it's meme time.

because i haven't the time for a real post but still want to fill the internet with useless information about me. huzzah.

AFI's top 100 movies.  Bold the ones you have seen.  Strike out the ones you couldn't finish.  Star (*) the ones you have seen more than once.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)*
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler’s List (1993)

9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939) *
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977) *
14. Psycho (1960)
15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
16. 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) *
21. Chinatown (1974)

22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982) *
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)*
35. Annie Hall (1977)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40. The Sound of Music (1965) *
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47.A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - is this the first one? then yes, otherwise no.
51. West Side Story (1961)*
52. Taxi Driver (1976)
53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)
54. M*A*S*H (1970)
55. North by Northwest (1959)
56. Jaws (1975)*
57. Rocky (1976)*
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) *
67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)*
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)*
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) *
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) *
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)*
77. All the President’s Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997) *
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)

88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)*
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)*
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)*
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99. Toy Story (1995)*
100. Ben-Hur (1959)*

One of my coworkers is an excellent chef. She regularly delights us with her culinary prowress, especially when it comes to birthday celebrations. Hailing from the former Soviet Union, she makes a mean 4 layer torte cake replete with cognac laced icing. Oh it is devine.

Yesterday we were are treated to a sizeable slice of the rich and dreamy cake. I spent the better part of the morning happily plugging away at my task list.

Over lunch I walked up to the circle to meet LT for lunch.

Monument_Circle-Indianapolis

Along the way I saw this:

20070920_1

Which makes me wonder.... just how much cognac does she put in that cake?!

create your own personalized map of the USA

A few months ago LT and I met the wife of one of they guys we play hockey with. We got to talking and as it turns out she's a soccer player and their team was looking for some new blood. When I was about knee high to a grasshopper I did play the game, and did love it muchly. But it's been a good 20 years since I quit. As far as I can recall I must've been close to 16 when I hung up my cleats.

Naturally, I dove at the chance to play again. Since I'm nothing if not enthusiastic I jumped right in with both feet and drug LT along with me to our doom. Mind you, neither one of us has so much as run a single block in over a year and we went out 3 weeks ago to play 90 minutes of non-stop sprinting and ball-chasing soccer in the humid heat of a late summer day in the fields of Indiana.

Our team was short that week and we had no subs on the sidelines to offer us any breaks. Every time either of us started to just walk a bit on the field to recover someone in the backfield would shout a heart RUN! GREEN! GET TO THE BALL!  And so we would dig up some speed from god knows where and zip off after the ball.

With roughly 30 minutes left in the game my shoes had rubbed my heels raw and I was hobbling around still valiantly trying to stay in the play. I was dripping with the sweat of a thousand.... er, sweaty things and generally was knocking at death's door. Or so I thought at the moment.

When the game finally and mercifully ended we both collapsed into a mishapen heap on our bench panting and trying to affix a smile to our faces as our new teammates gathered round and congratulated us on our big comeback to the game. The girl that recruited us got a clap on the back for her "good finds" and I found myself writing out a check to the team leader committing us to play for the next couple of months.

Silly me.

For approximately 9 days following that first game neither LT nor I could walk with out a limp of some sort. Her shoes were not properly fitted and she bruised both of her big toes to the point that they were nearly black. I had ever so lovely blisters on my heels and my quads were generally quite hateful towards me anytime I requested their use.

We ended up skipping our second game so we could heal a bit and get ready for the third game. We shopped for some better shoes and special friction resistant socks and got ourselves all decked out for this week's match.

Last night we trotted out on to the pitch and gave 'er the old college try once more. Probably 40 minutes into the game I attempted a long clearing shot and felt the joy of my left quad asking me for a divorce. Apparently it had had enough of my abusive ways and wanted nothing more to do with me or running or kicking or generally allowing me to walk.

And so...I have come to the realization that my triumphant return to the green spaces of futbol is going to be a short but sweet trip as well as a moderately expensive realization that I am no longer a teenager and should stick to things more appropriate for my age group. Like drinking red wine and watching the world cup on teevee.

I can't decide whether it's cool or concerning that I work in an environment where I regularly receive emails with subject lines such as this:

 ATTN: Scientists Using Fresh Human Blood and Other Biological Fluids

Over the weekend LT and I went home to Michigan. While we were at Sam’s club getting a new wheel for Cordy (Our Honda Accord, what? You don’t name your car?) , LT decided to check her blood pressure. I peeked over her shoulder at the digits and promptly freaked out (!). Following my little meltdown I began what is now known as my week of we can no longer eat anything, and I mean ANYTHING food obsession!

After seeing that she basically has Stage 1 Hypertension at the tender age of 27 I declared a moratorium on salt in our diets. NO MORE! GET THEE GONE YE EVIL SPICE/FOOD PRESERVATIVE/UBIQUITOUS ADDITIVE!

Because what else could it be? We are relatively healthy people—we eat okay, not super strict, but not all fried, breaded, creamy, cheesy and buttery all the time. We work out on occasion, we’re not overweight, blah, blah, blah. Right? Both of us take allergy meds, which could possibly be the culprit, or at least a heavy contender. Both of us have had considerable work stress over the past 6 months. I guess it could be a variety of things, really. But it’s easier to blame a single thing like food. I have decided that salt is the devil of the day and I shall banish it from my realm.

Yeah right.

Have you ever tried to live on a low-sodium diet, folks? Well let me tell you, it’s nearly impossible in today’s society. I mean, I knew that a steady diet of fast food and packaged meals wasn’t exactly the best thing for you, but I never realized just How Bad these items really are for you. Not that we eat that way all the time, but I’d wager we probably have some form of “fast food” at least once a week, whether that be something you might think is relatively healthy like chicken, tuna or turkey sammiches and soups from places like Panera, or something more on the crappity end of the spectrum like burgers and fries, or pizza and breadsticks with garlic dipping sauce.

Mmmm gaaaarlic…

Come to find out that even when we thought we were making moderately healthy choices like the “market fresh chicken salad” sandwich at Arby’s or even the turkey breast from Subway we were loading ourselves up with way more fat and sodium than I had ever dreamed of. I looked up many of the websites of so called healthy choice food items only to learn that while you can cut out the fats quite easily, the salt is incredibly hard to avoid. Nice, that…

Maybe I am the Johnny-come-lately of the Fast Food Nation world, but seriously, aside from sustaining ourselves on nothing more than dry toast and plain spinach salads I hardly know what to cook for us anymore. Plus, who the hell has the time? It’s not like I have all day free to head up to Fresh Market or Wild Oats and make organic meals from scratch every day. We lead a busy life, like most people do, and are usually running from destination to destination until the time we finally slow down for bed each night.

I guess we’re lucky that hockey is over for now and we’re home a lot more these days. In fact starting this weekend we’ll actually have full month at home for the first time in nearly two years! I’m looking forward to the domestic bliss of it all.

If you need me I’ll be over here shelling a bushel of edamame and making my own tofu.

For Christmas I got one of those fancy scales. You know the kind.

It tells you your weight, fat percentage and water percentages.

So after entering in all my pertinent data to the computerized part (Gender, Height, Age, Athletic or Not Athletic, etc.), I stepped onto the scale, waited while it clicked and whirled, and it told me this:

Weight: 123 lbs.

Fat %:  20

Water%: 54

It surprised me to know that I, as a human being, am composed primarily (nearly ¾ of me) of fat and water, especially because for the better part of my life my grandfather has been telling me that I am full of shit.

[Rim shot]

penny experienced her first snow day.

We know you never slack off at work, but if you did, what would you do?

Oh I would never look at the internets for non-work related purposes, of course.
So most likely, were I to take 5 from my busy schedule, I would walk over to our library and study up on the wonderful world of pharmacokinetics! For it is both my joy and my sustenance.
If I weren't reading blogs, or looking at uploaded photos on the internets, that is....

hey all you writers out there. write your first chapter, win some dough and maybe a book contract.
you never know until you try. c'mon, whaddya got to loose? i know several of you who could win this contest.*coughgregcoryerinjuliacough*