The Usual Stuff
Jan. 15th, 2011 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunchofgrapesI'm so behind on everything internet related, specifically, reading and commenting on some fics, mostly because the last two weeks at work have been hell. I think the worst is over but Monday and Tuesday of next week are going to be more of the same. The bright spot? I came home last night to a nice, clean house and that means I only have a couple of things to do around the house this weekend. Those cleaning elves are wonderful but it's still interesting to see how they put things back. I had to hunt for everything that's usually on my bathroom counter. I think they're trying to tell me I have too much crap on the counter. I'm paying attention and have put a lot of it away. It does look much less cluttered.
I am absolutely loving the new recumbent bike! So far it's much easier to get on the bike than it was to get on the treadmill plus, my feet and heels don't hurt. But the best part? I've dropped a size since November! I have this pair of Life is Good cargo pants that I bought over the summer. I ordered them online and when they arrived, they were too small. I tried them on a couple of weeks ago and not only could I get them on, I could zip them up and sit down in them without feeling like I was going to explode. I've changed my diet (not on a diet but changing how much and what I eat) so I know that's contributed to the weight loss.
It's been really cold here and although we still have some snow on the ground, we haven't gotten any more than an inch where I live. It's just too cold to melt. A couple of nights ago it got down to around 10 so I tried to get Pudgy the stray into her little box in the backyard. Lured her in with food and happily she got in the box. It's not the best but there's a fleece blanket in there so it's got to be warmer than outside. This morning when I went downstairs to feed the cats, I opened the blinds to the patio and several minutes later, Pudgy was sitting by the door. She slept in her little box! This makes me happy because it means she climbed over the fence to get into the backyard and her box.
And speaking of cats, so far Tucker is still doing great. He is a completely different cat now - lovable, sociable, chatty, all the things he didn't do before the November surgery. Plus, he's terrorizing Harry, which is always good because Harry terrorizes Sophie and Tucker regularly. It just amazes me.
My dad called me yesterday to see if I wanted to do a movie and dinner with him and my stepmother tonight. Dad wants to see "True Grit". I have mixed emotions because I really loved the John Wayne version. But I haven't been out to a movie in forever and I thought it was nice that he asked so I said yes. If nothing else it's movie popcorn and then probably Thai food after. Plus, I have to admit that I love that I do this stuff with my parents. I once went to visit my mother in NJ. She was there for a training class so I drove up from VA to see her. We spent an enter weekend in a hotel room. Never went out to dinner, barely talked. She smoked, napped and read a book. The only time we went out was for me to drive her to a drug store so she could buy snacks. I had just purchased this Nissan Sentra (my first car purchase) and I mentioned to her that no one had ever smoked in the car. She whipped out the ash tray, lit up and said "until now". It was the worst weekend of my life and the biggest reason why, when I go back to OK, I don't stay with her (when I did, she bitched at me because I was bored sitting around the house doing nothing). So the fact that I go out to dinner with my dad and stepmother or just my dad when my stepmother is in CO, or they invite me to go out with them, really means a lot to me.
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Date: 2011-01-17 04:00 am (UTC)I can't go the True Grit. Everyone keeps asking me about it, because I have been an obsessive John Wayne fan since I was 7 yrs old and saw McClintock for the first time. My new house has a "John Wayne" room with all the pictures and posters and JW stuff I've gathered and received over the past 40 years. I've been told the remake is very good, and I'm glad folks enjoy it as a good western. I don't see myself getting past "It's a remake!" I just think there are some iconic movies that are so interwoven in our film culture that cannot be improved upon. And many of my younger family members have not see the original and think the remake is good. But I would feel the same way if someone re-made Casablanca or Gone with the Wind. I even have Portis' novel in paperback and applaud the Coen's for making the remake more as following the book than re-doing the screenplay. Maybe by the time it's on PPV I will have a more open-minded view and watch. I'm such a loyalist...maybe a labrador retriever in a past life :-)
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Date: 2011-01-17 05:31 am (UTC)I know exactly what you mean about the remake and if my dad hadn't wanted to see it and if I hadn't wanted to do something with the parents, I never would have seen the movie for much of the same reasons you mention. I sat through the first forty-five minutes or so with my arms crossed. I'm not sure why I liked it because when I first heard they were remaking it, I was pissed!
I can't recall the first John Wayne movie I ever saw, although it might have been McClintock, but I've been a fan for as long as I can remember and True Grit is one of my top two favorite JW movies. I've seen it so many times that I sat through this remake, quoting the same lines as in the original. I think my ability to quote True Grit is only surpassed by The Cowboys (I still to this day despise Bruce Dern). I can't say I have a JW room (mine is more like a shrine to Paul G, Richard Basehart and The Avengers) but he was a much loved fixture of my childhood and I still remember bawling my eyes out when he died. I think if Jeff Bridges hadn't played Rooster Cogburn like John Wayne played him, I'd have hated the movie. But to me it was like an acknowledgment that JW was Rooster and that's the only way to play him. Or maybe that's just how I reconciled it in my head. The one thing that really does bother me about the remake though is that there's a whole lot of younger people who will only know this version and will probably never see the original.
Oh, and while we're talking remakes, I absolutely, positively refuse to see any of the Mission:Impossible movies because of the way they dissed the TV cast and what they did to Jim Phelps. Hated The Avengers movie as well and refuse to see it too.