Movie Night: Happy-Go-Lucky

2 sec. review: Loved it.

I met up with the gals for an evening of Mexican food and a movie-night at The Dragonfly Theater and Pub in Boone. What a bargain when compared to regular movie prices! Though I must admit I wished for some sort of "stadium seating" when my neck was hurting from craning it up toward the screen for two hours. Maybe some sofas will grow at the back of the room, too, instead of just tables. Oh, I hope so!

This movie was slow to start, but I never mind films like that. You can't help but fall in love with the quirky main character within just a few minutes and you worry about what awful thing will happen to her in the course of the film. No character that is presented as so simply-minded ever survives life unscathed. Reality will have it's way with her! Or, so I thought. Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins, is like that fancy pill that Alice takes in Wonderland to make her life become technicolor and full of joy. You have to smile. You really HAVE to - you can't help it! (Even when some guy is slurping on his drink and hacking up a lung directly behind your head.)
During our viewing, I felt at times that this was England's answer to Amelie or Breakfast at Tiffany's with the same sort of fabulous woman whose whimsy is catching and who manages to create a great life in the process of purposefully making each day a jewel in most ordinary lives. She was brilliantly cast and acted and you genuinely worry for her (as I've found - similarly - myself doing on many episodes of Pushing Daisies) but with mostly no need. The story is a good one, the characters are fantastic and you wish that you had such friends that are so true to themselves. So glad I went to see this with my very own happy-go-lucky friends!

My Long Lost Twin BROTHER!!!

Hey, so we had the Christmas party for Henry's office, Coldwell Banker Blair and Associates, on December 10th at Vidalia's and had a wonderful time. Next year I will be sure to sit far, far away from the gift table so that I am not in a hundred photos (unless, of course, I'm rocking some fab new body or even just good posture!). So, whatever the results, I had a great time at the party, ate great food, had good wine and we ended up with fun presents. However, I was a bit stunned to get some photos the following day and see what my slouchy self looked like to others. When I dressed that evening, I'd really thought my sweater was cute...


Alas, I discovered only hours after receiving this photo that Philip Seymour Hoffman and I shop at the same stores. ugh. Here's the photo and the link to his video on The Daily Show. Start at around 14 minutes in to see my twin brother and how well we matched - only one day apart! If we lived in the same town we could just share clothes! So funny!! :D
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=213366

A Virtual Christmas Letter

Just a brief update on our life and times in 2008. We've both had an interesting year with the economy the way it is and are glad to settle into some semblance of a routine with the Winter now at hand. Libba is quite happy to mark the start of her third year at Grandfather Mountain in the Nature Museum and is looking forward to a very blustery Winter with lots of snow (fingers crossed!). Come and visit the mountain and see the changes taking place up top or just enjoy some warm soup or coffee at the Nature Museum. By the way, the bears hibernate in Winter - just in case you were wanting to see them when you visit...

Henry's big news is that he has landed a new job at Earth Fare "the healthy supermarket" in downtown Boone, NC. It is a great bit of serendipity that has led to this since that is the same store location that brought us up to the High Country eight years ago with Harris Teeter. Henry says it is a strange feeling to be back in the same spot but in a very different environment from what it was before. He likes it quite a bit and is just taking some time adjusting to the routine of a store versus his past six years as a full-time Realtor. He will still have his license hung at the office of Coldwell Banker in Boone and has plenty of time to devote to his clients - thanks to a flexible schedule at Earth Fare. He looks forward to making his real estate business a viable second income and savings booster for us.

We both work during the holidays (as per usual) and are hoping for some down-time around the house together before the new year. As the newbie on the job, it seems that Henry will be working New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and I will most likely do the same since we have no plans, but we certainly hope that many friends will make plans to visit us in the year ahead! We have a wonderfully cozy guest room and some extra space upstairs as well. Just give us a heads-up so that we know you are coming and we'll make sure we are ready for you! We love to have visitors and joke that our house is a B & B for our friends. We really do cherish the time we get to spend with friends in our home!

You can make yourself a follower of this blog (top right section of the page) to keep up with our adventures throughout the year or you can check in with us the old-fashioned ways of email, phone calls and the post office! We send holiday blessings to you all - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love, Libba & Henry

Movie Night: Twilight (Pre-review of the Midnight show)

Yeah. I'm a little obsessed with these books. I've never read anything so quickly and with such neglect of the household chores. Thank goodness work didn't suffer the way my home and family did! I made a point of not taking the books to work while I was reading them, so that helped, but I would get home and sit right down to read - no matter what needed doing! Poor H. was stuck eating with plastic utensils for a few days there and I did have to take a break for one load of laundry at some point (thank goodness for uniforms!).

I am quite worried that this movie will not be good. I loved reading the books and even got Henry to read them (and about 20 people that I work with!). Because of that love of the books I am terrified that the movie will fall flat in comparison. We shall see... Henry is extremely optimistic about it, but he is a heterosexual guy and therefore did not fall in love with Edward unlike most of the women I know. Cedric Diggory (whatever his real name is...) will have to do quite a bit to impress me in this role. I hope he's up to the challenge!! Go here to see a preview: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810010670/trailer

3am Update:
We've just driven the snowy roads home from the Midnight show of Twilight and I thought I'd get down my first impressions of the movie. I liked it. Completely against my better judgment, I must say. This is not to imply that it is a good movie, but I will say it is a fair and decent 2-hour interpretation of a 500 page book. The acting was pretty poor across the board and Bella only has one expression, but I will admit that Cedric Diggory (who's name is actually Robert Pattinson) was a good portrayal of Edward. Not perfect - but then who really could be the perfect Edward?

They took many liberties with the story, but I believe that a lot of them were improvements to the visual and intellectual sides of the story. No matter how they mashed up the scenes in the woods, they were beautifully shot and made me want to go the the Pacific Northwest even more than ever. The buildings and sets were excellent and the mood of the movie was spot on. The Port Angeles scene actually flowed more easily in the movie than it did in the book (aside from the weird waitress they used) and even the somewhat cheesy baseball scene was executed well. We all know that Bella wouldn't be caught in her underwear with Edward, but I'll let that one slide for all the guys who go to see the movie with their girlfriends. They throw in the "evil" characters earlier in the movie than they appear in the book but it works because they help tie in the action scenes that Stephenie Meyer likes to put only into the last 75 pages of any of her books. Another scene that was altered was the fight scene which Bella misses entirely in the book (because she is passed out) and I was glad to see in the movie. Go Alice!

Speaking of Alice, she was one of the few actors I liked in this movie but I wish they'd been able to explore more of her relationship with Bella. I know they only had two hours and it isn't a movie about friendships but I look forward to more of that in New Moon. Rene, Bella's mom, was just the right amount of flaky but like most of the acting, it fell a bit flat. Jacob was good (but his hair got on my nerves) and I liked all of her friends in the movie MUCH MORE than the friends in the book. The ones in the book come across as place holders who fill time when she isn't with Edward and are not interesting people, but the ones in the movie are actually people you'd really want to be friends with - she just isn't paying much attention to her surroundings or the people in those surroundings.

Do I wish there was a little bit more of Edward's angst? Yes. However, that was also the stuff that made me crazy in the book (read: became very irritating). Bella does not come across as confidant in the book but she also isn't the odd Eeyore-like character that is portrayed in the movie. I also thought the very last moment of the movie was weird. We didn't stick around to see the credits since there were 600 people at the theatre all trying to leave at the same time and maybe there was a bonus scene. I guess I'll find out when I go back to see it with the entire gang from work.

Sparkly. Didn't work for me but a valiant effort. Maybe they will tweak it in future like was done with Star Trek's "beam me up" sparkle effects.

My favorite aspect of the movie was how they portrayed Bella's scent and how it affected Edward. It was actually that scene that made me decide to like Cedric - uh, I mean Robert. He did an excellent job with the tension and could have taken images out of my brain from when I read the book.

One of the best parts of being in a crazy big audience were the collective sighs when new (male) characters would appear on screen and the moment during the weird awkward kissing scene someone shouted, "This is awful!!" about how the scene was going. I concur. Not my favorite part of the movie.

I am also glad they didn't allow Edward to have stubble. That was one of my big concerns actually and it worked out in the end. Speaking of the end, my ability to construct sentences has disappeared, so I am headed to bed at 4am. ugh.
General summary: See it if you liked the books, if you like vampires, or if you like chick-flicks.

Here's a shot of that worrisome stubble. :

Our House is on the Market

This house is wonderful. I love it and don't want to move out of it. However, we are having to look at other options for our future, including one or both of us going back to school. In order to do that, we need less bills and smaller bills and we would probably have to move to a different region of the state. We aren't planning a move right now (stop freaking out!) but we are aware of the possibility for that need. So, all that being said, our fabulous little cottage in Blowing Rock is now on the market.


One great thing about the listing of our house is that we are finally getting around to a dozen projects that we'd had on the list of things to do but never had the full justification for doing them. It is amazing what you will live with in your own home but don't expect a purchaser to live with! So, we are looking into new screen doors, I'm adding hanging rods to two closets, we've added some extra shelving, I'm painting the stairs and my brother is supposed to be coming over to finish a couple of ceiling fan projects. Henry is pressure washing the house and then we are painting the window exteriors before it gets too cold. I'm trying to clear out the basement (parting the Red Sea might be easier!) and cleaning up my photography/project nook upstairs. I'd love to overhaul the yard, but that is back-burner for now. A girl still has to work and get a bit of rest, you know!!














I'll link to the listing and the MLS # is 79666 so you can take a look at it. I may put some before and after project pictures up here as we go along. Send the info on to those you think might be interested in buying our house! Maybe I'll get some friend testimonials on the adorableness of my home. Ugh. I don't want to move - I just got the house the way I want it!! Oh well, such is the life of a home owner. : (

Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics

Sadly, I am not actually in Bejing tonight for the ceremonies, but I guess it is a good thing for me, since they just doubled the smog level with all the fireworks they set off about ten minutes ago. I loved the drumming. It reminded me of a show I saw in Gatlinburg last November of the Chinese acrobats and the little girls they had drumming for the show. The coordination and skill of those little girls (literally 8-13 years old) was amazing and there were only about ten of them. I think they said there were 2008 of the drummers and performers for the ceremonies tonight and the fact that they were so in sync with each other was crazy. Crazy, I say. Also crazy were the costumes. I guess they know the cameras will be zooming in on them so it is worth the attention to detail, but as a former costume designer I must say that I was astonished by the hours of labor that would have been needed for each dress and traditional robe that was on that stadium floor. My favorite thing might have been the "flow" of the show and the marching band-ness of it all. I wanted to be able to control the camera myself and see it all in big screen view but also be able to see some close up shots. Maybe next time they will do a picture in picture effect to try and please everybody! However, the funniest part of the whole night was when Henry pointed out that Sarah Brightman looked (terrifyingly) like Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. She totally freaking did, too! Crazy eyes! (Thank you to the glorious interwebs for the images.) We couldn't watch any more of it after that and put in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. : )

Cardio Fit Ball Class

Yep. You read that correctly. I was a participant in a Cardio Fit Ball class at the YMCA this past Monday night. In an effort to slim down from my current maximum density of 200 lbs., I am trying to lead a more active life. I have high hopes of getting up early and doing a full yoga routine and then getting on my exercise bike for 45 minutes every morning, but most mornings I reset the alarm and crawl back into my nice warm bed. I know that I won't go work out after work every day (I'm too busy!) but I find that I can make it there if I have a specific class that I'm going to. I've been to the yoga classes they have (headed to one after I write this, actually) and am enjoying those, so I thought I'd give another of their classes a try. On Mondays and Wednesdays they offer this Cardio Fit Ball class, and I decided since I have one of those big bouncy balls at home, why not go see what it is all about.

Oh my god I am so sore - STILL - two days later! Who knew that it could be so painful to stand up and sit down. My abs hurt when I breathe (& I just sneezed, so you can imagine the new level of pain I just experienced). That is a little bit too much. I move heavy boxes every single day at work and had no idea that I was so extremely out of shape. The class really was a lot of fun and I only caught myself looking at the clock a few times (thinking, "When will it be over? I can't keep this up!") and I could tell I was getting one hell of a workout. It was ridiculous looking but so fun. I kept looking at the instructor in the mirror instead of myself (yikes! is that really what I look like?!). I will need to take a big bottle of water with me to next week's class since I was red in the face after about 10 minutes. I am going from a lifestyle of sitting at my computer and eating whatever I want to taking these intensive classes and keeping a better eye on what I consume. Wish me luck! I'll keep you posted on the progress...