Angels & Demons sneak peek and Other News

During Michael's quest for gainful employment, a fellow at the Armani store gave him a free pass for two to go see Angels & Demons tonight. Not sure why, but I don't care. I haven't seen a movie in awhile and since Michael's been unemployed, we had to hold off on seeing some of the new blockbusters for a bit :o( But free tickets are good and free babysitters are even better! Thanks to Beth for being available on really short notice...you rock!

The movie doesn't release until this Friday so security was a little ridiculous for the movie. They searched my purse and they even used those metal detector thingies from the airport to sweep people's bodies. They were banning cell phones and all recording equipment to prevent the movie from leaking early. I honestly don't understand why people do that; the quality is always terrible and it's really kind of sad when you think about it--I mean come on, you took a picture of a movie on your cell phone?! You. are. so. cool. [eye roll] Anyway, security wasn't all that vigilant because they not only missed my cell phone but my hidden stash of Sour Patch Kids and Peanut M&M's that I had snuck in. It's so funny... I was more worried about those being found than my phone, LOL!

I've read the book and I have to say, this was a very good adaptation of the book. I made sure that I did NOT reread the book before I saw the movie; I did that with Harry Potter #5 and came away hating it. When it finally came out on DVD and I watched it again, it was WAAAAY better. As with any book that gets made into a movie, there are going to be scenes and mini plots that get cut, but I didn't truly miss anything they'd taken out. The action moved along fairly quickly, but not so fast that you couldn't understand what was going on and the story flowed smoothly. I have to say, by far, my favorite scene is [SPOILER ALERT - if you've read the book, this won't matter - skip to the next paragraph if you'd rather not know] where the bomb explodes in the sky. It was freaking A-MAZE-ING. I get chills just thinking about, it was really well done and beautiful. I would believe in just about anything had I experienced that in real life.

My only issues with the film are that I kind of feel that the Camerlengo is skewed from the beginning, and they make reference to Langdon's previous escapades with the Church, which if we want to be picky (and we will), Angels and Demons happens BEFORE the Da Vinci Code. I swear that the first film references the events from Angels and Demons but Michael says no. Of course, I am now obligated to try and prove him wrong. Ok, and one more thing: when you see a story like this that has the main character endure so much, you hope to see them change somehow. While I know that the character of Robert Langdon will always remain skeptical of religion and God, I felt saddened that he didn't seem to change at all. Michael did point out that his last lines infer that he will be pondering the words of the cardinal and hopefully gain some sort of spiritual insight and that made me feel better. You should always care about a character; otherwise, what's the point of telling the story?

Overall, great movie and we had a lot of fun going out and seeing a sneak preview of a new movie before most everyone else! Tomorrow night, we see Rent! Yay! Advance thank you to Michelle & Caitlyn... Billa is going to have fun playing with her aunties!

[Yawn] And before I sign off, I have to announce that Michael has found gainful employment... he is now going to be working for Harley Davidson! How neat is that? We are very thankful for this opportunity; prayer is a powerful thing :o) Michael will post some later as he finds out more. We haven't heard anything from Ghosthunters yet; we might not, we'll see, but as always, we'll keep you posted. Tomorrow I promise that I will post some cute pictures of Billa. I need to play with the settings on my camera though as I seem to be having to do a lot of editing and color work on the pictures we've been taking which makes me think that someone has been playing with something they shouldn't have...

And now, it's night-night time!
Love,
Kelly & the Gang

So this ghost walks into a bar...

Over the last few weeks, Michael and I have started an impromptu ritual on Wednesday evenings. My coworker Beth and her dog Brodie come over and we make dinner, share a bottle of wine, play with the baby before putting her to bed and then the three of us adults (and Brodie and Gumerry) all settle in to watch Ghosthunters. This new found ritual prompted Michael to visit the show's website and do additional research on ghosthunting. He discovered that GH was doing a casting call for a new member on the team. On a whim, he sent an email and then promptly forgot about it.

WEEEEELLLLL...yesterday Michael got a phone call from an unrecognized number and the accompanying message was from the casting director for the show wanting to talk to him!!! They played phone tag for a bit and then finally the guy got ahold of Michael while we were at the grocery store. I had to laugh...here's Michael walking down the rice and beans aisle discussing paranormal activity and the people around us are looking at us funny. After chatting for a few minutes, the guy asked Michael to tape a demo and fill out the app for the show. HOW COOL IS THAT!? Especially since Michael is currently looking for a job (which by the way, if anyone has any leads, please let us know!!!)

Being actors, we are very familiar with the "don't call us, we'll call you" routine so we're really shocked that Michael even got a phone call. They must really like him! We have no idea what will come out of this, but we are so excited. We'll keep you posted on what happens.

Until then,
Kelly & the Gang

27 Years...Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 27th birthday! Thank you to everyone for all of their well-wishes!

I decided that since most birthdays after 21 get overlooked (with the exception of 25, 30, 40, etc) I wanted to do something different and extra special to commemorate 27 years on this earth. I haven't really done much for myself lately and so I decided to get my ears pierced for the FIRST TIME EVER. Yeah, I know... I have a tattoo and gave birth with no drugs and I've been terrified of a piercing gun. My boss was so sweet and let me out of work early, so I met Kellie at the mall and got my ears done at Claire's. I decided on some really cute sparkly CZ studs so I have some pizazz for the next six weeks. I was so terrified by it until the girl punched the first one in and then I was like, "Oh. Yeah that really doesn't hurt that bad after all." Kellie just laughed.

My ears BEFORE (and yes, Billa has a shiner...the child is going through a growth spurt. Gives a whole new meaning to "growing pains!")

My ears AFTER... aren't they pretty? (Now you know where Billa gets her eye color from! And yes, I am wearing one of her barettes)

Michael got me a pair of lovely silver filigree earrings and a brand new icing spatula...weird, yes, but when you're a baker, it's nice to get a top of the line piece of equipment! Michael's mom gave me a pair of tickets to go see Rent next week, which I've never seen onstage and have always wanted to. (Let's see...who shall I take? I'm going to go with...T-Pain! I'm on a boat...) Now to find a babysitter...

My cousin Katy finally sent me Billa's birthday present and with it were some lovely treats for me: a really cool spoon rest made by a local potter on Denman Island, BC and some honest to goodness Denman Island chocolate. Heck yes! Billa's present was also a gift for me since it is a new edition of one of my most favoritest books from my childhood: Garbage Delight, which is kooky Canadian poetry at it's best. This new version includes new poetry along with some of my old favorites. I just about cried tears of joy I was so excited and overcome with nostalgia.

Right before they left for their honeymoon, Mike and Trisa gave me a really cute set of appetizer plates from Williams Sonoma that have vintage fruit advertisements on them. Tres mignon! They also gave me a fabulous coffee table book on a wedding cake designer out of New York who does AMAZING work. I've already thumbed through it a million times.

My friend John from work surprised me with a "Death by Chocolate" cake. He knows of my love for all things dark chocolate and we frequently share bits of high quality chocolate and discuss wine pairings with them when we're bored...er, have a free moment at work ;o) Beth, my fellow Birthday Brigade buddy, got me a cute card with cupcakes all over it and a really neat balloon. I do wish she had gotten me the Dora the Explorer balloon after all, but oh well!

All in all, it was a great day made especially great by all the phone calls, email and Facebook well wishes (you know who you are!). I thank you all for making my 27th birthday super special!

Love to you all,
Kelly

Easter Pix and 100th Post!

Wow! It's our one hundredth post! Hard to believe I started this little venture a little over a year ago. Yeah, I forgot the blog's birthday. Oh well, 100th post is way cooler I think. So to celebrate our 100th posting, I'm going to finally post some of the Easter pix I got from my parents. The pictures below are some of our favorites. And in case you're wondering, the black corners are where the shutter on my mom's camera were sticking. I think a certain someone with sticky waffle fingers was playing with something she shouldn't have...

Billa shows off her Thriller dance

One happy (and very tired) family with their spoils

Michael finds an egg in the pyrocanthus...watch those thorns Daddy!

An extra inch or two from the gene pool would have been really nice right about now!

Wait, the treat is INSIDE the egg!? Well, that explains a lot!

Billa reaches for an egg

So there you go! I'll post the complete album through Picasa which you can access to the right in the sidebar. Happy one hundred, Pencil of War!

Adios amigos,
Kelly & the Gang

Michael's commercial

UPDATE: Well, they liked it. Michael is filming the reel deal (haha!) on Wednesday. Everybody rides!



So here is my test commercial for Victory Motors in Victoria, TX. I hope they like it. P.S.: Everybody rides!

-Michael