Last Day of 2011

Yesterday's movie was Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I didn't enjoy the first Sherlock Holmes (although I am a huge fan of Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law), so I was hesitant to see it, but it is getting such great audience reviews that I thought it would be OK. Once again, it was entertaining enough not to be bad, but I was sighing throughout, wondering when it would be over. The last few minutes are AWESOME though. Our full theater, ho-hum through the film, was moved to applause by that last scene. Very cute!

I'm almost college-footballed out and the big bowls haven't even begun. There have been some great games this week though. My fave so far- Baylor/Washington. Our bowl is starting shortly. Gig em Ags!!

Tonight- New Year's Eve! We are doing our second annual Super-Nice New Year's Dinner Out, this year at a well-reviewed steakhouse we've never been to before. Then it's back to the hacienda for drinks and jello wrestling.

Everyone have a safe and happy New Year's Eve! See ya' in 2012.

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Holiday Cinema

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is really, really good. It's very dark, and an incredibly compelling mystery. And that girl has a gift for perfect revenge. Just sayin'.

The film will make you uncomfortable to your core, but I guarantee you won't leave the theater or look at your watch during that two hours and forty-five minutes. Unless you absolutely have to pee, but you'll hold it until you're doing the pee pee dance down the theater hallway as fast as you can to get back before you miss too much.

ER heartthrob Goran Visnjic looks quite different with gray hair. Still hot, but those dark eyebrows are distracting. Too much contrast. Instead of watching the movie during his two scenes, I was trying to figure out if his eyebrows didn't turn gray... or if he's coloring just the eyebrows, which would be sorta weird... and maybe he should color the brows gray if they didn't turn on their own... Distracting.

Wednesday, Jeff and I watched a movie called Arena, with Samuel L. Jackson, who is far too good an actor to have participated in any capacity. It's the first film in a while that's actually made me want to throw up. It was better than Human Centipede, but that is not saying... well, anything really. It's one of the most violent movies I've ever seen. A lot of it is Saw gory, most certainly for the shock value. Hollywood must have flat run out of movie blood when they filmed this thing. Like Centipede, I'm betting there's a drinking game to go along with it!

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Circles and Real Housewives

The commercial for the new Galaxy Nexus at Verizon features Google+ (who?) circles. The guy has a circle called "Ex-Girlfriends."



At what point would you ever interact with your exes as a group? It sounds like a nightmare I had once. Friends, if you're ever tempted to group your former significant others on your social network, please step away from the tequila and think again.

~

Now that the Photoshop project is unwrapped, I can tell you all about it! A while back, Laura and I were talking about how they should do a Real Housewives of Austin. We cast ourselves, along with Tracy, KathyL and Sharon. (Bravo, if you ever wanna get really Real, we're your girls.) I wrote a detailed blog entry about it then.

So I took an old promo photo from Real Housewives of NYC, and put our heads on their bodies. I was going to just chunk them on there, obviously fake and silly, but when Sharon's head fit seamlessly onto Bethenny's body, I decided to make it look more like a real publicity shot. It doesn't, because I'm a total hack at image manipulation, but it looks fairly close. I even created a realistic logo for the show. Because there are six ladies in this particular picture, I added Laura's friend Kim. Kim is great and would fit perfectly into our cast. She wouldn't be that new character you hate for an entire season, just because she's new. (You know what I mean? Although sometimes you hate the new girl for legitimate reasons, like she's insane. *coughKellycough*)

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Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to my friends, family and blog followers! I hope all those who celebrate are having a wonderful morning with loved ones.

Here's my favorite Christmas song, "Oh Holy Night," played by Chris Daughtry (at 25m 30s):

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Writing

The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought. This in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium. -Norbet Platt

This blog is written in a very casual format. Its purpose is idle chatter, sometimes silly, sometimes serious, sometimes cheeky, very typically scattered, with commentary on whatever I'm thinking about on a given day. Behind the scenes and in other spaces, I have always been serious about writing.

I kept paper journals growing up and through college. Although raw, as journals tend to be, they were well-written accounts of everything of consequence that happened in my day, along with my thoughts and feelings about it all. (I wish so much that I still had them!)

I was a sports writer for my high school newspaper, and also a very prolific poet and song writer during my teen years. A humorous Christmas poem I wrote at age 16 was published in a Houston entertainment magazine.

As an adult, I've written three-and-a-half novel-length stories and several short stories. I have participated in fun writing challenges with friends on the web. I've also written many song parodies and a couple of new songs. I write a portion of the web content for three websites. As some of you know, I have been talking for years about writing a musical, although somehow it never seems to be the right time for it. I will get to it.

I just found out that one of my former coworkers has a blog. I've known her for years as a highly successful business woman, a manager with a particular talent for hiring people with great ideas and letting them run with them. She's a no-nonsense, get it done sort of person at work, with little time for water cooler chit chat. Well, her blog is amazing. It's extremely personal and engaging, with true stories about her life and honest, sometimes heart-wrenching observations. Her writing is flawless. I was so moved I sent her a note about it. Turns out she has a journalism degree. Who knew! She's going back to writing now, after decades of being fairly removed from it.

"It's therapeutic," she told me.

That it is. :)

So this post is to all the aspiring writers, former writers and closet writers out there. Write! For yourself or for others. Be funny or serious. Something long or short. Publish it in a blog, on a message board or Facebook for everyone to see, or share it with one special person... or no one at all. You will be glad you did.

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Shopping in the Nether Regions

I'll be in far north Austin all day today, where my friend is having her surgery. She's having a hysteroscopy, not a hysterectomy... if you remember that whole hoo-ha. There will be about three hours during the process where I'll either come home or hang out somewhere near the hospital. I'd been trying to figure out where I could shop or see a movie or something, but nothing had come to mind.

Then Jeff remembered that we are supposed to get a toothbrush for the cats. (Seriously. The vet says we need to brush their teeth because those two are particularly prone to plaque build-up.) The regular toothbrush was a fabulous toy, while an epic fail for cleaning teeth, but there is a toothbrush that fits over your fingertip that is available at the pet store.

Jeff: A cat toothbrush. That's what you can shop for while you're in the nether regions of Austin!
Me: You mean northern regions?
Lauren *spits her drink*
Jeff: Northern... nether...

Not the same.

Actually, I do need to go to The Container Store up that way for a cuter box than the one I used for my mother-in-law's Christmas gift. I used an Amazon shipping box for something very heavy. I've felt awful about it ever since I wrapped it. It needs a white box. Container Store is surely a nightmare two days before Christmas, but it's totally worth the effort for the sake of a pretty presentation. Plus... Container Store! Yay!!

~

Best quote from last night's finale of The X Factor USA--  Steve Jones saying, "Coming up- Incredible performances... and Justin Bieber!" Ahaha.

Congratulations, Melanie, the first X Factor USA winner! We loved her from her first audition! Josh, for whom I had a slight preference to win, is equally talented, with a completely different style and voice. He connects with the audience during his performances, which Melanie never really does. She can easily improve that though. If Simon's people got Carrie Underwood from the aloof singer she was on AI to the extremely personable and emotive artist she is today, they can work with Melanie on eye contact, smiling, etc.

~

Last weekend SNL had a hilarious bit with a "flirting expert" played by Kristen Wiig. You have to see it...

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A Blythe Yule to Ye!

I gave KathyL a bottle of MacAllan 15yr Fine Oak Scotch for Christmas. She was thrilled and offered me a drink. I told her I would try a teensy bit, but I have had Scotch (cheap stuff) before and it was one of the most awful things I've ever tasted. She told me this was "very different," as JeffC and many others who enjoy it have also said.

While it is infinitely smoother than what I had years ago, it still has the whiskey taste that makes me want to hurl. I had barely a few drops of it and she took the rest. Actually, I can't think of any hard liquor I like straight up in a glass. The more it can be hidden in a mixer, the better.

Cheers and Merry Christmas, Scotch lovers!


Meet Me on Monday

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
wrapping paper

2. Real or artificial tree?
artificial

3. When do you put your tree up?
the day after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take your tree down?
New Year's Day

5. Do you like eggnog?
in extremely limited quantities

6. Do you have a nativity scene?
I have the hand-poured porcelain one my grandmother made :)

7. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Love, Actually

8. Favorite Christmas cookie?
thumbprint cookies filled with red and green frosting

9. Where will you eat Christmas dinner?
at my in-laws

10. Angel, bow or star on top of your tree?
angel

11. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
trying to coordinate activities and gift exchanges with everyone when we're all so busy!

12. Do you like Fruitcake?
Does anyone?

13. What are you most excited about the holidays?
hanging out with the fam

14. Do you open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?
Christmas morning

15. Will you still be wrapping presents on Christmas Eve?
Nope. I'm done wrapping!

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Timeline 'n Stuff

Jeff and I went to the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar at Palmer last night with Scott and Julie. There is some seriously cool stuff there! Very unique artists. I even bought a supercute gift for a certain gardening friend. Then we had dinner at Habana. I tried the picadillo and arroz con gandules, which were both oh so awesome!! My new faves.

OK, it's time to talk Facebook Timeline. I like the whole Timeline concept- having a personal and customizable web page. It looks good and has all sorts of fun information. The problem is-- so few people ever see it. Brand new friends probably check it out once to catch up. Older friends may take a look... at some point... if they are completely bored and/or looking for ideas for their own cover photos.

Yep, that's about it.

I like the applications that can be featured on the Timeline, like Spotify and Netflix, but I don't like that to use them, you have to post all your songs and movies in the news feed. The news feed "noise" from them has already started. I don't want to see a note in my feed every time a friend listens to a song, but it would be interesting to see the last several songs they listened to on their Timeline... if I ever looked at it.

So it's a terrific idea, just a very limited audience.

Finally, from a Family Guy rerun yesterday:



"...Oh wait... I have an iPod like the rest of the world!" Bwahaha!

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Slides

I collected all my mom's slides into one box at some point. (Dear young people... Slides are photos you look at on a big screen via a projector...) The other day, I finally sat down and checked the contents to see if I should send them to my photographer uncle in Chicago. He has all the "family slides" of my grandparents, aunt, uncles and my mom during the kids' growing up years and into the early 70's. I thought all Mom's slides were part of that collection, which I've seen many many times at family gatherings.

Turns out, they are mostly she, my dad and I!  They're all from 1967-1972, when I was a baby to five years old. We have photos from then as well, so it really surprised me. There's a whole pack of slides from my first ballet class and recital. Awww. I remember running (and dancing) around in that blue tutu all day, every day, at our house.

My mother liked to take photos of scenery, so at least half of the slides are pretty local and vacation spots. I like to take photos with people in them. Even when I take a photo of a landmark or beautiful scene, I frequently stick my traveling companions in it. Just something I noticed when I was looking through them.

I want to get the slides turned into prints, but at 50 cents per slide, I need to select the ones I want from the hundreds that are there. I wish I had a lightbox or slide projector. I guess I have to just hold them up in front of a lamp. Lame!

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Spring Cleaning in December

I always get the spring cleaning bug in winter. It's usually around Christmas, because we're getting things in and out of closets and I'm appalled at the state of storage in some of them. So far, I/we have done tons of work in the now perfectly organized game room:

• completely cleaned out and re-organized the closet
• got rid of two trash bags of Lauren's stuffed animals (don't worry, she still has about 4 bags worth)
• gathered up no longer played video games and controllers to sell to Amazon

We also decided to sell all our CDs, since we store and listen to our music on computers and iPods. The last real CD any of us bought, with liner notes and everything, was about four years ago. (And major labels will no longer make CDs after 2012.) The only place I play CDs is on trips in the car, and I can use my iPhone there or burn a CD from iTunes anytime I want to. Most of the CDs in our car are mixes burned from iTunes.

Think of all the space you can clear!

Before you rid yourself of original CDs, make sure that you did indeed rip all of them to your device of choice, and also that you continue or begin to keep backups of your music. We automatically back ours up to a computer every week. There's also the cloud as a backup option.

A couple of other tips: Online stores that buy CDs are reported to pay the same as local stores (most of them ARE local stores), so you can save shipping by just selling your CDs to your local reseller. Also, they like perfect jewel cases, so I moved any CDs with cracked or scratched cases to new ones. If you don't have extras sitting around, you'll probably have mix-CDs or other random non-sellable CDs with which you can switch cases.

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