What’s Up?

MY MOOD:  Been feeling the blues lately, I don’t know why.  There is no reason to be–the sky is blue and the weather is mild, the cherry and plum and crabapple trees are all showing off their magnificent blooms and yet, here I am just feeling the blues.  Not even the beautiful hyacinth and tulips in the backyard could lift my spirits.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not walking around dragging my big butt and sighing.  I really don’t know which button to push to get me back my old cheerful self.

MY WEEK:  The week that was–quite busy.  Like every year, I took the Good Friday off to take my mother to do visita iglesia.  Yeah, we follow the tradition still.  Three out of five churches we visited were open.  Next year, we’ll go much later to enter those two other churches that open late.  The difference this year is that my hubby also took the day off.  His vacation cap is almost full; he needed to take a day off.  We went to his service from 12-2:30, mostly meditative service.  Since we were in Berkeley and I was craving those yummy miniature carrots that I only see at Berkeley Bowl, we decided to stop by and pick up a few of the things we needed for our Easter dinner.  I seriously love this grocery store, yeah the price is a little higher than the regular chain grocery stores in the neighborhood, but the quality and variety of produce is amazing.  We had to make one more stop before going home, Costco.  Good thing we didn’t eat anything (apart from the cup of coffee and a low-fat cranberry oatmeal muffin which we shared) becasue there were tons of tasting stations.  That’s why I love going to Costco too.  That evening, we were both surfing the net.  And Sunday, we had a couple of friends over for dinner.  She brought a Bollywood movie.  She knew I love Bollywood movies.  So we had a foursome, dinner and a movie right in my living room.

MY TV SHOWS:  American Idol is getting interesting, Men In Trees continue to grab my undivided attention on Wednesdays, Lost is amazing and gets better each show. 

o0o

I was having a lousy day yesterday and I thought a change in lay out would lift my spirits.  I kinda like this, but I suppose I need to plug in my personal photo in the header, eh.

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Six Pack

This week’s six pack is about my last six Netflix rentals and my ratings.

1. Atonement *****
2. No Country For Old Men *****
3. Shrek The Third **
4. Lust, Caution *****
5. The Kingdom**
6. The Vacancy***

 

Biblical Humor

Straight from the Inbox:

Q:  What kind of man was Boaz before he married Ruth?

A:  Ruthless.

Q: What do they call pastors in Germany?

A: German shepherds.

Q: Who was the greatest financier in the bible?

A: Noah, he was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.

Q: What kind of motor vehicles are in the bible?

A: Jehovah drove Adam and Eve out of the garden in a Fury.  David’s Triumph was heard throughout the land.  Also, probably a Honda, because all the apostles are in one Accord.

Q:Who was the greatest comedian in the bible?

A:  Samson, he brought the house down.

Q: What excuse did Adam give to his children why he no longer live in Eden?

A:Your mother ate us out of our house and home.

Q:  Which servant of God was the most flagrant lawbreaker in the bible?

A: Moses, he broke all ten commandments at once.

Q:  Which bible character has no parents?

A: Joshua, son of Nun.

 

St. Patrick’s Day

Today is St. Patrick’s day and although we’re not Irish,  hubby and I are celebrating this day by having an Irish dinner @ home.  Our cafeteria here at work served all Irish dishes today and I bought corned beef and cabbage to compliment our garlic mashed potato at home. Unfortunately we did not have colcanon today.  And to wash these all down, hubby volunteered to stop by the store  on the way home tonight to grab a Guiness. 

 Now the question is, since we’re feeling Irish, are we gonna have the luck of an Irish tonight (wink)?

 

Six Pack

In January, I visited Bangladesh for the first time.  Here are the six highlights and six lowlights of my visit.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. People are extremely warm, generous, friendly, and hospitable.
2. Food is surprisingly good considering I am more of a carnivorous, their heavy on veggies and very light on meat menu is very tasty.
3. Their sweets are terrific.
4. Old buildings and structures are magnificent (and pink).
5. Shopping is enjoyable, it was 70 taka to 1 US$ when I was there.
6. The slower pace of living bored me initially, but I could really get used to this again.

LOWLIGHTS:

1. The seemingly lack of traffic rule enforcement, to each his own out there.
2. Traffic jams every where at any time.
3. Pollution, you can see it.
4. Difficulty in hailing a cab.  You don’t wanna rent a car, you’ll have a coronary just navigating the streets, believe me.
5. Wearing orno is problematic/difficult. Orno is that scarf worn over the chest to conceal one’s boobies.  I could wear what’s in the photo minus the orno, thank you very much.
6. Very few public restrooms.

 

 

Idol Speak

The Long and Winding Road leads to just 11 crooners.Last night’s much touted Lennon-McCartney night proved to be a dud, I thought. So much selection and the12 aspiring Idols did not take advantage of the opportunity. I pretty much agreed with Simon every night; but I disagreed with him when he said that guy who sang Eleanor Rigby did a fabulous job. I thought it was just okay. My favorite performance of the night was Brooke White’s Let It Be. It is one of my fave songs and she did her own version of it and I completely loved it. Ramiele on the other hand got bad reviews from all three judges. Hubby and I agreed that while we loved the song, we thought the song was a bit slow and boring. Hope she hangs on despite last night’s so-so performance.Prediction: It would have to be between Kristy Lee Cook (who I really really like) who sang that horrible version of Eight Days A Week and David Hernandez’s corny rendition of I Saw Her Standing There.

 

Where I Draw The Line

I think of myself as open minded and ready to understand everything.  Or at least give my self a chance to understand something.  My open mindedness is manifested by the types of movies I have on my Netflix queue.  I have been a member for over 3 years and browsing my history, I find that I have an eclectic mixture of movies I have chosen to view.  I particularly enjoy foreign movies, of which Netflix has a wide range of choices.

My most recent rental however was quite disappointing in a way.  It was Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution.  While I vaguely remember reading that this movie had caused some buzz, I do not remember what it was all about.  I knew that Ang Lee is some sort of a trailblazer; someone who marches to his own drums, even dances to it without restraint.  I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of his more famous movie, Brokeback Mountain, and how that simplicity in story translates very well.

But back to his recent offering.  The movie is excellent, I thought.  The cinematography was good.  The actors were terrific.  However, I do have a problem with the sex scenes, which I thought were all real, not simulated.  Am I correct?  I dont mind watching sex scenes, when it is done as an integral part of the movie.  This is where I believe Ang Lee crossed the line between artistic and pornographic.  I know that I may have been showing conservative self by this reaction.  But the scenes in question are long and graphic and I dont mind him putting some in, but well those scenes are just too much.  Cut the scenes in half and it does not make a dent in the story line one bit; so why bother cramming it all in when it does nothing more or less to the story?

Yes, there is such a thing as too much.  And this is where I draw the line.

 

Six things on my mind right now.

Let me start doing my own list and this would be my first, hope to do this every week.

In no particular order:

1. Losties….whose story would it be tonight on Lost?
2. I really have to put away my “winter” clothes, it has been very pleasant and sunny the past two weeks.
3. Can this week go any slower?  I have been praying for Friday since Tuesday (see previous post).
4. I can’t believe Ramiele Malubay sang Against All Odds last night!  Every year someone sings that;  it is not a good contest song.  Hope she gets a break and moves on.
5. I really should start my candle making project that has been gathering dust for 6 months.
6. Should I or shouldn’t I start another blog? 🙂

 

Glorious Days

What perfect weather we’re having, mid to upper 60s, the entire week.  Too bad, this week consists of 5 working days and 2 days off—-wishing it was the other way around.  4:56 pm on Tuesday and I wish it were Friday. 

 

When Channel Surfing Pays Off

I am a channel surfer.  When in control of the remote, I make my husband (my mother before that) dizzy.  But my surfing paid off last Wednesday night.  After AI (at which time I hardly touch the remote), I channel surfed again.  Until I found my very fave MEN IN TREES about to resume its aborted season with new shows.  Hah!

This wasn’t the first time I serendipitously discovered something I would totally love.  Three years ago, I also found LOST in its premier episode by channel surfing.  And boy am I glad.