Sparklegirl in Minneapolis

Friday, December 14, 2007

Christmas Sweaters, Part I

The first "Christmas sweater party" we hit last Saturday night was at Zach and Becca's. That being the week of the Command Center Dress Rehearsal for the merger at work (I wish I were kidding), I didn't get around to picking up tacky Goodwill sweaters like I'd hoped, so M faked it with a Cosby sweater (I thought I got rid of all of them, but he must have hidden this one) and a holiday-compatible scarf of mine.

Meanwhile, I tried to go Disney-Christmas with a (faux)fur-lined hood.

The host and hostess, on the other hand, were delightfully tacky.

Uh, don't ask.

Becca holds the prize for best outfit: a big honkin jug of pretty bad wine. Her sister, standing nearby in the crazy green satin, won the award.

Off to the next party!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

(Beautiful) Spoiler Alert!

I adored "Lost in Translation" -- just loved it. Was it slow, as M thinks? Sure. Did it misrepresent Japanese culture, as its critics attest? Probably. I don't know. But was it a stunningly moving and beautiful film? For me, absolutely -- not least because of the last scene, featuring Bill Murray's famous and mysterious whisper to ScarJo.

Right after the film came out, I remember lots of hubbub as everyone speculated about what he actually said. Sophia Copolla, the film's director, swore she'd never tell, but related that her teenage niece hoped that Bill's character was giving Scarlett's his e-mail address. Most of the speculation seems to have faded away in the three-plus years since the movie came out, but I've always sort of thought that, no matter what he said, it probably wouldn't be as satisfying as not knowing.

Flash forward to 2007. Someone ("vid22dotcom" to be precise) did some "digital processing" (pretty vague, but okay), was able to isolate and decipher the sound of the whisper, and posted to YouTube a video revealing what was actually said. To their credit, there's a lot of labeling around the video to avoid ruining the moment for those who don't want to know and would prefer to leave the mystery intact.

After stumbling across the video earlier today, I debated about it for a moment and then jumped in. I fully expected to be disappointed.

But you know what? I'm not -- not at all. It was as lovely as I'd hoped.

So, do you what to know? :) If not, do not play the video below. But if you loved the movie and are curious, I think you'll find his words to be nothing less than fitting.

Monday, December 10, 2007

T-Day Dinner -- Later

After dinner, Ron served up a home-made cheescake with pumpkin-caramel topping. Mmmm!

Sam and the iPod, both recharging. :)

Pat, Sam, Steve and Ron headed home, and we stayed up with M's parents. These photos were during the "What was the best concert you've ever seen?" conversation -- I think D&D said theirs was Iron Butterfly.

Then we woke up the next day to Donn's amazing eggs benedict with crab, which -- to steal one of his catchphrases -- did not suck. :)

Thanksgiving Dinner at Our Place

We flew out to Seattle in early November to do our traditional "no-parents" Thanksgiving with Phil, Mike, Laura and Addie, but as the actual T-day approached, we thought it might be nice to have a few people over for a small meal.

Originally, we were thinking of just M's parents coming over to have some wine and a really simple dinner (like home-made pizza), and maybe sleep over so they wouldn't have to drive home late. Inevitably, it turned into a little more than that: after we invited Steve, Ron, Pat and Sam, I got a little carried away. Shocking, right? :)

So the weekend before, I polished all the silver, planned the meal and went food shopping, and hung all the Christmas decorations.

We planned to have everyone over on Wednesday night, so I worked from home on Wednesday, which gave me the opportunity to get the oven going in the afternoon for the ham. Yes, ham -- neither one of us is very fond of turkey, and ham worked out perfectly for my all-Southern Thanksgiving menu: