Cool shower invitations

A couple of my friends are currently pregnant or have recently had babies. That means I've seen my fair share of baby shower invitations. When I was pregnant, my shower was a surprise so I didn't get to see the invitations. What is the most creative baby shower invitation that you have seen? I'm not talking about just a pink or blue paper with the information written on it. Maybe a stork-shaped card with the information on the bird's belly or something like that. There has to be something awesome out there. Normal is boring!

Movie review: The A-Team

Over the weekend, my husband and I took in The A-Team. Both of us are children of the 80s and fondly remember the television show so we were intrigued to see how it would play out on the big screen. Needless to say, both of us enjoyed it immensely.

When the movie begins, our four favorite military men aren't together yet. Hannibal (Liam Neeson) is working with Face (Bradley Cooper), but they are separated and haven't met B.A. ('Rampage' Jackson) or Murdock (Sharlto Copley). The way the guys get together is a bit of a stretch...but try to look past that part. Once the Fab Four have been united, things take off.

Eight years later, the boys are in Iraq doing their thing. Hannibal gets them unofficially assigned to a mission retrieving a set of lost/stolen plates for a US Mint printing press. Of course, just as they were completing their mission, things go haywire. The plates are, once again, stolen and their commanding officer is killed. The team gets the blame and the four of them are carted off to four different prisons. If you've watched the TV series, you know that they have to break out of prison and try to clear their names.

While I know that the movie needs to set up the back story, it seems to take forever to do so. Luckily, you don't really realize how much time has passed setting everything up. It's not until the boys are tossed in jail that you go "Wow. We're only THIS far into the storyline?" The action is amazing and it keeps you going from scene to scene. The main downfall of the movie is Jessica Biel's characters. I understand that the writers felt they needed to add a female character in order to keep the movie "gender friendly." However, that's just not the basis of the series. It's OK to skip adding female characters JUST to have a chick in the group. She was completely unnecessary and I felt that she brought down the movie just a little. But not enough to skip seeing the movie entirely. If you get a chance to see this in theaters, jump at the chance. I think that the action deserves the big screen.

A laptop for me?

I can't decide if I want to get a new laptop computer, just for me. On one hand, I can't say that I really need one. On the other hand, it would be very useful for things like...updating TGW when I'm away from home. Granted, we still need to replace the battery on our current laptop. But that is supposed to be going to my daughter once it is fixed. (Woo, she'll finally have her own computer!) Though....that one is big and heavy and I don't really like it very much. Maybe I'll talk to the husband about getting HER a new, lighter one and I'll keep the crappy one.

JDorama review: RH Plus

Title: RH Plus Broadcast dates: 1/2/08 - 3/26/08 Number of episodes: 13 Genre: Supernatural drama Cast: Miura Yuu, Tochihara Rakuto, Ojima Naoya, Takano Hassei Plot: Four vampires, living together as a family, secretly help the police with unsolved cases. What is good: The change in eye color when they "vamp out" is pretty awesome. What is bad: The plot gets annoying after the first few episodes. Letter rating: C- Overall: I really wanted to like this drama. After all, vampires are awesome. Unfortunately, RH Plus is very heavy on the 'drama' aspect and not in a good way. Makoto (Yuu) was abandoned as a child, which the writing wants to beat you with every single episode. We get it. He had a crappy childhood. It didn't really need 12 episodes to attempt to overcome it. On top of that, the acting is cheesy at best. As much as I wanted it to get better, it just didn't.

Newness!

As you can see, we have gone through a bit of a redesign. Besides the beautiful new template, I have also listed every jdorama that I have reviewed on the right side of the page. They are categorized by television series, movie, and special, depending on how it was released. I hope that this will help those of you that come here solely for my reviews. Now you don't have to slog through years of reviews to find the show you want to read about! There will probably be some other changes coming as well. I'm thinking about revamping the format of my reviews, but I haven't reached a decision yet. Please let me know if there are any other changes you'd like to see!

Dancing is over!

I did have something to talk about yesterday. Thanks to some server issues, I completely forgot what that was. I'm sure I'll remember eventually. My daughter and I had our dance recital on Sunday. It went very well but it left me so worn out. Now I have a summer free of dancing. Well, almost. My daughter is taking a jazz/hip-hop class on Wednesdays. However, my mother will be taking her to that. I don't have to look at the studio until August. Yay!

(I almost want to look for testosterone cream that works to see if that would make girls less....girly. A big huge room of chattering girls can give one a big huge headache!)

So busy!

Work has been crazy. A little over a month ago, our controller was let go for reasons I won't explain here. Let's just say she deserved it. Anyway, this has left our new CFO to try to figure out things like 'why do we have 18 merchant accounts?' (Hey! Maybe we can sell merchant accounts as a side business!) In reality, there is no reason for us to have that many. The company changed names years ago and the controller never closed out the accounts associated with that name. I've been helping the CFO try to figure everything out. That is why I have been so quiet. Hopefully this will all end soon!

Movie review: Alice in Wonderland

I finally got the chance to sit down and watch the Blu-Ray of Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. While I was very interested in it, I have to admit that I haven't been following all the news on it very closely. I saw the "sneak peek" pictures of the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen, and the White Queen, but I wasn't quite sure how they would work when moving. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised.

Despite the movie being titled Alice in Wonderland, the movie is based more on the sequel, Through the Looking Glass. Alice had spent time in Underland, which she misheard as Wonderland, as a child. However, she wrote it off as sheer craziness and forgot all about it as she grew up. Years later, she happens upon the white rabbit and once more falls down the rabbit hole. There she finds the Red Queen has stolen the throne from the White Queen. Prophecy says that Alice will slay the Jabberwocky, bringing the White Queen and peace back to the kingdom.

The graphics for the movie are gorgeous. I really wish we had seen it in the 3D. I'm sure that tons of people have complained about the look of everything. However, I think it fits right in with the original story. Much like the black-and-white-to-color change in The Wizard of Oz, the look of Underland makes it clear that this is a completely different world where the usual rules don't necessarily apply.

I also found the acting to be superb. Matt Lucas plays both of the Tweedles. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to recreate each emotion, each movement for each of the characters yet still have the concentration to perform the lines properly. Both Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter revel in odd roles so they were a perfect fit for the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen. The real surprises come with the virtually unkown Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. Wasikowska manages to bring an innocence to the adult Alice while still giving her the backbone to stand up to authority. Meanwhile, Hathaway has this ethereal presence as the White Queen. I recommend everyone watch the bonus material. There is some great insight to how the actors brought these characters to life.

If you're not a fan of Tim Burton's style, then you aren't going to like this movie. But if you are, like I am, I think you will find it amazing and beautiful and one of his best works. (Just to note, I feel the same way about his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.)