Decision 2008

Guys, I just can't make up my mind.

I've been racking my brain for so long now on which way to go.

It's been driving me crazy with the choices that have been presented to me.

Do I go with something I've been through before and has proven to serve me well?

Or...do I go with change?

I like change.

But there's something just so comforting about the old.

It's secure. It's the evil I know.

But change....I've always liked change. I like mixing it up. I like seeing something new.

So, I've put it to you, oh mighty bloggy land.

Whatever the majority of you decide for me, I'll go that way.

Pinky swear.

I will let YOU help me decide.

Canadians can play along. I don't discriminate.

Republican or Democrat, I don't care.

Black or white, doesn't matter to me.

Just give me your opinion on this very important life changing decision I must make.





Which TV show on DVD should I watch next...Rescue Me or Mad Men?

See, I've seen Rescue Me before. I watched the whole first 2 seasons, but then due to life getting in the way, I let it fall of my radar. I have the first 3 seasons on DVD and there's just something about Denis Leary that makes me all squishy inside. His blunt talk, his obvious WTF attitude, his voice.

But, I have Mad Men on DVD. And I've been hearing so many wonderful things about this show. I've never seen it before and would like to give it a try. I love that the setting is in the 60's and that it doesn't gloss over the ugly.

So, what is a girl to do?

Let me know in the comments.

And...thanks.

Later,



P.S. You totally thought I was going somewhere else with this, didn't you? You should know better by now. Silly gooses (or geeses? geesi?).

Harry Potter-Thon

It's that time again! If you wanna play, head on over to Daily Mish Mash to either play or just read some great movie related posts!




So, I’m on a Harry Potter kick right now. I have no clue where it came from, but when I finished my last book, I had the urge to dive in to the Harry Potter series again. I’ve read every book at least twice. Some I’ve read more than 4 times.

I’m a Harry Potter geek. However, me being me, I’m really only a half geek. I know a lot of facts about the Harry Potter series. Seriously, I know a lot. However, after years of reading the books and watching the movies and reading online, I realize that there’s a lot that I don’t know about the Harry Potter series. And I’m OK with that. That’s not what this post is about.

Last week, when I was in the middle of the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I looked over at my daughter and asked her if she wanted to have a Harry Potter-thon. I explained to her, in response to her blank look, that that means we’d watch all 5 of the Harry Potter movies, back to back to back…well, you get the point. She enthusiastically agreed and the plan was set. We’d start them on Friday night and just watch til we couldn’t watch any more.

Then, to our surprise, my mom said she’d like to join us.

Now, my mom’s a big reader. In fact, all the books in the corner of my room that I haven’t read yet (all 200+ of them) are from her.

However, her taste in books doesn’t run to the fantastical. She likes grounded, real type books. The most “supernatural” or “fantastical” she gets is reading books by Dean Koontz or Stephen King. Otherwise, she doesn’t read it. No matter the rave reviews.

She hasn’t read the Harry Potter series yet but stated that she wanted to delve in to them at some point during her retirement.

I know my mom. I know that she will not get into the series (books or movies) but I gently push her to try them hoping that I’m wrong.

As much as I hate that she was going to watch the movies before reading the books, I gave her a big smile and told her “Great!”.

Friday night rolls around. We had decided to make it an appetizer night. You know, mini egg rolls, pot stickers, pizza rolls, chicken quesadilla rolls, etc…with all their sauces and some I mixed together for dipping.

I had been looking forward to this night for DAYS. I was so excited about this Potter-thon.

Well, as you can possibly guess, anytime you get THAT excited about something, it becomes sort of a letdown.

Light of my life kept asking me to pause the movie so she could pee/get dessert/get something else to drink/go to her room to get something/ask for a blanket/etc…..

Due to all the starting and stopping, my mom got frustrated and that led to her having these “looks” on her face whenever I would sneak a peek at her during the movie. I knew by those “looks” that she wasn’t getting into the movies. Of course, that made me more anxious. I then started stopping and starting the movie to explain to her about Neville’s parents and who Voldemort is and why Harry has a scar and why he lives with the Dursley’s.

About halfway through, mom decided she had enough and got up saying “I just don’t know where my fantasy gene is” and went to bed.

Light of my life and I finished the first movie and went on to bed after that.

On Saturday night, after my daughter got back from a late afternoon birthday party, we popped in #2 and watched most of it before we both fell asleep on the couch.

Yesterday afternoon, after lunch, we popped in #2 to finish it and managed to watch #’s 3 & 4 and start #5.

I had forgotten what a hottie Daniel Radcliffe was until I watched him grow up in these movies. I also didn’t realize how hot George and Fred Weasley were in the last two movies. When did that happen? And then, I discovered that the actor that played Cedric Diggory in the Goblet of Fire is none other than our own "Edward Cullen" in the Twilight movie that comes out in December. I can remember thinking Viktor Krum was much hotter than Cedric but I've since changed my mind. Yes, not only am I a twelve year old boy inside, but I'm also a boy-crazy 14 year old girl. Shut up.

I love watching these movies over and over again because I always learn something new each time.

For instance, in the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry uses Floo Powder for the first time, he slurs his words and Diagon Alley comes out Diagonalley. When my mom heard it, she said “Why did he say diagonally?” and a light bulb went on above my head. What a play on words.

And Knockturn Alley…where it’s the “darker” side of the magical world….could be considered “nocturnally”.

Is that not the coolest thing? I haven’t done any research on the internets to find out if this was intentional or just a happy coincidence, but considering the Genius That Is J.K. Rowling, I find it hard to believe that it’s anything but intentional.

Anyway, to wrap up this silly and very un-important post, despite the setbacks of the first night, we’ve had a blast watching our way through most of the 5 movies. Tonight, we’ll finish up (or at least watch until 9pm) the rest of The Order of the Phoenix.

Tonks, how I love you. You rock!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Movie Madness Carnival

Yay! It's another Movie Madness Carnival hosted by our lovely hostess with the mostess, Jen from Daily Mish Mash! She's also having a lovely giveaway that you can find here. It's a movie junkies favorite kind of giveaway! We're talking a movie gift card, popcorn and candy! Yummmmmm......

I love these! Movies (watching, not making) are my passion. Just ask anyone.

Last time I did a general post about movies but kinda focused on Dirty Dancing a bit.

I'm changing it up this time. Today, I'm doing a review. Boo, hiss, blech...I know, reviews can kinda suck but I felt it was necessary for this particular movie.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!




Ok, let's get into this review.

Wow!

That's it.



No? That's not considered a review. Sigh.......

I really don't know exactly how I feel about this movie. It was a last minute grab out of the $5 bin at Wal-Mart.

I remember reading in my crackazines (US, People, Entertainment Weekly, etc...) about this movie and being intrigued with the premise.

I popped it in Sunday night after light of my life went to sleep. I had the living room to myself and thought I'd pop it in to see what it was all about.

Just FYI, it's a rated R movie, so no kiddos need to be awake to accidentally catch any of this.

It stars Ellen Page of Juno fame and Patrick Wilson of Little Children fame. Sandra Oh makes an appearance but for you Grey's Anatomy fans, if you're watching this just because she's in it, don't bother. Her appearance in this movie equal a whopping total of about 4 minutes.

If you like happy endings and all questions answered in your movies, this is not a movie for you. This is an independent film and you can tell.

I don't mean that in a negative way. It's just a powerful and unique film.

It starts off with Ellen Page's character, Hayley, and Patrick Wilson's character, Jeff, chatting on IM. It's pretty obvious that the conversation is between a teenage girl and an older male. Not to give too much away...they agree to meet.

The next scene sets it up to them meeting in a cafe. They start to talk and you can sense his attraction to her but you can also tell that he's not wanting to make it too obvious since he's in his thirties and she's, well, not.

She finagles an invite to his apartment to listen to a download of a song from a concert and he (instead of backing off) agrees.

They head over to his apartment and things start taking that uncomfortable turn that all parents dread in this day and age. It appears that Hayley initiates the sequence of events by pouring both of them some screwdrivers and asking Jeff to take pics of her (he's a photographer). She pops in a c.d. and takes off her shirt to reveal a sports bra and starts to dance on the sofa while Jeff starts to take pictures. A few minutes into the session, Jeff faints.

When he awakens, he finds himself tied to a chair with Hayley watching him.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is where the movie takes a hard left and never lets up.

Hayley is convinced Jeff is a pedophile and that he's had something to do with the disappearance of a local girl.

Now, normally, in movies and sometimes in real life, there's an obvious monster and an obvious hero.

But not in this one.

As much as you want to see Hayley as some vigilante who's out to rid the world of a pedophile, she's goes way beyond vigilantism and into torture.

And Jeff, well, as despicable as he seems, there's no clear cut answer to whether he had something to do with the disappearance of the local girl or even if he's a pedophile. Sure, he seems a little too interested in Hayley and the teenage girls who's modeled for him, but we never really get a definitive answer to this question. There are scenes set up to make you believe that he has something to hide (a secret safe hidden in a piece of art that contains photos including one of the missing girl) but since we never see any of the photos except for the one of the missing girl fully clothed, there is no scene that says "Jeff Kohlver is a pedophile and here are the pictures to prove it".

I'm not gonna give any more away because, really, you need to watch the movie to really grasp the pure terror of the psychological and physical torture Hayley puts to Jeff.

Neither character is likable in the slightest. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the most likable character in this whole movie is the one played by Sandra Oh as a nosy neighbor.

There are some surprises in store for the viewer and even though I'm not a man, there is one scene where even I cringed and felt for Jeff's character.

And really, that's what makes this movie so impossible to pigeonhole for me. I don't really have any one character to root for. During most of the movie, I feel for Hayley and support her but then there are times when I feel for Jeff.

Ellen Page is just so perfect for this part and so wonderful as a 14 (we think) year old girl. I really haven't seen too much of either her work or Patrick Wilson's so I have nothing to compare it to (I haven't watched Juno, yet) but the acting seems really tight and raw in this movie.

I really do recommend this movie. It's not a happy feel good movie but is, beyond a doubt, an interesting one.

That's it for my review.

Later,

Mama Dawg

DVD Collection

Several people in my "Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner" post asked where did I keep my vast collection of DVD's.

Well, here you go:




and here's the rest.



At last count (as of about 5 minutes ago) I currently have 387 movies, 128 TV shows on DVD (not 128 separate shows, but 128 DVD boxes. For instance, I have the entire series of Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City on DVD and that's 7 boxed DVD's EACH!) and 3 DVD's that aren't movies but interesting nevertheless.

I'm wanting to build a floor to ceiling bookshelf for all my DVD's. My neighbor, L, said he's help me.

Maybe that can be a wintertime project, huh?

Later,

Mama Dawg

My Weekend

It seems that all I do lately is post about my weekend.

Well, to be honest (I hate that phrase...makes me think that the person who says that is getting ready to lie to me), I'm just lazy.

I had Friday off. It was nice. I slept in for a little bit but then had to take J.D. to the vet once again because his back legs are failing...once again.

We're trying the Prednisone and Baytril one more time. If this doesn't work, he'll have to go on daily heart pills. Pills that he can never go off of until he dies. Costing me $45 a month.

Sigh...why does the world have to rely on money for EVERYTHING? If I knew the vet would accept free sex as payment, I'd do it. Kills two birds with one stone that way...gets the pills and it gets Mama Dawg some lovin'.

But, he's happily married...sigh.

So, on Friday, light of my life got invited to the local gas lady's house to go swimming at her private pool with her grandchildren. By local gas lady, I mean the lady that owns the natural gas place where I purchase gas for my tank for my gas heaters (not the local lady that farts a lot...that would be me). She's nice and is really good friends with my aunt (hence the invite). Light of my life slowly learned to dive while there because her grand daughter (who's 10) is on the swim team and was teaching her how to dive.

She had a blast and came home all full of herself.

I went flower and berry picking in the late afternoon. We have all these black-eyed susans growing wild EVERYWHERE, so I decided to go pick a few and make a small bouquet for the dining room table.

While picking flowers, I noticed that some of the blackberry (no, Jared, not a BlackBerry, but the actual fruit) plants were already producing mature blackberries.

So, I went a pickin'.

Here's what my efforts yielded:



Here's the flowers and the blackberries together. Such a pretty pic. The scissors really set the whole thing off.



Here's a close up of the blackberries. Don't they look yummy?



Here's the flowers. Kinda pretty, huh?

Saturday pretty much was a regular day. Made a Wal-Mart run to exchange some primer and to get a few things for dinner that night.

My grandmother is down in New Orleans with my other aunt for a while, so my other aunt (that my grandmother lives with) was all alone.

So, we invited her for dinner on Saturday night.

Light of my life was in her element. I swear, she's gonna make a good politician's wife someday. She totally stole the whole pre-during-post dinner conversation. It was filled with witty stories about learning how to jump off the diving board, learning how to dive, attending the library's reading program, telling stories that involve various bodily functions (that part was a little gross) and whatnot.

She had a blast with our first official dinner guest.

We had sun dried tomato rubbed turkey breast, brussel sprouts with curry sauce, butter beans and a tomato and avocado salad.

All in all, it was a nice evening.

Sunday was church and swimming. I also had to bathe the cats and then put on Frontline and give them a capstar pill.

Bathing cats is NOT FUN!

Due to J.D.'s bad heart and the stress that comes with getting a bath, I actually had to GET IN THE TUB with him to give him his bath. Poor thing. Once I got in the tub with him though, he stopped struggling. Maybe that's the key. However, I'm not gonna get in the tub with Mike. He'll kill me.

Oh, and I'm watching a DVD that was a mini-series on I think the Sci-Fi channel, called "Tin Man". Has anyone seen this? I'm obsessed. It's soooo good. I LOVE, WORSHIP, ADORE Neal McDonough.

Anyway, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Later,

Mama Dawg

Fun Weekend

I had a great weekend. The weather was perfect. Saturday was wonderful. I slept in until about 9 am. Mom got up that morning and went to the church rummage sale to help out. Light of my life and I got up and ate breakfast, got dressed and headed to the library. I needed to use the computer and light of my life just likes the library. We stayed about an hour and then headed to the rummage sale. I had donated a bunch of stuff there the week before and when we arrived, mom said that most of what I had donated was gone already! Made me feel good knowing I had good crap!

We bummed there a bit and then went and got lunch at a local cafe. We then went to my uncle's house to see if he'd let us use his backyard for light of my life's birthday party. As I mentioned before, it's a Mad Tea Party theme. His backyard has an Old English look to it, so it would be perfect for the party. He said it was fine. We chatted a bit and I got a couple of pics of a mockingbird at his entry way. The bird was just sitting there looking like he had been waiting all day for me to come by and take his picture! It was cute.

We came home after that and decided to do some yard work. I love doing yard work. Not planting and stuff, but the cleaning up. I have no clue why. I guess I just like the physical labor.

Sunday was nice and relaxing as well. Ran to Game Stop to trade in light of my life's old Gameboy Advance and about 9 games. She was able to get 2 new games (with me paying about an extra $6 on top of the credit). They were having a used DVD sale so I got 12 DVD's for about $28. Can't beat that!

Went to Wal-Mart and Payless after that. Came home, visited the neighbors and ate dinner. All in all, it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Later,

Mama Dawg

I Heart Rigs

I love Tim Riggins. I mean, LOVE….scratch that, maybe I should say LUST.

That boy is gorgeous.

In case you have no clue who I’m talking about, just go to http://www.nbc.com/ and check him out under Friday Night Lights.

He’s a character on this phenomenal show.

If you have not seen it, RUN, don’t walk to your nearest Wal-Mart store. They have the first season on DVD for $19.99 plus additional scenes on a separate DVD for $5.

My friend Jodi has been watching this show and has talked about it on her own blog. (Thanks Jodi, for mentioning this repeatedly on your blogs as it reminded me to not only get the DVD’s but to watch them….you also inspired me to try out “Dexter” now that it’s on the local channels on Sunday nights…..I love this show).

I have the movie on DVD. I bought it before the show was on the air. I got it for a few reasons:

1. It’s about football.
2. It starred Billy Bob Thornton
3. It was directed by Peter Berg

I love all three of those things. I should have put Peter Berg first since he’s the real reason I bought the movie. I adore Peter Berg.

Anyway, when I heard they were making a TV show out of this movie (and book), I knew I had to watch it.

When I found out that Kyle Chandler was starring as Coach Taylor…..it was a must see. I’ve loved Kyle Chandler since Homefront. Remember that show? It was set in WWII days? He was so beautiful then and is even more so now.

Then, I found out that it was coming on opposite of a show that I watched. I forget what it was now. They’ve moved this show around a couple of times. I chose to watch the established show instead of catching this one. Then they moved it again and I still couldn’t watch it.

By now, I had missed the whole first season. I never even started watching the second season due to other things happening (moving, trying to get settled, football games, etc…).

I finally bought the DVD’s at Wal-Mart and just started watching it last week.

The first episode was….I don’t have the words. This show is so real. The reactions that the actors have, the camera work, the average-ness of the people. I can’t even begin to tell you about the first episode. It would take 10 pages just to describe it.

The actors are well chosen (except for Minka Kelly as Lyla….she sucks). The actors are able to portray so much with just a look or just a few actions. The complexities of the characters are what make this so rich. I know people like this. For anybody living in a small football town, you can “see” a real person you know in each of these characters.

Coach Taylor has this enormous weight on his shoulders. It’s not just about winning games for the sake of winning games. The town EXPECTS him to win games and to take the “boys” to State. The Mayor herself gives the football players and the coaches’ advice and veiled threats of what would happen if they don’t win. This coach is hit from every angle by people who have advice and ideas and threats. How he keeps from hitting everyone that comes up to him, I don’t know.

Matt Sarencen is so understated but spot on as the nervous and socially awkward new QB1. You can actually see him grow in each episode.

Tim Riggins can take control of a whole scene with just one look.

Just as an example of the realism in this show. There’s one scene in an episode where he’s in the kitchen talking with his brother and they’re getting pissed at each other. He’s standing up eating something and starts talking with his mouth full. In most TV shows, they want you to be able to speak your words so the viewing audience can catch every one. Here, they show what people all over the world do every day. Talking with their mouth full. I know that’s corny and that’s it’s really small, but it’s just one example of the details they put into this show.

Peter Berg nailed this show.

I now watch 3-4 episodes a NIGHT. After light of my life goes to sleep. Which is at 9 pm. This means I’m up til about 1 am every night watching this show.

Needless to say, I’m exhausted.

But it’s so worth it.

Go to http://www.tvguide.com/ to find out what you can do to save this show.

It’s endangered because of some idiots in upper management of NBC.

Don’t get rid of my Coach Taylor or Tim Riggins. I don’t know what I’ll do.

If there is going to be a third season, you better believe it will be a priority show for me.

Check it out. You won’t be sorry, I promise.

Later,

Mama Dawg

It's Thursday!!!!

As you can see, I changed the picture to the right.

I took this picture at Epcot in the Butterfly Garden. I have a Kodak digital camera and I LOVE it. I love taking pics of nature and other interesting subjects. I've got a few good pictures of people but my best subject is of course light of my life. I have an entire wall devoted to pics of her (with pics of other members of my family thrown in for good measure). I'm starting to venture out and get pics of others. I have some good pics of light of my life's best friend, M. Once the weather gets warmer, I'd like to get them outside again to take some more pics. I can't wait to go fishing because that will provide some good pic opportunities.

I got a tripod for Christmas which will help with some night time pics. My goal is to save enough money to get a bigger and more powerful camera. Mine is only 6.0 pixels and 10x optical zoom.

I've had a few people over the past year ask for me to take pics but they never followed through. I hate that. I get all excited (not just cause it's a paying gig) because I'd like to get more practice in, especially on subjects that aren't close to my heart (I think that's why I have so many good ones of light of my life, she's just so handy!!!).

On another totally unrelated subject, the hamster was acting up again. This time when I got up, he wasn't outside of his cage and the non sick kitty wasn't in the room. This is weird. This time, the door was locked!

I just ordered Carnivale from Amazon. Anyone seen this series? I got seasons 1 & 2 (they are having an amazing sale right now on DVD's).

That's all I got today!

Tomorrow's Friday!!!! Yay!!!!!

Later,

Mama Dawg