FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  This year I have seen more current movies, in a theater than I have in ages.  I LOVED American Hustle and completely disagree with the "critic"  who wrote that it was a hot mess and over rated.  In my opinion he  has too little knowledge and experience of the world to be a critic and maybe has a hard time admitting he couldn't follow a smart script.  We are hoping to see Gravity and Her before Oscar night.  The only big movies we have not seen yet.

By the way, we saw Nebraska, I didn't find it all that great but Tom loved it.  It was of a similar pace as Llewyn Davis, which I also thought was okay, but not my favorite Coen Brother's movie.

I think my favorite movie of the year was Blue Jasmine.

2.)  At work there is a full frig, but no ice maker or cube trays so I buy ice to use for my iced tea habit.  Printed on the bag is "Ice is food, too."  Concerned that, like catsup, the FDA had determined the ice to fulfill a food group, I looked it up.  

The FDA considers ice to be a food when it comes to cleanliness, sanitation, packaging and transportation rules.  Good to know.

The downside of looking things up is finding out stuff you didn't want to know...like the kid who did a science fair project testing the bacteria levels in restaurant ice in comparison with their toilet water.  The toilet water won.

3.)   So apparently the Huffington Post put something on Twitter asking for nominations of outstanding women in 2013.  The Girl Scouts re-tweeted (sorry if I have that wrong - not being a tweeter) and now Fox "News" has declared war on the sale of GS cookies because a couple of the women on the list support  reproductive rights; therefore the Girl Scouts are actively promoting abortion within their ranks.

Sigh.

I don't really like GS cookies and rarely buy them - but I will this year.

3.)  Super statistician Nate Silver picks the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl!!! WooHoo!

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  I guess am settling into being 60 now.  I actually piped up and asked for the Senior Discount at
Walgreens yesterday - 10% off every Tuesday!


2.)  We went to see American Hustle last Saturday - what a powerhouse cast of amazing actors.  It was second only to Blue Jasmine on my movie list for the year.  We also saw Inside Llewyn Davis  a week or so ago - a bit slow moving but the music was great.  Tom wants to see Nebraska this weekend - anyone seen that one?

3.)  Having 10 days off work was great and really made me look forward to having every day off work...


4.)  We took our new bike rack out for the first time last weekend - we drove to Martinez and then rode our bikes over the Benicia Bridge, all around the downtown and marina and then back to Martinez.  It was about 22 miles altogether.

It was another amazingly warm winter day - we don't know how much longer this weather is going to hold but plan to take advantage of it while it is here.


5.)  Finished our book club selection Cukoo's Calling, which was very good and dove right into The Goldfinch which is sooo excellent.  I have read one good book after another this past year.  So satisfying.

6.)  One of the owners of the company I work for had a hissy fit a few months ago when the flu started going around and made a big deal about everyone getting a flu shot.  She quizzed everyone for weeks about getting the shots and freaked out when I was stuffed up even when I assured her it was just allergies.

This week she came into work sick as I have ever seen anyone.  We were all just cringing and practically bathing in hand sanitizer.  Her daughter is our office manager and kept telling her to go in her office, close the door and keep away from everyone but she just kept dragging people in there or walking around touching the door handles, the printer and the schedule book which is kept on my desk.  We sanitized everything in her wake.

Now we are all watching each other for signs that we caught her bug (it appears it might have been H1N1 and she finally got drugs from her doctor) - so far I think we dodged the bullet.

This weekend will tell.  Hope you all have a nice, healthy one!

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Each morning for the past week I have crossed paths with the same car.  The driver I could not ID, but the passinger is a very large white poodle sitting in the front seat, strapped in and looking forward through the windshield.  The dog is very poised, sitting still and appears to be quite engaged in the road ahead.  Each day it puts a smile on my face.

2.)  Our experiment with Tom working from home is coming to an end.  We are packing his home office and moving him back into the very space he vacated in our little downtown.  I think it was a combination of the noise of a neighborhood full of families, young kids and all the coming and going and also the tedium of being in one place all day, not getting dressed and leaving in the morning, going out for coffee or lunch, etc..  I can relate.  Most of us who spent years at home with kids can relate!

3.)  We have not managed to see all of the Oscar nominated films but I got Beasts of the Southern Wild from Netflix and I hope to watch on Saturday.  We thought we had managed to miss seeing Lincoln in the theater, but it is coming to the local "art house" in another week or so and we will go see it post Oscars.

We really enjoyed Argo but have misgivings about seeing Zero Dark Thirty due to the political/torture misrepresentations in the film. Of course, there were apparently some historical inaccuracies in Argo and in Lincoln, too...The trailer for Amour was so depressing there is no way I want to see that one.  I love Silver Linings Playbook but it doesn't strike me as a Best Picture kind of movie.  And Life of Pi was all about the special effects and will sweep those awards, I am sure, but not a serious contender for the big prize.  I have mentioned that I thought Les Mis was ok, but Anne Hathaway's moment was the best part of the movie and I hope she wins.

The red carpet starts at 2pm here in CA - I am looking forward to it.

4.)  A week or so ago Zac called because he realized he had been bitten by a tick - in fact he extracted it whole and still alive from his posterior!  He researched and found a lab to send it to for Lyme disease testing.  I encouraged him (by giving him my credit card) to send it in so we could know if the tick was infected.  Today he called and the tick was not infected so the inspections of the bite area can be suspended and we can all breath easily knowing this won't pop up as a problem down the road. At least I hope I can stop worrying about it...

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  This morning I was driving behind a vintage car and as my car filled up with the exhaust fumes being emitted from that old Chevy I was taken back to the days when most cars put out that stink.  So glad we have managed to do better with those emissions.  Looking forward to the day when we do even better. 

2.)  Went to see The Impossible last night.  (Actually we had hoped to see Hyde Park on the Hudson but that theater was showing Gone with the Wind for some reason!)  I had mild interest in seeing The Impossible because of the award nominated performances and yummy Ewan McGregor - so we went.

Tom told me that there had been some negativity about the movie because of the "happy ending" aspects of it and the fact that it focused on a Western family when there were so many Thai victims and families torn apart by the tsunami.  So I went into it with some wariness.  I came out feeling that the criticism was unwarranted.  I felt that the filmmakers made a mistake in prolonging the ending scene but that the devastation of the local, the loss of life, the tearing apart of families and the displacement so many people was well documented and featured in the film.  I felt the devastation deeply and I think the characters who had their "impossible" happy ending felt it too.

3.)  I let out a big cheer when I saw Hilary Clinton angrily speaking out to Congress in response to their inane and repetitive questions about the attack on the consulate in Benghazi.  I didn't see the clip but read that at another point she teared up.  I am so happy to have a woman who isn't afraid to show her personal involvement and feelings about these events.

Surprise, surprise some douchy GOP members and media outlets are saying she faked her emotions to avoid answering the tough questions... I'd want out of that job, too. The woman has worked herself into a nub and still gets no respect or courtesy.

4.)  I have been to a number of gatherings lately and keep hearing women talking about things their financial planners have told them.  Having never had a financial planner or even considered it - I wondered about this trend.

Do you use a financial planner and has it been helpful?

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Went to see Les Mis with Ally.  I openly wept during Anne Hathaway's performance of I Had a Dream. I have never seen a performance so moving and Oscar worthy in my life.

2.)  I joined a gym on Saturday, worked out that day and the next.  I am soooo sore and sooo happy that I am back to working out.

Working on getting up super early to stop at the gym on the way to work at least a couple of mornings. Excited to try the Barre class this Saturday and see what else is sore next week!

3.)  From Slate:

This month a team of Yale psychologists released a study indicating that male jurors—but not female jurors—were more likely to hand a guilty verdict to obese women than to slender women. The researchers corralled a group of 471 pretend peers of varying body sizes and described to them a case of check fraud. They also presented them with one of four images—either a large guy, a lean guy, a large woman, or a lean woman—and identified the person in the photograph as the defendant. Participants rated the pretend-defendant’s guilt on a five-point scale. No fat bias emerged when the female pretend peers evaluated the female pretend defendants or when either men or women assessed the guilt of the men. But when the male pretend peers pronounced judgment on the female pretend defendants, BMI prejudice reared up. Jesus wept. The justice system and our basic faith in male decency took another hit.

The article goes on with more depressing "observations" from the skinny guys about the fat women...sigh. And the comments - deep, deep sigh.

4.)  About a year ago I tried to take some clothes to a local consignment shop and got shot down rather rudely.  Now that I have lost about 70 pounds - I have piles and piles of clothing I need to pass on.  I started to bag it all up to donate - but man do I need clothes that fit.  So I pulled out the best I had and am taking another shot at consignment.  Maybe this time the person reviewing them won't be so designer label conscious. 

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.) Hearing about the death of Davy Jones this week brought up so many memories.  I was in 6th grade when The Monkees appeared on TV in a wacky show featuring their music.  All the girls picked out their favorites and made plans to meet and marry them.  Davy was the favorite but he was too short for me.  I liked Peter because he was so funny and Mike because he was tall and smart.  Isn't weird that I can still remember that?

2.)  Robert Reich is one of my heroes.  He is so smart and sensible and always seems to cut through to the meat of an issue.  He says that we shouldn't gloat too much about the wackadoos taking over the GOP because we are still a two party system and we will still see those people elected.

Yet even if they lose the presidency on Election Day they’re still likely to be in charge of at least one house of Congress as well as several state legislators and governorships. That’s a problem for the nation.


3.)  Finally saw The Descendents, George Clooney was amazing.  Have not seen The Artist, but I think George might have been robbed of his Oscar.  Netflix just delivered two more Oscar contenders:  Beginners and Midnight in Paris. 

4.)  Did you hear about the Republican, Tea Party member. Dallas-area doctor named Jacques Roy who was recently arrested and charged with bilking Medicare and Medicaid.  Dr. Roy is being charged with bilking the evil federal government for almost $375,000,000.  Wonder if his right wing friends still think President Obama's "mad power grab and Socialization of our private health care system" is worse than one man's own mad grab for over a third of a billion taxpayer dollars?

Maybe with "bigger government" allowing for more fraud investigation we could have caught this hypocrite sooner.

5.)  I keep wanting to write about Rush Limbaugh calling women who have sex "sluts."  Everyone keeps reacting to his language and typical twisted "logic" but I keep wondering - are those women having sex alone?  Are the men they are having sex with protecting them against an unwanted pregnancy?  Where are the men in these discussions? I mean besides calling women whores for having sex with them?  Oh, and telling them they are ruining the country with their out of wedlock babies or for having abortions?  The men are saying Viagra should be covered by insurance but wanting coverage for birth control makes us protitutes. 

Moms, wives, sisters, daughters - all of us are sluts, whores, protitutes.  What does that make them?

FRIDAY FAST ONES

  1.)  Still no resolution to the car accident in mid-December.  AAA insurance is certainly a sorry-ass company.  I submitted a bunch of evidence and photos and the agent said he would guarantee I would be at less than 50% fault.  Then nothing.  I think he must have gotten in trouble from the higher ups because weeks later I am talking with some creep who says if both cars are moving it is 50/50 fault - no matter what the actual facts of the situation are.  Period.

So now we have to go into arbitration.  I am determined not to cave in just to get my car fixed.

2.) Does anyone else say that they are going to see all the Oscar movies before the show and then year after year manage to see few, if any, of them? I saw The Help. That's it.

3. )  My memory lapses are causing me some consternation this week.  I have been changing e-mail addresses (forgetting passwords), doing the taxes (forgetting how to download the previous year's information into Turbo Tax), trying to use work time for productive things (passwords again), transferring a credit card balance (I tore the place apart trying to remember where I hid the credit cards I don't use.)

I am going to start putting everything into a little notebook so I can find what I need when I need it.  If we are burgled, so be it!

4.) Love having my days to do things.  Hate that there are now so many solicitors calling all day.  One woke me up this morning - 8am!  (I know that sounds late, but I don't tend to get to sleep until 1 or so.)

5.)  Just finished another good book - The Night Circus - for those who enjoy the magic and mystical in their reading.   

WE DON'T HATE SEX, WE JUST HATE YOUR STUPID MOVIES

Hello?  Women over 25 loved an entire series about sex.

I was reading a Forbes article titled Women Over 25 Don't Like Sex.  That premise is based on the following exchange regarding a new movie called "What's Your Number?"

In the New Yorker piece, Faris and the film’s director, Mark Mylod, watch a scene from the film. In it, Faris’s character declares that she’s a “whore,” and wants someone who will “appreciate that” about her. During a test screening, the audience laughed at the line, but the director remained wary. “Younger women lap up the nudity and sexual humor,” he was quoted as saying. “Women over 25—some are worried by it.”

What most men and Hollywood don't get about women beyond college age is this:  we do not find humor in being called derogatory names.  We do not think being called, or having your characters call themselves, whore or slut or whatever "funny" thing your writers come up with laughable. 

Unlike some of your younger, less experienced audience, we know something about discrimination and don't appreciate the efforts to keep us "in our place" by making our sexual selves the butt of the joke.  And since when do you figure we don't enjoy  nudity?  Oh, maybe because it's pretty much only there to gratify the men in the audience... 

Don't write off women over 25 as being over sex - what we are over is male oriented, juvenile and I'll use the m word, misogynistic "entertainment."

AWARDS SEASON

It is the beginning of awards season - I enjoy watching most awards shows

because it is an opportunity to see the fashions and celebrities in different circumstances.  It was more fun back in the day before they had so many professionals advising them and there were many more questionable fashion choices, but it is still fun to watch and to pour over the photos online in the next  few days.

But something is happening.  I will look through 30 pictures and recognise barely half of the people photographed. And it has nothing to do with plastic surgery gone bad - it has to do with...youth.  There are all these very young people I have never seen or heard of.  I googled a few of them and found out which TV shows they were on, shows on channels not watched in our home, apparently.  Hellcats?  Really?

And lest you think I am just an old bag, forever attached to the classic actresses of my day - I'll have you know I could spot Leighton Meister a block away, I think Selena Gomez is darling (though the Beiber thing is creepy) and I adore Emma Stone.

But who the hell are these people?

Really, it is just a rhetorical question...  I do have a teen in the house who watches Pretty Little Liars, but goes to her girlfriend's house to watch watch it every week.  Show me the cast of Twilight and I am in the know.

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.) I am thinking about sneaking out to see Sex and The City sometime this weekend. I haven't heard great things about it, but I have not been to a movie in a long time and for some reason, it appeals to me to go see the fashions and fantasy the movie is sure to have. Escapism to the ninth degree...without violence and special effects (unless you count botox).

2.) Hey, Blogger spellcheck doesn't recognise botox!

3.) Ally worked her first two events for the catering company last weekend both of them were weddings. She both enjoyed and was exhausted by it. She came home and said she now understood why we acted the way we did after working all day! It sounds like she did very well, the owner said she was a natural when it came to serving. She is very cute in her tux shirt and bow tie, and very proud of having her first job.

4.) The kids here have a 5 day weekend due to the school furlough days (because of school budget cuts.) It must be very difficult for working families of small kids to deal with all these added days off from school. The "trickle down effect" of economics always seems to be negative - not positive the way it was always presented by those who promoted it.

5.) Those weather prognosticators are wrong again about the forecast today, it is once again cool and cloudy. How much money do these people make for so rarely being right? Come to think of it, how many people do we see every day who are not very good at their jobs? Sullen, slow, sloppy, incompetent at their jobs? I run into a lot of them. Yet they get hired and I can't.

Well, I now have 3 days off from job hunting and I plan to enjoy them. Hope you all do, too!