Happy Friday!

My parents have found a new species: Turtledog. Get it? Turtledove. Turtledog.... Ye-eah. Happy Friday!

Shutter Island

I was pretty adamant that I didn't want to see Shutter Island. The trailer was scary enough for me and The Wolfman was counting towards my scary movie, right? Well, I agreed to go see Shutter Island with Wes. What a good wife I am.

So the movie centers around Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as federal marshals investigating the disappearance of an inmate on an island that houses the criminally insane. The plot just gets thicker and thicker the longer they stay on there, which they're forced to do because of a hurricane.

The movie was really good. Yes, I did close my eyes or stare at the floor during certain parts of the movie. I can't help it if I get scared easily. But it wasn't as scary as I anticipated it being. The crazies of the criminally insane asylum weren't as numerous or scary as the one they show in the trailer of the hallow looking woman holding her finger up to her lips. Of course, with Martin Scorsese directing, it has to be a good movie right? There are a lot of twists and turns in the movie and one of my co-workers, who saw it at the same showing as us, said that he didn't see the ending coming. There was also a point in the movie where I hoped they wouldn't leave it open to audience interpreting the ending. Of course, that did happen at the very ending in a sense. A few intense scenes, but those are mostly during Leonardo DiCaprio's flashbacks.

Speaking of Leo, he did a great job. And actually I enjoyed every actor in this movie from Mark Ruffalo to Sir Ben Kingsley to Michelle Williams. I think she did a particularly good job. Not a disappointing movie at all. In fact, Wes and I were constantly thinking about the movie when we got home. If you're not keen on seeing a thriller movie in the theatre, definitely go rent it when it comes out on video.

Denver Restaurant Week - Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

So Denver does Restaurant Week where a bunch of restauants offer a limited menu for $52.80 for two people. It often includes an appetizer/salad, entree and desert. Restaurants that participate vary from Outback Steakhouse to ritzier places. We opted to try Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. Here's their menu:

First Course

• Wedge Salad - With bleu cheese dressing, bacon, tomatoes, carrots & green onions
• Dinner Salad - Mixed lettuce greens, croutons, tomatoes, red onions & choice of homemade dressings

Second Course - Your choice of:

• Scallops Lacombe - Tender, jumbo sea scallops seared with fresh garlic & capers in a brown butter sauce, served over green beans & finished with toasted almonds & crispy onion rings
• Pasta Mardi Gras - Linguine tossed with crawfish, andouille sausage & crimini mushrooms in a marinara cream sauce, topped with jumbo grilled shrimp
• Cedar Plank Salmon - Fresh Salmon fillet topped with garlic herb butter & broiled on a smokey cedar plank, served with asparagus
• Mahi Yvette - Fresh Mahi fillet topped with a Monterey Jack cheese sauce and sautéed shrimp, crawfish, mushrooms & spinach, served with dirty rice

Third Course

• Crème Brûlée with fresh fruit
• Vanilla Cheesecake with fresh strawberries
• Turtle Fudge Brownie with vanilla ice cream

Sounds delicious right? We thought so too. We even splurged on getting the oyster tio appetizer: Oysters Pappadeaux with crabmeat, spinach & hollandaise, Oysters Baton Rouge baked with a Parmesan Romano cheese sauce, Oysters St. Phillip baked with shrimp, bacon, roasted peppers & Italian bread crumbs. Amazing! All were delicious, but I think Wes and I liked the Oysters St. Phillip the best.

So what did we have? We both had the dinner salad complete with warm, crusty French bread. I think the warm, fresh bread sealed it for Wes at the beginning. Wes had the scallops and cheesecake and I had the mahi and turtle fudge brownie. Wes's scallops were seared nicely on the outside and so tender perfectly. My mahi was almost Cajun like with all sorts of spices and the sauce was so creamy. The shrimp and crawfish were just tender and not overcooked like some places. Entrees were two thumbs up.

By time dessert came around, we were both pretty full. And they served some big slices of cake too! We took a few bites and then took the rest of the dessert home. The cheesecake was rich and creamy. The crust wasn't as crumbly as I like it, but like Wes said, it had good flavor. I wasn't as impressed with my fudge turtle brownie. It was too dense and rich for me I think.

The atmosphere at Pappadeaux's was pretty cool. It had a nice view of the city and it almost seemed like there should have been a body of water just outside of the restaurant. Too bad we're in a land-locked state. The restaurant is a little pricey to go there often, but it'll definitely be a special occasion restaurant. My birthday is coming up. Maybe we'll head back to this place in the near future to explore the rest of the menu!

A great and yummy dinner date! And I'm glad we finally got to experience Restaurant Week!

Dog Catcher

And for a laugh: Jake got tangled up in some netting my dad was trying to lay down this weekend.

He apparently "ran" through the bushes hoping he'd get untangled. No such luck. Looks like that new dog trap really works. =)

Wrong Phone Number

From a series of text messages I received over the weekend on my work phone:

Hey jordan, this is mario. Keshia talked to me about how I made you upset but I want you to hear from me that I did not go off and brag to people about you like you were some prize. I didn't even work till this morning since the club and other people heard about my night through other people. I really like you and think your a cute and down to earth girl, and I want you to at least hear this from me. I'm really sorry all this drama made you upset but please don't be! I hope you have a happy v-day.

I also got a call from a girl asking for Jordan after I responded that this wasn't Jordan's phone. She was very nice and apologized. I hope Mario works things out with Jordan.

Hmm... What do you think happened this weekend?

The Wolfman

I don't like scary movies. It's not that they scare me when I watch them, it's when I'm home at night that I start thinking about the murderers and aliens that are going to get me. So I prefer to preserve my fragile imagination and not watch them. Wes likes scary movies. I made a deal with him that I would watch one scary movie with him. The Wolfman ended up being that movie.

Benecio del Toro is casted pretty well ("I will kill all of you!") in this movie and the trailers give it away that he's the wolfman that the movie centers around. Yes, this movie had plenty of jump-out-at-you-and-scare-you moments, which qualified it for my scary movie. I didn't think it was overall that scary though. Gory, yes. There was a lot blood and dismembered bodies. Oh, and entrails. If you have a weak stomach, don't watch this movie. But overall entertaining. The story wasn't that deep and Wes and I both agreed that we would have both loved to have seen more of Hugo Weaving and Emily Blunt. Anthony Hopkins reminded me of his character in Legends of the Fall - the crotchety old man.

Ironic that this movie came out on Valentine's Day weekend along with all the other romantic comedies that opened. But maybe they figured girls would be scared enough to grab on to the guy that they came with. Maybe a rental if you're into this genre. And maybe go for the Red Box rental to save a buck on Blockbuster.

The Hurt Locker

So we can check another Best Picture Nominee of our list. There are three we still haven't seen: An Education, A Serious Man and Precious. We did watch The Hurt Locker last night which I've only heard good things about as well.




It's definitely an on-the-edge-of-your-seat type movie. Since the movie deals with military bomb technicians, you're constantly waiting for something to explode. At least that was my feeling for the first 40ish minutes of the movie. I found the job of disarming bombs more fascinating than the character development of the movie. Not that the storyline itself wasn't any good. The main character is definitely a cowboy and I didn't know whether to like him or dislike him. It's an interesting look, if at all accurate, into these unsung heroes of war.

Of course I like these types of stories - people that don't get as much recognition in high profile events: bomb technicians, spies. People like that. Speaking of which, I recently finished a book about a real-life double agent spy in World War II for England and Germany. Great read. Love that kind of stuff. Anyone have any good suggestions like that for my next read?

The Book of Eli & Invictus

So Wes and I go to a lot of movies because I can get free movie passes as a perk of my job. The latest two movies we've seen are The Book of Eli and Invictus. Both were good movies.

I liked the cinematography of The Book of Eli. It has a very earthy feel to it. The fighting sequences were pretty cool too. I espeically like the part where Denzel whips out his sword and cuts off a bandit's hand in one fell swoop. Gary Oldman, whom I didn't recognize, plays his characteristic bad guy. Hard to think that this is Commissioner Gordon from the Batman franchise. And Mila Kunis does a credible job in this film. Overall a good movie. It definitely has an interesting message in the end that maybe some people may not pick up. The ending definitely makes you think. Don't want to say too much more without giving it away. Maybe not worth paying $10 to see in the theatre, but worth a rental.

t Invictus is directed by Clint Eastwood (didja know that?) so there's a high expectation for this movie. I also heard a lot of good reviews from co-workers, so we went in with high expectations. No one could have played Nelson Mandela other than Morgan Freeman. He did an impeccable job and definitely earned the Best Actor nom for the Oscars this year. I thought the movie was a little slow, but it is a great story. As a Matt Damon fan, I enjoyed watching him onscreen as well. I never knew much about Nelson Mandela other than he was imprisoned for an extended period of time and then became South Africa's president. How he used the South Africa rugby team to bring together a divided country is incredibly interesting. Definitely a rental if you've missed it in the theatres already.

So that's my amateur review of these two movies. We'll try to do movie reviews as we see them - since we do see a lot. Did you see these movies? What did you think?

Jake Says

So Jake is the current Lou family dog. He's going to be the unofficial mascot of this site and I'm sure there will be posts or part of posts about him. He suckered us in by just looking so sad at the pound. Little did we know... He's a little smarty pants. Here's one of his tricks - waving:

Enough about the dog. He'll be around more later.