FOOD: HFMC Potluck and MOVIE: The Reader

FOOD: HFMC Potluck
Today is Camille's last day at work, and they were having a potluck lunch -- coincidence? Anyways, the theme was food from around the world, and Camille had agreed on making bringing fried rice.

(Baloo doesn't want to go!)Me -- being the Fabulous brother and Extra-ordinary chef that I am -- decided to cook for the first time in 30 days (seriously, remember the pull-apart bread from New Year's Eve?) and make the fried rice for Camille since she had to work, and I had the morning off.

Baloo guarding the rice cooling.So I made the fried rice -- a little more moist than I'd like it to be -- but it was still a fine addition to spread, which included some tasty scalloped potatoes, hearty meatballs, and my favorite sunshine cake (woot!).

Nice Spread.The potluck was also a cool chance to go behind-the-scenes and see the doctors and pharmacists "off stage", and Dr. Chrieki's a pretty fun guy. I think I'll stick with HFMC for a while.

After we ate, (which we did quickly), Camille and I headed over to the Ben & Jerry's to get some 99-cent smoothies on special. Camille had a Strawberry Kiwi sans bananas, and I had the Banango or Manana (wait... that second one doesn't sound right).

Me and My Manana BanangoAnyways, they were a small-but-just-right size and were good for being juice-based. And as we made our way back, there were a lot of squirrels out -- one even came up and touched Camille's shoe!

Curious
Well, that was fun. Camille went back to work, and I headed on for a 1:20pm showing of The Reader at CinemaWorld.

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MOVIE: The Reader

The Reader is a movie about a 16-year old German boy who has an affair with a woman, only to discover years later that the same woman is now on trial for crimes related to the Holocaust.

Honestly, going into the theatre, I was skeptical because of the low buzz for the film and because it looked like Oscar bait -- I didn't know much about it, except that there was a lot of nudity (and there was).

Having watched it, I do have to say the movie did Oscar bait, but that it's still worthy of its nominations. I managed to shed tears even with an old couple talking beside me nearly the entire time -- and seriously, I was the youngest person in the theatre by at least 30 years. I'm digressing.

I could totally see Kate Winslet winning Best Actress here, though I am still pulling for Meryl Streep in Doubt. The other possible win for The Reader comes from Cinematography, where Roger Deakins has his eighth nomination and no wins so far, but I'm still expecting Slumdog Millionaire to take it.

Anyways, I was glad to have seen the film and time will tell how my opinions for film lasts past the awards season.