Carrie's Favorite Animal...

Random post of the week...

Are these guys adorable, or what? Since I discovered the Red Panda a couple years ago, it has become my favorite animal. Hopefully I'll see one in person someday. (I know the Pittsburgh Zoo doesn't have any.) Just look at these guys. They are so cute I can't stand it. Especially when they are romping- check the paws and fluffy tails.

Jim's 'Go or Don't Go' - Night at the Museum 2

I can't really say that I was a fan of the first Night at the Museum, so I wasn't expecting much when Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian showed up in our mailbox from Netflix. I've always liked Ben Stiller, going way back to his short-lived comedy show on Fox in the 90s, so I'm willing to give pretty much anything that he does a chance.

Stiller's character, Larry Daley has left his job as the museum night watchman and has become a succesful, yet unhappy TV infomercial inventor. He returns for a visit to his old job and finds that many of the exhibits that magically came to life in the first film are now being packed up and sent to the basement of the Smithsonian, in favor of more "exciting" interactive displays. He rushes off to Washington DC to rescue his museum friends from a terrible fate of inanimate crate storage.

That's about all you really need to know - the plot is not really important, and not really that good. This is a harmless, silly family movie. It has a nice message about doing what you love, and in its own overblown Hollywood way, tries to make museums more appealing to children. At times, I think the Night at the Museum movies are actually propoganda films for the National Association of Museums, or whatever organization a museum would belong. Look kids! ... history is alive and exciting!

The thing that kept me interested in this film was the great cast and cameos by some really funny actors. Shortly into this sequel, I noticed that I was laughing more than I did in the first film. Granted, not a very high bar, but nevertheless. The saving grace of this movie is that there are some genuinely good performaces. Amy Adams is delightful as a spunky Amelia Earhart. She delivers her lines like she fell staight out of a 1930's romantic comedy. And Hank Azaria steals the show as the lispy, Boris Karloff-inspired Kahmunrah villian. We watched his "Do Not Touch!" scene three times.

There is a long list of talented people in this movie. Some are wasted, but for the most part, there's some really funny stuff here. It kind of reminded me of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a silly movie from the sixties with a ridiculous plot that was filled with top-notch actors and comedians of the era, doing what they do best.

So, in summary, this was not a very good movie, but I enjoyed it, (at times) if that makes any sense. I'm recommending bits and pieces, but not the whole film. Maybe I should have given you the times in the film when the noteworthy scenes appear, but then again, I don't have that much free time on my hands. You're on your own. I say "Go."

The Birthday Bear...

This past weekend marked the anniversary of Bear's second year since joining our family, so we took the time to celebrate his birthday with a little party. Jim's family was already visiting to work on some projects, so they were on hand to help us celebrate. We can't imagine our home without our fuzzy Bear. He is such a special guy and we hope we get to have many more birthdays with him.

Our New Old Plumbing...

This Saturday, with the help of family and friends, we were able to cross a huge "to do" off our list of house projects. Last year, we realized that the water supply lines running up to our 2nd floor laundry room freeze up in cold temps because they are routed through an exterior wall. Jim spent many days last winter with a hair dryer behind the refrigerator trying to thaw the pipes. This year, we have been draining the water out of the lines whenever the laundry is not in use. Definitely not convenient- but the fix had been quoted at upwards of $2000 by a couple different plumbers.

Stepping in to save the day were Marty, Jim's brother in law, and Ron, a good friend, who both work for an HVAC company and are very handy guys. Jim's sister Judy and our neice Julie came a long to help as well and we ended up needing everyone- especially when we needed someone upstairs, someone downstairs, and someone in the basement to communicate as pipes were being fed through, lines tested, etc.

Of course the project became more complicated than initially planned. We realized a while in that the wall upstairs was not directly above where we needed to feed the pipes down to the basement, as we had initially thought. Marty graciously volunteered to climb into the attic space off the office to feed pipes (they used flexible tubing, called PEX) and do other work as necessary.

At the end of the day, after 12 hours of work and 2 trips to Home Depot, they had moved the pipes out of the wall and connected new supply lines and a drain for a new utility sink, saving us literally thousands of dollars. They even retrofit our furnace to accept replacable filters - just for good measure.

We are beyond grateful to have such wonderful family and friends who were willing to spend a whole Saturday working on 'Our New Old House'.

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I think just about everyone spent some time on top of the fridge...

The beautiful finished result. We love our new laundry sink!Thanks to Karen, too, for taking care of things at Dad's house so he could come down to visit for the day. This was truly a group effort!

Carrie's Carpentry Corner...

Today we are having some plumbing work done in our laundry room (thanks Marty & Ron!) and prepping to add a new utility sink next to our washer and dryer. We have a laundry cabinet that we purchased at a garage sale shortly after we moved into our old house on Marion. We painted it white at the time and it and it has been the perfect thing for storing all the laundry detergent, cleaners, etc.

With the new sink going in, it was no longer going to fit in the space. So rather than get rid of it, I decided to reduce it's size by half. It ended up taking me longer than I had hoped, probably 8 hours in all, because I didn't exactly have the appropriate tools. I did almost all the cutting with a miter hand saw because it was all I had that would work. Then I sanded and painted it and now it's as good as new, just smaller. Best of all, this project cost $0. Take a look.

Before...

After...

Jim's "Go or Don't Go" - It Might Get Loud

A friend at work told me about this movie, and being a guitar player, I was eagerly awaiting It Might Get Loud's release to DVD.

The 2009 documentary features three guitarists from three generations, each with a very unique style. We have Led Zepplin's Jimmy Page, U2's The Edge, (AKA David Howell Evans) and the youngest of the group, Jack White from The White Stripes. The film creatively weaves the stories of each player's background and influences, and brings them together for an informal discussion and jam session.

I'm always interested in hearing artists discuss their inspiration and how the creative process works for them. The film does an excellent job of showing us the humble beginnings of each artist and where they find their creative spark. The Edge's telling of the formative years of U2 was especially fascinating – the most popular band in the world was just four high school kids getting together to practice in an empty classroom, barely able to play their instruments. Inspiration for all wanna-be rock stars.

The film tells these stories, building anticipation of seeing the three players jam together. Here's where I found the film to be a bit of a letdown. Not really much happens here. We get a few bits and pieces of the three playing, but nothing very earth-shattering. I didn't even get the impression they were very interested in each other's work, although the two younger player's seem to get a genuine kick out of watching Page crank out some of his signature licks. Maybe I was expecting too much. Realistically, what can happen when three artists, so different in style, briefly come together for the first and only time? I guess my problem was that the film leads you to believe that something earth-shattering is on the way.

Having said this, I still enjoyed It Might Get Loud, and if you are a fan of any or all of these guys, I recommend the film. If you're not, it might get boring. I say "Go."

Finally- Some photos...

I know I promised I would get some pictures up from our holidays, and I am now recovered from my illness and done with work, thus I finally have time.

As in past years, we flew out to Seattle for the week of Christmas to visit my family. Last year you might remember we got stuck in Pittsburgh due to weather and missed our Christmas Eve flight. This year we went out on the 18th so we had plenty of time and didn't run into any trouble.

We started the trip off with a drive down to Portland to visit our good friends Chris and Karen who moved to Oregon from Pittsburgh this past year. We had a great day exploring the city with them...


We decided to do something we hadn't done since before we were married- go up the Space Needle. This was a cool modern take on a Christmas tree that was outside the entrance...


Looking up...

Up on top...

City views...

Close Up! We got to help out a little with my sister's going away party (she moved to LA last week)... Here we are together.

We flew back to Pittsburgh on the 26th, after visiting with my family all week. My sister bought us all tickets to see the Rockettes at the Paramount which was really fun. We also got to visit with Annie White who I had not seen in years, as well as with the Rutledges and Ben, Marissa and Mitchell Kasdan. That little boy keeps getting cuter!

On the 27th, Jim and I celebrated our own Christmas at our place...

Bailey was the first to try out their new gift "The Ultimate Scratch Lounge" - both she and Bear love it and they fight over who gets to lay in it. As you can see, it's just cardboard. Yes, they are easily amused...

Here's Bear waiting his turn while snuggling up with Santa's hat...

Aw, Mom!
Luckily, my post air-travel sickness did not set in until late on New Year's day, so we were able to enjoy a nice evening out for New Year's Eve at the Pines Tavern in Gibsonia. We drove throught the lights at Hartwood Acres first and then it was on to dinner. We had a great time and really enjoyed going out for New Year's this year- we are usually traveling so it was the first time we'd done that in quite a while.

Hope you had a wonderful Holiday season as well. I'm already looking forward to next year : )

Welcome 2010...

Happy New Year to all our faithful readers :) Can you believe we've already said goodbye to the um... zeros... aughts... er- we never really did decide what to call the decade did we? (For more on that, read this story)

I know we've been MIA for a couple of weeks, but between traveling for the holidays and the traditional post-air travel sickness, things have been out of whack around here. We'll be back to blogging soon with lots of new pictures from the past month. Check back later this week!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.