FYI- the photo I took for this page is of the boats at St. Andrew's marina (my fave part of PC) facing the state park/ Thomas Drive/Bay Point area of the beach. I always like the Thomas Drive part of PCB the best, the lagoon area, Spyglass Drive, and all the little beach neighborhoods hidden in between. To the left, out of view of course, the great view of the Island and the open pass between them both. Uncle Ernie's has a close view but not quite as good. We used to sit out back at SA Bay Seafood Restaurant and enjoy that view with some wine and sun. Now there's a condo. Guess we'll have to get one soon. I know the old mayor has the penthouse there so it must be nice:)

Sunday rain

Went to bed at 10 thanks to some allergy medicine. After watching Law and Order CI Unit reruns while Phillip worked. Like the ones with that big guy in them before he wents nuts. Can't figure out if he's still on the show since they've got Chris Noth back.
Woke up at midnight to the sound of thunder ...how far off I sat and wondered....
- a very unusual sound these days in drought stricken water restrictive Florida. Lightning, hard rain, resting for a while then beginning again around 4 a.m. My husband slept on the couch trying to recover from a cold which may be allergies, being nice and thoughtful but Mother Nature kept him up. Crept up this morning while still dark to make omelets with peppers, onions, mushrooms, maters and cheese and bacon. Healthy. I make up for it by eating Kashi the rest of the week, ok people? Still being lazy, still raining. Trying to decide when we're all going to be motivated to go the new houe to work more. New fridge being delivered tomorrow. Carpet for bedrooms on Thursday..opted out of tiling that whole part of the house so Nick can have some soft places to play. Also better insulation for the feet on cold winter mornings. Someone needs to walk the dog, no volunteers. when it rains we can't let him in the back yard or else he'll come back looking like a baby hippo who rolled in an African mud bath. Need coffee...have a great day ya'll!

Saturday! And stoner movies.

it's great to get up at 6am on a Saturday! Yeah for us! It's not even light out yet:) Anyhoo, Phillip just went over to the new house. We spent yesterday there after a two hour closing - gotta love Florida real estate paperwork- mostly putting up blue tape for painting and cleaning tiled floors and dusting. Slowly, the house will lose that abandoned feeling and will be filled with our family's noise, playing, cooking and yes, Dude's white hair. The neighbors came over to say hi- one a retired Clearwater policeman who has this gorgeous German shepard. He gave us the lowdown on the water restrictions- once every Tuesday after 6 pm. Similar to this house. I didn't tell him that we're a cult that believes in legalizing marijuana and worships the Egyptian god Isis.- Just kidding! We will be moving this week after all the painting is complete. For the first time, we'll have a bigger space with some room to roam- a luxury for us after 6 years of moving around the Southeast.

On another note- we watched "Pineapple Express" last night. After weeks of being delayed by Netflix, I had really high expectations. I thought it would be the holy grail of pot movies. In my opinion, it was ok. Merely entertaining. Have you ever watched a movie and said outloud- "That's really funny" but not really laughed along? That was us last night. We were dog tired, muscles aching and weary from cleaning. But, the movie had a few crazy funny scenes to keep us interested enough to not stop. I'm getting tired of Seth Rogan as the chubby nerd guy who plays the lead actor in alot of Jud Apatow films- the novelty wears off, similarly with the Ben Stiller movies. James Franco and especially Danny McBride (hope i got that right) as Red were a fun surprise as the other stoner buddies who get mixed up in some plot that I lost around 15 minutes into it. I knew the plot wasn't important anyway, so just enjoyed a goofy, half-baked story about marijuana, it's dealers, it's many "types", it's effects, it's glory, it's path to destruction.....ok.... it was a fun movie with some well written witty dialogue (Apatow's good at that) and the very last scene was a nice finale. Watch it if you need to mellow out, without thinking too much :)

A little salt...

Language and our bastardization of it has always interested me. No wonder I got into Literature and Journalism back in the day. This article is entertaining and made me go- Hmm... and not because they start it off about Britney Spears. Get past that point and enjoy. I knew James Joyce was a nasty boy, but the adult twists on language he uses and songwriters have used always catches me by surprise.
www.slate.com/id/2214106/...
article named If You Seek Amy's Ancestors.

What happens without television.

For the first 3 years of our marriage, Phillip and I didn't watch cable tv- didn't have it. Ok- there were the 4-5 public access channels including a Spanish one and a Christian network that managed to make it through the airwaves. So, at times, I would put on PBS to catch some Jim Lehrer news hour (didn't care for Sesame Street back then- this was BN- before Nick). Our next move is in 10 days and we're going to try that route again. Only this time, with child. What happens without television, in our experience, is the following:
1. Alot of free time to fill after work- but since I am still a stay at home (for one more year)- I will have more to keep me occupied.
2. The creative side comes out- i did more painting, crafts, renewing furniture, and organizing in our home.
3. Since of accomplishment- at the end of the day, I always felt like I didn't have that list of things to do tomorrow- because I had them done today!
4. Phillip played guitar more often, and I played my keyboard with old piano music weekly.
5. I read alot more- during Nick's naptime, I can catch up on reading which is usually saved for late night while half asleep.
6. Experimented more with dinner recipes and had fun with food!
7. More time to exercise and get outside- no excuses!
8. More time to work on the yard and house projects.
9. Phillip and I would meet up almost every day after work in PC (those 3 years) to socialize with new friends and old ones, and threw get -togethers weekly.
10. Once we have established a few really good baby-sitters here, we will resume that life and enjoy more live music, dancing, and entertaining friends in our new home.
11. With the tv off- we always had our stereo on playing a 5 cd changer full of good music. Every day, something different put in depending on the mood.
12. always a good excuse to try new wine and discuss like experts. Fruity! Dark! Bouquets! Legs! Crisp aroma! Pinot or Sauvignon Blanc?
13. Having more time to chill together playing Scrabble, dominoes or card games that I learn and then have to re-learn. but still... quality time as a couple without the drone of television in the background.
14. Never had one in the bedroom- good rule of course.
15. More time to catch up with family via phone calls and handwritten letters :)
gotta go ! drama in the nursery.

IRISH MUTTS RULE

For starters, half my family, the McMullens, descend from Capt. James McMullen who came from Scotland and who had many many sons. Therefore, here in Pinellas County there is a McMullen cemetary (where I can be buried for free), a 6 lane highway called McMullen-Booth Road, many old McMullen homesteads that are county parks that one can visit, and a very large McMullen reunion in Largo that is a blast only because every time I go I meet some new second or third cousin. My mom's side of the family was prolific down here in the citrus industry, the oil industry and there are still successfull McMullen Roofing and various other businesses that my uncle and more distant relatives run. My dad's side is the McCarthy side, the name being the most common in County Kerry, Ireland. Also on his side were some British folk (two older aunts of his I was too young to meet used to have tea every afternoon). On my mother's mom's side (Emily McMullen- maiden name Daeger), her mother Anna Daeger came from Austria in 1912 on a boat and they have found her signature at Ellis Island. I still need to do more digging to find out more about the McCarthy side, but I do know my Grandpa McCarthy raised my dad and his sisters in Elgin Ill, which I can thank for my dad's wonderful pragmatic Mid-Western personality. I always liked that he wasn't the typical good ol boy from Bay County.
My husband's last name is Roosen- not common in the south but more in the north. In fact, his father's relatives are scattered throughout Ohio and he spent time there as a child and we have visited his peeps up there while married. Roosen is a Belgian name, and he has discovered Roosen relatives that live across the pond in Belgian that he should visit someday. There is also some Spanish blood on his side maybe explaining his love of spicy Spanish food?
Anyhoo, we're all mutts and I am planning a big St. Patricks' Day party for next year. Bud Light is allowed but it's preferred to be dyed green if you must drink it!
Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Hulk Hogan and other things

Today we went ot Nick's speech therapist and then headed over West to Indian Rocks beach, which is south of where we usually go, but a beautiful place. Indian Rocks is a nice strip of developed beaches with lots of smaller townhomes, cafes, oyster pubs, and condos that aren't over about 6 stories tall. We used a public walkway and while there I took pics with our Cannon (the real camera I call it, not digital) of the water, the colorful umbrellas, and the tall whispy pines they have down here called Austrian Pines (correct me if it's something else). The beaches down here have tons of whole shells and there are spots full of white washed out rock that gives it a neat sundrenched desert look. I miss the wild tall dunes and grasses of Bay and Walton counties, but like the treasure hunting here for sand dollars, sponges, coral and Spanish medallions. :) It's also nice to listen to the European and Canadian crowds while sunbathing...everything is Eastern European or sounds like the characters in "Fargo". I am sure when I speak in my native drawl and newly acquired Nashville twang their ears go "huh?" and they look around for the closest language abuser. Also spotted- a few banana hammocks (courtesy Europeans I assume?)
Upon leaving and driving north on alt 19 we came upon the swanky Bellair Beach, home to footballers, minor celebrities, Middle Eastern millionaires, and old money country clubbers. I say this tongue in cheek.... the most infamous celebrity of late is Hulk Hogan and dismantled family who live scattered throughout this beach and Clearwater. I kept looking at the golf carts cruising up and down the landscaped grasses for Linda or mini-me Brooke but it was like shooting fish in a barrell- lots of those types here. Hogan's son recently drove him and a friend into a tree and put his friend in a lifelong veggie state, sadly, and Nick was freed from jail lately. Soon after, the friend's father was caught trying to pay a Clearwater cop $1000 to kill his wife. That is the saddest situation.
So, no Hulk sightings today. My husband has seen him at TIA flying out. Maybe another celebrity will come to Clearwater and cause less harmful drama for us locals to be entertained with. Ending a sentence with a "with"- isn't that wrong ya'll? I'm still looking for Tom Cruise and fam outside of the Scientology compound downtown. Those jerks made the old Methodist church stop chiming it's bells at noon because it interrupted their blackmail sessions- I mean meditation. Have I said that before? I'm a totally a biased Methodist. Well- tata for now. Have fun out there!

my son is being real cute today

So we all got up around 6 am and waited for the sun...the time change creates a weird hour in the morning when it's still pitch black until around 7:10. While I sip on my cup of joe and put on Sesame Street for Nick, I wandered to the pc to browse landscaping ideas for our soon to be new home. It has a rough backyard- all weeds, sand, old dog toys, and oak saplings. We'll clear it all out and have a blank slate, and it's huge. Luckily, a neighbors tree drops a ton of free tangelos for us to enjoy- bonus! While browsing ideas for a green yard with no sod (the new hip thing here in drought stricken FL) Nick just said "Eeee!" and "Ahh" and "Ohh!" while following the ABC song, and it is so darn cute. He has been slow to talk, surprising for sure in this boisterous household but he babbles alot and is never really quiet. We learned because his vision is slightly impaired, that he doesn't pay attention to our mouths to learn sounds like most babies and toddlers do, so he is learning more by mimicking us. For example, I'll say "Go Gators!" and he'll say "go gaga" or something like that- but he's not watching me like he should. Our new exercise taught by his therapist, is to try to get him to look at our mouths when we talk, and that's fine and pretty easy. But his attention span, like any 2 year old, is about 2 minutes. So we're happy with his progress and are enjoying a healthy normal child make those first words like daddy, momma, eee, oohh, aahh, and he does a gutteral "beep beep" for any of his trucks, buses, tractors and racecars. That's a whole different topic for later- how boys and girls do seem to be attracted to items without persuasion, that are "boy" or "girl" toys. Just my own observations to add to the whole nature vs. nurture argument. Well...we're off to the gym, the marina to look for manatees and then maybe Home Depot. Have a wonderful Saturday!

"Cloverfield" review

Honestly, at first I rolled my eyes at the opening scenes that reminded me of the fake parties that you see on shows like "Gossip Girl", "Buffy", or that type of vein... your older teens and young yups dressed to the nines being very pretencious and beautiful. But then....the fun starts and as the big monster event started to occur, it grabbed my attention until the end. To enjoy this movie, you must suspend belief in reality- not just because there is a vague alien/water/bat monster terrorizing New York, but also because this is one of the movies where it's too easy to armchair quarterback. However, the writers are good enough to acknowledge that is the whole fun of these type of fast-paced action horror flicks, and they throw a few good bones of surprise to keep you interested. Of course, there were some parts that got predictable, and the stereotypes where there, including the quasi-jerk who gets killed right away. I was caught up in the docu-style first person filming (Blair Witch did so well) that although may be old news now, is done well in this movie. All the action is happening in present time, and like real-life, some of the action is hidden, thus rendering the main characters helpless and very very scared. The acting was pretty good for unknowns, and the plot was plausible as far as the military response, and the overall craziness of us humans being terrorized by multiplying monsters the size of tall buildings. Not being a big fan of the corny "monster" movies like Godzilla, I was glad that the writing was good enough that you could take the action seriously without it being too campy. If I want campy, I'll watch Peter Jackson's version of "King Kong"- love Jackson but that movie was so overblown and had none of the subtleties of the LOTR trilogy, and the monsters that were a big part of those action scenes. So.... in the end, "Cloverfield" was entertaining, fun to watch, scary, and unforgettable. It's not one I'll watch again soon, simply because a movie like that, with an ending like that, plays out in such definitive terms that I'm just not curious about it anymore. There are loose ends to be sure, and lots of questions at the finale, but I am pretty sure I didn't miss any of the small breadcrumbs of clues along the way. That's a good thing - to leave the viewer going "wow" at the end, and knowing there is no other ending that would make sense.

fast but wise

Piece of advice - don't take a multi-vitamin on an empty stomach. I feel like a sailor 100 miles from shore who is staring at the horizon. Must eat-will write later. We got "Cloverfield" in the mail today- i know it's old circa 2007 but what the hey. will review and def need to eat before watching the docu-style film - it is similar to Blair Witch in that way. Ta ta for now.

New Paint Colors

So, for the past few weeks we 've been looking at paint samples and deciding what colors to put where in our new home. I love the imaginative color names, such as "brisk olive", "Fiesty red", and "Motor City Blue" (which may be in our guest bath). In fun, I've made an off the cuff list of my own that you may never find in your nearest Lowe's :

"Obama Drama"- this rich hue of smoky blue has tiny little "o's" that become visible on your wall after application- simlar to glitter in a girl's nail polish that is floating in the paint until applied.
"Baby's last meal"- this nice ochre yellow is the color of- baby's last meal. Great for your nursery or dining room.
"Slingnasty"- this paint comes out hot pink and screaming "hey dude! I'm freakin hot!" Put this tone in your walk in closet or bathroom."
"Tampa Bay circa 1980"- this tone is a dark, murky mud green similar to the color of Tampa Bay before they started noticing pollution and dead manatees.
"Hunch Punch"- this paint named after a famous drink at Newbie's drive through in PCB goes on bright tropical red and comes out the same way.
"Wedding Virgin White"- this paint goes on pale pink, for obvious reasons.
gotta run...more fun later!

Burn After Reading... the movie, not this post.

This took us two nights to watch, due to unforseen circumstances like my allergies kicking in from the huge oak tree that spits yellow pollen all over our house. What an interesting movie. Directed and written by Joel and Ethan Coen, (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, O Brother Where Art Thou, Barton Fink, etc). it walked the fine line between clever, outrageous, and just goofy. The movie was cast with fully drawn characters who get mixed up naively in a plot line that is too complicated to explain right now. Like all Coen movies, half the fun is their tight dialogue, which is just as important to their characters as their costumes and set designs. It is similar to The Big Lebowski in that the main characters make idiotic choices in life that only lead to disaster, chaos, and for most- an unexpected and sometimes shocking end to their lives. The characters played by Francis McDormat, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John Malcovich, Tilda Swinton, and even minor character Richard Jenkins are people not played as "good" or "evil" but merely bumbling humans who step into a big dog mess that they can't get out of. I personally loved John Malcovich's vehemently alcoholic ex- CIA analyst who is going through a very messy divorce from his wife. At the beginning of his story, he's in a nice suit, at the end he's a crazy frazzled drunk walking off with a shotgun wearing a robe and slippers (sound familiar?). This movie was pure entertainment, with no real moral, no real meaning, and no nice ending. Watch it with no expectations. Don't expect it to be as laugh out loud funny as The Big Lebowski. However, you can rest assured this is not "No Country for Old Men", so you don't have to grip your chair waiting for the dark angel of death to appear onscreen.

right on time..

Just on the tale end of a nice quiet break during which I stirred up the dust by sweeping our garage out, cleaning our wood floors, and firing up my hay fever again- there comes a schreech from the other bedroom, and a slight odor filling the air. Wafting, wafting....
be back later- Nick needs a diaper change and is probably hungry since all he's had is 1st breakfast, 2nd breakfast, and lunch so far. Just like a hobbit.

The Awesome Land of Del Toro

No, I'm not talking about Benecio Del Toro, but rather the other one- Guillermo, who recently directed and wrote "Hellboy II". We finally watched this latest fantasy/ comic book cinema creation, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The first one I only saw in bits, and was never engaged by the ungainly, goofy "hero" played by Ron Perlman who is Hellboy. The plot of the first one was not interesting to me, and I wasn't overly impressed by the action or other main characters. In the second one, the story starts fast, after a few minutes of catch-up during which young Hellboy is being read a tale of the fairy vs. men battles of old that ended in an unsteady truce for peace. Obviously, this changes. I'm not going into the plot details, because I'm not good at describing action.
Since I first cracked open my series of Wizard of Oz books when in elementary school, fantasy creatures and lands have always fascinated me. Later, I got into the Tolkien books, and the world of Madeline L'Engle, of "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" fame. Being raised in a Christian background with early readings of the Bible unsurprisingly also opened my eyes to worlds that require imagination, looking beyond our horizons, and also some faith thrown in. Don't read too much into that- for some the Bible is literal, for some it's fiction, for some it's non-fiction history mixed with allegories of good and evil. Hmm..sounds alot like the Harry Potter books, the fantasy world of Middle Earth, and the realm of comic book fantasies like "Hellboy".
I like that better quality movies like "Hellboy" and "Ironman" were made this year that took the adult sensibilities and humour into account when writing the dialogue. These movies aren't made for 10 year olds, but are full of fast pop-culture references, adult wit, and salty lines that are easy to watch even when a big, red, devil-faced man is saying them.
Sometimes, adults need something more than serious platform movies like "Rendition" or "Babel" to entertain ourselves with. Sometimes, women want more than another Jennifer Anniston or Cameron Diaz chik flik to view while stockpiling our pennies for Prada. Fantasy stories of different worlds with creatures of unusual powers isn't something to distract us from the reality of our own religious viewpoints or daily life in the real world, but is a fun way to take our minds to a different level of imagination when we need to escape. Fantasy worlds have existed in men's minds since our long ago- evolution- maybe since the first cave man was told to do the dishes and his mind started to wander away from his wife and kids to some beautiful world of horses, dwarves, elves and beautiful women and men of some other place.
So, if you ever feel the need to watch an entertaining and well-written story about heroic characters of outlandish looks and power, "Hellboy" is one of the best films this year of that genre.