Another Five Photo Friday dedicated to summer. I should have some more recent photos up soon, hopefully of Sean’s new nephew. We call him “Crash.” I. Isn’t that kitchen amazing? It’s at the wonderful Redwoods hostel in Kalmath, CA. I’ve seen some nice hostel kitchens before but never one so great I want to steal it for my own. Bonuses: the windows look out at the Pacific ocean and the fridge has a whole shelf of free “community” food. II. Kevin and Harrison were gracious models while I took a gazillion photos of the sunset over Lake Erie in June. We all discovered Bennett Beach this summer and it changed our lives. III. Doesn’t Josh look like he’s walking down a tunnel towards heaven? Yeah, I think so too. IV. An oldie, but a goodie. A West Side sunset seen through my kitchen window. One of my favorites views to photograph. V. The spread at our picnic table at Cape Lookout State Park in Oregon. Josh slept late that morning while I amused myself with the ocean, some ripes cherries, and a good book.
I’ve got some major updating to do, non? Speaking of and in French, I’m going to Montreal the weekend of November 7 & 8th and will hopefully eat crepes and say bonjour to my cousin Julie. She lives in Montreal with her husband and new baby. Brynn and her fiance Brian will be joining Sean and me, and despite not being able to finagle rooms at Le Petit Prince B&B, we’re pumped. Photos to follow, of course.
And now, updates a la bullet point:
Brother Josh and I started a photo blog. It’s called melvin. You should check it out, add it to your RSS reader, and comment often. If you’ve got any suggestions for photo themes, challenges, or assignments, drop us a line. We’re pretty excited about this collaboration.
Brynn visited this past weekend and we dined at Juniper on Elmwood. It was my second time there and damn, it was delicious. Our meal was perfectly paced, maybe one of the only times I’ve split a bottle of wine and not felt like I was downing my last glass. I hadn’t seen Brynn since June (!) and the only thing that kept me from kidnapping her before she could leave was our upcoming trip to Montreal.
One of the things Brynn did do before she left was tease me with the idea of watching the 2005 movie version of Pride and Prejudice, which I had not ever seen. We ran out of time though and she took the DVD home with her. I’ve never had much interest in seeing the movie anyway because I am a fierce and loyal Colin Firth devotee. Who else could play Mr. Darcy and why even try? And, uh, hello. The only reason the miniseries even works is because it’s five hours long and extremely true to the book. A movie version could never do it justice. But, um, what do we have here?
Oh, a tweet from me on Monday. Yeah yeah, so I got the idea of finally watching it into my head and had no choice (no choice!) but to go out at 8:30PM on Sunday night and try to find a copy of the DVD. One Target and one Blockbuster store later, it was mine. And then I watched it, and died and was reborn a thousand times. The drama! The cinematography! The Matthew Macfadyen! It was all I could do to not go home and watch it immediately after work.
Confession: I tried. I tried to set up a knitting and Pride and Prejudice date that very night with my friend Sara but couldn’t get our schedules to gel. So I made a date with her for Wednesday. When she got to my house we made tea, got our knitting out, and pressed play. It might have been the best two hours of my life, especially when we rewound the awesome parts and watched them again. Afterwards, I walked around my apartment sighing and tweeted thusly:
Confession #2: I watched two scenes while Sean was showering on Thursday morning and then decided I was psychotic and needed to stop. And I have. I SWEAR.
Between this and the Dirty Dancing post, I’m not surprised if you all leave me.
LOUD CLEARING OF THROAT
In other news, Al Franken is being all sorts of awesome. Buffalo Pundit has a video of Franken kicking butt over at his blog. I also recommend Truthout.org’s post on the Public Option, published today. They link to Florida Congressman Alan Grayson’s Names of the Dead project, which is pretty sobering. I plan on writing a few stories about my family members and friends, and encourage you to do so too. I’d like people to stop screaming about protecting a health care system that we know is a piece of crap.
Ok, I’m going to save the update where I tell you that I’ve started counting my daily caloric intake over at CalorieKing.com for another time because you are probably already scared enough.
This is a very people-powered Five Photo Friday, I like it. I. The beautiful, birthday girl Sara Gordon on Columbus Day weekend at the cottage in Canandaigua. The lake was insane that day. II. Madi & me in the car on our Outer Banks vacation this August. We were passing the time by making silly faces; this is the angry face. Check out Sean in the background, cracks me up. III. Josh taking in a ridiculously beautiful scene. This place was called “Hidden Beach” and we found it off a trail in the Redwoods National Forest. IV. Way back in June my dad gave Josh his old guitar for Josh’s high school graduation. They both cried. Here’s my dad playing a little bit while Terrie watches. V. Kevin at the board game table in Canandaigua, also taken over Columbus Day weekend.
On Friday night I went over to my mom’s and ate food, drank wine, and watched Dirty Dancing with some of my cousins and aunts. The movie was my idea and wow, was it a good one.
Said I, “We must appropriately celebrate the life of Patrick Swayze and lay him to rest in a most fitting of manners.” And what I meant is that we must whoop and holler every time he comes on screen, particularly when he is shirtless or wearing leather.
After most everyone went home, my cousin Tiffany and I continued our Swayze celebration and watched all of the special features on the 20th Anniversary Edition of Dirty Dancing, including Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze’s screen test (hawt), music videos, and DELETED SCENES.
I cannot tell you enough how great the deleted scenes feature is on the 20th Anniversary Edition. You know how usually the deleted scenes are lame or really short or disturbing (hello Twilight grope scene)? Yeah, these are not. They are A-MAY-ZING.
The best deleted scene is accurately and simply titled “Dirty Dancing.” It takes place in Johnny’s cabin and is an alternate version of the first time Baby and Johnny make out do it. That cross out is for my mom, by the way, because SHE THOUGHT THEY JUST WOKE UP NAKED BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW WHY. Anyway, I was literally jumping up and down at the end of this scene. Watch:
(Um, you might need to sign in to YouTube if you’re having trouble seeing it. Because they make you say you’re 18. Because it’s THAT HOT.)
