What did I do today? Well, it was nice and low key…iHop for breakfast, farmers market, Walmart, FaceTime and bad TV movies.

DCM and I decided on iHop, took a chance as the last few times we went, not so good. It was yummy,they have new melts, roasted peppers and spinache, who would have thought at iHop!

Next was Walmart to look for a birthday present for DCM’s granddaughter LB (well, LB is her nickname, her real name is LRS, but we call her LB). Her new favorite movie is Brave, or as she calls it, Merida, after the main character who has long red hair. LB has red hair, but as she’s almost 2, not as long. We found a Merida doll, that came with the three bears, that she will love and some Brave stickers, which her parents will probably not love, as they will probably end up on the car windows and a Merida card that opens to reveal a poster of Merida on a horse.

Then on to the farmer’s market, DCM’s first, hopefully not his last. I got my veggies for the week so I can juice, it’s been a few days and I’m not happy.

When we got back to the house, it was time to FaceTime with LB! LB is DCM’s first grandchild, she and her mommy, CS, DCM’s second oldest, moved to Las Vegas after she got married last year. She was talking with DCM and asked for me, JJ, that’s what DCM started calling me, so I have a title! And as soon as she realized I was there, she said “Cookie Monster, JJ?”.

So…the backstory…when CS and LB still lived in GA, DCM and I would FaceTime (video chat via the iPad for those of you not ‘in the know’) and to entertain LB, I would pick up this tissue box I have that had Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird and Ernie. So, the second she sees me on FaceTime, she asks for Elmo or Cookie Monster, I put the box in front of my face and start talking like them, it’s exhausting! But funny! Today…I couldn’t find the tissue box! Oh no! So, I had to improvise, I was able to pull pictures of Cookie Monster and Elmo up on my iPad to show her.

We had fun chatting with them today, as much as a 2 year olds attention span will allow! I know DCM misses his LB, but it’s fantastic that they get to see each other as often as they can via the iPad and sometime soon, I’m working on it, we’ll go visit! (They’ll be back in GA in a few months as LB is about to have a cousin and DCM is going to be a granddad again!) more babies to spoil!

Then there was cross stitching, WOW (DCM, not me), pizza and bad tv and movies. We watched I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, a wonderfully bad B blaxploitation movie from the late 80’s that I absolutely love! It’s a Keenan Ivory Wayans movie about Jack, a soldier in the army who comes home to find his brother has OG’d, died from over gold! Drugs are not what is killing the kids, it’s too many gold chains! Mr T gone wild! There’s fighting, romance, thugs, lost loves, prosthetics, pimps, great cameos, pms, Kung Fu fighting and theme music, because every good hero should have their own theme music!

Next was this awfully wonderful series that I had to share with DCM and the movie it was based on. The tv series had only 12 episodes and it starred Rue McLanahan, Olivia Newton John, Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, as a Tammy Wynette wanna be drag queen, and so many others that some of you will recognize and some you won’t but it made me laugh from start to finish! The description n Netflix: “Head on down to the trashy side of Texas that follows the warped antics of Peggy Ingram and her various and honorary offspring.” I think that about sums it up, rednecks, white trash, bible thumpers, drunks, gays, lesbians, theater and guns, what more could your want! The movie was not as good as the TV show, but they had time to perfect it! It was a wonderful, horrible cheesy show that I honestly believe was written to be like that and I could not pull my eyes away, I loved it! If you have to choose, choose the show, 12 episodes, 22 minutes each, but be forewarned, there are cliff hangers at the end of the TV show, we’ll never know what happens to Ty and Jacob, Bitsy Mae and Glyndora, Brother Boy or the rest of the nut cases! Do I care? Nope!

You’re probably as beat as I am now, so, I will leave you to say good night…good night.

Tonight I saw a new movie, Beautiful Creatures.

DCM and I went to Discover Mills mall to see Beautiful Creatures in the smallest theater we have ever been in! We may have been the oldest people in the theater, possibly with the exception of the man snoring in the back.

The cast was impressive, Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson were the big heavies, leading a wonderful cast of well known faces and talented newcomers.

The movie takes place in Gatlin, NC. As described by Ethan, the main boy character, Gatlin is too far from Charlotte to have a Starbucks! The one movie theater gets movies after they are already on DVD and always get the name wrong (Interception, Finale Destination).

The town is very religious and wary of anything they don’t know or is different and they have ideas about the Ravenwoods, the recluse family that has been in the town for centuries and the new girl Lena Duchannes (Ravenwood) is shunned by the popular kids, they all said she was a witch.

There was a fight over Lena…was she going to be light or dark (I’m not giving anything away, just watch a trailer)… What is going to happen to Ethan? Will they be together? Will there be a happy ending?

One of the things I liked about the movie was that even though it had a teen feel/theme, it didn’t feel like it was being marketed towards teens, it was a movie that could transcend the generations. It was about family, loyalty, love, respect, hate, confusion and the power to make your own decisions.

There were some great one liners, fun effects, spells, magic, confusion and great lessons. The greatest lesson? Love is the strongest magic there is.

So go…make your way in the world, be true to yourself, love and allow yourself to be loved and you won’t go wrong.

Today I did something that was a lot of fun, I went to a movie marathon.

Every once in a while, when a new movie comes out, if it’s part of a series, they will do a movie marathon. I did this several years ago for the last Harry Potter movies, they showed the last 2 movies before they premier the new one, I did the same last May for The Avengers movie, it was Iron Man, the Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and then the Avengers, it was 15 hours of movies!

today with the Die Hard marathon it started at noon, with Die Hard, Die Hard 2, the 3rd, Die Hard With a Vengeance, the 4th, Live Free or Die Hard, and finally A Good Day to Die Hard.

The great thing about the movie marathons is you get a discounted price for your entire movie collection, today’s deal was $20 for 5 movies you can’t beat that!

Now anybody who’s at least in my age range even younger, has seen Die Hard, we love it! it’s the original, yippie ka-yay mother blank! There is no greater villain than Hans Gruber, he set the precedent for a long line of badasses, there’s been nothing like him since and many have tried to imitate him none have succeeded.

So how many times have you seen Die Hard? Can you quote it, I can! Then we have Die Hard 2, it was a great movie a little silly but still a lot of fun, both have become Christmas classics for some! As I was watching these movies everything came flooding back that was the cool part and those of us who were in the theater, and they were very few, we were all quoting different lines and cheering when we heard our favorite yippie ka-yay!

I hadn’t seen the other to Die Hard movies, I don’t know why I just didn’t. In my mind the first to are classics and the other 2 just didn’t quite catch my eye. Well this being a new one coming out, and there was an opportunity for a marathon, I thought why not. I went with my friend BG and met his friend MF.

The cool thing was, in between each movie, we had about 30 minutes so a bunch of us would stand outside the theater and discuss the merits of what we thought of each film.

I enjoyed the third one, it was is a lot of fun, and it took place in my hometown of NYC so I was a little nostalgic. I like Samuel Jackson he was a lot of fun, and I really like Jeremy Irons as a villain, but he was a little bit lame, I just didn’t feel it it…was kind of awkward.

The fourth one was interesting because there was a lot a techno stuff, it was definitely coming up more in terms of new technology which was very cool, I like Justin Long, he plays a good geek, and I love Kevin Smith, although, it’s always a little odd to see Silent Bob talk in a movie. I wasn’t as big a fan of the villain in the fourth, he seemed like he was about to cry at every turn. I also thought this one had a little too much violence and destruction, didn’t like seeing that. I’m all for gratuitous violence and laughter in a movie, but there has to come a point when you say, really?

What I don’t get in some movies is why the character has to have marital and family strife in every single picture. I know, I know it adds to the depth of the character, an inner turmoil, well bully for character, can we just have a happy ending?

Here we are the fifth movie, A Good Day To Die Hard. It took a little bit to get into, it dragged in a lot of places, there were a lot of twists and turns, but overall it didn’t quite keep my attention as evident by the fact that I dozed off twice during the movie. from what I remember there were a lot of plot twist and turns and you never really knew the bad guy was, which is kind of cool.

All in all I had a great time, good company and fun movies, what a great way to spend the afternoon. There was a 30 minute break in between each movie, but you’re still sitting for about 12 hours.

On the way home, so I had the seat warmers on, I am going to sleep on my side, because my rump is sore!

so dear friends, I leave you with this..Yippie Ka-yay!