Friday, February 29, 2008
Vantage Point
Let me give a plug to this movie! Vantage Point. It totally rocks!! :-) It is essentially the story of an assassination attempt on the life of the US President, told from the point of view of 5 people who were there. It's amazing what we humans don't see when things get fast paced. After the first four showings of the story, I still couldn't have told you how many shots were fired, amongst other important details. I had to force myself to count the 5th time.
Yeah ... and doesn't Dennis Quaid get better looking the older he gets? He's on my short list of good looking men who keep getting better looking with age. :-) It was fabulous to see him in such an intense role.
And I always love a great car chase. This one had just that ... a GREAT car chase. Second only to the ones in the Bourne movies.
Great flick - put it on your list!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Fastnacht!!
Okay, so for the 11 years that I lived in Northern Virginia, I couldn't really find fastnachts during lent. Early on, I asked some people where I could buy fastnachts, and they looked at me like I was insane. Well, that may be, but I know that fastnachts exist, so this is not any indication of my apparent break with reality. :-) Anyway - I came to discover that fastnachts aren't available everywhere.
Well, now I'm living in Western New York. I have been practically drooling for the past few months waiting for lent ... and FASTNACHTS!!! Here is a photo of my first fastnacht of the season. It's basically a German fry cake ... not too different from a donut, except that it's MUCH BETTER!!
The funny thing is that I asked around for the absolute BEST fastnachts in Western New York and was told that I HAVE to go to Eileen's bakery in West Seneca. Well, that's a bit of a drive from where I live ... but since Monday is the day that I relax my diet, I drove over there this past Monday and .... THEY WERE OUT OF FASTNACHTS!!! I ended up getting one from the grocery store of all places!!! Next week, next week, next week ... next week I'll get to Eileen's early enough to get a fresh fastnacht!! I can't wait!!!
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Voting in Lancaster, NY
For the past 11 years I voted in Fairfax County, VA. It was typically a mob scene. Long lines, lots of voting machines and elections workers. One year I had to walk from my condo to the voting place because I saw that there were so many cars that people were parking in my parking lot as the closest place to park "near" the polling place anyway. It has really always been crazy to go voting.
This morning I took my brand new voter's registration card (which, by the way, has to have a party affiliation to vote in the primary, unlike in Virginia where you don't affiliate with a party) and went to my assigned polling place (to which I have never been before). My thinking was that I'd stand in line for awhile and planned my day around that thinking. Hah!
There were a few cars in front of the polling place, which was the town court. A nice older gentleman met me at the door and walked me down the hallway to the voting room. When I started to pull out my driver's license to show the nice elections workers with my voter's card, he told me to put it away ... he didn't need ID. (Amazing!) There were four people and ONE voting booth in a closet-sized room (I swear to you that my bathroom is a larger room than the room in which I voted this morning!) I was laughing inside. No line ... just ME and four elections workers.
And there I was earlier this morning ... wondering if there would be exit pollsters hanging out outside my voting location. LOL! They'd probably not have gotten 25 questionnaires filled out.
