What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

Gingerbread House

The young women in my ward gave us this adorable gingerbread house. I appreciated the Hansel and Gretelness of it.

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

It just doesn't get any better than this. The whole concert is great (no, I didn't get to go in person, but man, I wish I had!), but this song is perfect. Just posting this as I've been listening to the CD lately:

Christmas Tree

This will be the first Christmas I spend in California. Since we'll be around, we got a real tree to enjoy. It's just a lil thing, it's cute. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my ornaments, which must be stored in Utah, boo, but Whit's mom let me use Whit's Grammie's ornaments. They are all white, silver and gold and look really nice with the white lights. I found a pretty topper - it's an old fashioned style cracked glass, pinkish topper. I also added a few birds, because...well, because I like them...and voila - a classy, cute little tree. Merry Christmas!

Hugh in Concert

Tonight I went to a benefit concert that Band From TV was doing and my dear, lovely, Hugh Laurie was performing. I was a few feet away and got to just watch him play all night. He was funny and cool as ever. It's fun to watch him play music because you can tell he loves it so much, that's he's on cloud 9 when he's at his keyboard. Jesse Spencer who is also on House was also in the band playing violin - he's really good and seems dope too. After the show I saw Hugh walking out, but he was in quite a hurry, I mean, I'm sure, he knows if he stops a crowd will form. So I just quickly told him thanks, that he was great, and he thanked me. Still crazy to be that close to my #1.

Here are a few pics and little video.

The King's Speech

Couldn't have loved this movie more. Splendid. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are ridiculously wonderful.

I'll Fly Away

One of the greatest TV shows of all time - certainly in the top of my favorites - was I'll Fly Away. It was perfect. These opening credits almost make me wanna cry. What I wouldn't give for this to be released on DVD. PLEASE!!!

California Raisins

I mean, so bizarre, but I loved this as a kid. I had their albums on cassette tape...yeah.

I think it holds up:

Nutcracked.

I think nothing puts me in the Christmas mood more than the Baryshnikov Nutcracker ballet. I grew up watching this every year and loving it. It's very different from the traditional stage ballet, but it will always be the best since it's ingrained in my mind as THE Nutcracker. I remember dancing around the living room lit only by the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree with my Mom's nutcracker in hand. I love me some Tchaikovsky!

Some more adorableness

Nothing will top the cuteness of my last post - but I have some random cute animal pics I thought I'd throw on here - because I am a sucker for cute animal pics.



Real Bambi & Thumper

Real Simba & Timon








Okay and I'll post one more pic of baby Blyth to add to the cuteness (I think she looks like Chelsea here):

Blythe Iris Taylor

Yesterday after quite a long birthing process for poor little Chelsea, our little niece, Blythe, was born. She is absolutely beautiful, a perfect little girl and we love her.

Have a little fun today

About a week and a half ago I heard that Hugh Laurie was going to be the guest on "Ellen" and I immediately got to trying to get tickets! "Ellen" shoots on the WB lot and we can try to get tickets for one taping a year, but this one was already booked up. Luckily I have awesome co-workers who followed up until a couple of tickets were released and I was in! I found out my little sister-in-law, Brighton, is a huge Ellen fan so she came with me and we had a great time going to the show on Monday. We got to be VIP and because Brighton and I are cute and fun (yeah, I said it) they put us in the best seats in the theatre - right on the front row in front of Ellen and the guest's chairs. We danced and laughed and smiled our big chomper smiles. Ellen had some really funny bits to start out the show, it's cat week, there was an adorable little five year old boy who danced hip-hop and Twitch from SYTYCD surprised him. And then the moment came, back from commercial break and out came Hugh Laurie. I was so freakin excited. I was a few feet away from him. He's tall and absolutely, utterly gorgeous. I mean, I already knew this, but seeing him in person was even more impressive. He was super funny and clever, as always. Wish his interview could have gone on for days. The second guest was Jesse Tyler Ferguson from "Modern Family" - he was very funny. We got the dvd of the first season. The musical guest was funnish - got their cd. The last segment was about Ellen starting a home garden and she had a basket of veggies from her garden and she handed Brighton the largest zuchinni she had.


(screen capture from the show)

Whit, Brighton and I then went to Umami Burger. We're sitting waiting for our table and then Brighton clutches my leg - I glance over and see this actress, recognized her, but didn't really place her. Brighton is really excited, I'm thinking, what is the big deal, it's just some actress, then she squeezes me again and I look and now I see what she was looking at...freaking Sam Rockwell! Then I gasp with excitement as well. We love Sam Rockwell - he is one of the best. I mean did you see "Moon"? It is one of the coolest movies and certainly one of the best performances ever (he got so shafted by the Academy Awards). The actress there is his girlfriend, Leslie Bibb. We don't want to bother him, but decide to write a small note to hand him on our way out, just telling him how amazing he was in "Moon" etc. So on our way out Whit hands it to him and we end up having a little conversation, he shook our hands, Leslie Bibb basically talked about her future bowel movements...weird. Anyway, just a fun little capper to a really fun day.

Emma & Hugh

Emma Thompson just received a star on the walk-of-fame and I wanted to post these two videos of Hugh Laurie and Emma's speeches at this event. I love them both - they are just the coolest.

Ol' Timers

I made reference in my last post to the fact that I love old movies of the '30's & '40's. I am lucky that I grew up in a family that respected and enjoyed these movies because I think I developed good taste in acting and writing in part because of this education. While Whit and I were in Napa, we were thumbing through books about the film stars of this time. One book was about character actors and it was full of amazing, interesting faces. There were so many unique, fun, strange actors - I love it, I wish our movies these days utilized more character actors and less bore core pretty people. Not to say that old movies didn't have their pretty people - their pretty people were outstandingly gorgeous.

What are my favorite movies from the '30's & '40's? Well, I'm glad you asked. In no particular order:

The Philadelphia Story
Bringing Up Baby
I mean how to pick between Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald movies, hmm...well, Naughty Marietta started it all for me, so that. But I also love Rose Marie and Maytime (sobbed like a baby in Maytime)
Oh, and then how to pick between Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers movies. Yikes. Really can't, so: Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, Swing Time, Shall We Dance.
Gone With the Wind
Holiday

Holy cow, I just realized I can't do this - I have a billion titles coming into my head. Can't. I'll stop there and let my last selection spring board me into the next paragraph.

I've had my crushes on many of the old timey stars over the years (Nelson Eddy, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, William Holden, Gary Cooper...), but my number one now is Lew Ayres. He never got as big as those other dudes, but I like getting to know some somewhat more obscure actors from the time. I first saw him some years ago in Holiday (and watched it again last weekend) and his performance in that movie has remained with me. He plays Kathryn Hepburns' drunk brother - and is absolutely heartbreaking(FYI - Kathryn Hepburn is probably my favorite lady star - so strong and heartfelt and interesting). I've been watching more of his performances lately (whichever I can find - it's hard) and loving him more and more. He is super relaxed in front of the camera, has an interesting energy, always seems to have a bit of a joke behind his eyes and, of course, he's super adorable and charming. Here are a couple pictures of Lew, for my own enjoyment!

Northern Country

I was trying to wait to have pictures to post with this, but I'll just have to post them later, as I get them. Last week Whit and I headed up to Napa and San Francisco. Friday afternoon we drove up to Napa and were welcomed by my Aunt and Grandma.

I love their house, it's just so familiar and fun as my family went there almost every Summer growing up. My Aunt is a doll collector (among other collections) and I always like sitting in her doll room and just taking it all in. She is also probably why I love old movies, she educated me growing up, always having a ton of great movies to show us. I love looking through her books about the old movie stars.

It's a peaceful neighborhood and we went for a walk that night, breathing the fresh air, looking at my favorite little spot above a small stream, seeing a small deer resting in the hills - welcome back to Napa.

Saturday was so much fun. We met up with a couple of our friends (friends of Whit's he's know almost his whole life) who live in San Francisco. They brought us to a little breakfast spot, which is really just a window down an alley. I had grits with bacon and brown sugar and Whit had chicken and waffle. Yummy. They drove us all over the city - to a lot of places I'd never been.

I felt like I got a good, new sense of the city. I love love San Francisco - always have. I love the bridges, I love the fog, I love the insanely steep streets, I love the history. I won't bore with all the details, but it was a really fun day. They then brought us to a German restaurant for dinner. It was really cute of them to think of activities and places catered to Whit & I - obviously a German dinner for a German girl. The restaurant is called Suppenküche and it is so popular that a line forms before the doors even open at five. I had Sauerbraten mit Lingonbeerkonfitüre,
serviert mit Rotkohl und Spätzle or Marinated and Braised Beef with Lingonberries
served with Red Cabbage & Spätzle and Whit had Gegrillte Nürnberger Bratwurst
mit Sauerkraut und Kartoffelbrei or Grilled Pork Sausage with Sauerkraut & Mashed Potatoes. It was legit, awesome German food. We then shared a piece of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte or Black Forest Cake, and when I say shared, I mean I ate 80% of it.

Sunday we hung out with the Aunt and Grandma. They drove us around Napa a bit, we watched a movie, played a game and just chilled out.

Monday morning we all went to the Jelly Belly Factory - one of our regular stops. Jelly Belly's are Whit's favorite - so he made his mix du jour and loved it. One of the new Berty Botts flavors was Dogfood and while it just tastes meaty, the smell lingers, I'll tell you. Whew.

Whit and I then drove up through St. Helena and Calistoga. Always a great drive to just enjoy the view. We had lunch at the Culinary Institute of America. I've always wanted to go there. The school is housed in what was the Christian Bros. winery - a huge, gorgeous building.


I used to dream of going to culinary school there, well that didn't happen, but I wanted to at least enjoy a meal there. The food was fantastic. The best was the little taster appetizer, where you get surprised with five or so little appetizers. We had a killer gazpacho, mini BLTs, a little Halibut thing on a plantain, beef satay and little meat pocket things, I can't quite explain - all of it was quite tasty.

After eating I went into their campus store, which is just full of every kitchen gadget you could ever want. It was so rad. I love kitchen stuff, and this was the ultimate store. I just walked away with an apron and a ship shapped cake pan. It's really cute and will come in handy for many a birthday to come, I'm sure.

I know I mostly talked about food in the post, but I guess it was a good food trip. It was great to be up in Northern California again. I feel comfortable and refreshed when I go up there. We want to try to go more often as it is only like six hours away by car. It was nice to see my family again. They really are my only extended family I saw with any regularity growing up - my only grandparent I ever knew - so they are important to me. My grandma is 93, I think, and she is still in crazy amazing shape - still sharp as a tack and sassy as ever. My Aunt is one of the most considerate people I've ever known and always a kick to be around. I'm happy they'll be going to Salt Lake City for Thanksgiving and so will Whit and I - so the whole family will be together again. It will be madness, but welcome madness.

The Simpsons

(I forgot to post this when I wrote it a couple weeks ago)

This morning Whit and I got to go to a table read of "The Simpsons"! Whit has a friend that works for the show and he set it up. It was so much fun to see these various characters' voices come from the actors. It was very funny and felt super special to experience it - I mean, come on, this show is part of television history! Dan Castelleneta doing Homer was delightful - after all these years he still gives unexpected, fantastic line readings. Hank Azaria, who apparently is usually not there (just calls in) was there and hearing him do a short exchange between Cheif Wiggum and Lou was great. Hearing these boys' voices coming from well, obviously, Nancy Cartwright doing Bart, but also characters like Millhouse and Jimbo coming from Pamela Hayden was fun.

After the reading we got to meet everyone and get our scripts signed. Matt Groening drew Homer mine and Bart on Whit's - crazy! It was super great for a die-hard Simpsons fan like me to experience that.

Cookin' in the Kitchen

Had a fun 4th of July weekend with Whitby. Friday we went to the Mates of States concert. I will admit I was not a huge fan of theirs in the past, but I am converted. They were super fun.


The opening act was a band from Philadelphia called Free Energy - a very '70's influenced group and I loved them! Good night out.

Yesterday we spent the 4th with Whit's family. We had a yummy turkey burger meal and watched fireworks on Redondo beach. It was cool to hear the ocean and the fireworks together.

Today we used our barbecue for the first time. We grilled up baby back ribs with a homemade rub and barbecue sauce, corn with a lime/parmesan butter, coleslaw, baked beans, watermelon and grilled peaches with a sweet sour cream topping. It was really fun to christen our barbecue.







Oh, and for the heck of it a picture of a pie I made a couple of weeks ago for a pie party - it's apricot/cranberry.

Pop

Happy Father's Day to my dad. He is one strong, resilient guy. He had to live in a household full of women with my mom and sisters, living far away from his family and homeland. Novels could be written, and have been written, to tell of all the craziness my dad has experienced, yet his faith, strength and sense-of-humor flourish. I know he has had a lot of pain. He is a sensitive man. He is an artist. He is unique. I am very lucky to have had him in my life. He was 50 when I was born, yet his vim and vigor is more than most guys half his age. Oh, boy, as I'm writing this Whit is throwing out a string of cheesy jokes and I realize this is something he shares with my dad. Growing up with my dad we all had plenty of moments of rolling our eyes at his jokes and puns - lots of hiding our heads in embarrassment. Now, of course, this is one of my favorite things about him and I find I love making cheesy jokes and puns too. I mean, let's be serious, look at the title of my blog - the puns still amuses me. I appreciate his example. Things sometimes felt rocky as a kid, but when I look back I realize I am really lucky to have had a strange, bizarre, German, upbringing. I wouldn't trade it for a second. I remember he played lots of games with us. I remember he would play Candyland with me while he watched the evening news. I remember he would pretend to be some sort of Frankenstein monster in the dark and chase us around. I remember him rocking me back and forth like I was on a ship. I remember him hiding objects around the house for us to find. I remember playing bocce ball. I loved our road trips. I loved enjoying nature with him. I love his deep love and respect of animals. I am grateful for my Pop.

Happy 51st.

Stephen Fry

I adore Stephen Fry. I want to be his friend. This is Stephen receiving an award for his achievements in television, it's long, but I wanted to post it, so I could have it for myself.

SLC Weekend

I'm a little late on this, but a couple of weeks ago I went up to Utah for two days. A little wham, bam, thank you, fam? Sure, why not.

I went up Saturday morning. I had breakfast with the folks, saw the ol' homestead and then headed down to Sandy to hang out with my sister, bro in law and nephew. It's always so much fun hanging out with the Nighs. We picked up Cafe Rio (yum to the sweet pork salad), played dominoes, chatted, tv'd.

That night was really the main object of the trip. My dear friend from high school, Liz, got sealed in the Salt Lake City temple. I felt very honored to be invited and to witness something so special. I've known Liz since 7th grade, but we didn't really become close until 9th grade. We went through the highs and lows of high school together and somehow came out on the other side. We don't see each other very often these days, but our concern and regard for one another still remains. That Saturday night after most of the guests had left her home and we were in the kitchen with her husband, mom and sister, was really special. We were able to just chat like old times, except not like old times. Sometimes when you have friends from the past, conversations can just turn to "remember when...", but this night felt like we were friends now, as two adults. It was comfortable and we remain the same as we were in high school in many ways (me being boy crazy, her giving me a hard time about it), but we were also able to share in very adult trials and triumphs. I love Liz's family. Her mom is just great, so loving and cool and I loved hanging out with her again as well. Liz looked beautiful, her home is fantastic, her community there seems great. I'm so happy her life is going so well.

That night I slept over at the Nighs. In the morning Jerad cooked up a fantastic breakfast and Jerad, Alex and I created our hot chick band called "Harlot" on rock band. Then my parents and Elizabeth came over for lunch. I was very happy to see Elizabeth and spend time with her after her recent health problems. We actually had a really fun afternoon. Miracle of miracles, my parents played Wii! It was so funny to see them get their competitive natures out on wii bowling. They did really well. Here are a couple short videos of them at work (just to prove they really played video games):





Then I flew out Sunday night. So, it was a super short trip, but really worth it. I wish I could have seen more of my Utah friends, but for two days, it was pretty full and fun. The mountains looked beautiful. I drove up to the UofU to see my old theatre building, PAB - it was the same, dirty building I know and love. I actually got a little emotional walking through one of the studios and remembering the hard work I put in on those wood floors - all the scene work and baring of my soul that went on in that dirty old room.

It's Memorial day weekend. I got out of work at 1:00 today. Tomorrow we barbecue with friends. Then just taking it sleazy the rest of the weekend. As the Summer months start I hope to catch up at work (as it will HOPEFULLY slow down at some point), I hope to be super healthy - I've started working out again and it's really nice. I've been working on building up my running skills. I've always hated running, but I want to love it, and I have been doing better and better and enjoying it more the last couple of weeks. I want to try to stay committed to getting in shape over the next few months. The weather is so beautiful now that there is just no excuse. And I'd like to try, as always, to get my creative juices flowing again.

So that's my life right now. See ya.

Happy Mother's Day

I remember my mom always crying at this scene. It is ridiculously sad and will forever make me weep too.



A few more things that make me think of my mom:

So much music makes me think of her, but one of the biggies was Roy Orbison. My mom will get a song in her head and sing the same line over and over again as she moves through the house or makes dinner. Of course, I now do this too.



One of my favorite things about my mom is her crazy hysterical laugh. I remember it most when we would sit together and watch movies; movies like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World or The Blues Brothers or Nuns on the Run or The Producers.



And of course, I think of the Swiss yodeling records my mom would play, usually on holidays or when we were going to have people over to dinner.



My mom always put up with a lot of crap from us kids - we loved to tease her - like when on road trips, always handing her our trash and calling her "trash lady" or going on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland and after my sister and I claimed Indiana and Marion for ourselves telling her she had to be Sallah - she still gets upset when we call her Sallah and of course, it still amuses us to do so. We still might pick on her, but I want to think it's only because we do feel so safe with her and we know she has a sense of humor and that our little mommy will still love us.

My mom has sacrificed a lot for us kids, for me, and I appreciate all she's done. I loved my childhood. A lot of my posts on this blog, actually, are me walking down memory lane and that is because I loved my childhood. My mom made me feel safe, loved, respected, listened to and happy. I love you, Mom.

Bring It On, Doc.

Cake Wrecks

Oh, man, this site is a distraction. I don't know why, but these Cake Wrecks really tickle me. I'll post a few below - the ones that really get me are the literal mistakes and horrible spelling mistakes. There are also some really cool cakes on the site as well.


Poor Adamwithblueflowers. Grade school musta been murder.






That'll be $44.99, please!








I guess there wasn't room to add "In Math."

Fun!

Laser Target Alarm Clock
Your aim better be good when you wake up to this alarm clock. This clock can be set that when the alarm rings, you do not only have to shoot the target but repeat so an additional four times in order to make it stop. If you are waking up with a hangover, you will probably want to shoot yourself.

Robert Loggia

My sister Elizabeth and I used to laugh so much at this commercial. It's so strange. Why would this kid care about Robert Loggia? (I guess that is the joke they were going for)

Brighten your day

Oscars 2010

Last night we hosted the Academy Awards party at our house. I'm happy to say that Whit kept the winning ballot in the Hertford household this year. I very much enjoyed Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin's opening monologue (could have done without Doogie's musical number - sort of random). I'm glad Avatar did not win. I'm sad Inglourious didn't win screenplay. Despite seeing the nominated animated and live-action shorts, I got those picks wrong. I like that Jeff Bridges really is the Dude. James Taylor was lovely to hear. The dancing for best score was cool (some really good scores nominated). We had food items to represent the 10 best picture nominees:

Up in the Air: Nuts (airplane nuts)

Avatar: BLUE Cheese Bites


An Education: "Martini's"


Inglourious Basterds & A Serious Man: Latkes (w/Apple Sauce & Yogurt)


The Hurt Locker: Hummus & Veggies


District 9: Shrimp


Precious/The Blind Side: Chili Dogs


Up in the Air: Balloon Cupcakes/"Upcakes"