MOVIE MONDAY - NEW MOON

THE GOOD

JACOB was great. He’d buffed up, filled out, and grew up, about a million times better since his performance in Twilight. He did a great job. I was thoroughly impressed and don’t think he could have been improved upon.

The phasing of the werewolves was amazing. I thought it looked very believable. Dakota Fanning was great but a very small glimpse of her.

ALICE, I loved her energy and cutsey personality. Ashley Greene was exceptional. She was just what I would have imagined her to be from having read the books. Of course she was great in Twilight too. But she is one of the great transformations from the written word to the movie. LOVE her.

THE BAD

The budget for this episode was way beyond the budget for Twilight so I expected more from the graphics, makeup and scenery. I don’t think they delivered in this area. The sparkling was no better than in Twilight, the makeup might have been a little better but not much.

THE UGLY

The scene from Alice’s vision, when they were in Rome visiting the Voltaire, was horribly cheesey. It was so trite it was almost humorous.


OVERALL

It was a fun, romantic movie. My husband, daughter and friend (Shay) went to see it with me. We all enjoyed it.

Shay said it was a modern day Romeo and Juliett and she never read the books or even saw Twilight so New Moon stood alone for a new viewer.

Traveling for the Holidays? Watch Out

Traveling for the holidays? A friend sent me this video with a little warning

A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines.

United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight.



Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar.

During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for youtube exposing their lack of cooperation.

The Manager responded : "Good luck with that one, pal".

So he posted a retaliatory video on youtube.

The video has since received over 5.5 million hits.

United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video.

Naturally his response was: "Good luck with that one, pal" .

Taylor Guitars sent the musician 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has lead to a sharp increase in orders .

Crafy Carpet

Are you looking for a project? Concerned about faux-fibers causing headaches and odors in your happy home?

Well, why not make your own carpet? It's EZ. At least with these instructions from Ready Made.

Let me know if you try it and how it turns out. Wouldn't it be nice to have a new carpet just in time for the holidays?

Easy Gardener - Earth Friendly Friday

Okay, it's not really gardening season here in P.O. but it's never too early to start dreaming about planting and I love to read seed catalogs and think about what I'll do in my garden next spring. So, I thought you might like to see something that's earth-friendly and helpful for the garden.

Weed Block Natural

It's made with renewable corn to stop weeds while saving our precious natural resources. It stops weeds for ten years and won't harm plants. So we bought a package. We're planning to try it out. It's made by Easy Gardener. And the weed block isn't their only earth-friendly product. You can read more here.

So Happy Gardening - or at least Happy Dreaming!

Answer to Thought for Thursday

The world's tallest Christmas Tree in 2003 wasn't on the White House lawn or in Trafalgar Square, it was in the Styx Valley, a tract of ancient forest in Tasmania. If you want to read more, check it out here.

And while you're there stop and check out a little bit about Green Peace International.

Thought for Thursday

The Tallest: The year was 2003, what city claimed the tallest Christmas Tree?

Take a guess, it could be Chicago, New York, or . . . ?

Put your "thought" in comments then come back around 3:00

that's how you'll see

if you were "write" or wrong

or you can google it but that might take too long :)

Chocoholic?

EZ Ice-cream sandwiches at home

So much for heart-healthy recipes - what was I thinking? It's the holidays and I LOVE sweets - just look at me and you'll see it's true.

One night I was having one of those CRAVINGS for chocolate--you know the kind, the I WANT CHOCOLATE that screams in your head kind of craving and so I decided to make some home-made ice cream cookies and this is how I did it.

Ingredients for chocolate chip cookies:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups of chocolate chips

(mix ingredients together and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, every oven cooks differently so start checking them at about 15 minutes. If you're softening the butter in the microwave, add the chocolate chips after the mixture has cooled - otherwise the chips will melt and you might have chocolate cookies but there won't be any chips ;)

Let the cookies cool--if you can-- 'cuz that's the hardest part for me. Then spoon in a tablespoon (or two, or three) of ice cream (I used Rocky Road) and squish the top and bottom cookies together. Eat then or put in a baggie to freeze for later. Yummy for your tummy!!!

Any other chocoholics out there?