The Sunday Salon: Stuff and oh… The Oscars

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Ti

Sunday Salon

It’s Sunday. I adore Sundays because they are usually slower paced and more relaxed and this Sunday is no exception. First off, it’s absolutely gorgeous outside!

My Yard

This is my back yard, looking out. The Otter Pup was in my hands so excuse the patio bit you see in the upper right corner. You also can’t tell from this picture how chilly it is or how windy. Those trees on the left were swaying but I guess I got them mid-sway. When I read outside, this is my view. Sigh. The Otter Pup wants to run around unsupervised but hawks have been seen flying off with rabbits when they are out so no…the Otter Pup has to stay with me. I think she is okay with this.

Right now I am inside, drinking coffee thinking about the day. Later, I plan to don yoga pants and sit in front of the tube with a big carton of Chinese food to watch the Oscars. It’s ALL I want to do today and I have been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks. Except, the Chinese place burned down! Yes! How can that happen? Didn’t they realize these plans were made weeks ago? We’ll be trying a different place tonight. Cross your fingers it’s good.

I will be reading too. I just gave up on Ashenden. I got through 25% of it on my Kindle and decided it’s just not working for me. Now I am reading a collection of stories titled This Cake is For the Party by Sarah Selecky. I am only on the first story but so it’s great and just what I need and want.

Did I mention that there will be cake baking later? I am going to bake a gluten-free cake to go along with the meal. I’ve used this Betty Crocker mix before and it’s really good, but bakes up a rather small cake, which is okay by me. I haven’t had cake since September. Yep, I am counting.

What are you doing today? Will you watch the Oscars? What about books? Are you reading any books that I need to know about? I think most everyone who follows Stephen King knew about Doctor Sleep coming out this September, but I don’t think a lot of people knew about this one, which comes out in June! With a title like Joyland and this tagline, “Who dares to enter the funhouse of fear?” it’s going to be a winner. On sale, June 4th! Summer read-along?

Filed under: Bookish Talk, Life | Tagged: , , , , | 23 Comments »

Movie Chat: Flight

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Ti

Flight

I watch a lot of movies but I don’t watch current movies too often. To me, Flight is a current movie (if that tells you anything). I got it from Netflix and watched it last week. I’ve wanted to see it since it first came out. I love Denzel Washington. He is such a powerful actor and his Oscar nod this year certainly says something.

The opening of the movie is very gritty and dark but the crash scene was well done. Not quite as vivid as the crash scene in say Bohjalian’s The Night Strangers, but dramatic. Very dramatic.

Halfway through the movie, I realized just how dark it was. Yes, I knew that Denzel’s character had a drinking problem but I wasn’t aware that drugs played a role as well. I think I moved the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer at that point or I would have known this fact earlier. I don’t know about you but once drugs enter the picture, everything becomes desperate and I immediately hated Denzel’s character. The whole plot of the movie revolves around the fact that although Whip (Denzel) saved a lot of lives that day by landing a doomed plane, he did it while totally under the influence of drugs and alcohol. As you can imagine, the situation is not ideal.

Towards the end of the movie, Whip makes a terrible decision and his union friend and lawyer are forced to go along with it and that made me so mad! I almost turned it off at that point. The tone of the movie reminded me of another depressing movie, Leaving Las Vegas. But, in the end, I ending up liking it quite a bit. Denzel’s performance was impressive. John Goodman, as Whip’s drug dealing friend, has a small part but he plays it like a boss. Whip’s love interest is played by an actress I’ve never seen before (Kelly Reilly) but she was quite good and very beautiful in a non-traditional way. I actually looked her up to see what she’s done but didn’t recognize her previous films.

Kelly Reilly from Flight

Isn’t she striking?

If you managed to stay with me this long then you should know that I recommend the movie but make sure you don’t have your kids around.It’s not a movie for the whole family to see. There is some nudity, lots of profanity and of course, the drug aspect to consider.

Have you seen it?

Filed under: Movie Talk | Tagged: , , , , , , | 19 Comments »

The Sunday Salon: Cleaning, Watching…but not Reading

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Ti

Sunday Salon

Folks, I am in a world of trouble. I am participating in a book tour on Tuesday and I am nowhere near being done with the book. I made the mistake of cleaning out the garage and now I can’t stop. We were given a really nice treadmill not too long ago, but my brother-in-law is having some health issues so he asked for it back. Totally cool with me since I HATE the treadmill and find it more boring than watching paint dry.

But…

It freed up quite a bit of space so I had to rearrange things. Then, The Girl came out here and took out all her craft stuff to make Christmas boxes with nothing in them. I know! My clean garage is now a mess again. Paper scraps everywhere and glitter! Glitter coming out of my ears. I’ll shine all week. She’s playing Britney Spears now which means she has no plans to leave anytime soon. I like her hanging around though. It’s sweet how she follows me around.

She just gave me a box of hearts. Sigh. So sweet when she is not screaming her head off like a demon.

Well, at some point I am going to have to get this book read (The Round House) and then later we are going out for a burger. I am working on Christmas cards too and just hanging out.

How was your weekend? I’ve been trying to work in a Christmas movie here and there so last night we watched The Family Stone. Tonight, maybe Elf or Christmas with the Kranks. What are your favorite must-see holiday movies?

Filed under: Bookish Talk, Life | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 30 Comments »

Plans? Who needs ‘em?

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Ti

I had planned to take the day off to dive into this book:

The Twelve

Things don’t always work out the way you want them to. Work has been very, very busy. I am working on a huge project and although this project has been delayed and pushed back numerous times. it’s hit full-force and now I just can’t wait to be done with it. It’s the reason why my commenting has slowed to a crawl. It’s the reason for the additional gray hairs I’ve seen in the mirror, and let’s face it…it’s the reason for the 7 lbs I seem to have gained from shoving lunch into my face while sitting at my desk.

However, I’ve got the book on my Kindle and although I can’t take the day off to enjoy it the way others will be enjoying it today, it will be a welcome break to sit down to it at lunch. Yes, outside and not at my desk. Promise.

I’ve also got lots of reviews to write, a birthday party for The Girl this weekend, an out-of-town cross-country meet for The Boy this weekend and recently he told me he joined the Men’s Chamber Choir. So glad that he is joining in but it’s a lot. I hope he can handle it with the show and ASB and all the other stuff he’s got going. I hope I can stay sane.

On that note, I’ve been in the mood for horror movies lately. A nice distraction from the horrors here at work, maybe? You’d think I’d want something warm and fuzzy after reading American Psycho but no… I seem to want the horror to continue so this past weekend, Facebook friends recommended movies and I watched Session 9. It was creepy! It has Josh Lucas in it. Need I say more?

Are you reading The Twelve right now? Have you seen any good horror movies lately?

Filed under: Bookish Talk, Life | Tagged: , , , , , | 42 Comments »

The Sunday Salon: Rainy Day Goodness

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Ti

Sunday Salon
It’s raining! Yay! I love it when it rains. It’s the only time that I can really hang around the house and relax. If the sun is out, then so are my kids and we end up wasting the weekend running back and forth between stuff. I really need to relax too as the week was a busy one and next week will be just as busy.

First off, an update on the play. Both, the Boy and Girl got parts in the show! Not the parts they tried out for but comparable parts. They are both happy and so am I. They just had a costume fitting and it’s all very exciting. If you are familiar with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat the Boy is one of the brothers and will be singing One More Angel in Heaven (video from the film with Donny Osmond). The Girl is in a dance number. She is the Sun!

This past week, we attended Open House at the high school. They had an orientation for incoming students and when they said, “Please welcome the class of 2016″ I just about passed out. Good lord! Where has the time gone! The Boy is going out for basketball and ASB (associated student body) so he plans to be busy. Of course, basketball camp conflicts with the show he is in PLUS any hopes of us taking a summer vacation so we won’t be going anywhere this summer. I am very excited for him. High school was such a fun time for me. I hope it is for him too. Somehow, we will work around the camp conflicts.

I am slowly catching up with my review writing, but I continue to be a reading fool so pretty soon, I am going to be behind again. I’m not sure how I got so far ahead of myself but I like it. I am finishing three more books today. After the three, I will be picking up We Need to Talk About Kevin and Arcadia.

Last night, the Girl and I had a movie night and watched Hugo. What a great movie! I haven’t read the book but she is doing that today. The movie was lovely. Just lovely and gorgeously rendered. I am going to make The Hub watch it today if I can tear him away from sports for a couple of hours. Speaking of movies, I haven’t seen The Hunger Games yet. I am going to wait until the hype dies down a bit.

Well, the rain is coming down outside, the house is clean and I’ve got nothing to do but read my books. A perfect afternoon if I do say so myself! Next week, open houses at both schools (on the same night!), and more rehearsals. Happy Sunday!

Filed under: Life | Tagged: , , , | 31 Comments »

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