A Better Best-of

Great series at The Onion: critics talk about the best non-2010 movies/music/books they discovered in 2010.


Part one: music
Part two: etc.

Run, Don't Walk

photo via Nicolas Genin

The King's Speech is every bit as wonderful as you were hoping it would be.  Colin Firth, OMG.  (Is that an order of knighthood?  It should be.)  I know the movie isn't playing everywhere, but if I were even within two hours of a theater (MOM) I would rush to see it.

FYI: It was showing on two screens at the theater I went to, and all showings were selling out. I think it's going to break records for per-screen average revenues.

The Worst Christmas Movies Ever

via

Why yes, I am watching Santa Buddies; why do you ask?

I think the gold medal for Worst Christmas Movie of All Time goes without debate to Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.  All persons involved with that movie should be set loose in the forest and hunted down as animals by a party of angry parents. 

Santa Buddies earned its spot on the list, too.  [Papi tried to convince Becca that the real name of the movie is Santa CLAWS and at the end the dogs kill and eat all the people.  Yeah, I don't know why our kids are so weird.]

And that's without mentioning anything from the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime (which Papi should also be allowed to rewrite).

Let the Lists Begin!

'Tis the season for Best-of-2010 lists. Here's Urban Dictionary's (NSFW, for those of you still at work this week).

No doubt gate rape earned the top spot, but double rainbow will always have a place in my heart.

Vesicoureteral Reflux and other holiday fun

picture via I Heart Guts

Becca had surgery on Friday to correct reflux in her ureters.  The reflux had been responsible for multiple UTIs and kidney damage (she's down to 25% function in one kidney). We've known about the problem since late in the summer, and we knew the surgery was coming up, so it wasn't an emergency or anything. The surgery involved cutting through her bladder, detaching her ureters and reattaching them at a better angle. Oy.

Anyway, the kid is doing better now.  We were able to come home Saturday afternoon, and the wound dressing came off today.  She's hurting a little, but she'll be okay.

My mom took this picture right after we were put in a room on Friday following surgery.  Becca is holding on to the remote so no one can change the channel while she naps.  About two minutes after the photo was taken, she woke up and said, "I want to change into a cuter nightgown."  She has been absolutely showered with "get-well" presents.  Twice she has asked, "Why are you being so nice to me?"  Don't get used to it, kid.

My friends are taking care of us, too.  They're bringing dinner over, and some of them got together to make a get-well Advent calendar, with a different activity to open and play with everyday.  How awesome is that?  I mean, words really fail me.

What mamacita is...

Watching
I recorded this a while back, but it's still airing through December.  Love me some Fran Lebowitz. You might also like to know that Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking is coming to HBO this month, too.  These were perhaps not the most obvious choices for HBO to fill the void left by Kenny F. Powers, but I'm happy.

Listening to
Target has 14 Christmas songs available for (free) download on their site, in case you were looking for some new Yuletide jams. 

Amazon is also releasing one free Christmas MP3 per day all month long.  My favorite so far is Fleet Foxes'.

I thought I posted about this last year, but evidently not.  American Science & Surplus (yes, A.S.S. har) has all kinds of cool stuff.  I love getting Christmas presents for the kids from them.  Last year Santa brought E&B a laser pointer, a pocket microscope, and shrinky dink film.  This year in the sleigh (so far) are a 3D drawing pad (complete with glasses), a can crusher, a 10' long sheet of adhesive dry erase board, a bag of rocks for experiments, and a simple telescope.  They also have marshmallow guns, potato guns, robot parts, hexabugs, gyroscopes, and all manner of tubes, bearings, wiring and gas masks.  And French riot helmets!  Hydraulic cylinders!  Solar-powered flashlights!  So much fun stuff you'll have a hard time choosing.

Not a paid review or anything; just passing along the info.

Bethle-may-hem

Bethle-may-hem, originally uploaded by houston mamacita.

Dateline: Bethlehem. All hell broke loose when the manger was attacked by kamikaze paper airplanes...

A Gift from Mer

Mer sent me a link to this handy list of tv holiday specials.  Thanks, Mer!

P.S.: Apropos of Babble's obsession with Angelina Jolie -- a fascination I do not understand -- I am watching a trailer/interview ad for The Tourist right now, with A.J. and Johnny Depp.  I'd love to see the movie for the scenery, but I don't think I could take Johnny Depp's Let's-Pretend-I'm-Not-From-Kentucky accent for very long.  Also, he just described A.J. as "a walking poem," and then immediately described Venice as "poetry at every turn."  Gag me with a chainsaw.