To Sleep Perchance To Dream

I have not been sleeping well. It has been very hot in the MN lately, which affects me greatly. AND my bed is on its last legs, the springs are broken and they poke at me causing me to wake up several times a night. The lack of sleep is starting to affect my mood. I have been feeling very down lately. I feel crabby and sad and like a total failure. I just don’t know what to do about it. I feel like selling everything I own and running away. This is never a good sign.

On the knitting front, I am almost done with my sweater for the Fair. I am on the yoke and it is looking pretty good (if I say so myself). I did have to change my original design because when I did not like it when I started knitting it. Last night I was working on it and realized I had made a mistake in the yoke pattern. I was able to drop the stitch down to the row with the wrong color and fix it and this was after I had drank a couple of glasses of wine. So I guess I am okay at this knitting thing…

I still do not have a camera, so no pictures yet. You will just have to image a really cute black toddler sweater with corrugated ribbing in purple, red, yellow and green.

The Baby has started to walk. She decided last week that it was the thing to do and just stood up and walked. She is just the funniest baby. She is getting so big. She has started learning body parts and the other day she was standing around saying “Toe, Toe, Toe” in a deep voice. It was very funny.

Inception (Movie Review)

A couple of weeks ago I saw Inception. Before I get too far into this review, I should revel that I dislike Leonardo DiCaprio. He just bugs me to no end and normally I just do not go to his movies. Overall it is a pretty good movie. It is really well constructed, which is saying something since a lot of it takes place in the subconscious. The special effects are amazing and the acting is okay. The story is fine, but not really deep or meaningful. It was worth seeing in the theater just because it is a big movie and the effects would be lost on a smaller screen. So I am giving it 3 out of 4 knitting needles. 

What To Do When You Can’t Sleep

I have been having trouble sleeping lately. It is not that I am not tired, I am. It is now 2 am and I am exhausted. I go to bed and I just lay there. So then I think, well I will listen to some pod casts and play some games on my ipod. Next thing you know, I am up in the middle of the night. Last night I went upstairs to read my latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer and I fell asleep. It was about 7:30. I dozed for about an hour and a hour total and then by the time the news came on I was awake again. I suspect it has to do with not having a job and spending all day in the house. Anyway, I am really tired, so please excuse me if this blog posting does not make much sense.

Boo! (Movie Review)
The Girl and I went to see “Paranormal Activity” a couple of weeks ago. We went on a Friday afternoon and they were carding people so the underage teens did not get into the movie. They did not really card me since, well, I was obviously NOT a teenager. The movie is a LOW budget horror film (rumor has it they made it for $15,000). It is basically about a young couple who are having a seemingly supernatural problem in their home. It was good, a very pared down film. No gore to speak of, (I know you are all shocked that I saw something not filled with blood). Mostly, it is a creepy film filled with bangs and flickering lights. However, it was good to see it with The Girl (she declared it the scariest movie she ever saw and that she did not think she would ever sleep again) and a theater full of teenagers. I am sure all of them found it scarier than I did. Will this movie terrify you? I do not know. However, I did find it entertaining and creepy. There is a knitting in the movie, even though, I do not think the actress could actually knit. It sort of looked like she thought this is what knitting looks like. But, it was an honest effort. I am giving it 3 out of 4 knitting needles.

Knitting stuff
I have been knitting. Of course, the photos I took of my stuff is stuck in the camera which is currently in The Girl’s possession. I think she would be mad if I woke her up to get it. So I will just tell you what I have been up to.
I knit a hat for my FIL for Christmas. He was complaining that they no longer make the kind of hats he likes to wear. The navy blue ones like Brando wore in “On the Waterfront”. I told him I could make him one and he said that it was too much to ask. LOL. I knit up the hat in a few days when I got home. He is a funny guy.
Then I knit up a couple of pairs of socks for The Baby. She is the Houdini of the sock world and none of them will stay on her feet for very long (sadly including the ones I just knit her), but I just keep putting them back on her. Her feet will get just like ice!
Right now I am knitting some fingerless gloves made out of alpaca. They are really nice. I am done with one and ½ way through the second.
Next, I have to work on some more Christmas presents. I think I will make my MIL some bed socks.

Other Stuff
There is not much else going on right now. The Girl is on again and off again with the Baby Daddy. The ex-Boyfriend apparently wants her back. Who knows what will happen? It is like a freaking soap opera around here.
The Baby has a cold and has not been to daycare all week. On Monday night, we took her to the urgent care and the doctor said it was just a cold. Since The Baby was happy (she usually is) and she had her pacifier in her mouth and was breathing through her nose, and she did not have a temp she was okay. The doctor said a way to know if it was something more was if she could not breathe through her nose. Who knew? If we had known that before, we would not have bothered with the urgent care.

Well, it is now 2:30 and I should go up and try to get some sleep. Talk to you soon.

Look Mummy, There’s An Airplane Up In the Sky

We have been back from our trip for a little over a week now. I was going to blog while on vacation, but I just did not get around to it at the In-laws and once we were at the hotel, I would have had to type it up on my ipod, which would have taken me forever to do. So here is vacation update.
The flight down was good. We had decent seats and we actually arrived in ABQ early. We got to the rental cars place and got our car. No problems. We arrived up on “The Hill” about 4 pm, right on schedule. We were very tired though so it was dinner and a little visiting and bed. Unfortunately it was very hot in our room that night and I had trouble sleeping.
The in-laws have been having chipmunk problems (they were nesting in the engine of the Prius) so my FIL built a live trap to catch them. On Sunday morning he had caught one, so after church, we went to take it to another canyon (over by the airport). Here it is in the cage. It is not a very good picture, but it was the best I could do.


Here is the canyon area where we released it.


One of the other highlights of the trip was going down to ABQ to visit the zoo. The zoo just had a baby elephant. Here it is.

Isn’t just too cute? It just followed its mom around the pen while she was eating apples and stuff that was left around it.

I did not sleep well the entire time I was at the In-law’s place. One night it was the neighbor dog, another night it was coyotes yipping and the one night I just could not sleep.

We left the in-law’s place Thursday morning bright and early to head up to Taos for my native plants dyeing class. It was a great class. I learned a lot. Of course, it would have been more useful if I lived in the southwest, but I am confident I can do it here in MN, I just will need to use other things
Here are some samples of what we dyed.



On Saturday, the in-laws drove up to Taos and we all went to the wool festival. It was a good time. The Hub bought some roving and I bought a little bit of yarn, not much. I was really proud of myself.
Here is a random shot of the festival. The weather was absolutely perfect.

We all went to lunch and then back to the hotel. We said goodbye to the in-laws. We could have gone back to the wool festival, but by that time I was completely worn out from the trip. We just sat around the hotel room and watched crap on TV. It was nice.
On the flight home, we did not check in early so we were not sitting together. Otherwise the flight was fine. However, I am not impressed with Delta’s customer service. It is even worse than Northwest’s. Who knew that was even possible!

That Is How I Know, When I Try To Get Through
On The Telephone To You... There’ll Be Nobody Home
Of course, The Girl was home alone with The Baby. What could she have been up to while we were gone??? Well, 1st she broke up with The Boyfriend. Okay, I figured that was coming. No big deal.
Then the day that we were going to the zoo, I received a phone call. The Girl had gotten into a fight at school and the assistant principal thought it best if she just went home. That was on Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday night I missed a call on my cell phone. I did not know who it was, so we called The Girl to see if she recognized the number. She said it was The ex-Boyfriend saying he was going to call the police. Then she said he was mad because she had taken up with the baby daddy again. So then The Hub got mad that she had taken up with him again. And so they were fighting.
Of course, the In-laws (who are already worried about what kind of life she is leading) were very upset about all of this nonsense.
Then to top it off, on Saturday, when we were having lunch with the In-laws, The Girl calls to inform me that she got into a car accident, nothing serious, just a fender bender, but she did not get the ladies info and we have a huge dent in our fender.
My MIL looked at me and said “You are never leaving home again, are you?” I have to say that all of the problems did make question my wisdom of leaving her alone. However, I will say this… she really appreciated us coming home and she missed us. AND she admitted it was hard for her to take care of everything by herself. So perhaps it was a learning experience.

New Car, Caviar, 4 Star Daydream, Think I’ll Buy Me a Football Team
The Vikings are 5 and 0. This is best they have looked in years and years. I am so happy. I missed the 49’s game because I was in NM, but the Monday night game against the Packers was a fantastic game.
Here is a photo of The Baby in her new Viking outfit that The Hub bought her.

Skol Vikings!

Is There Anybody Out There? (movie review)
On Saturday, The Hub, The Girl and I went to see “Zombieland”. It was a really good movie, a really, really gory funny movie. Did I mention it was gory? I just want to make sure you understand that it is a movie about the zombie apocalypse. It is a very funny about zombies, but they still eat human flesh. It is sort of in the vein of “Shaun of the Dead” only with a really organized gamer and Woody Haralson. We all really enjoyed it. And it even had a couple of nice knit hats. Abigail Breslin wears a really cute slouchy beret, but I do not think I would look very good in it. I am going to give it 3 ¼ out of 4 knitting needles. If you like dark, bloody comedies, go see it. I think you will really enjoy it.

All In All, It Was Just Bricks in The Wall
All of the titles today were brought to by the letter P for Pink and the F for Floyd, and the number 3 (in honor of Zombieland).

I Can’t Think of a Pithy Title

I have finished The Baby’s Christmas stocking! I finished knitting it on Saturday and blocked it on Sunday.
Here is a photo of it being blocked.

I found that the heel seemed to be too wide and sort of bunchy, although it blocked out okay. I also think that the toe was not long enough in the pattern. I added an inch of straight knitting and actually would not think it would be a bad idea to add even more so there would be more contrast in the end.
I put on jingle bells as well, but I did not get a photo of it before I brought it over to the Fair. I dropped it off on Monday.

I also knit up a blanket buddy for The Baby.

The yarn I used was awful and so I am going to get rid of any that is left, so I am counting the whole ball as being used in this project.

Therefore, I have 1.32 km to go until I reach my 5K goal. I have knit 2013.5 fathoms. It sounds like I have done a lot of knitting when I say it that way!

I have not yet cast on for my next project. I am thinking of doing a felted bag. On the plus side, it would use a lot of yarn; on the down side, I would have to felt it when I was done and I would need to make a lining. So do I consider complete when the knitting is done or when the bag is actually usable? I am not really very good at finish up things like linings. I think it is because it is outside of the knitting realm.

I am finding it very hard to stay on the yarn wagon. It is not that I need more yarn as much as I would like to knit something big, but do not have enough of anything in one color way. Plus, of course, I see some yarn I have wanted to try and it is on sale and I can not buy it. I love a good bargain you know!


Movie Review – “District 9”On Monday, The Hub and I went to see “District 9”. It is about aliens in South Africa. Basically, an alien spaceship showed up over Johannesburg 20 years ago and it was full of starving aliens and now they are living in a slum in Johannesburg and the government wants them to move.
This is a fantastic movie. It is very thought provoking. It speaks to apartheid, to colonization, to how people treat anyone who is unlike themselves. It does not have any “stars” in it and the main human character, Wikus, is played by someone who has never acted before and apparently ad- libbed most of the movie. He is fabulous and quite honestly it was the best performance I have seen this year. I strongly encourage you to go see this movie, with a small caveat, it is violent and there is a lot of cussing. So if you can not handle the f word or people being evaporated (for lack of a better word), this movie may not be for you. There are a few nice knits. The special effects are just outstanding, it really does seem like these aliens are real and the humans are interacting with them. This is not always the case with science fiction movies.
I am giving it 4 out of 4 knitting needles. It is a great film.

Breaking Radio Silence

Greetings and Salutations. Sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. I have no good reason since I actually had started writing a posting last week, I just have not been up to actually doing it.

I have not been feeling great. It has been hot and humid (really for the 1st time this summer) and I have not been sleeping well. And I have been sort of stressed out. I think I need a couple of extra days off. I am trying to decide what days to take. The Hub and I are thinking we will spend 2 days at the State Fair this year (we never seem to be able to see everything we want to in one). So I would have 8/31 off anyway, so we will go that day. Then it comes down to opening day or a day the 1st week of September. We will have to see how it goes.

Speaking of the State Fair, I intend to enter The Baby’s Christmas stocking.

All I have left is the heel and the weaving in ends and blocking. It needs to be in by 8/18, so I have less than a week to do all of this. I do not think it should be a problem. I will probably need to steam block it.
I would have been done sooner, but I had to rip back the toe 2 times, or was it 3. Doesn’t matter, it was rework and therefore a waste of time. The directions for the afterthought heel were confusing and the length of the toe was not quite right. I think it looks okay now, but I will see when the heel is in.

No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain
-- Pink Floyd
Work has been particularly stressful. Morale is low because of the layoffs (past and upcoming) and people are becoming cranky. I am on the project that will not end and I have had enough of it. I am to the point of just saying “we’re done”, and moving on. I am sick of fighting with people, I am sick of the backstabbing and the politics of the whole situation. It is not helping with my overall mental health. Again, I probably need a couple of days off…

Of course, I am taking vacation the last week of September / beginning of October. I am going to visit the in-laws in NM. I hate NM. It is sooooo depressing, brown and dry. I do not know why they can’t live somewhere fun, like NYC or London or Honolulu. On the plus side, I will be going to the Taos Wool festival, at the end of the trip and that should be fun. I am taking a class on dyeing fiber with plants.

Movie Review – “The Hurt Locker”
So on Monday I hung out with my friend. We went to lunch and then decided to go to the movies. We were going to “Public Enemies”, but it was not showing until late in the day. So I suggested we see “The Hurt Locker” because I had heard good things about it and I knew The Hub would not want to see it. It is about an Army bomb squad in Iraq. It is shot in a documentary style, not with interviews, but in that “someone is following the characters around with a camera” style. I liked it, but it was very intense, because well they are a bomb squad in Iraq. There were scenes that I thought could have been shortened, but I think the filmmaker had them longer intentionally to show the “waiting for something to happen” aspect of war. The film really is not taking any political stance, rather, it was trying to show these people doing their job and how the job affected them. It has some very graphic scenes as well. It is a sad, brutal, realistic movie. It upset my friend (Sorry TJ, next time you get to pick the movie) and I felt bad about that. Apparently I have a very high tolerance for pain and suffering. I am giving the movie 3 ¼ out of 4 knitting needles. It will make you think and it might upset you, but I think it is worth seeing.

One Small Step

I have completed my first item on my 5K knitting goal.
I present to you – Yellow Pig Potholder!


It is for one of The Hub’s swaps. It only used 70 yards of yarn, but it is a completed project never the less and counts towards my goal. Only 5398.07 yards to go!

I am also half way through some rainbow leg warmers for The Baby. So that will be another step.

I am going to go out and buy yet another size 7 – 16” circular needle in order to continue on my Daily Sweater. I actually already own 2 of this size, but they are both in a box which is MIA. This box actually contains 95% of my stand alone circular needles and most of my dpns. I am very concerned where it might be since I have looked everywhere I could think of. However, I can not wait any longer to continue on my sweater. I wove in the ends on the body and just need to put on the sleeves and I will be done! It is so close…

MOVIE REVIEW
On Saturday, The Hub and I went to see “Drag Me To Hell”. It is a good horror movie. It is directed by Sam Rami and very much in the vein of “Evil Dead II”, only there is a gypsy instead of the Necronomicon. The basic plot is that a gal angers an old gypsy woman and the gypsy curses her. The plot is not terrible surprising and you will see the end coming a mile away (I know I did), but it is an entertaining ride. There are several really gross scenes and it has really tense music so I was very jumpy. I personally found it pretty scary, but The Girl did not (they went later that night and we babysat). However, I believe that horror is a very personal thing. What I am scared of is not necessarily what you will be scared of. I find dead things not staying dead very upsetting, where others may find demons upsetting and still others find blood upsetting and so on.
There were not and hand knits per se, because it takes place in sunny CA, but the gal does wear some nice lightweight sweaters that I could image being translated into hand knits.
Overall, I am going to give it 3 knitting needles out of 4. If you like horror movies, I say go see it. It is very much an over the top horror film.

We're Not Going To Guam, Are We?

I know it has been a long time since I last blogged. Sorry about that, life has sort of gotten in the way. Not this week Tuesday, but the Tuesday before there was a layoff at work. It was brutal and nonsensical. There were only 2 people in my little area and one of them was laid off. Now I get to do two people’s jobs. The only statement my boss has made is to pretend they are on vacation. This week I had green belt (DMAIC / Lean) training and my boss had to cover for me. I do not think he was happy about, but you know what, neither am I. The gal who was laid off was one of the lower paid people in the group and she had tons of work to do. So this week I was in training from 8 – 4:45 every day and I came in early and stayed late to attempt to at least keep up with all the e-mails. The one day I spent 12 hours at work. It was a nightmare and I was so tired at the end of the day I could hardly function. I believe there will be some restructing, but I am not sure when that will take place. And considering how poorly the lay off went, I have little hope of it going well.

KNITTING
I have been working on the Daily Sweater from Mason Dixon’s Knitting Outside the Lines. When I started this sweater, I found the little boxes confusing but now I have it down and it is going along well. I had hoped to be done with the box section, but I did not get as much knitting done this week as I would have liked. I did have to order longer cables for my Knit Picks options because my longer ones are in other projects. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my options needles? They are really awesome!
I love how the material is turning out. It is soft and lovely. I think it is going to be a nice sweater. Since it is knit from the top down, I have tried it on. The collar seems just a little big, but not enough to bother me.
I knit a baby hat and was going to embroider on it, but it was harder then I thought it would be. I am thinking I need to use bigger wool or do an i-cord and stitch it on.
I need to put together the baby’s sweater and make a hat to go with it. I was also going to make some booties, but I don’t know if I will have time. The Girl had contractions this week, the doctor said it was not time yet. Also, I am working on a different pair of bootie. I am on the second one. I have finally finished turning the heel.

LOST
The title of this blog comes from this week’s episode. I just think it is funny. Plus I sort of feel off course this week.
I have been watching all of the episodes twice this year. I do not know if I have had any more insight because of it, but I have been enjoying them. I have to cover two episodes this blog episode.
The death of Charlotte only bothered me because I felt bad for Daniel. Personally, I did not like Charlotte, she was sort of creepy and irritating.
I hope Miles doesn’t die. I really like him. My husband thinks he will survive because he is the new Sawyer since Sawyer is so much nicer than he used to be. As a side note, I was watching an old episode a few weeks ago and Sawyer was down right mean. I had forgotten how hard he was in the beginning.
Danielle Rousseau and her crew: I am not sure what to say about this. Danielle obviously been through a lot and by the time the Losties met her, I think she was totally crazy. There seems to be a lot of discussion as to why she did not recognize Jin, but I think after killing your husband and having your child kidnapped and spending 16 hiding for Smoky and the Others, you would not remember what he looked like. You would just remember some Asian guy who “infected” your crew and disappeared. I am curious why she blamed the Others for infecting her crew and not the Smoke Monster since it was Smoky who lured them into the Temple.

So Jack, Hurley & Kate are in the past. I figured when Locke fixed the Donkey Wheel, they were in the past. How did they get hired by Dharma? Did they just show up and ask for a job? Maybe Dharma was trying to recruit “hostiles” to their side.
I do think that Ajira flight 316 did crash, but some people were sucked into the past, because that is where they needed to be. However, I think most of the people are in 2007, along with the crash wreckage. I think they are the ones who were shooting at the time traveling Losties in the outrigger. Perhaps there were people on Oceanic flight 815 that were sucked into the past and we just don’t know them.

Who told Hurley to get on flight 316? I think it was Charlie, hence the guitar. Everyone seems to represent some one else.
Jack & Kate = Jin & Sun
Sun = Rose
Sayid = Kate
Hurley = well, I think he represents everyone else

I do not think Kate is pregnant. I have read this theory else where and I do not believe it.

Where is Aaron? I think he was taken from Kate. I can not imagine her giving him up willing because she is her get out of jail free card. Who took him? Here is my crack pot theory:
Claire’s mom became suspicious and asked her lawyer (Dan Norton) why Jack would have followed him to her. Mr. Norton, being a lawyer and Ben’s lawyer to boot, would be clever and devious. He puts together the fact that Kate’s son is not hers and that Claire was pregnant on the plane. I do not think that Claire’s mom necessarily knows that Claire was pregnant since she was in a coma at the time, but others would have known. Her boyfriend, the lawyers who handled the adoption, Ben, etc. And who would have brought it up to someone coming out of a coma. Hey, welcome back to reality sorry your daughter and grandson died in a plane crash.
Anyway, I think Mr. Norton puts 2 & 2 together and tells Claire’s mom that Aaron is her grandson and she should have legal right to him. Which I am pretty sure she would since he would be a blood relative. Or he would become a ward of the state until custody was decided. I think the sheriff showed up and took Aaron and Kate did a runner.
Does Sun think she can get back home after getting Jin? Does she have a tracking device on her so Widmore could find her. I do not trust her and I think she would kill all of the others to save herself & Jin.

I find religion fascinating. I really enjoy the religious overtones in Lost. All of them, not just the Christian ones, but I am going to discuss the Christian ones, because it is the religion I know best.
-- For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
→ John Locke is obviously going to be resurrected after being sacrificed for the island.
→ Eternal life: Don’t the others seem to have this down? Richard has been on the island forever and has not aged. People on the island illness’s are healed.
→ Doubting Thomas – is this really Jack? It could be, but honestly, Jack seems more like Peter who denied Christ and then had to suffer the guilt. Hence the note from John “I wish you had believed me.”

Overall, I am happy with this season. Although, I like mysteries better than answers, so I actually an not very excited about all the answers being given. But I do realize it has to be done to satisfy the masses.

MOVIE REVIEWS
It is again Oscar weekend, which means that we spent yesterday watching all 5 movies that were nominated for Best Picture this year. This year I decided to make notes after each movie so I would be able to get all of my thoughts down. Well, except for the last one, because it was midnight and I wanted to go home!
Before I get to the reviews, I would like to have a little rant. I know that is probably shocking to my regular readers that I would have something to rant about…
Here is a helpful hint: if you are going to spend 14 hours in a movie theater with 299 other people, please leave your baby at home. That is were they belong, not crying during an R rated movie. Babies crying during a movie piss me off anyway, but to have to listen to them through several movies is just WRONG!

I will review them in the order I saw them. Just like last year.

“Milk” - This was the only movie we had seen before. So I have actually already reviewed it. However, it is worth repeating what a great movie this is. It is based on the life of Harvey Milk, the 1st openly gay man elected to a major political office. It is brilliantly acted, Josh Brolin is amazing as Dan White. Plus, I forgot how beautifully Gus Van Sant directs. If you have not seen this movie yet, what are you waiting for? It is moving and inspiring. Go see it.

“The Reader” – this is an excellent movie. This movie is about a 15 year old German boy in the early 1950s who takes up with an older woman (she is in her 30s). It does not last of course, but 10 years later he is in law school and discover a terrible secret about her. Kate Winslet play the older woman, she is supposed to be matronly, but well, let’s face it, she is Kate Winslet and she is still really beautiful. There is a LOT of nakedness in this movie both male and female. If you are offended by the human body, do NOT go to see it. However, the human body does not bother me and it all seemed to fit with the story. The boy (David Kross) is a very good actor. It would have been nice to see him nominated for an Oscar. Ralph Fiennes is in the movie as well. Whenever I see him in anything, I always think of that scene in “Red Dragon” when he puts in the fake teeth. I don’t know why, I have seen him in several other movies..
Anyway, there are a lot of really great knits in the movie, both hand and machine knits. And there is a scene with a woman knitting with dpns. She appears to be making a baby hat.
I am giving this movie 3 ½ knitting needles out of 4. It is excellent.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” – OMG this movie was way too long. It should have been severely edited. How the hell did this piece of crap get nominated for best picture? It started out okay, sort of quirky and funny, plus there were some nice hand knits and old lady knitting on the porch. However, it soon devolved into nothing by melodramic clap trap. It had no point and Daisy (the love of Benjamin’s life) was an ass. “The Dark Knight” or “Iron Man” should have been nominated instead. Hell, “Tropic Thunder” was funny and better acted than this movie. If this wins best picture, the damn Oscars are fixed. It had better not win!!
In case you do not know the story: a guy is born old and gets younger. He meets all sorts of odd people, falls in love with some dancer, eventually marries her, has a kid leaves them and dies. Only it takes 3 freaking hours to go through. It was painful. I will give the movie 1 knitting needle out of 4 for the nice hand knits. The acting and the story line were awful.

“Slumdog Millionaire” - this is a very pleasant movie. It is about a young man from the slums of Mumbai India who goes on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and wins a bunch of money. It goes through his life in flashbacks. It had a lot of hope and a good love story, but not sappy. The movie moved at a good pace which was refreshing after BB. The music was good and the guy (Dev Patel) who played our hero Jamal is really cute. It was a cute movie and enjoyable. Best movie of the year? Well, no, but at least I can see why it is nominated. Although, I think some of the actors should have been nominated as well. In particular, Madhur Mitta who played the older brother Salim. He was really good. I am giving this movie 3 out of 4 knitting needles.

“Frost / Nixon” – this is a fantastic movie. It is about talk show host David Frost’s interviews with Richard Nixon. It was excellently acted. Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, was amazing. He definitely should win an Oscar for the performance. Kevin Bacon was also fantastic. I loved this movie. I think it was the best one we saw. I loved how it was edited, I loved the costumes, I loved the actors and it was funny. Now, I will admit that I do have a degree in history, so that appealed to me and I have a strange obsession with Richard Nixon. So please take that into consideration. However, I am going to give it 4 knitting needles out of 4. I can not say how much I truly enjoyed this movie from the very beginning to the very end.

Here is my ranking of the movies I saw:
Frost / Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Benjamin Button


Sorry for the excessively long blog, but you know, lots has been going on. I will try to blog sooner and with a few pictures.
See you then.