Wordless Wednesday

Posted on 25 January 2012 | No responses

 

 

 

Tuesday List

Posted on 24 January 2012 | 8 responses

• I want to start trying out some new recipes. After about 6 months of my husband’s new schedule I am still not quite used to him getting home late and we have gotten out of the habit of eating at home. My goal for the coming weeks is to try some new recipes and get back to using my slow cooker.
• Oh, my dear little slow cooker. I have the tiniest thing that Granny bought for me on Black Friday 2007. It was marked down to $2. Tell me, how can something that costs only $2 work so well? I think it’s time to upgrade though. It’s definitely too small to cook a pot roast or a small chicken in. Recommendations for a decent sized (but not enormous) slow cooker?
• My baby brother has come up to see me more often in recent months. That’s been nice, as for the most part my parents and occasionally my grandparents are really the only to visit me here, 50 miles away. Anyway, it’s been nice to see him. When he visits we usually watch a little TV (he watches the same shows as me and Kevin) or he makes me listen to music. Really, he makes me. The thing is though, I already know most of the songs, so it’s like a game of name that tune for a mish-mash country (new and old) and classic rock. With your occasional hip hop song thrown in. You can’t fool me, boy. I’ve got 4 years on you. And I was around for the early days of Napster.
• As far as I know, my baby brother does not read my blog. This is a scientific experiment to see how long it takes before he finds out I mentioned him here.
• While we’re talking about my baby brother, here is the ring tone I have for him on my phone:
  
• Thinking about cutting my hair off.
• This was supposed to be the week of getting back in the gym, but after throwing my back out sometime this weekend…that hasn’t happened. Last night I broke out the shiatsu back massager (one of those you put in your chair) and while it worked a few kinks out, I think I may have bruised my back. Ouch.
• Since ibuprofen and acetaminophen haven’t been able to touch this pain, I’m awfully glad I saved a prescription pain killer from my wisdom tooth removal. Yeah, those pills are forever old, but the one I took yesterday is the only thing that’s helped. Even if it’s just the placebo effect.

On Beauty and the Beast 3D & Noticing the Details

Posted on 23 January 2012 | 7 responses

Yesterday afternoon my husband I ventured out to our favorite theater to catch a showing of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 3D. That gimmick usually doesn’t work on me and I was really okay with sitting this one out like I did with The Lion King, but BATB is one of my favorite Disney films (explained here) and my husband managed to coax me into going. Like I said, the idea of 3D has never appealed to me and knowing how prone I am to headaches (hello, predicting the slightest change in barometric pressure!), the idea of the 3D hangover wasn’t something I wanted to chance.

I made it out alive and free of pain, other than my back (that’s another story though), having enjoyed the hour-and-a-half love story. While the 3D aspect didn’t pull me in, the idea of seeing a movie I have loved for a long time on the big screen did. I was in 1st grade when BATB came out. I never saw it in the theater so viewing the whole thing so BIG yesterday was neat. The opening sequence was my favorite, when we get our first look at the castle. I think the setting for BATB may be my second favorite next to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (that creepy moat and dungeon are spectacular). The forest is beautiful and there is so much to notice about the castle. Another big I picked up on were the gorgeous landscapes in this feature. There aren’t many, so you have to watch closely (now I want to break out the DVD and get my pause button ready), but the bit where Belle’s father heads off to the fair has a lovely shot of a valley with a tiny house and lots of pasture/farmland around it, surrounded by mountains in the background. Such a lovely scene. I wish they did more expansive animated landscape shots like that. There I go — I love landscapes, but I know most folks (kids) don’t go to an animated movie for the fields and forests.

The details that I noticed were too numerous to count. There was so much more to soak in seeing this in its intended size! When Belle arrives at the castle for the first time, looking in the misty background behind the gates you can see a large shadow that takes up most of the height of the screen — the Beast’s shadow. I’m going to have to look this up on the DVD to see if it’s in the original version or if this is something they added. I thought it was really cool and kind of ominous. Definitely something I never noticed before.

Inside the castle there were more tiny details that I caught. The paintings in the hallway! Oh my goodness. There was so much famous artwork. I caught a Rembrandt or two and in one scene Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is very clearly showcased in the background. In the West Wing we see the Beast’s elaborate four-poster bed that is completely wrecked, but the detail is remarkable.

I could gush over this for days, but it really makes me want to rewatch so many of these animated films on the big screen when I get the chance. For now, I settle with my TV.

As of Late – January 2012

Posted on 19 January 2012 | 9 responses

I am linking up with Critty Joy’s “As of Late” for the first time this month. I thought it would be a nice way to look back and have idea of what was going on from month to month, since there are certainly little details that I leave out about what’s going on in the day-to-day of my life.

Lately I have been trying to figure out where the mysterious leak in my fairly new shower is coming from. I am both a detective and an amateur plumber. Living alone for a few years forced me to learn a lot of things and I think my husband is constantly realizing what a catch he got with me

Lately I have been writing more. Bits and pieces here and there. Even the littlest bit is better than nothing, right? Picking up old stories, remembering where they came from, reworking. Lawsy mercy, 2004-2005, you were a weird time for me. But my writing was better when my heart was mildly broken. So, sad as it is, I’ve been trying to remember that place. It’s not a difficult thing to do, however once I am there I have to remind myself that now is not then. No matter what kind of emotions I stir up — life is not as it was in 2005. The choices, the options, the characters…are not the same.

Lately I am being really cryptic. Ahem, pardon me.

Lately there’s been a lot of good new music drifting through my house. Let me say it again — I love my Sonos.

Lately I have been making playlists to write by. What’s some of your favorite music to write to?

Lately I have been prowling through old journals. It’s amazing to see these things that I wrote when I was 17 and realize that for the most part I am the same. The handwriting has little progress. (I had grand dreams that by the time I was this age I would have a gorgeous, flowing script. Eh. Not so much.) Part of me thinks that 17-year-old me would be disappointed with where 27-year-old me is. But that is another tale for another time. I’ll be coming back to these journals.

Lately I have felt the urge to play Emma Woodhouse. You know, matchmaker. Lucky for you single friends of mine I’m having a hard time matching you all up together. If I had a larger pool to choose from, this could get dangerous.

Lately I have chosen to have good days. To walk in and say, “I don’t have control of this situation, but it does not have control of me either and I will not let someone else’s stupidity or ignorance or laziness determine how I feel.” And you know what? I think it’s working.

Lipstick, lip gloss, lip balm

Posted on 18 January 2012 | 4 responses

…and mail from the Duchess. Twelve minutes and 51 seconds of me rambling about what I’m reading, watching, and some of my favorite makeup. Have a great Wednesday!

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