League of Extraordinary Bloggers: Patriotic Pop Culture

This week's assignment from the League:

Next week, the League will be taking a break to honor the Fourth of July, so the purpose of this week’s topic is to get you in the holiday spirit:

—-

Patriotic pop culture. What movie, TV show, comic book, etc. makes you want to stand up and salute Old Glory?

I got to thinking about something I always want to do when any holiday comes along, but rarely have time to do so: make desserts for the holiday.  Working often makes me too tired for this.  But even when I do, July 4th is one holiday I don;t normally consider for such.  I'm always desiring to make  a pumpkin cake for Halloween or a some Christmas cookies.  But rarely do I think of making desserts for July 4th.  

I recently got addicted to Pinterest, as have a lot of people, and one boards I created is Holiday Stuff, with photos of holiday desserts and decorations.  I also created a board called Desserts That Look Good, and wonder if I ever will make any of those either.  (This board is for non-holiday-themed desserts, and is something I'd like to blog about later).  

I surprised my self with some of the Forth of July desserts I pinned onto the board.  With the day almost a week away, I'm not sure if I will even think of making any of them.

Spangled Sandwich Pop.  This seems easy.  

1. First, skewer mini ice-cream sandwiches on popsicle sticks. Then, press the exposed filling into a plate of sprinkles or nonpareils.To keep mess to a minimum, serve the pops in colorful cupcake liners. To keep mess to a minimum, serve the pops in colorful cupcake liners.  

Source: leeloveshottrends.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Another dessert that looks tempting to try. I have the cake pan, but will I have the time?

Source: indulgy.com via Jamie on Pinterest

As for other stuff, well I'm not sure why I pinned some of the things I did.  Some seems a little out of my league.  I'm not into cheesecake, for instance, yet somehow I decided to repin this:

Source: myrecipes.com via Jamie on Pinterest
There are other July 4th desserts I pinned, but that is all I want to discuss. You can see them on my Pinterest page (links above).  My whole story is I often want to make something like these, but rarely find the time and energy.   I don't know how others do it, when they have children and I don't.   It always seems like a good idea when you first see it. 


And I don't yet know what I am doing for the holiday this year. 


Links to other bloggers participating this week:
Green Plastic Squirt Gun
Adamatomy
Branded in the 80s
Infinite Hollywood
Shezcrafti
Flaslights Are Something to Eat

Quiz: The Cassette Tape Test

You Are Confident

You prefer music that is upbeat and energetic. You love anything you can dance or move to. You are sunny and cheerful. You think the world has good things in store for you, and you refuse to believe otherwise. You are trusting, even though you've been burned before. You refuse to be bitter or jaded. You know you've got what it takes to make it in life. You trust in yourself above all.

The Cassette Tape Test

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds

Quiz: Are You Gap, Banana Republic or Old Navy?

I took this even though I rarely got to any of those stores.

You Are Old Navy

You are a wholesome person. You live a low-key, low drama, and healthy life. You are emotionally stable. You understand what matters most, and you prioritize well. You know where you're going in life... and why you're going there. Social pressure doesn't get to you. You are dependable and trustworthy. Your friends know that you're solid and true.

Are You Gap, Banana Republic, or Old Navy?

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds

Top 10 Movies: The League of Extraordinary Bloggers

This will be my second time participating in the blog Cool and Collected's feature "The League of Extraordinary Bloggers. This week's assignment is:

This seemed fairly easy, but the hard part was narrowing it down to just 10.  I'm only including ones I have on DVD.  These are in no particular order.

1.  What About Bob?  I have seen this numerous times, starting with its release in 1991.  I didn't get on VHS (I rarely ever got any movies that way),  but found the DVD at target for only $5.50.  Still laugh when I see this one.  "I'm sailing!" "Keep, sailing, Bob."

2.  The Brady Bunch Movie  I knew I had to see this since I love watching reruns of the TV show.   Another I have seen numerous times since its release.  Some of the funny parts re the modern-day references that confuse the Bradys, like when Marcia asks a model "What have you modeled for?" and Marcia misinterprets it when the girl says "Guess."  

3.  Get Him to the Greek  Saw the previews and knew I had to see it.  Very funny spoof of the music industry.  I then had to rent My Favorite Year,  whose premise was nearly the same as this one.

4.  Marley and Me  When I saw the previews, I knew I had to see this one.  I never did get around to seeing in the theaters, though and added it to Netflix.  I then decided to read the book first,  and received the movie more than month after reading it.  

5.  You, Me and Dupree  A rare event when I saw this in the theaters more than once before getting the DVD.   Loved the minute I first saw it.   Anything with Owen Wilson is sure to be funny.

6.  The Hangover  It's funny,  Zack G. is great, the antics in Vegas are funny,  what more can I say?  

7.  Very Brady Sequel  Just as funny as the original, as the Bradys are just as confused as ever.  

8.  Shrek  Loved them all, but the first is the best of all.  Seeing the standup poster in the theater lobby in 2001 made me know I wanted to see it.   Who knew then that it would be such a smash?

9.  Blades of Glory  I'll watch just about anything with Will Ferrell, and  having seen Jon Heder in Napoleon Dynamite and The Benchwarmers,   I knew I had to see this, as well as having seen the previews for this one.   Loved this one, just like I knew I would.

10. Grown Ups  As soon as I knew about this one, I could not wait.  It was just as funny as I thought, and I could not wait to get the DVD.   I'll watch anything that has Kevin James or David Spade or any of the others in the ensemble.   There was hardly a scene that didn't evoke a laugh. 










As I said earlier, it was hard to narrow it down to just 10, so here are five runners-up:

1. An Education  I waited several months till this one came to my town, and the wait was worth it.  Pretty good for a period piece, early 60s England.  I have since seen Carey Mulligan in other films but her best work is here.

2.   Old School  As I said, I love just about anything with Will Ferrell and the same can be said about movies with Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson.  What more can I say, this is a load of laughs!

3.  Bring it On  Another one I have seen many times since it was released.  The sequels were ok (though I did not particularly like the second movie) but as is often the case, the first one id the best.  

4.  The Help  I read this first, as soon as I knew about the movie. Very moving for a period piece.

5. Never Been Kissed  Yet another I have seen since it was first released and have never gotten tired of it. Drew Barrymore is great as always. 














Still hard to decide on just a few as there have been too many favorites of mine.  I could go on all day with this!   This isn't even half the movies I have on DVD (and on a side note, some of those are music DVDs and TV show DVDs).  And there are lots of movies I loved but haven't gotten around to getting on DVD.  And some recent releases  I plan on getting on DVD when it comes out.  Definitely want to get  The Hunger Games on DVD.




Here are some links to other bloggers participating in this weeks assignment:
Flashlights are Something to Eat
Memories of Toymorrow
Michael May's Adventure Blog
UnderScoopFire

Is This What They Mean by "the June Gloom"?

It sure has been strange weather this year in my neck of the woods.  In January it felt more like spring than winter.  Now for the last two days in June there has been un-summer-like weather.   Yesterday it rained.  No rain today, but the sun hasn't exactly been out all day either, just off and on.  It's been somewhat cold today.  The last time I recall it raining in June in my area was in 2005.  It rained so hard that June in fact, that the rain leaked through the roof at the store I worked at at the time.  As I also remember form that year, it rained at least once every single month.   Strange that I can remember how much ti rained seven years ago, but that right now I can't recall how many times it's rained this year so far. LOL!  But I now wonder if we can expect rain later on in the summer since it didn't rain rained very little in the winter.

In January, it seemed weird not to have my jacket on, but there would be times when it would be too hot for the jacket.  Putting my jacket on yesterday during the June rain, however, felt weird, as my jacket usually gets hidden in the closet at this time of year.

Will there be more rain this summer?  I hope not.  Wait for winter, please.

Quiz: What Animal Were You in a Past Life?

You Were a Spider

You tend to be the master weaver of fate - both for yourself and those you know. A creative force, you tend to work from divine inspiration.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

Geek Confessions: The League of Extraordinary Bloggers

I've decided to contribute to a feature at  the site Cool and Collected called The League of Extraordinary Bloggers.    If you are interested, see the link for information on how to join, as you may do so at any time.  I saw this back on February and read a few of the initial offerings in the weeks that followed and, until this week, had forgotten about the whole thing for a while.  Then I saw this week's topic and read some of the other participants' entries  (links to some of those entries will be at the end of my post).

The topic for this week is:

What is something you absolutely hate or love or just don’t get, or maybe it’s something you have never even seen or read. What is your deepest, darkest geek confession? 

1.  Something I have never seen:

Well, I can say there are few shows on TV I  have never seen and am debating if I should ever try to watch them and just how.  I sadly don't have and can't afford cable (long story). I found the first season of The O.C. at my public library and picked it up.  I had to rush to watch all seven discs in a week (DVDs are only allowed out for one week).  One of the reasons I hate the idea of renting series discs from Netflix  since I only get one DVD at a time and I have a pre-Intel-based Mac so watching instantly on Netflix is out.  A complete series is between three and seven discs. I also happened to see two of the seasons of "The Sopranos" at the library (I forget which seasons) and am debating on whether to borrow these.  I'm afraid of getting into a show and wanting to see the rest, and don't know how to do so without jamming up my Netflix queue with three- to seven-discs series.  I'm sure to get tired after a while, even if I wanted to see the whole series.  I've only made a small number of attempts to rent series discs from Netflix.

Some other series I've been curious about include "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills."  I recently read the "L.A. Candy" book series by Lauren Conrad, who stared on the two shows, and now want to see these shows.  I also plan on reading Conrad's spinoff book series "The Fame Game, "  but more on that later.

And just a while ago at the library I found Season one of the soap-opera parody series "Soap," which I had seen, albeit as reruns in the early 1980s.  After borrowing Season One,  I saw that Seasons Two and Four were also available, but no Season Three. So I added to that season my queue, pushing back a bunch of DVDs I've had queued for over a year now, by three spaces each. Luckily,  it's only three discs, so it won't take too long, and the first disc arrived yesterday and is on its way back as of this afternoon.   After the last disc arrives and I finish watching it,  I will get Season Four from the library.

I had a flashback to watching reruns of "Soap" in 1983 when I was in sixth grade.  My local NBC station carried repeats of the show beginning that year in January, at 7:30PM right after "Entertainment Tonight."  I only vaguely remembered the show when it first aired as it aired from 1977 to 1981, when I was between the ages of six and 10.   The station carried the repeats until the summer of 1983, then brought them back in September, and I could not wait to see them again.   All was well until January 1984 when the station pushed "Soap" to 3PM in the afternoon to make room for the just-premiered syndicated version of "Wheel of Fortune" (which they still air today). I did not get out of school until 3:10 so I would not be able to watch the show anymore unless I was home sick.  Not sure how many times that happened, but I was eager for spring break to come around so I could watch the show then, since I would be home all week. No such luck.  By then, the show had gotten moved again, the wee hours of the morning. I mean, this was 1984, who was watching TV at 3AM then?   I mentioned this to family friend in an email I wrote circa 1998, and he too remembered the show being moved to the afternoon, and how he was unable to watch it because he was at work then.  Glad I'm not the only one who remembered all that.   I also caught reruns of "Soap" on Comedy Central while I was in college in 1997.

There are probably plenty of other series I have never seen and now want to see, but  far too many to mention.  If I had an iPhone or an Intel-based Mac, I'd certainly be watching them instantly on Netflix to save my DVD queue from being jammed with multi-disc series.

2. Something I absolutely love:
Well, I may not want to really say I love this, but have been into reading teen and young adult book series, but then I've seen lots of  other grownups dong the same, starting with several of my family members reading the "Twilight" series. I then read it and watched the films.  I've since gotten into other series including the "Hunger Games,""The Vampire Diaries," the "Night World" series and "The Forbidden Game."  I've also started other series  including the vampire series "House of Night" (I am waiting to get the third book from my library) and the trilogy "Matched" (going to look for the next book "Crossed" soon).   I just now started another series "The Mortal Instruments."  I just finished reading the first book and picked up the second one from the library today (I'd put it on hold) and the third one as well since it was in stock.  I'm looking for other series similar to any of these, anyone have any ideas?

Source: ssbookreviews.blogspot.com via Jamie on Pinterest

And as I said earlier, I read Lauren Conrad's "L.A. Candy" books and am looking to read her next series, the spinoff "The Fame Game."  What other books does any recommend for those who liked these books?


It seems there are so many book series now. It gets hard to keep up sometimes.  But I try.   One I've been curious about is the alphabet murder mysteries by Sue Grafton.   Not to sure about starting this one, since it would be 22 weeks of reading, with four more weeks to be determined later (the last four letters of the alphabet, W thru Z, have yet to be covered).  Then again, I made it through all 22 of the Stephanie Plum books  this year.  I can read fast, depending on how much time I have.   I've also been interested in the food-themed mystery series by Diane Mott Davidson, the "Donut Shop Mysteries" by Jessica Beck and the "Hannah Swensen Mysteries" by Joanne Fluke, yet another food-themed mystery series.

This is something I could go on about. I guess book series sell well and readers are curious to hear more about the character.  But enough about this for this blog post.  Perhaps I can talk about this more in a separate blog post.

As promised, here are some links to other bloggers who participated in this weeks League of Extraordinary Bloggers topic:
The Surfing Pizza
Memories of Tomorrow
Turn It Up
Life With Fandom
Random Toy Reviews
Laird of the Dark Horde
That  Figures