Wordless Wednesday

Fetch on the Field Part 2

When we were at the Fetch on the Field event in November, they offered family portraits. We stood in line for a while, then we waited several weeks for the picture. Finally...here is our "family". Have you ever seen a cuter family?
This family comes in a close second. The Cookies:

Movies

On average, I go to two movies a year - one at Christmas and one when my family comes to visit me in Arizona. Last year I saw Charlie Parker's War and Becoming Jane.

This year was a banner year for movies for me! I doubled my usual movie intake by October. I saw Juno in January when we had a rare free night. When my mom and sister came to visit in the spring, we saw Smart People because I liked that Ellen Page so much in Juno. In September we saw Burn After Reading on our anniversary. Then in October I went with a group of my agility friends to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. (It's okay - I am laughing at me, too.)

Last weekend when Pat took Craig to the play, I went to see Four Christmases with Jamie. And it was then that I decided that since I was already way ahead of my usual movie tally, I would try to crush the record. So on Saturday night I went with my boys to see Seven Pounds. Then on Sunday, Pat and I had a date night and went to see Slumdog Millionaire. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the movie we saw with my parents while I was home. Count 'em up! That's EIGHT movies in one year! And four movies in one week!

And because I've become such a movie aficionado, I feel compelled to rank the movies from best to worst.

1. Juno - that Ellen Page is so cute and the movie was hilarious
2. Slumdog Millionaire - very interesting, very visually stimulating, good soundtrack. The scene during the credits was awesome and caused this movie to steal the #2 spot.
3. Burn After Reading - I really enjoy the Coen brothers' sense of humor
4. Curious Case of Benjamin Button - interesting, but kind of long. Bonus credit for best use of lightning.
   
5. Four Christmases - cute and funny. It would have ranked #4 if the ending didn't ruin the whole movie.
6. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - Yes, it was stupid but I liked it. I'm not ashamed to admit it.
7. Seven Pounds - great story but sooooo slow. And for some reason Will Smith wasn't in it but Barak Obama was.
8. Smart People - horrible

I also saw (I use that verb loosely) two movies at home while I was in Springfield. One night we watched 3:10 to Yuma. I don't like brown movies and I'm not thrilled about Westerns, but I was missing Arizona and I'm always up for a trip to Yuma so I agreed to watch it. Alas, it was too brown and too boring so I gave up on it halfway through. It turns out that they don't actually get to Yuma, so I didn't miss anything. We also watched No Country For Old Men. We didn't get to see the last 20 minutes because of some really bad timing, but so far it's getting two thumbs up.

Hmmm...I have no plans tomorrow night...maybe I'll go for NINE!

(Post-posting note: I did not go see another movie that night. We finished watching No Country For Old Men instead. And yep - still 2 thumbs up. So, my movie record holds at eight. We'll see how 2009 goes.)

Underachieving

All the time I've been spending in Springfield has me identifying with the most famous resident of any "Springfield". I'm feeling very much like an underachiever today. Before I explain my underachiever status, I'd like to let you know that the Simpsons are not from Springfield, Illinois so please don't think you're being funny when I tell you where I'm from and you not-so-cleverly say "Oh! Like the Simpsons!!" Abe Lincoln is actually OUR most famous resident. (Ok, and senate-seat-selling Blagojevich is sort of a resident of Springfield, as it is the capital of Illinois, but thankfully he spends most of his time in the suburbs of Chicago.)

Anyway... my high school friends and I have an almost-annual tradition of meeting for breakfast while we are all home for Christmas. Some years Laura goes to Florida or Elizabeth goes to Aruba or whatever. But this year all my girls were here, despite the record snowfall in Portland trying to keep Elizabeth stuck there. Here we are:

Laura, Elizabeth, Maysoun, Me

Laura just finished her masters degree in Museum Education and Leadership. She is the Assistant Vice President of a museum in Chicago. Elizabeth has a masters degree in education and she owns and runs her own school in Portland. Maysoun just finished her doctorate (!) in anthropology. She works for a non-profit in NYC aiding immigrants - so she's not only extremely intelligent, but she uses her brains to help others! And then there's me. I've never had any desire for any schooling past my BA and I make a living planning parties for lawyers. Ugh. I'm pretty sure I had a lot of potential, but unlike my high school friends, I am not living up to it.

Now let's add the spouses.

Eliz, John, Laura, Chris, Pat, Me, Maysoun

Yep - still feeling like the underachiever here. John is an author. This year he was able to quit his "real" job and is an author all day instead. Ergh. He's living my dream. What I wouldn't give for an imagination. Chris is a bike racer and as part of his bike store job, he also fits big-wig bikers for biking shoes. Next month he's going to Portugal to fit new shoes for the Tour de France champion. Wow!

I think my only real talent is to surround myself with the best and brightest people around.

Annual Christmas Photo

It's Diamond family tradition to take a group photo every Christmas. Aren't we cute? And yes, it was a Christmas miracle to get all seven of those children to look at the camera at the same time.

A Lot of Diamonds:
Yeah, we aren't really as normal as that picture would make you think. This is more like what you really get at our house: