Juno, Best Movie I’ve Seen in a While

I can’t believe it took me so long to watch Juno. Great movie. Realistic and refreshing. I thought the charcters were really good. Juno herself is interesting. She doesn’t sound like any teenager I’ve ever met. Her friend Leah is very much like your regular sixteen year old, but Juno is like like a thirty year old trapped in a teenage body. Then again, Diablo Cody has often stated that Juno is like an extension of herself.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite exchanges..

Rollo: Well, well… If it isn’t MacGuff the crime dog! Back for another test?
Juno MacGuff: I think the last one was defective. The plus sign looked more like a division sign so I remain unconvinced.
[Rollo pulls the bathroom key out of reach]
Rollo: Third test today, Mama Bear. Your eggo is preggo, no doubt about it.
Tough Girl: [to Juno] It’s really easy to tell. Is your nipples real brown?
Rollo: Yeah. Maybe your little boyfriend’s got mutant sperms. Knocked ya up twice.
Juno MacGuff: Silencio old man! Look, I just drank my weight in Sunny-D and I gotta go pronto!
Rollo: Well, you know where the lavatory is.
[Juno heads towards the bathroom]
Rollo: [yells] You pay for that pee stick when you’re done! Don’t think it’s yours just cuz ya marked it with your urine!

. . .

Rollo: So what’s the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle? Minus or plus?
Juno MacGuff: I don’t know. It’s not seasoned yet.
[grabs products]
Juno MacGuff: I’ll take some of these. Nope… There it is. The little pink plus sign is so unholy.
[shakes pregnancy tester]
Rollo: That ain’t no Etch-A-Sketch. This is one doodle that can’t be un-did, Homeskillet.

Juno MacGuff: So guess what.
Paulie Bleeker: [hesitant] What?… I don’t know…
Juno MacGuff: I’m pregnant.
Paulie Bleeker: What should we do?
Juno MacGuff: Well, I should just… I was thinking I’d just nip it in the bud before it gets worse. Because they were talking about in health class how pregnancy… It can often lead to an infant.
Paulie Bleeker: Typically, yeah… Yeah that’s what happens when our mothers and teachers get pregnant.

Vanessa Loring: What’s wrong? Why are you crying?
Juno MacGuff: I’m not crying, I’m just allergic to fine home furnishing.

Juno MacGuff: I’m losing my faith in humanity.
Mac MacGuff: Think you can narrow it down for me?
Juno MacGuff: I guess I wonder sometimes if people ever stay together for good.
Mac MacGuff: You mean like couples?
Juno MacGuff: Yeah, like people in love.
Mac MacGuff: Are you having boy troubles? I gotta be honest; I don’t much approve of dating in your condition, ’cause well… that’s kind of messed up.
Juno MacGuff: Dad, no!
Mac MacGuff: Well, it’s kind of skanky. Isn’t that what you girls call it? Skanky? Skeevy?
Juno MacGuff: Please stop now.
Mac MacGuff: [persisting] Tore up from the floor up?
Juno MacGuff: Dad, it’s not about that. I just need to know if it’s possible for two people to stay happy together forever, or at least for a few years.
Mac MacGuff: It’s not easy, that’s for sure. Now, I may not have the best track record in the world, but I have been with your stepmother for 10 years now and I’m proud to say that we’re very happy.
[Juno nods]
Mac MacGuff: In my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think the sun shines out your ass. That’s the kind of person that’s worth sticking with.
Juno MacGuff: I sort of already have.
Mac MacGuff: Well, of course! You’re old D-A-D! You know I’ll always be there to love and support you no matter what kind of pickle you’re in… Obviously
[nods to her belly]
Juno MacGuff: I need to go out somewhere just for a little while. I don’t have any homework and I swear I’ll be back by ten.
Mac MacGuff: You were talking about me right?

Leah: [reading] “Wholesome, spiritually wealthy couple have found true love with each other.” Aw… all that’s missing is your bastard!

. . .

Juno MacGuff: Ick! I don’t want to give my baby to a couple who describes themselves as “wholesome.” I was looking for, maybe, a thirty-something graphic designer with a cool Asian girlfriend who kicks ass on the bass guitar, but I don’t know, I don’t wanna get too particular.

Brian and I actually found this funny. I missed it the first time, but noticed it the second time while watching the movie with Brian. If Brian had completed his graphic design degree and I learned how to play bass, this description would have fit us to a tee. Not that we are looking to adopt or anything. =P

Some people thought this was kind of a pro-life movie. I didn’t really think of it as propaganda. I thought it was a good movie that many people could easily relate to.. I thought it was cute that Juno and Bleeker ended up falling in love and got back together at the end. Juno comments about how typically couples fall in love before reproducing, but in her and Bleeker’s case they did it backwards. I could relate because Brian and I were pretty uncoventional ourselves.

Our relationship has evolved in a backwards kind of way. We were “making friendship” before we were officially a couple. We went through a lot of stuff before realizing we were in love. We moved in together and bought a house before getting married. We are pretty atypical.

Anyway, I’m adding Juno to my list of all-time favorite movies. I would add it to my movie wishlist, but we already have it. =P

June 29, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Movies

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Monterrey Mexican Grill

Brian was feeling generous after his magnificent poker win so we decided to take his mom and dad out to dinner and a movie. The movie we had planned on in advance, but they originally had dinner plans with Bill and Lisa. Their plans fell through, so we figured the four of us could have dinner instead.

Since we invited them to dinner, we had them pick the restaurant. They picked Monterrey. We had never been there before so I figured it would be a good time to try it. Never again. We are going to pick the restaurants from now on. =P

We live on the Northeast side of town so we always drive by it, going to and from various places. We’d always wondered what the food was like, but never ventured in. I guess our instincts were correct.

Monterrey has got to be the most insignificant restaurant that has ever opened. Seriously. Notice how there are no pictures of food above. That’s because the food wasn’t picture worthy.

Here’s the quick and dirty. Though they weren’t really busy, the service was slow. The food was so-so. Chips were a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10. Abuelo’s chips tips the scale. They have the best chips in town. Chili’s chips are good, too. Heck, Felipe’s has better chips. Salsa was average. They really needed good salsa to overcome the chips deficiency. So far, not so good.

By the time the server came by to take our drink orders, we were ready to order our meals. I did order a glass of sangria. I have to give it a try from every place that serves it. Blech. Worst sangria ever! What a turn off! My suggestion would be to take it off the menu.

I think Donna ordered a pick two and Dave ordered a pick three, while Brian and I decided to share a pick two between the two of us. He got a bean and cheese burrito while I had a the beef quesadilla. It’s pretty hard to mess up a bean and cheese burrito so I’m thinking Brian was fine with his portion of the meal. I wondered about mine, though. My quesadilla came out looking like a soft taco. When we asked the waiter, he said that is their quesadilla. I kind of expected it to be flatter. Hmmm… Brian and I agreed that our waiter could be (a) lying so that he doens’t have to take the food back to the kitchen and make them redo it, or (b) that’s really how they make their quesadillas, in which case I’m sure we are not the first patrons to scratch our heads.

Donna wasn’t impressed with her meal either. She made a comment that the food was way better the first time they tried the place. She gave it a rating of 2 forks out of 4. I don’t really give ratings, I just give feedback. If I make a repeat visit, then you know you’re doing something right.

As I mentioned earlier the food was pretty average and bland. David almost emptied the salt shaker on his plate. Either his food had no flavor at all, or he is just being himself. He is a bit of a salt addict.

I guess the one nice thing is that the server was conscientious enough to take the sangria off our tab. He could sense that I didn’t like it. I gave it all of three sips. I figured maybe it would get better, but it didn’t. Anyway, I guess he saw that my sangria was still very full at the end of the meal so he didn’t charge us for it.

I wouldn’t say the prices were reasonable because I wouldn’t pay to eat that stuff. If I were to put a price tag on the food, it’d have to be negative. I can say the prices are cheap, though. Well, compared to similar restaurants. Three full entrees and three drinks only cost $30. As they say, you get what you pay for…

I have no idea how they’ll stay in business. I mean, if I want to eat Mexican food I’ll go to Abuelo’s or Felipe’s. You wouldn’t be able to drag me back to this place even if you tried. The food was so insignificant that it made me wish that Red Hot and Blue had never closed. By the end of the meal, I was fully prepared to make a deal with the devil to eat at Red Hot and Blue every week just so they would return and erase this place. I give it about six months to a year.

June 29, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Food

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Brian Took Home Third and $100 Last Night

Brian, in an amazing display of poker prowess or just getting really, really lucky, made it to the final table again. He was very, very short-stacked. As in, he only had $40K left compared to all of the big stacks. He managed to survive getting knocked out and actually finished in third place, taking home $100 bucks. Now, we have money to go to the movies tonight. Anyway, I’m glad that Brian did my chips proud.

We got to poker late because DHL was acting crazy and making me freakishly paranoid about my package (contents of said package will be blogged about later). Anyway, we decided to go to poker at the last minute. We made it to poker without being short-chipped but not early enough to not have to sit at the same table. I hate being at the same table as Brian (unless it’s the final table, which we did achieve not too long ago) because inevitably one of us knocks the other out of the poker tournament.

Unfortunately for me last night, I was the victim of the spouse-on-spouse carnage. Brian knocked me out with the first 30 minutes of the tournament. We hadn’t even gone to $200-$400 yet.

So here’s the set up: Brian and I had one player, Kaye, in between us. Kaye was dealer this hand, and I was in the small-blind position. It comes to Brian and he raises to $1600. I should know better than to tangle with my own husband this early in the game, but I looked down at two lovely ladies. I re-raised to $3200, just to see where I stand. He re-raises and goes all in. My BS meter goes off the charts. There is no way he has my hand beat. Needless to say, I called his all in and he revealed pocket aces. Ugh. Bloody hell. He was off to a good start and had won a few hands already so he had my chip stacked covered. That was the end of the tournament for me. I was sidelined before 7:30 PM.

At least Brian was nice enough to loan me his Cowon A3. That thing really comes in handy. I watched Juno, which we’ve had for a while, I just haven’t had the time to watch it. Finished it before break and then I watched Ben Stiller’s The Heartbreak Kid after the break. I finished the second movie and Brian was still in the tourney, amazingly enough.

That’s the story of my poor showing at Friday night poker and Brian’s totally brilliant performance. Then again, he might just gotten really lucky all night.

June 28, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Poker

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Gearing Up for Our Vegas Trip

Only 23 days until Corey and April’s wedding at Mandalay Bay! Woo hoo! Brian and I are gearing up for our upcoming trip. Though Brian has never been to Las Vegas and this will be his first, I seem to be a lot more excited about the trip than he is… He’s probably all tripped out from having had to go to New Hampshire a couple of times already so far this year. Brian has always been anti-travelling. If we could teleport to Vegas and cut out the part where you have to go to the airport and sit through a boring flight, I’m sure he’d probably be much more excited.

Anyway, one of the most important pieces of advice I read is to bring a couple of pairs of comfortable shoes. So my mission this week was to find my perfect flats.

I had found these Me Too “Neda” Mary Jane flats at Aspen Traders a few weeks ago. They were $77, though, so I couldn’t get myself to buy them. Usually, when I find something at the store I like I’m able to find them online for a third or half the store price. I searched and searched for these shoes and could not find them for less. Everytime I found them on sale, they were only in size 10 or 11 and not available in my size. Regular price online was about $83. With shipping it was going to cost more than just buying them locally.

Finally, Brian and I agreed that I should just go back to Aspen Traders and buy them. We went there at lunch on Tuesday. As luck would have it, they started marking down the shoes that day. My shoes just happened to be on sale! And, guess what. The only size left was mine! And, they were the final pairs they had in black, bronze, and silver. I managed to talk Brian into letting me have both the black and bronze pairs. We agreed that it was a good deal because I ended up getting two shoes for the price of one.

I wore the black pair once this week and the bronze pair, which is pretty versatile actually, twice already. They are so comfortable! No break in needed. I love them! I’m not the only one either. Just check out the reviews on Zappos. I’m so glad I found them. They are nice enough to wear with dresses or shorts. I’ll be living in these shoes during our trip.

June 26, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Life, Travel

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My Cousin Gladys

I received a letter from my cousin Gladys last month. She included some photos. One of her and I taken ten years ago, a recent photo of her, and also a photo of her brother Justin (below).

My! How time flies!

The above photo is of me at age thirteen, which is around the same age Gladys is now. She’s twelve in this photo, I think.

We kinda sorta look alike, don’t we? Everyone tells me that she is smart, too. Just like Ate Ching. =)

June 24, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Family, Life

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Pictures from April’s Bridal Shower

Probably the most creative invitation I have received in a while. Corey’s sister Christy made it. She is one creative woman!

April’s shower cake. Yummy!

Corey’s mom..

April and their new puppy, Mr. Miyagi.

Other photos…

June 22, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Interesting Day Yesterday

Patricia tried a new nostril hair waxing procedure on me. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. She is still perfecting the technique so she asked if Brian would want to be a guinea pig and try it. I told her he probably wouldn’t. He’s a big baby when it comes to hair waxing. However, I relented and said she could try asking.

She must be a really good salesperson, because she miraculously convinced Brian to give it a shot. I so wish that I had my camera phone in the room with me. Of course, I couldn’t see it while she was performing it on me. However, I was able to watch her do it to Brian. It’s pretty interesting.

She uses a cold wax, which is dark green in color. She applies it to your nostrils, being careful not to apply it too far inside. Your nostril hairs are there for a reason so you don’t want to remove all of them — only the unsightly ones closest to the opening. Anyway, it looked like Brian had gigantic boogers. It was a comical sight.

As soon as the wax is dry, she removes it. The hair is stuck to the wax and so it just pull off like magic. It is brilliant! Brian said that it really didn’t hurt, which is the same observation I made. Patricia trimmed his eyebrows and waxed his unibrow as a perk for agreeing to be guinea pig, I guess. Well, she is just really nice and she does that sort of thing. Brian said that getting his unibrow waxed hurt worse.

So there you have it. A relatively painless procedure for getting rid of those unsightly nostril hairs that seem to peek out at the most inopportune times. I think the procedure is about $10 to $15 bucks. I told Brian that he could just do this every couple of months instead of trimming with his nose hair trimmer, which he forgets to do anyway. LOL.

June 22, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Dinner at the Brubakers

We were supposed to have dinner with Brian’s parents on Friday night, but I found out on Tuesday that we had a phone system upgrade that same evening. I had volunteered to stay through the whole thing a couple of weeks ago, but had forgotten all about it.

Pam Joni and I stayed. It was supposed to finish at 11:00 PM on Friday night, if all went well. Things never go perfectly so we were there until almost 2:00 AM the next day. It still wasn’t finished so they all went back this morning. I couldn’t because I had a full Saturday with my waxing, April’s bridal shower, and poker. I had originally planned to work out in the morning, but I nixed that idea so I could get some sleep.

Anyway, dinner got moved to Thursday night. We brought the bottle of Malbec that we won at Carrabba’s. It didn’t go that great with chili dogs, but we drank some anyway. LOL. Here are post-dinner some pictures of Brian and Dave goofing off.

Here’s a picture of our pasalubong:

They brought us some chocolates also. Yum! We haven’t eaten them all yet. Anyway, here are some photos from their trip.

I’m hosting all of the photos on my Flickr. Check them out.

June 21, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Family, Flickr, Travel

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Yet Another Reason to Love Carrabba’s

We just got home from a fantastic evening at Carrabba’s. We received an invite for a complimentary food and wine tasting to celebrate the return of the summer season. Ashley, the server who helped us on our last visit, recognized us and directed us to the appropriate area.

I had not had the opportunity to write about our last experience at Carrabba’s but suffice it to say Ashley was phenomenal. I was foolish enough to order a carafe of sangria for myself. I have no idea why I thought that I would be able to consume it all. By the second glass, I was already crying uncle. Ashley was not only attentive and friendly, but she anticipated our needs. Instead of having to ask what to do about the remaining sangria, she told us that she was checking with a manager to see if the remainder could be rebottled for us. They were able to do it and so we took the rest of my sangria home that evening. We had at least two more glasses left so it was really nice of them to do that for us.

Ashley dazzled us that evening with the quality of service she provided. We were so pleased that we sent a compliment to Carrabba’s via their web site. A couple of weeks later, we received a nice note back from the regional manager thanking us for sending the positive feedback. She also gave us a coupon for free appetizer or dessert on her.

When we ran into Ashley tonight, she thanked us for the compliment and told us that she got a free tie out of it. That is their form of recognition. That was really nice. I’m glad that she got recognized for her hard work and for going the extra mile. Joe, the owner, also came by and thanked us for sending the compliment for Ashley.

Brian said that Ashley told him that she saw our food blog in the paper a could of weeks ago, and she made the comment to him that the food pictures finally made sense. We get a few strange looks sometimes because I take pictures of everything I eat. Apparrently, Joe has seen the food blog too. I thought that was neat.

Anyway, back to the tasting.

The cheeses offered were romano and fontina. The wines from Jacob’s Liquor were as follows: Librandi Ciro Bianco 2007 (Calabria, Italy); Ducarosso Chianti Reserva 2003 (Tuscany, Italy); Montevina Terra d’Oro Zinfandel 2005 (Amador, California); and Pascual Toso Reserve Malbec 2006 (Mendoza, Argentina). The Jacob’s rep came by right before the tasting began and explained everything. He also came by to check on us a few times throughout the evening. There was a drawing for bottles of wine and dinner certificates that evening and we actually won a bottle of the Malbec. We are bringing it to Brian’s parents’ house tomorrow.

There were five courses during the tasting. Here are some photos:

The Bianco was paired with the crab stuffed shrimp and lemon butter sauce shown above. This was really good. The crab stuffing reminded me of crab cakes, which I love. I was really happy with it because then I got to enjoy crab and shrimp — two of my most favorite seafood items. Brian doesn’t usually like seafood, but he loved this appetizer. That’s truly a testament to how good it is. Oh, and the white wine is my most favorite out of the four options.

Incidentally, the crab stuffed shrimp is going on the specials menu in the next two weeks. I believe it will be offered as one of the special items for the next three months.

Next came the Mediterranean chicken salad and pesto vinaigrette paired with the Chianti. The Chianti was my least favorite of the four wines. This salad was really good, though. I thought the pesto vinaigrette dressing was fabulous. The chicken that they served with it the same chicken that is served in the chicken gratella dish. Brian and I both agreed that we could see ourselves making meals out of the salads on our next visit.

Then we had the veggie ravioli and roasted red pepper sauce paired with the Zinfandel. This was good, but I’m not a big fan of it because I’m not much of a veggie eater. I like my meats. The sauce is really good, though. The roasted red pepper sauce is the same sauce that they used to serve along with the crab cakes (no longer on the menu).

The veal marsala paired with the Malbec was the last food item. It was good, except I’m not too fond of veal. Our entire table agreed that this would be good with a tenderloin, or pork medallions, or something.

Finally, they served us mini mocha mousse desserts and pomegranate martinis. The chocolate mousse was superb. I think Brian and I have found our new favorite dessert. Too bad it won’t be on the menu for another month and a half. The pomegranate martinis probably would have been better had I not eaten dessert first. The sweetness made the martini taste stronger and more bitter. It was good pomegranate martini, though. Brian gave me his so I got his as a bonus.

It was a wonderful evening altogether. Joe came by several times throughout the night to provide us with more information about how the dishes are prepared and to see how we liked everything. We were really pleased with how smoothly everything went. And, we had the opportunity to meet some really fantastic people. Joe said that these tastings are normally held every third Wednesday of the month for $25 per person. The next one is on July 16. We might just do that and Bring Jan and Brian’s parents, too. I’m thinking they might enjoy it.

June 18, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Flickr, Food

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