Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
movies

the hunger games: catching fire

I took Jake and one of his friends to see this movie last night (at the Westwood Plaza Theatre, of course). It was pretty darn good. It’s been a while since I read the book, but it seemed to follow it pretty well. There were some things that I found hard to visualize while reading the book and those things were pulled off in a spectacular fashion in the movie. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Jennifer Lawrence (who played the main character in the movie) is awesome!

My rating: 4/5

movies

zero dark thirty

This movie told the story of the 10 year hunt for Osama bin Laden. I was expecting more action and less strategizing, but was not rewarded. The movie was well-acted, but rather long and drawn-out (there was not a whole lot of plot for the 2:30+ runtime).

My rating: 3/5

year in review

2013 in review

Much like Judy, I thought 2013 was going to be THE year, but it ended up being just another year.

We’ll start with work…We were short staffed the first four months of the year. That did not help us achieve our goals for the year. However, by the end of 2013, we were able to get our staffing levels back up and then some. And, we have yet another person starting next week, and an intern, too, so 2014 is looking good on the work front already.

On the entertainment front, my favorite movie, hands-down, was Silver Linings Playbook. How can you not love Jennifer Lawrence? My favorite book was Joe Hill’s NOS4A2. Don’t tell his dad (Stephen King), but I think the torch has been passed. And, the best thing on TV was Breaking Bad. I’m going to have to watch that series again for sure. The year looked promising for music with new NIN and QOTSA, but both albums ended up being a big disappointment for me. I did get a bunch of new CDs (Soundgarden, Black Sabbath and Alice In Chains) for Christmas, but I haven’t given them a proper listening to yet, so I can’t comment on those at this point.
Other highlights…I got some new ink and we vacationed (yet again) in Forest County. I also got a sidecar for my bike. It took a while to get it installed properly, but I’m good to go for 2014, so I expect to do a lot of riding this year. And, I had my 25th class reunion, so I’m officially old.
My least favorite moments of the year were as follows:
So, here’s to 2014!
movies

side effects

This movie was supposed to be about how the side effects from a popular antidepressant negatively affected one woman and her husband (she killed him while in a sleepwalking state. that’s pretty negative, right?). However, there was more to it than you might think. The end was pretty convoluted and it seemed like it took a long time to get there, but it was an ok movie overall.

My rating: 3/5

holidays

christmas 2013

This was a pretty laid back year for Christmas activities. To summarize:

  • We spent Christmas Eve with my family. Brian’s mom and dad were also in attendance. After those festivities were done, we went to an overly long Christmas Eve service at our church, then came home and got things ready for Christmas morning.
  • Christmas Day was spent with Brian’s family. It was a pretty quiet affair, with just Brian’s parents and our niece.
  • On the 28th, we went to a Christmas party at a friend’s house. It was pretty raucous–lots of people, lots of kids. It’s the same place we went for a Halloween party in October. Surprisingly, there was even more food at the Christmas party and all of it was great. Unfortunately, Jake was not in attendance as he was visiting his cousins in NY.
  • Last night, my parents came over for a Christmas visit.
  • And, to conclude Christmas, we met Judy for drinks (and our annual exchange of gifts) at The Boulevard this evening.

And, that should wrap things up until next year. Brian and I have been taking every other day off over the holidays so that Jake didn’t have to spend his time off at the office. Tomorrow is my day to work–those are my main New Year’s Eve plans. I guess it’s possible that we’ll go downtown to the Celebration Johnstown event tomorrow night, assuming I can drag myself out of the house. New Year’s Day will be spent in our usual manner–pork and sauerkraut for lunch (and champagne), a nap on the couch, and then the putting away of the Christmas decorations.