Movie Review: Seven Pounds

I want to talk about a very interesting new movie I watched last night, but it's difficult to talk about without giving away the premise. I am so accustomed to movies that are so obvious and easy to figure out the ending that this one threw me for a loop. Basically, Will Smith plays the main character, who has it in his power to drastically alter the lives of seven people who each have a medical condition. One person is blind, one has a bad heart, one has mesothelioma, one has leukemia, one needs a liver transplant, one with kidney problems, and a woman in an abusive relationship.

He specifically seeks out genuinely good people to help in his own special way, which will blow your mind when you watch this film. Well, I don't want to give it away, but it is definitely a unique film and I recommend it. Check it out at the library!

DJ's Restaurant Review

DJ's Drive In has opened in the location that was previously a Sonic Drive In that failed. I'm not sure why the Sonic failed, because it seems that Eureka Springs is lacking in the fast food department and the Berryville location is always hopping with business. I would have expected someone to jump on a franchise opportunity to open it again, but maybe they have rules against re-opening in the same location.

We went to DJ's for dinner last week and it was good. The service was pretty quick, and the food was decent. We ordered crawfish po'boys, fries, and shrimp baskets for the kids. They loved their food and I thought the fries were really good. As for the po'boys - they were good, but my husband is from New Orleans and let's just say that after you've had the real deal, everything else falls short. The crawfish were a bit chewy and there was no remoulade sauce. Our overall impression was good, and we would eat there again.

Another time later in the week, my husband took the kids there for "happy hour" to get slushes. He was disappointed to find that the price seemed a bit high for half-price drinks, and when he looked closer at the receipt, found that they charge twenty cents for every flavor added to the slush, including the main flavor. So if you order a strawberry kiwi slush, they add forty cents. This seems a bit misleading to me, since no one would order a slush with no flavor, so at least the first flavor should be included in the menu price. The slushes didn't taste as good as Sonic slushes, according to my family, and the consistency was very hard and frozen in a ball.

We have not tried their breakfast menu at all, the sweet potato fries, fried okra, nor any of the other desserts or ice cream. I suspect we will be going back to DJ's in the future.

Do what you like

A few years before moving to Eureka Springs, I had a typical job as a secretary in a big corporate office. Everyone was overworked, and we were definitely understaffed. You know, with situations like someone in your department quits, and rather than hire someone to fill the position, they just push all their duties on to other people to absorb within the department.

One of the parts that most people dread, especially managers, are the quarterly employee performance evaluations. It's not that we don't enjoy meeting with our managers, getting praise for a job well done, and possibly a raise... It's the lack of time to meet for the evaluation, coupled with rushing through it so everyone can have a turn and feeling like a number, rather than a person.

Fast forward seven years to the present, where I am now working my dream job at the library. Sure, the pay is much less, but when you love your job it truly makes all the difference. My stress level is lower, I am much happier, and I feel like I am contributing to my community. I get to use my quirky organizational skills (obsession!), and my odd knack at remembering names comes in very handy as well.

I guess in conclusion, I would just like to say that if you are unhappy and stressed in a job, it's not worth it. The risk to quit is huge, but things have a way of working themselves out and if you can find what you truly love, and make enough money doing it, you will feel happier and more "on track" with life.

Beware the Mist

Stephen King is a remarkable author who has the uncanny talent for exposing mankind's deepest fears, even ones we don't realize we have. This is what I find true in the new movie The Mist by Stephen King. After watching the trailer, I remembered one particular time in college when my husband and I were driving with my mother and we got caught in a very sudden and very severe thunderstorm. We were already in our own neighborhood, and even then, the fear that comes with sudden lack of visibility is definitely real. I guess it's the mystery of what is in front of you, worrying that you may hit something or someone else who has the same lack of vision. In our case, relief came fairly quick and we were able to just drive extremely slow until we got home. But now I can understand how people find themselves caught unexpectedly in a bad storm or tornado, or even a really dense fog that suddenly rolls in.

In the movie, a mysterious mist rolls over an entire town and people are forced to choose either to stay where they are, or to confront the mist. People are split in their religious beliefs as some think the mist is some sort of "second coming" of Christ. Others just think it is the weather and are not scared at all... Until strange things start to happen related to the mist that surrounds them. The movie definitely looks creepy and will scare people on a deeper level than they probably realize, which is what usually happens with Stephen King's material. Check out the information on the website and definitely view the trailer to see what all the buzz is about.

Restaurant review: Sonny's Pizza

We have known for awhile that Geraldi's pizza is fantastic, and we eat it regularly. The people are nice, the service is great, the pizza tastes awesome, and the price is very reasonable. The Geraldi's in Eureka Springs is closed on Sundays and Tuesdays, however, so if we feel like getting pizza on those days we have to go elsewhere. Usually we get Pizza Hut, but I've heard good things about Sonny's, so we gave them a try last Sunday.

My first impression was not great. I called to order a pizza for carry-out and when I asked for the total amount, the guy said, "You'll find out when you pick it up. We're really busy right now." So I said, "Well, I need to know how much because we are paying with cash and splitting the bill." After a loud exhale, he said, "Hold on, I'll get you an estimate." I waited a few minutes and he finally gave me the total, "$28.10 plus tax." That sounded a bit high for two medium pizzas with two toppings, but they are supposed to be "gourmet" pizzas, so I didn't say anything.

When I picked up the pizzas at the restaurant, one guy was very rude (same guy from the phone) and the other guy was nice. I didn't really see into the seating area of the restaurant, so I can't give my opinion on that. When we got home and opened the pizza boxes, the pizza looked impressive. The toppings were abundant and the crust looked good. The pizzas were bigger than your average "medium" size, which explains the high price. Unfortunately, the taste was just OK. There wasn't much flavor and one of the pizzas was burned on one side. For the price, we will definitely be sticking with Geraldi's from now on for pizza. One large pizza at Geraldi's is $14.00 and if we take a short 10 mile drive to Berryville, we can go to the Geraldi's there on Tuesdays, where they have medium pizzas for $6.99 each and the employees there are super and always nice.

Movie review: Night at the Museum

Upon the recommendation of my mother-in-law, I checked out Night at the Museum from the library. The main character is played by Ben Stiller, with many well-known supporting actors like Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Carla Gugino, Owen Wilson, and Robin Williams.

We watched it as a family and it was very entertaining. There are lots of surprises and the kids absolutely loved it. They woke up the next morning and wanted to watch it again right away. The special effects are very good and the characters believable. It reminded us a lot of Jumanji, which also stars Robin Williams. I would definitely recommend this one for the whole family.

Movie review: Little Miss Sunshine

I checked out "Little Miss Sunshine" from the library last week and we were pleasantly surprised. I thought it was a total "B-movie", but my mother-in-law saw it in the theater, so maybe not. But there weren't any big name actors in it and all the previews were of B-movies, so that's what led us to that assumption.

Let me tell you, this movie is hilarious. We were laughing hysterically many times throughout the film. It reminded me of National Lampoon's Vacation for today's family. We watched the rated R version, which is not for kids at all because of the obscene but hilarious grandfather, but apparently there is a PG rated version also. I would definitely recommend this movie - we haven't laughed that hard at a movie in years.

That Special Someone

As you all know, I am very happily married. I have reviewed some online dating sites that I found through PayPerPost for the benefit of our single friends. Well, I found a site with a different approach. They are a dating review site that lets you compare online dating services. The reviews are written by people who have actually used the services on different dating sites. I have written about a dating review site before, but the reviews were written by their employees, not actual clients.

I think reviews by the clients are the only way to get a true sense of a dating site. You want to know personal stories by people for whom the site worked, and the horror stories by people for whom the site failed. I think this service will do well to help a lot of people distinguish between all the many dating sites out there - so they can get on with meeting that special someone, and not waste their valuable time in this busy world.