My friend from work offered to teach me how to knit. I took her up on her offer last night and am now in the midst of knitting a scarf for Brian. It’s a simple knit stitch pattern (I don’t know if that’s the technical term for it, but there’s nothing fancy going on). I’m already thinking about what I’d like to make next. Also, there was pizza! And wine! I could do with more evenings like that!
the hangover: part iii
Put a fork in ’em, they’re done. This was my least favorite of the “Hangover” movies and I wasn’t that huge of a fan of the previous ones. But, it gets a half of a star for the hilarious scene that takes place during the credits.
My rating: 2.5/5
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
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
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!