Freakin' Target!

Target is evil! I should never go in there when I don't have a time constraint because it seems like every time that I do, I go in planning to spend $20 and end up buying $200 worth of things I "need", but didn't know that I needed until I saw them! Ugh!

On the other hand... Annabelle and Kelson have lots more cute clothes. Oh... and Corgan got a pair of shoes. They were all on sale though, so really I saved money (Right; Fancy?).

I Just Don't Get It When...

someone has an "In Memory of..." sign on their car's rear window. I understand that someone you loved passed away and you'd like to keep his/her memory alive, but is putting their death information on your car window really the best way to do that? Personally, that's not the way that I want to be memorialized. Unless the dearly departed is someone who is known for something car-related (like the dear Dale Earnhardt, bless his soul), this just doesn't make sense to me.

And while I'm at it... I don't get the whole ribbon thing. Wait... I DO get the ribbon thing for the yellow ribbon or the pink ribbon (unless they're sideways flapping in the wind), but I've seen some ridiculous spin-offs of it. I saw one the other day that was a ribbon with "Soccer Mom" written on it! What? Remember the soccer mom and her struggles? Bring the soccer mom back home? When I saw the ribbon, I was alone yet I actually said "What?!" out loud.

Can anyone out there explain either of the above? Maybe I'm missing something. :S

Development for Arrested Development?

I was watching my main source of news this morning, The Today Show, and one of my now favorite actors, Jason Bateman, was on. In the midst of rambling on about the new Will Smith movie, he mentioned that an Arrested Development movie is seriously being discussed! Of course, I excitedly jumped on Google and found more fodder for excitement, including this...

AD is even already listed on IMDB for a 2009 movie. If you haven't seen this show that is "television's smartest sitcom ever", you can either borrow the dvds from me or watch it for free on hulu. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out!

Although TV-to-movie movies generally aren't worth watching, Sex and the City has given me hope. Plus, it's Arrested Development... it's gotta be good!

Pet Peeve

I LOVE HGTV and most decorating-related shows, but I HATE when people say they like "entertaining" or need a space for "entertaining". Are they dancing on a table for their guests? Are they showing a movie that they made themselves? No? Then they aren't really "entertaining" them! Say you like to have people over for dinner. Say you like you have guests over for the weekend. Say you enjoy hosting game night. Say you'd like to have pool parties. But don't say you like "entertaining" unless you're really doing a song and dance or some other type of entertaining activity for your guests. "Entertaining" is so generic and one of those buzz words that annoys the crap out of me. I hated buzz words in the software industry too, so I guess my pet peeve isn't really just the use of the word "entertaining", but the use of a buzz word in attempt to sound like you are in-the-know when you're just being generic and following the crowd.

Reality Show Confessional

I'm going to blame it on the writer's strike (even though I watched all of these before the strike began), but I am absolutely hooked on some horrible reality shows lately. Some of the best of the worst are Kimora Lee's Life in the Fab Lane (she's the most likable bi-otch ever), Snoop Dogg's Father Hood (which is sooo obviously totally staged, but I like it for some reason), and The Real Housewives of Orange County (which I got hooked on during season 1 when I was up in the middle of the night with a newborn Annabelle, but this has been my favorite season). I think the reason that I love these shows so much is that they are all SO different from my life or any life that I will ever have. I'd never want to have their lives, but I find them interesting... even if they are semi-scripted. RHoOC is about to wrap up this season, but I just saw today that they are going to be starting a NYC version in March and I am ridiculously excited about it! :)

My name is Keri, and I like bad reality television.

My Christmas Resolution

Today I decided something... this year for my Christmas gifts I'm going to try to either make something or buy something from a local merchant for everyone on my Christmas list (disclaimer: I've already purchased some things from chain/department stores, and will probably buy most kids' gifts from chain/department stores too because downtown doesn't offer much in the childrens' department). I decided this while I was out shopping in Downtown Melbourne, a place that I haven't had a chance to really shop for quite a long time now. I used to go there on a regular basis to visit the jewelry store (where we got my engagement ring and our wedding rings), the baby store (where I bought Annabelle's "coming home" dress), the antique stores (including the two where I had my antique wares when I was an antiques dealer), a few of my favorite restaurants (including the one where we had our rehearsal dinner), and so on. Since I've had Annabelle, I haven't gone downtown much at all because most of the little shops downtown aren't quite baby or stroller-friendly and many of the restaurants don't even have highchairs. Apparently there have been some major rennovations done in Downtown Melbourne and lots of neat little stores have moved in. We went downtown today using the art show as an excuse, but it ended up raining most of the time so I kept ducking into little stores and finding new shops that I hadn't seen before.

One of the stores that I ducked into was a place that is the epitomy of the perfect downtown shop, Yapa. This store is something that we've been needing in this area for a LONG time, and I hope that it attracts many of the same types of stores. It's an awesome store filled with unique furniture, rustic decor, retro-modern themed tchotckies, some "green" items (including these awesome outdoor rugs made of recycled pop bottles), and lots of other cool things. I've been to many stores like this in places like L.A., NYC, and Nashville, but never in Melbourne. The store just opened this weekend, and it sounds like she did pretty well. I thought it was cool that the coolest shop in Downtown Melbourne is in the exact same spot that my antique booth was. Apparently the owners of the antique store that I rented space from let go of their lease on the half of their store that I was in, and this lady got it. I met the owner and mentioned that I had my antiques "right over there", and she told me that she had antiques in their store too, but had to quit doing it when she didn't have time to keep up with it after her kids were born. That was my story too! Pretty crazy! Anyway, her kids are old enough now that she's able to open her own store, and I highly encourage anyone interested in unique items or furniture that "doesn't match your sofa" (that's part of her slogan), head on to downtown Melbourne and check out "Yapa" (just west of Seldom Scene and Molly Mutt thrift store on the north side of the street).

Movie Date with Chelsi

Chelsi and I both have a common goal on our 43 things lists... "watch all movies on AFI's 100 Best movies list". Today we had the first (of what I hope to be regular occurance) movie date to watch one of the "movies to watch" on both of our lists, The Grapes of Wrath.

The movie was definitely an interesting one. I have never read the book, so I didn't know what the movie would be about. The story follows the life of an "Oakie" family as they are forced to pick up their lives and move to California during the Great Depression because their farm goes under and they go in search of the promise of work. While this movie wasn't very fast paced at all, it was still interesting enough to hold my attention and open my eyes to life in a different time. Again, after researching the movie, I like it better than I did while I was watching it. This is another one that I wish I'd read about before watching it. I think from now on before watching any future movies on the list, I'm going to research the movie if it was made before I was born.

On a TOTALLY unrelated note, I took Annabelle swimming in the pool this evening. This girl has NO FEAR of the water! She's jumping in every chance she gets now. She has even started jumping in, turning around under water, and pulling herself back up on the side! She LOVES the water. :)

Raising the Barn

After 9 LONG months of waiting, we FINALLY signed the contract to get construction started on the addition/renovation to The Donald Barn!

We had been talking about adding on to the house for a while. It's a good size now, but it just wasn't perfect for our family yet. The living room is my "office" with papers and craft projects usually sprawled all over the dining room, Keith wants a soundproof room to play his electric guitar, we only have 2 bedrooms upstairs, our master bathroom is also our main guest bathroom, our master closet is a bit small, and some other things. As soon as we found out that we were expecting a second child, we had a fire lit under us to get started on the addition.

Within about 2 weeks of finding out about being pregnant, we contacted a contractor and I started frantically drawing up ideas to present to the contractor. We worked with the first contractor for about a month before deciding that he wasn't the right person for our job. We then started working with an architect who came highly recommended to us by THE metal structural engineer in the area to come up with the exact plans that we wanted. The plans stage took ALOT longer than I expected, but about 5 months later we finally had something that we were happy enough with to start getting bids on it. We worked with a second contractor who was new to general contracting. We hoped that his enthusiasm for the job would make up for his lack of experience, but when we didn't have even an inital estimate from him 3 months later, we decided to get a bid from a 3rd contractor while we waited to hear back from contractor #2. Before contractor 2 even responded to us, we had a bid back from contractor 3 within 2 weeks! After doing some research about contractor 3, we decided that he was the right person for our project! Contractor 3 is young and energetic, LOVES our house and the idea of working on it, and he's very excited to have our project for his portfolio and potential marketing in magazines.

So... this afternoon, we FINALLY signed a contract and wrote our first huge check! The contract states that permits will be done within 90 days and construction will be completed within 6 months of receiving the permits! That means that in no more than 9 months we'll have our addition completed!!! The contractor even said that it's realistic that it won't take nearly that long and he expects to be done by late February! After such slow progress on the plans and working with contractor 2, it's refreshing to work with someone who is on top of things and wants to get them done quickly and right!

What is involved in this "addition"? LOTS! We're basically adding on a detached 2 car garage (which will look like a miniature version of the barn); filling in the current workshop with Annabelle's bedroom, Corgan's bedroom, a soundproof media/entertainment room, and a hallway; enlarging the current workshop bathroom by taking space from the current guest bathroom and making that the kids' bathroom; keeping a little of the workshop space in the main house structure (for cat litter, garbage cans, the water treatment equipment, etc.); adding a hallway; adding a master suite on the back of the house; and adding 80 ft of porch space (some screened in, some not). If you look at the attached plans, you can see where the front door is (at the bottom left of the page, between the laundry room and the silo stairs) and from there get a feel for where everything is.

Both Annabelle (Bedroom 3) and Corgan (Bedroom 2) will have lofts in their bedrooms (the shaded areas). Annabelle's loft will consist of a landing area and a catwalk to the main loft space. Corgan will have only the main loft space on the left (the shaded part on the right in Bedroom 2 is a drop-down ceiling). The closets of the two kids' rooms will have a secret passage way between them (not so secret anymore though).

Annabelle's Room:

Corgan's Room:

The media room will not actually have a stairwell coming down into it. We took out the stairs to save money (I still need to get the latest prints). It will have french doors to the outside though. The porch will come off of the media room too and wrap all of the way around to the back of the house.

The master suite will have a garden tub in the bedroom, a huge shower, and a big walk-in closet (much bigger than we currently have anyway). The bedroom also has french doors to the screened in part of the porch outside.

The contractor is planning to get a temporary land development permit and they are scheduled to break ground early next week at the latest! I can't wait to get this started, and I'm even more excited about getting it done! Yea!!!

These Dreams Go On When I Close My Eyes

Last night I had a recurring dream that I've been having for the last couple of years. In this dream, I always realize that there is a room or part of the house that I had forgotten existed and all of the sudden I have new rooms or areas in my house. Sometimes the house is supposed to be our current house (in my dream, I know that it is my house, even though it looks nothing like the barn... in fact, I've never actually seen a place that really exists in any of my dreams) and sometimes it's the house we rented in college (but never the apartment or condo that I lived in when I first moved here). Sometimes these new rooms/areas are decked out with a flat panel TV, a jaccuzzi, or some other luxury items, and other times it's just an empty room or a fixer-upper. Sometimes it's just a bedroom, sometimes a bathroom, and sometimes even a whole loft-apartment on a floor that I've forgotten about. The obvious interpretation of this dream would be something like I feel like I need more room in my house, which would make sense right now with the addition of Corgan's "two feet", but I'm sure it's something deeper than that. Regardless, I have often tried to figure out if maybe my subconcious knows about a "room" in my house that isn't being used and I could be using better. The funny thing is that we have the silo room that has been neglected since we moved in, so sometimes I think that the dream is about that room. Other times I wonder if there isn't somewhere in the house that could be Corgan's temporary nursery until the addition is done and my subconsious is trying to tell me about it. Another funny part of the dream is that when I discover these unused rooms or areas, one of my first reactions is always excitement about having a new space to decorate.

This morning I decided to do a little research on recurring dreams, since I've always had them (as I'm sure many people have). When I was a teenager, I used to have recurring dreams about babysitting and loosing the child or the child being kidnapped and I had to find him/her. I had similar dreams about summer camp where I was a camp counselor and a kid ended up missing. Since I can remember I've had dreams about not quite flying, but rather taking HUGE slow leaps VERY high up in the air (like over trees and buildings and stuff). Sometimes in my dreams I'm unable to run and when I try to run I end up moving in slow motion (I was a runner in high school... don't know if that has anything to do with the dream, but it makes sense). Also, sometimes I dream an entire dream in audio only... there are no visuals. I remember first having a dream like this as a child (maybe 8 or so), and although it doesn't happen often anymore, I still have these dreams that occur in total darkness occasionally.

Now, I don't know how reliable this lifetreks dream interpretation service is, but in reading their "general themes" list and the interpretation of the items on that list that I've dreamt about, it totally makes sense. I had the "flying" (actually, leaping and floating for me though) dreams quite often in college. Their interpretation of the flying is that you are experiencing freedom and mastery. Being at college away from home and on my own explains the freedom part, and I was a pretty darn good student (I had the highest GPA in my CS class, and I was actually voted "Outstanding Junior" and "Outstanding Senior" in the Computer Science department by the faculty at UA) so that explains the mastery part. Since graduating from college, I've had dreams about missing a test, being enrolled in a course but forgetting to attend until it's time for the final, forgetting that I had homework or some other project that I was supposed to turn in, finding out that there was a class that I had forgotten to take and that I didn't really graduate, or some other variation of the above. I had these dreams toward the end of my "career" at Harris more often than I did in the beginning. Looking at lifetreks' explanation of the school-related dreams makes sense for the time in my life that I had those dreams too. When I first started working at Harris I was full of energy and excitement about working in the software engineering field. Although I was new and wasn't given a ton of responsibility in the beginning, I tried my hardest to be successful and to learn everything that I could. I wanted to shine like I did in college. However, as time went on, and Harris and working in Network Management (a domain that I'm not at all interested in) wore on me, I lost that desire to shine and eventually resorted to being happy with just knowing enough to keep earning my paycheck. I didn't have the desire to learn new technologies and therefore felt more and more out of place and like I was "faking it" in my field. The explaination for the school-related dreams makes sense for this situation too. I have continued to have these school-related dreams even now, which still make sense as I take on new responsibilities as a mom and wife and am always wondering if I'm really doing as good of a job as it seems like I am or if I'm just "faking it" here too. I guess we'll always second-guess our accomplishments though; huh? It's just human nature.

So, now that you know what my "dreams" are, what are yours? :)

3-1 after 4

Well, after four weeks my fantasy football team the "Bama Humbuckers" is 3-1 and has moved (for now anyway) in as one of the elite teams in my league. This comes after starting 0-1, drafting two of the biggest busts so far this year: Larry Johnson (my first pick) and Drew Brees (my third pick), and sustaining a serious injury to my star player (Andre Johnson, my 4th pick). So is this stellar record luck or great coaching? I am not sure yet. I will say I have made some moves that have been interesting. First off, I've been camping out on the waiver wire week-to-week for favorable match-ups and up-and-comers. This has paid off, as my pickups Nick Folk, Dewayne Bowe, Marcedes Lewis, along with Jeff Garcia and the Bucs D have paid off. I also have secured insurance to mitigate the risk of my stars getting injured: I own the entire Redskins, Panthers, and Chiefs backfield. And I simply own a lot of running backs to begin with, which usually pays off, as backs tend to be more consistent than receivers, and the flex league I play in lets me play up to 4 of them. Who knows what the next few weeks entails, or what moves I will make next. One thing for sure, it is a lot of fun playing fantasy football again after being out of action since 2002.

My team week 4 (won 103-74)

QB: Jeff Garcia
RB: Larry Johnson
RB: DeShaun Foster
WR: DeWayne Bowe
WR: Vincent Jackson
TE: Owen Daniels
K: Nick Folk
DST: Bucs

Reserves (many of these are starters--my bench stepped up this week due to their BYEs)

QB: Drew Brees (BYE)
RB: Clinton Portis (BYE)
RB: Ladell Betts (BYE)
RB: DeAngelo Williams
RB: Chester Taylor
RB: Michael Bennett
TE: Marcedes Lewis (BYE)
DST: Jags (BYE)
WR: Andre Johnson (Injured)

What is a Humbucker?

Fall TV Season in Full Swing...

Well it appears the fall TV season is in full swing already. Not that I have watched anything of substance yet, just it was obvious Monday night when I wanted to flip on MNF and I got the infamous "The recorder is currently recording, if you change the channel you will stop recording" message. Yikes, you see this is a sensitive thing in the Donald household, as I always seem to screw up in process recordings (witness my recent Design Star season finale faux paus - whoops!). So recently I've learned to click "live TV" to flip between the two tuners to see what shows are recording, then kindly ask Keri if it's OK to stop one of them to change the channel (never assume fellas!). Anyway, with fall TV kicking in, it's not exactly OK: yes, we absolutely *must* have the new Chuck and the new Family Guy (which was pretty damn funny, nice call Keri). So anyway, the short of it was I was booted to the bedroom to watch MNF. So I'm there watching MNF with Corgan sleeping on my shoulder and then all of a sudden the bedroom TV is barking at me "The recorder is going to change the channel to start recording". Are you freakin kidding me? And of course I have the TV remote in hand, while the DVR remote I need to shut this thing up is way over on the other side of the bedroom and if I move I'm risking Corgan waking up screaming. So I sat there in bed and then it changed and I ended up watching Family Guy after all. :-) Oh well, it was a boring game anyway. The Saints really are bad this year! Just my rant against invasive TV recorders that are too smart for their own good and too many remote controls!

Daddy D Blogs

I (Keith a.k.a Daddy D) have been observing Keri and friends blog about interesting stuff for awhile now. So yeah, I am jealous of you all, because all I ever seem to be capable of blogging about is geeky tech stuff or Spring (not the season or the thing that makes your bed bounce mind you). It amazes me how fast you all can crank out blog entries. In my experience, whenever I want to write anything it takes me forever. I guess we are not writing War and Peace here, but I have to say you all are most impressive... So anyway, Keri added me and I am going to try and post random happenings whenever they strike me and I have a moment to write them down. My favorite category of hers has to be "Whatev", so I think I'll be posting to that one. So my goal is to just open up and write, and if it is so lame, well it is so lame, but if it's interesting, then that's great I guess. Hopefully I won't make too much of an ass of myself in the process. So what's going on in my life. Well, the usual. I cleaned the house today during lunch while Keri was at the doctor, and am actually trying to do that regularly. Usually me and cleaning do not mix, but I was actually feeling like today I was "in the zone" and it ended up being strangely fulfilling. For my sake, hopefully that keeps up. Ok maybe I'll write more later. Corgan just woke up and Macy is the only one else in the room so it's my turn!

TV Boredom

In general, TV shows seem to be so lame now! It wasn't long ago that I had at least one show (usually more) each night that I was looking forward to watching, but now... not so much. I find myself looking to cable tv channels for things like reruns of Friends, LOTS of HGTV, and things on the E! channel. I've been watching lots of reruns of the CSIs, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, and other mystery-type shows too. I've heard Heroes is good, and I planned to pick that one up by watching the reruns over the summer, but everytime that I tried to watch it I was so lost that I turned it off. :(

There are a few new shows that I'm looking forward to starting this fall. I'll probably over-do it with trying out new shows in hopes of picking up at least a couple of new shows that I like. I DEFINITELY need something to replace Desparate Housewives (I have barely watched it for a while now, but I think I'm done with it for sure now), Brothers & Sisters is on the bubble unless it regains the strength that it started with last season, I only half-watch Boston Legal when I'm really bored as it is, and ER has bored me for a few seasons now, but I keep watching it for some reason. Thanks to Zap2It and the many commercials that I've seen, some of the new shows that I have high hopes for are Bionic Woman, Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money, and Pushing Daisies. Although I don't know if I'm happy with the idea of it, I'm sure I'll watch Private Practice (the Grey's spin-off) to see how it turns out.

Thursday night is already upsetting me... the 9 o'clock hour forces me to decide between Grey's Anatomy, CSI, and The Office. Wait... I guess I don't have to decide since I have 2 TiVos and 1 of them has 2 tuners! Nevermind. :D

I will probably add a couple of returning shows like Shark (my mom has introduced me to this one), Cold Case (which I watch already when I happen to catch it), and the like. And, of course, I'll be sticking with the old faithfuls like Earl, The Office, Scrubs, House, and Nip/Tuck (unless they've REALLY jumped the shark, as I suspect they may have).

So, aside from telling me to read a book, do you have any TV show suggestions for me? :)

I've Heard of Barn Cats, but Barn Catfish?

Living at The Barn, we've seen lots of animals that you don't normally see at a regular house in the city. We've got cows for neighbors, seen bunny rabbits, stalked endangered gopher turtles (aka "Joe"... even though there's more than one we call all of them Joe), stayed away from the bobcats and wild boars, killed HUGE spiders, and now there are FISH!

We were away from the house all day, but while we were gone there was a big-time rain storm that flooded some areas in the county. We didn't get flooded, but the large amounts of rain brought out something that we've never seen in our yard before... fish. I assume it's a catfish of some sort, and the only thing that I can figure is that it came from the pond in front of our house. What I don't get though is that I saw 2 of them on the paved road that is way at the end of our driveway too, which is nowhere near the pond! Since getting home, I've seen at least 7 of these creatures in our yard either flooping around (which is really more like walking using their fins) or smushed (I accidently ran over a couple of them in the driveway before I noticed that they were there). Weird!!!

Stupid Commercial

The other day I was watching TV and was half asleep when I heard one of the dumbest things in a commercial for NBC's new reality show, "Age of Love". I heard the announcer say something like "13 women compete for one man, but the catch is half of them are in their 20s and half are in their 40s". Umm... seriously? So like is one of the women half 20 and half 40? Wow... how the heck did this commercial get approved?

Anyway, my sonogram to check out how big Corgan is is next Tuesday morning. I've been doing some research (of course) and am hoping that the reason for the big readings is either that I have "looser abdominal muscles due to an earlier pregnancy" (like a year ago?) or that he's just big. None of the other options for explaining the large measurements are so good, so I'm just trying to not think about it for now and hoping that it's one of the two reasons above (or both) and I'm just getting another excuse to see Corgan. :) I'll post an update on Tuesday.

Do You Review?

I was just wondering... does anyone else submit reviews online? This can be about baby stuff, electronics, or whatever. I've always been very dependant on online reviews (maybe even to a fault), so lately I've been trying to do more reviews myself in order to help out other review-dependants like me.

Do you review?

A Flame from the Past

A flame from the past is now back in my life. It's not an ex-boyfriend... it's my first TiVo! I was one of the first people I know to join the TiVoloution back in Dec 2000! My TV life hasn't been the same since then, and now my original Series 1 TiVo unit is back!

When we moved out of the condo in October 2003, I disconnected my Series 1, and never did reconnect it when we got satellite at the barn. One reason S1 never came back out of the box was that we already had the DirecTV TiVo in the living room (the new and improved TiVo), so I didn't have the TiVo withdrawl. Another reason was that the guys who connected our satellite dish told me that he didn't think the standalone TiVo units worked with satellite. Although it would've just taken opening the box to check, I never verified that satellite-guy was wrong even though I suspected he was. So, TiVo S1 sat up in the attic until this past Christmas when I decided to take him down and give him a try on our TiVo-less TV. It took me months of moving the box around the house (to get it out of the way), until I finally decided "Now is the time!" and opened the box up to see what I could do! So, a couple of nights ago, I carried S1 back into the bedroom, got him out of the box, connected all of the wires, then BOOM... my heart sank! No, S1 didn't explode, but I realized that his power cord was missing! I nearly cried! (Okay... maybe I'm being overly dramatic, but I was pretty upset.)

I felt a little better when I went to the internet and discovered that I could order a new power cord for about $10, but I thought the input looked pretty familiar so I decided to consult with Ben before placing an order. He agreed that I could probably find the cord at RadioShack, and today I did! :) So this afternoon I finished getting S1 all hooked up and he works! I still need to complete the setup because it took nearly 2 hours to get his software up-to-date and get a new schedule downloaded (which I'm pretty sure I'll need to do again because I didn't change my preferences to the satellite before doing that so I'm sure the cable schedule is on there now).

One cool thing was that I checked to see what was on the TiVo "List". We moved into the house on October 13 and disconnected the TiVo at the condo on October 12, so that was the date of the last show recorded on there. "Spongebob Squarepants" was the last show that I recorded. :) I also had first-run episodes of "Friends" (the episode after Rachel and Joey hook up), "The Practice" (when Allen Shore was first trying to join their practice), "Will & Grace" (something about Leo and Karen and tennis), and "Just Shoot Me" (the episode with Amy Sedaris!). There were also lots of episodes of "Carnivale" (a show I had planned to watch, but never did), "The Kovels" (old people who talk about antiques), "Shabby Chic", and TiVo suggestion recordings of "Saved by the Bell". :) It was funny to see what all was on there the weeks before we moved into the barn.

So, now I can't wait to start recording episodes of "Little House on the Prairie" and other shows that I enjoy watching, but still put me to sleep. :) Yea, TiVo Series 1! Welcome back, Old Friend!

P.S. A few new pics are up!

Another Movie Down...

One of the "things" on my 43 Things list is to watch every one of the 100 movies on the AFI's 100 Greatest American Movies of All Times list. I've now seen 23 of them, and only have 77 more to go. The lastest one that I can mark off is Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. This movie fell into the category of "Seen it, but don't remember it", so it was on my "to watch" list. I first saw it about 10 years ago, and I started watching it again last night. Now, it was after midnight and I was sleepy already, but I was having a really hard time following the movie. So, today I decided to wikipedia Citizen Kane and read about it before watching it again... I guess wikipedia is kinda like a modern-day Cliff's Notes; huh? (Do school kids these days even know what those are?) I wasn't worried about spoiling the ending because I do remember what "rosebud" is (actually, I think I already knew what it was before I even watched it the first time because of pop culture trivia). Then, this morning when Annabelle took her nap, I sat down and watched the movie again.

Not being a professional film critic, I still don't know that I'd put this movie at #1 on a list of the greatest movies of all time, but it definitely was MUCH easier to follow and much more interesting having read about the plot, cultural significance and history behind the characters, and the filmmaking innovations that this movie presented. Watching a movie from 1941 in the 21st century, it's hard to discover the "WOW" innovations in a movie on your own. But having read about the "new" style of filmmaking and the techniques used then (before cgi was even dreamt of), it was pretty cool to watch for those things. I have seen both Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind way too many times to count, so I was able to compare the cinematography to those movies, although both of those movies were also on the cutting edge for their time, so there really wasn't much contrast there... but at least I had a measuring stick.

The last movie that I saw on my list before this one was Sunset Boulevard (aka Sunset Blvd. depending on where you're reading about it). While the movie itself was enjoyable for a movie that's over a half-century old, I figured there had to be more to it so I decided to wikipedia it too. Having wikipediaed (is that a word now?) it now, I think the movie will stick with me a little more. It has only been a few months since I watched it, and I had already forgotten most of what it was about.

I guess when I watch these super-old movies in the future, I'll have to decide whether it's worth it to ruin the ending up front and read about it first or if I should just watch it and see what I get out of it on my own. I guess I'll decide that on a movie-by-movie basis, but for anything older than me, I'll probably go the wikipedia-first route.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things...

No, I'm not going to even attempt to sing like Julie Andrews, but here is a list of a few things that I've discovered in the past few months that I really like:

BK's Zesty Sauce with their onion rings Their onion rings alone really aren't that great, but add their zesty sauce to them and they're super! This is one of my favorite things to eat! Not healthy, I know, but MMMMMMMMMM good!

Night Light Outlet Combo Once Annabelle started crawling she started getting into everything, including pulling the nightlight off of the wall. Her nightlight was plugged into a low outlet in her bedroom, so she was able to easily get to it. One day heaven shone down upon me and revealed an LED night light outlet combo (similar to this one) at Lowe's. It's only like $12, and SO worth it! I don't have to worry about her pulling the light off of the wall and injuring herself with either the light bulb, prongs, or leaving the outlet exposed and ready for the insertion of small objects. Of course, this night light has a light sensor too, so it turns off in the light and on in the dark. It's great! I could definitely see using this in a hallway too... and probably will use a few more of them in halls, bathrooms, bedrooms, etc. when we add on to the house.

Hoover's SteamVac A little over a month ago I decided to buy a steam vac instead of continually renting them from Home Depot. This Hoover SteamVac had really good reviews, so I got it. We just now got it out of the box and used it, and it is great! It's amazing to see the dirty water that comes out after cleaning the carpet. I knew my carpets had some dirty spots, but WOW! The only complaint is that it only holds 1 gallon of water (as opposed to the 3 or so gallons that the HD one uses), but that really isn't even a big deal. Admittedly we (and by "we", I mean Nicole and I) have only used it this once, but so far, I'm very happy with it!

Belle's Bike Seat for my bike Annabelle seems to really enjoy our bike rides since she's able to see where we're going. She can barely see over the front, but in another month or so, I'm sure that won't be a problem. I have a cruiser bike, so seeing over Annabelle isn't a problem (and she'll probably outgrow it weight-wise before it is a problem), but it might be if you have a racing bike where you're leaning forward when you ride. Your knees have to go at a weird angle too, but it isn't too uncomfortable and I don't mind it. My seat is nearly the same as this one Nikki found a much cheaper one at WalMart too, so you might want to check there if you're looking for one.

Sonic's Strawberry Limeade Slush I've been a longtime fan of Sonic's Cherry Limeade Slush, but recently I accidentally drank the strawberry version and I LOVE it! I get one nearly everytime I'm in the Sonic neighborhoood now!

Oxiclean Spray This is the BEST addition to my laundry room ever! Not only does it get pretty much any stain out of Annabelle's clothing (no matter if it's food, poop, dirt, etc.), but it gets all of the smell out of Keith's stinky play clothes! The trick is that you have to spray the "stain" and let it sit for at least 10 minutes (longer if it's a tough stain) before laundering. I've had a couple of REALLY stubborn stains that I had to douse then let them sit for a couple of days, but I think every time that I've done that, the stain has disappeared! Oxiclean Spray rules!

Steak N Shake's Banana Split Milkshake (no nuts) Since I discovered these, I've been hooked! When you're craving icecream, what could be better than a banana milkshake with real strawberries, chocolate syrup, and caramel syrup?! Not much!

That's all I can think of for now, but if you have a favorite you'd like to share, post away! :)

My Apprentice

Six seasons ago when The Apprentice first aired, Keith became addicted to the show. Of course, being the reality TV junkie that I am, I watch it too. Keith watches it for more than just entertainment though, he loves the business strategy aspect of it (although there isn't nearly as much "strategy" as there used to be... now it's just testing who the best salesperson is). Recently I have found my "The Apprentice" show... Bravo's Top Design! I LOVE that show! There have only been 2 episodes so far, but there are some great interior designers on there, and I love hearing the critiques of the professionals. Mix fresh decorating ideas with reality TV and you've got me hooked! I love it!