Feb. 23

Today is my baby's birthday. Yes, Casey is 15.



We cheated and had his cake and presents yesterday though. My mom and stepdad were able to stop over and have some cake and ice cream. He opened the couple presents and cards, and that was about it. Not big on parties around here. He got a new mp3 player that also plays videos. It's what he'd asked for, so he was pretty happy.

I just can't believe he's 15! Heck, I think he'll be able to take Drivers Ed. this summer?! Oohhhhh...

So, I watched the Academy Awards last night. I'd kinda wanted to see if Twilight was really going to be represented (had read an article) and I'd wanted to see if the rumored first look at Public Enemies would be true. I ended up watching the whole thing. Even watched about an hour of the red carpet stuff. It was just good, dumb fun...and sometimes you just have to do that, just forget about the millions of other things bogging down your mind.

And like everyone else doing their own awards show recap, I have a few points to mention too...

**I was glad Heath Ledger won (Best Supporting Actor, for Dark Knight). I cried, as did everyone else the way it looked. Rather emotional to see how many celebs there were tearing up...a shot of actor Adrien Brody comes to mind. I think even Sean Penn and Brad Pitt were misty eyed. It was touching to hear his family accept. But I can't help but wonder if he would have won if he hadn't died, ya know?



**Kate Winslet's dad whistling was classic. There must be a clip online somewhere, but I haven't looked around enough yet. She won Best Actress, for The Reader. I knew she'd been nominated many times before but I didn't realize at the time that this was her first win. I loved her reaction, thought it was pure, natural, from the heart. I was reading this morning that she's been criticized for her emotions at other award ceremonies. What the heck? People would rather have some forced poise, industry drone acceptance? Bleah.


**Brangelina. Love 'em or hate 'em (and I don't mind them), their arrival on the red carpet was like royalty. I was watching the live coverage on E! (I think?) and there was an actual *GASP* and spin of the camera when they arrived. Too funny! I've never been much of a Brad Pitt fan but damn, as the man gets older he's definately getting hotter. And how Hollywood tacky-scandalous was it to flash to Angelina while Jennifer Aniston was onstage presenting? (Jennifer looked like she'd rather have been anywhere but there, which didn't help, but I can't believe it had anything to do with Brangelina sitting right in front of her. I mean, in their world I would think it's not nearly as big of a thing as in our gossip hungry idol worship world, ya know?)




**Mickey Rourke, on the red carpet, talking about the passing of his dog was quite touching. Big tough crazy guy saying how he'd take two more years with his little dog over an Oscar ...too sweet.

**Rob Pattinson was rather dull and looked rather uncomfortable during his few moments onstage. He and some other girl introduced a montage of clips showing romance in movies. There were some shots from Twilight...wOOt!...but it was an otherwise forgettable appearance. It was much more fun watching him sitting behind Micky Rourke during the nominee speeches for the Best Actor category. He looked very Edward-like there. hehe


**Public Enemies! At the end of the awards, during the credits, they had a presentation of upcoming movies. We got our first look (although only about ten seconds) at Public Enemies, the Johnny Depp movie that filmed around here. I was cheering like a dork. I have to go see this movie just because I was there, at two filming locations, and met Johnny Depp. LOL...I have to see what the end result looks like.

Feb. 21 - later

Three Netflix movies arrived in the mail today. Since we had no other plans, we spent the afternoon/evening watching movies.

Disaster Movie (2008) Trapped in a city as temblors, tornados and asteroids ravage the land, friends get swept up in a series of wacky adventures as they look for a way to stop the onslaught of natural disasters. Poking fun at pop-culture sensations such as "Sex and the City," There Will Be Blood, Dr. Phil and singer Amy Winehouse, this entertaining spoof also stars Matt Lanter.

Another one of those total goofball parody movies, it had a few good laughs but I've seen better.

Body of Lies (2008) Newly stationed in Jordan, idealistic CIA agent Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) teams up with veteran operative Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) and the head of Jordanian intelligence (Mark Strong) to infiltrate an underground network of terrorists and locate a criminal mastermind. Based on the best-selling novel by David Ignatius and directed by Ridley Scott, this suspenseful spy thriller features top-rate performances and explosive action sequences.

I had zero interest in this one, ordered it for hubby and the boys. Having nothing better to do today, I decided to give it a chance but gave about about two minutes into it. Like I said, zero interest in this kind of stuff. So I really can't say anything about it...hehe.

The Last Legion (2007) In the wake of Rome's fall, 12-year-old Emperor Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster) is imprisoned on the island of Capri with only his clever teacher Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley) for company. But with the help of a heroic legionnaire, Aurelius (Colin Firth), Romulus and his small party journey all the way to Britannia, where their search for the fabled Last Legion -- the Dragon Legion -- will launch the Arthurian legend.

I thought this movie sucked. Hubby didn't seem too impressed either. I didn't have high hopes or anything...had picked it cuz it came up on the Netflix recommendation page and it sounded interesting...but yeah, it was dorky. We knew it would be as soon as we figured out the mysterious master warrior was a woman. *rolls eyes* To be fair, the little boy was pretty good. Everyone else was a bit over the top.

Watching that one made me really want to watch Lord of the Rings. It was like I had to see a GOOD medieval...fighting...honor...movie just to redeem the idea. Heh. So we popped in the Fellowship of the Ring and watched that. It's been a few years at least since I've last watched it. I've caught bits of it here and there along the way but to sit down and just watch it, yes it's been years. And I still love it as much as always. Little things I'd forgotten but it was all coming back to me as we watched.

Bawled during Boromir's fight to protect the hobbits...


And sobbed like always at the end when Sam nearly drowns and says "I made a promise, Mr. Frodo! A promise!"


*lunges for handfuls of kleenex*

Feb. 21

Yes, I'm still around. :)

Apparently Party Of Five didn't have enough pull for me afterall. I watched the first disc (five episodes), and never continued even though I had the second disc sitting here. Weird because I had wanted to see this for sooooo long, and had wanted to like it so much. And yes, I do like My So-Called Life better. Party Of Five is kinda, I don't know, too 'pretty people.' A bit too fake. Like, they're supposed to be this group of siblings struggling to get by but they always have the time, the money, the means to do anything at anytime. There are just too many other things I want to watch to keep struggling my way thru this series. I'm kinda bummed.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Season 1 (3-Disc Series) (2008) Amy Juergens (Shailene Woodley) doesn't seem like the kind of girl who'd be facing an unplanned pregnancy. But at 15, that's exactly what she is -- and her all-consuming secret is going to be kind of hard to hide from her parents (Molly Ringwald and Mark Derwin). The baby's father, Ricky (Daren Kagasoff), has problems of his own: namely that he can't decide between Amy, his current girlfriend (Francia Raisa) and a virginal cheerleader (Megan Park).

This is the show I'm into now. I had never heard of it but one several weeks ago noticed the dvd in the 'New Releases' section while shopping. 'Teen pregnancy? Whoa, how did I not hear about this one?!' I had wondered and almost bought it on the spot. I talked myself out of it, deciding to Netflix it instead. I got the first disc while I still had Party Of Five here. That's probably what helped me decide to give up on PoF...hehe.

I love this show so far. It's not quite what I thought it would be, but I quickly got over that and enjoyed it anyway. I thought it would be a serious drama series. It's not...there is way more humor where the other characters are involved, but the pregnancy storyline stays pretty serious. Some of the acting is crappy, typical weekly series cliche delivery at times, but even with that some of the characters are hysterical. The way Ben and the guidance counselor get along is so funny. And the uber religious girl started out so hilarious that I instantly loved her. Can't stand ChurchGirl's boyfriend though, or the badboy manwhore in school. While I kinda like the skanky girl, I want to smack her for always lowering herself to skanky levels to keep manwhoreboy hanging around.

Molly Ringwald is the mother of the pregnant girl. It's funny to see her these days. Hubby used to be totally in love with her back in the day. When he saw her in this he sighed, "Aahhhh, still as good as always." LOL Josie Bissett plays the church girl's mom. I liked her back in her Melrose Place days and I still like her in this. John Schneider plays the church girl's father. Kinda funny to see him because I only ever think of him as Bo Duke/Dukes of Hazzard.

So anyway, watched the first disc immediately but it was only four episodes. And now I'm anxiously awaiting the rest of the series from Netflix. I know the show is still on...second season?...but I don't want to start watching those current episodes until I get caught up.

Changeling (2008) Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie, in an Oscar-nominated role) is overjoyed when her young kidnapped son Walter is brought back home. But when Christine suspects that the Walter who was returned to her isn't her actual child, the police captain (Jeffrey Donovan) has her committed to an asylum. John Malkovich co-stars as the crusading reverend who comes to Christine's rescue in this gripping, 1920s-set drama helmed by ace director Clint Eastwood.

Also got this from Netflix, watched it the other day. Very good movie! Very shocking, very sad. So sad that she never got over it, never stopped looking for him, never able to move on. The point where it looked like she might have finally been moving forward...that part with the Academy Awards and her boss inviting her to dinner...she got that phone call, and her hope was renewed. While it could be seen as wonderful to have something new like that to find hope in, it really was sad that it knocked her right back into that place.

It's also crazy to me that they had so little in the way of forensics and investigation techniques back then. I mean, we're so used to CSI...being able to find evidence in anything...'simple' DNA tests... When did they start doing even blood testing? A quick Google search didn't turn up much in the area I was looking for but in the 1920s it looks like blood typing/testing was still fairly new and not a reliable way to determine relationships. Just absolutely crazy that things were so primitive...boggles the mind. Really makes you wonder how many innocent people might have been sentenced, how many solvable (?) crimes just slipped by.

*shakes head*

Well, I thought I had tons more to write about but my mind is already drifting to various other things I could be/should be doing. Maybe I'll write more later...

Feb. 12

Party of Five: Season 1 (5-Disc Series) (1994) When their parents are killed in a car accident, the Salinger clan -- Charlie (Matthew Fox), Bailey (Scott Wolf), Julia (Neve Campbell), Claudia (Lacey Chabert) and infant Owen -- must somehow make due, with eldest Charlie stepping in to lead the way. As they learn to cope without their mother and father, they deal with everyday problems of growing up and their parents' restaurant. This emotionally charged series lasted six seasons.

Started watching this today. I've been wanting to see this more than My So-Called Life. It's another of those shows that I'd wanted to be addicted to back in its day but never did watch it. Why is that?? It's also one I've wanted to buy for the last few years but again, never have.

So anyway, Netflixed it, and started watching today. Oddly enough, for being rather disappointed with My So-Called Life, I think I like *that* one more! I'm only four episodes into it and I'm getting more used to it, but it's taken a really long time for me to not see LostJack in Charlie...lol And I guess I haven't seen Neve Campbell in enough to realize she's really quite annoying. She has like one set of moves, traits, quirks, whatever, that she just keeps using over and over. I'll work my way thru the first season but really don't know at this point if I'll continue after that. We'll see the next several episodes go.

Started reading my Luxe book yesterday at work. I love it just for the fun of it, for the total departure from what I've been reading. I actually wanted to come home last night and just read...but then realized it was Lost night. And then I thought about reading today while it was quiet in the house but the DVDs were calling to me. Maybe I'll read this evening while hubby watches crapTV and the boys hog the computers.

My Cootie Death Flu Cold seems to have run its course. I was pretty much over it by early Tuesday afternoon, just some residual snot buildups that need taking care of. *chuckles* While it really did suck those two worst days, thankfully it came and went pretty fast.

Hmm. I'm drawing a blank now. The boys are home from school so the noise and distraction has begun...

Feb. 10 - morning quickie

Just had to say...we're starting our day (6:30am) at 47 degrees already, with eventual highs near 60! How awesome is that? We've been on a warming trend for the last several days but this is a huge jump, and will be a record setter.

And I'll be spending all of the daylight hours in my dungeon of a workplace.

*sigh*

Feb. 9

I am sick.

Yes, the cold that has been making its slow way thru our house has gotten to me. And...omg...it is really doing a job on me! Hopefully it's hitting fast and hard and moving on its merry way. Remember, I had that dizzy sicky morning last week? It seemed to go away (this was Tuesday) but Friday morning I suspected it hadn't gone afterall. I could feel a slight burning, itching in my throat and later in my ears and my stomach was very...sour. Later in the day I wondered if it wasn't a sore throat caused by a cold but a sore throat caused by heartburn. My stomach was just so bad! Saturday things seemed much better all around, but then...

I didn't sleep worth a poo Saturday night and got up early Sunday morning, and it was hellish from then on. I always wonder how there can be so much snot in one person's head?! Seriously, it's been endless blowing and sniffling and cold meds. I have to keep putting lotion on my nose cuz it's raw. BLEAH!!

Slept amazingly well last night but right away this morning the mucus factory opened up again. It seems somewhat better than yesterday but today I have the added bonus of the uncontrolable about-to-sneeze-cringe-and-twitchy-watery eye thing happening. Gotta love it! Cold meds aren't doing much so I just went for the Advil to at least kill the pain. One good thing about the gooby eye thing is that (for me at least) it means the cooties are on their way out.

So I dragged my crusty, raw, snot-filled face to town today cuz I was determined to finally spend my Christmas/birthday money. I went to Best Buy first to see if they had something I wanted to get hubby for Valentine's Day. They didn't, and I was sniffling so much I didn't hang around to browse for myself. Went over to the mall next, Waldenbooks being my top priority but Hot Topic was on my list too (to check out the Twilight stuff). The bookstore didn't have the ones on my list so I decided to browse, until the sniffling got to be too much again. I skipped Hot Topic, and headed over to Walmart to get a few necessities instead. Even that was horrible because of the cooties raging thru me. I grabbed only a few things and headed for home.

I get so mad at myself because I don't buy things. True true, it's usually better to be careful with money...especially now...but this was gift money and to me gift money is fun money. And I should be able to spend however wastefully I want. But I can't bring myself to do it. I'll know what I want, but once I actually get it in hand I talk myself out of it. Lately my passions seem to be books and movies. I found MANY that I wanted but I put them all back bacause 'What if I don't like it?' and 'Why, when I'll read/watch once and maybe never touch it again.'

GAH!

I tell myself I'll go to the library. That way I'm not spending money and I'm not adding clutter. But I never go to the library. Just do it, get into the habit, I know. But part of it is that I don't like having to read within a time limit. (I could never join a book club. LOL) For a while I'd told myself to go ahead and buy books...they're not wasteful. I'd love to build a library, have hubby make some floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves. I tried to remind myself that in the stores today. Maybe it was the Cootie Death Flu distracting me though.

In the end, I *did* buy myself some things. Even before we had our house redone, hubby and I had been wanting one of those home/landscape design computer programs. I finally bought one today...


At this point I think we both want it mainly for the landscaping part. We can also play around with designs for redoing our kitchen. But *I* am also excited about it because I think I can use it to create houses for when I someday getting around to writing again. I like to plan everything out and thought it would be fun to make characters' houses with this. Hehe!! Oh, and I'm thinking about trying to recreate my childhood homes with it too. Not sure just how the program works yet though, so not sure if that can even be done. I mean, can I design from scratch, or what? We'll find out.

I also bought two books:

(Wow, sorry...can't make these images smaller!)

I've read Go Ask Alice before but it's been many many years. The Luxe is new to me though. It just looked...I don't know...fun, different. It's about high society teens in 1899 or something. I think there are three books in the series.

When I got home I went online to find the thing Best Buy didn't have for hubby. Found it, ordered it, don't know if it will be here in time for Valentine's Day though. But from that search I ended up looking for things on my book list that I hadn't been able to find either. Ended up at eBay, and got two that I needed. Ended up at back at Amazon when I found ads for two books in the back of my newly purchased Go Ask Alice...LOL So I guess I did get my gift money spent afterall!

Now I need to get busy reading!

I finished watching My So-Called Life this weekend. I had three discs to go thru, kinda spaced them out so I wasn't forcing myself. Still glad that I didn't buy this series. It was good, but I was surprised by how annoying alot of things were. I already expressed my dislike for the mother. I was surprised by how much Angela herself started to annoy me. Even the whole Angela-Jordan thing got old and boring, and aggrevating after a while. I would find myself so mad at Angela at times for reducing herself to that. Loved the Christmas episode though, and wished I hadn't already known that girl was an angel. Hated the girl the father was working with! As much as I dislike the mother, I didn't want him to cheat with that friggen annoying cooking class bitch!

Overall, glad I've finally seen the whole series. Next up will be Party of Five.

Car results...
Last I reported, my car was still not done. Well, I finally got it back late Wednesday afternoon. He did change both front wheel bearing thingies, but we decided to skip the other minor things I'd wanted him to check. The cost was $399 but my car is back to being quiet and normal again. *knock wood*

Now that Ty's car is working and registered and insured and he has no reason not to drive if he wants to, he took it to Walmart on Saturday morning and got his very first oil change. He even wandered around the store and bought himself a new videogame. He was thrilled that he bought an 'M' rated game without being carded. He says he'll probably drive himself to his chiro appointments now too.

It's all very weird for me.
*sniffle*

Feb. 4

Well, my car was not done yesterday cuz, well, yeah... "It's Always Something." CarDude finally called a bit after 4pm. He explained that the bearing unit...hub...things...are sealed these days so he can't actually *see* which side is bad. Sound while driving can be deceiving cuz you're inside. (Sounds like left side to me, but what do I know?) He suggested that I could drive it a while longer and see if the noise gets louder, to where we can tell which side is bad. He suggested maybe both are going bad. I said it was already too loud for me and I didn't want to keep driving it that way. He said he won't know which one to replace then, and would probably have to do both just to be sure.

Now, the skeptic in me automatically thought 'Aha, yeah, so you get more money out of this,' but I've never had a problem with this guy before and he has a good local business. So I told him I'd need to talk to my hubby and I'd get back to him. I texted hubby (he was working) and asked if we should gamble on doing the left side and if that didn't fix it, go ahead and do the right? He said to just go ahead and do both. Called CarDude back and said to do both. He said he'd try to get parts this morning, and I'm hoping mine is first on the work order today. Well, I guess it doesn't matter since I have no way of picking it up until Ty gets home from school. Oh well.

I'd been planning and wanting and needing to go shopping and stop at the bank today. The shopping won't happen, but I swallowed my pride and used Ty's noisy beater of a car to at least get to Buttmunch Bank so I could get some bills paid today. Gah! Beater cars are sooooo nasty! He thinks it's cool though cuz it's *his.*

And now I have the rest of the day to myself. I feel much better than yesterday but still a teeny bit woozy...not enough to slow me down though. Thought about continuing with My So-Called Life but decided to wait till this weekend and just plow thru the whole remainder at once. Hubby and the boys will no doubt be playing Warcraft anyway.

So now I'm bored and tired. Even if I did go watch TV, I'd no doubt fall asleep on the couch. I wish CarDude would call...

Feb. 3

All kinds of drama around this house the last few days. *rolls eyes* Remember that dental appointment? Well Ty needed another appointment to have that cavity filled. Hubby had not told me when it was and I didn't think much of it because I assumed he would reschedule his own for the same day Ty had to go back. (Hubby cancelled his cuz he was sick, remember.) Found out Saturday night, as I'm going to bed, that *I* am expected to take him since it's my day off. That would be fine except my car is going to be in the shop that day. Duh, menfolk!?

Oh, forgot to mention the appointment was for 8am, Tuesday (today).

Hubby and I had a nice little argument about it all. He *assumed* I'd make the connection that I needed to take him since I was off that day. I *assumed* he was rescheduling his own appointment and therefore taking him himself. He did the whole drama queen sighing with 'Fine, I'll take MORE time off work....' and I said no, I'd just call and reschedule it for another day that I'm off and make it for after school so no one has to miss anything. But nooooooo, he insists he'll just do it. Yeah, so he can hold it against me.

We do have Ty's car sitting here, and hubby told me to just drive that one. Heh, no. We don't even know exactly how that car runs. They only test drove it a bit when they bought it from the guy down the road and it's sat since then because first it didn't have license plates, and then it was well into winter and the car didn't have heat/defrost. Last weekend was warm enough that hubby was able to work on it and get the heat working, but it's still been sitting and barely driven. Call me a baby but I will not drive beater cars that I know nothing about.

So anyway, hubby did indeed take Ty to the appointment today...but wouldn't you know, Ty has the cold that hubby finally got rid of. He said he felt fine, but I doped him up on cough medicine and nasal spray for the appointment. Hehe.

And my car was dropped off at LocalDude's shop last night. I haven't heard from him yet. Not sure if that's good or bad, heh. I thought he'd call and let me know what he found before doing the work. Maybe he just went ahead and did it. I'd asked him to check two other things besides the original problem. Hope it doesn't add millions to my bill.

On top of everything else, I woke up sick this morning. I slept like crap last night, and felt the dizziness before I even got out of bed but decided 'Up and at 'em' and it would go away. It didn't. Dizzy, sweating, shaking...even thru my shower...but no fever. Mild nausea. Took some Advil and went back to the bed after the menfolk left. Fattycat crawled under the blankets with me and we had a two and half hour nap. Woke up feeling a thousand times better but still not quite normal. Took more Advil and am at least able to go about my day.

I'd planned on watching more of My So-Called Life but I noticed my tax papers still sitting here and probably should work on that. Also doing laundry and need to do dishes and clean up the kitchen. Tomorrow will be grocery shopping since I don't have a car today. I guess watching my show will have to wait.

I upgraded our Netflix to 3-at-a-time. We used to only check out two at a time. I figured I could get thru my shows faster if we went to three, and I found that it's cheaper per disc to do that way anyway. Woot!

I've still been poking my way thru New Moon (second in Twilight series) during my breaks at work. At times I think I should just put the series away. Other times it's still drawing me as strong as ever. (Today is an extremely strong pull day, lol) But I'm finding all these things that bother me in New Moon. It was never my favorite in the series but the things I'm seeing now are not the reasons I didn't like it the first time. Example, in Twilight when James was hunting Bella, Victoria was able to just move about Forks and gather info. So why now, in New Moon, is she sending Laurent to get the lay of the land, and having so much trouble "trying to get past" the reservation/wolves?? It seems ridiculous to me. I'm actually really anxious for the movie version because I'm thinking I will like it way more than the book. Not sure why I feel that way, but I think it's because it will move at a faster pace and cut out some of the 'whatever!' parts of the book's narrative.

I got a package in the mail yesterday! Kari, in Canada, who I know from a messageboard I've hung out at for years, noticed my shotglass collection in one of the pics I'd posted. And she sent me one to add to it! But that's not all... Since Vancouver is hosting the 2010 Olympics, and she's near there, she bought me an official Vancouver/Olympic pin. It's awesome! She also sent a bunch of different coffees and teas and coco mixes (from her work, I think?).



Thank you so much, Kari!! :)

PS - I've added a new song to my playlist... Got You Where I Want You, by The Flys. It's one of my absolute favorite songs of all-time. Hmm, I really do need to write up my song thingie that I mentioned in a post many moons ago...