I’m watching Mr. Mom right now. After reading my last blog, my brother reminded me about the kid in the movie and his woobie. It’s on the Netflix instant list so of course I had to watch it again.

Now Mike would never play poker with grocery coupons or throw a race if he was winning, so he’s not really much like Mr. Mom, but the movie still bears a lot of similarities to our lives. For one, the kid with the woobie is totally Luke. But I would never suggest he throw his woobie into the fire. I mean, I made it with my own two hands. He will be buried with that woobie if it can hold out that long.

Other parallels:

1. The family lives in Michigan.
2. Dad was laid off from a job in the auto industry.
3. Mom works, Dad cares for the kids.
4. Dad is a Detroit Lions fan.
5. Mom is played by Teri Garr, who has M.S. (and who happens to now be one of my heroes)

And my favorite:
Dad is totally okay with running a major power tool such as a chainsaw in the house. I am reminded of a time I came home to find Mike showing his friend a leaf blower he had borrowed – in our living room. That’s one way to dust the shelves. See, like Mr. Mom melting the cheese on a sandwich with a flat iron, Mike can be creative too.

I just have one question – is it a rule that every guy has to grow a beard when they lose a job?

Calling all bloggers! I need some movie suggestions. My Netflix queue is looking a little thin. I like a lot of different types of movies. Almost anything but horror flicks. Well, and if it’s rated R I generally won’t like it. I don’t have much tolerance for swearing, sexual humor, bathroom humor, or anything even remotely resembling nudity. I tend to like romantic comedies and suspense thriller type movies.

Some of my favorites are the Bourne movies, The Princess Bride, Bandits, The Recruit, I Am Legend, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Chocolat, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Usual Suspects (just to name a few).

So here’s what I want you to do. If you know of any great movies that you think Mike or I might like, please shout it out in the comments. And give us a brief explanation of why you liked the movie.

Ready… Set… Go!

I just watched P.S. I Love You and I am proud of myself. I only cried for the last 117 minutes of the movie. I don’t know if it’s hormones or what, but man oh man. During the entire film my emotive glands were pulsing with pain at the sadness of the whole story, and just when I would get to a point where I thought I would lose it completely, they would cut to a new scene. The movie was not as merciful at the end though. That’s when I did lose it completely. There was a seriously sweet and moving scene with the young woman and her mother and it didn’t help that the mother is played by my mom’s look-a-like, Kathy Bates.

** Mom, let me just take this opportunity while I’m all teary and emotional to remind you that you are beautiful and loving and kind and wise and I am so proud that God chose you to be my mother. That has nothing to do with the movie but you know how a good chick flick can really get you thinking about life and the people you love the most. So there. I said it. **

Okay, back to the movie…  Ladies, you just have to rent it. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry. Curl up with a soft blanket and a warm cup of tea and make sure you have a box of tissues and a phone handy. Oh, and make sure there are no men around to interrupt. They just wouldn’t understand all the crying.

Mike and I watched I Am Legend last night. This was not a movie I wanted to watch. I only put it on my Netflix queue because Mike wanted to see it. I generally steer clear of scary movies because I’ve never seen one I liked, but guess what? I really liked it! I have never been so thoroughly terrified and so thoroughly entertained at the same time. It was a strange combination. I was huddled on the couch with my pillow but I couldn’t peel my eyes away through the entire movie. It even had a great ending, which in my opinion can make or break a movie. I may even watch it again, and that’s more than I can say for the last movie I watched from my queue, Ziegfeld Girl. (Sorry, Judy. I did love you in Easter Parade!)

I have just learned more than I ever needed to know about lobsters. I just watched “Mostly Martha” (the original, in German with English subtitles). In the movie, Martha mentions that if lobsters are left in a tank too long they will begin to eat themselves slowly from the inside. So of course I had to google it. I confirmed that it’s true and found some other interesting facts about lobsters.

The Secret Life of Lobsters FAQ 
“Did you know lobsters were once despised by humans as junk food?”

What Wikipedia says about lobsters 
“Occasionally, they will scavenge if necessary, and may resort to cannibalism in captivity”

Unknown Life of Lobsters
“Usually in a particular neighborhood, one male establishes himself as the local ogre, the dominant alpha male. And once his status is secured, he enforces it. Every night, he goes out and beats up all the other lobsters in the neighborhood, kicks them all out of their houses, just to remind them who’s in charge.”

So basically, they are introverted bottom-feeders that like to bully their neighbors. Not to mention they are kind of icky looking. I am not surprised that they used to only be eaten by poor people and children. They were like the ramen noodles of simpler times. So what changed? Maybe in 50 years they’ll start charging $20 per pound of noodles.

Technorati Tags: lobster, Holidailies

I watched an outstanding movie last night: “The Girl In The Cafe“. I thought it was going to be a simple love story but it was so much more. Simply put, it’s a story about two broken people trying to make a difference. I’m not great at movie reviews so I won’t attempt that, but I will give this movie two thumbs up and a big toe. I will warn you, there was one entirely unnecessary scene with brief nudity but it could easily be fast forwarded through. In another scene the f-word was used, but it was not used flippantly so it didn’t bother me.

The weird coincidence (or not so much) is that last night I watched that movie and it was about world poverty and this morning I read this post in my bloglines about the same subject. Now this coincidence may just be the affects of some media campaign but does that mean I should tune it out like I do with all the other information I am bombarded with? I can’t end world poverty. I can’t even make a significant dent in it, but the message I heard last night was that we can’t use that as an excuse to just give up. We must not compromise or become complacent on matters of life and death.

I don’t know what I can do. To be honest, I’m a little overwhelmed with the figures. More than 1.5 billion living on less than $1 a day? I spend $0.73 on coffee every day. That’s pocket change to me, and yet there are billions whose lives depend on that. Billions. I can’t even comprehend that. What’s even harder to comprehend is the six million children dying each year before their fifth birthday. I can’t imagine the pain of not being able to feed your own child. Luke cries if he has to wait thirty seconds for his dinner. It would break my heart to hear him cry from hunger, knowing I had nothing to offer. How do you explain to a six month old that there is no food? How do you explain that to a four year old, knowing she may not make it to five?

I don’t know what I can do. I would like to think that this knowledge will stay with me and change my perspective and cause me to make changes in the way I live that will make a difference. The sad truth is that I will probably forget all about this by Christmas, but let’s pray that I do not.

Mike and I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum last night. We have the first two in this series on DVD, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. I love these movies, so I was really excited to see the third one! The Bourne Ultimatum was just as great as the first two, if not better! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, ever anxious to see what was going to happen next. The ending was fantastic. The ending to any movie can either ruin the entire movie for me, or it can leave me wanting to watch it all over again. This ending made me want more. Great movie. If you like suspense and action, go see it, but be sure you watch the first two before you do. They did seem to explain relevant details from the previous two movies in this one, so you could probably watch the third without having seen the first two, but I wouldn’t recommend it. There were elements in the flick that were enhanced simply by knowing information from earlier in the storyline. That is what it is, one long storyline, and who reads chapter 3 before reading chapter 1? You have to go in order. Feel free to borrow our DVDs if you like, and if you need a theater buddy to watch The Bourne Ultimatum with I would be happy to join you so I can watch it again!

I think of things I want to blog about fairly often, but just never get around to it. There is a lot of busy-ness going on: in our house, at work, and in my head.

Mike and his buddies are still coming along on adding the room in the basement. Did I mention they were doing that? Mike is losing his “game room” to the baby, so he decided to build a room in the basement to replace it. I told him that big screen tv was not going in our living room so he either needed to put it in the basement or sell it. He’s been wanting to do something with that basement for a long time now, he just needed the motivation. So far they have put up the drywall and doors. The drywall still needs to be taped and mudded, but we have a friend coming on Monday to handle that. After that we paint and put down carpeting and voile’! Move the furniture down and we’ll be ready to start on Luke’s room. The plan there is to paint, refinish the wood floor, and install closet doors.

Until all that is done the rest of our house is in chaos. One reason is that it is tax season and I have little time or energy for decluttering. The other reason is that we are already accumulating baby stuff and of course have no place to put it yet. We have a crib, bassinette, loads of clothes, and many other miscellaneous items. Once the room is done and tax season is over the house will eventually return to a more organized state, so I try not to let it bother me, knowing that it won’t be like this forever.

Work has been fairly busy and keeps me challenged. Something I normally enjoy, but with so much else on my mind some days I feel like I’m losing it. I constantly fear I’m forgetting important things, and sometimes I am. But the guys here are very forgiving and generally blame it on the pregnancy. I still worry about how they’ll do without me while I’m on maternity leave, but I know worrying doesn’t help. They did fine while I was in the hospital, considering there was no preparation or warning. I had a lot of work waiting for me when I came back but I took it one day at a time and eventually got it taken care of.

Mike and I had a birthday last Saturday. He turned 30! I turned 29 and Saturday was also the day I turned 29 weeks pregnant, which I think is a tad interesting but not nearly as fun as turning 30. Some friends of ours had us over for dinner and a movie. We stuffed ourselves with chicken, rice and salad and after our stomachs settled we had brownies and ice cream. Yum. The boys played video games for a little while and then we all watched FlyBoys. It’s a true-story movie about the Lafayette Escadrille, a group of American soldiers who signed up to learn to fly some of the earliest fighter planes in World War I.  I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to anyone. Read the Plugged In Online review if you want to know more.

I know how exhausting it can be to read these long posts so I’ll end it here and hopefully add the more nonsensical thoughts from my head in future posts (cuz I know that’s the stuff you all really love, not to mention it’s a great stress relief for me).

Mike and I went to see Rocky Balboa on Saturday. I am a huge Rocky fan and I have been anticipating this movie for some time. I went in with very low expectations, however, because Rocky V was such an extreme disappointment. I have the box set, Rocky I-V, on DVD at home. I have only watched Rocky V once but it was only because I was having my own little Rocky Marathon and had to watch it on principle. After all, I am an accountant and avid list-checker-offer.

I loved Rocky Balboa. It was a well-made movie, great plot, great lines, great actors. I teared up at one point, which is saying a lot because I don’t cry much at movies. When the credits rolled I had an unusual sense of closure, the closure I had been stripped of ever since watching Rocky V. In my book, the Rocky legacy has now been redeemed. I told Mike that when Rocky Balboa comes out on DVD, I’m buying a copy and replacing V with it in my box set. Rocky V is dead to me. Rocky Balboa lives.

Now this hilarious Showtime Special is online for all to enjoy!!

Steven Banks: Home Entertainment Center on YouTube

Thanks to Thomas for sending me the link!