Ha! A movie has to be very enticing to lure me on a 120+ mile round trip drive to the nearest movie theatre. I'll Netflix Black Swam when it comes out on DVD. But BF will not watch it with me. I've tried to "bribe" him into watching movies with me by telling him about the sex scene or female nudity and it doesn't work. Nothing can make him watch a "girl" movie. Nothing.

Dagmar. Stop it! Don't make me come up there to give you a . I would be very cold and you all know I don't like cold.

Saef, I vote gypsy soup! I just looked it up... I'm obsessed with both sweet potatoes and chickpeas, so it won me easily. This may be my next soup.

Allison, that is awesome! WTG!

I went to the gym this morning, now am settling in for an afternoon of phone calls, emails, and computer work for my community theatre group. BF comes home tonight from his trip to the Dominican Republic. Yay! But I'm rehydrating my chickpeas in vinegar for my next batch of salt and vinegar chickpeas right now, b/c last time I did it when he was here he complained about the smell. I guess it's a little strong...

ETA: After I put up this post I had to laugh at the amount of smilies I used. Oh well.

Michele, I also saw "True Grit." (Remember, my mother stayed about two weeks, so there was much movie-going during that time.) Loved it; in fact, next to "The Social Network," it's one of my favorite movies that came out during this past year.

Funny, two of the movies that I liked very much this year centered on young girls in desperate straits looking to find out what happened to their fathers or to avenge their father's death. (The one was "Winter's Bone," which is wonderful, but beautifully bleak, and not all temperaments would enjoy it. Escapist fare, it certainly ain't.)

Do you like the Coen brothers' sardonic sense of humor? 'Cause this does get dark, and violent on at least one occasion. The corpses pile up. But the young, very determined girl is one of the smartest female characters I've seen in an adult movie lately. Also, Bridges is pretty great. It's like the Dude, only with an eye patch & with alcohol as the substance of choice.

The scenery is beautiful. Deakins was the cinematographer, I believe, and he's brilliant.

Oh, and they left Portis' language intact. These characters have the most wonderful turn of speech. Incredibly & inventively articulate. They all talk the same, but that's fine, because the talk is great.

Hope you go. It's definitely worth seeing.

Megan, YES!!! you need to make gypsy soup. The recipe goes back beyond Jane Brody, to Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook, issued in a time when your average American probably didn't even know what a chickpea was.

I will make both soups, one batch today, one tomorrow. I remembered that the pea soup freezes well. I'll freeze most of it & take it out one evening when I get in really, really late & feel wiped out.

You and DH gave "True Grit" the same review - practically word for word. If you like rich language you should check out "Deadwood" (if you haven't already seen it) which aired on HBO and is now on DVD.

DH and I watched it with subtitles, at times, to get the gist of what the characters were saying. DH is still quoting from it, several years later.

We are going to see "The King's Speech" tonite. Not my first choice but DH usually picks good films that I wind up liking.

He saw, and liked, "Black Swan" with me but then he's an Aronofsky fan.

Dagmar

I've never heard of Gypsy soup-- I'll have to google it too.

I don't think we're going to see a movie tonight. Dh has too much to do unfortunately. He is only home today and leaves again tomorrow morning so we will likely stay home. We have something from Netflix-- I think it's Defiance so hopefully we'll find time for that.

I'm not sure if I've seen anything the Coen brothers have done. What else have they done? I can have a pretty dark and sarcastic sense of humor so I suspect I would like it.

My dd's boyfriend was just here and he is so super skinny. I asked him how tall he is and he is 6 ft. When he left, I asked dd what he weighs and she said "same as you". Good God. The boy weighs 125! My dh said if he stayed with us we'd put some weight on him as we're very good at that! He will be 18 in a couple of weeks. I've seen his dad and mom and both look to be healthy weights, so perhaps he'll fill out somewhat at some point.

Went to WW this morning to weigh and I was back down to 125-- down 1.2 from last weigh in. I still like to be 123 but I'm not too unhappy at 125. I've been changing my workouts and my food some and I think it's helping.

Michele~The Coen brothers did Fargo and Raising Arizona (two favorites) and a lot of others.

saef~remember the Dude drank a lot of White Russians. I'm pretty sure he did a lot of drugs, too. We tried to watch that movie when it first came to DVD and DH and I hated it and never finished it. Just a few months ago we rented it again. I'm glad we did. And I really liked the Social Network as well. We want to see the Fighter, but we're going to a Chris Botti concert tomorrow instead.

Megan~I've looked at the recipe for salt & vinegar chickpeas, but I don't think I like salt & vinegar all that much. I think I'll have to find a different recipe to try. I've been looking for kale to try and make kale "chips" but haven't found any here. Oh, well.

We went golfing today and DS was generous enough to take his kitty to the vet. I should have gone with. They talked him into getting the feline leukemia vaccine which other vets there said to skip as we don't allow him outside or with any other cats. I can't blame him--he's sick. SICK!!! He had finals Thursday and Friday and woke up Friday feeling horrible and didn't say anything because of finals. He got off early (because of the finals schedule), came home and slept for 3 hours. I thought he was getting the flu, he had a 100.5 temp when I got home from work. He said he had muscle aches, but this morning he woke up with jaw swelling so I called the oral surgeon--it's been exactly 30 days since he had his wisdom teeth out and he did a full course of antibiotics then and had no complications and now this. The doctor called in a new round of antibiotics but I have to take him first thing Monday morning. Scary. The fever is not going down with Tylenol and the antibiotic and he's in and out of bed. I feel so bad for him.

Woo! Party time!

I really liked True Grit. King's Speech is one of my favorite movies ever. It'll be one I buy. I was surprised it was R, but it had to have been for the language. I actually think it would be a good movie for middle school kids (language aside, but I would guess they've heard it all by then) just as far as inspiration.

Black Swan was, um, yeah. Hard to describe. I felt like I was having a break from reality watching it. Hmmm...

I think The Fighter is next on my list. Marky Mark, ya'll.

All this movie talk is making me want to go buy a new DVD player. But think it'd want and a new high definition television. But think I should redesign the other parts of the whole entertainment system. But that would be easier if I wait until we fix the plaster walls and repaint - when I can just move the old equipment to the curb and buy new stuff in the finished room. But repainting the living room means the dinning room also. And the kitchen. And . . .

<sigh> . . . there's a hole in the bucket, . . .

DH claims this is how many women really think and how some home renos never really stop (he works for a contractor).

And . . . guilty as charged. I once redid an entire bathroom's decor because we needed a new bat mat (yes, really needed as Mudpie pooped on and then shredded the old one). Paint, wallpaper, shower curtain, new floor tiles, and new towels (to go with the new mat of course).

DH stopped me from getting new towel bars and toilet tissue holder as we were RENTING the place.

Dagmar

This discussion reminds me of my Mom. She bought a new bedspread. It was on sale (the story of her life). Once home, it didn't match anything. That meant new paint, wallpaper, drapes and all the other parts for the bed (skirt, pillow shams, sheets, etc.). But the bedspread was on SALE!

We bought DD an LED TV for Christmas and now DH wants a new TV in our bedroom--flat screen, either LED or LCD to replace our ancient set (which works just fine, but weights hundreds of pounds). He's thinking in the area of 60" and I'm like, you watch it maybe once a week and fall asleep while watching it! Who needs one that big for that? Half that size is more than enough.

DS is still sick, but still sleeping this morning, so I'll leave him be.