i believe the word you're looking for is 'it's-a-Christmas-miracle'

Having awkwardly hauled cupcakes to a potluck just last night, i am thunderstruck by this.
Folks, meet the Cupcake Courier.
"The Cupcake Courier is a rectangular, translucent plastic container that holds three stackable cupcake trays. Each tray has 12 deep cups to hold each cupcake secure. It has a comfortable handle, and 4 bottom latches that hold the base securely.
The Cupcake Courier is able to transport and/or store up to thirty-six cupcakes or muffins all in one easy, great looking container!
The Cupcake Courier's 3 trays can be removed, and the unit can double as a cake courier."

Puttin' on the Ritz!

Emmy-winning actor Peter Boyle, who played the dancing monster in the movie "Young Frankenstein" and grouchy father Frank Barone in the TV series "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died, his publicist said on Wednesday.
The 71-year-old former Christian Brothers monk died on Tuesday after a long battle with multiple myeloma and heart disease, his publicists said.
Boyle, who often played cantankerous characters, shot to fame as a foul-mouthed, working-class bigot in the 1970 film "Joe."
He also played one of Robert DeNiro's fellow taxi drivers in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" in 1976, the cruel, racist father to Billy Bob Thornton in 2001's "Monster's Ball," and took a comic turn as the Frankenstein monster in the 1974 Mel Brooks spoof "Young Frankenstein."
In recent years he played numerous roles on television, including the father to Ray Romano's character. He acted in 201 episodes of the situation comedy from 1996 to 2005 and received numerous Emmy nominations.
He won an Emmy for outstanding guest actor appearance on "The X-Files" in 1996.
Beatle John Lennon was the best man at Boyle's 1977 wedding to journalist Loraine Alterman, then a Rolling Stone reporter.
He is survived by his wife and two daughters, Amy and Lucy Boyle.
Despite playing some unsavory characters, he refused roles that glamorized violence, including the lead role of Popeye Doyle that went to Gene Hackman in 1971's "The French Connection," according to the IMDb entertainment Web site.
Boyle suffered a stroke in 1990 and recovered, then had a heart attack on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond" in March 1999. He returned to the show soon after heart surgery.
(obit courtesy of Reuters/TVguide.com)

How 'bout we all watch Young Frankenstein tonight? Peace out, Peter. Thank you for making us laugh.

movie review

APOCALYPTO
Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, and the last of the Mexican rainforests

(i'm still processing, so bear with me. )

i read that Mel Gibson's inspiration for this movie came in part out of his desire to do a really great chase scene: not with shiny cars or planes and trains, but an intense, edge-of-your-seat, primal chase. Essentially that's what the second half of this movie is.
Plot overview: Jaguar Paw's Mayan village is ravaged and everyone is taken as captives to be used as human sacrifices for another Mayan group. Jaguar Paw is able to hide his very pregnant wife, Seven, and their little boy, Turtles Run, in a chasm before he's captured. The rest of the film is him trying to escape his captors, avoid getting his heart carved out of his chest, and get back to his family.
The story is simple, but of course tells the larger tale of the decimation of the entire Mayan civilization. It also has much to say about living in a culture of fear and violence.
Speaking of violence..........it was graphic. Well, it was a Mel Gibson film. Think of how many times you peeped through your fingers during Braveheart while someone's skull was getting smashed, or in The Passion of the Christ when the soldiers were whipping Jesus. It's kinda like that. i only covered my eyes three times, but maybe i'm desensitized. For those who want to see the movie, but are a bit squeamish, i'll give you three warnings: Beware the valley after the corn. Beware the jaguar. Beware the waterfall.
Now to the main reason i wanted to see this movie: CULTURE. i feel incredibly lame saying this, because i know zilch about the Mayans, but it was so REAL. The 'set' (if you can reduce the rainforest to being a 'set'), the costuming, the scope of it was unfathomable. i couldn't help thinking of old westerns when they'd through a few feathers in a brunette's hair, put some brown slippers and a fringed skirt on her and call her Indian. In Apocalypto, you couldn't tell if the crazy tattooing or bone piercings were costume or not. i love wondering how many of the actors and extras were in their own skin, so to speak.
This movie exists in the strange dichotomy of being a gorgeous representation of stark, mind-boggling destruction. Everything and everyone is utterly believable. Maybe that's because i don't know any better, but i don't care.
Rudy Youngblood is amazing as Jaguar Paw. Whole stretches of story pass without dialogue (oh yeah, it's in MAYAN. You know how Mel loves those dead languages!) and he has to play punch drunk, deadly-calm, pure adrenaline, and primal fear kind of all at once for 3 hours. Dalia Hernandez (Seven) also deftly juggles mortal fear and bad-ass determination. Turtles Run: cutest little boy EVER, but i digress. Look up any of the actors in this film and you'll see only this film on their resume'. They're communicating the unreachable nightmare of a mysterious civilization in a dead language. Impressive.
If you don't let the violence get in the way of appreciating the undertaking, you'll enjoy this movie. i did, and it seemed like the rest of the packed theater for a late Sunday showing did. 5 out of 5 helpful poison frogs.

general update

Umm, where to start... Our Thanksgiving was busy: Hang out with Winter and Jason on Tuesday and Wednesday, drive to Redding, have a gourmet cheese-laden Thanksgiving followed rapidly by Bonnie's birthday and some impressive gingerbreading (we won), drive back to meet up with J and Winter again and go straight to Stockton to see the Thunder take on the Alaska Aces (overtime, then a shootout! we got out-aced though), Saturday was the requisite wine tasting and lunch at Lodi brewery followed by some desperate Wii-playing once John got home from SD with the Nintendo, then Sunday was Thanksgiving with the Markles, including more Wii and good times. That Monday, Kallie T. and i learned how to use BART and went into the city to do a little shopping and get our hair did by Cousin Margaret and now we're catching our breath. Josh is going to Chicago tomorrow (without ME!) for what i'm sure is some serious Christmas shopping for yours truly under the guise of 'doing business' and i'm getting the house decorated and wrapping the last few gifts. (Yes, our Christmas shopping is FINISHED. Yay US!) We're going to the city again this weekend to see Korina and so Josh can go to a Photoshop conference, then next weekend down to San Diego to visit friends and get Bonnie out of her dorm...after that....Christmas! Whoa. i'm gonna have to turn on my holiday tunes before it's all over. i guess that's it for now...

Can't talk, Eukanuba's on.

The AKC Eukanuba National Championship is on, and it makes me wonder if my life went in the wrong direction... but i guess it's not too late to have that puppy farm.