Oscar nominated movie reviews!

We're in our last push to see the Oscar nominated movies. We only have 2 to go til March 7th, we're only lacking The Blind Side and An Education.

In the last two weeks we saw:

The Hurt Locker
It doesn't have a ton of star power but its still a good film. It follows a unit of elite soldiers that have one of the toughest jobs in Iraq. They are in charge of disarming bombs and it is intense. The three main characters all have different, even clashing personalities when it comes to their personal lives and their professional lives. It is a good insight at the intense sacrifice and stresses our soldiers go through.
My grade: B, it was a good movie but I don't expect it to take home the statue. And I'm glad we saw the movie on video, I don't know if I would have paid full price to see it in the theater.

A Serious Man
Oh a Coen Brother movie. They always seem to snake their way in to the Oscars. Sometimes I have no idea why? When my husband went to rent this movie the Blockbuster employee told him the movie did not get good reviews and she told him that someone had even left a note in the movie when it was returned that it was "the worst movie ever seen". So we definitely did not have high hopes or expectations for the movie but we sat down to watch it anyway. I definitely felt the way I do with most Coen brother movies-good acting, good cinematography, but NO PLOT and this one was no different. But at the end, Ryan and I weren't left feeling like it was the worst movie ever, maybe it was because our expectations were so low. But it was easy to watch and I liked the general story. It follows a Jewish family in the 60's going through divorce, death, family struggles, work struggles and the son going through his coming of age bar mitzvah. During the commentary the Coen brothers did reflect that they got some of the stories from their own youth so that helped make a little more sense.
My grade: B+, but again we could be biased bc we were not expecting anything from this movie. I hope it doesn't win but I would have put it in the top 5 nominations.

Up in the Air
This movie definitely has the star power with George Clooney as the lead actor. Clooney works for a third party company that is in charge of laying people off. He is quite the loner and lives to travel for work until he is partnered up with a young, new, female colleague. The new colleague shows him how its ok to have other people in your life, especially your family. I think this movie was pretty predictable but still hit a chord probably bc of how many people have been on the other side of George Clooney's character in this economy.
My grade: B-, to me the movie is just a run of the mill movie with a predictable plot line and not even a really exciting one at that.

Snowmageddon-Dallas style

February has been a crazy weather month all around the country. Sure Dallas isn't getting 40 inches dumped on them every other day like the East Coast but we did have a record amount of snow on Feb 11th. It hit 12.5 inches of snow fall in one day. We even had a small blanket of snow this past Tuesday too. Ok, El Nino we're all tired of this weather. I can't wait for Spring. I felt especially bad bc the weekend of the big Feb 11th snow storm we were expecting friends in town from Minnesota for the NBA All-Star weekend. They were hoping to come down wearing t-shirts and flip flops, but when they got here the first thing they said was "it looks just like Minnesota!" Its amazing they got here in the first place, over 500 flights were cancelled that day including theirs. They just happened to call the airlines later that evening and get another flight. So Nathan and Michelle made it down and we had a lot of fun hanging out, even the weather couldn't get us down!!!



Look at all that snow!!!


Ryan and Dirk at the NBA All-Star Expo

Michelle, Nathan, me, and Ryan at the Twisted Root for lunch

The Grassy Knoll

Oscar nominations!

I've mentioned in a few movie review posts that Ryan and I try to see all the Best Picture nominations each year. The nominations just came out last week and Ryan and I are already half way there to seeing all the Best Picture nominations. They have 10 nominations this year instead of 5 so it's a little more of a challenge but I hope we can get them all in before March 7th.

Best Picture Noms:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges
George Clooney
Colin Firth
Morgan Freeman
Jeremy Renner

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock
Helen Mirren
Carey Mulligan
Gabourey Sidibe
Meryl Streep

We've seen: Avatar, District 9, Inglourios Basterds, Precious, and Up. I have heard really good things about the other 5 on the list so I am looking forward to seeing them. My personal vote for Best Picture based on the 5 I've seen so far is Precious. Fabulous acting and such a different, emotional, truthful, hopeful story that I hope it is rewarded for all of those characteristics.

31 complete with Drag Queens!

I turned the big 3-1 on January 23rd. I know this post is a little dated now but it's taken me almost this long to recover. Back in November, Southwest Airlines had a ticket sale and I thought I would take advantage of it by taking a trip to good ole KC. Ryan wasn't able to come since he doesn't have a lot of vacation days this year with his new job. I flew in on Friday the 22nd after work. On Saturday I went to one of my fave KC restaurants, La Bodega with my parents. I have cravings for this place when we are in Dallas. Even though Ryan and I have tried out a few tapas places here in town NONE of them compare to La Bodega, its the BEST!!!!

Then for the nighttime festivities I thought what better way to celebrate my birthday than with the girls and with guys dressed like girls, right? I planned a girls night out to Flo's Cabaret. Flo did not disappoint and I had a great group of ladies with me, even my mom and mother in law joined the crowd. We had such a good time and I haven't had that much fun in awhile.




Sunday I celebrated w/ my Dad, StepMom, Stepbrother and Grandma for lunch.

On Monday my mom and I headed up north to visit my grandpa in his assisted living home. It was really important for me to see him since I don't get a chance to visit him as much as I'd like and I'm not sure how much longer it will be before he is able to remember the visits that I do make.

Tuesday I had to head back to Dallas. I had such a great trip and got to spend really good time with my friends and family, which I am so thankful for. It's times like that that I really miss being in KC. I don't get really homesick a lot but it's so hard to leave KC sometimes. I am really blessed with great family and friends and I know we will always remain close no matter where I'm at.

Mom and I at the airport!

There's no better way to say it--I WON FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!

I still can hardly believe it!!!! Let me give you the background. There is a restaurant that I frequent here in town, the Corner Bakery. I love this place. They have the best turkey sandwich I've ever eaten, the Uptown Turkey sandwich, and I am quite familiar with turkey sandwiches. They also have the best Baked Potato soup, so good that I order it even in the 100+ degree Texas heat in the summer. And did I mention their Chopped Salad, cuz I love it too. I usually go eat at the restaurant at least once a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times in a week. Well, every time you get your receipt they have a survey to fill out with a chance to win $5000 in their quarterly drawing. Week after week I would fill out the survey. I got quite good at in fact, it wasn't hard, I mean I already love their food so the survey was just a few minutes of my time. I kept thinking, the $5000 giveaway is a numbers game and I frequent the restaurant so much and religiously fill out the survey that I was bound to win sometime, but c'mon, who knows anyone that really wins those things anyway-right?
Well this Monday it happened to me. The sweepstakes company called me Monday night. As soon as the voice on the other end said Corner Bakery, I knew I had won the $5000 and I went crazy, screaming and jumping, FINALLY it happened to ME. So I just have to verify that I am a legal US resident, over 18 and don't work at Corner Bakery and I will get a nice ole bump to my pocketbook in around 2 weeks. It was the icing on the cake, following a great birthday weekend in Kansas City, be looking for all those details in my next post.

I am so sick of diapers!!!

Why would I be sick of diapers you ask? My poor furbaby Cricket has a bladder stone issue. She first started having bladder stone problems in September 2008. Back then we went ahead and had surgery to remove the stone. We kept her on special, prescription Science Diet food since then in hopes of keeping her pH balances in check. But early this December I noticed Cricket squatting a lot to go potty, the tell tale sign of her bladder issues. So we went to the vet and x-rayed her and he said her bladder was filled with little stones. Well, just great, Cricket always seems to conveniently get these stones when we are headed on a trip to KC. Last time it was over Labor Day and Ryan's birthday, this year she was gonna be in KC for two weeks over Christmas. Instead of putting her in the crate for 23 hours a day we decided to put her in doggie diapers. It was a great idea, she could be out with the family and she could squat as much as she needed too. The stones put pressure on her and make her feel like she has to go ALL.THE.TIME. This time the vet said we could feed her a different type of prescription food to dissolve her stones but it could take up to MONTHS. Let me tell you, having a dog on specialty foods and diapers is not cheap. We pay $30 for 12 days of food and $20 for 4 days worth of diapers. I know its no fun for her either and I'm sure its painful, even though you wouldn't know it since she is still her crazy, hyper self. But it makes me think, if its this much work for my furbaby, I don't think I'm ready to head to mommyville anytime soon, lol!!!! It's crazy the things you'll do for your pets, gawd I love her!!!

Cricket sporting her doggie diaper!!!

My New Year's resolutions!

Is it a bad thing to have too many??? I know I could just get by with one but I have plenty of lofty ideas for 2010. I hope I can stick with them!

-Become more organized! (I have been watching the show Hoarders and it has enlightened me to get this house way more organized. On top of that we are not blessed with basements here in TX so by getting organized I can use the storage space we do have more wisely)

-Go to church more often! (This one shouldn't be that tough since its sad to say that our church days are pretty much non existent but I would like to start going at least once a month)

-Run a marathon! (This is actually the one I am most apprehensive about. I am nervous about my foot and the training involved in running a marathon. But I never believed I would be able to run a 20k even so I just have to keep positive)

-Pay off debt! (I have this one pesky credit card that I just can't seem to get rid of. I need to make a few better decisions in my spending to get that measly thing knocked out)

I think these are definitely accomplishable but that's easy to say on day 1 :)