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Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Five Year Engagement

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized6 Comments

 Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was The Five Year Engagement, starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segal.

So this one was my pick. I apologize. Lol. I don’t watch a lot of comedies, but I remembered this one took place partially in Ann Arbor, Michigan and that the soundtrack was all Van Morrison songs, which are two things I liked. I also remembered that professor’s house which was really cool. There is a Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ann Arbor, and now that I am writing this, I wonder if they used it for the movie. I however did not remember the humor or language all that well.

The synopsis: When a series of setbacks interfere with their wedding planning — and their lives — a couple starts to question their commitment to each other.

I mean and that is really it in a nutshell. Jason Segal (Tom) is an up and coming chef in San Francisco, and his girlfriend turned fiancée Emily Blunt ) Violet is a psych grad waiting for a doctorate program. She is waiting for Berkley, but then gets an offer from the University of Michigan, and this uproots their whole lives, despite Tom’s assurances that moving would not be a big deal for him.

I think the point of this movie is that Michigan sucks the life from you, and destroys all hope. It’s these gray skies man, I tell you!

No I am kidding. Although the Michigan parts were not super flattering I still found them funny because they are exaggerated truths, a caricature of Michiganders. The hunting season being a big deal, knitting, making homemade beer and mead and foraging. The crazy facial hair.

I live about 45 minutes from Ann Arbor, and it is the city where Wyatt’s hospital system, Michigan Medical (U of M) is located. We spend a lot of time in Ann Arbor, and it is a pretty cool town. It is very diverse, and you can find million dollar homes interspersed with frat houses and sorority houses and student housing. It has a lot of great restaurants and parks, with theaters and bookstores and in general, it is just pretty neat. It was cool to see places we recognized in the background, and of course the restaurant where Tom ends up working, Zingerman’s Deli, is pretty famous for their sandwiches around here.

This movie is pretty simple, but it has a great ending. I also love a scene where Violet and Tom are arguing, and Tom says he needs to be alone, and when Violet gets out of bed to sleep on the couch he tells her not to leave because he wants to be alone with her there. It is so something I would say.

Overall this movie is about the journeys a relationship can take, from the very high highs to the not so greats, and back again. With maybe some drifterish, serial killer facial hair, knitted tuxedos, and old stale doughnuts.

And I was “wright!” It is the Frank Lloyd Wright House!! According to the blog upstaged by design, it is known as The Palmer House (and you can rent it if you have the cash) and was built in 1950. They have lots of other neat trivia about the design and architecture in this movie on their blog, so it is worth a read to pop over there too! You all know I am sucker for the setting and details like that.

Again, I apologize. This movie was weird. I didn’t remember it too well and I should have watched it again before picking it. Lol. It was much raunchier than I remember!

Next up is The Young in Heart, starring Frank Sinatra.

Don’t forget to pop over to Lisa’s blog as well!

Gilmore Girls: The Episodes that I Love to Rewatch

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Sigh. Gilmore Girls. One of my favorite shows back in the day. I loved everything. I loved Lorelai and Rory, I loved that Rory loved to read as much as I did, I loved Stars Hollow and the small town quirkiness, the community involvement, the festivals and events, their love of coffee, and of course, Luke. I like to discuss which of Rory’s boyfriends was the best – and it is Jess obviously. I love Lane and her love of music and it was so awesome when Sebastian Bach was in her band. I love Paris. I love Sookie and Jackson. I could go on and on. And yes, fall is Gilmore Girls season, we can chug coffee and eat Chinese food and watch old movies, and dream that we are just living in the early 2000s again. Was life simpler then, or was it just that I was younger?

I don’t however watch the entire series all over again every year. I have watched it so many times, that I just don’t want to watch it all over again, again. I will however, let it play in the background as I am doing other things, and if I sit down to intentionally imbibe an episode for relaxation, I have some favorite episodes that I choose to watch. And that is the focus of this post. My favorite episodes.

I am not putting these in any particular order, although they may fall into order by season. We will see how this shakes out.

Season 1, Ep. 8: Love and War and Snow: I usually save this one for the cusp of winter for obvious reasons. This is the episode where Lorelai famously says that she smells snow, enthusiastically. And I totally feel her in this episode. I too enjoy walking around rhapsodically in the snow, the more snow the better! (as long as no one has to drive in it) In this episode Rory stays the night at her grandparent’s due to the blizzard, and Lorelai is unexpectedly alone. Until she runs into Max Medina, Rory’s teacher. And we all know where that goes (and not that far, jeez guys). Why I love this episode: The snow and joy of snow

Season 2, Episode 10: The Bracebridge Dinner: This is probably one of my very favorites. I love this whole idea, of this very niche themed dinner, the snow, everyone staying at the Inn, the horse-drawn sleigh rides. Why I love it: Everything!

Season 2, Episode 13: A Tisket, A Tasket: In this episode, the women folks make up picnic baskets and the men bid on them. When they win a basket, they get to eat the food with the woman who made it. (They also did this on Hart of Dixie and I loved that episode too) Pretty sexist but I still loved it. It was just a fun episode and Jackson and Sookie were so cute in it. Of course there are the tv twists, like Jess outbidding Dean for Rory’s basket (lol take that Dean!) and Lorelai and Luke have a picnic together too. Why I Love It: This falls into my small town cute community things love.

Season 3, Episode 7: They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They? The Dance Marathon episode!!! How can anyone not like this episode? The costumes, the idea, the excitement, the nostalgia, and ooo the tension between Rory and Dean and Jess! Why I love it: All of it.

Season 3, Episode 9: A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving: Two words. Dave Rygalski. I was just so happy for Lane in this episode, with her Dave Rygalski pretending to be a Christian guitarist so he could be at their Thanksgiving. It was just so cute and teenagery. I also loved\ Kirk and cat Kirk.

Season 4 Episode 14: Girls in Bikins, Boys Doin the Twist: This episode cracks me up and gives me anxiety. I never went on spring break in college. Not my scene. And that is my favorite part of this episode, when Rory and Paris give up trying to have the “normal” spring break experience and just are like we are nerds, let’s watch The Power of Myth. It’s good to know who you are and if you like to stay home and read and watch movies and eat pizza, then I want to be your friend. What I Love: Rory and Paris becoming better friends, how they nope out of spring break.

Season 5, Episode 7: You Jump, I Jump, Jack: Ok we all knew this iconic episode would be on here. It has the big scene with Rory jumping off of a tower with an umbrella. I love the setup of this party though. I mean obviously this is put on by the richy rich members of the Life and Death Brigade, so it is fancy pantsy. But I want to go to this party, minus Logan. Ugh I hated Logan!! His smugness, his just everything, his attitude just smacked of privilege and he was repulsive. However, he can throw a good party. In Omnia Paratus! : What I loved: the look of this party! All these white tents, candles, tables in the forest. Just so otherworldly and pretty.

Season 7 Episode 9: Knit, People, Knit!: I think we all know by now I love a theme. So of course I love this episode where the town gets together to knit to save the Old Muddy River Bridge. I am going to be honest, the last few seasons of The Gilmore Girls are not my favorites. Rory is insufferable, Lorelai never learns, Logan sucks, Dean sucks, I miss Jess. The only thing I really like about them is the slightest introduction of Sherrilyn Fenn’s character as Luke’s baby mama of the daughter he didn’t know that he had. I love Sherrilyn Fenn, I wanted to be her as Audrey Horne. Anyway, I liked seeing the ol’ Stars Hollows energy in this episode.

And that is it! Are you a fan of Gilmore Girls? Are you Team Dean, Jess, or Logan? Team Luke, Jason, Christopher, Max? Who is your favorite townie? (Kirk)

I hope that whatever you do today you do something that makes you happy – and I hope that you find that perfect cup of coffee, that perfect book, that perfect movie if that is what you need today.

Sunday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Hello everyone! I think we can all agree that last week was a long week, and I hope that you are all taking care of yourselves and guarding your peace.

In the midst of all this upheaval going on around us, I had a mixed bag of a week myself. I will get the yucky over with first here, because I do have lots of good stuff to share as well. So my mom. I had just finally sighed a breath of relief that she was safe and taken care of – but, I guess I exhaled too soon. On Thursday my brother went over to visit our mom and found blood in her apartment and on her pillow. After searching for the source, and asking my mom what the heck, he discovered the source, which was a small cut on the back of her head. It was small but persistent with bleeding, so the two of us whisked her off to the ER for scans and probably a stitch. We were there only about two hours which is record time around here, and her scans came back good and they put two staples in her head. She is doing well but dang, mom! Lol.

Ok now on to the good stuff!!

It’s been a hot minute I think since I updated here like this. Since then, Wyatt has been seriously kicking butt. He has started back to therapy, and this kid is such a hard worker. It blows my mind sometimes how tough he is. At home, he is a little more… wanting me and Billy to do more for him, but now that I have seen what he is capable of, and getting the all clear from the PT, he will not be getting the kid gloves any longer.

We are also all the way back to school and that is going really well too. We were exhausted from a full week of school, two days of PT, a huge list of home therapy activities to do everyday, and then just everyday things (and some emergencies), but we managed. We also had our first Blackbirds meeting on Thursday! We had such a good time, and the kids were all so happy to be back together. We started the meeting explaining the name change from Cub Scouts to Blackbirds, as we decided to just have our own club, and talked about our new mission statement, motto, and learned the sign for Blackbirds from one of our kids. We passed out the new shirts which my MIL and I had made, and had the kids make a banner for us to hang every meeting. It was a great first meeting back. And for me, the icing on the cake was Wyatt saying “Bye Zane!” to his friend. This is huge. Wyatt doesn’t say hi or bye generally, or any names. However, since this one surprise, he has gone on to say the name of one of his cousins, little wild child, and his uncle Devin. It was an amazing moment for Billy and I.

Yesterday we had a great day of time with family. My dad came to visit and we went out for dinner, and after that I had my two little nieces over for a short time while Devin and Chrissy went out for a quick drink to celebrate Chrissy’s birthday. We had a good time with the girls. We painted nails, played with tons of toys, and played a board game all within an hour and some change.

We also did a little shopping at our city wide garage sale yesterday. One of the animal rescues in our city has a mammoth sale and we headed up there to shop their sale. Wyatt got a book, I got a book, and then I also picked up two mugs as well, because they were so cute! They were also apparently made in Spain. I love them but now I really really do need to go through my mug collection and pick some to have in the cupboard and some to put away for a minute.

And that is it from me!!

Let’s move through this week with grace and peace, for ourselves and for others. Be less quick to reply in anger, to be helpers when we can be. And take of your own self as well. As I say, try to do one thing today that makes you smile.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized43 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone!! I seem to be in like a fall deep clean kind of mood lately. I have been reorganizing and straightening and getting rid of stuff like crazy around here. Maybe I am nesting, preparing for fall and winter like all the little animals outside are doing. All I know is that our art cabinet is extremely organized right now, and that somehow in my cleaning frenzy I lost one of my sandals. I can only guess that I accidentally threw it out, which makes me sad because I loved it. Lol. However, all of this has had a side effect – now I want Billy to paint our whatever room. A few years ago, we flip-flopped the rooms in our house. It’s a very small house, and we had a room we barely used, the dining room. I realized that we could have more space if we moved our couches and television into the dining room, which we now call the den, and moved all of our other stuff into the living room. So the old living room area now has our dining room table, art stuff, animals, and just leisure activity paraphernalia. But we never know what to call that space! Anyway I am so sick of that paint color and if Billy isn’t able to paint it, then I am going to. I am not a great painter but I just can’t deal with the darkness in that room anymore. Lol.

Phew! Moving on.

Read Last Week:

Last week I read Monk and Robot books 1 and 2. I was gifted this collection edition of both books from an internet friend and I loved reading them back to back. These are just such wonderful stories and I have my husband listening to them as well.

I also read Pat of Silver Bush, which now that I think of it, was another gift! I was blessed with some book mail this summer! Pat is a mixed bag for me. I loved so much of the book, but then, I didn’t like some of the other parts. Review I hope this week, but if you want a sneak peek of it, check out my Instagram. I almost always review there first. I feel like it is a good place to sort of form my thoughts. I don’t know why it makes a difference but it does for some reason. Maybe because I feel like I need to be more succinct, which inspires me to really think about what I am saying instead of just rambling like I am right this minute. Actually this whole post is sort of a ramble!

I tried reading a romance, Out of the Woods, but there was a heavy topic in there that I was not feeling up to so I put it aside.

Reading This Week:

This week I am reading another in the Campers and Criminals series, Hitches, Hideouts and Homicide. I seem to have developed an addiction to these books. I also am reading The Convenience Store by the Sea, which sounds so good.

Posted Last Week:

Our Cozy Little Life

10 Books of Summer Update

Watching:

Last week Billy and I watched Nautilus. It is not the greatest, in terms of production, but it somehow makes it feel more camp. Like we are watching a sci-fi show from the 50s or 60s, sort of over the top and silly, but despite that, we really like it. Or maybe that is why we like it! I feel like mid-season it really started to gel a bit more and get a bit better, and I love the set of the interiors. It just looks so cool, like old school nautical mixed with Victorian era . I also really like how this series does not shy away from the horrors of colonialism, and denounces it, with many characters in the show being survivors of what they call “the Company”. It makes for a very diverse cast and shines a light on some of these historical events that perhaps today’s students don’t know about. I also really like the main female character, Humility, and her enthusiasm and talent for engineering and science. It had a lot going on at first, but it all started to settle in together nicely. We have one episode left that we are going to try to watch tonight, but we also are watching K-Pop Demon Hunters today, so it might be tomorrow instead.

And that is it from me today my friends! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!