Movie Reviews | Peaches Prattlings

{January 19, 2025} It’s Sunday…Club Breakfast, Java Journey, Snow, Football, Movies

The day started with no alarm, my favorite! It was about 10 degrees so it was feed the dogs and open the back door, no walk, sorry…less than 25 degrees, I’m hiding under the covers!

We got moving, slowly, but we got moving, headed to the Lebanon Valley Motorcycle Club clubhouse for breakfast, there weren’t a lot of people there, but it was most likely because of the weather, it was coming in! We were there for about an hour, had some good food, as BTK said, her favorite breakfast is one that someone else cooks!

After breakfast we headed to our second stop on the Lebanon Valley Java Journey. Oh no! I forgot to tell you the Java Journey has started and I picked up our cups yesterday! If you recall, from last year, the Lebanon Valley Java Journey is a fun event, or as is quoted on the front of the passport ‘An experience in every cup’! Isn’t that great! Basically, you purchase a cup for $10 and you get a passport with 15 coffee houses and cafes on it, last year it was 12, we’re up this year! Two of the coffee houses has two locations, and they added three new places and one of them is a mobile coffee shop, we’ll have to search to find it!

So… it started on Thursday, January 16th, who starts things on a Thursday, oh well…well, we didn’t have the time to get to one of the locations to get a cup on Thursday, so Friday, we met up at City Watch just before they closed and they were sold out! What?! Last year, so many places had extra, I think they ordered just enough. Turns out, they were sold out before they closed the doors on Thursday, ugh!

Saturday morning, I told you, I was in NYC at my dad’s, so PSM went to Timber Creek Coffee, they were sold out, what?! That’s two down! After we got off the phone, I looked up Timeless Cafe and called and they had plenty! And they agreed to put two aside for me, thank you! So…on the way to the IMRG lunch, we stopped at Mill 72 Bake Shop & Cafe and got our first two beverages and stamps! Weehoo!

Back to today! After breakfast, we went to Swatara Coffee in Annville, I really wanted to show BTK the Whirling Dervish Bakery, but they’re only open Thursday-Friday 7a-11a and Saturday 8a-12p, very convenient hours! We got our stamps and drinks, I told another group of people about the Java Journey, you should have heard me selling it yesterday! PSM said I should work for them! HA HA

After coffee, we went back to the house, the snow started while we were having breakfast, but it was really coming down now. Back at the house, we hung out, there was football to watch, I did some other stuff and when there was a break in the snow, I went out and did a pass over the driveway, to give us a starting point. BTK was planning on heading out tomorrow, so we wanted to be sure she could.

There were a few football games on, BTK and PSM were enjoying them, I was upstairs doing other things, then I came down and made a salad and pasta for dinner, we enjoyed the time together, more football, then PSM went upstairs and BTK and I settled in to watch some movies. We started one she hadn’t seen, followed by one neither of us had seen because it was a new release.

We started with Hidden Figures, the story of three female African-American mathematicians, or as they referred to them, computers, at NASA, amazing, powerful, emotional, fantastic, followed by The Six Triple Eight, the retelling of the story of the all-Black Women’s Army Corps, WACs, who were tasked with sorting and delivering years worth of backlogged mail. I will tell you all about it in another post, but wow, just wow. I am awed and amazed by what those women did for the army, the soldiers, the families, just wow.

When all was said and done, it was about 2 or 2:30am when we finished, off to bed for us! Guess who stayed up a little later because they couldn’t sleep?! No matter what, a good day was had by all!

{April 28, 2024} A Faerie Festival, Baby Goats, and a Movie

And what did you do on Sunday?

We decided to be leisurely this morning and why not, it’s Sunday. After the Beer and Pretzel Fest yesterday, how do you top that? Well.. with a Faerie Festival of course! This was the Forged Fantasy Faerie Festival, say that five times fast! sponsored by the Drunken Smithy. The Drunken Smithy is a place that opened about a year ago at the Lebanon Valley Mall, I think I told you about it, because they offer axe throwing, which PSM and did a few months ago, we love it! We’ve done it in a few places, great fun and a great release!

The Drunken Smithy also offers forging classes, something, when we take, I will definitely share with you! Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. Sounds fierce! It is! Looking forward to making something! PSM did buy me a hammered metal flower, actually it’s a dragon disguised as a flower and I so forgot to take a pic, I’ll do that, promise!

We were actually going to the movies and stumbled about the fabulousness of the Forged Fantasy Faerie Festival! It was like the Renaissance Festival in a mall, I loved it! There were people in costume, at least, some of them were in costume, I know some people live the life and this is how they dress every day. Faerie freedom! The best is when you see someone in full faerie regalia in an unlikely place, like loading something into their car in the parking lot. That was great!

There were so many vendors, some things repeated themselves, but all of it was wonderful and so many hand crafted items! There was music, minstrels, live Dungeons-and-Dragons role playing, face painting, libations, magicians, crystals, artists, and so much more, what else could you want?

Well…baby goats, that’s what! I was talking to a vendor and PSM came over and said “I don’t mean to interrupt…but there are baby goats”! What?! I have no idea, but I la la la love baby goats! And PSM knows it, I turn into mush! So…we rushed over, well, rushed while still being safe and not running into anyone and there they were! $5 for 5 minutes. My beau got me $10 minutes in with the baby goats! Some of them were only a few weeks old!!! I got in the pen, sat down and started loving on the baby goats! I was in heaven!!! Squeeeee!

Time with the baby goats was up…again, I was denied a baby goat or two…you really have to have more than one, they are pack animals. I think it would be so much fun to have a baby goat on the bike! In a side car?! Can’t you just see it?! Goggles and all! Yes!

We walked around some more, then it was time for the movies, luckily, in the same building. We headed over to the theater, got our water and popcorn, you have to have popcorn! Funnily…at home, I might put a little salt on my popcorn, but never butter, in the movie theater, must have butter! Don’t ask me why, that’s just the way it is.

We went to see The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. It was SOOOO good! The tagline: The British military recruits a small group of highly skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II. It was based on Damien Lewis‘ 2014 book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII.

And this will give you the true backstory of how this came about: Churchill’s Notorious WWII Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Finally Gets a Movie, supposedly the beginning of the modern black ops!

It was directed by Guy Ritchie, you can imagine the cinematography and style. It was very clever and funny, the dialog was brilliant, the cast…amazing! Henry Cavill, you know…Superman! as the lead, Gus March-Phillips, Alan Ritchson, Jack Reacher!! as Andres Lasson, what he could do with a knife or bow and arrow?!, Alex Pettyfer as Geoffrey Appleyard, master planner, Cary Elwes, The Princess Bride!! as Brigadier Gubbins ‘M’, the one who initiates the operation, Henry Golding, Crazy Rich Asians!!! as Freddy Alvarez, a master at explosives, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, new to me, as Henry Hayes, a great navigator, Rory Kinnear, he’s been in a lot of action movies, but I know him as a funny man, he was a fabulous Winston Churchill.

Freddy Fox played Ian Fleming, the author himself! Eliza Gonzales, as Marjorie Stewart, and Babs Olusanmokun, as Heron, both new to me, but I look forward to seeing them in future films! And lastly, Til Schweiger, I’ve seen him before, he plays a very good bad, and I mean bad guy!!!

There was action, a lot of it, adventure, great dialog, I mean funny and witty, violence, yeah, a lot of violence, it was WWII, fighting the Nazi’s, there’s going to be violence, but interestingly…not a lot of blood, in one or two scenes, there was blood, but overall… not much! Oh, and there were explosions, and fire, lots of those, and very clever tactics and ploys to do what they needed to.

Overall, I recommend this movie, I want to see it again, yeah, two thumbs up!

And on that note… Gute Nacht (gooteh nakt) [Good night in German]

{February 3, 2024} Another part of my childhood is gone…

Goodbye Carl Weathers.

I was saddened, yesterday, to learn of Carl Weather’s passing on Thursday, February 1st, he was 76 years old. There also isn’t a cause of death listed yet.

I say part of my childhood because I have great memories of him on the big screen and the little screen. Is it possible to forget Apollo Creed from Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, and Rocky IV? Action Jackson? Playing Action Jackson…Chubbs in Happy Gilmore, and to a whole new generation, Greef Karga in The Mandalorian and Combat Carl in Toy Story 4, and on the small screen, in one of my favorite shows, In the Heat of the Night.

There were so many more projects he was a part of, those are the ones that spoke to me more than anything else. He could be serious, funny, charming, goofy, all while probably knocking your lights out!

One thing I learned while looking up Carl Weathers to talk about him to you is that he played one year in the NFL, as a linebacker for John Madden’s 1970 Oakland Raiders!

The tributes that were pouring in online were touching and sweet, just knowing him seemed to enrich people’s lives and although I didn’t know him outside of a screen, you really felt what he was trying to share and convey, and I think I would have liked to sit down with him and be treated to that amazing smile!

A great Apollo Creed line: Apollo Creed versus the Italian Stallion. Sounds like a damn monster movie.

And another: Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about sports as a profession. Sports make ya grunt and smell. See, be a thinker, not a stinker.

Pretty good advice if you ask me. And on that note, good nigh Carl Weathers.

{February 2, 2024} It’s February 2nd…that means it’s Groundhog Day!

I didn’t even realize it today! I know it’s always Feb 2nd and I knew it was Feb 2nd, but it didn’t click until someone posted Happy Groundhog Day on a team chat at the same time I was looking at Yahoo. Oh wow! What did Phil see?

Who’s Phil you ask? Why, only Punxatawny Phil, the groundhog who…if he sees his shadow means we will have six more weeks of Winter, but…if he doesn’t see a shadow, we will have an early Spring. And what did Phil see today? Not his shadow! Early Spring for all! Where does it come from? It derives from a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition.

And what didn’t I realize?! Punxatawny is a city in PA! I just looked, it’s about 3.5 hours from where we are, what does that mean? I SO want to go one year to see the groundhog do his thing, participate in the festivities, experience something new, and see what it’s all about!

I think I’ve told you this already, but…a few years ago I was on a project in Illinois and I happened to be in the city of Woodstock, Illinois and it turns out that’s where the filmed the movie Groundhog Day! It was so cool to see the town after having watched the movie! The premise: A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.

Where does the Groundhog Day Loop concept originate? There’s a 1973 short story called “12:01 P.M.,” by Richard A. Lupoff, in which a man relives the same hour over and over. Language will do what it does; it doesn’t really matter that it goes by “the Groundhog Day loop” as a shorthand; that’s reasonable and sensible, since it’s familiar.

Basically, in the movie, Bill Murray, who plays Phil Connors, the narcissitic weatherman, gets stuck in the Groundhog Day Loop, reliving the same day over and over until he makes it right, basically becomes a human being, at least that’s my opinion. One of the big questions of the movie, is how long did his character actually stay in the loop?

What I found online: Well, there are 38 days actually shown on screen, as well as 414 days mentioned in the film and a huge 11,931 days which Phil spends learning a host of new talents and interests – based on the theory that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in any given subject. He learns to play the piano, speak french, memorizes poetry, that one was to impress a girl! learns to carve ice sculptures, among other things. And in that time, he does become a human being, again, my opinion. But…along the way, at least in the beginning, he does some really stupid shite, because he knows he can get away with it, but after a while, that looses its appeal…

The movie is rounded out by a great cast! Harold Ramis is a writer, the director, and plays a doctor in the movie, Andie McDowell is his tv producer and also become his love interest, has one of my favorite lines towards the end of the movie “You said stay, so I stayed”. Chris Elliott plays the cameraman, Stephen Tobolowsky, a great character actor, plays Ned Ryerson, who he went to high school with and had some of the best lines in the movie: Watch out for that first step…it’s a douzy! and Am I right, or am I right, or am I right?

Billy Murray’s brother Bryan Doyle Murray, who is in a lot of his movies, plays the mayor, and gets to deliver the news: Shadow or no shadow? He gets to deliver the line “Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather-Prophet Extraordinary”. Angela Paton, you know her when you see her, was Mrs Lancaster, the proprieter of the hotel Phil stays at, and Rick Overton is Ralph, one of the town goofball drunks.

Does Phil feel lucky? Well, today he did! And so were we all! Thanks Punxatawny Phil! Motorcycle weather is coming soon!

{January 17, 2024} Wonka

Yes. That’s all I can say is yes.

Well, I can also say worth it, loved it, enjoyed it, great story, fun to watch, laughed, cried, felt all the feelings, and we want to know what happens next. Well…we sort of do, because there was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [2005], and there was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [1971] [A very good year, if I may add!] And now…Wonka [2023].

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder was or is the story of how Charlie wins a golden ticket to take a tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Then, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Jonny Depp is the same premise, but we get a glimpse into the man behind the chocolate and you get to see a little of his childhood and what made him who he is. Interestingly, this version, Wonka, staring Timothée Chalamet is more about how he got his start with dreams of opening a shop, with the help of some friends, and butts heads with the ‘chocolate cartel’. In Johnny Depp’s version, he had issues with his dad, Timothée Chalamet was very much loved by his mother. Hmmm…

We know Timothée Chalamet is Willie Wonka, and he was terrific, but the rest of the cast, oh my! Olivia Coleman as Mrs. Scrubitt, an evil and vile woman! She was fabulous and I love her no matter what she’s playing! Tom Davis was Bleacher, an equally repulsive character, I can’t say I’m very familiar with his work, but he was icky in this, so well done!

The ‘Chocolate Cartel’, fabulous idea and description, were played by Paterson Joseph as Slugworth, Matt Lucas as Prodnose, and Matthew Baynton as Fickelgruber. I love Matt Lucas, I’ve loved him since first seeing him in Little Britain! If you haven’t seen it, look for it, it’s a sketch comedy show staring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. I will tell you, it’s tough to watch sometimes, and you will either love it or not, not a middle of the road kind of thing, but I love it! Matthew Baynton, I love in Ghosts, the UK version, among other things.

Keegan-Michael Key played the cheif of police, he is a funny actor and I have enjoyed watching him since his days on Mad TV! Jim Carter played Abacus Crunch, fitting name for a number cruncher, I know, that’s the point! Many of you probably know him from Downton Abbey, but I’ve been a fan since Haunted Honeymoon! Rakhee Thakrar was charming as Lottie Bell, who worked for the phone company, and I have a feeling that won’t click for anyone younger than me! ha ha Calah Lane was charming as Noodle, one of the other main characters who becomes very close with Willie Wonka and helps give him purpose and to achieve his dreams.

Sally Hawkins was absolutely perfect as Willie’s mother, I have admired her work for a long time, but one of my favorite roles is the mother in Paddington, is she typecast in that role? Rowan Atkinson as the dirty priest, oh he was delightful in his wickedness! It’s still jarring to hear him speak, sometimes, even though, my first introduction to him was as the Blackadder, oh wow, takes me back! Hugh Grant as the Oompa-Loompa, Lofty! It was fun seeing some of the actors in Paddington in Wonka, and it helps a little that it was directed by the same person, Paul King, who was also one of the writers, could be why it had a not so unfamiliar feel.

Just like in the other movies, you honestly can’t tell where the movie is filmed, it feels like Europe, it feels like a city in the US, who knows. Some things made sense, some things didn’t, but isn’t that fantasy and the joy of not having a clue?! Slightly indicitive of all three movies, and I’m ok with it.

As we were watching the movie, it was a musical, and there were some great song and dance numbers, I was wondering if they would be making this into a Broadway musical, it definitely has the makings. It actually looked like it was backwards, that this had been made from a Broadway musical, not the other way around, I’m curious to see what happens! There was a great and catchy soundtrack, but…PSM and I were waiting on certain songs. They played some of the traditional songs as background, but not the full song. Oompa Loompa for one, but the big one…Pure Imagination PSM and I were holding our breath, as I said it was part of the soundtrack in the background, until towards the end, then we held hands, let out the deep breath we were holding and the tears started to flow. All good.

Overall, I can’t recommend this movie enough, it’s whimsical, hopeful, charming, cheeky, clever, sweet, inventive, smart, sounds like Willie Wonka himself…Enjoy!

{January 14, 2024} A snuggle, a freezing walk, two coffee shops, groceries, a movie, and football. Oh my!

Just another Sunday. I was going to say ‘Just another day for you and me in paradise‘. PSM asked me to play Phil Collins when we were driving on St Thomas and now I’m on a Phil Collins radio kick on Pandora, not a bad thing in my opinion.

Got up liesurely, it was about 7am, or a little before. I wasn’t quite prepared to get up and officially greet the day, so I decided it was time for a momm-puppy cuddle session, another good thing. I went downstairs and got the dogs out of the crate, tried to sneak past PSM, trying not to wake him!, and got them upstairs and on the bed.

We settled in and Bee did her thing of circling the bed and settling in and falling asleep almost before her head hit the bed, Ruby did the same, stretched out and proceeded to try to lick my arm clean, no thanks. We were snuggled in for about 2 hours, we cuddled, watch some tv, not even sure what we watched. I say we, but we know the truth, it was really the dogs in control!

Got up eventually, took them to Stover Dam Park for a walk, they absolutely love it there! I chose the wrong footware, go figure, I wore my Chucks, which was fine for most of the park, a few areas were a bit wet, mushy, muddy, and slightly puddley [I made that last one up!] It was a teensy bit chilly while we were there, about 31 out and it was supposed to snow at some point and as we were leaving, here come some flakes, not much though.

Back to the house, feed the dogs, grab our Java Journey mugs and off to Ancester Coffeehouse & Creperie, which happens to be attached to Schnitz Creek Brewery, different. We ordered the drink of the day for PSM, something waayyy too sweet for PSM, but he’s a trooper, did you see…it came with one of those hearts in the foam! and chai latte with oat milk for me. Yummy, not a lot of variation on the chai lattes, in terms of crazy taste, each one is a little different, but ultimately, I usually enjoy it.

I ordered a savory crepe, the Secret Garden, and PSM had a egg and sausage bagel. While we waited, we were chatting, I said hello to the little boy at the table behind us, and I liked his glasses. We started talking with the parents and all of a sudden, the dad says “PSM?” Go figure, they work together! That was fun! We chatted with them for a while, about work, the town they live in, the town we live in, and the Java Journey, how much fun things like this are.

Our food came, y u m! We will definitely go back! Well, actually…to get another stamp we have to go to their other location, not a bad thing! We chatted some more and as we were sitting there, the brewery was taking over the tables around us, they opened at 1130am, and guess what time it was. PSM said we could finish our food and drink and move straight to the brewery!

After the brewery, we realized we needed salad fixings for the week, motorcycle cleaner, and we were contemplating going to a movie, so we headed in that direction, stopped at the Grocery Outlet, one of our favorite grocery stores. They have a good selection, some interesting items, a decent vegan selection, and not very expensive, a win-win! After the grocery store, we decided to check another coffee shop off our list…Sydney Roasting Co.

Turns out, we don’t actually have to bring the mugs with us, as long as we have the passports, we are good to go. Good to know! We orderd a chai latte for me with almond milk for me and whatever frozen, overly sweet drink for PSM. I tried it and agreed for the first few sips, it tasted like coffee ice cream, which I used to love, but 4 sips in…coffee, no thank you! We hung out, enjoyed the atmosphere, added this place to the list of places we might come back to! Loving this whole Java Journey thing!

After finishing, well almost finishing, our drinks headed to Auto Zone, unfortunately, they didn’t have what we needed, oh well, but..the movies await! We went to the local Regal Movie Theater to watch Wonka. LOVED IT! I’ll write another post about it, it was charming! We laughed, we cried, we just really enjoyed it!

After the movies we went to 7th Street Bar & Grill, one of our new favorite hang outs. It looks unassuming on the outside, inside, it’s not big, but it’s nice. They have two pool tables, a bunch of booths and tables, and a nice bar, we’ve only sat at the bar. My only issue with this place…the bathrooms are ffffrrreeezzzinnnnggg! I would say, if you can skip it in the winter, do it! Go in the summer, it will be great! I had a veggie burger and PSM had a reuben. One of the footbal playoff games was on, the Greenbay Packers were trouncing the Dallas Cowboys, on their own field, ouch. PSM started talking to a few people at the bar who could talk football, I was ok with that!

At some point, I headed home to take care of the dogs and left PSM in his football element. Dogs fed, toooo cold and windy for a walk! Took care of a few things around the house, started to talk to you and PSM called and said he was ready to come home. Off I went to pick him up, back home, change into sweats, hang out and talk to you while PSM watches some more football downstairs. Sounds like a win-win! Oh, I also ordered something for my art studio, can’t wait for it to get here!!! It’s all coming together, I can’t wait to share pics and updates!

Tomorrow the demo starts on the kitchen! If you have the day off tomorrow…enjoy! If you have to work…I hope it’s an easy day for you. Whatever you do…Happy Monday!

{January 7, 2024} Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Maybe it should have stayed lost?

It wasn’t the worst movie, by far, and it wasn’t the best, by any means. It was ok, but you know it’s not great, in my opinion, when you start to wonder how much longer and looking at your watch.

Now…I’m a comic book fan, and I’m a superhero fan, and I’m a superhero movie fan, and I’m a D.C and Marvel girl, I won’t choose which one I like the best because they both have good and they both have bad, they both have characters, movies, and stories I like.

I loved the first Aquaman, I loved Aquaman in the Justice League movie, I just didn’t love the second movie, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, PSM and I agreed. I love most of the cast: Jason Momoa, especially in this role, he has a new costume for part of the journey…c’mon, seriously, poor PSM, his arm must be bruised, can’t help itI I love Nicole Kidman, she’s a bad arse in this role! I love Patrick Wilson, he plays a great bad guy, and in this movie, he was still a bad guy, power hungry, like in the first one, but he can fight, the banter between him and Aquaman/Arthur was great, quick witted barbs, brother stuff. I like Randall Park, one of the few D.C./Marvel crossover actors, one of 20 to be exact, out of the hundreds of actors, it’s a rare group to be a part of! Temuera Morrison, who doesn’t love Chief Tui from Moana!? Martin Short, I knew his voice the moment his character spoke! Dolph Lundgren, Drago from Rocky IV and Gunner from the Expendables! And lastly, John Rhys-Davies, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, Princess Diaries 2, and Aquaman, just to name a few, that voice! An amazing cast! Oh, how could I forget Topo, the wicked, scary smaht octopus, who in the comics was his constant companion, but in the movie, his new-to-him, travel companion on the mission to find Orm, since he couldn’t have comms to speak with Atlantis, what an awesome cephalopod!

The story…opening wasn’t great, it was ok…seeing Aquaman as a husband and dad, but they were living at the lighthouse almost all the time? Cute with his son, Arthur Jr, awesome when you see they share some of the same gift when it comes to communicating with the fish, I thought there might be more of that…but more domesticity than action.

A lot of the movie felt like pieces were taken from other movies. I got Star Wars, AT-ATs, Jabba the Hutt, the fight scene between Luke and Darth, or the fight scene between Yoda and Dooku, or the fight scene between Darth and Obi Won, mostly because of the fight scenes with the tridents. The Mos Eisly Cantina, and one of my favoritest bands Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes ok, mostly Star Wars, oh, and Dr Who, sorry if you don’t agree, that’s what it felt like.

As always, there are great one-liners, the banter was spot on in quite a few places, some of the dialog was good, the back and forth between the brothers, it had its moments, you could definitely feel how Orm still hated his brother and loathed to be called little brother by Arthur, but they came together to fight for Atlatis and the world. The villain, Black Manta, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, admittedly, I’ve only seen him in this a The Greatest Showman, but only remember him in Aquaman, he does play a really good villain and you know he’s a good villain when all you do is want someone to kill him! or hope he somehow kills himself! The graphics were amazing, the colors of Atlantis and other underwater worlds, give me more, please! How do I get there to see them?!

Don’t waste your time waiting for a post-credits scene that we’ve all come to expect, there is a small scene mid-credits, it won’t make or break your movie-going experience, it’s funny, but doesn’t give any insight to what might be coming next.

Apologies if this was harsh, I don’t know if was the movie or it just wasn’t the time to see it, but I have a feeling it was the movie. Although, I wasn’t crazy about Iron Man 3 and after I saw it a second time, I liked it a little more, still wasn’t my favorite, but it kind of grew on me a little more, even more when I saw how it tied into Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. So…will I run out to the theater and see it again, nope. Will I watch it when it comes out on video? Pretty sure. Right now? I’m going to watch the first Aquaman movie. Gimme a little more of that!

{April 24, 2021} Yoga…brunch…hair…dog…movie…

Yup, that was my Saturday, what’d you do?! Details, details, coming up!

We started with hot yoga, of course! New instructor, for this class, for us, and for her, this was her 6th class ever, very cool. The nice thing…it was a a 730am class, so…even though we set alarms for it, just to be on the safe side, and also we are tired of missing class and getting charged $15-$20! If you cancel less than 12 hours before the start time, they charge you $15, if you just don’t show…$20. I get it, you’re a business and there could be people who weren’t able to attend because there might not be spots available. They are pretty good about it if unforeseen circumstances happen, they don’t charge you, but if we oversleep, that’s on us, and that’s happened, pook.

Overall, it was a decent class, she’ll get there. Listen to me…ha ha! I did like her playlist, all the instructors have different taste in music, I’ll tell you about it some time. Most of the time, it’s us and one or two other people, this morning there was a decent sized class. And it was pretty even, there are some classes where it’s me and a few guys, but more classes are a whole bunch of women, and PSM! We’re also starting to get to know people, recognizing them when we’re in class together, which is impressive when you actually can’t see their entire face because of the mask! One of the guys, who we now know, was taking the next class, it’s a restore class, he’s a beast! wow! PSM said we’ll do that one day. Huh? My response this morning [of course we’ll do it, you know I’ll take the class with him!] was “Breakfast will restore me…now!” ha ha.

That seemed to work…off to The Shack we went! I’ve told you about one of our favorite breakfast places a few times. We shared a veggie omelet with french toast and an english muffin. Beauty…seats at the bar! We have sat at a table only twice in this particular location. Once because DLP was with us and once because there were no seats at the bar, go figure! At other locations we can never seem to get a seat at the bar! But…our favorite bartender was there and we’ve become friendly with her, she’s really nice and a lot of fun to talk to. We talk about life, kids, and now, she’s getting married! She and her fiancé have been working out and you can really tell! She is doing much better than I did before our wedding! You go!

Today we told her we just came from hot yoga and she said she always wanted to try it, she thinks her fiancé would do it with her. Lightbulb! This coming week is customer appreciation at the studio, all the St Louis studios and…we can bring a friend for free! We asked if they wanted to come and try a class! She said definitely! Wah to the hoo! She was telling us her child’s drop off schedule, we figured evening class…And…we told her there is usually sustenance after, especially if we do an evening class! She perked up even more on that one! Score!

After breakfast, we headed home. PSM went to run an errand with the trailer and I decided it was time for some color in my life, so I pulled out my latex gloves, just looked up latest gloves and it turns out they are called medical gloves, which makes sense since they can come in different materials, and went through my color options. Since my hair is short, I haven’t used the entire bottle of anything I used last year. It’s funny, I was just thinking I should have done this two weeks ago when we had the dog’s Gotcha Day! I had just started coloring my hair around then, too funny! My go-to right now is still Splat, it seems to work for me. I decided to go with Midnight Blue, well, I think that’s the color it is, who knows, this one isn’t on the bottle like some of the others! Either way, I think it came out great! Matches my bike, ha ha!

Then we had a doggie scare! I happened to walk into the living room, with about 15 minutes left to go on my hair and I see Bee, the beagle, sorry for what comes next…eating her own puke, ugh, ick, and everything else you can think of. By the way…they do that, fact of life, still gross! I stopped her immediately and cleaned it up, as I was cleaning it up, she started licking things. Licking things is not unusual for our dogs, they lick our faces, we love the kisses, they lick the grass, Bee licks the street for worms, they lick the area rugs, mostly checking for food, the beds they sleep on, the ones in the living room sometimes have crumbs from their treats, they lick our legs, pants, arms, that’s a little odd, but that’s them.

What this was…different. She was licking everything as she was trying to clean the entire house, licking incessantly, like she had an insatiable thirst. She licked the floor, not just the floor, the corners of the kitchen, the crevices, the area rugs, you name it, she licked it. I watched her for a few minutes, then I put her in the crate to see if I could stop her from going crazy and making herself sick. She proceeded to throw up in the crate and then try to eat it, I stopped her, was able to clean it up, get the bed out of the crate and when I closed the gate, she proceeded to lick the tray in the crate and the crate itself. At this point, I am on the phone with the vet. I had first called PSM during all of this to see if he had any ideas, nope, so vet it is. Turns out…dogs will do this when they get nauseous, trying to help whatever is making them nauseous go away.

While I’m on with the vet, she stopped, then started again, then stopped. They told me to bring her in, even though I thought she was done, better safe than sorry. I told them I had to get the dye out of my hair first and I would be up there. Of course this happened! I proceeded to go as quickly as I could to get the dye out, let’s just say, it looked like I murdered a Smurf in there! OMG! The one thing I always forget…wear gloves when you’re getting the dye out of your hair, just like when you put it in…my finger tips were a little blue!

Ruby is now running back and forth from our bedroom to Bee, very sweet and worried sister she is! I got leashes on both of them. By the way…Bee is now sitting in the crate looking at me as if she had not a care in the world! Got them in the car, luckily the vet is only a 5 minute drive up the road. I called and eventually they came out to get her. Then Ruby and I waited, and waited, and waited. They finally called, she was acting like her normal self, sniffing the ground, not licking, and sounding like a pig looking for truffles! The vet said they couldn’t find anything wrong, didn’t feel anything in the way, she even lost a pound! Go Bee! They gave her an injectable, to be on the safe side, and sent me home with a 4-pack of pills in case this ever happens again! I wish I could have gotten a video so you could know what it is if it happens to you! While Ruby and I were waiting, PSM showed up with a smoothie for me, he’s so sweet! He took Ruby home and after a while, Bee came out, happy as a lark and we went home!

Bottom line…Bee is FINE! Wah to the hoo!

But wait…the day’s not over! We got home, we were hanging out and I thought someone deserved a little something’-somethin’ and for me…the dog mom, is not an extra goodie, but time on the bed, snuggling with me and it worked like a charm! I got Bee, then Ruby on the bed with me and they snuggled while I played games on my phone and watched some Midsomer Murders! What more could you want.

If it was me, and it was, I wanted more! PSM came in and asked “What time does Mortal Kombat start? Ooh? Movie date? I’m in! I found a showing in the AMC IMAX theater, purchased tickets, selected seats, and put the dogs up, even before you can say ‘popcorn please!’

We got to the theater, ordered popcorn, water, and a box of Butterfinger Bites. Did you know Butterfingers were introduced in 1923?! Wow! I can tell you my box of treats was fresher than that! ha ha. PSM got a beer and we were ready to go! We found our seats, settled in and watched previews, which…I looked at PSM and asked him if Mortal Kombat, which I’ve seen the original movies and knew the answer to my question, was a horror movie, to which he replied no, and my next question…”then why are all the movie previews for horror movies?!” That made zero sense.

The movie started, and I will share details on the movie in another post, but…all I have to say is WOW! La La La LOVED it! I can’t wait to see it again! More details later.

After the movie, home to walk, feed, and hang out with the pups, grabs some dinner and chill, tomorrow’s another day! And we have a motorcycle ride in our future! Cannot wait!

{April 1, 2021} Why can’t a woman be more like a man? HA HA

Before you start crowing, I was listending to Pandora radio and one of my favorite stations is Broadway Musicals. As I’m working, Why can’t a woman be more like a man? from My Fair Lady came on, sung by Rex Harrison.

The musical, which originated on Broadway and then was made into a motion picture staring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, sigh, one of my alltime favorite actresses, yes I know, I know, I have many, but she was…well, that’s another post for another day. And another post…the fact that Julie Andrews made that role on Broadway, but was denied the role because the producer, Jack L Warner didn’t think she was well known enough as a screen actor, humph I say! Don’t get me wrong, Audrey Hepburn was fabulous in the role, but c’mon on!

The tagline from IMDB: Snobbish phonetics Professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make flower girl Eliza Doolittle presentable in high society. That about sums it up. She’s poor and uneducated, he’s rich and possibly over educated. She doesn’t think she’s better than anyone, meaning, she is who she is, but she would like to improve her station and be a little more polished, she has a great song Wouldn’t it be loverly, truth be told, that was where I heard and first started using the word loverly, it’s a simple song of the simple things she wants in life. On the opposite end, he thinks he’s better than everyone, there’s no filter when he opens his mouth and his mother just shakes her head when he comes around.

Eliza overhears Henry Higgins identifying different individuals accents while outside of the theater one night, even claiming he could make her a proper lady. Eliza goes to his house the next morning wanting to hire him to give her elocution lessons, she wants to ‘talk better’.

Digression here…one of my favorite lines from Working Girl, starring Melanie Griffith, who is having a conversation with Joan Cusack about taking speech classes. “What do you need speech classes for? Ya tawk fine!” Classic! Back to our regularly scheduled program…

Higgins agrees to take her on and “class her up”, he’s going to work with his house guest, Colonel Pickering, played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, to do it. The goal…the Embassy Ball, to see who they can fool. They work day and night, Eliza suffering through the torture he puts her through, while he suffers through the tireless effort he’s putting in, interesting take on things, different viewpoints. She manages to make it through, imagining all the ways to kill him! Just you wait. And for some reason he can’t understand why he can’t get along with women…

All of a sudden, she gets it “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain“, try saying that through a mouth full of marbles…and there is much joy and praise in the house, but…not for Eliza, it’s all for Henry Higgins, for all the work he’s done…The first test…take Eliza to the races to meet her mother and see how she fits in with the upper crust, she passes, mostly. She only says what she’s told, sort of, until the first races starts, then the gutter snipe comes out, for a moment, it’s priceless, and she actually charms a few people with it, especially one young man, but that’s another story for another day. Well, wait, here’s a man who falls in love with her, who just wants to be On the street where you live, but who does Eliza eventually fall in love with? Yup…

Back to the purpose of the post. After the races, which was a success, we are off to the Embassy Ball, where she is stunning, and stuns. She is regal and refined, and any other r words? She’s polished and proper, and a thing of beauty, she charms everyone and the Queen of Transylvania asks her to dance with the prince. She is now what she wanted to be, polished and proper, she could do anything, get a job in a flower shop, she could run the flower shop, she could probably marry well, who knows. Keep in mind, the story is set in London 1912, none of this would be considered wrong, unheard of, out of the ordinary.

Well, what happens when they get home from the ball, Higgins and Pickering are so very proud of themselves, the household staff have been treating him like he’s all that and the bag o’ chips, they don’t pay Eliza much mind and no one says anything of what she’s done for herself, she put in the hard work, but does anyone notice, nope and Eliza finally realizes she doesn’t have to take that shite anymore and leaves, good on ya!

In the morning, when Higgins realizes she’s gone, he’s put out and out of sorts and doesn’t understand why. He can’t understand, after the triumph of the ball, why would she leave. Dense… and he goes into the reason we’re here, Why can’t a woman be more like a man? It’s a sort of conversation with Colonel Pickering, but more the musings of obnoxious, self-centered, misogynistic, need I go on?

If you actually listen to the lyrics, you have to laugh, and to hear it as a song, and if you never really paid attention, but then all of a sudden it hits you, wow. “Why can’t a woman be more like a man? Men are so honest, so thoroughly square;Eternally noble, historically fair.” really? “Why can’t a woman take after a man? Men are so pleasant, so easy to please. Whenever you’re with them, you’re always at ease.” seriously? “Why is thinking something women never do? And why is logic never even tried?
Straightening up their hair is all they ever do. Why don’t they straighten up the mess that’s inside?” Are you kidding me? Seriously, you just have to laugh. Just take a listen, something about it set to music…Now…I have a feeling there are some people who still feel this way, who am I to judge?

And what happens in the end? Eliza goes to Henry’s mother’s house, where he finds Eliza and she tells him she doesn’t need him any longer and walks out. What happens to Henry Higgins? What do you think he realizes? I’ve grown acustomed to her face. At home later, he’s mooning over her and she appears, you don’t see it, but you know she puts him in his place, she’s put up with him and he realizes he can’t or doesn’t want to live without him.

And all the things he moaned about…why can’t a woman be like him? All the reasons he fell in love with her. Go figure…

{March 31, 2021} Movie Trailers

I absolutely la la la love movie trailers! I mean, I love trailers. One of the reasons I love going to the movies, I mean actually going to the movies is to watch the trailers before the movie starts.

Some trailers are great…they give you just enough to get you interested, but not enough to give the whole movie away. Other trailers, you wonder why they bothered, you get the entire movie, what’s left to go see? Some trailers give you almost nothing and you sit there and scratch your head!

For those of you who know me, you know I absolutely la la la love movies, well, in addition to the trailers I was just talking about. But I really do and I have a knack for knowing who’s in a movie, even if I haven’t seen the movie. I can also tell you things about a movie after only seeing it once. I can also watch a trailer and 9 times out of 10 I know if I’m going to like the movie, I’m not usually wrong.

I remember my dad calling me once because he was playing Trivial Pursuit and needed to know the name of an actor in a movie and, yup, I knew it. I had never seen the movie, but I knew the actor was Broderick Crawford, no idea how I knew, I just did. Another time that spoke volumes, I was at a friend’s house with a bunch of people and we started playing Scene It. It’s a game where you answer trivia questions about movies and pop culture. After we finished playing, we decided to play again and it was seven people against ME! What? And guess what…I lost by ONE point! Not too shabby. I really do love movies! You know I watch movies over and over, I watch movies in the background and to fall asleep, movies!

In college, I majored in Communications, focus on television. My goal was actually to work for Children’s Television, truth be told, I really wanted to work for Sesame Street! How amazingly awesome would that have been! Working in an industry I loved with a show that I adored. You have no idea! I am such a Muppet head! During my communications courses in college, we focused not only on television, but film. We disected scripts, counted beats, watched for continuity, broke down scenes, analyzed how music plays a huge part in film, you name it, we did it. I even wrote a script, it was awful, but I wrote a script. I would never have gone to see my own movie if someone made it, tried to get my money back! That bad!

What all of that did was give me an appreciation for film, I know a movie is good if I don’t start breaking it down while I’m watching it, finding things that are wrong or don’t make sense, I’m mesmerized. And one thing I always wanted to do, while in college, and then after college, was to make movies. To watch a movie and have to pick out the scenes that would entire someone to want spend their money, want to watch that movie. It’s a skill and a gift. I knew that there were certain movies I could never create trailers for, horror for one, omg! I don’t watch horror movies, no thanks! Reality can be scary enough!

One of the things I love about Hulu, Netflix, IMDB, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, even YouTube [the list goes on!] is the ability to search for and watch trailers. It’s something to do, something I love and gives me something to look forward to when I select Add to My Watchlist. I am telling you, I can get lost in trailers, especially when they have suggestions, oh man! Ooh, this looks interesting, ooh, that one too! And then it’s an hour later, what happend!? Where did the day go?

Here are a few that I love. A Song is Born, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolverine, Animal House, The House Bunny, Mary Poppins, The Godfather, The Wizard of Oz, Grease, Footloose, Beauty and the Beast, The Muppet Movie. There are so many more, but we’d be here for ever!

Email Subscription

What was I thinking?