Yay, I did it!

A little while back I asked for help to remove SnapShots from here. Thank you for your overwhelming non-assistance with that everybody. I then asked at Yahoo! Answers. Again, overwhelming non-assistance. So once again I headed over to SnapShots to try to figure it out myself. I did exactly what I thought should have worked, turn SnapShots off your site. It didn't. But being the oh so clever person I am, I tried another avenue. You ever notice how these sites are extremely helpful in the how to set up their feature, but not so much with the how to delete their feature. So I went for logic. I read the 'how to add to Blogger' part and did the complete opposite. And it worked. Horray! I feel a sense of calm descending on my blog once again.

100 Movies

I must be on a movie kick, at least blogwise it's piquing my interest right now. This week, the Yahoo! movie editors compiled their list of 100 movies you should see before you die. A pretty serious offer if you ask me. As with any of these lists you could probably debate any title and add your own offering. I didn't make the list, I'm just commenting on it. Seeing as my favorite film (Gone With the Wind) didn't make the list, it makes me question it a little. I've starred the ones that I have seen. Here you go:

12 Angry Men (1957)
Directed By: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester

The 400 Blows (1959)Directed By: Francois Truffaut
Starring: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Patrick Auffay
Why You Should See It

8 ½ (1963)
Directed By: Federico Fellini
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee
AThe African Queen (1952)
Directed By: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley

Alien (1979)
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright

*All About Eve (1950)
Directed By: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders

Annie Hall (1977)
Directed By: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton

Apocalypse Now (1979)Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall

The Battle of Algiers (1967)Directed By: Gillo Pontecorvo
Starring: Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Haggiag

The Bicycle Thief (1948)Directed By: Vittorio De Sica
Starring: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola
Why You Should See It

Blade Runner (1982)
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young

Blazing Saddles (1974)
Directed By: Mel Brooks
Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens

Blow Up (1966)
Directed By: Michelangelo Antononi
Starring: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles

Blue Velvet (1986)Directed By: David Lynch
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper
Why You Should See It

*Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Directed By: Arthur Penn
Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard

Breathless (1960)
Directed By: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Directed By: David Lean
Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins,

* Bringing Up Baby (1938)Directed By: Howard Hawks
Starring: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn
Why You Should See It

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Directed By: George Roy Hill
Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross

*Casablanca (1942)
Directed By: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid

Chinatown (1974)
Directed By: Roman Polanski
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

Citizen Kane (1941)
Directed By: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Directed By: Ang Lee
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang

*Die Hard (1988)Directed By: John McTiernan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman

Do the Right Thing (1989)Directed By: Spike Lee
Starring: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee


Double Indemnity (1944)
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden

Duck Soup (1933)Directed By: Leo McCarey
Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx

*E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Dee Wallace Stone, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore

Enter the Dragon (1973)
Directed By: Robert Clouse
Starring: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly

*The Exorcist (1973)
Directed By: William Friedkin
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair,

*Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
Directed By: Amy Heckerling
Starring: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold,

The French Connection (1971)
Directed By: William Friedkin
Starring: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider

*The Godfather (1972)
Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan,

*The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

*Goldfinger (1964)Directed By: Guy Hamilton
Starring: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman


The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1968)
Directed By: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef

Goodfellas (1990)
Directed By: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci

The Graduate (1967)
Directed By: Mike Nichols
Starring: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross,

Grand Illusion (1938)
Directed By: Jean Renoir
Starring: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim

*Groundhog Day (1993)
Directed By: Harold Ramis
Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott

A Hard Day's Night (1964)Directed By: Richard Lester
Starring: The Beatles

In the Mood For Love (2001)
Directed By: Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung

*It Happened One Night (1934)
Directed By: Frank Capra
Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert

*It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Directed By: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

Jaws (1975)Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

King Kong (1933)
irected By: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Shoedsack
Starring: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong

The Lady Eve (1941)
Directed By: Preston Sturges
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Directed By: David Lean
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn

*The Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003)Directed By: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen

M (1931)Directed By: Fritz Lang
Starring: Peter Lorre, Theodor Loos, Otto Wernicke


M*A*S*H (1970)
Directed By: Robert Altman
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt

*The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Directed By: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet

*The Matrix (1999)
Directed By: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss

Modern Times (1936)
Directed By: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard

*Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Directed By: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

*National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)Directed By: John Landis
Starring: John Belushi, Tim Matheson


Network (1976)
Directed By: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch

Nosferatu (1922)
Directed By: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Max Schreck, Gustave Von Wagenheim, Greta Schroeder,

On the Waterfront (1954)
Directed By: Elia Kazan
Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Directed By: Milos Forman
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield

Paths of Glory (1958)Directed By: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou


Princess Mononoke (1999)
Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Billy Crudup, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver

Psycho (1960)
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh

*Pulp Fiction (1994)
Directed By: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman

Raging Bull (1980)
Directed By: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty-Gentile, Joe Pesci

*Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman

Raise the Red Lantern (1992)
Directed By: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Gong Li, He Caifei, Cao Cuifeng

Rashomon (1951)Directed By: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo


*Rear Window (1954)
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr

*Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Directed By: Nicholas Ray
Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo

*Rocky (1976)
Directed By: John Avildsen
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young

*Roman Holiday (1953)
Directed By: William Wyler
Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert

*Saving Private Ryan (1998)Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore


Schindler's List (1993)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes

The Searchers (1956)
Directed By: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles

Seven Samurai (1954)
Directed By: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Inaba

*The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Directed By: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

*The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed By: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn

*Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Directed By: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelley
Starring: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds

*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)Directed By: David Hand
Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell


*Some Like It Hot (1959)
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

*The Sound of Music (1965)
Directed By: Robert Wise
Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer

*Star Wars (1977)
Directed By: George Lucas
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim

*Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Directed By: James Cameron
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton

The Third Man (1949)
Directed By: Carol Reed
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles

This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Directed By: Rob Reiner
Starring: Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest

*Titanic (1997)Directed By: James Cameron
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet


*To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Directed By: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford

*Toy Story (1995)
Directed By: John Lasseter
Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles

The Usual Suspects (1995)Directed By: Bryan Singer
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne

*Vertigo (1958)Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak

*When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Directed By: Rob Reiner
Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher

Wild Strawberries (1957)
Directed By: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Victor Sjostrom, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin

Wings of Desire (1988)
Directed By: Wim Wenders
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander

*The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Directed By: Victor Fleming
Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)Directed By: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas


The World of Apu (1959)
Directed By: Satyajit Ray
Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Swampan Mukerjee,

I think that makes 40 that I've seen. And okay, even if Gone With the Wind wasn't on the list a number of movies that I love were (Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Roman Holiday, Star Wars, When Harry Met Sally, All About Eve, the Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life). But here's something that I often wonder about. More and more video stores are taking good, classic, qualilty movies off the shelf to make way for newer rentals. How many of these movies would you actually be able to find at your local DVD rental place?

We have this theory...

One of the top 'surprise hit' movies to come out this month is the remake of Escape to Witch Mountain, Race to Witch Mountain. I am not surprised. In fact this is the first movie with "the Rock" that I've ever wanted to see. Why? Because I loved the original. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It also confirms a theory that Jonathan and I have about movie making today. They are catering to our generation. Jonathan first started talking about this with the X-Men movies. What better way to bring in an audience than to make these comic books into movies. You already have a set of fans ready (provided you do it well). And it worked. 3 X-Men movies later (plus a movie about Wolverine all ready to hit the screen this summer). Last summer's Transformers is another example of this. What 30ish person didn't play with these when they were younger? And what's coming next? GI Joe will be out this summer. Even I played GI Joe as a kid. When you begin to think about it, it isn't just that they are catering to us, it's also that it is our generation taht is making these things. What a kid's dream come to true to make your childhood play come to life on the big screen! I wonder what else will make the trip?

Why are you so cute?

Normally my Jeremy is a very smiley boy. He's very pleasing. Once in a while he is as 2 year olds are and not agreable in the least. Tonight was such an example. I had gotten him changed for bed in the living room rather than his bedroom (I know, there's my first mistake). Well, I gave him his clothes to go put into his laundry (which he normally does no problem). Tonight he just looked at me and said, "No clothes Mama" dropped them on the floor in front of himself and pouted. He then looked at me to see what I would do. I have to admit that as much as I prefer smiley Jeremy, pouty Jeremy is very cute indeed and I have to bite my lip not to smile. I didn't smile. I did get up, tell him to pick up his clothes and put them in his closet and walked out of the room to see to another task. He did pick up his clothes, and put them where they belong, pouting all the way.

Watch for Flying Objects

I commute between schools twice a week. It's not a huge commute, just from the North End to the Lower West Side. And usually there's not a problem. Today however, the drive was scary. It all started when I exited my first school and a pile of snow fell on me from off the roof. It continued when I could not get my car door to open (or stay open) enough to allow me and my backpack to enter it. Why? Huge wind force at work. As I was driving, I noticed a number of scary factors to this wind. Not just the usual branches and flags waving. Nope. Not today. Today the huge McDonald's sign was weaving back and forth. Today branches hung precariously as I drove past them. Today one of the traffic lights rocked back and forth so viciously I thought it was going to fall on me. Today I jumped as a big (looking) object flew by. (It turned out to be a cardboard box thankfully). And as all of this was happening the DJ said, it looks like it's a bit windy out there. Really? I hadn't noticed... It turns out that we were expecting (and received) winds ranging from 40 to 70 km/hour (that's 60 to 120 mph for my American friends). So I have now offically reached Maritimer status as I'm blogging about the weather.

Blog Party

I've never been to a blog party before but I'm enjoying it greatly! Lots of blogs by all sorts of people from all over the place to check out. I have to admit that I'm new to community blogging. I've been blogging for 4 and a half years now, but limited to people I know blogs. It's only recently that I've started to discover the blogging community. My friend Jill through her quilting has discovered so much more than I have this way. But I do like to connect with other people. In the past few months I've started to look at the blogs of strangers for ideas. I'm a mom of 2 pre-school boys (ages 2 and 4) and like to see what other moms are doing with their kids. I'm a teacher (grades K-8) and like to see what other teachers are doing too. I'm a reader (which is why I started a book blog) and look to other book bloggers for inspiration as to where to go next. I'm a cook (which is why I started a cooking blog) and love reading other's recipe blogs and trying different things.
This blog is my whatever-is-in-my-head at any given moment blog. Looking back at it I can track different highs and lows and random thoughts of my life over the past few years. I like to blog because I like to write. Sometimes I write I lot and other times I can go quite a while without a single word typed. I hope you enjoy checking out my blog as you continue your path of random blogs to read. There's lot of good stuff out there.
I've had fun checking out the 5 miunutes for Mom site and amazed at all the sponsors and prizes that you have gathered for this blog party. Were I to recieve a prize my top 3 picks would be: INTL 5 - Handmade Journal Cover, USC 45 - Pair of shoes from Eleven, and USC 10 - Big Combo Pack from Mabel's Labels. Other prizes that tickle my fancy are USC 58, USC 77, INTL 34, INTL 49, INTL 7, INTL 3, INTL 30, INTL 49, INTL 60 and USC 21. There were so many great prizes to read through that is was hard to narrow down!

Snap!

Okay, a long while back when I was playing around with blog features, I added Snap! to my blog and now I just find it really annoying. The most annoying part is that I don't remember how I added it and I have no idea how to get rid of it. Please help me!