The Book of Life

Saturday night Marilyn and I spontaneously decided to take Sean and Tashena to a late movie.  They chose The Book of Life which I thought was appropriate for the Day of the Dead!  I am glad they picked this movie because I wan't planning on seeing it and I absolutely loved it!  On the Day of the Dead we meet La Muerte, who rules the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, who rules the Land of the Forgotten.  Xibalba is unhappy in the Land of the Forgotten and proposes a wager: if La Meurte wins Xibalba will stop meddling in the lives of mortals and if Xibalba wins they will change lands.  They see two boys, Manolo and Juaquin, competing for the attention of a girl named Maria.  La Meurte bets that Manolo will marry Maria and Xibalba bets that Juaquin will.  Years later, Manolo has been trained by his father to follow the family tradition of becoming a bull fighter but he just wants to play his guitar.  Juaquin has become a military hero like his famous father, but only because of the Medal of Eternal Life given to him by Xibalba.  Who will the feisty Maria choose?  I thought it was hilarious!  Like many animated films for children, there were lots of pop cultural references which kept the adults in the theater laughing.  When Manolo sang "Creep" by Radiohead, Marilyn and I couldn't stop laughing!  Sean looked over at us wondering what was so funny!  I loved the wise-cracking Grandma Sanchez and the trio of singing nuns who functioned as a Greek chorus.  So clever!  All of the characters look like the wooden puppets that are traditionally used in Day of the Dead celebrations.  The animation is visually stunning:  dynamic, vibrant, and colorful.  I couldn't take my eyes off the screen!  The message of this movie is that as long as you remember the loved ones who have passed on, they will always be with you.  We had quite the conversation about this with Sean on the drive home!  Definitely go see this movie!

Note:  I always have so much fun when I am totally spontaneous!  I need to be spontaneous more often!

Happy Birthday Tashena!

My family is extremely close.  There are only eight of us and we all live near each other (I live the farthest away).  My niece and nephew are a very special part of our family and we love them so much!  When either one of them has a birthday, it is cause for celebration!  Tashena's 14th birthday was actually last Tuesday but we celebrated it yesterday.

Tashena chose spaghetti for her birthday dinner and then we had this amazing ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (a birthday tradition).

Then she opened her presents.  Every time I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she would always tell me socks.  She even showed me the specific socks she wanted:  Nike Elite Crew socks!  They are pretty expensive and I couldn't find them anywhere!  One night I went to five different stores!  I could find other Nike socks but not the specific ones she wanted.  I was quite frustrated but I decided to try a few stores after school on Friday and I found some at Famous Footwear!  Even better, they were on clearance and they had a buy one get one half price sale on all socks.  I bought every single pair they had.  The expression on her face when she opened the box made the entire hassle worth it!  Do you remember wanting some super trendy thing when you were a teenager?

My Mom and Dad got her some movies.  She made a list for us and we had a hard time finding these as well!  You would think that all of the stores would have lots of copies of a popular movie like Divergent.  Nope!  We were actually able to find all three that she wanted Friday night!

Her parents gave her a purple (her favorite color) iPod nano and Marilyn gave her an iTunes gift card.  She was absolutely thrilled and began downloading music immediately!

Sean used his own money to buy her some nail polish.  We all thought that was adorable.  After presents, her one request was that we play a game called shanghai rummy.  This is a crazy card game that takes several hours to play and it is kill or be killed!  We love it and play it on every holiday!  My brother in law won.  It was a really fun day but I can't believe that Tashena is 14!

Costume Parade 2014

I spent Halloween at my parents' house waiting for some trick-or-treaters to come and show us their costumes.  While we waited, we had chili and donuts.  My Mom has made chili every Halloween since I was a little girl and we all look forward to it.

Tashena was a scarecrow.  She found everything for her costume at thrift stores and my sister found her scarecrow tattoos here.  I think she looked fantastic!  Tashena always comes up with interesting and unique ideas for Halloween.  She went trick-or-treating and then to a party with her friends.

Sean decided to be a skeleton again.  He gets a bonus for being a skeleton because it is a costume but, after Halloween, it is a jacket.  He was so excited to go trick-or-treating and he could barely lift his bag when he was finished.

Scarecrow and Skeleton 2014

Cinderella 2006

Witch 2007

Snow White 2008

Shrek and Princess Jasmine 2009

The Bride of Frankenstein and The Karate Kid 2010

Medusa and Ninja 2011

Yuki (from She Smells the Dead by E.J. Stevens) and Skeleton 2012

Secret Agent and Skeleton (at a Masquerade Ball) 2013

The Vacationers

The October selection for my book club was The Vacationers by Emma Straub.  I was not impressed. This is a very vacuous novel about an American family's two week vacation to Mallorca.  Franny and Jim Post are ostensibly celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary but we soon discover that Jim has been unfaithful with a much younger intern at his office and has, consequently, lost his job. Franny wants to use this vacation to think about the future of their marriage.  Their daughter Sylvia, who is about to leave for college, has decided that this vacation is the perfect opportunity to lose her virginity. Their ne'er-do-well son Bobby is having financial difficulties and is trying to find a way to ask them for a rather sizable loan. Bobby's girlfriend Carmen, whom everyone dislikes because she is older than Bobby, wants a commitment from him. Franny's best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence are on a short-list to adopt a baby but Charles is having second thoughts. Obviously, the perfect vacation envisioned by Franny does not go according to plan.  Through much of this novel, I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen.  The plot was so predictable and riddled with cliches that I almost abandoned it several times. I kept thinking it would get better because it received such glowing reviews. It didn't.  The characters whine and complain (while lying around the pool) and never really deal with the underlying problems in their lives.  Furthermore, all of the characters are completely unlikable people who do some really despicable things to each other! They are so unsympathetic that I was a bit disappointed when none of them got any sort of comeuppance!  The resolution was just a little bit too perfect for me and it definitely wasn't satisfying.  This is another one of those times when I wonder if I've read the same book that everyone else did...

Halloween Hi-Jinks

I have been attending the Utah Symphony's annual Halloween concert for the past few years and it has become another favorite holiday tradition.  I attended this year's concert on Tuesday night and, as always, it was a lot of fun!  The orchestra played some great spooky music such as the Overture from The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, "Ritual Fire Dance" from El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla, "Thunder & Lightning Polka" by Johann Strauss, Jr., "Harry's Wondrous World" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by John Williams, "The Bride of Frankenstein" by Franz Waxman, "Devil's Dance" from The Witches of Eastwick by John Williams, and "Funeral March of a Marionette" by Charles Gounod.  All were suitably atmospheric and accessible for even the youngest in attendance.  A young girl sitting near me told her friend that she thought she would be bored but ended up really liking the concert.  One of my favorite pieces was Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky (Have I mentioned that I really like Russian composers?).  Many in the audience recognized this from Fantasia but I imagined a coven of witches cavorting around a bonfire and casting spells!  I also really loved Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach.  I think of this piece as the quintessence of horror (It has been used in many horror films) and I wonder if Bach intended it thus?  The concert concluded with "Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walkure by Richard Wagner.  It was another favorite because it was very dramatic!  I was quite impressed with the horn section in this piece.  There was a costume competition in the lobby with the audience picking the winners after the intermission.  I thought there were some really clever ones, including a group dressed as Star Wars characters with one person as an amazing AT-AT Walker!  Orchestra members were also in costume which was hilarious to watch.  The percussion section dressed as green army men and won the orchestra competition (as they did last year dressed as the Blue Man Group).  However, my favorite was the bass section.  One bass player was dressed as a bee keeper and the rest were bees!  I think they should have won!  Put this concert on your calendar for next year and start planning your costumes!  I'm sure it will become a great Halloween tradition.

Note:  The Utah Symphony performs several concerts like this one, which are suitable for families, throughout the season.  I am planning on taking my niece and nephew to the Here Comes Santa Claus concert in December.  Go here to get tickets for your family.