offered to us in X2.

It begins when Wolverine was still a boy and shows us when he first encounters his mutant powers, and it introduces us to his brother, who has some powers of his own, as we discover. Unfortunately, the years of his youth are skipped over, and a quick montage shows the brothers fighting in all of the important wars of history. I didn't necessarily care for the editing of this montage, but it was interesting. And instead of focusing on exactly why Sabretooth develops a blood lust, the movie just operates based on the fact that it exists. It felt like the writers decided to skip any effort at true exposition or character development and just dive right on in to what they perceive the audience to want: action.

So there isn't a lot of dialog in this movie. I still didn't mind that, actually. I liked seeing where Wolverine chose to go when left on his own, away from his brother, and away from the military. He finds a good life as a logger and it looks like he's pretty happy with that. I liked the scenes here and even how it gets disrupted. From there, William Stryker, whom Wolverine worked with in a special military team, is eager to "help" Wolverine track down Sabretooth and convinces him to be injected with adamantium, which he claims will give Wolverine the strength he needs. Of course, "nothing is as it seems" (thank goodness no one actually used this phrase), and we get action scenes aplenty.

I like watching action movies, and some of the action in this movie was no exception. It was exciting to see the introduction of Gambit and Cyclops and what they have to offer. Some of the shots are really cool, and I think the climax is climactic enough - and I like its location. I will say, however, that if someone hasn't made a youtube video yet of all of the movie scenes in which cars flip over front-perfectly-over-back, they ought to, because that shot is getting to be one of the biggest cliches in action movies and tv these days. Haha.

Wolverine wasn't exactly what I wish it could be, but I didn't go into it with high expectations, either. It exists purely on the surface, which is a bit odd for an origin movie, which as a genre would sort of necessitate that it be deeper than the surface. But even so, it's entertaining. It has some cheesy lines, some repetitive actions, and the fateful flashbacks, but somehow there's just something about it that still makes me enjoy myself. I'll probably rate it low at the end of the year, but I'm not sorry I saw it. It kicked off the summer blockbuster season, and things will only get better from here. Take that for what you will.

When I was first home from surgery, it seemed like we had people over every night of the week bringing us entertainment and food. I highly recommend it. The Manns came over and made us dinner and an insanely good dessert that I need to get a recipe for so I can post it online for you all to share. We wanted to watch a fun movie together, so we browsed the Roku and came across this movie from my queue. I can't remember who recommended it to me, and I had never heard what it was about, especially how it was made.

I would almost say that this movie feels like film noir meets Airplane! It's a classic black and white tale of a detective who uncovers a complicated and sinister plot. Steve Martin stars, and Rachel Ward co-stars as his love interest. I think they are the only two original characters in the movie. The rest are famous. We know them from many classic movies. Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart... All of them are spliced into this movie, which is made up of scenes starting Martin and Ward intertwined with shots from old movies.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is essentially a feat in creative writing end outstanding editing. I think I was the first to catch on to the use of an old scene, and it was funny to watch as each person in the room realized they were watching old movies spliced into a new one. The fun comes in how well one knows his classic flicks as well as how well Martin and the legendary actors are connected to each other.

I can't imagine sitting down and writing a script that finds a way to incorporate all of these clips into one plot, and I especially can't imagine what it would be like to concoct a dialog from previously written dialog and mix it together with new material. And it all happens seamlessly, except in the cases where the old material is meant to stand out. From the hands of Martin, George Gipe, and (also directing) Carl Reiner, it all seems easy. Martin also does a great job of convincing us that he is actually interacting with all of the other actors.

And beyond all of that, the movie is actually funny, especially the exchanges between Martin and Ward. There are a lot of running gags, some physical humor, and some funny scenes that are written solely for the purpose of including a specific clip from an old movie.

The further away I get from this movie, the more I think about how cool of an idea it was to make it. While the payoff at the end isn't as hilarious as I expected it to be, it's the process itself that impressed me, along with the talents of Steve Martin as a writer and a parody actor. Great stuff.

If there was a documentary I should have seen in the theater last year, this was it. I regret now that I waited to see it on my tiny portable DVD player. I have gotten lazy about driving out to Irvine when the good movies are in town and need to be better about it. This movie is one in which the artist and his art are discussed and admired, and the art is wire walking. The artist is Philippe Petit, who, at a rather young age, saw the World Trade Center towers and decided that he would one day walk on a wire between them. This documentary takes place nearly 35 years after the fact and all of the people involved in the story are interviewed. Thankfully, there is plenty of footage of Petit and his crew, and a few reenactments fill in the gaps.

Petit is instantly engaging as he tells his own story, and his own character as a young man is instantly intriguing. I'm not sure if there is a time in the movie when he explains why he does what he does or even how he made ends meet in order to travel to the various locations he "conquers". There is a reference made to his performance as a street entertainer, but that's about it. And so the focus becomes Petit and the art of what he does, along with the interesting heist-like story of how he and his friends were able to plan his walk between the twin towers. I don't even want to call it a stunt, because it never comes across that way in the movie.

One of my favorite parts of this movie is actually when we see some old footage of when Petit performed at the top of Notre Dame. It was early one morning, and Petit was seen high above the ground, artfully lying down and balancing on a wire at the top of the cathedral. In this, as well as his other performances, the person filming is so far away from Petit that the camera looks like it's focusing on a man who simply walks on air. And he does make it look that simple.

It just seems so impossible that a few young men could accomplish stringing a giant wire in such a public place, with security guards all around. That aspect of the story is really interesting. I loved the reactions of the people who were there on the scene, especially the police men. I also liked the story of Petit and his girlfriend, and how their relationship was affected by his plan and his art (and how he celebrated after the performance). The whole mood of the film is so mesmerizing, and I even found myself thinking that it could only have been accomplished by a Frenchman. Haha.

Anyway, it's hard to put into words all the things I thought about while watching this documentary, which seems quiet and simple, yet is awe-inspiring. I loved it and am so glad it won the Oscar for best documentary.

After the Disney movies of the early 1990s, I became less interested in seeing Disney's movie's in the theater because the impression I got was that the animation, music, and stories weren't up to par with the classics of old. Either that or I was a young teenager and had no money. In any case, I didn't see any animated features in theater until Pixar's Toy Story 2. I'm still catching up with all of the movies I missed in the gap, one of which was The Lion King.

I'm sure you've all seen the opening sequences of the movie, which feature some very picturesque panoramic views and the famous scene where baby cub Cimba is dangled in the air by a medicine-man type figure. When I finally saw it all together and not just in clips, I was really impressed by the color and quality of what I was seeing. Unfortunately, that great quality doesn't last for the entire movie. It turns on and off here and there, as does the good music.

For me, the background music outshone the showpieces of the movie. I Just Can't Wait to be King irritated me (musically and animation style), but there were a couple of songs that were all right. But what stood out to me was the dramatic score. I much preferred the orchestra and the pieces by Hans Zimmer.

The story itself is good, though. Simba is born and destined to be king, much to the chagrin of his uncle Scar, who would like to be king as well. Scar arranges an accident that causes Simba to be an outcast for many years, and when he returns with some new fiends, he finds that his uncle has taken over his father's land, which is in bad shape. It's up to him to live up to the title of king. It's all very Shakespearean, only a little bit less threatening.

I guess when all is said and done, it comes down to personal preferences. While I acknowledge that the film is well-made, I am easily turned off by the geometrical animation styles, the too-familiar voice acting, and the 90s music influence. It just isn't my bag. I didn't dislike the movie, but it's not one I'll watch many times over. But it was worth seeing just for the circle of life opening sequence.

Twenty-two days later, a post!

Well, I will try to be more on top of things from now on, but I'm not promising anything.

I just wanted to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and to let you know I am still recovering nicely. I can move around very comfortably now, drive, and even started painting the condo again (the endless quest). I kept myself very busy in the past few weeks. I started going to a slew of doctor appointments. I know you all know about my back, but I also have left hip and shoulder problems, and I'm determined to work on those while my back is healing so that I can get jogging sometime in the next year. I need it! All that lying around with no exercise doesn't help one's physique. I am now going to physical therapy for all three body parts. My shoulder has some sort of impingement, and my hip seems like a muscle strain and inflammation combo. I am going twice a week to work on everything, which is not the funnest in the world, but it's got to be done.

Meanwhile, we had a contractor come to our house to help us out with the projects that would have taken to much time and knowledge for us to do well. He moved around our electrical wiring so that we don't have to rely on lamps plugged into walls for light anymore in the bedrooms. We now have light boxes in the center of both bedroom ceilings (and one has a nice, new ceiling fan that Ric installed), and one in our closet underneath the stairs. He also installed our upstairs bathroom fan and did a lot of door and baseboard work for us. We liked him well enough that we hired him on for another job - to update our kitchen with new counters and a new sink. While we were at it, we had him cut out the bar and just ordered a longer counter, so now we have more kitchen surface and a place where people could actually eat or maybe even get some projects done! He also pulled off the rock paneling from the wall where the bar was and evened everything out and retextured it for us. I spent all of yesterday priming and painting it. I don't like that you can still tell where the rock wall was, but it's nice to have things look a little more clean and spacious. Now all I need is a few bar stools.

We also decided to dump our cable company and go back to satellite, which involved four visits from service men, and I even had the piano tuner come over and help out my sad piano. There has been so much traffic in the house and I've had so many appointments that when I stepped back and looked at it all, I realized I was probably okay to go back to work. :)

So here I am, back at my desk, thankful for the wonderful people who covered for me while I was gone. I'm not all that into being back here, but I know they need me around here. Things are definitely stressful with our software conversion still going on. And on top of that, the VP over our department is resigning as of July, and our boss is retiring as of August. Yikes. With all the stress and all the changes going on around here, it's an uncomfortable climate, even if we work with nice people. I'm also still convinced that the program I work for will be eliminated in the next year or two due to low enrollment. But no worries - even if they do eliminate it, it would be a gradual thing, and my office would probably still find a place for me. And by then I'll probably go get pregnant and leave anyway.

Like I said, I'm still doing physical therapy. And I am still using the growth stimulator for my back every day. It will take several more months for the vertebrae to fuse. But I'm doing very well, and so much better than expected. I'm very grateful for that.

Many movie reviews to come!

Another director I am slowly but surely following is Woody Allen, whose work I have always admired for style and intent, although many times his movies have fallen short of what I would consider great for me. In sharp contrast to the movie Sleeper, which I reviewed recently, comes Manhattan. This is Woody Allen's love song of old love stories and New York; or at least, that's my interpretation of it. It stars Allen himself as Isaac, a divorcee who is dating a significantly younger girl named Tracy (he spends his whole time dating her trying to convince her that their relationship won't last because she has so much life ahead of her). He is good friends with a married couple named Yale and Emily, and Yale confides to him that he has been having an affair with a woman named Mary (Diane Keaton, of course). Yale and Mary love each other, but Yale also loves his wife and doesn't want to leave her. Isaac can't stand Mary when he first meets her, but then finds himself more connected to her than to his young girlfriend.

These triangles show us the negative sides of many people, and, like many Allen movies, I initially got frustrated with how lightly all of the characters seemed to treat relationships and love. There were no rules to get in any of their way, not even for Isaac's now-dating-a-woman ex-wife (played by the youngest Meryl Streep that I've ever seen), who decides to write a tell-all book about their relationship and divorce. It's confusing and kind of terrible, which is the point. As the movie progressed I could see that these people are searching for love and searching for their own idealized versions of love, and in the process, they do in themselves and their relationships.

I've often criticized movies for having all unlikable characters, making it difficult to root for or identify with any of them. Here, most of the characters are completely unlikable. They are all engaging in affairs and are self-indulgent, and their only likable qualities come in the clever lines of dialogue they give. But like I said, that's the point, and the character the audience ends up connecting with is actually Allen as the writer and director (and I guess partially Isaac, who is basically an extension of him). It's Allen who uses these characters to explore ideas that bring the movie together and make the unlikable characters worthwhile. They serve a purpose, along with the backdrop of the city, to show us the errors of the characters as well as present Allen's idealized view of love.

All of his movies seem to reference old-fashioned movies, and in the black-and-white Manhattan, Allen's romanticized New York is what transforms Isaac's own direction in love. For once, a character seems to get his life on track, and the movie ends with a vein of hope, in a place I didn't expect. Maybe it all ends for the best, or maybe this romanticized ending is just another chapter in Isaac's pursuit of the ideal love story for himself, and he'll screw it up in a few months' time. But I'm going to be a romantic too, and go along with the ending filled with gorgeous shots of New York (cinematography by Gordon Willis) and the rising sounds of Gerswhin's Rhapsody in Blue. It's an old-fashioned ending, just like the old movies set in the old New York.

I totally fell for it by the end, despite how turned off I was by the early scenes with Mary. The tide turns for me when Isaac and Mary run inside from the rain together, and it continues through the rest of the movie. It's been a while since I've been swept up by an ending, and those last shots with the Gershwin really inspired me, and as soon as I was able to sit at the piano again, I pulled out Rhapsody in Blue and gave it a bumbling-but-heartfelt go (and that's saying a lot because I played that song until I hated it back in the day). When all's said and done, it's Allen's New York and sentimentality for the old-fashioned that got me, and I think this is now my favorite of his films.

Heyo! Just wanted to post an update from my six-week surgery checkup. I went in this morning to get x-rays and see the surgeon. Basically, he said he's comfortable with me going back to work whenever I'm ready. So it's up to me. He gave me a prescription for some physical therapy, just to learn some stuff to ease me back into the swing of things, so I'm thinking I'll keep healing and go to some of those appointments over the next couple of weeks, and maybe come back sometime during the week of the 20th. We'll see. But otherwise, my x-ray looked good and everything's still where it should be, which is a good thing.

So now I'm thinking of all the things I'd like to accomplish while I've got the time before I have to go back to work. I have doctor's appointments I'd like to set up and go to so I don't have to take time off of work when I get back for them. I'm framing a bunch of pictures around the house. While I'm typing this, I've got a contractor in the bathroom doing some of the little things that were too stressful for Ric to deal with. I'm almost done reading Atlas Shrugged and must finish it. I am thinking about starting some light workouts on the Wii Fit. I want to get the pinao tuned. I've got a penny whistle I bought that I want to start using (the only "new" music I'm loving these days besides Antony and the Johnsons is Irish folk music, so why not learn to play some?). Hopefully I'll get at least half of these things accomplished. :)

I know I have a lot of movies to catch up with when it comes to Billy Wilder, who is known as one of the greats for smart and memorable movies. This is one of his well-known movies, particularly because it contains the iconic scene when Marilyn Monroe's skirt is flown into the air by a gust of air from the subway. The story, which I knew nothing about, is about a business man who lives below Marilyn's character (who is nameless). His name is Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell), and in the hottest part of the summer, his wife and child pack up to spend the season in cooler climates while he remains in the city for work. He is determined to be good while his wife is gone, but he suffers from what one doctor refers to as the seven year itch, which is when a man has been married for seven years and is easily tempted by other women.

Richard sees of his wife and kid with the best of intentions (eating healthy, quitting smoking, working even at home), but on the night after they leave, he meets his new neighbor. A flower pot falls into his patio and he yells up at the patio above him, and who should appear but Marilyn Monroe, who peeps over her shrubs to apologize (and who's only covered by her shrubs since she's not wearing anything else). By the time Richard's wife is due to call to check on him that very night, he's inviting his pretty neighbor over for drinks, and has already broken his no smoking rule so he can calm his nerves.

Richard is a boring man, for the most part, but his imagination runs wild. His wife isn't nervous leaving him alone for the summer, because she knows him. He sees things differently than she does, imagining all sorts of instances in which various women in his life have come on to him. His imagination also makes for a lot of funny scenes, especially how he thinks he might seduce his neighbor.

But Richard's heart is always in the right place, and he's always trying to be good. His inner battle is what makes the movie great - the struggle to be a good husband as well as the struggle against the magnetism of Marilyn Monroe, whose character naively confesses that no matter what happens to her, men fall for her. She doesn't seem to notice that in combination with her fun spirit and great looks, her own casual conversation has something to do with it. After all, she talks about how it's so hot that she doesn't wear anything around the house and keeps her underwear in the freezer. I think the allure of Monroe in this movie has a lot to do with the fact that she's not trying to seduce anyone. She's simply irresistible, yet Richard has to resist her, which is kind of hard to do when they agree she can sleep in his apartment because it's air-conditioned.

This movie was completely hilarious in the beginning, and then funny for the most part to the end. Wilder is great at building interesting characters and clever situational setups. Richard's imagination does go overboard a few too many times for my tastes, but not enough to ruin the movie - it's just a little bit anticlimactic. Ewell is as funny as Monroe is charming, and the two have a great chemistry together. Ric had a fun time listening to this as he installed some new tiling in our downstairs hallway, and it was a fun evening of entertainment for me. I'm glad to have finally watched it.