High School Me

This is my first foray into the world of vlogging, so cut me a little slack. :-)  I decided to link up this week with Mama Kat's vlogging prompts (click the pic above to link up yourself).  As always, she had a ton of great prompts to choose from.  I decided to go with prompt 

1. Favorite makeup.
2. 5 TV shows you’re watching.
3. What do you think about Lance Armstrong’s recent confession to Oprah. Has he redeemed himself? Where do you stand?
4. What were you like in high school?
5. What was the last thing you bought?

 I decided to go with prompt 4 and this is my answer.

Monday Listicles

I love quotes. Book quotes, movie quotes, song quotes, game quotes... I love the being able to show my love for brilliant writing. So this week's Monday Listicles is perfectly made for me. 10 Favorite Movie Quotes. It means I've got to ignore some of my other favorite quotes from books, TV and song, but I can still come up with 10 great quotes that I hope, too, will enjoy.

One of my favorite movies is Ever After.  It's such a strong, girl-power movie that shows that love is just as important as independence.  Drew Barrymore is brilliant in it.  The following scene is far and away my favorite because it epitomizes exactly that.



Have you scene the movie Mystery Men? If not, you've got to check it out! The second tier superheroes are trying to save the world after they've accidentally killed Captain Amazing. In the scene below, everyone except the Shoveler wants to run away but he gives a rousing speech involving egg salad. It's brilliant!



I got a chance to preview Gnomeo and Juliet when my dad won free tickets just before it came out and it was far and away one of my favorite movies of all time. And the scene with Gnomeo talking to Shakespeare is just fantastic. "It's rubbish!" And I adore Patrick Stewart, so there's a major plus there as well!



I'm a big fan of super heroes in general, and when Avengers came out, I squeed with delight. There were so many great scenes in the movie, so many great quotes. But my favorite is, far and away, Bruce Banner finally revealing his secret when it comes to the Hulk.



Being the geek that I am, it should surprise no one that The Princess Bride is another of my favorites. The clip below has one of the most awesome, and regularly quoted, quotes from the movie. I love it. But it's Indigo's last line in the scene that I love the most.



I came late to the Firefly party - after the DVDs but before the movie Serenity, so I was able to watch the show in the correct order and love it from the beginning. When Serenity came out, I made sure to watch it opening weekend - what self-respecting Browncoat wouldn't? The following scene, with River's two words of "My turn" had me at the edge of my seat, in tears. It was so awesome.



Having grown up in the 80s, Grosse Pointe Blank is a movie that brings me back to my childhood with every song. Add in John Cusack, Joan Cusack and Dan Ackryod and it's just too perfect. This scene is one of many great ones. Just make sure you're not watching the scene without any kids around - the language is not something you'll probably want them hearing.



Staying with comedy, I also adore In & Out. And this is one of the best scenes ever. It's great show of support. Though I can't help but laugh at line "You're a tramp!"



Combining two of my favorites - kids movies and superhero movies - is Sky High. The scene where Layla finally uses her powers aggressively and says, with pride, that she IS a sidekick had me clapping my hands when I first saw it. Awesome scene!



And finally, I'm going to end with something Rich and I took out the other day. It's the Reduced Shakespeare Company doing the Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged). I laughed, clapped and constantly turned to Rich going, "Did you HEAR that?" through the whole thing. There are far too many fantastic parts, so I'm going to share here the opening with a recommendation that you see this at some point. Because you'll really love it.



While these may not have actually been my top 10 favorite scenes or quotes, they were ten of my favorites that I could find clips for. So I hope you enjoy it!

Music Moves Me Meme

This is one of those memes that I keep looking at through various other blogs and think, "I'm going to start this meme today!" and then blank completely on what to link up.  But everyone's got to start somewhere.  And, with my love of music, it's something I should have jumped into earlier.

But I'm here now and that's what counts!  This week, we're linking up songs that get you moving - ones that you put on when you're exercising or cleaning to get you into the groove.  Wayne at Touristic linked up one of my favorites - "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan.  If you'd like to see it, just click on the link above.

So... exercise and cleaning music.  I've got a mix on Pandora that I listen to when I'm in the mood to clean or work-out.  Some really high energy songs show up there that help me zone out and get done what I need to.


This is one of my favorite songs by Heather Dale. It's such a great, bouncy song that gets me moving whenever I hear it.


I'm a huge fan of Dropkick Murphys. While there are other songs that I enjoy more (like "Wild Rover"), there are few that get me moving like "The Spicy McHaggis Jig".


I grew up country, so I've got to have a good country song involved when I'm moving. "Sin Wagon" by the Dixie Chicks just rocks!


I'm closing out today with another of my favorites - Barenaked Ladies' "One Week". I always find myself bopping while I'm working whenever this comes on.

Ack! The Holidays are here! Am I ready?

I don't know why I let this happen to me every year, but I do.  It seems like I have forever to get things together for Christmas.  It's still weeks away and I've gotten a little shopping done (mostly on Black Friday). The house needs work and the tree needs to be put up, but I've got time, right?  The next thing I know, it's Christmas Eve, the house is a mess, no gifts are wrapped and the tree has only been up for about 2 days.  Then I'm running around like a mad woman.

Well, it's Christmas Adam and, even though I'm a lot further along than usual, I'm still feeling the Christmas Day pressure.  I mean, I've got the living room, dining room and downstairs bathroom cleaned.  The kitchen and pantry are going to be taken care of by Rich.  The tree's been up for a couple of weeks and, unlike in years past, most of the ornaments have stayed on it.  All the Christmas shopping is finished (though Rich had to take over some of those duties this year because of my inability to drive) and all the Christmas Gifts for the family have arrived in their proper locations.  We've got everything we need to make Christmas dinner here this year (since my Dad is coming out to join us rather than us going out to his place) and all I need to do is make the pumpkin cake for dessert.  I've still got the presents to wrap, but not as many as in years past.  I should be ready for it, shouldn't I?

Mostly, I am.  Just writing out what is ready helped.  The fact that I've only got a couple things that will probably be part of tomorrow's agenda and we've got the day to do it is a bit relaxing.  Still, I'm feeling guilty for being on the computer, writing a blog post and taking some down time instead of hobbling upstairs to get started on that wrapping.    I think I'm just neurotic.  Probably.

Really, though, I think this is going to be an awesome Christmas.  Neither of the kids have managed to spoil their gifts to each other or their gifts to Mommy or Daddy.  I think this is a first in 7 years.  And while I couldn't get the kids everything they wanted (Teddy really wants a 3DS, but his regular old DS lite will do fine for him), I think they'll be excited by the things they ARE getting.  Some from Nonni and Pop, some from Mommy and Daddy... but all things they'll enjoy.  I can't wait to see their faces as they open some of these things up Christmas morning.  Though, they are going to need to wait longer than usual - we're waiting until Poppy gets to the apartment before opening anything more than stockings.

Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays, if that's your flavor), everyone.  Thanks for sticking around.