Being Human - Puppy Love

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh !!  I was watching one of my favorite shows, BBC's Being Human, when all of a sudden.... Donny Osmond's beautiful voice was streaming through the TV !

As I've mentioned before, this show is about a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf that are friends and room-mates.  This year there is a new werewolf and vampire since the previous roomies died :-( but I love the new mates !

Anyway...Tom is a werewolf and met a girl, also a fellow werewolf, A-double-l-i-s-o-n as she likes to say.  Tom decides to teach her the fine art of killing the bad vampires and it seems they are a bit smitten with each other and it is PUPPY LOVE.

I couldn't find a clip with JUST that part but skip to about the 10 minute mark in the video below and listen to Donny singing Puppy Love - yeah, baby !!

Funny Friday - Lent Related

Since we are in the Lenten Season, I thought I would share this

Splash & Madison

A friend of mine has a grand daughter named Madison.  When she was born, I said - "Madison? Like in Splash?" and she looked at me like I was from Mars.  First of all I don't think she had ever heard of or seen one of my all time favorite movies "Splash".  Secondly (after I told her about it), I think she was a bit offended that I thought her daughter was named after a fictional mermaid.  But she was... rather they realized it or not.

Splash came out in 1984 and I think the weekend it was released, my friend Susan and I made a bee-line for the theater because we loved Tom Hanks (from Bosom Buddies).  We loved John Candy (from SCTV) and thought it looked like a really cute movie.  Since it was a Ron Howard movie, we had to play "spot the brother" - a game we play whenever we see a Ron Howard movie...always looking for Ron's brother, Clint Howard to appear in the movie (he does about 10 minutes in, during a bar scene).

At the time, Darryl Hannah was relatively unknown, but not after this movie - it made her a superstar !

Anyway.....during a scene in the movie, when the Mermaid is on land, Tom's character, Allen, asks her for her name.  She tells him it is hard to say in English and she says it and breaks all the TVs in the showroom (you can see a bit of it in the trailer below).

He tells her they need an easier name, they are on Madison Avenue, she looks at the sign and says "Madison".  He replies "Madison??  That's not a name!  And .... he was right, it wasn't a name. Not a first name anyway.

Facts about the name Madison:

In 1984, the year Splash was released, the name Madison did not chart as a girl's name.

In 1985, nearly 300 girls were given the name, and it entered the top 1000 chart at 628.

In 1986, 644 girls were given the name, and it jumped to 366.

And so on, and so on...In 2001, it was the #2 name for a girl.

Just look at this chart of the number of girls named Madison - see, it doesn't even start until after Splash was released ( source )

While people hearing the name from someone or somewhere else, probably caused most of its climb up the popularity ladder, it all started with a fish      ><((((º>

Funny Friday - Newsroom

Suddenly...the newsroom became strangely silent

MTV - When they showed Videos

Remember the good old days - when MTV actually showed videos?  I remember the first day of MTV.  This is how every hour was broken down

Top of the hour - MTV theme music would play and astronaut would put MTV flag on the moon, vivid colors would flash on the flag.

VJ would give you a welcome message and maybe say a few things about a band or a video then you would have several music videos

20 minutes into the hour - just some funky, swirly random images would appear for about 5 minutes

25 minutes into the hour - VJ time again

30 - 50 minutes into the hour - all music videos

50 mintues into the hour - Music News, originally told by the VJ but later Kurt Loder came along to do that

Another video or 2 then ...

Top of the hour again.

NO COMMERCIALS at all - just VJs, music news and info and videos - lots and lots of glorious music videos.  I loved all the Veejays.  Martha Quinn was probably my favorite one but I loved them all.

Very Pinteresting...

I've mentioned Pinterest before and enjoying seeing 99.9% of things that other people pin.  However about .1% of the time, I will come across something and just kind of scratch my head.  Sometimes it is the comment, sometimes it what they actually pinned.

Take this for example

"Use fitted sheets to cover box springs" - while yes, it looks nice, I'm thinking to myself, what is the point of doing that?  First of all - who sees your box springs except for you and your overnight guest and do they really care that your box spring is exposed for the few minutes they turn down the sheets and get into bed?  When you make your bed up, you don't see the box springs anyway, so why cover them with a sheet?  To me it is just one more item that has to be washed.  Why add to my household workload?

Here is another one:

Turn your toaster on its side and make grilled cheese.  Several problems with this one.  First of all, it won't be a grilled cheese, it will be toasted cheese (which taste different to me than grilled cheese).  Secondly, can't you just use your oven or toaster oven (I know not everyone has a toaster oven but IF you did).  Third, this is a fire hazard - the sides of a toaster can get pretty hot, I don't think laying it down on a wood counter top, where it could scorch your counter top is a very good idea.  May not cause a fire but would leave burn marks on your counter, why would you do that?  It isn't like it is that hard to make a grilled cheese the traditional way on the stove top and it actually would probably be just as fast or faster than using this method.

Do you want to look like you live in a million dollar home, what do million dollar homes have?  Chandeliers of course.  They are expensive though, so you can make your own...

Seriously ?? You are going to make a light fixture from plastic spoons?  First of all, no matter what you do, it is going to look like it is made from plastic spoons.  Secondly, if it gets too hot from the light bulb, the spoons will probably melt (depending on the quality of your spoons I suppose).  Also, can you see how much fun it would be to try and dust that thing, which would probably need dusting about 3 times a week?

Speaking of plastic spoons, how about a nice mirror for you?

I guess this is nicer since the spoons are painted hot pink and the vase of flowers kinds of makes the scene pretty..but like I said, no matter what you do, they still look like plastic spoons.

Now I don't mend to offend anyone that may have pinned these items.  That is fine - I'm sure I have pinned some things that make people go - what????  And like I said this is only about 0.1% of the odd stuff (in my opionion) that I see on Pinterest.  What is so funny about them too is often they have the caption underneath that says "Brilliant" !  Really? You think using a fitted sheet on a box spring is brilliant?  Einstein was brilliant, box spring sheets are not.

Rough Day

One year ago today, the girl that was always smiling, my friend, Lisa "G", lost her battle with cancer.  Two months and 5 days ago, the best dad that ever lived went to Heaven to meet G.  I'm sure that Thatcher, who left this earth 7 years, 1 month and 25 days ago met them both at the gates. 

I am feeling very sad today but I thank The Lord for them, even though they are not here with me anymore, I know I will see them again and I am so grateful that God let me live in the same time period that they did and that He let me share part of my life with them. 

Saturday Morning Cartoons

When my brother, sister and I were really young, we only had 4 TV channels - hard to believe I know, but it is true...ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS.  We didn't watch a lot of TV back then but . . . we always couldn't wait until Saturday morning to watch CARTOONS !!! Of course in those days, you could only see cartoons for about 3 hours, while you laid on the floor, on your tummy, with your pillow and your head propped up in your hands. 

Now, kids watch "animated series" - which are not the same as the cartoons we watched.  They can see "animated series" 7 Days a Week.... which reminds me of one of my fave cartoons...

Funny Friday - Ice Tea

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - My Review

 

Just a little bit before I left work today, I received an e-mail that had a ticket for a free screening to see "Salmon Fishing in the Yeman" - I've seen this preview a few times and the movie looked pretty good so I wanted to see it anyway but even better that I get to see it early and free !

What is not to love about this movie?  First, it stars the ever handsome, ever wonderful Ewan McGregor as Fred and he uses his real Scottish accent (bonus!).  Fred is a fisheries expert (works for Dept of Fisheries and Agriculture), he receives an e-mail from Harriett, played by the sweet, charming and talented, Emily Blunt (who happens to have some the prettiest eyes I've ever seen).  Harriett is a wealthy sheik's London representative. The sheik, played by Amr Waked (who is also pretty easy on the eyes), is a fisherman and wants to bring salmon fishing to Yemen - he thinks this will help build relationships and also help his people.  

Fred thinks the whole thing is ridiculous - how will they bring Salmon to a desert and make it continue to thrive but then Kristen Scott Thomas' character, Patricia, who works for the Prime Minister knows they need a "feel-good" story about the Middle East and gets involved with the project which pushes it along.

Before you know it, Harriett and Fred and the Sheik are working on bringing salmon to Yemen.  Along the way, Harriett receives some bad news about her boyfriend and Fred's starting to realize that his marriage has really been over for a while.  But..just as they are starting to come together, Harriett's life changes and Fred must then decide to reunite with his wife Mary.

The movie had a great plot - the main story trying to bring the salmon to Yemen, if they can accomplish it, if the sheik can survive terrorist attacks alone is great but add the romance in there, it gets even better!  One thing I wasn't expecting is for this movie to be so funny!  There were a lot of funny lines and moments in the movie, one of which involved Fred and his illustrations

At the end of the movie, the audience cheered - literally and I haven't seen that happen in a long time.  I really loved this movie and highly recommend it !

A Little Thing That Bugs Me

This is so petty in the grand scheme of life but... it bugs me - a pet peeve so to speak.  I contemplated going to work today but... decided to finish a movie I started watching last night but didn't finish, which lead to another movie, then another so no work for me today (which is good - I need to work less and see movies more) - but...I digress.

One of the movies was "Legally Blond 2", which I have never seen so I started watching it.  It came on at 4:00 on Oxygen.  THEN at 6:00, they show "Legally Blond" - why???  They should have shown "Legally Blond" THEN "Legally Blond 2".  If you are going to show them both anyway, then why not show them in order.  I remember on one channel one day, they showed Lord of the Rings 2, then LOTR 3, the LOTR 1 - in that order back-to-back - why didn't they just show them in order ?

What is their reasoning in showing movies with sequels out of order, if they are going to broadcast them both anyway? It makes no sense and it bugs me ! Just sayin'.

Funny Friday - Looking Good

Okay, this may be a bit corny but I still think it is funny

Monkees - Riu Chiu

I'm watching a Monkees marathon today on Antenna TV.  I wish it didn't take something like Davy's death to have a channel show the Monkees - they should be showing the reruns anyway !

Anyway . . .  while watching the Christmas
episode (with the very cute Butch Patrick,
I might add), they showed them sing Riu Chiu.
I always loved this.  I know it isn't Christmas
but I don't want to wait 9 months to post
this so I am posting it now.  It just shows
how talented they truly are !!

Funny Friday - change up

Okay - I usually post something funny on Friday but ... my sister was mentioning how she could sure use some "Flintstones" so I decided to post a video - not necessarily funny (haha) but funny (unusual) - a commercial, featuring the Flintstones.

2012 Movies

Listing of movies I've seen in 2012 (does not include movies I've re-watched)

January 2012

Something Borrowed - good story but moved a little slow I thought

Mean Girls - really liked it

Hall Pass - just okay - was crude and predictable

Twilight - Breaking Dawn Part I - good, a little cheesy when the werewolves talked to each other though

Insidious - not as scary as I thought it would be but was creepy and spooky without gore

The Artist - I LOVED this movie - LOVED it !!    ❤ ❤ ❤
The Karate Kid (the newer one with Jaden Smith) - never saw it before, they should have named it The Kung-Fu Kid, I wonder why they didn't?
The Descendants - good movie, good acting, beautiful location 

February 2012
Extremely Loud and Incredible Close - good acting, had a lot of narration 
Warhorse - Epic storytelling in classic Steven Spielberg fashion - I loved it
Moneyball - true story - good but kind of slow for me
Ides of March - very good, incredible to know stuff like that (or worse) goes on in real life. 
Tree of Life - very artsy movie that was HORRIBLE
Midnight in Paris - sweet, charming and romantic.