The Eternal Optimist

Addicted!

March 6th, 2012 | by | uncategorized

Mar
06

Let me explain why I haven’t written the five blog posts I thought about writing in the past week.

My friend let me borrow her book “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins about a month ago. Once I finished the previous book I was reading, I figured I should pick it up and get through it before the movie comes out later this month. Warning: That book is addictive!

Once I started it, I sped through it. In the meantime, I borrowed the second and third books of the series, knowing I would want to jump immediately into them. I’m now on book three in a matter of a week, and I can’t stop. (Yes, they’re fairly short books, but I really cannot put them down.)

If you have any interest, pick it up. (You might as well get all three at once so you’re prepared when you finish the first books.) Then you’ll also be ready to see the movie that comes out on March 23.

See the trailer here.

No Comments »

‘A Film Unfinished’

September 27th, 2010 | by | uncategorized

Sep
27

“A Film Unfinished” is as disturbing as I thought it would be. It’s a propaganda film made in the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis. The footage has been used as historical footage, but more recently discovered film confirmed that much of it was staged at the direction of the Nazis.

I’m afraid if I attempt to explain too much, I’ll simply get it wrong. So if you want to learn more, I suggest checking out the film’s website.

The film interweaves this footage with diary accounts from the ghetto about the filming, as well as testimony from one of the cameramen. The filmmakers also asked some survivors from the ghetto to watch the footage while they were taped and to comment on portions of it.

All of it together makes for a disturbing, heart-wrenching film that plays the important role of uncovering a little more deception and setting the record straight.

No Comments »

Miscellaneous weekend

August 15th, 2010 | by | uncategorized

Aug
15

I tried another José Andrés restaurant on Friday. Oyamel was great, even though I had to pull out my laptop to post a story for work as the meal ended. (It’s so much fun to be on call for the website.) I’m still working on reservations to try José Andrés’ much-hyped Minibar.

Saturday night was Riesling wine club. I was very excited to be tasting lots of my favorite variety of wine. We had seven bottles plus pad thai, chicken salad sandwiches, spring rolls, banana bread and pie.

Today I prepared for a crazy week of baking and activity. (I am supposed to bring baked goods to work three days in a row — including for the Congressional Cook-off.) So, I  made a trip to the grocery store to buy lots of baking ingredients. Surprisingly, Giant had absolutely NO cake flour. I don’t normally buy cake flour, but I assumed the store would have at least one brand of it. No luck. So I stopped at Whole Foods later. And that store had only one brand of cake flour (which is enough for me).

I also saw the movie “Eat Pray Love” this afternoon. I loved the book. The movie was pretty good. Obviously, it left out some parts of the book, but it was kind of nice to have a condensed version of the book that lasted only a couple hours. Seeing the movie has made me want to re-read the book, even though I read it just four months ago.

No Comments »

A holiday-themed week

December 13th, 2009 | by | uncategorized

Dec
13

Work was so busy last week that I had no chance to even think about this blog. Wednesday night, however, was our company party at the House of Sweden on the Potomac River. The copy desk arrived late (since we had to finish the next day’s paper first), but we still managed to get some drinks and appetizers and mingle a bit. After the party, some of us went to Martin’s in Georgetown for a few more drinks.

Movie and dinner
On Saturday, I saw the British movie “An Education” at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring. If you haven’t heard of it, you should check it out. The girl, Carey Mulligan, had been touted as a Best Actress contender.

Later, I ate at Jackie’s restaurant in Silver Spring for the first time. I had heard a lot about it but didn’t know what to expect. It’s an old auto garage or warehouse transformed into a restaurant. It has an uncommon atmosphere of exposed ceilings, cement floors and brick combined with bright chairs, cushions and pillows. And, delicious, fancy food. (It doesn’t take too much to be “fancy” food for me, since I normally cook for myself or go out for pizza or Chipotle. But the changing menu and food were presented formally, with most entrees costing $18 to $25. It’s not pub food.)

Wine and spices
Today was the third D.C. wine club. We had dessert wines and cookies — so sugar overload. We tried a variety of dessert wines including muscat, black muscat, ice wine, Sauternes, cream sherry and a blueberry dessert wine. My favorites were the Sauternes and ice wine, though it reminded me that I don’t have a great love for dessert wines in general. (And most of the rest of our group would probably agree with that.)

Tonight I worked on some homemade holiday gifts that required combining some heavenly spices. My kitchen smells amazing right now. Also, in the course of purchasing some of those spices, I realized that Whole Foods has VERY CHEAP spices (compared to other grocery stores such as Giant). I was going to buy a $13 bottle of ground cardamom at Giant. I found a slightly larger bottle (of organic ground cardamom) at Whole Foods for only $5. Does anyone know why that is? Or other basic things that are much cheaper at Whole Foods?

No Comments »

Must-see film in St. Louis

November 11th, 2009 | by | uncategorized

Nov
11

Attention, St. Louis folks!

My friend Sam Zvibleman has a film debuting in the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival this weekend. His short film, “Gabriel and Romy,” is playing on Sunday (Nov. 15) at 8:30 p.m. as part of the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase Shorts 2 at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium.

Sam wrote and directed the short film, and this is the first time it will be screened for the public. Here’s the description from the film’s website:

“Gabriel & Romy” tells the whimsical and fantastical tale of Gabriel, a crusty widower, who attempts to woo a beautiful woman during a rousing game of tennis, but his plans are thwarted by Romy, his loyal and unusual friend who shows him that beauty exists in many forms. (Comedy, 23 min.)

I can’t make it back to St. Louis to see this, so please check it out!

No Comments »

Update from last week

August 24th, 2009 | by | uncategorized

Aug
24

Biking to the zoo
I made my first visit to the National Zoo (since living out here) just over a week ago. It was hot, and someone convinced me to ride bikes through Rock Creek Park to get there. It was a great idea, but this was the first time I had ridden a bike more than a block in about 12 years. The trip there wasn’t bad, but after walking around all day and riding back (mostly uphill), I was almost unable to walk. I guess I need more biking practice.

The zoo was great, though. The cow cracked me up. I don’t recall the St. Louis Zoo having a cow (thought I could be wrong). I decided this must be the only way citified D.C. children get to see a cow.
The pandas (National Zoo’s pride) were all asleep. This one was passed out on what appeared to be a bamboo overdose based on the leaves that surrounded him.


After seeing and reading about the fishing cat, I decided Griffin must have some fishing cat blood in him. The cats have striped heads and spotted bodies (similar to Griffin). They also enjoy water (like Griffin). And they are good at hunting (perhaps related to Griffin’s aggressiveness).

Watchin’ in the rain
Last week I went to another outdoor movie. This one was near Bethesda and was “Singin’ in the Rain.” Coincidentally, it rained a bit before the movie. It stopped sprinkling just before Emily and I planned to head that way, so we figured we’d give it a try. The setup was great, and we brought a plastic sheet to keep our blanket dry. The movie, which I had never seen before, was great. All the dancing made me miss dance classes and want to find a place to take some again. During the movie, we saw some lightning in the distance, but the rain stayed away. Afterward, we walked back to the car and hopped in just before the rain started falling. The timing was perfect.

No Comments »

Blogging because of boredom

March 6th, 2007 | by | uncategorized

Mar
06

Why blog? Because I’m in day #2 of being sick enough to not do much, and I’m getting very bored. Earlier, I was considering going to work instead of calling in sick because at least I would have something to do and focus on. (I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it through my whole shift, seeing as I once again have a fever and inability to concentrate.) Really, having this much time on my hands wouldn’t be a bad thing. Except that right now (because I’m sick), I don’t really feel like doing anything (although doing nothing is driving me crazy).

All this boredom led me to Blockbuster for the first time in … at least 6 months. I watched my Netflix movie yesterday, and it’s currently on its way back to the facility. So far I’ve watched:

“Marie Antoinette”
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie, although I knew it was a bit unconventional. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though. It’s a fun/historical flick.

“The Prairie Home Companion”
I thought this looked entertaining. Instead, I was just immensely bored. I did watch the whole thing because I thought something might happen that made it worthwhile (it didn’t) and because I was bored anyway and had little else to do. For someone who grew up listening to the radio show, this might be an enjoyable step back in time. For everyone else, don’t waste your time.

1 Comment »