Movie Monday Masterpiece

No, Masterpiece Theater isn't actually a movie. I realize that. But it's so much BETTER than a movie.

My folks were in town over the weekend, and we capped off a really rather nice weekend with sitting down on the couch to watch the first new episode of Masterpiece Theater's "Upstairs, Downstairs."

I'm not sure if it was great because Christopher and I were sitting with my folks and our pup and watching the show, of if it was a carry-over from watching it when I was a little kid, but I do know that I was really amazing.

Now I just have to hope that The Amazing Race doesn't have too many delayed shows so that I don't end up with massive overlaps...

Are We There, Yet?

It was in the 60s, today. Not exactly sunny, but bright and warm and really kind of hope-inducing.

This morning, Christopher and I took our moms to the Macy's Flower Show in downtown Minneapolis. Gorgeous flower displays. Hopeful trees. Tons of people. And the scent of spring everywhere.

So, this afternoon, I gave in to some of my stronger urges and went out into the yard to clean up some of the garden planting beds. I was originally going to just go out and trim down the dead ornamental grasses from beside the driveway and in the pots along the front walk. After all, according to our neighbors who are supposed to know, the yards are still too wet for much work.

But, as I was working along the driveway, I noticed how much was actually growing underneath the detritus of last fall, and so I started raking. And then I moved to the backyard, where I raked for awhile longer. Followed by cutting back the clematis vines which were actually already starting to show green on the interior (which makes me a little worried about how those will grow in the coming weeks).

When all was said and done, I had two bags of yard waste sitting on the boulevard. If we can just make it through the severe weather being predicted for the next 24 hours (severe weather? really? we just got done with the threat of snow, for chrissike!), then we might actually have some spring flowers soon.

I know that I'm supposed to be focused on the journey and not the destination, but this is one destination I really can't wait for.

The WALL-E Factor

I'm sitting in the living room and I've been scrolling through the channels looking for something to watch while stalking my parents' flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. And, as luck would have it, I stumbled across "Hello, Dolly!"

I started watching it because when I landed on it, it was the scene which actually includes both the Waiters' Gallop and the theme song. But then they moved on to the next song - "It Only Takes a Moment."

Suddenly, instead of watching "Hello, Dolly!" and enjoying it for the fluff that it is, I was watching it and thinking about "WALL-E."

I know that, when "WALL-E" was made, they used the clips from "Hello, Dolly!" (wow - why did I have to choose two movies with so much need for capitals and punctuation in their titles?), to kind of refer to a simpler time. And to show human emotions in the smallest of moments (like holding hands).

So, here I am tonight, sitting and watching "Hello, Dolly!" and now - instead of just watching this movie - I find myself thinking about WALL-E and EVE, and the unspoken, all-too-human, love that those two animated characters showed.

There's something wonderfully full-circle in that. I bet Thornton Wilder would approve.

Whatever Wednesday

At various times today I've had wonderful ideas of what I was going to write, here.

But then I kept getting distracted. And I wrote some emails. And I tried to get a little caught up with interactive life. And I even did some work. And I completely forgot what I was going to say. So I had to come up with something else. Here it is:

Last summer, Christopher had our breezeway between the garage and the house glassed in. It had been just screens, and that got switched over to glass with nice doors and screens and all that. During the fall we had a couple of meals out there, but we didn't really settle into that idea before winter set in.

Today, on my drive home, I decided we should have dinner out there tonight. We weren't having anything major (leftovers with a salad), but we put a candle on the table, brought out a pillow for the pup to settle down on, and sat down to dinner.

It was soooo nice. Relaxing. Peaceful. And, yet, we could watch the world going by outside.

This could seriously be the start of something good.

Movie Monday - Paul

Yes. The movie's name is "Paul."

No. I don't think it's a good name for a movie because it is so massively forgettable.

Yes. It's a good movie.

No. It's not forgettable.

See? This is where the title/movie fall apart.

The movie "Paul" is from the same people who brought us "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz." And, thus, it is a spoof movie. Maybe a parody would be a better way of putting it. Or - better yet - and homage. "Shaun of the Dead" was an homage to horror movies (specifically zombie movies). "Hot Fuzz" was an homage to buddy cop movies. And "Paul" is an homage to Sci-Fi movies.

But it's more than that. Sure. There are layers upon layers of inside jokes for the Sci-Fi community. There are sight gags and sound gags. There are oblique references. There's even politico-religious commentary. And - the one thing so many parody/spoof movies forget - there's an actual plot.

In fact, there's enough plot that the member of our party who isn't a Sci-Fi follower actually enjoyed the movie, too. I was probably in the middle, thinking it was funny and laughing outloud a couple of times. And Christopher probably picked up on twice as many things as I did. But, even without that, we had a good time.

I'm kind of specifically not getting into plot details. It sounds really hokey when you say these two guys stumble across a lost and lonely alien (named, you guessed it, "Paul") and decide to help him get home. Even so... well... that is pretty much the main plot. But the movie is SO much more intelligent than that.

Overall grade: A-. I loved the movie, I really did, but they went a little too far for a few of the junior high laughs.

Springy Sunday

Aside from the fact that "The Amazing Race" isn't on tonight, it's been a really rather nice day.

We capped the sunny, warm, afternoon by taking a walk as a family. Christopher was just taking the pup out for a walk as I was getting home from running a few errands. So we all went to wander around the block for the evening constitutional.

We've got a lot going on at the moment. We're debating paint colors for the exterior of the house, so much of the conversation was about the colors we were passing as we walking. I'd say we were looking at the flowers and the greening grass, too, but we're not even to the point of clearing out last year's remnants.

And then, as luck would have it, we ran across two of our neighbors who were also out chatting. After having spent the past 6 months seeing almost no one on the sidewalks, the past couple of weeks have seen a resurgence in walkers - both two-legged and four-legged. Suddenly we're back to living in a neighborhood of people who jog, stroll, walk dogs, and putter about in the yards.

Now if only the yards would catch up to us.

Friday Food - A Little of This...

I'm not really a comfort food eater. I'm not someone who, when stressed out, pigs out on a specific kind of food.

Granted, if a package of Oreos is opened in front of me, and I've got a glass of milk, I'm not averse to going through most of the package. If there are some good potato chips and a Coke, they might be gone. A box of Mary See's Bordeaux (milk or dark) and another glass of milk? No problem.

But that's not connected to stress or emotion. It's just food.

Which is not to say that food isn't tied to emotion for me, it's just that it's the other way around. I don't eat because of the emotions, I get the emotions because of the food.

It's an odd equation, I know. We'll look into it more on some future Friday. Assuming I remember it.