WHAT HAPPENS WHEN...

What happens 24 hours after your dogs (daschund and chihuahua) find their way onto your kitchen table and eat one medium pepperoni pizza and one pasta primavera pizza bowl you ask???

Lots of R&R and trips outside.....

I don't have to be in Lubbock for craziness to happen. :)

*duchess*

THE RED CARPET

This is nearly the most exciting news I’ve ever had to report. If it had come true, it WOULD be the most exciting news.

I came ‘this close’ to having tickets to the premiere of the new ‘Wolverine’ movie. When I say ‘premiere’ I mean the HOLLYWOOD premiere---the one where all the stars show up on the red carpet. YEP!! The dream didn’t come true this time but I’m assured that I will be included in the next round.

Why? Skip Woods, the screenplay writer of the ‘Wolverine’ pre-quel is a friend. We’ve known him while he has worked his way up the Hollywood mountain. So happy for Skip! This is his second movie with BIG name stars (last one was with John Travolta). We are certainly hoping for more!!

My ‘so close’ tears are gone for now. Today the tears are for happiness and Skip’s success. It was a great opening for the film. For Skip’s sake, and that of triple-threat (!) Hugh Jackman, I hope the film breaks records at the box office this weekend.

*duchess*

REGIONAL COMPETITION

This past weekend Kooza and I traveled to the ‘big city’ of Lubbock for his regional competition. Kooza is a gymnast. His specialty is Trampoline and Tumbling.

I’m happy to report he came home with one GOLD medal and two SILVER medals after competing in his three events. Coming home with 3 medals for his first regional competition is outstanding. Texas was competing against 8 other states. I can’t name them all. (Sometimes ignorance is bliss you know.) We just wanted to go and ‘do our best.’ I think he did just that. He missed one gold medal finish by one-tenth of a point! That’s the crazy sport of gymnastics.

Overall, our ‘Team Air Force’ did really well. It was a very successful weekend for us. We still have more work before the season is over. The next 6 weeks will be spent preparing for Nationals for Kooza and a few other team members.

The weekend was full of mishaps and craziness in Lubbock---including watching the guy behind me try to pass a bottle of whiskey and a liter of coke through airport security! WHAT?! The same guy stole a wheelchair and fell back while 'popping a wheelie.' Believe me, lots of stories to tell. Luckily the craziness didn’t seem to phase Kooza. When it came time to compete, he was ‘in the zone.’

I’ve never considered myself a big city snob, but after this past weekend, I’m thinking maybe I am…. :)

REEL REVIEWS

Cliff Notes on the remaining films:

RACHAEL GETTING MARRIED
This was a twisted film. Imagine every dysfunctional family you know and then put a camera on their worst days. This is the movie. It was a great part for Anne Hathaway. I certainly see why she agreed to be in the movie. There is NO doubt--this one is WAY depressing. The AA meeting Anne’s character attended was almost the same scene as her film sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner. This movie is only for the diehards of the film industry.

CADILLAC RECORDS
Depressing. Typical music industry drugs and alcohol. The movie is filmed in so much darkness that you can’t see the actors. Music history worth missing.

MILK
Some people have mentioned they didn’t want to see this film because of the controversial lifestyle portrayed. I have to say, Sean Penn softens the edge and is remarkable in this film. A friend of mine can tell you exactly where she was that fateful day in San Francisco when she heard Milk was killed. It made that much of an impact in her life then and now. I’m not sure I would see this film again. I will state again, Penn was amazing in this film.

In a rush I’ll say you have to see THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. A chick flick positively worth seeing. Dakota Fanning is charming. I can’t wait to see her in more films.

More films I’ve seen:
EAGLE EYE
THE THIEF LORD
QUANTUM SOLACE

I’ve been doing a LOT of reading lately and have put films on the back burner for a while, hence the slow blog entries. There are a few in the theater I would like to see. I’m looking forward to the summer blockbusters!

REEL REVIEWS

These are the movies I’ve seen these past few weeks:
Australia
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Cadillac Records
High School Musical 3
La Vie en Rose
Milk
Rachael Getting Married
The Secret Life of Bees

I don’t have time to write reviews for all of them. Some of them aren’t really worthy of reviews. They were just for fun. I’ll say this---The only one I would definitely see again is The Secret Life of Bees. That was by far my favorite. Here are some quick notes on a few:

Beverly Hills Chihuahua and High School Musical were both watchable (is that a word?). Chihuahua is a little long for the little ones. Even I thought it was getting too long and slow. High School Musical was actually pretty good. I had to finish the trilogy. This one was better than the second one in the series. It reminded me a lot of the movie Grease. Good luck to the Disney kids moving on. They really are all grown up now.

Australia is hard to review. I really liked the story line, but wasn’t crazy about the way it was portrayed in the film. Sometimes I felt as if I was watching the old movie set inside a warehouse. I didn’t know if they were doing that purposely because of the timeline or not?? Regrettably, I got caught up in the hair and makeup. I really couldn’t get past Nicole Kidman’s wig! See looked very botoxed in this film too—couldn’t get past that either. Hugh Jackman was delightful. He is definitely one of my favorites in any film. I doubt I would watch this one again, but I’m glad I saw it once. It is lonnngggg. Actually, it kind of reminded me of Out of Africa, but not anywhere near as good.

I’m beginning to realize, the more I review films, the less tolerant I am of mediocrity. I’m also beginning to realize I’m old enough to recognize remakes and knock-offs----that’s scary.

More later…..

THE BIG DIG

The pool digging has begun! We are WAY behind in schedule.....but we are finally to the point where the machines were out today. The digging is done and tomorrow the re-bar will be in place. They tell us it will be 5-6 weeks before it is finished and we can jump in. It will be just in time for summer. Yippeee!

DUCHESS RETURN

We finally fixed the computer issue, or I should say Pops finally fixed the computer issue. I feel like I’m way behind in telling my story. I have lots to update on the blog. Most importantly, I have 5 film reviews I need to write!! I can’t promise I’ll finish all of them…

The exciting news is that this week the DVD releases are going to be great with more to come later this month. That could potentially put me further behind in writing reviews—if I’m watching instead of writing.

I can’t decide where to start….I’m just going to start writing and see what comes up first.

p.s. I guess by now everyone knows that FB changed their minds about trying out their new policy. I'm glad they're listening.