Reviews and More

Even though it’s only been a week since the primetime TV season ended, I’m already going through withdrawals. I need to have several shows queued up to watch otherwise I tend to go a bit crazy! Anyway, since I want to have enough material for this blog to carry me through the summer and into the fall season, I’m starting to watch some older shows on DVD. After some deliberation (and after watching the series finale a couple months ago), I decided to give The O.C. another try — this time from the very beginning.

I wrote before that I tried watching The O.C. a long time ago, but was turned off for a couple of reasons. First, I’m in my 30s and didn’t really want to watch a teen-focused series. I had spent 10 years watching Beverly Hills, 90210, so I wasn’t ready to wade through all that teen angst again. Second, I absolutely hated Benjamin McKenzie’s acting. I thought he was terribly wooden and one-dimensional as Ryan Atwood, and I didn’t think I could handle an entire series with him as the main character.

But I thought the finale was decent, and I want to see Seth and Summer’s relationship develop, so I decided to put my initial reactions aside and give The O.C. another try.

I watched the first three episodes on DVD and have mixed feelings about the results. On the one hand, it’s nice to see the series from the beginning. I missed the pilot, so I didn’t have Ryan’s backstory and didn’t really know why he was living with the Cohens. But now that I know what happened in 1×01, lots of other things just make more sense.

However, these first three episodes dealt mostly with the poor outsider trying to fit in in the rich kids’ neighborhood. There wasn’t anything fresh or original with Ryan’s storyline, so it felt like I’d seen that stuff a million times before.

I’m enjoying the Seth character right from the beginning — except for the fact that he’s been in love with Summer since sixth grade or whatever. Summer is one of those snobby girls that doesn’t have the time of day for “dorks” like Seth. In fact, when he talks to her for the first time, she gives him a dirty look and says something like, “Eww, who are you?” right to his face. And yet, his love for her continues.

Also, I hate it when these shows make it seem like kids don’t know each other. I’m sorry, but if you go to grade school with someone, you at least know who they freakin’ are!! You know their names even if you’re not friends with them!! Elementary school classes aren’t that big, so please don’t tell me it’s possible for kids to slide under the radar for that entire time. Plus, then you’ve got junior high and high school, and Seth has been living next door to Summer’s best friend ever since they were little. So I don’t buy it that Summer doesn’t even know his name!! (Yeah, that’s a total nitpick, but I had to get it out of my system.)

Anyway, I’m going to continue watching this show. Even if it’s dumb, I’ll at least have fun pointing out its flaws!

The summer movie season always means that viewers will get treated to a whole slew of big-budget films from the major Hollywood studios. Unfortunately, while these $100 million movies are heavy on special effects and star power, they’re usually pretty light on substance and meaning. Obviously a majority of moviegoers are interested only in being entertained, but some people are looking for a bit more. If you belong to this latter group, you should check out the Spiritual Cinema Circle.

The Spiritual Cinema Circle is an online film club that delivers four inspirational movies to members each month. The movies can be anything from shorts to documentaries to full-length features, and are all selected based on spiritual themes and quality. All four movies are compiled onto a single DVD, and you get to keep these monthly DVDs forever — which is a benefit that very few film clubs offer.

One of the club’s co-founders is producer Stephen Simon, a man who has been producing Hollywood movies for many decades. He helps choose the monthly films that go out to Spiritual Cinema Circle members, so you know the selections are made with a critical, experienced eye.

Overall, the Spiritual Cinema Circle sounds like a terrific way to encounter inspiring, uplifting movies that you probably wouldn’t otherwise be able to see. Visit the site and join today!

I am not a big fan of boxing movies in general, nor of Russell Crowe in particular, so it’s really no surprise that I didn’t get around to watching the 2005 film Cinderella Man until just last night. Besides the two characteristics I just listed, Cinderella Man was also directed by Ron Howard, had a running time of over 2 hours, 20 minutes, and takes place during the 1930s — all elements that seemed to point to a boring movie. However, it’s based on a true story, and that’s what finally got to me in the end.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Crowe stars as James J. Braddock, a professional boxer from New Jersey who was on the brink of making it big. But then a couple of untimely injuries coupled with the crippling effects of the Great Depression sent Braddock into poverty and relative obscurity. He found himself having to line up in the hopes of getting picked to work on the docks just to keep his wife Mae (played by Renee Zellweger) and three kids clothed, fed, and sheltered.

Braddock still fought whenever possible, but the opportunities were few and far between (and the payouts were nowhere near what he was used to). At one of these fights, Braddock does so poorly because of a broken hand that the referee hands out a ruling of “no contest.” I guess that’s a big deal in boxing circles because Braddock had his pro license revoked after that, which meant he wouldn’t have this extra source of income anymore. As a result, he ends up going on public assistance and begging for money to keep his family together.

The rest of the movie then dealt with Braddock’s efforts to get his license back, and his eventual climb to the heavyweight title bout against Max Baer. If you know anything about boxing, then you know that the outcome of this fight is one of the most talked-about in pugilistic lore.

My Reaction: I was extremely surprised at how much I liked Cinderella Man. I thought Russell Crowe was fantastic in this movie, and believe that he’s the one that really made the whole thing work. Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko, Paddy Considine, and Bruce McGill also turned in good performances, but Crowe carried them all. I don’t know anything about the real James J. Braddock, so I can’t tell you if Crowe depicts the fighter accurately or not. Nevertheless, he was wonderful here.

I felt that the movie did drag in a few places and could have been about 20 minutes shorter. Moreover, I would have preferred it if some of the boxing scenes weren’t quite so graphic. But I do understand that it’s a brutal sport and that’s what Ron Howard was trying to depict, so I’ll give him a pass on that.

Overall, I’m giving Cinderella Man 7.5 stars out of 10 and recommend that you give it a try if you haven’t done so already!

I was a business major in college, so of course I had to take a lot of finance and accounting classes. While I’ve forgotten a majority of the lessons I learned back then, one of the concepts that has stayed with me has to do with structured settlements such as annuities, lawsuit settlements, lottery winnings, and things of that nature. Basically, there are times when you’re better off taking your money in the form of a lump sum rather than in periodic payments. This has to do with interest rates and calculating future value, and can be a bit complex.

To me, there’s a much simpler way of determining whether periodic payments or a lump sum is better for your situation: do you need all the money now, or can you wait? Answering that question will get you started and then you can make your final decision after taking other factors into consideration.

So what happens if you’re already locked into periodic payments, but need a lump sum for an emergency? Well, I came across the web site of a company that could be very useful in this situation. It’s called StructuredSettlement-Quotes.com, and they can help you sell your structured settlements to the highest bidder. They work with a large network of financial companies to make sure you get the most competitive offers around, while leaving the actual decision up to you.

This sounds like a pretty good deal, so if you’re ready to get out of a structured settlement and receive a lump sum instead, check out StructuredSettlement-Quotes.com today!

I don’t watch too many comedies because most of them end up being light on plot and completely unfunny to boot. But Jack Black films are usually a good bet for me, so I decided to give Nacho Libre a try despite the terrible reviews the movie received. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a big mistake! Here’s what I thought of Black’s most recent effort.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Black stars as Ignacio, a monk in a monastery in Mexico. Ignacio’s main duty is to cook for the orphans at the monastery, but there’s never enough money to buy fresh ingredients. So Ignacio ends up serving green slop most of the time.

Ignacio often makes trips into town to tend to the sick or pick up some food, and on one of these trips he encounters Ramses (played by Cesar Gonzalez), a famous wrestler who enjoys the adoration of all the townspeople. Ignacio, who has watched wrestling since he was a child, also dreams of making it big in the ring so he can serve decent meals to the kids. But of course wrestling is against the monastic code.

Later on, however, one of the other monks treats Ignacio so badly that he decides to go out there and wrestle anyway. He creates a costume, calls himself Nacho, and recruits Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez) as his tag team partner. They start out small, but work their way up to bigger venues. All the while, Nacho uses the proceeds from his matches to buy better and better food for the orphans — and manages to keep his second job under wraps.

The rest of the movie then deals with Nacho and Esqueleto’s continued rise through the wrestling ranks, and the big showdown with Ramses. There’s also a subplot involving a nun who arrives at the monastery, Sister Encarnación, played by Ana de la Reguera, but not much happens there — as you might expect given that we’re talking about a monk and a nun!

My Reaction: I was pretty disappointed with Nacho Libre. As I mentioned above, Jack Black’s movies are usually great in terms of providing some solid laughs and at least a halfway decent storyline. But this one completely missed the mark. I barely even cracked a smile during this movie, and didn’t think any of the running jokes were remotely funny. Plus, Black’s “Mexican” accent was annoying and distracting, which just made the movie even more unbearable.

The writers didn’t even take the time to develop any of the supporting characters. The audience wasn’t given a single reason to believe that Ignacio would fall in love with Sister Encarnación — or that she would return the sentiment. That whole subplot just felt tacked on, and was a complete waste.

Overall, I give Nacho Libre 4.0 stars out of 10. There are plenty of other Jack Black movies to choose from, so there’s no reason to waste your time with this one.

Ever since I started working from home just over two years ago, I realized that I would have to pay very close attention to business-related purchases such as office supplies. I would obviously be using up more pens, paper, folders, ink cartridges, labels, and miscellaneous items (like paper clips, rubber bands and staples) than ever before. Even though I’d be able to write off these purchases at the end of the year and thus lower my tax liability, I still wanted to shop around for the lowest prices possible in order to limit my initial out-of-pocket expenses.

At first I thought my best option would be to purchase everything from those huge office supply superstores that are all over the place these days. But once I actually started comparing prices, I saw that those national chains couldn’t compete with online retailers. It seems that even smaller online stores can consistently offer better prices on the exact same products because of the extremely low overhead involved in selling from a website.

Now that I have a good idea of which websites feature the best prices on specific products, shopping for my office supplies is a breeze. I never buy from bricks and mortar stores anymore (unless it’s an emergency situation and I need something immediately), and am convinced that I’m paying some of the lowest costs around. The amount of money I’ve spend on office supplies has been steadily decreasing, so I must be doing something right!

Whenever I see an author rise to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List with every single new novel released, I feel compelled to read something from that writer to see what all the hype is about. Nicholas Sparks has enjoyed astounding success ever since the release of his 1996 debut The Notebook, so I’ve forced myself to try to read his books even though I don’t really go for the romance genre. I read The Notebook and didn’t like it, but figured I ought to read at least one more novel before writing Sparks off for good — which is why I spent the last two weeks with True Believer. Here’s what I thought of Sparks’s 2005 #1 hit.

Plot Summary (with possible spoilers): The main character in True Believer is a 37-year-old man named Jeremy Marsh. Marsh is a writer whose knack for explaining scientific phenomena in layman’s terms has earned him a regular column in Scientific American and whose good looks might land him a regular gig on television. Jeremy’s main talent lies in debunking various supernatural claims, such as proving that so-called psychics are actually just impostors. In this respect, I got the feeling that Jeremy was the “anti-Mulder”. Unlike everyone’s favorite FBI agent, Jeremy didn’t want to believe at all.

Coming off a successful appearance on Primetime Live, Jeremy needs one more big story in order for his agent to secure a TV spot for him, possibly on Good Morning, America or another high-profile show. As luck would have it, Jeremy receives a letter from someone in the small town of Boone Creek (North Carolina) who says that the local cemetery is haunted. Jeremy decides that this story might have merit, so he takes off to spend a week in Boone Creek investigating the mysterious lights that occasionally appear in the graveyard.

When he arrives in Boone Creek, he discovers that the place is everything that you’d imagine a stereotypical small town to be. The inhabitants have lived there their entire lives, they all know each other’s business, news travels fast, etc. Moreover, just like most small towns, Boone Creek is fighting for its very survival as industries close down and people move away to places with a stronger economy. The ghost story could be beneficial for the town, as it might attract tourist dollars — particularly if Jeremy tells the story on national television.

As a result, most of the people of Boone Creek treat Jeremy like a rock star. They stare at him, throw big parties in his honor, give him a key to the city, and generally roll out the red carpet for him in the hopes of making a good impression. The only person who doesn’t seem to be overly impressed by the big city writer is Lexie Darnell, the proprietress of the local library.

Of course Lexie is a beautiful, funny, intelligent woman who attracts Jeremy’s attention right away. They are frequently in each other’s company because Jeremy has to do research at the library, and soon he finds himself falling for Lexie. He wonders why she would choose to stay in a place like Boone Creek when she could be and do so much more, and she wonders why he can’t see the charm and satisfaction of living in a small town.

The rest of the novel then deals with this budding relationship and whether or not Jeremy and Lexie will get together when both of them know that Jeremy has to go back to New York in just a few days. Oh, and we also get the solution to the mystery of the lights, although that really takes a back seat to the romance plot.

My Reaction: Once again, I fail to see what all the fuss is about when it comes to Nicholas Sparks! I thought True Believer was a completely boring, utterly predictable novel that didn’t have a single surprising twist or turn at any point along the way. The whole cemetery lights mystery was pointless and there wasn’t any type of payoff at all. Hey, I can understand the concept of a Macguffin, but if that was Sparks’s intent all along, then he shouldn’t have focused on the mystery that much!

Moreover, the cookie-cutter characters exhibited no depth at all and weren’t consistent in the least. For example, Sparks alternately paints Jeremy as a bar-hopping womanizer who has the ability to get over his conquests quickly and as a traditional guy who wants nothing more than to be able to have children with the woman he loves. Lexie is all over the map as far as her characterization goes. First she doesn’t want anything to do with Jeremy because she’s been burned by these out-of-towners before. Then, she laments the fact that she’ll never find her “equal” in Boone Creek because the dating pool is too small? One minute, she’s content with dating Rodney. The next minute, she yearns for what Jeremy has to offer?

Oh, and did I mention that Jeremy falls in love with Lexie in the course of TWO DAYS??? Yeah, like anyone does that in this day and age?!

Overall, I thought True Believer was just boring, predictable, and not the least bit entertaining. I give it 4.0 stars out of 10, and advise you to give it a pass. This makes two strikes for Sparks. One more dud novel from him and I’m going to cross him off my list of readable authors forever!

I haven’t always been the most responsible person around when it comes to money, but in the last five years, I’ve made a concerted effort to change my ways and get my financial affairs in order. I’m happy to say that I’ve made excellent progress in that area: I’m now completely debt-free, except for my mortgage. Since I’m not looking forward to 24 more years of payments, I’ve been researching ways to help me pay off my mortgage more quickly.

During the course of my web search, I came across a new program that sounds very promising. It’s called the Money Merge Program, and has been receiving a good deal of media attention. The most prominent feature of the program is something called a Money Merge Account (MMA), a web-based program that uses precise mathematical calculations to help you determine when to pay additional principal on your mortgage, thereby reducing your overall interest payments for the duration of the loan.

The MMA analyzes your financial picture by considering your current checking and savings accounts in conjunction with a special Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). Because of the way the MMA performs its calculations, it’s unlikely that you’ll have to refinance or even modify your current spending habits.

As I said above, this sounds like a fantastic program, and I’m very much interested in seeing if it’s right for me. That’s why I’m planning on getting a free MMA analysis later on this week. If it turns out that I can pay off my mortgage in less than 15 years because of the MMA, then of course I’m going to sign up for it. I’m very excited about this and can’t wait to find out more!

I usually make it a point to see Oscar-winning films as soon as possible in order to determine for myself whether or not they’re worthy of all the buzz. I take particular notice of films that win (or are nominated) in the Best Picture and screenwriting categories because I’d take a good story over good performances or cinematography any day.

But when the Alexander Payne film Sideways won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about watching it. The previews made “Sideways” seem pretentious and overblown, with far too much dialogue and too little story, so I put it off until now. That was a mistake!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Paul Giamatti stars as Miles Raymond, a man whose life seems to be going nowhere. He’s an aspiring novelist who makes ends meet by teaching 8th grade English, and he’s been in a persistent funk since his divorce two years ago. The only thing that Miles enjoys doing anymore is attending wine-tastings. He’s something of an expert when it comes to wines and likes to showcase his knowledge to others, including his only friend Jack (played by Thomas Haden Church).

The basic setup of the film is this: Jack is getting married in a week, but before that, he and Miles are taking a trip through California’s wine country to indulge in various tastings, play golf, and generally enjoy Jack’s final days as a “free man.” Of course, to Jack, that also means hooking up with a random woman or two, just to get it out of his system. Miles doesn’t care about women; he only wants to drink, so this becomes a source of constant conflict throughout the movie.

Miles and Jack eventually do meet two women who are very interested in them. Maya (Virginia Madsen) is a waitress at one of the restaurants Miles and Jack frequent, and she’s been attracted to Miles for quite some time. Unfortunately, he’s too self-absorbed and depressed to notice until Jack tells him. Stephanie (Sandra Oh) is a pour girl at a winery, and she hooks up with Jack. Stephanie and Maya are friends, so it seems like everything should work out well.

Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a movie if everything worked out perfectly, so you can bet that Miles and Jack get themselves into trouble along the way. The rest of the film then deals with the paths these relationships take and with the changes the characters undergo.

My Reaction: I was pleasantly surprised by Sideways. Even though I didn’t understand or care about the wine-tasting parts, I found the characters and their predicatments compelling enough to stick around for the ride. I was particularly interested in the relationship between Miles and Maya, and have to say that I liked the way Miles came around very slowly. He didn’t do anything out of character throughout the entire film, and I felt his arc to be genuine.

I could have done without the fat guy’s full-frontal nudity scene and without Stephanie bashing the hell out of Jack’s face with her motorcycle helmet, but whatever. I certainly wouldn’t tell someone to steer clear of the movie just because of those scenes.

Overall, I thought Sideways was a good film and I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I give it 7.5 stars out of 10 and recommend that you see it if you haven’t already!

My husband and a group of his friends are very involved in motocross. In fact, they’ve formed their own “team” and compete in amateur and professional races across the country. Although they obviously don’t have a big budget, they still make a pretty good impression because of the custom t-shirts, hats, and stickers that they’ve had printed up for all team members.

Recently, I’ve heard my husband mention that they’re interested in doing even more in terms of promoting the team. For example, they’ve been talking about investing in a full line of custom apparel to sell through the team website and at race events. If they can find a store with low enough prices on custom screen-printing, then they could actually make some decent money from merchandise sales.

I think the team’s idea has merit, so I’m going to help them try to find the best deals. I’m sure an online store will be much cheaper to work with than a bricks and mortar one, so I’ll have my husband take a look at CustomInk.com. They’ve got great low prices from what I’ve seen, plus their required minimum quantity is just six pieces and they’ve got tons of different products to choose from. I can’t wait to see what kind of custom merchandise the team comes up with!

Like most fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, I was very excited about seeing the third installment of Jack Sparrow’s adventures with fellow swashbucklers Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, and Captain Barbossa. I waited in line for more than 30 minutes on Thursday night to get my tickets for a Friday morning showing, and just hoped the film would live up to its hype — and to the previous two efforts from director Gore Verbinski. Unfortunately, I found At World’s End to be a huge disappointment. Here’s why.

Plot Summary (with possible spoilers): After an opening scene showing accused pirates getting hanged en masse in England, we jump to what looks to be an underground locale and catch Elizabeth (played by Keira Knightley) and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) on their way to a meeting with Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat). Elizabeth and Barbossa are after a couple of things: First, they need a ship and a crew; and second, they need a special navigational chart that will lead them to Davy Jones’s Locker so that they can rescue Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).

That’s pretty much all I understood about the plot for At World’s End (seriously), because after that, there are so many tangents, digressions, and murky character motivations that I could barely keep up with what was going on or why. For example, Will and Jack switched allegiance between the Brits, the pirates, and the Singaporeans several times, but I could never figure out what they were trying to gain (yes, Will wanted to free his father and Jack wanted the Black Pearl back, but was that it??).

While all this is going on, the pirates are being relentlessly pursued by Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), who wants to eradicate piracy to clear the seas for the British East India company. He variously strikes deals with Jack, Will, and Davy Jones, but doesn’t hold up his end of any of these bargains, which leaves him in a… tight spot in the final battle scene.

One other story element that I want to touch on here is the relationship between Will and Elizabeth. I have never been a fan of these two being together because of the total lack of chemistry between the actors. In At World’s End, they spend most of the time being mad at each other not speaking, but then they suddenly get married. Of course, they can only enjoy their newlywed status for a single day because Davy Jones manged to STAB Will.

Will would have died, except that a quick-thinking Jack Sparrow helped him drive a dagger through Davy Jones’s heart. This gave Will a shot at immortality. He had his heart removed and locked in a chest the same way Davy’s was, and now Will has must be the captain of the Flying Dutchman and ferry souls to the afterworld. In addition, he can only spend one day ashore for every 10 years at sea, so that’s why he and Elizabeth had just the one day together.

My Reaction: Wow, it was hard to try to get a plot summary up there because the film was really all over the place in terms of what it dealt with. I think this is one of the biggest reasons I didn’t like it — it was just impossible for me to follow the story with any degree of comprehension.

Furthermore, I thought many of the scenes were plain tedious and boring. For example, I didn’t like the first scenes we got of Jack in the desert. His hallucinations went on far too long and weren’t funny after the first minute or so. And I don’t know why the climactic battle scene had to take place in typhoon-like conditions. That made it hard to follow the action and keep track of what was going on — plus, it dragged on and on and on. I love action scenes as much as the next person, but that one was way overdone!

The characters weren’t very interesting either. Orlando Bloom was blah as usual, and I hated the fact that he and Elizabeth got married. There was no buildup to that moment (in this movie, anyway), so I didn’t care at all about them being together. At least he’s the captain of the Dutchman now… hopefully we won’t have to see much of him in Pirates 4 (I’m choosing to disregard the green flash at the end of the credits)!

The new characters? Meh. What purpose did Captain Feng serve, really? And much was made about Keith Richards and his small role as Jack’s father, but I didn’t think his scenes were all that great.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End, and give it just 5.5 stars out of 10. (I took a half-star off for the movie’s 2 hour, 40-minute running time.) This film is definitely not in the same league as its two predecessors.

Even though my home is only six years old, it looks and feels like we’ve been living here at least twice as long as that. We’ve experienced more wear-and-tear than usual — primarily because we have a very active toddler and two boisterous dogs in the house with us. Between my son zooming around on his push cars and my dogs chasing their toys all over the place, our hardwood flooring has taken a beating. Since my husband and I are committed to making home improvements this year, getting new flooring is near the top of our list.

Towards that end, I’ve been checking out flooring off and on over the past couple of months, and have been bookmarking websites that carry products I like. For example, I just found the DiscountFlooring.com site today, and was impressed by the sheer quantity of flooring options available for purchase. They offer hardwood, laminate, cork, bamboo, ceramic, stone, vinyl, rubber, glass, and even steel flooring. I’ve never seen that many choices on a single site!

In addition, the DiscountFlooring.com contains many informative articles about different flooring types. These articles cover everything from installation to maintenance and repairs, and provided a great deal of insight that will help me make a final choice.

Right now, I think laminate flooring would be our best bet. Some of the styles look really good, and the low prices are pretty attractive as well. Hopefully this type of flooring will be able to stand up to my son and my dogs. We’ll have to wait and see!

At the risk of sounding morbid, I actually like watching movies that feature death as a major theme. I’m not talking about slasher flicks or anything like that; I mean movies where the main character or characters know they’re going to die. It’s just interesting to see how different people react to impending death in different ways. So when I heard the premise of the 2003 Isabel Coixet film My Life Without Me, I knew I had to watch it.

Plot Summary (with possible spoilers): Sarah Polley stars as Ann, a 23-year-old who has a life more befitting someone 10 years her senior. She’s been married since she was 17, and already has two children. Ann also finds out that she has ovarian cancer that has already metastasized and is spreading throughout her body. Her doctor tells her she only has a few months to live.

Given that information, Ann reacts with more calm and resignation than I’ve ever seen. Instead of going through the classic stages of grief, beginning with denial and anger, Ann simply accepts what she’s told and goes about creating a list of 10 things to do before she dies.

She then spends the rest of her days trying to accomplish the various tasks on her list, which includes such things as finding a new wife for Don (her husband, played by Scott Speedman), making love to someone else (that would be Lee, played by Mark Ruffalo), making someone fall in love with her (Lee again), and making tapes for her girls to listen to on each birthday until they turn 18.

At no point does Ann tell anyone else that she’s dying. She just quietly goes about her life as usual and, although her death takes place offscreen, viewers are left to assume that she dies just as quietly.

My Reaction: I have to say that I did NOT like this movie at all, mostly because it just didn’t seem realistic on ANY level. Why would Ann not want to tell anyone that she was dying? The rationalization the character gives in the film is that she didn’t want her to spend her last few months in the hospital and didn’t want her girls to have those kinds of memories of her.

But I don’t buy it. Why would anyone want to deprive their loved ones of the chance to say goodbye? I know if I were dying, I’d want to spend every minute possible with my husband and son. Ann, however, thought it was a good idea to leave her kids with a babysitter so she could go screw around with some random stranger she picked up at a laundromat. WTH was that all about? And did Don really deserve to be treated that way? He seemed like a totally nice guy who loved Ann and their kids. Way to repay that kindness by wanting to sleep around, Ann!

And I just hated the fact that a potential new wife candidate — also named Ann — just happened to move next door before main Ann died. Well that was pretty damn convenient, wasn’t it? Plus, new Ann hit it off with Don and loved the girls, too…. uh huh.

I guess it’s possible that someone out there would react to impending death the same way Ann did, but I don’t think this particular approach worked in My Life Without Me. The whole thing felt incredibly false and contrived. As a result, I’m giving the movie 4.0 stars out of 10 and advise you to just skip it.

After holding out for as long as we could, my husband and I decided to buy a large-screen LCD television last Christmas. We went with one of the more expensive models in the hopes that the unit would last a long time, and the purchase set us back several thousand dollars. That’s a major investment for us, so we want to do everything in our power to maintain our new TV properly to ensure that it delivers top-quality performance for years to come.

Of course, the biggest threats to the useful life of a flat-panel television are things like screen burn, stuck pixels, and poor picture quality. That’s why I think PixelProtector would be an essential part of any maintenance routine. PixelProtector is a DVD-based screen diagnostic and calibration tool that can help correct these common problems. It works on all types of LCD, plasma, and rear projection televisions, thereby restoring performance to optimum levels.

I’ve seen some before and after screenshots of what PixelProtector can do, and it seems like a highly effective product. Plus, it’s inexpensive, so there’s really no excuse not to try it.

It doesn’t make sense to spend a ton of money on an expensive TV and then skimp on the maintenance aspect. I want to enjoy watching my favorite movies and programs with a perfect picture, so PixelProtector is definitely a product I need to have on hand!

I haven’t been watching Lost this year, so I have no idea what’s going on with the Castaways and the Others on the island. However, many people have been buzzing about the season finale already, with some people calling it the best episode in the last two years and others calling it utter crap.

I did NOT see it, but I do have some spoilers here. Don’t read any further if you don’t want to know!

Apparently, there’s a huge showdown between the Castaways and the Others, with Jack finally beating the hell out of Ben. Also, Charlie dies, although I don’t know if that was as a direct result of the fracas or not.

At any rate, the biggest topic of discussion was the segment that looked like an ordinary flashback showing Jack as an alcoholic and drug addict. But then he meets up with Kate and tells her that they were never meant to leave the island and have to go back — meaning that this was actually a flashforward!!

I barely understood the freakin’ plot when I watched the show every single week. There’s no way I can make sense of this stuff now!

If you want to read a good discussion thread, check out the Lost forums on TWOP.

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My husband is one of those guys who buys assembles his wardrobe based on durability and functionality over everything else. He is always on the go, always tinkering with something out in the yard or the garage, so he prefers to wear rugged work clothes even on the weekends. In fact, his closet is filled with Dickies and Carhartt clothing because those are two brands with longstanding reputations as the most durable threads around.

The best thing about Carhartt is that they offer a full line of clothing that is suitable for practically any occasion. For example, they have coveralls, bibs, and dungarees that are perfect for anyone that works in a rough-and-tumble environment. Plus, Carhartt also features a wide selection of casual clothes like collared shirts, t-shirts, jeans, shorts, and sweatshirts that are great for everyday use.

I’m glad my husband has found a couple of clothing brands that fit well, look good, and last a long time because it makes shopping for him a breeze. And thank goodness for online stores like SuperCasuals.com. They sell Dickies, Carhartt, and a bunch of other name brands for much less than bricks and mortar stores, so we’re going to have to start making our purchases there from now on!

My son has been sick the last couple days, so he’s been staying home from school. In order to keep him somewhat entertained, I allowed him to choose a movie for us to watch together. He selected Spy Kids, the 2001 Robert Rodriguez film starring Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino. Here’s what I thought of the movie (from an adult’s perspective).

Plot Summary: Banderas and Gugino play Georgio and Ingrid Cortez, a couple of former spies who decided to give up their lives of intrigue when they got married so they could settle down and have children. They end up being typical suburban parents (at least on the surface) who drive minivans, send their kids Carmen (played by Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) private school, and worry about common day-to-day issues.

Of course, they’re really still “consultants” for their former espionage organization — but that simply isn’t thrilling enough for them. They want to get back and see some real action for a change. Georgio and Ingrid get their chance when they are informed that several of their fellow agents have been reported missing. The agents are believed to have been kidnapped by Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming), the host of a children’s television show. Floop, along with his minion Minion (Tony Shalhoub) isn’t as innocent as he looks: he’s actually involved in a plot to send an army of robotic child clones out to take over the world.

This is enough of a hook to pull Georgio and Ingrid back into action. They call in Uncle Felix (Cheech Marin) to babysit for a while, and then they set off on their adventure. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for them to get caught by Floop and his men.

Simultaneously, Floop’s Thumb-Thumbs attack the Cortez residence. Uncle Felix has time to send the kids off to the safe house while he stays behind to try to fend off the intruders. Once in the safe house, Carmen and Juni start to piece together their parents’ history. They figure out the whole spy thing and realize that it’s up to them to rescue Mom and Dad. They readily assume the role of spies themselves and set off to fight Floop and save the world.

My Reaction: I was pleasantly surprised by Spy Kids. I know director Robert Rodriguez has quite a resumé of great films, but I didn’t think he could pull off a kids movie — and make it pretty enjoyable for adults as well. I liked the fact that the filmmakers chose to make the whole thing wild and creative. I don’t think Spy Kids would have been half as good if they had taken themselves too seriously.

The plot was too complex for my 4-year-old to follow, and he wasn’t very interested in the visual effects, so he didn’t like this movie at all. Of course, it wasn’t intended for kids this young, so I’m not factoring this into my final score; I just wanted to include the info here for parents to take into consideration. At least it was only 80 minutes long, so your kids won’t have to sit through a marathon.

Overall, I give Spy Kids 7 stars out of 10. It’s a film that older children and adults can enjoy together, so check it out for your next family movie night!

I’ve been to Europe three different times. While I enjoyed the sightseeing I was able to do on each of those trips, my overall experiences were marred because of the hotels I stayed at. The hotel in Paris was far too expensive for my budget, which meant I had to cut back in other areas (such as dining and shopping). The hotel in London was so far away from all the tourist attractions that I couldn’t use it as a central base. And the hotel in Rome was just… dingy.

Well, the next time I go to Europe (I know there will be a next time), I’m going to use Eurobookings.com to find my accommodations. At Eurobookings.com, travelers can sort through potential hotels based on a number of different criteria, such as proximity to landmarks or airports, price, popularity, and user reviews. In addition, when you use Eurobookings.com, you don’t actually have to pay for your rooms up front like you do at other travel sites. Instead, you just pay when you check out.

The Eurobookings.com site has lots of other information that travelers would be interested in, including a section on top hotel tips and a very detailed hotel guide.

That’s definitely a lot more useful info than I’ve gotten from other travel sites, so you better believe I’ll be using Eurobookings.com in the future!

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 “At World’s End” begins this Friday, May 25th and I already have my ticket! I really like this whole franchise and can’t wait to see the latest installment. I’ve got the trailer right here in case you’ve somehow missed other promos for this film.

It looks like Keira Knightley’s character will have a much larger role in part 3 than she did in part 2. That’s a good thing, as she’s one of my favorite actresses. Too bad the whole romance with Will Turner angle is still in there. She has far more chemistry with Captain Jack, IMO!

Anyway, I hope this movie is just as good as the previous two. I’m so excited about Friday morning!! (Yes, I’m going to a morning show with one of my girlfriends while our kids our in school.)