The General Specific

Stuff you should probably check out (because I have recently, and you know you want to be like me):

• Band of Horses new CD, Cease to Begin. Fantastic. I particularly like "No One's Gonna Love You" (not depressing, but it sounds like it's going to be, yes?" and "Islands on the Coast."
  
• Ian McEwan's Atonement, which I just finished. The whole book is worth it for the effect of the last page. It was so good, and I actually got my blog's new name from it! McEwan is a lot of fun to read(I have to admit, though it may ruin my credibility, that I enjoyed imagining Robbie as James McAvoy, since he's playing him in the movie. But that doesn't mean I didn't recognize the actual merits in the book - it's kind of like the way To Kill a Mockingbird got better when Atticus became Gregory Peck.)
  
• Enchanted. Adorable, made fun of Disney without really making fun of the good things about it, had two very attractive men. (I'm sorry Jennie, but I think James Marsden is great, and he was hysterical in this one.)
• Let It Snow, Baby, Let It Reindeer - Relient K's new Christmas CD. This is why: "What's a partridge? What's a pear tree? I don't know, so please don't ask me - but I can bet those are terrible gifts to give." Also, the Narnia reference that is track 9.

Things you shouldn't check out:

• Next, starring Nicolas Cage. Sorry friends, but there's a reason you didn't hear about this movie when it came out earlier this year. Just don't even bother.
  

So we have a CD, a book, a movie, and a Christmas CD, plus I steered you away from a waste of time - I think we've covered our bases for today. Yes? Good? On we go.

It May Come to Fisticuffs

I miss Lindsey.
It was so much fun having her here - amazing how easy it is to slide into the places where you used to fit. We did the usual stuff - staying up until ridiculous things taking silly pictures of ourselves, NAPC, dollar movies, giant journaling - and it was so nice having her back with us where she belongs.



Truly, I must visit her soon.

I thought I would have more to say about this, but Lindsey knows I love her and will miss her hilarity exceedingly. :)

There are lots of other things I want to write about right now, but that will have to wait until I figure myself out.

No words.

Rob Toft sent me this today and it kind of made me laugh, so I'm sharing.

Fostering Corruption? Or . . . BRILLIANCE?

Funny words to hear a two-year old say (and also why I'm the best nanny ever):

• sifter
• ridiculous
• fabulous
• angst (Context on this one: Ethan was writing with his mom's pink pen and it was WAY INTENSE - since he'd been kind of a bum all day I said, "You've got some serious angst, buddy boy!" He repeated, "Angst, buddy boy! Angst, buddy boy!" Be very careful what you say.)
• shakin' and bakin' - I was teaching Ethan a game I like to call "Working at Wendy's" (yeah, I'm giving him some really high aspirations) because there's a little place in the playground that looks like a drive up window. We turned the playground bark into chicken nuggets and French fries, and then I asked what he was doing, and followed up with, "Are you working at Wendy's? Shakin' and bakin'?" Yeah, he's still saying that one.
• Mr. Fluffernutter (see Skippyjon Jones)

So yeah. If you just go on vocabulary, I'm going to be a great mom.

My Life is Sad, but I am Proud

Last night I played movie trivia games with my family.

I am happy to say that I have finally grown into my Winegar genes.

Final score when the last three Winegars called it quits: Ty: 52, Meg: 45, Treb: 35.

That's right. I only lost to Ty by 7. And if you know Ty, you know this is an achievement, since every other word out of his mouth is a pop culture reference. As for beating my genius brother Treb by 10, all I can say is before I lost my groove when Mom went to bed I was beating him by 15. :)

My wasted youth of Gregory Peck and Jimmy Stewart movies has paid off at last - truly, I am the classic movie authority in the family.

Huzzah.

I have dual citizenship in the United States and Florida

Christopher Walken is a rock star even though I don't know how that works in this universe. And I just learned how to post videos to my blog. Enjoy these gems if you haven't already - Christopher Walken dancing to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" and the SNL census sketch. Amazing.

I Guess I'll Always Be This Way

I have a habit of jotting down things that my professors say that make me laugh, and I thought I'd share the following related comments from two different classes.
First, from my Contemporary American Lit class, my New Zealand-born professor's commentary on the film adaptation of All the Pretty Horses:
"Oh, so you watched Matt Damon running around on a horse, did you? He looks quite good on a horse. I'd watch him on a horse again."
Thank you Dr. Cronin. Never mind the merits of the movie. As long as Matt Damon is a good looking John Grady Cole, I am so there.Next, from Dr. Lundquist in my Literature and Film class, where we are discussing the romance or non-romance of Pride and Prejudice and watching several film adaptations:
"Okay, now we're going to watch this bit from the A&E version, and then we're going to see as much as we can of episode four. Episode four is my favorite . . . it's the plunging in the pond one. All the women know what I mean." (She said this quite dramatically in a very swoony voice.)
So I feel pretty good about being the way I am about certain movies, books, etc. If my 60-year old professors can stand in front of mixed classrooms with their doctorates and still say things like that in the middle of intellectual conversations about the writing style or filming techniques . . . well, all I can say is mmmmm....

Leap of Faith

Things I learned from CLAS Ropes yesterday:

• If someone named Cedric checks your harness, you'll be okay.
• It's harder to pull someone up than you might think.
• No matter how much your friends support and encourage you, ultimately you have to make the jump yourself.
• If you don't give up after a fall, you might be able to pull yourself back up.
• The leap is not as far as it looks, but you still might miss. Which is okay, because something or someone will catch you . . . eventually.
  

We Are Sure We're Not Pretender

We may be the coolest people I know.
Ever since we saw the amazing "Worst Music Video Ever" on YouTube, we've been dying to remake it, so this week it was our last chance and we decided to get it ready for our talent/untalent show. (Ours was the latter.) Two rehearsals and a trip to the DI later, we were ready, but at the last minute our Danny, Jayson Gifford, threw his back out playing volleyball. Luckily, Todd owed me a favor. (I don't know why, but I pretty much figure he always does.) He fit into Jayson's ridiculous striped pants and unbuttoned his shirt a little more than he wanted to and we were in business.
Check out our performance here.
Also, if you've never seen the real thing, you probably should. In fact, do that first or our video won't be fun. Either look up "Worst Music Video Ever" or "I Want to Love You Tender" or click here.

This just in. Doug made an amazing edit that goes back and forth between our performance and the real one. It's one Google Video, but it isn't public, so take this link. Doug, thank you for being amazing.