The Woovie Critic

Title explanation which has absolutely nothing to do with the post: When she was little, my youngest daughter had the cutest way of twisting her words. Because she was the baby, we all thought it was adorable, and adopted her diction as our own. We all said "ho-mock" and "corn pop" and "poop dog" and "gee-tow" with her because, gosh darnit, she was just so stinkin' cute. (Her Kindergarten teacher was not amused.) Anyway, she would say "woovie" instead of "movie", and it just stuck with us.

And now, the actual blog post:

Because I'm the grandmother of two little boys, I tend to see a LOT of kids' movies. It's a joy to take my boyos, and watch them watch. Especially now that C-Monkey can actually sit through an entire film without feeling the need to explore the theater from beneath the seats. And occasionally, Mr. Roboto has been able to make it through with only one or two trips to the bathroom. We see every one of the PG or G rated films...some more than once. Animated, fantasy, and those live-action movies with big name stars who used to be famous actors but are now too old for the chick flicks or action adventures, and have found themselves playing the parents of teeth-gratingly annoying children.

I call this "Nap Time for Grammie".

Oh, I've enjoyed a few of them. Kung Fu Panda held my attention. Some of the Pixar stuff is wonderful, and I kind of resent the plot and artwork cutting into my sleep pattern. Last summer's kid fare was just awful for me, as I ranted about here and here.

Yesterday, because I had worked hard at home, and deserved a nice 100 minute nap, I took the guys to see Hotel for Dogs. Have you seen this heart-warming tale? It's about a couple of siblings who have been battered around by the Evil Foster System, and are not candidates for adoption because they are 10 and 16...no longer cute little puppies. (get it? get it? That's just one of the subtle hidden messages in the film)

The story begins with Bruce, the 10-year-old, putting heavy stones into empty cell phone boxes, using the hot air hand dryer at school to shrink wrap them, and passing them on to his sister Andi to sell as new to the pawn shops. Now, I'm quite old, and not up to date on all the hip new jargon the kids use these days, but in my day we called that 'fraud'. Were these kids punished? Not so much. They did go to the police station, but their social worker (Don Cheadle, who used to be a famous actor) got them out on the legal defense of being Adorable Well-dressed Orphans Stuck in the Evil Foster System. Because then theft is quite ok, and there are no consequences for illegal actions. Oh, I see.

The foster parents are Carl and Lois Scudder (Lisa Kudrow who used to be a famous actress), They are scum o' the earth rockers who keep the kitchen cabinets padlocked, and feed the kids twice a day because that's all they're legally required to do. Cereal in the morning and tv dinners at night. Carl and Lois are working hard to perfect their sound; they're going to hit it big. You know without having seen the movie that they are just wretched. Really, a metal version of Smelly Cat would have been an improvement. So the kids are completely on their own to wander the streets. They come across an abandoned luxury hotel which they take over, and commence to appropriate as a home for dozens and dozens of strays. Adding Breaking and Entering to their rap sheet. The Despicable Empire of Animal Control shows up here and there, but the kids always thwart their attempts to capture the strays...once, with the obligatory kick to the crotch.

The kids are gorgeous and brilliant; the adults are caricatures; the stray dogs are all purebreds; the hotel was abandoned but miraculously still has all the furniture and even some clothing left behind by guests; blah blah blah; villains, separation, orphanages, sadness, blah blah, dogs on the loose, blah blah multiple traffic accidents, heroes, redemption, adoption by the good guy, curtain.

It was Home Alone all over again. I hated Home Alone.

Bottom line: The boys LOVED this movie, and me? I liked it a whole lot more than Bride Wars.

We're sad to see him go...

Don Callender, the innovative powerhouse behind Marie Callender's restaurants, died this week. He was a ball of fire, and will be missed by those men and women who were trained by him to run some of the finest restaurants around. Did you know Claim Jumper, Mimi's and several others were started by people who learned the business from Don? And when we go to the yearly managers' conferences, there is always a group of GMs who get together to reminese about him. Most of them, like my husband, have worked for the company for close to 40 years, so they are full of crazy stories about this energetic, creative man.

I wonder what this year's conference will be like.

Here's an article about Don, from the OC Register.

Thanksgiving at Marie's

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of my last few days.

Shortening, pumpkin dry mix, pumpkin wet mix and stuffing mix. This stack is about 10 feet high. Eventually, the pumpkin mix will become 1500 pumpkin pies.

Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar.

Our wonderful cooks are geared up and ready to go. By the end of the evening, they would create & plate 102 ham dinners and 561 turkey dinners. They also prepared over 80 Feasts (complete dinners for 6-8 all packaged up and ready for the customer to reheat and serve). By the end of the night, they were pretty worn out, but they never ever stopped smiling. What a great crew!

This is a shot of the main server station, with the wait staff getting salads, cornbread and pie slices ready to serve, and the greet staff is putting together a few take-out dinners. And there's a busser running through with a tray of dirty plates. That room can get really small really fast with that many people millling around. I should stay out of there, but that's were all the fun is. I like the fun.

Our dine-in guests had to choose between pumpkin and apple pie. Meanwhile, the customers who came in to purchase whole pies had the entire pie menu from which to choose...35 varieties including 4 kinds of apple, 3 kinds of lemon, 4 different chocolates, and 6 cheesecakes. And banana. Oh my, yes.

Tina is carrying 4 slices of pie on her arm. How do they DO that?

Angel and Matt were still in the back of the house making more stuff. And smiling. Have I mentioned how great our staff is? I just love these guys!


A few extra pumpkin and apple pies for our dine-in guests. No one will leave hungry!

We don't use the salad bar on Thanksgiving, so I decorate it with lots of fall-ish things. So pretty. See the rooster in the front? He was a hit!

Here's Kevin running the dishwasher. He wore a smile all day. Except when he dropped an entire bus tray and busted a dozen plates. Right in front of the Big Boss. Yikes!

The salad station after about 20 minutes. Be very glad I didn't post a picture of the FLOOR!

I forgot to take a picture of the stack of $20 bills I got to take to the bank yesterday. It was purdy.


So that was my Thanksgiving. How about yours?

Guess who I ran into the other day...

Yeah, it was a brand-new Mercury Grand Marquis with less than 5,000 miles on it, driven by a 80 year-old-lady. Boy, did she yell at me...




...because obviously I did it on purpose.

It only makes sense...

Even the rich folks who ride around in limos enjoy a chili dog now and then...

Just in case

I heard you couldn't see the poster. Sorry.

As fair warning, the movie was Quarantine. Keep your $8.50.

Only twice in my life....

...have I walked out of a movie. This made the third time.

So awful I cannot think of enough adjectives.