Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Here's more than you wanted to know about what we've been doing (minus boring things like housework, driving kids around, childcare, doctors appts., etc.):

Dan had a birthday last week, and here is a card that the kids made for him:



Dan bought his own present this year--his long coveted components for a media PC. Among other things, it will allow us to record in Hi Def, and we can also now record channels we couldn't previously record like Qubo. I'm excited about being able to record The Office without it being too fuzzy to watch.



The girls helped Dan dig the holes for the posts for our new white vinyl fence. I'll try to take a picture of the final product after we've mowed the lawn.




This is just one of about 25 pictures of pictures in a fairy cookbook Anna bought at the book fair. Oh the joys of a digital camera!



And now a very important review of my Netflix activity for the last 30 days:

Monk - 5 discs: Season 4, Disc 2-Season 5, Disc 3. We only have one disc left that's out, and then we will have to wait until July to see Season 6. It will probably be good to have a break--we are clearly Monk-obsessed, but we justify it because it something the whole family loves. It has also resulted in more Clue playing, and of course when someone is ready to make their accusation, they say, "Here's what happened. . ."

The Others - I don't usually watch thriller type moves, but I had just read The Turn of the Screw and had read that this movie was similar to the book. It really wasn't, but it was a pretty good movie with a surprising ending.



Foyle's War - I'm always looking for a good British series, and I liked this one (it was more like a movie because it was just one long show), but I wasn't wowed enough to get another one right away. But I don't think you can always judge a series by it's first show--they have to spend so much time introducing the characters and the setting. Am I ready to get hooked on another show? I'm not so sure! It's about a detective during WWII. Maybe I'll try another one someday because I like Michael Kitchen and WWII stuff.

Dodgeball - Sent back. Wanted it for home video for soundbites, but couldn't handle wasting my time watching it again and forgot just how bad it was.

Shameless - British series. Sent back. I have to take back what I said about judging a series by it's first episode, because it took me about ten minutes with this one. I learned that NR can be a little scary. I was exposed to more questionable content and bad language in about ten minutes than I have been in about 10 years.

The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum - These were part of my whole Bourne experience: Read first book, watch first movie, read second book, watch second movie, watch third movie, read third book. Well, the only thing the books and the movies really share are the titles. The first book was awesome, the second book okay. The first movie excellent, second movie pretty good, the third movie absolutely amazing. I'm glad I had just watched Supremacy because something in Ultimatum would have gone right over my head. Ultimatum was riveting and suspenseful, I love the use of music or lack of music for dramatic effects, and the camera work makes you feel like you're right in the middle of it. And this may sound weird coming from a Brit Lit Chick Flick fanatic, but I loved that there was no new love story. That can be very refreshing in movies. The only part I didn't like was a major car crashing scene that was a bit excessive and very unpleasant to watch. So now it's on to reading the third book.



Instant Play - I've also tried to watch a couple of shows that you can play instantly from Netflix, but have had some technical difficulties. I watched one episode of the British Office series--pretty interesting but there's no subtitles so I think I missed a lot. I watched one episode of Heroes, which was pretty awesome, but had a couple of parts that bothered me. And I watched one 10-minute segment of Sister Wendy, the art-loving nun. But for all of those I can't seem to be able to watch anymore. That's probably a good thing, seeing as this is the longest post EVER.

Anything else you want to know about my media life? The only show I manage to watch on TV right now is American Idol, and the two Davids have been my favorites all along, and it looks like they will be in the top two, but you never know.

Here is David Cook's most memorable performance for me so far--a version of Billie Jean:



Here's my favorite of David Archuleta's, the only one I really liked on Andrew Lloyd Weber night:



With the new media PC I am hoping to watch The Office more regularly. I have heard I've missed a couple of really funny ones, but I can't for the life of me remember on Thursday nights to watch it!! And that's the most mellow night of the week usually.

I feel like those people who get up in church and talk for too long, and you get the idea that they just can't make the break and end their talk because they feel like there's something more that they want to say. When this happens I'm in agony because of my short attention span, and I get that twisty feeling in my stomach and want to scream. I'm a producing this effect yet?