Potatoes in the Mist

D and I saw Harold & Kumar tonight. Everyone and their mother was going to see Iron Man, so it wasn't crowded. H&K was rude, silly and fun. It also featured the cutest math love poem. (The title of the post comes from it...)

So I was returning from a veggie burger excursion tonight (D is at a family thing out-of-state) and I got the urge for something sweet. The dilemma was: 1) a square of carrot cake from the corner grocer or 2) fat-free Edy's Fruit Bar (a popsicle, really) from my freezer. The popsicle won, because the carrot cake would have required me to walk an extra block. D and I saw Baby Mama on Friday (no movie would be complete without a guy in the ticket line yelling, "Better hope you won't deliver in the theater, huh?"), but remarks from random morons aside, it was quite enjoyable. Although I must admit the video featured in the movie (no clips were shown, thankfully) gave me pause. The video was entitled: "Extreme Delivery!!" and showed mothers delivering 15-lb infants.

So T and I went to see Definitely, Maybe yesterday. It's the new movie with Ryan Reynolds (previously engaged to Alanis Morissette, now dating Scarlett Johannson, who gave him a bronzed tooth as a gift) and Abigail Breslin (the little girl from Little Miss Sunshine ; she is just relentlessly cute). Anyway, Ryan is getting divorced, and his daughter, Abigail, wants to hear how he met her mother. He decides to tell her in the guise of a "love story mystery," featuring three women he dated, with all of their names changed (except one, as it turns out). Then Abigail has to guess who her mother is. I don't know if it would stand up to a re-watching, since so much of it was plot-driven ("Who's your mommy?"), but the script was clever and T and I both enjoyed it. She pointed out that the divorce detracted from the feel-good factor, which was true. But, all in all, it was a good movie.

So I just saw Cassandra's Dream, Woody Allen's little-publicized but excellent new movie. It was a Greek tragedy involving 2 brothers (Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor)/psychological thriller, set in London. One critic described it as "relentlessly dark -- not a laugh in the whole thing", but there were moments of mild humor. It was definitely a drama, though -- not a comedy. If you like Hitchcock or enjoyed Match Point, this is probably right up your alley. Senseless fear #101 - I was eating a bar of Toblerone during the movie. Then my teeth started zinging. I thought, "I've heard of things being so sweet they make your teeth hurt -- but this can't be right." Then I realized I was chewing on tinfoil. I sheepishly removed a bit of tinfoil from my mouth. My teeth stopped zinging. I chewed the remaining chocolate and swallowed it. Then I started worrying: What if I didn't get it all? What if this hurts E? But I reasoned that my teeth STOPPED ZINGING...

So I just made an appointment for an initial anatomy ultrasound in 2 weeks! That will put me at 15 weeks, and the doctor said I could find out the baby's sex with an ultrasound at 15 weeks...so yup. If all goes well, on Dec. 19, I will find out the baby's sex (or as Liz sassily* put it, "the sex reveal"). What else has been going on? I've been putting on weight apace. I read in my pregnancy book that some women put on most of their weight in first trimester (the ones who don't throw up too much), so I'm hoping the pace will slow down. It actually has, a bit...but the amount I eat would still shock my pre-pregnancy self. I'm planning to close my eyes the next time I get weighed at the doctor's so I don't see the little metal blocks sliding into place. (Yes, I'm kind of serious.) Of course, the nurse always announces the number in a voice that would carry to Nevada. Also, D and I saw Enchanted recently. It was, well...enchanting! (Sorry, cou...

I saw Dan in Real Life today. Other than the fact that everybody in the (surprisingly full) theater seemed to have the croup, I really enjoyed it. From the poster and commercials, I'd feared it would be terribly cliched. But it wasn't. It had that same clever, offbeat humor that seems to pervade all his movies ( The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine). However, there were 2 little girls in the bathroom afterward who didn't like it as much as I did. Girl #1: I didn't really like it. Girl #2: I just cracked my knee. Girl #1: It was okay. It wasn't awful. Girl #2: It was pre-dic-ta-ble. I almost laughed because my predictions were totally off. I had the ending mapped out in my head but it didn't turn out that way. Afterward I swung by the supermarket to get some muffins. Their bakery is very tempting. I was torn between the "cranmuffins" and blueberry muffins. The cran ones were really calling out to me, but blueberry is, you know, safer. So I asked...

So D and I saw Lars and the Real Girl last night. It was a sweet movie with an interesting premise. It takes place in an isolated Northern town (I thought Minnesota, D thought somewhere in Canada) and features Ryan Gosling as a lonely young man (Lars) who doesn't want a girlfriend, but does want some companionship. So he orders a life-size, female (anatomically correct) doll from the Internet. I really recommend it. Although the doll never spoke, she somehow had more personality than most sitcom characters (and a fuller schedule). Lars' motivation in getting the doll can be summarized by his attitude toward fake flowers: "They're not real, so they last forever." It also starred Emily Mortimer and no one else was really recognizable, but they all did a good job.

I realized I hadn't blogged in a few days. It kind of slipped to the back of my mind. Well, here's some of the stuff that's been going on with me/us: I'd been remiss about watching my Netflix movies, in particular Step Up (starring Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum - Who? Right.) Actually, you may remember that Jenna dated Justin Timberlake for a while, and was one of his dancers. I felt like it was time to get some new movies, so we watched this one. It wasn't great but not horrible either. It's a good one to watch with your significant other/friends because you'll have fun accurately predicting most of the movie based on the first 19 minutes. Then, at the 1 hr 30 min mark, you can accurately predict the ending. I've also been working on a number of knitting projects. I'm finishing up a capelet for my cousin, and a scarf with a fun pattern and a hat are also in progress. Hopefully I'll have pictures of everything up within a week. I also think Big ...

So T and I saw The Jane Austen Book Club today. It was good, though it seemed a little long and disjointed. Sometimes scenes were glossed over, and we agreed that they probably ended up on the cutting room floor. I was pleased with the casting, though. Everyone looked and acted pretty much the way I expected from the book, although my memory of it was fairly dim after 3 years. On the way to the movie we saw about 80 dogs gathered on the steps of a church. I patted one West Highland terrier and stole a peek at its mother's flyer -- "The Blessing of the Dogs." Cute.

Here's the poncho I just finished: And the stitches up close: It was one of those patterns where you get to drop stitches on purpose, which was kind of fun. And the yarn -- Malabrigo Chunky -- was a dream to work with. In other news, T and I are seeing The Jane Austen Book Club tomorrow. We might have banana/blue cornmeal pancakes before the movie :)

So I just saw 2 Days in Paris (totally unrelated to Hilton). It's a new movie, written and directed by Julie Delpy, who appeared in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. If you liked Before Sunset, chances are you would like this. I'm not always a fan of French movies, but there is something quirky, down-to-earth and charming about the way she views the world that makes me enjoy her movies. Adam Goldberg is also in it, and has tattoos all over his body -- I wonder if they're real? Also, it was interesting to watch all the ways in which American and French culture clashed.

Today D and I were walking to his office when we ran into an employee of his, who is also a friend of ours. She gave me a hug and afterward, I had the suspicion that I held the hug too long. It wasn't a Sapphic hug ;) It was just that she was wearing a soft fleecy thing and it felt very cozy. D started laughing and said, "I guarantee she did not think you hugged her too long." I checked out a yarn store listed in the back of Stitch 'n' Bitch today and was underwhelmed. But I have to give the owner points for his sales pitch. He saw me handling some merino and said, "Is best merino in town. Four skeins make a scarf, two skeins make a hat, fifteen skeins make a sweater." Me: Fifteen? Him (backpedaling): Or fourteen. Depends on pattern. Finally, D and I might see Mr. Woodcock tonight. The poster looked awful, but the preview, which featured Billy Bob Thornton absent-mindedly torturing Seann William Scott (a smarmy self-help author), was pretty funny. I...

So D and I saw Shoot 'Em Up tonight. It was fairly violent, as the name would imply. But it was a cartoonish sort of violence that was hard to take seriously. Clive Owen was good, and his role may even cause a surge in carrot sales. (You'll have to see it to find out why.) It was interesting seeing Paul Giamatti as a villain. He doesn't really have the looks for it, with his round face and owlish glasses, but he pulled it off fairly well, aside from a certain stagy quality when he spoke. I would give it a B or B+ -- it was more inventive and interesting than most action movies, but it did have a very rough edge. After the movie, we visited Rainer. I think the heat was too much for him. He kneaded my leg for a while, but didn't linger in my lap, preferring to lie on the cool floor instead. I rubbed his belly, which he seemed to enjoy. I also patted Hayes, who definitely has less personality but is a nice cat anyway. DG pointed out that Hayes has the same amount of person...

I can't sleep. I know people say that if you have insomnia, it's probably a sign of some deep anxiety. Unfortunately, the things that flick through my head when I can't sleep are as follows: 1) The skin on my collarbone feels weird. Maybe it will be better if I lie on my side? No, then my arm will fall asleep. Guess I'll get up and blog. 2) All the songs from Rubber Soul (a Beatles album I recently rediscovered). The shawl I'm working on is taking forever. It has 90 rows (or it will when it's finished), and each row has 100+ stitches (160 in the beginning, but there have been periodic decreases). However, I love the colors. The finished product might be too busy, but making stripes is fun. I'll just wear it with a very subdued top ;) Am pondering whether to see that ping-pong movie with Christopher Walken. I am definitely a fan of his, but I read once that he'll take any role he's offered. Fortunately, it hasn't scarred his reputation. But it mea...

A lot has happened today already. I went to meet D for lunch and along the way I spotted a Boston terrier -- one blue eye, one brown. I stooped to pat it and then I heard an ear-bruising screech!! Everyone's head whipped around. Even the dog jumped. A taxi had squealed to a halt and there was a delivery boy on its hood. Somebody yelled, "Call an ambulance!" The boy seemed fine, even hopping on his bike to finish his deliveries -- but everyone persuaded him to stay. I took out my cell phone but another woman was already giving details to 911. After the woman finished the call, I was satisfied that help was on its way, so I continued. There were a bunch of rubberneckers/supporters gathered around the boy, so he wasn't alone. The dog stayed too. I was shaken by this, of course, but then something amusing happened. A few blocks later, I knelt down to pat a beagle tied outside a coffee shop, and it let loose with this big mournful howl: AROOOO. Everyone smiled, including a...

So here's a picture of the pocketbook I finished: And the shawl I started: I realized I was really bored with hats. D and I saw Superbad on Friday. It was good, but as usual with a Judd Apatow production (he directed Knocked Up) , stunningly crude. He did recycle one joke from Knocked Up, where it was better executed. But I'd still give Superbad an A-. Then my college roommate came to visit and we all watched Snakes on a Plane. She kept covering her eyes during the extremely fake murder scenes and for a moment I missed my eighth-grade slasher flick buddy, who didn't like Psycho because she wanted more "gore." Snakes really exceeded my expectations -- if you were okay with its total ridiculousness and implausibility, then it was kind of hilarious and pretty engaging. I'd give it a B overall but a B+ within its genre.

So T and I had brunch this morning -- vanilla buttermilk pancakes for her, lemon ricotta pancakes with strawberries for me. We both admired the banana cream cheese stuffed French toast from a distance, but feared it would be too filling. I think it's the cream cheese that scared us off...the final touch of decadence. We saw Becoming Jane which was just so good...much better than I was expecting, and more interesting than the poster implied. It was so engaging and charming. At the end though, I was crying, and I looked over at T and saw that her eyes were wet too. We had to stay in the theater for a while! When we did leave, we passed a poster for Shoot 'em Up (ugh, what a title) in which Clive Owen plays a British nanny. Should be interesting.

I was saying to Liz earlier this week that nonfiction sometimes feels like a chore...but sometimes I am in the mood to read it. I have to recommend Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. At first I was afraid it would be somewhat stuffy, but I'm learning all about these books I never heard of! Case in point: The Marquise of O-- by Heinrich von Kleist. Though Kleist tragically died young, his stories sound lively, racy and full of plot twists. The author of the book taught writing at a university in Utah and assigned the story to her students. She was holding her breath to see how the wholesome Mormons would react. (Of course, I kept thinking of Big Love. ) It turns out they loved it! Now I want to read it. And finally, I'm having brunch and seeing a movie with T this weekend. I suggested 3 movies and she's up for any of them. The Ten, Becoming Jane and No Reservations. Any recommendations?

We saw Hairspray. I know, I see too many movies. But the air conditioning is so enticing. Plus, it looked good. It was such a fun movie. Tracy Turnblad, the main character, was bursting with energy. The cast was jam-packed with entertaining people -- Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, John Travolta in very convincing drag, and Michelle Pfeiffer in a Cruella-de-Ville type role. We saw it in a theater with slightly uncomfortable seats, so my butt was hurting near the end, and the integration/we-all-belong message was a little heavy-handed, but otherwise, I have no complaints. Just a sneaking suspicion that John Travolta looks better in a dress and high heels than I do ;) Grade: A

When I was waiting in line at the library today, a sign caught my eye: "Muggers." Upon closer examination, it read: MUGGLES If you have placed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on hold, please go to the Circulation Desk. This title will not be on the Open Hold Shelf until after July 25, 2007. This cracked me up. I guess the librarians are afraid that people will steal other people's Harry Potter copies. The books on the Open Hold Shelf are arranged spine inward anyway, so you can't say, "Hmm. This other person's book looks good; I think I'll take it." They attach your ID number to the edge of your book with a rubber band, and that's the only way you can tell it's yours. When I put books on hold, it used to take forever. Now they are spewing in, an unstoppable wave of books. The only explanation I could come up with is: maybe a lot of the library patrons are in the Hamptons. But that is unlikely; they probably don't use the library. (Th...