I blogged just a couple of days ago in my Thursday Thirteen post, about some movies I wanted to rent and watch over the summer. I found one of them at the library on Friday, “Because of Winn Dixie”, and checked it out on DVD. We watched it tonight, and I’m happy to say it is a really good movie – very clean, very charming, very heartwarming, very sweet and not at all sad (as I was afraid it might be). What a wonderful movie 🙂 I’m so glad I got it and that we were able to watch it. I’ll have to return it to the library soon and see what else I can find! 
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I *heart* the library! I just love being able to go and get books and bring them home to read and never have to pay a penny. I think libraries are very cool institutions
I had to recheck the book I was reading “Murder at Union Station” by Margaret Truman, as I was not quite finished with it. Here’s a neat factoid: I was reading the book the other night and Tim saw her name and said “is she related to President Harry Truman?” I had no idea, so I do what I always do. I went to the computer and got on Blingo, and come to find it, she is his daughter! How cool is that.
Anyway, I checked out 2 more books, you can see them on the sidebar. They are “The Preservationist” by David Maine, a book I had seen on Susie‘s blog, which is about Noah and building the ark. The other is a book that I think was on the bestseller list for a while, a few years ago – “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. Tune in over the next couple of weeks for book reviews.
Also, in my Thursday Thirteen post below, I listed 13 movies I wanted to see this summer. I found one at the library that seems to be a favorite, so I rented it for a week. For free. 😆 I got “Because of Winn Dixie”. I hope I don’t cry for days afterward, I’m a total sap when it comes to dog movies.
I haven’t found a whole lot that I want to watch this summer on TV. We watched the first episode of Treasure Hunters the other night and liked it, so we’re going to give that one a try. Yesterday, I was reading the newspaper and saw on the TV grid that a movie was coming on the Hallmark Channel last night called “Love Comes Softly”. It sounded really familiar, like a book my mother-in-law and sister might have read and liked. So, using one of my favorite online tools, IMBD, I looked it up, and sure enough, it’s a movie made from that book. I watched it and really enjoyed it. I coerced Tim into watching it with me, and even though he didn’t want to admit it, I think he really liked it. Another one is coming on tonight, “Love’s Enduring Promise” and I plan to watch that one as well. These are from the books by Janette Oke, which I have not read, but now have on my library list. She’s a Christian fiction writer, and I like reading books like that, and watching movies like that – clean, simple, old-fashioned and with a good message. I really enjoyed it, and am so happy to have found something on TV to watch. Can’t wait to watch the other one tonight 😆
I went out to get the mail today and was really surprised to see the first of our free DVD’s from Kellogg’s arrive in the mail. I blogged about this originally on 5/31 and had just mailed off for the first two that week. So, in less than 3 weeks, we already got our first totally free movie. Granted, it’s not a blockbuster and probably something we would never buy, but it was free! We buy Kellogg’s cereal anyway, and there were no charges for shipping and handling, so the movie only cost me the stamp to mail off the order form and coupons.
Cool beans, I love getting free stuff! Our first movie to arrive is Jumpin Jack Flash, with Whoopie Goldberg:
I’ve been trying to catch up on my to-do list today. I tend to procrastinate on so many things! Today, I have:
Whew, feels good to get caught up again!
We went to see a matinee of “Inside Man” yesterday at our new Grandview Theater. I’ll try to write up a review this week on Hambones.org. We both liked it, but Tim gave it a higher rating than I did. I expected more in the way of plot development, I think, than he did. And with Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster, I think I just expected more. It was still a good movie, and would be a great rental when it comes out on DVD.
Anyway, I’ve blogged about our new theater before, but I hadn’t been able to post any pictures. As much as I love my new camera that I got for Christmas, it’s bigger and bulkier than my previous digital camera, which I could sometimes stick in my purse. Enter our new Razr phones we got a few weeks ago, and voila, I can take pictures inside our new theater. Well, at least I thought I could. The cameraphone doesn’t have a flash and it seems that all the interior lighting (a lot of neon and dim lighting everywhere else) really messed up my shots. They’re not great, but better than nothing, so I’m including them on the extended page…
Mark another item off of my to-do list 😀 I just finished typing up 5 movie and 1 book reviews in the Reviews Section at Hambones.org. I added reviews for the following movies:
a) Eight Below (theater)
b) Kingdom of Heaven (DVD)
c) The Legend of Zorro (DVD)
d) Flightplan (DVD)
e) Just Like Heaven (DVD)
And the book “The First Counsel” by Brad Meltzer. Whew, caught up, for a few days, at least. 🙂
Be sure to add any reviews of books or movies to the Reviews section, if you are so inclined. 😆
We’ve seen three movies today, back to back to back. Fun, huh? 😀
Daddy stopped by on his way up to Gail’s house, and we got to visit with him, and also go out to eat lunch at Pigskin (one of the new BBQ restaurants that opened last year). He’s going to come back tomorrow afternoon, and spend the night and then go home Monday.
We went to our new Grandview theater that opened yesterday in Madison – all 17 glorious screens. The place was pretty impressive – fountain in the lobby, couches and chairs, and Internet cafe with laptops and free Internet access. Another cafe with a fireplace, couch and tables. A Cafe serving Seattle Drip coffees, cappuccinos, mochas, lattes and a pastry case with cheesecakes, baklava, tiramisu, muffins, cookies and lots of other good looking fattening stuff 😀 Another food area with pizza, chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks and pronto pups. Three party rooms, a big arcade, and 17 screens. We were very happy to have it open just a couple of miles from our house!
I thought Tim would want to go see “Firewall”, but he wanted to see what was on the big screen (“The Grand”) – their biggest theater room was showing “Eight Below” and the screen is a lot bigger and the sound a lot better, plus it’s all digital. So, we went and saw that. Great movie, and a packed house. Then we came home and watched the ones we had rented, “Flightplan” and “Just Like Heaven”. I will have to work on movie reviews on Hambones soon. We enjoyed them all
We went to see the new Queen Latifah movie, “Last Holiday” this afternoon. I had read good things about it, and since it was my turn to get to pick a movie (Tim picked King Kong right before Christmas), I picked this one. Tim and I both thought it was good – pretty clean, very funny and it “had heart” as I like to say. Afterwards, Tim offered to take me to Little Tokyo for teppanyaki, so we went there. The lines were long though, so we left and went to Pigskin, near our house. We ordered a slab of ribs and all the fixin’s, and it was deee-licious.
I am a happy camper today, because we watched Revenge of the Sith last night. Or, at least, I watched it. Tim watched parts of it, as he was working on something on his laptop. I truly think that episode 3 is the best of this trilogy, and I like the darkness of it, but mostly, how it ties the two trilogies together. I am ready to watch it again, but I imagine that won’t happen for a while. Tim doesn’t seem to enjoy my Star Wars or LOTR movies nearly as much as I do. Come to think of it, I haven’t watched a single LOTR movie in eons, probably a year or more. Tim won’t watch them with me, and so I usually wait till he leaves on a business or hunting trip.
Hmmm, wonder when one of those is coming up again?! 🙂
It took me several days, but I finally typed up two quick reviews on the Hambones website. The first one is of Sahara, the last DVD we rented. The other book is one of the last book I finished (Vienna Prelude by Bodie Thoene), even though this review is meant to cover the entire series of books I plan to read. You can check them out, if you’re interested!
I just added two new movie reviews to the Reviews section at Hambones.org. We rented 3 movies this weekend and have watched two of them so far – The Pacifier with Vin Diesel and Miss Congeniality II with Sandra Bullock. We also rented another old one on my list “Wimbledon” with Kirsten Dunst, but we haven’t watched that one yet.
I also added comments to two reviews that Trent entered over the weekend – to movies we have seen and enjoyed. Check out Trent’s review of Star Wars Ep III and King Arthur. Thanks Trent!
Tim is working on the backup server for Hambones tonight, so I’m catching up on some newspapers and magazines in the den, and using the laptop to do a little surfing. 🙂
I just added another movie review to the Hambones Reviews section. These, as always, are just our personal opinions and might not agree with everyone else’s. Well, I think it’s established that we don’t always agree, which is what makes the world go round. 😀
I entered a review here for Ladder 49, which we got this weekend and finished up Monday night. As I said in the review, I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but we didn’t like it. If you haven’t seen it and want to know why, you can reply and ask, or email me and I’ll let you know why, but it will probably give the plot away. One of those! 🙂
They were all out of a few others on our list – namely, The Pacifier, Miss Congeniality 2, and a couple that Tim is interested in that I probably won’t watch. I want to get some of the early seasons of Alias and be watching them, but our local stores only have one season at best. We’ll have to join an online service to get those, and most other of “the entire season of some TV show” type DVD sets. I still have several “one free rental” and “rent one, get one free rental” coupons left, so we’ll definitely be using those before we consider joining either Netflix or Blockbuster Online.
Well, I feel like I have removed a small portion of the proverbial “monkey on my back” just now. I just entered 3 reviews in the Reviews section of Hambones. Two are for movies we saw two (soon to be three) weekends ago. Ocean’s Twelve and Spanglish. The other is for a book I really struggled with, and didn’t particularly love, called “Blue Shoe”.
I know we’re different from a lot of you in what we like to watch and what I like to read. Tim and I enjoy movies for the pure entertainment and escapism factor of them. We like non-thinking, non-controversial types of movies. The same goes for me with books – I like what I fondly refer to as “chick lit”. Not Harlequin romance or trashy stuff. Not high-brow either. Nor the classics, although I really should be rereading a lot of those. No, I like to pick up a book and be transported into somewhere far away, fun, entertaining, funny, enchanting or otherwise engaging. I like to read to escape, not to be enlightened or educated. Very different from many of you, but that’s me. Just me.
So there (big sigh), having said that, read the reviews at your own risk. They are open to all members and visitors alike on Hambones.org (as are the recipes) – check them out here
Tim needed to run get a couple of things for the woodworking project he is busy working on, so we jumped in the truck when he got home last night (new toolbox and all!) and ran to Walmart. He got his stuff, and I talked him into buying a movie. We got this and I’m so excited! I want to watch the movie again soon, and we are both excited that the book might have some cool facts and trivia, that we can use in the trivia forum on Hambones.
Watch out all of you that play trivia at our website, there might be a lot of history questions coming up soon!!!