February 26, 2007

Blah…Those Oscars…Yeah, They Sucked

I’m skipping Memory Monday this week.  I know…..I’ve missed the last two weeks as well.  But I have good reason.  Or at the very least, I think I have good reason.

I want to discuss bitch about the Academy Awards.  I wasted six hours last night, watching the pre-show specials and the entire awards ceremony.  I say “wasted”, not because I was drinking cheap wine, but because clearly I could have been cleaning out my closet, mopping the kitchen floor or handwashing my undergarments and had more fun.

I’m happy that Martin Scorsese won an Oscar for The Departed.  And I’m glad that Jennifer Hudson finally received the recognition she deserves (take THAT Simon Cowell and the rest of America).

What I’m a little disturbed about was Hollywood’s obsession with Al Gore.  He’s really not that great.  Global Warming is something we should be concerned with, yes, but Gore isn’t the first person to bring this to our attention.

And since when is the Academy Awards a prime time to make ridiculous jokes about Gore’s potential run for President this year?  After the third time Leonardo DiCaprio asked if Gore wanted to “announce anything special”, like a “really important decision”; I’d had enough.

And George Clooney?  Shut up.  So….You’re the sexiest man alive, times two, and that’s about it.  I used to like your films, sexy one, until you decided to make a movie about Joe McCarthy that left out many important facts.

I should have known that Academy Awards would go Politico.  I’m really not surprised.

I was hoping Abbigail Breslin would have won Best Supporting Actress, she is just so adorable and has great talent.

Helen Mirren was amazing as The Queen.  I think that was the highlight of my Oscar night.

Ellen Degeneres is a funny gal, but she kind of bored me after a bit.  The whole vacuuming thing was not that hilarious.

I guess I wasn’t very impressed this year.  I’m not going to apologize for it.  I’m just being honest.

*****Also, I will be attending my first BlogHer conference in July and I’m looking for hotel mates.  I really want to cut the cost down as much as possible because this is my big splurge this year.  I know it’s early, but the hotel list is already up at BlogHer and I am usually a procrastinator when it comes to reserving rooms.  Anyone who is considering sharing a hotel room, please send me an e-mail at thedanafiles@hotmail.com.  I’d rather be early than late! 

December 18, 2006

Special Sunday

Yesterday, Dawson and I had a wonderful, fantastic, special day together. Doug had to work so we decided to do some fun things all around town.

First we went to church at 10:30 in the morning. Now, usually Dawson can’t handle the task of behaving well for an hour long service. He manages the first ten minutes and decides to give in to the meltdown. But on this special Sunday, the third Sunday in Advent (in which the pink candle is lit for all you Catholics out there), he was well behaved through the entire hour. I was impressed. He looked at the song books and he was mesmerized by the 3 month old baby in the pew in front of us. It was nice to have something to occupy his attention.

After church we went to Walmart because my mom ordered extra Christmas photo cards (I helped her on the computer, as she is not savvy with that yet) and I promised to pick them up on my way to meet her later. Dawson was starving and wanted pizza, but we decided to go to the Subway inside the store. He chose to have a pretzel with cheese but when we got to the table he had a tantrum because he wanted Cheetos instead. A gentleman in his early 50′s was very rude to us.

“Can’t you keep your son quiet? Little boy, you shouldn’t be crying, that’s for babies.”

I was completely angry but I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to justify that man’s comment with a response, so I smiled politely and got Dawson his Cheetos. We started to eat and I gave him a bite of my sandwhich. Dawson looked around the restaurant at a child who was about five years old. The little boy was eating potato chips. Suddenly, Dawson decided he wanted potato chips, too.

“Mumma! Chips! Chips!” he yelled.

I told him no and redirected his attention to his Cheetos. Again, the man said something rude about ruining his lunch. This made me more mad, so finally I said, “I’m sorry sir, that you cannot tolerate a toddler. I’m also sorry that you feel the need to voice your opinions loud enough for me to hear. But, what I’m not sorry about is the fact that no matter how upset you may be, I’m still having an excellent day. Not even an old grump like you can take that away from me.”

He got up and left without saying a word. I felt guilty for maybe a minute or two but realized that it’s not easy to keep a child quiet all the time and we have to co-exist in this world somehow.

After lunch we went to Copps grocery store (where Doug works) and told him that we were meeting my mother and brother at the movie theater but first we were going to see Santa Claus in the mall. We had some time to kill and since Doug couldn’t be with us, we thought it was a nice gesture to visit him at work.

At the mall, I stopped at Bath & Body Works to use a coupon that was going to expire. It was a coupon to get a free item up to $12.50 with any purchase. I got Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion and body shimmer spray. At first I wasn’t sure how I’d like it but I’m starting to like it.

Next, we went to the center court of the mall to see Santa. Here’s how that turned out:

Dawson still wouldn’t sit on Santa’s lap, but we’re getting better at this. He should be ready by next year. I hope.

After that, we went to the Enchanted Forest Christmas Display. That was fun. I loved looking at all the lights and decorations. Dawson loved it, too. Especially the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck & Friends display.

My favorite was the Point Beer Tree. (Point Rootbeer, that is!)

After the Enchanted Forest, we still had more time to waste. I decided to take Dawson to see the Steam Engine by the railroad. It’s kind of like a mini outdoor museum. Since my son is fascinated by trains and loves Thomas the Tank Engine, he was awestruck by the huge train.

He’s so tiny compared to that big machine!

He loved standing on the Caboose!

Finally we went to the movie. We saw Charlotte’s Web and it was fantastic. It was Dawson’s first trip to a movie theater. I loved the movie…there are no words. I’m definitely buying the DVD as soon as it’s released. It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. I loved the book, I own a copy and I read it over and over and over again. I have the cartoon of the book, too and that was my brother Frank’s favorite movie when he was little. I would highly recommend this film.

Here’s Dawson before the movie started, eating popcorn with Nonna. He was so well behaved. He sat through the entire movie and was so excited to see Wilbur, Charlotte and all the barnyard animals.

It was such a beautiful, fantastic, special day. A memory I will never forget.

July 13, 2006

Dinner & A Movie

“Hey! After dinner, I have a surprise for you.” My husband said as he walked out the door. He was going fishing with his friend Dan and left me alone with the Terrible Toddler.

“A surprise? For me?” I asked. He gave me a devilish smile. The kind that tells me I will like whatever it is he has planned, and he knows the suspense will kill me the entire 3 hours he is gone.

“Yes, for you. I’ll see you around 7-ish.” And with that he left.

I pondered what exactly it could be that he was going to surprise me with. Flowers? No. That’s not it. Where would he have hidden them? Chocolate champagne candies? Nah. Too exquisite for my tastes. Hmmm. I didn’t have a clue.

I kept myself occupied by playing with Dawson. He insisted on throwing, crashing and banging his matchbox cars on the floor. Memories of playing Dukes of Hazzard with my brother flashed through my mind. I always had to have the General Lee and he had no problem playing Boss Hoggs.

In between car crashes, I marinated a pork roast. My recipe was straight out of Rachel Ray’s cookbook (not the 30 minute meals) with fresh garlic cloves inserted into the meat. I then slathered on McCormick’s GrillMates Pork Rub. Mmm. Oh, so Delicioso™!! (Yes, I have trademarked that phrase. I say it so often I am actually having T-shirts made. Stay tuned for details.) Earlier in the day, Doug had cut some fresh broccoli, zucchini and onions from our garden. He diced them up so nicely and had them drowning in vegetable marinade. The plan was that after his fishing time, he’d grill both the veggies and the roast. My mouth was watering all evening; so much so that I forgot all about the “surprise”. In all honesty, I thought this was a euphemism for sex and he just didn’t want to say it. Silly husbands. I obviously did not train this man properly.

Since we were feeling better from our flu-ishness (I don’t know if this is a word, but I just made it up), Dawson and I were very, very hungry. I kept staring at the clock wondering when the fishermen would return. At 7 p.m. on the button (Holy Cow?) Doug arrived home. He cleaned the catfish he caught, proceded to properly store it in the freezer and started on grilling!

Our dinner was excellent. Delicious. Even Dawson liked the veggies. After we put the Doodlebug to bed, we sat on our deck and watched the sprinklers rhythmically water our garden.

“The zucchini was excellent.” I said.

“Yeah, our garden will be wonderful. I can’t wait for the cherry tomatoes and beans.”

” Yum. Tomatoes!”

“Okay, let’s go inside. You go downstairs and bring up some soda from the fridge.”

“Alright.”

When I got back upstairs, Doug had made popcorn and had a DVD ready to play. He handed me a bowl of popcorn and a glass of ice for my Sprite. He even had my favorite blanket spread out on the floor of our living room. I was astonished.

“Awww! You rented a movie?” I asked.

“Sit down and watch.” he said.

As I sat down and he pushed play on the remote, Failure to Launch was on the screen. I was stunned. This was a movie I had begged him to see in the theatre with me and he never agreed to go. I adore Sarah-Jessica Parker and all her films thus far since the end of SATC have been clever and funny. Doug normally does not like “chick flicks” but he’ll suffer through one on occasion. When this movie left the theater I lectured him about not getting to see it and he promised the day it was released on DVD he’d rent it. That was June 27th to be exact.

“Oh my gosh! You rented it?” I stood up and hugged him. “I can’t believe it!”

“See? Now you can go and tell all your blogging buddies that your husband does think about more than fishing and that romance is still alive in our house.”

“There’s gonna be romance? Other than in the movie? This is getting better by the minute!”

June 21, 2006

Cars! Cars! Cars!

So, the Queen of Spain was telling us how the Count was obsessed with the movie “Cars”. I haven’t seen it yet, and my little Doodlebug is too little to sit through a movie in a theater. At 22 months, I won’t even attempt to take him. But I must say that McDonald’s is pissing me off because they have the “cars” in their Happy Meals.

Little Dawson is upset because he doesn’t have that purple car he wants. We got the red one, the truck and the bus. And he plays with them everyday. All I hear is “Truck! Bus! Tractor!” Wait. There’s no tractor is there? He must be getting too excited. So now I find myself going to McDonald’s once a week in hopes of getting the damn purple one. This is totally screwing with Weight Watchers, so we then must go for a walk to burn off the chicken nuggets. And Dawson insists on taking these cars with him.

The joys of parenthood. Ugh. I’m told it will get worse once he’s older. I may have to boycott Disney and McDonalds the entire 3rd year of his life!