Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Of course, Jesse would start crying the minute I start the post, so I have to make this quick…

My top 3 in no particular order: Blake Lewis, Chris Sligh, and Chris Richardson with an honorable mention of Phil Stacey. Sundance saved himself with that performance.

Who should go home but probably won’t because of the teen girl vote? Sanjaya. Oy vey.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I’ve posted a couple new things at Whiny Complaints for those who care…

Jesse’s got a big day out ahead of him today. First we got to my doctor’s office for my 6 week, post delivery follow-up. I had considered leaving him at home with Beau, but I’ll be seeing the OB that delivered Jesse and I thought she’d want to see him since she hasn’t seen him since she pulled him out.

After that, we’ll come back home for lunch and then we all head out to my office to pay them a visit and to drop off my laptop for the IT lady to fix. It’s hard to believe that I’ve only got 2 more weeks of leave before I start back at work. I’m nervous about time management when I’m working at home, but I know that my boss is pretty flexible and will work with me on easing me back in. Of course, I also know that he’s going to want to relinquish my tasks that he’s had to take on since our new admin left a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the visit and to seeing my friends at work. It’s been 3 months!

Monday, February 26, 2007

I went to bed (the first time) at about 10:30pm, but the show was recording. When I was up later with Jesse, I watched about another hour of the show. I finished it this morning while I fed him. Jaynee sums up my exact thoughts about the show last night.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Jesse’s becoming much more alert now that he’s nearly 6 weeks old. He was very interested in checking things out today and spent much of the afternoon awake.

More pics can be seen at Whiny Complaints.

So we were supposed to get sleet and freezing rain most of today. Instead we got about 5 inches of snow. I took the pictures from our back door.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

So remember the snow/ice event we had here a week or so ago? We never really cleaned off my car of the snow/ice because I rarely go out. I did venture out on Wednesday, though, and I had to chip away about a 3 inch block of ice that had accumulated through thawing and refreezing over my windshield wipers. In the process I broke my long handled ice scraper/brush.

I asked Beau to see if he could get a new one for me when he went to Walmart on Friday. No go - the winter gear has been replaced by summer gear. He said it was no big deal since we wouldn’t need it until next winter. I laughed and said that with my track record I would need it.

I was right.

...FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM SUNDAY TO 4 AM EST MONDAY…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM SUNDAY TO 4 AM EST MONDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WAS LOCATED OVER THE MISSOURI VALLEY THIS AFTERNOON. THE STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE EAST TONIGHT AND SPREAD MOISTURE ACROSS THE MID ATLANTIC REGION.

AT THE SURFACE COLD CANADIAN AIR IS IN PLACE ACROSS THE ADVISORY AREA. PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN AS FREEZING RAIN...POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SLEET EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. AT TIMES THE FREEZING RAIN WILL CHANGE TO RAIN SUNDAY AFTERNOON...WITH A CHANGE BACK TO ALL FREEZING RAIN SUNDAY EVENING.

ICE ACCUMULATIONS UP TO TWO-TENTHS OF AN INCH ARE EXPECTED.

Lovely.

Sleeping on Daddy’s chest. Nothing better than that…

Knitters vs Crocheters.

[via the llamas]

Lady in the Water is a weird little movie.

Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.

Of all of the M. Night Shyamalan movies, I think it’s the one I like the least. However, there is a tenderness in the Paul Giamatti character that kept me interested in the story and had me teary at the end. So I don’t love it and I don’t hate it but I can’t say that I like it either. Because it was weird.

That said, knowing that the movie came from a bedtime story that Shyamalan told his daughters helps me understand the nonsense a bit better. But still...weird.

This one gets 3 stars out of 5.

Little Miss Sunshine is a nice little movie about a generally nice little family. Here’s the thing - right after I watched it I liked it a lot more than I do a couple of days later. It’s a pretty good movie for what it is. I came away thinking that Olive was precious and I liked how her family supported and loved her so completely. However, there are things that I didn’t like about this movie that upon longer reflection tarnish that initial fondness for the rest of it all. In particular, most of the stuff surrounding the grandfather (played very well by Alan Arkin, whom I think is a brilliant actor) was very off putting. And my frequent complaint about movies is the profligate use of the F-word. LMS features that particular word a lot.

What I loved was the van and everything to do with the van. And the scary beauty pageant, which I’m afraid is all too real to life. Yikes…

To take a page from Jaynee and her movie rating system, 2.5 car horns out of 5.

The Guardian was on my queue and may never have made it to the top of the list much less gotten shipped to my house except that our pastor is doing a sermon series using movies and The Guardian is next weeks sermon. To avoid the spoilers to come, we watched it last night. It was exactly what I expected in terms of plot, predictability, mediocre acting, and enjoyability. I’m sure recruiting for the Coast Guard increased slightly after the movie was in theaters, but it wasn’t of the caliber of the ultimate military recruitment movie, Top Gun. Although it did have the cheesy romance side plot that Top Gun did, which I found annoying.

Kevin Costner is one of the most, if not the most, wooden actors in Hollowood today. The surprise to me was the quality of Ashton Kutcher’s acting - he’s not too bad. The training scenes were interesting as were the rescues. I liked learning a little bit more about what it is the USCG rescue swimmers do. Oh, and there was a lot less profanity in this military-centric movie than in the family-centric movie. For that, I’ll give the movie a positive enough rating.

2.5 life rafts out of 5.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Beau got email confirmation from the college in Arkansas that they selected one of the other candidates for the position. The official rejection letter is in the mail.

Interestingly, Beau had just said this morning that he was OK either way and was learning to be content with where he is right now.

So we rejoice that we are not moving this summer after all - not because it was to Arkansas we would have moved, but that God closed the door. We wait for the right door to open up. In the meantime, I’m going to do a little decorating since it seems we’ll be here for a little while longer.

Truth be told, I was not looking forward to moving 1000 miles in two cars in the middle of summer to the hottest part of the country with a 6 month old baby, a dog, and a cat.

You should see the new template now. If you don’t see it or things look odd, refresh the page.

If things still don’t look right, let me know in the comments.

Thanks to those who gave feedback earlier today.

From Lars at Brandywine Books:

1. What is your occupation? Budget Analyst for the federal government.

2. What color are your socks right now? I’m not wearing any socks at the moment.

3. What are you listening to right now? Jesse’s got the hiccups.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Smoked sausage with beans and rice at dinner last night. I’m currently drinking a cup of coffee and plan to get some oatmeal soon for breakfast.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Midnight blue.

7. The last person you spoke to on the phone? My mother last night.

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? So far as I know him online - I like what he says at his blog.

9. How old are you today? 39.

10. Favorite drink? Sweetened iced tea.

More behind the linkety link…

... for a blog theme revamp. However, finding the time to do that right now is the challenge.

The good news is I got the TV on the computer back up and running after the whole moving the computer up to the bedroom during the maternity bed rest thing. Beau had moved it back down to the basement while I was in hospital, but didn’t bother to set up the cable again. Imagine that. */deadpan* Anyhoo, I have TV down here again, so maybe I’ll try some later evening creative work while Jesse sleeps.

[LATER]: Potential new header here. What think ye?