Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

Jim & I just finished watching "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" a couple of hours ago and I still haven't finished laughing. If you like the first movie, "Harold & Kumar Goes to White Castle", you will like this one. This movie takes place a few hours after the ending of the first movie. John Cho & Kal Penn playes Harold Lee & Kumar Patil, best buds, who was on their way to Amsterdam to meet up with their pretty neighbor who Harold has a crush on. On the plane, due to some misunderstanding, they were thought to be terrorist who is planning on bombing the plane so they were put in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The DVD has an unrated version of the movie which came out with an R at the theaters. If you've seen the first movie, you'll know that there are a lot of nudity, swear words and drugs (mostly weed) in this one. Neil Patrick Harris returned for a cameo and he was hilarious. I would recommend this movie to anyone that doesn't think drugs, swear words, nudity & racial profiling are funny.

Ants Invasion

As Mondays are my normal day off, I did some grocery shopping yesterday. I bought some sugar free chocolate chip cookies and banana nut bread. After dinner last night, I left the container of cookies and bread on our kitchen counter. I've done this on several occassions before without any problem.

In the mornings, my 2 boys usually will try to wake me up so that I could feed them their breakfast. But this morning Sammy was quite persistent in wanting me to get up. Thinking that he is just extra hungry, I try to pat him so that I can catch more zzz before my alarm clock goes off at 6am. Anyways, after about 5 minutes of trying to calm Sammy down, I heard Jim got up and when into the kitchen. Then I heard him (from my very foggy sleep state) said, "Shirin, wake up, we've been invaded by ants"

Thinking that there are probably a couple of ants crawling on the cookies, I groggily got up and walked into the kitchen. And what greeted me in the kitchen jolted me wide awake. There wasn't just 2 ants, there were hundreds of them!!! Never before have I seen swarm of ants that many. They had a line from the corner in my pantry, across the kitchen floor, up the side of the kitchen counter, all the way along the sink, behind my spice rack and over to the stove. We've never had problem with ants before, though we do put ant baits around the house (just in case) so it was a shock to both Jim & I to see that many ants when only a few hours before there weren't any.

Obviously, I threw away the cookies and banana bread. I went through a whole container of lysol wipes and scrubed the kitchen counter, stove and floor. I ran over (drove actually) to Walmart & Home Depot and got tons of ant baits. While at Home Depot, the sales clerk told me that for the past few days, they had quite a few people coming in buying ant baits. Apparently, the rain storm we had a week ago caused the ants to seek shelter and food in houses since their homes were washed away by the storm.

I felt somewhat relieved that we weren't the only ones invaded by ants. Anyways, we put baits all over the kitchen and when I came home from work today, I am happy to say that the baits are working. Hopefully the baits will continue to work because I never ever ever ever want to go thru that ever again.

Now, I need to go take a shower coz the thought of those ants are making me itch.....

"In Bruges" & "Be Kind, Rewind"

Jim & I finished watching "In Bruges" yesterday morning. It's a movie about 2 hit men, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) after a blotched job, was told to hide out in Bruges (that's in Belgium) by their crime boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes). Soon, the 2 hitmen started to differ on their view of life & death. Ray, having just blotched his first hit job, was feeling remorse on what he had done. While Ken, who had been doing that line of work for a long time is starting to feel that there is more to life than killing people. They soon found out why Harry had them hiding in Bruges for 2 weeks.

The movie was pretty good with a climatic ending. Clemency Poesy played Ray's girlfriend whom he met while hiding in Bruges. If you a big "Harry Potter" fan like I am, you will notice that 3 of the actors were in the Harry Potter movies at one point or another. This being Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldermort), Brendan Gleeson (Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody) and Clemency Poesy (Fleur Delacor). It is a British movie with the actors talking in British accent so some of the humor might not come through for you Americans. Do watch it if you like dark comedy....

We also saw "Be Kind, Rewind" yesterday. Mike (Mos Def) is a clerk working in a video store owned by Elroy Fletcher (Danny Glover) in Passaic, New Jersey. Jerry (Jack Black) is an "eccentric" friend of Mike, who believes in government conspiracy. While Mr Fletcher was out of town (leaving Mike in charge of the video store), Jerry accidentally erased all of Mr Fletcher's video collections. So as not to arouse suspicion of Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), who reports the coming and goings of the video store to Mr Fletcher every night via their nightly 8pm phone calls, Mike & Jerry re shoot the movies.

Jack Black & Mos Def were funny and it was nice to see Mia Farrow back on film but the movie got a little boring for me towards the end. If you are a big Jack Black fan, you will like this movie or otherwise you'll be hoping that your memory is erased from watching this movie.

Fight Club

Any Time, Any Place

Lets Wait Awhile

One of my favorite songs.....

Rush Rush

One of my favorite videos when I was in high school. This is when I fell in love with Keanu Reeves.... ;-)

Brokeback Mountain

Jim & I finally saw "Brokeback Mountain" last weekend on Bravo (channel 60). I thought that it's a good movie. I have to admit, when it first came out in the theaters, I was a little apprehensive about watching it. It got good reviews but I still resisted watching it. Then finally curiousity took over and when it came on tv last weekend, I saw it. And honestly, I don't see what the bruhaha is all about. And what I mean here is about the homosexuality of the movie.

The movie did not show the guys having sex. It's not about that at all. It's about love and the sacrifice that they do for that love as well as to avoid the prejudice that they face. This world could definitely do with less prejudice and bigotry...

Heath Ledger & Jake Gyllenhaal played Ennis Del Mar & Jack Twist. 2 men, a ranch hand and an aspiring rodeo cowboy, met in 1963 Wyoming while herding sheeps developed a life-long bond. When the herding season ended, they parted way but soon realized their true feelings for each other. They went thru 19 years of trials and tribulation (marriage, kids etc) when it all ended tragically.

Michelle Williams played Ennis Del Mar's wife, Alma and Anne Hathaway played Jack Twist's wife Lureen Newsome. All 4 actors were great in this movie. Watch it if you can.....

Other recommendations:
"Boys Don't Cry" - Hillary Swank

Boxing Match...

All Star 2008

The baseball All Star Game is on right now at Yankee Stadium in New York and I am proud to say my the Chicago Cubs have 8 players and their manager in the All Star team. I am so proud of them. Here are the Cubs players & manager who made it to the All Star Team:

Lou Piniella - Manager

Ryan Dempster - Pitcher

Carlos Marmol - Pitcher

Kerry Wood - Pitcher

Carlos Zambrano - Pitcher

Geovany Soto - Catcher (starting in the All Star Game)

Kosuke Fukudome - Outfielder (starting in the All Star Game)

Alfonso Soriano - Outfielder

Aramis Ramirez - Third Base

Revenge

Quails

I left work at about 6:40pm last Thursday evening after being at work since 7:30am. As I was walking to my car, I came across a family of quails on the pavement, most likely looking for dinner. There were the papa & mama quail as well as about a dozen of their baby quails. They were so cute!!! I tried to be as quiet as I can but as soon as they saw me, they ran into the bush by the pavement except for one baby quail. It was concentrating so much on getting his/her food that it didn't notice me standing there. It finally looked up and noticed me watching and it turned around looking for its family. It was kinda comical to see it kept turning its head in a panic, trying to find his family. When it finally spotted them under the bush and it ran for it... I managed to take this pic of them with my cellphone before they went into hiding.... Sorry, the picture is not very good/clear, it was after all taken from a cellphone and it was starting to get dark...

Happy Belated Birthday Mom

Happy Belated Birthday to my mother-in-law, Joanne Pergo, who celebrated her 62nd on July 6th.

Happy Birthday Melissa

Happy Birthday to my friend, Melissa (right in picture) who is celebrating her 33rd today.

Happy Birthday Wan Chik

Happy Birthday to my aunt, Wan Chik (Raja Nor Izaliah) who is celebrating her 47th today.

To D.B

* A "love note" from Dr. K to Dr. G....

As he sat on the seat in his favorite room, Dr. G emitted an odifourous gloom.

To turn on the fan would have been wise as he sat there, the stench began to sting in his eyes.

He went in the room to read some x-rays but the stench and the gloom affected his gaze.

He said,"I came in this room to read and to think but I can't concentrate because of the stink."

As he sat in the silence and hush, he realized the solution was only to flush.

Down went the lever and the bowl began to drain along with the poo and half of his brain.

4th of July

HAVE A HAPPY & SAFE 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!