Books & Movies

I've just re-read Eragon. The new book Brisingr is coming out in September and I'm so excited for it. I read both books (Eragon & Eldest) when I was on maternity leave after Olivia was born. I saw the movie shortly after I read the book and the book is WAY better. Books are always way better than their movie. Don't get me wrong, I really like the movie but I think I have to view the movie as just a movie and not compare it to the book. The book talks so much about Eragon raising Saphira and gives you so much background on the Dragon Riders. Also you get more back story on Brom. You find out that Brom was friends with Morzan before he betrayed the riders and joined Galbatorix. Also it's so unbelievable that the book was written by a 16 year old. I don't think I could have written anything like that when I was 16. I was planning to re-read Eldest next but I reserved a copy of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I heard they are making that into a movie soon too. I looked it up on IMDB and it says that it is currently filming with a release date of Dec. 12, 2008. In other movie news, Half-Blood Prince is coming out Nov. 21, 2008. Right now Prince Caspian is out in theaters and the new Indiana Jones movie is coming out next week.

TV, need I say more?

Like I've said before, I watch WAY too much TV. Thursdays are by far the busiest. I watch Survivor on CBS at 7PM. Oh can you believe both Ozzy and Jason got so blindsided? What idiots! Then I switch over to NBC and watch The Office. I was bummed last week when I saw Scrubs got moved to 7:30PM and I totally missed it. I'll have to record it this week and maybe catch up with last week's online. Then I switch over to ABC and watch Lost. So then I have to record ER and watch it later. And Grey's Anatomy I watch online some time in the weekend. As for the rest of the week I watch a show almost every night. Sundays I have to watch Desperate Housewives at 8PM. Mondays House is back at 8PM and then it's Medium at 9PM. Tuesdays are kind of slow and there's nothing I absolutely have to watch but I watch Beauty and the Geek at 7PM and Reaper at 8PM. Wednesdays absolutely nothing again, but if I'm home I'll watch America's Top Model at 7PM and Supernanny at 8PM. Thursdays I've already mentioned above. On Fridays it's Moonlight at 8PM and then Numb3rs at 9PM. I've grown attached to Moonlight and have to watch it now, but Numb3rs I can miss. I am such a vampire geek I love vampire books (Anne Rice, I've read all her vampire books) and vampire movies. I don't know I guess I'm fascinated by them and have been since I was in high school. Last week I missed Moonlight so I watched it online after I watched Grey's Anatomy. How did the world survive before there was TV? I guess back then people had more work to do like farming and making their own clothes. We are so spoiled nowadays. I do sew though and made Olivia a pillowcase dress but it hasn't been warm enough for her to wear it yet. I might make her another dress I found a different pattern online for one. I got these really cute buttons at Wal-mart last week that I'm going to use as accents on her dress. Maybe I'll even make her a skirt. We'll see, I'll post some pictures of my finished work whenever I get around to doing it.

I found a recipe

I was surfing through some message boards and came across a thread that talked about making your own coffee at home and making it taste like Starbucks/Caribou. Well I love to get coffee at those places but who can afford $5 a day on that kind of thing. So usually I buy some flavored creamer at the grocery store and use my cappucino maker to just make some strong coffee. Well I haven't drank any caffeine in about two years so I made decaf. I'm not drinking the coffee to wake me up but more as a treat. I bought some cinnamon vanilla creamer last time I went to the grocery store and got non fat which is actually pretty tasty just not as thick as the regular stuff. Anyhow I found a recipe on how to make your own vanilla syrup and Starbuck Mocha Frappuccino. I haven't tried either recipe but they do sound very tasty. Here are the recipes. If anyone tries them let me know how they turn out. I might try them this weekend when I have more time.

Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino

3 cups double-strength freshly brewed dark roast coffee
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus additional cocoa powder for garnish
1 cup nonfat milk

Fill ice-cube trays with half of the brewed coffee and place in the freezer. In a bowl, combine the remaining brewed coffee, cocoa powder and milk and stir to dissolve the cocoa. Cover and chill.When the ice cubes have frozen, transfer them to a kitchen towel and, using a hammer or mallet, crush the cubes. Fill 2 glasses with the crushed ice and divide the coffee-cocoa mixture evenly among them. Dust the top with cocoa powder and serve.
Serves 2.

Vanilla Syrup

2 cups water
1.5 cups sugar
¾ tsp vanilla

Combine 2 cups water and 1.5 cups sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes and then add ¾ tsp vanilla. Remove from heat and cool and store in covered container.

What Xavier did yesterday

I let Xavier play in the backyard while I was feeding Olivia when I got home from work yesterday. I went to go check on him and find him playing with the burned wood in the fire pit. So I tell him to get out of there and he looks over at me and I see he has soot on his face. So I tell him to come in the house to get cleaned up. Then I notice it's on his hands, jacket and pants. I was trying to yell at him but it was funny and so I got some pictures. Here they are.

Is it winter or spring?

So at the end of last week it was nice and warm. We went for walks and played outside. Monday I had to pull out the winter coats from the closet again. It's been in the 30s every morning this week. Then I hear it's supposed to snow later! Why can't it warm up and stay warm? Here's what they're saying for the rest of the week:

Wednesday: cloudy high 51, low 32
Thursday: rain/storms high 45, low 36
Friday: rain/snow high 38, low 33
Saturday: snow high 40, low 30
Sunday: sunny high 46, low 28

Does that seem like spring or winter? Hopefully next week it will start to warm up.