July Jokes on Anna

More art was put up in Anna's office

Take Your Son To Work Day

I find it amusing that even at 15, my son still wants to accompany me to work.  I had a pile of old computers that needed to be assessed and for the ones that wouldn't boot up, to have their hard drives removed.  That is right up his alley.

For two days this was a common sight at my workbench:

The guts of computers attract an obnoxious amount of dust, so he was filthy by the end of the day.

Sunday In My City - Cars

Saw this car THREE times yesterday

Then my car-obsessed kid insisted we stop at the dealership so he could admire this beauty

Friday Fragments - July 20, 2012

Last week I gathered with friends to watch Magic Mike.  It was FABULOUS!  I find it funny that men are avoiding this show.  It is absolutely nothing like a movie with female strippers where all of the focus is on naked body parts.  This actually has a storyline, spends more time away from the stripper show than on it and when it does show the stripper acts, NO NUDITY.  It was a fun movie all around.

My mother's children are all in disarray.  I'm coping with financial collapse of my consignment shop.  The brother that had been living with me and then moved to Florida can't find a job and is trying to come back to Missouri.  The other brother who lives in North Dakota and is preparing to move his family to Missouri next week managed to break his finger impeding him from assisting in packing and possibly driving one of the three trucks needed to make the move.  None of us are in dire straights, just odd how it all happens at the same time.

My children, on the other hand, seem to be relatively quiet.  I'm sure I've jinxed myself with saying that.

Round two of the heat wave is upon us, this time with the glorious St Louis humidity.  It is purely insufferable to be outside.  This means my daily walks have not yet resumed.  I've gained weight, I feel crappy and I really miss the fresh air.  Grrrrrrrrr  I could do alternative methods of exercise but I have no desire.  It makes me happier to be grumpy and whine about my current situation.

Too Hot To Walk

I realized that it had been three weeks since I took my last walk.  THREE WEEKS!

I knew it had been a while, my back was starting to ache.  Yes, daily walks banished the aches in my lower back.  That may be a secret the rest of the world knew, but it was totally unforeseen by me.  So I looked at my calendar and realized three weeks had passed.

Once I stop something, like walking, it takes me forever to nag myself back into doing it again.  It didn't take too much to figure out why I stopped in the first place, the excessive heat courtesy of a ten day long heat wave parked by ass on the couch.

Saturday night I finally broke away from the couch and got some fresh air. 

I definitely worked up a sweat.  It was hot and I was power walking.  And I'm sure a hot flash was setting in - seriously, must I endure both internal and external heat waves concurrently?

There was enough energy to do another block but I was sweating.  A lot.  I headed home. 

Mere houses away from my front door a damn BAT swoops within inches of my head!  Bats don't terrify me, although I'm not fond of one tangling itself in my hair.

Last night I saw a hawk land in a nearby tree.  It's been a couple of years since I've seen a hawk on one of my walks.  When I got closer he flew off and was clearly carrying something, probably a chipmunk or a mouse.

Encounters with wildlife are enough to encourage me to venture out again.

Of course another heatwave (external) is supposed to set in this week.  ugh!

Sunday In My City - Miniature Golf

Took the kid out yesterday to a place we drive past several times.  It's kind of funky and stands out.

Movie Recommendations

Building off yesterday's post...

Forcing myself to watch movies with titles and descriptions that would normally make me run in the other direction, I have managed to find some fabulous titles.

Manchurian Candidate (1692) - Good intrigue, crazy twists and simply a good story.

The Bishop's Wife (1947) - The absolute best Christmas movie out there - seriously.  It's about the true meaning of Christmas, not the Santa Claus crap (and trust me, I adore that dude).

Little gems like that are probably what push me through all of the not so entertaining titles.

Oscar Contenders

Last week I posted the list of movies nominated for best picture.  I started it for two reasons, one because my viewing history was definitely lacking and many times people seemed almost aghast I had never seen such and so title, two to figure out why some titles are even nominated.

Have you ever seen some of these "great" movies?  What on earth did the Academy see in them????

So I started watching... and watching

To keep track of my progress I looked up the titles of all of the nominees (easy to do from www.oscars.org) and put them in a spreadsheet.  What you don't see on the list I posted last week were the additional columns for when I watched it (only started that in the past year or so... yeah, I've been recording these for about five years), if I liked it,  did I concur if it was "great", and finally a quick synopsis because I have the world's crappiest memory. 

I also added a formula to do a few calculations.  From that I can tell you that of the 493 movies nominated for best picture I have seen 203 of them.  Of those, I have liked 143, thought 99 were "great" and I own 16.

A couple of days ago I added a new column, "Why Nominated".  That was for a general theme.  I can tell you that the Academy really likes mental illness. A lot.  "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", "Three Faces of Eve",  "Black Swan",  "My Left Foot".  While personal or emotional development are popular, a person's decline really tickles their fancy - "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf", "The Killing Fields", "Deer Hunter", "No Country for Old Men".  Smaller topics are coming of age "Splendor in the Grass" or "The Graduate", old age "Cocoon", war "Platoon" and "Diary of Anne Frank".

Another big topic is against all odds.  They really like formidable challenges, the underdog rising, social injustice overcome - "Erin Brochovich", "Norma Rae", "The Sound of Music", "A Few Good Men."

Every so often they slip in the obligatory EPIC movie, that blockbuster that was so well made even the stuffy actor's guild can't deny it - "Star Wars", "Titanic", "Gone With the Wind", "Lord of the Rings".

The various movie channels are loading up my DVR and now that my husband has finally cleared out his 27 HOURS of the A-Team, I have room to really knock out some titles.

As I write this, I'm in the middle of watching "Tree of Life".  This is the slowest effing movie ever made.  I know it was created for dramatic effect as a family suffers a loss, but for crying outloud it is so unnecessary.  I think I will list its nomination reason as "personal development".  It really is one of the most insufferable movies I've ever seen.

Getting Poor Anna

Oh the things I like to tape to Anna's wall (co-worker who can dish out just as much as she receives in the practical joke arena)

Sunday In My City - Cherokee Street

Up for a little antiquing?  St. Louis is filled with all sorts of antique shops, but for the best cluster of shops packed together in one spot go to Cherokee Street.  Even the buildings are antique!  It's a great historic district and an interesting walk.

And when you're done, head over to Lemp Avenue, across from the Anheiser Busch Brewery (stop at the brewery too they have great tours with SAMPLES) and find Gus' Pretzel shop.  While there are street vendors running around selling Gus' pretzels from random corners, you really need to sample these straight from the source, hot from the oven (if you get one from a street vendor, wait to eat it at home so you can pop it into the microwave for 30 seconds).

A standard pack of pretzel sticks is three, but I forgot to take the picture before I devoured one (and some).

Friday Fragments - July 6 2012

Fourth of July in the middle of the week turns the all-American "alcaholiday" into just another day off.  Add to the fact that we are in the middle of a scorching heatwave, the day was best spent inside.

Except that my husband had bought several large packs of meat that I insisted not go into the freezer until I had grilled them first.  So Wednesday morning I was standing in front of a searing hot grill.  By the time I had parceled it out I had at least 9 days worth of meals.

We spent the evening with family, playing our little niece and nephew.  Most of the firework displays have been cancelled or postponed so we headed home and watched movies.

It wasn't the most festive holiday, but it worked.

Oscar Movies

I've been asked on several occasions for my list of Oscar movies.  If you've been following me for any time you'll know that I committed several  years ago to seeing all of the Oscar nominated movies.  The following list is for best picture.  I have another list for best actor, actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress.  The second list is still messy and not ready to publish.

You should be able to copy my list and paste it into Excel or another spreadsheet application (great way to dive into learning spreadsheets, by the way).  Items in purple are the ones I've seen as of Sunday.

Wings	1928	won
7th Heaven	1928
The Racket	1928
The Broadway Melody	1929	won
Alibi	1929
Hollywood Revue	1929
In Old Arizona	1929
The Patriot	1929
All Quiet on the Western Front	1930	won
Disraeli	1930
The Big House	1930
The Divorcee	1930
The Love Parade	1930
Cimarron	1931	won
East Lynne	1931
Skippy	1931
The Front Page	1931
Trader Horn	1931
Grand Hotel	1932	won
Arrowsmith	1932
Bad Girl	1932
Five Star Final	1932
One Hour with You	1932
Shanghai Express	1932
The Champ	1932
The Smiling Lieutenant	1932
Cavalcade	1933	won
42nd Street	1933
A Farewell to Arms	1933
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang	1933
Lady for a Day	1933
Little Women	1933
She Done Him Wrong	1933
Smilin' Through	1933
State Fair	1933
The Private Life of Henry VIII	1933
It Happened One Night	1934	won
Cleopatra	1934
Flirtation Walk	1934
Here Comes the Navy	1934
Imitation of lIfe	1934
One Night of Love	1934
The Barretts of Wimpole Street	1934
The Gay Divorcee	1934
The House of Rothschild	1934
The Thin Man	1934
The White Parade	1934
Viva Villa!	1934
Mutiny of the Bounty	1935	won
Alice Adams	1935
Broadway Melody of 1936	1935
Captain Blood	1935
David Copperfield	1935
Les Miserables	1935
Naughty Marietta	1935
Ruggles of Red Gap	1935
The Informer	1935
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer	1935
Top Hat	1935
The Great Ziegfeld	1936	won
A Tale of Two Cities	1936
Anthony Adverse	1936
Dodsworth	1936
Libeled Lady	1936
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town	1936
Romeo and Juliet	1936
San Francisco	1936
The Story of Louis Pasteur	1936
Three Smart Girls	1936
A Star Is Born	1937
Captains Courageous	1937
Dead End	1937
In Old Chicago	1937
Lost Horizon	1937
One Hundred Men and a Girl	1937
Stage Door	1937
The Awful Truth	1937
The Good Earth	1937
The Life of Emile Zola	1937
You Can't Take It with You	1938	won
Alexander's Ragtime Band	1938
Boys Town	1938
Four Daughters	1938
Grand Illusion	1938
Jezebel	1938
Pygmalion	1938
Test Pilot	1938
The Adventures of Robin Hood	1938
The Citadel	1938
Gone with the Wind	1939	won
Dark Victory	1939
Goodbye, Mr. Chips	1939
Love Affair	1939
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939
Ninotchka	1939
Of Mince and Men	1939
Stagecoach	1939
The Wizard of Oz	1939
Wuthering Heights	1939
Rebecca	1940	won
All This, and Heaven Too	1940
Foreign Correspondent	1940
Kitty Foyle	1940
Our Town	1940
The Grapes of Wrath	1940
The Great Dictator	1940
The Letter	1940
The Long Voyage Home	1940
The Philadelphia Story	1940
How Green Was My Valley	1941	won
Blossoms in the Dust	1941
Citizen Kane	1941
Here Comes Mr. Jordan	1941
Hold Back the Dawn	1941
One Foot in Heaven	1941
Sergeant York	1941
Suspicion	1941
The Little Foxes	1941
The Maltese Falcon	1941
Mrs. Miniver	1942	won
Kings Row	1942
Random Harvest	1942
the Invaders	1942
The Magnificent Ambersons	1942
The Pied Piper	1942
The Pride of the Yankees	1942
The Talk of the Town	1942
Wake Island	1942
Yankee Doodle Dandy	1942
Casablanca	1943	won
For Whome the Bell Tolls	1943
Heaven Can Wait	1943
In Which We Serve	1943
Madame Curie	1943
The Human Comedy	1943
The More the Merrier	1943
The Ox-Bow Incident	1943
The Song of Bernadette	1943
Watch on the Rhine	1943
Going My Way	1944	won
Double Indemnity	1944
Gaslight	1944
Since You Went Away	1944
Wilson	1944
The Lost Weekend	1945	won
Anchors Aweigh	1945
Mildred Pierce	1945
Spellbound	1945
The Bells of St. Mary's	1945
The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	won
Henry V	1946
It's a Wonderful Life	1946
The Razor's Edge	1946
The Yearling	1946
Gentleman's Agreement	1947	won
Crossfire	1947
Great Expectations	1947
Miracle of 34th Street	1947
The Bishop's Wife	1947
Hamlet	1948	won
Johnny Belinda	1948
The Red Shoes	1948
The Snake Pit	1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948
All The King's Men	1949	won
A Letter to Three Wives	1949
Battleground	1949
The Heiress	1949
Twelve O'Clock High	1949
All about Eve	1950	won
Born Yesterday	1950
Father of the Bride	1950
King Solomon's Mines	1950
Sunset Blvd	1950
An American in Paris	1951	won
A Place in the Sun	1951
A Streetcar Named Desire	1951
Decision before Dawn	1951
Quo Vadis	1951
The Greatest Show on Earth	1952	won
High Noon	1952
Ivanhoe	1952
Moulin Rouge	1952
The Quiet Man	1952
From Here to Eternity	1953	won
Julius Caesar	1953
Roman Holiday	1953
Shane	1953
The Robe	1953
On the Waterfront	1954	won
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers	1954
The Caine Mutiny	1954
The Country Girl	1954
Three Coins in the Fountain	1954
Marty	1955	won
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing	1955
Mister Roberts	1955
Picnic	1955
The Rose Tattoo	1955
Around the World in 80 Days	1956	won
Friendly Persuasion	1956
Giant	1956
The King and I	1956
The Ten Commandments	1956
The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	won
12 Angry Men	1957
Peyton Place	1957
Sayonara	1957
Witness for the Prosecution	1957
Gigi	1958	won
Auntie Mame	1958
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	1958
Separate Tables	1958
the Defiant Ones	1958
Ben-Hur	1959	won
Anatomy of a Murder	1959
Room at the Top	1959
The Diary of Anne Frank	1959
The Nun's Story	1959
The Apartment	1960	won
Elmer Gantry	1960
Sons and Lovers	1960
The Alamo	1960
The Sundowners	1960
West Side Story	1961	won
Fanny	1961
Judgment at Nuremberg	1961
The Guns of Navrone	1961
The Hustler	1961
Lawrence of Arabia	1962	won
Meredith Willson's The Music Man	1962
Mutiny of the Bounty	1962
The Longest Day	1962
To Kill a Mockingbird	1962
Tom Jones	1963	won
America America	1963
Cleopatra	1963
How the West Was Won	1963
Lilies of the Field	1963
My Fair Lady	1964	won
Becket	1964
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb	1964
Mary Poppins	1964
Zorba the Greek	1964
The Sounds of Music	1965	won
A Thousand Clowns	1965
Darling	1965
Doctor Zhivago	1965
Ship of Fools	1965
A Man for All Seasons	1966	won
Alfie	1966
The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming	1966
The Sand Pebbles	1966
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf	1966
In the Heat of the Night	1967	won
Bonnie and Clyde	1967
Doctor Dolittle	1967
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	1967
The Graduate	1967
Oliver!	1968	won
Funny Girl	1968
Rachel, Rachel	1968
Romeo and Juliet	1968
The Lion in Winter	1968
Midnight Cowboy	1969	won
Anne of the Thousand Days	1969
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969
Hello, Dolly!	1969
Z	1969
Patton	1970	won
Airport	1970
Five Easy Pieces	1970
Love Story	1970
M*A*S*H	1970
The French Connection	1971	won
A Clockwork Orange	1971
Fiddler on the Roof	1971
Nicholas and Alexandra	1971
The Last Picture Show	1971
The Godfather	1972	won
Cabaret	1972
Deliverance	1972
Sounder	1972
The Emigrants	1972
The Sting	1973	won
A Touch of Class	1973
American Graffiti	1973
Cries and Whispers	1973
The Exorcist	1973
The Godfather Part II	1974	won
Chinatown	1974
Lenny	1974
The Conversation	1974
The Towering Inferno	1974
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	won
Barry Lyndon	1975
Dog Day Afternoon	1975
Jaws	1975
Nashville	1975
Rocky	1976	won
All of the President's Men	1976
Bound for Glory	1976
Network	1976
Taxi Driver	1976
Annie Hall	1977	won
Julia	1977
Star Wars	1977
The Goodbye Girl	1977
The Turning Point	1977
The Deer Hunter	1978	won
An Unmarried Woman	1978
Coming Home	1978
Heaven Can Wait	1978
Midnight Express	1978
Kramer vs Kramer	1979	won
All That Jazz	1979
Apocalypse Now	1979
Breaking Away	1979
Norma Rae	1979
Ordinary People	1980	won
Coal Miner's Daughter	1980
Raging Bull	1980
Tess	1980
The Elephant Man	1980
Atlantic City	1981
Chariots of Fire	1981
On Golden Pond	1981
Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981
Reds	1981
Gandhi	1982	won
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial	1982
Missing	1982
The Verdict	1982
Tootsie	1982
Terms of Endearment	1983	won
Tender Mercies	1983
The Big Chill	1983
The Dresser	1983
The Right Stuff	1983
Amadeus	1984	won
A Passage to India	1984
A Soldier's Story	1984
Places in the Heart	1984
The Killing Fields	1984
Out of Africa	1985	won
Kiss of the Spider Woman	1985
Prizzi's Honor	1985
The Color Purple	1985
Witness	1985
Platoon	1986	won
A Room with a View	1986
Children of a Lesser God	1986
Hannah and Her Sisters	1986
The Mission	1986
The Last Emperor	1987	won
Broadcast News	1987
Fatal Attraction	1987
Hope and Glory	1987
Moonstruck	1987
Rain Man	1988	won
Dangerous Liaisons	1988
Mississippi Burning	1988
The Accidental Tourist	1988
Working Girl	1988
Driving Miss Daisy	1989	won
Born on the Fourth of July	1989
Deat Poets Society	1989
Field of Dreams	1989
My Left Foot	1989
Dances With Wolves	1990	won
Awakenings	1990
Ghost	1990
Good Fellas	1990
The Godfather, Part III	1990
The Silence of the Lambs	1991	won
Beauty and the Beast	1991
Bugsy	1991
JFK	1991
The Prince of Tides	1991
Unforgiven	1992	won
A Few Good Men	1992
Howards End	1992
Scent of A Woman	1992
The Crying Game	1992
Schindler's List	1993	won
In the Name of the Father	1993
The Fugitive	1993
The Piano	1993
The Remains of the Day	1993
Forrest Gump	1994	won
Four Weddings and a Funeral	1994
Pulp Fiction	1994
Quiz Show	1994
The Shawshank Redemption	1994
Braveheart	1995	won
Apollo 13	1995
Babe	1995
Sense and Sensibility	1995
The Postman (Il Postino)	1995
The English Patient	1996	won
Fargo	1996
Jerry Maguire	1996
Secrets & Lies	1996
Shine	1996
Titanic	1997	won
As Good As It Gets	1997
Good Will Hunting	1997
L.A. Confidential	1997
The Full Monty	1997
Shakespear in Love	1998	won
Elizabeth	1998
Life Is Beautiful	1998
Saving Private Ryan	1998
The Thin Red Line	1998
American Beauty	1999	won
The Cider House Rules	1999
The Green Mile	1999
The Insider	1999
The Sixth Sense	1999
Gladiator	2000	won
Chocolat	2000
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	2000
Erin Brockovich	2000
Traffic	2000
A Beautiful Mind	2001	won
Gosford Park	2001
In the Bedroom	2001
Moulin Rouge	2001
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring	2001
Chicago	2002	won
Gangs of New York	2002
The Hours	2002
The Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers	2002
The Pianist	2002
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the  King	2003	won
Lost in Translation	2003
Master and Commander:  The Far Side of the World	2003
Mystic River	2003
Seabiscuit	2003
Million Dollar Baby	2004	won
Finding Neverland	2004
Ray	2004
Sideways	2004
The Aviator	2004
Crash	2005	won
Brokeback Mountain	2005
Capote	2005
Good Night, and Good Luck	2005
Munich	2005
The Departed	2006	won
Babel	2006
Letters from Iwo Jima	2006
Little Miss Sunshine	2006
The Queen	2006
No Country For Old Men	2007	won
Atonement	2007
Juno	2007
Michael Clayton	2007
There Will Be Blood	2007
Slumdog Millionaire	2008	won
Frost/Nixon	2008
Milk	2008
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	2008
The Reader	2008
A Serious Man	2009
An Education	2009
Avatar	2009
District 9	2009
Inglorious Basterds	2009
Precious	2009
The Blind Side	2009
The Hurt Locker	2009	won
Up	2009
Up in the Air	2009
Black Swan	2010
The Fighter	2010
Inception	2010
The Kids are Alright	2010
The King's Speech	2010	won
127 Hours	2010
The Social Network	2010
Toy Story 3	2010
True Grit	2010
Winter's Bone	2010
War Horse	2011
The Artist	2011	won
Moneyball	2011
The Descendants	2011
The Tree of Life	2011
Midnight in Paris	2011
The Help	2011
Hugo	2011
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close	2011