And the Oscar goes to.....

This year unlike last we managed to see all of the films nominated for Best Picture. We have each ranked our favorites. Our top choice is not necessarily who we think will win but who we would choose to win.

Paul's Picks

The Social Network

True Grit

Kings Speech

127 Hours

Inception

Black Swan

The Fighter

Toy Story 3

The Kids Are All Right

Winters Bone

Cyndi's Picks

The Social Network

Kings Speech

127 Hours

Inception

Toy Story 3

True Grit

The Fighter

Black Swan

Winters Bone

The Kids Are All Right



Who we think will be crowned at the Oscars

Best Picture - Kings Speech

Actor - Colin Firth

Supporting Actor - Christian Bale

Actress - Natalie Portman

Supporting Actress - Hailee Steinfeld

Day in LA and the OC

A week ago Monday I enjoyed a day out with Morgan. First stop was a taping of the Dr. Phil show up in LA. We had some time to waste so we goofed around on the roof of the parking structure taking photos.

After the taping it was back to the apartment to hang out (take a nap). Then over to The Block for dinner and a movie. We enjoyed both our selections at Dave & Busters. I had the Chicken Parm Sandwich, a new choice for me and it was delicious with some sweet potato on the side. I did take half home for lunch the following day. Of course our movie of choice had to be an Adam Sandler flick. Sadly it was then time to take Morgan back to her place as she had to work the following day.

Burrr, it's cold out here!

Just this past Tuesday we attended what will probably be the last
Movie On The Fox!

For those of you in the dark the Fox Fullerton puts on a movie every month and asks for donations to go towards restoring the historic theatre. Well the Fox will begin restoration this coming year which is both good and bad news. Good that it will be restored, bad because I will miss sitting out in the parking lot with friends under a blanket and sipping coffee while watching a flick.

Those putting on the show sell raffle tickets before the show. Many of us purchased a few raffle tickets each. We came out winners! Disney memorabilia for Emily and us, a blue-ray player for Jeri.

Something I was not thankful for on Thanksgiving....

On Thanksgiving I ended up having to work. I was supposed to have the day off, but a co-worker had twins on Monday so he's out for a little while. I figured if I worked his early shift I would be able to use the extra money to balance out my furlough day and still have time to make it to Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. My boss said he'd even leave money to take the boys to a movie.

They couldn't agree on anything (as usual) so we took a vote. The dominant voice who showed up to vote rallied everyone to vote for New Moon because it looked cool with werewolves and vampires battling. By the time we got to the theatre and the boys saw the movie poster, some of them started having buyers remorse. We didn't want to have a big arguement at the theatre, so we quickly got them inside and said to at least be happy they weren't stuck back on campus.

I went into New Moon expecting badness. I didn't realize just how bad it was going to be. I tried to type out something here to express all that is wrong with it, but I kept feeling like I was leaving something out. For the most acurate review I've been able to find, read this: New Moon: Review

Out of the 40 or so people in the theater, 8 walked out at various times during the first hour never to return. I wished I could join them. Many teens in there could be heard talking about how ridicuous the whole thing was throughout the movie. Seven of the boys hated it with only one saying it was "ok".

There were a few things that got the entire audience laughing: 1. A future vision of Bella and Edward running through the forest in all white dress clothes to show their love. 2. A scene where Bella crashes her bike and Jacob runs over to see if she's ok. He has to take off his shirt for some reason to provide first aid. Not that he uses the shirt for anything. 3. When the movie cut to black at the end. That got the most laughs from everyone and a lot of "what the hell was that?" questioning.

Bottom line: Bad script, worse acting, a disjointed feeling throughout, and a horrible example to the teen girls the movie is being targeted at. It's sad they're going to try and get 3 more movies out of this series.

Red Carpet Gallery

This year I have attended a handful of movie premieres. It was incredible to meet some of these amazing people. Here are the stars I had the opportunity to have a photo op with.

Jesse Metcalf, Allen Covert, Tom Green, Zach Levi Jon Heder, Ryan Reynolds, Sterling Knight
B.J. Novak, J.J. Abrams, Gerard Butler, Taylor Momsen
Briana Evigan, Joe Manganiello, Shane West, Bumblebee

Where have you bean?

May 30th - Amy and I had a girls afternoon and went to see Sex and the City

May 31st - Thanks to a security guard at work we were given free tickets to the Avengers Game. It was my first arena football game and quite a spectacle

June 1st - Jeri and I went to see a free screening of Alien Trespass

June 6th - Paul and I decided to go see a double feature tonight and took in Vegas and Zohan

June 7th - I woke up to the smell and sound of Paul cooking breakfast we had a lazy day of playing mario kart and reading

June 14th - Paul took an extra shift and went fishing with his boys. Then we met up at Spaghetti Factory for family dinner night to celebrate birthdays and Fathers Day

June 16th - I headed down to SD yesterday for church, shopping and a movie because I had a dentist and ortho appointment today

June 18th - I got to see three of my 8th graders Graduation this evening

June 19th - The 8th graders who graduated were able to go to Knotts today and I volunteered to be a chaperon I should have looked at the weather report first it was so dang hot but we still managed to have a great time

June 20th - Thankfully Paul had today off and was able to come help me clean out the classroom after which we decided to grab some lunch and go see a movie

June 22nd - It is still very hot in our apartment so I ran off to the movies for a triple feature of Panda, Guru and Hulk

Question...

Oscar night

I almost did it. Since I had to work during the Oscars, I was trying to make it through the night without seeing any of the winners. That way I could enjoy the show (commercial free!) when I got home. I did happen to overhear a couple of winners when people were talking about it on my way home. Every radio station I turned to had something to say, so I gave up and just put my ipod on. Luckily the two I heard were nothing big: Animated Feature and Art Direction. I'm going to try and get through it now before I fall asleep.

Psyched

Hello, hello....hola!

Today was U2 day. We got up and headed down to Irvine Spectrum for a noon showing of U2-3D on the Imax screen. The movie was shot during the South American portion of the Vertigo tour. On the radio on our way there, on the way back, and even walking around the Spectrum, we were treated to other U2 songs not shown in the movie too.

I was very impressed with how far the 3D technology has come. It was crystal clear and they had used every 3D camera available to make this movie so you got great shots from every angle. It was even better than being in the circle area up by the stage. This put you on and above the stage. Sadly, the movie was only an hour and a half, so they had to cut out a lot of the songs I would have liked to have seen from the show. At least they made the most of the songs they did use, such as using the 3D to give a Zoo-TV tour feel to "The Fly". It was also cool to see all the stuff Bono was doing on stage during the "Love and Peace"/"Sunday Bloody Sunday"/"Bullet the Blue Sky" war combo.

U2-3D is going to be expanding to wide release in a couple of weeks, but I think you really need the giant screen to do it justice. Just be careful if you go to the Spectrum. There was a huge crowd there lining up to see Hannah Montana 3D, and you know how vicious preteens can be if you get between them and Hannah.

Summer Blockbuster?

This afternoon Jeri and I braved the latest rain storm and headed to the block to catch a free preview of Kung Fu Panda, an animated movie due out this summer. It is still a work in progress but very entertaining. If you would like to view the trailer you can click here.

You sir! How 'bout a shave?

Yesterday, while Cyndi was off having fun at work, I made a supreme sacrifice and went to the movies without her. It was either going to be No Country for Old Men or Sweeney Todd. Since I ended up sleeping in a bit too late (don't judge me), my choice was made and I saw Sweeney.

I am always a bit reluctant to go into musicals, even ones made by my favorite director. I had the same problem when I first saw Phantom of the Opera and Chicago, but those turned out ok. This one did too. I got into the songs, and loved the story. There was even a twist that got me which doesn't usually happen, but is fun when it does. The way everyone had talked, I was actually expecting more blood and gore than there was. I'm sure this will be one I buy when it comes out on DVD.

GNO and BGG

Friday was a night out with the girls while all the men folk played poker. Moe, Debbie, Liz, Lisa, Jen, and myself headed out to CPK at Fashion Island for dinner. We enjoyed a great meal and a nice time gabbing.

Then it was over to the other side of the mall and into the movie theatre to catch P.S. I Love You. It was a cute and enjoyable movie. I have heard it makes people cry and tear up, I myself did not have that problem during the movie but I did when I was reading the book. There were quite a few differences between the movie and the book and the more I think about it the more I come up with. I wish that I had seen the movie first because I liked the movie but I loved the book. Anyways. The 6 of us had a very pleasnt evening together.

After the movie Moe and I said goodnight to everyone else and headed over to the Toy Boat to meet up with Morgan for dessert. The three of us decided on Cheesecake Factory. Our waiter was interesting to say the least and a bit TMI with his sharing of his life with us. Once we finished dessert we decided to take a "couple" photos.

What other shenanigans can I get into?

Tonight Jeri invited us to go see a preview for Juno which is coming out in December. Also along for the fun was Ruth, Brendo, Phil, and Janelle. As we walked in we were handed a card that asked us to join the JUNOVERSE and a T-shirt.

There were a lot of laughs during the movie. Sometimes so loud that it drowned out the dialogue so I may just have to go see it again. There were many quotable moments throughout the movie. We enjoyed our evening out it was good to have some food, laughs and a good time with friends.

Long Weekend part deux

Sunday I woke with a headache at 8am so I decided to go back to bed for awhile longer. After I woke up I grabbed some laundry and headed down to SD for the day. I took the madre grocery shopping. Folded some of her laundry and then we went to grab a bite to eat and out to the movies (Dan in Real Life). Then it was time to switch my laundry and do a couple chores around the house. I needed to go to Wal-mart so I took my moms car to run my errands and fill it up with gas. Mom and I hung out at the house a bit more and laughed at the silliness of Meeko. Finally it was time to head home again.

Meeko (aka Little Bit) will do anything for a treat. ANYTHING

My bonus day off was used to do what would have normally been done on Saturday and Sunday. I prepared lessons for the next week of school. I watched a little TV and played some games on the internet. I feel much more relaxed and rested after my three days off.

What's This?

Friday night was date night, which was much in need. We headed over to the Block to grab some dinner, walk around some of our favorite shops and take in a movie (Fred Claus). It was a nice evening out.

Saturday was my Day of Rest as I already told you. In the evening we went up to Hollywood. We walked around some of the shops, and people watched until the gang arrived (Jeric, Brendo, Amy and Ryan). Then we waited, and waited, and waited for a table at CPK worst Hostess ever. We finally got seated, had some good pizza and headed over to the El Capitan for The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D style.

C's trip day 4:

TK and I took our time this morning waking up and getting going since we went to bed so late. mid morning we headed out to Golden, CO and had lunch at Anthony's pizza and pasta which was yummy but had big portions. we walked back a couple blocks to Coors brewery where we took the tour and enjoyed some free beers.

before we went to Golden we had dropped Mom off at a scrapbook store so she could use the whole day to work on Dad's book. So once we were done at the brewery we headed over to the house to see what chores needed to be done and call Mom to see if she needed any help. Mom said there was some stuff at the house she needed, we took it over to her and ended up staying 5 hours helping her do some pages for the scrapbook.

after the scrapbook store closed TK and I grabbed some Wendy's and took Mom home. then surprise, surprise we headed out to the movies. :) this time we saw No Reservations. and then it was back to the hotel to hang out for a bit before bedtime.

C's trip day 3: Good Morning Baltimore

TK had to work for a few hours today so we got up and headed over to meet her mom at Starbucks, so that she could get to work and I could go to Costco with Mom since she doesn't have a membership. we picked up some items for the retirement party and headed back to the house.

once we were at the house we asked Dad if he thought a trip to the storage unit was doable since it was raining he said it should be fine so we picked up TK's truck from work and got some wood and things that needed to be dumped and a few items that needed to be added to the storage unit. Mom then decided to get some gas for the truck and a car wash. then we took the truck back to TK's work but had to park it in a different spot since there was a car in the original spot it was parked in.

it was time to head back to the house where i helped Mom move the furniture back into the living room since the carpets had been cleaned that day, we did a few other odds and ins around the house and then it was time for dinner with the family. we made up a plate and took it to TK at work, then Mom took me back to the hotel.

once TK got off work we headed out to the movies again one of our favorite past times. back when we were in H.S. we used to go to the movies all the time. we stayed up way to late talking.

C's Trip Day 2: Eye of the Tiger

woke up this morning about 9am. TK was getting ready for work as she had to go in for a couple hours. i got up and decided to get a work out in. i went down the hall and checked out the exercise room, it consists of a bike, treadmill and cross trainer. i used them each for 10 minutes. then i thought it is a nice day outside, why am i walking inside so i headed out for a jog/walk. i went about a mile from our hotel and found myself at a bookstore, so i looked around for a bit, then decided to get an air freshner because there is a weird smell in the room and finally found something for lunch, then headed back to the hotel to take a leisurely shower, use the Internet, read my book and watch Judge Hattchett (a favorite pasttime).

once TK got home from work we headed over to Hooters for dinner. Arlynda came over with the kids after they had dinner and while TK and R worked on some scrapbook pages for Dad's Navy book the kids hung out on the bed and watch some cartoons.

R and the kids then headed home and TK and I headed over to Boondocks, since it closed in an hour we decided not to mini golf and instead used the batting cages. it didn't take me long to get into the swing of things. and made me miss playing so much more, but we had a great time.

after the batting cages we found a theatre and caught a movie.

Where did he go? We'll find out in the Season 19 season premiere

Spider-Pig,
Spider-Pig,
Does whatever a Spider-Pig does.
Can he swing
From a web?
No, he can't
He's a pig
Lookout!
Here comes the Spider-Pig!