Blue Roses

I have new cable channels! I've had the Food Network on almost nonstop since it came. (I LOVE Alton Brown. He's so fun.) Except, of course, when watching Buffy from 3-5 or watching TiVo'd Xena eps. ::happy sigh:: This plus getting high speed internet tomorrow is almost like being back at school. Only louder. And no school work. LOL But most of the perks have now followed me home, so yay!

Saw Shrek 2 today with mom, Josh, and two sweet and cute med students. (8 freaking years, and not one has asked me out. Damn them!) Oh, my heavens, I laughed SO HARD. I didn't really like the first one, but this one was just fantastically clever. I enjoyed it so much.

I am so going to the mediawest*con next Memorial Day. I squeal about it daily, it seems. I keep this year's panel list next to me in my room, and the topics make me very very happy. I cannot WAIT!!!! And, ooh, if Biz and I can get Jennie to come with? Heaven. Heaven, I tell you.

What's not squealworthy is that Britney had knee surgery, canceled her tour due to rigorous PT work for the next 8-12 weeks, and therefore I get no Britney OR JC this summer. : ( JC's touring with Jessica Simpson now (announced today), but I have no interest in seeing her. Darn. Oh, well. I saw him twice in May, so that will have to be good enough.

Posted by Rina at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Things have been pretty quiet lately. Trying to get into a routine a work with my new kid. He's a doll, but a challenge. Not what I've been used to this year. But I do enjoy him a great deal.

Spent seven (7) hours at the mall on Thursday. ::boggles:: And only spent $200, including lunch and dinner. LOL Seriously, though, bought some excellently cute things. Sparkly Superman tee, new denim shorts, new jeans, fantastic wonderful perfect pink skirt, and the adorable denim crop pants with embroidered butterflies and appliqued flowers I am currently wearing, among other things. Best of all? I finally built a Justin! After over a year, I have a complete *NSYNC stuffed collection. I am both amused and scared. But really, they're totally cute. And as I was leaving, the store lady suggested that I come back and build Justin a girl. I agreed, sure, nice idea. Then she added, "Perhaps the Cameron Diaz type?" I cracked up. Too funny! Except now I want a Britney bear. Ooops.

Josh's last soccer of the season was today. It's like a reunion there! My kid was there, my summer kid was there, another kid in my summer class was there, the kid I worked with at lunch all year was there, etc. So fun. My kid saw me across the entire park, and I could hear her call my name as she ran to me. Eeeee! She's the most adorable thing in the world. Her mom says she's been asking about me. I feel so loved. <.g> They want me to babysit her and hang out with her, but were afraid if we did so, I couldn't be her aide next year. Mom told her we wouldn't tell if they didn't. <.g> So they may be calling soon. That will be nice. I do miss her a lot. I have a picture up on my closet, next to Joey. <.g> It's with the Christmas tree picture she drew me.

Just watched Bridget Jones on TBS. Oh, how I love Colin Firth and Mr. Darcy. He loves her. Just as she is! I'm such a sap. It gets me every time. The best scene is totally in the kitchen, cooking together. It's just wonderful and romantic and funny and sweet, and damn it, I want that. LOL

Also watched Field of Dreams on ABC. This may be one of my top five movies. It gives me great joy. And as much as I love and adore Jimmy Stewart, I cannot picture him as Archie Graham. It was meant to be Burt Lancaster, always and forever.

Also! Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea were on today!!! It was a fantastic movie day for me (I even also saw a play! So I'm totally good). I also decided that it was past time I pledge money to PBS, since I watch it so often and Anne every time it's on. So I did, and my copy of AoA on DVD is winging its way to its new home. Now I'll have both on DVD! I entered to win a trip for two to PEI, but sadly did not win in that drawing. I so wanted to go with Karey in August, but work's going to put the kibosh on that. : ( One of these days, man. I WILL get there.

Posted by Rina at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I forgot to post my Prisoner of Azkaban review!! Lordy, I loved the movie. It was great. I had a smile on my face for so long at the beginnging. But, with that in mind, I feel that they majorly fucked up several key points.

Things I disliked:

*Draco. Who the hell was that character? That did not in any way resemble canon Draco. canon!Draco does not lose his cool and slither away like a coward. He storms off like a twit. There is a huge difference, and I actively disliked what they did. This is not a villain/enemy worthy of Harry. This is a teen version of Peter Pettigrew. That is not right.

*Lupin yelled at Harry for endangering himself by having this map that Sirius could use to find him. HELLO?!?! Harry never told him that it was a map! It takes a special incantation to make it work - Snape couldn't make it reveal itself. WHY did Harry accept without question that Lupin knew what Snape did not and that Sirius would as well? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

*Lupin never told Harry that he was Moony, and Sirius was Padfoot, and James was Prongs.

*Relatedly, it was never mentioned that Harry's patronum was a stag BECAUSE OF JAMES! In fact, it was never really a stag. One brief shot of it in the first go around, and nothing in the second. That's James' way of being with his son, of protecting him, of working with him! Awful, bad bad.

*The boggart lesson. Lupin's moon was not supposed to be obvious - it was a glowing orb to add mystery. Clouds give it away, dimwits. Also, Lupin was afraid that Harry's would turn into VOldemort....after it had turned into a dementor? And why was Draco in the class - for that one stupid line? Waste of space!

*I don't like Steve Kloves' habit of giving Hermione other character's good lines. Like she stole Ron's line about killing them before Harry. It was better this time than in the other movies, but that's a key loyal-friend Ron line. It belongs to Ron.

*Lupin's werewolf wasn't so great. In my head, I was comparing it to Buffy's werewolves (which I never fully liked, either) and it came up short. It was too fake. Not impressed. They had a bigger budget than Buffy; they should have surpassed the quality.

*The ending. Wow with the sudden. Where was Dumbledore? Where was explaining the prophecy? This was fine as a standalone, but there are more to come that it needs to connect to.

I really think that those were key points that should have been addressed. I liked the cute additions of the boys playing in the dorm and Ron sleep talking, but I would have preferred extra lines to help the above plot points.

What I liked:
*True love in a SHACK! Dude, Lupin and Sirius are so in love, I couldn't believe how text that was. An old married couple, indeed. Snape knows it all.

*All the main ships were accounted for - Hermione couldn't keep her hands off Ron, Harry couldn't keep his hands off Hermione, and Ron and Harry have a very easy, loving relationship. Especially when Ron wakes up in the middle of the night. <.g> My heart belongs to R/H, but Emma/Dan make a striking couple.

*The castle grounds were gorgeous and I loved all the outdoor shots. Beautiful.

*Pretty much the entire movie beyond my above dislikes.

*Dan Radcliffe. Holy crap, he's hot. I'm going to hell. He was in pajamas. He was cute. He's not Ron, but damn am I headed to hell. Wow. Really. Wow.

This was, I think, the closest to what I wanted the movies to be. The first two were lacking, this one did it. Except there were glaring things omitted that shouldn't have been, given what they DID keep.

I'm glad I went to see the midnight showing. I loved it. I loved going with my mom. We had a fun time, and it was a great movie. And if someone could help me with the points I dislike, explaining them to me, it would make watching the IMAX version a lot easier to take. LOL

Posted by Rina at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Add this to my list of brilliant moves: I was pushing the CPU back into place, and it slid over some wires faster than I expected. I ended up jamming my finger between the CPU and the wooden partition thing. So I have this lovely bruise under my nail, a jammed joint, and a finger splint. It hurt SO bad. Much better now. But the splint is driving me MAD! I keep turning on the caps lock without knowing it.

i GET CABLE (damn caps!) internet on Friday. WHOOOOO! I'm super excited. I've missed it so badly this year. But that also means I need to say goodbye to AOL after about 9 years. Wow. A lot of people complain about AOL, but I was never less than satisfied. I'm going to miss it. I have a lot of stuff to transfer! Oh, shoot, I forgot about my WENN mail. Will need another new s-d address for that, likely, to organize. I'm so dorky about organizing. LOL Maybe I can take this time to clear out some of my old yahoogroups.

We're also getting digital cable. I get Oxygen again!!!! I've missed Xena and Isaac Mizrahi and Sue. PLus I'll get Turner Classic Movies!! Good old movies!! And the Food Network!! My excitement knows no bounds.

I still can't believe the school year is over. I'm going to miss my girl something fierce. I told her mom I'd like work with her again next year, and I would, but it's up to the coordinator and I don't think she'll reassign me. :( But that's okay, I like new challenges, too. And I think I'll be my girl's babysitter, which will be fun.

I was supposed to write a story tonight, and I'm not feeling it. Too laborious to type. After i cleaned out my entire desk looking for the 3 pages already written. LOL It was only due yesterday. Maybe I can do it tomorrow. LOL (Excuse Queen of the World, that's me.)

Posted by Rina at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

3 hours and 6 minutes until PoA!!! Mom and I got midnight tickets for the new HP movie. Tres exciting.

The wedding was really quite lovely. Hopefully I can do a better recap, later, but anyway, Rachel is my cousin who's related to Tamara Braun - Carly. So Tam was there all weekend. She's so sweet! And so amazingly skinny. LOL Wow. But she was a lot of fun, chatty and bubbly and nice. We met up with her on Saturday night, and she bought me a drink, and then she was there helping us all get ready on Sunday for the wedding. She was supposed to do everyone's makeup, but Rachel was having a lot of nerves and jitters and problems, so that took up pretty much all of Tam's time. But Rachel looked absolutely gorgeous in the end, and didn't faint during the ceremony (we were all nervous <.g>), so we're calling it a rousing success. <.g> I didn't get any pictures with her (unless we're in some candids together, which is possible), but mom and Josh did. Sadly, dad didn't use a flash, so I'm still playing with the image.

Oh, and I also got hit on by her (extremely drunk) brother Eric. He seems like a nice guy, though. Told me that he and Tam had watched GH together when they were kids - it was the one show they never missed, because of Luke and Laura. Also heard a great deal on his theories of spiritual growth and the jewelry business. <.g>

Today was the last day of school. I'm so sad! I'm going to miss my wee little kidlets. They were so good, all of them, and I just loved them. I have off tomorrow, and then summer school starts on Monday. It's going to be a good job, I think. Monday-Thursday, 8:30-noon, 5 weeks, and I'm working with a darling little boy I've known for years. Sweet little kid.

I'm currently leaning towards becoming a librarian. I don't know, though. Need to plan.

3 hours and 3 minutes until Ron and Hermione!!! <.g>

Posted by Rina at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)