Category: Movies

Every day I’m shufflin’

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I wish Facebook had a feature where you could unsubscribe from follow-up comments other people make on a status update that you commented on unless it’s the person who made the original update. I hate getting updates on crap that doesn’t matter to me. It’s the reason why I don’t comment as much on people’s updates as I otherwise would, especially if they are one of my more “popular” friends who tend to get 20 comments on one update.

Anyway, here’s what’s been going on around these parts since I’m a sucky blogger.

Home

Our garage door started acting funny a week or so ago where it would start to close and then halfway down it would go back up. It was doing it here and there before then but it got to the point where nothing would make it go down all the way. Joe had to open and close it manually to get our cars in at night and out in the morning which sucked since it’s been getting colder around here. Also yours truly didn’t have a nice warm car to get into when I left for work. But hey, at least I didn’t have to mess with the garage door! Joe figured out what was wrong – the plastic (yes, plastic) gear was shredded, so Sunday we went to the Sears parts store. $40 and an hour of Joe’s time later and it’s all fixed. That was our excitement for the week.

Movies

Hmm… what else? We saw Puss in Boots with Joe’s daughter last time she visited (his son couldn’t make it) and I thought it was a pretty good movie which was lucky since I had no idea what it was even about going in. I want to see The Muppets even though I’m not a muppet fan, because I like Jason Segal. Remember the Muppet Babies? I did watch that as a kid but I never liked the regular muppets. Rowlf was my favorite, but I hated Miss Piggy and always will. Someone needs to turn her into a BLT already. Oh, and we saw a 3D movie for the first time in years – A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. It was legend-… wait for it… -dary. So much better than their second movie. Possibly even better than the original.

Kids

I don’t think I wrote about the fact that we got K’s iPod Touch replaced by Apple for $150. They let us purchase a refurbished one. We took the money from K’s account since she broke it, though. Sucked to have to do that, but better than buying her a brand new one. She also broke her Kindle. Well, we aren’t sure if she broke it or if it had something wrong with it, but either way Amazon replaced it at no charge which was good. So when she was over last time it was like Christmas for her getting a new iPod Touch and Kindle.

Speaking of Christmas, I’m glad that the kids are older because instead of buying a ton of little things I only have to buy one or two things which means less time dealing with the crazy shoppers. This year we’re getting E a Kindle Fire (he already knows since he asked for it) and I don’t want to mention what we’re getting for K in case she knows about this site but I think she will find it very useful.

Holidays

We’re both off work Thursday-Monday so it will be a nice extended holiday weekend. I love Thanksgiving! What’s not to love about being encouraged to stuff one’s face? Hopefully all the exercising I’ve been doing lately will lessen the weight gain.

I have no plans on shopping on Black Friday, and didn’t want to go outside at all that day but I have to get a cat scan in the morning and then pick up the kids in the afternoon. I’m staying away from all the stores though!

I don’t even know what I want for Christmas. Nothing, really. I would like an iPad, but not the one that’s out now. I can’t justify spending $500 (and let’s face it, even if it’s a “gift” from Joe it’s all the same moolah) on a device that has a lower quality screen than my phone. Plus if I had it my way I’d prefer a 7″ tablet. Maybe next year they will introduce an iPad 3 mini. I’d be all over that.

I do like opening presents, but I’m so not into buying stuff just for the sake of it. I keep trying to get rid of stuff either by donating to Goodwill or selling on Craigslist and Facebook. I recently sold Dance Dance Revolution 2 to someone I used to work with. Joe got it for me because I asked for it but I ended up hating the game because I have no rhythm; plus the stupid dance pad took up too much space. I’m glad to see it gone. Another thing I need to get rid of already are the Disney souvenirs I bought for my coworkers on my honeymoon six years ago. I’m sure I wrote about this before but I was so pissed when I came back from my honeymoon to learn that essentially nothing was done the entire two weeks I was gone that I never handed them out. They’ve spent the last six years in a hall closet and I get angry all over again whenever I see them so it’s time to let it, and them, go already. I’m going to ask my mom if she wants to wrap them up for our annual game of Crazy Bingo this year. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I often have a hard time parting with things I’ve spent money on but I’ve come to realize it’s silly to hang onto things you’re never going to use just because you feel like you wasted your money. It’s wasted either way, so you might as well get rid of it and clear some space in your house. It’s been getting easier letting go of stuff once I see how less cluttered the closet looks without it around.

Anyway, I don’t know whether Joe and I will be exchanging gifts this year. He’s a pain to buy for and I can’t think of anything I really want, so we might go small this year. Maybe I’ll have him get me a few CDs or something.

Music

Speaking of music, in case anyone cares, these are the top five songs I’ve been playing lately. Feel free to share yours in the comments. I love discovering new music.

You Make Me Feel – Cobra Starship
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
Hello – Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette
Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People

Movies & Golf

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Miniature Golf

Saturday we took the kids to see Cars 2 and Sunday we went back to the theater to see Bad Teacher. Both movies were good. After the movie Sunday we cashed in a Groupon and played miniature golf by the Fox River, then had tacos for lunch.

The End.

Ohio & Kentucky Mini-Vacation

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We spent a few days out East earlier this week.

Sunday we drove to Columbus, Ohio, arriving around 3:30 pm at the most beautiful hotel we’ve ever had the pleasure of staying in – a Cambria Suites. Seriously, this place was swank without breaking the bank. After taking pics of the place and settling in, we drove over to the nearby mall to check out our dining options. We finally settled on a restaurant just outside the mall. The food was average but the dessert we shared, something they call Pazookie, was delicious. It’s described as a “freshly baked, hot out of the oven, rich and delicious cookie topped with two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream and served in its own deep dish.” Mmm, mmm, it was very good; the combination of the hot cookie with the cold ice cream was devine.

After our relatively early dinner we decided to hit the local movie theater to see MacGruber. The movie was about as dumb as we expected, but entertaining. I couldn’t stop laughing at the love-making scene; I was nearly crying! After the movie we went back to the hotel and relaxed in the hot tub for awhile before turning in for the night.

Monday we were up early to get donuts for breakfast, then made our way to Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, home of the famous Jack Hanna who is known for bringing animals on Letterman’s Late Night show. The zoo grounds are beautiful and the zoo is laid out nicely, but I found the exhibits often prevented any decent photography. Obviously the number one priority is to contain the wild animals, but I wish they’d use anti-reflective coating on the glass and wipe off the fingerprints once in awhile. I couldn’t get a decent photo of any of the manatees they have at the zoo, or the cool sea turtle that was in the tank with them. :(

Polar Bear Sleeping

The zoo has an interesting collection of animals, including a very nice Lorikeet Garden which I enjoyed, but I thought it was weird that they don’t have any zebras or giraffes. We tried our best to take our time and not rush through the zoo as we unintentionally tend to do, but even wasting time by riding their train and visiting a few sections twice didn’t stop us from being done by 12:30.

We consulted Yelp and found a cute burger joint for lunch and then drove around a bit. We ended up at a dumpy little amusement place to play some miniature golf and skee-ball before deciding to order pizza for dinner and taking it back to the hotel to munch on while watching the season finales of How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, and The Big Bang Theory (thank goodness for the nice LCD TV in our room and the digital stations).

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Extended Weekend & Milwaukee

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I love extended weekends. The only thing that sucks about them is that they never last, and mine is now nearing its end. It was fun while it lasted, though!

Friday we prepared to spend the day inside waiting for FedEx to deliver my new computer. Imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang at 9 am! I’ve never jumped out of bed so quickly before. Completely unnecessary, however, since Joe was downstairs and answered the door. We unpacked the computer to let it reach room temperature before plugging it in and jumped in the shower. Then we went out to run some errands, including checking out a Chinese restaurant on my Yelp bookmarked list and getting some Xbox stuff from that horrible, horrible store called Fry’s. Read my review if you want to know why I can’t stand that place and don’t plan on shopping there again.

Saturday we saw a matinee of Hot Tub Time Machine which I new wasn’t going to be great, but was actually better than I was expecting. Afterward we did some grocery shopping at Meijer and then came home to clean the house, do laundry, and set up my new computer.

Jellyfish

Sunday we were up early to drive to Milwaukee. First we visited the Discovery World Museum on Lake Michigan. It’s actually a pretty small museum and not at all worth the $17 admission. The only part I even liked was the small aquarium. If not for the very cool jellyfish pictures I got it would have been a total waste. After that I was determined to do something to redeem the fact that we just spent almost two hours driving to walk around a museum for an hour. So off we went to the Mitchell Park Conservatory, otherwise known as The Domes. It’s nothing compared to the size of the Garfield Park Conservatory, yet they charge admission. Luckily it’s not too unreasonable at $6.50 per person. We burned through that place in less than an hour, though, and tried to find something else to do but nothing was panning out. We were thinking about touring the Miller Brewery but they aren’t open to the public on Sundays. Thoughts of food started to take over, but we couldn’t decide on a place to try nearby, so we got back on the expressway toward home figuring we’d stop somewhere on the way. We ended up at Texas Roadhouse in Kenosha. It was good too! I couldn’t believe how crazy busy it was at 1:30 in the afternoon, though. Must be a Sunday thing.

Today we did our weekly Target shopping. After we dropped the food back off at home and had a quick breakfast, we went to the Visionworks in the mall prepared to return my glasses. We had both bought two pairs of glasses each approximately two weeks ago but I could not get used to mine at all. They seemed hazy to me, not to mention I didn’t like how one of the frames I had chosen were fitting. Joe hasn’t had any issues with his glasses, of course. I’m the picky one. When I explained my issue to the woman who helped us, who happened to be the manager, she knew right away why I was having difficulty – I hadn’t gotten the anti-reflective lenses. Apparently with my prescription it’s quite noticeable if the anti-reflective lenses aren’t chosen. She offered to redo the lenses with that added on. I was also able to pick out another frame to replace the pair I wasn’t liking too. So even though it’s going to cost me a bit more, I was able to swap my glasses with two pair that should prove to be much better. Thank goodness for their 30-day money back guarantee! I just hope my new glasses don’t give me any problems. I won’t know until next week since they only had one pair of lenses available and have to order the other. I can wait, though, if they end up being awesome.

Milwaukee Photos @ Perfect Pixels

Relaxing Weekend & St. Patrick’s Day

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This past weekend was pretty low-key. We saw a movie on Saturday, She’s Out of My League, which was actually better than either of us was expecting. We were planning on going to a hockey game (the Chicago Wolves) in the evening but felt too lazy to bother. Good thing we hadn’t pre-ordered the tickets.

Sunday we went to the Chicagoland Home & Energy Expo but it completely and totally sucked. It turned out to be a big room in a hotel full of tables where people were trying to sell services or products. I was hoping to get ideas on how to remodel our bathrooms upstairs but I felt like you do when you walk into a furniture store and all the sales people attack you. So we were in and out within five minutes. Thank goodness it was free!

We ended up at the IKEA nearby instead. This one is not our regular IKEA so it was interesting comparing the layout between the two. I prefer our IKEA actually, but we did come home with a few items, including some chocolate bars and cookies. Too bad they both suck!

We had lunch before driving back home and spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

And now it is Wednesday, my glorious work from home day! We’re going out for dinner with some friends to celebrate the holiday, which is really just an excuse to have a good time. Looking forward to a Reuben sandwich, though, since I hate the cabbage part of corned beef and cabbage. :)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day whether you’re Irish or not!