My movie review: Catch and Release

Last night the ear doctor and I went to see Catch and Release. I wasn't super excited to see it until my roommates came home last weekend and said it was "so" good.

Well, they were wrong.

The story was a little unbelievable. It seemed to span only 3 days and everything under the sun happened to these people. Every male character was in love with Jennifer Garner's character, and in the end the drama seemed a little to much to be real. Kind of like watching a Felicity episode....except I never really found myself caring about these characters.

The saving grace of the movie was that it was filmed here in Boulder. It made me really happy to see my little town up on the big screen. From the shot of the flat irons, to boulder creek everything was AWESOME! My favorite little Chinese restaurant even got some screen time. It was fun to point out that hardcore road bikers would probably never be eating at the Sink where their specialty is greasy pizza served with honey for the crusts (YUM).

All in all my review is: B-. A C for the story and an A for the location!

Go see it if you want to check out my hood.

Crowning achievement

Last night the ear doctor and I made the most fabulous dinner for 12 of our closest friends. It was a celebration dinner of a close friend joining our church, which is always pretty exciting. We started cooking at 4 pm and served dinner at 6:30. Here is our menu:

Green salad with apples, slivered almonds, goat cheese and raspberry/blackberry vinaigrette
Oven baked pork "riblets" with cracked pepper and garlic rub
Melinda Cardon's secret recipe baked new potatoes
Fresh asparagus with tomato, onion and lemon compote
Hot from the oven cornbread with whipped honey butter
All-American apple pie

Sounds good huh!?! It was!

While we were cooking together I mentioned to the ear doctor that I might like to try my hand at running a catering business at some point in my life (a long way down the road). He got really excited because it would be something we could do together with relatively little financial risk. He said, "It’s not like I could ever come to your work and be an engineer and the chances of you being an audiologist any time soon are pretty slim, but that's something we could work together at."

He's cool.

Thanks!

Dear Anthropologie,

I can make both of these skirts in one afternoon.



Thanks for the ideas and helping me save $200 dollars by not purchasing them through you!

What would you do?

If you had to use two words and ONLY two words to describe Jimminy Cricket what would you use?

How about "Pinocchio" and "grasshopper"?

Or "singing" and "locust"?

Or even "wish" and "star"?

You know what words will never get someone to guess Jimminy Cricket? "Pan" and "song". I know these two words don't work because they are the two that my friend tried to use to get his team to guess "Jimminy Cricket" during game night on Wednesday. Which act can be held solely responsible for their team's defeat.

So, since he was the other team, I guess those totally crappy words were actaually a stroke of genius because it helped my team's TOTAL DOMINATION!!!!!!!!!

Just like Christmas

Yesterday was officially Christmas part 2 in my life. When I got home from school there was a pile of boxes hip-high on my front step.

I got a webcam from my brother in London who misses me enough to buy me a webcam so we can stay in touch.

My mom sent me a whole set of the cutest blue and green polka-dot dishes. I didn't think I wanted them when she mentioned it. I have SO much stuff as it is and sometimes get a little overwhelmed by everything I'm accruing. However, when they got her and I laid my eyes on their beauty I was smitten and am glad indeed that she got them for me. Such a lucky girl!

Also, she sent me some books she's been promising and some speakers for my ipod! How cool is that!

In the true spirit of Christmas I also gave presents yesterday.

I got the ear doctor the new Shins CD that "dropped" yesterday. It is good and still sounds like their earlier discs which is good because I was a little worried about them selling out in order to get famous. No worries there!

Also, I got my friend Amy some really awesome flowers. The ear doctor and I went over to meet her beautiful week old baby boy. He is breathtakingly cute. The ear doctor pointed something out that is so true. It's awesome to be around new parents. They have such a sense of awe and humility about them. Like they just feel so blessed to be entrusted with a little miracle. It's pretty rad to be around that.

Happy holidays (part deux)!

My movie review: Painted Veil

I L-O-V-E-D it!

Although, with saying that I have to state a caveat here. The movie was a bit on the slower paced side, so if you're the type who has to get up and grab a snack during a long movie you might want to wait until you can rent it and watch it at home. Also, nothing blows up and there aren't any songs from MTV on the soundtrack. Don't go see it if you don't have patience at the movie theater.

However, DO go see it if you are intruiged by the beauty of the Chinese landscape and culture. DO see it if you like to see a movie about relationships and real every day love. DO go see it if you like to think about what real forgiveness means.

I mean, just look at this photo.



I've never wanted to go to China more!

A word to the wise

Just in case you are tempted to participate in the following action....don't. Take a moment, remember this post and curb your impulse.

If a friend has been dating their significant other for over 2 years please, please, please don't rip her left hand out of her jacket pocket just so that you can see her bare ring finger. After seeing the finger, please don't shake you head and cluck your condescending tongue and make some remark about how her man is dropping the ball on the whole marriage proposal thing.

Becuase...

...really?

That is tacky, rude and will probably result in your relationship changing from friend to acquaintance.

First day of the end

Yesterday I got to my first class of the semester a little bit early. As I sat there and waited I realized that this was the first day of my LAST semester ever. And that made me really happy.

Plus, the class seems like it will be really cool. It's all about design optimization. About trying to find the optimal solution to a problem. The best way to weigh competing factors. It's a pretty interesting concept to consider that there is a processes, a tool, a method that can help you determine the very best option out of a million possibilities.

It reminds me of a really interesting conversation I had with a friend over Christmas break. While the idea of optimization may work in an engineering/technical/scientific sense, it doesn't really make a smooth transition into our personal lives. He was reading a book that, in essence, said that continual optimizing and evaluation in our personal lives brings unhappiness. The book said that if a person always tries to balance all the possibilities they end up continually unsettled and that brings unhappiness. The thing they are trying to achieve (contentment, happiness, peace) eludes them by their very attempt.

I think this makes sense. In my experience the times I've been the happiest are when I take my life for what it is and find my happiness in that. Constantly hoping and judging and evaluating prevents me from enjoying the moment and just gives me a big ole headache.

So that's why I am so happy to be almost done with my education. It's where I am, and I'm happy to be here.

Word of the day

Last weekend I learned the old definition of a new word. Per the dictionary:

hor·ni·to (hôr-nt) n. A low mound of volcanic origin, sometimes emitting smoke or vapor.

However, the ear doctor and I have assigned a new definition for this word. The weather this winter in Colorado has been cold. Horrifically cold and snowy. We've had 4 major snow storms in the last 4 weeks, and another one is on the way. As a result all of the cars have formed hornitos just behind their tires.


We decided to make a specific word for these little guys because the ear doctor LOVES to kick these things off his truck. Not only does he kick them off his own truck, but if he sees a delightfully large hornito on someone else's car in a parking lot, he considers it a service to de-hornito other peoples cars.

Nothing gives my man more winter-time joy than to kick these little buggers off.

Cool, huh?!?!

I know I'm weird

Elle offered me the chance to disclose 6 weird things about me and since I feel completely depleted of any other creative post ideas I'll offer my idiosyncratic traits up as a sacrifice to the blogging gods.

...just don't get too creeped out and never come back to my blog after you've read this stuff.

6. Every morning I make myself a cup of hot chocolate using the hot water that comes out of the coffee machine at work. Then, I have to use 2 white stirring straws that are the same length to stir the powder in. As carefully as I can, I sort through the stack of straws until I find two that will work together as a pair (making sure I throw out any that I inadvertantly touched). If they aren't the same length it really bugs me.

5. In the Excel spreadsheet that I've made for myself to track my expenses and make sure I keep my budget I sometimes cheat. Even though I am the ONLY person who ever looks at it, I still refuse to put some expenditures down in their appropriate column. The purpose of the tool is so that I can know what is going on with my money, and I still can't bring myself to be fully honest. Sad....

4. I am always SO flattered when someone adds my blog to their sidebar. Does anyone else feel that this is a really big compliment? Because I do.

3. I don't eat leftovers. I hate them. This is why I've worked at perfecting the art of cooking exactly the right amount for any given meal. And now that I think about it I don't really like eating from a pie or cake that has already been cut into.

2. I like to peel things. My amrs when they're sunburned. The little strips of my chapped lips when I'm reading. Tomatoes once I've cooked them a little. Everything.

1. I fall asleep whenever I'm riding in a car. Even if the drive only takes 15 minutes I'm out like a light.

Weird, huh?!?

Sore Calves

I pulled an Aunt Marci. For some reason she seems to come down with a cold the day after every single snow storm. It got to the point with her old job that there was an unspoken understanding that she would need a substitute to come teach her students if that powder was fresh.

Yesterday, I told work I wasn't coming and I drove up to the mountains for a day of skiing...and it was amazing.

My awesome work buys 4 season passes to a local mountain every year and you get two chances in the season to use them. Yesterday was my day.

Wednesday night I laid out all of my clothes and gear at the foot of my bed in preparation for the day. That whole night I couldn't sleep. I kept walking up thinking about turns and feeling the chill air in my nose. We left the house only 45 min later than planned (pretty typical for a ski day) and headed away from real life and up to a care-free wonderland.

We pulled into the parking lot and I was astounded by how vacant the resort was. I've never really skiied on a week day and the whole resort was ours for the taking. We spent most of the day on the greens teaching my friend how to snowboard. I didn't really mind because it gave me a chance to really work on getting my technique better. It was also really interesting to think about my own learning days only 3 years ago and ruminate about how much I've improved since then. Also, I realized how much I appreciate my friends and family who waited so patiently with me while I was bumbling down the hill.

We stopped for lunch and ate overpriced sandwiches that made everyone feel gross.

I had two very interesting conversations while riding the lifts.

I ate a stale asiago cheese bagel to keep up my strength.

And, I didn't fall once all day.

The snow needs to stop

Colorado is getting snow this year. So much that I am actually tired of it. This morning it took and hour and a half to get to work because every road was closed. Keep in mind that the drive usually takes me 15 minutes. Yuck.

Anyway, I am very over the snow, despite how happy I seem to be here with my grandma's newest grandchild.


He swivels and dances while playing shrill Christmas music....I think he is my new favorite cousin! (wink)

What do you think?

My mom gave me a $50 gift card to williams sonoma for Christmas and I was wondering what you think I should get. These look awesome to me:

Pretty Green Cake Stand

Silicone tipped tongs, handy for flipping meat and not ruining my wonderful new pan!

Such a cute, cheery pie pan!

Melamine Colander. My colander right now is broken, so this would be handy for all the mac and cheese I love to eat! Yea Kraft!

Placing hot rolls in this stoneware bread basket would be so awesome!

I've been wanting a set of salt and pepper mills FOREVER!

Zester....must have tool of the minute!

New Pet Peeve

Generally, I'm not a really easily annoyable person. There are really only a few things that drive me nuts: time left on the microwave, people who borrow stuff and don't put it back in the same place so I can never find it, overfilled dryer lint traps.I kind of pride myself on not having a ton of pet peeves. It allows me to delude myself into thinking that I'm "laid back." For this reason I try to give something a long time before I deem it one of my personal pet peeves.

Over the holidays something cemented itself staunchly in that catagory.

I absolutley CANNOT handle people talking on their cell phones on airplanes.

Seriously, why have the airlines started allowing people to use their phones the minute the landing gear hits the tarmac?!?!? When that sugary-sweet voice crackles through the PA system announcing our arrival, the local time and weather I start to feel the tension in my fingers build. As my nails are digging into the hard, cold plastic armrests I anticpate the new addition to her speil. When she actually says that people can use their phones if they can access them without opening any carryons I almost loose control.

I don't want to be sanwiched next to 25 people all calling Aunt Suzy to tell her that the plane just landed.

Why can't people just wait the extra 10 minutes it is going to take to let everyone off the plane? Is it really that time critical that you HAVE to make the call with my ear 6 inches from your obnoxiously loud converstaion?

Anyway, this is my new pet peeve.

People, I implore you, just wait a few minutes until the people around you aren't trapped into hearing about your experience on the flight and how long its going to take to get home through rush hour traffic.

Check out what I scored

Wow, Christmas is over and life switches back to normal. Aside from being sore from skiing at Solitude and a little queasy from the family bout with the flu, things are looking up for me.

Here is a list of the great gifts I got this Christmas (in no particular order)

White Square Cuff Watch

Yes, you've seen this before because it's been chillin on my sidebar for almost 6 months now. It is just as cute in person and what you can't tell from the pic is that the band is shiny patent leather which is so hot right now. Everyone who sees it comments that the face is really small, but that is what I love about it. It rules.

14" heavy duty Caphalon frying pan

This baby is a beauty. So big and spacious that making 4 chicken breasts at a time is now a possibility. My friends should be eagerly looking forward to some dinner invitations!

My stocking was stuffed with this hot chocolate! I've been hearing how wonderful this stuff was and now I get to try it myself!

I also got a really cool calendar from MOMA and a navy blue cableknit sweater but I can't find pictures of them anywhere. Trust me, they are awesome.