weird movie weekend

Ben came up to visit this weekend, and because it was so cold out we ended up spending a lot of time nesting up as cozy as possible and watching movies.

I am just realizing how weird the selection was...

#1 The Maiden Heist

With names like Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken, it was assumed that this wouldn't be a complete bust...and it wasn't. It was kind of funny, but more just weird. About these three old art museum guards who are each in love with random quirky works of art that are in a display being moved to Denmark, and who plan an elaborate heist to steal them so they can each be forever united with their respective paintings/naked sculpture. 

Weird, mildly entertaining.

#2 The Men Who Stare at Goats

We saw this at the dollar theater by my house, and it was even WEIRDER than the first movie, but also funnier. A new-age paranormal military program from the 70's gets a new "mission" and the climax is when the main characters end up sort of accidentally spiking the water of an army base in Iraq with LSD and releasing a shed of lab goats and prisoners into the desert.  Quirky but sometimes you wonder if you should really be laughing??

#3 What's Eating Gilbert Grape

A 1993 film starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio....very very 1993.  Leo does an amazing job portraying a mentally handicapped boy, and Johnny is his older brother. They live in podunk IA with their 500 pound mother and a couple sisters and it is a bit Lifetime-esque.

One of those movies that Ben vaguely remembered seeing ten years ago and thought it was good at the time....it's not bad but there are multiple parts where you go "wait...really????" and "why are we still watching this??" but then keep watching anyway.

p.s. my mom has saved my camera cord from the void of lost things and it will be on its way soon! so prepare to see yum recipes and nature pictures :)

winter has hit

Well after a couple weeks of practically balmy weather in the 30's and 40's and lots of pouring rain, winter has come to central PA.  With wind. 

It's still not as bad as the midwest though...the good thing about growing up in the bipolar climate of the Great Lakes states is that you will be prepared to survive ANYWHERE else.  Blazing humidity and 100+ degrees? check.  Ten below and an inch of ice everywhere? it sucks, but I have seen it happen. 

A very strange thing about living in the mountains is that they don't really have thunderstorms here.  It is so weird. There was one thunderstorm last fall that lasted about 10 minutes and the next day everyone was freaking out. [wimps.]

All this being said, I still can't wait until I can go out and run in the sunshine in the morning.  I'm starting to feel a little cooped up and sun-deprived.

But if it's going to be winter, I would rather have it feel like winter, and not this weird nebulous half-springish stuff that messes with my brain and makes me feel that spring is on the way. 

monday award

[unfortunately that is NOT what it looks like here today!!]

We aren't getting the midwest icestorms, but central PA winter is dark dark dark.

a few days ago I was hit with another

Kreative Blogger award

i don't know why the inventer of this game decided to be kool and spell creative that way

by Jackie at exposed brick !

[she has a beautiful blog and inspiring posts, you should check it out :)]

Here are seven things that are making my life whirl right now:

1. I still can't find my camera cord. !! So expect to see lots of random pics unearthed from my computer archive. I can't find my cord because I am pretty sure I left it at home over break.

I have a really bad habit of forgetting things when I travel, which has made me paranoid.

But quadruple-checking always fails, and my nervous apprehensive feelings of "i KNOW i am forgetting something..." as I leave the door is always justified once I reach my destination and realize what I have left behind.

2. I should never be allowed to have an electric stove. Especially one where the coils don't even change color when hot. It is SO easy to accidentally flip the wrong dial. Or forget the burner is still on.

Although recent perils of melting a spatula and cracking a glass Pyrex are not as bad as igniting a plastic jar of powdered coffee creamer...not that that has ever happened to me...

3. Eggplants bring me great joy for some reason.  Yup, weird. My uncle gave me not one but TWO (probably the 2 only) eggplant cookbooks for Christmas (for real...one is even shaped like an eggplant) and it was awesome. (I also never thought I'd be happy to get mousetraps for Christmas, but luckily I have not had to use them. so far.)

I haven't had a chance to try any of the recipes yet, but last night I diced and roasted an eggplant and I was surprised to find it was the highlight of my night! yyyeah...

It doesn't even taste like anything, so I honestly can't explain my obsession.

4. I am going to publicly admit right here and now that I have been sucked into the Twilight mania. A year too late, perhaps, but now addicted nevertheless.

5. I hated the movie Avatar. Yes, it was good, yes I got way too sucked into the plot, and I was emotionally traumatized for the rest of the night.  [Let me warn you NEVER to read political ecology about the plight of exploited indigenous cultures by neoliberal capitalist development right before you go see a movie about the destruction and exploitation of indigenous cultures.] Oh yeah plus, the redheaded scientist dies. Along with half of the main characters.

Make that five random things about me.

I think almost everyone who has a blog has been tagged by this award

so I will try to tag people who haven't said seven random facts about themselves in the name of Kreativ Blogger :P 

and sorry if you've been hit twice already...Feel free to make up new rules if so!

Karina

Caroline

Morgan

Katy

Emily Elise

Ivy

Megara