Current Dirt

I mean wrap! That’s a wrap! Today I watched the last movie on my Oscar list, and when I woke up, I realized that I took a little nap during most of them:

A Serious Man
Avatar (twice)
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones and,
Up

Oops, clearly not an exciting award year for me, however, here are my votes and runners up in order:

Leading Actor
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
(Toby McGuire should have been nominated for “Brothers”)

Supporting Actor
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Matt Damon in “Invictus” (Should have been nominated for “The Informant”)
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”

Leading Actress
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”

Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”

Animated Short
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“Logorama”
“A Matter of Loaf and Death”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“French Roast”

Live Action Short (These were all very good)
“Kavi”
“Miracle Fish”
“The New Tenants”
“The Door”
“Instead of Abracadabra”

Best Picture
This is a difficult category and I am not completely satisfied with my order. Overall I felt individual performances were better than any movie as a whole this year. Honestly, none of these stand out as best picture to me and yet I have no other suggestions.
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“The Blind Side”
“A Serious Man”
“Avatar”
“Up in the Air”
“Up”
“District 9″

After numerous shoving matches with Vicki for the isle seat (which she won almost every time), a movie card fully punched, LOTS of popcorn, and great friends, next Sunday I will finally see how my votes compare to the Academies. Even though I have a feeling we don’t see eye to eye on a lot of these.

I would also like to give a shout to the Spectrum 8 Theatres for showing every single nominated movie and the shorts (which were pretty close to the best part of this season). I would also like to mention New World Bistro Bar, they are two doors down from the theater and we would go there for a drink in-between double features. We even stopped in on Valentine’s Day before going to see Valentine’s Day and I got the Red Velvet Cupcake and OMG that cupcake was the best part of the movie – even though it cost as much as a ticket!

Tonight when I got home from work I suggested to Tom that we go out for our Valentine’s Day dinner. Get ahead of the weekend rush. So after walking and feeding our dogs (and a couple of wet kisses for good measure) we headed out to Katrinella’s Bistro. It’s a small, small, small place at the bottom of Madison Ave. that if you aren’t careful you will miss. I first learned about Katrinella’s from a review in the Times Union that had me sold before my first bite. Tom and I tried to go before but with only twenty seats in the place they were booked solid for the night.

The decor is so unimpressive as you walk in the side door that I had to remind myself of the glowing review. But once we entered the dining room it was very comfortable, especially for such a small space.

The bread they serve with the meal is so, so, so good I asked where it was from, and as suspected, it’s homemade. They bake a few loafs every couple of hours which made me want to come back every couple of hours. And that delicious, homemade, doughy bread came with a soup bowl full of olive oil and vinegar and garlicky goodness…a soup bowl.

They have a a three-course, $20 prixe-fixe menu that I ordered my Chicken Sorrento from. I just had to try their red sauce. Tom ordered Chicken Orange which didn’t sound good to me at all. Chicken and vodka orange sauce…ew.

When the entrees arrived I was loving my meal. The red sauce did not disappoint. I didn’t want Tom to miss out so we exchanged bites from each others plates. And that’s when I absolutely insisted that we trade dishes because his entree was positively delicious and I just couldn’t imagine not having it all to myself. So being a good Valentine, Tom swapped entrees with me. But I wouldn’t feel too bad for him as he finished every last bite of my meal and has a doggie bag with leftover Chicken Orange.

I have finally found inexpensive, homemade, delicious Italian food in larger than life portions here in Albany. Obviously, I highly recommend this place for everyone’s Valentine’s Day dinner. So, what are you waiting for? Make your reservations!!

I love you Tommy. Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s official. The Oscar nominations have been announced and now I know exactly what I need to watch by March 7th and which movies I didn’t need to see…like Amelia. Seven bucks and ninety minutes I will never get back!

After the SAG awards and Golden Globes you kinda saw what was coming but I was still surprised to see The Blind Side on the list for Best Picture and actress in a leading role. I was also disappointed that Toby McGuire wasn’t nominated for his role in Brothers nor was Matt Damon for his role in The Informant. In both you didn’t recognize the actor only the character they played. Whereas George Clooney played George Clooney in Up in the Air.

I need to watch seven more movies by Oscar night. Today it’s Avatar. I don’t want to see it but I have to.

Tom and I just got back from celebrating our five year wedding anniversary in Vermont. We honeymooned at the Equinox in Manchester because the last thing I wanted to think about on my wedding day was waking up the next morning and getting on a plane. I exchanged vows sans a side of flight anxiety. So for year number five we went back, but this time we stayed at The Dorset Inn which is about six miles north of Manchester.

I recommend The Dorset Inn, it’s quaint, and tidy, and the staff is extremely friendly, the entire place was very welcoming from the common areas to the dining rooms. The best part was the breakfast! It was a hot meal made to order (pancakes, french toast, eggs benedict, juice, coffee, tea, eggs, oatmeal, fruit…) served in a delightfully bright room and totally included! And they serve tea from 3 – 5 pm by the fire with yummy scones, cookies and biscotti everyday. Yup, I totally recommend this place. They also have a fine dining restaurant that we ate at the first night and a full bar.

On the downside, but not so down I wouldn’t go back, the entire town had no water Sunday morning and our room was in a part of the building that wasn’t zoned for heating so our first night was so, so, so hot and the next night it was so, so, so cold.

We, of course, did some a lot of shopping at the outlets. I heart my new Kate Spade leather work bag and four new outfits and new gym sneakers and whatever lets not talk about it because I don’t want to do the math while I am still high from the weekend. We also stopped at a farmers market and met a three day old goat. Awww.

Happy Anniversary Tommy!

Tom tends to want the latest and greatest when it comes to gadgets. He’s pretty good about not actually buying the latest and greatest but that’s because something new comes out before he buys the thing he wanted in the first place. He’s had a couple of misses, remember the mini disk anyone? Ooops, that didn’t exactly take off.

But one thing he doesn’t hem and haw too much about is cell phones. He upgrades those about as often as I upgrade shoes (a lot). And for the past 11 plus years I have asked him repeatedly, “what’s wrong with the phone you have now?” But not this time. This time I asked if I could have his old phone because it ISN’T old. And since he can’t tell me no I am now sporting the Palm Pre which is a pretty awesome phone. And it didn’t cost me anything (I won’t mention what Tom spent 6 months ago for it). I’ve already downloaded tons of apps. My conversation heart wallpaper is totally cute and with Block Breaker and Topple Ball I won’t ever get bored in long lines again. Secretly I can’t wait for him to upgrade again because I love his new phone, the Hero.

Lately his, “I want a new laptop” talk has picked up and so has my, “can I have your old one?”

Melissa and I had New Year’s Eve dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, New World Bistro Bar. I asked the waitress if we could keep our menus for our scrapbooks. And by scrapbooks I meant blogs but it came out like we really made scrapbooks – not that there is anything wrong with that – but I haven’t scrapbooked since, you know, the eighties. May I present my electronic scrapbook of the evening:

The four course meal came with two appetizers an entree and dessert. The restaurant based the dishes on movies, so the parentheses will tell you the movie reference.

No movie theme here, just drinks at the bar waiting for our table. However, there is the Spectrum movie list in the background that someone left there. Could of been us, we stop in for a drink between movies quite often.

Still at the bar. We tried one of their specialty drinks, this is a gin drink with cucumber and lemonade and it was delightful and will be waiting for me this summer when the patio opens again.

Gulf Shrimp Remoulade with shaved greens and cornbread sticks (Forrest Gump 1994).

Your Very Own Timpanino di Macaroni (Big Night 1996).

Red Chile Rubbed NY Strip Steak with chipotle-grapefruit hollandaise (Napoleon Dynamite 2004).

I regret not ordering the Greek Rack of Lamb as Melissa had suggested. Since when do I eat steak?? Tom didn't regret that this is what came home with me.

Red Velvet Cake (Steel Magnolias 1989). You'll have to use your imagination with this one.

Being picked up by our designated driver - my Tommy.

We arrived at Melissa’s apartment in time to see the ball drop and give our lovies a big smooch at midnight. Then we went outside to watch the fireworks – you know the ones – that don’t exist. So instead we watched the sky and said at least 100 times, where are the fireworks?

I feel like the past ten years went by in a blink. Literally a blink. And that has made me feel like if I blink again it will be 2020 and that seems so far away but obviously its not, it’s only a blink away. And as I was sharing my anxieties about this to my friend she totally calmed me down by saying, “that is exactly why we need to live each moment to its fullest.” How true!

Happy New Year!

This week I was finally feeling better so it was back to the gym for me. But not the Y. After a couple of days weeks talking complaining to my friend about wanting to change my gym routine because I haven’t been terribly motivated lately she showed up at work with a free one week pass to Gold’s Gym, where she recently joined.

Monday nights are very busy at Gold’s so it was a little overwhelming at first, the place was swarming with hot bodies using machines that scared me, but it didn’t take long to get in my comfort zone. I am considering joining in the New Year, I feel like the change of scenery may be what I need to get back on track. (And when I say scenery please refer to the hot bodies comment above.)

This week I made almond macaroons for a cookie party at work and they were really good…”golden on the outside and chewy on the inside” is how one of my colleagues described them to me. Besides chocolate chip cookies, which I can make in my sleep, it’s the first cookie I made with any kind of success. The secret? A mandatory cookie lesson with my mom while I was visiting home last week. She was right, they are really simple to make AND I got to use my food processor for the very first time. (Note to my mom: The whole batch fit.)

This week I was so busy at work that I have my days all screwed up. Tomorrow is Friday and I feel like it could be Wednesday. But not too busy to go out to lunch today with one of my departments and tomorrow is lunch with another department. Yay for holiday lunches!

This week I played with my Christmas present from Tom. A Flip video camera. I just took it out to see if there was a video interesting enough to share (there wasn’t) and saw that my battery was low. Initially I was unimpressed with the battery life until I realized that I used up every second available recording the inside of my purse. That would kill any battery. It was pretty funny to watch – I mean listen to.

This week was a new gym and yummy cookies, busy days with long lunches. Balance…this week…I had it.

Since Tom and I have been playing ping pong with the common cold this season I thought while we both had the energy to get down to the nitty gritty and really deep clean the bedroom. At one point when we had pulled my dresser away from the wall to vacuum up the last standing family of dust bunnies I asked Tom to send over the shop vac. He looked at me and suggested I use the vacuum cleaner I was standing right next to. I looked at the vacuum, then looked at him with a hint of fear in my eyes, “I don’t know how to use it.” And wow, that’s when I realized, I don’t know how to use our vacuum.

I can live with that.