still waiting....

Have yet to see "Time Lord" listed on the vocation vacation website. Get on it, willya!?

Posted by jennj at 09:13 PM | Comments (2)

skiing, friends and the sundance film festival

We just spent a week out in Park City, UT with our friends K&M.

* Skiing. We skied Thursday afternoon, Friday morning (into afternoon), and Monday. The conditions were a lot like out here unfortunately. But that's because it'd been two weeks (I think) since the last snow storm and it was a good 30 degrees out with the sun shining. And of course, the forecast for after we left was for....snow. Oh well. It was a good time and I enjoyed Deer Valley and The Canyons. I think the next time we go, we'll go later in the season.

* K&M. It was great seeing them!! They left Boston almost a year ago and we missed them. I know it sounds weird, but I didn't think we'd ever visit them out there. Not sure why, just that they were off in the land of SLC and having had no desire to visit SLC (did when I was a kid), why would we ever go? Well, DUH, they're our friends and they are within a eight-or-so mile radius of three major ski resorts, so why wouldn't we visit? Haha. We ate some great meals and K made us vegan cupcakes. So. Good. And nothing beats a local showing you around their ski slopes. We avoided the gondola line (looked like a 20 minute wait) because of K.

*Sundance Film Festival. This was a neat opportunity and if you love films, it's a great venue. Nobody f*ing talks during the movie and they all have their cell phones off because the audience appreciates movies and understand there's a special place in hell for people who talk during movies. While we had some celeb sightings, nothing major enough to write home about. Mark Harmon, geek dude on criminal minds, paul giamatti, kevin bacon, dean devlin (hubby saw him, i missed it), wynonna judd, jill hennessey, rory culkin, emma roberts, tommy davison. There were, of course, tools and posers galore. But I expected that, so wev. I'm happy we did it, but probably won't go again. The movies we saw and my thoughts on them in the extended entry.

* Quick anecdote: We were on one of the shuttle's to a venue to see Cold Souls (fantastic, btw), and we were chitchatting with this guy. Turns out he's an exec. producer of Cold Souls.

Me: "What else have you produced?"
Him: "Well, I'm working on an untitled Obama documentary."
Me: "That's fantastic! Congrats!"
Him: "Yeah, check this out. We approached Obama back in '04 and asked if we could do a documentary on his life in politics, figuring it'd be for the senate only. We figured it'd be a 10-12, etc. year project. But then, as you know, he ended up getting the nomination for president and became the president elect. Well, when he ended up with the nomination, he was flooded with other requests to do a documentary, but he said no because he'd already made a promise to us, VERBAL (this guys emphasis, not mine) promise, that he would work with us and we'd be the official documentarians."
Me: "I love Obama even more now."
Him: "Yeah, he's pretty cool."

All in all, a great trip. Too bad it went by so quickly!

* Lymelife. I thought it was OK. Nbh liked it a lot more than me. It started out funny and it's an interesting character study, but overall, just OK. I think the two lead actors (Emma Roberts and Rory Culkin) were the weakest link. Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessey and Kieran Culkin had some GREAT performances. Overall rating: B.

* The Clone Returns Home. OMG it was boring. It had such promise, but I really wanted to poke my eye out from the boredom. Don't go see it. I threw myself on that grenade for you. Overall rating: D-.

* Dead Snow. FUCKING AWESOME. First zombie movie out of scandanavia. Norweigan Nazi Zombie movie. Best. Use. Of. Intestines. Ever. Loved it. Overall rating: A.

* Cold Souls. Funny, surreal, clever. Really good. Excellent performance by Paul Giamatti (of course). There was a Q&A afterwards, Paul Giamatti was there and he's a pretty funny guy. Overall rating: A.

* Taking Chance. Wow. Moving. Not political. Kevin Bacon does a fantastic job. The real Lt. Col. Strobel was at the Q&A afterwards and he's an incredible human being. There are some slow parts in the film, so be prepared. Overall rating: A-.

* 500 Days of Summer. Hysterical and quirky. Loved it. Great date film. Great pop culture references, especially a hysterical Star Wars one. Overall rating: A.

Posted by jennj at 07:42 AM | Comments (3)

fingernails

I think I'm going to need this.

Posted by jennj at 07:58 PM | Comments (2)

san francisco dessert fest '09

I spent a few days in San Francisco a week and a half ago on business. I've had the opportunity to go there three times in the past six months. Totally unplanned, but I ended up eating at some restaurants that had the most amazing desserts. And thus began san francisco dessert fest '09.

First night: The Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel. I met up with my friends Puck, Poz and Kat. Overall the food is good there. I recommend you substitute your entree with appetizers as your main meal. But the crowning glory was the dessert. We ordered two of them and shared. First up: Flaming Volcano. Yes, indeed, there was a flame. But even with the gimmickry flame, the dessert itself was incredible. Second up: The Black Pearl. I don't have a pic yet, but the description is, "chocolate & lychee in a white chocolate seashell". Also great.

Second night: The vendor took us out to dinner to Kokkari Estiatorio. A mediterranean restaurant. Food was fantastic and for dessert? I had baklava ice cream. OMG. Creamy, honey, sweet.....SO GOOD. Ben & Jerry's, get on this, please.

Third night: I had a lot of time to kill before catching the red eye so a co-worker and I went to dinner at Asia de Cuba. Dinner was fantastic and the dessert? Mexican donuts, filled with toffee sauce.

And thus endeth the San Francisco Dessert Fest '09. I will probably be back there sometime later this year. Wonder what delights I'll encounter on that trip......

Posted by jennj at 05:08 PM | Comments (5)

stuff

So....yeah. Things have been busy. I've got pain in my right wrist and arm. Started about a month ago. Could be the start of carpal tunnel. So my desk at work is being realigned, I've got to see doc's, etc. It's early and they haven't officially diagnosed carpal tunnel. Hopefully the ergonomic changes will help. So when you see me, you'll see me wearing a wrist brace and now you'll know why!

In the meantime, got some fun and busy trips! I head to SFO for a few days on business this sun-tue. And then nbh and I are heading to Park City, UT to see friends, attend the Sundance Film Festival (!!) and ski! Whee! We've gotten into eight of the ten films we want to see. And we get to see our friends Kris and Mike! And then five days after we get back from Park City, I head to Harrisburg for a biz trip.

And finally, I find myself on Twitter and Facebook more and more, which means I've ignored this place. If I moved it up the priority level, I'd get Twitter and Facebook integrated. As it is, I need to get back to taking classes again and finish that degree.

And....and.....you get the idea.

Posted by jennj at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)