Movie, Restaurant and Cleaning Tool Review

Friday night we saw Cabin in the Woods.  I like most horror films and I was curious to see what Joss Whedon had put together. I'm a regular listener to the Doug Benson helmed "Doug Loves Movies" podcast and they talked about it when Doug was at South by Southwest film fest.  Thankfully they warned everyone to avoid watching clips, trailers, seeing film posters, etc. because it would spoil the film for you.

There is a big twist in the film and it kind of goes off the rails after that. So worth it! It isn't super scary horror, it's more gore and intrigue with lots of comedy added in.  So far this has been my favorite film of 2012. If you are a Joss Whedon fan (he did Firefly, Dollhouse, Buffy etc.) go see it!

Saturday night we went to see a show down at The Capitol Theater located in Downtown Clearwater.  I'd never been to downtown Clearwater so it was quite an experience since it is pretty much Scientology headquarters. We got there early and wandered around downtown a bit before heading into a restaurant to kill some time before the show.

Tony's Pizzeria Ristorante is located right on Cleveland Street in the heart of downtown. It's a good sized restaurant with really friendly staff.  We showed up around 4PM and wandered over to the bar area to get a few beers. We ended up staying for dinner after having such a nice time.

Our friendly bartender recommended a few appetizers including the garlic knots and he didn't have to go any further after that.  They arrived hot and plentiful with a good serving of homemade marinara sauce to dip them in.

One bite of that little knot full of garlic and I fell in love with the marinara sauce. I don't know if I was because I was insanely hungry or it really is that good but I couldn't believe how good it was!

I had another beer and my husband ordered a White Russian because he hadn't had one in quite a while and apparently had been staring at the bottle of Kahlua behind the bar for 30 minutes thinking about one.  We relaxed a bit more before ordering entrees.

I had the veal scallopini piccata and Ringo had the spaghetti and meatballs. My piccata sauce tasted wonderful and had lots of capers in it. I didn't try the meatballs but Ringo reported they were amazing.  I would definitely go back. I was sad I was too full to try the dessert but the food was so good I couldn't eat anymore. Before leaving we even got to meet Tony the owner who works in the restaurant every day usually helping to cook back in the kitchen. You can tell he loves his restaurant and works very hard.

Eat at the bar! I think we got great service because of that.

And now for a cleaning tool review! I've been battling hard water stains in my master bath toilet forever and finally found a tool that takes care of it without using any chemicals. I tried all sorts of chemicals and nothing worked! After doing some internet research I discovered lots of people use this little tool called a Pumie Scouring Stick.

This little stick scrubs the hard water buildup right off like magic. It doesn't harm the finish of tile or porcelain either. Sometimes you can find them in ACE Hardware or Wal-Mart stores but they sell out quickly.  I order mine online from Amazon. Keep several on hand since as you are scrubbing they do wear away. I still think it is less expensive than using chemicals and you don't have any fumes to have to worry about.

I'm going to try it on my tile grout next!

Movie Review - The Grey

I was talked into seeing this movie over the weekend - the last movie we saw wasn't that great (Young Adult bleh) so it's been a while since January is a slow movie month typically and things don't start warming up till March.

Regardless, the hubs read the Rotten Tomatoes numbers to me and surprised I was that it had gotten such good reviews.  I wasn't quite sure how both critics and users had agreed that it was 77% fresh but I decided it was worth a shot.  

Liam Neeson has never let me down.

In fact... I'm surprised there is still a list of things that Liam Neeson should punch that he hasn't punched.  Pretty sure all of those items are on his 2012 goal list.

Oh was I doing a movie review? Oh yes.  We don't know much about the dude Liam Neeson is playing other than he's suicidal, he keeps having flashbacks to a wife under a white sheet that likes to stare at him a lot, and he works in a really, really cold place with a bunch of other hardass dudes.  

For some reason they allow planes in the air during blizzards and of course, things do not go well once the plane hits the ground. 

In this alternate universe folks don't get frostbite if they leave their faces uncovered in the bitter cold for days on end, wolves are the size of small buildings, falling into a river doesn't result in immediate hypothermia, and you can successfully detonate a shotgun shell with a pointy stick. 

The first half of the movie is awesome. Then it slows down while you wait for the really annoying survivors to be eaten by wolves. This takes a long time. 

It starts to pick up towards the end before you're given another gigantic let down. 

I won't spoil the ending but let's just say that this movie has no replay value.  Watch it once and you're done.  You got all the info that you need.  There is no Inception mind twist in this movie. Still - worth at least one watch for the Liam Neeson punching value. 

2011 Movie Review Post

I saw a lot of movies in 2011 and thought I'd sum them all up in a post.  These are in no certain order.

Thor - May 6th, 2011 - I had terrible expectations for this film and was convinced to go see it by Ringo.  Given some recent disappointing showings of comic book films I really wasn't sure how this one would shake out.

I was pleasantly surprised during the film.  The villain was very "villainesque", we were given a pretty rainbow bridge to look at several times until the dude broke it, and I got to see an unrealistic learning curve of someone from another time adapting to the modern age.  Sir Anthony Hopkins deserved more screen time.

I'd see it again.  I did end up liking the film despite my best effort not to. It was one of my favorites of 2011.  Also looking forward to seeing him again in The Avengers.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 - July 15, 2011 - Being that the first part was a massive disappointment (which is no surprise given that the first half of the book is also a massive disappointment) I was hoping the second half would redeem itself.

For the most part the film did pretty well.  The epic battle was pretty epic.  I enjoyed the speech Voldemort gave at the end. I think my favorite bit was the scene inside the goblin bank vault.

My husband said this movie was his favorite because it was the last one he'd ever have to see of the franchise.  Lets hope J.K. doesn't let him down.

NADAC Bound

Basil has his first NADAC trial next month. I haven't competed in NADAC in over two years. I'm so lucky this trial is 20 minutes from my house!

I get the feeling that if we can conquer distance we will do well in NADAC. Basil is already starting to get confidence being handled 10-15 feet away on 2-3 obstacles in a line. It is hard to believe that six months ago we were quite a different team. My handling still had tons of Flying Arms and we were plagued by continuous start line stay issues.

I finally got another hard sided crate to practice crate games with last week. I didn't have a spare portable hard crate to practice with so in the meantime I changed my start line stay cue to see if that would help.

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. We play a game, basically it is chase but he does most of the running around. My cue is "I'm Gonna Get You!" but I whisper it to him and make little claw motions with my hands while bending over. He immediately goes into a down until I suddenly jump at him and then he runs around all crazy happy. This game has never been associated with stress so I haven't poisoned that cue. Something at some point poisoned my stay cue with him which is why my start line became such a mess.

Karen Holik also made a good point that if your dog breaks the start line don't keep forcing them to do it over and over, just put them back to the first obstacle and do a running start. I think that was another mistake I'd made was stressing him out more and more by making him do the start line stay when he was obviously not happy with me leaving him.

Basil has always been a bit "special". He is definitely a Momma's Boy. I think if he could stick to me like velcro 24/7 he would be thrilled. Little things can make him nervous and he can be jumpy at times. We've worked through a lot of it and he loves agility so much not much can phase him while he is playing agility with me.

It is nice to have a few weeks left to practice some more start line stays and weaves. My friend Ellen was so kind to give me a six pole set of channel weaves! I can work on Basil's entry at a distance and different angles and also start Byron on super wide channel weaves, running back and forth.

So yeah - First week of February should be fun. :)

Movie Review
The Green Hornet was not a movie I was itching to see. I like Seth Rogan and all, but kind of getting tired of the whole comic-turned-movie genre. Ringo was dying to see it and it wasn't so awful looking (I.E. - Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie) so I relented. I'm kind of glad I did, it was a fun movie to watch. I had no idea it would be more comedy than anything. It was not as bad as critics said it was.

Slow Weekend

The weekend was started off nicely with my boss taking out most of us for a round at the local pub before I headed home.  I tried a new IPA but wasn't impressed with it.  Thus, I didn't remember the name of the IPA and I don't regret forgetting that one.  We had a huge storm blow in right as I parked my car at the pub so my jeans got totally soaked as I waded to the door.  We went out that night for dinner with our friends and then just relaxed at home.

We watched two movies this weekend.  Daybreakers (vampire movie) which I'd already seen in the theater but Ringo hadn't and Harry Brown which was new to both of us.  Ringo liked Daybreakers and we both liked Harry Brown. I'm a sucker for any movie with Michael Caine. The movie is a bit slow to get going but once it does hang on for the ride.

Bernie and Basil always love movie night because they get to cuddle on the couch. Bernie floats back and forth until we stop petting her and then she crams herself into a corner of the couch. Basil gets uneasy with the thunder so he ends up climbing into my lap until the rain calms down.

Saturday we ran some errands before settling at home again. Basil went with us for a trip since he won a photo contest at a local pet store. He hates having to stand still in a crate for a car ride and not be able to look out the window. I just don't feel safe keeping him in a car harness. We got some toys for Byron and a food bowl. I picked out a toy for Basil. Our goodie bag had tons of treats in it. I'm set for agility for a while.

My friend Ella from Iceland was very kind and sent Bernie some fish treats to try out. I'm sure she will love it.

The dogs have been squirreling away toilet paper rolls. Basil has always enjoyed them but now Bernie has gotten in on the action. I'll see her pull out a shredded piece to gnaw on and have no idea where she got it from.

Yesterday I was determined to finish quilting my pinwheel quilt so I got that done. I also had to make Bernie's food for the next two weeks. I was going to make a months worth but realized I was short two eggs and some plain yogurt for the second batch so I skipped it. I did manage to climb onto my kitchen counter to change out the burned out bulb finally. Now to do the other 25 things on my list and I'll be good.

Tonight, if we don't get rained out, Basil will do some agility. Since Byron is coming home on the 15th it cuts into the CPE trial that weekend so I'm just going to enter him in one day and see how we do. Won't cost me a ton of money and I (hopefully) won't be there all day since Byron will be at home with Ringo.

Since we've tossed around a ton of names I still haven't gotten used to calling the puppy Byron. I need to come up with a registered name that is cute. The breeder posted a cute blog showing the pups with their sire and dam having some fun. He's gonna be huge by the time he comes home.

Possible registered names:
Cornerstone's Byron the Charmer
Cornerstone's Three's a Charming Byron
Cornerstone's Byron is Thrice as Nice
Cornerstone's Byron Blue Boy
Cornerstone's Byron the Don Juan

I have plans to make the breeder a wallhanging featuring Cardis. I've got a little bit of it done and decided I needed to re-think the outline stitch. I'm gonna do raw edge appliqué for the first time so that the details stand out. I have two blocks cut and the Cardigan ironed on, need to re-do my third one as I messed it up trying to re-stitch a satin stitch around it. The cutout is small so I can't turn corners easily and have it show up nicely. I did some research and saw that raw edge might solve my problem. Worse comes to worse, I'll hand blanket stitch the whole thing.

Weekend Update

This weekend has been somewhat productive so far.  I did some stuff for the wedding quilt I'm doing for a friend yesterday, we saw Piranha 3D, and we survived another outing to the local Waffle House.

Piranha 3D was pretty silly.  I don't generally want to go see live action 3D movies because I find they usually don't translate well and it isn't worth the extra $2.50 just to say you saw it in 3D. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland prompted this rule since I found a lot of the fast motion in the film to blur when you do the 3D effect and if I wanted to watch a blurry, shaky movie I'd pop in a Jason Bourne DVD.   I've been sticking to animated films for my 3D experiences and I've been pretty happy.

What was fun about the movie to me were all the appearances of actors I like popping up in it.  Go take a gander at the IMDB actor listing to see what I mean.  Christopher Lloyd was pretty hilarious to watch.  Add all of that with the 100% probability that annoying teenage spring break kids are going to be eaten by carnivorous fish and you've got a movie I'd want to see.

I think I was more excited about the trailers for upcoming 3D films.  I've been noticing trailers for the new Resident Evil being played on TV but was disappointed to not see any zombies featured at all and swore I wouldn't go see it if zombies were not an integral part of the storyline.  Then I see the actual 3D trailer (with zombies) and was like omg we have to go see it.  Ringo laughed at me and said no, you said you didn't want to see it.  The 3D trailer is different than the other ones and actually explains the story (which is interesting to me).  The 3d effects of the trailer were incredible, much better than other live action 3d films I'd watched.

Here is the literal parody of the TV trailer if you wanna laugh at it:

Tron Legacy is the other 3D film I was excited about.  Not the first time I'd seen the trailer but this was a more in-depth one than the others.

My pups need a bath so bad!  Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to doing that.