Yea for Hallowe’en!

I love Hallowe’en…such a cool day.  You get to dress up, eat enormous quantities of candy and chocolate and scare people.  How great is that?  This year my daughter is going as a 1920’s Newspaper Boy – specifically Denton from The Newsies.  After 6 years of up to 5 costumes a year, we are finally reusing a dance costume.  I am ecstatic, and so hopefully is she.  My son is going as Frankenstein and is still a little concerned about the neck bolts.  I have shown him the glue but he remains skeptical.

For supper I am preparing a ghoulish dinner of mashed Boo!tatoes, troll legs, eyes of newt (Thanks Debi!), with witches brew to drink and graveyard surprise as a dessert.  In other words, mashed potatoes, chicken drumsticks, peas, cranberry juice with some grapes floating in it and a cup of chocolate pudding, covered in oreo cookie crumbs with some gummy worms crawling out of it and a grave marker.   That however is the magic of Hallowe’en!  Everything normal becomes magical and spooky.  We carved three pumpkins last night and have tons of candy – let the games begin!

I wish everyone who is reading a terrific fun-filled day and evening…

I went to see this movie on Sunday with friend.  We had both read the book and were anxious to see the movie.  Having read the book a long time ago I felt like it might be easier to watch the movie without being as aware of all the little changes that inevitably happen when a book goes to the big screen.  I have to say that this was a really good adaptation.  I am sure there were some inconsistencies, but the movie was really lovely.  Dakota Fanning was beautiful and wonderful – she is turning into such a sweet young lady.  There were moments where I could not take my eyes off her.  Jennifer Hudson is amazing, she is really quite the actress.  She starts off the movie with a dull glaze and by the end of it she has come alive.  Queen Latifah and Alicia Keys also turned in solid performances.  In the role of Lily’s mother, I was thrilled to see Hilarie Burton, who was perfect for the part and looked like she really belonged in that time period.  Overall great movie. One of the best film adaptations I have seen.

I ran a 10km race this weekend, and it was a really great day.  In the spring I ran my first half marathon with a friend.  I had trained so hard and felt so determined that when my friend felt too tired to keep up my pace halfway through the race, I made the decision to move ahead without her.  I ended up finishing in my goal time and feeling amazing about the race, but kind of haunted by the decision to leave my friend.  My friend was great about it and very supportive but also felt badly about herself and her race as she didn’t feel she met her goals.  So when I talked her into running this week’s 10km race with me, I knew no matter what I had to stick with her.

We had a good start where she pushed me a bit and made me go a bit faster than my comfort level.  I felt it and found the first 5km pretty hard.  It is amazing how 30 seconds makes such a difference.  Then for the second half I felt more warmed up and my energy and adrenaline kicked in.  So the next three kms were pretty good for both of us.  At 8km my friend was feeling it and was starting to get maxed out.  I decided that this race was for her and we were going to finish it together and she was going to meet her goals.  I ran beside her, one step ahead and just talked her through every step.  When we got to the 9th km and she had basically stopped talking and looked ready to give in, I realized we could beat our best time and stepped it up a bit and made her do it with me.  I just talked her through it and we ended up finished 2 minutes faster than our best time! I was ecstatic, but much more importantly, so was she.  It was a great race for both of our spirits!  Then we recovered with a lot of chocolate chip cookies

I wanted to bring my 9 year old daughter to see High School Musical 3 yesterday, and my 7 year old son insisted on coming even though he didn’t want to have anything to do with the first two movies.  Here is what watching High School Musical 3 was like with my children:

My daughter went in sat down, and didn’t say one word for the whole movie.  At the end of the film, I asked her how she liked it and she responded, “I loved it!”

My son kept up a running whispered commentary into my ear which consisted of some of these statements:

During a dry spot in the plot:  Mommy this is boring.  This is soooooo boring.

During a romantic moment between Troy and Gabriella:  Mommy this is weird.  Why are they so weird?

During the first duet with Troy and Gabriella:  Mommy they are good singers!

During the scene where Troy fights with his father:  Mommy, Troy is just scared.

During a rousing number with Chad and Troy in the salvage yard:  Mommy!  This is more like it!

During a scene where Troy hugs his father:  Mommy, they are being weird again.  To which I responded, why?  you hug your father all the time.  My son responded with a thoughtful, Oh.  Okay then.

Basically overall I enjoyed the movie, but my son’s commentary kind of made it unforgettable

Big plans for this weekend…I am running a 10km race on Sunday, unfortunately it looks like it will be in the rain – bleah.  I really hate running in the rain.  I will survive though!  Maybe I will run faster so I can be done quicker???

I am taking my kids to see High School Musical 3 on Sunday after the race, and am secretly looking forward to it as well.  Those movies are fun!

And I am also going with some girlfriends to see The Secret Life of Bees…anyone seen it yet?  I loved the book, looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

Okay I spend a lot of time drooling over hot TV men (that top 100 coming soon ), but I was thinking last night about some of the wonderful female characters that have been on tv over the years.  Lately I find I hate a lot of the female characters on a show because they are so insipid and just plain boring.  But over the years there have been some great ones for me…

5.  Brenda – 90210:  Brenda was the best, bitchiest woman on that show.  She was portrayed beautifully by Shannen Doherty.  Her character was strong and tough and not afraid to fight a few battles for the things she wanted.  She knew when to get off that show and they brought in female after female to try to replace her but never even came close.  Brenda was one of the first characters on tv that I really got invested in.  Loved her!!

4.  Sidney – Alias:  Jennifer Garner’s Sidney Bristow was so kick-ass I wanted to be a spy too.  She was smart and sophisticated and rocked those wigs like no other.  She could take a little torture and still get free to save the world each episode.  Her character was smart, not the typical female role where the male hero comes in to save the day every time.  She could save herself and you know, him too, if he was cute enough.

3.  Blair & Serena – Gossip Girl:  Yes I know I am cheating by listing two at once, but this is my list and my blog so I can do whatever I want.  Blair is so conniving, manipulating and scheming she is a front runner to control the world in a few short years.  She is beautiful, yet tough as nails and bounces back from each set back with a little more evil and glee.  Love her.  Serena is beautiful but smart enough to use it to her advantage against all the other would-be queens in their world.  Her character can stand alone and faces off against powerful business men like her step-father with ease.  So they aren’t very realistic – whatever…love that show!

2. Felicity – Felicity: I just re watched the series this summer and fell in love with Felicity Porter all over again.  She was never afraid to be true to herself in that crazy  college world.  She went from pre-med to art major back to pre-med with ease.  She was strong enough to carry on story lines with two leading male characters, for four whole seasons.  Other girls came and went but that show really was about Felicity.  Keri Russell was brilliant and I miss her!

1.  Veronica – Veronica Mars:  At least once a week I feel sad at the premature cancellation of this brilliant tv show.  Kristen Bell was so truly amazing as Veronica Mars.  That was one sassy, smart girl.  She solved mysteries each week, by herself, always got herself out of her own jams and saved others most of the time too.  She turned bad guys good, and good guys bad.  Her sarcastic commentary was very true to my own heart.  The whole show was amazing but would have been lifeless without Veronica played by Kristen Bell.  I think tv misses her now that she is gone.

Oh my!  Monday my daughter came home from school saying her stomach felt funny.  I gave her a snack and she said it felt better.  We all ate supper and immediately after my stomach got queasy and my daughter started complaining again.  She went to bed and I changed into jammies and snoozed on the comfy chair.  By 9pm, I knew.  Funnily enough it was my son who threw up first, all over himself and his bed.  Then I started.  Then we woke up my daughter up and she started.  Of course, my husband was next.  We all slept on the bathroom floor, waking intermittently to throw up.  In a way, it was pretty amusing.  Yesterday all cleared up and we are all back to normal.  I disinfected the whole house and threw out the leftovers from supper just in case it was something we ate.  At least we got it over with in one day.

As in last night we watched a movie called Awake.  My husband taped it for me, because Hayden Christensen was in it and I love him.  I also soon realized that Jessica Alba was in it which I am sure helped the taping decision.  I totally did not want to watch this movie last night and kind of started it with a bad attitude.  I thought I would give it 10 minutes and then turn it off and watch something else…and was pretty grumpy about the whole thing.  Well this movie rocks!  I was totally sucked in right away.  I am not going to write anything else as really…you need to watch this movie the way we did, knowing nothing about it at all.  Very suspenseful and full of twists.  Really great!!  I am shocked it didn’t do much better in theatres.

Or Pfive or PoF as my friend and I call it.  I just finished watching season 1.  I loved this show when it was on and thought it would be fun to rewatch it.  I have slowly been enjoying season 1…and finished the last episode today.  I know I am a bad person because my favourite character on Pfive other than Charlie (my beloved Matthew Fox) was Griffin.  Since I already watched the show I knew that Griffin arrives on the scene the last ep of season 1, right after his sister Jill dies.  So I basically spent the last half of season 1 saying “Die Jill!  Just die already.  Why are you taking so long to die?  Die!”  These are not charitable thoughts…although she did finally die, and Griffin appeared.  However I had forgotten that they recast the role between season 1 and 2 so I didn’t get to see my Jeremy London.  So sad…