Three sentence movie reviews–City of Ember.


It has been a very long time since I have watched a science fiction/fantasy movie. Though a little long near the end, this was a delightful, suspenseful, well acted, well designed movie. Perfect for families.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2008/city_of_ember_ver2.html

Sunday and guidelines.

Watching TV on DVDs = crack. Especially when it is a half-hour sitcom. I sit down to watch two shows and four hours later I’m still sitting there. This was a mildly unmotivated day.

  • Up and dressed to the shoes. Did it.
  • 1 hour study math. Did it.
  • 1 hour blogs. Did it.
  • 1 hour exercise. 45 minutes riding my new bike home. Plus some walking to and from the train. Did it.
  • 4 hours work. I probably got an hour and a half in. It could have been more, but see above for my excuse.
  • Keep up with dishes & picking up. Nope. See above.
  • Nap maximum 30 minutes. I did not nap today. Surprisingly as I went to bed very late last night due to the joy of Contra Dancing.
  • Eat only when hungry, stop when full. Did it.
  • Plan food the day before. Did it.
  • Fruit and veggies while watching movie. I used my virtual “one free popcorn” coupon tonight. Then I had two oranges. We’re sort of awash in fruit right now.

Overall, not bad. I get a goodly amount done during the morning. I’d like to say that I am going to limit my TV viewing today, but I would be lying.

Three sentence movie reviews–Tully


An understated story about the sometimes-rough transition from adolescence to adulthood set on a family farm in Nebraska. Sometimes I find a movie and I can’t imagine how I and the movie could have existed at the same time for so long and I wasn’t aware of it. Excellent acting all around and filled with many tiny moments of joy, I highly recommend this.

poster from: http://moviegoods.com/movie_product_static.asp?master_movie_id=34256

Guidlelines and Saturday

A bit of a weird day…

  • Up and dressed. Did this
  • 1 hour study math. Did this
  • 1 hour blogs. Did this. Mostly prepping pictures for posting. That takes a bit of time.
  • 1 hour exercise. I jogged for 26 minutes and also did two hours of contra dancing.
  • 4 hours work. I had about three hours. I kept fooling around on the computer and also, see Nap.
  • Keep up with dishes/picking up. I unloaded the dishwasher and hand-washed the dishes by the sink. When it is just me and I’m not doing a lot of cooking, it makes more sense to wash them by hand.
  • Nap maximum time 30 minutes. I set out to do this, but failed. I set my timer for 30 minutes and feel asleep on the couch. I awoke an hour later and checked to see how much time was left on the timer. Inexplicably, there were almost 13 minutes left, but the timer was not running. I hit start to see if the batteries were wonky, but it ran just fine. I concluded that during my sleep, I turned the timer off. Having already exceeded my guideline, I rolled over and slept for another hour. That cut into my work time.
  • Eat only when hungry and stop when full. I had a bigger lunch than planned and thus wasn’t hungry for dinner. So I fulfilled the first half of this after not fulfilling the second. Not ideal, but better than not fulfilling either.
  • Plan food the day before. Food was planned. Sadly, I did not stick to the plan.
  • Fruit and veggies while watching movie. No movie.

Overall, aside from the nap fiasco, this was a good day.

Friday and the guidelines

Thursday was guideline free, as it was Christmas. Friday I was feeling very unmotivated. Considering that, it was a good day.

  • Got up. I did.
  • 1 hour study math. Yep
  • 1 hour blog. Yes-sir-ee
  • 1 hour exercise. There was running. Or walk/jog/creeping along the ice, rather. There was also picking up the milk delivery.
  • 4 hours work. I spent a half hour cleaning off my desk. I went downtown to pick up my books which probably took an hour and a half. If you add in cooking dinner, I think I made it four hours. It was under mild duress, though. There was a lot of playing the never ending trivia game on Goodreads.
  • Keep up with dishes and picking up. Yes ma’am.
  • Nap. There was none, so that was under 30 minutes.
  • Eat only when hungry, stop when full. Yeah, not so much.
  • Plan food. Did. Did not actually stick to the plan, though.
  • Fruit and Veggies while watching movie. Nope. I had ice cream. Alas.

Well, tomorrow is another day. I will concentrate on meeting my various food goals.

Three sentence movie reviews–Waking the Dead


This is one of those movies that has me looking for the book it is based on just as soon as the credits roll. The movie was good in both its romantic scenes, political scenes and those tense, “what the heck is going on?” scenes, but a little something was missing from the whole. Sometimes the book provides those missing parts.

ps. Billy Crudup. Yum.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2000/waking_the_dead.html

Three sentence movie reviews–A Christmas Story.


Our across-the-street-neighbor Janet Miller took us to this movie when it came out. We saw it at the Egyptian Theater on a Sunday after church. The setting has never been as nice, but this movie is still as delightful as the first time I saw it.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1983/christmas_story.html

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday’s Guidelines.

To recapitulate:

Monday and Tuesday I was getting ready for various festivities so I was pretty busy, although “pretty busy” on vacation means lots of time for napping and movies etc. Wednesday I got up and did the last of the Christmas baking, cleaned up and that was that for exertion.

Up and dressed to the shoes: Monday Tuesday, Wednesday
1 hour study Math Test: Monday, Tuesday, none on Wednesday
1 hour blogs: Monday, Tuesday, not Wednesday
1 hour exercise: yes on Monday, none on Tuesday (prepping for Christmas Eve Eve), 20 minutes of shoveling snow on Wednesday
4 hours work: Yes on Monday, Tuesday, about three on Wednesday
Keep up with dishes/picking up: Yes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Nap maximum of 30 minutes: I had 30 minute or less naps all three days
Eat only when hungry, stop when full: Yes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I didn’t really do this
Plan food the day before: Monday, Tuesday, not Wednesday
Fruit and veggies while watching movies. I watched a movie Monday, and Wednesday, but not Tuesday. I had nothing to eat with any of them.

Transported

Looking out the window at the snow it is as if I have been transported from the rainy green city of Portland to some snow covered hamlet somewhere in Colorado or Montana. It is snowing again today and we have inches on the ground. Having lived with snow in some for for over a week now, I can say the following generalizations about Portlanders are true.

They never go out in the snow.
They are unable to operate a snow shovel.

The people of Portland disappear when it snows. They stay holed up in their houses and emerge for only the most dire needs. They never, thank the lord, drive. The cars I’ve seen on the roads this week all have chains on them, but cars are few and far between. This is a good thing as Portlanders have little practice driving in the snow and have little to no skills in that area. Unlike any other place I have lived, the equipment to plow the roads is sparse and the roads themselves aren’t really sanded and definitely not salted. The (very small) downside of this is that life grinds to a halt when we get measurable snow. The upside is that the snow remains beautiful and white instead of nasty and gritty and brown, even on the major roads.

I would guess that 60% of Portlanders don’t own snow shovels. It makes sense. Most of the time when it snows we get a day or so of winter beauty and then everything warms up and it rains. Poof. The snow disappears. Why bother to shovel? This is in stark contrast to Massachusetts, where if you don’t clear the snow from your sidewalk it freezes and remains a slippery mess for weeks, if not months.

After shoveling my walk this morning, I took a walk of about three miles to run some errands. After I left my shoveled walk, guess how many shoveled sidewalks I encountered on my round trip? One. I even took a more traveled route in hopes that I would find some clear sidewalks. Not only do residents of the neighborhood not shovel, but businesses don’t either. The only exception was the North Star Coffee house, and they did the lazy “make a path one snow shovel wide” method. No one even throws down those things that make ice melt.

So it is a winter wonderland here, but one that has me wishing I owned snow shoes.