Flicks

We've never been huge movie watchers, but we see most of the "hit" stuff... once it's a rental, that is. We very rarely go to the theater. In fact, I think the last movie we saw at the theater was on 1/1/10 (it was Sherlock Holmes). So, yeah, it's been a while. I don't know--I guess we would rather curl up on our own couch under some blankets with glasses of wine or bottles of beer, with snacks readily available in our kitchen cupboards. That's just how we roll. And it also saves us mucho dinero, so {shrug} WIN-WIN.

A few years ago, we had Blockbuster Online for several months, but we came to realize that we normally didn't watch enough movies to make the subscription worth having, so we cancelled it. We have a Blockbuster within walking distance of our house, so it was never an issue. In the mood for a movie? We'd go pick one up. In the spring/summer/fall, when the weather was favorable, it was especially nice because we'd actually walk over there. We would even take Tessa with us, and the Blockbuster employees were always cool about us bringing her inside with us (we carried her, of course).

Back around Christmas time, I really wanted to watch Season 1 of Modern Family so I could catch up. Unfortunately, our local Blockbuster stores didn't carry it (why? I have no idea), but we discovered that if we signed up for a free trial of Netflix, we could rent it through there. So we did, but we soon let our trial expire, again thinking that we don't watch enough movies to make it worth it.

Oddly enough, a few weeks later, we were driving by our Blockbuster when we saw a huge banner hanging across the front: STORE CLOSING.

Well, damn.

After a few days of debate, we went ahead and signed up for Netflix. Now, we have a subscription and we are doing everything we can to watch more movies. Of course, having the instant streaming is pretty awesome, though I do wish they had more of a selection available (especially more recent stuff). We're in our first month of the subscription and we have already watched enough movies to compensate for the fee. And although we have plenty of things in our Bluray queue, I would love to have recommendations for things to put in our instant queue. Older stuff that maybe we haven't seen or should see again.

We've browsed, but for those of you who have Netflix, what have been your favorite instant movies? Anything obscure that ended up being good? Any old movies that you've rediscovered?

And while we're at it, let's just give recommendations for recent movies as well. What have you seen? What have you loved?

Annnnnd... GO! :)

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Ketchup Day

Can you believe that it has already been two and a half months since I last did (my first) Ketchup Day? If you ask me, we're long overdue.

New to Ketchup Day? It's basically just a collection of short thoughts to get me "caught up" on my blogging. Things I want to tell you, but don't really constitute their own blog posts.

Lots of random tidbits coming your way...
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We are Texas-bound this weekend! And of course, the temperatures there have decided to plummet just in time for our visit. LOVELY. And all I really wanted was some comfortable 60-degree days. *sigh* Oh well, we will pack accordingly and make the most of it.

We saw an episode of Man v. Food where Adam visited a place in San Antonio that makes 3.5 lb. cinnamon rolls. This I've gotta see.

Here's hoping we have drama-free travel! Keep your fingers crossed for us.

And if you have any last-minute San Antonio/Austin suggestions, certainly let me know!
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At home, we are all decked out the holidays. Following the tradition we set when we first moved into our place, we put up almost everything the day after Thanksgiving. We have a few little things to do, but we'll get that done sometime next week.

Our tree:

I was boycotting Christmas music and Christmas spirit before Thanksgiving (I kept telling Michael to "respect the turkey"), but now I'm letting it all in. The Christmas carols are blasting in the car on a daily basis. Holiday season is in full swing!
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There is still plenty of time to sign up for the holiday round of Operation Baking Gals, if you haven't already. There are several spots left on our team, and it would certainly be nice to be at capacity. Shipping dates are from now until December 16, so head on over to the Baking Gals website and register to bake for Team Heather Drive!

I posted the announcement for this round right before Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping that the slow registration is just because people forgot about it. Right? Riiightt? C'mon people... get into the holiday spirit and help a guy out. Brian needs cookies! :) And if you don't bake, there are plenty of store-bought items that would be much appreciated over there as well.

If you've never participated before, now is a good time to start! I signed up for my first Baking Gals round last December, and look where I'm at now. Ha!
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A few blog housekeeping items:

From now on, when you leave comments on my blog, you'll have to do a quick word verification before clicking submit. I'm sure you've seen this feature on other blogs before. I like to keep things easy for all of you commenters, so I avoided adding it for as long as I could, and spam comments were never really a problem. But for some reason, spam comment activity has really picked up here at Heather Drive, and it's getting ridiculous! So, to make it easier on me, and more pleasant for everybody reading/leaving comments, I have to ask you to complete that extra word verification step now. I hope you don't mind.

Secondly, I'm planning on doing another blog redesign soon, so that'll be fun. I don't know--I just feel like I have to change things up every six months or so. Stay tuned for that!
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This Tiger Woods stuff is insane. All because he crashed his car into a tree. Talk about one thing leading to another...
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We saw The Blind Side on Wednesday night. It was adorable. Sandra Bullock was awesome. It's a must-see. You don't have to be a fan of football; you just have to be a fan of humans. The generous and compassionate ones. And it's a true story, which makes it even better.

Aside from the film itself, it was one of the most miserable movie theater experiences I've ever had. We got there late and the theater was unexpectedly packed, so we were forced to sit in the third row. My neck and back were KILLING me. So if I can enjoy it despite those conditions, you have to know it's good, right?
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I did the most adorable Christmas photo shoot with my nephew, Hunter, last weekend. He's six months and is at a rather perfect age for the vision I had going. I want to share a photo or two from it, but the pics are being used for their Christmas cards, and I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you who read this blog and are going to be receiving one. :)

But... soon! All you need to know for now is that he is *so cute*!
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Alright, I think that's it. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but if I am, I'll just have to wait until the next Ketchup Day... or form deeper thoughts about the subject so that I can designate an entire blog post to it. ;)

Once again, I have grand plans to blog during our time in Texas, but that's dependent on 1) whether we have free WiFi at our hotel, and 2) my mood. Needless to say, it's not a definite. But I'll almost certainly be tweeting regularly, so you can keep up with me by checking out my Twitter feed over there ------>

I'll be back before you know it, y'all. :)

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Marley & Me

This afternoon, I went to see the Marley & Me movie with my mom, my brother and his fiancee, my cousin and her husband, and my other cousin and her daughter.

And I'm not going to lie. It was rough.

However, the tough parts (toward the end) were totally worth it because of the story in its entirety. I read the book 2 or 3 years ago, and I loved it. Reading the book also meant that I knew what I was getting myself into with the movie--and I was a little bit afraid to see it. But I had heard good things, and so many of my family members wanted to see it, so I figured I'd give it a go.

I think we're all aware of the rule: Movies based on books cannot possibly be as good as the book. I usually go to see book movies and leave completely disappointed. To take just one example: The Da Vinci Code. Holy crap did that movie suck. And that was Ron Howard. Ron Howard!! He generally makes fantastic movies, so I had high hopes for that one. But it suuucccked. Really sucked.

To my surprise, this was not the case with Marley & Me. Maybe it's because there were a few years between my reading the book and my seeing the movie. Maybe it's just because it's a great story, and is seemingly impossible to mess up. Whatever it is... I really enjoyed this movie.

As far as I can remember, they followed the book pretty closely. Obviously there were little jokes added in, and things here and there that were changed for the sake of film (and things that were cut out for time), but the general plot, and the way that things happened--all of that was mostly the same.

They also added in a character (played by Eric Dane from Grey's Anatomy), a coworker/friend of John's, to help viewers understand Grogan's career goals and the dreams he had for himself (and how life ultimately does not go as Grogan may have originally planned). Eric Dane was perfect in this role, as it is almost exactly the same character he plays on Grey's.

But all of the fundamentals, the pieces of this story that make it great--love, life, and laughter--were all there. I read a couple of pretty bad reviews that complained that there was too much "me" and not enough Marley. I wonder if those reviewers ever read the book.

Every time I've described this book for someone who hasn't read it, I've always explained it's pretty much an autobiography that centers around 13 particular years of the author's life, but it also focuses a lot on his and his family's relationship with their dog. Sure, it's the story of a dog. But it's also the story of a man, his wife, and ultimately, their family. Of which Marley is a huge part. That's kinda the whole point of the story, and I guess some people are missing that.

For the record, my 6-year-old cousin did not like the movie. She thought it was boring, and when everyone else was crying, she said "But it's just a dog!" So maybe not necessarily a movie for the whole family. I think she was a little too young to really get it.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed Owen Wilson. I liked him in Wedding Crashers, and he's had a few other funny, quirky roles, but I will admit that when I heard he was playing John Grogan in this film, I was not impressed. But he did a much better job than I ever anticipated. Jennifer Aniston was good, too.

About 18 months ago, my mom, my brothers and I had to put down our family dog. She was 14 years old, and we had rescued her when she was only about 6 months old. I was 11 when we got her, and was just a few weeks shy of 25 when we put her down. I felt like I had had her all of my life. It was one of the hardest things ever. So for me, I could totally relate to this story, and I thought the movie was completely genuine.

You can never understand the love of a dog (and the love you feel for a dog) unless you've ever had one. The love, the joy, the anger, the frustration, the commitment... everything involved. But really, that's for any pet. Our pets generally don't outlive us, we outlive them. So when we take them on as members of our family, we do it knowing that someday, it is destined to end in heartbreak.

And we do it anyway. Because it's worth it.

So is this movie.

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