Spring is flirting with us

We had tornado watch this week, 67 degrees and I bought some packets of seeds. Of course we are going to have snow and sleet tomorrow. Mother Nature is so fickle.

Well, Robbie's trip to Europe is just around the corner. I will have the house all to myself. I feel spring cleaning coming on and I might even paint the bedroom.

Plans for a Winery tour tomorrow, weather be damned! Then just getting together tomorrow night for the usual suspect night.

Watched a few movies........

Appoloosa--you can never go wrong with Ed Harris IMHO
Zack and Miri do a Porno--pretty funny!
Soul Men--Bernie Mac's last movie, very good
Frank--ummmm yes I watch dorky movies, too
Space Buddies--Disney, yep dorky, but good!
The House Bunny--cute in a dumb blond way
Surfer, Dude!--Matthew McConaughey in a bathing suit the whole movie, can you say...... six pack abs

Thats about all for a Friday night............

:-) Peace

Bits and Pieces

Sitting here on a dreay Saturday, decided to update a few things.

Robbie has lost some work due to the Hangar 9 roof collapse. Nothing of course compared to what Sally and Duke are enduring. Hopefully, all will be back to normal in a couple of months. Robbie is planning his trip to Europe to play with Mike Beck. Look on the right hand side of Mike's website for Switzerland gigs in March.

Some movie reviews for you:
Bottle Shock-fantastic!!
Nights in Rodanthe-pretty good, Richard Gere is enuf to make you want to watch it
Who's your Caddy-funny
Secret Life of Bees-very good
Henry Poole is here-GOOD-keep your kleenix handy

Learned a new craft (like I really needed to) It sure is fun though! I will take it to the very cool FONDUE party I'm going to tonight. Can't wait, I am drooling thinking about all the gooey cheese and drippy chocolate. Oh, I guess I will eat some beef and chicken too.

:-) Peace

Finally back!

Life on Mars. Thank goodness we had electricity so we could watch it. There are still many without. That was a crazy storm that moved through. We have NEVER gotten 4 inches of sleet/ice pellets. And then of course the 3 inches of snow just added to the fun. WOOHOO!

While I'm here I should probably add some more movie reviews:

Step Brothers-as stupid as you expect
The Deal-this was good, I always expect a movie with William H. Macy to be good
Meet Joe Black-I can't believe I had never seen this, it was fantastic!
Sex in the City-I liked it, I know many didn't, oh well
The Family that Preys-another great Tyler Perry movie

We haven't gone completely stir crazy but everywhere you look outside is blinding white, and our driveway hasn't been touched except where the lovely street plowers pile more ice up at the entrance. Maybe today..............

:-) Peace

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Everyone knows its been frigid here the last couple of days, so last night I hunkered down with a pot of chili and a couple of movies. 1st off the chili was very good. I don't use a recipe so you never know how it is really going to turn out. But last nights pot was great! I guess you never really know how a movie is going to turn out either even though you see the previews. I thought "Swing Vote" was going to be a comedy. Well, it does make you laugh, but it also makes you cry and makes you think. It was a very good movie. I was pleasantly surprised. I recommend it to everyone. Also watched "My Best Friends Girl". I really like Katie Hudson but this one is just not as good as I hoped. It's not bad, but just NOT GREAT.

Thank goodness we are getting back to more normal weather today.

:-) Peace

More movie info

While Robbie is watching a boring movie I thought I would report on some GOOD movies I've seen lately.

"The Cleaner"-good movie, good plot twists
"diminished capacity"-good also
But, the best was "Eagle Eye"-very, very, very good.

And that doesn't count re-watching "50 First Dates"," Big Momma's House" and the best of the 1st season of "Mary Tyler Moore Show".


In between time we also had the Stokes Xmas celebration, so I made 3 pairs of machine knit fingerless mitts and a hand knit scarf to go with other gifts.

Even tho I have been "face booking" I need to make myself blog more often. So I shall try.

:-) Peace

It's Christmas Eve!!!

And I'm sure you are either excited or panicked. It's a day for last minute stuff. Last minute shopping, wrapping, baking. I'll be doing all three. It does help that the Stokes' are not doing their Xmas till after NYE so I have extra time there. Robbie decided this year he wanted to do email Xmas cards instead of snail mail. I'm not thrilled with the concept, but I will be doing that today also.

Our "green" elephant Xmas party Saturday night was a riot!! We will be doing that every year I'm sure. We all had lots of fun, and most went home with nice and useful gifts :-)

On the movie scene I have still been watching lots of Xmas movies. Some are about Xmas, some are just set during Xmas but they count. "Die Hard 1", "Lethal Weapon 1", "Grumpy Old Men 1", "While You were Sleeping" are all set during Xmas. Re-watched all of those. Re-watched all 3 "Santa Clause" movies, "Christmas with the Kranks" and "Surviving Christmas". A new one for me was "Noel". I don't know how I missed this one but it is a 9 1/2 hankies out of 10. It was VERY good. An oldie funny one I also missed was "Elf". Another new one was "Christmas Cottage", pretty good. None Xmas movies were "The Dark Knight" (fairly good) and "Mamma Mia!" (total chick flick but very good). A not new movie "She's the Man" (teenager movie, but cute).

We are definitely not going to have a White Christmas as it is 52 degrees right now, but it will be a wet one.

Peace :-)

Non Blogger

Yep, it's me the "not been blogging girl". I've been both busy and lazy I guess. We have been playing with our Christmas present to ourselves. I've been watching xmas movies and listening to xmas music. Robbie has been re-watching his sci-fi movies. The sound bar system is great. I have hooked up and tried about 6 antennas with not much more luck. We get a couple of local channels great and thats it. But we are more of movie watchers anyway. TV-wise tho the last Boston Legal ever was great, going to really miss that show!! Movie-wise we watched Fred Claus again (it is that good). Christmas Cottage (10 hanky-but I loved it) Scrooged (Bill Murray is alwasy good for a laugh) The Perfect Holiday (just ok) and of course Christmas Vacation and Home Alone.

We only put up a little 3 foot tree this year, but it is cute. Have big plans for next year because I just got a bunch of new beautiful ornaments yesterday on clearance on our Belleville girls day out trip.

The usual saturday nite suspects are doing something cool this year for Christmas. We are going green by having a White (green) Elephant draw number game. We all bring something we already own (wrapped) and draw numbers to pick gifts (or steal from already opened ones) You can re-gift something, or bring a gag gift, or just something you are tired of. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!! and it will be lots of fun, and no gift buying stress.

:-) Peace

It was a long time coming

But the new X-Files movie finally came out yesterday.
It was worth the wait.

:-) Peace

Everybody been busy?

Guess what, it's going to get worse. Yes, the holiday season is upon us. We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner in St. Louis at Suzan's house with Robbie's family. And of course now is the countdown to Christmas, which is even shorter because Thanksgiving was late in the month. But we will persevere!

Well, dancing with the stars is over. Derek and Brooke definitely deserved their win. I sure will miss it until the next one starts and I have to keep reminding myself that Boston Legal is on also, So I don't miss out, since it's the last season.

Movie wise, there's been a few since my last report. Nancy and I had a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants marathon one weekend. The new one was out and we had never seen the first one. They are both cute. Worth watching, definite chick flicks. Here's a list of some more:

Tropic Thunder -- hysterical.
Wall-E -- slow starting, but worth watching, cute and has a message also
Hancock -- entertaining.
Fred Klaus -- I definitely like this one.
Meet Dave -- not the best out of these, but still okay.

Black Friday was different this year, seem like the deals were not as good, but we did need to get a new TV and go digital, and weirdly enough, our DVD player died the week before. So we decided to get a whole system, and luckily, the TV we picked out at Best Buy went on sale online Thanksgiving day so I didn't have to wait in line there. But I did go to eight stores on Black Friday starting at Lowe's at 5 a.m.

We have set up our new TV and DVD player but we haven't received our sound bar audio system yet. Hopefully it will arrive today, so we can complete our setup. We are still not getting all of the local channels, but the fact that I only had one static-y local channel before and now I'm getting several crystal-clear. It is fabulous!!!

:-) Peace

Summaries

Time is flying by fast! Sometimes I'm meeting myself coming as I am going :-(
Thanksgiving is almost here and then Black Friday!!!!! and then Christmas. I'm tired just thinking about it. Okay back to the summaries,

Movie Summaries:

Kung Fu Panda -- cute!
Iron Man -- surprisingly good.
This Christmas -- very good. Keep your Kleenex handy.

General summary -- Melissa starts her new job, December 1.
I've been crafting a lot (check here).
DWTS -- yes, my man Cody and Julianne are gone, but I knew it was time. Unfortunately, now it is Warren's time. But it was a good run for both of them.

Weather is cooling off, I have a pot of chili on the stove and getting ready to watch "Life on Mars".
Later Gators

:-) Peace

Wow, I need to catch up!

There has been some inquiries about the shed progress. It has obviously slowed down to a crawl (or actually a stop). It is not legally, totally all the way done, but it is usable. But I can't take a picture of it and say it's legally, totally done, because he needs to touch up the paint. Of course now it's turned cold and I'm wondering if I'm ever going to be able to post that it's done :-(

DWTS, this is going to be a very interesting results show to watch tonight. Julianne will be back, YEA!!! And were are obviously down to all good dancers. IMHO it is either going to be Lance or Maurice, and just as a process of elimination, I like Lance better. Maurice has a little bit of an attitude.

MOVIES, boy am I ever behind here! I think I'll just make a list:

War, Inc. (good and of course has my man Jon Cusack)
Argentina Tango (horrible, don't even ask)
The Visitor (it's a very good movie, with a not very satisfying ending)
A Guy Thing (very cute)
Get Smart (funny, of course)
The remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth (pretty darn good)
re-watched My Big Fat Greek wedding, Pretty Woman and Beauty Shop (of course all good)

Well, I guess that's enough for today from cold, rainy Southern Illinois. Be nice to a veteran today.

:-) Peace

Movie Reviews for the week

Of course with Dancing with the Stars (sorry to see Rocco go, he was nice, but couldn't dance) and my Wednesday Night Craft night, movie time is limited. BUT even more limited now with the new show Life on Mars!! So far it is good.

I was able to watch 3 movies this week :-)
--Over her dead body (with the Eva chick from Desperate Housewives) This was cute!
--The new Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford STILL rocks and I love they had Karen Allen back in it)
--Zohan (don't waste your time)

So much from your fav Movie Reviewer. I'm off to a fused glass class at SIU Craft shop today. Sounds like fun!!

Tomorrow is lunch out with some girlfriends and we are going to Vulture Fest!

:-) Peace

bella

Not sure what to say about this movie. It was good, and had great acting. (A gorgeous male star I might add.) It just seemed lacking a bit. I had to watch the special features to get more info. It made me cry, I will say that. It had lots of emotion. I think I'm becoming a Professional Movie Viewer.

:-) Peace

Edge of your seat

Now that I got you there, you are no doubt wondering why. 88 Minutes.

Nancy came over for a movie and din din last night. We had this. Keeper recipe for sure (and low carb-go me!!). We finally started the movie..........all I can say is wow, intense, thrilling, never know whats next! Very good movie, and Al Pacino is great as usual. Check this movie out.

Tonight we are planning on having some kind of blast!!!! Four of us (Nancy, Rick, Robb and I) are going to dinner at Midlands ( I'm thinking some low carb steak and salad) then to.........drum roll please B.B. KING CONCERT at the Arena!!!! I think all of Carbondale is going to be there. I'm planning on it being fantastic. Might see you there.

:-) Peace

Nights are getting chilly!

So armed last night with a big pot of soup and a stack of movies, I settled in to relax before a busy weekend.

Speaking of the weekend The Stokers will be playing here Saturday at 11 a.m.. Then we have our usual Saturday night get-together with the usual Saturday night suspects. Sunday is our last pool/patio party for the year. The pool will probably be just a little too cool, though, we can pretend and just sit on the patio in the sunshine.

Oh yes, where was I, movies. I watched an odd little movie with Jennifer Aniston called "The Good Girl". Not what I would call a happy movie. I followed that up with the new George Clooney called "The LeatherHeads". That was a little more lighthearted. It is an old-time comedy romance with Renée Zellweger. Not the greatest movie in the world, but I would definitely recommend it. Oh, and the soup was good.

:-) Peace

p.s. I am not very happy that Cloris is still on dancing with the stars :-(

Other stuff

You would think the only thing going on around here this week is a new shed. But oh no, there has been much more important things DANCING WITH THE STARS!!! This puts a crimp in my movie watching and I've got some new ones I am itching to watch, but I love me some dancing, so they will wait till Thursday night. My favs so far are Brooke Burke (she is very good) and the football guy Warren Sapp, he just lights up the dance floor and makes me smile!!! Julianne is my favorite "pro" so I tend to also like her partners. Cody is a cutey!

Speaking of movies I forgot to report 2 weeks ago (in a movie watching frenzy) my favorite that week, duh! Anyway, it was "Dan in Real Life". Very good movie. It was a library disk so it had a couple of bad spots at the end but I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything too important. Then last week I watched "Made of Honor" (very cute) and "No Reservations" (that one was real good) in addition to a TV series I'm in the middle of "Invasion".

:-) Peace

This has been Movie Week

Started out Monday night with "Nim's Island". Very cute movie.

Tuesday night was a Helen Hunt movie called, "And Then She Found Me". Good movie. However you do have to try to ignore the fact that Helen Hunt's face is sliding off. This had been reported in another blog, but I guess I had just thought it was in an around the town, no makeup kind of way. But even in movie makeup it still looks that way.

Wednesday night, of course, was my club meeting (Wednesday night Craft club) so no movie.

Thursday night was "Baby Mama". I have certainly run the gamut this week in movies. Baby Mama was not as funny as the previews. In fact, the previews have all of the funny parts. I really wanted to watch a "funny, take you away" movie last night, but not quite as good as I expected it to be.

Tonight I will be making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for our silk fusion workshop on Saturday, but I'm sure I can sneak a movie in there also.
:-) Peace

Ramblins.................

Yes, I watched another Disney movie, whats it to ya!!!! and YES I did cry. I actually can't believe I have missed this many good Disney movies. Last night it was Angels in the Outfield. Pretty darn good!!

My little raised bed garden is producing pretty good. I have a pile of summer squash on the counter. Made a good "mess" of Ratatouille last night. In the words of Rachael Ray, YUM-O!

I'm getting very excited about next week's visit from my Aunt Carol and Jim. It's only two nights but we will have fun!

The old social calendar is getting pretty booked up. Between lots of band gigs (see http://www.robcoaudio.com/ for band schedules) and the THREE workshops in the next month we planned Wednesday night at my knit/craft club meeting the calendar is practically buzzin'. We are planning silk fusion, wheel pottery and learning stroke painting. We are a diversified bunch aren't we :-)

Wow, what else can I ramble about? Oh, yes, finally getting rain. We were getting pretty dry, of course now it will probably flood (Murphy's law and all)

Oh yes, there were 2 more birthdays this week. Monday was Robbie's son (little) Robby's 21st Birthday and Wednesday was Robbie's brother Paul's 50th birthday. Two milestones!

Guess the brain has tired out from all the ramblin, time to get some more coffee...........TGIF
:-) Peace

Laundry Woo Hoo!

When the biggest part of your day is being able to do laundry you might want to rethink things.
But
If your washing machine has been broke for five days. You would get excited like me. The motor went out on my washing machine last Thursday, and of course they had to order it and then there was the weekend. The motor came in yesterday and "washing machine guy" came and installed it late yesterday afternoon. Then there were the small foothills of laundry to go through. Indeed I was very happy to be able to do laundry!

I settled in with another Disney movie, while doing laundry. For some reason I've been on a Disney movie kick lately. Sunday I watched Air Bud. Last night I watched Operation Dumbo Drop and then started Ratatouille. But, fell asleep.
Must've been all that laundry.
:-) Peace