"Cairo Time" on Movie Monday

Last week my movie-going took me on an absolutely amazing trip to Cairo with Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig in "Cairo Time."

Before I went to the movie, I described it as a movie about a woman who goes to Cairo to visit her husband, but who ends up having to wait for him because he has been detained. And, instead, spends her time with a local diplomat with whom she may or may not end up having an affair.

When we finished the movie, and were standing in the parking lot, we both realized that we had absolutely no idea how to describe it.

I'm still in that position of having no idea how to describe it.

But here are some things you should know: The movie is gorgeous. The scenery is amazing. Patricia Clarkson is beautiful - and the director even allows her to look her age, which makes her that much more beautiful.

Overall, it's a quiet, languid movie. The background music is moving, without ever getting in the way. Time passes at an unknown speed, using just as much as the movie needs - not a moment more or less. And, by the time the movie was over, I wanted to come home and book a ticket to Egypt.

My movie-going partner said that as she watched the movie she wanted to reach out and touch things. I wanted to look around all the corners to see what we were missing.

Here's another thing about the movie I'm sure of: if you miss this movie, you'll miss a lot.

Overall grade: A. (It was almost an A+, but a few characters we liked faded in and out of the movie that I'd have loved to have seen more of.)

Post-9/11... 2010

I spent a lot of time, yesterday, thinking.

I saw people online posting the notices of where they were on September 11th, 2001. And I know exactly where I was all that day. And who I called to check on. And how overwhelming that all felt.

Yesterday, though, amid all of the reminiscences, I heard that a good friend's father passed away. Something in the immediacy of that news overshadowed all of the rest of the day.

Another friend of mine, yesterday, quoted some lines of lyrics from a song from the musical "Wicked," and I really don't know how else to sum this up, so I'm going to borrow those lyrics, here.

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...

And so, on this day after the day of memories, I thank you all for being a part of my life - whether as readers or commenters or friends or family or people I've never met.

Tomorrow we'll talk about movies. Or the new dog. Or something. I promise.

Peanut Butter

I am, in fact, a rather large fan of peanut butter. I grew up on the stuff. We had Skippy Super Chunk most of the time when I was a kid, although we did try the "do-it-yourself" version when my mom got her first food processor. (It was nice, but not practical.)

These days, Christopher and I keep a jar of Creamy Jif in the cupboard at all times. (I put up a little bit of a fuss changing over from Skippy, but I've adjusted.) And most weeks I bring Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam sandwiches to work with me at least once or twice. After all, just because you had it as a kid doesn't mean you can't have it as an adult, right?

Well, with the new "kid" in the house, the importance of peanut butter has drastically changed this week. Suddenly, just having the jar visible is a point of stress. And opening it... well... that causes all sorts of angst from below the level of the counter.

This morning, as I was making my sandwich, I looked down to see two of the most soulful, sad, hopeful, and pathetic eyes staring up at me. Pleading. Hoping. But not quite begging.

I made my sandwich, wrapped it up, and put the jar away as quickly as I could. Feeling oddly guilty for packing my lunch instead of buying something when I got to work.

This could be a very expensive guilt-trip.

Wednesday... Slightly Distractedly

Saw a great movie last night - which of course I'm not going to talk about until next Monday - which is why I didn't post last night.

Well, that's part of why I didn't post last night. The other reason is because I came home from the movie to have Christopher say to me "So, we're getting her tomorrow."

Who is "she"? She is a six-year-old cocker spaniel. Christopher has been looking into becoming a foster home for dogs for a while, and then was looking into rescue dogs at a couple of local agencies. A week or two ago, he sent an email off to the cocker spaniel rescue, saying he might be interested in a dog. Then everything kicked into high gear.

We met the dog on Monday (yes, two days ago), and last night we got the call that we were going to be getting a new member of the household.

So... We now are the proud housemates of a black-and-tan cocker who loves to play with a tennis ball and is perfectly at home cuddling up to watch TV.

More news as we have it, of course! But, for tonight, it's time to settle in and just enjoy.

An Expendable Movie, with Charisma

As we started enjoying the 3-day weekend, Christopher and I went out with some friends on Saturday afternoon to see the "blow things up" movie "The Expendables."

For a big blow-em-up movie, with a kind of all-star cast, it seems to have flown mostly under the radar. And... well... that's not necessarily a bad thing. Basically, it's an action movie about a group of mercenaries who get hired to take out some bad guys in some random island nation.

The important thing is that the action heroes in it were - for the most part - in their primes 10 or 15 years ago. Sylvester Stallone is the lead. And there's Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke, and cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even a couple of professional wrestlers, and "current" action guys Jason Statham and Jet Li. And, although they're really almost more expendable than the men, there are actually two women in it: Gabrielle Itie (as the action heroine) and Charisma Carpenter (as the beautiful damsel in distress).

(Not sure who Charisma Carpenter is, but think the name sounds familiar? She was Cordelia on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," played a "seer" on "Charmed," and has been in a bunch of TV movies since then. She usually plays smart, beautiful, but flawed characters. And, honestly, I think she ought to show up on screens more often.)

Does it sound like I'm stalling in talking about the movie, by instead talking about the cast? Well, you're probably right.

You see, although I only saw it two days ago, the only thing I really remember about it is gunfire and a couple of spectacular explosions. After we were done watching it, we were standing outside and talking about it. And, while we agreed we admire the guys who were in the movie for doing it, we couldn't come up with anything spectacular about the movie, itself.

Is it just me, or does that make it incredibly aptly named?

Overall rating: B. Basically, it was all that it promised to be, but it didn't fulfill the promise of what it could have been.

Friday Food - A Little Late

I had every intention of posting this blog yesterday, but then a friend of ours came over for dinner - and actually BROUGHT the entire dinner and cooked it, here - so I got a bit distracted.

But I didn't want to let my one and only homegrown BLT of the year pass by without some fanfare.

For those of you paying attention, yes, this was my one and only tomato for the year. I had another one very nicely ripening on the vine, but when I came home from work a couple of days ago it was gone. Just completely gone. The entire "branch" it was on is missing and there's a "scar" on the stem where it was pulled off. Methinks 'twas not a bunny rabbit, since a bunny would not have taken the entire branch... (grumble)

Even so, I am thrilled to present to you the following photos. First of all, the guest of honor at dinner (the little guy was barely 3 1/2 inches across):

Then, we have the guest of honor and his co-honorees, some thick-cut bacon, some crispy romaine, and some toasted white bread with a little butter on it (yes, I'm a purest about this):

And, finally, the culmination of the evening - and, well, of the past 3 months for that matter (okay, I admit that there are some dill pickle slices in there, as well as a little mayo -I'm a purest about those things, too):

It was an amazing sandwich. I was sitting next to Christopher while I ate it, and he kept having to deal with my "Mmmm..." sounds. But it truly was amazing. Something no winter tomatoes can ever hope to be. It may even have been a good thing for the second tomato to have gone missing. After all, I'm not sure it could have lived up to this one.

We're in Spike, Again!

And, in fact, it's a double spike. Which means we have a chance for all three orchids to be blooming at the same time.

Oh. Did I forget to mention that when an orchid is getting ready to bloom it's apparently called being "in spike" (because orchids send out a long spike, upon which the blooms appear)?

Orchids are a strange houseplant. Depending on what kind you get (we have two cymbidium orchids and one that we don't know the name of), they're actually fairly basic plants to have around. They just sit there and look green a lot. You water them once a week and wait. And wait. And wait. And then...

One day, you look at this mass of leaves, and there is a straight twig-looking thing growing out of it. And the twig gets longer every day. And you water and wait. And, eventually, you start to see it bud. And the buds grow. And you water and wait.

And then, finally, you get a bloom. Possibly a string of blooms. And the blooms. Well... If you're lucky, the blooms last for a month. Or two months. And you kind of get used to them being in bloom and forget what it's like to wait for them to do anything.

And, unfortunately, then the inevitable thing happens and the stems of the blooms start to yellow, and the flowers begin to sag one by one. So you trim off the pieces which have died and keep what you can. And one day you look and realize that even the spike is starting to wilt.

So you trim it back so that you are left with the green leaves, and you water. And wait.

But, for now, we have blooms on two of our orchids, and the promise of more on the third. (You can see the two spikes in the upper-right-hand section of the photo, below.)

We are in spike. And life is good.