6 posts tagged “review”

Thanks to little miss thang over here, I have fallen head over heels for this tea.  Now, for years I've been called the tea geek and more than one person has commented on my tea OCD.  For the record, I fully admit to it all.  I admit to loving tea so much that I have not one way to brew loose tea, but five.  I admit that I cannot handle having just one tea to choose from, so I carry as little as two (and usually more) kinds with me in my travels (except for the camping trip.  How was I supposed to know someone would be bring a coffeemaker for hot water??).  I also admit to trying to convert everyone I know into the folds of tea geekdom along with me.

My point is this.  I.  Love.  Tea.

And I. Hate.  Sauerkraut.

Anyways.... I have a tea cabinet (soon to be just shelves for easier access) filled with every tea imaginable.  Black, White, Green, Herbal, Oolong and the new kid on the block, Rooibos.  Did I mention that I'm a tea geek who lives for variety?

The best thing of all is Adagio deals almost exclusively in loose teas.  What's so great about that?  Mixing and matching my friend.  My old tea company dealt almost entirely in bagged teas, so I didn't get much choice other than what they offer.  Loose tea, however, can be made to do the most wonderful things with each other.  Sordid... things... things that make your tastebuds go all goosebuds on you.

I know.

Take for instance this mix, one of my all time favorites and big on the "comfort food list of doom":
Equal parts:
Ginseng Green
Peppermint (Herbal)

Mix in container/tool of your choice (lately I've been leaning heavily on my french press - it makes a quick and easy mason jar (pint size) of iced tea), add hot water.  This is where I go a little off the beaten path.  I put sugar in a mason jar and add a little bit of the hot tea till the sugar is dissolved.  Then I add ice till the jar is full and pour the tea over it.  Mix it all up with a spoon till temperature is regulated throughout the glass and DRINK.

Happiness bursts in your mouth.  Guaranteed.

Frank and I bought a deep fryer yesterday.  He's introduced me into the extreme decadence of homemade tortilla chips and the new fryer makes it easier and faster to fry.  We have a dinner party tonight and I made a big box of chips to go with the fajitas planned.  I tell you what... if you like tortilla chips, there is nothing better.  Not to mention cheap as dirt.  As long as you go to the city planner and not the local garden shop.  HA!!  Okay, my point is this.  I can't do much, because of my back, but I can fry the grease right out of a tortilla.  And they are sooo good.  You know, not that I'm bragging.  Or anything.  The great thing is you can vary the size of the chip.  Make them bigger or smaller than store bought chips.  You can even make fancy shapes if you feel so inclined.  How awesome is that?  Plus... after the initial cost of the deep fryer - grease and tortillas are pretty cheap when you compare the price per chip, bag to box.  Oh, and the chips turn out as thick as buying Tostito's Gold chips which makes them great for dips.  The best part - in my opinion - is the ability to control the sodium content.  You know exactly what's going in the fryer and on the chip in the end.

I like control.

I feel I can't fairly say anything about this movie because we were sitting in the "front" row (the bar seats) and all I saw were a bunch of abs, a few spears and dental work.  Still, the movie was awesome even from that vantage point and I'm really looking forward to viewing it on a somewhat smaller screen (either the dollar theater or the wall tv).

Besides, you really can't go wrong with eye candy.

Rave: Movie
Rant: Theater

See the movie.  Own the movie.  (nothing more needs to be said about that)

Note to self - don't sit in the second seat over in the third row.  It's right in front of a (the?) sub woofer and in between two speakers.  When I can plug my ears with my fingers and *still* hear the light background music perfectly, I am sitting in the wrong seat.

My head hurts.  Ghost Rider was beyond bad.  Now I knew what I had going into the theater.  Nicolas Cage is not known for his great range of acting.  But I figured he could pull the Ghost Rider off and the trailer made the movie seem worth it, even if only for the special effects.

Boy was I wrong.

So wrong that as soon as we got home we popped the DVR on and started watching "CSI: Miami" to get the horrid taste of bad movie from our minds.

That bad.

I can pretty much sum up what was so bad using only one scene in the entire movie. Set up: Somewhere in the first quarter of the film, a young Johnny Blaze and girlfriend are underneath a tree and he carves "J & R forever" into the tree.  Now for the kicker: Near the end of the movie, JB and girl are underneath the same tree and the camera pans to the trunk where the carving is still there, very apparent.

Minor detail - the tree is living and more than a decade in time has passed.

Now one might be able to argue that he simply refreshed the carving.  Except the carving isn't anywhere near fresh.

Plotholes and bad acting are not my only complaints.  The worst transgression was the horrible writing.  I'm of the opinion that the screenwriter/s should be shot.  Not only shot, oh no, that would be too simple of a punishment.  They should be shot, in the foot or calf area, dragged out into the middle of the Sahara and left there with nothing but one canteen half full with bread pudding.

Worst line in the entire movie (and I usually love lines like these): Nicolas is facing off a (the?) devil and he says he's going to "fight fire with fire."  I guess the bad script goes hand in hand with bad acting because it doesn't look that horrible when I reread the line.

Even the special effects weren't worth the clams we shelled out to see it in the "real" (read: not the dollar) theater.  The only scene and special effect worth any money was the building scene that was shown in the preview.  The preview you can see for free. 

Do not waste a single nickel of money on this movie, either your money or anyone else's hard earned cash.  It's just not worth it, not even to see how bad it really is.

Night at the Museum actually surprised me.  I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, or get as involved in the storyline.  It was a really cute family movie - emphasis on Father/Son combos.  The special effects were pretty cool and I loved the dinosaur.  Ben Stiller did a great job not over-reacting to the museum inhabitants or falling into an emotional pratfall.  I have to admit that I figured out the plot before I should have... but even that didn't spoil the movie for me.  Heck, even Owen Wilson couldn't destroy it and that's a little surprising.  He was actually used perfectly in this film - as little as possible.  Not to say I don't like Owen, but a little bit goes a long way.  I was really happy that they didn't beat us over the head with Ben's father character and his personal issues.  It was nicely played out in the beginning and then simply touched upon when he realizes what's important.

The best part of the movie and the reason to see it is the old night guards.  Mickey Rooney rocks the house, er, museum.

I'll be adding it to the collection and you should too.