Adrian Grenier

.Every once in a while I'll buzz through the HBO online guide and Tivo a few movies I think we'd like to see, for those slow times between Netflix and regular TV. Some are stinkers, some are not. We watched The Notorious Bettie Page over the weekend. As I told Steve, that was the weirdest movie I've seen that held my attention. And it didn't even have a plot! Most weird movies are stupid and irritating, for example, Magnolia. The only decent thing about that movie was Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I don't just say that because he's from Fairport. I think he's an outstanding actor. (And just for the record, my movies don't have to be neat & orderly with clean, happy endings, but that is my preference, I admit.)

That's how I found Shot in the Dark, a film documenting Adrian Grenier's search for his father, whom he has not seen in 18 years. I'd read about it a few years ago but forgot about it, I guess. So it's been in our Tivo queue for weeks now. Every time Steve opens the listing to see what it is, he groans and closes it. I think he hates documentaries as much as I love them. Last night Steve worked late so I settled in with my dinner of popcorn and Crystal Light and watched it.

I really loved it. I'm still thinking about it this morning.

Number one, can I get an amen from my women friends that he is so dang good looking? I've hardly seen two photos where he looks the same - but I chose my favorite for above.

Number two, it was very real. I read a few of the comments on imdb.com about the movie and people were dissing Adrian's mom for her free-love lifestyle. That's how it was in the mid-70s, just coming off the 60s. (His dad was dissed too. Seems to me there's enough blame to go around for the dad not being in his life. I don't get that at all.)

His stepmom initially comes off as pretty cruel to a little kid, hanging up on him when he called his dad. But she was the only one we heard apologize to Adrian's face. "I was wrong. I'm really sorry."

I also liked that it was never mentioned that he's a TV star now. Oh wait! I didn't realize until I researched it for this entry, that this documentary was filmed in 2002 , two years before Entourage. (Don't you love that show? It's one of our very favorites.)

I found this photo of him with his mom and dad at the premiere. I'm glad the step mom came around and all this worked out. I'm sure she went to the premier too. (I Googled her but there are too many Debbie Dunbars to go through.)

Entourage - Season 5 begins this Sunday!

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New Thread

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(If you're into thread, click on the photos for closeups.)

I woke up all grumpy this morning because it was 8-freakin'-thirty - the day is half-shot! What's the point of even getting up now? But when I went out to get the paper, I spied my padded envelope of beautiful new threads that UPS delivered while we were eating dinner last night I guess. Suddenly, the world was wonderful again. I can't wait to take some of them for a spin tonight.

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The reason I slept so late is because I went to bed around midnight (gasp!) last night because we were watching a movie I highly recommend, An Unfinished Life. I must have put this in our Netflix queue during my Robert Redford phase. The scenery was beautiful (set in Wyoming, shot in British Columbia), nice story, teared up a number of times - all important elements of a Stefani Movie. I wish they'd cast someone other than Jennifer Lopez - her acting is kind of flat.

A movie we watched on HBO on Demand on New Year's Eve that I don't recommend is Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets. I'd never seen it before and I knew it was violent but it's a "classic" so I relented. It was very cool seeing Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel so young (30 and 34 respectively) but oy, the acting! It was like a Saturday Night Live sketch after a while with all the Italian "heeeyyy" and chin flicking going on. I couldn't wait for it to end. I kept watching Steve to see if he was falling asleep (which he'll never admit to even though I catch him numerous times) so I could convince him to turn it off and let's go to bed for cryin' out loud. (We did get to bed at 10:30 - no midnight for us.)

Some old movies hold up - like Rainman which we watched last week. Dustin Hoffman is genius in that movie! I wish I could go back to the days when I liked Tom Cruise because now unfortunately I think he's kind of goofy. He's still a good actor but I can't forget I'm watching goofball Tom Cruise. It's sort of the same with Tom Hanks, but not the goofy part. I absolutely love everything he does. I watched him throughout Charlie Wilson's War recently, half watching the movie, half thinking, "He's perfect in this." His accent, barely moving his lips, his look - all just right for the role.

Tonight we'll watch The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. You think Netflix and the like are doing great business because of the writers strike??

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That Pirate Movie

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I made this Notepad for my good friend Pam. We did a B & B this morning. That's breakfast and beads store. I intended to buy only beading needles but I found a tube of delicious frosty blue beads I didn't have. I have enough tubes (I first typed tubs - wouldn't that be cool??) of seed beads now that I really need to carry a list of my bead inventory in my purse so I don't duplicate.

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Steve and I went with his mom and sister to dinner last night, followed by the 3rd pirate movie. Sorry, I can't keep them straight - had to look it up - this one is called At World's End. I don't think I liked it as well as the first two, but my companions liked it a lot.

I think maybe it was just a long day for me. The movie was 3 hours long, the fight scenes went on too long and Johnny Depp wasn't on screen enough for me. (He doesn't even appear for the first 30 minutes.) However, there are a bunch of scenes with multiple Jack Sparrows in them, so at the least the volume of Johnnys Per Scene was acceptable at times. And Orlando Bloom is another hunk o' burnin' love normally but when he dons that do-rag/pirate's scarf thing on his head at the end, he was totally swoon-worthy! The special effects are great, but they aren't a surprise anymore, in a way. The first time I saw Davy Jones (no, Gretchen, not that one - I wish!) was amazing - how did they do that? This time? Oh yeah, there's tentacle face again.

Loved Keith Richards.

Stay through the credits (which Steve and I are compulsive about anyway) - this one also has a bonus scene.

I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Fun movie overall.

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Beads, Work and Movies

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I can't stop beading!

In addition to beading and stitching today, I'll be cutting more circles and poking more patterns so I have work ready-to-go for the next few weeks.

My biggest task today, however, is to step up the pep talk I started giving myself on Friday. Tomorrow I return to work after this wonderful week of vacation days, the way I was meant to live, by the way. One of the women in our department is on vacation this week. We have a new auditor in all week, reviewing records from the past 13 months. Blah, blah, blah.

It goes like this: I like my job. I like the people I work with. I enjoy the work. It pays adequately. It supplies me with benefits. It's a steady income.

How did I do on the sincerity meter?? No, really, I do mean all those things. As far as jobs go, it really suits me pretty well, for the most part.

I read a bit of Money magazine in the eye doctor's office last weekend. I wanted to read more so I bought an issue afterwards. One of the articles I was interested in was about entrepreneurs, one of my favorite subjects. One of the most meaningful things I read was the advice to hang on to the "day job" as long as possible when starting a new business. It made me see my accounting job in a new light - as a positive, that is making everything else possible. Sometimes I feel a little resentful that it takes up 40+ hours/week when I could be attending to my passion - paper art. I know that's dumb, but that's how I felt sometimes. Now I'm seeing it as one of the steps that needs to be taken to reach my larger goal - that Pine Tree Designs be a self-sufficient business that supports me.

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Steve and I watched two movies last night - Snow Walker and Walk the Line. I think I put Snow Walker in our queue based on a Netflix suggestion after returning 8 Below. I enjoyed it more than Steve did though he liked it okay. I like what I call character study movies. Walk the Line was very good. I had no idea June Carter was so spunky, funny and strong. I thought she was more subservient, for lack of a better word. Reese Witherspoon seems very likable from interviews I've seen. I just put another couple of her movies in our queue.

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One Down, One to Go

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As I mentioned here, my nephew Nick got married last week in Pennsylvania. I drove down (about 5 hours) with Gretchen and her other son, Paul. It was a small ceremony, with the big shindig scheduled for August 19. It was lots of fun. Jill's family is very friendly and everyone was very nice to us.This is Nick sweating in the sun, strictly because of the weather and heavy clothing. (You can't see the gloves here. Don't tell anyone but he had 2 right gloves.) Otherwise, he was cool as a cucumber. I thought Gretchen and I were pretty cool too - barely shed a tear or two.

Paul did a wonderful job as best man.

Jill had both her parents walk her down the aisle, as it should be, in my opinion.

They're married!

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Gretchen, Paul and I left PA about 7:30 Thursday morning so I could get to work around 1:00. Nick & Jill drove up with Nick's dad & his girlfriend later in the day. They will be here about a week or so. We did the big family breakfast thing yesterday.

Otherwise I've been puttering I guess. Saturday morning, I grocery shopped around 7:00 or so. Later I went to Target and bought some things (a lamp, candles, table runner, wall clock, etc.) to spruce up an old office at work that we're using for a software testing lab. It was way too beige in there so I went all David Bromstad to color it up a bit. I stopped by work and set up some of the stuff to make sure I was on the right track. I later bought a couple of houseplants that I potted up in pots I had here that I'll take in tomorrow.

I also stopped by Country Way nursery and bought a bunch of annuals. I got all that planted on Sunday. I'll take pictures later. I'm happy with everything. I noticed all the plants looked a bit happier today, after the good watering I gave them yesterday. They were kind of parched when I planted them.

Today, Steve and I went in the hot tub when we got up, then read the paper on the deck and ate breakfast there too - pancakes, bacon & smoothies. It's been a gorgeous weekend, weather-wise, except for a brief shower Sunday night. I've hung laundry on the clothesline, put the birdbaths out, pulled a few weeds. I had sort of envisioned a pretty full Pine Tree Designs weekend but all this other stuff is important too. After I finish up a bit more paperwork, I'll work on custom orders and get organized, deciding what quantities I want to have for shows for the rest of the year. Now's my time to get tons of stuff made, to relieve as much stress as possible in the fall.

I watched Almost Famous yesterday afternoon. Steve and I saw it in the theater when it came out in 2000 and I was ready to see it again so I put it in our Netflix queue. I recently set up separate queues for Steve and me and we have a joint one. Turns out Steve didn't want to watch Almost Famous again, which kills me because he absolutely watches movies over and over. I must have mistakenly assumed he liked it as much as I did in 2000. I'd had this DVD for weeks so I decided I better just sit down, get stitching and watch it. It really holds up - I just love this movie!

Last night Steve and I watched Must Love Dogs on HBO on Demand last night. I liked it a lot, though part of the ending was a little over the top. Still, I enjoyed it.

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Do & Don't

.Do see Dreamgirls!

Every once in a while a movie comes out that I know I must see. Sometimes it feels so personal that I actually kind of want to see it alone. I mentioned this movie to Steve a few days ago and he didn't know anything about it. (Apparently it wasn't covered on ESPN or in the Sports section of our newspaper.) Then I got it in my head to go see it yesterday afternoon since I'd taken the day off and Steve had to work. I asked if he minded and he didn't.

I was prepared for it not to live up to the hype - but it did. And true to other theaters I've read about, people applauded after Effie's big emotional number and also at the end of the film. You don't see that every day. And this was a half-filled theater at the 1:00 matinee. (Love $5 movies!)

Forgive me for adding to the hype but I must. I cried during the movie and even teared up in the car on the way home, thinking about it. I downloaded music from iTunes last night. I know part of the big draw for me was seeing Jennifer Hudson be so successful. On a side note, my blog stats shot way up the day the movie opened and I see a bunch of hits on my 04-27-04 entry where I wrote about her getting voted off American Idol. Don't view that entry in Firefox, it's better in IE.

The other thing I love about this movie is they got every single detail just right. As someone who paid attention to music during that era, it was fascinating! I mean, I don't know about the facts of the movie - being "loosely" based on The Supremes, but the look was absolutely perfect. The casting was perfect. Eddie Murphy was the coolest!

I told Steve if he found himself wanting to see it, I'd gladly see it again. He told me the reverse was true, if I wanted to see it again, he'd be glad to go. I'm thinking there may be another viewing in my near future - like this weekend, even. I've never said that before. (Except I did sit through back-to-back showings of To Sir with Love in 1967 when we lived in Ridgewood, New Jersey.) I don't want to water down my current love of the movie though so I'm not sure. I don't know if it works like that or not.

So that's my "do" - see Dreamgirls.

My don't? Don't ever watch the movie About Schmidt. We watched the DVD recently and we've never seen a more boring movie. I admit to putting it on our Netflix queue because the movie's claim to fame is Kathy Bates' flash of nudity. I love her and she's very brave for doing that - but I seriously regret losing those 2 hours of my life forever.

The plaza in which I saw Dreamgirls houses a Michael's so I stopped in afterwards to browse. And walked out with $94 worth of picture frames. And that's at half price. I knew I was in trouble when I hit the frame department and realized I needed a cart. Can't wait to get busy and fill those puppies up!

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