Michael and Jaspenelle

Random Pregnancy Observation

The distance between my fingers and my shoe laces is becoming harder and harder to bridge…

It is worth the stretch though, Michael and I are going to see Doomsday.
(My kind of movie.)

Weekend Recap and Valentines

Someone held a door open for me today and reminded me it was Random Acts of Kindness Week today. Which was very funny and cute.

This past weekend was fun, lots of kindness! We went to a discussion group at Shannon’s on Friday night and had a vegetarian potluck. I have never had miso soup before, or tofu that I considered edible for that matter… I love this group because we just talk with no set topic, which is really nice sometimes.

On Saturday night we went over to Andrea’s for a “Medieval” movie night. We watched “Robin Hood - Men in Tights” and “The Reduced Shakespeare Company” (which was a really great comedy theater piece of three men reducing all 37 of Shakespeare’s works into one hour.)

Sunday… we didn’t do much. It was very windy, parts of Spokane declared a state of emergency because of blowing snow drifts. I feel for anyone who lives in the West Plains… We are on the South Hill though and other then the wind, the roads are (finally) clear. We went grocery shopping. The overabundance of bad weather lately was evident at Safeway though. You know the weather has been bad for way to long when the grocery store starts running out of food…. It makes you appreciate local food so much more too. Safeway’s produce department (and quite a bit of the rest of the store) is filled with signs that says “Out of Stock Due to Weather”. I think all the mountain passes are open again today though, so we are no longer cut off from the world.

They did have strawberries though, ya! They were reasonably cheap too for Winter, because of Valentines day.

I know a lot of people don’t do Valentines day because of “rampant consumerism” or whatnot, but I am looking forward to it. I got Michael a little something and I am really looking forward to his reaction to it. I ordered it today though so it might not be here by Thursday though…

I think it is important to be in touch with your relationship and the needs of your spouse all year around, but I still like Valentines because it is a little reminder of that in the middle of the most depressing month ever, of the importance of love. (Okay, before someone says it, I know, technically January has more suicides then February worldwide but the people who found that out have obviously never been delayed in the subway in Paris in February because another person jumped in the tracks…) February 14th is also Singles Awareness Day isn’t it? So even a holiday for the party poopers pessimists…

The Golden Compass

What can I say about The Golden Compass (*cough* Northern Lights *cough*)? I loved it, simple as that. Well, I can never be that simple…

I have to say, I was really surprised that at 7pm the day after opening (a Saturday no less) the theater was only 1/2 full. Maybe those boycotts are actually making a dent. I really hope not though, I would like to see the remaining two books made into movies, not flop out of existance

The first 30 minutes of the world was mostly spent describing Lyra’s world and while this might seem pretty dull, they did it in an attractive and captivating way. I adored the actress who played Lyra (Dakota Richards,) she is totally convincing in the role and just how I imagined her character from the book. Even more goes to her credit because of her performance with her daemon, who was blue scened in. I couldn’t talk to a non-existent thing so realistically! (All the daemons were also amazingly done, total kudos to the computer geeks behind that, I thought they might clutter the scene but they seem to seamlessly integrate with their human counterparts.) Dust, the Magisterium, daemons, ice bears, witches, it is all there and all so well done!

I don’t feel the film makers downplayed the dogmatic aspects of the film too much. Yes, they did not emphasis the organized religion/Magisterium link as much as in the book but they still keep its spirit intact and visible. If I had to pick and any part of the movie, it would actually be the music. The grand music sequences seemed ill-fitting for the portions of the movie they were placed in. I also feel they could have made the film a little longer without turning it into a drawn-out bore, I would have liked to see a little more character development, as was in the books.

The movie seemed to skip the last chapter of the book, which is quite important. At first this really surprised me but reflecting on it, the ending is very much a second climax which would be better suited for the beginning of the second movie. It will be interesting to see how they choose to do that.

As a fan of the book, I was suitably impressed. I would see the movie again given the chance and I recommend it to anyone attracted the fantasy film genre.

Stuff

OMG the Golden Compass comes out Friday *le fan spazz!* I can’t wait! Hope it does the book justice, though I have heard that they downplay the book’s Gnostic themes. I feel they are not anti-religion but rather invite readers to think about their faith (which cannot possibly be a bad thing.)

Anyhow, fangirling aside, my lower back in killing me, totally throbbing pain, I don’t even want to move. So I blog instead, obviously. And I have a question for any of my French food connoisseurs blog readers:

When I was little and lived in France I ate this dish made with cheese and potatoes. The cheese is melted in this special little heating machine (that can sit on a table) on these little lipped spatulas and then poured over tiny potatoes and eaten. The cheese was pale yellow and quite softly and it tasted oh so good - I think it had lots of peppercorns too. So what is this food called?

Cuz I am so craving it now.

EDIT: Raclette, that is what it is called!

Into the Wild

On Thursday, after my ultrasound (which Michael will post about) we went and saw “Into the Wild”. It is a drama based on the 1996 non-fiction book by Jon Krakauer about the cross country trek of Christopher McCandless “Supertramp”.

Christopher abandons his possessions and gives his savings account to charity without the knowledge of his wealthy but loveless parents after her graduating university as a top student. He then hitchhikes for two years across North American, finally ending up to Alaska. This movie is a fascinating glimpse into the life of someone my own age but wise beyond his years.

“Into the Wild” stays quite true to the book and was made with the cooperation of Christopher’s family. I can see shades of all the characters reflected in myself and the people who have influenced my life’s path. The main message that resonated with me through the movie is that happiness is only real when shared, but to reach that point of enlightenment you must awaken and live in complete honesty with yourself.

I really loved the movie and really strongly recommend it.