"Where's Those Ottomans At??"

I am thankful. (yes, a day late, a buck short). Speaking of a buck short, what I am most thankful for is that the GST/HST rebate finally showed it's little face in my mailbox. Time to beat back those wolves.

I'm thankful for a government that condescends to me by sending a quarterly pittance to 'make up' for the anal raping I take every time I purchase something non-grocery related. It ain't a perfect system but at least now I have some cash until the next pay comes in. The first half of the month is such a bitch, financially speaking.

A family friend gifted the girls and I a bag of VHS tapes, mostly kids movies, but there's a few grown-up goodies as well. One I look forward to is Scarface as it's one of those 'What-do-you-mean-you've-never-seen' movies. The first one was Reservoir Dogs. Okay, truthfully, the first one was the Princess Bride. In public school the phenomenon began.. "You've never seen the Princess Bride??" Ditto Labrynth. I think I was 22 and 25 respectively when I finally saw these two films.

However, Reservoir Dogs was the catalyst for a project I embarked on last year, where I endeavored to watch a movie a week over the span of a year, in order to finally see all of those 'must-sees' that I had missed over the years. Having solicited suggestions from a number of friends, I compiled a list around the time of my birthday. Some friends chipped in on a gift of five of the films listed. Over time, I got around to watching, oh about four of the films. Yup, those five I was gifted.

Having given myself a deadline, I became defiant and whenever I had a spare moment to movie-watch, I would find myself watching something I already knew and loved.

The 52 in 52 project was pretty much an epic fail. Such is life. At any rate, I have suggestions now on the odd occasion I decide to rent a movie.

I love watching previews from old videos. Tonight the girls popped in Ernest Scared Stupid (the under-rated comedic stylings of Jim Varney is a blog for another night) and the previews included Newsies (Christian Bale looks so YOUNG!), Straight Talk (Dolly Parton plays a advice 'Doctor' who is really an average nobody, a role Ashely Judd would reprise years later in Someone Like You - minus Giant Boobs, Giant Hair, and Giant Southern Accent) and one of my personal favorites, Encino Man. The under-rated appeal of Brendan Fraser is yet another blog for another night.

The best previews are the ones like Encino Man that are so horribly dated.. the music, the styles, the vast amounts of neon.. the idea that Pauly Shore was kind of funny. Gooood Times.

I just pulled Banana Bread out of the oven. It. Smells. Goo-oood. That's right, good enough for an extra syllable.