Happy Halloween

You may have been wondering today whether or not your neighbors are casting spells. You may have also wondered what are the Top Scariest Things (in the world!) or wanted to know (and then maybe see) what are the Coolest Horror Movie Killings (ever!) Something you may not have wondered about is whether or not those peanut butter kisses were given out at my mom and dad's again this year (for the 45th year in a row).

Not me! I am content to be amused by Dog Costumes and to wonder what the dogs think about their costumes...and to further wonder if some of the costumes border on animal abuse. I am also content to be thankful that no trick-or-treaters rang the doorbell tonight.

Boo Humbug!

I hope you check out those links! (especially the dog costumes)

A Lovely Weekend

The highlight of my weekend was spending time with the two loves of my life: Hannah & Curtis. We had some great quality time together, I fed them, and they are learning lots at school. All of these things make me very happy.

Hannah suggested that my next blog post should be about how hanging out with her and her friends makes me feel youthful. While I certainly enjoyed staying up Saturday night/Sunday morning til 1:30am with Hannah and 3 of her friends until they decided to go to IHOP, I wouldn't say I feel youthful after screwing up my regular sleep schedule.

I also went to a Halloween party! By myself...where I knew only the hostess. That was really big for me. I had a very nice time and met some great people. No, I didn't dress up.

I am half asleep, I think. Not much else to muse about. Have a great week, everyone.

Maybe I Really am a Hypocrite & Are My Teeth Yellow?

This is a test of the Sarcasm Alert for Christine's Dumb Blog system. Orange means the risk of sarcasm today is moderate.

Boy, I really would like to discuss certain rights granted to all human beings by the Constitution...specifically with regard to the sanctity of life (all life!!). The only reason I don't is to protect someone I love deeply who shall remain nameless. I swear....send a child off to college... (Seriously...I will not use this as a forum for political discussion, so any remotely political comments will be deleted. And okay...maybe I do have a little in me. This person got me going last night.)

Whenever I see someone with nice white teeth, I think of that Friends episode where Ross bleaches his teeth so extremely that they glow in the dark. I then fear that standing next to the person with "whiter teeth than mine" will make my own teeth look abnormally yellow. Finally, we have the opportunity to vote on whether a few carefully chosen celebrities have teeth that are "too white" or "just right" white. Let's stop the madness and reestablish realistic expectations of teeth color in America! Join me, will you? (that word "vote" is your link to do so)

Burning Questions

Does Oprah really think that the American public (specifically her target female audience) is really as naive and stupid as her promos imply we are? Yes, maybe I will believe "this" and take this, Oprah--maybe I already know it because I don't live in a cave!...No, I don't need to hear the Dixie Chicks' side of the story....and No, it's not a shocker that suburban housewives are hookers with drug problems.

Did you know that the Google toolbar includes a spellchecker that you can use for the text you input in web forms? I do, I do! G-Bil (Geeky Brother-in-Law) turned me onto it by pointing out the fact that it was there. It's super easy to use...hence, making it easy to succumb to spellchecker sexiness! (Yes, I did.)(Too bad I don't get a small kick-back for that promo.)

Am I the only one who thinks Harold Ford, Jr. might have an anger management problem? (You know since *I* have an anger management problem, it's easy for me to recognize it in others.) Anyway, he scares me. I have voted and can leave it behind me until the polls report. (Please: no political commentary as I will not use this as a forum to discuss politics. I just don't have it in me, anymore. No, really. I'm serious.)

Did you know that I have an anger management problem? That was one of the myriad of "reasons" for the demise of the marriage I do not miss. At first, I was receptive to the idea and immediately bought an anger management workbook to help me deal with my anger. Then, I discussed it with my therapist. Then, I got really angry and got rid of the S.O.B. (a.k.a. ex)

Why do people with big dogs live in small apartments? Okay, I really don't care about this one. I picked it up from something I was watching on TV last night for a brief moment. It got me making a list of all sorts of burning questions.

Where did Christine get that talent for choosing bad movies? Always something I'm left wondering...especially after seeing a movie at the "not a mainstream movie" theater.

Why do people spend $1644 per course & then throw it away by constantly skipping class, dropping courses for which they must still pay, and abusing their opportunity to get an education? This, my friends, is the real burning question...perhaps of the century. We just DON'T get it!!! If anybody has the answer, please please please let us know.

Happy Thursday!

BTW: "No spelling errors were identified." I am so satisfied with myself.

Movie Reviews & Civic Duty (& more on pickle juice)

Voting

No, my civic duty is not to provide movie reviews. I did, however, perform my civic duty yesterday by taking advantage of early voting. I don't recall ever being so distracted by small loud playing children at the voting booth. It was so loud in the polling center that I could hardly concentrate on what the propositions said & was afraid I would vote the wrong way. In any event...my votes are in...including the unfortunate Lesser of Two Evils senatorial vote.

Movie Rentals

The two rentals of the weekend (actually rented last Tuesday) were Click and The Break Up.

Click: I knew as soon as Adam Sandler got comfy on the bed in the Bed, Bath, and Beyond store that the remainder of the movie would be a dream. How could it not be? It was sort of a Christmas Carol meets Wonderful Life type movie where he finds out that the remote control pusher Morty is an angel near the end of the movie. The lesson was "family first." Sandler set out to find a universal remote control & ends up with this new remote which uses technology that allows him to fast forward through the difficult times in his life. Although this was escapism for me, I don't recommend it. It certainly won't be on my list of favorites.

The Break Up: This was a disappointment, too. It consisted of a lot of yelling and spiteful behavior by two people living together post-break up. The lesson was basically, "You should have said that to begin with." --in reference to the nearly the end of the movie explanation of what Aniston's character wanted out of the relationship which was already over and too far gone to salvage. So, again...a couple hours of diversion, but I don't recommend this one, either.

New at the Movies

One Night With the King: Based on the Old Testament book of Esther. While relatively consistent with the biblical account, I was very disappointed. This didn't have the dramatic or inspirational impact I think it is intended to have. Some of the acting was poor and at times the story was hard to follow simply because of the thick accent of the narrator and the variety of difficult to understand accents of the cast. The costumes were great & the set was fantastic. The music was redundant (if you can characterize it like that)--a variety of music to match what was happening in the movie was not used.

Marie Antoinette: Another disappointment. Amazing set design and beautiful costumes, but again difficult to follow. In addition, there were periods of no meaningful action. I think this is getting some good reviews, but mostly because Sofia Coppola (director) is well-respected. It's almost like nobody wants to say anything to offend her. I would have much rather this movie focus heavily on the historical accuracy of the story. There was not a good explanation of why Louis & Marie Antoinette were driven from their home. We didn't even get to see Marie Antoinette beheaded! (check out this review: http://movies.ign.com/articles/740/740633p1.html)

So, did you calculate the number of hours I spent watching disappointing movies? I guess at least 8. At least that was 8 hours I wasn't sleeping my day away or pondering the empty nest. In the middle of all that, I did go to mass. Fr. Michael preaches his homily much longer than what I'm used to...I had a hard time paying attention toward the end. He does, however, have a great sense of humor, is very interactive, and does a good job grabbing attention at the beginning of the homily.

Back to the Pickle Juice

It seems that if you put your fingers in the juice to pull out a pickle that some sort of reaction takes place which clouds the pickle juice.

Now you know what I did this weekend. I'll bet you're jealous.

Pickle Juice and Squeezable Mayo

My last two jars of pickles have met a premature demise. The pickle juice has turned cloudy quickly after I opened the jar. Pretty sure this isn't normal & afraid there's something scary going on. Hence, pickles in trash.

My last two bottles of squeezable mayo have met a premature demise, as well...strangely coinciding with the demise of the pickles. The mayo, for some strange reason, has turned runny. I noticed that the first ingredient on the label is soybean oil. I wonder if the soybean oil is responsible for the decreased life expectancy of what should be delightfully fluffy mayonnaise for a long time!

No sandwich with pickles, anyway...None of this pickle juice/mayo drama mattered much after I dropped my deli ham on the kitchen floor tonight. It became a puppy treat. (Yes, I know ham is bad for dogs & can cause pancreas problems...not much I can do it about now is there?)

I hope I didn't misspell anything.

At the risk of being a hypocrite...

Anyone who knows me knows that it drives me nuts when words are misspelled. I am mortified that I misspelled hypocrite. Thank you, daughter, for making a special phone call to alert to me this. (I have since corrected the post.)

I've always been very proud of my spelling prowess, but I am 43 now. Maybe I'm slipping!?! I wonder if this Blogger machine has a spell check. I am adamantly opposed to spell check, but I may have to succumb to its sexiness. Sheeesh!! Now, I'm looking up words like sexiness to make sure I don't make another mistake.

Thanks, Hannah! I love you and your willingness to alert me to my shortcomings in an effort to help me avoid looking like a hypocrite. (And, oh, yeah...for laughing at me!)

Place Your Bets

Ever heard of the Brilliant But Cancelled website? It's a deathwatch for new television shows. The most recently cancelled (today, in fact) is that show Runaway...you know where the whole family is on the run, because the dad is in trouble and if "they" find him, "they" will kill the whole family or something like that. I watched just enough of it to know that Donnie Wahlberg's softspoken desperate sounding voice was annoying and the show was just not engaging for someone looking for an intelligent drama to watch. (I hope this doesn't sound like sarcasm. I'm trying to be frank.)

In any event...place your own bet for the next cancelled show. If you bet for the right one, you go into a pool to win an iPod. Aside from that, it's fun to watch the shows die off. My next bet is Men in Trees. I'm surprised it has lasted this long.

Check it out: (http://www.brilliantbutcancelled.com/deathwatch)

Let's Try This Picture Thing Again, Shall We?

I think the white space problem was simply a matter of the proper cropping of the photo I was uploading. The next mystery (to me, anyway) is why the image changes (or at least seems to). It looks degraded compared to what I have on my computer--the color is weird and I look all shiny. The next next quandary: I selected "small" image size, but now I have a big head. What's up with that?

Learning to Post a Picture

See Christine post a picture of herself. I'm not sure why when this posts, there is so much white space in the post. Since I'm new this whole thing, I suppose I'll figure it out eventually. So far, Blogger doesn't seem very user friendly to me.

(Removed the picture on 10/18)

Sarcasm

I have figured out why I have had such an aversion to blogs: sarcasm. It seems like the vast majority of bloggers use excessive sarcasm as a form of expression. It would be refreshing to see folks exercise the skill of real communication and tell us in a non-offensive manner what they think and how they feel.

I'm not sure where my own blog is headed, but I do hope to avoid sarcasm as a general practice. I do not, however, promise never to use it. It may have a purpose in the future and I don't want to end up being the hypocrite.