Warning: This post may contain massive amounts of Nerd

Space...the Final Frontier.
So the new STAR TREK movie doesn't start out with these words, but rather wraps up an amazing action adventure movie set in space that is the new installment of the STAR TREK franchise. The movie is awesome - let's just start with that. JJ Abrams and writers Kurtzman & Orci continue to amaze me with their talent, and essentially, I want to be them. I went with Chris and Marlene (a friend and a HUGE Trekkie) to the midnight showing last night. Hoo-ah!

The movie opens with a great action sequence, showing the demise of the U.S.S. Kelvin and sets up our Romulan bad guys. Eric Bana plays our bad dude and it's insane how unrecognizable he is! The shaved head and facial tattoos really help. Anyways- we set up our big problem and see how Kirk was born, what happened to his family, etc. Cut to the future and we get to meet our fabulous crew as teens. (Well, there's one time chunk in the middle when Spock and Kirk are kids.) My favorites are definitely Chris Pine as Kirk, Zoe Saldana as Uhuru and then eventually, when he emerges much much later in the movie, Simon Pegg as Scotty.

The movie feels like it's really a story about Spock, more than anything. While we're setting up Kirk and showing how he takes control of the Enterprise, his story has less emotional weight than Spock's, which is of course the intended irony since he's the stoic Vulcan. Kirk drives the movie forward, but it's Spock that we feel for more than anything. Though, I actually think that we're supposed to care more about Kirk and Spock finding their way to the live-long friendship that has been memorialized in STAR TREK for so many years.

Other good news is that the production value is AWESOME. It makes you want to strangle George Lucas when you see how much of this movie is CGI and how GREAT it looks. It feels real and it's exciting! It's not some bizarre background - it just looks like space!

I have really nothing to complain about. I am going to see the movie again on Sunday on the IMAX screens, so maybe a second viewing will show me a thing or two that I'm not pysched about. We shall see.

p.s. The Arclight Theater in LA is awesome - they had themed cocktails for the opening weekend (I had the "Captain's Cooler" and my friend Marlene had the "Warp-tini". They also gave out free t-shirts, and I wore my to work today. NERD ALERT!!)

Hello again

I know it's been awhile....sorry! Life's been busy and stressful. Nothing new I suppose, but I've been very bad about blogging...even reading others' blogs has fallen by the wayside the last couple of weeks.

But I'm back and I thought I'd come back with something amusing...So last night, I'm leaving the lot around 7pm (early considering how late I've been here lately!!), and this is what I see as I leave my building...

These cute little ducks wandering around the lot...and just the two of them. So weird! I'd never seen ducks on the lot before...a stray cat or two, yes. Ducks? No.

Anyways, life's pretty good. Saw STATE OF PLAY and 17 AGAIN recently. Is it sad to say that 17 AGAIN was actually more entertaining than STATE OF PLAY? Both movies are miles apart, but I felt STATE was just a bit too long and dry. The performances were excellent but there wasn't a lot to get excited about. In terms of 17, I gotta say it was loads of fun. Zac Efron did a good job of showing that he can do a bit more than just HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, though the first 10 min of the movie are him playing basketball and dancing. But then he's flirting with Leslie Mann for a good chunk of the movie and you're like, "Hey- he's doing it. And doing it well." Okay bad 90s music reference.

See both on DVD for sure!

A great idea

My friend Mara turned me onto this site and I think it's such a good idea, I had to share it!!

Each year I have some version of this conversation with my mother....
Mom - "So any ideas of what you or Chris want for Christmas this year?"
Me - "oh mom, it's so far off...I dunno."
Mom - "well, don't wait too long, you know I like to get shopping done early."
-- two months later --
Me - "Hey, I thought of something that's a great idea for Christmas -"
Mom - "It's December 4th Tamara. I asked for your list months ago. Your gifts are pretty much bought."
Me - Sigh. "I know, I know..."

The answer to this dilemma and many more.... Ta Da!!
http://www.thethingsiwant.com/

It's an online registry system/wish list. You can start a list for your birthday, your kids, a shower, Christmas or Hannukah. It's not tied to one store and you can add or take stuff off whenever you want! When you see an item you want, just add it to your list so that you don't forget about it!

It's a great idea for your boyfriend, spouse, mother, brother, etc to be able to check in and see what you might like without having to ruin a surprise by asking you!

Check it out peeps!

Kitty Post

Sundance is checking out the stability of the poker table...

Sundance sees a birdie...and Butch decides he wants to imitate her...

Butch reminds me that I can't put papers down on the floor unattended for even a minute.

Hippity Hoppity Easter!

Happy Easter! (and Happy Passover as well!) Yesterday Chris and I managed to arrive in time this year to see Madeleine and Mason's Easter egg hunt at their house. Camilla and Ron's good friends Grant and Kori were also their with their son Lucas and daughter Liv, (who's still a bit young at six months to be searching for eggs), as well as Papa and Gramma Collins on Camilla's side.

We all had a great brunch, watched the kids enthusiastically clamor for eggs and then we dyed some hard-boiled eggs. I tried to remember the dying techniques, which light colors and darker colors worked well with each other and how to best stripe them, but for the most part, they were more tie-dyed than properly sectioned off.

Everyone else took off mid-afternoon, but Chris and I stayed to hang out with Ron and Camilla and the kids for the day. We all had way too much sugar and then were too lazy for real dinner, so we ordered pizza. Healthy day!! haha.

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. We've been pretty low key and just working a lot.

Visiting "A Whale's Vagina"...

If you haven't seen ANCHORMAN, then this is awkward...but it means we went to San Diego.

Chris and I took a little trip down to San Diego last weekend to milk his Hilton perks before they disappear. We got a great room at the resort there right on Mission Bay, just north of downtown San Diego. Our room had this cute little patio that lead right to the beach and all these cute ducks came up to pay us a visit (read- ask us for food but we didn't feed the little guys). Check out the video- the duck goes right up to our screen door!

Sadly, I had just come down with a cold the day before we left, so I was not that much fun over the weekend. Friday, especially, when I couldn't even taste our dinner or wine. Plus the kleenex was never more than a foot from me the whole night.

On Saturday, we headed out to the Wild Animal Park, which is affiliated to the San Diego Zoo, but is a totally separate area. It's much more akin to the Jurassic Park idea, of leaving animals in much bigger expanses of land and less cage-like situations. Check out this lion, who was gnawing on a huge leg bone the whole time we were there.

They have tons of elephants there as well - a number of whom are children. The smallest baby you can see in this photo is only two months old. He was born at 226 lbs though! WOW!




And then there were these weird hybrid of horses and zebras called the Okapi....and they have REALLY long tongues they use to grab nearby branches and pull them over for food. I took a video, but you can't really tell from it (See below). Here's a little blurb from wikipedia about them and their tongues - "The tongue of an okapi is long enough for the animal to wash its eyelids and clean its ears (inside and out): it is the only mammal that can lick its own ears."
We had a great time at the park, even though we did get a bit sunburned, and then headed back to the hotel.


I was feeling a bit better by the end of the night, so we met up with our friends Chip and Daryn, who live in the area, for yummy fish tacos and dessert! It has been great to see so much of them recently!

Sunday we grabbed brunch on our way back to LA, stopping in La Jolla at a place called Harry's Coffee Shop. It's one of those old institutions that has the really old diner interior and they just move people in and out. All the waiters seemed to know a lot of the customers and it seems like a place you'd go for years and say, "I'll have the usual!" I really want to find a place like that near us!

Anyways- sorry for all the absent blogging. Been a busy week and it takes forever at home to upload photos...way easier at the office.

Good News!!

We found out today that Chris is going to be kept on at Hilton for part of the transition - so he's employed with them until June 1st. Gives us a bit more breathing room and more time to find that fabulous next job that's just waiting for him!