SV and I Visit Forks High!

Hello hello! I hope you all had a fantabulous three-day weekend. I know I did.

Now, I know you've already heard about my escapades with Starlit Violets and TwiKiwi50, but what you might not know is that on our way up to meet TK50, SV and I stopped in Kalama, home of the high school where many scenes were filmed in Twilight!  This is one of a few of the original film sets I hadn't yet been to (see my first post on the topic here).  Here are my pictures from that visit.  Enjoy!

Kalama Forks High School

The Parking Lot

 If you don't recognize this, get off my blog right now.  :)

This one's a little more obscure. That is the spot where the almost-crash takes place.

SV went ahead and stole a Cullen parking spot. She also tried to pull in like they do when Emmett's standing up in the back of the Jeep, LOL

Outdoor hallways. We could hear the echoes of Eric talking about the feature...

OMG.. is that...???

Yes, yes it is, that is THE hill!!!

We thought about walking up there to follow in footsteps, as it were, and then decided it was too steep, so we just took pictures.  Up this hill: Say it. Out loud.

Although much of the inside high school scenes were filmed in Portland's Madison High School (right up the street from my house!), we suspect these were used for some things.  Like my favorite part where Bella asks about Edward's eye and he is COMPLETELY nonchalant about it and definitely doesn't call attention to how awkward he feels about the question. For sure.

Being Twitards, of course, we couldn't leave without a little reenactment:

This is SV doing her best Bella. She just needs a red truck on the left and an Edward. Where is he when you really need him?

All in all, it was a worthy side-trip, and we both geeked out over the whole thing, which was super fun.  Kalama is about an hour North of Portland, so if you're ever headed up I-5, I recommend taking a detour! Especially if school isn't in session. We don't want you to get arrested.

Vampires DO Suck (and so do I)

Have you seen this?
Because you need to. Oh. My. FUCK is this a funny movie. Now, I have to say, I don't usually like the "stupid parody" movies (like Epic Movie and Scary Movie and so forth), so I didn't think I'd like this one. But so many people I trust (read: you all) kept telling me how funny it was and how great this girl's Bella Becca was, and I caved. I think it was Living with Edward's endorsement that truly sold me, because she is one of the funniest ladies I know (and I know all of you, so clearly I'm in with the hilarity!).

TH had no interest in watching it, so I put it in while he was out tonight (um... that's what she said? If she was lonely, I guess...), and now I'm going to have to try to sell him on watching it, because I think even he would laugh like crazy. The girl, Jenn Proske, does a Kristen-Stewart-as-Bella-Swan impression so good it defies explanation. She even sounds like KStew at times, it's uncanny.

The level of detail, especially in regard to sets and locations, was fucking amazing. Some of the jokes were really obvious, of course, but they were so well done and they came so fast on top of each other (okay, THAT's what she said), that I didn't even have time to catch my breath most of the time. I present to you:

Exhibit A

There was also a running cat joke that had me losing my shit every time. It reminded me of the "Squirrel!" in Up, which is similarly reliably amusing.

This isn't the joke in the movie, but I love it just the same.

Bottom line: go forth and rent this movie, if you haven't already seen it. I'd say go buy it, but a few of us encouraged i_heart_fifty (aka TwiKiwi) to go do just that and she got a flat tire coming back and had to wait for roadside assistance for quite awhile (and I still feel badly about it), so I'm no longer sure she'll say it was worth the trip (sorry, girl!). But I hope she likes it, just the same.

Have you seen this? What did you think???

Tequila Twilight (or: T.Edlet needs to lose a few!)

What a week this has been, ladies. Let me just get you right into it.

"Edlet. I think I'm gaining weight."
"Dude. We are action figures. We don't gain weight."
"Whatever, I'm tons o' fun now. I need to look good for Forks."

"Just look at me. Maybe I should order P90x."
"You are delusional."

"WhatEV, dude. Are you going to help me or not? Those babes in Forks need to see the gun show."
"Alright, fine. I'll help you. Lay down."
"Dude. NOT into that."
"Shut up and lay down."

"Alright, from there, you'll want to sit up, but just from your waist. Don't move your legs. I'll spot you."

"Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh."

"Again!"

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck your face! This is awful! I quit!"

"Wait... I have an idea..."

"I'll go on a diet!"

Luckily for T.Edlet, I have just the thing for Thirsty Thursday. If you, like me (and T.Edlet and Mox), are trying to lose a few pounds, let me let you in on a little secret: it's the mixer that matters. Of course, light beer is always an option (110-149 calories per 12 oz, except shitty MGD, of course, which is, like, 64 or something), and white wine usually ranks about 75-105 calories. Today we are drinking tequila. The Tequila Twilight weighs in at a whopping 213 calories. At least, it does with diet juice. :)

By using diet mixers, we save calories!


Here, the 'lets present our ingredients. As per usual, I don't have grape juice, but I DO have white grape juice: good enough!

"See, this is only 5 calories per 8 oz! It's amazing! Of course, it tastes like shit, but when you're on a diet, that's what happens."

(In case you didn't believe me.)

Fill the glass 1/3 full with tequila.
(This is where all the calories come from.)

Fill with cranberry juice (leaving room for the grape juice shot)

One shot grape juice

Cheers!!

Hmmm... this tastes like tequila. It actually tastes like sweet tequila, which is weird... It's sweet at first, with no real flavor, and the aftertaste leaves you with just tequila-flavor. Odd. But getting the job done, let me tell you. Boo-zy.

Meh.
"Meh."
"Meh."

For other low-cal drinks, go here or here or here. What's your beat-the-bulge secret? I don't have one, and am interested in hearing any and all you might have. I love junk food and booze an hate exercising. I have zero self-control and was blessed with a lovely, quick metabolism until about 2 years ago.

The first thing you lose on a diet is your sense of humor. ~Author Unknown

As with food, drink, and delicious things... I couldn't pick just one quote:

When we lose twenty pounds... we may be losing the twenty best pounds we have! We may be losing the pounds that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty. ~Woody Allen

It's okay to be fat. So you're fat. Just be fat and shut up about it. ~Roseanne Barr

I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is fourteen days. ~Totie Fields

When I buy cookies I eat just four and throw the rest away. But first I spray them with Raid so I won't dig them out of the garbage later. Be careful, though, because that Raid really doesn't taste that bad. ~Janette Barber

If I can't have too many truffles I'll do without. ~Colette

I bought a talking refrigerator that said "Oink" every time I opened the door. It made me hungry for pork chops. ~Marie Mott

And for my bloggy bestie:
I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on. ~Jean Kerr, "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall," The Snake Has All the Lines, 1958

MWAH!

Recasting Twilight (or: Blasphemy!)

Alright, I'm probably about to piss off some of you. Because this post is about how I would recast the Twilight Saga. If I got three wishes, one of them would be to start the saga over with a bigger beginning budget and a way better cast. I know many of you like the movies as they are and love the cast members, but my biggest problem with the movies (aside from Rosenberg's writing - she'd be gone in my saga re-do) is that I feel they are miscast. As much as I like KStew (and I do, in other movies), I feel she's too stuff and twitchy as Bella.

I'm happy with some of the cast, but my challenge to myself was to completely recast it, and I'm pretty happy with these selections. So, without further ado, I give you my new Twilight cast.

TWILIGHT
Starring

Ellen Page as Bella Swan

(bonus: her eyes are already brown)


and

Paul Wesley as Edward Cullen

So broody...

The rest of the cast (in alphabetical order by character):

Rachael Leigh Cook as Alice

Bradley Cooper as Carlisle

(bonus pic, because I love this)

Daniel Cudmore as Emmett

Elisabeth Shue as Esme

Eddie Spears as Jacob (from New Moon on, only)

Ryan Kwanten as Jasper

and

Evan Rachel Wood (a.k.a the other girl in Thirteen) as Rosalie


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The only recast cast member, you will notice, is Daniel Cudmore because the guy is freaking MAMMOTH. Emmett is supposed to be very big, and that guy is enormous. I like KLutz, but he's a tidge small. Ideally, if Eddie Cibrian wasn't so far past what age I felt Emmett should be, I might have cast him, but he's also not that big. So: Cudmore for the win.

Same with Jacob - I actually think Taylor Lautner is great in the first movie, but he is so small after that, I think he should have been recast for New Moon. Bella's supposed to not really recognize him because of how much he's grown and everything. I tried to find a guy who kind of looked like a larger version of Taylor here:
And I know that Eddie Spears doesn't exactly look like him that much, but I did my best.

As for the others, Ellen Page would have been phenomenal as Bella - I think she does the sarcastic, awkward thing as well as KStew does, but she has a definite openness to her vulnerability that KStew seems unable to share with us.

I think Ryan Kwanten has really soulful eyes - they make me believe he could perhaps feel the emotions of others. My ideal Jasper would be the Thelma & Louise Brad Pitt:
But since I didn't allow myself time travel in this challenge, I'm going to stick with Ryan. Also:

'nuff said

Paul Wesley is super close to what I pictured for Edward when I read the books, and when I saw him on the Vampire Diaries for the first time, I knew he was my Edward. He also looks amazing with his shirt off, and (sorry, RPattz fans) that would be nice to have in the saga.

Elisabeth Shue and Bradley Cooper are both a little old for Esme and Carlisle, but then so are Elizabeth Reaser and Peter Facinelli, so... I just think those two (Shue and Cooper) are so stunningly beautiful (okay, I totally have a steamy crush on Bradley Cooper).

I think Rachael Leigh Cook is adorable and elfin, and I have to give credit to Jen from So Twired for giving me the idea a loooooong time ago when I asked who she would cast, because that was her pick for Alice and I went, "Oooooh, YES!"

Finally, my least favorite current cast member is Nikki Reed as Rosalie. She looks AWFUL as a blonde. She's a beautiful girl, and she has the attitude down, but she looks horrible in this role. A gorgeous blonde, Evan Rachel Wood could also nail the bitchitude the role requires, AND look good doing it.

So there you have it: my ideal(ish) Twilight cast. What do you think? I'm sure I'm about to get some backlash for the recasting of the menfolk, but I stand by my choices. Let me have it in the comments...