Category Archives: Newsies

Basement Film Fest

Posted on 11.08.2011 | 7 Comments

Last night I was cruising HBO On Demand and saw that The First Wives Club was available.

Hit movie, I know.

Why this particular title appealed to me at 8:30 PM on a Monday night is a total mystery.

But as I watched, it very quickly became apparent to me that I blacked out the majority of that movie, most likely because the first time I saw it I wasn’t even in high school.  Watching the beginning the first half of the movie?  Was depressing as hell.

Apparently there was a part of my subconscious that just wanted to be…sad.

Honest-to-goodness, the best part (AKA the part that made it manageable) was probably watching SJP, as a newer actress circa 15 years ago.

And oh, by the way, did anyone else realize that she was one of the witches in Hocus Pocus?

Because that was definitely news to me.

For a change of scenery, tonight I decided to watch Forks Over Knives. 

Controversial (I just have a hunch), but FAR less of an emotional rollercoaster.

I attempted to watch that one for the first time a couple of months ago and ended up getting sucked into a vortex of extreme multi-tasking.  Which is not exactly the best for watching anything.

But I was inspired by the interview series that The Washington Post is doing with Michael Pollan (Part I, Part II, Part III), so I thought it might be good to give it another shot.

If you’ve read all of the Whole Food Manifestos like Food Rules, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, or have watched Food, Inc., then you might find the situation to be a little bit redundant.

It all boils down to the #1 Food Rule: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

And if you fail at following Rule #1, you’ll probably catch cancer/the diabetes/a heart attack.

Pretty straightforward stuff.

If you haven’t read/watched any of the above books/movies, then it could be worth a whirl.  And even though they explicitly tell you all about why you shouldn’t eat meat, none of the footage will put you off meat forever like the footage/stories in some of the other aforementioned materials.

Which is a good thing, I think.

What’s the most terrible movie you have seen lately?

Have you read any of Michael Pollan’s books?

p.s. If you haven’t been yet, make sure to head over to Inside Nana Bread’s Head to check out the delicious Bananas Foster Fried Pies that Jeanne actioned for our Pie Week festivities!

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Posted in Foodies, Movies, Newsies

Over and Under and Through

Posted on 08.22.2011 | 16 Comments

Today was my first day of rocking the 7:30 AM -2:30 PM schedule.  The day flew by, it was fantastic.

The best part?  My hair still looks somewhat “alive” by the time that we’re headed into the 2:00 PM hour.  Ameena, you know what I’m talking about ;)

I originally had visions of me running down to the Social Security Office after work (it closes at 3:30) to apply for a new social security card.  But when Google Maps routed me around downtown instead of through it, that was the end of that.

At this point (we’re well into two months now, kittens) I’ll be taking the lazy way out and mailing the application (along with my documents) directly to them.

Yes, this means I’m trust falling into The System.

Following that 15 minute “detour” on my way home, I went for a run and marveled at the glories of finishing before 4:30 PM.

There were many.

I admired my birthday flowers.

(It’s on Sunday).

I know.  Only six roses?

Bear with me.

I bargained with Marcus and told him that instead of sending an ostentatious bouquet to work, I would rather pick up a bouquet from ALDI every week (~$3.99) for the next year and arrange it.

Practical?  Or fantastic?  Your call.

I actioned our weekly pan of croutons.

Which I attempted to dump half of into the bottom of our oven.  While it was on.  Thankfully, Disaster was averted.

For my final act (the Social Security Office thing left me feeling less-than-accomplished), I did a bit of decluttering, involving our Windex and Pledge bottles.

After that ’bout of Hardcore Productivity, I took A Moment For Me and attended to my mitts.  They were looking tragic to the point of Downright Shamefulness.

Don’t even pretend.  Your at-home nail spa looks the same.

Lap of Luxury.  Right here.

I took a moment to catch-up with the New York Times Magazine on the deck.  I wanted to finish it so that I could throw it away, and I was craving the sun and fresh air.

I was tickled.  I still can’t decide which one is my favorite.

And if you’d like to see it more clearly, click here.

At this point, y’all probably think that I live a charmed life.

But no good deed goes unpunished.  While I was in the midst of our declutter, I decided to run the dishwasher.

The Traitor Dishwasher Returns

MISTAKE.

As my luck would have it, That Devil Thing decided to pick today to die.  Which I discovered when it refused to drain or complete a full cycle.

On the list of sights you never, EVER want to see after dinner, put this one at the top of the list, please.

After watching Marcus perform mouth-to-mouth on one of the drainage tubes (apparently The Internet Said So) and watching the ensuing sludgy brown water dribble out, I forced him to close down shop and seek Expert Advice.  It seemed like The Only Sane Thing To Do.

Have you ever replaced a dishwasher before?  Do you have any advice?

Do you keep fresh flowers around the house?

What is your favorite move from the 2011 Rock Paper Scissors page?

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Posted in Insanity, nesting, Newsies, Work

Napping and News-ing

Posted on 04.03.2011 | 12 Comments

Story of my life: This weekend has been Nap Central.

Fact: Today I realized that over the past five months, I had completely forgotten how exhausting long runs are.

When I’m actually making them happen?  I’m the picture of perkiness and energy.  They feel great!  I’m in the zone!

But afterward?  I’m ready to curl up into a ball, channel a hibernating grizzly and sleep for an entire day.  To the point where I actually have to schedule a naptime for myself in order to make sure that I can survive the evening hours.

If you’re looking for a comparison, it’s like being…mono tired.  I literally have to fling my body into bed.

Yesterday?  There was napping.  Today?  There was napping.

Tomorrow?  No napping.  You have to get over it and move on at some point.

But in the here and the now, it is just rough.

Let’s play a fun game, shall we?

It’s called, WTF is wrong with this picture?

Begin.

Before snapping this picture, Marcus made sure to find out whether or not I wanted my feet to be included.

No, it’s not the fact that I STILL haven’t gotten my hair did.

At this point, I like to think that I’m rocking the ombre-hair trend…in reverse.

So classy, I know.

But not really the point.

If your answer was: Kat, why do you have an actual print-copy of the newspaper? then you win.

The New York Times’ paywall went up on March 28th, right?  And I made it a whole two days reading section fronts and Playing By The Rules until I was informed that I had to pay up or give up.

At which point I sucked it up, paid for my Sunday-only subscription, and chuckled to myself about the fact that in order to enjoy unlimited online usage I was actually helping their circulation numbers.

So today, I dedicated a portion of my afternoon to enjoying a good old-fashioned flip through the paper.  Yes, perusing it with my morning coffee would have made more sense, but I completely forgot that it was coming until we were pulling away from the house to go grocery shopping.

Timing aside, it was actually quite lovely, and a Sunday activity I’d be more than happy to make a habit.  Especially since newspapers aren’t as good for hoarding as magazines are. ;)

When is the last time that you picked up an honest-to-goodness newspaper?

Honestly, before this, I think that the last time would have been when I was in college working at The Minnesota Daily.

Are you a napper-by-nature?

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Posted in cozy, Fact., Newsies, WORK IT

Shades of Grey

Posted on 12.27.2010 | 10 Comments

I’m not a detox-er by nature, but it’s safe to say that my body is appreciating my return to keeping regular hours, appropriate amounts of fitness (AKA Operation: Run Until My Legs Fall Off is over until next Thanksgiving) and the embrace of a food pyramid that doesn’t make its base of salted butter and sugar that have been creamed together on a low setting.

Amen.

Since this week is New Years’ and all that jazz, I figure there will be a fair amount of mental heavy-lifting later this week as I attempt to recollect the fantastically beautiful mess that was 2010.

Until then, something somewhat less taxing.

You see, despite the fact that I spend the majority of every month getting just buried under magazines, eventually I get around to reading them.  And most of the time, with a little bit of elbow grease and a lot of luck, I manage to tuck them away by the end of said month.

Roll with me.

Even if you didn’t see Ma Vie en Rose (I definitely fall into that category), I think we all fell in-love with Marion Cotillard when she wore that gorgeous, scale-patterned Jean Paul Gaultier frock to the Academy Awards in 2008.  Her look was just heartbreakingly perfect.

So imagine my surprise when I found her Shades of Grey for Lady Dior ad campaign stalking me across the pages of Vogue. And ELLE. And Vanity Fair.  And W.

Yeah, Marion and I, we’ve been spending a lot of quality time together.

Ferosh

I think that what I love about her look here, is that it just seems so…attainable.  Even though that’s kind of the standard for luxury accessories.

I mean, yes, she might be in the London Eye with a Dior bag in-tow.  But her look is more GUESS by Marciano than Versace.  More Kate Bosworth than Kate Moss.  I attribute it to the Superior Hair.

Regardless, I’m addicted.

Do you do a post-holiday detox?

Advertisement-lovers, what’s the best print ad you’ve seen lately?

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Posted in Faves, Mags, Newsies, Style

Cross my heart…

Posted on 11.05.2010 | 7 Comments

When I’ve had more than a few drinks, I become a pinky-promiser.  One of my key platforms this fall for pinky-promises revolves around the premise that women get married, have children, and then proceed to cut off all of their hair.

Which begs the question, por que?

Seriously, why we’re compelled to do this at the most vulnerable moment in our life (hopped up on hormones, still rocking the baby weight, bloaty) is completely beyond me.

Thankfully, this is one of those times when the lamestream media (it’s my favorite Palinism)  is there to back me up.

NYT: Why Can’t Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair?

For the record, when I’m 40, if I don’t have Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader hair, I will be pissed.

Are you a drunk pinky-promiser?

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Posted in Newsies, por que?

One-pot Mysteries: Solved

Posted on 10.27.2010 | 4 Comments

So I bought The Pioneer Woman Cooks for my birthday, right?

And then I spent the last month and a half gradually acquainting Marcus with the idea of homemade chili.  The man loves meat and the man loves beans.  But for some reason that the fates did not reveal to me until tonight, he was irrationally repulsed by the idea of mixing the two in a hearty sauce.

But there’s nothing better on a cold and windy day than a big pot of chili and all of the fixins.  So after work, once I hopped off the treadmill, I hopped onto Ree’s Simple, Perfect Chili. 

It was simple.  Perfect. 

It was also Marcus’ first chili night ever (which explains more than a lot).  I had no idea.  Until he surveyed the table (loaded with cornbread, honey, butter, shredded cheese, diced onion and plain greek yogurt…AKA fixins) and said, “So THIS is chili night.”

Amen.

What’s your comfort food of choice when shivering season strikes?

p.s. Separately, given the magnitude of this news, I have no idea as to how it slipped my mind until now.  But I think it’s high time that we take a moment of silence for the passing of el Pulpo Paul.  His tentacled clairvoyance touched us all.

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Posted in Cooking, cozy, Newsies

March of the Penguins…

Posted on 10.01.2010 | 1 Comment

 I usually try to avoid bombarding you.  Because let’s be serious.  Once a day is really enough to keep our bond strong.

I like to think that it keeps the mystery alive.

But this, THIS has been weighing on my heart all day.  And we all know the best way to work through this sort of thing is to talk it out.

So here we are.

I think you should read this.

NYT: Extinct Penguin Wore Earth Tones, Fossil Shows

No, seriously.  Read that.

Don’t say I didn’t try.

So, here’s my thing.  Prehistoric penguins didn’t look like the penguins we know from festively accurate movies like Surf’s Up and Happy Feet or even the exhibit at the zoo.  We get it.  Even though Cro-Magnon Man and Woman wouldn’t have been able to identify their coloring as being “tuxedoed,” we totally care about that sort of thing.

(And who is to say that the Penguins weren’t sporting the tuxedo of the time, honestly?)

What I want to know is why NO ONE is concerned about the fact that the damn thing was ~5 feet tall and had giant beak. 

Forget the tuxedo, prehistoric penguin was not a cute movie-bird with fluffy feathers and a heart full of love.  Prehistoric penguin was a behemoth varmint that was probably hunting us and tearing us to shreds.

But seriously, I swear-to-God I’m more concerned about whether or not it was sporting a tuxedo that was epoch-appropriate.

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Posted in Newsies

The Streak Continues

Posted on 04.26.2010 | Leave a comment

I feel like Mondays span the good, the bad and the ugly.

One Monday I almost left the house without shoes (don’t ask).  That was a pretty ridiculous Monday.

Today?  I continued my bad movie-watching streak and Marcus and I streamed the Year One.  Chances of finishing it tonight?  Slim.  And honestly, it’s not particularly humorous.  But the bizarre transition between time periods in pre-history give it just enough flair to keep pressing on.  By “flair” I mean that every five minutes you recognize another historical character.  Then you go back to working on whatever else it was that you had at hand.

Marcus’ Monday?  Involved a bike ride (and by “a bike ride” I mean the first of the season) that sapped all of his energy.  I ain’t seen my man like that since last Ju-ly.  The moral of the story?  No more bike rides for him.

So yes, in a nutshell, tonight was completely mundane.

On a completely different aside, since soy products are very vogue (for lack of a better term), Slate’s Explainer tackles the topic of Hexane in veggie burgers.  Especially timely since I took a moment to lecture Mom about the issue yesterday.

Is Your Veggie Burger Killing You?

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Posted in Mags, Movies, Newsies

Astonish me.

Posted on 04.23.2010 | Leave a comment

Since I did hard time in the University of Minnesota’s SJMC (Journalism School), a light side-by-side comparison of advertisements always gives me a little jolly.

Except in this instance, it was more of the downright hysterical, laugh-so-hard-you-cry-ilk.

Because thanks to Slate, we have a side-by-side slide show comparison of tampon and ladies’ cigarette ads.

These Short-Shorts are Empowering!

Unreal.

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Posted in Faves, Newsies

Pros and Cons: The Rational Way

Posted on 04.22.2010 | Leave a comment

Running outside.  It’s been like a whole week now.

Pro: I don’t have to stare at the men’s bathroom in our workout room whilst I trot.

Con: It’s hard.

Pro: It’s nice to breathe the fresh air rather than hot tub fumes.

Con: It’s hard.

Pro: On my way home from work, I know I’ll actually be able to run, rather than playing roulette with the woman who domineers the treadmill, walking 2 mph with the take-out menu in front of her.

Con: It’s hard.

But y’all know I don’t back down from a challenge.  Despite the fact that my apartment is surrounded on all sides by hills (I even tried to talk this out with Marcus and we realized there’s literally not a way to run that doesn’t involve monstrous hills), I’ve managed to run personal bests in terms of duration of run, distance run and calories burned.

Yo diggity.

More astonishingly, the “big race” is already upon us.

Yipes.

I was somewhat heartened to read in the article from the New York Times linked below, that by exercising, your body decides to burn the fat in the food you consume first (versus storing it ASAP) rather than the carbohydrates.  Sounds like a win to me.

Weighing the Evidence on Exercise

Hit it.

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Posted in Mags, Newsies, WORK IT