Life Update and Movies

Since I haven't posted about my life lately, I thought I'd do a small update. :)

Other than work, Aquarium report (it lingers!), the pets, movies, and nail polish, life is pretty much the same. Reading and Harry Potter have sort of felt abandonment issues given my new found love in nail polish and movies/tv shows. Right now, it's mostly just nail polish and movies since TV shows have tapered off and I'm waiting for the summer shows to kick in.

I can actually say, of all the nail polishes I own -- I own quite a few and will never say on here how many I have -- that I have used EVERY single polish I own! It was a crazy few days of swatching (think of a paint "swatch" when you're trying to figure out what color to paint your house/room in as to what "nail swatching" is) and smelling fumes (admittedly, I don't smell/remember nail polish fumes much anymore), but I did it! I'm quite proud of myself because I never liked having so many untried polishes and now I can say I've tried them all! It's a matter of keeping up with them now, which isn't a big deal. I also found a great combo for chunky glitters to make them smooth. So, in the nail department, I'm a rather happy camper. :)

Work is going okay. We've had our employee drama and, for the most part, it's calmed down some. We have some minor issues here-and-there, but it's pretty good. One of our favorite employees left us for another job the other day so we're trying to get into the swing of our new employee (who happens to be a friend of the employee who left). Work is still showing me quite the personal look at consumerism. I still buy the odd-ball item that I just think is an amazing deal, but you definitely learn what is considered a "good deal" and what is actually "unique" while working here. I will say, for as much plasticware as companies create and the amount people donate, no one wants to buy it even if it's super, super cheap. Glassware (pyrex for example) and metalware (tin pans, etc) sell far better, which makes you wonder why plastic has been so popular!

I did, I can say, update my "books coming out" list last night and found out one of my favorite childhood authors (Robin Jones Gunn) had new books involving the Christy Miller world that I TOTALLY missed somehow! They were snuck in somehow without me knowing late last year...At any rate, read the last Katie book last night (read it in 3.5 hours...) and I loved it. It was a good ending and I'm hoping she'll continue Katie's adventures because I can see there being PLENTY more adventures there. Sierra's book I haven't read and she wrote another book that is, pretty much, standalone, but it has Todd's dad in it! Yes, oh yes, I do need to read those two. End of summer/fall is the best time of the year for books this year for me. It was last year too.

With that said...Pets are good. Having to re-potty train the rabbits because we were really bad with changing their box so they unpottytrained themselves. At least re-potty training isn't too bad, but their rug and old blanket both had to go since they pee'd all over it. We bought them a new blanket from Goodwill and have to figure out how to redo their pen situation since we want to utilize the cubes and take up less space with them, but the cubes can't support the pen on top and aren't strong upon to be on top of the pen either. Conundrums...

TV show this summer I'm looking forward to Suits! Yes! I'm hoping it can keep up its momentum because I really enjoyed it last summer and it's rewatchable worthy (i.e., DVD buying worthy). I will get season 1 eventually...I'm currently rewatching all of Numb3rs, which I haven't done in a little over a year (I tend to rewatch it every year or so). I also want to buy season 1 of Once Upon a Time. That season finale BLEW my mind away. Did NOT see that coming, but I also wasn't reading interviews either so I was totally in the dark. Excellent show and Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin is by far my favorite character.

With that...On to movies! I've been watching a lot of "not on my radar" movies lately. These will help me make my goal...Because they're on my radar, they'll mostly be PG-13 action/suspense films.

Men in Black 3 (Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin) - It's a decent film. I can't say it's fantastic and it's not as good as the first one (a film sequel rarely is!), but I enjoyed it. Brolin made an interesting young Agent K. You still don't learn a whole lot about why K is the way he is, but you did have a small insight into Agent J's father. The bad guy was okay. You wish the movie was a little funnier, though. It falls a little flat like there should have been laughs where there just weren't any. I liked the film, but would probably recommend a movie rental for most people. Grade: B-/C+

Rampart (Woody Harrelson) - I got this just because Harrelson was in it and I was looking for something to watch. I sporadically watched it so this review is probably not reliable, but it is a drama and, mostly, chronicles the trouble that Harrelsons's character (a cop) gets into. He has sex with a lot of random women, is distant with his two daughters, uses police brutality to get people to confess and even, "the big problem," is caught on film beating a man. It's a rather downer of a film, but you do learn whether he did really "commit" a crime he is nicknamed for. It's good acting and it's nice to see Harrelson in a more "serious" role than the ones I've seen him in recently, but it's not the typical film I'd normally enjoy watching. Grade: C

Contraband (Mark Wahlberg) - Finding a film to watch, again, this one was kind of interesting in the fact Wahlberg's character is a top-notch smuggler. His wife's nephew or brother-in-law or something gets into trouble (lost several hundred thousand dollars worth of drugs) and he's threatened and Wahlberg's family is also threatened if they can't come up with the money to replace the drugs. Wahlberg who used to smuggle stuff in all the time (fake cash for instance) is out of the game to protect his family, but decides to take on a job to get the money to protect his family. The story unfolds in two parts: 1) Wahlberg trying to get the stuff to smuggle and is on a cargo ship to central America and 2) Wahlberg's family back home and the "thugs" and "best friend" interacting with them. Movie is sort of bland in the middle and kind of picks up towards the end when you figure out who is behind the threats to his family and how he got his "goods" (counterfeit money) into the country after his ship was searched. My normal type of "fluff action," albeit the topic isn't one I normally gravitate towards. Grade: C+

Gone (Amanda Seyfried) - Sort of a suspense thriller (or maybe it was supposed to be?). Basically Seyfried's character was kidnapped, but no one believes her. Her sister disappears and she's convinced it was the same man who kidnapped her and goes to the police and they don't believe her. So she heads out on the hunt to find the man who kidnapped her sister. It winds around and up and down and gets to the end. It's a somewhat interesting end, but nothing surprising. It was not that great. Grade: C-/D+

Man on a Ledge (Sam Worthington) - Having seen the trailer for it more times than I wanted to, I had to watch it just to see what happened. It's actually a little more interesting than I suspected. I thought it would be more man on the ledge trying to proclaim his innocence and then it'd flashback to what happened, but...it actually was more flashback, man on ledge proclaiming innocence, while, at the same time, a break in is occurring to prove his innocence. The cast was really kind of funny as I kept ticking off all the movies/TV shows I've seen them all in recently (a lot of B actors). It was more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be (did induce some palm sweating), but it still wasn't great. Grade: C

Up to 46 movies now! Snow White and the Huntsman comes out Friday, Brave June 22nd, and I've got 6 films coming out in June I want to see on DVD. So...54 movies by end of June? Maybe. :)