The first thing I made was a duffle bag to carry all my gym stuff in now that I’ve been utilizing the free gym at work (before I stuffed everything in a plastic bag and a laptop case…like a hobo yuppie). I figured if I could make a duffle bag in middle school, I could probably figure out how to do it now. Results (I could’ve stuffed it with all my stuff, but that was more work than I deemed necessary for the blog, you get the idea):

The second thing I made was a cat bag for Jackson. He likes it, and as stated in an earlier post, he actually does sleep on it:

I’ve been mending Jim’s pants for a long time (I’ve made so many patches that the foundation of his jeans is now comprised mostly of square shards of an old pillowcase), but tonight I mended his mittens. I kind of love these little guys:

Jim made popcorn and we’re going to watch Star Trek. Goodbye.

As an update, here are some of the normal “Some People Call Me Maurice” Happenings of late:

• Over the course of the last 6 months, Jim and I watched Star Trek Next Generation: Season 1. It got continuously better as it went on and our theory is that there is a direct positive relationship between how much air time Lt. Yar got to how good the shows are.  A-like so:
  



 

• We’ve trained our cat to stand and sit on command. And yeah, that is pretty awesome.
• Jim and I have 4 different ways that we regularly brew espresso/coffee in our house. Snobbiness snuck up on us.
• I finally got the Lauryn Hill Unplugged album.  Something about folk meeting hip hop seems to meet all my musical cravings.
• Jim got me One Yard Wonders for Christmas, and I’m learning how to sew.  I made a kitty bed already, and he actually sleeps on it, which is the best part.
• My company won an Emmy.
• Jim and I shop at Aldi’s and save oodles of cash.  Step into our kitchen and you will be walking into an Aldi’s commercial. 

And here are important things that I normally would fail to write about:

• We moved into Jim’s dad’s house this year.  We have some serious loan-pay off goals; we had the opportunity to live rent free in this great house and we’re doing it.  It is frustrating some times for us to know that we’d like to be more generous, we’d like to have more freedom to serve, to give, to have kids, to go wherever, but the weight of debt keeps us from so much.  We prayed like gangbusters before asking Jim’s dad about it, we got advice from everyone we could think of, and in the end it just made the most sense.  Oh, how God has blessed it.  We are very content here.  If you pray, please pray for us to be wise with money so we can pay off our debts even quicker than we anticipate!
• I’ve been meeting with my friend Melissa every fortnight. It’s my desire for her to live an uncompromising life as a woman of God – what I didn’t expect was that these meetings would make me depend more on God in my own life, they have challenged me to not settle for “good enough” when thinking about how I work, love, serve, etc.  She asks tough questions that make me think twice about whether I’m believing a person’s interpretation of the Bible, or if I’m solely interested in what God’s Word really says.
• My job has brought me to tears many times in the last few months. Even though it’s a good job and I know God is using it to grow me in SO MANY ways (pratically, spiritually, emotionally), the stress of it at times is unbearable. I’m smack dab in the middle of this battle, and I don’t have much uplifting to say about it at the moment.  I may (will) never be the most skilled person in my position (I am not a defeatest.  I try to be as good as I can!), but God willing I will be remembered for my faithfulness, love, patience, gentleness, and kindness. Those fruits can never be stolen because they come from a Source more dependable than this frail shell of a person.  Despite this, I am human and I constantly struggle with inadequacy and anxiety.
• God is a god of peace, so I know that all anxiety I feel is from ME or something NOT of God.  Did you know there are 361 verses on peace in the Bible?  God is definitely a god of peace.  Some personal favorites:  “A heart at peace brings life to the body” – Proverbs 14:30, “My peace I give you, my peace I leave with you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” – John 14:27 (as spoken by Jesus Himself).   “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because (s)he loves You.” – Isaiah 26:3.  And sometimes the most comforting, that he knows how weak I am: ”For He knows our frame: He remembers that we are dust.” – Psalm 103:14 

And some items that fall somewhere in between:

• I had a realization that I can’t imagine anything baby-related past being one-month pregnant.  I can imagine realizing we’re pregnant (we’re not), but I cannot imagine actually dealing with the effects of being pregnant, nor can I imagine sleeping with a human in my stomach (taking up all the space).  I cannot imagine giving birth, I cannot imagine living with a small person in the same apartment/house as us.  I cannot imagine raising a human, teaching them all about life, character, etc.  I don’t know why all this is so impossible for me to imagine, since my sister and so many of my closest friends are doing all these things as I type!  And I witness it happening!  I guess it’s just hard to imagine life as anything other than what it currently is.  Our imagination is limited.
• 2010 is here and Rock TV is officially off hiatus.  Look forward to fresh new youtube videos soon.  Let’s hope the lighting is good.
• My friends Brigitte, Chris, & Dan (2/3 of which blog at the blogulator)’s band Paragraphs has a CD release tonight!  Yes!  You should listen to the songs on that link and/or get their album.  These are good people that I enjoy a great deal, and it is also a good band that I enjoy a great deal.  So.  Win win.
• The worship band at  The Rock, our church, has written a bunch of songs that we often sing at church.  They decided to put these on an album.  Jim and I picked up a copy last week and we are really liking it.  They are encouraging us to burn it for people, so it would not be illegal for me to make you a copy.  Let me know if you’d like one!  You can listen to some of it here.

Time to go to Aldi’s!

For in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form. Colossians 2:9 NIV

Being both a mom and grandmother, I’ve had plenty of experience with newborns. The top three questions I was asked following the birth of my babies related to the baby’s sex, name, and looks. The first two questions elicited obvious and straightforward answers, as in the case of our firstborn, “He’s a boy, and his name is Daniel.”

The last one was much more subjective. “Who does he look like?” This question invited all sorts of inspections, queries, and conclusions: “There’s that Knaphus nose”, or “Oh, he has the Bovenmyer notched ear,” or “Whose eyes are those?” And more often than not, we heard the famous summation, “He looks like his brothers!”

Today we are celebrating Christmas. It’s a story about a baby’s birth, and I’m sure Mary and Joseph were asked the top three questions themselves. Sex and name—no problem: “He’s a boy, and His name is Jesus.” Who does he look like? “Well, there’s some of mom and hmmm, not much of dad…he looks like a baby, OK.” And so He was, a helpless, human baby, for you see, God, through His Son, had joined the human family.

We’ll never fully comprehend the passionate love that drove God the Father to send His Son into our world to become one of us, live with us, and ultimately die for us. But because of that decision, we each have been offered an invitation, a tremendous Christmas gift, to become part of another family, God’s family, with a new name (Chris-tian, “belonging to Christ”) and the promise of looking like Him. Jesus became part of the human family so that we could become part of God’s family. What an incredible gift!

Amen.  An incredible invitation and a gift that’s worth celebrating.

Jim (garbled):  Good Morning, Minnesota

Christine:  What did you say?

Jim:  Good Morning, Minnesota

Christine:  What?

Jim (annoyed):  Good Morning, Minnesota

Christine:  Jim, you just said “Good Morning, Minnesota.”  What are you talking about?

Jim:  Multiply all the X’s

Christine:  What?

Jim (really annoyed):  Multiply all the X’s

Christine:  So, the answer to why you’re saying “Good Morning, Minnesota” is that you’re supposed to multiply the X’s?

Jim:  Are you making fun of me?

Christine:  Good night.

Jim:  Good night.

So this morning I told him about the cat puzzle instead.

The nominees are…



are you ready for this?

Home Alone (1990), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990 – wild card pick), Point Break (1991), The Mighty Ducks (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Speed (1994), Batman Forever (1995 - wild card pick), Bad Boys (1995), Independence Day (1996), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).

Ben suggested that people should individually rank the list so as to come to a more complete decision – certainly if Speed is someone’s least favorite choice and two people’s favorite choice, it should not be chosen as the winner, right?  Hence, I urge you to make your votes and make your votes likewise.



Here’s my rank from 10 to 1, for added drama:

10) Bad Boys - I’ve never seen it, and I don’t care to. 

9) Point Break – I’ve never seen it and had no interest in doing so until everyone made such a big deal out of it.

8 ) Batman Forever – m’eh

7) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – As I made my final rank, I had to set aside my affection for kids’ classics.  I thought the rank would be more rounded if I made my top a mix of different genres.  I do like this movie and have fond memories of it, but it doesn’t even compare with the other kid classics on this list.

6) Independence Day – Around here is where it got tough.  Like TMNT, I like this movie and I definitely think it is generation defining.  But for its ilk, does it really match the fast paced action of Speed or the childlike wonder of Jurassic Park?  Nah.

5) The Mighty Ducks – In my original list, this was number two.  It pained me to then put it so low on the list.  In the end, it just couldn’t compete with the other movie of its kind here.  Plus, maybe there’s a difference between generation-defining and Christine’s Minnesota childhood defining.

4) I Know What You Did Last Summer – ahead of Mighty Ducks and ID4???  Who do I think I am??  Well, like I said in a previous entry – the stream of crappy horror movies that followed the smash hit Scream does nothing if not point to our specific generation’s ridiculous willingness to fork over cash over and over again for the basically the same movie.  This movie started that trend and since it doesn’t have any competition on the list, it automatically took a high spot.

3) Speed – Keanu, Sandra Bullock, a fast bus.  Need I say more?  Go 1994!

2) Jurassic Park – I personally would rather pop in a movie like The Mighty Ducks or Speed, but this was a classic matched by almost no other film of its time.  I haven’t met a single person that didn’t see it in its hay day (hey day?).  It was a cinematic phenomenon.  Plus, Todd, Ryan, Ted & Peter told us that the water ripple shot is really hard to pull off – so kudos to the Jurassic Park crew!

…………and my vote for the single finest film of our generation goes to…:

1) Home Alone – big surprise, right?

Agree with my choices?  Disagree?  It’s not too late to vote yourself.  Go here to do just that!

Today I chose to use my fame to declare a very important message: My love for the Jim.

Maybe I’m making up for my lash out during last night’s Phase 10 game (just because he uses his skip card doesn’t mean he hates me, for the record), but I like to think I’m willing to make myself a fool in front of the online dice community in order to love my husband well.





I love Jim!

Home Alone, The Mighty Ducks, Point Break, Jurassic Park, Speed, Independence Day, and I Know What You Did Last Summer

I find it satisfying that each year’s winner has been my pick, except the Point Break year (I still vehemently and ridiculously stand by Hook). And technically I voted for D2 for the year of Speed, but you may remember I was torn between the two – secretly I am happy that Speed won. I think this speaks not of my superiority in choosing, but of my utter mainstreamness in all areas of pop culture. I admit it.





Anyway, on to the point of this post! Being that Chris held a lot of power to define the scope and rules and nominees in this search, he has opened up a wild card round. Now’s our chance to vote for any movies we feel he left out of the previous lists (Lane is going to fight to her death for Free Willy).

Chris’ post is well-written and enjoyable, so I suggest you to go to his post and read it yourself (and if you wish to vote you have to do it there anyway), but I will copy and paste the bottom half of his blog which contains all the rules and some suggested wild-card noms to get your brains noodling:

There is another, more treacherous element of democracy that we indeed must consider as well. The Wild Card. As your benevolent dictator of cinema nostalgia, I must at least let you grovel for a bit until the final voting period opens up. So let this be your forum. What films from your youth signify not only a time and place in which your tastes were unbound by artfulness or intelligence, but also now represent a conscious shift in movie enjoyment? What cinema treasure beckons you to find its curious entertainment value all over again 11-19 years-ish later, only to be rejoiced with crowded apartment viewing featuring snide comments and snobbish laughter? The joy is still there for me when watching these movies, it just manifest itself in a new and exciting way, equally as relentless, but magnified through a different lens. You are by no means required to follow my convoluted mess of rules when nominating Wild Card candidates, but in case you’re curious, here are my guidelines once again…

-Released between 1990-1997, the most vividly joyous years of adolescent cinema-viewing, in my estimation
-Must be in the Top 50 of the Box Office for its year, to satisfy the argument of universal cultural relevance
-Must have been viewed at least three times during the years in question, plus at least a desire to rewatch again as an adult must be prevalent
-The first viewing(s) must be concrete nostalgic memories of epic proportion, constituting an impactful childhood movie-going/renting experience
-Cannot be genuinely good, meaning the emotions derived and artfulness learned from said film in one’s youth cannot be directly similar to the emotions derived from or artfulness appreciated from viewing as an adult

Let the Wild Card ranting begin! Fill the comments with the films that have not been mentioned that you would like to make one final argument for including the final nominations. I will choose between 1-3 of the best arguments (or most backed up, so second someone else if you agree with them) from the comments section to add to the current list of seven. Here are some examples that have come up throughout the Quest to start you off…

Mrs. Doubtfire, Free Willy, Under Siege, Little Big League, Dave, Sleepless in Seattle, Rookie of the Year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The American President, Apollo 13, French Kiss, Now and Then, Mallrats, Sneakers, The Fifth Element (begrudgingly)

And some others grabbed from Googling the Box Office receipts for 1990-1997…

Ghost, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, Flatliners, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, City Slickers, The Addams Family, Father of the Bride, Backdraft, Hot Shots!, Lethal Weapon 3, Sister Act, A League of Their Own, Patriot Games, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Cliffhanger, Cop and a Half, The Three Musketeers, The Santa Clause, The Flintstones, Clear and Present Danger, The Mask, Maverick, Batman Forever, Casper, Waterworld, Species, Mission: Impossible, The Rock, The Nutty Professor, Phenomenon, Eraser, Men in Black, Liar Liar, Conspiracy Theory, Dante’s Peak, Anaconda

Personally, I’m having a hard enough time deciding between the current final nominees that I’m not sure I’ll vote in this round. But were I to do so, I would totally be fighting for the following movies:

Kindergarten Cop
Flatliners (the ultimate move for playing 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon)
Father of the Bride
Casper
TMNT
Now and Then, or
Mrs. Doubtfire (it ushered in an unbearable amount of men dressed as women gags that while not particularly bringing me pleasure, they certainly do say something about our generation)

Vote here. There will be one more voting post before this sucker wraps up. Then we’re going to have to think of something else I can blog about bi-weekly.

After reading his post, I went straight to Netflix and added one of the movies to my instant watch list.  And watched it.  Instantly.  Any movie that can have that impact should get my vote – and it did.



Without further ado, the nominees are:  Air Force One, Con Air, The Devil’s Advocate, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Breakdown.



And now here’s my breakdown (get it?):





Air Force One:  Harrison Foooooooord!!  Don’t mess with the prez!  Loved it.

Con Air:  Didn’t see it.

The Devil’s Advocate:  Don’t remember it.

Breakdown:  Didn’t see it.

I Know What You Did Last Summer:  The N’Sync of the millenial-horror genre.  Scream successfully ushered in a slew of bad teenage horror movies and what better movie to define our generation than the first of that onslaught.  Amiright?  Look it wasn’t that great, but that didn’t stop me from watching it 12+ times in high school.  And it certainly didn’t stop me from opening up my web browser and starting this puppy up on the ‘flix.  That’s right y’all.  IKWYDLS gets my vote for 1997.



Big surprise.



Do you agree with my vote? Disagree? Go vote!

Next round is a Wild Card round where Chris will select the movies that people have made a fuss about being missing from the first round (it pays to make a fuss).  Then we’ll select the official winner from the winners.  

And that’ll be it.

I’m using the term “TV” loosely, as we got rid of our TV set in favor of a computer screen that houses the “internet.” Did you know you can watch TV on the “net?” Pret-ty good. 

We watch Project Runway, Flashforward (I say with a little regret), all the NBC-funnies (Parks and Rec, The Office, 30 Rock), Community (driven by Jim), Glee (driven by me), and The Biggest Loser (also driven by me, more specifically by my insatiable desire to cry).

We also have been seeing movies. We saw Up (I cried, oh how I cried). And last Tuesday we saw The Informant. We LOVED The Informant. I can’t remember seeing a movie where the main character was so unlikable.  I was very impressed.  Plus there were so many funny people doing a great job at not being funny! Like Buster from Arrested Development, & Joel McHale, or that guy from 30 Rock.

We also have been using our Netflix, per usual. We watched the John Adams miniseries and enjoyed it immensely. I learned more from this miniseries about American History than I did in 6 years of middle-school/high school history classes. This is more a reflection on my high school than on this HBO mini-series (Go Spartans!).

And now that John Adams is done, we’re watching the first season of Star Trek Next Generation. Currently, we’re 35 minutes into the pilot. I don’t have much to say about it except that the doctor from The Hand that Rocks the Cradle guest stars in it:

Sorry this isn’t a better entry, I’m a bit out of practice. Twitter has ruined me.