Fun and Food but We want REAL Food please.

The weekend in review - wow - 2 movies and the Renaissance Festival and I STILL managed to get the laundry done.

The weekend started with dinner on Friday night at the Mediterranean Cruise Cafe with some members of the book club. The food was (at least in my opinion) fabulous! We split an appetizer sampler while waiting for everyone to arrive. For my entree, I chose the Kababi chicken - Hot and Spicy! And it was HOT and SPICY...next time, I'll try to go just a wee bit less spicy but it was still awesome. It was a mixture of grilled chicken in bite-sized pieces in a light and tangy tomato sauce with fresh, whole, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and summer squash, red and green bell peppers and sliced jalapeños. It was served with saffron rice and a Greek salad. Yum!

After dinner, complete with belly dancing, we beat it over to Cinemagic by Burnsville Center to see The Time Traveler's Wife. This was one of the books we'd recently read and so we were all excited to see how they were going to capture the magic of the book. I think overall, we liked it - we all cried at the end anyway. Rachel McAdams was very good in the role of Clare. Of course there were scenes missing but you can't have everything right? The one thing I didn't really like was the feeling that we were being rushed, as if in a race, through the story. I've read the book twice - and would read it again sometime. And I am in awe of the author and the care and exactness with which she spun the tale, keeping the timelines clear and precise yet there was a lot of forward and backward throughout the story. The movie didn't capture that magic. But the movie was still entertaining. Just not as entertaining and enthralling as the book.

Back at home before 10 to watch Real Time with Bill Maher (here's the Maherisms from that episode). The opening interview was with Sam Harris (author). And the panel was made up of guests Jay Leno, Chuck Todd from NBC (their White House correspondent), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL); and on the other side, Jeremy Scahill (Journalist and author of Blackwater). Discussion revolved around health care reform, the crazies at the town halls, the media and guns in addition to the recent news about Blackwater. It was one of his better panels this year.

On Saturday we went out to Shakopee for Ren Fest. We mostly just went to the shows on this visit - of course there was beer, wine and food. And BEER. We are planning one more trip out there sometime in September and will go in Renaissance garb. My daughter and her fella have season passes and are planning to be out there every weekend. Watch out for pirates!

On Sunday afternoon we went to see Ponyo, which is a lovely little tale reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid. There's something soothing yet exciting in Miyazaki's colors...they are vibrant and relaxing at the same time. I have been a fan of his work every since my first viewing of My Neighbor Totoro back in the 80's!

A dose of True Blood was had on Sunday night and they cut it at 45 minutes...just as we were about to catch a glimpse of the Vampire Queen! Dang dang dang....now I have to wait until next week to find out how they're going to present her. I was happy that Bill and Sookie were able to pull Tara out of the black void and back into reality. Whew! And Jason pulling off that Bacchus thing was pretty awesome! Chris and I both knew Maryann was going to be really pissed about that one! Only 2 episodes left of the season. How sad. I've started reading the books - ok, listening to the audio versions - so the separation anxiety won't be quite so bad when that final episode is over in a couple of weeks. The books and the show have sort of parted ways but that's ok I guess because they're both good in their own ways. I'm about half-way through Living Dead in Dallas.

I spent some time reading Wicked last night and missed The Closer! I'm starting to panic because I'm a little over half-way and the book club meets next Tuesday evening! I have to do a lot of reading and not much else during my spare time between now and then to get this finished!

After work today, I'm meeting a friend and we're going see Food, Inc. This is a movie that everyone should seen simply because it concerns everyone! I don't know if its because I'm getting older and so I'm reaching back to my starting place, or if I'm just fed up completely, 100%!! with big business/inhuman corporations taking over this country and killing us off with their greedy ways - but its time to go back to basics. And believe me, what the food industry is doing to people is absolutely criminal. Check out the article in Time mag this week concerning this very subject. What we eat these days, what they market to us on TV and on billboards and in magazines, isn't real food..its food-like substances created in labs. What we are doing to animals is disgusting. Its all just so wrong.... We can start here at http://www.eatwild.com/ to find LOCAL, healthy food.

Coming up....my search for a deep freeze - chest or upright? and how big?