Aren’t we the coolest?
Happy birthday to my wonderful wife yesterday!
I got her some sweet flowers, took her to dinner at Olive Garden and we both got these awesome cell phones!
What a great day!
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, rated PG for thematic elements, scary situations and brief language, was not THE worst movie I have ever seen, though that’s what I said as we left the theater this weekend.
I can’t exactly explain why I disliked this movie so much, except to say that it was just NOT entertaining. Sure, Jim Carey is once again his typical character-acting self. My brother-in-law, Rich pointed out that he is ONLY this type of actor and, therefore, is probably only good at this type of acting.
The movie’s plot is intense, just not entertaining.
From Jess’ perspective, the movie followed the book that she read (#1) and therefore made the movie “good”.
I was bored throughout the entire thing.
While in South Carolina for Christmas, we did not have the benefit of a typical Indiana “White Christmas”. Today, however, we woke up to the wonderful whiteness in Bluffton, Indiana during our “Garrett Family Christmas”!
Pretty, huh?!
After enjoying some of the white-scenery and being the first to wake up and get ready, it was time to open presents with the family.
Rich (brother-in-law) and I both received the Lord Of The Rings: Return of the King extended version DVD from Mom and Dad Garrett, along with some sweet zip-hoodies and of course, pajamas!
Rich and I couldn’t help but notice a sweet scarf that we just HAD to try for ourselves:
Don’t we look fabulous?
Of course a Garrett-family photo was taken and here are the “orginal” Garretts:
We left Mom and Dad Garrett’s sometime after 2 and did some “around-town” visiting. We even got to stop in and visit a bit with “Uncle Matt and Aunt Melanie” who were temporarily housing Great-Grandma Payne:
Next stop was “Uncle Brett and Aunt Jodi’s” and then an across-town hunt for Uncle Brett and the girls who were “sledding”. Sledding in Indiana doesn’t usually include any hills, though it DOES include a 4-wheeler and a “train” of sleds attached! Incredible.
After our time in Bluffton, we jumped back on the road to Ft. Wayne for an evening with the Pates. Wes and Ellen met us at Old Navy and our evening included shopping, a movie (“Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”), dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse, and a drink at Starbucks.
We always enjoy our “evenings with the Pates”. Tonight was no different.
When we arrived back in Warsaw, we were warned that Warsaw, too had been snowed upon.
That was no joke.
before.
after.
It was a fun-filled weekend in Bluffton/Ft. Wayne. It’s good to be back and good to be tired.
Big day tomorrow. Go Colts!
The “One For All Universal Remote URC 8810” is an incredible $20 purchase from Wal-Mart.
Craig Helfrich purchased this remote from Wal-Mart and it has been nothing short of a “miracle worker” in their home! What was a fiasco of looking for the right remote (DVD, Satellite, TV, Receiver, OTHER Satellite, etc.) is now a “pick it up and go” situation with this one single remote.
The URC 8810 allows for up to 8 input devices to be controlled by one remote!
The package claims that this remote contains the most inclusive Infra Red Code library and that proved true as every single device we set up in the Helfrich home was either listed in the handbook or found through a simple “search feature” on the remote itself.
One problem we found was that with Craig’s ONKYO receiver, we couldn’t switch to the DVD inputs, though we could change to all of the other inputs with the remote. This was going to be a problem until we read about the “learning” feature of the remote. Through this feature, we were actually able to “teach” the new remote to switch to the DVD inputs by programing it to learn how the “old” remote performed this function! Incredible.
For a guy who LOVES technology and is always trying to stay immersed in the latest/greatest, this remote blew me away!
Check it out on One For All’s website here.
Troy, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, is one of those “Epic Tales” that has been begging Hollywood to make a worthy-movie out of.
Hollywood, in typical “Hollywood Fashion” made the tale believable, amazing, and yet hurt it with their favorite non-needed addition: “skin”. Troy, rated R for graphic violence and some sexuality/nudity, is tainted with the unnecessary occurance of some “Brad Pitt Booty” as well as some other revealing shots of a couple of the female characters. Sad that Hollywood decided that this was “needed” to tell this story.
Nudity aside, the movie is incredible. From special effects to storyline, the movie kept me in its clutches from the opening sequence.
Like any book-turned-movie, this one made me want to re-watch with the Illiad in-hand to see how much is correctly matched.
A high-end acting staff makes this movie enjoyable and will definitely be remembered for years and years.
We haven’t purchased this one yet, but the DVD-version includes a second disc FULL of extra features that will probably cause salivating for any who are into the “how’d they do that” genre of movie-watching!
