Ron Howard Films

I'm a fan of Ron Howard's films. I haven't seen them all, but the ones I've seen I've really enjoyed. My favorites are: Frost/Nixon, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and Gung Ho.

I've noticed he doesn't do romantic comedies. In fact, he's not much into comedy at all. Or action films. Most are straight dramas. He also seems to like historical themes.
 Here's the filmography:

 Angels and Demons (2009)

 Frost/Nixon (2008)

 The DaVinci Code (2006)

 Cinderella Man (2005)

 The Missing (2003)

  A Beautiful Mind (2001)

  Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

  Edtv (1999)

  Ransom (1996)

  Apollo 13 (1995)

  The Paper (1994)

  Far and Away (1992)

  Backdraft (1991)

  Parenthood (1989)

  Willow (1988)

  Gung Ho (1986)

  Cocoon (1985)

  Splash (1984)

  Night Shift (1982)

  Grand Theft Auto (1977)

A Day in the Life

Got a lot done today. Sewed curtains for the bathrooms (dark green with leaf print). Finished chapter 8 in my XHTML book. Updated Carly's blog and website. Studied Windows Movie Maker tutorial so I can learn the program; want to make a real movie. Watch out, Spielberg!

House work was a top priority. It's the only day of the week I can get it done (vacuumed, swept floors, etc.) I made meatloaf and asparagus for dinner.

Worked out on the elliptical while watching "Supersize Me," the documentary about the guy who ate McDonalds three meals a day for a month. Great movie! You'll never eat fast food again.

This afternoon I went for a walk and encountered a mean dog. Thanks to the Dog Whisperer I knew how to react: calm, assertive energy, no talk, no eye contact, no touch (as if!)  The creature backed off. Thank God!

I watched a little TV. Frost/Nixon again (recorded on DVR) and tonight saw Gabriel Iglesias on Comedy Central. Looking forward to Last Comic Standing this summer.

I didn't check off every item on my list. I still need to update my business blog and write the bio for my website. I had planned to go for a run, but I woke up to a blizzard. Spring in Wyoming.

I'm really missing my runs. I used to run about 15 miles a week. Then in 07 I hurt my knee, which cut down on my running for at least six months. Not long after I started up again, I hurt my foot. Plantar fasciitis. Again no running for several months. 

During that time off, I started to wimp out. I used to run at 6:00 a.m. in the dark, in freezing temperatures. It never bothered me. But now the cold is a problem and I don't like to run in the dark. The elliptical machine is a life saver. I use it almost every day but it's not like running.

This past Wednesday (April 21), I ran for the first time in MONTHS. It felt wonderful. My goal was to run for 30 minutes and I made it. Just barely. I want to work up to running three days a week for 45 minutes, and do the elliptical the other days.

Speaking of goals, I'm looking forward to taking classes at the college this fall. It will be so exciting learning website design/development. I'm getting my feet wet with the XHTML book and photoshop.

Life is an adventure. But it's also very frightening. I trust God to lead me and guide me. He never lets me down.

Male Prima Donna

Yeah. I like it. I like it a lot.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=249131969764&oid=2204598188

Home Improvements

Okay, so we decided instead of buying a house, we are going to stay in our fabulous mobile home for another year. We've also decided to do some much-needed renovations. We started with new windows.

This is the new window above the kitchen sink.

Hallway.

My office.

Detail of window and trim in bathroom.

We are also building a new garden shed, which is still in progress.

As for other improvements, I will be painting every room in the house.We are also getting new kitchen flooring and carpet for all the bedrooms and the living room. We're having a back porch built, rennovating our deck and putting up a back fence. Whew!

Kindle

Loving the Kindle ads on TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PERiTMZ626M&feature=related

The Cheese Situation

For years, our family cheese of choice for sandwiches has been Kraft Deli Deluxe American Cheese Slices. Delicious flavor, thick slices and perfect for grilled cheese sandwiches.

Well, hubby's been doing the grocery shopping lately and when he saw the price of our favorite cheese slices compared with the cheaper brands, he sort of freaked out. So he bought the cheap stuff --  individually wrapped slices that taste like thin sheets of salted plastic.

Now it was MY turn to freak out!

ME: What is this?

HUBBY: Cheese slices.

ME: Why didn't you buy the good stuff?

HUBBY: Too expensive.

ME: I'm not eating this. It's gross.

HUBBY: But it's cheaper. The other cheese costs almost five dollars? This was only two-fifty.

This "discussion" continued, but in the end, quality won out. The taste test put an end to the argument. I guess it's not a total waste. Maybe he can use the plastic cheese for fish bait.

Casey James!

Okay, so I'm totally loving Casey! He's always been in my top three along with Crystal and Andrew, but I have a feeling he will make it to the end. I'm predicting a head-to-head with Crystal.

My dad is a fan of the show. This is the first season he's been watching. All along he thought Casey was the best. We have a lot to discuss.

Loved Lennon/McCartney week. As a die-hard Beatles fan, I had a blast watching the performances:

The Long and Winding Road (Aaron: no change in arrangement, pretty dull)

Let It Be (Katie: her best performance to date; relaxed, confident, connected w/audience)

Can't Buy Me Love (Andrew Garcia: not that great, but he had a lot of energy)

Eleanor Rigby (Big Mike: fabulous)

Come Together (Crystal: found the soul and totally rocked it)

All My Loving (Tim: his best performance to date; and with that hair, he even looked like a Beatle)

Jealous Guy (Casey: BEST OF NIGHT! I'd never heard that song before. He played acoustic guitar accompanied by cello...wonderful)

Across the Universe (Siobhan: not good; rather boring)

Hey Jude (Lee: FANTASTIC...brought in a bag pipe player at the end...very strange but cool)

So who will go home? Hard to say, but I think Tim, Andrew and Siobahn will be in bottom three.

HTML Report

I'm starting chapter five of my HTML book. I can't believe I'm actually learning this stuff. Can't wait to get the basics down so I can create with color, fonts and design. But like Forest Whitaker said in "The Great Debaters," you do what you HAVE to do so you can do what you Want to do.

I finished chapter four last night and learned about domain names, root folders, relative and absolute paths, HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol), URLs, linking to web pages, destination anchors, and the target attribute.

So much to learn! And I'm just at the tip of the iceberg.

Dwight says:

I hitched my wagon to a horse with no legs.

Everybody Dance Now...

"You all took a life here today. The life of a party."

-- Michael Scott

O What a Tangled Web We Weave

So I'm planning on taking some courses this fall in website design. Some people have learned this on their own, but I need STRUCTURE: a real live teacher, books, lecture, labs, etc. That's just how I am. I do not have the "computer" gene. But that won't stop me. I'm an eternal optimist. I CAN AND WILL LEARN CODE!!!

My goal is to be able to create websites for myself and others, and possibly work for a company or become a consultant. As an artist, I understand the aesthetic element in website design, but I'm really lacking in the technical aspects. Hence, the course work.

In preparation, I'm getting a head start studying on my own with a book called "Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML." I finished chapter three yesterday. Unfortunately, the copyright for this book is 2006 so it's outdated. However, hubby is a computer genius and plays around with computers pretty much all the time except when he's eating or sleeping.

Dwight's New Girlfriend

Isabel Poreba! The Angela-smacking, Amazon Princess of Scranton. She loves meat. She's O-negative (universal donor). She has birthing hips. Dwight's dream girl.

New Blog Design

Spring is here and it's time for a change. Fortunately, Blogger has made it easy for me by providing new templates and updated design features! Totally loving playing around with colors, fonts, layouts, etc. I've also incorporated more Wizard of Oz pics. After all, it IS Emerald City.

There's no place like home.

Alice and Charleton

So yesterday my good friend Jodi and I spent the whole day together. It was Sunday, so of course we went to church. She plays guitar and sings with the praise band. She's an amazing soprano and can sing harmony at the drop of a hat. Not me...I have to practice the alto part for weeks before I can sing harmony and even then I'm off key. God did not mean for me to be a singer, but that doesn't stop me from trying.

I am now the "announcement lady" at church, which means after the service I give the announcements of upcoming events. This week we're promoting the Creation video mini-series from Answers in Genesis and the Beth Moore bible study. At the last minute, the pastor asked me to announce that the church will be showing the movie "The Ten Commandments" starring Charlton Heston. It's a three-hour movie so we'll be showing it in installments over the next couple of weeks. When I do the announcements, I like to jazz it up a bit, maybe crack a few jokes or whatever, so I mention that Charlton Heston was my grandmother's favorite actor and every time I see him in a movie, I think of grandma.

Anyway: after church Jodi and I had lunch at Applebees. I ordered the half-size Santa Fe Chicken Salad and Jodi had the Chicken Fried Chicken. When the server brought the plates to our table, I noticed that my half-size salad was enormous and Jodi's chicken "steak," covered in white gravy, was the size of a steering wheel! I kid you not! It was enough to feed three people and a St. Bernard.

For the record, I've been watching Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay and he says restaurants shouldn't show pictures of the food on the menu. He's also against gigantic portions. Applebees is guilty of both, but since it's not a gourmet restaurant, I guess they can get away with it.

After lunch we went to the theatre to see "Alice in Wonderland" because we're both HUGE fans of Johnny Depp. Two thumbs up! We saw the 2-D version because I HATE 3-D movies (don't get me started). My favorite character was Bayard the bloodhound who had been captive by the Red Queen and separated from his wife and pups. When they were reunited, I wept for joy. I also enjoyed the scenes of Alice in warrior garb slaying the Jabberwocky.

When the movie was over, we headed out to Starbucks to get a cup of java. I had a dark cherry mocha latte (DELICIOUS! Best latte EVER!) and Jodi had a cinnamon mocha latte - special ordered. I've noticed that she's pretty high maintenance when it comes to ordering food and drink. Reminiscent of Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally."

During our coffee conversation, we talked about classic Disney cartoons. I learned that Jodi's favorite is "Sleeping Beauty" and she learned that I only like the Disney toons that feature animals: "Lady and the Tramp" and "101 Dalmations."

So at 4:30 we were in the auditorium at church watching Charleton Heston and Yul Brenner hash it out in "The Ten Commandments." I must say, Chuck and Yul had tans that would give George Hamilton a run for his money. After the movie, we stayed for the evening service. Jodi and the pastor played guitar and led the singing, then the pastor began our study in the book of Judges. (I've got homework...love it!)

I got home at 8:00, ate a hot dog and watched "Hoarders: Buried Alive" on TLC.

Day Done!

The Office this week

MICHAEL: Let's just follow the chain of events. Jo likes Michael. Jo invites Michael to house. Jo doesn't like Michael anymore. Hmmm.

Crazy About "Crazy Heart"

If you haven't seen "Crazy Heart" yet, stop everything you're doing, get to your local cinema and watch it right NOW!

It was Jeff Bridges' performance of a lifetime. I've always been a fan of Jeff. He can do comedy and drama equally well...very versatile. My favorite Jeff Bridges films include: The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sea Biscuit, Arlington Road, The Muse, The Big Lebowski, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Fearless, The Fisher King, King Kong.

The beautiful landscapes were breathtaking. I don't know where the movie was filmed, but the Western setting (New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado) brought back memories of my childhood. I grew up in New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. Yikes! I'm a nomad!

I'm not a huge fan of country music, but I loved the music in this movie. The bluesy, country sound really spoke to me and I wanted to go out and buy the soundtrack.

So what's the movie about?

IMBD says: "a faded country music musician is forced to reassess his dysfunctional life during a doomed romance that also inspires him."

Rotten Tomatoes says: "thanks to a captivating performance from Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart transcends its overly-familiar origins and finds new meaning in an old story."

Moviefone says: "Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet Bad can't help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician."

I say: this is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. The transformation of Bad Blake is inspiring. He's lived a tragic life and tries to make amends for all the "bad" things he's done. He has many regrets and many sorrows. He reaches out to the adult son he never knew. He falls in love with a woman who gives him a reason to change. And through it all, he finds inspiration to write songs again.

Favorite scenes:

The fishing trip with Bad and his friend Wayne (Robert Duvall).

Bad calling his son on the phone wanting to meet with him.

Bad looking for Buddy (the little boy) in the mall.

Bad talking to Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) after going to AA.

TWO THUMBS UP!!!

Andrew is SAFE!

Watching American Idol results last night, I was thrilled that Big Mike, Andrew, Lee, Crystal and Siobhan made the cut. Of course, I wasn't worried. They are the best imo.

Surprised Katie is still in the game. Hmmm....I don't think she'll last long, though. Glad Didi made it; she won me over with "Rhiannon."

I'll miss Lilly. I would have liked seeing more of her in the following weeks; she always surprises me with her unique interpretations and quirky voice.

Prediction: Next to go (Lacey or Katie...Tim or Aaron)

Katelyn and Katie Have Got to Go

On American Idol this week, the final 12 will be revealed. That's when the hard-core competition really begins. Genre weeks, pointers from the pros, Ford commercials, group routines...oh YEAH!

Katelyn sang Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move." Total karaoke. Nothing unique. No passion. No connection. Sure, she's a cute girl, but not "star" material.

Katie sang "Put Your Records On." She is just too immature. In a few years, she will definitely be a major contender. But not yet.

Tonight we hear from the guys. GO ANDREW!!!

The Office "Baby Cecilia"

Congrats to Jim and Pam Halpert on the birth of their baby girl Cecila!

Memorable scenes:
Pam nursing the wrong baby
Michael setting up Erin and Kevin
Andy hiding behind the plants.
The male nursing coach helping Pam nurse the baby while Jim looks on.
The cop pulling Dwight over and calling him by name.
Michael throwing the car keys into the bushes when told he can't park in front of the hospital.
Pam trying to tell Dwight on the phone where the key is to the house.
Dwight demolishing Jim's and Pam's kitchen.

Alice in Wonderland

Mad Hatter

As a fan of Lewis Carroll and Johnny Depp, I wouldn't miss this for the world. I'm totally loving these delicious images of Carroll's delightful characters.

Red Queen

Alice

Red Queen

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum