The Abbott's

Sitting here watching Young and the Restless, I'm reminded of just how long I have watched this show. I remember crazy things that the casual observer or new show watcher wouldn't remember. Then there is even more that I've been told by my mother who's been watching since the very beginning.

First - let's talk about the first family of Genoa City - The Abbott's.

The Abbott's come from old money and have been an institution in the town since the beginning. John Abbott - who has passed away but still comes on periodically as a conscience for Jack - his eldest son. John had four children in total. Including Jack - there is Ashley, Traci and Billy (William or Liam). The family is founders to the Jabot Cosmetics Company.

*************Let's focus on the kids first*********

Jack is the blond jokester. Has a nickname for everyone and a passion for trying to destroy Victor. More about Victor later. Jack has been married several times in my memory. Jack married Nikki Newman and helped raise Victor and Nikki's children. Jack was married to Dianne before she skipped town. Then Jack was married to Phyllis. They made a good pair in that Phyllis is so fiesty, but they split when Phyllis hooked up with Nick Newman. Nick was married to Sharon at the time. When they split, it pushed Sharon and Jack together. Funny that he helped raise Nick when he was little and now he's helping raise Nick's son! The joys of fast forwarding time on soaps! As for Jack and Sharon, I've never liked them as a couple and am glad to see that they are in the process of getting a divorce.

The baby of the family is Traci. She hasn't been on the show very much but has recently come back more often. I love Traci. The same actress has played her since they were teenagers. She's always been a little overweight and has lived under the shadow of her older siblings - Jack and Ashley(more about her later). When Traci was a teen she set her eyes on some eye candy - her pool boy Brad Carleton. Brad was working to get his way through school and Traci fell for him right away. They ended up getting married and having a daughter together. Colleen wasn't advanced age as quickly as some other kids on the show, but she was still there. Of course things didn't work out as realized when Brad fell for her older sister. It wasn't until years later that Tracy found a really good man and they moved to New York to raise Colleen. She would come back from time to time, but I've been really happy to see her on the show lately.

Onto the second child - Ashley. Another blonde, she's always been gorgeous and smart. She's been coveted by many a Genoa City man. As mentioned, her first marriage was to her sister's husband. She stole his heart with a flick of her long blonde hair. She's since married him a couple times. She's also married Victor Newman a few times too. There was also a short marriage to a photographer Blade, and then a novelist Cole Howard. She's been married probably as many times as Victor. She's not perfect, but she's got great story lines!

Billy - well he's too young to be married yet. But he does have an interesting twisted story going on right now with his half brother Cane. Billy hooked up with "Chloe" - who is the daughter of his mother's maid... or what was once a maid before coming into millions recently. Chloe got pregnant. Watching the show we are pretty much 99% certain that it's Billy's. But she went and manipulated things to get Cane to marry her. Cane thinks the baby is his, Billy knows that it's not and thus the twisted story. Billy is now dating Lily Winters, who once was the fiancee of Cane. I told you it's twisted. Hard to believe he's only been back on the show for a few months. Oh and there was that time when he almost married Mackenzie. She turned out to be his neice and that was really weird. Wonder when she'll come back on the show??

**********Onto the grandkids***********

Jack went to Asia sometime during a war I think and had a son. His son's name is Keemo and is gorgeous but didn't last long. He was the assistant to Ashley's photographer husband Blade, until Blade was suddenly killed or died of natural causes. It's kind of fuzzy to me as he was there one day, gone the next and Ashley disappeared shortly there after. Keemo also left and we haven't heard his name spoken again.

Jack ended up fathering a child with Dianne named Kyle. Originally thought to be Victor's, when Jack found out it was his - he wanted custody, but Dianne won and disappeared. I figure Kyle will be super aged any time and will come back as a strapping young teenager - which oddly enough, would put him at his rightful age.

Jack has had a few step children. Nick and Victoria Newman, Daniel Romalotti and Noah Newman.

Ashley has also been the stepmother to Nick and Victoria, even though they are all considered around the same age now.

Ashley had difficulties having children, and only has one daughter - Abby. Abby was born via Ashley stealing Victor's sperm while he was married to Hope. Abby was actually raised to be the correct age and is now a teenager. She's spoiled rotten. Her first father was Brad Carleton during one of his marriages to Ashley. But when she was around 4, Victor found out that she was his and has decided now that she's back in town and a teenager, he's going to spoil her rotten. She's now gotten a million dollar horse and anything her little heart desires. I can tell that she and I will not get along by how materialistic she is.

Colleen is the daughter of Brad and Traci. She came back as a teenager a few years ago. She's had some good relationships, some bad relationships. She's proving to be a secondary character on the show - much like her mother. She's a friend to many and I keep waiting for her to have a really juicy storyline - akin to what she had when she was a teen. The premise right now is that she's waiting tables while she works her way through college.

With mentioning all the kids - I didn't really talk about the other aspects of the Abbots.

**********What about John?**********

When I was a kid he was married to: Dina and had Jack, Ashley and Traci.
Then he married Jill and she became and Abbott. She's a fiesty one too - and that's who he had Billy with. She's had a very strong connection to Jabot and always loved John. They married twice.

John had two interracial relationships - Mamie, the longterm housekeeper and Ellen Winters. He also briefly dated Gina Romalotti and Katherine Chancellor.

But his most recent marriage was the craziest of all. He fell in love with Gloria. Gloria has proven to be a very strong character on the show and has had many relationships as well. Through Gloria - John had two step children - Michael Baldwin and Kevin Fisher. They have since had many a crazy adventure involving not only John's house and estate but the company he loved.

I'm sure this is just touching the tip of the iceberg, but I know from my lifetime of growing with Young and the Restless, that knowing the background can truly help you enjoy the show.

Ouch!

That's it folks. I think I'm finally losing it.

Twice this past week I have stubbed my toes on assorted objects.

First happened on Sunday when my poor baby toe was clocked off the side of a chest that was for some reason in the middle of the floor. I hobbled around, asked for an amputation, in which James insisted I sleep off before making a big decision such as that. Sure enough - I woke up Monday morning without any pain and it was good that the baby toe that has a slight bend and a very small toe nail was still on my foot.

The second major toe stubbing happened a few hours ago and was followed by many tears, whimpering, ice, and me trying to get it to move, only to cry and whimper more. James was good with me - even though he saw me do it and could've predicted it would happen a second before I did it. Wish he had told me about that - but at least he brought me the ice and helped me limp back over to the couch.

Either I'm losing my eyesight, or our apartment is so full of crap that is in the process of getting packed, getting sorted or is packed - that I have no where to go but to walk my big clod hoppers into things. As I got glasses a few months ago, it could be my eyes, but I'm probably going to lean towards the fact that I'm not used to having all this crap just lying about in my way.

The stupidest part about today's whacking, was that I actually walked into the bottom of the stairs. As many of you know, we're living in a basement apartment at my parents until we move into our new house in March. The apartment has white walls and white ceilings. It's very stark. To top it off, all of our overhead lighting is flourescent which can be very hard on the eyes. To remedy this, we've got several table lamps that cast a softer glow. Both times I was walking, this was the only light I had.

The side of the stairs and the walls are white, so the corner of my eye wasn't really noticing the fact that they had somehow moved the stairs directly onto my path to the kitchen. Of course James doesn't believe the stairs really moved. He thinks that I altered my regular path due to a pile of shoes that I had placed near the bottom of the stairs in my effort to sort things I want and don't want. As those shoes were moved while I was busy cursing and crying in the other room, I can't really say for sure. There's no way I'd blame those sexy boots that used to go dancing with me back in my heyday. They must've moved the stairs.

Either way - here it is almost three hours later and my toes are throbbing. The last three toes were affected by the altercation - and yes, this includes my slightly crocked baby toe with the very tiny toe nail. As the last two toes are always crooked, I can't quite tell if I broke them yet - but they sure do hurt.

All I keep thinking is how incredibly lucky I am to have hit my right foot and not my left.

During Labour Day 2008, my mothers family had their annual family reunion and horseshoe tournament. Lucky me was in charge of the event and I also got to play. I'm competitive, and have won the tournament before, much to the chagrin of my brother who held the title for three years previously. Anyhow, this year I was focused on playing and watching my partner and competitor throw their shoes. All of a sudden one was coming right at me. I lifted one leg to get out of the way, but the other wasn't that fortunate. My big toe on my left foot was clocked right good by a heavy iron horseshoe. Almost immediately the toenail was filled with blood. (Gross I know but it's my story and I'm going to share it.) The blood turned black and my toe was very very sore. I did some research, which stated that sometimes poking a hole in the nail allows for the pressure to escape. As I contemplated this, many other sources said that within a few weeks or a month the nail will fall off and just regrow. Of course there are others that said that I should see a doctor immediately. I opted to do nothing.

About two months later, nothing was going on. The toe was black, still occasionally tender if hit against anything and I really wanted it to go away. James suggested painting the toenail. Well wouldn't you know it - the paint didn't work! Now I had all red toenails and one black/red nail. Disappointed I accepted my fate. I was going to have a black toenail forever.

Here it is 6 months later and the toe is still there and still black. It has shown a bit of promise, in that the quick has grown a little longer and the blackness is moving every so slowly to the end of the toe. But it's still really gross to look at.

Maybe I should just start over and get new feet. Do you think they still do feet amputations?

Cheers to chicks and cakes!

I had a really wonderful afternoon with my oldest and dearest best friend. We were talking this week about cakes, as we have done periodically for the past, oh, four years or so! This talk led to us agreeing to go out today to look into potential cake decorating classes. Both of us have been looking at potentially doing this for years and it was so awesome to go out and meet with someone who has some serious talent.

We stopped by Klara Johnson's in downtown Galt. (For those of you out of town, that's an area of Cambridge, Ontario.) She was really nice and helpful, explained what was taught in the class in a nutshell and showed us some samples of what we'd be learning. The course seems really in depth. Problem is - it'd be running right on the day that I'd be moving into my new house! I don't think it'd look good if I suddenly disappeared in the middle of the move to go decorate imaginary cakes that aren't even real cakes yet!

Our next stop will be going to The Cake Box. As many of you know, the Cake Box designed the awesome wedding cake for our wedding. She works a lot in fondant, and that truly is what I'm interested in working with. I believe Devon is the same way as it seems to be a much more fun, pliable option for us to create crazy cakes. They have different class options - including a private session if you can get up to five people together to work on anything you want. To me this sounds great as we can learn all about what we WANT to learn, and gear it more to us rather than to a set course design that might cover all the different styles of icing and piping.

How this whole thing got insane for me is watching the Food Network. They have two really amazing shows that I seem to like watching any chance I can. Ace of Cakes is where I started. They create these crazy insane cakes in any style that you want. The most recent shows I watched had a huge phone booth for the movie premiere of Get Smart and then they also made a light house for a naval school. What was so amusing is that both of them had an electronic element. I know that I'm light years from using electricity and flashing lights and smoke machines, but the fondant seems pretty easy to work with and sculpt anyway you want.

The other show on the Food Network - is the Food Network Challenge. These challenges are AMAZING. 8 hours to create some sort of cake or dessert type thing. Usually they have a theme and sometimes there is a secret theme where they don't know what to expect until they get there. I've seen baby shower cakes, city scapes, wedding cakes, sweet sixteen cakes and a crazy Christmas tree made with edible ornaments, tree toppers and garlands.

I watch them work and it seems that in no time they sketch things out and then make them take shape. All it takes is a really good cake base. Of course that's something I need to work on. I tend to follow recipes and most cakes I've made are out of a box or from a family recipe. Not very great bases I think for the cakes I have in mind!

I'm not even sure if we're going to take a decorating class or if we are just going to go and start practicing on our own. It isn't that we want to be professionals, we'd just like to do birthday cakes that are really creative, and cakes for parties and such. It's a skill that will come in handy as her kids grow and mine are born and start to also grow. Kristina, my other best friend, might also join in our crazy cake concoctions.

I think it will be very fun to see how this cake chaos ends up!

P.S. I love you

I was a big blubbering crying baby this morning. I got up early with a bit of a headache - usually leads to a bad day. I left bed and went to the living room to try and relax... okay I was trying to pack a couple boxes (got two more done - yay!) As I was packing, I turned on a movie that I had wanted to see that was being shown on our satellite. (Have I told you that I'm going to miss satellite when we move.)

The movie: P.S. I Love You
Starring: Hilary Swank

I missed probably about 15 minutes of the start of the movie, but feel that I came during a very integral part as I was immediately swept into the story.

Here's the gist of the story, Hilary's husband dies of a brain tumor. He was 35, she was 29. they lived in New York. The remainder of the story is how through letters he had planned helped her come back from the brink and find herself again.

All throughout the story I was crying. I cried through the sad moments, I cried through the happy ones. I cried when one of his letters told her to buy a lamp and I cried when she sang a really bad karaoke song. I wasn't really sad, but I couldn't stop the tears. It touched me. Moved me. I really felt her pain and the heartache of trying to move on when a big piece of you was missing.

It's a people story, the kind that I love to watch and hate forcing James to sit through. But it made me think of James. Made me think of what life would be like without him and if I could truly go on. I also wondered if I would do the same with him had I found a brain tumor. I thought I might want to. Give him a hand in moving on. But then I worried, what if he moved on before my last letter was sent? What if he found another woman to love, and she resented the letters that I sent. Felt I was the other woman, rather than his wife.

I love my husband. The thought of him with any other woman freaks me out, but yet I know that if I passed I'd want him to still be happy. I'd want him to live on and learn to live without me. My husband is caring and loving and just a wonderful human being. I think that movie helped me see that I need to love the moments now.

Anyhow - enough about me. See the movie. Go by yourself or with someone that you trust - because believe me - you'll cry too.

Happily though, my headache is gone...

To have the Olympics or not?

Getting away from the whole house buying process for a post - let's talk about something near and dear to my heart - the Beer Olympics.

As many of you know, last year I spent the better part of four months planning a grand event called the Beer Olympics. I formed a committee to help me organize and tried to keep the Olympians out of the loop. After all - I didn't want anyone practicing before hand. We wanted it to be a surprise and no team deserved an unfair advantage. (Of course Team Canada with it's five strong power drinkers did have a slight advantage but that goes to the fact that the teams were unfairly divided.) My committee was called the BOC or the Beer Olympic Committee. We would email and chat nearly every day for weeks talking about who was doing what and how we what events we were going to have. They were integral in helping me get the event going and it was great to have them as sounding boards.

When the day came and the sun started to come out, everyone was in good spirits and ready for a challenge. Just looking at the pictures, you could tell that everyone was having a blast and everyone was pleasantly surprised by how smooth everything went. Sure there were some minor glitches - such as the barbecue being too far away from the action so our official barbecue master had to miss out on lots of stuff and some of the games were too short and some too long. But the games were awesome. Everyone that I talked to that day said they would definitely be back for the next games and all were very excited to compete again.

However, before the event I received a lot of flack from people for the following reasons:

• I was unwilling to change the date of the event and some great people would be away and missed it - even though the date worked for most people as it was before most summer vacations would begin and before the gorgeously pregnant BOCVP would be too uncomfortable to move
  
• I was charging too much money for a full day of alcohol, barbecue dinner and events and entertainment - yes folks I was asking for $15 (Hilarious considering that I probably forked out a few hundred of my own cash to make the party a huge success)
• The event was called the Beer Olympics and some people don't like beer and would prefer to drink vodka, whisky or rum - why couldn't it be the drinking olympics?
  
• Those not drinking beer thought it wasn't fair that they had to pay in full for the event - they felt that we should've supplied alternative alcohol to drink(again - insert the few hundred dollars I had to pay extra for them to still have the time of their lives)
  
• Many people were scared off by the prospect of being forced to chug beer over and over again

I kept up with the event despite not breaking even because lets face it - the Beer Olympics were the best party that I've ever thrown! Sure we had an entire team back out with three days to spare, sure we had people say they were coming and then not show up - sure we had more beer than we knew what to do with - and ended up with an entire kegs worth of beer left over at the end of everything. But I've never laughed so hard, felt so proud and enjoyed myself more.

Here it is a new year and some people have expressed interest in participating in another games. I'd gladly work on them but there are so many other things going this year. We are moving, and with the mortgage and everything, I cannot afford to foot the entire bill with hopes that it will get paid back. Also, by moving I have to pack and get our old house ready just to move and unpack. Who knows how long unpacking and settling in will take. I won't have as much time to devote to the Games as I did last year. Our new house doesn't have the same amount of land as Mount Clyde does - and even though mom and dad would probably let us back in, that's a lot to ask. And as our apartment here is already rented out once we move, we don't have a bathroom that would be devoted to the competitors. This means renting a portapotty - which again = more money.

There are potentially two other possible locations that could host the Olympics - but looking at both would mean a lot more people - namely people that I don't know. I wouldn't be in as much control as I was last year and somehow that scares me a little. Last year, I knew who was invited and I knew the teams. And sure there were some random people that said they were coming, I was cool with that as the people that I did know vouched for them. As it turned out - only Mike, the crazy Brit on team UAE, was the only person I hadn't met before. He was awesome too!

What if we go to an alternate venue and things get out of hand and people start taking over? I don't like losing control and that's why I avoid roller coasters if possible. Who's to say I wouldn't have one if I hosted the Olympics at someone elses house? Also at someone elses house I'd be incredibly worried about things getting damaged or things going awry.

The other potential venues are also on complete ends of the spectrum as far as our friends go. One is in Paris - which is about a half hour away from the people in Cambridge. We make the trek all the time, but the people from Guelph probably wouldn't. They'd have an hour to go. The other venue is in Guelph - which probably means the people from Paris are out. Who's going to want to drive an hour to go to something and drink - and have to find a designated driver to take you home?

More and more I keep thinking that the Olympics should probably be postponed this year. Very good friends of mine are either having babies or will be breastfeeding. Some are getting married too and are focused on that. I can't ask them to come to an event where there will be lots of alcohol in a strange town.

I think the best idea, unless someone steps up with a better one, is to just have a housewarming party for me and James where there just happens to be some fun games such as chicken foot and pound offs. Or if we have the Olympics, have a BYOB and have people bring stuff for potluck and maybe only pay like $5 for incidentals instead. We could have it at our house in the city - and just have smaller teams. I'd still like to have the event around Summer Solstice, as it just makes sense to do it before the summer comes and everyone gets out of the city.

So many things to think about...

59 days to go...

We move in 59 days and 18 hours: also known as: 1434 hours remaining. I'm finding it hard to believe! But at the same time, I feel so excited about it that I can hardly wait. I look around our apartment daily and realize that we have a long way to go with packing in order to get where we need to be. So much to be done!

My mother keeps reminding me that I need to get more done as "Men don't pack - they just move." And I know she's right! When James and I moved in together for the first time, he was living in a one bedroom basement apartment in Paris. We had decided we liked the building, the landlords and the location, so we rented a two bedroom upstairs. He was to ask friends to help him move, as I had family that was willing to help me. Turns out the only people he asked were his dad and sister. He had probably a total of five boxes, which went back and forth up and down the stairs and the four of us were responsible for getting all his items moved. It was a lot of work and I just shook my head.

This move is going to be different!

So far I've got boxes of various sizes and weights, piled in two corners of the living room. I have three big wardrobe boxes in the corners of the bedroom and half the closet emptied out - including my wedding dress and my flower girl dress that I wore when I was six. (When am I planning on wearing them before the move?

We've been going through and trying to get rid of as much as we can, as we've realized that we have a lot of stuff! A very large amount actually and who really needs clothing that doesn't fit anymore? By the time we lose weight and can fit in it again it will be completely out of style and we'll need to buy new clothes anyhow!

We're working on getting the office cleaned out so that we can move my Uncle Bob's stuff in. He's living upstairs currently but will be taking over our apartment after we go. It's a great apartment and I'm sure he'll be happy here but it's kind of a minor hitch in the getting prepped to move early. Normally when you move you focus on your own stuff - but with this move we have double the thoughts. We can deal with it though.

Realistically, I think we are on track - but as I said we only have 59 days to go!

What happened to ikea???

Went on a fun little shopping trip today with James to Ikea. We weren't really going to buy anything and walked out only spending about $5.

I've always liked the clean designs with focus on creative storage solutions. Mostly all their stuff is made from MDF and you are limited with colours and such, but the ideas are good. With us buying a new house, we really wanted to get some ideas and see what we can do. We're truly expanding with the new house. Here in our apartment we have a big living room, but our new basement rec room is bigger AND we have an extra living room upstairs that we need to decorate. Lucky for us we have two sofa's already with one in storage. But there may be a bit of a problem as we discovered yesterday with our second viewing - the stairs to the basement go in a U shape and it's possible that our couches will be a complete NIGHTMARE to get downstairs. (Sorry everyone that is going to help us!)

When looking at sofas, although breifly, I noted that Ikea has really gotten a gross idea as to what fabric will be popular on a sofa. The fabric choices - or at least the patterns, that are new this year really made me want to vomit. It's not that often that I would make that kind of statement about anything, but it is really gross. So busy and so much going on. Really nothing that I'd ever want in my home and I can't imagine it looking that good in anyone's house.

Some I can see kind of working, such as the black and white unit pictured and the green tan and white one. But the one at the top of this post is just disgusting. Again - I ask - what has happened to Ikea? Where did their taste go?

Of food and price matching

I'm currently home sick from work. It's been building for a few weeks and I finally forced myself to stay home, rest and try to take care of myself. Not so easy to do when you are a workaholic like me. I went and did a lot yesterday so I don't feel completely bad about not going to work today. Plus, all the other people in my department took time off over he holidays. I deserve a little time off too.

Speaking of time off, I asked my boss for the day we get our keys off. Hard to believe it's Friday the 13th when we are getting our new house. I've never felt nervous about that day and if anything it seems to be a lucky one. Here's hoping it's a lucky day for us. I'm undecided if I want to go and stay over the night we get the keys. I'm tempted to bring pillows and our sleeping bags and camp out on the floor. I have to be there at 7am the next day anyhow as our fridge is getting delivered and hopefully our stove.

Yes we bought a fridge. No we have not had our second visit to measure the space.

I know what you are thinking "Are you nuts?! what if the fridge doesn't fit???"
The truth is we went with a pretty standard size fridge - 17.6 cu. ft. The deal was excellent and by James and his knowledge of price matching, we ended up getting a brand new fridge for less than we'd pay for a scratch and dent model. Also - they'll deliver the fridge to us when we need it. No need to take it now as was my fear. I mean - who wants to store and then move a fridge?

James and I had a few things that were criteria, but not overly huge ones. the main thing is that we wanted stainless steel. I'd be happy with white, or even black, but James really wanted stainless steel. Since our wedding we've been trying to make our kitchen schnazzier and are leaning to more of a red, black and stainless steel look. We used to debate over colours as James wanted blue and brown together and I wanted blue red and yellow. I'm a fan of primary colours. More and more though we've realized how much we both really like red. And I don't mean that yellow red that is like a poppy colour. We like a good rich blue red. With our kitchen things, it's a chili red and it really warms my heart. We do have some orange thrown in for good measure, as a bunch of the things we got from the wedding are fall colours. I think we'll save those for the autumn.

Anyhow - back to the fridge.

We really didn't care if we had a freezer bottom or top fridge - although I know the world is trying to go in that direction. To be horribly honest, we really don't use our fridge that much. We use our freezers all the time though. Yes, I said Freezers. We eat out too much and forget about the food in our fridge with the kitchen being on the other end of the house. We spend most of our time in the living room. We eat there and we socialize there. We love it as it's truly the coziest room in the house. If we didn't have to eat and therefore cook, we probably would never go to the kitchen at all. I know with the new house the kitchen is right in the centre of everything. I can see us spending much more time there. Also, we love our new table and I really look forward to sitting there eating dinner and looking outside. How wonderful will it be to sit at your kitchen table and see the sun!

James was really looking forward to getting a deal with the fridge. He's a huge bargain hunter - something that I'm sure most people wouldn't really believe. But he analyzes big purchases and will not buy something unless he feels that he's getting a great price. Thus the deal with our appliances and dining table. We both agreed that the price would win out over minor scratches and dents. But with Boxing Day Sales on all over the area, he really wanted to get looking for a great deal. Every day for over a week we were in and out of stores at least three at a time. He was obsessed with a deal. Amazingly, he found a fantastic deal in Kitchener when he went out without me. I had found the ad for the fridge in the K-W Record and told him about it. He wanted to get shaking first thing in the morning. I trust his judgement - he is the cook in our relationship. So I stayed home. The price amazed me as it was lower than many of the scratch and dent deals we had found at other places. He ended up coming back to Sears in Cambridge, they price matched it - gave him 10% off and we had bought a fridge.

I'm glad that it's cooled him a little bit, as we are hoping to go and see our house again this weekend with our parents. That will be the true time when they give the stamp of approval. I want to measure everything and get a feel for where the outlets are and such. Also, I'm dying to see it again!

I've had HGTV on all day. Yes, I'm a fanatic. It was on when I had a three hour nap so even in my sleep I was watching. On HGTV, I've loved watching House Hunters and Property Virgins. They remind me how it was going through the houses we went through. How we went through so many houses but after finding the one we ended up buying we were done. It was so satisfying. We both didn't want to love it so much, but in the end it was perfect for us. People predicted it - and it's funny how when watching these shows you can predict it too. There is a certain look the people get in their eye and a certain way of debating use of space that lets you know which one they are going to choose. I know for us, the only area really up for debate is the spare bedroom, but I'm sure we can find some sort of use for it until we have kids in a few years.

I'm so bloody excited to get in. My boxes are piled on two corners of the living room, in the office and in the bedroom. Even with that, we have so much still left to do! Moving is not that easy!

Movie previews? Hells yes!

So I stumbled upon an interesting site that has had me occupied for probably at least an hour. It's themoviebox.net and it features all the latest previews for movies that are new or have recently come out. It's awesome!

James and I disagree constantly with rented flicks as I love the previews and he'd prefer to skip right past them and go straight to the big show. I don't know if it's my love of commercials and advertising, or the excitement of finding out something new, but I love watching these tiny little movie tidbits. And this is why the website is so great.

So far, I've discovered a few gems that I'd like to see and a few that are a big no go for my movie books.
Ones I'd like to see:
Angels and Demons - love Tom Hank, loved the Da Vinci Code book and have hopes for this new one. Also I really enjoy anything that looks deeper into the secret aspects of religion as I find it very fascinating.
The Proposal - More and more I love Ryan Reynolds and the opportunity to see Sandra Bullock as a woman in power intrigues me. It'll be really interesting to watch this one
I Love You Man - Who doesn't love these two things - Paul Rudd and bromances. I mean really. This movie looks really funny and completely something up my alley.
Seven Pounds - there is something so deep about this movie that intrigues me. I want to know the story. I want to find out what inspired him to give away so much. I want to know why there is a look in Will Smith's eyes as he talks to people that is so sad. I just want to see it.
Marley and Me - more for my sister and her family than anything, the dog in this movie reminds me so much of my "nephew" Dexter that is a yellow lab, I have to find out what happens and if Marley ever calms down. For my sister's family I hope she does!
The Ugly Truth and He's Just Not That Into You - both look great, both star awesome people. I definately don't want to miss these movies.
Adventureland - Bill Hader and Ryan Reynolds in the same movie? Of course I want to see it!
New In Town - Renee Zellwegger has been awesome in books since Empire Records but this one looks creative and interesting and funny
Milk - Sean Penn's performance is amazing. I can tell by the trailer that it's one not to miss. I'd really like to see this one.

I'd Prefer to Rent:
The Reader - it seems like an interesting premise, but as much as I love Kate Winslet, I'm just not sure if it's exactly what I'd want to see in the theatres. I would probably enjoy seeing it at home where I can sit and ponder about things on my own turf.
The Wrestler - the story looks okay and Mickey Rourke has really gone through a transformation for the role, but I'm just not sure it's something I'd seek out. However - my hubby wants to see it, so we'll probably go.
Revolutionary Road - I like that they try to look at the opposite side to suburbia from the people stuck living in suburbia but I'm uncertain if it's something I'd want to watch. I'll leave it as an option but not something I'm going to be rushing to see
Frost/Nixon - not a bad cast, but not completely sold. We'll probably see it as we like political stuff, but it won't be something to actively seek out I don't think.
Race to Witch Mountain - starring The Rock and two kids that are to be aliens. So much was given away in the trailer that I fear you won't be missing much by not seeing the movie. But it's a good story and the graphics look okay. Still a rental I believe.
Duplicity - This probably would be on top as it's a quirky story, but James isn't so into Julia Roberts so I tend to make her a rental kind of actress. I can live with it.
Nothing But the Truth - being a journalism grad, I find the right to the press to protect sources an important one. I think this story is interesting and a very possible true outcome of what could happen.
Confessions of a Shopoholic - if I had friends willing to go to the theatre I would, but with my little obsession with shiny things, I'm sure I'll watch this at home.

Ones I'd like to miss:
Obsessed - two words that shouldn't go together - Beyonce and Thriller. Enough said.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - probably because I'm not a fan of this group of characters. Just can't get into it for some reason.
The Day the Earth Stood Still - I think what cemented it was the line "If the earth dies you die. If you die the earth lives." I mean seriously - what's up with that?
Push - the movie to me looks really poorly put together. A group of young people (kids to young adults) have special powers and the government wants to turn them into military machines. A premise that's been done before on television and looked better than this trailer. Poor Dakota Fanning, still just a kid.
Doubt - Meryl Streep is a brilliant actress, but I don't think even she could pull this story and make it great. The movie looks drab to me.
Adoration - After seeing the trailer, I feel confused and unsure I want to take the time to look into it more. Is that wrong?

The internet is broken. I repeat, the internet is broken

The internet is slow today but so am I. I've been very tired lately - must be all the excitement of my birthday, and then Christmas and New Years. I think someone broke the internet though - as even the page I'm typing on has words overlapping. I don't think blogger would want to go on like this. No one would want to use them!

Although it did have to happen already. We all knew that SOMEONE would break the internet. Of course I always assumed it would be my husband who loves to have about 20 different things going on at all times when online. He's like a rabid beast - wants his information and wants it now. I think it's one of the deciding factors in getting an iphone. He can be connected to the internet any time anywhere. I'm not 100% sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. It's bad when he has to whip it out every where to a) find a wifi network and b) twitter and tell EVERYONE what he's doing. But it's a great thing when we are debating over anything and need confirmation of who is right.

For instance - yesterday we were talking about how tough Demi Moore is. She is married to Ashton Kutcher after all and she did make the tough movie G.I. Jane. Which got us talking about how old Ashton is. James could have whipped out his iPhone and gotten the answer right away. Ashton is 30 by the way. Born in February 1978 - the same year as me. What can I say - it was a really great year.

Now that just makes me wonder if I can find out who else was born in the glorious year of 1978 that is celebrities...

A.J. Mclean - from the Backstreet Boys
Adrienne Frantz - the awesome actress who plays the firecracker Amber on Bold and the Beautiful and the Young and the Restless (Love her!)
Bill Hader - from Saturday Night Live, You, Me and Dupree and Superbad - but my personal favourite for him is the cop in Superbad
Clay Aiken - do I really need to tell you where he's from? He's the smooth singer from American Idol that should've won, but didn't and still sold more records than the guy that did and now he's come out of the closet after artificially inseminating a woman and having a baby together. Yep, that about sums it up for him
David Krumholtz - the genius from the tv show Numbers, there is something so sexy about a smart jewish man
David Tom - the originally Billy on Young and the Restless - and Heather Tom's baby brother - he's hot and I must include him. He's on another soap now that I don't watch but is still hot. Did I mention that he's hot?
Eddie Cahill - the hot hot HOT cop from CSI: New York
Ethan Embry - who has done a tonne of movies, but stands out in my head as being in Empire Records and eating some crazy "special brownies" and getting mixed tapes from a guy with really long hair that was clearly in love with him.
Ian Somerhalder - everyone knows I love Lost - and Boone was a very important part of season one. I wonder if they'll bring him back!!!!
January Jones - she plays the central characters wife on Mad Men - she's a little nutty but really beautiful
Jason Biggs - everyone knows him from American Pie, but I know he's been in other movies. I really like him and his goofy ways
Jesse Palmer - I think he's a football player or something, but I know and love him from The Bachelor - yum-my!
Joshua Jackson - Okay I've loved him since Mighty Ducks, swooned over his portrayal of Pacey on Dawson's Creek and just generally love his personality in anything he does. I want to be his best friend. What do you think Joshua - can we be best friends? I promise not to flirt with you too much making all your girlfriends jealous...
Katherine Hiegl and Katie Holmes - grouped these two great female actresses together but they are very different and both fab-u-lous
Kevin Federline - oh yeah - Britany's baby dady is also born in 1978. He's a dancer and rapper too but will never be famous from that - it's all about Britney.
Nelly Furtado - she's a pop singing powerhouse from Canada - proud to share the year of the horse with ya!
Perez Hilton - oh barf - not a big fan of this gossip mongerer but everyone knows him so I thought I'd add him to my list
Rachel McAdams - love her too! She's a great actress and I loved her in The Notebook
Tamara and Tia Mowry and Topher Grace - child stars that make me wonder - where are they now?
Usher Raymond - Usher is the same age as me and he's done so much? That's amazing!

I must say, this is really a short list compared to all the names I've seen. But I'm still amazed by the number of fabulous people born in 1978. I know that all my friends born in that year are awesome, but I had no idea that I shared a year with such great stars (and crappy ones - aka Perez Hilton.)

I guess since I was able to look this up, the internet isn't broken after all. Phew. I was getting worried!