Best of 2007

Since everyone else seems to do the "best of" lists at the end of each year, I thought I'd throw out my favorites in a few categories.

Movies:
I didn't see very many in the theater this year, but the ones I did were generally top-notch. Here are the ones that moved me most:
1) Juno. Extremely well done movie. Great dialog, acting, storyline. Funny, sad, dramatic, all at the same time. It's hard to get that combination right.
2) Dan in real life. I usually don't like Steve Carrell but I really liked him here. He created a very lovable, endearing character and I was rooting for him to get the girl!
3) 3:10 to Yuma. I was quite surprised that I liked this one since I generally don't like westerns. But the acting was superb and the drama/tension kept me glued to the screen. I would've preferred a happy ending, though.
4) Michael Clayton. Great, old-fashioned drama with a solid performance from George Clooney.
5) Knocked Up. A little on the gross side, but I liked how this movie raised the societal issue of young guys acting like children. It's so true!
6) Music & Lyrics. Yes, it's cheesy but right up my alley.

There are several that I haven't seen yet, that I have high hopes for. Here's the list: Atonement, Love in the time of cholera, No country for old men and The Kite Runner.


Books:
I made it through some really great books this year -- including a couple that will probably reside in my top 5 for a long time to come. Here they are:
1) A thousand splendid suns. I could not put this one down. I was so moved by the two female characters and I felt sick over the horrible things they had to put up with, cried at the death of one of them and cheered when the other gets her reward.
2) Richistan. This is non-fiction written by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal who writes about the super rich. This book is just packed with detail about how these people live and how they live such different lives from the rest of us that they essentially have their own country that the author has named "Richistan." I think I plowed through this thing in something like three days.
3) The Kite Runner. Disturbing, moving account of two boys in Afghanistan. This one is probably better in terms of the writing quality than A thousand splendid suns (and won more awards), but I think I related to "suns" more because the characters were female. Still, Kite Runner was spell-binding and deeply moving. Wonderful characters.
4) Bridge of sighs. This is the latest from Richard Russo, who wrote Empire Falls -- my all-time favorite book. This one wasn't quite as good, but I liked it because Russo creates such wonderful, deep characters.

TV shows:
I'm starting to get ticked about the writers strike cause there's nothing to watch on TV. I'm subsisting on Netflix, re-runs of Gilmore Girls and movies on HBO. Not sure how much longer I can hold out.

Here are the shows I'm most anxious to see back:
1) Brothers & Sisters. Great cast. Great acting. Need I say more? Oh yeah, and Rob Lowe as eye candy.
2) Gray's Anatomy. I know this gets slammed for being too much of a soap opera, but who can't help but want to know what happens next?
3) Private Practice. This spin-off from Gray's has been thoroughly panned by the critics, but I like it cause it's an escape for me. They live in such a vastly different world than my own, I like to see what happens to them.
4) How I met your mother. This is one of the few shows my husband and I can agree on. The dialog is sharp and witty and they seem to keep coming up with entertaining storylines.
5) The Closer. This TNT drama with Kyra Sedgewick is fun to watch.
6) I'm also eagar to see "24" and Jack Bauer back on the air. It hasn't been on since last May and I haven't heard a peep about when it might be back.

Countdown begins

I've added a new element to my blog (see to the right)...This is from a website called Bush's Last Day where they have this clock counting down the time left in Bush's presidency! You can even buy a real one. I love it!

I also thought I'd use this post to mention this bumper sticker I saw awhile back. It says "1/20/2009 The end of an error". You can buy it here.

Merry Christmas!

Last night, we went to my family's in Stillwater for dinner, presents, a birthday celebration for my cousin Tom and a visit from Santa. We had a great time. Check out the pics...

My big surprise

I (sort of) got my Christmas present today. My husband told me earlier this week that it was going to be a Sirirus satellite radio for my car. So he asked if he could take my car today for a few hours and I said yes. When he came home, he handed me a package and said I should open it now. It was one of those dealership promotion books for the Toyota Prius!

He had been planning to actually get the car today and have me come out to the garage on the pretense of seeing my new "radio", but the dealer screwed up and didn't have the right model and it's going to be about a month before we can get the right one. So Jamey was disappointed that he couldn't shock me, however, I was plenty shocked. I've really, really wanted a Prius for quite a long time, but didn't push it cause we need a bigger car more.

To make it even better, the car is my favorite color -- red -- and it DOES have Sirirus satellite radio, too!

Update on the house

We've made a lot of progress on the house this fall and it really shows on the main floor. Below is a slideshow of some of the main rooms. The front door and entry way, the half bathroom vanity and light fixtures throughout are among the newest items. You can also see that we decorated for Christmas -- the first time in two years!

Still left: upstairs bathroom, the two guest rooms, kitchen and a few things in Jamey's "man room" (the first floor bedroom).

Rice and vocabulary

I heard a story on NPR this week about a website where you can hone your vocabulary and help feed the hungry. It's called FreeRice.com.

It was created by an average guy who wanted to make a little game to help his son boost his SAT score. He was also an advocate for poverty issues, so he recruited advertisers for his site. The way it works is that for every right answer you get in the vocabulary game, they will donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations. It's paid for by the advertisers.

As you play the game, the level of difficulty goes up to challenge you. It even tells you want level (1 to 50) that you're on. I quickly jumped up to level 40 and was getting words I had never heard of! They give you 5 possible answers and you pick the one that matches, so it's more of a multiple choice thing.

Something fun

Today we launched a new searchable database that I built showing the popularity of baby names in Minnesota. This one isn't related to any news story and has more curiosity factor than anything else. But we're hoping it will attract a lot of readers (which brings us ad money to pay my salary!).

Congress actually does something right

Today Congress finally passed legislation patching the tax code so that middle-income Americans (like me!) don't get hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax on their 2007 taxes. Bush says he's going to sign it. That's the good news. The bad news is that the fix is only for one year. We desperately need them to fix this permanently.

Christmas cookies

For those of you rushing to make Christmas cookies in the next week, you might want to check out this little database that I built for the Pioneer Press. It contains cookie recipes that readers submitted to us last month. This page allows you to search by type of cookie, name or even on any given ingredient. When we were building this application, the food editor, who oversees this recipe thing every year, was thrilled to work with someone who actually knew her way around a recipe! It was kind of fun, too - although a big departure from what I usually work on. This is an example of where my skills are needed for far more than just "news" and I find myself helping simply because there isn't anybody else to do it.

Highway 14

The Star Tribune has a story today about Highway 14, the main highway that runs across southern Minnesota and skirts the edge of my hometown, Kasson. I've driven that highways thousands upon thousands of times going back and forth to Rochester or between Kasson and New Ulm, when I worked there earlier in my career. The story says the two-lane portions of the highway make it the most deadly roadway in the state of Minnesota. They've been talking about widening that road for as long as I can remember. Scary that the state can't seem to get it done.