How are you today? I'm superfantastic.

Janie, make a note. We need to schedule more events where somebody gives me a really big fish.*

This is an idea that I got from Kerri, who apparently got it from Sarah and Veloci. It's a game, having to do with movie quotes!

Here's how it goes:

I list quotes from some movies I really like, though I'll leave out the obvious quotables. The Princess Bride, for instance.

You leave a comment if you know the movie that a quote comes from. You only answer one even if you know more than one because you are polite and not a know-it-all answerhog. Unless a couple of days have gone by and nobody's gotten one and you know it but you already answered something else. Then by all means, answer away,

You will not be a cheaterpants Google checker.

I will, as I am able, post correct answers with the quotes so you'll know they've already been answered.

Ready? OK!

1. *Quote from the title. Lisa knows that the man wanting more fish gifts is President Andrew Shepherd in Aaron Sorkin's brilliantly quotable The American President.

2. "You know as well as I do, this necklace is imitation." "Well, I'm not." Bonus Quotes: "Sorry I ever sent her to finishing school. I think they finished her there." and "Why did I take up stealing? To live better, to own things I couldn't afford, to acquire this good taste that you now enjoy and that I should be very reluctant to give up." "Then you are frankly dishonest?" "I try to be."

3. "There's a war on. How is it that you're headed west?" "Well, we just face north and then, real subtle-like, turn left." Last of the Mohicans, as my brother Dan observes, is chock full of excellent quotes.

4. "I'm gonna make her smile. I'M GONNA MAKE YOU SMILE." Bonus Quotes: "Milking a dried udder gets you nothing but kicked off the milking stool." "Mother, spare me your farmyard memories. You have none and I don't understand them." and "What are you getting at? I'm proportionate!" Raj knows that both the first and last quotes here were said by Little John in the newest version of Robin Hood. (Sort of puts that "I'm proportionate!" thing into context, right? It was in response to Friar Tuck asking him why he's called Little John.) Gents, note that drunkenly shouting I'M GONNA MAKE YOU SMILE at a girl in a bar, per this movie, will actually make that girl smile.

5. "Well, whatever it costs, it won't be as much as that exquisitely uncomfortable mohair episode...which is now all over my suit." Well done, Julie! First to ring in with a correct answer, identifying Joe Fox (F-O-X) in You've Got Mail.

6. "Did I ever tell you about the time I shoplifted a frozen turkey out of a Piggly Wiggly wearing only a tube top and Daisy Dukes?" I thought I'd have to at least put in more quotes for this one if not give the answer away because maybe I was the only person who loves the movie Saved! Not so, as Alisa demonstrated by identifying Saved! as the source of this quote. And Kim knew it too, somewhere in the back of her mind, but was a good rule-follower (my kind of girl!) and didn't answer after Googling.

7. "That guy you're talking about, he can't sing at all." "Then why's he got such a big band?" "To drown him out." Bonus Quotes: "I once dated a girl with a club foot. She had the big shoe and everything." and "Look at that, we're both wearing green. Matchy, matchy green squared!" Lisa got this one before I had to resort to putting in my favorite quote from Return to Me, "I'm getting a new heart, not a new ass." If you haven't seen it, you can't fully appreciate the greatness of the line since there's no way to put a big old Chicago accent on it in print. So do yourself a favor and watch the movie.

8. "You're so drunk you can't hit nothin'. In fact, you're probably seeing double." "I have two guns, one for each of you." If you thought you recognized this, but couldn't come up with Tombstone, Michael is your huckleberry. He's no daisy. He's no daisy at all.

9. "I'm gonna get out of the car and drop you like third period French." Yay, Denise! She knows this comes from Ocean's Eleven, or as I think of it The One With George Clooney AND Matt Damon AND Brad Pitt.

10. "Run along to Ito and tell him to bring me a light breakfast. Black coffee and a side car." Sharon cements her status as one of my all-time favorite people by getting Auntie Mame right out of the gate! "Hurry my tray, darling. Your auntie needs fuel."

Grateful, Sixth Annual Edition

For the sixth (What?!?!) time, things I'm thankful for this year, in no particular order:

a job I like that helps other people

a random Craig's List roommate who turned out to be cool

lots of traveling in 2010: San Diego, Washington, New Orleans, Virginia Beach, Savannah

the DC Shakespeare Theater Company

Target, for the usual reasons and also because they sponsored both the DCSTC free performance of Twelfth Night and the National Book Fair, proof that Target loves me and wants me to be happy

not having a Target conveniently located to me, so as to save me lots of money

walking to work, which saves me money, calories, and fist-shaking road rage fury

Katie and Chrystal talking me into that whole half-marathon thing

Friday top three Facebook messages from my good girlfriends

the possibility of a summer get-away with those same girlfriends

Dear Prudence entertaining me twice a week on Slate

hot showers

my cozy duvet

My new sheets from Overstock - such high thread count at such a reasonable price! If I were in charge over there, I'd change my slogan to Only Suckers Buy Sheets From Stores™

coffee

eggnog

eggnog in my coffee

having a gym in my apartment complex so I can run inside when it's too dark/cold/rainy/snotty out

Catalog Living - hilarious

being an aunt

the Packers having beat the Vikings BOTH TIMES this season - hello schadenfreude, my old friend

Frosted Mini Wheats Little Bites Chocolate - seriously, you guys, yum

some bright and engaged students

some fun coworkers

Granny Smith apples

On Demand programming, allowing me to catch up on 30 Rock, Castle, Parenthood and other shows that I mean to watch but never actually do during the time that they are on

lots of adventures with this one in the year since he made his superfantastic debut

and lots of other wonderful people in my life, both real life folks and invisible internet friends

also pie

As always, you're welcome to share your grateful list in the comments. Happy Thanksgiving, Internet! 

Idiomatic

I've been teaching idioms. Which has me thinking about idioms. Turns out I have some strong feelings about them.

For instance, I think "have your cake and eat it too" is completely ridiculous. The idiom implies wanting two good things. But what good is just having cake? Having cake is NO GOOD AT ALL if you don't eat it! If the expression were "eat your cake and not gain any weight" then it would make sense. From here on out, that's the way I'll be saying it.

As a person who makes mental pictures quite often while people talk, I must object to "kill two birds with one stone" and far more vehemently to "diarrhea of the mouth". There's no need to be grotesque. (You'd think this would put me off "scared the crap out of me" and similar expressions, but for some reason, not so much.)

My only issue with "saved by the bell" is the way that it's immediately followed in my head by "It's alright 'cuz I'm saved by the it's alright 'cuz I'm saved by the it's alright 'cuz I'm saved by the bellllllllllllll!"

"Think outside the box" and "wear many hats" may have been acceptable at some point, but have long since been overused so egregiously that I can't take people seriously when they say either.

On the other hand (unintentionally-used idiom), I do like using "punt" to mean "make it up as we go" and "stick a pin in it" to mean "deal with it later".  You know, surprisingly. Also, my distaste for bees aside, I think "the bees knees" has a delightfully olden timey sound about it.

I'd go on, but brevity is the soul of wit. Also, I didn't make my bed, but I do intend to lie in it. Now.

But you, Internet, should share your two cents on the topic. Toe the line. Weigh in. Get on your soapbox. Etcetera.

This is the best photo ever

for reasons that I will list below.

1. Raj is adorable. (He grew into those ears.)

2. His grandma looks thrilled to be playing with him.

3. Playing cowboys and Indians.

4. In which she is the cowboy.

5. And he's wearing a construction paper headdress.

6. Pictured: literal dot and feathers.

7. Last Thanksgiving, when I told Raj that he should be cooking dinner for me because Thanksgiving is a celebration of when white people traveled a long way and Indians provided food for them, Raj argued that my completely rational point was invalid because he was dot, not feather.

8. FEATHERS. HA!

Good Stuff Tuesday: I'm Forgetful Edition

Some of you may have noticed a badge over there under the Neato heading that says The Versatile Blogger. It was awarded to me by Kyra of A Foodie Gets Fit. I meant to explain about it and add her to my blogroll that same week. Then I forgot. Now I need to try to remember where Typepad put those Typelists again so I can get to my blogroll to edit it. (Typepad: why so cleverly hidden?)

Anyway, thanks Kyra! "Versatile" sounds so much nicer than "Random" or "Lacking Rhyme and/or Reason"!

Another very good thing is people doing their very first half marathon. Like my good friend Karin, doing her first half marathon this weekend in Richmond. Good luck, Karin! Or oh, say, blog reader Jenny doing her first half marathon in December in Las Vegas. Jenny is training with Team Challenge to raise money for CCFA, the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. I told her that I'd post a link so we could all help her with her fundraising. Except she's already passed her donation goal without us after I forgot to post a link. That's a very good thing! But you can still make it even better by donating here.

To sum up, stuff other people are doing: good. Forgetting to tell you about it: bad. Typepad: screwing with me.

Effective Advertising

Oh, if only.

I would buy that car in a minute if it would get me a polar bear hug. Because I love bears. It's one of life's real cruelties, the way that bears look so completely huggable. I want to hug a bear! But you can't.

Unless you buy this car? Maybe?

Costumes! Sanity! Fear! Ruh-Roh!

Friday night: Halloween parties! That's right, we are so popular, we went to two! In one night! And still were home by midnight, for we are old. Old enough to have grown up with Scooby Doo cartoons, and thus:

Mostly I thought it would be funny to see Raj in a blond wig. Yep. Especially when he danced in it.

There were some guys there dressed as Chilean miners, one of whom was particularly hot. Many of the girls in the bar asked for photos with him. Who did he hit on? Raj. Must have been the wig.

The next day, we joined Katie and everyone else in the western hemisphere riding the Metro downtown for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Seriously. It was a lot of people. Not quite an inauguration lot of people, but way, way more than Metro or the rally organizers must have been prepared for. There wasn't enough space on the Mall open and there weren't enough speakers to hear toward the back, so we muscled our way forward. And then I had a bit of a claustrophobic freak out and suggested we muscle our way toward the edge. Whew. Air! And a spot where we could hear and Raj could see the screen.

Honestly though, the signs were kind of the best part.

I also liked "Some things I am unhappy with. Some things I am happy with."

The Stewart/Colbert parts of the rally were funny (though the benediction and most musical acts lagged a little) and Jon Stewart's sincere speech at the end was really quite good. He reminded us how most of Americans don't live our lives as Republicans or Democrats, just people who are a little bit late for something they have to do. The message being that we're really not nearly as divided as the media would have us believe. Americans work together to get things done every day. Calm down, dial back the panic, and see each other as people, not parties or ideologies or, least of all, enemies.

I'd like to see more of that. Maybe we can't change each other's minds or come to any sort of consensus, but we could attempt to hear each other and respect one another. Because you know what? We're stuck with each other. Whether we like it or not.

Jinkies.