On the road again...

Saturday morning we woke up and got on the road back to LA...but Danison-style, which means stopping along the way in small towns for an hour or so (it also means stopping at lots of rest stops for drinks and bathroom breaks...Seriously I slept through it on the Thursday a.m. drive up to Monterey, but I think they stopped 5 times for a 5-6 hour drive).

So on the way back, our first big stop was in San Luis Obispo, where we got out and walked around the Apple Farm Inn. It's a cute little hotel with a fun gift shop, restaurant, an Old Mill-style shop and obviously the old grounds from the apple farm. They were dressed up for the holidays and we had fun going through all the gift shop items.

Back on the road, we then drove down to Solvang, a little Dutch town, whose buildings are outfitted in the old style. The lunch we had at a former greenhouse was absolutely delicious! And the treat in the neighboring bakery was even more yummy! It was called a "napoleon hat" and it was a cookie with marzipan in the middle and coated with chocolate on the bottom.

Walking around, we of course went into the Christmas store there and continue to peruse the town for a couple hours. Then finally, back in the car and home to LA....where Butch and Sundance were anxiously awaiting our return.

More stuffing....

On Friday morning, Mary and I got up early (ugh- very early! 6:30am!) and went shopping as per tradition at the local mall. We were surprised this year that some of the bigger chains didn't seem to be doing much in the way of Black Friday sales, but we did find some great bargains at Ann Taylor Loft and Lucy (my favorite work-out apparel store). We got back to the house around 10:30am and everyone was up and having breakfast.

After stuffing ourselves with Mia's breakfast casserole and biscuits, we headed out to Carmel. I'd never been, but I understood why people think of this small town as a ritzy area, where the rich prance around the boutiques, art galleries and wine stores with their little dogs. And when I say boutiques, that ranges from genuine small businesses to a Louis Vuitton store that just is fashioned to look like a boutique. But the place was dressed up for Christmas and we had a lot of fun walking around and pretending to shop for the massive diamonds in all the windows. We also took a quick tour of the each area and saw all the people playing with their dogs!

Back at the house, we had a belated lunch and stuffed ourselves with leftovers. And then I fell asleep for an hour or so on the couch before waking up for a game of Tick (fun card game that's an offshoot of gin rummy), and then off to dinner! For more....food.

Dinner was at this yummy Italian seafood restaurant right on the pier. Their clam chowder was excellent, as was the calamari and crab cakes. I couldn't even finish my crab cake appetizer/dinner and left feeling pretty stuffed yet again.

Back to the house for a bit of wine (little less than the night before) and of course, dessert. OOF! More stuffing!

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

This year, Chris, his parents and I drove up to Seaside, CA (near Monterey) and spent the holiday with Chris' cousin Jeff and his wife Mia. Until last December, they had been living in Japan, where Jeff was stationed for three years on the Misawa Naval base.




Jeff and Mia had been wanting to try to fry a turkey, something both they and we had heard a lot about in recent years. Using Alton Brown's brine recipe and frying method, Jeff rigged a pulley system for the turkey for safety - see the video and photos below. Though the outside looked crispy, the turkey was tender and juicy inside! Yum! Look at our spread!




After dinner, we chatted, had dessert and then the parents started falling asleep. They were done for the night, but Chris, Jeff, Mia and I stayed up late drinking wine and beer by their outdoor fireplace in the chilly air. We had a great night and were so pleased to spend so much time with Jeff and Mia! Plus, they are cat people like us and have two kitties - Simon (6 year-old black ca, demon-eyed cat below) and Rudy (much older grey cat, who was a bit more stand offish) - so we felt even more at home!

Second Chances....

Everyone in this life deserves a second chance, right? Well, maybe the same applies to movies. After a few people whose taste I usually agree with, or at least respect, told me that they were entertained by the movie, I decided to give TWILIGHT another shot and saw it Wednesday afternoon in the theater again. I must say, the second viewing was better...I think that since I was expecting all the awful, horrible, badness, I was able to sit and let the movie just wash over me instead. I saw what it was trying to do and some of it seemed to work a bit better, though I still maintain it's a crappy movie. But I at least enjoyed myself enough to walk out and leave the bitterness from the opening night behind. That made me happy....I didn't like having my Twilight experience tainted in any way.

Premiere-gate

Last night was the Los Angeles premiere of FROST/NIXON, the last movie I worked on before I left Imagine a year ago. This was my boss' project and I was really involved and saw it through the end of shooting before jumping ship and heading to LMP. So it was extremely satisfying to see the movie last night and see how GREAT it is. It was also fun to remember all the behind-the-scenes work we all did and see the actors portray the people I had spoken to and met with while we researched. I haven't had quite such a gratifying experience before in terms of being a part of a movie and I'm glad that that feeling came with this one....It's a really, really good movie! And it's actually about something, which is also nice. When you see the movie, you'll see the obvious parallels to what this country is going through now. Plus I think the performances are top-notch, the editing works so well, the music is fantastic and it's actually pretty funny. All the comedy came through and it makes what is a very intelligent movie a lot of fun as well. So even though I'm slightly bitter that I didn't get my credit on the movie....(slightly = extremely), please please go see this film! It's really worth it and it's a movie that needs good word of mouth buzz to keep it in theaters. Doesn't exactly have the marketing appeal of a MARLEY AND ME or a TWILIGHT, so it's run will most likely succeed or fail based on moviegoers talking it up!

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.