Category Archives: Entertainment

Hunkering Down & Dreaming

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Well, it’s “slow-cooker Sunday” and we are hunkering down for tonight’s bit of snow. As we wait for our tasty and perfectly-cooked dinner, I am thinking and dreaming… I am envisioning the travel we will be embarking on here and there over the next few months… So In the midst of what I hope is the season’s final dump of the white stuff, I am dreaming of escaping winter and feeling the warm air of… anywhere really… It’s already March and I haven’t gone anywhere since winter vacation. That’s quite a stretch for me!

So let’s break the next few months down. As I evaluate my schedule (some plans include destination running), envision yours and make your travel plans too, if you haven’t already!

  1. March… nada. Sniff. Was hoping to through in a FL weekend to get some sunshine. Not looking good.
  2. April – DC (run), NM, CA (run)
  3. May – AB
  4. June – potentially MA (run)
  5. July – potentially IL (run)
  6. August – CA or NC (undecided), potentially VA (run)
  7. September – potentially PQ (run)
  8. October-December – a little too far to consider for now…

And I’ll be throwing in a trip to SD, CA to visit Alaa! Gotta figure that one out!

So what’s on your travel agenda? If nothing yet, get planning. 🙂

Friday Night with Aileen

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Some notes on a serial killer… Saw the movie years ago, but now watching the documentary on this chilly last night of February… Incredible likeness. Creepin’ me out actually, yet very fascinating.

Aileen Wuornos. Wow, wow, wow. Crazy bulging eyes. The more angry she got the bulgier her eyes became. Creepy!

Delusional. Sonic pressure was making her crazy. The food trays were killing her, basically. Scrubbed all her food. She was being surveilled.  The world would be nuked in 2019.

Her girlfriend thought gay people were “invented”. Must not have existed before she heard of them. Haha! Wow.

Said she was not a professional serial killer. Did some sloppy work. Left finger prints. Thinks the cops were letting her continue to kill. She wanted the death penalty. Said she’d be back on the mother ship on June 6 anyway. Whoopa! Ok.

Her mom asked when the execution was… thought she’d rest better… I’m sure she was right.

Wordless Wednesday #8

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fancy-dress-costumes.jn22.com

fancy-dress-costumes.jn22.com

Throwback Thursday #7 – Team Canada

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Keeping it simple in today’s #tbt…

Just thinking about all those years that Team Canada won gold in Olympic hockey.

That was a lot of times.

Men and women.

Canada/U.S. battles are the best.

And the Canadian wins are the greatest. Heehee.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com

sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Gasp! My Third Blogger Award! The Liebster!

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To say I’m honored is an understatement. I’d say completely enamored. Thank you to Lauren of 2014 and Some Change for the nomination for the Liebster – an award for new blogs!

liebsteraward

If you would like to know more about this blogosphere award, here is a link to some of the background on a blog I found by Lorraine Reguly.

Here are the rules:

  • The bloggers that have been nominated must link back to the person that nominated them
  • Nominees must answer the eleven questions given to them by the person who nominated them
  • Those nominated must choose eleven of their fave bloggers that have less than 200 followers to answer their own set of questions (a few of my choices I wasn’t sure about)
  • When you are nominated you cannot nominate the person that nominated you

Here are my nominees, a few are brand new follows but I like them already!

  1. Once Upon a (L)ime
  2. life and loveliness
  3. I Run For Donuts
  4. One day at at time
  5. blogged artistry
  6. Confessions of a Monogrammed Runner
  7. Do Away With SMA
  8. run pretty run fast
  9. 278 to Boston
  10. Running in the Rain
  11. Reading Runner Girl

Questions to answer, and for my nominees to answer:

1. Where is your favorite place to be? Wherever Brett is, preferably somewhere warm

2. Name two songs that describe you. Break Away by Kelly Clarkson, Arms by Christina Perri

3. Who is the most inspirational person in your life, and why? I really don’t know

4. Do you believe in karma? Yes and no

5. If you could have a dream job for a day what would it be? Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream taster

6. Name three annoyances currently in your life. Ignorance, nit-picking, entitlement

7. What “spirit” animal do you best vibe with? Otter

8. How has blogging helped you? It’s helped me realize how much I love writing

9. List two things that you are proud of accomplishing. MAED & a few half marathons

10. Do you have a talent, if so what is it? Easing the tension in a tense situation

11. Where do you envision yourself in five years? Not sure, but it’s not where I am now

So that’s it! Thanks again Lauren and congrats to my nominees!

Why Can’t I Read?

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I just can’t read for longer than 15  minutes. Why? Why? Why?

I have huge aspirations for reading all the time, but I can’t do it for long!

tutte-reflectionsonlifecom.blogspot.com

tutte-reflectionsonlifecom.blogspot.com

I even joined two groups on goodreads.com – a non-fiction reading group and a classics group to help inspire me! However, I’m still reading the same non-fiction book I began at the start of January, and have yet to start my classics choice Treasure Island (chosen by recommendation thanks to Monica).

I’m still reading And the Mountains Echoed, the new Khaled Hosseini book, three weeks later. I started to read the book with Jill so we could talk about it. Well, she’s done and I’m still halfway through… I like the book… The story is good, characters interesting. Why can’t I focus?

I can read for entire flights though, nearly completing entire books! Maybe I just need this…

kotaku.com

kotaku.com

Movies You Might Want to Know About

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During our play date yesterday afternoon, Lana and I were catching each other up on movies we’ve watched recently since she watched eight on her long flight to Korea; and lately Brett and I have been somewhat more incessant about watching movies on Netflix.

Here are some of our findings worth mentioning on Netflix; no serious shows listed:

  1. Butter – about a man who just happens to  be a champion butter carver and a little girl who wants the title, Jennifer Garner plays wife in a great “Sarah Palin” style role
  2. Lucky – Colin Hanks plays a lucky serial killer who wins the lottery, funny show
  3. Girl Walks Into a Bar – interesting cinematography, wasn’t sure if it was a TV who or movie because of the interwoven stories, funny moments
  4. The Vicious Kind – manic brother has issues but becomes infatuated with his brother’s girlfriend, some dark comedic moments, good acting
  5. Drinking Buddies – guy/girl buddies dating other people but should really be dating each other, funny
  6. Lars and the Real Girl – seen it before but really appreciate the role Ryan Gosling plays, mix of melancholy and whimsical
  7. The Switch – also previously watched but you just can’t go wrong with a Jason Bateman flick: a guy who gets drunk and doesn’t remember switching sperm samples in his best friend’s pregnancy plan
  8. The Brass Teapot – young couple finds a teapot that loads them up with cash when certain types of events occur, silly and far-fetched, but fun

Both Lana and I agreed that both The Heat and The Way Way Back are awesome – the latter being one of my faves of 2013. Great coming-of-age story and of course, can’t beat Steve Carrell: funny guy but also plays the perfect asshole.

Have some to add? Please share!

Oh Walter Mitty

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An NYC snow day yesterday meant my day was open for sleeping, reading, writing, and watching movies. My movie buddy Tina often reads my mind so I was excited when she and I decided to head out into the cold and sloppy mess to watch Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

What can I say about Ben Stiller and the movies he directs, produces, and stars in: they are exactly what I want to see. His portrayal of how real people think, respond, and behave is perfect regardless the character portayed: Walter Mitty, Derek Zoolander, Larry Daley or Gaylord Focker. I always learn something about people through his portrayal of his crafted characters.

So here are my lessons learned from Walter Mitty:

  1. It’s okay to daydream
  2. Budgets are important
  3. Risks are hard, but necessary in order to grow as a person
  4. It feels great to do something nice for someone else, especially when they do not expect it
  5. We confuse disappointment in a person with not knowing all the information about a situation
  6. Doing something unexpected and spontaneous makes us frantic and uncomfortable at first
  7. Pushing our limits creates a new level of self-respect
  8. You have more of an impact on people’s lives than you think

Number 8 is particularly my favorite. This idea has copious amounts of potential to make us all ponder our purpose, as well as contemplate the words and actions we send into the world. So thank you Ben Stiller, for your ingenuity in character development and thoughtful representation of real people and their quirks. I look forward to your next piece of work.

Songs on Repeat

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Brett and I are those people who obsess over songs, sometimes listening to the same song all day long.

godlygirlz.blogspot.com

godlygirlz.blogspot.com

Here are some of our song obsessions (mostly mine). Some are new songs and others are long withstanding obsessive repeats:

  • Arms, Distance and Miles by Christina Perri
  • Bonfire Heart, Blue on Blue, Miss America by James Blunt (in the past I was obsessed with his 1973 album)
  • Say Something by A Great Big World
  • Make You Feel My Love by Garth Brooks then Adele
  • Volcano by Damien Rice
  • Life for Rent and Mary’s in India by Dido
  • Lights by Ellie Goulding
  • Tiny Dancer and Your Song by Elton John (also the Moulin Rouge version of Your Song sung by Ewen McGregor)
  • Float by Flogging Molly (this one is Brett’s – this song does drive me a bit bananas after a few listens)
  • You & I and Be OK by Ingrid Michaelson
  • Let Her Go by Jasmine Thompson
  • Wish You Well by Katie Herzig
  • Human, Space Man, and A Dustland Fairytale by The Killers
  • Sign No More and Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons
  • Leave, Falling Slowly, Say it to Me Now, Sleeping, and Gold by Steve Kazee & Cristin Milioti (from Once on Broadway – best show I’ve seen btw)
  • Story of my Life by One Direction (Shhhh)
  • Stay by Rihanna (but we prefer the Barkhouse version 😉 )
  • Chasing Cars and You Could be Happy by Snow Patrol
  • I Want it That Way by the Backstreet Boys (Ha! Yes…)
  • Anything Bon Jovi from the albums Slippery When Wet, New Jersey, Cross Road

*This list of course not limited to these songs by any means.

I have a strong emotional memory to songs, as many people do; and the memories associated with many of these songs are ones from times in my life I wish I could capture in a bottle.

I’d love to hear the songs you put on repeat! I hope my list brought some fond memories to you. I’m sure many of your repeats will spark more memories of mine!

JJ’s Throwback Thursday #2 – Holiday Edition

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I would like to dedicate this Throwback to my brother and his family for the good time this week.

Me and my bro long ago (1976 and 1982-I think)

Me and my bro long ago (1976 and 1982-I think)

My Canadian Christmas 2013 was spent mostly with my mom, dad, brother, sister in-law, niece and nephew (Brett had to work this week so he stayed in NYC, and we will be meeting up with the kids in Phoenix soon). Although I did get to see Jill and her family and had lunch with Joc and her kids; a little more friend time was scheduled but had to cancel due to feeling under the weather.

Anyway… I could throw way back and dig up some crazy old memories from our childhood (stuffing dirty socks in my mouth or getting concussions, for example), but I can call yesterday’s firecracker debacle a “Throwback” memory.

December 25th rundown:

Mom, Dad and I drive from Wetaskiwin to Leduc yesterday morning for gift openings and a day of eating and relaxing.

Gift opening: Great! Lots of smiles and happy faces.

Relaxing: Awesome! From table to kitchen to couch and around again and again. A little nap for Trent and dad, a little run for me.

Eating: Delicious! Corn chowder for lunch. Steak, crab legs, smoked salmon, potato skins and more for dinner. Mmmm!

Games: Scrabble and Beat the Parents. A little thinking involved but successful.

Fireworks: First round – great! Second round – not so much. Run for cover – literally! After Trent set them up, they fell over and started shooting at us towards the house. Ty yells: “They fell over! Get in the house!” while herding us all like sheep toward the door. Trent dove into the snow and tried to take cover. Meanwhile, dad is standing at the end of the deck enjoying the show, no big deal. Keely’s camera records the Griswald type of event that is taking place. After a delayed reaction, we were all back inside. No injuries reported. Usually this type of thing happens at the Borneman family Christmas events… 🙂

After all calmed down and tried a third and final round of fireworks, all was good. And then ended the night ended with a regular Coors and the Griswald’s.

The few days of relaxing with the fam was needed and great. So thank you guys for your hospitality and the new throwbacks! ❤