oh. hi.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Did I mention that we were busy? I hope so. I hope the complete and utter lack of posting also showed that.

Let’s recap:

*On December 31st, 2010 we moved into a new rental house with a one year lease.
*In mid-April 2011, the owners of the house [heretoforthwith knows as Dickheads] (who had put it up for rent after
it wouldn’t sell when the husband’s job had him transfer out of state TWICE) called our agent to tell her that,
“Hey. The job is moving me back to [local city] and we want our house back.” Period. End of story. So begins
rental hell. With that came several months of neighbours-who-were-previously-sweet-and-super-friendly-and-who
we-later-found-out-were-friends-with-Dickheads [now to be known as Fatties or Assholes Next Door] constantly
calling and complaining about noise from guitars and band practice (they had been totally fine with it for four
months!), sometimes IN TEARS, and traffic from Ben’s students and grass being unmowed (for more than five days,
if it wasn’t mowed, they called our agent complaining about snakes–in a goddamned subdivision!!!). It was awful.
Truly truly horrendously awful. Our sweet sweet agent, who technically worked for The Dickheads, was constantly
apologizing for their retched behavior. Keep in mind, this awfulness lasted NON-FUCKING-STOP from mid-April thru
mid-September. (Including a story from September about me walking out of the shower to find The Dickheads
circling the house with open blinds.)
*On May 7th, 2011, our ten-year anniversary, we got married. It was a semi-elopement that we didn’t tell anyone
about (grandparents got 10 days notice to attend) and was more stress/work than anticipated. Because our
anniversary fell on a Saturday, that meant the courthouse was closed; which meant we had to hire someone; which
meant more money; which also meant we had to have a location in which we could be married; which meant more
money; we wanted to write out our own ceremony; which meant a fuckload of time and even more money…you see
where this is going? All along with the news that The Dickheads wanted to push us out. But you know, it was still
a whole hell of a lot of fun. Plus we had a badass four-day honeymoon of fun.

Sister made the most lovely star garland in our favourite colours for our location.

*Mid-May 2011–Very-Early-August 2011: When we got back from the honeymoon we started looking for houses to
buy…well, first we started talking about buying a house A LOT more seriously than we had planned on doing
(original buy date would be sometime in 2012) and then we started looking to buy. And we looked and looked and
looked and looked and said no to a shitload on the internet and viewed a few houses before rejecting them and our
sweet agent (that same dear hippie lady who kept apologizing for The Dickheads continuing harassment) was about to
give up on us when she e-mailed me one morning with a link to a newly-listed house and the subject line, “LOOK!
LOOK! LOOK!” and inside all it said was, “This one came up in my search this morning and it seems perfect for
you!!!” and it was ADORABLE! And looked so good!! And so very Us. We made an appointment for two days later to
view it and when we pulled up, Dear Agent walked out of the house and told us in no uncertain terms that if we
didn’t buy this house, she will fire us as her clients. Of course we loved it and of course we put in an offer and
of course we ended up buying it. And of course we are absolutely completely and totally head-over-heels-in-love
with our house. OUR HOUSE. It’s beautiful.

Hastily taken photo of front door seconds before we moved in.

I plan on writing a huge post about buying/moving with pictures of the house…but please, be patient for I will
scream if pushed to do too much too fast. My poor Rock Star nearly had a meltdown at the signing of the contract
for the bid for the house. Near. Catastrophic. Meltdown. My wonderful man does not accept change easily. But he
did. And we did. And at the first of August so we began the house-buying process. (Details to come, I hope.)

*Within days of putting in a bid, having the bid countered, signing the contract, having an official house
inspection, etc. etc. etc. we went on our already-planned 10-day vacation to see wonderful people we knew in
Virginia and to tour D.C. (I’d been twice, but my museum-loving Rock Star had never visited). After the incredible
stress of the first part of August, seeing my sister, my lovely and amazing friend, and Ben’s very best friend was
just what we needed to calm the ever-living-fuck down. We first saw Sister and her fabulous dog, Lizzy, then we
stopped at the ever-wonderful Erin’s house, then we trucked up to see Josh in DC. It was fantastic seeing my
sister as it always is when she lives too far away from me; and spending time with Erin is about as happy and
peaceful as any time I’ve ever spent. Josh was an amazing sport about letting us crash at his place and showed us
some wonderful sites (sights?) in the downtown area. With him as our guide we had some of the most amazing food we
had ever eaten. I’m so glad we know wonderful people who enjoy food and history as much as we do. We really do
have fantastic friends.

Happy Lizzy looking for a bellyrub

Me standing inside an Alexander Calder sculpture at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden

Comet Ping Pong's The Smokey & The Yaley--HOLY SHIT! You have to try this pizza!! It's too good to be true!!

Ben in awe of ancient mummy in Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Josh and Ben about to enjoy the hell out of their Dogfish Sampler of various beers

*We came back mid-August (nearly bypassing my birthday entirely [cue: guilt and extreme sadface] and began to
finalize the closing and go through the entirely stressful closing process as well as the extremely stressful
packing-cleaning-moving-cleaning-unpacking process and let me tell you, we have a lot of shit. No. Really. I don’t
think anyone understands just how much shit two childless twenty-somethings can acquire when they live in a house
together for several years. It’s way too much. It’s embarrassing. But on September 17th, 2011 we moved in to what
(if we so choose) could be the last house in which we ever live. [cue: angelic voices singing heavenly tune]

*Since then we have cleaned, unpacked, painted, rearranged, cleaned, unpacked, painted, painted painted,
rearranged, unpacked, cleaned, painted, rearranged, painted, painted, unpacked, painted, tiled, painted,
rearranged and back to tiling and painting some more. That’s house stuff. And [re: hopefully/skeptically] soon I
plan on posting more detail on house stuff if only for my own records.

*October 22nd was the Homecoming Day for my five-year college reunion. Not only did the beautiful Erin come to town
to visit, but I got to catch up with some of my favourite old art alums (how fuckin’ snooty does that sound?!?)
and that was a metric ton of fun–plus we came home with a beautiful piece of art by the always wonderful Robin
Grace Venable who provided the alumni exhibit this year.

*BUT Halloween is our favourite holiday and last year we were in the process of looking for a new place and had
previously thought we would be moving in October and didn’t decorate at all and just threw a meager little
Halloween party. This year we knew we’d be only five weeks in our new house, but we couldn’t forgo the annual
Petler Inn Halloween Bash, so we invited costumed close friends to our transitioning house for an awful good time.
And the week prior, we participated in something we had always dreamed of doing…sort of: It has been a life goal
of mine (and now the Rock Star’s too) to die some gruesome grisly death in a B-horror zombie movie. Our super
talented friend, Ben (affectionately called Other Ben), participated in a local grindhouse-style horror trailer
contest to go along with a local Horror Fest our town throws each year, and we got to be the zombies!! We had way
too much fun making it, and even though Other Ben’s didn’t win on account of it being “too pretty” and “not
grindhouse enough” (although we counter that the genre he drew, “Knoxploitation” is AWFUL) it was still one of the
best ones entered and we LOVED it.

As for our costumes this year, we went all out for the zombies for the movie and were so focused on cleaning
up/painting/tiling the house before the party, that we didn’t even start to think of anything until seven-ish
hours before the party was supposed to start (with us having to work in between that time-frame). Ben went as
Rorschach from The Watchmen graphic novel and I went as a clean basket of laundry–I was particularly proud of the
crumpled dollar bill and wad of thread I hot-glued to my tshirt along with socks and a sock on my headband. Not
too shabby for last minute; my costume problem also had to account for being able to literally throw it on when I
got home from work in less time than it takes to pee (also accounts for the utter lack of makeup as I drove home
like a maniac and ran upstairs to don Halloween garb). Even though it was small and not-that decorated, it was
still an super fun time with awesome people. And we’ve already started planning out next year and the full on
epicness that will occur.

in zombie garb for pseudo-movie

That damn basket bruised my thighs, I was so sore the next day.

Funnily enough, to answer nerd questions everywhere, he wasn't wearing anything underneath that coat.

And with that, I have skimmed my life forward to present day. There is so much left out and so much more to add. And [WITH GREAT HOPE] I will get back into my regular blogging schedule; which is to say, two or three times a month.

cheers!
-K

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When the world is chaotic, write lists!!

We’re in the process of buying a house. Cue major freak out: “HolyShit!HolyShit!HolyShit!!!”
We also took a lovely 10-day vacation to see some wonderful people and our nation’s capitol city.
I turned 27 years old.
Ben’s band (and other musical ventures) is/are picking up rather quickly.

We’ve been just a bit busy.

And if my German Mama taught me anything, it’s that lists can always be made.

So, a’la the delightful Sizzle, here is a list of 27 things I would like accomplished during my 27th year:

1. Buy a house and have the option of never moving my sweet ass again.
2. Reconnect with my old art alums at my five-year college reunion.
3. Chill the fuck out and create at least one day a month with the obligation of doing absolutely nothing that is required.
4. Keep up with the ‘beguilements‘ section, as well as the whole blog much better.
5. Get back into the habit of regularly walking ole Chubbers.
6. Visit a new place.
7. Keep up with my snail mail correspondence much much better.
8. Get another tattoo.
9. At the very least begin (but with high aspirations of completing) the album I bought for our 11ish year history two years ago that still has plastic around it.
10. Mail out proper “change of address” cards before middle of November.
11. Make all the holiday gifts before the 20th of December.
12. Work a bit more on that tshirt quilt i’ve been collecting for five years.
14. FINALLY have a properly designated art room!!!
15. Start excessive saving to buy a new-to-me vehicle for whenever the old Jeep finally kicks it.
16. Buy a new mattress/bed.
17. Create a tiny edible garden (and since I really hate gardening, I’ll be happy if I can simply maintain an herb garden).
18. Finish transferring our shitty recipe book to the new recipe book.
19.Throw super fun we-never-had-a-reception-slash-house-warming party on our eleventy-first anniversary.
20. Make homemade hummus.
21. Take a class.
22. Bake bread
23. Make cheesy-as-hell holiday cards with The Rock Star.
24. Find our perfect kitchen table.
25. Visit at least two non-local museums.
26. Start that Etsy store we’ve been discussing for several years.
27. Build my very own darkroom!!!
One to grow on: cross off at least half of these listed items!!

Wish me luck!!
-K

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under pressure

I have been ultra stressed the past couple of weeks, and have avoided the blog as I have no desire to spew all that negativity all over this place. So, in lieu of several lengthy tense paragraphs, how about a list of all the things I’m super happy about right now?

* We are still absolutely and totally in love with our new house. We didn’t buy it, but man, we may. It’s sososo much bigger than our old place, and new and clean and has a nice flow and we each have our own rooms and it’s just fantastic. Plus Attila loves the new place too, he runs up and down the long hall every day.

*There is hope of spring coming. Right now it may be only 38 degrees, but there have been several days in the past few week where I have oh-so-happily worn my flip-flops. It may not be as good as summer, but at least it’s hopeful. ***[editor's note: I wrote this before work yesterday, and today there is snow {FUCKING SNOW} outside my window]***

*Still loving my job. Love love love. So glad I only work less than half of the time I worked as a clerk in The Shittiest Record Store Ever and make more than three times as much. And I work alongside friends. It’s just awesome.

*Jess is still around. Which I know she’s not happy about; she’d much rather be using her recently-acquired graduate degree than just sitting around and applying to librarian jobs in the apartment at the back of our parent’s yard, but still, I’m so ultra happy that my sister is nearby. And that we have a really close relationship; I feel bad for people who aren’t close to their siblings; it’s really very nice. (Also, how’s THAT for a run-on sentence?!?)

*We’ve already planned out two exciting trips for ourselves this year; one is more of a weekend vacation to one of our favourite cities, but the other is epically exciting for us.

*I’m FINALLY going to be getting my own computer. FINALLY. I’ve not owned a computer of my own since my laptop I was given ten years ago (and it was used when I got it & started falling apart after three or four years). I have since refused to settle for something less than Apple (the expense of which will explain the absence of my own computer).

*We also going to be buying at least one new couch this month. Hopefully the store we found it in will still be carrying it as well as having a sale near this end of the month.

*Ben is handling all my ultra-stress-induced snappiness very well; even being quite sweet and helpful about other things.

*We are breaking our No-Valentine’s rule (not terribly sentimental or romantic people are we; we truly cannot stand V-Day) by going out to our favourite Indian restaurant this year with a group of mostly-single friends (b/c we don’t want to be around sappy couples) to what sounds like an AMAZING fancy buffet.

*I am ever so glad that I am not a passive person; this trait has gotten me into A LOT of trouble in the past, and it makes some things more difficult, but I would much rather be like me than like some other people I know/read/see/hear about who are constantly trying to figure out how to tell anyone anything. (This was inspired by today’s Blogshare, where there seemed to be an abnormal amount of people posting about being passive.)

*And a happy little song with which we can end this happy post:

-K

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Where we’ve been: A summer recap in images.

Although technically we’re not done with summer yet and we’ve still got some major events coming up in the next two weeks (a birthday party; a bachelor party; a wedding), I just cannot handle how absent I’ve been from my blog. So, to recap in a few images, this has been our summer. (I should also note that Ben’s swirling venture has picked up considerably, and a good portion of this summer as been spent with guitars as a whole and in pieces laying about/dangling down our entire house–fortunately we’ve moved all his music-ish/guitarish things into his new blog and I won’t have to reiterate it here.) We’ve been:

:painting lots of furniture…

now it's black and in the music room/library

:doing a lot of organizing, clearing out, cleaning up…

what you're missing are the five other stacks around/behind the coffee table

:dog-sitting…

If you can get Ollie to sit still, he still looks a bit crazy...

:having Ben’s birthday parties…

well into the night for us

Boston Cream Pie cupcakes over homemade vanilla ice cream

:taking walks at the lake…

and don't forget the Sonic slushies!!!

:going camping with my family…

Those are two outdoorsy kids if I ever saw some!

We make the best camping food ever! EVER!!!

...to be fair, I'm pretty sure princess here was chewing on a stick

Ollie gets all kinds of filthy when he camps

My research-loving, librarian-in-training sister figured out that this is actually an elm sawfly or Cimbex americanadoes. There's a link to it in the comments section. (Thanks, Jess!)

:taking baths…

cleanliness is very important here

:going to the beach with my family (including Sister! YAY!!!)…

PALE PEOPLE!! PALE PEOPLE!!! (it's much better in a doomish sort of voice)

basically this is all I did for seven days; it was blissful

perfection

–and whilst we were at the beach, my poor berated mother forced everyone into a black and white portrait session; and while I think the best family image is only adequate, I really love the more individual shots:

My parents may be the cutest couple I've ever met--they're celebrating their 30th anniversary in September this year.

To my mother's constant chagrin, we cannot help being goofy.

caught in a moment of sweetness

My sister, the most adorable woman on the earth.

The motivation behind the entire photoshoot. Please note the underlying sense of aching hunger within each person.

It’s been a great summer and it’s not quite over yet!
-K

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Beguilements #4

New Jack City: Severely classic early ’90s movie of gang-owned, crack-dealing drug lords in late ’80s New York City. Great movie! Super fantastic, and now I’m dying to watch what promises to be some really incredible interviews with the main characters over a decade after the movie originally filmed. Also, Ice-T’s and Chris Rock’s first movie–who knew? And they’ve both got pretty significant parts.

Shrek Forever After: I love the Shrek movies. And Ben and I have seen every single one of them in theaters. However much I enjoyed this one (WAAAY better than the third one, mind you), it was tempered by the fact that it wasn’t as funny as I expected it to be. But it was well done and I did enjoy it. And since they’re now finished with the series, I can start looking for the box set. Which just sets my geeky little heart all aflutter.

Fast Food Nation: Sweet baby-jesus on a cracker. This book should be required reading in every high school. EVERYONE should read this book. It’s astounding the information that is contained. Once finished I informed Ben that as soon as we become double-income again, we are no longer eating food of unknown origins. It’s not just about fast food–it’s about how the fast food industry changed how Americans butcher/process ALL their food; and it’s not anti-meat, it’s pro-healthy food. It’s really quite amazing. READ. THIS. BOOK. You will be so amazed. (There is a movie and I will add it to our queue soon to compare)

DayBreakers: Surprisingly awesome. Some of the CGI looked pretty cheap, but the other special effects looked Bad-Ass. Adequate gore without going over the top. Interesting concept/storyline: Vampires have outnumbered humans and now their natural food supply is running low and they’ve not found a proper synthetic substitute yet. Still doesn’t push Let The Right One In, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, or Interview With a Vampire out of their Top Three Best Vampire Films Ever list, but it may be in my top five.

True Romance: Tarantino’s first movie (written but not directed) is still one of my all time favourite movies–full of bad assery and true love and gangsters and a wonderfully diverse cast (check out way early unknown Brad Pitt as a major stoner and Gary Oldman playing a pimp/drug dealer). Love. Love. Love.

Mother: Korean suspense film; a bit dark and not nearly as awesome as I hoped it might be–but still, very good (although Ben would like to add, he didn’t really care for it). I’m afraid I’ll give too much away if I expound on this one.

Cop Land: Really amazing and super well-acted cop drama that somehow flew right under the box office radar. How did everyone miss this? It’s fantastic. And watching Stallone play a wimp is pretty cool. His performance alone would make this a great movie.

Ave. Q: I’ve wanted to see this play since I was living in Manhattan in 2003. When I found out the Broadway tour was passing through Knoxville I HAD TO be there. And it was wonderful and perfect and hilarious and fun. It’s Sesame Street for adults and it’s AWESOME.

Bringing Out the Dead: A very strange Scorsese picture from the late ’90s. Almost like watching a bunch of tv episodes in quick succession. Extremely dark and visually fascinating look at the third shift EMTs of New York City. And who knew Nicolas Cage could act?

Men In Tights: I love this movie SO MUCH. I’ve got the entire thing memorized. No kidding. It’s pretty amazing. I’m a die-hard Mel Brooks fan and anytime it’s been a bit stressful this is one of the go-to classics.

Prince of Thieves: Watching Men In Tights got me in the mood for this one…of course. And it’s a pretty brutal little flick with the realism and the blood and the dirt and whatnot. Great movie though (despite only two actors actually being English–and hey, didn’t the “story” of Robin Hood originate in France? anybody? Bueller? Bueller?)

Toy Story 3: GO. WATCH. THIS. NOW. I mean, I am a lover of cartoons in general. And I have a soft spot for the Toy Story characters. But neither of those factor in to how amazingly funny and touching and visually astounding this movie is. A total five-star worthy movie. I’d even see it a second time. Hell, even the animated short at the beginning is totally worth the price of admission.

Batman: One of my favourite movies ever. If ever I can’t decide what to put on as background (usually during band practice); this movie is my number-one go-to. LOVE.

The Killing Joke: One of the very first Batman comics I ever read. The artwork is what I usually expect from my graphic novels. When Joker and Batman are drawn any differently, it will always take me a few panels to adjust. Fun fact: This particular [re: wonderful] novel served as the inspiration for Nolan-Goyer-Kane Joker in The Dark Knight.

Maria Full of Grace: When a Columbian teenager realizes she is in need of a better paying job, she becomes a drug mule. This 2004 movie is seriously heavy. And extremely good. Catalina Sandino Moreno does an excellent job playing the anxious María. Quite wonderful.

Double Exposure: short albeit very interesting article on June Newton (a.k.a. Alice Springs), wife of deceased Helmut Newton and an artist in her own right.

Independence Day: A yearly tradition at the Petler Inn, and this year we watched the director’s cut–which is nowhere NEAR as good as the theatrical release. (Not to say that this movie is a cinematic masterpiece, but it is a fun flick.) The explosions and fiery scenes were A LOT longer, and there was this sick child side-story that ended up getting dropped and still didn’t make any sense. Silly. Happy Birthday America! and We love you, Will Smith!! (Oh, and according to IMDB, the people in charge are working on a second AND third Independence Day movie–stupidity is everywhere.)

Blast from the Past: This charming late ’90s flick came out at just the right time with the perfect cast. An adorable romantic comedy that has provided so many familiar quotes.

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Busy Busy, All a-dizzy

Sorry about the privatization of the last post–it’s not so much about hiding it from any of the random readers, it’s more about keeping it Un-Googleable. Just message me for the password if you feel so inclined.

We’ve been super busy here at Ye Ole Petler Inn. I L-O-V-E being unemployed. And I love that Ben is being so beautifully supportive about me being unemployed. I’m going to hate it in another month when it’s time for me to find another shitty job to help pay the bills. I’ve gotten so much work done around the house and now that the house is significantly more de-cluttered (we two are notorious pack rats), I can focus more of my energy in creating things. Luckily for me, there is a whole slew of birthdays and weddings coming up that will be taking up a significant amount of my time.

Ben and I have spent a lot (A LOT–A LOT) of time playing Tekken 6 for the PS3. We love that game and it’s one of the few video games where I actually stand a chance against Mr. Ben a.k.a. Best Videogamer EVER. Thus far my favourite (new) character is Alisa, although I’m getting some good play out of Zafina as well. I usually try to stay away from the girls as I want to avoid being The-Girl-Who-Chooses-Girl-Characters plus usually the men have better combos. But Alisa is BAD ASS, she promises to be quite amazing and I look forward to learning the extent of her fighting skills. Zafina is just simply too weird to be predictable which makes it easier for me to beat Ben (ha!). There is a big fat American character, Bob, who is surprisingly agile, and although I can’t do a lot with him (I’m just horrible at the larger characters, I’m not used to their slower reflexes) Ben does very well in kicking my ass using big fat Bob.

We saw Mastodon AND Baroness in concert and they were both FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. I kept meaning to have ole Benard write up another concert review but both he and I kept forgetting.

We went to a Mormon ring exchange. The groom is a convert to the religion and this was a way for the majority of his friends and family to celebrate his wedded bliss (as non-Mormons cannot attend any formal ceremonies). It was sweet and nice and fun. And they asked me to be the photographer for it. Which was pretty cool and which I would have enjoyed a whole lot more had I had more than TEN HOURS notice to shoot it (also, I didn’t even get to the venue until 75 minutes before it all started). I hope they’re happy with the results. They’re a super fun (and totally bizarre) couple and I wish them the very best.

Later that same night we had Ben’s band (and respective lady-friends) over for making our own sushi. It ran too late (sushi always takes FOR-EV-ER to make), but it was still AMAZING and even though we ate as we rolled, we still had a ridiculous amount of food leftover. It’s a really good group of folks and I’m glad I can call each of them my friend.

Prep Work=DONE!

Luke, Joe, and Ian making some rolls.

FINALLY ready to sit & eat: Joe, Angela, Jessica, Ian, Ben, Luke, Karlee, and Kris.

For our anniversary we went to one of our favourite semi-local cities, Asheville. We spent the day wondering around and making some more dishes for our already too-full kitchen.

Mother’s Day was spent having the regular family brunch at Copper Cellar (WONDERFUL as per usual). And then Mama (and Ben) desperately wanted to see the aquarium. So we took Oma and the five of us spent the afternoon at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. After that we headed to Ben’s mother & stepfather’s house for some Mother’s Day hanging out.

Memorial weekend has always been spent celebrating my paternal grandfather’s birthday on the 29th (75 years old this year!) and the next day is spent celebrating Oma’s birthday (82 now). Monday we hosted band practice at our house as the drummer is at his home in Ohio for the next few weeks.

It’s been a super busy month for us, as May nearly always is and June promises to be nearly as full. We do have Ben’s birthday to celebrate at the end of the month, and he’s asking for a big party (we’re looking for a theme if anyone has any ideas) with all of our friends as it has been ages since we’ve done something with err’body and it will be good to see all of our friends in the same place again.

-K

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beguilements #3

***Right. So this is about a month’s worth of stuff, and I’m really sorry about that (even sorrier after having typed up the whole thing) and I promise I’ll do better about the whole thing. Also, sorry some of these are super abbreviated; my fingers have grown quite weary.***

The History Boys: This 2006 movie about the senior year of eight boys at an English prep school was one of the best coming-of-age stories I’ve seen in awhile. Although it did fall lightly into the stereotyping of its characters (as a lot of similar stories are prone to do), it did it so much classier than a lot of movies (although this could be due to the British accents of the cast too [everything just sounds so much smarter with an English accent, don't you think?]).

Duplicity: Pretty good. Had some nice editing aspects, but not worth buying. It was lacking something I could never quite put my finger on. I’d categorize it as a good rainy Saturday afternoon type of movie.

The Maiden Heist: Adorable. I’m sad this movie skipped the theaters, not quite a straight-up comedy, more of a witty movie. Of course, I have a soft spot for heist movies, especially art heist movies, and I love the main actors (Christopher Walken, William H. Macy, and Morgan Freeman) so much.

Away We Go: FANTASTIC!! A really beautiful movie. We L-O-V-E-D this one. Krasinski and Rudolph did a really great job and the balance between drama and comedy is perfect. This movie has so much heart. The characters have a depth that is slowly unfolded as the viewer follows them along their journey to find a home of their very own. We’ll straight up recommend buying this one.

Get Shorty and Be Cool: I’d seen Get Shorty a long time ago, and it was still pretty good; maybe not as good as I remembered. But funny and entertaining. Be Cool was really not good…not at all. I’d read the book a few months ago and thought the book was only okay story-wise but the movie was even worse. And I realize the changes had to be made due to present-day music scene (in the book, Linda Moon is more rock semi-punk) but I’m not a fan of current music trends which added to my disappointment.

Out of Order: A good movie. After I finished watching it I found out via special features that apparently the 97 minutes I just saw was the pilot episode of a Showtime series from the early 2000s. That explains the semi-large cast that didn’t really have a lot to do with the plot line; however I really enjoyed it. Although I did get the impression it was made for filmophiles.

Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman: Graphic novels by the son of a Jewish German immigrant. I really loved the way Spiegelman incorporated his present-day with the stories his father told about the war. It solves the problem my own mother has had trying to write down Oma’s Berlin-survival story. I had wanted to read these books for years and years, so I’m super happy that it became required reading in one of Sister’s grad classes (meaning, she had to buy it and then I could borrow it). But of course, like all books I read and love, now I want to own it. Lovely. Well-done. Admirable and original. –Buy. Read. Love.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: Not bad. Kind of dry and overly detailed. I must admit how big of an idiot I felt when the “My Man Friday” reference was finally exposed. I can see what it was so popular in its day and why in present day it is not very high on the classics list. Worth reading, but probably only once.

LOST: I cannot explain just how happy I am that the show is finally over. We managed to catch up to the 5th and 6th season in enough time to catch the series finale in real time. I was never a big fan of the show, so I remained fairly apathetic throughout the entire series. Ben liked the show pretty well, and was pretty miffed by the finale. However, I would love to know what the die-hard fans of the show thought about the last episode. Had I been a super-fan, or “lostie” I think they’re called, I would be super pissed off. There are so many questions left unanswered; so many problems with the way the writers decided to wrap things up; so many dangling threads of a storyline that were never completed. I think this has the majority of my why-how-when questions although Ben and I were able to come up with even more than these.

Kick-Ass: FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!! Nothing will top an adorable 11 (probably 13ish in reality) year old girl calling a bunch of bad guys cunts whilst dismembering and brutally slaughtering a room full of them. This movie was so wonderfully fun. As usual, Nicolas Cage is only as good as his character is weird. Here’s hoping the dvd release will be choc-a-bloc full of extra goodies.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch: Super sad, but pretty incredible that this man got the chance to live out so many of his childhood dreams before an early death by pancreatic cancer. The book is slightly cheesy and there is an obvious feeling of the stories being abbreviated. But it’s worth reading, probably more so if you feel a bit lost in your current situation.

Sea of Cowards by The Dead Weather: Being lovers of all things Jack White, of course we love his (third?) band. Their second album is just as bizarre as the first, but a bit more rockin and the songs are more cohesive. Wonderfully fantastic! A great listen. A wonderful album.

Sex and the City 2: I have never been a big fan of the show (I find all four women to be rather awful representations of womankind), but between friends of mine, my sister, and my mother, I have probably seen nearly every episode. So when the first movie came out in theaters and my mom and sister were so super excited to go see it and have a “girls night” I went along. The movie was way too high drama for me. But with Sister now in Boston, our sweet mother still wanted to see the movie and she was so excited. This is how I found myself sitting at another opening weekend for Carrie Bradshaw. The sequel was surprisingly a lot more enjoyable than the first one. Much more like the better moments of the show. The four characters each got her own respective storyline and there was a significant difference in the comedy-to-drama ratio.

Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes: I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I thought the characters were so very well written. And the story was very believable. I’m typically not a fan of multi-narrative books (unless it’s a children’s lit) as I find most authors to focus too much on a single character, or the author is unable to successfully write from a different perspective. This book was very good, and acted as a small window into the lives of the people in this small town in Petal, Mississippi during the 1950s.

Lo: Hilarious low-budget horror film. Wonderfully done. Any fan of early Raimi work will absolutely adore this movie. It is a perfect example of how a minuscule budget does not have too look like a cheap movie. A love story at its heart, the movie is well crafted and worth the buy for any old-school horror movie buff.

Inglourious Basterds: Being huge Tarantino fans, of course we loved this movie. Just as wonderfully done in theaters as it is on dvd. Anyone must love the man who chooses a classic Bowie song for the climax of a WWII movie.

To Gillian on her 37th Birthday: Pretty cheesy, but solidly dramatic–the cheese factor could have been lowered by half if it weren’t for the god-awful soundtrack. Claire Danes is easily the best in the ensemble, far overshadowing everyone else on screen. I’d bet 10-to-1 that the play was 1000 times better than the movie ended up being.

Tekken 6 for the PS3: LOVE IT!!! Ben is really the ultimate gamer, but I can really get into a few different ones. And we had so much fun with Tekken 5 on the PS2, that when we saw this for sale at our local big-box-chain-hellhole we just couldn’t pass it up. We bought it and (I cannot believe I’m even admitting this) brought it home and played for a solid five hours, over 100 battles on the first night. And one or both of us have played it every single night since. It’s superb.

Little Big Planet (PS3): I just started this one, and am totally intrigued by all the different variations and levels that seem possible by this game. I cannot wait to get into some more.

-K

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Holiday Happenings

Well, so much for blogging-about-our-life, eh? Our holiday season was so full jam-packed with events, that that hasn’t really been any time to sit down and talk write about it.
Thanksgiving we spent with my lovely sister in Boston. We flew in early Tuesday morning and left on Saturday morning with only the smallest of hiccups; considering we were traveling during the busiest season, we’re pretty happy about it. Ben, however managed to claim Boston security attention which resulted in a full search (which was pretty funny, retrospectively).
Jess ran us ragged running around Boston, and I finally have realized what my parent’s were talking about whenever they would visit me in nyc–city people walk FAST. But she took us to see the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and we went ice skating in Frog Pond–it was Ben’s very first time EVER on ice skates–he did very well. Didn’t fall down once. And Jess invited a few of her lovely Bostonian friends over for Thanksgiving dinner of Roasted Duck with Orange and Tea sauce and others contributed wine, sweet potato casserole, and a variety of other goodness. We had a whole lot of fun and really enjoyed getting to see her again.
In Boston we watched the best (and possibly only) Thanksgiving movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and began a Christmas movie marathon with (the original) Miracle on 34th Street and Elf. Back in TN, this was continued with Home Alone 1 & 2, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Four Christmases (pretty cute), How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Santa Claus Movie, and Love Actually (one of the best movies ever, regardless of holiday)–there were many more but I believe the gist has been had.
One of my favourite family traditions is a cookie bake-off my mom hosts about a week before Christmas–friends and family are invited over to bake about 3 dozen cookies and everyone swaps off so there is a wide variety to take home. Since I had to work this year, I made (the best oatmeal-raisin cookies ever!!) my dough the night before and just scooped and baked at the party; Ben’s cookie of the season were some delicious lemon coolers.
One of my mother’s favourite event is on the evening of the first advent Sunday, her church has a “Hanging of the Green” service, sort of a decorate-the-church Christmas-type service, and I have the misfortune of being attached to Ben who also loves the hanging of the green–he says he just really likes all the singing. But afterward the family tree is decorated and Mom got to put Santa (our tree topper) on the tree this year.
Jess was greatly missed at the decorating, and we participated with her thanks to the ingenuity of Skype.

Christmas is always an EVENT with my family, and Ben, bless his heart, has come to love it as well. Christmas Eve dinner at my parent’s house celebrates the German side, Christmas breakfast also at my parent’s house for friends and family, Christmas lunch at my paternal grandparent’s house and then Christmas dinner at Ben’s mother’s house. Needles to say, one has to properly prepare for a marathon eating event such as this. By the time Christmas night comes around all we can manage to do is roll over on the couch and maybe scratch poor neglected Attila’s fat belly with one or two fingers.
Highlighted gifts this year: For Kate: a gorgeous amber moon necklace and The Big Ass Book of Crafts from Ben, her Nana’s set of green dishes (!!!), and from her parent’s THE DREAM–a huge green leather purse, beautiful. For Ben: A Canjo (although Ben’s is made from a Spam can), speakers for his iPOD and a nice houndstooth scarf from Kate’s parent’s, some pretty earrings and a new copper water bottle, and the REAL Indian Jones movies in a box set from Kate.
We try to make as many gifts as possible for our friends/family. Not only is it more economical on our dry wallets, but it also sends out something more personal as we do our best to create something unique to each person. This year, I embroidered towels and made some magnets for our loved ones. Ben drew several people an image of something they loved, and he also did a bit of painting of various objects as well.
Also, of note, my burly father bought my mother the sweetest fluffiest little puppy for Christmas, the poor thing was bought in NC, then kept at our house for 2.5 days then shuffled to Jessi’s loft in our parent’s backyard for the evening of the 24th, and finally found it’s home with mom later that night.
Ollie is a Cavapoo (not a “real” breed), a mix between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (mom’s absolute favourite dog) and a Bichon Frise (to ensure non-shredding). He’s sweet and very puppylike right now, and Attila is slowing warming up to him, although Lizzy’s already decided it’s a live toy of her very own.
New Year’s Eve has never been a big holiday for us, we prefer to stay home and perhaps some of our lower-key friends drop by. This year we had dinner at the always fantastic El Sazon, and with sister and a few good friends. And, since we’ve still never hooked up a television, we streamed the ball dropping in Times Square thanks to JustinTV.

So all-in-all a very eventful but happy holiday season at the Petler Inn.

-K

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Halloween Movies!!!

In honor of our favourite holiday and (one of) our favourite pastime, the month of October is spent watching Halloween-esque movies. Not necessarily scary movies per se, but good Octoberish stuffs.

We’ve been watching (in no particular order):

Addams Family & Addams Family Values: A delightfully dark comedy set whose gothic humour is sorely missed in modern movies. And of which I have recently found out will be on Broadway VERY SOON! (!!!)

Witches: Early ’90s family masterpiece based on the book by Roald Dahl.

Hocus Pocus: Early-mid ’90s Halloween comedic must-see starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, with a young appearance by Thora Birch as the little sister.

Children of the Corn: Stephen King’s classic short-story about demonic children’s takeover of a small town. This was the first time we had ever seen this movie, and although good, wasn’t quite as gripping or horrifying as it would have been 25 years ago.

The Strangers: Oh, man. I mean, OH! MAN! Have you seen this?! Because it is terrifying. Absolutely and completely. I love me some monsters movies, old classic horror films, just about anything zombie related, and although I may jump or be anxious during, afterwards I can happily critique with everyone else. But this movie. This. Movie. I had nightmares following it’s viewing. No kidding. Scared me that bad. But it’s good. It’s really well made. Ben was writing and I was working on my xmas gifts when we started it, halfway through we realized we were both sitting on the edge of the sofa, absolutely gripped by the movie. That good.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: The Coppala classic; wonderful, enchanting, and after watching some of the special features, highly impressive. Despite being made in the age of the green screen, Coppola insisted on all the special effects being done on set or in camera. What used to be one of our top movies of all time quickly became one of our most impressive (and let me tell you, we’re a hard group to impress).

Nightmare on Elm Street: Classic horror. Just wonderful. I still maintain the character of Freddy Kreugar is one of the best villains ever created–what child didn’t get scared during the night and wish for sleep to rescue her (or him)? To give us a villain that attacked us when we are necessarily vulnerable, is pure genius.

Shaun of the Dead: HILARIOUS!! I love this English spoof! It sealed my love for the charming Simon Pegg.

Zombieland (in theatres): Oh, my!! This movie was fantastic!!! With a completely adorable and totally unexpected cameo by one of my favourite actors of all time. This movie exceeded my already high expectations. If you’re looking for a fun zombie flick, check this out!

Pet Sematary: A King classic. It’s slightly dated nowadays, but nothing creepier than that child (later to appear in Kindergarten Cop) slashing ankles from beneath the bed–scared me so bad as a young’un that to this day, I don’t like placing my feet on the floor beside my bed in the dark.

Drag Me to Hell: This movie was surprisingly very good. My friend had to really talk me into watching this one–nearly forcing me to watch it and I actually really loved it. It’s from director Sam Raimi (of Evil Dead fame long before those god-awful Spider-Man movies) and it’s a return to his specialty–campy, brutal horror classic film. I really loved it, and as Ben said, “I can totally see Bruce Campbell playing the lead role too.”

Wind Chill: A fairly recent movie, I give it props for suspense and a somewhat original story, the acting wasn’t too bad, but it was a bit predictable and took a turn of cheesiness toward the end; but overall it was pretty good and it was a hell of a lot better than remaking all the old classics (I’m looking right at you, Michael Bay; do you know what an original story is?!?).

Frailty: Extremely good suspense/thriller!! Loved this movie about a supremely religious family; surprisingly well acted by everyone involved (this included Bill Paxton and Matthew McConaughey).

Pontypool: This movie had the makings of being one of the best, one of the most creative Zombie-esque films ever. EVER. While watching this, the frame of thought is a consistent “This is Brilliant!!” and then you hit the last 10 minutes and everything falls flat. So horribly flat that it ruins the first 2/3 of this movie. The basis is a small town radio station is trying to deal with some kind of bizarre virus and nearly all of the terror is audio as people are calling in with information. It was really very well done–until you get to the last bit. I don’t even know if I could recommend this to anyone.

Sleepy Hollow: We’re major league Tim Burton fans at the Petler Inn, and this is one of our favourites–if for no other reason than it co-stars the ever lovely Ms. Ricci and the indomitable Christopher Walken.

Dog Soldiers: Surprisingly very good. There’s not enough werewolf movies out there (although with The Wolfman being released soon, I’d say we’re on the verge of a trend).

Zombie Honeymoon: This was watched one night while baking sans Ben; and it’s basically like someone’s very first movie. And I love me come campy B movies, and if this movie had taken me to where I thought it was going to end, I probably would have loved it; but the ending is sappy and couldn’t balance the campy gore in the first half.

Trick-R-Treat: Ben watched this and loved it, I’ll let him review it: “It was totally awesome. Lots of tributes to classic horror flicks in this one! It bears repeat viewings for sure. It has multiple story lines (all dealing with classic halloween themes) that all criss cross over each other. Good stuff!”

Young Frankenstein: A pumpkin-carving tradition in my family, we’ve seen this Mel Brooks classic so many times we’ve got it memorized.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Bing Crosby narrates this cartoon Halloween tradition.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Should anything else be said? Perhaps, “I got a rock.”

Ghostbusters & Ghostbusters 2: Love these movies! The first one is better than the 2nd, but they are so classic, I don’t understand how anybody could not love them.

Dead & Breakfast: Probably my favourite B movie of all time, probably. With David Carradine and Diedrich Bader alongside a cast of virtual unknowns including a youngish Portia de Rossi and having a singing cowboy-turned zombie as the narrator, how could it be bad?

And viewing during our annual Halloween bash included:

Zombie 2: The best zombie movie ever. EVER.

Ernest Scared Stupid: childhood classic; RIP Jim Varney

Night of the Living Dead: Definitive zombie movie.

There were SO many more I would have liked to add to the list, and we’ll probably end up watching these during the long winter months:
Carrie (Ben has never seen!!)
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Paranormal Activity
Poltergeist (neither of us have ever watched this one)
The Thing (another classic Ben’s never watched)
Trick-R-Treat (so I can see it)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (I’ve never watched this one either; shameful, I know)
BeetleJuice (I’m upset about missing this one)

…and I’m sure there are others still.

-K

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weekend-ish recap

Right, I’ve got a lot of pictures and quite a few words to cover the past almost-week, so they’ll each have their own posts–in reverse order as that will be the easiest.
We made a great chili recipe two nights ago, mayhap our best yet. And Saturday night, we took advantage of my parent’s absence and utilized their wonderfully huge kitchen and had another sushi party. And on Thursday we went to a local wrestling event. That’s right, I said local east TN wrestling event–on a Thursday night, at the National Guard Armory…yes, I learned all sorts of wrestling terms, like “heel” which means bad guy…and apparently there was a super-famous wrestling duo, called “tag team” to those in the know, named “Rock-n-Roll” or perhaps I’m spelling their name wrong? Hmmm, possibly should coerce Ben into writing that particular post, yes?
Right, so here we go!
-K

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