FTSF: Favorite 80s Movies

My favorite movie of all time… I could not choose just one!

Another great scene from a great movie.

We like movies a little bit in our house.  We usually watch at least one movie every weekend if not more.  I was raised on movies.  We watched them all the time when my sister and I were kids.  The VCR was our friend!

There are three criteria that makes a movie fit into the category of favorites.
1)  Humor-We’re not into the all serious movies.  I’m not saying it has to be a comedy, but it has to have a comedic element in it.
2)  Quotability-There has to be several lines from the movie that we use time and time again in our house.  For example, every time we have an injury, we insist in our best British accent that it is “Just a flesh wound!” (NAME THAT MOVIE)
3)  Watchability-I say this because my little sister ruined many movies for me by watching them over and over and over…  If a movie comes on that I’ve seen before and I sit and watch it every time, then it’s a good movie.

So here in no particular order are some of my very favorites.  Note they are all from the 80s…  It’s not that there aren’t more recent movies that I don’t love, it’s just that these are my VERY favorites, and I don’t want you to have to sit here and read for two hours.  Even I have my limits!  I think I’ll do a post later on and include some newer movies.

My Favorite Movies (80s)

Drop.Your.Sword.

The Princess Bride-Truly one of the most quotable movies of its time.  I think this one takes the cake as far as my criteria goes.  How many of you send your family members off somewhere yelling “Have fun storming the castle!”

Sixteen Candles-This movie is still one of the funniest teen comedies EVER.  How many of you think of Long Duc Dong anytime you see the word “Automobile” printed somewhere?  I recently wrote a post for Theme Thursday that featured several clips from this and other popular 80s teen movies, including another favorite of mine, Better Off Dead.

A little Star Wars humor for you…

The Empire Strikes Back-The best of all the Star Wars movies, loved by scruffy looking nerf herders everywhere.  I also love the original movie, but this one has always appealed to my sense of humor.

Dead Poets Society-“We’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing near you.”  One of the best quotes ever.  Also the only movie I can think of that moved me to tears.  Most movies don’t do that to me!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail-It never gets old. If you don’t like this movie, then I fart in your general direction.  Watch out for killer bunny rabbits

Back to the Future-I love this movie for so many reasons.  The fact that it’s about time travel and they go back into one of my favorite time periods is just part of it.

Kindergarten Cop-If you work with young kids, you know exactly why I love this movie.  SO many great quotes, so little time…

Now it’s your turn.  Do you have a very favorite movie?  Are you like me and have to narrow it down to a certain number of favorite movies?

This post was written for Finish the Sentence Friday.  If you’d like to join in or read posts in the hop, click on the button below.  Thank you for joining me this week!

Theme Thursday: Lots of Pain, So Far No Gain

Theme Thursday is a magical place where dreams come true.  All the magic is brought to you by Jenn from Something Clever 2.0.

This week’s theme was to write about what drives you crazy.

Crazy is right.  I feel absolutely nuts about now.

I have eluded to the fact that I’ve been in a lot of agony lately.  I don’t like to say a whole lot, because I don’t want to come off a complainer.  Trust me on this one, and don’t listen to a word my husband says about there always something being wrong with me.  He thinks he’s being funny, you know.

I’ve had a stiff, painful neck on one side for months, and it finally got so bad that I went in and got it looked at.  I’ve now been in there threee times.  Appointment #1-It’s stress and all in my head.  Appointment #2-I got X-rays and oh that was FUN. My spine is fine, thanks for asking.  Appointment #3-I don’t have shingles and it’s not going away on its own.

I’m sure I look like I’m possessed the way I’m walking around rolling my head these days.  I’m trying to unkink my neck, even though I know it’s not going to help.  It hurts like holy heck.  Add to that the newest member of the pain family:  The head.  Whichever part of my body decided that this was a funny joke can really just knock it off now!  Really?  A million pin pricks of hot pain on my scalp?  That’s real funny.  Not.

You find this funny? I don’t, because I’m completely out of chocolate.

As one would expect, this is a huge challenge for someone who is considered a humor writer.  It’s put a great big giant Charley Horse in my style.  Although I’ve managed to maintain somewhat of a sense of humor during all of this, I feel like a horrible mom and wife.  I’m crabby because I hurt so bad and don’t sleep well.  I can do very little around the house.  I’m sure that my husband and kids would like to auction me off very cheaply about now.  Or at least trade me in for a mom without body issues.This past Sunday I felt totally useless as I lay on the couch and my family pitched in to do everything that I have been neglecting around the house.  It was literally all I could do.  I’m so happy that they stepped up-I fall somewhere between bad and terrible when it comes to housecleaning and maintenance as it is.  This is not helping my image!

I think I’d feel about the same as I would if were to lean on a cactus…  Or maybe I’d feel better?  I’ve shared my pain with a few of the people I talk to regularly.  My blogging friends in particular have been wonderful-I’ve received plenty of advice on things I can try:

Acupuncture:  It’s needles.  IT’S NEEDLES!  Noooo!  I’m deathly afraid of anything with a needle. No wonder I don’t sew.

Supplements:  I really would like to take some, but I already take a multivitamin and I’m skeered of growing an extra head.  One that would hurt just as much as the one I have.

It would be like the cars.com commercial but scarier…

Massage:  Hell yeah!  Who wants to give me one?  Actually, Evil Genius has stepped up nicely in the department, but he can’t do much about my head.

Alternative Medicine:  I’ve had all kinds of wonderful stuff suggested to me that I’ve never heard of before, and that unfortunately aren’t available here in corn country.

Chocolate Therapy:  I understand that chocolate goes quite well with vicodin.

Alcoholism:  Maybe a glass or two, but I really like my liver, thanks.

I personally think that if I were to cut myself in half I might actually feel better.  I’d look pretty weird though.

As I said, we’ve tried to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing.  Evil Genius has made sure to make plenty of jokes at my expense.  Some of them were even funny. He’s had his own pain to deal with-his knee is going to explode any day now.  Some snippets of things said at my house this week:

“You said you wanted to tighten up. I can’t help it if you’re an overachiever.”

“Come over here and put your neck against my knee.  Maybe we can cancel out each other’s pain.”

The doctor referred me to physical therapy, FINALLY.  She said I needed deep tissue massage and a few rounds with the TENS machine.  Unfortunately I have to wait until Monday to get any relief.  I’m really hoping it helps.  I’d really hate to feel like this for the rest of my life!

Have you ever been in pain that just wouldn’t quit?  What did you end up doing for it?  Did anything work (or are you still in pain)?  I’d love to hear your story, however depressing or funny it is…

Please be sure to see what drives other bloggers batty by clicking on the Theme Thursday link at the top!

I’m doing double duty this week by cohosting the Tattler Thursday blog hop.  I’m a blog hop virgin, so I’m not really sure what I’m doing…  We can’t get the links to work, so I’m plugging it sans links for now.  If you’d like to link up, please visit The Wild and Wonderful World of Gingerssnaps and/or CHill Thoughts to link up your post!

Hostess

Co-Hostess

Co-Hostess

Wordless Wednesday: Wonder

This is still one of my all time favorite pictures of my daughter. She ran outside, checking for rain, still in her princess dress.  I just think it captures all the wonder and imagination of a child.

Twisted Mixtape Tuesday: Car Tunes

This week’s Twisted Mixtape Tuesday has to be one of the scariest coincidences ever.  Jen and I had THE SAME IDEA at roughly the same time.  This is just more proof that we perhaps do share a brain.

The scene:  I’m driving in my car and I have the stereo blasting.  What am I singing along to?  Here is the top ten of the many, many songs you would hear me singing loudly and maybe (or maybe not) proudly:

Somebody to Love-Queen

Freddy Mercury left us all too soon.  Nobody can hit those notes like Freddy…
Surprised by this choice?  What do you think I’d be singing?  Bohemian Rhapsody?  Oh no, you must have multiple people in your car for that!

I Want It That Way-Backstreet Boys

I admit I was never a Backstreet Boys fan when they were popular.  I still have a hard time admitting that I listen to their stuff now.  I downloaded a bunch of their songs for Evil Genius, and started listening to them.  Now I can’t stop.  And they won’t get out of my head.  Dangit.

White Liar-Miranda Lambert

I remember when this song came out, Evil Genius told me that I had to hear the new song by Miranda Lambert.  Something about being annoyed with it at first but then not being able to stop singing it.  He was right.  You have to get the twangy voice just right when singing this one…

A Little Respect-Erasure

I never heard this song until I saw the scene from Scrubs when they played it in the operating room.  The song is not only extremely catchy and singable, but the video is fun with all the plays on words.

Bring Me To Life-Evanescence

I’m a HUGE Evanescence fan, it’s not unusual for me to be listening to something from Evanescence or Chevelle a good portion of the time.  This is probably the song I play and sing along to the most.  And yeah, I do both Amy Lee and Paul McCoy’s parts.

It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)-REM

 Does anyone actually know all the words to this song besides the chorus???  I start off singing up to “Lenny Bruce is not afraid…” and then just start mumbling.

So What?-P!nk

This was my kids’ favorite song for a long time, so I could blast it without them caring, unlike other music that I like.  Why can’t we all be more like P!nk sometimes…

Cecilia-Simon and Garfunkel

So far I’ve not had my kids ask about the lyrics to this one.  Hopefully they won’t…

Jesus Take The Wheel-Carrie Underwood

My daughter still asks for the “Jesus Wheel” song sometimes…

Total Eclipse of the Heart-Bonnie Tyler

Who hasn’t belted this song out at one time or another in their car?  I mean, come on, it’s a CLASSIC!

Do you really think I could leave you without sharing what I believe to be the top car singing scene of all time?  I couldn’t stop without following up my Wayne’s World reference.  Just remember, if you’re gonna spew, spew in this (hands you a Dixie cup).

The Bohemian Rhapsody scene from Wayne’s World:

Click on the picture of the tapes at the top to visit Twisted Mixtape Tuesday over at Jen Kehl’s My Skewed View.  Then go drive around in your car and sing your heart out!

Memorial Day Oversharing

I’d like to thank Stephanie from When Crazy Meets Exhaustion for giving me the opportunity to take today off!  She’s featuring one of my most famous posts in her Oversharing series today.  Come on over and take a look see.  If you haven’t seen this famous bit of writing yet I hope you enjoy it!  If you have, please check out some of the other oversharing posts that she has shared in the past.  Remember, if you can’t laugh at yourself…  Click HERE to read my post.

In the meantime, if you need me, I’ll be spending the last day of my holiday weekend indoors thanks to heavy rain and thunder that has been rattling the windows of our house for going on three days now.  I’ll be the one all contorted and wincing in pain…

Weekly Wrap Up: The Pain in the Neck Edition

My neck pain-perhaps I am the victim of a Vulcan nerve pinch and just don’t remember?

Yeah, I’m still hurting.  I had my x-rays and the doctor called me a mere hours later and said it was all in my head.  Actually, it’s all in my neck.  Nothing is wrong with my spine, it’s all my muscles spazzing out.  I can have physical therapy, but I have to wait it out a little bit.

In the meantime, I’ve developed a humungous zit on my neck right where the affected muscle is and it hurts like a *$(#_!  The way it’s affecting me, I’ve gone as far to think that I might have shingles. Since I think my doctor thinks I’m crazy, I’m holding off on checking that out for now.  So I suffer…

Today I shared my final post for the WAHM series over at Mommy Writings: Daughter of Maat, entitled “Life of Pie” (because I really like pie…).  It’s actually something I’ve shared before as a guest post, but it’s a fun one that I couldn’t resist sharing.  In my current state, it’s probably just as well that I did that instead of attempting to share something witty and original (perish the thought).

Get it? PIE.

Despite my pain, the week went on.  Here is what I did this week:

Monday Support Groups for Bloggers That Don’t Really Exist But Should
This should really be called “Fun with acronyms.”

A Rant on the Disappearance of Clothing in America My latest feature on The Epistolarians.

Tuesday Twisted Mixtape Tuesday: Empowering Breakup Songs
Yeah I misunderstood the theme, but I made a pretty kickass list.

Confessions of a Geek
My guest post for my friend Michael at An Old and Cranky Gamer.  It took me a long time to be ok with admitting I’m a geek.  Now as you can see I don’t care!

Wednesday Wordless Wednesday: BUBBLES!
Beautiful pictures of our attempt at homemade bubbles.  It was a great success!

Thursday Delicious Evil Lurks in the Downstairs Freezer
The question was “Does Evil exist?”  Yes.  At Christmastime it existed in my freezer… If you liked this and want to read about other evil, check out this week’s Theme Thursday and click on some of the blogs in the link up!

Friday Fly on the Wall May 2013: The Birthday Edition
Snippets from our insanity make great fly on the wall posts!

Made me laugh…

Stuff I Really Liked This Week

Chicken Soup for the Bowl-Mama, Schmama
I was so excited to see her participate in the Character Assassination Carousel created by Nicole Leigh Shaw Tyop Aretist, formerly Ninja Mom.  This is hilarious!  I’ll be participating here in a couple of weeks with my destruction of the book Bears on Wheels, I can’t wait!

May Fly on the Wall posts-Baking in a Tornado-I love doing this every month, there were some really good ones in the bunch this time.  I linked you up with the post by the big cheese, the queen bee, the creator of all the is good on the internets, Baking in a Tornado. Karen’s talking about me when she mentions the crap pockets…  Yes I have a keen eye for detail! I hope you visited some of the other participants this week.  If you’re having the disgusting weather that we are, you probably have time.  This certainly rates right up there with crappy holiday weather! 

Finish the Sentence Friday:  I blog because… I would have participated in this week’s FTSF but I was doing Fly on the Wall, and I learned a long time ago that you can’t do EVERYTHING you want.  So instead I will dutifully promote these wonderful posts.  The posts range from amusing to real tearjerkers.  Start here with Sometimes I Wax Like Ralph Macchio-Can I Get Another Bottle of Whine With My Quiet Time and then check out some of the others in the link-up like I Blog Because of You, I Blog Because of Us-Finding Ninee.  Make sure you bring some kleenex!

Best and Most Disturbing Search Engine Terms
Chad Knaus and his “nakedness”-I strive to make this a family friendly blog.  However, I just can’t help it if the search terms get out of control.  I commented on a hilarious post about search engine terms by Crakgenius, letting him know some of the more interesting things that people have used to find my blog.  Somehow, a few people found my blog by googling “Naked Chad Knaus”.

Wellll, Mr Crakgenius took it a step farther.  He plugged my information into google and using his great fact finding skills he found out that ‘Chad Knaus naked penis’ has my blog as #1.

If Chad’s mom is reading this, I can assure her I have never cared about her son’s genitalia.  I don’t even root for his NASCAR team…

Homemade car antenna-I had to look this one up,if you scroll down on image results you get a picture of my car.  I was disappointed.  However, you do also get the following picture when you look it up:

Acronyms are evil-I love acronyms, does that make me evil?

Does Bon Jovi like straight or curly hair on a woman-WHY DO YOU CARE??

Ear horn-YESSSSSSSS!  I’m not so sure why I’m proud of this…

Someone broke into my house and didn’t steal anything just peed on the front of my pants-Why would you google this????

Next Week

Tomorrow I’ll be hanging out over at When Crazy Meets Exhaustion, participating in her Oversharing series with my most famous post ever.  It’s so nice to know that I’ll always be remembered for my incontinence… This next week I’ll be telling the tale in the latest chapter of my war against the mice in my house, writing about what I sing in my car, sharing what drives me crazy, cohosting the Tattler Thursday Blog Hop, among other things. It’ll be a good week.  It would be better if I wasn’t in so much freaking pain!

Fly on the Wall May 2013: The Birthday Edition

Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today 13 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house.

In our house we have three birthdays very close to each other.  Evil Genius has a birthday on April 19th.  For eleven days we are the same age, because I am a year older than him.  My birthday is May 1st, followed by The Princess’s birthday on May 6th.  Because of this fact, I present to you the Fly on the Wall Birthday Edition!

The Princess:  “Will Daddy be 40 on his birthday?”
Me:  “No, he’ll be 38.”
The Princess:  “Will you be 40 on your birthday?”
Me:  “No, I’ll be 39.”
The Princess:  “Oh good, because when you turn 41 you die.”
So she’s saying I’ve got two years.  I’d better make the most of it  (Yes I did tell her that she was misinformed…)

Me on my birthday.

The Princess:  “Mommy, a Cheeto is the fastest animal on land.”

I was really concerned about the conversation my kids kept having.  I kept hearing about some “hot girl”.  Who do they think is hot and why?  I finally asked them.  As it turns out, “hot girl” is actually “Hawk Girl”-a comic book character.

The kids were putting pennies in the big coin thing-the kind where they go around and around forever until they finally plop in the hole in the bottom.
The Princess: “Where do the pennies go when they go in the hole?”
Evil Genius:  “There’s a big coin monster in there that eats them when.”
The Princess (obviously NOT believing his story):  “I wish I was a penny so I can go in there and see what’s REALLY there.”

Evil Genius and I were discussing that sleeping naked causes some people (including me) to have weird naked dreams.
Me: “So if you don’t normally sleep with pants on and you fall asleep in them then you must have the opposite.”
Evil Genius:  “Can you imagine that?  Hey I fell asleep with my pants on last night and I dreamed I went to a nudist colony and I HAD MY CLOTHES ON.”
This is just a sampling of some of the weird conversations we have in bed.

The Princess:  “I wish we had a magic TV.  I wish we had one so that if we wanted something it would just throw it out at us!”

The Professor:  “WOW!”
Evil Genius:  “What?”
The Professor:  “What?”
Evil Genius:  “Wow what?”
The Professor:  “?????”
Evil Genius:  “You said wow.  Wow what?”
The Professor:  “I did?”
Evil Genius: “Yes.”
The Professor:  “Oh, I guess didn’t hear myself say that.”

Evil Genius, a year older, and as you can see, also a year wiser

Evil Genius:  “I need a full body scan.  You know, so I can upload it somehow to my computer and get going on an actual Iron Man suit.”
Me:  “Can I interest you in lying down on the floor and having us trace around your body instead?”

When we went out for Evil Genius’s birthday, The Princess ordered the Naked Chicken Tenders, because they had the word naked in them of course!

Evil Genius to the kids:  “If you had your choice, what would you rather have, my ’53 Ford or my Ram?”
The Professor:  “I’d have to take a look at them first, then I’d decide.  What’s the difference?”
Evil Genius:  “One is a four wheel drive and one is a two wheel drive.”
The Professor:  “Oh, I’d rather have a four wheel drive.  It would be really weird to drive a truck with only two of the wheels.”

The Princess:  “If saltines didn’t have salt on them they’d just be ‘teens'”

Now that the weather is finally nice, we are trying to get our yard and garden up to snuff.  Evil Genius was cutting up some branches to put in the fire pit for future burning.
The Princess has been a bit concerned about the nature in our yard being hurt.
He heard the Professor comfort his sister “Don’t worry, the branches don’t feel anything!”

The Princess:  “Daddy I think your barb looks good!”
*Long pause*
Evil Genius:  “You mean my RHUBARB looks good!”

The Princess on her birthday.

Our pediatrician informed me that kindergarten will be challenged by my daughter.  Yes you saw that right, it’s not the other way around.

Me to the family:  “Keep on saying all this great stuff.  I’ll have my whole Fly on the Wall post done before the day is out!”
Have a Happy May!  Buzz buzz!

Here are the links to all of the other bloggers who are participating.  Please go buzz around their homes for a bit too!

http://www.BakingInATornado.com

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/                               

http://followmehome.shellybean.com                      

http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/                  

https://sadderbutwiser.wordpress.com                      

http://menopausalmother.blogspot.com/                  

http://mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/                 

http://hypnoticbard.blogspot.com/                       

http://themomisodes.com/                                

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/                 

http://momrantsandcomfypants.wordpress.com

http://www.tinystepsmommy.com

www.therowdybaker.com

Wordless Wednesday: BUBBLES!

Last year I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: the kids and I made homemade bubbles!  When I first made up the batch, I didn’t realize that the bubbles had to sit overnight.  So when the kids tried to use them with the bubble wands, they didn’t work very well.

However, the next morning we found out that they were indeed not just good bubbles but GREAT bubbles.

Ever since, every time we make these, they don’t last very long!

The recipe we used is pretty simple.  I always double the recipe and put it in a jar that you would normally use for lemonade or iced tea so the kids can get their own bubbles easily.

HOMEMADE BUBBLES

• 1 1/2 quarts of water

• 1/2 cup light corn syrup

• 1 cup liquid dish soap

Mix water and corn syrup until completely blended.
Slowly stir in soap.
Let sit overnight for best results.

A word to the wise:  Be sure the lid is on tight if you attempt to pick up the full container of bubbles, lest you wind up with a soapy mess!

Yesterday I did a guest post for my friend Michael over at An Old and Cranky Gamer, but it wound up being sandwiched between these two previously scheduled posts.  So if you missed it and would like some advice on how to relate to a female geek, click here to read my post.

Her Royal Geekness

My whole life is a darkroom. One big dark room.

Are you a normal person?  Do you find people like me strange and unusual?  Do you want to try to communicate with a geek like me?  Then look no further than my latest guest post over at An Old and Cranky Gamer.  Yes I’m off and running ’round the internets again, giving my stuff away for free.  Click on the title below to give it a read.  Tell Michael “Hi” while you’re there, maybe even take a little peek around…

 Confessions of a Geek

Geek humor

Twisted Mixtape Tuesday: Empowering Breakup Songs

Due to lots of not fun stuff going on inside my neck, my regular random storytelling may be taking a bit of a backseat for a wee bit.  Think of it as a rain delay.  We instead bring you this program already in progress…

Soooooo… I totally misinterpreted this week’s Twisted Mixtape Tuesday.  It was supposed to be “you belong with me” songs, but I thought it was supposed to be “empowering break up” songs.  Since I already had used the brainpower to think these up, I’m going with it.

(Keep in mind that I have not broken up with or been broken up with anyone since 1997, nor am I planning on it.)

There is a glitch with the video thingie here in WordPress.  When I originally linked all of the videos you could see them just fine.  Now I’m not sure if you can without leaving my blog-this happens every single time I try to do this… So bear with me please.

You’ll Think of Me-Keith Urban
Ok, maybe not so empowering, this song just plain depressed me when I first heard it.  I must have been fighting with Evil Genius over Age of Empires that week?

Gives You Hell-The All American Rejects
Such an odd video, but such a great song.

The Sign-Ace of Base
Come on, Ace of Base was cool once… 

You Oughtta Know-Alanis Morissette
I don’t believe there were too many girls in the 90s that didn’t blast this song after a breakup.

I Will Survive-Gloria Gaynor
And of course, what empowering break up songs list would be complete without this one? 

Twisted Mixtape Tuesday is the brainchild of the one and only Ms Jen Kehl.  Do you have some songs to contribute?  Stop on over by her blog and READ THE POST FIRST, don’t just assume you know what you’re doing like I did…

Remember when I said that my friend was doing a post on the strangest places you’ve had ideas and oddest things that you’ve written them down upon?  That post will be up sometime today.  If you’re curious what she wrote, swing by The Insomniac’s Dream and check it out!  Remember:  Her blog is not for those easily offended by language and/or subject matter.  She was actually quite flattered that I had to put a disclaimer up about her blog. And the header, the part about “The Mistress of Words”?  I said that.  True story…

Last but certainly not least, I have a post up at The Epistolarians this week.  Please come by and read all about how clothes are rapidly disappearing in our country.