Saturday's child works hard....and plays hard.

This past Saturday was a long one...we got up about 5:30am to help Chris' parents' with their garage sale (btw- I say "tag sale" but apparently no one on the west coast has any idea what that means), trying to sell a lot of the estate left by Chris' late grandparents. Their hobby (and their living when they'd retired) was to hit tag sales and flea markets looking for valuables, and then they'd set up booths and sell them at various trade shows.
So when both passed on in the past few years, the Danisons were left with a ton of stuff. Chris and I also took advantage of this to get rid of a bunch of our old stuff that we needed to clear out to make room for our "married people" stuff and wedding gifts, etc. Everyone did pretty well and though we were exhausted, Chris and I were happy as we made enough to buy ourselves a new coffee table to match our new couch and a couple other new things.
(Check out this cool car that pulled up at one point)Then at night, we met up with Kristen and Jerry for ice-skating in Redondo Beach. That's right- outdoor ice skating in California! They set up an open air rink right at the beach - it was pretty cool. While the ice did get a bit puddly once or twice, we had a great time and I managed not to fall. Jerry is a great skater (he's a hockey guy) and Chris turned out to be pretty good as well! (Who knew?! Not me!) Kristen and I held our own and I did well enough that it encouraged me to try and maybe actually learn for real.
Anyways- here are some photos and videos are coming shortly....

Disappointment of the Year

So as everyone knows, my Twilight obsession was meant to culiminate in ultimate joy last night with the release of the movie. Bought tickets over a month ago and had recruited 4 ladies to join me....And soooooooo.... wow- it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. To those who might say I am too attached to the material to have been satisfied with any movie, I say "no". I prepared myself - I read the script, I saw all the clips and featurettes, etc, I knew what to expect in terms of the adaptation of the story....but what I was not prepared for was a movie that was so poorly directed that I think Catherine Hardwicke should never be able to direct a movie again. She made some of the WORST choices in terms of direction of the actors, camera angles, shot choices and pacing....as in - there was none!! I might also add that the music was horrible. It made the acting and the weird scenes even more painful to sit through.

I was not alone...the other ladies with me also hated it and we all spent a good chunk of the movie laughing at it....along with most of the theater, I might add. And the whole theater was pretty much full of fans. I did run into a colleague of mine who said she was thoroughly entertained and Mara did think it was bad in a good way, but I am sad that I cannot say the same. I expected bad cheesy, something fun that I could laugh when I say I loved it anyway, but this was just too painful. Even the simplest, easiest moments to create teen angst and romance were squandered in this movie. Sage made a good point that she thought it was just too literal an adaptation...and I think that may be spot on. There is no soul to this movie. For example, the most recent PRIDE AND PREJUDICE may not be the best actual adaptation of the book, but it's fabulous in that it captures the essence of the material. This didn't. Hardwicke didn't even get the actors to express the basic feelings that transpire between Edward and Bella. The whole point is that he's confident, charming and very at east with Bella once they get over the initial conflict. And Bella's surprisingly calm and at ease with Edward, which is why they can fall in love. Yet in the movie, Kristen Stewart is anxious and acting nervous the whole time! She seems terrified of him (which is soooo not the point) and there are only two moments that the pair actually seem at ease with one another....and it's sad that it's not the key relationship moments. It was a strange dynamic and the lines were interpreted and put together in such a way that they made no sense.

I know I'm rambling, but seriously....they got this ALL wrong. And I would have been okay with a movie that was different than the books as long as it was good. This just had the worst production design (everything felt like a set), bad casting (the vampires were not beautiful enough), bad acting (she directed Rob Pattinson to seem like a moron) and really bad editing. Two big thumbs down.

Ding Dong, the Couch is Dead!

Yesterday marked the beginning of a new life for 3101 S. Barrington Apt 15.....the old skin of the slip-cover couch has been shed.....Hurray for the new sectional! Hurray for more space!
See the remains of the old.... and the brilliance of the new!









Okay, Okay- I know, it's just a new couch. But seriously, it's like we just moved into a new place. I'm so frickin excited!

Belated BOO!!

So a much belated, but very adorable post.....here are the pics of the nieces and nephews from Halloween this year.

Eric....











Ainsley...










Delaney....











Mason, his sis Madeleine, and their cousin Jace

The world belongs to ....Sundance

A momentous occasion has occurred in our apartment....
that's right- the "The World is Yours" poster is gone! Chris and I bought a grown-up couch today (no slip cover. hurray!!!) and in preparation for its delivery Tuesday, we started moving furniture around. This included moving our massive DVD collection over to the den, which would cover the infamous poster. Chris is really thrilled to finally be losing his SCARFACE poster as you can tell.....

But one person's trash is another's treasure...as we discovered when Sundance took a liking to the poster. To make it more enticing, I rolled one of their jingle balls into the middle of it and she tried desperately to get inside.
So loser moment, it reminded me of Twilight when Edward looked at Bella and commented about her being a furious kitten that thought she was a tiger. And I know how condescending that sounds for one person to think of another, but I think it's a cute image and it's kind of true for Sundance when she charges the poster. See below....

Los Angeles is Burning.....

As many of you are experiencing, and many more have heard, Southern California is experiencing devastating wild fires right now. The hot Santa Ana winds are carrying flames and smoke throughout SoCal and a lot of people have lost their homes. We are lucky enough not to live in an area that is threatened, but many of our friends have had to evacuate their houses, and we are hoping they have a home to return to in the morning.

This morning, we left Mar Vista and drove the cats down to Orange County for their yearly check-up at the vet. As we got on the 105 highway, we were able to see the mountains and saw the smoke from the Santa Barbara fires...about an hour and a half later, driving back towards Chris' parents' home in Los Alamitos (33 miles from where we started and much, MUCH further from the smoke we saw on the horizon) we were driving through smoke! Fires had spread and I took these photos from the car later that day to show the crazy sky, and also how you can see exactly where the wind stream is, showing the blue sky just beyond.


p.s......chris is really sweet...he bought my flowers yesterday just because. awwww

Partying like it's 2002.....

So back during senior year at Brown, some of my friends and I made a pact that we would go out every Thursday night no matter what. And we kept to it....I even completed my thesis early enough on the Thursday before it was due in time to go out to our beloved GCB (Grad Center Bar for the non-brownies). Post-college, this Thursday night fun continued for a little while b/c it didn't seem a big deal to be out late and hangovers on work days didn't bother me....times changed of course....and bedtime got a lot earlier on school nights.

However, last night I went to El Guapo for tracking board drinks (a.k.a. networking type stuff), which can often be more of a chore than true fun....but last night was awesmoe! I totally stayed out til 1am as if I were still 21/22. The night started out with about twelve of us, kind of hanging out, chatting about our board's leader moving to Texas and getting out of the business. As the night went on and we dwindled down to 5, things got a bit crazier. There was a really fun guy from Boston there, who as he spoke, let his accent come out into full force. There were no "r"s left in his speech anywhere by night's end. This is the same guy that when we were talking about the movie THE DREAMERS (a steamy number directed by Bertolucci starring Eva Green), gave me the nickname DFP when I mentioned there were more naked guys than naked girls in it....I believe his comment came about in this fashion...."yeah, if you like dual flacid penises." Everyone bust up and now I am being called DFP on one my work boards....sigh. not good.
Though I did end up telling this dude he would be Chewbacca instead of Han Solo when we were discussing that (I don't remember why), but somehow it doesn't quite have the same effect as DFP.

Anyways, it was a great night and I got to know some of my colleagues really well and managed to hold my own even when all the other girls had left. I think I challenged one to beer pong and another to poker at some point....we shall see.