This past weekend turned out to be a pretty busy one. Friday after work, H. and I were visiting our neighbors who have a little girl the same age, J. When it was time to go home for dinner, they didn't want to be separated, so they suggested H. spend the night, if we thought she would stay. H. was all for it! So we went home to eat dinner and packed an overnight bag and went back. H. stayed the whole night and didn't even wake up during the night (although she was up at her usual early time Saturday morning). J's mom said they were up kind of late, giggling like teenagers. It took them awhile to settle down and get over the novelty of the situation before they finally fell asleep.
M. and I had the whole evening to ourselves and most of Saturday morning, too. By the time I went to pick H. up, I had three loads of laundry done, had made all of the beds, swept the kitchen floor and cleaned the inside of the van. H. and J. still didn't want to be separated, so the four of us all went to the dollar store for Easter dinner paper products, among other things, and lunch at Chick-fil-A. With a promise that they could play together after they both took a nap, we finally tore them apart (you wouldn't think that they see each other every day at pre-school). The sleepover must have worn H. out because she took an almost four-hour nap, waking up just in time for dinner. Then J. came over to our house for a little while to give her mom a bit of a break for the day. We'll have to try having J. spend the night at our house one weekend.
I watched The Wedding Date while M. watched drag racing Saturday night and it was quite awful. I thought it would be a good chick flick to watch by myself, but I'm not even sure why I finished watching it (because I paid to rent it, I felt like I had to watch the whole thing). It was like large chunks of the movie were missing. I couldn't follow how they made the connection from one scene to the next. And it was short - barely an hour and a half, so there was definitely time for more character development or involvement. Not recommended at all. Serendipity, which I watched earlier on TNT while H. was napping and had never seen before, was much better.
On Sunday, H. and I went to my parents' house and spent most of the day shopping - Target for Easter candy, Kohl's for Easter decorations and a new pair of tennis shoes (or sneakers, as they say here in PA) for me (I bought a pair of Skechers - I feel so cool!) and the jewelry to store to get my engagement and weddings rings repaired (which I should have back by this weekend - I feel naked without them). We didn't get home until almost 8pm and I had to rush to set the VCR for The West Wing, which I'll have to watch later this week, but I don't know when.
Today, it's off to the library after work and pre-school, and then the next few days will be a little hectic. My mom's uncle died on Saturday, so the viewing will be Tuesday night down in Baltimore, then I'll probably go back for the funeral during the day on Wednesday.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Monday, April 03, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Right Place, Right Time
Friday night, I finished reading Forests of the Night by James W. Hall. I have never read any of his books and picked this one up because it takes place in the Great Smoky Mountains. Well, actually, it mostly takes place in Cherokee, NC, which borders the Park, but close enough I guess. I've always wanted to visit the Native American village in Cherokee and see the famous play, Unto These Hills, but we've never been able to squeeze that in on any of our trips to the Smokies. Anyhoo, the book was okay, but didn't make me want to rush back to the library and pick up one of his others. The beginning was very rushed and didn't really give me enough time to care about the characters. The second half was better, but the backstory that helps to solve the mystery was a little convoluted.
The one cool thing was that several times throughout the book, the main character references the old movie "Mildred Pierce," an Oscar winner from 1945 starring Joan Crawford. To be honest, I had never heard of or seen this movie. So after finishing this book Friday night, on Sunday afternoon I was flipping through the channels and lo and behold, "Mildred Pierce" was on TCM as part of their "31 Days of Oscar." So I watched it, since it was a somewhat central part of the book I had just finished. What great timing! I missed the first 10 minutes or so, but it wasn't a bad murder mystery. A little predictable, but enjoyable, with a strong female lead surrounded by a bunch of loser men. (Side bar: Throughout the entire movie, the woman playing the character of Ida looked really familiar, but I couldn't figure out who she was. Turns out, it was a very young Eve Arden, Miss McGee from Grease.) Even better, it was followed by "Gone With the Wind" in all it's uncut, commercial-free glory and I was able to watch a fairly good chunk of it throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening.
The one cool thing was that several times throughout the book, the main character references the old movie "Mildred Pierce," an Oscar winner from 1945 starring Joan Crawford. To be honest, I had never heard of or seen this movie. So after finishing this book Friday night, on Sunday afternoon I was flipping through the channels and lo and behold, "Mildred Pierce" was on TCM as part of their "31 Days of Oscar." So I watched it, since it was a somewhat central part of the book I had just finished. What great timing! I missed the first 10 minutes or so, but it wasn't a bad murder mystery. A little predictable, but enjoyable, with a strong female lead surrounded by a bunch of loser men. (Side bar: Throughout the entire movie, the woman playing the character of Ida looked really familiar, but I couldn't figure out who she was. Turns out, it was a very young Eve Arden, Miss McGee from Grease.) Even better, it was followed by "Gone With the Wind" in all it's uncut, commercial-free glory and I was able to watch a fairly good chunk of it throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Monday, October 11, 2004
Big Update
Sorry for the delay in posting. I tried updating from home last week so I could post some pictures, but either my computer was acting up or Blogger wasn't cooperating, so I just gave up. So this entry will be sans photos, unless I can add some later tonight.
I feel like we haven't been doing very much, but looking back over the past two weeks, it has been fairly busy. We did the pumpkin patch thing this weekend, going early Saturday afternoon. H. had a ball, riding in the wheelbarrow and checking out all the pumpkins. She found a little tiny gourd pumpkin still out in the field and had to have it. "My pumpkin," she told us the rest of the day. She took a nap with her pumpkin and slept with it that night, too. The whole trip reminded me of last year, when she couldn't even walk yet and had to ride in the wheelbarrow. Halloween should be so much fun this year. We've been practicing "Trick or Treat" and of course, she can walk this year, so even better! The Disney Channel has already shown my favorite episode of "Bear in the Big Blue House," the Halloween episode, twice - once last week and again this morning.
We continued the fall festivities on Sunday, going to the Apple Harvest Festival, my favorite festival of the year. It was very crowded, but bearable, even though they ran out of pit beef just after we got there. My replacement grilled chicken sandwich was a disappointment. H. was an angel all day, mostly cooperating with staying in the stroller. My dad took her to play in the petting zoo and other children's activities for a little while, so my mom and I could shop. I didn't buy that much, just a few little Halloween items.
I slept terribly last night and I was exhausted after walking around all day. I fell asleep just before 10 (I didn't see very much of the Battle of the Beltways), but M. kept waking me up to tell me I was snoring. The nerve!! Then, H. was up at 3:30am, coughing. She was up for about 40 minutes or so, until she finally went back to sleep. I think she just had a dry throat from the festival, which was very dusty. She wasn't running a fever and still woke up at her normal time this morning. So I'm feeling that after-lunch tiredness.
***
The pictures I was trying to post last week were of my sister's new house. After just over a year of waiting and living in a rental unit, their new house was set on its foundation last Thursday, Sept. 30. My mom was there for the big delivery and said it came in 4 big pieces and that it was really cool to watch them put it together. It will take about another 4 weeks to hook up the electric, plumbing, etc., but what really matters is that the house is actually there! And it's huge! Their old house was just a small rancher, but this one is two stories, with three bedrooms, a sunken jacuzzi tub in the master bath and lots of windows and French doors looking out over the water. It's really a three-story house, because the new foundation is 12-feet high, then the house sits on top of that. They still have a lot to do - painting, installing the floors, etc., before they can move in, but after months of inactivity, things are finally progressing.
***
H. has reached that age where she's hooked on the same video for days or weeks at a time. About a month or so ago, it was all Nemo, all the time. By the time I had told my mom to buy her a stuffed Nemo for her birthday because she loved him, we had moved on to Lilo & Stitch (which is a very weird little movie. I had a hard time getting into it at first). Now it's The Little Mermaid, which we also have to listen to in the car all the time. (And I can't wait for Disney to release this one from "the vault" so I can get it on DVD. There are about 20 annoying minutes worth of previews and commercials at the beginning of this movie. I may get desperate and have to hit eBay.) I wish I could describe the way H. says Ariel. Let's just say I think I'm the only one who understands what she's talking about. It looks like this week will be Beauty and the Beast, which she wanted to take to the babysitter's this morning. I still have Sleeping Beauty, A Bug's Life and The Jungle Book on the shelf, waiting to be watched.
Sorry for the delay in posting. I tried updating from home last week so I could post some pictures, but either my computer was acting up or Blogger wasn't cooperating, so I just gave up. So this entry will be sans photos, unless I can add some later tonight.
I feel like we haven't been doing very much, but looking back over the past two weeks, it has been fairly busy. We did the pumpkin patch thing this weekend, going early Saturday afternoon. H. had a ball, riding in the wheelbarrow and checking out all the pumpkins. She found a little tiny gourd pumpkin still out in the field and had to have it. "My pumpkin," she told us the rest of the day. She took a nap with her pumpkin and slept with it that night, too. The whole trip reminded me of last year, when she couldn't even walk yet and had to ride in the wheelbarrow. Halloween should be so much fun this year. We've been practicing "Trick or Treat" and of course, she can walk this year, so even better! The Disney Channel has already shown my favorite episode of "Bear in the Big Blue House," the Halloween episode, twice - once last week and again this morning.
We continued the fall festivities on Sunday, going to the Apple Harvest Festival, my favorite festival of the year. It was very crowded, but bearable, even though they ran out of pit beef just after we got there. My replacement grilled chicken sandwich was a disappointment. H. was an angel all day, mostly cooperating with staying in the stroller. My dad took her to play in the petting zoo and other children's activities for a little while, so my mom and I could shop. I didn't buy that much, just a few little Halloween items.
I slept terribly last night and I was exhausted after walking around all day. I fell asleep just before 10 (I didn't see very much of the Battle of the Beltways), but M. kept waking me up to tell me I was snoring. The nerve!! Then, H. was up at 3:30am, coughing. She was up for about 40 minutes or so, until she finally went back to sleep. I think she just had a dry throat from the festival, which was very dusty. She wasn't running a fever and still woke up at her normal time this morning. So I'm feeling that after-lunch tiredness.
***
The pictures I was trying to post last week were of my sister's new house. After just over a year of waiting and living in a rental unit, their new house was set on its foundation last Thursday, Sept. 30. My mom was there for the big delivery and said it came in 4 big pieces and that it was really cool to watch them put it together. It will take about another 4 weeks to hook up the electric, plumbing, etc., but what really matters is that the house is actually there! And it's huge! Their old house was just a small rancher, but this one is two stories, with three bedrooms, a sunken jacuzzi tub in the master bath and lots of windows and French doors looking out over the water. It's really a three-story house, because the new foundation is 12-feet high, then the house sits on top of that. They still have a lot to do - painting, installing the floors, etc., before they can move in, but after months of inactivity, things are finally progressing.
***
H. has reached that age where she's hooked on the same video for days or weeks at a time. About a month or so ago, it was all Nemo, all the time. By the time I had told my mom to buy her a stuffed Nemo for her birthday because she loved him, we had moved on to Lilo & Stitch (which is a very weird little movie. I had a hard time getting into it at first). Now it's The Little Mermaid, which we also have to listen to in the car all the time. (And I can't wait for Disney to release this one from "the vault" so I can get it on DVD. There are about 20 annoying minutes worth of previews and commercials at the beginning of this movie. I may get desperate and have to hit eBay.) I wish I could describe the way H. says Ariel. Let's just say I think I'm the only one who understands what she's talking about. It looks like this week will be Beauty and the Beast, which she wanted to take to the babysitter's this morning. I still have Sleeping Beauty, A Bug's Life and The Jungle Book on the shelf, waiting to be watched.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Blur
Last week is a bit of a blur and I'm just catching up now. Following the Princess Birthday Party, H. came down with the stomach flu. She threw up once and was running a fever as high as 103.2 on Sunday afternoon (a quick call to the on-call pediatrician made us all feel better). Her fever broke Sunday night, but she had messy diapers all week and was generally cranky. On top of all this, the regular babysitter was on vacation this past week, so H. was being shuttled between a couple of different locations and wasn't on her regular routine. I worked out Monday night, had a waste of time computer class for work on Tuesday night, then I finally broke down and took her to the doctor on Wednesday night. I was convinced she had an ear infection, but she didn't, just the lingering effects of the stomach flu. Thursday night was my first night to relax all week and there wasn't even a new episode of Friends on to watch!
I would say she wasn't really herself again until Saturday, so it was a whole week until she was really feeling better. We were so glad to see Miss W. the babysitter yesterday morning! I worked out again at Curves last night (my third trip) and have to make the decision whether or not to join by the end of the week. Can I really commit to it?
We spent a lot of time outside this weekend, enjoying the nice weather, which has since turned cold again. H. loves being outside and cries when we have to go in.
Mark and I watched One Hour Photo Friday night, which was definitely creepy. And I decided I like Michael Vartan better with lighter hair than the dark brown color he had in the movie. I watched Frequency on ABC Saturday night, since I hadn't seen it. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be, but overall I thought it was pretty good. I'll watch anything with Dennis Quaid in it. Then I had to dig out my Garth Brooks' "Scarecrow" CD and listen to "When You Come Back to Me Again" over and over on Sunday.
I would say she wasn't really herself again until Saturday, so it was a whole week until she was really feeling better. We were so glad to see Miss W. the babysitter yesterday morning! I worked out again at Curves last night (my third trip) and have to make the decision whether or not to join by the end of the week. Can I really commit to it?
We spent a lot of time outside this weekend, enjoying the nice weather, which has since turned cold again. H. loves being outside and cries when we have to go in.
Mark and I watched One Hour Photo Friday night, which was definitely creepy. And I decided I like Michael Vartan better with lighter hair than the dark brown color he had in the movie. I watched Frequency on ABC Saturday night, since I hadn't seen it. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be, but overall I thought it was pretty good. I'll watch anything with Dennis Quaid in it. Then I had to dig out my Garth Brooks' "Scarecrow" CD and listen to "When You Come Back to Me Again" over and over on Sunday.
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