Category: Movies

Weekend Recap: 4/29-5/02

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Friday we decided to see Keanu so we headed to the mall to catch the first showing of the day. We ran into friends of ours there so we briefly caught up and then made our way over to the theater. Besides us there was only four other people in the auditorium which was nice.

I’ve been excited about the movie ever since it was announced, so it pains me to say that while it was still more entertaining than many of the comedies I’ve seen, overall I was disappointed. I sincerely doubt it will garner multiple subsequent views. I remember turning to Joe halfway through and saying, “this isn’t nearly as funny as I thought it would be.” I expected more from Key & Peele – their sketches were always on point and they’re hilarious in interviews – and this movie failed to meet my expectations. The kitten in the movie was absolutely adorable, however!

Saturday and Sunday were lazy days since it was cold and rainy out. We literally didn’t leave the house two days in a row. I still worked out on the elliptical both days, though. I also read a book and watched two seasons of Burning Love on Hulu. Saturday morning I watched a live stream of Brother #2’s graduation at UIC Pavillion. It started at noon and didn’t end until 3:30 pm because it was multiple schools’ graduating classes in one big event. My other brother and I chatted online from our respective homes while watching the “action”.

It was good to get out this morning (Monday) even if it was only to grocery shop. We hit the produce market, Aldi, Walmart, and Costco with a stop at the library in between.

At home I attempted to replicate Starbucks’ shaken green ice tea with lemonade. At first I was disappointed with the results, but after some Googling to see how other people made theirs, I added some simple syrup and then it tasted almost identical to the official one. I’m so excited because it’s way cheaper to make my own. Right now I’m using the Teavana Jade Citrus Green Tea (which is what Starbucks uses) with Country Time lemonade. I brewed the tea extra strength, poured it into a shaker, added ice and the powdered lemonade mix and shook it up. I will add the simple syrup to the shaker next time as well. I need to limit myself to only 1-2 glasses of it a week because of the calories. It’s so good, though!

Roller Skating Party

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The nice thing about Joe and I both having Mondays off is that we can go out on Sundays without stressing about the weekend almost being over.

Sunday we went to a private roller skating party in Lombard organized by one of our Meetup groups. We didn’t recognize anyone there except for one girl we met during our board game meetup, but there wasn’t much time for socializing anyway. What was so fantastic was that there were under 80 people in attendance which made skating so much easier because there were less people to navigate around.

It’s funny how quickly you can get back into the groove even if you haven’t skated for years (which I haven’t; it’s been 5 since we visited a rink). I was shaky at first but by the end of the evening I was able to do the cross-over with my skates when turning without tripping myself. Joe had a little more difficulty turning since he opted to bring his roller blades. Neither one of us fell, however, which is more than I can say for a lot of the attendees. But I have to hand it to the people who clearly were struggling because at least they came out and tried.

A 2-hour private rental (on Sundays at least) is only $400; they charged $10 per person and donated the amount above the rental fee to a charity. I ended up having to rent skates for $4 since when I pulled out my roller blades earlier that afternoon to clean and try them on I discovered the plastic clasps were broken. They are over 20 years old at this point, but that stinks because I’d like to get back into blading when it gets warmer since it’s such good exercise and but doesn’t feel like it.

Speaking of exercise, there was a poster at the rink stating that an hour of roller skating burns 600 calories which is impressive, if it were true. But my weight loss app and a few other calculators online peg it closer to 350-400. Not that I’m complaining. I’d say we skated for about an hour and fifteen minutes total – we got there just after 4 when it started, took a few short breaks here and there, and left five minutes before 6 pm.

There was a disco theme to the gathering so some people were dressed up and they played mostly disco music, although I did get to hear Material Girl which was awesome (and P.Y.T. during the ladies only skate). I could not stop myself from singing along with Material Girl as I skated because I was getting some kind of endorphin high. I do NOT normally sing in public but I didn’t care; there’s something about skating that just feels so good as you glide along.

That being said, I did have to take small breaks since I was getting pain in my left leg, probably because I was exercising muscles I don’t use very often. I was smart, though, and wore a thicker pair of socks so I wouldn’t get any blisters, plus I used my shoe inserts in the skates to help with my arches. As a result I’m a lot less sore today than I might otherwise have been.

There was talk about possibly having the roller skating parties monthly which would be awesome. I don’t mind spending $25 a month for a good time and to burn a bunch of calories.

After the event we had a small dinner, popped some popcorn, and watched Daddy’s Home which was free thanks to a Redbox code. That movie did not look very promising based on the previews so we were both delightfully surprised by how entertaining it was. I think the ratings online don’t do it justice.

Celebrating E’s Birthday

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I can’t believe E will be 18 next week! I met the kid when he was two years old. Yikes, that makes me feel old! Since he’s getting older he hasn’t been coming over every other weekend like in the past, which we totally get, so it was nice to see him this weekend. It’s so weird that he drives himself over too. Nice, though! As is our tradition, the birthday boy got to choose his meals this weekend, so I ended up making cheeseburger macaroni (homemade, not Hamburger Helper – blech) for dinner Friday night and my homemade meatloaf for dinner Saturday night. I also baked brownies since E prefers them over cake.

Friday we watched Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. We had $50 of credit in our Fandango Now account (formerly known as M-GO) so I purchased it. With a $3 offer, it cost $17 which is expensive if you ask me. But that credit had been sitting there untouched since we purchased our TV last summer so why not? I was surprised it wasn’t available in 4K, though. Bummer. Also, the free bonus content that came with it is only accessible on the website so you can’t stream it on the TV through the app. That’s just dumb if you ask me. I don’t care to sit in front of my computer to watch anything longer than a short YouTube video.

Before E went to bed we gave him his birthday gifts which we put in a Star Wars reusable bag we had gotten at the dollar store – a Starburst blueberry candle (since he was looking for that scent since our trip with him to IKEA recently), a BB-8 ceramic bank (since he loves BB-8 and really liked the Pokemon ceramic bank we got him for Christmas), and $40 since we ran out of ideas and he loves money anyway.

Saturday we decided to go to the movies and see Zootopia. I like the theater in the mall by us because matinee tickets are only $4.25. The seats in the theater themselves leave something to be desired, but it’s cheaper than going out to the other theater we used to frequent since it’s further away and the tickets are $5.50. We all really enjoyed the movie, and I swear I wanted to see every single movie in the preceding trailers. I think I like kid films a little too much.

After the movie we headed over to Bath & Body Works so I could grab a free travel size lotion with a coupon I had. In the past I would have felt embarrassed to walk in and only check out with my free item but I really don’t care. It smells really good too!

Lotion

E bought some stuff at Hot Topic and FYE with his $40 so that didn’t last long. ;)

After shopping we had lunch at Red Robin since I knew it wouldn’t cost us anything out of pocket. They emailed me that morning with a free birthday burger coupon for E, and there was a 16% discount code on my rewards card. On top of that I logged into Discover and purchased a $50 e-certificate. E didn’t end up wanting a burger (he got a chicken sandwich), though, so technically we used the coupon on my burger. I got the regular cheeseburger instead of my usual (the Banzai burger) which I shouldn’t have done because it’s not nearly as good. Joe ended up having a salad which really wasn’t worth the price ($5 for a very small plate of lettuce and a few veggies). That being said, only $18.51 was taken off the card (and that includes tip) for three people. Gotta love that!

Deadpool

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Saturday Joe had to work. He went in at 4 am and he didn’t get home until midnight. Yep, he worked nearly 20 hours straight!

Needless to say, we didn’t end up going to the Chicago Auto Show on Sunday as we had originally planned. Instead we slept in, stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast, and went to a matinee showing of Deadpool which was awesome! From the beginning of the credits all the way through the two after-credits scenes we were laughing. I give it 4.5 stars. Ryan Reynolds is perfect for the character. I’ve always liked him, but even more so after the Ryanville commercial during the Superbowl and seeing him as Deadpool.

Deadpool

We also wanted to see Zoolander 2 when it was first announced, but the more we saw trailers for it, the less enthused we felt about it. None of the trailer scenes were really funny, so could you imagine how terrible the movie must be? Trailers usually have the best scenes! I do want to see it eventually, but I think we’ll just wait for the DVD release.

We stopped at Chipotle for a free lunch courtesy of the free entree promotion they were running earlier in the week when they shut down all the restaurants for two hours to go over food safety. I joked with Joe that if for some reason we contracted food poisoning at least I’d lose some weight.

So that was our romantic Valentine’s Day. We had already agreed weeks ago not to exchange gifts or do anything special this year. The holiday kinda sneaked up on me anyway and I didn’t even bother putting up my VD decor since by the time I had the opportunity to do so it was the day before. At that point why even bother?

Krampus Mattress

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Last weekend Joe had to work Saturday but got home shortly after E’s mom dropped him off at the house. Joe wanted to see a movie so we took our chances and braved the mall on a Saturday afternoon (the movie was at 2:15 pm). At first it wasn’t crowded at all but slowly the theater filled up. We didn’t have anyone right next to or in front of us, though, which was nice. However, there were a group of teenager girls all the way down our row to my left who would not sit still for a second. They were changing seats, talking, and looking at their phones the entire hour and a half. Is this what the world has come to – people lacking anything resembling an attention span? Seriously, why pay to see a movie if you’re not even going to watch it? Not to mention how rude it is to look at your bright phone screen in a dark theater. Ugh! It’s getting harder and harder to enjoy time out in public when it seems as if at least 50% of the people we come across are rude as all hell. I almost wish I were just as rude because then maybe it wouldn’t bother me. But I’m cursed with this sense of consideration for others. Damn me!

Anyway, the movie itself, Krampus, was ok. Not nearly as scary as they tried to make it look in the previews. It also started off slow. I think it was half over before anything even happened. E and I enjoyed joking about the movie title, though. I have a krampus just thinking about it. ;)

Sunday we bought one of those egg crate looking mattress toppers to add to the memory foam topper already on our brand new mattress. My worst fear has come true – I hate the new mattress and feel we overpaid for what we got. It’s too firm and uncomfortable. Lesson learned – we need a pillowtop. Everything I’ve read says a firm mattress offers more support but all I have is a backache and wake up at least once every night, although that hasn’t happened since adding the second mattress topper. So ridiculous, though, to spend $1500 on a mattress and another $17 for a shitty Walmart topper for it to be comfortable (the memory foam topper we purchased from Amazon last year cost approx $120). Hopefully the inflated price tag of the new mattress will at least ensure a stable frame for the next decade or so. Otherwise I’m buying a $200 mattress every two years and calling it a day. I’d return our mattress if we could but that ship has sailed. We had 30 days and would have had to exchange it for something the same price or higher AND pay a $140 fee for the “privilege”. Ugh! I should have went with my gut and ordered a Casper mattress online. At least they offer a 90 day trial and 100% money back guarantee. Expensive lesson learned. And this, folks, is why I HATE shopping for a mattress.

Wednesday Joe’s car battery died and he was temporarily stranded at the gas station near his work until one of his coworkers came to rescue him. The battery was so dead that even a jump couldn’t get it started. He bought a new battery at Walmart and that solved the issue. His car is eight years old and the battery had never been replaced so we really can’t complain. It was just crappy timing. I’m just glad it was only the battery and not the starter. We were also still able to make it to E’s concert later that evening. It was a combined one with the various school bands and chorus, choir, whatever they call it where they played a lot of holiday songs. One of the songs, performed by an all-male group, included “serenading” a female teacher including getting on their knees in front of her with flowers in their mouths. Personally, I found it appalling. Half the place is laughing and cheering and I’m just sitting there thinking this is wildly inappropriate. I’m not a prude by any means but the whole thing made me extremely uncomfortable.