December 2005
Out here, I listen to a radio show on my way to work, and there’s an entertainment reporter that’s on 3 times a week. His name is Steve Oldfield and they call him Little Stevie Oldfield, hence LSO. He basically does hollywood gossip and movie reviews. Every year he puts out his top 10 movies of the year. He revealed them on this morning’s show. Here they’re actually listed as the top 12 (11 and 12 are honorable mentions).
12- March of the Penguins
11- A History of Violence
10- The 40 Year Old Virgin
9- The Brother’s Grimm
8- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
7- Rent
6- Cinderella Man
5- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
4- Capote
3- Memoirs of a Geisha
2- Brokeback Mountain
1- Batman Begins
Since the holidays are upon us and there will be plenty of time off to rent movies and see them on the big screen, some suggestions on what to pick were welcome. Enjoy!
Worse than that, the Bears defense let me down. I usually never have to say that but they couldn’t tackle anyone. And they got me 2 fantasy points. . .only 2! What a pathetic display. Everyone knew this would be a tough matchup. . .against a tough team in their home field. But Rothlisberger and Bettis are so injured — we should have had that game wrapped up. We couldn’t stop willie parker from getting yards. .we couldn’t stop Jerome Bettis from getting TDs. We couldn’t hit Rothlisberger hard enough to make him ineffective. Nothing. Even Urlacher missed some big tackles. In addition, we also showed that our offense could drive 80 yds to the endzone and totally fall apart to settle for a field goal.
Final score: Pittsburgh 21, Chicago 9
NFC Standing: We’re 9-4 now. Same as Carolina and Tampa in the NFC South (but Bears have beaten them both). NFC leader is of course Seattle at 11-2.
Next weeks matchup: Atlanta at Chicago — ESPN Sunday Night Game
Last night we went to Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. We usually only go there once or twice a year because of the price, but it is the end of the semester and we felt like celebrating. This was the best meal I have ever had .. since the last meal I had at the same restaurant. Our menu for the evening:
First we split the spinach and portabello salad with pancetta and goat cheese crouton.
Then we went right into the best filet mignon I have ever had. .tender, succulent, perfect– a flawless piece of meat.
For side dishes, we had the 1) Fleming’s Potatoes: their house specialty gratin with cream, jalapenos, and cheddar cheese and 2) Asparagus Hollandaise.
To drink, I had wine flight of my own choosing. For those who don’t know, a wine flight is 1 and 3/4 ounces of 3 different wines. Usually the flights are pre-determined, but at this wine bar, I was able to construct one of my own. So I chose the Greg Norman shiraz, Cline zinfandel, and BV cabernet. Our waitress screwed up and gave me the Penfold’s shiraz instead of the Greg Norman (I told her I had already had the penfold’s and wanted to try something new). Oh well. The flight was still excellent and I am probably going to run out and buy a few bottles of the Cline zinfandel.
What a treat. I suggest everyone treat themselves to a spectacular holiday meal at Fleming’s.
I officially give up. This is an impossible task. For the last few weeks I have been looking everywhere for the Reebok gray hooded sweatshirt with the New England Patriots logo shown to the left. Some of you may recognize this as the sweatshirt Pats coach Bill Belichick is seen wearing on the sidelines almost every week.
I began this quest so that I could get it for my husband Scott for his birthday, which is an unfortunate 4 days before Christmas. He, like many, has a great respect for not only the achievements of the Patriots in the modern era, winning 3 of the last 4 superbowls, but also for the kind of organization they seem to be. He feels they represent everything that’s great about football. Great defense. ..great running game. He also likes them for their teamwork .. .no Terrell Owens in this crowd. Tom Brady was even willing to take a paycut to keep the talent on their team while staying under the salary cap. Weird.
Other than just liking the Patriots (don’t get me wrong, being from Chicago, we’re Bears fans til the end), Scott likes this sweatshirt because it shows Belichick is willing to dress for comfort no matter what. . .just like he is (his wardrobe consists of mainly jeans and T-shirts in various shades of gray).
I couldn’t even believe he wanted this thing since I never noticed what Belichick, or any other coach for that matter, wears on the sidelines. Maybe Herm Edwards wears a turtleneck sometimes .. Nick saban in a polo-shirt? Who knows. . But he’s not alone. A google search for “belichick sweatshirt” comes up with plenty of hits, including some looking to buy and sell it on ebay.
Anyway, Reebok was sold out of all but the 4XL until recently, when they were sold out of everything. So, among a few other gifts, I opted for the book by David Halberstam: “Education of a Coach.” . . .about Belichick and how he got to be a coaching genius.
It’s for the best. I couldn’t condone that purchase anyway. Everyone outside New England should hate the Pats. No one likes a dynasty like that. .ruining everyone else’s chances. I’m sure I”m not the only one who’s “accidentally” broken a Tom Brady bobble-head doll (we got it free with some video game).
Enough about the Pats. Go Bears!
Tonight we went to dinner at a local brew pub across the street from our place. . as we often do. The atmosphere is cozy. . .the food dependable and relatively inexpensive. The real benefit though, aside from the proximity, is their deal for university students to get half-off on all their microbrews. That brings a pint down to $1.75 and a pitcher to only $4.75. A tough deal to beat. However, the nation-wide cold front, which hasn’t escaped SLC by any stretch (not to mention my preference for lower calorie alternatives), had me drinking hot coffee instead of one of their home brews.
Despite the frigid temperatures, the pub was warm and inviting. Since our last visit they completely decorated the inside with tasteful sash-draped garlands and white christmas lights. I was just telling my friend Arvind (who used to live in SLC but has recently moved to Seattle) that for some reason the city didn’t seem as festive as usual and that made it hard to get into the holiday spirit. That all changed at dinner tonight. What is it about a string of white lights and evergreens splashed with crimson that can change your mood so quickly? Somehow it becomes less annoying to be around loud, celebrating people. .even the snow that soaks my pants up to the knee when walking to work from my car becomes a welcome sight (I know . .blasphemy to the ski-nuts that live in the mountain west to need any other reason to like the snow). I guess I’m just ready to join the festivities.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
So it was brought to my attention a while back that, lately, it’s hard to ignore the abundance of news stories that talk about SUVs and their evil deeds. “SUV backover deaths: What can be done?”. . .”SUV crashes, dangles from Florida interstate” . . .This is no joke. These are actual stories on CNN. These stories feature the SUV not the drunk or crazy idiot driving it at the time. Every once in a while you hear about the driver, as in the following case: “Driver of SUV shoots occupants of car that hit him.” Will someone please tell me what relevance the SUV has to this story?
Anyway, I would like to stand up in defense of my SUV. We had pretty much a blizzard today in SLC. Roads were terrible . . . cars were moving at a crawl and the ones that didn’t were stuck on the side of the road. Luckily I was driving my dependable VW Touareg and it was just tearing through the snow. The traction was excellent: braking-excellent; handling-excellent. So thank you, my SUV. You really came through for me today.
I hope to read a story in the local news tomorrow morning about the menacing 2-wheel-drive sedans that terrorized the city today.
Okay, so I have been notified by the blog police (my sister Richa) that my blogger bar clashed with my background and that I should change it as a public service. Once she pointed it out, it was hard to argue and I changed it immediately. . so I think I should be let out early on good behavior.
I knew for some time that I had iPOD battery issues. I was only able to get a little over an hour of playing time and since I have few playlists on my iPOD, I use up quite a bit of power flipping through songs to get to ones I want to play at the gym. It became obvious that I had to do something about it though when I went back home this Thanksgiving and went jogging outside in the Chicago cold. . .I was outside for 10-12 minutes before my iPOD shutdown from a drained battery. So on my sister Richa’s recommendation I bought a “Newer Technology NuPower ‘Super High-Capacity’ 2100mAh Apple iPod Replacement Li-Polymer(internal) Battery for all 1st & 2nd Generation” iPods from Other World Computing.
So last night after following the poor instructions, breaking the stupid plastic tool provided, and gouging part of his hand out with the titanium mini-screwdriver we had at home . . .which ended up working better than the stupid plastic tool in the end, my husband Scott managed to fit the new battery (about 3x the thickness) into my iPOD case and close it back up. Now it’s as good as new and has a battery life better than it did when actually was new. So if you do have a battery problem with you iPOD and aren’t looking for an excuse to get the newest and coolest new one out there, I highly recommend the battery replacement kit.
