Fifty Fifty Movie Round Up: Movies 11-15

I haven't updated this in a bit, and since I'm at home I figured why not?

11.  Lincoln (11/17/12).  SO GOOD.  OH MY GOD.  It's a quiet movie that says a lot and is riveting.  There's no crazy action scenes and the only special effect is good acting.  Daniel Day-Lewis is pretty much a shoo-in for Best Actor and he deserves it.  Ricky loved watching all the political wheeling and dealing.  It's also great that a book like Team Of Rivals can get a movie deal.

12.  She's Having A Baby (11/21/12).  Very sweet and cute.  It's a weird movie at times, but I enjoyed it.  The end credits is pretty much made for John Hughes fans.  I loved young Elizabeth McGovern, especially since we're in the midst of our Downton Abbey watching.

13.  The Last Waltz (11/25/12).  This movie has been on my mental queue for years, but I wanted to wait until we had a bigger TV.  Well that finally happened so I rented it.  It's really beautiful and good, a loving tribute to some of the best musicians from the 70's.  Oh, and so much coccaine.  Soooo much coccaine.

14.  Miracle on 34th Street the 1947 version (12/21/12).  Neither of us had seen this movie, so during our Christmas movie stretch we made sure to watch this.  I liked it, a lot more than the remake from the 90's.  The end feels a little rushed.  It's great seeing what parades and deaprtment stores from the 1940's looked like.  And the guy who played Santa Claus... I'm pretty sure he's Santa in real life.  He was that believable and filled with mirth.  I read that Natalie Wood thought he was actually Santa, and was disappointed that he was not.

15.  Les Miserables (12/26/12).  Day after Christmas we made our pilgrimage to the Salem Cinema to see this movie.  Ricky enjoyed it, but me being a fan of the musical enjoyed it.  Yes, some of the performances were bad (Russell Crowe) and he used too much upclose and didn't mix it up at all, but I had realistic expectations and they were met.  This won't win Best Picture or even Best Actor, but it was enjoyable.

Inauguration 2013: an ode to the photobomb

While watching the Inauguration on Monday, I was struck at the sheer number of photobombing happening.  There was Malia photobombing a picture of her parents that her sister Sasha was taking...

...then there was former president Bill Clinton photobombing Kelly Clarkson...

...but my favorite was first brother-in-law Craig Robinson photobombing president Obama.

Gotta love a good photobomb!

The Gift Outright

I always love the ceremony of the Inauguration.  I always get goosebumps during the oath.  And I'm a sucker for nice winter gear.  The poem is always great to hear, too.  My favorite of all the Inagural poems is Robert Frost's poem, The Gift Outright.

2013: Four Simple Goals

A blog I like to read called A Beautiful Mess blogged about the idea of Four Simple Goals.  Since 2013 will be nuts and the year of The Wedding, instead of writing a huge long list of things I want to accomplish I decided to keep it simple this year.  My goals are:

1.  Eat (at least) one vegetable a day.  I've been getting better about thinking about what I eat and trying to make better choices about what I eat.  I've lost a few pounds (hooray!) as a result, so something must be working.  I've been using an app where I can keep track of what I eat and what exercise I do, so it'll be easy to track this.

2.  Quit coffee.  I actually started this a few days ago, but the goal is to continue it into 2013.  I haven't had coffee since Wednesday.  So far so good!  I'm drinking black tea, which is better because it's less sugar and cream and less expensive since I can just get a tin of it instead of spending $10-15 a week on coffee.  The goal is to keep it going once work starts up again.  I'm allowing myself to cheat on weekends when there's a fun latte with crazy flavors involved (i.e., Starbucks, Gulu, Jaho)

3.  Finish my 5k goal and run the 5k outside in a race.  As I've noted, I've run several 5k's in the gym alone on a treadmill.  I'm also working on improving my time.  I'm at about 40-43 minutes right now, which is decent.  Once it's warmer and there's sunlight after work, I'm getting outside to keep it going and then I'll be signing up for a 5k in the spring or summer.  There's a breast cancer 5k I'm looking at or the Fiesta 5k in June.

4.  Finish the blue sweater and knit another fun sweater.  The blue sweater is about 60% done.  Maybe 70%.  But then all my friends made an unofficial pregnancy pact and had babies, and those babies needed hats.  So the blue sweater went into hiding in the closet.  Well now most people have had their babies, so it's time I finish it and wear it!  I also want to make another sweater for myself.  I might just do a plain thing, I'm not sure.  There are a few I'm eying and I have a ton of yarn asking to be used.


I'll keep this updated with how it's going.  I'm also still doing the 50/50 challenge, but that I'll keep separate from my goals.

Television PSA

The West Wing is streaming on Netflix right now.  All seasons.  GET ON IT.

Also, there's a storm coming, so I think today might be the best day to watch all of season 1 and get started on it. 

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 12

Christmas Eve!  This has been fun, albeit often done in bulk.  Tonight, we're featuring one of my favorite songs of not only Christmas but probably of all time.  That'd be True Blue Miracle from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.  It's such a beautiful happy pretty song, and I love the idea that all the Sesame Street gang takes the subway to a different area of the city to get Christmas trees and go ice skating, then have to take the subway back to town.

Ricky and I have spent the last few Christmas Eves watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.  It's been a fun way to prepare for Christmas... and this special is so nostalgic and fun.  I strongly recommend it.

I hope you enjoyed this mini series.  It's been fun talking about what festive things I've done and thinking about what songs I like.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 11

Yesterday I continued on my tour of old friend Christmas parties by heading to Worcester to embrace my college days.  Tim has been teaching at HC and living across the street from the campus, and he held an egg nog party for his friends.  It was really fun getting together and laughing about crazy old stories.  When we were getting into our cars, though, Jess and I both agreed that we wished that this was 7 years ago and we lived across the street from an off-campus party and didn't have to drive over an hour home.  Alas.

I asked Ricky what Christmas song he wanted, and that was Robert Smigel's Christmastime for the Jews, which was featured on SNL a few years ago.  It made him laugh so hard he cried.  Not a traditional Christmas carol, but definitely a good one for this.  And it's clay animation... who doesn't love that?!




Christmastime for the Jews from Bix Pix Entertainment, Inc. on Vimeo.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 10

It's been a crazy weekend, so I am woefully behind on this.  Saturday night was Friendmas.  Friendmas is the annual Christmas get together my friends from high school and I have every year to get together and catch up.  We have a Yankee Swap and play weird games.  It's really fun, and as we've all been pairing off and settling down it's been nice having the spouses be a part of it.

This song doesn't have anything to do with Friendmas, but I wanted to talk about it for a moment.  This day, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about a favorite one of mine from the 80's.  I am of course talking about Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC.  It ends Die Hard (a Landry brother Christmas movie favorite) and it always makes me laugh. 

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 9

Tonight was one of our favorite Christmas traditions:  decorating stockings!  For the last few years, Ricky and I have been painting stockings for ourselves and the pets.  It was very nice to have some egg nog, paint, and watch Bob's Burgers.  I will post our stockings soon.

Speaking of pets, can we just take a moment to appreciate this photo of President Obama shopping with and for Bo at a Petsmart?!?

HOW CUTE IS THAT?  He's picking out some snacks for his dog Bo.  How great is that?  There are also photos of Bo meeting a poodle named Cinnamon.  Worth checking out.

Anyways, back to Christmas music.  We watched a favorite of mine for the last 20 (!!!) years:  The Muppet Christmas Carol.  I've loved this movie since it first came out in theatres, and no season is complete without a viewing.  In honor of that, here's my favorite song from it, It Feels Like Christmas.  Keep your eye out for the cutest mouse Muppets ever, which Ricky loves.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 8

Caught up on this!  Huzzah!  Tonight I had perhaps the least holiday-ish thing:  a dentist appointment.  But it was a necessary evil, I suppose.  Clean bill of teeth health, though I need to get a filling replaced.  The week is winding down, and we're getting closer to some Christmas parties, and the big day itself.  Tomorrow is my last day of work for the year, and we get out early which is nice.

Today we'll play some super cheesy music... I'm of course talking about Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime.  I feel like it's super cheesy (and possibly highlights why Paul needs someone like John to edit him and keep him from going into super cheese fest).  I do like the music video because it's so dated and of that era.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 7

Wednesday I managed to get a lot of Christmas wrapping done!  Is there anything more satisfying than getting almost all of you wrapping done?  I locked myself in the bedroom and wrapped almost everything and organized it.  Only a few things left that need to arrive in the mail, to find where I put a calendar for someone, and then I'll be done.  In the craziness of the last few weeks, I was nice to have a night to catch up and checking things off my list.

In honor of Christmas wrapping... It's Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses.  I've always thought this song made me feel like I'm working seasonal help at The Gap, folding sweaters.  I have a feeling if I actually worked at The Gap, I'd be really sick of this song, but since I haven't I'm cool with this song still.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 5

Monday began a very busy week of holiday events.  My department had a holiday lunch downtown, and we did our Yankee Swap.  I managed to luck out and being a wine and a weird sushi kit and come home with wine and beer.  Huzzah!

Today let's highlight a favorite of mine, though I know somewhere my mom is groaning.  I've always loved the marriage of styles and generations when David Bowie and Bing Crosby came together to sing The Little Drummer Boy.  The opening is insanely cheesy, but I do love the arrangements.  (I found a version that skipped most of the opening, which is probably for the best)

I tried to purchase it on iTunes for a Christmas mix I made for a friend, but unfortunately you can't get it on iTunes.  WTF, iTunes.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 4

No surprise, I've let this slip, so I'll just do a bunch of catch up right now and talk about what I was doing on each day.  On Sunday, I worked.  I've been doing some holiday hours at a gift shop on the weekends.  It's been fun, and as Ricky says, fulfills my high school desires to be Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail.

So let's do something a little classic.  I've always loved The Nutcracker, and I feel like it's so pretty.  So here's the dance of the sugar plum fairies.  Whenever I hear those bells, it brings to a moment when it's cold and snowing and there's lots of lights everywhere and evergreen.  Here's a version of it I heard recently and am a big fan of.  It's from a favorite band of mine:  Pamplemoose!

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 3

Feeling a little better today, less overwhelmed with the sadness of yesterday's events.  I think it helps that I spent the day helping friends move back to the state (yay!) and then went to a super fun Christmas party hosted by good friends Mike and Christine (yay times two!) at night.  They have a yankee swap where everyone needs to bring a gift from their house, and it's always entertaining to see what crap people have lying around.  My coworkers should be expecting a sushi maker on Monday at our work swap, as I try to pass it off as a nice gift.

I think in the vein of old friends, I'll post a song by the Royal Guardsmen.  The reason being is because when I was in elementary school chorus we had to sing this song, which I always thought was a crazy song.  Then, years later, I found out that someone wrote it in the 60's sincerely, and it was a pop hit... not just something weird our chorus teacher thought up.  I also felt the same feeling of "wait... people knew that song in real life?" when I found out that he wanted us to sing an Alan Sherman song at a concert.

Weird song performed quite sincerely by a bunch of Brits.  I promise tomorrow's song won't be Peanuts- themed.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 1

I decided to do a little project this year to get ready for the holidays.  12 Days of Christmas Music!  If the food network can promote cookies, I can promote some songs.  This is in no particular order of my favorites, just a collection of songs I like. 

Today let's start with Step Into Christmas by Elton John, which seems appropriate to "step into" this themed series.  I put this song on a mix for Ricky for Christmas last year.  Gotta love some old timey, squeaky-voiced Elton John.  And to borrow from The Muppet Show... he looks like a stolen car.

Holiday Cheer, HC-Style

If you look outside, it doesn't look like December.  It doesn't even really feel like December inside from my apartment.  We have one pine tree candle, and we've purchased stockings to decorate, and we've even made a decent dent in the large canon of Christmas movies out there, but I'm just not in the Christmas spirit yet.  Today, though, I think that may change, as I'm returning to Holy Cross for the afternoon.

Ricky and even my coworkers sometimes tease me about my love for HC.  There's just something about that little academic paradise on a hill that sets my heart pitter patter, and it comes out even stronger in the wintertime.  Much like how Hogwarts always looked prettier at Christmas, Holy Cross feels and looks even prettier under a blanket of snow with greenery and advent wreaths.  Last night, HC hosted its annual tradition of Lessons and Carols.  I didn't steam it, but I'm sure it was merry with the choir singing and candles and greens everywhere.  I went a few times when I was in college, and it's a really nice experience.

This is a stressful time in the life of a Crusader, since classes are wrapping up and finals are going to be underway next week.  It was a lot of not sleeping for me and a lot of cramming to write all my papers and study literary themes or important plays.  We even had all of the student performances during the reading days, so those three days that I could have used as a jump start on papers were spent in the Pit, rehearsing one thing or another.  But it was still very nice, since it signified the end of a semester and visual proof of learning outcomes. 

There was definitely a social aspect to the end of the semester and finals.  Because no one had classes, big lunches used for discussing books and studying happened regularly.  Jess, Karin, Tim, sometimes Erin, and I would also spend hours in Hogan, buying cup after cup of coffee and writing papers on the couches.  At night, we'd all trek to Midnight Breakfast and stay for hours, soaking up all the free coffee they provided while eating egg sandwiches and hash browns.  This was the break we'd need, though often someone would have a book or a paper in hand to edit and hopefully not get coffee or maple syrup on.  It didn't matter what we were doing, we'd make sure we were there every night.  There was also a memorable time when our classmate Ed (now a monk!) was panicking about something and gave himself a bloody nose.

I know I discussed all of this last year, but the feelings of nostalgia came flooding back again.  Why?  My friend Tim has been teaching at HC all semester, and today is the last day of his fall semester.  He's celebrating with pizza (as only one can when you're finishing Milton) and then I am joining him for a later lunch somewhere in the city.  It's been exciting hearing him talk about being back in Worcester and starting on his career path, so spending time with Tim on the last day of classes seems appropriate.  It makes me remember all the winters in Worcester (or while I was in Worcester and he was studying in England) we've spent together.  The midnight breakfast, the coffees in Hogan, the Christmas party where he dressed up like Santa.  All of it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think this trip to Worcester will be the beginning of holiday cheer that I need.  A walk around to look at the greens, see the manger, drink too much coffee with Tim... that'll all bring me to that frame of mind that's ready for Christmas and the holidays in general.  I'm glad that I'm doing it a little older, a lot wiser, a few more grays and a ring on my left hand, and that I don't have to stretch my margins out to get a paragraph onto the 10th page all while trying not to spill in my books so I can try to sell them back to the bookstore.

Sunday Morning Snuggles

Woke up to this on Sunday morning. The best.

It only took three years but...

A common hot pants theme every single year is me mentioning that I want to try and run a 5k.  In fact, you will notice that "running a 5k" and "getting rid of personal debt" are two of the most mentioned things on this blog.  Well, I haven't really been able to make any progress on the first of those two... until today!!

I've been really good lately about going to the YMCA to work out and have been doing a lot more running.  I noticed that I had been running too fast and losing steam and cramping up early, so I slowed down.  Still running, but not as fast running.  After all, I have small stubby legs.  This made a HUGE difference.  I was able to run comfortably for 30 minutes and get a good distance without feeling like death or legs falling off was imminent.  Today, since we had enough time and I was feeling good, I decided to go for it and try to get to 5k on the treadmill.

And 45 minutes later, I had done just that.  It felt great!  I am insanely sweaty, but it felt really good.  Now I just need to maintain that speed and have it feel good, and then try to either go longer or faster.  Then it's time to hit the open road and get used to running while actually moving and pacing myself.  This won't happen until it's warmer, though, because I am a pussy and don't like being cold.

So yeah, 3 years later... one (actually quite big) step closer to that 5k goal.

Romney 19, Obama 3: did I mention I made cookies for tonight?

Because I did! Mittens for Romney and a horse/donkey for Obama.

Election 2012: bring it, coverage!

Fiancé and electoral board are ready to go!