The Cheesecake is Rich

(or, Holy Hell, Academy – did you have to increase the Best Picture Nominees to 10?)

So, the movie theater showed all 10 Best Picture nominees today and last Saturday. If you’re thinking that’s a lot of movies, you are absolutely correct. If you’re also thinking, “Just how long does that take?” the answer is 20 hours and 2 minutes.

Last Saturday, the first movie up was Avatar in 3-D. I thought it was a pretty movie with a mediocre story.

Next was Up in the Air. We skipped it to run home and feed the dogs. Loved Up in the Air when Gene and some of my family saw it on Xmas Day. George Clooney just never looks anything but smokin’ hot, right? And Vera Farmiga is so pretty.

We made it back to the movie theater in time for Precious. Wow, that was the feel bad movie of the year, wasn’t it? Meanwhile, the acting was remarkable and if I were watching the Oscars tonight (stupid cancelled satellite dish, argh!) I would actually root for it to win Best Supporting Actress for the woman who played the mother.

Next up, the anti-Precious, The Blind Side (or, Precious + Plucky White Woman). This is Gene’s favorite of the Best Picture nominees – he said it stuck with him. I understand that this movie is based on a book – I would like to read it because I suspect there is more to the story. It was nice and heartwarming but it was so glossy that I felt like it was a Lifetime TV movie.

Finally on Day One, Inglourious Basterds. (Damn you Quentin Tarentino for not spelling your movie correctly!). I really really really really liked this. And I am not any kind of fangirl, believe me. I.B. was my favorite of the 10 movies.

Fortunately, we had an entire week to rest up for the second 5.

First up on Day Two was Up. Okay, I loved Up but the early part where the Old Man and his wife find out they can’t have kids made me cry (despite knowing the scene was coming), so Gene and I skipped it because that wound is salty enough without going for a second helping, thankyouverymuch. Instead, we went to lunch and my turkey, bacon and cheese sammich was yummy.

Next up, A Serious Man. Gene gave me a look when someone in the row behind us mentioned that the first 20 minutes of the movie is in (subtitled) Yiddish.  A Serious Man is a movie about a man from a cursed family – but it’s a comedy, really! – and how awful his life is – in a funny way! – including a scene where his ex-wife tries to get him to pay for her lover’s funeral. Had a surprisingly abrupt ending, although we were on a trajectory that made it pretty clear that a meteorite was going to land on the poor guy’s head or something. A number of the others who were taking part in the Best Picture Showcase did not enjoy this, but I did. Not sure about Gene.

The third movie that day was The Hurt Locker. Gene reallllllllllly wanted to see this when it came out and I am so so glad we didn’t see it during its early run (mostly because I wasn’t sure what to do if we had 3 more hours to kill at the mall). The movie was OK, not really my thing. It set the tension bar high about 5 minutes into the movie, so I was a bundle of nerves for two hours. Gene disliked the movie because he felt it was too liberal and unrealistic. Still don’t know what a hurt locker is. Perhaps I will ask Gene.

Fourth was An Education. Now, one of the things you may know about me is that I pretty much have a Ph.D in the study of Older Men and Younger Women in books, movies and music so An Education was absolutely My Thing. A month or two ago I actually debated calling into work so I could go to a theater way down in Cheesecake City and see a double bill of An Education and Nine. Anyway, it ended up being a great little movie although probably has no chance of winning Best Picture.

The last of the Best Picture nominees was District 9. Yes, we’ve seen it so we left after An Education. I kinda wish we’d stayed to see it again because traffic outside the mall was completely insane. I mean, terrifying. A minivan wanted our parking spot but we couldn’t go anywhere because a car near us was 1/4 in his parking spot and 3/4 hanging out in the aisle, talking to some teenagers. You know who goes to the mall on Saturday nights? IDIOTS, that’s who. I could go on, but let’s just agree that we made it home alive and that worst case scenario, I have life insurance. Anyway, District 9 was good and interesting and you should rent it or get it from Netflix or steal it from Target. However, it is also a movie that owes its Best Picture nomination to the Academy changing the Best Picture field from 5 movies to 10 (other movies that benefited from this, I think, were: An Education, A Serious Man, The Blind Side, Up and Up In the Air. Or maybe Inglorious Basterds).

So, there you have it. 10 movies, 2 days, 3 bags of popcorn.

(PS: Dear Academy: Please make a rule that no movie with obvious misspelling in the title can be nominated for Best Picture. Thank You).

taxes. We got our tax return back today. We get a small refund from the state and that is a good thing. Perhaps we can sign the check directly over to the IRS because we owe the Feds. I think it was mostly the lowered amount of federal tax deducted due to the Making Work Pay credit. I mean, between Gene and I we were down nearly $20k last year so something had to cause it, right?

BTW, confidential to someone’s ex something: You should totally file an amended return for 2009 if you didn’t claim The Boy, because we didn’t. (Who’s the puta estupida now?)

(Hmm, still you).

So, the good thing that happened yesterday is that I picked up my new glasses. I was going to take a picture of myself in them but after I figured out the webcam thingie on White Dog, it turns out I have about 5 chins. So, no pictures for you!

(How is it possible that I am the only woman on Earth who has a ridiculously good self image? I thought I was skinny! Ugh!)

Here are the frames, though. Make sure you look at them in the ‘plum’ color, as that is the color I bought. Thanks a lot, eye doctor’s office – why would I ever have wanted to order these glasses in a non-crazy color like brown or black? PURPLE! That makes sense.

(Actually, they are very cute and I do like them. I kept looking at myself in the rearview mirror on the way home from work yesterday. I looked skinny in the rearview – glad the webcam is here to gently suggest I am a wildebeast).

I had a job interview this morning. I met with three people, including the woman who (I think) would have been my direct supervisor. I think it went really well, although they insisted on asking all those goofy non-questions like “Tell me about a time you had to resolve a conflict and what you learned from it.”

Aaaaand when I got home Gene handed me the phone. It was the recruiter I’d been working with calling to give me the delightful news that they decided to not hire me.

Oh, maaaan! I wish I hadn’t had the interview at all, although it was a good experience. I spent way too much on a moderately ugly suit to wear today and if I hadn’t had the interview I could have returned the suit and definitely the stupid “shell” the saleswoman convinced me to buy (seriously – $40 for a silky tank top???)

The good news is that the company is going to be hiring many many positions in the next year, so hopefully one of those will be a good fit for me.

(Their loss, right? RIIIIGHT? D, don’t answer that…)

It’s Friday (actually, it just turned Saturday). I did it. I survived the week. An entire week sick. I only missed work 1.5 days (I ended up working 4 hours on Tuesday), although I could not feel my face for part of Wednesday. I don’t know why, although I think that Mucinex (and only getting about 3-4 hours rest) is at fault.

I hate being sick mostly because I never get the kid glove treatment that SOMEONE gets when they are sick. How come someone decides that when I am sick, the answer is for me to pick up take out every night? (Because they are, what? Too well to cook? More like I was too sick to clean up after them…) If someone was sick, they wouldn’t dream of going outside the house, let alone into a restaurant or even through a drive through. And don’t ask about the gross mess that was my kitchen – how did it get so bad if we weren’t cooking dinner?

Every bit of energy I had this week went to work. If it’s true that we need my salary so bad, doesn’t that make sense?

Grrr. I really try hard not to complain about someone on this blog, but meh. It’s my damned square of the internet and I will bitch if I want to.

So, theoretically we are going to Germany in June/July. Now, flights to Kuala Lumpur were crazy expensive, but we only had to pay for one ticket (mine) since Gene’s lovely employer paid his way. So I keep cruising over to Expedia.com to look at flights and here are my thoughts (because I know you care):

1) Expedia, please stop trying to pre-populate the field for destination airport. I start typing “BER” (Berlin – All airports, because there are currently two and isn’t that wacky?) and it tries to suggest Bermuda. Don’t make me cry, Expedia. I want to go to Bermuda, but our friends aren’t there.

2) Why, oh why are the flights from Cheesecake City to Berlin so goddamned expensive??? Seriously. When I booked the flight from Cheesecake City to Frankfurt (we flew from Cheesecake to Frankfurt to KL), that small part of the trip was practically nothing. Why, I have actually paid more to go to Indianapolis (why? Because it’s worth it!). So why is Cheesecake to Berlin $1500?? (AUGH). Germany is not far! It is right there :::points in the general direction of East::: !!!

3) And why do the cheapest flights (a mere $1300 for Cheesecake to Newark to WARSAW to Berlin) insist on us going through Poland? I have heard the jokes and HELL NO. (Sorry, Poland! Although I recall eating pierogies and those were delightful…)

4) As a Leonard Cohen fan, I am severely tempted to intentionally book a flight through JFK. ‘Cause, you know, first we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin… (Why doesn’t Gene think that’s funny? WHY???) (Is it because JFK is technically in Queens, I think?) (WhatEVer!)

Not that you asked, but…

home sick today. It all started Friday with some minor barfyness which I thought was a fun side effect to the generic Zoloft (? Paxil?) that Dr. J prescribed for me. By midday Saturday I was not a happy girl and after a 100% disastrous Valentine’s Day not-dinner (loooong story involving a 6:30 reservation and a small parking lot and not involving getting to eat)… let’s just agree that I’ve pretty much just taken to bed. I don’t think prescriptions give one the chills, so I’m thinking cold or flu. Yay.

I can’t decide if I’m feeling better or not. I feel a little dizzy and easily tired but I have an eye doctor appointment at 8:45 am tomorrow so I am going to at least go to that. I would like to make it to work for part of the day or else Wednesday (big payroll day) is going to be hellish.

1) So, I still get coupons from Huggies and Enfamil. Do you think that when a person turns 80 all of a sudden they end up on the mailing list for Depends?

2) I was reading my shampoo bottle today. I am using EverPure Volume Shampoo and Conditioner. (It is fine, BTW). Supposedly it is specially formulated for color treated hair (I am going to color my hair again this weekend, maybe) but what I thought was very interesting is that this product is 100% vegan. Really. Do vegans color their hair?

I’m fine, hope all of you are too

So, the dogs needed flea treatment. We use Frontline Plus (we used a new pill flea treatment, which I loved for its ease but hated the cost). I bought a 3 pack (1.5 months worth for two dogs) at Petco for $62. I’d been pricing it online and I thought that seemed high, but I decided that I was wrong because why would there be such a disparity in price?

Today I go to Petco’s website and the same doggone (ha ha) stuff is $42. A difference of $20! That is just stupid! So then I get really aggravated and went to Bing.com (the tantalizing home of Bing Cashback) and searched for Frontline Plus.

Whee! Drugstore.com has it on sale. Plus 20% Bing Cash Back.

So, my choices were: 1.5 months from Petco for $62, 1.5 months from Petco.com for $42 OR…(I love this!) 3 months from Drugstore.com for $71 before 20% Bing Cashback. Minus 20% = $57. WOOOHOOO! I got more than double for my money. YAY!

And yes, I did return the original package to Petco. The cashier told me they’d price match their own website (???!!!!) but that I’d have to bring them a printout for the difference. From their own website!

Reading a recipe called “Mom’s Mac & Cheese” – MY Mom’s Mac & Cheese came in a box claiming to be the cheesiest, so whose mom wrote this?