News from the Great Beyond

Everything That's On My Mind - Santa Claus is Coming to Town Edition

Santa Claus may be coming to town, but Hubby and I will be leaving on Saturday to visit my mom and grandparents for a week - not that anyone will notice by my lack of posting, since I've been so - what's the opposite of prolific? - lately.

Christmas, already?  I'm serious.  Wasn't it just October, like, yesterday?  Good grief.

Hubby and I went to the movies this past Saturday to see The Chronicles of Narnia - fabulous movie.  If we hadn't had free passes, it still would have been worth the $18.  Movie tickets are getting inordinately expensive these days, especially with the excrement Hollywood continues to churn out in the name of entertainment.  But Narnia - oh, man.  For one thing, the cinematography was gorgeous.  Oscar-worthy.  We saw a "making of" special a few weeks ago and knew how they did some of the special effects and even then it was mightily impressive.  What was also impressive was how closely Disney stuck to the book, with only minor changes that made no significant difference.  I'm soooo hoping that they will continue with the series - if not to The Last Battle (which would be very interesting on screen), at least to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

'Round this time of year, complete strangers making small talk tend to ask if you're ready for Christmas yet.  Riiiight.  Like some restaurant hostess I've never seen before cares that I haven't bought anything yet and am completely out of good ideas for most of my friends and family members. 

Poor Hubby-head - I came up with a good idea for his birthday, and then started dropping not-so-subtle hint bombs about what I wanted for Christmas... But I've been listening carefully to what he says trying to come up with a fabulous Christmas present (fabulous, but still affordable, says she) and the thing I most wanted to do for him is not possible to accomplish.  He already knows this part so it's not like I'm giving anything away.  What I really wanted to do was upgrade our laptop's memory and video card so it would work better for the graphics-intensive stuff he likes to do.  Unfortunately, Dell does not do video card upgrades on their laptops, and if we have it done elsewhere they will no longer support it.  And I don't know how useful just the RAM upgrade will be... so now I'm really searching for other ideas.  I think I just got one yesterday, but it's only quasi-fabulous, and less than I'd planned to spend, so I'm open for suggestions.

Let's talk about our Christmas wishes, while we're at it.  I asked Hubby for an iPod Nano plus accessories.  Other than that, there's not a whole lot I'm wishing for.  I already received some checks to deposit in the bank, which will buy me the new shoes I want-slash-need and then some...  I have an abundance of reading material right now (the To Be Read pile continues to grow, between my PaperBackSwap acquisitions and the books Mom-in-law gifted us with when we were there for Thanksgiving)...  There are a few DVD's I would like to own, but we rarely watch movies any more...

What I could really use is the organization fairies to come and help me de-clutter and organize my house, especially my upstairs bedroom.  Barring that, I could use a couple of consecutive weeks off work in which I'm not traveling - time to get the R&R out of my system and then get down to serious FlyLady action.  I have enough vacation time available to me, but my supervisor would balk at letting me take it in a big chunk like that, especially because I'm not planning a trip or anything to "justify" it.  Hey, it's my vacation time, why does it matter whether I'll be going somewhere or sitting at home in my PJ's playing video games or doing spring cleaning? My supervisor is a traveller, though, and it would make a difference to her.  She never takes vacation unless she's going somewhere, usually only a day or two at a time to make it a long weekend.  She's also very much a career person - I'm not.  She couldn't fathom why I would need to take a solid 2 weeks off and not go anywhere.

Ahh, whatever.  It will all work out eventually, whether or not it's as soon as I would like.  In the meantime, I know I'm getting what I wanted for Christmas.  How about you?  What did you ask for?  And do you know what you're getting?

Everything That's On My Mind - Happy Back Edition

It has been five years since I've been to a chiropractor - until yesterday afternoon.  I had forgotten how good it feels to have a professional adjust me.  I'd had a headache most of the day, and a catch in the middle of my back that was causing me stabbing pains when I moved suddenly.  Alllll better.  I have a follow-up appointment this afternoon, and then I'm probably going to schedule a regular monthly appointment or something to keep my back in line.  Two cases of whiplash will do a number on you, let me tell you.

Speaking of yesterday, it was ExBossMan's birthday, so I brought him a birthday cake.  Devil's food, made with strawberry schnapps, strawberry Smucker's Simply Fruit between the layers, Hershey's Strawberries & Creme white chocolate kisses baked in, and chocolate buttercream frosting with strawberry flavor.  Pretty darn tasty, although the kisses didn't melt as well as I'd have liked.  I did that 3-layer cake, plus I also brought in a dozen-and-a-half limoncello cupcakes (vanilla cake mix, with half lemon juice and half limoncello liqueur replacing the water, and a dollop of lemon curd on top of each cupcake so the cake mix puffs up around it while baking, and lemon juice/powdered sugar glaze).  Lots of compliments.  Once I move to a house that has a decent-sized kitchen with a pantry, I'll have to start taking orders.  I'm gonna be a popular girl.

Speaking of food (and birthdays), my mom got Hubby-head a gift certificate to Omaha Steaks for his birthday.  We went on line and found a special deal on a variety pack that was marked down by like $121.  It included some filet mignon, some sirloin steaks, some burgers, some gourmet hot dogs, stuffed sole, chicken breasts, and au gratin potatoes.  I cleaned out the freezer to make room for all the food.  So far we've had some of the burgers (very tasty) and the au gratin potatoes (yummy!)... looking forward to the stuffed sole tonight.  I don't know that the prices would be worth shopping from Omaha Steaks without the gift certificate, but I can't complain about the quality of the food.  Anyone else have any experience with Omaha Steaks?

OK, so I have a question to ask you readers.  Hubby-head won 4 movie passes from a radio station recently.  They are the kind that work for special engagements too.  We plan to use them to see two movies.  One, I think, is going to have to be the Narnia movie when it comes out.  What should we see with the other set of passes?

Anyone?  What's on your mind?

Everything That's On My Mind - Friday Stream-of-Consciousness Edition

In my ramble yesterday, I completely forgot to mention that Hubby-head and I went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last weekend.  Very enjoyable.  Non-fans of the book may be a bit lost and confused, and you pretty much have to have an odd sense of humor to be a fan of the book in the first place... A word of warning for those who haven't seen it - early in the movie and over the closing credits there is a song that will get thoroughly stuck in your head.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Tonight Hubby and I plan to join our friend Judy for the First Fridays Art Walk in downtown Phoenix.  This is a cool little deal that Phoenix does the first Friday of every month, with free shuttle buses that run between dozens of downtown art venues.  We went - scratch that, we TRIED to go - last month, and only managed to make it to three or four venues at one shuttle stop before the last bus run.  That was because we decided to have dinner first... a very long story.  I was going to post about it last month, but I was at a bit of a loss as to how to write it.  Then I was going to frame my post around the photos I took, but there weren't that many, and I got busy and just plain forgot.  We'll see if I can take more pictures tonight and post about it this time.

Sunday is Mother's Day.  If you haven't bought your mother a sappy card or some flowers or something nice, you'd better get after it.  Consider this my Public Service Announcement of the day.

Sunday is also my brother-in-law and sister-in-law/best friend's anniversary.  They've been married for ELEVEN YEARS.  Lordy, how time flies.  Cherry is a guest-author here but hasn't posted in quite a while (check the Quotable category for her contributions).  Bro-in-law Josh has actually started a blog, mostly for posting photos and updates for family.  If I post a link to him, perhaps some of my readers will drop by and start harassing him.  Hey, that sounds fun.  Should I?

So yeah, Trump fired Craig last night - good move.  Between Tana and Kendra, Hubby-head and I are leaning toward predicting a Kendra win, but I think both of them have a lot of strengths and either could pull it off, depending on how their final tasks go.  And sheesh, did Trump and/or Mark Burnett go through the original teams and pull the most difficult and unpredictable personalities to assign to the final two or what?  On one hand, Kendra has to deal with Danny (and imagine that, he started SINGING during a meeting with the client), Michael and Erin:  The Useless Squad.  Then again, Tana has Kristen (my boyfriend is a director so I am the best person to make a sucky commercial), Brian (we can't afford to replace the disgusting carpet in our motel rooms because I think all new toilets would be a reasonable expense) and Chris.  Chris has some level of competency, if not emotional stability.  Next week's finale should be most interesting.

Ugh, I need to go to a chiropractor.  I've had two cases of whiplash - one about 8 years ago, and the other about 6 years ago.  I had chiropractic treatment for about 3 months after each of them, and did pretty well with it after the first one... but since the second accident, every couple-few weeks my back or neck gets out of whack and causes headaches.  Today, the middle of my back is tweaked, making my right arm tingle just a bit.  Every time I turn my head I can feel my spine protest.  The chiropractor I went to last has gone out of business, so now I get the fun of finding a new one that's covered on my insurance.  If I look one up on the web and there's nothing there at all, should I find that a good sign or a bad sign?  How about if there's a bunch of shameless self-promotional material?

Still planning to do a big ol' blogroll roundup post and some other bloggy stuff, probably tomorrow since there's very little that I absolutely have to get done tomorrow.  We're also threatening to do a Lord of the Rings movie marathon with my big brother tomorrow, since we have all 3 films on extended edition DVD and my brother has only seen the first one.   

*conspiratorial whisper* Shhh... I started writing this while my project manager was in a meeting and I had nothing to do... Gonna try e-mailing this post to my blog via Typepad's moblogging feature.  Relevant links will be added and any required formatting changes or corrections done later when I can log in from home.  Ciao for now, faithful readers!

UPDATE:  Well, that didn't work... so I'm posting from the public li-berry after work while waiting for Judy.  Hee.

Favorites: Films with a plot twist

So the other night, while channel surfing, we ran across the tail end of the movie "The Game"... I remember watching this movie with my friend Simone, who was on the edge of the couch during most of the film and and the very end screamed "KICK 'IM IN THE FACE!!" when the plot twist was revealed. Hee.

This brings to mind other movies with great plot twists. Here a few - in no particular order - feel free to chime in on the ones I forgot.

The Usual Suspects
The Spanish Prisoner
Seven (or Se7en - however you wanna spell it)
Fight Club
The Sixth Sense

Some other ideas? Anyone? Bueller?