Favorite Bond Actor

Lee and I have been renting the James Bond movies at our local Top Hat Video ever since we watched Skyfall.

I haven't seen any other James Bond movies besides the two other Daniel Craig ones, so we decided to go in order. Sadly, everyone else has the same idea and the selection was a little sparse when we got there.

Which is your favorite?

So we grabbed the following movies this week:

• #2: From Russia with Love (Sean Connery)
• #3: Goldfinger (Sean Connery)
• #4: Thunderball (Sean Connery)
• #6: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (George Lazenby)
• #7: Diamonds are Forever (Sean Connery)

So far, I've watched movies with Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, and George Lazenby as James Bond. I'd also rank them in that order of who plays James Bond best up to this point, seeing I still haven't seen any with Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, or Pierce Brosnan. 

Now I'm curious to know which James Bond actor is your favorite.

The Mighty Interweb

At the Chan family Thanksgiving, we video-chatted with my older sister and her family who live in Iowa now for the first time using a couple of iPads.

My sisters are ready to go!

We video-chatted via Google+ Hangout because my older sister doesn't have FaceTime. Hangout is pretty sweet and easy to use. All parties need to be on Google+ and the main host or hostess invites everyone to hangout.

We were all so excited to see one another!

I am always amazed at the World Wide Web (aka the "interweb" in Winter language) and how we can connect so easily because of it.

Love, love my nephews!

How do you video chat to keep in touch? Skype? FaceTime? Google+ Hangout?

For your health and safety

We've recently stumbled upon some public service announcements on YouTube that are clever, fun, and catchy. Enjoy!

Get out and play:



New Zealand Air's Safety Briefing:



Dumb Ways to Die: I'm sorry...this will get stuck in your head.

Have a fun, safe day!

Our Must-See Christmas Movies

They started playing Christmas movies way before Thanksgiving this year. I tried to ignore them, but seeing even the commercials got me in the Christmas mood and I wanted to pull out my favorite Christmas movies and start watching.

Here is our list of must-see Christmas movies:

Lee's Christmas Movie List:

1. Die Hard 2:  The story takes place during Christmas Eve and Bruce Willis' character is trying to save his wife from terrorists. Terrorists on Christmas Eve!

Die Harder!

 2. Better Off Dead: This story also takes place around the holidays, but I think Lee would fit this movie into any must-see movie list, seeing that this is his favorite movie of all time. I want my 2 dollars!

Better Off Dead

3. The Christmas Story: A classic, goofy story with a leg lamp!

Classic!

Winter's Christmas Movie List:

4. White Christmas: Oh the crooners in this movie--Bing, Danny, Rosemary! Watching this is a Chan family tradition.

Love this movie--White Christmas!

5. While You Were Sleeping: The story takes place a Christmas time. It is a rom-com, but you can't help fall in love with the crazy family. I love the scene where they are eating Christmas dinner and someone says "These mashed potatoes are so creamy" a few times. This is quotable stuff in my home.

Super funny!

6. Elf: I had this roommate who loved this movie and we'd all watch it year round. I don't know if you like Will Ferrel or not, but this is one of his best movies in my opinion.

Hilarious--Elf!

On both our Christmas Movie Lists:

7. Muppet Christmas Carol: There are so many versions of the Christmas Carol out there, but this one is the best, hands down. Michael Caine is so great in this movie!

Our favorite!

What are must-see Christmas movies in your home?

Share the Love

I have this coworker and friend who has this great blog, Share Dessert and Other Fabulous Things, which I've been following for some time now.

Love her new blog header too!

She is a talented at baking and party planning, but even more is her attitude about everything. She is upbeat and positive and always smiling. She is seriously awesome.

I was even more amazed at her tenacity when I found out her husband has been fighting cancer for a good long while and she may lose him soon. She wrote recently that she wanted to start a section called "Share the Love", a place where she will try to change the world. I love that she's just a girl trying to make a difference.

Long story short (read the entire post here), Sara and her sister-in-law are raising money for Essential Totes for patients at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, kind of in honor of Sara's husband. You can click here for FAQs and to donate.

Please consider giving to this cause as you are planning your donations and charitable contributions this Christmas season--Lee and I will be!

The Benefits of a Second Thanksgiving

Some of my friends when first married had some tricky times trying to figure out which family they would spend which holiday with.  We are lucky enough that we always get to spend time with both our families during this time of the year.

You see, since both of my parents are gone, because a couple of sisters work for the airlines and often are working on Thanksgiving, and because another sister doesn't live in the state--well, that means Lee and I can usually spend Thanksgiving or Christmas on the actual day of the holiday with his side of the family.

Pie is served

What my family has done every year is have a second Thanksgiving (or Christmas) celebration, usually a few days before or after the actual holiday. There are benefits to the Second Thanksgiving (or Christmas):

1. You can do something different for food, beside the traditional turkey, ham, etc. We have done really good steaks in the past--this year, we are doing Hawaiian barbecue!
2. Because we don't do quite the grand feast, there is less stress involved for everyone.
3. If you happen to forget something for the Second Thanksgiving, the store is (usually) open!
4. Sometimes you get your Christmas gifts early!

Hawaiian BBQ

We had our second Thanksgiving yesterday at our place and it was a lot of fun as always. Does anyone else have to do a Second Thanksgiving this weekend?

Simplified

On this day (aka Black Friday), I decided not to go shopping like a lot of people out there. In fact, I'll be doing some purging this weekend.

Black Friday 2012...not participating!

Don't get me wrong, I am all about a deal. I love getting discounts and finding the best way to get things for free or nearly free. It's a thrill!

But a couple years ago, I read about this couple who got rid of everything but 100 personal items per person in order to live more simply. They also changed their buying habits from "buying without regard" to a more "calculated consumption."

Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover

Along with this, Lee and I have been following the plan of Dave Ramsey. As he puts it, "If you will live like no one else, later you will live like no one else."

We have been thinking about what we'd like for Christmas, but we decided that we're going to hold off on a couple larger purchases, because we're trying to be debt-free by January 1. It's kind of exciting to think by the end of this year, Lee and I will be out of debt completely, living a little more simply, and likely more happily!

A "Happy Thanksgiving" List

Grateful for each other

I am grateful:

1. For my dear, sweet, sexy, and caring husband, Lee. He seriously floats my boat.
2. For our loving, wonderful, crazy, fun family
3. For my health
4. That we are both employed and employed doing stuff we enjoy
5. That we live in a land of plenty and in a land that I can believe what I believe in

I hope that today you all get to reflect on all the blessings you have. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pastry Wednesday: Pumpkin Cheesecake Showdown

While I was in Washington DC last week (see here, here, here, here, and here), my fellow Pastry Wednesday-ers met up for our monthly get-together. Adnohr was in charge and she told me before I left what she wanted to do: she wanted to bring in a line-up of pumpkin cheesecakes since they are prevalent this time of the year and vote on the best one.

I was SO sad when she told me of her master plan, because I had a feeling that I was going to miss an epic Pastry Wednesday.

So this is what I didn't get to try (all photos taken by Sugaraholic):

Five different pumpkin cheesecakes!

There was one from Tulie Bakery. Looks cute and compact.

Tulie Pumpkin Cheesecake

There was one from Gourmandise Bakery. There is always a nice sheen of gelatin on their pastries.

Gourmandise Pumpkin Cheesecake

Another one from Costco. I'm always surprised at how big these pies can get at Costco.

Costco Pumpkin Cheesecake

One from Olive Garden, which was starting to melt by the time it arrived. Both Sugaraholic and Adnohr encouraged me to go to Olive Garden before this Pastry Wednesday--according to them, it's "the best" and "so good". I will have to go for some dessert sometime.

Olive Garden Pumpkin Cheesecake

And the last from The Cheesecake Factory, which had crashed a little during transport.

The Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake

There was no clear winner though. Here is how everyone voted:

• Both Adnohr and Colonel Mustard chose Tulie Bakery's pumpkin cheesecake.
• Mr. Blenderhouse and a visitor voted that The Cheesecake Factory's was the best.
• Rx2Fx voted for the Costco cheesecake above all the other fancy ones.
• Sugaraholic was torn: her usual favorite is Olive Garden's, but she said that The Cheesecake Factory's was "pretty darn good".

If I only had a chance to vote too--I chose a bad time to miss out on Pastry Wednesday! Gah!

Have you tried any of these pumpkin cheesecakes, and if so, which one is your favorite?

Things to do on Thanksgiving

Lee and I were discussing today if there was anything planned after all the food is done on Thanksgiving. He didn't think there was anything on the agenda, so I've been thinking about what would be good and fun to do after the Thanksgiving meal.

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Here are a few things that I'll probably do after the main feast:

1. Help with the dishes and cleanup. Mom K is always doing all the prep work and cooking the day of, it's always good to help afterward so she gets a break!
2. Chat with the extended relatives who will be over for dinner. I gotta hear about grandpa's elk he got during the elk hunt.
3. Watch part of a football game. I'm not sure why, but I like watching some football during Thanksgiving.
4. Go on a walk. There was a lot of food consumed earlier--enough said.
5. Play some board games. We like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride. Lee wants to start a game of Risk.

I don't think we necessarily have any Thanksgiving Day traditions besides being together and eating together.  Do you? Discuss.

Surveillance...the good kind

I can't stand watching footage from surveillance cameras because the ones I usually see are on those cop shows, where someone is getting shot or a car is crashing through the front of a building or something else terrible.

But I love what these surveillance cameras saw.



I have been smiling all day. Let's look at the world differently.

Oh the places you'll eat in DC!

When I emailed Yandary and asked her for a list of fun things to do and good places to eat, she graciously sent me a list.

The list consisted mostly of places we needed to eat at. I must say, she is our kind of girl, because we ate our way through DC and we ate well.

I mentioned earlier that our first night out, we got hand-made noodles and dumplings at the Chinatown Express. Delish!

Nom nom nom!

The next night before going out to see the monuments at night, we headed to We, The Pizza near the Capitol Building.  Apparently, Michelle Obama likes to eat there and I can see why!

Putting on a spicy sauce

We tried pieces of the Forest Shroomin' Pie, Buffalo Chicken Pie, Colletti's Notorious BBQ Pie, and the daily special that had roasted butternut squash, a soft cheese (chevre, I think), and caramelized balsamic onions--all were amazing!

Lee just wants to eat his pizza

We then met up with Yandary and her roommate for dinner at The Shake Shack the next evening. This place actually started up in New York City and it was a little pricier, but it was dang good food and amazing custard concretes (shakes). I got the Pumpkin Pie Oh My Concrete--it had a whole piece of pie mixed in!

Plus, I just loved the typography and branding of the place.

Another night, we went and grabbed a bite at Pho DC, a Vietnamese restaurant. It wasn't the best service (maybe because it was typical Asian restaurant service), but the food was mighty tasty.

Can't wait to start!

We went walking around DC and finally ended up at Pitango Gelato. We wanted to bring some gelato to Yandary and her roommates for letting us stay at their place. While there, I got the highly recommended hot sipping chocolate. I was a little disappointed in the portion size at first, but realized that it was the perfect size because it was almost too rich.

Such dark chocolate at Pitango!

And the next afternoon for lunch as we were heading to the airport, we stopped by this El Salvadoran restaurant, Dona Azucena, for pupusas (meat, bean, and cheese encased in a corn dough and flattened and fried). According to Yandary, they make the best pupusas here. We'd never had them before, but I can believe it. They were hot and savory and flavorful.

Pupusas with pickled cabbage and tomato sauce

Okay, have I made you hungry yet? Because I am just writing about all the good food we had. I've heard of a few other places that we missed:

• CoCo Sala: I've heard that every dish has chocolate in it and is "exquisite".
• Baked and Wired: Apparently the best cupcakes in town
• Ben's Chili Bowl: A DC institution
• American City Diner: They old movies every night at 8 pm.
• Mike's: Heard good things, but don't know which Mike's this is. Anyone?
• Serendipity: Like the one in New York City
• Good Stuff Eatery: Two people recommended this place to me. One of them said she had the best shake she's had in her entire life. Her entire life!
• Rasika Restaurant: Heard a lot of good things about their modern Indian cuisine, but we couldn't get in without a reservation on a busy Friday night.

We are starting a list for next time we're in area. What are your favorite places to eat in or around Washington DC?

When in Rome...

Or rather, when in Washington DC, do as the DC-ers do.

We realized pretty quickly while walking around and on the metro that we were from out of town, because:

1. Locals wear dark colors, especially now that it's getting colder. I was lucky to have brought a dark purple jacket, but Lee brought his lime green Cloudveil jacket and you could tell immediately he was a tourist. The next night, I wore my purple/pink pants and I was totally out of place. If you want to look even more like you don't belong there, wear light-colored tennis shoes.

He kind of fits in a little better in the Chinatown district in his bright green jacket.

2. Locals are always carrying something--a bag, a purse, a briefcase--something. Imagine how I felt the first night when I opted not to bring my side bag. Awkward!

I don't have a purse, bag, attache--nothing! Eek!

3. Locals follow the escalator rules of the metro. The rules are: Stand on the right. Walk on the left. We've both known that there are unwritten metro escalator rules having lived in Russia, but Yandary informed us that there is a term for people stand on the left while riding the escalators--they're called "escaleftors". Clever!

Lee tried to make up for looking like a tourist by trying to help others (who looked like tourists) figure out how to buy a metro pass. He is totally a pro at buying metro passes. (Sadly, I still looked like a tourist with my camera around my neck, taking this picture of him.)

Always so helpful

So, if you don't want to stick out like a sore thumb while visiting Washington DC, take our advice and wear dark clothes, carry a bag, and don't be an "escaleftor"!

Shaken

Lee and I went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was my first time and Lee's second.

Inside the Holocaust Museum

I was drained, shaken after going through the museum. It was powerful. It was horrifying. It was hopeful.

It wasn't until I saw the shoes and smelled the shoes that it became even more real. Those shoes belonged to men, women, children.

So many, many shoes

This poem, I Saw a Mountain, by Moishe Shulstein summed it up:

We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.

We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers,

From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam,

And because we are only made of fabric and leather

And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire.

The part that made me hopeful was the white wall that came after the shoes. On this free-standing wall were names of people who had helped and saved Jews during this horrible time. If you get a chance to read about Denmark and that country's efforts to save their citizens, please do! It is inspirational!

There was a paragraph on the wall near the end of the exhibit that has been on my mind. The gist of the writing was that despite all the people who did help the Jews at this time, there were so many others who didn't do anything as they watched their neighbors and friends get persecuted and taken away.

This quotation sums it up by Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialist, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Trade Unionist. 

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--

And there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemoller, a Protestant pastor

It makes you think...would I turn a blind eye or would I be a rescuer?

Washington DC Monuments at Night and a Bet

The reason I was in Washington DC was for a work conference, and Lee decided to come along for a little vacation.

So a bit of our time together was in the evening after a full day of conference sessions. We'd grab a bite to eat at one of the places that Yandary recommended, then we'd go see the monuments at night (like she recommended also).

Our first night out, we headed to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and all the other monuments in that area. The view was gorgeous as we walked around!

Beautiful Jefferson Memorial at night

Washington and Jefferson Memorials

On the steps, Lee happened to see a raccoon scurrying a few feet away, thus his distracted look while I was taking his picture.

Lee looks a little worried about the raccoon.

We also saw the new Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. I thought it was beautifully done, though I know there is still controversy surrounding it.

MLK Jr Memorial at night

Now it was the Roosevelt monument that was the source of our bet.

As we were heading toward the FDR Memorial, I mentioned that the next monument would be the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Lee turned to me and said that it wasn't, but rather the Theodore  Roosevelt Memorial.

I had been to the FDR monument years ago, so I was pretty sure it was dedicated to FDR. But Lee insisted that it was the Teddy Roosevelt monument, and even bet me $10 that it was.

I went for it, because I was sure there wasn't a monument (yet) to Theodore Roosevelt.

It's the Theodore DEBAUBLES Roosevelt Monument

As we approached the stone sign that said Franklin Delano Roosevelt Monument, Lee covered my eyes and said "Oh look, it's the TDR monument. Theodore....Debaubles Roosevelt monument! I win!"

Ha ha! I guess he had seen a map of the Theodore Roosevelt Island nearby and was positive that it was the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial. I also love that he gave Theodore a middle name of Debaubles to match the D in FDR.

Oh yeah, and I won $10!

The FDR Monument 

It was a fun time and would highly encourage you to check out the monuments at night!

Food Flashback

Have you ever eaten something and had a food flashback?

I had a flashback last night while Lee and I had dumplings and freshly-made noodles at the Chinatown Express in Washington DC's Chinatown.

We make noodle at the Chinatown Express in DC

My long time friend, Yandary of the blog Rhymes with Laundry who lives in DC, recommended this hole-in-the-wall restaurant for inexpensive, hand-made noodles, we had to go. This place also makes their steamed pork dumplings fresh, which reminds me of the many dumplings we made when I was a kid.


Love a good dumpling

But it was this green stuff that gave me a flashback. This is a concoction of finely chopped green onions, ginger, and oil.

Hello, childhood!

My dad would boil a whole chicken, chop it up into smaller pieces, and serve it with a similar ginger/green onion mixture. It doesn't sound like much, but is so good and it reminds me of my dad. It's been years since I've had this fragrant chutney.

The noodles were as yummy as Yandary said, but gosh, it was this concoction that made my night!

Nixon Watch Sayings

We have a total of five Nixon watches between the two of us because of our anniversary tradition.

Our Nixon watches so far

But we both just discovered a fun design feature of Nixon watches that we never noticed before because we never looked.

Behind each watch face is etched the model name and an accompanying tagline or saying.

There's The Rotolog. Saying: Detect Time Technology

And The Vega. Saying: Love the Hotness

Then The Powerslave. Two sayings: Yes and No other watch is closer to the truth

And The Motif. Saying: Picture Perfect

Lastly, The Platform. Saying: Jump

Now I'm curious to see what other witty tag lines other Nixon watches have!