My New Favorite Things

The kitchen sink pork marinade was a success, but I've simplified the base. The recipe I posted tasted great, and the pork was moist, but the maple syrup really came through--not a bad thing at all, just depends on your sides. Tonight I had pork steak/tenderloins, so I did salt/pepper/21 Seasoning with soy sauce, crushed garlic, course Dijon, lime juice and ginger dressing. This time it was the garlic/mustard that rose to the palate.

Today we saw The Secret World of Arietty, the new Studio Ghibli film. It's based on the Borrowers, which I haven't read in ages. In true Miyazaki form, it's charming, gorgeous, and girl-friendly. My #1 son was a trooper and saw it with me--and the theater was filled with lots of families and lots of girls. We've raised him on Studio Ghibli movies though, so he wanted to see it, too. All the other boys on line were off to see Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. To be fair, we saw that already, on opening night. He's become the 3D movie snob, but he's also become my movie buddy, which is really nice.

Oh yeah, and I would love a pair of boots like Arietty. 

I started using the phrase "My New Favorite Thing" as a monthly wrap-up or a backup when I did the shopping column for the Dig, probably in 2002. It's not so original that I don't think to claim any kind of dibs on it, but it tickled me to see a FB posting by my favorite author the other day using the phrase. (I haven't watched the video yet, so I can't vouch for it. This is a screen shot, so the links won't work, either.) 

Back in 1999 I actually got to meet Neil Himself, and it was wonderful. He did a reading at Waterstone's books in Boston (which is now a school) promoting Stardust and Neverwhere. He signed my advance copy of Stardust that my friend liberated from the bookstore he was working in, and a couple of other things. I'm excited and curious about American Gods as a live action series, but so glad it'll be on HBO. 

Yes, that is my natural hair color, too.

This is my 200th post, and on Twitter I have 200 tweets. It's a 200 kind of day! 

From Thomas to Wall-E to Star Wars

It happened relatively fast: I got Owen the the Wall-E DVD when it came out in November, and suddenly, everything was all about Wall-E, and robots. He occasionally made a track, but by Christmas, that was all he wanted. It was pretty amazing, and it seemed like he was ready to move on to something different. Considering how much he was upset and sobbed when we took him to see it in the theater, he wanted to watch it every day. We were starting to get a little tired of it. He drew Wall-E, Eve, and the Axiom on the back of his papers or at after-school. Since he was fascinated with robots and ships, we decided to try a different tact.

He'd been pretty resistant to Star Wars up until late January. Except at Christmas, my mom dug my Millennium Falcon and some action figures out of the cellar, and he loved playing with it. So I got him a mini-graphic novel, with stills from the movie and word bubbles (and by "the movie Star Wars," I mean, of course, A New Hope, Episode IV). The boy was captivated, and we slowly watched it over a weekend. Woo-boy! Meanwhile, the tracks (wood, plastic) and trains are now sitting neglected in a bin.

He still won't watch Empire Strikes Back all the way through, but he seems curious about the Ewoks, and *someone* told him the truth about Darth Vader. We've also seen The Clone Wars, and he really liked that, too. But R2 is his favorite character, and he loves the Falcon. We invested in some flat Legos so he can build the ships (Knex weren't doing the trick), although he's made a serviceable Death Star and a "rebel base" from Duoplos. Maybe we'll give Return of the Jedi a try soon. May the Force be with us.

procrastination at its finest

I've been putting off updating the blog for awhile, mostly because I've been busy and haven't had half a brain to do anything more clever than update my status on Facebook. But also at this point the backlog of events is pretty huge: beach days, traveling, 1st day of school, scanning in old photos from college, Lorie's NYC bachelorette extravaganza, Rob & Jude's wedding celebration.

Now my laptop is running on empty & I'm watching Nobody Knows, a Japanese film loosely based on a true story. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll at least do a little something now that I've broken the ice.

Austen-ized

It's almost embarrassing to admit that I got my BA in English without taking Brit Lit. In my own defense, I did take a lot of poetry classes and Development of Western Civilization, but I'd never read any Jane Austen. After watching Becoming Jane and part of the latest Pride and Prejudice, in addition to reading Shannon Hale's Austenland, I figured it was time to catch up.

I got 1/3rd of the way through Pride and Prejudice when I cheated and Netflixed the BBC/Colin Firth version. I finally finished the book, and was surprised how much more I enjoyed it for watching the movie. Also having seen Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion, but don't feel the same urge to read the books.

Bride and Prejudice, is the most fun (and takes the most liberties) of all the adaptations. (Thanks for the rec, D!)

Soon, I'll be on to Jane Eyre, after seeing the lovely Charlotte Gainsbourg/William Hurt version on cable. Charlotte Bronte was not a fan of Jane Austen. Why am I not surprised?

Dark Knight: awesome

Wow. still digesting. Theater: sold out. Running time: long, but it doesn't feel that way. Story, characters, and themes tie well together and don't smash you over your head the whole time. I'm not surprised at all that people are going back to watch it again, it's that good.

Heath steals the show (as well he should). His voice and mannerisms are just wicked. Weird overtones of Brandon Lee/The Crow, but it can't be helped.

What's up with the "I need a lozenge" for Christian Bale's Batman voice? And the awful jawline on the mask? (Christian, if you're reading this, I totally agree: Bobblehead. Nicely put!)

Very different flavor from Iron Man, which was also excellent, but lighter and more entertaining (I mean that in a good way). Friends keep telling us about the quick crossover references, so I'll watch for that when it comes out on video.

We did not get to see the Watchmen trailer (I'll do that in the next couple days). Part of me almost doesn't want to know, the other part is morbidly curious to see how bad Alan Moore's work is going to be mistreated yet again. To be fair, V for Vendetta was good, but the rest were not taken care of very well.

boy stuff (sorta)

Yesterday I was in Target, and while I was looking around the toy department, a mom behind me is looking at the Dark Knight/Batman toys with her daughter. What I overhear is, "You want the crazy guy (Joker)? You're the only girl I know who plays with both Barbies and this stuff." I had to silently laugh, because I was that girl too, only it was Barbies and Star Wars action figures.

Last week Owen came home from my parents' house with a what I think was a MacDonald's toy of Bumblebee; and if it wasn't, then it was a great knock-off. Even though he says he doesn't like Transformers, he likes the toys.

The big yay is that he's finally gotten into the Muppets. He runs around singing "Manamana," "Crocodile Rock" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." (oh, and the pink polyester pants Elton wears on the show? so wrong.) Of course, I think of Anne, who always said the cure for getting a song out of your head was to sing the opening song to the Muppets. It might even be worth it to hook up the VCR and dig out my Muppets' 30th anniversary show that I taped from TV. It's like a "best of."

Saturday was also his first visit to a comic book shop, New England Comics @ Coolidge. He's also into reading Tiny Titans and Superman Adventures, based on the animated series by Mark Millar (thanks Pete!)

We're seeing Dark Knight tomorrow; Tak's already seen it, but I'm really looking forward to it.

totoro forest project

Tak sent me the link to the Totoro Forest Project and I was totally blown away. The aim of the project is to protect and preserve the Sayama Forest near Tokyo, which inspired Hayao Miyazaki to create his most iconic film, My Neighbor Totoro. The project's benefit event is an auction of many artists' work, including Charles Vess, James Jean, Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese), Scott Campbell, Scott Morse, and a number of artists whose names & styles look vaguely familiar to me. Awesome.

Just when I thought Owen wouldn't be able to see a Miyazaki film on the big screen, Tak also sent me the trailer for the new Miyazaki & Studio Ghibili Film Ponyo on the Cliff (Gake no ue no Ponyo). It opens in Japan this weekend, which probably means it'll be another year before it hits the states. Just that he keep making movies is wonderful!

internet diet

With the beginning of my new job, my internet use has come to an almost complete halt during the daytime. As a result, I spend my late nights catching up on my 'net surfing, which leaves even less time for blogging. And sleep. Sorry.

We had friends come in for the 4th, which meant a thorough house-cleaning. I had to stash most of the contents of my old cube under the dining table. Owen had a "brilliant" time at the annual birthday barbecue we go to, mostly because of the fireworks we got to see. There were also a bunch of other kids about his age there, and he had a ton of fun playing with them. Especially once they realized the Nerf rocket launcher could also be used as a water gun.

Even though it opened last weekend, we finally got around to checking out WALL-E. I really liked it. Owen, being the sensitive boy, got very upset about where the people were. (Later, I explained the storytelling convention of looking in the background movies about what's already happened in the movie). Then, he sobbed at the end of the movie. He did laugh at the right places, and he really did like the movie, using old cellphones in the places of WALL-E and EVE.

Tip of the day: An old pizza box makes a good surface on which to shuck corn. A bonus: since you're not supposed to recycle pizza boxes anyway, you can then close it and throw the whole thing out; the mess is contained. Presto!

future posts: Avon Calling, 80s clothing-redux rant & Prom, Iron Man, Zeer.com

a sorta fairytale

from Storyland to Stardust, it's been quite a week!

We joined our friends Frank, Patrice & Sofia at Storyland, in NH, and I'm so glad we went. It was so fun...like a smaller, less corporate Disneyworld. Owen had a blast! He loved the rides and is still talking about them. He yet again did damage to his cute little face: he ran away from us and tripped into some gravel, cutting his forehead. Not badly, but enough to leave a mark. We had dinner & hung out with F/P/S; the next morning we were in the pool. We played an "evil monster" game that involved "saving;" Frank was the monster (I was the witch/sea hag) holding Sofia, and Owen "rescued" her. Sofia is really into princesses, so of course, they had to get married! It was the running joke all morning. Then somehow, Owen said they needed blood tests--how did he know? We'll see what happens in another 20+ years!

I went to my first Yelp elite event at the Milky Way in JP. Lots of fun...I actually got up to sing karaoke, "Love Shack" w/ Russ S, who is quite an entertainer. Met & matched some people up to their profiles, which was also neat.

Tonight, Owen slept over at my parents & Tak was working, so I took myself to see Stardust, finally! It was really good. If you go in not expecting things to be just like the book, it's very enjoyable. A plus seeing the gorgeous scenery on the big screen, and Charlie Cox is perfect as Tristan. I think I may have been more excited to see the trailer for the Golden Compass, though.

optimus prime

The o-man slept over at my parents' house last night, and Tak & I got to go to the movies before his trip to NYC. We saw Transformers and WHOA it was excellent. Non-stop go go go. Sometimes the special effects were too much so that you don't know what's happening on the screen. Also a couple plot holes/wha-wha-what just happened moments. My friend Sofia has been recommending this to me for the last month and I'm so glad we saw it on the big screen.

My big OOPS for the day was I made Tak's train reservations and scheduled him to be on a train *yesterday* morning. Luckily he was able to switch the ticket over and make his train. Whew!

catch the magic

In gearing up for the Harry Potter onslaught, I'm re-watching movies #3 (my favorite) tonight and #4 tomorrow night, and will hopefully see #5 over the weekend. I re-read books 5 & 6 last month, too.

Neil Gaiman keeps letting people know about Stardust, which should be in theaters later this year.

Over 4th of July, our friend Dan had his annual BBQ. Once again, the numbers are intimate, about 20 people. I think for his 30th (or 29th?) birthday, there must have been 300+ people there, and amenities included a DJ, a band, bar with an ice sculpture shot slide, and port-a-potties. Crazy. One of the best though, was the year ('96? '97?) people got up on the mic, (we think--the memory is vague) Scruffy from the Dropkick Murphys played bagpipes against some drumbeats (amazing), and f-14s flew overhead towards the end of the night. (BTW, if someone reads this who was there, please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these points!) Anyway, again, happy birthday Dan. You rock!

The fireworks in Dorchester lasted at least until midnight, and people were still lighting them off until Sunday night.

Lorie from NYC stayed with us, and I kidnapped her to sleep overnight at my parents' house with Owen. We went blueberry picking (TreeBerry Farm in Scituate), lunch at Haddad's in Brant Rock, and a jaunt to Scituate Harbor. We did a lot of driving around, too. It was awesome to hang out (sans Owen) with Rob & Jude, go out to an excellent dinner at Petit Robert, visit the Dig offices, and cap off the night at JJ Foley's. Lorie left the next morning. Sadly, her guy Pete couldn't come up because he has to save his vacation for San Diego Comic Con, where he & co will be doing their Comic Book Show. Woo-hoo! We missed him, but we know how fantastic ComicCon is, too.

Last bit of news: Tak's comic, Secret Asian Man, should (fingers crossing, wood knocking) start running daily on Monday in the Patriot Ledger and other papers all over the place.

when turkeys fly

Last week at my parents' house, we came in there was a 20-25lb male turkey standing outside, just walking for at least 5-10 minutes. I pulled out my camera to try & take a picture, and I think the movement scared him off. The even cooler thing was that he flew into up the tall trees, where they roost at night--which was an amazing to see.

Thanks to the Best Buy pre-sale, I was able to get Police tickets--for November. The band had better be good.

Right now I am making cupcakes for Owen's birthday party at school tomorrow and watching Borat. What a frickin' crazy movie. The cupcakes came out OK. Note to self: if you have a choice between using spray-on oil, flour, or both--just go with the spray-on oil. These cupcakes came out the easiest. I had to frost the cupcakes with a dusting of oil & flour or just flour on the muffin pan upside-down. All because I didn't have cupcake liners!

lesson learned

The other night, in an effort to break up the Miyazaki repetition, I put on Disney's Alice in Wonderland, thinking that Owen would like the silliness of it. We've also been reading Bill Peet's The Caboose Who Got Loose, and he worked on a bunch of Disney movies, including Alice in Wonderland. We start watching, and we get to the part after Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole, and is looking through the keyhole as the White Rabbit is running away. Owen comes over to me, tells me to turn it off, and bursts into tears. When I get him to tell me why he's so upset, he says, "She lost her kitty!" The crying jag lasts a good 15 minutes. So, I guess we won't be watching a good chunk of the Disney catalog for awhile!

Currently listening to:

sister of the bride II

I should start with my sister's shower/bachelorette, except we're watched the new Casino Royale, which is excellent. And now White Chicks is on, and I've never seen the whole thing.

The shower was good and went off without a hitch. The Old Colony house is a lovely place to have an event, service was great, the food was good. It was wonderful to see people, and Kate will need to re-register.

The kids' birthday party was hectic, going from one event to another, but Tak did fine going solo while I was still doing best-woman duties. I went & picked them up, and brought Owen & gifts to my parents' house. Then back home to party. Tak went off to meet the boys, and I left to meet the girls.

1st stop: Flash's for dinner. Started the night out right with Dark & Stormies. Food was great and we were there for 3 hours. They were very nice and let us have our Sweet n'Nasty cupcakes, which went over very well.
Oh, yeah, and it snowed.
2nd stop: Limelight for karaoke. I opted for the "private" studio, which was fun because we could be as cheesey as we wanted to be and not have to worry about Emaerson students. The drinks were big and strong, but our waiter kept opening & closing the door instead of bringing them all in on a tray. The singing was so much fun I'm just getting my voice back.
3rd & last stop: JJ Foley's. There isn't a better place to end a long night of drinking than at Foley's.
2:15AM: time to go home. Katie, Meredith & I hailed me a cab, miraculously on Beacon Hill. I hadn't been out that late in a looong time, and was shocked to see so many people out trying to get cabs. It was surreal.

Tak beat me home: he was back at 11:30, but the grooms' men started at noon. Their party included tequila shots. The next morning/afternoon we didn't recover until 12:30-1pm, when my parents brought back Owen. Needless to say, I've gone to bed early most nights this week. And "Heaven is a Place on Earth" has been jumping into my head at random times this week.

jolly good show

We're finally watching Bridge on the River Kwai. It's fantastic...and long. What motivated us to watch it was Sessue Hayakawa, one of the first Japanese actors to break into Hollywood--in 1915.

Happy Evacuation Day and St. Patrick's Day. We've been invited to a friend's family home in Southie to watch the parade on Sunday. Again, something I've never done in all my years of living in Boston. Maybe it's the insanity of dealing with the yahoos who come in, like on First Night. But this year will be fun, and Owen's first big Irish parade.

Also on Sunday is a new Boston Comic Con, at the Back Bay Events Center. Something to do before or instead of the St. Patrick's Day Parade. People I know who'll be there: Paul Gould, Hannibal King, Mark Poutenis, and Frankie B. Washington

In other comic book geekery, my friend Pete does a fun improv show in NYC called the Comic Book Club at the PIT. Congrats on the show, the website, and interviewing the editor of Captain America. Keep up the good work.

Just finished: Gene Yang's American Born Chinese. It got a lot of hype as being part of the graphic novel wave, and deservedly so. Quick read and superbly done.

Owen and his jingly hippo have stumbled into the room, so it's time to get in the big bed. Good night!

cold snap

Crivens! Winter isn't done yet. It's still ridiculously cold. Finished Wintersmith, though, and liked it better than Hat Full of Sky. It's just a really enjoyable series. Love those Mac Nac Feegles.

Knitted a smaller version of the gift bag on the cover of Last Minute Gifts, but in Malabrigio yarn. It came out really nice, especially as my first time doing yarn overs. Now I just have to figure out what to put in it! Next I'll have to do the gift bag in the yummy Blue Sky Alpaca yarn like in the book.

Finally saw the Departed. Holy smokes. It's amazing. There are very recognizable scenes from Infernal Affairs, but it's also its own film--as it should be. And the language is outrageous. The extras are worth it for the second disc. We also got to check out Letters from Iwo Jima, which was also incredible.

Oh, and remember how I didn't think I'd need another circular knitting needle? I need a 24" size 15 for my next projects, a felted handbag and the Diotoma shell from Webs. Oops. Of course, Michael's didn't have one in 24" (or 32"), but in 29". At least I can return it.

aw, shucks

Thanks, you guys for being so supportive. Really, I wasn't fishing for compliments. I know I am not a bad knitter, and I wish I just had more time to practice.

Where I failed in Police tickets (so far), I succeeded in Loreena McKennit tickets. I'm taking my mom. So psyched.

I did end up finding the Departed at Borders--a couple days after it came out. Everyone probably bum-rushed the stores in case we got a ton of snow. (We didn't, but it was cold and messy.) We still haven't watched it yet. I know, I know... Infernal Affairs is great, so it's not like I don't know what happens. We are going to the movies on Sunday, and it's still playing in Boston. Or we might see Children of Men (thanks Bob!). Or Letters from Iwo Jima. We'll see.

Taking a break with Terry Pratchett (thanks Liz!), and reading a vaguely trashy British mom lit called Yummy Mummy by Polly Williams. It's awful and totally engaging, like the Shopaholic books. What's even funnier is that I know a Polly Williams, and this is so not her.

Tak is doing a talk tomorrow at UMD, so what did I do? Shop for yarn like an imbecile. Like I need more? Actually, I've been seriously coveting this Lexie B. bag in Baja, and was debating whether to buy it from WEBS or kpixie. I'm hoping kpixie has a store front so I can go look at it, because I am NOT going to Webs (yet). Now I'm just waiting for Owen to wake up to come in the big bed.

Note: links will open in a separate window. Hope that's OK. I lost my sticky note with the code so links do not open in a new window, and I'm too lazy to hunt through blogger's help menu. thanks!

yay librarians!

Well, actually, yay to the supervisor at the circulation desk. I was a dummy and left this photo in the copy of Children of Men when I returned it to the library. After one call to ask them to look for it, and another call to see if they had found it, I was told that it had already gone back. If I wanted to find out more I should come in ask for a supervisor. So I did. Luckily, the really nice circulation desk person got me the supervisor on duty, who was AWESOME, and after looking in several places and checking the computer, came back with it. I think he was going to offer some marriage advice, but was called back to duty. Thank you! Thank you, BPL circulation desk supervisor, for finding a photo of me as a blond and Tak with a mohawk from Halloween '93.

Children of Men was a good read. Took awhile to get into it, but it was very satisfying. I'll see the movie eventually, which I've heard takes some liberties (as most movie versions do). Also saw A Scanner Darkly, and I was surprised how true to the book it was. The animation made it better, too; although I'd be curious to watch the live action footage that was used for the animation. We got a babysitter to check out Pan's Labyrinth, which was amazing. The fairy tale part had the otherworldly quality needed, and the "real life" is gritty. The effects & makeup are incredible.

Yesterday's brouhaha over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force stunt in Boston is all over the news--and I haven't read/watched much of it. Luckily it didn't snarl my commute, but I can't imagine the gigantic inconvenience to those whose day was wrecked.

On a closing note & back to yay! librarians, Lydia, who's a librarian, used to write for the Dig in the early days. Check out her site renegade librarian, which has lots of cool links. She's got a Bengal kitty, too!