Movies, movies, movies

First things first before I get into the movie discussion. Extra extra extra big and special thanks to my friend, Bridget, for the beautiful baby blanket she crocheted. It is so soft and snuggly, and the colors (green and purple) are perfect. It will come in very handy and I am so grateful to have you as a friend, Bridget! :) Now, on to the movies...

I wanted to blog about this sooner, but I've been a little busy and distracted. Recently I got together with a couple of the greatest girlfriends in the world to watch the final installment of the Twilight series- Breaking Dawn pt.2. We've watched all of the movies together. I haven't read any of the books but somehow the movies are a very guilty pleasure. That is probably partly influenced by the awesome company I am keeping when I watch them, but I also like teen-oriented dramas, supernatural stuff, and action movies, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that I actually enjoyed the series of films. What also helps is the delicious food traditions we partake in while we're watching-- Bloody Bellas (a punch with a mixture of fruit juices and ginger ale, I think), Werewolf Kibble (better known as Puppy Chow- a new favorite snack of mine!), fresh fruits and veggies, and sometimes other stuff too. I'm a little sad that the series is over since it was so much fun to get together with the girls, but we are working on a new movie list. I think Les Miserables is next up. :)

During the same weekend as the Breaking Dawn shindig, hubby and I bought the DVD of the Hobbit, which we never got around to seeing in the theater. We had a great time watching that, and I expect we'll add it to our annual viewing of the LOTR trilogy. Martin Freeman as Bilbo was great. Since I've actually read the Hobbit (unlike the other Tolkien works) I didn't have a terrible amount of suspense or anxiety about what would happen. Several liberties were taken and much was added, but I didn't have to worry about what would happen to Bilbo, which helped me enjoy the movie a lot more. I definitely recommend the Hobbit if you haven't seen it already. :)

Later in the same weekend, hubby and I got the Hunger Games DVD through the mail via Netflix. I had read the plot of the Hunger Games on Wikipedia ages ago, so I also didn't have too much anxiety while watching that movie. I guess I'm weird but I like those kinds of spoilers because then I can relax when I'm watching something. Certain spoilers I do NOT like, for instance romantic ones, or ruined punchlines to jokes. But I do like to know who lives and who dies. I enjoyed the Hunger Games overall, which surprised me because I am not big on dystopian and post-apocalyptic settings. Katniss was cool and interesting though, and the fights were pretty good. It was a lot more subdued than Battle Royale, which I was grateful for. Battle Royale was quite good but very intense-- it still haunts me a bit, so I'm glad the Hunger Games was lighter. :)

It was a good weekend for watching stuff. Now hubby and I are watching season 2 of the Game of Thrones. It is incredibly good, though overly graphic in its violence and sex. I understand it's HBO and they want to shock us, but there is no need to beat us over the head with it. There are some characters I really care about, and I read about them on wikipedia after season 1, but I'll need to revisit their entries to make the show watchable. Too much tension for me!

I'll also randomly mention that we had a doctor's appointment Monday and everything is good and healthy. The baby got measured in a bunch of different directions and is a good size (has a big head, though!). The ultrasound tech did a marvelous job of avoiding all gender-specific pronouns, and letting me know when to close my eyes so I wouldn't find out the gender. She did confirm it for Charles, though, so the baby is still thought to be the same gender as it was the last time they checked. :D Yay. I think now that we are 21 weeks along we might go register for some baby stuff either at Babies-R-Us or Target or Amazon. Don't really know the best place to go for that but I heard that Babies-R-Us will give you a list of recommendations so you know how many of certain things you 'need.' That would be handy for me since I know virtually nothing about babies. Hoping my oldest sister and some friends can advise me some on what I actually need and what is crap. I want to avoid getting a bunch of useless stuff, or stuff that is only good for a very short time. Alright well I'd better get on about my day. Have a good one, everybody!