Here’s another sneak peak for Rob Pattinson’s ‘Remember Me’. I guess we really are in full PR mode now. Keep it coming!! This sneak peak is steamy! Ooh la la! You don’t have to be vampire to be sexy. 
ps. Don’t forget… Friday, March 12th. Mark your calendars. Write it down. Take a picture. You will NOT want to miss it!
Today started off like most Mondays. Blah Blah Blah. But around the lunch hour things got pretty darn interesting! And that, to me anyway, is an understatement. In almost calculated succession, two NEW movie stills from both ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ and ‘Remember Me’ were released! And it’s not even my birthday!
Did I mention ‘Eclipse’ is my FAVORITE book of the Twilight Saga? I. CAN’T. WAIT.
I gotta say though, while I am thoroughly excited about Eclipse coming out in June, I am REALLY, like REALLY looking forward to seeing Rob Pattinson in ‘Remember Me’. This will be his first role where he plays a normal guy, i.e.: no vampires or wizards or potheads. 
I have read the script to this story and let me tell you, this movie will blow you away, and not just because Rob Pattinson is in it. I mean, helllllloooooo? It’s Rob. That’s almost reason enough, but it really WILL BE a wonderfully worthy, romantic, and heartbreaking movie. (Trust me!)
Like I said, TODAY was a great day! In case you’ve been living under a rock and you DON’T know when these movies come out, here’s a reminder:
‘Remember Me’, starring Rob Pattinson & Emilie De Ravin is out Friday, March 12th
‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’, starring Rob Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, and SO many awesome others, is out Wednesday, June 30th
I was HOPING for the good times to keep on coming & possibly get an ‘Eclipse’ trailer, but no such luck 
In the meantime, and while I take a cold shower, enjoy the ‘Remember Me’ trailer! As of this post, we’re ONLY 31 days away! Eeek! You can also check out the movie’s Facebook page, here.
I hear it all the time… “Oh, you have a Pug! Don’t they snore?” or… “you know those dogs that snore, what are they… Pugs?” YES. Pugs snore. Alot. I tend to think that mine snores more than average and on a higher octave than most. Honestly. ‘Tucker Kane Kong’ is 12 years YOUNG this year and yes, he’s FAT. (29lbs to be exact!) Maybe that’s the cause of his roaring snoring? Whatever the reason, I can’t help but crack a smile when I hear it. Everytime. Tucker, along with our other two dogs, take turns sleeping with us. Even with the snoring, you get used to it and It’ll actually help you sleep.
The sound clips below were taken while he was sleeping very soundly, as seen in the picture above. Priceless.
FYI: You may want to turn your volume UP to really, truly appreciate the deep resonations that come from this adorkable Pug.
You know how they always say “the book was much better?” Well, in most cases I disagree as I am a visual person and crave the actual scenes being brought to life in a movie to really portray a story. Call it me not having much of an imagination. I’m not a big reader either. I don’t read that many books/novels to be honest with you. The only books that have ever truly fascinated me enough to keep reading them were the Twilight series (don’t judge me) and anything from Nicholas Sparks. So, in this instance, with ‘Dear John’, I have to say the book was better. In different ways.
I thought the movie was great, if you’re reviewing it as a separate entity. I JUST finished reading the book last night so my memory of the actual book and its brilliant romance was very fresh in my mind. Maybe I should’ve waited a couple of days? Nah… I had every intention of seeing the movie today – I even bought my tickets through Fandango last night just to be sure the theater didn’t sell out. This was the first movie I’d ever see alone. It was a little odd being in there without my husband as we typically see movies together, however he was out-of-town and I didn’t want to wait until he returned. I already had to wait for one movie last Fall WAY past when I really, really wanted to, so I didn’t want to wait for another movie. (See my story on waiting a WEEK for ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon here)
I grabbed some popcorn and Diet Coke and went into the theater. The theater wasn’t packed at all – very odd.
I’m not going to spoil anything for those of you that haven’t seen the movie yet, or who are still reading the book… but I have to say, I was very disappointed that the movie had so many HUGE differences than that of the book. Now I know that a movie based on a novel/book is always going to be a little different – it has to be in order to grab the audience and to convey cinematic appeal. Reading a book or novel can evoke certain emotions and reactions that may not equal to the movie version, and vice versa. However, in this case, and especially being a movie from one of my only favorite authors, I thought the screenplay was butchered. Simple as that.
Yes, I did read ‘Message in a Bottle’, ‘A Walk to Remember’, ‘The Notebook’, and ‘Nights in Rodanthe’ and saw ALL of these books on the big screen. ALL of these particular Nicholas Sparks books/movies were done equal justice, in my opinion, of course. I felt the movie from each of these novels were equally as good and as beautiful as the books. I didn’t feel the same way about ‘Dear John’.
Don’t get me wrong, I felt the movie itself was wonderful. Again though, reviewing it as a separate entity. I thought the chemistry between the lead roles, Channing Tatum’s “John” and Amanda Seyfried’s “Savannah” was spot-on. I felt they really conveyed the romance of their characters quite well. I don’t really think that anyone else could have played John & Savannah better. I thought that the acting of “John’s” father, Richard Jenkins was absolutely brilliant. The movie itself was beautiful. The scenery was gorgeous. The story was fluid. But, I honestly didn’t think it did the book any justice. I felt too many parts were skewed and twisted. There were major differences. Again, I’m not going to spoil it for you or even tell you exactly what I mean.
You want to know what really chapped my a** more than anything about ‘Dear John’? I wouldn’t really call this a spoiler, as hello…. it’s a love story… Not once in the movie did John or Savannah say “I LOVE YOU”. Seriously. Never once.
Would I see it? 110% YES. It was a great movie. And, seeing Channing Tatum shirtless isn’t half-bad. He is simply divine. Like I said before, their chemistry was captivating. But, do yourself a favor and read the book too, if you haven’t already. It’s very much worth it and a great read.
On a side note, the soundtrack was outstanding. I really, really loved the mixture and tone to this soundtrack. Here’s one song from the soundtrack that is playing over and over and over again on my iPhone: “This Is The Thing” by Fink
Agree with me? Completely disagree? Let me know! Leave me a comment and tell me what you thought. I’d love to hear it!
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Just when I thought I was done with my blog design….BAM! Wrenches, axes, and hammers get thrown my way. Let me explain…
A few days ago I realized (through a very reliable source in the WordPress.com forums) that it’s kinda important for your blog title to appear in your header/banner. Apparently for searchability and browser indexing purposes. Waaaaay over my head. Being that I have learned quite a bit in the trusty WordPress forums, I trusted my source. One problem. My blog title didn’t work with my header. Meaning, I couldn’t center it. I couldn’t left-align it. I was stuck. Nothing looked good. Here’s where I had to start changing things…
I found a header that worked splendidly. It allowed me to center align my blog title just as it should be. Yay! I even had fun re-editing some pictures for the new header. Yay! But, here’s the kicker….
I had to then change margins, padding, etc. No yay. I managed to get everything just right. Yay again! OK, I’m a woman so naturally I’m pretty fickle… I couldn’t change the header and NOT get the matching background!! No way. So, I edited this too. Voila. Problem fixed! Somewhat….
Realizing way late in the game that not all operating systems & browsers perform the same, I poked around Twitter and asked for volunteers to let me know what my blog looked like to them, on their PC’s and with their browsers. Thankfully, I had some gracious volunteers and I got some very interesting feedback. I (sadly) don’t own a MAC and I really wanted to see specifically what it looked like there. Like I thought, bad. My font was HUGE compared to what it should be and it wasn’t even the right type of font! I was starting to get ill. You design and set-up a blog/site with the intention of having others see it the same way, right? Back to the drawing board I went…
Sadly, I can NOT figure out how to get the margins to appear correctly on ALL OS’s & browsers. However, I did resort back to trying to get my arch nemesis, “TypeKit” to work on my blog. You may be asking, “What’s Typekit?” Well, before tonight I would have said never, ever, ever even think about it, as I couldn’t get it to work 2 weeks ago. Tonight was a different story. I. Got. It. To. Work. (Double) Yay! Yay!
From the Typekit website:
So here’s the situation: Every major browser now supports the ability to link to a font. That means you can write a bit of CSS, include a URL to a font file, and have your page display with the typography you expect. For designers and developers, this is a significant step forward. No longer will you need to trap your content in images or Flash just to express yourself visually. Pages will be more usable, accessible, and indexable. This is a massive upgrade for the web.
This is the idea anyway. This is HUGE for web designers. I’m not one, but again I’m a woman… and I like things a certain way. My way!
So, in closing, getting my blog title on my header caused the perfect storm. A storm I’m actually glad that happened. Without doing all of this I wouldn’t have known that my blog was not appearing as it should on some OS’s. (Except the margin issue) Not knowing exactly if this was going to hold true and really show my blog as it was intended, I decided to add a little “Please Note” tab in my sidebar with a screencap of how it SHOULD look. It tells my guests what browsers work best for viewing my blog. I figured this would help when a guest is viewing my blog and it appears completely out of whack; I don’t want anyone to think I’m an idiot that hasn’t a clue on how to design a blog! Can’t ever be too safe!
Here’s the FINAL look of ImAprilE’s “A Little Of This, A Little Of That…”
Now to point you to where I received my NEW goodies from! The header & background came from ‘The Cutest Blog On The Block.‘ Such a “cute” (get it?) site for bloggers! If you’re in the mood for a little blog redecorating, check them out!
Let me know what you think! You like it? You hate it? You really don’t care? Let me know all of it! Thanks for bearing with me and my fickleness! (I think I’m FINALLY done with design now!)
Labs like snow? Really? Nah….
Murphy, our Chocolate Lab, had an absolute field day in the snow today. He honestly didn’t want to come in. As for the other two dogs… well, let’s just say that they had to be coaxed just to go outside for potty reasons. Yeah, they’re pretty spoiled. Spoiled ROTTEN!
As you’ll see by the “how much snow did we get ruler test”, we only got a little under 5″ (as of 4 p.m. EST) We’re supposed to get a little bit more, but I’m not thinking so. Oh well. It’ll be a frozen mess tomorrow through Monday. It’s only supposed to be in the teens tomorrow! Yikes.
Due to the dogs being a little bored since they couldn’t (or didn’t want to) play outside, we played some games and did some obedience lessons/tricks. Our dogs love to please us. Truthfully! We did the tried and true “Leave It” test. You may remember I posted a couple of videos a couple weeks ago? If not, click here. I made Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup today; and as I was cutting the celery, carrots, and onions, Murphy & Harley were quite literally sitting next to me as if they were waiting for some food to fall. So, I decided that since they were being good about it and not outright begging for it, I’d let them work for it.
First things first, I don’t feed my dogs table scraps. NOT GOOD FOR THEM! I was planning to use carrots as their “reward” as carrots are actually good for dogs and is an ingredient in most natural dog foods. OK, moving on…
So, this is how it goes… After ensuring that they knew I had a “reward” for them, I asked them to “SIT”. Then, “DOWN”. Then, the all important “STAY”. My husband and I trained our dogs on verbal commands as well as hand signals. We use both when doing these tricks/lessons. I then proceeded to place a piece of carrot in front of each one about 8-10″ in front of their paws. Now, they can’t eat it until I say “OK”. They know this. Most of the time they look right up at me, waiting. I can actually have a conversation with my husband who’s 5 feet away and the two will remain in the down/stay position and NOT pick up the treat (carrot) until they hear the magic word. This takes true patience on their part.
And, “OK!” As you’ll see from the pictures above, I did this test twice. Once with small carrot bits, and the other with a whole carrot. I wanted to see if the size of the treat altered their will. It didn’t. In order, you’ll see the tests with the last picture being of two very happy, trained dogs.
I can’t help but want to caption the picture of Murphy, our lab, looking at Harley as they waited:
What did the brown dog say to the fawn dog? “I’m a good boy. Yeah…. yeah… Now gimme the dang carrot already!”
I hope you enjoyed the pics and the dog training lesson! If you ever have any questions on anything related to their training, please don’t hesitate to ask or leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!
The snow started coming down shortly after 9 p.m. and within 2 hours we had over 2″! So, yes… there’s snow coming! Wahoo! It’s up to about 3.5″ right now. We’re supposed to get more throughout the night. Here’s the latest map from The Weather Channel. They had warned everyone about the impending ‘Potent’ Winter Storm…
People obviously heeded the warning: (maybe too much?)
I, too, went to the grocery for my “provisions.” Needless, to say the local Walmart was packed to the brim with everyone getting their last minute supplies. Me? I sent hubs yesterday. (Score 1 for April!) I just forgot something so thus I had my excuse for the hysteria that IS Walmart.
I’ve pulled out the dusty snowsuits, found the lost pairs of gloves, stocked up the pantry, and even cleaned up certain “piles” of a matter you probably don’t want me to be too specific about.
I’m ready for the SNOW!
Bring. It. On.
Well, looks like my area is going to get hammered with a winter storm this weekend. YES! While I’m hoping for only the white fluffy stuff, it seems that we may also be getting some nasty ice. Uh oh. I guess we shall see…
For now though, this picture makes me a very happy woman!
Here’s our Winter Storm Warning from the National Weather Service:
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO MIDNIGHT EST SATURDAY NIGHT.
BASIS… COLDER AIR WILL OVERSPREAD CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA TODAY. A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL DEVELOP CROSS THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY TODAY… THE DEEP SOUTH TONIGHT… THEN EAST NORTHEAST OFF THE CAROLINA COAST LATE SATURDAY.
PRECIPITATION TYPES AND ACCUMULATION… SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 11 INCHES ARE EXPECTED IN THE TRIAD AND NORTHERN PIEDMONT. SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED IN THE TRIANGLE. PREDOMINATELY SNOW IS EXPECTED ACROSS THE TRIAD AND NORTHERN PIEDMONT OF CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA. MOSTLY SNOW WILL OCCUR ACROSS MUCH OF THE NORTHERN PIEDMONT AND NORTHERN COASTAL PLAIN. OVER THE TRIANGLE AREA… THE SNOW MAY MIX WITH OR CHANGE TOTALLY TO SLEET SATURDAY MORNING THEN CHANGE BACK TO SNOW LATE SATURDAY OR SATURDAY EVENING BEFORE ENDING
TIMING AND DURATION… PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO OVERSPREAD THE WARNING AREA FROM THE WEST SOUTHWEST FRIDAY EVENING… MAINLY AFTER 8 PM… CONTINUING OVERNIGHT AND THROUGH THE DAY SATURDAY BEFORE ENDING SATURDAY EVENING. THE HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO FALL FROM 4 AM SATURDAY THROUGH 4 PM SATURDAY.
IMPACTS… ACCUMULATIONS OF SNOW AND SLEET WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT TRAVEL ACROSS THE WARNING AREA. AFTER PRECIPITATION BEGINS LATE FRIDAY EVENING… TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN NEAR OR BELOW FREEZING THROUGH MIDDAY MONDAY.
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW… SLEET… AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.
A MAJOR WINTER STORM WILL PRODUCE WIDESPREAD WINTRY PRECIPITATION ACROSS CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA TONIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING.
I came across a great article yesterday about the ‘THEN & NOW’ of celebrities and child stars from the 80’s & 90’s. One child star really caught my attention, as he was in my one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. Wanna know? The one, the only….
“The Goonies”
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of ‘The Goonies’? To me, it’s the incredible, delightful, and tasteful…
“Truffle Shuffle!”
(I may or may not have watched this over, and over, and over again)
Don’t know about you, but I suddenly want to watch The Goonies again!
If you’d like to check out the article, click here. And, because I thought the GIF in this article was absolutely hilarious, I had to use it… Feel free to laugh out loud. It’s good for the soul.
