Saturday Seven

I apologize for not blogging with any consistency lately. I'm sure all of my readers - the whole handful of you - are upset about this. Which reminds me, if you didn't watch the Emmy-award-winning season of 30 Rock last year, you should check it out this season when it premiers on Oct. 4.

Next week is TV premier week! Woo-hoo! I'm most excited about the hour-long premier of the Office on Thursday, and the next three weeks of hour-long episodes of the Office. I'm actually babysitting Thursday, so I will have to time-shift and watch all four hours of TV I TiVo on Thursday on Friday afternoon (or late Thursday). The show that is generating the most buzz - Pushing Daises on ABC - doesn't even premier for another week. Annoying!

Anyway, my topic today is not TV, but movies. Read below to find out what seven movies I am anticipating the most.

1. Atonement staring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy. Keira reunited with her Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright for an adaptation of Ian McEwan's popular novel. Buzz on this is super positive, with many saying it is a lock for best picture and best actor and maybe best actress. And adapted screenplay of course.
   
   
2. No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers return with this faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's brutal novel. I started reading this book and couldn't put it down, read it in one night. And it's a bloodbath. It's generating very positive word-of-mouth as well.
   
   
3. The Golden Compass. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig star in this adaption of the first of three books in Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. I just finished the final book in this series, and each book was better than the one that proceeded it. If you can overlook the anti-religion theme in the book, you'll enjoy the series. Haven't heard much about the movie, but I can't wait to see it.
   
   
4. Juno. Who saw Thank You for Smoking? Director Jason Reitman returns to direct this story of a pregnant teenager who decides to give her baby up for adoption to a couple played by Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) and Jennifer Garner (ALIAS). Critics have been writing glowing reviews about this film. It's supposed to be a feel-good comedy.
   
   
5. Eastern Promises. I've only seen one David Cronenberg film that I'm aware of (The History of Violence - not recommended for general moviegoers) and it also stared Viggo Mortensen. They team up for another violent film surrounding the mysterious death of a women connected to the Russian mafia. Naomi Watts also stars.
   
   
6. Sweeney Todd. Tim Burton directs Johnny Depp in this musical about a murderous barber. Perfect for a Christmas release. :-) I have no idea if this will be good or not, but I want to find out.
   
   
7. The Kite Runner. If you haven't read this book, it needs to be the next book you read. You won't be disappointed. Hopefully that is what people will be saying about this movie. The posters look a bit cheesy, so I'm almost concerned.
   

Those are the movies I'm most looking forward to, in no particular order. I'm sure at least one of them will disappoint me, but such is the nature of the beast. Has anyone heard of any of these movies, at at least the books most of them are based on? What movies are you looking forward to the most?

Procrastination

I'm procrastinating. I need to make five development calls for the United Way, but I don't want to do it. So instead, I'm blogging.

We had a staff conference in May where we played get-to-know-you games. I have a stack of questions from one of those games, so I pulled five of them out to answer on this blog. Once you read them, you are tagged to answer the same questions. Don't worry; they aren't complicated.

1. What does your favorite t-shirt say? "The People's Republic of Cork" - Cork, Ireland, is where I lived for four months. I love this shirt because you can only buy it in one city, in one country, in all the world. I get a lot of strange looks when I wear it. However, when I wore it to an Irish bar on St. Patrick's Day, I got a lot of compliments.
   
   
2. What is your favorite sport to watch? Football, specifically the DALLAS COWBOYS! I went to my second Big 12 football game last weekend, which was a blast, especially because I didn't have to pay for the ticket.
   
   
3. What is your favorite season of the year? The Fall! I love the weather - cool, but not cold. Perfect for sleeping with the windows open and driving with the windows down. It's also football season and State Fair time. I could go on and on.
   
   
4. What was your favorite event as a child? I'm going to be vague here and say camping with my family. Growing up we only visited places we could drive to, including Calif. and Fla., and camped once we got there. Beaver's Bend is probably the campground I have the most memories from, but I enjoyed all of it. We started out in a tent, upgraded to a pop-up trailer and finally graduated to a RV. I wish I went camping more now.
   
   
5. Name three things you would like to accomplish in your lifetime. 1 - Run a marathon. If my tendinitis is going to flare up every time I hit a certain training level, that might be difficult. 2 - Visit six continents. I don't really care if I make it to Antarctica. I've been to North American and Europe, so I have South American, Asia, Africa and Australia to go. 3- Learn a second language. Spanish would make the most sense, but I would love to learn French.
   

Your turn!

Shoes and Tennis

I had a new experience today. I spent $85 on a pair of black dress shoes. I don't think I've ever spent more than $30. The tendinitis in my foot bothered me all week, even though I didn't exercise. I would switch to flip-flops about an hour into the work day because my shoes were hurting my foot. So I decided to buy comfortable, supportive shoes and accept the cost shock. I love the pair I bought - Nurture from Dillards - but the heel is designed for support and comfort, not style, so I might splurge and buy another pair of $80 shoes from the Naturalizer with a more traditional heel, to wear when I want to look a little more professional. And the shoes I bought have a lower heel, so all my dress pants would have to be hemmed to wear with my new shoes. I did buy a pair of brown shoes for $30, so I didn't go crazy. But I had a hard time telling the sales lady at Dillards I would take the $85 shoes. I can talk myself OUT of buying anything, but I didn't give myself time to do that. All I have to say is that these shoes better last me a long time (and not hurt my feet.)

Does anyone else have a problem buying expensive shoes? Has anyone found a better priced comfy shoe they want to tell me about? It's never too late to return my expensive purchase.

Be sure and catch some US Open tennis on CBS and USA this weekend. Sharapova has already lost (she was the defending Champion) and things are about to get very interesting on the women's side. What most would consider championship match-ups start happening in the fourth round. OH MY. Federer just lost the first set against John Isner, the tall, hard-serving 22 year-old American.