Thursday Faff

* Monday night, I saw How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the animated version, as if another one were ever made) on the teevee, and I marveled at how phenomenally gorgeous it was in HD. Then, last night, I saw the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and it blew my freaking mind, mang. I hadn't seen it since I was 8 or 9 (always managed to miss it somehow) and my childhood memories of the show stem from watching it on a TV with rabbit ears and not-so-great signal because we lived so far away from the city. To see it in HD glory was just unbelievably cool. I can't wait to see what Charlie Brown looks like.

* It snowed here today, a real snow, and it continues to snow and be very cold (the high today was predicted to be 20F) It was the tiny, powdery snow that happens when it's really cold outside, and it muffled everything as I walked to work this morning wearing my new coat which I would mary if bigamy were legal. Snow makes everything prettier, makes everything quiet and still, until you get to the big downtown intersections and then it's just dirty mush in the street.

* Last Monday before we headed out to California on the aeroplane, Dan and I went for a run. Now, to those of you who don't know us IRL, this may not sound like a big deal. But Dan and I trained for a marathon together a few years ago and we ran together all the time, but after it was over we pretty much stopped the practice. I somehow got away from running for the most part, while Dan continues to do so nearly every day (he runs anywhere between 3 and 6 miles, 5 days a week). I haven't run with him in ages, and I hadn't run at all since before I hurt my leg back in May. I wasn't sure how the leg would do and I was really concerned about holding him back, but it did just fine. I managed to run a mile and a half without stopping. Cardiovascularly, I'm in good enough shape that I should probably be able to run 5 or 10 with no problems, but I didn't want to push my leg too hard. And it didn't bother me once during the run. I think it was the walking around for 6 hours in San Francisco the next day that was the problem, because Wednesday it hurt like a mofo. I decided to wait a little while and try again, so today at the gym I ran for 10 minutes in between a 15 minute walk (5 walk 5 run 5 walk 5 run 5 walk). It felt pretty good. I wanted to run more. Maybe I will this weekend.

* And without futher ado, some of the photos I took in CA. These were all in my mom's yard; I was playing with the macro setting on my camera for some of them.


(hee)


My mom has had this plant for longer than I've been alive.






I took a bunch of photos of this moss-growing rope swing; I liked this one best.

A movie meme, courtesy my stylish friend Sara

I was maybe going to do a new blog review or maybe tell you about my trip to Colorado Springs, but instead I read Sara's blog and decided to do my own movie meme. I'll italicize the ones I've seen and red the ones I couldn't make it through because I don't know how to do the cross-through. I'll also star the ones I didn't see until I started dating Dan, who is a huge film buff in addition to his other nerditude. I didn't go to film school like Sara did, but I do like movies, so I've seen quite a few of these.

AFI Top 100 Films
1. Citizen Kane (1941)*
2. The Godfather (1972)*
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull(1980)
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952) I'm a sucker for musicals
6. Gone with the Wind (1939) I always wondered what Scarlett saw in Ashley. He was so old!
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) I had to watch a scene or two of this in school one time and I think I fell asleep.
8. Schindler’s List (1993) Saw it in the theater, will never watch again. Too sad.
9. Vertigo (1958)* For a while there, we had a bunch of Hitchcock movies on our queue
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939) Family tradition, watched it every year on TV.
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977) Um, duh. How could I possibly be marrying a big nerd and not see this movie? But I first saw it as a kid.
14. Psycho (1960)
15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) I know I've seen the whole thing at one point (probably sometime when I was younger) but I specifically had to watch the really famous scene during one of my college classes.
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982) My very first movie memory; got to go to the movies for my 4th birthday (early 1983, so ET stayed around for a while in the theaters)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)* I think I saw this before I was with Dan, but I only remembered a scene or two, so I'm going to star this one because I *know* I saw it with him.
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979) I've probably seen a little bit of this but never had the chance to see the whole thing.
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941) My parents must have rented this or else it was on TV because I remember seeing it as a kid.
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35. Annie Hall (1977)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964) I did take one class in college where there was a film assigned every week, so I saw this during that class
40. The Sound of Music (1965) At one point I could recite the whole movie and sing every song.
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969) This movie made me kind of sad.
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)*
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47.A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) A few scenes but not the whole movie.
48. Rear Window (1954) This and The Birds may have been the only Hitchcock films I saw before I was with Dan.
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) * Superduh.
51. West Side Story (1961) Every time I watch this I hope and pray that it'll end differently. Every time. (me too, Sara. :( )
52. Taxi Driver(1976) This movie was studied during a class in college but we never watched it. I probably should someday.
53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)
54. M*A*S*H (1970)
55. North by Northwest (1959)* This might be my favorite Hitchcock.
56. Jaws (1975)* We watched this one time but I think we may not have WATCHED the whole thing. It was one time when we were still long distance.
57. Rocky (1976) * See above, but I know I watched the whole thing a different time.
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)* Freedonia!
61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973) Cut my teeth on the soundtrack to this movie.
63. Cabaret (1972) Cut my other teeth on the soundtrack to this one. My mom was a huge musical buff. Great show live; movie was pretty good.
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951) I've seen most of it. It did not hold my attention.
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) *
67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Hit way too close to home.
68. Unforgiven (1992) I may have seen this, but can't remember for sure.
69. Tootsie (1982) On Comedy Central one time in high school.
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998) It was way too loud in the theater.
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) One of the good Stephen King movies. Stand by Me is my favorite.
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) * We saw most of the movie at my grandma's house one time, so I'm counting it because Dan told me what the ending was.
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)
77. All the President’s Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969) Can't remember if Dan was there or not.
80. The Apartment (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960) Watched this for 6th grade history class.
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997) I know it's all overblown and cliche, but I like it.
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986) Pretty sure my parents rented this too. Don't remember much about it.
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999) But when I saw it, we were 5 minutes late to the movie, so it wasn't until years later and I saw it again that everything made sense.
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994) I successfully earned an A on a paper for a chemistry class in high school by using the "restart her heart with adrenaline" scene from this movie because the teacher was in love with Uma Thurman.
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989) Saw it for a college class, didn't like it as much as I wanted to.
97. Blade Runner (1982) Late night with friends in college. Too much to drink, couldn't stay awake. I should really see it.
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben-Hur (1959)

Hey, that was fun! I've seen 47 out of 100, and 12 of those not until Dan and I were together. Of course, LOTR came out the year we got together, so I guess that doesn't count toward my cultural education.