Marvelous Monday Update 2/9/09

Movie Monday
HANGING UP: Starring Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, and Walter Mathau.

Meg Ryan plays “Daddy's favorite daughter” who is over-extended in this comedy about loving, laughing, and learning to let go. Meg Ryan’s character, “Eve” is a party-planner, a streched-too-thin mother, wife, sister, and dutiful daughter. Eve's harried life has become even more complicated by her reliance on modern technology: cell phone, fax machine, lap top, and answering machine. Walter Matthau “Lou” is her ailing 79-year-old father, a grouch who is admitted into the hospital with memory loss. Eve tries to recruit help with her father from her two neglectful sisters: Georgia (Diane Keaton), a New York publishing tycoon who runs her own magazine, and baby sister Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), a self-involved soap opera actress. Hoping to please her father, Eve also tries to reach out to her mother (Cloris Leachman) who abandoned the family years earlier. Eve finally learns to let go and to "hang up" on the pressures, obligations, and responsibilities of being a do-it-all woman. This movie was Walter Matthau's last film before his death in 2000.

It’s a good movie and brought tears to my eyes because I could relate to the struggles of “doing it all” and dealing with family.


GONE BABY GONE: Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monahan, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman.

A 4-year old girl, Amanda, goes missing in Boston and the case attracts widespread media attention. Patrrick (Affleck) and Angie (Monaghan) are private investigators are hired by the child's Aunt Beatrice to find Amanda. Twists and turns involving drug dealing, stolen money, and making deals in order to get Amanda back ensue. The exchange at a nearby quarry is botched and Amanda is believed to have drowned. Captain Doyle (Freeman), whose own daughter was also killed years before, takes responsibility and goes into early retirement. Through a series of events, Patrick discovers the botched exchange was a forgery and visits Doyle for answers.

I had a hard time staying interested in the movie. I won't give away the ending, but I will say that an ethical dilemma occurred and makes you think, "What would I do?"


P.S. I LOVE YOU: Starring Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (HOT!), Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Harry Connick Jr., and Kathy Bates.

Gerry (Butler) and Holly (Swank) Kennedy are a happily married couple until he dies of a brain tumor. Deeply distraught, Holly withdraws from her family and friends until they descend upon her on her 30th birthday. They are determined to force Holly to face the future. As they rally around Holly and help organize her apartment, a cake is delivered, and on it is a message from Gerry. It’s the first of several - all ending with the sign-off P.S. I Love You. He arranged to have these delivered to her after his death. As the seasons pass, each new message fills her with encouragement and sends her on a new adventure. Gerry's words guide Holly on a journey of recovery and rediscovery.

Filled with humor and sadness, I really enjoyed this movie!


HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU: Starring Jennifer Anniston, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Kris Kristofferson.

A group of interconnected, 20- and 30-somethings navigate their various relationships from the shallow end of the dating pool through the deep, murky waters of married life, trying to read the signs of the opposite sex--and hoping to be the exceptions to the "no-exceptions"; rule. Gigi just wants a man who says he'll call--and does--while Alex advises her to stop sitting by the phone. Beth wonders if she should call it off after 7 years of committed singlehood with her boyfriend, Neil. He doesn't think there's anything wrong with their unmarried life. Janine's not sure if she can trust her husband, Ben, who can't quite trust himself around Anna. Anna can't decide between the sexy married guy, or her straightforward, no-sparks, no-drama standby (i.e. “nice guy”), Conor. He can't get over the fact that he can't have Anna. Then there’s Mary, who's found an entire network of loving, supportive men, just needs to find one who's straight.

Based on the book by the same title. This was a cute movie, and probably every woman can relate to “reading the signs” of human behavior. Most notably, if a guy is interested he will call. If not “He’s just not that into you” despite whatever he says to your face. I’ve discussed this with friends and have tried to impress upon this point. Even so, I’ve caught myself stumbling over this one from time to time. But for the most part, actions speak louder than words.


Night at the Theatre
On Friday night, I saw "Run For Your Wife" at the local community theatre. It was one of the better ones I've seen... very hilarious! A packed house, and the cast had the audience rolling in their seats.

A comedy about bigamy, a dull man, John Smith who is a taxi driver, turns out to have a two wives in two cities a short distance apart. Because of an accident too complicated to explain, his worlds collide, and the police are called in to investigate. The taxi driver tries to keep one wife from learning about the other. Whenever possible, the play makes fun of stereotypes (dumb cops, swishy gays and prefeminist women who think only of getting their man into bed). To complicate the plot, almost everyone is mistaken for someone else, one wife for a nun, the other for a transvestite. Much of the confusion derives from the cute terms of endearment characters use for their mates. John’s upstairs neighbor unwittingly becomes an accomplice in trying to hide the truth from the wives. In the end, of course, they both find out.


School
I received my first test back and scored.... 100%! On essay questions!! (Thanks to the bonus essay question). Not so sure I did as well on the second test, though. The instructor *did* clue us in on something: He will give us partial credit for answers slightly related to the question. Meaning if he asked about IT structure, he'd expect an answer along those lines and not what was at the circus performance we saw over the weekend. LOL!

I'm getting a bit nervous about the class project. Our team "leader" said last Monday night: "I don't mind be the leader and turning in the stuff, but I don't have a lot of time to do this. I work all day and I have three kids plus my wife is pregnant." Well now! The other two of us work all day also -AND- we have lives outside of work and school. *Humpf!*


Blogging
First, I'd like to thank my readers for all the comments. They really do encourage me. :)

Secondly, My-O-My am I so behind on my blog reading. My reader says I have 1000+ blog entries to catch up on. How does that happen so fast?? I'm plugging away at it, so bear with me.








Third, I'm never at a loss to what to blog about, but in case anyone else has this problem....







In The News
Have you heard of Fluffy? No? Fluffy is 24 feet long, weighs 300 pounds, and is 15 years old. Fluffy's waist is the size of a watermelon. You're probably thinking... What the heck? Fluffy is the world's largest exhibited snake.


Why am I edifying you with this snake? Because on the radio last week, the announcer said: "This is the largest snake since Rod Blagovich." LOL! For those not aware, Blago is our esteemed (NOT) govenor who was recently impeached unanimously by the Senate. It would've been unanimous with the House of Reps, too, except his sister-in-law voted to keep him.


Stitchy Stuff
Before I put my Christmas decorations away, I thought I'd take a pic of all the stitched ones I've made and that others have made:


For my birthday, Nancy sent me a gift certificate for Silkweavers. I bought a beautiful piece of fabric that arrived in the mail this past week:

Thank you Nancy! Now what should I stitch on it???
Believe it or not, I actually had some time for stitching this week. Not much, but some! Progress so far:

This is my version of Erynne's Love Bug chart. I think I'm going to make it into a floss tag.

Yum-Yums
It's been a while since I've shown my culinary skills, so here goes! I made Shrimp Creole with white rice. Easier than I thought it'd be and very healthy!