TeamME

On Thursday, in a somewhat haphazard method, Mike and I got a Wii Balance Board and Wii Fit. I can’t overstate this, it is the most fun working out that I have ever had! I am not a team sports person, nor do I enjoy running outside, but I don’t particularly like gyms when there are people there. My favorite thing is aerobics, and the wii fit has that!

The game also allows Mike and I to compete with each other, which is another thing that we both enjoy doing. I am good at the aerobics and hula hoop, while Mike is better at the strength exercises and the running. I enjoy quickly passing my guide so that I can follow a puppy! Then I slow down.

All in all, it is a ton of fun. It is entertaining and gets us moving, while at the same time, it has graph after graph of information to peruse. It is like it was made for Team ME!

Mike weaseled his way out of our grocery shopping trip by volunteering to go to the Walmart next door to the Hannaford to see if they had any wii fits. I refuse to go into the Walmart because it is sad, but I sent him on his way. He returned not with a wii fit, but with a wireless guitar for the xbox. Now, when I got Guitar Hero III, we were hoping to pick up another guitar so we could play together. Last night, that dream was realized.

We have started a band in Rock Band, and we are playing at the Charles Pub in Somerville. So far, we have over 2000 fans. We are still trying to decide whether our name should be “The Fighting Mongooses” or “Mongoose Scientists”, but I think we’ll have it figured out before we play again.

Of course, our new acquisition does not help us peel the paint off our walls any faster, although we have made quite a bit of progress in that regard. But playing a set at the Charles does make for a nice break from the lead paint.

The heat wave is seriously wilting me. Saturday night was a “let’s go to the movies to get out of the heat”, which was great because we went to see Iron Man! I found it to be a horribly wonderful movie. It was wonderful because it had both a cobra and a raptor, but it was horrible because (slight spoiler) both were ruined! Also, Mike says Bagram looks different than that. Since they filmed at Edwards, that makes sense. It was just about worth the $10.25 ticket price for the movie plus 2.5 hours of air conditioning.

I really like the Winchester Library Book Club. The last meeting was my first time leading the discussion. I chose Douglas Adams’s Last Chance to See, a great non-fiction book. I figured that even if they didn’t like it, it was at least informative. Amazingly enough, everyone loved the book! They thought it was funny and thought-provoking. They were even asking what else he had written. One of the women mentioned that she nominated it for the Winchester Reads program as this year’s book. It is a shame that we will have moved away by the time that rolls around for this year, although if they choose Last Chance to See, I would totally come back.

I didn’t realize today was Pi Day until I checked my yahoo account. Then, my first reaction was more “Crap, it’s already the 14th” instead of “Yay pi day”. On the plus side, Mike and I have finally celebrated Valentine’s Day from last month. Since he was gone, ruining the standing plan of just hanging out together, we decided on little gifts. My gift came in the mail last night in the form of the new Casino Royale dvd. Yay! Mike’s second gift was also in there, Transformers: The Movie. Part of my gift to him was allowing him to get it on dvd. I will admit, the holograph on the cover is pretty cool.

First, I hate changing to Daylight Savings Time. Not only are all my clocks messed up, I lose an hour of sleep.

Second, Mike and I rented some great movies this weekend. Since we are busy with wedding stuff and house hunting, we wanted easy-to-watch, no-brainer kind of stuff. Thus, action movie night was born. Now, I really can’t stand too much violence or too high a body count, but I love the far-fetched plots. That sort of thing rocks. Here is our selection, in case you need a great movie night yourself.

• Speed – A great movie with tons of dubbed in swearing and a pretty low body count. Even critics like it. I’ve been craving this movie for awhile, and it did not disappoint.
• The Mummy Returns – Mike and I watch The Mummy recently, and I just wanted to extend the fun. Sure the plot is way convoluted, but all my favorite characters return and the dvd has the Rock’s face fully rendered so the CGI is great. Mixed reviews, but still good.
• The Librarian – Now, we haven’t gotten to this one yet, but we will sometime this week. I can’t wait!

Mike and I are trying to come up with a song for our first dance. For the ride to ct this past weekend, I pulled out my Nat King Cole cd to listen to on the trip, hoping to be inspired. I also found an unlabeled cd that Mike had given to me freshman year. Unsure about what was on it, I grabbed it too. Man, I forgot how great that cd is. Check out a portion of the play list:

1. Shaggy – “It Wasn’t Me”
2. Beenie Man – “Who Am I?”
3. Tom Jones – “It’s Not Unusual”
4. U2 – “Elevation” and “Sweetest Thing”
5. Weezer – “Sweater Song”
6. Faith Hill – “The Way You Love Me”
7. 2gether – “Calculus”
8. Metaskaphiles – “Saba”
9. Temptations – “My Girl”
10. Blink182 – “Small Things”
11. And More!

It is like being transported back to 1999! I am getting a kick out of listening to it, plus, I am remembering all the wonderful and wacky adventures we had freshman year.

Incidently, “Memory Lane” is a feature on the karma, which allows you to play songs that you haven’t heard in awhile. Just another reason I love the little guy.

Whatever happened to musicals? Mike and I caught the 10:00 AM showing of White Christmas at the Showcase in Woburn. It was amazing to watch the movie on the big screen. Neither of us had seen it before, but there was dancing and wonderful costumes and witty dialouge. Nothing brings a tear to the eye like Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” in front of a bombed out building to a crowd of US troops who are advancing in the morning. Sure, the plot is somewhat corny, and Mike didn’t care for the “Snow” song, but it was a wonderful experience. I loved the dancing between Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen for the song “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing”.

Anyways, I would prefer more musicals. And cheaper movies. The price of admission was a donation to the Woburn Food Bank (which we forgot, but are bringing by today), and we got a free book. Sadly, this week ended both their holiday movie collection and Bargain Tuesday and our fun dates there. It was fun while it lasted.

So, Mike and I are looking to see a movie on Tuesday Night. I’m still pushing for Casino Royale, but Mike wants something different. Here are our options. Anyone have any suggestions?

The Fountain
Bobby
For Your Consideration
Happy Feet
Stranger than Fiction

I dragged Mike to go see Casino Royale last night at the local cinema. For some reason, I have been itching to see this film. I’ve never been a big Bond fan, but I wanted to see the movie. I read the book while Rachel was visiting, and I loved the prose and story.

When we got to the theater last night, I was ready to spend $20 on the tickets. I wanted to see it that badly. Mike wasn’t as convinced, but was willing to come along to spend time with me. We asked for the tickets, and the woman said, “That will be $10.” It turns out that Tuesday is Bargain Ticket day, so the tickets were only $5! Yay!

The movie was everything I wanted and more! There was running and British accents and some good one-liners. Bond got beaten up and bloody. The body count wasn’t too high, and the deaths weren’t glossed over. The openning credits were way over the top, and thus, great. They played the Bond theme at the end of the movie. The plot was updated for 2006, but still had some key things in common with the book.

The only truly disappointing part was that they played poker instead of baccarat. Thus, the movie had to sew together hours and hours of poker playing, instead of just one really intense game between Le Chiffre and Bond. Plus, I wanted to see how baccarat is played after reading about it in the book.

Because Tuesday is Bargain Ticket day, and we don’t really do anything on Tuesdays, Mike wants to go back to the theater next week. I agree. I think we should see Casino Royale every Tuesday until it is out of theaters. I have yet to convince Mike.