2 great movies in less than 2 days

Last night Tom and I saw The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. AMAZING. Thank you Karyn for this recommendation!

And then this afternoon we watched Once. Loved the music and was sad when it ended. Not necessarily because it ends sad, I just didn't want it to end.

YAY! Jury Duty Postponed!

(til Wednesday)

So I have a few moments to tell you about another one of my Christmas presents...

Just a Drop

Anyone else heard of it? Without going into too much detail, I'll just say this stuff works. It's great for traveling, staying at friend's houses, restaurants, etc. If you're like me and only like to perform bathroom doody in the comforts of your own home, this little spray may open up a world of options for waste elimination. And it's small enough to carry with you at all times.

Oh, and if you're wondering who gave this to me and why I would receive such a gift, it's because my friend Rebecca and I like to outgross each other and really enjoy discussing our bathroom episodes. We have no shame. Little did she know I would find this product so useful. This year for Christmas I made her a scarf of bugs. I knitted in a bunch of fake spiders, roaches, beetles, and crustaceans. Truly a masterpiece. I must ask her for a picture to post on here.

Back to Nature

Our nature hike was supposed to be one of peace and tranquility but I tend to get a little spooked when I see stuff like this upon entering the first trail...


then a few feet over is this lovely warning...


I know that these signs have to be posted for safety reasons and the odds of something actually happening to us are slim to none but I still have a tendency to let my imagination run wild in the wilderness. Tom calls me Nervous Nelly when I get into "worst case scenario" mode. I was actually doing fine until we came upon this sign which was about 200 feet away from the campground barbeque...


I felt it was time to break out an adult beverage from the backpack but then I ran into this...


Drats. I trudge along trailing Tom and Wrigs and then we hit the next trail and are greeted with this...


I'm curious, does this mean NO DOGS at all or just no dogs that look like a Doberman? Although don't most Dobermans have short little nubby tails? I think they do. So we turn around and head back the way we came. We find another trail and now see this sign...


It's not the Doberman looking dog so then we start to wonder if they are just not allowing specific breeds of dogs on these trails. But I guess that would be discriminatory and I'm sure PETA (along with Jesse and Reverend Al) would be all over that shit so we figure the trail is off limits to all dogs.

So back down the trail we go. We decide to take a different route into more of a wooded area. It was sort of creepy because it was very desolate and visions of the movie The Vanishing danced in my head. But then I saw this sign and thought, "That's it! Hikes over."


If we can't gather wood I'm outta here.

I guess I should post some more pics...








Until next time...

Take a hike

All I do is clean this house. I can't just look past the dust, fur and crap. I wish I could but I can't. Tom doesn't want me to spend another full day of cleaning so we are going for a hike in the canyons. It's a gorgeous day outside and I guess I've just been taking these days for granted. I don't enjoy them as much as I should. So we're going for a hike and taking Wrigs with. I need to be outside more and enjoy nature. The hike will be a good start. I'll bring the camera and take some pretty pictures.

Just what I want to be doing on New Year's Eve...

sitting in one of these.
That's what I get for blowing off jury duty over the summer. Dumb stupid criminals. This really sucks.

Sea this Movie

THE SEA INSIDE

I saw it a couple years ago and just wanted to share it on here. It will change the way you view your life and the little things we ALL take for granted. And it's a true story which makes it even that more remarkable.

we received...

2 Christmas cards from people we have never heard of before. And yet, they wrote a shit load of stuff in the card.

I asked Tom, "Who are the ------'s?" He says, "Never heard of them." Then I show him the second card, "What about these people?" He looks, squints, shrugs then says, "No clue."

We're both completely gobsmacked.

tonight...

the hubby is out watching football with his buddy and I'm home alone still taking down the blasted Christmas decorations. I poured myself a glass of wine to unwind after a HELL commute (over 2 hours one way for a 10 second commercial spot) so I thought I'd check up on some emails and correspondence. Well one glass led to two and since I'm staying in tonight...hell, I'll have another. I'm starting to feel drunk a little. But it's ok. It's still holiday time, and the end of another year, and our house is freezing and... I live with a mean cat- who pees all over our house. Need I say more.

I don't like...

to drink alone so I just gave my dog a teaspoon of wine.

I wonder...

how much dog and cat fur I consume on a daily basis.

unimaginable loss...

The other day my mom received some sad news from back home. One of her dear friends lost her son from a sudden heart attack 7 days before Christmas. Then 4 days later, while getting dressed for his funeral, his mother (my mom's friend) has a heart attack and dies. What a devastating loss. How do you even communicate that to the rest of the family on the day of the son's funeral??? I can't even imagine. Makes you realize how the life that you know and live every day can forever change in an instant. Be kind to those in your own little world, love them while you have them and while they have you.

a GREAT film

I am always a year or two behind when it comes to watching movies because I don't like to sit for 2+ hours in a movie theatre seat. So this morning I watched Blood Diamond while putting away the Christmas decorations and WOW was this movie amazing. I'm sure all of you have seen it but if not, I recommend it highly. What made this movie so intriguing to me was that I knew NOTHING about it before watching it. I didn't look it up on IMDB until after it was over so every single scene was a complete surprise. Fabulous job, Mr. Zwick. Keep these movies comin'!

finally, something good

I had to watch something else after that cluster f*ck of a movie Catch and Release, so I switched to The Departed. I've already seen it and damn is it good. Especially the scene when grown up hot man Leo comes in from the rain to his psychiatrist's apartment. Here's a clip though in another language. French? Italian? German? I have no clue. Either way it's still Mmm Mmm good.

our favorite things...

Ok since I can't watch anymore of this ridiculously predictable movie I thought I'd blog about my favorite Christmas present...THE ROOMBA! This thing is FANTASTIC! I know I bitched about Tom's obsessive compulsion when it comes to vacuums but he really hit the jackpot on this one. This machine makes me want to sing. We set the timer on it so every other day at 9am it shoots out of it's docking station and goes to work in the family room. It takes about 45 minutes to clean the room and when it's done it finds it's way back to the station. I am so grateful to have one of these, especially with a houseful of fuzzy animals.

One of Tom's favorite Christmas presents is a remote control helicopter my mom gave him. He played with this thing ALL day yesterday and even let me try it out. We made up a game and would each take turns flying it around and landing it gently (not an easy task). I kept crash landing and instead of picking it up and placing it upright I would gun the motor on the remote to try and get it airborne. The thing kept flipping around on the floor and Tom was not happy about this. He says, "Stop doing that! If you don't pick it up you can't play with my toy!" He was completely serious. I don't think we would have gotten along so well as 5 year olds.

I found some footage on youtube of a similar helicopter. Though, the guy in this video needs to put down the toy and clean his place. He could even invest in a Roomba if he's short on time.

Catch and Release this movie

I am watching Catch and Release right now (about 45 minutes into it) and it is one of the STUPIDEST movies I've ever seen. Is it worth continuing to watch? It's so phony that I can't handle it. Plus, Jennifer Garner's top lip has been puffed full with too much collagen and some scenes it looks like she has an oozing cold sore.


Gross. Stupid. Gross.

Yes...another vacuum!

I know one of my Christmas presents this year is a Roomba. Tom has wanted one for YEARS and I'm pretty sure that he got one as a "household gift". This will now bring our household vacuum total to SEVEN. Tom has a serious addiction to purchasing motorized suction devices and I think I need to find him help.

I must get back to making dinner. Instead of turkey and all the fixins I decided to do a lasagna. We have no room in our fridge for anything else at this point so a tray of lasagna is easier to manage than a 20 pound bird. Ok I must put the lasagna in the oven before the guests arrive!

Oh, by the way...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Peace, love and laughter to all.

Love,
Laura

sometimes only chocolate will do...

Last night I had one of the worst bouts of PMS. I was ransacking the freezer, pantry, couch cushions, old purses for anything that had a trace of chocolate. I wasn't having much luck then I remembered one of Tom's stocking stuffers was a big box of Hershey's Pot of Gold Caramel Assortment. Have you ever tried these? OH mY God are they good! So I brought the box over to Tom and asked him to please open one of his stocking stuffers early. He said he didn't want to, he'd rather wait until Christmas. I Begged PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE open it NOW and I started to rip the box open a little so he could see what it was. Tom is a certified Chocoholic so once he saw the Hershey label, he tore off the rest of the paper and we both couldn't get the plastic wrap off the box fast enough. We managed to eat the ENTIRE top row in a matter of 15 minutes.

Now I must brave the elements the weekend before Christmas and replace this box with another. Not looking forward to that. I am still looking for one more gift for my mom but am not having much luck. I'll try and update more later.

slow news day

So the news tonight featured a segment on airplane food and how most of the stuff we eat on the plane has more fat and calories than a Big Mac, fries and strawberry sundae combined. The field reporter was interviewing random people on the street asking them their opinions on airplane food. This woman ranted about how awful her tuna sandwich (or was it salad!?!) tasted...


Oh the HORROR!

And then I snapped a photo of this woman, who stated her opinion on airplane snack boxes. Read what's under her name...


Did they really just waste 12 seconds of critical news time with this??? I guess I wasted more than 12 seconds blogging about it and also capturing film and photos (thanks to DVR). But I'm sure we can all sleep better tonight knowing that Emma Davis likes snack boxes.

Aww, how sweet.

Brit's little sis, Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. Good thing she waited 'til the ripe old age of 16 to pop one out, and thank GOD she's got Britney for a role model on motherhood.

Good golly, studio execs! Settle this strike! We need the late night guys on this one.

have to make these...

I'm sure the men at our holiday gatherings will enjoy biting some bits off this cookie. Speaking of bits, perhaps I'll make a "boy" version for my lady friends. Oh, this could be dangerous...