What I love! | Peaches Prattlings

{September 9, 2013} Are personal lives really necessary?

In a TV show, such as cop dramas! Made ya look though, didn’t I?

Here is the thing… Soap operas…drama and personal story lines, that’s all there is; comedies or sitcoms…most times a continuing story line of family or friends, with individual situations happening, you get involved with their lives, much like a soap opera, but funny. Hospital dramas…lets be honest, it’s a soap opera with doctors, a new case or medical mystery, but usually there’s interpersonal drama, we get sucked in. People like these, hey, I got hooked on ER for the first two seasons, I loved House for a while, how could you not.

What I don’t get is crime dramas, like Law & Order, why do those cops have to have huge story lines outside of the case of the week? Why can’t they just solve the crime that day, maybe it runs to the next week, and be done with it, how much back or outside story do we really need? And if you think about it, you only know the personal story of one or two of the main characters and then that’s it, you don’t know what anyone else does when they go home.

Sometimes, a persons personal life is important to the story line, but a lot of time it just gets in the way and drags things down and then when something happens to their family, you’re very upset because you’ve got a vested interest in these characters. Let them go about their day, do their jobs and that’s it, maybe they go out for a bite to eat or a drink after work, but they are back at it in the morning, catch the bad guy and do it all over again.

I know that seeing into their lives can give us insight to their personalities, what makes them tick, but you can also see it in the way they act in different situations. Does it really enhance the story line? And then…end of season, the cliffhanger and we have to wait ’til fall? Or if it’s a summer series, I have to wait until next summer? Pook!

This may be a pointless rant, but it’s something that I’ve though about before and complained about out loud, to no one in particular, not really expecting a response, but…just food for thought.

{September 7, 2013} Pitch Black

Today, while I was I the phone with CKM talking about my review of Riddick and DCM was laughing listening to me go on my rant, carried on from last night, he made an executive decision, he found Pitch Black on On Demand.

(I have to tell you, when I started working for Descartes, they have a routing application called On Demand, I was very confused!)

So, DCM and I watched Pitch Black, the first in the Riddick series. I didn’t see it at the time (2000), wasn’t interested, in the movie or Vin Diesel and it may not have looked like my kind of movie at the time.

The story is “A prisoner transport ship and its crew are marooned on a planet full of bloodthirsty creatures that only come out to feast at night. But then, they learn that a month-long eclipse is about to occur.”

They start off with about 11 people, lets just say, not that many left the planet at the end MF the movie.

DCM said it was similar to Riddick and it was, one movie had creatures in the earth and this one had creatures that come out at night. I can tell you there is a consistency, there were 11 mercenaries and Riddick and the same number left that planet as in the one last might, is there a theme here?

In this movie we are introduced to Riddick for the first time. You find out he’s a convict, you don’t really know why he’s been in “the slam” so many times, you do find out that he’s killed, and is ok with it. One thing you notice about Riddick is that he doesn’t kill for no reason and he has a conscious, sometimes. A very interesting character, remember, we’re rooting for the bad guy!

I liked it, I think I liked last night’s better, only because the effects were better and lines were cleaner, but…this movie was made 13 years ago, so it makes sense. DCM said Pitch Black was better, agree to disagree.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134847/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

{September 6, 2013} Are you ready for some football?

Isn’t that the tag line?

So, apparently football season started tonight and guess where? My new hometown of Denver, Colorado! The Denver Broncos hosted the Baltimore Ravens at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, that’s a mouthful!

TOP 10 nhà cái bóng đá hợp pháp – có đa dạng kèo nhà cái

I “loin sometin” new every day…I did not know this, shocker, that the two teams who played in the Super Bowl will play the very first game of the new season and the losing team will host the champions, so tonight, the Ravens were in Denver and Denver was looking for some payback and I’d say they got it…the final score…49 to 27, ouch! I’d say the Broncos are off to a good start.

Although, there was a huge weather delay for the game, there was some rain threatening and lightening happening, the game started about 45 minutes late, that has to be so frustrating for everyone involved in the game, I don’t mean the fans, they’re just happy to be there, the players, anxious to warm up and get started, the coaches, their play books and strategies lined up, the referees ready to get on the field, the cheerleaders, ready to rile up the crowd, the color guard, waiting I the wings, the person waiting to sing the national anthem, vocal chords warmed up, maybe getting nervous.

For those of you that know me, you know I don’t know much about football and I won’t say I don’t like it, but it’s not something I care deeply about. Now, I know DCM has done a sharp intake of breath, as he always does when I say that because he is a HUGE, and I mean HUGE Atlanta Falcons fan. I’ve take him to two games, that was awesome, to watch him as he watched the game, I don’t know who was more excited! (Maybe me, but that was after he got me a Falcons jersey!) and if they are playing, I will sit with him while he watched,

My dad enjoys it and my sister remembers watching with him in Sundays, I don’t remember that, it may have happened, I just don’t remember, sorry daddy. This was carried into adulthood, my sister enjoys watching the Patriots play in her home state of Massachusetts and you should see the Pats jerseys I got for the girls! I know not to call their house during a game! And it was bad when the Giants were playing the Pats in the Superbowl..I may not be a huge fan of the game, but I know who I like! Go Giants!

I have been to a few professional games and I really enjoyed it, it’s more being there, the energy from the crowds, the sites, sounds, smells, food. I love going to the stadium, I get my guilty pleasure; pretzel and a coca cola, what could be better?

I am hoping to get the opportunity to go to a Broncos game! I will cheer with enthusiasm, with my pretzel and coca cola in hand! And maybe a Broncos jersey on my back!

My friend JT, takes me to a Falcons game every year, his seats are amazing, third row off the field, on the side where the Falcons come out of the tunnel and when they do, you can feel the flames when they shoot up! I may not always be able to follow the game, but I can tell when a player is running their heart out and about to make a touchdown and even if I didn’t know what was going on, I could follow the actions of the crowd. Even though I moved, hopefully there’s a game Thanksgiving weekend, maybe I’ll get to go…wink wink.

Even though I knew I wasn’t going to watch the entire game, I watched the opening and there were some very cool things that happened. To begin with, there was a sea of orange, it was incredible and those fans are diehard and were going to wait out the delays no matter what, there were clear ponchos and garbage bags and other makeshift ponchos, those people weren’t moving!

Keith Urban gave a pre-game concert, Ryan Seacrest got the fans ready, as the king of the countdowns would do! Danielle Bradbury, the winner of last seasons “The Voice” sang the national anthem, she was wonderful. I like that DCM stands when the national anthem is sung, doesn’t matter where.

Then there was the coolest countdown to the start of the season, it was 32 legends. They were shown with their number and counted the number off, I even knew a few! Phil Simms, Joe Namath, Dion Sanders, this really was way cool!
http://nflcommunications.com/2013/09/04/32-nfl-legends-countdown-to-kickoff-on-nbc-in-primetime/

After the excitement and festivities, when they finally got started, I watched the coin toss, the kickoff and about three minutes of the game, I saw enough.

I hope you enjoy this years football season and your team is victorious!

{September 6, 2013} Riddick

An Oscar contender this is not. It was awful, but I LOVED it!

If you are looking for great cinema, I know there is some out there somewhere, maybe in the next screening room, same theater. But…if you are looking for action, bad dialog, slashing, shooting, creatures, weird dogs /dingo-dongy thingies, some gratuitous nudity, Riddick kicking alien and human arse, then this is the movie for you!

Riddick is played by Vin Diesel, this being the third installment of the Riddick series: Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick and now , Riddick. He played the role like it was written with him in mind, not sure if it was, but it fit. His eyes are one of the coolest feature about this character, apparently he had his eyes “adjusted” when he was in prison, the effect: they have a violet starburst in the center, this allows him to see in the…c’mon, you know…pitch black!

The movie opens with Riddick being stranded on a barren, hot planet, not where he expected to be. There are alien creatures that resemble scorpions on crack, I think that’s a good way to put it. There is a dog-like creature, the dingo-dongy thing referred to that honestly looks like a cross between a zebra, hyena, cheetah, greyhound with the coolest ears. Riddick finds a puppy, his siblings are dead and he takes it with him, after fighting and killing one in the beginning of the movie, this one he raises from a pup, you can guess what happens.

Riddick realizes that he needs to get off this planet, he finds an outpost and signals some bounty hunters who come after him, two different teams; one that looks like they are homeless mercenaries that might sell each other out and the other, a polished, together team that has each others back. It’s one Riddick against eleven bounty hunters, hmmm, I wonder who’s going to come out on top.

Here’s what’s interesting about this movie. Riddick is a criminal, a convict and has been nothing else, with a bounty on his head, but…we are rooting for him, he’s the bad good guy in all this, how about them apples? The cool thing about Riddick is watching his mind work, watch him calculate, rationalize, strategize, there is a MacGuyver-esq quality to what he does, what I mean is that he looks at what’s around so that he can get himself out of whatever situation he is in that will probably save his life.

I almost said for the ladies for this comment, but I don’t want to discriminate…there is a scene where Riddick is, well, let’s just say you won’t be complaining, ok, I wasn’t complaining; there are also some gratuitous nekkid female shots. It’s interesting because these shots affected me in different ways; I am all for gratuitous violence or nudity if it’s warranted and here’s what I mean. There is a silhouette of Riddick on top of a rock, you can tell he’s in the all together, it makes sense [and no, this is not just because i think he’s hot], it makes sense because it is a beginning, almost a rebirth as he starts over, finding himself and his strengths and moving forward. There is a scene, it’s actually a flashback, to Riddick, when he was in a position of power, in his bedroom and there are four nude women, his concubines in his bed. This nudity makes sense, he is the man in charge, they are there to please him, in context, acceptable. Later, the only living female on the barren wasteland of a planet, she is washing up in the sink, topless. Here’s where I have issue…she was only washing her face and armpits and she was wearing a tank top for most of the movie, why does she need to take her top off to wash her face? Also, there are bad things outside the building, she’s supposed to be on her guard and here she is sponge bathing in the sink topless? There is one line that Riddick makes reference to this scene, but was it really necessary? Pointless nudity, see what I’m saying?

Another thing that got me…the language. This is a different race of beings, they are not human, they are not from earth. I get that the movie is in English so we can all understand it, but there were signs and posters like you would find here on earth and the cussing, it’s another solar system, planets and they’re using the same words we use, the f-bomb was dropped a few times, not an uncomfortable amount for anyone, I just want to know why they aren’t using made up words, just like they do in other shows/movies [frack, frail, anything!] I have to tell you, I was going on and on about some of these things and i had DCM in stitches he was laughing so hard!

I will tell you that for a good bit of the beginning of the movie, I was beginning to wonder if there would be any other humans in the movie! just be prepared, the others are coming, we have to build up to it and watch Riddick do his thing, with the jacked up scorpions and the puppy, it’s all setting the stage for the rest of the movie.

Overall, I really liked this movie; I laughed, I gasped, I cringed, i hid my eyes and covered my ears [who wants to hear the screaming!] and i recommend it for anyone who’s into these kinds of movies.

Daddy – go for it! [but, I don’t think that LD will enjoy it!]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411250/

{September 4, 2013} L’Shana Tova

Happy New Year!

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, the first of the High Holy Days, it happens in the fall, it’s a two day celebration, beginning in the evening, erev, at sundown,and following through to sundown the next day. This is a time of celebration, the beginning of a new year, a time of reflection and self examination.

There are a few wonderful symbols and traditions that make this holiday special. One is the blowing of the shofar, a rams horn; it represents waking people from their slumber, to alert them to the coming judgement, we’ll talk about Yom Kippur in another post.

It is an honor to be chosen to blow the shofar as it is not an easy thing to do, it takes years of practice to truly perfect it, but there is nothing like seeing and hearing little kids who give it a go! Here is a link for a brilliant cantor, blowing the shofar.

Another tradition is having sweet foods, like apples with honey, for a sweet year. You saw by the title of this post, L’Shana Tova, meaning have a good year, in Yiddish, it’s ah gut yohr, which means a good year.

You might greet someone with Shana Tova, and a response, my favorite, is to wish someone a happy, healthy and sweet year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah

So, my dear sweet friends and family, I say to you, L’Shana Tova, I wish you a good, healthy, happy and sweet year.

{September 4, 2013} A first grader!

There were other things to tell to about my weekend,but I have to tell you something way more important!

I am the aunt of a FIRST GRADER!!!

Am I crowing? Am I proud? My sister is the mother of a first grader! I still remember the day we brought her home from the hospital! What? I remember meeting EJS for the first time, she was two weeks old and today..she got on the school bus and went to her first day of school and she was a champ!

The day started early, I set the alarm for 5:45 so I could call EJS and wish her well on her first day of school. The first thing she said was “I know what I want to be for Halloween!” My sister said, “slow down! How about Hi auntie J, how are you?” We were laughing so hard! “Hi Auntie J, how are you?”

I asked all the questions I could think of: What are you wearing? What’s in your backpack? What’s for lunch? What are you most excited about?

While we were talking, MGS wanted to show me all the dolls she was playing with and said “I can’t see you!” She thought we were doing FaceTime and couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t see me!

EJS and I talked a little more about school and what she was most excited about, I was so excited for her and I couldn’t wait to see pictures! After she was done talking about school, it was time to get down to the next important order of business…what she wanted to be for Halloween. This is a very important discussion and as I am in charge of getting the costumes, I need to know what she wants to be!

When she was little, I used to get costumes, I had a lot of fun choosing, now that she’s getting older, she is making the decisions, which makes things a little easier for me! I miss picking something myself, but it is great to see her making her own mind up and this year, as of right now, it’s the pink power ranger, did you know they were still around?

Then as quickly as we started talking (I think this post is longer than we were on the phone!) it was time to go to get on the bus, good luck, I’m proud of you, have fun and I love you!

Photos went out, I asked how she did and GES said she was a champ! I expected nothing less.

In the afternoon, I checked to see if they were home and they were, FaceTime! EJS was excited and told me all about her day, riding the bus and making a friend, coloring, meeting the principle, gym, lunch, after care and mommy picking her up. I asked what her favorite part was and it was lunch, because being in the cafeteria with everyone made her feel grown up.

After telling me all about her day, she was done with me! I got to catch up with my sister and then, as luck would have it, about five minutes later, in comes MGS and we got to chat for a few minutes until she was done with me!

I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling! I have a niece who is officially in the big leagues and I am so very proud of her! (And my sister for keeping it together!)

{September 2, 2013} The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

For the first time ever, at least I think it’s the first time ever, I cannot for the life of me remember the full name of this movie! DCM and I keep wanting to say Immortal instead of mortal and I cannot remember the word instruments when it comes to this movie!

The worst part…I really did like this movie, we both did I’m just having a moment with the title! Oh brother!

The movie is definitely fantasy, based on a series of books, “The Mortal Instruments is a series of six young adult fantasy novels written by Cassandra Clare, of which five have been published so far. Wikipedia”
http://www.shadowhunters.com/mortalinstruments/

Clery is your typical teenager in NYC, she lives with her mom, who is an artist, she inherited that talent and seems to have the same teen angst as every other teenage girl, but you can tell there is something that her mom is not telling her, especially since she starts seeing certain things she can’t explain.

When Clery’s mom disappears, she finds out she is from a long line of warriors to protect mundanes, non magical folk, you know, you and me, from the mythical creatures. Someone says, you know all those creatures under the bed from the stories when you were a kid, they are real.

Werewolves, demons, vampires, warlocks, witches, just some of the creatures that Clery learns about when her eyes are opened. Clery is played by Lily Collins, who I first remember from Mirror Mirror, she was good in the role; questioning, confused, vulnerable, strong, even kick-ass now and then, brave and true and steadfast to those she cared about.

You felt like you were with her through the entire journey and since she didn’t know who or what she really was, and neither did we in the audience, we experienced everything with her. Well, except for the fighting and bruising first hand, but that’s ok, I’ll watch her do it, she can represent.

There were some things, twists and turns that I can’t tell you about, because it might give major plot lines away, but I did have a Luke and Leia moment. You can’t make judgements about whether someone is good, only because what you thought is probably wrong and don’t forget the teenage love triangle, he loves her, she thinks of him and a brother, she finds someone she thinks she loves and his best friend is in love with him and hates her, like I said, teenage angst!

I have to admit, the very last scene we were like, huh? And, it was a touch too long, but…

All in all, we both enjoyed the movie and we’re looking forward to the next one when there is one.

I know that it is based on a series of books, number six just being published. DCM said he wants to read the series and I think it might be good, but I’m also afraid that if I read it, it might be so different, like so many adaptations are, I will be disappointed. (The Davinici Code was a big one, so much so, that I didn’t read Angels and Demons, I only went to see the movie, I also remember the uproar when people went to see Eargon, I didn’t read the book, so I was happy with the movie)

If anyone has read the books and goes to see the movie, please let me know if they are close.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538403/?ref_=sr_1

{August 31, 2013} A trip to the mountains

Today was a good day to explore.

Remember last week when I told you about going up to Błackhawk, CO to check out the mountains and the casinos? Well, someone, not saying who, but I’ll give you one guess, has been jonesing to play poker in a tournament for a long time, to just play and not run the game. There is WSP, World Series of Poker, for those of you not in the know, Poker After Dark either on the TV or DVR most nights, something had to be done about it.

Well, today, that desire was fulfilled! DCM headed up to Blackhawk to participate in a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. Let’s just say he had an absolute blast! He didn’t have to do anything except play (normally he runs the tournaments, controls the blinds, please don’t ask me what that is! keeps track of the players, everything) and when he was through, he came in 16th out 56, not to shabby!

Well, while DCM was live out his WSP dreams, I headed in the same direction to the mountains, took a left at the sign for Idaho Springs. It was a great drive with the top down on the curvy roads, seeing the people in the water, hiking and climbing the rocks, very nice.

My first stop was the Idaho Springs visitor center. There I learned that Idaho Springs was the place where the gold rush started; they had a population. Of 14,000 and now, 2,000, it got too expensive to live there, they were hit hard with the gas shortage back in the 1970s.

They had a letter from 1924 regarding the ballot for the presidential elections 1896 and the list of nominations, amazing! There were gems and minerals from the local mines, a pricing sheet for minerals at the time, costumes for women of the day, a car, fools gold, all very interesting, I’m looking forward to going back.

I started to drive through town, decided to park and then walked around. The town was cute and charming, had a nice small town feel, lots of shops and restaurants. I walked to the end of town, then started back down the other side of the street.

I stopped at the Underhill Museum, it was a business/home that was preserved as it was back I the early 1900s. I learned about the owner of the house and his family, it was charming.
http://www.examiner.com/article/museum-monday-underhill-museum-idaho-springs

Right outside of the museum was a sweet azalea bush, ok, it might not be an azalea bush, but I’m going with it, and flying around the bush was a hummingbird moth, it was amazing, looked just like a hummingbird, but it was a moth!

I walked the full length of the town back to my car, dropped off a letter at the post office for a nice woman looking for a post box.

http://www.idahospringsco.com/

I started driving, I was going to head up to Mount Evans, but I ended up driving to Georgetown, CO, another very cute and quaint town. The great thing…as I was driving there, is saw all the signs towards the different mountains that feature…skiing! I cannot wait to get on the slopes this winter, it’s been a while!

When I was in Idaho Springs, it was warm, when I got to Georgetown, the sweatshirt came out, the temperature had dropped at least 15/20 degrees, it felt like and it was raining a bit. I did learn that even in the summer, it gets down to the 40s in Georgetown, sounds good to me!

Georgetown, like Idaho Springs, which I didn’t mention, the main “drag” is about three to five blocks and just as charming as it could be! I found free parking, wahoo and got out to walk around. Right where I parked was the Hotel de Paris.

The Hotel de Paris museum that was a hotel that dated back to the mining boom with a first class French restaurant, showroom for traveling salesmen, and high dollar patrons in the hotel. The owner, Louis Dupuy, was an interesting man, had quite the checkered past! One of the really interesting things was that he didn’t have any family, so he left the estate to his main, Sophie, who he was very close with and since she was illiterate and couldn’t run the business, she was so stressed out, she died four months after he did!

There was only one way to tour the museum, guided tour, the reason, everything was open and very few things were roped off and everything was original to the museum, the only thing that had been replaced was the carpet in one room and some of the support beams in the basement.

It was a great learning experience! They had some great features like the hide-away beds that folded to look like dressers, so cool! Louis Dupuy even had his own ranch with cattle and once a week would go to his ranch, slaughter her own cattle and serve it in his restaurant, talk about full service!
I highly recommend this tour if you have the opportunity.

Home

Since the tour started at 3, I had some time to kill, so I walked around town, into some of the shops and galleries,and after the museum, I walked the rest of the town. I didn’t buy very much in either town, but in Georgetown, I did buy some local honey, it’s some thing I like to buy when I travel.

I treated myself to a cup of hot tea, it was definitely needed and a homemade peanut butter cup, yum!
http://www.town.georgetown.co.us/

After walking around a bit more and chatting with some of the people in town, I headed home, a beautiful drive, incredibly scenic.

{August 26, 2013} The World’s End

Sunday we went to see a matinee of The World’s End.

As I la la la love Simon Pegg, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0670408/?ref_=tt_cl_t15, we were going to see this movie!

I also love Nick Frost, his best mate and co-writing partner. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296545/?ref_=sr_1

If you’re not sure who Simon Pegg is, he wrote Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Paul, just to name a few. If that still hasn’t jogged your memory, he’s played Scotty in the two new Star Trek movies, that help?

So, if you’ve seen the previews anywhere, this won’t be a spoiler, if you haven’t, it will be. Five childhood friends reunite 20 years later, back in their hometown, to complete an infamous pub crawl, twelve pubs, twelve pints, ending at, you guessed it because you’re so smart, The World’s End pub. The goal is to make it to the end, beat their record of eight or nine. Then somewhere along the line (here comes the spoiler alert) they encounter robots.

Ok, so this was Hot Fuzz, Stepford Wives, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, any stupid drinking movie and a few others I can’t think of, all rolled into one.

I knew when is saw the preview it was not going to be an Oscar winner, but I knew there would be funny parts, there would be odd parts, there would be parts we would look at each other “huh?”, there would be really stupid parts and there would be parts that drop your jaw. And you know what, we weren’t disappointed! Did I mention, it had Simon Pegg?

I will say that the end didn’t make sense to either of us, we were talking about it for most of the night! When you see it, you will probably agree and if you understand the ending, please explain it to me!

One of the things that I really like is, like many writer/actor/stars, Simon Pegg puts a lot of the same actors in their movies. Think Kevin Smith, Adam Sandler, Christopher Guest. In Simon Pegg movies, you might see Bill Nighy, David Bradley, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, just to name a few.

I don’t think this movie is going to be in the theater for very long, but that wouldn’t stop me from seeing it! Wait, I did see it! If you’re up for a mindless good time, a few laughs and beer? Go for it!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213663/?ref_=sr_1

{August 23, 2013} Hitch

I know I’m way behind, but today, I finally saw Hitch.

One of the things I like about having access to cable again, is the possibility that an older movie might be on and Hitch it was.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. Will Smith plays Hitch, a consultant who helps his clients get over their fears and bring out who they are to help find the love of their lives or if they are already in love, the courage to be with their love, help her see him for who he is.

His methods seem to help all of his clients, but as you can imagine, they don’t work for himself, when he meets a skeptical reporter in Eva Mendes. He has to face certain things and others as they come to light, after he breaks a lot of his own rules.

I will give you a hint…there is a happy ending!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386588/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1y

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