comings and goings.

My dear friend Anya from Belarus left yesterday and Lord-willing arrived safely in Kiev, Ukraine about 2 hours ago. We had such a wonderful summer together. I took her to some neat places, most in Kentucky, which included the following highlights... (I recommend checking out every place listed below if you find yourself in the area!)

-The Historic Kentucky Theatre
-The Lexington Farmer's Market
-Shakertown
-Poor Richard's
-Keeneland
-Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge
-Miguel's at the Gorge
-Laurel Lake
-Natasha's Cafe
-Common Grounds
-Alfalfa's
-Henderson State Park in Destin, FL
-The Track in Destin
-Fudpucker's in Destin
-Costa's BBQ in Birmingham, AL
-The Jam House in Scottsville, KY (owned by Mennonites, so they're not on the internet)

As for our movie list, here are the newest additions:

-Lawrence of Arabia
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-The Philadelphia Story (seen in the Historic KY theater!)
-The Graduate
-Singin' in the Rain

I can recommend them all... the cinematography of LoA was amazing... fascinating story.

My apartment is quiet and a bit lonely now without her. I tried to explain to Alyosha that Anya left but he gave me a blank sad puppy dog look of incomprehension...

my ipod is dead.

After traveling with me for 2 solid years all over Eastern Europe, my refurbished by hp 20GB Apple iPod has finally called it quits... It was at least considerate to wait until after I got back from Belarus to die!

Of course now if I want to buy an iPod, I pretty much can't get one WITHOUT video or over 80GB and lots of snazzy things that frankly I don't care about... and I certainly can't avoid paying over 100 or 200 dollars.... yikes! Sometimes it's frustrating when you don't actually *want* the newer technology but are forced to take it and *pay* for it.

Same business marketing conspiracy exists in the food world. I found myself eating at restaurants a lot this summer. And in America, each portion in every restaurant, whether it be a nice sit down place or the local KFC, gives you TONS of food... way more than my stomach can handle at a time. My realization was this: by giving bigger portions they can charge you more for them. So even if you don't *want* that much food, you are forced to pay for it anyway... and then by proxy, you either eat it all and buy into the American way of life of overeating and overabundance, or you waste it which is pretty normal also in the American way of thinking and life, or you try to take it as leftovers, which half the time doesn't work out well... (some things just *don't* reheat well.)

The best solutions I've come up with are either
1) Share a meal with someone else!
or
2) Stop eating out and start cooking more!

I hope to be doing more of #1 but mostly focus on #2.

hunter woman.

ok, fess up... who bought me the subscription to "Field & Stream???"

Seriously, now.

I got an issue in the mail last month. Thought it was some one-time promotional thing. Nope. Another issue arrived today. Apparently I have a subscription through June 2009.

Funny thing is... I like the outdoors... and Field & Stream is "the world's leading outdoor magazine"... BUT... I am neither a hunter nor a fisher. I've shot a gun, um, once in my life. This is the closest I've come to fishing.

So bizarre is what it amounts to. Guess you'll find me reading about the essential classics that every outdoors(wo)man needs.... a marble safety AXE!!! WOOO!!!

AFI Top 100

A few summers ago, Lauren and I started to tackle AFI's Top 100 movies. We used this list from 1998 and were starting to take a chunk of it. We took in movies like:
-Goodfellas
-All About Eve
-Annie Hall
-The Godfather
-Taxi Driver

Now, several years later, my Belarusian friend Anya was eager to watch classic American films... so I have now picked up the AFI Top 100 list and we are tackling many of them thanks to an unlimited monthly rental subscription through the mail. I'll be keeping track of the new movies in the sidebar. So far, we have watched:

-Psycho
-Midnight Cowboy
-Tootsie
-Chinatown
-North by Northwest
-Casablanca
-Citizen Kane
-Some Like It Hot
-Bonnie and Clyde
-The Wizard of Oz
-Doctor Zhivago

I'm also hoping to hit the ones that made the revised 2007 list.

Anyone have favorites on the list? Favorites *not* on the list? Leave it in the comments!