Monthly Archives: July 2006

Yesterday Bob and I went to see the new Woody Allen movie Scoop. It’s hilarious. If you hate Woody, this probably won’t change your mind. But if you’re ambivalent or like some of his movies, I think you’ll find this entertaining. It stars Woody, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman. Scarlett plays this nerdball aspiring journalist and Woody plays a goofy magician named: Splendini. They are hilarious together.

The theater was about 90% full which was amazing. Usually when we see a Woody Allen movie it’s just us and a couple of angry looking foreign ladies. It was fun to see it in a big crowd with everybody laughing. Plus Woody’s demographic is people our age or older so everyone was well behaved except the lady next to me was unable to go the full 96 minutes without eating something from her bag which was wrapped in crinkly paper which she unselfconsciously took her time peeling off. Also, I hate the sound of other people chewing so it was extra distressing for me but luckily she ate pretty fast.

There were two trailers for movies that looked good, another surprise as normally during the trailers I’m looking at Bob and going, “That’s a movie?” I even did that yesterday with some stupid looking poker movie which, based on the trailer, I think is about a charming young woman played by Drew Barrymore who falls for a dreamy guy (the guy from the Hulk) except instead of having a job, he plays in poker tournaments and has Daddy issues and in the suspenseful climax, plays in the World Championship Poker Match and the last two players are he and his dad who is OF COURSE played by Robert Duvall. Please.

The movies that look good are The Science of Sleep directed by Michel Gondry who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and which stars Gael Garcia Bernal who was in the The Motorcycle Diaries. During the trailer I leaned over to Bob and said, “I love it already.” (And by the way, congratulations IMBD for adding those hideous animated mortgage ads to your site. They look like shit, bravo.)

The other movie is called Trust the Man and stars Dave Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and Maggie Gyllenhaal and is about friends and relationships looks funny and good.

After movie time we went to the park where the Hawaiian festival was going on and were hoping to score some killer dinner even though I really wanted to eat leftovers at home because the refrigerator is too full. Sadly (or gladly) the food vendors had been cranking out the food all day and all that was left were two pitiful looking banana lumpia, some panini and some yakisoba. Not sure how panini fits in with the Hawaiian theme. I’m guessing someone coughed up a bunch of money for a panini machine and needs to pay it off. I was not about to stand in line for yakisoba so we had leftovers served in taco shells at home. It was awesome.

Last week I saw this exciting news online:

Empire Pictures has signed a deal with Transcience Corp. to develop an animated film and possible franchise from the infamous children's toy line "The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys," reports Variety. Under the deal, Empire acquired entertainment rights to the line, which has been on the market for 45 years and sold in more than 50 countries.

Full item here

Someone commented: Oh great, a movie about brine shrimp.

I read a lot of comics books as a kid and let me tell you, I wanted those sea-monkeys. Remember those ads with the sea-monkey family and their happy faces? I really thought that’s what you were getting. They still advertise like that. How many kids are crushed when their sea-monkey’s hatch and they’re just brine shrimp, well “amazing new hybrids [that] live longer than any “natural” variety of brine shrimp.”? Notice how few photos of actual sea-monkeys are on the website. Other troubling news: on the trouble-shooting page it says if you’re having trouble seeing them, look more closely “Sea-Monkeys are as tiny as a pinpoint sized “dot” of white.” Having fun yet kids? Be sure to click on the video. Love that groovin soundtrack.

This morning we did a crepe walk. We walked downtown to have breakfast crepes at Mon Ami, a new place that opened about a month ago.

During the walk we stopped at a big garage sale which is going to benefit something with animals. They had all kinds of donations they were trying to organize.

I’m not a big garage sale person because I see it as more junk you’re bringing it into the house but when I saw these cookie cutters, I had to have them.

These are the cookie cutters we used when we were kids. Mom or Erin probably still has them. There was a scary moment when I thought I might have them but the box is behind a bunch of stuff and I don’t want to look right now.

I picked through the whole box for all the familiar ones. I thought I might even make sugar cookies for the writers tomorrow except I’m not sure I’m up for the effort right now. I already had planned to pick up another half flat of blueberries and throw together a quick crisp. I already know it’s yummy and whatever’s leftover won’t go to waste.

When I put on my shorts this morning I found a dollar in my pocket. Perfect for my purchase. We needed two more cookie cutters to make it a dollar. And I found two we didn’t have.

A witch. How cool is that? Also note I realize these photos are crap. I have a lot to learn.

Here’s another shot of the Frank Gehry building in Cleveland. If I was a bit more energetic I could Photoshop that lamppost out of there. Running late, decided to keep it real.

We finally had a cool night last night and were able to open the windows up again. I don’t like to sleep with the air conditioner on if I don’t have to. Bob grilled some portabello mushrooms, green pepper and onion for dinner. He’s got the routine down now, they were awesome. We had some rice and cleared out a dab of leftover bean salad and green beans. I had a lime popsicle while I watched my Battlestar Galactica DVD.

When I watered the yard, I found two tomatoes that are yellow-y orange. Getting closer. Also a couple of cucumbers. I remember planting tons of cucumber seeds but looks like I only have two vines. That’ll be enough.

I found this in the restaurant guide of one of the visitor magazines in Cleveland.

Today I spent a better part of the afternoon trying to wrangle my digital photos. Since Frodo’s color went wonky I got lazy and haven’t named or organized photos in at least a dozen downloads. They’re still haphazard but at least in folders with general dates and I deleted dozens of blurry crap shots that I don’t need to save.

I also played with iMovie. I made a little movie of my pumpkins (what else?) with my camera. I figured 40 seconds or so would be perfect to start out. It’s a somewhat intuitive program. I managed to tack on a fade in and fade out and put it to some music but I would have liked to understand how the program works.

I tried the help window which very helpfully told me I could make a movie and do tricky stuff like fade in and fade out and add music. It didn’t tell me out to do it so I would say that’s not help that’s marketing. Bob says he has a book but I bet it’s about 400 pages long and starts with instructions like: plug your computer into the wall and hit the on switch.

Who decided that computer books have to be giant tomes? What if you could tell someone everything she needed to know in 30 pages?

This evening I made a blueberry brown betty which was fantastic. I would have eaten a trough-full but I was full from dinner. Brown betty is the way to go. I think this fall I will develop the pumpkin brown betty. At last, I realize my life purpose.

Something I forgot to mention yesterday when I was talking about last week’s food section was this recent fixation with chutney. It seems like everywhere I turn I see a chutney recipe, which my research tells me “is a term for a variety of sweet and spicy condiments.” I’m so not interested in making chutney or having it served to me. It’s a 4 year old’s mentality because I don’t think I’ve eaten much chutney and I don’t know where the resistance comes from but enough with the chutney already.

A recipe that thrilled me appeared in today’s Foodday which featured a huge article about cheese and had a tidbit about the woman who won the Tillamook Macaroni and Cheese Bake-Off with a recipe called Crab and Macaroni Bake. It doesn’t sound good for the middle of summer but when the first cool days are here, I can’t wait to try it.

I forgot to mention that on the way to Tacoma the train showed Swiss Family Robinson. Yes, the Disney movie that came out in 1960. I thought that was odd, too. I’ve never seen the movie or read the book and everything I know about the story comes from an attraction at Disneyland that I played on as a kid. According to this website (which includes some wonderful photos) the attraction is no longer at the California Disneyland where it was transformed into some sort of Tarzan thing, but it still exists in Florida.

The original book Swiss Family Robinson was written in 1812 (!) and you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg.

The movie is completely loopy. Especially if you’re not really watching it because you want to read your book but you can’t help but look up at the screen because of all the crazy stuff going on. There was a shipwreck and an island and the Swiss family managed to adapt to the new situation pretty quickly. In Lost everyone wandered around in a daze picking through refuse and arguing about a rescue fire. In SFR they were all running around in clean clothes teasing elephants and riding ostriches right after they slapped up their tree house. What sort of magical wonderland was this because in addition to elephants and ostriches, I saw giant snakes, tigers and a zebra. And these goofy pirates of possible Asian origin. And the pirates were looting a different ship with Euro-type occupants including the Captain’s boy who was really a girl (his daughter or granddaughter?) who hooked up with the Swiss Family. (Probably a more amazing plot twist in 1960). It seems like the island wasn’t all that deserted. I guess I’ll have to netflix it and watch it because I’m intrigued now.

I can’t explain it but sometimes I can’t bear to sit here and organize my thoughts / adventures into words for a post here. Other times I can hardly pry myself away.

I never wrote about my Michigan adventure which was lovely. I hung out with Auntie and Jennifer and the kiddiepies. We went to swimming lessons and outlet stores and did crossword puzzles and had a faboo dinner at Five Lakes Grill in Milford. One of those dinners you keep thinking about.

I decided I was going to start doing crosswords puzzles again. I used to do them all the time when I lived in L.A. We get the NY Times and the Monday puzzle is the easiest and a satisfying experience. I can finish it and revel in my smartness. By Thursday I’m toast and even cheating on the Internet, it takes me about an hour and a half to do two thirds of the puzzle. I used to love the Sunday puzzle but I guess that was the LA Times, not NY Times. I checked out the online LA Times puzzle but you had to do it on the computer which ruins all the fun because it’s nice to leave on the kitchen counter and come back to all day long.

On Saturday we took the train to Tacoma for an Indian Arts Fair at the Washington State History Museum and met Ballard Avenue. Phil Red Eagle picked us up and took us to see the Salish canoe he’s carving with a group of carvers. He gave me a card with a URL but I can’t find it right now. Maybe I’ll remember and update later. We had lunch and checked out the fair and walked around downtown Tacoma which is looking good in some places, like around the museums. A nice day trip.

My garden bounty hasn’t quite kicked in yet. I’ve got zillions of green tomatoes but not one with even a hint of red. Our next door neighbors have a huge raspberry patch and they’ve been unloading lots on us. I was inspired by Foodday’s cobbler v. crisp article this week and made a raspberry crisp which included a sprinkling of chocolate chips and was fantastic. I was going to do a whole post about cobbler v. crisps (which I call Brown Bettys) and maybe even do some Cooks Illustrated research and throw in some informative info on buckles and crumbles, as well. Maybe next weekend.

Bob and I got new computers so I spent all day yesterday getting my iTunes and photos moved over, reinstalling computer programs, and getting things configured the way I like it. At last a color screen that works. I’ve dusted off all my Photoshop books. Perhaps the remodel of this space will happen now.

I know, I know. World Cup ends and I have nothing. I hardly know what to do with myself these days. I wander around the house in fugue with visions of Cannavaro vacuuming my house in his underwear dancing through my head.

I was going to write some things in response to this half-wit who thought that since Zidane’s headbutt was in response to an racial/family insult, that made him a hero. Why yes, that makes sense. Someone insults you with words and you respond by bashing him in the head. Well, good thing the rest of the world doesn’t solve problems that way. (Blistering sarcasm in case you weren’t getting it.)

If you want about 12 seconds of fun you might try finding your Brazilian soccer name.

When I use Pamela I get RA and while it might be fun to be associated with the sun god it’s not that much fun as a soccer name. Pammy results in the super sexy Pildo and Pam gets me Rio which isn’t too bad. If I reverse my names, Rentz Pamela generates Rinho, Pammy gets Rildo and Rentz Pam gives me my favorite: Pinho Santos.

Bob got the first disk for a show called Weeds which is fantastic. Hilarious, sick and twisted. I’d search it out if I were you.