The Ticket

Oscar movie time is here!

Christmas day may end the holiday season, but it starts a whole new one for me. It's See-As-Many-Movies-That-I-Think-Will-Be-Nominated-For-An-Oscar season. I'm behind the 8 ball for sure, hopefully the long New Years Day weekend will help me with that. Here's a review of what I've seen so far.

Milk.
Great story, Sean Penn did some great acting as did Emile Hirsch. In fact, this was a really well acted ensemble. Josh Brolin had a smaller supporting part, but he just nailed it. The last three things I've seen him in he's really carried it. I thought he was the most under-rated part of No Country for Old Men last year, he was perfect as W, which was not Oliver Stones best work, but more of a nanny nanny boo boo to the president, but Brolin made it worth while, and he had some real complexities in Milk that were brilliant. Milk is based on the true story of the first openly gay politician elected and it was a great story. It was open minded and passionate and persistent. If nothing else, you'll learn where the term "Twinkie defense" came from. Which I didn't know, but maybe you do.

Frost/Nixon.
Another based on a true story movie this Oscar season. I had no idea what this movie was ultimately about going in - except it was about Nixon and some guy named Frost. I loved the way this movie was edited, with some of the characters flashing back while the story was being told. I thought that made it more interesting to get their perspective on what they had been doing then and what the impact of it would be. Great supporting cast in this one, but the acting that stood out was Frank Langella as Nixon. I thought he was great and can support his nomination in acting if that happens. I have many more movies to see before I think he could win it, but he deserves the nod. Good story, told well, was engaging and went quickly.

With both of these being based on true stories, I'm reminded of a quote that Harry Truman said, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know." Why do we bother to write fiction until we've told all the stories from the past. In a way, this is why I got out of the film program, I was worried that everything had already been done, there was nothing original left. I'm sad I didn't pay better attention in history classes I've had. It's all really quite interesting.

Stirred

I know I'm a few days behind on the Christmas wrap up post. Here goes. It was a lovely, and as always with my large family, exhausting holiday season. While I enjoy the Christmas season lasting a good 6 weeks or so, the week of Christmas can really take it out of me with so much to see and do. I received many wonderful gifts and want to point out a few of my favorites, some expected and some less so. I'll start with the book Twilight. While I'm always open to reading some good teenage girl fiction (note: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series is my favorite) the idea of vampire fiction wasn't necessarily something I'd run out to get. When I received it as a Christmas present from Alex and Sandy though, I was ready to give it a chance. And so glad I did! I couldn't believe how sucked in a I got so quickly. (Did you catch my little vampire joke - sucked in? Get it?) It was remarkable and I could barely put it down. In fact, I only did twice. Once to go to bed one night, and once to go to Target and buy the sequel so I didn't have to wait a second when the first book ended to start the next one. I had no idea I'd be so captivated by this story. I also totally have a crush on Edward the vampire. He's intense.

Next up in favorite gift category was one I was really looking forward to, and that is my electric toothbrush. I've wanted one for years and would never bring myself to buy one. I love that it beeps every 30 second to tell me to move it around my mouth, I love that it shuts off automatically after 2 minutes, I love that it has the little sanitizer. It's a different feeling than regular toothbrushing, which is so vigorous. This is more suble with the pulsing bristles, but I'm pretty sure my teeth are getting clean, and that's all that matters.

Lastly, I'm thrilled to have some new cooking tools! My immersion blender and stock pot will be great to make yummy winter soups. I am so excited to have the big pot that I'll be able to easily fit corn on the cob or big batches of spaghetti in. And, it has that built in strainer which I'm more excited about than may be normal.

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas with many generous and thoughtful friends and family sharing it with us.

In Excelsis Deo

There are reindeer games being played in my office today. Some of my fellow marketing/PR officials decided to turn the half day we have into quite the Christmas party. The "snowball toss" has just ended and I believe they are playing Pin the Tail on Donner as I type this. I'm saving my energy for the christmas wrapping contest being held at 10:30am. And yes, there was a scheduled posted for the festivities. My contribution to today was bringing some cookies. One of my favorite cookie recipes is the Amaretto Chocolate Chunk cookie that Cyndi had introduced me to while living in Shreveport. They are great and everyone at the office is drooling over them.

Amaretto Chunk Cookies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

2 teaspoons almond extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup coconut

1 cup sliced almonds

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs, amaretto and almond extract. Beat in flour. Stir in chocolate chips, coconut and almonds. Drop 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

I can't believe Christmas is here, and subsequently, almost over. I've been listening to Christmas music since October 10 which is when one of the local FM stations went out of business and their new format wasn't going to be active until January 1, so they just decided to play holiday music until then. You'd think I'd be ready for Christmas with that much build up. With Christmas about to come and go means that the end of the year is upon us. I'm a fiercely nostalgic person, almost always looking back when I should be looking forward. I'm constantly thinking about what I could have done differently, better, stronger, faster, instead of what I could do going forward. This New Year makes me a little afraid. 2008 was rather tumultuous with the unemployment and the move and the looking for a job and the finding a job that is too good to be true and the traveling husband and the intense alone time and the learning about myself through all of those things. A line from RENT just popped into my head, "How do you measure a year in the life?"

I wish I had great stories or great lessons or great wisdom from this year. I have a shrink who tells me that the greatest lesson I learned this year was that of patience. I'm not sure I've completely bought that yet. I'm a fairly impatient person. I don't like to wait for things to cool before eating them and I burn my mouth more than I can count because of it. I don't like to wait for quiches to set before I cut into them. I don't wait the full five minutes when I have to reset my furnace. I blow dry my hair until it's 80% dry, then am frustrated when it frizzes out because it wasn't dry all the way. Patience is not something I have. Maybe I just can't seem to work out the dfference between patience and wasting time. I feel like I've wasted a lot of time this year, when perhaps I was just being patient.

Christmas and New Years - so much reflection, so much wondering.

Finishing the hat

From Sorkin to Sondheim - the post subject refers to the Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George, which is the story of Georges Seurat. During this song Georges girlfriend is leaving him because he is engrossed in his work, and not enough in her. As she is talking about why she is leaving, he is focused on this painting and ends the song:

"Finishing a hat...

Starting on a hat..

Finishing a hat...

Look, I made a hat...

Where there never was a hat"

While I'm certainly not comparing myself to Georges Seurat and his art in any way, I have been engrossed in a hat of my own recently. I've mentioned previously that I'm working on an R2D2 knit hat for a friend. Just a little over a year ago, I said casually in passing that I think I would like to learn to knit and the next day received a link to instruction on how to knit a hat that looks like the top of R2D2's head. I'm not sure I had any real intention of following up on learning to knit, but now I had a reason to. I was unemployed at the time and anyone who motivated me to fill the time (in a way that wasn't sitting around and watching Gilmore Girls - not that there's anything wrong with that) I thought deserved what they asked for. I took a 4 week knitting class and started on the hat.

This hat has brought me nothing but pain and suffering. Sure, several good lessons were learned the hard way. That doesn't make it okay that I've had to start this thing 3 times. Here's a picture of all three (all three and my cat who was poking around them) :

Let me take you on a little tour of hats. On your far left is the first one I tried. The idea of stitching all the blue boxes on after it was knitted didn't sound like much fun, so I tried a more advanced knitting technique called stranded knitting where you carry both colors around the hat. (Do I sound like the giantest craft dork right now?) That was complicated, and I'm fairly sure I was doing it incorrectly, but I got through it. Now, when it came to starting to shape the dome there was a stitch I hadn't learned. I watched some You Tube videos, thought I had a hand on it and started the decreases. After two rows, I realized I had read the pattern incorrectly and had done way too many of the new stitch. I was supposed to do one of those stitches every 12 or something and I had done it continuously. I thought perhaps I could just pull out the two rows and re-insert my needles and pick right back up where I had left off, but I'm just not that good. Dang it. Starting over.

Using the same pattern, I start again (see middle hat), this time not using the stranded method and resigned to having to double stitch all the blue boxes. I get to the dome part and follow the directions, for the most part. I think I lost count somewhere, but it all came together. Except, when I looked at it, there were funny points in strange places and kind of a hole where it didn't all come together at the top. I just didn't feel it was acceptable.

I start again. Why I'm so determined to do this so well, I'm not really sure. The friend this is for is, much like this hat has been, kind of a pain in my ass. But, now, this is for me. I just want to do it. I go back to the internet and search for a different pattern. I decide it's the pattern that's cursed, not me and my skill, or lack thereof. I find this one and decide this is the one that will make it happen. Thanks to Megan for posting this pattern with lots of great pictures. I finish the actual hat in just a couple of days and now have to start the double stitching, adding the main detail around the middle of the hat. I pull the hat out of my knitting bag and go to it. After about three boxes I think, "Man, this one came out lumpier than I thought." And then in a flash of pure idiocy where you have no one to blame but yourself, I realize I had pulled hat #2 out of the bag and started stitching the detail on the wrong hat. Double Dang It.

I sigh. I pull the correct hat out. I start the stitching. I think to myself again how much this hat, and now the friend who requested it, are becoming more and more similar.

Double stitching takes longer than I would like it to. I finish. Just this morning actually.

(please ignore my totally messy hair)

And so it is complete. With the exception of four stitches I have to add in red. But I don't have any red yarn at this time.

A Good Day

This morning on the Today Show I heard that 40% of American women are on anti-depressants. Are we a country full of women with dashed hopes and lowered expectations? I would imagine that number doesn't include many women not on the drugs and perhaps should be legitimately. Instead of talking about how we're an over-medicated country, I thought it was time for the things I'm grateful for post.


I'm grateful that I can find the answer to any knitting question I've had online. Videos and blogs and posts and free patterns have been great fun for me to browse through and move on with my projects.


I'm grateful for my friend Todd who came to my house and helped me decorate it for Christmas. My house would have been nice, but rather ordinary for Christmas. Todd will transform it to grand and classy, which my house deserves. Granted, I think one of the swags he made looks like moose antlers hanging on my wall, but I'm pretty sure that's just me and others will ooh and ahh appropriately. I'll get some pictures up for all of you soon. I just do not have an interior decorating gene and I'm so grateful that he's taken two evenings of his time to help me out.


I'm grateful I live back in a city and can walk to dinner. It wasn't too cold last night so we walked to a Diner several blocks away. I'm so happy I can do this.

I am grateful that Crystal got voted off Survivor last night. It's about time she and Kenny got kicked in the pants on that show! I'm a huge fan of Sugar and Bob and the game took a nice turn last night.

No Exit

I was invited to hear a speaker this morning. The speaker and his topic can be found here. This post isn't about the presentation. I'll simply say he was an engaging speaker who has overcome a pretty severe obstacle and he has some very well placed jokes in the presentation.

What is actually sticking with me even more this morning is a comment I overheard in the elevator on my way to the event. Two women realized they had a mutual acquaintance, one of them had not seen this person in many years and asked what she was up to. The 2nd woman responded with, "She got married, but she doesn't have a family."

I know this woman was implying that their friend didn't have any children. The phrasing of not having a family really struck me as harsh. I know that I can be over defensive of my position of not wanting children. This is a somewhat learned behavior after being questioned for this time and time again. This woman in the elevator, she's the one who would use the argument, "But who will take care of you when your old?" against my position. This has always been one of my least favorites. I don't have children, but I have plenty of family.

Anyway, I realize this may not be all that interesting to anyone else, and that's okay. Two 7am meetings in two days and late nights on top of those and holiday madness surrounding me have made me a little less interesting today.

I am going to see the Rockettes tonight at the Fox Theatre. That should be great fun. I ran across some free tickets yesterday and jumped at the chance to enjoy this festive show. I love those kicking girls.

The Science of Chocolate

I've abandoned my Sorkin-title quest for this evening's post so I can groan about how chocolate can be so delicious, yet so cantankerous! I was trying to make these:

Don't they look great? All went well until I tried to make the chocolate for dipping. I was out of chocolate chips, but had 4 squares of white chocolate in the pantry. I melted those into the ganache like I would have the semi-sweet chocolate. No good. White chocolate is such crap. I just don't care for it's taste and tonight, I don't care for it's chemical make up.

More rummaging in the pantry provided 5 squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate. Perfect! Final shot at redemption for tonight. I thought, I'll just melt it in the microwave, I know that will work. So, I did. That would have just been so thick though, so, I add some heavy cream to make the ganache and the chocolate seizes up on me! What happened? I did not add water - this was cream. I think maybe because it was cold cream and not warmed up cream the chocolate wigged out. But now, the cookie project is on an overnight hold until I can get more chocolate and try melting it all over again. Bummer.

Update: So, I ran into my friend the chocolatier and told him my story about the night of the ruined chocolate and of course, got a mini science lesson on all the things I did wrong. =) The upside of this is that he said he would host a little chocolate lesson/party at my house and teach some basic ganache recipes and maybe even a caramel sauce! Now, that's a great idea.

Welcome to Wherever you Are

I'm going to start by taking a page from Alex and mention some Christmas music. I was motivated by his post today to share some of my favorite music also. As I write, I'm listening to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, which is my most favorite Christmas song. I'll listen to all versions (with the exception of Michael Bolton's - I don't know what it is - but it's no good) and be happy just to hear the song. Rounding out the top five are:


2. White Christmas by Otis Redding
3. Baby It's Cold Outside by Dean Martin (none of that Dolly Parton stuff)
4. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Bare Naked Ladies and Sarah McLahlan
5. Do They Know it's Christmas by Band Aid


Honorable mentions go to Harry Connick Jr's What Are you Doing New Years Eve? and to Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You.


*****


My friend Dominika is in India right now. A little background: Dominika and I are friends from college. She's wonderful and spirited and passionate and compassionate and supportive and in my whole life I won't meet anyone else like her. Dominika is always doing something extraordinary with her life - amazing trips that I am not brave enough to go on with her even though she almost always invites me. I was able to visit her last fall in NYC where she moved a couple years ago and I had a wonderful time with her.

That's a picture of us and Lenny from the Today Show. (If you don't know about Lenny, let me know.) I guarantee my visit with her was fairly tame compared to her travels. She has a story about traveling on the trans-siberian railroad where trading a kvelta fish for a train ticket is something that actually happened. And she tells this story with such matter-of-factness, "Well, I had to get on that train." Of course. I will most likely never use fish as currency. This is only one small difference between us. Recently Dominika was offered an amazing job, only she had already made plans to go to India for a month and work at the mission established by Mother Teresa. Sarah-of-the-less-brave-decisions would have taken the job and abandoned my travel plans. Not Dominika. So she is in India now and from her blog posts it sounds like a world of poverty and filth and swindling like I can not even imagine. On top of that she's devoting much of her time to disabled children and the elderly at this mission. She recently posted:

"I have changed as a traveler. I am no longer interested in having that same conversation of where I'm from, what I do and how long I'm staying. I am here for God, for myself, for my family and friends and in thanksgiving for the people in my life, for the opportunities and love my parents gave me, for my brother who surprises me constantly and my husband, my best friend and our future. I am here to sacrifice a bit of myself for their prayers and petitions. I am here to learn how to love more deeply and to understand a culture which requires me to completely step out of myself and throw away norms. I am here to find some private answers and here to give a little joy to disabled children and the dying elderly."

I took that right off her blog and hope that she doesn't mind that I share. I struggle every day to make very small decisions and most days I'm not brave enough to admit what I truly want. And here is Dominika, who has learned so much about herself and can stretch herself to be more than she was yesterday. I feel a bit like a coward. A coward who is always in awe of this great person I get to call a friend.

*****

Whew. That was a little heavy. I know that following that up with anything will seem like a letdown, so I'll try to end tonight with a laugh. I've become quite smitten with knitting and a few posts back talked about trying to make this knit hat that looks like R2D2. The pattern came from a website called Carissa Knits. I was a little over halfway done when I mis-read the pattern and incorrectly knitted two full rows. I thought I could just pull them out, re-insert the needles and go back to where I started goofing up. Sadly, that did not happen. So, I had to start from scratch all over again. Totally bummed. Bummed and smarter when it comes to this particular pattern. I've procured some West Wing episodes online and will go back to watching those as I knit.

Gone Quiet

There will be much catching up - I promise. A busy weekend with a husband who is only home a couple days of the week monopolized all of my time recently.

Some things to be caught up on: Follow up on the dinner with the High School friends, my friend Dominika who is in India and puts perspective on everything in my life, a trip to SIUC to see the basketball team and eat the best pizza on earth and a film review on And then she found me starring Helen Hunt and Colin Firth. Plus, an update on the R2D2 kit hat.

A Good Day

For two and a half hours tonight, there is actually no place else I would have rather been than Rizzo's Italian Restaurant in Florissant, MO. I'll go into more detail tomorrow for all of you, but I just game from a nice dinner with some of the best company. A group of some high school friends and two of our most favorite and respected and interesting teachers joined us and it was an absolute blast. Stories and memories and laughing and sarcasm ran rampant. It was a pretty great night. I don't hang out with groups of friends very much any more, it's pretty special when people can get along and have interesting conversation and be genuinely interested in each other. I hope it happens again soon. More on all of this later...including why a picture of the Jets (or are those the Sharks...) is appropriate.

Game On

I know what you're thinking. Cupcakes are a fad, a trend! Get over it already! I can't help it. I think this is the fad I was waiting for and I'm doing all I can to incorporate it into my personal style. It's like people who can always wear a hat, even though hats aren't always cool. Or people who wore patterned tights years ago, even though they weren't all over. Somethings just work for people, no matter if it's "in" or not. Cupcakes will be that thing for me. This is a Paul Frank watch that is currently at Zappos.com. Another great find from one of my favorites, Cupcakes Take the Cake. Wouldn't this be the greatest little accessory with all of my boring suits? I think so. Just a flash of fun at the wrist.