The Kite Runner-visually and emotionally stunning

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At it’s core, The Kite Runner is a story about fathers and sons. There is Baba, a rich man living in Afghanistan and his son Amir. There is Ali, who is Baba’s lifelong friend and servant, and his son Hassan, who is Amir’s closest friend. Rahim’s father was the servant to Baba’s father. These lives are intertwined and there are bonds that should not be able to be broken.

The title refers to a popular sport in Afghanistan at that time, kite flying. One boy would man the kite, the string specially treated to be razor sharp, with a goal of cutting the strings of the other kites. Once a kite was cut, another boy would run to catch it, as kites were a prized possession. During the city tournament, Amir’s kite wins, and Hassan runs to catch it. It is that simple act of running to catch a kite that drives the rest of the story forward.

Hassan is brutally attacked by a group of older boys who resent him for being Hazara, a people who populate the central regions of Afghanistan. Amir witnesses the attack but does not intervene, and the resulting guilt causes him to make a decision that impacts his life and Hassan’s life forever. Amir is shown to be non-violent, a pacifist almost to a fault, while it is Hassan who shows courage in the face of bullies, until he is overpowered and unable to fight.

After the Soviet Union occupies Afghanistan, Baba and Amir flee to Pakistan, and then make their way to California. Years later, Amir, now married, receives a phone call calling him back to Pakistan. He learns a shocking family secret, and embarks on a journey back to Afghanistan to rescue a boy who is living in horrible conditions. He finds his beloved Kabul to be greatly changed.

I won’t give away the ending except to say that there is happiness to it, and a sense of closure for Amir. He gets his chance at redemption as well as finding a way to move his life forward. Except for the one scene of brutality, which is really not even shown as much as implied, the movie is full of stirring images of life in Afghanistan, and for Afghanis living in California. The wedding of Amir and Soraya is particularly beautiful. If you are a fan of the book, you should definitely see this. If you haven’t read the book, you should still see this, for it’s evocative imagery, it’s quietly brilliant acting, and it’s happy ending.

To enter to win $1000.00 or one of ten copies of “The Kite Runner” signed by author Khaled Hosseini, visit this Kite Runner DVD Sweepstakes page to enter and for all of the rules. The contest ends April 8th.

Dang, my daughter is cute

I think that Mother Nature purposely makes two year olds completely adorable so that you won’t kill them when they are throwing raging temper tantrums over the number of Whopper Malted Milk Eggs you are allowing them to eat after lunch.

Kaitlyn has been trying to sing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, and she wants so badly to make her fingers do the spider climbing up the waterspout, but she just doesn’t get it. But she ROCKS at “Washing the spider out”.

She still can’t pronounce the hard c sound or ch, which means that when she sings the Chuck E. Cheese song, it sounds like “Tut E Teeses, where a tid tan be a tid”.

She cracks us up on a daily basis. Someone is always saying “did you hear what Kaitlyn just said?” Life with her is never boring.

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South Park: The Imaginationland Trilogy

southpark.jpg South Park is just one of those shows that you either like, or that you detest. The first few episodes I watched, I spent the whole episode with my mouth hanging open, shocked at the vulgarity. But after a few viewings, I started to “get” it. Sure the language and subject matter is unbelievably foul, but strip away all the cursing, and there are actually lessons to be learned from South Park. It’s true! Most of the episodes that I’ve seen have had something to say about tolerance for people of different races, religions and beliefs, about war and protest and sticking up for what you believe in, about the ridiculousness of worshipping celebrities.

South Park:Imaginationland was a trio of episodes that ran in October, 2007. Starting with a bet between Cartman and Kyle over the existence of leprechauns, the boys are whisked away in a hot air balloon by a strange man and taken to Imaginationland, the place where every character from books, movies, TV shows, comic books, and popular culture lives. The ONLY time I allowed my boys to watch this DVD was when I freeze-framed so we could spot the characters we recognized.

After terrorists attack Imaginationland, the wall that divides the “good” characters from the “evil” characters crumbles, and soon there is all-out war between the two groups. Butters is trapped, Stan is trying to help, and Cartman and Kyle–well, that’s the only part of this trilogy that I could really do without. The consequence of losing the bet about the existence of leprechauns involves Kyle having to do…something to Cartman, and I am not going to repeat it here, but it stopped being funny for me pretty much from the first mention of it.

The DVD comes with two bonus episodes, “Woodland Critters Christmas” and “ManBearPig”, and the feature movie actually made more sense after I watched those two episodes, as characters from those episodes appear in the movie. There’s some debate on the Amazon.com page for South Park: Imaginationland as to whether this needed to be released separately, since the three episodes will surely be included on the box set for the 2007 season, and also whether $14.99 is too much for a 67 minute disc. If you are a big South Park fan and want to be able to watch these three episodes independently of the whole box set, then here you go!

Last night, I went out on a date!

Last night my friend Kellie, who is also the mother of Nathan’s best friend, came over and stayed with the kids for FIVE HOURS so that Chris and I could have dinner at Carraba’s (thanks to a very generous gift card given to me by my SIL for Christmas), AND go see the movie “21″.

*Just a tip-if you order a Cosmopolitan at Carraba’s, ask for some extra cranberry juice on the side, because I think the bartender poured Ketel One and Cointreau into the shaker and then just waved it past the juice bottle. It was undrinkable until I confessed to our server that it was too strong and she offered more juice.

*Another suggestion-always tell your server that you have a movie to catch. We were in and out in just over an hour, and that server got a HUGE tip because of her willingness to help us make the movie on time.

*We saw previews for “Made of Honor” with Patrick Dempsey, which looked like a sweet romantic comedy. Also “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan” which stars Adam Sandler and had everyone in the theater cracking up. And “Ironman”, which looks FREAKING SWEET and AWESOME and Robert Downey Jr. is going to blow everyone away with this one.

*”21″ was really good, it followed the book it’s based on (“Bringing Down The House”) fairly closely, and stars Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess, an English actor who was in “Across the Universe” and is also in “The Other Boleyn Girl”. Also Kate Bosworth and Lawrence Fishburne.

So Chris and I talked about his upcoming business travels, and my still not being sure about BlogHer, and about my trip to DisneyWorld next month, and it was really nice to just talk to each other with no distractions. We rarely get a chance to even have dinner by ourselves, let alone be out for five hours!

Even after being together for 23 years (yes, really, 23 years) I still like going out on dates with Chris. Which is a very good thing.

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If you’ve got an idea for a book, there’s no reason not to publish it. Author House will send you a Free Publishing guide, just go to the site and fill out the form. Just think, you could be a published author!

Update on project “Get My Butt to BlogHer”

So as you all know, I am desperately trying to figure out how to go to BlogHer this summer without impacting our family’s regular budget. We have a weekend trip and a longer family vacation planned for this summer, and after several discussions, I agreed with my husband that those have to be our priority as far as money goes.

And by “several discussions”, I mean him trying to talk to me rationally, and me slamming doors and pouting. Because I’m mature like that.

I want to go to BlogHer more than just about anything. I’m waiting to hear if I have been chosen for a volunteer “BlogHership”, which covers the cost of the conference and would be a huge help. In the meantime, I’ve accepted a job helping a fellow blogger get a new blog started by hiring other bloggers to contribute posts. Which is a little scary because I’ve never been great at management and I have that huge procrastination problem, but the good thing is we are all friends, him and me and the writers I hired, so I’m hoping we’ll have fun with it and be successful too.

I’m thinking about copying something I saw on another blog yesterday which was a tab at the top of the page labeled “Affiliates”. On that page, she had all of her affiliate badges, with descriptions about the company. I thought that was really clever. I am an affiliate for Linkworth, for Foodbuzz, for Sponsored Reviews, and for Amazon.com.

Linkworth has lots of different types of ads-text link ads, linkPosts, linkInTxt (like Kontera), and linkWords. If you sign up to either buy ads or to run them on your site, I earn a commission when you make $100. I just want to be upfront about that. If you’re interested, please visit this URL–http://www.linkworth.com/?a=3719

Foodbuzz! Some of you have cooking blogs, and if you do, you can apply to be a featured publisher with Foodbuzz. You’ll have a page on the site to post recipes, rate the restaurants in your city, read reviews of restaurants all over the world, drool over yummy food photos, read food blog posts-it’s foodtastic, I tell you. Interested in signing up with your food blog? Do this, and I earn $50 if you are accepted as a publisher. I really do!

contact shannon@foodbuzz.com with the following information:

Full name:
Full name of referral: Elizabeth Edwards
Title of your blog:
Url:
Preferred email (or phone number):
Current Advertising program (if any):
Estimated Monthly Page Views (if you know):

So there you go. I’ve pimped out my two biggest affiliate programs, and now I must put my 2 year old to bed and clean up this pigsty of a living room. Plus pick contest winners and post on MomCooks and………..

I’m not a Doctor, nor do I play on one this blog

When I am asked to write a post on a specific topic, or using a specific keyword, I don’t say yes unless I feel I can do some good by giving out that information. I know, last year I was spamming it up because I needed the money, but trust me when I say that I am much more discerning now.

That being said, I want to make it clear that I am not writing about Chelation Therapy because I have had it, or because anyone I know has had it, or because I have had any kind of medical training whatsoever. I am dispensing information that readers might not otherwise find, and it is up to each reader to 1. decide if they are interested in the information and 2. TALK TO THEIR DOCTOR.

Please, do not do anything medical without consulting your doctor. I learned that the hard way when my Father bought a very heavily advertised weight loss pill from watching a commercial on TV, took it thinking it was harmless, and ended up in the hospital because the weight loss pill contains aspirin, which he is allergic to, and which was never mentioned in the commercial during that very brief part at the end about side effects. (If you must know, the name of the pill rhymes with “Delacore”).

And, to follow up on my previous post, if you are interested in learning more about Chelation Therapy, AND your Doctor approves the treatment AND says it is safe for you to order oral chelation products online, you can get the liquid chelation product, liquid Vitamin C & E, and a liquid multi-vitamin and mineral supplement to take during non-chelation weeks. Your doctor can give you more information on all of these products.

I understand that everything I publish on this blog is read by someone, is aggregated into a feed, and has the potential to influence someone’s decisions. I’ve given out the information, but it’s up to each of you to decide what to do with it. Thank you for reading this Table for Five Public Service Announcement.

Well geez, if the symptoms fit

Read this list of symptoms and tell me if you have one or more of them, ‘kay?

* Hands, arms or legs feel cold or “go to sleep”?
* Do your legs get aches or pains on short walks?
* On slight exertion, do you get breathless?
* Is your memory worse than it used to be?
* Are you lacking the energy you once had?
* Test results indicate cardiovascular problems?

So I read that, and I’m like check, check, check. Do you know what that list of symptoms is indicating? Arterial blockage, that’s what. As in, the arteries carrying life-giving blood to your heart could be blocked-which, thanks, now I need to go lie down.

I’m not usually an alarmist, but damn, that’s kind of scary. Of course the logical thing to do now is call my lovely doctor Doctor Kim and ask her to run some tests. I wonder how much an MRI costs when you have to pay it upfront to satisfy your deductible.

Have any of you ever heard of chelation therapy? Me neither. And get this, it consists of a liquid called EDTA, which stands for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, a common chelating agent used for enzyme deactivation and as a bacteriocide. No, I did not just type that out, I copy/pasted it from the Google Search, because there was no way I was going to get all those letters right this early in the morning.

There’s a liquid product called Cardio Renew which is a combination of amino acids and is 100% liquid EDTA. Amino acids are the “building blocks” of protein and are used by the body for healthy cell development. You take 14 drops of it in 2 ounces of mineral-free liquid like distilled water or pure juice, and do that six times a day, then five, then four. Apparently, the EDTA will bind with the free-floating minerals and metals in your system and flush them out.

I had no idea. Who knows what minerals and metals I could have floating around in there? No wonder my hands are always cold!

Not a typical Tuesday morning

This morning it was hard to wake up, and I stumbled out into the kitchen with my eyes barely open to make a pot of coffee. Imagine my surprise when I found Nathan (who is nine if you didn’t know) standing there stirring CoffeeMate and sugar into his mug.

Me: “oh, Dad made coffee before he left?”

Nathan: “No, I made it.”

Me: “um, you did? How did you know how?”

Nathan: “Dad showed me the other day.”

Me: blink blink

Forget the fact that I’ve been making coffee with him standing right there in the kitchen for months now, apparently he just needed his Dad to show him. And it was GOOD coffee, too. Not watery or too strong, just perfect. He’s on his way to making some woman a fine husband, that’s for sure.

thingswelostinthefire.jpgSecondly, this morning I watched the movie Things We Lost In The Fire, starring Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, and David Duchovny. Kaitlyn was a little pouty about it not being a WonderPets episode, but I held my ground and kept the DVD on, and watched it all the way through. And you know what? It was pretty good! Berry and Duchovny play married couple Brian and Audrey, who are happily married with two children. Del Toro is Jerry, Brian’s childhood best friend who is also a heroin addict. The title refers to an electrical fire that destroys Brian and Audrey’s garage (although I guess when you live in a huge house with an indoor swimming pool, “garage” means building behind the main house that is big enough to be a house of it’s own).

I don’t want to give away the plot here, but I do want to say that if you enjoy good dramatic acting, this movie has it. There are strong performances by John Carroll Lynch (“Zodiac”) as Brian’s business associate and neighbor who befriends Jerry, Alison Lohman (“Matchstick Men”) as a woman who meets Jerry in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and Omar Benson Miller (who just did an amazing episode of Law & Order) as Audrey’s brother who helps Jerry through detox.

The movie is available from Amazon.com as both a single disc and in HD. Both versions have a look at the making of the movie as well as deleted scenes. It’s a sad movie, to be sure, but the performances, especially by Berry and Del Toro, are Oscar-worthy. Want it now? Use this:

Into the Wild-A truly tragic story, but an incredible film

When I first came across the book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer at the library, I flipped through it, but at the time, a true story of a young man who followed a dream until it led to his death was not the kind of reading I was looking for. So my viewing of the movie of the same name, made from the story told in the book, was untainted by any knowledge of the story beyond the basics.

Following the book very closely, the movie version of “Into the Wild” tells the story of how,in 1990, a young man named Christopher McCandless (played by Emile Hirsch) graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, and rather than accept his parents’ offer to buy him a car and help him pay for grad school, he instead withdraw his entire savings, donated the majority of it to OXFAM (with a note instructing them to feed people with the money), and set off on what he imagined would be a grand adventure ending with him going to Alaska.

After abandoning his car and burning the rest of his money, McCandless proceeded to hitchhike, take jobs, and rely on the kindness of strangers as he made his way West. Along the way, he changed his name to “Alexander Supertramp” (he spent time jumping into empty train cars and riding the rails, known as tramping), worked as a grain harvester, and lived in “Slab City”, a free RV park in the desert of Southeast California. He carries books by Thoreau and Jack London, believing that man truly needs nothing but his own determination and something to believe in.

Director Sean Penn spent close to ten years getting this movie made, and he treats the subject matter with delicate respect and yet at the same time, holds nothing back. We see McCandless’ parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) fighting and obviously unhappy, we hear parts of the story narrated by his sister Carine (Jena Malone) including the letters he wrote to her, apparently unaware that there was a massive search underway for him, and we see him do things that most people would never dare attempt. It is because he kept a journal that we even know that McCandless actually rode a kayak through the Grand Canyon to get to Mexico, that he climbed rocks with no ropes, and that near the end, he faced a brown bear. Emile Hirsch did his OWN STUNTS for all of those scenes.

Penn chose some of the best actors in American film to help tell this story, including Catherine Keener as Jan, a free-spirited woman who, along with her boyfriend Rainey, picks up McCandless hitchhiking. She mentions Slab City to him and then when he shows up there, takes him in and tries to encourage him to at least contact his parents. Vince Vaughn gives a strong performance as Wayne Westerberg, the owner of the grain harvesting company who gives McCandless a job and becomes a close friend. I was also impressed by Hal Holbrook as “Franz” (his name is a pseudonym), the elderly man who tries to understand what McCandless is doing, but also tries to stop him from going to Alaska.

As we watch McCandless go on this journey, the viewer begins to feel hopeful, like maybe he really does know what he is doing, and can go to Alaska with nothing but rice, a gun, some ammo, and a native guide to wild plants. When he gets to Alaska and miraculously finds an abandoned VW bus with a stove and a bed in it (not a spoiler, the bus is on the cover of the book)-we start to think holy cow, this guy is actually going to do it, he’s going to live alone in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Unfortunately, it does not turn out that way. The end of the movie is heartwrenching and difficult to watch, and very sad. Not having had read the book, I did know that McCandless did not survive in Alaska, but I had no idea how he died, and it was shocking and upsetting to me. As a Mother, it hurt me to think of what his parents must have gone through when they were notified.

This is not an easy movie to watch, there’s no doubt about that. But despite the difficult subject matter, this movie is practically a study in the art of acting, of cinematography, of how to direct a movie. For the soundtrack, Penn asked Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder to perform and release solo recordings, his first ever. The song “Hard Sun” also features Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney. The movie comes as a single disc with no bonus features, and a two-disc edition with two documentaries on the making of the film. You all know how much I love bonus features, and these two documentaries did not disappoint. I say they make the purchase justifiable. It is also available on HD-DVD for you diehard HD lovers-if I hadn’t received a review copy, I would have likely purchased HD.

Buy it, rent it, but see it, for the acting, for the filmmaking, and for the story itself, a story of a young man who had a dream.