Trips and Pics

We had a great time on our vacation last week. We flew into Idaho Falls late Fri night and then drove up to West Yellowstone, MT early Sat morning and met up with my good friend from college, Tara. She's been a snowmobile guide for the last few winters and I finally took her up on a chance to go snowmobiling through Yellowstone Park. This was another first for me and Dave, as neither of us had gone snowmobiling before. I've been to YNP before, but never in the winter. So it was a lot of fun checking out Yellowstone in the snow.
We started snowmobiling early Sat morning, after getting bundled up in 2 layers of long johns, sweats a full on snow suit and winter coats. We were bundled and warm!!! We saw a lot of wildlife - the buffalo were crossing the roads right in front of us, walking right along us, and were between 5-10 feet away. It was insane! We also saw a fox, a bald eagle, a coyote and multiple elk. More than once the buffalo literally came up next to us from the forest on the side of the road. Quite intense.

The first day we were able to go just with Tara, she didn't have to work so she was able to take us out on a tour, just us 3. Then the second day she had to work so we went with a typical group of 8 or so. We were able to take a lot of cool pics. So I'm going to just fill up my blog with pictures of the trip. Some are from YNP, and some are from Jackson. Anything that is sunny is probably Jackson, cause we didn't have much sun while we were in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone, here we come!

Well we have all our plans laid out for our Yellowstone Nat'l Park trip. We leave pretty late on a Friday, and get in at 11pm into Idaho Falls airport, but the car rental place at the airport swears they will stay until we get there, so they better! We'll stay in I.F. Fri night, then drive up to West Yellowstone, MT early Sat morning, meet up with Tara (the BEST Minivan Ever!) and start our day of snowmobiling through Yellowstone. Dave has never been there, so I am very excited for him to see some true wildlife, and I hope we can get some cool pics of buffalo, moose, etc that we just don't see here. And I want to get some landscape shots and ones to document the fact that we are on snowmobiles!! So we'll spend a couple days in Yellowstone, and then on Tues we'll drive to Jackson, WY where my cousin Brian is hooking us up with a nice hotel for cheap. So we'll hang out a few days in Jackson, and hopefully go skiing there. That will be another first for me and Dave. I've gone once or twice, years ago, but Dave has never gone, so it will be fun to go together. And again, another picture opportunity! Then we'll go back to I.F. Fri and fly out early early Sat morning.

We're really looking forward to this trip. Our friend Tara will take us on a snowmobile tour, and we'll get to hang out in Jackson with my cousin Brian.

Very fun!!

Hella Busy

I can't blog. Nothing to blog about. Just busy. Nothing else going on. Just busy.





Hella Busy

I Heart DVR

So Dave and I saw I Am Legend and Awake last weekend. Both were aiight. Neither was fantastic. I didn't have too high of hopes for Awake, but I figured it would be alright and it was. I thought I Am Legend would be better. I didn't really like the ending. I was expecting more, honestly. So yeah, we paid money for those this weekend. But I saw a great movie for free this weekend, too.

I've been taking advantage of our DVR this week and have just been browsing through the guide to find stuff that I had heard of but had never seen, or had never heard of that looked interesting. Dave had to go to MO for a business trip and so I spent some time watching some random movies or tv shows that I had taped.

Some were ok, like this silly movie called Park about all these random people who wind up parked at this public park over looking LA and the things that happen to them there. The best part is when Ricki Lake and Cheri Oteri are beating the crap out of William Baldwin's SUV while wearing a Regis and he's cheating on Ricki Lake with Izabella Miko, who plays some foreign gal with a bad accent and she finally see's them (while William Baldwin is doing her doggy style) and says "Why is Regis Philbin attacking us?" that might be the funniest line in the movie. It was pretty silly with a few funny parts.

Anyway, I also started to wath Prairie Home Companion, and my rating is a big fat AWFUL. The only good part was the beginning cause they were representing Mickey's Diner in St. Paul, and we drive by there a lot, so that was fun. But the movie was bad, in my humble opinion. After the first 20 minutes straight I started fast forwarding to see if anything good happened, then I'd watch in random spots for a few minutes, and basically the show sucked. Don't bother!

Elizabethtown... started that, made it about 30 min in and just couldn't take it anymore and had to delete it.

But the best movie I saw for free was One Last Thing, which I thought was fantastic. Michael Angarano is a 16 year old kid who is dying from a terminal illness. He gets a chance to make a "wish" through a foundation that grants wishes for sick kids, and at the last minute he changes his wish from going fishing with his favorite football player to spending a weekend along with a super model played by Sunny Mabrey. Cynthia Nixon plays his mom who is struggling to come to terms with his end, which is rapidly drawing near. The acting was great. Mike Angarano was great and Cynthia Nixon was great. I almost wanted to go out and buy it so that they got money based on how great this movie was.

And this is the end of my movie reivew.

Happy TDay

So Dave and I are sitting at the airport waiting to go to Utah. We're going to have T day dinner with my dad's side of the family, probably see a little bit of my mom's side and hopefully my niece and nephews. The youngest boy just got chicken pox (or something along those lines, the doctors aren't sure) so we may not be able to see them. Then we'll be hanging out a little bit in Utah, probably play some games with the family, watch movies, etc. Then Sat we're heading up to Pocatello, ID where I went to college, to see some of my college friends and have some good ol' Poky food. I'm super excited about Mandarin House (love their mandarin chicken) and Goody's (pizza bombs!!!) and just all around some good food that is only available in Poky. And of course I'm excited about seeing my friends. One of the group might not be able to make it up, so hopefully we'll see her on the flipside back in Utah.

Anyway, I'm excited about this trip. I've been looking forward to it for a little while and now we're here at the airport. It was really fast getting through security. I was surpirsed! We got there around 7:40 and we were at the gate by 8. Amazing, considering this is a heavy travel day!! Hopefully no delays from here on out, and we'll continue with our great Tday traveling experience!!

And re the Tday dinner, I'm way excited for pineapple bavarian. Yay for pineapple bavarian, a dessert dish my aunt Louise makes every year. It's so yummy!!!!

Project Runway Memories

I'm so excited that Project Runway is starting this week! Countdown to Wed! I just really like this show. And of all the seasons I've seen, I loved season 2. I think Santino doing Tim Gunn impressions is awesome! here are some more videos, cause you can never have too many PR#2 vids.

My Slide Show of Random Pics

Here is my slide show of pics. I just figured out how to do this. I don't know if the song will work, but the pics will work.

Movie Reviw Time!

So it's that time again, when I've watched a few movis, old and new, and have to comment on them.

Over the last couple weeks we've gone to a few movies and bought a few and seen a few on cable that I just have to remark upon.

So we bought Mr. Brooks while Michele was visiting and rewatched that. Loved it! I loved it just as much as I did the first time. I loved Kevin Costner in this, loved his alter ego played by William Hurt, I loved his daughter played by Danielle Panabaker, I really liked Demi Moore in it, and Dane Cook. The story is great, the end was great and I just have to rate it a 4 out of 5.

Sticking with Dane Cook, let's move into Dan in Real Life. Liked it. It was pretty cute and I really like Steve Carrell, who did great as a dad who's also trying to be the mom to his 3 daughters. It was a good heart felt dramedy without the corny lines and/or corny plot. It had quite a few big names, and former big names. I gave it a 3 out of 5. Dave was willing to watch it with me because I went and saw Michael Clayton with him. Hated it! I was asleep in the first 20 minutes, and I rarely sleep through movies. It was a SNOOZER!!! And I just didn't get the big deal. I think I actually fell asleep a couple of times. I really like Tilda Swinton but I thought her role here was blah. Having come from playing the Angel Gabriel in Constantine and the White Witch in Narnia, her character here was just blah. Blah blah, blah blah. I actually wanted my money back.

But we saw Dan in Real Life after American Gangster. That was Freaking Awesome. It gets a 4 out of 5. We've been watching some background on Frank Lucas and from what I've seen, the movie portrayed a very accurate depiction of him. We've been waiting for this movie since like May or so, and we were so glad to finally see it. I loved Denzel in it, of course, and I really liked the way the cinemetographer shot it. I'm thinking Oscar for best actor.

The last movie I'm reviewing is Why Did I Get Married? I've only recently become aware of the comedic genious that is Tyler Perry but I really have enjoyed his movies. We saw both Daddy's Little Girls and Married this year, and they were both very good. And I watched a few Madea movies on DVD that I hadn't seen and saw Madea Goes to Jail, which was hilarious. Overall I rate Tyler Perry a 4 of 5.

So mostly very happy about the movies lately, but Michael Clayton was a SNOOZER.

Some Random Pics

We haven't taken any pictures the last couple months, except the ones with the comics. So I'm putting some of my favorite ones from the last year on here.

A few of these are from some of our vacations, and I love the one with Dave sitting on the train steps. That was at the train station in Windsor, CT when we visited his parents in April. We're going there again for Christmas, so I'll get some more of the nice scenary covered in snow. I also threw in a few of the pics I took that I really love of locations, or inanimate objects. All that good stuff. But this first one is of us at Minnehaha Falls with Camille.

Is it too early for Christmas?

So yes, I know it's only Oct, and not even the very end of Oct, but Christmas is in the air for me. I'm so excited to decorate the house all Chrismasy, and I bought a tree last year the day after Christmas, so I'm excited to put the tree up. This will be the first time I've had a tree in a hella long time. I didn't have one in Des Moines or Phoenix, and can't remember if we had one in St. Louis. I'm excited to have one in the house this year, it will be Dave and my first tree together, because we didn't have one last year. I already have some decorations, and a nativity set and I'm going to wrap some garland around the stair rail. I'm just so excited!

Last Comic Standing

So Dave and I went to see the top 5 comedians from this year's Last Comic Standing. We didn't know who the top 5 were going to be when we bought the tickets, but we were very happy with who they turned out to be.

I only got a few pics of a couple of the comics as they were performing and then we took some pics after the show with them. Except for the chick, we didn't really like her too much.

The top 5:

Ralph Harris
Amy Schumer
Gerry Dee
LaVell Crawford
Jon Reep

We were laughing so hard! It was such a great show. Gerry Dee cracked us up. Ralph Harris was pretty funny too, but Gerry was so freaking funny. We didn't really care for Amy Schumer's stint. She had a pretty funny beginning but she got old pretty fast.

Then we were waiting for LaVelle Crawford. We were really happy to see him on Last Comic Standing this year, because we watch him on BET Comic View all the time and we really like him. So we were so excited that he was on Last Comic Standing, and very excited that he was in the top 5 so we'd see him live. He actually came in 2nd, to Jon Reep. He was the Hemi commercial guy. He was pretty funny, too.

Anyway, good times.
Here are some pics.

Ralph Harris





Gerry Dee



LaVelle Crawford


Dave and Gerry Dee



Dave and Jon Reep



Dave and LaVelle




Me and LaVelle




Me and Ralph



Dave and Ralph

Princess Hoo

So my good friend Regina has started her own blog, and I'm so proud of her!!! I met her while living in St. Louis, while she and Tracy were both going to school for social work, and I was a bum and all I did was work. I was done with school when I got my bachelors, so no grad school for me. But they did grad school, and met at an internship. So then Regina stepped into our lives and pretty soon the three of us were roommates in STL. And I learned a bit about Regina. She is a girly girl!! With super cute hair, clothes, shoes, makeup... the works! And she liked very nice things, and our nice apartment, and drove a cute car and everything that you'd expect from a well dressed and sophisticated grad student. And she loved purses. So to hear about her life now I am still in complete shock and awe. She has done a 180 and went from a nice apartment and nice clothes and makeup and air conditioning to a grass hut, dirt floors and the heat of living in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I posted a link to her blog, in case people are interested in reading about her. I'm hoping she posts pictures, cause it's always amazing to see her there. She's doing social work/missionary work and they've helped to create an orphanage and have raised money to bring supplies and assistance into the area. I'm proud of her and still can't get over the fact that this is the same girl!!!

I still crack up over some of the things we did when we were roommates. One thing I always laugh about is the fact that she took a picture of me one time when I had brushed out my curly hair and it was really big. She tricked me and took a picture of it and I was so mad at her, but it's all good. She's not the only one who's done that, thank you Michele in Las Vegas for never sharing that picture!!!!!!!!!! But we had fun. And we had good BBQs too. Tracy and Regina would cook some good food on the Wheel It and Grill It! I wish I had some pics to share of us as roommates to post. I'll have to track some down and post them later.

Anyway, Regina I'm proud of you for starting a blog so everyone can be up to date on the antics of Princess Hoo

Step into a Slim Gym

That's the plan! Dave and I signed up for a gym membership at the YMCA. I haven’t really told anyone, especially not my family yet, because I'm hoping that there will be visible results that my family will notice at Thanksgiving. But since I only have 4 regular readers (including myself and Dave) I'm not too concerned about spilling the beans.

So at first I was pretty much against the idea of joining a gym. But Dave got all the details about the membership, what is included and the fact that if we go 12 times a month we can get a $20 reimbursement from our health insurance. So we joined last Saturday, with the start date of Oct 1. We went Monday night to have our initial appointment with our personal trainer. We’ll have 3 appointments with a trainer over the next 12 weeks and maybe will buy additional sessions after that. We're going again tonight and will do cardio with a focus on strength training.

So I've gone to the other side. I'm a worker outer.

Save the Cheerleader, you know the rest

So Dave and I bought Heroes Season 1 so we could be caught up for season 2 coming out next week. We watched 6 episodes the first night (starting at 9pm Sunday) and finished this morning. We really liked it, although I was kind of miffed by the ending, because I was expecting more. It was somewhat anti-climactic because it led up to this potentially fantastic ending and then just like that!!! it was over. So yes, I was slightly disappointed. And honestly what role did Claire play in the end? Why did we save the cheerleader again?


There were many parts I really liked, for example Niki and Jessica (I really like Ali Larter in general... she's like the female equivalent of Kevin Bacon). I really liked the way she played opposite herself. And I loved Peter, although I wanted more from him at the end. I thought he was a great character.

Overall I liked the show and we're looking forward to the next season starting on the 21st. I hope they play up the character that Molly said is supposedly scarier than Sylar, who she can't think about cause he sees her. Was that a sneak peek into next season's villian? I hope so. But then again, blood going down to the manhole cover and no body for Sylar... maybe there will be a double villian.

So anyway, overall very good show. I'm glad that we saw the preview for it at the movie theater (normally I hate that) and that Dave was down with getting season one.


Random note, I just found out the next season of Project Runway premieres Nov 14. Very excited for that!

Goosebumps

Goosebumps, I tell you. I love this song, and he is great. I don't have any idea how old this is, it just came to my attention today. And already having loved this song, all I can say is it gave me goosebumps.

Blogular Atrophy

That's what I have...







...But not as bad as McLong







.

I thought we were an autonomous collective ...

So Dave and I saw Spamalot last weekend, and it was hilarious!!! I'm so glad we were able to go. Dave got us tickets back in May, and we'd been looking for tickets since probably Oct or Nov of last year, and we were looking at various cities we'd be willing to travel to in order to see it, like Chicago, St. Louis, Vegas, etc. But tickets were outrageously priced!! Like over $200 per ticket. Then Dave surprises me in May with the news that the show was coming to St. Paul and tickets were much cheaper! Not to mention, Wells Fargo gets a pretty good discount through the Ordway Theater, and so we got the tickets for an even better deal. Anyway, we've been waiting for like 4 months to see this show, and it was very worth it!!

It stuck pretty close to the movie, but then there were other parts that were completely new to the musical. It was hilarious! And since our job has a good connection with the Ordway Theater, we were able to get great seats for less.

I've always been a fan of the movie but seeing the musical was even better! The only line I didn't hear that I was looking for, which is one of my favorites, was:

Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!


Good times.

Not Ready to Make Nice

So I realize this song has been out for a little while, and though the controversy surrounding the Dixie Chicks is nowhere near where it was back in London in 2003 when Natalie Maines made her infamous remark, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas," it has recently started to affect me. And I just can’t stop listening to this song. I’ve liked the Dixie Chicks for a while, and back during my country music phase I really liked their albums Wide Open Spaces and Fly. And after that I didn’t really listen to them too much. But when that issue over that remark started blowing up, I paid a little more attention. But I kind of forgot about them again as the controversy died down, until I heard this song. I freaking love it. it has so much emotion in it, and I love the video.

The whole anti-Dixie Chicks campaign really made me sick. The fact that they were boycotted by so many people just really bothered me. Isn’t the whole 1st Amendment thing in place to allow people to say how they feel? Yeah, I hear a lot of stuff that bothers me and I can’t believe people say it. But I also understand that they have the right to say it, and I have yet to send a letter to someone threatening to hurt and/or maim them over some rude or crude or just downright stupid remark they made.

I think it’s really cool that they “bounced back” as much as they have from this, considering half the country turned on them, and probably more than half their fan base. I’ve been watching a few interviews recently on youtube (I love youtube) with Larry King, Good Morning America, the Grammy’s and a few others. And the more I watch about the Dixie Chicks and the affects that that statement had on them and the country, and how they have stood their ground, the more respect I have for them. I plan on renting the Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing dvd very soon, because I think that looks so interesting. And I’d like to learn more about the overall affect on the Dixie Chicks. But for now I settle for interview on youtube, and watching the video over and over. I just really love this song, and can’t stop listening to it. I really like the live performance as well from the Grammy awards. So I’ve embedded both videos in this post. Partly for your sake, in case you haven’t watched them yet, and partly for mine, so I can watch them all the time from my blog.

I also added the lyrics for those not versed in Dixie Chick.


Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting

I'm through, with doubt,
There's nothing left for me to figure out,
I've paid a price, and i'll keep paying

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

I know you said
Why can't you just get over it,
It turned my whole world around
and i kind of like it

I'm in bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don't mind saying,
It's a sad sad story
When a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

What it is you think I should...

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And live at the 2007 Grammy Awards.

Just fun videos

For lack of interesting commentary to blog about, I just have fun videos instead.

I love this! I had recorded the award show and used to watch this intro all the time.

Would You Like A Cherry Squishie?

So I know this is going to sound silly, but I'm excited to see the Simpsons movie. And speaking of movies, I've seen a few lately and would like to take this time to comment on one of them now... Mr. Brooks - FREAKING LOVED IT!!!! I saw it a few weeks ago, and it was a freebie 2nd movie... meaning we paid the full matinee price (we're frugal movie goers) and snuck into the second movie. We typically only go to a movie if we can time it to see two. Anyway, back to the movie review. I was wary of it going into it, because A. I don't like a lot of blood and gore and it was about a serial killer 2. Dane Cook was in it, and although I like Dane as a comedy actor (I really liked him in Employee of the Month) I didn't know if he would make a good serious actor (i.e. Jim Carey syndrome). So I went into it a little unsure. And I walked out just floored by how good it was. Out of 5 stars I'm giving this a 5.125 because holy cow was this movie great. So without getting too much into the plot or giving too much away, here are the main things that I really liked about the movie, and once you see the movie, these will make more sense:
- I loved the fact that they used a separate actor completely, William Hurt, to play Kevin Costners murderous and crazy fun loving serial killer alter ego, Marshall. I loved their interaction. The fact that they would talk to each other throughout the entire movie and it was all in Kevin Costner's head was great. I thought that was much better than Kevin Costner talking to himself, or looking at himself in the mirror and seeing himself. In this case he'd look in the mirror to talk to William Hurt in the back seat. And in once scene they are in the car, and William Hurt is in the backseat, and Kevin Coster looks over his shoulder and William Hurt looks over his at the same time. And then they turn back to the front at the same time. Simple, I know, but very effective.
- I loved that this was not a baseball movie. Darn you Kevin Coster for making so many baseball movies!
- I really liked Danielle Panabaker as Kevin Costner's daughter. She was great in this role. I far cry from Sky High.
- I really liked Dane Cook, to my surprise, as a voyeuristic neighbor who takes pictures of his very open with their sex life neighbors and catches Kevin Costner in the act of killing the nymphos. Which, kind of ironically, was going to be his last murder. But he basically blackmails Kevin Costner into taking him along on another murder. Anyway, I didn't think I would like him in a serious role, but he brought enough dry humor into it that it surprised me and I liked him in it very much!
- I really liked that it wasn't too bloody and gory and serial killerish with the blood and the gore.
- I really loved the ending. I won't spoil that for you, but I thought it was freaking awesome.

Anyway, this movie review has now taken up more of my time than I anticipated and I'm tired. So I'm going to bed now.
But I would highly suggest Mr. Brooks.