Daily Mish Mash

A few weeks ago I brought in the mail and sat it on the table to be sorted and filed ignored until I felt like dealing with it later.  I really didn’t pay much attention to it, but I happened to glance at one of the envelopes and the return address.

Of course I tore it open like a maniac (I think there was squealing and jumping up and down, but I can’t say for sure).  I guess I was expecting to find something unbelievably great like an invitation to a movie premiere or an opportunity to interview him for my blog. 

Sadly, it was just a very depressing letter about the fate of the polar bears.  According to Leo, they are in big trouble because the polar ice caps are melting due to global warming. 

So now, not only was I disappointed for not receiving a real letter from Leo, I was also depressed about the polar bears.

We’ve been trying to do our part to help the environment.  There is no doubt in my mind that we could be doing more, but I have to say that we are trying.

Here are a couple of things we did this week to make a difference:

I bought this new Eco line of dish detergent from Palmolive that is phosphate free.  Now, I’m not sure if this will help polar bears but it will supposedly help to keep the ponds, streams, lakes and rivers around me less polluted.

Another similar purchase was this Arm & Hammer  Essentials laundry detergent. It is made with 100% naturally derived surfactants, biodegradable plant-based soaps, and is free of dyes, phosphates, bleaches and petroleum-based cleaners.  It comes in a smaller bottle, so it produces less waste. 

The great thing about both of these products is that they are very affordable.  I’ve seen other eco-friendly lines that I would love to buy, but with me not working we are on a VERY strict budget.  I have to cut corners where I can and sometimes that means just buying the cheapest brand and whatever I have a coupon for at the time. 

I’ve used both and I’m happy to report that they do work!

Lastly, I repurchased the Brita fridge water dispenser.  I say repurchased because we owned one when we first got married but sold it at a yard sale because we weren’t using it very often.  We started drinking bottled water.  Even though we recycled, they are still using lots of energy and making pollution to make the bottles (not good for the polar bears, I’m sure).  Since I’m no longer drinking my Coke Zero (I slipped off the wagon this weekend and had two, sshhh.) and drinking more water, I thought we could do our part to reduce this extra waste.  It is also better for our wallet because even though you have to replace the filter, it is much less expensive than constantly buying the bottles. 

I know it isn’t much but it feels good to do a little something. Hopefully this will make Leo proud and maybe just maybe, the next letter that I get from him will be something really spectacular. 

In the meantime, if you feel compelled to help the polar bears click here.

Since I haven’t seen a movie in a long time that is worthy of writing a review for,  I thought I’d make a list of my Top 5 Movie Kisses.  They really aren’t in any particular order, but you can probably guess my absolute favorite:

1.  The Notebook–Ok, if you hadn’t guessed by now, what took you so long??  This kiss is my absolute favorite.  Actually, I love every kiss from this movie, but this one is the best.  How can it not be?  There is really no comparison when it comes to this kiss. 

2.  Serendipity- A cute movie, a sweet kiss, and of course, John Cusack (again in some sort of precipitation).

3.  Gone With the Wind–A classic kiss!  I just watched it on youtube and I love how Scarlett’s all “Fiddledeedee” and Rhett’s all “None of the fools you’ve known have kissed you like this—have they? ”  I just love the way he takes hold of the situation and puts her in her place.  Not that I’m about men putting women in places, but it works in this scene.

4.  Titanic-The color of the sky, the costumes, LEO!!!  This is a truly magical kiss. 

 5.  Sixteen Candles–Ahh, Jake Ryan.  Didn’t every girl who grew up in the 80’s want to kiss Jake Ryan.  Gosh was he was dreamy.    Anyway, this is a great kiss:

So, what famous movie kiss do you think should be added to this list?

This post is part of Movie Madness.  If you haven’t already entered the giveaway, go here.

For this week’s Friday Eye Candy I was having trouble coming up with the #4 person on my list.  I have no problem naming the first three:  

1. Ryan Gosling
2. James McAvoy
3. Leonardo DiCaprio

These are my solids and will probably remain unchanged for a very long time.  The rest of the list seems to change daily depending on my mood.  Other than a few “Colins” and “Matts”, I found that most of the leftover celebrity hotties on my list all have names that begin with the letter “J”.  

Here they are in no particular order.  Enjoy:

Josh Holloway

John Cusack

Josh Duhamel

Joshua Jackson (He’ll always be Pacey Witter to me)

John Krasinski (He’ll always be Jim Halpert to me)

Jake Gyllenhal

Joaquin Phoenix

Am I forgetting anyone?  Let me know you favorite “J” hottie in the comments. 

When I tell people the #3 person on my “laminated list” I usually get a lot of flack. 

For whatever reason, there are many people that just don’t get the hotness that is Leonardo Dicaprio.  I think there are so many Leo-haters in the world because of one or more of the following reasons:

1.   His lines in Titanic annoyed people.
2.   His political/environmental views annoy people.
3.   The fact that he only seems to date models annoys people.

I can get past it all (even #3 and that’s a hard pill to swallow ) for the simple fact that he is so darn cute:

And if you’ve seen the movie The Departed and tell me you don’t think he looked unbelievably hot in the prison exercising scene, then there must be something wrong with your eyes:

 But the most important reason that I have Leo secured at #3 on my list is because of the fact that he looks like he would be a great kisser.  Perhaps even better than Ryan (ssshhh, don’t tell Ryan that I said this).  And yes, I’ve given this plenty of thought.

Here is a video of Leo.  Watch only if you want to see lots of clips from that prison scene in The Departed and lots and lots of kissing. 

Enjoy:

Are you a Leo-Lover, Leo-Hater or just DiCaprio-Neutral?  Leave me a comment and let me know. 

1.  Trying to be “green” and waiting to put in the window air conditioner until it gets “hot enough” is just plain stupid. There are plenty of other ways to be help save the earth and waiting until it is 105 degrees to put in a window air conditioner is not one of them.

2.  Buying a house without central air was the worst decision we ever made.  Period.

3.  When your child refuses to go swimming, eat another piece of ice cream cake or says she is cold during a heat wave, you know she is sick. 

4.  On the same note, having your child come down with a 103 degree fever is much scarier in the middle of a heatwave than it is in the winter and you’ll lose hours of sleep trying to get her temperature back to normal. 

5.  But I discovered that these cooling strips really do work. 

6.   Eating too much trail mix (even if it seems healthy) because you are too hot and lazy to get up and make a real lunch will give you a terrible stomachache.

7.  No matter how much Coke Zero you drink, you will still feel thirsty. 

8.  I now know the true meaning of the phrase “hot as hell” and I wonder if Hell could actually be located in my house. 

9.  Global warming is real (at least this weekend and in my part of the world).  See we should have listened to Leo when we had the chance.

10.  Leo is never going to notice my efforts to try to be “green”, no matter how hard I try because he only dates swimsuit models.  For that reason, my air is on full blast and I plan to keep it that way. 

With the summer blockbuster season quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to make a list of the 13 movies that I’m most excited about that will be coming soon to theaters.   Unless I win the lottery, I probably wil only see one or two of them, but that is ok.  

My Most Anticipated Movies of 2008:

1.  Wanted–I’m really not much of an action movie lover, but then I saw the trailer (see pic below of James McAvoy) and guess what??!!  I’m there.  This may be worth the $10 a ticket and $20 snacks.   The only thing that may ruin it is watching him kissing all over Angelina.  But I’ll have to just put up with it.

2. Hancock–As many times as I’ve seen this trailer, I still crack up every time I see Will Smith throw that whale back in the ocean.  Having Jason Bateman in it doesn’t hurt either.  This should be FUNNY!

3. Sex and the City–I hope this one lives up to the hype.  It will be hard to match the greatness of the show, but I think it will be good.  They just better give Big and Carrie a happy ending. 

4.  The Accidental Husband–I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy.  With the leading men being Denny Duquette and Mr. Darcy, what’s not to love??

5.  The Happening–I’ve loved just about everything that M. Night Shyamalan has done (with the exception of the terrible Lady in the Water–that was unwatchable).  Summer isn’t the same without a disaster movie, so I’m really looking forward to this one!

6  Chronicles of Narnia-Prince Caspian–The first one was surprisingly good.  I say surprisingly because I don’t typically like the fantasy genre.  I hope the second one is just as great.   I will miss seeing Mr. Tumnus/James McAvoy  (I’d break my hobbit rule for him) though.                                Still Cute:

7.  Kung Fu Panda–My kids are really excited about this one and it does look kind of funny. 

8.  Revolutionary Road–Unless this one gets horrible reviews I’m there.  This is the closest I’m going to get to a sequel to Titanic.  I think Leo and Kate are very talented on their own, but I love them together!

9.  Eagle Eye–I’m putting this Shia film on my list instead of the Indiana Jones movie and I’m sure that sounds pretty insane.  I’m just not a huge fan of the other Indy movies or Harrison Ford, so I’m excited for this one more.  Shia is back working again with “Disturbia” director D.J. Caruso playing a young slacker whose twin brother has died mysteriously. Rachel (Monaghan) finds that her child is missing, and soon the two strangers realize that they have been framed as terrorists. Forced to become members of a cell that has plans to carry out a political assassination, they must work together to extricate themselves while being led by a mysterious voice.

10.  The Time Traveler’s Wife–This is the only movie on this list that I can say for sure that I will be seeing in the theater.  I really liked the book and am so curious how they are going to make it into a movie.  Plus, I’ll pretty much see anything Rachel McAdams makes.  Love her!!

11.  Zak and Miri Make a Porno–I hesitated putting this one on the list, but I’m guessing with Seth Rogan and Kevin Smith behind it that it should be amusing.  Plus, I’m curious to see how funny Jason Mewes (Jay of the Jay and Silent Bob movies) is now that he has supposedly cleaned up his act. 

12.  Curious Case Of Benjamin Buttons–This one is directed by David Fincher who did Zodiac (which I loved).  It stars Brad Pitt as a the title character.  He begins the story as an old man, then begins physically aging in reverse.  It’s based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Sounds intriguing.

13.   Mamma Mia–I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t seen the musical on stage yet.  But I hadn’t seen Chicago and I loved the movie.  Sometime I think it is better to see the movie first because I’m sure that seeing it on stage is always better, so it is probably a disappointment to see the movie afterward.  Kinda like reading the book and then seeing the movie.  This one looks really good.  (Two new Colin Firth movies–yay!!)  Here’s the trailer in case you haven’t seen it yet:

 So which movie (on my list or otherwise) are you most excited about?  Leave your answer in my comments section.

To see more of Thursday Thirteen, go here.

Too many carnivals, too little time.  So I thought I’d be real annoying efficient and put all 3 in one post.  So if you are here from “Make Me Laugh Monday” or ”Countdown to Earth Day” scroll down past the boring menu for a little Monday morning humor. 

I’ll start with my menu for the week (cause you know if I didn’t post that on here my family would go hungry for the week).

Monday–Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes, corn

Tuesday–Honey-Sesame Chicken Skewers, cous cous, peas

Wednesday–Hot Dogs and Beans (I know, yuck, but it has to be super easy because we have baseball practice and a school concert tonight; still not sure how we’re going to manage to be in two places at one time, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out)

Thursday–Shrimp Creole, Rice, Beans

Friday—-Cuban Sandwich,  Soup (some canned variety)

Saturday–Angel Chicken Pasta, Broccoli, Salad (This was on the menu last week but we never got to it, so here it is again.)

Sunday–Mom’s House

Ok, now that we got that over with, on to the good stuff…

 I consider myself to be mildly “green”.  I do a lot of the typical stuff–recycle, switched all bulbs to cfls, unplug my phone chargers when not in use, conserve gas by carpooling, yada, yada, yada.  I know that I could do better, but its a start.  My two main goals to do more are to purchase more produce from the farmer’s markets this summer and  start using canvas grocery bags.  I really do feel like every little bit counts and if we all make small changes, we can start to reverse the damage we’ve caused on the earth.

While we are on the subject of Earth Day,  I thought this video was a funny parody on Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth (which btw I didn’t love.  I thought I would but I didn’t.  So there, I admit it. Maybe I’ll enjoy watching The 11th Hour a little more because its narrator is a little easier on the eyes and cuteness is so very important when trying to get my attention.)

  So anyway,  I present to you:  An Inconvenient Youth  

Here’s where I give credit where credit is due:

For more menus visit:  Organizing Junkie

For more laughs visit:  Absolutely Bananas

For more earth day musings visit: Seattle Moms Blog