Favorite THing #10: My Fair Lady

Last night, the Trifecta (Katie, Amy and myself), decided to stay classy and attend the Hygienic's outdoor presentation of My Fair Lady. We were originally planning on going last week, but it got rained out and luckily was rescheduled to this week instead. I have always been a huge fan of not only musicals but of Audrey Hepburn as well, so needless to say, I love this movie. As our husbands/boyfriend would say, the Trifecta are exactly the same and therefore Katie and Amy also love this movie as well. While watching the film in the lovely garden setting that is the Hygienic Park, I realized something. This movie would make a perfect All I need to know in life I learned from... poster. So I decided to put one together...



I learned that everyone knows someone who is an Eliza Doolittle, Henry Higgins, Colonel Pickering, Alfie Doolittle, or Freddie Eynsford-Hill.

*Eliza Doolittle - a incredibly mini person prone to high pitched screechy noises and saying ridiculously funny things. ("You oughta be stuffed with nails, you ought! ") But in the end, all the guys want her because she is irresistible to guys.

* Henry Higgings - a confirmed old bachelor who thinks that the minute he becomes friends with a woman, she will fall in love with him and will want to be his only female friend and is therefore jealous of all other females in his life. "Let the others of my sex, tie the knot around their necks, I prefer a new edition of the Spanish Inquisition than to ever let a woman in my life"

*Colonel Pickering - a kindly gentleman who treats a woman nicely no matter how mean his friends are being. He has a tendency of being quite chatty and is always snappily dressed. "Well, just let's call her a "good friend", shall we? I beg your pardon! Listen to me, my man, I don't like the tenor of that question - what we do with her is our affair - your affair is bringing her back so we can continue doing it! "

*Alfie Doolittle - a portly fellow prone to saying ridiculous stuff especially when drunk (which he is often). "Beer, beer, glorious beer!"

*Freddie-Eynsford Hill - a lovable guy who pines after a woman, sending her love letters every day. ("Darling, how could you imagine such a thing? You know how I feel. I've written two and three times a day telling you. Sheets and sheets! ") However, he is so nice that he often gets looked over and stepped on in favor of a guy who is grumpier and not as devoted as he is.

I learned a new set of phrases that can be used in every day conversation.

*"Stop crooning like a bilious pigeon" (useful when someone won't stop whining)

*"You toady ignoramus" (when someone is being a complete idiot)

*"Heartless guttersnipe" (useful for a mean woman)

*"Come on ____ Move yer bloomin' arse" (to move someone along that is going to slow for you)

*"I'm a good girl I am!" (when accused of something you didn't do)

*"I'm wanting to tell you, I'm willing to tell you, I'm waiting to tell you" (when someone wants you to tell them something and won't wait long enough for you to get it out)

I learned useful weather information about Europe

* The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain

*In Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen

Feel free to contribute your own lessons learned if I missed anything!

Favorite Thing #9: Kevin M. Doyle

I was sitting at work today, trying to come up with something to write about, when I had a brilliant idea: Doyle! Doyle is my BFF at work and if he did NOT work at Pfizer, I would probably have to quit. Since I have OCD and LOVE making lists, and also since I LOVE the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, I thought I would instead make a list of 10 things I love about Doyle (in no particular order):

10: He plays retarded games at Six Flags to win the world's most hideous dog just so I can give it to Roo and laugh when it is bigger than her.

9: He is the only guy I know who COMPLAINS about being manhandled by three girls.

8: He is even less photogenic than me.

7: He does Civil War re-enactment and gets old-time photos taken which he then gives to me and Katie which enables us to make the best buttons ever!

6: As previously mentioned in my Ewan McGregor entry, he totally rocks the tuxedo!

5: He takes me to Taco Bell.

4: He supports my Edward Cullen obsession by getting me a t-shirt that says "Edward Cullen, breaking hearts since 1918" for my birthday

3: He doesn't mind when I pass out at the beach for over an hour.


2: He makes Seersucker Suits and boater hats cool again (see below)

1: He throws the greatest theme parties ever!

Favorite Thing #8: Ewan McGregor

Have you ever seen anyone as handsome in a tux before (besides Doyle?)

Oddly enough, I started this blog at work and then went home to watch Moulin Rouge! with the Trifecta....

My obsession with Ewan McGregor began in high school when a friend of mine and I watched Trainspotting. The movie itself was very well written and different from anything I had ever seen. Here was this amazingly gorgeous guy with an accent who was actually a really good actor. (And as an added bonus, this movie allowed me to discover that Ewan has absolutely no problems with nudity). Fast forward a few months, and I see on TV a preview for Emma. As I am a huge Gwyneth Paltrow fan (Sliding Doors anyone?) and an even bigger fan of Jane Austen, I immediately knew I HAD to see this movie. As I am sitting in the Niantic cinema back in the day when it cost $1.75 for a matinee, watching my movie, I gasp as who should be playing the character we all love to hate, Frank Churchill, but the guy I had seen in Trainspotting a few months before. It was at this point that my true obsession began. I had to see everything he had been in, so I rented The Pillow Book, and Nightwatch. I cursed the mainstream movie theaters in my area for not playing Brassed Off or Shallow Grave, but years later found them on Netflix. THEN, Ewan hit mainstream with A Life Less Ordinary. This movie was absolutely horrible, and not just because Ewan had no sexy accent. Cameron Diaz was abysmal and the story was lame. BUT, it gave us obsessed fans the first glimpse into Ewan's fantastic singing voice that would win him the adoration of many, many women in Moulin Rouge years later. He starred in a few other smaller movies that got critical acclaim but not many viewers (Little Voice and Velvet Goldmine where he dazzles us with his voice, and lack of clothes in the case of Velvet Goldmine). While I maintain the fact that he sold out to take the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the three lame Star Wars prequels, he managed to nail the mannerisms and speech pattern of the original Obi-Wan perfectly. (Plus, how cool is it that his Uncle was Wedge Antilles in Empire Strikes Back). Also, due to this movie, there was a huge variety of merchandise that you could purchase. The year Episode I came out, I had a Ewan McGregor birthday party complete with plates, party hats, etc, a Ewan slap bracelet that I wore every day and even an air freshener . The thing I love about him is that he is able to take absolute cheese and make it good (see also: Down with Love). I would see anything he is in, just on the basis that he will at least put in a stellar performance. Rather than re-count every movie he has been in (and I have seen 95% of them), I figured I would list my top five favorite films based on his performance. If you haven't seen them, shame on you! You should immediately run out and rent them (or ask, as I probably own half of them).

5. Down With Love - While I do agree that this movie was pure cheese wiz, McGregor gives a perfect performance as Catcher Block, (ladies man, man's man, man about town). He oozes charm and sexiness in the roll. While it may not be the most though provoking movie in the world, it is definitely entertaining and features great music (including a song sung by Ewan and the horribly annoying Renee Zellweger).

4. Big Fish - This whole movie is amazing. It centers around a son trying to put together the stories his father told of his life and figure out what was real and what was a fictional story.

3. Velvet Goldmine - Unofficially based on the relationship between Iggy Pop and David Bowie, McGregor plays the fictional representation of Iggy Pop It also features the incredibly handsome talent of Johnathan Rhys-Meyers as the David Bowie character along with Batman himself, Christian Bale and the talented Toni Collette (who also stared with Ewan in Emma). This film has awesome music, with Rhys-Meyers and McGregor singing their own songs, and even more awesome costumes.

2. Trainspotting - the movie that started it all. It's kind of disturbing though, so don't watch it if you have issues with graphic drug use, hallucinations of babies crawling on the celling or swimming in toilet.

1. Moulin Rouge - singing, dancing and sexy accents. What more could you want?? Plus, everytime he cries when Satine dies, it gets me.

Runners up would have to include Brassed Off, Nora, and Young Adam.

Favorite Thing #7: The Drakensberg - South Africa

The rolling hills of Giant's Castle Game Reserve

My extremely talented and smart sister, Mini-Deal, spent the spring semester in Cape Town studying at University of Cape Town and working at the Red Cross Children's Hospital. Since I have wanted to go to Africa ever since I saw one of the greatest movies ever, Hatari, I figured it was the perfect excuse to finally go (blog about Hatari to come...). South Africa is a wonderfully diverse country with gorgeous landscape. In South Africa, there are 11 official languages! South Africa consists of 9 provinces, and each one is diverse. We unfortunately didn't get to visit all the provinces, but I would love to go back one day and see the rest of the country. While I loved every minute I was there, my very favorite place was the Drakensberg. Drakensberg means "Dragon Mountains" in Afrikaans, and the Drakensberg mountains are the highest in South Africa.

Three Rondavels, Blyde River Canyon

After doing some research, I found that the Drakensberg are the remains of an African plateau. The mountains are made up of basalt as the top layer and sandstone at the bottom, which resulted in steep-sided blocks and pinnacles because sandstone is much easier to erode. The picture above is of the three rondavels in the Blyde River Canyon and is a perfect example of this wear pattern. Wikipedia states:"The sandstone layer was deposited as the remnants of a gigantic lake that occupied much of what is now Southern Africa ca 500 Million years ago, whereas the Basaltic layer was deposited ca 220 Million years ago in what many geologists think was the largest volcanic eruption in the history of the world (linked with the splitting of the tectonic plates of Africa and South America). Subsequently, water and wind erosion (principally from the east, facing the Indian Ocean) has cut into the enormous plateau, producing an extraordinary and almost unique landscape." Apparently, the only other mountains in the world formed this way are the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia. Because this is such a distinct way for mountains to form, it explains why the Drakensberg is home to very distinctive rock formations like the Three Rondavels above or the peaks at Cathedral Peak seen below.

Cathedral Peak Reserve (yes, I am pretending to be in The Sound of Music. In my defense, this was about 3.5 hours into our hike and I was delirious.)

There are three distinct regions of the Drakensberg (4 if you count Blyde River Canyon which makes up the Northern most part of the range)

Northern 'Berg which is home to Royal Natal National Park and the source of the Tugela River. I didn't make it to the Northern part, but Mini did on her spring break.

Southern 'Berg - I didn't make it here either but really wanted to drive to the top of Sani Pass (this highest pass in South Africa) and have a beer at the bar at the top. Next time I go to SA, I plan on spending at least a week in the 'Berg, so hopefully I can make it up.

Central 'Berg - perhaps the most visited area of the Drakensberg and also features the best hiking. Cailin and I spent all of our time in the 'Berg here (with exception of our visit to Blyde River Canyon. ) This area is home to Giant's Castle, Cathedral Peak, San art and the largest number of hiking trails. It is also home to the longest zip line in South Africa. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not good with heights, AT ALL. Ask Mini what happens when I ride on a ski lift. It's not pretty. BUT, I decided that for her, I would conquer my fears. While I had a tiny bit of fun at first, it quickly was not fun anymore after I continuously had to jump off perfectly good tree stands and zip along the canopy.

I am not excited at all. Also, I just realized I never took my Xanax

It's a long way down!

The view was worth it though

The other highlights of our trip was the short hike (2 hrs) at Giant's Castle through the beautiful rolling hills, and our 5 hour hike at Cathedral Peak Reserve. This was probably my favorite place in all of South Africa. It was so beautiful. I would love to stay right there at the hotel so that I could hike Cathedral Peak. Mini and I had intended to do this, but we didn't get there in enough time. This is also the place where I pissed off a baboon by making him move off the road. I really thought he was going to kill me. Mini has a really great picture of his angry face that I will steal and include in here.

God's Window

Blyde River Canyon - it's the third largest canyon in the world and it was amazing. We drove around and visited all the major sites :Pinnacle, Three Rondavels, God's Window ( where they filmed The Gods Must Be Crazy, one of the funniest movies ever!), World's View and Bourke's Luck Potholes. We stayed in a crappy little hotel, but the town we stayed in had the best craft stores (and pancakes mmmm). This is where a majority of my treasures came from.

If you ever get the chance, definitely visit The 'Berg. You won't be sorry! However, just be forwarned - possible dangers in the 'Berg include:

Cailin was mad I forgot to add the following, so just for her:

However, just be forwarned - possible dangers in the 'Berg include:Falling in rivers, getting stuck in mud, almost getting trampled by cows, slipping and almost falling off the 'berg, trees in your zipline path, pissing off baboons by driving on the road and angry sisters who yell at you for backing up towards a cliff that drops thousands of feet.

poor Mini fell in the river

Mini got stuck in the mud and I laughed instead of helping. Hahaha

Favorite Thing #6: CraftSteak

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated the fact that we did not kill each other in the one year we have been married by having dinner at CraftSteak. I am a huge Tom Colicchio fan (both as the coolest judge on Top Chef and for his approach to food). I have always admired his approach to a steak restaurant by sourcing his beef from small family run farms and produce from local growers. His theory (and mine) is that the less hands the food passes through, and the more time the farmer spends making sure he has a quality product, the better the end result is. Smaller, family run farms are going to have higher quality beef and produce, because they individually oversee the farms and don't have thousands of heads of cattle locked up in a barn. I absolutely loved this restaurant, and since most of my three readers are foodies like me, I thought I would give my two cents.

wine: CraftSteak has an excellent and lengthy wine list. It took me a good ten minutes to pick something out. The only problem is that there wasn't alot of choices in the budget category. I would say the average bottle of wine was between 80 and 90 dollars. I originally wanted a bottle of 2003 Kevin Arnold Syrah from Stellenbosch (yes, I have been on a SA wine kick lately), but Kevin grimaced at the $86 price, so we wound up going with the 2005 Jardin Cabernet Savignon from Jordan Vineyard in Stellenbosch (South Africa). The entire wine making process is done at the vineyard, from growing, crushing and fermenting the grapes to barrel-aging, bottling and labeling the wine. For the price ($45 a bottle at the restaurant), you can't beat this wine. When first opened it had great blackberry notes to it that only got more smooth as it sat. You could also taste vanilla from its aging in French Oak Barrels. I told Kevin at the restaurant that I thought it could use another year, and when doing some research on the Vineyard's website, found the following statement from a review by Wine Enthusiast that backed up my claim "Alluring in its youth but will reward those who resist temptation and explore the wine’s maturation potential." I'd love to find a bottle of the '05 and let it sit for a year and see what it tastes like then.

90 Points - Wine Enthusiast

Starter: CraftSteak would be a great restaurant for the oyster enthusiast as they had a decent list of oysters to choose from. As I find oysters to taste like salty snot, I decided to order the chilled Hamachi marinated with lavender, pineapple and radish. I was intrigued by the combination of ingredients. Hamachi is a very delicate fish that can easily be overpowered and lavender, pineapple and radish are all very strong flavors. This dish was excellent. The sweetness of the pineapple sauce perfectly complimented the strong herbal tones of the lavender and the bite of the paper thin slices of radish sprinkled on top of the hamachi. The flavor of the hamachi was still evident over the sauce and my only regret was that I allowed Kevin to share my starter and didn't make him order his own.

Main Course: As expected, CraftSteak had an excellent choice of cuts of meat. They were divided by Corn-Fed vs. Grass Fed Beef and a section of Wagyu(Kobe). As Kevin has already told me I was not allowed to order the Wagyu, I decided to go with the 18oz. Grass-fed Ribeye. Ribeye is my favorite cut as it tends to be full of juicy flavor (unlike fillet mignon) but is just as tender. I'm really not sure why people insist on ordering Fillet Mignon over ribeye. Anyway, I have never tried grass-fed meat so I was interested to try it. Doing a little research I found that prior to WWII, all American beef was grass-fed for its entire life. However, nowadays cattle are fed a grain diet in the weeks leading up to their slaughter for several reasons:

-To fatten them up

-since they gain weight faster, they can be slaughtered at a faster rate and therefore their meat is cheaper for the consumer

-corn-fed meat is a taste Americans have grown to love and expect- marbled and fatty

Meat from grass fed cows should have about 1/3 less fat and be lower in calories. In addition, it is higher in vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to help reduce the risk of cancer, lower the likelihood of high blood pressure, and make people less susceptible to depression. My steak, ordered medium-rare, was delicious, I ate all 18 oz of that steak. It was so tender and full of flavor. The outside was perfectly seared and just lightly seasoned with salt and pepper to enhance the natural flavor of the meat. They brought little dishes of homemade steak sauce, crème fraîche and Argentinian pesto along with the steak. I tried all of them and while they were all excellent, I felt that they were masking the flavor of a steak that didn't need any help. My favorite was probably the pesto since it was a little spicy and didn't completely overpower the meat.

Kevin went with the dry aged, corn fed New York Strip Steak. Since dry-aging can only be done with extremely high grade beef and is time consuming, most restaurants now a days wet-age their meat. However, moisture is evaporated from the muscle during dry aging which should enhance the meat flavor. In addition, as the enzymes in the beef break down the connective tissue in the muscle, the beef should become more tender. Kevin's steak was good and it did have a great meat flavor, but it tasted a little dry to me. It definitely didn't compare with my steak. It may have been because I'm not a huge fan of NY Strip ( give me Kansas City any day), but Kevin also agreed that he liked mine better.

Sides: Sides are served family style and are big enough to accommodate 2-3 people, so Kevin and I decided to order 1 vegetable and 1 starch for the two of us We went with sautéed swiss chard and fingerlings with smoked bacon. Probably the only thing bad I have to say about the whole dining experience is that the swiss chard was too salty for my taste, but was cooked well (still slightly crisp). The fingerlings were delicious and perfectly cooked. The smoked bacon added a great flavor to the tender potatoes without making them greasy or heavy.

Dessert: The best food of the night had to be dessert. I was on the fence about ordering something since my wonderful husband as a gift had gotten our original cake baker to bake a small little cake exactly like our wedding cake (Someone stole my cake off my table at the wedding so I never got any besides the bite I ate for the cake cutting and we forgot to put the topper in the freezer so it got moldy and hard as a rock). But then I saw my favorite word relating to food : chèvre. This means goat in French. I didn't really even need to read any further because goat cheese is probably my favorite food item in the entire universe. But, then I saw my second favorite word: cheesecake. Yes, that's right. They had a goat cheese cheesecake topped with diced strawberries and served with fresh, homemade strawberry sorbet on the side. This dessert was the most glorious thing I have ever tasted in my life. The smokey, earthy flavor of the goat cheese perfectly complimented the sweetness of the cheesecake. The cheesecake itself was smooth and creamy - just like a great cheesecake should be. And since strawberries and goat cheese go perfectly together, the diced strawberries and sorbet complimented the cheesecake perfectly. Right now, my mouth is watering just thinking of this wonderful dessert.

In all, the restaurant was just as good as I hoped it would be. I can't wait to go back, but at over $200 for the two of us, it will probably be July 7, 2009 before we make it back.

Favorite Thing #5: The Sandlot

The Sandlot is arguably one of the best, if not the best live action family friendly movie to come out of the 90's. Close contenders include: Hook (Dustin Hoffman's sweet 'stache, "Bad Form!" and "Ruuu-Fiiii-OOOOOOOO"), Newsies (Christian Bale. Enough said.), and Muppet Treasure Island (who doesn't love a movie that combines Muppets, Pirates and Tim Curry). The Sandlot tells the story of uber-dork Scotty Smalls who moves to the Valley with his mom (Karen Allen of Indiana Jones Fame), and new step-dad (Dennis Leary--in a very non-funny role). Smalls befriends Benny 'The Jet' Rodriguez who convinces his baseball playing ragtag friends to let Smalls play with them, even though he is a total dweeb who can't even through a ball. The movie follows the adventures and hijinx of the gang throughout the summer and ends with the touching "look back" by the narrator Smalls, which for some reason was very popular in the 80's and 90's. In honor of Sandlot, I thought I would share a few of the things I learned from this great movie:

1. If you are the token fat kid among your friends, you need to be a wiseass. You need to trash talk the other team while catching by saying things such as " If my dog were as ugly as you, I would shave his butt and make him walk backwards" or "Is that your sister in left field, naked? She's naked! Think she'll go out with me?" "You call that pitching? This is baseball! Not tennis!" You will also need to have some sort of useful skill, like s'mores making. Extra points for hitting on pool hotties and then drenching them in water after you do a "Ham Ball".

2. The use of "Bitchin!" to show your pleasure with something makes you cool. It can be used in every day conversation with great ease. When writing your mid-year review at work, you can write " I did a bitchin' job this year so far." You can also use it to replace the words cool, awesome, sweet nibblets, etc.

3. Extremely long billed hats are funny. Enough said.

4. All you have to do to make a dog like you is crush it with a fence and then "rescue it". The dog will be so greatful, it will slobber all over your face and take you to his secret stash of baseballs.

5. Don't eat chaw and then go on a fair ride. This has saved me a great deal of embarassment. Because of Sandlot, I have never puked all over everyone, including myself on a fair ride.

6. If you suck at baseball and want to become good, all you have to do is stick your glove in the air, close your eyes and have someone hit a ball directly into your glove. You will then no longer throw like a girl and will be able to snag balls out of the air with ease. Bitchin'! Really. I saw it in Sandlot. It must be true.

Favorite Thing #4: Guitar Hero

Not since Pac-Man has there been a game as great as Guitar Hero. Don't get me wrong - Pac-Man was and is still great. Up until this year, it was my favorite video game ever. I even have the old school box that you hook up to your tv, which currently is broken because I wore out the joystick. What I loved about Pac-Man (besides the awesome woop woop noise he made as he traversed the screen) was that you didn't need to be a pre-pubescent boy to be moderatly good at it. It didn't require you to move a joystick with one finger while simultaneosly pushing the two buttons furthest away from eachother. It did, however, result in "claw hand" after playing it for awhile, not unlike my husband's recent hand predicament.

Guitar Hero takes the simplicity of Pac-Man and makes it even cooler by having you rock out to one of the best collections of songs I have ever heard. And while it is possible, it is very hard to actually be HORRIBLE enough at the game to get booed off the stage at the beginner level. It's a great confidence booster for the video game challanged like myself when your guitar playing alter ego gives "metal fingers" and you see "YOU ROCK" splashed across the screen. Because let's face it, we all like to be told we rock. What makes Guitar Hero even better is if you have a ear for music, or play an instrument (piano is the best IMO), you are even better at Guitar Hero than your average person. Video game skill would probably also help, but if you have no ear for music, you will never rock at Guitar Hero. Its a great feeling to finally beat a bunch of boys at a video game. Its also fun to yell "In Your Face" or "You Really Do Suck At This Game" after you have completly demoralized them in front of all of your friends.

P.S. - as an added benefit, you can choose one of the totally hardcore chick rockers with super awesomly bad-ass hair and clothes that you could never get away with in real life but wish you could. Also, metal fingers every time you complete a song are totally appropriate.