Top Ten Tuesday

Well, without my meaning to, the last two guest blog posts I did had food lists - foods I know are bad for me but don't want to give up at Love Bytes Reviews, and top five comfort foods at My Fiction Nook - so I thought I should continue the theme.

So, I was pretty picky as a kid - I still prefer my food not to touch on the plate. If I want it mixed together, I'll do that myself and stuff like stew, I will eat all the potatoes, then all the veggies, then the meat. I'm still kind of picky. Or at least that's what I thought because of my experience as a kid, but when I really think about it - I will try anything at least once and I wind up liking a lot more than I think I'm going to. Still, it's sometimes a surprise to me when I like a food.

Top Ten Foods I Was Surprised I Liked (with the least surprising at 10 and the most surprising at 1)

10 - Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos - I always avoided these because I am not a spicy chip fan. Or so I thought. I had a taste once at a get together where these were the only option and I was feeling munchy, so I figured I'd try. OMG. So good. It's chips, I should have known.

9 - Octopus - I didn't expect to like this (although as I like calimari, I'm not sure why) but I did. I've had it prepared both hot and cold and have enjoyed it both ways.

8 -  Mocha cake - I hate coffee - I know, that makes me a weirdo, but I just don't like the taste and I'm not even that fond of the smell, so I have always avoided cake with mocha because usually any cake that has coffee in it makes me go ew. But I had a small tast of a mocha cake at The Keg and wound up having more because it was surprisingly good.

7 - Spinach - I disliked spinach like whoa as a kid. Turns out I actually like spinach raw and somewhat wilted, what I don't like its when it's had the hell cooked out of it - because then it tastes like grass with dirt. But raw or only slightly wilted? Bring it on.

6 - Leeks - not a fan of onions growing up, I was suprised to learn how much I like cooked leeks with butter. Yum.

5 - Pickled Herring - it's fish, I'm not going to like it, I was in my late thirties before I actually tried it. I'm just sorry I waited so long to try it. I also love the onion slivers that are pickled with it. Love it on rye bread.

4 - Steak and Kidney pie - kidneys, ewww, right? Actually, if cooked properly they're great and really added to the flavor of this meat pie.

3 - Aloo Matar - this is an Indian potato dish. I like Indian food okay, but I'm very picky about it and I am not the biggest fan of potatoes as a main, nor am I a big fan of tomato based sauce, but whoa, this is delicious and I went back for seconds

2 - Baba Ganoush - I am not a fan of eggplant, like at all. I'd eat it if I was starving and that's all there was, but otherwise no. And yet, somehow, I enjoy baba ganoush.

1 - Haggis. Now granted, if it's not a 'good' haggis, I don't like it. I don't hate it, but I find a lot of times it's very mealy. However. I have had good haggis that I thought was honestly delicious. There's a restaurant here in town called The Highland Pub and their haggis is honestly good.


What foods were you surprised that you actually liked?

Sean
smut fixes everything

Movie Monday

Okay, so this isn't exactly a movie, but I binged all but the last two episodes yesterday evening and have a date for those last two episodes tonight. Episodes of what? The New Legends of Monkey.

This story is in the same vein as The Legend of Hercules and Xena the Warrior Princess. Three gods, and a girl posing as a monk go on a search for ancient scrolls that are supposed to save the world.

It's cheesy as hell, and it's all out fun. And with episodes only a half hour or so long, it's easy to move through the whole thing.

I highly reccomend this fun romp of a show.


Sean
smut fixes everything

Movie Monday

A Tale of Two Movies

Picked up the new Grinch movie. Loved the little mini minion movies that came with it - I love those little yellow dudes of joy.

But the actual Grinch movie? What a disappointment. I turned it off about 20 minutes in. And I LOVE the Grinch. It's like they took everything that was wonderful about the source material and threw it out. Blah.

So instead of watching the rest of that, I watched Christopher Robin. This movie took everything that was wonderful about the source material and celebrated it. It was a beautiful movie about finding your joy again. The pace matched the books, there were many scenes that were essentially from the books. And I loved it.

So, the moral of this story? Don't bother with the Grinch, but give Christopher Robin a chance.


Sean
smut fixes everything

Movie Monday

This weekend I went to see Into the Spiderverse with my sister and we both enjoyed it very much!

I'm not one to usually go to an animated film in the theater - I'm quite happy to sit and watch it at home, but it was the one we both wanted to see out of what was currently available and I'm so glad I saw it in the theatre. There's a lot of visual stuff that benefits from the big screen.

It was a great origin story for this particular spiderman. I loved the multitude of spidermans (and womens).

There was also a great thread of humor in it, which I always appreciate in an action movie.

I'll be intersted in seeing where they take it if they make another one.


Sean
smut fixes everything

Movie Monday

Monday again! I actually went to see Aquaman last weekend, not the one just passed, but it was a busy week last week and I didn't get a chance to movie monday it.

There will likely be spoilers so skip this if you don't want to see them.

I loved the movie. I'm a fan of Jason Momoa to begin with, so I went into this movie knowing I'd be happy just to watch him (and yes, I'll admit, drool a little). But I actually enjoyed the movie itself as well!

First of all, it was stunning visually (and not just because of the beautiful man playing Aquaman). The underwater scenes were especially amazing - especially with all the different plant life and sunken buildings and stuff that they used. Gorgeous.

I enjoyed the story, I thought it was decently paced (many origin stories are just soooo sllloooowww, but this one was not - I think they're getting better at origin stories for comic book based movies.) I could have lived with a different actor in Willem Defoe's role - I like him well enough in most movies, just not in this one. He looked like a skeleton covered in skin, actually and it was distracting in any of the scenes he was in.

Also kind of distracting was the airbrushing of Nicole Kidman's face. I know they were going for this etherial look for her, but there is nothing wrong with a woman with wrinkles! It's beautiful in my opinion, much more so than airbrushed perfection or plastic surgery (even really good plastic surgery looks fake).

I liked that Arthur didn't want to be King. That he knew he wasn't worthy, but he had to try because he didn't want the two worlds he was from to be at war. Which of course made him perfect for the position. And yeah, it's cheesy and obvious, but it's perfect as an origin story and it fit well with his character which from the start wasn't interested in accolades. 

So this is my favorite DC movie (which for me is damning with faint praise because I think most of them are not that great.) I liked Wonder Woman a lot and think it's head and shoulders above any of the other DC movies. Aquaman was even better and is one of my favorite comic book movies now. 

So if you like comic book movies and/or if you like Jason Momoa - this is a movie for you.

Sean

smut fixes everything

Book Day Wednesday

There's a new Mannies book coming out on January 22 and you can pre-order it now!

Family Portrait

Ashton Grumfeld is a photojournalist who has spent a lot of years embedded with the troops in Afghanistan, only coming home to visit his sister Amy and her family for a few days at Christmas every year. When Amy and her husband are killed in a freak car accident, the guardianship of their four children falls to him.

Darren Swanson has been nanny to the Gumfeld’s children since just before nine year old Diana, the eldest, was born. When their parents die, he’s left on his own with four kids until their uncle can make it out of Afghanistan and get home. It takes two weeks before that happens, two weeks of having to deal with newly orphaned children all the while wondering what’s going to happen when Ashton finally arrives on the scene.

Will Ashton and Darren be able to make a new family as they figure out how they fit together in the children’s lives, and each other’s? Find out in Family Portrait.

buy link:

You can pre-order it at Amazon.

Excerpt:

Darren put plates of grilled cheese sandwiches cut into stars and hearts down in front of Diana, Drew and Derek, then double checked on baby Dillon. His little bit extra was still fast asleep in the daycrib. Poor little thing just didn’t understand why everyone was upset, but he sure picked up on everyone’s emotions and had been miserable for days.

He wasn’t the only one, of course. Darren was just trying to hold it together for his other three charges, trying to make everything as normal as possible. If there was such a thing when your parents died when a party boat caught fire and went down, all souls lost. The twins were still asking when Mommy and Daddy were coming home and his Lady Di was clinging to him twenty four seven.

Annalisa, the housekeeper, caught him before he went back into the kitchen. “I’m done, Mr. Darren. I cleaned the big guest room for Mr. Uncle.”

“Thanks, Annalisa. Did the lawyer talk to you?” She needed to be paid.

“He did. He asked me to keep coming in until their uncle decides what to do with the house.”

“Okay, good. Thank you.” He ran his hands through his hair. God, he was tired. Exhausted. “Thank you.”

She gave him a hug and he hugged her right back. She’d been working for the Grumfeld’s almost as long as he had. They’d had a tea break together every Tuesday and Friday for the last eight years.

“Mr. Uncle is a good man. A very good man.” Annalisa had had the opportunity to meet the man, at least. “He’ll keep us on.”

“I hope so.” Not because all he cared about was having a job, but those babies didn’t know Amy’s brother nearly at all, and with their parents gone, he was the only parental figure they knew.

“You’ll be okay, Mr. Darren. And so will those bambinos because they have you.”

“And you. Who else is going to sneak them cookies?”

She laughed softly and patted his back before going to gather her purse and her coat.

She kissed each of the three older kids, one after another. “I love you all. Be good.”

“See you on Tuesday, Annalisa.” He hoped.

“You will.” She gave him a firm nod and headed out.

Diana came to him, grabbed his hand. “Dee? Please don’t go.”

He went down onto one knee and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetpea.”
He prayed Amy’s brother wouldn’t make a liar out of him.

“Promise to God. I don’t want to live in a dirty tent in the desert.”

He blinked a few times, trying to parse that one out. “I promise I won’t let you live in a dirty tent in the desert. Why do you think that would happen?”

“That’s where he lives.”

“He? Oh. You mean your Uncle Ashton?” Amy’s brother was a photojournalist and spent a lot of time in the middle east.

“Uh-huh. Him.” The way she said it sounded so grim, which was ridiculous. Amy and Simon had always spoken highly of her baby brother, who had a Pulitzer and an apparently stunning talent.

Sean

smut fixes everything

Top Ten Tuesday

How about a New Year's themed Top Ten? Do you make resolutions? I have in the past, though I always wind up feeling like a failure when I can't keep them, so I've started to use the new year as a time to try to make new habits more than resolutions. But I figured I'd share my top ten resolutions that I made most often and didn't keep...

Top Ten New Year's Resolutions I Never Keep

10. Give up coca-cola - I did finally give it up (for health reasons) but it took a lot of tries, and it had nothing to do with new years when I finally did!

9. keep the house clean
8. eat better
7. lose weight
6. give up chips and candy
5. keep my calender and todo lists updated
4. save x amout of money every week
3. exercise regularly
2. be organized
1. write a blog post every day


Sean
smut fixes everything