Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!

I believe we may have been sucked into a clever marketing gimmick, one aimed at convincing wine connoisseur wannabes that they are privy to some great secret that only true wine connoisseur's are privy to. Damn you, French winemakers and your clever marketing! You have tricked the world into believing that Georges Duboeuf's Beaujolais Nouveau is some great bottle of vino, when really it's just an average wine that doesn't age as well as it's friends. Still, I'll admit that all the hooplah surrounding it's annual release is kind of fun to be a part of.

Here's the skinny (don't worry, it's interesting even if you couldn't care less about wine):

Beaujolais Nouveau is made from the Gamay grapes, found in the Beaujolais region of France. The Beaujolais region is one of only two wine-growing regions in the world where picking the grapes by hand is MANDATORY! The only other region where hand harvesting is required by law is the Champagne region. Pretty neat, huh?! The other pretty neat part about Beaujolais Nouveau is that French law dictates that it not be released until the third Thursday of November. Ha! What a concept. Anywho, being that the wine is subject to such strict regulations, it's annual release date has turned into a worldwide event. Every year there is a "race" to see who will serve the new Nouveau (ha!) first. There are even parties held to celebrate it's release! Brightly colored posters declaring "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!" ("The Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived!") appear in wine store windows, large displays of Dubeof's latest release occupy prime floor space, and customer's scramble to snatch up as many bottles as they can.

But what they don't tell you (and this is the real kicker), is that the Nouveau is the cheapest Beaujolais around, it typically comes from the worst grapes and Mr. Duboeuf, the largest maker of Beaujolais, is sitting pretty, selling his millions of bottles of cheap wine, when there are other, more worthy Beaujolais wine makers out there.

BOO to you, clever marketing schemes! I admit, I fell for your trickery, and I fell hard - we bought 3 bottles of the 2008 Nouveau this past weekend. I feel so ashamed.

Luckily, I am able to redeem myself somewhat - while I did enjoy last year's Nouveau and I will no doubt enjoy this year's, I am also an avid fan of other Beaujolais'. Yep, I also like the "real" stuff. So, please, don't hold it against me that I have 3 of these sitting in my wine rack. I'm still an equal-opportunity Beaujolais drinker!

Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving coming up, now is the perfect time for us to take a moment and reflect on all the small things that we take for granted every day. All around the world people are dealing with struggling economies and worry for their future, and it seems that all we hear about is how much people have lost. I wish everyone would just take a deep breath, settle down a little and stop worrying so much about things that are beyond our control. Even though our country may have hit a rough patch, I still have so much to be thankful for.

• I'm thankful for my wonderful husband, who makes me laugh every day, who offers me enough love to fill me up, and who makes it so easy for me to love him back.

• I'm thankful for my family, and I'm especially thankful for the wonderful visitors we've had this year. I'm truly lucky to have such a loving, supportive family, one that will travel across the world to visit me!

• I'm thankful that we have a warm bed to sleep in and food in our bellies.
  

• I'm thankful that we still have our home. So many people have lost their home's due to foreclosure, and I'm so incredibly grateful that we are able to afford to stay in ours. I can't even imagine how it must feel to work so hard and sacrifice so much to be able to buy a house, only to have it taken away.


• I'm thankful that we are young and able to ride out this economic slump. My heart goes out to those who's retirement savings have all but disappeared, and those who's livelihoods have been turned upside down. We know that we'll be ok, that we have many years to recover, but there are so many others who are not so fortunate.


• I'm thankful that we live in a time where a black man can be elected President, and a woman can give him a good run for his money. Even if you voted for the other guy, everyone should be able to appreciate what a wonderful accomplishment it is for our society. What a long way we've come!

And, once again, I'm thankful that this holiday gives me the opportunity to post witty cartoons of talking turkeys. Yay for Thanksgiving!

Lights, camera, ACTION!

The other day Jeremy and I were watching a half-hour show entirely composed of movie trailers. They showed some awesome trailers for some absoutely outstanding movies, including No Country for Old Men, Atonement, and the soon to be released Australia. All very good movies, with wonderful trailers. In the midst of all these "popular" films, they showed a trailer for what I consider to be one of the best film's I've seen in a long time. It may even be one of the best film's I've ever seen - The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. You may remember that I mentioned it before here. Seeing that trailer prompted me to think of some other films I have recently seen that really are wonderful, and that deserve just as much credit as some of the big box office hits. Most of you will probably have never heard of some of these films, which is why I feel that it is my duty to tell you all to go out and watch them. Immediately. Here they are, in no particular order...

1. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et el papillon)

Released in 2007, nominated for 4 Oscars

Watch the trailer!

One word: INCREDIBLE.

Seriously. This film is one of the most incredible pieces of art that I have ever seen. Yes, it is indeed a work of art. The film is entirely in French (with subtitles), and is filmed from the first-person point of view of Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French Elle magazine. At age 43, Bauby suffered a major stroke that left him completely paralyzed, except for his left eye. The film is based on his memoir, Le Schaphandre et el papillon, that was dictated by Bauby himself using only his left eye to spell out words by blinking. His story at times is darkly humorous and you get the impression that Bauby might have been a fun kind of guy to be around. Mostly, however, you almost feel pity for him, that he might have put having fun and living the high life before that which is clearly most important to him - his family. At the end of the film, I was somewhat ambivalent - do I like him, or do I not? Do I feel sad for what he's lost? Or do I just think he screwed up? Either way, his honesty brought tears to my eyes, and the film left me speechless. The cinematography is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Jean-Dominique Bauby's story is truly a heart wrenching one, and the film really captures the emotion of it.

Watch it. Even if you don't like subtitles. You won't be disappointed.

2. God Grew Tired of Us

Released in 2006 

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award & Grand Jury Prize

Watch the trailer here!

If you only watch one documentary in this year, I highly recommend God Grew Tired of Us. This is a National Geographic documentary about the "Lost Boys of Sudan" - the tens of thousands of boys who fled their homes during the wars in Sudan back in the 80's. The film focuses on 3 young men who move to the United States in hopes of a better life. You follow them on their journey as they adapt to an entirely new way of life - moving into their own apartment, their search for work and their quest to help make the lives of their friends and family back home just a little better. The "boys" sense of wonder and naivety are so endearing that I just wanted to scoop them up and hug them until they couldn't breathe. The film makes you truly grateful for all the little luxuries and opportunities that are afforded us. I laughed and I cried. The film really opened my eyes to the obstacles the boys, and likely all refugees, face - being told by police that they can't walk around in groups anymore because other residents are afraid of them, the measly wages they earn that are usually immediately sent back to help out people at home, how overwhelmed they are by simple things like showering or grocery shopping.

It's heartwarming, charming, enlightening and humbling.  Wonderful.

3. Grace is Gone

Release in 2007

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award & Screenwriting Award

Watch the trailer here

I've always thought that John Cusack was an excellent actor.  From One Crazy Summer, to Con Air, to High Fidelity, he's always good for a laugh and a quick one-liner.  Grace is Gone takes my love for John Cusack to an entirely new level as he truly shows what a multi-dimensional actor he is.  Cusack plays a husband whose wife is killed while serving in Iraq.  Overwhelmed and unable to tell his young daughters that their mother is dead, he whisks them away on an impromptu roadtrip to an amusement park.  Gracie Bednarczyk offers a charming performance as the youngest daughter - I'm guessing that we'll be seeing a lot more of her in future years.  The movie is incredibly touching, but I suggest you save it for a day when you really need to bawl - it's a sad one!

Other honorable mentions:

• Gone Baby Gone (trailer) - dirty cops, missing kids and the wonderful Casey Affleck
  
• The Savages (trailer) - because Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the greatest actors of this generation
  
• Bobby (trailer) - the line-up is the reason to rent this (Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Emilio Esteves, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Laurence Fishburne...the list goes on), the depth of the characters and the phenomenal acting is the reason to watch it.
  
• La Vie en Rose (trailer) - which you probably know because Marion Cotillard won Best Actress at this year's Oscars.  Another French film with subtitles, it's tells a tragic true story.  If you didn't see it after all the Oscar hype, you should definitely see it now.

That should get you all watching for a while.  Enjoy!

Photos

Here are some of the hundreds of photos from my mom & dad's visit...enjoy!

Mom & Dad's visit

We're back!

Yes, we are still alive over here. I apologize for neglecting my blogging duties - we've been ridiculously busy the last few weeks and, well, what can I say? I'm just slack. So here, for your reading pleasure, is the CliffsNotes version of what we've been up to.

(Note: I've just realized that I haven't updated this thing for TWO MONTHS! How outrageous! Why have you people not been yelling at me?)

SEPTEMBER

Also known as, "The Month Rebecca went gallivanting with Kate, and left poor Jeremy at home". Yes, I was gallivanting. First, it was in Las Vegas, the city of bright lights, smoke-filled casinos, and dirty people. It was a blast - we stayed out until the early hours of the morning and slept until midday. We danced the night away in some swanky clubs, and drank $15 drinks. We also decided that, while Vegas is a fun place to visit, the novelty soon wears off. After 3 nights of partying, we headed back to DC for a brief respite. Then it was off to New York City, the city that never sleeps. I think we were partied out from Vegas, and we spent a lot of our time in NYC cruising around on a double-decker bus, seeing all the sights. I believe we walked about 10,000 miles in the 4 days we were there. It was fun but, once again, we were both glad to leave. We headed back to DC and, after a day of sightseeing, Kate left me for the relaxing portion of her trip - Hawaii. :( It was an awesome couple of weeks. Very tiring, but awesome nonetheless.

The weekend after Kate left, Jeremy and I decided to go camping. Well, we tried to camp, but it turned into quite the fiasco and we left after only one night. Let me just say that if you plan on going camping when it's forecast to rain, you had better be prepared. We weren't, and we were miserable. Our $30 canopy from Target broke into pieces when we tried to set it up, so we had no real shelter from the rain aside from our tent. Our tent is a small, 3-person dome - not the easiest place to just hang out when you can't go outside. It poured rain the entire night - I'm talking big winds, thunder and lightning, and buckets and buckets of water. Our tent leaked, and we woke up with big puddles in each corner. Water dripped down from the ceiling onto us while we were sleeping. Miserable. We tried to start a fire the next morning, with hopes of it warming us up and drying us off. Alas, it was still raining on and off, we had no dry kindling to get the fire started, and we ended up smoking the campground out. So we threw everything in the car (literally, we just chucked it all in) and left. That weekend got a big, giant FAIL.

Which brings us to...
OCTOBER

Otherwise known as the "The Month that Rebecca and Jeremy were so darn busy, they barely had time to scratch their hoo-ha's".

The first weekend in October we drove down to South Carolina for Melyssa & Dave's wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding, and we're so incredibly happy for the newlywed's. Yay Melyssa & Dave! Here are the photos:

2008-10-06 Melyssa & Dave's wedding

After the wedding we had a week of downtime, then we ran a local 5k race. All I can say about that is...BLAH. I ran pretty horribly, which I partly blame on all the food and wine I consumed at my boss's Octoberfest party the night before, and on my lack of running now that the weather is cooler. Oh well.

The next week, the BEST part of this year arrived in the form of my mom and dad! Yay! Here's where you'll really get the CliffsNotes version, because I know that mom and dad have been sending everyone email updates that could double as novels.

Thursday, October 23rd
Mom and dad arrive shortly after midnight - everyone's tired and ready to hit the hay

Friday

We reluctantly go to work, knowing that mom and dad would need to catch up on sleep. We get home at lunch time, and off we go to Wegman's for some groceries. Get home, put turkey in the oven for dinner, go out again to pick out pumpkins for Halloween.

Saturday

Into DC to pick up Marine Corps Marathon 10k race packets. Fight with thousands of people also picking up race packets. Afterwards, spend a couple hours wandering around Tyson's Corner mall.

Sunday

Up at 5am, on the train, then off to run MCM 10k in 70 minutes (boo). Home, shower, drive for 7 hours to get into New York City. Meet up with mom's friend David and his wife for dinner. Jeremy and I are buggered so we go home. Mom and dad go off exploring.

Monday

Pick up sightseeing tickets and spend the day riding around on top a double decker bus. Order pizza in hotel room for dinner, because everyone's too tired to go out.

Tuesday

Home, James! Then back out to watch the DC Capitals vs. the Nashville Predators. CAPS win in a shootout, we get home around midnight.

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday

Back to work. Mom and dad explore DC on their own (and successfully master the DC Metro system). Friday is also Halloween, so we get to run up and down the stairs 10,000 times to give kids candy.

Saturday

Drive out to Shenandoah National Park for lunch and to see the pretty sights. Take lots of photos of lots of trees with lots of changing leaves.

Sunday

Brunch at Harry's Tap Room - we eat too much and complain about it the whole way home. Meet Bob, Marianne and the whole crew out at Cox Farms. Have fun on slides and hay rides.

Monday & Tuesday

Work again. Mom and dad leave on Tuesday to ride the train down to Florida.

Wednesday thru Sunday

Disney World. I'm convinced that Disney World is the child-appropriate offspring of Las Vegas - lots of bright lights, lots of crazy characters, and purposely built to be huge and confusing so that you to get hopelessly lost, never find your way out and live there forever, spending lots of money on useless trinkets. But it was fun. Jeremy especially loved riding the "It's a Small World" ride. We had to lure him away with cotton candy, otherwise he would have ridden that thing all damn day.*

Saturday night we said our teary goodbyes as mom and dad were leaving super early. :(

And that brings us up to now. Jeremy started a new job on Monday, and I think he's pretty happy with his decision so far. We're both back at work, and glad to be back on our regular schedules. As much as we LOVE having visitors (hint hint), it's always nice to have things go back to normal afterwards. So now we're just relaxing, kicking back, and moving along with our usual lives.

Phew.

*This is actually not true. Jeremy loathes the "It's a Small World" ride. I just like to make fun of him for it.