A "Productive" Christmas

I got a tripod for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it wasn't all gift cards, after all. Eeeeee!

Seriously, Christmas day was very nice, if a little hectic. I had so much food -- and parts were so late -- that no one even touched the spinach dip. The old-fashioned cheese ball (snort) was rock-hard, even after it had been sitting out for three hours. I broke several crackers trying to spread that cheese. Next year I'll slice the cheese ball.

Martha looooooves her little cockatiel, and she has named her Baby. Well, it's an easy name to remember, isn't it? That part of Christmas was definitely the most successful and gratifying. I'm sure that one of my rotten kids spoiled the secret -- it was no surprise -- but the reality of Martha meeting the bird was still nice. If *I* can't keep that little bird, then I know that my oldest sister will love her as much as I would have.

Yesterday was the *best*. We all went to see "The Producers" together. Amy and I went to NYC in October, 2001, and we saw the original Broadway cast of that spectacular show, and my kids and I memorized the original cast recording *before* I went to NYC to see it. So we have all been on tenterhooks to see the movie, even though TPTB made the stunning mistake of miscasting the roles of Ulla and Franz Liebkind. (I'm a biiiiiiiig Cady Huffman and Brad Oscar fan.)

Wesley, of course, being a manly man (or a caveman, whatever), had absolutely no interest whatsoever in seeing the movie, but when he came home from work, the kids and I were getting ready to leave, and he's an extrovert, so he decided to go with us.

Well. Let me just make this perfectly clear: Even the guy who didn't want to see the movie now wants "The Producers" when it's on DVD.

I love it so much that I literally cannot wait for DVD -- I have every intention of going back to see it again on the big screen. And I don't think I have *ever* watched a movie twice in a theater. I am a cheapskate and an introvert -- I usually *prefer* movies on DVD. But not this one.

We were a row of six people -- Paul, Amy, Woodrow, me, Emily, and Wesley -- and we sat there guffawing until tears streamed down our cheeks. We weren't the only ones, either. The other people in the audience shrieked with laughter, and we all applauded at the end of musical numbers as if it were a live show. Woodrow was admittedly shocked by the dirtier jokes, but honestly, it is a magnificent movie, as good as the Broadway show in some ways, better in others (Matthew Broderick is much better on film), and the weak casting of Uma Thurman and Will Farrell is overshadowed by the brilliance of Nathan Lane, Roger Bart, and Gary Beach. Those three gentlemen truly make the movie fabulous.

I cannot recommend it highly enough. Run, do not walk. See "The Producers." It's that good.

I have to go now -- my sister is coming over before going to the airport, and the cable guy is supposed to come install high-speed internet for me. Eeeeeee! I'm finally joining the rest of the world in the 21st century! Thanks entirely to Amy. She's way too nice to me.