Climbing Back on the Blogging Wagon

   I started off NaBloWriMo with good intentions. Much like the January first resolution to go to the gym everyday, I was full of enthusiasm for blogging. But things happen. Like that gym resolution, where you go everyday for about a week, then you get injured or sick, or have to work overtime, and you miss a day. And then you miss the next day. And the longer you stay away, the harder it is to go back, because you told everyone you were going every day, and then suddenly, it's March and you've gained five pounds...

  That was how the last 10 days or so have been for me. But instead of saying, "Well, this month is ruined, guess I'll just have to wait for next year," I'm going to jump back on the blogging treadmill and pick up where I left off, starting with what I've been doing since my lapse 10 days ago.

 A week ago Friday, we went to a fundraising dinner for the Legal Aid Society, celebrating the group's 50 years in Omaha. Interesting speakers and really great food, plus a fairly early end to the evening which gave us time to see "We're the Millers," before the babysitter had to leave. (Good movie, I'll review it later.)

 Saturday, relatives we hadn't seen for quite awhile were in town for the Nebraska-Illinois homecoming football game. We got together for pizza, and it turned into a late night. (9:30 is late when you have little kids to put to bed. Much too tired to blog after getting the hyper, over-stimulated rugrats to bed.)

 Sunday was supposed to be a trip to the Children's Museum, but I was feeling a bit off and decided to stay home and rest. Didn't work. Monday through Wednesday were spent mostly in bed with the first stomach virus of the year, (thank you, elementary-school-aged child), and the rest of the week was spent catching up with everything left undone while I was sick.

 

  But now I'm back on track. I was healthy again to celebrate my birthday in style yesterday. We had tickets to "The Book of Mormon," which was indescribably hilarious! Literally, indescribable, at least in a family-themed blog, this is a hard R-rated musical from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. Blasphemous and irreverent, but also sweet, with a nice message about faith hidden in this sharp comedy about two Mormon missionaries on their first mission trip to Africa. I've never laughed so hard at a musical, even though it was laughter of the "oh my God, I'm going to Hell for laughing at this," variety. Oh, and dinner at a new all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant (Tokyo Omaha) was a perfect cap to the day.

 So, that was my last week or so. I'll have more to write about tomorrow, and all the rest of October. And this time, I mean it!

 

Movie Review: The World's End

  I try to keep track of how many movies I see in the theater each year by reviewing them here, but I got really behind over the summer. That's OK though, whenever I'm short of time or drawing a blank trying to come up with a blog post, I can play movie review catch-up.

 The last date-night movie we saw was "The World's End," another sci-fi/horror/comedy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (the guys from "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz.") Since we're both geeks, we don't go for the usual rom-coms, and this movie was right up our alley.

 Five guys who were buddies in high school but drifted apart, head to their hometown 20 years later to recreate, and attempt to finish, an epic pub crawl. (The final pub in the crawl, one they never made it to in high school, is named 'The Worlds End.') In the process, they find things have changed since they left; the hard-drinking party guy is on the wagon, their ultra-cool-in-high-school leader is now a loser stuck in the past, and oh yeah, everyone in the town has been taken over by alien robots. The guys have to figure out what's going on, stay alive, and try to finish the pub crawl in one night.

 Fans of "Shaun of the Dead" and British humor will definitely enjoy this one. The movie does a great job of building the guys' characters and personalities -  you get to understand who they are and where they're coming from, before the crazy alien-robot stuff starts. A lot of sci-fi movies don't seem to get that awesome CGI isn't enough by itself, a good movie also needs a fun story and people to care about.   I did at times have trouble deciphering the accent when the actors talked too fast - this will be a good one to watch on DVD, where I can back up and replay scenes where I missed some of the dialogue the first time.

It's October 1st, Which Means...

...it's NaBloWriMo, or National Blog Writers Month. This will be the third year I've taken part in the challenge of writing a blog post a day for an entire month - and maybe I'll even reach the goal this year! The first year, I posted 22 days in October, and last year I managed 27 posts, so third time's the charm.

 October is a good month for this type of challenge; this is the point in the year where I start to get discouraged over my inability to stick to a regular blog posting schedule. I get busy over the summer, routines fall by the wayside, and suddenly I realize I'm full of blogs that I've written in my head, but that never made it out to the keyboard. So October is the month of renewed purpose, where all those sidelined blogs can have their own day.

 Maybe I'll get busy, or someone will get sick. There will probably be a few "Wordless Wednesdays" where a few photos will have take the load because I'm just too swamped to write more than a paragraph. But I'm starting fresh and optimistic, knowing that if I could get a blog post in on day one, even though I began "cold turkey" potty training the little girl today (that will be its own blog post in the near future), and oh yeah, the boy was sent home sick from school with a tummy ache, (he napped for three hours and bounced back by dinner time, although he was still awake at 10:30 pm, which doesn't bode well for tomorrow) then the rest of the month should be a piece of cake!

Book Review: "Hidden In Dreams" by Davis Bunn

"Hidden In Dreams"
Davis Bunn, 2012

Image from Amazon.com

 I picked this up off the new fiction display at the library a few weeks ago. An interesting mix of mystery, science fiction and religion, "Hidden In Dreams" follows professor of psychology and dream researcher Elena Burroughs as she's asked to investigate why multiple people are having the exact same dreams, terrifying dreams about a global financial disaster. After learning about the dreams, Dr. Burroughs becomes one of the Dreamers herself. She relies on her professional expertise and her religious faith as she tries to determine if the dreams are a hoax, a side effect of a new experimental medication, or a warning from a higher power. While doing so, she also gets caught in a love triangle between the president of her university and a professional rival, both of whom are helping her investigate the Dreamers.

 I had a slow start getting into this one, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. The action is well paced to keep you turning pages, and the mystery keeps you guessing about who, or what, is really behind the dreams. The protagonist's religious faith added an interesting component to the story; I primarily read sci-fi, where religions, especially Christianity, are mostly non-existent or irrelevant.

  I didn't realize when I picked this up that it's a sequel to the novel "The Book of Dreams." I wish I had read that first, since there are several references to people and events from that book - I found it distracting, but it didn't impede my ability to follow the storyline. At 238 pages, it's a quick read, and a fun one. I can't wait to pick up the first book when I return this one to the library, and find out what I've missed.

It's Back to School Time - Should I Feel Guilty For Being Happy? Nah.

 School started this week; the boy's first day of first grade was Wednesday. We had gone to back to school night the previous week, where we got to see the classroom, meet the teacher, find his locker, etc. (He discovered his best friends from Kindergarten were not only in his class, but sitting nearby. We gave the teacher a heads-up on that.) Tuesday night we packed his new backpack with supplies, made his lunch, picked out a first-day outfit, and capped off summer by reading the last few pages of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" at bedtime.

 I thought there might be some whining and feet-dragging on the big day, but he was up before the alarm, dressed and eating breakfast in a reasonable amount of time. Since I had allowed for an unreasonable amount of time, he got plenty of playtime with his sister after breakfast. Surprisingly, when it was time to go instead of the expected stalling and bargaining for more time, all I got was "Well, I guess I got all the play out of me," as he picked up his backpack and headed for the car.

 At school, we walked him to the door where they line up, (same as last year, Kindergartners to the right, first graders to the left) and when his best friend from last year came right behind us, listened in on a typical seven-year-old conversation. ("Look, I lost my teeth!" "I got a different haircut!" "My sister still doesn't talk much." "Mine either.") And then the bell rang, the lines of kids filed through the door, and as the Kindergarten parents cried sentimental tears, the first-grader parents high-fived each other and skipped merrily off down the street, free for another nine months.

 Well, not really - though there were a few covert smiles exchanged. The little girl and I had such a wonderfully relaxing morning. I got to drink coffee and watch "Rachel Ray" while getting an oil change as she played happily on the iPad - no arguing over who got to play first. We wandered through the grocery store with no fighting over whose turn it was to put something in the cart, no pushing, poking or kicking. At home, we played blocks uninterrupted by a seven-year-old Godzilla crashing through the construction project. And at nap time, she went down without a fuss since there was no chattering voice to remind her she was missing out on playtime.

 Not that she didn't miss him. Every once in a while she'd ask "Where potty?" or call up or down the stairs "Potty, where are you?" (She calls her brother Potty. Has since she started to talk, we have no idea why. He laughed the first time and it stuck. We told him it wouldn't be as funny when he was in high school, but some things you just have to learn the hard way...)

 Not that I didn't miss him, too. It seemed unusually quiet in the afternoon. That's when I started to feel a little guilty about how much I enjoyed my  first boy-free morning of the school year. Maybe while I was relaxing with coffee and the newspaper, he was struggling with his locker, or afraid to use the big-kid bathroom down the hall. Maybe he forgot how to spell his name over the summer (we could probably have practiced writing more).

 Nothing to worry about, though; when I picked him up, his teacher gave a thumbs-up, and he immediately announced, "I had so much fun, I almost forgot I was at school!" He then went on to tell me "The frog stopped jumping right after the day started." This required some elaboration. I at first thought he was talking about a classroom pet, (possibly one that had died!) but after extensive questioning he explained that, no, the frog was in his tummy, because he was nervous. (Explained with eye-rolling exasperation at my inability to figure this out. Have you noticed that talking to a seven-year-old is like trying to piece together a series of non-sequitors into some sort of coherent order? Or maybe that's just my seven-year-old.)

 So the first week went great, before long we'll be back in our routine, and I'm not going to feel guilty about enjoying how easy it is to do errands with just one rugrat in tow. Especially since Christmas break will be here before you know it.

Movie Review: "Monsters University"

  Last Sunday we decided to live dangerously and take our 2 1/2-year-old to her first movie in the theater. (Mostly because we wanted to take the seven-year-old and see it ourselves, but not pay for a babysitter.) "Monsters University" seemed like a good choice for her first experience; she's seen "Monsters Inc." several times, and it holds her attention pretty well. So, armed with a sippy cup of apple juice and a giant tub of popcorn, the four of us headed out.

  Surprisingly, aside from a few loud demands for "popcorn, please!" she caught on really well to the idea of being quiet and staying in her seat. It helps that she was completely riveted to the story, plus the Sunday matinee was full of other kids her age, thus camouflaging her occasional lapses.

 Honestly, I don't know why this movie is getting such disappointing reviews - I thought it was wonderful! Obviously, the first one set the bar pretty high, but I think the idea of a prequel showing how Sully and Mike met at college worked out wonderfully. On the surface, there's absolutely gorgeous animation, the expected monster-based humor that plays so well with little kids, and typical college-movie humor about meeting new people and fitting in. 

 But there are also some great lessons buried in the plot if you pay attention, lessons kids don't get every day.  Like how the guy who seems to have everything easy might still be struggling with problems you don't see. Or how you can work hard, try your best, but still fail - and how you carry on from that failure. (You never see that in a Disney movie - when was the last time you saw a Disney hero/heroine not get rewarded with their dream in the end?)

 It's great to tell kids they can be anything if they try hard enough, but sometimes, reality steps in - the awkward, chubby girl might love ballet, but won't be a professional ballerina. A kid can love baseball, but never develop the skills needed for a college scholarship, no matter how hard he practices. Learning to deal with failure with grace, using that failure to build towards a new dream -  these are great lessons to sneak in on a kid. Maybe too deep for a two-year-old, or even the seven-year-old, but if they watch it as many times as they've seen the original, something will sink in.

 Overall, the experience went so well, we might try for "Despicable Me 2" this Sunday!

Movie Review: "This Is the End"

 We had date night last Saturday, and being in the mood for comedy, picked "This Is the End." But I'm not sure how to review it.

  The movie stars Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill and James Franco, along with a bunch of other familiar faces, all playing themselves, or actually, typical Hollywood stereotype-versions of themselves. (At least I hope so, I'd hate to think they're really selfish, self-centered, oblivious, violent drug-addicts.) Seth and Jay are at a party at James Franco's house, leave to get snacks, and while they're at the store, the Rapture hits, complete with earthquake, explosions, and the godly sucked up to Heaven in blue beams of light. They rush back to the party to find everyone completely oblivious - no one there has been Raptured. After convincing everyone they're not drug-addled, the apocalypse is really happening, the guests turn on each other in a panicked free-for-all, resulting in most of them dying in horrible (and horribly funny) ways.

 The movie then follows the small group of ill-equipped survivors as they hole up at Franco's house, and attempt to make sense of what's going on. In the process, the display all the petty, selfish traits that kept them from getting Raptured. Actually, although much of the humor appears sacrilegious, it's actually a pretty religious movie, with an underlying message of hope. Even these damaged people have the possibility of salvation, if they can mend their ways in time.

 It was a good choice for us, we laughed constantly (I laughed so hard I was crying). However, as much as I enjoyed it, I'm leery of actually recommending it. You see, as funny as it is, it's the kind of humor than convinces you you're going to Hell for laughing. This is most definitely a hard R-rated movie. These are the same actors who've made comedies like "Knocked Up," "Pineapple Express," "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," "Fanboys" and "Superbad," so if you've seen any of them, you know what to expect. And if you thought these movies were funny, you'll probably like this one.

Book Review: The Grave Series by Charlaine Harris

Grave Sight
Grave Surprise
Grave Secret
An Ice Cold Grave
by Charlaine Harris

image from Amazon

 Since the new season of "Tru Blood" just started up again, I thought now would be a good time to review some non-Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. I haven't watched "Tru Blood" (no HBO) but I have read some of the books the show is based on - I thought they were good, but not riveting. The Grave series, however, hooked me from the beginning. I ran through all four books in less than a week. (That's when it's good to have an e-reader. Find a book you like, and immediately download the entire series without having to run to the bookstore.)

 This is a paranormal mystery series, following Harper Connelly and her stepbrother and business partner, Tolliver. Harper, product of drug-addicted parents and a messed-up childhood, got hit by lightning as a teenager, and now she can find dead people. She uses her talents to find missing people for a fee - and when she finds them, she also knows how they died. Naturally, law enforcement is skeptical of her claims.

 These books are full of the southern style of Harris' other series. The characters are very real, flawed people, people you could meet in any small town. Although I'm not an avid mystery reader, I found the murder mystery in each book intriguing. I was sometimes able to figure out the killer and motive before the end, but that didn't make the journey there any less interesting. We learn more about Harper and Tolliver's  past through each book, and their backstory, and their changing and maturing relationship, become just as interesting as the mystery they're investigating. Harris knows how to create compelling characters we want to spend time with. I hope there are going to be more books in this series soon.

PinTried: Nutella Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies With Sea Salt

The original pin came from The Bite Sized Baker

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Rating: Nailed It!

 There are a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes floating around that claim to be the best ever, but I think these really are. When I first saw the recipe, I thought "Wow, that looks really complicated," and I already have a good chocolate chip cookie recipe, (Wookiee Cookies from the Star Wars cookbook) so why go to all that trouble? But these are stuffed with Nutella, the amazingly rich and gooey chocolate-hazelnut spread. So I decided it was worth a go.

 What makes these different (besides the Nutella) is plain greek yogurt, browned butter, and sea salt. The browned butter threw me, I'd never done it before. But I Googled it, it wasn't that hard, and it definitely adds a layer of nutty richness that isn't there with regular softened butter. Adding sea salt to sweet things seems to be a real trend lately, and one I heartily approve of. That touch of salt really brings out the sweet of the chocolate.

  I've now made these three times, twice sticking to the recipe, once with some tweaks to fit our personal taste. (I also made them once without the Nutella, since DH is allergic to hazelnuts.) Both ways these cookies got almost unanimous raves - the one holdout was my 10-yr-old godson. He asked what the white stuff on top was, and when I said sea salt, he looked at me like I'd lost my mind. ("Sea salt? On a cookie? Ewww.") I made them most recently for a gathering, and forgot to take pictures until they were almost all gone, so excuse the hasty cell phone pics (thanks Jeff!)

The last of the batch

An action shot for scale. As you can see, it's a two-handed cookie!

Here's the recipe, with my personal tweaks in parentheses:

2¼ cup all-purpose flour

1¼ teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter (I used salted once when I was out of unsalted, and liked it better)

1¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use one cup of dark & leave out the milk choc.)

½  cup milk chocolate chips

1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator (Nutella jar says don't refrigerate, but it has to be cold, or it's too gooey to work with.)

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

1. In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt until combined. In a saucepan over medium heat, brown butter and set aside to cool.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. (I don't have a stand mixer or paddle attachment. Regular hand mixer worked just fine.) Mix in egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Place cookie dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours to let the flavors meld together. (I have never been able to wait the whole two hours, as long as the dough is cold enough to work with, it's fine.)
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll 1½ tablespoons of dough and flatten the dough to make a flat circle. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle then place another flat circle of cookie dough on top. Crimp edges to seal. (If you make them this big, they spread to the size of saucers. You can make them smaller, just adjust the cooking time.)
5. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.
6. Sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on wire racks. (I've put the sea salt on before baking - still tastes good, but the sea salt almost disappears. Good for picky people who don't like the look of salt on top. Personally, I prefer to add it after baking, though.)

Movie Review: The Croods

 The boy turned seven last Thursday, so I thought he and I could go to a movie, just the two of us, as a birthday treat. Unfortunately, there was very little playing appropriate for a seven-year-old.  (We need to keep it G-rated - not that he wouldn't love "Iron Man 3," but he's a little too prone to re-enacting the explosions and such.) The only first-run cartoon playing was "Epic," which, frankly, looked boring as hell. Luckily, "The Croods" was at the second-run theater.

  "The Croods," starring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone, is the story of a caveman family trying to survive their hostile environment. They meet Guy, a traveller who tells them the world is ending. After their cave is destroyed, they follow Guy on a quest for a new home, free of earthquakes, volcanoes and such.

 This is a beautifully animated movie. Their colorful world is full of surreal animals (land whales, carnivorous birds and plants, sabre tooth tigers, etc.) and visually stunning landscapes. The plot is familiar: teenage cave girl chafes at Dad's restrictive rules, falls for new guy, Dad dislikes new guy. Nick Cage as the Dad, Grug, is pretty funny in his attempts to keep his family safe by avoiding anything new. His mantra: Never not be afraid.

 The story is pretty much just Grug, teenage daughter Eep, and boyfriend Guy. The rest of the family have very little to do here. They reminded me of a caveman version of Family Guy: Not-too-bright Dad, Mom who tries to keep him in line, teenage girl, not-too-bright teenage brother, slightly vicious baby. And Cloris Leachman as Grug's mother-in-law, who was pretty funny and should have had more to do.

 This was a mildly entertaining movie, we both enjoyed it, but I'm glad we didn't have to pay full price. It's not a classic that's going to be watched over and over. But with little else kid-friendly until "Monsters U" opens in a couple of weeks, it was a decent way to spend an afternoon.