I see dead people...

We went to the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina this weekend to take in the Our Body: The Universe Within display. Well we actually went to Regina to participate in the baptism for our friend's son, but thought we would kill two birds with one stone. The display was very interesting! It reminded me a bit of going to the cadaver lab when I was in massage school, without the stink of formaldehyde.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it is a very extensive display of specially preserved whole cadavers as well as partial specimens (ie upper limb, lower limb, organs, etc). I have always been fascinated with the human body and learning anatomy and physiology. I think initially looking at the specimens I felt like they were made out of plastic but when I mentally realized that they were actually real people at one point....well it disturbed me on some level. Seeing things like hair on the skin and fingernails grossed me out more than seeing a body dissected apart. However, I was able to look past the grossness of it to have a great refresher course in anatomy.

After we were done looking at the display, I would estimate we spent about an hour looking at it, we went to see an IMAX movie. I love IMAX! I wish we had one in Saskatoon. We saw the show Wild Ocean which was about the migration of the sardines along the east coast of South Africa and how all the different predators (ie dolphins, sharks, seals, birds, humans, etc) all gather together and the ocean is alive hundreds and hundreds of these predators to have their feed of sardines. And the shoals of sardines are incredibly large. From an aerial view the sardine shoals looked like an oil slick on the water. What a cool documentary!

Girl's Night Out

Last night was my evening out with my mom and sister. It was a very nice evening! We had a pretty fancy supper at the 2nd Ave Grill. I have learned though that when I go to that restaurant that it is best to stick with things like pizza, pasta, salads, appetizers. I have found that all three or four times I have tried to have a fancy entree that it has been somewhat disappointing. Last night I decided to try steak, filet mignon to be precise. I can't complain about the steak, it was delicious. The ceasar salad was quite good also. The lack of potato choices is annoying to me. All they offer is roasted potatoes. I don't mind roasted potatoes, but these ones were overcooked and dry. I almost asked for ketchup and one of them was even burnt. However, we decided to share a couple of appetizers to start with and they were very good!! One was baked brie and the other was a Mediterranean platter with hummus, olives and chevre with pita chips. Yum!

After supper we headed over to Persephone Theatre to see Little Women. I have not been in the new location and it is very nice! The play was excellent! Before it started I tried to remember how the story went and I was finding myself not even being able to remember the names of the four March sisters. But as the play started I was quickly reminded of the story. The actors in that play were well cast. I think that the girl who played Amy even looked like Kirsten Dunst, who played her in the movie version. It was a good bit longer in duration than I expected, but very enjoyable! I was shocked when I got into the car to go home and saw it was 10:45pm (it started at 8pm). I would recommend it, as tickets were a very reasonable $27 each! I think I will be going back to Persephone Theatre at some point!

Blue Man Group

Here we are waiting for the show to start. Neither of us were feeling very well today. I was glad that we were able to go tonight. The crowds weren't even too bad (I would say Sask Place was less than half full) and it took no time at all to get out of the parking lot. We were home by 10pm.


The start of the show. I didn't get any good pictures of the opening act. His name was David Garibaldi and he painted pictures to music. It was very neat. After the show you could purchase one of the four paintings he did during the opening act. They were $1250 each!


Who knew that three guys painted blue who didn't make a single facial expression or say a single word could be so entertaining. It was quite a funny show!


I loved the light show. It was very flashy! I enjoyed their playing of the PVC pipes and when they would whip around this long whippy thing. It sounded really neat. I would say that overall the show was a little different from what I expected, but I enjoyed it immensely. I think I may have permanently lost a portion of my hearing this evening, but it has been a LONG time since I was at a show that loud.

Here's a short video clip that I also took during the concert:

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Jay and I went to see the movie this afternoon. I think it was alright. I need to stop having these high expectations for the movies. When the book is over 600 pages it is difficult for them to squeeze it all into a 2 1/2 hour long movie. I did however find (with input from Jason, who hasn't read the books) that the storyline was fairly coherent with fewer holes than the other movies seemed to have. There were just so many things they left out, or did not stress the importance of. I know they are making the seventh and final book into two movies due out next year, I believe. I hope they are able to explain things and wrap the story up in a way that leaves the fans feeling satisfied.

I didn't expect to cry at the end, knowing the ending ahead of time, but I still did. I was surprised that they didn't include a funeral scene for Dumbledore at the end, but I guess it was just one more thing that was not entirely necessary that was left out. All in all a good movie, lots of action (a little too much teenage angst/romance/'snogging' for my tastes).

One thing that has really bothered me in the last couple of movies is the disappearance of Dumbledore's 'half moon spectacles'. They are mentioned quite often in the books, and they were there faithfully in the first few movies, then just disappeared. I was also sad to see that Professor Slughorn did not have the walrus type mustache that is described in the book. If I am not mistaken also the Felix Felicis potion was supposed to look like molten gold not clear liquid. Just small details, but ones that bugged me.

The English Patient

I swear this will be my last post about this movie. I just wonder if anyone who reads this had ever seen the movie? And if so how did you find it? I have talked to two different people who have seen it who could hardly make it through the whole movie because it was so boring. I have watched it three times in the last three or four weeks. I am almost ashamed to admit that....but something about it just touches me. I wonder why I am so drawn to a movie that makes me feel so incredibly sad. I have always enjoyed a good tear jerker, but this one just feels different for some reason. It doesn't make me bawl, I just feel SO sad when it is over. I am thinking about tracking down a copy of the book to read. See if it can add any interesting details or maybe it would be boring.

I also have found that I have the main character's name stuck in my head for days now. He is Hungarian and his last name is Almasy. But it's pronounced All-ma-she. Something like that. It keeps rolling around in my head.....Allmashey, Allmashey, Allmashey. I can't get it out, haha. I think, at least for now, this movie has found a place at the top of my favorite movies.

Casablanca

I will admit that I have been watching a lot of movies lately. I have been in the mood for sappy romantic movies. I decided to check out Casablanca. I had never seen it, and I am not sure if I have ever watched a movie from that early on (1942). I don't generally find that I care much for black and white movies. I would say that I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. I think that movies back then were a little slower moving than ones today. We have very short attention spans these days and need to be wowed to keep watching. I also found that I didn't feel as emotionally drawn to some of the characters like I am in more modern movies.

The thing that really stood out to me in this movie was Ingrid Bergman's nose. Haha, not to be mean, but she has a pretty big nose. I found it refreshing to see someone who had not had a nose job, and who actually had some curves on her body. Not a skinny little bean pole. I thought it was funny how every time she was on the screen, they used some sort of softening filter, and shone bright lights in her eyes to make them sparkle.

Have you ever watched a movie that really affected you? I don't know if affected is the right word....just a movie that you watched and you just can't get it out of your head. It makes you think.....

I watched The English Patient last week and I just keep thinking about it. I quite thoroughly enjoyed it. I know that the main love story in the movie was an affair, which really goes against what I feel about marriage. But I could feel their love, their passion, or maybe it was just lust.....but he did walk for three days through the dessert to get help for her. I didn't cry, but I did feel quite bad for Lazlo at the end. I still feel sort of sad, maybe that's what I keep thinking about it, why I can't get it out of my head. I may need to watch it again, maybe buy it.

I think the first few times I saw Titanic I sort of felt the same. The first time all the tears I cried were for Rose who had lost her true love. However the second time I saw it I cried more for all the needless death that occurred because of the stupid class system (ie. not enough life boats, not letting the lower class people on the boats, etc). All the dead people floating in the ocean....yeah it affected me. Made me feel sad too.

Craving a Chick Flick

This weekend I was in the mood to watch something very romantic and funny and well, a chick flick. I always feel bad subjecting Jason to these things, so I watched by myself. I watched Bridget Jones' Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. I have to say that I quite enjoyed both. I was telling Jason before that I must have been in the mood for them because at the particularly romantic parts I got butterflies in my stomach and felt sort of giddy. Hehe.

I don't really care much for Renee Zellweger, however she was quite good in those movies. I remember all the hype about her putting on 20lbs for the role. I really didn't think she looked all that chubby, maybe healthy. But I suppose compared to the Hollywood standard she was a fat cow in that movie. Also, I do not really find Hugh Grant very nice to look at. His face looks droopy to me. I think it's just his eyes. Not sure that I have ever found him to be that great of an actor. I do however enjoy Colin Firth as an actor and he's not bad to look at and was glad he didn't play the bad guy in the movies.

I found them to be quite vulgar, but I did enjoy the love story. They are British movies, and I wonder, after having watched them, and a few other British movies that throw F-bombs out there quite readily, I wonder if that word is not quite as vulgar there as it is here? Not sure, but I do know that wanker is pretty vulgar over in Britain, but here, not so much. I also learned from these movies that a jumper is a sweater in Britain. A jumper here is more of a dress....anywho...

I would recommend them if you are not easily offended by a few f-bombs and are looking for a good chick flick :)

Hey buddy did you get a load of the nerd?

In February I was looking at getting Jason and I symphony tickets as a valentine's gift to ourselves. When I was looking at the ticketmaster website I stumbled across an event called Video Games Live. I checked out their website and thought it would be right up Jason's alley. I was going to surprise him with tickets, but I figured that I had better check with him, just to make sure he would like it. He thought it sounded great, so I bought tickets.

Last night was the concert. It was quite neat. A very different symphony experience. I think we were overdressed for the occasion as it was mostly nerdy guys wearing t shirts and jeans. They encouraged cheering and shouting during the concert which is not allowed at a symphony concert. I did enjoy it, even though I did not recognize about 90% of the music played. I think that Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros were the only ones I knew. Of course I had heard of Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft before, but never played them or heard their music.

The concert was sold out! I expected only a few people, but last night, Saskatoon's nerd population came out to enjoy a little culture. I told Jason that after being there and seeing all the nerds, that I am never allowed to call him a nerd again.

One of the highlights of the show for me was Martin Leung. He has become quite famous after he posted a video on youtube of himself playing the Super Mario Bros theme on the piano, while blindfolded. He now tours with Video Games Live! He did that last night, but also took off his blindfold and played some other songs as well. He is a very talented young man!!

What a husband!

Jay just won tickets to the Blue Man Group on the radio! We are hoping that we can trade them in for accessible tickets, but if not, we may sell them to purchase our own. Looking forward to it!

We are such nerds

Valentine's Day is Saturday. Jay and I usually don't do a whole lot to celebrate this day, but in the past usually have gotten each other a card and maybe a small gift. Usually we cook a nice supper together and just enjoy each others company. This year is not really any different. V-day falls on a Saturday which is nice.

A few days ago I started thinking about getting us tickets for a symphony concert maybe as a Valentine's gift for us. We haven't been for a couple of years and always enjoy it. I started looking on the ticketmaster website to see when the concerts are and who the special guest performers are. In looking at the upcoming events at the Centennial Auditorium (I refuse to call it TCU Place :P) I saw something called Video Games Live. I thought to myself "I wonder what that's all about?" I went to their website. Apparently they travel around to different cities and use the city's symphony orchestra to do their concert of music from different video games. Everything from Super Mario Bros to Sonic the Hedgehog to Earthworm Jim and Castlevania just to name a few. I thought to myself "Hey I bet this would be right up Jay's alley!" I thought about going and getting tickets to surprise him for Valentine's Day but doubted myself and decided to ask him about whether he would be interested in going. He agreed that it would be neat, so today I went and got us tickets. It won't be a surprise but I think it'll be neat. There aren't too many concerts that have come to town that both of us would be interested in, but this should be good. I am sure that Jay will know more of the music than me, but I always appreciate a good symphony performance. I bet there will be lots of nerds there....haha.

I was just checking to see when the next Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) comes out in theatres and according to IMDB it's July 17th, 2009. Even though the last 3 movies have been somewhat disappointing in comparison with the books I am looking forward to seeing the movie. I noticed that the final intallment of the Harry Potter movies will be done as two movies. I have thought that since the third or fourth movie came out that they should do them as two part movies. They are 600-800ish pages long and it can be tough to squeeze that all into one 2-3 hour movie. I figured if they did them as two parters they would make double the money on them. They didn't do it though and for those who hadn't read the books the movies left you with a lot of questions. It will be interesting to see what they do with the finale. The last two movies are due out in November 2010 and May 2011. And I also found out that John Williams did write the scores for the Harry Potter movies. I often felt like there were some similarities in feel to them and Star Wars and Indiana Jones. So now you know!

I have felt rather uninspired to write anything too profound or interesting lately. Sorry, just in a slump. I noticed however that my blog is almost five years old! January 13, 2004 was my very first post and since then I have just over 700 posts!

I ordered myself a Wii Fit from Costco.ca and according to the UPS tracking service it should arrive here on Tuesday. I am very much looking forward to using it. I feel like I put on a few pounds during the Christmas season, so hopefully this will help drop a few. I also bought my first Wii game last week, Lego Indiana Jones. It is a fun game that involves a lot of thinking and not just running around killing things.

My good friend Arleen finally set a wedding date! March 14th, so just over two months from now :) I am pretty excited for that. It's been a while since I have been to the wedding of a close friend. I think it'll be a nice weekend away for Jay and I. It'll be lots of fun to hang out with Karen and Arleen the day before too :)

I would like to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but I just don't know if I have it in me to sit through a 166 minute long movie. It has been a while since there have been any movies I would like to see, but this one seems quite unique, I just didn't realize that it is almost 3 hours long! I think the last time I saw a movie that long was Lord of the Rings. I did get a free movie pass for Christmas from one of my coworkers, I might just have to go see it!

Get Smart

I watched Get Smart last night. I used to watch the reruns of the television version when I was a kid and overall I was not disappointed with the movie. I honestly expected even a little more cheesiness than was in the movie, but there was definitely enough cheese. The one thing that I sort of struggled with was the pairing of Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. They both played their rolls well. I like Steve Carell a lot after getting into watching The Office and I think he was a great choice to play Maxwell Smart. I think the age difference between them just bugged me. Anne Hathaway is 26 years old and Steve Carell is 46 years old. Typically actors tend to play characters that are younger than them. Though we are never told how old either of the Get Smart characters are, they do allude to the fact that Agent 99 is older than she looks. I dunno, just sort of creeped me out to think of them as a couple.

Overall, it's been a great day

It has been a great Saturday. Flyball with Kiwi was fun. I even made her a new tug toy by cutting up one of her $1 Dollarama dog blankets and braiding three strips together. She seems to really like it. Then grocery shopping was good, I enjoy grocery shopping. Hung out for a while at home then gave Jay a massage.

Most people probably assume that since I am a registered massage therapist that my husband gets massages all the time. Well I am ashamed to admit that he doesn't. He gets 5 or 10 minutes when I can find the time and/or strength. Today I gave him almost a whole hour and I think he appreciated it. That's what he told me afterwards anyway.

On to making supper. We roasted a whole chicken which we had never done before. We have bbqed a whole chicken (mmm beer can chicken) but never roasted one. It was so juicy and tender and we had it with some stir fried veggies and jasmine rice (a new favorite type of rice, love it!) and finished up with a piece of apple pie we got at the grocery store today.

After supper I watched a couple of episodes of The Office. I have been sucked into watching. In the last week I have watched the first two seasons in their entirety and let me be the first to admit that my heart melted just a little bit when Jim and Pam kissed in the season finale of season two. It has been quite some time since a tv show has made me laugh like that show does. I love the way it is filmed (documentary style) it's just so unique. I think that Michael and Dwight are hilarious and have been enjoying the fun times that Jim and Pam have had pulling pranks on Dwight. I am interested to see what seasons 3 and 4 will bring. I imagine within the next week I will be done the whole first 4 seasons and will have to wait from week to week to see the wacky adventures of those at Dundin Miffler. Great show!

Then I decided after buying a Christmas tree a few days ago that I would try to set it up downstairs just to make sure all the lights work and maybe work on fluffing and shaping it then just move it upstairs in a few weeks when it's time to have a tree set up. Well I set it up and you would not believe that a section of lights was burned out. I tried ever plug in and could not get this one section to work. GRRRR! The same thing happened last year when I bought a prelit Christmas tree except this one only weighs about 20 or 30lbs and the one last year was 75-100lbs and was a REAL hassle to get home and then to return. I have come to the conclusion that we are not going to EVER have a prelit tree. What are the chances that would happen to us two years in a row!? Maybe we should just get a real tree again. It wasn't so bad, we would just have to wait until later in December so it doesn't dry out like it did last year. We will see. I saw a decent looking tree at Costco last time we were there, with absolutely NO lights on it.

After that Jay and I played Wii tennis and had some night snack apple pie (I am surprised we are not chubbier than we are). Oh yeah, and somewhere in there we picked out a picture for our Christmas card this year. I am going to order them from Costco and hopefully Jay can pick them up when he is out there on Tuesday. The day is drawing to a close and I am getting sleepy, very sleepy..... Nite nite.

The Simpsons

Jay and I are big fans of The Simpsons. (No, really?!) Lately I have realized just how often we quote various Simpsons episodes throughout the day. It is quite often....in the last day or two we have started calling toast "ye olde toast". We often call Kiwi "Poochie the rockin' dog", another Simpsons reference. If one of us, or someone we know does something nerdy we just look at eachother and say "Neeeeeeeeeeerd! Hey buddy, did you get a load of the nerd?" When we refer to the garden hose and the nozzle at the end...it's "the noozle at the end of the hoose". I have caught myself making one of these obscure references around people other than Jay, and usually I just get a funny look. Occasionally I get a giggle from someone who catches the reference. Sometimes I think we are pathetic, but I am glad that it is something we have in common. We really do share a unique sense of humour. So what if we can quote most episodes from the first ten seasons of the Simpsons. And so what if I am pretty excited that season eleven of the Simpsons comes out on DVD on October 7th. And so what if we will probably buy it instead of leaving it as a Christmas present option for one of our family members. Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd...

Jeopardy

I enjoy watching Jeopardy, it is one of my favorite shows to watch. I have learned a lot of little trivia tidbits watching that show. This season they have switched from CTV to CBC which really doesn't bother me at all. I don't mind turning to a different channel than it's been for the better part of my whole life. I am frustrated, however, with the fact that they have decided to air it at 7:30pm now instead of 5:30pm. We would usually watch it during supper, or just after supper (I know we are old...sometimes we eat supper at 5pm....). Now I am never going to remember to watch it, or if I do watch it, it will interfere with other evening activities, or things I should be doing. I hope that CBC will get back to Wheel of Fortune at 5pm and Jeopardy at 5:30pm.

Mamma Mia

I went to see Mamma Mia this afternoon. I would say that if my sister hadn't called to invite me to go see it with her and mom and I probably never would have watched it. I have always enjoyed Abba's music, but after hearing a summary of the plot I didn't think it would be that great. I decided I would go check it out anyway. When it started, and the singing started, I was hoping that it would get better. Initially I thought that it was quite cheesy, but once they started singing the well known Abba hits like Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia and Money Money Money I found myself being drawn in. I will admit that the plot of the movie was sort of silly, but the characters were hilarious and I was surprised that Meryl Streep can actually sing very well. I will say I was a little weirded out watching/listening to Pierce Brosnan sing, but he didn't have a terrible voice. The setting of the movie in Greece was gorgeous! If I wasn't married I might have to go to the church where the wedding scene took place. Though that would be a crazy long ramp for Jay to climb ;) The final scene, during the credits with the main cast members dancing and singing had me laughing out loud and I left the theatre with a big smile on my face. It was a 'feel good' movie and I think I am going to be singing/humming Abba tunes for the next month. I think Jay is probably glad that I didn't ask him to go see it with me....I am still trying to convince him to watch The Sound of Music with me.

I have been looking to expand my business, hmmm...