So we watched Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith again this weekend. My husband had received the entire Star Wars set as a gift several months ago and we just now got around to it.

Great movie. Definitely the best of the first three episodes, in my opinion. Also, Lucas does a great job of teeing up Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, even though it was released 28 years earlier.

Which leads me to a quiz: How Jedi Are You? After a short questionnaire, it was decided that I am:

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

How Jedi are you? See for yourself…

technorati tags: life

Earlier this year my husband and I caught the Lost bug. Neither one of us watch a lot of television, as we both have little free time and prefer movies. But we had heard a lot about the show and began DVRing Season 2 as we watched Season 1 on DVD.

We ended up watching the entire first season in four days.

As Season 2 drew to a close, we knew we’d miss what had become our Wednesday night routine: Leave work at a decent hour, grill something from Whole Foods’s meat counter, let the DVR catch the first 15 minutes of the show, then promptly begin watching around 8:15 so we could forward through all of the non-Lost-related commercials.

So we decided to start a two-person book club. We rarely read the same books…. I’ve gone the low-brow route over the years. My bachelor’s degree is in English, which made me not even pick up a book for at least a year after graduation, and following business school I have found myself liking magazines more and more.

But we noticed throughout Lost that there are several book references, and Sawyer is often shown reading books found in the wreckage of the plane. Wikipedia not only gives a nice overview of the show, but also of the significance of the literature.

So we decided to read them over the summer, and try to figure out what the hell is going on. Here’s our new summer reading list (in no particular order):

1. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle;
2. Watership Down by Richard Adams;
3. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume;
4. The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien;
5. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum;
6. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky;
7. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll;
8. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad;
9. Lord of the Flies by William Golding;
10. Turn of the Screw by Henry James;
11. An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by Christoper Sergel; and
12. Bad Twin by Gary Troup (written specifically for the show).

We’ve read some of these before, and we’ll use those as a cocktail hour for the brain after reading some of the denser books. This seems like plenty to keep us busy this summer, but after Wednesday’s season finale it looks like we also have to add Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. Damn… hard to read authors who were paid by the word….

technorati tags: reading, books, lost

About 18 months ago I read Fast Food Nation, which is as much about consumerism in the United States as it is about fast food. It started a chain of events that changed how I live.

I had seen Super Size Me when it was released and while I stopped eating fast food in my early twenties after finding out I had a genetic disposition to high cholesterol and heart disease, I was still thoroughly disgusted at the overall mainstream food industry. Only adding to this distate was the scene in Napoleon Dynamite when Napoleon gets the job moving chickens from one coup to another. While a lot of the audience was laughing, I leaned over to my husband and said, “I’m never eating chicken or eggs from a non-free range farm again.”

Needless to say, after reading Fast Food Nation I became an organic and earth-friendly convert and I began regularly bonding with Whole Foods Market.

With this change in lifestyle came an added bonus: It’s quite fashionable to be green in Austin, Texas. In Austin it’s hip to drive a hybrid, hang out on the patio of Central Market on a Friday evening sipping a microbrewed beer or glass of wine, ride your bike to work or happy hour, eat a healthy and low-fat diet (to make room for all the awesome Tex-Mex restaurants), or to jog on Town Lake with your dog.

We love our pets in Austin. We make house and car choices based on the needs of our pets. We have dog-friendly restaurants, such as BB Rovers, that will bring a bowl of water for your dog while you enjoy a beer and bar food on the patio. We even have several no-leash parks that let your dog frolic with other dogs in a closed area.

And, we pay attention to their health like our own. We have specialty hospitals for our pets that need some extra help. Hell, my cat has an internist who treats his diabetes and arthritis, and one of my greyhounds sees an allergist.

We started giving our dogs vegetables in their food to encourage them to eat at one sitting. Our veterinarian confirmed that veggies are actually quite good for dogs if you can get them to eat them, and our dogs love them.
Animal Wellness magazine recently published a list of superfoods for pets:

1. Carrots
2. Broccoli
3. Green beans
4. Pumpkin
5. Sweet Potatoes
6. Tomato
7. Apples
8. Blueberries & cranberries
9. Cantaloupe
10. Watermelon

Of all things, canatloupe has become quite the hot ticket item at our house, and we can even use it as a training treat. Go figure.

technorati tags: life, austin, pets, dogs, organic, green

I’m an only child, but I have a very large extended family. Growing up I spent a lot of time with my mother’s side of the family. I was a “middle cousin” — my closest cousins in age were:

1. A cousin six years older than me; and
2. A cousin eight years younger than me.

This is what my older cousins did to me Christmas of 1977:

Call me

Goddess of Thunder.

The thing that cracks me up about this photo is not the Peter Criss make-up, but rather the western shirt I’m wearing and Christmas tree in the background.

Don’t get me wrong; like most kids growing up in the 70s I was a huge Kiss fan. I had posters, the four solo albums…. hell, I even had Unmasked on eight-track.

I never joined the Kiss Army, though. My mom wouldn’t let me.

technorati tags: life, childhood, music, humor, holidays

On January 1, 2006 we promptly made New Year’s Resolutions, which were really more of priorities for this year. I only had four because I’m relatively happy with where I am and my life, and my resolutions were small and not really game-changing.

Of course, I haven’t looked at them since, until this morning when I found them in a notebook. They are (in no order of importance):

1. Get cholesterol under 200 total
2. Work on making our house the way we want it
3. Spend money more wisely
4. Reduce amount of dry cleaning

In reviewing them, those seem like good, noble goals. Here’s how I’m doing:

Cholesterol: I have been eating a lot more soy and tomato products, and will be going to the doctor later this month to see if that made a dent. I’ve still only used that gym membership a couple ot times, though…

Work on House: After almost putting the house on the market to upgrade to a larger one in the same neighborhood, we decided to instead actually try living here first (we’ve only been in this house 18 months). We’ve bought new bedroom furniture, turned our dining room into a library, and are about to have new flooring and paint work done.

Spend Money More Wisely: See above. Lots of money going out the door, but a good use of funds.

Dry Cleaning: This one is difficult because looking sharp is part of my career. However, I recently found a more environmentally friendly service that doesn’t make me feel so badly about having clothes dry cleaned called

Hangers. This service uses CO2 to clean your clothes instead of harsh chemicals.

So there you have it. Not bad for mid-May.

technorati tags: resolutions, life

Welcome to Los Brushes. I wanted to spend a moment going over my general comment policy:

• No foul language, hate speech, libel, etc.
• Please don’t post comments anonymously. If you have an opinion or comment, please share it, but also let me know who you are.

I will likely delete comments that fall into these categories. I’m by no means square, but I also want to keep this clean, especially considering that almost everyone in my family reads it!