The Entertainer, Installment 2

Title: She's Out Of My League

Notable Cast Members: Jay Baruchel

Why?: Because I love Jay Baruchel, and have since Tropic Thunder and, retroactively, Undeclared.

Three Thoughts: Any movie set in Pittsburgh - especially when it didn't have to be because of historical circumstances or plot devices - is fine with me. I enjoyed this one a great deal, although there are scenes that would prevent me from recommending it to friends whose senses of humor are not as uncouth as mine can sometimes be. Overall, a standard romantic comedy story improved by a main star I like and a number of moments that wound up being far funnier than they should have been.

Title: Fanboys

Notable Cast Members: Jay Baruchel (again), Kristen Bell

Why?: Because the other day, I was in line at Best Buy when I ran into my friend John, who was buying (among other things) this DVD. He said it was about a handful of Star Wars fans who go on a quest to steal Episode 1 from Skywalker Ranch, and it was awesome. He has good taste, so I listened to him and got it from Netflix.

Three Thoughts: John was right, this movie was great. To enjoy it, it helps to have some semblance of background knowledge in the Star Wars field, but a simple respect for how someone can love a movie so much is really all you need to appreciate it. Just like She's Out Of My League, the movie is also vastly improved by its illustrious cast.

Title: State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

Authors: Various; edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey

Why?: I read about one of the essays contained within on a year-end best-of list last December.

Three Thoughts: A collection of essays about the United States; one per state, some written by natives, some by outsiders. Some were great, and some dragged like crazy, but since none was more than 10 or 12 pages, it was OK. I really liked Kansas (about the author's first visit to the state while touring with a band), Georgia (by a Chinese man who moved there in his 20s), Indiana (about the author's return to the state after leaving, and her love for her father), New Jersey (written by Anthony Bourdain, who I quite enjoy), Oklahoma (by S.E. Hinton), South Dakota (by a Manhattanite who randomly decided to vacation there), and Vermont (written like a mini-comic book), among others.

Title: The Young Victoria

Notable Stars: Emily Blunt, who I like even though she's marrying my boyfriend

Why?: I heard about it because there was a lot of Oscar buzz surrounding Blunt's performance, and the story appealed to my inner history nerd.

Three Thoughts: Very well acted, and the buzz she received was well deserved. Not being a student of British history, I can't comment much on the accuracy of the story. That being said, even if it was inaccurate, the liberties they took with it made for a good movie.

The Entertainer

Today, we're starting a new thing here at Daily Word Allotment. In an effort to not only keep track of books I read, movies I watch, and other forms of entertainment I enjoy, but also to let all of you know what I think of them, I've decided to talk about them here. As I am far too lazy to write full reviews of all of them, I'm going to try to keep my commentary on each to three sentences or less - my brother would be proud of me for limiting my words! Anyway, here we go, starting about a month ago with the commencement of summer.

Title: The African Queen, or How I Went To Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind

Author: Katharine Hepburn

Why?: Because it was referenced in an article somewhere on the internets. I thought it was slate.com, but now I can't find the article, so heaven knows where I read about it.

Three Thoughts: I want to be Katharine Hepburn when I grow up. However, I do not want to make a movie in Africa, because it sounds beastly. That being said, the story was great, especially for a Hollywood nerd like myself.

Title: From Dead to Worse (Southern Vampire Mysteries #8)

Author: Charlaine Harris

Why?: A few work colleagues got me hooked on the series, upon which the True Blood TV show is based.

Three Thoughts: Like Twilight, if Twilight were written for grown-ups and had a more complex storyline. But I mean that in a good way. Not the best of the series, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Title: The Pact

Author: Jodi Picoult

Why?: Because my mother keeps buying them and giving them to me to read.

Three Thoughts: After you read more than a few of her books, they're kind of all the same. And yet, I still find them compulsively readable. If you're looking to start reading them, though, start with Plain Truth over this one, and check back after I've read a few more of them.

Title: Date Night

Notable Cast Members: Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Marky Mark, James Franco

Why?: Because I like the four previously listed cast members, and I want to give them my money. Especially Franco.

Three Thoughts: The cast, especially the supporting cast, make the film. The plot is rather formulaic, but certain bits of awesome shine through. I kind of want to see it again to pick out the more quotable moments.

Title: Flow: The Cultural History of Menstruation

Author: Elissa Stein and Susan Kim

Why?: I know I saw this one referenced on slate.com, and I thought it would be interesting, if only in a retro-kitschy type of way. And the library had it, so it was easy to get.

Three Thoughts: Old advertisements and archaic medical procedures and terminology never cease to entertain and fascinate me. What doesn't entertain and fascinate me is people's hatred of the pharmaceutical industry, and throwaway comments about how Big Pharma is out to get them. Overall, though, interesting if you're a science and history nerd like me.

Title: The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Author: Michael Lewis

Why?: Because I liked the movie far more than I thought I would. You know, if they had marketed it as a sports movie from the beginning, instead of making it look like your standard famous-actress-plays-difficult-character Oscar Bait, I would've been all over it.

Three Thoughts: A lovely story, without the sappiness you'd expect from some of the movie trailers that played last summer. A lot more football-oriented than the movie, although not so much that it should deter those of you who aren't football fans (and not Ravens-oriented enough to deter even the hardest of Steeler fans). Ended a bit abruptly, given what has happened since the subject left college, but a nice afterword was added to the paperback edition to try to bridge this gap.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So, things look different here now (to like, the three of you who read this thing). Blogger has this super cool new design stuff, hence the pretty new background!

I decided that it was time for a name change as well. Once upon a time, my brother told me that I should have a daily allotment for the number of words that I use. He proposed some ridiculously small number like 10,000. Apparently I talk a lot, and he isn't quick enough to keep up with me.

I made the mistake of telling people about this, and now when I talk a lot, they ask if I've used up my alloted words for the day. They think they're funny. They also asked if the reason I had a blog was to be able to still talk when I had used up my words. Clearly, these people don't know how infrequently I update.

Hence, the new name. Even though I rarely update and routinely go over my word allotment verbally, I thought it was a good name. Better than "Swim, Swim and a Fishy Go By," which was only good when I thought I was going to be talking about swim lessons all the time instead of posting vacation pictures and That's What She Said-able signs.

So, enjoy! All three of you who are reading! :-)

Who Let The Dogs Out?

For Memorial Day weekend, Ken and McKenna came to visit. Yay! My parents were out of town (in one of my favorite cities...and they got to see my best friend...which is entirely not fair...not that I'm bitter), so I was dogsitting for Holly at their house for the weekend. So we went on a mini-break, a la Bridget, to Mt. Airy for the weekend. Holly was a bit wary of McKenna's presence at first,

but quickly got used to it, and even allowed McKenna to help her flirt with the young stud next door. His alias is Benjamin, as he is young and Holly (a.k.a. Mrs. Robinson) is not.
Tricia and Kathy came for dinner. We had what I've started calling Lost-a (as I first made it for Carter and me during the Lost finale), as well as cider Ken brought from New York,

and some awesome cookies I made that turned out to be a bit more fluorescent than I intended.

Holly wanted very much to sit at the table with us, although she was none too pleased about being restrained to have her picture taken.

After dinner, we watched Music and Lyrics. We had planned to just fast forward through to the good parts (namely, any parts in which Hugh Grant dances and/or sings), but noticed Matthew Morrison's name in the opening credits. Therefore, we had to watch until we spotted him.

While we were watching, McKenna decided to camoflage herself into the sectional furniture using her chameleon-like skills, and a few throw pillows.

Once she unearthed herself, she let me try on her collar, since it matched my sweater.

Saturday was a very eventful day. We went to the first wine festival of the year, and Tricia graciously agreed to provide transportation. And entertainment, as we located a number of random items in the backseat of her car.

The wine festival is an interesting place...in addition to the tasting areas and the tour, they have tons of vendors. Some sell food, some sell hats, some sell crafts, and some sell random crap that we were scared to investigate.

People also make some interesting accessory choices at the wine festival. We were hoping that these people were using their umbrella as a parasol, as there was a very small chance of it going to rain.

After the wine festival, we returned to Tricia's house for dinner, where Kathy tried to tame the savage beast that is Lucy.

After dinner, we parted ways to prepare for the next day's activities.

Sunday, I decided to have a party. I had a number of good excuses (graduation, having a bigger yard for the weekend, Ken being in town), but really, I just wanted to play lawn games. The party started with food, which pleased Holly, who spent the better part of the evening playing her "I'm so pretty, don't you want to feed me human food?" game with people.

McKenna was also happy about the party, as there were many people there to pet her.

We also accomplished my goal of playing lawn games. We played Scatch, which may be one of the greatest games known to man,

as well as bocce ball.

As the night progressed, there were two very tired dogs in the house.

Monday morning, we decided to start our day with a bit of irony.

McKenna started her day by taking over Holly's bed and making her mad.

Highlights from Monday include eating our weight in party leftovers, and visiting Sara and Grant, who were visiting from New Jersey. Josh had gone home, as had Penny, so we didn't get to see them, but we had fun anyway.

On Tuesday, the highlight of the day was getting pedicures. We took our bright, shiny new pedicures to Tricia's for dinner again, too, where we set about tiring out Lucy the Beast.

We also made sure she didn't help herself to a sink snack.

After we returned to Mt Airy, Holly tried to lay claim to Ken's laptop while we watched Dynasty, so she couldn't leave the next day.

But, alas, she did, leaving McKenna behind to finish her vacation with me. We spent the week watching Will Ferrell movies,

and getting hair on furniture. McKenna was a bit forlorn when we returned to Frederick,

but brightened up when she saw Aunt Kathy that weekend.
The rest of the week went by rather quickly and uneventfully, with the exception of Friday night. But that, my dears, is a story for another day....