I’ve got a book post coming up, but before I delve into my literary adventures, there have been goings-on in other media. I’ll make it snappy, since I have reached critical mass in the need for sleep. It’s kind of ridiculous how little sleep I’ve had in the past two weeks (hence the eerie silence on this here blog).

Last week ‘House’ creators announced that this is the final season – and I actually teared up. What will I do without Dr House??

I’ve decided this will give Hugh more free time to play the piano (for me), eat good food (with me) and read novels aloud in his natural English accent (to me). You know, ’cause obviously he’s coming straight to the Napa Valley after his show ends.

Sunday night (19th) the Season Finale of Downton Abbey airs. GAHH! Too short! This show needs to be moved from mini-series to regular series, so there are more episodes to devour!

OH MY GOD, ANNA AND BATES. I don’t want to ruin ‘Downton Abbey’ for anyone…but last week’s episode had many awesome moments. That’s all I’ll say.

Lord Grantham is officially ‘On Notice’, and hopefully I will not have to move him to the ‘Dead to Me’ board a la Stephen Colbert.

Also, can someone please make me look like this? Lady Mary is so lovely I bet she sleeps on a cloud and bathes in milk.

On the music front, tickets to the Death Cab for Cutie concert have been purchased! I am thrilled to see them perform. I started listening with the ‘forbidden love’ EP back in high school, and I’ve NEVER been able to catch them live before;  the tickets usually sell out before I can get to them – but this time I got onto Ticketmaster on a break at work as soon as they went onsale.

Marco and I have been having dance parties in the car on the way home from work and daycare; I’ll crank out a tune and he shakes his groove-thang in his carseat. Lately, he loves The Black Keys’ “Gold on the Ceiling”.

I’m excited to finally see ‘The Artist’! It finally arrives at the Cameo this weekend. Sour Patch Kids and Milk Duds will be consumed. What? It’s dinner.

So, I saw this:

I did not read the book, so I went into the movie knowing very little about the story (though, I told Tim before we saw the movie what had happened to Harriet). Tim did read the book, so I wasn’t spoiling anything for him.

I enjoyed the movie, for the most part. I was not, however, prepared for certain scenes that I will not describe here (but if you’ve read it or caught the flick this weekend, you know what I am talking about).  Rooney Mara is a good actress, and not only portrayed the freaky and the fragile, but faked her way through a Swedish accent to boot.  Daniel Craig was ehh…a good placeholder (but only from the neck down); his acting doesn’t do anything for me.

Anyway, I liked the story, and though a little slow, I think it was well done. Might read the second books, The Girl Who Played with Fire. 

Anyone else see this? What did you think?

I think I need to see this NOW.

Ralph Fiennes!? Shakespeare!? Ohhh yeeeeeah.

 But also…yesssssssssssss!!

Lookie what I FINALLY got in the mail (happy birthday to meeee!)

I’m a little concerned over the rumours flying all over the interwebs about changes made to the movies, and am keeping my fingers crossed that Yoda still looks like the Yoda I love on VHS (yep, still got ‘em), only slightly less grainy. I know that you live in Northern California, George!! *shakes fist*

I can’t wait to watch this with Marco!

And people say nothing good ever comes in the mail.

I love the post office. My local branch has the nicest people ever! They smile whenever they see me, ask me how work is going (they remembered that I got promoted), and always tell me to have a beautiful day.

How can you hate it? Plus, they have stamps! I love stamps. Yes, I am a nerd. This is not news, readers. But I actually use my stamps, thankyouverymuch. I’m not one of those weird collectors. one day i’ll be rich and have books of stamps okay

I was geeking out at the Post Office when I saw these, and they are currently in use for my outgoing mail:

{poor NASA.}

The new Pixar stamps might be purchased soon:

Further nerd news: WTF Netflix?! So disappointed in you.

OK, I need to talk about something that will up my cool quotient…

 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is just a week and a half away!  OMG OMG OMG. HUGH LAURIE!!!!!!! I might faint.

Whoops. That didn’t help. LOL

I love George Harrison. I don’t know that I can REALLY pick a favorite Beatle, because they were all so wonderful and different – but George was special. Referred to as ‘the quiet one’, he was also the youngest – he joined the Quarrymen when he was 15!

I think part of it is because Christopher (my godfather – for lack of a better word; I’m not baptized, but there’s no other term that comes close to his importance) looks a lot like him. I remember the first time I saw a picture of The Beatles, and I thought Christopher WAS in the band.

1987

Anyway, Martin Scorsese made a documentary film about this extraordinary musician, and I can’t wait to see it. ‘No Direction Home’, the Bob Dylan doc, was really good – so I expect this will be pretty rockin’. Literally. Yep. I said it.

And my favorite Harrison composition:

Who said George didn’t sing great pop songs!? This song is just awesome – and I love the video:

We’ve got our own ‘outdoor theatre’, and we’re ready for premieres.

Thanks to Dad for donating the projector screen, and to Target for their stock of vinyl sheets for those with bed-wetting tendencies; they make perfect movie screens! LOL

For our first feature, we screened “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

Since then, we’ve also watched the “Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest”, two (NEW!) episodes of BBC’s ‘Poirot’, “The Princess Bride”, and “Easy A”. The latter was ok; I think Emma Stone is completely adorable, but the movie was kind of mehhh.

Now that we’ve got our hammock, it’s even more cozy than I imagined. We get all wrapped up in blankets, pop the corn and munch. We MIGHT have also purchased a tub of Red Vines and a 2 lb bag of Sour Patch Kids. Maybe.

So…who wants to come over for movie night?

Sorry for the late recap, readers!  Here’s my weekend update.

Read on for deets on the debauchery that took place in my household…

SATURDAY

I was awoken by my adorable girl Roux massaging my neck (seriously, I have pictures):

Then, I was surprised by Marco and Tim, who brought me a Skinny Caramel Machiatto (only 140 calories, which makes me feel less piggy) in bed.

After a leisurely morning, the three of us headed out for a few errands. We stopped at World Market and ended up purchasing two awesome leather chairs for our living room…and a HAMMOCK. YES. You will probably never seem or hear from me again, because I shall be reading and sleeping in MY HAMMOCK. Pictures to come once it is set up.

I then hit up the matinee of “Midnight in Paris” at the Cameo.

I really liked this film. I like a good portion of Woody Allen’s work (“Match Point”, “Hannah and Her Sisters”, “Annie Hall”), but I was not sure if I’d enjoy this particular piece, seeing as how Owen Wilson was the star; I don’t really like the actor. My advice: don’t avoid this movie for that reason. It’s adorable and fun; given to flights of fancy, and requiring a suspension of reality – but lovely!

Did I mention the walk with Tim and Marco to pick up frozen yogurt?! Will my devilish behavior ever cease?

Thanks, Yo Belle, for the delicious Plain and Blueberry Tart flavors

Although I didn’t get as much of it as I expected… SOMEONE basely stole my spoon.

At home, I cuddled, tickled, chased, and kissed Marco until his bedtime. Tim and I finished the evening trying to stay awake through “The Runaways”. Don’t really recommend. It doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know about the band, and in my opinion, gives you no reason to even care. I love Joan Jett, but I didn’t see much spark in the way she was portrayed, and Kristen Stewart will never have the amount of cool.

SUNDAY

We watched Sesame Street with Marco, and cleaned up the house a bit. After a trip to the gardening section of Home Depot (my new favorite place), we stopped off for a tasty lunch at Gott’s with my two men.

Marco DEVOURED his grilled cheese on wheat (happy camper!)

Tim ordered up the Wisconsin Sourdough

I had a green salad with sliced avocado and artichoke vinaigrette.

Before you think I was eating super-healthy, feast your eyes on the mounds of sweet potato fries and garlic fries present. Yummy in my tummy.

Some gardening, pedicuring, and a nasty bump on the coffee table (poor Marco!) later, it was the end of our weekend. SAD FACE.

I told you it was crazy around here.

What did you do last weekend? Spill the beans!

Here's my June media post!
Books: I finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and read Bossypants by Tina Fey. I like Tina; I think she’s intelligent, witty, and adorable. But, I didn’t think her book was as hilarious as I was expecting. It was good, but some of the stories she shares were just plain boring.
Yesterday, Copperfield’s Books had a 30th birthday party, and everything in the store was 30% off! I purchased a present for my godfather, and a new book for Marco. For myself, I snagged the last copy of P.G. Wodehouse’s Just Enough Jeeves, which is a collection of two novels and several short stories all about Bertie Wooster and his wonderful gentleman’s gentleman, Jeeves! I love the BBC series ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ (Hugh Laurie & Stephen Fry, together again!), and am excited to finally read this!

Movies: I haven’t attended a movie since “Hanna”. Next weekend I’m going to see “Midnight in Paris” at the Cameo. Today, Tim is going to see “X-Men: First Class”. Marco and I will probably chill with some puzzles and crayons

Music: Same stuff I always listen to! I haven’t heard the new Death Cab for Cutie in its entirety yet, but I like the song “You are a Tourist”.

Television: ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ and ‘The Colbert Report’. Summer is *kind of* here, which means that besides fake-news shows, there’s precious little else on. ‘Castle’,'Psych’, and ‘House’ are off until fall. No word on ‘Burn Notice’, ‘Mad Men’ won’t return until next year (!), and Showtime has not announced an official date for ‘Dexter’ (though the list of guest appearances grows strong…)

If you’ve got a recommendation, do share!! Hope your Sunday is relaxing. Go forth, and eat some gummy bears.

Tim and I saw ‘Hanna’ on our movie date, and I highly recommend it! It was completely crazy (we left the theatre saying “What the hell!?”, but in a good way), and so good. The director is the same guy who made ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Atonement’, Joe Wright. I’m not a fan of the hack job done to the Jane Austen classic, but ‘Atonement’ was pretty good.

If you like cool fight scenes, this has plenty of perfectly choreographed fights to please you. The soundtrack for ‘Hanna’ was done by The Chemical Brothers, and while I’ve never been a fan of that type of music – it worked well for this film.

Also…the most beautiful, talented woman in the world (Cate Blanchett) happens to be in it…and she’s creepy.

 

Anyone out there know when this comes out!?