FLIP + CHING

Triple Celebration

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Food and Drink, Life.

We met at Carrabba’s for lunch today for a triple celebration: grandpa Clark’s 91st birthday, grandma and grandpa’s 67th wedding anniversary, and my 31st birthday. Since the events all happen in October (grandpa’s birthday and their wedding anniversary are both on the 12th and my birthday is on the 30th), we usually just get together for one big celebration.

This year it was even more important to celebrate early because Brian and I will be out of town on the day of my birthday. We will actually be aboard the Carnival Conquest tendered in Grand Cayman on that day.

Lunch today was a blast. Our party of 12 consisted of David, Donna, grandpa Clark, grandma Betty, Chad, Chad, Jay, Becca, Cory, April, Brian and myself. I think everyone had a good time. Joe stopped by our table and talked with grandma and grandpa a bit. I think they really liked that.

After our meal, they brought us complimentary desserts. Joe had them bring a full-sized dessert for each of us — grandpa, grandma, and me — and even an extra one for everyone else to share (we had two sogno di cioccolatas and two dessert rosas to share). The desserts were yummy!

As if that weren’t enough, Joe comped grandma and grandpa’s meals. We were really confused at first when they brought our ticket. Brian found the mozzarella sticks, the calamari, carafe of sangria, and our meal on there but couldn’t find grandpa’s meal.

We had agreed beforehand that Brian’s parents would pay for grandma’s and then we would take grandpa’s. Brian was worried that both meals ended up on David and Donna’s ticket by mistake. So he checked theirs and didn’t find grandma’s meal on there either, that’s when our server came by and explained that Joe had comped the two meals. We thought that was way cool of Joe and totally unexpected.

Carrabba’s rocks and Joe is the best!

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Michelle Monaghan

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Ching under Movies, Reviews.

Just finished a Michelle Monaghan movie marathon. First, we caught The Heartbreak Kid (2007) on Showtime. I had seen it before, but Brian hadn’t. I watched it one night at poker while waiting for Brian. I had gotten knocked out early (really early), while he made it to the final table. Needless to say, I had hours to kill. Luckily, he had some movies I hadn’t seen yet loaded on his Cowon. I got to watch both Juno and Heartbreak Kid that same night.

Heartbreak Kid was okay. It’s not one of Ben Stiller’s best. I totally loved Juno, though.

Made of Honor (2008) arrived in the mail today. Brian says he rented it for me, but I think he secretly wanted to see it. He won’t admit it, but he’s a sucker for romantic comedies. Anyway, we figured we’d watch it before bed. We didn’t realize until the movie started that the female lead is played by Michelle Monaghan also. She’s been in a lot of movies!

The movie was better than I expected. It was nice to see Kevin McKidd, though his was more of a supporting role. I really loved him in Rome, the one TV series that got us to sign up for HBO — which we promptly canceled after the series ended. Incidentally, we’ve got HBO again because of True Blood.

What I liked about Made of Honor is that it’s light and heart-warming; there were some funny moments, but they weren’t over-the-top funny; and it totally proves my theory that men and women cannot have platonic relationships. Sooner or later the truth comes out that one or both have feelings for the other person. What I didn’t like about it is that it romanticized being a man-ho, like it’s totally acceptable.

I guess it gives hope to the lonely man-hos of the world. You too can find true love. After all, everyone deserves a shot at happily ever after right?

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Guess What Arrived Today

Posted on October 18, 2008 by Ching under Life.

I am voting for the very first time. Woot! Woot!

I could have voted during the last elections but opted not to. Well, I wasn’t really sure how to go about it and stuff and Brian didn’t vote and refused to register. I can’t blame him, though, because the process is so simple. I can’t believe I just didn’t go about registering myself like I did this time.

I’m going to exercise my right to vote this time around. By golly, if this country is going to hell in a hand basket then I at least want to say I had a hand in it! LOL.

I keep trying to convince Brian to register, but he refuses. He thought that if he registers to vote he will get called for jury duty. That was one of his excuses, anyway. But we disproved that a few years ago when he got called for jury duty despite not being a registered voter. He really has no reason not to vote, but he has this “My vote won’t make a difference, so why bother?” attitude.

Now he says he’s going for the world record of “oldest first time voter” — is there even such a category? That’s like “longest number of days without showering” or some other silly feat. It’s one of those things that you just scratch your head at. I really hope there is no such category.

Anyway, I’m super excited about voting. I will try to take pictures of the event (if they let me). At the very least, I think I’m going to frame my voter registration card.

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Hard Candy (2005)

Posted on October 18, 2008 by Ching under Movies, Reviews.

Ellen Page in Hard Candy (2005), a twisted movie depicting what can happen when the predator becomes the prey.

If you thought that Ellen Page was great in Juno, you have to see Hard Candy.

She is fantastic in it. I can’t believe that I hadn’t seen in until now. And, I can’t believe that Brian didn’t want to see it.

I added it to my Netflix queue without having watched its trailer or preview and without any preconceived notions so I really didn’t know what it would be about. Brian started the movie for me before his nap. When read the description on the sleeve, he made a comment about it being another “Lolita” movie. I asked him what he meant. He replied simply that it is a movie about a teenage girl who hooks up with an old guy. That is totally not the case. Well, that’s what Jeff (the male character in the movie thinks)… But he had no idea what he was getting himself into. There are just some really twisted people out there.

Hard Candy is an intense thriller that is refreshingly original. What impressed me most is that it kept me interested despite having only two characters. I also liked the twist of having the prey become the predator. Throughout the movie you are constantly teetering back and forth between rooting for either character and you’re constantly questioning. Is Jeff really a bad guy? Did he really hurt those girls? Is Hayley justified in her vigilantism? Or is she just really demented?

The end of the movie left me feeling that this is one movie that is a must-see for those guys who keeping getting busted on Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” series. I think it would really make them think twice about what they’re doing. Seriously.