Tonight DCM and I decided to go to see Kick-Ass 2.
If you’re not looking for an Oscar winning movie or Oscar worthy performances, then Kick-Ass 2 might just be for you.
I have to tell you, when I saw Kick-Ass, I had certain ideas of what it would be like, a fun, human/real people turned superhero, yes, but no. I was not quite prepared for the level of violence, mayhem, destruction, blood and gore that the first movie had to offer. I was incredibly upset after I watched it, glad it was a Red box pic.
Now, remember, I am all about gratuitous violence if it works for the movie, if you’ve ever heard me talk about Machete, I la-la-la loved it! And that movie had some awful, disgusting, grody and awesome slashing and hacking, but I knew what I was getting in to when I went to see it and I wasn’t disappointed! So much so that I sat through it twice! (And the sequel, Machete Kills is coming out in October, you can bet your sweet machete I’ll be there opening night!) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985694/?ref_=sr_2
At least this time, I was prepared, I knew there would be a lot of slashing and hacking and blood, punching, kicking, pain. There were two serious gross out scenes, totally not necessary, I believe it was just put in for that purpose, to gross you out. I am afraid I’m going to have that scene going through my head more than once, maybe not, a girl can hope.
All in all, if you’re looking for a movie with a lot of arse-kicking, mean girls, regular people standing up for themselves with and without masks (that could be the message, you don’t have to wear a mask to be a hero, it’s inside each of us) and a good old fashioned melee, this movie is for you.
I’m sure you’ve figured out that I am über proud of all my nieces, nephews and grandkids, the ones I am related to and the ones I love dearly and their parents and I are close and when they see me, “Go see Auntie J”, they have granted me the honorary title of aunt, I couldn’t be prouder.
So, here I have to brag a little… (You know I’ll brag about them and others in future posts, stay tuned!)
EJS is starting first grade in a few weeks and so creative, give her a box and watch her make magic! MGS is precocious and smart and can figure things out easily (she showed me how to play Temple Run!).
Miss A is holding a cup on her own and taking the stairs like a champ.
KK is a championship softball player, her sisters, J and K are two of the fastest swimmers in Atlanta!
LB sings and dances like a primary ballerina and is learning how to wink.
JS was fantastic during his Bar Mitzvah, his sister, S, is a star on the stage, her little brothers are creative and fun.
Back to kids amazing me…
People are always posting amazing things their kids can do on Facebook and today, there was one that tripped me out completely, a baby, 20 month Ella, singing her heart out to Elvis! http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LuxQtvzA_cg
Of course, once you go to YouTube to watch the video there are a trillion more to check out and 3 hours later, you’re got sure where the time went!
Tonight I watched a movie that people have been saying they loved for a long time and I just hadn’t gotten around to watching.
There was a reason I hadn’t watched it when it came out or when it would come on TV when I had cable, not sure what it was, but I just didn’t want to watch it. So, today, I sucked it up and decided to watch it.
It was rough going in the beginning, it moved really slowly. A lot of it reminded me of HouseSitter, a movie Steve Martin did with Goldie Hawn in 1992, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104452/, successful man, con artist woman who moved into his house and infiltrates his life and his family.
Same concept, just with Queen Latifah and during the course of the movie, while trying to hide her from everyone he knows, hilarity ensues. In addition, as he loosens up, starts to really enjoy life and looks at her in a new light, she starts to change and grow as a person and become, more refined in a way, without giving up who she really is on the inside.
In the end, they help each other, her mostly with his business and realize his dreams and becomes a success in every way and she finds out that she is worth more than she realized, they also find love, it may be with each other or with someone else, but someone who values them.
At the end, I realized that I had laughed and overall it was cute, there was a good message, but I don’t feel like I missed anything by not seeing it sooner.
Ever since I was a kid, I have loved to drink Tang. It wasn’t something that my parents had in the house all the time, but when we had it, I loved it.
As an “adult” I have bought Tang from time to time. It was good when you an get a smaller tub, then it doesn’t go bad, and by bad I just mean that it gets moisture trapped in it and then it gets hard and solid, hard to get back to powder.
Even I have to admit, Tang can be too sweet sometimes. (What? Did I just say that out loud?)
The last few weeks I’ve been wanting some Tang, but I always forget when I go to the grocery store and then I want it. Today, we were at the grocery store and as we were leaving, I remembered! We went back to the juice aisle, I got some Tang!
As soon as we got home, unloaded the groceries, I made a bottle of sweet and refreshing Tang…ahhh, a mechiah!
Then I made some later, not as refreshing, still good, but way to sweet! But that first drink, hit the spot, made me happy and isn’t that what it’s all about?
Ok, I need to give you more than just “Go See It!”
We’re the Millers is about a pot dealer who hires a family to smuggle a huge shipment of weed from Mexico into the U.S. (not a spoiler, just the description).
The movie stars Jason Sudekis as David, the dealer, Jennifer Anniston as Rose, the stripper he hires to be his wife, she actually lives in his apartment building. Emma Roberts is Casey, the homeless girl who becomes the “daughter”, the last member of the family is Kenny, the teenager who lives in the same apartment building as Dave, played by Will Poulter. There is a great supporting cast to round out the movie.
David rents an RV to take across the boarder, a great cover…a family traveling across country in an RV on a family vacation.
I’m sure you’re thinking, what a great idea, nothing could go wrong and you’d be so right…wrong!.
There were some predictable laughs, how could there not be? some surprises, some OMGs! There were even lessons learned, personal growth and self discovery, imagine that!
For those of you with sensitive ears, there was a lot ‘o cussin’, at least one graphic image, just want to warn you, but if you can get past that, you’re golden.
One of the best parts..the bloopers right after the movie and before the credits, they were great!
All in all, the theater was packed, our assigned seats were in the very first row, a lot of laughter, a lot of cheering and a few “huh”!
Know where I live? Guess where the opening of the movie is based? C’mon, put 2 and 2 together…pot dealer, legal…yupper, Denver, how cool was that to be at a movie that starts in Denver watching it in a theater outside of Denver! Everyone in the theater was stoked by that tidbit!
When DCM and I were in NY last year for a wedding, there wasn’t much to do where we were (Long Island, not much happening outside the diner across the street and the bar in the hotel) so we channel surfed.
While we were surfing, we found a new reality show called Tanked, it first aired in 2011. This show cracks us up! It’s about two guys who started ATM, Acrylic Tank Manufacturer, http://www.acrylicaquariums.com/
Brett Raymer and Wayde King. They are originally from Long Island (random thought…what are the odds we found this show while we were on Long Island, hmmm….) and it’s a family business, they are brother-in-laws, Wayde married Jeff’s sister and Jeff’s dad works there, sort of, they call him The General.
The company has been around for about 20 years and they have been in Las Vegas for about 15 years. They build everything from small personal tanks to huge monster tanks, some with monsters, literally! The show centers around two tank orders per episode, Wayde and Jeff go to the customer’s site and get ideas of what they want, Jeff says “we can do it!” And Wayde just looks at him like he’s nuts!
There are all the people who work for them, like extended family and each has their own amazing talents.
Then there are the clients, every day normal people, business owners and some super stars (Tracy Morgan, the creator of Jackass, Neal Patrick Harris, KISS, just to name a few) and the look n everyone’s faces when they reveal the tank, so special! Amazement is a good word for it!
No matter what the challenge, they always come through for their clients and you should see some of the amazing designs, there is a you tube link at the bottom so you can check out some of the episodes.
No matter how goofy they are, and they are goofy, they get the job done and they really know their fish, they value all animals and treat them with a lot of care, never putting them in harms way, which doesn’t always hold true for themselves, the pranks they play on each other are great and stupid!
The goofy thing about most reality shows is when the stars have their one-on-ones to the camera, it’s all so like they feel they have to shout at the camera, it’s almost every single reality show star, kind of weird, but it’s their M.O.
Overall, this is a fun show that we both like, we even DVR it and watch a few episodes in a row. Check it out and see if you laugh like we do!
Tonight was that time honored tradition…Girl’s Night!
I think we talked about this a while ago, the night the ladies get together and go out and do something fun! The cool thing about Girl’s Night is we make a decision on where to go, someone takes charge and we all show up. Then we decide what we’re doing next month, someone is in charge and so it goes on from there…
(Welcome, Girl’s Night participants, to my world of random musings!)
Tonight, it was JS who got us started on Girl’s Night at Posh Splat in Boulder. This is a place that you go and they walk you step by step painting the selection of the evening. Tonight it was a group of trees in a field, I was told they were some sort of Aspen something, I was corrected as I thought they were Birch. See friends, ya loin somethin’ new every day! http://www.poshsplat.com/
The thing I really like about these nights is that you don’t have to know how to paint, the instructor, tonight was Chelsey, walked you through everything, step by step. It was almost like paint by numbers, just without the numbers or the outlines, hmm…
How many comments do you think there were about “a tree, a happy little tree”. Nod to you HW!
(i added some step by step pictures)
To start us off right, TT sent out a link to Ladies Night by Kool and the Gang, who doesn’t love that?
This was a good group of women, we laughed and shared and had a great time! JS, her husband PS and DCM all worked together many moons ago and have stayed friends ever since. DCM and PS have worked on many projects together and worked together to build CEC what it is today. JS is an integral part of the CEC family, kind of a Jane of all Trades, you should see how she designed the office, the little details and touches that make it a fun and green place to work, she’s got great ideas and is incredibly passionate with everything she does. She’s also a runner and I mean a runner, you know, 20 miles just for fun! She’s about to participate in her first full marathon soon, on her birthday, good luck!
The rest of the group I had met briefly at CEC’s grand opening/open house, I don’t know as much about them as I will going forward, I look forward to getting to know them each time we get together.
TT is part of the CEC family, we sat next to each other and became fast friends. She has an in with race promoters and said she could get me into almost any race, who do yo think is going to be my new best friend?
Can you guess what my suggestion for a girls night was? (If it involved fun, a team name, team shirts and a t-shirt at the end of the 3.1 miles, you were right!) (doesn’t 5k sound further/farther than 3.1 miles? This would definitely classify as a random musing!)
JS’ stepmom, PH was there, she is quite the talent! She seemed like a lovely woman and we shared some laughs over some of the cards they were selling.
CD’s husband works for CEC. She is a real estate agent who was fun to talk to about real estate, Colorado, Atlanta and races and she is the lucky girl who is organizing our next girls night!
I met NP when we did the Epilepsy 5k when I first moved to Colorado, her husband, BR joined CEC a few months ago and her painting…I think everyone would agree..pure perfection! She added her own touches, the rest of us stuck to the script, you go girl!
LA’s husband MA works for CEC and they have a beautiful and very cute little boy named P, who loves Mac-n-Cheese boxes! Like the rest of our group, a lot of fun to talk to, joke with and have a good time.
As I mentioned, we laughed a lot! Thank you for including me in this time honored tradition, it was my first “night out” in Colorado and made me feel good (and miss my girlfriends back home in Atlanta, you know who you are!). I really am looking forward to next month! (I hear there is pampering involved! Jealous?)
The day started with my sister waking me to see if I wanted to say goodbye to the girls, what do you think?
I dragged myself out of bed, brushed my teeth, (I thought that would be best for everyone) ran downstairs to say goodbye to my girls. Never gets easier, but knowing I’ll be seeing them sooner than later helps. MG wanted to know where I was going and why I wouldn’t be there when she got home from school, then she wanted to know when she would see me again, I told her as soon as I could. My favorite question at that point…”how many minutes?” How could you not love that?
EJ let me kiss her on the cheek and forehead, didn’t look up, I’m kind of used to that, she doesn’t like it when I leave so if she doesn’t look at me, it’s not real and I’m ok with that, feels good, to be honest. And I’ll see them soon enough during FaceTime, I’m not worried, ah technology!
They left and I checked my email, then took a quick shower and GES and I got down to work. There was a call and reports and emails and spreadsheets, oh my! AS, my sister’s sister-in-law (did you get all that?) came over to help out, it was nice to see her, since we missed each other Sunday when they left. She is a great cook!
About 3:15, we headed out to the train, I had a conference call at 3:30, I gave my sister one of the headphones and we listened together, that was interesting. It went well, I got on the train and headed to South Station, got on the Silver Line bus to the airport, which hit traffic, fun. I was, however, early enough that I could get something to eat, a Fuddrucker’s veggie burger, yum! I need to find out if there is a Fudd’s in Colorado.
Boarded the plane about 6:40 for the flight that was supposed to leave at 6:45, hmm…we finally took off at 7:30, at least that’s what I think the time was. Then…let’s just say, I watched the last half of one movie and another full movie and possibly could have watched part of another one. We were supposed to land in Minneapolis about 8 something, after circle for what I heard was an hour, we landed about 10:20, 10 minutes before we were supposed to land in Denver, and 45 minutes after we were supposed to take off, go figure.
I did sit next to a very nice woman and we chatted for a bit on the way, we had a seat open between us, that was nice, we could share a tray table and sort of spread out. As we were coming in for a landing, the woman to my right asked me what I had been watching. It was the original “Yours, Mine & Ours” starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. That took us down the road of classic movies and actors and favorites and sharing, the woman in the seat ahead of her joined in. I always love those conversations, you know, about movies, imagine that! (I’ll give you a review of that movie another time).
The good news is, all flights were delayed coming in, so my flight was probably delayed. When I got off the flight, the board said my flight was leaving at 11:20, as of about five minutes ago, we were told we might leave at 11:50, fingers crossed.
I was lucky to find an open charging port, my phone was almost dead, you know…DED dead! My iPad is at 39% and the flight is about 2 hours, lets hope for the best. I am going to post now and tomorrow I’ll let you know if and when I got out of Minneapolis!
Up early, hang with the girls for a few while sister and brother-in-law got the girls ready for camp and school respectively.
Say bye-bye to papa, “why?” so cute! Out they went…dad and I went to breakfast at a new place, well, new owners and name. Food was decent, would have been better if the server had listened to my order, oh well. Company was great, conversation was good, that’s all that matters.
Dad dropped me off at be house, we said see you soon and he was off. I got settled in and started my day, first conference call went off without a hitch, then it was emails, calls, spreadsheets and updates.
I finished about 4:15 to go get EJS at the bus stop. MF was also on her way, she’s the fantabulous neighbor who gets EJS off the bus some afternoons and babysits as well. She’s going into her second year of college, criminal justice, very cool. When she’s around, I’m invisible, it’s too funny, she love having me here, but when it comes to getting off the bus, M picks her up and no one else will do (I’m not the only one! Mommy, daddy, papa, doesn’t matter!)
The entire family is an extended family to ours, COF calls me Auntie J, love that! She’s fantastic and a lot of fun to hang out with, MF is her husband, a great guy and great to talk with. Their other two daughters, JF and OF are very sweet girls and will watch EJ and MG sometimes. I always enjoy coming to visit to get to spend some time with them.
The great thing about this neighborhood is the people, my sister and brother-in-law got very lucky. If we’re not sure where the girls are, they’re probably across the street, they are very comfortable being there, just hanging out. Or they could be at some of the other neighbors, everyone looks out for each other.
It was 30 minutes of TV, bath, then A was home with MG, play a little, get ready for dinner. After a dinner outside on the back deck, which was comfortable, it was wonderful, bath for MG, games and stories. When I was saying goodnight to EJ, she said “I wish you could stay longer!” Sigh…who doesn’t want to hear that! I’ll see them soon!
GES had a conference call starting at 9:30, yes, that was 9:30pm. She is a director of global HR, she’s on with Australia, England and California, she’s a whirlwind and very good at what she does! I hope she gets to get some sleep tonight!
I feel so useless, she’s down there on a conference call in the middle of the night and here I sit playing on my iPad and blogging! I’d keep her company if she wasn’t on the phone, I don’t want to get in the way, I just go down and smile at her every once in a while.
Ok, not sure how to end this after that! So I’ll just say, g’night!
The day started with a sleep in, 8am, wow! I walked upstairs to hear happy birthday singing to my dad, terrific. While GES was making breakfast, I did a quick walk down to CVS, I needed some green juice! Then back for a delicious breakfast of eggs and cheese, sausage and eggs, bagels and blintz souffle, Y.U.M.! I’m going to get the recipe and share it with you!
After breakfast, get readying its time to go to the pool! Wow, EJS’ swimming has improved so much over the year, swim lessons are just the trick! Molly is improving lesson by lesson as well. We swam and splashed and played with noodles, and lunch and snacks and it was time to leave.
GES, EJS and I all went to the grocery store while AS, dad and MGS went for a drive, guess who they were trying to get to fall asleep? At the grocery store, we picked up a few needs things and a Carvel ice cream birthday cake. For those of you who don’t know Carvel, it’s a great ice cream store that’s been around for over 75 years. Growing up in NYC, there were Carvel’s everywhere I still remember when they opened one in Georgia, too awesome! I haven’t found one in Colorado, but I’m looking. http://www.carvel.com/
The story behind our getting a Carvel cake…in the summer, we always had a Carvel ice cream cake, vanilla on the top, chocolate on the bottom and chocolate crunchies in the middle, yum! A tradition was born a very long time ago! Last year, we were I the Birkshires for day’s birthday, we found a Carvel cake at the grocery store, tradition was not lost and this year the tradition continued!
The cake was to celebrate day’s birthday, the reason we needed a sheet cake, we threw him a surprise birthday BBQ! All the wonderful “usual suspects” were there, the friends and extended family. There were adults and kids of all ages, there to celebrate papa’s special day! We had burgers, dogs, veggie burgers, turkey burgers, salads, (I need to give you the recipes) chips, drinks and cake, sounds perfect!
We played, we swung, we ran, we sang, we shouted, we caught up, we laughed, we smiled and we ate, sounds perfect, right!
Almost as soon as it started it was over and we were out the door, it was the perfect afternoon! But the day wasn’t over! We piled into the cars and headed to the Gillett Stadium, Home of the New England Patriots! We were going to see a New England Revolutions game! They are the professional futbal team (soccer for those of us on this “side of the pond”). They were playing Toronto! It was a great game, we lost, but what a great evening, a lot of fun! I got the girls some cute Patriots jerseys, so cute!
There was pizza, popcorn, cotton candy, water and beer for the grown ups. We all and a great time!
Peaches Prattlings 