.jeri.

awwwww

Went to see the new nephew on Wednesday. He's perfect! And Angie is doing well. Incredibly well. She's the first person I know of who gave birth and then said, "Jeri, it wasn't that bad!"

I made sure to take a lot of pictures with their digital camera while I was there, and as soon as they email them to us, I'll post some here.

And now that I've been hanging out with Connor I'm not so afraid of touching a baby, so I was actually able to hold Harrison on his first day as a newborn without freaking out! He's got a bit of a conehead, lots of hair on his head, sharp little fingernails, and most of the time he sleeps because being born was hard work. He has been letting out some gas, which made Ric say, "He takes after his uncle!" Ric also tried to make him flip the bird for a picture, but everyone else agreed that Harrison should be allowed his innocence for at least a little while.

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for a picture to put on our wall. For the library, I'm thinking about an old world map. But I might want to buy a globe and then it would seem repetitive. So I might go with a painting of something historic, like Washington Crossing the Delaware, or something to that effect.

For the living room, I've taken note of pieces by Klimt, Gottlieb, Bierstadt, Gericault, Van Gogh, Monet, Bucholz, Sheets, Benton, Mondrian, Caillebotte, Shvaiko, Millais, Frederic, and Wyeth. I've only looked through a fourth of the choices at allposters.com (7,000 posters), and still want to look through more!

Posted by wendytime at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I'm an AUNT!

Harrison Lewis Price made his way into the world this morning at 4:58 a.m. He is 20 inches long and weighs 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Angie's (the sister-in-law) water broke yesterday at 1, and, after no contractions, labor was induced at 7. Everything went well, and my fifth nephew is alive and well (the first 4 are my sister's). Wohoo!

Posted by wendytime at 08:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

decisions, decisions

Yesterday was a busy day. Too busy. Get up at 7, go to work. Get home at 5:15 (after wasting time covering the front office for that last half hour). Practice piano until 5:45. Found out the neighbors who are subletting our apartment are staying. We really liked the habits of our old neighbors - they were night owls like we are. They're about to have a baby, which means crying next door. Make dinner, eat at 6. Clip coupons until it's time to get ready for Bible study. 7:00 - first Bible study ever. It goes till freaking 9:30 this time, and I still have to go grocery shopping! Drop off Ric, go grocery shopping, get home at 10:30, get everything put away by 11:00. LAY DOWN for the first time in 16 hours.

Obviously, I can't do this every Monday, but I've committed to this Bible study for at least 8 weeks. Something's got to give, though, because my back was killing me for the last 5 hours of it all.

Also, Ric decided our walls are too bare, so we need to find a good couple of pictures to hang. He could probably choose something in an instant. I, however, stress about it because choosing a picture is like defining your personality and tastes, and it also sets the mood of the room. Now, I'm a pretty traditional art lover: the classics - things you find in a museum. But I don't want to choose some overused painting like Van Gogh's Starry Night. A piece of art says too much to be chosen lightly. I'm going to have to hunt around a lot.

Posted by wendytime at 03:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

ummm...

I'd just like to point out that for the eighth consecutive week, I'm here "covering the office" ... bearing the onslaught of zero callers and zero visitors. And I have only two additional people in the office for backup!

Yes, that's right, I have been asked to stay half an hour late on Mondays to help NOBODY with the help of two others! And usually there are THREE others here to help! Does this sound stupid to anyone else?

* btw, as i finally post something about this, someone actually came in and picked something up. figures. good thing i had backup here to handle it! *

Yet another reason why, when possible, I will be jumping on any career opportunities that pass my way.

And now for your enjoyment, things I find when I type "bored" into google.
-The ugliest mouses ever made
-Bored of the Rings
-Lots of pictures of sexy girls who want to cure your boredom
-Heh heh.. extreme sports
-the governor
-the young ones! i love that episode.
-many boring images of the word "bored"
-lots of pictures of bored cats and people

Okay, that killed the last half hour.
Bye.

Posted by wendytime at 04:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Gunga Din

I can't believe I never saw this movie as a child! Starring Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (and based on a Rudyard Kipling poem), Gunga Din is about British soldiers in colonial India in the 1890s as they encounter a large band of evildoers called the Thugges, who want to drive the British out of their land. On the side, the Thugges also worship a god named Khali (I think that was the name).

Anyway, this movie kind of runs like a modern day action movie. There's ony guy, Balantine, who plans to leave the military in 6 days (like Glover's last week before retirement in the Lethal Weapon series). He has two buddies, and the trio usually gets into a lot of fights and adventures together. They don't want him to leave, so they trick him into one last adventure, which turns out to be the battle of all battles in the end.

The trio find themselves in trouble against the Thugges, and it's up to Gunga Din, an Indian man who served as a slave(?) or worker(?), to help them out.

Gunga Din, especially for 1939, is a very impressive feat. From elephants to nonstop action to a great sense of humor, it's highly entertaining. I think it compares well with comedic action movies of today. Definitely a classic in my book!

Posted by wendytime at 12:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mean Girls

How many movie reviews do I preface with the words, "Don't laugh - yes, I saw this movie."? Well, here's another one. Don't laugh - yes, I saw this movie.

My interest in Mean Girls developed from my love of the movie Heathers, in which a regular girl takes down the popular clique, basically by killing them all. Mean Girls is definitely not as evil, but the bitches are definitely bitches! And they get taken down in a fairly creative way: infiltration - become the ones you despise.

Mean Girls reminded me a lot of Saved!, actually, because there was a girl who was friends with the popular clique as well as a couple of outcast friends, and somehow it all ends at prom. Doesn't every high school movie? Also, both movies ended with an actual moral of sorts. In Mean Girls, the conclusion is that giving someone a hard time doesn't make one's life any better or easier. There are lots of apologies and - not necessarily convincingly - the Plastics (bitchy popular clique) and the normal kids get along at the end of the movie. In Heathers, all the popular bithces were dead, so there wasn't a chance for a moral to the story. Ha ha.

One interesting take on this movie was the main character's background. As she lived in Africa her entire life with her zoologist parents, she viewed her classmates a lot like viewing wild animals in their habitats. There are actual scenes of teenagers in the mall and at prom, acting like chimps or other animals. I thought it was amusing.

All in all, Mean Girls was surprisingly good. The mean girls are sufficiently mean, the jokes occur often and are usually funny, the parents aren't simply unknowing idiots, and there's a lot more substance than the majority of the teen movies out there. Fun movie.

Posted by wendytime at 12:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Supremacy followed well in the footsteps of the Bourne Identity. Great pacing, great acting, and most of all: intelligence.

Matt Damon continues to show himself a better actor than anyone ever gave him credit for, and Brian Cox has finally broken out of "side character guy" syndrome. I have been watching a lot of past movies lately, that all feature him as a side character. Rob Roy, The Boxer, Adaptation... etc. It's nice to see him breaking out into mainstream with the recognition he deserves. With a face like his, you would think it would be difficult for him to be adaptable, but I've been surprised to find that he's a VERY different person in each and every role he plays.

Back to the Bourne Supremacy: What can I say? I think I enjoyed the first better for various reasons. First of all, the camera work was far superior in Identity. We could see what was happening, and the movement of the camera usually reflected Bourne's moods. Unless the theory in this movie is that Bourne is constantly about to self-combust due to franticness, the makers of this movie had no right to make the audience endure the painfully INSANE camera work in Supremacy. Hold still, dammit! Second of all, Joan Allen didn't work extremely well for me in Supremacy. Third, I thought Identity was more creative.

This isn't to say that Supremacy is a bad movie. In fact, I really enjoyed it and think that it was a quality "sequel" to Identity.

Overall, the acting was great, the plot was interesting, the locales were well chosen, and if I could see the action, I bet it was pretty good too. It was definitely worth it, even despite the shaky view.

Posted by wendytime at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Colin!

Colin has been in town! We met up with him and his girlfriend and KJH last night at BJs. I think we shocked his gf with all the stories of things she never knew that went on at Biola when she was there.

It was great to have him back. Colin's one of those people I've always enjoyed conversation with. And man! KJH lives a 2 minute walk from our complex, yet we've never hung out. So it was nice to see her again too.

Ric says Colin's girlfriend is a hottie and it's about time Colin gets a girl he deserves.

Posted by wendytime at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

dog rescue follow-up

From the time my mom left work to the time she got home, the dog escaped. Yes, the two things I questioned my dad about (a: will that leash hold it? and b: can't that dog jump the fence?) were the two things that went wrong. The dog chewed through the leash and jumped the fence.

Fortunately, my parents live in a friendly area, and by the time my mom called the owners to let them know she lost the dog, someone else had already found it and dropped it off at their house. Wow!

Posted by wendytime at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Slasher

Tivo has been giving me great opportunities for movie watching. It's great.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw Ebert and Roeper review Slasher, a production by Jonathan Landis, surprisingly enough. It was on IFC the next day, so I couldn't resist Tivo-ing it.

Slasher is about a car salesman. He slashes prices. Get it? But he's not just any care salesman - he is hired out to go to auto centers across the country and help them sell cars in a slasher sale.

This guy is such an interesting character. He has a loving wife and kids, and he truly loves them and wants to be their provider. But then you see another side of him when he's out selling cars. He's got a gruff voice, gets loud when drunk, and is a relatively difficult person to get along with. We follow him to a slasher sale, watching him set up (even with a DJ), and watching him in action, in a tux.

The interesting thing is the surroundings of the places he travels to. What can he do, when he's ready to sell cars, but everyone in the area has poor credit or no money, and all of them are at the sale because they heard that they were giving away $88 cars (there were only 2)?

Anyway, interesting idea for a movie. I enjoyed it for the most part.

Posted by wendytime at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

dog rescue

To the rescue!

We (my mother and I carpool) were on our way to work this morning, in the left-hand turn lane at Imperial and Biola, when a dog went running across Imperial Hwy, right in front of us. Luckily, there were some construction workers on the corner, and the dog ran right to them. One of the guys was petting it. So we pulled up to the corner where they were and I told one of the guys that I'd take the dog. The dog was so friendly, it came running right at me, and leg me grab its collar, and even let me put it in the car.

The dog's name is Toki, and there was a tag with the phone number and address. We called and no one answered, so I left a message saying we would call back to arrange dropping the dog off. We drove back to my mom's and put the dog in the backyard. It started trying to get out as soon as I let go of it. So we had to put it on a leash in the backyard. Poor thing. It looks a lot like a fox. My mom says it looks like a a Finnish Spitz, but I think that's not quite right. The Spitz is a bit too puffy. Honestly, I think the dog looks like a Dingo, although that seems less likely.

I'm actually sad the dog had a dog tag on. My mom got so excited when she saw the stray. My dad said, "No more dogs," when Clyde died. He was too attached to Clyde. But my dad's health has really been going downhill, and I think some kind of companionship during the day would be good for him, since he's retired and doesn't do a lot during the day. My mom and I have devised a plan: when we find a stray, bring it home. If the dog stays a while while we look for the owners, my dad might become attached to the dog, and if we never find the owners, he might allow it to stay permanently.

That's the plan. Now we just need to find a stray with no tags. Last month I spent half an hour running after a dog on La Mirada Blvd. Heh heh. Understand, the sick part is that my mom and I would do this even if we didn't want a dog. We just feel so sorry for the strays. I can't stand thinking about a dog getting run over in the road.

Posted by wendytime at 11:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

staples center suites

We went to the Staples Center last night to sample the suites! Ric's company has season tickets to most of the local teams, and since he's lower on the food chain, we don't always get the best ones. So far it's been Angels, Dodgers, and Kings, which are good... But last night was a Sparks game. I went anyway because wanted to check out the Staples center and be a VIP.
Separate entrance, dessert carts, suites with couches and VCRs, private refrigerators with wine, beer, and Pepsi.. Basically, we went to eat. :) Don't kill me, grace, I was bad only with the ice cream. I guess the company pre-orders food, and then you can grab whatever from the fridge. Cool view. I like the center. I can't imagine what it must be like to keep it clean.
Oh yeah. The Sparks played against the Indiana Fever. I hate basketball team names. I guess Indiana was supposed to be the best of the Eastern teams, but boy, if they're the best, I'd hate to see the worst. The final score was like 82 to 51, Sparks winning. Ridiculous.

Posted by wendytime at 02:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

De-Lovely

De-Lovely is a movie about Cole Porter's life. It's meant to be an honest look at his life, so it not only explores his marriage and his music, but it also includes his interests in men - nothing that makes the audience squirm (if you're wondering).

I'm still deciding on my opinion of the set-up of this film. The idea is that an angel(? didn't quite catch what he was) is putting on a "this is your life" type play for the already-deceased Porter. Porter makes corrections and comments throughout the play as we, the audience, watch his story. Sometimes the interruptions help explain things, and sometimes I just wanted the story to continue without him.

But besides that, the musical performances and the acting in this movie are great! I love the seamless transitions between a scene and the song. I love watching Elvis Costello singing Let's Misbehave. And who knew that Alanis Morrissette could sound good if she only sang a different style of music, written by someone else? There were also songs by Robbie Williams, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, and more. The big stage performances, the choreographed in-scene performances, and even the scenes with Porter or his wife singing at the piano are all absorbing and entertaining.

(Unfortunately,) I went to a showing of this film filled with elderly people. I can tell it made many audience members reminisce about the old days because many of them talked throughout the entire movie "Oh, remember when that song came out, it was sung by Ethel Merman?!" "Yeah, I remember that."

But beyond the singing are some great performances by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. They had the whole audience crying by the end.

I really enjoyed this one. I had a feeling there was a lot more to the story, but since it covered Porter's entire career, I think it went deep enough while keeping the story moving at a good pace. Great performances by everyone.

Posted by wendytime at 01:55 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Fahrenheit 9/11

I have been a fan of Michael Moore movies, and yet I knew that this one was to be different. I decided to see this movie because I've liked his creativity and because of the hype... I also wanted to see if it would bring up anything that would make me truly THINK or re-think anything...

I was surprised to find that all the hype was about a relatively boring movie. This latest project of Moore's isn't as creative as his past efforts. It lacked the charm, lacked the deep thought, and sometimes simply lacked credibility.

Did it make me re-think anything? Yes. Now I might like to look into the facts behind the statements made before 9/11 from people like Rice and Powell who said, "Sadam doesn't have the capability or resources to have weapons of mass destruction in his possession."

Otherwise, I thought the rest of the points in the movie pretty much fell flat. There is point A and there is point B. In between are a lot of ideas and facts (if I can believe anything Moore says), but they don't all seem to correlate as perfectly as he would suggest.

He edits out subtitles from a translator in Iraq . He edits out comments from people in D.C. in his efforts to get members of Congress to get their children to sign up for the armed forces (which no parent can force on his/her child). He focuses on those who are "forced" into military by circumstances without recognizing great people like our own Justin or my nephew, who come from relatively affluent backgrounds, who volunteered themselves into duty. He exploits a crying mother who has lost her son and is trying to find a person upon whom she can unload her anger. He makes comparisons with the amount of troops (if I remember correctly) in Manhattan vs. Afghanistan without recognizing the difference in terrain and population in each of those areas. Basically, he shows the audience what he wants to show them. I think that's fine, but this shouldn't be categorized as a documentary so that people like Ric's co-workers can go and see it and believe Moore's word is the gospel truth.

And he drags everything out as long as possible. Regardless of where political standpoints, I thought this movie was boring. I don't want the comments section to this post to turn into anything political. I'm not a Bush worshiper, but I'm not a Moore believer either. Overall, I thought the hype was just that - hype, and that the movie was just a mildly interesting editorial piece, but nothing very special.

Posted by wendytime at 01:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Spider-Man 2

I need to catch up with movie reviews! I forgot about this one.

This next part of Peter Parker's story was much improved over the first. Doc Oc was so much better than the Green Goblin. Overall, everything was better, and the cheese-factor was really cut down. I had a really fun time watching this movie. Highly recommended, even to those who are skeptical about it. :)

Posted by wendytime at 11:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

this is the weekend

fri. lunch. de-lovely. shopping. dinner. fahrenheit 9/11. train station. sat. workout. laundry. bake cookies. birthday party for elizabeth. home. sun. church. IT'S HOT! baby shower for sister-in-law. home. nap. fullerton. home. rob roy. read bubbs. laugh. bed.

Posted by wendytime at 08:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Terminal

This movie was a complete surprise to me. I didn't think the commercials made it look very special, but Tom Hanks and the side characters (especially Kumar Pallana) really made it work. Forget about the "romance" story - Tom Hanks as Victor sold the movie for me. I loved the little subtleties of his behaviorisms, enjoyed all of his friends in the airport, and preferred this ending over any other ones I've heard.

Very fun movie. I was smiling through a lot of it, laughing through a good deal of it, and quite enjoyed its style.

(p.s. Steven Spielberg is advanced enough now that he should avoid lame details such as quarters flying out of a cart return machine, but that's just a small thing to nitpick about in a very well made movie.)

Posted by wendytime at 01:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

I read this little diddy over the weekend. The series follows three children, the Baudeliere orphans, whose rich parents die and specify in their will that the children must be taken care of by relatives. The nearest one is Count Olaf, and they are sent to live with him. He turns out to be quite an evil man, who plots find a way to their fortune, which cannot be accessed by the children until the eldest comes of age.

What I like about these books is the whole "nothing is happy" thing. The author warns you that there are no happy endings, and focuses on the bad things. Also, for young readers, the author often explains big words in the context in which they are being used.

What I thought was weird about the book is that sometimes the author explained words that children could most likely figure out while leaving other big words untouched.

These books are definitely for a younger audience. Target would probably be around 2nd grade, perhaps. I don't think they translate as well to an older audience (I often find myself skipping over the vocab "lessons") or skimming a bit. But they are fun, the characters of the children are cute, and I like how the book focuses on their creativity, reading, and intelligence.

A quick little read, and a nice break from less interesting reading (I'll give a review of that later).

Posted by wendytime at 09:25 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Baraka

Although this movie has been around for over 10 years, it's still incredibly interesting and beautiful to watch. We made it to the Egyptian theatre in the fastest drive to LA we've ever done, and had the good fortune to see a screening of Baraka while the director was there, and he did a Q&A after the movie.

Basically, Baraka (means "blessing") is a nonverbal movie, full of images of nature, people, places, rituals, etc. There are images of so many places - they were in a large number of countries and cities - tons of places I've never seen.

It's breathtaking and the music is absolutely beautiful. Baraka is unique in that a movie can make you think about so many things without a single word of dialogue. It's still at the Egyptian Theatre if you want to check it out. If not, you can always rent it!

But seeing it in 70MM is amazing (especially when you get there late and sit in the 2nd row). Highly recommended!

Posted by wendytime at 08:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Coffee and Cigarettes

Coffee and Cigarettes is a movie with many opportunities for great dialogue. Yet, it starts out with so many awkward silences and conversations that it had me doubting. I mean, how does one make Roberto Begnini boring?

The film is set up in small segments, each showing people meeting over cofee (one time it was tea) and smoking. We've got people like Roberto Begnini, Steve Coogan, Alfred Molina, Cate Blanchett, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Bill Murray, the White Stripes, WuTang, and more... Sometimes the meetings seem like they were set up for no reason in particular other than to put two interesting people in a room together and see how the conversation goes. The better segments give a reason behind the meeting and have less awkward silences.

In the beginning, the film felt pretty shaky, and a little bit drawn out/boring. I think the movie relied a little bit much on "star power", or the presence of interesting people on the screen.

About halfway through, it started picking up speed. The conversations were better, the situations seem more established, and the themes were more concrete. Visually, I like the movie: in black and white, in various locations, and the checkers. Little details, like the variety of music playing also added to the ambience of each vignette.

The official website for this movie claims that Jarmusch shows "just how absorbing the obsessions, joys, and addictions of life can be." I'm not sure how absorbing he showed many things to be, but he did create a movie with some interesting ideas and characters, that was certainly a lot more involving in its second half.

My favorite scenes were with Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, Bill Murray with the guys from WuTang, and the two old men who drink coffee like it's champagne.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but wouldn't necessarily tell you to drive 20-30 miles to see it.

Posted by wendytime at 09:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

anyone want to rent a home in AZ?

http://www.greathomes4rent.com/RentalDetail.asp?RentalID=10757

Posted by wendytime at 09:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

fourth weekend

I was going to review my Independence Day weekend, but I just remembered - I'm taking Tuesday and Wednesday off, so I'll be having a 5.5 day weekend!

My weekend so far: saw Spiderman 2 and Coffee and Cigarettes (Grace, remind me to tell you the story behind Saturday). Liked S2 a LOT. Coffee and Cigs was okay, mostly for the second half I'd give it a good review. Longer reviews to come.

On TV: watched The Legend of 1900, with Tim Roth playing a virtuoso pianist who was born on and raised on a ship (never left it). Really enjoyed the music and the look of the movie quite a bit. I was pleasantly surprised. Also re-watched My Life So Far (Colin Firth and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio with Spidey's Aunt May and Malcom McDowell) - a story of a little Scottish kid and his life... so far. I really liked this little movie. Certainly underrated.

The fourth: we went to Ruth's house on the hill and watched fireworks from several different cities. Quite a sight - looked like the world was on fire. We (workout group) were allowed to drink for the day. All it really did was make me feel bloated. We watched Badder Santa and also had the drawn-out-three-hour-fox-played Independence Day on in the background. We barbecued some great food and enjoyed each other's company. Cool party.

My back is seriously killing me these days. I feel like something is very out of whack. It's not just the muscles - "I feel it in my bones." I'm experiencing a lot of pain lately. But I'm trying to keep doing whatever I'm doing regardless of the pain - I'll hurt while I'm out OR at home, so I may as well still go out. I just have to change my sitting position every few minutes.

Posted by wendytime at 04:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Happy Fourth!

click here to celebrate with fireworks

Happy Fourth, everyone.

I've just been over to visit the new (read: OLD and crummy) offices we're moving to at the end of this month. It's pretty bad. We started out being told the paint and carpet were going to be replaced, and now (esp. knowing this school) it seems like that might not be happening. If this is so, we have decided to paint on our own! "We're not... gonna take it!" We also mentioned it to the Dean (the paint and carpet) and he's going to discuss with the project manager of the renovation/move.
We have chosen where everything is going to be located. The setup of the offices is fine. It's just my workspace I'm not too happy about. It's basically going to change a lot of our procedures.
At least we'll be in the center of campus now, but I'm still not looking forward to it. We have unanimously decided that we're not going to use the bathrooms in our building; we're going to walk over to the cafe instead. We're all feeling like the building is pretty claustrophobic (no windows on our side of the building and florescent lights everywhere). So we'll be fleeing to the rest of campus as often as possible.
My supervisor is still talking about privacy for herself from the students. I don't think she realizes she needs to serve them when I'm unable.
The good news is that in our 04-05 budget, a student worker has been approved. So now I can finally go to the department meetings and actually know what's going on. Plus I can get help with filing or other projects.

Posted by wendytime at 09:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)